The Ben Shapiro Show - Republicans vs. The FBI

00:00:00.000 So everyone is in a state of high excitement this morning in the economic sphere because the inflation numbers are in and they are slightly better than expected.

00:00:07.000 Down to 3% if you leave aside food and oil prices.

00:00:10.000 Of course it's kind of hard to leave aside food because food is clocking in still at a 4.8% rate of inflation.

00:00:18.000 of inflation over last year.

00:00:20.000 However, this is the lowest rate of inflation that's been recorded during the Biden administration, essentially, according to the Wall Street Journal.

00:00:26.000 Inflation cooled last month to its slowest pace in more than two years, giving Americans relief from a painful period of rising prices and boosting the chance that the Federal Reserve will stop raising interest rates after an expected increase this month.

00:00:36.000 The CPI climbed 3% in June from a year earlier.

00:00:38.000 The Labor Department said on Wednesday that it's sharply lower than the recent peak inflation rate of 9.1% in June 2022.

00:00:44.000 When gas prices hit a U.S.

00:00:45.000 record average of $5 a gallon, the June rate declined from 4% in May.

00:00:49.000 Inflation was last close to 3% in March of 2021.

00:00:52.000 Now remember, they're searching for 2% inflation, so 3% is still 50% higher than it normally ought to be.

00:00:58.000 With that said, Whenever you have a 3% inflation rate on top of, say, like, a 9% inflation rate, what we're talking about is, since, you know, two years ago, an inflation rate of 12%, which is still way, way, way too high.

00:01:09.000 What this is sort of foreshadowing, for those who are watching in the economic sphere, is the idea that the Federal Reserve is going to stop raising those interest rates.

00:01:17.000 And, of course, raising the interest rates makes it very difficult for people to access liquidity.

00:01:22.000 If they cannot access liquidity, it makes it hard for them to buy things, and therefore, the economy ends up being slowed.

00:01:28.000 That's sort of the theory.

00:01:29.000 So if the idea here is that the Federal Reserve is now going to stop increasing the interest rates, then perhaps we escape recession because the jobs market continues to be strong.

00:01:37.000 We haven't really seen a fall off in terms of investment as of yet.

00:01:40.000 The stock market has not crashed as of yet.

00:01:42.000 I am a little bit less sanguine for a wide variety of reasons.

00:01:46.000 So one of the reasons I'm a little bit less sanguine than others is because I think that the bite is happening.

00:01:50.000 It's just not been really measured yet.

00:01:52.000 It's particularly true when it comes to things like mortgages and real estate.

00:01:56.000 The situation with regard to mortgages is truly out of control.

00:02:00.000 If you look at the mortgage rates right now and the mortgage math, mortgage math right now is absolutely brutal.

00:02:04.000 If you're seeking to buy a home, now is an awful time to buy a home.

00:02:08.000 Austin Allred, who's co-founder and CEO of BloomTech, points out, the new mortgage math is brutal.

00:02:14.000 Say you buy a $1 million house with $200,000 down at a 7% rate.

00:02:15.000 with $200,000 down at a 7% rate.

00:02:18.000 Over the first three years, you would pay $193,000, which is 5,300 bucks a month.

00:02:23.000 After that, your $800,000 mortgage is still at $700,000.

00:02:26.000 So you paid $166,000 in interest and $26,000 in principal.

00:02:32.000 So right now you have wildly high rates of interest, plus you have very, very high rates of amortization.

00:02:40.000 So what that means is that the generalized mortgage interest rate is really high and most of the money that you're paying back is going to pay off the interest as opposed to paying back the original principal.

00:02:51.000 So, it makes it very hard, in other words, for people to buy houses right now, and we haven't really seen that bite yet, but it's going to happen, and the market is going to drop pretty precipitously in real estate.

00:03:00.000 People, on a personal level, will ask me about buying a house, and again, don't take this as financial advice, but I've told people, who I'm personally close to, that I'd wait a few months, because I think the prices are really going to dump in a lot of areas.

00:03:12.000 Also, underlying inflation still remains double the Fed target right now.

00:03:17.000 Financial conditions are as loose, are still looser than in the fall of 2002.

00:03:21.000 They did not tighten in 2023, which means there's still a lot of excess capital in the system that is yet to be pushed out at this point.

00:03:28.000 So if the Fed, I think, preemptively stops increasing the interest rates, there's still going to be a lot of loose money out there.

00:03:34.000 And that sort of loose money out there is going to continue to promote inflation, embedded inflation.

00:03:39.000 And you can see how much we've already gotten used to this because we hit a 3% rate everybody celebrates.

00:03:43.000 Whereas, you know, three years ago, if you had said to people, we have a 3% interest rate, year on year, everybody would have been a little bit freaked out.

00:03:51.000 It's also true that we have seen months before, like in the very recent past, in which the interest rates, in which the inflation rates actually dropped fairly precipitously, and that was not followed by a pattern of inflation rate decreases.

00:04:06.000 So for example, if you look back at like March of 2022, The percent change in the consumer price index was 0.3% and that was then followed by another spike.

00:04:16.000 The same thing happened in July of 2022.

00:04:18.000 The same thing happened in October and November of 2022.

00:04:20.000 So you see decreases and then those are followed by increases.

00:04:23.000 So until we know what's going to happen in the next month, we're really not going to know whether this is a lasting trend or whether this is just an outlier month.

00:04:31.000 So for the Federal Reserve not to increase the interest rates means they're probably leaving too much liquidity in the system.

00:04:35.000 Meanwhile, The Biden administration continues to pour money into the system, which makes no sense at all.

00:04:42.000 According to the Wall Street Journal and Greg Ip, the U.S.

00:04:46.000 government has embarked on the most sweeping foray into industrial policy in generations.

00:04:49.000 Congress has enacted hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies for semiconductors, renewable energy, and infrastructure.

00:04:54.000 President Biden, like President Trump before him, has used tariffs, export controls, and buy American policies to both bolster domestic industries and counter China.

00:05:01.000 And that industrial policy is kind of just money that's being helicoptered around.

00:05:04.000 There's not like a specific goal for a lot of that money.

00:05:06.000 The risk is obvious, says Ip.

00:05:08.000 Without a coherent economic framework, industrial policy is more likely to fail and discredit the

00:05:12.000 entire concept.

00:05:12.000 This wasn't a big deal when industrial policy mostly consisted of small ticket projects.

00:05:17.000 Federal loans to Solyndra were only $535 million.

00:05:19.000 Today, it's big bucks.

00:05:21.000 The Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed devoted $18 billion to development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

00:05:27.000 And of course, the Biden administration and Bidenomics is entirely predicated on spending more money.

00:05:33.000 So the notion that inflation is done or that the economy has escaped recession, I think it's a little bit early for people to jump on that bandwagon at this point.

00:05:42.000 I mean, listen, I hope that we avoid recession too.

00:05:45.000 Recession is bad for everybody.

00:05:46.000 However, it seems to me that we have spent a long time assuming the laws of gravity do not exist in the financial sphere, which is why you ended up with 40-year highs in inflation.

00:05:54.000 And so what you'll end up with on the other end of this is either economic stagnation, very, very slow growth, or outright recession.

00:06:00.000 In just one second, we'll get to the FBI head being grilled by Republicans on the Hill.

00:06:05.000 First, you know a company is looking out for you when they actually upgrade their service, and you don't actually get charged for that.

00:06:11.000 This is great news for new and current PeerTalk customers.

00:06:14.000 PeerTalk just added data to every plan and includes a mobile hotspot with no price increase whatsoever.

00:06:18.000 If you've considered PeerTalk before, but you haven't made the switch, take a look again.

00:06:22.000 For just $20 a month, you get unlimited talk text and now 50% more 5G data plus their new mobile hotspot.

00:06:27.000 This is why I love PeerTalk.

00:06:28.000 They are veteran-owned, and they only hire the best customer service team located right here in the great United States of America.

00:06:33.000 Most families are saving almost $1,000 a year while enjoying the most dependable 5G network in America.

00:06:37.000 Remember, you vote with how you spend your money, so stop supporting companies that actually hate your guts.

00:06:42.000 Peertalk.com slash Shapiro is the way to go.

00:06:44.000 I've been getting all my business coverage from them.

00:06:45.000 You should do the same.

00:06:46.000 You'll save an additional 50% off your very first month because they actually value you.

