Stephen A. Smith (3:15)

Would you have taken that position if George Floyd was a Jewish person, a white Jewish person? If a black cop had his knee on a white Jewish person for over nine minutes, Ben Shapiro, would you have called for that individual to be pardoned?

Ben Shapiro (3:46)

Okay, so first of all, let's start with this. I don't know why he believes that it would be important, even for his stupid example, for it to be a quote unquote, white Jewish person as opposed to just a Jewish person. Right. His claim is that I am a tribal identitarian, and thus I would be very fine with the prosecution of a cop wrongfully if a Jew died under the knee of that cop, even if the cop was not responsible, if the fact patterns were exactly the same. But George Floyd had been named Harold Bernstein or something, and the cop was named George Floyd was a black guy. Okay, that is intensely stupid. It's intensely stupid for a variety of reasons. Why don't we begin with the first? This would not have been a national news story if that were the case. The reason this entire story was national news is because of the race of the people involved. In fact, when black people were routinely beating up Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, it was covered up by the New York Times and was not a national story. The reality is that this was made a national story specifically because the media had a preexisting narrative of race in America and this fulfilled their narrative even if the facts didn't match. Two if in fact the facts had matched. And let's say that this is a Jewish person. A Jewish person had been arrested for counterfeiting, for passing counterfeit bills and then had been high on fentanyl and had a preexisting heart condition and then had died under the knee of a cop. Would I have said that the cop was innocent? Yes, because if the cop is innocent, the cop is innocent. That's the way this works. The race or religion of the pseudo victim is irrelevant to the question of whether this person was in fact murdered or not. Stephen A. Smith is one of the deepest racial identitarians in our society. He does it all the time. All the time he does it. When he talks sports. It happens literally all the time. If you're talking about Nikola Jokic, the greatest center of our generation, he'll talk about how Nikola Jokic should not be included in conversations for MVPs specifically because of his race. The reason Stephen A. Smith is saying this kind of stuff is because he is projecting. He is projecting a racial conversation where none exists here. For example, was Stephen A. Smith just a couple of years ago. I'm a Celtics fan, so this one sprang to mind. A few years ago, Danny Ainge was the chief of basketball operations for the Boston Celtics and Brad Stevens was elevated to fill his position. Now it turns out Brad Stevens is a really, really good president of basketball operations. How do we know this? Well, the Celtics won an NBA championship last year and he's been one of the most successful NBA executives in all the NBA over the course of his tenure. But Stephen A. Smith was firmly convinced the only reason that Brad Stevens had been elevated is because of his race.

Stephen A. Smith (6:23)

It's moments like this where I get on people's nerve, particularly white America and the NBA community, specifically because I point out it's beautiful to be a white guy. It's just beautiful. You know, you're a question mark as a coach in some people's eyes, including in Boston. But somehow, some way you moving upstairs.

Ben Shapiro (6:54)

By the way, worth noting that his it's beautiful to be a white guy in America has not precluded Stephen A. Smith from a $100 million five year contract for ESPN, a failing network where the ratings are going down. The reason that Stephen A. Smith is exercised over the George Floyd situation is specifically because of a racial narrative that is not predicated on facts. And, and then he's projecting that into me being some sort of racist for suggesting that the racial narrative should not predominate. This is the whole reason that Black Lives Matter was such a mistake and such a fail, because it was racializing of a question that was not, in fact, racial. And this is, again, it's just more evidence that what I'm saying about Chauvin is true, that the reason that Derek Chauvin is in prison right now is because he was the wrong race and George Floyd was the wrong race. And because of that, Derek Chauvin is in prison right now because here's the dirty little secret. It never would have been a national news story if the races had been reversed or if both people had been white or if both people had been black. It would not have been a national news story. And that means that the officer would have been assessed on the facts of the situation rather than on the racial narrative people like Stephen A. Smith were propagating. And meanwhile, again, this is part and parcel of a broader left wing failure when it comes to narrative. The left wing narrative has failed on so many fronts. So Senator Alyssa Slotkin, who is from Michigan, and she was supposed to be the Trump response. Well, she said, listen, we're on our heels. And she's right. The Democrats are on their heels because in pretty much every narrative area, they're on their heels.

Chip Roy (8:19)

I don't think it's a secret that Democrats have been on their heels since Trump won the election.

Ben Shapiro (8:24)

Right.

Chip Roy (8:24)

I don't think that's something hidden. And I think it's on us to be clear about not only leadership, and there's lots of leaders in both parties, but, but also a strategy. Right. And I think that's something that, as Trump has been successful in flooding the zone, and just like every day, 15 things happening, we are still finding our footing. And I think you can't get better until you admit you have a. Have a problem.

Ben Shapiro (8:53)

So she will not admit the problem. However, she was asked about the fact that Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, is moving away from the men should play in women's sports routine. And she won't even address it. So you can't say that you admit you have a problem, but then not admit what the problem is.

Chip Roy (9:10)

But for me, it's like, let the local community figure this out, right? In Michigan, we have a process in place where if someone who's born a boy wants to play in women's sports, you have to get a waiver. We've had it happen two times in our entire state. So let the local communities, just like everything with school, handle that issue. For me though, I think you know this issue is being sort of brought up in order to make sparks and see sparks fly.

