The Ben Shapiro Show - NYC’s Whiny Brats Pick A Mayor

00:00:00.000 Alrighty, folks, tons coming up on today's show.

00:00:02.000 A new poll show, Zarin Mamdani leading by leaps and bounds in New York.

00:00:06.000 What the hell is happening?

00:00:06.000 Why are young people in New York resonating to Zoran Mamdani Plus?

00:00:10.000 The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, stops by to explain why Democrats ran away.

00:00:14.000 Will they come back?

00:00:15.000 And President Trump taking over the Smithsonian and the Kennedy Center honors.

00:00:19.000 But first, it's summer's last stand.

00:00:20.000 Days are getting shorter.

00:00:21.000 Grills are going cold.

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00:00:35.000 Michael Mobles just cracked open 80 years of Vatican secrets, the history books sort of forgot to mention.

00:00:39.000 This fall, the Isabel Brown Show premieres.

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00:01:04.000 Well, the new polls are out.

00:01:06.000 There's a new Sienna College poll that shows Zoran Mamdani, the Democratic mayoral nominee in New York City, is now leading by an increased amount, 44%.

00:01:15.000 Former Governor Andrew Cuomo is at 25%.

00:01:18.000 Where is that support coming from?

00:01:19.000 Well, as you might have guessed, it is people who are young.

00:01:22.000 It is people under the age of 35. 0.62

00:01:24.000 According to pollster Stephen Greenberg, city voters under 35 are overwhelmingly supporting Mom Dani, as are a plurality of voters 35 to 54.

00:01:33.000 Voters 55 and older back Cuomo over Mom Dani 38 to 32.

00:01:38.000 So what does that mean?

00:01:39.000 It means younger voters are driving Mom Dani forward.

00:01:42.000 And, you know, there are a lot of folks asking questions like, why is this person even the frontrunner in the first place?

00:01:47.000 He's never held a real job.

00:01:48.000 And that's true.

00:01:49.000 So I asked our sponsors over at Comet, which is a project of perplexity, about the complete employment history for Zoran Momdani since his time in college, because obviously this must be a person with just unbelievably good resume.

00:02:01.000 This person must have a CV that just blows you away.

00:02:04.000 Or alternatively, he's never held a real job in his entire life.

00:02:08.000 So here is his actual resume.

00:02:11.000 2014, graduated from Bowdoin with a BA in Africana Studies.

00:02:17.000 As we all know, the most useful BA, the kind of BA that will earn you millions of dollars at a hedge fund somewhere, or alternatively, maybe allow you to TA at another low-ranking university in Africana Studies.

00:02:29.000 2014 and 2015, he was an organizing trainee at Change Corps, but he left after six months while attempting to unionize within the program.

00:02:38.000 So they were like, nah, you leave now.

00:02:39.000 2014, he was also a short-term organizer with various advocacy groups, including moveon.org.

00:02:46.000 Wow.

00:02:47.000 And TexPERG.

00:02:49.000 He did canvassing and organizing for like a few months.

00:02:52.000 In 2015 and 2016, he was the music supervisor and curator for the film Queen of Katya.

00:02:59.000 Now, his mom directed that, so he worked for his mommy.

00:03:02.000 2015, he was also a volunteer on Ali Najmi's New York City Council special election campaign.

00:03:08.000 If I'm not mistaken, that was a loss.

00:03:11.000 2016 to 2019, this was really when he began to hit his stride, just career-wise.

00:03:16.000 He became an independent hip-hop artist and producer under the name Young Cardamom and then Mr. Cardamom.

00:03:22.000 And he released many, many singles, including the famous single Nani.

00:03:26.000 He performed at Uganda's Niege Niege Festival.

00:03:30.000 Huge, huge.

00:03:32.000 It's like the Taylor Swift of Uganda. 0.85

00:03:34.000 2017 joined Democratic Socialists of America and he became staff on Kyoto El Yatim's New York City Council campaign in Brooklyn.

00:03:42.000 If I'm not mistaken, that was a loss.

00:03:44.000 2018, he was the campaign manager for Ross Barkins' New York State Senate campaign.

00:03:48.000 I don't think that one went amazing either.

00:03:50.000 Then in 2019, he's the field organizer for Tiffany Cabin's Queens District Attorney Campaign.

00:03:56.000 From 2018 to 2020, he was a foreclosure prevention and housing counselor in Queens, which was basically trying to teach people how they could avoid being expelled from their homes, evicted from their homes for not paying their bills.

00:04:10.000 And then from 2021 to present, he was the member of the New York State Assembly, where he missed about half of his votes.

00:04:17.000 And then he became the nominee.

00:04:18.000 So, in other words, if you were looking for the definition of a career useless person, this would be the human.

00:04:25.000 This human would be the human.

00:04:27.000 I've talked about Bernie Sanders being completely useless, a leech On the ass of society for legitimately his entire adult life from the time he was 20 to the time he is now, which he's like 172 years old.

00:04:37.000 Well, Zoran Mamdani is that, but younger.

00:04:40.000 So, you know, 15 years of uselessness or so.

00:04:43.000 He's barely ever held a job.

00:04:45.000 So you might say to yourself, how does a person with effectively no resume who worked for his mommy and was a rapper, how does that person end up as the Democratic nominee in New York City?

00:04:56.000 And to misunderstand that is to misunderstand everything about Generation Z. Now, here's the thing.

00:05:01.000 I'm not a politician, so I don't have to pretend that the concerns of Generation Z are legitimate.

00:05:06.000 I understand that if you're a politician, then you have to placate people when they emotionally explain to you why their life is so difficult.

00:05:13.000 Sometimes people do have difficult lives.

00:05:15.000 People have real challenges in the world.

00:05:17.000 But when I hear from Generation Z that the American dream is dead to them, all I can think of as a generation, not individually, as an entire generation, is, you have got to be kidding me.

00:05:26.000 You've got to be kidding me.

00:05:28.000 I've read more pieces over the course of the last couple of years about how Generation Z has it tougher than any generation in modern history and thought to myself, you, I'm just going to vomit.

00:05:37.000 I mean, really, I'm just going to vomit.

00:05:39.000 You have lived through zero serious wars that America has had to undergo.

00:05:44.000 Zero.

00:05:45.000 You've lived through zero serious terrorist attacks.

00:05:49.000 You have lived in the most prosperous time in human history and the healthiest time in human history.

00:05:54.000 And you are because your rent is too high in New York City while you concomitantly hold some sort of nonprofit job in New York City.

00:06:04.000 And this is the thing that you are whining about as a general rule.

00:06:06.000 Now, again, I don't mean everybody in Generation Z. Again, I'll say it for the third time here.

00:06:10.000 There are many people who are suffering who have disease, who have health problems, who have been dealt a rough hand by life.

00:06:17.000 That is not who I'm talking about.

00:06:18.000 The generational complaint that somehow Generation Z has it worse than the Millennials or Gen X or the boomers or the greatest generation ignores literally all of American history, all of it.

00:06:30.000 But if you're a politician, you can make bank by pretending that these people have concerns that are legitimate and they're not just being ungrateful and bratty.

00:06:38.000 And again, Mamdani, for these folks, is a sort of avatar.

00:06:43.000 The thing that you look at as a bug.

00:06:44.000 He has no resume.

00:06:46.000 He grew up absolutely wealthy, like loaded, and currently is taking advantage of a rent controlled apartment in New York City.

00:06:52.000 He is currently living in a rent-stabilized apartment where the rent is $2,500 a month.

00:06:57.000 The market rate would be $8,000 per month.

00:07:00.000 He earns $147,000 a year and is campaigning on housing affordability in New York City.

00:07:05.000 You might think to yourself, that's crazy.

00:07:06.000 How are all of these socialists in New York City supporting somebody who's so clearly a hypocrite?

00:07:11.000 That misses the point.

00:07:13.000 That misses the point.

00:07:14.000 See, so many folks in America look to their politicians as aspirational figures.

00:07:20.000 I think a lot of people who love President Trump look to him as an aspirational figure, somebody who's very wealthy and very powerful, somebody who's made more of himself than otherwise he might have had at the beginning.

00:07:30.000 Yes, he grew up rich, but he made himself into a brand name available all across the world for literally decades and then president of the United States twice.

00:07:38.000 And so that's an aspirational thing.

00:07:40.000 But what if the Gen Z aspiration is to be a career loser who lives off of his parents' income until he gets some sort of Kush government job living in a rent stabilized apartment? 0.92

00:07:49.000 What if that is the actual aspiration?

00:07:51.000 What if people look up to Zoran Mamdani, not because he is a loser, not in spite of the fact that he is a loser, but because he is kind of a loser?

00:08:00.000 This is, I think, the theory of a piece in Tablet magazine called Zoran Mamdanti's Fantasy Island.

00:08:08.000 According to Armin Rosen, writing for Tablet, Zoran Mamdani first reached elected office in 2021.

00:08:12.000 He defeated four-term Democratic incumbent state assemblywoman Arabella Somotas, a 46-year-old former lawyer, city health staffer, and community planning board member who belongs to the century-old Greek immigrant community of Northwestern Queens.

00:08:23.000 Mamdani, then 29, had been rejected from the nation's internship program after graduating from college.

00:08:28.000 He tried to launch a rap career.

00:08:30.000 He worked as a music coordinator on a Disney-produced film directed by his mommy.

00:08:34.000 His sole qualification for public office was his relatively brief time as a housing counselor for Chaya Community Development Corporation, an organization that works with low and middle income South Asian communities in Jackson Heights in central Queens.

00:08:45.000 To dismiss this resume, says Armin Rosen, as a multinational trust fund kid's laughable excuse for a career is also to misunderstand how power is now organized within Democratic Party verticals in major cities.

00:08:55.000 Groups like Chaya have become one of the primary instruments of public policy in New York, where social programs are often carried out through the public subsidy of nonprofit private sector partners, groups with the freedom to be less accountable, more sectarian, and more ideological than government tends to be.

00:09:10.000 In New York City, nonprofits received $20 billion in public money in 2021 in 2019 chia which is the organization he worked for got 600 grand in government grants accounting for one-third of the organization's revenue this public large just didn't mean momdani was drawing a large salary apparently he wasn't drawing much of a salary at all but The point is that he had all of these people available to fund him.

00:09:33.000 In New York City, a taxpayer-funded matching program pays candidates $8 for every $1 they raise from city residents whose donations are $250 or lower.

00:09:43.000 A lot of New Yorkers now have jobs and backgrounds very similar to Mom Dani's.

00:09:46.000 And this is the central point.

00:09:47.000 New York is thought of as the sink or swim epicenter of American capitalism, but that's not true anymore.

00:09:51.000 The city is home to more than 600,000 jobs in the nonprofit sector and a roughly equal number of jobs in government.

00:09:57.000 Nonprofits now employ nearly 17% of the city's total private sector workforce compared to 10% nationally.

00:10:04.000 And wage growth there is healthy because it's all done off of government grants.

00:10:08.000 So all of those nonprofits are not independently raising their money.

00:10:11.000 They're getting money from the government.

00:10:12.000 So they're effectively second order government employees.

00:10:16.000 And when you look at the stats in New York, you understand just why Zorin Mamdani is so successful.

00:10:21.000 The top industries in New York City in terms of employment, about 17% of people living in New York City are government employees.

00:10:31.000 Another 10% are in financial activities.

00:10:35.000 Those are the people who are actually supporting the tax base of New York City.

00:10:39.000 12.5% are leisure and hospitality, meaning that those are business people who are coming in from out of town and staying at a hotel.

00:10:45.000 And then there's 34% in education and health services, right?

00:10:49.000 Those are all on government subsidies.

00:10:51.000 So you have well over 50% of the population that is working for some sort of government orchestrated, government-organized, or government-funded segment of the economy.

00:11:03.000 And when it comes to tax revenue, the people who are paying the taxes are largely the people who are in that small portion of the business community, the people who are in financial activities.

00:11:13.000 Business income taxes represent about 14% of all tax revenue in the city of New York.

00:11:19.000 The finance and securities industry represents 6% to 7% alone.

00:11:22.000 And then when it comes to office space and other real estate taxes, that represents half of all tax revenue that's being paid by all the financial and securities industries guys and the leisure and hotel activities that are in New York City.

00:11:34.000 So in other words, the people who are getting money from the government are not the people who are paying for the government.

00:11:40.000 They're all Zorin Mamdani types. 0.99

00:11:41.000 They're living off the largesse of government.

00:11:44.000 And meanwhile, all of the rent across New York City has been rent stabilized.

00:11:49.000 50% of all of the units across New York City have been rent stabilized.

00:11:54.000 1 million units have been rent stabilized, which means that there's an artificially low supply of actual new construction in New York City.

00:12:02.000 And that means the prices go up.

00:12:03.000 So the average rent across New York City stands at approximately $4,000 a month.

00:12:09.000 In Q1 of 2025, the median asking rent was $3,400 a month with zero to two bedrooms at $3,400 a month, three bedrooms at almost $4,800 per month.

00:12:22.000 That's not Manhattan.

00:12:23.000 That's all of New York City.

00:12:24.000 Manhattan, the average rent is over $5,400 per month in Manhattan.

00:12:31.000 So when Zora Mamdani is complaining about affordability, number one, what we should point out, it's all left-wing policies that made things unaffordable.

00:12:38.000 And number two, the people who are in New York City trying to afford those rent-controlled rent-stabilized apartments, a huge number of them are on the government dole.

00:12:48.000 So they are earning from both ends.

00:12:49.000 The government is stabilizing their rent.

00:12:51.000 And at the same time, the government is likely subsidizing their salary.

00:12:56.000 So this is why I'm mildly irritated when I hear from Gen Z about how tough things are in places like New York. 0.55

00:13:01.000 All right, in a second, we'll go through what has changed in America.

00:13:04.000 Why are so many young people feeling hopeless about the American Dream Plus?

00:13:08.000 We'll get into President Trump trying to fix up Washington, D.C., and also the Smithsonian and also the Kennedy Center first.

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00:15:30.000 First of all, I think we should point out something.

00:15:33.000 There has been this mindset that has settled in among the American population that you're supposed to die where you were born.

00:15:39.000 This is not a typically American idea.

00:15:41.000 This spans, by the way, the gamut.

00:15:42.000 There are people on the right who believe this, there are people on the left who believe this.

00:15:45.000 This is not actually a traditionally American idea.

00:15:47.000 The traditional American idea, if you go back to the very beginning, is cross an ocean with nothing to guarantee what is going to happen to you on the other end.

00:15:55.000 Go into a wilderness, build a crappy house, and try to start a business.

00:16:00.000 And if that doesn't work, then what you do is you abandon that place and then you move further to the west across mountain ranges, across rivers.

00:16:08.000 I mean, that was the original American idea.

00:16:10.000 But look at this chart.

00:16:12.000 This is about migrations, migration across the country by Americans.

00:16:16.000 This chart is astonishing.

00:16:18.000 Look at the drop-off in migration levels in the United States.

00:16:22.000 It is easier than it has ever been in American history to move.

00:16:25.000 I just based on transportation, based on the availability of buying new things based on Amazon, based on all of this.

00:16:32.000 But the annual U.S. migration rate in 1947 was about 20%.

00:16:37.000 The annual U.S. migration rate in 2019 was about 10%.

00:16:41.000 It was cut in half.

00:16:43.000 So, the normal answer to the rent is too high in New York City.

00:16:47.000 There'd be two answers normally.

00:16:48.000 One would be get rid of all the rent stabilization, the rent control, get rid of all of the regulations that prevent the building of new apartments, for example.

00:16:56.000 And that's something that both the left and the right should be able to agree on.

00:16:59.000 That is what Ezra Klein writes about in abundance.

00:17:03.000 But the other thing that traditionally Americans did is when it was too expensive to live in a place, they left.

00:17:07.000 They went somewhere else.

00:17:09.000 But Americans are not doing that anymore.

00:17:11.000 Instead, the reason that so many New Yorkers seem warm on socialism is because many New Yorkers are already living a form of socialism.

00:17:18.000 They're living the Zoran Mamdani lifestyle where they are being supported by the government in a wide variety of ways, ranging from the regulatory to the actual subsidy. 0.98

00:17:28.000 And so, when they say things are so hard in New York City, and the answer is more redistribution from the people who are earning all of the income and paying all of the taxes, the answer to that from saying people should be no.

00:17:38.000 That is a bad answer.

00:17:40.000 Now, maybe New York wants to do it, but I think at some point there's going to have to be a call for some level of responsibility on the part of yes, young people.

00:17:50.000 Now, whenever I say stuff like this, I always get a bunch of flack because, oh, you grew up rich.

00:17:54.000 Okay, let me explain.

00:17:55.000 I did not grow up rich.

00:17:56.000 I didn't.

00:17:57.000 Okay, when I say this, this is not about me saying that everyone can have the same life that I've had.

00:18:03.000 I don't think that's true.

00:18:04.000 I had the ultimate privilege, which was a solid two-parent household.

00:18:07.000 My parents are wonderful people, but I did grow up in an 1,100-square-foot house in Burbank, California, sharing a bedroom with three sisters until I was 11 years old, one bathroom for six people.

00:18:18.000 And you know what?

00:18:19.000 It was a fine life.

00:18:20.000 It was a fine life.

00:18:21.000 I'm grateful for that life.

00:18:23.000 I grew up watching my dad play pianos on Monday and Tuesday nights at an Italian restaurant in Studio City.

00:18:29.000 My mom would pick us up from school.

00:18:31.000 She would still have to be at work.

00:18:32.000 So she would drop us off at the restaurant and we would sit in the back of the restaurant and watch my dad play the piano.

00:18:38.000 And if he got a 20 in the tip drive, that was a massive night.

00:18:42.000 Okay, I'm not telling this story because I'm looking for some sort of blue collar sympathy or something.

00:18:47.000 I'm telling this story because there is this dumb assumption that if you talk about mobility in America and the capacity of people to make smart decisions and to make the kinds of moves that would be necessary to achieve success, the immediate accusation is that it was only true for you.

00:19:01.000 It's not true for anybody else.

00:19:02.000 It's not only true for me.

00:19:04.000 It is true for a huge majority of Americans.

00:19:06.000 If you make smart decisions in America and if you stop whining for five seconds and if you go out and make better decisions for yourself, you can make a better life for yourself.

00:19:15.000 And I think that this has really infused all of our politics.

00:19:18.000 It really has.

00:19:19.000 So many politicians make bank.

00:19:20.000 Who makes bank off of this, this line that America is dying, that the American dream is dying?

00:19:24.000 Who makes bank off that?

00:19:25.000 Not you.

00:19:26.000 You're not doing better because people are saying that to you.

00:19:29.000 Politicians are doing better.

00:19:30.000 This is how they gain power because every time they fail, they turn around and they say that the system has failed.

00:19:37.000 You give me more power.

00:19:39.000 This is how you end up with Zorn Mamdani or Bernie Sanders.

00:19:42.000 And you're seeing a sort of populist economics on the right that says sort of the same thing, which is, if the economy hasn't worked the way that you want it to work, give me power and I can fix.

00:19:53.000 Well, guess what?

00:19:53.000 That mentality is not going to fix your life.

00:19:56.000 For the vast majority of people, the vast vast, again, this is not true for everybody.

00:20:00.000 There are people with real challenges for the fourth time.

00:20:02.000 There are people with real challenges in the world, health challenges, life challenges.

00:20:07.000 Not everybody was as lucky as I was to have two wonderful parents.

00:20:11.000 I happen to know a great number of people who are very wealthy who also did not have two wonderful parents.

00:20:15.000 You know, obstacles can turn into stepping stones for your success if you make the right decisions.

00:20:21.000 But our entire politics is designed around the idea that people who tell you to make the right decisions are somehow selfish.

00:20:27.000 And people who tell you to give them your money and your power so they can do what they want with it, those are the people who are really trying to help you.

00:20:35.000 And that is a great lie.

00:20:36.000 It is a tremendous lie.

00:20:39.000 And there have been a lot of conspiracy theories floating around right and left over the course of the last few years.

00:20:43.000 And as I've said before, sometimes there are conspiracies.

00:20:46.000 Sometimes the conspiracies are very real.

00:20:48.000 But the sort of generalized conspiracy theory of life, which is that your failure is the result of some grand conspiracy run by a shadowy group in the back room that is trying to somehow screw you, that has not made anyone's life better.

00:21:02.000 No one's life has been made better.

00:21:03.000 If you can identify a conspiracy with actual conspirators, with actual bad policies, let's all fight it together.

00:21:09.000 And now I'm saying the same thing that I said about the accusation that America was systemically racist, which was an accusation that there's essentially ghost hunting.

00:21:17.000 Because how do you fight systemic racism?

00:21:19.000 Name me a racist policy.

00:21:20.000 We can fight it together.

00:21:22.000 Name me a conspiracy with actual conspirators in a bad policy that harms people.

00:21:27.000 We can fight it together.

00:21:28.000 We should all be on the same side of that sort of stuff.

00:21:30.000 But that's not what's happening here.

00:21:32.000 There's an entire group of commentators who are there to massage the feelings of people who complain that they are being screwed by life, screwed by society, screwed by the system.

00:21:41.000 And you know who gets rich off of that?

00:21:42.000 Not the person making the complaint.

00:21:44.000 The person who gets powerful off of that is the commentator or the politician.

00:21:48.000 And nobody makes money telling people that they ought to make their bed.

00:21:52.000 That is generally not a great way to win friends and influence people, but it also happens to be the only thing that makes people's lives better in a free country.

00:22:00.000 And this is a free country.

00:22:01.000 And the reason I'm saying this is not because I think this is going to help defeat Zorin Mamdani.

00:22:05.000 I think a lot of people are ensconced in the idea that they have insoluble problems that only the dumbest possible solutions can fix.

00:22:13.000 And that's why they are throwing power to minuscule IQs like Bernie Sanders and lifelong losers like Zorin Mamdani.

00:22:22.000 I'm just telling you, it's not going to work out.

00:22:24.000 It's not going to work out for you.

00:22:25.000 It's not going to work out for the city of New York.

00:22:27.000 It's not going to work out for the country.

00:22:30.000 So again, get real.

00:22:32.000 The only person who can make your life better in the end is likely you.

00:22:37.000 You are the person who makes your life better.

00:22:39.000 Not Zorin Mamdani, not Bernie Sanders, not people who are living like you. 0.92

00:22:43.000 Because guess what?

00:22:43.000 Zorin Mamdani, I'm sorry, that is not the kind of life that most Americans are dreaming of.

00:22:48.000 Most Americans are not dreaming of a government job, making you a decent salary and living in a rent-stabilized apartment.

00:22:55.000 That is not the American dream.

00:22:57.000 That is not what it is.

00:22:58.000 That is not what it was.

00:23:00.000 Alrighty, coming up, we'll get to President Trump, his intervention in Washington, D.C., fighting the Smithsonian, and Governor Greg Abbott of Texas is going to stop by in a bit.

00:23:07.000 First, I always assumed restless sleep was inevitable.

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00:25:11.000 All righty.

00:25:12.000 Meanwhile, speaking of Washington, D.C., where all this power has been aggregated, by the way, I should mention here that we just hit $37 trillion on the national debt.

00:25:19.000 The reason for this is this sort of conspiratorial thinking.

00:25:22.000 It is this idea that the American system is inherently corrupt.

00:25:24.000 And if we just spend our way out of it, then that will magically fix all of our problems.

00:25:28.000 Well, we're $37 trillion deep.

00:25:29.000 Do you feel the problems have been fixed at this point?

00:25:32.000 Or are we just $37 trillion deep?

00:25:34.000 In any case, President Trump has now said that he wants to unleash the federal law enforcement auspices on Washington, D.C. And the Democrats are predictably very upset about this.

00:25:47.000 Senator Chris Van Holland, who is absolutely one of the dumbest people in Congress.

00:25:52.000 I mean, I know it's a long list, but Chris Van Holland really is near the top of the list.

00:25:55.000 Here he goes ripping into President Trump over this.

00:25:58.000 I'm very concerned.

00:26:00.000 The president is showing all of his authoritarian tendencies.

00:26:04.000 We have this decision by the president to essentially federalize the D.C. police at a time when actually crime in the District of Columbia is at a 30-year low last year and has been continuing to decrease in the first six months of this year.

00:26:24.000 Okay, so apparently President Trump is some sort of fascist for wanting to decrease crime further from where it is.

00:26:31.000 Again, if you give Democrats more power in Washington, D.C., probably they'll solve the same problem they've been failing to solve for literally decades.

00:26:37.000 Meanwhile, a Democratic Philadelphia DA, Larry Krasner, who's responsible in large part for destroying the city of Philadelphia.

00:26:44.000 I mean, truly destroying it.

00:26:45.000 Larry Krasner is, again, one of these George Soros elected prosecutors, a man who was focused laser-like on ensuring criminals were out of prison so they could do more crime.

00:26:56.000 Here he was complaining to CNN about President Trump being a fascist.

00:27:00.000 He's doing it for the same reason he did that stupid birthday parade.

00:27:03.000 He's doing it because he really likes the idea of being a dictator.

00:27:07.000 He likes the idea of destroying our legal system.

00:27:10.000 He likes the idea of eliminating the courts and taking away individual rights.

00:27:14.000 I mean, look what he's doing talking about people who are unhoused as if they're criminals.

00:27:18.000 They're not criminals.

00:27:19.000 They need a place to sleep.

00:27:21.000 They need food.

00:27:22.000 You know, last time I checked the Bible, it said, take everything you have and give it to the poor.

00:27:27.000 It didn't say steal everything you can from the poor and lock them up.

00:27:30.000 And that's what he's doing here.

00:27:32.000 This is a profoundly un-American attempt to exercise power in ways that are illegal to scare big cities and to go after democratic cities that are diverse to serve his racist, fascist agenda.

00:27:46.000 Oh my goodness.

00:27:47.000 Well, that is obviously a man who is deeply ensconced in his Bible reading.

00:27:50.000 I didn't realize that the Bible was just a big communist workbook.

00:27:54.000 That's exciting.

00:27:54.000 I also didn't realize that it's not criminal to live on the streets as a mentally ill person or a drug abuser.

00:28:00.000 It's criminal.

00:28:00.000 You're not supposed to do it.

00:28:02.000 And the actual solution to that is, as President Trump has suggested, arrest the criminals, make people who have serious drug problems dry out.

00:28:09.000 And also, you actually do need involuntary commitment of people with serious mental illness so they can get their medication.

00:28:14.000 What's fascinating about all of this is that, of course, if President Trump were a Democrat, they would be praising him for his perspicacity in trying to shut down crime in these major cities.

00:28:24.000 Here's Kathy Hochl, the New York governor, bragging about deploying the National Guard to the subway system in New York in order to shut down crime.

00:28:31.000 My job is to keep people safe.

00:28:33.000 I have to keep any way I can.

00:28:35.000 I'm going to keep New Yorkers safe.

00:28:36.000 And I'll tell you who does show appreciation for the people out there on the streets.

00:28:41.000 I've been walking the streets.

00:28:42.000 I walk into business.

00:28:43.000 People are just saying, thank you for taking such strong actions.

00:28:46.000 I needed to do something dramatic and quickly to send a message that you will not get away with committing crimes in our subways.

00:28:53.000 Wow, she must be a racist fascist. 1.00

00:28:54.000 I mean, how could she say something like that, Kathy Hogel?

00:28:57.000 That's just absolutely terrible.

00:28:59.000 Well, President Trump had the best take on this.

00:29:00.000 He says, listen, they're going to call me a dictator and then they're going to get mugged.

00:29:05.000 We're going to fight crime.

00:29:06.000 That's a good thing.

00:29:07.000 Already they're saying he's a dictator.

00:29:11.000 The place is going to hell and we've got to stop it.

00:29:14.000 So instead of saying he's a dictator, they should say we're going to join him and make Washington safe.

00:29:19.000 But they say he's a dictator.

00:29:25.000 And then they end up getting mugged.

00:29:26.000 you know but the stats are very bad but um Points for honesty and truth there for the president of the United States.

00:29:37.000 Now, back to the topic of this sort of generalized running down of America.

00:29:42.000 In order for politicians to truly demagogue, you have to suggest that America is a terrible place, that the only thing that can fix America is if you give me more power.

00:29:51.000 Your life will be better if you give me more power or you give me more money.

00:29:54.000 Well, to President Trump's credit, he understands that in order to rectify that, in order to fight against that, what you actually have to do is change the cultural conversation around what America is.

00:30:06.000 So there are a lot of people today who are very, very angry at President Trump for intervening with the Smithsonian.

00:30:10.000 So the Smithsonian Institute is, of course, a series of museums.

00:30:16.000 It's everything from the National Museum of American History to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

00:30:23.000 And the Smithsonian has had some problems being infiltrated by woke. 0.97

00:30:26.000 See, the left has known this for a long time.

00:30:28.000 If you want to build up a narrative that America is truly a terrible place that requires massive earth-shaking change, that has to be done culturally.

00:30:35.000 And this is why, for example, back in 2020, during the Black Lives Matter moment, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum of African American History, literally put out an exhibit called Aspects and Assumptions of Whiteness and White Culture in the United States.

00:30:50.000 I remember this one almost verbatim because it was so insane.

00:30:54.000 Because it was basically that, that horseshoe theory where the alt-right Nazis and the woke Black Lives Matter folks, like they shook hands.

00:31:04.000 So according to the National Museum of African American History, again, this was back in 2020, aspects and assumption of whiteness and white culture, like things that are uniquely white, include things like rugged individualism.

00:31:16.000 The individual is the primary unit.

00:31:18.000 Independence and autonomy are highly valued and rewarded.

00:31:21.000 Things like family structure are white. 0.51

00:31:24.000 The nuclear family, father-mother, 2.3 children is the ideal social unit. 0.71

00:31:28.000 An emphasis on the scientific method.

00:31:30.000 Again, this is put out by the Smithsonian, saying that this is a white thing, like science is a white thing.

00:31:34.000 Also, by the way, history is a white thing.

00:31:36.000 Also, work ethic is a white thing. 0.64

00:31:39.000 Other white things include time, quote, follow rigid time schedules.

00:31:44.000 Also, aesthetics based on European culture.

00:31:48.000 Also, things like, you know, justice based on the English common law, competition, and religion.

00:31:56.000 All those things were just white people things, according to the Smithsonian.

00:31:59.000 Well, the president has come in and he says, listen, we're not doing this anymore.

00:32:02.000 We want to go through everything that the left woked up, and we're going to try and fix that now.

00:32:06.000 So the White House sent a letter to the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, a person named Lonnie Bunch, talking about all of this.

00:32:13.000 Quote, as we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation's founding, it is more important than ever that our national museums reflect the unity, progress, and enduring values that define the American story.

00:32:24.000 In this spirit, and in accordance with Executive Order 14253, we will be leading a comprehensive internal review of selected Smithsonian museums and exhibitions.

00:32:32.000 This initiative aims to ensure alignment with the president's directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.

00:32:42.000 And so they're going to go through the public-facing content and how content is curated and how exhibitions are planned and all of the rest.

00:32:49.000 And so they asked for all the material on educational materials, external partnerships, grants, and everything else.

00:32:56.000 And everybody on the left went insane.

00:32:58.000 How dare you touch the Smithsonian?

00:33:00.000 How dare you touch it?

00:33:01.000 Now, again, this is a game that the left has been playing for a long time.

00:33:03.000 They take a venerable institution like the Smithsonian, they gut it, they wear the face around like Hannibal Lecter.

00:33:10.000 And then they pretend that if you say, hey, things need to change here, you're attacking the institution itself.

00:33:15.000 But it's too late.

00:33:16.000 It's already been gutted.

00:33:17.000 But this is the game.

00:33:19.000 So here is Peter Baker of the New York Times claiming this is just like Vladimir Putin.

00:33:23.000 But when it's the president of the United States dictating what the history should be, that, of course, brings to mind a different kind of history, a history of the kinds of countries where politicians are deciding what people should know rather than historians and experts.

00:33:39.000 And if you put this together with a president who's now planning to personally host the Kennedy Center honors, who's determining what kind of culture should be showcased himself personally, who is now sending American troops into the streets of Washington, all of these things together hearken to a lot of people to the kind of countries that Vladimir Putin would feel very comfortable in.

00:34:04.000 Okay.

00:34:04.000 So in other words, if the White House looks at an executive branch issue like the Smithsonian Institution and tries to go through the history and write it in accordance with American history as opposed to listening to the left complain about the rewriting of history after they spent years tearing down statues and defacing them is kind of an amazing thing.

00:34:24.000 It really is.

00:34:26.000 But again, this is the way that it works.

00:34:27.000 The left hijacks culture.

00:34:29.000 And then if you attempt a counterrevolution, then of course you are the great offender.

00:34:33.000 President Trump is not standing for that.

00:34:34.000 Other things that he is doing on the cultural level, you heard Peter Baker mention that President Trump is going to host the Kennedy Center honors this year.

00:34:44.000 He's excited about this.

00:34:45.000 Honestly, this is like President Trump's thing.

00:34:47.000 And let's be real.

00:34:48.000 This is a guy who has legitimately featured on the Tonys and the Grammys and the Emmys for years.

00:34:55.000 Like back in prime time in the position of TV host.

00:35:00.000 Like this is President Trump.

00:35:01.000 He's getting all the things.

00:35:02.000 He's so happy about this.

00:35:03.000 Here he was explaining that he's going to host the Kennedy Center honors.

00:35:07.000 Let's talk about right now the Kennedy Center, and I'm delighted to be here as we officially announce the incredibly talented artists who will be celebrated later this year at the 2025 Kennedy Center honors.

00:35:23.000 It's going to be a big evening.

00:35:27.000 I've been asked to host.

00:35:29.000 I said, I'm the president of the United States.

00:35:32.000 Are you fools asking me to do that?

00:35:34.000 Sir, you'll get much higher ratings.

00:35:37.000 I said, I don't care.

00:35:38.000 I'm president of the United States.

00:35:39.000 I won't do it.

00:35:41.000 They said, please.

00:35:44.000 And then Susie Weil said to me, sir, I'm like your host.

00:35:46.000 I said, okay, Susie, I'll do it.

00:35:49.000 I really don't think it took that much to talk President Trump into this.

00:35:52.000 I think President Trump was pretty, this is probably the thing he's been most enthused about as president in a while.

00:35:57.000 He also acknowledged that the people who are Being honored by the Kennedy Center, that that went through him, that he wiped out all of the wokeies. 1.00

00:36:05.000 I would say I was about 98% involved.

00:36:10.000 No, they all went through me.

00:36:11.000 They came over, Rick and Sergio and everybody.

00:36:14.000 They said, I turned down plenty.

00:36:17.000 They were too woke.

00:36:19.000 I had a couple of wokesters. 0.99

00:36:23.000 No, we have great people.

00:36:25.000 This is very different than it used to be.

00:36:27.000 Now, the people, by the way, who are being honored are George Strait, who is the king of country, Michael Crawford, who you'll recognize from Phantom of the Opera.

00:36:35.000 I myself am not a huge Michael Crawford fan.

00:36:37.000 His baritone lacks something, but that's, you know, an aesthetic judgment.

00:36:40.000 Sylvester Stallone, Gloria Gaynor, and Kiss.

00:36:44.000 So obviously he's featuring a bunch of people who are fairly friendly to him.

00:36:47.000 But guess what?

00:36:47.000 That's what the Kennedy Center's honors were like every year.

00:36:50.000 It was Barack Obama inviting all of his friends up there and then giving them a big bro hug.

00:36:55.000 So, okay, so President Trump is pushing back on that.

00:36:57.000 You know what?

00:36:57.000 Fine.

00:36:58.000 Absolutely fine with me.

00:37:00.000 I could not care less about this considering how the left has hijacked the arts over the course of the last several decades.

00:37:06.000 Already coming up, we'll be joined by the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott.

00:37:09.000 First, did you know that roughly 36% of Americans have below average credit scores, which can make borrowing more difficult and expensive?

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00:38:21.000 Meanwhile, the New York Post yesterday reported a kind of shocking story.

00:38:24.000 I mean, not that shocking if you've been following Russia Gate, but a little shocking.

00:38:27.000 Apparently, according to the New York Post, Senator Adam Schiff, then the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, authorized leaks of classified information to tarnish President Trump's image during the RussiaGate probe, having assumed he would lead the CIA in the Hillary Clinton administration, according to newly released whistleblower statements.

00:38:43.000 It's an unidentified source who worked as a Democratic staffer on the House Intelligence Committee for 12 years after spending a couple of decades in the Intel community.

00:38:51.000 He told FBI agents in December 2017 the mood among the panel became indescribable after Trump's upset win the year before.

00:38:58.000 Apparently, he said, quote, ranking member, that's Schiff, was particularly upset as he had believed he would have been appointed as the director of the CIA had candidate Hillary Clinton won the election.

00:39:07.000 In September 2017, the same whistleblower told investigators he had heard from congressional staff colleagues around October 2016 that Schiff would be offered the CIA job if Clinton had won.

00:39:18.000 So this whistleblower says basically that Schiff and apparently they were also worried about one congressman, Eric Swalwell, that they might be leaking bad information about Trump in order to hurt him.

00:39:29.000 During an FBI interview in June 2023, the whistleblower recalled being part of an all-staff meeting called by then Congressman Schiff, at which the Democrats stated that the group would leak classified information derogatory to the president.

00:39:41.000 Schiff said the information would be used to indict President Trump.

00:39:44.000 The whistleblower said he objected only to be told by other participants they would not be caught if they did leak classified information.

00:39:52.000 Again, here I mention Eric Swalwell.

00:39:55.000 Apparently, that was one prominent oversharer, according to the whistleblower.

00:39:59.000 Because apparently over drinks that evening, the whistleblower claimed Democrats on the Intel Committee had established a system for leaking in which sensitive information would be given to Schiff, after which a decision was made as to who would leak the information.

00:40:12.000 In that December 2017 FBI interview, a whistleblower recounted how a particularly sensitive document was seen by a small group of lawmakers and staff, including Schiff and Swalwell, but leaked out almost verbatim within a day.

00:40:22.000 The whistleblower allegedly claimed to have been warned to be careful because Swalwell had a reputation for leaking classified information.

00:40:28.000 Well, we did reach out.

00:40:29.000 The Daily Wire did reach out for comment to Eric Swalwell.

00:40:34.000 And Swalwell's comms director then replied to our reporters here at Daily Wire, quote, please see representatives comment below.

00:40:43.000 So the comment was, when Ben Shapiro is tall enough to look me in the eye and ask me a question, please reach back out.

00:40:48.000 Until then, GFY.

00:40:51.000 Well, I mean, okay, so I'll ask you the question.

00:40:53.000 Were you leaking information on behalf of Adam Schiff?

00:40:56.000 Okay, like right now, I'm asking you the question.

00:40:59.000 I mean, Eric Swallow, that dude is so butthurt.

00:41:01.000 I mean, honestly, we are now a year after he humiliated himself at a hearing in Congress when we went up against one another.

00:41:10.000 He showed up.

00:41:11.000 He wanted to play games.

00:41:12.000 He was really silly.

00:41:13.000 He looked like an idiot.

00:41:14.000 And he's still butthurt over this somehow.

00:41:17.000 If you don't remember, this is July 2024.

00:41:20.000 I just wanted to know, from your perspective, I think it would help us understand on just like a scale of zero to 100%, how much do you support Project 2025?

00:41:32.000 I think like President Trump, I haven't looked all that deeply at Project 2025, but it seems that Democrats on this committee, sort of like Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, if they say Project 2025 enough, their presidential candidate becomes alive again.

00:41:46.000 And so well, let's just talk about pieces of it.

00:41:50.000 And I guess you can tell me if you support it.

00:41:52.000 You probably want less bureaucracy, right?

00:41:54.000 I do.

00:41:55.000 I want less bureaucracy.

00:41:56.000 You want more efficiency?

00:41:57.000 I do.

00:41:58.000 I want less more efficiency.

00:42:00.000 You want taxpayer money spent wisely?

00:42:02.000 I do.

00:42:03.000 Congrats on becoming a Republican.

00:42:05.000 My parents would be proud.

00:42:06.000 And just because we found some receipts, you did say I think homosexual activity is a sin.

00:42:11.000 Yes, I'm religious.

00:42:12.000 There's a genetic component of orientation, but the view of all religious people I know has always been that sexual behavior is something that is up to you.

00:42:19.000 And you said, I may have a desire to sleep with many women, but I do not. 0.98

00:42:24.000 I agree with me.

00:42:24.000 Yes, that's true.

00:42:25.000 Congratulations on your.

00:42:27.000 Yeah.

00:42:29.000 So, yeah, it went poorly for him last time.

00:42:31.000 But, you know, I'm coming to D.C. in September.

00:42:34.000 So maybe we'll see each other once again and he can compare heights or something.

00:42:39.000 Man, that dude, that congressman.

00:42:42.000 Wow.

00:42:43.000 Okay, meanwhile, in other news, Texas Democrats have now returned.

00:42:47.000 So their little draunt is over.

00:42:49.000 They're apparently back.

00:42:51.000 They're going to return to Austin.

00:42:52.000 According to Breitbart, you remember those Texas House Democrats who ran away?

00:42:56.000 Brave Sir Robin ran away because they were attempting to avoid providing a quorum for redistricting.

00:43:02.000 Well, apparently, they're now going to return home after Governor Greg Abbott took emergency action to begin removing the absent legislators as they refused to show up for work.

00:43:11.000 Multiple sources revealed the news to ABC 13 on Tuesday.

00:43:14.000 The exact date that they will return to the state capitol in Austin has not been confirmed.

00:43:17.000 The state house had only 95 members present for the second day in a row on Tuesday, with Speaker Dustin Burroughs predicting the session will end and a new one will start, assuming there is no quorum on Friday.

00:43:27.000 The Senate Democrats did not break a quorum, but they did storm out of the chamber in protest as the Republicans passed the new redistricting map.

00:43:35.000 So they got really mad and then they walked out and then they walked back in.

00:43:38.000 So slow clap for everybody.

00:43:41.000 That was just terrific.

00:43:42.000 Meanwhile, Beto O'Rourke is back and this dude, ah, Beto.

00:43:47.000 First of all, I'm very excited that Beto's back.

00:43:49.000 I'll be honest, because I've missed being able to break out the surfer bro Beto impersonation.

00:43:56.000 I really have.

00:43:57.000 He is running a group called Powered by People.

00:44:03.000 And apparently he is raising money.

00:44:06.000 He's fundraising for statehouse Democrats who fled Texas.

00:44:10.000 I don't know if he's buying them like MREs or if he is just sending them airdrop music from his Spotify list.

00:44:18.000 I don't know.

00:44:18.000 He's doing something with that money.

00:44:20.000 But apparently, that's a legal problem.

00:44:22.000 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the state court to clear the way for law enforcement officials to arrest him because there was a court order barring him from fundraising for those statehouse Democrats who were in violation of the law.

00:44:34.000 Paxton filed a motion for contempt in court against O'Rourke.

00:44:36.000 But of course, this makes Beto O'Rourke happier than anything else on earth.

00:44:39.000 Like Eric Swabwell, that dude just wants attention, desperately, desperately wants attention.

00:44:44.000 And since he can't get it from skateboarding, kick flip, bong, rip, beta, he says, F the rules, man.

00:44:50.000 Just F him.

00:44:51.000 F him.

00:44:52.000 If you're a Democrat these days and you need to be the leader of the resistance, the best way to do that is to just show how much you are so mad at Trump.

00:45:00.000 so it's unbelievable.

00:45:01.000 He's a fascist.

00:45:02.000 He's a fascist.

00:45:03.000 In fact, he's not just, he's an effing fascist.

00:45:06.000 He's an MFing fascist.

00:45:07.000 Like, they're just going to get whatever is the worst form of cursing that they can use.

00:45:12.000 That is what that shows that they care, you see.

00:45:16.000 It doesn't mean they're effective, but it shows they care really like a lot.

00:45:19.000 The more they curse, if they can curse like a Martin Scorsese mafioso and talk about Trump, man, that road to the White House is paved with gold for them.

00:45:31.000 Here's Beto standing in front of a giant American.

00:45:33.000 He's like, he's like, skateboarder patton.

00:45:36.000 Let's go.

00:45:37.000 Do it.

00:45:38.000 We want California and New Jersey and Illinois and Maryland and every other state where the Democrats hold the governor's mansion, the Assembly, and the state Senate to redraw their congressional districts now, not wait for Texas to move first to maximize Democratic Party advantage.

00:45:56.000 Listen, you may say to yourself, well, those aren't the rules.

00:46:00.000 There are no refs in this game. 1.00

00:46:02.000 The rules.

00:46:02.000 We are going to win whatever it takes.

00:46:05.000 We're going to take this to them in every way that we can.

00:46:09.000 I'm going to go to their house with a razor.

00:46:11.000 I'm just going to start slicing people, bro.

00:46:15.000 There are no rules.

00:46:16.000 I'm going to take this head splitter.

00:46:17.000 I'm just going to use it.

00:46:18.000 There are no rules.

00:46:19.000 I'm going to get crazy.

00:46:20.000 I'm going to snort some cocaine and then I'm going to do mushrooms and then I'm going to have acid.

00:46:24.000 And then after I do all those things, I'm going to eat a bunch of dirt.

00:46:27.000 I'm going to go vomit on Donald Trump's shoes, brah. 1.00

00:46:30.000 That guy might be the nominee.

00:46:32.000 I don't know.

00:46:32.000 He's showing a lot of spice, but he's not the only one.

00:46:35.000 J.B. Pritzker, the rotund governor of Illinois, who must be lowered into the state capitol by Crane, he also has words about this, also showing fire and passion and rotundity.

00:46:48.000 So it's time to stop apologizing when we're not wrong.

00:46:57.000 And it's time to stop surrendering when we need to fight.

00:47:02.000 Yeah.

00:47:04.000 And yes, folks, we are messing with Texas.

00:47:09.000 Oh, my God.

00:47:10.000 Who wrote that line?

00:47:11.000 Who wrote that line?

00:47:12.000 Fire that speech right away.

00:47:13.000 Yes, folks, we are messing with Texas.

00:47:15.000 And that's a self-made man.

00:47:16.000 And we talked earlier about self-made men.

00:47:18.000 J.B. Pritzker, sign of a billionaire family.

00:47:21.000 That dude's the self-made man, probably.

00:47:23.000 Okay, but don't worry, there's another competitor in the passion sweepstakes here.

00:47:28.000 And that, of course, is Neudard Kendall, Governor Gavin Newsom of California.

00:47:33.000 So he is now tweeting in all caps because, you see, it's all about trolling the president.

00:47:37.000 So he's tweeting in all caps.

00:47:38.000 Donald Trump, if you do not stand down, we will be forced to lead an effort to redraw the maps in California to offset the rigging of maps in red states.

00:47:45.000 But if the other states call off their redistricting efforts, we will do the same.

00:47:48.000 Thank you for your attention to this matter.

00:47:50.000 See, it's funny because he said thank you for your attention to this man.

00:47:54.000 Just like Trump, you see?

00:47:55.000 So he's that he then needed it again.

00:47:58.000 Donald Trump, the lowest pulling president in recent history.

00:48:00.000 This is your second to last warning.

00:48:02.000 The next is the last one.

00:48:03.000 Stand down now or California will counter-strike legally to destroy your illegal crooked maps in red states.

00:48:08.000 Press conference coming, hosted by America's favorite governor, Gavin Newsom.

00:48:12.000 Final warning next.

00:48:13.000 You won't like it.

00:48:14.000 Thank you for your attention to this matter.

00:48:15.000 Oh my, wow.

00:48:17.000 Wow.

00:48:18.000 He might have it.

00:48:19.000 I don't know.

00:48:19.000 How do I decide between the skateboarder who failed running for president and also failed running for the Senate in Texas, J.B. Pritzker, who no one cares about but is super wealthy because his family made a bunch of money.

00:48:32.000 And Gavin Newsom, mostly famous for eating in the middle of COVID at the French laundry and also being the ex-husband of Kimberly Guilfoyle, our ambassador to Greece.

00:48:40.000 I mean, wow, what a stellar lineup they have.

00:48:43.000 And what we need is more passion.

00:48:45.000 If only they have more passion, then they will be able to stop the Republican redistricting in Texas.

00:48:51.000 They're not going to stop any of that stuff.

00:48:53.000 It's not a thing that's going to happen.

00:48:54.000 And you know what?

00:48:55.000 If California decides to redistrict, well, again, welcome to the game.

00:48:58.000 Democrats have been playing it for quite a while.

00:49:00.000 Joining me on the line to discuss everything going on in Texas is Governor Greg Abbott, who is the 48th governor of the state of Texas.

00:49:07.000 Of course, before that, he was the longest serving Attorney General of Texas and has also served as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court.

00:49:13.000 So basically, he's held every position in Texas.

00:49:14.000 Governor, great to talk to you.

00:49:16.000 Great to be back with you.

00:49:17.000 Thanks.

00:49:18.000 So let's talk about the current status of redistricting, gerrymandering.

00:49:23.000 Where are the Democrats right now?

00:49:24.000 Are they still missing and can the Scooby-Doo gang find them?

00:49:28.000 So they are still missing in action.

00:49:30.000 and it's very un-Texan of them.

00:49:32.000 You know, going back to the days of the Alamo, you stay and fight.

00:49:36.000 You don't run from a fight.

00:49:37.000 And so what these Democrats have done, they fled a fight and they went to all places, Chicago, Illinois, which is the quintessential example of gerrymandering.

00:49:49.000 Look at their state.

00:49:50.000 If you're going to protest line drawing, it'd be like someone going to Milwaukee to protest beer.

00:49:55.000 It's insane.

00:49:56.000 Bottom line is that they're still missing.

00:49:58.000 They have said they are going to return here in a couple of days.

00:50:02.000 We'll see.

00:50:02.000 We'll trust, but verify.

00:50:05.000 We will be seeking for one to get a quorum, for another to hold them accountable.

00:50:10.000 But third, know this.

00:50:11.000 We are going to pass those new maps, whether it be this week, next week, next month, the month after that, we're going to stay in special session until we get those maps passed.

00:50:23.000 So Governor, let's talk about what is prompting the redrawing of the maps.

00:50:27.000 Obviously, Democrats are claiming it's illegal or that it's being driven by political pressure from the White House.

00:50:31.000 What is causing Texas to want to redraw those congressional maps right now?

00:50:36.000 To be clear, it's perfectly legal.

00:50:39.000 There's nothing in the United States or Texas constitutions or in any law anywhere that prohibits Texas from being able to do this.

00:50:46.000 And the states like California and New York, they have constitutional provisions that tie their hands.

00:50:52.000 That does not exist in Texas.

00:50:54.000 All that's required is a majority of the Texas House and Texas Senate.

00:50:58.000 A catalyst for this was a court decision from the Fifth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals last year that said that coalition districts were no longer required.

00:51:08.000 When you couple that with the facts from the last presidential election, it showed that counties that are predominantly Hispanic that historically had in the past voted for Democrats, this time voted Republican for Donald Trump as well as other Republicans.

00:51:23.000 So we have new facts and new law that allow us to redraw these lines in ways that these voters and these districts, they're not trapped in a Democrat congressional district.

00:51:33.000 Instead, they can vote for a Republican candidate of their choice.

00:51:36.000 So Democrats have been absconding in order to presumably break quorum.

00:51:40.000 What are the sort of methodologies that can be used to compel them to come back?

00:51:43.000 What punishments do they face?

00:51:46.000 So the punishments are outlined in the Constitution, and they are punishments that the House comes up themselves with the consequences for not showing up for a quorum.

00:51:57.000 One is a $500 a day fine.

00:52:00.000 Another that the House leadership is seeking to impose on the runaway Democrats is to pay for all of the expenses, which is in the millions of dollars, as well as other potential consequences such as losing privileges on committees and different things like that.

00:52:15.000 Those are what I would consider to be the minimum consequences.

00:52:18.000 But there needs to be more.

00:52:19.000 And I'll tell you what, if they don't show up, they're going to see some more consequences.

00:52:23.000 So meanwhile, Beto O'Rourke, who, while you've served in pretty much every position in Texas government, he was a congressperson, then he ran for Senate and failed.

00:52:30.000 That was after he ran for president and failed.

00:52:32.000 So he continues to run for things and fails at them, but he's also raising money for a bunch of Texas Democrats.

00:52:39.000 Supposedly, this breaks the law.

00:52:40.000 Do we know what laws are being broken by Beto O'Rourke if he's breaking laws?

00:52:45.000 Sure.

00:52:46.000 First, as a reminder, his last race was actually against me for governor.

00:52:50.000 That's right.

00:52:50.000 And he lost by double digits in Texas.

00:52:53.000 So he's a three-time loser when it concerns politics.

00:52:57.000 But let's get to the law because these are very serious allegations.

00:53:01.000 And what we did, we found a quote from Betro O'Rourke himself where he was suggesting that he was going to pay money to any of these Democrats who refused to stay in a quorum, who fled the quorum and refused to vote for these maps.

00:53:17.000 Under Texas law, if you offer somebody money to either vote a certain way or to not vote, that would be considered to be bribery.

00:53:26.000 This is a second-degree felony in Texas.

00:53:28.000 These are serious allegations.

00:53:30.000 The Texas Attorney General is investigating as we speak.

00:53:33.000 So meanwhile, obviously, President Trump has done a magnificent job on the border.

00:53:38.000 He just rewind about a year.

00:53:39.000 Texas was experiencing mass migration surges to the southern border thanks to President Biden.

00:53:45.000 From your position as Texas governor, can you describe the difference between President Trump's administration and what you were facing just a year ago?

00:53:51.000 Night and day, complete opposites, however much you can contrast it.

00:53:55.000 Interestingly, I was visiting today with the head under Trump of the Border Patrol.

00:54:01.000 And we were commiserating over that very difference.

00:54:04.000 This time last year, there were thousands of people coming across the border every single day.

00:54:08.000 Today, there is zero people that the Trump administration allows to cross the border illegally.

00:54:14.000 Also, what the Border Patrol is doing, that they are putting into place measures that I actually put into place, such as those big orange buoys that we put into the river.

00:54:22.000 They're doing that on a much more massive scale.

00:54:24.000 They're working to build more border wall.

00:54:27.000 With the one big beautiful bill, they got billions of dollars of new funding, so they're going to be able to redouble their efforts to secure the border.

00:54:34.000 Governor Abbott, back to the redistricting for just a moment.

00:54:36.000 So Governor Gavin Newsom over in California, who apparently spends pretty much 23 out of every 24 hours a day trolling President Trump in a desperate attempt to become the Democratic nominee in 2028.

00:54:47.000 He is suggesting that if Texas goes ahead with redistricting, he is then going to redistrict California and wipe out some Republican districts in places like Orange County.

00:54:55.000 What do you make of those threats?

00:54:57.000 And is that going to determine in any way, shape, or form what the state of Texas does here?

00:55:01.000 So what Gavin Newsom says is meaningless to me and to the state of Texas.

00:55:06.000 I'll be honest with you, I think he really is doing nothing more than trying to posture himself as the Democrat nominee for the presidency.

00:55:13.000 But also his threats, if you would, ring very hollow because unlike in Texas and California, it requires a constitutional amendment for them to even be able to draw new lines.

00:55:25.000 And he's seeking that constitutional amendment, but I don't think he's going to get it.

00:55:28.000 He does not have the ease that Texas has in passing these new lines.

00:55:32.000 And that for one, but for another, you know, one thing that was really exposed in the aftermath of America learning that Texas is redrawing our congressional lines, what's been exposed is the gerrymandering that exists in California, Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts.

00:55:47.000 I don't think California can gerrymander any more than what they've already done.

00:55:51.000 They've already removed all Republicans they can remove.

00:55:55.000 And so I think it's nothing more than a hollow threat.

00:55:57.000 He's trying to get some attention, trying to get some support for his presidential campaign and nothing more than that.

00:56:02.000 That's Governor Greg Abbott of Texas.

00:56:03.000 Governor, thanks so much for what you're doing and thanks for stopping by the show for the explanation and the information.

00:56:08.000 Always a pleasure.

00:56:09.000 Take care.

00:56:10.000 Meanwhile, the president of the United States is on Friday supposed to be holding a big confab with Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

00:56:18.000 There are a lot of worries, I know, among people who do not want Vladimir Putin to walk away with some sort of sweetheart deal, that President Trump is somehow going to give away the store or something.

00:56:28.000 Apparently, he's already told the Europeans that he has a bunch of red lines.

00:56:31.000 The Wall Street Journal reports that he agreed with European leaders, including President Vladimir Zelensky, to red lines for the coming talks with Putin in Alaska and said he hoped to follow up quickly with a trilateral summit with the two warring leaders.

00:56:42.000 He also threatened Vladimir Putin with very severe consequences if the Russian president refused to ceasefire in their coming meeting, which of course would be a great start, right?

00:56:50.000 Start with the ceasefire and then move on to the negotiations.

00:56:52.000 Again, Zelensky did that.

00:56:54.000 Trump put serious pressure on Zelensky.

00:56:56.000 Zelensky caved.

00:56:57.000 He gave the president what he wanted.

00:56:58.000 And that's been the status quo for the last multiple months, like many, many months.

00:57:03.000 When I visited Kiev and I talked to Zelensky personally, that was already something that Zelensky had accepted.

00:57:09.000 Vladimir Putin, by contrast, has been shoving hundreds of thousands of troops toward the front lines in an attempt to break the Ukrainian lines.

00:57:18.000 Trump told his European peers he would not directly negotiate territorial issues, saying Ukraine has to have that discussion directly with Russia.

00:57:24.000 That's according to German chancellor Friedrich Murz, who initiated the meeting.

00:57:28.000 The president also made it clear any security guarantees offered to Ukraine as part of a potential peace deal with Russia would not involve NATO.

00:57:35.000 But he accepted that there would be other alternative security guarantees.

00:57:39.000 Of course.

00:57:40.000 Of course.

00:57:41.000 Putin is not going to accept any deal in which Ukraine formally joins NATO because obviously he still wants to influence Ukraine's future policy.

00:57:48.000 But Ukraine is not going to accept any deal in which they don't have some sort of external security guarantee.

00:57:54.000 Emmanuel Macron, the French president, he said President Trump was very clear the American desire was to obtain a ceasefire at this meeting in Alaska.

00:58:02.000 Mara said, we Europeans are doing everything in our power to set the right foundations for this meeting.

00:58:06.000 We want President Trump to have success in Anchorage on Friday.

00:58:09.000 Fundamental interests of Ukraine and Europe must be secured in Alaska.

00:58:12.000 This was the message we passed on to the president of the United States.

00:58:16.000 Putin, for his part, is attempting to presumably massage the president of the United States, give him some sort of goodies in an attempt to wheedle him into abandoning his current positions.

00:58:28.000 President Trump Had a meeting via phone with all those leaders this morning.

00:58:33.000 He said it was a very good call.

00:58:34.000 He rated it a 10 out of 10, which, as we know, is the best.

00:58:38.000 Also, he said, as we've talked about, that Putin could face very serious consequences.

00:58:42.000 Presumably, that would mean many more additional sanctions as well.

00:58:46.000 Meanwhile, Zelensky says Putin is bluffing.

00:58:48.000 He's trying to apply pressure before the meeting in Alaska on all directions of the Ukrainian front.

00:58:53.000 And he said that Putin is acting as if sanctions are not important to him and that they're not working.

00:58:57.000 In fact, sanctions are very helpful and are hitting the Russian military economy.

00:59:02.000 Meanwhile, the Kremlin is basically trying to seize a bunch of territory that it hasn't won.

00:59:06.000 Here's a map of the current status of the war.

00:59:09.000 What you can see is that the military control of Ukraine has changed pretty significantly over time.

00:59:16.000 But that eastern region of Ukraine, which is the area that is most at issue, that's been basically frozen for quite a while.

00:59:23.000 Apparently, what Putin wants is the entire Donbass.

00:59:27.000 And that Donbass region is, again, much, much more territory than they currently have won.

00:59:33.000 They have not picked up all that territory yet.

00:59:36.000 They're making slow moves by like tens of yards, hundreds of yards a day, maybe.

00:59:42.000 And they've basically been stuck since, I don't know, a year ago.

00:59:48.000 Hasn't been major movement in the actual territorial line.

00:59:53.000 So the idea that Ukraine is somehow going to just give up the ghost and hand over control of all of these areas, that is a thing that is not going to happen.

01:00:01.000 Alrighty, folks, coming up as we continue the show, we have an update from a friend, Jussi Smoulier.

01:00:08.000 He's back.

01:00:08.000 He's in a new show, and he's talking about that horrific crime and the horrifying villain who perpetrated that crime against Jusis Moulay.

01:00:17.000 Jussie Smoulier.

01:00:19.000 The show continues for our members right now.

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

01:00:23.000 If you're not a member, become a member.

01:00:24.000 Use code Shapiro at checkout for two months free on all annual plans.

The Ben Shapiro Show - August 14, 2025

NYC’s Whiny Brats Pick A Mayor

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