← The Ben Shapiro Show
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2263 - OPEN BORDERS DEATH: Illegal Immigrant Truck Driver KILLS Three
01:05:40
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These are questions that take cultures thousands of years to answer. During Answer the Call, I take questions from people just like you about their problems, opportunities, challenges, or when they simply need advice.
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How do I balance all of this grief, responsibility?
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How do you repair this kind of damage?
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My daughter Michaela guides the conversations as we hopefully help people navigate their lives. Everyone has their own destiny. Everyone. An illegal immigrant who had a California driver's license allegedly kills three people. The consequences for California Governor Gavin Newsom are actually quite serious. Plus, the latest on Ukraine and Russia. Will Vladimir Putin even come to the table? And we'll get to an insane episode of the YouTube show Jubilee involving a woman who has a hip hop degree going up against a black conservative. First, if you've been waiting for the right moment to join Daily Wire plus, this would be it. We're giving you more than ever with your membership and right now you can get it all for 40 off. Use code summer@dailywireplus.com also. Well, folks, today is a day I thought I'd never see. The number one piece of content on the DailyWire + app is not a series for me. It is not one of Matt's hit films. It is somehow, some way, Michael Knowles, his very first docu series, the Pope and the Furor, the Secret Vatican Files of World War II. If you're a Daily Wire plus member, watch episodes one and two right now. If you're not a member, I have good news. You can get 40% off a new Daily Wire plus annual membership with Code Summer. And congratulations to Michael Knowles. Enjoy while it lasts, dude. Well, since 2015, President Trump has become obviously very popular because of his stance on illegal immigration. He said the thing most people aren't willing to say, which is illegal immigrants should go home. They don't have a place in the country. And the left went nuts. They are still going nuts over the fact that the president of the United States has single handedly shut the southern border and, and this means that apparently he's bad and racist and all the rest. The thing is, most Americans don't actually believe that. Most Americans look at things like illegal immigrant crime and they say President Trump is right. Case in point. According to the Department of Homeland Security today, Governor Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California and his continued support for sanctuary policies are to blame for an illegal immigrant trucker who was given a driver's license in California killing three Americans after making an illegal U turn this month is in Florida. He'd come in illegally in 2018. And then the state of California decided To give this person, his person's name is Harinder Singh, an illegal alien from India, a driver's license. And he was driving a semi in St. Lucie County, Florida, and he made an illegal U turn that left three Americans dead. Here is some video of the crash footage. You can see him here turning. It's just a gigantic U turn all the way across the road breaking barrier. And you can see a car slams into the side of his truck. Three people die. So the governor of California is blamed. He immediately comes back and says it's the Trump administration. The problem, of course, is that he only had a commercial driver's license despite being an illegal alien, thanks to a law passed in 2013 and then expanded by Gavin Newsom in 2022. According to Breitbart, California officials had issued driver's licenses to more than illegal aliens since 2015. THS spokeswoman Trisha McLaughlin blames Gavin Newsom for supporting the state's sanctuary policies that ultimately led to Singh getting in that driver's license and allegedly killing three Americans in Florida. Governor Nome then claimed that actually the Trump administration was responsible for sing securing that commercial driver's license in California. McLaughlin of the DHS wrote back, Harjinder Singh is in the United States illegally. And his work authorization was rejected under the Trump administration on September 14, 2020. It was later approved under the Biden administration. June 9, 2021. The state of California issues commercial driver's license. There is no national commercial driver's license. It turns out that the illegal immigrant trucker responsible allegedly for all this failed an English language proficiency test and also failed to accurately identify highway traffic signs. According to the Department of Transportation, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration launched an investigation into that deadly crash. And during an interview with the driver, investigators administered an ELP assessment. That's English language proficiency. Singh apparently failed that assessment and only provided correct responses to two of 12 verbal questions and accurately identified one of four highway traffic signs. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said, quote, if states had followed the rules, this driver would never have been behind the wheel and three precious lives would still be with us. This crash was a preventable tragedy directly caused by reckless decisions and compounded by despicable failures. Non enforcement and radical immigration policies have turned the trucking industry into a lawless frontier, resulting in unqualified foreign drivers improperly acquiring licenses to operate 40 ton vehicles. And again, this is a gigantic failure of governments like the state of California, which have acted as a magnetic to illegal immigrants. There are an enormous number of illegal immigrants living in the State of California. So I asked our sponsors over at Comet how many illegal immigrants are in the United States? How many in California? How many illegal immigrants have California driver's licenses? According to Comet, the estimated number of illegal immigrants in the United states as of May 2025 is approximately 14.8 million, according to the center for Immigration Studies. Some organizations cite even higher numbers, with estimates up to 18.6 million. But the 14.8 to 15.8 million range is the most frequently referenced in government and research reports. They're not current precise figures for California, but as of 2023, California was home to more than 10.6 million immigrants in total. That's documented and undocumented, accounting for about 22% of all immigrants in the United States. Previous authoritative estimates have placed California's undocumented immigrant population in the range of 2 million, 2 million. As far as driver's licenses, California has, of course, since 2015, allowed illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses. By 2023, the California Department of Motor Vehicles had issued nearly 1.2 million original AB60 driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. That's crazy. So 1.2 million illegal immigrants are roaming around the United States with California driver's licenses. But this is part and parcel of a broader democratic policy that suggests somehow illegal immigration is a positive good for the United States. And you are inhumane or bad if you say that illegal immigrants should not be in the United States. And I think, in essence, this comes down to a question that's increasingly being asked online. What ought an American to be? What is an American? Now? If you go all the way back to the founding, the definition of an American was, of course, a natural born citizen of the United States. There are real holes in the citizenship definition because it didn't include, for example, black slaves in the South. But the basic predicate for citizenship was that you were assimilating to the dominant culture of the United States in Anglo American culture, that you abided by the applicable law in your state, that you are not a drain on the people around you. Like, if you were going to come into the country, there were no governmental welfare systems that were designed for you to take advantage of. And so the history of the United States and successive waves of immigrants who were then assimilated into the dominant majority culture, those successive waves of immigrants could be welcomed because there was no facilitation of inability to speak English. There was no facilitation of inability or unwillingness to assimilate to the dominant adherence to law. My great great grandparents came to the United States in the early 20th century. They spoke Yiddish, and they immediately stopped speaking Yiddish, and their family stopped speaking Yiddish as fast as possible so that they could actually immerse in, in the American culture. And that was true for the Irish, it was true for the Germans, it was true for the Italians, it was true for many Hispanics. And then something changed. And what changed was a gigantic welfare system accompanied by a view of multiculturalism that suggested that not only ought you bring your home foods and some of your home traditions, but that your culture need not in any way mesh or assimilate with dominant traditions of law, the dominant traditions of belief in things like free speech or private property or the constitutional government of the United States. That essentially the United States was to be the repository of any who wish to come here, even if those people were just coming here to take advantage of the system itself. And what that means is lower rates of assimilation. What that means is that you have people who come here, don't speak English, can't read road signs, are immediately entered into the stream of commerce, and then do things like this, commit crime. And if you say no to this, if you say no, this is a problem. What you actually want is people coming to the United States and becoming part of the American experiment by accepting the American experiment, by learning the language, by becoming part of the culture, by actually believing in the creed of the Declaration of Independence. If you say those things, then many members of the left will say, that's wrong, that's bad, that's racist. Because what you actually need are segmented populations that don't actually believe in the American experiment, that don't just bring their, their food and their customs, but also reject the dominant customs and heritage and law and legal framework of the United States. And what that's led to is an identity politics on the left. And that's led to a concomitant rise of a new identity politics on the right which says, okay, well, if we are going to do various ethnic cliques in a quote unquote multicultural country, and what we really ought to do is have a white ethnic click in a dominant culture in the United States. And so the, the very basic idea that, yes, in America there is a dominant culture, yes, in America there's a dominant heritage of Anglo American law, yes, in America there are dominant customs, and you're supposed to assimilate to those things. That very idea has now been put aside by the entire left and increasingly parts of the right that say that if you insist on a segmented society, well, Our segment should be the dominant one. It shouldn't be your segments, as opposed to, here's the broader vision to which people actually can assimilate. And this is leading to all sorts of fractures inside the American body politic. Obviously, it is caused by the left and its unwillingness and inability to accept the basic notion of law, the basic notion of assimilation, and the basic idea that people who come here do have a duty to the country to assimilate and that they ought to do things like learn English and abide by the law. And that it is not, in fact, racist to say that people should not illegally immigrate here and then take advantage of the system. And yet the left continues to push. Here's Boston Mayor Michelle Wu again just yesterday, suggesting that her sanctuary city policy was an inherent good.
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Unlike the Trump administration, Boston follows the law. And Boston will not back down from who we are and what we stand for. We will not back away from our community. That has made us the safest major city in the country and a leading example of why cities around the country make this country safer, healthier, and more prosperous for all Americans.
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I'm sorry, but sanctuary city policies do not make cities safer and more prosperous for all Americans. They don't. They involve violation of the law. They involve undercutting the wage base. They involve the violation of basic standards of adherence to the common customs and culture and law make America actually function. And this is why the Trump administration is fighting back against this. As well they should already. Coming up, we'll get to President Trump ratcheting up pressure on Vladimir Putin over Ukraine. Plus, an amazing debate on Jubilee in which a Columbia educated, hip hop master's degree holder just gets owned by a bunch of black conservatives. First, did you know your Internet provider watches your every move online? They track all your clicks and the time spent online. They build a profile and then they sell that to the highest bidder. Which sounds illegal, and it should be, but it really isn't. Why? Well, because the government benefits as well. It creates a loophole around your Fourth Amendment rights. Normally, the government needs a warrant to collect your information without consent. Instead, they just buy it from the data brokers. And now it's completely legal, no warrant required. Well, data brokers erode our freedoms as Americans. Well, there's a Solution. I use ExpressVPN. With ExpressVPN, all my online activity travels through secure, encrypted servers. Nobody, not even my Internet provider, can track my movements or infringe on my rights. I use ExpressVPN legitimately. All the time I'm on the road, I'm using public wi fi. I don't want any hackers or anybody just watching what I'm doing. That's why ExpressVPN is there for me. And now ExpressVPN has launched Identity Defender for US customers included at no extra cost. It removes your data from brokers files, monitors, the dark web for your information, alerts you if someone tries using your Social Security number. Right now you can get an extra four months for free. When you use my special link, go to expressvpn.com Ben get four extra months of ExpressVPN. That's E x p r e s s vpn.com sl Ben also, do you guys ever read protein bar labels and feel like you're reading off the ingredients to a candy bar? Most health bars are packed with a lot of unnecessary sugar and chemicals. My team and I, we've tried a bunch of different protein bars that either tasted like junk or left us hungry again within an hour. Luckily, we found Equip Foods Prime Bar. It's the first of its kind. Grass fed beef protein bar with only real food ingredients and absolutely nothing to hide with 20 grams of clean protein. That's a lot of protein in a protein bar. Starting today, my listeners will receive an exclusive discount on Equips Prime Bar, which has become our team's favorite protein bar on the market. With 20 grams of protein in every bar. Again, that's a lot of protein. Made with just 11 clean ingredients like collagen and colostrum, these bars deliver 20 grams of grass fed beef protein without the bloat. They're free from whey seed oils and artificial additives. Plus they're naturally sweetened with dates and honey so they taste like dessert without the guilt. Producer Justin has been eating these every day. He's bulking up looking, you know, more manly of all the protein. If you want to try the cleanest protein bar on the market that already sold out Once, go to equipfoods.com/Ben Shapiro use code BEN SHAPIRO checkout to get 25% off one time purchases or 40% off your first subscription order for a limited time. That's EQ UIP foods.comBen Shapiro use code Ben Shapiro at checkout so yesterday, for example, it was revealed by Axios that citizenship reviews U.S. customs and Immigration services are now considering the positive attributes of immigrants seeking U.S. citizenship rather than just the absence of misconduct. They're saying, listen, it's not enough for us to look at your record and say okay, you didn't actually commit rape back in your home country. You have to show us why you ought to enter. Now, again, in a culture that naturally did that, in a country that naturally did that, because there were no gigantic welfare nets, because there was no concept that multiculturalism was in and of itself a positive good. Because the idea was you come here and you integrate. Because of that, you didn't need this, but now you absolutely do. According to Axios, good moral character is not a new requirement for naturalization. But under the USCIS memo, officers are instructed to put greater emphasis on an applicant's positive attributes and contributions. These can include factors like community involvement, family caregiving, and educational attainment. The memo says going forward, USCIS officers must account for an alien's positive attributes and not simply the absence of misconduct. In other words, you have to show us why you ought to be here. The memo also calls for heightened scrutiny of disqualifying behaviors. These include permanent bars to good moral character, like, of course, murder, aggravated felonies, genocide, and also other offenses like gambling and drug related violations. But the memo also stipulates that other disqualifying actions could include behavior that is technically lawful but is, quote, inconsistent with civic responsibility within the community. Like, for example, habitual traffic infractions or solicitation, which, again, yes, we don't need people here who are constantly violating the law. That is a problem. The policy allows for the applicant to show genuine rehabilitation, like rectifying overdue child support or past due taxes. Also, apparently USCIS said that they had expanded the types of requests that will receive social media vetting, and that will include searches for anti American activity. A Tuesday memo says USCIS considers the endorsement, support or promotion of the views of an anti American or terrorist organization or group to be an overwhelmingly negative factor in USCIS discretionary analysis. Well, this apparently is making the left insane. Apparently, that is a serious problem. How dare you screen for anti American ideology in determining whether people ought to come to the United States or not? The fact that it's taken this long for us to actually make this part of the law or for this to be applied is totally insane. Of course we should screen to see if people hate America, if they support terrorist groups, if they're Al Qaeda supporters, if they are big fans of Trendaragua, then yeah, they should not be allowed to enter the country. Why is this even remotely controversial? It's only remotely controversial because the left view of Americanism is if you make an end, you're an American. Which is why they use idiotic terms like undocumented citizens as opposed to illegal immigrants. USCIS spokesman Matthew Tregesar in a press release said, quote, america's benefits should not be given to those who despise the country and promote anti American ideologies. U.S. citizenship and immigration Services is committed to implementing policies and procedures that root out anti Americanism and supporting the enforcement of rigorous screening and vetting measures to the fullest extent possible. This is obviously something that we should be doing. This should not be controversial in any way. And if the Democrats wish to take the minority position and say that anyone who wants to get in should get in, no matter what insanity they support ideologically, well, good luck to you. Because I don't think most Americans believe that. I don't think most Democrats believe that, that anyone who wants in should simply get in. Because that doesn't just mean they're going to have people who shouldn't be here committing crimes, as you saw in this horrible traffic accident. It means you'll have people here who undercut the very foundations of America, that common culture, that common legal jurisprudence, that common adherence to what it means to be an American that allows us to all live together in a society without fragmenting. By the way, one aspect of this should include the recognition that just because something is economically beneficial to the United States does not mean that people should get into the country. Right. I'm a big free market capitalist, obviously. But when it comes to immigration, it can't just be that we let you in because you are, quote, unquote, good for the economy. You have to show why you would be a good American citizen, why you belong here in the United States. Because any country with borders has to be more than just a place where random people come and go, leaving their cultural imprint on the society. This is why it is correct when Mike Gallagher says that Harvard should send home Chinese students, he is correct. Mike Gallagher, of course, the former congressman from Wisconsin and was chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. He's now head of defense for Palantir. He says President Trump began his second term by picking a fight with an unaccountable leftist dictatorship that is hostile to American values, accustomed to taking advantage of American wealth and actively abetting genocide in Xanjiang. I refer, of course, to Harvard. For decades, Republicans and Democrats agreed our universities were crowned jewels of American exceptionalism and Harvard shown brightest of all. Mr. Trump, however, has an uncanny knack for exposing rotten shibboleths. And recent years have seen top universities unmasked as global far left patronage networks. Using research as a Smokescreen to prevent scrutiny of Campus 8 as they aid adversaries like China. Mr. Trump deserves credit for addressing the corrupt and immoral links between universities like Harvard and the Chinese Communist Party. But his recent deals with Columbia, Brown and other schools don't go far enough. These settlements consist of impressive but ultimately immaterial fines and vague promises to abide by current law. There is a better way. Drastically reduce the number of Chinese nationals enrolled at American universities, especially those studying technology. Roughly 30% of Harvard's student body is foreign. At Columbia, that chair approaches 40%. Our elite universities need a change of mindset. They should make priority of educating exceptional Americans and citizens of our partner nations, not our adversaries, of course, because an enormous number of these Chinese students then go back to China and act in the interests of China. As Gallagher says, blindly embracing academic cooperation with the geopolitical rival is absurd. Nobody suggests we should train Iranian nuclear scientists or Russian ballistics engineers. The US Wouldn't have better been better off collaborating more with Nazi Germany in the 30s or with the Soviets during the Cold War. Why make an exception for a nation dedicated to surpassing the US in emerging technologies now? The reason, by the way, universities really like Chinese students, is because they pay the full freight. Right? Everybody else in the United States get some sort of subsidized loan. That is not the case with these Chinese students, but that's the Communist Party paying for it. So Gallagher is right about all of this. Why is any of this even remotely controversial? That remains a question for Democrats to answer. Okay. Meanwhile, speaking of foreign conflict, negotiations continue over the end to the war in Ukraine, the United States and her allies. We are attempting to determine right now what kind of security guarantees would be necessary to secure Ukraine's future, even though Ukraine is being asked to give up some territorial concessions. Again, much of the territory that Ukraine is being asked to give up is some of its most fortified territory. So those security guarantees are going to have to be basically ironclad for Ukraine to sign on and for the Europeans to sign on, by the way. Well, according to the Wall Street Journal, President Trump signaled on Tuesday the United States is prepared to use air power to support a European security force in Ukraine, but ruled out deploying American ground troops. Planning of the multination force to be sent to Ukraine if a peace settlement is reached accelerated on Tuesday, a day after President Trump discussed the idea at the White House with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and other European leaders. After Trump's summit with his Russian counterpart in Alaska, the president tasked Air Force General Dan Kane the chairman of the Joint Chiefs raising Cain to develop options for NATO like security guarantees for that force, according to a Western official. Apparently, Kaine was set to meet in person on Tuesday with military chiefs from nations that participated in the White House meeting in Ukraine a day earlier, including Britain, France, Germany, and Finland. And again, the goal was to refine military options for the political leaders. Now, none of these military options are going to involve American boots on the ground. That is something President Trump said yesterday on Fox News. Here, he explained, what kind of assurances do you feel like you have that going forward and, you know, past this Trump administration, it won't be American boots on the ground defending that border?
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Well, you have my assurance. You know, I'm president and I'm just trying to stop people from being killed. Charlie, look, they're losing from five to 7,000 people a week in that ridiculous war that should have never happened.
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So his claim that we're not gonna put boots on the ground, that was backed up by Caroline Lovett, who, of course, underscored this at the White House yesterday.
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The president has definitively stated US Boots will not be on the ground in Ukraine, but we can certainly help in the coordination and perhaps provide other means of security guarantees to our European allies. The president understands security guarantees are crucially important to ensure a lasting peace, and he has directed his national security team to coordinate with our friends in Europe and also to continue to cooperate and discuss these matters with Ukraine and Russia as well.
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Now, President Trump, he says that his goal here is to actually, believe it or not, get to heaven. Meaning he was asked what is his sort of drive to get this done. And I actually believe him here. He says that he just thinks it's a good thing to do.
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I want to end it. You know, we're not losing American lives. We're not losing American soldiers. We're losing Russian and Ukrainian, mostly soldiers. Some people as missiles hit wrong spots or get lobbed into cities like Kiev and towns. But, you know, if I can save 7,000 people a week from being killed, I think that's a pretty. I want to try and get to heaven, if possible. I'm hearing I'm not doing well. I really hit the bottom of the totem pole.
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Did the.
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If I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.
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I love the sense of humor there. That is some funny. Mary Margaret Olihan, who's our White House correspondent, she asked Caroline Levitt about President Trump's spiritual motivations here. I know the president said on Fox.
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News this morning that he's partially seeking.
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Peace in order to get to heaven.
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Was he joking or is there spiritual motivation behind his peace deals here? I think the President was serious. I think the President wants to get to heaven, as I hope we all do in this room as well.
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Already coming up, how's Russia going to respond to all of this? We have yet to find out. Plus will get to an astonishing episode of Jubilee where a famous actress just gets owned by black conservatives. First, I love movies about real heroes who have the courage to stand up against evil and protect people. We need those stories today. That's exactly why the incredible story told in Bow Artist at War caught my attention. The film opens September 26th. You can visit bow movie.com to see the trailers. B Artist at War tells the remarkable true story of Joseph Ba, a gifted artist and forger who risked his life to save others during the Holocaust. There he found not only the strength to survive, but unexpected love with Rebecca and it's a gripping story of survival, love and courage. It really is a powerful story. It's a really well made movie. It's not just another Holocaust movie. It's really a movie about how art and love can save lives literally and spiritually. Joseph Bao was a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. He forged documents to help other people escape, but he was also a poet, an animator, and romantic. His story, his love, his resilience. It sounds like something fictional, but it actually happened. If you love Schindler's List or jojo Rabbit films that show not just what was lost but what was fought for, you need to see Bow Artist at War. Bow Artist of War opens only in theaters for a limited run beginning September 26th. Head on over to bowmovie.com to watch the trailer, read about Joseph's real life journey, and find showtimes near you. Again, that's BAU movie.com that's bow movie.com go check it out at theaters. It's definitely inspiring. Also, when we started Daily Wire, it felt like we had to figure everything out with not a lot of help. Editorial guidelines, studio setup, production schedule, branding. It was overwhelming. New decisions were necessary every day. 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Seven to share advice if you ever get stuck, turn those dreams into and give them the best shot at success with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial. Start selling today at shopify.com Shapiro that's shopify.com Shapiro shopify.com Shapiro Meanwhile, the question becomes whether Russia is actually serious about any of this. Obviously the downside of negotiations that it allows Russia to continue to push forward militarily. According to the New York Post, Vladimir Putin ordered the largest drone strike on Ukraine in a month on Monday night, just as he hung up the phone with President Trump in a call discussing next steps for peace. As Trump celebrated his significant progress toward ending Russia's war on Ukraine in White House meetings with Vladimir Zelensky and European leaders, Moscow launched 270 drones and 10 missiles into the war torn neighbor's territory. It came after at least 14 civilians were killed and more than 50 others were injured in a similar Russian strike ahead of the Monday meeting. Among the dead was an Entire family including two kids, one aged 1 and 15, their parents and grandmother, according to the Ukrainian government. They were at home in Kharkiv, which is roughly 15 miles from the Russian border, in the middle of the night when the fatal blast hits happen. And of course Russia has been firing drones and missiles at Kiev for months. When we were in Kiev having an interview with Vladimir Zelensky, the the night that we went in there was a drone alert. The night after we left was the biggest attack of the war. So Russia has really been upping the ante and the question is going to be how far is the west willing to be pushed? Is there an actual off ramp here? Does Putin actually want anything? And that that remains the biggest open question here. It is not what Zelensky wants. We know what Zelensky wants. He just wants the war to end without giving up enormous swaths of territory and without guaranteeing a future Russian invasion. The question is what Putin is willing to accept. And right now it appears the answer is not much. Now Vladimir Putin may be stringing along the United States in the West. And if that's the case, then what comes next is the question. As the Wall Street Journal points out, if Putin agrees to meet with Vladimir Zelensky, he will come face to face with a man he has spent three and a half years excoriating as an illegitimate leader and puppet. Negotiating directly with Zelensky would run sharply counter to the narrative poof Putin has carefully constructed and sold to Russians and in an effort to justify his 2022 invasion of Ukraine, that the war is part of a broader conflict with the west in which Zelensky and his country army are pawned. Trump's call for a meeting puts Putin in a bind. If he declines, he risks angering President Trump. Sitting down with Zelensky could damage him politically with the Russian elite and the broader public. So again, does Putin actually want anything here? The early signs are no. According to Politico, Moscow on Tuesday moved to cool expectations of a long awaited face to face summit between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia's Vladimir Putin, despite much excitement following President Trump's White House meetings with top European leaders on Monday. During an interview with state controlled TV channel Rossiya 24 on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow does not refuse talks with Ukraine, but crucially insisted any summit would have to be prepared step by step, gradually starting from the expert level and then going through all the necessary steps. So in other words, it sounds very much like the Russian government is stringing along the West. Now. President Trump has put Putin directly on the spot. He placed a call directly to the Kremlin while the European leaders in Zelensky were still in the White House. President Trump said, I think he wants to make a deal, but the Russians said that no, no, no, no, no. So Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said, quote, president Putin and Trump discussed the idea of raising the level of direct Russian Ukrainian negotiations, adding that both spoke in favor of continuing direct negotiations between the delegations of the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Zelensky, of course, is trying to make clear to the President and to the rest of the west that Putin has no intentions of actually meeting. So he's saying, listen, I'll meet you, sure. Not going to meet you in Moscow where you're probably going to kill me, but I'm happy to meet you pretty much anywhere else. And meanwhile, Putin, who has already avoided a meeting with Zelensky in Turkey, continues to stall. So what happens if Vladimir Putin does not in fact come to the table? The answer presumably is Going to be more sanctions. That is something that is already being discussed by the Trump administration. Now, are sanctions alone going to be able to do the job? I don't think the answer here is yes. Economic sanctions have become sort of the all purpose tool of artificial war for the last several decades. There's a great book that came out recently called Choke Point that, that really talks up the effect of these sorts of sanctions. It's called American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare by Edward Fishman. The problem of course, is that alternative pathways of economics have been created. So the sanctions on Russia have weakened its economy, but it has forged new ties with India, it has forged new ties with China. There's still a lot of places in Europe that are. But Europe is buying more Russian oil in terms of billions of, of euros than it is actually taking out of the, the the Russian economy via sanctions. So they're still subsidizing the very people who are fighting Ukraine. The truth is what the United States really should do if they want to fight the economic war is they should make a deal with Europe that actively ships much more LNG from the United States to Europe, gets Europe weaned off of Russia's LNG and oil and that cuts off an enormous amount of commerce with the Russians. That's something the United States should be doing. It would also, by the way, benefit our domestic oil industry, our fracking industry and all the rest, if you're talking in terms of economics. But it turns out that, that economic sanctions don't generally achieve what they seek to achieve. They don't do enough. They weaken the country, but not so much that it falls. It is extremely rare in world history for economic sanctions unaccompanied by a sort of military blockade to actually effectuate what they seek to effectuate. That calls goes all the way back to Napoleon's continental system and the British attempting to blockade Napoleon, not supremely successful. Right. So what in the end, what the United States is going to have to do if the United States wishes for Vladimir Putin to stop is up the anti militarily and that means giving newer better weapons to the Ukrainians to allow them to fight. With that said, sanctions are the first step toward that. Scott Bessant, the Treasury Secretary, he says that President Trump had Putin on his heels in Alaska, which is certainly partially true. Now I don't know if it's totally true because we don't know what Putin's going to do yet, but certainly he back footed Vladimir Putin by essentially saying get in a room with Zelensky and now Putin is kind of stuck a little bit.
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President Trump had a great meeting with President Putin. My take was he had President Putin on his heels for most of the event after the flyover. And then yesterday, a fantastic meeting with Zelenskyy, then with the Europeans, and then back in the Oval, he had a call with President Putin. And I'm very optimistic they'll be able to have a bilateral meeting.
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So we'll see if that in fact comes to fruition. Meanwhile, Scott Bessance is saying it's unacceptable that India is purchasing oil from Russia. Now, again, it seems to me that if we are going to put sanctions on anybody for the purchase of Russian oil, it should really be China. India is a country we should be trying to woo and we really need to not just use sticks with India, we need to use carrots, because India is going to be a geopolitical powerhouse for the foreseeable future. They have the world's largest population at this point. They're a nuclear armed country. They're economically developing very quickly, and they could be very pro America. In fact, the relationship between Trump and Modi in India was actually quite warm until some of these sanctions went into place. But here's Besant ripping on India.
- [34:06]
G
If you go back and look now, I believe India had less than 1% of their oil. 1%. And now I believe it's up to 42. So India is just profiteering or they are just profiteering. They are reselling. They've made 16 billion in excess profits, some of the richest families in India. So this is a completely different thing. Like this, this India, what I would call the Indian arbitrage, buying cheap Russian oil, reselling it as product has just sprung up during the war, which is unacceptable.
- [34:45]
A
Okay, I mean, that's fine. But if we are going to take that perspective, then we certainly should be taking that perspective with China as well. I will note that the Trump administration has now decided to go on TikTok as opposed to doing what they are supposed to do statutorily, which is, you know, ban TikTok, which absolutely should be forced to the mad. TikTok is a Chinese op. It has always been a Chinese op. And the idea that the administration continues to sort of forestall the use of its legislative tools in order to ban TikTok, and instead is now engaging with TikTok, well, simultaneously going after India, I don't really understand that very much. With all of that said, the left wing charge that President Trump is somehow bending over backward for Putin is false. CNN's Aaron Burnett was trying to retell that line yesterday.
- [35:24]
D
Warmth and decent feeling. I mean it is almost, it's almost as if he's writing sort of a late night. Those still exist scripts. I mean, this is Putin that Trump is talking about. The same dictator who invades other countries, jails and assassinates his rivals, poisons them, poisons any gunny in the opposition, engages in mass murder of civilians. This is the same person that the world has seen in action for decades. And yet Trump is bending over backwards right now for Putin.
- [35:53]
A
I don't understand what she means by bending over backwards. By bending over backwards, does she mean that Trump is actually now offering security guarantees he wasn't offering before? That doesn't seem like that very much. I will say that the absolute radical disconnect between our left wing media and reality, it's astonishing. So Chuck Todd was on CNN and he was lamenting that President Trump sees the world as the rule of the jungle. Welcome to reality where geopolitics is the rule of the jungle. Always has been the rule of the jungle. The lie that there is some sort of international law to which everyone is answerable is a bunch of bull. Everybody who engages in international politics, except for idiots on cnn knows this. Everyone knows this. If the United States were not there to back everybody's play, there would be no international law. It is the rule of the bully in geopolitics, that is you just hope the bully is on the right side. But here's Chuck Todd sort of lamenting Trump. Trump, as I've said a thousand times, lives in the world of reality. The reality is that bullies run the world. You just hope that the bully is the United States and not China.
- [36:51]
H
Look, this is a worldview issue, right? Donald Trump believes in the rules of the jungle. The bigger are in charge, the smaller have to do. Even if you're, even if you have the moral ground, doesn't matter. You don't have, you don't have the strength here. So this is a case where I think this is why some people, while we all may people may have mistaken his support of Russia in some sort of nefarious way when it's, he just views it as well. Russia and China are the big people and we have to deal with them differently than you do the others. Which doesn't sit well with people that believe in constitutional republics.
- [37:25]
A
That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. I believe in a constitutional republic. I like constitutional republic. I think that China and Russia are enemies, not just our geopolitical opponents, our enemies. And I Also understand that geopolitics doesn't work the way that you wish that it worked, in which everybody gets in a room and they're all friendly to one another and there are agreed rules of the game. That is not how any of this works at all. At all. Ridiculously enough. The person who understands this apparently is Stephen A. Smith. Just Stephen A. With whom I will say that we've had friendly talks in the past. Publicly. He says that it's Democrats in office that caused this. He ain't wrong.
- [38:02]
I
We ain't gonna act like he caused this. Now his Democrats in office. It was Biden in office when a full fledged war against Ukraine took place courtesy of Russia's instigation. No matter what they try to say to Trump, it was Russia that invaded Crimea and that was under the Obama administration. It was Clinton in office where you made a deal that disarmed Ukraine and therefore weakened them, leaving them dependent on the United States. And now here they are having to beg for support that they're old because of what we promised them as a nation. We promised them this.
- [38:47]
A
I mean, he is not totally wrong. He's not totally wrong already. Coming up, the United States looks like it might be in a military face off with Venezuela. We'll get into what's going on there first. Feeling overwhelmed by back taxes? You're not alone. Maybe you missed that April deadline or your financial records are all over the place. Whatever the situation, don't put it off any longer. The IRS is not getting any friendlier. Those penalties, they pile up Fast. We're talking 5% every month you don't file. Maxing out at 25%. That adds up quickly. Here's the thing. You don't have to handle this alone. Tax Network USA specializes in exactly these situations. They've worked with thousands of Americans, employees, small business owners, people who haven't filed in years, messy books. They've literally seen it all. They know how to sort it out. What sets them apart is their direct access to IRS programs that most people don't even know exist. Plus, they have expert negotiators who actually know how to get results. They'll start with a free consultation to assess your situation. If you qualify, they may be able to reduce or even eliminate what you owe. More importantly, they can protect you from the really scary stuff like wage garnishments and bank levies. The bottom line? Don't wait for that next IRS letter to show up in your mailbox. The sooner you act, the more options you will have. Call 800-958-1000 or visit tnusa.com Shapiro to talk to a real expert at Tax Network USA. Take the pressure off. Let Tax Network USA handle your tax issues. Joining us online is Senator Eric Schmidt, sixth generation Missourian, currently represents the people of Missouri in the United States Senate. He's a member of the Armed Services Committee, the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, the Judiciary Committee, and the Joint Economic Committee. He has a brand new book out titled the Last Line of Defense, how to Beat the Left in Court. Senator Schmidt, thanks so much for the time. Really appreciate it.
- [40:16]
C
It's great to be with you, Ben.
- [40:20]
A
So let's talk about the lawfare that is currently being waged on the Trump administration, the lawfare the left has used so successfully over the course of the last decade and a half, several decades, actually, in, in order to promote their agenda. What are they doing and how can we fight that?
- [40:35]
C
Well, I think first of all, we have to understand the terrain that we're dealing with. Right. I think for a long time, conservatives thought that that was what Democrats did. And you had this nonsense about a living Constitution. And we seated a lot of ground. And part of the reason why I wrote the book the Last Line of Defense, how to Beat the Left in Court is when I was attorney general in Missouri, the job I had before this, we were successful, right? We saw the vaccine mandate. We took that to the Supreme Court. We won. We won on the student loan debt forgiveness scam, brought the Missouri vs Biden censorship case, right, where we exposed this vast censorship enterprise even before Elon Musk had bought Twitter. So there's a lot of lessons learned. But as it relates to right now, we've got to stand up and we got to fight. And what you're seeing is, I think, a different mentality. One of the great gifts President Trump has given, I think, to conservatives is this willingness and confidence to fight back. And actually, the Solicitor General of the United States, John Sauer, was my solicitor general in Missouri. And he's winning a lot of these big cases as they make their way up. I think a lot of people will see a district court decision here or there in some jurisdiction, but as they make their way up, by and large, President Trump's been successful in defending his ability to control personnel programming and deportations. That's been kind of the center of the ring. So they've been successful. And also, if you remember, the Supreme Court just a couple of months ago knocked down this nationwide injunction nonsense that had kind of riddled the courts, too. So I think we're Fighting back. And we're winning. But it's an ongoing fight. There's no doubt about that.
- [41:54]
A
So, you know, speaking of that ongoing fight, obviously one of the big cases that was filed in Missouri, originally filed as Missouri vs Biden, involved the First Amendment, the federal government, and, and its impact on social media. Essentially pressure that was brought to bear by the Biden administration on social media. And the Supreme Court basically refused to take up the case. Were there any lessons learned from that? What is the best way to approach these cases so that in the future, you know, those are actually cases that we can win at the Supreme Court level?
- [42:19]
C
Yeah, what they kind of did is they punted on. I disagreed with it. They said there wasn't standing. They sent it back to the lower court. But you know, the district court level and even at the appellate court level, those judges, I mean, not my words, their words, saying that this was the biggest violation of the First Amendment in the history of the United States of America. But what you. Because we took the deposition of Anthony Fauci and we, we lay that out in the book. We took the deposition of Elvis Chan, who was the FBI agent who was pre bunking the Hunter Biden laptop story with big tech companies, even though they knew it was real. Brian Scully, who's that guy, when he was at cisa, they were in on this too. So you had this leviathan of government agencies really weaponized against conservatives to censor speech. So it could have been the laptop. It was also about COVID and whether or not vaccines were effective or masks were effective. And so I think the lesson there is when we got the discovery, which was a big, key strategic decision, we sought discovery before the injunction. The judge granted it. That's how we got to take the depositions and see the documents and the emails are secret portals that existed. I just think the expanse of this bin was shocking. And we have to fight. We have to not only uncover it, but we have to do things like if you're going to be a, a, a big tech company like that and you have protections as a platform, Section 230 protections, you got to actually be a platform. You got to support that. You can't be a publisher making editorial decisions, throttling some people and not others. So I think there's some things for us to do, but there's a lot of lessons learned there. But uncovering, I think this, this, this censorship enterprise was a big win. And this was before Elon Musk had even bought Twitter.
- [43:51]
A
Yeah, Senator Schmidt, one of the things that that's been happening that I think is really salutary from the Trump administration is the focus on restaffing the administrative state. So obviously much of what you talk about in the book is challenges to the administrative state on the judicial level. But the reality is that unless the administrative state is completely redone, unless it's completely restaffed, things can go the other way. I mean, court composition can change. You can have a Democratic president who decides to replace a conservative justice with, with a very liberal justice and suddenly the power of the courts could be on the other shoe. So what exactly should conservatives be doing on the non judicial level in order to ensure victory in the future?
- [44:25]
C
Yeah, you hit the nail on the head. We've got a chapter in the book Last Line of Defense dedicated to this. It really the progressive era. Think of Woodrow Wilson, perhaps the worst president we've ever had. And that's saying a lot considering what we've seen the last decade or so with Biden and Obama. But kind of began this administrative state, the sort of the rule of the experts, which is really antithetical to the mission of our country, which was about self government and about accountability, where you can send somebody to Washington, you can send them home, or you could send them back. These bureaucrats aren't accountable to anybody. Ben, you don't know who the deputy undersecretary of some agency is that wrote a, you know, a guidance letter that destroyed your family farm. And so it's, you're right, it's not about changing personnel, it's about dismantling this. So I think one of the things that's really encouraging about the Trump administration, he put together a team of disruptors that are doing that. And so a lot of the legal fights you're seeing right now, the left in their lawfare to subvert the will of the people. They're trying to get back to a place where these unelected folks have a lot of authority they were never supposed to have. Think of usaid. Right? So I handled the rescissions package in the Senate. We were able to pull back billions and billions of that. But I think ultimately having something like the Reins act, to be specific, which is if there's going to be an agency that submits some rule that has an economic impact of X, pick the number. Congress should have to approve it before it actually goes into effect. And that way people know, did Eric Schmidt vote on this? One way or another, and they can hold you accountable. Right now the administrative state's not accountable. We need structural reform.
- [45:55]
A
You know, Right now, obviously the House, Senate and the presidency are held by Republicans. And so that means a sort of more loosey goosey relationship between Congress and, and the President of the United States. But in the future, as you know, different parties get elected. Do you think it's important to restore the sort of balance of power between Congress and the executive branch? Because it does seem that over the course of the past several decades, the expansion of the prerogative, the executive branch has been dramatic and Congress has abdicated many of its duties in checking that, that sort of expansion.
- [46:23]
C
That's right, because Congress has played a role in this too, Ben, which is a lot of congressmen and women will say, look, I voted for the greatest bill in the world, but I can't believe what the EPA did. We've got to get away from that because it just shifts responsibility to people that can never be held accountable. So yes, reasserting the authority of the Article one branch in, you know, the rulemaking that effectively has the consequence of law, we've got to rein that back in. There are Core Article 2 powers which again, why President Trump I think has largely been successful because it's the only, he's the only person elected by the entirety of the country to control the executive branch. But from a legislative perspective, how it affects people's lives, the decisions that we make, we need to pull as much of that back in to the Article 1 branch. Actually after the Chevron decision, there is an opening for that because what the Supreme Court said just a year ago or so that look, we're not going to like just give deference to the so called experts, we're going to judge on what the law is. So I think Congress needs to tighten up the language and do some things there to again sort of reign in that authority.
- [47:22]
A
Senator Eric Schmidt of Missouri, his new book is the Last Line of Defense, how to Beat the Left in Court, just out a couple of days ago. Senator Schmidt, thanks so much for your book and thanks so much for your hard work.
- [47:32]
C
Thanks, Ben. Thanks for all you do.
- [47:34]
A
Meanwhile, the president of the United States is now unleashing some gunships to international waters to stop Venezuela from shipping drugs to the United States. According to Fox News, U.S. military has sent destroyers and thousands of Marines toward Venezuela as President Trump doubles down on deadly drug cartels. According to reports, at least three Aegis guided missile destroyers, USS Gravely and USS Jason Dunham among them are part of the mission, according to two US Officials who are talking to the Associated Press. Another official told Reuters the deployment, which could arrive soon involves around 4,000 Marines and soldiers. Over the course of several months, backed by spy planes, warships and a submarine, so that international waters and skies are covered, Venezuela has, in response, mobilized something like 4.5 million people on the ground. They seem to be afraid that Maduro is going to be assassinated. He apparently has banned all sales of all drones because he's concerned that somebody's going to launch a drone that kills him. So Venezuela is, is quite paranoid that things are about to radically change. In televised address on Monday, Maduro vowed Venezuela would, quote, defend our seas, our skies and our land, and derided US pressure as the outlandish, bizarre threat of a declining empire. Now, again, there's, there's really nothing new about us deploying boats near Venezuela in order to prevent them from shipping drugs toward the United States. In February, President Trump designated drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and imposed sweeping sanctions on Maduro. So it'll be interesting to see how all of this plays out clearly. Caroline Levitt over at the White House, she said, listen, the Maduro regime is a narco terror cartel, which is true.
- [49:08]
F
President Trump has been very clear and consistent. He's prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice. The Maduro regime is not the legitimate government of Venezuela. It is a narco terror cartel in Maduro. It is the view of this administration is not a legitimate president. He is a fugitive head of this cartel who has been indicted in the United States for trafficking drugs into the country.
- [49:36]
A
So that doesn't mean that the United States is now going to engage in a boots on the ground attempt to overthrow Maduro. What it does mean is that trying to box him in is a good move, by the way. It just shows the evils of dictatorship that Maduro is still in power because Bolivia has said enough. Apparently the pink tide, which is what we've actually been talking about on the show for several years, which is the upswing in socialist sentiment in Latin America, is now receding. It's receding in large part due to the leadership of people like Javier Milei in Argentina, as well as the leadership, there's some other conservative leaders, by the way, in South America as well. The President of Paraguay, for example, his name is Santiago Pena. He is conservative, obviously. El Salvador has turned toward the right. According to the Wall Street Journal. In Bolivia, which had moved radically to the left, now socialism has been rejected. Sunday's Bolivian presidential election rejected the Movement Towards Socialism party. It finished a distant 6.3percent of the vote. Originally, he was elected in 2005. Evo Morales, who was the socialist strongman in 2005 with 53% of the vote. And then he proceeded to nationalize nearly everything and destroy the economy. And for two decades they basically were in power. And then on Sunday, voters said they had enough. No candidate won a majority. The top two finishers go to a runoff in October. Rodrigo Paz, a centrist Christian Democrat, garnered 32% of the vote, and he'll face former President Jorge Quiroga, a conservative who came away with 27% of the vote. So again, one of the evils of Venezuela not having any electoral democracy is the fact that you can't get rid of these schmucks. And that's a major problem for the people of Venezuela. That doesn't mean the United States will take an active role in toppling Maduro, but it would certainly be good for the world if Maduro were no longer in charge of Venezuela. And meanwhile, the president of the United States continues his quest to rid Washington, D.C. of violent crime, according to the Washington Post. President Trump's crusade against crime in the nation's capital has resulted in more than 450 arrests since August 7, the White House announced on Tuesday morning. These run the gamut of charges from murder and assault to driving under the influence. And of course, the left is caterwauling about this. Still, however, there's no question that that bringing crime under control in D.C. is a worthwhile goal. Not only that, the DOJ is now investigating whether the D.C. police manipulated data to make crime rates appear lower. This has been a major issue in places like New York and LA for a very long time. The reclassification of crime from a felony to a misdemeanor or from a misdemeanor to nothing. In order to pretend that crime is actually going down, the criminal probe is going to be run out of the D.C. federal prosecutor's office, led by U.S. attorney Janine Pirro. It's expected to examine the actions of multiple police officials, according to three people familiar with the investigation, President Trump wrote on social media Monday night. While D.C. gave fake crime numbers in order to create a false illusion of safety, this is a very bad and dangerous thing to do. They're under serious investigation for doing so. Until four days ago, Washington, D.C. was the most unsafe city in the United States, perhaps the world. Now, in just a short period of time, it's perhaps the safest in getting better every single hour. Now, the usual superlatives there from President Trump. However, he is right that Much of the data has been manipulated here and lowering crime is something that the federal government has the capacity to do. In Washington D.C. meanwhile, the Trump administration reorienting itself with regard to America's universities. We've talked obviously a lot about President Trump pressuring America's universities to move away from their not only pathological racial discrimination, but also from their pathological leftism. Apparently, President Trump is pushing for major payments from a lot of these universities. The deal that he cut with Columbia University and a potential settlement involves apparently $200 million that would pass from Columbia University to the United States government, according to the New York Times. Critics have likened Mr. Trump's methods to extortion. The White House has said the goal of extracting money from universities is to enhance trade schools, apprenticeships and other real world training. Now, again, I'm totally fine with the federal government finding all of these universities for their violation of of law. What would be better is if these universities would change their procedures and their focus because let's just say our universities are not doing a very good job here. For example is a professor at the University of California, her name is Halle Froh, who just recently suggested that she is fleeing the United States and she's starting a TikTok because she needs to study climate science elsewhere. These are the kinds of people that are being churned out and hired by our universities.
- [54:05]
D
I'm an associate professor at University of California institution and I'm starting TikTok because I'm gonna flee the United States with my family to start a life and do my science. I study climate change and sustainable seafood, do it somewhere else.
- [54:25]
A
So I don't know. I'm gonna talk about my science, of.
- [54:28]
D
Course, but really the adventures of the.
- [54:31]
A
Highs, lows, ups and downs of what.
- [54:33]
D
This is going to look like because I'm leaving this behind for something better.
- [54:43]
A
Zoe Deschanel wants her glasses and haircut back. I'm not sure why, why we have the meaningful piano music in the background from this lady, but these are the kinds of people who our universities are churning out by the hundreds and by the thousands. They're also turning out people like apparently the actress, I guess that's who this person is named Amanda Seals. So Amanda Seals, who honestly I was really not all that aware of. She was an actress who starred in the HBO comedy series Insecure and she's a comedian who did a supposed comedy special called I be known in 2019. She was also one of the co hosts of the syndicated daytime talk show the Real Now. When I say that that higher education churns out folks like Amanda Seals. I mean, she graduated from SUNY Purchase and it got a master's degree in African American studies with a concentration in hip hop from Columbia University. Hard to think of a more useless degree than that. But somehow she has parlayed that into fame and fortune. At least it hasn't hurt her. It didn't educate her much because she really doesn't know much. So she was on Jubilee. And Jubilee is kind of this fun YouTube channel. I've done it before where you sit there and then you are surrounded by bunch of people who disagree with you and they run in, they disagree with you. You have these kind of little short debates. Some of them are fun, some of them are dumb, some of them are ridiculous. But she did not acquit herself well. She went up against a young man named Matt Nuclear who, who is talking about reparations. And she clearly does not know what she is talking about.
- [56:10]
B
You can give everyone here like a $50,000, especially people that are in the streets who are committing violent crimes consistently a $50,000 check. It's not going to fix anything. It's not going to increase the median household income in the next 10 years by 10% or 20%. For example, we have the Chinese Exclusion act of 1882. We prevented Chinese people from getting citizenship and even entering the country. We discriminated against them and basically put them under apartheid even here in the United States. Yet they have the highest median household income. How is that possible? How come they don't complain and feel entitled consistently to beg for reparations and beg for this when they are killing each other 90% of the time, which is the rate that black people kill each other according to the FBI.
- [56:45]
D
Oh, young Matt.
- [56:46]
B
Yet white people are the oppressors.
- [56:48]
D
I'm not sure where your education came from, but they lied to you.
- [56:52]
B
Stats don't lie though.
- [56:53]
D
Statistics lie all the time. So let's start there. Particularly when the statistics are coming from these sources that gain from the statistics being shown a different way. So if you're going to start your argument on stats don't lie lie, you've already lost the argument.
- [57:07]
A
They lie.
- [57:08]
D
They lie all the time.
- [57:11]
A
Well, I mean, if, if you start from the argument that facts do lie, you can't even have a discussion, right? If the argument is that all data are skewed, then you're just going to yell at each other because otherwise how do you even have a common basis in fact to have a discussion? This is what she learned with her Hip hop degree from Columbia University. Very, very. By the way, I just comment on the outfit. What happens to the rest of her shirt? She has a collar, but I'm not sure what happened to her shirt. Very weird. The cleaners did a bad job here in any case. She then continued with this young man and, and the question was, is there systemic racism against black people? And again, she just gets owned because she doesn't know what she's talking about.
- [57:48]
D
Comparing Chinese people who are immigrants that made a choice to come to the United States and comparing the continued effort of black people to ground themselves in a nation that continues to make impediments for them to show and live and exist in their true citizenship is a false equivalency.
- [58:05]
B
I don't believe that happens at all. No one here is. Are you acting right now? Do you really believe the truth? There's no, there's no systemic racism that I've experienced here in America. What system is racist? I think the only racism we've actually seen recently, systemic racism we've seen is the application of systemic racism against white people. The University of Western Washington, for example, has been trying to segregate dormitories using blind only dormitories because black people feel safer amongst each other, but they're more likely to kill each other than white people are ever to kill them. That's just the truth. You have King Von rapping about killing other black men. Why should I think that the white man is the oppressor when black men are more likely to kill me?
- [58:40]
D
Oh my God, this is scary. You need to think about me as your mama. Do not talk to me in that fashion. So let's check that now.
- [58:49]
A
Okay, so literally no response. Just bizarre buzzwords. In, in some way, this is what our universities are turning out. This is why President Trump is right to go after them. The fact that somebody got a subsidized education to get an African American studies degree at Columbia University. Masters with a, with a specialty in hip hop. Clearly that has not made anybody particularly smarter. Well, what Oklahoma is doing to stop all of this is apparently they're going to test incoming teachers with an America first exam, which I think is just wonderful, actually. Apparently, according to the Washington Post, teachers from New York and California who apply to teach in Oklahoma will now have to answer questions meant to screen out woke indoctrinators with left wing views. The latest attempt by Oklahoma officials to push the state's education system rightward. The test 50 questions will cover topics about the United States government, religion and gender. According to examples Shared by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ryan Walters. Teachers unions have criticized the move as a political stunt. It will discourage applicants as Oklahoma faces a teacher shortage. Okay, well, I think that's the goal, is to discourage left wing applicants. So apparently Prager University, which of course we have worked closely with, they're great. Developed the exam. Apparently the requirement went into effect over the summer. The test is currently being finalized. So some of the questions are things like, what are the first three words of the Constitution? And one of the choices is in God we trust, which is four words. Why is freedom of religion important to America's identity? And then the possible answers are, it makes Christianity the national religion. It bans all forms of public worship. It limits religious teaching in public life. It protects religious choice from government control. Right. Like if you can't get these questions, like, these are basic, factual questions. If you don't get these questions right, you really shouldn't be teaching kids. It's like, what are the two parts of US Congress? How many US Senators are there? Why do some states have more representatives than others? Like, these are very basic questions. And treating this as some sort of obscene attempt to prevent great blue state teachers from teaching, that's just a lie and really, really silly. Meanwhile, controversy has broken out over President Trump's attempts to rewrite some of the exhibits over at the Smithsonian. Now, remember, the Smithsonian is incredibly left leaning. We've talked about some of their exhibits before, including exhibits that suggested that it was a part of white culture to be on time and prompt, for example, or to believe that you should pull yourself up by your own bootstraps if you can. Those things are white culture things. So President Trump put out a statement yesterday that Twitter got very angry at. He said the museums throughout Washington, but all over the country are essentially the last remaining segment of woke. The Smithsonian is out of control, where everything discusses how horrible our country is, how bad slavery was, how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been. Nothing about success, nothing about brightness, nothing about the future. We are not going to allow this to happen. I've instructed my attorneys to go through the museums and start the exact same process that has been done with colleges and universities where tremendous progress has been made. This country cannot be woke because woke is broke. We have the hottest country in the world and we want people to talk about it, including in our museums. Okay, so the thing people are picking out in this statement is where he says how bad slavery was. President Trump is not saying that slavery was good or it was okay or not. That bad. What he is saying is everything discussed, right? Read the whole sentence. Everything discussed is how horrible our country is, how bad slavery was. He's saying, yeah, we should discuss how bad slavery was, but in the context of a broader American story, including the fact that, for example, America expended hundreds of thousands of lives, ending slavery. The story of America is complex. It has really, really dark areas, obviously. But overall, the story of America is an incredibly good story for the world and for the nation, obviously. And that's the point that President Trump is making. People on the left, of course, are jumping all over him for this, suggesting, oh, it's just terrible. Douglas Brinkley, presidential historian, said, it's the epitome of dumbness to criticize the Smithsonian for dealing with the reality of slavery in America. It's what led to our civil war and is a defining aspect of our national history. And the Smithsonian deals in a robust way with what slavery was, but it also deals with human rights and civil rights in equal abundance. Now, again, I really do not think that that is what President Trump is trying to do. He's not wiping out the slavery exhibits at the Smithsonian, obviously, but. But the goal here is, as always, for the left to lie about this sort of stuff and suggest that if you wish to teach American history in a complex, shaded way that upholds the essential goodness of America, then this somehow makes you a racist, somehow makes you terrible in some unspecified way. Alrighty, folks. Coming up, we'll get to some shocking information about who exactly is funding public broadcasters. I guess it's not all that shocking. Remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member. If you're not a member, become member. Use code Shapiro at checkout for two months free on all annual plans. Click that link in the description and join us SA.