← The Ben Shapiro Show
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2095 - LIAR LIAR: Biden PARDONS Hunter After All!
00:47:45
Joe Biden pardons his son on drug and gun charges; Donald Trump selects Kash Patel as his FBI director; and we examine the threat of debanking. Click here to join the member-exclusive portion of my show: https://bit.ly/3WDjgHE Ep.2095 - - - DailyWire+: Our largest sale of the year is live NOW! Get 50% off New Annual Memberships this Cyber Monday! https://dailywire.com/cybermonday Matt Walsh’s hit documentary “Am I Racist?” is NOW AVAILABLE on DailyWire+! Head to https://amiracist.com to become a member today! Get the Precision 5 from Jeremy's Razors at https://www.jeremysrazors.com Get your Ben Shapiro merch here: https://bit.ly/3TAu2cw - - - Socials: Follow on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3cXUn53 Follow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3QtuibJ Follow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/3TTirqd Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RPyBiB
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- [00:00]
Ben Shapiro
Well, folks, Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter late last night. We'll get into everything that means, what it shows about Joe Biden, about Democrats, about the state of American politics. First, your reminder. Cyber Monday is now here. Our best deal of the year continues. Get 50% off New DailyWire, plus annual memberships, including all access, where you can join me live for exclusive weekly Q and A's. Head on over to DailyWire.com cyber Monday. Become a member today. All righty. So last night, Joe Biden decided that now was the moment. Yes, of course, he had promised he was not going to pardon his son Hunter on gun and tax charges. But hell, that dude is leaving office. Ain't no reason for him to lie anymore. And so last night, he released a statement announcing that he was going to pardon his son Hunter on all charges, not just grant commutation of the sentence. Right, you can actually grant commutation if you're president. Meaning that he could have left all the guilty pleas on the books for his son, he could have left all the convictions on the books for his son, and still his son could have not gone to jail. Instead, he decided to issue a full pardon, meaning that his record is wiped clean. And he didn't just issue a full pardon for the things for which Hunter was convicted or to which he pled guilty. He issued a full pardon going all the way back to January 1, 2014, a nearly 11 year period. Anything he did, blanket pardon for everything. In fact, this led to the rather hilarious spectacle of last night. Joe Biden issues this pardon, and there were still like three or four hours to go on December 1st. And so theoretically, Hunter Biden could have done the funniest thing and like gone on a murder spree or something. The pardon still would have applied, actually, at least with regard to federal crimes. So he issues this pardon. The pardon states, quote, a full and unconditional pardon for those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024, including, but not limited to, all offenses charged or prosecuted, including any that have resulted in convictions by special counsel David C. Weiss, as well as any other charges in testimony whereof I have here unto signed my name and caused the pardon to be recorded with the Department of Justice. Hey, that is, that is the executive grant of a pardon by Joe Biden for his son. Now, why would he do that? Why would he go back an 11 year period? The answer, of course, is because Hunter Biden was the bag Man. As we all know, as we've discussed repeatedly on the show, Joe Biden has spent his entire political career enriching his family, his entire political career since the time he was in the Senate in Delaware. He used his position to enrich his brothers Frank and James. He used his position to enrich his sister Val. He used his position in order to deploy Hunter Biden, his derelict, drug addled son, all over the world to pick up sacks of cash on behalf of the family from China to Ukraine. And much of that was apparently being held in trust for, quote, unquote, the Big Guy, according to contemporaneous email messages and texts that were sent by Hunter Biden on that famous Hunter Biden laptop. So why is he issuing a pardon on all of this stuff? Because he is afraid that it's not just the charges that Hunter Biden was caught up in that will be the subject of further investigation. He's trying to clear the decks so that Hunter Biden is now off the hook for literally everything, including his time at Burisma. It is not a coincidence that this pardon begins January 1, 2014. When exactly did Hunter Biden join Burisma? The answer, April 2014. So he's clearly attempting to wipe the books of Hunter Biden's Foreign Agents Registration act violations of his corruption of any possible investigation into the money that passed hands between foreign countries and Hunter Biden and then was held by Hunter Biden for the Big Guy. That is the goal here. This is full scale obvious political corruption of the most unseemly sword. And Joe Biden put out a statement on this. And here is what the statement says. Quote, today I signed a pardon for my son, Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department's decision making. And I kept my word, even as I have watched my son being selectively and unfairly prosecuted. Okay, so first of all, if you say that you're not going to interfere with the Justice Department's decision making, and then you full on pardon your son after claiming that the Justice Department selectively prosecuted your son, that would be technically the largest scale interference with the Department of Justice. Sure, you let them waste millions of dollars prosecuting your son, only to pardon him later, but you are openly suggesting that they were corrupt, that they did something wrong, which they didn't. President Biden says, quote, without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled Out a gun form. Now, the reality, of course, is that Joe Biden's son filled out a gun form claiming that he was not a drug addict while he was in fact in full scale drug addiction mode, snorting parmesan cheese off carpets, thinking that perhaps it was meth or cocaine. That is according to his own memoir. According to Joe Biden, however, this was all unfair. Now, if you lie on a gun registration form by being a drug addict, the punishment is up to 10 years in jail or $250,000 in fines. And very often those sorts of charges are brought specifically so you can then plea bargain the person so that they'll flip on somebody else. But with regard to Hunter Biden, the notion that he was selectively prosecuted in this case, if he were some poor kid from Appalachia, the chances that this kid would not have been prosecuted under the statute are very, very low. But according to Joe Biden, it was all corrupt. That's the real reason. It's not because he's trying to cover up what he did with his son Hunter. It not that Hunter was the bag man. The real issue here is that the selective enforcement Justice Department was going after his poor, innocent, 51 year old, totally derelict son who happened to be picking up sacks of cash for him, according to President Biden, quote, those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties are typically given non criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently. The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election. Then a carefully negotiated plea deal agreed to by the Department of Justice unraveled in the courtroom, with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter's cases. Now, if you recall, actually what happened in this case is that the Justice Department tried to cut an unprecedented sweetheart deal with Hunter Biden. The nature of that deal is that there were essentially two sets of plea agreements. One was a plea agreement with regard to the gun charge, and the other added onto the tax charges all the other stuff that Hunter Biden might have done. So there was the plea deal on the gun charge, and that was out and in the open. And then there was a secret agreement on the tax charges that included an addendum that covered any other crimes that Hunter Biden may have committed during this period. And the judge in that case looked at the plea agreement and said, what the hell is this? What the hell is this? Now again, there are IRS whistleblowers. One's name was Gary Shapley, and one's name was Joseph Ziggler, who pointed out that the DOJ and IRS were preventing any sort of serious investigation into the connections between Hunter Biden financially and Joe Biden. The plea agreement itself was obviously a setup. As the Heritage Foundation's John Malcolm, who's the vice president of the Institute for Constitutional Government, as he writes, this plea agreement was anything but straightforward. The government actually entered two agreements with Biden, one which would normally require judicial approval and one which wouldn't. The parties hid material terms that should have been included in the one requiring judicial approval by putting them in the one that didn't. So the first agreement which required judicial approval was Biden's agreement to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges of tax evasion in return for the government's agreement to recommend a sentence of probation. Okay? Now, that plea agreement set forth all the rights Biden would be waiving and including as Exhibit 1, a recitation of the factual predicate for the plea, including a synopsis for the millions of dollars he's paid over the course of several years. Okay? But there was no worried about any agreement by the government not to prosecute additional crimes in that plea agreement because this was only supposed to apply to the tax charges. But there was a separate agreement on the gun charges, which was a diversion agreement. You remember this. It basically said that he was going to go to some sort of drug correctional program and would have permitted him to agree to a recommended two year term of probation subject to certain standard conditions in return for an agreement by the government not to prosecute him for a separate gun charge. But under the terms of that agreement, if Biden were to complete probation successfully, the government would agree to drop that charge. The problem, of course, is that the diversion agreement also required that if the government ever came to believe that Biden had materially breached the agreement, it would first have to ask the judge to make a final determination that he had done so before bringing charges. And second, the agreement said that if Biden complied with the terms of the agreement, the the government would not prosecute him for any federal crimes encompassed by the attached statement of fact, which of course is everything regarding the Foreign Agents Registration act stuff. So it was a super corrupt deal. And the judge in that particular case saw that it was a super corrupt deal and openly said, I can't do this. I can't greenlight this deal. But according to Joe Biden, the plea agreement was great. Now, again, it was a sweetheart deal that the DOJ cut with Joe Biden's son in the middle of the election cycle to serve a couple of purposes. One, to get Hunter Biden off the hook, and two, as we will see, to make it look as though the DOJ was being fair. A lot of this Hunter Biden schtick was all about the idea that they were going after Donald Trump for everything under the sun. There are multiple federal cases being brought against Donald Trump, ranging from classified documents cases. By the way, the DOJ also failed to bring a classified documents violation case against President Biden himself, openly acknowledging, as Robert Herr, the special prosecutor said, that Joe Biden had clearly violated federal law. It was just that he was senile. And so if you put him in the seat, he would likely be acquitted because everyone would see that he was senile. So just to assess the DOJ's performance here, absolutely abysmal all the way through. Joe Biden violates classified documents law. No prosecution because he's senile. Donald Trump allegedly violates classified documents law. Prosecution prosecute Donald Trump on specious charges with regard to January 6th or electoral interference. Also prosecute Hunter Biden, but cut a sweetheart deal with Hunter Biden so there's no possibility he will ever go to jail. And then when you are caught, just wait for Joe Biden to pardon Hunter again. All of that was set up in order to say, well, listen, the DOJ is being even handed. They're going after Donald Trump on the one hand, they're going after Joe Biden and Hunter Biden on the other. But they were never going after the Bidens. That was the entire point. They were only forced to prosecute Hunter Biden after the judge stepped in and said no. But back to Joseph Biden's entirely dishonest statement. Quote, no reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter's cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son. And that is wrong. There's been an effort to break Hunter, who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they've tried to break me. And there's no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough. So he's suggesting here that if he doesn't pardon Hunter, there will be further charges that are brought against Hunter Biden on the Foreign Agents Registration act violations, for example, or possible corruption with Joe. Now, there's One problem here. Once Joe Biden has pardoned Hunter, Hunter can no longer plead the Fifth. He can. So if, for example, the DOJ under, say, Pam Bondi under Trump administration decides that Joe Biden ought to be prosecuted for violation of bribery statute. To take an example, let's say that the DOJ investigates and what they find is that Hunter Biden was likely picking up sacks of cash on behalf of his dad in foreign countries while his dad was vice president of the United States. For example, Hunter can no longer plead the Fifth because to plead the Fifth Amendment, the Fifth Amendment is designed to prevent you from incriminating yourself. Well, if you've been pardoned for the possible crimes, then you literally have no grounds for citing the Fifth Amendment. You can't do it. It's just gonna be a lot of, I don't recall, I would imagine Joe Biden continues quote from My entire career, I have followed a simple principle. Just tell the American people the truth. One of the great liars in American history, Joe Biden. Just tell the American people the truth. Says the man who ran on the presumption that he was not senile for full on two years while everyone knew it was untrue. They'll be fair minded, says Joe Biden. Here's the truth. I believe in the justice system. But as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice. And once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision. Okay, wildly dishonest. Hey, how dishonest was Joe Biden? He was so dishonest that he Openly said in July 2024 he would not pardon Hunter under any circumstances. Here is Joe Biden circa 2024, July. With regard to the question regarding the family, I'm extremely proud of my son Hunter. He has overcome an addiction. He is, he's one of the brightest, most decent men I know and I am satisfied that I'm not going to do anything. I said I abide by the jury decision and I will do that and I will not pardon him. Okay, so he was lying. So is Corinne Jean Pierre, the White House press secretary. She said the same thing at the time. Here she was July 2024 saying, no, no, no, no. Why would you even say that he'd pardon his son? He was obviously going to pardon his son.
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Corinne Jean-Pierre
By the way, it's still a no.
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Joe Biden
It will always be a no.
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Ben Shapiro
It's still a no. It will be a no. It is a no. And I don't have anything else to add. Will he pardon his son? No. So it was a yes, as it turns out. And by the way, this is probably not the last pardon that Joe Biden is going to issue on behalf of his family. I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to pardon his brother Jim, who is also involved in much of the money gathering activity on behalf of the Biden family. Now, if you recall, the media actually suggested at the time, because Joe Biden said he would not pardon Hunter, that this demonstrated what an upright, upstanding person Joe Biden was, somebody who respected the rule of law. And look at the doj, as I say, so impartial, willing to prosecute even the President's son. I mean, sure, they're going after Donald Trump, but they were even willing to go after Hunter Biden. Sure, they were trying to, you know, shuffle all of the Joe Biden questions off into the. Off into the other room, into the darkness. They're trying to avoid all culpability of Joe Biden in the classified documents scandal or any culpability he had for his son utilizing his name to pick up sacks of cash in Ukraine in the energy industry. Hunter Biden, by the way, knows nothing about the energy industry or Ukraine and has openly admitted the only reason he got that job is because his last name was Biden. But remember, the media angle when this happened, when Hunter was convicted and when Joe said he wouldn't pardon Hunter, was that this is because Joe was absolutely upstanding, a respecter of the institutions, normal. Remember, Donald Trump is the threat to normal. He's the threat to the institutions. Joe Biden, that dude was upstanding. In fact, John Harwood, the former debate moderator in 2012, it's unbelievable. He literally tweeted at the time, this is June 13th. Quote, People who insist Biden will pardon Hunter after specifically ruling it out are telling on themselves. They can't imagine someone acting on principle and keeping his word. Well, you sweet, sweet summer child, John Harwood. I'm sure that that's what happened. And again, the media at the time suggested that this was all demonstrative of how the DOJ was impartial itself. The DOJ was obviously impartial. According to, for example, Politico, quote, hunter Biden verdict throws sand in the gears of GOP's attacks on legal system. The idea here was that the DOJ's willingness to prosecute Hunter demonstrated that they were just being fair and impartial about Donald Trump. Quote, the rendering of a guilty verdict against the president's son less than two weeks after a jury convicted Trump of 34 counts of falsifying business records in a Manhattan criminal trial, appeared to mollify other Hill Republicans, at least a little. Others tried to have it both ways. Cash Patel, former national security adviser of Trump, said the verdict, quote, demonstrates a fleeting moment of justice for all, while also arguing the trials of the former president and his rival son will expose the inequities in our legal system based on its weaponization. So, again, the idea was DOJ had been cleared by its prosecution of Hunter Biden. Joe Biden was an upstanding individual, and none of this was true. Not one iota of this was true. Now, you know who's saying this was not true? One Donald J. Trump. Here he was in October predicting that Joe Biden would pardon Hunter. I wouldn't do anything that would be overt in terms of Hunter. It's a sad situation, and I'll bet you the father probably pardons him. Let's see what happens. But he's a bad boy. There's no question about it. But I don't want to hurt people. Okay? By the way, as late as November 7, the White House press secretary reiterated that Biden had no plans to pardon his son. Quote, we've been asked that question multiple times, and our answer stands, which is no, that was November 7th. That was less than one month ago. So they were lying and lying and lying again. Hunter Biden, for his part, is, of course, happy as a clam. He issued a statement, quote, I've admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction. Well, I mean, didn't take responsibility for the daughter that you abandoned and then refused to allow into sort of the Biden household. Mistakes that have been exploited, he says, to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport. Despite all of this, I've maintained my sobriety for more than five years because of my deep faith and the unwavering love and support of my family and friends. In the throes of addiction, I squandered the many opportunities and advantages I have in recovery. We can be given the opportunity to make amends where possible and rebuild our lives. If we never take for granted the mercy that we have been afforded, I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted and will devote the life I have to rebuild to helping those who are still sick and suffering. Also, presumably, he will sell finger paintings for half a million dollars. The Absolute, utter, thoroughgoing corruption of the Biden family is perfectly obvious. And when it comes to this particular pardon, this is now basically a green light for Trump to do whatever he wants. If you are a Democrat and you were worried Donald Trump was just going to pardon January 6th, for example, you should be worried about that because your boy broke the system. This is the story of the last 20 years in American politics. Democrats break the system and then they are shocked when the system is broken. Whether you're talking about killing the filibuster for judicial nominees and then Republicans actually using that same rule, or whether you are talking about the weaponization of the federal government against Donald Trump during his presidency and now Donald Trump is gonna come in and clean house. Once you break it, you bought it. And that's particularly true here. You guys don't get to complain about what Donald Trump does from here on in with the pardon power given what Joe Biden just did, not in order to exonerate his son or prevent him from getting a jail sentence, but in order to clear the decks forever for anything that both Hunter and Joe did from January 1, 2014. And on. Jared Polis, who is a moderate Democrat, governor of Colorado, moderate with a bit of a grain of salt, he tweeted yesterday, quote, while as a father, I certainly understand President Joe Biden's natural desire to help his son by pardoning him, I'm disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country. This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation. When you become president, your role is pater familias of the nation. Hunter brought the legal trouble he faced on himself. One can sympathize with his struggles while also acknowledging that no one is above the law. Not a president and not a president's son. Now, Eric Holder, who was Barack Obama's wingman, he apparently tweeted out, quote, look at the underlying facts and usual DOJ practice, Governor. So you have people who are out there attempting to defend all of this by suggesting, well, it just shows what a loving father he is. He's just a loving father, of course. Right? That's all this. He's just a good person, Joe Biden. It's not that he's corrupt, it's not that it's a cover up. It's not that he's gone out of his way in order to use his drug addled son is a bag man. No, it's just that he's still, he's still the best. He's just so Good. He's just so good. Well, it certainly can't be that Joe Biden is corrupt. I mean, that dude is honest as the day is long. Well, if you believe that one, I'll tell you another. It turns out that all the companies you support are actually concerned. No, they're not. They're not. They're not. Here's the thing. While the progressive grinches running woke corporations are tearing down traditions. Jeremy's Razors is here to help you save them. Behold Jeremy's Razors. Cyber Monday deals are here. Save 30% site wide stocking stuffers under 15 bucks. Shave hair and body bundles under 50 bucks. Plus get free shipping on qualifying orders. Keep Christmas woke free. Order right now@jeremysrazors.com Some exclusions apply. See website for details. It's no secret that anti gun legislation is on the ballot this election season. It is more important now than ever before to support those who are fighting for your second amendment rights. This is where my friends at Silencer Shop come in. They don't just sell silencers. 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So if you want to protect your rights and enjoy a better shooting experience, visit silencershop.comshapiro today. That's silencershop.com Shapiro Silencer Shop is the easiest and best way to get your suppressor. Some of Biden's support team is beside itself today. MSNBC contributor Charlie Sykes, former Republican, he said, quote, smart person, text me Joe Biden has just removed the issue of pardons from the political arena for the next four years. And Trump probably once again can't believe his own dumb effing luck at this point. Sadly, I think he's right. Now again, that's probably true. Meanwhile, Chris Chaliza over at cnn, he says, quote, a colossally selfish decision that will allow every Trump supporter to note the Democrats say one thing and do another. Well, yeah, I mean, that's certainly true, but this was always true. It was always true. And y'all who were attempting to say that Joe Biden was above the fray. Democrats were above the fray. They would never militarize or weaponize the justice system. They would never militarize or weaponize the deep state. They are so honest. Donald Trump is the person who disturbed normal. And all this demonstrates the Hunter Biden pardon is what I've been saying all along about Donald Trump and the American political system. Donald Trump is not the murderer. He is the coroner. He always was in 2016. The reason he won is because of a widespread perception that American politics was corrupt and that Hillary Clinton was at the apex of that corruption. And that was true. And the same thing just happened in 2024 because people perceive that about Joe Biden as well, the vile dishonesty, the supreme and thoroughgoing corruption. Donald Trump is not the person who made all of that happen in American politics. He's the person who came along and pointed out that that it was happening and everybody went, well, yep, I guess that's true. And meanwhile, this is also one of the reasons why Donald Trump yesterday announced that he was going to be nominating Cash Patel to the position of FBI director. So we should note here, Democrats spent all of the first Trump administration attempting to weaponize career appointees inside the executive agencies against Donald Trump. That was particularly true with the FBI, which absolutely outdid itself in its corruption during the Trump administration won. As the Wall Street Journal points out, we advised Trump in January 2017 to fire then director James Comey. Mr. Trump eventually fired Comey that spring after much self imposed political damage. You'll remember that it was Comey who had effectively leaked the Steele dossier into public view by presenting it to Trump. And then someone said, hey, by the way, to buzzfeed, by the way, this file has been presented to Trump. And then magically they had a news hook and it went out in public. As the Wall Street Journal points out, the FBI's abuses under Mr. Comey were the worst since J. Edgar Hoover. As documented by the Justice Department Inspector General and Special Counsel John Durham. Officials lied to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to get a warrant against Trump campaign official Carter Page. They also lied about the disinformation in the Steele dossier which was financed by the Hillary Clinton campaign. This is how you get cash. Patel, who worked for GOP Representative Devin Nunes on the House Intelligence Committee at the time. We had him on the show at the time, Devin Nunes, and he helped uncover a lot of these FISA abuses. So now Patel, who worked for Nunes and uncovered an enormous amount of the scandalous behavior by the FBI surrounding Russiagate, now he is the person who's going to be up for running the FBI. Again. This is a direct result of Democrats believing that they get an unelected branch of government in order to effectuate their own policy in defiance of the president, who's the head of that branch. Here, for example, is Jeffrey Goldberg, in execrable, editor of the Atlantic, stenographer for Barack Obama. Just an awful person, Jeffrey Goldberg, suggesting, you know, his hope that maybe people inside the executive agencies can thwart these nominees and what they're about to do. Can the people who are working there actually thwart, to use the word of the day, thwart what these nominees, what these future Cabinet secretaries want to do? Up to a point, sure. I mean, because the machinery of government works slowly, right? It's very hard to simply dictate a dramatic change. There are ways that people in the civil service can resist or slow walk things. There are ways in which lawsuits can be brought there, ways in which Congress can raise questions. This Congress probably won't raise many of those questions, but that could be done if things get out of hand. Again, just insane. I mean, this is the attempt, the open attempt by members of the media to get members of the executive branch agencies to defy the President. This is why Donald Trump wants to clean house. Because the same DOJ that came after him, the same DOJ that was involved in Russiagate and the FBI that was involved in Russiagate, this is why he's appointing people like Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi or Cash Patel over FBI in order to clean house. That is the entire idea here. So who is Cash Patel? He previously served as a U.S. national Security Council official and Chief of Staff to the Acting Secretary of Defense. And as we say, he really first made his bones attempting to uncover Russiagate. President Trump made the announcement, quote, I am proud to announce that Kashap Kash Patel will serve as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Cash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and America first fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending justice, and protecting the American people. He played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution. Cash did an incredible job during my first term, where he served as Chief of Staff at the Department of Defense, Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council. Cash has tried over 60 jury trials. This FBI will end the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the border. Cash will work under our great AG Pam Bondi to bring back fidelity, bravery and integrity to the FBI. So a lot of people have a lot of heartburn over Cash Patel today. The reason, again, Cash Patel is being nominated in the first place, is because of widespread perceptions of political corruption inside of the FBI. So Chris Wray, who was a Trump appointee in the first place, he is serving a 10 year term, so he'll be in year seven when he is presumably fired by Donald Trump, which, of course, Trump does have the constitutional ability to do. You'll remember that just a few months ago, he was specifically asked about the assassination attempt on Trump, and he suggested that maybe Trump had not been hit by a bullet, he'd been hit by shrapnel. It's just insane. As I said, I think with respect to former President Trump, there's some question about whether or not it's a bullet or shrapnel that, you know, that hit his ear. So it's conceivable, as I sit here right now, I don't know whether that bullet, in addition to, you know, causing the grazing, could have also landed somewhere else. I mean, this is ridiculous, ridiculous stuff. Of course, he had to clarify afterward, Ray also admitted that the FBI handed matters terribly during the Russiagate scandal, but that the inspector general did find a number of instances where employees either failed to follow our policies, neglected to exercise appropriate diligence, or in some other way fell short of the standard of conduct and performance that we and that I as director expect of all of our employees. But again, we are, I am ordering 40 over 40 corrective actions to address all of those things in a way that's robust and serious. And we're determined to learn the lessons from this report and make sure the FBI emerges from this even better and stronger. Okay, well, the FBI so far has not emerged better or stronger. That's presumably the reason why Donald Trump is now going to attempt to clean house. Now, a lot of the objections to Cash Patel have come from some of the comments that he has made in the past regarding what he plans to do about political opponents he believes have committed criminal violations. Cash Patel, for example, appeared on War Room with Steve Bannon and he talked about what the FBI might do with regard to opponents inside the FBI. For example, we're going to come after.
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Corinne Jean-Pierre
The people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We're going to come after you, whether it's criminally or civilly. We'll figure that out. But, yeah, we're putting you all on notice.
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Ben Shapiro
Okay, so comments like that, obviously not particularly useful when you're talking about law enforcement agencies and the power of the federal government to do things like surveillance. But he's gonna have to act within the boundaries of the law. He's just saying the quiet part out loud. The same thing that Janet Reno and Eric Holder and Merrick Garland have actually effectuated. Patel has also, to his credit, suggested the decentralization of the FBI. And he suggests that 7,000 FBI agents should be out there on the streets rather than spending their time tracking down Russiagate nonsense.
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Corinne Jean-Pierre
Then we need to decrease what I call government creepy with personnel. The FBI's footprint has gotten so freaking big. And the biggest problem the FBI has had has come out of its intel shops. I'd break that component out of it. I'd shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopening the next day as a museum of the deep state. And I take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals. Go be cops. You're cops. Go be cops. Go chase down murderers and rapists and drug dealers and violent offenders. What do you need 7,000 people there for? Same thing with DOJ. What are all these people doing here? Looking for the next government promotion. Looking for their next fancy government title. Looking for their parachute out of government. So while you're bringing in the right people, you also have to shrink government.
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Ben Shapiro
Okay, again, all of that sounds not only perfectly reasonable, but perfectly necessary. And of course, as we say, Patel made his bones going after Russiagate. Here he was talking about how Russiagate was a hoax.
- [30:31]
Corinne Jean-Pierre
Chris Wray, the director of the FBI, and Rod Rosenstein, the deputy Attorney general then of the doj, were tasked with helping us at Congress, where I ran the Russiagate investigation to expose Russiagate. We went to them and said, look, you guys didn't do this, help us expose it. And they both doubled down. You know what they did? They launched an investigation against me, the senior congressional investigator for Russiagate on the House Intelligence Committee, and six other staffers. They use grand jury subpoenas to get my personal information, my banking information, my emails, my cell phone information, and everything.
- [31:06]
Ben Shapiro
Else. Good. And now Donald Trump is making a habit, I think it's a good habit of taking people who are victimized by the system and putting them in charge of the system so as to cleanse the system. In a second, we'll get to Democratic objections to Cash Patel first. Our best deal of the year isn't done yet. Cyber Monday is here. That means you can still get 50% off new Daily Wire plus annual memberships. No codes required. Just head on over to DailyWire.com subscribe Become members today for half the regular price with DailyWire. Plus, you get it all. Uncensored daily shows with limited ads, live breaking news you can trust. Unlimited access to our full catalog of entertainment that is reshaping the culture. From the number one documentary of the decade, Am I Racist? To Dr. Jordan B. Peterson's incredible new series, the Gospels. Plus so much more. It is all waiting for you. With your support, we'll continue to fight the left and build the future. Join us right now. Go to dailywire.com cyber Monday. Now, remember, for Democrats, they have to simultaneously claim that their weaponization of the institutions isn't happening and that when it is happening, it is good. It's not happening and it's good. So when it comes to, for example, the FBI, the claim is that it's never been weaponized. The DOJ has never been weaponized. So Representative Jamie Raskin, who took the lead in the impeachment trials of Donald Trump in the House, he says he has no proof that the FBI or DOJ were ever weaponized at any point, under any circumstances. How weird. I haven't seen what the proof is that the FBI has been weaponized against a political party or the Department of Justice. Of course, this Department of Justice has.
- [32:28]
Andrew McCabe
Brought charges against a Democratic US Senator in New Jersey, a Democratic congressman in Texas. And so some people just seem to.
- [32:38]
Ben Shapiro
Think that it should go only in one direction. And if it doesn't, then somehow it's politicized. And I think that's what they mean.
- [32:47]
Andrew McCabe
When they talk about politicization in the deep state.
- [32:50]
Ben Shapiro
No, what they're talking about is the DOJ being weaponized against Donald Trump while trying to cut sweetheart deals with Hunter Biden, only to be thwarted. And then Joe Biden pardons Hunter. Or maybe what they mean is the FBI being utilized in order to get surveillance warrants against members of the Trump campaign and then leaders of the FBI working along with the media in order to leak false documentation from Hillary Clinton into public view. Maybe that would be the thing. Maybe it's that Speaking of which, former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe is very upset about Cash Patel. He suggests that Trump is planning to dismantle the FBI.
- [33:24]
Andrew McCabe
What does this signal in terms of.
- [33:26]
Ben Shapiro
Donald Trump's intent for the FBI, the installation or the nomination? I guess we should say at this point of Cash Patel as FBI director can only possibly be a plan to disrupt, to dismantle, to distract the FBI and to possibly use it as a tool for the president's political agenda. Now, again, listening to Andrew McCabe talk about politicization as though he was not involved is insane. You'll remember that he was actually fired originally back in March of 2018 because he allegedly had been leaking information from the FBI to the Wall Street Journal in an attempt to demonstrate the FBI had actually been going after Hillary Clinton. And then he was dishonest about it. He lost his pension temporarily and all the rest. These are the people who are at the FBI. We'll get to more on this in a second. But first, as a potential homebuyer, you've likely been waiting on the sidelines through some challenging times. Between the pandemic, inflation, limited housing inventory, and rising interest rates, the real estate market has been very unpredictable. But here's the good news. Conditions are improving. It's worth considering making your move now, before the traditional spring surge brings more competition and potentially higher prices. You might be thinking, Ben, isn't winter a terrible time to buy with the holidays? Actually, winter can be a smart time to enter the market. There are typically fewer bidding wars. That means you may have more negotiating power and better opportunities to find good deals. Here's how you get started. Go to ChurchillMortgage.com Churchill Mortgage is the company I trust to help you. I've met with the president of Churchill. They are committed to finding the right loan for your financial situation. They want to make sure they do right by you. Churchill gives you additional advantages as a buyer, including a $10,000 seller guarantee Churchill will pay for. They even have programs to help you compete with cash offers. With rates trending down, this could be your moment. Churchillmortgage.com Shapiro tell your loan officer I sent you. They'll be in good hands. This is a paid advertisement. Homebuyer edge and seller guarantee are available for qualifying borrowers and select loan types only. Not available in all states or locations and MLS ID1591mlsconsumeraccess.org, = housing lender 1749 Mallory Lynn Brentwood, Tennessee 37027 Meanwhile, the panel at MSNBC, which is perfectly happy with weaponization of the executive branch so long as it's against. A Republican is very upset about this.
- [35:31]
Andrew McCabe
Cash Patel as FBI director would be.
- [35:33]
Ben Shapiro
Like if you crossed Alex Jones with.
- [35:35]
Andrew McCabe
J. Edgar Hoover in terms of just how much he would want to ignore precedent and the constraints that have been put onto the FBI over the years.
- [35:43]
Ben Shapiro
With all of the conspiracy theorizing, all.
- [35:46]
Andrew McCabe
The eagerness to ban the flames of the worst instincts of President Trump put into power, those two things should never mix. Cash Patel has them both, and he is a couple of votes away from.
- [35:59]
Ben Shapiro
That happening once he's put before the Senate again. All these folks care about is weaponization of the government on their own behalf. But the reality is that one of the chief missions of the new Trump administration is going to be to defenestrate all of those who would be involved in the left wing politicization of these departments. This is why, for example, the head of the NIH is now presumably going to be Jay Bhattacharya. As the New York Times points out, the National Institutes of Health, the world's leading public funder of biomedical research, has an enviable track record. No surprise, the agency has been called the crown jewel of the federal government. But come January, when President Elect Trump and congressional Republicans take charge, the NIH may face a reckoning. Well, yeah, because it deserves a reckoning. Have you seen some of the idiotic studies funded by the nih? They spend literally billions of dollars on absolute sheer nonsense gobbledygook that has nothing to do with actual science. Bhattacharya has called for dramatic restructuring for the nih. He says it's led by small minded bureaucrats, which is true. According to the New York Times, many fear the next administration will nonetheless weaken the nih, divesting from critical research with long lasting consequences for science, innovation and public health. But that, of course, is nonsense. Jay Bhattachary is a well known researcher from Stanford University. He's not intending on preventing them from doing research. He wants them to be able to duplicate research, for example. They also want to be able to fund studies that aren't necessarily politically correct. He says he wants to restructure the agency, says Bhattacharya, so the power is decentralized from, quote, a small number of scientific bureaucrats. He is correct about all of that. The people who were victimized by these institutions are now going to be the people who are in charge of these institutions. And that needs to happen because the thoroughgoing corruption of institutions, both in the government and sort of at the gunpoint of government. That's very real. So Marc Andreessen, who of course is a billionaire venture capitalist from Silicon Valley, he was on Joe Rogan last week. He did a pretty stunning episode with Joe Rogan talking about the phenomenon of what is called debanking. This would be people who are on the right predominantly who are cut off from the banking and financial system for political reasons, largely because of pressure from government. Here he was describing the phenomenon.
- [38:06]
Joe Biden
So debanking is when you as either a person or your company are literally kicked out of the banking system.
- [38:11]
Andrew McCabe
Like they did to Kanye.
- [38:12]
Joe Biden
Exactly like they did to Kanye. My partner Ben's father has been debanked.
- [38:16]
Ben Shapiro
Really?
- [38:16]
Joe Biden
We had an employee for what? For having the wrong politics. For saying unacceptable things under current banking regulations. Under. Okay, here's a great thing. Under current banking regulations, after, after all the reforms of the last 20 years, there's now a category called a politically exposed person pep. And if you are a pep, you are required by financial regulators to kick them off, to kick them out of your bank. You're not allowed to have.
- [38:39]
Andrew McCabe
What if you're politically on the left?
- [38:40]
Joe Biden
Well, that's fine. No, because they're not politically exposed.
- [38:44]
Andrew McCabe
So no one on the left gets debanked.
- [38:46]
Joe Biden
I have not heard of a single instance of anybody on the left getting debanked.
- [38:48]
Andrew McCabe
Can you tell me what the person that you know did what they said.
- [38:52]
Ben Shapiro
That got them debanked?
- [38:53]
Joe Biden
Oh, well, I mean, David Hurwitz is a right wing. He's. I mean, he said all kinds of things. You know, he's been very anti Islamic terrorism. He's been very worried about migration, all these things.
- [39:01]
Ben Shapiro
And they debanked him for that.
- [39:02]
Joe Biden
Yeah, they debanked. So you get kicked out of. You get kicked out of your bank account. You get, you get kicked out of the. You can't do credit card transactions, by the way. And you can't. Why was that legal? Well, exactly. So this is the thing. And so. And then you go to this thing of like. Well, there's no. This is where the government and the companies get intertwined. Back to your fascism point, which is there's no, There's a constitutional amendment that says the government restrict your speech, but there's no constitutional amendment that says the government can't debank you. If they can't do the one thing, they do the other thing. And then they don't have to debank you. They just have to put pressure on the private company banks to do it. And then the private company. Banks do it because they're expected to, but the government gets to say, we didn't do it. It was the private company that did it. And of course, JP Morgan can decide who they want to have as customers. Of course. Right. Is their private company. And so it's this sleight of hand that happens.
- [39:46]
Ben Shapiro
He's totally right about this. I've spoken about this repeatedly myself. I testified before Congress about the sort of soft pressure from Democrats on social media that push social media to work with organizations that are now disbanded, like Garm, which was a consortium of advertisers who got together and decided that they just were going to boycott basically anything that was on the right. Only public exposure forced Garm to essentially disband. The same thing is happening in the banking industry. This is happening in social media. There was a Supreme Court case a little bit earlier this year in which the Supreme Court wrongly found, in my opinion, a 6, 3 majority wrongly found that people who sued the federal government for putting pressure on Facebook to take down their posts didn't have standing. That's ridiculous. But it's these sorts of problems that Trump World is there to fix. Trump World is going to have to be very creative about how they go about all of this. But if you're wondering why precisely Donald Trump is putting all these disruptors in positions of power, the answer is because the system is entirely corrupt. Now, again, these people, I think that they're going to have to be very meticulous in how they go about depoliticking these institutions. The best way to do it, as Cash Patel himself suggests right there, is to shrink them dramatically. It turns out that with enormous power, with huge staffing, with literally 2 million people in the executive branch, it's very easy to exert the levers of pressure against people that you don't like from inside the government and using the government as a pressure tool against private industry and get private industry to do your dirty work. The way that Marc Andreessen is talking about right there. The best way to do this would be to shrink government. This is one of the reasons why, more than even cutting government spending, what I think the Department of Government Efficiency under Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy really needs to focus on. It's less about cuts than it is about cutting the staffing. It's about shrinking the mandate of these particular branches of the government that are totally unanswerable. What just happened with Joe and Hunter Biden is the most obvious symptom of a far graver disease. That has now spread throughout the executive branch of the government. People in positions of power who are willing to do the most corrupt things available in order to benefit themselves and harm their political opponents. And again, this is like the ring of power and people think they can wield it. Fairly inaccurate. Wrong. It needs to be thrown into the fiery furnace from whence it came. Needs to be thrown into Mount Doom. And that means shrinking the size and scope of the federal government dramatically, particularly inside the executive branch. Joining us online is my friend Greg Hurwitz. You of course know him as a novelist and a screenwriter, but also from his appearance in our brand new Dailywire series, the Gospel is a 10 part follow up to the highly acclaimed Exodus series with Dr. Jordan B. Peterson. Greg is one of the chief guests, one of the chief panelists in the Gospel series. Greg, thanks so much for joining the show. Really appreciate it.
- [42:28]
Andrew McCabe
Yeah, it's good to see you.
- [42:30]
Ben Shapiro
So first of all, let's talk about what it was like to be in the room to do the series. Obviously this is your second time doing this sort of thing. What distinguished the Gospels from Exodus in terms of how it went?
- [42:41]
Andrew McCabe
Well, I thought it was great. I met a lot of people for the first time on Exodus. I thought it went spectacularly. And so it was really great going into gospels as I felt like there was a lot of, not just trust and rapport, but there was a lot of respect for everyone's particular perspective that they were going to bring to it. Whenever you're approaching anything that's this powerful narrative that this, that's this powerful. I think it's very important that it gets encouraged to be approached with respect and skepticism and differences in discussion and negotiation. And so it was really great having everyone there. I'd say the one person we really missed was Oz Guinness. It would have been wonderful to have evangelical in the mix there, but it was terrific. And I feel like all the different perspectives coming in and around this central story were really key.
- [43:29]
Ben Shapiro
So the first couple episodes are already out. That, of course, is episode one, which covers the birth, youth and baptism of Jesus in episode two, which is the beginning of his ministry. But what is your favorite episode that you guys filmed?
- [43:42]
Andrew McCabe
I'm not sure which number it is, but I loved when we were going into, you know, for me it's the Last Supper is so poignant. And this notion that we discuss where, you know, when people read the, when people read the gospels, everybody thinks that the key point to relate to is to relate to Jesus. And what's so interesting to me is the notion that we are all of the different characters, as in any biblical text. And we discussed this somewhat in Exodus, but, you know, we're Judas and we are Paul and we are. You know, we're the ones who deny we're everything. And it's this beautiful kind of constellation of different perspectives and personalities. And I love how that all comes together at the Last Supper. My favorite moment is probably the. The denying Christ three times before the crow speaks at mourn, because it sort of tells you that no matter how close you are to any version of spirituality, there's still things within you that'll break and that'll cave. So it's an amazing story in which I think everybody fails. Every single person fails in some manner, except for Jesus. It's an incredible text, and I think it's. Look, I'm very grateful to the Daily Wire to just completely left us alone to have whatever sort of debate, disagreement, commentary that we wanted. It was total intellectual and spiritual freedom. It's a very, very loaded text, obviously. And it's something that migrates from the profane in both directions of what can be discussed and what can't be discussed. And I think it's gotta be explored with this level of openness.
- [45:14]
Ben Shapiro
So obviously, the west is experiencing a spiritual crisis right now. I think that the reception so far has been incredible. Why do you think the Gospels is so particularly relevant right now? You could have picked a lot of different biblical books to move through. I think Jordan picked the Gospels after having done Exodus. What makes this so relevant?
- [45:30]
Andrew McCabe
Well, I mean, I think in a lot of ways, you know, even though me, you and Prager are holding down the Hebraic end of the scale and Exodus, you know, this is the. This is the foundational story for the entirety of the West. And, you know, I think it's something that really differentiates. We've been talking a lot in general, in all of our different ways and avenues about the fact that the west is undergoing some form of disintegration and what are unifying stories that we can all get behind. And I think that if we can approach the story of the Gospels as something that's foundational. I mean, I grew up without. I mean, obviously in a Jewish household. We weren't reading this, but I was reading Divine Comedy, I was reading Shakespeare. It just shot through all of the art and the foundational value set of the West. And I think it's incredibly important to explore it and to be able to approach it from all these different perspectives, not just from a sort of straight religious perspective, but to be able to really come up to the text and explore and walk all the way around it, it is foundational look. And I also think there's something about it. It is the. In a lot of ways, it's the archetypal hero narrative. I mean, everything about that story is so condensed and selected, and it's just so. It's so tight, you know, it's a. It's a person least deserving who's met with all of the. Every single possible wrong and corruption that the world can throw at him and manages it with higher grace. It's just. It's an extraordinary hero story, just own merits, even if you explore it as just as a myth or just as a piece of literature. And of course, we explored it a lot more than just those ways.
- [47:02]
Ben Shapiro
We're speaking with Greg Hurwitz, so you've been doing a lot of work on a bunch of other topics as well. You have a recent short film called Ask an Iranian and the Truth about the Middle east, which talks about what the Islamic Republic of Iran has been doing. Why don't you talk a little bit about that?
- [47:15]
Andrew McCabe
Well, you know, one of the things I think that's very important is that we talk. You know, we talk among the. We've seen this explosion of Jew hate. Obviously, you've seen that, I think, firsthand and up close as much as anybody has in the world. It's very important that we step back from just talking about it in the context of how that is damaging or comes at Jews, and look at what a shared narrative set is that we all want to have. And so within the community, obviously there's a lot of conversation around with Jews about what's happening. But so much of this is what is the value set that we're going to aspire to? What are the things that we're going to stand for? And the Iranian American population and the diaspora in general and the Iranian people have been sort of spectacularly undeceived morally. I think in a time when a lot of people. There's a lot of false equivocation, there's a lot of people who can't figure out which side of this conflict they want to support, depending on which news sources they have, depending on which words are being used. And one of the things I noticed early on, from October 8th on, was the Iranian American community was just rock solid. And we thought, why don't we talk to them? Talk to a Muslim, talk to a Jew, talk to a gay Iranian, have them paint out this playbook and have them say what they saw when the Shah was deposed. And what they saw, of course, were the extremist radicalists partnering with Marxist students to overthrow the government. And so they have a sort of clarity on this playbook. They have a clarity on the propaganda and how it works. That's unbelievable. And because it's coming from them and it's applied to a time that is seemingly in the further past, there's an enormous amount of education that can happen, I think, to Americans. And it takes us out of the straight dynamic that we're used to because this is their own people. People in America still think about this as a conflict between Palestine and Israel. And it's a Palestine, it's a conflict between Israel and the fingers of the most misogynistic, hateful extremist regime in the world. It's a finger of them. And so I think it was just an enormous benefit to be able to bring the kind of grace and clarity and courage of the Iranian Americans to tell this story and then to sort of relate it to what's happening now. I think it was a very big wake up call.
- [49:28]
Ben Shapiro
Well, that's Greg Hurwitz. You can check out all of his work@gregh.net go check it out right now. And of course, check him out in our brand new series, the Gospel is available only at DailyWare Plus. Greg, thanks so much for the time. Really appreciate it.
- [49:39]
Andrew McCabe
Yep, good to see you, Ben.
- [49:41]
Ben Shapiro
All right, you guys. Coming up, Democrats continue to go radical on immigration for some odd reason. If you're not a member, become a member. Use Coach Shapiro. Check out for two months free on all annual plans. Click that link in the description and join us.