The Ben Shapiro Show - Murder Is Not Dying With Dignity | Ep. 527

00:00:00.000 Alfie Evans struggles for life.

00:00:01.000 North Korea and South Korea meet, and we check the mailbag.

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

00:00:10.000 So there's a lot of news today.

00:00:11.000 Some of it, I think, quite frustrating.

00:00:13.000 I'm more frustrated with the news, I think, today than a lot of other people are on the right.

00:00:16.000 I'll explain why that is in just a second.

00:00:18.000 First, I want to say thanks to our sponsors over at Texture.

00:00:21.000 So, you are addicted to information.

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00:01:36.000 Okay, so.

00:01:37.000 The latest in the Alfie Evans case from Great Britain.

00:01:41.000 So I wanted to talk a little bit about a counter-argument that's being made with regard to Alfie Evans.

00:01:45.000 You'll recall that Alfie Evans is a 23-month-old baby who has an undiagnosed brain condition, a degenerative brain condition, that has left him with apparently 30% brain function.

00:01:54.000 And his parents want to take him out of Great Britain and bring him to Italy for experimental treatment.

00:01:59.000 And the British government has said, no, he must die here in this hospital.

00:02:02.000 They have now removed him from life support.

00:02:04.000 We're good to go.

00:02:27.000 Now Alfie's family has issued a statement.

00:02:31.000 The statement is this note to supporters asking them to stand down as they negotiate with the hospital.

00:02:35.000 Why?

00:02:36.000 Because apparently, according to the UK Telegraph, Alfie's doctors told reporters that Alfie's parents must make a sea change in their attitude toward the medical system holding their son hostage.

00:02:44.000 Quote, instead, the judge said the best Alfie's parents could hope for was to explore the options of removing him from intensive care to either a ward, a hospice, or his home.

00:02:52.000 But a doctor treating Alfie, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said that for Alfie to be allowed home would require a sea change in attitude from the child's family, and they feared that in the worst case, they would try to take the boy abroad.

00:03:02.000 I mean, this is an astonishing claim that somehow the parents have to evidence a sea change in their attitude.

00:03:07.000 It's their kid who's dying.

00:03:09.000 When Alfie dies, which he probably will, when Alfie dies, it will not be any of these doctors visiting his grave.

00:03:14.000 It will not be any of the bureaucrats or the judges visiting his grave.

00:03:17.000 It will be Alfie Evans' parents who are going there to bring flowers and pray for him.

00:03:20.000 They're apparently devout Catholics.

00:03:22.000 This idea...

00:03:24.000 That they have to change their attitude toward the government demonstrates once again that this is all about treating the government as God, not at all about the best interests of the child.

00:03:44.000 So according to the statement from Kate James and Tom Evans, the parents say,

00:04:07.000 We would now ask you to return back to your everyday lives and allow myself, Kate, and Elder Hay to form a relationship, build a bridge, and walk across.

00:04:13.000 It sounds like a hostage statement.

00:04:14.000 It sounds like a hostage statement.

00:04:16.000 The UK healthcare system is holding this kid hostage and holding the parents hostage unless they're nice about things.

00:04:22.000 So what is the counter case?

00:04:23.000 Let's try and take the best possible counter case being presented by the medical left in Britain.

00:04:29.000 So their case is that Alfie is suffering by being alive and the best thing that can happen for him is to die

00:04:35.000 Quickly and quietly in the most humane possible fashion, right?

00:04:38.000 This is really the case that they are making.

00:04:39.000 They're making the case for euthanasia of Alfie, or at least the case for removing him from life support.

00:04:44.000 The difference between euthanasia and removal from life support is, of course, the level of activity undertaken by the doctors.

00:04:49.000 In euthanasia, then they give you a cocktail of drugs and you die.

00:04:52.000 In this particular case, they're withdrawing life support and hoping that Alfie dies quickly.

00:04:56.000 I mean, I don't mean that facetiously.

00:04:58.000 They are hoping that Alfie dies quickly and in as little pain as possible.

00:05:01.000 There's a phrase that's been kicked around by a lot of folks

00:05:04.000 Okay, so,

00:05:22.000 For example, the hospital said that their goal was to kill Alfie with dignity.

00:05:26.000 Judge Hayden, who's the presiding judge in this case, talked similarly of dignity.

00:05:29.000 An NHS doctor named Rachel Clark wrote in an op-ed for the UK Guardian, quote,

00:05:39.000 So, we have to actually distinguish between two particular terms.

00:05:43.000 One is comfort and the other is dignity.

00:05:44.000 Now, it is possible to objectively determine whether someone is going to die in more or less comfort.

00:05:50.000 I can tell that as a third party.

00:05:52.000 And my wife, who works at a hospital, we were talking about this case yesterday, and she was talking about some of the ways that she's seen people die, and they are horrific.

00:06:00.000 They're absolutely horrendous.

00:06:01.000 I mean, there are certainly cases in which people would have died with more comfort if they had been moved to a hospice two weeks before their death and then been given morphine as they transition from life, right?

00:06:11.000 I mean, that would be—there's no question that people die in a myriad range of unfortunate and horrifying ways.

00:06:18.000 So, if your top priority is somebody dying with comfort, then you can say, okay, we want Alfie to die with comfort, and the experimental treatment will be too painful, and so we're arguing with the parents that they are not keeping the best interests of the child at heart, because what they really are doing is extending the, they're not extending his chances of getting better, they're making him suffer more, and we don't want him to suffer more, so our best interests are more aligned with the best interests of the child.

00:06:41.000 That argument, I don't think, is a dispositive one.

00:06:44.000 I don't even think it's a particularly good one.

00:06:45.000 But I do think that it's an argument that has some merit.

00:06:49.000 And it has some weight.

00:06:50.000 Because, again, I can assess as a third party whether you are in comfort or whether you are not in comfort.

00:06:55.000 Anyone can tell that.

00:06:55.000 But dignity is a different thing.

00:06:58.000 Let's

00:07:15.000 Dignity then is boiled down to the level of physical comfort you are experiencing at any given time.

00:07:20.000 That if you are a person who is on your deathbed and you choose to suffer all the way through your last moments because you want to cling to life, because you think life is just that important, and you think that it is important that your children know that you struggled all the way to your last breath because you think that life is worth clinging to and you should never give up even when the situation is hopeless,

00:07:38.000 If that's a lack of dignity, according to some people on the left, because the most dignified thing would be just die in comfort, because comfort and dignity are the same thing.

00:07:46.000 But obviously, they are not the same thing.

00:07:48.000 A death with comfort, again, is something that can be objectively determined.

00:07:52.000 We can know that a woman who's dying of bowel obstruction and is choking on her own stool, we know that that person is dying with less comfort.

00:08:00.000 But can you honestly say that person is dying with less dignity?

00:08:03.000 I'm not sure that you can.

00:08:27.000 Standard of solidity in the face of serious pain.

00:08:30.000 Whenever we talk about the kind of stiff British upper lip, that's what they're talking about. 0.94

00:08:33.000 They're talking about that sort of dignity.

00:08:34.000 They're not talking about comfort.

00:08:35.000 They're talking about how much suffering can you take without actually becoming a burden on others.

00:08:41.000 I'm talking about an emotional burden on others.

00:08:43.000 But to equate comfort and dignity is a real mistake because great men and women die in horrible agony on a regular basis.

00:08:50.000 Great men and women very often are trying to make a point by dying in agony.

00:08:54.000 That they don't actually want to give up on life.

00:08:57.000 Life is more than just the level of physical comfort they're experiencing at a given time.

00:09:02.000 Dying with comfort might be a term that's applicable to this baby, to Alfie.

00:09:06.000 You might say that maybe Alfie should die in more comfort than his parents want him to die in.

00:09:10.000 Dying with dignity doesn't apply, because Alfie is 23 months old.

00:09:13.000 He doesn't have the capacity to act in accordance with his own virtuous ideas, because Alfie's a baby.

00:09:18.000 So that means that he can't act in accordance with that.

00:09:20.000 And as far as dignity with regard to others, that also doesn't really apply to Alfie.

00:09:25.000 Because the question now is whether his parents or the state get to determine what dignity looks like.

00:09:30.000 Does the state get to determine that its version of dignity, i.e.

00:09:33.000 comfort, is the governing standard, or do his parents get to determine what dignity looks like?

00:09:36.000 Maybe they think dignity looks like you fight for life all the way until the end of your life, no matter what the consequences.

00:09:41.000 OK, well, that is certainly an open question.

00:09:45.000 That's certainly a question that's subjective in nature.

00:09:48.000 There's no hard standard as to whether the state is right or whether his parents are right in their definition of dignity.

00:09:53.000 And when in doubt, you've got to go with the parents, because the parents, again, are the ones who care more about Alfie.

00:09:58.000 There's a famous story about Phil Graham.

00:09:59.000 Phil Graham is a former senator from Texas in the United States.

00:10:02.000 And Phil Graham apparently had an exchange he liked to tell about with this one leftist woman where he was saying to her, listen, the basis for my entire politics is that I care more about my children than you do.

00:10:13.000 And the woman said, that's not true.

00:10:14.000 And he said, really?

00:10:15.000 What are their names?

00:10:17.000 That is certainly applicable here.

00:10:19.000 As much as the judge says that he cares about the child, as a parent, there's no one on earth who cares as much about my child as my wife and I do.

00:10:26.000 No one.

00:10:27.000 Not grandparents, not siblings, no one.

00:10:30.000 Until you've been a parent and experienced the bond that comes along with having a child, for anyone to step in between that bond for a subjective reason, like your definition of dignity, is just absurd, and it's also fascistic.

00:10:43.000 Again, there's a reason that advocates of euthanasia like to use death with dignity rather than death with comfort, because they understand that if they use death with dignity, then they're making the implicit argument that you choosing to go out on morphine is a more dignified death, that it's morally superior.

00:10:58.000 Death with comfort is a morally neutral term, because comfort is morally neutral.

00:11:02.000 We know people who live in comfort.

00:11:03.000 Some are bad people, some are good people.

00:11:05.000 Comfort is not a moral status.

00:11:09.000 Dignity is.

00:11:09.000 And there's a reason why the left keeps using that misnomer with regard to cases like Alfie Evans.

00:11:14.000 They really should not.

00:11:15.000 They really, really should not.

00:11:15.000 It's a huge, huge mistake.

00:11:17.000 So, again, I think that there's no question that this should be left to the parents and it's an egregious miscarriage of justice that it's not.

00:11:23.000 Particularly because, again, the doctors are assessing the situation.

00:11:26.000 They don't even know what's wrong with Alfie.

00:11:27.000 So that's the second factor here.

00:11:29.000 I'm saying even if you assume Alfie's going to die, this should be left to the parents.

00:11:32.000 The

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00:13:12.000 OK, so meanwhile, in other news today, Bill Cosby has now been convicted, which I think is a good thing.

00:13:19.000 Obviously, Bill Cosby was accused

00:13:21.000 We're good.

00:13:44.000 And she talked about sexual assault and the Cosby verdict.

00:13:47.000 Here's what she had to say.

00:13:48.000 I stand here in the spirit of Martin Luther King, who said that the arc of the moral universe is long, but today it has bent towards justice.

00:13:58.000 Last year, when I was sitting in the courtroom of the first trial, and the verdict was hung, I left with such a tremendous sense of disappointment.

00:14:09.000 And it became evident to me that the justice system

00:14:28.000 Obviously, I think this is a very good thing.

00:14:30.000 I think the evidence against Bill Cosby was quite strong.

00:14:34.000 There are some people who dissent.

00:14:35.000 They say, well, it was a he said, she said.

00:14:37.000 Right, but there's a lot of credibility when you have this many victims who can testify against Bill Cosby, and it's the same story over and over and over and over again.

00:14:45.000 It's also important to note here that this is the kind of stuff that Me Too was made for, right?

00:14:48.000 Me Too was not made for the woman who says that she went on a date with a guy and she had sex with the guy and then she felt bad later.

00:14:55.000 It's not made for a cat person.

00:14:56.000 You know, that essay from The New Yorker, the woman who said that she gave every signal to the guy that she wanted to have sex with him and then she cut him off on texting and then he was mean to her.

00:15:03.000 And this is like a Me Too moment.

00:15:06.000 It's not made for Stormy Daniels.

00:15:07.000 Stormy Daniels is not a Me Too story.

00:15:09.000 Stormy Daniels was not sexually assaulted.

00:15:11.000 She was not sexually harassed. 0.76

00:15:12.000 Stormy Daniels had consensual sex with President Trump. 0.99

00:15:14.000 Okay, what Me Too was made for was cases like this where women are abused and then silenced and stay silent, and then when they come forward en masse, then the question is, do we believe them or not?

00:15:24.000 And the answer is that, yeah, we should believe them, especially when the supporting evidence is there.

00:15:30.000 Now, there's another issue with Bill Cosby here that I think is worth noting, and that is that, obviously, Bill Cosby is famous because he was the biggest television star on television, maybe in television history.

00:15:40.000 The Cosby Show was one of the big hits in the history of TV, and of course, he was the first

00:15:44.000 Sort of.

00:15:45.000 Not the first, but he was one of the first major black characters to be portrayed not as a blue-collar guy, but as a white-collar guy, or he's a doctor.

00:15:55.000 And Cliff Huxtable was an icon for millions of Americans, and made the implicit promise that if you worked hard in America, you could actually get ahead.

00:16:02.000 There are a bunch of people who are trying to throw the baby out with the bathwater now, saying that you should never watch The Cosby Show again, or Cliff Huxtable as a character,

00:16:08.000 Was a terrible thing.

00:16:09.000 Wesley Morris at the New York Times writes a piece today.

00:16:11.000 He says, if a sexual predator wanted to come up with a smoke screen for his ghastly conquest, he couldn't do better than Cliff Huxtable.

00:16:17.000 Cliff was affable, patient, wise, and where Mrs. Huxtable was concerned, justly deferential.

00:16:21.000 His wit was quick, his sweaters roomy and kaleidoscopic.

00:16:23.000 He could be romantic.

00:16:24.000 Cliff should have been the envy of any father ever to appear on a sitcom.

00:16:27.000 He was vertiginously deadly.

00:16:30.000 Okay?

00:16:31.000 Cliff is the reason for the cognitive dissonance we've been experiencing the last three or four years.

00:16:34.000 He seemed inseparable from the man who portrayed him.

00:16:37.000 And then he suggests that the Huxtables were wonderful.

00:16:41.000 Bill Cosby was, of course, not.

00:16:43.000 And he says that the hard thing about this verdict is the sorting of the ironies has been left to us.

00:16:48.000 Mr. Cosby made blackness palatable to a country historically conditioned to the worst of black people. 1.00

00:16:52.000 To pull that off, he had to find a morally impeccable presentation of himself.

00:16:55.000 If you really think that a lot of people are going to throw away the image of Cliff Huxtable because of Bill Cosby, I think that's completely wrong.

00:17:00.000 People watch TV, they identify with the characters, not with the actors.

00:17:16.000 So, the evils of Bill Cosby do not, I think in any way, sully the character of Cliff Huxtable, who after all, was a character on TV.

00:17:25.000 I think people are smart enough to recognize that.

00:17:27.000 Okay, meanwhile...

00:17:29.000 There's a lot of hubbub today over the situation in North Korea. 0.98

00:17:33.000 So, a historic moment, because the dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, who is indeed a human piece of debris, just a piece of crap, who has been, he and his family for three generations now, have been forcibly imprisoning 0.99

00:17:48.000 Millions of people in a giant gulag. 0.98

00:17:51.000 The average South Korean is, I believe, three inches taller than the average North Korean, despite a common genetic heritage, because of malnutrition and starvation in North Korea.

00:17:59.000 Hundreds of thousands of people in North Korea have been passed through prison camps.

00:18:03.000 Hundreds of thousands of people have starved to death over the tenure of the Kim family.

00:18:06.000 Well, Kim Jong-un met with the new prime minister, new president of South Korea.

00:18:12.000 And this was a historic moment because this is the first time that anyone from North Korea has actually stepped across the border of South Korea for a long time.

00:18:21.000 The South Korean president is Moon Jae-in.

00:18:23.000 He's a member of what they call a Sunshine Cabinet, which means that they want to make a deal with North Korea. 0.77

00:18:28.000 Kim Jong-un finally crosses the border, and this is being hailed as a historic moment for diplomatic relations between the two countries.

00:18:34.000 But as we look at this picture, it cannot be overstated the historic nature of what we are witnessing now.

00:18:42.000 These pictures coming to us outside the Peace House on the southern side of the demilitarized zone that divides the two countries.

00:18:50.000 There you see the two leaders of North Korea and South Korea shaking hands in a demonstration of certainly attempted unity here.

00:19:02.000 Okay, so people think this is like a major step forward, and you're seeing a lot of people today celebrating President Trump, saying President Trump made this happen.

00:19:08.000 Okay, now, President Trump has been very harsh with the North Koreans.

00:19:11.000 I think that is a good thing.

00:19:12.000 They're feeling the pressure.

00:19:13.000 The Chinese have, in turn, been very harsh with the North Koreans, which is a good thing. 1.00

00:19:17.000 I think they're feeling the pressure.

00:19:19.000 The real truth here is that the reason that Kim Jong-un is shaking the hand of Moon Jae-in is because Moon Jae-in is dedicated to the idea that he wants to get American troops off South Korean soil if he can.

00:19:29.000 And he and Kim Jong-un share that priority.

00:19:31.000 Moon Jae-in is a guy who is of the South Korean left.

00:19:34.000 He is very much

00:19:35.000 Of course.

00:19:58.000 Moon's spokesman says Kim also made a reference to a South Korean island that became a target of the North Korean artillery attack that killed four in 2010.

00:20:05.000 Kim says the residents of Yeonpyeong Island, who have been living under the fear of North Korean artillery attacks and also families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War, have high hopes for the intra-Korean talks to help heal past scars.

00:20:16.000 Apparently, they're going to sign a formal end to the Korean War.

00:20:19.000 That does not mean demilitarization, of course.

00:20:21.000 There are a lot of people, again, hailing this as a giant victory.

00:20:23.000 I am somewhat more skeptical.

00:20:25.000 So, before I explain why I am somewhat more skeptical,

00:20:28.000 Well, I first want to give you a brief history of the Korean War, because people really don't know very much about this war.

00:20:34.000 They tend to forget this war.

00:20:35.000 It's a forgotten war in the United States, unlike the Vietnam War, which is, of course, championed by the left as an example of America losing, and they think that's great.

00:20:42.000 Or World War II, which is an example of the United States intervening to stop a genocide.

00:20:46.000 The Korean War is largely forgotten, even though the United States lost tens of thousands of troops in the Korean War.

00:20:53.000 The Korean War started because essentially what happened is after World War II, the Russians occupied the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and the United States occupied the southern half.

00:21:04.000 And then two flunkies at the State Department drew a parallel, the 38th parallel, and they said, OK, well, we're going to say that above this is North Korea and below this is South Korea.

00:21:12.000 It was a completely arbitrary division.

00:21:13.000 The Russians quickly turned North Korea into a communist proxy state, and the United States 0.71

00:21:19.000 Was working with the with the more free market dictatorship that was existing in South Korea at the time in 1950, thanks to the United States, his failures to stop the rise of communist China.

00:21:32.000 Which was largely due to both the FDR and the Truman administrations.

00:21:35.000 Then the North Koreans walked across the border.

00:21:38.000 They attacked across the border.

00:21:38.000 They sent tens of thousands of troops across the 38th parallel.

00:21:42.000 And the United States was quickly enmeshed in war.

00:21:44.000 That was June 25th, 1950.

00:21:46.000 And 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People's Army poured across the 38th parallel, according to history.com.

00:21:51.000 It was the first military action of the Cold War.

00:21:53.000 By July, American troops had entered the war on South Korea's behalf.

00:21:56.000 And the North Koreans, backed by the Chinese, backed by the Russians, 0.88

00:22:00.000 All right.

00:22:22.000 I'm going to explain why it is that I'm skeptical of what's happening right now on the Korean peninsula.

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00:24:12.000 Okay, so.

00:24:14.000 Why am I skeptical of what is happening in North Korea?

00:24:17.000 The reason I'm skeptical is because there are lots of these sorts of historic meetings, and some of them end well, and some of them do not end well.

00:24:24.000 There are lots of cases in which the West has been played in situations like this.

00:24:27.000 So, here's what could go wrong in this meeting.

00:24:30.000 What could go wrong is that Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un come to an agreement.

00:24:34.000 And the agreement is that Kim Jong-un is going to denuclearize the peninsula.

00:24:37.000 He's going to stop developing nuclear weapons, or he's going to quote-unquote give up his nuclear weapons.

00:24:42.000 There's no real way that he's going to do a verification regime that allows for anything like that.

00:24:46.000 And Moon Jae-in says, well, in return for that,

00:24:49.000 We don't need the American troops here anymore, because if we denuclearize the peninsula, then we don't need the American trigger force that would bring the United States into the war, because obviously you're not going to nuke us.

00:24:59.000 If there's a conventional war, there's a conventional war, I guess, but we have warm relations, so we're really not too worried about a conventional war.

00:25:04.000 At which point, President Trump, who has been saying over and over and over that he wants to get troops home and out of places like South Korea, he says, OK, you know what?

00:25:11.000 We'll go along with that.

00:25:12.000 We'll remove the troops from South Korea.

00:25:14.000 And the next thing you know, we have a replay of the Korean War in which the North Koreans say, OK, well, now that the Americans aren't here, let's start making some moves on the border.

00:25:21.000 Let's see if we can push that border further south.

00:25:23.000 Let's see if we can launch a sneak attack.

00:25:25.000 That's a possibility, especially given the instability of the North Korean regime and the fact that they are resource short.

00:25:30.000 Because they're a giant gulag state.

00:25:32.000 That's a serious problem.

00:25:33.000 And there is a history of this sort of thing.

00:25:35.000 Many of the meetings that have been championed by the West among historic belligerents.

00:25:40.000 I've ended incredibly poorly.

00:25:41.000 I'm not even talking about the Yalta Conference, in which the United States and Russia and Britain basically got played by Russia.

00:25:48.000 Basically, Stalin played Churchill and played FDR, and the United States gave up far too much in the Yalta Agreement, leading to things like the Korean War, leading to the rise of a powerful USSR that had half of Europe under its thumb. 0.58

00:26:01.000 I don't

00:26:22.000 Yitzhak Rabin.

00:26:40.000 The Israeli Prime Minister was shaking hands with an actual terrorist, Yasser Arafat, an evil terrorist, one of the worst terrorists of the 20th century.

00:26:48.000 And Yasser Arafat then used the concessions that he had gained from Israel, backed by the United States, in order to stage a series of violent attacks against Israel that has lasted to the present day.

00:26:58.000 That has not resulted in any sort of lasting peace.

00:27:00.000 It's actually led to the rise of terrorist groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian Authority, which is still a terrorist group and led by now Mahmoud Abbas, is the

00:27:09.000 Next step in the evolution of Yasser Arafat's terror group.

00:27:13.000 That obviously didn't solve anything.

00:27:14.000 And I remember, I'm old enough to remember, I was I think nine at the time, I'm old enough to remember them shaking hands and the media swooning.

00:27:20.000 Oh, look at this.

00:27:21.000 It's finally happening.

00:27:22.000 Oh, peace is going to come to the Middle East.

00:27:25.000 Peace didn't come to the Middle East because there were no common interests.

00:27:27.000 So, the question is, is the West going to take a strong stand and require things of Kim Jong-un in this peace?

00:27:32.000 Or is this just going to be Kim Jong-un's latest move in order to get a bunch of concessions from the West, and in return, the West gets very little, right?

00:27:40.000 The West gets a promise.

00:27:42.000 This is exactly what happened with Iran, okay? 1.00

00:27:44.000 The United States made a deal with Iran, and now we are stuck with that deal with Iran, at least for the foreseeable future, because Barack Obama decided it was more important to have the photo op between the Iranian foreign minister and John Kerry than it was to actually uphold sanctions against an evil state on the brink of nuclear destruction, on the brink of having nuclear weaponry. 0.76

00:28:04.000 The JCPOA, the Iran deal, is such a disaster, and you can see that this is

00:28:11.000 This could be a similar disaster.

00:28:12.000 You could see a situation in which the United States or South Korea offers a very similar deal to the North Koreans, and everybody proclaims victory.

00:28:20.000 And within five years, the North Koreans are back making their nuclear weapons, except this time there are no troops on the South Korean peninsula. 0.59

00:28:26.000 It could be a disaster.

00:28:27.000 I'm not saying it will be a disaster.

00:28:28.000 Maybe it works out great.

00:28:29.000 But before everybody says, this is a wonderful thing, look what Trump has wrought, let's wait to see the result.

00:28:34.000 People shaking hands and doing photo ops is not an actual result.

00:28:38.000 Now, that said, the media, if this had been under Obama, would have been fawning over it.

00:28:41.000 It would have been, oh my god, look what Obama has done.

00:28:43.000 It's so great.

00:28:43.000 They said this about the Iran deal.

00:28:45.000 And it does demonstrate the lack of veracity in the media, or at least the lack of credibility in the media.

00:28:50.000 The media are so biased that Trump gets no mention in what is, in fact, a historic summit that's happening between the two Koreas.

00:28:56.000 But by the same token, they would have been orgasming over this if this had been President Obama, no question.

00:29:04.000 Still, as a conservative, I'm just saying it might be worthwhile to withhold judgment for just a little bit.

00:29:10.000 Now, meanwhile, James Comey appeared last night with Brett Baier, and James Comey just looks worse and worse.

00:29:15.000 If you're a Democrat, you have to think at this point that James Comey needs to be put to the side because he is not helping your case in the slightest.

00:29:22.000 Over and over, James Comey made contentions last night that were just unsupportable.

00:29:26.000 So, this one actually, I believe, was not on Fox News.

00:29:29.000 He was, he was asking how, how possibly this is on CNN.

00:29:32.000 He was asking, how can Trump supporters explain to their grandchildren that they traded the rule of law for tax cuts?

00:29:37.000 This is James Comey doing his best virtue signaling on CNN.

00:29:40.000 Then he meets Brett Barron and things go wildly wrong for him.

00:29:43.000 My question for the Republicans is, so where is that?

00:29:46.000 Where is that commitment to character and values?

00:29:48.000 And if people have convinced themselves, well, we'll trade it temporarily for a tax cut or a Supreme Court justice, as I say in the book, that's a fool's bargain.

00:29:58.000 Because those values are all that you have.

00:30:00.000 There'll always be another Supreme Court justice, always another tax bill. 0.96

00:30:03.000 You lose this, exactly what are you?

00:30:06.000 Again, this sort of language, well, they've traded rule of law for tax cuts.

00:30:11.000 Have any Republicans said that rule of law should not be upheld here?

00:30:13.000 There are Republicans who have said they will vote for impeachment if Robert Mueller is fired.

00:30:18.000 Jeff Sessions has been standing for the rule of law.

00:30:20.000 I really believe that.

00:30:21.000 Jeff Sessions has said, if you get rid of Rod Rosenstein, I will leave too.

00:30:24.000 So, I'll take off.

00:30:26.000 None of this suggests that the Republicans have abandoned rule of law, but James Comey identifies himself with rule of law, and therefore he is the only person that ought to be listened to, obviously.

00:30:36.000 Then he goes on Bret Baier, and things go wildly wrong for him.

00:30:40.000 So this whole perspective of James Comey as great lawbringer goes completely by the wayside, because it turns out James Comey doesn't know basics about

00:30:47.000 We're good.

00:31:01.000 So the story of that briefing leaks out almost immediately after you do it.

00:31:04.000 CNN and others run the story of this unverified dossier.

00:31:07.000 Did you or your subordinates leak that?

00:31:09.000 No.

00:31:10.000 Did James Clapper?

00:31:11.000 No, not to my knowledge.

00:31:12.000 No.

00:31:13.000 John Brennan?

00:31:15.000 I don't know who leaked it.

00:31:16.000 I had no part in any leaking of it.

00:31:17.000 It was about four or five days later that it leaked, but I remember because President-elect called me about it.

00:31:21.000 Did you ever try to find out?

00:31:23.000 Who leaked an unclassified public document?

00:31:26.000 No.

00:31:28.000 Apparently, he never tried to find out who leaked the news of him informing Trump of the dossier to the press, which was used as the news hook by BuzzFeed to actually release the entire dossier.

00:31:37.000 No, he never bothered to look into that.

00:31:39.000 He was also asked, did you leak?

00:31:41.000 Did you leak?

00:31:41.000 When you leaked after you're firing all of your memos, your friend, was that a leak?

00:31:45.000 And he said, well, I don't think so.

00:31:46.000 I mean, I don't know.

00:31:47.000 And Brett Baier was like, well, it kind of was, wasn't it?

00:31:49.000 Isn't that sort of the definition of a leak?

00:31:51.000 And Comey had no answer for that.

00:31:53.000 Comey admitted.

00:31:54.000 That he said he didn't know that Democrats funded the Steele dossier, which is insane.

00:31:57.000 Of course he knew that Democrats funded the Steele dossier.

00:31:59.000 Watch him futz around on this one.

00:32:01.000 Yeah, I still don't know that for a fact.

00:32:03.000 What do you mean?

00:32:04.000 I've only seen it in the media.

00:32:05.000 I never knew exactly which Democrats had funded— I knew it was funded first by Republicans, opposed to Donald— But that's not true.

00:32:12.000 I'm sorry?

00:32:12.000 That's not true, that the dossier that Christopher Steele worked on was funded by Republicans?

00:32:17.000 My understanding was his work started, funded by—as oppo research, funded by Republicans,

00:32:23.000 So, Free Beacon said that they had Glenn Simpson and Fusion GPS on account of a retainer, but they did not fund the Christopher Steele memo or the dossier.

00:32:35.000 That was initiated by Democrats.

00:32:37.000 Okay, my understanding was the activity was begun that Steele was hired to look into.

00:32:42.000 It was first funded by Republicans, then picked up—the important thing was—picked up by Democrats opposed to Donald Trump's.

00:32:49.000 Okay, so I like how even here he's futzing around. 0.96

00:32:51.000 I mean, he really looked bad last night, and well, he should have, because he, again, is making a fool of himself.

00:32:56.000 The fact the media keep trotting him out, I think they're undercutting their own credibility here.

00:33:00.000 Okay, so, in just a second, I'm gonna get into the mailbag, because it is mailbag time here at the Ben Shapiro Show.

00:33:05.000 But first, you're gonna have to go over to Daily Wire right now, and you're gonna have to subscribe.

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00:34:02.000 Alrighty, so, mailbag times.

00:34:04.000 Let's jump right in.

00:34:05.000 So, Alex says, Hi Ben, with Paul Ryan gone next term, who would you like to see as Speaker of the House?

00:34:09.000 Also, who would you like to see as Majority Leader of the Senate?

00:34:12.000 Thanks and love the show.

00:34:13.000 So, as Speaker of the House, I do like Jim Jordan.

00:34:16.000 I think Jim Jordan would be very good at that.

00:34:19.000 Well, you do need somebody who's going to be militant, particularly because they have to stand up to both Mitch McConnell, if they're in the majority, or the Democrats if they're in the minority.

00:34:28.000 I think that Paul Ryan is a wonk.

00:34:30.000 I think that he's a guy who is, yeah, I think he knows what he believes.

00:34:35.000 I think that he is a principled person, but I think that he's in the wrong position.

00:34:40.000 If you're the head of the House majority, or if you're the head of the House minority,

00:34:44.000 You have to be a knife fighter, somebody who's willing to manipulate.

00:34:47.000 You have to be somebody who's willing to get dirty.

00:34:49.000 I don't think Ryan is necessarily that guy.

00:34:51.000 You have to be able to exert leverage on your own members, which Ryan obviously was not willing to do.

00:34:55.000 You also, at some point, have to stand up to your own Senate if the Senate won't do it and say, listen, we're not going to pass anything.

00:35:00.000 All right, Mitch, if you don't want the blame falling on you, you're going to have to do better.

00:35:04.000 I'm not sure that Paul Ryan did that a whole hell of a lot.

00:35:05.000 I think Jim Jordan would.

00:35:06.000 So I like the idea of Jim Jordan as majority leader or as a Speaker of the House or as minority leader.

00:35:13.000 Mark says, as far as, sorry, majority leader of the Senate.

00:35:17.000 I think that, you know, Senator Cruz has made a good case for why he should be Majority Leader of the Senate.

00:35:22.000 I think there are probably some less controversial figures who would be similarly good.

00:35:25.000 I mean, I'd love to see Mike Lee as Majority Leader of the Senate, but they're all my favorite senators who I'd like to see as Majority Leader of the Senate because I think those people would hold the line a little bit better than Mitch McConnell has.

00:35:34.000 McConnell is a deal guy, right?

00:35:36.000 He's a guy who kind of, in the future, he'll be seen more as a Tip O'Neill type, you know, a guy who sort of got things done by using his various methodologies, but I'm not sure that

00:35:44.000 Mitch McConnell is a lot to speak about when it comes to principled leadership.

00:35:48.000 Mark says, Ben, a few days ago, Jordan Peterson asked Bill Maher's panel, if Trump is impeached, what are your plans to heal the rift between the left and the right?

00:35:55.000 Of course, they didn't answer his question.

00:35:57.000 So if Trump is impeached, how could the rift be healed?

00:36:00.000 Well, it depends what he's impeached over.

00:36:01.000 So if Trump were actually impeached over something that's legitimate, let's say that Trump committed an actual crime as president of the United States, a serious crime as president of the United States, and he is impeached.

00:36:10.000 Then the rift would be healed by Mike Pence coming forward, becoming president, and saying, listen, criminal activity is not acceptable on either side of the aisle.

00:36:18.000 And the left saying, you know what?

00:36:19.000 You're right.

00:36:20.000 We're good now.

00:36:21.000 That's the way that this would be healed.

00:36:23.000 If he's impeached for no reason, if he's impeached because Democrats hate him, it's going to be very difficult to rectify that breach because Republicans are rightly going to say the Democrats have been misusing the tools of government in order to go after particular people they don't like in government, which only exacerbates the belief that Democrats should never

00:36:40.000 Now, there is a conciliation possible there, too, and that is both sides eventually acknowledge that there should be no power of government over a wide variety of issues because we can't trust the other side with the power.

00:36:51.000 A libertarian consensus, in other words.

00:36:54.000 You can see that happening, but I think that that's a little ways away, and I don't think this cast of characters, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, I don't think this cast of characters is capable of getting that done.

00:37:08.000 Well, I think that's usually true in argument.

00:37:09.000 This is why I like to argue first principles.

00:37:11.000 Data can be used to support first principles, but I think that most people are convinced on the basis of moral argumentation and first principles arguments, not on the basis of data.

00:37:17.000 But the data do have to support your first principles.

00:37:36.000 So data are a necessary bulwark for a good argument, but I'm not sure the data themselves make the argument.

00:37:42.000 Data can provide the foundation for an argument, but even below that foundation there's a bedrock, and the bedrock is the value system that you're trying to promote.

00:37:48.000 Okay, so first of all,

00:38:00.000 Norway is living on the basis of an extraordinarily large oil find.

00:38:07.000 And they've been living off the basis of that oil production for a long time.

00:38:10.000 I did an entire episode where I discussed what Norway's economy looks like.

00:38:14.000 Second of all, Norway is essentially ethnically homogenous.

00:38:17.000 There's not a lot of ethnic diversity in Norway.

00:38:19.000 So, claiming that Norway is better than the United States, you have to consider the kind of folks who are living in Norway, and then you have to say, well, is it really comparable even?

00:38:28.000 You'd also have to look at, for example, the level of economic mobility in places like Norway without state intervention.

00:38:36.000 You have to look at the fact that the United States is the most powerful economy on Earth.

00:38:40.000 If the United States did not exist, would Norway still be a powerful country economically?

00:38:43.000 The answer is no.

00:38:45.000 Yeah, again, is it possible that you'd enjoy living in Norway more than the United States?

00:38:48.000 Only if you enjoy 60% taxes and living in a small apartment.

00:38:51.000 But is it possible that you'd like Norway better?

00:38:54.000 Maybe.

00:38:54.000 I mean, if that's what floats your boat.

00:38:55.000 If that's what floats your boat.

00:38:56.000 But to suggest that Norway is, for example, more tolerant than the United States, they don't have to deal with the same problems that the United States does in terms of trying to integrate so many different ethnicities.

00:39:05.000 That's both a problem and a wonderful thing about the United States, obviously.

00:39:10.000 Is Norway better than the United States in terms of the economy?

00:39:13.000 Again, not if you want to get rich.

00:39:15.000 Is Norway better than the United States in terms of

00:39:18.000 I think so.

00:39:36.000 A lot of that is based on the government essentially gathering an enormous amount of oil and then putting all the money from it into a state pension fund.

00:39:52.000 My understanding is that most people who are religious believe that when you give to a private charity, that counts as part of your tithing, I think.

00:40:01.000 It's one of the reasons why I think that if you're going to have a quote-unquote welfare state in the United States, instead of the government just seizing an enormous amount of cash from you and then using it through government means for redistributionism, if you're going to do something like this, you ought to mandate that people give a certain amount of their money to charity, and then they should be able to pick the charity the money goes to.

00:40:18.000 Okay, let's see.

00:40:19.000 David says, in a show I was watching they're referencing the 25th amendment to remove the president, but I read it only takes away his powers.

00:40:25.000 Can you please clarify?

00:40:25.000 Sure.

00:40:26.000 So the 25th amendment removes the power from the president.

00:40:30.000 To actually exercise his power.

00:40:37.000 The 25th Amendment says a few things.

00:40:39.000 Section 1 says, in the case of removal of the president from office or of his death or resignation, then the vice president becomes president.

00:40:45.000 But the part that they are usually talking about in the 25th Amendment is the part about if the president loses his capacity.

00:40:52.000 So the president can regain capacity under the 25th Amendment.

00:40:56.000 So here's the way that it works.

00:40:57.000 I'll read you the whole thing.

00:40:58.000 It says, So, in order for that to happen, the VP

00:41:19.000 Thank you.

00:41:35.000 So, in other words, VP and Cabinet say to Congress, President Trump can't handle it.

00:42:02.000 Pence becomes president until Trump sends a note to Congress saying, Hey, no, I'm fine.

00:42:05.000 Everything's cool.

00:42:06.000 This is just a power grab.

00:42:07.000 At which point they have, and he has four days to do that.

00:42:12.000 And then the VP, well, actually he transmitted right away.

00:42:15.000 Then the VP and the majority transmit within four days, another written declaration that he's unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.

00:42:22.000 At that point, Congress decides the issue and they have to assemble within 48 hours.

00:42:28.000 So, in other words, the president doesn't become not the president.

00:42:30.000 He's just incapacitated for the period in which he's incapacitated.

00:42:51.000 Okay, but it takes a two-thirds vote of each house to actually declare the president incapacitated to the level that he cannot regain his power if he attempts to regain his power.

00:42:59.000 So Mark, as I said earlier on the show, I do think we should appreciate his contributions to comedy.

00:43:04.000 I'm not somebody who believes that the art is completely inseparable from the artist.

00:43:08.000 There have been lots of awful people who have been great artists, lots of awful people who have

00:43:20.000 So I love the comedy, particularly the early comedy of Bill Cosby.

00:43:29.000 I think Cosby shows a great show. 1.00

00:43:31.000 I still think that listening to his albums is okay, and I still think that he's a piece of crap. 0.99

00:43:36.000 So I think all of these things can be held true at the same time. 0.99

00:43:38.000 How many comics, by the way, are not pieces of crap, as it turns out? 0.98

00:43:40.000 It turns out a lot of them really are. 0.98

00:43:42.000 Frank says, Dear Ben, do you have any advice for future musicians or actors who want to be public with their conservative opinions?

00:43:47.000 Big fan of the show.

00:43:49.000 My first advice is, if you want to be successful, apparently you have to remain silent up to the point where you're successful, then you can come out as conservative and be okay.

00:43:56.000 That's at least the rule in Hollywood.

00:43:58.000 If you start off as conservative, you're shutting an enormous number of doors, unless you're in the music industry, like the country music industry, but even Shania Twain gets raked over the coals if she says she's going to back Trump.

