The Ben Shapiro Show - What I Learned From "The Big Game"

00:00:00.000 Alright, last night was the Super Bowl and I have notes.

00:00:03.000 We'll start with the non-political notes and then we'll get to the political notes on the Super Bowl.

00:00:07.000 Note number one that's kind of political is that people my age are now the olds.

00:00:11.000 They're reacting to this the same way that people of my parents' generation used to react to, I don't know, like Prince showing up.

00:00:20.000 And now it's us.

00:00:22.000 We have become the old people.

00:00:24.000 Because people who are like 10 years younger than I'm like, oh man, I grew up with Usher.

00:00:29.000 Oh man, I grew up with Ludacris.

00:00:31.000 And I'm too old for even that.

00:00:32.000 So I'm like, I grew up with Brahms and Beethoven.

00:00:34.000 I don't even know who these people are.

00:00:36.000 So whenever I watch the Halftime Show, I feel more than a little bit out of touch.

00:00:40.000 But the big note here is that my generation is now the generation being pandered to.

00:00:45.000 Which means we are the olds.

00:00:47.000 Which means, by the way, that our country is aging pretty quickly.

00:00:50.000 The fact that we are constantly pandering to whoever is the group of people who are the biggest demographically, and that group of people have taste that runs toward 2004, which is when Usher's biggest album came out, apparently.

00:01:02.000 I've only been told this by my staff, I don't know.

00:01:03.000 But apparently that's when Usher was like super huge, was the mid-2000s, and it is now 2024.

00:01:08.000 Demonstrates, once again, this country is not a young country.

00:01:11.000 That has some fairly significant ramifications for the future of the country, but again, we'll get to the political later.

00:01:16.000 Okay, I have other notes.

00:01:17.000 So, we'll start with like the actual game, and then we'll get to the halftime show.

00:01:20.000 So the actual game, Patrick Mahomes is unbelievably good.

00:01:23.000 I mean, that guy...

00:01:25.000 I didn't think I'd ever see anybody who's as good as Brady.

00:01:27.000 Just on a pure talent level, Mahomes is better than Brady.

00:01:31.000 He can run better than Brady.

00:01:33.000 He can read from the pocket as well as Brady can.

00:01:36.000 His QBR in the first six seasons is higher than Tom Brady's was in his first six seasons.

00:01:41.000 Mahomes is truly a tremendous quarterback and you can feel it.

00:01:44.000 I've been to a couple of Super Bowls.

00:01:46.000 The first one that I went to involved Tom Brady, and then the second one that I went to also involved Tom Brady.

00:01:52.000 And it was late Brady, but you always felt comfortable with Brady having the ball in his hands.

00:01:56.000 And in that last drive where Mahomes is coming down the field, you feel as a fan comfortable watching Patrick Mahomes with the football in a way that you don't with somebody who actually looked like Brock Purdy.

00:02:05.000 The fact is that Mahomes, with the football, he knows what he is doing.

00:02:08.000 And you felt comfortable with a three-point deficit, him coming down the field and having a shot at winning the game because he is truly an amazing, amazing quarterback. 0.87

00:02:17.000 Also, I would just like to point out this point that Travis Kelsey is a crazy person.

00:02:21.000 So this would be Taylor Swift's boyfriend.

00:02:24.000 And he's really good at his job.

00:02:27.000 He's an excellent tight end. 0.99

00:02:28.000 Also, he's a nutcase.

00:02:30.000 Now, to be fair, pretty much everyone in the NFL is roided up beyond all reason. 0.93

00:02:35.000 But very early on in the game, there was a fumble and Travis Kelsey comes out and just like destroys Andy Reid.

00:02:42.000 It was amazing.

00:02:43.000 He was so mad that he like comes up to Andy Reid and he bumps him.

00:02:46.000 He's all chewing out this elderly walrus.

00:02:49.000 It was real weird.

00:02:51.000 Here was Travis Kelsey doing that.

00:02:53.000 Oh man.

00:02:57.000 He comes up to him and he like bumps Henry.

00:02:58.000 Henry's like, what?

00:03:01.000 Travis Kelce pulled away by other members of the team.

00:03:05.000 He was informing him that Kathleen Kennedy should not be allowed to run the Star Wars universe anymore.

00:03:10.000 It has to stop.

00:03:11.000 It's just bad.

00:03:13.000 So, good luck to Travis Kelce.

00:03:15.000 And honestly, I'm happy for Travis Kelce because he was like this close to being the subject of Taylor Swift's next breakup song.

00:03:22.000 But then he was saved by Patrick Mahomes.

00:03:24.000 So now, maybe the Taylor Swift baby boom is going to happen.

00:03:27.000 This has been my prediction, is that Travis Kelce is going to propose to Taylor Swift, they're going to get married, they're going to have kids, and suddenly a bunch of feminist-y 32-year-olds who never got married because girl power are going to realize marriage is good and then have babies, and it's going to save the country. 0.99

00:03:39.000 Maybe that is the way that our country gets saved, is by Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift having genetically perfect babies.

00:03:45.000 Maybe that's the way this actually works.

00:03:47.000 Okay, which brings us to that fan box.

00:03:50.000 So this is the first time I've ever watched a game where Taylor Swift is in the skybox, where my ire was not directed at Taylor Swift.

00:03:57.000 So somehow, Ice Spice, a person whose name is Ice Spice, made me like Taylor Swift more.

00:04:03.000 Why?

00:04:04.000 Well, because Taylor Swift was always the neophyte in the box, right?

00:04:06.000 Taylor Swift was always the person where you're like, why is she here?

00:04:09.000 Does she understand how football works?

00:04:10.000 Like, how seriously does she follow football?

00:04:12.000 Why are we pretending like she's a big football fan when she's been to like two games ever, maybe?

00:04:17.000 And now she's there explaining to Ice Spice how exactly football works. 0.98

00:04:21.000 Literally explaining to her at the Super Bowl that this one team goes that way and that other team goes the other way.

00:04:28.000 And Ice Spice is watching all of this as though she's trying to process higher mathematics like Winona Ryder at the Oscars a few years back. 1.00

00:04:36.000 Here's Taylor Swift trying to explain to Ice Spice how football works. 1.00

00:04:40.000 She's like, yeah, and then they go that way, and you see that way, and Ice is like, oh my god, oh!

00:04:45.000 I get it now a little bit, but she doesn't really get it.

00:04:47.000 You can see in her eyes that she has no clue what Taylor Swift is talking about.

00:04:50.000 It's like Taylor Swift is teaching her calculus, or something.

00:04:53.000 So that made me like Taylor Swift a little more, because Taylor Swift at least knows how football works, and Ice Spice, as many people pointed out, stole her hair from Annie.

00:05:02.000 I don't understand what's going on.

00:05:03.000 In any case, My favorite part of that was that this culminated in the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl, and Ice Spice celebrating with Taylor Swift as though she knew what the hell was going on.

00:05:15.000 Like a bunch of 13-year-old girls who are gonna pretend that they're best friends forever, even though, like, two of them hate each other.

00:05:20.000 Ice Spice just being super excited.

00:05:21.000 What's going on?

00:05:22.000 She doesn't know, but she's celebrating like crazy with Brittany Mahomes, who, by the way, has like a little more investment in all of this.

00:05:29.000 Brittany Mahomes is actually married to the quarterback.

00:05:30.000 Brittany Mahomes has been dating the quarterback since high school.

00:05:33.000 Taylor's like the newbie.

00:05:35.000 And then Ice Spice is there for no reason.

00:05:37.000 In any case, here we go.

00:05:40.000 And this was the Andy Reid special.

00:05:43.000 Why is Ice Spice in the middle of this scrum?

00:05:45.000 Why?

00:05:45.000 No one knows why Ice Spice is there.

00:05:47.000 So, that was the thing that was happening as well.

00:05:51.000 We'll get some more on this in just one second.

00:05:52.000 First, Pure Talk believes in American values, and that free should mean exactly that.

00:05:57.000 When you switch to Pure Talk today, you'll get a free Samsung 5G smartphone.

00:06:00.000 There's no four-line requirement, no activation fee, just a free Samsung that's built to last with a rugged screen, quick charging battery, and top-tier data security.

00:06:08.000 Qualifying plans start at just $35 a month for unlimited talk, text, 15 gigs of data, and a mobile hotspot.

00:06:13.000 PureTalk gives you phenomenal coverage on America's most dependable 5G network.

00:06:17.000 It's the same coverage you know and love, but for half the price of the other guys.

00:06:19.000 The average family says almost $1,000 a year.

00:06:22.000 I've been using PureTalk myself for a couple of years at this point.

00:06:24.000 The coverage is excellent.

00:06:25.000 Plus, it's a company that doesn't hate my values.

00:06:27.000 I challenge you to choose a company that shares your values.

00:06:30.000 Let Pure Talk's expert U.S.

00:06:31.000 customer service team help you make the switch today.

00:06:34.000 Go to puretalk.com slash Shapiro.

00:06:36.000 Claim your eligibility for your free brand new Samsung 5G smartphone.

00:06:39.000 Start saving on wireless today.

00:06:41.000 Again, go to puretalk.com slash Shapiro.

00:06:43.000 Switch to my cell phone company.

00:06:45.000 You can go check them out right now, puretalk.com slash Shapiro.

00:06:48.000 You get eligibility for that free brand new Samsung 5G.

00:06:52.000 Okay, now to the halftime show.

00:06:53.000 So, quick notes on the halftime show.

00:06:54.000 First of all, MVP is Auto-Tune.

00:06:57.000 As always, Auto-Tune saves every single artist who has produced a piece of music since Auto-Tune became a thing.

00:07:04.000 Because legitimately, none of these people can sing live.

00:07:07.000 It is incredible.

00:07:09.000 It's true of everybody who's in the stands, by the way.

00:07:10.000 There's more talent in the stands than there was on the field for the halftime show.

00:07:13.000 You had Taylor Swift in the stands.

00:07:14.000 You had Justin Bieber in the stands.

00:07:16.000 But none of these people without autotune can do a thing.

00:07:19.000 So, Usher, who I've been informed is an artist of some sort by my team.

00:07:22.000 They're all big Usher fans.

00:07:24.000 So, if Usher is listening to this, Savvy says hello.

00:07:27.000 I don't know why.

00:07:28.000 But in any case, Usher comes out and he plays his hits.

00:07:32.000 Again, I don't understand why he is so famous because I don't think his hits are good.

00:07:38.000 But Usher comes out and he tries to sing.

00:07:41.000 Points for moving around a lot.

00:07:44.000 So Usher is a better dancer than he is a singer.

00:07:46.000 And so it kind of looked like this.

00:07:51.000 Oh, so here he is.

00:07:52.000 Yeah, at one point he took off his shirt for some reason and then started dancing around.

00:07:56.000 And by dancing, I mean spastically moving his body.

00:07:59.000 And the meme says, when you're over 30, your doctor asks you to show them where it hurts.

00:08:05.000 And that is what it looks like.

00:08:06.000 Another one that I saw was you when you wake up and there's a spider on you.

00:08:10.000 And that is also accurate.

00:08:12.000 So points for effort for Usher, who also roller skated.

00:08:15.000 So that was interesting.

00:08:17.000 They also pulled a bunch of artists out of retirement who, again, this is not my bag.

00:08:22.000 As America's top rap artist, I didn't know any of these people, but that's because, again, I'm out of touch with the younger generation, which is to say the mainstream older generation, like the 80-year-old in the room full of 60-year-olds in this country now.

00:08:34.000 So, they brought forth Lil Jon, whose famous hit is Turn Down For What, which involves him screaming at the top of his lungs, Turn Down For What.

00:08:43.000 They brought forth a person who is not CeeLo Green, whose name escapes me.

00:08:49.000 Are we gonna play Turn Down For What here?

00:08:51.000 Yeah, this was very funny.

00:08:52.000 They're playing...

00:08:54.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:08:56.000 So they cut in real close on Lil Jon screaming at the top of his lungs.

00:08:59.000 Turned down for what?

00:09:00.000 And there's an unfortunate man who goes flying up in the background.

00:09:03.000 No one knows what happened to him when he came down.

00:09:05.000 It was awkward.

00:09:08.000 Everybody's jumping around, then here he goes, he's going up, oh no!

00:09:11.000 So that man is dead.

00:09:13.000 Somebody should check on that guy.

00:09:14.000 So, Lil Jon was there to scream into a microphone.

00:09:17.000 Ludacris showed up and was indeed Ludacris and also dressed like Ben Stiller from Dodgeball, so that was the thing that happened.

00:09:23.000 And Alicia Keys showed up and she can't sing, so that was sad.

00:09:27.000 Yeah, there's Dodgeball, Ludacris.

00:09:28.000 He showed up wearing like, I don't even know what he's wearing.

00:09:31.000 It's like rollerblading uniform.

00:09:34.000 That was strong.

00:09:35.000 Guys, I don't understand.

00:09:37.000 Whatever.

00:09:38.000 Maybe our society is too wealthy.

00:09:39.000 Maybe that's what's happened here.

00:09:42.000 Okay, now to the actual politics of the Super Bowl.

00:09:45.000 So, first thing to notice about the Super Bowl this year, they really tried to keep it apolitical.

00:09:51.000 So they played the so-called Black National Anthem before the game.

00:09:54.000 They've done this the last few years since George Floyd died.

00:09:57.000 But they played it before the broadcast release, so nobody, I think, saw it.

00:10:01.000 I remember when I was at the Super Bowl, it was the same kind of thing.

00:10:03.000 They played it, but they played it like so far before the game that it was kind of non-controversial.

00:10:09.000 And then that allowed the usual suspects to fuss about how people didn't stand for this Black National Anthem, which again, there shouldn't be a Black National Anthem.

00:10:16.000 There's just one National Anthem.

00:10:17.000 You want to sing a song that's fine.

00:10:19.000 I'm not sure why you need a separate Black National Anthem at the one event that everyone in the country watches together.

00:10:25.000 But in any case, the kind of message of the Super Bowl from all the advertisers was non-controversy.

00:10:30.000 They were all desperately trying to avoid controversy.

00:10:33.000 Because what people kind of just want is normality.

00:10:37.000 I know, the Super Bowl is a weird place to get it, but that is what people wanted.

00:10:40.000 They just wanted a football game that was about football, without the politics, without the crazy of the past few years.

00:10:46.000 And that's what every commercial was about.

00:10:48.000 So pretty much every commercial was just a normal 1996 level commercial with nothing really provocative about that, which is why when there was something provocative in the commercials, it really stood out.

00:10:58.000 So really only two sort of provocative commercials along these lines.

00:11:02.000 One was an ad for an organization called He Gets Us, the he being Jesus.

00:11:07.000 And it's controversial because this take on Jesus is hippie Jesus.

00:11:11.000 Now, obviously I'm not a Christian, I'm an Orthodox Jew, but I have read the New Testament, and virtually all my friends are very religious Christians.

00:11:19.000 And I will point out at this point that even someone like me understands that the message of Jesus is not one of unending tolerance for behavior.

00:11:27.000 It's love of human beings, but not tolerance for bad behavior.

00:11:31.000 But apparently the He Gets Us campaign is about how Jesus really, really is fine with everybody's behavior, which is not the message that I got from the New Testament, where that is clearly not.

00:11:40.000 The actual thing that Jesus is saying.

00:11:42.000 Jesus was pretty hardcore.

00:11:44.000 In any case, here were some of the He Gets Us ad campaign, which completely does not get Jesus.

00:11:49.000 But again, I'll let Christian speak to that, but I'm pretty sure about this one.

00:11:54.000 The ad begins with people washing each other's feet, because apparently Jesus was big into the feet washing, but not because he actually wanted to promulgate his belief system, just because he apparently really loved washing feet.

00:12:06.000 So you've got a cop washing the feet of some... some dude. 1.00

00:12:10.000 You have a cheerleader washing the feet of a red-haired lady. 1.00

00:12:14.000 You have, like, a white guy washing the feet of a Native American. 0.99

00:12:16.000 And then, my favorite, you have a lady, who is sort of a suburban mom, washing the feet of a lady outside a family planning clinic. 1.00

00:12:25.000 Um, so, unless she's also trying to convince that lady not to have an abortion, I'm pretty sure Jesus is not so hot on the abortion, as it turns out.

00:12:34.000 You have poor lady having her feet washed. 1.00

00:12:37.000 You have Native American lady, environmentalist having her feet washed. 1.00

00:12:41.000 Illegal immigrant having her feet washed. 1.00

00:12:43.000 Again, Muslim having her feet washed. 1.00

00:12:46.000 I mean, not to be weird about this, but Christianity is in fact a proselytizing religion. 0.94

00:12:52.000 So, my understanding is there are certain values Christianity wishes to promulgate.

00:12:57.000 Have, um...

00:13:00.000 Old people washing their feet together. 0.99

00:13:03.000 We have a Christian priest washing the feet of somebody who appears to be trans.

00:13:09.000 Which again, jeez is not so hot on the boys or girls routine, is my understanding.

00:13:14.000 And it says, Jesus didn't teach hate.

00:13:19.000 He washed feet.

00:13:22.000 I would just like to point out that Jesus did more than wash feet.

00:13:26.000 I mean, again, I don't mean to be like the Christian proselytizer here, because I'll leave that to others who are actual Christians, but, um, that's not all he did.

00:13:35.000 And hate of what?

00:13:38.000 In fact, Jesus did teach hate of sin. 0.98

00:13:40.000 Like, Jesus went out a fan of, like, my understanding of the Mary Magdalene story is that he didn't say to her, let me wash your feet and I'll go back to being a whore and I'm fine with it. 0.94

00:13:50.000 Pretty sure that's the opposite of the story. 0.92

00:13:53.000 So yeah, so that got political.

00:13:54.000 A lot of people on the right didn't like the ad.

00:13:56.000 I am one of the people who did not like the ad.

00:13:58.000 Again, I believe that Christianity and people going back to church is maybe the only thing that can save the country in reality. 1.00

00:14:04.000 And so the watered-down version of Christianity that basically is just paganism, Is something I'm not a big fan of.

00:14:10.000 It's more on this in just one second.

00:14:11.000 First, I've been talking about my Helix mattress for years.

00:14:14.000 I've had it for, I don't know, almost a decade at this point.

00:14:16.000 I love it.

00:14:16.000 It's the gift that keeps on giving.

00:14:17.000 Every night when I climb into bed, you know, before my little daughter wakes me up at six o'clock in the morning, I realize that this mattress is the only thing keeping me alive.

00:14:25.000 If you haven't already checked out the Helix Elite Collection, you need to.

00:14:28.000 Helix harnesses years of extensive mattress expertise to offer a truly elevated sleep experience.

00:14:32.000 The Helix Elite Collection includes six different mattress models, each tailored for specific sleep positions and firmness preferences.

00:14:38.000 If you're nervous about buying a mattress online, you don't have to be.

00:14:40.000 Helix has a sleep quiz that matches your body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress for you.

00:14:44.000 Because why would you buy a mattress made for some other schlub? 0.79

00:14:47.000 I took that Helix quiz.

00:14:48.000 I was matched with a firm but breathable mattress.

00:14:50.000 And again, it's excellent.

00:14:51.000 Plus, Helix has that 10-year warranty.

00:14:52.000 You can try it out for 100 nights risk-free.

00:14:54.000 They'll pick it up for you if you don't love it, but that never happens.

00:14:57.000 You're gonna love it.

00:14:58.000 Helix is offering 25% off all mattress orders and a free bedroom bundle for our listeners in honor of President's Day.

00:15:04.000 The bundle includes two free pillows, a set of sheets, and a mattress protector.

00:15:07.000 Head on over to HelixSleep.com slash Ben.

00:15:09.000 Use code HelixPartner25.

00:15:11.000 It's their best offer yet.

00:15:12.000 It's not gonna last long.

00:15:13.000 That's HelixSleep.com slash Ben.

00:15:15.000 Use code HelixPartner25.

00:15:17.000 So that was political ad number one.

00:15:19.000 Political ad number two I was a little warmer on.

00:15:21.000 And that was the RFK ad.

00:15:22.000 So there was a super PAC for RFK who put out an RFK ad during the Super Bowl.

00:15:27.000 So let me first state, this is super smart.

00:15:29.000 This is really, really, really smart.

00:15:31.000 The reason this is really smart is because Joe Biden forewent the honorary Super Bowl interview that every incumbent president gets.

00:15:37.000 And the reason he did that is because he's too old for the job and he can no longer function as we saw last week, as we'll get into in just a moment.

00:15:43.000 And Donald Trump didn't take out an ad.

00:15:46.000 I don't know why Trump didn't take out an ad.

00:15:48.000 This would be like a perfect time for Trump to take out an ad.

00:15:50.000 I assume maybe the people broadcasting the Super Bowl didn't want Trump to take out an ad?

00:15:55.000 But the fact is that RFK did.

00:15:57.000 And this ad is very smart.

00:15:58.000 The reason this ad is very smart is because, again, it is seeking normalcy.

00:16:02.000 So what the RFK super PAC understands is that what Americans basically want is everybody to calm the F down.

00:16:07.000 That's kind of what most Americans want at this point.

00:16:09.000 All they want is to know that they go to work, they're gonna take home the vast majority of their money, they're gonna be able to raise their families without being victimized by street crime, that they're not gonna have their boys turned into girls or whatever.

00:16:19.000 They just want a baseline level of normalcy.

00:16:21.000 That's what most Americans are looking for at this point.

00:16:23.000 And what that is is a throwback.

00:16:24.000 And so this ad takes a 1960 ad.

00:16:27.000 So obviously I'm big into presidential history.

00:16:29.000 I recognize this ad right away.

00:16:30.000 This is from the 1960 campaign.

00:16:32.000 And it was an ad for John F. Kennedy.

00:16:34.000 And it's a throwback ad.

00:16:35.000 And basically it substitutes RFK's face into the ad.

00:16:38.000 Now I'm not a fan of the Kennedy family.

00:16:40.000 I think JFK was a wildly overrated president who blew it wildly on the Bay of Bigs, for example.

00:16:45.000 I think that the rest of the Kennedy family, Teddy Kennedy was a likely murderer and also disaster area of a human being.

00:16:53.000 R.F.K., R.F.K.

00:16:55.000 Jr.' 's father, was a fairly corrupt guy with a very seamy personal life.

00:17:01.000 So I'm not a fan of the Kennedy.

00:17:02.000 Joseph Kennedy, the scion of the guy who founded the dynasty, was a Nazi sympathizer.

00:17:08.000 So, again, Far be it from me to be saying that the Kennedy family is anything special.

00:17:14.000 I don't like the Kennedys as a kind of family, but they do have brand recognition, as you might say, in American politics.

00:17:21.000 And so RFK glomming onto that, but not glomming onto his own father, really, as much as he's glomming onto the 1960, let's get back to something resembling optimism and normality, Really smart.

00:17:35.000 Really a smart ad.

00:17:36.000 So here's what the ad sounded like and I will narrate through it because there's not a lot of talk.

00:17:39.000 Okay, so it says Kennedy for president and then it has pictures of RFK where the JFK pictures used to be.

00:17:51.000 And it's a mashup of all these pictures from sort of the Kennedy past with RFK pictures.

00:17:59.000 And they're using the exact same song.

00:18:02.000 They had all these songs back in the old days.

00:18:03.000 It says, vote independent Kennedy.

00:18:08.000 And what is the feel that you get from this ad?

00:18:10.000 And then it says, Kennedy for president, and he looks like a button from 1960.

00:18:16.000 So, this ad is really smart.

00:18:18.000 Because essentially, RFK, this ad, is basically saying, make America great again.

00:18:23.000 That's really what the ad is about.

00:18:24.000 It's a throwback ad, and it's saying, vote independent, right?

00:18:27.000 You don't like either of these parties, vote independent.

00:18:28.000 So it's not even about anything that RFK is doing.

00:18:31.000 It's not...

00:18:32.000 Again, I think that's quite a brilliant ad.

00:18:34.000 I think that you actually are going to see better name recognition of RFK, because if you look at the polls, most Americans don't really like very much either of the two candidates who are running for president.

00:18:43.000 And so just saying, vote independent, and then slapping a Kennedy label on there is about as well as you can do with one of these ads.

00:18:49.000 And using all of the throwback imagery here is super smart for RFK Jr.

00:18:53.000 Very, very smart ad.

00:18:54.000 And running it during the Super Bowl, the single most watched event in America, Quite politically astute.

00:18:59.000 Quite politically astute.

00:19:00.000 Which brings us to Joe Biden, the man who forewent the Super Bowl.

00:19:04.000 So again, usually the Super Bowl is a piece of propaganda on behalf of the current President of the United States, because you get these sort of honorary pre-Super Bowl interview, and Joe Biden just forewent it.

00:19:15.000 He just didn't do it.

00:19:17.000 Instead, Joe Biden showed, in what he did react to the Super Bowl, that he is wildly out of touch and also too old for the job.

00:19:24.000 So, after the Super Bowl, There have been all these weird, stupid conspiracy theories about how the CIA and the FBI were going to rig the Super Bowl so that Travis Kelce would propose to Taylor Swift and then Taylor Swift would get up and endorse Joe Biden at the Super Bowl.

00:19:37.000 None of that was ever going to happen. 0.99

00:19:38.000 It was incredibly dumb. 1.00

00:19:40.000 And again, it comes from a desire on the part of some people to assume a level of control in politics that is absolutely foreclosed by the stupidity of most people in politics. 1.00

00:19:52.000 So Joe Biden's online team, they then tweeted out a meme after the Chiefs won in overtime. 0.97

00:19:57.000 It's a picture of Joe Biden with the kind of dark brands in meme with the glowing eyes.

00:20:00.000 It says, just like we drew it up.

00:20:02.000 And obviously it's mocking the people who had the conspiracy theory.

00:20:04.000 This is super online, like really online.

00:20:07.000 Because again, this conspiracy theory is something that's been sort of pushed by the media and exaggerated by the media as a major thing in American life.

00:20:14.000 So the fact that his team is tweeting that as opposed to just sort of a warm welcome to the people who won the Super Bowl, and this is the big takeaway.

00:20:21.000 Very online.

00:20:22.000 Very insular.

00:20:23.000 Joe Biden obviously had nothing to do with it.

00:20:24.000 He has no clue what's going on.

00:20:26.000 We'll get to more on this in just one second.

00:20:27.000 First, you still have that old car out there, don't you?

00:20:30.000 You're tired of looking at it.

00:20:31.000 You're really tired of your spouse complaining about it.

00:20:33.000 I get it.

00:20:33.000 You're busy.

00:20:34.000 You don't have time.

00:20:34.000 But I have a simple solution for you.

00:20:36.000 You should consider donating that old, rusting vehicle to Cars for Kids.

00:20:41.000 You know Cars for Kids?

00:20:42.000 They're the ones with that jingle that's now going to be stuck in your head the rest of your life.

00:20:46.000 1-877-KARS4KIDS.

00:20:47.000 K-A-R-S. 1.00

00:20:48.000 Kars4Kids.

00:20:50.000 I told you.

00:20:50.000 Here's how it works.

00:20:51.000 Visit their website at Kars4Kids.org slash Ben.

00:20:54.000 Give them some basic information.

00:20:55.000 Let them take it from there.

00:20:56.000 The whole process only takes two minutes.

00:20:58.000 Kars4Kids will schedule a pickup at a time that's convenient for you.

00:21:01.000 So what exactly are you waiting for?

00:21:02.000 Call now or visit Kars4Kids.org slash Ben to get that ball rolling.

00:21:06.000 That's Kars with a K. 0.95

00:21:07.000 number four at cars4kids.org slash Ben.

00:21:11.000 They'll take good care of you, your car, all your donations, and you're helping people out.

00:21:15.000 You're getting a tax break.

00:21:16.000 Go check them out right now.

00:21:17.000 You got nothing to lose.

00:21:18.000 Go cars4kids.org slash Ben.

00:21:20.000 Get that ball rolling.

00:21:21.000 And that was betrayed by the fact that just before the Super Bowl,

00:21:24.000 Joe Biden tried to cut a video.

00:21:25.000 So he doesn't do the interview, but he does do a video from the White House

00:21:29.000 about shrinkflation.

00:21:31.000 Shrinkflation is this phenomenon in which you're spending the same for a bag of potato chips, there are fewer potato chips in the bag.

00:21:37.000 It's sort of a hidden form of inflation, which has happened thanks to Joe Biden.

00:21:41.000 Now he's trying to claim that this is because of corporate greed, when in reality, it's because he created an inflationary economy, the worst inflationary economy in 40 years.

00:21:50.000 But what's worse about this particular video is that to say that Joe Biden looks like death in this video is an insult to death.

00:21:57.000 He does not look like a warmed over corpse.

00:21:59.000 The corpse does not look warmed over.

00:22:02.000 It is quite honestly, like as an American whose president is this guy, it is really frightening that a person who is clearly no longer alive is the president of the United States.

00:22:14.000 This is Weekend at Bernie's time.

00:22:16.000 Here is Joe Biden, a video that he cut right before the Super Bowl.

00:22:20.000 The Super Bowl is Sunday.

00:22:22.000 If you're anything like me, you'll like to be surrounded by a snack or two while watching the big game.

00:22:27.000 You know, when buying snacks for the game, you might have noticed one thing.

00:22:31.000 Sports drinks bottles are smaller.

00:22:33.000 A bag of chips is fewer chips.

00:22:34.000 By the way, look how many cuts.

00:22:35.000 They're still charging you just as much.

00:22:36.000 He can't even say direct in the camera.

00:22:38.000 What makes me the most angry is that ice cream trucks have actually shrunk in size.

00:22:41.000 Like, set up a teleprompter in front of the camera, guys.

00:22:43.000 What are you reading?

00:22:44.000 I've had enough of what they call shrink fashion.

00:22:47.000 Where's he looking?

00:22:48.000 He's like all the way out here.

00:22:49.000 That's not how teleprompters work, Joe.

00:22:51.000 How many reads did he have to do to get this much video in a row?

00:22:53.000 Okay, that is a truly awful video.

00:22:55.000 That's not how teleprompters work, Joe. 0.99

00:22:56.000 The American public is tired of being paid for suckers.

00:22:59.000 I'm calling on companies to put a stop to this.

00:23:02.000 Let's make sure businesses do the right thing.

00:23:04.000 How many reads did he have to do to get this much video in a row?

00:23:07.000 Okay, that is a truly awful video.

00:23:11.000 He looks terrible.

00:23:11.000 His big pitch going into the game is, I don't like shrink flay.

00:23:16.000 First of all, who's the political wunderkind who told him talk about inflation before the Super Bowl?

00:23:21.000 Because guess whose fault that is, Joe?

00:23:23.000 In the corporations.

00:23:25.000 By the way, this is like the one time in American life where everybody kind of likes the corporations because they like the ads. 0.99

00:23:30.000 Most of the time, Americans are like, corporations suck.

00:23:32.000 And they watch the Super Bowl like, that was a funny ad from from Dunkin Donuts. 0.99

00:23:36.000 I enjoyed that.

00:23:38.000 Tone deaf, not alive, too old. 1.00

00:23:41.000 And that is the slogan for the 2024 Joe Biden campaign.

00:23:45.000 The polls are getting worse and worse for Joe Biden on the age issue.

00:23:48.000 I mean, truly awful for Joe Biden.

00:23:49.000 So what we have in the 2024 election, this is why the RFK Jr.

00:23:52.000 ad is smart, what we have is a president who is far too old and terrible at his job.

00:23:58.000 I'm more concerned about him being terrible at his job, frankly.

00:24:00.000 I think a lot of people are concerned about the fact that he's no longer sentient, that he's a houseplant hiding the water stain that is the Democratic Party policy.

00:24:06.000 I'm more concerned about the water stain, to be honest with you.

00:24:08.000 But By polling data, most people are very, very concerned about the House plant himself.

00:24:14.000 So you have that on the one hand.

00:24:15.000 And on the other hand, you have Donald Trump, who just keeps saying things.

00:24:20.000 Stop saying things.

00:24:21.000 If you want to... It's just the world's longest game of hold my beer.

00:24:25.000 It's just... In any case, we'll start with Joe Biden.

00:24:27.000 So, brand new ABC News Ipsos poll.

00:24:31.000 86% of Americans think Joe Biden is too old to serve another term as president. 86%.

00:24:40.000 Okay, let me explain.

00:24:41.000 86% of Americans don't agree about anything.

00:24:43.000 You can't get 86% of Americans to agree that Elvis is dead.

00:24:47.000 You cannot get 86% of Americans to believe the moon landing is real.

00:24:51.000 86% of Americans agree that Joe Biden is too old, and the other 14% are direct members of Joe Biden's extended family.

00:24:58.000 Everyone knows he's too old for the job.

00:24:59.000 Everyone knows he's no longer sentient.

00:25:01.000 Everyone knows he's falling apart.

00:25:03.000 So 59% of Americans think both he and Donald Trump are too old.

00:25:08.000 27% think only Biden is too old.

00:25:10.000 So the 59% who think that both he and Trump are too old are basically just saying we don't like either of these candidates.

00:25:15.000 Because if you contrast Trump with Biden, Trump is clearly a much more alive human than Joe Biden.

00:25:22.000 Like, Donald Trump is fully alive.

00:25:24.000 Joe Biden is, in the words of the Princess Bride, mostly dead.

00:25:28.000 It means slightly alive, but mostly dead.

00:25:31.000 And he's gonna need Miracle Max to come in and revive him for anything remotely resembling a campaign here.

00:25:38.000 62% of Americans think Trump is too old to serve as president.

00:25:42.000 73% of Democrats think Biden is too old to serve.

00:25:45.000 Only 35% of Republicans think Trump is too old to serve.

00:25:50.000 91% of independents think Biden is too old.

00:25:55.000 I don't see how you can win re-election under those circumstances, frankly.

00:25:58.000 The only way would be if, say, the other candidate wouldn't shut the hell up and just kept saying things that are likely to hurt his campaign.

00:26:07.000 The Democrats are trying to walk past this one because they have no mechanism for getting rid of him.

00:26:11.000 So according to news reports, Jill Biden is very, very upset.

00:26:16.000 She's very upset because the special counsel report from Robert Herr came out and it said Joe Biden is certainly guilty of mishandling classified information, but a prosecution of him would be unsuccessful because he's a vegetable.

00:26:26.000 Because he's essentially a drooling vegetable and we cannot allow any trial of him because he will just present himself thus and everyone will go, are we going to put that old guy in jail?

00:26:34.000 Probably not.

00:26:35.000 So don't bother with the prosecution.

00:26:36.000 That's the case that Robert Heard, the special counsel made in short.

00:26:38.000 And apparently sources at NBC News were like, well, Jill Biden says that the report is inhumane.

00:26:43.000 Well, I mean, I guess you could choose the prosecution and see how that goes for you.

00:26:48.000 Here was Meet the Press reporting.

00:26:51.000 And a person who's close to the First Lady told me that she was directly involved in the crafting of this fundraising email.

00:26:56.000 Jen, you know well it's not always the case that it's like that.

00:26:59.000 She said, among other things, that she wanted to speak out in real American mom terms and say that this wasn't just inaccurate, that it was inhumane.

00:27:07.000 And then she also wanted to make another argument that the First Lady did there. 1.00

00:27:10.000 She said that Americans benefit from each of the President's 81 years.

00:27:14.000 His experience, his expertise is what's allowed him to get things done.

00:27:19.000 Okay, we're benefiting from each of his 81 years?

00:27:21.000 Uh... Well, then we could get into his record.

00:27:24.000 And we will in just a moment.

00:27:25.000 Okay, but Democrats are trying to come up with whatever angle they can here.

00:27:28.000 So what they are saying is that the special counsel is bad now.

00:27:31.000 Oh, how every argument flips the moment it's your side.

00:27:34.000 So, when it was Robert Mueller and Donald Trump was saying, The special counsel investigation is a joke and it's a witch hunt and it's terrible and it's politically motivated and there's a deep state that's out to get me.

00:27:42.000 Then the entire press is like, that's unpatriotic.

00:27:45.000 That's the president of the United States threatening democracy, threatening the bureaucracy.

00:27:50.000 He can't do that.

00:27:50.000 That's terrible.

00:27:52.000 Oh, there are hearts a-flutter.

00:27:53.000 Oh, there are fans a-waving.

00:27:55.000 Oh, there is sweat a-breaking out on brows across the media landscape.

00:27:58.000 But Joe Biden's entire team is out there.

00:28:00.000 Senators, members of the press.

00:28:02.000 Robert Herr is evil.

00:28:04.000 He is out to get Joe Biden. 0.96

00:28:06.000 Robert Herr's a mean man who's out to get Grandpa.

00:28:09.000 Leave Grandpa alone!

00:28:11.000 We'll get to more on this in just one second.

00:28:12.000 First, Grand Canyon University.

00:28:14.000 It's a private Christian university in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona.

00:28:16.000 I'm into their campus.

00:28:17.000 It's awesome.

00:28:18.000 GCU believes our creator has endowed us with certain unalienable rights.

00:28:21.000 Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.

00:28:23.000 They believe in equal opportunities and that the American dream starts with purpose.

00:28:26.000 GCU equips you to serve others in ways that promote your flourishing, which will create a ripple effect of transformation for generations to come.

00:28:33.000 Whether you're pursuing that bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree, Grand Canyon University's online, on-campus, and hybrid learning environments are designed to help you achieve your degree.

00:28:41.000 GCU has over 330 academic programs as of September 2023.

00:28:45.000 Find your purpose today at Grand Canyon University, private, Christian, affordable.

00:28:49.000 Visit gcu.edu.

00:28:50.000 That's gcu.edu.

00:28:52.000 Go check them out right now.

00:28:53.000 gcu.edu.

00:28:55.000 So we have Chris Coons, the Senator from Delaware, who's out there saying it's insulting to say

00:29:00.000 that Joe Biden forgot the date of his son's death.

00:29:02.000 OK, well, you know, as we'll see in a second, you know what you could do?

00:29:05.000 You could release the transcript and we can see if that's true or not.

00:29:08.000 You know who doesn't want to release the transcript of any of the interview with Robert Herr?

00:29:11.000 Joe Biden.

00:29:12.000 In any case, here is Chris Coons.

00:29:15.000 What that poll could have been about is who understands that our alliances keep us safer?

00:29:20.000 Joe Biden, who's led 50 countries to come to the defense of Ukraine?

00:29:25.000 Or Donald Trump, who alarmingly last night bragged about a story where he claims he threatened a NATO ally to throw them to the Russian wolves if they didn't pay up?

00:29:34.000 NATO isn't a protection racket, it is a security alliance.

00:29:38.000 So the substance, the difference, Joe Biden and Donald Trump and most elected officials

00:29:44.000 make small gaffes just like the ones you just showed.

00:29:47.000 That's not what matters.

00:29:49.000 We are in a fight for the soul of our nation and the idea that somehow Joe Biden forgot

00:29:54.000 the date of his son's death is offensive and appalling.

00:29:58.000 And what you should be focused on, in my view, what that poll should have focused on, what our nation should focus on, is the way that Donald Trump is undermining rule of law, democracy, and our safety as a nation.

00:30:11.000 Okay, whatever, it's insulting.

00:30:13.000 How dare the special counsel, how dare, then Adam Schiff, the biggest political hack of our generation.

00:30:19.000 Adam Schiff, who literally went into the green room at MSNBC and CNN for like three years, claiming that just around the corner was a bombshell that would link Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin's slush fund. 0.98

00:30:31.000 That garbage human, Adam Schiff, he's out there now saying that her is a political hack. 1.00

00:30:38.000 Oh, pot calling kettle black here. 0.97

00:30:41.000 But clients are told, hey, if you don't remember specifically the facts of things that happened years ago, which is not uncommon, don't try to reinvent what took place.

00:30:52.000 And there's nothing, I think, unusual about a deposition in which people can't recall details of years ago.

00:30:59.000 But to extrapolate from that and make a political attack, that's just hackery by Mr. Herr.

00:31:07.000 Wow.

00:31:08.000 Hackery.

00:31:09.000 Says the world's largest hack.

00:31:11.000 Okay, so here's the question.

00:31:12.000 If it is hackery by her, then you know what they could do?

00:31:16.000 So first of all, I'm with her.

00:31:17.000 But in any case, if it is hackery by Robert Herr, you know what they could do?

00:31:20.000 They could release all the transcripts.

00:31:22.000 They could do that.

00:31:23.000 Here is Joe Biden's lawyer saying they're not going to release all the transcripts.

00:31:26.000 I wonder why.

00:31:27.000 I wonder why you won't release the taped interviews with Robert Herr.

00:31:30.000 Maybe it's because Joe Biden sounds senile in them.

00:31:34.000 That would be the rationale.

00:31:36.000 What you're talking about and letters you've released make it sound like there are indeed transcripts that you have of these conversations over the 8th and the 9th.

00:31:44.000 Yes, I'm drawing here on my recollections, but yes, there are transcripts and as you heard Ian Sams in the press briefing room say, you know, there are discussions underway because it's a classified document about What could or whether will be or when released, I can't add anything to that today.

00:31:58.000 Do you favor releasing them?

00:32:00.000 Well, it's really a decision that has to take place within the government.

00:32:02.000 It's a classified document.

00:32:04.000 I'm the president's personal counsel.

00:32:05.000 Right.

00:32:06.000 Would you recommend that these be made public if they indeed back up your personal record?

00:32:10.000 Again, there's a process underway.

00:32:11.000 I'm not a specialist in that process, and so I really have to defer to those who have to work through those issues.

00:32:17.000 So that'd be a no.

00:32:18.000 They don't want those transcripts made public because what it's going to show is that Joe Biden is no longer sentient.

00:32:22.000 The blowback, by the way, here is somewhat bipartisan.

00:32:25.000 A huge percentage of Democrats also think that Joe Biden does not have the mental acuity to be president anymore.

00:32:29.000 Hillary Clinton can always be counted on to shiv every other Democrat in the back. 1.00

00:32:33.000 Hillary Clinton is a walking shiv.

00:32:35.000 That's what she is as a human being.

00:32:37.000 Here she was saying that Joe Biden's age is a legitimate issue.

00:32:40.000 Perhaps the reason that Hillary Clinton is saying that is because Hillary Clinton, she is currently... How old is Hillary Clinton now?

00:32:47.000 Hillary Clinton is currently 76.

00:32:49.000 So she's a spring chicken by our modern standards of the presidency. 1.00

00:32:52.000 And maybe she's thinking, well, if Joe steps down, maybe it's me.

00:32:57.000 Maybe.

00:32:58.000 Hope never dies in Hillary land.

00:32:59.000 Here she was going after Joe Biden on his age.

00:33:02.000 The thing, the X factor in all of this, the thing that we keep seeing in poll after poll after poll is concern about Biden's age.

00:33:10.000 Full stop.

00:33:11.000 What should he do on this?

00:33:11.000 Does he, is it, is a matter of sort of like, Underscoring his boundless energy?

00:33:18.000 Or should he embrace his, you know, eight decades on earth and the great wisdom he's gained through all of this?

00:33:24.000 I think only the above.

00:33:26.000 Only the above.

00:33:27.000 I mean, you know, I talk to people in the White House all the time and, you know, they know it's an issue.

00:33:32.000 But as I like to say, look, it's a legitimate issue.

00:33:35.000 It's a legitimate issue for Trump, who's only three years younger, right?

00:33:38.000 So it's an issue.

00:33:40.000 Once you say that, then you have to also talk about what's at stake in the election, and I'm for Joe Biden for re-election on the merits, because I think he's done a really good job as president.

00:33:51.000 Okay, she's not.

00:33:53.000 Bob Costas, right before the game, a sportscaster, he was like, yeah, maybe it's time for Joe Biden to go away.

00:33:59.000 Perhaps the time has come. 0.99

00:34:00.000 Just because the Republicans and Fox News and all the tributaries that come off of that will overstate it, Turn a blind eye to the fact that Trump, who has always been an unprincipled and reprehensible person, is now a ranting lunatic who has mental gaps of his own. 0.98

00:34:18.000 So, it's a selective truth. 0.94

00:34:22.000 But that doesn't mean it isn't true.

00:34:25.000 Right.

00:34:25.000 And when it comes to Biden, this is like the truth that no one until very recently wants to say out loud.

00:34:31.000 But my friends will tell you I've been saying it for four years.

00:34:35.000 This is Emperor's New Clothes stuff.

00:34:37.000 Joe Biden should have run on a firm promise that he would be a one-term president.

00:34:41.000 The only reason he is president is that he's not Donald Trump.

00:34:45.000 Then the Dems could have gotten a lot of people up in the bullpen, and they could have sorted through those people.

00:34:52.000 If Biden's hubris is such that he doesn't understand the best interests of his party, and more important, his country, then he has to be shown the door.

00:35:01.000 Period.

00:35:03.000 Okay, Costas is not wrong.

00:35:04.000 There are a lot of Democrats who feel the same way about this, but here's the problem.

00:35:07.000 There's no way to get him to leave.

00:35:08.000 Joe Biden is a stubborn old codger.

00:35:10.000 No one who attains the presidency wants to leave it, ever, under any circumstances.

00:35:14.000 I mean, that is just the reality of the ego involved here, which is why Biden's campaign co-chair, Mitch Landrieu, is like, he's never going to quit, ever, under any circumstances.

00:35:21.000 Here's Mitch Landrieu.

00:35:23.000 How do you respond to Democrats who say they want to see a change at the top of the ticket?

00:35:30.000 I'm in the process of doing it right now, and demonstrating that the President's accomplishments have really been second to none.

00:35:36.000 And Joe Biden is going to get up every day.

00:35:37.000 The one thing Joe Biden is never going to do is count on this.

00:35:40.000 He is never, ever going to quit.

00:35:41.000 Because that's not what he's done his entire life, notwithstanding the fact that, by the way, he lost another child early in his life, and he got up and he went to work.

00:35:48.000 And then he had difficulty with his other son, and he got up and he went to work, and he's going to keep doing that.

00:35:54.000 In other words, he ain't going nowhere, which puts Democrats in a heap of trouble if the Republicans cannot step on their own bleeps.

00:36:02.000 Well, good luck with that.

00:36:02.000 We'll get to that in a moment.

00:36:03.000 All right, folks, I need your attention for a major announcement.

00:36:05.000 Mark your calendars.

00:36:06.000 It's the epic return of Backstage.

00:36:08.000 After almost a year away, filming the Pendragon Cycle, Jeremy Boring is back, joined by Matt Walsh, Michael Moles, Candace Owens, Andrew Klavan.

00:36:14.000 And me.

00:36:15.000 Join us tomorrow, 7 p.m.

00:36:16.000 Eastern, 6 p.m.

00:36:17.000 Central, as we go behind the scenes and beyond the headlines.

00:36:19.000 There's lots of cover.

00:36:20.000 You're not going to want to miss a minute.

00:36:21.000 Watch the show live exclusively on Daily Wire Plus, Tuesday night at 7 p.m.

00:36:25.000 Eastern, 6 p.m.

00:36:25.000 Central.

00:36:26.000 You're not going to want to miss it.

00:36:27.000 Okay, meanwhile.

00:36:28.000 So, Donald Trump's re-elect would be a foregone conclusion here, if he could get out of his own way.

00:36:33.000 And that's the real question of this election cycle.

00:36:36.000 Joe Biden can't defeat his own inabilities.

00:36:39.000 He can't.

00:36:40.000 He is physically limited, he is mentally limited, his capacity is limited.

00:36:45.000 He really has a bunch of boundaries that have been set by reality for him.

00:36:50.000 And his own policies, we'll get to momentarily, are a disaster area that are significantly increasing the likelihood of World War III across the world, mainly through his cowardice and inaction.

00:36:59.000 Donald Trump has one factor under his control that Joe Biden does not, and that is the capacity to shut his face.

00:37:05.000 It is important to shut your face when you're in a presidential election.

00:37:07.000 What you don't say is just as important as what you do say.

00:37:10.000 You being on TV more does not mean that you're going to win more votes.

00:37:13.000 Donald Trump does not need to up his profile at this point.

00:37:15.000 Donald Trump needs everyone to be focused in on the fact that Joe Biden is a terrible president who is no longer competent to hold his office.

00:37:21.000 And that his backup is Kamala Harris, who is the world's worst vice president, also not competent to hold her office, but for different reasons. 1.00

00:37:28.000 That is what Donald Trump needs this election to be a referendum on.

00:37:31.000 So what he doesn't need to do is make big boo-boos that allow the media to try to switch the narrative away.

00:37:38.000 So, there's kind of the usual Trumpian nonsense.

00:37:41.000 I don't think any of that's going to affect him.

00:37:42.000 The Trumpian nonsense would be stuff like Donald Trump riffing about Taylor Swift before the big game.

00:37:51.000 So he wrote a tweet saying, I signed and was responsible for the Music Modernization Act for Taylor Swift and many other artists.

00:37:59.000 Joe Biden didn't do anything for Taylor and never will.

00:38:01.000 There's no way she could endorse crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt president in the history of our country, and be disloyal to the man who made her so much money.

00:38:07.000 Besides that, I like her boyfriend, Travis, even though he may be a liberal and probably can't stand me. 0.99

00:38:12.000 Okay, like, this is dumb stuff. 0.93

00:38:13.000 I don't know, like, who cares? 0.99

00:38:14.000 I mean, it's like I'm the dumb ca- By the way, she's totally gonna endorse Biden. 0.96

00:38:17.000 I mean, we all know this, right? 0.95

00:38:18.000 And so's Travis.

00:38:20.000 Like, we all get that?

00:38:21.000 Now again, in a past world, no one would care because who cares what a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs and a pop singer have to say about politics? 0.84

00:38:28.000 And in reality, I don't think it's going to move that many votes. 0.58

00:38:30.000 Is that like a dumb thing to say? 0.99

00:38:32.000 Yeah, it's silly. 0.99

00:38:32.000 It's silly. 0.99

00:38:33.000 Is that going to have any impact on the election?

00:38:34.000 No, that one's not going to have any impact.

00:38:36.000 But what Donald Trump says about policy, that does allow for lines of attack to open against him that he does not need to open.

00:38:44.000 So Donald Trump was giving a speech and he was talking about NATO.

00:38:49.000 Donald Trump's position on NATO is that NATO is important, apparently.

00:38:52.000 The intelligent version of Donald Trump's position on NATO is that NATO is quite important in order to check foreign actors who have interests adversarial to those of the United States and the European Union, which is largely what comprises NATO.

00:39:04.000 And yes, NATO, of course, is in fact a tool to counterbalance Russian aggression in the Balkans, in Ukraine, and other places.

00:39:12.000 And for all of the foolish talk about how Russia is not an expansionist power, I urge everyone to pick up a book, any book, about the history of Russia.

00:39:20.000 The history of Russia is literally a history of expansionism.

00:39:23.000 The kingdom of Muscovy was a very small kingdom, and then it was a very large kingdom, and then it got even larger under the Soviet Union, and then it got a little smaller after the fall of the Soviet Union, and now it's gotten a little larger under Vladimir Putin.

00:39:33.000 The idea that Russia is not an expansionist power is not correct.

00:39:37.000 That is just not true.

00:39:38.000 But, in any case, Donald Trump could say, listen, NATO, important, we like it, which is why we want everyone to pay up.

00:39:45.000 We don't wish to pay the large share of the burden for NATO.

00:39:48.000 We should pay a proportional share for NATO.

00:39:50.000 And you guys who are in Europe, you should see how vital this is.

00:39:53.000 We rebuilt your economy with the Marshall Plan.

00:39:56.000 80 years ago.

00:39:58.000 We have rebuilt your economies to the point where you guys can have these giant social welfare states where half your population is dependent on the government.

00:40:04.000 You can certainly afford a little bit more for NATO.

00:40:07.000 And you should.

00:40:08.000 I think that's the argument that Donald Trump is making here, which is badly articulated.

00:40:11.000 So Donald Trump is making the argument here that if NATO doesn't pay up, the United States will not.

00:40:15.000 That's called leverage, okay?

00:40:16.000 So using leverage is not the end of the world.

00:40:18.000 Saying out loud things like, we will not defend our NATO partners if they don't pay up, is not exactly an inducement for Vladimir Putin to stop his aggression, precisely.

00:40:30.000 So here is Donald Trump over the weekend.

00:40:34.000 One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, well, sir, if we don't pay and we're attacked by Russia, will you protect us? 0.54

00:40:43.000 I said, you didn't pay?

00:40:45.000 You're delinquent?

00:40:46.000 He said, yes.

00:40:47.000 Let's say that happened.

00:40:49.000 No, I would not protect you.

00:40:50.000 In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.

00:40:55.000 Okay, so, he's obviously quasi-joking here.

00:40:58.000 That is not how foreign policy decisions get made.

00:41:01.000 But, does it matter when a presidential candidate says, I would encourage them to attack you if you don't actually pay your ne- Again, this is Donald Trump speaking in hyperbole because that's the language he speaks.

00:41:08.000 That's the reality.

00:41:10.000 Hey, you can tell when he's joking, when he's not.

00:41:11.000 This is a story, by the way, that for sure never happened.

00:41:13.000 No major country got up and said to Donald Trump, if we don't pay our fair share, are you going to let the Russians invade us?

00:41:17.000 That is a conversation that never happened in the same way that Donald Trump routinely retells conversations with other political candidates who come to him crying for his support, which is not a reality.

00:41:26.000 None of that happens.

00:41:27.000 Donald Trump exaggerates for effect.

00:41:28.000 This is an exaggeration for effect.

00:41:30.000 But when you're a presidential candidate, opening the door up to critique is not exactly your smartest strategy.

00:41:36.000 So the White House, of course, jumped directly on that with both feet.

00:41:40.000 Suggesting that this was incredibly dangerous, how could he possibly say this sort of stuff?

00:41:43.000 Now, the normal counter to this is, you know who didn't invade Ukraine while Donald Trump was president?

00:41:48.000 It would be Vladimir Putin.

00:41:49.000 So all the talk about Donald Trump being bad for NATO, there are a lot less violations of NATO's presumed reach or threats to NATO's presumed reach under Donald Trump than there were under Joe Biden, because Joe Biden's a weakling.

00:42:03.000 But NATO put out a statement.

00:42:05.000 NATO Secretary General Jan Stoltenberg said NATO remains ready and able to defend all allies.

00:42:08.000 Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the U.S.

00:42:13.000 and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk.

00:42:15.000 I expect that regardless of who wins the presidential election, the U.S.

00:42:18.000 will remain a strong and committed NATO ally.

00:42:20.000 And then leaders in Germany and Poland also swiftly criticized Donald Trump's comments.

00:42:25.000 So you understand where they're coming from.

00:42:28.000 I mean, the reality is that if you are an Eastern European country or a country in the Baltics and the President of the United States is like, you don't pay up and they might invade you.

00:42:36.000 And you're talking about like Latvia or Lithuania or Estonia and these places have GDPs that are minute compared to the GDP of the United States.

00:42:43.000 I mean, the GDP of Poland is like $680 billion.

00:42:48.000 The annual budget of the United States, not the GDP, the annual budget is like 10 times that amount.

00:42:55.000 So let's say that you are Poland and you are currently spending 3.9% of your GDP into military goals, including twice NATO's current 2% target for NATO.

00:43:03.000 Like you have to say that you're gonna spend a certain percentage of your money on your military budget in order to fulfill your duty under NATO.

00:43:10.000 Let's say you're Poland. 0.98

00:43:11.000 And what you hear from the president of the United States is that an attack on the collective, that is NATO, Will be accepted by the United States so long as it's like Latvia and they're paying, say, 1.8% or something.

00:43:22.000 If you're Poland, does that make you sanguine or does that make you upset? 0.61

00:43:25.000 So again, I understand exactly what Donald Trump is saying here.

00:43:27.000 And what he's actually saying is he's trying to leverage everybody into spending what they should be spending on their own defense spending.

00:43:33.000 But putting out that signal publicly is not the same thing as doing it privately because, of course, Vladimir Putin and company are listening and they sense any sort of weakness as a chance for aggression.

00:43:44.000 So that opens Donald Trump up to critique, that he doesn't need.

00:43:46.000 That he doesn't need. 0.99

00:43:47.000 It's useless.

00:43:48.000 It's not useful to his campaign to do that sort of thing.

00:43:51.000 Other things that are not useful to Donald Trump's campaign, lashing out at Nikki Haley's husband.

00:43:54.000 Like, why is this a thing?

00:43:56.000 Nikki Haley is not important in this race.

00:43:59.000 Nikki Haley is not going to win any more primaries. 0.99

00:44:01.000 Nikki Haley was over after New Hampshire.

00:44:04.000 I mean, to be frank, she was over before New Hampshire.

00:44:07.000 This race was over after Iowa.

00:44:09.000 I said so after Iowa.

00:44:10.000 It was over.

00:44:10.000 It remains over.

00:44:12.000 Why Donald Trump is spending his mental energy going after Nikki Haley and then going after Nikki Haley's husband by proxy.

00:44:19.000 Is this the sort of stuff that's going to attract the suburban women that you need in order to win a general election? 1.00

00:44:22.000 I don't think so.

00:44:23.000 And of course, it's not just about what he says.

00:44:25.000 It's about the fact that he opens the door.

00:44:27.000 This is Trump as a personality.

00:44:30.000 One of the benefits of Donald Trump is he doesn't give a bleep, right?

00:44:32.000 That's his big thing.

00:44:33.000 I don't give a bleep.

00:44:34.000 The problem is, when you have the world's biggest target on your back, which Donald Trump does, not giving a bleep makes it harder for you to get done what you need to get done.

00:44:42.000 I'm not saying he should care what people think.

00:44:43.000 I'm saying that he should care about strategic thinking so that he is more likely to win.

00:44:48.000 So, for example, if you know that the quote-unquote deep state has its eye on you, you know what you shouldn't do is refuse to turn over boxes of documents in Mar-a-Lago after they request them.

00:44:57.000 Just turn them over.

00:44:58.000 What's the point of anything else?

00:45:00.000 If you know that all you have to do is just point at the elderly, doddering, senile old man on the other side and win election, Why are you ripping on Nikki Haley's husband and allowing a spate of headlines about Nikki Haley's husband?

00:45:10.000 Like, why?

00:45:11.000 Just what is the logic here?

00:45:12.000 If you want Trump to win, I'm asking this question.

00:45:15.000 Because this is totally under Trump's control.

00:45:17.000 The big problem for Joe Biden.

00:45:18.000 Many of his problems are not under his own control.

00:45:21.000 For Donald Trump, I know he wants to be in the limelight.

00:45:22.000 I know he likes the rallies.

00:45:23.000 I know he's a comedian.

00:45:25.000 I get the jokes.

00:45:26.000 Also, like, what's the... Strategically, why would this be helpful?

00:45:31.000 Forget about whether he's gonna win or not.

00:45:33.000 Is this helpful?

00:45:34.000 Here he was going after Nikki Haley's husband.

00:45:37.000 The greatest president in my lifetime, she said.

00:45:39.000 I will never run against him!

00:45:41.000 Then she comes over to see me at Mar-a-Lago.

00:45:43.000 Sir, I will never run against you.

00:45:46.000 She brought her husband.

00:45:47.000 Where's her husband?

00:45:48.000 Oh, he's away.

00:45:49.000 He's away.

00:45:49.000 What happened to her husband?

00:45:52.000 What happened to her husband?

00:45:54.000 Where is he?

00:45:55.000 He's gone.

00:45:57.000 Okay, so what he's actually implying right there?

00:46:00.000 What he's actually implying is that Nikki Haley's cheating on her husband.

00:46:03.000 Let's be clear about what he's implying right there because that is what he's doing.

00:46:05.000 There have been these rumors long-standing with affidavits and all of this sort of stuff.

00:46:09.000 Where is Nikki Haley's husband?

00:46:10.000 He's an active duty member of the American military.

00:46:12.000 He's overseas right now.

00:46:14.000 How is that helpful?

00:46:16.000 Again, just forget about the morality of what he's saying, which I don't like.

00:46:20.000 How is that helpful? 0.52

00:46:21.000 Especially because, again, Joe Biden is a terrible president.

00:46:24.000 Why not focus on Joe Biden?

00:46:25.000 Forget about Nikki Haley.

00:46:26.000 Focus in on Joe Biden.

00:46:29.000 The reality is that Joe Biden's weakness is leading to a larger chance of a larger-scale war breaking out.

00:46:35.000 So, for example, in the Middle East right now, there are several things happening.

00:46:39.000 One of the things that's happening is that apparently, according to several U.S.

00:46:41.000 defense officials, and this will be Open Source Intelligence Monitor reporting, preparations are now underway for a total or partial withdrawal of U.S.

00:46:48.000 and coalition forces from Eastern Syria and Iraq due to pressure from Iranian-backed groups, including Kataib Hezbollah.

00:46:53.000 Okay, now, you can make the case that we shouldn't have outlets over there, but if you are going to withdraw people, you don't do it in the face of Iranian terror. 0.64

00:47:03.000 If you want to make the case that independently we don't need people over there and it's a waste of time and a waste of resources, make that case.

00:47:09.000 But don't let Iranian terror groups quote-unquote drive you out of the region.

00:47:13.000 What do they do after that?

00:47:14.000 They declare victory.

00:47:15.000 What do they do after that?

00:47:16.000 They go after the next easiest target.

00:47:18.000 Whether that's Saudis or Israelis or Americans or in other bases around the region.

00:47:23.000 Showing your neck is the worst thing you can do in the Middle East and the Biden administration is doing it over and over and over again.

00:47:29.000 They're doing it with regard to Israel right now.

00:47:31.000 Joe Biden, he believes that he can only win election if he panders to terror supporters in Michigan.

00:47:37.000 That's what he believes.

00:47:38.000 And that's why he is deploying top Biden aides to Michigan to do meetings in Dearborn to rip on the Israelis who are an American ally.

00:47:47.000 You know who's not an American ally?

00:47:48.000 Hamas. 0.73

00:47:49.000 Not an American ally.

00:47:52.000 At least last I checked.

00:47:53.000 According to the Times of Israel, U.S.

00:47:55.000 Deputy National Security Advisor John Finer made comments Thursday during a visit to the city of Dearborn, in which the top White House official said he did not have, quote, any confidence in the current Israeli government.

00:48:05.000 Now, I would just like to point out at this point, the current Israeli government is not just run by Benjamin Netanyahu, who's been made the bugaboo and the enemy of the press.

00:48:12.000 Benny Gantz is the prime opposition, the person who in every poll, if an election were held today, would be Prime Minister of Israel.

00:48:18.000 That guy is in the coalition right now for the purposes of the war.

00:48:22.000 And yet the goal here is to try to convince, I guess, Michigan pro-Hamasniks, that the Biden administration is trying to draw a middle line between Hamas and the Israeli government.

00:48:33.000 And then he apparently called some unnamed Israeli officials, quote, abhorrent.

00:48:37.000 And said the administration should have taken a stronger stand against those who compared, quote, residents of Gaza to animals.

00:48:42.000 Now that is a lie.

00:48:43.000 The person he's talking about there is Yoav Galant, who's the defense minister of Israel, who compared members of Hamas to animals.

00:48:48.000 And guess what? 0.98

00:48:49.000 They are animals. 1.00

00:48:50.000 If you're a member of Hamas and you rape women and you kill babies, you are an animal. 1.00

00:48:55.000 But Galant was specifically talking about Hamas, not every Palestinian who's living over there. 1.00

00:48:59.000 Meanwhile, Joe Biden, again, an attempt to buy Michigan support.

00:49:03.000 He apparently told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday that Israel should not go ahead with a military operation in the Gaza border town of Rafah without a credible plan to protect civilians.

00:49:11.000 Now, what exactly does that mean?

00:49:12.000 First of all, Israel has been attempting to protect civilians this entire time because of Israel, which has complete air superiority for the 1000th time, wished to kill Two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. 0.86

00:49:24.000 They certainly have the aerial capability to do that, but they are not doing that.

00:49:27.000 In fact, there are Israeli soldiers, who I know, who are going literally house to house and door to door in the most densely populated areas of some of the most densely populated places on planet Earth, so as to not kill civilians.

00:49:39.000 In fact, I met with an Israeli soldier on Friday night who literally had his buddy gunned down right in front of him as he was going into an apartment complex in Gaza last week.

00:49:49.000 Like, Why are they even on the ground there?

00:49:52.000 The reason is to preserve civilian life.

00:49:54.000 Not only that, the reason they're on the ground is to save the hostages.

00:49:58.000 So while Joe Biden was apparently telling Israel not to go into Rafa, which again is the only major stronghold Hamas has left.

00:50:03.000 They apparently have four battalions in Rafa.

00:50:06.000 In order for Israel to finish off, this is basically like Joe Biden saying to the American military during World War II, guys, once you get around Berlin, just stop there. 0.55

00:50:12.000 Just stop right around Berlin.

00:50:14.000 Like, no, that's not the idea.

00:50:15.000 Every Hamas official is now in Rafah.

00:50:17.000 Everyone knows this.

00:50:18.000 This is clearly true.

00:50:19.000 Not only that, all the hostages are in Rafah.

00:50:22.000 Miraculously, we found out last night during the Super Bowl, Israel actually rescued two hostages alive in Gaza last night, which is like an amazing, miraculous story.

00:50:31.000 You have right now about 100 hostages who are being kept We don't know how many are dead.

00:50:36.000 Nobody knows how many are dead.

00:50:37.000 But Israel actually rescued two hostages alive in Rafah while the Biden administration was telling them not to go in.

00:50:44.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, the Israeli military said Monday the rescue of Fernando Simon Marmon and Louis Haar was a complicated operation performed under fire in the heart of Rafah, a city in southern Gaza near where Palestinians are seeking refuge from the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

00:50:58.000 At roughly 2 a.m.

00:50:59.000 local time, military forces and a police SWAT team broke into a house in Rafah and engaged in a gunfight with Hamas militants while shielding the hostages with their own bodies before evacuating them to a secure location.

00:51:09.000 Israeli airstrikes in Gaza killed 164 people overnight, including dozens in Rafah.

00:51:14.000 Of course, those targeted strikes were at military members of Hamas who hide behind civilians.

00:51:21.000 And having talked again to people who are serving in Gaza right now, the embedding is insane.

00:51:26.000 The line between civilian and military in Gaza, between civilian and terrorists in Gaza, is incredibly thin.

00:51:32.000 Huge percentages of civilian households in Gaza contain weaponry.

00:51:37.000 Huge percentages are hiding terror tunnels.

00:51:39.000 Not just them, by the way.

00:51:41.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, Hidden deep below the headquarters of the UN Aid Agency for Palestinians in Gaza City is a Hamas complex with rows of computer servers that Israel's armed forces say served as an important communication center and intelligence hub for Hamas.

00:51:55.000 The compound is directly below the United Nations Relief and Works Agency buildings in Gaza City, and they're running on electricity drawn from the UN.

00:52:04.000 So whenever people talk about the vaunted UN, remember, the UN RWA is Hamas. 0.92

00:52:09.000 They are indistinguishable in the Gaza Strip.

00:52:12.000 And meanwhile, Biden is trying to tell the Israelis not to go in and rescue their own people, which is amazing. 1.00

00:52:17.000 Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, he says, listen, we're not going to stop here.

00:52:21.000 Hamas is eliminated when you destroy their fighting formations.

00:52:23.000 Here he was on Sunday.

00:52:25.000 You've defined victory and you said the war will not end until Hamas is completely eliminated. 0.87

00:52:30.000 How are you going to know when that is?

00:52:32.000 How do you know when Hamas is completely eliminated?

00:52:35.000 When you eliminate their organized fighting formations, and as I've said, we've taken 18 out of their 24 terrorist battalions out of commission, you're mopping up the remaining individual terrorists, and when you Release the hostages, of course, and ensure that Hamas, that Gaza is no longer a threat to Israel. 0.54

00:52:53.000 You don't have to kill every last terrorist.

00:52:56.000 You didn't have to kill every last ISIS terrorist, but you made sure that ISIS was finished as a military force that you have to dismantle.

00:53:05.000 Hamas is a military force that controls territory.

00:53:09.000 We're well within reach, and we shouldn't stop.

00:53:15.000 Meanwhile, the Biden administration is trying to stop Israel from actually finishing the job with Hamas, which of course leads to more violence in the region if Israel would stop because Hamas would walk out, hold up a Hamas flag, say that they won even though they've completely devastated Gaza and every ounce of blood is on Hamas, which started this war and which has maintained this war. 0.88

00:53:31.000 And then Hezbollah in the North would probably start prodding further and trying to kill more Israelis, knowing that Joe Biden is a weakling.

00:53:37.000 And it's not just in the Middle East. 0.94

00:53:38.000 It's also with regard to Ukraine.

00:53:40.000 So let's be clear at this point.

00:53:41.000 Joe Biden's failure to define mission in Ukraine has led to an impasse in the Senate and in the House.

00:53:46.000 No one knows what the off-ramp is because Joe Biden has not actually spelled out what he thinks the off-ramp is right here.

00:53:54.000 So what's become very clear is that Vladimir Putin is basically banking on the West just retreating in Ukraine.

00:53:58.000 Vladimir Putin, in that interview with Tucker Carlson, Yeah, people are saying that he offered an off-ramp.

00:54:03.000 No, he really didn't.

00:54:04.000 His off-ramp was, no American support for Ukraine ever again.

00:54:08.000 Which Ukraine is not going to agree to.

00:54:09.000 Who else is going to provide the support?

00:54:13.000 He has not made clear his territorial demands either.

00:54:15.000 And in that interview, where he spells out all of Russian history from his vantage point, he says Ukraine literally does not exist, and that the regime needs to be quote-unquote, denazified.

00:54:23.000 Which means that Vladimir Putin's goals have really not changed.

00:54:26.000 His goals are not Donbass and Crimea.

00:54:28.000 His goals are Kiev, still.

00:54:30.000 And he is banking on the West, basically saying, okay, fine, you know, we're tired, whatever, okay.

00:54:35.000 What that would require for Joe Biden to make the argument is not just alarmism, it would be an actual explanation of what is going on in Ukraine.

00:54:44.000 That Ukraine, yes, there is corruption.

00:54:47.000 Yes, certainly, a percentage of the money that goes to Ukraine will probably end up in the wrong hands because that happens with pretty much every country that we give foreign aid to.

00:54:55.000 This is one of the problems with foreign aid.

00:54:58.000 There's some countries that are very transparent about it.

00:54:59.000 There's some countries that really are not.

00:55:01.000 Ukraine happens to be a place with a lot of corruption.

00:55:03.000 Sure, there are problems with Vladimir Zelensky as a leader.

00:55:05.000 Vladimir Zelensky has cracked down on the opposition.

00:55:07.000 There's no question that he has done that.

00:55:08.000 He did that actually even prior to the 2022 invasion by Russia.

00:55:12.000 With all of that said, it is not in America's direct interest to have Russia control Kiev, Ukraine, and put that Ukrainian border directly on the borders of NATO, threatening places like Hungary and Poland.

00:55:23.000 That is not in America's interest.

00:55:25.000 And providing some additional aid, which amounts to a drop in the bucket for Americans, compared to the generalized budget of the American budget right now.

00:55:34.000 That is a well worthwhile... He has to make that case.

00:55:37.000 He's not making that case.

00:55:38.000 He's simply declaring that everyone who opposes him is badly motivated and everybody who opposes him wants Russia to win the war and wants them to take Kiev and all the rest, which is not helpful in any way, shape or form.

00:55:47.000 Plus, he has never suggested what he thinks the end of this war looks like.

00:55:52.000 If he came out tomorrow and said, listen, we all know what the end of this war looks like.

00:55:54.000 What the end of this war looks like is Russia essentially retaining the Donbass and retaining Crimea.

00:55:59.000 And the United States and the Europeans providing security guarantees without them joining NATO to Ukraine.

00:56:06.000 And that's what the end of this thing looks like.

00:56:07.000 And until Vladimir Putin is willing to accept that, this war continues.

00:56:12.000 It would make pretty clear exactly what Vladimir Putin's aims are.

00:56:15.000 It's the vagary of Western policy that has allowed space for Vladimir Putin to create doubt about whether the West even wants to end the war at all, when in reality, it seems like the West may be the only party that wants to end the war at this point.

00:56:26.000 Maybe not Zelensky, but the West more broadly, the EU and the United States as well.

00:56:31.000 Joe Biden, first of all, slow-walked the aid to Ukraine in the very first place.

00:56:34.000 And then after slow-walking the aid, he failed to actually allow for an off-ramp.

00:56:38.000 In fact, he fostered a non-off-ramp.

00:56:40.000 And now, he's failing to make clear what exactly the mission is.

00:56:43.000 And so, the very clear reality is that there could be a point where Ukraine does, in fact, collapse again.

00:56:49.000 Because Russia will just keep doing this. 0.72

00:56:52.000 I think one of the things people don't understand about the Russian mindset with regard to war is that additional casualties are not a disincentive for the Russians.

00:56:58.000 Additional casualties are proof of the heroism of the Russian people.

00:57:01.000 This goes all the way back to the Napoleonic era.

00:57:04.000 This is not just the World War II era for the Russians.

00:57:07.000 So all of this radically increases all of the possibilities of serious war, not just in Ukraine, not just in the Gaza Strip, not just in the north of Israel, but also China and Taiwan.

00:57:18.000 China looks at Taiwan right now and they say to themselves, who's going to stop us?

00:57:22.000 Seriously, who's going to stop us?

00:57:23.000 The American people don't have the willpower to even spend the money on Ukraine. 0.62

00:57:26.000 Joe Biden seems to want to stop Israel from crushing a terror group.

00:57:29.000 We're much more powerful than either Russia or Hamas.

00:57:31.000 If we grab Taiwan, who's going to do bleep? 1.00

00:57:34.000 Seriously, who's going to stop us?

00:57:36.000 If we grab it, if we blockade it, if we blockade it and we get access to their technology and we upgrade our military radically, who exactly is going to say boo?

00:57:46.000 Joe Biden has not demonstrated the courage of his supposed commitments.

00:57:50.000 It's a real problem.

00:57:52.000 And meanwhile, there are people who are making arguments that I think are really poorly articulated about exactly how America's military policy should actually be pursued.

00:58:03.000 One of those people, unfortunately, is Senator Marco Rubio, who I generally like, senator of my home state.

00:58:07.000 So over the weekend, he said that we can't give any foreign aid until we solve America's problems.

00:58:11.000 So first of all, let's just be clear about this.

00:58:13.000 America is currently spending $7 trillion a year.

00:58:16.000 $7 trillion.

00:58:17.000 It is certainly in America's interest to spend foreign aid money rather than sending American soldiers to places to ensure the freedom of the seas, for example.

00:58:24.000 Having other people doing our fighting is a lot better than us having to actually expend blood and treasure in order to do things.

00:58:30.000 Beyond that, what's happening at the southern border right now is not a question of money.

00:58:33.000 He says that we have to spend the money on the border before we spend money on foreign aid.

00:58:38.000 First of all, Congress has never seemed to have a problem spending anything, including Senator Rubio, who has voted for a lot of budgets that have been very, very, very large.

00:58:45.000 But when Senator Rubio says that we have to spend the money on the border, not anywhere else, can we be clear on something?

00:58:51.000 The problems at the border are not about expenditure.

00:58:53.000 The problems at the border are about Joe Biden wanting to keep the border open.

00:58:56.000 I've talked to the head of the Border Patrol Union.

00:58:59.000 He says this is not about staffing.

00:59:01.000 It's not about pay.

00:59:02.000 This is about misdirection of currently allocated resources.

00:59:07.000 So, again, I don't think that the argument that Rubio here is making is sustainable as a matter of American foreign policy.

00:59:14.000 I want to get to border in a second, but just to clarify something, are you in support of aid to Ukraine?

00:59:21.000 I think if we secure our own border here in the United States, I've said that we should help Ukraine.

00:59:26.000 Look, half the money that's going to Ukraine is not going to Ukraine.

00:59:29.000 It's to buy back our own weapons that we gave them, to restock our own shelves.

00:59:33.000 And obviously Taiwan is included there as well.

00:59:35.000 My problem is this.

00:59:36.000 Before we do these things, we have to make America and Americans a priority again.

00:59:41.000 Okay, I'm extraordinarily in favor of making Americans quote-unquote the priority again. 0.94

00:59:45.000 I just don't think that foreign policy is disconnected from American priorities.

00:59:48.000 I don't think it's good when China takes over Taiwan.

00:59:50.000 I don't think it's good when Russia shuts off the supply of shipping in the Black Sea, or when it takes over one of the chief grain producers in the world, or when it threatens directly NATO borders.

01:00:01.000 I don't think it's good when Hamas, along with its Iranian sponsors, is attacking an American ally and other Iranian proxies are attacking shipping in the Red Sea.

01:00:08.000 I don't think any of that is good or useful.

01:00:10.000 To kind of make this hard divide between American domestic policy, that helps Americans, and American foreign policy, which is just, what, us gallivanting around and spending money in... That doesn't make sense.

01:00:19.000 That's not what American policy is for.

01:00:20.000 American policy is to forward America's interests.

01:00:22.000 We can argue about whether certain policies forward America's interests, but the idea that any sort of foreign policy expenditure Or any sort of foreign policy that is hawkish is somehow a betrayal of American interests is bizarre to me.

01:00:34.000 It's pacifistic and counter to most of America's modern history in a globalized world.

01:00:40.000 The world is a pretty small place these days.

01:00:42.000 All right, coming up, we'll jump into the border problems.

01:00:45.000 If you're not a member, become a member.

01:00:46.000 Use code Shapiro.

01:00:47.000 Check out for two months free on all annual plans.

01:00:48.000 Click that link in the description and join us.

01:00:51.000 One stage.

01:00:53.000 One night.

01:00:56.000 No limits.

01:00:57.000 Don't miss the epic return of the God King, Jeremy Boring, with Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Candice Owens, Michael Knowles, and Andrew Clavin backstage.

01:01:11.000 Watch it live tomorrow night at 7 p.m.

01:01:13.000 Eastern, 6 p.m.

The Ben Shapiro Show - February 12, 2024

What I Learned From "The Big Game"

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript