The Ben Shapiro Show - January 03, 2020


So Long, Soleimani! | Ep. 924

Topics
precious metals inflation crisis re-establishing deterrence Joker movie critique
Hosted by
Ben Shapiro
Mentioned
Donald Trump Hashtag Soleimani Barack Obama Joe Biden Ayatollah Khomeini Qasem Soleimani Bernie Sanders Ben Rhodes Policy Genius Ilhan Omar Max Boot Joker Rose McGowan Bin Laden Osama Bin Laden George W. Bush Hassan Rouhani Ronald Reagan Wendy Sherman Ben Sasse and 41 more
Welcome To 2020! | Ep. 923 Will We End Up In A War With Iran? | Ep. 925

Episode Stats


Length

55 minutes

Words per minute

208.46

Word count

11,552

Sentence count

883

Harmful content

Misogyny

8

sentences flagged

Toxicity

75

sentences flagged

Hate speech

67

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The United States military takes out Iran s leading terrorist. Democrats lament the escalation. And Bernie Sanders prepares his final political assault on Joe Biden. Ben Shapiro explains why it s a good time to diversify your asset base. Today's episode is sponsored by ExpressVPN. Stop putting your online data at risk. Just stop it. Get protected at Express VPN. Use the promo code: "ELISSA" to receive $10 and contribute $10 to one of his campaigns. You get 10% off his first purchase when you become a patron. If you haven't taken the first step of actually gathering information, go over to Birchgold. They'll have a conversation with you, and you can determine if precious metals make sense for you. There's no obligation, you have nothing to lose. Text Ben to 474747. See how simple and straightforward this move can be for you! Text "Ben" to 48474747 and you'll get 5 stars and a FREE stock like Apple, Ford, or a Berkshire Hathaway credit card! You'll get 20% off your first month, plus a 20% discount when you sign up for an Apple credit card when you place an offer of $100 or more. Ben's Free 7-day VIP trial when you enter the offer ends on January 1st, 2020. Want to sponsor the show? Get your own gold and other precious metals? Subscribe to Ben Shapiro's new show on Audible. Subscribe here! Learn more about his new show, The Ben Shapiro Show? Learn about his newest book, The Secret Life of Ben Shapiro: How to Be a Billionaire? Learn how to be free and secure your future in the world of finance and financial freedom, and get 7% off the highest-yield gold and silver and rare minerals and rare metals, including rare minerals, like rare varieties of rarer than the rarest & rarer wildr than you can own them all for 99% of the rarer breeds, like Ben Shapiro s real life gold and rarer, all for $99 or $50 or $1,000 or $2,000, a maximum of $25,000 gets you a lifetime of VIP access, and gets you access to a 3-piece gold and a 60% of your choice of 7 days of all-of-a-choice bronze and other things, plus 7 other things like that?

Transcript

Transcripts from "The Ben Shapiro Show" are sourced from the Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool. Explore them interactively here.
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
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Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 The United States military takes out Iran's leading terrorist.
00:00:03.000 Democrats lament the escalation.
00:00:05.000 And Bernie Sanders prepares his final political assault on Joe Biden.
00:00:08.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.
00:00:08.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.
00:00:14.000 This show is sponsored by ExpressVPN.
00:00:16.000 Stop putting your online data at risk.
00:00:18.000 Just stop it.
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00:00:22.000 Okay, well, you may have noticed that things have gotten a little bit hot and heavy in the opening moments of year 2020.
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00:00:42.000 I, of course, am talking about precious metals.
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00:01:38.000 Alrighty, so, yesterday, Was probably the most consequential day for Trump foreign policy in the history of his administration.
00:01:47.000 It's not close, actually.
00:01:49.000 I won't say probably.
00:01:49.000 It is clearly the most consequential day for Trump's foreign policy in the history of his administration.
00:01:55.000 President Trump made the decision to go ahead with an attack at the Baghdad airport on General Qasem Soleimani, who is the leading terrorist probably on planet Earth.
00:02:06.000 Certainly inside Iran. 0.71
00:02:07.000 He also happened to be the leader of the Iranian military.
00:02:10.000 He was the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, which was sort of the terrorist wing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
00:02:15.000 He was widely considered the number two in Iran after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
00:02:21.000 He was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans in Iraq.
00:02:24.000 He was really leading the Iranian terror against American troops during the Iraq War.
00:02:29.000 He was responsible for, by State Department estimates, 17% of all Americans killed in Iraq.
00:02:35.000 He was responsible for the arming of Hezbollah in Lebanon with tens of thousands of rockets, which is a situation that will cascade into war sometime in the next three to four years.
00:02:42.000 That is all his work.
00:02:44.000 He's responsible for the war in Yemen. 0.78
00:02:46.000 He has armed the Houthis in Yemen and led to their rebellion against a Saudi-sponsored regime in Yemen.
00:02:51.000 He's responsible for the building of Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, which is the terror group that is responsible for firing rockets.
00:02:57.000 He's responsible, probably, for the Bashar al-Assad regime still running Syria.
00:03:01.000 It was Iranians Coordination with the Bashar al-Assad regime that allowed the Assad regime to stand. 0.62
00:03:07.000 He's responsible for the attacks on the American embassy that happened over the last week.
00:03:11.000 He's been responsible for terror attacks abroad like a bevy of them.
00:03:15.000 This was one of the worst people on planet Earth.
00:03:18.000 He was a vicious terrorist who was extremely effective at what he did.
00:03:24.000 Commentators have been describing him as something... In Iran, the situation at the top of the Iranian government is somewhat top-heavy, meaning that there are a few very key players who hold a wide portfolio.
00:03:35.000 Soleimani was maybe the most indispensable man in Iran.
00:03:40.000 People have been comparing his death to, like, let's say that there were a coordinated strike against the United States in which the defense secretary, head of the CIA, and head of the FBI were killed simultaneously.
00:03:49.000 And maybe the VP, because Soleimani was widely considered a possible heir apparent to Ali Khamenei, should Khamenei have died or something.
00:03:56.000 And now he is in a thousand pieces.
00:03:58.000 According to the Associated Press, the United States killed Iran's top general and the architect of Tehran's proxy wars in the Middle East in an airstrike at Baghdad's international airport early on Friday, an attack that threatens to dramatically ratchet up tensions in the region.
00:04:10.000 Now there are three different responses that we've been seeing to Soleimani's death.
00:04:16.000 Response number one is just bat bleep lunacy. 0.55
00:04:18.000 Response number one is that we are sad he's dead.
00:04:20.000 That the United States did something wrong in killing Khamenei.
00:04:24.000 I mean, in killing Soleimani, rather.
00:04:26.000 That's absolute insanity. 0.99
00:04:28.000 This is one of the worst people on the planet. 0.68
00:04:30.000 The world is much better off with him not breathing the same air as the rest of us. 1.00
00:04:34.000 This is a person who richly deserved to die.
00:04:36.000 He'd been in American crosshairs at least a couple of times back in 2007. 0.97
00:04:40.000 He was in America's crosshairs.
00:04:42.000 He was also in America's crosshairs back in, I believe, 2014, or he was in Israeli crosshairs back in 2014, 2015, and the Obama administration basically told the Israelis not to kill him.
00:04:53.000 So he has been under the gun several times.
00:04:56.000 He's not been taken out, obviously, until yesterday.
00:04:58.000 At that point, he was taken out. 0.98
00:05:00.000 Did he deserve to die? 1.00
00:05:00.000 You bet your ass he deserved to die. 1.00
00:05:02.000 Just for the killing of American soldiers, he deserved to die. 1.00
00:05:05.000 For the spread of Iran's terrorism around the world. 1.00
00:05:08.000 So, response number one, which you're seeing from people like Rose McGowan, the actress, is just insanity.
00:05:14.000 The idea that the United States did something morally wrong in taking out one of the leading terrorists on planet Earth, probably the leading terrorist on planet Earth. 0.62
00:05:21.000 Rose McGowan, who is a crazy person, tweeted out, Dear Iran, the USA has disrespected your country, your flag, your people.
00:05:28.000 52% of us humbly apologize. 0.88
00:05:29.000 We want peace with your nation.
00:05:31.000 We are being held hostage by a terrorist regime.
00:05:33.000 We do not know how to escape.
00:05:34.000 Please do not kill us.
00:05:36.000 Hashtag Soleimani.
00:05:38.000 That tweet beggars description. 0.94
00:05:40.000 There are no words for how evil and vile and traitorous that tweet is.
00:05:45.000 It may be the worst tweet ever written.
00:05:47.000 First of all, the Iranian people are not in line with Soleimani or with the Ayatollahs.
00:05:52.000 If they had their way, this regime would not be in power.
00:05:55.000 Second of all, the idea that we are being held enthralled to a terrorist regime and you're apologizing for the death of a ter- I mean, we don't have to take Rose McGowan that seriously, but there is that sort of roiling undercurrent in the commentariat today that somehow Trump did something wrong in killing Soleimani.
00:06:10.000 So that's narrative number one.
00:06:11.000 Narrative number two is that this amounts to some sort of assassination.
00:06:15.000 That it's an assassination of a foreign official in violation of American law.
00:06:17.000 That's a lie.
00:06:18.000 Okay, this is not a violation of American law.
00:06:21.000 There are only two laws that would theoretically be implicated here.
00:06:23.000 One is whether the United States was authorized to take action, whether Congress had authorized that action.
00:06:29.000 Well, under the authorization for use of military force, the United States has, the President of the United States has authority to act inside Iraq.
00:06:38.000 Not only that, the Iraqi government has invited the United States into Iraq.
00:06:42.000 Soleimani was not killed inside Iran.
00:06:44.000 He was killed in Iraq.
00:06:46.000 He was a foreign terrorist in Iraq, and the United States had every ability and, on a moral level, every moral obligation to kill Soleimani. 0.82
00:06:54.000 As far as the idea that this was some sort of assassination in violation of the Reagan-era executive order against assassinations, again, this man was a terrorist. 0.80
00:07:01.000 He was not just an Iranian official.
00:07:02.000 He was a terrorist, and he was in a foreign country, so that makes a difference.
00:07:05.000 So this notion that this was some sort of assassination is nonsense.
00:07:08.000 And then there's the narrative that this is an escalation.
00:07:10.000 In order for you to believe that this was a tremendous escalation or that Trump is responsible for the escalation, you have to believe that nothing has been happening over the last couple of years, which is just a lie.
00:07:20.000 We've covered it on the show.
00:07:21.000 Over and over, the Iranians have been attacking shipping in the Straits of Hormuz, including internationally flagged ships.
00:07:26.000 Over and over, the Iranians have been pursuing terrorism against American interests and American allies. 0.99
00:07:31.000 They've been firing rockets on Americans in Iraq, The Iranians have been responsible for the downing of the American drone, and then over the weekend, obviously, they attacked an American embassy.
00:07:41.000 Because that was done with Soleimani's go-ahead.
00:07:43.000 And that's what the Defense Department suggested today.
00:07:46.000 The Defense Department put out a statement explaining exactly why they had just done what they did.
00:07:51.000 The Pentagon said, quote, At the direction of the President, the U.S.
00:07:53.000 military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S.
00:07:56.000 personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.
00:08:04.000 General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.
00:08:09.000 General Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more.
00:08:16.000 He had orchestrated attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the last several months, including the attack on December 27th, culminating in the death and wounding of additional American and Iraqi personnel.
00:08:26.000 General Soleimani also approved the attacks on the U.S.
00:08:29.000 Embassy in Baghdad that took place this week.
00:08:31.000 This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans.
00:08:34.000 The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world.
00:08:40.000 Well, this is a ballsy move by Trump.
00:08:43.000 It's a ballsy move by Trump.
00:08:44.000 The reason it's a ballsy move by Trump is because it throws the Iranian regime into chaos, which means that there will be short-term lashing out.
00:08:51.000 Everybody knows it, okay?
00:08:52.000 This is going to happen.
00:08:53.000 The Iranian regime, in order to save face, are obviously going to attempt some sort of terror attack. 0.57
00:08:58.000 In all likelihood, that will come against Saudi targets.
00:09:00.000 You might see them try terror attacks inside the United States.
00:09:03.000 You might see them try terror attacks in South America, where they've tried terror attacks before.
00:09:07.000 Massive terror attacks, actually.
00:09:08.000 You might see them activate Hezbollah in Lebanon to fire on Israel.
00:09:12.000 Things could get fairly hot fairly quickly, particularly for American allies.
00:09:16.000 As far as the sort of projection of widespread attack on Americans, One thing is now clear that the death of Soleimani shows that if things get too hot, Ali Khamenei will not be connected with his head in very short order.
00:09:32.000 And the fact is that what Trump was doing yesterday was a restorance of American deterrence that had been lost during the Obama administration.
00:09:39.000 And yes, in the early years of the Trump administration.
00:09:41.000 The fact is that the Obama administration tried a strategy of outright bribery of the world's worst terror regime.
00:09:46.000 They lied to the American people in the process.
00:09:48.000 The Iran nuclear deal was a disaster for the United States.
00:09:51.000 It was a disaster for the world.
00:09:52.000 It was an attempt to pay off a terror regime, a radical Islamic terror regime, hell-bent on regional domination and indeed on world terrorism. 0.89
00:10:03.000 And the Obama administration lied to you and they lied to me and they lied to the American people.
00:10:06.000 Ben Rhodes leading the way, the national security aide.
00:10:09.000 He was going out there and lying and saying that there was this tiny window in which the moderates could take control of Iran if only we paid them billions of dollars.
00:10:17.000 Hundreds of billions of dollars and allowed hundreds of billions of dollars to flow into the Iranian economy and made them part of the family of nations.
00:10:22.000 Then all would be well.
00:10:24.000 That did not happen.
00:10:25.000 The Iranians took that money. 0.92
00:10:26.000 They immediately started developing their ballistic missile program.
00:10:28.000 They immediately started pushing terrorism around the region.
00:10:31.000 John Kerry, the Secretary of State under Obama, admitted as much.
00:10:35.000 And the Trump administration came in and they said, OK, we're not going to sponsor this stuff.
00:10:38.000 We are not going to allow dollars to flow into a terror regime.
00:10:42.000 And Iran, with its economy sagging, decided to lash out and increasingly lash out.
00:10:47.000 Now, if you're on the left, you say, well, the lashing out is Trump's fault.
00:10:52.000 Okay, that's like suggesting that the lashing out by your child, when you punish them for hitting a sibling, and they're in their room screaming, you say, the screaming is your fault for punishing the kid.
00:11:02.000 Well, actually, the screaming is the kid's fault for hitting their sibling.
00:11:04.000 Iran, anytime it wants, anytime Iran wants, Iran can be a part of the family of nations.
00:11:09.000 Anytime Iran wants, it can be integrated into the world economy.
00:11:12.000 Anytime Iran wants, Iran can be a well-respected member of the world community.
00:11:16.000 All they have to do is stop being terrorists, radical Islamists, that's it.
00:11:19.000 That's all they have to do. 0.91
00:11:20.000 But they're not going to do that.
00:11:21.000 Because they are running a repressive, oppressive, terror regime in Tehran.
00:11:26.000 And the fact that the Trump administration acknowledged that reality, and the Obama administration sought to back-massage the mullahs, was the initiating event that led to all of this. 0.78
00:11:39.000 So Trump said, he came out and said, this deal is no good, he tore it up.
00:11:42.000 And then the Iranians started lashing out.
00:11:44.000 And then after lashing out and lashing out and lashing out for years, after lashing out for literally years, and the Trump administration taking very light action, right, they restored some of the sanctions, but after an American drone was shot down, there was talk that the jets were on their way, the American military was on its way to hit targets in Iran, and Trump called that off at the last moment.
00:12:03.000 That after attacks on shipping in the Straits of Hormuz, the United States was basically doing nothing.
00:12:07.000 We saw repeated violations of international law by the Iranians under Obama. 0.99
00:12:11.000 They actually took a boat full of Americans and held them at gunpoint.
00:12:16.000 And then they built a statue of it in Tehran.
00:12:20.000 After all of that, this is the first sign that the United States is going to restore its deterrent capacity. 0.98
00:12:25.000 Which is, if you screw with us, you're going to die.
00:12:29.000 If you screw with us, the people at the top of your regime are going to be the ones who pay the price. 0.99
00:12:33.000 This is a terror regime, and your terror leader just got killed.
00:12:37.000 Not just your terror leader, your heir apparent, the head of your military strategy, the head of your terror strategy. 0.52
00:12:42.000 That guy's dead.
00:12:43.000 This was Trump's attempt to restore deterrence.
00:12:45.000 Now, there are folks on the left who are suggesting that deterrence itself is a bad thing.
00:12:47.000 You can't deter this regime, you have to bribe them.
00:12:50.000 That's called appeasement.
00:12:50.000 Okay, appeasement typically has not worked all that well.
00:12:54.000 You're gonna have to name the regime that was appeased into relative safety.
00:12:59.000 It has yet to happen in world history that an evil regime acts evilly, gets paid for it, and then acts less evilly.
00:13:05.000 That is not something that happens in the real world.
00:13:08.000 So you're seeing the Democrats today saying, well, Trump just ratcheted this thing up.
00:13:12.000 No, Iran ratcheted it up.
00:13:13.000 Trump responded to the ratcheting by suggesting that if they ratchet this thing too far, some of them are going to die.
00:13:18.000 Trying to reestablish deterrence is necessary.
00:13:20.000 Now, that has to be not a one-off.
00:13:22.000 That has to be a consistent strategy.
00:13:24.000 There were those of us who were enraged that Barack Obama drew a red line in Syria over chemical weapons use and then promptly proceeded to blow right through the red line and hand over power to the country, to the Russians. 0.69
00:13:33.000 Which ended in disaster and it's amusing today to watch all of the Obama officials trotting out there proclaiming their expertise after completely wrecking the Middle East.
00:13:41.000 I mean really, making it much worse than it was when Barack Obama entered office.
00:13:46.000 When Barack Obama entered office, the Middle East was a much more stable place than it is right now.
00:13:50.000 When Barack Obama exited, Iran was a regional rising power.
00:13:54.000 Many of the American allies were in trouble.
00:13:57.000 Donald Trump entered and he has attempted to mitigate the effects of the horrible Obama presidency.
00:14:03.000 And what we are watching is the attempt to restore deterrence.
00:14:05.000 In order for that to happen, The Trump administration has to do more than a one-off.
00:14:09.000 That means that if Iran strikes again, then the United States is going to have to take action against Iran in different ways. 0.56
00:14:15.000 Now, none of this has to lead to full-scale war.
00:14:17.000 Everyone keeps suggesting this is going to lead to a full-on, all-out war between the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the U.S.
00:14:23.000 military.
00:14:24.000 The reason that it is not is because the Ayatollahs know better than anybody that if this thing goes to war, within three weeks they will all be dead. 0.78
00:14:24.000 It is not. 0.78
00:14:31.000 That doesn't mean that this would be an easy war.
00:14:33.000 There would be American losses. 0.70
00:14:33.000 It would not. 0.70
00:14:35.000 No one wants a war.
00:14:36.000 No one.
00:14:37.000 Let me repeat.
00:14:37.000 No one wants a war.
00:14:38.000 Trump, you think Trump wants a war?
00:14:40.000 Trump is by nature more of an isolationist.
00:14:42.000 He doesn't want a war.
00:14:43.000 What he wants is deterrence.
00:14:44.000 And he understands, just like Ronald Reagan understood, that deterrence can only be achieved with the credible use of force.
00:14:50.000 And with the credible threat of force.
00:14:52.000 When you are non-credible, there is no deterrence.
00:14:55.000 And thus, the Iranians have no interest. 1.00
00:14:58.000 In pulling back on their terrorist objectives.
00:15:00.000 Re-establishing deterrence is the goal here.
00:15:03.000 We'll see how it works out, but I don't think that it's going to be a one-off, right?
00:15:05.000 I mean, this is going to result in the Iranians getting more militants in the short term. 0.98
00:15:10.000 But the United States, and under President Trump, if they stay the course, then this will simmer down.
00:15:15.000 Because there's one thing the Iranians want even less than the United States, and that is a full-on war with the most powerful military force in the history of planet Earth. 0.96
00:15:23.000 Okay, we'll get to more of this in just one second.
00:15:25.000 We'll get to the Democratic response, which has been predictably awful.
00:15:28.000 We'll get to all of that in just a moment.
00:15:29.000 Listen, being nervous about what comes next, perfectly understandable.
00:15:32.000 Suggesting that this is quote-unquote Trump's fault, and that what comes next is quote-unquote on Trump, or that the escalation is on Trump, or that this is an assassination, that something morally wrong was done. 0.99
00:15:42.000 That's just a bunch of horse crap. 1.00
00:15:43.000 It's a bunch of horse crap. 1.00
00:15:45.000 It'd be the same if you killed Osama bin Laden and people were like, well, you just escalated with Al-Qaeda. 1.00
00:15:48.000 I don't know.
00:15:49.000 Is that a good move or not?
00:15:50.000 Soleimani was one of the worst people on the planet. 1.00
00:15:52.000 Responsible, again, for the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans.
00:15:56.000 Responsible for a vast amount of turmoil and death in the Middle East. 1.00
00:16:00.000 In the short term, when you punish your kid, your kid screams in their room.
00:16:02.000 They make a lot of trouble.
00:16:03.000 It's real bad.
00:16:05.000 But if you want re-established deterrence, you must, must establish a credible threat of force.
00:16:10.000 And that's what Trump did yesterday.
00:16:11.000 We'll get to more of this.
00:16:12.000 I'll give you more details in just one second.
00:16:13.000 First, Predicting the future is impossible, as you can see.
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00:17:21.000 Alright, so according to the Associated Press, The Defense Department said it killed Soleimani because he was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.
00:17:31.000 Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that a harsh retaliation is waiting for the United States.
00:17:36.000 Iranian state TV also carried a statement by Khamenei also calling Soleimani the international face of resistance, and he declared three days of public mourning for the general's death.
00:17:45.000 An advisor to Iran's President Hassan Rouhani warned President Trump of retaliation from Tehran.
00:17:50.000 He said Trump, through his gamble, has dragged the U.S. into the most dangerous situation in the region.
00:17:54.000 This is according to Hesse Medin Ashena.
00:17:56.000 Whoever put his foot beyond the red line should be ready to face its consequences.
00:18:00.000 Iranian state television called Trump's order to kill Soleimani the biggest miscalculation by the United States in the years since World War II.
00:18:07.000 The people of the region will no longer allow Americans to stay. 0.99
00:18:09.000 Well, let's be real about this.
00:18:11.000 The people of the region are not fond of Iran.
00:18:15.000 The people of the region do not like Iran.
00:18:16.000 Iran has turned Lebanon, which was once a blooming place in the Middle East, into an absolute hellhole, a horror scape. 1.00
00:18:24.000 They've helped turn Syria into a horror scape. 1.00
00:18:26.000 They've turned Iraq into more of a horror scape. 1.00
00:18:28.000 Here's video from Iraq of people in the streets cheering the death of Soleimani.
00:18:33.000 So let's not pretend that this is just like the Americans and the Saudis and the Israelis and the Jordanians who are happy today.
00:18:39.000 The Iraqis are happy today, too.
00:18:40.000 This is people cheering in the streets, marching and cheering in the streets at the news that Soleimani is dead.
00:18:47.000 You can hear it.
00:18:48.000 I mean, this is a good thing.
00:18:49.000 It's a very good thing.
00:18:52.000 The airport strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces.
00:18:59.000 That was the group that was directly responsible for the attacks on the U.S.
00:19:01.000 Embassy over the past week.
00:19:03.000 Five others were also killed.
00:19:06.000 President Trump had only one quick response that he sent out on Twitter immediately following the attack, and it is just a graphic of an American flag, which of course drove the left to distraction for some odd reason.
00:19:17.000 Why that is controversial?
00:19:18.000 that it is a good thing that the United States is responsible for taking down the leading terrorist on the planet.
00:19:25.000 I don't know why that should be controversial.
00:19:27.000 That seems like a good thing to me.
00:19:29.000 The Democrat responses to all of this are just beyond loony.
00:19:33.000 They are really, really amazing.
00:19:35.000 Republicans have responded appropriately.
00:19:37.000 A bunch of senators responded.
00:19:39.000 You saw, for example, Senator Ben Sasse respond and suggest that this is a strong move by the Trump administration.
00:19:46.000 He said, this is very simple. 1.00
00:19:47.000 General Soleimani is dead because he was an evil bastard who murdered Americans. 0.99
00:19:50.000 The president made the brave and right call and Americans should be proud of our service members who got the job done. 0.99
00:19:54.000 By the way, American military do not F with the American military.
00:19:59.000 Tehran is on edge.
00:20:00.000 The Mullahs have already slaughtered at least a thousand innocent Iranians. 0.78
00:20:02.000 By the way, the media don't cover that.
00:20:03.000 They never cover the protests that have been rolling across Iran for now about a year.
00:20:07.000 And before they lash out further, they should know that the U.S.
00:20:09.000 military can bring any and all of these IRGC butchers to their knees. 1.00
00:20:14.000 Ben Sasse hitting the nail on the head right there.
00:20:17.000 Meanwhile, the Democratic leaders are responding in the worst possible way.
00:20:20.000 Of course, Nancy Pelosi tweeted out, So it's disproportionate to kill the leader of a terror group.
00:20:24.000 Disproportionate?
00:20:24.000 lives and interests, but we cannot put the lives of American service members, diplomats and others further at risk by engaging in provocative and disproportionate actions.
00:20:31.000 So it's disproportionate to kill the leader of a terror group.
00:20:35.000 Disproportionate to kill terrorists?
00:20:38.000 So what exactly is the proper proportion?
00:20:42.000 He's responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans and terror attacks all over the globe and conflict in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, as well as the Gaza Strip.
00:20:50.000 And this is disproportionate in some way.
00:20:54.000 This is this is who is planning further terror attacks.
00:20:57.000 This is disproportionate.
00:20:59.000 The Democratic response is, I mean, you think that there are contrasts between the Democrats and the Republicans on foreign policy?
00:21:04.000 When President Trump acts strongly, the contrasts are absolutely magnified.
00:21:08.000 I mean, incredibly so. 0.99
00:21:10.000 Ilhan Omar, of course, tweeted out the most asinine response. 0.94
00:21:13.000 She has never met a terror regime she's not willing to defend. 0.67
00:21:16.000 She tweeted out, What if Trump wants a war, knowing this leads to war and needs the distraction?
00:21:21.000 Yes, I'm sure this is a wag the dog scenario where Trump is desperate for a war with Iran because nothing spells re-election quite like a war with a major regional power. 0.60
00:21:30.000 I mean, as we know, nothing spells re-election quite like that.
00:21:35.000 She says, real question is, will those with congressional authority step in and stop him?
00:21:38.000 I know I will.
00:21:40.000 Stop him from doing what exactly?
00:21:42.000 Killing a terrorist on Iraqi soil where the United States has permission to be? 0.68
00:21:46.000 Ilhan Omar again.
00:21:47.000 This is the same lady who says we should not have sanctions on Iran.
00:21:51.000 We shouldn't have sanctions on Iran and Venezuela, according to Ilhan Omar.
00:21:53.000 We should have sanctions on Israel, according to Ilhan Omar.
00:21:56.000 So, um, I'm gonna go with no on her hot takes on foreign policy. 0.85
00:22:00.000 Meanwhile, you have members of the Obama administration who are emerging to defend their own crap foreign policy, which is what led to the rise of Iran regionally in the first place.
00:22:10.000 Here is Obama's ambassador for the Iran deal, Wendy Sherman, explaining that this could have horrific consequences. 0.61
00:22:16.000 Speaking of horrific consequences, how about, you know, like the handing of $150 billion in cash pallets, in cash on pallets, to the Iranian regime so they can explore ballistic missile testing and spread terror throughout the region. 0.90
00:22:27.000 Was that a one-off that may have had some bad consequences? 0.99
00:22:29.000 Here's Wendy Sherman being a complete fool. 1.00
00:22:32.000 Qasem Soleimani had deputies. 0.98
00:22:34.000 They know how to do what he did, even though he was this unbelievably unique counter-military strategist.
00:22:41.000 But we are at a very, very escalatory moment here, which can lead us into a wider war.
00:22:49.000 I hope we do not go there.
00:22:51.000 I pray with all of my heart that the Trump administration has a plan and a strategy.
00:22:58.000 But all I've seen to date in their around policy is one-off actions.
00:23:02.000 And this one-off action can have unbelievably horrific consequences.
00:23:08.000 Really?
00:23:09.000 So like killing, handing the Iranians billions of dollars, billions, and opening their economy. 0.92
00:23:14.000 That doesn't have any horrific actions except for all of the horrific actions that have happened for the past several years. 0.66
00:23:19.000 Killing the terror leader, that's what's going to have the horrific actions.
00:23:22.000 Now listen, in the short term, will the Iranians respond? 0.86
00:23:25.000 Yes, they have to, right?
00:23:25.000 I mean, they have to lash out because they have to demonstrate that the regime hasn't been crippled by Soleimani's death.
00:23:31.000 And it is true that the United States, as I've already said, must have contingency strategies here.
00:23:35.000 Like, what happens if the Iranians attack a US base? 0.90
00:23:38.000 The reason, by the way, they're not going to attack an actual hard American target is because, at that point, things get real hot for the Iranians and that regime is in serious trouble, right?
00:23:48.000 If they pursue a 9-11-style attack on US soil, That's when bleep gets real.
00:23:53.000 If they attack a US base in the Middle East, the United States will bring all of its power to bear and mash whatever force is attacking them wherever that attack is occurring.
00:24:03.000 But listening to people like Ben Rhodes lecture us all on American foreign policy is really sickening.
00:24:08.000 We'll get to more of that in just one second.
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00:25:34.000 So, Ben Rhodes, who is the architect of the Iran nuclear deal and a vast liar, a huge liar to the American people, He tweeted out, Congress has to assert itself and determine exactly what our Iran policy is.
00:25:45.000 Did we mean to do this?
00:25:46.000 Do we have any plan for what comes next?
00:25:47.000 What is the legal basis for all this?
00:25:49.000 This is a guy who pursued an Iran policy without congressional approval and then did not submit it to Congress as a treaty because he knew it would not get through.
00:25:58.000 It's just, it's amazing to watch the Obama administration, which botched the Iran situation worse than any administration since Jimmy Carter.
00:26:06.000 Running out there to proclaim that they now have the knowledge and the expertise to handle this thing.
00:26:10.000 You got Ben Rhodes tweeting, Oh, is that what that was?
00:26:12.000 Donald Trump is equipped to handle a complex, enduring international crisis that could play out in many countries and demand expertise, rigorous process and judicious decision making.
00:26:20.000 Oh, is that what that was?
00:26:22.000 When you guys, you know, launched a war in Libya without any sort of background and then proceeded to let the entire place fall into terrorist ruin and you allowed the embassy in Benghazi to be overrun.
00:26:31.000 When you allowed a bunch of American allied regimes to fall in the so-called Arab Spring, necessitating the rise of El-Sisi in Egypt in order to stop the Muslim Brotherhood from taking over one of the most populous Muslim countries on planet Earth.
00:26:43.000 When you were like bribing the Iranians, was that what that was?
00:26:46.000 Was that the judicious decision-making that we came to expect from people like Ben Rhodes?
00:26:51.000 It's just, it's just absurd. 0.95
00:26:53.000 I mean, again, listening to these folks is just, it's just ridiculous. 0.94
00:26:57.000 They have no credibility to speak on these topics.
00:27:00.000 Joe Biden, who's been wrong on every single major foreign policy decision of the last 40 years.
00:27:05.000 This is a guy who militated against the Bin Laden kill. 0.59
00:27:09.000 I thought that was an easy call, going and killing Bin Laden. 0.78
00:27:11.000 Apparently not Joe Biden.
00:27:12.000 Joe Biden put out a statement.
00:27:13.000 He said, President Trump just tossed a stick of dynamite into a Tinder box.
00:27:17.000 And he owes the American people an explanation of the strategy and plan to keep safe our troops and embassy personnel, our people, and our interests.
00:27:22.000 Remember, this guy, he, Trump owes an explanation on how to keep embassy personnel safe?
00:27:28.000 You presided over Benghazi! 1.00
00:27:30.000 Trump's response to Baghdad was to send in American troops, preventing any American death there, and then to kill their terror leader. 0.83
00:27:38.000 Biden said, much remains unknown, but Iran will surely respond. 0.74
00:27:41.000 We could be on the brink of a major conflict across the Middle East.
00:27:44.000 I hope the administration has thought through the second and third order consequences of the path they have chosen.
00:27:48.000 So it's all on Trump.
00:27:50.000 But I fear this administration has not demonstrated in any turn the discipline or long-term vision necessary and the stakes could not be higher.
00:27:57.000 Again, as opposed to you bribing them.
00:28:00.000 It is perfectly reasonable to be nervous about what comes next.
00:28:03.000 It is perfectly reasonable to ask what the Trump administration's plans are.
00:28:06.000 But I'm not going to hear it from Joe Biden.
00:28:08.000 Joe Biden has no credibility to speak on this issue.
00:28:10.000 He presided over the worst Iran policy since the initiation of the Iranian revolution in 1979. 0.82
00:28:14.000 So no, he does not get to sound off on this.
00:28:18.000 You know who else doesn't really get to sound off on this?
00:28:20.000 Socialist Bernie Sanders, who's going around campaigning with anti-Semitic mouthpieces And he spends his days kowtowing to terror regimes.
00:28:28.000 Bernie Sanders says Trump's dangerous escalation.
00:28:30.000 Ah, it was Trump who escalated.
00:28:32.000 So that whole thing, you know, you seem to remember it.
00:28:34.000 I know in your own mind, you seem to remember that part where, like, our embassy was on fire two days ago.
00:28:39.000 That was all in your mind, you see.
00:28:41.000 Sanders tweeted out, Trump's dangerous escalation brings us closer to another disastrous war in the Middle East that could cost countless lives and trillions more dollars.
00:28:51.000 How about the Americans who are dead because of the Iranians already? 1.00
00:28:55.000 Trump promised to end endless wars but this action puts us on the path to another one.
00:29:00.000 You know, it's an endless war trying to bribe your way out of terror regimes taking over the region.
00:29:05.000 And I talked about this yesterday with regard to Iran and our response at the American embassy.
00:29:09.000 I talked about the fact that politically speaking, it is nearly always easier to simply suggest that inaction is the best pathway because there's no cost to inaction in the near term.
00:29:19.000 It is only when that manifests in terms of a vast crisis that everybody goes, oh, we should have done something about that.
00:29:24.000 It was always easy for the Clinton administration to pass up the hit on bin Laden.
00:29:29.000 It was always easy for the Clinton administration to cut the American military and then take a non-aggressive posture in the Middle East.
00:29:34.000 And then 9-11 happens and everybody goes, oh, we should have done something about that.
00:29:39.000 It's always easy to slash America's military to the bone, as we did during the 1930s.
00:29:42.000 And then Pearl Harbor happens and we're like, oh, that was a bad idea, huh?
00:29:47.000 In other words, aggressive action that is somewhat preemptive in nature Aggressive action that establishes deterrence always bears the immediate short-term risk of retaliation.
00:29:57.000 But non-action bears the risk of a completely reshaped world map that has vastly more consequences over long-term than doing the things now that prevent that stuff from happening later.
00:30:09.000 It's very easy for Bernie Sanders to sit there and decry war generally.
00:30:13.000 No one is in favor of war.
00:30:14.000 No one wants war.
00:30:15.000 But the Iranians are making war more likely. 0.63
00:30:18.000 Because the stronger they get, the more aggressive they get.
00:30:21.000 That is the simple fact.
00:30:23.000 This is the simple fact.
00:30:26.000 It wasn't just Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, of course. 1.00
00:30:29.000 He had a bunch of Democratic Congress people speaking out in idiotic fashion. 0.98
00:30:32.000 Tom Udall of Colorado, he put out a statement. 0.99
00:30:35.000 He said, President Trump is bringing our nation to the brink of an illegal war with Iran with no congressional approval.
00:30:40.000 It is not illegal to kill a terror leader.
00:30:43.000 It is not illegal.
00:30:44.000 If we go to full-scale war with Iran, yes, that will need congressional approval, and it should. 1.00
00:30:48.000 Senator Udall, passing our bipartisan amendment to prevent unconstitutional war with Iran is urgent.
00:30:53.000 Congress needs to step in immediately.
00:30:55.000 To do what?
00:30:56.000 Stop him from killing a terrorist?
00:30:57.000 I don't remember Congress stepping in to prevent a nuclear deal that basically gave Iran a clear pathway to a nuclear weapon in 10 years. 1.00
00:31:05.000 And then of course you have Chris Murphy, dolt from Connecticut, whose Twitter account is just a repository of stupidity. 1.00
00:31:11.000 He said, the justification for the assassination is to deter future Iranian attacks. 1.00
00:31:15.000 Okay, first of all, it's not an assassination.
00:31:17.000 An assassination implies that this person is not a terrorist and was a governmental official.
00:31:22.000 He was not.
00:31:23.000 He was a terrorist.
00:31:24.000 He says, one reason we don't generally assassinate foreign political officials is the belief that such action will get more, not less, Americans killed.
00:31:30.000 First of all, it's fewer. 0.96
00:31:31.000 Second of all, you are terrible at this.
00:31:34.000 That should be our real pressing and grave worry tonight. 0.97
00:31:37.000 So, in other words, anytime you kill a terrorist, You have to worry that it'll get more Americans killed.
00:31:41.000 I seem to remember everybody celebrating Bin Laden dying. 0.90
00:31:44.000 I seem to remember that.
00:31:46.000 Was that, again, was that just my imagination?
00:31:49.000 Then you had Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Senator from Massachusetts, and he tweeted out, Trump's apparent assassination of Soleimani is a massive, deliberate, and dangerous escalation of conflict with Iran.
00:31:58.000 Again, it's not an escalation.
00:32:00.000 It is a recognition that the conflict is already upon us.
00:32:02.000 They tried to burn down the American embassy two days ago!
00:32:06.000 The president just put the lives of every person in the region, U.S.
00:32:10.000 service members and civilians, at immediate risk.
00:32:12.000 The president did?
00:32:14.000 It's as though the world started spinning whenever Trump does something.
00:32:16.000 It's incredible.
00:32:17.000 Trump has deranged these people.
00:32:19.000 It's as though action on planet Earth only begins when Trump says something about it.
00:32:23.000 Trump is not God, and everybody treating him as though he is a unique figure in history, and that the world began spinning every time he farts? 0.99
00:32:32.000 It's ridiculous. 1.00
00:32:34.000 Ed Markey, who's an idiot, he says, we need de-escalation now. 1.00
00:32:36.000 Oh, you mean paying them off? 1.00
00:32:37.000 Congress is the only entity that can authorize military force.
00:32:39.000 We cannot and must not get drawn into war with Iran.
00:32:42.000 Again, you think Trump wants war with Iran?
00:32:44.000 Deterrence is designed to avoid war.
00:32:46.000 It's why it's called deterrence.
00:32:47.000 What do you think you are deter-ing?
00:32:49.000 You're deterring Iran from pursuing a more aggressive action across the region. 0.56
00:32:53.000 If you believe that deterrence doesn't exist, if you believe that deterrence is always a bad idea, then sure, bribery seems like a great strategy.
00:33:00.000 But guess what?
00:33:01.000 Bribing evil nations historically has not worked out well.
00:33:04.000 It has not.
00:33:05.000 Because they just get more powerful and they get more aggressive over time.
00:33:09.000 So yes, by all means, we should worry about what comes next.
00:33:12.000 Yes, by all means, we should hope that the Trump administration has a strategy for dealing with the immediate.
00:33:16.000 Yes, by all means, we should harden our targets in the Middle East. 0.99
00:33:22.000 Yes, we should be on high alert.
00:33:24.000 Yes, we should be aware that the Iranians are going to lash out. 1.00
00:33:27.000 And yes, we should have contingency plans prepared for them lashing out.
00:33:29.000 We should have a list of targets that we are going to hit.
00:33:32.000 If they do X, Y, and Z, we have to keep reinforcing to the Iranians that if they continue to pursue this path, there will be consequences to that path. 1.00
00:33:39.000 That is the only way to prevent war. 0.88
00:33:42.000 That's the only way to prevent war. 0.92
00:33:44.000 If you want a big, bold war, all you're gonna need is for Iran to step across that border with Saudi Arabia, five years from now, with nuclear weapons. 0.90
00:33:53.000 And then things get real hot.
00:33:54.000 You want to talk about World War III?
00:33:56.000 Imagine that the Trump administration left the Iranian nuclear deal in place, had allowed billions upon billions of dollars to flow into Iran, the ayatollahs to strengthen themselves, develop ballistic missiles, create nuclear weapons, and then proceed to launch actual overt wars with Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, surrounding nations.
00:34:16.000 Imagine that, because that's not far off in the imagination, but now they're armed with nuclear weapons and there's nothing you can do about it.
00:34:22.000 That was the Obama administration's plan, and they basically admitted as much. 0.69
00:34:27.000 So pretending that we don't exist in the course of a history, as though this is all tabula rasa, brand new, it's just, it's historically ignorant, and it is cynical politicking beyond pretty much all else.
00:34:41.000 All right, we'll get to more of this in just one second.
00:34:43.000 First, Let's talk about the fact that you're probably still receiving all those Christmas and Hanukkah gifts.
00:34:48.000 People are sending out a lot of packages at the beginning of the year.
00:34:50.000 You're getting all of your tax documents ready.
00:34:51.000 Like, a lot of stuff is happening, and a lot of it's coming through the mail.
00:34:54.000 Well, when people deliver your mail, you want to know that they are there.
00:34:57.000 And a lot of thieves will actually ring your doorbell, make sure that you are not home, and then rob your place.
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00:35:58.000 Okay.
00:35:59.000 Before we go further here, and there is much more here.
00:36:01.000 First, it is a glorious time of week.
00:36:03.000 We're at the end of the first work week of the new year.
00:36:06.000 And it is that time of week when I give a shout out to a Dailyware subscriber.
00:36:09.000 Today, it is FalconChance91 on Twitter, who is already a clear frontrunner for 2020 Father of the Year.
00:36:14.000 In this picture, his two adorable kids, one infant and a toddler, are snuggling in a chair, making dad proud.
00:36:20.000 The caption reads, I know liberals and leftists aren't the same, but I had to post this picture of my daughter wearing her I cry almost as much as liberals onesie.
00:36:27.000 and her brother holding our prized Leftist Tears Tumblr.
00:36:29.000 Thank you, Daily Wire, for providing such great content.
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00:36:37.000 We can only do that because of subscribers like you, so thank you, and thanks for the pic.
00:36:39.000 You are definitely going to have your hands full this year.
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00:37:42.000 So Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, put out a statement.
00:37:50.000 He said, I think the Iranian leadership understands President Trump will take action.
00:37:54.000 We made very clear that these responses would be swift and decisive.
00:37:56.000 We have now demonstrated that.
00:37:58.000 I hope the Iranian leadership will see that and see American resolve, and that their decision will be to de-escalate and take actions consistent with what normal nations do.
00:38:04.000 In the event they do not, and they go in the other direction, I know the President and the entire U.S.
00:38:08.000 government is prepared to respond appropriately.
00:38:10.000 Meanwhile, the President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, promised early Friday to take revenge for this heinous crime.
00:38:15.000 He also said that Iran would raise the flag of Soleimani.
00:38:18.000 In all likelihood, what you're going to see is a spate of attacks, not, as I say, directly on America, but instead on American allies in the region, trying to separate off those allies from the United States with the help of the left in the United States and isolationists on the right.
00:38:30.000 So the idea would be to attack Saudi targets, and then dare America to do something about it. 0.80
00:38:34.000 Suggesting that then it's America escalating even more or attack Israel and then if Israel responds then suggest that it's that America was just doing Israel's dirty business here.
00:38:44.000 By the way, that'd be the worst mistake they can make because right now let's say that they decide to activate Hezbollah in Lebanon and southern Lebanon against Israel.
00:38:51.000 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently under indictment and is sitting at the head of a government that does not exist.
00:38:58.000 And he is currently seeking immunity from indictment.
00:39:00.000 Like, the worst thing they could do is try to launch a war with Israel directly.
00:39:03.000 Iran.
00:39:04.000 Because if they do, Israel is not going to stand for it. 0.83
00:39:07.000 They are not going to stand for it.
00:39:08.000 So, I would guess they're going to attack Saudi targets. 0.98
00:39:11.000 I would guess that they try terror attacks in different places around the world.
00:39:14.000 Again, I doubt very much that they're going to try something in the United States directly. 0.90
00:39:17.000 It would be a foolish move.
00:39:19.000 If they are acting reasonably, instead what they would do is maybe make an attack in Europe, make attacks in South America, make attacks abroad, elsewhere, in the region, escalate things in Yemen. 0.57
00:39:29.000 That's their likeliest path.
00:39:32.000 And by the way, as far as the details on General Qasem Soleimani, the terror leader, He was apparently only identifiable by a large ring that he wore on his finger because he was so badly maimed in the strike that there was not much left of him.
00:39:45.000 He had arrived at the airport on a plane from either Syria or Lebanon around 1230 a.m.
00:39:49.000 when he was met on the tarmac by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was the deputy commander of the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq.
00:39:55.000 That was the specific umbrella terror group that was responsible for the attacks on the embassies.
00:40:01.000 Mohandas pulled up to the aircraft, steps in two cars, before Soleimani and Mohammed Rida Jabri, public relations chief for the PMF, climbed inside and then were promptly driven away.
00:40:10.000 Moments later, as the cars passed through a cargo area headed for an access road leading out of the airport, this is according to the Daily Mail, the convoy was struck by four missiles fired by an MQ-4 Reaper drone.
00:40:20.000 Both vehicles were instantly reduced to smoldering wrecks, killing Soleimani, Mohandas, Jabri, and two others who have yet to be identified.
00:40:26.000 And he was only identified by this giant ring that he was wearing.
00:40:32.000 The local militia commander, Abu Muntathir Al-Husseini, told Reuters, So that is the current situation.
00:40:37.000 and Abu Mahdi saw Muhandis were riding in one vehicle and it was struck by two successive guided missiles launched from an American helicopter while they were on their way from the arrivals hall on the road that leads out of Baghdad airport.
00:40:47.000 The second group was a bunch of bodyguards who are also dead at this point.
00:40:51.000 So that is the current situation.
00:40:54.000 And again, we sort of await what the response will be.
00:40:57.000 The fact is that President Trump is now tweeting again.
00:41:03.000 And so we are getting his general take on the situation.
00:41:07.000 He suggested this morning, he said, the United States has paid Iraq billions of dollars a year for many years.
00:41:13.000 That is on top of all else we've done for them.
00:41:15.000 The people of Iraq don't want to be dominated and controlled by Iran, but ultimately that is their choice. 0.97
00:41:18.000 Over the last 15 years, Iran has gained more and more control of Iraq. 0.64
00:41:20.000 The people of Iraq are not happy with that.
00:41:22.000 It will never end well.
00:41:23.000 He said General Qasem Soleimani, ...has killed or badly wounded thousands of Americans over an extended period of time and was plotting to kill many more, but got caught.
00:41:32.000 He was directly and indirectly responsible for the death of millions of people, including a recent large number of protesters killed in Iran itself.
00:41:38.000 While Iran will never be able to properly admit it, Soleimani was both hated and feared within the country.
00:41:43.000 They're not nearly as saddened as the leaders who let the outside world believe he should have been taken out many years ago.
00:41:48.000 And then he also tweeted, Iran never won a war, but never lost a negotiation. 0.87
00:41:50.000 In other words, come to the table now, or we can continue killing all of your friends.
00:41:56.000 So, by the way, if you speak to members of the American military today, many of whom have buddies who were killed by Soleimani's forces in Iraq, overwhelmingly the feeling is one of joy that Soleimani is dead.
00:42:09.000 This does not mean that all questions are answered.
00:42:11.000 All questions are not answered, obviously.
00:42:13.000 We don't know what's going to happen from here.
00:42:15.000 And everybody is sort of bracing for what the Iranian response will be.
00:42:18.000 But there's no question that a very good thing happened with Soleimani being dead.
00:42:22.000 And the fact is that deterrence must be restored.
00:42:24.000 If America is not seen as a power capable of deterring its enemies, then it has no power at all.
00:42:29.000 The Trump derangement syndrome, by the way, is unbelievably strong out there right now.
00:42:32.000 Max Boot, who was once a somewhat respected foreign policy thinker, Max Boot goes on CNN and he suggests that the Iran crisis is created by Trump.
00:42:42.000 This is the same Max Boot who wrote a piece in July of 2015 called The Dawn of Iranian Empire talking about the evils of the Iran nuclear deal and why it was a mistake to try and bribe them.
00:42:52.000 And now here he is on CNN just a few years later declaring that the best solution would be to presumably to bribe the Iranians or to never retaliate against their increasing and escalating aggression. 0.81
00:43:02.000 This is a crisis that President Trump has really created between the U.S.
00:43:06.000 and Iran, because although the U.S.
00:43:08.000 and Iran have a long history of animosity dating back to 1979, relations had actually quieted down quite a bit since President Obama concluded the Iranian nuclear deal in 2015.
00:43:18.000 And last year, even though the Iranians were complying with the Iranian nuclear deal, President Trump decided to blow up the deal, and then he imposed unilateral economic sanctions on Iran this year.
00:43:28.000 Which have been a lot more effective than a lot of people, including me, expected.
00:43:32.000 The way the Iranians view that is the U.S.
00:43:33.000 is waging economic warfare on them, and they need to strike back.
00:43:37.000 So there is Max Boot completely flipping his own position on the Iran nuclear deal, basically, because Donald Trump happens to be president.
00:43:44.000 Again, if Barack Obama had done this exact same thing, and it's amazing to watch these people.
00:43:49.000 Barack Obama droned American citizens overseas who were terrorists.
00:43:53.000 And people on his side of the aisle were like, no problem, everything's great. 0.91
00:43:57.000 Donald Trump orders the death of an Iranian terrorist in a foreign country, and everyone's like, assassination, illegality. 0.98
00:44:04.000 Absolute sheer nonsense. 0.98
00:44:05.000 Now, again, consistent foreign policy must be had going forward.
00:44:08.000 We must see a consistent foreign policy going forward.
00:44:10.000 Deterrence only works if you continue to deter.
00:44:13.000 If you warn people, if you keep crying wolf about what exactly you're going to do when somebody harms you, then eventually people are going to stop taking you seriously.
00:44:21.000 But with all of that said, Soleimani's death makes the world a better place.
00:44:25.000 Now we just see what happens next. 1.00
00:44:27.000 Meanwhile, the 2020 Democratic race is heating up, and the Democrats are racing to say the next stupid thing. 0.99
00:44:35.000 Joe Biden came out yesterday and suggested that he wants a national bag ban. 0.99
00:44:39.000 These are sort of serious times.
00:44:41.000 Here's Joe Biden suggesting that it's time to ban plastic bags.
00:44:44.000 In Kenya, we are trying to clean the environment, not plastic bags.
00:44:49.000 You go with your own bags.
00:44:52.000 To the market.
00:44:56.000 I agree with you 100%.
00:44:57.000 We should not be allowing plastic.
00:45:00.000 And what we should do is phasing it out.
00:45:03.000 And if you notice, we're running into a problem right now.
00:45:07.000 The problem is we have a president who says there is no problem.
00:45:10.000 Deeply important issues being taken on by the Biden campaign like plastic bags.
00:45:14.000 By the way, if you want to understand why the left, why the Europeans are constantly attempting to pretend that George W. Bush was the aggressor in the Middle East, or Israel is the aggressor in the Middle East, or Saudi Arabia, or Jordan, depending on the situation, Egypt.
00:45:27.000 These are all the aggressors in the Middle East. 1.00
00:45:29.000 The bottom line is that anybody who is perceived as either American, European, or an American or European ally in the Middle East is perceived as the bad actor.
00:45:36.000 And the reason is because the West is constantly seen as the source of all malignity, malignity and evil in the world.
00:45:43.000 Joe Biden is the least like this in the Democratic Party.
00:45:47.000 And even he does some of this.
00:45:48.000 Yesterday, there was a big controversy because Biden said something that was taken out of context.
00:45:52.000 There was a clip.
00:45:53.000 of Biden appearing to suggest that America was built on European culture.
00:45:57.000 And this was apparently extremely controversial and people were going crazy over it, except that's not what he was saying. 1.00
00:46:01.000 What he was saying was actually extraordinarily stupid and horrible. 0.99
00:46:04.000 What he was saying is that European culture is uniquely anti-woman. 1.00
00:46:08.000 Here is Joe Biden explaining that European culture is uniquely anti-woman. 0.76
00:46:11.000 If you're going to Penn or Harvard or Yale or Brown or whatever, and you have to publish how many times someone's been abused, it's like, well, I'm going to send my kid there.
00:46:23.000 I'm serious.
00:46:24.000 Think of the fight back.
00:46:26.000 But we finally got a lot passed through with the Secretary of Education, who was a great guy that I work with and others, under Title IX.
00:46:34.000 Then it came along, came Betsy DeVos. 1.00
00:46:37.000 No, I'm serious.
00:46:39.000 And ended it.
00:46:41.000 Ended it.
00:46:43.000 Folks, this is about changing the culture.
00:46:47.000 Our culture.
00:46:49.000 Our culture.
00:46:52.000 It's not imported from some African nation or some Asian nation.
00:46:57.000 It's our English jurisprudential culture.
00:47:01.000 Our European culture.
00:47:04.000 It says it's all right.
00:47:05.000 Yeah, the same blame America first, blame Europe first mentality that leads to the bizarre notion that violence against women is a unique Western invention, which, by the way, look at the world.
00:47:14.000 Like, it's a globe.
00:47:15.000 There are lots of countries on that globe.
00:47:17.000 If you're a woman, where would you prefer to be born on that globe? 1.00
00:47:20.000 The answer, European countries, countries with European influence, America, Australia, Canada, Western countries, in other words, okay?
00:47:27.000 You would not prefer to be born in Sub-Saharan Africa, in most parts of Asia. 0.97
00:47:33.000 You would not prefer to be born in the Middle East. 1.00
00:47:34.000 There are lots of places on planet Earth you would not prefer to be born if you're a woman and want to be treated with respect. 0.61
00:47:39.000 But according to Joe Biden, America's culture of violence against women is purely European in origin, and then he cites bad history to push all of this.
00:47:46.000 It's that mentality, the soft bigotry of low expectations when it comes to other countries, that leads to the idea that when America retaliates against terrorists that it's America's fault for escalating.
00:47:55.000 Again.
00:47:57.000 It is very easy for Iran to make all of this go away. 1.00
00:48:00.000 Just stop acting like terrorist pieces of crap. 1.00
00:48:03.000 That's it. 1.00
00:48:04.000 Okay, that's all you have to do.
00:48:05.000 All the Iranian government has to do to be welcomed in is to stop this.
00:48:09.000 This has been true forever.
00:48:12.000 There was no point at which this was not true.
00:48:14.000 And yet they are not.
00:48:15.000 And yet it is people in the West suggesting that it is Trump's fault or it was Bush's fault.
00:48:20.000 Apparently the only possible solution to the intransigence of evil countries and evil aggressors is to bribe them.
00:48:26.000 Because in the end, we are the true evil, aren't we?
00:48:29.000 In the end, it's America, it's Europe. 0.67
00:48:31.000 Those are the places that are the cause of all evil in the world.
00:48:36.000 That sort of self-loathing leads to some pretty awful consequences.
00:48:40.000 And again, when it comes to Iran, things are going to get hot before they get cold. 0.55
00:48:43.000 But if you want things to cool down, if you'd like a cold war with Iran rather than a hot war with Iran, you're going to need to stop arming the enemy and then suggesting that the regional aggression has no consequences whatsoever while handing them pallets of cash.
00:48:55.000 This whole blowback for Trump for doing what is obviously a moral and right thing without Not even waiting to see what comes next is pretty astonishing.
00:49:08.000 Okay, time for some things I like and then we'll do some things that I hate.
00:49:12.000 So, things that I like over the break.
00:49:15.000 I had the opportunity to watch some of the movies that have finally come out streaming.
00:49:18.000 And finally, they brought out Joker.
00:49:20.000 Now, I had to watch Joker streaming as opposed to in the theaters, specifically because I could not take my wife to see this movie.
00:49:25.000 There are certain movies that I just, like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, also couldn't take my wife to see that one.
00:49:29.000 Joker couldn't take my wife to see it.
00:49:31.000 I was very eager to see it.
00:49:32.000 I have some critiques.
00:49:33.000 I have some thoughts.
00:49:34.000 Here's a little bit of the preview, and then I will explain what's good about the movie and what's not so great about the movie.
00:49:37.000 It's so awful, isn't it?
00:49:42.000 For my whole life, I didn't know if I even really existed. - Please.
00:49:55.000 But I do.
00:49:57.000 And people are starting to notice.
00:50:04.000 Okay, so the whole movie is based around Joaquin Phoenix's performance, which is indeed a terrific performance.
00:50:11.000 What works about the film is his personal descent into evil, right?
00:50:16.000 That all works.
00:50:17.000 And there's a great scene with Robert De Niro near the end of the film in which he talks about his feeling of dispossession, of being mocked.
00:50:24.000 Yeah, all of that stuff works.
00:50:26.000 What doesn't work about the film for me is if you imagine that he's the counterpart to Batman.
00:50:31.000 Right?
00:50:31.000 So if you imagine that he's supposed to be so clever, that he's supposed to be such a villain, that Batman can never quite get his arms around him, then it doesn't work at all.
00:50:38.000 Because basically, he is not a brilliant person.
00:50:41.000 He is not a genius.
00:50:42.000 He doesn't do anything in premeditated fashion.
00:50:44.000 He doesn't have any plan.
00:50:46.000 He doesn't have any forethought.
00:50:47.000 And so the notion that Batman would have a tough time catching this guy is bizarre.
00:50:51.000 Like, he gets caught three times, basically.
00:50:53.000 And put in jail, and then released.
00:50:55.000 And that, of course, is part of the Batman comics, because he's released on mental health recognizance, effectively.
00:51:02.000 But, the idea that he is sort of the notorious counterpart to Batman, that part, like, if you imagined the Joker movie in the Batman universe, it doesn't work.
00:51:09.000 On its own, it works perfectly fine as the descent of one person living in bad social circumstances into evil, and the self-justification that comes from it.
00:51:19.000 That'll work.
00:51:20.000 And of course, Joaquin Phoenix is probably the best living American actor on stage.
00:51:24.000 He really is first rate.
00:51:26.000 Okay, time for a quick thing that I hate.
00:51:32.000 So the New York Times is now making a big deal out of this homecoming video from the University of Wisconsin.
00:51:37.000 The video is utterly non-controversial.
00:51:41.000 Here's a little bit of the video, and then I'll explain what's controversial about this, because there really is nothing controversial about this.
00:51:47.000 Where we can all harmonize as one.
00:51:49.000 Just shows some people singing.
00:51:51.000 Home is Wisconsin cheese curds.
00:51:55.000 It's welcoming everyone into our home.
00:51:57.000 Shows people walking through the campus and some of these young women going swimming.
00:52:03.000 Some young women dancing and all this.
00:52:09.000 Okay, so what was so controversial about this homecoming video, which is just like kind of a cute, nice video, and it was the homecoming committee that made the video?
00:52:15.000 Too many white people.
00:52:17.000 Really, this is the critique.
00:52:18.000 The New York Times had a big piece about how in a homecoming video meant to unite campus, almost everyone was white.
00:52:25.000 If you watch that video and your first reaction is, where are all the black people?
00:52:28.000 I would suggest that you are a little bit too focused on race in the world. 0.93
00:52:33.000 This was not meant to be a white pride video.
00:52:36.000 There is literally nothing about this video that screams white pride.
00:52:39.000 The fact that there aren't as many black faces in it as you would presumably like. 0.98
00:52:45.000 Are you imputing racism to the campus?
00:52:47.000 Are you imputing racism to the students who made it?
00:52:48.000 Where exactly is the critique?
00:52:51.000 It's an absurd, absurd thing.
00:52:53.000 But this merited this huge, long New York Times article.
00:52:56.000 The video was just two minutes long.
00:52:58.000 A sunny montage of life at the University of Wisconsin's flagship campus in Madison.
00:53:02.000 Here were hundreds of young men and women, cheering at a football game, dancing in unison, riding bicycles in a sleek line, throwing the W for the camera, singing a cappella, leaping into a lake.
00:53:11.000 Home is where we grow together, a voiceover said.
00:53:13.000 Days before homecoming week, the student homecoming committee, tasked with producing the video, posted it online.
00:53:18.000 The outrage was almost instantaneous.
00:53:20.000 Virtually every student in the video was white.
00:53:24.000 Well, maybe that's because the vast majority of students at University of Wisconsin-Madison are white.
00:53:29.000 There are 30,000 undergrads at UW-Madison.
00:53:31.000 Fewer than 1,000 of them are black.
00:53:33.000 So, maybe the statistical pool from which you are drawing is overwhelmingly white, and so the video is overwhelmingly white.
00:53:40.000 Does that mean that this is like people... Well, we can't cast this black person in the homecoming video. 0.99
00:53:44.000 None of that happened.
00:53:45.000 None of that happened.
00:53:47.000 But according to students of color, the homecoming video was a glimpse of what they experienced every day as they walked through campus.
00:53:53.000 The video prompted a burst of student activism, an attempt by university officials to educate about diversity, and a reckoning over who feels at home at the University of Wisconsin.
00:54:02.000 It's so tiresome.
00:54:03.000 The faux outrage is so tiresome. 0.93
00:54:05.000 Oh my god, there weren't enough black people in this homecoming video. 1.00
00:54:07.000 How terrible! 0.97
00:54:08.000 Well, I guess this means that we are five seconds away from the reinstitution of segregation.
00:54:12.000 You know who else?
00:54:13.000 I didn't see a lot of Orthodox Jews in that video.
00:54:14.000 I didn't see a lot of Kippot in that video. 1.00
00:54:16.000 Clearly, it's an anti-Semitic camp.
00:54:17.000 It's like, what are we even talking about?
00:54:19.000 The answer is we're talking about nothing. 1.00
00:54:20.000 People are looking for a reason to be outraged, and we live in a stupid place right now. 1.00
00:54:25.000 A very stupid time in a very stupid place. 0.99
00:54:26.000 Alrighty, we'll be back here a little bit later today with two additional hours of content, all the new developments, plus If you don't want that, we'll be back here next week. 0.99
00:54:33.000 Now is the time to subscribe, by the way, because Monday, our special subscription offer ends, our 20% offer.
00:54:38.000 So use DW2020 when you go to dailywire.com and pick up a subscription.
00:54:42.000 Go do that right now.
00:54:43.000 Otherwise, have yourself a wonderful weekend.
00:54:45.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.
00:54:45.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.
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00:55:18.000 On The Matt Walsh Show, we're not just discussing politics.
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