The Ben Shapiro Show - The Debate America Deserves

00:00:00.000 At the end of The Dark Knight, probably the best movie of the last 20 years, Commissioner Gordon describes why Batman has to go into hiding and wrongly take the blame for Harvey Dent's death.

00:00:08.000 He's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now, says Commissioner Gordon.

00:00:13.000 Well folks, there's the debate America deserves, and then there's the debate America needs right now.

00:00:17.000 Last night, Fox News held a debate between Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida and Governor Gavin Newsom of California.

00:00:22.000 It was a stark contrast in visions.

00:00:24.000 DeSantis laid out his record plainly.

00:00:26.000 He criticized California's shortcomings accurately.

00:00:29.000 Newsom obfuscated his own record and that of his opponent, but it was, all things told, a relatively normal political debate.

00:00:35.000 A debate in which both sides came with their information and points and then argued over that information and those points and those policy positions.

00:00:41.000 It was, in short, the debate America deserves.

00:00:44.000 It was not, in fact, the debate America needs right now.

00:00:46.000 Here was DeSantis' generalized take on California's failures.

00:00:50.000 So I was talking to a fella who had made the move from California to Florida, and he was telling me that Florida is much better governed, safer, better budget, lower taxes, all this stuff, and he's really happy with the quality of life.

00:01:03.000 And then he paused and he said, you know, by the way, I'm Gavin Newsom's father-in-law.

00:01:07.000 So we do count Gavin's in-laws as some of the people that have fled California.

00:01:12.000 They understand that Florida's doing it right, and I can tell you the numbers speak for themselves.

00:01:16.000 We have way more people moving to this state than leaving.

00:01:19.000 Gavin can't say the opposite.

00:01:21.000 More people are leaving California than are moving into California.

00:01:24.000 But the reality is they have failed because of his leftist ideology.

00:01:29.000 And the choice for America is this.

00:01:31.000 What Biden and Harris and Newsom want to do is take the California model and do that nationally.

00:01:37.000 In Florida, we showed that conservative principles work.

00:01:40.000 This country must choose freedom over failure.

00:01:43.000 This is what a good conservative candidate looks like.

00:01:47.000 And here was Gavin Newsom on the other side going after Ron DeSantis, suggesting falsely that he was banning books.

00:01:54.000 1,406 books have been banned just last year under Ron DeSantis' leadership.

00:01:58.000 I love that he keeps pulling this out.

00:01:59.000 I've seen this.

00:02:00.000 He's been doing this all over the campaign trail.

00:02:01.000 What's wrong with Toni Morrison's books?

00:02:03.000 It's not banned.

00:02:04.000 What's wrong?

00:02:05.000 It's not true.

00:02:05.000 It's not.

00:02:06.000 What's wrong with Amanda Gorman's?

00:02:07.000 It's not banned.

00:02:07.000 In the poetry?

00:02:08.000 1,406.

00:02:08.000 Those are false narratives.

00:02:12.000 1,406 books have been banned on your banning bench in the state of Florida.

00:02:19.000 That, of course, is not true.

00:02:20.000 Books have not been banned in the state of Florida.

00:02:22.000 The only question is whether there are books that are inappropriate for, say, 5th or 6th graders that don't belong in junior high libraries.

00:02:28.000 DeSantis responded by actually pulling out a sheet of a book called Genderqueer and showing what it looks like in a public school.

00:02:35.000 Obviously, Newsom can't defend that.

00:02:36.000 Here was DeSantis doing just that.

00:02:39.000 What is the role?

00:02:40.000 The role of the school is to educate kids, not indoctrinate kids.

00:02:43.000 It's not to impose an agenda.

00:02:45.000 It's to do the basics.

00:02:47.000 And what we've said in Florida is it's inappropriate to tell a kindergartner that their gender is a choice.

00:02:53.000 It's inappropriate to tell a second grader that they may have been born in the wrong body.

00:02:56.000 Now, California has that.

00:02:58.000 They want to have that injected into the elementary school.

00:03:01.000 My wife and I have a seven, five, and a three-year-old.

00:03:03.000 We don't think that that's appropriate.

00:03:04.000 And I know most parents do not think it's appropriate.

00:03:08.000 It's also important to respect parental rights to know what curriculum is being used in the classroom, and everything should be age-appropriate.

00:03:15.000 I actually have something that I brought that some parents have objected to.

00:03:18.000 So this is a book that's in some of the schools in California.

00:03:21.000 Florida, this is not consistent with our standards, called Genderqueer. 0.58

00:03:25.000 Some of it's blocked out.

00:03:26.000 You would not probably be able to put this on air.

00:03:27.000 This is pornography.

00:03:29.000 It's cartoons. 0.64

00:03:30.000 It's aimed at children.

00:03:31.000 And it's wrong.

00:03:32.000 So this should not be in schools.

00:03:35.000 Uh, when people like on the left say that somehow you're banning books by removing this from a young kid's classroom.

00:03:41.000 No, this is not age appropriate.

00:03:43.000 And so we're going to stand for the rights of parents.

00:03:45.000 I think we need to do that nationwide.

00:03:47.000 I don't think you can have a situation where some states just trample on the rights of parents.

00:03:52.000 Parents have a fundamental right to direct the education and upbringing of their kids.

00:03:57.000 Again, that is excellent stuff there from Ron DeSantis.

00:04:00.000 Newsom also tried to go after DeSantis by claiming that DeSantis locked down Florida.

00:04:04.000 Also, simultaneously claiming, by the way, that he was far too loose in his COVID policies.

00:04:07.000 He was taking the sort of Donald Trump view of Ron DeSantis, that he was simultaneously too harsh and too loose on COVID.

00:04:14.000 Let's talk about your record on COVID.

00:04:16.000 You passed an emergency declaration before the state of California did.

00:04:20.000 You closed down your beaches, your bars, your restaurants.

00:04:22.000 False.

00:04:22.000 It's a fact.

00:04:23.000 You had quarantines.

00:04:25.000 False.

00:04:25.000 You had quarantines.

00:04:26.000 You had checkpoints all over the state of Florida.

00:04:29.000 By the way, I didn't say that.

00:04:30.000 Donald Trump laid you out on this, dead to right.

00:04:33.000 You did that.

00:04:34.000 You followed science.

00:04:35.000 You followed Fauci.

00:04:37.000 He followed science.

00:04:38.000 He followed Fauci.

00:04:40.000 Hold on.

00:04:41.000 You were promoting vaccines.

00:04:43.000 You were promoting vaccines.

00:04:44.000 You even wore a mask in September.

00:04:48.000 If it's okay with you, we'll do this.

00:04:50.000 Why don't we do this in a way where we both can have an opportunity?

00:04:54.000 You wore a mask with Donald Trump outside in September 2020.

00:04:57.000 He did all of that until...

00:05:01.000 He decided to fall prey to the fringe of his party.

00:05:05.000 And as a consequence of that, Ron, tens of thousands of people lost their lives.

00:05:10.000 Not true.

00:05:11.000 The equivalent, if I had your policies, the equivalent of ten 9-11s.

00:05:15.000 Tens of thousands of people lost their lives.

00:05:17.000 And for what, Ron?

00:05:20.000 So in the same line of attack, Newsom is suggesting that DeSantis locked down the state, and then he's suggesting that he should not have locked it down, but also he should have locked it down.

00:05:30.000 DeSantis responded by clocking Newsom on his own record on COVID.

00:05:34.000 On a per capita age-adjusted basis, California and Florida are basically the same.

00:05:38.000 Now why is that important?

00:05:39.000 Because Gavin Newsom did huge damage to people in California.

00:05:43.000 He ruined livelihoods.

00:05:45.000 We reopened the state very quickly.

00:05:48.000 We saved thousands of jobs.

00:05:50.000 We saved hundreds of thousands of jobs.

