The Ben Shapiro Show - United States DESTROYS Canada At Their Own Sport

00:00:00.000 The American men's hockey team emerges triumphant at the Olympics.

00:00:03.000 We discuss why it was so awesome.

00:00:05.000 Another apparent assassination attempt against President Trump is thwarted, and Tucker Carlson made a fool of himself over the weekend with Ambassador Mike Huckabee.

00:00:12.000 We'll get to all of it first.

00:00:13.000 When Matt Walsh released episode one of Real History with Matt Walsh, The Real History of Slavery, we kind of knew what was going to happen.

00:00:20.000 A narrative we had been taught for decades, reinforced by institutions, dramatized by Hollywood, suddenly had to face the truth.

00:00:25.000 Well, now Matt is back with the next chapter, episode two: The Real History of the American Indians, is streaming right now exclusively on Daily Wire Plus.

00:00:34.000 Yes, we do want you to watch it.

00:00:35.000 We want teachers to watch it.

00:00:36.000 We want classrooms to watch it.

00:00:38.000 And yeah, Hollywood should pull up a chair as well. 0.99

00:00:40.000 Real history with Matt Walsh, episode two, streaming right now, only on Daily Wire Plus.

00:00:45.000 Well, it's been 46 years since American men were able to hold the hockey gold at the Olympics.

00:00:51.000 And both times we defeated a communist neighbor, a threat to our very way of life. 0.97

00:00:55.000 Last time, of course, it was the USSR. 0.97

00:00:57.000 This time, it was our evil northern neighbors, the Canadians. 1.00

00:01:00.000 But it was pretty inspiring nonetheless.

00:01:03.000 If you missed the Olympic gold medal hockey game between the United States and Canada, you missed a doozy.

00:01:09.000 It was a spectacular, spectacular hockey game.

00:01:12.000 So the U.S. took in the first period a 1-0 lead.

00:01:15.000 They held it all the way until the third period when the Canadians evened it up.

00:01:19.000 And then they ended up in sudden death overtime, where Jack Hughes delivered a game winner for the ages.

00:01:27.000 Amazing, amazing.

00:01:28.000 He'd already taken, by the way, a high stick to the face.

00:01:30.000 So he was missing a bunch of teeth.

00:01:31.000 It was the most hockey thing ever.

00:01:34.000 What was really refreshing about it was the way that the men's hockey team responded, which is with actual just basic patriotism.

00:01:40.000 I know this has now become a controversial thing, but actually, there is nothing controversial about America being awesome.

00:01:45.000 Jack Hughes, he and his brother are both on the U.S. national men's hockey team.

00:01:50.000 Here he was after the game, after having scored the game winner.

00:01:54.000 This is all about our country right now.

00:01:57.000 I love the USA.

00:01:58.000 I love my teammates.

00:02:00.000 It's unbelievable.

00:02:01.000 The USA Hockey Brotherhood is so strong.

00:02:04.000 And we have so much support from X players.

00:02:07.000 I'm so proud to be American today.

00:02:11.000 I mean, isn't that nice?

00:02:12.000 Isn't that nice?

00:02:13.000 Can't we just all feel good about that?

00:02:15.000 The answer, of course, is no.

00:02:16.000 There are many people who are not feeling good about that because how can you be proud of America in the age of Donald Trump?

00:02:23.000 But here's the thing: if Barack Obama were president and we won the American men's hockey gold, I think we'd all feel pretty good about that.

00:02:31.000 So, why is it that that changes if you don't like the president of the United States?

00:02:36.000 By the way, the actual most spectacular player of the game was the goaltender, Connor Helibuck, who is the reigning NHL MVP and was unbelievable.

00:02:45.000 He had some of the saves that he was.

00:02:45.000 Unbelievable.

00:02:47.000 There was one particular save, a stick save, that was just extraordinary.

00:02:52.000 Great game, huge win for the men's hockey team.

00:02:56.000 And again, this viral video is like this viral photo of Jack Hughes.

00:03:01.000 This is America.

00:03:02.000 Murica! 0.98

00:03:03.000 He's missing teeth.

00:03:04.000 He's bleeding from the mouth.

00:03:05.000 He's got the American flag draped around his shoulders.

00:03:08.000 Just awesome.

00:03:09.000 President Trump did call into the locker room to congratulate the men.

00:03:12.000 Here's what it sounded like.

00:03:15.000 And you were all unbelievable.

00:03:17.000 And that team is pretty good, you played.

00:03:20.000 I don't know.

00:03:23.000 You know, I tell you what, I just told you people two minutes ago, I didn't know they'd be calling.

00:03:28.000 I said, we're giving the State of the Union speech on Tuesday night.

00:03:32.000 I could send a military plan or something.

00:03:35.000 But if you would like to, it's the coolest night.

00:03:39.000 It's the biggest.

00:03:40.000 We're in speech, right?

00:03:44.000 Can you pick us up in Miami on Tuesday morning?

00:03:50.000 We'll get cash and we'll get the military to get you guys out of the way.

00:03:53.000 I'm going to Kesco.

00:03:57.000 Boys are going to State of the Union.

00:03:59.000 And we'll do the White House the next day.

00:04:00.000 We'll just have some fun.

00:04:01.000 We have medals for you guys.

00:04:03.000 And we have to, I must tell you, we're going to have to bring the woman's team. 0.97

00:04:07.000 You do know that.

00:04:20.000 And by the way, notice how the men's hockey team, are they upset that Trump is calling them?

00:04:24.000 Are they in any way experiencing interior pain because Trump calls?

00:04:24.000 Are they?

00:04:29.000 No, because he's the president of the United States.

00:04:31.000 Just get over it.

00:04:32.000 You might not like him.

00:04:32.000 It doesn't matter when the president of the United States calls you on the phone to congratulate you for winning a gold medal on behalf of the United States.

00:04:39.000 You take the call and you smile and it's great.

00:04:41.000 It's just great stuff.

00:04:43.000 And of course, that's pretty funny from President Trump.

00:04:44.000 By the way, if you're on the men's hockey team, is your goal in life to be at the state of the union?

00:04:49.000 Yeah, it's not quite Disneyland.

00:04:52.000 I'm going to the State of the Union.

00:04:52.000 Where are you going?

00:04:54.000 Anyway, it is spectacular stuff.

00:04:57.000 And as I say, there are many reasons to feel good about this.

00:05:00.000 And it's a reminder of the sort of stuff that typically unites Americans.

00:05:03.000 One, we like meritocracy.

00:05:04.000 You know, one know why virtually every major television event of the last year and a half has been a sports event.

00:05:11.000 Why?

00:05:12.000 Well, because it turns out that sports is one of the few areas of American life where we all basically agree a meritocracy is taking place, that the best team wins or the team with the most guts.

00:05:22.000 That's where all the drama lies.

00:05:25.000 Meritocracy is about the adventure.

00:05:26.000 It's about the drama.

00:05:28.000 It's about the thrill of victory.

00:05:31.000 That's why Americans love it.

00:05:33.000 And so watching the hockey team win the gold is awesome because again, sports is the realm of meritocracy.

00:05:39.000 Also, one thing that always unites Americans is the fact that there is, in fact, a common enemy.

00:05:44.000 When it comes to sports, the common enemy is whoever the United States is playing.

00:05:49.000 And this has been true forever, and not just for the United States.

00:05:53.000 There is a very famous phrase that was used in the lead up to World War I with regard to the British, saying that the wars that were won on the battlefield were started on the playing fields of Eton, meaning that everybody kind of learned to play as a team in these arenas.

00:06:13.000 And then they channel that energy and that sort of masculine energy toward an opponent.

00:06:19.000 And so it's easy for Americans to come together when there's a common opponent.

00:06:22.000 One of the reasons why the United States has splintered so much over the course of the last several decades is because the United States is in fact a global hegemon.

00:06:29.000 And because of that, there's a feeling like most of our conflicts are internal.

00:06:33.000 But that's not true.

00:06:34.000 The vast majority of real conflicts on planet Earth are between the United States and other nefarious powers.

00:06:41.000 Now, this game meant a lot to America because it was sort of a unifying moment.

00:06:44.000 But of course, I'm joking when I equate the Canadians and the Russians.

00:06:48.000 If the United States had been defeating a global superpower in hockey that was also geopolitically an enemy, like the Russians or the Chinese, that would have even been bigger.

00:06:59.000 That's what 1980 was.

00:07:01.000 But America, in order for us to really feel unified, we have to also see kind of what's on the other side of the fence.

00:07:07.000 Otherwise, we tend to tear ourselves apart internally.

00:07:11.000 And it really is fascinating.

00:07:12.000 Just sociologically, the breakdown here.

00:07:14.000 Well, some people might be split over the U.S. men's Olympic hockey team winning the gold, but it was awesome.

00:07:20.000 And you know what else is awesome?

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00:08:21.000 So you're seeing two groups of people who are sort of looking at this wonderful event, this fun and unifying event, and trying to look a gift horse in the mouth.

00:08:32.000 One of them are people on the left who are saying, how dare we feel good about America in a time when Donald Trump is president of the United States?

00:08:41.000 The Huffington Post had a piece by Monica Torres saying, There's a name for the discomfort you're feeling watching the Olympics right now.

00:08:49.000 If waving the American flag or chanting USA turns you off right now, you're not alone.

00:08:53.000 Well, I mean, you should be alone because you suck.

00:08:56.000 But that's the basic idea here from some members of the left.

00:09:00.000 Mel Hill is doing the same routine.

00:09:02.000 America right now is very, very no good, truly bad, because of the evils of Donald Trump.

00:09:09.000 So I'm supposed to feel bad that the American men's hockey team won the gold because you didn't vote for the guy who's currently in the Oval.

00:09:17.000 By the way, this is a split between the right and the left in virtually all polling data.

00:09:21.000 Conservatives are always patriotic about the country, even when a Democrat is president.

00:09:25.000 Democrats are significantly less patriotic about the country when a Democrat is not president.

00:09:30.000 This is a long-term trend line in the United States, which is not a good thing.

00:09:36.000 But then there's sort of a bizarre, I'd say, fringe movement on the right trying to suggest that this isn't a cool thing.

00:09:42.000 Why?

00:09:43.000 Well, because it turns out that some members of the U.S. men's hockey team are not necessarily the most conservative on every single issue.

00:09:49.000 So now we're going to delve into their social media histories and try to determine whether Jack Hughes voted for Donald Trump or Kamala Harris.

00:09:56.000 It's like, come on.

00:09:57.000 Are you kidding me?

00:09:58.000 Are you kidding me truly right now with this crap?

00:10:03.000 But that should the innate annoyance that I think all of us feel when we hear that.

00:10:08.000 Everyone who's sane and rational.

00:10:12.000 It's because, yes, America, we are on the same team.

00:10:14.000 I know that a lot of the time it doesn't feel like we're on the same team.

00:10:16.000 And yes, there are Americans who are not on our team.

00:10:19.000 Usually the people who are not on our team are people actually rooting for foreign powers and who see America as essentially a dispensable nation unless they win, unless they get their way.

00:10:29.000 But the reality is that I think the reason why people feel good today about what happened at the Olympics, it was a nice reminder that actually we do share a country and it's good that we share a country.

00:10:38.000 It is not bad that we share a country.

00:10:42.000 Meanwhile, in other news over the weekend, it appears that another attempted assassination against President Trump was stopped.

00:10:49.000 According to the U.S. Secret Service, on February 22nd, around 1:30 a.m., a male in his early 20s was shot by U.S. Secret Service agents and a deputy from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office following an unauthorized entry into the secure perimeter at Mar-a-Lago.

00:11:02.000 The individual whose identity is being withheld pending notification of next of kin was pronounced deceased.

00:11:08.000 Apparently, he was observed by the North Gate of Mar-a-Lago carrying what appeared to be a shotgun and a fuel can.

00:11:15.000 Here was the West Palm Beach sheriff reporting.

00:11:20.000 At 1:30 this morning, the security detail detected that an individual had made his way into the inner perimeter of Mar-a-Lago.

00:11:30.000 A deputy and two Secret Service agents on the detail went to that area to investigate.

00:11:37.000 They confronted a white male that was carrying a gas can and a shotgun.

00:11:44.000 He was ordered to drop those two pieces of equipment that he had with him, at which time he put down the gas can, raised the shotgun to a shooting position.

00:11:57.000 At that point in time, the deputy and the two Secret Service agents fired their weapons and neutralized the threat.

00:12:05.000 Now, we don't have total details on why the shooter, the attempted shooter, did what he did here.

00:12:12.000 However, TMZ has obtained text messages apparently sent by the alleged attempted shooter here to a co-worker February 15th, 2026.

00:12:21.000 So about a week ago, saying, quote, I don't know if you read up on Epstein files, but evil is real and unmistakable.

00:12:27.000 The best people like you and I can do is use what little influence we have, tell other people about what you hear about the Epstein files and what the government is doing, raise awareness.

00:12:36.000 Apparently, sources who worked with this person at the Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club in North Carolina say TMZ, they told TMZ, quote, he became fixated on Epstein following the latest release of information tied to the files.

00:12:46.000 Co-workers tell us he was deeply disturbed by what he believed was a government cover-up and often talked about powerful people, quote, getting away with it.

00:12:53.000 Apparently, he was outspoken about his Christian faith and political views, and he regularly expressed support for Trump, telling colleagues as recently as late last year, he believed that Trump was a strong leader.

00:13:04.000 Okay.

00:13:05.000 Conspiracy theories are brain poison.

00:13:08.000 They are.

00:13:09.000 They just are.

00:13:10.000 Again, specific crimes should be prosecuted.

00:13:14.000 Evidence should be requested for the allegations that are made.

00:13:17.000 This is why we have systems of justice in place.

00:13:20.000 Obviously, every single human being who committed crimes related to Jeffrey Epstein should be prosecuted and thrown in jails to the fullest extent of the law or worse, depending on the nature of their crimes.

00:13:30.000 But the general gestalt that has been put out into the universe by the idiocy of the internet, which is that Donald Trump is participating in a large-scale cover-up of a gigantic child sex trafficking operation directed at various dignitaries run by foreign influence operations, that sort of allegation, which is unevidenced by millions of files, millions of them, that has permeated the brains of a lot of people, including people who, again, exist on the fringes.

00:13:55.000 And I've said before, if you promote theories that are unevidenced and then a fringe actor goes and does something bad that is not directly attributable to you, you do not bear the moral onus for that specific action because you didn't tell them to go shoot Donald Trump or try to.

00:14:12.000 However, are you guilty of raising the temperature?

00:14:15.000 Is it immoral to spread information that is unevidenced?

00:14:18.000 Yes, it actually is immoral to spread information that is unevidenced.

00:14:22.000 It is a problem.

00:14:23.000 It is a bad thing to do.

00:14:26.000 And the consequences are for this person that he's dead, apparently.

00:14:31.000 This is why requesting evidence for whatever the theory is, whatever the contention is, should be the baseline for rational conversation.

00:14:39.000 And instead, obviously, that has become a secondary concern.

00:14:42.000 And then we pretend that there's no effect to that sort of stuff.

00:14:44.000 It's all fun and games.

00:14:47.000 In international news, the biggest story internationally over the weekend is this extraordinary civil war that has apparently blown up in Mexico.

00:14:57.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, Mexico's military killed the country's most powerful drug kingpin, Nemesio Mencho Aceguera, escalating the government's war against cartels amid pressure from President Trump to curb narcotics trafficking and sparking a widespread violent gang response.

00:15:12.000 Oseguera is a former Mexican police officer and was the leader of the Jalisco New Generation cartel.

00:15:18.000 The cartel also controls vast fuel smuggling schemes and other underworld rackets across Mexico and the United States, according to the Mexican authorities.

00:15:26.000 His killing marks the most significant operation yet in Mexico's recent crackdown on cartels.

00:15:31.000 Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum has expelled more than 100 convicted drug traffickers to the United States to their arrest.

00:15:38.000 She's trying to prevent direct U.S. military involvement in going after the leaders of drug cartels. 1.00

00:15:45.000 Mexico's security ministry said the country's special forces killed Osaguera in the rural municipality of Tapalpa, which is apparently close to a lakeshore community with a large American retiree community.

00:15:58.000 White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said Osaguera was a top target for the Mexican and U.S. governments.

00:16:04.000 And of course, last year, President Trump had designated his cartel as a foreign terrorist organization.

00:16:11.000 He controlled Osaguera, vast swaths of territory in the Jalisco state and beyond, and was known for sophisticated paramilitary tactics.

00:16:18.000 He basically has his own army.

00:16:20.000 There was a $15 million U.S. bounty on him.

00:16:23.000 He was mostly at this mountain compound, and he had, again, an entire phalanx of people protecting him, known as the special force of the high command.

00:16:33.000 They had heat-seeking shoulder-fired rocket launchers.

00:16:38.000 So, again, the goal here was to appease the United States, to go after the cartels.

00:16:42.000 This is a change in policy driven by President Trump, no question.

00:16:45.000 I mean, here in November 2025, is Claudia Scheinbaum saying that fighting the cartels is not an option, and yet now here is the Mexican government fighting the cartels.

00:16:55.000 Since returning to the war against the Narco is not an option, it is not an option.

00:17:02.000 First, because it is outside the framework of the law, all these of the right wing that fill their mouths are the words rule of law and defend the war against the narco.

00:17:16.000 The war against the narco is outside the law because, as I said or have said, on several occasions, it is permission to kill without any trial.

00:17:27.000 Okay, well, it seems that she has changed her mind about all of that.

00:17:31.000 Now, what's amazing about this is that actually Osaguera spent several years in the United States.

00:17:35.000 He actually was in jail in the United States for three years, convicted of selling heroin and serving three years in a California prison.

00:17:43.000 He was then deported to Mexico, where he married the daughter of a boss of a Sinaloa-affiliated gang.

00:17:47.000 Imagine if he had just stayed in the United States.

00:17:50.000 He could be running around free today.

00:17:52.000 By 2011, he was leading his own organization based in Jalisco State.

00:17:56.000 And he had recently made an alliance with the Sinaloa faction known as the Chapitos, which is fighting a civil war with a rival gang.

00:18:02.000 The killing of Osaguera may unleash gigantic civil war in this particular region.

00:18:08.000 There are other neighboring regions where a civil war is already effectively underway.

00:18:11.000 The cartels immediately started stopping all traffic in Jalisco and started burning cars.

00:18:19.000 Now, it's not apparent at this point how many, if any, people have been killed, but the pictures and videos that are emerging are pretty clear that they are demonstrating they have control of the city.

00:18:30.000 That seems to be the goal here.

00:18:33.000 And again, Puerto Vallarta, which is located in this area, was one of the cities that was effectively taken over by the cartels.

00:18:42.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, the cartel is considered the country's most powerful organized crime group, one that doesn't shy away from conspicuous violence to send a message.

00:18:50.000 On Sunday, its gunmen shattered the peace in Mexico's premier Pacific beach destination, among the wealthiest places in Jalisco state.

00:18:58.000 Of course, Puerto Vallarta, I've actually been there on a cruise.

00:19:01.000 I mean, like it is a very frequently trafficked place.

00:19:04.000 A lot of cruise ships stop in Puerto Vallarta, and you can see the smoke emerging.

00:19:09.000 Now, there were a bunch of AI videos that were coming out, people supposedly being shot in the streets.

00:19:13.000 That apparently is not true.

00:19:15.000 It seems that this is more of an intimidation tactic than anything else by the cartels to demonstrate that there is a plan in place to take over the mechanisms of law and order in these areas.

00:19:26.000 This has been a long time coming, obviously.

00:19:30.000 And we'll have to see how all of it unfolds.

00:19:32.000 It may very well be that the Mexican government requires the help of the United States to knock off some more leaders of these cartels and take control of the actual country south of our border.

00:19:42.000 Well, Mexico is certainly taking a risk when it comes to going after the cartels, but it's a risk that is worth taking.

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00:21:03.000 The fallout at the same time from the tariff decision made by the Supreme Court on Friday continues.

00:21:08.000 President Trump gave a press conference, which we covered live, at which he said a number of things that I thought were not, shall we say, presidential.

00:21:15.000 The president attacked the justices who ruled against him as somehow dumb and also maybe in the pay of foreign officials or parties.

00:21:23.000 That's absurd.

00:21:24.000 The decision is well-argued and well-reasoned.

00:21:26.000 I frankly think that the dissents have the worst of it in the opinions.

00:21:30.000 And that's a rarity for me because normally I agree with Justices Thomas and Alito.

00:21:34.000 I think both of their opinions are not well calibrated.

00:21:37.000 Alito signed on to Thomas's opinion.

00:21:39.000 He also signed on to a dissent from Brett Kavanaugh.

00:21:42.000 I think if the shoe were on the other foot and it were Joe Biden attempting to declare tariff power over literally all of planet Earth based on a, at best, vague delegation in the IEEPA, I think that would have been struck down.

00:21:54.000 President Trump put out a statement based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on tariffs issued yesterday.

00:22:02.000 I'm just going to put it out there.

00:22:04.000 It is not anti-American to say that Article I powers, the tariff power, belongs with the Article I branch, the legislature.

00:22:11.000 Anyway, he says, after many months of contemplation by the United States Supreme Court, please let this statement serve to represent that I, as president of the United States of America, will be effective immediately, raising the 10% worldwide tariff on countries, many of which have been ripping the U.S. off for decades without retribution until I came along to the fully allowed and legally tested 15% level.

00:22:28.000 During the next short number of months, the Trump administration will determine and issue the new and legally permissible tariffs, which will continue our extraordinarily successful process of making America great again, greater than ever before.

00:22:38.000 On a political level, I believe the president should have taken the win.

00:22:41.000 I really, I think he should have said, listen, I tried my best here.

00:22:44.000 The Supreme Court says I can't do it.

00:22:46.000 And then let the economy rip.

00:22:47.000 But this is one of the few areas in President Trump's agenda list that he actually is a true believer.

00:22:52.000 So President Trump is a pragmatist by nature, but when it comes to tariffs, he is a true believer in a very zero-sum game when it comes to trade.

00:23:00.000 Now, does he have the legal authority to implement what he's doing here under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act?

00:23:08.000 So it sort of comes down to the definition of balance of payments deficits.

00:23:13.000 I know it's a little technical, but the president has the ability, because of balance of payments deficits, to unilaterally declare tariffs for 150 days.

00:23:21.000 The problem is that that is not balance of trade.

00:23:23.000 So the United States has a trade deficit, meaning that we import more than we export.

00:23:27.000 That is not the same as a balance of payments deficit.

00:23:31.000 A balance of payments deficit, as John Puri writes over at National Review, is a comprehensive measure of all economic transactions between America's residents and the rest of the world.

00:23:43.000 That includes not only transactions related to imports and exports, but also to direct investments, loans, and asset purchases.

00:23:50.000 Because every dollar that we send abroad must eventually return to the United States for use, the balance of payments over a long enough period should even out to zero.

00:23:58.000 So the value of our trade deficit should be matched dollar for dollar by a nearly equal capital account or financial account surplus every year.

00:24:03.000 In other words, let's say that we import more than we export, dollars flow outward.

00:24:07.000 But do those dollars just live out there?

00:24:11.000 And the answer is no.

00:24:13.000 They are then invested back in the United States in bonds, in treasuries, in American businesses.

00:24:19.000 The most recent year that complete data are available on both the U.S. balance of trading goods and services and its net financial account in 2024, America's current account was $1.185 trillion, the largest trade deficit on planet Earth by far.

00:24:31.000 But also the financial account surplus was the largest in the world by far at $1.128 trillion the same year.

00:24:40.000 So supposedly this balance of payments deficit is $57 billion, which is 0.2% of the U.S. GDP.

00:24:48.000 So again, that is not crisis levels.

00:24:50.000 The reason, by the way, that originally the 1974 Trade Act had a section that allowed for tariffs in order to, for example, get rid of a balance of payment deficit is that we were worried about tremendous outflow of American capital because of the movement away from Bretton Woods.

00:25:07.000 That has not occurred.

00:25:08.000 So really, it's really not quite an emergency.

00:25:11.000 It'll get battled out in court.

00:25:13.000 President Trump also sounded off on Justices Kavanaugh, Alito, and Thomas, who were all dissenters in the case.

00:25:19.000 And my new hero is U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

00:25:22.000 And of course, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

00:25:24.000 There's no doubt in anyone's mind they want to make America great again.

00:25:27.000 So here is the deal.

00:25:28.000 President Obama, pretty famously, went in front of members of the Supreme Court when they ruled against him in one case and basically insulted them to their face in the middle of the State of the Union address.

00:25:37.000 And it was really not great.

00:25:38.000 You know what?

00:25:38.000 Not great when President Trump does it either.

00:25:42.000 Scott Besant was out there defending the president and suggested that the president of the United States inherently has the power to tariff because he can embargo.

00:25:51.000 That is not technically correct.

00:25:54.000 An embargo is not the same as a tariff.

00:25:56.000 It's like saying that because the government has a law, for example, that bans cocaine, the government also has the power to tax cocaine.

00:26:04.000 They're two different things.

00:26:05.000 Those are two very different policy preferences, even if the tax were to be very low, for example.

00:26:10.000 But here's Scott Besson trying to conflate the two.

00:26:12.000 This is a point that Brett Kavanaugh tried to make in his dissent.

00:26:16.000 What the Supreme Court said is that the president cannot use the IEPA, the Emergency Economic Powers Act, to do this.

00:26:24.000 The president does have other authorities.

00:26:27.000 And as I said, the Section 232 tariffs and the Section 301 tariffs have withstood more than 4,000 lawsuits.

00:26:35.000 So it was very narrow.

00:26:37.000 And it's very interesting that the Supreme Court said that the president can't raise $1 of revenue with tariffs, but he can't put on a full embargo.

00:26:51.000 Now, again, that seems to me to be a bad argument.

00:26:54.000 It was an argument taken up by Chief Justice Roberts in his actual opinion, and then again by Justice Gorsuch in his concurrence with the opinion.

00:27:02.000 Nonetheless, Scott Besson says that the trade partners that we have want to keep their current trade deals.

00:27:07.000 I assume that's true because after all, why would they want to start over again given the inconsistency and vacillation from the administration on trade?

00:27:17.000 We've been in touch with our foreign trading partners, and all of them want to keep the trade deals that have been set.

00:27:23.000 You know, Dana, we've had great economic results over the past year.

00:27:28.000 4.1% second quarter GDP, 4.3%, 4.4% in the third quarter.

00:27:33.000 And it would have been a very strong fourth quarter if the Democrats hadn't shut down the government to hurt the American people.

00:27:40.000 So, we'll see the American. 0.90

00:27:42.000 All that matters in the end is how the economy performs and Americans' perception of the economy.

00:27:48.000 The attacks on the Supreme Court, generally a waste of time, whether they are from Democrats or whether they are from Republicans.

00:27:53.000 The vice president also attacked the court, suggesting that they had participated in lawlessness, which is pretty astonishing.

00:27:59.000 He said today the Supreme Court decided that Congress, despite giving the president the ability to regulate imports, didn't actually mean it.

00:28:05.000 First of all, it's regulate dot dot dot imports.

00:28:07.000 There are 16 words between them.

00:28:08.000 This is a lawlessness from the court, plain and simple.

00:28:11.000 And its only effect will be to make it harder for the president to protect American industries and supply chain resiliency.

00:28:16.000 President Trump has a wide range of other tariff powers, and he will use them to defend American workers and advance this administration's trade priorities.

00:28:23.000 So, yeah, again, he's taking what you would expect, the president's position on this, that that does not happen to be a legally defensible position, in my opinion.

00:28:31.000 Meanwhile, Democrats continue to struggle with basic things like, you know, cleaning up snow.

00:28:36.000 So there's a giant freeze-on again in the Northeast.

00:28:39.000 And now Zarn Mamdani is calling upon New Yorkers to shovel their snow, but also you need a multiplicity of licenses, apparently, to shovel snow.

00:28:51.000 And for those who want to do more to help your neighbors and earn some extra cash, you too can become an emergency snow shoveler.

00:28:57.000 Just show up at your local sanitation garage between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. tomorrow with your paperwork, which is accessible online at nyc.gov slash snow, and you can get started right away.

00:29:10.000 So you need your paperwork.

00:29:11.000 Cool.

00:29:12.000 So now we're policing for illegal immigration.

00:29:14.000 Apparently, according to the New York City Sanitation Department, you can sign up for temporary work helping to remove snow and ice from bus stops, crosswalks, fire hydrants, and other public areas after heavy snowfalls.

00:29:24.000 Exciting, exciting stuff for, I think, all involved.

00:29:27.000 All you will need to do is show up with forms of ID.

00:29:31.000 You have to bring two small photos, the original and copy of two forms of ID, a social security card, and you have to be able to do physical labor and eligibility to work in the U.S.

00:29:43.000 So I can't believe that Dharmam Dhani is policing immigration this way.

00:29:46.000 It's terrible.

00:29:47.000 In fact, he too is upset about it.

00:29:48.000 He says, how dare the federal government require you to be a citizen, to do things like receive a check from the government?

00:29:56.000 This is all longstanding.

00:29:57.000 This is a longstanding program and long-standing requirements.

00:30:01.000 And this is a way that New Yorkers get paid to shovel snow in assistance with the city's response to a winter storm event.

00:30:09.000 Federal law requires that employers get authorization and documentation to pay people for their work.

00:30:16.000 We are not allowed to just cut checks to individuals for their work.

00:30:19.000 And these are the policies that we've had in place, but I understand that for many, it's the first time that they've ever heard about it.

00:30:27.000 Democratic 2028 candidate, AOC, she clearly wants to run, although, again, after her horrific showing in Munich, I'm not sure it's going to go well for her.

00:30:35.000 Here she was suggesting that people are angry at Zarmam Dhani because snow doesn't melt at 20 degrees.

00:30:40.000 Now, I'll admit there are some people of whom I have heard who do not know at what temperature snow melts.

00:30:45.000 But here is AOC trying to clarify.

00:30:48.000 You know, I've seen one or two questions about people complaining that the snow is still here from the last storm.

00:30:58.000 And like, what are people going to do about it?

00:31:01.000 And I'm starting to wonder how many of you know how snow works and know about like what temperature snow melts.

00:31:16.000 At this point, I might be calling Soronton not to close schools on Monday because we got to be open in the schools.

00:31:27.000 You guys, snow does not melt at 20 degrees.

00:31:33.000 Okay, so I mean, first of all, it is true that you could use salt to actually lower the temperature at which snow can melt.

00:31:38.000 So, I mean, that is a frequent thing.

00:31:40.000 From my days in Boston, this is a thing that people used to do.

00:31:44.000 The reason, by the way, that she's whispering like a kook is because her husband was asleep in the background and he's just snoring through whatever it is that she thought she was doing.

00:31:52.000 If you think that I don't understand foreign policy, because out of hours of discourse about international affairs, I paused to think about one of the most sensitive geopolitical issues that currently exist on earth.

00:32:08.000 I'm afraid the issue is not my understanding, but rather the problem is perhaps you've gotten adjusted to a president that never thinks before he speaks.

00:32:22.000 Oh, yes, the husband snoring in the background is classic.

00:32:24.000 I love it.

00:32:25.000 It's great.

00:32:26.000 It's so great.

00:32:28.000 That's an eternal meme.

00:32:29.000 That is fantastic.

00:32:30.000 That is all the rest of us.

00:32:31.000 Every time she starts talking about economics, AOC starts jabbering about whatever.

00:32:36.000 And we're all like, ah, love it.

00:32:39.000 Fantastic.

00:32:40.000 10 out of 10.

00:32:41.000 Would stay at this Airbnb again.

00:32:43.000 By the way, she, of course, is a mentee of Bernie Sanders, who is a dullard.

00:32:48.000 It is not worthwhile to go a week without a dullard Bernie Sanders take.

00:32:52.000 So he was asked a pretty solid question at a public forum over the course of the last couple of days.

00:32:58.000 He was asked, you know, it's weird because Europe has all the same regulations that you want, Bernie Sanders, and they are not world leaders in virtually any industry.

00:33:06.000 What happened?

00:33:07.000 And Bernie has no answer to this because it turns out that the regulatory state in Britain and the rest of the European Union, it turns out that it's not great for business development.

00:33:19.000 And Shorten, I'm asking you to explain not why we have inequality, but why we've had so much growth over the last two decades.

00:33:25.000 Because we are very smart people who've been incentivized, who have worked very hard.

00:33:30.000 But you know what?

00:33:32.000 In most European countries, all people of health care is a human right.

00:33:32.000 Not you.

00:33:38.000 Look at that misdirect.

00:33:39.000 My goodness.

00:33:40.000 In most European countries, it doesn't cost $80,000 a year to go to college.

00:33:46.000 In most European countries, they have strong childcare systems.

00:33:51.000 What does that have to do with anything?

00:33:52.000 God, he's such a schmuck.

00:33:54.000 Seriously, he's asked, why is there no business dynamism in Europe?

00:33:58.000 He's like, well, here are all the regulations that I like.

00:34:00.000 Yeah, that didn't answer the question, you doof.

00:34:04.000 Your Democratic Party.

00:34:05.000 But that wasn't the doofiest thing said over the weekend.

00:34:07.000 So according to the Calci markets, 31% of people believe that Gavin Newsom is the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.

00:34:15.000 AOC clocking in at 10%, Kamala Harris at 6%.

00:34:19.000 So people not taking seriously those polls with Kamala as the leader.

00:34:24.000 Gavin Newsom, your frontrunner on Calchie, he made a bit of a boo-boo over the weekend.

00:34:30.000 He was speaking to a black audience and proceeded to explain that he was like them because he did poorly on the SATs. 0.87

00:34:37.000 My dude, not, not no.

00:34:41.000 We're going to go no on this once and no from me, dog.

00:34:45.000 I'm not, you know, I'm not trying to impress you.

00:34:48.000 I'm just trying to impress upon you, I'm like you.

00:34:52.000 I'm no better than you.

00:34:55.000 You know, I'm a 960 SAT guy.

00:35:00.000 And, you know, and I'm not trying to offend anyone, you know, trying to act all there if you got 940.

00:35:08.000 But literally a 960 SAT guy.

00:35:11.000 I cannot, you've never seen me read a speech because I cannot read a speech.

00:35:21.000 I'm like you.

00:35:22.000 I can't read a speech and I did poorly on my SATs.

00:35:24.000 That's a hell of a pitch to the black community.

00:35:25.000 Well done there, Gavin Newsom.

00:35:28.000 Oh boy.

00:35:29.000 Oh boy.

00:35:30.000 Well, those are your 20, 28 frontrunners, according to Calci Markets, AOC and Gavin Newsom.

00:35:37.000 Yay.

00:35:38.000 Well, in other news, last Wednesday, Tucker Carlson had flown into Ben-Gurion airport.

00:35:42.000 He stayed there for a few hours and then he left, claiming, of course, that he was under dire physical threat.

00:35:49.000 Apparently, in his little run-up to the interview that he did with Huckabee, which he released on Friday afternoon, Carlson claimed that he had tried to convey to the Israelis the tail number on his plane because he was afraid they would shoot him down because they are quote unquote the most violent country on earth.

00:36:05.000 This is asinine.

00:36:06.000 It's slanderous and it's stupid.

00:36:07.000 It is so stupid.

00:36:08.000 Truly, if you believe this crap, it's such dumbassery, an epic level of dumbassery.

00:36:14.000 And he proceeded, because he really did poorly in his interview with Huckabee.

00:36:17.000 He proceeded to do a 25-minute intro in which he claimed that his phone was likely going to be hacked, that he might have been killed coming into Israel, complained that he wasn't given a special interview with Prime Minister Netanyahu, who, like, why would he, considering that Tucker Carlson has essentially called him a genocidal war criminal, and then whined a lot.

00:36:39.000 In any case, this interview has had some somewhat far-reaching implications on a wide variety of scores.

00:36:49.000 It's a very aggressive interview that he did with Mike Huckabee, the United States ambassador under President Trump to Israel.

00:36:55.000 Tucker issued a bit of slander when he suggested that Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel, was on Epstein Island.

00:37:01.000 He then had to issue an apology for saying that in an attempt, I assume, to cover his legal ass.

00:37:07.000 Well, now we've received a long letter from President Herzog's office denying that he went to Epstein's Island.

00:37:15.000 In fact, denying unequivocally that he had any contact with Epstein ever.

00:37:19.000 They didn't know each other.

00:37:20.000 They never emailed with each other, never been in the same room.

00:37:22.000 They had no relationship of any kind.

00:37:25.000 I've gotten a lot of letters like this over the years from people alleging, oh, you got it wrong.

00:37:29.000 But rarely do you get a denial this unequivocal.

00:37:32.000 And so for that reason, we are taking it seriously.

00:37:35.000 There's nothing worse than impugning the reputation of an innocent man.

00:37:40.000 And so I just want to say clearly, I'm sorry to imply that I knew something I didn't know.

00:37:46.000 Of course, I don't know that Isaac Herzog was on the island.

00:37:50.000 I was referring to that email and the protest against him, but I don't know that.

00:37:55.000 And I didn't mean to suggest that I do know that.

00:37:58.000 And I also wanted to air his side of this.

00:38:02.000 Again, President Herzog says he's never had any contact with Epstein ever.

00:38:09.000 And so I just want to say that in the interest of honesty and transparency.

00:38:14.000 Oh my goodness.

00:38:15.000 Oh my goodness.

00:38:16.000 And if you believe his honesty and transparency, then there is a very, very large bridge in Brooklyn that is apparently for sale.

00:38:23.000 During this interview with Huckabee, Tucker retailed a bunch of specious theories up to and including he suggested that Jews should have to take a DNA test.

00:38:30.000 That was a thing he said.

00:38:31.000 He also pushed a hoax by a person named Tony Aguilar, who had worked with the group that had been attempting to feed people in Gaza.

00:38:41.000 Aguilar had claimed that he watched the Israelis murder someone.

00:38:44.000 It turns out that was not true.

00:38:45.000 Huckabee scored him on this.

00:38:47.000 And Tucker basically then shifted topic as per his usual arrangement.

00:38:53.000 Can I ask you something?

00:38:54.000 Yes.

00:38:55.000 You platformed a guy.

00:38:56.000 You had him on your show, Tony Aguilar.

00:38:58.000 Don't platform anyone.

00:38:59.000 Well, you interviewed.

00:39:00.000 Not a liberal, so I don't platform anybody.

00:39:03.000 You interviewed Tony Aguilar, who claimed that IDF soldiers killed a little boy in his presence.

00:39:13.000 That didn't happen.

00:39:15.000 It did not happen.

00:39:16.000 I don't hear you know if you know whether it happened or not.

00:39:20.000 I can tell you why I know it didn't happen because we found that little boy less than a week later.

00:39:25.000 All right.

00:39:26.000 I was involved, heavily involved, in helping to extricate him from Gaza. 1.00

00:39:31.000 Four different countries were involved in getting he and his mother to safety, get them out of there.

00:39:36.000 Tony Aguilar is a liar.

00:39:38.000 Tony Aguilar claimed that he saw an IDF soldier shoot the little boy.

00:39:44.000 He was fired from the GHF for cause, and he begged for his job back, and they wouldn't give it back because they didn't want him.

00:39:53.000 And he told them that if they didn't give his job back, that he would burn them down.

00:39:58.000 Okay.

00:39:59.000 So he goes out.

00:40:00.000 Okay, I'm important for you to understand.

00:40:00.000 No, let me finish this.

00:40:02.000 Right.

00:40:04.000 So this guy then goes out and makes up this story that he witnessed IDF soldiers shooting a little boy.

00:40:10.000 I don't know that he made it up.

00:40:11.000 He seemed to believe it to me.

00:40:13.000 It's possible he's wrong.

00:40:14.000 I've been wrong many times.

00:40:15.000 Well, this is a little bit more than just missing a fact.

00:40:18.000 He claimed to be an eyewitness to the murder of a little boy.

00:40:23.000 He would never want to impugn anybody who is innocent for doing a thing except for the entire IDF shooting a kid that never happened.

00:40:30.000 That he's totally fine with.

00:40:31.000 He, of course, also made the claim, did Tucker too, Huckabee, that child soldiers, meaning like 16-year-old boys with an AK-47 pointing it at Israeli soldiers, because they're under, apparently you have to check their ID card when they're pointing a gun at you.

00:40:44.000 Told me that 14-year-olds deserve to die because they're working for Hamas. 0.98

00:40:48.000 My question is, can you hear yourself?

00:40:49.000 I do hear myself.

00:40:50.000 So do you think a 14-year-old child has agency?

00:40:53.000 Do you think that he deserves to die because he's being used by adults?

00:40:56.000 Isn't his death a crushing threat?

00:40:58.000 He's holding a gun and he's pointing it at someone who's trying to save a hostage.

00:41:03.000 And the only way to save that hostage, I'm telling you, war is a horrible thing.

00:41:09.000 It's a horrible thing.

00:41:10.000 And a lot of innocent people.

00:41:11.000 I think I'm the one who thinks war is a horrible thing.

00:41:13.000 No, no, no, no.

00:41:14.000 I'm trying to explain how horrible it is.

00:41:14.000 I think what you don't know.

00:41:16.000 And you're saying that the 14-year-old deserved to die.

00:41:20.000 Oh, my God.

00:41:21.000 The obvious forced stupidity of this, truly forced stupidity.

00:41:27.000 If a 16-year-old boy invaded Tucker Carlson's home with a gun, Tucker would not ask for his ID before shooting him, obviously.

00:41:35.000 This is boob bait for rubes, truly. 1.00

00:41:38.000 Well, the other viral moment from this interview, and there are many.

00:41:41.000 I mean, aside from the asking for the DNA tests for the Jews and all the rest of it. 0.86

00:41:46.000 Tucker questioned Mike Huckabee about the Christian Zionist vision of the eschaton of biblical promises in the book of Genesis.

00:41:53.000 And this made a bit of a splash because Tucker then cut this out of context to suggest that the Israelis are seeking to invade Syria and Iraq.

00:42:02.000 I will explain in a moment why this is idiotic and also wildly dishonest because, of course, the full clip shows Huckabee then saying Israel has no desire to invade any of its neighbors and grab territory promised in the book of Genesis.

00:42:16.000 Because you're appealing to Genesis.

00:42:18.000 You're saying that's the original deed.

00:42:23.000 It would be fine if they took it all, but I don't think that's what we're talking about here today.

00:42:27.000 What would be fine?

00:42:28.000 Well, it's exactly what we're talking about today.

00:42:30.000 But here's what I don't think you're...

00:42:31.000 You think it would be fine if the state of Israel took over all of the Jordan?

00:42:33.000 They don't want to take it over.

00:42:35.000 They're not asking to take it over.

00:42:36.000 But you're saying that the reason that Israel is illegitimate and has this inherent right to exist is in part because God gave it to his people.

00:42:45.000 And I am going to the same Bible that you're referring to and noticing that that is a huge piece of land.

00:42:51.000 So if God gave them that land, then they have a right to take it now by your definition, unless I'm missing something completely.

00:42:57.000 You're missing something because they're not asking to go back to take all of that, but they are asking to at least take the land that they now occupy, they now live in, they now own legitimately, and it is a safe haven for them.

00:43:14.000 But may I ask, though, as because you're appealing, you're explaining what Christian Zionism is and your theological beliefs.

00:43:20.000 And I think you just said it would be fine with you if the state of Israel took all of Jordan, all of Syria, all of Lebanon.

00:43:28.000 That's that's really not exactly what I'm trying to say.

00:43:30.000 I'm asking, is that what you said?

00:43:31.000 I thought that's what you just said.

00:43:33.000 Okay, this is all nonsense.

00:43:35.000 It's all nonsense.

00:43:36.000 And I'll explain, I'll explain why this is nonsense.

00:43:38.000 Okay, let me explain why this is nonsense.

00:43:40.000 So the Bible makes several references to the borders guaranteed to the Jews.

00:43:46.000 Okay, first, there's the Abrahamic promise in Genesis 15:18 through 21, which is mirrored again in Deuteronomy 11:24.

00:43:52.000 And that's the big borders that Tucker is talking about here.

00:43:54.000 That's the one that goes all the way from the Nile to the Euphrates.

00:43:58.000 It's basically a biblical promise that someday in a millennial world that the children of Abraham will dominate this area. 0.88

00:44:07.000 Okay, fine.

00:44:09.000 Then there is the actual borders that Moses is commanded to have the children of Israel, the various tribes, conquer when he enters Israel.

00:44:18.000 That appears in Numbers chapter 34, verses 1 through 15.

00:44:22.000 And those borders look like this.

00:44:25.000 This is a map of the border.

00:44:28.000 Okay, now, what you may notice is actually smaller in the south than the current land of Israel and does not really extend into any of the areas that Tucker Carlson is talking about.

00:44:38.000 So was Moses not fulfilling the biblical promise?

00:44:41.000 Moses, is that the contention of Tucker Carlson here?

00:44:44.000 Like, what's the contention?

00:44:46.000 The idea of the biblical promise is that Abraham is wedded to the land, but the core of the biblical promise is the area where the kingdom of David was, namely Judea, Samaria, the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

00:45:02.000 Those borders are largely mirrored in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 47, 13 through 30.

00:45:06.000 But here's the thing: no matter what the biblical promise is, the question on the table from Christian Zionists is, and for I think anyone who is a biblically based Zionist, do Jews have an inherent biblical connection to the land of Israel?

00:45:21.000 And the answer, of course, is yes.

00:45:22.000 You can say, well, is it all the way to the Euphrates?

00:45:24.000 And you can make the answer no, well, really, no, because they've never conquered that area.

00:45:30.000 When you talk about does a country have a right to exist, first of all, this entire argument is really stupid because countries don't inherently have quote unquote rights to exist.

00:45:37.000 They either create their own existence and effectuate their own existence or they don't.

00:45:43.000 In the world of international politics, a polity that can defend itself, quote unquote, has a right to exist.

00:45:51.000 A polity that can defend itself effectuates its own existence.

00:45:56.000 The idea of some sort of adjudicatory body that determines a quote-unquote right to exist.

00:46:01.000 I never see this applied to Pakistan.

00:46:02.000 I never see this applied to Saudi Arabia.

00:46:04.000 I never see this applied to Syria as it is currently constituted or Iraq or Iran, all of whose borders were drawn after World War I during the same time period that the modern state of Israel was included in the Balfour Declaration.

00:46:16.000 But of course, Tucker doesn't care about any of this.

00:46:18.000 And by the way, one thing you will notice, Tucker has now interviewed a wide variety of Islamic leaders.

00:46:25.000 Has he ever asked a single one of them about the Quranic promises of territorial domination?

00:46:30.000 Because here's the thing about that.

00:46:32.000 So the Bible makes many references to different sets of borders that the Jews apparently are given by God.

00:46:41.000 The Quran has a very specific set of borders that eventually are supposed to be Islamic.

00:46:46.000 That set of borders is everything.

00:46:48.000 The whole shebang, New York, Chicago, LA, Tucker's cabin in Maine, all of it.

00:46:55.000 Has he ever asked any of these people about the Islamic will to power and the promise that all the world shall indeed be Islamic?

00:47:04.000 I mean, speaking of which, I mean, theoretically, if you're going to take this to the biblical context, it does say in the book of Philippians that every knee shall bow.

00:47:11.000 So, does that mean that there is now a mandate for everyone to be forcibly converted to Christianity?

00:47:17.000 I think there are very few Christians in the United States who believe that everyone should be forcibly converted to Christianity.

00:47:22.000 When it comes to the complexities of biblical prophecy and actual effectuation of biblical morality, that is where human beings come in.

00:47:30.000 That's where practicality comes in.

00:47:32.000 So, Tucker's trying to play a really stupid trick here in order to sort of trap Mike Huckabee.

00:47:37.000 All of it is motivated by ill intent.

00:47:42.000 The amount of falsehood here is extraordinary.

00:47:45.000 And apparently, it has now raised the level of the White House, which is quite annoyed by Tucker's routine at this point.

00:47:50.000 Joining us on the line to discuss all this is Eli Lake.

00:47:52.000 He is a columnist for the Free Press.

00:47:54.000 He has a piece called Trump Has Had Enough of Tucker Carlson.

00:47:56.000 Eli, thanks so much for taking the time.

00:47:57.000 I appreciate it.

00:47:59.000 Thanks so much for having me, Ben.

00:48:02.000 So, why don't you give us the state of play with regard to the White House and Tucker Carlson?

00:48:05.000 Obviously, Tucker has very warm relations with an enormous number of members of the administration, the president, very clearly, the vice president.

00:48:13.000 What is that state of play right now in the White House with regard to Tucker Carlson?

00:48:17.000 I think since the summer, there has been a steady con of call from a lot of the president's supporters saying, why is Tucker Carlson attacking more, you know, the majority of your supporters, Mr. President, who are pro-Israel, who supported Operation Midnight Hammer and generally think that, you know, you're doing the right things in the presidency, in your presidency when it comes to foreign policy.

00:48:40.000 And for a long time, I think the White House was sort of like, well, we don't really want to get involved in this.

00:48:44.000 Tucker's a journalist.

00:48:46.000 He's going to do what he's going to do.

00:48:47.000 But the calls have been getting louder and the critiques from Tucker Carlson have become, you know, kind of, he's been steadily up in the ante.

00:48:56.000 And he's been, you know, talking about the Epstein files and how the government is hiding still more of them, even though they've released an unprecedented number of things that, in my view, probably should never have seen the light of day because they were like internal law enforcement investigative notes.

00:49:11.000 But let's leaving all that aside, when it comes to Israel and particularly what Trump is trying to do now with Iran in trying to at least kind of engage in gunboat diplomacy and having a credible threat to unleash a military attack if they do not give up their nuclear and missile programs and their support for terrorism abroad, that it's become, from both a policy and political perspective, kind of an untenable situation.

00:49:37.000 So what I'm reporting is that in January, Trump privately asked Tucker to just tone it down with the kind of internal MA Civil War stuff over Israel.

00:49:48.000 And I think that Tucker has taken that seriously.

00:49:51.000 He spoke with the nationalist conservative nationalist philosopher, writer Yoram Hazoni.

00:50:00.000 He revealed those private conversations.

00:50:02.000 Then Yoram Hazzoni posted on his ex account even more details.

00:50:07.000 But basically, Tucker was like, all right, what do I need to do so people stop calling me anti-Semitic?

00:50:12.000 And I think he also wanted to have a meeting, a private meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu.

00:50:16.000 So that is the state of play right now.

00:50:19.000 But I think there was a lot of hope in the White House, a lot of hope for people who support Trump that this interview with Ambassador Huckabee might be the beginning of a kind of way to sort of say, all right, we're through with this internal fighting.

00:50:31.000 Instead, I would say it opened up a new front.

00:50:33.000 It caused a minor diplomatic incident because Tucker Carlson's team put out a deceptively edited clip that made it seem like Ambassador Huckabee endorsed this notion that Israel was going to rule over the entire Middle East, which is not what he said.

00:50:49.000 So if anything, I think it made it worse.

00:50:52.000 And, you know, I've heard that they are meeting this week, if not today, in the White House, Tucker and the president.

00:50:58.000 And we'll see what happens.

00:50:59.000 So far, the president has kept his criticisms in private.

00:51:03.000 We'll see if he goes public with it.

00:51:05.000 But I do think that there is more and more pressure on him to do so.

00:51:09.000 I mean, I do wonder exactly how far Tucker Carlson would have to go in order for there to be some sort of distance drawn between the White House and Carlson, given the fact that, again, this was apparently, according to Melissa Francis, who basically brokered this interview between Tucker and Huckabee, she had said that the whole goal of this was to sort of find an off-ramp here to say, okay, we'll agree to disagree.

00:51:30.000 We can both have legitimate points of view.

00:51:31.000 And instead, Carlson came in, made a bunch of false, like overtly false allegations about what happened to him, for example, at the airport, proceeded to spew sort of a weird stew of conspiracy theory and false allegations, ranging from one that he actually had to come out and denounce himself.

00:51:48.000 He claimed that Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel, was on Epstein Island, which is clearly not true.

00:51:54.000 And he actually had to back off it, I assume, under threat of lawsuit.

00:51:57.000 He also made the claim that the Israeli security had to be assured, or he was seeking assurances that he wouldn't be shot down like an Iranian drone.

00:52:07.000 It was a very bizarre interview.

00:52:09.000 And not one that I think showed Tucker.

00:52:11.000 And the fake history.

00:52:14.000 He was asserting that Israel was behind the pressure campaign to launch the original Iraq war in 2003.

00:52:22.000 And that's just not true because, I mean, Benjamin Nanyahu at the time was a private citizen.

00:52:27.000 He testified before Congress that he was in favor of it.

00:52:30.000 But the actual head of the Israeli state, Ariel Sharon, counseled privately for George W. Bush not to go into Iraq.

00:52:38.000 And so there's a lot of kind of fake history and half-truths that are mixed in that he asserts as if these are facts and he is a truth-seeking journalist.

00:52:47.000 I say at the end of my piece that he poses as a journalist on his show, but he's acting like a movement leader.

00:52:55.000 And in that respect, he's much more of a kind of political animal than the charade that he puts out there that he's like, you know, just out there trying to get the story and everything else.

00:53:06.000 And I would say that this is also about the future of the conservative movement, something you've done a lot, I think, to sort of stake out the higher ground here, which is where does this party go after Trump?

00:53:21.000 And if it goes in the Tucker direction, I just think it's not only the end of the Republican Party politically, but it says something about the soul of the American right.

00:53:32.000 It'll be interesting to see what sort of calculations are made, because I think that, as you say, there's sort of a political risk-reward game that is being played at very high levels.

00:53:41.000 On the one hand, there are people who believe that if they alienate Tucker, they will lose a large chunk of his audience, or that Tucker may himself try to run for office and sort of lead a movement himself.

00:53:50.000 And on the other hand, there is what I think is the reality, which is that once you get off of X, Tucker's views are not held even by a vast majority of people who listen to Tucker's show, which has been shown by some polling data.

00:54:00.000 It'll be interesting to see how the White House plays it.

00:54:02.000 Eli, thanks so much for your reporting.

00:54:03.000 And you can check out Eli's work over at the Free Press.

00:54:07.000 Thank you.

00:54:09.000 All righty, guys, coming up, we have a gigantic military buildup in the Middle East.

00:54:12.000 But is President Trump actually going to pull the trigger on regime change in Iran?

00:54:16.000 Remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member.

00:54:18.000 If you're not a member, become a member.

00:54:19.000 Use code Shapiro at checkout for two months free on all annual plans.

00:54:22.000 Click that link in the description and join us.

00:54:24.000 Okay.

00:54:38.000 No, not even close.

00:54:40.000 Two, three.

00:54:42.000 Whatever.

00:54:42.000 You know what?

00:54:43.000 two three four i cannot believe we're back here again ben If the Ben Shapiro shows mom, then Ben After Dark is a cool mom.

00:55:00.000 Jay!

The Ben Shapiro Show - February 23, 2026

United States DESTROYS Canada At Their Own Sport

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