The Ben Shapiro Show - September 16, 2026


Steve Bannon Found a New Thing to Grift

The 'Free Palestine' Stunt That Got Macklemore Fired

Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

177.88

Word count

1,933

Sentence count

157

People

Also mentioned:

Transcript

Transcripts from "The Ben Shapiro Show" are sourced from the Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool. Explore them interactively here.
00:00:00.000 The alliance between those who hate America and her role in the world and those who wish to subvert the American economy remains undefeated.
00:00:07.000 It is not a shock to watch all the grifters come together.
00:00:11.000 They're the power rangers of uselessness.
00:00:14.000 This brings us to Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon.
00:00:17.000 Okay, so I should just point out at this point that these two are two grifters in a pod.
00:00:21.000 Steve Bannon has always been a parasite who ends up destroying the host.
00:00:26.000 Steve Bannon literally started his sort of modern political career by making a Documentary about Michelle Bachmann, which he then used as it, no one watched it.
00:00:34.000 He used it as a calling card to make a documentary about Sarah Palin, which also no one really watched.
00:00:38.000 And then he made a documentary about Andrew Breitbart, and Andrew died shortly thereafter.
00:00:42.000 And Bannon was hanging around the Breitbart offices.
00:00:44.000 I happen to know this because I was there at the time.
00:00:46.000 And Larry Solov, who is the head of Breitbart and Andrew's co partner, decided to elevate Bannon to the presidency of Breitbart over the objections of some who were there.
00:00:57.000 And Bannon then proceeded to turn it into his personal platform so he could launch himself into Trump's orbit.
00:01:02.000 He became chief of staff, and then the president fired him as Sloppy Steve.
00:01:06.000 He has also spent his career when he is not trying to live off the fame and fortune of others.
00:01:12.000 Sloppy Steve is totally right.
00:01:13.000 I mean, that dude wears more shirts than are available at your local Salvation Army, and he also probably gets them at the Salvation Army.
00:01:19.000 He has spent his modern career grifting from grift to grift.
00:01:23.000 Here he was just a few years back claiming that he was going to privately finance the building of a wall along our southern border, which, you know, never really happened so much.
00:01:34.000 And it's certainly a solution for law and order.
00:01:37.000 It's certainly a solution for security.
00:01:39.000 And it's helping the people in Juarez.
00:01:40.000 It's helping the citizens of northern Mexico and Central America because it's the first step to break the backs of the cartels.
00:01:49.000 Well, as it turns out, the money that was going to We Build the Wall did not end up We Building the Wall.
00:01:54.000 It ended up We Building a Yacht.
00:01:56.000 According to an indictment against Bannon in 2020, We Build the Wall started as a GoFundMe campaign in 2018.
00:02:02.000 It was created to help raise money from the public to go directly toward building the U.S. Mexico border wall.
00:02:07.000 Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss confirmed that Bannon was arrested while aboard a 150 foot yacht in Long Island Sound with assistance from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
00:02:15.000 He entered a guilty plea in Manhattan court in February 2025 for one count of scheming to defraud in the first degree.
00:02:21.000 And then, of course, he started yet another scam movement in which he joined with arrested billionaire Miles Guo to supposedly pitch a replacement Chinese regime.
00:02:36.000 Just rube bait, man.
00:02:40.000 The declaration of the new federal state of China on 4 June 2020 in Beijing.
00:02:47.000 This is the preface.
00:02:49.000 It is the whistleblowers' movement that has brought us together in order to realize the rule of law, democracy, and freedom in the new federal state of China.
00:02:59.000 The free Chinese throughout the world and in China have established the Himalaya Supervising Organization.
00:03:07.000 During the past three years, Mr. Miles Guo and myself. Have founded and led the whistleblowers movement that exposed the illegitimacy and the true evil nature of the Chinese Communist Party and its deceptions.
00:03:25.000 Well, as it turns out, speaking of deception, in March 2023, the FBI arrested Miles Guao in his Manhattan penthouse on nine criminal accounts, including racketeering, wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering.
00:03:36.000 So instead of overthrowing the CCP, you know, like the Communist Party of China, Guo duped his followers into investing in sham ventures and then used the money to buy himself a $47 million yacht, a New Jersey mansion, and sports cars.
00:03:47.000 And this past June, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison in order to forfeit some $889 million.
00:03:54.000 So that's who Steve Bannon is.
00:03:56.000 That kind of dude.
00:03:57.000 That guy.
00:03:58.000 And, you know, Steve has to maintain relevance since he cannot maintain a normal length of haircut.
00:04:05.000 And so he showed up wearing his usual layers.
00:04:11.000 It's a peculiar layering strategy, a survivalist outside of his basement.
00:04:16.000 And he showed up to do an event with Bernie Sanders, a fellow useless person.
00:04:19.000 And what they have in common is they are both parasites.
00:04:22.000 Bernie has leached onto public sources of funding, Steve has leached onto private sources of funding, both parasites.
00:04:29.000 And they are both showing up to yell about AI.
00:04:35.000 And so Steve Bannon shows up alongside Bernie Sanders to talk about how the AI oligarchs are going to kill all of us and we just need to stop the development.
00:04:43.000 Because populism, gang, populism.
00:04:47.000 In the last 72 hours, they've come out and said, you know, you're correct.
00:04:53.000 We actually should have some sort of framework, okay?
00:04:57.000 And maybe you have a human checking in on us every now and again.
00:05:04.000 They've tried to cover up the danger by saying it's a psyop, but using the psyop to try to get off liabilities.
00:05:15.000 What they want is to socialize all the risk with the American people, including potential bailouts when they come, and they want to keep all the upside.
00:05:31.000 So, this guy, this one.
00:05:33.000 A person who is a leech.
00:05:35.000 Well, he is joining fellow leech Bernie Sanders to also the pro human assembly.
00:05:39.000 I can't think of people who are less pro human than Steve Bannon and Bernie Sanders.
00:05:46.000 Bernie Sanders, they stand for every terrible communist regime on planet Earth for the vast majority of his career.
00:05:51.000 And Steve Bannon, who is an itinerant derelict.
00:05:57.000 I mean, my goodness.
00:05:58.000 Here's Bernie Sanders saying that he is proposing legislation to require that half of the board members of AI companies Be appointed by the government because this is what you need.
00:06:06.000 You need an old man who doesn't know what a computer is to tell you how to run the AI companies.
00:06:12.000 That is why I have introduced legislation, the AI American Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, that would require that half of the board members of AI companies, the larger AI companies, be appointed by the public.
00:06:30.000 So, yeah, that clip, by the way, was provided by our excellent reporter over at Daily Wire, Brecka Stoll.
00:06:35.000 Again, another reason to support us.
00:06:36.000 We have great investigative reporters.
00:06:38.000 If you are a pro life person, if you're a person who wishes to provide women the support they need to make the correct decision, this is why you should help out the folks over at Preborn.
00:06:48.000 Doctors told a woman named Alba that pregnancy was impossible.
00:06:50.000 Her husband's diagnosis confirmed it.
00:06:52.000 A child of their own simply wasn't going to happen.
00:06:53.000 And then the impossible happened.
00:06:56.000 Alba was pregnant.
00:06:57.000 And that sounds like a miracle, but to Alba, it didn't feel like one.
00:06:59.000 That positive pregnancy test felt like a mistake, a cruel twist of science she didn't understand or want.
00:07:04.000 She'd accepted the pregnancy wasn't possible.
00:07:04.000 Nothing added up.
00:07:06.000 The baby wasn't planned.
00:07:07.000 Suddenly, she was confused and afraid and overwhelmed.
00:07:09.000 What should have felt like a miracle felt like a crisis.
00:07:11.000 And then she walked into a preborn network clinic.
00:07:14.000 She was welcomed with compassion and given a free ultrasound.
00:07:17.000 When she saw her baby and heard that tiny heartbeat, everything changed.
00:07:19.000 Fear gave way to hope.
00:07:21.000 Elba chose life.
00:07:22.000 Today, baby Laura is healthy and thriving.
00:07:24.000 A reminder that when God is writing the story, impossible doesn't get the final word.
00:07:27.000 Right now, another mother needs that help, and you can give it to her.
00:07:31.000 Just 28 bucks helps provide one life saving ultrasound.
00:07:33.000 140 bucks helps rescue five babies.
00:07:35.000 Please give today.
00:07:36.000 Dial pound 250, say baby.
00:07:38.000 That's pound 250, baby.
00:07:40.000 Or visit preborn.com slash Ben.
00:07:42.000 That's preborn.com slash Ben.
00:07:44.000 If you're a business owner, would you consider a larger donation to claim a write off?
00:07:47.000 A donation of a grand, 2,000 bucks, 10 grand, 15 grand that sponsors an ultrasound machine for a needy clinic, helping save countless babies' lives for years to come.
00:07:54.000 Gifts are tax deductible and will reach eternity.
00:07:56.000 Get involved today.
00:07:58.000 So here's a funny stat for you.
00:08:00.000 Right now, the Republicans are getting clocked in the midterm election polling, clocked.
00:08:04.000 They're down by seven, eight points in the generic congressional ballot.
00:08:07.000 With that said, the level of antipathy to Republicans varies issue to issue.
00:08:13.000 There is really only one issue, actually, where Republicans have the full scale upper hand one, AI.
00:08:21.000 On AI, Republicans are up 42 40.
00:08:24.000 Why?
00:08:24.000 Because it turns out that maybe the people who are too online are not reflective of the reality.
00:08:29.000 Which is that the vast majority of Americans now use AI in their daily lives.
00:08:33.000 That yes, there is justifiable, understandable fear on all of this, but that shutting it all down in Bernie's style is incredibly stupid.
00:08:43.000 So Bernie was asked by CBS about whether he even knows enough to regulate AI.
00:08:47.000 And he says, You know who we should listen to?
00:08:49.000 We should listen to the AI head.
00:08:51.000 So let me just get this straight.
00:08:53.000 You're very upset with AI and you want to shut it down.
00:08:55.000 The only people you will trust to shut it down are the people who run it.
00:08:59.000 We call this regulatory capture, gang.
00:09:01.000 Here's Bernie Sanders.
00:09:02.000 I hope that they understand.
00:09:04.000 I mean, not everybody has to be a Nobel winning scientist, but I hope that they understand that you've got to listen to the people who know the most, the people who have developed this technology, the people who are telling us we are losing control of the technology we developed.
00:09:22.000 And I think when you have a president, Mr. Trump, who talks about this as a hoax, I think it is embarrassingly stupid.
00:09:29.000 For the leader of this country to hold that position, you listen to the people who know the most and you act accordingly.
00:09:36.000 Again, the people who know the most are in wild disagreement over all of this.
00:09:40.000 What an amazing video you just watched.
00:09:42.000 Wasn't that amazing?
00:09:43.000 Well, you know, if you think so, head on over to dailywire.comslash subscribe to watch the full show ad free or check out this crazy story here.
00:09:51.000 Every significant movement in history has started with protesting.
00:09:53.000 You're a traitor.
00:09:54.000 It's Uncle Tom.
00:09:55.000 This is our generation's civil rights.
00:09:57.000 I have no idea what the protest is about.
00:09:59.000 Given the current climate, should a figure as polarizing as.
00:09:59.000 Bingo.
00:10:03.000 Please Saunders even be allowed on campus.
00:10:05.000 Ah, can you hear me okay?
00:10:06.000 Saunders is a close personal friend of Chancellor Friedman.
00:10:08.000 This is a decision I cannot fight.
00:10:10.000 Islam will conquer the West.
00:10:12.000 Assalamualaikum.
00:10:16.000 Are we paying attention?
00:10:19.000 They've taken over the building.
00:10:20.000 They're downstairs and they've blocked the doors.
00:10:23.000 I seek forgiveness from Allah the Almighty.
00:10:27.000 We cannot run and hide.
00:10:29.000 Muhammad is the messenger of God.
00:10:32.000 There is no God but Allah.
00:10:35.000 What do you say?
00:10:37.000 We turn those SOBs into a fine red mist.
00:10:42.000 As we move, one man will cover while the other guys go.
00:10:45.000 They call that leap project.
00:10:46.000 Stretch them out and listen.
00:10:49.000 You need a course in safe weapons handling.