00:44:08.000 Unfortunately, we live in a system in which people are routinely discriminated against on the basis of their politics, so I think that it is well worthwhile for you to

00:44:16.000 Keep your politics as close to the vest as possible until you are successful enough that you don't have to worry about the blowback.

00:44:22.000 Right?

00:44:22.000 Kanye's not really going to have to worry about the blowback, but that's because Kanye is Kanye.

00:44:26.000 Thanks, Rachel.

00:44:37.000 My answer is, I believe yes, because I do think that there is a difference between doctors deciding that they have life-saving treatment they want to provide to a child, and the parents saying no, and parents deciding that they want their child to live, and doctors saying no.

00:44:52.000 The Alfie Evans case is the reverse.

00:44:53.000 The Alfie Evans case is, parents say, we think we can save the kid, and the doctors say, no you can't, he has to die, which is evil.

00:45:00.000 There's a case that comes up a lot with regard to, there's certain parents who say they don't want their kids to have medical treatment for simple diseases.

00:45:07.000 And we're not even talking about chemotherapy for cancer, but their parents will say that they don't want kids to have simple blood transfusions because they think that it violates certain principles, and the kid will die without the blood transfusion.

00:45:17.000 To me, that's child endangerment, and at that point, the state has the right to say, you don't get to decide for your kid that your kid has to die.

00:45:22.000 Well, I think that the biggest barrier to, if we're gonna say,

00:45:35.000 First of all, I don't think there's a barrier to modern-day democracy.

00:45:37.000 I think America is a republic, and people vote in that republic, and there are no serious barriers to people voting in the United States.

00:45:43.000 If the idea is, what's the barrier to us all getting along, and they said racism and sexism, I would say tribalism more than racism or sexism.

00:45:51.000 I don't think that women are being barred from office. 1.00

00:45:52.000 I don't think black people are being barred from office. 0.54

00:45:54.000 We had a black president. 0.57

00:45:55.000 We almost had a female president. 1.00

00:45:57.000 We've had female secretaries of state several times. 0.99

00:46:00.000 There are many female members of the Supreme Court. 0.95

00:46:02.000 There are black members of the Supreme Court.

00:46:04.000 I don't think that racism and sexism are the biggest obstacles to the country at this point.

00:46:07.000 What should I ask?

00:46:13.000 Well, dude, you made it.

00:46:13.000 So apparently you didn't have to submit a good question.

00:46:16.000 Good for you. 1.00

00:46:17.000 And thanks to my producers for putting that up there, you jerks. 0.98

00:46:20.000 Clay says, Hi Ben, I've been a listener for over a year now and you've been very influential in my beliefs about conservatism. 0.97

00:46:25.000 I've spoken out a lot this year during my college classes, either during student presentations or unsolicited professor virtue signaling.

00:46:30.000 Well, hey, I'd have Kanye on the show today.

00:46:31.000 I mean, I think that'd be a lot of fun.

00:46:33.000 And in a little while, I will tell you all about my inculcation into rap and how I got into rap.

00:46:49.000 But first, as far as whether you're obligated, no, you're never obligated to say anything with regard to your politics.

00:46:56.000 I think that as a moral human being, you should probably speak up when you are capable of speaking up.

00:47:01.000 But if you are in a situation where your grades are going to suffer, I never tell students that it's their job to lose a grade because they have to speak up to no apparent purpose.

00:47:08.000 OK, final question, and then we'll do a thing I like.

00:47:11.000 Moshe says, hi, Ben.

00:47:12.000 If we get self-driving cars in the future, should we allow law enforcement to override the car's computer to bring people with warrants out for their arrest to the police station?

00:47:18.000 Does an unconvicted person with an arrest warrant have a right to avoid being arrested?

00:47:23.000 Well, no.

00:47:23.000 I mean, if they have the right to break into your house to effectuate an arrest warrant, then they have the right to take control of your car and bring you home.

00:47:29.000 Interesting idea, by the way.

00:47:30.000 Very, very minority report.

00:47:33.000 So I kind of like this.

00:47:35.000 OK.

00:47:36.000 So, time for a quick thing I like and then we'll do a quick thing that I hate.

00:47:39.000 So, thing I like.

00:47:40.000 So as I said earlier this week, jokingly on Twitter, I am now apparently a rap maven because Kanye West, everyone on the right has now been legally obligated to like rap because Kanye West has come out and said that he likes President Trump.

00:47:51.000 I'm just joking, of course. 0.99

00:47:52.000 I still think rap is largely garbage. 0.94

00:47:54.000 But my first inculcation into rap, the first song that really brought me, I think, into the world of R&B and rap and all of it, I think was probably 0.98

00:48:05.000 This particular song.

00:48:06.000 It's just an amazing example, example of the true artistry and verbal acuity of so many of our nation's rappers.

00:48:15.000 As I walk through the valley where I harvest my grain, I take a look at my wife and realize she's very plain. 0.89

00:48:21.000 But that's just perfect for an Amish like me.

00:48:24.000 You know I shun fancy things like electricity.

00:48:26.000 Okay, what's amazing about this particular music video, aside from the fact that Weird Al is the best, the best, okay, is that if you actually go back and watch the Gangster's Paradise video, there's so many great references to it.

00:48:38.000 So, the best reference, of course, in the Gangster's Paradise video, it shows, I can't remember, which rapper does Gangster's Paradise?

00:48:44.000 I can't even...

00:48:45.000 Sorry?

00:48:46.000 Who is it?

00:48:47.000 Coolio, thank you.

00:48:48.000 So there's a close-up shot in profile of Coolio sweating.

00:48:53.000 As the song goes on, he starts to sweat more and more because it's so intense.

00:48:56.000 And so Weird Al, throughout the song, there are cutaway shots of him in profile, and he just starts sweating.

00:49:00.000 It's like pouring off his face, just like from an airplane.

00:49:03.000 It's just great.

00:49:04.000 I will say this about Weird Al.

00:49:06.000 Weird Al is one of the great unappreciated artists of our time.

00:49:09.000 Weird Al Yankovic is the best.

00:49:10.000 All of his songs are better than the originals.

00:49:12.000 All of them.

00:49:13.000 If you have a choice between listening to Amish Paradise and Gangster's Paradise, Amish Paradise is significantly better. 1.00

00:49:18.000 If you have a choice between listening to the actual Hamilton soundtrack and listening to Weird Al's mashup on accordion of the Hamilton soundtrack, it is much better.

00:49:26.000 Okay, Weird Al is much better.

00:49:27.000 He's actually a pretty good musician.

00:49:29.000 And he's really, really funny.

00:49:30.000 So yeah, this is what got me into rap.

00:49:32.000 Also, white nerdy, which is just spectacular.

00:49:35.000 So kudos to Weird Al. 0.58

00:49:36.000 This is not a racial thing.

00:49:37.000 If Weird Al were black, I would still love his stuff. 1.00

00:49:38.000 Okay, it's not just that I like white rappers.

00:49:40.000 I think Eminem's... I dislike Eminem. 0.90

00:49:42.000 But, you know, Weird Al's the best.

00:49:44.000 I have no more words.

00:49:45.000 Okay, this is how I got into rap.

00:49:48.000 Weird Al Yankovic.

00:49:49.000 Okay, time for some things that I hate.

00:49:50.000 So,

00:49:52.000 Republicans in Congress.

00:49:53.000 Just because people are popular on the interwebs, OK, just because people are popular on the interwebs, Republicans in Congress, does not mean that you actually have to have them to Congress to say silly things.

00:50:05.000 So Diamond and Silk are very popular on the interwebs.

00:50:07.000 Diamond and Silk are, of course, sisters who are black and are big fans of President Trump.

00:50:10.000 They gained a lot of credibility on the right because they were so pro-Trump and because they're conservative in some ways.

00:50:16.000 Well, they had said that Facebook had shut down their page and prevented them from distributing their message.

00:50:22.000 Uh, there is a fair bit of counter evidence to suggest that that may not, in fact, be wholly the case.

00:50:27.000 Uh, what they say is that they reached out to Facebook, Facebook didn't reach out to them, Facebook says we did reach out to them, and they've ignored us.

00:50:33.000 Okay, listen, I think the Facebook algorithm change is a disaster, and I think that it is, at least in part, politically motivated, even if the people who made it don't believe that it's politically motivated, but

00:50:41.000 Diamond and Silk were testifying before Congress, and at one point they were, it was asked about them, it was asked of them, whether they had been paid by the Trump administration at any point, or the Trump campaign at any point.

00:50:51.000 The answer is yes, okay?

00:50:52.000 According to FEC filings, Diamond and Silk were paid about $1,200 at some point during the campaign.

00:50:56.000 Diamond and Silk instead denied this under oath, which is in fact perjury, and you can just see that this thing just went sideways right out the gate.

00:51:02.000 Ms.

00:51:02.000 Holloway, I think you stated on the record today, at least three times, quote, we were not

00:51:11.000 Paid by the Trump campaign, is that correct?

00:51:14.000 That is correct.

00:51:15.000 Okay.

00:51:17.000 Now, are you aware that your testimony today is under oath, subject to the penalty of perjury?

00:51:24.000 Yes, we are aware of that.

00:51:26.000 Okay.

00:51:27.000 Now, the FEC report dated May 12th, 2017, states that on November 22nd, 2016,

00:51:40.000 The campaign of Donald J. Trump for President Incorporated paid Diamond and Silk $1,274.94 for field consulting.

00:51:51.000 Are you familiar with that?

00:51:58.000 We're familiar with that particular lie.

00:52:00.000 We can see that you do look at fake news.

00:52:03.000 What happened is, and what should have happened is, you should have come to our mouths to see what exactly happened before a false narrative was put out there about the $1,274.94.

00:52:15.000 So let me explain right now to you and the world.

00:52:20.000 Hold on one second, because I want to give you the opportunity to explain, which is why I'm asking the question.

00:52:23.000 Right.

00:52:24.000 I'm actually trying to figure, are you calling this FEC document fake?

00:52:27.000 Well, actually, let me get some clarity.

00:52:28.000 No, we're not calling it fake.

00:52:29.000 I'm going to give you an opportunity to respond.

00:52:31.000 Okay.

00:52:32.000 I'm just really trying, I'm struggling.

00:52:34.000 I'm really just trying to figure out, right?

00:52:36.000 Because you have an FEC document that clearly indicates that the two of you were paid for field consulting by the Trump campaign.

00:52:45.000 That's just one document.

00:52:45.000 There may be others that are out here.

00:52:48.000 And presumably,

00:52:49.000 This was a document filed with genuineness and authenticity by the campaign of the president that you so love.

00:52:58.000 And so I'm just trying to figure out who is lying here.

00:53:01.000 Is it the Trump campaign or is someone not telling the truth?

00:53:07.000 So they claim that Facebook censored them for six months.

00:53:10.000 They answer yes when they were blocked, asked if they were blocked on Facebook.

00:53:14.000 It's not clear they were blocked on Facebook.

00:53:15.000 The algorithm may have been used to demote them on Facebook, which is not quite the same thing.

00:53:19.000 And they said, we've never been paid by the Trump campaign, except that they were paid, in fact, by the Trump campaign.

00:53:24.000 And then when they were asked about the FEC filing by the Trump campaign, they called it fake news.

00:53:28.000 Guys, just because people are famous on the internet does not mean that they are great for the conservative cause on every issue.

00:53:34.000 I think Diamond and Silk can say some really great stuff, some really effective stuff, but this is not the place to be doing it.

00:53:39.000 It just, I thought that this is an entire hearing that backfired in pretty significant fashion.

00:53:43.000 Okay, other things that I hate.

00:53:44.000 So Tom Brokaw has now been accused of sexual misconduct, or rather, Ron Brokaw has been accused of sexual harassment.

00:53:51.000 Apparently, he's been accused of sexually harassing Linda Vester, who's of course a famous war correspondent.

00:53:56.000 Variety said Brokaw physically tried to force her to kiss him on two separate occasions, groped her in an NBC conference room, and showed up at her hotel room uninvited.

00:54:04.000 And apparently there's another allegation against Brokaw from an anonymous woman.

00:54:07.000 I have to say, dudes, famous dudes, what in the world?

00:54:12.000 What?

00:54:12.000 Okay, like, why is it that every famous dude for the last 30 years, apparently, who's on TV has been groping women?

00:54:18.000 And you can pretty much name on one hand the people who have not been accused of things over the last 30 years.

00:54:23.000 It's just incredible.

00:54:24.000 And it goes to show you that all of the leftist posturing about how they are not sexist, how many of these people are on the left?

00:54:29.000 A lot of people are on the left.

00:54:30.000 All of which suggests that human nature, there are a lot of men who give in to the human nature of being horrible to women.

00:54:37.000 And that's why you need a civilization filled with men who are trained not only not to do these things, but also to protect women, is why the leftist view that being on the left somehow makes you a purer human being, your politics define your purity as a human being, this is not true and it's something the right has never actually believed.

00:54:51.000 Okay, so we'll be back here on Monday with much, much more.

00:54:54.000 I'm Ben Shapiro, this is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:54:59.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Mathis Glover.

00:55:01.000 Executive producer, Jeremy Boring.

00:55:03.000 Senior producer, Jonathan Hay.

00:55:05.000 Our technical producer is Austin Stevens.

00:55:07.000 Edited by Alex Zingaro.

00:55:08.000 Audio is mixed by Mike Carmina.

00:55:10.000 Hair and makeup is by Jesua Alvera.

00:55:11.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire Forward Publishing production.

00:55:14.000 Copyright Forward Publishing 2018.

The Ben Shapiro Show - April 27, 2018

Murder Is Not Dying With Dignity | Ep. 527

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