The Ben Shapiro Show - Of Trump and Haiti | Ep. 452

00:00:00.000 All righty, so the President of the United States is in supremely hot water after he calls a bunch of countries bleep holes and then suggests that people shouldn't immigrate from there to here.

00:00:10.000 We will explain what the controversy is about from every possible angle.

00:00:13.000 Plus, we've got the mailbag and the media have decided that they don't actually have to use bleeps anymore.

00:00:19.000 They're just going to say straight out holes.

00:00:22.000 So we'll talk about all those things.

00:00:23.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:00:23.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:30.000 It's another day and another controversy, which means that all of Twitter, all of the news cycle, all of Facebook is now a flaming bleephole.

00:00:36.000 This is where we are now.

00:00:37.000 Yes, it wasn't as though anyone could have predicted that life would become a turd tornado.

00:00:43.000 Should politics make a turn in this direction?

00:00:46.000 No one ever would have used that sort of language, say, a year ago, two years ago.

00:00:51.000 But, you know, we'll just leave that out there.

00:00:53.000 OK, before I go any further, I want to say the next Tuesday, January 16th, you should tune in at 5 p.m.

00:00:57.000 Eastern, 2 p.m.

00:00:58.000 Pacific to DailyWire.com or our Facebook page or our YouTube page, because we're doing our fifth episode of The Conversation, which features Andrew Klavan and Elisha Krauss.

00:01:06.000 Subscribe today and you become part of the conversation.

00:01:08.000 You can ask Drew live questions.

00:01:10.000 And he will answer those for everyone to hear.

00:01:12.000 Again, his conversation is going to stream live on the Daily Wire Facebook page.

00:01:14.000 If you want to ask questions, you have to go over to our website at dailywire.com, click on the conversation page, you can watch the live stream, just type your questions into the Daily Wire chat box, and Alicia will funnel those to Drew.

00:01:25.000 So you can only do that if you subscribe.

00:01:26.000 Again, you can get your questions answered by Andrew Klavan, Tuesday, January 16th, 5pm Eastern, 2pm Pacific, and join the conversation.

00:01:33.000 So I'm very eager.

00:01:34.000 To break down everything to do with President Trump's alleged remarks.

00:01:39.000 I say alleged because it is not clear whether he actually said them.

00:01:42.000 He is now denied saying them.

00:01:43.000 A bunch of people in the room say that he said them.

00:01:46.000 We don't know what he said or how he said it.

00:01:47.000 There's no context.

00:01:48.000 There's no tape.

00:01:49.000 We'll get to all of that in a second.

00:01:50.000 First, I want to say thank you to our sponsors over at Texture.

00:01:53.000 You know what?

00:02:13.000 Thank you.

00:02:35.000 We're good to go.

00:03:04.000 Okay, so.

00:03:14.000 Yesterday, all hell breaks loose.

00:03:17.000 All hell breaks loose.

00:03:18.000 Because the President of the United States has a bipartisan meeting over Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

00:03:23.000 Now, Trump thinks he's behind closed doors.

00:03:25.000 And he thinks this is an off-the-record conversation.

00:03:28.000 As Trump should know by now, when you're in a room with Democrats and or Republicans, the chances that what you say remain on background or secret

00:03:35.000 We're good to go.

00:03:47.000 that Trump had been having a conversation about protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries.

00:03:53.000 And when he was talking about El Salvador, that was particularly of interest because the Trump administration had moved to basically revoke the temporary visas for people who have been in the United States from El Salvador, 200,000 of them.

00:04:06.000 They've been there for, I think, 15 years, and Trump revoked some of their visas.

00:04:11.000 We don't know the context of the comments.

00:04:13.000 It's unclear where Trump made these comments.

00:04:15.000 But here is what he said.

00:04:16.000 We don't know whether he was talking about the visa diversity lottery program or whether he was talking about targeted deportation of illegal immigrants from particular countries.

00:04:23.000 That does make a difference because here's what Trump supposedly said. 0.68

00:04:25.000 He said, quote, Bleep is another word for poop. 0.56

00:04:26.000 Why are we having all these people from bleephole countries come here? 1.00

00:04:35.000 And then, the post continues,

00:04:50.000 He then reportedly continued, why do we need more Haitians? 0.97

00:04:52.000 Take them out.

00:04:53.000 So Jake Tapper reports that what he meant by that is he was specifically talking about revoking the temporary visas for Haitians who have been here after the earthquake of about 10 years ago.

00:05:03.000 So that's the entirety of the comments, right?

00:05:05.000 That apparently he was talking about Haiti and African countries.

00:05:09.000 And he said, why are we having all these people from bleep hole countries come here? 1.00

00:05:12.000 And then he said, why do we need more Haitians? 0.92

00:05:14.000 Take them out.

00:05:15.000 So I'm going to give you my basic take on all of this, but in light of how people have reacted to this.

00:05:21.000 So there have been a bunch of reactions against these comments.

00:05:23.000 Obviously, is this something that the President of the United States should be saying?

00:05:27.000 Not even close.

00:05:28.000 Not even close.

00:05:28.000 Again, this is not something the President of the United States should be dropping in private or public.

00:05:32.000 It's kind of yucky.

00:05:34.000 And not just is it yucky, the implication could be taken as racist.

00:05:38.000 Now, I'm going to give you two possible reads of his comments.

00:05:41.000 It's very hard to read, by the way.

00:05:42.000 The second comment is, why do we need more Haitians? 0.98

00:05:43.000 Take them out. 0.98

00:05:44.000 As anything but bigoted.

00:05:45.000 But those first comments, why are we having all these people from bleephole countries come here? 1.00

00:05:49.000 People are taking this to mean that he means that everyone from bleephole country is a bleephole, and that's why they shouldn't come here. 1.00

00:05:55.000 I'm not sure that that is fully in evidence.

00:05:58.000 So, there's a few reasons why people are angry today.

00:06:02.000 And we'll go through why people are angry, and as we go through, you'll see sort of why I think that this may be a little bit overblown, depending on how you interpret his comments.

00:06:11.000 First of all, let me explain the vagary in the comments.

00:06:13.000 There are two ways of interpreting this comment.

00:06:15.000 Way one is he's saying there are bleephole countries and the people from those countries are bleepholers and therefore they shouldn't come to the United States.

00:06:21.000 This would be bigotry, right? 0.98

00:06:22.000 To suggest that Haitians cannot come to the United States because Haiti's a bad country is just silly. 0.99

00:06:27.000 OK, it's just a silly idea. 0.99

00:06:28.000 It's not just silly, it's bigoted, it's racist, it's counterproductive. 0.94

00:06:32.000 A huge number of Haitian immigrants come to the United States and get college degrees. 0.75

00:06:36.000 I believe that the statistic is something like, for new African immigrants, for countries, Haiti's not in Africa, but for African immigrants, the number of

00:06:46.000 People who come to the United States and get college degrees actually higher than the American population at large.

00:06:51.000 Immigrant populations very often are escaping bad countries.

00:06:54.000 That's the reason they're coming here.

00:06:55.000 And so they know why their countries are bad, right?

00:06:57.000 Look at Cuban immigrants who are coming from Cuba.

00:06:59.000 Cuba is kind of a bleephole country according to many Cuban expatriates.

00:07:02.000 That's why they're leaving.

00:07:03.000 That's why they're coming here.

00:07:04.000 The same thing is true of the Vietnamese boat people who left and came here because they're trying to escape the destruction of their country. 0.99

00:07:11.000 So the idea that you're coming from a country that's a bleephole, and therefore you're a bleephole, is obviously racist and silly and bigoted. 0.96

00:07:18.000 A huge percentage of people who came over from Nazi Germany ended up being wonderful citizens of the United States, Germans and Jews alike. 0.98

00:07:26.000 The same thing is true of people who are trying to escape Russian pogroms and Polish pogroms.

00:07:30.000 The same thing is true of people who come from China.

00:07:32.000 The vast majority of immigrants to this country are wonderful people who are trying to do hard work and enrich the country by coming here.

00:07:37.000 So the suggestion that you can judge a person from the country because they're from the country is, of course, bigotry.

00:07:44.000 And people who are reading Trump's comments this way have a little bit of support in the idea that Trump has said in the past, for example, that a Mexican judge could not properly judge him because he was Mexican.

00:07:53.000 So people are looking at Trump's track record of linking ethnicity to politics or to judgment or to capacity, and they're saying that this fits in with those comments.

00:08:03.000 So that's a plausible read.

00:08:04.000 Here's another plausible read.

00:08:06.000 And this is the one people are ignoring.

00:08:07.000 The other plausible read is that Trump is saying, look, we have a diversity visa lottery program.

00:08:12.000 And that diversity visa lottery program is designed to take in people by country.

00:08:17.000 It doesn't evaluate them on an individual level.

00:08:18.000 Now, let me backtrack for a second.

00:08:20.000 My own position on immigration is if there is no welfare, if there is no social safety net, I am for free and open immigration.

00:08:25.000 Whoever wants to come can come.

00:08:26.000 I don't have a problem with anybody coming here so long as they're not mooching off anyone.

00:08:30.000 I don't care what country they are from. 0.97

00:08:31.000 I do care about cultural impact.

00:08:34.000 I do care about the viewpoints they espouse.

00:08:35.000 But if they're not coming here to be violent, if they assimilate to American ideology, I don't care where you are from.

00:08:39.000 Okay, that said,

00:08:41.000 The Diversity Visa Lottery Program is the opposite of that.

00:08:43.000 The Diversity Visa Lottery Program says that we are specifically going to bring people in from downtrodden countries, from countries that don't send a lot of immigrants through the legal immigration process.

00:08:53.000 We're going to go to those countries and bring in a large number of immigrants from those specific countries.

00:08:59.000 Originally, the Diversity Visa Lottery program was actually designed to get more Irish immigrants into the country in 1965, because there had been a rapid decrease in the number of Irish immigrants entering the country, and so they wanted to use the Diversity Visa Lottery to increase the number of Irish, apparently, in 1965.

00:09:14.000 That shifted in 1990, and the number one beneficiary of the Diversity Visa Lottery program are people from African countries.

00:09:21.000 So, here's what Trump could be saying.

00:09:22.000 He could be saying, listen, if we have to judge people only by country,

00:09:26.000 We're not going to look at them as individuals, which is really how we should do an immigration program.

00:09:30.000 We should look at people and say, is this a good person?

00:09:33.000 Or is this a bad person?

00:09:34.000 Is this someone we want in the country?

00:09:35.000 Or is this someone we don't want in the country?

00:09:37.000 That's the way we should do immigration always. 0.99

00:09:40.000 But the diversity visa lottery program says, OK, you're from Ghana, you get in.

00:09:44.000 You're from France, you don't. 1.00

00:09:46.000 That's really how the lottery program works.

00:09:48.000 And so Trump might be saying, listen, that seems backward to me, in the sense that if you are just going to take as the only descriptor the country of origin, you have to look at the country of origin, and country of origin does make a difference.

00:10:00.000 It is easier, put aside race, it's easier, for example, to integrate someone from Great Britain into American ideals than it is to integrate somebody from, say, Russia in American ideals.

00:10:09.000 Now, Russians are still white people, but the idea that you're coming from a government where there's no history of American ideology

00:10:16.000 That makes no difference at all.

00:10:18.000 On average, it does make a difference.

00:10:19.000 And I'll give you some statistics later that show that it makes a difference.

00:10:21.000 But the point is this.

00:10:23.000 We shouldn't be responding to the diversity visa lottery by doing what Trump said, which is bringing more people from Norway. 1.00

00:10:28.000 We should be saying, no diversity visa lottery because every individual should be elevated or degraded on their merits. 1.00

00:10:35.000 We should have a merit-based immigration.

00:10:37.000 Immigration system.

00:10:37.000 That's the way that we should do this.

00:10:39.000 So those are the two plausible ways of reading what Trump said. 0.99

00:10:42.000 Now in a second, I'm going to explain to you all the various ways that people have taken his comments and the way that the left, I have to say, they are so stupid because they have a win here, right? 0.97

00:10:50.000 If they want to hit Trump as a racist, it's not hard to get from point A to point B, but they somehow completely miss point B and they just go to point Z. 0.99

00:10:58.000 It's truly crazy.

00:10:59.000 I'm going to show you in just a second.

00:11:00.000 But first, I want to say thank you to our sponsors over at Tommy John's.

00:11:02.000 So right now, this moment, I'm wearing the best underwear that I have ever worn.

00:11:07.000 They are just spectacular.

00:11:08.000 Tommy John's, okay?

00:11:09.000 Innovative designs, patented fabrics.

00:11:11.000 It ensures that your underwear doesn't ride up.

00:11:13.000 It's true, it does not ride up.

00:11:14.000 The waistband does not roll down.

00:11:16.000 You will never get a wedgie.

00:11:17.000 You don't have to... It's really comfortable.

00:11:19.000 It's stretchable.

00:11:20.000 You never have to adjust.

00:11:21.000 It's...

00:11:21.000 Like, these underwear are truly magnificent, and they have some unique design features that are quite convenient and wonderful.

00:11:27.000 So, check out Tommy John's, okay?

00:11:30.000 I've tried a bunch of different underwear brands, and this one is the best.

00:11:33.000 Okay, Tommy John, I can say, even if they were not an advertiser, I'd be saying this.

00:11:36.000 Tommy John's is the best.

00:11:38.000 They've taken their comfort expertise, they've applied it to the rest of your apparel as well, so you can get undershirts that stay tucked, socks that don't fall down, second skin tees that are really, really soft, and a choice of smart fabrics for every situation or outfit.

00:11:50.000 Also, if you don't like it, they have a best pair you'll ever wear, or it's free guaranteed, so you've got nothing to lose.

00:11:54.000 You order it, you don't like it, and it's free.

00:11:56.000 So Tommy John, no adjustment needed.

00:11:57.000 Go to TommyJohn.com slash Shapiro.

00:11:59.000 You get 20% off your first order.

00:12:01.000 That's TommyJohn.com slash Shapiro for 20% off TommyJohn.com slash Shapiro, and that gets you your 20% off your first order, plus it lets them know that we sent you.

00:12:10.000 You're not going to regret it.

00:12:10.000 The underwear are just terrific, and so are their other

00:12:13.000 Okay, so the media lost their minds yesterday.

00:12:15.000 Because they didn't just say, what Trump is saying here is that he's judging immigrants by their country of origin, and that's bigoted.

00:12:30.000 There you'd have a pretty solid argument.

00:12:32.000 Right?

00:12:32.000 You'd have a solid argument.

00:12:33.000 Now, as I say, Trump could say, listen, I wasn't saying that you're judging people by their country of origin.

00:12:37.000 I'm saying that if you are going to judge people by their country of origin, as the diversity visa lottery suggests, then you do have to look at the difference between the cultures of Great Britain and the cultures of, say, Russia or Spain or Greece or any other country.

00:12:50.000 You're going to have a hierarchy of countries from which it is most likely that people are going to be easily able to assimilate.

00:12:55.000 That doesn't seem completely unreasonable to me.

00:12:57.000 And Trump could even say, if you look at that Washington Post story, I say as much.

00:13:00.000 I say I want more Asian immigrants, meaning from places like South Korea, which has a very westernized country, as opposed to, say, Ivory Coast.

00:13:09.000 There are certain countries where integration is going to be easier.

00:13:11.000 And then you'd have to provide some statistics to prove it.

00:13:14.000 And we'll talk about the statistics in a little while.

00:13:16.000 But that is not what the media are going nuts over.

00:13:18.000 So the media have gone nuts over a few different things here.

00:13:20.000 The first thing they've gone nuts over is the actual vulgarity that Trump said the word bleephole.

00:13:24.000 Now, number one, Trump said the word bleephole behind closed doors.

00:13:27.000 And I find it a little bit ridiculous that everybody in the media is saying, how dare Trump say that there are countries that are bleepholes?

00:13:34.000 I've sat with a lot of these members of the media.

00:13:36.000 They will call red states bleepholes.

00:13:38.000 They will call their apartment a bleephole.

00:13:40.000 They will suggest that the recycling center two blocks from their house is a bleephole.

00:13:44.000 The idea that you can't say the word bleephole, that suddenly they're very offended by this, is belied by the fact that they then went on TV and decided to say the actual word bleephole by not bleeping it

00:13:53.000 Over and over again.

00:14:09.000 Now, what's amazing about this is, of course, this is not the first time in American politics that people have cursed before.

00:14:14.000 Before I get to the media going crazy over this, first, I want to show you, okay?

00:14:17.000 You remember when Joe Biden, it was a big headline, Joe Biden said to Barack Obama that when Obamacare passed, he said on an open mic, that this is a big effing deal.

00:14:25.000 Flashback, okay?

00:14:26.000 Here's Biden saying that.

00:14:27.000 Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama. 0.95

00:14:31.000 This is a big f***ing deal. 0.71

00:14:40.000 Thank you, everybody.

00:14:57.000 On the Democratic Party website.

00:14:58.000 Did the media actually write out, you know, actually spell it out?

00:15:02.000 Did they actually spell out the F word?

00:15:04.000 Did they actually report that that's what he said or did they bleep it out?

00:15:06.000 Of course they bleeped it out, right?

00:15:08.000 They bleeped it out the same way that we're bleeping it out.

00:15:10.000 Same thing is true when L.A.

00:15:11.000 Mayor Eric Garcetti swore at a King's Rally.

00:15:12.000 This was just a couple of years ago.

00:15:14.000 This guy wants to run for president and he got up and he said, you know, this is a big effing day.

00:15:19.000 This is what it looked like.

00:15:20.000 But there are two rules in politics.

00:15:22.000 They say never, ever be pictured with a drink in your hand and never swear. 0.93

00:15:26.000 But this is a big f***ing day. 0.76

00:15:28.000 Way to go, guys! 0.97

00:15:29.000 Okay, so there he is saying big f***ing day. 0.80

00:15:32.000 Did the media print any of that? 0.91

00:15:33.000 Of course they didn't print any of that. 0.97

00:15:35.000 But now they're going to say s***hole over and over and over because Trump is the president. 0.97

00:15:39.000 I mean, let's be clear. 0.98

00:15:40.000 This is why they are changing their editorial standards.

00:15:41.000 So here's Jim Acosta saying it over and over and over.

00:15:44.000 We bleeped it out, but he did not bleep it.

00:15:46.000 Why are we having all these people from 1.00

00:16:05.000 Uh, you get the point.

00:16:07.000 And I noticed you, Wolf, you hesitated to use that word.

00:16:09.000 I hesitate to use it myself as an S-hole or S***hole is what the word that The Washington Post is quoting the president is saying.

00:16:17.000 Okay, I remember when they were suggesting, there was a rumor that I think it was Barack Obama directly to Jeffrey Goldberg. 0.78

00:16:25.000 So you get cursed about Benjamin Netanyahu, if I'm not mistaken.

00:16:27.000 I think that that happened as well.

00:16:29.000 This new editorial standard where you only quote the curse word in order to humiliate Trump is obviously directed at Trump. 0.93

00:16:34.000 Chris Cuomo, who's just an ass of epic order, he came out and he said that Trump gave this word to the world. 0.93

00:16:42.000 No one had ever heard this word before. 0.98

00:16:43.000 Trump actually originated it.

00:16:45.000 The president is just showing you who he is.

00:16:49.000 This is who he is, okay?

00:16:51.000 We sum it up in a word, okay?

00:16:54.000 There it is.

00:16:56.000 This is the gift that he decided to give the American people.

00:16:59.000 He says the president, this is who he is.

00:17:01.000 He is a bleephole, right?

00:17:01.000 This is what Chris Cuomo now says about Trump.

00:17:04.000 So, are they really that upset about the vulgarity?

00:17:06.000 Of course they're not upset about the vulgarity. 0.88

00:17:07.000 That's nonsense. 0.91

00:17:08.000 Okay, that's nonsense. 0.96

00:17:09.000 They don't care about the vulgarity.

00:17:10.000 Now, the second thing they've become upset about, again, wildly overshooting the mark.

00:17:14.000 If they want to hit Trump, they should hit him on the idea that immigrants cannot be judged by their country of origin.

00:17:19.000 Right, that's where they should live.

00:17:20.000 They should live right there. 1.00

00:17:21.000 But they're too stupid. 1.00

00:17:22.000 They can't do it. 1.00

00:17:23.000 It's impossible for them.

00:17:24.000 So instead, the media have decided to say that there are no countries that are bleep holes.

00:17:28.000 All countries are fantastic.

00:17:30.000 Right, there are none.

00:17:31.000 All the countries are great.

00:17:33.000 If you believe this, ask an expatriate from North Korea whether the country is a bleephole. 0.70

00:17:37.000 Ask an expatriate from Sudan whether they would prefer to go back. 1.00

00:17:42.000 Only the left could be this stupid. 1.00

00:17:43.000 Seriously, you have to be a moron to fall into this particular trap, saying that there's no such thing as a bleephole country. 1.00

00:17:48.000 Rich Lowry humiliated Joan Walsh, a CNN contributor, yesterday on the network. 0.99

00:17:55.000 Specifically asking her, like, you're saying that some countries are not bleepholes.

00:18:00.000 Would you rather live in Haiti, with its average income GDP, its average annual GDP per capita at $730 a year, its average life expectancy at 63, its literacy rate at 61%, would you rather live there or Norway, where the average income is $62,000 a year?

00:18:16.000 And watch Joan Walsh try to run screaming from this question with her hair on fire. 0.84

00:18:20.000 You know, you're really contradicting what the administration has already said.

00:18:24.000 They have said the reason that they're ending these protections for Haitians and for Salvadorans specifically is that those countries are no longer basket cases and they can go back.

00:18:32.000 Now, so you can't really have it both ways.

00:18:34.000 Well, you're contradicting yourself then.

00:18:35.000 So if you say they shouldn't go back,

00:18:37.000 Because they're so dangerous, they're so violent, which in the left position, you're saying there are bad cases.

00:18:41.000 I don't have a left position.

00:18:44.000 Both countries have a lot of problems.

00:18:46.000 And a lot of these people have lived here 10, 12, 17 years.

00:18:50.000 They haven't caused trouble.

00:18:51.000 Would you rather live in Norway or Haiti?

00:18:53.000 I didn't actually interrupt you.

00:18:55.000 I don't know.

00:18:56.000 I haven't been to either place.

00:18:58.000 I don't know?

00:18:59.000 I don't know.

00:18:59.000 Like, come on.

00:19:01.000 I don't know.

00:19:01.000 Of course she knows!

00:19:02.000 Are you kidding?

00:19:03.000 Joan Walsh probably wants to move to Norway now. 1.00

00:19:06.000 That's absurd.

00:19:07.000 It's absurd.

00:19:07.000 And she's not the only one doing this.

00:19:09.000 The worst, of course, is Stephen Colbert.

00:19:10.000 So Stephen Colbert, last night, goes on his show, and this is clip 17, and he explains that there are no bully poll countries except the United States.

00:19:18.000 We're the only one because Trump is president.

00:19:22.000 This afternoon he was meeting with lawmakers to discuss immigration policy.

00:19:25.000 Several of these lawmakers suggested lifting restrictions for immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and various African countries.

00:19:32.000 Trump reportedly said, Why are we having all these people from **** whole countries come here?

00:19:38.000 Sir?

00:19:42.000 They're not whole countries.

00:19:44.000 For one, Donald Trump isn't their president.

00:19:47.000 OK, stop it right there. 0.88

00:19:48.000 The idea that this is going to win Democrats' elections, are they insane?

00:19:52.000 This is going to be their pitch? 0.54

00:19:53.000 That Haiti's not a bleephole, but the United States is a bleephole because Trump is president?

00:19:57.000 Like what?

00:19:59.000 This logic escapes me.

00:20:00.000 Again, there's plenty of ways to hit Trump over these comments and plenty of reason to do so.

00:20:04.000 But to live in the, nobody's a bleephole country except for the United States.

00:20:08.000 I mean, try, yeah, good luck with that one.

00:20:11.000 Good luck with that one.

00:20:12.000 Also, there is something a little bit contradictory about the idea that people have to escape bad countries to come here, but we won't label the country bad in the first place, right?

00:20:20.000 So Anderson Cooper yesterday talks about how he's been to Haiti and he's helping Haitian children.

00:20:25.000 This, this is, oh, it's a great story, but I'm wondering, you know, if Anderson Cooper is making the case that people from Haiti are wonderful, that's fine.

00:20:32.000 But if he's making the case that Haiti is not a bleephole country, you know, in the sort of common parlance, that it's not a crappy place to live, I mean, obviously it is a crappy place to live, and Anderson Cooper is telling you a story about how crappy a place it is to live.

00:20:43.000 Here he is.

00:20:44.000 I was there when a young girl named Bea, who'd been trapped in rubble for nearly a day, was rescued by people who had no heavy equipment.

00:20:50.000 They just had their God-given strength and their determination and their courage.

00:20:54.000 I was there

00:20:58.000 When a five-year-old boy named Manli was rescued after being buried for more than seven days.

00:21:04.000 Do you know what strength it takes to survive on rainwater buried under concrete?

00:21:08.000 A five-year-old boy buried for seven days.

00:21:12.000 Haitians slap your hand hard when they shake it. 1.00

00:21:14.000 They look you in the eye.

00:21:16.000 They don't blink.

00:21:16.000 They stand tall.

00:21:18.000 And they have dignity.

00:21:20.000 It's a dignity many in this White House could learn from.

00:21:23.000 OK, so I totally agree with everything that he's saying about Haitians. 0.83

00:21:26.000 I know a lot of Haitians who are just wonderful, wonderful people.

00:21:29.000 People who immigrate to this country, by and large, are wonderful people who are coming to make the country better.

00:21:34.000 But if your argument is that Haiti is a great country, Haiti is not a great place to live.

00:21:37.000 OK, he just talked about a kid who was buried for seven days under rubble.

00:21:40.000 That doesn't happen in the United States.

00:21:42.000 We don't get that in the United States on a regular basis.

00:21:43.000 We don't have tens of thousands of people who are buried under rubble when an earthquake happens.

00:21:47.000 Because America is a better place to live than Haiti. 1.00

00:21:50.000 America is a better country than Haiti. 1.00

00:21:53.000 And I mean that by government.

00:21:54.000 It's a better governed country.

00:21:56.000 And I mean that in terms of whatever cultural attributes lead to a bad governance there.

00:22:02.000 That's not to suggest people can't come from Haiti and be wonderful American citizens.

00:22:05.000 They can. 0.97

00:22:06.000 But to suggest there are no differences between countries is just silly. 0.98

00:22:08.000 It's just silly. 0.87

00:22:09.000 And that's why I'm so bewildered by the attack that the media have chosen to take here.

00:22:12.000 Now, in a second, I'm going to explain where the media are on more solid ground, and how they are universal in their condemnation, and where there's a possible read that is a little more vague than the one that they are espousing in just a second.

00:22:24.000 First, I want to say thank you to our sponsors over at Legacy Box.

00:22:28.000 You're looking to preserve your memories, right?

00:22:29.000 You're looking to preserve all of those old family memories.

00:22:32.000 You've got all of these old family videos.

00:22:33.000 You've never looked at them in 30 years.

00:22:34.000 They're just sitting out there in your garage gathering mold.

00:22:36.000 It's time for you to grab all that stuff and send it to my friends over at Legacy Box, right?

00:22:40.000 You grab all that stuff, you send it over to Legacy Box, and what they do is they convert all of it to a DVD or thumb drive ready to watch and share and relive.

00:22:49.000 We've done some of this with the Shapiro materials.

00:22:51.000 It makes for a fantastic gift, particularly Father's Day or Mother's Day.

00:22:54.000 It makes a great Valentine's Day gift.

00:22:56.000 Again, you're preserving all those old memories, and instead of you having to schlep around tons of boxes, instead, now you get to bring a DVD or a thumb drive.

00:23:04.000 If there's, God forbid, some sort of natural disaster, a fire in your house, there's some reason you have to leave your house, you're moving, it makes it a lot easier to grab a thumb drive than to put a bunch of photo albums in your car.

00:23:14.000 That's what it's for.

00:23:15.000 2018 is the year you preserve your family's legacy.

00:23:17.000 That's what Legacy Box is.

00:23:18.000 And for a limited time right now, you save 40% at LegacyBox.com slash Ben.

00:23:23.000 Get started for just 45 bucks right now at LegacyBox.com slash Ben.

00:23:27.000 LegacyBox.com slash Ben.

00:23:28.000 When you use the slash Ben, you save 40%.

00:23:29.000 This is just a fantastic, fantastic...

00:23:34.000 Let's do it!

00:23:50.000 Now we get to the root of the matter.

00:23:52.000 People who are suggesting that Trump is a racist.

00:23:55.000 So, the list of people in media who are saying that Trump is racist for saying this are... it's endless, right?

00:24:02.000 It's a very, very long list.

00:24:03.000 So here's just a quick montage of everybody in the media suggesting that President Trump is obviously a racist for the stuff that he said. 0.96

00:24:10.000 The President of the United States is racist.

00:24:13.000 If it's accurate, it confirms what I've said on this show before. 1.00

00:24:17.000 Donald Trump is a bigot. 0.99

00:24:19.000 Yes, he speaks in a racist way. 1.00

00:24:21.000 It just shows that the president has racist views.

00:24:26.000 Let's be real clear. 0.99

00:24:27.000 This is the most racist, bigoted, 0.98

00:24:30.000 Al Sharpton, my God. 1.00

00:24:34.000 But it doesn't make what he said any less ignorant or any less racist. 0.99

00:24:38.000 Not racial, not racially charged, racist. 0.98

00:24:42.000 Let's not kid ourselves.

00:24:43.000 This remark by the President of the United States smacks of blatant racism, the most odious and insidious racism masquerading poorly as immigration policy. 0.97

00:24:56.000 This is ignorance. 0.98

00:24:58.000 This is ignorance to speak in such vile, racist terms. 0.86

00:25:02.000 We can dance around it and not really put our finger on it, but the president seems to harbor racist feelings about people of color. 0.83

00:25:12.000 And that last one is Jim Acosta.

00:25:13.000 Of course, Jim Acosta is the White House press correspondent.

00:25:16.000 He's not an opinion guy, right?

00:25:18.000 He's supposed to be the objective news journalist.

00:25:19.000 So there are a few things here.

00:25:21.000 So as I have suggested,

00:25:22.000 It is a plausible read that the President of the United States is saying that people from Haiti cannot properly immigrate to the United States because they are bad people because it's a bad country. 0.94

00:25:29.000 That would be racist.

00:25:30.000 Okay?

00:25:31.000 That would be racist. 1.00

00:25:31.000 It would be stupid. 1.00

00:25:33.000 To say that he harbors feelings of animosity for people of color as a whole, I think, would be a little bit too broad, considering that in the same article it says that he wants more people to come in from countries like South Korea. 0.99

00:25:43.000 That's full of Asian people who are not white.

00:25:45.000 But that said,

00:25:47.000 Yes.

00:25:47.000 I'm not going to pretend it's not a plausible read.

00:25:49.000 It is a plausible read.

00:25:51.000 Mia Love, who's the daughter, I believe, of Haitian immigrants, she tweeted out her statement on this.

00:25:56.000 She said,

00:26:10.000 They never took a thing from our federal government.

00:26:12.000 They worked hard, paid taxes, and rose from nothing to take care of and provide opportunities for their children.

00:26:16.000 They taught their children to do the same.

00:26:18.000 That's the American dream.

00:26:19.000 The president must apologize both to the American people and to the nations he so wantonly maligned.

00:26:24.000 Okay, so, you know, I think that this is a perfect statement, honestly.

00:26:28.000 I think that what Mia Love says here is essentially correct.

00:26:31.000 You come here, you work hard, you play by the rules, you assimilate, you get involved in the American dream.

00:26:37.000 Anyone who does that should be able to come in. 0.53

00:26:40.000 And if what Trump is saying is that people should not be able to come in based on their country of origin, that's silly. 0.93

00:26:44.000 Okay, that's silly. 0.96

00:26:45.000 It's not just silly. 0.99

00:26:46.000 It's racist. 0.99

00:26:46.000 It actually is racist, and it is bigoted. 0.99

00:26:48.000 But there's another plausible way to read what Trump is saying, right?

00:26:52.000 The other plausible way to read what Trump is saying is for him to be saying what I said earlier, which is that if you are going to judge people alone by their country, which you should not,

00:27:00.000 You should not, but that's what the Diversity Visa Lottery Program does. 0.99

00:27:03.000 If you're going to judge people's merit based on just country of origin, you cannot pretend that all countries of origin are equally likely to produce the same level of assimilatable citizens.

00:27:14.000 That would just be silly.

00:27:15.000 It's obviously untrue.

00:27:18.000 And the data support this.

00:27:20.000 There's a study from the Institute for the Study of Labor, December 2009.

00:27:23.000 And here are their findings.

00:27:30.000 Their findings are, although immigrants from South America, Canada, Oceania, and Europe use any form of welfare at the same rate as U.S.-born immigrants

00:27:38.000 from Asia, Africa, Central America, and U.S.

00:27:41.000 protectorates, those ones use welfare more.

00:27:43.000 So, if you're an immigrant from Asia, Africa, Central America, or U.S.

00:27:46.000 protectorates, you use welfare more.

00:27:48.000 And then, they actually analyze to see whether this was just based on the level of poverty that people are when they come over to the United States, if it's based on family size.

00:27:56.000 They say, we reject the hypothesis that welfare usage is identical across immigrants and U.S.-born, and also reject the related hypothesis that welfare usage is identical for immigrant groups.

00:28:07.000 This result suggests that welfare usage is not affected by solely economic and standard demographics.

00:28:12.000 This implies that culture, value, network information, or institution of groups might have a significant role to play in an individual's choice to use welfare.

00:28:20.000 Culture, values, network information, and institutional background were not controlled for in our probability model and may explain the differential welfare usage across group despite controlling for the standard economic and demographic variables that should predict welfare usage.

00:28:32.000 Birthplace matters for welfare usage in the U.S.

00:28:35.000 This is their conclusion.

00:28:36.000 Birthplace matters for welfare usage in the U.S.

00:28:38.000 Now, that's not, again, to imply that where you were born means that inevitably you're going to use welfare. 0.98

00:28:43.000 That's silly and racist. 0.69

00:28:44.000 It doesn't mean that as individuals we can judge you based on your country of origin. 0.97

00:28:48.000 It does mean that if you are going to say, we get to now take in 10,000 immigrants,

00:28:53.000 Those 10,000 immigrants are either going to come from South Korea or they're going to come from Russia, an Asian country, or they're going to come with a history of Western civilization, or Russia, where there is very little history of Westernization. 0.91

00:29:07.000 Which one are you going to choose?

00:29:09.000 And you can only choose one.

00:29:10.000 You're just going to do it based on the country description.

00:29:12.000 Then you would probably say, I'd want the South Korean citizens and not necessarily the Russian citizens, if you were going to create a hierarchy of people who are able to assimilate easily in the United States.

00:29:21.000 That's not a rip on individual Russians.

00:29:24.000 My ancestors are from Russia.

00:29:25.000 My great-grandparents came over from Lithuania.

00:29:28.000 The idea that it doesn't matter at all where you came from in terms of the average, if you're doing it simply by numbers, is obviously not true.

00:29:37.000 But the idea that you can judge individuals based on this is racist.

00:29:39.000 This is the same thing as saying,

00:29:41.000 And the black crime rate in the United States is higher than the white crime rate in the United States. 1.00

00:29:45.000 This is true. 0.98

00:29:46.000 But it is racist to say that a black person, this black individual right here, is going to commit crime because he is black, right? 0.91

00:29:54.000 That's not the same thing. 0.85

00:29:55.000 And that distinction is important.

00:29:56.000 You can say that on average, people who come from sub-Saharan African countries are going to have a tougher time integrating and assimilating into the United States than people coming from Great Britain.

00:30:08.000 But that's not racist.

00:30:09.000 But it is racist to say, this particular person from Sudan cannot assimilate because they're from Sudan.

00:30:14.000 That's racist, OK?

00:30:15.000 So that distinction makes a difference.

00:30:17.000 And I don't know that Trump knows enough to actually make that distinction.

00:30:21.000 I don't know if he does.

00:30:22.000 Maybe he doesn't.

00:30:23.000 I mean, as I've said before, his history shows that he's said stuff like, a Mexican judge, meaning a judge who is descended from Mexican parents, can't properly judge his case because they're Mexican.

00:30:33.000 There are cases where Trump has sounded really bad and racist.

00:30:38.000 If you read these comments in the context of those comments, it's hard to avoid the conclusion the media want you to draw.

00:30:43.000 But I would like more evidence on what actually happened in this conversation, because all I'm hearing is secondhand.

00:30:47.000 I don't have a full transcript in front of me, and I am shy of jumping on the media's account of a secondhand conversation that was being related by Democrats.

00:30:57.000 I think that to do that would be unfair.

00:31:00.000 I hope that I would hold the same standard for the Obama administration or for any other politician, for that matter.

00:31:07.000 So, again, should Trump have said this?

00:31:10.000 No.

00:31:10.000 Should he clarify what he meant?

00:31:11.000 Absolutely.

00:31:12.000 Should he walk it back as much as he can?

00:31:14.000 He absolutely should. 0.98

00:31:17.000 The left's suggestion that there's no such thing as a bleephole country is silly. 0.99

00:31:20.000 The left's suggestion that they're angry because he cursed is silly. 0.99

00:31:23.000 And the left's suggestion that the only way to read that comment is simply in terms of Donald Trump is saying that every immigrant from Haiti is bad because they're black. 0.99

00:31:31.000 I think that that requires a logical jump, at least. 0.93

00:31:33.000 Maybe that jump is real.

00:31:35.000 Maybe that's what Trump is thinking.

00:31:36.000 But there's a lot of mind reading going on.

00:31:38.000 And I think that that mind reading is not necessarily guaranteed to be correct.

00:31:43.000 OK, so in just a second,

00:31:45.000 We're good to go.

00:32:05.000 On Tuesday, the 16th, 5 p.m.

00:32:06.000 Eastern, 2 p.m.

00:32:07.000 Pacific, ask Drew questions live in the Daily Wire chat room.

00:32:11.000 When you become a subscriber to Daily Wire, $9.99 a month, $99 a year, you get to view the annual subscription, including this, the very greatest in beverage vessels, the Leftist Tears hot or cold mug, which is just overflowing these days for a variety of reasons, both good and bad.

00:32:25.000 Check it out.

00:32:25.000 You get that with the annual subscription.

00:32:27.000 If you just want to listen later, SoundCloud, iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, Stitcher, we're available on all of those outlets.

00:32:32.000 We are the largest, fastest-growing conservative podcast in the nation.

00:32:40.000 Now, one of the things that's going to be fascinating about what Trump just said is how it impacts his base.

00:32:45.000 Because what happened yesterday is that the Republicans basically signaled that they were going to cave on DACA.

00:32:51.000 So the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, of course, is the program that Obama instituted to basically give green cards in the long run to dreamers, so-called dreamers, people who are brought over as young people through no fault of their own, as the phrase goes, and have been in the country for years.

00:33:06.000 So Trump wanted an end to chain migration.

00:33:09.000 He wanted an end to the diversity visa lottery program, and he wanted his wall. 0.95

00:33:13.000 And maybe E-Verify.

00:33:14.000 That's what he wanted.

00:33:15.000 Here is the deal they're talking about cutting right now.

00:33:16.000 By the way, this deal is not going to happen now.

00:33:18.000 I think now that Trump made these comments, the chance of a DACA deal went down to zero.

00:33:22.000 Democrats know they can posture as much as they possibly could want. 0.87

00:33:24.000 It's why Trump should shut his mouth.

00:33:26.000 It's a huge mistake politically and also morally for him to do what he did.

00:33:30.000 The fact that

00:33:31.000 And that Trump said this sunk even the possibility of a deal.

00:33:34.000 Now Democrats are going to wait around. 0.99

00:33:35.000 They're going to let DACA die on Trump's watch, claim Trump is a racist, and then know that Trump will just reinstate DACA himself, which will probably be what happens come March.

00:33:43.000 In any case, before all this blew up, Trump was talking yesterday about this deal.

00:33:47.000 You ready for this?

00:33:47.000 Because it ain't good.

00:33:53.000 Only, only $2.8 billion for border security.

00:33:57.000 So $1.6 billion for a fence barrier.

00:33:58.000 They're saying it'll cost a minimum of $18 billion to actually build a fence.

00:34:01.000 An additional $1.2 billion for other border priorities.

00:34:04.000 Again, not enough money.

00:34:05.000 Family-based migration.

00:34:06.000 Parents of DACA cannot become citizens, but will get temporary protected status.

00:34:10.000 So that doesn't really change much, because that just means that when a Democrat enters office, he'll give them citizenship.

00:34:15.000 And then visa lottery.

00:34:17.000 Some of the 50,000 slots will be used for people in the country who have lost their temporary protected status, and some will be used for low-immigration countries.

00:34:23.000 So they'll just reallocate some of the diversity visa lottery stuff.

00:34:26.000 Very, very weak deal if this is all Republicans can get out of this.

00:34:30.000 Jeff Flake, who is pretty weak on immigration, he came forward and said, we're very close on the deal.

00:34:34.000 This was his statement yesterday.

00:34:35.000 The bipartisan group I'm talking about, the six of us working, that we're shopping among our colleagues now.

00:34:41.000 We don't want to release details until we talk to more of our colleagues.

00:34:44.000 Well, so much for that.

00:34:45.000 That's pretty much done.

00:34:47.000 That's pretty much dead.

00:34:47.000 So I think that it is...

00:34:50.000 It's just another side effect of the fact that the President of the United States cannot keep his mouth shut, and he'd be better off just being quiet in many scenarios.

00:35:03.000 So things that I like today.

00:35:04.000 I wanted to point out that immigrants from low-quality countries, immigrants from 1.00

00:35:11.000 If you want to say bleephole countries, I think Nazi Germany would rank as a bleephole government. 0.54

00:35:15.000 Immigrants who are trying to escape that have provided some of the great contributions to American society.

00:35:21.000 Forget about the atomic bomb, which is an atomic energy, which is obviously a contribution of people who fled Nazi Germany.

00:35:29.000 But some of our great movie music.

00:35:31.000 Eric Korngold was a Jewish emigre from Nazi Germany.

00:35:34.000 He left in the late 20s, I believe.

00:35:36.000 He came here and he wrote some of the great American scores.

00:35:38.000 A great classical composer, really underappreciated because film scores are underappreciated.

00:35:42.000 If you don't know the original Adventures of Robin Hood, I think it may have been the very first movie I recommended on Things I Like on this show, then the music is just glorious.

00:35:52.000 It was conducted by Eric Korngold.

00:35:54.000 Here's a little bit of that music.

00:36:02.000 So, I mean, that's great music.

00:36:13.000 It's not just that.

00:36:14.000 Okay, the Max Steiner was another émigré from Nazi Germany.

00:36:19.000 He wrote probably the most famous score in Hollywood history.

00:36:22.000 Of course, the music to Gone with the Wind.

00:36:40.000 Let's do it.

00:36:46.000 I mean, it's just glorious stuff. 1.00

00:36:47.000 So the idea that you come from a crappy country, therefore you can't contribute to the United States is just asinine and racist and stupid and bigoted. 1.00

00:36:54.000 If that's what Trump was saying, then he's all of those things. 1.00

00:36:56.000 If that's not what Trump was saying, then he is not.

00:36:59.000 And I would urge people to actually look at the evidence in front of them and come to your own conclusion.

00:37:03.000 I think that either read, to be frank with you, is plausible.

00:37:06.000 But I don't think that it is necessarily an irrevocable

00:37:12.000 Proof that Trump is racist, that you read it in one of these two ways.

00:37:17.000 Okay, so time for, you know what, let's skip the things I hate and we'll just go straight to the mailbag. 0.69

00:37:20.000 So let's do some mailbag.

00:37:22.000 Here we go.

00:37:24.000 Junelle writes, Hey Ben, what exactly is the problem with Keynesian economics?

00:37:27.000 So the problem with Keynesian economics is the suggestion that if you redistribute money from top to bottom, or you jumpstart the economy by borrowing against the future and injecting cash

00:37:37.000 Economic growth is not a phrase that means a whole hell of a lot.

00:37:56.000 Makes your life better is a phrase that means a whole hell of a lot.

00:37:59.000 It may make your life better in the temporary here and now for the government to give you a little bit more money.

00:38:03.000 It will make your life a lot better now and in the future for people who know what to do with their money to keep their own money and invest it in things that are going to benefit you.

00:38:12.000 In other words, money in Bill Gates's pocket is actually more useful than money in my pocket.

00:38:16.000 And I'm talking about me personally, right?

00:38:17.000 I'm pretty good with my money.

00:38:19.000 Bill Gates has made better use of his money than I have made of my money.

00:38:22.000 Not only has he invested it wisely, he's also built a company with tens of thousands of employees and built products that millions of people use.

00:38:28.000 And the idea that when you take money from borrowing against the future, when you take money and inject it into the economy, that this somehow gets the gears running again, that demand is what creates supply, is not true.

00:38:40.000 Supply creates demand.

00:38:41.000 Meaning the reason that you buy a new product is not because you have a little bit of extra money in your pocket.

00:38:45.000 It's because the new product is available.

00:38:46.000 You couldn't buy an iPhone 30 years ago because the iPhone didn't exist.

00:38:51.000 It wouldn't matter how much money the government gave you.

00:38:53.000 You can buy an iPhone now because there were creators who discovered the hidden demand in the marketplace and crafted a product specifically for it.

00:38:59.000 This is my problem with Keynesian economics.

00:39:01.000 The idea of the multiplier effect, I think, is sheer nonsense.

00:39:04.000 Henry Hazlitt has a very long but thorough look at the flaws in Keynesian theory.

00:39:10.000 It's called The New Economics, I think.

00:39:12.000 The Flaws in the New Economics, something like that.

00:39:13.000 It's about a 500-page book, but he really blows apart Keynesianism with alacrity. 0.99

00:39:17.000 I think that it's idiotic to tax your citizens abroad. 0.91

00:39:20.000 If you're abroad and you're earning all your money abroad, I'm not sure what the United States has to say about that, per se. 0.97

00:39:25.000 But I feel that generally about taxes.

00:39:36.000 Here, I mean, I think that the only possible argument that can be made is taxing our citizens abroad for defense purposes because our military defends you abroad the same as it would at home, right?

00:39:45.000 Maybe that's the only excuse.

00:39:52.000 I don't know enough about this, so I'd actually want to check the facts on it before I comment.

00:39:56.000 So I'll beg off that question until I can actually get some more information.

00:39:59.000 Ari says, 1.00

00:40:13.000 Well, the reason is because the left does not perceive victimhood in terms of being victims of hate crime, or victims of crime generally.

00:40:20.000 The left perceives victimhood in people they perceive to be harmed by the system, really in terms of economics.

00:40:25.000 This is why the intersectional hierarchy is basically a Marxist invention.

00:40:29.000 The idea is that Latinos and Muslims are more put upon by American society because they are, on average, poorer.

00:40:35.000 Jews are highly educated and rich in the United States.

00:40:37.000 That means they cannot be victims.

00:40:39.000 Even if they are many times over more victimized than other so-called victim groups in the United States.

00:40:45.000 I got back to Trevor Noah on The Daily Show and I said, if you want to do this thing live, as in live live, then I'm happy to do it.

00:40:55.000 If you want to do it on tape delay, I'm not going to do that because I saw how you sliced and diced Jonah Goldberg, and I'm not going to allow you to slice me out of context and then not give me a copy of the tape so three million people see me, you know, getting destroyed by Trevor Noah, when in reality, it's the other way around.

00:41:09.000 I don't think we have heard back from them ever since I made that demand, which is not particularly shocking.

00:41:13.000 Let's see.

00:41:14.000 Nicholas says, Dear Ben, I wanted to know what your response to the 1929 Great Depression would be from a policy standpoint.

00:41:19.000 Would you have just simply cut taxes, launched public works, etc.? ?

00:41:22.000 I wouldn't have launched Public Works.

00:41:23.000 I probably would have cut taxes.

00:41:26.000 I would not have gotten the government deeply involved, to be frank.

00:41:28.000 I mean, there was a huge economic meltdown in 1920-21, and the entire market recovered quickly.

00:41:35.000 The reason that you had an eight-year lengthening of the Great Depression, according to UCLA Economist, is because of all the government interventionism.

00:41:40.000 I certainly would not have raised tariffs.

00:41:41.000 I certainly would not have moved toward government interventionism in the fiscal sector.

00:41:46.000 There are two theories, basically, in conservative circles for why the Great Depression happened in the first place.

00:41:52.000 One theory is the so-called tightening of the money theory, which is the Milton Friedman Chicago School of Economics, and they suggest that the Fed policy was too stingy, and therefore we needed to inject more money into the economy with a low inflation rate, which would have allowed people to retain their mortgages, for example.

00:42:08.000 I tend not to agree with Milton Friedman.

00:42:10.000 I'm more on the Vienna School of Economics on this thing, which suggests almost the opposite.

00:42:14.000 They almost argue the opposite.

00:42:15.000 They sort of argue that the Fed policy was too inflationary and the stock market was overvalued, and that's why you saw a stock market crash.

00:42:23.000 And that the only way to get out of it would have been to, if not tighten the grip on money, then to maintain the gold standard.

00:42:30.000 Now, the gold standard was technically maintained, but gold was revalued against the dollar under FDR on a pretty routine basis.

00:42:44.000 I don't think that there will be a choice if this continues.

00:42:46.000 And I know that there are institutional investors who are looking to do just that.

00:42:49.000 Well, the best ones from Shakespeare, I love his tragedies.

00:42:52.000 I'm not as big a fan of Shakespeare's comedies.

00:42:53.000 I enjoy them.

00:42:53.000 But his tragedies are, of course, his great masterpieces.

00:42:55.000 And those would be in order of my preference.

00:43:15.000 I'd probably go Hamlet over Lear, but it's really tight.

00:43:18.000 So maybe Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth, and then Othello.

00:43:22.000 Those are considered his four greatest works, and I agree with that.

00:43:26.000 And then I love his historical plays, too.

00:43:28.000 I really like Henry V, Julius Caesar is fantastic.

00:43:30.000 The thing about Shakespeare is virtually everything that he writes is relevant because so much of it is political.

00:43:35.000 So much of it is political.

00:43:37.000 I mean, I made a lot of leader references during the last election cycle with regard to how Trump treated members of the media who did his dirty work for him, people being sycophants in front of him.

00:43:47.000 I've made references to Hillary Clinton being a corrupt figure in search of power, a sort of Macbeth figure. 1.00

00:43:54.000 And when it comes to politics, Julius Caesar has a lot of reference to the politics of our age, how populism can be whipped up by a mob and then somebody can jump in front of it and use it for its own particular purposes, even if it started off well, right?

00:44:07.000 Even if it's Brutus trying to start a popular uprising against tyranny, somebody can jump in front of that and then misuse the movement, right?

00:44:13.000 That's very possible as well.

00:44:15.000 You see it with Bernie Sanders, I think to a certain extent you saw it with Trump.

00:44:17.000 So there are so many great Shakespeare plays that have contemporary relevance.

00:44:22.000 Isaac says, So as I've said, going back to a gold standard I think would be useful.

00:44:29.000 The way that you would do that is pegging the value of the dollar to the value of gold.

00:44:32.000 The reason I say that is because the value of gold doesn't change radically over time in terms of the amount of gold that's being discovered.

00:44:39.000 So it used to be

00:44:40.000 Thank you.

00:44:56.000 I think so.

00:45:12.000 Favorite director currently in Hollywood, if I've not made this clear, is Christopher Nolan.

00:45:16.000 Christopher Nolan followed by Christopher Nolan.

00:45:18.000 He's the best director working in Hollywood.

00:45:20.000 And top three movies made in the last ten years.

00:45:23.000 So I believe Lives of Others is just outside the realm.

00:45:27.000 What year was Lives of Others?

00:45:28.000 I think that Lives of Others was 2003?

00:45:30.000 2006.

00:45:30.000 So I just missed with Lives of Others.

00:45:34.000 The Dark Knight was 2007, right?

00:45:36.000 Was it 2007 or 2008?

00:45:39.000 Well, count that as the last 10 years.

00:45:41.000 So, 2008.

00:45:42.000 Whiplash, I loved.

00:45:43.000 I think Whiplash is a fantastic film.

00:45:46.000 And then, I'm trying to think of what my third film would be.

00:45:51.000 As I say, I love Nolan, so I really do like a lot of the movies that other people don't like of his.

00:45:55.000 I really like Interstellar.

00:45:57.000 People really like Dunkirk.

00:45:59.000 I like Interstellar.

00:46:00.000 I think Interstellar actually has a little more heart than Dunkirk.

00:46:05.000 You know, I'll have to go back and look at my list of the movies that I've liked over the past few years.

00:46:10.000 But those are the ones that pop to mind immediately.

00:46:15.000 Well, there is a constitutional obligation to protect non-citizens in the United States from being killed.

00:46:32.000 Right?

00:46:32.000 Like, you're not allowed to kill non-citizens.

00:46:34.000 If there's an immigrant in the United States illegally, I can't just drive down to the local Home Depot and bash a guy with a rock. 0.88

00:46:39.000 That's not a thing.

00:46:40.000 So that argument doesn't cut a lot of weight with me.

00:46:47.000 Well, the truth is that being homeless should be illegal.

00:46:50.000 It is illegal.

00:46:51.000 It is loitering.

00:46:52.000 The reason that the homeless population is so high is because local and state have really underfunded mental health services.

00:46:58.000 This one is on local government.

00:46:59.000 Local and state need to fund mental health services, and then when people are on the streets and are suffering from severe mental disorders, you know, they have schizophrenia, and they can't take care of themselves, it is evil to leave them out on the streets not taking their medication.

00:47:12.000 It is evil.

00:47:13.000 To suggest that it is an aspect of freedom to not take your medication and live in a delusional, paranoid world is insane.

00:47:19.000 It's bad for citizens.

00:47:20.000 It's bad for the homeless people.

00:47:22.000 It's really bad.

00:47:22.000 The vast majority of people who are homeless from the studies that I have seen have some sort of mental disability, are alcoholic, or are drug users.

00:47:29.000 You do not have the privilege of living on the streets.

00:47:31.000 My tax is paid for those streets.

00:47:33.000 I have as much access to those streets as you do.

00:47:35.000 And if you are occupying them, then you are loitering.

00:47:38.000 You're violating the law.

00:47:39.000 It's not that hard to clean up the homeless problem.

00:47:42.000 But you have to have some sympathy for people who are mentally ill and people who are drug users.

00:47:46.000 So I think that it's not a matter of just providing housing for the homeless.

00:47:49.000 A lot of people don't want to abide by the rules.

00:47:51.000 The rules are for everyone and you don't get to avoid them just because you wish to live on the streets.

00:48:12.000 Well, I think a lot of this changed after 9-11.

00:48:19.000 If you look at the 2000 election, I believe that George W. Bush actually won a plurality of Muslims in the United States in the 2000 election.

00:48:25.000 After 9-11, things radically shifted because foreign policy became the dividing line for a lot of Muslims in the West who saw Israel or American policy in Iraq or Afghanistan or profiling of Muslims as the chief political issue.

00:48:38.000 In terms of social issues,

00:48:40.000 Muslims, Jews, and Christians are basically on the same page.

00:48:42.000 In terms of economic issues, I think that there's a fair argument to be made by a lot of reform and moderate Muslims that conservative economics is on the same page as well.

00:48:50.000 Personal responsibility, messages that you actually have responsibility to people.

00:48:53.000 So I agree with you, but I think foreign policy, if you're moderate,

00:48:57.000 in the Muslim community, and you don't actually suffer from a lot of the delusions that I think some of the more radical members of the Muslim community suffer from, less so in the West, but more in other countries, then I think you're more likely to be on the conservative side of the aisle on all the other issues, and maybe vote Republican.

00:49:12.000 I've recommended a lot of fiction books on the show, I think.

00:49:15.000 My favorite is Moby Dick, so that is where I would start.

00:49:24.000 I'm also a big fan of Leon Uris as a writer.

00:49:26.000 He's kind of a fun writer if you just want fun writing.

00:49:29.000 One of my favorite books that nobody's ever heard of is a book called The Secret of Santa Vittoria by Robert Crichton.

00:49:33.000 So see if you can pick that one up on Amazon.

00:49:35.000 I love reading fiction.

00:49:36.000 I think I just recommended a few weeks ago a bunch of books, a bunch of fiction books by, what's the name of the author who did

00:49:43.000 Power of the Dog.

00:49:44.000 There's a bunch of, and Cartel, the Cartel.

00:49:48.000 Don Winslow.

00:49:49.000 I just recommended some fiction books by him two weeks ago, maybe.

00:49:52.000 So, go back and look at my entire things I like list.

00:49:55.000 I believe there are people online who actually keep tabs on all of these things.

00:49:58.000 So, we should.

00:49:58.000 At some point we probably will.

00:50:00.000 Ha ha ha.

00:50:02.000 But check that out.

00:50:03.000 Trevor says, Well, the answer there is that education, education, and education is the only solution.

00:50:06.000 The founders thought they had cured this problem.

00:50:08.000 Obviously not.

00:50:19.000 Parchment barriers are just parchment.

00:50:21.000 You require an educated population in order to maintain freedom.

00:50:24.000 This is why Ronald Reagan said that freedom is always one generation away from extinction.

00:50:28.000 That's why I'm optimistic that in an era in which freedom seems to be less and less respected, I always think freedom is one generation away from revival.

00:50:35.000 Justin says, Hey Ben, my friends are very anti-Israel.

00:50:38.000 A common argument they make is this.

00:50:39.000 Why do Jews get to rule their ancestral homeland after centuries of foreign occupation, but Native American tribes don't? 0.99

00:50:44.000 How would you respond to this?

00:50:45.000 They aren't religious, so any biblical arguments I try to make usually fall flat.

00:50:49.000 Well, I mean, the truth is that Native American tribes do have reservations.

00:50:52.000 I think that it's unjust how the reservations are created.

00:50:55.000 I think that American policy toward Native Americans has been historically quite awful.

00:51:01.000 But the idea that there is not Native American rule in these areas is not true.

00:51:05.000 I mean, federally speaking, these are territories that are independent

00:51:09.000 of state government, right?

00:51:10.000 Native American reservations are governed by federal law, so there actually is self-governance in Native American reservations.

00:51:17.000 The question is, what sort of culture do you think ought to have self-rule?

00:51:22.000 So the idea of a Jewish democracy, I think that should have self-rule because I think Judaism has values, Judaic values have values, and democracy has value, and I don't think these things are in conflict.

00:51:32.000 As far as Native American self-rule,

00:51:34.000 I think it would depend on the values that are being promulgated by various Native American communities.

00:51:38.000 I don't think all of the values are necessarily the same and kind of linking together all Native American tribes under one broad rubric.

00:51:45.000 I don't want to pretend knowledge where I don't have.

00:51:47.000 So my general rule is

00:51:51.000 If you can govern a country well, or a territory well, and if you have a historic claim to that area, then we can talk about it.

00:51:59.000 But when it comes to Native American tribes, there are some serious questions as to whether there's historic Native American claim to particular land, considering that there is no such concept in many cultures, in Native American culture originally, of private property or tribal ownership of particular property.

00:52:16.000 In other words, now we're sort of past that point.

00:52:18.000 But the idea of having sovereign Native American land is basically written into American law.

00:52:23.000 I mean, this has become a major issue with regard to Child Protective Services and the Indian, the Department of Indian Affairs, the Department of Native American Affairs.

00:52:32.000 All righty, so we have reached the end of this week's Mailback.

00:52:35.000 We'll be back here on Monday.

00:52:36.000 I'm sure, I'm sure that things will continue to burn down, because they always do.

00:52:40.000 And we'll be here to help you sift through the ashes.

00:52:43.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:52:43.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:52:48.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Mathis Bluver.

00:52:50.000 Executive producer, Jeremy Boring.

00:52:52.000 Senior producer, Jonathan Hay.

00:52:54.000 Our technical producer is Austin Stevens.

00:52:56.000 Edited by Alex Zingaro.

00:52:57.000 Audio is mixed by Mike Coromina.

00:52:59.000 Hair and makeup is by Jesua Alvera.

00:53:00.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire Forward Publishing production.

00:53:03.000 Copyright Forward Publishing 2018.

The Ben Shapiro Show - January 12, 2018

Of Trump and Haiti | Ep. 452

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript