The Ben Shapiro Show - Will Musk Back Out Of The Twitter Deal? | Ep. 1494

00:00:00.000 Elon Musk puts his Twitter deal on hold as he examines how many accounts are fake.

00:00:04.000 As baby formula shortages wrack the nation, the White House has other priorities, and the media try to pressure corporations to do their pro-abortion dirty work.

00:00:11.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:00:11.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:13.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is sponsored by ExpressVPN.

00:00:21.000 Protect your online privacy today at expressvpn.com.

00:00:24.000 Slash Ben, while the economic news is all a mess, this is just one reason why you might want to think about diversifying into some precious metals.

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00:00:36.000 The Fed is realizing the dire straits our economy is in thanks to our loose monetary policy.

00:00:39.000 Apparently, you can't just spend trillions of dollars every year with no actual repercussions.

00:00:43.000 Now, to play catch up, the Fed has to raise the interest rates, and they plan to do so seven times this year minimum.

00:00:47.000 You're already starting to see those ripple effects in the housing market as people's buying power diminishes because those interest rates are rising dramatically.

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00:01:30.000 Well, in breaking news overnight, Elon Musk is apparently considering whether or not to go forward with his Twitter deal.

00:01:37.000 The reason for this is because apparently there is some sort of investigation going on into just how many accounts over at Twitter are fake.

00:01:44.000 Whether, in fact, a lot of their stats have been falsified for years about how many users they actually have.

00:01:49.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk is still committed to acquisition.

00:01:52.000 He said this earlier this morning, but that came after a lot of speculation as to whether he's going to pull out of the deal.

00:01:58.000 Elon Musk said his deal to buy Twitter was on hold, penning details on the amount of fake accounts on the social media platform, raising questions about the acquisition, and sending shares of the messaging service down in pre-market trading, which again shows you that Elon Musk now has the power to basically destroy Twitter if he doesn't buy it.

00:02:12.000 It's either Musk acquires it or the stock is going to take a significant hit because it's pretty obvious the reason he would not buy it is because that company has not much going for it.

00:02:21.000 Musk said from his verified Twitter account, Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending detailed supporting calculation that spam fake accounts to indeed represent less than 5% of users.

00:02:29.000 Twitter shares are recently trading at $38.45 in pre-market trading.

00:02:32.000 That's down 15%, well below the $54.20 a share or $44 billion Musk agreed to pay for the company last month.

00:02:38.000 The tweet comes as many big stocks have been falling on Wall Street, including shares of Tesla, which were down 29% over the last month.

00:02:46.000 The Wall Street Journal was suggesting that Musk might be using Twitter's recent disclosure as a means to get out of or to renegotiate the deal, especially because, again, he promised $44 billion, and that was a share price that is way above what market price is right now for the shares.

00:02:59.000 Meanwhile, there is still turmoil inside the top levels of Twitter.

00:03:03.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, Twitter has now freezed its hiring as two senior executives have left the company.

00:03:08.000 They're pausing hiring.

00:03:08.000 They're looking to cut costs as the social media company, in the midst of a $44 billion takeover by Elon Musk, grapples with disruptions in the digital advertising market from global economic turmoil.

00:03:18.000 Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal announced the actions along with the surprise departure of two senior executives, according to an internal memo.

00:03:24.000 He said, Twitter's move adds to broader upheaval in the tech industry because what we are seeing all over the place is that big tech stocks are sinking.

00:03:34.000 And this is as a result of Joe Biden's extraordinarily weak economy.

00:03:37.000 So we'll continue to bring you updates on whether Musk indeed acquires Twitter or plans to pull out of the Twitter deal.

00:03:44.000 Bottom line is that Twitter has really never made a lot, like any money so far, as I'm aware.

00:03:50.000 The tech industry is largely reliant on the possibility of future gains.

00:03:54.000 It is generally not reliant on showing top line actual income, right?

00:03:59.000 Gross income above cost.

00:04:01.000 And because of that, Because it doesn't tend to show a lot of profit.

00:04:04.000 That means that the stocks tend to be particularly vulnerable to speculation, which is what Musk's involvement in Twitter has done.

00:04:10.000 Meanwhile, again, a lot of this is being driven by overall economic conditions, which are extraordinarily weak.

00:04:15.000 According to CNBC, prices at the wholesale level accelerated further in April.

00:04:19.000 That's part of a broader inflation problem persisting throughout the United States economy.

00:04:23.000 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the producer price index, which tracks how much manufacturers get for their products at the initial sale, rose 0.5% on the month, 11% from one year ago.

00:04:33.000 That's a decrease from 11.5% in March that was revised upwards 0.3 percentage points, excluding food, energy and trade services.

00:04:40.000 Core PPI rose 0.6% in April and 6.9% from a year ago.

00:04:44.000 The latter a decline from 7.1% last month.

00:04:47.000 Both monthly increases were exactly in line with Dow Jones estimates.

00:04:50.000 Those numbers came the day after the BLS reported consumer prices for goods and services rose 8.3% from a year ago.

00:04:56.000 That is down from 8.5% in March.

00:04:58.000 It is still indicative of the worst inflation the U.S.

00:05:00.000 has seen since the early 1980s.

00:05:02.000 According to the Bank of America's Jared Woodard, prices are still rising incredibly quickly.

00:05:06.000 So the notion that prices are somehow coming down, and when you say that the inflation is still maintaining at 8.3% annualized growth rate over the last year, That doesn't mean that inflation is starting to come down.

00:05:17.000 It means the rate of growth in inflation is coming down, which is not quite the same thing.

00:05:20.000 Here is Gerard Woodard explaining.

00:05:23.000 Prices are still rising.

00:05:24.000 If they're not rising as fast as they were before, yeah, that's arguably good news.

00:05:27.000 But the fact that prices are still rising incredibly quickly is a big problem for markets.

00:05:31.000 It's one of the reasons why for several months we've been suggesting that investors maintain higher levels of cash, more dry powder ahead of volatility and what we think will be much better buying opportunities later this year.

00:05:44.000 People are pulling their money out of the markets, which is why you've seen the markets bouncing around like a yo-yo.

00:05:48.000 People are pulling their money out of Bitcoin so fast that actually the money started to go back into Bitcoin a little bit yesterday.

00:05:53.000 The markets are in a state of real flux and turmoil because if you are a smart investor, right now you are sitting on the sidelines.

00:06:00.000 So for example, when it comes to Bitcoin, I actually texted a friend yesterday.

00:06:03.000 So as I've told you before, I own some Bitcoin, I own some Ethereum.

00:06:06.000 And so I texted a friend who's very, very knowledgeable and works in this industry.

00:06:09.000 And I said to him, Should you be looking to buy up, for example, El Salvador in debt right now?

00:06:14.000 Because El Salvador, their debt is tied to Bitcoin.

00:06:17.000 There's a widespread speculation that El Salvador could theoretically default.

00:06:20.000 I don't think that Bitcoin is going to collapse the way a lot of people think it's going to.

00:06:23.000 So should you buy that sort of debt?

00:06:24.000 He said, listen, the smart play right now is to basically sit it out.

00:06:27.000 If you're going to buy more Bitcoin and more Ethereum, maybe you should do that.

00:06:29.000 But some of the more fringy sort of Bitcoins, some of the more fringy Blockchain backed currencies.

00:06:35.000 Those ones are probably going to die. 0.89

00:06:36.000 What you're seeing is a consolidation of the market.

00:06:38.000 And so be careful out there and be careful out there seems to be the wise advice that everybody is offering right now, which is why you're seeing a lot of money now being pulled out of the market and waiting on the sidelines.

00:06:47.000 Or at the very least, people not pouring more money into the market at the same rates that they were pouring money into the markets, say two or three or six months ago.

00:06:54.000 Looking for a safe haven for your cash is really, really difficult right now.

00:06:59.000 Well, the good news is that the Biden administration is focused in on the things that matter, like intersectional identity politics when it comes to the Federal Reserve.

00:07:05.000 So the Federal Reserve is going to be tasked with bringing down inflation without crashing the economy and sending us into a recession.

00:07:12.000 That's a pretty difficult task considering the fact that they are the ones who created this massive inflation in the first place by being derelict in their understanding of how fast inflation would occur if you just kept pumping money into the economy like you're pumping Botox into Nancy Pelosi's forehead.

00:07:26.000 Well, now the White House is focused laser-like on the most important thing about the Federal Reserve, and that is they need a black woman on it. 0.90

00:07:31.000 Jared Bernstein, Joe Biden's White House economic advisor, he says that that's really the important thing.

00:07:36.000 The first black woman is going to be on the Federal Reserve, and that's it. 0.99

00:07:39.000 Now, most people are going, wait, I don't care who's on the Federal Reserve.

00:07:42.000 Aren't they just supposed to do their jobs?

00:07:43.000 But at the Biden White House, equity is the watchword of the day. 0.96

00:07:46.000 And because equity is the watchword, all that matters is whether the person who is doing a bad job in bringing down inflation is a black woman, apparently. 0.99

00:07:54.000 The confirmation of the president's nominees to the Federal Reserve is super important.

00:07:59.000 This is the first and foremost institution fighting inflation.

00:08:02.000 And the fact that we now have a Federal Reserve with Dr. Lisa Cook, the first black woman ever to be on a Federal Reserve Board, is, I think, a key achievement of Bidenomics trying to make sure that this extremely important global economic institution looks a little bit more like some of the people that it's representing.

00:08:22.000 How in the world is anyone supposed to care about that?

00:08:25.000 Why?

00:08:26.000 Why would you possibly care? 0.89

00:08:27.000 And the media's obsession and the Democrats' obsession with first black lesbian little person to walk on the moon is really absurd on its face.

00:08:37.000 But what is even more absurd is when you are in the middle of an economic crisis and your answer to the economic crisis is, well, yes, we don't actually have good policy prescriptions and we don't actually know what to do. 0.95

00:08:46.000 But the person who doesn't know what to do is going to be a black woman. 1.00

00:08:50.000 I mean, if I needed a black woman who didn't know what she was doing, I'd just look at Kamala Harris, the Vice President of the United States. 1.00

00:08:54.000 She's a black woman who doesn't know what she's doing. 1.00

00:08:56.000 I don't understand how her being a black woman trumps the fact that she doesn't know what she's doing. 1.00

00:09:03.000 What? 0.92

00:09:04.000 How is that a response to economic crisis?

00:09:05.000 What in the what? 1.00

00:09:08.000 But this is what the Biden administration is focused on because, again, when you have no policy prescriptions, all you have is the sort of identity politics stupidity. 0.98

00:09:16.000 So meanwhile, all of this economic turmoil is having some real significant effects on people's everyday lives. 0.96

00:09:22.000 The baby formula shortage that has hit the country is very significant.

00:09:26.000 As I've pointed out before, I have three kids.

00:09:27.000 All three of my kids had to be supplemented with formula.

00:09:30.000 So if there were no formula on the shelves and I had kids, We're nursing right now and using formula.

00:09:35.000 That would be a disaster area, and there are tons of families like this.

00:09:38.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, baby formula manufacturers and retailers say they are working to address a long-running shortage in products on store shelves, but the hardships facing U.S.

00:09:45.000 families may take months to abate.

00:09:47.000 Abbott Laboratories, which produces Similac, said it is bringing products from its factory in Ireland to the United States as it continues talks with the FDA to restart production at its factory in Michigan.

00:09:56.000 However, the company has said it would take weeks before products from the plant are available on store shelves.

00:10:00.000 Now, remember, the FDA had a whistleblower back in October who said that they thought that there might be a problem at the Michigan factory.

00:10:06.000 The FDA did nothing.

00:10:07.000 Then it turns out that a couple of kids died when they had bacterial infections from the formula.

00:10:13.000 Now, Abbott then looked at its lab and what they found is that the manufacturing facility actually didn't have any of the bacteria, that there were some bacteria in different parts of the facility, but not in the part where they actually manufactured.

00:10:24.000 The FDA shut it down anyway, and so did Abbott.

00:10:27.000 Again, great government policy at work.

00:10:29.000 Rivals have been trying to accelerate production, according to the Wall Street Journal.

00:10:32.000 Challenges remain in getting supply to the right places.

00:10:34.000 Many retail chains are continuing to ration supplies by placing strict limits on orders, while many others are trying to find substitutes with little success.

00:10:41.000 Meanwhile, everyone from frustrated parents to lawmakers on Capitol Hill have called for inquiries into why shortages that initially emerged earlier in COVID have been difficult to resolve.

00:10:50.000 President Biden on Thursday spoke with executives at Walmart and Target and baby formula makers about the situation, though a senior administration official declined to provide details on the conversation.

00:10:59.000 Probably because the conversation, as my security guy, Chad, suggested on the way over to the show this morning, probably because the conversation was mostly for President Biden about how he could personally obtain the formula for his own use.

00:11:12.000 The Biden administration also pointed to several efforts underway to address the formula shortage.

00:11:16.000 The Agriculture Department is calling on states to allow recipients of the federally funded program known as WIC to use their benefits for a wider range of products in case the ones they want are out of stock.

00:11:25.000 Biden also called for the FTC and state attorneys general to investigate allegations of price gouging.

00:11:31.000 Whenever there's a shortage, and whenever it turns out that you've inflated the currency, and whenever it turns out your regulatory policy is creating supply shortages, probably it's price gouging.

00:11:39.000 Here's the thing about price gouging.

00:11:40.000 In order for true price gouging to be happening, what you need is a full-on monopoly.

00:11:45.000 That is how price gouging occurs, when you have a full-on monopoly.

00:11:49.000 And the thing is, that usually price gouging can't last for very long, because then you have competitors who ramp up to undercut your inflated price.

00:11:56.000 This is one of the beauties of the free market, is that when it comes to prices, it is a race to the bottom.

00:12:00.000 When it comes to quality, it's a race to the top.

00:12:02.000 This is what free markets tend to do.

00:12:04.000 But Joe Biden and the rest of the left-wing Democrats, their favorite thing to do is suggest that whenever prices go up, it must be some sort of price gouging.

00:12:11.000 Somebody else is to blame.

00:12:11.000 It's the companies, it's the American people.

00:12:14.000 It really is just, it's somebody else.

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00:13:20.000 So Corinne Jean-Pierre, who's the incoming new press secretary, again, very important press secretary because she's not just a black woman. 0.98

00:13:26.000 She's a black woman who's gay. 1.00

00:13:27.000 Doesn't matter if she happens to be a radical who hates Israel and has suggested that Fox News is racist and that the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election was stolen and all the rest of that. 0.99

00:13:36.000 That doesn't matter because after all, historic, right?

00:13:39.000 Historic TM trademark.

00:13:41.000 So here she is explaining the baby formula shortage is our Biden's top priority.

00:13:46.000 Severe shortages throughout much of the country over many weeks and months, but particularly the last couple weeks.

00:13:52.000 What is the administration doing?

00:13:53.000 What can you do?

00:13:54.000 It's something certainly we've been tracking.

00:13:56.000 Ensuring that infant formula is safe and available for families across the country is a top priority to the White House and this administration.

00:14:07.000 Okay, when it comes to this being a top priority for Biden, basically all that means is that he gets on the phone and jabbers with somebody, but he has no plan for any of this.

00:14:14.000 His team is so behind the ball on all of this.

00:14:16.000 I mean, is there an issue where they've actually been ahead?

00:14:19.000 Like an issue where they've actually foreseen a problem and then solved the problem?

00:14:23.000 I'm unaware of it.

00:14:24.000 Jen Psaki, who's still there, I know she's supposed to be over at MSNBC any moment, hosting her own show, because again, that's just a propaganda outlet for the administration and it's a revolving door. 1.00

00:14:33.000 Psaki says she doesn't know if Biden could have done more on the formula shortages.

00:14:38.000 The whistleblower who used to work at that Sturgis plant warned the FDA top officials about safety concerns in October, but they didn't interview that whistleblower until December.

00:14:46.000 The inspection wasn't until January 31st.

00:14:48.000 The recall happened February 17th.

00:14:50.000 So is that timeline acceptable to the White House?

00:14:53.000 And if not, what is the White House doing to correct that at the FDA?

00:14:57.000 I'm sure there will be plenty of time to take a look at if there are any issues that could have been improved here.

00:15:01.000 I don't have any specific analysis of that at this moment in time.

00:15:07.000 Well, I mean, yeah, no analysis.

00:15:09.000 By the way, she was asked, what should you do if you can't find formula?

00:15:12.000 Like, does the president have any recommendations?

00:15:14.000 She said, yeah, call a doctor. 0.63

00:15:15.000 The whole immediate question of if you can't find formula and you need it for your baby to eat, what should they be doing?

00:15:22.000 We would certainly encourage any parent who has concerns about their child's health or well-being to call their doctor or pediatrician.

00:15:31.000 That sounds like this administration is really, really on top of it.

00:15:34.000 By the way, how is all of this going to impact the Democratic Party?

00:15:37.000 In pretty serious ways, because there's new polling data out demonstrating from Pew just what people think is a problem right now.

00:15:45.000 Here's the percentage of people who think that the following are problems.

00:15:47.000 Inflation, 93%.

00:15:48.000 Say it's either a very big problem or a moderately big problem.

00:15:53.000 Violent crime, 54% very big problem, 34% moderately big problem.

00:15:56.000 That's 88%.

00:16:00.000 The federal budget deficit, 84% say very big problem or moderately big problem.

00:16:05.000 The quality of K through 12 schools, public schools, 78% say this is either a very big problem or a moderately big problem.

00:16:14.000 And so these are big numbers on issues that really, really hurt Democrats.

00:16:19.000 Again, 57% of Democrats say that inflation is a very big problem.

00:16:22.000 84% of Republicans say this is a very big problem.

00:16:26.000 You know what the concern that people care about the least right now?

00:16:29.000 Literally the least that they care about?

00:16:31.000 COVID.

00:16:32.000 People don't care about COVID.

00:16:32.000 So Democrats are focused in on things like COVID and blaming COVID.

00:16:35.000 And people are like, nope, this is all you guys.

00:16:37.000 It's all on you.

00:16:39.000 Meanwhile, this administration that keeps talking about how inflation is really hurting you, and then they look at the core price index and they're like, wow, look at the fact that this is gas prices.

00:16:46.000 It's Putin's price hike.

00:16:48.000 Well, I mean, literally yesterday, the Interior Department, under Joe Biden, cancelled oil and gas drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Alaska coast.

00:16:55.000 So we're in the middle of a gas and oil shortage.

00:16:58.000 And we could be ramping up production to help out the Europeans. 0.96

00:17:01.000 And instead, we've got this idiot administration attempting to cancel oil and gas leases. 0.71

00:17:06.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, the Biden administration canceled plans to auction drilling rights in three regions off the U.S. 0.93

00:17:11.000 coastline later this year, adding more friction to an uneasy relationship with the oil industry during a period of high gasoline prices.

00:17:17.000 The decision to cancel lease sales for two regions in the Gulf of Mexico and one off the coast of Alaska leaves oil and gas companies facing a blackout period of unknown length for access to new drilling spots in valuable offshore acreage.

00:17:27.000 And one of the reasons this is a major problem is because when you have regulatory schemes that prevent you from buying these leases, how are you going to get a loan for it?

00:17:35.000 How are you going to find the money to actually fund the leases?

00:17:38.000 So once they're actually greenlit?

00:17:40.000 These delays create backlogs.

00:17:42.000 You want to talk about a supply chain backlog?

00:17:43.000 This creates a supply chain backlog when it comes to oil and gas, which is what the administration has over and over and over said they want to do.

00:17:50.000 They say this is an opportunity to move us off carbon-based energy, as though they have some sort of viable energy alternative, which they do not.

00:17:57.000 Marty Durbin, president of the Energy Arm of the U.S.

00:17:59.000 Chamber of Commerce, said, quote, the lack of new lease sales will lower future supplies, which will keep energy prices high and drive inflation for years to come.

00:18:06.000 While some in the administration have called for more domestic production, this action sends exactly the wrong signal to producers and markets.

00:18:13.000 Not a shock at all, but that's how this administration rolls.

00:18:16.000 So, no baby formula?

00:18:17.000 Well, it's probably price gouging.

00:18:20.000 Bad gas prices?

00:18:20.000 Putin's price hike, except we are going to cancel oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Alaskan coast.

00:18:26.000 Got a real inflation problem getting that thing under control over at the Federal Reserve?

00:18:29.000 Well, the truth is we do have a black woman who's now on the Federal Reserve.

00:18:32.000 This administration always has other priorities.

00:18:35.000 And then, by the way, they also do lie about the priorities that they have.

00:18:37.000 So yesterday, Jen Psaki was asked about their safe smoking kits that were being handed out by the federal government and the fact that they include crack pipes, and she just lied about it.

00:18:46.000 She's like, they don't include crack pipes.

00:18:48.000 They include crack pipes.

00:18:50.000 The Washington Free Beacon reported that they went to harm reduction facilities in five cities and all of those facilities had crack pipes in their kits.

00:19:00.000 HHS would not say which programs had applied for funding and the recipient list is not out yet.

00:19:05.000 So I'm just wondering if the White House can say if any taxpayer dollars paid for these Crack pipes. 0.98

00:19:11.000 No federal funding has gone to it.

00:19:13.000 This policy does not allow for crack pipes to be included.

00:19:16.000 I would just note that this is a bit of a conspiracy theory that's been spread out there.

00:19:20.000 It's not accurate.

00:19:21.000 There's important drug treatment programs for people who have been suffering from what we've seen as an epidemic across the country and money is not used for crack pipes.

00:19:31.000 Okay, so the Washington Free Beacon reports differently.

00:19:33.000 Crack pipes are distributed in safe smoking kits up and down the East Coast, raising questions about the Biden administration's assertion that its multi-million dollar harm reduction grant program wouldn't funnel taxpayer dollars to drug paraphernalia.

00:19:44.000 The Washington Free Beacon visited five harm reduction organizations and made calls to over two dozen more.

00:19:49.000 Every organization that they visited, facilities in Boston, New York, D.C., Baltimore, and Richmond, Virginia, included crack pipes in the kits.

00:19:56.000 While the contents of the safe smoking kits vary from one organization to another, and while those from some organizations may not contain crack pipes, all of the organizations we visited made crack pipes as well as paraphernalia for the use of heroin, cocaine, and crystal meth readily available without requiring or offering rehabilitation services, suggesting the pipes are included in many, if not most, of the kits distributed across the country.

00:20:15.000 All of the centers we visited are run by health-focused nonprofits and government agencies, the types of groups eligible to receive funding starting this month from the Biden administration's $30 million grant program, and none of the organizations responded to inquiries about whether they bothered to apply for government grants.

00:20:29.000 It's not clear which organizations will receive those grants.

00:20:30.000 The bottom line is that these smoking kits, all the money is fungible.

00:20:35.000 So if a grant is given to an organization, and then they say, well, you know, it's the same thing the left does with funding Planned Parenthood.

00:20:41.000 They'll be like, yeah, we give it to Planned Parenthood, but we're not funding abortion. 0.73

00:20:44.000 Nope, you're funding abortion. 0.95

00:20:46.000 If you give to organizations that then spend some other money on crackheads, then you're funding the crackheads.

00:20:51.000 That is the way this works.

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00:22:00.000 And meanwhile, the Democrats continue to push forward with their agenda on abortion, hoping that it's going to save them from a shellacking in 2022.

00:22:07.000 And, um, Again, they're really bad at this.

00:22:13.000 The media seem to believe that the Democrats have some sort of messaging advantage when it comes to abortion.

00:22:17.000 I'm not seeing it.

00:22:18.000 One of the reasons I'm not seeing it is that the pro-choice caucus inside the House sent out messaging materials to the House Democrats on Roe versus Wade.

00:22:27.000 And they put out this chart, messaging do's and don'ts.

00:22:31.000 Messaging do's and don'ts.

00:22:32.000 Here's what they say is harmful language.

00:22:34.000 Choice.

00:22:35.000 That's correct.

00:22:36.000 Pro-choice Democrats are now saying that they should not use the word choice because it's become too toxic.

00:22:39.000 And people understand that choice means abortion.

00:22:43.000 Instead, you should use the word decision.

00:22:46.000 Good luck with this.

00:22:47.000 They also say that you should never say, okay, the Democrats have decided, you should never say the goal is to reduce abortion or to use safe, legal, and rare.

00:22:56.000 Which again demonstrates how the democratic mindset has moved.

00:22:58.000 Because to say safe, legal, and rare is an inherent contradiction.

00:23:01.000 Because once you say that it should be rare, you are suggesting there is a moral problem with abortion.

00:23:05.000 Instead, say these Democrats, you should use the following language.

00:23:09.000 Safe, legal, and accessible.

00:23:11.000 Abortion shouldn't be rare.

00:23:12.000 Abortion should be widespread with no sort of moral judgment attached.

00:23:16.000 Abortion is in fact a morally apathetic issue.

00:23:20.000 It's the same as removing a polyp.

00:23:21.000 So it shouldn't be safe, legal, and rare.

00:23:22.000 It should be safe, legal, and accessible.

00:23:25.000 Also, you should no longer say unwanted pregnancy.

00:23:27.000 You should say unexpected pregnancy.

00:23:30.000 Well, I mean, first of all, talk about Orwellian language, unexpected pregnancy.

00:23:34.000 I mean, do we mean just that you had unprotected sex and then you are surprised?

00:23:42.000 Well, unexpected pregnancy, like, I think it is fair to say that if you had consensual sex and then you got pregnant, That shouldn't be considered unexpected in the way that you are talking about.

00:23:52.000 Unwanted is more accurate, but they don't want you to say unwanted because, again, it demonstrates exactly the problem here, which is that you are defining whether this is a baby or not by your pure desire for the baby, which is an incredible thing. 0.85

00:24:03.000 Deciding the value of another human being by deciding whether you want that person in your life, man, if that were the case, if I just got to decide whether everybody who is in my life, whether I want them in my life or I don't want them in my life, and then I just got to kill them if I didn't want them in my life, It'd be me and Charles Manson, man.

00:24:20.000 But that is the entire Democratic proposal when it comes to abortion, so they're trying to shield that now.

00:24:23.000 It's not unwanted pregnancy, it's unexpected pregnancy.

00:24:26.000 Now, first of all, even if it was unexpected pregnancy, a lot of people have babies that are quote-unquote unexpected in this way.

00:24:33.000 And my youngest sister was a surprise pregnancy for my mom.

00:24:37.000 That's not only not the end of the world, that's an amazing gift, but the Democrats have to shift away from, it's all euphemistic language.

00:24:44.000 Also, don't use language like conscience clause or protections.

00:24:48.000 Because they don't want you as a religious health care provider to be able to say, I don't perform abortions. 0.99

00:24:53.000 They don't want to say that's your conscience.

00:24:54.000 Instead, they call this refusal of care or denial of care laws.

00:24:58.000 And finally, they say, you shouldn't say back alley abortions with coat hangers.

00:25:02.000 You should say criminalizing healthcare.

