The Ben Shapiro Show - The SMOKING GUN In The Biden Cover-Up?

00:00:00.000 All righty, tons coming up on today's show.

00:00:02.000 A massive update on actually the biggest cover-up and scandal probably of my political lifetime.

00:00:07.000 Plus, we will get to the situation in Ukraine.

00:00:10.000 Is there somebody who's sort of freelancing foreign policy inside the Trump administration?

00:00:14.000 Plus, the Trump administration putting Harvard on blast first.

00:00:17.000 The Daily Wire is where the most trusted voices in conservative media live this week.

00:00:21.000 Those voices just got louder.

00:00:22.000 Isabel Brown is joining the fight.

00:00:24.000 Her brand new show premieres this fall only at Daily Wire Plus.

00:00:27.000 This is just the beginning.

00:00:27.000 We're celebrating a decade of the Daily Wire, and there is so much more on the way.

00:00:30.000 New shows, new talent, more incredible films, documentaries, and series.

00:00:34.000 It's about building something lefts can't cancel, can't burn down, cannot ignore.

00:00:37.000 Get the real news, the facts they hide, and the voices they can't silence.

00:00:40.000 Go to dailywireplus.com and join us today.

00:00:42.000 All righty, folks, it's time to talk about the biggest conspiracy and the biggest cover-up in modern American history.

00:00:48.000 And no, I'm not talking about Jeffrey Epstein.

00:00:49.000 If you want my full take on that, you can listen to yesterday's show.

00:00:52.000 But I am talking about the cover-up that was right in front of us and that actually does go all the way to the top.

00:00:57.000 And that, of course, involves the fact that the president of the United States was for several years mentally deficient and that someone else, we don't know who, was actually running the country.

00:01:07.000 Well, the smoking gun to that effect was essentially presented yesterday in front of Congress.

00:01:12.000 So Dr. Kevin O'Connor, who is former President Joe Biden's White House physician, invoked his rights under the Fifth Amendment on Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee, which is insane.

00:01:22.000 House Republicans, led by Representative James Comer, had subpoenaed O'Connor in June, according to Newsweek, ordering him to testify as part of the investigation into the cover-up of President Joe Biden's cognitive decline.

00:01:33.000 Remember, for years, the entire media, the entire Democratic apparatus claimed that Joe Biden was mentally well, and we could all even see his decline back during that 2020 race.

00:01:43.000 It was not nearly as severe as it became in 2021, 22, and certainly by 2024 when he went on stage with Donald Trump and effectively died on the stage.

00:01:52.000 But it was clear to anyone with eyeballs who was watching Joe Biden for any amount of time that this was a man who's in serious mental and physical decline.

00:02:00.000 And Kevin O'Connor was the former White House physician for Joe Biden.

00:02:06.000 And here he was yesterday, pleading the fifth.

00:02:08.000 He was asked about what he knew when he knew it about Joe Biden's health condition, and he pled the fifth.

00:02:13.000 Were you ever told to lie about the president's health?

00:02:17.000 On the advice of counsel, I must respectfully decline to answer based upon the physician-patient privilege and in reliance on my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

00:02:26.000 Did you ever believe the president was unfit to execute his duties as president?

00:02:32.000 On the advice of counsel, I must respectfully decline to answer based upon the physician-patient privilege and in reliance on my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

00:02:42.000 On the advice of counsel, I must respectfully decline to answer based upon the physician-patient privilege and in reliance on my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

00:02:52.000 Dr. O'Connor, is it your intention to decline to answer all questions put to you today by the committee on the basis of the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination?

00:03:02.000 On the advice of counsel, I must respectfully decline to answer based upon the physician-patient privilege and in reliance on my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

00:03:12.000 Okay, this is insane.

00:03:14.000 This is insane.

00:03:15.000 Okay, so he is claiming based on two things that he is not going to testify.

00:03:19.000 One, of course, is physician patient privilege, which is the idea that you are supposed to keep secret the sort of health information that you and your doctor exchange.

00:03:28.000 The doctor is not supposed to talk publicly about that.

00:03:31.000 However, however, the physician patient privilege should probably not extend to public statements that you make about the health of the president of the United States because you're violating patient privilege by even saying that much.

00:03:43.000 If you make a statement that the president is healthy, that the president has the following conditions, that's a violation of physician patient privilege in any other context.

00:03:51.000 If your doctor went to a bar today and started talking about your specific health issues, even if he said you're totally healthy and fine, that's a violation of physician patient privilege.

00:04:00.000 But that's exactly what Kevin O'Connor did as the White House doctor for Joe Biden.

00:04:04.000 He put out public statements about the health of the president of the United States.

00:04:09.000 And so asking him about that really should not be an issue.

00:04:13.000 As far as the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, that protects against self-incrimination.

00:04:17.000 So what he's saying is, if I talk here, then I may find myself in danger of a perjury trap.

00:04:23.000 I might find myself in danger of committing a crime, which is absolutely astonishing.

00:04:29.000 Again, remember, the original question here was, were you instructed to lie about the president's health at any point?

00:04:34.000 That is not, by the way, a question about the president's health.

00:04:37.000 Notice that's not a question about the president's health.

00:04:39.000 That's a question about the lies surrounding the president's health.

00:04:44.000 And if he says yes, then he's relying on the Fifth Amendment, presumably, right?

00:04:49.000 He might be committing a crime.

00:04:50.000 Then he's saying that he might have told the American people something false or told Congress something false or something like that.

00:04:56.000 All of which goes to the fact that it is a dramatically undercovered feature of our national life that for several years, the president of the United States was not Joseph R. Biden, the elected president of the United States, and that there were people who colluded to keep him in power, despite the fact we have an explicit amendment to the Constitution designed to oust people who are mentally incompetent from this office, which means all members of the Biden cabinet were complicit in the cover-up of his health condition.

00:05:22.000 All Biden cabinet members were complicit in the reality that the president of the United States was not actually the president of the United States.

00:05:30.000 Now, that's a scandal.

00:05:31.000 That's a cover-up.

00:05:32.000 And that requires a much deeper investigation.

00:05:34.000 It was all out in public view.

00:05:35.000 There's tremendous evidence for it.

00:05:36.000 And now all of the key witnesses are claiming, what, their Fifth Amendment rights?

00:05:42.000 A statement was put out on behalf of Dr. O'Connor by his lawyers.

00:05:47.000 Quote, as you know, Dr. Kevin O'Connor served as the physician to President Biden during President Biden's term of office from January 2021 to January 2025.

00:05:56.000 Dr. O'Connor also had been President Biden's primary care physician for the 12 years before President Biden took office.

00:06:01.000 It was Dr. O'Connor's privilege and honor to serve as President Biden's physician as head of the White House medical unit.

00:06:08.000 Dr. O'Connor also served in the United States Army for more than 20 years, doing active tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

00:06:13.000 This committee has indicated to Dr. O'Connor and his attorneys it does not intend to honor one of the most well-known privileges in our law, the physician-patient privilege.

00:06:21.000 Now, again, he was the White House doctor who did, in fact, speak publicly about the health of the President of the United States while he was in the White House.

00:06:30.000 So this is not a normal patient-physician relationship.

00:06:35.000 Say the lawyers.

00:06:36.000 The committee has indicated it will demand that Dr. O'Connell reveal, without any limitations, confidential information regarding his medical examinations, treatment, and care of President Biden.

00:06:43.000 Revealing confidential patient information would violate the most fundamental ethical duty of a physician, could result in revocation of Dr. O'Connor's medical license, and would subject Dr. O'Connor to potential civil liability.

00:06:53.000 He will not violate his oath of confidentiality to any of his patients, including President Biden.

00:06:58.000 Furthermore, through the issuance of a presidential memorandum dated June 4th, 2025, 2025, President Trump has directed the Department of Justice and the White House Counsel to conduct a parallel criminal investigation into the same topics being investigated by this committee.

00:07:11.000 In fact, just this past Sunday, Chairman Comer himself confirmed on Fox that Pambondi has announced an investigation at the Department of Justice into the illegal use of the Autopen.

00:07:20.000 We believe that the committee should hold its investigation in abeyance until any criminal investigation has concluded.

00:07:26.000 The totality of the circumstances surrounding this committee's investigation leave Dr. O'Connor no choice but to decline to answer questions on two overlapping grounds.

00:07:33.000 First, the physician patient privilege.

00:07:35.000 Second, the pending DOJ criminal investigation leaves Dr. O'Connor no choice but to invoke his constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to any questions posed by the committee.

00:07:45.000 Now, Congress can easily solve this problem.

00:07:48.000 All they have to do is just grant him immunity because then the Fifth Amendment concern goes away.

00:07:52.000 If they say anything you testify on today cannot be used as the basis for your future prosecution, he can no longer claim the Fifth Amendment because the Fifth Amendment only applies in arenas where you could theoretically be prosecuted for the things that you are saying.

00:08:07.000 By the way, there are ways around this.

00:08:08.000 According to the Congressional Research Service, under federal statute, when a witness asserts the privilege, the full house or the committee conducting the investigation may seek a court order that one directs the witness to testify and two grants the witness immunity against the use of his or her testimony.

00:08:21.000 So that presumably is the next step right here.

00:08:25.000 But again, here's the thing.

00:08:26.000 O'Connor was speaking publicly about Joe Biden's health while he was president of the United States.

00:08:31.000 This is not a normal doctor-patient relationship.

00:08:33.000 Here was O'Connor in 2024 publicly saying that Joe Biden's mental health and cognition are totally fine.

00:08:40.000 How's the president's health?

00:08:42.000 It is.

00:08:43.000 Are you going to come to the briefing room to address us?

00:08:47.000 Probably not.

00:08:49.000 Could that change before the end of his term?

00:08:53.000 And how is his mental cognition?

00:08:56.000 It's excellent.

00:08:57.000 Is there a reason you didn't perform a cognitive test on him?

00:09:02.000 He's good every day.

00:09:03.000 He's good every day.

00:09:04.000 What about the speculation about Parkinson's disease or a related condition?

00:09:09.000 And he's walking away from the camera.

00:09:10.000 Dr. O'Connor, is there anything to that speculation that there might be something related to Parkinson's that he has?

00:09:15.000 Yeah, he's good.

00:09:16.000 Okay.

00:09:17.000 And the specialist's visit to the White House, does that have anything to do with that concern?

