The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 1352 - Biden Administration Declares That Criminal Background Checks Are Racist Against Black People

00:00:00.000 Today on the Matt Walsh Show, the Biden administration is suing a major corporation for its racist practices.

00:00:04.920 What is this racist practice?

00:00:06.440 Well, a criminal background check for job applicants is apparently racist.

00:00:10.280 Also, self-immolation is beginning to become a trend among left-wing protesters.

00:00:13.860 What does that say about the future of the country?

00:00:15.760 Democrats wave Ukraine flags in Congress.

00:00:18.100 Gavin Newsom puts out a fear-mongering ad so cartoonish that you might think it's intentional satire, but it isn't.

00:00:24.220 And universities across the country are now offering classes on Taylor Swift.

00:00:27.660 We'll talk about all that and more today on the Matt Walsh Show.

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00:01:52.360 Well, here's a statistic that if you have a job in corporate America, it may be the single least surprising piece of information you'll hear all year.

00:02:02.280 It turns out that every single one of the Fortune 100 companies, 100% of them, have made a public commitment to DEI on their website.

00:02:10.520 There isn't a single outlier in the top 100 companies in the entire country.

00:02:15.180 Every single one has done this.

00:02:16.180 Chris Ruffo looked into this, and he found that they all have a stock DEI page on their website.

00:02:20.880 Whether you go to Amazon or Target or Dell or Verizon or Home Depot or banks or insurance companies or anywhere else, you'll find the same platitudes.

00:02:28.200 Boiler plate about the importance of the alphabet people, parental leave for birthing folks, outreach to historically black colleges, and so on.

00:02:36.740 Now, this total uniformity took hold relatively quickly, as you may remember, within the last few years.

00:02:41.760 Publicly, the explanation for this change is that all of these companies are suddenly very concerned about racial justice.

00:02:47.020 They're upset about George Floyd and so on.

00:02:49.860 But privately, there's another very clear reason for it.

00:02:53.100 The leadership of all of these companies understand very well that if they stop practicing DEI,

00:02:58.060 if they, let's say, start hiring all of their employees based on merit instead of skin color,

00:03:04.460 then the federal government will try to destroy them.

00:03:06.780 This is a dynamic that normally plays out behind the scenes, away from public scrutiny,

00:03:10.720 so we don't really know everything that's going on.

00:03:12.500 But this week, in one very dramatic case, it's spelled out into the open.

00:03:17.460 The convenience store chain Sheetz, which has more than 700 locations all over the country,

00:03:22.260 was just sued by the Biden administration after they rejected the federal government's attempt to shake them down with a settlement.

00:03:27.440 And what was Sheetz's crime, you may ask?

00:03:30.700 Did they sell bad gasoline?

00:03:32.600 Did they sell poisoned hot dogs?

00:03:34.740 Did their name violate communications decency laws?

00:03:38.660 Well, no.

00:03:39.020 According to the Biden administration, Sheetz broke the law by refusing to hire applicants who failed a criminal background check.

00:03:48.260 Now, apparently, the Biden administration believes that this is a racist policy

00:03:52.060 because many of the people who fail these background checks happen to be non-whites.

00:03:57.400 And to be clear, that is the entire accusation.

00:04:00.720 So if you want to give the Biden administration the benefit of the doubt, I don't know why you'd want to.

00:04:03.560 And you think, well, there must be more to the story.

00:04:05.040 No, the Biden administration is not claiming that Sheetz intentionally discriminated against anybody on the basis of race

00:04:11.680 or any other, quote-unquote, legally protected characteristic.

00:04:15.480 They're not claiming that Sheetz used these background checks as part of some explicit,

00:04:20.280 intentional, racist, white supremacist scheme.

00:04:23.520 They're not saying that.

00:04:24.180 Instead, the Biden administration is using a theory of discrimination known as disparate impact,

00:04:29.840 which was enshrined into civil rights law many years ago.

00:04:33.720 And under this theory, a lack of discriminatory intent doesn't actually matter.

00:04:39.700 All the government has to show is that a policy disproportionately affects members of certain racial groups

00:04:45.980 without a clear business purpose in a manner that could be reasonably avoided, according to them.

00:04:50.960 Now, in a moment, I'll get into the lawsuit and I'll explain why it's a complete farce,

00:04:55.960 even if you buy into the whole disparate impact theory.

00:04:59.780 But we'll get into disparate impact theory also and why that is a farce as well.

00:05:04.120 But first, I want to contrast two local news reports about what's happening to Sheetz.

00:05:09.000 The first one is from WCNC in Charlotte, North Carolina.

00:05:13.280 And the second one is from CBS in Durham.

00:05:15.940 Watch.

00:05:16.420 This week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against the Sheetz convenience store chain.

00:05:23.720 Officials claim the chain violated civil rights law by sorting out job applicants

00:05:28.240 who failed a criminal background check, resulting in alleged discrimination against minority applicants.

00:05:35.380 Sheetz operates more than 700 stores across six states, including North Carolina.

00:05:40.680 In a statement, the company says it, quote, does not tolerate discrimination of any kind.

00:05:46.980 Sheetz is being hit with a discrimination lawsuit.

00:05:49.040 Yeah, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is accusing the convenience store chain

00:05:52.440 of discriminating against Black, Native Americans, and multiracial people looking for jobs at the store.

00:05:58.060 The EEOC filed a suit in Baltimore against Altoona, Pennsylvania-based Sheetz.

00:06:03.060 Now, you'll notice that the CBS News report doesn't even mention what Sheetz is accused of actually doing.

00:06:10.360 They don't talk about the background checks at all.

00:06:12.200 They just lead you to believe that Sheetz is accused of discriminating against Black, Native American,

00:06:16.440 and multiracial people with no context whatsoever.

00:06:19.620 So you're allowed to just sort of fill in the blanks.

00:06:22.560 So maybe you're starting to see how the shakedown works.

00:06:25.160 The federal government shows up to a major corporation.

00:06:28.160 They accuse them of racism based on no evidence whatsoever.

00:06:31.840 And then they demand millions of dollars, including back pay for a bunch of employees.

00:06:35.780 And if the company doesn't comply, then the administration sues them.

00:06:39.540 And then the media is aware of it, and they basically accuse the company of racism.

00:06:43.360 And that's the way that this whole extortion racket works.

00:06:47.760 And this is why many companies choose to just head off the whole problem in the first place

00:06:52.400 by openly discriminating against white people.

00:06:55.160 Because if you do that, then a Biden administration will not bother you.

00:06:59.100 They won't touch you.

00:07:00.380 So let's get into specifics of the case, because that's the only way to truly understand how insane this is.

00:07:05.520 Within the last few months, apparently, a couple of job applicants at Sheetz filed complaints with the EEOC,

00:07:12.600 saying that they've been discriminated against under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

00:07:18.300 And the EEOC, which is a federal agency, agreed with them.

00:07:21.380 And here's what the Biden administration wrote in their lawsuit.

00:07:24.660 Quote,

00:07:25.160 Sheetz committed a continuing company-wide practice in violation of Title VII with respect to a class of Black, American, Indian, Alaska Native,

00:07:34.160 and multiracial job applicants who did not pass Sheetz's criminal justice history screening by failing to hire them for all positions because of race.

00:07:41.240 For instance, black job applicants have failed defendants' criminal justice history screening and consequently are denied employment at a rate exceeding approximately 14.5%,

00:07:51.660 while white job applicants have failed the criminal justice history screening and consequently are denied employment at a rate of under approximately 8%.

00:07:59.700 The complaint notes that the number of Indians and multiracial applicants who are denied on this basis is roughly the same.

00:08:06.620 Now, a few points here.

00:08:07.460 Now, a few points here.

00:08:08.640 First, given what we know about black crime rates, these numbers are actually a lot closer to each other than you would expect. 1.00

00:08:15.140 There's less of a disparity than you would expect.

00:08:18.220 In fact, nationally, according to FBI data, black people make up more than 26% of total arrests and the imprisonment rate for black Americans is over five times the rate for whites.

00:08:28.540 But the Sheetz data only shows a disparity of around 7%.

00:08:32.580 And according to the EEOC, Sheetz is looking at both convictions as well as arrests when it runs its background checks.

00:08:39.380 And more importantly, you notice what's being conflated here.

00:08:43.880 The complaint states that Sheetz is failing to hire these applicants because of race.

00:08:48.520 But what they're really saying is that Sheetz isn't hiring applicants who failed a criminal background check.

00:08:53.980 They don't want criminals working for them.

00:08:55.820 And any reasonable person can see that these two are very different rationales.

00:09:01.860 And indeed, on its website, the EEOC makes this distinction clear.

00:09:05.640 They state, quote, the lawsuit does not allege that Sheetz was motivated by race when making hiring decisions.

00:09:11.820 I mean, and that should be the end of it.

00:09:13.860 Even the people filing the lawsuit are saying that race was not a factor.

00:09:18.660 But it's not the end of it because this is a sort of madness that the legal theory of disparate impact breeds.

00:09:24.720 You know, the left knows that it can't find any examples of actual direct discrimination against black people in this country.

00:09:32.380 Certainly not at Sheetz.

00:09:33.940 They know they're not going to find any example of any company or any major corporation or company of any size that has a policy in place saying, 0.97

00:09:42.680 we're not going to hire you because you're black. 1.00

00:09:43.840 They're not going to find that. 0.89

00:09:44.660 So, but they're also not going to say, well, okay, well, then I guess the anti-black discrimination isn't really a problem.

00:09:51.380 We'll move on.

00:09:52.620 They're not going to say that either.

00:09:53.760 So instead, the left has invented this notion of disparate impact to create discrimination where it doesn't really exist.

00:10:01.740 And the problem with the disparate impact idea, and of course, disparate just means different, distinct, right?

00:10:09.100 The problem is that literally everything, every policy, every rule, every standard in every context will have a quote unquote disparate impact.

00:10:20.480 Because the impact felt by any individual or group will vary according to their situation.

00:10:29.760 If we cannot have standards that create a disparate impact, then we can't have any standards at all, which of course is the point.

00:10:37.080 And by the way, another thing you notice, this disparate impact idea, it's only applied in very specific circumstances and to very specific groups of people.

00:10:47.740 So they'll apply it, as we heard, to black people as a group, quote unquote multiracial people, whatever that means, Native Americans and so on.

00:10:57.740 But you notice something, they don't apply it based on sex.

00:11:02.600 Because there are many laws where men are much more likely to be found guilty, to be arrested, to go to prison than women.

00:11:11.800 And yet, we never hear about disparate impact there.

00:11:16.140 Even something like speeding tickets.

00:11:18.240 We never hear about the disparate impact of speeding tickets, because men are much more likely to get them than women.

00:11:26.460 So they're very, very targeted in their application of this disparate impact idea.

00:11:34.100 Now, supposedly, there are limits to this legal theory of disparate impact.

00:11:38.900 The DOJ lists these exceptions on its website.

00:11:40.720 For example, it's acceptable to have a policy that yields a disparate impact if the policy is, quote unquote, important, and if it's justified by the organization's mission.

00:11:50.720 And this is an exception that, of course, is completely subjective, but clearly applies to this situation.

00:11:57.240 There is a blindingly obvious reason why a convenience store wouldn't want to hire criminals.

00:12:03.600 And the reason is they don't want to get robbed.

00:12:06.140 This is a point that should not need any elaboration whatsoever in a sane society.

00:12:10.100 We don't live in a sane society anymore, so I will elaborate.

00:12:13.140 Also, it's an excuse to show one of the best videos to come out of Georgia this year.

00:12:16.880 This is footage of a robbery at a convenience store that may be the single worst inside job ever recorded on camera.

00:12:24.980 But it does show why you might not want to hire criminals to work for you.

00:12:29.140 Here it is. Watch.

00:12:31.020 Security video captures what looks to be a Georgia cashier being held up by an armed robber.

00:12:36.500 But police say the whole thing was fake, and the DUO staged the armed robbery to steal $5,000 from the register.

00:12:43.580 The incident happened in January at a Duluth, Georgia Shell gas station.

00:12:47.800 Surveillance video from January 20th shows the cashier, who was later identified as Raj Patel, behind the register.

00:12:54.000 He then walks over toward the cash register, opens it up, and takes a stack of bills.

00:12:58.660 Then a man in a black hoodie is seen charging toward Patel before throwing what looks to be a punch.

00:13:04.400 It's unclear if the robber's fist actually connected to Patel's face.

00:13:08.180 But he collapses to the floor, then the suspect takes off.

00:13:11.600 Patel's co-worker found him on the ground where he supposedly regained his conscience before getting up.

00:13:16.700 Then within minutes of the first apparent robbery, a second supposed robbery occurs.

00:13:21.300 But this time, Patel is seen holding his hands up as the robber scrounges through the register before making off with the cash.

00:13:27.760 Let's need that key real quick.

00:13:29.880 You dumps the key?

00:13:30.940 Yeah.

00:13:32.820 Yeah, just dumps the key.

00:13:35.720 Hey, hold on.

00:13:38.020 What you got in your pocket there?

00:13:39.080 What's that?

00:13:40.680 What's all that, that rustling around?

00:13:43.340 Yeah.

00:13:44.140 Hey, come here, Danny.

00:13:45.220 I'm here.

00:13:46.420 I'm here.

00:13:47.040 Stop.

00:13:48.500 Stop, Danny.

00:13:49.460 Danny, stop.

00:13:50.440 What are you doing, Danny?

00:13:51.720 Stop.

00:13:52.120 Stop.

00:13:54.300 So they say it's unclear if the robber's fist actually connected to Patel's face.

00:13:58.080 That's a polite way of putting it.

00:13:59.540 I mean, I've seen more convincing violence in professional wrestling matches, which, by the way, if you're going to do this, you've got to sell out for it.

00:14:06.600 I mean, you've got to go all the way.

00:14:08.120 Have him actually hit you in the face.

00:14:10.800 If you're going to do it, then you've really got to be willing to take the black eye if you're going to try something like that.

00:14:16.940 And it takes the cops a little while, but they eventually blew the whole scheme wide open, mainly because the accomplice was hanging out right outside the store when they arrived,

00:14:24.460 and cash started falling out of his pocket when they questioned him.

00:14:27.640 In any event, the point is that if this clerk applies to Sheetz, they should be able to reject him because of his criminal history.

00:14:37.000 His ethnicity doesn't matter. 1.00

00:14:38.320 The fact that he's a criminal matters.

00:14:40.120 Convenience stores get robbed all the time, including by their own employees.

00:14:43.920 It's clearly important to the business of a convenience store to root out criminals so they don't get robbed.

00:14:49.080 Now, I read the entire complaint from the Biden administration, and I couldn't find a single argument to the contrary here.

00:14:53.980 Instead, they fault Sheetz for failing to contact applicants to request additional information after they fail their criminal background checks.

00:15:03.060 The Biden administration doesn't say what additional information might be relevant, but they say that Sheetz is racist because they don't request that additional information.

00:15:12.460 I mean, I guess they see someone has a criminal history, they committed a bunch of crimes, they're supposed to call them and say,

00:15:17.000 Why did you commit these crimes? What were you feeling? What were you feeling when you committed the crimes?

00:15:22.180 I don't know exactly.

00:15:23.420 But the Biden administration fault Sheetz for failing to name the specific condition that's the basis for their decision when applicants have multiple criminal convictions.

00:15:32.040 And apparently, Sheetz doesn't have a whole committee making these decisions, nor is there a procedure for appeals.

00:15:37.420 They just sort of see that there's a criminal history, and they move on to the next application.

00:15:43.440 That's what they do.

00:15:46.520 None of this, of course, is remotely relevant to racism, nor does it disprove the obvious fact that hiring criminals is a bad idea for a convenience store.

00:15:54.820 So it doesn't really address the relevant legal issues in any way.

00:15:59.120 Now, you get the sense that Sheetz was stunned by the Biden administration's claims to the contrary.

00:16:02.680 The federal government's complaint goes on to state that, quote,

00:16:04.760 In other words, Sheetz didn't back down in the face of this blackmail, so now they have a massive lawsuit to deal with, along with defamatory media coverage.

00:16:23.780 Obviously, this is one of the more egregious examples you'll ever see of the sort of soft bigotry of low expectations or the soft bigotry of no expectations in this case.

00:16:34.660 Because, look, if I were black, I would be highly insulted by the idea that a criminal background check presents some kind of insurmountable hurdle for me specifically.

00:16:43.960 It's a lot like saying black people can't possibly obtain voter identification, which, of course, is another claim that you hear from the Biden administration. 0.82

00:16:52.220 What the left is effectively saying is that there's simply no chance for black, Indian, or multiracial job applicants to stop committing a disproportionate amount of crimes. 0.99

00:17:01.680 So instead of doing anything to get them to commit less crime, we have to pretend that business owners are somehow the real villains in all of this.

00:17:10.480 If they refuse to hire non-white applicants for any reason, they'll get a lawsuit.

00:17:15.060 But, of course, they can continue to discriminate against whites all they want.

00:17:19.100 Now, Sheetz seems to understand that, and they're already giving signs that they're going to cave, unfortunately.

00:17:23.720 In response to this lawsuit, Sheetz issued a statement saying, quote,

00:17:26.800 So it's not exactly a full-throated defense of their position, which is obviously the correct one, their position is.

00:17:45.700 And as their statement notes, this has been going on for a long time, eight years, in fact.

00:17:49.520 They've been getting harassed by the federal government because they don't hire criminals.

00:17:53.860 So there's some history here that we know about.

00:17:57.660 I looked into it, and it turns out that this isn't the first time the EEOC has filed a lawsuit like this.

00:18:02.600 Back in 2019, the EEOC, under the Trump administration, sued Dollar General for, quote,

00:18:08.020 Denying employment to African Americans at a significantly higher rate than white applicants for failing the company's broad criminal background check.

00:18:15.740 What was the result of that?

00:18:17.020 Well, a $6 million settlement and a three-year consent decree.

00:18:21.340 According to a top EEOC attorney at the time, quote,

00:18:23.860 This case is important because Dollar General is not just providing relief for a past practice, but for the future as well.

00:18:29.920 If the company plans to use criminal history, they must retain a criminologist to develop a fair process.

00:18:35.400 Unlike other background checks based on unproven myths and biases about people with criminal backgrounds,

00:18:40.560 Dollar General's new approach will be informed by experts with knowledge of actual risk.

00:18:46.100 Now, it's hard to believe that's a real quote, but it is.

00:18:48.400 They're saying that it's an unproven myth and bias to believe that somebody with a previous history of criminal behavior is more likely to commit other crimes in the future.

00:18:58.020 Now, you don't need any statistics to know how absurd that is.

00:19:01.120 You just need common sense.

00:19:02.400 But here are the statistics anyway.

00:19:04.840 According to DOJ's own numbers, quote,

00:19:06.540 At least half of citizens released from incarceration will recidivate in some way following release.

00:19:11.700 And according to other estimates, including a survey from Prison Policy,

00:19:14.640 roughly a third of people who are arrested report that they are rearrested for another offense within a year.

00:19:21.440 And there are about a million other data points that you can find.

00:19:23.620 But suffice it to say that it's not a myth that criminals are more likely to reoffend.

00:19:28.980 If you've committed one crime, it's more likely that you will commit another one.

00:19:32.480 This is an extremely basic and obvious fact that everybody understands.

00:19:36.940 And yet the EEOC pretends they don't understand it.

00:19:39.320 And now Dollar General needs an expert to tell them that they're being racist if they reject a black guy with five prior convictions.

00:19:47.040 How did that go completely unnoticed at the time, you might ask?

00:19:49.660 Why didn't the Trump White House override what the EEOC was doing and fire everybody involved?

00:19:54.220 Who knows?

00:19:55.540 I mean, the most likely answer is that the White House wasn't aware of it.

00:19:58.800 And if that's the case, which I think it probably was,

00:20:02.240 it's hard to think of a better argument that the federal government needs to be cut in half immediately, for starters.

00:20:07.720 That's just for starters.

00:20:09.420 And most of these unelected bureaucrats need to find new jobs. 1.00

00:20:12.440 They have gone rogue, and they're implementing policies that defy all logic,

00:20:16.800 and they should be fired en masse.

00:20:19.660 That should be the first executive order, if, in fact, there is a second Trump administration.

00:20:24.640 With the Sheetz case, the Biden administration is trying to shake down yet another company

00:20:28.660 in order to erase the distinction between criminals and non-criminals.

00:20:33.140 This is economic sabotage.

00:20:36.140 And it simply cannot be allowed to succeed.

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00:21:51.900 Well, a lot happening in the news, obviously, but I want to start by briefly going back to Friday,

00:21:56.100 something that happened shortly after I finished my show on Friday.

00:21:59.700 Here's the latest from the Post Millennial on this incident.

00:22:03.020 Max Azzarello, the man who lit himself on fire in New York outside of Donald Trump's trial on Friday,

00:22:08.660 worked for Representative Tommy Suozzi, who's a Democrat,

00:22:12.820 worked for his campaign in New York in 2013.

00:22:16.300 The now-deceased Azzarello's LinkedIn page shows that he worked briefly as the operations director

00:22:20.700 for Friends of Tommy Suozzi from August 2013 to November 2013.

00:22:26.840 He, a congressman, told the New York Post for a report,

00:22:30.480 Max Azzarello worked on my campaign in 2013 as part of the field staff,

00:22:35.340 even though I haven't seen or talked to Max since then.

00:22:37.340 I recalled him being very kind, smart, and hardworking.

00:22:39.300 It's tragic that he has succumbed to his injuries.

00:22:41.520 I keep Max and his family in my prayers, according to the congressman.

00:22:44.320 So, this is all stemming from a second self-immolation on Friday, as you probably heard.

00:22:50.780 The second time in the last couple of months that someone has lit themselves on fire in an act of protest. 0.97

00:22:56.560 And this guy, like the last one who did it, apparently is a crazy leftist. 0.57

00:23:02.300 And this guy did survive initially, but then died in the hospital over the weekend.

00:23:10.200 You know, there's not much to say in analysis here, except that you might say it's not a sign of a healthy country

00:23:19.460 when this sort of thing becomes a trend, right?

00:23:22.520 I mean, I can't remember any cases of people in this country self-immolating as a method of protest

00:23:29.640 in this country for like the first 37 years of my life.

00:23:33.600 And now in the last two months, it's happened twice.

00:23:35.800 So, not a good sign.

00:23:37.700 But I also want to make special mention or give, I guess, a dishonorable mention, let's say,

00:23:42.120 to CNN for its coverage of this incident.

00:23:45.860 And I'm going to play this clip for you if you haven't seen it.

00:23:48.420 I want you to watch as the CNN reporter, and this is the reporter they have, obviously, on the scene,

00:23:52.520 to report on Trump's trial, and then this thing happens.

00:23:55.840 And I want you to watch and listen to how she covers this event as it unfolds.

00:24:02.880 Listen.

00:24:04.240 What do you say?

00:24:05.180 We also are seeing an active shooter.

00:24:07.840 An active shooter is in the park outside the court.

00:24:09.920 We have a man who has set fire to himself.

00:24:12.820 A man has emblazoned himself outside of the courthouse just now.

00:24:16.420 Our cameras are turning right now.

00:24:17.880 A man has now lit himself on fire outside of the courthouse in Manhattan,

00:24:21.700 where we are waiting a history to be made.

00:24:23.700 A full jury panel is gone.

00:24:25.320 We are watching a man who is fully emblazoned in front of the courthouse today.

00:24:29.320 We are watching multiple fires breaking out around his body and person.

00:24:33.320 We have seen an arm that has been visible that has been engulfed in total flames.

00:24:37.520 There is chaos that is happening.

00:24:39.260 People are wondering right now if people are in danger.

00:24:42.220 I'm looking across the courtyard.

00:24:44.500 There is a man racing to his aid.

00:24:46.060 There is coats coming off to try to put out the fire.

00:24:49.120 We have members of security details.

00:24:51.420 NYPD is rushing to the scene.

00:24:53.200 They are trying to come out.

00:24:54.380 Officers are on the scene.

00:24:55.920 A fire extinguisher is right now present being put on this man to try to put out.

00:25:00.240 People are climbing over barricades to try to separate the public to put out the flame on this man.

00:25:05.580 He has lit himself out in fire in front of the courthouse right now.

00:25:08.780 We are watching as they're playing.

00:25:10.180 We can smell the air.

00:25:11.340 I can smell the burning of some sort of a flesh.

00:25:14.240 I can smell the burning of some sort of agent being used as well as an example.

00:25:18.060 Okay, okay, okay.

00:25:18.800 Yeah, we can turn it off.

00:25:21.960 I can smell the burning of some sort of flesh.

00:25:26.320 But at least we found out that his body and his person are both on fire, she said.

00:25:30.840 You see, his body and his person.

00:25:32.340 So it's two separate things.

00:25:35.140 Now, look, I understand that when you're reporting live,

00:25:37.900 you aren't necessarily prepared for something like this.

00:25:40.380 You know, you might be taken a bit off guard by a guy lighting himself on fire.

00:25:43.560 It's not something that, you know, you necessarily expected.

00:25:46.740 I get it.

00:25:47.680 I get that.

00:25:48.180 But even so, that was perhaps the single worst performance by a national media reporter that I've ever seen.

00:25:56.220 That's like the worst two minutes of reporting, I think, maybe ever.

00:26:01.260 First of all, she initially blurts out for some unknown reason that there's an active shooter.

00:26:10.780 I don't even understand how you make that mistake.

00:26:13.300 But how do you misinterpret self-immolation as an active shooting?

00:26:17.660 I don't get that.

00:26:19.100 Did she think that somebody was running around with a flamethrower?

00:26:22.120 This was an active shooter with a flamethrower?

00:26:23.940 Is that what she thought?

00:26:24.960 I don't know.

00:26:25.500 And then to make matters worse, she repeatedly says that the man has emblazoned himself.

00:26:31.580 But again, I'm not trying to be pedantic, but emblazoned is not the correct word in this situation.

00:26:38.120 Emblazoned means that you are marking or inscribing something, you know, if something's emblazoned.

00:26:44.020 So you might say that the Nike emblazons its emblem on the side of a shoe.

00:26:50.860 So if this guy was emblazoning himself, it would mean that he was writing something on himself.

00:26:55.540 Maybe he was getting like a tattoo.

00:26:58.660 When you hear a reporter shouting, he's emblazoning himself.

00:27:02.220 If you speak fluent English and you hear that, your mind immediately conjures an image of a guy getting like a tattoo on his forehead or something.

00:27:09.620 But this reporter apparently doesn't speak fluent English.

00:27:12.140 And so that's why we have this.

00:27:13.220 But even apart from those problems, the bigger issue is that this woman is narrating a guy burning to death as if she's Jim Nance giving a play-by-play of a touchdown during the AFC championship game.

00:27:29.420 Like, you listen to that, you honestly expect Tony Romo to chime in with color commentary.

00:27:34.340 It's just an utterly bizarre performance.

00:27:37.660 And because, by the way, we can see that the guy's on fire.

00:27:40.960 We don't need a second-by-second description where you are restating over and over again.

00:27:48.120 The guy's on fire.

00:27:48.960 He's currently on fire.

00:27:49.900 There's fire all around him.

00:27:50.960 He's on fire.

00:27:51.480 We can see there's fire emblazoning, fire.

00:27:55.880 And if you are going to do that, at least try not to sound so excited about it.

00:28:00.380 It would be my other tip.

00:28:01.540 There doesn't, in her tone and her demeanor, there's not even, like, a hint of her being concerned that someone is burning to death right in front of her.

00:28:12.040 It's just, she's very obviously excited about it.

00:28:15.400 And in her excitement, she forgets how to speak English if she ever knew.

00:28:19.440 All right, you know, we're used to seeing politicians fear-monger, and most of them do it to one extent or another.

00:28:27.160 But over the past few years with Democrats, we have seen them take fear-mongering to absurd, never-before-seen levels.

00:28:36.100 We've watched as they've claimed, for instance, that Florida has made it illegal to say the word gay in the state.

00:28:43.580 They've claimed there's a genocide being carried out against trans people.

00:28:47.480 They've claimed that the earth is being incinerated by climate change.

00:28:51.520 We need to pass bills to stop the weather from being the weather. 0.56

00:28:55.540 They've said that Donald Trump is a fascist dictator in league with Putin, right?

00:29:01.140 So many things like that. 0.92

00:29:02.840 And it's also hysterical and over-the-top that it all kind of bleeds together.

00:29:07.680 And it's hard for any one fear-mongering campaign to stand out amidst all that.

00:29:14.160 Yet Gavin Newsom has managed to stand out somehow with the latest ad put out by his political action committee.

00:29:21.800 And the committee is called Campaign for Democracy.

00:29:25.400 And he posted this on Twitter this weekend.

00:29:27.440 And here's the caption with the video.

00:29:30.000 It says, Alabama's abortion ban has no exceptions for rape or incest.

00:29:33.540 Now Republicans are trying to criminalize young women's travel to receive abortion care.

00:29:37.320 We cannot let them get away with this.

00:29:39.140 So, Republicans are criminalizing young women's travel. 0.92

00:29:46.460 What does that look like exactly?

00:29:48.280 I mean, what does that mean?

00:29:49.960 Well, the ad will show us what it supposedly means and what it supposedly looks like.

00:29:55.500 Let's watch.

00:29:55.940 We're almost there.

00:30:02.820 You're going to make it.

00:30:08.220 Trump Republicans want to criminalize young Alabama women who travel for reproductive care. 0.80

00:30:13.080 Miss, I'm going to need you to step out of the vehicle, take a pregnancy test. 1.00

00:30:18.820 Stop them by taking action at righttotravel.org.

00:30:23.220 Campaign for Democracy Group is responsible for the content of this advertising.

00:30:26.500 Honest to God, I know I say this a lot, but this is another one.

00:30:33.880 I saw the video without any, you know, I originally saw the video.

00:30:36.760 It was not posted by Gavin Newsom.

00:30:38.440 I saw someone had reposted it.

00:30:41.460 And I honestly thought it was a joke.

00:30:44.640 I really did.

00:30:45.280 I thought this was some kind of right-wing satire of what the left thinks of us.

00:30:52.360 But as I had to go to Gavin Newsom's page to find that, no, this is real.

00:30:55.620 We were supposed to take that seriously.

00:30:58.940 So according to Newsom, women who try to get abortions in Alabama are being pulled over on the road and arrested on the spot. 0.99

00:31:08.160 And never mind the fact that this has never happened one time.

00:31:12.620 You know, what he's claiming, in fact, has never happened.

00:31:15.820 But what he's actually saying is that women are being pulled over and given random pregnancy tests on the side of the road.

00:31:25.140 So how does that work, first of all?

00:31:28.260 Do they, like, are they supposed to pee on the stick right on the shoulder of the road?

00:31:32.820 Or do they sit in their car and get pee all over the car?

00:31:35.640 Where does this happen exactly?

00:31:38.800 I don't know the specifics.

00:31:39.800 But in this fantasy land scenario, women are given random pregnancy tests in the same way that, you know, you might get a random DUI test if you go through a DUI checkpoint.

00:31:52.560 So maybe that's what they're—maybe that's the idea that they have created here, that maybe in Alabama they'll have pregnancy checkpoints where if you try to drive through it, they'll stop you and just see if you're pregnant.

00:32:04.760 And then what happens?

00:32:06.240 Well, if you test positive for pregnancy, they automatically arrest you under the assumption that you're going to get an abortion?

00:32:15.060 Well, how does that work?

00:32:16.820 So, yeah, she's pregnant, but why would she automatically get arrested? 1.00

00:32:20.160 Couldn't she just say, oh, yeah, I'm pregnant.

00:32:21.880 I'm just out for a drive.

00:32:24.240 I'm not getting an abortion.

00:32:26.500 Is Newsom claiming that Alabama has actually criminalized pregnancy, too?

00:32:30.960 How does that work?

00:32:32.580 So we've criminalized abortion and pregnancy.

00:32:36.560 Or maybe the idea is that if a woman is found to be pregnant in Alabama, she'll be arrested automatically and then kept in detainment for nine months to make sure she doesn't get an abortion, and then she'll be released once the baby's born.

00:32:54.180 Maybe that's the way it works in this fictional scenario that Newsom has cooked up.

00:32:59.360 But now, you know, you watch that and you think to yourself, well, come on.

00:33:06.620 I mean, surely, surely nobody's going to fall for that.

00:33:11.320 Surely.

00:33:12.460 Like, no one will watch that ad and actually believe that this is a real thing that's really happening.

00:33:20.060 No one's going to fall for that.

00:33:21.240 But sadly, I think you have too much faith in the intelligence of the intended audience here, if that is what you think.

00:33:27.060 Because remember, plenty of people have fallen for the ludicrous fear-mongering that I mentioned a few moments ago.

00:33:35.040 The average Democrat voter right now, I would bet you, really does believe that if you go to the state of Florida and you say the word gay, you could be arrested for that. 0.87

00:33:46.280 The average Democrat voter actually believes that.

00:33:48.520 And if you look at the, and this is, you kind of bear this out just by going to Gavin Newsom's Twitter page, finding that ad, reading the comments.

00:34:00.280 And yeah, at this point, there's a ton of comments from people on the right mocking it, and rightfully so.

00:34:05.980 But then there's a lot of comments, too, from people on the left, saying, yeah, this is what, you know what, if you elect Trump, it's going to be this way across the entire nation.

00:34:19.020 Women getting pulled over across the entire country and given random pregnancy tests.

00:34:26.300 This is what they actually believe, or at least what they all have decided to pretend they believe.

00:34:30.480 All right, next, we talked on Friday about the foreign aid package that was just approved by the House of Representatives in a horrific, though predictable, betrayal of the American people.

00:34:41.260 And we are now going to be shipping billions of dollars, billions more to foreign countries, with Ukraine getting the lion's share, and then Israel and Taiwan also getting billions.

00:34:52.320 Well, to make this betrayal even more clear, to kind of rub it in our faces even more,

00:34:56.400 House Democrats celebrated the approval of the bill in a very revealing and symbolic way.

00:35:02.340 Daily Wire has the report, quote, many House Democrats waved Ukrainian flags on the floor of the House of Representatives on Saturday

00:35:09.180 as members voted to pass a series of spending packages designating $95 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan,

00:35:16.440 while failing to address President Joe Biden's border crisis.

00:35:20.220 A separate vote was taken on each aid proposal, with $60 billion allocated for Ukraine, about $17 billion for Israel,

00:35:26.060 $9 billion for humanitarian aid, and $8 billion to support Taiwan.

00:35:33.480 And then to celebrate it, they chanted Ukraine while flying the flag.

00:35:39.240 I think we have a video of that. Let's watch.

00:35:40.700 Yeah, just reprehensible.

00:35:55.220 Needless to say, all of these lawmakers should be expelled from Congress. 0.91

00:35:58.600 They should be expelled and exiled to Ukraine. 1.00

00:36:02.060 Because if you want to fly Ukraine's flag, you can go do it in Ukraine. 0.96

00:36:05.400 We don't need you here.

00:36:06.400 No lawmaker should be allowed to fly any foreign flag inside the Capitol building, you know, while operating in their capacity as an elected official.

00:36:20.140 That should not be, it should be illegal.

00:36:22.940 Now, frankly, I would be in favor of banning them from flying foreign flags anywhere, as long as they are in office. 1.00

00:36:30.840 If it were up to me, I wouldn't let them fly it even at their house, while they're in elected office, while they're still serving their tenure.

00:36:38.060 Because, you know, if you are elected to represent America, you need to show that you are solely loyal to America.

00:36:53.360 But even if you think that extending that prohibition to their homes goes a little too far, as you might,

00:36:58.700 we should all be able to agree that they should at least be prevented from doing it in the Capitol while Congress is in session.

00:37:05.620 This is just an obnoxious and intentional slap in the face, and it's meant to send a message.

00:37:12.860 And the message has been received loud and clear.

00:37:16.700 But if you need it to be any clearer, well, then listen to what Representative Gerald Connolly of Virginia had to say as he was arguing in favor of giving more money to Ukraine.

00:37:27.200 Here's his reasoning. Listen.

00:37:28.440 Some say, well, we have to deal with our border first.

00:37:32.640 The Ukrainian-Russian border is our border.

00:37:37.320 It's the border between depraved autocracy and freedom-loving people seeking our democratic way of life.

00:37:46.540 Do we have a stake in that outcome?

00:37:48.760 Yes.

00:37:50.820 Undeniably yes.

00:37:51.960 Will we rise to the occasion?

00:37:56.620 Will we stand shoulder to shoulder with our Ukrainian brothers and sisters who for 1,151 days have been holding off

00:38:07.660 the depraved, thuggish dictator Vladimir Putin, who has respected no norms of warfare?

00:38:16.840 He's targeted children in hospitals and schools. 0.97

00:38:21.040 He's bombed apartment blocks, killing thousands.

00:38:27.280 Okay.

00:38:29.360 Well, no.

00:38:30.880 No, Ukraine's border is not our border.

00:38:33.760 In fact, Ukraine's border is about 5,000 miles away at the closest to our border, to our easternmost border.

00:38:44.640 And it's separated, you know, for anyone who's not familiar with the geography, I guess Gerald Connelly is not familiar with the geography.

00:38:51.300 So a little quick geography lesson that the United States is separated by an entire ocean and then some from Ukraine.

00:39:00.220 So, no, we do not share a border.

00:39:02.220 We don't even come close to sharing a border.

00:39:03.500 And even if it was true that our fate as a nation is somehow wound up with the fate of Ukraine, that still wouldn't mean that their borders are our borders.

00:39:15.500 That still would not, it still wouldn't follow.

00:39:18.880 Okay.

00:39:19.140 It wouldn't follow that Ukraine is, in our country, are, you know, the same. 0.87

00:39:26.060 But, of course, it isn't even true.

00:39:28.800 Our fate is not wound up with them.

00:39:30.760 And they are not our Ukrainian brothers and sisters. 1.00

00:39:34.680 I mean, brothers and sisters, how so?

00:39:39.060 What have our brothers and sisters done for us, our supposed brothers and sisters?

00:39:44.640 What is Ukraine doing for us, exactly?

00:39:48.340 What have they ever done for us?

00:39:49.700 In what way has Ukraine helped us or fought for us or made sacrifices for us?

00:40:04.660 It's that last point that I'm really interested in.

00:40:06.920 Like, when do we ever ask any other country to make any sacrifices for us?

00:40:12.480 In what context is a resident of a foreign country, a citizen of a foreign country, making any sacrifices on our behalf? 0.95

00:40:26.400 It never happens.

00:40:28.180 We're always the ones making sacrifices for other countries.

00:40:32.860 We hear this language about brotherhood, sisterhood, friends, allies, whatever.

00:40:39.700 It's always pretty one-sided, though.

00:40:42.480 And I think probably the response will be, well, Ukraine, when they're fighting to defend themselves, they're fighting for us.

00:40:51.320 Because they're holding back the tide.

00:40:55.000 Putin's march, his coming march across Europe, they're holding him back.

00:41:00.520 And if they didn't hold him back, then Putin would just run roughshod over the entire continent.

00:41:07.260 I guess that's probably going to be the argument, but it's an absurd argument.

00:41:12.480 And I can tell you one thing, that the Ukrainians, when they're fighting the Russians, they're not thinking to themselves, oh, we're doing this for America.

00:41:19.740 I wouldn't expect them to think that.

00:41:25.080 Ukrainians value their own country, and they put their own country first.

00:41:30.440 And they don't really care about our country.

00:41:31.880 And, yeah, they'll accept whatever free money we give them.

00:41:39.420 Because it's coming out of our pockets.

00:41:42.340 You know, it's robbing your family, but they don't care about your family.

00:41:45.960 And I don't expect them to.

00:41:48.800 Because they put their own country first.

00:41:50.240 That's what the citizens of every country on the earth do.

00:41:55.740 They do it instinctively.

00:41:58.060 We're the only ones who are expected to value the safety and prosperity and security of citizens of other countries over our own.

00:42:10.400 All right, before we move on, I guess I'll, I was thinking I might save this, but I guess we'll play this now.

00:42:20.020 So Tucker Carlson was on Joe Rogan, on Joe Rogan's show a couple days ago.

00:42:26.400 And it's worth watching, the entire interview is very interesting.

00:42:29.360 There's one piece of this discussion that has, well, several pieces actually that have gone viral.

00:42:34.960 But I'll talk about just one, because I thought it was interesting.

00:42:37.860 It's a discussion about the dropping of the atomic bomb, or bombs.

00:42:42.320 And let's listen to what Tucker says, and then we'll talk about it.

00:42:46.680 Well, you could say the same about the atomic bomb, right?

00:42:49.260 Yes, you could.

00:42:50.080 And you could say that we have to develop it, like Oppenheimer felt, before the Nazis did.

00:42:56.020 I love that.

00:42:56.980 How'd that work?

00:42:59.740 How'd that work?

00:43:01.440 Well, I love, by the way, that people on my side,

00:43:04.620 I'll just say, I'll just admit it, on the right, you know, have spent the last 80 years

00:43:09.580 defending, dropping nuclear weapons on civilians.

00:43:13.380 Like, are you joking?

00:43:14.720 Right.

00:43:15.100 That's just like prima facie evil.

00:43:17.440 If you can't, well, if we hadn't done that, then this, that, the other thing,

00:43:21.000 that was actually a great savings.

00:43:22.360 Like, no, it's wrong to drop nuclear weapons on people.

00:43:25.020 And if you find yourself arguing that it's a good thing to drop nuclear weapons on people, 0.73

00:43:28.660 then you are evil.

00:43:29.780 Like, it's not a tough one, right?

00:43:31.800 Is that a hard call for you?

00:43:32.740 It's not a hard call for me.

00:43:33.620 So, with that in mind, like, why would you want nuclear weapons?

00:43:38.180 It's like just a mindless, childish, sort of intellectual exercise to justify, like,

00:43:43.160 oh, no, it's really good because someone else will get it.

00:43:44.700 How about no?

00:43:45.540 How about, like, spending all of your effort to prevent this from happening? 0.96

00:43:49.500 Would you kill baby Hitler, you know, famously? 0.97

00:43:51.960 Right. 0.88

00:43:52.260 So, I don't know why we're sitting back and allowing this to happen if we really believe

00:43:58.240 it will extinguish the human race or enslave the human race.

00:44:01.500 Like, how can that be good?

00:44:04.480 Okay, so that's his take on nuclear weapons.

00:44:07.840 Now, I'm a big Tucker fan, as you know.

00:44:10.800 I disagree with him on this one.

00:44:11.960 I think that, now, I'll admit I've kind of been back and forth on this question,

00:44:17.840 the historical question of whether it was morally justified to drop nuclear weapons on Japan.

00:44:23.660 You know, over the years, I've kind of been on either side of it because I think that there are

00:44:30.020 perfectly reasonable, rational arguments on either side.

00:44:35.180 I don't think you can listen to the argument.

00:44:36.760 No, there are also bad arguments on both sides, but I don't think you can listen to intelligent

00:44:41.500 people argue on one side or the other and think, well, that's completely insane.

00:44:46.320 Because I think it's one of those things.

00:44:49.040 And oftentimes in war, you're presented with those sorts of things where there's not a clear

00:44:54.180 answer and the right or wrong thing to do is not entirely clear.

00:45:00.500 And one thing I think we should acknowledge is that the people who are faced that, you know,

00:45:06.240 the question about whether or not to drop the bombs, one of the most complex moral dilemmas

00:45:16.900 that mankind has ever faced.

00:45:20.560 And the people who had to make that decision were, you know, balancing things and factors

00:45:28.700 that we can't even imagine, right?

00:45:30.880 I mean, like literally millions of lives hanging in the balance.

00:45:35.120 And they know that if we, you know, no matter what we do here, it could result in millions

00:45:42.160 of people dying.

00:45:42.660 And the question is, what will save the most amount of people?

00:45:47.620 And I think I can state without even knowing the specifics of every person or even any person

00:45:54.600 watching me right now, but I think I can say that none of you have ever had to make a decision

00:46:00.120 where millions of human lives were hanging in the balance.

00:46:04.640 I certainly never have.

00:46:06.220 So that's why I give, for one thing, I give a lot of leeway to people in history that were

00:46:13.400 faced with dilemmas like that, because it's just something, like it's so beyond anything

00:46:16.980 I've ever had to deal with that I can't, it's hard for me to judge too harshly.

00:46:25.120 Um, but I think ultimately where I land, even waffling back and forth a little bit, but where

00:46:33.120 I land is that dropping the bombs was the right move because I think it's, I think it's pretty

00:46:40.240 obvious.

00:46:41.880 And yeah, there are other things you have to take into account, but it's pretty obvious

00:46:46.100 to me that if not for dropping the bombs, more American lives would have been lost.

00:46:53.980 Now you could make a very compelling argument that actually, if you hadn't dropped the bombs,

00:46:58.540 more Japanese lives would have been lost too. 0.85

00:47:00.620 And not to mention the lives of, uh, many other, you know, people across the world, but

00:47:08.100 in a war, your primary goal has to be to protect and defend your own people.

00:47:15.580 In fact, that should be your primary goal all the time.

00:47:18.520 If you're a leader of a nation, as we were just talking about, your primary goal in all

00:47:22.840 circumstances should be to protect and defend your own people.

00:47:26.320 Now that doesn't automatically mean that everything you do in the name of protecting and defending

00:47:31.520 your own people is, is, is automatically right, but that should be your guiding principle.

00:47:38.720 It should be the first thing you think about before you consider any other factors.

00:47:43.520 Um, so, and as far as that goes on that, on that first most important factor, did it prevent

00:47:57.200 the deaths of many more American lives?

00:48:02.020 Uh, I think the answer is almost certainly yes.

00:48:05.220 It's hard to imagine a scenario.

00:48:08.660 If you go back and rewind the clock and play it, play it back, play, play the, play the

00:48:13.280 record back, uh, differently, play, play a different record rather.

00:48:16.340 Um, it's hard to imagine a scenario where they don't drop the bombs, but then the same

00:48:22.460 number of Americans die.

00:48:23.700 We don't see any increase in the number of Americans who die.

00:48:26.120 It's hard to imagine that.

00:48:27.160 Like, at least I can't imagine.

00:48:28.100 Um, and that's what I think justifies it, that you have to do what is necessary to, to defend

00:48:37.580 and protect your own people.

00:48:40.680 But war is a brutal, awful, terrible thing.

00:48:45.880 And I think we all acknowledge that intellectually.

00:48:49.380 We all, we, we, we all will say that.

00:48:51.960 But then sometimes when we're confronted by the brutality of war, we're kind of overtaken

00:48:57.660 by it, um, as I think Tucker is in this case.

00:49:03.440 But when you realize it, you realize it's a brutal, terrible thing.

00:49:07.020 You are killing mass amounts of people on purpose in a war, no matter what weapons you're using.

00:49:13.980 Uh, but that's the way wars are fought.

00:49:16.000 There's no way around it.

00:49:16.880 And so when you're in a war, your objective should be, let's end this as quickly as possible.

00:49:23.600 And let's, let's, let's, uh, protect as many of our own people as we can.

00:49:29.680 And I think that's what the bomb did there.

00:49:32.860 Grand Canyon University is a private Christian university located in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona.

00:49:36.900 GCU believes that our creator has endowed us with certain unalienable rights to life,

00:49:41.140 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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00:49:45.800 GCU equips you to serve others in the ways that promote your flourishing,

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00:50:10.800 So find your purpose today at Grand Canyon University, private, Christian, affordable.

00:50:15.140 Visit gcu.edu.

00:50:17.400 That's gcu.edu.

00:50:19.740 The iconic Leftist Tears Tumblr is back, but there's only one way to get it,

00:50:23.820 and that is by becoming a Daily Wire annual member.

00:50:26.820 Now, this isn't just any membership.

00:50:28.180 This is your pass to ad-free, uncensored shows from your favorite Daily Wire hosts like me

00:50:33.240 and some others as well, plus unlimited access to Daily Wire Plus movies, series, and documentaries,

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00:50:56.140 Now, let's get to our Daily Cancellation.

00:51:04.220 You know, we've been told for years that we must grant forgiveness to all of the college students

00:51:08.540 and graduates who took out massive loans to attend school.

00:51:11.940 Granting forgiveness, of course, means having our own pockets picked to pay back a debt that

00:51:16.520 we as the taxpayers never agreed to and had nothing to do with.

00:51:19.640 And this type of forgiveness would be wholly untenable from an ethical, moral, and constitutional

00:51:24.620 perspective, even if colleges were providing young people with a quality education.

00:51:28.560 Like, I wouldn't want to pay back some stranger student loans, even if they had taken their

00:51:32.760 education seriously and spent their four years acquiring useful knowledge.

00:51:36.880 But it's far worse than that, because a great many of the people who now demand forgiveness,

00:51:41.960 that is, demand that the government steal from you and give to them, forcing you to pay their debts,

00:51:47.060 that many of these people whittled away their university careers learning absolutely nothing

00:51:52.060 of value.

00:51:53.980 And any dubious argument that it's in the public interest to pay for their college education

00:51:58.960 is entirely destroyed by the hollowness and superficiality of their education.

00:52:05.540 I didn't agree to the loan.

00:52:07.200 It isn't my financial responsibility.

00:52:08.520 And also, I don't benefit at all from you going to school and learning about gender studies 0.99

00:52:13.020 or something even dumber than that. 1.00

00:52:14.620 And speaking of things dumber than that, or at least as dumb, which is extremely dumb, 0.99

00:52:20.600 let me show you just one example of thousands that could help prove the point, as reported 0.99

00:52:24.740 by CBS Saturday Morning to mark the release of the new Taylor Swift album.

00:52:28.680 Now, that album has already been streamed and downloaded 45 billion times, or whatever the

00:52:32.600 exact number is.

00:52:33.220 It's called The Tortured Poets Department, is the Taylor Swift album.

00:52:38.380 You know, I assume that it will win 96 Grammys, even if it doesn't deserve any at all.

00:52:41.920 But one thing it certainly does deserve, at least, is the award for the cringiest album

00:52:46.020 title of the century.

00:52:48.100 Taylor Swift has announced that she is now entering her tortured poet era, as the kids

00:52:52.320 would say.

00:52:53.140 Because, of course, nobody is more tortured than a billionaire pop star worshipped by

00:52:58.640 throngs of fans all over the world.

00:53:00.240 What a torturous life she leads. 1.00

00:53:02.400 Let's not be so distracted by her tortured self-identification that we forget to also laugh at the idea that

00:53:06.800 Taylor Swift considers herself to be a poet.

00:53:08.940 And the whole thing is absurd, but as CBS tells us, it has nonetheless been incorporated

00:53:14.240 into university courses.

00:53:16.980 Watch.

00:53:18.220 All the marketing strategies in the world will only work if you have a good product to market.

00:53:23.280 You might not expect a business school course to begin like this.

00:53:27.120 It's cool.

00:53:28.680 That's what I'm telling you.

00:53:30.260 But at UC Berkeley, Taylor Swift is not just a tortured poet.

00:53:34.020 She's a case study in how to build an empire. 1.00

00:53:36.440 Nothing about Taylor Swift is an accident.

00:53:38.240 Sophia Lindahl and Mian Boshala are student teachers of a course called Artistry and Entrepreneurship, Taylor's

00:53:44.920 Version.

00:53:45.580 It's just like everything from her music.

00:53:48.200 Each era is kind of like its own brand.

00:53:50.480 Today's focus, Swift's literary devices and her song as the product.

00:53:55.120 I think that Taylor is so strategic in all the things that she does.

00:53:58.940 And that's why I'm so interested in the course, kind of like unraveling how she's been able

00:54:02.920 to be such a relevant figure for so long.

00:54:07.860 Berkeley is hardly alone.

00:54:09.940 Universities nationwide are teaching the Swift effect in departments from English to political

00:54:14.240 science to gender studies.

00:54:15.960 What do you think the proliferation of Taylor Swift courses at universities and colleges

00:54:21.240 say about your generation?

00:54:23.860 People are becoming more and more interested in people who do bigger things in the world

00:54:31.400 and people who give back.

00:54:33.100 So people have done bigger things in the world.

00:54:36.840 And yes, I agree that those kinds of people are interesting to learn about in a college

00:54:40.560 environment.

00:54:41.740 And you should learn about people who've done bigger things.

00:54:44.640 So then why aren't you taking a class on, I don't know, Thomas Edison or Magellan or Isaac

00:54:49.260 Newton or Napoleon or Michelangelo or James Cook or Aquinas or Tesla or Alexander the Great

00:54:56.020 or even Genghis Khan or somebody, any of the hundreds of other historical figures who have

00:55:00.880 done, as you say, big, very, very big things.

00:55:03.900 People who have shaped the very world we live in for better or worse, or some combination

00:55:09.280 of better and worse.

00:55:10.560 If you're going to spend a portion of your exorbitant tuition fees on a class that focuses

00:55:14.480 on the life and work of one single individual, how in God's name is Taylor Swift the person

00:55:20.780 you choose?

00:55:22.200 And why are schools offering that as an option?

00:55:24.680 Now, I can see a Taylor Swift course that examined the prevailing cultural and psychological

00:55:29.420 conditions that have allowed somebody so vapid and uninteresting to become a powerhouse

00:55:34.300 billionaire mega celebrity in the first place.

00:55:36.180 That could be extremely enlightening and worthwhile.

00:55:38.800 But that doesn't appear to be the focus of this course.

00:55:41.280 Instead, the focus is on rigorously examining the fact that Taylor Swift is a badass girl 0.82

00:55:46.460 boss.

00:55:47.500 Watch.

00:55:47.740 So we had to ask, with all that tuition money on the line.

00:55:52.800 What did your family think when you said, I'm taking a Berkeley course on Taylor Swift?

00:55:57.360 Everyone was super supportive and they loved it.

00:55:59.600 They were like, you have to take this class.

00:56:01.340 My mom actually is the one who sent me a link.

00:56:02.940 She was just like, well, if, you know, it's been approved by the university, I'm sure it'll

00:56:06.460 be worthwhile.

00:56:07.380 My parents were thrilled.

00:56:08.420 They've both wanted to learn more about her ever since I started showing an interest in

00:56:12.240 her.

00:56:12.480 And they're taking a page from Swift's playbook for their own futures.

00:56:16.500 I've been very interested in media law and policy.

00:56:19.120 I'd love to apply those sort of concepts that apply to law and policy and media and art altogether

00:56:25.480 in the professional world.

00:56:27.000 Taylor Swift is a phenomenon.

00:56:28.660 Her tour has essentially like revitalized so much of the economy and boosted the local

00:56:32.800 economy everywhere she goes. 0.88

00:56:34.380 There's a reason top institutions are studying that.

00:56:36.400 Most of these students are all admittedly diehard Swifties, but they're also approaching her

00:56:41.440 canon with a critical eye.

00:56:43.400 We do talk about her failures and how she's kind of navigated them.

00:56:47.580 When we dive into the more businessy aspects, I guess it helps answer some of the questions

00:56:51.860 I have about why she'll make certain decisions that, you know, maybe I wouldn't be making.

00:56:55.960 What's one of those questions?

00:56:57.340 Well, Taylor's a billionaire, right?

00:56:58.820 Big question.

00:56:59.680 Are there ethical billionaires in this world?

00:57:01.340 Oh, there you go.

00:57:03.420 They do turn a critical eye, a critical eye with large, bushy eyebrows towards the woman 0.99

00:57:09.980 that they confess to worship. 0.99

00:57:11.920 But it's only to ponder the dumbest, least interesting possible question, which is, is 0.98

00:57:17.660 Taylor Swift bad because she's rich? 1.00

00:57:19.940 And I haven't taken the course myself, but maybe I'll audit the course just out of curiosity.

00:57:25.320 But I can't already tell you what the answer to that question will be in the course.

00:57:28.720 And the answer is gonna be, no, Taylor Swift isn't bad because she's rich. 1.00

00:57:32.060 Most rich people are bad for being rich, but not Taylor.

00:57:34.520 She's different.

00:57:35.180 After all, she's giving back to the community in a number of nonspecific, invisible, and

00:57:39.580 mostly imaginary ways.

00:57:41.660 Now, it's true that Taylor Swift is extremely successful, but being successful does not

00:57:46.560 automatically make her an artist worthy of in-depth study.

00:57:50.360 There's not much here to study.

00:57:52.560 I mean, this woman is not creating artistic work of such profound density that you need a 0.98

00:57:57.020 college course to unravel its complexities.

00:58:00.460 Taylor Swift is not exactly Dante.

00:58:02.520 So just to illustrate the point, bear with me as I share some actual lyrics from a song

00:58:06.860 on Swift's new album.

00:58:08.440 The song is called So High School.

00:58:11.100 And here are the lyrics.

00:58:13.200 Truth, dare, spin bottles.

00:58:15.400 You know how to ball.

00:58:16.320 I know Aristotle.

00:58:17.660 Brand new, full throttle.

00:58:19.240 Touch me while your bros play Grand Theft Auto.

00:58:22.420 It's true, swear, scouts on her.

00:58:25.220 You knew what you wanted, and boy, you got her.

00:58:28.180 Now, let's leave aside the fact that Taylor Swift definitely does not know Aristotle.

00:58:32.920 You ask her about metaphysics, and she'll probably tell you it's the full name of the

00:58:36.020 company that owns Instagram or something.

00:58:37.940 But more to the point, these lyrics about spin the bottle and truth and dare and making

00:58:43.480 out with her boyfriend while his bros play Grand Theft Auto, these are written, I should

00:58:48.640 remind you, by a 34-year-old woman. 1.00

00:58:52.520 This is a nearly middle-aged woman still singing about high school.

00:58:58.160 She graduated 18 years ago, by the way.

00:59:01.600 And all of her lyrics are like this.

00:59:03.260 And if she's not being embarrassingly juvenile, she's instead rambling in a way that barely

00:59:07.660 resembles song lyrics at all.

00:59:09.420 So for example, here are some lines from the title track on her new album.

00:59:13.000 This is what the tortured poet came up with for her song about being a tortured poet.

00:59:17.520 But here's what it says.

00:59:20.540 And who's going to hold you like me?

00:59:23.980 And who's going to love you, if not me?

00:59:26.100 I laughed in your face and said, you're not Dylan Thomas.

00:59:28.860 I'm not Patti Smith.

00:59:30.320 This ain't the Chelsea Hotel. 1.00

00:59:32.060 We're modern idiots. 1.00

00:59:33.720 Who's going to hold you like me? 1.00

00:59:35.360 Nobody.

00:59:36.100 No effing buddy.

00:59:37.460 Nobody.

00:59:38.660 You smoked and ate seven bars of chocolate.

00:59:41.000 We declared Charlie Puth.

00:59:43.080 Puth?

00:59:43.680 Who is that?

00:59:44.520 We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist.

00:59:47.800 I scratch your head, you fall asleep like a tattooed golden retriever.

00:59:52.820 Now, I do enjoy the attempt to make the words chocolate and artist rhyme.

00:59:57.380 And I'll also admit that it works a little better than I thought it would have worked. 0.99

01:00:01.660 But it's still very stupid. 0.99

01:00:03.580 And meanwhile, it appears that Taylor Swift has finally found a man that she likes, I guess. 0.99

01:00:07.420 And her way of expressing affection for him is by comparing him to an obedient dog.

01:00:12.740 I think we're beginning to see why she can't get a relationship to last for more than four months. 0.98

01:00:16.320 And we're also seeing from these lyrics and all of her other lyrics that this woman is no poet.

01:00:21.220 These read like the stream of consciousness ramblings of a teenager scribbling her feelings down on loose leaf paper, you know, during third period or whatever.

01:00:29.420 She has not grown as an artist or a person.

01:00:31.800 So there certainly isn't enough here to fill out a college course on her writings, I would think. 0.96

01:00:37.860 And that's why the real problem here is not Taylor Swift, per se, who continues to be shallow and boring and ridiculous. 0.83

01:00:45.600 Yet still, I will also continue to insist, no worse than the vast majority of degenerates in the mainstream music industry these days. 0.82

01:00:53.420 She's probably even less objectionable than most of them. 1.00

01:00:56.420 The problem is the university system, which churns out the sort of students who think that Taylor Swift lyrics are worthy of deep academic analysis.

01:01:08.040 A system that will even offer classes to perform that analysis and charge thousands of dollars for the opportunity.

01:01:14.100 A cost that will then, of course, be shifted to you and me.

01:01:17.480 And it is for that reason that the universities offering these Taylor Swift courses, and every other university, too, for good measure, are all today canceled.

01:01:26.740 That'll do it for the show today.

01:01:27.460 Thanks for watching.

01:01:27.980 Thanks for listening.

01:01:28.720 Talk to you tomorrow.

01:01:29.500 Have a great day.

01:01:30.600 Godspeed.

01:01:30.960 Godspeed.

The Matt Walsh Show - April 22, 2024

Ep. 1352 - Biden Administration Declares That Criminal Background Checks Are Racist Against Black People

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