Ben Shapiro (9:37)

Okay, well then it would be very easy for you to avoid the sparks flying by simply saying the obvious thing, which is that boys should not play in girls sports. Get to more on that in a moment. First, only two things in life are certain death and taxes. Well, now there is a third certainty. If you're with Verizon at&t or T Mobile, you could be saving a fortune every month by switching on over to PureTalk. That's right, Pure Talk, my cell phone company, is cutting the fat from the wireless industry. For just 35 bucks a month, you can get unlimited Talk, text and 15 gigs of data with Hotspot on America's most dependable 5G network. The average family of four saves over a thousand dollars a year when they switch to Pure Talk. That's real money back in your pocket. Plus it's back when you switch to Pure Talk's super low $35 plan. This month you'll get one year of Daily Wire plus for free access to library of DW plus movies, series, documentaries including Lady Ballers, what is a woman, Mr. Bertram Run Hyde Fight and more. We've got uncensored ad free daily shows, one year free of the DW kids platform, bent key and of course the magical leftist tears Tumblr. The only way you get all that is by going to PureTalk.com Shapiro Switch on over to PureTalk at PureTalk.com/Shapiro Get a year of Daily Wire plus for free with a qualifying plan. PureTalk is wireless by Americans for AmericanSeaTalk.com Shapiro Also, let me tell you something. You know when you have one of those mattresses from the box stores, you really don't think about how bad it is until you get something new and better. That's what happened with me and Helix Mattress. You know that feeling where you wake up and your back is already complaining at you? That was me. A lot like the mattress was sagging. It would absorb heat. It was really bad. But then I switched on over to Helix and I wake up feeling ready to take on even my busiest days in the craziest headlines. Here's what makes Helix different. They don't believe in one size fits all sleep solutions. Instead, they use their sleep quiz to match you with a custom mattress based on your body type and sleep preferences. Whether you sleep hot, need extra support for your back, or share your bed with a restless partner, Helix has a perfect match for you. Honestly, my mattress from Helix, it's so good. When I'm on the road, it is very difficult for me to sleep nearly as well. Right now, Helix is offering an incredible March madness sale. Visit helixleep.comBen get 20% off site wide. That's helixleep.comBen for 20% off site wide again, just visit helixleep.comBen for this exclusive offer. It's helixsleep.comBen and you get 20% off site wide. Democrats have lost the thread here, and so many of them are just doubling down on the most extreme elements of their agenda. So, for example, MSNBC host Melissa Murray asked Representative Al Green, you'll remember him from being ejected during the pseudo State of the Union address, if the Democrats were being too conciliatory with President Trump. Do you think your colleagues in the.

Chip Roy (12:04)

Democratic Party are being too civil during this time when American rights and freedoms are literally on the line?

Al Green (12:11)

Well, thank you for having me. I think we're at a point where we're making decisions as to how we should move forward. I believe that we have to move forward with righteous incivility. This is what we engaged in when we sang We Shall Overcome and what I engaged in when I stood and indicated that the president didn't have a mandate to cut Medicaid.

Ben Shapiro (12:37)

Mm. Mm. Yes. They're not. They're not being loud enough. They need righteous incivility. Okay. Good luck with that. Now, there are dangers to the Trump administration. I've been saying this for weeks now. The main danger to the Trump administration is the economy tanking. That is the number one danger to the Trump administration. One of the things that's for sure going to affect the economy is impending talk of a government shutdown. So the government must be funded in very near term or we're gonna get our government shutdown. Democrats, of course, are not going to help out with that. Some Republicans are saying that they are willing to undergo a government shutdown in order to lower spending. Thomas Massie, again, is sort of the guy who's constantly Leroy Jenkins Ing every. Every sort of fiscal negotiations. He's just. Just assume he's a no, always and forever because he. He thinks spending is bad. Agree. Spending is bad. Also, you're not doing anything useful right now. In any case, this has become a very contentious issue on the right side of the aisle. One of the reasonable members of Congress who is in fact, a deep fiscal conservative is Representative Chip Roy, who joins us on the line. He, of course represents Texas 21st congressional district, one of the strongest fiscal conservatives in Congress. Chip, thanks so much for joining the show. Really appreciate it.

Al Green (13:43)

Great to be on, Ben, I hope you're well.

Ben Shapiro (13:46)

So let's talk about this continuing resolution. There, I think are several different caucuses. Obviously, on the Republican side of the government, there are people who will kind of go along with any spending bill. And then there are people like you who are actual fiscal conservatives but wish to live in a world in which reality applies. And then, and there are a couple of people who I think are more interested in shouting at the wind than actually doing anything. So when it comes to this continuing resolution, as one of the most fiscally conservative members of Congress, why should conservatives go along with this continuing resolution? The argument from the sort of shouting against the wind types is, well, we always say we're gonna fight to live to fight another day, but we never fight another day. Why on this one aren't we just fight, fight, fighting?

Al Green (14:26)

Yeah, Ben, look, I'm not a huge fan of the kick the can down the road continuing resolution as a, you know, as the best form of government, how we fund our government. But what I do believe is that you've got to figure out how to empower President Trump and Elon to continue to keep the lights on to carry out doge, to identify the cuts and the waste that we've been identifying in a mere six weeks, by the way, to add on to what we'd already started doing as fiscal conservatives two years ago through the Speaker's fight, you Remember with Kevin McCarthy, where we forced a bunch of votes on amendments and started to change this place. Now's our chance to finish the job. This bill freezes spending. It's actually, I think, a slight reduction. I'm still combing through it. We got it Saturday. I think it's a slight reduction, give or take. But it's a spending freeze. It's less than 100 pages or fewer than 100 pages. It has no earmarks. It doesn't allow the defense hawks who really wanted a whole bunch more money to screw up the whole process by throwing a bunch of money in it. And then the non defense Democrats want more money. So this is a win to keep the lights on for six months for Elon. The Democrats have threatened to shut down so they can stop Elon. So this puts them in a box. It's the most fiscally responsible thing we can do at this moment. But Then we'll have to do our job in the appropriations process for this next cycle, which, by the way, this appropriation cycle ends on September 30th. So we've got to get all that passed for FY26 by September. So we should focus on that and then get reconciliation done, which is where we deal with mandatory spending and tax policy. So it's a win. I think the president wants it. We want it. There's a handful of holdouts who are saying, oh, it's not good enough, guys. This is a win to free spending and to give them power to continue to find cuts and doge.

Ben Shapiro (16:11)

And I think the reality is that, you know, people in my industry, the sort of conservative media industry, it's always in our interest to claim that it's just insufficient fight on the part of Republicans. That leads to all of this stuff, which ignores, of course, all the incentive structures. And as to how Congress actually works, there are a bunch of Republicans who are in purple districts. There are a bunch of Republicans who are even in blue districts. And the fact is that when you have a majority that is as slim as the majority of Republicans are currently working with the idea that under this Congress, you're gonna restructure Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid so as to solve the national debt. I mean, I'm wondering how we're supposed to get from point A to point B. You kind of get the best that you can get.

Al Green (16:45)

Yeah. And look, and I think, and I'm always weary as you are and should be, we both should be, of the excuses in this town. There's always an excuse not to deliver. What I would push back on people right now is we're delivering. A spending freeze in an inflationary environment is a huge win. Trust me. We budgeted for a freeze in our budget that we passed out a few weeks ago. You hold spending flat for four years, for example. And while the economy is growing and we grow out of it, you save a trillion dollars over 10 years. In other words, freezing spending and doing our job to get tax policy and regulatory policy to allow. For example, Marco Rubio just this morning, there's a report that says they're gonna cut 83% of the USAID contracts. So I've got conservatives going, why are we gonna fund usaid? Guys? We're not. We've got funding in there, but they're gonna stop the contracts so we can get that money, and then Russ Vote can impound that money through the Office of Management and Budget. We think that's constitutional. We'll have to fight that through the courts. But you gotta give us time. You gotta give the President time, you gotta give Russ vote time, you gotta give Elon time. This is a win.

Ben Shapiro (17:56)

So Chip, when it comes to impoundment, obviously, as you say, it's gonna get hashed out by the courts. If the courts come down the other way on impoundment, then there's been talk that Congress might consider rescission. There might be a move to basically with 51 votes in the Senate. So you don't actually have to overcome a filibuster, rescind much of the spending that's, that's being impounded right now. Do you see that as a viable option?

Al Green (18:16)

I do. First of all, for your listeners out there, impoundment I do believe is constitutional. I think Congress overstepped its bounds in limiting the President's authority as the chief executive to not spend every dollar like they don't need. There's no constitutional requirement that he has to spend every dollar a certain way. He's the executive. Secondly, if that fails, if the courts kill that, I don't believe they will. Then in addition to there's rescission authority, now we can start precision, but then that requires 60 votes in the Senate or the White House can send us rescissions and then it can go through the House and the Senate at a majority vote, 51 in the Senate. So they're working on that plan. There are other tools that I'm not going to get into right now. I'm not going to get in front of the administration on some of these things that they can do to carry out spending restraint. And then finally in reconciliation, we have the power to do a lot at a 51 vote threshold. That's why we passed the budget. Jodi Arrington, to get Medicaid reform and the things that we need to do to save money while people can maintain benefits. But we can save hundreds of billions, trillions of dollars if we do our part in that. So this is all a part of the process.

Ben Shapiro (19:22)

Well, Chip, really appreciate the insight. I know that everything is high pitch these days and really appreciate your rational perspective on these things.

Al Green (19:30)

Thanks Ben. God bless you. Appreciate being on now.

Ben Shapiro (19:33)

In order for the economy not to tank, you need predictability and you need reliability. I'm not just hearing this from people who are on the left or in the center. I'm hearing this from business people who are on the right. And as a business person who is on the right, you know what I want in my economy? I want a sense of predictability. So certain things that President Trump is doing do give that sense of predictability. So, for example, we know there's gonna be a move to maintain taxes at current rates. That's great. That means I know exactly what to expect in terms of my taxes. We. We know that regulations are likely to become less onerous. That's wonderful. I know precisely what to expect when it comes to the tariffs. The tariffs are incredibly chaotic. And the way they've been rolled out so far, which is sort of like a hokey pokey, we'll put a tariff in, we'll take a tariff out, we'll put a tariff in, and we'll move it all about. Like, that particular approach disquiets markets. It means that you don't know whether to invest in a particular contract. If you have inputs from foreign countries, you don't know whether to resign that contract. And you also don't know whether you are going to want to sign a domestic contract because maybe the tariff doesn't go into place and now you're paying twice what you otherwise would have paid. This sort of uncertainty is not good for the broader business community, which is why you see the Dow Jones Industrial Average giving up all of the gains since President Trump's election. So President Trump was asked about this over the weekend, and he said that he doesn't need to be clearer on tariffs.

Chip Roy (20:47)

Will we have clarity?

Stephen A. Smith (20:48)

You'll have a lot, but we may go up with some tariffs. It depends. We may go up. I don't think we'll go down, but we may go up and. But, you know, they have plenty of clarity. They just use that. That's like almost a sound bite. They always say that we want clarity.

Ben Shapiro (21:05)

Well, that's not a sound bite. That's a reality. And again, I'm supporting President Trump here. I want Trump's economy to boom. And I can say, as a business person with hundreds of employees, I want to know what, what comes next, because that's how I game for how I spend and how I save and how I invest. And that's true for every major or minor business person in the country. Now, President Trump, to his credit, is being cautious about his predictions. Howard Lutnick, his commerce secretary, was on the Sunday shows and he said, don't worry, no recession is coming. And you know his mouth to God's ears. Should Americans brace for a recession?

Al Green (21:45)

Absolutely not.

Ben Shapiro (21:47)

Anybody who bets against Donald Trump, it's like the same people who thought Donald Trump wasn't a winner a year ago. Donald Trump is a winner. He's going to win for the American people. That's just the way it's going to be. There's going to be no recession in America. Okay? Now, again, I hope that's true, and I generally believe that that is true. However, uncertainty is, in fact, uncertainty. President Trump was asked the same exact question about now or later, and he said, listen, I'm not gonna make any predictions about the economy. Which, by the way, is the smart response on this. President Trump has a good feel for this. A smart response is, I don't know what's gonna happen. Because the problem is, if you say there's gonna be no recession and then there is one recessionary quarter, it's all over the TV for the next three years. This is the lesson that should have been learned during the Biden administration, when the Biden administration, the Federal Reserve, called inflation transitory. And it's now four years later, and inflation is not transitory. Are you expecting a recession this year?

Stephen A. Smith (22:41)

I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we're doing is very big. We're bringing wealth back to America. That's a big thing. And there are always periods of. It takes a little time. It takes a little time. But I don't. I think it should be great for us. I mean, I think it should be great.

Ben Shapiro (23:05)

Okay, now, again, if the idea here is that we are ratcheting up pressure to then ratchet back down the tariffs, okay, if the idea is that we're trying to pry wins out of other countries, okay, I'm there. If the idea is that tariffs themselves are going to be good for the country, I have yet to see a situation in which that is true. That is not from the 19th century, when trade internationally was significantly more limited and spending, by the way, was significantly more limited domestically. Speaking as we spoke about last week, the reality is that while we are subsidizing a lot of businesses elsewhere through global trade in our markets, everybody else is subsidizing our welfare state by buying our bonds. That is a reality. And meanwhile, the question is whether these tariffs are being put on in order to drive, again, an ancillary outcome. Right? It's not about the economy. It's about, for example, fentanyl. That was the case that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was making over the weekend. That this is all about fentanyl.

Chip Roy (23:59)

It really is about fentanyl. It really is. And I think the president obviously wants a strong economy, obviously wants better trade deals as well, but this is about fentanyl. And what we can do to stop the cartels from partnering with Chinese officials, laundering money, and bringing a poison into our country that is specifically designed to kill the next generation.

Ben Shapiro (24:20)

Okay? So again, if the idea is, let's make Canada arm up the border and militarize the border, all right, fine. Okay. The problem is that the metrics that are being used, like I want the deliverable, because that way you get a win, right? If President Trump says, I want Canada to do X, and if Canada does X, the tariffs go back down, I'm fine with it. But it's very difficult to make that argument about, for example, fentanyl when you are not saying the thing you want from the Canadians. This is a point that was made by Ambassador Kirsten Hillman. She says, listen, less than 1% of all fentanyl that's being seized coming into the United States is coming from Canada. Last year, 43 pounds of fentanyl were seized coming from Canada. Now you can make the argument that's because we have a wide open border with Canada, but we had a wide open border with Mexico. And 22,000 pounds of fentanyl were seized at the wide open border with Mexico last year under Joe Biden. Here's Kristen Hillman, the Canadian ambassador to the United States.

Chip Roy (25:07)

Canadians are frustrated with our neighbors. You know, the country that we feel closest to, the country that is partners, allies, often family, that we've gone to war with, that we've died with, that we come to each other's aid most recently in LA, but obviously 9, 11, you've come to our aid over the years so many times. And we feel Canadians feel under attack, under economic attack. And that is causing some challenges for sure across Canadian society. Fentanyl is a very serious problem in Canada, too. On some days. We have more deaths per capita than you have have here in the United States. So we take this very seriously. It is not a big issue between our two countries. Less than 1% of the fentanyl that is seized in the United States is coming from Canada. But every ounce can kill families and people. So we're taking it very seriously.

Ben Shapiro (26:03)

Again, if there's a deliverable great and force Canada the wall to get the deliverable. However, all of this is having an impact on domestic politics in Canada. So if you don't like Justin Trudeau and his party, then why exactly are you doing the things that are going to ensure that they remain in power? So before all this trade war stuff, the runaway winner in the Canadian polling was Pierre Poliev, who's terrific Pierre Poliev is the leader of the Conservative Party. He's one of the most articulate Conservative leaders of our generation. He's terrific. And he has now fallen behind in the polling to Mark Carney, who's the leader of the Liberal Party in Canada, who will maintain all of the policies of Justin Trudeau, except without the dumb face. So Mark Carney just won the race to succeed Justin Trudeau as Canada's Prime Minister and he vows to win the trade war with the United States and President Donald Trump. He's the former governor of the Canadian Central bank and bank of England. According to the BBC. He is a. He is a Green Revolution guy. He's never served in elected office. His replacement of the minority government means that he is the new leader of the party that is competitive. According to the BBC, the governing Liberals have seen a remarkable political turnaround since Trudeau's exit as Canadians have been galvanized by President Trump's trade threats and support for annexing their country. At the beginning of the year, Pierre Poliev was ahead 20 points in the election polls. Today, he is tied with the Liberals. So are you going to get more from Canada with Pierre Poliev as the Prime Minister than you're going to get from Mark? The answer is yes. Now, it turns out that politics has a lot of downstream effect in the end. Listen, I trust President Trump on this stuff because I think in the end, as I've said a thousand times, he's a results driven guy. He said over the weekend he wants a dynamic economy and a dynamic country. The way to do that is to provide a steady, understandable economy for investors. That reduces regulations and taxes. It makes it easier to do business in the country for Americans. That's the way. Here's President Trump.

Stephen A. Smith (27:57)

Well, I want a dynamic country where the private enterprise carries the day, not the government. And I want a strong country militarily. We need that nowadays. You can see that probably better than ever before.

Ben Shapiro (28:12)

Okay, I agree with him. And I think that that is the way that he's going to move. And if the results are bad, I think he's going to change tactics. Get some more on this in a moment. First, you know, one of the things I love about working in the news industry is that every day I get to connect with millions of listeners and share breaking stories and work with Incredible Dylan, who are just as passionate about the political sphere as I am. There's nothing quite like the energy and thrill of creating content that not only informs but, but also resonates with people. Around the country. If you're doing what you love to do, there's nothing better than being surrounded by people who love it the way that you do. And if you own your own business, you want to hire employees who love what they do to boost the overall success of your business, plus make it a pretty great place to work. But how do you find passionate employees who are a good fit for all your roles? 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That's balance of nature.com promo code Shapiro again, balance of nature.com promo code SHAPIRO for 35% off your first order as a preferred customer. And that free bottle of fiber and spice. Okay. Meanwhile, there's been chaos breaking out in Syria since the takeover of hts. This, of course, was perfectly predictable. HTS is, in fact, a terror group. They're a Sunni Islamist terror group, and they're backed by Turkey. You'll recall that Hezbollah, the Iranian proxy group, had been attacking Israel for decades, and then they escalated their attacks after October 7th, and then Israel, in October of last year, went after Hezbollah and basically defenestrated their entire leadership with everything from the Beeper attacks to the attacks, killing Hassan Nasrallah and all the rest. And they hit Hezbollah so hard that Hezbollah was no longer able to support and Iran was really no longer able to support the Assad regime in Syria, which was a terrorist, genocidal regime on its own. There are no good guys in the Syrian fight, except for some of the Druze and the Kurds and the Christians. That is a complete list of all of the good parties in Syria right now. In terms of the domestic parties in Syria, Turkey intervened on behalf of hts. HTS basically just ran down the road unopposed and took over the country. And the media decided this was a wonderful, alloyed, wonderful thing. I said at the time it was not a good thing for HTS to take over. HCS is, in fact, a terror group. And I mentioned that there would be some really, really awful downstream effects, including presumably their targeting of Christians. Assad's regime had not been wonderful to Christians. Presumably HTS would be worse. Well, Israel, knowing that HTS was a terrorist regime, then moved into the south of Syria, the other side of Mount Hermon region. And they have now formed a basic coalition with many of the Druze in the south, who are also afraid of being targeted by hts. And Israel also proceeded to blow up pretty much every weapons depot in Syria as all this was happening. Israel did that to deny vast stockpiles of weaponry to hts, a terror group backed again by Turkey. If you don't like hts, blame Turkey, because that's Turkey, okay? After all this happened, HTS has been proclaiming to the rest of the world that it was moderate. It was never moderate. Again, there are salutary effects to Assad falling. One of them was that the Iranian crescent that stretched from Iran through Iraq, through Syria into Lebanon, and then curved all the way down into Yemen into the Gaza Strip and all the rest of that that was broken. That was a salutary effect. A downside effect is that a bunch of Terrorists took over. Right. Not a lot of great solutions in the Middle east, as it turns out. Okay, well, now a sort of Alawite reconstitution took place over the course of the last week. There were some battles that happened between the Alawites, who were ethnically associated with the Assad regime, and HTS battles broke out and then HTS decided, what a great opportunity to slaughter a bunch of Alawites and some Christians along for the ride. And so there are an enormous number of people who were killed over the course of last week. Some thousand people were killed. The United States put out a statement from the State Department from Secretary Rubio, quote, the United States condemns the radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis, that murdered people in western Syria in recent days. The United States stands with Syria's religious and ethnic minorities, including its Christian, Druze, Alawite and Kurdish communities, and offers its condolences to the victims and their families. Syria's interim authorities must hold the perpetrators of these massacres against Syria's minority communities accountable. Okay? The reality is everybody ought to be gaming for the evil of HTS and for the Turks. The Turks are members of NATO. The Turks are the biggest single backers of hts, bar none, bar none. That is what is happening right now. And again, it is horrifying. It is unsurprising and it is horrifying. So here is some of the video of what HTS was doing. They're literally making Alawites and apparently some Christians crawl like dogs. They were shooting people. It just, just, it turns out evil Islamists to terrorists are evil and Islamist. So you can see these, these terrorists are beating up civilians, presumably Alawites and, or Christians, okay? And they're just beating people up and slapping them and all the rest of this, again, terrible people hts, no question, no question. So this has now led to, again, not blaming Turkey and not blaming HTs, but somehow people blaming American, quote, unquote neocons or blaming Israel or blaming Jews. Okay? There are no Jews in Syria. The only Jews in Syria right now are the Israelis in the south, who are literally protecting the Druze from the slaughter of HTS at the request of the Druze. By the way, the Christian community has been targeted in Syria for a decade or more. The truth is that Syria, which used to be a Christian country, if you go all the way back, Syria was a Christian country. That's why so many of the sites mentioned in the New Testament are in fact in Syria. The Syrian population had already been devastated by Islamic takeover and Islamic rule. They didn't have it great under Bashar Assad. They did it better than they had it in, say, Iran. But they didn't have an amazing Under Bashar Assad, there were about 1.5 million Christians living in Syria before the Syrian Civil War in 2011. That number is now as few as 300,000 Christians. And the major challenges existed under Assad. The replacement of Assad by HDS was going to be bad for Christians. The attempt to turn this, however, into a story about the evils of the west, as opposed to Assad being an evil dictator who was replaced by people who are completely evil in a different direction. If your sort of bizarre supposition is that this is because of America, as opposed to because the Middle east happens to be a long chain of terrorist tyrannies following one another with different enemies, I don't think that you've been following Middle Eastern history very long. Tucker Carlson has been on tour in the Middle East. He was over hanging out with the leader of Qatar, and in the middle of that, he tweeted out quote, as predictable as this is, it's still infuriating to see it. For decades, Bashar Assad protected minority religious communities in Syria, including the country's large Christian population. Okay, those protections were limited at best. Pretty limited, as it turns out. And the downstream effect of Bashar Assad attacking, for example, Kurds, Bashar Assad repressing his people to the extent that he did was going to be a blowback that was very bad for many of the people living in the area during the Syrian civil war. To pretend that Assad is somehow completely not responsible for what happened in Syria while he was dictator in Syria is kind of wild. No one in the United States was allowed to notice this. I'm pretty sure, actually, we were all allowed to notice this. And many people did notice this, actually, and commented upon it when Assad fell, actually. And anyone who did was immediately denounced by neocons as a dangerous extremist. Barry Weiss declared Tulsi Gabbard monstrous and Assad toady for noticing, but it was true. Well, actually, that, that is, I disagree with Barry Weiss about Tulsi Gabbard, but actually what she was condemning was the idea that Bashar Assad was an ally of the west, which was something that Tulsi Gabbard was sort of promoting a little bit back in 2011, 2012, 2013, the weaker Assad was, the more Christians died. During the years that neocons in the west backed the war against Assad, the percentage of Christians in Syria went from 10% to 2%. Now that Assad has been driven from power, many of the remaining Syrian Christians are being slaughtered and their holy places desecrated. Barry Weiss and John Bolton haven't said a word about it, but no one who's paying attention can be surprised it's happening. Neocon projects in the Middle east invariably destroy ancient Christian communities from Iraq to Gaza and in many places in between. Can this be an accident, you wonder? Okay, again, this is a bizarre and twisted reading of history at best. I'm not going to attribute motives because that's not something that I like to do. I will say that this is so ahistorical. The idea that chaos in the Middle east has not targeted Christians is ignorant of literally all Christian history in the Middle East. Constantinople was Constantinople before it was Istanbul. The notion that Christians have generally been targeted by neo cons in the west in the Middle east is a complete reversal of how history actually has worked in this area. I have suspicions as to what Tucker means by quote unquote neocons, but again, the the idea that Christians who can live safely in the Middle east, by the way, in about one country, which is Israel, not a lot of Christians who are living safely in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia. These are not places with large Christian populations. Many of these places are places that Tucker is busy defending this week. That what's going on in Syria, which is a horror show, is not the fault of the Turks who are literally backing the regime that is murdering people, including Christians. It's somehow the fault of the neocon warmongers. It's a wild supposition. But again, this is part and parcel of some of the stuff that Tucker seems to be pushing lately. Which again is the idea that all conflict in the Middle east is the fault of an evil cadre of Americans who are pushing conflict in the Middle East. No one in the Middle east apparently has any agency. Iran has no agency. Hezbollah has no agency. Qatar certainly has no agency. Tucker spent this weekend over in Qatar doing a bit of propaganda work on behalf of the Qatari regime. And again, this is not an attribution of motive to Tucker. I'm not going to claim I see some people online claiming Tucker's in the payoff. Tucker doesn't need their money. I don't think that's right. I think that Tucker's worldview suggests that apparently the only actors in the Middle east who have any agency at all are the United States, Israel, and pretty much no one else, apparently. And so everything bad that happens in the Middle east is the fault of those people. And no one else has any agency at all. So Iran has been growing closer and closer to a nuclear weapon. Iran is the chief sponsor of terror, not only in the region, but all over the world. Iran has its tentacles all the way down in South America. Iran's proxies in Hezbollah, the Houthis, all these people have been engaged in terrorism that affects American interests, ranging from the Red Sea to the murder of literally thousands of American soldiers in Iraq by Iranian terrorist supporting groups to the murder of 241 Marines at the US Marine barracks bombing back in the 1980s. While Iran has been growing more and more loud, they are currently holding joint military drills with China and Russia Right now. Iran also happens to be super vulnerable. Their nuclear regime could be ended basically today by a single sortie. Despite all of that, President Trump is trying to give them an off ramp, which is the right path. Right? He's trying to give them an off ramp. And then if they won't take the off ramp, there has to be a fist inside the velvet glove. Here's President Trump talking about Iran now.

Stephen A. Smith (40:59)

Well, there are two ways Iran can be handled militarily or you make a deal. I would prefer to make a deal because I'm not looking to hurt Iran. They're great people. I know so many Iranian, Iranians from this country.

Ben Shapiro (41:10)

Well, not the leadership.

Stephen A. Smith (41:12)

No, not the leadership.

Ben Shapiro (41:13)

The people.

Stephen A. Smith (41:13)

Very evil people. No, but the people of Iran are great people. But they had a tough regime and they meet and they'd be shot in the streets. I mean, it was a tough, it was a tough deal, but I would rather negotiate a deal than. I'm not sure that everybody agrees with me. But we can make a deal that would be just as good as if you won militarily.

Ben Shapiro (41:37)

Okay, so if you can get that deal, great. And if you can't, then there's a threat. So Tucker has decided again that the only two options, and this again is a false binary, the only two options here are either you concede to the Iranian nuclear program or full scale war with Iran, which again is not a reality. Iran's skies are clear right now. A single B2 sortie would take out their nuclear facilities. But Tucker tweeted out Fox News is wall to wall with dead eyed politicians. Again, the sort of bizarre physical description of people that you disagree with is pretty ugly. I'm not a fan of this sort of stuff. This is Fox News is worldwide with dead eyed politics. They're all dead eyed if they don't agree with Tucker. You're dead eyed telling you that Iran is a dangerous sponsor of terror. He puts that in scare quotes. Iran is a dangerous sponsor of terrorists. I literally just named you hundreds and thousands of Americans who have been killed by Iranian terror groups. Says softening up the base for a war again. There is no war with Iran. Nobody wants a war with Iran. Was it a war with Iran when America launched a strike at Qasem Soleimani killing their military leader? There was not. But what exactly does that phrase mean and how does it apply to the United States? Here's one measure. Over the past 20 years, how many Americans have been killed by Iran on American soil? Try to find notice that qualifier on American soil. Well, I mean, an American in Iraq is still an American. As it turns out, so is an American in Lebanon. Try to find that number and then compare it to the number of Americans killed by drug ODs or suicide or illegal aliens or carjackings, Diabetes and the COVID vaccine. Still think Iran is the greatest threat? How about we focus on our own country for a minute. And this is again a false binary. It turns out that there are in fact foreign threats to American interests ranging from shipping in the Red Sea to oil supply coming from the Gulf. And also all the things that he mentioned are really bad. I noticed that for a guy who is very concerned about illegal aliens, carjackings, diabetes and the COVID vaccine, he's spending an awful lot of time in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Russia lately. And this is not an argument in favor of quote, unquote, endless war. This is an argument in favor of reality. And living in the realm of reality is a healthier perspective on foreign affairs than the sort of bizarre melange of claims that are made about dead eyed people that you disagree with or people who want perennial war. How about argue with the argument as opposed to arguing with the phantom that you are creating in your own mind without ever actually coming to grips with the nature of the argument? Well, speaking of spending time abroad, Tucker Carlson, of course was in Qatar where he was interviewing the prime minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani. Now, it should be mentioned at this point that Qatar is in fact effectively a front state for Iran. They sort of try to play a middle role between the United States and Iran. Whenever there's a negotiation with a terrorist group, it always happens in Qatar. This is where the United States negotiated with the Taliban, sort of America's emissary to the terrorist world. But there's no question that Qatar is in fact a malign force in international politics. They supply literally billions of dollars in funding to Hamas. They've provided literal support to terrorist groups all over the region. They have provided significant financial relief to Iran itself. They have huge ties with Iran because they share a giant oil field. Qatar, for example, over the last few years has transferred almost $2 billion to Hamas. They host Hamas operations. All of their leaders, Hamas's leaders were in Qatar. Obviously they also have a history of terror financing allegations ranging from the Muslim Brotherhood to, to even isil. There is also an American air base in Qatar. So again, they try to play both sides. It is also worthwhile noting here that Qatar is a major donor to America's universities. So if you don't like America's universities and you think they're trash, one major reason would be Qatar, which has spent, I kid you not, over the course of 2001-2021, $4.7 billion on American higher education. Those are donations from a country that is 400,000 citizens of almost $5 billion to American universities. So if you don't like the wokeism, you don't like the anti Americanism and America's universities, it turns out that the money is flowing from Qatar and has been flowing from Qatar for decades at this point. So here is Tucker Carlson with the Prime Minister of Qatar. Again kind of soft peddling Qatar, its ties to terrorism, its malign actions in the region, its partnership with Iran and suggested he asked, why do people hate you? And of course it turns out the only reason that people hate Qatar is because it turns out Qatar is so peaceful and wonderful. Your country has been in the American media sporadically recently and it's under attack for reasons I don't fully understand. One of the reasons I wanted to come here was to understand why people are mad at you. And I think you've got the biggest overseas US air base right near here. So you're clearly a US ally. But I keep reading reference to Qatar as anti American or pro Islamist or a threat to the United States somehow. Where do those attacks come from, do you think? Look, we as a country, we always want to do the right things and basically the right things not for only for our people, but for our people, for our region and for our friends. And when you are trying to do the right things, sometimes you change your mind, you know, when you hear this kind of criticism, but it wasn't really in our culture because we believe that it serves the real cause behind all these efforts is to bring peace. They're very peaceful for the people, peace for the regions and peace for our friends. Okay, we can stop it there again, the notion that we have an air base in Qatar, therefore Qatar is an ally of the United States. First of all, Tucker said just a few weeks ago he doesn't even know what an ally is to Piers Morgan because Piers Morgan asked if Israel was an American ally. He said, I don't even know what an ally is. What is an ally? So apparently Qatar is an ally, but not Israel because he doesn't know what an ally is. Other places, by the way, where American troops are stationed. And we just heard in that tweet from Tucker that apparently if an American dies abroad, American troop dies abroad in, say, Jordan, an American ally, by the way, or in Iraq or anywhere else in the Middle East. That doesn't count. That doesn't matter if Iran funds their murder. All these things are in conflict. All these ideas are in conflict with one another. We currently have troops everywhere from Estonia to Lithuania to Turkey. Is Turkey an American ally? None. None of this holds together. The reason this matters with regard to Qatar is because Qatar, as we say, has been funding enormous, enormous chaos at America's universities. And so one of the things the Trump administration has quite properly been doing is pulling money from universities that are, in fact not enforcing civil rights law with regard to Jews. Because it turns out a lot of these major universities are perfectly fine with Jew hatred on their campus in a way that they wouldn't be anti black hatred or anti Hispanic hatred or anything else. Now, again, you can argue with the civil rights law on anti discrimination, and I'll hear that argument. But the notion that Jews are exempt from those civil rights laws while other groups are not is a bizarre one. The Trump administration doesn't take that seriously. And so the Trump administration on Friday said it was pulling $400 million from Columbia University, canceling grants and contracts because of what the government describes as the Ivy League school's failure to squelch anti Semitism on campus. So again, when it comes to Middle Eastern politics and all the rest of it, a lot of bad things can be happening simultaneously. That does not mean that America is the bad actor or that actual American allies that you know are against terrorism are the bad actors. And thinking in that way tends to facilitate the actions of the actual bad actors, including, yes, Iran, which is not a peace loving state, an Islamic republic that has murdered thousands of American troops in places like Iraq, spread terrorism all over the region. And this is not a case for us to go to, quote, unquote, full scale war, hundreds of thousands of troops on the ground, invade. No one, literally no one is arguing this. No one zero people. The sort of propaganda efforts on behalf of Iran or by its allies in Qatar is worth noting at this point in time, at the very least. Now, meanwhile, in dumb news, apparently there is a show called Love is Blind. I've been informed of this show by producers Savvy and Jessica, because, as you know, this is not my bag, but Love is Blind. There's a major controversy that broke out on this show, Love is Blind. Why? Well, because apparently there's a person named Sarah and there's a person named Ben, and they were supposed to get married on Love Is Blind, and then it all broke apart at the altar. So we begin this tragic story with their first date on episode two. Ben was raised in a strong Christian household. Sarah was no longer religious and apparently was upset about the church's stance on lgbtq. Divided by signs issues. And Ben goes to church every week. And so here was one of their first dates or their first date. I grew up in a very strong Christian household. There's a lot of things that I believe about, like, the Bible and I believe about, you know, the Christian faith, but it's all hard to obviously know for certain.

Sarah (50:49)

The main thing for me that's really tough about religion is my sister Lisa. She's, like, my best friend. She's gay.

Ben Shapiro (50:58)

Okay.

Sarah (50:59)

And she is my absolute one, number one. Like, she's just, like, the best person ever. And there's so much hypocrisy. And I'm not saying all the time because there is good. But for me, I find it really difficult to go to a church and, like, practice when it's like, love thy neighbor. But then it's also like, LGBT is gonna go to hell. Like that. And while the priest maybe has sexual allegations, like, I'm sorry, but no, I.

Ben Shapiro (51:30)

Hate the word religion. I like using the word faith.

Sarah (51:34)

Oh, I love. Okay, so, like, would you go to Pride weekend?

Ben Shapiro (51:38)

Yeah. No discomfort around that community at all. Okay, so first of all, his fault. Okay. Like, she's making her politics very clear, and at this point, he should be out. Okay. So first of all, her politics are psychotic. This bizarre notion that every church that says that homosexual activity is a sin is somehow evil and wrong and terrible. I know this is a left wing trope. It's really stupid. It's really stupid. People sin all the time, every day. Every person who's a church or synagogue or even Moscowing person that I know who's very religious understands that people sin all the time. That does not mean that the church has to approve the sin, which is the shtick that she's doing, that she can't go to a church that won't approve all of her moral values or her friends, lifestyles. Literally. The nature of religion is to try to set out an objective morality. That is true whether you like it or not. But in any case, apparently this all culminated at the end of season eight because Sarah decided that she was not in fact going to marry Ben based on his incompatible values. And all I gotta say is you both knew this, but honestly, he knew this more. And you know, I'm gonna go against the grain here. I'm gonna say this is actually his fault. She made very clear what her values were very early on. He was sort of hiding the ball. And I have no. She says, yes, I'll go to a gay pride parade. I have no discomfort around that community. Well, I mean, she could theoretically take away from that, that he's perfectly fine with all aspects of all of this. Anyway, she breaks up with him at the altar.

Sarah (53:03)

I just hope I made the right decision.

Ben Shapiro (53:07)

Hi, guys.

Sarah (53:08)

Oh, my goodness.

Ben Shapiro (53:10)

Love you.

Sarah (53:10)

We love you.

Ben Shapiro (53:11)

Yeah, it was a lot, but we're rolling with it. I just want to talk to her.

Al Green (53:15)

Yeah.

Ben Shapiro (53:17)

Was it like the time frame?

Sarah (53:19)

I mean, I knew the whole time coming into this, the time frame. Like, that's not like I feel like I know him. Like, really?

Ben Shapiro (53:26)

Yeah.

Sarah (53:26)

Like I remember, like I asked him about like Black Lives Matter. And I'm no expert, but like, when I asked him about it, he was like, I guess I've never really thought too much about it. That affected me, especially in our own city. Like, how could it not? How did it not make you think about something? I asked him too, like what his church's views are, and he said he didn't know. And so then I watched a sermon online from his church about. Yeah, sexual identity.

Ben Shapiro (53:56)

Okay.

Sarah (53:57)

And it was traditional. I told that to Ben. What are his thoughts on it? Doesn't really have much to say about it. You know, I want him to think about that stuff.

Ben Shapiro (54:08)

You know, everybody, everybody is all in ripping on her. I'm gonna rip on him. I think that he acted like an idiot here. She made her politics very clear. I've said this a thousand times with regard to dating and marriage. Marry somebody who shares your value system. Cuz you need to build a life and a family with that person. He knew her value system. He was willing to go along with it anyway. So people are gonna say, well, she's being intolerant no, she's actually being smarter than he is. He should have canceled this early on. He should have been like, nope, we don't share a compatible system of values. I'm out. Again, I think our values are wrong, but I think that her take, which is our values are incompatible, is not wrong, actually. So it's definitely bizarre. Ben suggested continuing their relationship. Sarah found that disrespectful, given the context of the show. She felt that she couldn't commit to marriage. Continuing to date would not be meaningful. She's not. She's not wrong. She's not wrong. Ben later stated at the reunion he regretted not having deeper conversations. Okay, well, I mean, again, his fault. Totally his fault. So I can totally disagree with her politics and also understand that actually the way that she approached this is more correct than the way that he approached all of this. Alrighty, that's enough of that dumb news. Coming up, we'll get into the latest in Ukraine and very, very Hot Topic. The Trump administration is making some moves that, frankly, I'm skeptical that they're going to end with the kind of peace agreement that is going to be durable or lasting if this continues in this way. First, you need to become a Daily Wire subscriber. It's important because we are fighting the fight now. There is such a thing as rationality and such a thing as decency, and there are increasingly few people who actually fight for those things. We try to do that here at Daily Wire. We have tons of material for you, ranging from Backstage Live to Morning Wire to Matt Walsh's wonderful movies to All Access Live. If you're not a member, become a member. Use code Shapiro Checkout for two months free on all annual plans. Click that link in the description and join.