The Ben Shapiro Show - Trump Gets HOSTAGE DEAL In Gaza

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00:00:33.000 Well, tons of news today.

00:00:35.000 Marco Rubio, the prospective Secretary of State, the nominee, had an amazing hearing yesterday.

00:00:40.000 So too did Pam Bondi, President Trump's Attorney General nominee.

00:00:43.000 Again, this slate of nominees is excellent overall.

00:00:45.000 We'll get to all of that.

00:00:46.000 Joe Biden made one of the worst farewell addresses in American history.

00:00:50.000 Truly awful, not just in terms of the aesthetics.

00:00:54.000 But in terms of what he said, we'll begin today with the prospective hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.

00:01:00.000 Folks, we'll get into the details of the deal as it currently stands.

00:01:03.000 Now again, Hamas could change things. 0.92

00:01:05.000 Hamas apparently is attempting last-minute changes.

00:01:07.000 They do this all the time in an attempt to pry additional concessions out of deals.

00:01:11.000 They are dishonest players, obviously.

00:01:13.000 Right now in Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu has delayed an internal cabinet vote on the deal because of all these sort of late-breaking manipulations from Hamas. 0.57

00:01:21.000 But here we're going to talk about...

00:01:22.000 The deal as it currently stands.

00:01:24.000 And let's just begin with this.

00:01:26.000 Any deal is going to be a bad deal.

00:01:28.000 Any deal is going to be a bad deal.

00:01:30.000 Israel made clear from the very beginning that it wanted the hostages back, and that was one of the dual goals.

00:01:35.000 One of the goals was winning the war against Hamas, making sure Hamas could no longer rule the Gaza Strip and present a threat to the state of Israel.

00:01:41.000 The other was getting back the hundreds of hostages that Hamas had taken in the first place. 0.68

00:01:47.000 And as soon as it became a goal of Israel to get back the hostages, And they started making deals.

00:01:52.000 The only question was going to be, what sort of concessions did Israel have to make in order to secure the release of some of those hostages?

00:02:00.000 Well, the Biden administration had been pressuring Israel very strongly to take a deal with Hamas that would have basically achieved Hamas's goals in the war.

00:02:08.000 So to understand whether this is a better than awful deal or whether it's just an awful deal, you first have to understand what the goals of the various sides were in this particular deal.

00:02:19.000 Then we'll go through the content of the deal.

00:02:20.000 And then we will explain why Trump made the big difference in making this deal happen in the first place.

00:02:26.000 So, what were the goals?

00:02:28.000 So, Hamas had always said, since taking 250 Israelis hostage, and some of those are killed, we know they're dead, some of their bodies have been found, some of them were released in the first tranche of hostage negotiations way back in October and November of 2023. Right now, there are approximately 100 hostages.

00:02:48.000 Many dead, some alive, still being held by Hamas.

00:02:51.000 It is unclear who is dead.

00:02:52.000 It is unclear who is alive.

00:02:53.000 Hamas is evil, full stop.

00:02:55.000 They literally kidnapped women and toddlers.

00:02:58.000 Those toddlers are likely dead.

00:03:01.000 Hamas is right now attempting to trade away the bodies of toddlers for murderers currently sitting in Israeli prisons.

00:03:09.000 That's what's actually happening here.

00:03:10.000 This is not an even-handed deal.

00:03:12.000 This is not two good-faith sides negotiating.

00:03:14.000 This is a hostage taking evil entity that has kept its own people in a state of complete failure for literally decades and then initiated the destruction of its own territory against an Israeli government that is attempting to secure the freedom of people who have been kept for over a year in captivity in the worst possible conditions or the bodies of innocent people who are taken by not only members of Hamas, but Gazan civilians and slain. 0.85

00:03:42.000 And that is what this negotiation is, just to get the moral clarity right up front.

00:03:45.000 So, what were Hamas' goals in these negotiations?

00:03:48.000 Hamas knew that Israel has a long record of making awful deals with regard to securing hostages.

00:03:54.000 The most famous awful deal, of course, being the release of the soldier Gilad Shalit, who'd been taken captive by Hamas in return for over a thousand Palestinian terrorists, including Yahya Senwar, who had been held by Israel in prison for being a terrorist and cured of his brain cancer by Israel before he was released back into the wild where he would then... 0.59

00:04:13.000 Become the leader of Hamas and initiate October 7th. 0.93

00:04:16.000 So Hamas knows that Israel is willing to do an enormous amount to get its hostages back, even the bodies of people.

00:04:23.000 Israel is willing to do an enormous amount to get those people back.

00:04:26.000 So Hamas, what it wanted out of these negotiations originally, and for months, this has been its stated point of view, it wanted a total and final ceasefire, meaning no more war in the Gaza Strip.

00:04:36.000 Why?

00:04:37.000 Because that would achieve goal number two.

00:04:39.000 Which would be leaving Hamas in power in the Gaza Strip.

00:04:42.000 If there was a total and final ceasefire, Hamas could declare victory and then suggest that its own survival in the Gaza Strip was a mode of victory. 0.64

00:04:50.000 That led to goal number three, which was complete withdrawal of the Israeli defense forces from the Strip.

00:04:54.000 This is what Hamas would have wanted out of any deal.

00:04:56.000 They insisted on it all the way.

00:04:57.000 That means Israel would have had to withdraw from the Nintarim Corridor, which is sort of a lane that bisects the Gaza Strip east-west into a northern and southern component.

00:05:07.000 And it's very important because It prevents terrorists from traveling all up and down the Strip, gathering weapons and firing into Israel and organizing future terror attacks.

00:05:15.000 Also, Hamas wanted Israel to withdraw completely from the Philadelphia corridor, which is the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, which had been used as a massive smuggling thoroughfare by Egypt and by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

00:05:28.000 So they wanted, again, Hamas to remain in control.

00:05:31.000 They wanted a total and final ceasefire that would have maintained that.

00:05:34.000 They wanted a complete withdrawal of the IDF from the Strip.

00:05:37.000 They wanted a return of all of the displaced to their homes, meaning they wanted free traffic in the Gaza Strip.

00:05:42.000 They don't care whether civilians go to their homes. 0.68

00:05:44.000 Those civilians largely don't have homes anymore, thanks to Hamas hiding weapons in homes and tunnels under homes.

00:05:49.000 So they don't care one good damn about the Palestinian people who have been victims in all of this.

00:05:55.000 They don't care about that at all.

00:05:57.000 In fact, they want to maximize the civilian casualties, and they always have.

00:06:01.000 What they really want is the free traffic of their terrorists up and down.

00:06:04.000 And finally, they say they want reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

00:06:07.000 What do they mean by that?

00:06:08.000 They mean that they want an enormous amount of aid to pour into the Gaza Strip so they can steal it again and then reconstitute their terror network. 0.95

00:06:14.000 So those are the five goals of Hamas going into the hostage negotiations.

00:06:17.000 Declaring total and final ceasefire, Hamas remaining in control, complete withdrawal of the IDF from the Strip, return of all the displaced to their homes, and reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

00:06:26.000 Those were the five things that Hamas wanted out of the negotiation.

00:06:29.000 On the other side, what Israel wanted was pretty simple.

00:06:32.000 Return of as many hostages as humanly possible.

00:06:35.000 No Hamas running Gaza.

00:06:38.000 And the ability to eliminate future threats.

00:06:40.000 So no final ceasefire.

00:06:42.000 No Hamas running Gaza.

00:06:43.000 And the hostages back.

00:06:44.000 So you can see why these two sides were in a negotiating standoff.

00:06:49.000 Because Israel is saying Hamas doesn't get to maintain control.

00:06:51.000 Hamas does not get to call the shots as far as when IDF goes in.

00:06:55.000 And we want our hostages back.

00:06:57.000 And Hamas was saying, we do remain in control.

00:06:59.000 We do call the shots as to when you come out and go in.

00:07:02.000 We can bring aid in that we will then hijack and use to recruit new fighters.

00:07:05.000 So total and complete conflict here.

00:07:08.000 Okay, now we get to the deal.

00:07:09.000 Okay, so what is actually in the deal?

00:07:11.000 What's actually in the deal, according to the first phase of the deal, is not amazing.

00:07:18.000 The first phase of the Gaza deal has Israel releasing, over the course of phase one, some 1,000 terrorists, including something like 200 convicted murderers.

00:07:31.000 It also has a six-week phased-in session.

00:07:35.000 So it's not as though all the hostages are going to be released at once.

00:07:38.000 33 hostages are apparently going to be released.

00:07:40.000 Unclear how many of them are alive.

00:07:41.000 It may be as few as 23 who are actually alive.

00:07:46.000 The earliest the ceasefire would go into effect would be Friday.

00:07:49.000 Again, this is just phase one.

00:07:50.000 It's not a total and complete ceasefire, as we'll get to in just one moment.

00:07:54.000 So Hamas is expected to gradually release a total of only 33 of the 96 hostages.

00:07:58.000 Again, unclear how many of the rest.

00:08:00.000 Are still alive.

00:08:01.000 It will be women, children, the wounded, the elderly, and probably American citizens first. 0.98

00:08:06.000 Hamas will keep as a bargaining chip, presumably, members of the Israeli Defense Forces who are held hostage since October 7th.

00:08:16.000 The initial phase of the deal will also allow in something like 600 trucks worth of aid per day, much of which Hamas will immediately hijack, of course. 0.63

00:08:26.000 There will be gradually a return of people from the south to the north.

00:08:30.000 Supposedly the Netarim Corridor, which again is that corridor that bisects the Gaza Strip, is going to be policed by Qatar and Egypt, which means effectively there won't be a lot of policing.

00:08:40.000 But does this mean a permanent end of the war?

00:08:42.000 The answer there is no.

00:08:44.000 The answer there is no.

00:08:45.000 So any quote-unquote permanent end of the war would come in phase two.

00:08:48.000 Any withdrawal of Israel from the Philadelphia Corridor would be in phase two. 0.83

00:08:53.000 So what does that mean?

00:08:55.000 That means that Hamas does not achieve all of its goals or even remotely close to all of its goals with this quote-unquote ceasefire hostage deal.

00:09:04.000 And this is the Trump difference.

00:09:05.000 This is where Trump made a big difference.

00:09:08.000 Joe Biden wanted to just give Hamas all of it.

00:09:11.000 Joe Biden wanted a total and complete ceasefire.

00:09:13.000 Joe Biden was fine with leaving Hamas in control.

00:09:15.000 Joe Biden wanted a complete withdrawal of the IDF from the Gaza Strip, including the Philadelphia corridor.

00:09:19.000 He wanted free traffic up and down the Gaza Strip.

00:09:22.000 And he wanted...

00:09:23.000 Endless aid pouring into a Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

00:09:27.000 Joe Biden was fine with literally every aspect of that.

00:09:30.000 Donald Trump was not.

00:09:33.000 Donald Trump was not.

00:09:35.000 So Donald Trump's deal does not give Hamas any of those things.

00:09:39.000 Donald Trump's deal does not declare a total and final ceasefire.

00:09:44.000 The ceasefire is temporary.

00:09:46.000 It is in phase one alone.

00:09:48.000 The National Security Advisor, Mike Walls, Made that clear on Fox News when he said literally yesterday that if Israel has to go in yesterday, we're 100% behind them.

00:09:57.000 If Israel has to go in and knock out Hamas again, we'll 100% support that. 1.00

00:10:02.000 And so, there is no total and complete ceasefire.

00:10:04.000 So Hamas doesn't get that goal.

00:10:06.000 The United States has made clear it does not want Hamas in control under President Trump.

00:10:10.000 This has been said by Pete Hegseth, the Department of Defense nominee.

00:10:13.000 It's been said by Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State nominee.

00:10:15.000 It's been said by Mike Walls.

00:10:16.000 It's been said by President Trump.

00:10:18.000 There is no idea that Hamas is going to remain in control of the Gaza Strip.

00:10:23.000 There is nothing in this deal, particularly in Phase 1, that suggests a complete withdrawal of the IDF from the Strip, particularly the Philadelphia Corridor.

00:10:30.000 The IDF will not be leaving the Philadelphia Corridor, which is, again, the biggest, most important border, because that's the one that all the smuggling was happening via.

00:10:37.000 That's how all the weapons and money were getting into Hamas.

00:10:42.000 As far as the return of the displaced to their homes, That is going to happen slowly over the course of a few weeks.

00:10:47.000 That is a concession to Hamas, but that was going to be in the Biden deal. 0.57

00:10:50.000 And as far as reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, the question was always going to be, who administers that reconstruction?

00:10:57.000 And that has yet to be decided.

00:10:58.000 The answer is going to be not Hamas.

00:11:00.000 So that is the Trump difference.

00:11:01.000 Because in order to get the deal done, from the Israeli side, the Israelis had to trust the Trump administration enough to know that they were not going to call on Israel to leave Hamas in place in the Gaza Strip.

00:11:11.000 That is the difference between Trump's approach to this conflict.

00:11:14.000 And the Biden approach.

00:11:16.000 And then there's the second difference, which is Hamas came to the table.

00:11:18.000 Why did Hamas come to the table with this deal?

00:11:20.000 The reason Hamas came to this table is because of Donald Trump's threat that all hell would break loose if not.

00:11:25.000 Meaning the deal only gets worse from here.

00:11:28.000 The deal only gets worse from here.

00:11:30.000 This is the best deal you're going to get.

00:11:31.000 You better take it right now or it's going to get worse from here.

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00:13:42.000 Okay, so those were the two things that Team Trump brought to the table.

00:13:46.000 One, Assurances, presumably to the Israelis, that if they have to go back in and do the thing, that America is not going to stand in their way.

00:13:53.000 They're not going to arms embargo them.

00:13:54.000 They're going to understand exactly what Hamas is. 0.87

00:13:57.000 And two, the Trump administration making clear to Hamas, this is the best deal you're going to get. 0.92

00:14:02.000 It's on the table right now.

00:14:03.000 There are no better deals.

00:14:05.000 Biden couldn't guarantee either of those.

00:14:06.000 Biden was willing to make a better deal with Hamas every single day, which is why Hamas was holding out in the first place. 0.55

00:14:11.000 Antony Blinken, the Secretary of State, basically acknowledged as much publicly.

00:14:16.000 The Biden administration was never going to be able to sell the Israelis on the idea that if they signed on to a phase one ceasefire, that the Biden administration was going to back Israel if it had to go back in.

00:14:26.000 So that is the difference.

00:14:28.000 That is the major difference.

00:14:28.000 And by the way, you can see that in the varying statements between President Trump and Joe Biden about the deal.

00:14:35.000 So President Trump put out the following statement about the deal.

00:14:39.000 Quote, this epic ceasefire agreement could only have happened as a result of our historic victory in November.

00:14:44.000 As it signaled to the entire world that my administration would seek peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans and our allies, I am thrilled American and Israeli hostages will be returning home to be reunited with their families and loved ones.

00:14:54.000 With this deal in place, my national security team, through the efforts of Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Whitcoff, will continue to work closely with Israelis and our allies to make sure Gaza never again becomes a terrorist safe haven.

00:15:05.000 Yeah, you see that?

00:15:06.000 What he's saying there is Hamas will not be in control, which was Hamas's original demand of the Biden team.

00:15:12.000 That's how Trump is reading.

00:15:13.000 The ceasefire agreement.

00:15:14.000 That makes a huge difference.

00:15:15.000 That is a guarantee to Israel that if Hamas is a threat to take control again, Israel can go back in. 0.76

00:15:20.000 And the thing that I think is very clear from this agreement, there's phase one and there's phase two.

00:15:24.000 And basically, if Hamas continues to give the hostages out and allow the hostages out, and if they don't violate the agreement in any way, and if further negotiations allow for a phase two, here's the thing about international agreements.

00:15:36.000 There has never been, as far as I'm aware, a phased international agreement that has ever hit phase two.

00:15:42.000 Phase 1 is the actual part that will be implemented.

00:15:45.000 There will be no Phase 2, in my opinion, because I have yet to see an international agreement that actually reaches Phase 2. It always breaks down in Phase 1. So that's how Donald

00:16:15.000 Trump reads the deal.

00:16:16.000 And it's important to see how Joe Biden reads the deal because you can see why Israel got sold on the deal.

00:16:21.000 And why Hamas got sold on the deal by Trump and not Biden.

00:16:24.000 Here was Biden's statement, quote, Today, after many months of intensive diplomacy by the United States, along with Egypt and Qatar, Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire and hostage deal.

00:16:32.000 This deal will halt the fighting in Gaza, surge much-needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families after more than 15 months in captivity.

00:16:41.000 First of all, note the ordering of that sentence.

00:16:43.000 His top priority was not freeing the hostages.

00:16:46.000 It was to, quote-unquote, halt the fighting in Gaza, right?

00:16:48.000 This is why Israel didn't trust. 0.92

00:16:51.000 That if they made some sort of temporary ceasefire deal to get hostages out, that Biden wouldn't shortchange them and cut them off at the knees by depriving them of the weaponry necessary to knock out Hamas again.

00:17:01.000 I laid out the precise contours of this plan on May 31st, 2024, after which was endorsed unanimously by the UN Security Council.

00:17:08.000 It is the result not only of extreme pressure that Hamas has been under and the changed regional equation after a ceasefire in Lebanon and weakening of Iran, but also of dogged and painstaking American diplomacy.

00:17:18.000 My diplomacy never ceased in their efforts to get this done.

00:17:23.000 Even as we welcome this news, we remember all the families whose loved ones were killed in Hamas' October 7th attack and the many innocent people killed in the war that followed.

00:17:30.000 It is long past time for the fighting to end and the work of building peace and security to begin.

00:17:35.000 I'm also thinking of the American families, three of whom have living hostages in Gaza, and four, awaiting return of remains after what has been the most horrible ordeal imaginable.

00:17:43.000 Under this deal, we are determined to bring all of them home. 0.99

00:17:45.000 I will speak more about this soon.

00:17:46.000 For now, I'm thrilled those who have been held hostage are being reunited with their families.

00:17:49.000 Notice the things that aren't said in the Biden statement that are said in the Trump statement.

00:17:52.000 Trump says, there will never again be a terrorist state in Gaza.

00:17:55.000 Biden does not say anything remotely like that in his statement.

00:17:58.000 Instead, what Biden says is, it's time for the fighting to end.

00:18:02.000 Biden was going to give Hamas everything. 0.73

00:18:04.000 All of it.

00:18:05.000 That's why Israel wouldn't sign on to the deal.

00:18:08.000 Israel said no to that.

00:18:10.000 And then Hamas wouldn't do it. 0.52

00:18:11.000 But you know what Hamas just said yes to? 0.82

00:18:14.000 A deal where Israel can go back in, where Hamas will not remain in control, presumably, where Israel will not withdraw from the Gaza Strip. 0.52

00:18:21.000 Okay, that is what they actually said yes to in phase one.

00:18:24.000 Everybody's talking about there won't be a phase two.

00:18:26.000 I'm just telling you, it's not going to hit phase two.

00:18:27.000 The reason it's not going to hit phase two is because Israel cannot leave Hamas in charge of a new Gaza stand.

00:18:33.000 They cannot.

00:18:35.000 This is why Trump got the deal done.

00:18:37.000 There's been a lot of reporting about Steve Whitcoff putting a lot of pressure on the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.

00:18:42.000 Undoubtedly, some of that is true.

00:18:44.000 That's what happens when you're trying to force a deal, which is what President Trump was trying to do here, presumably before the inauguration.

00:18:49.000 However, the real reason the deal got done is because, at this time, it might have been the best bad alternative.

00:18:57.000 Again, it's possible, theoretically, that there could have been a bigger push from the Trump administration where they'd gone to Qatar and said, listen, Your airbase goes away unless all the hostages come out.

00:19:08.000 But how much control does Qatar actually have over Hamas?

00:19:10.000 That's questionable.

00:19:12.000 There might have been.

00:19:13.000 But in terms of kind of short-term, get as many hostages out as possible.

00:19:17.000 The reason the deal got done was Trump.

00:19:18.000 And the reason that the deal was palatable to the Israelis is because of Trump.

00:19:23.000 That is why.

00:19:24.000 This deal could not have gotten done under Joe Biden.

00:19:26.000 Make no mistake.

00:19:27.000 Make no mistake.

00:19:28.000 The weaknesses in the deal are Biden's because he has been awful for the last year and a half.

00:19:34.000 Really, since about December of 2023, the upsides of the deal that made it even palatable for Israel to consider the deal are brought about by the presence of Donald Trump in the White House.

00:19:46.000 That's what's happening here.

00:19:47.000 So, Joe Biden promptly went out and took credit, of course, for a deal that, again, it took the team of Trump to close.

00:19:53.000 Antony Blinken's been trying to force this on Israel for a year, and Israel just kept saying no because the deal that Blinken and Biden and Kamala Harris wanted basically allowed Hamas to retain control of the Gaza Strip.

00:20:05.000 Good afternoon.

00:20:07.000 It's a very good afternoon.

00:20:10.000 Because at long last, I can announce a ceasefire and a hostage deal has been reached between Israel and Hamas. 0.90

00:20:19.000 And then he was asked, who gets credit for it?

00:20:22.000 And Biden's like, are you joking?

00:20:23.000 I get credit for it.

00:20:24.000 I, I. Everything is always about Joe Biden.

00:20:26.000 Always and forever.

00:20:28.000 Thank you.

00:20:33.000 Is that a joke?

00:20:35.000 Oh.

00:20:36.000 Thank you.

00:20:37.000 Is that a joke?

00:20:38.000 Now, Anthony Blinken's standing right there.

00:20:39.000 His own State Department said that Team Trump basically gets credit for this.

00:20:43.000 Now, let's be clear.

00:20:44.000 This is not like...

00:20:45.000 It's a win for Trump because hostages are coming out.

00:20:48.000 That is a win for Trump.

00:20:49.000 But there is no win for anyone in Hamas retaining control of the Gaza Strip.

00:20:54.000 Yesterday, footage started emerging from the Gaza Strip of children chanting in support of Hamas.

00:20:58.000 The Gaza Strip is still populated by enormous numbers of people.

00:21:01.000 Who love terrorism, who hate Jews, who are willing to commit new genocides every day. 0.95

00:21:06.000 By the way, I will note that all the people, all the exact same people who said that Israel committed a genocide in Gaza are now declaring that Hamas won.

00:21:13.000 I'm not sure how you win a genocide, supposedly, but it demonstrates what liars these folks are.

00:21:18.000 In any case, here were children in Gaza celebrating, shouting, by the way, about liberating Jerusalem and about Mohammed Daif, who was the military leader of Hamas, who was killed by Israel.

00:21:30.000 Those are small children chanting about Mohammed Daif.

00:21:40.000 Thank you.

00:21:42.000 If you don't speak Arabic, that is exactly what they're chanting. 0.78

00:21:45.000 They're chanting in support of a terror leader.

00:21:46.000 Quote, we are the men of Mohammed Daif and salute to the Al-Qasam brigades.

00:21:50.000 That is what they're shouting.

00:21:50.000 That would be the military wing of Hamas.

00:21:53.000 So that is who Israel continues to face down.

00:21:55.000 The battle is not over there, not by a long shot.

00:21:58.000 The goal is to get hostages out.

00:21:59.000 Some hostages will come out.

00:22:01.000 That is a good thing.

00:22:02.000 The tragedy continues.

00:22:03.000 Dozens of hostages will not.

00:22:05.000 Just to be clear-eyed about what this deal is and what this deal isn't and where it could have been better and where it certainly could have been worse.

00:22:11.000 It's important to be clear-eyed on this, among many other issues.

00:22:14.000 One of those issues is the sanctity of life.

00:22:16.000 Ronald Reagan designated January Sanctity of Human Life Month.

00:22:19.000 It breaks my heart that since Roe v.

00:22:21.000 Wade, we've lost over 66 million.

00:22:23.000 Precious lives to abortion.

00:22:24.000 Even though Roe was overturned, there's now an even bigger challenge.

00:22:27.000 Abortion pills are making it easier than ever for women to abort their children, accounting for more than 60% of all abortions.

00:22:33.000 But here's something amazing.

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00:23:15.000 Also, with the New York starting, I need to make sure I'm maintaining my health, hitting the gym, spending time with my family, even with my busy work schedule.

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00:24:16.000 Alrighty.

00:24:17.000 Now, President Biden last night gave his farewell address.

00:24:20.000 And frankly, for all of us, too little, too late, my man.

00:24:23.000 You should have gone, I don't know, like 2020. You should have been gone four years ago.

00:24:28.000 He obviously is ailing.

00:24:29.000 But on his way out, he decided that he was going to give an Eisenhower-like warning.

00:24:34.000 Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his farewell address, famously invade against the military-industrial complex.

00:24:40.000 I happen to be a believer that this is one of the dumber things that Dwight D. Eisenhower ever said, that the military-industrial complex theory, which was pushed by a sociologist named C. Wright Mills with Marxist leanings, that that basic theory, which was that effectively the defense industry drove America toward war, is a fool's way of explaining how foreign policy actually works.

00:24:59.000 But somehow Joe Biden found...

00:25:02.000 An even bigger fool's way to explain American policy.

00:25:04.000 On his way out, he warned about a tech oligarchy.

00:25:07.000 Now, let's be clear.

00:25:08.000 The only reason that Joe Biden became president in 2020, at least one of the only reasons, was because of the tech oligarchy working with his people, shutting down, for example, the Hunter Biden laptop story so he could win.

00:25:20.000 It turns out that billionaires disproportionately support, wait for it, wait for it, Joe Biden and his party.

00:25:25.000 But according to Joe Biden, he's going to...

00:25:28.000 Weigh in about these supposed tech, this new oligarchy of people who run.

00:25:32.000 Let's be clear.

00:25:34.000 What Joe Biden means here is that people he wants to run the country are career bureaucrats and politicians who have never run a popsicle stand.

00:25:41.000 Those are the two alternatives.

00:25:43.000 Either the people who are going to be left to their own devices to actually hire people, build businesses, and do things are going to be able to run their own lives or Joe Biden will run their lives.

00:25:51.000 There is no real third choice here.

00:25:54.000 It's not that Elon Musk wants to run every aspect of government.

00:25:57.000 It's that Elon Musk would like the government not to run every aspect of his life.

00:26:01.000 But here is Joe Biden warning everybody about the oligarchy.

00:26:06.000 Again, Joe Biden is the oligarchy.

00:26:08.000 This dude has never worked a real job in his entire life.

00:26:11.000 He's been politicking since the age of 29. He wasn't even old enough to be in the Senate when he was elected to the Senate.

00:26:18.000 And now he's 173 years old.

00:26:20.000 And he's invading against the oligarchy that he has been a...

00:26:24.000 He cog in for literally his entire adult life.

00:26:29.000 Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.

00:26:45.000 We see the consequences all across America, and we've seen it before, more than a century ago.

00:26:53.000 But the American people stood up to the robber barons back then and busted the trusts.

00:26:59.000 They didn't punish the wealthy.

00:27:01.000 They just made the wealthy pay by the rules everybody else had to.

00:27:05.000 Workers want rights to earn their fair share.

00:27:09.000 You know, they were dealt into the deal and helped put us on a path to building the largest middle class and most prosperous century any nation in the world has ever seen.

00:27:21.000 We've got to do that again.

00:27:23.000 God, he's so senile.

00:27:24.000 He's so gone.

00:27:25.000 But beyond that, his idiotic notion that we have to break the modern robber barons, that it's Elon Musk who's really the problem, and it's the tech bros who are really the problem.

00:27:34.000 Who do you think is creating the productivity, the innovation, and the jobs that Americans have?

00:27:40.000 It isn't Joe Biden.

00:27:41.000 It isn't government.

00:27:42.000 This is the key conflict of vision between people like Joe Biden and those of us who actually like free markets and free enterprise and freedom generally.

00:27:51.000 Joe Biden believes that by freedom, we mean the government should allocate to you a particular role in life.

00:27:59.000 Those of us on the other side believe that by freedom, we mean that we should all be able to rise and fall on our own merits and that that generates positive externalities for everyone.

00:28:08.000 Listening to Joe Biden whine about the oligarchy, well, he has never produced a positive thing in his entire life.

00:28:16.000 In his life, he has never produced a positive thing.

00:28:18.000 And then he invades against people who actually do the producing.

00:28:21.000 Who actually do the innovation.

00:28:22.000 Who make life better for literally hundreds of millions of people.

00:28:25.000 But he's sitting there being a complete leech on the ass of society for five decades talking about the oligarchs.

00:28:33.000 You know who's truly an oligarch?

00:28:35.000 Somebody who uses unearned power.

00:28:38.000 Somebody who is given power by the American people to crack down on the freedom of others for redistributive purposes.

00:28:47.000 That is much more of an oligarchy than whatever.

00:28:50.000 Supposed oligarchy he's talking about.

00:28:53.000 What a terrible old man, and I cannot wait for him to be out of the White House.

00:28:57.000 Neither could the American people, apparently, which is why Donald Trump is going back in on Monday.

00:29:01.000 Thank God.

00:29:02.000 Thank God.

00:29:02.000 Meanwhile, Marco Rubio is President Trump's Secretary of State nominee.

00:29:06.000 He gave a just tremendous performance yesterday in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

00:29:12.000 His opening statement was excellent.

00:29:14.000 It was, I think, really meaningful.

00:29:16.000 He talked about...

00:29:18.000 The sort of evolution of American foreign policy over the course of the last several decades.

00:29:22.000 And when he says, listen, American interests used to come first and they need to come first. 0.63

00:29:26.000 Again, this should not be controversial.

00:29:27.000 This should be the baseline.

00:29:30.000 So while America too often prioritized the global order above our core national interest, other nations continued to act the way nations have always acted and always will in what they perceive to be their best interest.

00:29:43.000 And instead of folding into the post-Cold War global order, They have manipulated it to serve their interests at the expense of ours.

00:29:52.000 We welcome the Chinese Communist Party into the global order, and they took advantage of all of its benefits, and they ignored all of its obligations and responsibilities. 1.00

00:30:02.000 Instead, they have repressed and lied and cheated and hacked and stolen their way into global superpower status, and they have done so at our expense and at the expense of the people of their own country.

00:30:17.000 He is totally correct about all of this.

00:30:19.000 And then he makes some statements about the post-Soviet Union consensus of a liberal world war.

00:30:24.000 He says, listen, this stuff has been used as a weapon against the United States.

00:30:28.000 That is 100% true.

00:30:31.000 This notion that the UN ought to rule the roost and the United States ought to be the functioning military arm of the UN is ridiculous and stupid and wrong.

00:30:40.000 The idea that it's in the interest of the United States to allow others to dictate our foreign policy is wrong and stupid.

00:30:46.000 Here is Marco Rubio, Secretary of State nominee.

00:30:50.000 Out of the triumphalism of the end of the long Cold War emerged a bipartisan consensus.

00:30:55.000 And this consensus was that we had reached the end of history, that all of the nations of the world would now become members of the democratic Western-led community, that a foreign policy that served the national interest could now be replaced by one that served the liberal world order, and that all mankind was now destined to abandon national sovereignty and national identity.

00:31:15.000 And would instead become one human family and citizens of the world.

00:31:21.000 This wasn't just a fantasy.

00:31:23.000 We now know it was a dangerous delusion.

00:31:26.000 Here in America and in many of the advanced economies across the world, an almost religious commitment to free and unfettered trade at the expense of our national economy shrunk the middle class, left the working class in crisis, collapsed our industrial capacity, and has pushed critical supply chains collapsed our industrial capacity, and has pushed critical supply chains into the hands of adversaries and of rivals.

00:31:46.000 Again, the point that he's making here is not even really an economic one, it's a security Meaning, when you decide to usher China into the world community of nations and pretend that they're a good actor, you're going to screw yourself security-wise and in terms of foreign policy. 0.78

00:32:01.000 He made this point again later on while being questioned.

00:32:04.000 He said we need to stop being reliant on China.

00:32:05.000 China has basically made us reliant on so much of our supply chain.

00:32:11.000 If we stay on the road we're on right now, in less than 10 years, virtually everything that matters to us in life will depend on whether China will allow us to have it or not.

00:32:20.000 Everything from the blood pressure medicine we take to what movies we get to watch, and everything in between, we will depend on China for it. 1.00

00:32:27.000 They have come to dominate the critical mineral supplies throughout the world.

00:32:32.000 Everywhere in the world they've now established critical mineral rights.

00:32:35.000 Even those who want to see more electric cars, no matter where you make them, those batteries are almost entirely dependent on the ability of the Chinese and the willingness of the Chinese Communist Party to produce it and export it to you.

00:32:46.000 So if we don't change course, we are going to live in a world where much of what matters to us on a daily basis, from our security to our health, will be dependent on whether the Chinese allow us to have it or not. 0.98

00:32:57.000 That's an unacceptable outcome.

00:32:59.000 He is totally right about that.

00:33:01.000 He also spoke at length about the situation in the Middle East.

00:33:03.000 And he said, listen, if you're talking about Iran, we need to make a distinction.

00:33:07.000 There's the regime and there's the people and they're not the same thing.

00:33:09.000 This is very important because, again, the United States and its position vis-a-vis Iran must recognize that the Iranian regime is actually quite tenuous right now.

00:33:19.000 The Iranian regime is not a strong regime.

00:33:21.000 They are a weak horse, as the saying goes in the Middle East. 1.00

00:33:25.000 Two points I want to make about Iran, and it's really important.

00:33:28.000 When we talk about Iran, I'm talking about the radical Shia clerics and not the people. 0.99

00:33:32.000 The people of Iran are people of an ancient civilization, an ancient culture with tremendous pride and advances.

00:33:38.000 And I don't know who take great pride in their Persian heritage and identity. 0.51

00:33:42.000 And I don't know of any nation on earth in which there is a bigger difference between the people and those who govern them than what exists in Iran. 0.99

00:33:49.000 And that's a fact that needs to be made repeatedly.

00:33:51.000 In no way is the clerics who run that country representative of the people of that country and of its history and of contributions it's made to humanity.

00:34:00.000 And it's a point I wish we would continue to make.

00:34:03.000 He's right about that.

00:34:04.000 He also spoke about Israel and Hamas.

00:34:07.000 And again, this goes to what's going on in this hostage deal.

00:34:11.000 He said, listen.

00:34:12.000 Middle East security begins with Israel security because Israel is, in fact, our best ally in the region and the most powerful military force in the region.

00:34:18.000 The only possible competitor is Turkey, which is going to become a rising problem for the United States and our allies in the Middle East in very short order. 0.95

00:34:25.000 But here is Rubio talking about Israel in the Middle East.

00:34:28.000 We should not underestimate the potential opportunities that now exist, and it'll take some time to fully understand what those are, that perhaps open the door to things that were not open in the future.

00:34:38.000 But from the Israeli perspective, which I fully understand, it begins with their existence.

00:34:42.000 Because you cannot coexist with armed elements at your border who seek your destruction and evisceration as a state.

00:34:49.000 You just can't.

00:34:50.000 No nation on it.

00:34:51.000 We wouldn't tolerate it, and they can't either.

00:34:53.000 And it begins with having that level of security, and if they do, then I think there are opportunities that come about as a result of it.

00:35:00.000 And again, underscoring what's going to happen with this hostage deal, he said, listen, Hamas cannot be allowed to run Gaza. 0.58

00:35:06.000 That is one of the big differences between the Trump team's approach and the Biden team's approach.

00:35:10.000 Joe Biden is perfectly happy to allow Hamas to retain control effectively of the Gaza Strip.

00:35:14.000 That is not true of Team Trump, which is one of the reasons the hostage deal got done.

00:35:18.000 The real open question for the Palestinians is, who will govern?

00:35:22.000 Who will govern in Gaza in the short term and who will ultimately govern?

00:35:25.000 Will it be the Palestinian Authority or some other entity?

00:35:28.000 Because it has to be someone.

00:35:29.000 That was the initial goal for Gaza when the Israelis withdrew from there and they turned it over and they turned it over with greenhouses and they turned it over with all kinds of economic development.

00:35:39.000 Hamas won an election. 0.90

00:35:40.000 They took over and they destroyed the place and built tunnels for terrorists to operate from.

00:35:44.000 So the key is not simply governance.

00:35:47.000 It's who will govern.

00:35:48.000 You can't turn it over to people who seek your destruction.

00:35:51.000 And so I do think this is a very complex issue, and I think that's understating it.

00:35:56.000 He then suggested, hey, listen, if you support Hamas, if you're here on a visa and you support Hamas, you shouldn't be in the country.

00:36:03.000 And he's going to make an excellent Secretary of State.

00:36:05.000 The Trump team is going to be very different from Team Biden.

00:36:09.000 As Secretary of State, of course, you'll be responsible for overseeing the issuance of visas.

00:36:15.000 How will you enforce our laws to ensure that we remove supporters of terrorist groups from our country?

00:36:22.000 Listen, my view on this is one of common sense.

00:36:25.000 If you apply for a visa to come into the United States, and in the process of being looked at, it comes to light that you're a supporter of Hamas.

00:36:33.000 We wouldn't let you in.

00:36:34.000 If we knew you were a supporter of Hamas, we would not give you a visa.

00:36:38.000 So now that you got the visa and you're inside the U.S. and now we realize you're a supporter of Hamas, we should remove your visa. 0.67

00:36:44.000 If you cannot come in because you're a supporter of Hamas, you should not be able to stay on a visa if you're a supporter of Hamas.

00:36:50.000 That's how I view it.

00:36:51.000 And I think that's just an issue of common sense.

00:36:54.000 And we intend to be very forceful about that.

00:36:57.000 Rubio is going to be confirmed likely with north of 60 votes in the United States Senate.

00:37:01.000 In just a moment, we'll get to Pam Bondi, who is President Trump's attorney general nominee, who also did a fabulous job yesterday. 1.00

00:37:10.000 We're not just going to watch history.

00:37:17.000 We're going to bring it to you live and uncensored to celebrate the 47th president.

00:37:20.000 We're giving you 47% off new Daily Wire plus annual memberships.

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00:37:42.000 Meanwhile, Pam Bondi, the Florida Attorney General, who's now being appointed as United States Attorney General.

00:37:49.000 She had her hearing yesterday as well, and she blew the Democrats out of the water. 1.00

00:37:52.000 Again, I don't think Democrats are quite prepared for Team Trump.

00:37:55.000 They really are not.

00:37:56.000 I mean, Pete Hexat did a fabulous job.

00:37:58.000 Senator Rubio did a fabulous job, and Pam Bondi yesterday did a fabulous job. 1.00

00:38:01.000 Here is Senator Ted Cruz with Pam Bondi, the Attorney General nominee.

00:38:06.000 The Biden-Harris White House came along, and in the last four years, we've seen Donald Trump indicted and prosecuted not once, not twice, not three times, but four separate times.

00:38:17.000 And to assassination attempts, Senator.

00:38:20.000 I have to say Javert from Les Mis would be chagrined at the efforts of Democrats to do anything possible to take him down.

00:38:30.000 And I believe the real target in this was not President Trump, but it was the American people, that these prosecutions were brought because partisan prosecutors were terrified.

00:38:43.000 That the American people would do exactly what they did in November of 2024 and vote to re-elect Donald J. Trump.

00:38:49.000 By 77.3 percent.

00:38:52.000 Million Americans.

00:38:54.000 77.3 million Americans.

00:38:58.000 Again, Bondi was great yesterday.

00:39:01.000 I'm not sure if Senator Cruz...

00:39:04.000 I love Ted.

00:39:04.000 Ted's great.

00:39:05.000 I went and campaigned with him in the last cycle.

00:39:06.000 He gets more theater references into a typical Senate Judiciary Committee hearing than any other senator.

00:39:12.000 He definitely holds the record for that, I believe.

00:39:14.000 There were some fireworks that went off during this particular hearing.

00:39:16.000 Alex Padilla, the senator from California, he went after Bondi, and Bondi basically body slammed him.

00:39:23.000 May I speak?

00:39:26.000 I'm going to ask you the next question.

00:39:27.000 You can speak, and I hope you answer, Ms. Bonney.

00:39:29.000 Well, I'd like to answer the previous one, Senator.

00:39:31.000 When we met yesterday, you pointed your finger at me and said you were speaking.

00:39:35.000 Let me answer my question.

00:39:37.000 I'm not going to be bullied by you, Senator Padilla.

00:39:39.000 The 14th Amendment of the United States of America, which was deeply disappointing.

00:39:43.000 I guess you didn't want to hear my answer about Pennsylvania.

00:39:46.000 After I gave an opportunity to study overnight.

00:39:49.000 So can you tell me in this committee what the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment says?

00:39:54.000 Senator.

00:39:55.000 I'm here to answer your questions.

00:39:57.000 I'm not here to do your homework and study for you.

00:40:00.000 You're the one asking for a confirmation vote, ma'am.

00:40:02.000 Hey, you cut me off.

00:40:03.000 Can I please finish?

00:40:04.000 What does the 14th Amendment say?

00:40:06.000 Senator?

00:40:07.000 Senator, the 14th Amendment we all know addresses birthright citizenship.

00:40:10.000 I've been a state prosecutor.

00:40:12.000 I've been a state AG. I look forward to even giving your remarks today, working with you and the people of California if I am confirmed as the 87th Attorney General of the United States of America.

00:40:25.000 I didn't take your homework assignment.

00:40:27.000 I'm sorry.

00:40:28.000 I was preparing for today.

00:40:32.000 Man, she's spicy. 0.99

00:40:34.000 That's great.

00:40:34.000 I love that.

00:40:35.000 And you've seen a lot of that.

00:40:37.000 These senators who won't get off their high horse. 0.99

00:40:39.000 And, by the way, Donald Trump, there's a lot of accusation.

00:40:42.000 Donald Trump, he's picking his people from Fox News.

00:40:44.000 Can I just explain something?

00:40:45.000 Many of the people he's picking are excellent on TV because they were on Fox News.

00:40:48.000 There is a reason Fox News has particular people on the TVs.

00:40:52.000 It's actually not a horrifying way to pick staffers if they also have the credentials to do the job.

00:40:58.000 It's to get somebody who also happens to be really good.

00:41:00.000 Pam Bondi is amazing on TV. Like, great on TV. Here was Pam Bondi. 0.98

00:41:05.000 Body slamming Adam Schiff.

00:41:06.000 I mean, this was basically just a WWE event in which she went around like The Undertaker, just off the top rope all day long on Democratic Senators. 1.00

00:41:15.000 No one has asked me to investigate Liz.

00:41:18.000 We're also worried about Liz Cheney, Senator.

00:41:20.000 You know what we should be worried about?

00:41:22.000 The crime rate in California right now is the way of the roof.

00:41:27.000 Your robberies are 87% higher than the national average.

00:41:32.000 That's what I want to be focused on, Senator, if I'm confirmed as Attorney General.

00:41:37.000 Okay, again, just going after Schiff about the criminality in his own state and asking.

00:41:42.000 Why are you so focused on bizarre questions about Trump circa 2021 as opposed to the problems in the United States circa 2025?

00:41:51.000 Here she was slamming Dick Durbin. 1.00

00:41:54.000 Again, it was just senator after senator coming up and getting knocked down by Pam Bondi yesterday.

00:41:59.000 He said to the Georgia Secretary of State, find 11,780 votes.

00:42:05.000 Do you have the entire context of that call?

00:42:09.000 I feel like it was much longer than that and may have been taken out of context.

00:42:12.000 It was an hour long.

00:42:13.000 Right.

00:42:13.000 And you can certainly listen to it.

00:42:15.000 I hope you will.

00:42:16.000 Then came Senator Whitehouse.

00:42:19.000 He's in sort of a running gun battle with Maisie Girono for dumbest senator and the United States senator, Senator Whitehouse.

00:42:24.000 And it didn't go well for him either.

00:42:27.000 You have said that Department of Justice prosecutors will be prosecuted in the Trump administration.

00:42:37.000 What Department of Justice prosecutors will be prosecuted and why?

00:42:44.000 I said that on TV. I said prosecutors will be prosecuted to finish the quote, if bad.

00:42:51.000 Investigators will be investigated.

00:42:54.000 You know, we all take an oath, Senator, to uphold the law.

00:42:58.000 None of us are above the law.

00:43:00.000 Let me give you a really good example of a bad lawyer within the Justice Department, a guy named Klein Smith, who altered a FISA warrant, one of the most important things we can do in this country.

00:43:12.000 So will everyone be held to an equal, fair system of justice?

00:43:19.000 If I am the next attorney general, absolutely.

00:43:22.000 And no one is above the law.

00:43:27.000 Again.

00:43:28.000 She did a great job yesterday.

00:43:29.000 She, too, will be confirmed with probably north of 60 votes in the Senate.

00:43:33.000 Again, there were many nominees who had their hearings yesterday.

00:43:35.000 John Ratcliffe is the nominee to lead the CIA. He, too, did a great job against the angry Democrat senators.

00:43:43.000 So, first of all, he says, I'm not going to politicize the spy agency.

00:43:46.000 It is actually my job to ensure America's national security.

00:43:49.000 It's absolutely essential that the CIA's leader be apolitical.

00:43:57.000 As you know that when you walk in the building at the CIA inscribed on the wall is the quote, and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.

00:44:10.000 That's a reminder to CIA officers when they walk in about the truth, collecting the truth, intelligence, critical information, so that American people can be free.

00:44:23.000 Their freedom and liberty are dependent on the CIA doing that job and doing it in an apolitical way.

00:44:29.000 And so I am very much committed to that and look forward to that if confirmed.

00:44:33.000 Good for him.

00:44:36.000 Adam Schiff was called out in the middle of all of this for all of his Russiagate nonsense.

00:44:39.000 Here is John Ratcliffe going after Adam Schiff, the senator from California.

00:44:43.000 In 2020, when a chairman of an intelligence committee misrepresented that a laptop owned by then candidate Biden's son was somehow a Russian intelligence operation.

00:44:59.000 And 51 former intelligence officials used the imprimatur of IC authority to go along with that.

00:45:09.000 I stood in the breach.

00:45:11.000 I stood alone and told the American people the truth about that.

00:45:15.000 So I think my record in terms of speaking truth to power And defending the intelligence community and its good work is very clear.

00:45:28.000 Good for John Ratcliffe.

00:45:30.000 He too is going to be confirmed overwhelmingly.

00:45:32.000 Chris Wright is the nominee for Secretary of Energy.

00:45:35.000 Again, there were a lot of hearings yesterday.

00:45:37.000 And he did a great job.

00:45:38.000 He made clear that he actually is going to expand America's investment in our energy resources, which is precisely what the Secretary of Energy is supposed to do.

00:45:46.000 Here he was yesterday.

00:45:48.000 Talking about investment in, for example, nuclear energy that environmentalists have been holding up for decades.

00:45:53.000 Nuclear could provide energy, could provide high temperature heat to really impact manufacturing as well.

00:46:00.000 There's just so much room to run and to grow for nuclear energy.

00:46:05.000 And I think we're going to see a broad investment across our country in the research and the enabling technologies.

00:46:13.000 And this is all good stuff.

00:46:14.000 Again, Trump's going to get his team.

00:46:16.000 He's going to get it overwhelmingly.

00:46:18.000 All of this is very good because we need a change.

00:46:20.000 You saw Joe Biden.

00:46:21.000 You saw Joe Biden has to sell.

00:46:22.000 What he has to sell is total government control of as much of your life as possible in the name of overthrowing, quote-unquote, the oligarchy, by which he means just anyone who starts a business in the country and hires people, and those people are not under his tutelage.

00:46:34.000 That's all he means.

00:46:35.000 It's time for all of that to end.

00:46:36.000 This administration means peace through strength.

00:46:38.000 Trump has said it to me personally.

00:46:40.000 Senator Rubio said it in his hearing.

00:46:42.000 This administration means standing up to terrorists, standing up to America's enemies.

00:46:46.000 Putting America's interests first.

00:46:48.000 It's America's enemies that matter. 0.91

00:46:51.000 All of this will be a breath of fresh air.

00:46:54.000 Meanwhile, the California fires continue to rage.

00:46:57.000 The California government doing a terrible job of dealing with all of that.

00:47:00.000 Spencer Lindquist, the Daily Wire investigative reporter, has been out there in California covering the fires for Daily Wire.

00:47:05.000 Spencer, thanks so much for joining the program.

00:47:07.000 Thank you very much for having me.

00:47:08.000 So first of all, what's the situation like on the ground in and around Los Angeles?

00:47:12.000 You know, it's really difficult to explain the devastation of this area until you're there on the ground.

00:47:17.000 A lot of the pictures and the videos, they help capture it, but it's completely another thing to see it in person.

00:47:23.000 I went up and down the Pacific Coast Highway and up into some of the areas in the Palisades, and this is an area that is near and dear to me.

00:47:29.000 It's an area that I know rather well.

00:47:30.000 I went to school right in that area, and you see certain landmarks.

00:47:34.000 Certain homes, certain buildings that you typically recognize and use to mark your path as you drive north or south on the Pacific Coast Highway.

00:47:41.000 And you'll see homes that are still there completely intact and others that frankly look like they're part of a war zone.

00:47:48.000 And these are in areas that you wouldn't necessarily think would be the most prone to fires.

00:47:53.000 You could toss a baseball and land it in the Pacific Ocean.

00:47:55.000 And there's homes there where there's nothing that remains other than the cement studs in the sand there on the beach.

00:48:02.000 So, Spencer, when you're driving around, what kind of stories were you hearing on the road from some of the people whose houses have been burned?

00:48:10.000 You know, so on the road itself, really right now the National Guard and other authorities at the state level aren't allowing residents back into their homes.

00:48:18.000 And this, of course, is because of potentially downed power lines or open gas lines, other chemical issues.

00:48:23.000 So there aren't people there at their homes right now.

00:48:26.000 And that, of course, is a frustration and a concern for many of the homeowners.

00:48:29.000 I did speak with a man by the name of Russell who'd lost his business in the Eaton Fire in the Altadena area.

00:48:35.000 And he's trying to navigate this complex web of insurance policies and various other different procedural and managerial aspects that come along with this type of tragedy.

00:48:47.000 But right now, he's just reeling from the loss.

00:48:49.000 And we actually met him at a volunteer center where he was helping provide relief to people who had lost their homes.

00:48:54.000 So that's kind of how he was getting over the issue and how he was handling it there in the moment.

00:48:58.000 He was trying to be there for his community.

00:49:01.000 So, Spencer, when you're driving around talking to people, Who exactly are people blaming?

00:49:06.000 I know that Gavin Newsom is trying to blame President Trump.

00:49:08.000 People are trying to blame climate change.

00:49:09.000 Where is all of the anger being directed?

00:49:12.000 I think it's dizzying for a lot of people because there's this complex web of factors.

00:49:16.000 You've got the ecological factors like these high-powered winds that are coming through the Santa Ana winds.

00:49:21.000 You've got this DEI mismanagement at the fire department.

00:49:24.000 And now we're finding that there's actually an illegal alien who's been named a person of interest in the Kenneth Fire.

00:49:30.000 That's a fire in the Calabasas area that thankfully was put out relatively quickly, but it did cover about 1,000 acres.

00:49:37.000 And we're finding out now that because of California's sanctuary state policies, This illegal alien might not be able to be taken into ICE custody and might not be able to be deported, despite being a person of interest in a massive wildfire.

00:49:50.000 So there's a number of different factors, and I think people right now on the ground are really at a loss trying to figure out how exactly this happened and how it was able to go so far out of control.

00:50:01.000 So, Spencer, obviously the fallout is going to be devastating for years to come.

00:50:05.000 Was there anything that surprised you in covering all of this?

00:50:09.000 You know, I would say absolutely.

00:50:11.000 You know, one of the things that we're hearing from the residents there is that they're really just struggling to find out what to do next.

00:50:20.000 They're trying to figure out what the next steps are.

00:50:23.000 Something that I found that was rather concerning, really, is at this relief center where I spoke to this individual who had lost his home.

00:50:29.000 He was a volunteer there.

00:50:30.000 And I was rather shocked to find out that as we went around and talked to people, asked them about if they had lost their homes, their businesses in the fire, that people at this relief center, by and large, hadn't actually lost anything.

00:50:42.000 They just found that this was an opportunity to find free goods that were being given away.

00:50:47.000 And we were utterly shocked to find that a lot of the people there hadn't actually lost their homes, hadn't lost their businesses.

00:50:54.000 And unfortunately, there was a significant number of people who saw that this was just an opportunity to take advantage of the generosity of people.

00:51:02.000 And I find it rather ironic that the person that we spoke to who had lost something was a volunteer at this relief center.

00:51:08.000 So, of course, there's so many people who are trying to rebuild, so many people who are operating in good faith.

00:51:13.000 And of course, we wish them the best.

00:51:15.000 Spencer Lindquist reporting from On the Ground in California, covering these wildfires for Daily Wire.

00:51:19.000 Spencer, really appreciate the time and thanks for what you're doing.

00:51:21.000 Thank you.

00:51:23.000 All right, in just a moment, I'm going to get to the other side of the aisle.

00:51:25.000 Bill Burr is just off the rails, man.

00:51:27.000 He is off the rails.

00:51:28.000 I've been saying this for a while, but he made that absolutely clear once again last night on Late Night TV.

00:51:35.000 Use code Shapiro.

00:51:35.000 Check out for two months free on all annual plans.

The Ben Shapiro Show - January 16, 2025

Trump Gets HOSTAGE DEAL In Gaza

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