Trump unleashes on all his enemies and lays out his 2020 strategy. Plus, we have Jussie Smollett updates, and we check the mailbag. Ben Shapiro is the host of The Ben Shapiro Show on the Fox News Channel.
00:00:14.000Well, first, I want to thank everybody for continuing to make The Right Side of History my new book, the number one nonfiction book on the New York Times bestseller list.
00:00:22.000It is still the number one nonfiction book on all of Amazon, which is astonishing.
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00:01:57.000It is trending a little bit blue because in the last election cycle in 2018, A lot of Democrats won.
00:02:04.000The senatorial candidate, John James, over there, a really good, solid Republican candidate, military background, African-American, he lost, which was too bad.
00:02:16.000The fact is that President Trump's re-election essentially hinges on three states, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.
00:02:29.000He has to hold all of the states that he held last time except for one.
00:02:32.000He can lose Wisconsin and still win the election.
00:02:34.000He could lose Pennsylvania as long as he holds Wisconsin and Michigan, but he cannot lose two of those three or the election is over.
00:02:41.000So Michigan is a crucial battleground state for him.
00:02:43.000On the aftermath of the Mueller report's top line findings being released, President Trump was ready to go on a rampage and rampage he did last night in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
00:02:53.000Half the rally was about how much he hates the media and how much he despises the people who pushed the Russia collusion hoax.
00:02:59.000And then half the rally was dedicated to him actually attacking the Democratic positions.
00:03:48.000Campaign Trump, who as I have described in the past, is a hammer in search of a nail.
00:03:52.000Sometimes he hits a nail, and it's very satisfying.
00:03:54.000And sometimes he hits a baby, and it is far less satisfying.
00:03:57.000Last night in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a pent-up crowd, I mean the crowd was just ready to roar at the slightest provocation.
00:04:04.000Here was the President of the United States describing what he called the collusion delusion.
00:04:09.000After three years of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead.
00:04:18.000The collusion delusion is over. - The special counsel completed its report and found no collusion and no obstruction.
00:04:41.000Okay, so he's right about all of this, and this is a fair ground for him to go after the media and to go after the Democrats who lied about him for two continuous years on this basis.
00:04:52.000The president also suggested that this was the greatest hoax in history, which, frankly, it may well have been, considering that the media legitimately spent two years proclaiming that undoubtedly there would be evidence that he was a Russian cat's paw.
00:05:06.000You heard the same thing from members of the intelligence community.
00:05:10.000People talk about the failures of the intelligence community in the lead up to the war in Iraq.
00:05:13.000There was a widespread intelligence consensus from Israeli intelligence, British intelligence, French intelligence, German intelligence.
00:05:20.000There was widespread consensus that Saddam Hussein was developing WMD because Saddam Hussein wanted the world to think that he was in fact developing WMD.
00:05:29.000What we watched here was not an intelligence failure.
00:05:31.000What we watched here was members of the intelligence community Leverage their institutional credibility on behalf of a narrative that was absolutely not true.
00:05:39.000We watched James Clapper, the former head of Obama's CIA, go out there in public and suggest that he actually was the DNI, the Director of National Intelligence, go out there and suggest that he had special knowledge that President Trump was probably in league with the Russians.
00:05:55.000We heard the same thing from John Brennan.
00:05:57.000Obama's former CIA director that he was going to he had some inside baseball knowledge based on his institutional knowledge that suggested that Trump was all of these things.
00:06:07.000We watched members of the media come out nearly every day and simply suggest without benefit of evidence that it was absolutely clear the Trump campaign had thrown the election with the help of Russia.
00:06:17.000So when Trump says this is the greatest hoax in history, there is a pretty solid case to be made on this basis, at least in the history of American politics.
00:06:26.000Current and former officials who paid for, promoted and perpetuated the single greatest hopes in the history of politics in our country.
00:06:38.000OK, so obviously this is a basis for him to get the base revved up.
00:06:42.000The question is whether this is a basis for actually campaigning.
00:06:45.000And the more Trump focuses on this going forward, And doesn't talk about his record, doesn't talk about what he has done, doesn't talk about what the Democrats are.
00:06:54.000The more he keeps the focus on himself as victim, I don't think that that is going to be a continuing effective strategy other than getting the base really revved up, which is good.
00:07:46.000The Democrats have to now decide whether they will continue defrauding the public with ridiculous bull- Partisan investigations or whether they will apologize to the American people and join us to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure.
00:08:11.000Then he goes off the rails and this is where he gets into bad Trump territory.
00:08:14.000So this is a pretty good episode, actually, of Good Trump, Bad Trump, which we haven't done in a while because the focus has largely been on the Democrats who are vying to compete with him.
00:08:22.000All of this is OK Trump, to good Trump, and then it gets to bad Trump.
00:08:25.000And this is where he just starts slinging insults at people that he doesn't like.
00:09:59.000That actually was not even the funniest thing that he said last night.
00:10:04.000The funniest thing that he said last night, he was talking for some reason about the Great Lakes, because Michigan is in the Great Lakes region, and he starts talking about how much he loves lakes.
00:10:11.000It's... Come on, this stuff is funny, man.
00:10:56.000Self-deprecating comedy is popular with pretty much everybody.
00:10:59.000Trump has never made a self-deprecating remark, so it's nearly impossible to imagine him doing that.
00:11:04.000Comedy is great for all the people who like President Trump, or who agree with his agenda, or agree with him on these issues.
00:11:09.000For people who are torn on President Trump, it's not going to do him any significant favors.
00:11:13.000And again, I'm looking at this from the strategic point of view, not from the is-it-funny point of view, because From the it's funny point of view.
00:11:19.000I mean, it's just damned hilarious, obviously.
00:11:22.000Now, in a second, we're going to get to President Trump's actual attacks on Democrats, because the less he focuses on his victimization and the more he focuses on their garbage agenda, the better he is going to do.
00:12:38.000Join the movement right now, mvmt.com slash Shapiro.
00:12:42.000OK, so as we say, President Trump launches this Michigan campaign, really his 2020 re-election campaign, off the basis of the Mueller report.
00:12:50.000And that just shows you how polarized our politics are, because usually the president launches his re-election campaign on the basis of, here are all the great things that I've done.
00:12:57.000Instead, the president launches his triumphant re-election campaign on the basis of, I'm not a Russian agent.
00:13:03.000So, the goalposts have moved pretty radically here, and the Democrats are the ones who moved them.
00:13:08.000Here's where President Trump, however, could be really effective, and that is attacking the Democratic agenda, because the Democratic agenda truly is radical, and most people understand that.
00:13:17.000He has two lines of attack here that are really useful.
00:13:19.000One is attacking the media, because people hate the media, people think the media are dishonest.
00:13:30.000that they cover the news in the least favorable way to conservatives that he can possibly find.
00:13:34.000And that obviously holds true for anyone who is even remotely right of center, including President Trump, who I don't think is actually an ideological conservative.
00:13:42.000So when Trump goes after the media, that's going to be a popular line with most Americans.
00:13:45.000Here's Trump saying the media have to be held accountable.
00:13:47.000They have to be, I'm sorry, they have to be accountable.
00:14:10.000Nobody thinks the media have done a good job on any of this stuff.
00:14:12.000So that is a fruitful line of attack for President Trump.
00:14:15.000Casting aspersions at the media that have attacked him incessantly, that attacked Bush incessantly, that attack everybody right of center incessantly, and people who are not even right of center so long as they disagree.
00:14:25.000That will continue to be a fruitful line of attack.
00:14:27.000But he's really going to have to win on the basis of pointing at the Democrats.
00:14:30.000As I have said all along, if President Trump were capable of just being quiet and pointing, like Donald Sutherland in that famous gif, if he could just stand there, like Donald Sutherland from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and point in horror at the Democrats, most Americans would immediately recoil in revulsion at what they saw.
00:14:49.000Because the fact is the Democratic agenda is extraordinarily radical.
00:14:52.000And when President Trump went after it last night, that's when he was in fact at his best.
00:14:56.000So here was the president of the United States talking about Democrats and taxes.
00:15:00.000Radical Democrats are the party of high taxes, open borders, late-term abortion, crime, hoaxes, and delusions.
00:15:12.000The Republican Party is the party for all Americans.
00:15:37.000If he can stay on teleprompter and not talk too much about pencil necks he doesn't like, then I think the president should probably be okay.
00:15:44.000I'm much more optimistic about his hopes for 2020 than I was, say, six months ago, when it seemed like the Democrats might, in fact, get their act together and not be crazy.
00:15:54.000But now the Democrats continue to double down on crazy.
00:15:57.000We'll get to more of President Trump's 2020 line of attack in just a second.
00:16:01.000So, the president then started to get into the details.
00:16:04.000He started talking about the Green New Deal.
00:16:05.000The best boon that Trump has ever received is Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.
00:16:09.000AOC is the id of the Democratic Party in the same way that Trump is the id of the Republican Party.
00:16:17.000So nuts she didn't get a single vote in favor of a Green New Deal bill co-sponsored by 12 separate senators on the Democratic side of the aisle.
00:16:25.000Not one of the co-sponsors of the bill voted for the bill.
00:16:29.000They all voted present on their own bill.
00:16:30.000Here's President Trump going after the stupid Green New Deal.
00:16:33.000Again, this is going to be a fruitful line of attack for Republicans and for the president.
00:16:37.000The Democrats are now advancing an extreme $100 trillion government takeover called the Green New Deal.
00:16:49.000But I'd rather not talk about it tonight because I don't want to talk them out of it too soon.
00:16:58.000Because I love campaigning against the Green New Deal.
00:17:02.000I want them to make that a big part of their platform.
00:17:39.000If you actually wanted to equal the amount of power that is currently being output by all of the carbon-based fuel systems in the United States, not including transportation, right, just the electrical grid, you would have to cover an area the size of California in windmills.
00:19:50.000In recent months, the Democrat Party has also been aggressively pushing extreme late-term abortion, allowing children To be ripped from their mother's womb right up until the moment of birth.
00:20:14.000In Virginia, the governor stated that he would even allow a newborn baby, wrap the baby up, make the baby comfortable to be executed after birth.
00:20:36.000They're trying to paint it as inaccurate when he went after the Green New Deal on the basis of even Democrats not supporting it.
00:20:41.000Here is Trump saying that Mazie Hirono, who is, in fact, perhaps the dumbest person in the United States Senate, which is a hell of a statement because there are a lot of dummies there.
