The Ben Shapiro Show - The Whiners Who Dump on America

00:00:00.000 All righty, folks, tons coming up on today's show. 0.93

00:00:02.000 Whoopi Goldberg says that black people in America have the same as gay people in Iran.

00:00:06.000 What does that say about a particular mindset? 0.96

00:00:08.000 Plus, the Supreme Court rules that transing the kids can be banned in the States and the Democrats go completely insane.

00:00:15.000 Plus, the latest on Iran and President Trump's perspective on it.

00:00:18.000 First, today has bravely chosen to self-identify as a holiday.

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00:01:02.000 Again, that's dailywire.com slash shop for signed copies. 0.97

00:01:05.000 Well, folks, there's a perspective that has broken out into the open on both the horseshoe theory left and the horseshoe theory right that America sucks. 0.99

00:01:12.000 America has always sucked. 0.98

00:01:13.000 There's always been something wrong with the United States and that wrongness continues today. 0.98

00:01:19.000 There's a lot of crossover in these sort of two wings of American politics, but perhaps the most clear exemplar of this philosophy comes in the form of Whoopi Goldberg, sort of a pixelated version of this philosophy, a dumbed-down version of this philosophy. 0.97

00:01:33.000 Yesterday, on The View, which of course is a repository of nearly all human stupidity, she decided she was going to sound off about the Israel-Iran war. 0.96

00:01:40.000 She, of course, is a believer. 0.99

00:01:42.000 That Iran is not all that bad, that they can be negotiated with, that there is never anything wrong with Iran, really, really.

00:01:49.000 And if there was, well, you know, America has similar problems.

00:01:52.000 So who are we to judge?

00:01:54.000 Yesterday, she decided to talk about how, you know, the women in Iran who can be beaten for not wearing the proper head covering, who used to be able to hold particular jobs and no longer can hold those jobs in Iran, who've been repressed since 1979 by the fundamentalist Islamic regime in Tehran.

00:02:12.000 She said, well, basically, that's the same as being black in America in 2025. 0.77

00:02:15.000 And this is an astonishing claim.

00:02:23.000 Murdering someone for their difference is not good whoever does.

00:02:30.000 It's not good So that's why I said You weren't saying What I heard was not what you meant I think it's very different To live in the United States in 2025 Than it is to live in Iran Not if you're black Not for everybody Guys, don't go to Iran Whoopi Goldberg is sitting there on the set of a nationally televised show being paid millions of dollars after having been once an actress a long time ago. 0.90

00:02:58.000 And she is saying that being black in America is akin to being a woman in Iran or a gay person in Iran. 0.93

00:03:03.000 Gay people in Iran. 0.99

00:03:04.000 Are hanged from cranes. 1.00

00:03:06.000 That is what happens to gay people in Iran. 1.00

00:03:08.000 Whoopi Goldberg is fetid for saying unbelievably low IQ stupid things on a nationally televised show every single day. 1.00

00:03:14.000 But apparently, that lack of perspective has become indicative of a broader trend in American life, which is to just whine about America, to crap on America. 1.00

00:03:25.000 And it's not relegated to Whoopi Goldberg. 0.68

00:03:26.000 Barack Obama did this a large part of his career as well, suggesting in 2008 that America...

00:03:34.000 We just hadn't lived up to them.

00:03:35.000 That was the unifying part. 0.99

00:03:36.000 And then, after he won, it turned into, America kind of sucks. 1.00

00:03:39.000 Has kind of always sucked. 1.00

00:03:40.000 And now it turns out, according to Barack Obama, America sucks even more than usual. 0.98

00:03:44.000 He did an interview with the New York Times, in which he suggested that we are drifting into something that is not consistent with American democracy. 0.96

00:03:51.000 It's consistent with autocracies.

00:03:53.000 It's consistent with Hungary under Orban.

00:03:56.000 I mean, first of all, we should point out that there are, in fact, elections in Viktor Orban's Hungary.

00:04:00.000 But beyond that, Barack Obama complaining about the twisting of the institutions of the United States against democracy.

00:04:08.000 Barack Obama doesn't really get to talk about this, considering the fact that he used the federal government to threaten private industry very early on in his administration, that he used every aspect of his government in order to crack down on political opposition up to and including the IRS.

00:04:23.000 But anyway, he says, we're not there yet completely, but I think we are dangerously close to normalizing behavior like that.

00:04:28.000 And we need people both outside government and inside government saying, let's not go over that cliff because it's hard to recover.

00:04:35.000 Now again, President Obama, during his tenure, ran down America fairly routinely.

00:04:41.000 He understood that Americans didn't like that very much, so he sort of prevented that from being spoken about publicly, or he himself tried not to say it all the time.

00:04:50.000 In Dreams for My Father, his first autobiography, there's a man who's written multiple autobiographies because, of course, he is so humble, he wrote in that first book, quote, I know I have seen the desperation and disorder of the powerless, how it twists the lives of children on the streets of Jakarta or Nairobi, in much the same way as it does the lives of children on Chicago's south side, how narrow the path is for them between humiliation and untrammeled fury, how easily they slip into violence and despair.

00:05:12.000 I know that the response of the powerful to this disorder, alternating as it does between a dull complacency and when the disorder spills out of its proscribed confines, a study Now notice the tacit endorsement of the idea that black people living on the south side of Chicago, that's the same thing as impoverished children living on the streets of Jakarta, Indonesia, or Nairobi.

00:05:39.000 That is an absurd contention, but that sort of moral relativism runs.

00:05:44.000 Throughout, again, a large part of the left that suggests that America is historically bad remains bad today.

00:05:50.000 And this was a hallmark of the left throughout the Cold War era.

00:05:52.000 There's really no difference between the United States and the Soviet Union.

00:05:55.000 In fact, at least the Soviet Union, at least they are shooting for some form of equality.

00:05:59.000 The United States is an unequal, terrible society.

00:06:03.000 This is an argument that was made by the left.

00:06:05.000 It is also an argument increasingly made by a sort of horseshoe theory right, which suggests that America is bad today.

00:06:12.000 And it's bad for a wide variety of reasons, but it was bad historically in the past as well.

00:06:17.000 And when Donald Trump says make America great again, the reason that that resonates for so many Americans, there are really two reasons.

00:06:23.000 One is that when Americans here make America great again, what they believe is that there are American principles that are fundamentally great and we ought to do a better job living up to them and implementing them.

00:06:34.000 That what makes America great, for example, is, say, the Constitution of the United States and its ideals.

00:06:38.000 That what makes America great That combination, that stew of Anglo-American ideals that applied uniquely in the United States, that that's what made America great.

00:06:55.000 We need to get back to that.

00:06:56.000 That's what they hear when they hear make America great.

00:06:58.000 That's sort of one way of hearing.

00:07:00.000 The other way of hearing it is we think of great moments in American history and we say we want to be great like we were at that moment.

00:07:05.000 Not that America was quote-unquote greater in 1960 when segregation was still on the books in the South, or that America was greater in the 1850s when slavery was still practiced across half the country, but that there are moments in American history in which we have lived up to our great ideals and we should make America great again like that.

00:07:23.000 We should have, for example, a unity of purpose like we did during World War II.

00:07:29.000 That we should, for example, have an industrialized economy.

00:07:35.000 That is forward-thinking and forward-looking the way that we did in, say, the 1950s.

00:07:40.000 There's an idea that we have in our head when we say make America great again, and that's what President Trump is calling upon and appealing to.

00:07:46.000 But there's a part of the right that really believes that America was never great, in the same way that the left agrees that America was never great.

00:07:52.000 They believe, for example, that the expansion across the West in the early days of America was imperialist and colonialist, in the same way that the left claims that America is imperialist and colonialist.

00:08:03.000 There's a part of the right that believes, like a part of the left, that the Civil War was wrongly fought.

00:08:08.000 That it would have been better if the South had been allowed to keep slaves because, after all, an overweening federal government means broader federal power.

00:08:16.000 There's a part of the right that believes, like a part of the left, that the gilded era in which American industry began to really grow and America became a world power economically was bad and exploitative.

00:08:28.000 And that believes that the United States was bad in World War I, or that the United States was evil in World War II for dropping the A-bomb at the end of World War II, or that the United States was terrible during the Cold War because we opposed the communists too strenuously, and we'd been corrupted from the inside by globalists.

00:08:43.000 There is this part of the right that believes, like the left, that there is something fundamentally wrong with America, and it's been wrong for generations.

00:08:49.000 That the post-Cold War era was characterized by American evil, that America is a bad force in the world, for example.

00:08:55.000 Well, there are many problems with this perspective, the first and foremost of which is that it is historically wrong.

00:09:00.000 America is the greatest force for human freedom in the history of the world.

00:09:05.000 There is not really a close second.

00:09:08.000 America is the greatest force for human prosperity in the history of the world.

00:09:12.000 There really is not a close second.

00:09:13.000 Why is this important?

00:09:14.000 Because if you cannot define what makes America great or what made America great, if you're in the moral relativist category of suggesting, for example, That America is akin to Russia.

00:09:25.000 You know, both countries kill people.

00:09:26.000 The sort of Michael Corleone cynical perspective in Godfather 1 when he says to Kay, well, senators have people killed too, which is a really puerile perspective.

00:09:34.000 I know people like to cite the Michael Corleone speech to Kay in Godfather as though this is sort of a world-weary explanation of American politics.

00:09:41.000 You know, American senators have people killed just like dictators. 0.55

00:09:44.000 No, they don't.

00:09:45.000 Okay, I know America. 1.00

00:09:46.000 Do you think that senators in the United States have the capacity to have people murdered?

00:09:50.000 Just willy-nilly, the way that Vladimir Putin, for example, shoves people off of buildings in Russia.

00:09:53.000 If you think that, it is because you are being deliberately obtuse or morally relativistic or both.

00:09:59.000 Why does this matter?

00:10:00.000 Because if you don't know what America is about, what makes America great, how do you defend it?

00:10:06.000 Truly, how do you defend it?

00:10:08.000 What are the principles that you are seeking to defend?

00:10:11.000 This comes to a head when it comes to issues like immigration.

00:10:15.000 Alrighty, in just a moment we'll get to the immigration component of the dislike for America.

00:10:20.000 It's very serious.

00:10:21.000 It's one of the reasons why some people want open borders.

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00:12:28.000 So again, it's very bizarre to watch some of the alliances that have formed with regard to immigration.

00:12:33.000 They're not associated in the same way with sort of mass immigration and love of mass immigration.

00:12:38.000 But, for example, Marco Rubio has suggested that the U.S. State Department is going to screen visa applicants for ideology.

00:12:46.000 That we don't have to take into the country people who hate the country.

00:12:49.000 This seems perfectly sensible to me.

00:12:51.000 I do not understand in any way why this is controversial.

00:12:54.000 If you come into the country believing that America is at root, Evil, terrible, historically bad force in the world.

00:13:00.000 We don't want you here.

00:13:02.000 You should not be here.

00:13:03.000 There's no reason for you to be here.

00:13:04.000 You can go elsewhere.

00:13:06.000 There's some 190 countries on planet Earth.

00:13:09.000 You can go to any of the other ones.

00:13:11.000 But there is no reason why we should import groups of people who believe that America is bad.

00:13:17.000 That seems weird to me that there's anyone who argues that the quote-unquote free speech rights of non-citizens ought to trump Americans' interest in not importing people who hate the country.

00:13:28.000 And what's funny about this is there are, in fact, some people on the anti-immigration right who get very upset at Secretary Rubio for saying this because, of course, many of them agree with the principle that America is not so fundamentally great.

00:13:40.000 In any case, Politico is reporting that U.S. diplomats have officially been directed to screen the social media and online presence of all foreign nationals applying for student and other educational visas.

00:13:49.000 In the cable...

00:14:00.000 The cable also instructs embassies to flag, quote, any advocacy for aid or support for foreign terrorists and other threats to U.S. national security, and support for unlawful anti-Semitic harassment or violence.

00:14:12.000 Support for Hamas is listed as a specific example.

00:14:15.000 Now, this is the part where it gets kind of weird, is that, like, what is controversial about any of that? 0.71

00:14:20.000 Why would it be good for the United States, for example, to import people who believe that black people are inferior?

00:14:25.000 Would that be a good thing for us to do? 0.76

00:14:28.000 Would it be a good thing for us to import supporters of terrorist groups in Africa or Asia?

00:14:35.000 But if you mention that we probably shouldn't import people who support Hamas, then all of a sudden there are some people on the right who say this is a violation of free speech principles.

00:14:42.000 Well, no, it isn't.

00:14:44.000 No, it isn't.

00:14:44.000 Actually, a pretty good indicator that you hate America is that you like Hamas.

00:14:48.000 The crossover between those two principles?

00:14:51.000 The Venn diagram is a circle.

00:14:54.000 And yet you see people on left and right who are very upset with the State Department for saying this sort of stuff.

00:15:00.000 The State Department, of course, is simply making the point that there are differences in culture and ideology.

00:15:06.000 And again, that moral relativism that exists on both left and right that says America is inherently bad, what it leads to on the left is a call for mass migration.

00:15:12.000 What it leads to on the right is the suggestion that we should never, ever stand up.

00:15:19.000 Against people who hate the country if they hate the country in the right kind of way.

00:15:25.000 Which is a very strange proposition.

00:15:28.000 Now the left are the main proponents here.

00:15:30.000 Let's be clear.

00:15:31.000 This is a fringe movement on the right.

00:15:32.000 When I say horseshoe theory, you're talking about a fringe of the right and a vast bulk of the left.

00:15:38.000 The left has been very forceful in its advocacy for mass migration.

00:15:42.000 For example, Democratic Representative Maxwell Frost.

00:15:46.000 He's calling for the mass amnesty of illegal immigrants in the United States.

00:15:50.000 And to my Republican colleagues who say, I don't want any undocumented people in this country, I actually agree with you. 1.00

00:15:55.000 So let's document every single one of them with a speedy path to citizenship.

00:16:01.000 I mean, that is definitely one way of ending the illegal immigration problem is by pretending that they don't exist by handing them documents.

00:16:06.000 We can also get rid of murder as a crime in the country by considering murder, not murder.

00:16:11.000 We can just hand them documents saying, hey.

00:16:13.000 Murder isn't murder anymore, and then they're not murderers.

00:16:15.000 Really cool.

00:16:16.000 You just get rid of crimes by reclassifying the crimes.

00:16:19.000 The only way to support this sort of thing, of course, this sort of mass amnesty proposition, is to suggest there's nothing unique about America that needs to be protected.

00:16:28.000 And again, you see this across the mainstream left.

00:16:31.000 Tim Walz was almost vice president of the United States.

00:16:34.000 He was most recently spotted suggesting that China, the communist Chinese, ought to broker peace in the Middle East because America can't be trusted.

00:16:42.000 Which is about the greatest form of America whining I've seen recently.

00:16:48.000 And he was asked about his anti-ICE rhetoric, the fact that he's been going after Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

00:16:52.000 And he won't say that he regrets that.

00:16:56.000 Governor, do you regret calling ICE agents to Gestapo?

00:16:59.000 Thanks so much, appreciate it.

00:17:00.000 Ahead of the LA riots, do you regret that language?

00:17:03.000 Thank you.

00:17:04.000 And bye.

00:17:05.000 Catch you later.

00:17:06.000 He, of course, had likened ICE to the Gestapo.

00:17:09.000 Governor, do you support the call to abolish ICE, Governor Walz?

00:17:12.000 No answer on abolishing ICE.

00:17:15.000 That is what the Democrats...

00:17:18.000 Because in the end, they believe that there is nothing that must be protected about America, that the great American principle on the left is that America ought not exist as a separate polity from the rest of the world, or America bears some sort of blood guilt for what it is, and thus must have an open border.

00:17:33.000 That seems to be the principle.

00:17:34.000 And that lies behind much of the opposition to what the Trump administration is doing with ICE.

00:17:40.000 so They're trying to suggest that actually what's happening when the Trump administration enforces the law on immigration is some form of fascism.

00:17:51.000 Which, again, is an amazing statement.

00:17:53.000 So, Karen Bass, the incompetent mayor of Los Angeles, she said that L.A. is being used as a test case for federal fascism because President Trump has sent in the National Guard in order to protect ICE agents who are trying to enforce the law.

00:18:06.000 I think it's no secret that there was tension between the governor and the president.

00:18:11.000 And I just think it's so unfortunate that we were the test case for this, considering that we are a city of immigrants, considering that there are sectors of our economy that are completely dependent on immigrant labor.

00:18:24.000 And this was just not a problem before the raids took place.

00:18:29.000 There were problems in L.A. once the raids happened, but they were problems that were completely manageable by local law enforcement.

00:18:37.000 So there was no reason for this drama.

00:18:40.000 So, I mean, let's just point out here a few contradictions.

00:18:43.000 One, she says there are entire swaths of L.A. that are reliant on immigrant labor.

00:18:48.000 Wait, doesn't that undercut your minimum wage arguments?

00:18:51.000 When you flood the labor market with cheap labor that is not regulated by law.

00:18:56.000 Doesn't that undercut your whole argument that the wages are too low?

00:18:58.000 In any case, the notion that enforcing federal law is actually a violation of American principles, what would those principles be precisely?

00:19:07.000 Meanwhile, MSNBC's Lorne Leder is calling ICE agents the goon squad now.

00:19:11.000 I think what is disturbing to so many Americans, as Rev said, you know, it's not the deportation of people that may be criminals.

00:19:19.000 It is the sense of lawlessness from this kind of goon squad that seems to be emerging from ICE and these sort of unnamed masked enforcers who are, you know, at rallies, who are showing up and arresting people without warrants.

00:19:34.000 I mean, the goon squad?

00:19:36.000 By the way, you don't have to have a warrant to arrest somebody in public for violating the law.

00:19:40.000 That's not how that works.

00:19:41.000 Just legally speaking.

00:19:42.000 But this has bled up to the highest levels of the Democratic Party.

00:19:45.000 Elizabeth Warren was questioning Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and asking, would he send the Marines?

00:19:51.000 Again, the idea being that America is uniquely evil if we send Marines to protect ICE agents in the pursuit of law enforcement.

00:20:00.000 Secretary Hegseth, if the President wanted to deploy Marines to Chicago and New York City like he did in Los Angeles, would you carry out that order even if The local governors and mayors objected.

00:20:17.000 Well, Senator, because Governor Newsom was unwilling to address protecting federal law enforcement agents in Los Angeles, President Trump had all the authorities and the Defense Department happily supported defending our ICE agents in the conduct of their job.

00:20:31.000 They have the right, as Americans, to be able to do their job without being attacked by mobs.

00:20:35.000 And we will protect them in that process.

00:20:38.000 And if other states needed it, we would provide that.

00:20:40.000 I know that you heard my question.

00:20:42.000 So you would be willing to send troops if the president ordered it to Chicago and New York City?

00:20:48.000 That's right.

00:20:50.000 Well, thankfully, New York City, unlike California, unlike Gavin Newsom, is willing to step up and address the issue with their local law enforcement.

00:20:57.000 Again, what she's asking there, I mean, Hegseth should just say yes.

00:21:01.000 This is not required.

00:21:07.000 There are legal circumstances under which the president could do that.

00:21:15.000 But again, the basic notion here is that people should be willy-nilly allowed to violate the law.

00:21:19.000 And there's a philosophy that undergirds that, which is the law itself is bad.

00:21:23.000 And if you enforce the law, this makes you bad. 0.99

00:21:25.000 You're a representative of this terrible American government that, according to Whoopi Goldberg, treats black Americans like Iran treats gay people. 0.98

00:21:32.000 Or an American government that treats illegal immigrants in the most horrific possible fashion? 0.94

00:21:39.000 Again, this sort of perverse perspective on America has real consequences because you can't defend America if you don't like America at all.

00:21:45.000 If you don't like America at all, what are you defending America from?

00:21:48.000 This has been one of the signal features of the West for generations, is this sort of self-loathing that has taken root in large parts of the left and certain corners of the right.

00:21:59.000 This self-loathing that says, That the West ought not defend itself in any way, shape, or form.

00:22:05.000 And we can't defend ourselves because, again, there's something deeply spiritually wrong with us.

00:22:10.000 And whether you're claiming that spiritual ill stems from the use of atomic bombs at the end of World War II, as some have, or whether you're suggesting that the deep spiritual ill stems from America's lack of care and wonder at the transing of the children.

00:22:25.000 The result is the same.

00:22:27.000 You can't defend America unless you actually believe in America, and unless you can name what it is that you believe about America that is worth defending.

00:22:34.000 Fairly simple principle.

00:22:36.000 And yet, unfortunately, it seems to escape a lot of people these days.

00:22:40.000 Alrighty, coming up.

00:22:41.000 The Supreme Court has decided that states can, in fact, ban the transing of the children, and the left is super angry about all of it first.

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00:24:58.000 Okay, meanwhile.

00:24:59.000 As we mentioned yesterday, big victory for Matt Walsh, the Daily Wire, the state of Tennessee, over at the Supreme Court.

00:25:06.000 As we reported yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that Tennessee can indeed ban transing of the children.

00:25:14.000 One of the things that I think is most astonishing about this case is not actually the decision.

00:25:18.000 The thing that may be the most astonishing about the case is the dissent in this particular case.

00:25:24.000 The dissent is totally wild because what the dissent suggests is that If it had not been for President Trump, the Democrats would have been able to appoint a Supreme Court majority that says that it is illegal for a state to actually prevent the genital and hormonal mutilation of children.

00:25:46.000 That is the position of Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her dissent.

00:25:51.000 She suggests, Today, the court considers a Tennessee law that categorically prohibits doctors from prescribing certain medications to adolescents if and only if they will help a patient identify with or live as a purported identity inconsistent with the minor's sex.

00:26:06.000 Tennessee's law expressly classifies on the basis of sex and transgender status.

00:26:11.000 So the Constitution and settled precedent require the court to subject it to intermediate scrutiny.

00:26:15.000 The majority contorts logic and precedent to say otherwise, inexplicably declaring it must uphold Tennessee's categorical ban on life-saving medical treatment, so long as any reasonably conceivable state of facts might justify it.

00:26:26.000 Thus, the majority subjects a law that plainly discriminates on the basis of sex to rational basis review.

00:26:32.000 In sadness, I dissent, says Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

00:26:37.000 So much sadness.

00:26:39.000 So much sadness.

00:26:40.000 And then she proceeds to cite a bunch of horrible social science that is incorrect. 0.82

00:26:48.000 their teenage child has been experiencing an unwanted but medically benign buildup of breast gland tissue.

00:26:52.000 Again, the pediatrician's next move depends on the patient's sex.

00:26:56.000 Identified male at birth?

00:26:57.000 SB1 allows the physician to prescribe hormones to reduce the buildup of such tissue, but a child identified as female at birth, experiencing the same or more distress, Must be denied the same prescription.

00:27:07.000 That's, she says, that's discrimination.

00:27:09.000 That if you're a girl and you want hormones to suppress your actual sex development, that that is in some way the same as a boy who wants to suppress the development of breast tissue.

00:27:25.000 That those need to be treated in the same exact way.

00:27:29.000 And the majority in this case was 6-3.

00:27:32.000 It is certainly possible.

00:27:34.000 That if it had not been for the election of Donald Trump, you would have a 5-4 majority in favor of the left on this.

00:27:41.000 And that is really an astonishing, astonishing thing.

00:27:44.000 Chuck Schumer was trying to suggest that this decision was really awful.

00:27:47.000 And I hope that Democrats own this.

00:27:48.000 I really, really do.

00:27:50.000 Here's Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader, once again ripping into the Supreme Court.

00:27:53.000 You know, this Supreme Court seems to have forgotten.

00:27:58.000 That one of their jobs is to protect individual rights and protect individuals from being discriminated against?

00:28:04.000 It's an awful decision.

00:28:07.000 Awful, awful.

00:28:08.000 Again, I hope that every Democrat embraces the Chuck Schumer position.

00:28:11.000 I really do.

00:28:13.000 I hope desperately that every single Democrat embraces that position and owns it because the American people do not agree with it.

00:28:21.000 Matt Walsh on this show yesterday correctly suggested that...

00:28:37.000 And presumably Democrats would have to filibuster it. 1.00

00:28:39.000 Good.

00:28:40.000 Good.

00:28:41.000 Force them to filibuster it.

00:28:42.000 force them to own this insane position.

00:28:44.000 Democrats are so out of touch on these particular positions and forcing them to actually own it would be Okay, meanwhile, the situation continues to percolate with regard to Israel and Iran.

00:29:03.000 Yesterday, the Israeli military continued to strike a variety of Iranian positions, including the Iranian heavy water reactor in Iraq, as well as what it describes as a site used for the development of nuclear weapons in the city of Natanz, according to the Wall Street Journal.

00:29:18.000 Military told people to evacuate the central Iranian cities of Iraq and Khondab ahead of the strike.

00:29:24.000 This is what they've been doing.

00:29:24.000 One of the things that's been undernoticed about this war is that Israel has completely devastated the Iranian military positions, air defense positions, nuclear reactors, military positions.

00:29:33.000 They've killed a minimum number of people, like truly a minimum number of people, like a couple hundred of people have died and they're virtually all military targets.

00:29:40.000 Because Israel has, once again, been warning its enemies, except for when it's hitting a missile launcher right after or right before it fires. 0.51

00:29:48.000 So, for all the people claiming that Israel is a genocidal state, intent on the mutilation and murder of hundreds of thousands of people, I would like to see one shred of evidence of that would be incredible. 0.62

00:29:58.000 As opposed to what they actually are, one of the most targeted militaries in world history.

00:30:03.000 What Israel is doing is historically successful.

00:30:06.000 Now, meanwhile, the Iranians continue to simply fire missiles into heavily populated areas.

00:30:14.000 Yesterday, The Iranians fired a missile at a hospital in the south of Israel.

00:30:22.000 Miraculously, they happened to hit an abandoned building.

00:30:26.000 So Israel had actually evacuated this old surgical center the day before.

00:30:29.000 So there was no one in the surgical center when it took a direct hit from an Iranian missile.

00:30:34.000 It was the Beersheba Soroka Medical Center.

00:30:38.000 Gidon Sar, the foreign minister, said the Iranian regime deliberately targets civilians.

00:30:41.000 It's committing war crimes and has no red lines. 0.77

00:30:45.000 There was also a kindergarten yard that was hit in the last Iranian barrage.

00:30:50.000 And Israel's been shooting down the vast majority of these counter-strikes from Iran, along with its allies. 0.54

00:30:58.000 Iran continues to pursue a war end that really does not seem tethered to reality in any way, shape, or form. 0.55

00:31:07.000 President Trump has said to Iran, listen, you want this to stop?

00:31:09.000 Very simple.

00:31:09.000 Just give up your nuclear program.

00:31:10.000 That's it.

00:31:11.000 That's the whole thing.

00:31:11.000 Now, again, President Trump has...

00:31:15.000 It is amazing to me how many people on the right seem to believe that President Trump shifted his position.

00:31:20.000 No, maybe you did, but he didn't.

00:31:23.000 In 2011, he was tweeting out that Barack Obama should get out of the way and let Israel do what it needed to do against the Iranian nuclear facilities.

00:31:31.000 Well, again, President Trump continues to play this masterfully.

00:31:34.000 Yesterday, he did yet another press conference in which he said, listen, there's not going to be a nuclear weapon in Iran.

00:31:38.000 That's how this works.

00:31:40.000 Well, I don't want to get involved either, but I've been saying for 20 years, maybe longer, that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

00:31:47.000 I've been saying it for a long time.

00:31:49.000 And I think they were a few weeks away from having one.

00:31:52.000 And they had to sign a document.

00:31:54.000 I think they wish they signed it now.

00:31:56.000 It was a fair deal.

00:31:57.000 And now it's a harder thing to sign, you know.

00:32:00.000 It's a lot of water over the dam.

00:32:03.000 But, you know, I say it very simply.

00:32:07.000 Iran can't have a nuclear weapon.

00:32:10.000 Okay, well, again, that happens to be a perspective shared by some 80% of Americans, that the Iranians should not have a nuclear weapon, and that if they had a nuclear weapon, they would try to use it against Israel.

00:32:26.000 When people say they want to kill you, you probably should at the very least believe them.

00:32:30.000 Okay, President Trump was asked what exactly he's looking for.

00:32:32.000 His answer was victory.

00:32:33.000 He said I was going back home to make a ceasefire.

00:32:40.000 Ceasefire.

00:32:40.000 Not a ceasefire.

00:32:41.000 We're long beyond ceasefire.

00:32:43.000 And I said, why do you say that?

00:32:45.000 Why would you say ceasefire?

00:32:47.000 It's a bad term to use.

00:32:48.000 Because a ceasefire means like everything's going swimmingly.

00:32:51.000 We'll take a little time off.

00:32:52.000 It's not.

00:32:53.000 We're not looking for a ceasefire.

00:32:55.000 We're looking for a total, complete victory.

00:32:58.000 Now again, Iran could simply do this. 0.97

00:33:00.000 Iran could today come out and say, listen, the Americans can come in.

00:33:03.000 They can blow up Fordow from like on the ground.

00:33:05.000 We'll have inspectors from the United States to oversee the dismantling of our nuclear program.

00:33:09.000 And then everything is hunky-dory for them.

00:33:11.000 No one has been calling for regime change as the actual goal here.

00:33:15.000 The goal is the denuclearization of Iran. 0.78

00:33:17.000 Period.

00:33:18.000 End of story.

00:33:18.000 That can happen with the Ayatollahs in power.

00:33:19.000 It can happen with the Ayatollahs out of power.

00:33:21.000 None of this, by the way, implies a heavy nation-building effort.

00:33:25.000 And all the people who are being intellectually dishonest suggesting that anyone mainstream has been calling for the full-scale occupation of Iran of thousands of American troops is lying to you and has been lying to you.

00:33:38.000 That was never a war goal of either...

00:33:40.000 The Israelis... 0.99

00:33:45.000 It's 1,500 miles from Iran.

00:33:47.000 What do you think?

00:33:48.000 The Israelis are going to occupy Iran, a country of 91 million people. 0.97

00:33:52.000 That's what they're...

00:33:53.000 Or America is interested in occupying... 0.62

00:33:56.000 You're talking about President Trump, who explicitly campaigned in 2016 against the Iraq War and the occupation of Iraq.

00:34:03.000 Who are you even talking about?

00:34:04.000 Who are you talking to?

00:34:05.000 The answer is you're talking to no one.

00:34:06.000 You're talking to yourselves.

00:34:07.000 You're setting up a straw man in order to somehow make a couple of bunker busters dropped on Fordow akin in some bizarre way to the full-scale occupation for 20 years of Iraq.

00:34:19.000 You're going to need to do better than that.

00:34:20.000 That is a particularly crappy argument because it is not an argument that has anything to do with reality.

00:34:25.000 The only people backing off their positions these days, as I see it, are the people who five minutes ago were suggesting World War III was going to break out if Israel struck the Iranian nuclear reactors, and who have now backed into the position of saying, well, you know, if President Trump allows Israel to do what they're doing or does a strike, really, we didn't back off our positions.

00:34:41.000 You did, because you wanted full-scale regime change with occupation on the ground.

00:34:45.000 No one was ever saying that.

00:34:47.000 No one.

00:34:48.000 Really.

00:34:49.000 It's pretty amazing.

00:34:51.000 If President Trump says, you know, you keep saying this is going to end slowly, maybe it'll end very quickly.

00:34:56.000 Trump is not a person who wishes to engage in nation-building.

00:35:01.000 He is not.

00:35:05.000 No nuclear weapon. 0.95

00:35:07.000 Destroy the nuclear facilities. 0.98

00:35:09.000 That's it.

00:35:11.000 Has President Trump ever suggested that he wants a full-scale occupation of Iran?

00:35:15.000 If so, when?

00:35:15.000 Please name the time.

00:35:17.000 He's been consistent.

00:35:18.000 You have not.

00:35:18.000 End of story.

00:35:21.000 I did ask Tucker, I said, well, are you okay with nuclear weapons being in the hands of Iran?

00:35:28.000 And he sort of didn't like that.

00:35:30.000 He didn't want to really talk, but he sort of didn't like that.

00:35:32.000 And I said, well, if it's okay with you, then you and I do have a difference.

00:35:38.000 But it's really not okay with him.

00:35:41.000 Therefore, you may have to fight.

00:35:43.000 And maybe it'll end, and maybe it'll end very quickly.

00:35:46.000 But there's no way that you can allow, whether you have to fight or not, you can allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon because the entire world will blow up. 0.97

00:35:55.000 Yeah. 0.99

00:35:56.000 So, I mean, again, that seems like a very simple answer to what is a very stupid question. 0.94

00:36:02.000 When President Trump says, is the world better off with an Iranian nuclear weapon or not, that is a proposition that 80% of Americans agree with, that Iran should not go nuclear. 0.97

00:36:12.000 Period.

00:36:13.000 End of story.

00:36:14.000 That's the whole thing.

00:36:16.000 And when asked, President Trump said, My supporters are for me.

00:36:21.000 Like, anybody who's suggesting there's, like, a fundamental break here?

00:36:24.000 There's no fundamental break.

00:36:26.000 Have you seen the Tucker Carlson, Senator Ted Cruz interview?

00:36:30.000 It seems like this issue on whether or not the United States should strike is kind of dividing a lot of your supporters.

00:36:36.000 No, my supporters are for me.

00:36:39.000 My supporters are America first.

00:36:41.000 They make America great again.

00:36:42.000 My supporters don't want to see Iran have a nuclear weapon.

00:36:47.000 Tucker's a nice guy.

00:36:48.000 He called and apologized the other day.

00:36:50.000 Okay, well, again, if President Trump is telling the truth there, which I assume he is, kind of an astonishing move for Tucker Carlson to call and apologize.

00:36:59.000 And good for Tucker for calling and apologizing.

00:37:02.000 Alrighty, coming up, the Democrats are in serious, serious trouble.

00:37:04.000 I will explain precisely why.

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00:38:18.000 President Trump continues to maintain.

00:38:20.000 Maybe he'll strike.

00:38:21.000 Maybe he won't.

00:38:21.000 That is his prerogative as president.

00:38:24.000 It's a shame it could have been done the easy way.

00:38:27.000 Do you think raising that could fall?

00:38:29.000 Sure.

00:38:30.000 Anything could happen, right?

00:38:32.000 Of that?

00:38:32.000 Sure, that could happen.

00:38:34.000 Yeah.

00:38:35.000 Now, again.

00:38:36.000 President Trump is not calling for the regime to fall.

00:38:38.000 He's not suggesting that he even wants to topple the regime.

00:38:41.000 He's saying if the bombing continues, the regime could fall, which obviously is true. 1.00

00:38:46.000 The Israelis actually hacked Iranian TV and they put in footage of Iranian women being able to cut their hair and all of the rest.

00:38:55.000 They've been killing many of the chiefs of police in major cities around Iran in order to get rid of the Iranians. 1.00

00:39:08.000 But any sort of movement to get rid of the Ayatollahs is going to have to be domestically led. 1.00

00:39:11.000 It's going to have to be led by the population of Iran. 0.99

00:39:14.000 Again, the sole goal here for both Israel and the United States is the denuclearization of Iran. 0.90

00:39:19.000 Meanwhile, Ayatollah Khamenei, he keeps saying over and over and over that Iran is not going to surrender.

00:39:25.000 He said, quote, First of all, we should point out the Iranian nation is not represented by the Iranian government. 0.90

00:39:31.000 The Iranian government is, in fact, a dictatorship that does not give a crap about its people and shoots them in the streets if they oppose it.

00:39:39.000 He says, The Iranian nation stands firm against an imposed war, just as it will stand firm against an imposed peace, and this nation will not surrender to anyone in the face of imposition.

00:39:47.000 Intelligent people who know Iran, the Iranian nation and its history will never speak to this nation in threatening language, because the Iranian nation will not surrender, and the Americans should know that any U.S. military intervention will undoubtedly cause irreparable harm to them.

00:39:59.000 Okay, so here we should deal with the possibility of what Iran could do in response, right?

00:40:03.000 Because you can certainly have a calibrated discussion about risks and rewards when it comes to military action.

00:40:09.000 Israel has done an extraordinary job of taking out the missile launchers in Iran.

00:40:13.000 Iran has terror groups in places like Iraq.

00:40:16.000 Theoretically, they could fire on U.S. military bases in Iraq.

00:40:20.000 President Trump has been evacuating military personnel from places like Iraq and places like Syria in the expectation that if he should decide to drop a couple of Moabs, On Fordow, that possibly Iran would activate some of those terrorist groups to fire on American bases. 0.89

00:40:35.000 Now, that would be the stupidest move Ayatollah Khamenei ever made. 0.78

00:40:38.000 Let's be clear about that. 0.99

00:40:39.000 If the Ayatollah decided that in response to the bombing of his nuclear facility, he was going to launch full-scale assaults on American troops, he would be dead by morning. 0.53

00:40:48.000 It is that simple.

00:40:49.000 He would be dead.

00:40:49.000 And there is no leadership structure to pick up the pieces afterward.

00:40:52.000 So if he wants his regime to actually end, that would be an amazing way of making sure that his regime actually ends.

00:40:58.000 That would be effectively a suicide pact if he legitimately attempted a full-scale attack on American installations or American military personnel.

00:41:06.000 But President Trump is being careful.

00:41:07.000 He, of course, wants to protect American lives, as is his duty.

00:41:10.000 And so he has been, for example, shifting around troops, apparently, at Al-Udayd Air Base in Qatar.

00:41:16.000 He's been moving American personnel out of Syria.

00:41:19.000 He's essentially clearing the ground so that if America decides to use a B-2 and take out Fordo, that there won't be anything coming the other way.

00:41:27.000 Which, again, is smart of the President of the United States.

00:41:31.000 And I think enough of a deterrent exists that even if President Trump decided not to do it, it would still make sense because the reality is that it would certainly not be in the Ayatollah's interest to go further in this war once Fordow is gone. 0.90

00:41:43.000 He then has nothing to bargain with at that point.

00:41:45.000 What's amazing about all of this is that if Iran came to the table and just gave up its nuclear program, the regime likely survives, at least in some form, for a couple of more years. 0.85

00:41:55.000 Instead, he seems to be accelerating his own demise.

00:41:57.000 By taking these sort of intransigent stands, President Trump offered him every way out for months.

00:42:03.000 For literally two months, he offered him a way out.

00:42:05.000 And the Ayatollahs would not take it. 0.70

00:42:08.000 Okay, what's the possibility of other Iranian response? 0.50

00:42:10.000 As we talked about yesterday on the show, theoretically, Iran could activate its terrorist friends around the world to attack Americans or Jews or Europeans or whomever.

00:42:23.000 That's always a possibility.

00:42:24.000 Iran can do that at any time.

00:42:26.000 Does that mean that the United States, for example, should have left ISIS in place because there were ISIS-associated people who engaged in terror attacks?

00:42:34.000 When we say, broadly speaking in the West, that we should not negotiate with terrorists, what we mean is that if you can be deterred from taking out full-scale terrorist groups by the possibility that terrorist groups are going to do bad things, you've lost already.

00:42:47.000 There's no purpose to having an American military, for example, if the basic idea is that Iran can at any time activate a terrorist cell.

00:42:55.000 And therefore, we should allow them to go nuclear.

00:42:57.000 And this is why President Trump is so clear.

00:42:59.000 He's so clear on this.

00:43:00.000 And his clarity is so refreshing.

00:43:02.000 He has one agenda and one agenda only.

00:43:05.000 He says it over and over and over again for decades.

00:43:09.000 No nuclear Iran. 0.90

00:43:10.000 Period.

00:43:11.000 End of story.

00:43:12.000 That's the agenda.

00:43:14.000 And the reality is that if you are at the head of the world's most powerful military, and if you don't even have the ability to stop the Iranian nuclear program, Once the Israelis have already taken out all of the advanced weaponry, taken out all of the air defense systems, destroyed on the ground the top layers of the Iranian military, ripped apart 90% of the Iranian nuclear facilities, if the United States does not have the capacity, if this is a capacity or courage question, how the hell do you hope to deter China from taking over Taiwan? 0.51

00:43:41.000 Seriously, that's an actual military challenge.

00:43:43.000 You want to stop China from taking over Taiwan in credible ways?

00:43:47.000 Well, at some point, you might have to actually sign into chat and demonstrate that our threats are credible.

00:43:52.000 Can you imagine a world in which the United States can be put off of ending the Iranian nuclear program by Iran saying things while they are lying defenseless at the feet of the Israeli government and the Israeli military? 0.60

00:44:04.000 You know, what would our enemies take away from that?

00:44:06.000 That is a real concern, if you believe, as I do, that Joe Biden's cowardly, ridiculous pullout from Afghanistan led full scale to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

00:44:14.000 And the reason Russia never invaded Ukraine under Donald Trump is because they were afraid of Donald Trump, which is, I think, true. 0.68

00:44:20.000 People have to remain afraid of you.

00:44:22.000 And that means that you have to credibly be able to threaten the use of force.

00:44:26.000 Again, there has never been a clearer time when the American use of military force seems to be so results effective and so low risk.

00:44:39.000 Now again, that doesn't mean no risk.

00:44:40.000 Of course there's risk in any military operation.

00:44:42.000 Of course there's risk of blowback and people responding.

00:44:45.000 Of course that's true.

00:44:48.000 But the United States has had as a central goal, both Democrat and Republican, for decades, the non-nuclear Iran. 0.67

00:44:56.000 That has been a goal of foreign policy in the United States for decades.

00:44:59.000 If, after Israel clears all the ground, you can't take a B2 and hit with a couple of Moabs, if you're deterred, how in the world do you expect to deter China? 1.00

00:45:08.000 How do you expect to deter Russia?

00:45:10.000 How do you expect to deter anyone?

00:45:11.000 That is a serious credibility question.

00:45:15.000 Now, one of the other sort of concerns that's been raised is, What happens if Ayatollah Khamenei falls?

00:45:21.000 The Wall Street Journal points out that Iran's embattled leaders have found themselves in an existential struggle domestically to protect nearly a half-century of rule as Israel pounds the military, government, and population.

00:45:32.000 The U.S. and Israel have made it clear that even Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, could be a target.

00:45:37.000 President Trump himself posted on social media, quote, we know exactly where the so-called Supreme Leader is hiding.

00:45:42.000 He's an easy target, but is safe there.

00:45:43.000 We're not going to take him out, kill, at least not for now.

00:45:48.000 Now, what if the regime were to fall?

00:45:51.000 What if the regime were to collapse?

00:45:54.000 I mean, first of all, it is amazing what Israel has been able to accomplish here.

00:45:56.000 If you look at, like, a chart of the people at the top of the Iranian structure who have been killed, it includes the chief of staff of the armed forces, the commander of Khattam al-Anbiya at central headquarters, the IRGC commander-in-chief,

00:46:12.000 The IRGC Aerospace Force Commander, the IRGC Surface-to-Surface Missile Array Commander, the IRGC Aerospace Force Aerial Unit Commander, the IRGC Aerospace Force UAV Force Commander, the IRGC Intelligence Chief, the IRGC Deputy Intelligence Chief, the IRGC Quds Force Intelligence Chief, and the IRGC Quds Force Deputy Intelligence Chief.

00:46:28.000 That's who Israel has killed over the course of the last week.

00:46:32.000 The only living members left of the entire regime, essentially, are the Supreme Leader, as well as the IRGC Quds Force Commander.

00:46:42.000 That's it.

00:46:42.000 That's the whole list.

00:46:44.000 Okay, so, the question at this point becomes, what happens next?

00:46:48.000 Now, I know there are a lot of people who are concerned about what happens next.

00:46:53.000 I don't think that's our business.

00:46:55.000 I actually don't.

00:46:57.000 I'm of the Angelo Cotevilla view.

00:46:59.000 Angelo Cotevilla was a professor at Claremont, and he used to say one of the big mistakes about Afghanistan and Iraq was not deposing Saddam Hussein.

00:47:06.000 The problem in Iraq is that we disbanded the Iraqi military.

00:47:09.000 And then got in the way of whatever rebuilding was supposed to happen.

00:47:13.000 He said with regard to Afghanistan, the problem was not deposing the Taliban.

00:47:17.000 The problem was, we then decided to involve ourselves in nation building as opposed to just knocking over the Taliban. 0.79

00:47:22.000 And whatever happens next happens.

00:47:24.000 And then if we don't like the next leader, we knock him out too. 0.96

00:47:26.000 And if it requires that every so often we go in and we kill their leadership, okay, you can do that too. 0.94

00:47:31.000 Okay, to protect America, this is what you do.

00:47:33.000 And it doesn't require long-term occupations.

00:47:35.000 I think that that is actually a fairly realist point of view.

00:47:38.000 When it comes to American foreign policy, you do what you have to do to protect American interests for the foreseeable future, and that does not mean long-term nation-building prospects.

00:47:46.000 But there is this bizarre idea that is set in in the aftermath of Iraq and Afghanistan that all regime change is inherently bad.

00:47:53.000 Now, some regime change is bad.

00:47:55.000 For example, I don't think that Libyan's toppling Muammar Gaddafi was a good thing for the United States, and I opposed it at the time. 0.67

00:48:02.000 I do not think that the...

00:48:10.000 However, are we supposed to pretend that all regime change is bad?

00:48:15.000 Literally all?

00:48:16.000 Because if the idea is that whatever chaos follows in the wake of a regime change is always worse than a regime change, you're now making a case for the status quo for every evil dictatorship on the planet.

00:48:26.000 This is a point made by the Israeli ambassador to the United States.

00:48:30.000 Chris, we're not in the business of regime change.

00:48:33.000 I said that if, as a result, Of our self-defense, the people rise up, which they've done repeatedly.

00:48:39.000 The problem is that this regime of tyrants has shot them in the back.

00:48:44.000 You know, there's 15,000 political prisoners imprisoned by the Ayatollahs in Tehran.

00:48:50.000 So we're very, very clear with our objective, and that's to prevent a nuclear Iran. 0.97

00:48:56.000 If as a result of our activities, the Iranian people find the opportunity to race towards freedom instead of a nuclear bomb,

00:49:17.000 The bringing down of Assad has led to the rise of an HTS government, which is still questionable in a lot of serious ways, but a government that is significantly friendlier to President Trump and the United States.

00:49:28.000 President Trump himself will say so.

00:49:30.000 That's just in the last year or so.

00:49:32.000 Not every regime change is bad, and nation-building is not required.

00:49:37.000 There is no clue that if you break it, you bought it.

00:49:41.000 Is the idea that you can never go to war with any country at all because you have some sort of vested interest in that country remaining as it is?

00:49:48.000 Was regime change bad in Nazi Germany or Japan?

00:49:52.000 Was regime preservation in South Korea a bad thing?

00:49:56.000 Was regime change good in Vietnam?

00:50:00.000 Every case is different.

00:50:02.000 Every case is different.

00:50:02.000 And the best thing you can do in foreign policy is avoid the most bad outcome.

00:50:07.000 And right now, the most bad outcome is the Ayatollahs with a bomb. 0.94

00:50:10.000 That's it. 0.70

00:50:10.000 That's the worst outcome. 0.70

00:50:11.000 Avoiding that outcome is the key here.

00:50:13.000 If the Ayatollahs fall and there's no bomb, that is still a better outcome than Ayatollahs with a bomb. 0.99

00:50:19.000 That, I think, is the foreign policy of the United States and should be the foreign policy of the West more broadly.

00:50:26.000 Now, meanwhile, Democrats, of course, Are siding with that horseshoe theory right in suggesting that this is just terrible.

00:50:31.000 That everything that's happening in the Middle East is terrible right now. 1.00

00:50:34.000 The denuclearization of Iran by force is terrible.

00:50:37.000 Democratic Senator Welch, he is from Vermont.

00:50:42.000 Again, if you find yourself in solidarity with Bernie Sanders on foreign policy, let me suggest that you're doing it wrong.

00:50:48.000 Senator Peter Welch of Vermont, who is again a Bernie Sanders type Democrat from Vermont.

00:50:53.000 He says we should be taking care of America first sounding very much like some of the voices on the Horseshoe Theory right.

00:50:59.000 Do we want to get engaged in Netanyahu's policy when there's no restraining what he ultimately will do?

00:51:08.000 We should be taking care of America first. 0.77

00:51:11.000 Now again, I don't know what that means in this particular context.

00:51:14.000 I also agree that we should be taking care of America first.

00:51:18.000 We are doing that with like trillions of dollars a year.

00:51:22.000 I'm confused as to how taking out the Iranian nuclear program with one bombing run is somehow equivalent to not paying attention to America's problems.

00:51:30.000 Should we disband the American military, generally speaking?

00:51:32.000 I mean, this is a really ideological question.

00:51:34.000 Should we disband the—what is the military for?

00:51:37.000 Should we disband it?

00:51:38.000 We spend trillions of dollars a year on it.

00:51:40.000 Should we just disband it utterly?

00:51:41.000 Because after all, all those dollars could be used for Social Security or whatever.

00:51:45.000 Is that the goal?

00:51:46.000 Like, what is the goal here?

00:51:47.000 What is the end state that you seek?

00:51:50.000 Do you view American foreign policy as important in any way, shape, or form?

00:51:56.000 And as far as the idea of the United States is tethered to whatever Benjamin Netanyahu says or does in Iran, how so?

00:52:03.000 Truly, I want to understand that.

00:52:06.000 Please explain to me how, let's say that Benjamin Netanyahu decided he wanted a full-scale American invasion of Iran.

00:52:11.000 You think President Trump goes for that?

00:52:13.000 Are you out of your mind?

00:52:15.000 Okay, first of all, Netanyahu has not called for that.

00:52:17.000 If he did, you think Trump goes for that?

00:52:20.000 Benjamin Netanyahu apparently wanted to go after Iran months ago, and President Trump was not particularly friendly toward it.

00:52:28.000 Did the United States go along with all of that?

00:52:33.000 All of these are strawmen.

00:52:35.000 They're just burning strawmen.

00:52:36.000 Democratic Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, he's now suggesting that Netanyahu's decision to launch a war against Iran is threatening Americans' safety.

00:52:45.000 So I guess his suggestion is that America is safer with the Ayatollahs of the bomb. 1.00

00:52:50.000 Mr. Secretary, as the Chairman has said, this is a dangerous moment.

00:52:55.000 As we speak, missiles are striking cities across Israel and Iran, threatening to ignite a regional war.

00:53:03.000 There should be no doubt that for the safety of the United States and the rest of the world, Iran cannot acquire a nuclear weapon. 0.53

00:53:11.000 However, Prime Minister Netanyahu's decision to preemptively launch a war with Iran against the urging of the President So, again, the idea here from this doltish, clottish Democrat is that somehow taking out the nuclear facilities is bad.

00:53:34.000 Trust the Iranians.

00:53:36.000 Okay, well, President Trump does not.

00:53:37.000 President Trump has made clear his perspective, and trying to cite things in the name of President Trump that he has not said and is not saying is a hell of a move.

00:53:44.000 Again, listen, there are times when I disagree with President Trump on this program.

00:53:47.000 It's not infrequent.

00:53:49.000 But I'm not trying to speak in his name.

00:53:51.000 What does President Trump really mean?

00:53:53.000 What is President Trump really trying to say?

00:53:54.000 He's saying exactly what he wants to say.

00:53:57.000 He's doing exactly what he wants to do.

00:53:59.000 He's not being manipulated from the outside. 0.98

00:54:02.000 That sort of perverse perspective is very, very silly in the extreme.

00:54:06.000 Meanwhile, the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, called for an immediate de-escalation leading to a ceasefire because of course he did.

00:54:14.000 Of course he did.

00:54:15.000 Has there ever been an evil power on planet Earth the United Nations will not stand for? 1.00

00:54:19.000 The United Nations is the most isolated of international politics, a wretched hive of scum and villainy. 1.00

00:54:25.000 And this is what they are. 0.99

00:54:26.000 That is not a shock at all. 0.93

00:54:28.000 One of the many reasons why I hope that before President Trump leaves office during his second term, I hope that President Trump Just cuts it dead. 0.98

00:54:36.000 It is the worst organization. 1.00

00:54:37.000 It is a trash organization. 1.00

00:54:38.000 You want to talk about wasting billions of dollars a year? 0.99

00:54:41.000 If we're cutting USAID, we should just cut the UN completely.

00:54:43.000 What a joke that organization is.

00:54:46.000 Truly.

00:54:47.000 Well, meanwhile, the Democrats are in trouble.

00:54:49.000 According to the New York Times, the DNC is in chaos and desperate for cash.

00:54:53.000 Uh-oh.

00:54:53.000 Sad things happening.

00:54:55.000 Just months into the tenure of a new party leader, Ken Martin, the DNC has grown so bleak, top officials have discussed whether they might need to borrow money this year to keep paying the bills.

00:55:04.000 Fundraising from major donors, some of whom Mr. Martin has still not spoken with, has slowed sharply.

00:55:09.000 At the same time, he's expanded the party's financial commitments to every state, even to Guam.

00:55:13.000 Fellow Democrats are grumbling that Martin, who quietly accepted a raise after taking the post, has been badly distracted by internal battles.

00:55:21.000 So far, they say he's been unable to help unite his party against Republicans who control the federal government.

00:55:25.000 So, they have a really, really big problem over at the DNC.

00:55:31.000 So given the fact that there was a bare-knuckles fight for the chairmanship, Martin has been pushing allies, his enemies are mad, they're walking out because of a giant grab bag of cash, but not anymore.

00:55:41.000 I guess all the cash is gone.

00:55:43.000 Six people briefed on the party's fundraising, according to the New York Times, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss its finances, frankly, said big donors had been very slow to give to the party this year as Martin solicits contributions.

00:55:54.000 His commitment to state parties, which amounts to a million bucks in monthly spending, has further strained the finances.

00:55:59.000 So it appears the Democrats may now be in the position of having to borrow money in order to pay their bills, very much like their fiscal policy, which is exciting, exciting stuff.

00:56:08.000 Meanwhile, I'm going to keep an eye on this New York City mayoral race, because if New York turns to this psychotic, socialistic, spoiled brat man-child, Zoran Mamdani, the New York State representative, who held a real job for about 2.7 seconds,

00:56:25.000 As the privileged scion of a Columbia University professor and a Hollywood director, before his theatrical run for mayor of New York, if they elect this guy, I'm going to enjoy watching New York City meltdown, truly.

00:56:39.000 Like, you get what you deserve.

00:56:40.000 I'm very much on board, again, with the H.L. Mencken idea that democracy is the theory, that the people get what they vote for, good and hard.

00:56:49.000 If you vote for Zoran, Mom's Antiman, and your entire tax base flees, then good luck to you, New York, truly.

00:56:55.000 We will welcome all of your rich people down to Florida, increasing our tax base.

00:57:00.000 Sounds great.

00:57:02.000 Bill Ackman says it only takes a handful of successful people to leave to decimate the city's tax base.

00:57:06.000 Well, that's true.

00:57:07.000 That is true.

00:57:10.000 Meanwhile, Zarn Mamdani, who, again, has engaged with every anti-Semitic group he can find, tweeted in 2020 that queer liberation means free Palestine, which is a very weird statement.

00:57:21.000 This person, who has chanted, globalized the Intifada.

00:57:25.000 And then suggested that Israel does not have a right to exist as a Jewish state.

00:57:29.000 Now he's crying about it.

00:57:32.000 This is where we are.

00:57:33.000 This is the person you guys are thinking about electing mayor of New York.

00:57:35.000 This one.

00:57:36.000 A man who fakes tears.

00:57:38.000 Honest to goodness.

00:57:39.000 The fake tears.

00:57:39.000 I can't deal with that at all.

00:57:41.000 It is unmanly.

00:57:43.000 Hey, it's unmanly.

00:57:44.000 It just is.

00:57:44.000 There are good reasons to cry.

00:57:46.000 Your parents died.

00:57:48.000 Your dog got hit by a car.

00:57:49.000 Something bad's happening to your kids.

00:57:51.000 Like, those are real reasons to cry.

00:57:52.000 You know, it's not a reason to cry.

00:57:53.000 Someone called you an anti-Semite when it turns out you're kind of an anti-Semite.

00:57:57.000 Here's Zoran Mamdani, faking tears. 0.99

00:58:01.000 I get messages that say the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim. 0.97

00:58:05.000 No, you don't. 0.99

00:58:07.000 Show us.

00:58:08.000 I get threats on my life, on the people that I love, and I try not to talk about it.

00:58:20.000 Because the function of racism, as Toni Morrison said, is distraction.

00:58:24.000 My focus has always been on making this a city that's affordable.

00:58:28.000 on making this a city that every New Yorker sees themselves in.

00:58:30.000 End.

00:58:36.000 Because this is a city that every single person deserves to be in.

00:58:40.000 city that we all belong to.

00:58:42.000 And the thing that's made me proudest in this campaign Yeah.

00:58:46.000 Is that the strength of our movement is built on our ability to have built something across Jewish and Muslim New Yorkers, across New Yorkers of all faiths and all backgrounds and all boroughs.

00:58:58.000 And antisemitism is such a real issue in the city, and it has been hard to see it weaponized by candidates who do not seem to have any sincere interest in tackling it, rather than using it as a pretext to make political points.

00:59:17.000 Oh my god.

00:59:20.000 Oh my god.

00:59:21.000 This is the one you want, really?

00:59:22.000 This is what you want in New York?

00:59:25.000 Anti-Semitism has been weaponized.

00:59:27.000 Not by my friends who hate Jews, but by people who say that anti-Semitism is bad and that I'm one of them.

00:59:32.000 It's so sad.

00:59:35.000 You know what I need?

00:59:36.000 I need a mash-up at some point.

00:59:37.000 Editors, I'm calling upon you.

00:59:38.000 I need a mashup of all the Democrats' fake crying.

00:59:40.000 From Bill Clinton fake crying to Gavin Newsom fake crying.

00:59:43.000 It's like a Republican thing.

00:59:44.000 I remember a lot of Republicans doing the thing.

00:59:49.000 I do not think that he has.

00:59:51.000 Like, ever.

00:59:52.000 Not once, as far as I'm aware.

00:59:53.000 But it seems like every Democrat...

00:59:55.000 It's like part of the rehearsal process.

00:59:59.000 Cry. 0.75

00:59:59.000 Let's see some tears, boy. 0.75

01:00:01.000 Let's do it.

01:00:04.000 It's like every single Democrat.

01:00:07.000 Every major Democrat has to do the, I'm so sad, and oh, the tears building.

01:00:12.000 Honestly, the only man I know who can fake cry on command is Matt Walsh.

01:00:17.000 And that's because Matt is kind of an actor.

01:00:20.000 I mean, like, he actually tried to do it in Am I Racist, I believe.

01:00:23.000 And it was pretty effective.

01:00:24.000 But he's the only one.

01:00:26.000 I don't know anyone else.

01:00:27.000 It's amazing.

01:00:29.000 These are the people, these are the ones the Democrats have chosen.

01:00:32.000 Okay, well, good luck with that.

01:00:35.000 Well, meanwhile, The Democrats boycotted a hearing yesterday over the cover-up of Joe Biden's mental decline.

01:00:42.000 Again, one of the great scandals in American history.

01:00:44.000 Republicans have been holding a Senate hearing on this.

01:00:46.000 Senate Democrats staged a near-total boycott of a Republican-led Senate hearing on Wednesday on Joe Biden's mental decline.

01:00:52.000 And it's alleged cover-up during his presidency, according to The Guardian.

01:00:55.000 The only senator who attended was Peter Welch of Vermont, who again is very bored.

01:00:58.000 There's nothing happening in Vermont.

01:00:59.000 They've got like some cows and some grass and that's it.

01:01:02.000 So he's like, okay, you know, I'll show up.

01:01:03.000 But everyone else is not showing up.

01:01:04.000 The hearing was titled, Unfit to Serve.

01:01:06.000 How the Biden cover-up endangered America and undermined the Constitution.

01:01:09.000 It began with the Democratic ranking member, Dick Durbin, launching a counterattack on President Trump's off-kilter comments before walking out of the chamber.

01:01:17.000 Yes, they must walk out.

01:01:20.000 Durbin said, if we're going to make a question of cognitive ability, I think we should consider what happened in Alberta, Canada, just this week.

01:01:27.000 And then he tried to claim that President Trump, is mentally unfit.

01:01:31.000 Okay, this is not going to work for you guys.

01:01:33.000 Really, it's not going to work for you.

01:01:35.000 Marsha Blackburn, senator from Tennessee, she's like, you know, good try, guys, but you trying to avoid culpability for covering up the fact that the president of the United States was brain dead for a couple of years there?

01:01:44.000 It's not going to work.

01:01:47.000 I'm on my way down to Judiciary Committee.

01:01:50.000 We have a hearing on who was really in charge at the White House while Joe Biden was president, who had that auto pin, what was happening with his help.

01:02:00.000 You know, I think the Democrats are already throwing the towel in on this one.

01:02:04.000 They didn't even call a witness.

01:02:07.000 It's going to be interesting.

01:02:09.000 Stay tuned.

01:02:10.000 So, it will be interesting.

01:02:12.000 And I hope to see what Democrats have to say about who knew what when when it came to our brain-dead, non-functional president.

01:02:20.000 It's an amazing thing that that is a real thing that happened in American life, and we're not even paying attention to it anymore.

01:02:26.000 This is how fast the news moves now.

01:02:27.000 We had a president who was legitimately non-functional for two full years.

01:02:31.000 We have no idea who the actual president of the United States was, and it may have been his formerly co-caddled son and his wife.

01:02:39.000 I have descriptors for her, but I'll leave them out.

01:02:42.000 And somehow that is not, like, we move beyond it.

01:02:46.000 Goodness gracious, the timeline is too fast at this point.

01:02:50.000 And meanwhile, on the economy, Jay Powell of the Federal Reserve, as expected yesterday, said that he would not be lowering the interest rates.

01:02:56.000 He says we have to hold off and see what's going to happen with the tariffs.

01:03:00.000 And what we're waiting for to reduce rates is to understand what will happen with really the tariff inflation.

01:03:07.000 And there's a lot of uncertainty about that.

01:03:11.000 Every forecaster you can name who is a professional forecaster with adequate resources and forecasts for a living is forecasting a meaningful increase in inflation in coming months from tariffs because someone has to pay for the tariffs.

01:03:31.000 Well, I mean, he's right about that, but we'll have to see what happens with the tariffs.

01:03:35.000 President Trump, of course, wants the inflation to come down.

01:03:38.000 He also wants the interest rates.

01:03:41.000 President Trump seems to be now negotiating off-ramps with regard to these tariffs.

01:03:45.000 I very much, of course, hope that he does, because I think that if he does, and if we leave a significant tariff on China and reshape the world economy, and if he continues to credibly pursue the kinds of policies he's currently pursuing on foreign policy, meaning boxing in China, credible threats of military force when necessary, and all the rest. 0.54

01:04:02.000 If he does all of that, then we are looking at a very solid economy going forward.

01:04:07.000 Foreign policy and domestic policy intertwine here.

01:04:10.000 Free shipping lanes.

01:04:11.000 If you want to ensure that nefarious foreign powers can't undermine the global economy and global currencies, you do have to flex at some point.

01:04:19.000 And by the way, one of the things that is happening with regard to Iran here that's actually quite important is the breaking of a couple of bizarre complexes that the United States has engaged in for a while.

01:04:29.000 One is the Iraq War Complex, which is the idea that anytime America involves itself anywhere militarily, it turns into Iraq, which is not true.

01:04:37.000 Sort of the equivalent of the Vietnam War complex that dominated America from the end of the Vietnam War to the Gulf War for about 16 years.

01:04:44.000 And then secondly, if President Trump does in fact take out Fordow, or if the Israelis finish taking out Fordow, whatever it is, the idea that nuclear negotiations are the way to end a nuclear threat, that obviously goes by the wayside as well.

01:05:00.000 Incredible military threats are reassured, which is a very, very good thing.

01:05:05.000 Now, speaking, by the way, of the economy, it is worth noting that according to a new report released on Wednesday, Social Security and Medicare will run out of money in less than a decade.

01:05:17.000 If Congress does not overhaul the program's financing, automatic cuts will slash Social Security benefits by 23%, Medicare hospital benefits by 11% in 2033.

01:05:26.000 Now, realistically, is any of that going to happen?

01:05:28.000 No, of course not.

01:05:29.000 The federal government is just going to borrow more money, is what's actually going to happen.

01:05:32.000 Until we can't borrow money.

01:05:34.000 And that is the big question.

01:05:35.000 How long can we borrow the money?

01:05:37.000 This is a bipartisan problem.

01:05:39.000 This is not unique to President Trump.

01:05:40.000 It is not unique to the Democrats.

01:05:42.000 Everyone has been kicking the can down the road on the entitlements, pretending away all the problems there.

01:05:47.000 It is the ticking time bomb underneath the American economy.

01:05:50.000 At some point, someone is going to have to do something about it.

01:05:54.000 Alrighty, folks, the show is continuing for our members right now.

01:05:56.000 Coming up, the Pope is questioning the problems with AI.

The Ben Shapiro Show - June 19, 2025

The Whiners Who Dump on America

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