The Ben Shapiro Show - Transing of Children in America…IS DEAD

00:00:00.000 Is the transing of the children finally dying in America? 1.00

00:00:03.000 We'll get to some breaking news that suggests that it is, plus, breaking news on the kidnapping of Savannah Guthrie's mom and everything that is the latest from Minneapolis and all the rest.

00:00:13.000 First, in 2026, Dailywire Plus members are getting more than ever before.

00:00:16.000 In January alone, we dropped more than 250 original pieces of content, all ad-free, all uncensored, and February is way busier.

00:00:24.000 New episodes of the seven-part fantasy series, the Penn Dragon cycle, Rise of the Merlin, are coming every Thursday.

00:00:29.000 Ben After Dark Season 2 premieres on Friday the 13th, which feels sort of on brand.

00:00:34.000 And there's a new episode of Matt Walsh's new series, Real History, hitting February 23rd, and will be live in DC for the State of the Union, plus a bunch of other stuff stacked on top of that.

00:00:42.000 So if you're already a member, you're covered.

00:00:44.000 If you're not, this is the month to fix that.

00:00:46.000 Head on over to dailywireplus.com to join right now.

00:00:49.000 Well, if you go back just a few years, it was deregored that every major commentator, every major politician would be called to say that boys were girls, girls were boys, they could become one another.

00:01:00.000 Major medical establishment organizations came out and said that it was the purest form of science to say that boys could become girls.

00:01:08.000 And in fact, the best treatment for people suffering from gender dysphoria was for them to have hormone treatment and surgery.

00:01:14.000 In fact, if you go back to 2021, the American Medical Association was telling governors to oppose state legislation that would prohibit medically necessary gender transition related care for minor patients, calling such efforts, quote, a dangerous intrusion into the practice of medicine.

00:01:28.000 That, of course, was not relegated only to psychological care or social transition or even to hormones.

00:01:34.000 That also included, on many occasions, surgery.

00:01:39.000 In fact, the AMA specifically put out a letter saying, quote, empirical evidence has demonstrated that trans and non-binary gender identities are normal variations of human identity and expression.

00:01:50.000 For gender-diverse individuals, standards of care and accepted medically necessary services that affirm gender or treat gender dysphoria may include mental health counseling, non-medical social transition, gender-affirming hormone therapy, and or gender-affirming surgeries.

00:02:04.000 This was the standard of care, according to the American Medical Association.

00:02:08.000 Well, as it turns out, all of that was a load of horse crap.

00:02:11.000 And if you are wondering about the sort of signal moments in the last 30 years of American history where people fell out of love with institutions and decided that institutions had betrayed their trust, this would be a big one.

00:02:25.000 There have been many of them.

00:02:26.000 Obviously, there is the media betrayal of Americans' trust over things like Joe Biden's mental health issues.

00:02:33.000 There's the betrayal, the fundamental betrayal of trust by our nation's educational institutions with regard to things like critical race theory.

00:02:40.000 There was the betrayal of trust by our scientific organizations over COVID.

00:02:44.000 But a really, really big one, maybe the biggest one in many ways, was the basic lie that everyone who is above the age of one and a half knows is a lie, which is that boys and girls are the same.

00:02:56.000 The fact that the medical establishment said that boys could become girls, girls could become boys, and the best treatment for somebody who is struggling with body dysmorphia was not to work on their brain, but to work on their body by cutting off healthy body parts, by creating fake new body parts.

00:03:12.000 This was insanity.

00:03:13.000 It was pathological.

00:03:14.000 It was nuts.

00:03:15.000 And it was, again, DeRegore.

00:03:17.000 It was the thing.

00:03:18.000 Well, now it turns out that all of that is coming to a screeching halt.

00:03:22.000 And I have to say that as a company, Daily Wire, I think we've played a very large role in this, not just through Matt Walsh's fantastic documentary, What is a Woman, but from the fact that we as a company from day one rejected this nonsense.

00:03:34.000 We rejected it wholesale.

00:03:35.000 We are the only company I am aware of in America that refused day one ever to use gendered pronouns for people who are not of that sex.

00:03:43.000 We used sex pronouns all the way through because we rejected the fundamental lie that boys could become girls and vice versa.

00:03:49.000 The fact that Democrats are still struggling with this shows how out of touch they are with reality.

00:03:54.000 Well, what finally broke the system?

00:03:57.000 As always, in America, trial lawyers, trial lawyers broke the system.

00:04:00.000 You know that things are about to go haywire for your political position when the trial lawyers start winning big victories.

00:04:06.000 Well, according to the New York Times, in the first malpractice verdict against providers of gender-affirming care for minors, again, the Orwellian language here is insane.

00:04:13.000 Gender-affirming is sex-rejecting. 0.99

00:04:15.000 That is what gender-affirming means in this context.

00:04:17.000 We are not talking about a person who had a double mastectomy, a woman who had a double mastectomy because she had breast cancer or the BRCA gene and decided to have that double mastectomy and now wants to reconstruct her breasts.

00:04:29.000 That would be gender-affirming.

00:04:31.000 Gender-affirming in this context means sex-denying.

00:04:34.000 A boy believes he's a girl, so they cut off his penis and testicles.

00:04:37.000 That is what they mean.

00:04:38.000 Okay, so back to the piece.

00:04:40.000 In the first malpractice verdict against providers of gender-affirming care for minors, a jury in New York State has awarded a woman $2 million in damages for a double mastectomy she received as a teenager that she said had left her disfigured.

00:04:52.000 I mean, obviously, it left her disfigured. 1.00

00:04:55.000 That is just a reality.

00:04:56.000 When you have your breasts cut off, not because you're worried that you're going to get breast cancer or for any other real medical reason, but because you say you want to look more like a boy and some plastic surgeon then chops off your breasts and you're a minor.

00:05:08.000 Yeah, I mean, that's disfiguring.

00:05:10.000 The plaintiff, Fox Varian, 22 of Yorktown Heights, had accused her psychologist and the plastic surgeon who performed the operation of failing to obtain adequate consent about the risks before she agreed to undergo the procedure in 2019.

00:05:21.000 She also claimed that the providers had deviated from standard practices governing gender-related medical care.

00:05:27.000 Varian was 16 at the time of the surgery.

00:05:29.000 She was assigned female at birth, but as a teenager identified as a man, again, the Orwellian language that the media, our legacy media, continue to use here is totally psychotic.

00:05:38.000 Assigned female at birth.

00:05:40.000 You are not assigned anything.

00:05:41.000 A doctor looks at you and knows you are female by looking at you when you are a baby. 0.97

00:05:46.000 This is silly.

00:05:48.000 It is ridiculous.

00:05:49.000 You are not simply assigned at random a sex.

00:05:53.000 This woman later came to regret the decision to transition and now identifies as a woman, an example of a process known as detransitioning or, you know, recognition of reality.

00:06:02.000 The verdict was announced on Friday following a three-week trial in White Plains.

00:06:07.000 Now, very often when people cite studies suggesting that people don't really detransition, that is because the studies do not include people who don't follow up with the doctor.

00:06:16.000 It turns out the vast majority of people who decide that they don't want to carry forward with their quote-unquote gender transition, they just never get back in touch with the people who are trying to transition them in the first place.

00:06:28.000 And so the continued pressure tactics used by people who are in this industry, for example, a Kinnan McKinnon, who studies transgender care at York University in Toronto, and who says that a vast majority of young people who opt for a medical transition say the procedure resolves their gender dysphoria and improves the quality of their lives.

00:06:44.000 Do you think they're coming back to Kinnan McKinnon to explain that things went bad?

00:06:48.000 That is typically not the way that it works.

00:06:50.000 So why do I say that this means that the transing of children in America is dying or dead?

