The Ben Shapiro Show - The Grammys vs. ICE!

00:00:00.000 Our greatest artists gather at the Grammys in order to reward one another and also to rip on President Trump and ICE.

00:00:07.000 Plus, the Epstein files, three and a half million more files released.

00:00:10.000 What do they actually show?

00:00:11.000 We'll go through what the evidence demonstrates.

00:00:13.000 Plus, Democrats continue to push on the immigration issue.

00:00:17.000 Is that going to be a winning issue for them electorally?

00:00:19.000 We'll get to the polls.

00:00:20.000 First, January is finally over.

00:00:22.000 We used all 31 days of it to release a ton of new content.

00:00:25.000 Matt Walsh released a brand new series called Real History with Matt Walsh, starting with the real history of slavery, packed with facts, schools, and institutions conveniently left out for decades.

00:00:34.000 Episodes one through three of our long-awaited seven-part cinematic series, The Pendragon Cycle Rise of the Merlin, are streaming right now with new episodes every Thursday only on Daily Wire Plus Plus.

00:00:43.000 New episodes of Bar Fight with Michael Knowles and Daily Wire Plus originals, like How to Take Out a Dictator in 88 Minutes, Minneapolis Ride Along with ICE, and a lot more.

00:00:51.000 Watch now with your Daily Wire Plus membership.

00:00:53.000 If you're not a member yet, go to dailywareplus.com and join right now.

00:00:56.000 Well, folks, over the weekend, we learned about a very powerful, very rich cadre of people who have inordinate control over the direction of our nation's politics.

00:01:07.000 I'm talking, of course, about the Grammys.

00:01:08.000 So the Grammys were filled with our usual celebrity geniuses spouting their usual performative politics to the cheers of their other fellow celebrities.

00:01:18.000 And the reason I'm pointing this out, of course, is because if you wonder what the room is like, where people hash out, what the culture ought to look like, it looks like the Grammys.

00:01:27.000 The thing about the Grammys, and so many of our award shows that are really fascinating, is that it really is an inside look to the rest of the world at what these people actually talk like at dinner parties.

00:01:27.000 It does.

00:01:39.000 And I know a lot of the people who are in Hollywood.

00:01:41.000 I've spoken with many of them.

00:01:42.000 I've been at parties with some of them.

00:01:44.000 And their parties look like the Grammys.

00:01:46.000 It is performative, self-congratulatory nonsense far too often.

00:01:50.000 It's people patting themselves on the back for their performative version of the most extreme radical politics in our society.

00:01:58.000 And that's why we are also annoyed when it shows up on our TV, because typically when people tune into the Grammys or the Oscars or any other award show, what they expect is a celebration of the culture that we all share, the music that we all enjoy.

00:02:11.000 And instead, what they usually get is a cocktail party punctuated by some people holding up a trophy.

00:02:17.000 And those people do share a lifestyle.

00:02:20.000 They are the most protected, wealthy people in our society.

00:02:24.000 And the people who share that lifestyle are people who tend to share their politics.

00:02:28.000 And now they're sharing that politics with you, the little people.

00:02:32.000 And so last night at the Grammys, pretty much every performer decided that they were going to lead by ripping into ICE, immigration and customs enforcement, ripping the Trump administration.

00:02:43.000 Now, obviously, there are other things going on in the world.

00:02:45.000 And just a year or two ago, pretty much everybody at the Grammys was speaking up about the supposed evils of the Israeli defense forces in the Gaza Strip.

00:02:54.000 Now, of course, the Iranian government has been mowing down protesters, perhaps by the tens of thousands.

00:02:59.000 Not a single word about that at the Grammys last night, but lots of words for immigration and customs enforcement doing its job in Minneapolis.

00:03:07.000 So, for example, Bad Bunny.

00:03:10.000 That's not his real name, I assume.

00:03:12.000 I guess his real name is Benito Antonio Martinez-Ocasio.

00:03:16.000 He is nominated for six Grammys for his latest album, and he's supposed to perform at the Super Bowl, apparently wearing a dress, which is exactly what you want, right?

00:03:25.000 If you're showing your nine-year-old boy the Super Bowl, you know, where men are men and where athletic performance and grit and determination and heart, those are the keys to victory.

00:03:36.000 What you want is during halftime, a dude gallivanting around in ladies' garments. 1.00

00:03:42.000 Well, he won an award for his album, and he proceeded to rip into ICE, which is precisely what we need to hear from this human.

00:03:54.000 Before I say thanks to God, I'm gonna say eyes out.

00:04:06.000 He did it, guys.

00:04:06.000 He did it.

00:04:07.000 We're not animals.

00:04:08.000 We're not aliens.

00:04:10.000 We are humans, and we are Americans.

00:04:18.000 Also, I want to say to the people, I know it's tough to know, not to hate on these days.

00:04:28.000 And I was thinking sometime we get contaminados.

00:04:36.000 I don't know how to say that in English.

00:04:43.000 The hate gets more powerful with more hate.

00:04:48.000 The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love.

00:04:54.000 Wow.

00:04:55.000 Deep words.

00:04:56.000 Love is more powerful than hate.

00:04:59.000 That is some deep verbiage.

00:04:59.000 Wow.

00:05:01.000 I can see why he is such an acclaimed songwriter and performer.

00:05:06.000 And also, it turns out there's no such thing as an illegal immigrant.

00:05:09.000 Now, he is a U.S. citizen because he's Puerto Rican.

00:05:11.000 I'm not sure what that has to do with ice out, but you can hear the applause in the room.

00:05:16.000 He did it.

00:05:17.000 He solved the problem.

00:05:19.000 I love that celebrities really believe that they are like Michael Scott in the office.

00:05:23.000 They can walk into the middle of a room, shout, I declare bankruptcy, and it is legally effective.

00:05:29.000 You're right, celebrities.

00:05:31.000 If you go into a room with all of your fellow celebrities protected by armed security outside, where every single human who comes into that arena has to have their background checked, that you can sit there and tell the rest of America that actually no protection is available to them.

00:05:46.000 Billie Eilish, who I'm sure has not only armed security, but apparently a palatial estate surrounded by offense because she has stalker problems. 1.00

00:05:54.000 She says that there is nobody illegal on stolen land.

00:05:58.000 And by stolen land, I assume she means all of planet Earth since populations have been moving since legitimately the beginning of recorded human history.

00:06:05.000 She says nobody is illegal on stolen land.

00:06:08.000 So I guess party at Billie Eilish's house Friday night.

00:06:12.000 Is that how this works?

00:06:13.000 Okay, here we go.

00:06:14.000 No one is illegal on stolen land.

00:06:21.000 Oh my gosh, I'm Sabria Carpenter.

00:06:25.000 Oh, and lady wearing a peacock on her head. 1.00

00:06:27.000 I don't know who that is.

00:06:30.000 Yeah, it's just really hard to know what to say and what to do right now.

00:06:36.000 I mean, if only you were in a profession where that was literally your job, Billie Eilish.

00:06:36.000 It's so hard.

00:06:36.000 It is.

00:06:41.000 I will say she looks significantly less unhappy since she started dating a dude.

00:06:45.000 I mean, at least that's going for her. 0.78

00:06:47.000 More deep and important people at the Grammys in just a moment.

00:06:50.000 First, sleep quality matters an awful lot.

00:06:53.000 I have many, many children, as it turns out.

00:06:55.000 And that means that life is stressful and we got a business and all the rest.

00:06:57.000 When I get on that mattress, I need to go to sleep.

00:06:59.000 And that means I need a mattress made just for me.

00:07:01.000 Well, finding the right mattress doesn't have to be complicated.

00:07:03.000 Our sponsor, Helix, actually makes it incredibly straightforward with their sleep quiz, which matches you to the perfect mattress based on your specific preferences and sleep needs.

00:07:11.000 They're not just another mattress company either.

00:07:12.000 Helix is the most awarded mattress brand out there with glowing reviews from major publications like Forbes and Wired.

00:07:18.000 Folks, not just marketing hype.

00:07:20.000 A study they conducted found that 82% of participants actually saw an increase in their deep sleep cycle while sleeping on a Helix mattress.

00:07:26.000 It's pretty impressive when you think about how crucial quality sleep is for everything else in life.

00:07:30.000 I have a mattress that is firm but breathable, right?

00:07:32.000 Because I took that quiz.

00:07:33.000 It told me what mattress I needed and it was right.

00:07:35.000 They even offer free shipping straight to your door a 120-night sleep trial so you can actually test it out in your own home.

00:07:40.000 They back everything up with a limited lifetime warranty.

00:07:42.000 Start sleeping right tonight by ordering a Helix mattress today.

00:07:45.000 Go to helixleep.com/slash Ben for 27% off-site.

00:07:48.000 Wide, that's helixleep.com slash Ben for 27% offsite.

00:07:52.000 Wide, make sure you enter our show name after checkout so they know we sent you helixleep.com slash Ben.

00:07:57.000 Olivia Dean also decided it was time to rip into ICE. 1.00

00:08:01.000 So here she was.

00:08:02.000 I mean, again, look at the bravery of these people.

00:08:05.000 They all think alike.

00:08:06.000 They all act alike.

00:08:07.000 They all have similar lifestyles.

00:08:09.000 And they are speaking to you, the little people.

00:08:11.000 You know, the people who don't have armed security at your palatial estates, while people pay you millions upon millions of dollars to sing songs written by a large coterie of other people.

00:08:22.000 You need to hear their voices.

00:08:24.000 You need to hear their words.

00:08:25.000 These are the tastemakers.

00:08:27.000 These are the people who shape the culture in which your children grow up.

00:08:32.000 I guess I want to say I'm up here as a granddaughter of an immigrant.

00:08:36.000 I wouldn't be here.

00:08:40.000 Wow.

00:08:41.000 Huge.

00:08:42.000 Big news.

00:08:43.000 Huge of truth.

00:08:44.000 Yeah, I'm a product of bravery, and I think those people deserve to be celebrated.

00:08:53.000 I mean, so we're celebrating your grandparents.

00:08:56.000 I mean, I'm just going to point out a huge percentage of Americans have ancestors who came here at some point, like pretty much all Americans.

00:09:06.000 And therefore, this means what?

00:09:09.000 We have to have an open border, or that if you came during Joe Biden's open border and took advantage of our welfare systems, you have to stay.

00:09:16.000 Or that if ICE has a deportation order, they're supposed to ignore it because your grandparents, I assume, came here legally 60, 70 years ago to take.

00:09:25.000 Gloria Estefan showed up as well and talked about how basically this is like the Holocaust, which again, people stop.

00:09:35.000 Stop doing Holocaust analogies that are totally in opposite.

00:09:39.000 I'm not against a properly drawn Holocaust analogy, but you have to actually find an analog.

00:09:44.000 You can't just compare things to the Holocaust. 0.65

00:09:46.000 You can't.

00:09:47.000 I'm sorry.

00:09:48.000 ICE picking up individually legal immigrants and sending them back to their home countries is not the same as an entire war infrastructure set up to systematically murder millions of people of a particular race.

00:10:02.000 Turns out that's not the same thing, like at all.

00:10:05.000 And also, you know what's not similar?

00:10:07.000 America to Nazi Germany, because you know what you didn't see in the middle of World War II or the Nazi era? 0.74

00:10:12.000 What you didn't see was a bunch of artists getting up on red carpets talking about how terrible the Nazis were in Berlin.

00:10:18.000 Wasn't the thing that was happening very often.

00:10:20.000 Here's Gloria Estefan. 1.00

00:10:23.000 I have been very vocal about the fact that I'm scared of what I'm seeing in this country.

00:10:28.000 I've been living here for decades.

00:10:29.000 This is not the place that I grew up in.

00:10:32.000 We need to all stand up.

00:10:34.000 In college, I took literature of the Holocaust, and the biggest lesson that I learned was that silence is our biggest enemy.

00:10:41.000 We all have to stand together and say that we, okay, we agree that the border has to be secured, but this is not what's happening.

00:10:49.000 People, families are being torn apart.

00:10:52.000 Children, hundreds of children are in detention and in horrible conditions.

00:10:57.000 I have personal experience with people in my circle that their loved ones have been taken away and have been months in detention for no reason because they haven't been deported.

00:11:07.000 They haven't done anything.

00:11:09.000 So, no, we need to stand up and we need to vote and show our political and economic power.

00:11:16.000 Wow.

00:11:18.000 Inspiring stuff.

00:11:19.000 And then, of course, Trevor Noah.

00:11:21.000 It amazes me.

00:11:22.000 What a great country where an immigrant like Trevor Noah can really make good despite having legitimately zero talent. 1.00

00:11:28.000 It's a pretty impressive feat.

00:11:30.000 Trevor Noah hosted the Grammys where he was his usual smart meeting obnoxious self.

00:11:36.000 And he dissed Nicki Minaj and he dissed President Trump, suggesting that President Trump was part of the Epstein scandal and all the rest of it.

00:11:44.000 Here he was dissing Nicki Minaj for the great sin of having gone to the White House to promote the Trump accounts, which, of course, are savings accounts being set up for American children, which, according to Trevor Noah, I guess, is a bad thing now.

00:11:56.000 Every single person here, John Legend, Billy Island is Phineas.

00:11:59.000 Nikki Minaj is not here.

00:12:01.000 She is not here. 0.99

00:12:05.000 She is still at the White House with Donald Trump discussing very important issues at Actually, Nikki, I have the biggest ass. 0.99

00:12:15.000 I have it. 0.99

00:12:16.000 Everybody's saying it, Nikki.

00:12:17.000 I know they say it's you, but it's me.

00:12:19.000 Wop, wop, wop. 0.86

00:12:20.000 Look at it.

00:12:21.000 Look at it, baby.

00:12:25.000 I love that all the people there are cheering when he's like, Nikki Minaj is over at the White House discussing serious issues as though they are there discussing serious issues.

00:12:33.000 Their version of discussing a serious issue is they sing songs that are overproduced and auto-tuned, and then they go on a stage and pretend they know something about policy.

00:12:40.000 That's their serious discussion.

00:12:43.000 He went out of his way, Trevor Noah, to drop some sort of joke about Epstein Island and Trump and suggest that Trump has been to Epstein Island and that the reason he wants Greenland is because he wants his own Epstein Island with Bill Clinton.

00:12:53.000 And President Trump then went on Truth Social and threatened to sue Trevor Noah because we live in an alternative timeline.

00:13:00.000 Quote, the Grammy Awards are the worst, virtually unwatchable.

00:13:03.000 So far, so true. 0.98

00:13:04.000 CBS is lucky not to have this garbage litter, their airwaves any longer. 0.97

00:13:08.000 The host, Trevor Noah, whoever he may be, is almost as bad as Jimmy Kimmel at the Low Ratings Academy Awards. 0.97

00:13:13.000 Noah said incorrectly about me that Donald Trump and Bill Clinton spend time on Epstein Island.

00:13:17.000 Wrong.

00:13:18.000 I can't speak for Bill, but I've never been to Epstein Island nor anywhere close.

00:13:21.000 And until tonight's false and defamatory statement, have never been accused of being there, not even by the fake news media. 0.95

00:13:27.000 Noah, a total loser, better get his facts straight and get them straight fast. 0.98

00:13:30.000 It looks like I'll be sending my lawyers to sue this poor pathetic, talentless dope of an MC and suing him for plenty dollar sign. 1.00

00:13:36.000 Ask little George Slapidopoulos and others how that all worked out. 0.98

00:13:40.000 Also ask CBS, get ready, Noah.

00:13:42.000 I'm going to have some fun with you, President Donald J. Trump.

00:13:45.000 Yes, this is the world that we now inhabit.

00:13:47.000 Now, why is any of this really important?

00:13:49.000 Well, I mean, it is important because when you have all the cultural tastemakers who are all pushing the same politics, that is likely to seep out into the broader culture.

00:13:59.000 And sometimes that can go viral and turn into a brainworm that sort of eats the American body politic.

00:14:05.000 You saw this, for example, with the trans issue pushed by every cultural arbiter in American society.

00:14:10.000 And for solidly a decade, this was promoted as the way to decide whether a person was virtuous or not, whether they were willing to say that a boy could be a girl and a girl could be a boy.

00:14:19.000 So it does make a difference when the entire cultural apparatus mobilizes behind a thing.

00:14:24.000 But there is something else here that is worthy of note also.

00:14:27.000 And that is celebrities, they have their own social circle.

00:14:31.000 And that social circle tends to mirror itself.

00:14:34.000 It, in fact, is a hallway of mirrors.

00:14:36.000 You're not welcome in a lot of these social circles if you have a different politics.

00:14:42.000 You don't go to the cool kid parties, right?

00:14:44.000 The story of Hollywood in its most depraved form, writ small, would be the Diddy White parties. 0.98

00:14:51.000 That is Hollywood in its most depraved form, written small.

00:14:55.000 It's like in a microcosm of what Hollywood is.

00:14:59.000 It's the most extreme version of what's happening in that cultural milieu.

00:15:04.000 And I think that is probably the best way to see the Jeffrey Epstein story as well.

00:15:08.000 So a lot of people are looking for the connection between the Jeffrey Epstein story, the saga, the details that are now coming out, and what that means about quote unquote, who runs our world.

00:15:20.000 Now, there are a lot of very powerful people whose names have been mentioned in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

00:15:27.000 People who are hanging out, hobnobbing with Jeffrey Epstein, people who are asking dating advice like Lauren Summers, former president of Harvard, or people who are apparently soliciting visits to Epstein parties or whom Epstein was soliciting to go to his parties, including people like Elon Musk.

00:15:42.000 Obviously, Jeffrey Epstein was friendly with Bill Clinton.

00:15:44.000 There was a time early on in his life, earlier, when he was friendly with Donald Trump.

00:15:49.000 All of that is true.

00:15:51.000 Now, the leap that some people are making is that this means that Epstein was manipulating all of these powerful people through blackmail with regard to sex.

00:15:58.000 That is not in evidence.

00:15:59.000 If that turns out to be in evidence, then we will happily report on it.

00:16:04.000 That is not what so far has come out.

00:16:06.000 And the reason I'm making this distinction is because it is, in fact, a deeply important thing that some of the most powerful people in our society act in morally depraved ways, godless, virtue-free ways, hanging out with some of the worst people in our society, people they know to be trafficking in women who are very, very young, if not in minors.

00:16:27.000 When it comes to Epstein and Ghelaine Maxwell, what was criminally indicted was the trafficking of underage girls for Epstein's own use.

00:16:34.000 There have yet to be legally verifiable allegations that girls who are underage were trafficked to people who are not Jeffrey Epstein or by Ghelaine Maxwell, to people not Jeffrey Epstein.

00:16:45.000 That does not mean the story is unimportant.

00:16:47.000 The story is still important because it exposes, again, the cultural milieu in which too many elitists in our society, people who control others, get together, formulate their values, hang out, and decide what they think is right, good, and true.

00:17:03.000 So, over the weekend on Friday, the Department of Justice announced the release of some 3.5 million pages of Epstein documents.

00:17:11.000 Now, I will say that I think that the way these documents were released, it appears not to be particularly smart.

00:17:17.000 It turns out, for example, that a huge number of names of the Epstein victims were exposed, which is illegal.

00:17:23.000 You are not supposed to do that.

00:17:24.000 That was originally the reason why the DOJ did not release these gigantic tranches of documents because they had not done the proper redactions.

00:17:31.000 And as it turns out, they actually didn't do the thing they were supposed to do.

00:17:35.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department exposed the names of dozens of Jeffrey Epstein's victims, including many who haven't shared their identities publicly or were minors when they were abused by the notorious sex offender.

00:17:45.000 A review of 47 victims' full names on Sunday found that 43 of them were left unredacted in files that were made public by the government on Friday, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.

00:17:54.000 Several women's full names appeared more than 100 times in the file.

00:17:58.000 The Justice Department was required to redact all victims' names prior to releasing the files.

00:18:03.000 Apparently, there was one minor victim who was mentioned over 160 times in the file.

00:18:12.000 So that's bad, and that is a bad job by the DOJ.

00:18:16.000 It is also true that because an enormous amount of this is sort of raw data that was taken in by the FBI, a huge amount of the stuff that is now being trafficked online is unverified, unverifiable, or from the tip line.

00:18:30.000 That is the reality.

00:18:31.000 So, for example, people going after President Trump and suggesting that Trump is in the files.

00:18:35.000 So, the DOJ had a document, August 7th, 2025, with the various mentions of President Trump in the National Threat Operations Center tip line.

00:18:48.000 Now, here's the problem: the National Threat Operations Center tip line receives somewhere between 3,000 and 4,500 calls or electronic tips per day.

00:18:57.000 Many report secondhand information.

00:19:01.000 Most claims, I think I believe all claims at this point, when they are taken in, are unverified, right?

00:19:06.000 It takes further investigation to verify them. 0.96

00:19:07.000 So, you've seen people on the left run around and say President Trump is alleged to have forced an underage girl, 13, 14 years old, to perform oral sex. 0.98

00:19:16.000 Well, it turns out that that is totally unverified. 0.98

00:19:20.000 They tried to run it down.

00:19:21.000 They were unable to substantiate it.

00:19:24.000 There is another complaint suggesting that a caller said that at age 16, she attended eight parties at Epstein's New York residence and on one occasion reported she was sexually assaulted by Epstein.

00:19:36.000 And then suggested also that there was a party involving a number of famous people, including Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, and that she was a victim and witness to a sex trafficking ring at the Trump golf course in Ranchos Palace, Virtus in California.

00:19:51.000 Well, the FBI actually spoke to that person, and the complainant was spoken to and deemed not credible.

00:19:56.000 And the person had had several mandatory psychiatric evaluations.

00:20:01.000 So there are lots of claims that are like this in these files, and trying to actually run down the source of the claims is really important because one of the things that happens in internet land is people will take unverified, salacious allegations that have not been run down by the FBI.

00:20:14.000 They will then run those through the internet machine, and suddenly this becomes likely probable truth.

00:20:19.000 Well, you actually have to run down each specific allegation in the three and a half million pages of data before you run with the it's definitely true or it's verified or this is the reason why policy XY or Z happened.

00:20:32.000 And this is just a call for evidence.

00:20:33.000 And if the evidence shows what people want it to show, and I really believe that, I think there are a lot of people who want this evidence to show that, in fact, the Jeffrey Epstein pedophilic sex ring has been running all of global politics for years because that is a comforting thought for a lot of people about the nature of how politics works.

00:20:51.000 That actually there is a coterie of people who are very sophisticated who are running everything in American public life.

00:20:57.000 And those people are being linked by pedophilic sex orgies and all this kind of stuff.

00:21:03.000 There's a large swath of people for whom this idea is appealing.

00:21:06.000 The evidence is not there.

00:21:07.000 If the evidence presents itself, we will be happy to cover it.

00:21:11.000 The evidence is not there.

00:21:12.000 There is evidence that there are a lot of pervs who hung out with Jeffrey Epstein and that Jeffrey Epstein appealed to those pervs with largely 26-year-old Russian models.

00:21:21.000 And there's a lot of evidence that Jeffrey Epstein never should have been in those circles and that these pervs are perfectly happy to hang out with Jeffrey Epstein and greenlight his criminal activities with a wink and a nod because they themselves hang out in those circles.

00:21:34.000 This is why I liken this to the Diddy White parties.

00:21:37.000 In any case, here is Deputy AG Todd Blanche announcing the release of 3.5 million pages.

00:21:45.000 Today we are producing more than 3 million pages, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.

00:21:55.000 In total, that means that the department produced approximately 3.5 million pages in compliance with the act.

00:22:05.000 Hey, he went on to explain that the excluded files included pornography, victims' personal ID, and active investigations.

00:22:15.000 The categories of documents withheld include those permitted under the act to be withheld, files that contain personally identified information of victims or victims' personal and medical files, and similar files, the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

00:22:34.000 Any depiction of CSAM or child pornography was obviously excluded.

00:22:39.000 Anything that would jeopardize an active federal investigation.

00:22:44.000 And finally, anything that depicts or contains images of death, physical abuse, or injury, also not produced.

00:22:52.000 Although the act allows for withholding for items necessary to keep secret in the interest of national security or foreign policy, no files are being withheld or redacted on that basis.

00:23:04.000 Okay.

00:23:05.000 Blanche went on to blast people, accusing the DOJ of somehow covering for or supporting pedophiles. 1.00

00:23:10.000 He says, listen, it's our job to prosecute crimes when we can uncover evidence of the crimes.

00:23:14.000 It is not our job to pretend that every tip that comes into the national center is somehow credible, verifiable, or prosecutable.

00:23:23.000 Over the past several months last summer and into the fall, we executed Operation Restore Justice, rescuing 205 child victims and arresting 293 offenders.

00:23:35.000 I point this out because I take umbrage at the suggestion, which is totally false, that the Attorney General or this department does not take child exploitation or sex trafficking seriously, or that we somehow do not want to protect victims.

00:23:51.000 We do.

00:23:53.000 There are some select members of Congress and some in the public eye, including those most critical of our efforts at full transparency under the act, who remain silent as to all the work that we have done and continue to do every day in this space.

00:24:12.000 The Deputy AG Todd Blanche continued.

00:24:14.000 He said, a lot of these claims are basically uninvestigatable.

00:24:17.000 This is him on CNN with Dana Bash.

00:24:19.000 He's asking, you know, was full investigation done.

00:24:21.000 He's like, a lot of this is just kind of like raw material that's being culled from people who may not be particularly credible.

00:24:29.000 Did you look into what you have on those lists?

00:24:34.000 Yes, of course.

00:24:35.000 But no, but you're not being fair in that question because that index, that list you're talking about, was not just President Trump.

00:24:42.000 It was all kinds of individuals, other politicians, other, quote, famous people, where we wanted to understand, okay, there were members of Congress that were accusing us of hiding things, which we're not doing and which we haven't done.

00:24:56.000 And so we wanted to understand why and where that was coming from.

00:24:59.000 And it turns out there was a number of claims made by either, like I said, anonymous people or somebody, for example, calling and saying, I used to have a roommate who told me this sensational story.

00:25:11.000 So just, you know, obviously that's not something that can be really investigated, right?

00:25:14.000 What's your roommate's name?

00:25:16.000 I don't remember, right?

00:25:17.000 So that's what that's about.

00:25:19.000 I don't appreciate it being directed towards Donald J. Trump because that pushes a narrative that is completely false.

00:25:26.000 There are all kinds of people that are mentioned in the quote Epstein files that we had to look at and run down.

00:25:32.000 Yeah, no, I understand.

00:25:34.000 He is the only sitting president who we're talking about.

00:25:37.000 I do want to move on.

00:25:40.000 And Blanche did continue by saying, listen, there's nothing prosecutable in a lot of these documents.

00:25:44.000 The document release is not performative, but you guys wanted sort of the raw data.

00:25:49.000 Here's the raw data.

00:25:52.000 In July, the Department of Justice said that we had reviewed the files, the quote, Epstein files, and there was nothing in there that allowed us to prosecute anybody.

00:26:01.000 We then released over 3.5 million pieces of paper, which the entire world can look at now and see if we got it wrong.

00:26:10.000 And so it's not performative, and I respectfully disagree with that statement.

00:26:13.000 We were ordered to do so by Congress and then by the President of the United States, and that's what we did.

00:26:19.000 And let me, you know, I said it on Friday.

00:26:22.000 This Justice Department, the FBI, DHS, we have gone after more sex traffickers, more child pornographers, more men who have done harm to children and young women than any administration in history.

00:26:36.000 And so we need to separate those two ideas, the fact that there's the Epstein files and whether there's anybody there that we can go after, and the work that we are doing every day, which is extraordinary, and we will continue to do that.

00:26:49.000 And again, he keeps pointing out over and over and over that the people who are suggesting a cover-up by the DOJ, they don't have any evidence of a cover-up, and it's kind of absurd.

00:26:58.000 Here's Blanche saying that Thomas Massey, Chuck Schumer, they're making accusations they can't substantiate.

00:27:03.000 Leadership on the Hill, Congressman Massey, Senator Schumer, are quick to complain.

00:27:10.000 There is no way they have spent any time looking at the materials we produce because I know the materials we produce.

00:27:16.000 We produce them on Friday.

00:27:18.000 By Saturday, they're already complaining about what we did.

00:27:21.000 And by the way, apparently Massey and others wrote a letter to come and review unredacted materials.

00:27:28.000 I didn't get that letter yet.

00:27:30.000 They leaked it to the press before they actually sent it to me.

00:27:32.000 But yeah, that's absolutely totally fine.

00:27:35.000 We have nothing to hide.

00:27:37.000 We have nothing to hide.

00:27:38.000 We never did.

00:27:39.000 And our doors are open if they want to come and review any of the materials that we produced.

00:27:45.000 Now, it is true.

00:27:46.000 Again, this is a gigantic wasteland in terms of the amount of just raw sewage that's there, a lot of tips that are unverifiable, a lot of data that you can't track down.

00:27:56.000 MS Now says the files are basically impossible to sort through.

00:28:00.000 That, of course, is not a surprise.

00:28:00.000 When you have three and a half million pages of material and they're just sort of blown out into public view, it's going to be very difficult to sort those, especially when a huge amount of this stuff is either irrelevant or is coming in through the tip line or is coming in through sources that can't be checked.

00:28:19.000 Sarah Longwell put out a social media post that I think sort of encapsulated the day and the week.

00:28:25.000 And she said, the situation in Minnesota is so bad that they would rather talk about Epstein.

00:28:33.000 Isn't that extraordinary?

00:28:34.000 It is.

00:28:35.000 And this seems to be a case of buying time.

00:28:38.000 Like it's like, oh, here's millions of documents for you to sort through.

00:28:41.000 A lot of it will be impossible to sort through.

00:28:43.000 And we're going to keep millions more that you can never see.

00:28:47.000 Okay, I'm sorry.

00:28:49.000 This is just it.

00:28:49.000 Do you want the documents?

00:28:50.000 You don't want the documents.

00:28:51.000 If you want the documents, you know, you don't get to complain.

00:28:53.000 They're hard to sort through.

00:28:55.000 So you do an every diligence process, by the way.

00:28:58.000 Now, there are five separate claims that are being basically made about Epstein.

00:29:03.000 And I think that some of them are well substantiated and others of them are really not.

00:29:08.000 And they're all being conflated into the giant Epstein overall theory.

00:29:12.000 And I think that that's a problem because we ought to actually pursue the evidence where it takes us.

00:29:17.000 So one claim is obviously true.

00:29:20.000 Epstein was connected with a lot of famous and rich people, and many of them knew he was a pedophilical convict and they continued to hang out with him.

00:29:26.000 That is undoubtedly true.

00:29:28.000 That is undoubtedly true.

00:29:31.000 Apparently, according to NBC News, documents released Friday by the Justice Department show at least 16 emails, for example, between Elon Musk and Epstein in 2012 and 2013, including multiple instances where Musk expressed interest in visiting Epstein's island.

00:29:47.000 Musk wrote in an email to Epstein in November 2012, quote, what day or night will be the wildest party on your island?

00:29:52.000 And apparently he sought to visit the island at least twice, once in late 2012 and again in late 2013.

00:29:59.000 Now, again, if you look at the emails, it's really more Epstein pushing him hard to come than Elon out of the blue soliciting, can I come to your island?

00:30:08.000 In one post on X, Musk said, I've never been to any Epstein parties ever.

00:30:12.000 I have many times called for the prosecution of those who have committed crimes with Epstein.

00:30:15.000 The asset test for justice is not the release of the files, but rather the prosecution of those who committed heinous crimes with Epstein.

00:30:21.000 Okay, but that is assuming facts not in evidence, namely that there is evidence to prosecute people who committed heinous crimes with Epstein and those prosecutions have not yet been done.

00:30:30.000 Again, that will get to some of the other claims in just a moment.

00:30:33.000 But the fact that people were continuing to hold on conversations with Jeffrey Epstein in 2012 after he pled guilty in 2008 to procuring an underage girl for prostitution and then registered as a sex offender is a problem.

00:30:47.000 There was a copy of Epstein's daily schedules released September 26 by House Democrats, and it showed that Musk was tentatively expected to visit Epstein's island in December 2014.

00:30:56.000 Musk said that the schedule entry was false.

00:30:59.000 He said Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I refused.

00:31:02.000 But I mean, it is incontrovertible.

00:31:05.000 It is non-contested that Epstein had relationships with a bunch of very rich and powerful people and that he did what a lot of con artists do, which is he would use his association with certain rich people to get in bed with other rich people.

00:31:18.000 And then he would offer them perks or benefits and some would take them up and some would not.

00:31:23.000 I think it is almost incontrovertible that Epstein probably connected some of these people with prostitutes.

00:31:31.000 That is in the files.

00:31:32.000 He certainly did, apparently, with Prince Andrew, allegedly with Prince Andrew, is that he was hooking people up with women who were overage.

00:31:43.000 That we know from some of the emails.

00:31:45.000 We also know, again, that he was connected with a wide variety of powerful people, ranging from Bill Gates to Kathy Ruhmler, the top lawyer at Goldman Sachs, and a White House counsel under former president Barack Obama.

00:31:56.000 In December 2015, there was an email exchange where she said, I adore him.

00:32:00.000 It's like having another older brother.

00:32:04.000 So, again, very highly connected.

00:32:06.000 No shock here.

00:32:08.000 Scumbag and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak used to routinely stay at the New York apartment Jeffrey Epstein owned. 0.57

00:32:15.000 Barack, of course, has been complicit in a wide variety of activities undermining the Israeli government, actually. 0.97

00:32:22.000 Also, there are reports that apparently Epstein sent an email to himself claiming that Bill Gates had obtained an STD from a prostitute and then passed it on to his wife.

00:32:37.000 That is, again, according to an email that Epstein sent to file.

00:32:41.000 The files include two draft emails dated July 18th, 2013, according to Newsweek, written from Epstein's own email address back to the same account with no indication they were ever sent or that Bill Gates ever received them.

00:32:51.000 One draft takes the form of a resignation letter from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, alleging that medication had been procured for Gates to, quote, deal with the consequences of sex with Russian girls.

00:33:01.000 The other begins, Dear Bill, and accuses Gates of ending a friendship while repeating lurid claims he concealed an STD, including allegedly from his then wife, Melinda. 0.69

00:33:09.000 Gates' spokesperson told the allegation, said the allegations come from, quote, a proven disgruntled liar and reiterated they are absolutely absurd and completely false.

00:33:16.000 But we know, obviously, that there have been troubles between Bill and Melinda Gates for a long time.

00:33:23.000 Meanwhile, there is a report.

00:33:25.000 Again, these are unsubstantiated reports.

00:33:26.000 So you try to kind of look at the source of each one of the claims.

00:33:31.000 There's an unsubstantiated report attributed to, quote, intelligence sources by the UK Daily Mail, suggesting that Epstein was running the world's largest honey trap operation on behalf of the KGB.

00:33:41.000 But there are no actual supporting documentary details that are provided in this piece.

00:33:47.000 The files include over a thousand documents naming Russian President Vladimir Putin and almost 10,000 referring to Moscow.

00:33:53.000 And Epstein was able to secure audiences with Putin after his 2008 conviction.

00:33:59.000 The sources say it could explain why Epstein appeared to enjoy an ultra-wealthy lifestyle out of kilter with his career as a financier.

00:34:05.000 Although there's no documentary evidence linking Putin and his spies directly to Epstein's illicit activities.

00:34:09.000 Again, people are looking at smoke, and I understand they want to look for fire.

00:34:13.000 Okay, so here's the stuff that seems to be true.

00:34:16.000 Again, Epstein connected with famous rich people who knew he was a pedophilic convict and continued to hang out with him.

00:34:22.000 In some cases, he continued to try to burnish his reputation and getting good with him.

00:34:26.000 That would include Steve Bannon.

00:34:28.000 Two hours of tape between Bannon and Epstein were released from interviews that happened some years ago.

00:34:36.000 And this was in the part of Steve Bannon's career where he saw Epstein as a powerful connection and a person presumably he was going to try to rehab.

00:34:47.000 There are apparently 13 hours more of that that has not yet been released.

00:34:53.000 It's kind of shocking to me that Bannon basically was doing PR rehab on Jeffrey Epstein and continues to go out there and be one of the main progenitors of the sort of Epstein's.

00:35:05.000 Dude, you should know better than anyone.

00:35:07.000 You hung out with the guy.

00:35:08.000 It's pretty impressive. 0.96

00:35:10.000 Okay, two, Epstein connected some of these people with prostitutes.

00:35:13.000 I think that that's quite likely.

00:35:16.000 I mean, you assume that the parties he was holding on Epstein Island did include women, which is presumably why so many people, again, like Diddy White parties, why they wanted to go there.

00:35:25.000 Now, is there evidence that he trafficked underage girls to them?

00:35:29.000 That's the part where the DOJ has yet to substantiate because the conviction of Jeffrey Epstein and Glenn Maxwell was on the basis of him trafficking underage girls to himself and Glenn Maxwell obtaining underage girls for him.

00:35:41.000 Okay, then there is the corollary of that, which is that Epstein was supposedly blackmailing these people.

00:35:46.000 Again, we have yet to see any hard evidence of blackmail of these people.

00:35:51.000 That evidence has not emerged.

00:35:52.000 Maybe it's true and maybe it's not, but there's no evidence of it in a hard way at this point.

00:35:56.000 There just isn't.

00:35:58.000 And then the final corollary of that is the theory that Epstein was blackmailing them on behalf of a foreign power or a cadre of powerful people who are attempting to shape global policy.

00:36:07.000 And that is not an evidence either.

00:36:09.000 So, again, I think it's very important in the Epstein scandal to try and distinguish what is true from what is supposed because those are not quite the same thing.

00:36:18.000 And in the interest of accuracy, we should actually follow what is true and what is evidenced at this point.

00:36:22.000 Again, we will follow where the evidence leads.

00:36:24.000 But so far, the evidence of the more outlandish claims is scanty, and the evidence that this dude was trafficking with a bunch of his friends and very powerful people, the evidence there is very, very solid.

00:36:35.000 And that evidence, unfortunately, is unsurprising.

00:36:38.000 And meanwhile, in other news, ProPublica has now released the names of the Border Patrol agents who fired on Alex Predi.

00:36:47.000 And it turns out it's very awkward for everyone because, as we have talked about, Border Patrol and ICE are both disproportionately Hispanic.

00:36:54.000 So it turns out the names of the people who fired are both Hispanic.

00:36:58.000 You know, that kind of gives the lie to the idea that ICE and Border Patrol, it's all about racism, racism.

00:37:04.000 Meanwhile, one court actually got it right.

00:37:07.000 A Minnesota district court denied Attorney General Keith Ellison's request for a temporary restraining order against ICE.

00:37:14.000 They said, based on the record before the court, a fact finder could reasonably credit that plaintiffs' sanctuary policies require a greater presence of federal agents to achieve the federal government's immigration enforcement objectives than in a jurisdiction that actively assists ICE.

00:37:26.000 Ellison had been trying to boot ICE out of Minneapolis on the basis that they don't have the legal authority to go effectuate the law.

00:37:26.000 That, of course, is true.

00:37:33.000 And the district court judge said no.

00:37:35.000 But there is another judge who decided to really go after it.

00:37:39.000 This judge is in the district court for the Western District of Texas San Antonio Division.

00:37:45.000 His name is Fred Bieri.

00:37:47.000 And he wrote what has to be one of the most insipid responses to a case that I have seen in recent memory.

00:37:54.000 The case is about an asylum seeker named Adrian Conejo Arayas and his five-year-old son.

00:37:59.000 Now, you remember that these folks came up a couple of weeks ago because there was a picture of this kid being held outside of an ICE vehicle.

00:38:06.000 And that was because he had been arrested along with his dad.

00:38:09.000 And apparently his dad took off down the street.

00:38:12.000 Well, now he has been ordered for release.

00:38:16.000 The judge decided this was time for some performative judicial antics.

00:38:20.000 He wrote, quote, the case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently, even if it requires traumatizing children.

00:38:29.000 You may notice this has nothing to do with legal analysis.

00:38:31.000 That is just a political take.

00:38:32.000 This court and others regularly send undocumented people to prison and orders them deported, but do so by proper legal procedures. 1.00

00:38:39.000 Apparently, also is the government's ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence.

00:38:45.000 This judge, okay, judges don't do this. 0.99

00:38:48.000 This sort of Katanji Brown Jackson performative nonsense is just ridiculous. 0.99

00:38:52.000 It's ridiculous. 0.98

00:38:53.000 You know, it says on the base of the Statue of Liberty. 0.97

00:38:57.000 Could you be a lawyer for like half a second? 0.95

00:38:59.000 If you want to run for office, run for office, but this is really silly.

00:39:03.000 33-year-old Thomas Jefferson, writes this judge, enumerated grievances against a would-be authoritarian king over our nation.

00:39:11.000 And then a bunch of quotes, a bunch of quotes about from the declaration, quote, civic lesson to the government.

00:39:19.000 Administrative warrants issued by the executive branch to itself do not pass probable cause muster.

00:39:25.000 That is called the fox guarding the hen house.

00:39:27.000 The Constitution requires an independent judicial officer.

00:39:31.000 Accordingly, the court finds the Constitution trumps this administration's detention of prisoner Adrian Conejo Araz and his minor son.

00:39:38.000 The great writ and release from detention are granted pursuant to the attached judgment.

00:39:41.000 Well, there is a problem with this.

00:39:43.000 There's a problem with this, which is administrative warrants have been used by every administration, including the Obama administration, in order to effectuate deportations.

00:39:52.000 This judge condemned the, quote, perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty.

00:39:59.000 But, of course, the Department of Homeland Security said that the asylum charge was basically false.

00:40:05.000 That this person claimed asylum.

00:40:07.000 This is what you did, by the way.

00:40:08.000 Under the Biden administration, you showed up at the southern border.

00:40:10.000 You said, I have credible threat to fear of my life, and I need entry.

00:40:16.000 And the administration under Biden, instead of actually investigating asylum before taking people in, decided to just release them into the interior.

00:40:25.000 The administration says Liam, the son, was not targeted or arrested.

00:40:29.000 Konejo Arios has asked that his son remain with him after he tried to flee from federal immigration agents.

00:40:35.000 This was reiterated by a spokesperson for Homeland Security, quote, the alleged mother refused to accept custody of the child.

00:40:40.000 The father told officers he wanted the child to remain with him.

00:40:43.000 So apparently it looks, from the administration's point of view, as though dad kept the kid with him specifically in order to obtain his own release.

00:40:51.000 Gary, of course, was appointed by Bill Clinton.

00:40:55.000 Administrative warrants have typically been used for effectuation of deportation orders, meaning you can arrest somebody in a public area.

00:41:02.000 The question, more controversial question of whether an administrative warrant or a judicial warrant is necessary to knock down a door, for example, or do a full Fourth Amendment search, that is a more controversial issue.

00:41:11.000 That is not what happened here.

00:41:13.000 This is an arrest in a public place.

00:41:16.000 If the idea is that administrative warrants cannot be used in order to effectuate deportations, basically that ends all deportations in the United States, which may in fact be the goal.

00:41:27.000 Secretary of Homeland Security Christy Noam said, listen, this was about like they wanted the kid to be with the dad.

00:41:32.000 That's why the kid was picked up.

00:41:33.000 Here she was on Fox and Friends.

00:41:36.000 Let me be clear.

00:41:37.000 These families always get the opportunity to stay together.

00:41:40.000 This child has been with his father, which was the father's choice.

00:41:43.000 We offered them the opportunity to go home, to send them back to their home country if they would like to. 1.00

00:41:48.000 The father chose to stay, and therefore we're following the legal process.

00:41:52.000 But it's shocking to me the media's lies about not just that story, but day after day after day about what we do for work in this country to bring people that are dangerous criminals to justice and then remove them from our country if they don't belong here, if they came here illegally.

00:42:12.000 Well, again, she's not wrong about that.

00:42:14.000 Meanwhile, Don Lemon has been released, and this is the best thing that has happened in Don Lemon's career for quite a while.

00:42:20.000 He was fired from CNN, and then he started his own independent journalistic outlet.

00:42:24.000 And I used the term journalistic there lightly.

00:42:26.000 He says he's not going to stop ever.

00:42:28.000 He'll never stop.

00:42:29.000 You can't stop Don Lemon.

00:42:31.000 Don Lemon is a hero, according to Don Lemon.

00:42:34.000 Don Lemon loves Don Lemon.

00:42:35.000 Here we go.

00:42:37.000 I will not stop now.

00:42:41.000 In fact, there is no more important time than right now, this very moment, for a free and independent media that shines a light on the truth and holds those in power accountable.

00:42:54.000 Again, I will not stop now.

00:42:56.000 I will not stop ever.

00:43:00.000 Well, that is why he is a happy camper.

00:43:02.000 He also said that he is not worried, legally speaking.

00:43:06.000 If you think that I was outspoken before this, just wait.

00:43:15.000 Just wait.

00:43:16.000 So I know that there are people who think like, oh, you know, do this and, you know, that I'm going to be locked up or whatever.

00:43:23.000 I ain't worried about that.

00:43:27.000 You heard the truth and the truth shall make you free.

00:43:29.000 I ain't even worried about that.

00:43:30.000 Like not.

00:43:33.000 Don't even think about it.

00:43:36.000 Man, he were you worried about him?

00:43:39.000 You can't shut down Lemon up.

00:43:40.000 Nothing can shut down Lemon up.

00:43:43.000 That dude just won't stop.

00:43:45.000 Honestly, if there was an error here by the Trump administration, it was in just maximizing his platform and giving him credibility because my goodness.

00:43:53.000 By the way, the indictment has now been released.

00:43:56.000 The DOJ accuses Lemon of conspiring and agreeing with one another to injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate multiple persons, including clergy, staff, and congregants of cities' church.

00:44:06.000 Defendant Levin told his live stream audience about congregants leaving the church and about a young man who Lemon could see was frightened and scared and crying.

00:44:12.000 And Lemon observed the congregants' reaction were understandable because the experience was traumatic and uncomfortable, which he said was the purpose.

00:44:18.000 Defendant Lemon said he was not saying what's going on and advised his live stream audience, we're going to head to the operation.

00:44:24.000 Again, we're not going to give away any of the information away.

00:44:28.000 Now, we'll have to see what evidence they show of sort of prior involvement.

00:44:31.000 So it is true that journalists, people who claim First Amendment privilege, they can ride along with a criminal as long as they are not effectuating.

00:44:43.000 They do not have a duty to report in order where criminals are, what they are doing.

00:44:48.000 What they do have a duty to do is not to aid and abet criminality.

00:44:52.000 So you're actually going to have to show that Lemon aided and abetted criminality.

00:44:55.000 We'll see how this plays out in a court of law.

00:44:58.000 President Trump, for his part, he enjoys the conflict, obviously.

00:45:01.000 He says that Don Lemon is a washed up sleazebag.

00:45:03.000 Well, you know.

00:45:06.000 I don't know anything about the Don Lemon thing, but he's a sleazebag.

00:45:09.000 Everyone's still there.

00:45:11.000 So why shall probably, from his standpoint, the best thing that could happen to him.

00:45:16.000 He's getting, you know, he got no viewers.

00:45:18.000 He had a failure.

00:45:20.000 He was a failed host.

00:45:21.000 And now he's in the news.

00:45:24.000 I didn't know anything about him.

00:45:28.000 Well, you know, President Trump does enjoy these sorts of high-profile conflicts.

00:45:31.000 So I guess we'll get more of that.

00:45:33.000 Meanwhile, other cities, not just Minneapolis, are considering attempts to obstruct federal law enforcement.

00:45:40.000 Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson put out a series of images on Instagram in which she says that she will direct Seattle PD to investigate, verify, and document ICE activity, prohibit ICE from staging operations on city property, establish the Stand Together Seattle Initiative.

00:45:58.000 And all of this is dangerous stuff because when you're talking about SPD obstructing ICE, now you're talking about actual nullification of law.

00:46:06.000 If dispatched to location where ICE activity is underway, Seattle PD will apparently cooperate with city departments and trusted community organizations to ensure everyone has the latest and most accurate information about ICE activities.

00:46:17.000 So now SPD is going to facilitate law breaking.

00:46:23.000 This is dangerous stuff, obviously.

00:46:25.000 Philadelphia is apparently doing the same.

00:46:29.000 Philly is introducing ICE out legislation.

00:46:32.000 The Philadelphia City Council apparently is promoting legislation that will prevent local law enforcement from working in any way, shape, or form with the feds.

00:46:45.000 Jasmine Rivera, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition, said there shouldn't be a single dime of Philadelphia tax dollars and not a single second of Philadelphia workers collaborating with an agency that is stomping all over the Constitution.

00:46:56.000 The bills would prohibit ICE and other law enforcement agents from concealing their identities with face masks and using unmarked vehicles.

00:47:03.000 It would not allow city agencies to collaborate with ICE and would prevent them from collecting immigration status and sharing data with ICE, among other things.

00:47:09.000 Now, again, the federal government can't force local law enforcement to do federal immigration law.

00:47:16.000 But if you decide that you are going to make it easier for people to get away with violation of federal immigration law, you shouldn't be surprised when more ICE agents show up to effectuate it.

00:47:25.000 Attorney General Letitia James in New York had said something similar in October 2025.

00:47:31.000 Meanwhile, Los Angeles has also promoted a mask ban.

00:47:34.000 This is Gavin Newsom has done that, that they would ban federal agents from being able to wear masks.

00:47:40.000 The LAPD chief actually came out and his name is Jim McDonnell.

00:47:43.000 He said, what are we supposed to do now?

00:47:45.000 Like, is LAPD supposed to walk up to federal officers and unmask them?

00:47:48.000 What are they supposed to do?

00:47:51.000 The reality of one armed agency approaching another armed agency to create conflict over something that would be a misdemeanor at best or an infraction, it doesn't make any sense.

00:48:05.000 Hey, that is, of course, true, but that's not going to stop the performative politics.

00:48:08.000 Representative Maxine Waters, one of our most corrupt members of Congress, she was out there on the LA street saying she is not going away, which, by the way, is actively technically true with regard to her political career. 1.00

00:48:18.000 She has now been in Congress for, I believe, several millennia.

00:48:23.000 What is your message to ICE agents?

00:48:25.000 ICE agents, we don't want you in Los Angeles.

00:48:28.000 And we thought you had sense enough with the president to start getting out of Minneapolis.

00:48:33.000 But I guess you have no sense and you don't understand the power of the people.

00:48:38.000 We are not going away.

00:48:40.000 We don't want you in any of our cities in this country.

00:48:44.000 And we're going to fight you every inch of the way.

00:48:48.000 And so Democrats having some fun with all of this, despite the fact that it, or maybe because of the fact that it obstructs federal law.

00:48:56.000 Now, how is this having a bearing on our politics?

00:48:59.000 In terms of sort of general politics, none of this is great for Republicans, is the truth.

00:49:03.000 This has not redounded to Republican benefit yet.

00:49:05.000 Now, again, it may, it may be the Democrats overstep, and Americans get sick of watching bad bunny condemn them for wanting immigration law enforced and all the rest.

00:49:12.000 For the moment, however, Democrats definitely have momentum.

00:49:15.000 In Texas, there was a state Senate seat that was up in a special election on Saturday.

00:49:21.000 It was in a reliably Republican district that President Trump won by 17 points in 2024.

00:49:26.000 A Democrat named Taylor Remett defeated a Republican named Lee Wamsgans in the Fort Worth area district.

00:49:34.000 So it was a 17-point victory in that district for Trump 2024.

00:49:37.000 It flipped to 14 plus for D, D plus 14 in that district.

00:49:42.000 That is a 31-point shift in that district.

00:49:46.000 So Democrats so far have, in fact, been winning a bunch of special elections all over the country, not just in blue areas, not just in purple areas, in red areas as well.

00:49:56.000 The Democrats are very happy about it.

00:49:58.000 DNC chair Ken Martin called it a warning sign to Republicans across the country.

00:50:03.000 Democratic candidates have won special elections in Kentucky and Iowa.

00:50:06.000 You remember that there was an election for Congress in Tennessee, a special election where Matt Van Epps won, but his margin of victory was significantly slimmer than Republican margin of victory in past elections.

00:50:18.000 One of the problems for Republicans is that when you look at the stats in this seat, it was independents and even some Republicans who flipped Democrat in that particular election.

00:50:26.000 People who had voted in Republican primary who flipped Democrat.

00:50:29.000 So Republican momentum going into 2026, let's say it has significantly slowed.

00:50:33.000 This, by the way, does have some implications for the Texas Senate seat, like the federal Senate seat from Texas, because there is a very hot primary that is currently going on in the Texas Senate between the current Texas Senator,

00:50:51.000 John Cornyn, Ken Paxton, the extraordinarily controversial attorney general of the state of Texas, Wesley Hunt, who's a congressperson in Texas.

00:51:06.000 Right now, Paxton and Cornyn are stuck in a dead heat.

00:51:08.000 There have been multiple polls done over the past couple of months, and they show Paxton at 29 and Cornyn at 29, Wesley Hunt trailing a little bit at 19%.

00:51:18.000 Let's just say Ken Paxton has a significantly lower shot of winning that sentence seat than Cornyn.

00:51:22.000 Cornyn has won that senate seat repeatedly.

00:51:23.000 The current polling shows him with a slight lead over James Callarico, who is the likely Senate nominee for the Democrats.

00:51:30.000 If it's Ken Paxton, maybe Paxton wins.

00:51:33.000 I mean, polling very often tends to be warmer to Democrats than reality is in Texas.

00:51:39.000 With that said, do you want to take that risk in a time where Republicans drop four seats and they lose the Senate?

00:51:45.000 When you look at that 2026 Senate map, that is not a Senate map that looks great for Republicans right now.

00:51:52.000 Republicans have a bunch of seats that are up that are not going to look amazing for them.

00:51:59.000 They have one in North Carolina.

00:52:01.000 That is a rough race.

00:52:02.000 They have one in Ohio.

00:52:03.000 That is a rough race.

00:52:07.000 They have one in Iowa that has now become significantly rougher.

00:52:10.000 Texas is up as well.

00:52:13.000 And one in Maine.

00:52:15.000 These sorts of seats are risky at best, shall we say, for Republicans.

00:52:21.000 So why take additional risk would sort of be the question.

00:52:24.000 Well, among the things I like is a brand new book.

00:52:26.000 It is out February 10th called A Better Life by Lionel Shriver.

00:52:29.000 Lionel Shriver, of course, you know her work, most famously, her book, We Need to Talk About Kevin, but she's written a huge variety of books and articles that are just spectacular.

00:52:38.000 A Better Life is maybe her most controversial book yet.

00:52:40.000 Lionel Shriver, thanks so much for joining the show.

00:52:41.000 I really appreciate it.

00:52:43.000 Oh, I'm pleased to talk to you.

00:52:47.000 So why don't we begin with sort of the premise of the book?

00:52:49.000 Obviously, this one is going to set the world on fire because it really does attempt, I think, to encapsulate so much of the immigration debate, but basically in one house and one family.

00:52:59.000 What's the premise of the book?

00:53:03.000 Well, in 2023, in real life, Mayor Eric Adams in New York proposed a method of dealing with the inundation of the city with tens of thousands and what became hundreds of thousands of migrants thanks to Joe Biden's open border.

00:53:24.000 So he suggested that maybe New Yorkers could put migrants up in their spare bedrooms and he would pay them to do that. 1.00

00:53:34.000 Now, Adams never actuated this program, but it did give me ideas.

00:53:39.000 So I actuated the program.

00:53:42.000 In my novel, there's a family in Ditmus Park in Brooklyn.

00:53:48.000 They have a big house with plenty of spare bedrooms, and they decide to take in one migrant, but it doesn't stay one migrant. 1.00

00:54:00.000 And I am willing to concede that the house is a metaphor for our country.

00:54:09.000 And I think that that is what's so kind of amazing about the book is that what you do in the book is you use the house as a metaphor and you sort of use the family to examine a wide variety of beliefs about immigration.

00:54:20.000 But the central character is actually the son.

00:54:23.000 So it's a mom, and the mom is the one who's kind of a typical, what the right would call a soy-drinking latte liberal who decides that she is going to take in this migrant out of sympathy. 0.54

00:54:34.000 And the son is really ticked off by this, but is so enervated in his own life and so sort of lazy about his own life that he can't even make an excuse as to why he thinks it's bad that the house is being taken over.

00:54:43.000 And that I think is sort of the central tragedy and theme of the book, no?

00:54:48.000 Yes.

00:54:49.000 I mean, it's a complication in terms of the whole perspective of the book because my protagonist, and I say protagonist loosely because protagonists usually make things happen and he basically doesn't.

00:55:06.000 My protagonist is living at home at 26.

00:55:10.000 He's got a college education, but he's not doing anything with it.

00:55:14.000 He has absolutely no interest in becoming an adult.

00:55:17.000 And I found myself strangely sympathetic with this character the more I wrote him, even though I'm a kind of standard.

00:55:32.000 I believe in hard work and, you know, but I could see how he wouldn't have an appetite for becoming a grown-up.

00:55:43.000 So he resents the dependency of the migrant population, all these people pouring into New York, depending on New York taxpayers. 1.00

00:55:53.000 And he's not a New York taxpayer, though his mother is, and expecting other people to take care of them.

00:56:00.000 But that's what Nico, my friend Nico is, is also a dependent. 0.73

00:56:06.000 He's a mooch. 1.00

00:56:08.000 And he's dependent on his mother. 0.98

00:56:11.000 He's dependent.

00:56:12.000 He's also dependent on New York taxpayers, ironically.

00:56:16.000 So, and he's representative of an aspect of our country that isn't taking responsibility for the country's adulthood, that isn't contributing, that isn't having children, for example. 0.97

00:56:33.000 And by the way, this is your author, the hypocrite, who hasn't had children either. 0.96

00:56:38.000 But that's not planning for tomorrow. 0.97

00:56:42.000 And that's one of the reasons that we're constantly being given now that we need an open border, that we need as many immigrants from wherever, and no matter who they are, just to put bums on seats in the country, that we have to, because otherwise we're going to disappear because we have too low a fertility rate. 0.97

00:57:09.000 And so, you know, if you take a look at my family, the family I've constructed, there are three children, three adult children in the family, two of them female.

00:57:22.000 Nobody's had kids, right?

00:57:26.000 So who's going to inherit the house eventually?

00:57:30.000 And that I think is the thing about the book that really is astonishing in a lot of ways is that, again, your central character, Nico, it makes the conflict so much more interesting that you chose a central character who doesn't know how to defend his civilization, doesn't feel a necessity to do so, doesn't feel the necessity to work, has a sort of belief that by birthright, this is his, but he doesn't actually have to justify that birthright.

00:57:51.000 And therefore, he has no systemic immunity other than a sort of xenophobia to why people shouldn't be in his house.

00:57:58.000 And that isn't enough, I think, is sort of the case that you're making, that if you actually wish to defend the house or the civilization, and you have a couple of characters who articulate this, you actually have to have babies.

00:58:06.000 You actually have to go and produce.

00:58:08.000 You have to say, like, this is ours.

00:58:08.000 You have to work.

00:58:10.000 And if you're not willing to say, if you're not willing to act in a way that says that a thing is yours, then you shouldn't be surprised when people not only try to take it, but when you have no capacity to defend it.

00:58:20.000 That's right.

00:58:21.000 As a matter of fact, the thinking in a better life connects very directly with the thinking in your own book, Lions and Scavengers, because Nico is a scavenger.

00:58:36.000 And the immigrants are lions, right? 1.00

00:58:41.000 They're coming after what is his.

00:58:44.000 And he doesn't defend it.

00:58:45.000 He defends it in his mind.

00:58:48.000 He defends it as an abstract argument, but not in terms of what he's doing.

00:58:56.000 He doesn't work.

00:58:58.000 He's not making another generation. 0.89

00:59:02.000 He's just using the resources that and the civilization that has been built for him.

00:59:08.000 He's using it.

00:59:10.000 He's in fact, in a way, using it up, but and he's taking it for granted, as a lot of younger people do.

00:59:19.000 I mean, it's one of the things that we have to contend with as our country turns 250 years old.

00:59:29.000 It is now in its maturity.

00:59:31.000 It's no longer really a young country anymore.

00:59:34.000 And an older country has different problems.

00:59:38.000 We have a history of being, you know, explorers, adventurers, rugged individualists, looking for, you know, brave new worlds, Star Trek.

00:59:54.000 But we have evolved a culture which is much more static.

00:59:59.000 We've got this one little layer of tech that's still out there finding brave new worlds with AI, etc.

01:00:07.000 But the abundance of the country has become very placid and I would have to say, neurotic.

01:00:20.000 Well, the book, again, is a better life.

01:00:22.000 The author is Lionel Shriver.

01:00:23.000 It's going to be the most controversial book of the year by far.

01:00:25.000 I've had the opportunity to read it, so I can say that.

01:00:29.000 It is phenomenal and fascinating, as all of her books are.

01:00:32.000 Lionel, thanks so much for the time.

01:00:33.000 Really appreciate it.

01:00:35.000 I really enjoyed talking to you.

01:00:38.000 The show is continuing for our members right now.

01:00:38.000 All righty, folks.

01:00:41.000 We will get to the latest in Economic News Plus, a story about one of the Trump companies that may be an electoral problem.

01:00:47.000 Remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member.

01:00:49.000 If you're not a member, become a member.

01:00:50.000 Use code Shapiro.

01:00:51.000 Check out for two months free on all annual plans.

01:00:52.000 Click that link in the description and join us.

01:00:56.000 What was it like, Merlin, to be alone with God?

01:01:05.000 Is that who you think I was alone with?

01:01:11.000 Maradin, I knew your father.

01:01:14.000 I am yet convinced that he was not of this world.

01:01:19.000 All men know of the great Taliesi.

01:01:22.000 You are my father.

01:01:23.000 Are the gods of war for my soul?

01:01:26.000 Princess Garris, savior of our people.

01:01:32.000 I know what the bull got offered you.

01:01:35.000 I was offered the same.

01:01:37.000 And there is a new pirate work in the world.

01:01:40.000 I've seen it.

01:01:42.000 A god who sacrifices what he loves for us.

01:01:45.000 We are each given only one life, Singer.

01:01:48.000 No.

01:01:49.000 We're given another.

01:01:53.000 I learned of Yezu the Christ, and I have become his follower.

01:01:57.000 He's waiting on a miracle, and I think you can give him one.

01:02:00.000 Trust in Yezu. 0.87

01:02:02.000 He is the only hope for men like us.

01:02:04.000 Fate of Britain never rests in the hands of the Great Light.

01:02:08.000 Great light.

01:02:09.000 Great darkness.

01:02:10.000 Such things mattered to me then.

01:02:13.000 What matters to you now, Mistress of Lies?

01:02:17.000 You, nephew.

01:02:21.000 The sword of a high king.

01:02:26.000 How many lives must be lost before you accept the power you were born to wield.

01:02:33.000 So clinging to the promises of a god who has abandoned you.

01:02:36.000 I cannot take up that sword again.

01:02:39.000 You know what you must do.

01:02:43.000 Great life, forgive me.

The Ben Shapiro Show - February 02, 2026

The Grammys vs. ICE!

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript