The Ben Shapiro Show - Uh-Oh, I Said Something Unsayable

00:00:00.000 So yesterday, I apparently blew up the internet.

00:00:02.000 I blew up the internet because of something that I said on this show.

00:00:05.000 What exactly did I say that blew up the internet?

00:00:06.000 Well, I touched the political third rail.

00:00:08.000 I talked about social security.

00:00:09.000 Now, I know what you're thinking.

00:00:11.000 What's so spicy about social security?

00:00:13.000 And I will admit, I was thinking the same thing because there are a few simple facts of the matter with regard to social security.

00:00:18.000 One, we don't have the money for it, and it's a Ponzi scheme.

00:00:22.000 And two, with regard to sort of the personal decision to retire, very often when people retire, they're making a bad decision.

00:00:29.000 This is what I said.

00:00:29.000 I want to play you the clip of what I said yesterday, and then I want to discuss why exactly this was so controversial.

00:00:34.000 And I think it goes deep to the root of something that's happened on both the right and the left, which is this weird idea that work is somehow demeaning and bad and terrible.

00:00:45.000 And that somehow purpose and fulfillment don't come from work and don't come from church and don't come from family.

00:00:51.000 So where do they come from?

00:00:53.000 That's a broader argument.

00:00:54.000 We'll get to that in a moment.

00:00:54.000 I want to play you this clip because this apparently set a thousand hearts aflutter.

00:01:00.000 And let's be real about this.

00:01:01.000 It's insane that we haven't raised the retirement age in the United States.

00:01:03.000 It's totally crazy.

00:01:06.000 If that were the case, Joe Biden should not be running for president.

00:01:08.000 Joe Biden is 81 years old.

00:01:09.000 The retirement age in the United States at which you start to receive Social Security and you are eligible for Medicare is 65.

00:01:15.000 Joe Biden has technically been eligible for Social Security and Medicare for 16 years, and he wants to continue in office until he is 86, which is 19 years past when he would be eligible for retirement.

00:01:27.000 No one in the United States should be retiring at 65 years old. 0.84

00:01:30.000 Frankly, I think retirement itself is a stupid idea unless you have some sort of health problem. 0.96

00:01:34.000 Everybody that I know who is elderly, who has retired, is dead within five years. 1.00

00:01:39.000 And if you talk to people who are elderly and they lose their purpose in life by losing their job and they stop working, Things go to hell in a handbasket real quick, but put all of that aside. 0.96

00:01:49.000 Okay, so those are two arguments.

00:01:52.000 Right, so those are two arguments.

00:01:53.000 One is we have to raise the retirement age.

00:01:55.000 And two is that as a general rule, it is not a good personal decision for people to retire early.

00:02:00.000 And I say even right there, unless we are talking about people who suffer a physical or mental malady, As a result of continued work.

00:02:06.000 So, for example, you're a bricklayer and now you're 65 years old and your back is gone.

00:02:09.000 Obviously, you're going to want to retire from being a bricklayer because you have a physical malady, which I literally said on the show yesterday and everybody is ignoring.

00:02:16.000 But let's go through these arguments one by one, because the first argument about raising the retirement age or privatizing Social Security or changing the Social Security system, this is considered the third rail of politics.

00:02:25.000 And as I said in the show yesterday, Donald Trump hasn't touched it.

00:02:29.000 He's the first Republican in a long time to have basically said the entitlements are off the table.

00:02:32.000 We're not going to do anything about them.

00:02:34.000 And I've said before, that's a smart political move, but smart political moves aren't necessarily good for the country.

00:02:39.000 Both parties now argue that we can't touch Social Security.

00:02:41.000 We can't touch Medicare.

00:02:43.000 We can't touch Medicaid.

00:02:44.000 The entitlement programs basically have to stay.

00:02:46.000 The problem with that is that, of course, they're all going to go bankrupt.

00:02:50.000 So politicians obviously have an incentive to keep kicking the can down the road and pretending that we have unlimited borrowing power and limited money to pay for a ballooning public debt.

00:03:00.000 That, of course, is their incentive structure.

00:03:02.000 But I'm not running for office, so I can tell you the truth, which is that if we don't raise the retirement age or privatize Social Security over time and make any changes to Social Security, we will go insolvent.

00:03:11.000 Social Security is not, in fact, a lockbox.

00:03:13.000 I saw a lot of tweets yesterday from people saying, I paid into Social Security.

00:03:16.000 I'm just taking out what I got in.

00:03:17.000 No, you're not.

00:03:18.000 You absolutely are not.

00:03:19.000 The government stole your money and paid it to somebody else.

00:03:21.000 And now they're stealing somebody else's money and paying it to you.

00:03:24.000 And I promise you that whatever you paid in is certainly not what you're getting out.

00:03:27.000 You're either getting out way less, in my case, you're getting way less in Social Security, if ever you receive it, than you paid in.

00:03:33.000 And in many cases, you're receiving far more.

00:03:35.000 So my grandmother, for example, receiving Social Security, got way more than she paid in. 0.96

00:03:40.000 Because Social Security is not a defined, it is not a defined contributions plan, it's a defined benefits plan.

00:03:47.000 Social Security tells you how much you receive, but it has nothing to do with how much you put in.

00:03:50.000 Social Security is a pyramid scheme.

00:03:52.000 It is a Ponzi scheme.

00:03:54.000 We are taking out trillions of dollars in debt to fund people retiring from work who are not somehow unable to work.

00:04:00.000 That was the point that I'm making, is that many of the people that we are paying not to work right now who are 65 years old, yes, they paid into the system, but that is because the system should not have taken their money in the first place.

00:04:12.000 You should not have your money taken away from you by the federal government and then spent somewhere else.

00:04:16.000 And then later, somebody else has to fill you in.

00:04:18.000 You should be able to keep your own money.

00:04:19.000 That's how you plan for retirement.

00:04:22.000 And in fact, even the name Social Security is a euphemism.

00:04:24.000 Because originally, what Social Security was, was an old age pension.

00:04:28.000 That's what it was.

00:04:30.000 And in fact, if you look at the history of Social Security, what you see, the history of retirement and Social Security, one of the things that you see, is that it was an attempt to get older workers off the payrolls to make room for younger workers.

00:04:43.000 The first kind of full social security scheme was put in place by Otto von Bismarck in Germany and was a way of clearing the older payrolls of older workers because they weren't as effective.

00:04:55.000 And in fact, older workers fought it.

00:04:57.000 But in any case, when you look in America at the history of old age pensions, what you see is that in 1862, when the life expectancy was 39, There were some pensions that you could apply for if you were a Civil War veteran or if you were disabled.

00:05:10.000 Which again, makes some sense, talking about people who are physically disabled.

00:05:14.000 In 1890, when the life expectancy was 44, the law was amended to include disabled Civil War veterans who were disabled for any reason.

00:05:21.000 In 1906, Life expectancy 50.

00:05:23.000 The law was amended to include old age.

00:05:25.000 Now, why am I using life expectancy statistics?

00:05:27.000 I'll get into that in a moment because I've seen some community notes talking about the fact that if you make it to 50 or 60 and you're living in 1906, you're likely to live till 75 or 79 or whatever.

00:05:38.000 That's the wrong statistic and I'll explain why in a second.

00:05:41.000 The Social Security Act was signed into law by FDR in 1935.

00:05:44.000 Again, life expectancy at that time was 60.

00:05:47.000 And it kicked in Social Security at 65.

00:05:50.000 It created a federal safety net for the elderly, unemployed, disadvantaged Americans because of the Great Depression.

00:05:56.000 And again, the main stipulation was to pay financial benefits to retirees over the age of 65 based on lifetime payroll tax contributions.

00:06:02.000 But of course, the original...

00:06:08.000 We'll get to more on this in just one moment.

00:06:13.000 First, using the internet without ExpressVPN?

00:06:15.000 Well, it's like forgetting to mute yourself on a Zoom meeting and having everyone hear your side conversation with your coworker.

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00:07:12.000 Now, let's get to where we are with Social Security now.

00:07:15.000 The Social Security Trust Fund.

00:07:17.000 Which doesn't really exist.

00:07:19.000 Again, all that money was paid out before.

00:07:20.000 It's based on new taxes.

00:07:22.000 That Social Security Trust Fund is set to empty in 2037, at which point taxes will be enough to pay for only 76% of scheduled benefits, at which time all the benefits are going to get slashed.

00:07:32.000 Why is that happening?

00:07:33.000 The answer is demographics.

00:07:36.000 In 1960, approximately five workers covered the benefits of one retiree.

00:07:40.000 So five workers paying into the system, that covered the benefits of one retiree.

00:07:44.000 Today, two workers cover the benefits of one retiree.

00:07:47.000 That is unsustainable.

00:07:48.000 Our demographic pyramid is up-tied down in the United States.

00:07:51.000 We have too many old people, and we don't have enough young workers, which means that the Ponzi scheme is collapsing.

00:07:56.000 According to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, In 1960, the Social Security program had revenues of $12 billion and outlays just shy of $12 billion.

00:08:00.000 financial difficulties for Social Security.

00:08:02.000 In 1960, the Social Security program had revenues of $12 billion and outlays just shy of $12

00:08:07.000 billion.

00:08:08.000 By 2021, the smaller ratio led to outlays of $1.1 trillion exceeding revenues of a little

00:08:15.000 under $1.1 trillion.

00:08:17.000 And that gap is going to continue to grow.

00:08:18.000 By 2034, the last year before the funds are expected to become depleted, the Social Security's trustees expect the cost will exceed income by $437 billion.

00:08:27.000 And when those trust funds are depleted, benefits will then be limited.

00:08:31.000 By the income assigned to the program, in absent changes to the law, benefits will be reduced by 20%.

00:08:35.000 So again, why is this happening?

00:08:37.000 Two demographic factors.

00:08:38.000 One, people did not have enough kids.

00:08:40.000 You can support this pyramid scheme so long as there are enough young people who are there to work to support the elderly, as filtered through government programs. 0.92

00:08:50.000 But there aren't.

00:08:50.000 People are having fewer babies.

00:08:52.000 Two, people are in fact living longer.

00:08:56.000 Around 1960, that was the end of the baby boom, The average number of children born to a woman was 3.6.

00:09:01.000 Today, that number is 1.6, which is not replacement level.

00:09:06.000 In 1960, if you reached 65, if you reached retirement age, you were expected to live to about 80.

00:09:10.000 Today, you're expected to live to about 85.

00:09:14.000 Again, according to Cato Institute, the cost of Social Security to the American taxpayer, excluding disability in 2022, was over a trillion dollars.

00:09:22.000 By 2033, that's going to be $2 trillion a year, well over $2.1 trillion a year.

00:09:29.000 In that year, borrowing authority for Social Security is exhausted under law, so unless Congress acts, benefits get slashed 23%.

00:09:36.000 As far as the generalized debt problems with Social Security, Medicare and Social Security are now responsible for 95% of all long-term American unfunded obligations.

00:09:45.000 When you hear people say that it's the Defense Department that's bankrupting the country, that is wrong.

00:09:48.000 It is Medicare and Social Security.

00:09:50.000 Social Security is already responsible for about 11% of the entire 2023 deficit.

00:09:55.000 And according to the Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees, this is them, the people.

00:09:59.000 These are the people who run the thing.

00:10:00.000 According to them, Medicare and Social Security, their unfunded obligations, which is about the 75-year unfunded obligation, meaning it's not funded by any of the law today, exceeds $78 trillion.

00:10:12.000 $78 trillion, which is three times all the goods and services produced in the United States last year.

00:10:18.000 So in other words, this ballooning Social Security program is bankrupt.

00:10:23.000 It is.

00:10:23.000 It's just a question of when the bankruptcy becomes evident to everyone.

00:10:28.000 So that is where we are.

00:10:29.000 Okay, so argument number one, which is that we have to change social security because it's ridiculous that people are retiring at the age of 65 and then receiving benefits for legitimately 20 years.

00:10:39.000 And that's going to bankrupt the country.

00:10:40.000 And it's already bankrupting the taxpayer.

00:10:42.000 That's obviously true.

00:10:43.000 Everyone knows it.

00:10:44.000 Democrats know it.

00:10:44.000 Republicans know it.

00:10:45.000 They just lie to you.

00:10:45.000 So people are like, well, why don't politicians say this?

00:10:48.000 Because they'll lose.

00:10:49.000 Because they know that you don't want to hear it.

00:10:51.000 Because there was somebody who tweeted at me yesterday About all of this.

00:10:56.000 And he suggested, well, you know, I paid for my parents and now it's my children's friends turn to pay.

00:11:01.000 Like, that's not the way that society is supposed to work.

00:11:03.000 I don't want my children to pay for me.

00:11:05.000 My goal is to be able to invest enough so that I can cover my children, not the other way around.

00:11:11.000 And by the way, It is worth noting at this point that it will not be our children paying for us.

00:11:16.000 It will be debt paying for us or immigrants paying for us as we retire. 1.00

00:11:19.000 Okay, so then we get to the second argument and this is the one that apparently set people off really a lot. 0.99

00:11:25.000 And the second argument that I make is that I think that retirement generally for a lot of people is stupid. 0.98

00:11:29.000 Okay, here's what I mean by that. 1.00

00:11:31.000 So, I don't mean that you retiring from a job that's backbreaking labor is stupid. 0.98

00:11:35.000 That's your personal decision. 0.98

00:11:38.000 The argument that I'm making is sort of twofold.

00:11:41.000 One, that the government has no actual obligation to fund your retirement if it allows you to keep your money in the first place.

00:11:48.000 If it stole your money, then I understand.

00:11:49.000 People who have their money stolen by the government, they want their money back.

00:11:51.000 I get it, totally.

00:11:53.000 Then there's the question of what retirement actually constitutes.

00:11:56.000 There seems to be this idea about that retirement is natural.

00:11:59.000 That you hit 65 and you go like sit on a beach somewhere for the next 20 years of your life.

00:12:04.000 And whether that is publicly funded or privately funded, the point that I was making yesterday is that I do not think that as a general rule, it is good for people to consider themselves retired from the world.

00:12:14.000 I don't think that it's good.

00:12:16.000 Retirement, particularly in the post-familial, post-church age, harms mental health.

00:12:20.000 It robs people of purpose.

00:12:22.000 Again, I'm not saying that you can't retire if you want to.

00:12:25.000 If you have the money to do so, go for it if you want to.

00:12:28.000 And I'm also not saying you should be forced not to retire if you can afford to retire.

00:12:33.000 I'm making the case that actually early retirement by the data tends to harm your health.

00:12:38.000 That working longer tends to be good for you.

00:12:41.000 That is the argument that I'm making.

00:12:42.000 Again, not that you should be forced to work if you don't want to, and you can afford to do it, or your family will take care of you.

00:12:50.000 The argument that I was making is that when you are 65 years old, if you retire, if you make that decision to retire, that's a decision that you should take really seriously.

00:12:59.000 And this bizarre idea that the best thing you can do, so much that the government should sponsor it, is retire.

00:13:05.000 And when I say retire, I don't mean get an alternative job.

00:13:08.000 You're not retired.

00:13:10.000 If you quit your job at 65 or you are forcibly retired by your company at 65 and then you take Social Security and then you have another job, which is what a lot of people do, you're not retired.

00:13:19.000 You're retired from that job.

00:13:20.000 You're not a retired person.

00:13:23.000 The retirement I'm talking about is you retire from your job and all jobs and you live on your pension or your Social Security.

00:13:31.000 That tends not to be good for people in terms of health.

00:13:34.000 According to the BBC, quote, research from the Institute of Economic Affairs suggests that while retirement may initially benefit health by reducing stress and creating time for other activities, adverse effects increase the longer retirement goes on.

00:13:46.000 In fact, this study found that retirement increases the chances of suffering from clinical depression by around 40 percent, of having at least one diagnosed physical illness by about 60 percent.

00:13:56.000 And of course, that's not particularly surprising, because for a lot of people, they find purpose in the thing that they've been doing for the past 40 years.

00:14:02.000 We'll get to more on this in just one moment.

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00:15:06.000 It used to be, by the way, that you could fill that gap with a few things.

00:15:11.000 You retired from your job or you were forced into retirement by your company, and you'd fill that gap in a few ways.

00:15:16.000 One would be friendships.

00:15:18.000 There's only one problem.

00:15:19.000 In the United States, friendship has been declining for decades.

00:15:22.000 As Robert Putnam wrote in Bowling Alone, nobody even has social clubs anymore.

00:15:26.000 Church, which is another place that people tended to put their time in retirement, has been declining for decades.

00:15:31.000 So people don't know what to do with themselves.

00:15:33.000 Family has been declining for decades.

00:15:36.000 In fact, actually as an ironic byproduct of social security, family has been declining.

00:15:40.000 Because it used to be, before social security, what happened to grandma when it was time for grandma to retire, or grandpa?

00:15:45.000 They lived with you.

00:15:46.000 Grandma and grandpa lived in the house with you, and you helped your parents out.

00:15:50.000 That's what it was about.

00:15:51.000 And that created intergenerational contact and point of contact, and that was fulfilling for grandma and grandpa, and it was fulfilling for kids and grandkids, because then you got the wisdom of grandma and grandpa.

00:16:00.000 That's been completely destroyed by Social Security.

00:16:02.000 Now the American vision is, you hit 65 or you hit 70, whatever it is, You retire, and then we shuffle you off to the villages or some old age home or something. 0.76

00:16:10.000 And listen, if you want to be there, that's fine.

00:16:12.000 I mean, it's a free country.

00:16:13.000 But the idea that this is like the ideal form of what 80-year-old life looks like is you don't see your kids, you don't see your grandkids, and you live in a home by yourself?

00:16:21.000 The data do not support the idea that this is wonderful for people.

00:16:24.000 And it is worth noting that when this sort of idea was proposed, elderly people actually revolted against it.

00:16:30.000 They didn't like it.

00:16:32.000 Peace from 1999 by Mary Lou Weissman in the New York Times called The History of Retirement from Early Man to AARP and this columnist points out That many, many people who were elderly did not, in fact, like doing this.

00:16:47.000 Quote, what used to mean going to bed suddenly meant banishment to an empty stage of life called retirement.

00:16:51.000 If people were not going to work, what were they going to do?

00:16:53.000 Sit in a rocking chair?

00:16:54.000 Eleanor Roosevelt thought so.

00:16:55.000 Quote, old people love their own things even more than young people do. 0.97

00:16:57.000 It means so much to sit in the same chair you sat in for a great many years, she said in 1934.

00:17:01.000 But she was wrong.

00:17:02.000 Most retired people wished they could work.

00:17:05.000 The problem was still acute in 1951 when the Corning Company convened a round table to figure out how to make retirement more popular.

00:17:11.000 At that conference, Santa Rama Rowan, author and student of Eastern and Western cultures, complained Americans did not have the capacity to enjoy doing nothing.

00:17:19.000 Say you had retirement communities that sprang up.

00:17:22.000 And those retirement communities were essentially fill your time with playing golf or whatever.

00:17:26.000 But again, has that cured the problem?

00:17:28.000 The answer by the data is really no.

00:17:31.000 Study from the Journal of Healthcare.

00:17:33.000 September 2020.

00:17:34.000 Prevalence of depression in retirees.

00:17:36.000 Meta-analysis.

00:17:37.000 Depression is more frequent in retirees, with mandatory retirement, retirement due to illness, and anticipated retirement presenting higher levels of this disease.

00:17:44.000 The health role in the psychoeducational approach is highlighted in 41.6%.

00:17:49.000 With almost one-third of retirees suffering from depression, it is necessary to implement prevention and early detection measures to approach a public health problem."

00:17:58.000 This study, by the way, Suggests that retirement is a transition which occurs in the last stage of life.

00:18:03.000 It is characterized by the ceasing of work and with that a loss of routine social relations, role, status, accomplishments, and aspirations.

00:18:09.000 This implies changing the lifestyle adopted during many years in the working stage and supposes a phenomenon that can alter the psychosocial realm of the retiree.

00:18:17.000 Additionally, the aging process supposes diverse changes in health and it would lead to the decline of individuals who suffer it, altering their self-image, self-esteem, autonomy, and functionality.

00:18:25.000 The majority of individuals understand the transition from being active in working life to retirement as the process by which they start to become old, which generates feelings of uselessness, thus predisposing them to depression.

00:18:35.000 Another journal article from the Journal of Population Aging, Work, Retirement, and Depression, found a considerable depression, by the way, difference in the depression rates in men who retired.

00:18:43.000 24% said that they were depressed, compared to currently employed, about 6%.

00:18:51.000 They found that women, significantly less of a difference. 0.75

00:18:54.000 Why?

00:18:54.000 Well, because a lot of women work part-time, and so they were already engaged in stuff that they were doing outside of work.

00:19:01.000 2012, a paper, Transition to Retirement and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease from Social Science and Medicine, they found those who had retired were 40% more likely to have had a heart attack or stroke than those who were still working.

00:19:14.000 Another paper, the Association of Retirement Age with Mortality, a population-based longitudinal study among older adults in the United States.

00:19:20.000 This is from the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

00:19:22.000 Quote, early retirement may be a risk factor for mortality and prolonged working life may provide survival benefits among American adults.

00:19:29.000 That same study found among healthy retirees, a one-year older age at retirement was associated with an 11% lower risk of all-cause mortality.

00:19:40.000 Again, that same study, by the way, One of the researchers explained that delayed retirement is the secret to a longer life.

00:19:46.000 He defined retirement as, quote, the first year people responded to the survey saying they were completely retired.

00:19:50.000 Okay, so, there's some counter arguments to this argument that I'm making, which is that if you have a personal choice as to whether to retire or not retire, you should seriously consider not retiring.

00:19:59.000 And by retiring, again, I mean like retiring from all work, not getting an alternative job.

00:20:02.000 That doesn't count as retirement.

00:20:04.000 If you retired as a bricklayer and you became a tutor, that doesn't mean that you're retired.

00:20:07.000 You're still working.

00:20:08.000 Okay, so, Here are the counter arguments.

00:20:13.000 The counter arguments are that you should be able to retire from your job so you can do fulfilling things.

00:20:19.000 Now again, if your argument is that you should retire from a job you don't like to take a job you do like, that's not retirement.

00:20:23.000 That's just changing jobs.

00:20:26.000 If you are retiring on somebody else's dime, by the way, your choice has externalities.

00:20:29.000 Somebody else is paying for your retirement.

00:20:32.000 Also, you should find something that actually is fulfilling to do.

00:20:36.000 But the problem is, as I've mentioned before, society has now removed many of those fulfilling things to do.

00:20:39.000 Okay, then there's another bizarre argument that I'm hearing a lot.

00:20:43.000 And that argument is that it is elitist to say that people should, as a general matter, continue to work.

00:20:49.000 Because as long as you are healthy, and as long as you're healthy mentally and physically, there is something good about working.

00:20:54.000 I'm not sure why that's elitist.

00:20:56.000 It seems to me that that's true.

00:20:58.000 And there are a bunch of people who are like, well, that's because you're not a bricklayer.

00:21:01.000 Again, I said yesterday, if you're a bricklayer and you hurt your back, that's a completely different thing from a person who was a bricklayer, worked their way up to the management level of the bricklaying company, is still healthy, and then is forced to retire or decides to retire.

00:21:15.000 Not the same thing at all.

00:21:16.000 If you're talking about a health problem, health problems are an entirely different category.

00:21:20.000 In fact, if you have a serious health problem, we're not talking about retirement, we're talking about disability.

00:21:24.000 Because if you break your back at the age of 50, we have disability and it seems like we probably should.

00:21:29.000 Not at the federal level, but at the state and local level.

00:21:31.000 We should have support systems for that.

00:21:33.000 But that's not the same thing.

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00:22:28.000 Okay, so what I'm hearing from people is sort of this left-wing argument that has now horseshoed

00:22:35.000 around to some parts of the right.

00:22:37.000 And that is that work is joyless and soul-deadening, particularly blue-collar work, which actually

00:22:41.000 seems elitist to me.

00:22:42.000 I mean, I'm hearing a lot of people who are like, well, of course you want to continue

00:22:45.000 working until you're old and gray, but that's because you sit behind a desk and you talk.

00:22:50.000 Yes, I like my job.

00:22:51.000 That's true.

00:22:51.000 I love my job.

00:22:52.000 And I've worked hard to get this job.

00:22:53.000 And we employ 300 people at this company, which means that we are responsible for the support of thousands of dependents.

00:22:59.000 I love that.

00:22:59.000 That's great.

00:23:00.000 I plan to work until I can no longer work.

00:23:02.000 Literally until I can't.

00:23:04.000 Okay, but I don't understand why that wouldn't also be true of, say, an electrician or, say, a plumber or a guy who started off as a bricklayer in a bricklaying business, now owns the bricklaying business.

00:23:15.000 That seems kind of, actually, elitist to me.

00:23:17.000 At the same logic, a fulfillment doesn't apply to people who are blue-collar.

00:23:22.000 I know a lot of people who are electricians and are approaching retirement age, they don't, many of them don't want to retire.

00:23:28.000 They like being an electrician.

00:23:29.000 In fact, they feel useless if they do retire.

00:23:32.000 And here's my real question.

00:23:33.000 If you really believe that work is inherently degrading and joyless, even certain sectors of work, it's inherently degrading and joyless and terrible.

00:23:41.000 So then what does an ideal retirement age look like?

00:23:42.000 What you're really arguing against is the work itself.

00:23:45.000 You're not really arguing about the retirement age.

00:23:48.000 What you're really arguing against is the work itself.

00:23:51.000 What does an ideal retirement age look like if you're in favor of this?

00:23:54.000 Does a retirement age look like 21?

00:23:55.000 I mean that's when you're young and you're healthy and you can really enjoy retirement.

00:23:58.000 Why not push it to 21?

00:24:01.000 Why exactly do we have to wait until you're 65 and you're feeling beat up and a little bit old in order to allow you to retire if it's quote-unquote allowing you to retire?

00:24:08.000 Now my point is no one's quote-unquote allowing you to retire or shouldn't be.

00:24:13.000 It's your decision whether to retire and it should be your decision whether to retire.

00:24:17.000 The question of whether the taxpayer subsidizes that is an entirely different issue.

00:24:21.000 I don't think that it's the government's business to subsidize your retirement.

00:24:25.000 I'm not talking about people who are on the cusp of receiving Social Security, by the way.

00:24:29.000 Because the government did steal your money.

00:24:31.000 And presumably there will have to be a phase out with regard to the age provisions of Social Security.

00:24:39.000 What I am saying is that as a general ideological matter, you should be allowed to keep your own money.

00:24:45.000 There has never been, as my friend Matt Walsh says, a greater robbery of the middle class than social security.

00:24:49.000 They literally take working families, and they tax them, and they steal their money, and then they use that to pay elderly pensioners, many of whom are upper income. 0.51

00:25:00.000 That is wrong.

00:25:00.000 It is morally wrong.

00:25:02.000 It is a Ponzi scheme for political benefit of the politicians.

00:25:05.000 That's what it is.

00:25:07.000 That was the point that I was making yesterday.

00:25:08.000 And again, I think this goes to a deeper ideological point that I was making just a moment ago, which is what do you think work is?

00:25:15.000 One of the fascinating things that some of the people who are sort of on the right on this typically would be considered right wing of the political spectrum who were very upset with me yesterday.

00:25:23.000 They were saying, well, you don't respect the blue collar worker because you're saying that people quote unquote don't deserve to retire.

00:25:29.000 My point is that I don't think that retirement is a good personal decision.

00:25:31.000 I think there's a deserve about it.

00:25:34.000 You deserve whatever you can pay for.

00:25:37.000 As far as what you deserve from the public, from the guy who's still working, that's a completely different story.

00:25:44.000 But it is interesting to me that many of the same people who will, for example, object to automated technologies because they say that it kills jobs and people need jobs.

00:25:52.000 The universal basic income won't do it.

00:25:54.000 You can't just cut somebody a welfare check and find a sense of fulfillment in that.

00:25:57.000 Suddenly believe that the logic reverses itself when you hit 65.

00:26:00.000 When you hit 65, they can cut you a welfare check in the form of social security and that somehow this is more fulfilling than when you were 30 and they were cutting you a welfare check in lieu of a job.

00:26:11.000 You can't have it both ways.

00:26:12.000 You can't have jobs are good and also jobs are bad.

00:26:16.000 You gotta pick one.

00:26:18.000 And my general perception is that human beings like to work in one form or another.

00:26:23.000 And that human beings are really not made to quote-unquote retire in the way that we think of it.

00:26:29.000 Like sitting on a pool deck somewhere for 20 years.

00:26:31.000 That's not what human beings are created for.

00:26:33.000 From a biblical perspective, you might say, thou shalt work six days a week and on the seventh thou shalt rest.

00:26:38.000 You might say that.

00:26:40.000 As long as you still have your health and as long as you still have your mental aptitude, it seems to me like most people want to work and should.

00:26:46.000 And that doesn't mean the government forces them to.

00:26:47.000 We're not talking about sending you to the salt mines when you're 70 years old.

00:26:50.000 And I'm just bewildered by this perception that that's somehow an elitist sentiment, when the point that I'm making is that I believe it is human nature for people to want to feel productive, useful, and purposeful.

00:27:00.000 And if you can't find that production and purpose anywhere else than a job, which seems to be the way that it works in America these days, because again, church and family have disappeared, then you're gonna have a bigger problem than you think when you quote-unquote retire.

00:27:12.000 Did you know that a baby's heart begins to beat at just three weeks?

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00:28:13.000 Meanwhile, in the world of daily politics, the big story of the day yesterday was the testimony of special counsel Robert Herr.

00:28:19.000 Robert Herr is, of course, the former special counsel who investigated Joe Biden's possession of classified documents after he left the vice presidency.

00:28:26.000 And Democrats are fighting mad at Robert Herr.

00:28:29.000 Why?

00:28:29.000 Well, I mean, he didn't prosecute Biden, even though Biden fulfilled every element of the law that would be required to prosecute him.

00:28:36.000 He was grossly negligent in his handling of classified materials by every available piece of evidence.

00:28:41.000 The reason that Democrats are mad at him is because Robert Herb presented them with a choice, and it was a very bad choice.

00:28:48.000 Choice number one, Joe Biden was responsible for his violations of law and should be prosecuted.

00:28:54.000 Choice number two.

00:28:55.000 Joe Biden is responsible for violations of law, but he shouldn't be prosecuted because he's a sympathetic senile old man.

00:29:02.000 And that's the reason why Hur didn't recommend prosecution.

00:29:05.000 He said, yes, he fulfills all of the conditions of violation of the law for years on end.

00:29:09.000 He kept classified documents from like skiffs in his house and in a variety of other locations.

00:29:14.000 But the reason we can't prosecute him is because he's senile. 1.00

00:29:16.000 The reason we can't prosecute him is because he is a doddering old fool. 0.99

00:29:19.000 And if you get that guy in front of a jury, it's going to be very hard to convict an 81 year old man of keeping classified documents next to his Corvette in the garage. 0.99

00:29:27.000 That was the actual report from Robert Hur.

00:29:29.000 We went through it at the time.

00:29:30.000 Democrats are fighting mad at this because, of course, Democrats wanted Biden exonerated on the law, which couldn't happen because he violated the law.

00:29:38.000 And then because he couldn't exonerate him on the law, he had to exonerate him.

00:29:42.000 He didn't really exonerate him legally. 1.00

00:29:44.000 He had to let him off the hook because he was a doddering old fool. 0.99

00:29:48.000 And Democrats don't want Joe Biden called a doddering old fool in the run up to a presidential reelect effort. 0.98

00:29:53.000 And so what you got yesterday is Democrats berating Robert Herr, just really, really mad at Robert Herr. 0.90

00:29:59.000 So here is the worst congressman in the country, probably, Adam Schiff, just as a congressperson.

00:30:06.000 I'm not talking about like terrorist supporters like Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar or something. 0.88

00:30:09.000 I'm talking about just like as a congressperson who is corrupt and venal, Adam Schiff is unparalleled.

00:30:14.000 So here's Adam Schiff berating Robert Herr for the great sin of pointing out that Joe Biden is feeble, which is why you can't prosecute him.

00:30:23.000 And you also understand DOJ policy that you are to take care not to prejudice the interests of the subject of an investigation, right?

00:30:32.000 That is generally one of the interests that DOJ policy requires that prosecutors respect.

00:30:37.000 And it was your obligation to follow that policy in this report, was it not?

00:30:42.000 It was also my obligation to write a confidential report for the Attorney General explaining completely my decision.

00:30:47.000 What you did write was deeply prejudicial to the interests of the President.

00:30:51.000 You say it wasn't political and yet you must have understood.

00:30:55.000 You must have understood the impact of your words.

00:30:58.000 You must have understood the impact of your decision to go beyond the specifics of a particular document to go to the very general, to your own personal, prejudicial, subjective opinion of the President.

00:31:09.000 One you knew would be amplified by his political opponent.

00:31:12.000 One you knew that would influence a political campaign.

00:31:15.000 You had to understand that.

00:31:17.000 And you did it anyway.

00:31:19.000 And you did it anyway.

00:31:21.000 Schiff is such a smart machine.

00:31:23.000 Again, the only reason Joe Biden isn't in the dock right now is because Robert Herr said that he's senile.

00:31:29.000 That's literally the only reason.

00:31:31.000 It's now that button choice meme.

00:31:34.000 Button one, Biden is senile so we can't prosecute him. 0.95

00:31:37.000 Choice number two, Biden is Nazi now. 0.96

00:31:39.000 We should prosecute him. 0.73

00:31:40.000 Those are the only two choices.

00:31:42.000 There is no third choice where Joe Biden did not violate the law.

00:31:44.000 That choice is not available.

00:31:46.000 Democrats cannot have it both ways, but they were trying to.

00:31:49.000 So one House Democrat, this would be Hank Johnson, who believes that the island of Guam is going to tip over.

00:31:53.000 That's literally a thing that he once said.

00:31:55.000 Accused Robert Herr of trying to get a favor from Donald Trump with this report.

00:32:01.000 Honest to God, if you ever want to know why the Founding Fathers designed it so that there were checks and balances in American government, and we shouldn't look to government to get things done, look no further than every public hearing where every single congressperson makes an ass of themselves.

00:32:14.000 These people have a collective IQ lower than the wattage of the light bulb right here.

00:32:18.000 Like, significantly lower.

00:32:19.000 And we're talking about 435 people have a collective IQ lower than a 100-watt light bulb.

00:32:24.000 It's amazing.

00:32:26.000 Here's Hank Johnson just being terrible, as usual.

00:32:30.000 Are you a member of the Federalist Society?

00:32:32.000 I am not a member of the Federalist Society.

00:32:33.000 But you are a Republican, though, aren't you?

00:32:35.000 I am a registered Republican.

00:32:36.000 Yes, sir.

00:32:37.000 And you're doing everything you can do to get President Trump re-elected so that you can get appointed as a federal judge or perhaps to another position in the Department of Justice.

00:32:48.000 Isn't that correct?

00:32:49.000 Congressman, I have no such aspirations.

00:32:51.000 I can assure you, and I can tell you, that partisan politics had no place whatsoever in my work.

00:32:57.000 It had no place in the investigative steps that I took.

00:33:00.000 It had no place in the decision that I made.

00:33:02.000 And it had no place in a single word of my report.

00:33:06.000 Okay, but again, the implication by Democrats is the only reason that Robert Hurd was hazy now is because he's a mean old Republican.

00:33:11.000 Again, that's the only reason that Joe Biden isn't being prosecuted.

00:33:15.000 And then it was fun to watch as Democrats tried to spin it the other way.

00:33:18.000 So they tried to say, well, OK, sure, Biden, maybe he's seen it, but does it really matter?

00:33:22.000 So, for example, Steve Cohen of Tennessee, he says, well, sure, Joe Biden can't remember things anymore.

00:33:28.000 Sure, Joe Biden would fail a game of go fish.

00:33:32.000 Sure, like.

00:33:33.000 OK, fine, but does he really need a memory?

00:33:36.000 Do we need brains anymore?

00:33:38.000 Maybe not.

00:33:40.000 The fact is, Mr. Biden sat through five hours, and he did an admirable job.

00:33:46.000 And he did an outstanding job in the State of the Union, laying out the case for the future of America, for the middle class, for democracy around the world, for standing up to the Russians, not bending down to them. 0.90

00:33:58.000 That's what's important.

00:33:59.000 Not if you can be like on the $64,000 question.

00:34:02.000 Assuming it was legit.

00:34:04.000 And answering every single question correctly.

00:34:06.000 That's not what you need to be president.

00:34:07.000 To be president you need to have values.

00:34:09.000 You need to have an understanding of what values America has and needs to maintain to keep the world safe and peaceful.

00:34:16.000 That's dealing with Ukraine.

00:34:18.000 That's dealing with difficult people like Netanyahu and Israel to try to get something done that's correct.

00:34:22.000 What is wrong with Robert Herr?

00:34:23.000 Robert Herr is just sitting there like, why are you lecturing me? 0.93

00:34:24.000 What the hell?

00:34:26.000 Medicaid are important institutions that help seniors, not senile people. 0.87

00:34:32.000 I mean, I object to that comment.

00:34:34.000 People say he's not nobody suggest he's senile.

00:34:36.000 And that's disrespectful of senior people with any kind of memory disability.

00:34:40.000 Lots of seniors have memory disability, but they're not senile.

00:34:43.000 And to do such was shameful.

00:34:45.000 Joe Biden is a competent, good president who knows American values.

00:34:51.000 No, he is not.

00:34:51.000 He's a terrible president who is not competent, which is why the polls have him losing to Donald Trump right now.

00:34:57.000 Absolutely insane. 0.73

00:34:58.000 In just one second, we're going to get into the actual transcript of what Joe Biden said. 0.75

00:35:03.000 And this dude has applesauce for brains.

00:35:05.000 Legitimately applesauce for brains.

00:35:08.000 Like, not even like chunky applesauce.

00:35:10.000 Smooth applesauce.

00:35:11.000 It's gone all the way through the blender.

00:35:13.000 We'll get to that in just one second.

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00:35:36.000 Alrighty, so.

00:35:38.000 Let's talk about what's actually in the transcript.

00:35:40.000 Because we've heard from Steve Cohen that, in fact, Joe Biden did an admirable job.

00:35:45.000 And ABC and CBS did the same thing.

00:35:47.000 They said, oh man, we read the transcript and this guy is sharp as a tack.

00:35:50.000 I mean, he is right on the money.

00:35:51.000 Here are ABC and CBS doing press for the White House, which is what they do.

00:35:56.000 I have reviewed the full transcript myself, all 250 pages of it, and there are moments where the president does have memory lapses, especially, for instance, in his recall and description of his son Beau's death.

00:36:07.000 The president struggles to remember the year that Beau died, though he does remember the exact date.

00:36:12.000 But overall, George, I have to tell you that the image that you get of the president that you take away largely

00:36:17.000 mirrors that of his public persona.

00:36:19.000 He staunchly defends his handling of classified material, has detailed recollection of events

00:36:24.000 from years ago.

00:36:25.000 He is also very conversational, even jokes with the committee.

00:36:28.000 And yes, he does go on some lengthy tangents and tends to ramble, as Joe Biden does.

00:36:34.000 Many of the details that Biden couldn't recall, such as how boxes were packed up, how they

00:36:39.000 were transported, those are things that would likely be tricky for anyone to remember decades

00:36:45.000 It is notable, though, that her wrote that Biden could not remember when his son Beau died.

00:36:50.000 That's just not true.

00:36:51.000 One thing is very clear from the transcript.

00:36:54.000 Biden was cooperative throughout the entire interview process.

00:36:58.000 Sharp as a tack.

00:36:59.000 I mean, that dude is really on top.

00:37:01.000 Okay, so now let's talk about what's actually in the transcripts.

00:37:03.000 According to the Washington Free Beacon, transcripts of her interview with Biden released Tuesday and reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon support her assessment there are significant limitations surrounding Biden's memory.

00:37:13.000 Throughout the five hours of interviews on October 8th and 9th, Biden struggled to recall relevant details about his handling of classified records or when he served as vice president.

00:37:20.000 The transcript also confirms Biden could not recall when his son Beau died and further shows the president raised that subject unprompted.

00:37:27.000 Which, of course, contradicts the lie that Joe Biden told at his February 8th press conference, where he mixed up the presidents of Mexico and Egypt.

00:37:32.000 You remember, he started yelling that Robert Herb brought up his son, which is a lie.

00:37:36.000 It was Joe Biden.

00:37:36.000 Not only is that the case, not only is that the case, that when Biden started talking about Beau, Herb said, Sir, I'm wondering if this is a good time to take a break briefly.

00:37:46.000 So Herb tried to say to him, like, do you want to stop?

00:37:48.000 Because this is emotional. 1.00

00:37:50.000 Remember that Joe Biden basically called him a son of a bitch. 0.98

00:37:55.000 Early on in the October 8th interview with her, the special counsel asked Biden if he ever transferred any documents from the vice presidential residence to his primary Delaware residence. 0.99

00:38:02.000 Biden answered that he did occasionally.

00:38:04.000 And then he said, quote, you left everything in place.

00:38:08.000 I just hope you didn't find any risque pictures of my wife in a bathing suit, which you probably did.

00:38:13.000 She's beautiful.

00:38:15.000 That's not weird.

00:38:15.000 It's not a weird thing to say.

00:38:18.000 You're talking to a special counsel.

00:38:19.000 You're talking about how hot your wife is in a bathing suit. 1.00

00:38:22.000 That's not strange at all, you old weirdo. 0.87

00:38:25.000 And then, he didn't stop there, according to the Free Beacon.

00:38:28.000 He proceeded to provide the special counsel a history lesson on his struggles as a frustrated architect designing plans for the home as it was being built.

00:38:34.000 Biden went into great detail about how he obtained its furnishings, including a beautiful desk he purchased during his career as an attorney.

00:38:42.000 During this tangent, Biden also revealed that he hit a target hundreds of yards away with a bow and arrow during a visit to Mongolia in August 2011.

00:38:48.000 Quote, I'm not a bad archer, but I hit the bleep target A video uploaded by the Obama administration at the time, by the way, shows Biden shooting a bow into an empty field.

00:38:59.000 So, there's that.

00:39:01.000 Then, apparently, he started talking randomly about his tort classes in law school.

00:39:05.000 school. He said, we had a really difficult professor.

00:39:07.000 You're calling me to, you know, you're doing law school, discuss

00:39:09.000 the case. You know, in your first tort class, I never heard the

00:39:12.000 case. I stood up and spoke for 10 minutes.

00:39:13.000 The whole class stood up, started clapping.

00:39:16.000 That is not remotely true.

00:39:19.000 As somebody who went to law school, no, that has never happened to anyone in law school.

00:39:23.000 And I went to a better law school than wherever he went, University of Delaware or wherever.

00:39:28.000 Okay, then it got weirder. 0.99

00:39:29.000 Joe Biden apparently, during this transcript, detailed a bizarre episode during one of his first jobs out of law school involving a 23-year-old construction worker with a seared penis and missing testicle. 0.99

00:39:40.000 Quote. 0.99

00:39:40.000 Robert Herr must have been sitting there like, why are we talking about barbecue testicles? 0.99

00:39:44.000 I don't even understand what's happening right now. 0.81

00:39:46.000 wrong pants, wrong jeans, caught a spark, caught fire, got caught in the containment vessel, 1.00

00:39:51.000 lost part of his penis in one of his testicles. 0.99

00:39:54.000 He was 23 years old. 0.99

00:39:56.000 Robert Herr must've been sitting there like, why are we talking about barbecue testicles? 0.97

00:39:59.000 I don't even understand what's happening right now. 0.98

00:40:01.000 That's so weird.

00:40:02.000 And then apparently, my favorite part of the transcript, My favorite part of the transcript is when he apparently started talking about his Chevy Corvette.

00:40:15.000 And he started talking about the torque of electric vehicles.

00:40:18.000 By the way, you know how it works.

00:40:20.000 It's really cool.

00:40:21.000 And Hurst said, sir, I'd love to hear much more about this, but I do have a few more

00:40:25.000 questions to get through.

00:40:26.000 He's like humoring the old man.

00:40:27.000 Sure, let's talk about, we'll talk about your love of Chevy Corvettes in just one.

00:40:31.000 Honest to God, this part of the conversation reads like a conversation that I would have

00:40:35.000 with my seven-year-old son, legitimately.

00:40:39.000 He's like, Biden just ignores him.

00:40:41.000 Her's like, we have some stuff to get through.

00:40:43.000 And Biden is like, well, let me tell you more about about torque.

00:40:46.000 You step your foot on the accelerator all the way down until it gets about six, seven grand.

00:40:50.000 And all of a sudden it'll say launch.

00:40:52.000 All you do is take your foot off the brake.

00:40:54.000 The transcript then indicates, makes car sound.

00:40:56.000 And her goes, it's on my bucket list.

00:41:13.000 Don't worry, guys.

00:41:14.000 Sharp as a tack, our president of the United States.

00:41:17.000 Again, you guys, you can't have it both ways.

00:41:19.000 Either he's sharp as a tack, in which case he should go to jail for, you know, stealing classified materials and holding them in his house.

00:41:26.000 Or he is not sharp as a tack, in which case he should basically be let off the hook.

00:41:30.000 But you can't have it both ways.

00:41:31.000 And it's pretty obvious which one it is.

00:41:33.000 You got applesauce for brains over here talking with Robert H.E.R.

00:41:35.000 and going, I want to know how a choo-choo train works.

00:41:38.000 Our genius president!

00:41:50.000 Things are working out great.

00:41:51.000 By the way, guys, like, really well done on our nomination process in the last couple cycles.

00:41:55.000 Just really, really well done.

00:41:57.000 All right, so what did Robert Herr actually say in his testimony?

00:41:59.000 He said many things that are relevant.

00:42:00.000 First, he said Joe Biden obviously willfully retained classified information.

00:42:05.000 My team and I conducted a thorough, independent investigation.

00:42:09.000 We identified evidence that the President willfully retained classified materials after the end of his Vice Presidency when he was a private citizen.

00:42:18.000 This evidence included an audio-recorded conversation during which Mr. Biden told his ghostwriter that he had, quote, just found all the classified stuff downstairs, end quote.

00:42:30.000 Oops.

00:42:31.000 Also, Robert Herr said that Joe Biden had classified materials at seven different locations.

00:42:36.000 Mr. Herr, classified documents were found at the Penn-Biden Center?

00:42:40.000 That's correct.

00:42:41.000 They were found in President Biden's garage?

00:42:43.000 In Wilmington, Delaware, yes.

00:42:45.000 And in his basement den?

00:42:47.000 Also in the same home, yes.

00:42:48.000 And his main floor office?

00:42:50.000 Correct.

00:42:51.000 And his third floor den?

00:42:53.000 Correct.

00:42:54.000 At the University of Delaware?

00:42:55.000 Correct.

00:42:56.000 And at the Biden Institute?

00:42:58.000 Correct.

00:42:59.000 Well, that seems bad.

00:43:01.000 He had classified documents literally everywhere.

00:43:04.000 Her said, yeah, I have lots of reasons to believe that Joe Biden lied to me.

00:43:07.000 At any point in your investigation, did you have any reason to believe that President Biden lied to you?

00:43:15.000 I do address in my report one response the president gave to a question that we had posed to him that we deemed to be not credible.

00:43:24.000 Oops.

00:43:25.000 Oops.

00:43:26.000 In fact, Robert Herbert went even so far as to say that a reasonable juror could have voted to convict based on the fact alleged.

00:43:33.000 Which, um, that's saying that he's guilty, basically.

00:43:36.000 Based on the facts and anticipation of defenses presented in your report, could a reasonable juror have voted to convict?

00:43:44.000 As I said in the report, some reasonable jurors may have reached the inferences that the government would present in its case in chief.

00:43:51.000 So a reasonable juror could have voted to convict based on the facts that you presented?

00:43:55.000 So, I mean, he's saying all the things.

00:43:58.000 He even said that Joe Biden's ghostwriter, when he was contacted by the special counsel's office, took all the audio files and tried to trash them.

00:44:05.000 I said this earlier in my opening statement, page 200, Joe Biden, this is a quote, Joe Biden risked serious damage to America's national security when he shared information with his ghostwriter.

00:44:19.000 Shared it with his ghostwriter, the guy who was helping Joe Biden get $8 million.

00:44:24.000 And oh, by the way, Mr. Herr, what did that ghostwriter do with the information Joe Biden shared with him on his laptop?

00:44:32.000 What did he do after you were named special counsel?

00:44:36.000 Chairman, if you're referring to the audio recordings that Mr. Zwanitzer created of his conversations with... That's exactly what I'm referring to.

00:44:44.000 He slid, if I remember correctly, he slid those files into his recycle bin on his computer.

00:44:51.000 Tried to destroy the evidence, didn't he?

00:44:53.000 Correct.

00:44:55.000 The very guy who was helping Joe Biden get the $8 million, the $8 million Joe Biden had used, the motive for Joe Biden to disclose classified information, to retain classified information, which he definitely knew was against the law.

00:45:08.000 When you get named special counsel, what's that guy do?

00:45:11.000 He destroys the evidence.

00:45:14.000 Well, that happens to be the case.

00:45:16.000 Okay, so Democrats try to say that Robert Hur exonerated Biden.

00:45:19.000 He didn't, obviously.

00:45:20.000 What the report said is that he actually probably committed the crime, but he's senile.

00:45:24.000 So here is Pramila Jayapal. 0.97

00:45:26.000 Again, the number of dullards in our Congress is just astonishing. 1.00

00:45:28.000 Here's Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, trying to browbeat Hur into saying that he exonerated Biden when he clearly didn't.

00:45:36.000 So this lengthy, expensive, and independent investigation resulted in a complete exoneration of President Joe Biden.

00:45:43.000 For every document you discussed in your report, you found insufficient evidence that the President violated any laws about possession or retention of classified materials.

00:45:52.000 The primary law that you analyzed for potential prosecution was part of the Espionage Act, 18 U.S.C.

00:45:59.000 793E, which criminalizes willful retention or disclosure of national defense information.

00:46:05.000 Is that correct?

00:46:06.000 Congressman, that is one statute that we analyzed.

00:46:08.000 I need to go back and make sure that I take note of the word that you used, exoneration.

00:46:14.000 Mr. Herr, I'm going to continue with my questions.

00:46:17.000 I'm going to continue with my questions.

00:46:18.000 I know that the term... I know that the term... You exonerated him.

00:46:20.000 I know that the term...

00:46:21.000 ...whether sufficient evidence existed such that the likely outcome...

00:46:25.000 You exonerated him.

00:46:26.000 ...would be a conviction.

00:46:27.000 I did not exonerate him.

00:46:28.000 I know that the term willful retention has a...

00:46:29.000 That word does not appear in the report, Congresswoman.

00:46:30.000 Mr. Herr, it's my time.

00:46:31.000 I love that.

00:46:33.000 So she's just lying about what he said.

00:46:35.000 And then the minute he says that's not true, she goes, I reclaim my time. 1.00

00:46:38.000 These clowns. 0.96

00:46:40.000 The actual bombshell in all the testimony was none of this. 0.99

00:46:42.000 This is all for show.

00:46:43.000 We knew all this from the report.

00:46:45.000 The bombshell is that her actually said that the White House asked him to water down the report, which is kind of amazing.

00:46:51.000 I thought that the White House wasn't supposed to get involved with the special counsel.

00:46:53.000 I thought the special counsel was free to pursue whatever he wanted, but apparently they literally contacted him and tried to get him to water down the report so as to downplay the actual rationale for not prosecuting Joe Biden.

00:47:04.000 So is it correct on that February 5th letter that was sent to you asking you to change references to the President's poor memory?

00:47:17.000 Wasn't there a request by the White House to do that?

00:47:19.000 There was a request, yes.

00:47:21.000 And Mr. Chairman, I think the record should show that the gentleman from Maryland earlier said that that was not That was not the case.

00:47:29.000 I think he said, nor did he seek to redact a single word of Herr's report.

00:47:35.000 Obviously, Mr. Herr is telling us differently here.

00:47:38.000 And didn't the White House then go to the Attorney General himself and say that he would like to see changes to the references in regards to the President's memory?

00:47:49.000 The White House counsel did send such a letter.

00:47:52.000 Okay, well that would be the big story, right?

00:47:54.000 Is that the White House literally tried to push the special counsel to change the report so as to politically help Joe Biden.

00:48:00.000 Which again, was not possible.

00:48:01.000 Just the logic of the case, that was an impossibility.

00:48:04.000 Alrighty guys, the rest of the show continues right now.

00:48:06.000 Joining me in person is Peter Schweitzer.

00:48:07.000 He's the author of the brand new bestseller, Blood Money, by the powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans.

00:48:12.000 If you're not a member, become a member.

00:48:13.000 Use code Shapiro.

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The Ben Shapiro Show - March 13, 2024

Uh-Oh, I Said Something Unsayable

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