The Ben Shapiro Show - The FBI’s Big Mistake | Ep. 694

00:00:00.000 The FBI opens an investigation into President Trump as a Russian agent, the government shutdown continues, and Democrats move even further to the left.

00:00:08.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:00:08.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:14.000 Welcome to a brand new week.

00:00:15.000 I know you're excited to be here.

00:00:16.000 I'm excited to be here.

00:00:17.000 It's going to be a long week.

00:00:18.000 We will be here with you all week long.

00:00:21.000 At the end of the week, by the way, we are going to the March for Life.

00:00:23.000 I'm going to be speaking at the March for Life.

00:00:25.000 We're doing my podcast live from the March for Life.

00:00:26.000 So if you're in the D.C.

00:00:27.000 area or if you're coming for the March for Life, then I expect to see you there.

00:00:30.000 I mean, we're braving the cold to bring you this show.

00:00:32.000 You should.

00:00:33.000 The least you can do.

00:00:34.000 It's to be there with us, and then we can all suffer together through the blistering cold of Washington, D.C.

00:00:39.000 I'm from L.A., so anything below 70 degrees is super cold.

00:00:42.000 Okay, we'll get to all the actual news of the day in just one second.

00:00:45.000 First, we need to talk about your screen time.

00:00:48.000 Now, I know you spend an awful lot of time on the screens, and frankly, we're grateful here at The Daily Wire, because that means you're probably engaging with our content.

00:00:54.000 But you know how you have those headaches?

00:00:55.000 You know how your eyes kind of hurt?

00:00:57.000 Well, the reason for that is because when you spend that much time in front of a screen, you're probably hurting your eyes a little bit.

00:01:02.000 You can protect your eyes with a pair of Felix Grey glasses that are available with or without prescription.

00:01:07.000 Felix Grey glasses are a lifesaver for me because they filter out 90% of high-energy blue light.

00:01:11.000 They eliminate the glare coming off of all those screens, so I can live my life without tired, dry eyes or blurry vision or headaches.

00:01:17.000 Unlike other blue light filtering glasses, Felix Greys have no yellow lens tint.

00:01:20.000 So you can see everything in its true color, and Felix Grey frames are handcrafted from high quality materials like organic Italian acetate, premium German steel.

00:01:28.000 In fact, throwing on some Felix Greys is an easy way to look pretty put together. 0.78

00:01:32.000 If I want to look smart, like the people on MSNBC, I just throw on my Felix Greys.

00:01:35.000 I'm good to go.

00:01:36.000 Go check out the Felix Grey Glasses right now by going to FelixGreyGlasses.com slash Ben to protect your eyes today.

00:01:43.000 That is FelixGreyGlasses.com slash Ben.

00:01:45.000 Again, protect your eyes.

00:01:46.000 I don't wear glasses normally, but I wear Felix Greys when I'm trying to make my eyes feel better.

00:01:51.000 Go check them out.

00:01:51.000 FelixGreyGlasses.com slash Ben.

00:01:53.000 They're also available with prescription strength as well.

00:01:57.000 FelixGreyGlasses.com slash Ben.

00:01:59.000 Okay, so the big story over the weekend.

00:02:02.000 Is that the FBI was apparently investigating President Trump as in like investigating him during the campaign in 2016 and 2017.

00:02:10.000 In 2017, they opened an investigation into President Trump, concerned that he might be a Russian agent. 0.86

00:02:17.000 And now, this is ridiculous. 0.98

00:02:19.000 Okay, just on the face of it, it is ridiculous. 0.96

00:02:21.000 The idea that the President of the United States was a Manchurian candidate, that somehow he was being blackmailed with kompromat by Vladimir Putin, that all of the activities during the campaign weren't just Trump not knowing what he's doing or being incompetent, that we had to chalk it all up to President Trump was in a back room with Vladimir Putin, and they were putting together their master plan for taking over the universe. 0.54

00:02:41.000 And then he was going to be triggered by some sort of watchword from Vladimir Putin or something. 0.97

00:02:47.000 All this is asinine. 0.98

00:02:48.000 Here's what the New York Times reported, however. 0.85

00:02:50.000 In the days after President Trump fired James B. Comey as FBI director, law enforcement officials became so concerned by the president's behavior that they began investigating whether he had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests, according to former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation.

00:03:05.000 This is a wild overreach by the FBI and it gives a lot of credence to the Trump administration and Trump ally claim that the FBI and the so-called Deep State were out to get President Trump.

00:03:15.000 Why?

00:03:16.000 Because what triggered this was not all of the knowledge during the campaign.

00:03:20.000 What triggered this was not all of the contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russian officials or the Trump Tower meeting of June 2016.

00:03:26.000 No, what triggered this was Trump firing James Comey.

00:03:29.000 So what this sounds more like is the President fires the head of the FBI, who was an incompetent boob, And then all of the people left over at the FBI say, well, you know what? 0.82

00:03:39.000 I'll bet the president fired him because he's a Russian agent. 1.00

00:03:41.000 Now, James Comey himself testified openly before Congress that Trump did not attempt to shut down the Mueller investigation or hamper the Mueller investigation in the wake of James Comey's firing or before James Comey's firing.

00:03:52.000 In fact, he was just irritated that Comey wouldn't issue a statement saying that Trump was not under investigation.

00:03:58.000 That's all that happened.

00:03:59.000 Trump said that, openly.

00:04:00.000 He said, the reason that I fired James Comey is because I asked Comey for a declaration that I was not personally under investigation, and Comey said he wouldn't do it, and so I fired him.

00:04:09.000 And he said that it would take pressure off him with regard to Russia.

00:04:11.000 People interpreted that as though Comey was on the verge of nailing Trump on his Russian relationships.

00:04:17.000 When in reality, what Trump was saying was, I want Comey out because Comey won't just leave me alone about the Russia stuff, and I didn't do anything, so why wouldn't he just leave me alone?

00:04:26.000 And the FBI, in the aftermath of Comey's firing, which Trump had every legal ability to do.

00:04:31.000 Every president can fire every head of the FBI.

00:04:33.000 The executive branch is a unitary branch.

00:04:37.000 It's so funny.

00:04:37.000 Folks on the left like to rip on the theory of the unitary executive, but the Constitution is very clear about this.

00:04:43.000 The head of the FBI works for the President of the United States.

00:04:46.000 Executive branch agencies are answerable to the President of the United States.

00:04:49.000 If Trump wanted to fire Comey, he had every right, capacity, and constitutional ability to do so.

00:04:55.000 And yet, after Comey was fired, the FBI tried to open an investigation into whether Trump was a Russian agent.

00:05:00.000 I'll get in a second into all of the defensive claims by the FBI and its advocates on why they opened this investigation.

00:05:08.000 According to the New York Times, the inquiry carried explosive implications.

00:05:11.000 Counterintelligence investigators had to consider whether the president's own actions constituted a possible threat to national security.

00:05:18.000 Agents also sought to determine whether Mr. Trump was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow's influence.

00:05:24.000 Again, this is inappropriate stuff.

00:05:26.000 If you don't actually have evidence that the president is being blackmailed, if you don't have evidence that the president is in fact a Russian agent, then evaluating his policies with an eye toward whether he is a Russian agent is just an executive branch agency second-guessing the policies of the president.

00:05:42.000 Can you imagine if the FBI had opened up an investigation against Barack Obama in 2013 on his Syria policy?

00:05:48.000 Remember, in 2012, Barack Obama openly, on a mic that everyone heard, said to Medvedev, who was then the Prime Minister or the President of Russia, he said to him, at that time, if you get your boss to leave me alone, then I'll have more flexibility in dealing with Russia once I am re-elected.

00:06:04.000 And then guess what happened?

00:06:06.000 The Russians went into Crimea and Obama did nothing.

00:06:10.000 The Russians went into Syria and Obama handed over control of the Syrian situation to the Russians.

00:06:16.000 Did the FBI open an investigation and say, hey, wait a second, you know, Obama, he had this promise that he made to the Russians about the election.

00:06:23.000 And then he was real soft on the Russians after the election.

00:06:26.000 Maybe he's a Russian agent.

00:06:28.000 Can you imagine if they'd opened that investigation?

00:06:30.000 Everybody would have said, rightly so, that the FBI has no right and no capacity to go after a president based on public policy simply because they don't like the public policy that the president is pursuing.

00:06:41.000 This is a massive FBI overreach.

00:06:44.000 And this is coming from somebody who has said we should wait for the results of the Mueller investigation.

00:06:48.000 I've said all along, let's wait for the results of the Mueller investigation.

00:06:51.000 Let's wait for all the facts to come out.

00:06:52.000 I don't believe in the Russian collusion theory.

00:06:54.000 I think that it's hogwash as far as the evidence that I can see so far.

00:06:57.000 But I can see why people would have been suspicious of Carter Page.

00:07:00.000 I can see why people would have been suspicious of various other members of the Trump campaign.

00:07:05.000 I can see why their actions, Papadopoulos, I can see why those actions would have looked suspicious to people.

00:07:10.000 I can see why the Trump Tower meeting looked suspicious to people.

00:07:12.000 But that does not mean that the FBI opening an investigation into the President of the United States and suggesting that the President of the United States is in fact a Russian plant, that that's justified constitutionally or otherwise.

00:07:25.000 And opening it under the counterintelligence rubric, by the way, is really kind of gross.

00:07:30.000 Andy McCarthy points this out today in a piece over at Fox News.

00:07:34.000 He's been saying for a long time that the FBI was using the rubric of counterintelligence in order to target President Trump.

00:07:41.000 The case he's basically been making is there are two types of investigations that the FBI does.

00:07:44.000 One is counterintelligence, which is them trying to fight off Russian influence.

00:07:49.000 And then there's criminal investigation, them trying to investigate criminal activity on American soil.

00:07:53.000 These are not the same thing.

00:07:54.000 The standard of proof for counterintelligence is not the same as the standard of proof for a criminal investigation.

00:07:59.000 If they actually wanted to bring some sort of criminal prosecution against someone, you have to reach a certain level of proof.

00:08:04.000 Counterintelligence is not designed to do that.

00:08:06.000 Counterintelligence is just designed for you to go and see the facts and then fight those facts on the ground as they exist, usually abroad.

00:08:14.000 What McCarthy's been saying for a long time is the FBI was going after Trump with counterintelligence so that they didn't have to reach the level of proof necessitated by a criminal investigation.

00:08:24.000 McCarthy writes this today, former federal prosecutor.

00:08:26.000 He says, Because the FBI did not have solid evidence of a crime, they did it under counterintelligence authority rather than criminal authority, calculating that the cover of probing Russia's interference in the 2016 election would enable them to keep investigating while they tried to tighten up the obstruction case or find some other criminal defense.

00:08:43.000 In other words, the counterintelligence aspect here was just a cover for them to go after Trump personally.

00:08:49.000 McCarthy says the investigation was always hoping to find something on Trump.

00:08:52.000 That is why, for example, when Director Comey briefed then-President-elect Trump about the Steele dossier, he told Trump only about the salacious allegation involving prostitutes in a Moscow hotel.

00:09:02.000 He did not tell the President-elect either that the main thrust of the dossier was Trump's purported espionage conspiracy with the Kremlin, nor that the FBI had gone to the FISA court to get surveillance warrants based on the dossier.

00:09:14.000 The FBI was telling the president-elect that the allegations were salacious and unverified, yet at that very moment, they were presenting them to a federal court as information the judges could rely on to authorize spying.

00:09:25.000 So, this is pretty dirty stuff.

00:09:28.000 And the New York Times report continues, it says, Now again, it did not.

00:09:40.000 It did not constitute obstruction of justice.

00:09:41.000 I've gone through the statutes on the program before.

00:09:44.000 It is not obstruction of justice for the President of the United States to fire his own FBI director.

00:09:48.000 Okay, that's not how this works.

00:09:49.000 There are actual statutes with regard to obstruction of justice.

00:09:53.000 There's several statutes with regard to obstruction of justice.

00:09:56.000 There's 18 U.S.C.

00:09:57.000 1503.

00:09:57.000 This is the so-called Omnibus Clause under American law.

00:10:01.000 It covers corruptly or by any threatening letter or communication influencing or impeding or endeavoring to influence, obstruct or impede the due administration of justice.

00:10:09.000 But that requires a pending judicial proceeding.

00:10:11.000 In other words, there's a trial going on and you try to obstruct justice by intimidating a witness.

00:10:16.000 There is no pending judicial proceeding.

00:10:18.000 This statute does not apply.

00:10:19.000 18 U.S.C.

00:10:20.000 1512 C. This provision of law covers anyone who obstructs, influences, or impedes an official proceeding or attempts to do so.

00:10:26.000 It is not clear that an FBI investigation is, in fact, an official proceeding.

00:10:30.000 And in order for you to violate this clause, in order for Trump to violate this clause, he would have had to knowingly do so.

00:10:36.000 So it's not enough just to fire somebody and that firing ends up impeding something.

00:10:40.000 You actually have to have intended to do so.

00:10:42.000 They have no proof of that.

00:10:43.000 18 U.S.C.

00:10:44.000 1519.

00:10:44.000 This provision covers destroying evidence related to a federal investigation.

00:10:48.000 There's no allegation even that Trump destroyed evidence.

00:10:50.000 So when people talk about the FBI opening an obstruction of justice investigation into Trump over firing someone he has plenary power to dispense with, that's nonsense.

00:11:00.000 That's nonsense.

00:11:02.000 According to the New York Times, agents and senior FBI officials had grown suspicious of Mr. Trump's ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign, but held off on opening an investigation into him, the people said, in part because they were uncertain how to proceed with an inquiry of such sensitivity and magnitude.

00:11:18.000 Well, if you knew about all the stuff in 2016, the stuff in 2017 was not worse than the stuff in 2016.

00:11:23.000 Just objectively speaking.

00:11:25.000 All of the bad stuff that happened basically happened in 2016.

00:11:29.000 By 2017, Trump had already fired Michael Flynn.

00:11:32.000 By 2017, he fired James Comey.

00:11:34.000 But that was not obstruction of justice, as I've explained.

00:11:37.000 So there's really no case for opening an investigation into Trump as Kremlin agent in 2017.

00:11:42.000 If you want to make that case, you make it about 2016.

00:11:44.000 But they didn't.

00:11:46.000 The president's activities before and after Mr. Comey's firing in May 2017, particularly two instances in which Trump tied the Comey dismissal to the Russia investigation, helped prompt the counterintelligence aspect of the inquiry, according to people at the FBI.

00:11:59.000 Again, if your boss gets fired and you open an investigation into his firing, I'm going to say that that looks very retaliatory.

00:12:05.000 It doesn't look like this is power the FBI should have.

00:12:08.000 I'll get more into this in just one second.

00:12:10.000 First, let's talk about how you actually frame your pictures.

00:12:13.000 So I have to tell you guys about an amazing new service that I now know about.

00:12:16.000 It's called Framebridge.

00:12:17.000 Framebridge makes it really easy and affordable to custom frame your favorite things from art prints and posters to the photos sitting on your phone.

00:12:23.000 I have tons of photos on my phone of my kids particularly.

00:12:26.000 And they're just sitting there.

00:12:27.000 They're just sitting there digitally.

00:12:28.000 And I haven't bothered to go get frames because frames are super expensive.

00:12:31.000 They're really inconvenient.

00:12:32.000 FrameBridge makes all of this possible.

00:12:34.000 You can frame much more inexpensively in much nicer fashion.

00:12:37.000 Custom framing.

00:12:38.000 Go to framebridge.com and you upload your photo.

00:12:40.000 Or they send you packaging to safely mail in your physical pieces.

00:12:44.000 You can preview your item online in any frame style.

00:12:46.000 You choose your favorite or get free recommendations from their design team.

00:12:49.000 The experts at FrameBridge will custom frame your item and deliver your finished piece directly to your door, ready to hang.

00:12:54.000 Instead of the hundreds you pay at a framing store, their prices start at $39.

00:12:57.000 All shipping is free.

00:12:59.000 Plus, my listeners get 15% off their first order at FrameBridge.com when they use my promo code, Shapiro.

00:13:05.000 Again, that is promo code Shapiro at FrameBridge.com.

00:13:08.000 I've been using FrameBridge for a while.

00:13:09.000 They are fantastic.

00:13:10.000 Get started today with just a few taps on your phone.

00:13:12.000 Go to FrameBridge.com, use promo code SHAPIRO to save an additional 15% off your first order.

00:13:17.000 In fact, I'm using FrameBridge right now.

00:13:18.000 My wife and I vacationed in Hawaii.

00:13:20.000 We took a bunch of pictures with the kids.

00:13:21.000 Some of them are great.

00:13:22.000 We hadn't really figured out how to frame them yet, so now we are using FrameBridge.

00:13:25.000 Go to FrameBridge.com, promo code SHAPIRO.

00:13:27.000 FrameBridge.com, promo code SHAPIRO.

00:13:29.000 Use that promo code SHAPIRO and save an additional 15% off your first order.

00:13:33.000 Go check it out right now.

00:13:34.000 Okay, so the New York Times reports But the special counsel, Robert Mueller, took over the inquiry into Mr. Trump when he was appointed days after FBI officials opened it.

00:13:43.000 That inquiry is part of Mr. Mueller's broader examination of how Russian operatives interfered in the 2016 election and whether any Trump associates conspired with them.

00:13:51.000 It is unclear whether Mr. Mueller is still pursuing the counterintelligence matter, and some former law enforcement officials outside the investigation have questioned whether agents overstepped in opening it.

00:14:01.000 The answer, of course, is, yeah, I mean, it kind of looks like it.

00:14:05.000 What they're basically claiming is that if Trump fired Comey to stop the Russia investigation, that would have been obstruction.

00:14:09.000 But you may notice something.

00:14:11.000 What's the calendar say today?

00:14:12.000 That's right.

00:14:12.000 It's January 14th, 2019.

00:14:14.000 The Russia investigation opened in 2016.

00:14:17.000 It has now been three years of investigating.

00:14:19.000 Two and a half years of investigating.

00:14:21.000 Has it stopped in any time?

00:14:23.000 No, it's never stopped.

00:14:24.000 So where exactly is the case for obstruction of justice?

00:14:27.000 Where exactly is the case that Trump is in fact a Russian agent?

00:14:32.000 Rudy Giuliani is the president's lawyer.

00:14:34.000 He says the fact that it goes back a year and a half and nothing came of it, that showed a breach of national security means that they found nothing.

00:14:41.000 Trump is rightly very upset about all of this and he has a right to be.

00:14:46.000 If it turns out that at the end of this long chain of events, the Mueller investigation comes up with basically nothing, Then that is going to speak to whether this investigation should have taken so long, whether this investigation was appropriately launched in the first place, whether this investigation was in fact a political project to get Trump out.

00:15:02.000 Two things can be true at once.

00:15:03.000 It can be true that the investigation comes up with nothing and that it was launched in good faith.

00:15:08.000 But it makes it hard to make that claim when you got members of the FBI apparently vindictively launching investigations into whether Trump was a Russian asset in 2017.

00:15:17.000 When you do have people inside the FBI, like Peter Strzok, a motivated anti-Trump guy, leading the investigation.

00:15:23.000 If we're not asking these questions, we are not doing our job.

00:15:27.000 Now, the media are beginning to realize, at least some members of the media, that the Mueller investigation may not end the way they want it to.

00:15:33.000 ABC News' Jonathan Karl made a stunning admission yesterday on This Week on ABC News.

00:15:37.000 Here's what he had to say.

00:15:38.000 This is all building up to the Mueller report and raising expectations of a bombshell report.

00:15:44.000 And there have been expectations that have been building, of course, for over a year on this.

00:15:48.000 But people who are closest to what Mueller has been doing, who have interacted with the special counsel, caution me that this report is almost certain to be anti-climatic.

00:15:57.000 That if you look at what the FBI was investigating in that New York Times report, look at what they were investigating, Mueller did not go anywhere with that investigation.

00:16:06.000 Okay, so what is this all gonna be?

00:16:08.000 The answer may come up with nothing.

00:16:09.000 That's been my prediction for a long time, is that we come up with some nasty indicators that members of Trump's team were talking with the Russians, like Donald Trump Jr., for example, or that members of Trump's team were unwittingly working with Russians who were connected to the Russian government, something like that.

00:16:24.000 The idea that Trump was sitting behind the curtain Waving his wand and making the magic happen.

00:16:29.000 I just don't think that there's any evidence of that whatsoever.

00:16:31.000 If that changes, then I'll change my opinion.

00:16:33.000 But based on the evidence so far, you gotta be asking what exactly prompted the FBI to open an investigation for Trump as a Russian agent?

00:16:40.000 The guy's one of the most prominent people in American public life for the last four decades.

00:16:43.000 When exactly did they target him?

00:16:45.000 Back when he was on the cover of Playboy in like 1990?

00:16:48.000 Back when he was doing The Apprentice in the mid-2000s?

00:16:50.000 When did the Russians decide, you know what? 0.53

00:16:51.000 Let's get behind the reality TV show star and make him into a full-blown Russian agent. 0.68

00:16:58.000 That's conspiracy theory nonsense, if that's what the FBI was investigating.

00:17:01.000 Lindsey Graham, senator from South Carolina, says as much.

00:17:03.000 He's exactly right.

00:17:05.000 I'm going to ask the FBI director, was there a counterintelligence investigation opened up regarding the president as being a potential agent of the Russians?

00:17:15.000 I find it astonishing.

00:17:17.000 And to me, it tells me a lot about the people running the FBI, McCabe and that crowd.

00:17:23.000 I don't trust them as far as I throw them.

00:17:25.000 So if this really did happen, Congress needs to know about it.

00:17:29.000 And I and what I want to do is make sure how could the FBI do that?

00:17:33.000 What kind of checks and balances Now listen, I want to believe in the veracity of the FBI.

00:17:37.000 I know a lot of FBI agents.

00:17:39.000 I think the vast majority of FBI agents are wonderful folks who are doing a really great job keeping Americans safe.

00:17:44.000 I want to believe in our law enforcement institutions.

00:17:46.000 When the leadership of those law enforcement institutions are people like Peter Struck and Lisa Page, it makes it kind of hard.

00:17:52.000 And when they're making claims that Trump was a Russian agent, not just that they were going to investigate Russian ties and then see where those led, but instead that Trump was himself deeply involved.

00:18:02.000 Come on.

00:18:02.000 I mean, I'm going to need some evidence for that other than Trump has a big mouth.

00:18:07.000 First of all, if Trump were really a Russian agent, do you think he can keep his mouth shut about it? 0.70

00:18:10.000 Dude can't keep his mouth shut about anything.

00:18:13.000 Trump would be out there actually speaking Russian if he were a Russian agent.

00:18:16.000 Right?

00:18:16.000 Trump would be out there singing the Soviet National Anthem, like the characters in The Hunt for Red October.

00:18:21.000 I mean, the president doesn't, he's not known for his capacity for secrecy.

00:18:25.000 The president isn't exactly known for his subtlety.

00:18:28.000 Like, if you were going to pick a person to be a Russian plant or a Russian spy, really, Donald Trump?

00:18:35.000 Really?

00:18:35.000 That's who you were gonna go with?

00:18:37.000 Like, Trump would go out there in the middle of a campaign and be like, you know who I love?

00:18:40.000 Not only do I love him, Vladimir Putin, he's the real president.

00:18:43.000 He's great.

00:18:44.000 He's gonna, like, when I'm president, I'm gonna talk to him every day.

00:18:47.000 We're gonna write each other mash notes.

00:18:49.000 It's gonna be unbelievable, people.

00:18:51.000 That's what it would have been.

00:18:55.000 Come on, come on. 0.99

00:18:55.000 So the Democrats are desperately trying to defend the FBI's activity here. 0.99

00:18:59.000 Tim Kaine, the senator from Virginia, he says, well, the FBI went after Trump because they had good reason to do so.

00:19:05.000 Here's the excuse making from people who say the FBI had a reason to consider Trump a Russian plant.

00:19:10.000 I think it's less did the FBI overreact.

00:19:12.000 I think the question is this.

00:19:14.000 They had to have a very deep level of concern about this president to take this step.

00:19:20.000 And that's again why we need to protect the Mueller investigation.

00:19:23.000 And I think that's going to be a critical issue in the Judiciary Committee hearings about the Attorney General nominee.

00:19:29.000 Will you guarantee to protect this investigation?

00:19:32.000 And will you make sure that the American public and Congress get the results of it?

00:19:35.000 So here, this really is the key question, though.

00:19:37.000 The real key question is the one that Cain is mentioning here.

00:19:39.000 How deep does the FBI's level of suspicion have to run for them to launch an investigation?

00:19:44.000 If they're talking about Trump as Russian agent, my suspicion is not all that deep.

00:19:48.000 That they could just take flyers on investigations, which does raise systemic questions about the FBI.

00:19:52.000 Not just about the Trump investigation, but what kind of information is necessary for them to actually open an investigation targeting American citizens?

00:20:01.000 It makes you really disquieted about the nature of American power, about law enforcement power.

00:20:05.000 It makes you into sort of a reason.com libertarian.

00:20:08.000 Looking at this sort of stuff and going, hold up, the FBI can just launch an investigation based on a couple of people who don't like Trump, not liking that he fired James Comey, and then they can open a full-on counterintelligence investigation into the president?

00:20:20.000 That's a thing?

00:20:21.000 Again, Democrats, who five minutes ago hated the FBI, now love the FBI.

00:20:25.000 They love this stuff.

00:20:26.000 So Mark Warner from West Virginia, he says the FBI went after President Trump for good reason also.

00:20:32.000 I think we're seeing these independent actions, even independent of Mueller, which is the lead up in some of the rationale about why this investigation started and why so many Americans, like myself, have been concerned for so long.

00:20:45.000 There was enough concern that the Senate Intelligence Committee, in a bipartisan fashion, the House Intelligence Committee in a slightly less bipartisan fashion, Yeah.

00:20:56.000 Launched investigations.

00:20:58.000 Our investigation is almost, it's not quite two years in, but we have literally spoken to hundreds of witnesses.

00:21:05.000 We may have spoken to even more witnesses than Mueller, and we have a very important story to tell to the American public.

00:21:11.000 Okay, then you could just tell that story to the American public instead of just telling us how important the story is you're gonna tell.

00:21:16.000 You know, we've seen about 1,000 trailers for this movie.

00:21:18.000 At what point do we actually get to see the movie?

00:21:20.000 When the Mueller investigation comes out, it better be public.

00:21:23.000 We need full transparency because all we've seen is narrative from both sides.

00:21:26.000 John Solomon has a piece over at The Hill specifically talking about all of these allegations that there was too much smoke for the FBI not to investigate.

00:21:35.000 He points out there was a presidential candidate in 2016 whose husband traveled to Moscow and collected a $500,000 speaking fee from Vladimir Putin cronies while she was still serving as Secretary of State negotiating with the Russians.

00:21:47.000 There was a candidate in 2016 who ran a cabinet agency that authorized the sale of a large swath of strategic American uranium assets to Putin, who served in an administration that helped arrange and approve billions of dollars in nuclear fuel contracts for Moscow and American nuclear plants just a short while before Putin invaded Ukraine.

00:22:04.000 Whose campaign chairman served on the board of a clean energy company that received 35 million bucks from Russia while she was Secretary of State.

00:22:11.000 Whose prominent fundraiser subsequently came under investigation for possible illegal lobbying activities involving Paul Manafort and Russian-backed Ukraine politicians.

00:22:19.000 And whose family charitable empire accepted support from a lobbying and public relations firm working for a Russian nuclear giant.

00:22:25.000 That would be Hillary Clinton. 1.00

00:22:27.000 So whenever people say there's a lot of smoke, yeah, welcome to politics where smoke is the way that this stuff works.

00:22:32.000 In a second, we'll get to President Trump's response to all of these allegations.

00:22:36.000 Then we'll get to the government shutdown as well.

00:22:38.000 First, let me remind you that this year it is your obligation to make your business better.

00:22:42.000 How are you going to make your business better?

00:22:43.000 Well, by upgrading your employees.

00:22:44.000 It doesn't mean fire people.

00:22:45.000 It means add some great folks over at ZipRecruiter.com.

00:22:49.000 ZipRecruiter.com slash dailywire is the best way to hire the right people.

00:22:52.000 Unlike other job sites, ZipRecruiter finds qualified candidates for you.

00:22:55.000 Its powerful matching technology scans thousands of resumes to identify people with the right skills, education, experience.

00:23:01.000 It actively invites them to apply to your job so you get qualified candidates fast, which is why ZipRecruiter is rated number one by employers in the United States.

00:23:08.000 This rating comes from hiring sites on Trustpilot with over a thousand reviews right now.

00:23:12.000 My listeners can try ZipRecruiter for free at ziprecruiter.com slash dailywire.

00:23:16.000 If you love the show, show your support for it and ZipRecruiter, go to ziprecruiter.com slash dailywire.

00:23:21.000 There's a reason we use ZipRecruiter here at The Daily Wire.

00:23:24.000 Go check them out, ziprecruiter.com slash dailywire.

00:23:27.000 They allow you to filter those resumes quickly, find the best employee extraordinarily quickly.

00:23:31.000 ZipRecruiter is indeed the smartest way to hire. 0.73

00:23:33.000 And again, you can try ZipRecruiter for free at ziprecruiter.com slash dailywire.

00:23:37.000 That is ZipRecruiter.com slash DailyWare.

00:23:40.000 Okay, so the President of the United States is asked about all of this, the FBI investigation, all the rest.

00:23:46.000 He's asked about this.

00:23:46.000 He calls into Judge Jeanine, because this is our new world, where the President has time on a Saturday night, calls into Fox News shows.

00:23:53.000 So, President Trump calls in to Judge Jeanine, and she asks him straight up about the Russian collusion stuff, and here was his response.

00:24:02.000 Now, or have you ever worked for Russia, Mr. President?

00:24:05.000 I think it's the most insulting thing I've ever been asked.

00:24:09.000 I think it's the most insulting article I've ever had written.

00:24:13.000 And if you read the article, you'd see that they found absolutely nothing.

00:24:17.000 But the headline of that article, it's called The Failing New York Times for a reason.

00:24:22.000 They've gotten me wrong for three years.

00:24:23.000 They've actually gotten me wrong for many years before that.

00:24:26.000 Okay, so what was funny about this is you can hear Trump just denies it openly, right? 0.99

00:24:30.000 Trump says, listen, this is a ridiculous story.

00:24:32.000 The media, people like Maggie Haberman at the New York Times, a reporter who does some good work, okay, but she tweeted out, Trump does not deny.

00:24:39.000 And that was the headline that the media ran with.

00:24:41.000 So Judge Jeanine asks him, are you a Russian agent? 0.99

00:24:43.000 And he goes, it's the most ridiculous question I've ever heard. 0.99

00:24:45.000 It's insulting. 0.98

00:24:46.000 And the media run with, well, he didn't deny it, did he?

00:24:49.000 Come on.

00:24:51.000 Come on.

00:24:53.000 You think that if any Democrat answered that same question the same way, the headline would have been, he didn't deny it? 1.00

00:24:58.000 Of course he denied it, because it's stupid. 1.00

00:25:00.000 It's a stupid theory. 1.00

00:25:02.000 Again, even if you think that Trump was in cahoots with Russia, the best available theory would have been that the guy's a dupe. 1.00

00:25:07.000 It wouldn't have been that the guy's a paid agent of the Russians, or involved in kompromat or something.

00:25:11.000 And again, there's no evidence for any of this stuff at this point.

00:25:14.000 The media's attempt to go after Trump from every angle is pretty astonishing.

00:25:19.000 The Washington Post has a piece today about how Trump concealed details of his face-to-face encounters with Putin from senior officials in the administration.

00:25:25.000 Now, members of his own administration are denying this.

00:25:28.000 Folks in Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's office, they say, no, we know everything he said to Putin.

00:25:32.000 We know what he said, but according to the Washington Post, President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials, current and former U.S.

00:25:50.000 officials said.

00:25:51.000 Trump did so after a meeting with Putin in 2017 in Hamburg that was also attended by then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

00:25:57.000 U.S.

00:25:57.000 officials learned of Trump's actions when a White House advisor and senior State Department official sought information from the interpreter beyond a readout shared by Tillerson.

00:26:06.000 The constraints that Trump imposed are part of a broader pattern by the president of shielding his communications with Putin from public scrutiny and preventing even high-ranking officials in his own administration from fully knowing what he has told one of the United States' main adversaries as a result.

00:26:20.000 U.S.

00:26:20.000 officials said, according to the Washington Post, there is no detailed record, even in classified files, of Trump's face-to-face interactions with Vladimir Putin.

00:26:28.000 Such a gap would be unusual in any presidency, let alone the one that Russia sought to install through what U.S. 0.63

00:26:33.000 intelligence agencies have described as an unprecedented campaign of election interference.

00:26:38.000 Now, I have a possible alternative explanation as to why President Trump was seizing the notes of his interpreters.

00:26:45.000 Okay, here's my theory.

00:26:47.000 My theory is that everything inside this administration gets leaked, and so President Trump does not want those notes leaked.

00:26:54.000 I mean, really, that's my theory.

00:26:56.000 And that theory is backed to a certain extent by the fact that not only does everything leak, but if I recall correctly, there was an actual article written by an interpreter in the Trump administration who talked about how she had left the administration.

00:27:13.000 There was an article in July 19, 2018, about the interpreter.

00:27:18.000 It was from the New York Times, and who heard what Trump said to Putin?

00:27:21.000 Only one other American.

00:27:22.000 Marina Gross, the only other American in the room during President Trump's meeting on Monday with Vladimir Putin of Russia, was the interpreter for Laura Bush at the Russian resort of Sochi in 2008 and interpreted for former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Moscow in 2017.

00:27:35.000 She appears to live in an apartment in Arlington, Virginia, is an employee of the State Department, and is unsurprisingly fluent in Russia, but little else is known about Ms.

00:27:43.000 Gross.

00:27:44.000 Her white pad of notes, visible in photographs from the summit meeting, are probably useless. 0.68

00:27:47.000 Experienced government interpreters said, dictated in her personal shorthand, that it would be illegible to anyone else.

00:27:53.000 And if she were to say what exactly transpired, she would violate an ethics code of confidentiality similar to lawyer-client privilege or the silence of a priest during confession.

00:28:02.000 So they were already reporting on who the lady was, right?

00:28:05.000 The media were already targeting who the translator was.

00:28:09.000 They had full articles about Marina Gross, the translator, during the Trump meeting.

00:28:16.000 And then they wonder why Trump was trying to seize the notes?

00:28:18.000 Like the media were trying to take pictures of her notes.

00:28:22.000 This is wild stuff.

00:28:23.000 I mean, it really is amazing.

00:28:25.000 So Trump is apparently to blame. 0.99

00:28:26.000 Trump is the worst, right?

00:28:27.000 Trump is to blame for the fact that he didn't want his stuff leaking. 0.88

00:28:31.000 It's I just I find this I find this to be a kind of absurd contention by folks that Trump is And Trump is doing something deeply wrong.

00:28:42.000 Again, this is all privileged material in the first place.

00:28:45.000 And people inside his own administration say that they've heard the conversations.

00:28:48.000 What do you think Trump is telling Putin behind closed doors?

00:28:50.000 Do you think that he's actually selling out the democracy?

00:28:53.000 Do you have any evidence of that?

00:28:55.000 Now they say they're going to subpoena the translator.

00:28:57.000 Fine!

00:28:57.000 Subpoena the translator and then you know what Trump will do?

00:28:59.000 He can claim executive privilege.

00:29:01.000 Because that is executive privilege.

00:29:03.000 The president talking in front of a translator.

00:29:05.000 She does not get to be subpoenaed by Congress.

00:29:07.000 It's amazing.

00:29:08.000 Can you imagine anybody doing this with Obama?

00:29:10.000 Like, really, I don't like using the, can you imagine the Obama routine, but it is literally impossible to imagine the media going along with anything like this about Barack Obama.

00:29:19.000 Barack Obama had back channel negotiations with the Iranian government, with the Iranian government, actual enemies of the United States.

00:29:25.000 Far more so than the Russians. 1.00

00:29:26.000 I mean, the Russians are enemies of the United States. 0.99

00:29:28.000 They're geopolitical foes, would be a better way of putting it.

00:29:30.000 The Iranians are active enemies of the United States, and Obama was having open conversations with them.

00:29:35.000 We didn't know any of those details, and everybody assumed that's what the president gets to do, because he's the president.

00:29:39.000 Just because you don't like the president of the United States doesn't mean you get to shrink either the executive power, or that you get to pretend that normal exercise of executive power is somehow now barred.

00:29:49.000 It's wild.

00:29:49.000 So now Democrats are claiming that they're going to probe Trump's meetings with Putin as though he was having these... I don't know what kind of spy novels they're reading, honestly.

00:29:59.000 Pretty amazing stuff.

00:29:59.000 Okay, meanwhile...

00:30:01.000 Meanwhile, the continuing government shutdown has not ended.

00:30:07.000 It moves forward.

00:30:08.000 We'll talk about that in just one second.

00:30:10.000 First, you're going to have to go over to dailywire.com and subscribe.

00:30:12.000 When you do, you get the rest of this show live, you get the rest of Andrew Klavan's show live, the rest of Michael Knowles' show live.

00:30:17.000 And now, beginning last week, you get two additional hours per day of the show.

00:30:20.000 We do a live radio show.

00:30:21.000 It is available in 150 markets across the United States, but You can't actually listen to it on demand.

00:30:27.000 You can't watch it on demand unless you are a subscriber over at dailywire.com.

00:30:31.000 So go over there and subscribe right now.

00:30:33.000 What are you doing?

00:30:34.000 Every day has become significant.

00:30:36.000 Three times as hard for us.

00:30:38.000 Ask Senya.

00:30:39.000 So you ought to subscribe and make sure that Senya is well compensated for her efforts.

00:30:44.000 Go over there right now and make sure that it happens.

00:30:46.000 Dailywire.com, $9.99 a month.

00:30:48.000 You get all of those things plus $99 a year.

00:30:49.000 You get this?

00:30:50.000 The very greatest in beverage vessels.

00:30:51.000 View it.

00:30:52.000 Cast your eyes upon it.

00:30:53.000 The leftist year's hot or cold tumbler.

00:30:55.000 It is indeed magnificent.

00:30:57.000 It's the only thing that's able to get me through these long days of winter.

00:31:00.000 Go check it out right now.

00:31:02.000 Also, we have Sunday specials coming up that are going to be just awesome.

00:31:05.000 Check those out.

00:31:06.000 We have all sorts of goodies for you.

00:31:07.000 Go subscribe.

00:31:07.000 Also subscribe over at YouTube or iTunes.

00:31:09.000 We really appreciate it.

00:31:10.000 We are the largest, fastest-growing conservative podcast and radio show in the nation.

00:31:13.000 All righty, so the government shutdown continues apace.

00:31:21.000 According to a new CNN poll, President Trump is bearing the brunt of this.

00:31:24.000 Now, I would like to remind folks that polls a year and a half out, two years out from an election, don't matter at all to the president.

00:31:32.000 Barack Obama's approval rating in the middle of his first term were not good, and then he won re-election, it turns out, fairly easily over Mitt Romney.

00:31:40.000 So right now, people all look at Trump's approval ratings.

00:31:43.000 They're down to 37%.

00:31:43.000 What a disaster.

00:31:44.000 You know why?

00:31:45.000 Because there's no opponent.

00:31:48.000 In a presidential race, Trump's approval ratings, even when he was running against Hillary Clinton, never came close to cracking 50% and then he won anyway.

00:31:55.000 It turns out that most people see presidential elections as binary in every election.

00:32:00.000 So all the people who are agonizing over Trump's approval ratings are so low.

00:32:03.000 This is where Trump should say, OK, well, if I have to take the hit, I take the hit.

00:32:07.000 I will give you the evidence that this is sort of what he should do.

00:32:09.000 So here is the poll.

00:32:09.000 The poll is from CNN.

00:32:11.000 What it finds is that Trump is being blamed by a majority of Americans now for the government shutdown.

00:32:18.000 Trump's approval rating in the poll is down to 37%, as opposed to 57% disapprove.

00:32:24.000 That disapproval has risen five points since December, which is not a shock since he's been the subject of unending bad media coverage, and also because the president can't keep his fingers away from the Twitter buttons.

00:32:34.000 The increase in disapproval for the president comes primarily among whites without college degrees, 45% of whom approve, and 47% disapprove.

00:32:42.000 That's a really interesting stat because what that suggests is, again, this has more to do with media coverage than policy.

00:32:48.000 If you think that whites without college degrees are really pro-illegal immigration, I'm gonna need the evidence for that. 1.00

00:32:54.000 In December, his approval rating with whites who have not received four-year college degrees stood at 54%, so he's dropped pretty precipitously among people who don't have a college degree.

00:33:03.000 Among whites who do hold college degrees, Trump's ratings are largely unchanged, and they remain sharply negative.

00:33:08.000 64% disapprove, 32% approve.

00:33:12.000 Now, what the statistics show is that whites who do not have college degrees remain in favor of a wall along the border with Mexico.

00:33:18.000 51% in favor, 46% oppose.

00:33:20.000 But they tilt toward blaming President Trump for the government shutdown.

00:33:23.000 Again, a lot of that is the media coverage.

00:33:25.000 The public say that 55% say that Trump is more responsible for the shutdown than are Democrats in Congress.

00:33:30.000 32% say the blame rests mostly with the Democrats.

00:33:33.000 Another 9% say both are responsible.

00:33:36.000 Democrats are more unified in their blame for Trump.

00:33:38.000 Republicans are Kind of not unified at all.

00:33:42.000 Rank-and-file Republicans blame Democrats by 65%, but 23% do blame President Trump for the shutdown.

00:33:48.000 Now, if Trump can't sell the shutdown to his own base, that's a Trump problem.

00:33:52.000 That's not really a shutdown problem, that's a Trump problem.

00:33:53.000 That's because Trump went on national TV and said, I'll own the shutdown.

00:33:57.000 Brilliant strategizing and communications from the president.

00:34:00.000 Independents are more apt to blame Trump, 48 to 34, and are most likely to say both sides are responsible because independents are the only people who apparently have not lost their minds.

00:34:09.000 Again, if they say both sides are responsible, it means 48% of independents say that Democrats at least hold some responsibility for all of this.

00:34:16.000 Now, here's the part of the poll that is actually more telling and suggests that Trump should take a little bit of short-term pain in order to reach some long-term gain.

00:34:25.000 While more than half of Americans are now blaming Trump for the government shutdown, the wall itself has become more popular.

00:34:32.000 This new poll said support had increased for the wall from 34% to 42%.

00:34:36.000 The CNN poll had it going up from 35% to 39%.

00:34:39.000 In other words, Trump's pitch for the wall is going well.

00:34:43.000 His pitch for himself is not.

00:34:45.000 And that should be okay, right?

00:34:46.000 I mean, he's the president.

00:34:48.000 He's not up for re-election for another two years.

00:34:49.000 So people who are hitting the panic button and saying, well, Trump should therefore sign some sort of deal right now.

00:34:54.000 Which do you think is going to be more important come November of 2020?

00:34:56.000 Trump's approval rating in January of 2019 or Americans' long-lasting feelings about a wall that he has been pushing for for years?

00:35:08.000 My bet is that the issue itself is going to be more important than the approval rating over the government shutdown.

00:35:13.000 Government shutdowns have no long-lasting poll effects.

00:35:15.000 Like, none.

00:35:17.000 In January of 2013, there was a government shutdown.

00:35:20.000 Republicans then won a sweeping victory in November of 2014.

00:35:22.000 No one cares about government shutdowns five minutes after they're over.

00:35:26.000 The only thing that people care about is the long-lasting impression of Republicans.

00:35:30.000 In 2014, most Americans thought Republicans wanted to end Obamacare, Obamacare was deeply unpopular, and Republicans took back the House of Representatives.

00:35:37.000 And the Senate.

00:35:38.000 They took both of them.

00:35:39.000 They had the House already.

00:35:40.000 They took back the Senate.

00:35:42.000 So why exactly, why exactly would we think that there's going to be any long-lasting impact from a government shutdown now?

00:35:49.000 All the folks on the right who are panicking and saying, we need to end the shutdown right now, it's really hurting Trump.

00:35:54.000 Really hurting Trump.

00:35:55.000 Dude's approval rating's never been high.

00:35:57.000 When he runs, he's going to be running against someone.

00:35:59.000 He's not going to be running against the government shutdown.

00:36:02.000 The more important statistic here is not Trump's personal approval rating or who Americans blame for the shutdown.

00:36:07.000 The shutdown will end.

00:36:08.000 Everything will go back to normal.

00:36:09.000 People will get paid.

00:36:11.000 The real issue is how people feel about the wall.

00:36:13.000 If you're a political strategist, that's what you care more about.

00:36:16.000 And that's why Lindsey Graham came to Trump and he said, open the government temporarily.

00:36:19.000 And Trump was like, nope, not going to do that.

00:36:21.000 Not interested.

00:36:22.000 And he is correct about all of this because Democrats are being increasingly forced to deal with the consequences of their own intransigence.

00:36:31.000 And they look bad doing this.

00:36:32.000 I mean, there's a piece in the Washington Examiner today all about the Democrats during the government shutdown.

00:36:41.000 According to the Washington Examiner, some 30 Democratic lawmakers left the government shutdown behind on Friday on a chartered flight to Puerto Rico for a winter retreat with 109 lobbyists and corporate executives, during which they plan to see the hit Broadway show Hamilton and attend three parties, including one with the show's cast.

00:36:59.000 Is it just me, or I thought that Puerto Rico was just hit by a hurricane, right?

00:37:03.000 Right, so if they were hit by a hurricane, how much money are the Democrats spending on this retreat?

00:37:06.000 Maybe they should donate a little bit of that to the people who are suffering in Puerto Rico, if this is their thing.

00:37:11.000 Those attending the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Bold Pack Winter Retreat in San Juan plan to meet with key officials to discuss cleanup after Hurricane Maria at a roundtable on Saturday, but the weekend is packed with free time for the members and their families on a trip.

00:37:24.000 Apparently some 109 lobbyists and corporate executives are named in the memo at a rate of 3.6 lobbyists for every member.

00:37:31.000 And these include some of the biggest lobbyists in the country.

00:37:34.000 Senator Bob Menendez was spotted shirtless on the beach in Puerto Rico talking to some blonde lady on the beach.

00:37:41.000 She looks, thank God, overage. 0.60

00:37:43.000 So that's good for Bob Menendez.

00:37:46.000 All of this is to suggest that Democrats Those sort of optics are not going to play well for Democrats.

00:37:51.000 I think the panic button being hit by Republicans is a little bit premature at this point.

00:37:55.000 Okay.

00:37:57.000 Meanwhile, Republicans have been struggling for an answer with regard to Steve King.

00:38:01.000 We talked about this last week.

00:38:02.000 Representative Steve King from Iowa, who was quoted by the New York Times in an interview that he did not deny, saying that there was nothing wrong with the terms white nationalism and white supremacy, which is insane.

00:38:12.000 And I called for him to be immediately primaried and maxed out for his opponents, actually, in that primary.

00:38:17.000 Kevin McCarthy, the Senate, the House Minority Leader, he came forward.

00:38:21.000 He said there will be consequences for Steve King from the Republican caucus.

00:38:25.000 Watch on the other side that they do not take action when their members say something like that.

00:38:28.000 Action will be taken.

00:38:29.000 I'm having a serious conversation with Congressman Steve King on his future and role in this Republican Party.

00:38:35.000 What does that mean?

00:38:36.000 As a leader, there is a number of things you'll see that has taken place.

00:38:39.000 But I will not stand back as a leader of this party, believing in this nation that all are created equal, that that stands or continues to stand and have any role with us.

00:38:48.000 Okay, so this is the exact right perspective that McCarthy is articulating right here.

00:38:52.000 Senator Tim Scott from South Carolina, the only black senator in the Republican caucus, he says that, he says, Some in our party wonder why Republicans are constantly accused of racism.

00:39:02.000 It's because of our silence when things like this are said.

00:39:04.000 Immigration is a perfect example in which somehow our affection for the rule of law has become conflated with the perceived racism against black and brown people.

00:39:12.000 He says, King's comments are not conservative views, but separate views that should be ridiculed at every turn possible.

00:39:17.000 Conservative principles mean equal opportunity for all to succeed, regardless of what you look like or where you are from.

00:39:22.000 It is maddening to see so many folks who believe this and have only good intentions in their hearts tarnished by these radical perspectives, which is why silence is no longer acceptable.

00:39:31.000 And Tim Scott is right about this.

00:39:33.000 The difference is that members of the Republican caucus, many of them are not being silent about Steve King.

00:39:38.000 Whereas when it comes to bigotry by Democrats, the entire caucus is completely silent about bigotry by Democrats.

00:39:43.000 Let me give you an example.

00:39:44.000 Rashida Tlaib.

00:39:45.000 is one of the new fresh faces of the Democratic Party.

00:39:50.000 I always say that because you sort of need a trademark for how often that is used.

00:39:53.000 The media are constantly saying things about the fresh faces in the Democratic Party, and it's always the same three fresh faces, right?

00:39:59.000 It's always Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

00:40:02.000 And they are fresh, not because they're the only new Congress people, but because two of them are Muslim and one of them was a former bartender and is kind of pretty, right?

00:40:10.000 That's really why the media are paying attention to these folks. 1.00

00:40:13.000 Well, they're going to pay attention, but not enough to actually question the bigotry among these actual members, particularly the anti-Semitism of these actual members.

00:40:20.000 So Rashida Tlaib was sworn in. 0.96

00:40:24.000 To office.

00:40:26.000 A few years ago.

00:40:27.000 I guess she was sworn in in Detroit.

00:40:31.000 And she invited a guy named Abbas Hamideh.

00:40:34.000 And he gave her a painting of herself in front of the U.S.

00:40:36.000 Capitol wearing the keffiyeh around her neck.

00:40:42.000 She's Palestinian.

00:40:43.000 Wearing the Palestinian ceremonial kind of scarf that you see very often.

00:40:46.000 And he tweeted, I was honored to be a Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib swearing in ceremony in Detroit and private dinner afterward with the entire family, friends and activists across the country.

00:40:55.000 Hashtag Palestine.

00:40:57.000 Hashtag tweet your thobe. 1.00

00:40:58.000 I don't know what that means.

00:40:59.000 Hashtag Rashida Tlaib.

00:41:01.000 Okay, it turns out that Abbas Hamidah is like an actual terrorist sympathizer.

00:41:06.000 Here's what he tweeted out, November 19th, 2016.

00:41:12.000 Abbas Hamidah has also called for an intifada.

00:41:18.000 He's called for solidarity with Hamas. 0.83

00:41:20.000 He was at her swearing-in and attended a private dinner with her.

00:41:24.000 Remember that time that Steve King said something super racist and then most members of the Republican caucus said something about it?

00:41:31.000 Most Republican commentators, most conservative commentators came out and condemned him in as strong language as humanly possible.

00:41:37.000 Some of us gave money to his primary opponent.

00:41:39.000 Remember that?

00:41:39.000 Because that was like three days ago.

00:41:41.000 You remember?

00:41:42.000 How many Democrats have been asked about Rashida Tlaib?

00:41:45.000 How many?

00:41:46.000 They're all asked about her calling the president a mother effer.

00:41:49.000 How many were asked about the fact that she's an anti-Semite? 1.00

00:41:52.000 How many were asked about Ilhan Omar, who has a similar record of anti-Semitic statements?

00:41:57.000 How many have been asked not about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's bizarre take on domestic policy, but about her association with people like Linda Sarsour?

00:42:07.000 Any?

00:42:08.000 How many have been asked to defend their comments?

00:42:10.000 Zero.

00:42:11.000 Okay, which just goes to show you that when it comes to who is being held accountable for the nasty, evil comments within their own caucus, the only people ever held responsible are Republicans.

00:42:21.000 And Republicans, I think, hold themselves responsible, as Senator Tim Scott is pointing out.

00:42:26.000 And we try to do better.

00:42:27.000 The Democrats don't try to do better.

00:42:29.000 Not only do they not do better, they then claim that if you question them about these things, that it's an evidence of some sort of bias.

00:42:36.000 People were complaining that Rashida, it was funny, AOC, Ocasio-Cortez, was complaining that the media were reporting much more on Rashida Tlaib's calling President Trump a mother effer than they were on Steve King's white supremacist comments.

00:42:49.000 I agree.

00:42:50.000 That's an imbalance that ought to be noted.

00:42:52.000 But I'll tell you an imbalance that also ought to be noted.

00:42:55.000 The complete absence of anyone making note of the fact that open anti-Semites now sit in the Democratic caucus.

00:43:00.000 So we'll get endless coverage about Steve King.

00:43:03.000 That coverage is justified, I think.

00:43:05.000 But no coverage of Democrats who have been making nice with anti-Semites and racists from the other side of the aisle for years.

00:43:14.000 Like, no coverage at all.

00:43:16.000 And the media are cowed into silence by people like AOC claiming that they are insufficiently leftist.

00:43:22.000 It's truly incredible.

00:43:24.000 Like AOC tweeted against Josh Crashour, who's a reporter for Hotline.

00:43:30.000 She went after him because I guess Crashour had pointed out that she was saying something dumb, and she complained about the reporters.

00:43:41.000 And then he said, well, the reporters are just reporting on you. 0.56

00:43:43.000 And she said, well, they're insufficiently racially diverse.

00:43:46.000 And then he said, well, Are you calling for a quota among reporters?

00:43:50.000 And she said, I'm not calling for a quota.

00:43:51.000 This is a direct quote from AOC.

00:43:52.000 I've never called for strict quotas.

00:43:54.000 Just having representation of one of the most fundamental voting blocs in the American electorate, which is called a quota.

00:44:01.000 And the media cheer her.

00:44:02.000 They cheer her.

00:44:03.000 Being left means never having to say you're sorry.

00:44:05.000 It means never having to be asked about the extremists in your own coalition.

00:44:08.000 It means never having to answer for the disastrously bigoted views of your own membership.

00:44:15.000 It's truly amazing how the left is allowed to get away with this by the media and themselves.

00:44:19.000 I mean, they're supposed to be the reminders of the morality of America.

00:44:24.000 These are the people who are supposed to be the reminders of tolerance and diversity.

00:44:28.000 Yeah, sure, I'm gonna take advice from Rashida Tlaib about racism and anti-Semitism.

00:44:31.000 Yeah, I'm really gonna listen to reporters who won't ask Rashida Tlaib a question.

00:44:35.000 A question.

00:44:37.000 But are going to be mulling over Steve King while Republicans come out of the woodwork to denounce him.

00:44:42.000 Truly amazing stuff.

00:44:42.000 Okay, time for some things I like and then some things that I hate.

00:44:45.000 So, things I like this week.

00:44:48.000 So, this weekend I had the opportunity to see Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse.

00:44:52.000 It's great.

00:44:53.000 Okay, it's not just good, it's fantastic.

00:44:55.000 The script is really clever.

00:44:57.000 The voice work is great.

00:44:58.000 More importantly, the art of it is just astonishingly beautiful.

00:45:01.000 I mean, the art of it is fantastic.

00:45:03.000 It's art in a very different way than, like, Aquaman.

00:45:05.000 Aquaman, the CGI is great.

00:45:07.000 Here, Spider-Man is done differently than anything else I've ever seen.

00:45:10.000 So what's fascinating is that Sony owns the animated rights to Spider-Man, but Marvel, meaning Disney, owns the live-action Spider-Man.

00:45:19.000 I will tell you what, I am much more interested in seeing more animated movies like Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse than the Tom Holland Spider-Man that we've seen in The Avengers.

00:45:28.000 Even though I kind of like Tom Holland in The Avengers.

00:45:30.000 This movie, Into the Spider-Verse, is one of the most beautifully animated films I have ever seen in my entire life.

00:45:35.000 It's an amazing artistic accomplishment.

00:45:38.000 Basically, it looks like a moving comic book.

00:45:40.000 If you can't actually see the trailer, we'll show you a little bit of the trailer right now.

00:45:44.000 They combine all these different styles.

00:45:46.000 It's great.

00:45:46.000 There's only one Spider-Man.

00:45:49.000 But there's another universe.

00:45:51.000 It looks and sounds like yours, but it's not.

00:45:57.000 My name's Miles Morales.

00:46:04.000 Hey, kid.

00:46:08.000 You're like me.

00:46:11.000 How?

00:46:11.000 I know it's complicated.

00:46:13.000 You wanna know what happened to you?

00:46:18.000 I can teach you to be Spider-Man.

00:46:23.000 I love this burger, so delicious.

00:46:25.000 One of the best burgers I've ever had.

00:46:28.000 You have money, right?

00:46:29.000 I'm not very liquid right now.

00:46:30.000 I think you're gonna be a bad teacher.

00:46:33.000 The movie's really good, and it's all about, basically, the basic premise is that there's a portal that opens and all the Spider-Mans from the multiverse are sucked into this one Portal.

00:46:42.000 Now, people who are comic book fans all have their favorite Spider-Man.

00:46:44.000 I'm still a Peter Parker fan.

00:46:46.000 I know the younger generation likes Miles Morales.

00:46:48.000 I'm fine with Miles Morales.

00:46:49.000 Like, I think he's fine.

00:46:50.000 This movie makes him a lot more likable than he is in the comics and more interesting than he is in the comics.

00:46:54.000 He's the center of the film.

00:46:55.000 The movie's really good. 0.54

00:46:57.000 Jake Johnson does great voice work as Peter Parker from a different multiverse where Spider-Man's kind of a loser.

00:47:03.000 Like, he's divorced from Mary Jane and he's kind of falling apart as a human.

00:47:06.000 It's, the movie is, is really, I can't speak highly enough of this movie.

00:47:11.000 It's really good.

00:47:11.000 You should take your kids to see it.

00:47:13.000 It's not appropriate for kids, probably under the age of maybe seven or eight.

00:47:17.000 But if your kid's 10, your kid could easily see this movie.

00:47:19.000 And it's not scary in any sense beyond that.

00:47:22.000 And again, the animation is just incredible.

00:47:25.000 And it's got a bunch of, like John Mulaney comes in for a bit, that's great.

00:47:28.000 Nick Cage comes in as Spider-Man Noir, which is my favorite bit of the film, is that one of the multiverse Spider-Men is Spider-Man Noir, so he's like from the 1930s, and it's Nick Cage being Nick Cage.

00:47:39.000 So it's great.

00:47:40.000 It's like him coming in and being like, I'm Spider-Man and I punch Nazis. 0.91

00:47:44.000 It's terrific.

00:47:45.000 Go see the film if you haven't yet.

00:47:47.000 If it doesn't win the Oscar for best animation or best art direction or something, then the Oscars are irrevocably broken, which they are already.

00:47:57.000 We already know that, but worth seeing.

00:47:58.000 Okay, time for some things that I hate.

00:48:03.000 Okay, so thing that I hate, number one, there's a director named Duncan Jones.

00:48:06.000 He made a movie called Moon, which I've recommended on the show, before Talented Guy.

00:48:09.000 He tweeted this out yesterday, and I just find this obnoxious.

00:48:12.000 He tweeted out, I have two kids, two and a half years and nine months old, respectively.

00:48:15.000 I'll tell you something I never see anyone admit.

00:48:17.000 They're exhausting, frustrating, and life's destabilizing.

00:48:19.000 They are rarely fun.

00:48:20.000 Sure, smiles are great, hugs are lovely, but it's hard, and not obviously a good choice in life.

00:48:25.000 This is where people feel compelled to say, I wouldn't change it for the world.

00:48:27.000 But you know, of course I'd reconsider.

00:48:29.000 It's exhausting, it's banal.

00:48:30.000 It's like looking after your dog you can't house train.

00:48:33.000 What it is, is that it is, and they are mine.

00:48:35.000 Hopefully they turn out okay.

00:48:38.000 First of all, just to go back to the first part of that tweet where he says, I never hear people talk about how exhausting and horrifying children are, how frustrating and life destabilizing they are.

00:48:47.000 Is he like, does he have actual mental problems?

00:48:50.000 Does he have eyes or ears?

00:48:52.000 This is the number one topic among all parents forever, is how your kids drive you up a wall.

00:48:57.000 Like literally, you can ask folks at the office, how often do I talk about how my kids are driving me crazy?

00:49:02.000 You don't have to do that.

00:49:03.000 Listen to the show!

00:49:04.000 Like every other day, I'm talking about how my kids drive me crazy.

00:49:07.000 It is also true that they are the best thing that has ever happened to me.

00:49:10.000 And when Duncan Jones says, well, you don't have to add that, you know, they're not a great, they're not a great choice.

00:49:15.000 They're not obviously a good choice in life.

00:49:16.000 When he says, you know, I might reconsider, I can't imagine how his kids are going to feel 10 years from now reading those tweets.

00:49:22.000 When he says, I wouldn't change it for the world, of course I'd reconsider.

00:49:25.000 Really, would you reconsider?

00:49:26.000 Then maybe you should not be a parent.

00:49:27.000 Seriously.

00:49:28.000 And also, it's just, it's so self-centered.

00:49:31.000 If kids screw up your priorities, it's because your priorities are screwed up.

00:49:35.000 Your priority is your kids.

00:49:36.000 You know how many times I've had to ditch things that I want to go to because I gotta take care of my kids?

00:49:40.000 Or shift my schedule around because I have to do something with my kids?

00:49:43.000 And then do you know how awesome it is that I was with my kids?

00:49:47.000 As I've said, I've said this a thousand times in person and on the show.

00:49:49.000 This is one of my things.

00:49:51.000 Life is all about the highs and the lows.

00:49:53.000 And basically here's how it works.

00:49:54.000 When you're single, your high is like a seven and your low is like a two.

00:49:58.000 Unless you're clinically depressed or something.

00:50:00.000 Then, you get married.

00:50:01.000 And your high is a 10, because you have a partner in life.

00:50:04.000 And that partner in life, when you're with them, it makes life just that much better.

00:50:07.000 And your low is like a 0, because when something bad happens to the person you're with, then it's worse than something bad happening to you.

00:50:12.000 When my wife is sick, it is much worse for me than when I'm sick.

00:50:15.000 And then you have kids.

00:50:16.000 And all boundaries on the upper and lower thresholds disappear completely.

00:50:20.000 The best things that ever happen to you in life will happen with your kids, and the worst things that ever happen to you in life will happen with your kids.

00:50:25.000 There's nothing better, nothing in the world better, than hanging out with my daughter, and teaching her things, and having her say funny things, or me being in the car and partying with the kids in the back.

00:50:35.000 I have a great video.

00:50:35.000 My kids like to sit in the back of the car.

00:50:37.000 We have two car seats in the back.

00:50:38.000 I have one who's five and one who's almost five in a few weeks here, and one who's two and a half.

00:50:42.000 And I turn on Elvis, and they're partying it out in the back, and it's a blast.

00:50:45.000 Nothing is better than that.

00:50:47.000 And then when something terrible happens to your kid, when your kid is throwing up in the middle of the night, and you're cleaning up and trying to make them feel better, or when, God forbid, your kid has a surgery or something, which I've been through with my daughter, when all that happens, that's the worst thing that ever happened to you in your life.

00:50:59.000 Is that something that you would trade away?

00:51:00.000 I don't know.

00:51:01.000 Would you trade away seeing the world in color?

00:51:03.000 Would you trade away?

00:51:04.000 It's like the Wizard of Oz.

00:51:05.000 It really is.

00:51:05.000 Before and after having kids, I don't even remember not having kids.

00:51:08.000 This is how it works.

00:51:09.000 At every stage of life, there's a point where you don't remember what happened before.

00:51:12.000 After you get married, you don't remember what it was like to be single.

00:51:15.000 It's very difficult to remember what it was like to be single.

00:51:17.000 Because now you have someone you are attached to.

00:51:19.000 And then you have kids, and you really don't remember what it was like not to have kids.

00:51:22.000 Which is why you see so many couples struggling with empty nest syndrome after the kids leave.

00:51:26.000 Because your life totally shifts around that.

00:51:29.000 It's like in The Wizard of Oz, the original Wizard of Oz, where everything is in black and white and then the house lands in Oz and suddenly the door opens and everything is in color.

00:51:36.000 That's what it's like having kids.

00:51:38.000 So maybe you'd prefer to go back to black and white.

00:51:40.000 Maybe it was safer and nicer for you there.

00:51:42.000 Guess what?

00:51:43.000 That's because there's something wrong with your eyes.

00:51:46.000 It's because if you look at your kids and you only see the same blacks and whites you saw before you had kids, then I would suggest that you have some sort of vision adjustment because you got a problem. 0.99

00:51:55.000 You got a problem.

00:51:55.000 Okay.

00:51:56.000 Other things that I hate.

00:51:57.000 As I've said before, the entire goal of Western civilization is to protect innocents.

00:52:00.000 That is what Western civilization is about.

00:52:02.000 It is about curbing the worst instincts of humanity, whether they are masculine or feminine, whether they come from one group of people or another group of people.

00:52:10.000 Western civilization is about the idea that everyone can be civilized to be a good person, and all of that is designed to protect innocent people.

00:52:17.000 We as a society are failing the history of Western civilization.

00:52:20.000 We are failing it.

00:52:21.000 We are failing it because we no longer care about protecting innocent people.

00:52:24.000 Protecting innocence has become secondary to our own subjective pleasure.

00:52:28.000 And that means that parents, speaking of parents abusing their kids, this case is just sickening.

00:52:34.000 It should sicken you to your stomach. 0.88

00:52:36.000 We've talked a little bit before about this 10-year-old drag kid, okay? 0.84

00:52:41.000 There's another drag kid now. 1.00

00:52:43.000 So there are a couple of different drag kids.

00:52:44.000 These drag kids are 10-year-old, 11-year-olds who have been featured in the media, and they're supposed to be the heroes of our new society, right?

00:52:52.000 It is heroic to bring your children, your male children, to dress up as female children in a sexualized fashion. 0.97

00:53:03.000 Does anyone care about this kid?

00:53:04.000 No.

00:53:04.000 A 10-year-old Canadian boy named Nemus Quinn Maloncon-Golden was featured in a troubling Huck magazine piece highlighting the life of a so-called child drag queen, young Nemus, whose drag name is Queen Lactatia.

00:53:15.000 Does anyone care about this kid?

00:53:17.000 No.

00:53:17.000 I mean, like, I care about the kid more than this kid's parents do.

00:53:20.000 Really, I think that is fair to say.

00:53:22.000 And how do I know that?

00:53:23.000 Because of what I'm about to tell you.

00:53:24.000 Was shot by photographer Jonathan Frederick Turton for the spread.

00:53:27.000 In one of the shots that did not make the magazine, Nemus, in full drag makeup and a black dress, is posing for a photo with the Season 7 winner of RuPaul's Drag Race, Violet Chachki.

00:53:37.000 In a shocking photo, Violet is wearing nothing but a pair of heels and a small piece of fabric covering his genitals, as seen in this screenshot.

00:53:46.000 Interviewed and photographed, Queen Lactatia for Huck Magazine about life as a child drag queen, posted Turton.

00:53:52.000 Turton has shot for mainstream outlets like the BBC.

00:53:54.000 Adidas dazed and confused the Discovery Channel.

00:53:58.000 The Huck Magazine piece, by the way, called me out personally for over-sexualizing drag kids.

00:54:05.000 I'm the bad guy for pointing out that it is a bad thing to take ten-year-old boys, dress them as girls, and then put them in the presence of naked men pretending to be women.

00:54:14.000 I'm the bad guy.

00:54:16.000 Nemus's mother, Jessica Malankan, conceded that drag has a sexual component and is unapologetic about her young son wearing sexually suggesting clothing if it makes him feel beautiful.

00:54:24.000 This is according to Amanda Prestijakama over at Daily Wire.

00:54:28.000 She said, drag is an adult arena and that's where people question our judgment.

00:54:32.000 So we have to censor things.

00:54:32.000 He knows there are adult aspects of drag that he's not allowed to apply to his show.

00:54:35.000 We would never try to overtly sexualize our child.

00:54:38.000 But if he wears something that makes him feel beautiful, what right do I have to stop him wearing that dress?

00:54:42.000 Because it might cause people to think things they shouldn't be thinking.

00:54:44.000 It's a circular problem.

00:54:45.000 No, it is not a circular problem. 0.90

00:54:47.000 You're damaging your child because you're a bleepy, you're a bad mother. 1.00

00:54:50.000 You're a terrible mother. 0.99

00:54:51.000 Okay, Child Protective Services should be at your house today. 0.99

00:54:54.000 Today.

00:54:55.000 It is disgusting to violate the innocence of a child like this, and then to pretend you're doing it for the child's own sake. 0.98

00:55:00.000 You wouldn't let your kid not eat his vegetables, you wouldn't let your kid ditch school, you wouldn't let your kid prostitute himself, and yet you are acting as his pimp. 0.98

00:55:07.000 To put him in a photo like that, you are acting as his pimp.

00:55:11.000 It is endangerment of children.

00:55:13.000 In 2007, Nemus appeared on stage with popular drag queen Bianca Del Rio at a drag show his mother brought him to.

00:55:19.000 The clip of the two on stage together, wherein the drag queen repeatedly used the B-word and dropped an F-bomb, quickly went viral.

00:55:27.000 According to Jessica, drag is how Nemus chooses to express himself.

00:55:29.000 He's just a kid playing.

00:55:30.000 Yeah, but you know better, don't you?

00:55:32.000 You know what this is.

00:55:33.000 You know this isn't just a kid playing.

00:55:34.000 You know that there are people who are going to victimize your child.

00:55:37.000 You know that you are victimizing your child.

00:55:39.000 This idea that you're supposed to substitute the judgment of your children for your own judgment as an adult.

00:55:44.000 It's one of the aspects of our civilization that has gone completely awry. 0.98

00:55:48.000 The idea of being a civilized human being is that you don't know crap when you're a kid and then you get older and you know crap and you try to stop your kids from having to experience the same garbage that you experience. 0.95

00:55:57.000 And we now have a society where we're supposed to supplant our own judgment with that of our children. 0.98

00:56:00.000 Let the children roam free.

00:56:03.000 In a world of adults, some of whom are predators, Genius stuff.

00:56:08.000 Genius stuff.

00:56:09.000 This has nothing to do with the welfare of the kid.

00:56:11.000 This has everything to do with the subjective self-satisfaction of a terrible mother.

00:56:16.000 I rarely rip parents like this, but this parent deserves every bit of ripping, and I am dead serious when I say that Child Protective Services should show up at this person's house. 0.99

00:56:24.000 I mean, that is horrifying garbage. 0.98

00:56:26.000 OK, well, with that said, we'll be back here tomorrow. 0.95

00:56:29.000 We'll break down all the latest news for you then, and we'll be back here later today.

00:56:32.000 So if you're a subscriber, we have two more hours of great content coming up later today.

00:56:35.000 Be there or be square.

00:56:36.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:56:36.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:56:42.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Senya Villarreal.

00:56:44.000 Executive producer, Jeremy Boring.

00:56:46.000 Senior producer, Jonathan Hay.

00:56:48.000 Our supervising producer is Mathis Glover.

00:56:50.000 And our technical producer is Austin Stevens.

00:56:52.000 Edited by Adam Siewicz.

00:56:54.000 Audio is mixed by Mike Coromina.

00:56:55.000 Hair and makeup is by Jeswa Olvera.

00:56:57.000 Production assistant, Nick Sheehan.

00:56:59.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire production.

The Ben Shapiro Show - January 14, 2019

The FBI’s Big Mistake | Ep. 694

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript