The Ben Shapiro Show - When In Trouble, Cry Racism

00:00:00.000 Well, folks, we have now reached the point in American life where, in our racially divided society, there is a quick get-out-of-jail-free card.

00:00:07.000 So long as you are a member of an intersectional group, if you've done something wrong, if you are accused of corruption, if you are accused of some sort of malfeasance, the get-out-of-jail-free card is, you're attacking me because I'm black.

00:00:20.000 And this has significant Ramifications for American public life.

00:00:23.000 Because the simple fact of the matter is that in a meritocracy, we should be able to point out when you are corrupt, when you have failed.

00:00:31.000 And if every defense to failure is that the system itself is biased against you, well that means that you're going to get more failure system-wide.

00:00:38.000 This is true everywhere from politics to administration.

00:00:40.000 It's true everywhere from the business world to the educational world.

00:00:43.000 If, when Claudine Gay gets fired from Harvard University, the basic idea is that it must be a racist system that got her fired, there's no way to hold people accountable if they are of minority race. 0.54

00:00:54.000 If, for example, you're a politician, and it turns out that you're deeply corrupt, and your first move is to claim that America is racist, and that's why you're being targeted, and if that's believed, then there's no way to get rid of corrupt officials so long as they are of minority status. 0.94

00:01:07.000 And once that standard is created, Once the basic idea is that certain people in our society have that get-out-of-jail-free card and others do not, then all standards collapse because a double standard is no standard at all. 0.58

00:01:20.000 The latest iteration of this particular foolish defense, divisive defense, comes courtesy of a person named Tiffany Henyard.

00:01:27.000 You might not have heard of Tiffany Henyard, but this is a burgeoning story about a small-town mayor who's been alleged to have engaged in significant corruption on a vast scale.

00:01:37.000 According to the UK Daily Mail, the first female mayor of a tiny Illinois village has been slammed for, quote, living like a royal at taxpayer expense by taking a $300,000 salary and racking up huge expenses. 0.61

00:01:48.000 Glamorous Tiffany Henyard was elected leader of Dalton.

00:01:51.000 It's a village of 20,000 people in 2021.

00:01:54.000 She has since come under fire for what many see as her excessive spending. 0.90

00:01:56.000 She regularly engages the services of a professional hair and makeup team and stylist before public appearances and photo shoots for the county's taxpayer-funded billboards.

00:02:04.000 Those often feature her in what some people say is shameless self-promotion. 1.00

00:02:09.000 She also attempted to propose a new law that would cap the next mayor's salary at $25,000 unless the next mayor is her, in which case she gets to keep her gigantic salary. 0.96

00:02:18.000 This has been deemed illegal by many people.

00:02:21.000 That is just the latest scandal to hit her. 0.97

00:02:24.000 She was slammed for hiring her former campaign worker as the town's code enforcement officer, despite the fact that he is a convicted child rapist.

00:02:30.000 She also raised eyebrows after spending hundreds of thousands of tax dollars on security details, including one for an event with senior citizens and another occasion where she pulled cops off the street to perform a protection outfit for her. 1.00

00:02:42.000 She also racked up a trip to Las Vegas where she spent some $3,000 on airfare.

00:02:47.000 And so she is now being investigated for all of this.

00:02:50.000 And here is her defense, a defense that has become the all-purpose defense for an enormous number of people in our post-George Floyd society.

00:02:58.000 Here she was yesterday talking about her alleged corruption and the reasons why she's being targeted. 0.97

00:03:05.000 Y'all should be ashamed of y'allself. 0.99

00:03:06.000 Y'all are black. 1.00

00:03:07.000 Y'all are black. 1.00

00:03:09.000 And y'all sitting up here beating and attacking on a black woman that's in power. 1.00

00:03:14.000 Y'all should be ashamed of yourselves. 0.99

00:03:16.000 Again, the basic idea here is that even if a black person is asking this particular mayor about her corruption, it must be because they're a race traitor of some sort. 0.51

00:03:25.000 Again, if basic standards of meritocracy and decency are to be put aside in favor of claims that any critique is rooted in race, that means there can't be any meritocracy anymore, which of course is the basic idea that social justice can only be established by getting rid of baseline standards of competency.

00:03:43.000 And again, we see this across the board in the United States in a wide variety of places.

00:03:46.000 Just yesterday, we played a clip of Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago being questioned over his handling of the huge migrant crisis that has hit the city of Chicago, along with the crime crisis, along with the issues of economic problems in the city.

00:04:00.000 And his answer was, I'm a black man with a black wife and black kids.

00:04:03.000 How dare you attack me? 0.99

00:04:05.000 This mentality is actually horrifyingly bad for the country.

00:04:08.000 Here was Brandon Johnson just a couple of days ago.

00:04:11.000 I have children who attend schools who have soccer games, y'all.

00:04:14.000 You know, you all are asking me as if I'm not a parent in this city.

00:04:18.000 I get it, I'm mayor.

00:04:19.000 I get it.

00:04:20.000 But you're asking me to give you a date, and I have to court... Do you understand that you have not had a mayor like me?

00:04:25.000 I get that.

00:04:27.000 I have a wife, I have children, they have schedules.

00:04:30.000 And plus, we still have public safety debt we have to address.

00:04:33.000 We still have the unhoused that we have to address.

00:04:35.000 I still have a budget that I have to address. 0.60

00:04:37.000 And I'm doing all of that with a black wife raising three black children on the west side of the city of Chicago. 0.91

00:04:42.000 I am going to the border as soon as possible. 0.95

00:04:45.000 What does the race of his wife and his children have to do with anything?

00:04:47.000 The answer is you can't critique me because he is citing his race. 0.92

00:04:52.000 Of course, he is following the footsteps of Lori Lightfoot, who was recently ousted as mayor of Chicago after one short term because she was a terrible mayor, but she also happened to be a black lesbian, and therefore, she also claimed that she had been ousted not because she was terrible at her job, but because she was black.

00:05:06.000 When asked after the election if she had lost because of her race in a city like Chicago, which is heavily minority, she said, I'm a black woman in America, of course.

00:05:16.000 She had said in an interview with the New Yorker prior to the election, quote, I'm a black woman, let's not forget.

00:05:20.000 Certain folks, frankly, don't support us in leadership roles.

00:05:23.000 The same forces that didn't want Harold Washington to succeed, they're still here.

00:05:26.000 That's referring to these cities.

00:05:27.000 First, black mayor.

00:05:29.000 And this sort of excuse making is a way of lowering standards of performance for everyone.

00:05:34.000 We'll get to more on this in just one moment.

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00:06:36.000 And again, we see it across the board.

00:06:37.000 Fannie Willis, who's the DA who's currently going after Donald Trump in Atlanta.

00:06:41.000 And by all accounts, doing a pretty terrible job of it.

00:06:44.000 A person who apparently hired her lover as a prosecutor despite his lack of prosecutorial experience, and did it using taxpayer dollars, and then took cruises with this guy, and now is admitting to being in a sexual relationship with the person she hired with taxpayer dollars as a prosecutor with no prosecutorial background, she's doing the same routine.

00:07:00.000 All the critiques of her must, of course, be based on race.

00:07:03.000 Here was Fannie Willis, not all that long ago, talking about how racism was behind all the accusations targeting her. 0.97

00:07:08.000 I appointed three special counselors.

00:07:12.000 Is my right to do?

00:07:14.000 Paid them all the same hourly rate?

00:07:17.000 They only attacked one.

00:07:18.000 Isn't it them playing the race card when they constantly think, I need someone from some other jurisdiction in some other state to tell me how to do a job I've been doing almost 30 years.

00:07:33.000 Why am I surprised that a diverse team that I assembled, your child, can accomplish extraordinary things?

00:07:43.000 How come, God, the same black man I hired was acceptable when a Republican in another county hired him and paid him twice the rate? 0.77

00:07:53.000 Why is the white male Republican's judgment good enough, but the black female Democrat's not? 1.00

00:08:02.000 Well, I mean, because the white male Republican wasn't f***ing the guy. 0.97

00:08:06.000 That would be the answer to that particular question. 0.98

00:08:09.000 I assume.

00:08:10.000 But again, the answer to every question about impropriety is now race in America, so long as you are able to play that card. 0.63

00:08:17.000 And it's a dangerous card to play.

00:08:18.000 It undermines standards of stability and decency and performance in literally every industry.

00:08:23.000 This is why you see people ranging from Bill Ackman to Elon Musk going after diversity, equity, and inclusion.

00:08:29.000 Let's be very frank about this.

00:08:30.000 Affirmative action, as a practice, is a zero-sum game.

00:08:34.000 Meritocracy is the only form of measurement of performance that is not a zero-sum game because it creates positive externalities.

00:08:40.000 Externalities are the consequences that accrue to outside people that are not involved in a transaction.

00:08:47.000 So, you and I, we have a transaction.

00:08:49.000 The transaction presumably benefits both of us, but If we live in a meritocracy, and I'm good at my job and you're good at your job, and then we exchange goods and services, then presumably there are positive externalities to people who are not us.

00:09:01.000 I'm good at my job, which means I'm highly productive.

00:09:03.000 You're good at your job.

00:09:04.000 You're highly productive.

00:09:05.000 And now we produce products at a cheaper and better rate for people outside of that particular situation.

00:09:11.000 That is the beauty of the meritocracy is that it benefits everyone.

00:09:13.000 Merit helps everyone.

00:09:15.000 When the best people do the best job at the best time for the best price, that is great for everyone.

00:09:18.000 However, when you instead are stacking employment, for example, on the basis of race, you are taking people who are less meritorious and you are forcing the public to essentially pay a subsidy to employ that person.

00:09:29.000 That is the problem with DEI.

00:09:30.000 Not just that it's discriminatory, but that it costs everyone.

00:09:33.000 Now you can make the argument that since the costs are diffuse, meaning that they accrue to a huge variety of citizens, and the benefits are incredibly acute, meaning they accrue to one person who gets to benefit off of this, no big deal.

00:09:45.000 But the problem is when you keep doing that over and over and over again, the costs to the society start to grow and grow and grow again.

00:09:51.000 And that's what you're starting to see in agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration.

00:09:56.000 So my friend and colleague Matt Walsh, He released a Twitter thread today talking about internal footage of senior officials at the FAA's Flight Program Operations Division, which he says is responsible for all aspects of aircraft operations, workshopping a plan to reduce the number of white males in aviation.

00:10:13.000 Now, why would that be a useful thing?

00:10:15.000 You want to talk about a situation where you need positive externalities?

00:10:18.000 How about being good at your job when you are directing aircraft how to land, for example?

00:10:22.000 And putting a less qualified person in place Well, there, the costs are not diffused.

00:10:28.000 There, the costs are incredibly acute.

00:10:29.000 If you're on the plane that gets misdirected into the ground because a less qualified person for any reason is put into a particular position, then the costs really, really are high for you.

00:10:39.000 When you're talking about high-cost industries like, for example, aviation, you need a meritocracy even more than you would in, say, a low-cost industry like stocking a grocery shelf or something.

00:10:51.000 Well, Matt got footage of the FAA Acting Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Angela McCullough, saying that more workers need to go from ramp to cockpit, meaning she wants to see more baggage handlers become airline pilots.

00:11:01.000 And then, as the meeting continues, she declares it's important to, quote, get a little uncomfortable.

00:11:05.000 Get a little uncomfortable is always, quote, is always a euphemism for, I'm going to say something super racist right now, but if you're white, just take it on the chin and accept it.

00:11:13.000 She apparently complains that flight operations is, quote, white male dominated and tells the managers that, quote, need to talk about what the future could look like Here she was. 0.99

00:11:23.000 Yeah, we need to be willing to have a conversation about kind of what's standing in our way from approaching some of these things, um, uh, differently than we have historically approached them.

00:11:33.000 And just even the internal bias, I mean, particularly in flight ops, if this—your whole program is very heavily male-dominated.

00:11:40.000 Well, male-dominated.

00:11:41.000 It just is.

00:11:42.000 And really, it is white male-dominated. 0.78

00:11:44.000 Oh, white male. 0.99

00:11:44.000 Even worse. 0.99

00:11:44.000 You know what I mean? 0.99

00:11:45.000 Let's just say what it is.

00:11:47.000 And so let's be willing—that is today.

00:11:50.000 I don't care about the representational level of the Federal Aviation Administration.

00:11:55.000 That's absurd!

00:11:55.000 if you really had this program that was representative of the whole country, right?

00:12:02.000 Of the whole world.

00:12:03.000 I just have a question.

00:12:04.000 A representative, I don't care about the representational level of the Federal Aviation Administration.

00:12:09.000 It's absurd.

00:12:10.000 Why should I possibly care about whether the demographic of the FAA is representative in any way

00:12:16.000 of the broader demographic?

00:12:18.000 Do we have to have like a heavy share of Hispanic females in order for the FAA to be good at its job? 1.00

00:12:23.000 I mean, first of all, you have a huge selection bias problem.

00:12:27.000 I'd love to see what the applicant pool looks like for the FAA.

00:12:29.000 I promise you, it's male-dominated. 0.50

00:12:31.000 Just start with that. 0.88

00:12:32.000 But beyond that, what in the hell is she talking about?

00:12:35.000 Why in the world would I?

00:12:37.000 If you're talking about a job where your personal life experience means literally nothing, making sure a plane goes where it is supposed to go is not one where it's like, well, I grew up in a diverse neighborhood and I had a bunch of friends of diverse backgrounds, and that's really informed how I do my job as a person who makes sure the plane lands on time where it's supposed to land. 0.98

00:12:56.000 That's the dumbest thing I ever heard.

00:12:57.000 You're not even talking about like English literature or something subjective like that. 1.00

00:13:00.000 You're talking about making a plane land in a place without hitting another plane.

00:13:06.000 That's what you're talking about.

00:13:07.000 I don't care if you grow up poor or rich.

00:13:09.000 You have one job and one job only.

00:13:10.000 And all I care about is that you're good at that job.

00:13:12.000 I don't care about any of the other things.

00:13:13.000 But as Matt points out, this actually is a problem in aviation.

00:13:17.000 Just as it would be in any other job, when you lower the standards for the job so as to achieve a quote-unquote diverse workforce, what you are actively doing is making the employment base worse at their job.

00:13:28.000 That is what it is.

00:13:29.000 We'll get to more on this in just one second.

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00:14:38.000 As Matt points out, he apparently got information from another source, a pilot who works at Delta.

00:14:43.000 Matt says that this pilot says that Delta has recently promoted a trans-identifying pilot who repeatedly received bad reviews from captains.

00:14:49.000 According to the source, this pilot quote, would likely not have survived probation if he were not trans.

00:14:55.000 The source also notes that Delta routinely makes exceptions for trans-identifying pilots concerning grooming and behavioral standards.

00:15:01.000 Internally, Delta has even published a lengthy guide for pilots who believe they were born in the wrong body.

00:15:05.000 It is titled, Helpful Steps for Transitioning at Delta, and shows a person carrying a Pride Progress flag in front of a Delta plane.

00:15:16.000 Matt says this industry-wide embrace of overt mental illness deflects every aspect of aviation.

00:15:19.000 Another source told me his job is to design advanced military systems, but he's constantly sidetracked by DEI proposals like gender-inclusive seatbelts.

00:15:27.000 This is a quote from the person, quote, For context, I work in a field where my job is to design military systems for the warfighter, and I have to deal with new hires pitching me ideas about gender-inclusive seatbelts.

00:15:36.000 Companies are made up of two types of individuals, those who eat, sleep, and breathe, DEI, ESG, the people who put the pronoun in their email signature, and those who keep their mouths shut and do the work.

00:15:45.000 We have affirmation groups, protections, and heritage months for every single type of person except white men.

00:15:49.000 If I don't have at least two DEI, ESG meetings or trainings per week on my calendar, then the all-hands town hall meetings have some sort of DEI baked into the agenda.

00:15:57.000 Several sources have also informed Matt about something, it's an FAA program, it's called E-FAST, which prioritizes quote, Indian tribal owned corporations and socially and economically disadvantaged businesses for billions of dollars in critical grant funding.

00:16:09.000 I mean, again, bottom line here is competence and meritocracy are good for everyone.

00:16:17.000 And the predictable result of all this, by the way, in the employment market is it actually makes it harder for private employers to employ people who are qualified of minority groups.

00:16:27.000 Because when you as an employer are deciding, and we here at Daily Wire obviously abide by all federal laws and regulations.

00:16:33.000 I have to say that because otherwise the NLRB sends me an angry note for using my free speech.

00:16:38.000 They've done it before.

00:16:39.000 We abide by all federal and state and local regulations and laws.

00:16:42.000 Okay, we've said it.

00:16:44.000 Now, here is the reality about hiring in the United States as a broad trend.

00:16:47.000 As a broad trend, when you consider whether to hire somebody, one of the things you are considering is the possibility of liability down the line.

00:16:54.000 Legal liability down the line.

00:16:56.000 And the more we create a system in which we say that if you're a member of an intersectional group, Not only am I supposed to hire you if you are less meritorious than the white guy next to you, but also if I decide that you're not good at the job and I fire you, I now may face a discrimination lawsuit.

00:17:13.000 Why would I hire you in the first place?

00:17:16.000 It actually makes it less likely that a qualified minority candidate will get the job because of the risk of liability that is now attached.

00:17:23.000 All of this is devastating to American public life, especially because it also results in a misread of situations.

00:17:30.000 When someone is incompetent and they happen to be a minority, it makes it easy for people to actually say, oh, it must be they're incompetent because they're a minority.

00:17:37.000 When that isn't true, incompetence exists all over the spectrum.

00:17:41.000 The beauty, again, of a meritocracy is if somebody doesn't make the standard, it's clear they didn't make the standard because they didn't make the standard because we all know what the standard is.

00:17:48.000 But if the standard no longer applies and you're being hired based on your race or based on your ability to do as these mayors are doing and simply blame the man for your own problems, when that happens and then the person fails, Then it's easy for people to misattribute that to race as opposed to properly attributing it to the general sinfulness and failure of mankind.

00:18:09.000 All this stuff is deep and it's dark and it's a huge problem for the United States of America.

00:18:13.000 It's why DEI has to go.

00:18:15.000 DEI is terrible for the United States.

00:18:17.000 And every vestige of this argument that incompetence can be covered for by claims about American racism, that crime rates can be covered for by claims about American racism, that educational underperformance Okay, meanwhile, the media are doing their best to go after their presumed opponent.

00:18:29.000 Insane story from NBC News targeting another one of my friends, Chaya Raychik.

00:18:32.000 the ability of smart, capable people of all races to get ahead and make the world a better place

00:18:38.000 for everyone who surrounds them, the entire society writ large.

00:18:41.000 Okay, meanwhile, the media are doing their best to go after their presumed opponents.

00:18:46.000 Insane story from NBC News targeting another one of my friends, Chaya Raychik.

00:18:50.000 She's the creator of Libs of TikTok. 1.00

00:18:51.000 The rip on Chaya apparently is that because she is posting true stories,

00:18:57.000 there are a bunch of people who read her stories and then they send death threats.

00:19:00.000 This is not called a news story.

00:19:02.000 It's not.

00:19:03.000 It is not.

00:19:05.000 If I cover the news, and then, because I have a very large audience, there are some nuts who go and do nuts things, that is not my fault!

00:19:11.000 That is the fault of the nuts.

00:19:13.000 And yet that is presumably what NBC News is basically saying, that we need to shut down free speech in order, presumably, to prevent crazy people from doing crazy things.

00:19:21.000 They have an entire piece from NBC News titled, after libs of TikTok posted, at least 21 bomb threats followed.

00:19:29.000 Now, many of these bomb threats turn out to be hoaxes.

00:19:31.000 It's unclear who even sent many of these bomb threats.

00:19:33.000 Some of these people may not even be followers of Chaya.

00:19:37.000 But the goal here is to suggest that social media ought to shut her down based on the activities of her followers. 0.97

00:19:41.000 Now, this is a super dangerous precedent.

00:19:44.000 And it's amazing that a free press is attempting to push that forward.

00:19:47.000 The free press of all people in America should be really careful about what they wish for here.

00:19:52.000 If we are talking about the idea that bad coverage of issues is now to blame for the bad actions of people who cover those issues, then the media is going to have a lot to answer for in America.

00:20:03.000 It is perfectly easy to say the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020 can be laid almost entirely at the feet of the American media, if that's the case.

00:20:11.000 That's a really easy argument to make.

00:20:13.000 But they're going after Chaya because, again, this is what the media do.

00:20:16.000 The media have decided that freedom of the press only applies to people who agree with them.

00:20:20.000 So according to NBC News, Raychick is not accused of making any bomb threats in Iowa or anywhere else, which means that it's not a story.

00:20:26.000 See, normally, when I don't make a bomb threat, There's no story about me.

00:20:30.000 If somebody who listens to my show makes a bomb threat, also not a story about me.

00:20:32.000 It's a story about the person who made the bomb threat.

00:20:34.000 We'll get to more on this in just one moment.

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00:21:20.000 That's gcu.edu. 0.94

00:21:23.000 But, according to NBC News, about a day and a half before authorities responded to a threat at Coralville's Northwest Junior High, Raychick posted that the school offers a pornographic book in its library that teaches kids about gay sex.

00:21:33.000 Now, there's no argument that, um, it's false, that her story was false.

00:21:37.000 The story was true. 0.73

00:21:39.000 But that doesn't matter.

00:21:40.000 NBC News is more concerned with trying to smear Chaya by association with people she doesn't even know.

00:21:45.000 Quote, NBC News identified 33 instances starting in November 2020 when people or institutions singled out by Libs of TikTok later reported bomb threats or other violence intimidation.

00:21:53.000 The threats, which on average came several days after tweets from Libs of TikTok targeted schools, libraries, hospitals, small businesses, and elected officials in 16 states, 21 of the 33 threats were bomb threats, which most commonly targeted schools and were made via email.

00:22:07.000 Absolute insanity that NBC News would, and this piece goes on and on and on and on.

00:22:11.000 Again, the goal of it is to somehow smear reporters for reporting so long as the people who follow the reporters, a small cadre of whom do bad things, can somehow be blamed on the reporter.

00:22:23.000 That's the goal here.

00:22:24.000 And this now merges with the blowback that Tucker Carlson is receiving for doing an interview with Vladimir Putin.

00:22:31.000 Now, I haven't seen the interview with Vladimir Putin.

00:22:32.000 You haven't seen the interview with Vladimir Putin.

00:22:34.000 No one has seen the interview with Vladimir Putin.

00:22:36.000 That interview is supposed to hit the airwaves tonight on X. And as I've said, I'm not going to prejudge the interview.

00:22:41.000 The question is whether Tucker asked him any hard questions or whether it was sort of a massage.

00:22:46.000 I don't know because I haven't seen it.

00:22:48.000 It would be a bad act of journalism if Tucker does not ask him some questions about, say, Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter who's being held by Vladimir Putin as effectively a hostage, or if it doesn't ask him about what the end of the war looks like, or if it doesn't push him on his murderous record, or his abuse of human rights, and his targeting of civilians in Ukraine, and all the rest, right?

00:23:08.000 There are a bunch of questions that Tucker ought to ask, but Tucker hasn't asked any of those questions publicly yet, so I have no idea what he asked.

00:23:14.000 The simple fact that Tucker is Tucker and went to Russia is now causing, apparently, some people in the EU to think about sanctioning him. 0.99

00:23:22.000 But again, this is the unbelievable stupidity of politics. 0.98

00:23:25.000 People who claim that they have any sort of principle abandon those principles at the first sign that those principles might be harmful to their political interests. 0.99

00:23:33.000 It truly is an amazing thing.

00:23:35.000 According to Newsweek, Tucker Carlson's interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin could see the conservative pundit targeted by EU lawmakers, current and former members of the European Parliament, have told Newsweek.

00:23:44.000 Carlson visited Russia this week.

00:23:45.000 On Tuesday, he revealed that he would soon be releasing an interview with Putin.

00:23:49.000 Carlson's work in Russia could see the former Fox News host in hot water with the EU, according to Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian Prime Minister and current member of the European Parliament.

00:23:57.000 The lawmaker described Carlson as a mouthpiece for former President Trump and Putin as well, adding, quote, as Putin is a war criminal and the EU sanctions all who assist him in that effort, it seems logical the External Action Service examine his case as well.

00:24:11.000 Now, honestly, this is like the best thing that, in terms of media, could happen to Tucker.

00:24:15.000 Having the EU target Tucker for doing an interview with Vladimir Putin makes Tucker's case for him.

00:24:20.000 Tucker's entire case with regards to Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky has essentially been that the attempts by the media to draw a stark division Between Vladimir Zelensky's administration in Ukraine and Vladimir Putin's administration in Russia is misbegotten.

00:24:34.000 That Zelensky is engaged in corruption, that he's engaged in dictatorial behavior.

00:24:38.000 By the way, there's some truth to a lot of what Tucker is saying about that.

00:24:41.000 In my opinion, that still does not justify a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine or suggest that it's in America's interest to see Ukraine fully ingested by Russia.

00:24:50.000 Nor do I believe that Vladimir Putin somehow has Ukraine's best interests at heart.

00:24:54.000 All these things can be true at once, but if the case that Tucker is making is that the EU is perfectly happy to shut down freedom of speech, but then they complain when Vladimir Putin does it, they're making Tucker's case for him when they say this.

00:25:05.000 According to Newsweek, The EU's external action service is the bloc's diplomatic arm responsible for foreign policy.

00:25:11.000 For an individual to be added to the EU sanctions list, evidence must be presented to the EAS for review.

00:25:15.000 If deemed sufficient, the EAS can then present that case to the European Council, which is the body made up of EU national leaders, which takes the final decision on whether to impose sanctions or not.

00:25:24.000 Now again, highly unlikely, but there are some who are saying that they agree with the stance that Tucker should basically be treated as a propagandist on behalf of the Kremlin.

00:25:34.000 Yeah, I think highly unlikely that that is what's going to take place, but it demonstrates once again, in the same way the media targeting Khayratchik shows, it just shows that if you violate certain taboos, or if you stand on one side of the political aisle and not another side of the political aisle, all principles with regard to, say, free speech, go by the wayside.

00:25:53.000 Now, as I say, none of that answers the question as to whether Tucker's general perspective on Ukraine is right.

00:25:58.000 I happen to think that his general perspective on Ukraine is shortsighted and wrong.

00:26:02.000 I do not think the world is a better place if Vladimir Putin waltzes into Kiev and simply takes it over at this point.

00:26:09.000 There is a growing Trendline on the right, that is a problem. 0.95

00:26:15.000 One of the big divisions between right and left in the United States, historically speaking, has been that people on the right tend to think that America kicks ass and people on the left tend to think not. 0.60

00:26:23.000 That is by polling data. 0.62

00:26:25.000 Here, for example, is some of the polling data from Pew Research Center.

00:26:29.000 The question was whether the U.S.

00:26:31.000 stands above all other countries in the world, meaning like we're the best, whether the U.S.

00:26:35.000 is one of the greatest countries along with others, or whether other countries are better than the U.S.

00:26:40.000 And what you can see is that over the course of the time period, 2011 to 2023, Democrats have basically decided en masse that no one among the Democrats believes that the United States is the greatest country in the world.

00:26:52.000 Extremely low number.

00:26:54.000 In 2011, 31% of Democrats said that the United States stood above all other countries in the world.

00:26:59.000 As of 2023, that number was 9%.

00:27:03.000 So fewer than 1 in 10 Democrats, or those who lean Democrat, believes that America is better than all the other countries in the world.

00:27:10.000 When it comes to whether people believe that other countries are better than the United States, in 2011, only 8% of Democrats said that other countries are better than the United States.

00:27:20.000 As of 2023, That number is now 36%.

00:27:24.000 36% of Democrats believe, over 1 in 3, that other countries are better than the United States.

00:27:30.000 Which does raise the question as to why don't you then go to one of those countries?

00:27:34.000 We'll get to more on this in just one second.

00:27:36.000 First, for my Catholic listeners, Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter, that starts Ash Wednesday, February 14th.

00:27:41.000 It's a time of intense prayer, fasting, and giving.

00:27:44.000 Hallow's annual Pray 40 Challenge is one of their most popular.

00:27:47.000 Last year, over a million people joined.

00:27:49.000 This year, their Pray 40 Challenge focuses on surrender and includes meditations on the powerful book, He Leadeth Me.

00:27:55.000 A story about a priest who became a prisoner and slave in the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

00:27:59.000 His story is one of ultimate surrender.

00:28:01.000 We are called to offer up our own worries, anxieties, problems, and lives to God.

00:28:05.000 There will also be Lent music, Lent-specific Bible stories, and other Lenten prayers, like the Seven Last Words of Christ with Jim Caviezel.

00:28:11.000 HALLO is truly transformative.

00:28:12.000 It'll help you connect with your faith on a deeper level.

00:28:15.000 So what exactly are you waiting for?

00:28:16.000 Download that HALLO app today at hallo.com slash Shapiro for an exclusive three-month free trial of all 6,000 plus prayers and meditations.

00:28:25.000 Reconnecting with God.

00:28:26.000 It's gonna be the most important thing you do on any given day.

00:28:28.000 Do it with hallow.com slash Shapiro right now.

00:28:31.000 That's hallow.com slash Shapiro.

00:28:33.000 But if you look at the Republican side of the aisle, Republicans have been pretty consistent until the very recent past, until basically Joe Biden took office.

00:28:41.000 Republicans have been very consistent in their belief that America is in fact the best country in the world.

00:28:45.000 In 2011, 47% of Americans believed that America was the best country in the world.

00:28:49.000 Only 5% of Americans believed other countries were better than the United States.

00:28:54.000 Fast forward to 2019, same numbers.

00:28:56.000 46% of Republicans believed that America was the best country in the world and only 5% of Americans believed that other countries were better than the United States.

00:29:04.000 But if you fast forward to 2023, that number has now dropped 15%.

00:29:08.000 Only 31% of Republicans believe that America is better than all the other countries in the world.

00:29:14.000 And now 17% or just under 1 in 5 Republicans believe that other countries are better than the United States.

00:29:20.000 There is a growing sense, and it's connected to Joe Biden being elected, but it's not totally due to Joe Biden being elected.

00:29:27.000 There's a growing sense that things are falling apart in the United States, and this is playing out in some strange foreign policy terms.

00:29:34.000 And there's always been sort of this underlying idea on the paleocon right that virtually everything goes wrong in the world is due to American overextension.

00:29:43.000 That it's American foreign policy in the post-war era that has created all problems.

00:29:47.000 Now this neglects the fact that it was American foreign policy that defeated legitimately the greatest threat of the 20th century, which was not Nazi Germany.

00:29:54.000 The greatest threat of the 20th century was the Soviet Union. 0.98

00:29:57.000 Because that threat lasted literally from the Soviet revolution of 1918 all the way forward until 1990.

00:30:04.000 It was a four generation threat. 0.99

00:30:07.000 And the United States defeated that.

00:30:09.000 So that makes for a pretty good foreign policy.

00:30:10.000 That's a pretty good foreign policy record.

00:30:13.000 And when you point to the shortcomings of American foreign policy since then, those are very real.

00:30:17.000 But American hegemony has created freedom of the seas.

00:30:20.000 American hegemony has created freedom of trade.

00:30:22.000 American hegemony has ensured a huge percentage of the globe has risen from poverty.

00:30:27.000 And yes, it has ensured the prosperity of American citizens.

00:30:30.000 I understand that there is this bizarre notion that Americans now are living worse than they did in 1980.

00:30:35.000 There is no data to support this.

00:30:37.000 The notion that Americans were living better in 1980, I promise, just an easy question for anyone who believes that.

00:30:42.000 Would you wish to go back and live in 1980, materially speaking, not spiritually speaking, materially speaking?

00:30:49.000 Just in terms of the stuff you have, the answer is no.

00:30:53.000 No one would.

00:30:54.000 Because the way that you actually measure whether an economy has moved forward is the kinds of products, goods, and services you can now obtain for your time in the workforce.

00:31:02.000 Again, I'll refer to a book called Superabundance here by Marion Toopey, among others.

00:31:06.000 It's really good.

00:31:07.000 It kind of breaks down just how economic progress has worked in the United States.

00:31:10.000 The reason that I point this out...

00:31:12.000 Is because when it comes to things like Russia versus Ukraine, the question of whether America is a positive force in the world is very much getting telescoped into a narrative about Russia and Ukraine.

00:31:22.000 So as I said before, you don't have to be a great Vladimir Zelensky lover to agree that it is not in America's interest for Russia to widen its direct sphere of governance into Ukraine.

00:31:32.000 Ukraine is an incredibly large territory.

00:31:33.000 It has significant wheat resources.

00:31:36.000 It does have ports that are very important to maintain for the West.

00:31:41.000 Ukraine also happens to be the border into virtually all of Europe.

00:31:44.000 It's a huge country.

00:31:47.000 I mean, to understand how vitally important Ukraine is to the European map, you have to look at a map of Europe and look at Ukraine's borders.

00:31:54.000 So here is a picture of what Europe looked like when the Soviets were dominating the Eastern Bloc.

00:32:01.000 The Warsaw Pact, it's the countries in pink here, these were essentially countries that were ruled indirectly by the Soviet Union.

00:32:07.000 And as you can see, when the Soviet Union was around, the borders of the Soviet Union went all the way up to Greece in the south, They went all the way West to Austria and West Germany, in the West, and Denmark.

00:32:22.000 They included Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria.

00:32:26.000 And that meant, as everyone sort of knew, that the possibility of a serious world war was pretty high.

00:32:32.000 Because you walk across that border from East-West Germany with some tanks, and suddenly you're in World War III.

00:32:37.000 In the post-war era, that map changes.

00:32:39.000 And now what you see is a bunch of newly independent countries that have been broken away from the Warsaw Pact.

00:32:45.000 They're no longer part of the Warsaw Pact.

00:32:46.000 These are independent countries with independent governances.

00:32:49.000 And history didn't stop for these people.

00:32:51.000 I was just in Poland.

00:32:52.000 Okay, the Polish people do not wish to be dominated again by the Russians.

00:32:55.000 They don't.

00:32:56.000 If you know anything about Polish history, what you'll realize is that for a very long time, for about a century and a half before the reconstitution of Poland in the aftermath of World War I, there was no Poland.

00:33:05.000 It was basically divided up between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Russians.

00:33:10.000 And the Polish people have no desire to be dominated by the Russians again.

00:33:13.000 And again, if you look at that old map, the Russians did run Poland. 0.52

00:33:17.000 And that is why the Solidarity Movement was created, it's why Poland sought to break free of Soviet

00:33:23.000 domination.

00:33:23.000 And so when you go to the new map, what you see is a bunch of countries that do not wish to be

00:33:27.000 dominated by the Russians, ranging from Finland and Sweden in the north to Estonia, Latvia,

00:33:33.000 Lithuania, the Baltic states. Those include, of course, Poland.

00:33:37.000 So, if, for example, Russia were to take Ukraine, so the way that this map works, Belarus is on the border of Russia.

00:33:44.000 Belarus is effectively a Russian client state.

00:33:46.000 Belarus was used as a staging point for the invasion of Ukraine in the first place back in 2022.

00:33:52.000 If Ukraine were to be taken over, what you would now see is the Russians butting up against Poland, butting up against Hungary, butting up against Romania.

00:34:02.000 Butting up against much more of Western Europe.

00:34:05.000 It is not in America's interest to facilitate Russia's ownership of the resources in Ukraine, nor is it in America's interest for Russia to now be on the borders of a bunch of other countries that they would then try to break.

00:34:17.000 One of the other things that you can see from this map is that the Baltic states are in serious danger, like every day of every year.

00:34:23.000 Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, it is only the security guarantees of NATO that ensure that Russia does not walk over the borders into the Baltic states.

00:34:32.000 How easy would it be for Russia to simply take Lithuania?

00:34:34.000 The answer is really, really easy.

00:34:36.000 They already run Kaliningrad.

00:34:39.000 Kaliningrad is actually a Russian territory that exists on the borders of Poland and Lithuania, even though it's not territorially contiguous with Russia.

00:34:47.000 So how easy would it be?

00:34:48.000 Why is Lithuania freaking out?

00:34:50.000 You know why Lithuania is freaking out.

00:34:53.000 And again, Russia has invaded many of these countries before.

00:34:55.000 Russia already took over Crimea, which you can see on this map in the south of Ukraine.

00:34:58.000 Russia has already taken over parts of Georgia, as you can see on this map.

00:35:02.000 Russia has threatened Kazakhstan, which is also in its south.

00:35:05.000 So, checking a Russian territorial expansion is in America's interest, especially if it's not going to cost us actual blood. 0.87

00:35:11.000 If we're just spending money on it.

00:35:14.000 So, all these things can be true at once, because foreign policy is really complex.

00:35:19.000 I'll be fascinated to see what Tucker actually asks Putin about.

00:35:22.000 I will.

00:35:23.000 But again, the basic idea that America has no interest in what Russia does in Ukraine, even to the extent of spending some money, is pretty wild to me.

00:35:30.000 I'll also point out that many of the people, there are some people who are pretty consistent about not spending money widely.

00:35:34.000 People like Thomas Massey, he's consistent.

00:35:36.000 We don't want to spend a lot of money on anything, including For example, social welfare programs.

00:35:42.000 Thomas Massey is an actual fiscal conservative.

00:35:44.000 I disagree with him about foreign policy, but at least he's consistent.

00:35:46.000 The problem I have with a lot of the people who are complaining about spending on Ukraine, for example, is that they are perfectly fine with expanding Social Security benefits, Medicare benefits, Medicaid benefits that are bankrupting the United States.

00:35:57.000 In fact, the Congressional Budget Office just released a report that federal interest payments now exceed defense spending for the first time, which is an insane statistic.

00:36:05.000 We are now paying more on our federal debt, just the interest, than we spend on our military budget every year.

00:36:09.000 And that's only going to continue for the rest of time.

00:36:14.000 That effectively, by the way, means that we're actually giving money to China to pay off our interest in order so that we can then spend money on our military, which is really bad.

00:36:22.000 So, we're spending too much money.

00:36:25.000 Argument doesn't work if you're also a person who's in favor of six, seven trillion dollar budgets and is unwilling to talk about the restructuring of America's national debt.

00:36:32.000 In just one second, we'll get to the situation on America's southern border, which of course is of more interest to I think vastly more Americans than what happens in Ukraine.

00:36:39.000 I care about foreign policy too, but obviously the southern border I think matters a lot more.

00:36:43.000 First, The Daily Wire is looking to add an experienced senior social media manager to our marketing team.

00:36:47.000 This unique position will provide leadership and guidance on various Daily Wire social media pages.

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00:37:00.000 Join us in shaping the future of conservative media as our senior social media manager.

00:37:04.000 If you're interested in joining our team, visit dailywire.com slash careers.

00:37:07.000 That's dailywire.com slash careers today.

00:37:10.000 Okay, meanwhile, the situation on the southern border continues to just be a complete mess.

00:37:16.000 Amazing story out of Fox News last night.

00:37:18.000 And here's what it says.

00:37:19.000 The White House on Thursday announced that U.S.

00:37:22.000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement will soon be forced to reduce operations at the southern border due to lack of funds.

00:37:27.000 So the White House is now threatening that unless they get the border bill that they want, they're going to make it worse at the border.

00:37:33.000 Now, let's be clear about this.

00:37:34.000 There's plenty of funding at the border.

00:37:36.000 All the White House has to do is put back in place Romania, Mexico, and all these problems go away.

00:37:40.000 All they have to do is reallocate border patrol officers away from the processing of illegal immigrants into the American interior and go back to, you know, policing illegal immigrants and then quickly deporting them.

00:37:51.000 That's all they have to do.

00:37:52.000 Joe Biden can do it right now.

00:37:53.000 But instead, he's basically threatening to make the problem worse.

00:37:56.000 Because he's somebody who deeply cares about the border, you see.

00:37:59.000 Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that because Republicans have not passed the bipartisan border security agreement with funding for Israel and Ukraine, the administration is left with no choice but to pull back.

00:38:08.000 She said during a gaggle on Air Force One yesterday, quote, because congressional Republicans are choosing partisan politics over our national security and refusing to pass the bipartisan national security agreement that includes significant border reforms and funding over the coming weeks, ICE will be forced to reduce operations because of budget shortfalls.

00:38:24.000 Oh, is that what's what's happening right now?

00:38:27.000 So in the middle of the biggest immigration wave in American history, you're gonna have to reduce operations because you don't have enough money. 0.99

00:38:33.000 You're only spending $7 trillion a year.

00:38:35.000 I believe you.

00:38:36.000 I don't believe this is just a gambit in order to make the problem worse as a threat.

00:38:42.000 I mean, you want to talk about people who do not like America?

00:38:45.000 It's hard to argue love America when you're basically threatening that unless you get a bill that lets you off the hook for your own border malfeasance, you're going to make the border worse.

00:38:52.000 That's an amazing, amazing statement.

00:38:54.000 It also points out why, politically, it is so foolish for Republicans in the Senate to be talking about how it's time to get something done.

00:39:02.000 Now, listen, there are things that the Senate could do that would be truly worthwhile, like really tie Joe Biden's hands.

00:39:07.000 If they really tied Joe Biden's hands, that would be worthwhile.

00:39:10.000 But again, I've read the border bill.

00:39:11.000 It does not tie Joe Biden's hands in any serious way.

00:39:14.000 When it comes to implementation of the border bill, the executive branch is still going to be using prosecutorial discretion.

00:39:20.000 The executive branch is still going to be directing asylum officers to let people into the country on their own recognizance.

00:39:25.000 The change in the asylum definition would have to be strictly and coherently applied, which is something Joe Biden has really shown little interest in doing.

00:39:32.000 Remember, the current asylum standard is that you have to show a real fear of going back to your home country to claim asylum.

00:39:40.000 And that has now turned, in implementation under Joe Biden, into just saying the magic words.

00:39:44.000 Now normally, if there's a legal burden on me to show, for example, that I have a credible fear of going back to my home country, I'd have to show you a policy procedure, a set of death threats, that would make it impossible for me to go back to my home country.

00:39:55.000 Like you're trying to escape Bolivia because you're the target of an actual drug cartel, and you can show them documentation that this is the case.

00:40:02.000 That'd be a good case, but that's not what's happening.

00:40:04.000 People are showing up in the borders saying the magic words and being released into the interior.

00:40:07.000 So now all that will happen is they'll say new magic words and be released into the interior.

00:40:12.000 Listen, I understand that senators want to get things done.

00:40:15.000 I understand that they feel like they can get nothing done in the Senate under these polarized circumstances.

00:40:19.000 The polarization is being exacerbated by the executive branch.

00:40:22.000 So that means one of two things.

00:40:24.000 Either the legislative branch has to act in tandem, not to work against one another, but to tie the executive's hands.

00:40:31.000 Either the members of the legislative have to be oriented against the executive branch and tie the executive branch's hands, or there won't be any common ground that is worth fighting for.

00:40:39.000 So yesterday, Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, he tweeted out a speech by Senator James Lankford, who's the Oklahoma senator who's been pushing forward the border bill, in which Lankford talks about how problems aren't being solved in the Senate.

00:40:51.000 In order for a problem to be solved in the Senate, the question is, who are you orienting against?

00:40:56.000 You're not orienting against the problem of an open border.

00:40:59.000 That's not what you're orienting against.

00:41:01.000 You're orienting against the problem of an executive branch that does not care about the law, which means that unless you are actively forcing the executive branch into the corner, your bill doesn't do squat.

00:41:11.000 That's the problem.

00:41:12.000 Here was Lankford yesterday.

00:41:14.000 Madam President, I'm going to vote yes to be able to move on to this bill.

00:41:19.000 So we need a change in the law.

00:41:22.000 I understand we have differences.

00:41:25.000 But we've got to sit down together, figure out how we're going to solve problems, because the American people sent us here to do that.

00:41:35.000 Well, again, the American people sent you to solve the border problem.

00:41:37.000 That problem is not solvable unless you tie the executive's hands.

00:41:41.000 The Democrats aren't going to do it, so no deal.

00:41:43.000 That's effectively what we're talking about right here.

00:41:46.000 Now, meanwhile, the Senate is moving on to its next priority, which was always really the foreign aid.

00:41:52.000 All this stuff got tied together despite the fact that it should have been disaggregated from the start.

00:41:56.000 And it got tied together for a variety of reasons.

00:41:57.000 It started off as just a series of standalone bills.

00:42:00.000 One for aid to Ukraine, one for aid to Israel, one for aid to Taiwan, and a border bill.

00:42:03.000 And then what happened is that Joe Biden tied together Ukraine and Israel.

00:42:07.000 And Republicans, who are kind of dicey on the Ukraine aid because we've already spent an extraordinary amount of money in Ukraine, plus there's in fact a wing of the Republican Party, that doesn't really care what happens in Kiev, And so because of that, Democrats tied the two together.

00:42:22.000 They understand Republicans want the Israel aid, and they understand Democrats want the Ukraine aid.

00:42:26.000 And then Republicans in the Senate said, okay, well, if you're tying that together, then we're going to tie in something you don't like, a border bill.

00:42:32.000 And then Republicans in the Senate proceeded to write a pretty bad border bill.

00:42:34.000 So now that's being stripped out.

00:42:36.000 And so now there's going to be an attempt to, again, tie together the Ukraine aid and the Israel aid.

00:42:40.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, Senate Democrats tried on Wednesday to pin down more GOP support for a bill that would provide military aid to Ukraine, Israel, and other allies.

00:42:47.000 The broader measure was the product of four months of bipartisan negotiations, but Republicans made it clear that the one including the border bill had no path forward.

00:42:54.000 With the broader measure dead, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer moved to schedule a procedural vote to advance a narrower $95 billion version of the package that would fund Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan but exclude border security provisions.

00:43:06.000 There are still hurdles that are emerging on all of this.

00:43:10.000 Asked in the early evening if Republicans could guarantee the votes for a slimmed down foreign aid package if they got the border-related amendment votes that some wanted, Senate Minority Whip John Thune said, those are good questions and we don't have any answers at the moment.

00:43:20.000 So unclear what's gonna happen with any aid bill moving forward.

00:43:24.000 Meanwhile, what is truly amazing is that, again, the more controversial provision, the one that obviously has a lot of debate attached to it, is the far larger aid package directed at Ukraine.

00:43:35.000 There is significant bipartisan support for actual support for Israel.

00:43:39.000 In fact, the House attempted to move an Israel aid bill on Tuesday for about $17.6 billion.

00:43:46.000 And they got 250 votes for it.

00:43:50.000 Which, again, count those votes, that's including dozens of Democrats.

00:43:54.000 So a bunch of Democrats voted against that bill.

00:43:56.000 Many of those Democrats voted against the bill because they wanted it paired with Ukraine or whatever.

00:44:00.000 But that is an overwhelmingly popular bill.

00:44:01.000 That's a bipartisan bill.

00:44:03.000 In the Senate, will Majority Leader Schumer even bring that up?

00:44:06.000 Joe Biden has pledged to veto it, by the way, which demonstrates, once again, that Democrats are so scared of their wild left-wing base. 0.99

00:44:12.000 They're so scared of the Rashida Tlaib AOC wing of the Democratic Party, which, by the way, those people are nuts. 1.00

00:44:18.000 They're nuts. 1.00

00:44:19.000 Rashida Tlaib is a nutjob. 1.00

00:44:21.000 She is a terror-supporting nutjob. 0.99

00:44:23.000 Rashida Tlaib, the Congresswoman from Dearborn, Michigan. 0.92

00:44:26.000 Here she was yesterday on the floor, suggesting that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, is a genocidal maniac, which is an amazing thing to suggest From a lady who has never had a bad word to say about the October 7th genocidal massacre attempt against Jews in southern Israel. 0.96

00:44:41.000 Also, I am really enjoying the spectacle of Democrat morons and their lackeys in the media pretending that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, is like the sole power in Israel right now. 0.93

00:44:52.000 He's part of a unity, for the thousandth time, a unity government involving his political opposition. 0.97

00:44:58.000 The people of Israel and their political representatives are so united at this point that Bibi's even talking about bringing Yair Lapid, who is his chief political opposition, to some sort of unity government.

00:45:08.000 He already has his biggest opponent, Benny Gantz, already part of the war cabinet.

00:45:13.000 But again, this is all a bunch of... It's just a clown show for people who are very, very friendly toward terrorists, people like Rashida Tlaib. 0.86

00:45:21.000 Here she was yesterday. 0.99

00:45:23.000 I oppose Netanyahu's war crimes and want him gone too.

00:45:28.000 But many of my colleagues have continued to tell me that they do not want a condition to aid. 0.52

00:45:31.000 They give it to a genocidal maniac.

00:45:34.000 My message to my colleagues is simple.

00:45:37.000 If you don't support Netanyahu, if you're disgusted by the countless videos of lifeless children pulled out of the rubble, if you actually believe in upholding human rights and international law, vote no on a blank check to Netanyahu's genocide.

00:45:51.000 By the way, she wants Hamas refunded. 0.77

00:45:53.000 That's what she would like.

00:45:54.000 Meanwhile, AOC, who again has the brainpower of a kumquat, she was out there doing the same thing. 1.00

00:45:59.000 She suggests that what's going on in the Gaza Strip isn't war, it's slaughter.

00:46:02.000 So first of all, someone should inform her what war actually is.

00:46:05.000 Generally, a lot of people will get hurt and die.

00:46:06.000 That's why war is bad.

00:46:08.000 That's why war is bad.

00:46:10.000 It is, in fact, a war.

00:46:11.000 You know how I know?

00:46:12.000 Because if it weren't a war, one side would have surrendered already.

00:46:15.000 And Hamas refuses to surrender.

00:46:17.000 In fact, Hamas came out yesterday and said no to a deal on hostages.

00:46:21.000 What were their demands for some sort of hostage deal?

00:46:24.000 Their hostage deal was that they wanted Israel to stop all operations in Gaza and leave them in place in the Gaza Strip after the worst terror attack on Jews since World War II.

00:46:34.000 A thing that is certainly not going to happen.

00:46:38.000 That's what they actually want.

00:46:39.000 They want Israel to turn over pretty much every murderer that it has in custody back to Hamas, leave Hamas in place, and maybe then they'll get some hostages back. 0.82

00:46:47.000 By the way, intelligence reports suggest that a huge number of the hostages who were held are already dead.

00:46:52.000 You're talking at least 30 hostages dead, probably another 20 who are dead as well.

00:46:56.000 But here is AOC complaining about the situation in the Gaza Strip, which of course would be over literally tomorrow if Hamas surrendered.

00:47:03.000 More than 1,200 Israelis were killed on October 7th, and 136 remain hostage.

00:47:05.000 In response, 27,478 Palestinians have been killed, 70% of whom are women and children.

00:47:07.000 And most Gazans today cannot reach a fully functioning hospital.

00:47:11.000 This is not war.

00:47:11.000 27,478 Palestinians have been killed, 70% of whom are women and children.

00:47:21.000 And most Gazans today cannot reach a fully functioning hospital.

00:47:25.000 This is not war.

00:47:27.000 This is slaughter.

00:47:28.000 Okay, so let's point out at this point that 20,000 Hamas fighters have either been wounded

00:47:32.000 or killed in this war.

00:47:34.000 So the number she's citing includes probably 10,000 terrorists.

00:47:37.000 When she says women and children, we should also recognize that many of the people who are classified as quote-unquote children are 16-year-old boys who work with Hamas.

00:47:45.000 It's just a reality.

00:47:46.000 I wish it weren't the reality.

00:47:47.000 It is, in fact, the reality of the situation.

00:47:50.000 And again, Hamas rejected a ceasefire this week.

00:47:53.000 This week. 0.99

00:47:54.000 It's these delusional Democrats to whom Joe Biden seems to want to cave, which is, of course, is absolutely pathetic. 0.96

00:47:59.000 All right, you guys, the rest of the show continues right now. 0.84

00:48:02.000 We'll be joined by Montana Tucker to discuss her controversial appearance at the Grammys.

00:48:05.000 If you're not a member, become a member.

00:48:06.000 Use code Shapiro.

00:48:07.000 Check out for two months free on all annual plans.

The Ben Shapiro Show - February 08, 2024

When In Trouble, Cry Racism

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