00:06:50.000 That's Peertalk.com slash Shapiro.

00:06:52.000 Peertalk is wireless for Americans by Americans.

00:06:54.000 I know their coverage is great because, again, I use it, their coverage, and you should do the same.

00:06:58.000 Go check them out right now.

00:06:59.000 Puretalk.com slash Shapiro.

00:07:01.000 Save an additional 50% off your very first month of coverage.

00:07:04.000 That's puretalk.com slash Shapiro.

00:07:07.000 Okay, so, meanwhile, the backdrop to the FBI hearing that happened yesterday.

00:07:13.000 66% of voters are now concerned that cheating is going to affect the outcome of the 2024 election.

00:07:16.000 That includes 64% of independents.

00:07:17.000 Rasmussen Reports recently did a series of polls in which they showed just how deep this

00:07:22.000 distrust goes.

00:07:23.000 Here is what they found leading up to the 2024 election.

00:07:26.000 66% of voters are now concerned that cheating is going to affect the outcome of the 2024

00:07:30.000 election.

00:07:31.000 That includes 64% of independents.

00:07:34.000 By the way, a majority of Democrats say that they are either very or somewhat concerned

00:07:39.000 about the possibility of cheating affecting the outcome of the 2024 elections.

00:07:42.000 To pretend this is a partisan thing, it really isn't a partisan thing.

00:07:45.000 There's a bipartisan concern that voting is not going to be reflected in the actual outcome.

00:07:50.000 Not a shock, because Democrats spent Five, six years propagandizing to their own followers that Republicans were going to rig the vote in a wide variety of ways, ranging from gerrymandering to preventing black people from voting.

00:08:01.000 And meanwhile, Republicans were claiming in the 2020 election that it was outright stolen.

00:08:04.000 So of course, most people believe at this point that the election is going to be harmed in some way by voter disreputable activities affecting the vote.

00:08:14.000 64% of voters think the FBI has become politically weaponized, including 50% of Democrats and 61% of Independents.

00:08:21.000 59% of voters think the media is truly the enemy of the people.

00:08:24.000 That includes 44% of Democrats.

00:08:28.000 65% of Americans say that undercover government agents helped provoke the January 6th Capitol riot.

00:08:33.000 Believe it or not, according to Rasmussen, that even includes some 53% of Democrats.

00:08:38.000 Sorry, 59% of Democrats.

00:08:44.000 63% say that our current president enriched himself with a pay-for-play scheme with foreign governments, including apparently 42% of Democrats.

00:08:50.000 Now, listen, Rasmussen, it's polling, sometimes it's off, but what this says to me overall is that there's tremendous American distrust in the institutions.

00:08:58.000 A lot of that distrust is well-earned.

00:08:59.000 I don't think it manifests in ways that are necessarily reflective of the truth.

00:09:02.000 I think people have a tendency, just as a general rule, to spot patterns and then use those patterns and attribute too much to the patterns.

00:09:09.000 And so what that means is that if they see one person being corrupt, or if they see the media routinely ignoring corruption, that means that this particular iteration of a question must end up demonstrating corruption.

00:09:22.000 With that said, the distrust of the FBI is well earned.

00:09:25.000 We now have Inspector General Reports talking about how the FBI essentially laundered into public view Hillary Clinton led oppo against Donald Trump in the 2016 election.

00:09:35.000 That's pretty obvious at this point.

00:09:36.000 We also know that the FBI was pressuring social media to take down particular posts during the 2020 election.

00:09:41.000 All of that has been well substantiated at this point.

00:09:44.000 So, yesterday, Chris Wray, who was originally a Donald Trump appointee, He went on the hill and he strongly defended his workforce in testimony before Congress, where he faced hours of combative questioning by Republicans accusing the agency of overzealously targeting their party, namely former President Trump and his supporters, according to the Wall Street Journal.

00:10:01.000 The appearance was raised first before the House Judiciary Committee since Republicans took control.

00:10:05.000 The panel's chairman, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, who we like on this program, launched an investigation of what he decried on Wednesday as the weaponization of the government against the American people.

00:10:14.000 Ray then pushed back, focusing on the everyday FBI agents.

00:10:16.000 Now listen, they do this all the time, and it's true of virtually every major American institution.

00:10:21.000 The leadership will do something really bad, and they'll filter it down to their top deputies.

00:10:25.000 The stuff with the Hillary Clinton campaign, that was being done by top members of the FBI.

00:10:31.000 We're not talking about the low-level agents.

00:10:32.000 We're not talking about the guys who are actually working the beat.

00:10:35.000 The people who are doing the street interviews with folks.

00:10:37.000 Those people are awesome.

00:10:38.000 I know a lot of the people who work for the FBI at those levels, and they're great.

00:10:41.000 I've dealt with them on a routine basis, including in terms of my family's personal safety.

00:10:45.000 I trust those guys without a doubt.

00:10:47.000 Do I trust the heads of the FBI?

00:10:49.000 Not given the activities that they have pursued.

00:10:51.000 It's sort of like, you know, a badly run police department, like Los Angeles or Chicago.

00:10:56.000 And you have the political appointees at the top of the police department very often.

00:11:00.000 And then when you criticize, then they're like, yeah, well, the everyday cop is doing a good job.

00:11:03.000 Yeah, the everyday cop is doing a good job.

00:11:05.000 You're not doing a good job.

00:11:06.000 The same thing happens with regard to the military.

00:11:07.000 You'll have a critique of Mark Milley, for example, chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

00:11:11.000 He'll say that that guy seems pretty PC.

00:11:13.000 And then he'll say, well, the everyday soldier is doing, yes, I know the everyday soldier is doing his job.

00:11:17.000 The same thing is true at the FBI.

00:11:19.000 When the court says the FBI misled, that's a nice way of saying they lied.

00:11:22.000 American people goes way beyond the one or two investigations that seem to capture all

00:11:24.000 the headlines. I mean, I'm sure, again, that that is true, but that does not fix the problem

00:11:28.000 of systemic issues at the top levels of the FBI.

00:11:31.000 Here's Representative Jim Jordan on voting on Chris Wray.

00:11:35.000 When the court says the FBI misled, that's a nice way of saying they lied. They lied.

00:11:41.000 And as a result, important information was kept from we, the people, days before the

00:11:46.000 most important election we have, election of President United States, election of the

00:11:51.000 Commander-in-Chief.

00:11:52.000 American speech is censored, parents are called terrorists, Catholics are called radicals, and I haven't even talked about the spying that took place of a presidential campaign or the raiding of a former president's home.

00:12:04.000 But maybe what's more frightening is what happens if you come forward and tell Congress.

00:12:09.000 If you're a whistleblower, come tell the legislature, come tell the Congress what's going on.

00:12:15.000 Look out.

00:12:16.000 You will be retaliated against.

00:12:19.000 Okay, so those accusations, I think, are very well taken.

00:12:22.000 And a lot of Americans believe that.

00:12:24.000 By the way, on both sides, I don't think that that is necessarily a Republican talking point.

00:12:28.000 Wray, in response, said that it's insane to say that he's biased against conservatives.

00:12:32.000 Well, he may not be personally biased against conservatives, but the department certainly has been run in a way that has been biased against conservatives.

00:12:38.000 We've had multiple reports of the FBI targeting, for example, particular religious groups. Religious Catholics, for

00:12:45.000 example, were targeted at one point. If you're a traditionalist Catholic, it was suggested that you were a

00:12:48.000 threat to the republic. Here's Representative Harriet Hageman from Wyoming, who is going

00:12:53.000 after Ray and Ray going back at her.

00:12:55.000 Director Ray, what are you prepared to do to reform federal law enforcement in a manner

00:13:00.000 which earns back the trust of the American people? Well, first off, I would disagree with

00:13:05.000 your characterization of the FBI and certainly your description of my own approach.

00:13:09.000 the world.

00:13:10.000 The idea that I'm biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me, given my own personal background.

00:13:20.000 Okay, and again, I'm not blaming Chris Wray on a personal level.

00:13:24.000 However, there's no question the FBI has pursued particular issues that are way outside of its purview and that are clearly political in nature.

00:13:32.000 Not only are Republicans critical, of course, of the FBI movement against Trump during the Trump administration and afterward, they're also very critical of the Hunter Biden plea deal.

00:13:41.000 It seems very obvious at this point that Hunter Biden got a sweetheart deal.

00:13:44.000 And again, I think that the evidence tends to show that the IRS whistleblower, Gary Shapley, has a good case to make that the DOJ was basically interfered with by Merrick Garland at the top of the DOJ to prevent a broader prosecution of Hunter Biden.

00:14:00.000 Republicans are also very upset at the FBI's use of FISA warrants to target members of the Trump campaign.

00:14:06.000 They're also very upset at the FBI's use of social media.

00:14:08.000 They're very upset about the discrimination against Catholics.

00:14:12.000 So, a lot of these sorts of issues have been creeping for a long time.

00:14:17.000 We'll get to more of how Chris Wray responded to those issues in just one second.

00:14:20.000 First...

00:14:22.000 We have a dog.

00:14:23.000 His name is Happy.

00:14:23.000 And he's a really, really good dog.

00:14:25.000 He's a great dog.

00:14:26.000 This dog, I mean, he's so nice to the kids.

00:14:29.000 He's getting used to the baby now.

00:14:30.000 It's really, really cute.

00:14:31.000 Well, we want Happy to live a long and healthy life.

00:14:33.000 This is why we give him Rough Greens every single morning.

00:14:36.000 The dog food you've been giving your dog?

00:14:37.000 That is dead food.

00:14:38.000 It doesn't have that much nutritional value.

00:14:40.000 Brown food doesn't exactly scream nutrition, but green food does.

00:14:43.000 Rough Greens.

00:14:44.000 Boosts Happy's food back to life.

00:14:45.000 It can do the same for your dog.

00:14:46.000 You don't have to go out and buy new dog food.

00:14:47.000 Just sprinkle Rough Greens on their food every day.

00:14:49.000 It contains all the necessary vitamins and minerals your dog is not getting from their regular dog food.

00:14:53.000 Again, Happy loves his Rough Greens.

00:14:55.000 Basically demands it by name.

00:14:57.000 Get it?

00:14:57.000 He... Rough... Any case, naturopathic Dr. Dennis Black, the founder of Rough Greens, is so confident that this product will improve your dog's health.

00:15:04.000 He's offering my listeners a free jumpstart trial bag today.

00:15:06.000 Go to freeroughgreens.com slash Ben.

00:15:08.000 Let Rough Greens bring your dog's food back to life. 0.88

00:15:10.000 That's free.

00:15:11.000 R-U-F-F greens.com slash Ben today or call 833 MY DOG 33.

00:15:14.000 That is 833 MY DOG 33.

00:15:16.000 Go check it out today.

00:15:17.000 833 MY DOG 33 or freeroughgreens.com slash Ben.

00:15:19.000 it out today. 833-MYDOG33 or free roughgreens.com slash them. Okay, so meanwhile, Chris Wray again,

00:15:27.000 he was being grilled on the Hill yesterday and he was chided by a multiplicity of Republicans

00:15:31.000 over the FBI colluding with big tech.

00:15:33.000 I mean, this is a real story, considering that a federal judge has now ruled that the FBI and members of the Biden administration should not be doing outreach to social media to try and bully them to take down particular posts.

00:15:45.000 We had this explosive, explosive 155-page opinion from a federal court in my home state of Louisiana.

00:15:51.000 It explains in detail that the FBI has been directly involved in what the court says is, quote, arguably the most massive attack against free speech in United States history.

00:16:02.000 The court ordered the White House, DOJ, and FBI, among others, to immediately cease colluding with and coercing social media companies to suppress American speech.

00:16:12.000 Of course, conservative speech in particular.

00:16:14.000 Director Wray, I find it stunning.

00:16:16.000 You made no mention of this court opinion either in your opening statement today or in this lengthy 14-page report that you prepared on July 12th, which is eight days after the court ruling.

00:16:27.000 That is Representative Mike Johnson going after Chris Wray.

00:16:30.000 In the middle of all of this, Chris Wray made sort of a shocking admission.

00:16:34.000 So he was asked about the idea of particular companies turning over information to the FBI that really they shouldn't be giving to the FBI.

00:16:41.000 And Wray said, yeah, you know, Bank of America turns over information to us all the time.

00:16:45.000 This is Thomas Massey, the congressman from Kentucky, going after Chris Wray here and Wray responding in a way that should bother all of us.

00:16:53.000 There is such a thing as the Fourth Amendment, unreasonable search and seizure.

00:16:56.000 In the specific instance that you're asking about, my understanding is that that information was shared with field offices for information only, but then recalled to avoid even the appearance of any kind of overreach.

00:17:09.000 But my understanding is that that's a fully lawful process.

00:17:13.000 Was there a warrant involved?

00:17:16.000 Again, my understanding is that the institution in question shared information with us, as happens all the time.

00:17:23.000 Did you request the information?

00:17:24.000 I can't speak to the specifics.

00:17:26.000 Okay, well we've got an email where it says the FBI did give the search queries to Bank of America, and Bank of America responded to the FBI and gave over this information without a search warrant.

00:17:41.000 So the thing that he is talking about here, Massey, is apparently the FBI received from Bank of America actual purchase records for gun purchases for anybody that was a Bank of America customer.

00:17:53.000 So the question is, why is that stuff being turned over to the federal government?

00:17:56.000 Is there a rational basis for that sort of information being even requested by the federal government?

00:18:01.000 Did they turn over voluntarily?

00:18:02.000 Why is there this cozy relationship between corporations and the FBI such that they're voluntarily turning over customer information?

00:18:09.000 Chairman, I've counted in this hearing, and we're only about an hour and a half in, the use of the word laptop about 20 times.

00:18:15.000 sweetheart deal. Eric Swalwell, a person who is actively sleeping with a Chinese spy. He

00:18:20.000 was defending the FBI. It's amazing to watch Democrats suddenly turn to defend the FBI.

00:18:24.000 Chairman, I've counted in this hearing, and we're only about an hour and a half in, the

00:18:31.000 use of the word laptop about 20 times. In fact, in the chairman's opening statement,

00:18:36.000 he said that he's upset that he believes the FBI prevented more Americans from learning

00:18:42.000 about a private citizen's laptop.

00:18:46.000 That is bananas to me.

00:18:50.000 You all are bringing up FISA every single question.

00:18:54.000 You're essentially saying to the American people that you're guardians of personal security and privacy, but the 2020 election Was determined because the FBI didn't let more Americans see a private citizen's non-consensual nudes?

00:19:16.000 Is that what we're saying here?

00:19:20.000 So that is Eric Swalwell defending the FBI going after social media and attempting to get them to take down the Hunter Biden post in the lead up to the October of the November 2020 election.

00:19:30.000 It was in October 2020 they tried to actually stop all of social media from posting that stuff on the basis falsely that it was Russian disinformation.

00:19:38.000 All of this, again, the willingness of Democrats to defend the FBI in the face of some of these allegations, you wonder about comedy, you wonder about polarization.

00:19:46.000 This would be one of the reasons.

00:19:47.000 When the FBI is overtly putting its thumb on the scales and Democrats are cheering for it, that's going to be a real problem for institutional trust in the United States.

00:19:55.000 Well, as I said before, this sometimes manifests in ways that are not particularly smart.

00:19:59.000 We'll get to that momentarily first.

00:20:01.000 Let's talk about your financial future.

00:20:02.000 You need to set yourself up for success.

00:20:04.000 One way that you set yourself up for failure is by taking out credit cards and then spending a lot on the credit cards and then you get behind the eight ball with the interest rates.

00:20:11.000 Well, here's the thing.

00:20:12.000 If you've got a high credit score, you have more power than you think.

00:20:14.000 It's time to leverage that score to consolidate your debt as interest rates may continue to rise.

00:20:18.000 A credit card consolidation loan from Lightstream can help you pay off your credit cards and

00:20:21.000 lock in a low fixed interest rate.

00:20:24.000 Rates start at 8.99% APR with auto pay and excellent credit plus the rate is fixed so

00:20:27.000 it's not going to increase over the life of the loan.

00:20:29.000 You can get a loan from five grand to a hundred grand without any fees.

00:20:31.000 You can even get your money as soon as the day you apply.

00:20:34.000 Lightstream believes that people with good credits deserve a better loan experience.

00:20:36.000 That's exactly what they deliver.

00:20:38.000 Just for my listeners, apply now to get a special interest rate discount and save even

00:20:41.000 The only way to get this discount is to head on over to LightStream.com slash Shapiro.

00:20:45.000 That's L-I-G-H-T-S-T-R-E-A-M dot com slash Shapiro.

00:20:50.000 Subject to credit approval, rates range from 8.99% APR to 24.99% APR and include 0.50% auto pay discount.

00:20:56.000 Lowest rate requires excellent credit.

00:20:58.000 Terms and conditions apply.

00:20:59.000 Offers are subject to change without notice.

00:21:00.000 Visit LightStream.com slash Shapiro for more information.

00:21:04.000 Okay.

00:21:05.000 As I say, institutional distrust very often earned at this point in American life, and that is a result of the sort of ultra crepedarian nation and nature of the institutions. 1.00

00:21:14.000 So ultra crepedarianism is a word that just means acting outside of your purview.

00:21:18.000 So if you're a mathematician and you suddenly start opining on religion, you are now operating in ultra crepedarian fashion. 0.66

00:21:24.000 Right, outside your realm of expertise.

00:21:26.000 Well, the FBI has now expanded into nearly every arena of American life.

00:21:30.000 Just as, quote-unquote, the science has expanded into nearly every area of American life.

00:21:34.000 Just like the federal government overall has expanded into nearly every area of American life.

00:21:39.000 And it turns out, the more things that agencies try to do, the worse they do them.

00:21:42.000 And if they do them badly, people start distrusting them.

00:21:45.000 And then in an effort to regain the trust, the institutions try to do even more.

00:21:47.000 And now you have this toxic cycle where an institution fails, people distrust the institution, the institution therefore tries to do more things, and then the institution fails.

00:21:55.000 And the only way to fix that is to do fewer things better, but the institutions aren't doing that.

00:22:00.000 Well, one problematic side effect of all of that is that this very often leads people to believe that everything the institution is doing is corrupt or bad.

00:22:08.000 Or that the institution is always lying, when it turns out the institution is only sometimes lying.

00:22:13.000 Well, this brings up the case of Ray Epps.

00:22:16.000 So, Ray Epps is a theory that he's a person who is a Trump supporter.

00:22:21.000 He was originally a former member of the Oath Keepers.

00:22:24.000 And Ray Epps became sort of national news in the aftermath of the January 6th riots.

00:22:29.000 So, the day before the riots, Ray Epps was caught on camera telling people that they were going to go into the Capitol building.

00:22:36.000 In fact, we have video of Epps encouraging people to enter the Capitol.

00:22:39.000 This would have been on January 5th. 0.99

00:22:41.000 Americans are terrorists! 1.00

00:22:43.000 Yes, you are! 0.99

00:23:11.000 Okay, and you can see people around him screaming, no, Fed, Fed, Fed, Fed, Fed, right?

00:23:15.000 Like, even at the time, people are screaming at him that he is a federal agent and that he's actually encouraging people to go into the Capitol so they will then be arrested.

00:23:22.000 Well, then, of course, people did go into the Capitol and they were arrested.

00:23:26.000 Ray Epps was present at January 6th, but he didn't end up being arrested.

00:23:31.000 And so this led to a lot of questions among people on the right that maybe he was a Fed,

00:23:35.000 that maybe actually January 6th was in part propagated by members of the federal government.

00:23:41.000 So Representative Nels yesterday, this was Troy Nels of Texas, he asked Chris Wray yesterday,

00:23:47.000 are you, when are you going to arrest Wray Epps? Like, why is it that he wasn't arrested?

00:23:50.000 Are you going to arrest Mr. Epps? Yes or no?

00:23:55.000 I'm not going to engage here in a discussion about individual people who are or are not.

00:24:01.000 Okay, here we go.

00:24:02.000 Can I get a commitment?

00:24:02.000 You just watched the video.

00:24:04.000 I'm an old law dog.

00:24:05.000 I understand a little bit about probable cause.

00:24:08.000 He did very little, there was very little difference what he did and Mr. Strecker, you can see him.

00:24:13.000 He's encouraging, I almost think he's inciting a riot.

00:24:16.000 He's encouraging people, the night prior, to go into the Capitol.

00:24:19.000 The day of, go into the Capitol.

00:24:22.000 And he was at the first breach.

00:24:24.000 And he breached the restricted area.

00:24:26.000 Everybody, a lot of people getting arrested for not going into the Capitol, but they're in the restricted area.

00:24:31.000 But yet, Ray Epps, who many people feel fed, fed, fed, right?

00:24:36.000 And there's a lot of clout over this.

00:24:38.000 So my point is this.

00:24:39.000 You arrested a lot of folks for unlawful activity.

00:24:42.000 You just saw the video.

00:24:43.000 And I will tell you, Mr. Ray, if you don't arrest Mr. Epps, there's a reason behind it.

00:24:48.000 I believe you know what it is.

00:24:49.000 And it appears to me you are protecting this guy.

00:24:54.000 Okay, so then the Ray Epps issue was brought more fully out by Chris Ray.

00:24:59.000 Here's Chris Ray trying to go after Tucker Carlson for propagating all of these theories about Ray Epps.

00:25:06.000 I think Tucker Carlson and some of the members' colleagues on the other side of the aisle have said that Ray Epps was a secret government agent helping encourage this crime so as to make the president look bad.

00:25:18.000 Do you have any knowledge of Ray Epps being a secret government agent?

00:25:24.000 No.

00:25:25.000 I will say this notion that somehow the violence at the Capitol on January 6th was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and agents is ludicrous and is a disservice to our brave, hardworking, dedicated men and women.

00:25:44.000 Okay, so again, he's trying to rely on, like, the day-to-day FBI agents doing their job to say that the Ray Epps thing is no big deal and federal agents were not involved with any of this.

00:25:53.000 Then Ray was asked if there were confidential human sources on January 6th.

00:25:56.000 Confidential human sources would mean, like, informants on January 6th.

00:26:00.000 And here's his answer.

00:26:01.000 Former Capitol Police Chief Stevenson reportedly has asserted that the protest crowd was filled with federal agents Are you aware of his assertion?

00:26:15.000 I am not.

00:26:16.000 Would you agree with him that it was filled with federal agents on January 6th?

00:26:22.000 I would really have to see more closely exactly what he said and get the full context to be able to evaluate it.

00:26:28.000 How many agents or human resources were present at the Capitol Complex and vicinity on January 6th?

00:26:38.000 Well, again, it's going to get confusing because it depends on when we deployed and responded to the breach.

00:26:46.000 Okay, so he's trying to avoid the question here.

00:26:48.000 And you wonder why people are suspicious.

00:26:49.000 This is the reason that people are suspicious.

00:26:51.000 Because the federal government won't tell you how many people were actually there working for the federal government who are in the crowd.

00:26:57.000 And this is why pretty much every time there's any right-wing activity that seems bad, there's now a hue and cry that arises on Twitter suggesting that many of the people who are involved are federal agents.

00:27:06.000 Specifically because of the lack of transparency on issues like this.

00:27:10.000 And when you combine that with the investigation into the attempted kidnapping

00:27:15.000 of the Michigan governor, Richard Whitmer, which involved federal agents

00:27:20.000 who are actively inciting people into criminal activity, there are a lot of questions to be asked about all of this.

00:27:26.000 Now, does that mean that Ray Epps actually was a federal agent?

00:27:29.000 Does it actually mean that Ray Epps was activated by the FBI

00:27:33.000 and that's the reason that he didn't end up being prosecuted?

00:27:35.000 Not necessarily, and this presumably is why Fox News is now being sued by Ray Epps.

00:27:39.000 According to the Washington Post, Ray Epps, the man at the center

00:27:43.000 of a widespread conspiracy theory about the attack on the Capitol on January 6th,

00:27:47.000 has now filed a lawsuit on Wednesday accusing Fox News and Tucker Carlson of defamation

00:27:50.000 for promoting a quote-unquote fantastical story that Epps was an undercover government agent

00:27:54.000 who instigated the violence at the Capitol as a way to disparage then-President Trump

00:27:58.000 and his supporters.

00:27:59.000 Fox News has not issued any sort of response for comment.

00:28:02.000 We don't know how much the lawsuit is for.

00:28:04.000 He's speaking an unspecified amount in damages.

00:28:07.000 Again, this is based on monologues like this one from Tucker way back in the way.

00:28:10.000 Here is Tucker going after Ray Epps when he was on Fox News.

00:28:14.000 According to the Justice Department, what Ray Epps did on that video is a federal crime.

00:28:20.000 In fact, the Biden administration has charged several people with seditious conspiracy for doing precisely what you just saw Ray Epps do, urging others to enter the Capitol complex on January 6th.

00:28:30.000 Here, for example, is a quote from a DOJ press release.

00:28:33.000 It describes the federal case against five members of the so-called Proud Boys, a group you're supposed to be terrified of.

00:28:38.000 Quote, on January 6th, 2021, the Defendants directed, mobilized, and led members of the crowd onto the Capitol grounds and into the Capitol."

00:28:48.000 Again, that's what you just saw Ray Epps try to do.

00:28:52.000 But here's the difference.

00:28:54.000 Others who have done that are in prison or facing long terms in prison.

00:28:58.000 But no charges have ever been filed against Ray Epps, despite the fact there's no question he did it because, once more, it's on tape.

00:29:05.000 That's very strange.

00:29:06.000 It just is.

00:29:08.000 And we don't care how many people call us names for pointing that out.

00:29:10.000 It is strange.

00:29:11.000 And we'd like an answer to what the heck is going on.

00:29:13.000 Okay, so the questions are one thing.

00:29:18.000 The question as to whether he actually did the thing that he's accused of doing on January 6th is nothing.

00:29:21.000 So we have him on tape January 5th saying, go into the Capitol building.

00:29:24.000 Then there was tape that emerged of him whispering to one of the people who essentially then overran the barriers on January 6th.

00:29:32.000 So apparently, he was standing directly next to another person, that person's name is Ryan Samsel, and Ryan Samsel then breaches the barriers.

00:29:40.000 And so there was a lot of speculation that he was actually telling Ryan Samsel to breach the barriers.

00:29:44.000 However, according to the New York Times, Samsel was then questioned by the FBI and then fully corroborated Epps' version of events in which Epps said that he actually told Samsel to calm down.

00:29:55.000 Samsel said, quote, he came up to me and he said, dude, relax, the cops are doing their job.

00:30:00.000 Epps was able to prove that he had left the Capitol before the violence even began in earnest.

00:30:03.000 So he wasn't one of the people who actually breached the Capitol.

00:30:05.000 He was just present on January 6th.

00:30:08.000 And a couple of days later when his name and face started appearing on the TV, he called up the FBI and offered to help.

00:30:14.000 So that is the sort of innocuous reason why presumably he was not prosecuted.

00:30:19.000 With that said, again, this all underscores the level of institutional distrust that is now endemic, not only on the right wing, but also in the right wing media.

00:30:28.000 Epps, for his part, says he had no contact with the FBI and that he did meet with the FBI after the attacks.

00:30:32.000 Here's Epps explaining himself.

00:30:34.000 We literally hung up the phone and walked right into the house, sat down and called the FBI.

00:30:39.000 Do you remember what you said to the FBI?

00:30:41.000 I told them who I was and that I would cooperate in any way I could.

00:30:45.000 I didn't break any laws.

00:30:47.000 Two months later, he met with agents.

00:30:49.000 So when we met with the FBI, I mean, it was like, finally, we're going to clear this up.

00:30:54.000 There was no, I take the fifth, there was none of that.

00:30:57.000 It was just like, we're talking right now.

00:30:59.000 I went through everything and they had a lot of questions.

00:31:03.000 So, again, does this mean that Ray Epps was the most innocent of the innocent?

00:31:08.000 No.

00:31:08.000 Does it mean that Ray Epps is a federal agent?

00:31:10.000 Also no. 0.98

00:31:11.000 And one of the things that people tend to do is because, again, I tend to attribute nearly everything to stupidity rather than malice, because I just don't think people are all that competent. 0.99

00:31:19.000 But when you see the stupidity falling in one direction over and over and over and over, 0.99

00:31:24.000 people tend to over attribute and everything is very quick to fall into 0.99

00:31:28.000 an overall broader pattern recognition that we have.

00:31:31.000 And so it's not, you can see why people think or would think that Ray Epps was a federal agent,

00:31:36.000 specifically not because of, not just because of the tape of Epps the night before

00:31:40.000 saying that he wanted to run to the Capitol, but also because of generalized distrust of the FBI,

00:31:43.000 an FBI that still will not tell you how many active federal agents they had in the crowd

00:31:47.000 on January 6th.

00:31:49.000 Again, just one second, we'll get to the updates on Ukraine first.

00:31:51.000 You might have been one of the tens of millions of people who watched Netflix's hit show, Making a Murderer.

00:31:55.000 If so, you're gonna love Daily Wire Plus's new exclusive 10-part docuseries with Candace Owens, Convicting a Murderer, that is coming this summer.

00:32:01.000 There's no such thing as your truth, there's only the truth.

00:32:03.000 While it seems like we're living in a world where the actual truth is pretty hard to come by, Many of us are still pursuing it.

00:32:07.000 That includes everyone at The Daily Wire, especially Candace Owens.

00:32:10.000 When Candace found out that key facts may have been omitted in Netflix's series, she set out to uncover the truth behind the notorious Stephen Avery case.

00:32:16.000 The end result is a new series called Convicting a Murderer.

00:32:18.000 You're not going to want to miss it.

00:32:19.000 You'll also get all the other premium content from Daily Wire Plus, including The Greatest Lie Ever Sold, What Is a Woman?, and the largest collection of content from Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, including his series on the Book of Exodus.

00:32:28.000 Join now at dailywire.com slash subscribe.

00:32:30.000 Become a member.

00:32:31.000 See the truth when it finally comes out.

00:32:33.000 Meanwhile, confusion reigns over the American position on the Ukraine war.

00:32:37.000 So, Vladimir Zelensky was meeting with President Biden yesterday at this NATO summit over in Vilnius, and he issued some nice words for the American public.

00:32:45.000 He should, considering that we sent him over $100 billion at this point.

00:32:48.000 Here he was thanking Americans.

00:32:51.000 So thank you so much for this show.

00:32:53.000 We really counted on it.

00:32:56.000 Not only on this, I mean that's totally.

00:32:58.000 And you gave us huge support.

00:33:01.000 I want to thank to all Americans.

00:33:03.000 We understand that it's more than 43 billions for today.

00:33:08.000 It's big support.

00:33:09.000 And I understand that it's all your money, but...

00:33:15.000 You have to know that you spend this money for not just fighting.

00:33:20.000 You spend this money for our lives.

00:33:24.000 And I think that we save the lives for Europe and for all the world.

00:33:33.000 Okay, so that's all very nice and good.

00:33:34.000 The problem is that Joe Biden has yet to articulate a coherent policy with regard to any of this.

00:33:39.000 As I've said before, there are three phrases that you hear from the Biden administration on a routine basis and from the West.

00:33:44.000 And these phrases are all lies.

00:33:46.000 One is, this is a war for democracy.

00:33:48.000 Two is, as long as it takes.

00:33:50.000 And three is, until Ukraine wins. 0.52

00:33:52.000 When they say it's a war for democracy, if they mean that this is a war to simply preserve Kiev from being ruled by Moscow, that's already been done.

00:33:59.000 Also, I don't believe that this administration engages in wars for democracy as a general rule, considering they pulled out from Afghanistan and turned a nascent democracy into a full-scale Islamic dictatorship.

00:34:08.000 Two, when they say as long as it takes, nobody believes that either.

00:34:11.000 Joe Biden is the person who cut and ran from Afghanistan and left billions of dollars in military hardware to the Taliban.

00:34:16.000 No one believes as long as it takes because it's not true.

00:34:18.000 And finally, when Joe Biden says things like, We will not waver.

00:34:21.000 war is won and then he provides no actual metric for what winning looks like.

00:34:25.000 That just means interminably.

00:34:26.000 It just means open ended.

00:34:27.000 It means no actual end goal.

00:34:29.000 Well, he said all of those things yesterday, which again, likely means that this war just

00:34:33.000 continues ad infinitum.

00:34:34.000 So here's Joe Biden trying to sound a rather stoic note and kind of failing saying we will

00:34:39.000 not waver.

00:34:42.000 We will not waver.

00:34:45.000 We will not waver.

00:34:49.000 I mean that.

00:34:50.000 Our commitment to Ukraine will not weaken.

00:34:52.000 We will stand for liberty and freedom today, tomorrow, and for as long as it takes.

00:35:00.000 Okay, so when he keeps saying, as long as it takes, this was the phrase that kept going, as long as it takes.

00:35:04.000 First of all, every American foreign policy is four years long.

00:35:08.000 It's precisely as long as the president, who's the president of the United States.

00:35:12.000 So, it tends to waver just in terms of public support because Americans support wars until they don't.

00:35:18.000 Today the members of the G7 are launching a joint declaration of support for Ukraine to make it clear that our support will last long and in the future.

00:35:24.000 that an election changes everything.

00:35:26.000 So everybody knows there's a timeline on all of this.

00:35:28.000 Here he was again saying as long as it takes.

00:35:31.000 Today, the members of the G7 are launching a joint declaration of support for Ukraine to make it clear

00:35:37.000 that our support will last long and in the future.

00:35:41.000 This starts a process by which each of our nations and any other nation who wishes to participate

00:35:47.000 will negotiate long-term bilateral security commitments with and to Ukraine.

00:35:52.000 We're going to help Ukraine build a strong, capable defense across land, air, and sea, from which we'll be a force of stability in the region and deter against any and all threats.

00:36:07.000 I want to thank my fellow G7 leaders and President Zelensky for their work to make this happen.

00:36:13.000 I think it's a powerful statement.

00:36:15.000 It's a powerful statement of our commitment to Ukraine as it defends its freedom today and as it rebuilds the future.

00:36:21.000 And we're going to be there as long as that takes.

00:36:27.000 Okay, he keeps saying as long as it takes and I just I don't know what that means.

00:36:30.000 Because no one actually believes that.

00:36:32.000 Again, the only offer up here is if Biden and the rest of the EU are actually going to Putin behind closed doors and saying, we know what the deal is, let's cut the deal and be done.

00:36:40.000 And this is all just a front, right?

00:36:41.000 They're all just saying this sort of stuff to keep the pressure up publicly on Vladimir Putin saying that we're not going to go away and we're going to continue pressing until the deal is done.

00:36:47.000 But if there's no back channeling going on, Then I don't understand exactly what they're doing.

00:36:52.000 And even in public, I'm not sure why the West continues to suggest that the goal here is going to be set by Zelensky.

00:36:58.000 Everybody knows Crimea isn't going to be liberated by Ukraine.

00:37:00.000 Everybody knows that all of Donbass is not going to be liberated by Ukraine.

00:37:03.000 So continuing to forward that narrative actually does Zelensky no favors because it's setting up an unrealistic expectation for Zelensky and for the Ukrainian people.

00:37:12.000 Meanwhile, Joe Biden continues to battle the teleprompter.

00:37:18.000 There he was at NATO yesterday, and man, this dude just does not look good.

00:37:25.000 Soon NATO will be the 32nd freestanding, have free, 30 free, 32 freestanding members standing together to defend our people and our territory.

00:37:42.000 Oh man, that guy's on his last legs.

00:37:45.000 But unfortunately for him, as always, the person backing him up is Kamala Harris.

00:37:48.000 Here was Kamala Harris yesterday trying to explain AI.

00:37:51.000 I don't think that she was good at it.

00:37:53.000 And I think the first part of this issue that should be articulated is AI is kind of a fancy thing.

00:38:00.000 First of all, it's two letters.

00:38:01.000 It means artificial intelligence.

00:38:04.000 But ultimately what it is, is it's about machine learning.

00:38:09.000 And so the machine is taught.

00:38:13.000 And part of the issue here is what information is going into the machine that will then determine, and we can predict then if we think about what information is going in, what then will be produced in terms of decisions and opinions that may be made through that process.

00:38:36.000 She's like a horrible second grade teacher. 1.00

00:38:38.000 Artificial intelligence is, well, it's AI.

00:38:43.000 Because that stands for artificial intelligence.

00:38:47.000 Yeah, we know.

00:38:50.000 Yeah, that's great.

00:38:52.000 Can't imagine why people hate her guts or why that's terrible or why RFK Jr.

00:38:55.000 continues to be viable in the polls, which brings us to the latest on RFK Jr.

00:39:00.000 This is one of the great political headlines I've ever read.

00:39:03.000 It is from the New York Post, quote, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

00:39:06.000 press dinner explodes in... I can't finish.

00:39:12.000 It's from, oh man, it's from page six.

00:39:14.000 Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

00:39:15.000 Press Dinner Explodes in War of Words and Farting.

00:39:19.000 So, if that did not pique your interest, I'm not sure what will.

00:39:23.000 Camelot, it ain't.

00:39:25.000 Page 6 regrets to report that a press dinner to boost RFK's presidential campaign descended into a foul bout of screaming and polemic farting on Tuesday night.

00:39:34.000 The White House hopeful attended the affair at Tony's on the Upper East Side, no doubt hoping to impress on the ladies and gentlemen of the Fourth Estate his worthiness to sit at the very same Oval Office desk once occupied by his late uncle.

00:39:43.000 But a shouting match over climate change broke out between two boisterous old men, sending the evening down an extremely unfortunate path.

00:39:49.000 The gaseous exchange to which Page Six bore reluctant witness began after a guest asked Kennedy, founder of the ecological organization Waterkeeper Alliance, about the environment.

00:39:57.000 It seems that the mere inquiry was enough to set off the apparently drunk gossip columnist-turned-flak Doug Deschert, the host of the event, who became enraged and screamed at the top of his lungs, the climate hoax.

00:40:07.000 Meanwhile, octogenarian art critic Anthony Hayden Gast, who appeared to have been sleeping happily for most of the dinner, was roused by the abrupt rumpus. 0.76

00:40:16.000 Hayden Guest suddenly opened his eyes and denounced his longtime pal Deshert, calling him a miserable blob. 0.99

00:40:21.000 Shut up! 1.00

00:40:21.000 Hayden Guest replied. 1.00

00:40:23.000 Deshert continued to scream wildly about the climate change scam, while Hayden Guest peppered him with verbal volleys from across the table, calling him variously effing insane and insignificant.

00:40:31.000 Meanwhile, RFK watched calmly.

00:40:33.000 Here it seems Deshert sensed the need for a new rhetorical tack, and let rip a loud prolonged fart while yelling, as if to underscore his point.

00:40:42.000 I'm farting!

00:40:46.000 Apparently he addresses these issues in the same way that Kamala Harris does.

00:40:49.000 He was farting.

00:40:50.000 When he farted, it meant he was farting.

00:40:53.000 The room, which included a handful of journalists as well as Kennedy's campaign manager, former representative Dennis Kucinich, was stunned, seemingly unsure about whether Deschere was farting at Hayden Guest personally, or at the very notion of global warming.

00:41:10.000 Regrettably, we made sure, readers, there was no room left for doubt that the climate changed in the immediate environs of the dinner table.

00:41:15.000 The candidate maintained a steady composure in the face of the crisis.

00:41:19.000 Sadly, and somewhat inexplicably, another guest brought things back to climate change at a certain point, leading to another round of yelling.

00:41:27.000 When asked about his outburst the next day, Deschert said, I apologize for using my flatulence as a medium of public commentary in your presence. 0.57

00:41:33.000 He also asked us to refer to him as either a gallivanting Boulevardier or a beer-fueled sex rocket. 0.95

00:41:42.000 Only the best. 0.89

00:41:43.000 This means RFK Jr.

00:41:44.000 is going to be president, doesn't it?

00:41:45.000 I mean, this is basically how our culture now works.

00:41:50.000 I'm pretty sure that our culture now works like whoever has a dinner event covered by Page Six at which people are averring their opinions through farting, that person automatically wins the presidency.

00:42:04.000 I'm pretty sure that according to the Constitution, that's how all of this works.

00:42:09.000 Very exciting stuff.

00:42:11.000 happening in the RFK campaign.

00:42:13.000 Guys, we have a country of 340 million people and the people that we came up with to run for president 0.94

00:42:20.000 are an octogenarian dotard who is currently occupying the Oval Office. 0.99

00:42:24.000 Donald J. Trump and RFK Jr. 0.99

00:42:27.000 These are the people we came up with.

00:42:29.000 I have to say, we're not sending our best.

00:42:32.000 Just as a general rule.

00:42:34.000 Okay, meanwhile, we now have some good statistics from the 2022 election, and they bode somewhat well for Republicans and somewhat ill for Republicans.

00:42:42.000 So these statistics are from Pew Research, and what they find is that Republican turnout was way up in 2022 compared to 2020, as opposed to Biden voters.

00:42:50.000 So, apparently, 71% of Trump voters voted in 2022.

00:42:57.000 For a Republican House candidate, it's only 67% of Biden voters voted in 2022.

00:43:03.000 Very few people defected.

00:43:04.000 So it really was a turnout election.

00:43:06.000 About 7% of Biden voters in 2020 voted Republican in 2022.

00:43:10.000 Only 3% of Republican voters in 2020 voted Democrat in 2022.

00:43:14.000 So, again, that's not a huge kind of swath of independents in the middle of the country.

00:43:19.000 According to that new Pew Research Center analysis of verified voters and non-voters in 2022, 2020, 2018, and 2016, they found partisan differences in turnout account for most of the Republican gains in voting for the House last year.

00:43:31.000 Overall, 68% of those who voted in 2020 turned out to vote in the 2022 midterms.

00:43:37.000 As in previous elections, party loyalty remained strong in last fall's midterms.

00:43:41.000 Democratic 2018 voters were slightly more likely than Republican 2018 voters to defect in 2022.

00:43:46.000 That flipped party balance one or two percentage points to the GOP.

00:43:51.000 So why exactly did Republicans then underperform in the Senate races?

00:43:55.000 The answer is because all the Senate races were fairly close, but a bunch of people split their ticket.

00:44:00.000 A bunch of people who voted Republican for House candidates did not vote for the Republican candidate in the Senate.

00:44:07.000 So that's the part that bodes ill.

00:44:09.000 But Republican turnout is going to continue to be high because, again, Republicans are pissed off with the state of the country.

00:44:15.000 They're angry at Joe Biden.

00:44:16.000 They're angry at the current Democratic rule, not only inside government, but also within the media, within corporate halls.

00:44:22.000 And so they're going to continue to show up and vote.

00:44:25.000 But candidate quality does, in fact, matter.

00:44:28.000 Candidate quality is going to matter.

00:44:29.000 Now, again, one part of this 2024 election cycle that's definitely not going to benefit Democrats the same way it did as in 2020 is that people are going to show up more in person to vote than they did in 2020.

00:44:39.000 A huge number of people voted by mail-in because of all of the Democratic attempts to get people to vote early, thanks to scare-tacticking about COVID.

00:44:48.000 Voting in person on Election Day in 2020 and 2022 increased sharply compared with 2020.

00:44:53.000 More voters reported casting ballots in person on Election Day in both parties.

00:44:56.000 The share remained much higher among Republican voters, 51%, than among Democratic voters, 34%.

00:45:00.000 White voters without college degrees made up a majority, 54% of Republican voters in 2022, compared with just 27% of Democratic voters.

00:45:09.000 Hispanic voters did, in fact, move over toward the Republican Party.

00:45:12.000 Hispanic voters favored Democrats by a 21-point margin in 2022, but that was a 47-point margin in 2018.

00:45:20.000 Black voters continued to support Democrats by overwhelming margins.

00:45:23.000 93% voted for Democrats in the midterms, only 5% for Republicans.

00:45:29.000 So, you know, what exactly does that mean for Republicans?

00:45:32.000 Well, again, it means that they're going to have to count on lower voter turnout for Democrats in order to win the 2024 election if Donald Trump is the candidate.

00:45:41.000 Because they're not going to be winning a ton of independents.

00:45:44.000 The 2022 election is a good forecast, you would presume, for what's going to happen in 2024.

00:45:52.000 Because again, 2020 is even more of an outlier than a typical midterm election.

00:45:55.000 Whenever you're trying to forecast what's going to happen in the next, you tend to look at the last presidential.

00:45:59.000 I don't think 2020 is a good predicate election for 2024.

00:46:01.000 I actually don't.

00:46:02.000 Because of the wildly increased voter turnout, because of the changes in the voting rules, because of the increase in mail-in ballots, and all of the rest.

00:46:09.000 And because of all the chaos of 2020.

00:46:10.000 I'm not sure that replicates itself in 2024, which is why you're seeing Democrats becoming increasingly nervous.

00:46:15.000 With that said, does Donald Trump actually have a plan to win in 2024?

00:46:19.000 So he did an interview recently with the Nevada Globe.

00:46:26.000 And he was asked specifically about what he would do about all of the problems that they had in 2024, in 2020 rather, and how exactly he meant to collect himself and win in 2024.

00:46:40.000 My question, what is he going to change between 2020 and 2024 to prevent the election from being stolen if you believe the election was stolen, President Trump?

00:46:47.000 Here was his answer.

00:46:47.000 So here's the question, quote, how do you win in 2024 if the system is, in your word, rigged?

00:46:52.000 Trump said, you have to swamp them. 0.91

00:46:54.000 They're cheaters. 0.99

00:46:55.000 They cheat. 1.00

00:46:55.000 They lie. 1.00

00:46:55.000 They're horrible. 1.00

00:46:56.000 I wouldn't have said this two years ago.

00:46:58.000 Well, I mean...

00:47:00.000 You would and you did.

00:47:00.000 He said, who would have ever thought such a thing like this was possible?

00:47:03.000 They're cheaters.

00:47:04.000 You have to hope the courts get tougher because they see a lot of it.

00:47:06.000 They don't want to get involved because they're afraid or something.

00:47:08.000 Bill Barr was a stiff.

00:47:10.000 He was afraid of being impeached.

00:47:11.000 He was petrified of being impeached. 0.51

00:47:12.000 He was just a stiff.

00:47:13.000 And now, you see with this stuff coming up, it should happen now.

00:47:16.000 I mean, Garland should do something about what's taking place.

00:47:19.000 I'm actually surprised more than anybody at Garland because he sees this massive corruption.

00:47:22.000 I'm surprised he allows it to go on.

00:47:23.000 I really am.

00:47:24.000 I had a lot of respect for him.

00:47:25.000 He was a liberal man and that's fine.

00:47:26.000 I'm surprised he allowed it to go on.

00:47:29.000 It's somewhat hard to have a scandal if they're not going to write about it.

00:47:31.000 The public sees it.

00:47:31.000 It's a good thing.

00:47:33.000 By having truth, I have a defense.

00:47:35.000 Okay, you may have noticed that the question was, how do you plan to overcome the systemic obstacles to your victory in 2024?

00:47:41.000 And he did not have a single sentence dedicated to that answer.

00:47:43.000 This is the part that scares me about Trump's candidacy more than anything else.

00:47:47.000 If it's poorly organized, if it's a close election and it's poorly organized, then even if you believe Trump that the election was stolen from him, he has no plan to actually reverse that result.

00:47:57.000 Okay, time for some things I like and then some things that I hate.

00:47:59.000 So, things that I like today.

00:48:01.000 So, Brian Cox is the best thing on the show Succession on HBO.

00:48:05.000 He played Logan Roy, who's supposed to be sort of a stand-in for Rupert Murdoch.

00:48:09.000 He was on with Piers Morgan, and he went after woke culture, and I appreciate this, particularly from somebody in Hollywood.

00:48:16.000 Are things worse now, or is our perception of life worse because of things like social media inflaming everything?

00:48:23.000 Well, I don't think social media helps.

00:48:28.000 It hinders rather than helps, and I think it points up Two readily inadequacies that we can actually... And the whole woke... Well, we've talked about this before.

00:48:38.000 The whole woke culture, I think, is truly awful.

00:48:41.000 And the shaming culture.

00:48:42.000 And the shaming culture.

00:48:43.000 Which I really feel quite strongly about.

00:48:45.000 This incessant need to shame and bury people.

00:48:48.000 And I don't know where it comes from.

00:48:49.000 I don't know who are the arbiters of this shaming.

00:48:53.000 And it's very hard to pin them down.

00:48:55.000 And it turns out it's usually a bunch of millennials.

00:48:59.000 Good for Brian Cox.

00:49:00.000 And you're starting to see this from some of the older actors, right?

00:49:02.000 Tom Hanks recently was quoted suggesting that he is tired of this notion that actors can't play people who aren't like the actor in real life.

00:49:11.000 You've seen Steven Spielberg say some of the same stuff, that he's upset that he acquiesced to political correctness and he took the shot of a person with a gun out of E.T.

00:49:20.000 So you're starting to see some of the old Hollywood types recognize that all the wokeness is absolutely going to destroy their industry and they need to push back against it.

00:49:26.000 It's one of the reasons, by the way, the big box office hits of recent vintage are all basically just straight Americana without any sort of politically correct attempts.

00:49:35.000 A lot of these, a lot of the new movie, the new Mission Impossible movie is going to make bank.

00:49:39.000 It's going to make bank because there are no sucker punches.

00:49:41.000 It's just a movie.

00:49:42.000 And it doesn't attempt the sort of politically correct nonsense that you see in so many Hollywood blockbusters.

00:49:47.000 It's also the reason why the most successful shows right now are not really attempting the political correct nonsense.

00:49:53.000 The American public is not into it, and increasingly, neither are the actors.

00:49:56.000 That's particularly true of the old school actors and the old school directors.

00:49:59.000 Remember a time before art had been essentially put under the boot heel of PCs.

00:50:03.000 So good for Brian Cox right there.

00:50:05.000 By the way, we are doing a Mission Impossible review on YouTube, so you're going to want to go check that out.

00:50:09.000 Okay, time for some things I hate.

00:50:15.000 Speaking of political correctness, I gotta say, I'm amazed at the Hollywood continued worship of the Obamas.

00:50:22.000 Not really amazed because obviously when you have an idol and it's a golden calf, you continue to worship the golden calf until, you know, until you don't.

00:50:28.000 But the fact that Barack Obama has won a Grammy He won a Grammy for reading his book.

00:50:34.000 And now that he and Michelle Obama have been nominated for an Emmy for working what we do all day.

00:50:41.000 It's just, it's so tiresome.

00:50:43.000 It's so tiresome.

00:50:44.000 Did anyone even watch that?

00:50:45.000 The Netflix docuseries, Working What We Do All Day?

00:50:47.000 Do you know a single person who watched that?

00:50:49.000 Have you heard of a single person?

00:50:50.000 I mean, Netflix doesn't release internal stats.

00:50:52.000 So you have no idea how many people watched it.

00:50:53.000 I'm going to go with two.

00:50:55.000 And it's Barack and Michelle Obama.

00:50:57.000 And then, because Hollywood continues to worship at the altar of the Obamas, they give them Emmy nominations, which means they crowded out somebody more deserving, because literally anyone, I would imagine, would be more deserving.

00:51:06.000 Working comes from the former president and first lady Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which struck a content deal with Netflix in 2018 to produce films and television series for the streaming giant.

00:51:18.000 What exactly earned the Emmy nomination on that?

00:51:20.000 She did an interview with Oprah Winfrey.

00:51:22.000 I'm not kidding.

00:51:23.000 She did an interview- Michelle Obama did an interview with Oprah Winfrey and they both got Emmy nominated for that.

00:51:27.000 Oprah Winfrey. What exactly earned the Emmy nomination on that? She did an interview with

00:51:33.000 Winfrey. I'm not kidding. She did an interview. Michelle Obama did an interview with Oprah

00:51:36.000 Winfrey and they both got Emmy nominated for that. Just pathetic. Barack Obama has already 0.99

00:51:41.000 won an Emmy because he won last year in the same category for narrating Netflix's Our

00:51:46.000 Great National Parks, which again, massively watched documentary Our Great National Parks.

00:51:52.000 And it sounds like a bad documentary title on The Simpsons.

00:51:56.000 Hosted by Troy McClure.

00:51:59.000 Troy McClure hosting our great national parks.

00:52:02.000 I mean, like, the most boring documentaries of all time happening over here.

00:52:05.000 But it doesn't matter. 0.98

00:52:05.000 He can just churn out crap, and then Hollywood will continue to reward him. 0.98

00:52:08.000 Because why not? 1.00

00:52:09.000 He's Barack Obama.

00:52:11.000 And he continues to milk that for all that it is worth. 0.99

00:52:16.000 Okay, meanwhile, got a comment on the dumbest fashion trend of the day. 0.98

00:52:20.000 There is such an effort in legacy media to make men into women, it is astonishing. 0.97

00:52:25.000 So there's a new piece at the New York Times by a person named Emma Grillo called

00:52:30.000 Men are bearing midriffs in crop tops. Some are cropping their shirts at home.

00:52:35.000 Others are buying them from stores women's sections. 0.99

00:52:37.000 It's first of all 99.8% of the men who are bearing their midriffs and crop tops are gay. 0.98

00:52:42.000 They're not a lot of straight dudes who are like, you know what I'm gonna do. 0.98

00:52:46.000 I'm gonna hang my belly out here. 0.83

00:52:48.000 Those aren't called crop tops when straight dudes do it. 1.00

00:52:51.000 It's just, you're too fat for your shirt when straight dudes do it. 0.98

00:52:55.000 And indeed, every picture from this story is about a gay dude who's burying his belly. 0.99

00:52:59.000 So first of all, let me just say, just as a fashion matter, no one wants to see the midriff of another man. 0.97

00:53:04.000 Just as a general, I'm not gonna speak for gay men. 0.68

00:53:06.000 Women, I don't think, are interested, and neither are straight men. 0.99

00:53:10.000 Like, this is just generally not an attractive thing, as they rule.

00:53:14.000 But all that is female must become male, apparently. 0.99

00:53:18.000 According to Emma Grillo, it is often the case that as summer rolls around and temperatures rise, so do hemlines.

00:53:23.000 As men have embraced shorter shorts over the past few years, some have also started to wear shorter shirts, specifically crop tops.

00:53:29.000 Loner men have been known to wear stomach-bearing garments when they exercise or go to the beach.

00:53:32.000 Lately, crop tops can be seen on guys at stores and bars.

00:53:35.000 More modest styles hit right at the waistline.

00:53:37.000 Many are cropped short enough to expose a navel.

00:53:39.000 Some wearers are making theirs by taking scissors to hold t-shirts.

00:53:42.000 Others buy them off the rack, often from stores' women's sections.

00:53:46.000 David Mendoza, 29, an operations manager in New York, owns crop tops of varying lengths.

00:53:50.000 Deciding which to wear, he said, often comes down to the occasion.

00:53:53.000 At first, Mr. Mendoza would cut shirts himself, but as he started to wear more crop tops, he discovered stores including H&M and Rainbow sold women's styles with his preferred fit.

00:54:02.000 Rainbow, he said, has sexier, more open crop tops that are cut even shorter. 0.71

00:54:07.000 Mr. Mendoza started wearing crop tops two years ago, he said, after noticing male fitness influencers followed on Instagram wore them to exercise.

00:54:15.000 Oh, just stop.

00:54:17.000 Just stop.

00:54:20.000 Is this necessary?

00:54:21.000 Truly necessary?

00:54:23.000 I understand that there are trends within the gay community.

00:54:25.000 That's totally fine.

00:54:25.000 Do what you want to do.

00:54:27.000 But are we going to pretend there's like a broad spectrum phenomenon that is happening among the dudes?

00:54:32.000 Because it is not. 0.99

00:54:34.000 It is ridiculous, and you look silly, and please stop. 0.99

00:54:38.000 Are we allowed to just say that? 0.99

00:54:39.000 I don't really care.

00:54:40.000 We're allowed to say that. 1.00

00:54:41.000 You look like an idiot. 1.00

00:54:42.000 You look stupid. 1.00

00:54:44.000 Apparently, there are some men who are straight who are doing it. 1.00

00:54:47.000 Or they found the... Let me put that another way.

00:54:49.000 They found the one man who is straight who is doing this. 0.91

00:54:51.000 Cody James, 27, who works in advertising in New York, said he grew up watching movies and TV shows from the 80s and 90s.

00:54:56.000 He started wearing crop tops about a year ago, he said, and was influenced in part by styles he saw on screen when he was younger.

00:55:01.000 He said 70% of the shirts he owns are cropped.

00:55:04.000 Most, he said, hit below the navel, though a few are short enough to show it.

00:55:07.000 My girlfriend always makes fun of me, because sometimes she wants to wear a shirt to bed, but they're all crop tops.

00:55:12.000 She should make fun of you, and also she should run for the hills. 1.00

00:55:16.000 One professor said, men wearing crop tops comes at a time of shifting dynamics of gender and an openness in masculine fashion to truly embrace a variety of aesthetics.

The Ben Shapiro Show - July 13, 2023

Republicans vs. The FBI

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript