The Ben Shapiro Show - The New Blacklist | Ep. 683

00:00:00.000 President Trump plans to pull out of Syria, Tucker Carlson is hit with advertiser boycott, and Michael Flynn gets clocked by a judge.

00:00:06.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:00:07.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:08.000 Wow, what a show we have coming up for you today.

00:00:17.000 I want to remind you that there was big news yesterday on Martha McAllister.

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00:02:43.000 Okay.

00:02:44.000 So, we begin our show today with the breaking news that the President of the United States has decided that it would be worthwhile to pull out of Syria entirely.

00:02:52.000 He tweeted this out this morning to the President of the United States.

00:02:55.000 This would be 13.

00:02:55.000 to be 13, said, "We have defeated ISIS in Syria, "my only reason for being there during the Trump presidency." Now, have we defeated ISIS in Syria?

00:03:05.000 Well, we certainly stopped the formation of a caliphate, but have we defeated them to the extent that we can actually pull out safely without any sort of repercussions?

00:03:12.000 The answer to that is pretty obviously no.

00:03:14.000 ISIS killed 700 prisoners.

00:03:18.000 700 prisoners in Syria just over the past short period of time.

00:03:22.000 According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Wednesday, Islamic State militants had executed nearly 700 prisoners in nearly two months in eastern Syria.

00:03:30.000 The UK-based monitoring group ...said the prisoners were among 1,350 civilians and fighters ISIS had been holding in territory near the Iraqi border.

00:03:38.000 The jihadists control a shrinking strip of land east of the Syrian Euphrates River around the town of Hajin, which U.S.-backed forces entered this month.

00:03:45.000 The Syrian Democratic Forces, led by the Kurdish YPG militia, have battled ISIS there for several months with the help of U.S.

00:03:51.000 airpower and special forces.

00:03:53.000 SDF Commander-in-Chief Mazloum Kobani said last week at least 5,000 ISIS fighters remain holed up in the enclave, including many foreigners who appear ready to fight to the death.

00:04:01.000 ISIS's self-proclaimed caliphate has crumbled after different offensives across Iraq and Syria, although its fighters still operate in the desert border region on mount attacks.

00:04:08.000 Now, here is the reality.

00:04:10.000 So President Trump says that we've destroyed ISIS, we're done, out, goodbye, catch you later, adios.

00:04:16.000 None of that is really true.

00:04:17.000 Okay, it isn't.

00:04:19.000 We have definitely degraded ISIS's capacity to control strips of territory, but we have not degraded their capacity To the ultimate extent, to destroy lives, to create refugee problems, to reconstitute a caliphate. 0.54

00:04:33.000 Barack Obama made this exact wrong move in Iraq back in 2010.

00:04:37.000 You remember, you were there when President Obama decided to rashly, in the middle of his first term, just like this, rashly withdraw forces from Iraq.

00:04:44.000 All that happened was that ISIS ended up invading Iraq and filling the gap.

00:04:48.000 According to the Wall Street Journal today, The U.S.

00:04:50.000 military is preparing to withdraw its forces from Syria.

00:04:53.000 People familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, a move that marks an abrupt reversal of the American military strategy in the Middle East.

00:04:59.000 U.S.

00:04:59.000 officials began informing partners in northeastern Syria of their plans to begin an immediate pullout of American forces from the region where they've been trying to wrap up the campaign against ISIS.

00:05:07.000 The Pentagon has an order to move troops out of Syria as quickly as possible, said one U.S.

00:05:11.000 official.

00:05:12.000 U.S.

00:05:12.000 military officials have refused to say what a withdrawal timeline could look like, but President Trump wrote on Twitter that he was going to get out of Syria basically now, as we referred to earlier.

00:05:22.000 This, by the way, violates President Trump's central principles of foreign policy, which is do not actually telegraph to your opponent what you're about to do.

00:05:28.000 Remember, a lot of his foreign policy is based on what he calls strategic unpredictability.

00:05:33.000 The idea that you don't know what he's going to do on any given day, and this means that you don't want to piss him off because you may get a missile up your rear, right?

00:05:41.000 But when you start telegraphing that we're pulling out as soon as possible, that's exactly, exactly, note for note, what Barack Obama did in Iraq in 2010, 2011.

00:05:49.000 The move follows a call last week between Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has threatened to launch an assault on America's Kurdish partners In Syria, Erdogan steadfastly opposes the American partnership with Kurdish forces in Syria that he views as a terrorist force intent on destabilizing Turkey, but the U.S.

00:06:04.000 has relied on the Kurds, as we mentioned, as the most effective fighting force in Syria against ISIS.

00:06:09.000 Well, this follows hard on the news that apparently the Trump administration was seeking the possible extradition of a cleric named Gulen, who is an opponent of Erdogan's in Turkey, back to Turkey for possible imprisonment and trial.

00:06:22.000 If, in fact, the Trump administration is contemplating a warmer relationship with Islamist Turkey, which has repeatedly quashed dissidents, which has arrested something like 100,000 people in the last couple of years, this is all bad news.

00:06:35.000 I mean, you don't want Turkey increasing its power.

00:06:39.000 You do not want ISIS increasing its power at the expense of the United States moving its troops out.

00:06:45.000 You don't want the Kurds to be decimated by the Turks and by ISIS.

00:06:49.000 All of this is a mistake.

00:06:50.000 The U.S.

00:06:51.000 has long sought to reconcile two seemingly incompatible goals the president has sought in Syria.

00:06:55.000 On the one hand, says the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Trump has pushed to withdraw all U.S.

00:06:58.000 forces from Syria, where more than 2,000 service members are working alongside Syrian militants to defeat ISIS.

00:07:03.000 On the other, he's embraced a strategy that calls for American forces to remain in Syria as a deterrent to Iran's expansive military ambitions.

00:07:10.000 Officially, the U.S.

00:07:11.000 military has no authority to battle Iran and Syria.

00:07:13.000 Their mission has been to defeat ISIS and ensure the militant group that once controlled large swaths of Syria and Iraq is unable to regroup.

00:07:19.000 That task is largely complete because ISIS has been cornered.

00:07:22.000 Earlier this year, Pentagon said that ISIS controlled less than 2% of the territory it once held in the Middle East.

00:07:28.000 And then he said this spring that he wanted to get, President Trump said in the spring, that he wanted to get everybody out.

00:07:34.000 But the pullout also comes amid abiding worries about the continued influence of Iran in Syria.

00:07:39.000 And again, Turkey is looking to fill that gap.

00:07:42.000 And it is unclear whether Turkey is actually going to do the job of checking ISIS or whether they are just there to kill the Kurds.

00:07:46.000 So all of this is bad news.

00:07:48.000 Now, this goes to a central question in American foreign policy.

00:07:52.000 And that is, what is American foreign policy for?

00:07:55.000 What exactly do we do when it comes to American foreign policy?

00:07:58.000 Now, the typical answer In the olden days, and by the olden days I mean really in the World War II era, was you stay at home until somebody hits you, then you go in and you wreck them, and then you institute a democracy, right?

00:08:09.000 This is what we did in Germany, this is what we did in Japan, and it worked to a certain extent.

00:08:15.000 I mean, we had to keep troops there forever.

00:08:17.000 I mean, we still have troops and air bases in Germany and Japan.

00:08:21.000 We did the same thing in South Korea, right?

00:08:22.000 We're going to put American troops there, and we're going to maintain troop presence until there's a safe and secure South Korea.

00:08:28.000 Well, the problem is that there are certain parts of the world where this strategy appears not to have particularly taken root.

00:08:34.000 Now, it's also true that the time period that we have given this strategy to work has not been all that long.

00:08:40.000 It's not going to work in Afghanistan. 0.83

00:08:41.000 Afghanistan is far too tribal. 1.00

00:08:43.000 There's no history of democracy.

00:08:44.000 It's a complete Islamist state. 0.96

00:08:45.000 99% of Afghans, of Afghanis, by poll data, support honor killings, for example.

00:08:50.000 It's going to be very, very difficult to institute a Western-style democracy in Afghanistan.

00:08:56.000 The same has not been quite as true in Iraq, where there have been the first stirrings of Western-style democracy for a while there.

00:09:02.000 And if we were to leave troops in the country to basically pacify sectarian violence for a few decades, then probably everything would be okay.

00:09:08.000 But we have lost our taste for this.

00:09:11.000 We tend to think of World War II as ending the minute that we got a surrender out of Japan and a surrender out of Germany.

00:09:16.000 But that is not in fact the case.

00:09:17.000 We maintain troop presence across Europe until now.

00:09:20.000 Right?

00:09:20.000 It is now...

00:09:22.000 Let's see, it's 2018.

00:09:23.000 The war ended in 1945.

00:09:25.000 So that means that we have been maintaining troop presence there for nearly 80 years.

00:09:29.000 And for nearly 80 years, we've had troop presence in Europe and in the Far East.

00:09:34.000 So do we have the taste for that anymore?

00:09:36.000 I think the answer is really no.

00:09:38.000 And that was proved by Vietnam, because during the Vietnam War, If we had just stayed there, there would be a South Vietnamese government that was free today.

00:09:47.000 If we had just stayed there in the aftermath of the Paris Peace Accords, instead of pulling out precipitously, there would be a South Vietnamese state today that operates very much along the lines of South Korea.

00:09:56.000 But there isn't because we pulled out because the American people do not have the taste to keep troops in harm's way, which is really interesting and a little bit ironic considering that we seem to have more taste for occupation and pacification for long periods of time when we actually had a draft in this country than when we have a volunteer military force, which which is really interesting and a little bit ironic considering that we seem to have The volunteer military force ended post-Vietnam.

00:10:17.000 I mean, the non-volunteer military force, the draft, ended post-Vietnam.

00:10:21.000 We haven't had a draft since, nor do we intend on reinstituting one.

00:10:25.000 And yet the taste for Americans to keep troops in these places is very, very small.

00:10:31.000 We don't have the appropriate level, I think, of understanding that American foreign policy does, in fact, require a lot of troops in a lot of different places.

00:10:39.000 And it is also true that a lot of people come in from outside of government.

00:10:42.000 We've now had this with Obama.

00:10:43.000 We had it with Bush in 2000 before 2001, by the way.

00:10:45.000 When Bush entered office in 2000, he basically had the same foreign policy program as Obama and Trump, which is let's bring as many troops home as possible.

00:10:52.000 We don't need to be the world's policemen.

00:10:54.000 Go back and watch the debates in 2000.

00:10:56.000 This was the case that George W. Bush was making in 2000.

00:11:00.000 It's even the case that Bill Clinton was making to a certain extent in 1996.

00:11:03.000 So there has been this foreign policy consensus in rhetoric since the mid-90s in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union.

00:11:10.000 Without an existential threat, America should bring home everybody within its borders and go back to the way things used to be. 1.00

00:11:15.000 That's a misread on American history.

00:11:16.000 The truth is America has always had lots of troops in different places.

00:11:19.000 That is particularly true in the post-World War II era.

00:11:22.000 And then the policy ends up being once all these guys get into office, they recognize that precipitous pulldowns of troops actually end up exacerbating violence and international conflict.

00:11:33.000 Barack Obama, again, was an isolationist until he decided he needed to drone everybody in sight because it turns out that in the absence of the United States, something fills the gap.

00:11:41.000 There is no such thing as a power vacuum.

00:11:43.000 There is just a state that has American influence and a state that does not have American influence.

00:11:48.000 Now, none of this is to make the case that the United States should be seeking to, for example, topple the Syrian regime and set up a puppet government, or that we should be sending tens of thousands of troops to Syria.

00:11:57.000 If you want to make that case, it has to be made more affirmatively.

00:11:59.000 We'd have to have some actual good options on the ground in Syria, which it doesn't seem that we have.

00:12:03.000 But at the very least, the sort of muddled through strategy we've been using in Syria has worked in reducing ISIS violence.

00:12:11.000 It has worked in reducing ISIS control of territory.

00:12:15.000 And if we kept it up for a long enough period of time, it would work in reducing the refugee problem that's occurring from northern Africa, places like Libya, and also places like Syria. 0.72

00:12:24.000 And that refugee problem does have an impact on the West. 0.86

00:12:26.000 We've seen it in Europe, where it has tremendous domestic import for a lot of European countries, importing hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East who may not in fact Share the values of the people who live in Europe, who may have a different culture, who may not have any education.

00:12:42.000 All of this stuff is problematic.

00:12:43.000 In other words, in an interconnected world, there are too many externalities to foreign policy to simply assume that when you withdraw the capacity to pacify a country, that nothing bad happens.

00:12:52.000 That is the lesson of the last 20 years, and we refuse to learn it, and so we will keep learning it over and over and over again.

00:12:58.000 I'm gonna get into more of this in just one second.

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00:14:27.000 So, the president saying that he wants to pull out from Syria.

00:14:32.000 I'm not sure who's giving him this advice or why he thinks that it is going to be a big political win for him.

00:14:37.000 Because here's also the difference between the Trump administration and the Obama administration.

00:14:41.000 In 2010, Barack Obama said, I'm pulling out.

00:14:43.000 We're getting out.

00:14:45.000 All right, we're getting out.

00:14:46.000 Okay, so Barack Obama tried to pull out of Iraq, and things went bad.

00:14:52.000 But he also had the press there to defend him.

00:14:54.000 This is the nice thing about being a Democrat.

00:14:56.000 You can pursue the crappiest policy, and the press will still defend you.

00:15:00.000 Well, he promised he was gonna get out, and then he kept that promise.

00:15:02.000 This is his shtick in 2012.

00:15:03.000 We won Iraq, and then we got out. 0.91

00:15:06.000 Our troops are home.

00:15:07.000 Okay, and then ISIS took over the entire place, and Barack Obama called them the JV team.

00:15:10.000 You remember this.

00:15:13.000 All of this was bad, but it didn't manifest.

00:15:15.000 It was all clear in 2012, by the way, but the press decided to delay coverage of it until 2013.

00:15:18.000 We were all told that ISIS was a JV problem, no one was worried about it until after Barack Obama's re-election.

00:15:24.000 You think they're going to do the same thing for President Trump?

00:15:26.000 Or do you think that if President Trump goes through with his withdrawal from Syria, and then the violence upticks, and suddenly, you think those beheadings are going to stay out of the press with President Trump as president?

00:15:39.000 Here's the reality of the press.

00:15:40.000 The press covers Republican presidents the way that the press ought to cover all presidents.

00:15:44.000 I've always said, I'm not against the press covering the president with a hawkish eye.

00:15:49.000 I'm not against the press being on top of the president at all moments.

00:15:52.000 I like when the press is on top of the president.

00:15:54.000 I think it's good.

00:15:55.000 What I object to is that they're on top of President Trump at every waking moment for everything that he does, pointing out the ramifications of all of his policy prescriptions.

00:16:03.000 But as soon as a Democrat enters office, it's like they took ketamine.

00:16:06.000 As soon as a Democrat comes into office, it's like they took a date rape drug and now they don't remember anything about how foreign policy is supposed to work or how the policy actually hooks up with anything.

00:16:18.000 Remotely real world.

00:16:20.000 When Barack Obama does something and then people die, it's like, oh, well, you know, that just happens.

00:16:23.000 That's the real world.

00:16:24.000 And so he drones some people.

00:16:25.000 And when Donald Trump does something and then people die, it's gonna be like, look at President Trump.

00:16:29.000 And they're freaking, they're blaming President Trump right now for the death of a seven-year-old child thanks to custody in Border Patrol, even though Border Patrol tried to save the girl.

00:16:39.000 They didn't cover for years Barack Obama's, Barack Obama's immigration policy in nearly the same way.

00:16:45.000 Let's not say they didn't cover it at all.

00:16:46.000 They did.

00:16:47.000 They didn't cover it in nearly the same way.

00:16:49.000 So, President Trump can think he's going to get a temporary political win from this.

00:16:52.000 He's not.

00:16:54.000 The respite will not come.

00:16:55.000 The only solution for Republican presidents is good policy.

00:16:58.000 The solution for Democrat presidents is any policy because the Democrats and the media will defend anything and everything.

00:17:03.000 Okay, meanwhile, we have another controversy that has broken out regarding Tucker Carlson on Fox News.

00:17:09.000 Now, let me preface this controversy by saying this.

00:17:14.000 The left has now engaged not in boycotting, but in blacklisting.

00:17:17.000 The reason I say they've not engaged in boycotting is because they're not actually boycotting products.

00:17:21.000 What the left does is they find somebody they don't like, and then they decide to make a few phone calls to the advertisers on that particular program.

00:17:28.000 And the idea is that if they make a few phone calls, then the advertiser will take it as though there has been a mass outpouring of rage at the advertiser for being on the particular program.

00:17:38.000 That's not the way advertisers work.

00:17:39.000 Advertisers don't sit here and listen every day to the Ben Shapiro show.

00:17:42.000 They don't sit there every night and watch the Tucker Carlson show and then go, you know what?

00:17:45.000 I love Tucker Carlson.

00:17:46.000 I'm putting my ads on his program.

00:17:48.000 That's not how ad buying works.

00:17:51.000 Advertisers go to an advertising agency.

00:17:53.000 The advertising agency looks to see where there is unused inventory and how much it costs, and how many viewers they can get for what price.

00:18:00.000 And then they go back to the advertiser and they say for X number of dollars, you can reach X number of viewers on the following channels.

00:18:06.000 Fox News, MSNBC, CNN.

00:18:08.000 And that's how all of this works.

00:18:10.000 So it's not like the advertisers are sitting there going, I approve this message from Tucker Carlson or I approve this message from Ben Shapiro.

00:18:16.000 That's not how any of this works.

00:18:18.000 What the left has done is they have sought to destroy the marketability of political content they do not like by basically blacklisting companies that they by blacklisting the shows and then trying to blackmail the companies into not advertising on those particular programs.

00:18:34.000 And let's not pretend that the left is honest about how they do this.

00:18:37.000 Let's not pretend that the left is just seeing stuff they don't like, seeing stuff that is truly inappropriate and terrible, and saying, we can boycott.

00:18:42.000 Because that's a bunch of nonsense.

00:18:43.000 Joy Reid is still on MSNBC after all the things she said years ago. 0.65

00:18:47.000 But Laura Ingraham was subject to a basic advertiser blacklist because she made a snide comment about David Hogg, a Parkland shooting survivor, who is eminently political.

00:18:56.000 You remember this.

00:18:57.000 This happened a few months back.

00:18:58.000 It was absurd at the time.

00:19:00.000 Well, it's absurd when it comes to Tucker, too.

00:19:02.000 I'll explain why in just a second, but the point here is this.

00:19:05.000 There is, an advertiser should know this, there is no actual advertiser backlash when you advertise on a program that half of Americans agree with.

00:19:14.000 There is no advertiser backlash.

00:19:16.000 It is a giant lie.

00:19:18.000 I know it's a giant lie.

00:19:18.000 How do I know it's a giant lie?

00:19:20.000 I ran a company, well it was actually a non-profit, called Truth Revolt.

00:19:23.000 It was specifically designed to counter Media Matters.

00:19:25.000 Media Matters is a group on the left that astroturfs these quote-unquote boycotts that are not in fact boycotts.

00:19:31.000 The reason I'm not calling them boycotts is because no one is not, no one, Is avoiding buying a product from these companies because they advertise on Tucker Carlson.

00:19:39.000 IHOP's business, IHOP pulled advertising from Tucker Carlson over the last 48 hours.

00:19:44.000 IHOP's business was not in any way threatened by advertising on Tucker Carlson.

00:19:48.000 The number of people who are not going to buy pancakes the next day because IHOP was advertising on Tucker Carlson was zero.

00:19:55.000 And maybe it was five.

00:19:56.000 And we know this because the left tried to do the same thing with Chick-fil-A.

00:19:59.000 You remember this?

00:20:00.000 They tried to say that Chick-fil-A, because Dan Cathy, the owner of Chick-fil-A, is pro-traditional marriage.

00:20:05.000 They tried to say, OK, we're all going to boycott Chick-fil-A, but it was going to be like an actual grassroots boycott.

00:20:09.000 All that happened is more people went to Chick-fil-A.

00:20:12.000 Advertisers are so afraid of blowback and publicity because all they want is to get their products to you, the listener.

00:20:18.000 They don't want any association with any political view.

00:20:20.000 But what the left is intent on doing is fundamentally destroying the market for politics.

00:20:26.000 So what's going to happen?

00:20:27.000 The end result is going to be that advertisers are going to be too afraid to advertise on any political program.

00:20:32.000 And then all the profit margins dip for political programs and political speech ends up...

00:20:37.000 Withering away, because it takes a budget to put on shows like Tucker's.

00:20:39.000 It takes a budget to put on my show, or Cenk Uygur's show on the other side of the aisle.

00:20:43.000 It takes a budget to do these things. 0.96

00:20:44.000 So, when advertisers are forced to disassociate from programs, specifically because the three idiots over at Sleeping Giants are angry at Tucker Carlson, all they're really doing is, in effect, quashing the ability of people to speak politically. 0.96

00:20:58.000 Now, that's not a violation of the First Amendment, because it's not government action, but it is a violation of the civil discourse that must exist around free speech. 0.96

00:21:06.000 If free speech is to prevail.

00:21:07.000 If you actually want to see an open market for ideas, you have to not target advertisers for broadly advertising across a variety of programs.

00:21:16.000 We have advertisers on this program who also advertise on Pod Save America.

00:21:20.000 That's great!

00:21:21.000 They should!

00:21:21.000 They should reach out to whatever audience they feel the necessity to advertise to.

00:21:26.000 Without me calling for a boycott against the advertiser because they advertise on Pod Save America, or without the folks at Pod Save America calling for a boycott against my advertisers, it's insane and it's ridiculous.

00:21:36.000 It's even more insane and ridiculous when you look at the media coverage of this sort of stuff, and when you look at the hypocrisy of a left that would be livid if people talked about boycotting their favorites.

00:21:45.000 I'm going to get to that in just one second. 0.92

00:21:47.000 First, let's talk about whether you are more Native American than Elizabeth Warren.

00:21:52.000 So, 23andMe.

00:21:54.000 Now through December 25th, 23andMe DNA kits are on sale.

00:21:58.000 I love 23andMe.

00:21:59.000 I think it's a lot of fun.

00:22:00.000 I took, personally, a 23andMe DNA test.

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00:22:05.000 And then they give you all sorts of information.

00:22:07.000 They'll tell you about your genetic muscle composition.

00:22:09.000 Do you have the genetic muscle composition common in elite power athletes?

00:22:13.000 Yes.

00:22:13.000 Yes, I do.

00:22:14.000 Sleep movement.

00:22:15.000 Do your arms and legs twitch while you're sleeping, or do you lie there like an ed person? 0.95

00:22:19.000 Do you have cilantro taste aversion?

00:22:20.000 Can you match musical pitch?

00:22:21.000 Like, all these things have genetic components, and 23andMe can test for all of those things.

00:22:26.000 As to the question of whether I personally am more Native American than Elizabeth Warren, the answer is no.

00:22:30.000 I am 100% pure Ashkenazi Jew.

00:22:34.000 100%.

00:22:36.000 I mean, it's hard to find that level of purity anywhere in the world, but look at me.

00:22:40.000 I mean, I'm just a big bag of Ashkenazi Jew. 0.76

00:22:42.000 It's amazing.

00:22:43.000 And I found that out because 23andMe.

00:22:46.000 But 23andMe can uncover all of your genetic... It turns out that our Hispanic Makeup artist Jess has related me.

00:22:52.000 She's 0.4% Ashkenazi Jews.

00:22:54.000 That's really exciting that she's like my 10th cousin.

00:22:56.000 In any case, 23andme can give you all this fun information.

00:22:59.000 It really does make a fun holiday gift.

00:23:01.000 Now through December 25th, get 30% off any 23andme kit.

00:23:04.000 Order your DNA kit at 23andme.com slash Shapiro.

00:23:07.000 That is the number 23andme.com slash Shapiro.

00:23:10.000 Again, that's 23andme.com slash Shapiro.

00:23:13.000 And you get that special deal now through December 25th.

00:23:15.000 Get 30% off any 23andme kit.

00:23:18.000 Go order that DNA kit right now.

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00:23:31.000 Go check it out right now.

00:23:32.000 And you may, in fact, be more than one 1,024th Native American.

00:23:35.000 You can find that out at 23andme.com slash Shapiro and then send your results to Senator Warren.

00:23:41.000 OK, so the Tucker Carlson controversy.

00:23:44.000 With all those preliminaries out of the way, here's what the controversy is about.

00:23:47.000 So Tucker is very, very anti-immigration.

00:23:50.000 He's not just anti-illegal immigration, he's anti-immigration.

00:23:52.000 He thinks that the influx of foreign workers is undermining our wage base.

00:23:57.000 He thinks the influx of foreigners into the United States is changing our culture. 0.99

00:24:01.000 And so he made this comment on Fox News about the immigration crisis from December 13th, him talking about the caravans and people crossing the border illegally.

00:24:11.000 Our country's economy is becoming more automated and tech-centered by the day.

00:24:15.000 It's obvious that we need more scientists and skilled engineers, but that's not what we're getting.

00:24:19.000 Instead, we're getting waves of people with high school educations or less.

00:24:24.000 Nice people, no one doubts that, but as an economic matter, this is insane.

00:24:29.000 It's indefensible, so nobody even tries to defend it.

00:24:32.000 Instead, our leaders demand that you shut up and accept this.

00:24:35.000 We have a moral obligation to admit the world's poor, they tell us, even if it makes our own country poorer and dirtier and more divided.

00:24:43.000 Okay, so it was the comment, poorer and dirtier and more divided, that people decided to take out of context.

00:24:48.000 There's two ways to read that.

00:24:49.000 One is the way that Schmuck Michael Avenatti read it.

00:24:52.000 So Michael Avenatti, who can always be trusted to have the worst take on any possible situation, tweeted out, if an executive or employee at any of the Fox News advertisers called a fellow employee dirtier or poorer, they would rightly be fired.

00:25:02.000 This isn't about free speech.

00:25:04.000 It's about racism and bigotry.

00:25:05.000 Tucker Carlson must be fired immediately. 0.89

00:25:07.000 And the advertisers boycotted.

00:25:08.000 OK, so first of all, I love when people say stuff like this isn't about free speech.

00:25:11.000 It's about racism and bigotry.

00:25:13.000 Free speech includes a lot of stuff you don't like, Michael Avenatti.

00:25:16.000 Free speech includes a lot of stuff that you may not personally approve.

00:25:20.000 Now I disagree with Tucker Carlson on immigration.

00:25:22.000 We had a full Sunday conversation in which we talked at length about immigration.

00:25:27.000 So I tend to be much more libertarian than Tucker is when it comes to immigration.

00:25:30.000 But there are two ways to read those comments. 0.93

00:25:32.000 One is the sort of, well they're brown people coming in and so they are dirtier or something. 1.00

00:25:36.000 Okay, that is not what Tucker meant.

00:25:38.000 What he actually meant, what he actually meant was clarified on his show The next day, right?

00:25:43.000 He went on and he said, what I mean is that when people come from places that are poorer and they don't have educations, so naturally our country is now getting poorer because more poor people are entering the country. 0.98

00:25:54.000 And when he said our country will get dirtier, he didn't mean because it's going to be browner or something.

00:25:58.000 What he meant is that a lot of the people who come in who are poorer may not actually be in the habit of keeping their cities clean.

00:26:05.000 And he makes a reference to Tijuana.

00:26:06.000 He says, well, Tijuana is dirtier and poorer.

00:26:08.000 OK, that's inarguable.

00:26:09.000 It's inarguable.

00:26:10.000 Tijuana is dirtier and poorer than Los Angeles.

00:26:13.000 These things are just inarguable.

00:26:14.000 People decided to read this in the worst possible way.

00:26:17.000 Why?

00:26:17.000 Because there's a motivated group of people who want to take Tucker Carlson off the air.

00:26:21.000 Let's be real about this.

00:26:22.000 This is not a bunch of good faith folks who have decided, you know what, I am so offended by that thing that Tucker Carlson just said that now I've decided his advertisers must pay.

00:26:30.000 This is a bunch of people who are sitting there waiting for a comment that they can take out of context so that they can then go after people they already don't like.

00:26:38.000 This is the game.

00:26:39.000 We do it on Twitter, too.

00:26:40.000 The game is that you find somebody you don't like, and then you find a reason to ruin their life.

00:26:44.000 Not, you see something you don't like, and then you say, wow, I can't believe that person said that.

00:26:48.000 That's terrible.

00:26:49.000 We should do something about that.

00:26:50.000 If you think that sleeping giants and media matters, or sitting around going, Tucker Carlson, No real opinion on him, but that what he just said is so bad.

00:26:58.000 That's nonsense.

00:26:59.000 They were sitting there watching every night, waiting for Tucker to say something they could take out of context, and then portray as so egregious that advertisers would need to bail.

00:27:07.000 And again, I don't blame the advertisers, because the advertisers are just doing what they've been trained to do, which is if you get 10 complaining phone calls, you escalate it up the management chain, and then you withdraw the advertising, because these advertisers can pay a little bit more money, and they can advertise in other places.

00:27:20.000 But what we are watching right now is a blacklisting of conservative shows by a bunch of people on the left and astroturfing of resistance to advertisers that doesn't actually exist.

00:27:30.000 If you think somebody's not buying a Bowflex because Bowflex appears on ESPN and MSNBC and CNN and Fox News, you're out of your mind.

00:27:37.000 How do I know this?

00:27:38.000 Because how many people actually care about a Bowflex ad on Fox News?

00:27:44.000 Probably the people who watch Fox News, who generally are going to agree with Tucker Carlson.

00:27:47.000 How many people who watch CNN care about a Bowflex ad on Fox News?

00:27:51.000 Probably none, because Bowflex is probably also on CNN.

00:27:54.000 Nonetheless, Nautilus has now pulled ads from the show.

00:27:58.000 They're not the only ones.

00:27:59.000 Smile Direct Club has pulled ads from the show.

00:28:02.000 Ten, twelve companies, Pacific Life said it would pull ads from the show.

00:28:06.000 They said one of our ads appeared on Tucker Carlson's show last night following a segment where Mr. Carlson made a number of statements regarding immigration.

00:28:11.000 As a company, we strongly disagree with Mr. Carlson's statements.

00:28:14.000 Our customer base and our workforce reflect the diversity of our great nation, something we take great pride in.

00:28:18.000 OK, why do corporations have to take political positions on immigration?

00:28:23.000 Why is this even necessary?

00:28:25.000 They provide life insurance.

00:28:26.000 What the hell are we talking about here?

00:28:28.000 It's the same thing with IHOP.

00:28:29.000 IHOP was like, this violates our corporate policies.

00:28:31.000 Really?

00:28:32.000 I thought your corporate policy was basically making crepes.

00:28:34.000 I thought that was your...

00:28:36.000 Forgive me if I thought that a boysenberry syrup on pancakes was your corporate policy, not how the border wall fight should go.

00:28:44.000 But this is what the left wants.

00:28:45.000 Their goal here, again, is to, in fact, quash debate.

00:28:48.000 That is their goal.

00:28:49.000 Now, again, I'm not saying this is a violation of the First Amendment.

00:28:52.000 It is not.

00:28:52.000 It is not a legally actionable violation of the First Amendment.

00:28:55.000 It is, however, destroying the basic bargain that we all have to hold if we are going to have a market-driven Exchange of ideas.

00:29:02.000 Because this is not the market in action.

00:29:04.000 This is a bunch of motivated leftists who have decided they're gonna scare the hell out of advertisers with nothing to back it, and a bunch of advertisers who are just playing it risk-averse.

00:29:11.000 That's all this is.

00:29:13.000 And advertisers should know that, by the way, for every boycott that is pulled like this, for every attempt to pull from Tucker Carlson's show, there'll be more blowback on them from the right than there would have been blowback on them from the left for being on Tucker's show to begin with.

00:29:26.000 Fox News has issued a statement on all of this.

00:29:28.000 Their statement is correct.

00:29:30.000 The statement is, We cannot and will not allow voices like Tucker Carlson to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts from the likes of MoveOn.org, Media Matters, and Sleeping Giants.

00:29:37.000 Attempts were made last month to bully and terrorize Tucker and his family at their home.

00:29:40.000 He is now once again being threatened via Twitter by far-left activist groups with deeply political motives.

00:29:44.000 While we do not advocate boycotts, these same groups never target other broadcasters and operate under a grossly hypocritical double standard given their intolerance to all opposing points of view.

00:29:53.000 And this, of course, is exactly right.

00:29:55.000 It's exactly true.

00:29:57.000 And two can play at this game.

00:29:58.000 You want to make the world a worse place, this is the way to do it.

00:30:01.000 Tucker responded on his show last night.

00:30:02.000 He said, we're not intimidated, nor should he be.

00:30:04.000 Those who won't shut up get silenced.

00:30:07.000 You've seen it a million times.

00:30:08.000 It happens all the time.

00:30:09.000 Enforcers scream, racist, on Twitter.

00:30:12.000 Until everybody gets intimidated and changes the subject to the Russia investigation or some other distraction.

00:30:17.000 It's a tactic, a well-worn one.

00:30:19.000 Nobody thinks it's real.

00:30:21.000 And it won't work with this show.

00:30:23.000 We're not intimidated.

00:30:24.000 We plan to try to say what's true until the last day.

00:30:27.000 Okay, and that's perfectly reasonable.

00:30:29.000 What's amazing is to watch other members of the media not even seeing what the next step is.

00:30:34.000 Because you know what the next step is?

00:30:35.000 The next step is that conservatives will start doing this to liberal networks.

00:30:39.000 Hey, CNN will be hit with advertiser boycotts.

00:30:41.000 Because if this is the game you want to play, we can all play this game.

00:30:44.000 It's ugly.

00:30:45.000 No one should be playing this game.

00:30:46.000 Guns down, guys.

00:30:47.000 Like, really.

00:30:48.000 Cut it out.

00:30:49.000 Let's talk about not just your First Amendment rights, but your Second Amendment rights that were set up to defend your First Amendment rights.

00:30:53.000 You know how strongly I believe in the principle that law-abiding people should own guns?

00:30:58.000 I'm a gun owner.

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00:31:18.000 They design, engineer, and manufacture life-saving equipment, and they assume that each rifle leaving their shop will be used in a life-or-death situation by a responsible citizen, law enforcement officer, or a soldier overseas.

00:31:28.000 Every component of a BCM rifle is hand-assembled and tested by Americans to a life-saving standard.

00:31:32.000 BCM feels a moral responsibility as Americans to provide tools that will not fail the user when we're not just talking about a paper target, but someone coming to do them actual harm.

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00:32:15.000 Okay.

00:32:16.000 Now is the time for you to subscribe.

00:32:17.000 Why?

00:32:18.000 Because next year, there are two more hours of this show a coming.

00:32:21.000 And for $9.99 a month, that's the only way you can see those other two hours of the show, unless you happen to be listening to live radio across the country.

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00:32:32.000 And when you subscribe, you also get to ask us questions when we do things like the conversation today.

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00:32:51.000 Once again, subscribe to get your questions answered by me today at 5.30 p.m.

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00:32:59.000 And listen, I'm here for you, right?

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00:33:11.000 I know if you've been bad or good, so be good, for goodness sake.

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00:34:10.000 We are the largest, fastest growing conservative podcast in the nation.

00:34:13.000 So the same left that is deeply, deeply concerned with free speech issues, we'll get to that in a second, is also cheering this blacklist that is now being used against Tucker Carlson.

00:34:30.000 It's been used against everybody on the right, really everybody.

00:34:32.000 They've tried it against Rush Limbaugh, they've tried it against Michael Savage, they've tried it against Mark Levin, they've tried it against Sean Hannity.

00:34:37.000 They will always try it against people on the right.

00:34:39.000 And the left cheers it on.

00:34:40.000 It's amazing to watch people at CNN who are in the same boat as people at Fox.

00:34:44.000 They may not know it because the right is more polite about this stuff, because the right doesn't generally try to pretend that we're going to boycott advertisers.

00:34:51.000 But the people at CNN are more than happy to watch their opponents boycott. 0.99

00:34:55.000 I mean, it's just vindictive crap. 0.98

00:34:57.000 I have to hand some credit here to Nate Silver. 0.98

00:34:59.000 Nate Silver came out yesterday and he said, listen, I don't like these tactics.

00:35:02.000 I think these tactics are very bad.

00:35:04.000 Which is amazing because Nate Silver is definitely on the left.

00:35:07.000 Here's what he said.

00:35:09.000 There was an article by a guy named Jack Schaefer over at Politico.

00:35:12.000 And Jack Schaefer said, I don't like the organized advertiser boycotts against Bill O'Reilly.

00:35:16.000 I don't like the ones against Tucker Carlson.

00:35:19.000 And Nate Silver The leftist commentator at FiveThirtyEight and elections analyst, he wrote, This is exactly right.

00:35:24.000 Because advertisers will just go to the New York Times, the Daily, which is considered safe content, as opposed to anything with mild controversy associated with it.

00:35:29.000 is that only milquetoast both sides and with a pro-corporate bent will be advertising supported if any political content is ad-supported at all.

00:35:36.000 This is exactly right because advertisers will just go to the New York Times The Daily, which is considered safe content as opposed to anything with mild controversy associated with it.

00:35:45.000 Not even like somebody says something terrible, but mild controversy.

00:35:48.000 Then a guy named Norm Ornstein wrote back, This is not a boycott because of political viewpoint.

00:35:53.000 No calls for boycott of Hannity.

00:35:54.000 This is a set of boycotts because of disgusting personal behavior and disgusting racism.

00:35:58.000 Very different. 0.92

00:35:59.000 And Silver said, he's a leftist, remember, he said, I tend to agree that Tucker is a racist or that he convincingly plays a racist on TV.

00:36:05.000 However, I don't want the PR department of Applebee's deciding for us all what's racist versus legitimate, acceptable political speech.

00:36:13.000 And then somebody else responded to Nate Silver and said, but they're not really deciding that.

00:36:17.000 Consumers are using capitalism as a lever to force them to make a choice.

00:36:20.000 I don't particularly care whether their PR departments agree or not, they're just responding to market pressures.

00:36:24.000 And Nate Silver said, so they don't have to vet the merit of the claims at all?

00:36:27.000 Anytime a vocal minority of consumers organizes a boycott, the advertisers should just pull itself off the show?

00:36:32.000 That seems like a bad equilibrium, and one that can and will be gained by people whose politics don't match yours.

00:36:37.000 And then the best part of this is Sleeping Giants, who are just terrible people.

00:36:41.000 They wrote back to Nate Silver, and they basically accused him of being a corporate shill.

00:36:45.000 They said, you are speaking as a publisher, not a citizen.

00:36:47.000 If you're a person of color or a member of the LGBTQ community or an immigrant, these companies are literally footing the bill for you to be vilified every week.

00:36:54.000 Bigotry should not be deemed political.

00:36:55.000 That's a big part of the issue.

00:36:57.000 And Silver wrote back, guys, I'm gay.

00:36:59.000 And I'm just old enough, 40, to remember when conservative groups urged boycotts of advertisers and networks who were seen as promoting LGBTQ or other non-traditional lifestyles.

00:37:07.000 This strongly influences my views on the subject.

00:37:10.000 This is exactly right.

00:37:12.000 So good for Nate Silver.

00:37:13.000 That's exactly right.

00:37:14.000 We need more folks on the left to acknowledge this basic truth, or we are going to end up in a position where advertisers pull out of all political content, and the only political content you're going to be able to find is going to be left-wing political content.

00:37:25.000 Which, of course, is the entire goal of this spiel from the very beginning.

00:37:30.000 At the outset, this was this is always the goal.

00:37:31.000 Meanwhile, the left pretends that they care deeply about free speech.

00:37:34.000 So they're very, very upset with what they call anti-BDS laws.

00:37:38.000 So there's this case in Texas in which a Muslim woman was basically asked whether she believed in whether she believed in boycotting Israel.

00:37:49.000 And then she was not hired based on the fact that she believed in boycotting Israel.

00:37:51.000 But that's not the actual full story.

00:37:53.000 Here's how The Washington Post reported it.

00:37:55.000 Bahaya Amawi, a speech pathologist who has worked as a contractor in a Texas school district for nine years, received a new contract agreement to sign in September for the upcoming school year.

00:38:03.000 The agreement asked her to affirm that she did not boycott Israel and assert that she would not while working for the school.

00:38:08.000 She declined to sign it.

00:38:09.000 She was forced to stop working with the district.

00:38:11.000 That was based on a law passed by the Republican-held legislature and governor that prohibits state agencies from contracting with companies that boycott Israel.

00:38:19.000 She says that this inviolates her right to free speech.

00:38:21.000 Now, as you know, I have a very broad view of free speech, and this includes for state employees.

00:38:26.000 So, for example, just a couple of weeks ago, I talked about a case in, I believe, South Carolina, where a teacher has now been fired because he was using biological pronouns for a transgender 11-year-old or something like that.

00:38:38.000 And he wasn't even using biological pronouns.

00:38:40.000 He was just not using pronouns at all.

00:38:42.000 And this, of course, was discriminatory and he had to be fired on that basis.

00:38:46.000 What I said is that's a violation of free speech.

00:38:48.000 He's an individual.

00:38:49.000 He has the right to free speech.

00:38:50.000 OK, that is not quite the same thing that is happening right here.

00:38:53.000 This woman is busy. 1.00

00:38:55.000 She operates as an independent contractor.

00:38:57.000 And the reason that makes a difference.

00:38:59.000 Is because the government does have policies on who they will hire as independent contractors.

00:39:04.000 And they have these policies all over the place.

00:39:06.000 They won't hire independent contractors, for example, who engage in discriminatory housing.

00:39:10.000 They won't hire independent contractors now under the Obama administration.

00:39:13.000 They wouldn't even hire independent contractors who would not provide health benefits for sex change operations, for example.

00:39:20.000 I believe that was the policy.

00:39:22.000 The government has all sorts of policies on who it can hire as independent contractors, and it uses those policies to police the sort of political affiliations and perspectives of the people who are contracting.

00:39:34.000 But mainly, it doesn't want to pay companies that are then going to violate the government's views on particular subjects.

00:39:38.000 So, for example, if a company is doing business with Iran, then there will be a ban.

00:39:44.000 First of all, it's illegal to do that under the sanctions, but Even without the sanctions, it is plausible the government would say, we cannot hire this company because this company does business with Iran.

00:39:53.000 This is basically the reverse of that.

00:39:54.000 This is a company says, we are boycotting Israel, which is anti-Semitic, and the government says, OK, well, then we're not going to contract with you.

00:40:01.000 That is not exactly a quash on free speech.

00:40:04.000 There's a good article about this today.

00:40:07.000 By somebody at Reason Magazine named David Bernstein.

00:40:10.000 And he says, there are a lot of things I could say about the law and the lawsuit, but I have some time constraints.

00:40:13.000 So I'll just explain why the take repeated ingenuously by reporters apparently too lazy to look up the actual text of the underlying law is wrong.

00:40:20.000 Texas has a law banning state entities from contracting with businesses, including sole proprietorships that boycott Israel.

00:40:26.000 Pursuant to Section 2270 of the Texas government code, the contractor affirms that it does not currently boycott Israel and will not boycott Israel during the term of the contract pursuant to Section 2270 of Texas government code.

00:40:39.000 It's even titled, Prohibition on Contracts with Companies Boycotting Israel.

00:40:44.000 So, he says, this is no different analytically than requiring a contractor to pledge that the business does not refuse to hire Muslims or blacks or Jews or veterans or any other state-designated group.

00:40:53.000 This is the First Amendment analysis, but the lies are being spread by people who don't really understand the Constitution and reporters who want to suggest that this is some sort of violation of free speech.

00:41:06.000 Maybe you still say that this is a bad law.

00:41:08.000 Okay, certainly plausible, but you do have to acknowledge that this falls into the category of the government saying we can't contract with X because X does something we don't like.

00:41:15.000 It does not fall into the category of we hire an individual to do a job and that individual has opinions that are off the clock.

00:41:23.000 That's not the same thing, really.

00:41:25.000 And so a lot of hubbub breaking out yesterday over the Michael Flynn hearing.

00:41:31.000 Michael Flynn basically was forced to Recant his plea deal with the government because it appears that the that the judge in this case was wildly biased against him and it appeared that if he went forward with his attempt to get a plea deal that the government was basically going to slap him.

00:41:49.000 So according to the legal documents, the court learned that no pretrial travel restrictions had been imposed on the case.

00:41:55.000 The court imposed travel restrictions on Michael Flynn.

00:41:57.000 You remember Michael Flynn Was the president's national security advisor.

00:42:00.000 He has been tried and he's pled guilty to lying to the FBI.

00:42:04.000 He lied to the FBI about something that was not illegal.

00:42:06.000 Talking to Sergey Kislyak as the as the incoming national security advisor.

00:42:11.000 He's also been ensnared in a lot of talk about whether he was lobbying for the government of Turkey without revealing that he was actually a lobbyist for the government of Turkey.

00:42:20.000 What made things go off the rails yesterday is that the judge went nuts.

00:42:23.000 The judge in this particular case went crazy and then tried to call Michael Flynn a traitor, which is pretty astonishing.

00:42:28.000 So the U.S.

00:42:29.000 District Judge, Emmett Sullivan, he said, I'm not hiding my disgust, my disdain for this criminal offense.

00:42:34.000 And then he walked through a number of procedural steps to make sure Flynn was pleading guilty because he was guilty and not for any other reason.

00:42:40.000 He seemed frustrated with a lot of the arguments Flynn's team was making that basically Flynn had pled guilty to a crime because he'd been Cudgeled into it by the FBI.

00:42:49.000 Sullivan had Flynn admit guilt again that he had lied to the FBI and was pleading guilty because he was guilty.

00:42:54.000 And then he said the crime is very serious.

00:42:56.000 He said that Flynn lied in the White House in the West Wing and he shouldn't minimize the serious offense.

00:43:00.000 And then he got really bad.

00:43:02.000 Then he said, arguably, you sold your country out.

00:43:05.000 Now, there is no evidence whatsoever that Michael Flynn sold his country out with regard to Russia.

00:43:08.000 None.

00:43:09.000 The Turkish question is another question.

00:43:11.000 This was about him lying to the FBI about Russia.

00:43:14.000 There is zero, I mean zero, evidence that Michael Flynn was a traitor to his country because of Russia.

00:43:20.000 That's an insane contention.

00:43:21.000 In fact, the judge had to come out and apologize for all of this.

00:43:24.000 He asked the government whether undermining U.S.

00:43:26.000 sanctions against Russia for their interference in the 2016 election could be considered treason.

00:43:31.000 The judge had to come out later and recant all of that.

00:43:34.000 And then the judge ended up agreeing to delay the sentencing because Flynn was like, um, I don't want you sentencing me today.

00:43:38.000 We may need to have you recused.

00:43:39.000 This is insane.

00:43:41.000 So the judge acted completely inappropriately in this case.

00:43:44.000 It shows you how political bias on the bench can be, in fact, a very serious problem.

00:43:50.000 And this was really a disgusting display by the judge.

00:43:52.000 I mean, that's insane.

00:43:53.000 To call Michael Flynn, a general in the United States military for most of his life, to call him a traitor based on the fact that he had a non-illegal conversation with the Russian ambassador as the incoming NSA, and then lied to the FBI about it, That's not traitorous.

00:44:09.000 It's bad to lie to the FBI, but that is not treason.

00:44:11.000 Treason is aiding or abetting enemies of the United States at home or abroad.

00:44:16.000 That is not what Michael Flynn was doing there, nor is there any evidence that any of that stuff was happening.

00:44:20.000 That did not stop reporters from yelling at Sarah Huckabee Sanders and doing the job that Judge Sullivan couldn't do in the press room. 1.00

00:44:27.000 Here are the reporters yelling at Sarah Huckabee Sanders, shouting at her, saying that Michael Flynn is representative of the treason inherence in the Trump administration.

00:44:34.000 We'll talk to you soon.

00:44:36.000 Thanks, guys.

00:44:37.000 This is a 10-minute briefing, Sarah.

00:44:40.000 Do your job, Sarah.

00:44:41.000 Okay, can I ask a question?

00:44:44.000 If somebody had done this to an Obama administration press secretary, this is your job?

00:44:49.000 Jay, this is your job?

00:44:50.000 Bob?

00:44:51.000 Robert Gibbs?

00:44:52.000 Do you think that anyone would have been okay with that?

00:44:54.000 But it's okay because Sarah Huckabee Sanders is a member of the Trump administration. 0.67

00:44:57.000 To yell at Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

00:44:58.000 They also tried to say that Michael Flynn Was somehow connected with treason inside the Trump administration.

00:45:03.000 Again, no evidence of any of that at all.

00:45:05.000 The media continue to push the Russia investigation despite the fact that there is no actual evidence that the Russian investigation is going to result in any sort of charges against the president and any sort of charges against anybody around him for moving during the election to work with the Russians in a criminal fashion.

00:45:22.000 That's not stopping CNN from bringing up old documents that really are not supremely relevant.

00:45:26.000 They revealed a newly obtained document showing that President Trump signed a letter of intent to move forward with negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Russia that apparently was signed and dated October 25, 2015.

00:45:38.000 Rudy Giuliani had said that Trump hadn't signed it.

00:45:39.000 Apparently it was signed.

00:45:41.000 Okay, that's October 2015 now.

00:45:42.000 Do you have any evidence of a quid pro quo?

00:45:44.000 Because still, you're missing that.

00:45:46.000 Doesn't matter.

00:45:46.000 CNN has an agenda here.

00:45:47.000 As we said yesterday, the left is much more focused on the possibility of the election being stolen than they are on the reality of criminal activity.

00:45:55.000 If they weren't, they'd be focusing a lot more on Michael Cohen today than the dumb Russia collusion charges, which have yet to be substantiated.

00:46:02.000 Okay, time for some things I like and then some things that I hate.

00:46:06.000 So, Things that I like, as I mentioned earlier this week, it is Beethoven's birthday this week, so we're doing some Beethoven.

00:46:11.000 This is Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.

00:46:13.000 23, the Appassionata.

00:46:14.000 The pianist is Emile Gallel, who I think is one of the great underrated pianists in recording history.

00:46:19.000 I love Gallel's playing.

00:46:20.000 I mean, he really digs into the piano.

00:46:21.000 He is fantastic.

00:46:22.000 His recording of the Brahms' Second Piano Concerto with Fritz Reiner is just a masterpiece.

00:46:27.000 And here he is playing the last movement of the Appassionata.

00:46:31.000 The Appassionata

00:47:01.000 It's so good.

00:47:02.000 So Beethoven, if you're in a bad mood today, put on some Beethoven.

00:47:05.000 It'll put you in a better mood.

00:47:06.000 OK, other things that I like.

00:47:08.000 I just love this.

00:47:08.000 This is a great story from Sweden.

00:47:10.000 A man free feminist music festival in Sweden has been found guilty of discrimination.

00:47:16.000 The event is called Statement.

00:47:17.000 It was held in Gothenburg in August this year, having been billed as the world's first major music festival for women, non-binary and transgender only.

00:47:25.000 But describing the festival as male-free was a violation of anti-discrimination legislation Sweden's discrimination ombudsman has ruled.

00:47:34.000 So a female-only music festival has now been ruled sexist. 1.00

00:47:40.000 Which is fantastic, because this is the standard that the feminists set. 1.00

00:47:44.000 So fine, now the standard comes back around to you.

00:47:46.000 You want to do this whole routine where men can't have a club just for men, because it's discriminatory?

00:47:51.000 Fine.

00:47:51.000 Women can't have a music festival just for women.

00:47:54.000 And, not only that, that's even if you cave to the idea that transgender women are actual women, and a bunch of biological men show up to your festival, you're still being discriminatory.

00:48:02.000 Love it.

00:48:03.000 So the D.O.

00:48:03.000 press officer, Klaas Lundstedt, said in a statement, it is important to point out what an infringement is.

00:48:09.000 These are statements made before the festival, what they wrote on their website.

00:48:12.000 Still, we haven't been able to prove that someone would have been discriminated against in connection with the implementation or that someone would have been rejected.

00:48:18.000 Lundstedt said nobody suffered damage as a result of statements saying men were not welcome and there will be no penalty for organizers.

00:48:24.000 But the festival was billed as being a safe space featuring cis men free artists, security and catering.

00:48:32.000 Swedish comedian Emma Knickare came up with the idea for a festival after a huge number of sexual offenses were reported at Brevella, Sweden's biggest music festival, last year.

00:48:40.000 No such crimes were reported during statement, which carries pictures of women dancing and celebrating together.

00:48:44.000 Lundstedt added, clearly we believe that sexual abuse, especially at festivals, is a serious problem, so we are looking forward to trying to correct this.

00:48:50.000 However, it shouldn't happen in a way that violates the law, which their statements in the media and their website do.

00:48:54.000 So I love that the... I also love that the assumption here was that all the sexual assault was gender based.

00:49:00.000 Which is probably correct, right?

00:49:01.000 That men are more likely to assault women, sexually assault women, at a music festival than women are likely to be sexually assaulted in an all-female music festival.

00:49:08.000 This might suggest some biological differences between men and women.

00:49:11.000 But we're not allowed to say that.

00:49:13.000 We're not allowed to say that men and women are different.

00:49:15.000 Because if men and women are different, then why? 0.77

00:49:17.000 Then, then, then, maybe that might explain differences in outcome.

00:49:21.000 Maybe that might explain why men can't become women. 1.00

00:49:24.000 We're not allowed to say that.

00:49:25.000 But at the same time, women are only safe with other women. 0.98

00:49:28.000 But men and women are the same.

00:49:28.000 So how?

00:49:30.000 Oh, it's all so confusing. 1.00

00:49:31.000 So thank you, Sweden, for making clear how confusing and stupid all of this is. 1.00

00:49:35.000 Gotta love Sweden, man. 0.99

00:49:36.000 Well, one of my favorite statistics is that in a lot of the Nordic countries in Sweden and Norway and Denmark, that the gender gaps in STEM, in STEM fields has actually grown.

00:49:45.000 It's actually widened because it turns out that when women are free to do what they want to do, they don't do the same things that men do, because men and women, not the same. 0.99

00:49:53.000 Stuff you've known since basically you're a small child, but have been told is not true by idiots. 0.99

00:49:58.000 OK, time for some things So, a Democrat State Senator yesterday encouraged a Republican aide to kill herself, so that's always good news. 1.00

00:50:08.000 That's exactly what you want.

00:50:09.000 A New York State Democrat Senator came under intense fire on Tuesday after he urged a Republican aide to kill herself in a now-deleted tweet and then immediately continued attacking her.

00:50:17.000 His name is Senator Kevin Parker of Brooklyn.

00:50:19.000 He instructed a New York State Republican Deputy Communications Director named Candace Geob to kill herself after she allegedly exposed Parker appearing to misuse a parking placard. 0.52

00:50:29.000 So, it said, I got to the bottom of this, the placard is assigned to Senator Parker, however the license number on the placard does not match the vehicle, so either he used it in another car or he gave it to someone else, both of which are not permitted. 0.98

00:50:39.000 So he responded, kill yourself.

00:50:41.000 Which is, um, I mean, as Ron Burgundy says, that escalated quickly.

00:50:46.000 Parker's horrifying remark came after he attracted attention late last month when he proposed a bill that would require those seeking a firearm permit to consent to having their social media accounts searched for objectionable content.

00:50:56.000 So, after saying that social media should be policed, he then tweeted that an aide should kill herself after she said that he was misusing a license plate.

00:51:06.000 Pretty amazing.

00:51:08.000 And then he says Candace is on the wrong side of history for every important issue facing New York State. 0.99

00:51:13.000 It is amazing the double standard that is held for Democrats.

00:51:15.000 So I point out also Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who's been tweeting incessantly about fake news this week. 0.99

00:51:20.000 She's been saying that members of the fake news media have been making up stories about her, such as that she wants to take a self-care break before she begins in Congress.

00:51:29.000 I'm all for people taking self-care breaks.

00:51:31.000 I know that was a thing, but if she feels like she needs... I mean, she's been busy.

00:51:35.000 I understand.

00:51:35.000 You want to take a vacation?

00:51:37.000 Enjoy!

00:51:37.000 Like, really.

00:51:38.000 That's fine.

00:51:38.000 The last time people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez been in Washington, D.C., the happier I am.

00:51:43.000 Also, maybe she could read, like, a book.

00:51:44.000 Right?

00:51:45.000 You know, while she's on break.

00:51:46.000 You know, like the Constitution.

00:51:47.000 Maybe the Federalist Papers.

00:51:49.000 You know, something.

00:51:49.000 Like Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hassel.

00:51:51.000 Like, something useful.

00:51:52.000 Right?

00:51:53.000 So, take a break.

00:51:53.000 Enjoy.

00:51:54.000 But then, she tweeted out, like, all of these accounts are false.

00:51:57.000 Unnamed sources.

00:51:59.000 Fake news.

00:52:00.000 And people, I'm left like, well, you know.

00:52:02.000 Maybe she's right, maybe fake news.

00:52:04.000 And you're sitting here going, President Trump says that stuff, and you say that he's responsible for the death of journalists, and AOC says this stuff, and you're like, she's got a point, you know?

00:52:14.000 She's smart, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 0.96

00:52:18.000 No.

00:52:19.000 No.

00:52:21.000 First of all, not a single report about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been recanted by the source that reported it, which is a pretty good indicator that actually she is fibbing about how the news covers her.

00:52:31.000 And yet the media allow her to get it.

00:52:32.000 Like, when is Brian Stelter going to feature her attacks on the fake news media this Sunday on Reliable Sources?

00:52:38.000 Or are we just gonna get a bunch more stories about how she really uses social media to its fullest extent? 0.97

00:52:43.000 I mean, she does, like, Instagram episodes with her instant pot! 1.00

00:52:46.000 I mean, come on!

00:52:47.000 She's so sophisticated in her use of Twitter! 0.88

00:52:50.000 The point I'm making here is a double standard exists in the media, and you know it does, and I know it does, and everybody knows it does.

00:52:55.000 Okay, speaking of double standards existing in the media, can you imagine if a right-winger sent their beard shavings to a famous artist to make an amulet?

00:53:05.000 And this person we're also in charge of a major outlet for free speech?

00:53:09.000 Well, you have to imagine no longer, because it turns out that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sent beard shavings to Azalea Banks so she could make an amulet to protect him from ISIS.

00:53:19.000 If that's not a Mad Libs headline, I don't know what is.

00:53:21.000 I mean, that's basically like, fill in these blanks.

00:53:25.000 Blank sent blank to blank so she could make him a blank to protect him from blank.

00:53:31.000 And you filled that in with Jack Dorsey, beard shavings, Azalea Banks, amulet, and ISIS.

00:53:36.000 All right, man.

00:53:38.000 Okay.

00:53:40.000 Apparently the bizarre claim was first mentioned by Banks on Twitter in 2016 when she claimed that Dorsey sent me his hair in an envelope because I was supposed to make him an amulet for protection.

00:53:50.000 Yeah, man.

00:53:51.000 That's a thing.

00:53:52.000 Ross Dude had an interesting piece over the New York Times about the new paganism that has arisen in America, that we've basically kept all of the religious morality of the past, but we've shifted it into social media frenzies.

00:54:05.000 And all we were lacking was a sort of programmatic religious custom stuff.

00:54:12.000 A programmatic religious order, right?

00:54:15.000 Like the sacrifices in the temple.

00:54:16.000 I guess we're doing that stuff now, too.

00:54:18.000 We got Jack Dorsey sending his beard hair to Azalea Banks to protect him from ISIS.

00:54:23.000 I will say this.

00:54:24.000 I mean, apparently it's worked so far.

00:54:25.000 He's still alive.

00:54:26.000 I mean, I still haven't got him.

00:54:27.000 So does Azalea Banks really have time for that? 1.00

00:54:30.000 Is that like what she does in her spare time?

00:54:31.000 She takes beard shavings and puts them in amulets? 1.00

00:54:35.000 That's right, she is a Wiccan. 0.99

00:54:36.000 Thank you. 0.92

00:54:37.000 Which means, according to the media, that means she's a witch. 0.80

00:54:39.000 Did you know that?

00:54:39.000 It's really amazing.

00:54:40.000 There was a headline the other day.

00:54:41.000 It said that witches are very upset with President Trump for using the term witch hunt.

00:54:45.000 They are insulted by the use of the term witch hunt.

00:54:47.000 Wait until you hear what real women have to say about people saying that men are women.

00:54:52.000 Wait until you hear... I like when the media says, real witches upset with term witch hunt. 1.00

00:54:56.000 Real witches? 1.00

00:55:00.000 Okay, alright.

00:55:01.000 So that's the thing.

00:55:02.000 Yeah, we haven't gone crazy at all.

00:55:05.000 Yeah, our country's doing just fine, everybody!

00:55:08.000 Alrighty, so, we'll be back here tomorrow with all the latest in news and insanity.

00:55:12.000 We will see you then.

00:55:13.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:55:13.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:55:19.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Senya Villareal, executive producer Jeremy Boring, senior producer Jonathan Hay.

00:55:25.000 Our supervising producer is Mathis Glover, and our technical producer is Austin Stevens.

00:55:29.000 Edited by Alex Zingaro.

00:55:30.000 Audio is mixed by Mike Carmina.

00:55:32.000 Hair and makeup is by Jesua Alvera.

00:55:34.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire Ford Publishing production.

The Ben Shapiro Show - December 19, 2018

The New Blacklist | Ep. 683

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