00:09:21.000 Yeah, he's seen him three times.

00:09:22.000 Yeah, the meter is there.

00:09:24.000 Okay, just smiling and walking away.

00:09:26.000 Everything's fine.

00:09:26.000 His mental health, it's great.

00:09:28.000 Is there a reason he didn't do the cognitive test?

00:09:30.000 Sure.

00:09:31.000 He saw him every day.

00:09:32.000 He was working with him every day.

00:09:33.000 So the Alex Thompson J. Tapper book, Original Sin, which is all about the cover-up of Joe Biden's mental health condition, mentions O'Connor several times.

00:09:43.000 Quote, O'Connor told people the 10-minute test was for physicians who saw their patients only occasionally, and he constantly saw the president.

00:09:49.000 When others suggested doing the test to make sure, O'Connor would sometimes point to the Oval Office and say, Biden's already being president.

00:09:56.000 O'Connor quipped that Biden's staff were trying to kill him while O'Connor was trying to keep him alive.

00:10:00.000 He passes a cognitive test every day.

00:10:03.000 Again, these were the lines O'Connor was using.

00:10:05.000 So now him claiming the Fifth Amendment is a tacit admission that there was something going on, which we already know.

00:10:11.000 We already know there was a cover-up.

00:10:13.000 The only question is who told O'Connor to cover up the health condition?

00:10:16.000 Was it Jill?

00:10:17.000 Was it Joe?

00:10:18.000 Who did that? 0.91

00:10:20.000 Also, why was everybody else in the White House complicit in this cover-up?

00:10:23.000 And who the hell was the president of the United States for multiple years, for multiple years?

00:10:29.000 Now, listen, I understand all of this has consequences for the radical and I think justified distrust of our institutions on a wide level.

00:10:36.000 What we've watched over the course of the last few years is the complete destruction of institutional trust at pretty much every major American institution.

00:10:43.000 And I think that that destruction of trust is largely, sometimes almost entirely justified from the BLM riots of 2020 to the COVID lies that we were told during 2020 to the lies that were told about inflation in Afghanistan and the president's health.

00:11:01.000 I'm not sure more lies have ever been exposed more quickly than right now.

00:11:04.000 So I totally get the radical skepticism that many, many people are engaging in right now.

00:11:09.000 I do.

00:11:10.000 And even in cases where I don't agree with the outcome of that radical skepticism, I totally understand the radical skepticism for sure, for sure.

00:11:17.000 This needs to be uncovered to the fullest extent of law, and people do need to be prosecuted for it.

00:11:22.000 The American people were lied to.

00:11:24.000 Anybody who was involved in the Joe Biden cabinet that refused to make a move to invoke the 25th Amendment to oust him as president of the United States for mental incompetence needs to be effectively barred from politics forever.

00:11:39.000 Anyone who is a cabinet secretary who rose to that level, the Pete Buttigieges of the world, for example, needs to be held accountable for not having tried to invoke the 25th Amendment because the American people were robbed of having a president of the United States that they actually elected.

00:11:56.000 It's unbelievable.

00:11:58.000 And the fact that the doctor is taking the Fifth Amendment right now is just demonstrative of the lengths to which people surrounding the president will go to maintain their hold on proximity to power, even if the person they are supposed to be caring for is the president of the United States, not his administrative power or his family members who may be exercising that power in his absence.

00:12:18.000 Again, the widespread speculation, justified by an enormous amount of contemporaneous evidence, is that it was actually Jill and Hunter who were effectively running the country while the president of the United States was mentally incompetent.

00:12:30.000 Democrats are going to have to live this one down for a very, very long time.

00:12:34.000 Alrighty, coming up, a bunch of strange stuff happening with regards to the Trump administration and Ukraine.

00:12:38.000 I'll explain in a moment.

00:12:39.000 First, who knows you better than yourself, your family, your friends?

00:12:42.000 Well, if you own any internet connected device, there are thousands of companies that might know you better than you know yourself.

00:12:46.000 These are called data brokers.

00:12:48.000 They make billions tracking everything you do online, every purchase, every location, every conversation, your most personal beliefs, all packaged into a profile.

00:12:55.000 They sell to marketers, activists, and yes, politicians looking to influence you.

00:12:59.000 You could go completely off the grid, or you could just use ExpressVPN.

00:13:02.000 These companies track you through your IP address, your digital fingerprint.

00:13:05.000 ExpressVPN gives you a new IP address in a location you choose, making you virtually untraceable.

00:13:10.000 With ExpressVPN, your connection is encrypted and rooted through secure servers even your isp can't see your activity which is important since they are legally allowed to sell your data to whomever they want obviously i'm on the road a lot these days that means i'm using public wi-fi or wi-fi i don't control and that means it's even more important for me to use express vpn expressvpn works on all your devices phones laptops tablets with just one click for instant privacy right now you can get four extra months of expressvpn for free go to expressvpn.com slash ben to learn more that's exp ressvpn.com slash ben

00:13:40.000 to reclaim your privacy today.

00:13:41.000 Also, what does feeling truly safe at home mean?

00:13:45.000 I used to think good locks and a loud alarm were enough, and then eventually I realized that real security isn't just responding to threats, but preventing them in the first place.

00:13:52.000 And that's why I use SimpliSafe for proactive protection that keeps my studio and employees secure before, God forbid, anything can happen.

00:13:58.000 Most security systems only spring into action after somebody has already broken in.

00:14:01.000 By then, it's too late.

00:14:03.000 SimpliSafe's new active guard, Outdoor Protection, actually stops break-ins before they happen.

00:14:07.000 Their AI-powered cameras work with live monitoring agents who can spot suspicious activity around your property in real time.

00:14:13.000 If somebody's lurking where they shouldn't be lurking, agents can talk directly to them, flip on spotlights, call cops if needed, all before anything happens to your house.

00:14:20.000 There are no contracts, no hidden fees to worry about.

00:14:22.000 It's easy to see why over 4 million Americans trust SimpliSafe.

00:14:25.000 CNET named it the best home security system of 2025.

00:14:28.000 Newsweek and USA Today ranked them number one for customer service.

00:14:32.000 Plus, monitoring plans start at around just a buck a day, and they back it all up with a 60-day money-back guarantee.

00:14:37.000 We love SimpliSafe at our studio.

00:14:38.000 It makes us all feel safe.

00:14:39.000 I mean, listen, it's a very,

00:14:40.000 very dicey time right now feeling safe is important and simply safe makes that happen check them out at simply safe.com slash shapiro to claim 50 off a new system with a professional monitoring plan and get your first month for free at simply safe.com slash shapiro there's no safe like simply safe and meanwhile in foreign policy news the president of the united states has unfrozen some of the key aid to ukraine meanwhile congress is ready to move on russia sanctions according to both the speaker of the house and the senate majority leader according to

00:15:10.000 politico both top republican congressional leaders said wednesday they are prepared to move forward with new sanctions targeting russia this month after president trump signaled this week he is willing to pressure Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.

00:15:22.000 Speaker Johnson said Vladimir Putin has shown an unwillingness to be reasonable and to talk seriously about brokering a peace.

00:15:27.000 And I think we have to send him a message.

00:15:28.000 That's my view.

00:15:30.000 That, of course, is right.

00:15:31.000 Meanwhile, Senator Majority Leader Thune cited substantial progress in working with the White House on legislation he said would, quote, enhance President Trump's leverage at the negotiating table and help end the bloodshed in Ukraine.

00:15:41.000 He said Senate Republicans are committed to working with the House and White House to get this legislation through Congress and onto the president's desk.

00:15:49.000 And this, of course, is the right approach.

00:15:50.000 I mean, the fact is that Vladimir Putin is wildly intransigent.

00:15:53.000 He does not want an end to this conflict.

00:15:56.000 He believes that if he just holds out long enough, eventually resistance is going to collapse and he will be able to take Ukraine.

00:16:02.000 And he's also in a situation where he can continue to run this meat grinder on his own people.

00:16:07.000 And because he's a dictator who hurls people from third story windows without the questioning media to ask him about it, because every leader kills people, he's able to continue doing this odd infinitum.

00:16:17.000 He can just continue doing this forever.

00:16:19.000 The United States backing off would mean that Ukraine loses the war.

00:16:22.000 In fact, last night in Kyiv was the biggest drone barrage of the war so far.

00:16:27.000 Russia's been dramatically upping the ante in Ukraine.

00:16:30.000 Joining us on the line is JP Lindsley, American journalist who has reported from Ukraine off and live since 2022, bringing daily uncensored frontline updates to a global audience.

00:16:38.000 JP, thanks so much for taking the time.

00:16:41.000 Yeah, Ben, hello from Kyiv.

00:16:43.000 Great to see you here virtually.

00:16:45.000 And I know you were here not long ago.

00:16:48.000 And when you were here, it was calm and quiet.

00:16:50.000 But what we went through last night, really the past week, but last night was probably the worst and most intense attack I have witnessed during my three years of reporting here every single day.

00:17:01.000 So why don't you tell me about what's been going on for the last week?

00:17:03.000 Obviously, escalations from Putin.

00:17:06.000 What do those look like on the ground in Kyiv?

00:17:08.000 When we were there, there was a drone alert, but it never actually materialized.

00:17:11.000 Obviously, things have changed pretty radically.

00:17:14.000 Yeah, you know, I'd say that there are two types of dualities here in the war that I'm feeling, that we're feeling every day here.

00:17:20.000 One is a duality that happens at the front line, which is something we can discuss later.

00:17:23.000 But then this is a duality in the cities.

00:17:26.000 And so a city like Kyiv today, you know that every single person in this city was awake the entire night during that horrible, intense attack.

00:17:34.000 And moments ago, I was just going for a run through the city.

00:17:38.000 People went to work on time this morning.

00:17:40.000 I was at my coffee shop at 9 o'clock in the morning.

00:17:42.000 People are cheerful.

00:17:44.000 And yet you know that everyone has gone through this hell.

00:17:46.000 And what we had last night from about 1.30 in the morning until almost 4 o'clock, something that I've never witnessed before.

00:17:54.000 Every single second, then for those hours, almost every single second, we heard the sound of the Iranian-designed Shahed drones buzzing or exploding. 1.00

00:18:04.000 Every single second, for two and a half hours, incredibly intense, terrifying.

00:18:09.000 Even people that have been through a lot here, military guys and all that, everyone was scared.

00:18:15.000 And it felt like one of those nights when you think, this could be the end.

00:18:18.000 And then very curiously, in the shelter where I was in my building, at about 4 o'clock in the morning, the intense drone attack stopped.

00:18:26.000 And then we got round two, which was the missiles, the ballistic missiles.

00:18:30.000 But very interestingly, people started to leave the shelter during the missile attack, in part because you get tired in a way and you accept things.

00:18:37.000 But also, if a missile hits your building, a shelter is not really going to protect you.

00:18:41.000 So the irony is when the more dangerous weapon showed up, people go upstairs and go back up to their apartments.

00:18:46.000 And then just a few hours later, 8 o'clock, I was at my regular coffee shop and everyone is, you can tell everyone is shaking.

00:18:54.000 The girl pouring my coffee, she just said Strasno, scary, and she smiles and says, what a beautiful day the weather is today.

00:19:00.000 And that's a reality right now.

00:19:02.000 I mean, really, it's been like this, I'd say, for more than a week now.

00:19:05.000 Every day in Kyiv, you can have a most beautiful summer day.

00:19:08.000 But as it gets closer to sunset, everyone gets this sick feeling saying, okay, what are we going to face tonight?

00:19:14.000 Because that has been the case every single day.

00:19:17.000 So obviously Putin is up the ante.

00:19:19.000 On a geopolitical level, the president of the United States is upping the ante as well, because he has now recognized publicly that Vladimir Putin was slowplaying him or lying to him about his supposed desire to achieve a ceasefire.

00:19:29.000 President Zelensky of Ukraine, of course, has for at this point months been saying that he is willing to do an immediate ceasefire, just freeze the lines on the ground, and all the rest.

00:19:38.000 Putin has been saying nothing of the sort.

00:19:40.000 President Trump has said, okay, well, then I'm going to send additional defensive weaponry to Ukraine.

00:19:45.000 Do you think it's because President Trump is now recognizing the reality that Vladimir Putin is trying to up the ante and put pressure on Trump?

00:19:51.000 I think there's a significant chance of that because we're seeing, you know, every attack these past weeks, every major attack has been the worst ever.

00:19:57.000 And it's always coincident with something that Trump has just said.

00:20:01.000 And if you look at Trump's comments, you know, saying the other day that Putin is full of BS, you know, we're starting to see that Trump is seeing a different perspective on Ukraine.

00:20:08.000 He's seeing that Ukraine needs to win and maybe even that Ukraine can win.

00:20:12.000 And so Putin responds by lashing out.

00:20:15.000 He's not able to win at the front lines.

00:20:17.000 It's very bloody there.

00:20:18.000 So instead, we see him lashing out upon these cities.

00:20:21.000 And so I think that there's a sense that, I mean, Russia's greatest fear is that America and Ukraine would be best friends.

00:20:29.000 And so whenever Trump is sort of opening up to Ukraine, Russia makes these sort of moves, I think, out of a lot of desperation.

00:20:37.000 It's also important to remember, not just Kyiv, but the city of Kharkiv, been 30 miles from Russia.

00:20:43.000 That city is pounded every day and night.

00:20:45.000 And I always talk about it because by day, it is a lovely city.

00:20:49.000 There's low crime.

00:20:50.000 Kids walk to school on their own.

00:20:52.000 If Americans saw that, they would love it.

00:20:54.000 And they'd say, we need to protect it.

00:20:55.000 But they only really see the negative side of it.

00:20:57.000 And I think even within the White House, maybe this is changing now.

00:21:00.000 But even the White House has only seen the sad stories and they haven't seen the stories of strength.

00:21:05.000 And there's a new chance now with Ukraine finally, they should have done this a while ago, is dismissing the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. who really didn't understand the heart of America.

00:21:17.000 And I think the key here is that Ukraine doesn't score an own goal, that they picked the right person.

00:21:22.000 And so I would hope they would pick someone like someone you met, my friend Gandalf, the warrior from Mazov, who's lost an eye and an arm in battle, who, by the way, listens to your show, or my friend Serhi Stakovsky, who beat Roger Federer at Wimbledon, and now he's a soldier in the front lines.

00:21:37.000 If Ukraine can think like that, and they can think of the optics that are needed to persuade the American people, the optics that Trump needs to make the case, I think then Ukraine can actually seize this moment, this awakening from Trump, and the sense that what Russia is doing, as Trump himself said, that Putin is just a bad person.

00:21:55.000 And finally, I think thanks to your reporting and thanks to these attacks on cities like Kyiv, finally Trump is starting to realize what Margaret Thatcher realized in 2000, that Putin is a bad guy.

00:22:07.000 So let's talk for a second about the situation on the Eastern Front.

00:22:10.000 Obviously, Russia continues to pour troops and material into that area.

00:22:15.000 The case that the United States has made, and I think this is true for virtually everybody on the right, including people like me, is that the chances right now that Ukraine is going to be able to push Russia out of Donbass or out of Crimea, extremely, extremely low.

00:22:27.000 So when Americans look at the possibility of an off-ramp, obviously everybody in Ukraine, in the United States, would love to see an off-ramp.

00:22:34.000 That off-ramp can only come when Vladimir Putin realizes that he's not going to be able to go an inch further and that there is, in fact, a wall in his way in the form of material aid and support.

00:22:43.000 President Trump seems to be coming to that conclusion right now.

00:22:46.000 How dynamic is the battlefield in the East right now?

00:22:49.000 Are the lines moving or is this essentially a frozen conflict?

00:22:52.000 Well, I would say here's what the other duality is, because, you know, there's incredible things happening at the front, especially with Ukrainian drone innovation.

00:22:59.000 But there's also, everything is always, you know, just a few steps away from disaster.

00:23:04.000 And it's been that way these three years.

00:23:07.000 And Ukrainians have held on. 0.96

00:23:08.000 And I think a couple points here.

00:23:10.000 One, this thing gets missed entirely.

00:23:12.000 The first step could simply be getting Patriot missile systems and other air defense to protect Ukrainian cities, to make sure that the fight is only at the front line and stop letting it be in the cities.

00:23:21.000 That's the first thing that can happen.

00:23:23.000 Secondly, at the front, you know, here's an important perspective.

00:23:26.000 So last August, the Russians were on the edge of taking the city of Prokrovsk in Donbas.

00:23:32.000 And go back and look at all the headlines from The Economist and the BBC, all the military experts told us that Prokrovsk was going to fall in two weeks.

00:23:40.000 Ben, that was last August.

00:23:41.000 Prokrovsk now is decimated, but it hasn't fallen.

00:23:44.000 And we never see, you know, the absence of a problem doesn't become a headline in our Western media, but it should be.

00:23:50.000 I mean, Ukrainians have held Prokrovsk, which means that instead of the fight being in a major city like Dnipro, it's been in a small city.

00:23:57.000 And so when we talk about frozen conflict, I think we kind of miss that element of the story, that actually, because Ukrainians have held the line, other places are safer.

00:24:06.000 And if Ukrainians had the firepower from the West, so what Ukrainians are doing with their resources is incredible innovation.

00:24:16.000 I just posted a thread on Axe yesterday at JP Lindsley about how NATO drones, when they come to Ukraine, including American drones, including from great American companies, they're not ready.

00:24:26.000 They don't work.

00:24:27.000 And Ukrainians are quickly adapting.

00:24:30.000 They could teach so many lessons to the Pentagon.

00:24:32.000 But with those drones, they can kind of hold the line.

00:24:35.000 But as far as pushing it back, you cannot do that without the heavy firepower that comes from a country like Germany and especially America.

00:24:43.000 And so if Trump were to decide to move away from only a defensive posture, that's the first thing, protect the cities.

00:24:48.000 But you could really end this if you get American firepower, which we've seen.

00:24:52.000 I mean, when the HIMARS arrived, Joe Biden reluctantly sent them, Jake Sullivan, Otto Penn, whatever, reluctantly sent the HIMARS in June of 2022.

00:25:01.000 Before the HIMARS arrived, one city in Donbass was falling every week into Russian hands.

00:25:07.000 And then what happened?

00:25:07.000 High Mars arrived and Bakhmut did not fall for nine months.

00:25:11.000 And so if we look at it that way, we see what American weapons can do when they're sent here with permission to use them.

00:25:16.000 Well, that's JP Lindsley reporting from On the Ground in Kiev.

00:25:19.000 Really appreciate the time, JP, and keep safe out there.

00:25:22.000 Ben, thank you, sir.

00:25:24.000 Well, President Trump, for his part, was asked by the media about who had authorized the pause and aids Ukraine, particularly Patriot missile defense systems to Ukraine.

00:25:33.000 Here was President Trump being grilled about it.

00:25:36.000 Yesterday, you said that you were not sure who ordered the munitions halted to Ukraine.

00:25:43.000 Have you since been able to figure that out?

00:25:45.000 Well, I haven't thought about it because we're looking at Ukraine right now and munitions, but I have not gone into it.

00:25:52.000 What does it say that such a big decision could be made inside your government without you knowing?

00:25:57.000 I would know.

00:25:58.000 If a decision was made, I will know.

00:26:00.000 I'll be the first to know.

00:26:02.000 In fact, most likely I'd give the order, but I haven't done that yet.

00:26:06.000 Okay, so the question is then who did give the order?

00:26:09.000 Because there are clearly forces inside the Trump administration who are running their own foreign policy.

00:26:13.000 This is a thing that clearly is happening.

00:26:16.000 So, according to the scroll, which is a daily news update from Tablet, they think that they've uncovered who this person was.

00:26:22.000 It is not a shock to find that it is probably Elbridge Colby, the Undersecretary of Defense, who is allies with the Vice President of the United States and is very much part of the isolationist wing inside the White House.

00:26:33.000 Now, again, there can be widespread debate inside the White House about foreign policy.

00:26:36.000 We know that that debate happens and that there are very live conversations about a wide variety of topics ranging from Ukraine to the Middle East to the Far East.

00:26:43.000 We know that for a fact.

00:26:44.000 It is one thing to have that debate.

00:26:46.000 It is another thing to effectuate your own decision-making before the president signs in to just go ahead and do the thing.

00:26:53.000 And that seems to me a fireable offense, if this is true.

00:26:56.000 So Park McDougal reporting, last week, media reported the United States had decided to pause weapons shipments to Ukraine, including missile defense interceptors, 155 millimeter artillery shells, and Stinger surface-to-air missiles amid concern about the U.S.'s military stockpiles.

00:27:10.000 The move marked a major shift in U.S. policy, one that could spell doom for Ukraine's war against Russia.

00:27:14.000 As it turned out, the policy shift lasted less than a week.

00:27:18.000 President Trump said the weapons deliveries to Ukraine would continue because the Ukrainians have to be able to defend themselves.

00:27:23.000 The next day, he said he didn't know who had authorized the weapons pause and added a shot at the Russian president Vladimir Putin, saying, quote, we get a lot of BS thrown to us by Putin.

00:27:31.000 So someone formulated a major change in U.S. foreign policy and announced it to the press without clearing it with the president of the United States.

00:27:38.000 So who was it?

00:27:39.000 According to two reports on Wednesday, one in CNN, one in Politico, the authorization for the weapons pause came from the defense secretary, but the idea came from Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and restraintist extraordinaire Elbridge Bridge Colby.

00:27:52.000 Per the reports, Colby recommended the pause after Trump ordered a review of U.S. munitions stockpiles and then pushed it up the chain at the Pentagon.

00:27:58.000 Hegseth signed off on Colby's recommendation, but did so without first notifying Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg, or Congress.

00:28:06.000 Upon learning of the pause, White House officials told Hegseth they would provide cover for the decision, but urged the Pentagon to explain it to Congress.

00:28:14.000 But here, as always, it's not clear who these White House officials were, whether they were acting with Trump's approval, or whether they had even looped the president in.

00:28:21.000 And again, one of the things that I noted yesterday on the program is that in the political article that named Check Colby is the source of this pause, the first person to rush out to defense was the press secretary, the communications director for J.D. Vance, not President Trump, not the Defense Department.

00:28:38.000 And again, this all plays a role in the perception of Elbridge Colby as a man who's running his own foreign policy in the administration to the detriment of the administration.

00:28:48.000 Right now, the top priority for the administration in the Far East is containment of China. 0.71

00:28:52.000 This is why we have significant tariffs on China.

00:28:55.000 It is why we are pursuing a military buildup largely directed at the South China Sea and protecting Taiwan from the predations of China. 0.92

00:29:02.000 It's why we are trying to foster a better relationship with Japan.

00:29:04.000 That is a hard-fought trade negotiation happening with Japan right now.

00:29:08.000 Well, apparently, Bridge Colby has been participating in a process of effectively undermining our relationship with Japan.

00:29:17.000 According to that political report, he was responsible for tanking the 2 plus 2 summit with Japan scheduled for July.

00:29:23.000 The Japanese had agreed to negotiate on the basis of Kolby's initial request to raise their defense spending to 3.5% of GDP.

00:29:30.000 That's doubling the percent of GDP they're currently spending on defense.

00:29:33.000 But then Kolby unilaterally escalated the demand to 5%, and Japan was like, what the hell?

00:29:38.000 Why are you just throwing this thing in the middle of the table right now when we're late in the negotiations?

00:29:42.000 Apparently, Kolby also has surprised officials at the State Department and National Security Council by ordering a review of AUKUS.

00:29:49.000 That's the trilateral U.S.-British-Australian security pact, under which the U.S. agreed to supply Australia with nuclear submarines and reportedly alarmed the British by demanding they recall an aircraft carrier from a routine deployment to Asia because the United States does not want you there.

00:30:03.000 And again, Japan canceling those negotiations with the United States over Colby.

00:30:07.000 That is unique.

00:30:08.000 Japan really does not like to do that.

00:30:11.000 So, you know, all of this suggests that there is not just a split inside the administration.

00:30:18.000 It suggests actually that there are some people inside the administration who are just doing things without the permission of the president of the United States.

00:30:24.000 Now, listen, you listen to the show.

00:30:27.000 I don't agree with everything President Trump does.

00:30:29.000 There are times where I'm very critical of the president of the United States.

00:30:31.000 I also don't work in the executive branch.

00:30:33.000 The job of the people who work inside the executive branch is to effectuate the policy of the presidents of the United States whom they serve.

00:30:40.000 And again, it is one thing to have a widespread, open, honest, hard debate about tough issues in American foreign policy.

00:30:48.000 It's another thing to just go do your own foreign policy under the auspices of the president of the United States without his permission.

00:30:56.000 That is a very, very different thing.

00:30:58.000 That is a breach of duty.

00:31:00.000 You are not supposed to be doing that.

00:31:03.000 In the first term, we called that the deep state when there were people who were actively pursuing their own policy preferences without reference to the president of the United States, Donald Trump.

00:31:11.000 We said that was the deep state thwarting the will of the president.

00:31:14.000 If that is what happened here with regard to the arms pause on Ukraine, then the president should make somebody's head roll for that, truly.

00:31:22.000 Because again, it is the president of the United States whose policy must prevail in these conversations.

00:31:26.000 And that's true whether you like the president's policy or you don't like the president's policy.

00:31:30.000 Otherwise, you should quit.

00:31:30.000 Get another job.

00:31:31.000 Focus on domestic policy.

00:31:32.000 There's plenty of stuff that you can do.

00:31:33.000 Coming up, the Trump administration going after California for failing to protect girls in violation of the Civil Rights Act.

00:31:39.000 We'll get to that.

00:31:39.000 First, I've discovered an incredible tool.

00:31:41.000 It gives me real-time insights into my metabolism through something as simple as my breath.

00:31:45.000 It's called Lumen.

00:31:46.000 Lumen is the world's first handheld metabolic coach.

00:31:48.000 All you need to do is breathe into it first thing in the morning, and you'll know exactly what's happening with your metabolism, whether you're burning fats or carbs.

00:31:55.000 Based on your measurements, Lumen creates a personalized nutrition plan just for you.

00:31:58.000 Since your metabolism is basically the engine behind everything your body does, when it's working really well, you'll get all kinds of great benefits.

00:32:04.000 You'll find it easier to manage your weight.

00:32:05.000 You'll have more energy throughout the day.

00:32:07.000 You'll see better results from your workouts.

00:32:08.000 You'll even sleep better.

00:32:09.000 It all connects back to having that healthy metabolism.

00:32:11.000 The warmer months are coming.

00:32:12.000 Spring back into your health and fitness.

00:32:14.000 Go to lumen.me slash Shapiro.

00:32:16.000 Get 10% off your lumen.

00:32:18.000 That's l-u-m-e-n.m-e slash shapiro for 10% off your purchase.

00:32:23.000 Thanks to lumen for sponsoring this episode.

00:32:25.000 If you want to get healthier in a new, really fascinating way, go check them out right now.

00:32:29.000 lumen.me slash shapiro and get 10% off your lumen.

00:32:33.000 Get better insight into your own health.

00:32:34.000 And that makes you healthier.

00:32:35.000 Go to lumen.me slash Shapiro.

00:32:37.000 Again, get 10% off your purchase when you do.

00:32:40.000 Also, this is just in from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

00:32:43.000 Right now, the situation across Israel remains historically fragile and urgent.

00:32:48.000 Israeli neighborhoods have been destroyed.

00:32:49.000 Dozens of people are dead.

00:32:50.000 Untold more have been injured.

00:32:52.000 The threat has not ended.

00:32:53.000 Whether in peacetime or at war, Israelis' noballistic missiles could continue to fall at any moment, or a terrorist attack could occur when there are 15 seconds to reach a bomb shelter.

00:33:01.000 It's not a lot of time.

00:33:02.000 But Israelis don't have enough bomb shelters, actually, especially in Tel Aviv and in Israel's north.

00:33:06.000 And that's where the Iranian attacks over the course of the last war were concentrated.

00:33:09.000 And that's why the fellowship has been working around the clock to build and place hundreds of concrete reinforced bomb shelters ready when the next rocket strike occurs.

00:33:16.000 The fellowship is deploying 60 new bomb shelters, including 10 immediate placements and 50 upgraded models with blast-resistant steel doors to protect vulnerable Israeli communities from future threats.

00:33:26.000 The IFCJ is doing all sorts of work for all sorts of people on the ground, all the way up to and including the Druze in southern Syria.

00:33:31.000 To learn more about the IFCJ's lifesaving work, visit benforthefellowship.org.

00:33:36.000 That's one word, benforthefellowship.org.

00:33:38.000 And meanwhile, the president of the United States has authorized more action on the education front.

00:33:44.000 So the Trump administration is now suing the state of California because the state of California has decided that they are going to, in fact, ensure that boys can race against girls in athletics.

00:33:54.000 According to Los Angeles Times, the Trump administration on Wednesday sued California for allowing transgender athletes to compete on school sports teams that match their gender identity, alleging state officials violated federal civil rights law by discriminating against women, a legal action that threatens billions of dollars in federal education funds.

00:34:09.000 The suit filed in the Central District of California alleges that California is in violation of Title IX, a 1972 federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity that receives federal funding.

00:34:21.000 Our friend and the U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmie Dillon said, quote, Title IX was enacted over half a century ago to protect women and girls from discrimination.

00:34:29.000 The Justice Department will not stand for policies that deprive girls of their hard-earned athletic trophies and ignore the safety on the field and in private spaces.

00:34:36.000 Young women should not have to sacrifice their rights to compete for scholarships, opportunities, and awards on the altar of woke gender ideology. 1.00

00:34:42.000 Of course, this is the correct policy, naturally.

00:34:45.000 Linda McMahon, she announced that the Department of Education was finding California in violation of Title IX.

00:34:51.000 Here's the Secretary of Education.

00:34:53.000 Well, I can announce, you know, today, Ainsley, that the Department of Education has found that the state of California, the Department of Education, and their Interscholastic Sports Federation is in violation of Title IX.

00:35:09.000 We are giving them 10 days to remedy that situation.

00:35:12.000 We have remedy for them.

00:35:13.000 But if they do not comply within 10 days, then we will refer this to the Department of Justice.

00:35:19.000 Okay, so, again, that is the right move.

00:35:21.000 That follows hard on an announcement by the California Department of Education that they were just going to ignore the federal government.

00:35:27.000 Okay, well, if you ignore the federal government, this is precisely what happens.

00:35:31.000 By the way, this also shows that Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, is not a particularly honest person on matters of this sort.

00:35:37.000 You'll recall that when he did an interview with Charlie Kirk, he suggested that boys should not be racing against the girls.

00:35:43.000 It's an issue of fairness, but he did not effectuate any of that in policy.

00:35:47.000 But like, would you do something like that?

00:35:48.000 Would you say no men in female sports? 0.99

00:35:50.000 Well, I think it's an issue of fairness.

00:35:52.000 I completely agree with you on that.

00:35:53.000 So that's easy to call out the unfairness of that.

00:35:56.000 There's also humility and grace, you know, that these poor people are more likely to commit suicide, have anxiety and depression.

00:36:03.000 And the way that people talk down to vulnerable communities is an issue that I have a hard time with.

00:36:09.000 Okay, but that does not mean that boys should race against the girls.

00:36:12.000 So Gavin Newsom said all the right things to Charlie Kirk, and then he proceeded to continue to do exactly the same thing that he was doing before.

00:36:18.000 Well, meanwhile, the education department is now announcing that their interest accrual for student loan borrowers is going to resume on August 1st, which of course makes sense.

00:36:28.000 And there are a lot of people who are student loan borrowers who are very happy with the student loan repayment pause.

00:36:33.000 I get it.

00:36:34.000 People take out gigantic loans on the false promise made by colleges that they're going to earn more money.

00:36:38.000 And that is a gigantic scam.

00:36:40.000 I've been discussing this for years.

00:36:41.000 However, the federal taxpayer should not be the one who has to pick up the bill for your decision to take out a gigantic loan to major in sociology at Wellesley.

00:36:50.000 That really is not the taxpayer's burden.

00:36:51.000 That is your burden.

00:36:52.000 Since the ruling, millions of borrowers have remained in forbearance with no interest accrual, with the possibility this forbearance could last until summer 2026 before borrowers were forced to switch out.

00:37:02.000 So the Education Department is now urging borrowers to choose a new repayment plan before restarting payments.

00:37:08.000 In the One Big Beautiful bill, Congressional Republicans eliminated this program and some other repayment options, leaving borrowers with two possible plans, a standard repayment plan and a new repayment assistance plans.

00:37:19.000 And they have until 2028 to figure that out.

00:37:21.000 Secretary of Education McMahon said for years the Biden administration used so-called loan forgiveness promises to win votes, but federal courts repeatedly ruled that those actions were unlawful.

00:37:29.000 Congress designed these programs to ensure that borrowers repay their loans, yet the Biden administration tried to illegally force taxpayers to foot the bill instead.

00:37:36.000 Since day one of the Trump administration, we focused on strengthening the student loan portfolio and simplifying repayment to better serve borrowers.

00:37:43.000 And that is the goal of this particular program.

00:37:45.000 The administration, by the way, is also going after Harvard on every available front because if Harvard continues to churn out propagandistic violations of the Civil Rights Act, well, then Harvard's going to take it directly on the chin.

00:37:57.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, the Trump administration has now attacked Harvard University's accreditation, saying that the school has violated federal discrimination law and may no longer meet accreditation standards.

00:38:07.000 The Department's Education, Health, and Human Services notified Harvard's accreditor that a government investigation found the school violated civil rights law for allegedly failing to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitic harassment.

00:38:19.000 The notification does not actually remove Harvard's accreditation, which would effectively shut down the school.

00:38:24.000 It's a shot across the bow telling Harvard to work with the school to, quote, keep the department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards.

00:38:33.000 Also, DHS, the Department of Homeland Security, has announced it will subpoena Harvard to obtain records relevant to the enforcement of immigration law in connection with the school's international students.

00:38:44.000 Again, there's huge numbers of foreign students who are being imported to the United States from enemy countries like China and who are being given all sorts of magical privileges in the United States.

00:38:54.000 The Trump administration is seeking to stop all of that.

00:38:58.000 Meanwhile, in other action taken By the Trump administration, we now know that the FBI and DOJ are opening investigations into RussiaGate, into the prosecution of John Brennan, the former head of the CIA, as well as James Comey, the former head of the FBI, for their corrupt activities in connection with the Russiagate investigation.

00:39:16.000 John Brennan continues to maintain that he's heard nothing from the DOJ so far.

00:39:20.000 The people who actually worked this, both in terms of trying to collect intelligence prior to the election, and then the ones who put together the intelligence community assessment, they really, I think, showed the best of what the intelligence community and what CIA is made of.

00:39:33.000 So again, I am clueless about what it is exactly that they may be investigating me for.

00:39:40.000 Well, I mean, I think that you should know what they're investigating me for.

00:39:42.000 The answer is perjury.

00:39:43.000 He went in front of Congress and he testified that he had nothing to do with the insertion of the steel dossier into the intelligence community assessment regarding Russia Gate.

00:39:53.000 And it turns out that that, according to internal documents and emails, that that wasn't exactly correct, actually.

00:39:58.000 John Brennan, one of the most corrupt people in the history of modern American government and now under investigation, that, of course, is the right move.

00:40:04.000 President Trump signed into chat on this particular matter.

00:40:06.000 Here's what he had to say.

00:40:08.000 Well, I know nothing about it other than what I read today, but I will tell you, I think they're very dishonest people.

00:40:16.000 I think they're crooked as hell.

00:40:18.000 And maybe they have to pay a price for that.

00:40:22.000 I believe they are truly bad people and dishonest people.

00:40:27.000 So whatever happens, happens.

00:40:29.000 Meanwhile, the left continues to look for its point of resistance against the Trump administration, and they are picking the dumbest ones.

00:40:34.000 So let's begin with the most obvious stupid point of resistance, and that is resistance to immigration law.

00:40:40.000 Democrats continue to claim that ICE are the bad guys, that enforcing immigration law is the problem.

00:40:46.000 This continues to be immigration the signal Trump issue.

00:40:49.000 It has been since 2015.

00:40:50.000 It is the issue on which he is most popular.

00:40:53.000 Trump's proposals with regard to immigration are approved by a wide majority of Americans by every available poll.

00:40:59.000 And so you're starting to see people try to come up with new angles to thwart immigration law or to make their pitch more sympathetic.

00:41:10.000 So for example, the San Bernardino bishop, a man named Alberto Rojas, has now put out a statement dispensing with his parishioners' obligations to attend Sunday Mass, saying that you don't have to come to Mass anymore, because if you come to Mass, you might get arrested.

00:41:29.000 The statement says, recognizing that fear of immigration enforcement, such as raids by U.S. ICE, may deter some members of our diocese from fulfilling the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of obligation, and acknowledging that such fear constitutes a grave inconvenience that may impede the spiritual good of the faithful, I hereby decree that all members of the faithful of the Diocese of San Bernardino who due to genuine fear of immigration enforcement actions are unable to attend Sunday Mass or Masses on Holy Days of obligation are dispensed from this obligation until such time as this decree is revoked or amended.

00:42:00.000 Pastors, parochial vicars, other pastoral ministers are to provide compassionate support to those affected by this fear, ensuring they feel welcomed and safe in our communities.

00:42:07.000 Parishes are encouraged to explore alternative means of sacramental preparation for those unable to attend regularly.

00:42:14.000 So this was then ripped up by Tom Homan, who had a lot of worries about this.

00:42:19.000 He said, this is BS.

00:42:20.000 He told the Daily Wire.

00:42:22.000 He said that the announcement was basically designed to set up a public relations stunt by saying that ICE is raiding churches.

00:42:35.000 He said, I don't know of a single incident of church arrest.

00:42:39.000 Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told the Daily Wire, we would only go in there if there was a violent criminal who's actively hiding out there or something.

00:42:46.000 That is just a fact of the matter, unfortunately.

00:42:48.000 The Catholic Church has been a heavy force in facilitating illegal immigration into the United States.

00:42:54.000 That is just a reality.

00:42:55.000 If you go down to the southern border, there are, in fact, Catholic charities and organizations that out of charitable intentions try to facilitate the movement of illegal immigrants away from the southern border.

00:43:07.000 And of course, churches around the country have been complicit in attempting to push sanctuary status and all the rest.

00:43:15.000 That is nothing new.

00:43:17.000 But it still sort of boggles the mind that some of these churches are willing to flout federal law in this way, as though it is a call of religion to tell people that violation of federal law, particularly basic law like border law, is somehow a positive good or a law that should simply be disregarded.

00:43:38.000 Listen, sometimes religious conviction and law conflicts.

00:43:41.000 In fact, that happens fairly frequently.

00:43:44.000 But this is a strange place to sort of plant your flag at the very, very least.

00:43:49.000 And as Tom Holman says, this happens to be a particularly bad example of that because ICE is not, in fact, raiding churches.

00:43:56.000 Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who is, of course, the leftmost worst mayor in America until Zorn Mamdani of New York gets elected, he says that the police will never cooperate with ICE.

00:44:08.000 You know, again, it's unconscionable at a time in which so many working people and poor people need government to show up for them, that this administration, the Trump administration, has caused so much consternation and division.

00:44:22.000 Look, we are welcoming city ordinance.

00:44:25.000 Our local police department will not ever cooperate with ICE.

00:44:37.000 Whatever their constitutional authority is.

00:44:42.000 Okay.

00:44:43.000 Well, then I would assume that if you actually facilitate illegal immigration in violation of federal law, you could find yourself on the wrong side of the borders fairly soon.

00:44:51.000 You know, Eric Swalwell, who is a man who chases the cameras like a Kardashian.

00:44:57.000 I mean, that red light goes on anywhere in a 300-mile radius, and Eric Swalwell is running to it.

00:45:00.000 The congressman from California, he says, ICE is terrorizing Americans.

00:45:04.000 Are they really sure that this is the angle that they want to take?

00:45:06.000 That the real problem in America is ICE, not illegal immigration?

00:45:10.000 Okay, it's a strong move.

00:45:11.000 We'll see how it works out for them.

00:45:14.000 What you see in those pictures, is it making America safer?

00:45:17.000 No, it's terrorizing Americans, our friends and neighbors, otherwise known as immigrants, many of them. 0.58

00:45:23.000 But these are folks who, you know, they go to our churches.

00:45:27.000 They work at our grocery stores.

00:45:28.000 They work on construction sites.

00:45:30.000 They work in childcare.

00:45:31.000 They work in many jobs that would not be filled had they not done it.

00:45:36.000 And I also just sit back and ask: who asked for this?

00:45:40.000 Americans were told that the most violent individuals would be deported.

00:45:43.000 And we're now seeing in the numbers that that is a very small percentage of who is being targeted.

00:45:48.000 I mean, so, yeah, again, I'm just confused as to why they have declared ICE the problem.

00:45:54.000 Again, it's a very, very strange move.

00:45:55.000 Tom Homan, meanwhile, is saying, listen, you guys keep using violent language, like the ICE are terrorists or they're Nazis or Gestapo.

00:46:03.000 And that is going to create problems for our ICE agents.

00:46:04.000 I mean, these things have consequences.

00:46:07.000 Unless the Democratic leadership stops the rhetoric.

00:46:11.000 I mean, we're hearing from senators and from congress people like Japa connecting us to terrorist group.

00:46:18.000 You got AOC out there saying we're violating people's civil rights and constitutional rights.

00:46:22.000 Now they're comparing us to the Nazis.

00:46:24.000 That tells the left, lunatics out there, that emboldens them.

00:46:28.000 Okay, well, if a member of Congress can compare him to Nazis, then I can take some action. 0.55

00:46:34.000 So it's a rhetoric that needs to be tapped down.

00:46:35.000 You're going to see more bloodshed.

00:46:37.000 I called it two months ago, and unfortunately, I was right.

00:46:39.000 All righty, coming up.

00:46:40.000 Katanji Brown Jackson is now clearly the worst justice on the Supreme Court, maybe in the history of the Supreme Court.

00:46:45.000 I'll explain in a moment.

00:46:46.000 First, the administration is trying to do a lot of good work.

00:46:48.000 They're trying to cut regulations.

00:46:50.000 They're trying to get government out of your way.

00:46:51.000 But the government can't always take your personal finances into account when they're trying to actually fix the systems.

00:46:56.000 That's something you have to do.

00:46:58.000 And that's why I recently bought more gold from Birch Gold.

00:47:01.000 Over the past 12 months, gold value has surged by 40%, driven by central banks purchasing record quantities and global instability, reaching levels not seen in decades.

00:47:08.000 Luckily, Birch Gold has made owning physical gold remarkably straightforward, allowing you to easily convert existing retirement accounts like IRAs or 401ks into tax shelter, gold IRAs, or simply purchase gold for a secure home purchase.

00:47:20.000 Now, it's really, really easy to do this.

00:47:22.000 I called up my friends over at Birch Gold.

00:47:23.000 I had a conversation with them.

00:47:24.000 They gave me some good advice.

00:47:26.000 I thought about it, and then I bought some gold.

00:47:27.000 You can do the same.

00:47:28.000 Just text my name, Ben, Z98.98.98.

00:47:30.000 Birch Gold will send you a free info kit on gold.

00:47:33.000 There's no obligation, only useful information with an A-plus rating with the Better Business Bureau and tens of thousands of happy customers, including me, take control of protecting your savings today.

00:47:41.000 Text the word Ben to 98.98.98.

00:47:43.000 Again, text Ben to 98.98.98 to get started with my friends over at Birch Gold.

00:47:47.000 Meanwhile, President Trump won a major 8-to-1 victory at the Supreme Court.

00:47:51.000 So first of all, we should point out an 8-to-1 victory is an overwhelming victory at the Supreme Court.

00:47:55.000 It means that all of the Republican appointees voted in a particular way, but so did Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

00:48:01.000 Even 7-2 is not as big a victory, obviously, not just statistically, but philosophically as an 8-to-1.

00:48:06.000 An 8-to-1 basically means unanimous except for this one crazy person, usually when it comes to a court that is as divided as this one.

00:48:13.000 Okay, so in this particular case, the Supreme Court lifted a halt on President Trump's plan to shrink the federal workforce, which cleared the way for potential mass layoffs.

00:48:22.000 In February, Trump had issued an executive order, according to the Wall Street Journal, aimed at drastically reducing the government's workforce by eliminating waste, bloat, and insularity.

00:48:30.000 The order directed heads of agencies to work with Doge on hiring decisions and to develop plans for layoffs.

00:48:35.000 And then in May, a federal judge in San Francisco blocked it from taking effect.

00:48:39.000 So the high court put out an unsigned order on Tuesday and said that it had based its decision on the legality of Trump's executive order and didn't rule on whether any reorg plans broke the law.

00:48:48.000 The court said, quote, the government is likely to succeed on its argument that the executive order and memorandum are lawful.

00:48:54.000 The only dissenter was Justice Katanji Brown Jackson, who has proved herself to now be the worst justice on the Supreme Court.

00:49:00.000 It's not actually all that close, which is shocking.

00:49:02.000 I did not think that the low bar presented by Sonia Sotomayor could ever be underdone.

00:49:07.000 But somehow, somehow, the underwhelming Katanji Brown Jackson has achieved this.

00:49:12.000 Not just with her asinine opinions of late, including one in which she just included memes in her opinion and claimed that district court judges should have the ability to shut down the entire federal government whenever they please. 0.95

00:49:25.000 Not just that.

00:49:26.000 But now in this ruling, where she suggests that the court is greenlighting illegally dubious actions, quote, this was the wrong decision at the wrong moment, especially given what little this court knows about what is actually happening on the ground.

00:49:40.000 Again, that is a bizarre statement by her.

00:49:44.000 I mean, if you are in doubt, generally speaking, you're the court as to the legality of an executive action, you usually wait for ripeness.

00:49:50.000 You usually wait to see what the executive branch does and then you rule on it.

00:49:54.000 Justice Sotomayor wrote to concur with the court's decision to lift the halt.

00:49:58.000 She said the plans themselves weren't even the thing before the high court.

00:50:01.000 She said the district court is still going to consider the legality of the layoff plans.

00:50:07.000 It is amazing stuff.

00:50:08.000 But Katanji Brown Jackson, again, has proved herself to be absolutely an open tool of the left at this point.

00:50:16.000 She did an interview recently with ABC's Lindsey Davis in which she said that it was her job to express her feelings in her opinions, which by the way is just, I'm sorry, that's insane.

00:50:25.000 It is not your job to, this is not poetry.

00:50:28.000 Okay.

00:50:28.000 This is not creative writing class.

00:50:30.000 These are Supreme Court opinions.

00:50:32.000 You are not supposed to express your feelings in your opinions.

00:50:35.000 You are supposed to express interpretation of the law, hopefully interpretation of the law that hews to the text.

00:50:42.000 This is not feelings time down at the local drag queen story hour at the library.

00:50:47.000 But here we are with an actual Supreme Court Justice, Katanji Brown Jackson, now talking about how her feelings have to be infused into her opinions.

00:50:56.000 Are you concerned about the state of democracy today?

00:50:59.000 You know, my feelings about the state of democracy have been expressed in the context of my opinions when issues come up related to democracy.

00:51:12.000 So it's hard to say, you know, am I concerned in a general way?

00:51:16.000 The concerns that I have, I have articulated in my opinion.

00:51:20.000 I think the nice part about being on the court is that you have the opportunity, whether you're in the majority or in the dissent, to express your opinions.

00:51:32.000 You mentioned Justice Breyer.

00:51:33.000 One of the things he used to say, sometimes people say, well, the court is so secretive.

00:51:37.000 Nobody knows what goes on in the court.

00:51:39.000 And he used to always say, I don't understand that.

00:51:42.000 We are the only institution where people actually write their opinions when they vote.

00:51:46.000 They tell you exactly what it is.

00:51:49.000 And I just feel that I have a wonderful opportunity to tell people in my opinions how I feel about the issues.

00:51:59.000 And that's what I try to do.

00:52:02.000 wow.

00:52:03.000 She gets to show her feelings and her opinions.

00:52:05.000 And that's the important thing.

00:52:06.000 By the way, in this opinion, again, she's outvoted eight to one.

00:52:09.000 Quote: For some reason, this court sees fit to step in now and release the president's wrecking ball at the outset of this litigation.

00:52:15.000 In my view, this decision is not only truly unfortunate, but also hubristic and senseless.

00:52:20.000 What in the world?

00:52:22.000 What in the world?

00:52:24.000 Again, this sort of language from KBJ is, and again, she's another one of these people who's going to end up with her own acronym.

00:52:31.000 She's incredibly purple in her language. 1.00

00:52:33.000 So it is not exactly a shock to find that she now has a fan club because performative outrage is the mode of the day, for sure, on both left and right.

00:52:42.000 However, it is demonstrative of what a terrible justice she is. 0.91

00:52:45.000 Also, whenever you have Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the senator from Rhode Island, who is a complete and utter dunderhead, defending you, that is a good indicator that you are a bad justice.

00:52:54.000 He put out an entire tweet thread defending Katanji Brown Jackson.

00:52:57.000 Quote, what's up with Justice Jackson?

00:52:59.000 She started making her mark and speaking out early.

00:53:01.000 And some of her dissents are so pointed, Kagan and Sotomayor don't even join them.

00:53:04.000 The far right is out for her.

00:53:05.000 And even Republican justices are getting snarky.

00:53:07.000 So what's up?

00:53:08.000 Here's my take, which, by the way, is the way that we now do acts.

00:53:11.000 Here's my take with a thread for traffic purposes.

00:53:14.000 Quote, one of the internal traditions of the court is collegiality.

00:53:16.000 First, you're there for life, so you may as well get along.

00:53:19.000 Second, issues come and issues go.

00:53:20.000 And an ally in one case is an opponent into another.

00:53:23.000 Third, the court thinks of itself as a stately institution, hence decorum matters, all of which is well and good in ordinary times.

00:53:28.000 It's akin to members of Congress calling each other the distinguished gentleman or the distinguished gentlelady to maintain decorum and avoid events like the caning of Senator Sumner.

00:53:36.000 But what if we're not in ordinary times, as Senator Sheldon Whitehouse?

00:53:40.000 Well, that's, of course, when you need a hero without a cape, a hero in perhaps a judicial robe.

00:53:45.000 We are in a time when a billionaire-funded scheme has spent decades trying to pack the court with billionaire agreeable justices so as to capture the court in the sense of regulatory capture or agency capture.

00:53:53.000 And what if the billionaires have finally succeeded?

00:53:56.000 What if we're in a time when a billionaire's gifts program has given certain justices lifestyles of the rich and famous and they have reciprocated with favorable rulings and sheltered behind the weakest ethics review of any court in the land whenever the gifts program is challenged?

00:54:08.000 And he goes on in this vein.

00:54:10.000 And then he says, Justice Jackson has begun looking at patterns and noticing what types of parties tend to win and which tend to lose.

00:54:15.000 She has noticed procedural discrepancies.

00:54:18.000 What if a colleague uses your collegiality as a strategic tactic, like a pick on a basketball court deliberately for advantage?

00:54:24.000 Surely the coin of collegiality has a flip side.

00:54:26.000 Obligation to behave in a way that your colleague's collegiality is never abused.

00:54:31.000 And so basically the idea is that she is awful and writes truly horrifyingly bad opinions because she's standing up, man.

00:54:38.000 She's standing up to the man.

00:54:40.000 That's her thing. 1.00

00:54:41.000 It's not an ordinary time, and yet she persisted.

00:54:45.000 Are we really going to do this girl boss stuff when she's just a bad justice? 1.00

00:54:48.000 I mean, I guess we are, is what the left is fond of doing.

00:54:51.000 As far as those government cuts, by the way, some of the cuts are absolutely excellent.

00:54:57.000 Right now, the FTC is targeting gender-affirming care as consumer fraud.

00:55:02.000 There's a lot that the federal government is doing on the regulatory side that is going largely unnoticed, but that is excellent.

00:55:06.000 According to the Daily Wire, in a major move against the transgender medical industry, the Federal Trade Commission hosted a workshop on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., examining the dangers of so-called gender-affirming care.

00:55:16.000 That FTC workshop, first reported by the Daily Wire, has sparked the ire of leftist activists.

00:55:21.000 At the beginning of the panel, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson addressed the objection that trans issues are outside his agency's purview.

00:55:27.000 In fact, Ted Ferguson, the FTC targets industries and entities that lie or deceive the public.

00:55:32.000 And then he said that the trans medicine industry is a lie and it is deceiving the public, which of course is absolutely true. 1.00

00:55:37.000 Meanwhile, the TSA has finally decided to get rid of the shoe removal rule.

00:55:42.000 So the thing that's been annoying you for legitimately 20 years, where you go to the airport and they make you take off your shoes and stand in line with the other smelly-feeded people, and then you have to kind of shuffle through and put your shoes back on, all because there was an attempted shoe bomber way back when.

00:55:58.000 That's gone now, which makes perfect sense, actually.

00:56:01.000 Christy Noam said, our security technology has changed.

00:56:04.000 It's evolved.

00:56:04.000 TSA has changed.

00:56:06.000 Airport wait times average about 27 minutes, and some of the time is going to come off the process.

00:56:12.000 A spokesperson told Axios on Tuesday that TSA and DHS are always exploring new and innovative ways to enhance passenger experience and our strong security posture.

00:56:21.000 And it was three months after the 9-11 attacks that a terrorist named Richard Reed tried to detonate explosives hidden in his sneakers on an American airlines flight.

00:56:30.000 But it took five years for the TSA to implement that choose-off policy, citing a continuing threat.

00:56:35.000 So, you know, again, this is how government typically works.

00:56:39.000 So yeah, could cuts be done?

00:56:40.000 Yeah, cuts could be done.

00:56:41.000 Now, those cuts are being used in some cases or attempted cuts as a sort of way to blame the Trump administration for things going wrong.

00:56:49.000 So we have yet to hear that FEMA has somehow mishandled the Texas flood circumstance, but CNN is doing its very, very best.

00:56:58.000 They're saying that if it had not been for the federal government and its projected attempts to cut costs, then FEMA would have been even faster with regards to these Texas floods.

00:57:07.000 According to CNN, FEMA ran into bureaucratic obstacles, four officials inside the agency said.

00:57:13.000 Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noam recently enacted a sweeping rule aimed at cutting spending.

00:57:17.000 Every contract and grants over $100,000 now requires her personal sign-off before any funds can be released.

00:57:23.000 For FEMA, where disaster response costs routinely soar into the billions as the agency contracts with on-the-ground crews, officials say the threshold is essentially pennies requiring sign-off of relatively small expenditures.

00:57:34.000 And they're complaining that that means that there is too much bureaucracy.

00:57:39.000 So FEMA officials said that they couldn't pre-position urban search and rescue crews from a network of teams stationed regionally across the country without Christy Noam's approval.

00:57:48.000 In the past, says CNN, FEMA would have swiftly staged these teams, which are specifically trained for situations including catastrophic floods, closer to a disaster zone in anticipation of urgent requests.

00:57:58.000 But FEMA officials realized they needed Noam's approval before sending those additional assets.

00:58:02.000 Noam didn't authorize that deployment of urban search and rescue teams until Monday, that's 72 hours after the flooding began.

00:58:10.000 Now, Trisha McLaughlin told CNN GNOME did not need to authorize those additional resources initially because the department used other DHS search and rescue assets.

00:58:18.000 And then over time, as a need for FEMA resources arose, those requests received Noam's approval.

00:58:24.000 So basically, CNN is trying to spin up the idea that FEMA did not act with any level of timeliness because of this ridiculous bureaucratic nonsense.

00:58:36.000 but DHS is saying, no, that's not how it worked.

00:58:38.000 We actually had other resources on the ground and then it got approved and we shifted resources.

00:58:42.000 So, in order for this to be a major problem, what you'd have to do is make the case that FEMA somehow was not on the ground doing its job.

00:58:49.000 So far, it is not clear that that is the case.

00:58:51.000 But the media are doing their very best.

00:58:53.000 First, they tried to claim that cuts to the National Weather Service had allowed this sort of damage, and it turned out that wasn't true.

00:58:58.000 Now they're trying their next strategy, which is that explicit approval for mid-range to large-scale costs from Christy Noam at DHS caused a delay, but they haven't actually shown evidence of a delay that affected how things were dealt with with regards to this Texas flood.

00:59:13.000 They're going to keep trying and keep trying and keep trying because this is the way the media work.

00:59:17.000 All cuts are bad.

00:59:19.000 All cuts will kill people.

00:59:20.000 And now they're just looking for an excuse.

00:59:22.000 Now, one of the weird oddities of the Democratic approach to the Trump administration is they want to suggest that the government is both attempting to radically cut itself and also is an autocracy.

00:59:31.000 One of the foremost people making this claim is, of course, former Georgia governor Stacey Abrams.

00:59:35.000 I'm joking.

00:59:36.000 She was never the governor, but she claims she was the governor.

00:59:39.000 And then she thought about running for president.

00:59:40.000 And then she didn't run for president. 0.73

00:59:41.000 So maybe she's the former president as well.

00:59:44.000 In any case, she has a new viral video called 10 Steps to Autocracy that she did with Jimmy Kimmel.

00:59:50.000 And we're going to go through that right now in the takedown.

00:59:56.000 All righty, so let's begin with her, with her steps to autocracy. 0.76

00:59:59.000 Well, let's hear it, Stacey.

01:00:02.000 Okay, so this happens in every nation that has become an autocracy having been a democracy.

01:00:08.000 So whether we're talking about Brazil with Bolsonaro or India or Putin and Russia, the Philippines with Duetorte.

01:00:16.000 So start with winning an election.

01:00:18.000 Can you pause it there for one second?

01:00:19.000 Okay, I just want to say at the very outset that Brazil did not become an autocracy under Bolsonaro.

01:00:23.000 And India is not an autocracy now under Modi.

01:00:25.000 So at least two of the examples she's currently citing are not, in fact, autocracies.

01:00:29.000 In fact, Bolsonaro is no longer in charge of Brazil.

01:00:31.000 And actually, it's more of an autocracy thanks to the leadership of left-winger Lula Da Silva, which is why President Trump just hit them with a 50% tariff.

01:00:38.000 In any case, here is Stacey Abrams continuing.

01:00:41.000 Usually the last one you're going to get to have for real.

01:00:44.000 Number two, you have an expansion of executive power.

01:00:47.000 The president decides he wants more than he's supposed to have.

01:00:50.000 Number three, you start to make the Congress complicit.

01:00:55.000 So you weaken them and you neutralize or neuter the judiciary.

01:01:00.000 Like, oh, I don't know, the Supreme Court giving you unfettered power and saying we don't have the ability to stop things.

01:01:05.000 Well, actually, that's not neutralizing the judiciary.

01:01:07.000 Okay, so there are a bunch of things to say here.

01:01:09.000 One, expansion of executive power.

01:01:10.000 Remember that time that Barack Obama was president and he said that because Congress wouldn't give him what he wanted, he would use his pen and his phone to do things?

01:01:16.000 Was that an expansion of executive power?

01:01:18.000 Like a little bit?

01:01:18.000 Like just a little?

01:01:19.000 How about that time that Joe Biden decided he could just make 80 million people vaccinate using OSHA regulations and that he could just alleviate the student loan debt of tens of millions of people just for no reason?

01:01:31.000 Was that, in fact, an expansion of executive power or attempted expansion of executive power?

01:01:36.000 I feel like, yes.

01:01:37.000 As far as the idea that you're running roughshod over the judiciary, when the judiciary rules in a way you don't like, that does not mean the judiciary has now been ignored.

01:01:45.000 In fact, it was Joe Biden who was routinely saying that if the judiciary did not do the thing he wanted to do, he would simply find another way to do it.

01:01:52.000 He said that with regard to the student loan process.

01:01:55.000 So so far, this is a really bad diagnosis by Stacey.

01:01:58.000 I still can't get over the fact that she says when things are transforming into autocracies, you're having the last election you will ever have.

01:02:04.000 And she cites Bolsonaro as a reason, but Bolsonaro is not the leader of Brazil and right now may end up in jail for a significant period of time.

01:02:13.000 They had another election and the left won.

01:02:15.000 This is just so stupid.

01:02:16.000 Everyone is such an idiot.

01:02:18.000 My goodness.

01:02:19.000 Then you move on to firing all the people who know how to make government work.

01:02:24.000 So you gut the civil service.

01:02:25.000 And you do that because you want to break democracy so people forget the stuff that used to get done.

01:02:31.000 So you can't get your social security check.

01:02:32.000 So the CDC doesn't know what diseases are anymore.

01:02:35.000 Then you put in place these loyalists, people who are only responsive to you.

01:02:40.000 You put them in charge of the FBI so they go after your enemies.

01:02:42.000 You put them in charge of the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense, so they can signal to their friends and tell them all about the evil plans that you have.

01:02:50.000 Then you make certain that you break how we communicate.

01:02:55.000 So you criticize the media and you create your own echo chamber of propaganda.

01:02:59.000 You call it truth, even though you know you're lying.

01:03:02.000 Oh, good lord.

01:03:04.000 Good lord.

01:03:05.000 Okay, so let's just get back to this.

01:03:07.000 She says that you break the bureaucracy by making it not work in order to achieve an autocracy.

01:03:13.000 Well, no, usually an autocracy is heavily reliant on a vastly effective bureaucracy that oversees every aspect of people's lives.

01:03:20.000 So actually the efficacy of the bureaucracy is a prerequisite to full autocracy.

01:03:24.000 The problem in the Soviet Union or in Nazi Germany was not an incompetent bureaucracy.

01:03:30.000 It was a highly, highly competent bureaucracy, particularly, for example, in CCP China right now.

01:03:36.000 Very competent, very large, even not competent, very large and overweening bureaucracy.

01:03:41.000 And then it says, well, you staff it with loyalists because like the FBI and have them go after your enemies.

01:03:44.000 They literally prosecuted Donald Trump multiple times in the last administration.

01:03:52.000 What is she even doing? 1.00

01:03:52.000 And then she says, and then you attack the media. 1.00

01:03:54.000 You attack the sources of truth.

01:03:56.000 You create your own propaganda outlet.

01:03:58.000 What happens if the entire media have become a propaganda outlet for the Democratic Party?

01:04:01.000 What happens then?

01:04:02.000 Okay, we'll let her conclude this idiotic, foolish rant on Jimmy Kimmel. 0.86

01:04:08.000 Then you go to the next step, and I call that step seven.

01:04:12.000 Because at step seven, you have to blame someone.

01:04:14.000 You have to blame people for the broken government, for the broken promises.

01:04:17.000 So you go after DEI.

01:04:19.000 You go after the vulnerable, the dispossessed. 0.86

01:04:21.000 You go after any community that doesn't look like what you think power should be.

01:04:25.000 While you're doing that, you make certain that you, in step eight, you eliminate anybody who can help them.

01:04:30.000 So you sue law firms that do pro bono cases.

01:04:33.000 You go after philanthropies and accuse them of giving money to the wrong people.

01:04:37.000 You go after colleges and universities that can teach people possibly what else they should know.

01:04:41.000 You get to step nine and you start to encourage and incentivize private violence.

01:04:46.000 You send the U.S. Marines into spaces they should not be.

01:04:50.000 You send the National Guard in.

01:04:51.000 You kidnap people off of the streets and pretend that's normal because that's how you quiet dissent.

01:04:57.000 Because you make everyone afraid that if they don't do what you want, they might be next.

01:05:01.000 And once you've done those nine steps, steps 10 is easy.

01:05:03.000 That's when you decide there won't be new elections because everyone's either afraid, poor, broken, or complicit.

01:05:10.000 Okay, so this is so insane because you accuse another group of the unworkability of government.

01:05:15.000 Okay, the entire Democratic Party has been claiming for decades at this point, the unworkability of the federal government is due to a white supremacist power structure that lies at the root of America, which means you have to have $2 billion riots in 2020.

01:05:29.000 And then she says you have to attack the institutions.

01:05:31.000 Oh, do you mean like the church and the family?

01:05:33.000 Is that what you're talking about?

01:05:34.000 You know, those institutions, like the fundamental institutions of civil society?

01:05:38.000 And then she says you incentivize private violence and proceeds to give examples of actual law enforcement, the U.S. Marines and National Guard.

01:05:47.000 That's not incentivizing private violence. 0.78

01:05:49.000 Incentivizing private violence, that would be like when you make excuses for gigantic riots that do $2 billion in damage or like when you make excuses for people who murder healthcare CEOs, allegedly.

01:05:59.000 And then she says, final step, no new elections.

01:06:01.000 So her paranoia is there will be no new elections in 2028.

01:06:05.000 I would love to see one iota of evidence of this, like one.

01:06:08.000 But again, the paranoia justifies anything.

01:06:11.000 It really does.

01:06:12.000 The conspiratorial paranoia on the left justifies violence.

01:06:15.000 It will get more violent from here, guys.

01:06:16.000 It will.

01:06:17.000 The permission structure has been set up.

01:06:18.000 Because if you really believe that Nazi Germany is a coming, then you are justified in joining the French resistance, like preemptively. 0.84

01:06:26.000 You are justified in doing that.

01:06:27.000 That is the permission structure that's being set up.

01:06:29.000 Okay.

01:06:30.000 In later and stupider news, the WNBA has now named Angel Reese to their 2K26 video game cover, which is really, really exciting.

01:06:42.000 I will say that Angel Reese apparently has been on a tear as of late, according to ESPN, averaging 18 points, 17 rebounds, five assists, and two steals during her six-game double-double scoring streak, which is truly an impressive stat.

01:06:58.000 I mean, I know we are all very, very impressed by her shockingly amazing basketball skills.

01:07:04.000 And first of all, I always feel bad showing clips of the WNBA because watching the WNBA in action is mostly like watching a pretty bad junior high boys basketball team.

01:07:14.000 Here is all-star, absolute superstar Angel Reese coming down the floor, isolation situation. 1.00

01:07:22.000 This is some pretty stunning basketball you're about to watch right now.

01:07:26.000 Four-second differential between shot clock and game clock here.

01:07:30.000 I like this matchup right here, Kiki Erie Finn and Angel Reese, two all-stars.

01:07:35.000 Check out the handle on this one.

01:07:40.000 Reese lost the handle.

01:07:41.000 Melvin in transition.

01:07:44.000 My goodness.

01:07:44.000 I haven't seen a handle like that since me in fifth grade.

01:07:48.000 That is really some extraordinary basketball playing.

01:07:51.000 By the way, her 2025 stats, again, not that I have them memorized because I clearly don't.

01:07:57.000 I looked it up.

01:07:58.000 She's played 19 games.

01:07:59.000 She's averaging 13 points a game.

01:08:02.000 Now, I would just like to, for contrast, put forward, I know, I know we have to do it.

01:08:07.000 We do.

01:08:08.000 Caitlin Clark.

01:08:08.000 Okay, so Caitlin Clark, her current stats right now, according to basketballreference.com, she's played in 10 games this season, okay, because she's been injured.

01:08:19.000 She averages 17 points a game.

01:08:22.000 Okay, so more points a game.

01:08:25.000 On the career, she averages 19 points per game, as opposed to 13 points per game for Angel Reese.

01:08:30.000 Now, let's be clear what's happening right now.

01:08:32.000 The WNBA is bending over backward, not to just say that Caitlin Clark is their star. 0.96

01:08:37.000 They're bending over backward because Angel Reese has become the bet noir of Caitlin Clark.

01:08:42.000 And there are a lot of players in the league who keep complaining that Caitlin Clark is too white to be featured by the WNBA, even though Caitlin Clark is making them all significantly more rich and significantly more famous. 0.98

01:08:51.000 You have not heard of any of the players in the WNBA until Caitlin Clark made them famous when they started bullying Caitlin Clark or, as in the case of one of her teammates, came to Caitlin Clark's defense.

01:09:03.000 So, I mean, WNBA can do this, I suppose, but it is, in fact, a pretty obvious form of DEI. 0.92

01:09:10.000 I know.

01:09:10.000 I'm going to get myself in trouble.

01:09:12.000 How do I accept that?

01:09:13.000 No one is watching the WNBA if Angel Reese is in the game. 1.00

01:09:17.000 Okay, the attendance statistics prove this.

01:09:20.000 Whenever Caitlin Clark and her team travel to a place, the attendance statistics go up.

01:09:25.000 Is there any market uptick in attendance when Angel Reese and her team visit a city that Caitlin Clark is not in?

01:09:31.000 The answer, of course, is no.

01:09:34.000 And so it just speaks to the reality of the WNBA, which is that as a league that has existed off the subsidies from the NBA for decades at this point, the entire reason for being for the league is to reinforce these DEI perceptions.

01:09:50.000 And at the very moment when they could shed that in favor of actual popularity, they are unable to do it.

01:09:55.000 That's the only takeaway I can make right here.

01:09:58.000 So I asked my sponsors at Perplexity because I was definitely not going to know this off the top of my head.

01:10:03.000 Who are the top 10 scorers for the last season, top 10 rebounders, and top 10 assist makers for the WNBA in the 2024 season?

01:10:11.000 Top 10 scorers, Asia Wilson, Arique Agunbawale.

01:10:16.000 Again, I'm going to scroll up all these names because I've never heard of these people because it's the WNBA and I don't follow this any more than I follow your local curling competition.

01:10:23.000 Kalia Copper, Breonna Stewart, Nafiza Collier, Jewel Lloyd, and then Caitlin Clark at 19 points a game.

01:10:31.000 And I will note here that there is no mention here of Angel Reese.

01:10:35.000 Angel Reese is the number one rebounder in the game mainly by rebounding her own misses. 0.83

01:10:40.000 That is basically how she stacks those up, right?

01:10:42.000 She gets in the paint.

01:10:43.000 She blows a layup.

01:10:44.000 She rebounds it.

01:10:45.000 She blows another layup.

01:10:46.000 She rebounds it.

01:10:46.000 She blows another layup.

01:10:47.000 She rebounds it.

01:10:48.000 It's a great way to pack your rebounding stats, actually.

01:10:50.000 And the top 10 assist makers, Caitlin Clark is number one.

01:10:53.000 She had eight and a half assists per game.

01:10:55.000 Again, the only rankings in which Angel Reese lists is rebounding.

01:11:01.000 That's the whole thing.

01:11:01.000 So congrats to the WNBA for, again, making wise marketing decisions.

01:11:06.000 All righty, coming up, we're going to get to the Middle East, where President Trump is trying to negotiate a final ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

01:11:15.000 The show continues right now, but remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member.

01:11:17.000 If you're not a member, become a member.

01:11:18.000 Use code Shapiro at checkout for two months free on all annual plans.

The Ben Shapiro Show - July 10, 2025

The SMOKING GUN In The Biden Cover-Up?

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript