Tonight, President Trump delivers his first State of the Union address to a Joint Session of Congress. It's not technically a SOTU, but it is in fact a State of The Union address. And when he's done, we're back with a breakdown of what it all means.
00:00:58.000As Americans, we should be invested in President Trump being a wild success in the economy going up and to the right, in immigration going down, illegal immigration going down, in world security getting stronger.
00:01:08.000We should be invested in all of these things because, after all, we are all invested in a better America for everyone.
00:01:14.000And again, on many of these things, President Trump's mere presence in the White House has changed things radically.
00:01:24.000This is the reason he entered politics in the first place in 2015-2016.
00:01:28.000It is now a decade later, and President Trump is doing the thing that Democrats said was impossible.
00:01:33.000They said, without a giant piece of legislation from Congress, there was, in fact, no way to bring down the rates of illegal immigration.
00:01:40.000And then, it turns out, all it took was a president who says he's going to deport illegal immigrants, and the rates of illegal immigration drop effectively to zero.
00:01:48.000According to Breitbart.com, a social media post by the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, Michael Banks, shows February apprehensions to be a record low for the agency.
00:01:56.000Banks' post reveals the startling impact of the Trump presidency on illegal migration to the United States in the 42 days since assuming office.
00:02:03.000Banks posted, quote, February proves our combined efforts in securing the border work.
00:02:08.000U.S. Border Patrol apprehended 8,326 illegal aliens at the U.S.-Mexico border, making it the lowest month in recorded history.
00:02:18.000Remember that there were months during the Biden administration where in excess of 200,000 illegal immigrants were crossing the border every single month.
00:02:27.000There were days that were like 8,000, 10,000 illegal immigrants arriving at the border.
00:03:00.000It turns out all it took was a new president to fix this particular problem.
00:03:05.000Meanwhile, there are other percolating problems that President Trump is taking on.
00:03:11.000So, there was a big announcement yesterday.
00:03:13.000President Trump announced that TSMC... We're good to go.
00:03:29.000That Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company will be investing at least $100 billion more in chip manufacturing plants in the United States over the next several years.
00:03:37.000TSMC, according to the Wall Street Journal, plans to use the funds to add to its chip manufacturing that's already building in Arizona.
00:03:43.000It will construct three new chip plants, two chip packaging plants, and a research and development center, according to Chief Executive C.C. Wei.
00:03:50.000Here's President Trump at the White House announcing this yesterday.
00:03:53.000Today, Taiwan Semiconductor is announcing that they will be investing at least $100 billion in new capital in the United States over the next short period of time to build state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing facilities.
00:04:09.000I think mostly it's going to be in Arizona, which is what I understand, which is a great state.
00:04:22.000The most powerful AI chips in the world will be made right here in America.
00:04:26.000Again, this is a big win for President Trump.
00:04:29.000It follows on a commitment by TSMC to build a chip factory in Arizona for $12 billion back in 2020. President Trump said if they did the chips in Taiwan to send them here, they would have a 25% or 30% or 50% tariff.
00:04:43.000By doing it here, there are no tariffs.
00:04:45.000So the company is now planning to spend a total of $165 billion.
00:04:50.000Now, that is good for a couple of reasons.
00:04:52.000That is good, number one, obviously, because it creates jobs in the United States.
00:04:55.000It is also good because it diversifies the sources of semiconductors.
00:05:00.000If, God forbid, the Chinese were to blockade Taiwan, and it's three years from now, presumably TSMC would have set up chip manufacturing facilities in the United States sufficient to prevent the Chinese from essentially shutting down the world economy.
00:05:15.000Lack of semiconductors can shut down entire massive industries in the United States.
00:05:19.000Everything from your phone to your car to your refrigerator runs on semiconductors.
00:05:23.000And so, were China to grab control of TSMC in Taiwan, it would be a world catastrophe.
00:05:29.000Diversifying that resource inside the United States is, of course, a good move for the United States.
00:05:33.000It also happens to be a good move for TSMC for a couple of reasons.
00:05:36.000One, it means that the United States is now invested in making sure that TSMC is not victimized by the Chinese in Taiwan.
00:05:43.000President Trump would love to see all this investment.
00:05:45.000Move from TSMC in Taiwan to the United States.
00:05:48.000But if TSMC in Taiwan stops existing, it's very hard for that money to make the move.
00:05:52.000And two, again, when it comes to U.S. domestic production of resources that are actually crucial national security industries, it makes sense to subsidize that production in the United States to reshore it in the United States.
00:06:06.000Since the Biden administration, the United States has expressed concerns about TSMC's near monopoly on advanced chip manufacturing and has been urging the company to relocate.
00:06:17.000The U.S. supported TSMC's growth through the 2022 Chips Act.
00:06:22.000That was a giant subsidy act by the Biden administration.
00:06:25.000Now, one of the problems is that it's going to take a while for these factories to come online.
00:06:30.000It is not as though the money comes in and magically TSMC is up and running in the United States and Arizona the same way it is up and running in Taiwan.
00:06:38.000But looking down the road, the production of these semiconductors is going to be incredibly important.
00:06:43.000And again, domestic chip manufacturing capacity is a national security imperative.
00:06:50.000Trump said on the campaign trail, quote, Taiwan pretty much has a monopoly on that market.
00:06:55.000We must be able to build the chips and semiconductors we need right here in American factories with American skill and American labor, and that's exactly what we are doing.
00:07:02.000This, of course, follows very hard on the building of other gigantic AI-based facilities by, for example, OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank.
00:07:11.000You remember, just last month, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Oracle, and SoftBank pledged to invest as much as $500 billion into building AI infrastructure in the United States.
00:07:21.000Last week, Apple said it planned to spend more than $500 billion and add 20,000 jobs over the next four years domestically to expand its own manufacturing footprint in the United States.
00:07:31.000Now, the reality is Apple was already doing some of this.
00:07:34.000Apple was already building its domestic manufacturing base, but it gives a win to President Trump, which is a smart piece of politicking by Apple.
00:07:43.000The bad news yesterday is that the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped massively on news that President Trump was interested in reinstating all of these 25% tariffs against Canada and Mexico.
00:07:55.000The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped about 1.5%.
00:08:02.000And there's a lot of angst, a lot of heartburn over President Trump's announcements about tariffs.
00:08:08.000According to the Associated Press, And this is where President Trump does have to walk very carefully.
00:08:23.000Inflation killed Joe Biden's presidency.
00:08:26.000If you wish to see President Trump be successful, he needs a booming economy.
00:08:29.000He cannot have a recessionary economy.
00:08:32.000If tariffs continue to drive up prices, and if wages do not increase sufficient to meet those prices, you're going to be in exactly the same predicament.
00:08:43.000Now again, I'm perfectly fine with using tariffs as leverage.
00:08:45.000If the goal of a tariff is to get other countries to lower their own tariffs, if the idea is, you have a 25% tariff on our lumber, and now we have to put a 25% tariff on your oil products, and then we trade one for the other, and all the tariffs go away.
00:09:25.000President Trump is playing a bit of a risky game when it comes to tariffs.
00:09:29.000A lot of uncertainty in the markets already, and smart investors prepare ahead of time, just like keeping a life jacket handy before setting sail.
00:09:35.000That's why many people are adding gold to their portfolios, leading to record gold prices in early 2025. There's still a great opportunity for you to diversify and strengthen your financial future.
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00:11:39.000Now, again, there may be industries, like, for example, semiconductors, where you need them produced domestically for national security reasons.
00:11:46.000They simply can't be produced in China or in any place that is subject to Chinese predation.
00:11:51.000And it's another thing to say that Canada is some sort of deep and abiding national security threat requiring widespread 25% tariffs on Canadian products.
00:12:00.000Canada, by the way, is the number one trade partner with the United States.
00:12:38.000There will be jobs in those industries.
00:12:39.000But the thing about tariffs is that they have a discrete beneficiary and they have diffuse victims.
00:12:47.000In other words, there's a group of people who benefit from the tariffs and everyone else pays.
00:12:50.000It is essentially a subsidy from every other consumer in the United States to people in those industries that are now going to be making more money.
00:12:57.000And that is what a tariff actually does.
00:12:59.000Which is why, yesterday, Warren Buffett was criticizing tariffs as a general matter.
00:13:04.000How do you think tariffs will affect the economy?
00:13:08.000I mean, tariffs are actually, we've had a lot of experience with them.
00:13:12.000They're an act of war, to some degree.
00:13:16.000How do you think tariffs will impact inflation?
00:13:19.000Over time, there are attacks on goods.
00:13:22.000I mean, you know, the tooth fairy doesn't pay them.
00:14:27.000The change underscores how manufacturers are scrambling to adapt to President Trump's proposed 25% tariffs on goods from both Mexico and Canada.
00:14:34.000This is the first concrete measure by a major Japanese car company.
00:14:38.000Now, again, that's going to be good for the people who are living in Indiana who get to work at the factories that are making the Honda Civic.
00:14:45.000It's not necessarily going to be good for all the American consumers who are now going to be paying more money for the Honda Civic, which is presumably what is going to happen here.
00:14:55.000Mexico has long been a lower-cost production hub for Japanese and other global automakers.
00:15:01.000So, reshoring, it does have costs, and we should recognize those costs of which should be realistic about the prospects of the Trump economy.
00:15:09.000And again, we need a strong economy from President Trump.
00:15:12.000There are some blinking red lights here.
00:15:14.000I've been saying for several weeks at this point, really since President Trump took office.
00:15:18.000That the number one focus of the Trump administration has to be to get the economy back on track.
00:15:37.000I'm glad to get rid of those personnel, although Democrats will just rehire them as soon as they regain power at some point.
00:15:42.000What really needs to change is the regulatory and tax structure of the United States.
00:15:46.000Which is why it's very important that Trump's tax cuts become permanent.
00:15:50.000It's really important that the regulatory state get off the back of the American business person.
00:15:56.000Right now, the models that are being utilized by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta are showing economic contraction in the first quarter.
00:16:03.000The Atlanta Fed's GDP Now model had up until the February 28th update been forecasting growth between 2% and 4% in line with other models.
00:16:12.000However, A graph on the GPN Now page lists the blue-chip consensus average of the top 10 and bottom 10 forecast at a slight tick more than 2% U.S. GDP growth for Q1 2025. But the February 28th update of GDP Now saw a plummeting forecast from roughly that same 2% to negative 1.5%.
00:16:31.000The model updated Monday with an even more pessimistic outlook, negative 2.8%.
00:16:38.000Now, again, that could be totally wrong.
00:16:40.000However, There are a lot of rumblings in the business community that things like tariffs, like the overvaluing of the stock market that has occurred due to the inflationary spiral brought since COVID, that's destined to come down.
00:16:52.000I've pointed this out before, but the Magnificent Seven, the top seven companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, those top seven companies have a price to earnings ratio almost of 60. That means the total price of the company.
00:17:08.000Compared to the earnings of the company on an annualized basis, 60. That's crazy.
00:17:15.000The entire Dow Jones industrial average at this point has a P-E ratio of about 26. It really needs to be down at about 16. It's too high.
00:17:28.000Meanwhile, real estate is also getting stuck.
00:17:31.000Because the interest rates remain relatively high by historical standards.
00:17:35.000And that means that grandma doesn't want to sell her house because if she sells her house, she's going to have to buy a new house with a worse interest rate.
00:17:40.000That means inventory is not actually matching demand.
00:17:44.000There are all sorts of problems with the economy.
00:17:46.000The administration needs to focus laser-like on that because nothing kills an administration faster than a weak economy.
00:17:54.000Speaking of which, there's a lot of consternation rising over looming government shutdown.
00:17:59.000According to the Washington Post, Congress has less than two weeks to extend federal spending laws and keep the government open.
00:18:05.000Republican negotiators walked away from talks over the weekend to reach a deal on a top-line number on how much the federal government should spend for the rest of 2025. Democrats had said the number is irrelevant if Trump refuses to spend the money in accordance with the law, or if he allows Doge to basically go through with a red pen.
00:18:21.000Meanwhile, Trump and his advisors, including Budget Chief Russell Vaught, have argued the president has the power to withhold money Congress orders spent.
00:18:28.000Democrats say they want assurances from congressional Republicans in the White House the administration will actually spend any money included in any new law preventing a shutdown.
00:18:37.000Now, Republicans theoretically could continue to pass a continuing resolution.
00:18:42.000They could avert a government shutdown on their own.
00:18:45.000But that's going to require Republicans to get together again.
00:18:48.000So once again, heavy burden falls on Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on all of this stuff because of the narrowness of his majority.
00:18:56.000Now, Democrats are already preparing the bad headlines.
00:19:00.000Democrats are eager for a bad headline.
00:19:03.000According to CNBC, Democrats are now claiming that because the Social Security Administration is opening its doors to Doge, this means that presumably Social Security payments will be missed.
00:19:14.000That, of course, would be a killer for the Trump administration, were it to be true.
00:19:19.000Former Commissioner and former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley told CNBC, quote, ultimately you're going to see the system collapse and an interruption of benefits.
00:19:26.000I believe you'll see that within the next 30 to 90 days.
00:19:28.000Now, it is worth noting here that Martin O'Malley is a wild Democrat who at one point actually, I believe, ran for the head of the Democratic National Committee.
00:19:40.000However, all it takes is one bad headline, truly one bad headline, to switch public opinion on a lot of the things that are going on right now.
00:19:48.000So it's wonderful the Trump administration is moving fast and breaking things and tearing down bad systems.
00:19:53.000What they're doing on immigration is fantastic.
00:19:55.000What Doge is doing, I think, is wonderful.
00:19:58.000However, the economy must continue to sail.
00:20:44.000He says an agreement to end the war is still very, very far away, and no one has started all these steps yet.
00:20:53.000The peace that we foresee in the future must be just, honest, and most importantly, sustainable.
00:20:58.000Now that, of course, was almost designed to earn President Trump's umbrage.
00:21:02.000President Trump immediately responded by saying he better not be right about the end of the war being far away.
00:21:08.000Here he was in a press conference yesterday.
00:21:11.000President Zelensky supposedly made a statement today in AP. I'm not a big fan of AP, so maybe it was an incorrect statement, but he said he thinks the war's gonna go on for a long time.
00:21:23.000And he better not be right about that.
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00:23:43.000This guy does not want there to be peace as long as he has America's backing and Europe in the meeting they had with Zelensky stated flatly they cannot do the job without the United States.
00:23:50.000Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia.
00:25:07.000Because the goal was to do with Zelensky what he's currently doing with Taiwan.
00:25:11.000Again, TSMC is the company in Taiwan that makes the semiconductors.
00:25:15.000Those semiconductors are now going to be made partially in the United States.
00:25:19.000Taiwan is going to invest via TSMC. TSMC, the company, is going to be investing $100 billion in American domestic manufacturing of semiconductors.
00:25:29.000One, it reassures some key items that America wants and needs.
00:25:33.000And two, it also means that the United States is now invested in the continued success, health, and prosperity of TSMC. Which means more invested in Taiwan.
00:25:41.000Trump was trying to do that exact same thing with Ukraine.
00:25:46.000He didn't want to issue an open security guarantee because the situation is too volatile.
00:25:52.000He just wanted the Rare Earths Minerals deal as a way, a wedge, to get in.
00:25:56.000He openly said this during the press conference.
00:25:59.000He kept this close to just saying he was going to give a security guarantee that was effectively a caveat to the Rare Earths Minerals deal.
00:26:08.000That Zelensky comes back to the table on that thing.
00:26:11.000I don't know what the hell Zelensky is doing.
00:26:12.000Seriously, as someone who would like to see Ukraine capable of standing up to Russian predations, I do not know what Zelensky is thinking here.
00:26:21.000According to Politico, Congressional Republicans are signaling they want President Trump and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to patch things up after a testy Oval Office meeting casts significant doubt about the future of the U.S.-Ukraine relationship.
00:26:32.000GOP lawmakers on Monday sought to lower the temperature just days after the clash between the leaders since shockwaves.
00:26:37.000Through Washington and Europe, with members of Trump's party expressing optimism, the nations could still clinch a minerals deal to bolster U.S. backing for Ukraine.
00:26:45.000Senate Majority Leader John Thune said, quote, I just hope they can get things back on track and that everybody will redouble their efforts.
00:26:50.000He said this is a historic opportunity, a potentially historic agreement.
00:26:53.000Obviously, last week was a missed opportunity, but I think if people are operating in good faith, I think we could get things back on the rails.
00:27:01.000Meanwhile, we'll see what President Trump has to say about all of this in his speech to a joint session of Congress.
00:27:07.000On Tuesday, Lindsey Graham, who had blasted Zelensky on Friday, said, quote, I've told President Zelensky, do the minerals deal.
00:27:19.000The more he talks about security guarantees and the war is going to be a long time away from ending, the harder his case will be.
00:27:24.000Speaker Johnson also defended Trump on Monday, but added, quote, I encourage, as I did over the weekend, President Zelensky to come back to the table and accept the deal that was proposed because that is the solution.
00:27:36.000As I said yesterday on the show, there is a wide-ranging belief that President Trump is attempting to rewrite America's power in the world by granting spheres of influence to China or to Russia.
00:27:47.000That's not, I think, what he is doing.
00:27:51.000President Trump has had a long-standing belief that when America intervenes in places around the world, America gets repaid.
00:27:58.000He believed this about Kuwait and Iraq.
00:28:01.000And by the way, this is not a rare belief in American foreign policy history.
00:28:05.000When America supported Great Britain during World War II, the initial move towards supporting Great Britain was a program called Lend-Lease, in which the United States ended up with control of a huge number of very important British military bases.
00:28:19.000So the idea that America always gets nothing out of its foreign relations is just not true.
00:28:24.000What President Trump is attempting to do here makes perfect sense, which, by the way, is why His perspective remains popular.
00:28:31.000So Harry Enten at CNN actually did some polling on this.
00:28:33.000And he said, you know, shockingly, to Democrats at least, Joe Biden was wildly unpopular on Ukraine and Trump is pretty popular on Ukraine.
00:28:41.000You look at Joe Biden back in 2024. He was 22 points underwater.
00:29:48.000It means that while Americans do not want to continue to fund the Ukrainian war indefinitely, they also do not want to see pictures of Russian soldiers strolling through Kiev.
00:30:04.000Which is why the Trump administration move, I think it's a pressure tactic to get Zelensky to come back to the table and sign the Rare Earths Minerals deal.
00:30:10.000So I think Zelensky really should do it.
00:30:13.000But the administration announced yesterday that they would pause all military aid to Kiev until President Trump determines that the Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is making a good-faith effort toward peace negotiations with Russia.
00:30:25.000Now, this, I do think, is not a particularly good move.
00:30:27.000And the reason I'm not sure that this is a particularly good move is because if you're Vladimir Putin, what would drive you to the table?
00:30:34.000What moves has Putin affirmatively made toward a deal?
00:30:39.000Now, again, I can say all day long that I think I know what a deal looks like.
00:30:42.000It looks like the Europeans give a security guarantee to the Ukrainians.
00:30:46.000The Ukrainians feel some level of security.
00:30:48.000They're not going to be invaded by Russia again.
00:30:49.000And Donbass and Crimea go to Russia, right?
00:30:51.000That's been the deal since 2022. But is Russia willing to accept that deal?
00:30:55.000Or do they believe that the United States is going to pull out and that the Europeans will pull out and that Vladimir Putin will eventually stroll through Kiev?
00:31:04.000So, if this is a short-term tactic, a pause, which it seems to be, Fine.
00:31:08.000If it's a pause that's designed to get Zelensky back to the table, sign the rare earth mineral deal, we all move forward hand in hand, great.
00:31:15.000But how Russia reads it is going to make quite a large difference here.
00:31:17.000If Russia reads a pause in military aid to Ukraine as new impetus to relaunch a mass offensive, that will lengthen the war.
00:31:28.000Again, usually when you're making this sort of negotiation, yeah, you're pressuring Zelensky to come to the table by telling him, we're not going to be here forever.
00:31:34.000But at the same time, you're saying to Putin, You also need to come to the table with some concessions in hand, or we're going to increase the amount of military aid that we are giving to Ukraine.
00:31:44.000Putin's whole game here is he thinks he can outlast the West, and so far, he hasn't been wrong.
00:31:50.000A White House official said in a statement, quote, The President has been clear he is focused on peace.
00:31:53.000We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well.
00:31:55.000We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution.
00:32:00.000Well, again, I get it as a temporary pause to push Zelensky.
00:32:04.000I will also say that one thing that does not necessarily contribute to a solution is if Russia perceives massive weakness and then goes for it.
00:32:13.000The White House did not say under what conditions the United States would resume it or whether it would be at the same pace.
00:32:18.000While there isn't a clear understanding of what Washington wants from Kiev, the decision was the most demonstrative U.S. shift from Ukraine's top ally.
00:32:25.000And again, this seems all quite easy to fix by Zelensky.
00:32:44.000Mark Kansian, a retired Marine Corps colonel, former U.S. official at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, quote, Ukraine wouldn't surrender tomorrow or next week, but they would lose military capability gradually At some point, they would face defeat.
00:32:58.000So, again, do I think that this is like a massive deal that the Trump administration is doing this?
00:33:04.000No, because I think, once again, this is a negotiation tactic by Trump to get Zelensky back to the table to sign the things Zelensky needs to sign.
00:33:12.000The Europeans, for their part, are freaking out.
00:33:14.000They believe that this is somehow a repudiation of NATO. President Trump, in that press conference, said he was not repudiating NATO. I understand that Elon said that we should get out of NATO. That's stupid.
00:33:25.000The United States should not, in fact, get out of NATO. There's no purpose to getting out of NATO unless you actually wish the Russians to walk into the Baltics.
00:33:32.000If you wish them to enlarge their sphere of influence, get out of NATO. But President Trump doesn't want to get out of NATO. He said he doesn't.
00:33:38.000He wants them paying their fair share.
00:33:43.000He wants Poland to be able to defend itself.
00:33:47.000The sort of rush to Trump is an isolationist seems unjustifiable, even in the face of the argument he's currently having with Vladimir Zelensky.
00:34:05.000Retired Navy Admiral James Stavridis, who served as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander, said, quote, I worry we may be in the last days of NATO. He said the transatlantic alliance may not be about to collapse, but I can sure hear it creaking louder than at any time in my long career in the military.
00:34:19.000Now, President Trump did write on Sunday on his Truth Social platform, quote, We should spend less time worrying about Putin, more time worrying about migrants.
00:34:26.000Gangs, drug lords, murderers, and people from mental institutions entering our country so we don't end up like Europe.
00:35:04.000It's just that we would actually have to look more seriously at, you know, the gigantic spending problem that is actually driving America's national debt, namely the vast entitlement and means-tested welfare programs that are destroying our fiscal standing in the world.
00:35:19.000You make the case we shouldn't spend the money there, that's fine, but make that case overtly.
00:35:24.000Don't make the case that you're doing this because you're a fiscal conservative while at the same time you're arguing that America should never touch Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, or any means-tested welfare program.
00:35:33.000Just make the argument openly and then we can actually have an open discussion about this sort of stuff.
00:35:39.000In the end, I think Zelensky will come to the table.
00:35:41.000In the end, I think the Europeans will come to the table.
00:35:46.000Again, I also think that President Trump is not interested in a less powerful America on the world stage.
00:35:50.000He just really has promised to get to the end of this war, and he would like to do so.
00:35:56.000Meanwhile, Pam Bondi has now suggested that they're still going to release an Epstein list.
00:36:02.000I'm not aware that there is an Epstein list that hasn't been released at this point.
00:36:05.000I'm a little bit confused as to what exactly the goal is here.
00:36:08.000So Pam Bondi was on with Mark Levin over the weekend, and here she was suggesting that the sort of Epstein screw-up last week, in which the Justice Department released a binder filled with nothing.
00:37:23.000Two of the sources who spoke with NBC News said Assistant Director in Charge James Dennehy was given a choice to either resign or be fired, and he was eligible for retirement and has officially retired.
00:37:34.000He said he was forced out, quote, I've been told many times in my life, when you find yourself in a hole, sometimes it's best to quit digging.
00:37:43.000For the decision, immediately rumors started circulating that the real reason that Dennehy was fired had to do with some sort of cover-up with regard to Epstein.
00:37:52.000I've seen no evidence to this point that suggests that that is, in fact, the case.
00:37:57.000It may be a sort of convenient way of finding somebody to blame for the screw-up that the DOJ ushered out last week.
00:38:08.000They, of course, said there was a low-level person at SDNY who's basically covering up Files, deleting files.
00:38:14.000But why would he be allowed to retire with his pay if that were the case?
00:38:18.000He should be legally prosecuted if, in fact, that was the case.
00:38:22.000So we'll have to see how that emerges, whether this is sort of a misdirect or whether it actually is real, whether somebody was actually committing the crime of destroying relevant documents rather than publicizing all of that.
00:38:34.000Meanwhile, speaking of legal matters, President Trump announced a little bit earlier this week that he wants to posthumously pardon baseball legend Pete Rose.
00:38:42.000He wrote in a Saturday Truth Social post, quote, Major League Baseball didn't have the courage or decency to put the late great Pete Rose, also known as Charlie Hustle, into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
00:38:50.000Will never experience the thrill of being selected, even though he was a far better player than most of those who made it and can only be named posthumously.
00:38:58.000And he said that he will be signing a complete pardon of Pete Rose, who shouldn't have been gambling on baseball but only bet on his team winning.
00:39:03.000He never bet against himself or the other team.
00:39:05.000He had the most hits by far in baseball history and won more games than anyone in sports history, said Trump.
00:39:11.000Now, it's not really clear what he'd be pardoned for, Pete Rose, because he was never convicted of betting as a sort of criminal matter.
00:39:19.000He pled guilty to filing a faulty tax return in 1990 and did five months in prison.
00:39:25.000So he's not sure what exactly the pardon would be.
00:39:27.000Now, whether Pete Rose should be in the Hall of Fame, I think, is sort of an open question at this point, given the fact that there are so many terrible people in the Hall of Fame.
00:39:34.000However, there was an ironclad rule in Major League Baseball that you should not bet on baseball.
00:39:39.000He did, in fact, bet on baseball, and so the ban seems largely justified to me, despite the fact that I'm actually kind of a Pete Rose fan.
00:39:47.000If we are issuing pardons, however, there is one person that President Trump should pardon from federal charges forthwith.
00:39:53.000It would be incredibly controversial, but I think that it's absolutely necessary.
00:40:02.000He should pardon him in his federal charges.
00:40:04.000If we are talking about reversing the evils of the last several years in American life, obviously COVID and its handling was a massive evil.
00:40:12.000Destroyed the economy, set us on a path to fiscal insanity, destroyed children, led to massive health-related cover-ups, just horrifying all the way around.
00:40:22.000And President Trump has taken on a lot of those things.
00:40:25.000But when it came to BLM, the inciting event for the BLM riots that caused $2 billion in property damage in the United States, The evidence demonstrates that Derek Chauvin did not, in fact, commit murder of George Floyd.
00:40:48.000He had a significant pre-existing heart condition.
00:40:51.000George Floyd was saying he could not breathe before he was even out of the car.
00:40:54.000He was in the car saying he could not breathe.
00:40:56.000Derek Chauvin, for a large segment of even the tape that was shown...
00:41:00.000Had his knee on George Floyd's shoulder or back, not on his neck, the autopsy of George Floyd showed that he had no damage to his trachea, that probably George Floyd died of excited delirium.
00:41:13.000There were no accusations, even at trial, that Derek Chauvin had committed a hate crime against George Floyd or that he targeted George Floyd because of his race.
00:41:21.000Nonetheless, on the basis of extraordinarily scanty evidence, and despite the fact there was massive pressure on the jury, That the mayor of Minneapolis paid a settlement to the George Floyd family immediately.
00:41:35.000That the president of the United States suggested that Derek Chauvin was guilty right off the bat.
00:41:42.000That the jurors were being openly threatened and admitted as much.
00:41:45.000Despite all of that, Derek Chauvin was convicted on federal charges and pled guilty to federal charges.
00:41:51.000Derek Chauvin should, in fact, be pardoned on that.
00:41:54.000We will be covering that a lot more in coming weeks because I think it is worthwhile to remember that there is a man.
00:41:59.000Who was rotting in prison because the media decided in the middle of 2020 that they were going to turn a tragic law enforcement stop that ended with the death of a man who had a significant problem with drugs and pre-existing health problems into the raison d'etre of the entire 2020 election.
00:42:40.000Derek Chauvin, who is convicted of the murder of George Floyd.
00:42:44.000As I say, we will be covering this pretty extensively in the coming weeks.
00:42:48.000Right now, you should go to PardonDerek.com and sign our petition asking President Trump to grant justice to Officer Derek Chauvin.
00:42:54.000That is pardon, P-A-R-D-O-N, Derek.com, P-A-R-D-O-N-D-E-R-E-K.com.
00:43:01.000We're going to be digging into this topic on the show in the very, very near future.
00:43:05.000All right, guys, coming up, we are going to delve into the Ben Shapiro Show mailbag.
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