00:06:54.000 The reason is because once plastic surgeons now find themselves at risk of medical liability for doing something that is clearly non-medical, you know, cutting off healthy body parts.

00:07:05.000 Once that happens, doctors are going to stop doing it.

00:07:08.000 And that is the position of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

00:07:11.000 So yesterday they put out a statement, quote, consistent with ASPS's August 2024 statement that the overall evidence base for gender-related endocrine and surgical interventions is low certainty.

00:07:22.000 And in light of recent publications reporting very low to low certainty of evidence regarding mental health outcomes, along with emerging concerns about potential long-term harms and the irreversible nature of surgical interventions in a developmentally vulnerable population, ASPS concludes there is insufficient evidence demonstrating a favorable risk-benefit ratio for the pathway of gender-related endocrine and surgical interventions in children and adolescents.

00:07:45.000 ASPS recommends that surgeons delay gender-related breast chest, genital, and facial surgery until a patient is at least 19 years old.

00:07:53.000 Now, what's hilarious about that is that they are not making the case.

00:07:57.000 They're not making the case that the 19 is because your brain is now developed enough that you can make a good decision.

00:08:04.000 That is not the case they're making.

00:08:06.000 They're not saying that there's a difference in kind between these sorts of surgeries performed on a 21-year-old and a surgery performed on a 17-year-old.

00:08:13.000 The reason that they are putting out 19-year-old, why do you think?

00:08:16.000 Why do you think?

00:08:17.000 The answer is very obvious.

00:08:18.000 Because at 18, you can legally consent.

00:08:21.000 And once you can legally consent, you can't be sued.

00:08:22.000 That's all that's happening here.

00:08:24.000 The liability came to the plastic surgeons.

00:08:28.000 And now they are saying, okay, well, you know, we still want to do these surgeries because we get paid for them, even though they're really bad.

00:08:33.000 We're going to continue to do them, but we'll do it for people above the age of 18. 0.99

00:08:36.000 Now, that is still bad medical practice and does not solve the problem politically for people who claim that men can become women, women can become men, and all the rest.

00:08:45.000 And that is a barrier to entry for Democrats.

00:08:48.000 It really is.

00:08:49.000 It's funny.

00:08:49.000 When I was on Gavin Newsom's show in California, this issue came up and he really struggled with it.

00:08:54.000 And the reason he struggled with it is because he knows it is not only a political loser, but that in his heart, he knows it is not true.

00:09:00.000 He knows it is not true.

00:09:01.000 The vast majority, pretty much everybody in the United States, knows it is untrue that a man can become a woman.

00:09:06.000 It is just that there are demands, social demands, to mirror that nonsense.

00:09:10.000 If Democrats decide that they're going to follow that all the way down the political rabbit hole, they will not be able to get out.

00:09:17.000 It is legitimately, it is a barrier to entry for voters.

00:09:21.000 If they think that you're crazy enough that you think a boy can become a girl, very difficult to argue that your position on marginal tax rates outweighs that.

00:09:29.000 Nonetheless, again, Democrats have drunk deep from the well here.

00:09:34.000 This is presumably why, for example, Kansas State Representative Lindsey Vaughan is melting down over boys being barred from the girls' bathroom. 1.00

00:09:42.000 In effect, this makes it impossible for trans people to use bathrooms in public spaces, which is just, I mean, it's, it's, it is not just discrimination.

00:09:56.000 It's beyond the pale.

00:09:57.000 It's cruel.

00:09:58.000 The fact that they're also including unisex bathrooms, I just beyond words.

00:10:07.000 I mean, how terrible it is.

00:10:10.000 And beyond that, I mean, the most atrocious part is there was no hearing on this language.

00:10:18.000 There was no hearing on this amendment that I'm calling the bathroom bill.

00:10:26.000 And yet it got voted into the bill.

00:10:29.000 So now that is also part of House Bill, what was House Bill 2426.

00:10:36.000 And again, it is not unique to slightly crazy people in Kansas.

00:10:36.000 Okay.

00:10:42.000 In California, in Gavin Newsom's own state, where again, he says that he understands the unfairness of boys playing against girls in sports.

00:10:49.000 And I asked him, well, I mean, that seems to me a secondary issue to should you surgically mutilate children?

00:10:55.000 And he avoided the question.

00:10:57.000 His attorney general in California has now filed a lawsuit against Rady's Children's Health, which is a hospital in San Diego on Friday, for shuttering its gender-affirming care program for patients under the age of 19.

00:11:08.000 So you have the state of California, the legal authority in the state of California, suing medical establishments for doing medicine and failing to go along with the junk science that has been promoted here.

00:11:22.000 Earlier in January, according to NBC San Diego, the hospital stated, quote, escalating federal actions concerning gender-affirming care and being under investigation by the HHS are what led to their decision to end those services.

00:11:33.000 In the lawsuit, Banta argued that Rady's decision to end care violates legally binding conditions placed by the Attorney General himself on the Rady Children's Hospital of San Diego's merger with Children's Hospital of Orange County and its affiliates.

00:11:46.000 According to the AG, quote, Rady flagrantly disregarded its legal obligations by unilaterally deciding to preemptively comply with the administration's demands and cease medically necessary care for roughly 1,450 patients.

00:11:57.000 By the way, that number is astonishing.

00:11:59.000 1,450 patients, kids whose parents are delusional enough to believe that if they confirm their gender delusion, that somehow this makes them better.

00:12:10.000 That is, by the way, the charitable description of what many of these parents are doing.

00:12:13.000 For many of these parents, this has become sort of a hip thing to do, to talk about your trans child because it shows how caring and wonderful and empathetic you are, how open-minded you are by scarring your children for life.

00:12:25.000 So, apparently, California says we will not allow Rady to violate its obligations to its patients and the state.

00:12:33.000 Apparently, the hospital had said they would continue to provide counseling, mental health resources, and care coordination, but they would no longer be doing, for example, surgeries and hormone treatments.

00:12:45.000 Bottom line here is that if Democrats keep running up against both the science and legal liability, Democrats are in for a continued world of hurt.

00:12:52.000 All righty, coming up, we'll get into the latest from the Epstein files.

00:12:55.000 Yeah, there are some people who actually are on the chopping block.

00:12:57.000 We'll get into it first.

00:12:58.000 You know what holiday our sponsor, Pure Talk, celebrates?

00:13:01.000 President's Day, because they believe wireless service should only cost you a couple of presidents, just a Jackson and a Lincoln.

00:13:06.000 That's $25 a month for unlimited talk, text, and plenty of data.

00:13:09.000 Think about it.

00:13:10.000 That's the cost of one or two meals out versus the hundreds big wireless charges families every month.

00:13:14.000 There's no reason wireless service needs to be that expensive.

00:13:17.000 What makes Pure Talk different goes beyond just price?

00:13:19.000 They're an American wireless company that actively supports our veterans and invests in a U.S.-based customer service team.

00:13:24.000 So when you call, you're speaking with someone right here at home who can actually help you.

00:13:28.000 PureTalk has the same tower network as the big carriers, which means coverage is excellent.

00:13:32.000 So you've got a better price, you've got superior 5G coverage, and you have a company that actually doesn't hate you.

00:13:37.000 Just 25 bucks a month for talk, text, and plenty of data.

00:13:40.000 No contract, no cancellation fee.

00:13:41.000 So what exactly are you waiting for?

00:13:42.000 Head on over to puretalk.com/slash Shapiro.

00:13:45.000 You'll get 50% off your very first month of coverage.

00:13:48.000 Again, that's puretalk.com/slash Shapiro.

00:13:50.000 To make the switch on over to puretalk, peartalk.com/slash shapiro.

00:13:54.000 Also, for people facing an unplanned pregnancy, fear and uncertainty can feel pretty overwhelming.

00:13:59.000 Past decisions may carry lingering grief that's hard to navigate alone.

00:14:02.000 And that's where our sponsor, Pre-Born, steps in.

00:14:04.000 These clinics offer compassionate support without judgment, providing honest conversations, accurate information, and a safe space to process difficult emotions and explore real options.

00:14:13.000 One of the most powerful tools Pre-Born provides is ultrasound technology.

00:14:16.000 Seeing a developing baby on screen, hearing a heartbeat can bring clarity in moments of confusion.

00:14:20.000 For many, that simple appointment becomes a turning point, transforming fear into hope and uncertainty into confidence.

00:14:25.000 The impact is real.

00:14:26.000 Babies are born, families are formed, healing happens.

00:14:29.000 And it often begins with something as simple as an ultrasound, one moment that can change everything.

00:14:33.000 And you can be a part of that change with a $28 donation to cover the cost for a mother in need.

00:14:37.000 All donations are tax deductible.

00:14:39.000 100% of your donation goes directly to saving babies and building families.

00:14:43.000 To donate securely, dial pound250, say, keyword baby.

00:14:46.000 That's pound250, baby, or go to preborn.com/slash ben.

00:14:50.000 That's preborn.com/slash ben.

00:14:52.000 Go check them out right now.

00:14:53.000 Preborn.com/slash ben.

00:14:56.000 Meanwhile, in the other big news of the day, the Epstein files continue to roil the political world.

00:15:01.000 One of the things that's sort of fascinating about the Epstein files is that truth is gradually dripping out about specific people in ways that you wouldn't necessarily expect.

00:15:10.000 So, for example, Jeffrey Epstein apparently wrote a letter to file, meaning he wrote an email to himself or a draft email to himself in which he accused Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, of having obtained an STD from a sex worker, from a prostitute, and then passed it on to his wife, and then tried to give her anti-STD drugs in order to shield her from the consequences of his own terrible actions.

00:15:38.000 And it is well known that Epstein was hanging out with Bill Gates on a wide variety of occasions.

00:15:43.000 Melinda Gates, Bill's wife who divorced him, she was asked about this.

00:15:48.000 And here was her answer.

00:15:51.000 It is not on you to have to respond to the details of that alleged behavior, but I wonder what your dominant emotion is when you read these news articles with these details.

00:16:08.000 Sad, just unbelievable sadness.

00:16:12.000 Unbelievable sadness, right?

00:16:19.000 And again, I'm able to take my own sadness and look at those young girls and say, my God, how did they?

00:16:27.000 How did that happen to those girls, right? 0.99

00:16:30.000 And so for me, it's just sadness, sadness for, you know, I've left, I had to, I left my marriage.

00:16:36.000 I had to leave my marriage.

00:16:37.000 I wanted to leave my marriage.

00:16:39.000 I had to leave the, I felt I needed to eventually leave the foundation.

00:16:42.000 So it's just sad.

00:16:43.000 That's the truth, right?

00:16:45.000 And it's kind of like, at least for me, I've been able to move on in life.

00:16:50.000 And I hope there's some justice for those now women, right?

00:16:54.000 We see them standing up in front of microphones in D.C. What they went through is just unimaginable, I think.

00:17:02.000 So Melinda Gates does not deny it.

00:17:03.000 Bill Gates is denying it.

00:17:06.000 The denial is, shall we say, somewhat tepid.

00:17:09.000 And when you have the wife not denying the allegations in the email, but you have Bill Gates denying the allegations in the email.

00:17:15.000 Bottom line is this, when you lie down with the world's worst people, in this case, literally with Jeffrey Epstein, then you are not going to get up without fleas.

00:17:24.000 Yeah, I met Jeffrey in 2011.

00:17:26.000 The focus was always he knew a lot of very rich people and he was saying he could get them to give money to Global Health.

00:17:34.000 You know, in retrospect, that was a dead end.

00:17:38.000 And I was foolish to spend time with him.

00:17:40.000 I was one of many people who regret ever knowing him.

00:17:43.000 You've no doubt saying the allegations, including some of them in the last 24 to 48 hours.

00:17:48.000 Is that true?

00:17:50.000 No, apparently Jeffrey wrote an email to himself.

00:17:55.000 That email was never sent.

00:17:57.000 The email is false.

00:18:00.000 So I don't know what his thinking was there.

00:18:02.000 It just reminds me, every minute I spent with him, I regret and I apologize that I did that.

00:18:09.000 So what does this say?

00:18:10.000 Well, it does suggest that in some of these cases, evidence is now becoming clear about the coordination between Jeffrey Epstein and certain political figures.

00:18:19.000 And the reason that is important is because we have basically been told by the folks who are retailing the broadest possible narrative about Jeffrey Epstein, which is that he was certainly an intelligence asset, that he was trafficking underage girls to various political, powerful people in order to obtain from them both money and political power.

00:18:37.000 And people say, well, you know, just because there's no evidence doesn't mean that it didn't happen.

00:18:40.000 Well, but here's the thing.

00:18:41.000 There is some evidence of this happening with particular political people.

00:18:45.000 And as that emerges, all that means is that that should be the search.

00:18:49.000 The search should not be for individual emails that seem to kind of through a glass darkly suggest that maybe your giant narrative is true.

00:18:57.000 What we actually should do is follow the evidence wherever it leads.

00:18:59.000 So, for example, the evidence is pretty clearly leading to a scandal for the UK's ambassador to the United States, one Peter Mandelson.

00:19:08.000 According to the Associated Press, the Conservative Party is now attacking Peter Mandelson because of his relationship with Epstein.

00:19:17.000 They said that they would force a vote in parliament calling for the release of emails and other messages related to Mandelson's appointment in 2024.

00:19:25.000 Prime Minister Kier Starmer said, I intend to make sure all of the material is published.

00:19:30.000 Starmer said that Mandelsohn had lied repeatedly to officials about his relationship with Epstein and had betrayed our country, our parliament, and my party.

00:19:36.000 And he said he regretted having appointed Mandelson.

00:19:39.000 So, Mandelson, 72, was fired in September from his job as envoy in Washington after emails were published showing he maintained a friendship with Epstein following the late financier's 2008 conviction for sex offenses involving a minor.

00:19:51.000 Epstein died by suicide in a jail in 2019.

00:19:53.000 Obviously, Mandelson resigned from the House of Lords and faces a police investigation for alleged misconduct in public office.

00:19:59.000 A trove of documents released by the DOJ suggested Mandelson may have shared sensitive information with Epstein when he was a government minister a decade and a half ago.

00:20:07.000 In 2009, for example, he appears to have told Jeffrey Epstein he would lobby other members of the government to reduce attacks on bankers' bonuses and passed on an internal government report discussing a potential sale of UK government assets.

00:20:18.000 The following year, he appears to have tipped off Jeffrey Epstein about an imminent bailout of the European single currency.

00:20:25.000 The newly released files also suggest that back in 2003, 2004, Epstein sent three payments totaling 75 grand to accounts linked to Mandelson or his partner, Reynaldo Avia de Silva.

00:20:36.000 Misconduct in public office carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

00:20:40.000 So, why is this important?

00:20:42.000 Well, I mean, obviously, it's important because now you have emerging evidence that this person was in league with Jeffrey Epstein and engaged in actual violation of law.

00:20:52.000 The same thing seems to be true, increasingly, of ex-Prince Andrew.

00:20:56.000 Apparently, according to the UK Sun, the former Duke of York is understood to have been booted out earlier than planned from the royal lodge after his brother King Charles became increasingly concerned with shocking revelations about Prince Andrew.

00:21:08.000 There are pictures, of course, of Prince Andrew with unidentified women on Epstein Island.

00:21:14.000 Andrew left the property on Monday with work to clear out the mansion now seemingly underway in the wake of his departure.

00:21:20.000 In one email, Andrew told Jeffrey Epstein he wanted to be his pet.

00:21:23.000 He wrote in December 2010: Kate has agreed to a deal in London.

00:21:27.000 It's down to you to bring Jay over the line.

00:21:29.000 God, it's cold in Dencare.

00:21:30.000 Wish I was still a pet in your family.

00:21:34.000 It also emerged that Sarah Ferguson emailed Epstein in July 2010, claiming she was being hung out to dry, and no woman has ever left the royal family with her head after appearing to accept cash for access to ex-husband Andrew 65.

00:21:46.000 So, again, there is evidence of particular people doing particular things, and that's the standard.

00:21:51.000 The standard should not be narrative rumor.

00:21:53.000 The standard should not be sort of these gigantic accusations about worldwide conspiracies.

00:21:59.000 The standard should be the evidence.

00:22:01.000 Again, we have lots and lots of documents, tons and legitimately, millions of pages of documents.

00:22:07.000 So, the standard should now be: what is the evidence for each individual who is named in these cases?

00:22:12.000 That, of course, is the Department of Justice's standard.

00:22:15.000 The bigger narrative that certainly is substantiated is that Jeffrey Epstein was hobnobbing with some of the richest and most powerful people on planet Earth.

00:22:24.000 And part of that was undoubtedly him procuring the services of sex workers, prostitutes, for these people.

00:22:30.000 And not only that, many of them were showing up at his island or at his parties in order to engage in their worst ids. 0.60

00:22:41.000 That's bad enough.

00:22:42.000 I'm not sure why we need the sort of broader narrative, aside from the conspiratorial, that a small cadre of people running international politics were being involved in a child sex trafficking ring.

00:22:56.000 Therefore, he could blackmail them for compromise and control world politics.

00:23:00.000 When that's substantiated, happy to report on it, has not yet been substantiated, so we stick to the evidence here on this show.

00:23:07.000 But informal networks of power are very real, those definitely exist.

00:23:11.000 And was Jeffrey Epstein part of that informal network of power?

00:23:14.000 Of course.

00:23:15.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, Casey Wasserman was in Italy for the Winter Olympics, scheduled to make a presentation to the International Olympic Committee on the progress of the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

00:23:24.000 Peter Attia, the longevity doctor with cult followers and a best-selling book, was dazed into a new role as a CBS news contributor.

00:23:30.000 Brett Ratner was promoting Melania, his first film since 2017.

00:23:34.000 All three men had reached or returned to the pinnacle of their industries in February 2026, and all three apparently had secrets in the Epstein files.

00:23:41.000 Flirtatious email exchanges between Wasserman and Ghelaine Maxwell from 2003 were among the files released by the DOJ.

00:23:47.000 Addia's name appeared more than 1,700 times in the documents, with correspondence showing he maintained a relationship with Epstein through 2019.

00:23:54.000 20 undated photos showed Ratner hanging around with Epstein at his Manhattan townhouse, the two men with their arms wrapped around women whose identities are currently redacted.

00:24:03.000 These interactions have largely escaped scrutiny, says the Wall Street Journal.

00:24:06.000 The Epstein saga has generated headlines about people ranging from former President Bill Clinton to Prince Andrew.

00:24:12.000 Clinton has now been called to testify before Congress.

00:24:15.000 But the files contain millions of pages.

00:24:17.000 Many of the people in the Martin, former royals are former presidents.

00:24:19.000 They're executive doctors, lawyers, deal makers at the tops of their fields.

00:24:24.000 Their now public messages and photographs, says the Wall Street Journal, reveal just how intricately Epstein spun his web of influence and how he traded on his connections to amass wealth and powerful friends.

00:24:34.000 The files also show some people sought the counsel and companionship of Epstein, sometimes even after he pled guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008.

00:24:44.000 Wasserman and Attias said they regretted their email exchanges and didn't know about Epstein's crimes.

00:24:48.000 Ratner said the photos were from 20 years ago.

00:24:50.000 The woman in the photos was his then fiancé and he didn't really know Epstein.

00:24:55.000 So again, these sorts of celebrity interactions with Epstein were very common.

00:25:02.000 Does that mean that all of them were controlled by Epstein?

00:25:04.000 No.

00:25:04.000 Doesn't mean that all of them were trafficked to by Epstein.

00:25:07.000 No, that evidence is not there.

00:25:08.000 Does it mean that all these people were hanging out together?

00:25:10.000 Sure.

00:25:11.000 Is that bad?

00:25:12.000 Absolutely.

00:25:14.000 But it is important to tease out the various strands if we wish to be accurate about what exactly was going on.

00:25:20.000 Speaking of the Clintons, Bill Clinton has now been called to testify before Congress.

00:25:26.000 According to the New York Post, Michael Goodwin, at first glance, the decision by Bill and Hillary Clinton to drop their long resistance and agree to testify before a GOP-controlled House panel about Jeffrey Epstein looks like a huge defeat for them.

00:25:37.000 And it is, since the Clintons' separate appearances scheduled to take place in public later this month, are certain to turn into circus-like spectacles that will heap embarrassment and scorn on the former first couple.

00:25:46.000 Yet it's worth noting it wasn't the goodness of their hearts that led the Clintons to give in to the congressional demands to testify under oath about Epstein.

00:25:52.000 They did it only because they were facing prosecution by the DOJ on criminal charges of contempt of Congress.

00:26:01.000 So they decided that they are going to testify.

00:26:03.000 It will indeed be a circus.

00:26:05.000 Representative James Comer, the Kentucky Republican who chairs the House Oversight Panel, said, quote, no one is above the law, and that includes the Clintons.

00:26:12.000 Once it became clear, the House would hold them in contempt that Clintons completely caved and will appear for transcribed filmed depositions this month.

00:26:18.000 Okay, now, I know a lot of Republicans are very excited about all of this.

00:26:22.000 I guarantee you, nothing of merit is going to emerge in those hearings.

00:26:26.000 Nothing.

00:26:27.000 Bill Clinton is incredibly squirrely, so is Hillary. 0.91

00:26:29.000 The idea they're going to get up there and suddenly start attesting to their sexual relationships with people that Epstein was trafficking to them, the chances of that are zero.

00:26:39.000 Not only that, my guess is that the Clintons now see themselves not only as quote-unquote wrong victims in this circumstance.

00:26:45.000 My guess is they're going to flip this on Trump.

00:26:47.000 My guess is that they will get out there.

00:26:49.000 Democrats are on these panels too.

00:26:50.000 And Democrats will then ask Bill Clinton about Donald Trump's relationships with Jeffrey Epstein, which I assume is why Democrats are very excited about the Epstein files themselves.

00:27:01.000 Now, President Trump, for his part, again, because he traveled in these circles, he knew Jeffrey Epstein.

00:27:06.000 He knew the Clintons.

00:27:08.000 He was one of the rich and famous.

00:27:09.000 And again, this is why we have to be careful about what you accuse people of.

00:27:13.000 What you accuse people of actually matters.

00:27:15.000 I know we live in a country where apparently that no longer matters, but if you're going to accuse people of specific relationships, actions, and possibly criminal activity, you should probably evidence that.

00:27:25.000 So President Trump was grilled by Caitlin Collins of CNN yesterday, and he did not take it kindly to it over the Epstein files.

00:27:34.000 What would you say to people that don't think about justice, Mr. President?

00:27:37.000 Something that people care about.

00:27:39.000 Yeah, what do you say, Go ahead?

00:27:40.000 What would you say to the survivors who built their future?

00:27:43.000 You are the worst reporter.

00:27:44.000 No wonder CNN has no ratings because of people like you.

00:27:48.000 You know, she's a young woman.

00:27:49.000 I don't think I've ever seen you smile.

00:27:51.000 I've known you for 10 years.

00:27:53.000 I don't think I've ever seen a smile in your face.

00:27:57.000 You know why you're not smiling?

00:27:58.000 Because you know you're not telling the truth.

00:28:00.000 And you're you're a very dishonest organization and they should be ashamed of you.

00:28:10.000 Obviously, he's made a lot of headlines yesterday because the president saying to a woman that she should probably smile more.

00:28:16.000 And she's asking about sexual abuse of women on Epstein Island.

00:28:20.000 Not a great look.

00:28:21.000 What President Trump is upset about, and he said it in this exchange a little bit earlier, is that he wants to talk about actual issues, not about the people who are chumming around with Jeffrey Epstein without criminal charges attached or the sort of bad behavior in which people were engaged that was non-criminal in nature.

00:28:38.000 And I don't think the president is wrong about that, frankly.

00:28:42.000 So many things, as always can be true at once.

00:28:44.000 Jeffrey Epstein, one of the world's worst human beings, deserved whatever happened to him 100%.

00:28:50.000 Some of the people with whom he was associating were surely involved in crimes.

00:28:55.000 We have to actually peg down which people were involved in what crime.

00:28:58.000 The broader, again, conspiracy theories that Jeffrey Epstein was the great wizard atop world politics or was being wizarded on behalf of foreign governments that has yet to be evidenced.

00:29:08.000 If it is trending toward one direction in terms of evidence, it would actually trend toward Russia.

00:29:13.000 But that sort of speculation is just that, pure speculation.

00:29:19.000 And I think some of the eagerness that people have around this sort of stuff, some of it is obviously proriant, and some of it is the same interest that people had around the Diddy parties.

00:29:26.000 Who was there?

00:29:27.000 What were they doing?

00:29:28.000 But some of it has to do with a mindset that has now spread in our political discourse that basically says that you are not in control of your own life.

00:29:36.000 All the systems are rigged, and therefore anything that goes wrong in life must be attributable to some sort of cadre of evil elites who are controlling everything in your life secretly.

00:29:45.000 And by the way, they happen to be pedophiles.

00:29:47.000 You saw the similar theory play out with regard to Pizzagate, for example.

00:29:51.000 Now, again, Jeffrey Epstein was a pedophile, and that's why he was in jail.

00:29:57.000 And that is presumably why, according to the available evidence, he hanged himself.

00:30:01.000 But that is not the same thing as the broader conspiracy theory that some sort of cadre of super elite pedophiles is running America, running global politics.

00:30:10.000 That theory, shall we say, has yet to be evidenced.

00:30:14.000 And calling for evidence of theories is not, in fact, support for the people who were involved in the crimes alleged.

00:30:21.000 It is the baseline standard for reason and logic in any sort of political or legal coverage, or at least it should be, because doing otherwise is, frankly, irresponsible.

00:30:31.000 Meanwhile, the government shutdown was avoided yesterday.

00:30:36.000 The president was quite happy about that.

00:30:39.000 He announced that the government shutdown had been avoided yesterday in the Oval.

00:30:45.000 This bill is a great victory for the American people.

00:30:48.000 Instead of a bloated and wasteful omnibus monstrosity full of special interest handouts, we've succeeded in passing a fiscally responsible package that actually cuts wasteful federal spending while supporting critical programs for the safety, security, and prosperity of the American people.

00:31:10.000 So, again, President Trump pressured Republicans into not pushing forward the SAVE Act on the back of the sort of government shutdown threat, whose right to do so.

00:31:18.000 Democrats, by the way, are still talking about another government shutdown.

00:31:22.000 According to the Washington Post, Congress is staring down yet another partial government shutdown in 10 days unless Democrats strike a deal with President Trump and Republicans over new restrictions on federal immigration authorities.

00:31:32.000 And some key lawmakers in both parties are not optimistic.

00:31:34.000 Democrats are demanding that Republicans agree to a range of accountability measures, according to the Washington Post, to rein in personnel from ICE and other agencies.

00:31:43.000 Democratic lawmakers are seeking tighter rules governing the use of warrants.

00:31:46.000 Again, if they're asking for only judicial warrants can be used by ICE, that means the end of immigration enforcement in the United States, and they know it.

00:31:52.000 Independent investigations of alleged misconduct, which of course would violate, I assume, union rules.

00:31:57.000 A ban on masks for federal immigration agents, again, a non-starter, and a requirement for them to wear body cameras, a thing that Christy Noam says they are already going to be doing.

00:32:04.000 Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma has been slamming Democrats for their absurd demands.

00:32:10.000 Obviously, this is a group of people that just don't like President Trump, period, and whatever he's for, they're against, and they're trying to be able to find a way to drive a wedge.

00:32:17.000 We've got very radical leftist protesters that are literally jumping in the way of law enforcement when they're arresting someone that is a criminal alien, that has had a DOI, that has had a rape, that has had a murder, whatever it may be.

00:32:28.000 They're jumping in the way and trying to be able to defend them.

00:32:30.000 That's not where the American people are.

00:32:32.000 The American people don't like the chaos.

00:32:35.000 They want to be able to have a national security that they can actually trust on it.

00:32:39.000 And what Democrats are asking for is a sanctuary country, not just sanctuary cities.

00:32:44.000 And Republicans are absolutely going to have none of that.

00:32:47.000 We are not going to just give up enforcement across the country.

00:32:50.000 Let's do it the right way, do it professional, but actually have enforcement and not just ignore the obvious.

00:32:58.000 Okay.

00:32:59.000 Meanwhile, Democrats are stuck because of their own positioning.

00:33:03.000 They are now stuck in a self-perpetuating spiral of radicalism.

00:33:06.000 That spiral is being fed by culture and it's being fed by politics.

00:33:10.000 So on the cultural side, obviously you have our cultural arbiters that we saw at the Grammys on Sunday, people like the estimable political voice Bad Bunny talking about the evils of ICE.

00:33:21.000 Caroline Levitt from the White House ripped into the aforementioned Bad Bunny. 1.00

00:33:28.000 I think it's very ironic and frankly sad to see celebrities who live in gated communities with private security, with millions of dollars to spend protecting themselves, trying to just demonize, again, law enforcement public servants who work for the United States government to enforce our nation's laws.

00:33:52.000 And you didn't hear this same type of uproar from celebrities in Hollywood when the previous administration allowed an invasion of our nation's borders and allowed innocent women and girls like Jocelyn Nungare and Lake and Riley to be killed and raped and murdered at the hands of people who should have never been in our country in the first place.

00:34:14.000 Now, meanwhile, the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, he picked Bad Bunny to perform at the Super Bowl.

00:34:19.000 There was talk that Bad Bunny was going to don a gown, which, of course, is just wonderful.

00:34:23.000 That's what you want your nine-year-old boy watching during halftime is some large dude wearing a dress.

00:34:27.000 Perfect.

00:34:28.000 Well, the NFL commissioner said, we told him he's not allowed to be political.

00:34:31.000 We'll see if he sticks to that.

00:34:34.000 I think everybody in Morno, listen, Bad Bunny was, and I think that was demonstrated last night, one of the great artists in the world.

00:34:42.000 And that's one of the reasons we chose him.

00:34:45.000 But the other reason is he understood the platform he was on and that this platform is used to unite people and to be able to bring people together with their creativity, with their talents, and to be able to use this moment to do that.

00:34:58.000 And I think artists in the past have done that.

00:35:01.000 I think Bad Bunny understands that, and I think he'll have a great performance.

00:35:07.000 So we will see if that holds true.

00:35:09.000 But the celebrity push continues apace.

00:35:12.000 Billie Eilish, you'll remember.

00:35:14.000 She of the now normal colored hair, actually. 0.55

00:35:16.000 She said at the Grammys that no one is illegal on stolen land.

00:35:22.000 No one is illegal on stolen land.

00:35:38.000 Yeah, it's just really hard to know what to say and what to do right now.

00:35:44.000 Now, apparently, the Tongva tribe has now confirmed that Billie Eilish's home is situated on stolen land on its ancestral hand, and that she has not yet reached out to them regarding her home.

00:35:53.000 The tribe said, we appreciate the opportunity to provide clarity regarding the recent comments made by Billie Eilish.

00:35:58.000 As the first people of greater Los Angeles Basin, we do understand that her home is situated on our ancestral land.

00:36:03.000 Eilish has not contacted our tribe directly regarding her property.

00:36:06.000 Hmm.

00:36:07.000 Well, that's unfortunate.

00:36:09.000 That's quite unfortunate.

00:36:10.000 It feels to me as though she is selling out.

00:36:13.000 What a sellout Billie Eilish is.

00:36:15.000 Unfortunately, these cultural arbiters, they do have an impact on how top Democratic politicians are thinking about this stuff.

00:36:22.000 So do legacy media, who have decided to go fully radical.

00:36:24.000 When we talk about the legacy media radical spiral, the feeding frenzy that is everything from Billie Eilish to the New York Times and how that impacts politicians, the New York Times has a big piece out today titled A Winter of Anguish for Minneapolis Children.

00:36:40.000 I mean, here is my question.

00:36:41.000 Is it for like all Minneapolis children?

00:36:43.000 If so, why?

00:36:45.000 So the idea here is that if you are the child of an illegal immigrant, then it's difficult for you in Minnesota.

00:36:50.000 Well, it's probably difficult for you all over, particularly if you're the child of a criminal illegal immigrant as opposed to somebody who came across the border.

00:36:58.000 That was your crime and you haven't committed a crime since.

00:37:01.000 But according to the New York Times, for weeks, the Minneapolis area has been a landscape of intense turmoil as federal immigration agents face off against furious citizens.

00:37:09.000 But there's a quieter upheaval taking place behind closed doors as the city's youngest residents attempt to grasp the altering of their neighborhoods, their schools, and their sense of security.

00:37:18.000 Regardless of what they might understand about the politics embedded in their surroundings, some things are clear.

00:37:22.000 The adults in their lives are weary and overwhelmed.

00:37:24.000 Neighbors are scared to leave.

00:37:26.000 The house bomb threats have been called into schools.

00:37:27.000 Events have been canceled.

00:37:28.000 Friends are missing from classrooms and parents have been taken away.

00:37:31.000 Now, again, the vast majority of children in Minneapolis are not the children of illegal immigrants.

00:37:35.000 The vast majority of children are not implicated in any of this.

00:37:40.000 But because of the chaos that has been fomented by government, the Minneapolis government, the Minnesota state government, because of all of that, that is why things are bad for kids.

00:37:49.000 But the New York Times is proclaiming that enforcing federal immigration law is, in fact, the problem.

00:37:56.000 And now you have more states that are rising to meet the moment by doing exactly what Minnesota did.

00:38:01.000 According to the Washington Post, Maryland is poised to bar local law enforcement agencies from formally facilitating federal immigration arrests, joining several other states who have sought to use their local authority to curtail the Trump administration's ramped up enforcement effort.

00:38:14.000 Eight states have already either prohibited or set restrictions against local police and sheriff's offices entering into 287G partnerships.

00:38:23.000 That is where they actually just inform ICE if they take into custody an illegal immigrant for a separate crime.

00:38:29.000 This is being encouraged by the media, by our cultural arbiters.

00:38:33.000 And people like Tim Walz continue to encourage it.

00:38:35.000 Here was the governor of Minnesota still maintaining that ICE has to leave Minnesota.

00:38:38.000 Now, again, Tom Holman said, listen, if you cooperate with us, if you ensure that when you pick up an illegal immigrant for drunk driving, you tell us so we can deport that person, then everything's hunky-dory.

00:38:49.000 Walls, meanwhile, just continues to posture.

00:38:52.000 It's been a week since I met with Tom Holman.

00:38:55.000 Expectations have not changed.

00:38:57.000 This force must leave Minnesota.

00:39:00.000 The state of Minnesota and the professionals, nonpartisan judiciary, must do the investigations into the shootings and other abuses of Minnesota's human rights.

00:39:10.000 And again, Tom Homan has made clear that if, in fact, Minnesota authorities cooperate, then there's no problem.

00:39:16.000 In fact, the Malugan of Fox News is reporting that Tom Homan has announced that 700 federal agents will be pulled out of Minnesota after he says he's made significant progress with local officials and says there are now an unprecedented number of counties communicating with ICE.

00:39:32.000 He also makes clear he isn't asking sanctuary jurisdictions to hold criminal aliens in jail longer than they normally would be.

00:39:38.000 He just wants locals to give ICE a heads up.

00:39:41.000 So Democrats keep programming into this, though.

00:39:44.000 Homan is offering them an off-ramp and they are refusing the off-ramp.

00:39:47.000 You have people like Representative Delia Ramirez from Illinois saying that DHS has to be totally dismantled.

00:39:53.000 We must have accountability and we must bring justice to every fascist in the administration.

00:40:00.000 And that includes Chrissy Noome.

00:40:02.000 That includes Stephen Miller.

00:40:04.000 And that includes Tom Hooman.

00:40:07.000 ICE will be abolished. 0.61

00:40:10.000 VHS will be dismantled.

00:40:12.000 And together we will get it done.

00:40:17.000 And the radicalism spiral for Democrats here, they may think that this is a short-term victory.

00:40:21.000 It is not a long-term victory by any stretch of the imagination, but the agitation goes ever on.

00:40:26.000 Joining us on the line to discuss is Christina Buttons. 0.99

00:40:28.000 She is a City Journal investigative reporter and she has been all over the anti-ICE protests and agitation in Minneapolis.

00:40:35.000 She has a great piece over at City Journal titled Inside Minneapolis' Ice Watch Network.

00:40:39.000 Christina, thanks so much for the time.

00:40:42.000 Thanks so much for having me.

00:40:45.000 So you've been spending a lot of time digging into the network of people who have been harassing ICE agents.

00:40:51.000 They say that they're there just to film or to monitor.

00:40:53.000 Very often it turns into actual obstruction of law enforcement.

00:40:56.000 What have you been seeing in your investigation?

00:40:58.000 How coordinated is all of this?

00:41:02.000 Extremely coordinated and extremely organized.

00:41:06.000 This is, you know, a group of people who purport the organization to be just like a decentralized, spontaneous community effort.

00:41:19.000 And I found that, you know, it was actually implemented by a national group that has been working to implement ICE Watch across the U.S. in any area where there's been an ICE presence.

00:41:37.000 So in your report, you talk a lot about the States at the Core group, which apparently has modeled this sort of agitation and interference strategy.

00:41:46.000 What is States at the Core and how are they funded?

00:41:51.000 States at the Core is a national organization, activist organization.

00:41:55.000 They're funded by the Hopewell Fund, fiscally sponsored by it.

00:42:01.000 And this is part of the Arabella Advisors Dark Money Progressive Money Network.

00:42:10.000 They are responsible basically for turning the IceWatch model into a framework that can be kind of a national strategy.

00:42:26.000 And what exactly is the Ice Watch model that you mentioned?

00:42:29.000 What are they actually being told to do?

00:42:31.000 Are they being told to interfere with law enforcement?

00:42:33.000 What are they doing that's law violative as opposed to simply annoying?

00:42:39.000 So the original Ice Watch model was the organizers of it were very explicit that their intent was to interfere with ICE operations.

00:42:48.000 They're a little bit more careful with their language now in Minneapolis, but what they're describing is essentially the same thing.

00:42:56.000 They want to slow them down and cost them money and make ICE operations inefficient.

00:43:02.000 And, You know, they describe scenarios where, you know, if the person that they got away, they were questioning that ICE was questioning, if they were able to get away, then that's a success for them.

00:43:16.000 But there's a lot more going on in these trainings and in the signal networks than they let on.

00:43:23.000 It's not just about monitoring ICE activity.

00:43:27.000 I think the trainings in particular, they are pushing people towards very dangerous confrontations.

00:43:36.000 In them, they're delegitimizing law enforcement.

00:43:39.000 They're encouraging people to take risks.

00:43:41.000 They're encouraging non-compliance with ICE.

00:43:45.000 And I think, you know, that's what we saw with Renee Goode if she was being trained by these people.

00:43:52.000 And it seems that she was because I identified a signal account that belonged to her within the Defend the 612 signal chat networks.

00:44:02.000 It's really just, it's no surprise that, you know, she behaved the way she did.

00:44:07.000 And, you know, what happened?

00:44:11.000 So, do you have any idea whether the Trump administration, the DOJ, is looking into groups like Defend the 612, which, as you say, is sort of modeled alongside the states of the court strategy?

00:44:22.000 Are they looking into Arabella advisors for spreading money to groups that, as you say, are spreading violation of law?

00:44:33.000 I'm not aware of what their investigation entails.

00:44:39.000 I hope that they are looking into these groups and that my reporting can help give them some leads.

00:44:46.000 The organizers that sort of set up Defend the 612 in Minneapolis, they have taken considerable steps to conceal their identities and scrub their online presence.

00:45:01.000 And they aren't really making as many public appearances as they were several weeks ago when I began the investigation.

00:45:11.000 So it also appears that anti-ICE activist groups, according to Just the News, are receiving over $3 million in funding from Soros-backed charities.

00:45:18.000 So, again, the assumption that has been made by many on the right that this is not all spontaneous, that a lot of it is organized, that basically you have organizations that are going in search of monsters to slay and law enforcement to obstruct.

00:45:31.000 It seems from your reporting and other reporting that that is true, which does give the lie to a lot of the media coverage that suggests sort of a spontaneous uprising against ICE.

00:45:41.000 Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of chatter.

00:45:43.000 And I mean, there's across the signal network, there's just thousands of people across hundreds of different groups, and they all have different purposes for different neighborhoods.

00:45:51.000 And in like the discussion groups, they frequently make comparisons between themselves and resistance movements and comparisons of ICE to being Nazis and how they're resisting the Nazis.

00:46:10.000 They seem to think of themselves that way.

00:46:15.000 Well, that is Christina Buttons. 0.99

00:46:16.000 You can go check out all of her work over at City Journal.

00:46:19.000 This piece is a must-read.

00:46:21.000 Christina, thanks so much for your time.

00:46:22.000 Appreciate it.

00:46:23.000 Thanks so much for having me.

00:46:26.000 Joining me on the line is Lyndon Blake.

00:46:28.000 She's a Daily Wire investigative reporter and she has been all over the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, who, of course, is the 84-year-old mother of today's show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie.

00:46:37.000 Lyndon, thanks so much for taking the time.

00:46:38.000 I appreciate it.

00:46:39.000 Of course, Ben, this case has been disturbing.

00:46:42.000 The details are disturbing.

00:46:44.000 And I feel like everyone can relate to this because if you just sit there and imagine your mother, your grandmother being taken in the middle of the night, someone so vulnerable as 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, I mean, it just sends shivers down your spine.

00:46:59.000 So for people who have not been following this case, how is it initiated?

00:47:02.000 What are sort of the background facts of the case?

00:47:05.000 Okay, so the background facts of the case is sometime between 9:45 Saturday and 11 a.m. Sunday, Nancy Guthrie vanished from her home.

00:47:12.000 Her church friends didn't see her at church on Sunday morning.

00:47:15.000 They called the family.

00:47:16.000 The family did a quick search around the house, the property, and then called 911.

00:47:21.000 So that was Sunday.

00:47:22.000 Now we're sitting here on Wednesday, day four of the search, and the details continue to pile up.

00:47:27.000 The latest in this investigation, there were two ransom notes that we know of so far that were sent to news organizations.

00:47:33.000 One, a local news station in Arizona.

00:47:36.000 The other news outlet was TMZ.

00:47:38.000 That's the big story right now is verifying these ransom notes.

00:47:42.000 The Pima County Sheriff's Office is aware.

00:47:44.000 They're looking into it.

00:47:45.000 And I thought this was an interesting report that CBS did late on Tuesday night.

00:47:50.000 The sheriff's office was aware of the local news station receiving the ransom note Monday night.

00:47:56.000 They were able to give that to Savannah.

00:47:58.000 They were able to share that note with the family.

00:48:01.000 But on Tuesday, during the press conference with Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, he wouldn't give too many details when asked about a ransom note.

00:48:09.000 At the time, he said, We're looking into all leads.

00:48:12.000 Well, shortly after that is when TMZ went public with their ransom note.

00:48:16.000 And in that ransom note, there were details detailing Nancy's home, an outfit that she was wearing, and requesting millions of dollars in Bitcoin.

00:48:26.000 This, on top of the evidence that reporters have now been able to see with their own eyes at the house, the blood drips on the front porch, the missing security camera on the front door, the ring camera, just to give you an idea of what we're talking about when we say missing camera footage.

00:48:42.000 This is all making this case even more interesting.

00:48:46.000 The twists and turns, and time is of the essence, because when Nancy Guthrie first went missing on Sunday, authorities said she needs medication within 24 hours or it could be fatal.

00:48:56.000 She has cardiac issues.

00:48:58.000 We know that from the 911 call.

00:48:59.000 She had a pacemaker.

00:49:01.000 So these are all circumstances on top of now what we know more about the scene that just leads this case just to be a very, a very shocking, disturbing one.

00:49:11.000 So you mentioned the ransom notes, obviously.

00:49:13.000 Does law enforcement have they given any indication that they believe that the ransom notes are real?

00:49:18.000 Obviously, if there are details in there that lends credibility to the ransom notes, that it's not just some rando who's picking up on the story to try and grift some money out of the Guthrie family.

00:49:27.000 Yeah, so the law enforcement says they are taking this seriously.

00:49:31.000 This is after 24 hours or so being aware of the notes.

00:49:34.000 They haven't said that this is authentic or that this is verified.

00:49:37.000 This is a person that has Nancy Guthrie.

00:49:39.000 They haven't gone that far.

00:49:41.000 But the sheriff said this was a threatening note.

00:49:44.000 The family needed to know.

00:49:45.000 They're not giving every single lead to the family, every single tip to the family, but this was one that was given to them because it was a threat and they needed to know about that because it was a note to the family.

00:49:57.000 So that's where we stand with the ransom notes.

00:50:00.000 Another thing that has been brought up because of the press conference on Tuesday was the withholding of information.

00:50:05.000 And I want to give some context to that as we're sitting here on day four of this search and you're wondering why don't we know more about the scene?

00:50:13.000 Why don't we have camera footage?

00:50:15.000 Why don't we have a better description of what Nancy could have been wearing? 1.00

00:50:19.000 All this stuff is being kept close to authorities' chest, in my opinion, because they have information.

00:50:25.000 They know more than that they're letting on.

00:50:27.000 They have information that they want to match to a person of interest, to a suspect.

00:50:31.000 And anything that they tell the public, think about this.

00:50:34.000 If they say there was something at the crime scene that only a suspect or someone that was with the suspect would know, that hurts the investigation when they're trying to get this person when they're trying to use evidence to frame that person.

00:50:47.000 So that's being withheld.

00:50:48.000 The camera footage, there was an issue with it.

00:50:51.000 Is it on a cloud?

00:50:52.000 Is it on a server?

00:50:53.000 Has the footage already been deleted by the time that authorities got a hold of it?

00:50:57.000 It's being sorted out with the companies that are in charge of this camera, the companies that manufacture the camera.

00:51:02.000 And that footage is being withheld, in my opinion, because there's something clearly that they see on the video that again could match someone with this case, someone that took Nancy, and they're having to hold that back.

00:51:15.000 So, in these situations, when it turns from a missing person into more of a crime scene investigation, you're looking at stuff.

00:51:22.000 The public can't know everything, even though we want to know so much more because this is a public figure.

00:51:28.000 It's Savannah Guthrie, who is in millions of people's homes every morning. 1.00

00:51:31.000 And it's her mother that has been on TV, that she talks about, that she loves.

00:51:36.000 So, everyone wants a happy ending to the story.

00:51:39.000 But there's something in these criminal cases that just can't be revealed yet.

00:51:45.000 So, Lyndon, there have been a lot of rumors that possibly more than one person was involved.

00:51:48.000 I know the New York Post had a report from a so-called expert suggesting that a group was involved in the kidnapping.

00:51:54.000 Have you heard any indications about that?

00:51:56.000 Authorities will not say if this was a group, if this is a person, they won't say this is targeted.

00:52:01.000 They won't say if this is random.

00:52:03.000 Things have been really limited.

00:52:05.000 And I think that's the frustrating part.

00:52:07.000 And I don't mean this in a necessarily negative way, but the press conference by Pima County Sheriff on Tuesday morning was a little chaotic.

00:52:15.000 Chaotic, meaning they didn't open up with a statement at all.

00:52:18.000 They opened it up directly to questions, and the questions are being fired at the sheriff just left and right.

00:52:23.000 And he didn't have answers.

00:52:25.000 And when he was asked, targeted, random, no clue.

00:52:30.000 Was there one person or was there a group of people?

00:52:32.000 I can't tell you.

00:52:34.000 Can you give us a timeframe of when you think Nancy may have been taken?

00:52:38.000 The pacemaker disconnecting from the Apple Watch around 2 a.m. was brought up, and the sheriff was like, Can't tell you that.

00:52:45.000 What I found most interesting, though, too, was that the crime scene has been cleared and it was cleared, according to reporters, as early as Monday night.

00:52:53.000 An Amazon delivery driver was able to drop off a package on the front porch of Nancy Guthrie's steps that had blood splattered on it Monday night. 1.00

00:53:01.000 And that's interesting, too.

00:53:03.000 Either they worked around the clock, they were able to get every piece of evidence that they know from that crime scene to feel comfortable to shut it down, or something doesn't make sense there.

00:53:11.000 Because normally, as you know, it takes days to process.

00:53:15.000 You don't necessarily clear an active crime scene.

00:53:18.000 And yes, we're calling it a crime scene because that's what the sheriff called it almost immediately.

00:53:22.000 But it's clear now that the house has been turned back over to the family.

00:53:26.000 So, Lyndon, there's some breaking quasi news this morning.

00:53:29.000 Apparently, news vision reporter Ashley Banfield had suggested that there might be some rumors of familial insider suspects in this particular case.

00:53:40.000 What are those rumors?

00:53:41.000 What are we hearing?

00:53:43.000 Yeah, Ben, this is just in.

00:53:45.000 She cites that a law enforcement officer that has great knowledge of this case told her that Savannah's sister, Annie Guthrie, her husband, Tommaso Sioni, may be the prime suspect in this case.

00:53:57.000 That Annie's car has been towed.

00:54:00.000 It is now in evidence.

00:54:01.000 And this is huge news because Tommaso, Nancy Guthrie's son-in-law, obviously.

00:54:07.000 And we have known that Annie was the last person to see Nancy before she went missing.

00:54:13.000 The sheriff said that Annie and Nancy were out to dinner on Saturday night, and she is the one that took Nancy back to her home before she went missing.

00:54:21.000 And Ashley Banfield, when she reported this, she did say, you know, I'm going to tone this down a little bit and let everybody know that family is looked at first in these cases.

00:54:31.000 You're going to look at the people that are closest.

00:54:32.000 So in this case, Nancy's immediate family.

00:54:34.000 You're going to question them.

00:54:35.000 It is interesting, though, that Annie's car has been towed into evidence to be looked at further.

00:54:41.000 And again, you're going to start with the family, then you're going to work your way out to who has familiarity with the house, who maybe has worked on the house recently.

00:54:48.000 But this shocking news about Savannah Guthrie's brother-in-law now being looked at as the prime suspect is something that we'll continue to follow throughout the day.

00:54:58.000 Lyndon, really appreciate your time.

00:54:59.000 And obviously, you say we're going to be able to follow it throughout the day.

00:55:02.000 Where should people tune in for that?

00:55:04.000 Yeah, we're going to have some updates on Daily Wire's platforms.

00:55:07.000 We're going to have a podcast that's going to go in depth in this case.

00:55:09.000 And again, you can look out at Daily Wire's social media platforms as well as my own at Lyndon Blake for updates.

00:55:16.000 All righty, folks, the show continues for our members right now.

00:55:19.000 Democrats are insisting that no one needs voter ID in order to vote, and it's also racist for you to say that they do.

00:55:24.000 Remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member.

00:55:26.000 If you're not a member, become a member.

00:55:28.000 Use code Shapiro checkout for two months free on all annual plans.

00:55:30.000 Click that link in the description and join us.

00:55:35.000 What was it like, Merlin?

00:55:37.000 To be alone with God.

00:55:43.000 Is that who you think I was alone with?

00:55:49.000 Maradin, I knew your father.

00:55:52.000 I am yet convinced that he was not of this world.

00:55:57.000 All men know of the great Talies.

00:56:00.000 You are my father.

00:56:01.000 Are the gods of war for my soul?

00:56:05.000 Princess Garris, savior of our people.

00:56:10.000 I know what the bull got offered you.

00:56:13.000 I was offered the same.

00:56:15.000 And there is a new pirate work in the world.

00:56:18.000 I've seen it.

00:56:21.000 A god who sacrifices what he loves for us.

00:56:23.000 We are each given only one life, Singer.

00:56:26.000 No.

00:56:27.000 We're given another.

00:56:31.000 I learned of Yezu the Christ, and I have become his follower.

00:56:35.000 He's waiting on a mirror, and I think you can give him one.

00:56:39.000 Trust in Yezu. 0.87

00:56:40.000 He is the only hope for men like us.

00:56:43.000 Fate of Britain never rests in the hands of the Great Light.

00:56:46.000 Great Light.

00:56:47.000 Great darkness.

00:56:49.000 Such things mattered to me then.

00:56:51.000 What matters to you now, Mistress of Lies?

00:56:55.000 You, nephew.

00:57:00.000 The sword of the High King.

00:57:04.000 How many lives must be lost before you accept the power you were born to wield?

00:57:11.000 So clinging to the promises of a god who has abandoned you.

00:57:15.000 I cannot take up that sword again.

00:57:17.000 You know what you must do.

00:57:21.000 Great Light, forgive me.

The Ben Shapiro Show - February 04, 2026

Transing of Children in America…IS DEAD

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript