The Ben Shapiro Show - Trump’s Michigan Rager | Ep. 748

00:00:00.000 President Trump unleashes on all his enemies and lays out his 2020 strategy.

00:00:05.000 Plus, we have Jussie Smollett updates and we check the mailbag.

00:00:07.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:00:08.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:14.000 Well, 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.

00:00:22.000 It is still the number one nonfiction book on all of Amazon, which is astonishing.

00:00:25.000 Oprah has a new book.

00:00:26.000 We're ahead of her on Amazon still, thanks to you.

00:00:29.000 So really, thank you so much.

00:00:30.000 I think it's an important book.

00:00:31.000 Tell all your friends about it.

00:00:33.000 We'll get to all the news, particularly President Trump, who just basically threw a rager in Michigan last night.

00:00:38.000 It was pretty amazing.

00:00:39.000 We'll get to that in just one second.

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00:01:41.000 Okay, so President Trump basically laid out what his 2020 campaign is going to look like.

00:01:47.000 There are good points and there are bad points.

00:01:50.000 He did it last night in Michigan.

00:01:51.000 Michigan is a state he won extraordinarily narrowly over Hillary Clinton.

00:01:54.000 He beat her 47.3% to 47%.

00:01:57.000 It is trending a little bit blue because in the last election cycle in 2018, A lot of Democrats won.

00:02:04.000 The senatorial candidate, John James, over there, a really good, solid Republican candidate, military background, African-American, he lost, which was too bad.

00:02:16.000 The fact is that President Trump's re-election essentially hinges on three states, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

00:02:23.000 That's it.

00:02:23.000 That's the whole election.

00:02:24.000 He will probably win Ohio.

00:02:25.000 It's debatable whether he wins Florida.

00:02:27.000 It depends on the Democrat.

00:02:28.000 If he loses Florida, it's over.

00:02:29.000 He has to hold all of the states that he held last time except for one.

00:02:32.000 He can lose Wisconsin and still win the election.

00:02:34.000 He could lose Pennsylvania as long as he holds Wisconsin and Michigan, but he cannot lose two of those three or the election is over.

00:02:41.000 So Michigan is a crucial battleground state for him.

00:02:43.000 On 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.

00:02:53.000 Half the rally was about how much he hates the media and how much he despises the people who pushed the Russia collusion hoax.

00:02:59.000 And then half the rally was dedicated to him actually attacking the Democratic positions.

00:03:04.000 Now, all of this is good, right?

00:03:05.000 All of this is good for Trump.

00:03:07.000 Trump's pitch in 2020 is very simple.

00:03:09.000 I have been targeted like no other president in history by the media.

00:03:13.000 I have been called a Russian stooge for two years because they couldn't get over the fact that Hillary Clinton lost.

00:03:19.000 And yet, in spite of that, we've made all of these gains on the economy, on foreign policy.

00:03:23.000 We're rebuilding our military.

00:03:24.000 We're cutting regulations.

00:03:26.000 We're making it easier to do business.

00:03:28.000 Imagine what a second term of this will be if the media get over themselves and actually allow me to do the work that I need to do.

00:03:35.000 That's the argument that President Trump should be making headed into 2020.

00:03:39.000 But President Trump is nothing if not, as he likes to call himself, a counterpuncher.

00:03:43.000 This has its upsides and it has its downsides.

00:03:46.000 And so we return to Campaign Trump.

00:03:48.000 Campaign Trump, who as I have described in the past, is a hammer in search of a nail.

00:03:52.000 Sometimes he hits a nail, and it's very satisfying.

00:03:54.000 And sometimes he hits a baby, and it is far less satisfying.

00:03:57.000 Last night in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a pent-up crowd, I mean the crowd was just ready to roar at the slightest provocation.

00:04:04.000 Here was the President of the United States describing what he called the collusion delusion.

00:04:09.000 After three years of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead.

00:04:18.000 The collusion delusion is over. - The special counsel completed its report and found no collusion and no obstruction.

00:04:41.000 Okay, 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.

00:04:52.000 The 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.

00:05:06.000 You heard the same thing from members of the intelligence community.

00:05:08.000 It really was astonishing.

00:05:10.000 People talk about the failures of the intelligence community in the lead up to the war in Iraq.

00:05:13.000 There was a widespread intelligence consensus from Israeli intelligence, British intelligence, French intelligence, German intelligence.

00:05:20.000 There was widespread consensus that Saddam Hussein was developing WMD because Saddam Hussein wanted the world to think that he was in fact developing WMD.

00:05:28.000 That was an intelligence failure.

00:05:29.000 What we watched here was not an intelligence failure.

00:05:31.000 What we watched here was members of the intelligence community Leverage their institutional credibility on behalf of a narrative that was absolutely not true.

00:05:39.000 We 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.

00:05:55.000 We heard the same thing from John Brennan.

00:05:57.000 Obama'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.

00:06:07.000 We 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.

00:06:17.000 So 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.

00:06:26.000 Current and former officials who paid for, promoted and perpetuated the single greatest hopes in the history of politics in our country.

00:06:38.000 OK, so obviously this is a basis for him to get the base revved up.

00:06:42.000 The question is whether this is a basis for actually campaigning.

00:06:45.000 And 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.

00:06:54.000 The 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.

00:07:02.000 You need a revved up base.

00:07:03.000 But President Trump needs to win a bunch of voters who are in the middle.

00:07:06.000 He needs to win suburban women. 0.99

00:07:07.000 I'm not sure this mode carries him here.

00:07:09.000 And the more worked up he gets over this, Again, I think that that's not great strategy.

00:07:13.000 I understand it on a personal level.

00:07:15.000 If somebody had accused me of what they accused President Trump of, I'd want to go out there and club some folks too.

00:07:20.000 I'd want to go out there and club the media like a baby seal, rhetorically speaking.

00:07:25.000 As a politician, I'm not sure this is the smartest strategy.

00:07:29.000 Again, the more exercise Trump gets, the more off-putting he is, frankly, to suburban women in particular, people he needs to win in 2020.

00:07:36.000 President Trump obviously got himself revved up.

00:07:38.000 He has a friendly crowd here.

00:07:40.000 Here he says that continuing probes, continuing investigations are ridiculous bull-belief.

00:07:44.000 He just dropped some curse words.

00:07:46.000 The 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.

00:08:09.000 OK, all of that is fine.

00:08:11.000 Then he goes off the rails and this is where he gets into bad Trump territory.

00:08:14.000 So 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.

00:08:22.000 All of this is OK Trump, to good Trump, and then it gets to bad Trump.

00:08:25.000 And this is where he just starts slinging insults at people that he doesn't like.

00:08:29.000 Now, I'm a podcast host.

00:08:31.000 I can sling insults, although I try not to, particularly on the basis of physical appearance.

00:08:36.000 President Trump has no such compunction.

00:08:38.000 Here he goes after pencil neck Adam Schiff.

00:08:41.000 Little pencil neck Adam Schiff.

00:08:47.000 He's got the smallest, thinnest neck I've ever seen.

00:08:52.000 He is not a long ball hitter.

00:08:56.000 But I saw him today.

00:08:57.000 Well, we don't really know.

00:09:00.000 There could still have been some Russia collusion.

00:09:07.000 Okay, it's funny.

00:09:10.000 I'm sorry, that's funny.

00:09:13.000 It's also not useful, but it's funny.

00:09:16.000 But again, the president is not a stand-up comedian.

00:09:18.000 Is it smart for him to be going back into stand-up comedy mode?

00:09:22.000 This is what his base loves about him.

00:09:24.000 I understand.

00:09:25.000 I understand a lot of people find the center... I find it entertaining.

00:09:27.000 It is inherently funny.

00:09:29.000 This is the thing about Trump that I think a lot of folks in the media don't understand.

00:09:32.000 Folks on the left don't understand either.

00:09:33.000 Dude's actually pretty funny.

00:09:35.000 Dude, like, he plays a room as though he's an actual stand-up comedian.

00:09:40.000 Is it smart, however, to go after Adam Schiff on the basis of his neck?

00:09:43.000 Like, wouldn't you just go after Adam Schiff by saying that he's a dummy, or a dunce, or a liar?

00:09:48.000 Like, that seems like a more solid grounding.

00:09:51.000 On the basis of his neck?

00:09:52.000 Look at him.

00:09:53.000 He's got a turkey neck.

00:09:54.000 Like Jennifer Lopez and Gia the Gabba Gabba.

00:09:56.000 What in the world?

00:09:59.000 That actually was not even the funniest thing that he said last night.

00:10:04.000 The 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.

00:10:11.000 It's... Come on, this stuff is funny, man.

00:10:15.000 I support the Great Lakes.

00:10:18.000 Always have.

00:10:21.000 They're beautiful.

00:10:22.000 They're big.

00:10:23.000 Very deep.

00:10:25.000 Record deepness, right?

00:10:27.000 Okay.

00:10:31.000 I got nothing, man.

00:10:35.000 I got nothing.

00:10:36.000 Again, none of this is going to particularly hurt President Trump.

00:10:40.000 It's not going to hurt him.

00:10:41.000 But his tendency to be President Trump is exactly the problem.

00:10:44.000 Like, there is a speech here somewhere, but it was buried inside a comedy routine.

00:10:49.000 And the comedy routine... Comedy is great for people who agree with you.

00:10:52.000 Comedy is not great for people who really disagree with you.

00:10:55.000 Unless it's self-deprecating comedy.

00:10:56.000 Self-deprecating comedy is popular with pretty much everybody.

00:10:59.000 Trump has never made a self-deprecating remark, so it's nearly impossible to imagine him doing that.

00:11:04.000 Comedy is great for all the people who like President Trump, or who agree with his agenda, or agree with him on these issues.

00:11:09.000 For people who are torn on President Trump, it's not going to do him any significant favors.

00:11:13.000 And 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.

00:11:19.000 I mean, it's just damned hilarious, obviously.

00:11:22.000 Now, 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.

00:11:31.000 We'll get to that in just one second.

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00:12:42.000 OK, so as we say, President Trump launches this Michigan campaign, really his 2020 re-election campaign, off the basis of the Mueller report.

00:12:50.000 And 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.

00:12:57.000 Instead, the president launches his triumphant re-election campaign on the basis of, I'm not a Russian agent.

00:13:03.000 So, the goalposts have moved pretty radically here, and the Democrats are the ones who moved them.

00:13:08.000 Here'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.

00:13:17.000 He has two lines of attack here that are really useful.

00:13:19.000 One is attacking the media, because people hate the media, people think the media are dishonest.

00:13:23.000 Why?

00:13:23.000 Well, because many in the media are, in fact, dishonest, whether they mean to be or whether they do not mean to be.

00:13:28.000 Their confirmation bias makes it.

00:13:30.000 that they cover the news in the least favorable way to conservatives that he can possibly find.

00:13:34.000 And 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.

00:13:42.000 So when Trump goes after the media, that's going to be a popular line with most Americans.

00:13:45.000 Here's Trump saying the media have to be held accountable.

00:13:47.000 They have to be, I'm sorry, they have to be accountable.

00:14:00.000 And he is not wrong about that.

00:14:02.000 That line was popular going all the way back to Newt Gingrich in 2012 when he was running for the nomination for the Republican Party.

00:14:08.000 It continues to be popular today.

00:14:10.000 Nobody thinks the media have done a good job on any of this stuff.

00:14:12.000 So that is a fruitful line of attack for President Trump.

00:14:15.000 Casting 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.

00:14:25.000 That will continue to be a fruitful line of attack.

00:14:27.000 But he's really going to have to win on the basis of pointing at the Democrats.

00:14:30.000 As 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.

00:14:49.000 Because the fact is the Democratic agenda is extraordinarily radical.

00:14:52.000 And when President Trump went after it last night, that's when he was in fact at his best.

00:14:56.000 So here was the president of the United States talking about Democrats and taxes.

00:15:00.000 Radical Democrats are the party of high taxes, open borders, late-term abortion, crime, hoaxes, and delusions.

00:15:12.000 The Republican Party is the party for all Americans.

00:15:19.000 It's what we want to be.

00:15:20.000 It's the way we want to live.

00:15:26.000 We're the party of the American worker, the American family, and we are the party of the American dream.

00:15:34.000 Okay, all of that is true, and that should be the basis of his campaign.

00:15:36.000 I think it will be.

00:15:37.000 I think it will be.

00:15:37.000 If 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.

00:15:44.000 I'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.

00:15:54.000 But now the Democrats continue to double down on crazy.

00:15:57.000 We'll get to more of President Trump's 2020 line of attack in just a second.

00:16:01.000 So, the president then started to get into the details.

00:16:04.000 He started talking about the Green New Deal.

00:16:05.000 The best boon that Trump has ever received is Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.

00:16:09.000 AOC is the id of the Democratic Party in the same way that Trump is the id of the Republican Party.

00:16:15.000 AOC and her agenda are nuts. 1.00

00:16:17.000 So 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.

00:16:25.000 Not one of the co-sponsors of the bill voted for the bill.

00:16:29.000 They all voted present on their own bill.

00:16:30.000 Here's President Trump going after the stupid Green New Deal.

00:16:33.000 Again, this is going to be a fruitful line of attack for Republicans and for the president.

00:16:37.000 The Democrats are now advancing an extreme $100 trillion government takeover called the Green New Deal.

00:16:49.000 But I'd rather not talk about it tonight because I don't want to talk them out of it too soon.

00:16:58.000 Because I love campaigning against the Green New Deal.

00:17:02.000 I want them to make that a big part of their platform.

00:17:07.000 No more airplanes.

00:17:09.000 No more cows.

00:17:11.000 One car per family.

00:17:12.000 One car.

00:17:13.000 You're going to love that in Michigan.

00:17:14.000 Hey, how do you like the idea of one car per family?

00:17:16.000 I don't think so.

00:17:21.000 This is where Trump is at his best.

00:17:23.000 Comedy riffing on the Democrats?

00:17:24.000 Yeah, man.

00:17:25.000 I'm in for it.

00:17:26.000 I'm in for it.

00:17:27.000 Like, really.

00:17:28.000 This is good stuff.

00:17:30.000 Listen to him go off on the power of windmills.

00:17:33.000 Democrats have been talking about the power of windmills for a long time.

00:17:35.000 How wind power is suddenly going to power the United States.

00:17:38.000 Fact.

00:17:39.000 If 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.

00:17:52.000 That's what you would have to do.

00:17:54.000 So good luck with that.

00:17:54.000 Here's President Trump going after the windmills.

00:17:56.000 If Hillary got in, you wouldn't have that stat, I can tell you right now. 0.99

00:18:00.000 You'd be doing wind, windmills.

00:18:03.000 And if it doesn't, If it doesn't blow, you can forget about television for that night.

00:18:11.000 Darling, I want to watch television.

00:18:13.000 I'm sorry, the wind isn't blowing.

00:18:18.000 I know a lot about wind.

00:18:22.000 A little tag.

00:18:23.000 I know a lot about wind.

00:18:25.000 Come on, he's so funny.

00:18:29.000 If you can't laugh, then you have a heart of stone.

00:18:32.000 One of the reasons he's president is because of this.

00:18:34.000 Also, I will say this.

00:18:36.000 Negative Trump is not as much fun as positive Trump.

00:18:39.000 And this is true for every politician.

00:18:40.000 Politicians who look like they're having a good time are more likely to win.

00:18:43.000 This is true of Obama in 2008.

00:18:45.000 He looked like he was having a better time than John McCain.

00:18:47.000 It was true of 2012.

00:18:49.000 Obama looked like he was having a better time than Mitt Romney.

00:18:51.000 It's true of George W. Bush, who always looked like he was having a pretty good time.

00:18:55.000 Sour Trump is not going to be supremely popular because people don't like sour people.

00:18:59.000 But Trump laughing at the Democrats along with people?

00:19:03.000 It's not a bad look for him.

00:19:04.000 It really is not.

00:19:05.000 And then President Trump goes after the Democrats for wanting to destroy people's private health insurance plans.

00:19:09.000 He is not wrong about this either.

00:19:10.000 Again, all he has to do is just point at the Democrats.

00:19:13.000 If the American public focus on President Trump leading up to 2020, he's going to lose.

00:19:18.000 If they focus on the Democrats, he will win.

00:19:20.000 The Democrats are pushing socialist, government-run health care that bans private health insurance for 180 million Americans.

00:19:31.000 No, think of it.

00:19:32.000 A lot of you have private plans, and they're great.

00:19:35.000 They're great.

00:19:36.000 And you want that.

00:19:38.000 They want to take them away.

00:19:39.000 That's not going to work.

00:19:40.000 I don't think that's going to work too well.

00:19:42.000 Of course, all of that is true.

00:19:43.000 And then Trump goes after Democrats on abortion.

00:19:45.000 And again, here he is correct again.

00:19:47.000 This is clip 12.

00:19:50.000 In 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.

00:20:12.000 And now we go a step further.

00:20:14.000 In 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.

00:20:32.000 Okay, again, all of this is accurate.

00:20:33.000 The press will paint this as inaccurate.

00:20:35.000 It is, in fact, not.

00:20:36.000 They're trying to paint it as inaccurate when he went after the Green New Deal on the basis of even Democrats not supporting it.

00:20:41.000 Here 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. 0.79

00:20:48.000 Here is President Trump suggesting that even Mazie Hirono knows that the Democratic Green New Deal is a mess.

00:20:53.000 She didn't know about the Green New Deal.

00:20:55.000 And they hit her!

00:20:57.000 And she's from Hawaii. 0.71

00:20:58.000 What do you think of the Green New Deal?

00:21:00.000 It was just put up.

00:21:03.000 By the Democrats.

00:21:03.000 Well, I like it very much.

00:21:06.000 But she never saw it.

00:21:07.000 Then they said, but you can't fly anymore.

00:21:11.000 And she's in Hawaii. 0.55

00:21:14.000 She said, but how would I get to my island?

00:21:19.000 They said, we're working on some kind of a train system.

00:21:26.000 So she said, OK, well, then I am for it 100 percent.

00:21:31.000 It is the craziest thing I've ever seen.

00:21:33.000 And 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.

00:21:42.000 Now, what are the obstacles for President Trump leading up to 2020?

00:21:45.000 Well, obstacle number one is President Trump Saying stuff that is stupid, right?

00:21:51.000 President 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.

00:22:06.000 That could hurt him because, remember, it's not just about him getting out the base.

00:22:09.000 The Republicans got out the base in 2018 and they lost by 8.6 points in the House popular vote.

00:22:14.000 This is really going to be about, can President Trump convince suburban women that Democrats are too dangerous for them? 1.00

00:22:21.000 He doesn't have to convince them that he is the man for suburban women.

00:22:24.000 He 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.

00:22:33.000 Obstacle number one is the president's personality.

00:22:36.000 Obstacle number two is going to be the possibility of an economic downturn, and we are watching that.

00:22:41.000 The economy is, in fact, slowing right now.

00:22:43.000 We'll see whether it slows enough to actually slide into a downturn or whether it maintains its sort of low-level growth.

00:22:48.000 He can survive low-level growth, but downturns, he's got a problem.

00:22:51.000 And 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.

00:22:59.000 I think that that possibility has been reduced pretty dramatically.

00:23:02.000 I'll explain why in just one second.

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00:24:25.000 Okay, so as I say, there's also the possibility that more headlines arise that are bad for President Trump in a legal sense.

00:24:31.000 Now, I do think that the vast majority of that is over.

00:24:35.000 I 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.

00:24:41.000 More Americans thought that it was a quote-unquote witch hunt than thought it was legit by the time that the report was actually released.

00:24:46.000 By the time that the top-line findings were released, most Americans were tired of this.

00:24:50.000 Now they know the top-line findings.

00:24:52.000 So 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.

00:24:58.000 Also, it casts everything in a different light that Mueller has already exonerated Trump on the collusion stuff.

00:25:04.000 Now 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.

00:25:13.000 Normally, there's so many human actions where we can either attribute malice or stupidity to people.

00:25:18.000 Adam Carolla, podcast host, friend of mine, makes this point.

00:25:22.000 With regard to cops pulling people over.

00:25:24.000 So what Adam says is, let's say you're pulled over unjustly, right?

00:25:28.000 You're not speeding, you're pulled over.

00:25:30.000 If you're a white guy, you think, oh, this cop is a dummy.

00:25:32.000 If you are a black guy, you probably think, oh, this cop is a racist.

00:25:36.000 Which one is true?

00:25:37.000 Well, in all likelihood, it's that the person is stupid, because most people make mistakes.

00:25:41.000 Most people are dumb.

00:25:42.000 Most people make dumb mistakes.

00:25:44.000 And 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.

00:25:52.000 We looked at every aspect of this.

00:25:54.000 It recasts everything as comedic, as opposed to tragic.

00:25:58.000 It recasts everything as these people were just dumb and incompetent, as opposed to they were maliciously trying to interfere with the election.

00:26:03.000 And 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.

00:26:13.000 And 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.

00:26:23.000 That's all this was.

00:26:24.000 By 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.

00:26:33.000 I 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.

00:26:42.000 Jeff Sessions was very enthusiastic about it and I proceeded until the campaign basically decided that it was better not to.

00:26:50.000 I do think there was obviously a strategic logic behind working with Russia.

00:26:53.000 Look, at the end of the day, if we don't work with Russia, you know, China's a huge threat to U.S. 0.73

00:26:59.000 interests.

00:27:00.000 They're in Syria.

00:27:01.000 They're in eastern Ukraine.

00:27:02.000 And that's what my firm belief is, why Donald Trump wanted to work with Russia.

00:27:06.000 So without Mueller's report, people would say, oh, well, this is obviously him lying.

00:27:11.000 Obviously, what he was trying to do was corrupt the 2016 election.

00:27:14.000 With Mueller's report, Just looks like the guy's being a dummy.

00:27:17.000 Same thing is true for Donald Trump Jr.

00:27:19.000 meeting with that Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya.

00:27:22.000 Rob Goldstone was the go-between.

00:27:24.000 He's a music agent.

00:27:25.000 He was the go-between on that deal.

00:27:26.000 He was the one saying the Russians want to give you all sorts of info about Hillary Clinton.

00:27:30.000 And here is Rob Goldstone saying, yeah, Donald Trump Jr.

00:27:32.000 was down the chain.

00:27:33.000 I mean, this is all just stupid stuff.

00:27:35.000 I never considered Don Jr.

00:27:37.000 really a part of the campaign.

00:27:40.000 You may have seen it.

00:27:41.000 Again, it's in public testimony.

00:27:43.000 I questioned whether I should send it to Mr. Trump via some method, whether it's his assistant.

00:27:48.000 And then I decided to go way down on the food chain.

00:27:51.000 And I chose Don Jr., because I'd met him a couple of times, to run it past him enough to put him in touch with my client.

00:27:57.000 I think I was ignorant and oblivious.

00:28:00.000 And I think, if I had to guess, He was marginally more or marginally less ignorant and oblivious than I was.

00:28:08.000 Right.

00:28:09.000 And that's absolutely plausible.

00:28:10.000 I 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.

00:28:21.000 Guy's a doofus.

00:28:22.000 He's a doofus.

00:28:23.000 And 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.

00:28:33.000 Nonetheless, Democrats are still trying to hang their last hopes on the Mueller report.

00:28:37.000 They'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.

00:28:45.000 The 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.

00:28:58.000 Pelosi said that the summary Barr provided to lawmakers last weekend was well short of what Congress required.

00:29:03.000 Show us the report and we can draw our own conclusions, she said.

00:29:06.000 She said, we don't need you interpreting it for us, to William Barr.

00:29:08.000 She said it was condescending, it was arrogant, it wasn't the right thing to do, right?

00:29:11.000 She would have preferred another month of speculation over the Mueller report.

00:29:15.000 To simply understanding the top-line results and revelation of the report itself, which will happen in the next few weeks.

00:29:21.000 This thing is not going to remain secret.

00:29:22.000 Democrats, who are hoping that there will be some other breaking news, here's what's going to happen.

00:29:27.000 The 300-page report will come out.

00:29:28.000 There will be a couple of details that we didn't know about.

00:29:30.000 And the media will blow these up to cataclysmic proportions.

00:29:33.000 They will suggest that William Barr, the Attorney General, shut down an actual obstruction charge.

00:29:37.000 That actually there was deep corruption.

00:29:39.000 Actually, even though Mueller concluded no collusion, there was in fact deep-seated collusion.

00:29:45.000 And the American public will go, nope.

00:29:47.000 Nope.

00:29:48.000 Sorry.

00:29:48.000 You guys said that Mueller was going to save all of you.

00:29:50.000 He didn't.

00:29:50.000 So, nope.

00:29:51.000 You're done.

00:29:52.000 You don't get a second bite at this apple.

00:29:53.000 You 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.

00:30:01.000 He doesn't give you what you want.

00:30:02.000 You don't get to change your God now.

00:30:04.000 That is not something that you get to do.

00:30:06.000 So 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.

00:30:12.000 Now, maybe there's an obstacle from the SDNY.

00:30:15.000 Maybe the SDNY brings down some sort of campaign finance charge against President Trump.

00:30:20.000 But even that, I don't, I really don't see a world where the American public care very much about that sort of stuff.

00:30:25.000 It's all baked into the cake.

00:30:26.000 The collusion stuff was not baked into the cake.

00:30:28.000 It wasn't.

00:30:29.000 It might've been the only thing not baked into Trump's cake.

00:30:31.000 Because it's so, the accusation was so incredibly wide, broad, and scary that if it had been true, it would have taken down Trump.

00:30:40.000 But campaign finance stuff, him paying off ladies, that ain't going to cut it.

00:30:44.000 That ain't going to cut it.

00:30:45.000 Which means that the chief obstacle to Trump's re-election remains President Trump's personality.

00:30:49.000 Can he be disciplined in any way?

00:30:51.000 And 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.

00:31:01.000 Okay, in a second, we're going to get to updates on the Jussie Smollett case, and we'll jump into the mailbag.

00:31:06.000 But first, go subscribe over at dailywire.com.

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00:33:00.000 All righty.

00:33:06.000 So updates in the Jussie Smollett case.

00:33:08.000 President Trump did not leave the Jussie Smollett case alone.

00:33:12.000 He jumped into it.

00:33:13.000 And people on the left who are ripping him for doing this, I have a couple of words for you.

00:33:18.000 Barack Obama, Ferguson, Missouri.

00:33:20.000 Barack Obama, New York.

00:33:22.000 Barack Obama, Trayvon Martin.

00:33:24.000 Barack Obama, Henry Louis Gates.

00:33:26.000 So I'm not a big fan of the president of the United States jumping into what are effectively local scandals.

00:33:32.000 Trump didn't start this process.

00:33:34.000 Here's President Trump going after Jussie Smollett.

00:33:36.000 I think the case in Chicago is an absolute embarrassment to our country.

00:33:43.000 And I have asked that it be that they look at it.

00:33:48.000 I think that case is an absolute embarrassment to our country and somebody has to at least take a very good hard look at it.

00:33:58.000 Okay, and he is not wrong about this.

00:34:00.000 They are taking a good hard look at this right now.

00:34:02.000 Illinois Prosecutors Bar Association may be looking at disbarring Kim Foxx, the state's attorney in this case.

00:34:09.000 They 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.

00:34:18.000 The 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.

00:34:32.000 The manner in which this case was dismissed was abnormal and unfamiliar to those who practice law in criminal courthouses across the state.

00:34:38.000 Prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges alike do not recognize the arrangement Mr. Smollett received.

00:34:43.000 I mean, this is brutal.

00:34:44.000 Even more problematic, the state's attorneys and her representatives have fundamentally misled the public on the law and the circumstances surrounding the dismissal.

00:34:52.000 The public has the right to know the truth.

00:34:53.000 We set out to do that here.

00:34:54.000 When an elected state attorney recuses herself from a prosecution, Illinois law provides the court shall appoint a special prosecutor.

00:35:01.000 Here, the state's attorney kept the case within her office and thus never actually recused herself as a matter of law.

00:35:07.000 Additionally, 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.

00:35:15.000 This statement is not accurate.

00:35:17.000 To 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.

00:35:27.000 The 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.

00:35:34.000 The appearance of impropriety here is compounded by the fact that this case was not on the regularly scheduled court call.

00:35:40.000 The 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.

00:35:47.000 To date, the nature of the purported emergency has not been publicly disclosed.

00:35:51.000 The 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.

00:36:02.000 Lastly, the state's attorney has claimed this arrangement is available to all defendants and not a new or unusual practice.

00:36:07.000 There has even been an implication it was done in accordance with a statutory diversion program.

00:36:12.000 These statements are plainly misleading and inaccurate.

00:36:14.000 This action was highly unusual, not a statutory diversion program, and not in accordance with well-accepted practices of state's attorney-initiated diversionary programs.

00:36:23.000 The IPBA supports diversion programs and recognizes the many benefits they provide to the community, the defendant, and the prosecuting agency.

00:36:30.000 Central to any diversion program, however, is that the defendant must accept responsibility.

00:36:35.000 To be clear here, this simply was not a deferred prosecution.

00:36:40.000 We strongly encourage our members and the public to review the National District Attorneys Association's Statement on Prosecutorial Best Practices in High-Profile Cases.

00:36:48.000 And that is a letter from the President of the Illinois Prosecutors Bar Association.

00:36:51.000 I would not be surprised if Kim Foxx ends up disbarred here. 0.99

00:36:54.000 And she should be disbarred.

00:36:55.000 This is absurd.

00:36:56.000 It's absurd.

00:36:58.000 By 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.

00:37:13.000 She acknowledges that she did that.

00:37:14.000 I mean, it's amazing stuff.

00:37:17.000 It's an amazing case.

00:37:18.000 And again, the fact that this was dismissed, Kim Fox may find herself in the legal crosshairs and she probably should.

00:37:26.000 Because she has allowed Jussie Smollett to continue maintaining his innocence in the most absurd, ridiculous, and insane way.

00:37:33.000 As 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.

00:37:52.000 Maybe it was the Nigerian brothers wearing whiteface to attack him in a hate crime that he was not involved in in the first place. 0.57

00:38:00.000 Naturally, the Nigerian brothers' lawyers, they're like, um, this is insane. 1.00

00:38:04.000 You're suggesting that my clients wore whiteface underneath a ski mask?

00:38:08.000 That's your claim?

00:38:11.000 ...said that the brothers could have been wearing whiteface at night?

00:38:15.000 I heard that, and I think that's absolutely just atrocious.

00:38:20.000 It adds to, I think, why people are giving lawyers a bad name.

00:38:26.000 It's to distract from the real issues here, and by putting out conspiracy theories that perhaps my clients were wearing whiteface.

00:38:38.000 It just adds to the ridiculous and the offensiveness of this entire thing.

00:38:44.000 Yeah, 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.

00:38:58.000 There's just no question that the media are doing that.

00:39:00.000 The media are granting Smollett all sorts of credibility they would not grant to anybody else.

00:39:05.000 And it's insane.

00:39:06.000 It's fully crazy.

00:39:07.000 But that's not unusual.

00:39:08.000 The media are apparently willing to condone racism depending on the person from whom the racism emanates.

00:39:14.000 Because 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.

00:39:24.000 Another 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.

00:39:32.000 There's an article in today's New York Times by a person named Christopher Rivas.

00:39:35.000 It is called this, quote, I broke up with her because she's white. 1.00

00:39:38.000 When it comes to dating, I'd rather not think about race, but that's been hard to avoid.

00:39:42.000 This 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.

00:39:51.000 He says, over the years, I've dated brown women and black women, but mostly white women. 0.66

00:39:55.000 I hadn't thought about why that was.

00:39:56.000 When 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. 1.00

00:40:02.000 I also got weird vibes from some white people, namely the parents of the woman that I was dating.

00:40:07.000 The ones who ask me if I speak Mexican.

00:40:09.000 That is absolutely a thing.

00:40:10.000 The real reason I think I can no longer date white women isn't any of that. 0.52

00:40:13.000 It's because in today's hashtag woke society, there's mad pressure to be hashtag woke.

00:40:17.000 To be aware of the implications of whom you're attracted to and why.

00:40:20.000 Which means that in the eyes of others, the color of the women I date is a big deal.

00:40:23.000 Like I'm the problem.

00:40:24.000 Like I'm betraying my people if I date white women. 0.99

00:40:27.000 But I was taught that we were all one people.

00:40:29.000 I 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.

00:40:35.000 It's a lot of pressure.

00:40:36.000 And 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.

00:40:45.000 Like, yes, our bodies have been colonized.

00:40:47.000 Yes, I am a child of blackness.

00:40:49.000 How did we get here?

00:40:50.000 If everybody is so woke, why are things so terrible?

00:40:52.000 Maybe everybody isn't so woke.

00:40:55.000 And so he says that he stopped dating white women because he had doubts about how society sees him.

00:41:01.000 Pretty amazing stuff.

00:41:02.000 Pretty amazing stuff.

00:41:03.000 But the New York Times prints that piece.

00:41:06.000 It's just incredible.

00:41:07.000 Okay.

00:41:08.000 You know what?

00:41:08.000 Let's do a little bit of mailback.

00:41:11.000 Micah says, No, that's a bad rebuttal because normally you're not allowed to kidnap people and keep them in a locked room for 20 years.

00:41:16.000 The justice system can do that if you have committed a crime.

00:41:17.000 A lot of people say it's right because murderers can't decide when to end someone's life.

00:41:21.000 But the rebuttal is that if they can't, neither can the justice system.

00:41:24.000 No, that's a bad rebuttal because normally you're not allowed to kidnap people and keep them in a locked room for 20 years.

00:41:30.000 The justice system can do that if you have committed a crime.

00:41:33.000 So the justice system exists for two purposes.

00:41:36.000 One is retributive justice.

00:41:38.000 The idea you did the crime, you do the time.

00:41:41.000 And the other is protection of you from the public.

00:41:43.000 Some people think rehabilitation is in the cards for the justice system.

00:41:47.000 Typically speaking, rehabilitation programs have not been wildly successful.

00:41:50.000 There are some success stories, but overall, not so much.

00:41:54.000 When people talk about the decline in crime rates, that's not the success of rehabilitation systems.

00:41:58.000 That is the The so-called mass incarceration that's taken place.

00:42:01.000 Lots of criminals going to prison means fewer criminals out on the street.

00:42:04.000 As far as capital punishment, in concept, I'm in favor of capital punishment.

00:42:08.000 The way that it's practiced currently in the United States, I have serious doubts about it.

00:42:12.000 There are certainly people who deserve to die.

00:42:14.000 If you rape and murder a child, you should be put to death.

00:42:17.000 If, 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.

00:42:42.000 John says, Hi Ben.

00:42:43.000 Congratulations on the new book.

00:42:44.000 Mine is on the way.

00:42:45.000 Well, I appreciate it.

00:42:46.000 The book, by the way, Right Side of History.

00:42:47.000 Free pitch for you.

00:42:48.000 This is a very controversial area of constitutional law.

00:42:49.000 So, the idea of birthright citizenship does have some roots in English common law.

00:42:52.000 The idea that if you were born in Britain, you were a citizen of Britain.

00:42:54.000 of the law itself back when it was written, or is it a more modern legal interpretation?

00:42:57.000 Thanks for your thoughts.

00:42:58.000 Have a great weekend.

00:42:59.000 This is a very controversial area of constitutional law.

00:43:02.000 So the idea of birthright citizenship does have some roots in English common law.

00:43:07.000 The idea that if you were born in Britain, you were a citizen of Britain.

00:43:09.000 With 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.

00:43:18.000 Meaning 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.

00:43:33.000 I 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.

00:43:46.000 It'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.

00:44:04.000 I don't know the answer to that, considering the anti-Semitic direction of the Democratic Party.

00:44:07.000 Open anti-Semites in the Democratic Party have now been approved.

00:44:09.000 They've been given the stamp of approval.

00:44:11.000 I have proof for this.

00:44:11.000 Here's Barack Obama.

00:44:12.000 and the Golan Heights be overruled or even worse?

00:44:13.000 I don't know the answer to that considering the anti-Semitic direction of the Democratic Party.

00:44:18.000 Open anti-Semites in the Democratic Party have now been approved.

00:44:22.000 They've been given the stamp of approval.

00:44:23.000 I have proof for this.

00:44:25.000 Here's Barack Obama, a picture of Barack Obama today with Rashida Tlaib.

00:44:28.000 Rashida Tlaib is an anti-Semite.

00:44:30.000 Rashida Tlaib has suggested that Jewish Americans and Israel supporters are subject to dual loyalty.

00:44:37.000 She has supported groups that have connections to terrorism, like CARE.

00:44:42.000 She 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.

00:44:57.000 Here she is with Barack Obama.

00:44:59.000 And 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.

00:45:04.000 Here's what she tweeted.

00:45:05.000 Barack Obama met with us, new members of Congress, and we had a thoughtful discussion about serving our country.

00:45:11.000 The best part was when he looked straight at me and said, I'm proud of you.

00:45:13.000 For what?

00:45:16.000 For what?

00:45:16.000 By 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.

00:45:29.000 Just before Barack Obama left office, the United States abstained from a resolution condemning Israel.

00:45:34.000 It was Obama's administration, reportedly, according to a former Obama aide, who coordinated that resolution.

00:45:38.000 So 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.

00:45:46.000 They'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.

00:45:57.000 And that certainly includes the terrorist-governed Palestinians. 1.00

00:46:02.000 And again, even the Palestinians recognize how terrible things are now. 0.99

00:46:05.000 I mean, many are rising up in Gaza.

00:46:07.000 The media are ignoring it because they prefer to focus on Israel.

00:46:10.000 Well, I think that the future of space exploration lies in private industry.

00:46:13.000 You're seeing that with Elon Musk right now and the SpaceX program, and I think that's good.

00:46:16.000 reasoning behind Senator Harris's theme music?

00:46:18.000 And shouldn't it be definitely Snoop Tupac for sure?

00:46:20.000 Also, if you will, where do you think the future of space exploration lies?

00:46:23.000 Has government ruined that too?

00:46:25.000 Well, I think that the future of space exploration lies in private industry.

00:46:28.000 You're seeing that with Elon Musk right now and the SpaceX program.

00:46:31.000 And I think that's good.

00:46:32.000 I don't think that governments necessarily have to be the driving force behind space exploration.

00:46:38.000 With that said, do I think that the American space program has been underfunded?

00:46:44.000 I do, because not only has it provided enormous technological improvement, it is also a common goal to which I think we can aspire.

00:46:51.000 It's a pretty cool thing.

00:46:52.000 There are very few things in American government where I say it's cool so we should fund it.

00:46:55.000 I 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.

00:47:02.000 As far as her music, we picked the music from Dragnet because the critique of Kamala Harris is that she is a narc. 1.00

00:47:09.000 I'm not making fun of her Tupac and Snoop fanship, largely because the media portray any way you identify.

00:47:17.000 If 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.

00:47:28.000 That's how the media treat this sort of stuff.

00:47:30.000 That's how Media Matters treats this sort of stuff.

00:47:32.000 And 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.

00:47:39.000 Sarah says, Hey Ben, two questions.

00:47:41.000 My sister and I got into a fight recently because she thinks you would prefer the label of libertarian to the one of conservative.

00:47:45.000 I believe I've heard you reference conservatism more often.

00:47:48.000 Can you clarify which label you more closely identify with?

00:47:50.000 So I hate to split the baby.

00:47:52.000 When it comes to government involvement, I'm libertarian.

00:47:54.000 When it comes to the relationship between government and the social fabric, I'm conservative.

00:47:59.000 What 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.

00:48:18.000 The idea of conservatism is that there is something to conserve.

00:48:21.000 Libertarianism doesn't focus too much on the culture that it seeks to conserve.

00:48:23.000 Instead, it simply says that you should be able to do whatever you want so long as the government is not involved.

00:48:30.000 And I think that libertarianism as a government philosophy is good.

00:48:33.000 I think libertarianism as a life philosophy Leave something to be desired.

00:48:38.000 Sarah says, I've heard your explanation of Convention of States, was immediately excited by the possibilities.

00:48:43.000 As 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.

00:48:48.000 The 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.

00:48:55.000 As 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.

00:49:03.000 What do you think about these criticisms?

00:49:05.000 Are these concerns Serious.

00:49:06.000 So 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.

00:49:23.000 I mean, I can read you Article 5 of the Constitution.

00:49:26.000 Let me bring up the actual text.

00:49:28.000 So, 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.

00:49:47.000 As 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.

00:50:00.000 Right, 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.

00:50:15.000 So I'm not too worried about the abolition of the second amendment.

00:50:18.000 Three quarters of the states are not going to vote to get rid of the second amendment.

00:50:22.000 So I'm in favor of the convention of states because I think that there could be some things done.

00:50:26.000 Many people who are interested in convention of states Have said that they are behind term limits.

00:50:30.000 That's actually not something I love.

00:50:31.000 I don't really like term limits very much because it seems to me that very often they do more harm than good.

00:50:36.000 But I am in favor of attempts to restructure the executive branch particularly.

00:50:42.000 I'm maybe in favor of term limits for the Supreme Court.

00:50:45.000 I'm not a huge fan of lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court particularly.

00:50:50.000 And 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.

00:51:00.000 Nicholas says, Hey Ben, would you ever consider concealed carrying a firearm if California made it remotely possible?

00:51:06.000 Do you support national reciprocity for concealed carry?

00:51:09.000 Thanks for all you do.

00:51:10.000 I do support national reciprocity for concealed carry, and absolutely I would consider concealed carrying a firearm.

00:51:16.000 I mean, I get a lot of threats.

00:51:18.000 There are a lot of people who are not fans.

00:51:21.000 And if I could conceal carry a firearm, I would be much more comfortable.

00:51:24.000 In fact, I may apply for a concealed carry permit even in L.A.

00:51:27.000 County because of the number of threats that I get.

00:51:29.000 Anthony says, Hey Ben, congratulations on your book landing at the top of the New York Times bestseller list.

00:51:34.000 I wanted to ask you your thoughts on stay-at-home dads.

00:51:36.000 I've always wanted to be a father.

00:51:37.000 I'm willing to take on that role if my future spouse wants to focus on a career.

00:51:40.000 But is that a role that should be held predominantly by mothers? 0.98

00:51:43.000 So, my dad was a stay-at-home dad.

00:51:44.000 My mom worked.

00:51:44.000 My dad was the stay-at-home dad.

00:51:45.000 If you want to be a stay-at-home dad, I don't see anything wrong with that.

00:51:47.000 So my dad was a stay-at-home dad.

00:51:54.000 My mom worked.

00:51:55.000 My dad was the stay-at-home dad.

00:51:56.000 If you want to be a stay-at-home dad, I don't see anything wrong with that.

00:51:59.000 Traditionally, women have been the ones who stay at home with the kids because they have more of a drive to do that. 1.00

00:52:04.000 Because women and men are generally built differently. 0.98

00:52:08.000 That's why women take more time off from the workplace to be at home with their kids. 1.00

00:52:11.000 I can see it in my wife.

00:52:13.000 When my wife finishes her residency, she wants to spend a lot more time at home with my kids. 1.00

00:52:19.000 I can call my shots.

00:52:20.000 I run my own business.

00:52:21.000 I work a lot.

00:52:22.000 There is a difference between men and women insofar as how they want to interact with children on a general level.

00:52:27.000 But 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.

00:52:33.000 Do I think that it's important that spouses respect each other?

00:52:37.000 Sure.

00:52:37.000 So 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.

00:52:45.000 That's something you should take into consideration because a healthy marriage is the basis of healthy child-rearing as well.

00:52:50.000 I think that the question of gerrymandering being a partisan issue has been overblown radically.

00:52:59.000 Despite all of the supposed gerrymandering that makes it impossible for Democrats to be elected, they just won a sweeping victory in the House.

00:53:05.000 So, all of the talk about how gerrymandering ruins the system, there is no good way to draw these lines.

00:53:11.000 And the attempt to create non-partisan commissions, they never end up being non-partisan, and then they're unanswerable, which is a problem.

00:53:17.000 TJ says, hi, Ben, I'm reading your book, Right Side of History.

00:53:19.000 It's awesome.

00:53:20.000 I 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.

00:53:26.000 In the Ten Commandments, God specifically forbids murder and adultery.

00:53:29.000 Do you think euthanasia and prostitution can be considered murder and adultery?

00:53:32.000 If yes, what would be your logic to explain that, and what's your take on those two issues?

00:53:36.000 I appreciate everything that you do.

00:53:37.000 So I am anti-euthanasia.

00:53:38.000 I think that the idea of doctor-sponsored killings is deeply dangerous to the moral fabric of a society.

00:53:46.000 Now, I think there's a difference between that and quote-unquote withholding care.

00:53:49.000 So 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.

00:54:00.000 In terms of preserving life, I'm against you.

00:54:02.000 I don't think that's a doctor.

00:54:04.000 It's not a doctor's job to kill you.

00:54:05.000 I mean, it violates the basic precepts of the Hippocratic Oath, which I know we have forgotten about.

00:54:09.000 As far as prostitution, can it be considered adultery? 0.98

00:54:11.000 It depends.

00:54:13.000 Are you committing adultery when you're with a prostitute? 0.99

00:54:15.000 So on a moral level, prostitution is a grave evil. 0.75

00:54:19.000 Because the commodification of sex is deeply dangerous, again, to the moral fabric of society.

00:54:23.000 Does that mean it should be illegal?

00:54:25.000 Not sure.

00:54:26.000 Should euthanasia be illegal?

00:54:29.000 I think euthanasia should remain illegal because the taking of human life, even with consent, is not something that we should be in favor of.

00:54:37.000 Human life ought to be protected.

00:54:39.000 That is one of the fundamental concerns of government, and your permission is not required to protect your life.

00:54:43.000 Cassandra 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?

00:54:54.000 Well, in those rare cases, the non-viability of the baby is typically, it typically results in miscarriage, biologically speaking.

00:55:06.000 You know, There are cases of non-abortion, right? 0.96

00:55:09.000 DNCs that occur when, for example, there is a baby in utero that no longer has a heartbeat, so essentially it's a floating corpse.

00:55:16.000 At 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.

00:55:22.000 If 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.

00:55:32.000 Especially because there are cases where they actually get it wrong.

00:55:35.000 I 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.

00:55:42.000 I'm not in favor of precipitous ending of human life even for purposes of non-viability.

00:55:47.000 Philippe says, what is the purpose of art in society?

00:55:50.000 What is the importance of art generally?

00:55:51.000 Well, the purpose of art is to beautify life and to contain eternal truths in temporary or somewhat permanent form.

00:55:59.000 Art beautifies life.

00:56:00.000 I mean, that's just what it is.

00:56:00.000 Now, does art make you more moral?

00:56:02.000 No, it depends on the message of the art.

00:56:04.000 Depends what art does.

00:56:05.000 When people say that art ennobles, some of the great art in human history was created right in the lead up to World War II in Germany.

00:56:11.000 And that did not ennoble.

00:56:14.000 I mean, Germany was probably the most cultured country on planet Earth.

00:56:17.000 At the time the Nazis arose.

00:56:19.000 So 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.

00:56:26.000 But there's no question that art beautifies life.

00:56:28.000 Okay, final question.

00:56:28.000 Matthew 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.

00:56:37.000 So, anti-Semitism is itself a conspiracy theory.

00:56:40.000 It'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.

00:56:50.000 And then that is used as a way to target Jews, and to hurt Jews.

00:56:54.000 Because, obviously, if the Jews are secretly powerful, then we have to do something to take them down a peg. 1.00

00:56:59.000 It's different than other forms of racism.

00:57:01.000 Most forms of racism are based on the innate inferiority of a particular group of people.

00:57:05.000 Anti-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.

00:57:13.000 It's a bunch of nonsense.

00:57:15.000 The conspiracy theories about Zionism that Zionists all over the world are controlling foreign policy, it's obviously untrue.

00:57:21.000 I mean, the EU is really anti-Israel as a general rule.

00:57:24.000 The United States Democratic Party is not in favor of Israel increasingly, which is really sad.

00:57:29.000 There's still some old guard folks like Steini Hoyer who are, but that's a minority movement, it seems.

00:57:35.000 No one seems to be able to explain.

00:57:36.000 If the Jews are so all-powerful, why are they constantly getting slaughtered at an incredible rate?

00:57:41.000 And 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.

00:57:47.000 Why 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?

00:57:57.000 Okay, time for a quick thing that I like and then we'll do a quick thing I hate, because that was a long mailbag.

00:58:01.000 So, things that I like.

00:58:03.000 There are a bunch of movies that I've been watching at night because they... I have to sign a lot of books.

00:58:08.000 I mean, thank God.

00:58:09.000 A lot of people bought Right Side of History.

00:58:10.000 I have to sign legitimately tens of thousands of books now.

00:58:14.000 So that means that each night, I basically watch a movie and then sign 2,000 books.

00:58:19.000 So, there was one that I watched the other night that actually didn't get nearly any play, but is a good, interesting movie.

00:58:25.000 I love westerns.

00:58:25.000 I'm a huge fan of westerns.

00:58:27.000 And the acting particularly in this Western is terrific.

00:58:30.000 John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal.

00:58:33.000 It's called The Sisters Brothers.

00:58:35.000 It barely got any play at all because it's weird.

00:58:39.000 It'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.

00:58:49.000 I thought it was kind of a fascinating film.

00:58:50.000 It's called The Sisters Brothers.

00:58:51.000 Here's a little bit of the preview.

00:58:53.000 We're the sisters brothers.

00:58:59.000 S-I-S-T-E-R-S. 1.00

00:59:01.000 Like sisters. - Thank you.

00:59:03.000 Stop what?

00:59:04.000 Killing people.

00:59:06.000 We have enough money to stop for good.

00:59:09.000 Stop what?

00:59:10.000 Killing people.

00:59:13.000 Yeah, right.

00:59:16.000 I'll acknowledge that I think Joaquin Phoenix may be the best actor working today.

00:59:22.000 And I cannot wait, honestly, for his Joker movie.

00:59:24.000 And I was very much against the concept of a Joker movie, because the Joker doesn't have an origin story.

00:59:29.000 But, with that said, I mean, the acting in this is really first-rate.

00:59:33.000 Jake Gyllenhaal is terrific in it as well, so if you like good acting and you like Westerns, then this is a movie for you.

00:59:38.000 It's got a lot of gunfire, but not a lot of interesting gunplay.

00:59:41.000 But it's interestingly filmed, and there's a lot to like about this film.

00:59:44.000 The Sisters Brothers, go check it out. 0.98

00:59:45.000 I think it's on demand right now.

00:59:46.000 Okay, time for some things that I hate.

00:59:52.000 So I hate dishonesty in media coverage, particularly when it comes to the coverage of government spending.

00:59:59.000 So 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.

01:00:05.000 The Special Olympics does not need public funding.

01:00:07.000 It doesn't.

01:00:09.000 People give tons of money to the Special Olympics.

01:00:11.000 The Special Olympics is a wonderful thing.

01:00:13.000 It is.

01:00:13.000 It's terrific.

01:00:14.000 I would give money to the Special Olympics.

01:00:16.000 Betsy DeVos gives money to the Special Olympics.

01:00:18.000 But 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.

01:00:25.000 This is a bizarre contention.

01:00:27.000 Are we supposed to identify compassion simply with government spending?

01:00:30.000 So if I sign a check to a charity and then I say, you know what?

01:00:32.000 I 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.

01:00:40.000 Does this somehow make me non-compassionate toward the very charity to which I sign a check?

01:00:44.000 That was the implication that was made about Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education.

01:00:48.000 It's just nonsense.

01:00:49.000 It's just silly.

01:00:50.000 The federal government supplies something like $18 million to the Special Olympics.

01:00:54.000 And I understand it's bad optics to quote-unquote defund the Special Olympics, but let's be real about this.

01:01:00.000 The Special Olympics doesn't actually need the money.

01:01:03.000 All Trump had to do, if Trump wanted to actually do something good on this, what he should have said is, Betsy DeVos is correct.

01:01:09.000 The Special Olympics does not require public funding, and I'll show you why they don't require public funding.

01:01:13.000 I'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.

01:01:22.000 It would have raised twice the amount of money the federal government spends in legitimately about an hour.

01:01:26.000 Because the American people are warm-hearted and generous, and we don't have to demonstrate that through tax policy.

01:01:31.000 Nonetheless, 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.

01:01:44.000 The Special Olympics will be funded.

01:01:48.000 I just told my people I want to fund the Special Olympics.

01:01:52.000 And I've just authorized a funding of the Special Olympics.

01:01:56.000 I've been to the Special Olympics.

01:01:57.000 I think it's incredible.

01:01:59.000 And I just authorized a funding.

01:02:01.000 I heard about it this morning.

01:02:03.000 I have overridden my people. 0.78

01:02:06.000 We're funding the Special Olympics.

01:02:08.000 I 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.

01:02:18.000 We've gotten the same thing when it comes to school lunch programs.

01:02:20.000 I've said before, I think school lunch programs are a giant fail.

01:02:24.000 You know, just statistically, they are.

01:02:26.000 Kids are more likely to be obese if they're on a school lunch program than if they are just bringing lunch from home.

01:02:30.000 The 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.

01:02:36.000 And it is also true that as a parent, you should be incentivized to get food for your child.

01:02:41.000 This is literally your first priority.

01:02:43.000 It's one I mentioned to Adam Carolla earlier on the program.

01:02:45.000 It's school lunch programs that made Adam Carolla into a libertarian.

01:02:49.000 Because 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.

01:02:57.000 This seems to me like the very basis of being a parent.

01:03:00.000 If you cannot feed your kids...

01:03:02.000 I mean, we spend tens of thousands of dollars on welfare programs for poor households in the United States.

01:03:08.000 If you can't feed your kids despite that massive social safety net in the United States, you shouldn't have those kids in your house.

01:03:14.000 Seriously.

01:03:15.000 Child starvation in the United States is not a problem.

01:03:17.000 Systemic poverty may be a problem.

01:03:19.000 Child starvation is not, in fact, a problem.

01:03:22.000 When you say this sort of stuff, it's like, oh, well, you lack sympathy.

01:03:24.000 Really?

01:03:24.000 I lack sympathy?

01:03:25.000 How much charity did you give last year?

01:03:28.000 It's the identification of compassion with government spending is a dangerous thing.

01:03:32.000 And again, I think Trump could have done something much more interesting here if he had chosen to.

01:03:35.000 Instead, he sort of moved on with it, which I think is a bad move.

01:03:39.000 Alrighty.

01:03:39.000 Well, we will be back here a little bit later today with two additional hours.

01:03:43.000 This weekend, go pick up a copy of The Right Side of History.

01:03:45.000 I know it was barely in bookstores.

01:03:46.000 A lot of the bookstores weren't even really carrying it this week.

01:03:49.000 Then it shocked the world and became number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

01:03:53.000 So it should be available in bookstores this weekend.

01:03:55.000 Go pick up a copy of my new bestselling book, The Right Side of History.

01:03:58.000 Tell all your friends about it.

01:03:59.000 And either we'll see you here this afternoon if you subscribe and you listen to radio, or we'll see you here next week.

01:04:03.000 Have a wonderful weekend.

01:04:04.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

01:04:05.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

01:04:11.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

01:04:13.000 Executive producer, Jeremy Boring.

01:04:14.000 Senior producer, Jonathan Hay.

01:04:16.000 Our supervising producer is Mathis Glover.

01:04:18.000 And our technical producer is Austin Stevens.

01:04:20.000 Edited by Adam Sajovic.

01:04:21.000 Audio is mixed by Mike Karamina.

01:04:23.000 Hair and makeup is by Jesua Olvera.

01:04:25.000 Production assistant, Nick Sheehan.

01:04:26.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire production.

01:04:28.000 Copyright, Daily Wire 2019.

01:04:31.000 Hey guys, over on the Matt Wall Show today, we're going to discuss what I think is an epidemic of groupthink in our society.

01:04:38.000 People 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.

01:04:46.000 So I'd like to analyze that problem.

01:04:48.000 Also, Jussie Smollett's lawyer has come up with a really hilarious and pitiful alibi excuse for Jussie Smollett.

01:04:56.000 PETA 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.

The Ben Shapiro Show - March 29, 2019

Trump’s Michigan Rager | Ep. 748

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