00:05:52.000 Thousands of businesses.

00:05:53.000 We had our kids in school.

00:05:55.000 He had the kids locked out of school because of the teachers' union.

00:05:58.000 That is having a generational impact.

00:06:01.000 California has one of the lowest literacy rates in the country.

00:06:04.000 In the most recent NAEP exam, Florida came in number three for fourth grade reading.

00:06:08.000 California was far, far behind.

00:06:10.000 So you should apologize for not getting your kids in school.

00:06:13.000 Why didn't you get the kids in school in the summer of 2020 like we did?

00:06:17.000 We vowed to the teachers' union.

00:06:20.000 You didn't do the job you should have done.

00:06:25.000 DeSantis went on to roast Gavin Newsom over going to the French Laundry unmasked while everybody else was locked down and couldn't go to a restaurant.

00:06:31.000 I remember, because at that time I was still living in California.

00:06:35.000 The Martha's Vineyard transport, Martha's Vineyard said it was a sanctuary jurisdiction.

00:06:40.000 Kind of reminds me about Gavin Newsom, when he restricted Californians, then he went to the French Laundry.

00:06:46.000 These liberal elites, they like to impose burdens on you, they don't want to have to face the consequences of their actions.

00:06:51.000 So we've got a lot of elites who want open borders, who lecture everybody else about it, and the minute they have to deal with any of the consequences, oh man, all hell breaks loose.

00:07:03.000 Okay, correction.

00:07:04.000 I had already moved from California to Florida, like tens of thousands of other people.

00:07:09.000 DeSantis also added that Newsom's home city of San Francisco, where Newsom was mayor, and he had pledged to clean up San Francisco, he pointed out that it was covered in human poop, and he brought the receipts to show it.

00:07:19.000 Well, I'm looking at total time.

00:07:20.000 Governor DeSantis has about two minutes.

00:07:22.000 He needs it.

00:07:23.000 This is a map of San Francisco.

00:07:25.000 There's a lot of plots on that.

00:07:27.000 You may be asking, what is that plotting?

00:07:29.000 Well, this is an app where they plot the human feces that are found on the streets of San Francisco.

00:07:35.000 And you see how almost the whole thing is covered, because that is what has happened in one of the previous greatest cities this country's ever had.

00:07:43.000 Human feces is now a fact of life, except When a communist dictator comes to town, then they cleaned up the streets.

00:07:51.000 They lined the streets with Chinese flags.

00:07:55.000 That is absolutely correct. 1.00

00:07:56.000 San Francisco is full of crap, and so is Gavin Newsom. 0.99

00:07:59.000 Perhaps DeSantis' finest moment is when he called out Newsom's vision of liberty, noting that by liberty, Gavin Newsom generally meant taking power away from parents, especially in the area of gender and sexuality. 0.99

00:08:10.000 In California, if you're a parent in Iowa or New Hampshire or South Carolina, your minor child can go to California without your knowledge or without your consent and get hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and a sex change operation all without you knowing or consenting.

00:08:29.000 How in the heck is that honoring parents' rights when you're bringing people from out of state to go around their parents' backs and getting life-altering surgeries?

00:08:40.000 Okay, all of this right here is the debate America deserves.

00:08:48.000 You know, a debate over serious policy differences and governance styles, a debate about California versus Florida, a debate over the future of the country.

00:08:56.000 But it isn't the debate America needs right now.

00:08:58.000 The debate America needs right now is a debate over one simple topic.

00:09:02.000 Why are we going to get Biden versus Trump in all likelihood?

00:09:05.000 Why should America be faced with the prospect of an election in which both candidates are elderly and fading, in which both candidates are wildly unpopular with the American electorate, Joe Biden's approval rating is currently 40.6% in the RealClearPolitics polling average, Donald Trump's is at 41.1%, and in which both candidates can only serve one more term in office?

00:09:23.000 Why is that the fate of America?

00:09:24.000 The answer is actually pretty simple.

00:09:26.000 For the Democrats, the party bosses remain in control of the levers of power.

00:09:29.000 For the Republicans, the party bosses aren't in control of the levers of power.

00:09:33.000 Democrats right now are cramming down Joe Biden on their own base.

00:09:36.000 But they also control the power, which means that candidates like Newsom won't admit to running, even though Newsom is pretty obviously running.

00:09:42.000 I mean, he's simultaneously running just in case Joe Biden should keel over or fall down the stairs too hard.

00:09:46.000 DeSantis pointed that out last night.

00:09:49.000 Let me ask that question.

00:09:50.000 On with the question of jobs.

00:09:51.000 I think it's important.

00:09:52.000 You know what?

00:09:52.000 Why? Because it's a command and control economy.

00:09:56.000 They have a political agenda that they're pursuing.

00:09:58.000 Let me ask that question.

00:09:59.000 People.

00:10:00.000 On with the question of jobs.

00:10:01.000 I think it's important.

00:10:02.000 You know what?

00:10:03.000 That affects that.

00:10:04.000 By the way, that affects everybody in administration.

00:10:06.000 You just won't admit it.

00:10:08.000 Joe Biden, Joe Biden, three point nine percent.

00:10:10.000 I thought this was state versus state.

00:10:13.000 But it's about the United States of America.

00:10:14.000 I thought this guy was running for president, the United States.

00:10:16.000 If you are running for this one, are you running for a third?

00:10:19.000 You just won't admit it.

00:10:20.000 You will not admit it.

00:10:21.000 Why don't I tell you that you're right?

00:10:23.000 We can't.

00:10:24.000 OK, so that's true.

00:10:28.000 But, on the other hand, you've got the Republican Party, where Donald Trump leads in the RealClearPox polling average by leaps and bounds in every primary.

00:10:35.000 Trump is, as always, on nearly every side of every issue.

00:10:37.000 This is his stock in trade.

00:10:39.000 He's pro-life.

00:10:40.000 He's responsible for the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. 0.56

00:10:42.000 And he's pro-choice.

00:10:43.000 He doesn't want to talk about abortion.

00:10:44.000 We should come to some sort of generalized consensus.

00:10:46.000 He's pro-BLM. 0.98

00:10:47.000 He literally championed a BLM endorsement two days ago.

00:10:51.000 And he's anti-BLM.

00:10:52.000 He's pro-isolationism and he's pro-interventionism.

00:10:54.000 He's pro-entitlements and he's anti-deficits.

00:10:56.000 None of that really seems to matter.

00:10:58.000 That is why Newsom was slamming DeSantis during the debate by suggesting that Trump's nomination is a foregone conclusion.

00:11:04.000 There are profound differences tonight, and I look forward to engaging them.

00:11:07.000 But there's one thing in closing that we have in common is neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024.

00:11:18.000 There he is doing the work of Joe Biden.

00:11:20.000 Now, listen, maybe Newsom is wrong.

00:11:22.000 Maybe DeSantis pulls off a late run.

00:11:24.000 Maybe he wins Iowa and he switches the momentum.

00:11:25.000 Maybe Nikki Haley pulls it off. 1.00

00:11:27.000 The odds right now are not in their favor.

00:11:29.000 But if the election does end up being Trump versus Biden, rather than, say, DeSantis versus Newsom, maybe we need to go back to our original question and ask, what is the debate America deserves?

00:11:37.000 And what is the debate America needs?

00:11:39.000 The debate America needs is a debate over whether we even have a debate at all in this country anymore.

00:11:45.000 Whether we're even capable of doing normal debate in this country anymore.

00:11:49.000 Whether we are so polarized that debates on policy don't actually matter.

00:11:52.000 The only thing that matters is how we manage our divorce.

00:11:55.000 Sure, maybe we don't deserve a serious political debate because we're an unserious people in a very serious time.

00:12:00.000 Maybe we don't deserve a real debate on policy because we've given up on such debates altogether in favor of knee-jerk sentiments about our fellow Americans.

00:12:07.000 Or maybe, just maybe, the problem goes even deeper than that.

00:12:10.000 Maybe the problem is that after decades of radicalism from the American left, usurpation of institutional power by that left in corporate America, on the courts, in the media, It's too late for any compromise to be brooked or any truce to be brokered.

00:12:24.000 Maybe it's not about policy.

00:12:25.000 Maybe both sides just have a mutual **** you in mind.

00:12:29.000 If that is the case, that should be the debate.

00:12:32.000 What exactly do we have in common?

00:12:33.000 What can bring us together?

00:12:34.000 What is America really all about?

00:12:36.000 What maintains America?

00:12:38.000 We have to answer that question before we get to the policy questions.

00:12:41.000 Until we answer that question, the DeSantis-Newsom debate will not be the debate we need.

00:12:45.000 And it certainly won't be the debate we actually deserve.

00:12:48.000 In just one second, we'll get to Elon Musk because Elon did a fascinating interview on Wednesday.

00:12:53.000 Really interesting stuff.

00:12:54.000 But first, Birch Gold.

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00:12:59.000 You don't know which way it's going to go.

00:13:00.000 One thing you do know is that America is running massive deficits.

00:13:03.000 The national debt is running at $34 trillion at this point.

00:13:06.000 In the next few years, it's going to rise above $40 trillion.

00:13:08.000 That's just the way it's going to go.

00:13:09.000 And that means eventually, the currency is going to begin to inflate again.

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00:14:06.000 Also, I gotta be honest with you, it's been a really rough time in the last few weeks.

00:14:12.000 And that means that I'm taking some pretty strenuous measures to reconnect with God.

00:14:19.000 It's something that I take time out of my day, at least three times a day, to do as an Orthodox Jew.

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00:15:10.000 Okay.

00:15:10.000 Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Elon Musk tore into what he termed people who care about looking good while doing evil.

00:15:16.000 He was specifically referring to major corporate leaders who spend their days virtue signaling while cracking down on dissenting opinions and promoting harmful material.

00:15:23.000 Here's what he had to say.

00:15:25.000 Tesla currently sells two, twice as much in terms of electric vehicles as the rest of electric car makers in the United States combined.

00:15:35.000 Tesla has done more to help the environment than all other companies combined.

00:15:41.000 It would be fair to say that, therefore, as a leader of the company, I've done more for the environment than any single human on Earth.

00:15:49.000 How do you feel about that?

00:15:53.000 How do I feel about that?

00:15:54.000 Yeah, no, I'm asking you personally how you feel about that because this goes- we're talking about power and influence and- I'm saying- I'm saying what I- what I care about is the reality of goodness, not the perception of it.

00:16:04.000 And what I see all over the place is people who care about looking good while doing evil.

00:16:12.000 Musk here was explicitly talking about companies like Disney, whose CEO Bob Iger had announced earlier in the month that the male's house would stop advertising on X, formerly known as Twitter.

00:16:20.000 Iger explained that decision to Andrew Ross Sorkin.

00:16:24.000 You stopped advertising on X. We did.

00:16:27.000 Tell us about that decision.

00:16:29.000 Um...

00:16:31.000 I have a lot of respect for Elon and what he's accomplished.

00:16:37.000 Not just one business, but a few businesses.

00:16:40.000 And we know Elon is larger than life in many respects.

00:16:44.000 And that his name is very much tied to the companies he either has founded or he owns.

00:16:52.000 Whether it's Tesla, Or SpaceX.

00:16:55.000 SpaceX?

00:16:56.000 SpaceX.

00:16:57.000 Or now X. And by him taking the position that he took in quite a public manner, we just felt that the association with that position and Elon Musk and X was not necessarily a positive one for us, and we decided we would pull our advertising.

00:17:18.000 This is ridiculous, of course.

00:17:20.000 Disney is not pulling its advertising on X because of one of Elon Musk's tweets.

00:17:24.000 A tweet he then explained and apologized for.

00:17:26.000 They're pulling their advertising because they are part of an advertiser cascade that is designed to pressure Elon Musk into doing their bidding.

00:17:32.000 Now, it's one thing for an advertiser to decline to be associated with any outlet or product.

00:17:37.000 That happens all the time.

00:17:38.000 Happens on this show.

00:17:39.000 Happens on other shows.

00:17:40.000 That's their right.

00:17:40.000 We live in a free market.

00:17:41.000 But when companies make public announcements that they are withdrawing their money, that is obviously designed to create public pressure.

00:17:47.000 And the pressure in this case is for Elon Musk and Axe to do the bidding of groups like Media Matters, the far-left censorship group that seeks to destroy political opponents through, in some cases, outright slander.

00:17:57.000 Media Matters wants Musk to censor those it doesn't like, and they are willing to astroturf secondary boycotts against advertisers to achieve that.

00:18:04.000 That's why Musk is currently suing Media Matters.

00:18:07.000 Disney and others pulling their money from X are doubling down on their own catastrophic woke strategies.

00:18:12.000 Disney has essentially destroyed its own stock value over the past few years by going woke.

00:18:17.000 These companies continue to tell the world how proud they are to be woke.

00:18:21.000 They really don't like free speech, and they especially hate any company or platform that can break their stranglehold on the media. 0.96

00:18:26.000 The same media that has never been willing to say, go f*** yourself to the likes of Disney.

00:18:31.000 It's a true clash of the titans.

00:18:32.000 Now, while the Daily Wire doesn't have Disney money yet, we see what Elon is doing with X as one of the most important things actually happening in the culture today when it comes to preserving free speech, which is why today we've secured a $250,000 spend for a takeover on X to promote our new feature-length comedy, Ladyballers.

00:18:48.000 We made Ladyballers because Hollywood, aided and abetted by big tech censorship, will not make a movie about how ridiculously absurd it is that we now pretend that men can be women and allow grown men to call themselves women and then dominate women's sports. 0.98

00:18:59.000 X drives the conversations in a way no other social media outlet does, and provides a space to freely mock absurdities like we do in Lady Ballers, in ways that other outlets won't.

00:19:08.000 In other words, X is the only social media platform that allows, and is attempting to even preserve, free speech.

00:19:13.000 Who wouldn't want to invest in that?

00:19:14.000 Well, the answer, apparently, is Disney.

00:19:17.000 Will our $250,000 cut into X's loss of revenue thanks to virtue signaling?

00:19:20.000 Not much, but every little bit does help.

00:19:23.000 And if we want to keep X a free speech space, it's important everyone continue to subsidize the businesses they like.

00:19:28.000 As Elon so aptly put it, if Disney and others are successful in their advertising boycott, it will kill free speech.

00:19:33.000 If that happens, everybody is going to know who actually killed it.

00:19:37.000 Okay, in just one second, we'll get to all the updates from the Middle East.

00:19:40.000 Israel has now resumed its offensives in the Gaza Strip after Hamas broke the ceasefire and fired a bunch of rockets into Israel and committed a terror attack on a street corner in Jerusalem against people who are just standing at a bus stop.

00:19:51.000 We'll get to that momentarily first.

00:19:53.000 Don't give somebody a pair of socks this year for the holidays. 0.99

00:19:55.000 That's dumb. 0.96

00:19:56.000 No one wants socks. 0.99

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00:20:58.000 Well, folks, we do have an exclusive clip from Lady Ballers, again, that is available tonight at Daily Wire Plus only.

00:21:04.000 You have to be a subscriber in order to see that 8 p.m.

00:21:06.000 Eastern tonight.

00:21:07.000 50% off deal, by the way, for today, so you can see the movie.

00:21:09.000 Here's a clip.

00:21:11.000 I just need you to be a winner, Coach.

00:21:14.000 Okay?

00:21:16.000 I know, I'm sorry.

00:21:17.000 It's this divorce.

00:21:19.000 I think it's really starting to affect my daughter.

00:21:22.000 Seriously?

00:21:25.000 Of course your divorce is affecting your daughter.

00:21:26.000 70% of all people in prison come from broken families.

00:21:29.000 She's twice as likely to do drugs, twice as likely to drop out of school, four times as likely to have trouble fitting in, three times as likely to end up in therapy, twice as likely to commit suicide, 50% more likely to have health problems. 1.00

00:21:43.000 Do people not even do a freaking Google search before you decide to blow up the planet your kids live on? 0.69

00:21:51.000 Readers.

00:21:53.000 Look, Winnie's going to be fine.

00:22:01.000 Just keep fighting with her mom and get her into a school journalism program. 1.00

00:22:08.000 She could end up like me.

00:22:11.000 Oh, God.

00:22:13.000 Lady Ballers, streaming exclusively on Daily Wire Plus December 1st.

00:22:20.000 Folks, only the Daily Wire will make this sort of movie.

00:22:22.000 Why? 0.98

00:22:23.000 Well, not just because it actually laughs at the things that you're supposed to laugh at, you know, like boys being girls and such, because that's ridiculous and silly and really damaging.

00:22:30.000 But also, no one is going to message against divorce in modern society.

00:22:33.000 No one does it.

00:22:34.000 The fact that there's actually, you know, lines in the script where an actress says the thing that we all know, which is that divorce is extraordinarily damaging to children.

00:22:42.000 That is something that Hollywood has pushed against for literally decades, claiming that divorce might in fact be good for kids. 1.00

00:22:47.000 The best thing for kids is when the parents selfishly decide to part ways and leave the kid with their planet exploded, as said in the movie.

00:22:54.000 Now, Hollywood has helped facilitate the breakup of families in American society with exactly that sort of messaging.

00:23:00.000 Marriage is just about love.

00:23:01.000 The children are ancillary to the marriage.

00:23:03.000 And we don't agree with that here at Daily Wire, which is why we make movies that actually take on issues while doing so in the guise of a comedy, which is exactly what is happening here in Lady Ballers.

00:23:13.000 This is why you should subscribe.

00:23:14.000 Really, not just because the movie is fun, although the movie is really fun.

00:23:17.000 You should subscribe because we're the only people who are gonna make this kind of movie.

00:23:20.000 The kind of movie that actually pushes back in the culture against the prevailing wisdom of the left that is dominant from Hollywood every single day and has shaped several generations of people in exactly the wrong direction.

00:23:32.000 So, again, don't be left on the bench.

00:23:33.000 Get your DailyWirePlus membership right now.

00:23:34.000 You get 50% off at dailywire.com slash subscribe.

00:23:37.000 And you can join us tonight for the premiere of Ladybellers at 8 p.m.

00:23:40.000 Eastern at DailyWirePlus.

00:23:42.000 So the IDF is bombing the Gaza Strip again.

00:23:45.000 The reason they are bombing the Gaza Strip again is because the Gaza Strip was firing rockets at them again.

00:23:50.000 So over the course of the last 24 hours, Hamas took credit for a shooting in Jerusalem, in which at least four people were killed, 16 people were wounded.

00:24:01.000 It was two brothers from East Jerusalem, who are claimed as devotees by Hamas, who got out of their car and literally just opened fire with M16s on a bunch of people who were standing there.

00:24:11.000 Now remember, according to the mainstream media, Israel bombing military targets and accidentally killing civilians is exactly the same thing as terrorists getting out at a bus stop, like a bus stop in your neighborhood, and just shooting people.

00:24:22.000 Which is precisely what happened in Jerusalem.

00:24:23.000 So that was a violation of the ceasefire, number one.

00:24:25.000 And then, last night, Hamas began firing rockets again at Israel because, effectively, they have run out of hostages that they are willing to hand over to Israel to buy time.

00:24:34.000 Because the hostages who are left are Israeli military, or women or children who are either dead, and they're just bodies at this point, or have been raped, mutilated, or whatever the story may be.

00:24:44.000 I mean, Hamas is making very clear what they are.

00:24:48.000 And once again, the world is trying to pretend that Hamas is not what it is. 0.85

00:24:53.000 According to the uncle of a couple of the hostages, Orr, who is 16, and Yigal Yakov, who is 12, quote, So that's what they did.

00:24:59.000 of each child taken hostage and burned them with the exhaust of a motorcycle to mark them

00:25:03.000 in case they ran away so they could find them.

00:25:06.000 They were drugged.

00:25:07.000 So that's what they did.

00:25:08.000 I mean, this is like at Auschwitz, people were tattooed in order to make sure that the 0.69

00:25:13.000 Nazis knew who people were.

00:25:15.000 When Hamas kidnapped children, they immediately burned them with the exhaust pipe of motorcycles in order to brand them so if they ran away, they could be quickly identified and recaptured by Hamas. 0.66

00:25:25.000 Meanwhile, we are being treated to hostage videos of Yardin Bibas. 0.92

00:25:31.000 Yardin is the father of a family that was slaughtered by Hamas.

00:25:35.000 They were kidnapped.

00:25:37.000 We played the video yesterday of their kidnapping.

00:25:38.000 It was a mom and two young children.

00:25:40.000 We're talking about like a four-year-old and a ten-month-old.

00:25:43.000 Hamas now says that they're dead.

00:25:45.000 Hamas is claiming that they were killed in an Israeli airstrike,

00:25:47.000 which may very well be true because Hamas took them to the Gaza Strip

00:25:50.000 and there would have been no airstrikes in the Gaza Strip if Hamas had not taken them in the first place.

00:25:54.000 And then they released a hostage video of Dad who has just been told that his family are all dead.

00:26:01.000 This is what Hamas is. 1.00

00:26:02.000 Truly evil human pieces of debris, garbage human beings. 0.99

00:26:06.000 Here was a little bit of the hostage video, which is Hamas propaganda, of course. 0.99

00:26:11.000 My family is dead.

00:26:14.000 I'm leaving my children behind.

00:26:16.000 He says, you destroyed my family and my children, everything

00:26:19.000 I had in my life.

00:26:20.000 I'm a fighter. She can move me. 0.99

00:26:22.000 That you can bring me and them home, but they will be buried in Israel.

00:26:26.000 I'm begging you, bring me and my wife and my children home.

00:26:32.000 He's talking about their bodies at this point.

00:26:34.000 This is who Hamas is. 0.99

00:26:36.000 And these are apparently the people that the American left and much of the international left wants to protect as a power in the Gaza Strip.

00:26:43.000 An aunt of Avigali Dan, a dual American-Israeli citizen who was taken hostage and who turned four days a few days before being released, said her niece shared one piece of pita bread per day with four other captives, did not have a shower or bath for 50 days.

00:26:56.000 According to the aunt, the five hostages were kept in above-ground apartments, changing locations at least once.

00:27:02.000 Apparently, her hair was cut off.

00:27:04.000 She was covered completely in lice. 0.92

00:27:07.000 One of the hostages was held in the attic of a member of the UNRWA.

00:27:14.000 This is who Hamas are. 0.99

00:27:16.000 This is who Hamas are. 0.99

00:27:17.000 Plus, we now have video of Hamas and tape of Hamas stealing humanitarian aid.

00:27:21.000 Here's a picture from one of the Hamas tunnels and as you will see it is completely filled with humanitarian aid

00:27:25.000 That is UNRWA bags Fuel canisters in the Hamas tunnel.

00:27:36.000 Where do you think that stuff is coming from?

00:27:38.000 Meanwhile, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who is a person who was released in the last hostage exchange that Israel did for Gilad Shalit.

00:27:46.000 They released 1,027 prisoners.

00:27:49.000 And he was released as one of those prisoners.

00:27:51.000 He is now the head of military operations of Hamas.

00:27:53.000 Israel saved his life.

00:27:54.000 He had brain cancer.

00:27:56.000 And then they released him and he unleashed this hell upon them.

00:28:00.000 So he now says, quote, the leaders of the occupation should know October 7th was just a rehearsal.

00:28:06.000 Meanwhile, a Hamas official was on with a TikTok YouTube personality named Bel Mubashar and explaining that Hamas is going to launch more attacks against Israel.

00:28:19.000 This is the interviewer saying, if you could go back in time to October 6th, would you still do what you did on October 7th?

00:28:27.000 This is Osama Hamdan, Hamas political bureau.

00:28:30.000 Why do some people assume we would go back on our acts of resistance?

00:28:33.000 So you have no regrets?

00:28:36.000 Regret for shattering an entire division of the occupation army?

00:28:40.000 You said that if the Israelis would make new arrests, after all the prisoners are released from Israeli prisons, you'd carry out another operation.

00:28:51.000 Can you promise another October 7th?

00:28:55.000 I can promise that a war of liberation is coming, not just another October 7th.

00:28:58.000 So you're saying clearly, out loud, that this is going to continue.

00:29:01.000 You said, I don't think it's far off.

00:29:03.000 Meanwhile, Hamas put out a statement.

00:29:04.000 This is before they broke the ceasefire.

00:29:06.000 A worldwide call to mobilize in support of Gaza this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

00:29:11.000 Quote, we call on them to mobilize all their popular means to reject and denounce the crimes and massacres committed by the Nazi occupation, to call for an end to its barbaric aggression and decades-long occupation. 0.68

00:29:20.000 We urge them to be emboldened by the strength of Palestinian rights and the justice and legitimacy of our struggle.

00:29:25.000 We also appeal to them to maintain all forms of solidarity and support.

00:29:29.000 All forms, which presumably would include violence.

00:29:33.000 So, again, Hamas's intentions are clear. 0.88

00:29:35.000 They violated the ceasefire, and so Israel has now resumed its campaign in the Gaza Strip.

00:29:42.000 Meanwhile, the United States continues to want to have it both ways.

00:29:45.000 Because, again, this is a weak administration, and they continue to make signals to the world's worst people that maybe if they continue to hide behind civilians, Israel will stop.

00:29:56.000 So, Antony Blinken decided to go back to Jerusalem to lecture the Israeli government on how to conduct a war.

00:30:03.000 He said, quote, you can't operate in Southern Gaza in the way you did in the North. 0.70

00:30:07.000 There are two million Palestinians there.

00:30:08.000 You need to evacuate fewer people from their homes, be more accurate in the attacks.

00:30:13.000 And if not, then not to attack where there is a civilian population.

00:30:16.000 What is your system of operation?

00:30:17.000 The IDF chief, whose name is Kharti Halevi, he said, we follow a number of principles, proportionality, distinction, the wars, the laws of war.

00:30:24.000 There were instances where we attacked on the basis of those principles and instances where we decided not to attack because we waited for a better opportunity.

00:30:31.000 This all led to this astonishing interchange.

00:30:35.000 So Defense Minister Yoav Galan said, quote, The entire Israeli society is united behind the goal of dismantling Hamas, even if it takes months.

00:30:41.000 And Blinken supposedly said, quote, I don't think you have the credit for that.

00:30:45.000 What the hell is that supposed to mean?

00:30:47.000 You don't have the credit?

00:30:48.000 Are we talking about like international moral credit?

00:30:50.000 Is that what we're talking about right here?

00:30:52.000 What sort of credit does a nation require in order to destroy a terrorist enemy bent on its own annihilation?

00:30:58.000 We have kidnapped and killed babies. 0.90

00:31:00.000 What precisely is the moral credit required in order to do what is necessary to protect your own citizens?

00:31:06.000 That's an absurdity from Antony Blinken.

00:31:08.000 And again, it's all these mixed signals that are being sent. 0.98

00:31:10.000 Antony Blinken, simultaneously yesterday, he went and he visited with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a Holocaust denier and garbage human being. 0.98

00:31:19.000 In Ramallah.

00:31:20.000 And he tweeted out, quote, I reiterated the U.S.

00:31:22.000 commitment to advancing the establishment of the Palestinian state.

00:31:24.000 So just to get this correct, Hamas attacks and slaughters 1200 people and takes another 240 hostage.

00:31:31.000 Half those people will end up dead.

00:31:34.000 And the reaction of Tony Blinken and Joe Biden is maybe Palestinians deserve a state?

00:31:41.000 I'm just wondering how that incentive structure is supposed to work.

00:31:44.000 So in other words, the more terrorist violence you create, the more pressure on Israel to make concessions to you and your allies.

00:31:50.000 Because make no mistake, in this particular effort, the PA is Hamas's ally. 0.85

00:31:53.000 The PA has never condemned October 7th.

00:31:56.000 The PA, in fact, tried to claim that it was Israel that was responsible for deaths on October 7th.

00:32:01.000 And meanwhile, you got Tony Blinken making overtures to Mahmood Abbas. 0.91

00:32:05.000 It's ridiculous.

00:32:06.000 Here is Blinken yesterday saying there can't be any more massive loss of civilian life.

00:32:09.000 Again, if somebody could provide some sort of magic wand that Israel could use to distinguish Hamas from the civilians surrounding them, or Hamas, by the way, from like the 18-year-old guys who claim not to be members of Hamas, but who are carrying guns and just not wearing uniforms, I am sure that Israel would be happy to hear about this magic wand. 0.96

00:32:24.000 Otherwise, this is just empty verbiage designed at, what, reducing tensions?

00:32:27.000 But ironically, it increases tensions.

00:32:29.000 It's the same exact thing you see in Britain, where Britain will take down a menorah in the name of reducing community tensions.

00:32:35.000 That doesn't reduce community tensions, it just gives strength to a radical enemy.

00:32:39.000 Here's Tony Blinken doing just that.

00:32:41.000 In my meetings today with the Prime Minister and senior Israeli officials, I made clear that before Israel resumes major military operations, it must put in place humanitarian civilian protection plans that minimize further casualties of innocent Palestinians.

00:32:58.000 That means taking more effective steps to protect the lives of civilians, including by clearly and precisely designating areas and places in southern and central Gaza where they can be safe and out of the line of fire.

00:33:10.000 It means avoiding further significant displacement of civilians inside of Gaza.

00:33:14.000 It means avoiding damage to life-critical infrastructure, like hospitals, like power stations, like water facilities.

00:33:23.000 And it means giving civilians who've been displaced to southern Gaza the choice to return to the north as soon as conditions permit.

00:33:31.000 There must be no enduring internal displacement.

00:33:36.000 No enduring internal displacement.

00:33:38.000 Okay, all ideas welcome.

00:33:40.000 All ideas welcome.

00:33:41.000 Except the idea that Mahmoud Abbas is going to be able to run this thing, by the way.

00:33:43.000 Arab diplomats are like, are you kidding me? 0.99

00:33:45.000 Here's an article in Times of Israel today.

00:33:47.000 Arab diplomats from Saudi, UAE, Egypt, everywhere else are like, um, Mahmoud Abbas can't even control the West Bank.

00:33:51.000 What the hell are you talking about?

00:33:53.000 Mahmoud Abbas is going to control Gaza after this is all over. 1.00

00:33:55.000 That's ridiculous.

00:33:56.000 Also, when he says you have to prevent more internal displacement, then how does he expect civilians to be protected? 0.95

00:34:02.000 If you can't tell a civilian to move from one area to another so you can hit the target, how exactly are you going to hit the target?

00:34:08.000 Unless the idea is that Israel is not supposed to hit the target. 0.71

00:34:11.000 All of this is just ridiculous and it's going to contribute to a lengthening of the war.

00:34:17.000 It's going to contribute to more Hamas. 1.00

00:34:21.000 Attacks, more Hamas rocket fire, more Hamas embedding among civilians.

00:34:25.000 And all of this is because there is just a failure of imagination on the left when it comes to foreign policy.

00:34:31.000 We'll get to that momentarily first.

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00:35:36.000 Also, The Daily Wire's first ever full-length comedy, Ladyballers, it premieres tonight, 8 p.m.

00:35:40.000 Eastern, exclusively at Daily Wire+.

00:35:42.000 It's the most triggering comedy of the decade, and it deserves our best deal of the year.

00:35:46.000 So, for an extremely limited time, You've brought it back.

00:35:49.000 Get 50% off your new Daily Wire Plus annual membership today.

00:35:53.000 The only way to watch Lady Ballers is with that Daily Wire Plus membership. 1.00

00:35:56.000 Of course, you're getting access to everything Daily Wire has to offer.

00:35:58.000 I'm being told I shouldn't give spoilers, but you're not gonna believe some of the people who show up in this movie.

00:36:03.000 The cameos are fantastic.

00:36:04.000 If you have not yet seen the hilarious trailer for Lady Ballers, take a look.

00:36:09.000 In a world where women's sports is being transformed, the Daily Wire Guys, this is serious.

00:36:34.000 Sports can be your pathway to a better life.

00:36:36.000 More like yours.

00:36:38.000 Please don't steal my catalytic converter again.

00:36:40.000 Winning matters.

00:36:40.000 It's the key ingredient in becoming a winner.

00:36:43.000 Maybe you should try it sometime.

00:36:45.000 Are you gonna move?

00:36:46.000 I am not.

00:36:47.000 Let's cut to the chase.

00:36:51.000 I know you're not a woman. 0.99

00:36:52.000 Do you know how he identifies?

00:36:55.000 It's you can beat, though.

00:36:56.000 What do you know about the U.S.

00:36:57.000 Opens for the Global Games?

00:36:59.000 You want us to compete as women. 0.88

00:37:01.000 $5,000 prizes.

00:37:02.000 My lover says you were a great coach back in the day.

00:37:05.000 This is the way the world is now.

00:37:06.000 My eight-year-old daughter told me all about it.

00:37:08.000 So, a guy can become a girl with no physical changes at all. 0.85

00:37:13.000 That's called gender fluid. 1.00

00:37:14.000 So I can be a woman on the court and a man in the bedroom. 0.57

00:37:17.000 I can't believe it.

00:37:19.000 Nice! 0.94

00:37:20.000 You mean when you're sleeping?

00:37:22.000 Yes.

00:37:23.000 Coach.

00:37:24.000 Alex.

00:37:25.000 We could play basketball.

00:37:26.000 We have to get the whole team back together.

00:37:28.000 It's time.

00:37:28.000 We're in.

00:37:30.000 I'm in.

00:37:31.000 I'm in. 0.92

00:37:31.000 Shoot. 0.92

00:37:32.000 Flank. 1.00

00:37:32.000 Lady ballers. 1.00

00:37:34.000 Line up.

00:37:37.000 You ain't good, girl. 1.00

00:37:38.000 I'm with her.

00:37:43.000 You're leaving my crew!

00:37:48.000 This is my crew!

00:37:49.000 Day one of being a girl athlete.

00:37:52.000 I love being a girl!

00:37:53.000 We could dominate every woman's sport. 1.00

00:37:58.000 Running.

00:37:58.000 Swimming.

00:37:59.000 Soccer.

00:38:00.000 I said sport, Felix!

00:38:03.000 This lady's basketball, boys. 0.81

00:38:06.000 Nobody watches.

00:38:07.000 Excuse me.

00:38:11.000 Are these seats open?

00:38:13.000 Never mind.

00:38:14.000 You know she did it. 1.00

00:38:32.000 That's the biggest d*** I've ever seen on a lady. 1.00

00:38:35.000 I don't care. 0.99

00:38:39.000 One can even be trans aged now, which provides she looks with a wonderful opportunity to relive all the experiences

00:38:44.000 that she Missed out on in school

00:38:47.000 Exclusively on daily wire plus December 1st It's a great trailer and that you're gonna enjoy the movie

00:39:03.000 We're celebrating the release of The Daily Wire's first ever full-length comedy, bringing back 50% off Daily Wire Plus annual memberships right now.

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00:39:12.000 Get your Daily Wire Plus membership now for 50% off at dailywire.com slash subscribe.

00:39:17.000 Join us for the premiere of Lady Ballers tonight, 8 p.m.

00:39:20.000 Eastern on dailywire.com.

00:39:22.000 Okay, meanwhile, the vacillation and cowardice that you're seeing by the political left in the United States when it comes to Israel versus Hamas, It's mirrored by that same sort of confusion and cowardice when it comes to foreign policy more generally.

00:39:35.000 This is why there's an entire piece by Ben Rhodes today, the former Deputy National Security Advisor, whose nickname, I'm not kidding you, there's a book by Tevye Troy where he talks about this, apparently his nickname in the White House because he was so anti-Israel was Hamas.

00:39:47.000 Not a joke, that's a serious thing.

00:39:48.000 He wrote a piece in the New York Times.

00:39:51.000 in which he goes after Henry Kissinger.

00:39:53.000 Now, as I said yesterday about Henry Kissinger's death, there are a lot of things to criticize Henry Kissinger over.

00:39:58.000 You can say that he made short-term plays at the expense of long-term interests, say, with regard to China.

00:40:03.000 You can say that he greenlit regimes that would commit human rights atrocities, but only because the alternative was a Soviet takeover of that particular area.

00:40:11.000 Now, you can make all of these claims, but what Ben Rhodes does is something deeper.

00:40:15.000 He critiques Kissinger's general foreign policy understanding.

00:40:19.000 On the basis of the fact that he used to write novels about his cat from a Brooklyn apartment and knows nothing.

00:40:23.000 And Ben Rhodes is sick. 0.99

00:40:24.000 He's one of the dumbest people in American politics and has been for years. 0.98

00:40:29.000 So what exactly is Ben Rhodes' foreign policy vision? 0.98

00:40:32.000 He says that the conduct of global affairs has to be about maintaining image.

00:40:38.000 He says, quote, you can choose to see unexploded bombs as the inevitable tragedy of the conduct of global affairs.

00:40:45.000 From a strategic standpoint, Mr. Kissinger surely knew that being a superpower carried with it a cavernous margin of error that can be forgiven by history.

00:40:53.000 Superpowers do what they must.

00:40:54.000 The wheel of history turns.

00:40:55.000 When and where you live determines whether you get crushed or lifted by it.

00:40:58.000 But that worldview mistakes cynicism or realism for wisdom.

00:41:02.000 The story, what it's all about, matters.

00:41:04.000 Ultimately, the Berlin Wall came down not because of chess moves made on a board of a great game, but rather because people in the East wanted to live like people in the West. 0.69

00:41:10.000 Economics, popular culture, social movements mattered.

00:41:12.000 Despite all our flaws, We had a better system in story. 0.65

00:41:15.000 So in other words, the reason that the Berlin Wall fell, according to moron Ben Rhodes, is that we had TV and jeans, and that no foreign policy moves we made anywhere in here made any difference at all.

00:41:25.000 Which is weird, because depriving the Soviet Union of nearly all foreign policy resources, as well as bankrupting their economy with our defense spending, is what actually brought down the Berlin Wall.

00:41:34.000 It was, in fact, a pro-Western foreign policy that existed in many parts of the Earth that helped bring down the Soviet Union.

00:41:42.000 But according to Ben Rhodes, it's all about credibility.

00:41:45.000 He says, credibility is not just about whether you punish an adversary to send a message to another.

00:41:49.000 It's also about whether you are what you say you are.

00:41:52.000 No one can expect perfection in the affairs of state any more than in relations among human beings. 0.96

00:41:57.000 But the United States has paid a price for its hypocrisy. 0.65

00:41:59.000 So what exactly is that price?

00:42:01.000 Here's where Ben Rhodes goes.

00:42:02.000 It's amazing.

00:42:02.000 He says, around the world, we see a resurgence of autocracy and ethno-nationalism, most acutely in Russia's war against Ukraine.

00:42:09.000 Now, you might say to yourself, wait a second.

00:42:11.000 Russia didn't invade Ukraine while Donald Trump was president.

00:42:14.000 Russia invaded Ukraine while Joe Biden was president.

00:42:16.000 And Russia invaded Crimea and the Donbass while Barack Obama was president.

00:42:20.000 And it turns out that American credibility on foreign policy matters a lot more than the virtue signaling of people like Ben Rhodes.

00:42:27.000 You might say that.

00:42:28.000 But according to Ben Rhodes, no, no, no, no, no, no.

00:42:30.000 It's only because people like Donald Trump in the United States that Russia invaded Ukraine.

00:42:34.000 Weird take.

00:42:36.000 He says, quote, Oh yeah, that's why the Middle East is filled with people who hate the United States.

00:42:40.000 It must be because Israel is being too unbridled in its use of military power. 0.62

00:42:43.000 Because until October 7th, everything was hunky-dory in the Middle East, actually. 0.89

00:42:46.000 That's why the Middle East is filled with people who hate the United States.

00:42:49.000 It must be because Israel is being too unbridled in its use of military power. 0.62

00:42:53.000 Because until October 7th, everything was hunky dory in the Middle East, actually. 0.98

00:42:58.000 It was amazing in the Middle East.

00:43:00.000 And in fact, more pressure on Israel, it's not as though more pressure on Israel

00:43:05.000 incentivized Hamas under Joe Biden.

00:43:09.000 It's not as though more pressure on Israel via Iran, incentivized by the Biden administration, had any impact.

00:43:13.000 Again, this comes from a perverse view of how the world works.

00:43:17.000 So, the foreign policy world.

00:43:20.000 How should we view foreign policy?

00:43:21.000 Very simple principle.

00:43:23.000 If you want to view foreign policy in one sentence, you have to decide, do you think the world on a foreign policy level is a prison yard or is it a playground?

00:43:32.000 Is it a prison yard or is it a playground?

00:43:35.000 If you think, as I do, that it's a prison yard, that means a few things.

00:43:38.000 First, the world is a violent and contentious place.

00:43:41.000 It is lawless.

00:43:42.000 It is governed by both interest and ideology.

00:43:45.000 And really, in the end, it's governed by raw power, economic power, military power.

00:43:49.000 These things actually matter because it's a prison yard and it's filled with a lot of bad people.

00:43:54.000 There are some people who are in that prison yard who are there through no fault of their own.

00:43:57.000 There are some people who are actually good in this particular prison yard, but It's a prison yard.

00:44:01.000 It's a lot of bad people who hate each other and want to fight each other and have very, very adversarial interests.

00:44:07.000 Second, foreign policy is a series of bad choices between awful alternatives.

00:44:11.000 There are very few amazing choices in foreign policy.

00:44:14.000 It turns out that very often you have a choice between allying with the Soviets and losing to Hitler, for example.

00:44:20.000 That sort of stuff happens in foreign policy all the time.

00:44:24.000 And to pretend otherwise is to be ignorant of how foreign policy actually works.

00:44:27.000 Third, foreign countries and adversaries have their own math.

00:44:30.000 They have their own interests and their own priorities.

00:44:32.000 It's not as though they have no agency and that the United States does a thing and then it's all blowback.

00:44:37.000 Maybe the United States has its interests and maybe the Saudis have their own interests. 0.99

00:44:41.000 Maybe the Israelis have their own interests. 0.87

00:44:42.000 Maybe the British have their own interests. 0.55

00:44:43.000 Maybe the Russians have their own interests. 0.72

00:44:45.000 Maybe the Chileans have their own interests.

00:44:46.000 And maybe they pursue those interests regardless of what the United States is doing or not doing.

00:44:53.000 That would be a much more accurate description of how you work in your everyday life.

00:44:57.000 Why do we always assume, if you're on the left, that only American exam- like, everyone is sitting around thinking about what Barack Obama thinks about the world, as opposed to what they want to do today.

00:45:06.000 And finally, refusing to engage with the world is not a real possibility.

00:45:10.000 The United States was lulled into that false sense of security because for the first half of the United States' existence, Britain was the global hegemon, not the United States.

00:45:17.000 And that guaranteed freedom of the seas, for example.

00:45:19.000 And we benefited from Britain's ownership of the seas through free trade, through British domination of a lot of foreign areas, through British calming influence in a lot of its colonial holdings.

00:45:30.000 And then Britain started to collapse.

00:45:32.000 Britain gave up a lot of those colonial holdings.

00:45:34.000 The world became a more dangerous place.

00:45:35.000 And the United States filled the gap.

00:45:37.000 And now people are like, well, what if we just stopped filling the gap?

00:45:40.000 Well, then you would get chaos.

00:45:41.000 Because remember, the only reason that the gap was filled before is because there was another global hegemon.

00:45:45.000 If the United States doesn't do it right now, who do you think is going to do it?

00:45:48.000 Do you think that just becomes a power vacuum?

00:45:49.000 Who do you think is going to fill that power vacuum? 1.00

00:45:52.000 You all know the answer.

00:45:52.000 It's China.

00:45:54.000 It's not Britain. 0.88

00:45:54.000 It's not France. 0.88

00:45:55.000 Not Germany. 0.92

00:45:56.000 It'd be China. 0.98

00:45:57.000 And you all know it.

00:45:59.000 But according to Ben Rhodes, again, the basic idea here is the reverse.

00:46:03.000 Foreign policy, the world, it's a playground filled with wonderful children who just want to make friends with you.

00:46:08.000 And if you hand out enough chocolate and candies, and if you make friends with them, and if you put a rainbow sticker on your backpack, they will love you so, so, so much.

00:46:16.000 They're just good people like you, deep down at heart.

00:46:19.000 And what they really need is jobs and friendship.

00:46:22.000 And that's going to woo people who have a completely obverse worldview to yours.

00:46:27.000 In this particular view, America is the only actor in the world.

00:46:31.000 You're the only one who matters.

00:46:33.000 And if America shows its example by just being super nice all the time, and never engaging in foreign policy, and never making hard decisions, and never building up its own power, and never doing that stuff, everyone will look at the United States, they'll say, what a nice person, what a great place the United States is.

00:46:47.000 I wish we were like them.

00:46:47.000 And then they'll just voluntarily give up their power.

00:46:50.000 It'll be amazing. 1.00

00:46:51.000 If you believe this, it's because you're a stupid person. 1.00

00:46:54.000 But the basic idea from Ben Rhodes, and many, ironically, on the sort of isolationist right, is that no one else on planet Earth has agency. 1.00

00:47:02.000 Every discussion you will hear from isolationists is about how no one has agency except the United States.

00:47:06.000 America did a thing, therefore, another country did the thing.

00:47:09.000 Never, the other country did the thing, and maybe we reacted to them.

00:47:13.000 Or that country was allying with a country that we don't like very much, and growing in power, and threatening our interests, so maybe we had to react.

00:47:20.000 The Blame America First crowd exists on both sides of the aisle, and it's all based, again, on that centralized principle, which is that America could withdraw from the world and just be a light unto the nations, a sort of example, without ever engaging in world politics.

00:47:32.000 That is not true. 0.93

00:47:33.000 It is ridiculous.

00:47:33.000 It assumes, number one, the world is a playground, and number two, even if the world isn't a playground, that the United States has the option of withdrawing within our own borders, that there'll be no impact on the United States.

00:47:42.000 Which, I'm sorry to say, is not true.

00:47:44.000 I wish it were true.

00:47:45.000 It happens not to be true.

00:47:47.000 In this view, the West has to play dead in order to make room for everybody else.

00:47:51.000 Now, there are a bunch of people who hold this particular worldview, and they range from the radical left, as I say, to the sort of isolationist right.

00:47:57.000 We'll get to that in just one second.

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00:50:01.000 Unfortunately, this pathetic view of the world, this wrong view of the world, the world's just a family of nations where we're all best friends and all it requires is for us to access the best angels of our nature in order to operate in this prison yard and everyone, roses will bloom everywhere.

00:50:14.000 One of the people who pushes this all the time is the Pope, okay? 0.91

00:50:18.000 As everyone knows at this point, I am not a fan of Pope Francis.

00:50:20.000 I think that he is a disgrace to his position, to be perfectly frank with you.

00:50:23.000 I think that he says things that are anti-biblical on the regular.

00:50:26.000 And I'm not talking about anti-biblical from like a Jewish point of view, I'm not a Catholic, obviously.

00:50:30.000 I disagree with Catholicism, otherwise I would be a Catholic. 0.86

00:50:33.000 But...

00:50:34.000 I'm not the only one who believes this. 0.64

00:50:35.000 I would say a vast majority of conservative Catholics believe that Pope Francis has abandoned many of the Church's crucial missions, including baseline morality in favor of a globalist view of the world that is all about environmentalism and left-wing redistributionism over actual eternal meaning things.

00:50:53.000 And Pope Francis, what that means is that very often he's engaging in exactly the kinds of moral equivalence that you would see from the radical left.

00:51:00.000 So, you saw that yesterday.

00:51:01.000 Apparently, as bombs fell and tanks penetrated deep into Gaza in late October, Israeli President Isaac Herzog held a call with Pope Francis.

00:51:09.000 Apparently, Herzog was describing his nation's horror over October 7th, and Francis said, quote, Which is just the grossest thing ever.

00:51:19.000 I mean, that is super gross.

00:51:21.000 Because Israel was not responding to terror with terror.

00:51:23.000 If Israel wanted to wipe every civilian in Gaza off the planet, it certainly has the military power to do so. 0.97

00:51:27.000 It did not, and it wasn't seeking to.

00:51:29.000 Herzog said, hold up.

00:51:31.000 What we're doing is trying to defend our own people.

00:51:33.000 The Pope said, those responsible should be held accountable, but not civilians.

00:51:38.000 That, of course, is ridiculous because Hamas is hiding among civilians.

00:51:42.000 If Israel could distinguish between the two, well, that would make everybody's life super easy. 0.99

00:51:45.000 But that's why Hamas is not allowing them to do so.

00:51:47.000 Apparently, according to the Washington Post, that private call would inform Israeli interpretations of France's polemic statement at his November 22nd general audience in St.

00:51:55.000 Peter's Square that the conflict had gone, quote, gone beyond war.

00:51:58.000 This is terrorism.

00:52:01.000 The senior official from Israel said the Pope was calling the campaign an act of terrorism.

00:52:05.000 How else could it be interpreted?

00:52:06.000 And then the Vatican declined to clarify what they meant, which is again, the way that Francis works.

00:52:09.000 He will say something radically left.

00:52:11.000 And then when called upon to clarify what he's saying, he'll be like, I don't need to clarify.

00:52:15.000 There's no need to clarify.

00:52:16.000 And this stems from a perverse worldview in which apparently just surrendering to evil makes evil likely to become good.

00:52:23.000 That is a lie and it's not true.

00:52:24.000 And there are people who use that.

00:52:25.000 There are people who are perfectly willing to use that mentality.

00:52:29.000 The radical Islamists use this all the time.

00:52:31.000 Rashid Khalidi, for example, good friend of Barack Obama.

00:52:34.000 You remember that time that Barack Obama and Rashid Khalidi did an event together leading up to 2008 and it was on tape and the media completely buried it.

00:52:40.000 The LA Times had the tape.

00:52:41.000 They refused to release it because they wanted Barack Obama to be president.

00:52:44.000 And Rashid Khalidi is a spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization at one point.

00:52:48.000 Well, Khalidi apparently declined to say on Thursday that Israel had either a legal or a moral right to respond militarily to the Hamas terror attack.

00:52:59.000 Khalidi said, the question is it's framing.

00:53:01.000 That's the problem.

00:53:03.000 Gaza's been under siege for 16 years and he goes on and on and on about how basically Israel does not have the ability to respond to a terror attack. 1.00

00:53:10.000 Again, not a shock coming from radical Islamists and the left sides with that because the left is either foolish or corrupt. 0.97

00:53:15.000 Meanwhile, there are people on the right who are simultaneously doing much the same thing. 0.92

00:53:21.000 Like a group on the libertarian right who sound very much like Noam Chomsky on the left, who sound very much like Bernie Sanders on foreign policy.

00:53:30.000 I don't know what to make of that other than they're just wrong.

00:53:34.000 So Tucker Carlson, yesterday, he did a show with a comedian, and this comedian I guess is a libertarian, and Tucker Carlson was talking with this guy and this guy started ripping into William F. Buckley and it led to this kind of odd exchange.

00:53:50.000 Whatever this atrophy in the intelligence of the American people, I think it's accelerating.

00:53:56.000 And again, just like you said, I'll disclaimer as well, I'm talking about people who I don't necessarily like.

00:54:03.000 I view Bill Buckley as one of the great villains of the 20th century.

00:54:06.000 I couldn't agree more!

00:54:11.000 But he was a clearly very, also CIA by the way, but he was also a very intelligent guy and witty and was not speaking down to his audience and- Again, Tucker's a super talented broadcaster and I think Tucker's a smart guy.

00:54:26.000 I'm just wondering why, like, I would love for him to explicate why he thinks Bill Buckley was one of the worst forces of the 20th century.

00:54:33.000 That'd be good to know.

00:54:33.000 I mean, Bill Buckley was the most prominent conservative of the 20th century.

00:54:37.000 Now, Tucker may not like National Review right now.

00:54:39.000 He certainly liked writing for them back in the 90s sometimes, but he may not like them right now.

00:54:43.000 That's fine.

00:54:44.000 He doesn't have to agree with the editors over at National Review.

00:54:46.000 I'm just wondering, why Buckley?

00:54:48.000 Why Buckley?

00:54:49.000 Because what Buckley was mostly famous for was forging the famous three-legged stool of conservatism.

00:54:54.000 Social conservatism, which I assume Tucker agrees with.

00:54:56.000 In fact, I know Tucker agrees with it.

00:54:58.000 Fiscal conservatism, which is about free markets, where Tucker's pretty dicey, and foreign policy, where Buckley's position was a sort of realist anti-Soviet position.

00:55:09.000 Which parts does Tucker disagree with?

00:55:11.000 I'd be very curious to know.

00:55:12.000 I'd be very curious to know.

00:55:14.000 Because, from the libertarian right, the disagreement with Buckley is on social conservatism, where Tucker, I believe, agrees with Buckley, and on foreign policy.

00:55:23.000 Which is largely, again, the sort of, America is to blame for every war that has ever been happening on planet Earth position since World War II.

00:55:30.000 Maybe including World War II.

00:55:33.000 So, I'd just be curious to know where Tucker is on this sort of stuff, because I actually, it's unclear at this point.

00:55:39.000 I'm curious.

00:55:40.000 Alrighty guys, the rest of the show continues right now.

00:55:41.000 You're not going to want to miss it.

00:55:42.000 We'll be getting into a shocking report from the New York Times about the failure of imagination in Israel about what Hamas was capable of prior to October 7th.

00:55:49.000 If you're not a member, become a member.

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The Ben Shapiro Show - December 01, 2023

The Debate America Deserves

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