00:25:04.000 Because the problem is that when you say back alley abortions with coat hangers, people go, oh, so you're saying that it's bad with a hanger, but that it's good with a scalpel.

00:25:13.000 So we're going to change the language over.

00:25:14.000 Now it's criminalizing healthcare. 0.93

00:25:18.000 So we at Daily Wire, we have a new comedy series that you should go check out called That's Not Funny from some of the guys who used to do material over at the Babylon Bee.

00:25:27.000 And there is a video that we just put out called That's Healthcare.

00:25:35.000 It pretty thoroughly debunks the idea that abortion is healthcare.

00:25:37.000 Healthcare for whom?

00:25:39.000 Not the baby who ends up with its brain sucked into a sink.

00:25:41.000 But the Democrats do not have an advantage on this issue.

00:25:44.000 This is their big problem.

00:25:45.000 And they're being forced over and over again to shift away from their own talking points.

00:25:53.000 Like what they're forced to do in order to defend abortion truly is egregious.

00:25:55.000 There's an entire article in the New York Times today.

00:25:58.000 It's an interactive article simply attacking crisis pregnancy centers, talking about how if you go to a crisis pregnancy center, which generally speaking is a pro-life organization that gives women access to an ultrasound so they can actually see the baby before they kill the baby, and then guides women toward making decisions that don't involve the murder of the unborn.

00:26:17.000 The New York Times hates this, and they're very angry about this.

00:26:20.000 They say their names sound benign, even comforting.

00:26:22.000 Pregnancy Help Center, Options for Women, Clarity Clinic.

00:26:25.000 You might not notice them if you drove by, but crisis pregnancy centers are frontline outposts in the war against abortion.

00:26:32.000 My God, nefarious.

00:26:34.000 And there are more than 2,000 of them in the United States.

00:26:37.000 Carly Thompson, Kerry Baker, Zach Levitt writing, One is an assistant professor for Middlebury College, and one is a chaired professor at Smith, and one's a graphics editor for the New York Times.

00:26:46.000 Pregnant?

00:26:47.000 Need help?

00:26:48.000 They have an agenda.

00:26:49.000 As opposed to Planned Parenthood, who has no agenda.

00:26:51.000 Did you know Planned Parenthood has no agenda?

00:26:53.000 I mean, sure, they get tens of millions of taxpayer dollars every year under Democrats.

00:26:59.000 In order to perform widespread abortion. 1.00

00:27:00.000 But they have no agenda whatsoever.

00:27:01.000 When you come into a Planned Parenthood, they have no judgment, no agenda, nothing.

00:27:05.000 It's not like they are basically pushing abortion.

00:27:08.000 No, they have no agenda.

00:27:09.000 Planned Parenthood is absolutely apathetic on abortion.

00:27:11.000 It's amazing. 0.99

00:27:13.000 The big problem is you might go into a place that doesn't recommend that you immediately kill your baby.

00:27:18.000 The New York Times says, as the number of crisis pregnancy centers has increased in the United States, the number of abortion facilities has dropped.

00:27:25.000 From more than 2,700 in 1978 to about 785 today.

00:27:29.000 As a result, CPCs now outnumber abortion facilities three to one.

00:27:33.000 More than half of American women of reproductive age would live closer to a CPC than to an abortion facility, according to our analysis.

00:27:38.000 Oh no, you might live closer to a place where they won't kill your baby than to a place where they will kill your baby?

00:27:43.000 Wow, what moral tragedy.

00:27:47.000 So again, this is the New York Times going after crisis.

00:27:49.000 So you have the Democrats telling their own people not to use the word choice because it's harmful language.

00:27:56.000 You have the New York Times attacking pregnancy crisis centers, and these are the issues where they are supposed to have a moral advantage going into the election?

00:28:02.000 You don't have to explain that one to me.

00:28:04.000 I mean, their spokespeople are people like Whoopi Goldberg on national television, telling people it doesn't matter if it's a baby.

00:28:10.000 Here was Whoopi Goldberg on that great aggregation of IQ points, The View, yesterday.

00:28:16.000 At what point does a baby in the womb have rights separate from another?

00:28:19.000 Listen, it doesn't matter what you think, when you think it is.

00:28:23.000 If I don't think that that's when it is... Is it the ninth month?

00:28:27.000 Is it the third trimester?

00:28:28.000 Listen, I don't have to tell you because... It's none of your business.

00:28:32.000 It's your decision what you do with your body and how your family works.

00:28:37.000 And for me, I don't care what your religious beliefs are.

00:28:40.000 But it's not even religion.

00:28:41.000 It's way more philosophical debate.

00:28:42.000 This is all based in religion.

00:28:46.000 It's all based in religion, according to Whoopi Goldberg.

00:28:48.000 And it doesn't matter what you think.

00:28:49.000 No, it really, really, really matters a lot.

00:28:52.000 Because again, this notion that you can subjectively define another human being's life is a crazy one.

00:28:58.000 And Whoopi Goldberg, by the way, I mean, just look at American history.

00:29:02.000 There was a large period of time in American history where people subjectively defined black people as not human.

00:29:07.000 Hey, that was the greatest evil in American history is the subjective redefinition of other human beings to not be human.

00:29:13.000 Because after all, it's your decision.

00:29:14.000 That is not how rights work.

00:29:16.000 That is not how the value of human life is determined.

00:29:20.000 So Democrats are supposed to have an advantage on this issue.

00:29:22.000 They do not, which is why they're now bringing their journal activists to bear.

00:29:26.000 So this is the playbook that Democrats in the media now run, and they are the same.

00:29:30.000 The Democratic media complex is a thing.

00:29:33.000 They all run the same playbook, and they have attempted to weaponize woke capital on their own behalf.

00:29:38.000 So what happens is, there's a controversial social issue that crops up.

00:29:41.000 And the first thing they now do is they go get a couple of journalists who are indistinguishable from people who work for Media Matters.

00:29:47.000 And they have those people call up various corporations, like random corporations be like, don't you have an opinion on X?

00:29:53.000 Your silence is deafening.

00:29:55.000 Why doesn't Taylor Swift speak up about gay marriage? 0.99

00:29:58.000 Why doesn't random video game company speak up about abortion?

00:30:01.000 Anything I'm kidding?

00:30:02.000 This is their entire shtick now, because if they cannot cudgel The American people into doing what they want in various areas.

00:30:02.000 I'm not kidding.

00:30:09.000 They are hoping that perhaps they can get corporations to exert pressure on governments via the power of the markets in order to get done what they want to do.

00:30:18.000 All they have to do is call up some nervous Nellies on the board and get those nervous Nellies to start mirroring their left-wing priorities. 1.00

00:30:25.000 Which is why there was a spate, a large spate of stories yesterday all about Democrats in the media attempting to do journalism that's actually activism.

00:30:34.000 By the way, it's not journalism to find out whether a video game company has a perspective on abortion.

00:30:40.000 That's not a story.

00:30:41.000 You're manufacturing a story.

00:30:43.000 It's like going to your next door neighbor as a reporter and being like, so what do you think about the conflict with China over the Taiwan Straits?

00:30:53.000 That person doesn't need to have an opinion.

00:30:55.000 That person isn't an expert.

00:30:56.000 That person isn't making policy.

00:30:58.000 So the hell are you talking about?

00:30:59.000 But this is what the media do.

00:31:00.000 They try to find people who have market power and who employ people.

00:31:03.000 And then they try to cudgel them into place to do their dirty work for them.

00:31:06.000 And then they pretend this is journalism.

00:31:07.000 So, for example, Nathan Grayson and Shannon Lau writing for the Washington Post in the video games section, quote, as Roe versus Wade repeal looms, video game industry stays mostly silent.

00:31:19.000 The F?

00:31:21.000 Well, I mean, if the people who make Elden Ring don't have an opinion on abortion, I don't know what we're gonna do here.

00:31:29.000 According to the Washington Post, quote, in the wake of a leaked draft Supreme Court opinion essentially confirming that Roe vs. Wade's days are numbered, most of the video games industry's biggest companies have remained conspicuously quiet.

00:31:42.000 They make video games!

00:31:44.000 Are they in the abortion industry?

00:31:46.000 Are they doctors?

00:31:47.000 Like, why are you even asking this question?

00:31:49.000 The answer is because they're attempting to pressure employers into getting involved.

00:31:53.000 That's the whole goal here. 0.55

00:31:55.000 It's gross. 0.92

00:31:56.000 It really is yucky.

00:31:58.000 Shortly after Politico first reported on the leaked Supreme Court draft on May 2nd, Sony-purchased Destiny 2 studio Bungie published a statement in support of reproductive rights, calling Roe vs. Wade's demise a blowout to freedom in America and a direct attack on human rights and prompting fans to donate to reproductive rights-focused organizations.

00:32:13.000 In the following days, indie developers and a handful of other studios, like Psychonauts 2 creator Double Fine and Guild Wars developer ArenaNet, published brief statements of their own.

00:32:22.000 A handful of workers told the Post they'd participate in a week-long Mother's Day strike aimed at protesting the potential overturn of Roe vs. Wade, which again is super Orwellian stuff.

00:32:29.000 I'm protesting on Mother's Day in favor of killing the thing that makes people mothers.

00:32:35.000 The majority of gaming's heaviest hitters appear to have kept both their mouths and their wallets closed. 0.98

00:32:40.000 The silence is especially conspicuous following the industry's near-unilateral support of causes like Black Lives Matter.

00:32:48.000 In the wake of George Floyd's murder and anti-Asian hate as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

00:32:53.000 In both of those cases, many big companies released statements, donated to charitable causes, updated internal policy. 0.98

00:32:57.000 This is why, by the way, these corporations were morons to have engaged in this in the first place. 0.85

00:33:01.000 The minute you give an inch to the left, they will now demand that they run all of your social policy. 0.98

00:33:06.000 You decided to cave to them because you were afraid they were going to say mean words about you because of BLM? 0.61

00:33:11.000 And so you gave to a bunch of organizations that bought Patrisse Cullors a $6 million home?

00:33:16.000 And now, these same people are coming back to you for more, like, well, I see that you haven't donated to Planned Parenthood lately.

00:33:21.000 I see that you haven't said anything about Emily's List.

00:33:24.000 Never let your boardroom become the preserve of left-wing activists who masquerade as journalists. 1.00

00:33:29.000 And if you do, you're an idiot. 1.00

00:33:30.000 You're an idiot CEO. 1.00

00:33:32.000 The Washington Post contacted 20 major video game companies about whether they plan to make a statement regarding Roe's potential repeal or provide employees with monetary aid in places where abortions would no longer be available. 1.00

00:33:44.000 Like, that's just, that's not journalism, guys.

00:33:47.000 That is not journalism.

00:33:48.000 When you go to companies and then you try to pressure them to do the thing you want them to do, that's just activism.

00:33:53.000 And you should just go work for Media Matters or hang out with Judd Legamum.

00:33:57.000 That's what, that is your job.

00:33:59.000 So now you're pretending you're a journalist, you're not a journalist, you're an activist, and it's gross. 1.00

00:34:03.000 How do we know how stupid this is? 1.00

00:34:04.000 So, apparently, Sony PlayStation staff are now fuming over their CEO's abortion comments. 1.00

00:34:11.000 So, PlayStation was trending on Twitter yesterday.

00:34:14.000 It was trending on Twitter because the CEO put out a statement, and his statement said that employees should respect differences of opinion on abortion.

00:34:23.000 And then he did five paragraphs about his two cats' first birthday.

00:34:26.000 Which, frankly, is the proper response to all of this.

00:34:29.000 You're allowed to have whatever opinions you want to have.

00:34:31.000 Also, my cat had a birthday.

00:34:33.000 That seems like a perfect response from the PlayStation CEO.

00:34:35.000 But apparently, this is now super controversial.

00:34:38.000 And this person must be yelled at.

00:34:39.000 We have to yell at Jim Ryan, the PlayStation president, because he didn't take a position that we like on abortion.

00:34:47.000 Okay, any corporation that caves to this deserves whatever it gets, and I'm happy to see them ripped down by the left and turned into tools. 0.94

00:34:53.000 Well, companies that bow to the far left are really, really dumb, but there's a way you can make yourself more intelligent, and that is you can check out the Jordan Harbinger Show. 0.88

00:35:00.000 We are fans here at The Daily Wire. 0.96

00:35:01.000 The Jordan Harbinger Show features in-depth interviews with some of the world's most fascinating minds, ranging from Charles Koch to Neil deGrasse Tyson to Kobe Bryant, diving so much deeper than any other interviewer I've heard.

00:35:11.000 It's so clear that Jordan really does go in the weeds preparing for these.

00:35:14.000 He actually does his research.

00:35:15.000 Jordan dives into the minds of really interesting people, from athletes and authors and scientists to mobsters, spies, hostage negotiators.

00:35:21.000 Every Friday, Jordan also releases a Feedback Friday episode to respond to listener questions, covering everything from conventional problems like leaving a dream job to really heavy stuff like helping someone escape an abusive relationship.

00:35:31.000 Some of the best episodes, he did an interview with Yanmi Park that is really excellent about the differences between America and North Korea.

00:35:38.000 He's interviewed people like Jack Schafer or Dan Carlin.

00:35:41.000 Plus, listening to Jordan goes great with listening to this show, which you're already doing right now.

00:35:44.000 I don't always agree with Jordan, what he says on the show, but you're going to get smarter just listening to the show.

00:35:49.000 Search for The Jordan Harbinger Show.

00:35:50.000 That's H-A-R-B as in boy, I-N as in Nancy, G-E-R. 0.98

00:35:54.000 In Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening right now.

00:35:56.000 Again, check out The Jordan Harbinger Show and give it a listen.

00:36:00.000 Alrighty, folks, it is that glorious time of the week.

00:36:01.000 I wanna give a shout out to a Daily Wire member.

00:36:03.000 Today, it's Alex Gagalack on Instagram who appreciates an outstanding beverage vessel when he sees one.

00:36:08.000 In this picture, Alex is proudly holding the world's greatest and most elite chalice while wearing a BJ Penn for Governor t-shirt.

00:36:14.000 The caption reads, I joined Real Daily Wire to support the effort.

00:36:17.000 I wasn't expecting this gift.

00:36:18.000 I will drink out of this with pride.

00:36:20.000 Hashtag leftist tears tumbler.

00:36:22.000 Awesome, and best of luck at your next Brazilian jujitsu tournament.

00:36:25.000 Thanks for the pic.

00:36:26.000 Thanks for being a Daily Wire member.

00:36:28.000 Folks, we have a huge and important piece of content out today, and you should check it out.

00:36:32.000 The most infamous Supreme Court decision, maybe in American history, is Roe v. Wade.

00:36:35.000 Looks like it's about to be overturned.

00:36:37.000 Even 50 years after Roe v. Wade, most people don't know the truth behind the landmark decision, a decision that's enabled the destruction of over 64 million babies since 1971.

00:36:45.000 Well, The Daily Wire is taking a wrecking ball to the four big lies the abortion industry was built upon. 0.96

00:36:50.000 We have an original documentary, it is out today, Choosing Death, The Legacy of Roe.

00:36:54.000 We uncover the inside story of how Roe versus Wade came to pass and why it needs to go the way of the dodo bird, which, thank God, it looks like it might. 1.00

00:37:01.000 You'll hear the facts and stories the abortion regime has suppressed for generations.

00:37:04.000 You'll get a clear-eyed view at the brutal reality they desperately do not want you to see.

00:37:08.000 Some of this content is graphic, very hard to watch, but that is the point.

00:37:11.000 No one else is going to show you the truth about this stuff.

00:37:13.000 We will.

00:37:14.000 Here's the trailer.

00:37:15.000 Many times when we did this, as we started, patients would begin crying and protesting.

00:37:35.000 you But once we had begun dilating the cervix and passing instruments into the uterus, it was too late to stop.

00:37:43.000 I was handing hush money to women who we had left pieces of their baby. 0.98

00:37:57.000 We had put these women's lives in jeopardy. 1.00

00:37:59.000 We had put their lives at risk, and we were literally giving them a check for $800.

00:38:03.000 for $800, and for a poor woman, $800 is a lot of money. 1.00

00:38:10.000 I mean, there have been so many moments in the last decade plus of going undercover in abortion clinics myself and seeing just heartbreaking things.

00:38:22.000 Women vomiting in the hallway of an abortion clinic, crying out in pain.

00:38:26.000 The late-term abortionists talking casually about how they would literally leave a born-alive baby to die.

00:38:33.000 Or if you deliver the baby in the toilet, then you pick it up and stuff it in a plastic bag and bring it to us.

00:38:39.000 Babies are being born alive and the backs of their necks are being slit.

00:38:44.000 They are being drowned.

00:38:46.000 Their necks are being snapped.

00:38:49.000 It's happening more often than people want to think about.

00:38:53.000 These abortion facilities, these abortion providers, these doctors, they don't care about these women. 1.00

00:39:02.000 And you're just, you're realizing you're watching in front of your own eyes play out America's greatest horror story, which is how we butcher children in the name of choice.

00:39:13.000 I'm watching on the air!

00:39:27.000 Oh, God! Oh, God! Oh, God! Oh, God! Oh, God!

00:39:35.000 It is deeply disturbing stuff.

00:39:54.000 Abortion is deeply disturbing stuff.

00:39:56.000 And this is a very frank look at the great evil of our country for the last 50 years.

00:40:01.000 So please help us expose the truth.

00:40:02.000 Tell your friends to watch.

00:40:03.000 If you're not already, become a Daily Wire member.

00:40:05.000 Tune in today to watch our documentary on abortion, Choosing Death, The Legacy of Roe.

00:40:09.000 Go to dailywire.com slash choosing.

00:40:11.000 Join the fight today.

00:40:12.000 Make sure all of your friends.

00:40:13.000 Maybe disagree with you on abortion?

00:40:14.000 Take a look at the documentary.

00:40:15.000 It's going to help change their mind.

00:40:17.000 Dailywire.com slash choosing.

00:40:19.000 You're listening to the largest, fastest growing conservative podcast and radio show in the nation. 1.00

00:40:23.000 Well, companies are starting to realize that this is incredibly stupid to cave to the idiot journalists who work for Media Matters. 1.00

00:40:35.000 They're starting to realize this for a few different reasons. 0.99

00:40:38.000 Reason number one is because the market does not approve of this sort of activity.

00:40:41.000 So for example, when it runs directly up against their profit margins, they start to freak out.

00:40:46.000 So the best example of this is Netflix.

00:40:48.000 So Netflix, you'll remember, has Dave Chappelle.

00:40:51.000 They paid Dave Chappelle a fortune in order to do comedy specials.

00:40:53.000 And those comedy specials do enormous business for Netflix.

00:40:56.000 Netflix has been taking it on the chin in terms of subscriber numbers, right?

00:40:59.000 Their numbers are really, really down.

00:41:01.000 And so they can't afford to lose pieces of content like Dave Chappelle.

00:41:04.000 So they put out a memo.

00:41:05.000 to their own employees saying that they are not going to cave to sort of the woke censors at this point.

00:41:13.000 They put out, according to Variety, a memo, an update to its corporate culture memo, for the first time in five years.

00:41:20.000 The core principles of the Netflix Culture Memo, including empowering employee decision-making, requiring candid feedback, and terminating staffers who aren't up to dream team snuff, remain intact.

00:41:29.000 But there are some key changes.

00:41:31.000 For starters, the document has a new title, Netflix Culture Seeking Excellence.

00:41:34.000 More significantly, the document adds a new directive for employees to act with fiscal responsibility. 0.96

00:41:39.000 So, in other words, don't just spend a bunch of money on crap that you like.

00:41:43.000 It actually has to make some sort of economic sense.

00:41:46.000 The updated Netflix culture memo also includes a new section called Artistic Expression, explaining that the streamer will not censor specific artists or voices, even if employees consider the content harmful, and bluntly states, if you'd find it hard to support our content's breadth, Netflix may not be the place for you.

00:42:01.000 Okay, that is Netflix saying to the wokesters and members of the media, we are not going to play this game.

00:42:09.000 We are not going to play this game where you guys get to dictate content to us because their bottom line was threatened, which demonstrates again that the left has attempted to use the media to astroturf fake campaigns against companies to push them to the left.

00:42:23.000 And then they've gone to their friends in the government and had those members of the government subtly and not so subtly threaten companies with regulation or bans or with some sort of punishment if they don't do what the left wants.

00:42:33.000 And the companies have been reacting to those incentives.

00:42:36.000 And now there are counter incentives, meaning that the market is looking at these places and saying, well, if you wish to work for the left, we don't wish to work with you.

00:42:43.000 And they're getting counter incentives in a couple of really important ways.

00:42:47.000 So one is from places like Florida.

00:42:51.000 Obviously, Ron DeSantis leading the path on this.

00:42:54.000 Rich Lowry has a really, really good piece in the New York Times today called Republicans Need a New Leader.

00:42:58.000 They are looking to Florida.

00:43:00.000 As you know, I think Governor DeSantis is the best governor in the country.

00:43:02.000 He's also my governor here in the state of Florida.

00:43:05.000 And Ross Douthat really nails it.

00:43:07.000 He says, For all the talk about how Trumpy DeSantis is, there's much about him that recalls the party's pre-Trump era.

00:43:14.000 He was elected to Congress as a Tea Party conservative in 2012.

00:43:16.000 He's fond of boasting that Florida's budget is roughly half the size of New York's, even though his state is more populous.

00:43:21.000 He's proud and protective of Florida's status as a low-tax state.

00:43:24.000 None of this is new.

00:43:25.000 What stands out as a true departure is DeSantis' willingness to use government power in the culture war.

00:43:29.000 Sometimes this has involved areas like public education, where the government has every right to set the rules.

00:43:34.000 One such example is the Don't Say Gay Bill, more properly known as the Parental Rights and Education Bill, which prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.

00:43:43.000 Another is the Individual Freedom Bill, which among other things, prohibits promotion of the concept that a person, quote, must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress because of actions in which the individual played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, sex, or national origin.

00:43:57.000 Then there's the fight with Disney.

00:43:58.000 The revocation of its special tax status is a frankly retaliatory act that also presents free speech issues and could prove a legal and policy morass.

00:44:05.000 That said, Disney got a truly extraordinary deal from the state that allowed it, in effect, to run its own city.

00:44:10.000 The company never would have been granted this arrangement 55 years ago if its executives had told the state's leaders, and by the way, eventually the Walt Disney Company will adopt cutting-edge left-wing causes as its own.

00:44:20.000 The broader point of making an example of Disney is to send a message to other corporations.

00:44:23.000 There could be downsides to letting themselves be pushed by progressive employers into making their institutions weapons in the culture wars, and conclude it's best to stick to flying planes, selling soda, and so on.

00:44:35.000 And Ross Douthat explains why so many people on the right have become sort of comfortable with this.

00:44:38.000 He says, The key, I think, is that for many people on the right, a libertarian-oriented politics was largely a way to register opposition to the mandarins, who have an outsized influence on our public life.

00:44:46.000 It turns out that populism is an even more pungent way to register this opposition.

00:44:50.000 Progressive domination of elite culture has now grown to include formerly neutral institutions like corporations and sports leagues.

00:44:56.000 More conservatives are beginning to believe that the only countervailing institutional force is democratic political power as reflected in governors' mansions, state legislatures, and Congress.

00:45:05.000 The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society.

00:45:10.000 Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York once wrote, Democrat, the central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.

00:45:16.000 Given the state of play, says Rich, conservatives have been learning to appreciate Moynihan's liberal truth.

00:45:22.000 If Florida's culture war initiatives succeed, the education establishment in the state will not mindlessly absorb the latest left-wing fad.

00:45:28.000 Corporations will be warrior of wading into hot button social fights.

00:45:31.000 In other words, the culture of these institutions will have changed for the better.

00:45:35.000 This is correct.

00:45:37.000 Meanwhile, you have my friend Vivek Ramaswamy, who is coming up with a very creative way to fight back against woke capital by providing an alternative.

00:45:45.000 He's doing something that we here at The Daily Wire have done, right?

00:45:46.000 We're dedicating $100 million to making kids programming so that you can get great kids programming without the woke.

00:45:52.000 And you can get away from Disney Plus and instead move over to DW Kids, for example.

00:45:55.000 And that's something that Vivek is doing in the investment sphere.

00:45:58.000 So he points out That major firms like BlackRock basically have said that they are using their market power in order to force companies in which they invest to mirror left-wing social priorities.

00:46:11.000 Vivek is now offering people the opportunity to invest in the same companies that BlackRock is investing in, but use that great market power in order to push those companies to be apolitical.

00:46:21.000 A lot of states are going to have an interest in that.

00:46:22.000 A lot of state pension funds might have an interest in not pushing the political priorities of Larry Fink over at BlackRock and instead going apolitical and saying, listen, we like the trading.

00:46:31.000 We don't like the social agenda.

00:46:32.000 You were not elected.

00:46:35.000 All of this is very good.

00:46:36.000 So the fight against woke capital has begun, and that is definitely a positive. 1.00

00:46:40.000 So all the avenues of victory for Democrats are currently being taken away.

00:46:43.000 Electoral avenues of victory are being taken away.

00:46:45.000 Judicial avenues of victory are being taken away.

00:46:47.000 And the attempt to pervert the market Through subtle and not-so-subtle cuddling of corporations into taking a left-wing political stance, that's being taken away too.

00:46:55.000 All of which bodes well for the future.

00:46:56.000 I know, ending on an optimistic note here.

00:46:58.000 A rarity here on the Ben Shapiro Show.

00:47:00.000 But, I am optimistic for the future because I think that the left, they can't get out of their own way.

00:47:04.000 They just cannot.

00:47:05.000 And because of that, and because people are fighting smarter and harder, I think that they are going to lose.

00:47:09.000 All righty, we'll be back here later today with an additional hour of content.

00:47:12.000 First, you can't forget to end your week by tuning into The Andrew Klavan Show.

00:47:15.000 Drew shows every Friday.

00:47:15.000 He's got an exciting evening planned for you, so head on over to dailywire.com at 7 p.m.

00:47:19.000 Eastern, 6 p.m.

00:47:19.000 Central, and tune in.

00:47:20.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:47:20.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:47:22.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Bradford Carrington, Executive Producer Jeremy Boren, Supervising Producer Mathis Glover, Production Manager Pavel Wydowski, Associate Producer Savannah Dominguez-Morris, Editor Adam Sajevitz, Audio Mixer Mike Coromina, Hair and Makeup Artist in Wardrobe Fabiola Christina, Production Coordinator Jessica Kranz.

00:47:46.000 The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire production.

00:47:48.000 Copyright Daily Wire 2022.

00:47:50.000 Hey everybody, this is Andrew Klavan, host of The Andrew Klavan Show.

00:47:54.000 You know, some people are depressed because the republic is collapsing, the end of days is approaching, and the moon's turned to blood.

00:48:00.000 But on The Andrew Klavan Show, that's where the fun just gets started.

The Ben Shapiro Show - May 13, 2022

Will Musk Back Out Of The Twitter Deal? | Ep. 1494

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