The Ben Shapiro Show - Russian Nukes In Space?!

00:00:00.000 So yesterday there was a big announcement from the House Intelligence Committee.

00:00:03.000 The House Intelligence Committee chair went on X and tweeted out a statement suggesting that there was a serious national security threat the American public had to be made aware of.

00:00:12.000 And this freaked everybody out because when you make vague national security related threats, And you suggest that they are serious enough that they need to be declassified.

00:00:20.000 Everybody starts to have a little bit of palpitations.

00:00:23.000 Well, as it turns out, what exactly was happening here?

00:00:25.000 It appears that there is intelligence suggesting that Russia is going to attempt to put nukes in space.

00:00:32.000 Nukes in space! 0.90

00:00:34.000 So, according to CNN.com, the U.S.

00:00:37.000 has new intelligence on Russian military capabilities related to its efforts to deploy a nuclear anti-satellite system in space.

00:00:42.000 According to multiple sources familiar with the intelligence, the intelligence was briefed to Congress and key U.S.

00:00:47.000 allies.

00:00:47.000 Some lawmakers say it is serious enough it should be declassified and made public.

00:00:52.000 Apparently, it's not an immediate threat.

00:00:54.000 The Russians haven't actually done it yet.

00:00:55.000 The system is under development.

00:00:56.000 It is not yet in orbit, and it's not even clear how far the technology has progressed, according to one of those officials.

00:01:02.000 So, there are a few issues that we need to cover here.

00:01:04.000 One is, what would it mean if Russia actually were to do this?

00:01:07.000 Second is, why are we finding out about this now, not when, you know, it's actually about to happen or when it has happened?

00:01:14.000 There's something a little bit funny about that, politically speaking.

00:01:17.000 So let's talk about what exactly this would mean.

00:01:20.000 First, it means that presumably there would be a serious threat to America's satellite communications technology, all of our satellite technology, period.

00:01:30.000 So if you were to detonate a nuke in space, it does not exactly have the same ramifications as if you Detonate a nuclear weapon at high altitude.

00:01:38.000 For example, if you detonate a nuclear weapon at high altitude, that comes with the possible threat of EMP, electromagnetic pulses, which could take out, fry all of your electronics.

00:01:47.000 You've seen some of the kind of horror movies about that possibility.

00:01:50.000 If you detonate a nuclear weapon close to the ground, obviously you devastate the immediate area around the blast.

00:01:55.000 And then there are also radiation clouds that travel and kill lots of people.

00:01:59.000 If you detonate in space, one of the things about a nuclear weapon is that a nuclear weapon

00:02:04.000 feeds on the air around it, obviously.

00:02:06.000 The explosion requires oxygen in order for it to continue expanding.

00:02:10.000 So if you do it in a vacuum, if you do it in space, it doesn't have quite the same impact.

00:02:14.000 Effectively, what you do is you blast out radiation, and that radiation is going to

00:02:20.000 significantly damage or degrade pretty much all of the satellites within the immediate

00:02:24.000 orbit, and it's going to create a sort of perennial hot spot in that place where satellites

00:02:28.000 that pass through it are going to be significantly damaged.

00:02:31.000 There's a good piece by Lieutenant Colonel Tony Vinson who's an active duty scientist in the US Air Force as well as the director of advanced physics courses at the Air Force Academy and he wrote this piece back in September of 2022 talking about what exactly would happen if you detonated a nuclear weapon in space.

00:02:46.000 And what he says is that the threat of nuclear explosions in space is marginalized because the potency of their effects is not widely known, and the likelihood of nuclear attack in space is assumed to be negligible, but that assumption is wrong.

00:02:57.000 What he says is that, effectively speaking, what would happen is nuking the economy.

00:03:02.000 It would really be more of an economic attack than, say, a physical attack killing millions of people, for example.

00:03:07.000 So what he writes is he says a nuclear explosion in space disproportionately hurts the United States as the largest single investor in space capabilities.

00:03:15.000 The United States nets almost $200 billion per year of real gross output from its space assets.

00:03:19.000 Even though military satellites are designed to withstand a harsher charged particle environment, radiation hardening is not a magic cloak of invincibility.

00:03:26.000 Military space assets will be degraded over time from the artificially amped radiation belt created from the nuclear detonation.

00:03:32.000 Meanwhile, commercial satellites in low Earth orbit will be the first to fail from continually passing through these particle hotspots.

00:03:38.000 Most satellites with a line of sight to the nuclear detonation would be destroyed from the resulting x-rays.

00:03:43.000 Military space capabilities for command and control along with reconnaissance assets may still function for a period following the detonation, but the economic impact of degraded informational space products will be immediate.

00:03:54.000 So in other words, the things that are not shielded up there are going to get fried almost immediately, they'll degrade really fast, and that will have a pretty significant economic impact.

00:04:01.000 Now, does that mean that the United States would then be in World War III nuclear war?

00:04:05.000 Because what we're not talking about here is the Russians putting, presumably, nuclear weapons up there in order to fire a nuke from space at the United States, for example.

00:04:14.000 talking about them putting a nuclear weapon up there in order to do economic damage.

00:04:17.000 That you're a state under significant pressure like Russia is economically speaking or in

00:04:21.000 terms of security and so your best indirect approach to really escalate things without

00:04:26.000 killing a lot of people because if they kill a lot of people then the United States really will have

00:04:30.000 to unleash its war machine against the Russians which we have not done so far despite all 0.99

00:04:34.000 foolishness to the contrary.

00:04:36.000 The United States has yet to unleash its actual war machine against Russia. 0.96

00:04:40.000 If it had, we would not be talking about war in Ukraine anymore.

00:04:43.000 We'd be talking about something far larger.

00:04:45.000 And let's be real about this.

00:04:46.000 The United States military capacity, put aside nuclear weapons, is why mutually assured destruction exists, the US military capacity is much larger than that of the Russians. 0.91

00:04:53.000 We're not talking about any of that right now.

00:04:54.000 What we are talking about If the Russians were to actually fire a nuke at the United States, that is not the same thing as nuking a bunch of satellites in space, which would do economic damage and would presumably come along with an escalation of American efforts against Russia short of nuclear weapons.

00:05:10.000 So the real question here is when you look at this capability, yeah, is that a risk?

00:05:15.000 Of course that's a risk.

00:05:15.000 Is that something that the U.S.

00:05:16.000 military should game out?

00:05:18.000 A hundred percent.

00:05:19.000 Should we try to figure out ways of hardening our satellites or replacing them with new satellites that are significantly more hardened to this risk?

00:05:26.000 Sure.

00:05:27.000 But is this the kind of serious national security threat that requires everybody to go on panic mode for a full day yesterday where everybody is thinking, oh my God, I need my bunker.

00:05:37.000 Where's my bunker?

00:05:38.000 Do I need to do my drop and tuck exercises from the 1950s?

00:05:44.000 Get under my desk and wait for the nuclear explosion?

00:05:47.000 Well, no, that's not what this threat means kind of at all, which raises the other question, which is exactly why was this made into a giant threat?

00:05:54.000 And there are a lot of people who are quite suspicious of why this was made into a giant threat.

00:05:58.000 I'm among them.

00:05:59.000 We'll get to more on this in just one second first.

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00:07:02.000 So, as folks know, I have a sympathy for the idea of giving more aid to Ukraine.

00:07:07.000 I don't think that amount of aid has to be $60 billion.

00:07:10.000 I don't think that that bill that has been put forward by the Senate is a particularly wonderful bill.

00:07:14.000 It includes $10 billion of aid to the Gaza Strip, which is filled with people who presumably would be in positions of administration who are terrorists.

00:07:22.000 There's a lot that's wrong with that bill.

00:07:25.000 As a general proposition, I don't believe that the United States has an interest in allowing Russia to simply walk into Kiev and take over the entirety of Ukraine.

00:07:32.000 I think that has significant negative geopolitical ramifications for the United States and American citizens.

00:07:38.000 With that said, scaring the American people into greenlighting an aid package by releasing information about a serious national security threat that lives in Canada, but no, you can't meet her, that doesn't seem like a great tactic to get people in your corner.

00:07:52.000 In fact, it's probably going to alienate more people than it draws.

00:07:56.000 According to CNN, when members of Congress downplayed the immediacy of the threat, an anti-satellite weapon placed in orbit around the Earth would pose significant danger to U.S.

00:08:02.000 nuclear command and control satellites, according to Hans Christensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists.

00:08:10.000 Earlier on Wednesday, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Mike Turner of Ohio, ignited a firestorm on Capitol Hill when he issued that cryptic statement, announcing that the panel had, quote, information concerning a serious national security threat.

00:08:21.000 And when this notice went out, by the way, I was watching, and my immediate Mentality went to, okay, is there like an immediate terror threat in the United States that we need to know about?

00:08:32.000 Is there about to be a major secondary attack by the Russians on, say, a Baltic state?

00:08:36.000 Like, what are we talking about here?

00:08:37.000 And then it turns out that what they're talking about is the possibility of a new Russian military capability that would do economic damage to the United States, but would not actually launch us into World War III.

00:08:46.000 And I thought, well, that seems a little bit overblown in terms of just leaking that out there to scare everybody.

00:08:52.000 Within hours, the Republican House Speaker, Mike Johnson, attempted to tamp down the situation, telling reporters, quote, there is no cause for alarm.

00:08:59.000 He said that he'd known about the intelligence since at least January.

00:09:02.000 He said, we want to assure everyone that steady hands are at the wheel working on it and there is no need for alarm.

00:09:07.000 Jim Hines, the committee's top Democrat, said in a statement, the classified intelligence product the House Intelligence Committee called to the attention members last night is a significant one, but it is not in fact a cause for panic.

00:09:16.000 The National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, he said, you know, I can't say that Americans have nothing to worry about, but I'm not sure why everybody is sort of in panic mode.

00:09:25.000 Just a quick follow-up, just to put this to rest.

00:09:27.000 Obviously the House Intelligence Chair speaking out about a imminent, or he doesn't say imminent, serious national security threat.

00:09:34.000 The lack of your ability to say anything has the potential to raise distress for some Americans.

00:09:39.000 In the simplest of terms, can you tell Americans that there's nothing they have to worry about right now in terms of what he describes as a national security threat?

00:09:46.000 Look, I think in a way that question is impossible to answer with a straight yes, right?

00:09:54.000 Because Americans understand that there are a range of threats and challenges in the world that we're dealing with every single day.

00:10:03.000 And those threats and challenges range from terrorism to state actors.

00:10:07.000 And we have to contend with them.

00:10:08.000 We have to contend with them in a way where we ensure the ultimate security of the American people.

00:10:16.000 So, again, when I see This sort of alarmism emerging, that makes me less likely to support a foreign aid bill.

00:10:26.000 Again, were I in Congress, I'm not sure how I would vote on this foreign aid bill.

00:10:29.000 I'd probably vote no based on the size and scope of it, and I'd want to see the underlying information.

00:10:33.000 But even were I inclined to vote for the foreign aid bill, I'd now be less inclined to vote for the foreign aid bill because I don't like pressure tactics like this.

00:10:39.000 Apparently, according to Politico, it's possible that Turner was attempting to raise alarms about Russia's advancements in space as a way of underscoring the need for lawmakers to approve additional aid to Ukraine.

00:10:48.000 The Senate passed the supplemental bill, including $60 billion in aid for Kiev, and it's currently under review by the House.

00:10:54.000 Now, meanwhile, the White House is trying to play a bit of a different game with regard to this foreign aid bill.

00:10:58.000 Speaker Johnson has suggested that he needs a one-on-one meeting with President Biden.

00:11:02.000 said yesterday that he has no plans to meet with the Speaker of the House, which is weird

00:11:05.000 because if you want to get something done on foreign aid, presumably you'd want to meet

00:11:08.000 with the person with whom you are going to have to negotiate to get that done.

00:11:12.000 Kareem Jean-Pierre said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

00:11:13.000 Joe Biden isn't meeting with him.

00:11:16.000 Speaker Johnson has suggested that he needs a one on one meeting with President Biden.

00:11:22.000 Given that Johnson has said he doesn't feel rushed on foreign aid, would that one on one

00:11:28.000 meeting help?

00:11:28.000 Bye.

00:11:30.000 I mean, look, and I appreciate the question, Josh, but the president met with, obviously, congressional leadership less than a month ago.

00:11:39.000 Just less than a month ago.

00:11:40.000 And he made really clear how important it was to get that bipartisan negotiated legislation coming out of the Senate, how important it was to move that forward.

00:11:52.000 Okay, so why won't he meet with Johnson then?

00:11:53.000 If he thinks that it's really important, why not try to convince Johnson?

00:11:57.000 I mean, first of all, it'd be good politics.

00:11:58.000 It'd be good optics.

00:12:00.000 He could come out and he could say, listen, I spoke with Speaker Johnson and he doesn't have a coherent defense of his position.

00:12:05.000 It's very weird that Biden won't speak to him.

00:12:06.000 The reason that Biden won't speak to him is because he thinks for some odd reason that he's winning this thing in the court of public opinion and or He knows that the headline coming out of any meeting between Biden and Johnson is likely to be about his senility, not about Johnson's positions on this particular issue.

00:12:21.000 Meanwhile, the Biden administration is just trying to ramp up the pressure from the outside, suggesting that if you wanted to pare back the bill, or if you had amendments to the bill, or if you wanted to pass a slightly different version of the bill that strips out certain things and adds other things, that this would somehow be a giant failure.

00:12:35.000 John Kirby?

00:12:36.000 Who is the national security spokesperson for the White House.

00:12:39.000 He says it's time for Mike Johnson to show some leadership and simply put up the bill for a vote.

00:12:43.000 But that's not actually Johnson's job.

00:12:45.000 He doesn't have to do that.

00:12:46.000 Obviously, he's Speaker of the House.

00:12:48.000 I don't think it's any secret.

00:12:49.000 Some Republicans on the House have acknowledged it.

00:12:52.000 If this bill got to the floor, there's more than 218 votes.

00:12:55.000 It just needs to be put on the floor.

00:12:57.000 Have you guys worked through, you know, plan B's or other ways to try and get around a speaker who said unequivocally this isn't happening?

00:13:05.000 It's not about getting around the Speaker, Phil.

00:13:07.000 It's about working with him and through him.

00:13:10.000 And he's going to have to show some leadership here.

00:13:12.000 Obviously, we're going to keep our consultations and our conversations with Congress going.

00:13:16.000 We're obviously going to keep engaging them.

00:13:18.000 But the Speaker's got a choice to make here.

00:13:20.000 This is a moment for leadership.

00:13:21.000 This is, as the President said, an inflection point.

00:13:24.000 And we've got to wait and see if the Speaker's going to be up to that moment.

00:13:30.000 So, you know, again, I think this is a bad tactic if they actually want to get the aid passed.

00:13:34.000 What they should do is sit down with Johnson.

00:13:36.000 He's the person they have to negotiate with.

00:13:38.000 But again, I think a lot of this is grandstanding.

00:13:40.000 Right now, our political system is entirely broken because there is more incentive in both sides grandstanding than in actually getting things done.

00:13:46.000 And that's true across the aisle, pretty much everywhere.

00:13:50.000 We'll get to more on this in just one second.

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00:15:08.000 So the Democrats are simply gonna demagogue this thing without sitting down and trying to see

00:15:12.000 what they can get out of the Republicans.

00:15:13.000 Corine Jean-Pierre, she is saying that Republicans are siding with Putin and Iran.

00:15:16.000 Which again, listen, I wish that Republicans would articulate better their reasons for opposing the bill.

00:15:21.000 Because you're seeing, as I've discussed on the show the past few days, a wide variety of rationales.

00:15:25.000 You have Tom Cotton, who's extremely hawkish.

00:15:27.000 Extremely anti-Iran, extremely anti-Putin, Tom Cotton, the senator from Arkansas.

00:15:31.000 And he has said that he's opposing the bill because of all the pork in it and because it provides aid to some places we don't want the aid going.

00:15:37.000 And I agree with his rationales.

00:15:39.000 And then you see some people who are making the argument that basically Ukraine doesn't deserve defense at all.

00:15:43.000 And Democrats are jumping onto that argument and then they are using that as a stand-in for the entire Republican argument.

00:15:48.000 So the lack of unity in a message from Republicans about why they oppose the bill is actually giving an opening to Democrats to claim that Republicans oppose the bill because they actually like Vladimir Putin.

00:15:59.000 House Republicans are still at it right now, siding with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Tehran against our defense industrial base, against NATO, against Ukraine, against our interests in the Indo-Pacific.

00:16:13.000 Lack of clarity and messaging is not Republicans' friend here.

00:16:16.000 They have now offered a bunch of different rationales for why they oppose the bill.

00:16:20.000 And they really need to come around like one rationale.

00:16:22.000 So originally the rationale is we oppose the bill because we want border control provisions in the bill.

00:16:28.000 And then when the border control provisions that came out of the Senate were insufficient,

00:16:31.000 they said, we don't want any border control provisions in the bill because Joe Biden has the authority

00:16:34.000 to do what he wants right now.

00:16:36.000 Okay, well, if that was the argument in the first place, then why link it to border provisions in the bill?

00:16:41.000 And why not pass a version in the House that already has border provisions in the bill

00:16:45.000 so that people aren't kind of shooting in the dark.

00:16:46.000 It feels like the Republicans in the House are moving around the goalposts a lot.

00:16:50.000 Just to be honest with you, from the outside, if you're just somebody who's watching this casually, what it looks like is, Republicans said, OK, we want some Ukraine.

00:16:57.000 We're okay with some Ukraine aid, we're good with Israel aid, we're good with Taiwan aid,

00:17:01.000 but we're not going to give all this money away until we secure our southern border. 0.73

00:17:04.000 And so the Senate said, OK, fine, we're going to put together this entire crap package, including border stuff. 0.95

00:17:10.000 And then the Republicans announced, well, that's insufficient. 0.63

00:17:13.000 And the Senate was like, well, then we'll just strip out the border stuff and we'll do just the aid package alone.

00:17:17.000 And then the Republicans like, well, there's not border stuff in there.

00:17:19.000 OK, well, if you're going to do that, then what you actually ought to do in the House is do what the House was designed to do.

00:17:24.000 Initiate the legislation.

00:17:27.000 Initiate the legislation and say if the Senate will not pass our version of the legislation, we're not signing anything else.

00:17:31.000 Our version is better.

00:17:32.000 Their version is worse.

00:17:33.000 Do that.

00:17:34.000 But it seems like Republicans can't really even get on board for that because of internal divisions over things like aid for Ukraine.

00:17:40.000 It turns out that Republicans don't have a unified position.

00:17:42.000 Democrats do.

00:17:43.000 Democrats have a unified position on pretty much all of these issues.

00:17:46.000 Their unified position is, as open borders as you can make them, lots of aid to Ukraine.

00:17:51.000 They actually are in favor of aid to Israel, but they also want aid to Hamas.

00:17:55.000 That's the actual Democrat unified position.

00:17:57.000 Democrats are way better at this game than Republicans.

00:17:59.000 Republicans are, by and large, a fragmentary group.

00:18:02.000 It's a coalitional group.

00:18:03.000 Democrats are pretty much down the line.

00:18:05.000 You'll have an occasional person who's crazy, like Rashida Tlaib, who no one can get on board, including Democrats.

00:18:10.000 I mean, they'll still praise her and pretend that she's a diverse part of their coalition. 0.97

00:18:14.000 While she literally voted yesterday, she voted present on a resolution to condemn Hamas for raping women.

00:18:20.000 That is what Rashida Tlaib was doing yesterday. 1.00

00:18:22.000 Here she was yesterday. 0.99

00:18:24.000 All acts of sexual violence are horrific.

00:18:27.000 We should all be fighting to end it here at home and all around the world.

00:18:32.000 So while the resolution on the floor today rightfully denounces any sexual violence by Hamas, I am disturbed that it completely ignores and erases any sexual violence and abuse committed by the Israeli forces against Palestinians, especially children.

00:18:47.000 Sexual violence and abuse committed against children?

00:18:53.000 What? 1.00

00:18:54.000 And she's a terror supporter, but she's a ridiculous, terror-supporting, horrific human being. 1.00

00:19:00.000 Even Democrats look at Rashida Tlaib for the most part and think that she's a crazy person. 0.99

00:19:04.000 But they're much more unified just in terms of their governing strategy than Republicans are.

00:19:09.000 And what that means is that because Republicans are unable to come up with a governing strategy, Because they can't actually unify over virtually any issues other than simply opposing what the left wants.

00:19:18.000 There's a real problem.

00:19:19.000 I oppose what the left wants also.

00:19:21.000 But I want a unified Republican agenda on the table on each of these things.

00:19:25.000 And I think there is an 80% consensus among Republicans, not the online Republicans, among Republicans generally, for the following things.

00:19:32.000 Enough aid to Ukraine to prevent Russia from taking Kiev.

00:19:35.000 Allowing enough time for a negotiated solution that freezes the lines in place to actually be reached and enough pressure on the Russians so that they don't feel that tomorrow they're going to be able to run into Kiev if they just hold out long enough the way the Taliban held out long enough in Afghanistan then took the whole country. 0.54

00:19:51.000 I think most Republicans are in favor of that.

00:19:52.000 I think the vast majority of Republicans are in favor of aid to Israel.

00:19:55.000 I think the vast majority of Republicans are in favor of securing the border.

00:19:59.000 So start with that and then put forward a bill like that and then force as much of that through as you can in the Senate.

00:20:04.000 That would be the way to do it.

00:20:05.000 But instead, Republicans seem to be saying things like, okay, here's what we want.

00:20:09.000 These things.

00:20:10.000 Now go try and do that.

00:20:11.000 And then somebody else tries to do it and they do it badly.

00:20:13.000 And then Republicans are like, nope, we're not going to look at it.

00:20:16.000 And then they say, we want something different.

00:20:18.000 Okay, well, what is the thing you want that is different?

00:20:21.000 What is it?

00:20:21.000 So it cuts away at the actual seriousness of the real Republican agenda items.

00:20:26.000 The Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, for example, yesterday, He said, we're not gonna get jammed into passing this foreign aid bill that doesn't secure the border.

00:20:33.000 But it was many Republicans who were claiming that Joe Biden doesn't need any more legislation in order to secure the border.

00:20:39.000 Me among them, by the way.

00:20:40.000 He doesn't.

00:20:41.000 He can secure the border right now, given the laws that are on the books.

00:20:43.000 You actually do not need further border legislation in order to ensure that the border is closed.

00:20:49.000 Everyone knows this, including Republicans.

00:20:50.000 So that's why it's always been a little bit weird to suggest that they're not going to pass

00:20:54.000 a foreign aid package unless they get, like again, there are a bunch of arguments

00:20:58.000 against the foreign aid package.

00:20:59.000 Some are actual fiscal arguments that are made by people like Thomas Massey or Rand Paul,

00:21:05.000 who suggest basically we should not do foreign aid to anyone.

00:21:09.000 I take them a little more seriously than people who I think are fronting on that, who are perfectly fine with giant entitlement programs that completely bankrupt the U.S.

00:21:16.000 economy, but they're very keen not to give foreign aid to Israel, for example.

00:21:20.000 But there's certain people like Rand Paul, who's just a small government guy, wants to restructure entitlements and all the rest.

00:21:24.000 And his general perspective on this, presumably, is that we should not spend money in places we shouldn't spend money.

00:21:31.000 Okay, that's fine and that's dandy, but that's not the actual position of the Republican caucus at this point, which has itself refused to restructure entitlements in any way, shape, or form.

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00:22:34.000 Again, the confused messages coming out of the Republican Party, it's one reason why despite the unpopularity of the Democratic Party, Republicans are cruising for a bruising in November.

00:22:43.000 I think people are whistling past the graveyard.

00:22:45.000 I don't mean that Donald Trump is cruising for a bruising.

00:22:46.000 Right now, he is set to win election over Joe Biden if the election were held today.

00:22:50.000 I'm talking about in the House.

00:22:51.000 There is a better than average shot that Republicans lose the House in November because of their own incoherence and incompetence.

00:22:57.000 Here's Speaker Mike Johnson talking about the bill and talking about the border.

00:23:00.000 But again, if you don't put forward your affirmative position, people start to think that it's just chaos, which it kind of is.

00:23:08.000 Last night, the House voted to approve articles of impeachment against Secretary Mayorkas.

00:23:12.000 Desperate times call for desperate measures.

00:23:14.000 We had to do that.

00:23:15.000 He has abdicated his responsibility, he's breached the public trust, and he's disregarded the laws Congress has passed.

00:23:22.000 But much more has to be done, of course, to secure the border, and what the Senate produced this week is silent on that issue.

00:23:28.000 Senator McConnell and I have spoken about this in frank sessions, and let me be clear here again this morning.

00:23:33.000 The Republican-led House will not be jammed or forced into passing a foreign aid bill that was opposed by most Republican senators and does nothing to secure our own border.

00:23:45.000 It's time for Washington to start showing some love to Americans.

00:23:48.000 On Valentine's Day, this is a good day to point this out.

00:23:50.000 We need to listen to the American people and their needs and take action.

00:23:54.000 And that's why House leadership will continue to govern with Americans' interests at heart.

00:23:59.000 Okay, so pass some stuff.

00:24:00.000 Really, like, pass some stuff.

00:24:02.000 So, for example, the House did pass a clean foreign aid bill to Israel, but only through committee.

00:24:06.000 They didn't put it up for a full vote yet.

00:24:09.000 Do that.

00:24:09.000 Force Democrats' hand.

00:24:11.000 Like, make Democrats say what they are for.

00:24:13.000 Right now, Democrats are saying what Republicans are for.

00:24:16.000 Why don't Republicans make Democrats say what Democrats are for at this point?

00:24:19.000 Because the truth is, what Democrats are for at this point is basically opening up the borders.

00:24:23.000 If you take a look at what they are now considering, apparently ICE has drafted plans to release thousands of immigrants and slash its capacity to hold detainees after the failure of the Senate border bill.

00:24:34.000 So Democrats were not claiming that there was a shortage of resources at the border.

00:24:37.000 Republicans were.

00:24:38.000 Then, when Republicans killed the bill, Democrats are now claiming that they take Republicans' claims seriously and now they're just going to release, en masse, people into the United States.

00:24:48.000 So they're actually threatening American security because the Republicans wouldn't pass their border bill.

00:24:53.000 Which, by the way, should be a pretty good Republican talking point.

00:24:56.000 So in other words, you won't secure the border and your threat not to secure the border is that if we don't join you, you're going to further unsecure the border.

00:25:03.000 That seems like a pretty good place for Republicans to come around.

00:25:06.000 But again, it's all convoluted and discombobulated in terms of coordination at the top levels.

00:25:11.000 There is a lack of congressional leadership.

00:25:13.000 And the congressional leadership that there is, is incapable of getting its own party into line.

00:25:17.000 And Democrats are way better at this than Republicans.

00:25:19.000 Period.

00:25:19.000 End of story.

00:25:20.000 According to the Washington Post, The bipartisan border bill Republican lawmakers opposed last week would have provided $6 billion in supplemental funding for ICE enforcement operations.

00:25:29.000 The bill's demise has led ICE officials to begin circulating an internal proposal to save money by releasing thousands of detainees and cutting detention levels from 38,000 beds to 22,000 beds, the opposite of the enforcement increases Republicans say that they want.

00:25:42.000 Now, again, if you're telling me that they can't find any money anywhere in that $7 trillion budget to maintain beds, by the way, those beds are not even full.

00:25:51.000 They're releasing people right now into the interior after a very short period of time.

00:25:55.000 That is an amazing blackmail attempt by the Democrats.

00:25:57.000 They're trying to basically blackmail Republicans into going along with an open border and threatening them with an even more open border if they don't do it.

00:26:03.000 I mean, that's truly an amazing thing, and Republicans would be able to run on that if these issues were disaggregated.

00:26:09.000 Which they kind of should be.

00:26:11.000 I'm not in favor of omnibus packages.

00:26:13.000 I've never been in favor of omnibus packages.

00:26:15.000 I want each one of these measures passed on its own merits.

00:26:19.000 Then we can decide whether the amount of aid to Ukraine is appropriate, or whether it's not.

00:26:22.000 Whether the amount of aid to Israel is appropriate, or whether it's not.

00:26:25.000 Whether the amount of aid to Taiwan is appropriate, and what should be done on the border.

00:26:28.000 But instead, we just aggregate this stuff, and then we argue randomly over it, and then nothing gets done.

00:26:33.000 And meanwhile, the world goes on.

00:26:35.000 The open border goes on.

00:26:36.000 The war in Ukraine goes on.

00:26:37.000 The war in Gaza goes on.

00:26:39.000 We'll get to more on this in just one second.

00:26:40.000 First, are you struggling with back taxes or unfiled returns this year?

00:26:43.000 The IRS is escalating collections by adding 20,000 new agents.

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00:27:41.000 And meanwhile...

00:27:43.000 Closer to home, the Super Bowl was celebrated on Sunday.

00:27:48.000 I say celebrated because it's essentially the only national holiday we have left since the left has declared that Thanksgiving is actually a day of reminiscence about the evils of European colonization of the continent and that July 4th is actually about the evils of American white supremacy and all the rest of it.

00:28:04.000 So Super Bowl Sunday is really the only national holiday we have left.

00:28:07.000 Which says not very much about our common culture, frankly.

00:28:11.000 124 million people watched the Super Bowl the other day.

00:28:14.000 And then there was the Super Bowl victory parade.

00:28:16.000 So the Super Bowl victory parade happened in Kansas City, of course, because the Chiefs beat the 49ers.

00:28:20.000 But a mass shooting broke out at the Super Bowl parade.

00:28:23.000 According to The Sun, the victory parade for the Kansas City Chiefs' second straight Super Bowl championship has now ended in tragedy.

00:28:29.000 Police reported that shots had been fired near Union Station and asked fans to leave.

00:28:33.000 There was CNN covering it yesterday.

00:28:35.000 Josh, again, we're looking at live images.

00:28:37.000 Earlier it appeared that law enforcement was moving folks around in a certain area, but it's really hard to discern exactly what's happening just based on the images that we're seeing.

00:28:48.000 What are you hearing from law enforcement sources about what happened there?

00:28:52.000 Yeah, Boris.

00:28:52.000 So there was this clearing process obviously that took place after these shots rang out.

00:28:56.000 Officers trying to get this large group of people who had been gathered for the celebration out of the area.

00:29:02.000 We're just hearing from authorities coming in just now that it appears as though at least two people have been taken into custody.

00:29:08.000 It's worth pointing out right now though, No indication of any any victims.

00:29:13.000 Police said that they were working to gather information.

00:29:16.000 So again, we just want to caution.

00:29:17.000 It's still too early to determine whether reports of shots fired here actually were related to this celebration or whether this was just happening nearby.

00:29:27.000 Okay, so, police are still trying to figure out exactly what the motives are.

00:29:31.000 The fact that we don't know the identity of the shooter, and the police clearly do, I mean, we have pictures floating around online of the identities of the shooter, and the police will not release that.

00:29:39.000 Whenever the police are very reticent to release the identity of a person implicated in a murder, You can fairly guarantee that politics are coming into play.

00:29:46.000 According to CNN, police are working to figure out who opened fire and why after one person was killed and 20 more wounded at the end of the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl victory rally.

00:29:55.000 Children were, in fact, among those shot.

00:29:57.000 About a million people were gathered Wednesday, just steps from Union Station in downtown Kansas City.

00:30:02.000 Three people were detained.

00:30:03.000 An unspecified number of guns were recovered as the officers converged.

00:30:07.000 Now, it is fair to point out at this point that Kansas City is one of the more unsafe major cities in the United States.

00:30:13.000 They have serious crime rates.

00:30:14.000 Last year, they actually had the most homicides ever in the city of Kansas City.

00:30:20.000 It is a deeply unsafe city at this point.

00:30:24.000 High rates of poverty, high rates of crime, high rates of single motherhood, which are related to both of those things. 0.99

00:30:30.000 Meanwhile, this immediately sent Democrats into their gun control call.

00:30:34.000 This is always what happens.

00:30:36.000 If there is a shooting, it's never about gangs.

00:30:39.000 It's never about single motherhood.

00:30:40.000 It's never about high rates of crime.

00:30:43.000 It's never about understaffing of the police department.

00:30:45.000 It's always about guns, as though you can just get rid of guns across the United States with a magic wand or something.

00:30:51.000 So here is Democratic Representative Jason Crow of Colorado calling for more gun control because it's always more cowbell for the Democrats whenever somebody gets shot.

00:30:59.000 It's the fault of the instrument, not the fault of the person.

00:31:02.000 The gun violence in this country is not being resolved, even despite the steps that have been taken by lawmakers.

00:31:09.000 I mean, the few steps, the very small steps.

00:31:12.000 What needs to be done?

00:31:15.000 Well, my heart is breaking for Kansas City and for the victims and their families.

00:31:20.000 This is a terrible, devastating incident.

00:31:24.000 No doubt about it.

00:31:25.000 We have a crisis in our nation.

00:31:28.000 There's no reason why almost 40,000 Americans a year should be dying at the hands of guns.

00:31:34.000 This is a uniquely American problem. 0.83

00:31:37.000 Nobody else in the world has the problem that we have right now.

00:31:41.000 And my heart breaks, my thoughts and my prayers go out to the families and the victims here.

00:31:46.000 But listen, I'm a member of Congress.

00:31:48.000 I'm a legislator.

00:31:49.000 I'm not a member of the clergy.

00:31:51.000 And my job is not to just send thoughts and prayers.

00:31:55.000 My job is to legislate and to try to solve problems.

00:31:58.000 And that's why I've been pushing very hard to try to solve it.

00:32:01.000 And that's why people should be pushing their members of Congress and others to join with us to do the same.

00:32:07.000 Okay, so it is worthwhile at this point pointing out the Democrats have introduced zero legislation that would have stopped what happened yesterday in Kansas City.

00:32:15.000 Zero.

00:32:16.000 The weapons used were semi-automatic handguns.

00:32:18.000 Democrats have proposed no laws that would get to the confiscation, which is what you would require, of semi-automatic handguns because it would violate the Second Amendment, as they well know.

00:32:26.000 So they're basically just railing against the wind.

00:32:29.000 Well, we can talk about that, or we can talk about some of the heroes who actually tried to stop this thing.

00:32:33.000 So, there is video of the shooters trying to flee, and members of the crowd tackling them, which is amazing stuff.

00:32:39.000 I mean, again, there are real everyday heroes out there.

00:32:41.000 Here's some of that footage.

00:32:45.000 You can see these shooters trying to get away, and people on the sidelines are just tackling them, and subduing them.

00:32:55.000 I mean, that's heroism.

00:32:57.000 When you see a mass shooter and your first move is, we gotta tackle this person and subdue that person.

00:33:03.000 Good for the civilians who decided to get involved and help.

00:33:06.000 And then the police came late and arrested.

00:33:09.000 Again, the police are very understaffed in Kansas City.

00:33:12.000 Here's an interview with one of the men who tackled the alleged shooter.

00:33:16.000 His name is Paul Contreras.

00:33:18.000 One guy was hollering, saying, you know, stop him.

00:33:23.000 Or catch him, you know, tackle him, whatever.

00:33:26.000 And he's just, just bailing running.

00:33:30.000 And out of nowhere, I hear that guy hollering.

00:33:32.000 So I'm just like, okay, well, I'm right here.

00:33:34.000 And I just, I didn't think about it.

00:33:36.000 It was just a reaction.

00:33:38.000 I didn't hesitate.

00:33:38.000 It was just, just do it.

00:33:40.000 So I went to go tackle him and another gentleman did the same thing.

00:33:44.000 And as I'm tackling him, I see his weapon either fall out of his hand or out of his sleeve.

00:33:50.000 Cause he was wearing a long jacket or like a Carhartt.

00:33:53.000 So when I seen that hit the ground, I'm like, Oh, You know, we got to take this guy down.

00:33:58.000 And so, like I said, I did, and another good Samaritan did, and we held him down.

00:34:04.000 And it seemed like forever, but it probably wasn't.

00:34:07.000 It was like 30 seconds holding him down, and me and the other gentlemen and hiring that ongoers, you know, where's the cops?

00:34:15.000 You know, get the cops over here.

00:34:16.000 Get the cops over here.

00:34:17.000 You know, we got him.

00:34:20.000 I mean, so good for this person.

00:34:22.000 Again, there are people out there who jump into action when something goes wrong.

00:34:25.000 But if you are going to speak about broader systemic crime problems in America's major cities, you do have to point out that one of the big problems in America's major cities is that the governing bodies in these cities are incredibly soft on crime, incredibly soft on crime.

00:34:37.000 In fact, yesterday, Brandon Johnson, who is the mayor of Chicago, he announced that they were going to change how they actually identify crime occurring in Chicago.

00:34:47.000 They're going to cancel a deal With a software called ShotSpotter.

00:34:52.000 What exactly is ShotSpotter?

00:34:54.000 ShotSpotter operates a network of acoustic sensors across the city where if a shot is fired, the police are immediately notified of that so they can get to the scene.

00:35:02.000 He's canceling that because he says it's racist.

00:35:06.000 The city put out a statement saying, quote, moving forward, the city of Chicago will deploy its resources on the most effective strategies and tactics proven to accelerate the current downward trend in violent crime.

00:35:15.000 Yes, everyone can feel it in Chicago, that current trend downward in violent crime.

00:35:18.000 Things are getting so much better in Chicago, which is why nobody is traveling to Chicago these days, except for illegal immigrants, by the way. 1.00

00:35:25.000 Here is what Brandon Johnson announcing at this idiocy. 0.99

00:35:28.000 Campaign promise fulfilled. 0.98

00:35:30.000 Mayor Brandon Johnson is ending the city's use of the controversial gunfire surveillance system

00:35:36.000 known as ShotSpotter.

00:35:37.000 The city's contract with the company behind ShotSpotter expires on Friday,

00:35:41.000 and the police will stop using the technology September 22nd,

00:35:45.000 about a month after the Democratic National Convention.

00:35:48.000 A city statement said, moving forward, Chicago will deploy its resources

00:35:53.000 on the most effective strategies and tactics proven to accelerate the current downward trend

00:35:58.000 in violent crime.

00:35:59.000 And by the way, it is worth noting at this point that ShotSpotter also, the company behind it,

00:36:04.000 they said they were offered a six month extension And they're like, nope, you know what?

00:36:09.000 Enjoy.

00:36:10.000 Enjoy your giant, violent, crime-ridden city.

00:36:13.000 We're out.

00:36:14.000 So, good job, Brandon Johnson.

00:36:16.000 Same thing, by the way, happening in Washington, D.C.

00:36:19.000 Washington, D.C., of course, is a crime-ridden hellhole.

00:36:22.000 Washington, D.C.

00:36:23.000 has become a center for violent crime, including violent carjackings, shootings.

00:36:28.000 MSNBC just yesterday was reporting on three Washington, D.C.

00:36:30.000 officers being shot and injured while serving a warrant.

00:36:33.000 Ana, this began in the 8 a.m.

00:36:35.000 hour here in Southeast D.C.

00:36:37.000 when Metropolitan Police officers were serving an arrest warrant to an individual inside a home here in Southeast D.C.

00:36:45.000 He began shooting from inside the home towards the outside.

00:36:48.000 We're told three officers were injured in this shooting.

00:36:52.000 We're also told a fourth has minor injuries as well.

00:36:55.000 This is still a very active, ongoing situation.

00:36:57.000 We're expecting a briefing here from police in any moment now.

00:37:02.000 Okay, and then, absurdly, the White House came out and blamed Republicans for the D.C.

00:37:07.000 crime spike, which is kind of amazing since the Democrats run Washington, D.C.

00:37:11.000 The mayor of Washington, D.C.

00:37:13.000 painted an entire street with Black Lives Matter and declared it like George Floyd Plaza during BLM.

00:37:19.000 Here is Corrine Jean-Pierre talking about this.

00:37:21.000 Does the president believe the nation's capital is safe for Americans from across the country to come visit?

00:37:28.000 I mean, look, we hear the reports and see the data as well.

00:37:32.000 Uh, and all violent crime anywhere is completely unacceptable.

00:37:35.000 Not just here in DC.

00:37:37.000 We're going to call them all out in communities across the country.

00:37:41.000 Everyone in every community in this country wants the same thing.

00:37:44.000 They want their families to be safe and, uh, and not get into, uh, not get into, um, you know, politics on this.

00:37:52.000 The president is wanting to make sure that communities feel safe.

00:37:55.000 And we're not seeing that from congressional Republicans.

00:37:57.000 We're just not.

00:37:59.000 They continue to get in the way.

00:38:00.000 The President has taken action.

00:38:02.000 He puts that in his budget every day, making sure that we make communities safer.

00:38:07.000 And we're just not seeing that from Republicans.

00:38:10.000 Republicans are anti-cop now.

00:38:12.000 Yeah, good luck with this particular argument.

00:38:13.000 In just one second, we'll get to the continuing threat of Joe Biden's senility to his re-elect chances.

00:38:17.000 First, right now is your chance to get 30% off Daily Wire Plus annual memberships during our President's Day sale when you use code DW30 at checkout.

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00:38:51.000 Meanwhile, we have some news from Joe Biden's senility challenge, which is what's happening for his 2024 reelect.

00:38:57.000 So apparently, you remember, during his terrible press conference last week, Joe Biden got very angry, got very angry because of the special counsel's suggestion that he couldn't remember when his son died.

00:39:08.000 And so he did a whole shtick.

00:39:11.000 How terrible it was that he was even asked the question, remember?

00:39:14.000 How dare he even ask the question?

00:39:16.000 How dare he?

00:39:17.000 How the hell dare he raise that? 0.64

00:39:19.000 You remember that?

00:39:19.000 Remember he said that last week?

00:39:21.000 That was last Friday.

00:39:22.000 It was last Thursday, actually.

00:39:23.000 Remember that?

00:39:24.000 It was great.

00:39:25.000 Well, now it emerges that actually he was never asked that question.

00:39:29.000 You know why Beau Biden came up?

00:39:31.000 Because Joe Biden will bring him up in any context as his get-out-of-jail-free card for literally everything.

00:39:36.000 According to NBC News, quote, Her never asked that question, according to two people familiar with Her's five-hour interview with the President over two days last October.

00:39:43.000 It was the President, not Her or his team, who first introduced Beau Biden's death, they said.

00:39:48.000 Biden raised his son's death after being asked about his workflow at a Virginia rental home from 2016 to 2018, when a ghostwriter was helping him write a memoir about losing Beau to brain cancer in 2015.

00:39:58.000 Investigators had a 2017 recording showing that Biden had told the ghostwriter he found classified stuff in that home.

00:40:04.000 Biden began trying to recall that period by discussing what else was happening in his life.

00:40:08.000 It was at that point in the interview he appeared confused about when Beau died.

00:40:11.000 Biden got the date correct, but not the year.

00:40:14.000 So, presumably he was trying to use that as an excuse for why he was confused and upset, but it was 2017, and actually Beau had died already a couple of years prior.

00:40:23.000 And it was Biden who raised it, and then blamed her for asking the question.

00:40:28.000 Yeah, things are not going well for Joe Biden. 0.99

00:40:31.000 He happens to be, by the way, just an awful, I mean, I say it all the time, he really is a garbage president. 0.93

00:40:35.000 In fact, Joe Biden today announced that the Department of Homeland Security is going to shield Palestinians in the United States illegally from deportation and loosen work requirements to funnel them into American jobs. 0.98

00:40:49.000 He provided most Palestinians in the United States with, quote, deferred enforcement departure for at least 18 months.

00:40:55.000 Memorandum ensures that most Palestinians cannot be deported from the United States over the next year and a half.

00:41:02.000 Also, DHS is advised to offer employment for non-citizens whose removal has been deferred for the duration of such deferral.

00:41:12.000 And loosen regulations so Palestinians in the United States on F1 student visas can hold American jobs. 1.00

00:41:16.000 If you overstayed your visa by your Palestinian, now Joe Biden wants to keep you here indefinitely.

00:41:22.000 Now all of this again is a pander to Dearborn, Michigan.

00:41:24.000 That is what he is doing.

00:41:25.000 He thinks he's going to lose Michigan.

00:41:26.000 And the only way that he's going to maintain Michigan is by pandering super duper hard on the Israel-Palestinian issue.

00:41:33.000 Which presumably is also why he is now attempting to push forward a quote-unquote peace plan that would effectively amount to endless war in the region by unilaterally proposing a Palestinian state. 0.92

00:41:44.000 So in other words, you get to kill 1,200 Jews and you get a state. 0.89

00:41:47.000 Is the new logic from the Biden administration. 0.95

00:41:50.000 There was no Palestinian state prior to that because there is no actual governing body in the West Bank or in the Gaza Strip that is not a giant terror group.

00:41:57.000 There are no actual borders.

00:41:59.000 There's no actual economy.

00:42:00.000 There's no actual rule over those areas in any serious sense by any of those governing bodies. 0.98

00:42:06.000 Which is why, but kill 1,200 Jews and Joe Biden will give you a state is the logic. 0.53

00:42:09.000 According to the Times of Israel, the United States and several Arab partners are preparing a detailed plan for a comprehensive peace deal between Israel and Palestinians that includes a firm timeline for a Palestinian state.

00:42:19.000 Now, I'm not sure exactly how you would have a firm timeline for a Palestinian state, given the fact that you would have to hit markers for that timeline.

00:42:29.000 Such as, you know, not teaching all your kids to murder as many Jews as humanly possible, which is exactly what is taught in Palestinian schools, unfortunately. 0.99

00:42:37.000 Officials told the Post that they hope to make the plan public once Israel and Hamas agree to a temporary truce aimed at allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza and freeing the hostages still held by the terror group in the Strip.

00:42:48.000 During that report, during the pause, steps would be taken toward implementation of the proposal, including forming an interim Palestinian government that could also rule over Gaza.

00:42:55.000 Good luck on all of this.

00:42:56.000 This is all pie-in-the-sky nonsense.

00:42:58.000 But that's Joe Biden's shtick, pie-in-the-sky nonsense.

00:43:00.000 He's incredibly, incredibly bad at this particular job.

00:43:03.000 So, meanwhile, in the funniest story of the day, remember Rachel Dolezal?

00:43:09.000 So, Rachel Dolezal was the lady who pretended that she was black for years and years. 0.67

00:43:14.000 She had changed her name to Nkechi Diallo.

00:43:18.000 After being publicly smeared, and actually exposed, not smeared, as Rachel Dolezal.

00:43:23.000 She's a white lady from, like, Kansas, and she had pretended to be a black lady, and then she'd actually become the head of the Specan Washington NAACP or something. 1.00

00:43:32.000 And then she was exposed for all of that and became a national punchline, obviously. 0.87

00:43:35.000 Well then, she became a teacher at an elementary school in Arizona, because that's who you would invite as a crazy person to teach your small children in elementary school, apparently. 1.00

00:43:44.000 Well, it turns out now she's been fired again.

00:43:47.000 Why?

00:43:47.000 Well, because she had an OnlyFans account.

00:43:51.000 So it turns out that not only is she a crazy person masquerading as a person of another race, also she is prostituting herself on OnlyFans. 0.88

00:43:58.000 So that's great. 0.94

00:43:59.000 According to the school district, we only learned of Ms. 0.99

00:44:03.000 Nkechi Diallo's OnlyFans social media post yesterday afternoon.

00:44:06.000 She is no longer employed by the Catalina Foothills School District.

00:44:10.000 So apparently, I mean, talk about a life story here, Diallo, I do love that we just, you know, randomly go with people's new names, genders, all the rest of it.

00:44:19.000 Diallo lost her role teaching African studies at Eastern Washington University and launched an account on OnlyFans in 2021 after struggling to find work.

00:44:26.000 She made 600 posts in the year since and shared hundreds of paywalled adult videos and photos. 1.00

00:44:32.000 So that is a life story that is going very poorly, that particular life story.

00:44:36.000 So best of luck to Rachel Dolezal in all of her newest efforts.

00:44:40.000 Meanwhile, Donald Trump, his legal drama continues.

00:44:45.000 So the Trump state prosecutions are apparently reaching a kind of turning point in two separate cities.

00:44:51.000 You've got the court going in New York and you also have the court going in Atlanta, Georgia.

00:44:56.000 According to CNN, Trump is expected to show up in court in New York for procedural hearing ahead of that trial over the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. 0.86

00:45:04.000 Remember that this is Alvin Bragg's idiotic prosecution of Donald Trump for a state charge on the basis of violation of federal campaign finance law all about how he should have declared as a campaign finance expenditure his payment to Stormy Daniels or some such nonsense. 0.99

00:45:19.000 It's absolute garbage. 0.99

00:45:21.000 So he's gonna be in New York at that evidentiary hearing. 0.98

00:45:23.000 And then, meanwhile, a judge is holding an evidentiary hearing in Fulton County, Georgia, because District Attorney Fannie Willis was shtooping the prosecutor who she hired who had no actual prosecutorial experience.

00:45:35.000 According to the Associated Press, should District Attorney Fannie Willis be removed from the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump because of her personal relationship with a special prosecutor?

00:45:44.000 Lawyers were set to battle over the question during a hearing in Atlanta on Thursday.

00:45:48.000 The DA for Georgia's Folsom County had hired an outside lawyer named Nathan Wade to help investigate whether Trump and his allies committed crimes while trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.

00:45:57.000 Wade has led the team prosecuting the case since an indictment was returned in August.

00:46:00.000 If she were removed, it would seriously diminish the chances of Trump's conviction in that particular case.

00:46:07.000 Not only... I mean, it would look like a political prosecution.

00:46:09.000 Not only that, it would certainly delay the trial to beyond the election.

00:46:13.000 So, well done, Fannie Willis, for effectively getting Trump off in that particular case.

00:46:18.000 I mean, listen, that case is also a botchery.

00:46:21.000 The legality behind the case makes no sense, as we've explained many times on the show, but Fannie Willis, it's not that that's letting Trump off the hook there, it's that Fannie Willis was shtipping the guy that she hired with the taxpayer money, so that is a bigger problem.

00:46:35.000 And I think the Democrats' hopes that Donald Trump is going to somehow be defeated by his legal cases, I find that very hard to believe.

00:46:42.000 And right now, if the election were held today, Donald Trump would win.

00:46:45.000 That is the reality of the situation.

00:46:48.000 Right now, when you look at the general election, Donald Trump is up by a point and a half in the RealClearPolitics polling average.

00:46:53.000 It's a lot closer than it should be, considering he's running against a dead person.

00:46:56.000 But the last several polls have Trump up 4, 5, 2, Biden up 1, Trump up 1 tie.

00:47:04.000 Very, very close election.

00:47:06.000 Obviously.

00:47:07.000 But if Donald Trump is within one point of Joe Biden, the likelihood is that he will win the election.

00:47:12.000 Either way.

00:47:14.000 Remember, he lost to Hillary Clinton in the popular vote by a significant percentage, and he still won the election.

00:47:20.000 At this point in time, it should be worth noting, in the last two election cycles, Joe Biden was up almost six points in the RealClearPolitics polling average, and Hillary Clinton in 2016 was up almost five points in the RealClearPolitics polling average.

00:47:31.000 Meanwhile, Donald Trump today is up a point and a half.

00:47:34.000 So, bad news for Democrats.

00:47:37.000 Alrighty guys, the rest of the show continues right now.

00:47:39.000 We will be jumping into the Vaunted Ben Shapiro Show Mailbag.

00:47:41.000 If you're not a member, become a member.

00:47:43.000 Use code SHAPIRO at checkout for two months free on all annual plans.

The Ben Shapiro Show - February 15, 2024

Russian Nukes In Space?!

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