Tulsi Gabbard (14:05)

And the most troubling part about there's so many things wrong with this, of course, but really, at the most fundamental level, you look at, you know, our country is the oldest democracy in the world, but the reality of a truly functioning and thriving democracy, that has brought to life the vision that our founders had for us, that we really have a government of, by, and for the people, and that we have the ability and response, responsibility for that matter, to ensure that the government we have only exists with the consent of the governed. That becomes very hard to do to hold people accountable when the person that you voted for is certainly not the one making the decisions.

Ben Shapiro (14:48)

Okay. She's pointing out the predations of the bureaucratic state. Right. If you vote for a politician and then it ends up being the bureaucracy that rules everything, that's a problem. She had this to say, Tulsi Gabbard, with regard to the intelligence community and the manipulation of the intelligence community. This is back in 2022.

Tulsi Gabbard (15:04)

I'll never forget when Chuck Schumer on television warned Trump is An idiot to mess with the intelligence community because they can screw you six ways from Sunday. The highest ranking Democrat in the US Senate warning the American people essentially against messing with the intelligence community because of how badly they can screw you, as though they are some autonomous body of government that is accountable to no one. How can this be, America? This goes against the foundation of our government. This goes against these ideals of a government of, by and for the people. And so the question I've asked myself is why? Why are they doing this? Why are they working so hard to squash any discussions, squash any debate, squash any questions about whatever war they happen to be wanting to wage at any given time? Time they're afraid.

Ben Shapiro (16:19)

Okay, so again, the reason that she's being brought in is presumably to cleanse the intelligence agencies of, again, a lot of the dead wood, a lot of the procedures that presumably are allowing for the spying on American citizens. Presumably, the FISA courts are going to come under a lot of scrutiny, given the fact that the Trump campaign was in fact spied upon by the FISA courts in the 2016 election illegally. There's a big deal to President Trump. That is why he wants somebody like Tulsi Gabbard in there. Now, she might face a bit of a confirmation fight, and the Senate is a, is a fractious place and the Senate has its own procedures. Now, President Trump had won the ability to sort of make recess appointments willy nilly. I really don't think that's how this is going to go. He has a Republican Senate. There is no reason he shouldn't be able to get his appointments through so long as they perform decently at their hearings. For example, Tulsi Gabbard. You would imagine that some of the more hawkish senators will have questions about her foreign policy, what it means for how she approaches intelligence policy, for example. But again, Tulsi Gabbard, a perfectly expected pick from President Trump. She is, of course, a Democrat who came across the aisle to support him. The most controversial pick of the day was not Tulsi Gabbard. The most controversial pick of the day was Matt Gaetz. Representative Matt Gaetz from Florida. Now, of course, Matt Gaetz is famous for a variety of reasons. He's incredibly colorful, shall we say? Matt Gaetz says a lot of inflammatory things, does a lot of things for the online crowd. Matt Gaetz, of course, is the one who led a rebellion against then speaker of the house Kevin McCarthy and basically forced his ouster. Not because he thought that McCarthy was doing a horrible job running the house, but McCarthy suggests because Gates didn't want him self investigated. There's all sorts of accusations flying back and forth between McCarthy and Matt Gaetz. It is true that Matt Gaetz is not particularly well loved by a lot of other members of the House. They think sometimes that he grandstands. There are some things that are true about Matt Gates, however. One of those things that when Matt Gates goes, he goes. I think the reason that President Trump wants him as AG is because Matt Gaetz is a passionate advocate against the predations of the doj against Donald Trump specifically. Again, he's a very brash figure. Here's Matt Gaetz back at the RNC a few months ago.

Matt Gaetz (18:28)

Under Biden Harris, America has fallen sicker, lonelier and poorer. Under Trump, we prospered, we were richer, inflation was low and there were two genders. The swamp draining will recommence soon. And I will be President Trump's strongest ally in Congress. To pass term limits, to stop taxpayer funding for political campaigns, to ban members of Congress for life from becoming lobbyists, and for the same reason, you don't let the referee bet on the game. Ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks. We are on a mission to rescue and save this country. And we ride or die with Donald John Trump to the end. Thank you all so much.

Ben Shapiro (19:18)

Thank you for having my back. Let's go get him again. President Trump is looking for loyalty in his picks. He can expect that, I think, from anybody that he appoints, given the fact that there is a unitary executive branch. Here's Matt Gates going after the Department of Justice for targeting President Trump. Again, this is just a few months back.

Matt Gaetz (19:36)

You can clear it all up for us right now. Will the Department of Justice provide to the committee all documents, all correspondence between the department and Alvin Bragg's office and Fani Willis office and Letitia James's office.

Ben Shapiro (19:50)

The offices you're referring to are independent offices of state.

Matt Gaetz (19:55)

I get that. I get that. The question is whether or not you will provide all of your documents and correspondence. That's the question. I don't need a history lesson.

Ben Shapiro (20:03)

Well, I'm going to say again, we do not control those offices. They make their own.

Matt Gaetz (20:08)

The question is whether you communicate with them, not whether you control them. Do you communicate with them and will you provide those communications?

Ben Shapiro (20:13)

Make a request, we'll refer it to our Office of Legislative.

Matt Gaetz (20:17)

But see, here's the thing. You come in here and you lodge this attack that it's a conspiracy theory, that there is coordinated lawfare against Trump, and then when we say fine Just give us the documents, give us the correspondence, and then if it's a conspiracy theory, that will be evident. But when you say, well, we'll take your request and then we'll sort of work it through the DOJ's accommodation process, then you're actually advancing the very dangerous conspiracy theory that you're concerned about.

Ben Shapiro (20:44)

Again, Gates is very bright. He's a very loud advocate for President Trump. That's presumably why Trump wants him in there. By the way, if he actually gets confirmed as ag, half the DOJ just resigns the next day. So Trump's not even gonna have to fire anybody. Everybody's just gonna resign. So that's the upside. Whether he gets through a confirmation battle is another question. There are already several senators who have come out expressing serious doubts about Matt Gaetz. It's very questionable just on a raw level whether he is going to get through that confirmation process. Again, I do not think that it is likely that the Senate is going to go to recess in order to allow President Trump to make recess appointments when, again, the Republicans have a majority. Right now, for example, Matt Gaetz remains under continued investigation by the House Committee on Ethics over allegations of sexual misconduct, illegal drug use, and other allegations. He continues to deny any wrongdoing. Suffice to say, a lot of senators, a lot of congresspeople, are discomfited by Gates as the pick. President Trump's announcement says, quote, it is my great honor to announce that Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida is hereby nominated to be the Attorney General of the United States. Matt is a deeply gifted and tenacious attorney trained at the William and Mary College of Law, who has distinguished himself in Congress through his focus on achieving desperately needed reform at the Department of Justice. Few issues in America are more important than ending the partisan weaponization of our justice system. Matt will end weaponize government, protect our borders, dismantle criminal organizations, and restore Americans badly shattered faith and confidence in the Justice Department. On the House Judiciary Committee, which performs oversight of doj, Matt played a key role in defeating the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax and exposing alarming and systemic government corruption and weaponization. He's a champion for Constitution and the rule of law. Now, again, you can see exactly why Trump picked him. With that said, it's going to be a rough road for him in the confirmation battle because there are a lot of Republicans who look at the allegations surrounding him, or they look at the sort of fractious way that he approached his fellow members of Congress. This sort of stuff does matter in confirmation hearings. That is an Uphill battle for President Trump. A lot of controversy from the Trump picks. But you know what should not be controversial? That a baby deserves its own life. But you know what the radical left keeps saying that somehow being pro life is somehow anti woman. The left wants you to believe that killing babies is healthcare, that infanticide is reproductive freedom. That is quite frankly ridiculous. But here's the thing. We don't just complain about the problem, we solve it. That's where preborn comes in. They're the largest pro life organization in America. 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Because if you're a Republican and you're going to reject one of Trump's picks and you have to prioritize, there are some Republicans in the Senate who are going to prioritize Gates over Hegseth. That would not be a giant shock. So there may be some unintended side effects of Gaetz's nomination. Even if he doesn't pass through the confirmation process. However, that is definitely gonna be Trump's hardest pick in terms of getting that nominee through a Senate that is fairly closely divided. Remember, the Republicans in the Senate only hold 53 seats, so all it takes is four Republican senators dropping off and Gates is toast. Already you have a multiplicity of senators who have signaled their discomfort with the idea of Matt Gaetz as attorney general. By the way, if it doesn't end up being Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump has a wide plethora of different attorneys on the Republican side of the aisle who will be just as aggressive as Matt Gaetz in that position. Again, Gates may get confirmed. All I'm saying is that even if he's not, it's not like a missed pick by Trump. It's not like Trump did something terribly wrong here. It just means that Gates would not be the guy. It would be someone else who'd give you most of the benefits and maybe not some of the drawbacks that Matt Gaetz apparently presents to some of his colleagues. Matt Gaetz, by the way, has already resigned his seat, effective immediately. There's a lot of speculation about why that is. Is he trying to still avoid this House investigation? What is it? His justification, the one that he gave to Mike Johnson, is that he's trying to resign early so that Governor DeSantis in Florida can declare an early election. As fast as possible, because there's about an eight week period to select and fill in a vacancy. And so the idea would be that if he resigns now, then his seat gets filled by another Republican, he's in a solid our district before this begins to be a problem for the Republican majority in Congress. That would be the. That'd be the justification Gates is giving now. Meanwhile, the congressional elections went forward yesterday. There was a lot of focus on the possibility that John Thune would be stopped as the Majority leader. That did not happen. And I think there's a bit of confusion about what the Senate Majority Leader does. The Senate Majority leader, as I've been saying, is not a Newt Gingrich figure. It's not a matter of just presenting a Republican vision. It's a matter of trying to cobble together majorities out of very, very slim majorities and then getting 80% of what you want. So in other words, the harder you charge as a Senate Majority Leader, sometimes it backfires. The reason Mitch McConnell has been, whether you like him or not, a deeply effective legislator over the course of his career, the most effective Senate Majority leader the Republicans have had in a hundred years. The reason for that is because Mitch McConnell is really Machiavellian. It's because he actually knows how to wheel and deal. It's because he knows how to do all the things in politics nobody likes to see. The stuff that doesn't play amazing on talk radio, for example. I know I'm on talk radio, right? Like the stuff that always is sort of the seamy side of politics, the bargaining, the to and fro, all that stuff McConnell is good at. So that means that the qualities you're seeking in a Senate majority leader, somebody who actually is not going to be extremely loud, extremely brash, somebody very often who's able to get the thing done, presumably, I would imagine that is why there is a secret ballot for Senate majority leaders, specifically, because all these senators have to decide who is best positioned to actually help cobble together the majority. And you don't necessarily. I mean, it's sort of a different process than you voting for a bill. A bill is an up or down thing that the American public obviously has an interest in seeing. How you do your internal work is a little bit different. I mean, I see the case both ways, but that would be the logic. In any case. In any case, Rick Scott, who is backed by a number of people who are in sort of conservative media, he was knocked out in the first round. Thune then ended up defeating Senator John Cornyn from Texas. Thune has been serving as the number two to Mitch McConnell for six years and staked out a middle ground during the campaign. He agreed to listen closely to GOP colleagues, according to the Wall Street Journal, on the direction of the chamber, and openly embraced the Trump agenda. He did so without explicitly repudiating the Senate's current operation under McConnell. He said, I promise to be a leader who serves the entire Republican conference. We'll have an ambitious agenda, and we'll take each and every Republican working together to be successful. The first test flared up immediately because Trump had suggested that candidates for Senate leader commit to allow at least some of the nominees to take office through recess appointment. Thune reacted, saying he was open to ideas on how to confirm nominees more quickly. He said, what we're going to do is make sure that we are processing his nominees in a way that gets them into those positions so we can implement his agenda. He said, on nominees, the Republicans would, quote, explore all options to make sure they get moved and they get moved quickly. Now, with that said, obviously, John Thune, he is committed to making sure that Republicans voices are heard, meaning that if Republicans want to shoot down a nominee, it's doubtful whether he is going to allow a recess appointment to overrule the Republican caucus as a whole. Senator Joni Ernst said, he's got his work cut out for him. Yeah, you know, that is definitely true. So, you know, we'll see how all this plays out. But that's how the system of government is supposed to work. It's how the system of government is supposed to work. There should be this back and forth, this to and fro. You end up with better policy that way. President Trump knows that, which is why he sent congratulations to Senator Thune. He said he moves quickly and will do an outstanding job. I look forward to working with him as well as Senators John Barrasso, Senate Majority Whip Tom Cotton, Senate Republican Conference Chairman Shelley Moore Capito, Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairman James Langford, Republican Conference Vice Chairman, and Tim Scott, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman, to make America great again. Meanwhile, President Trump endorsed Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, hours ahead of any potential speaker vote. He put that to bed. He said, I'm with him all the way, according to a couple of people. That's smart. Again, what we don't need right now is a lot of Republican infighting. What we actually need is to move forward. That needs to happen forthwith. No more of the shooting inside the tent when it comes to policymaking, and I think Trump knows that. Which is why, of course, he is moving along with Mike Johnson. And meanwhile, the Democrats are struggling to figure out what exactly to do. One of the dirty little secrets, of course, is that in many of the circles of power, they're kind of happy Trump won. If you are in business, you are very, very happy that Donald Trump won. If you're a global leader, if you're a member of another country and you're looking at Trump, you are probably happy that Trump won. When I say that, I mean I've spoken with leaders of other countries, people who have publicly denounced Donald Trump, and they are relieved at the idea that the Biden era is coming to an end. It's been fraught with chaos and insanity. They liked Donald Trump's foreign policy much better than what they are seeing right now. Even Politico is noting that, quote, the Trump resistance goes flaccid Donald Trump's 2016 election center sparked a global revolt. His 2024 triumph has met with a weary shrug. The Republicans first win saw millions of political opponents protesting on the streets soon after the vote, organizing themselves with hashtags like Resist. But since Trump's crushing victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in last Tuesday's election, the reaction from both Democratic voters and officials in European capitals has been less one of fiery outrage and more muted resignation. A European diplomat based in Washington, D.C. said, quote, I think we learned from last time it's important to talk constructively and confidentially instead of through social media. Well, yes, it is also true that Trump is part of a broader populist right movement that is emerging throughout the civilized world, a right movement that is tired of the scavenger philosophy promoted by the left that says that open immigration, largely from places that do not like Western civilization, is a good idea, or that the best the west can hope for is cultural stagnation and economic decline. Turns out people don't like that very much, and they're rebelling against that all across Europe. They're rebelling in South America, and they're rebelling in the United States as well. There's been a profound mood shift in 2024 compared to eight years ago, said Eline Severs, associate professor in political science at the Free University of Brussels. It's not unsurprising to witness a certain level of political burnout, of exhaustion after the massive campaign, sever said. I think a lot of activists are very tired. It's deflation after all these weeks of campaigning. Not just that it turns out that Trump did a pretty good job the first time a second European diplomat based in D6 said, quote, people have reasonably fresh memories of what works and what doesn't work and how you get on the right side of him and how important, disproportionately important that is. So again, the levels of anxiety for Trump are not high. Secretly, they're kind of happy. And it turns out that if you like your pocketbook, you're happy as well, because consumer sentiment is bouncing around and now it is up again. It's not that difficult to get consumer sentiment up. All you have to do is tell people you're not going to take all of their money, regulate them out of existence or inflate all their savings away. It's a pretty easy things to do. Joe Biden fails signally at all of them, but they're not all that difficult to do. That's just one reason that bitcoin is exploding. Bitcoin is up to 90,000. Has had a massive run from about 70,000 to 90,000 since election day alone. The election of a pro crypto president, according to the Wall Street Journal, has sent bitcoin prices up 30% since election days. Traders are wagering Bitcoin will reach $100,000 before the end of the year. With $850 million worth of options contracts. Betting on the milestone by the December 27th expiration. The crypto industry is now betting on a wave of deregulation and industry friendly policies. Yes, it turns out then when you are friendly to industry, industry is friendly right back to you. Meanwhile, Democrats struggling to come up with answers. It seems as though they're starting to realize they need to snap back into moderation. So, for example, over in San Francisco, a person named Daniel Lurie was elected mayor and he sounds like kind of an Eric Adams moderate. Now he says, I'm a lifelong Democrat, but it's time for some common sense over here. I am a lifelong Democrat, but we don't think of ourselves as progressives or moderates or conservatives here in San Francis. We just want to get back to common sense. We have to deliver the basics. And that's my plan. That's the mandate that I was elected to fulfill. Again, moderation from the San Francisco mayor. He also added, you know what people actually want? They're not that concerned about all the crazy social policies. They just want to feel safe in their cities. They want a mayor that is focused on delivering results. That's the mandate I was voted in with and that's what I'm going to do. I don't believe that that is anything more than those are progressive values. And so I understand I'm talking to a national audience here. This is not liberal. Progressive conservative people want to feel safe walking down the street. And that is right. In fact, Democrats are starting to argue about all of this. There's a piece in Politico that charts out a new memo that is making the rounds like a 3 1/2 page memo pointing out how badly Democrats botched this. We'll get to that in just one moment. 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The question is whether they'll be emboldened or cower when one of those groups, as identity based organizations are invariably called speak up. But the reward is alluring. Whoever can retain the party's traditional commitments to the most vulnerable and also appeal to voters who just rejected Harris will emerge as the Democrats strongest 2028 nominee and perhaps the next president. But again, the question is going to be whether they are actually able to wake up to that. So long as people, for example, like Joy Reid are out there, the answer will be no. Joy read over as msnbc. She just gets more and more racist day in and day out. It's amazing. Y'all listen to this.

Donald Trump (38:36)

Furthermore, I will direct the Department of Justice to pursue federal civil rights cases against schools that continue to engage in racial discrimination. And schools that persist in explicit unlawful discrimination under the guise of equity will not only have their endowments taxed, but through budget reconciliation, I will advance a measure to have them fined up to the entire amount of their endowment. A portion of the seized funds will then be used as restitution for victims of these illegal and unjust policies, policies that hurt our country so badly. Colleges have gotten hundreds of billions of dollars from hardworking taxpayers. And now we are going to get this anti American insanity out of our institutions once and for all. We are going to have real education in America. Thank you.

Ben Shapiro (39:33)

So in other words, reparations for white people. Any comments on that? Trump likes that is not reparations for white people. That is people who are victimized by affirmative action policies that kept them out of colleges, for example. But again, keep, keep doubling down on the racism, please. Just keep, keep on, keep on doing it. Well, meanwhile, the attacks on Pete Hegseth, the Department of Defense nominee, by President Trump, those continue. Whoopi Goldberg thinks she can get out of this simply by mocking Pete Hegseth. You know, I don't think this is going to work. He also picked you. Ready? Co host of Fox and Friends weekend. Not even like regular weekend. Pete Hegseth.

Donald Trump (40:33)

Hexeth.

Ben Shapiro (40:34)

Hexeth. Hexeth. Yeah. Okay, Pete Hexeth. And he's picked him to be US Secretary of Defense. Now MAGA supporters and detractors are trying to figure out what, because of this pic? No, we're not. We know exactly why that pick was made. In fact, it turns out that the threats that we face are going to be amply faced down by Pete Hegseth. Mikey Gallagher, former representative from Wisconsin, who I very much hope will be in consideration for Secretary of the Navy because he is tremendously knowledgeable and he's a real hawk on China, like a super China hawk. Super bright guy. He has a piece in the Wall Street Journal titled Pentagon has two years to prevent World War three. He says Xi Jinping has ordered the People's Liberation army to be ready to seize Taiwan by 2027. Whether he launches an invasion may depend on President Trump's defense secretary. If confirmed by the Senate, Army National Guard veteran and Fox News Host Pete Hegseth, Mr. Trump's nominee will have to confront the collapse of deterrence in Europe and the Middle east, resource constraints on Capitol Hill, recruitment challenges, and a deteriorating balance of power in the Indo Pacific. The only way to promote peace is to go to war on day one. Not with China, Russia, Iran, but the Pentagon bureaucracy. The first task is to fix the US Navy. America needs a maritime industrial base that can counter China's. Pentagon requirements for building maritime assets involve too many uncoordinated stakeholders. The Pentagon establishes war fighting requirements such as the number of missiles on a ship without regard to interdependent technical specifications such as that ship's center of gravity. When those technical specs aren't tightly linked to warfighting requirements, the mismatch can cause underperformance or unplanned costs. In time, the DoD should return to a board model that served the Navy well until the 1960s. The Navy should also create an office focused on expediting the development and deployment of certain war fighting technologies, similar to the Rapid Capabilities office at the Air Force or Space Force. Again, he has all sorts of suggestions like this, and I think that Pete Hegseth is going to not only take those suggestions, he will do more than that. He's going to be fighting the wokeness in the military. He is not concerned with a military that is focused on the sexual diversity of its membership. He's more concerned about whether they are good at, you know, killing bad people. That is the thing that he is mostly concerned about, the efficacy of the American military. Hegseth has said China is building an army to defeat America. We need to build an army to defeat them.

Pete Hegseth (42:47)

China is building an army specifically dedicated to defeating the United States of America. That is their strategic outset. Take hypersonic missiles. So if our whole, if our whole power projection platform is aircraft carriers and the ability to project power that way strategically around the globe and yeah, we have a nuclear triad and all of that, but a big part of it. And if 15 hypersonic missiles can take out our 10 aircraft carriers in the first 20 minutes of a conflict, what does that look like? And when they're. If they've already got us by the balls economically, which you pointed out very well with our grid culturally, there's plenty of elite capture going on around the globe. I mean, and then microchips and everything. Why do they want Taiwan? They want to corner the market completely on the technological future. We can't even drive our cars without the stuff we need out of China these days. I mean, they have a full spectrum long term view of not just regional but global domination. And we have our heads up our asses.

Ben Shapiro (43:50)

He is right about all of that. Again, this is the person who's apparently too ignorant to be the Secretary of Defense. He's also getting hit over the course of the last 24 hours because someone surfaced a clip of him saying that women shouldn't be fighting in combat roles. Again, like, why is that controversial? Really? Why? Why? Why should young women be fighting in frontline combat roles? Does that make sense to anybody? Why? There are plenty of able bodied men to do that.

Pete Hegseth (44:14)

Straight up, just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn't made us more effective, hasn't made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated. We've all served with women and they're great. It just our institutions don't have to incentivize that in places where traditionally not traditionally over human history, men in those positions are more capable.

Ben Shapiro (44:36)

And so he is not wrong about any of that. Like again, if this is the controversial stuff about him, I'm not really seeing it. The other nominee who's getting a lot of flack, Mike Huckabee as possible U.S. ambassador to Israel. That is because Huckabee is wildly pro Israel. He's not just pro Israel. He also understands certain basic facts, like the idea that settlements are not illegal in the West Bank. That is true. They're disputed territory at very best. And he maintains that the possibility of a two State solution is basically a non starter because that is the reality. There is, number one, he says correctly that Israel does have a historic and legal claim to the West Bank. And not only that, he suggests that there is no actual peace partner for Israel. That's true. This of course has Democrats with their panties all in a twist because they're very upset about the fact that he's saying true things about the situation over there, that there is no peace partner and that Israel does in fact have a legal claim to the so called West Bank, Judea and Samaria, the biblical homeland of the, of the Jewish people. Here is, here's Chris Van Hollen, Senator, saying this is very, very bad. He supports this concept of a Greater Israel, Israel controlling the entire territory from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean Sea.

Pete Hegseth (45:47)

That's a Mike Huckabee vision.

Ben Shapiro (45:49)

It's a vision that has been implemented, embraced by the far right in Israel, including members of the Netanyahu government like.

Pete Hegseth (45:56)

Smotrich and Ben gvir.

Ben Shapiro (45:58)

So this is a recipe, if he continues to pursue these views, for continued instability and violence in the Middle East. Okay, that is precisely wrong. The reason that that is precisely wrong is that even if you wanted a two state solution, Israel should be seen to have a claim to the thing that it is claiming. If I want to make a deal with you, any deal, let's say we're going to make a deal over this Tumblr and I say, listen, I own this Tumblr, and you say, no, I own the Tumblr. Okay, well if I say, you know what, you're right, you own the Tumblr, there's no deal to be made. Now, I have now acknowledged your right to the tumbler. So there is no deal to be made. The purpose of a negotiation is to settle mutually exclusive claims. The point Huckabee is making correctly is that Israel does have its own exclusive claim to sovereignty over a particular territory. And then Palestinians are making similar claims about the sovereignty of that territory. If it's a territorial dispute that can be solved in a variety of ways. What cannot be solved is an exterminationist, eliminationist viewpoint that says the entire state of Israel has to go, okay, recognizing the quote, unquote, legitimate claims on both sides would be a proper way to start. What would not be a proper way to start is by saying that one side, for example, the Israelis, have no legitimate claim at all to Judea and Samaria, which is not true. That is the position of people like Chris Van Hollen. Well, meanwhile, Turkey continues to be a Thorn in the side of NATO. Turkey was originally admitted to NATO as a bulwark against the Soviet Union because, of course, they're in a very territorially important area. However, Turkey has now turned into an Islamist dictatorship under Erdogan. They have now announced that they are severing all relationships with Israel. The Turkish president said he will not continue or develop relations with Israel in the future. This does beg the question as to why exactly Turkey is a member of NATO at this point. Why precisely should Turkey continue to receive NATO protection under, for example, Article 5 if they are pretty much explicitly in a Cold war with an ally of the United States and still most of Europe? That seems weird, but again, NATO is poorly run. I'm looking forward to President Trump making some corrections over at NATO. NATO's military chief, Admiral Rob Bauer, for example, he was caught on tape yesterday asking why people are so against being spied upon. I mean, I have some answers to that one, actually.

NATO Military Chief (48:15)

And again, it's the me and the we discussion. Everybody says it's my privacy now. Everybody has given away everything to the tech companies in the US by saying yes, yes, yes, when you wanted the app of Google and everything. If the government says, can I see your phone for 10 seconds? There a revolution. But we've given away everything already. So it's a ridiculous discussion on privacy in many ways. So I think we have gone too far in many of these things. We should look a little bit less to the individual and a little bit more to what does it mean for the group, for society.

Ben Shapiro (48:55)

Yeah, I'm a little bit discomfited by the head of NATO saying that. He also specifically criticized Elon Musk, which is becoming sort of stock in trade for globalist elite in terms of disinformation.

NATO Military Chief (49:07)

And cyberattacks and all the things that are happening, influencing elections. I think it's a serious problem. And I think that the use of social media is basically amplifying everything that is being done by bought factories. And I'm very much in favor of freedom of speech, but I'm not necessarily convinced that what Mr. Musk is doing on X is the right approach. I'm very much in favor of freedom of speech, but there is a lot of things on Twitter that is not helping our societies at all.

Ben Shapiro (49:48)

Well, you know, I think that if you're worried about freedom of speech and, and if you actually pretend that you care about these things, you just have some quibbles with Elon Musk, you might want to talk to some members of NATO like Turkey, which again, is an Islamist dictatorship. I'm also enjoying the revisionist history that you are getting from this military chief saying that Afghanistan was never of strategic importance. That's weird since NATO was involved there for nigh on 20 years.

NATO Military Chief (50:11)

For me, there is a big difference between Afghanistan and Ukraine. Actually. Afghanistan was never of strategic importance. If we're really honest, Afghanistan was not of strategic importance. We spent 20 years there and we did a lot of things and people lost their lives. But if you ask the question, was it strategic, of strategic importance, Afghanistan? The answer is no.

Ben Shapiro (50:39)

Okay? We're going to find out in really short order whether that's true since Joe Biden pulled it out of there ignominiously, left them billions of dollars in military equipment and Al Qaeda is reconstituting. So we will find out whether in fact that is the case. And if that was the case, why wasn't anybody in NATO saying that earlier? Maybe you should. Maybe you should have told all of us, Artie. Coming up, Rachel Zegler. Man, that lady is creating more problems for Disney than any other single employee of Disney, which is saying a lot. If you're not a member, become a member. Use code Shapiro. Check out for two months free on all annual plans. Click that link in the description and join us.