00:20:48.000Here is President Trump suggesting that even Mazie Hirono knows that the Democratic Green New Deal is a mess.
00:20:53.000She didn't know about the Green New Deal.
00:21:14.000She said, but how would I get to my island?
00:21:19.000They said, we're working on some kind of a train system.
00:21:26.000So she said, OK, well, then I am for it 100 percent.
00:21:31.000It is the craziest thing I've ever seen.
00:21:33.000And this, of course, is a little bit apocryphal, but it is true that Maisie Hirono did ask some questions about how you would get rid of airplanes since she is, in fact, the senator from Hawaii.
00:21:42.000Now, what are the obstacles for President Trump leading up to 2020?
00:21:45.000Well, obstacle number one is President Trump Saying stuff that is stupid, right?
00:21:51.000President Trump deciding to focus on issues that the American people aren't really focused on, or him deciding to fulminate about the Mueller report for the next couple of years, or him deciding that he is simply going to call names at the Democrats as opposed to going after their policies, which, again, is a fruitful line of attack.
00:22:06.000That could hurt him because, remember, it's not just about him getting out the base.
00:22:09.000The Republicans got out the base in 2018 and they lost by 8.6 points in the House popular vote.
00:22:14.000This is really going to be about, can President Trump convince suburban women that Democrats are too dangerous for them?
00:22:21.000He doesn't have to convince them that he is the man for suburban women.
00:22:24.000He does have to convince suburban women that voting against their own interests would be a bad idea and that the Democrats are so radical that they'd be voting against their own interests in voting for Democrats.
00:22:33.000Obstacle number one is the president's personality.
00:22:36.000Obstacle number two is going to be the possibility of an economic downturn, and we are watching that.
00:22:41.000The economy is, in fact, slowing right now.
00:22:43.000We'll see whether it slows enough to actually slide into a downturn or whether it maintains its sort of low-level growth.
00:22:48.000He can survive low-level growth, but downturns, he's got a problem.
00:22:51.000And then obstacle number three is the possibility that there are more headlines that are bad for him in sort of the Mueller, Michael Cohen, SDNY stuff.
00:22:59.000I think that that possibility has been reduced pretty dramatically.
00:23:22.000That lets them stay up to date on the newest models that come out.
00:23:25.000We the People holsters even have their own 3D design team.
00:23:27.000They measure every micromillimeter of their guns to ensure the perfect fit.
00:23:30.000Their unique intuitive clip design allows for you to easily adjust both the cant and the ride of your holster so it fits comfortably and securely at all times.
00:23:38.000Every holster also has adjustable retention.
00:23:40.000Which is signaled with a click sound, which lets you know that your firearm is securely in place.
00:24:25.000Okay, so as I say, there's also the possibility that more headlines arise that are bad for President Trump in a legal sense.
00:24:31.000Now, I do think that the vast majority of that is over.
00:24:35.000I think that it's over because the American public had already moved toward the conclusion that the Mueller report was going to be a nothing.
00:24:41.000More Americans thought that it was a quote-unquote witch hunt than thought it was legit by the time that the report was actually released.
00:24:46.000By the time that the top-line findings were released, most Americans were tired of this.
00:24:52.000So if there's a 300-page report that just reveals all the stuff we already know about Trump, I'm not sure that goes anywhere.
00:24:58.000Also, it casts everything in a different light that Mueller has already exonerated Trump on the collusion stuff.
00:25:04.000Now we look at all of the contacts between members of the Trump team and members of the Russian government, and we say, yeah, they're just doofuses.
00:25:13.000Normally, there's so many human actions where we can either attribute malice or stupidity to people.
00:25:18.000Adam Carolla, podcast host, friend of mine, makes this point.
00:25:22.000With regard to cops pulling people over.
00:25:24.000So what Adam says is, let's say you're pulled over unjustly, right?
00:25:28.000You're not speeding, you're pulled over.
00:25:30.000If you're a white guy, you think, oh, this cop is a dummy.
00:25:32.000If you are a black guy, you probably think, oh, this cop is a racist.
00:25:44.000And so if you're looking at the actions of Team Trump, and you are thinking that it was all nefarious criminality, and then Mueller comes out and says, no, no, no, it wasn't nefarious criminality.
00:25:54.000It recasts everything as comedic, as opposed to tragic.
00:25:58.000It recasts everything as these people were just dumb and incompetent, as opposed to they were maliciously trying to interfere with the election.
00:26:03.000And so you go back and you look at people like George Papadopoulos, low-level Trump foreign policy aide, who met with a London professor who was in fact a Russian front.
00:26:13.000And here is Papadopoulos explaining that President Trump, you know, when he was talking during the campaign about how much he liked Vladimir Putin, that basically President Trump just wanted a better relationship with Russia.
00:26:24.000By the time I joined the campaign in March of 2016, candidate Donald Trump was obviously very vocal about having some sort of working relationship with Russia.
00:26:33.000I told Donald Trump to his face and Jeff Sessions to his face at that infamous March 31st meeting that I can do this for you and I think it's in the interest of the campaign.
00:26:42.000Jeff Sessions was very enthusiastic about it and I proceeded until the campaign basically decided that it was better not to.
00:26:50.000I do think there was obviously a strategic logic behind working with Russia.
00:26:53.000Look, at the end of the day, if we don't work with Russia, you know, China's a huge threat to U.S.
00:28:10.000I mean, folks, if you're not watching the video, if you can't actually see the video of Rob Goldstone, look at that guy and tell me that he's a criminal mastermind who is somehow linking up the Russian government with the Trump campaign so as to pervert America's elections.
00:28:23.000And so the Mueller report does, in many ways, allow us to see through the prism that I've been using all along, which is that most people are stupid rather than malicious.
00:28:33.000Nonetheless, Democrats are still trying to hang their last hopes on the Mueller report.
00:28:37.000They're trying to suggest that maybe there's something in the Mueller report that was not revealed in Attorney General William Barr's synopsis of the Mueller report.
00:28:45.000The Wall Street Journal reporting today House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized Attorney General William Barr on Thursday over his handling of the special counsel's report, pressing the case for the full release of the document as President Trump and Republicans continue to claim vindication in the Russia probe.
00:28:58.000Pelosi said that the summary Barr provided to lawmakers last weekend was well short of what Congress required.
00:29:03.000Show us the report and we can draw our own conclusions, she said.
00:29:06.000She said, we don't need you interpreting it for us, to William Barr.
00:29:08.000She said it was condescending, it was arrogant, it wasn't the right thing to do, right?
00:29:11.000She would have preferred another month of speculation over the Mueller report.
00:29:15.000To simply understanding the top-line results and revelation of the report itself, which will happen in the next few weeks.
00:29:21.000This thing is not going to remain secret.
00:29:22.000Democrats, who are hoping that there will be some other breaking news, here's what's going to happen.
00:29:52.000You don't get a second bite at this apple.
00:29:53.000You do not get a second shot at bat after you spend some $25 million with 40 DOJ attorneys on this case and worship at the altar of Robert Mueller.
00:30:04.000That is not something that you get to do.
00:30:06.000So I don't think Trump is particularly vulnerable there, which means that the chief obstacle to President Trump's reelection is not going to be from Mueller.
00:30:12.000Now, maybe there's an obstacle from the SDNY.
00:30:15.000Maybe the SDNY brings down some sort of campaign finance charge against President Trump.
00:30:20.000But even that, I don't, I really don't see a world where the American public care very much about that sort of stuff.
00:30:51.000And if he can be disciplined, if he allows the focus to be on the Democrats, I think that he has a pretty good shot at re-election, which is something I didn't think I'd be saying six months ago.
00:31:01.000Okay, in a second, we're going to get to updates on the Jussie Smollett case, and we'll jump into the mailbag.
00:31:06.000But first, go subscribe over at dailywire.com.
00:31:08.000We had a great episode of Daily Wire backstage last night.
00:31:10.000If you were a subscriber, you could have asked questions.
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00:31:18.000We would have flown you out here, put you up in a hotel, and allowed you to come watch the Daily Wire backstage and suffer along with me.
00:31:24.000Listening to Michael Mulls talk while wearing shorts.
00:31:27.000That could have been you in that room suffering.
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00:31:33.000As a thank you to our daily wary annual subscribers.
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00:31:48.000Today, Karnak the Magnificent, at Bifnola.
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00:31:55.000I can't say I'm surprised, I expected it.
00:31:57.000You can see in this photo that Karnak the Magnificent has placed his leftist years tumbler next to his shower drain, which is wise and prudent.
00:32:03.000Because this week, leftist viewers, tumblers across the land were overflowing.
00:34:00.000They are taking a good hard look at this right now.
00:34:02.000Illinois Prosecutors Bar Association may be looking at disbarring Kim Foxx, the state's attorney in this case.
00:34:09.000They put out a statement yesterday saying the Illinois Prosecutors Bar Association serves as the voice for nearly 1000 frontline prosecutors across the state who work tirelessly toward the pursuit of justice.
00:34:18.000The events of the past few days regarding the Cook County state's attorney's handling of the Jussie Smollett case is not condoned by the IPBA, nor is it representative of the honest, ethical work prosecutors provides the citizens of the state of Illinois on a daily basis.
00:34:32.000The manner in which this case was dismissed was abnormal and unfamiliar to those who practice law in criminal courthouses across the state.
00:34:38.000Prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges alike do not recognize the arrangement Mr. Smollett received.
00:34:44.000Even more problematic, the state's attorneys and her representatives have fundamentally misled the public on the law and the circumstances surrounding the dismissal.
00:34:52.000The public has the right to know the truth.
00:34:54.000When an elected state attorney recuses herself from a prosecution, Illinois law provides the court shall appoint a special prosecutor.
00:35:01.000Here, the state's attorney kept the case within her office and thus never actually recused herself as a matter of law.
00:35:07.000Additionally, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office falsely informed the public that the uncontested sealing of the criminal court case was mandatory under Illinois law.
00:35:17.000To the extent the case was even eligible for an immediate seal, that action was discretionary, not mandatory, and only upon a proper filing of a motion to seal.
00:35:27.000The State's Attorney not only declined to fight the sealing of this case in court, but she then provided false information to the public regarding it.
00:35:34.000The appearance of impropriety here is compounded by the fact that this case was not on the regularly scheduled court call.
00:35:40.000The public had no reasonable notice or opportunity to view the proceedings, and the dismissal was done abruptly at what has been called an emergency hearing.
00:35:47.000To date, the nature of the purported emergency has not been publicly disclosed.
00:35:51.000The sealing of a court case immediately following a hearing where there was no reasonable notice or opportunity for the public to attend is a matter of grave public concern and undermines the very foundation of our public court system.
00:36:02.000Lastly, the state's attorney has claimed this arrangement is available to all defendants and not a new or unusual practice.
00:36:07.000There has even been an implication it was done in accordance with a statutory diversion program.
00:36:12.000These statements are plainly misleading and inaccurate.
00:36:14.000This action was highly unusual, not a statutory diversion program, and not in accordance with well-accepted practices of state's attorney-initiated diversionary programs.
00:36:23.000The IPBA supports diversion programs and recognizes the many benefits they provide to the community, the defendant, and the prosecuting agency.
00:36:30.000Central to any diversion program, however, is that the defendant must accept responsibility.
00:36:35.000To be clear here, this simply was not a deferred prosecution.
00:36:40.000We strongly encourage our members and the public to review the National District Attorneys Association's Statement on Prosecutorial Best Practices in High-Profile Cases.
00:36:48.000And that is a letter from the President of the Illinois Prosecutors Bar Association.
00:36:51.000I would not be surprised if Kim Foxx ends up disbarred here.
00:36:58.000By the way, a statement to USA Today on Wednesday shows that a top aide to Michelle Obama addressed reports that she had emailed Cook County State's Attorney Kim Fox to request on behalf of the Smolets that the investigation be taken out of the hands of Chicago PD.
00:37:18.000And again, the fact that this was dismissed, Kim Fox may find herself in the legal crosshairs and she probably should.
00:37:26.000Because she has allowed Jussie Smollett to continue maintaining his innocence in the most absurd, ridiculous, and insane way.
00:37:33.000As we mentioned yesterday, Jussie Smollett's attorneys are going out there and now claiming that when Jussie Smollett hired these two Nigerian brothers to attack him, In the city of Chicago, when he did that, and then described them as white people to police, he wasn't lying to police.
00:37:52.000Maybe it was the Nigerian brothers wearing whiteface to attack him in a hate crime that he was not involved in in the first place.
00:38:00.000Naturally, the Nigerian brothers' lawyers, they're like, um, this is insane.
00:38:04.000You're suggesting that my clients wore whiteface underneath a ski mask?
00:38:11.000...said that the brothers could have been wearing whiteface at night?
00:38:15.000I heard that, and I think that's absolutely just atrocious.
00:38:20.000It adds to, I think, why people are giving lawyers a bad name.
00:38:26.000It's to distract from the real issues here, and by putting out conspiracy theories that perhaps my clients were wearing whiteface.
00:38:38.000It just adds to the ridiculous and the offensiveness of this entire thing.
00:38:44.000Yeah, the fact that the media are even taking seriously that contention demonstrates an actual racial bias on the part of the media, and that is they will grant a lot more credibility to somebody like Jussie Smollett than if it were a white person who are declaring some sort of crime had been committed against them falsely.
00:38:58.000There's just no question that the media are doing that.
00:39:00.000The media are granting Smollett all sorts of credibility they would not grant to anybody else.
00:39:08.000The media are apparently willing to condone racism depending on the person from whom the racism emanates.
00:39:14.000Because the broader narrative is that America is racist against black people, not that people like Jussie Smollett are seeking to slander white people as racist against people like Jussie Smollett.
00:39:24.000Another indicator that the media are willing to not only look the other way but incentivize this sort of racism comes in today's New York Times.
00:39:32.000There's an article in today's New York Times by a person named Christopher Rivas.
00:39:35.000It is called this, quote, I broke up with her because she's white.
00:39:38.000When it comes to dating, I'd rather not think about race, but that's been hard to avoid.
00:39:42.000This entire op-ed in the New York Times is about a man who says that he will no longer date white women because he's uncomfortable dating white women.
00:39:51.000He says, over the years, I've dated brown women and black women, but mostly white women.
00:39:56.000When some brown and black people in my community started giving me a hard time about dating white women, I sensed they'd be happier if I stopped.
00:40:02.000I also got weird vibes from some white people, namely the parents of the woman that I was dating.
00:40:07.000The ones who ask me if I speak Mexican.
00:40:24.000Like I'm betraying my people if I date white women.
00:40:27.000But I was taught that we were all one people.
00:40:29.000I see people watching me with a stink eye, noses turned up, as if they think black and brown people would somehow be better off if I dumped my white girlfriend.
00:40:36.000And then he says he started reading James Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and other black and brown authors looking for guidance, a roadmap, help on what it means to be a brown man in the world.
00:40:45.000Like, yes, our bodies have been colonized.
00:41:38.000The idea you did the crime, you do the time.
00:41:41.000And the other is protection of you from the public.
00:41:43.000Some people think rehabilitation is in the cards for the justice system.
00:41:47.000Typically speaking, rehabilitation programs have not been wildly successful.
00:41:50.000There are some success stories, but overall, not so much.
00:41:54.000When people talk about the decline in crime rates, that's not the success of rehabilitation systems.
00:41:58.000That is the The so-called mass incarceration that's taken place.
00:42:01.000Lots of criminals going to prison means fewer criminals out on the street.
00:42:04.000As far as capital punishment, in concept, I'm in favor of capital punishment.
00:42:08.000The way that it's practiced currently in the United States, I have serious doubts about it.
00:42:12.000There are certainly people who deserve to die.
00:42:14.000If you rape and murder a child, you should be put to death.
00:42:17.000If, however, we are only doing this on a sporadic basis, and you sit 30 years on death row, and you get tons of appeals, and the criminal justice system only unevenly applies the death penalty, not based on crime, then I've got some... I think there are serious questions to be asked about the system of the death penalty in the United States, but the application of the death penalty to particular people, I don't really have a huge problem with that.
00:42:59.000This is a very controversial area of constitutional law.
00:43:02.000So the idea of birthright citizenship does have some roots in English common law.
00:43:07.000The idea that if you were born in Britain, you were a citizen of Britain.
00:43:09.000With that said, it is true that in the 14th Amendment, it says, born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.
00:43:18.000Meaning that if you are a citizen of a foreign country and you have a baby here, that baby may be subject to the jurisdiction of the foreign country, which is why, for example, diplomats who have kids in the United States, their kids don't become automatic American citizens because they are subject to a foreign jurisdiction.
00:43:33.000I think that there's a pretty good case to be made that the 14th Amendment was not meant to apply to Everybody that it wasn't meant to apply to everyone born in the United States with that said it's obviously Embedded in both American law and American politics at this point.
00:43:46.000It's not going to end anytime soon And and thus I think that it's it's sort of a moot point on on Practical grounds if you want to read the two sides of this I believe John you has written in favor of birthright citizenship and I know that the folks over at the Center for immigration studies including people like John Eastman and You can read both sides of the case there.
00:44:04.000I don't know the answer to that, considering the anti-Semitic direction of the Democratic Party.
00:44:07.000Open anti-Semites in the Democratic Party have now been approved.
00:44:09.000They've been given the stamp of approval.
00:44:30.000Rashida Tlaib has suggested that Jewish Americans and Israel supporters are subject to dual loyalty.
00:44:37.000She has supported groups that have connections to terrorism, like CARE.
00:44:42.000She is a supporter of the racist, anti-Semitic, and evil Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions program, which is largely sponsored by advocates of terror, particularly in the Middle East.
00:44:59.000And listen, I think taking a picture next to a politician doesn't mean that you endorse everything the politician does, but this is a little bit different.
00:45:16.000By the way, it also came out today that Barack Obama's administration was planning the unleashing of that horrible, evil UN Security Council resolution that condemned Israel for defending itself in 2016.
00:45:29.000Just before Barack Obama left office, the United States abstained from a resolution condemning Israel.
00:45:34.000It was Obama's administration, reportedly, according to a former Obama aide, who coordinated that resolution.
00:45:38.000So I'm very afraid for the future of U.S.-Israel relations if the Democrats re-enter power, because obviously the base of the party doesn't like Israel.
00:45:46.000They've decided that the basis of social justice requires them to support Israel's enemies, despite the fact that Israel is in every way more free, democratic, and liberal than any of the countries that surround it.
00:45:57.000And that certainly includes the terrorist-governed Palestinians.
00:46:02.000And again, even the Palestinians recognize how terrible things are now.
00:46:52.000There are very few things in American government where I say it's cool so we should fund it.
00:46:55.000I think maybe the space program is the only exception to my general rule, as we'll discuss in a little while in Things I Hate.
00:47:02.000As far as her music, we picked the music from Dragnet because the critique of Kamala Harris is that she is a narc.
00:47:09.000I'm not making fun of her Tupac and Snoop fanship, largely because the media portray any way you identify.
00:47:17.000If I had picked a theme song for Kamala Harris that was rap, for example, the media would have suggested that as racist, even if I had said, I'm picking this because she said she likes this music.
00:47:28.000That's how the media treat this sort of stuff.
00:47:30.000That's how Media Matters treats this sort of stuff.
00:47:32.000And so I prefer to pick music that I think embodies her image in the Democratic primaries, rather than music that she herself has said she likes.
00:47:52.000When it comes to government involvement, I'm libertarian.
00:47:54.000When it comes to the relationship between government and the social fabric, I'm conservative.
00:47:59.000What I mean by that is that my critique of libertarianism Is that libertarianism seems to suggest that the social fabric is unimportant that or at least less important than I think it should be the basis for a free government has to be in a strong social fabric and that lies historically in conservatism also.
00:48:18.000The idea of conservatism is that there is something to conserve.
00:48:21.000Libertarianism doesn't focus too much on the culture that it seeks to conserve.
00:48:23.000Instead, it simply says that you should be able to do whatever you want so long as the government is not involved.
00:48:30.000And I think that libertarianism as a government philosophy is good.
00:48:33.000I think libertarianism as a life philosophy Leave something to be desired.
00:48:38.000Sarah says, I've heard your explanation of Convention of States, was immediately excited by the possibilities.
00:48:43.000As I've been supporting it on social media, I've gotten feedback from both left and right-leaning friends who say it is more dangerous than helpful.
00:48:48.000The common argument is no rules govern a convention of states, and with our political climate, it's dangerous to be opening the power to changing the Constitution.
00:48:55.000As someone who is nearly a single-issue voter on the Second Amendment, I'm becoming more concerned that a convention gone rogue in this climate could lead to an abolition of my most cherished freedoms.
00:49:03.000What do you think about these criticisms?
00:49:06.000So I am not seriously concerned about a convention of states going rogue because all of the amendments that are proposed at a convention of states still actually have to be approved by the vast majority of states.
00:49:23.000I mean, I can read you Article 5 of the Constitution.
00:49:28.000So, Article 5 of the Constitution, which deals with how the Constitution is to be amended, suggests that Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes.
00:49:47.000As part of this Constitution, when ratified, this is the part, when ratified by the legislatures of three quarters of the several states or by conventions in three quarters thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by Congress.
00:50:00.000Right, so that's the key element, is that when people talk about a runaway convention of states, you would need three quarters of the legislatures or conventions in three quarters that have been certified by the legislatures to actually approve of the amendments.
00:50:15.000So I'm not too worried about the abolition of the second amendment.
00:50:18.000Three quarters of the states are not going to vote to get rid of the second amendment.
00:50:22.000So I'm in favor of the convention of states because I think that there could be some things done.
00:50:26.000Many people who are interested in convention of states Have said that they are behind term limits.
00:50:31.000I don't really like term limits very much because it seems to me that very often they do more harm than good.
00:50:36.000But I am in favor of attempts to restructure the executive branch particularly.
00:50:42.000I'm maybe in favor of term limits for the Supreme Court.
00:50:45.000I'm not a huge fan of lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court particularly.
00:50:50.000And I'm very much in favor of the idea that we should pass amendments that restrict bills to single issues as opposed to these omnibus packages that allow legislators to escape the consequences of their own votes.
00:51:00.000Nicholas says, Hey Ben, would you ever consider concealed carrying a firearm if California made it remotely possible?
00:51:06.000Do you support national reciprocity for concealed carry?
00:52:22.000There is a difference between men and women insofar as how they want to interact with children on a general level.
00:52:27.000But on an individual level, if you want to be a stay-at-home dad and your wife is cool with that, I don't have any problem with that at all.
00:52:33.000Do I think that it's important that spouses respect each other?
00:52:37.000So if your spouse is going to even innately feel that she doesn't properly respect you because you're not out earning a living, so to speak.
00:52:45.000That's something you should take into consideration because a healthy marriage is the basis of healthy child-rearing as well.
00:52:50.000I think that the question of gerrymandering being a partisan issue has been overblown radically.
00:52:59.000Despite all of the supposed gerrymandering that makes it impossible for Democrats to be elected, they just won a sweeping victory in the House.
00:53:05.000So, all of the talk about how gerrymandering ruins the system, there is no good way to draw these lines.
00:53:11.000And the attempt to create non-partisan commissions, they never end up being non-partisan, and then they're unanswerable, which is a problem.
00:53:17.000TJ says, hi, Ben, I'm reading your book, Right Side of History.
00:53:20.000I understand the morality is something given by God, and it's our job to establish the logic so people could be persuaded to follow the moral norms.
00:53:26.000In the Ten Commandments, God specifically forbids murder and adultery.
00:53:29.000Do you think euthanasia and prostitution can be considered murder and adultery?
00:53:32.000If yes, what would be your logic to explain that, and what's your take on those two issues?
00:53:38.000I think that the idea of doctor-sponsored killings is deeply dangerous to the moral fabric of a society.
00:53:46.000Now, I think there's a difference between that and quote-unquote withholding care.
00:53:49.000So if you are brain dead and you're on life support and life support is withdrawn because you can't live on your own, I don't think that's the same thing as actively injecting poison into your veins to kill you.
00:54:00.000In terms of preserving life, I'm against you.
00:54:29.000I think euthanasia should remain illegal because the taking of human life, even with consent, is not something that we should be in favor of.
00:54:39.000That is one of the fundamental concerns of government, and your permission is not required to protect your life.
00:54:43.000Cassandra says, what is your opinion on abortion in cases in which the baby is 100% non-viable, i.e. no skull, missing organs, rearranged body parts, etc., sometimes not discovered until after the heartbeat?
00:54:54.000Well, in those rare cases, the non-viability of the baby is typically, it typically results in miscarriage, biologically speaking.
00:55:06.000You know, There are cases of non-abortion, right?
00:55:09.000DNCs that occur when, for example, there is a baby in utero that no longer has a heartbeat, so essentially it's a floating corpse.
00:55:16.000At that point, you're not talking about the taking of a human life, so I have no problem with a DNC in that particular case.
00:55:22.000If you're talking about a baby that is not going to be born healthy, but is still alive, I think that you are getting into dangerous moral territory.
00:55:32.000Especially because there are cases where they actually get it wrong.
00:55:35.000I know multiple parents who have been told that their babies are going to have severe abnormalities and the babies don't actually end up having severe abnormalities.
00:55:42.000I'm not in favor of precipitous ending of human life even for purposes of non-viability.
00:55:47.000Philippe says, what is the purpose of art in society?
00:55:50.000What is the importance of art generally?
00:55:51.000Well, the purpose of art is to beautify life and to contain eternal truths in temporary or somewhat permanent form.
00:56:19.000So there is no necessary linkage between the quality of art and the quality of the human beings who either produce that art or consume that art.
00:56:26.000But there's no question that art beautifies life.
00:56:28.000Matthew says, "Ben, as you know, "people often point to a conspiracy theory "about Zionist Jews.
00:56:33.000"Can you explain why this is typically "a front for antisemitism?" Sure, because the conspiracy doesn't exist.
00:56:37.000So, anti-Semitism is itself a conspiracy theory.
00:56:40.000It's a suggestion that the Jews band together in secretive evil groups, and that they control the markets, or they control foreign policy, or they control this, or they control that.
00:56:50.000And then that is used as a way to target Jews, and to hurt Jews.
00:56:54.000Because, obviously, if the Jews are secretly powerful, then we have to do something to take them down a peg.
00:56:59.000It's different than other forms of racism.
00:57:01.000Most forms of racism are based on the innate inferiority of a particular group of people.
00:57:05.000Anti-Semitism is based on the threat of this supposed group of people that Jews are innately threatening because they have these secret connections with one another.
00:57:36.000If the Jews are so all-powerful, why are they constantly getting slaughtered at an incredible rate?
00:57:41.000And why is it that even in a state that they've developed from nothing, like legitimately nothing, from swampland and sand, they've developed a thriving state.
00:57:47.000Why is that state constantly under attack and the Jews are expected to somehow take it on the chin from people firing rockets into their civilian areas in the name of social justice or some such nonsense?
00:57:57.000Okay, time for a quick thing that I like and then we'll do a quick thing I hate, because that was a long mailbag.
00:58:35.000It barely got any play at all because it's weird.
00:58:39.000It's not a usual Western, but it does raise serious sort of moral questions about how people live in the world, about the value of family, about good and evil.
00:58:49.000I thought it was kind of a fascinating film.
00:59:46.000Okay, time for some things that I hate.
00:59:52.000So I hate dishonesty in media coverage, particularly when it comes to the coverage of government spending.
00:59:59.000So there's a lot of hubbub over the past few days about the Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, proposing a budget that did not fund the Special Olympics.
01:00:05.000The Special Olympics does not need public funding.
01:00:14.000I would give money to the Special Olympics.
01:00:16.000Betsy DeVos gives money to the Special Olympics.
01:00:18.000But the implication is that if you don't want the government signing a check to things that can be privately supported, that somehow you are cruel.
01:00:27.000Are we supposed to identify compassion simply with government spending?
01:00:30.000So if I sign a check to a charity and then I say, you know what?
01:00:32.000I don't think the government should excise taxpayer money to support that charity because there are lots of people like me who support that institution.
01:00:40.000Does this somehow make me non-compassionate toward the very charity to which I sign a check?
01:00:44.000That was the implication that was made about Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education.
01:00:50.000The federal government supplies something like $18 million to the Special Olympics.
01:00:54.000And I understand it's bad optics to quote-unquote defund the Special Olympics, but let's be real about this.
01:01:00.000The Special Olympics doesn't actually need the money.
01:01:03.000All Trump had to do, if Trump wanted to actually do something good on this, what he should have said is, Betsy DeVos is correct.
01:01:09.000The Special Olympics does not require public funding, and I'll show you why they don't require public funding.
01:01:13.000I'm giving a million dollars, and I'm going to tweet out to all my supporters, let's fill that gap and show that the American people are big-hearted and kind-hearted, and that we don't need to spend taxpayer dollars to get this done.
01:01:22.000It would have raised twice the amount of money the federal government spends in legitimately about an hour.
01:01:26.000Because the American people are warm-hearted and generous, and we don't have to demonstrate that through tax policy.
01:01:31.000Nonetheless, because of public pressure, President Trump backed down on this, and he said that he was going to fund the Special Olympics, instead of using this as a teachable moment, as a learning opportunity for people, showing that the American people are insanely generous when it comes to good causes.
01:02:08.000I mean, again, the falling for the democratic narrative, which is that you don't have sympathy for something unless you publicly fund it, is dangerous to the health of the republic and to the health of conservatism.
01:02:18.000We've gotten the same thing when it comes to school lunch programs.
01:02:20.000I've said before, I think school lunch programs are a giant fail.
01:02:24.000You know, just statistically, they are.
01:02:26.000Kids are more likely to be obese if they're on a school lunch program than if they are just bringing lunch from home.
01:02:30.000The statement that I've made about school lunch programs is if you want to deal with systemic poverty, school lunch programs ain't gonna do it.
01:02:36.000And it is also true that as a parent, you should be incentivized to get food for your child.
01:02:41.000This is literally your first priority.
01:02:43.000It's one I mentioned to Adam Carolla earlier on the program.
01:02:45.000It's school lunch programs that made Adam Carolla into a libertarian.
01:02:49.000Because he would go to school and they would serve him this slop and then he'd go home and he'd see his parents sitting around on their welfare check instead of actually making sure that he had a healthy lunch.
01:02:57.000This seems to me like the very basis of being a parent.
01:04:31.000Hey guys, over on the Matt Wall Show today, we're going to discuss what I think is an epidemic of groupthink in our society.
01:04:38.000People seem to be less and less, I'm sure you've noticed this, people are less and less willing and able to think for themselves, form their own ideas and opinions and perspectives.
01:04:48.000Also, Jussie Smollett's lawyer has come up with a really hilarious and pitiful alibi excuse for Jussie Smollett.
01:04:56.000PETA embarrasses itself yet again, and I want to deal with the claim, very common claim you hear all the time, that Jesus was just a polite, nice guy who never would have insulted or confronted anyone.