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- [00:01]
Ben Shapiro
This episode is brought to you by Lifelock.
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Ben Shapiro
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Ben Shapiro
And for comprehensive identity protection, let Lifelock.
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- [00:29]
Ben Shapiro
Tons. Coming up on today's show, the final New York mayoral debate between Zoran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Slayly. Go through it in detail. Plus, we discussed the latest on the government shutdown. And that Senate Democrat from Maine, the candidate who you know has the Nazi tattoo, well, now he's covered it up. Wait until you see the COVID up of the tattoo. It's quite terrible. You know what isn't terrible? Daily Wire lifetime memberships. We had a feeling they would be popular. Well, it turns out having all access benefits for life with no renewals, that's something that pretty much everybody wants. Apparently. So here are your options. You could buy one while they're still available, or you could win mine. That is right. I have my very own lifetime membership to give away and I made it ridiculously easy to enter. Download the free Daily Wire plus app in the App Store, open it, tap, follow under my picture. That's it. You are now entered. And who knows, I could be calling you to give you my personal lifetime membership. But before any of that happens, you actually do need to download the Daily Wire plus app and follow me inside it right now in order to win. Well, last night was the second big New York mayoral debate. It involved, of course, the front runner, Zoran Mamdani, the pro Islamist, pro jihadist Marxist frontrunner who won the Democratic nomination versus Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York who had to resign office after, you know, getting a bunch of old people killed with his bad COVID policy and also grabbing ass. And he ran out of old people and then he was ousted from office, which is why Kathy Hochul is now governor of New York. He's running for mayor as well. He lost the Democratic nomination to mom Donnie and has been trailing him in the polls ever since, largely because there's a third candidate in the race, Curtis Sliwa, a radio host from New York, longtime New York kind of mainstay. He's the head of an organization called the Guardian Angels, which back in the 1970s and 1980s did a bunch of work where they'd walk around with red berets on the subway, making the city safer for people who are living there by intimidating would be criminals and. And of course he's become a pretty popular radio host, has been a big sort of iconic figure in New York's right wing politics for half a century at this point. Well, the polls right now have Mamdani ahead and it is unclear whether if Sliwa dropped out, the consolidated support between Cuomo and Sliwa would be enough to overcome Mamdani. What is amazing is Mamdani's base of support. According to a brand new poll out from the Patriot Polling survey, Mamdani has 62% of the foreign born vote in New York City. For those who seem to believe that it makes no difference when you import a bunch of people to the United States who have different views of the United States, shall we say, than the sort of mainline mainstream average American view, yeah, it makes a very, very big difference. In New York City, 62% of the foreign born vote is moving toward Mamdani Cuomo at 24%, Sliwa at 12%. Among American born New Yorkers, Cuomo leads at 40%, Mamdani has only 32%, Sliwa has 25%. So Mamdani's almost running in third among native born New Yorkers, which says something about the importation of people again from places that do not share basic American values and are significantly warmer to Islamism and to Marxism. Now this poll does show Mamdani at the top of the package. Overall. He has 43% of the overall vote. Cuomo is at apparently 34% of that vote and Sliwa at 19%. But if that were true, then that would mean that Sliwa dropping out would mean that Zoran Mandani likely loses. It also appears that TikTok has been putting its thumb on the scale in favor of Zoran Mamdani. The amount of online manipulation that is now just a part of our daily culture is astonishing, truly astonishing. We saw it during blm, we saw it during COVID We've seen it most recently during the Israel Hamas war in which extraordinary amounts of propaganda were put out by foreign actors on TikTok and on X, deliberately designed to split the American body politic over that particular issue. And apparently now TikTok has been heavily, heavily promoting Zoran Mamdani. According to a brand new report from the New York Post, TikTok is allegedly putting its thumb on the scale to help Zorn Mandani win the New York City Mayor royalty. According to a new report, the Chinese owned apps algorithm is distorting the playing field in New York City's mayoral race by amplifying pro Momdani content while suppressing videos backing his opponent Andrew Cuomo, according to a Tel Aviv based tech insider who cited a key leaked document from the social media company. Early evidence points to algorithmic influence that may be shaping voter perception in the New York City elections, according to this tech insider, Johannatan Dodelles. He wrote that in a Medium post published on Thursday. He noted TikTok's algorithm doesn't just determine which videos go viral, it's shaping what millions of people understand to be true about the world. And this of course has been true about TikTok for a very long time. It is not a shock that a Chinese based app would prefer a Marxist Islamist as the mayor of New York. Okay, well, last night featured the second debate and the last debate before the election between Mamdani, Cuomo and Sliwa, and it did not go amazing for his arm Momdani. It turns out that when questioned in any serious fashion about his views, dude has nothing. He's got that phony, smarmy, pasted on smile that sends a chill up the spine of everyone who can identify basic authenticity, but seems to charm the pants off a bunch of wild left progressives who see Mamdani smiling and somehow think that's genuine. Cuomo and Sliwa went on the attack. According to the New York Post. The candidates sparred over President Trump, anti Semitism and Mamdani's anti Israel stance, mayoral control over the city's public schools and much more, with plenty of mudslinging. And it was in fact hot. It got it. The reality is that on the debate stage, Slee was the best. There's no question that Curtis is the best person on the debate stage. The problem, of course, is that Curtis is a Republican. He's never going to break 25% of the vote, not for love or money, and he really should drop out now. This has been a major issue, at least for the last several weeks, where it's been clear the only way to beat Mom Donnie would be for there to be a consolidation of the vote. Curtis was asked about this by Sid Rosenberg, who's another host, sort of an iconic host in New York City, and Curtis basically melted down because Sid asked him, you know, you should really spend your time attacking Mom Donnie and you should get out of the race because you're not going to be the next New York mayor. And Curtis was having none of it. I have armed security guards now protecting my life and Nancy's life. I've been bribed by the billionaires to drop out of here if anything happens to me or anything happens to my wife. Because of this frenzy that I hear constantly coming from some of your colleagues here at wabc. It's on you guys and you gals that my life. My life is on the line here, Sid. My wife Nancy was never harmed. Anybody who only cares about people and animals is under threat now. Even when the Gotti's and Gambinos put a hit on me, five hollow point bullets. I never had armed security. The frenzy that is coming out of people's mouths, I mean, again, that is not an excuse for why you're staying in the race. I mean, like many of us have armed security at all times. Unfortunately, that is the nature of the beast right now. It is just an unfortunate point in American politics. There's a report yesterday that Barry Weiss, the new CBS News editor, has to have six armed security guards. And I will tell you that our team is very, very large when it comes to security. And that is an unfortunate result of the fact that there are so many political actors the these days who use unhinged rhetoric about their opponents and. And include in that unhinged rhetoric insane conspiracism that leads unhinged people to believe that prominent political commentators and politicians are controlling their lives and making their lives worse in such a way they can only be removed by force. Okay, but that's not a reason why Curtis should stay in the race. Putting all of that aside, the debate last night was not good for Mamdani, if that matters. It was not good. Again, Curtis needs to drop out to give Cuomo a shot. Cuomo has run a particularly terrible race. He has basically been somnambulant throughout this race, meaning a sleepwalker throughout the race. He has not run an energetic campaign. He seems to believe that the mayoralty should simply fall in his lap. But last night, he was definitely more lively than usual. Here was Andrew Cuomo's opening statement.
- [08:47]
Andrew Cuomo
New York is the greatest city on the globe, but we are at a pivotal moment and the voters are going to have to decide in this election what candidate has the plan to save the city and what candidate can get it done, not just talk about it. My main opponent has no new ideas. He has no new plan. It's Bill de Blasio Rehash. And we know how that turned out. He's never run anything, managed anything. He's never had a real job. I will hire 5,000 new police, build 500,000 new units. I will cut taxes, I will grow jobs and I will end and this hate mongering and division that is tearing this city apart because that's not who we are as a New Yorker. As New Yorkers, you know I can make change. You know I can make government work. I've done it before. I'll be ready on day one.
- [09:42]
Ben Shapiro
Now again, not very good. I mean, like, yes, he's saying he's ready, he's ready, but he can't even get through the statement without kind of stammering his way through the statement. It's not particularly, I'd say, exciting already. Coming up, more on the Mamdani debate. He did not do amazing. We'll see if it matters. First, there's a reason I'm proud to say Pure Talk is my wireless company. Because they don't just talk the talk, they walk the walk. Especially when it comes to supporting our veterans. This month, Pure Talk is choosing to support Canines for Warriors, an incredible organization that rescues and trains dogs, then pairs them with veterans struggling with ptsd. These are men and women who served with honor. When they come home, that brotherhood, that support network they had in the military, too often it disappears. They Canines for Warriors steps up to fill that gap, giving these heroes purpose, companionship and healing. That's exactly why PureTalk, a veteran led company, supports them. Choose a wireless company who shares your values and with talk, text and plenty of 5G data for just 25 bucks a month, you could also be saving an awful lot of money. I'm constantly using Pure Talk just like everybody else. My calls are very important to me, which means I want the best coverage network. I want it at the best price. Pure Talk makes all of that happen for me. It'll do the same for you. PureTalk.com Shapiro to make that switch today again, head over to PureTalk.com Shapiro and switch to America's wireless company, PureTalk. That's PureTalk.com Shapiro to get started. Also, your ambition just met its match with Robinhood. You push yourself in everything you do, constantly scanning headlines for insights, always keeping an eye on the market. Robinhood puts you in control of your money trade. Stocks and ETFs, options, futures, crypto, all on one platform. You can now build and execute your own trades from a desktop with Robinhood Legends, advanced tools or stick. Take advantage of the new Robinhood strategies. With a tailored portfolio managed by a team of experts, you expect more from yourself. Expect more from your money. Get started today@robinhood.com yourmoney again, that's robinhood.com yourmoney your money, your move. All investments involve risk, including loss of principal options. Futures and crypto trading carry significant risk and may not suit all investors. Securities offered Robinhood Financial LLC member SIPC Futures Trading is offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC and Not SPIC or FDIC. Protected crypto offered through Robinhood Crypto LLC. NML SID 1702840. Not FDIC or SIPC. Protected portfolio management offered by Robinhood Strategies and SEC registered advisor Curtis Lewis. Opening remarks were better than Cuomo's for sure. Here was Curtis it's us versus them. It's us versus the insiders and the billionaires. It's us versus Cuomo. It's us versus Zorhan. This is a campaign not about power. This is a campaign about you, the people. And I know many of you hardworking New Yorkers. You tell me you've been pushed aside, you've been silenced. These are the people that have all the money, all the connections. They made their backroom deals. But we have something more important. We have you, the people. And we're not going to be silenced anymore. We're going to fight. Tonight, I want you to look at the content of my policies. To know that I've served this city for more than 50 years, the city that I love. And I'm going to share with you my vision to make New York City safer again. To make New York City more affordable again. And where everybody once again can live the American dream. Now, again, if sleep were not a Republican, he might have a shot at the mayor. Royalty. He is a Republican. So he doesn't. Zoran Mamdani all he could talk about. Zorani has a couple of shticks. Again, I cannot even deal with the smile. I can't. It's just. It's so. It is just so creepy and weird. Like the fakeness, the inauthenticity of this phony, phony human being is sinister. I mean, it's like a sinister inauthenticity for Zorn Mamdani. No normal human being smiles this much. It is not a natural thing for humans to do. Ok. Like, I know a lot of smiley people. Zoram Amdani. Like, you gotta be kidding me. You've gotta be kidding me. It's. It's so. But the things that he campaigns on are. He just says affordability and the future a lot. And what does he mean by affordability? He means that he is going to promise a bunch of things he can't actually fulfill because he doesn't have the ability to raise state taxes. As the Wall Street Journal points out. Quote. Mamdani has said he wants to generate $9 billion in new tax revenue by raising taxes on New York City's wealthiest residents and businesses. He's calling for a 2% tax income on incomes over a million bucks, which would produce 4%, $4 billion in tax revenue. He wants to increase the state's corporate tax rate to 11.5%, generating $5 billion annually. There's only one problem. He doesn't actually control the state legislature. Right. He is a mayor if he wins, not the speaker and not the governor. He wants to spend $6 billion annually on free child care. He wants to spend $800 million annually on no fair bus service. He wants a complete rent freeze, which again, I'm not even sure how he would effectuate that. He wants city owned grocery stores and a $30 minimum wage. I mean, he's just. This is crazy crap. Zor Momdani is a weirdo creep Marxist who seems to believe that he can run a junior high presidential campaign in which you promise no homework and free candy every day and people will vote for it. Maybe it'll work. Apparently it's going to work. Which is a testament to how bad a candidate Andrew Cuomo is and how out of touch New Yorkers are, apparently. Here is Mamdani's opening statement in which he said affordability in the future 2,619 times.
- [15:14]
Zoran Mamdani
While there are three candidates on this stage, you will hear only two messages. My opponents, who spend more time trying to convince the other to drop out than actually proposing their own policies, will speak only of the past because that's all that they know. I am the sole candidate running with a vision for the future of this city.
- [15:34]
Ben Shapiro
By the way, his vision for the future very much approximates Vladimir Lenin's vision for the future circa 1917. So no. Well, he was battered about Zaramdani. He didn't get out of this debate scot free. Andrew Cuomo in particular was on attack against Mamdani. He pointed out quite correctly that Zormadani is a leech on the ass of society, that he has never held a job, that he has been a completely useless person his entire life. Which is absolutely true. He is a trust fund baby who tried to make a career as a bad rapper before getting elected to the assembly where he has ditched pretty much every major vote. He is 33 years old and has yet to hold a real job. And he's running for mayor of the financial capital of planet Earth. Here's Andrew Cuomo smacking him around.
- [16:18]
Andrew Cuomo
You have never had a job. You've never accomplished anything. There's no reason to believe you have any merit or qualification for eight and a half million lives. You don't know how to run a government. You don't know how to handle an emergency. And you've literally never proposed the, the bill on anything that you're now talking about in your campaign. You had the worst attendance record in the assembly and you gave yourselves the highest raise in the United States of America. You went from $110,000 to $140,000 and then you never showed up for work and you missed 80% of the votes. Shame on you.
- [17:01]
Ben Shapiro
Well, I mean, all of that is true and Mamdani is trying to smile his way through it. Cuomo also slammed Mamdani on his anti Semitism, which is clear and obvious to anybody who's been watching this race for more than two seconds. Mamdani is globalized. The intifada shtick, his unwillingness to say that Hamas should disarm. His statements that he will arrest the sitting Prime Minister of the State of Israel despite the fact he has no authority to do so. The fact that in his past he's made excuses for the Holy Land. Five people who are literally linked by law enforcement to terrorism and are in jail for those links. The fact that Zoramdani has campaigned alongside and taken pictures alongside people involved as unindowed co conspirators in the 1993 World Trade center bombing, like that's just the beginning of the list of his pro jihadism Mamdani. And here is Andrew Cuomo smacking him over it.
- [17:48]
Andrew Cuomo
You know, not everything is a TikTok video. You're the savior of the Jewish people. You won't denounce, globalize. The intifada, which means kill Jews. There's unprecedented fear in New York. It was not several rabbis, errol. It was 650 rabbis who signed the letter, not several.
- [18:10]
Ben Shapiro
And he then went on to go after Mamdani over LGBTQ issues. Because one of the weird things about Mamdani is that Mamdani is the scavenger coalition all in one human. I talk in my book Lines and Scavengers about the scavenger coalition, which would be the leeches, the lechers and the barbarians. He's trying to appeal to all three. He really is more in the barbarian line, meaning he is somebody who is not originally from the United States who does not believe in the basic ideals of the United States, but is using the free speech and freedom of thought and free politics in the United States to make his way to destroy the civilization from the inside. That's what Zoram Hamdani is. Ok, but Zoramdani, of course, holds a lot in common with the jihadis. As we just mentioned, Zaramdani holds an enormous amount in common with the Marxists. He is in fact a democratic social. He's called himself this. He is a Marxist who does not believe in capitalism. So he's a leech. And he's made common cause with the lechers, meaning radical LGBTQ activists. Now, the problem is that you can't hold all three of those things in one person. You can have a movement that contains voters from all three of those things. That's his movement. But he's tried to be all of those things. How can you be a pro Islamist and also a pro lgbtq? Plus minus divided by sign human. And this is the point that Andrew Cuomo is making. At the same time you're trying to appeal to LGBTQ + divided by sign voters. You are posing in pictures alongside people who would literally kill those people.
- [19:36]
Andrew Cuomo
You take a picture with Rebecca Cadaga, deputy Prime Minister of Uganda. You take a picture with your father. You're smiling, he's smiling. She's known as Rebecca Gay Killer Kadaga, you're a citizen of Uganda. You took the picture. You said you didn't know who she was. It turns out you did. How do you not renounce your citizenship or demand BDS against Uganda for imprisoning people who are gay just by their sexual orientation? Isn't that a basic violation of human rights?
- [20:16]
Ben Shapiro
And again, he is right about that because. Because Cuomo is sort of a traditional left wing Democrat. Mamdani is something very, very different. Already coming up, more from that debate between Zahra Mamzani, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Lewa in New York. Plus, Graham Platner is the bizarro world Maine Senate Democratic candidate. He's still leading in the polls, by the way. And yeah, dude just got a cover up of a Nazi tattoo. We'll explore how well that went. For I used to assume that restless sleep was inevitable. Night after night, tossing, turning, waking up with that aching back, I convinced myself that's how sleep was supposed to be. And then I tried Helix Sleep and everything changed. It's truly been transformative for my sleep quality. Now I easily fall asleep in minutes, even as the weather gets colder. And current news stories demand my attention. I got the kids waking me up. What makes Helix different is they don't just sell you a random mattress. They actually match you with a mattress made just for your body and sleep style. You personalize everything else in your life. Why not the thing you're spending eight hours a night on? Whether you're a side sleeper, back sleeper, somewhere in between, they've got you covered. They make it so simple to get your best night's sleep every single night. All you have to do is take their sleep quiz and get matched with a custom mattress based on your body type and sleep preferences. Trust me, when you find the right match, you'll wonder how you ever slept on anything else. I have. That firm but breathable mattress means I don't get back pain. It means that I tend to heat up a lot when I sleep. I don't get that problem with Helix. Right now, Helix is offering a great sale. Visit helixsleep.comBen get 20% off site wide. That's helixleep.comBen for 20% off sitewide, make sure you enter our show name after checkout so they know we sent you. Again, visit helixleep.com ben for this exclusive offer. Also, I'm on the road constantly, right? I'm covering the news stories, political events, you name it. Between the flights and the hotel rooms, sometimes getting proper nutrition, that's like the first thing that goes out the window. Here's the thing. I have a lot of people who count on me. Wife got kids, got a company. So I need to stay healthy. And that's why I started taking Balance of Nature's fruits and veggies supplements. These are the original whole food supplements. 16 fruits, 15 veggies, freeze dried into capsules. As someone who keeps kosher, I appreciate there are no binders, no fillers, no flow agents, just 100% whole food ingredients. Nothing added that shouldn't be there when I'm rushing through an airport. I can take them with water. If I'm in the car between interviews, I can chew them. Sometimes I'll even open the capsules and mix the powder into my smoothies. However my day is going, they go with me. Balance of Nature delivers the natural goodness of fruits, veggies, spices and fibers just as nature intended. Which means Even when I'm 2,000 miles from home, I'm still taking care of myself the way my family needs me to. It's very convenient. You pop it right in the protein smoothie way I do. You can take it chewable and Swallow it like. There's plenty of ways to get the nutrients you need with Balance of Nature. Head on over to balanceofnature.com get a free fiber and spice supplement plus 35% off your first set as a new preferred customer by using discount code. Shapiro Cuomo also went out of his way to slam Mamdani on his economic proposals, which are totally crazy. He slams him over freezing rent. He says, there's not even a way for you to do this. What are you even talking about? What does that mean?
- [22:56]
Andrew Cuomo
I'm going to freeze the rent? People think it applies to all of them? No, just the 25% of the units that are rent stabilized. And by the way, it's all BS because the mayor doesn't have the power to do it anyway. The Rent Guidelines Board does. And he doesn't control the Rent Guidelines Board. So nothing is going to happen.
- [23:19]
Ben Shapiro
And of course, Cuomo is right about that. Mamdani is making promises he has no intention of keeping. As I say, this is a junior high school presidential campaign in which he promises free cookies and milk, endless candy, and no homework. And if New Yorkers buy this, well, they're going to get to take the ride after they buy the ticket. Cuomo points out that Mamdani is a great actor who missed his calling, which, I mean, honestly, I think that's a little too complimentary to Mamdani. I'm not sure he had a calling. He's been useless up until his mid-30s. So at that point, you start to wonder if your calling is just being useless. Here we go.
- [23:52]
Zoran Mamdani
I am going to increase that pilot program to more than 200 schools, and we're going to do it because we have to deliver for these children.
- [23:59]
Ben Shapiro
Mr. Trump.
- [24:00]
Andrew Cuomo
Yeah. Zoran is a great actor. He missed his calling.
- [24:08]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, well, I mean, again, not wrong. I will say that again. Sliwa had the best insult of the night. He said that Mamdani's resume could fill a cocktail napkin. He said, andrew, your failures could fill a public school library in New York City. And I mean, that's true. That's true. I just don't understand why Curtis is still in the race. Now. Cuomo and Sliwa both went after Mamzani. Again. Mamzani has been avoiding making any specific policy recommendations beyond these very broad and borderline unachievable promises. And so he was asked about three specific referenda that are on the New York ballot. And Mamzani tried to smile his way through it without giving an answer, which is his way. What is your opinion, Zoran? Come on.
- [24:54]
Lee Zeldin
Yes or no?
- [24:55]
Ben Shapiro
What is your opinion? Yes or no? Zoran?
- [24:59]
Lee Zeldin
True.
- [24:59]
Ben Shapiro
Don't be a politician here. I got it.
- [25:03]
John Thune
They're pointing out what I was about.
- [25:04]
Andrew Cuomo
To answer the question.
- [25:07]
Zoran Mamdani
I think on the stage you can see two people appealing for the Republican Party's votes.
- [25:14]
Andrew Cuomo
Answer the question.
- [25:15]
Ben Shapiro
For my question to you was, do.
- [25:18]
Andrew Cuomo
You support the three ballot amendment questions?
- [25:21]
Zoran Mamdani
I have not yet taken a position on those ballot amendments.
- [25:24]
Andrew Cuomo
What a shocker. All right. What a shocker.
- [25:29]
Ben Shapiro
You have to sort of enjoy the New York of all of this with the crowd going crazy and Mamdani trying to smile his way through it. Again, Mamdani is not great at this. He's great in TikTok videos, and that's kind of it. He's great in TikTok videos. He has a bunch of positions that are absolutely between incoherent and insane. And he has a population in New York City that is delusional enough to believe that they can endure another horrific mayoralty along the lines of Bill de Blasio and everything will suddenly be ok. What kind of stuff is Mamdani proposing? Well, just to take from his apple tree of stupidity, one apple. At one point last night, he was asked about the police, and he said that dispatchers should decide whether it's appropriate to even send the police. Maybe they should instead send mental health professionals, and the dispatcher should decide.
- [26:18]
Zoran Mamdani
What I am proposing is something that will address the needs of New Yorkers in the present. We speak and hear from New Yorkers across the five boroughs who outline how the mental health crisis is one of the major challenges in this city. And yet what we have in our city is asking those same police officers who are being asked to respond to shootings, respond to murders, to also respond to these calls. I trust the dispatchers who would be receiving these calls to make the determination as to whether there was any indication of violence. If there is no indication of a threat of violence, then we would set the mental health experts and providers to respond to those same incidents.
- [26:57]
Ben Shapiro
So, no. I mean, the answer is no. So you want. You want the 911 dispatchers to be the people who are now determining whether to send a cop or whether to send a social worker. So I asked our friends over at Comet, which is a project of perplexity, what are the qualifications for a 911-dispatcher in New York City, since apparently Zormandani now wants them to make judgment calls on the spur of the moment whether to send a social worker or a cop. Apparently, according to comments, qualify as a 911 dispatcher in New York City. Applicants must meet strict educational, experiential, and training standards set by the NYPD in New York State. So what are they? Well, first you have to be a U.S. citizen. Ooh. And have a high school diploma or a ged. Wow. Also, you have to have one year of full time paid clerical or customer service experience involving public contact. So if you worked as like a customer service person at Walmart. Cool. Civil service and assessments. You have to pass the New York City Civil Service Examination for Police Communications Technician administered by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services. I'm sure that is an extraordinarily challenging task. I'm sure. And then you have to complete 200 hours of training under the Emergency Services Dispatch Training Evaluation Program, which I assume is like a month of training or so, and includes courses in communications, radio operations, stress management, and legal aspects. You have 18 months to complete that, so that that is okay. And then you have to have emergency medical dispatcher certification and also emergency fire certification and CPR certification. So I don't know where in there that qualifies you to make a judgment call based on a loose set of facts about whether to send a cop or not. I'm not super comfortable with people with a high school GED and 200 hours of some form of training and a couple of state certifications being a person who decides whether or not a cop shows up with a gun or a social worker shows up with a pencil and a clipboard. When a nut is trying to push somebody in front of a train on a subway platform, how could it go wrong? Well, Mamdani's one bright shining moment is, of course, when he slapped at Andrew Cuomo over Cuomo's sexual harassment allegations. This, of course, is the thing that got Cuomo booted from higher office. Mamdani pulled to Trump. He said that some of the accusers were in the audience. And then Cuomo responded. Here was Mamdani's accusation.
- [29:28]
Zoran Mamdani
Mr. Cuomo, in 2021, 13 different women who worked in your administration credibly accused you of sexual harassment. Since then, you have spent more than $20 million in taxpayers payer funds to defend yourself, all while describing these allegations as entirely political. You have even gone so far as to legally go after these women. One of those women, Charlotte Bennett, is here in the audience this evening. You sought to access her private gynecological records. She cannot speak up for herself because you. You lodged a defamation case against her. I, however, can speak what do you say to the 13 women that you sexually harassed?
- [30:18]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, so Cuomo then responded to those claims. One of the big problems for Cuomo here is that the guy still hasn't come up with a great answer on this. Now, first of all, if you lodge a defamation claim against somebody, because what you're saying is that they said something that is absolutely false. That, that I know that Mamdani is trying to claim that that's a form of silencing. That is a legal procedure because you are claiming the person lied about you. I'm not sure exactly what the alternative would be. Now, again, that's not a defense of Andrew Cuomo and his behavior with women. I just think that it's kind of legally pernicious to suggest that if there is, for example, an NDA, which is a normal employment thing, or if there is a defamation case that you lodge against someone you say is lying, and somehow this in and of itself amounts to an act of silencing. It can be used that way, but not necessarily. Anyway, here's Andrew Cuomo.
- [31:04]
Andrew Cuomo
If you want to be in government, then you have to be serious and mature. There were allegations of sexual harassment. They were then went to five district attorneys, fully litigated for four years. The cases were dropped. Right? You know that as a fact. So everything you just stated, you just said was a misstatement, which we're accustomed.
- [31:27]
Zoran Mamdani
To for stated was a misstatement because.
- [31:29]
Andrew Cuomo
Because the cases. The cases were dropped.
- [31:35]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, now again, that's a horrible answer, but it's not a great answer. And herein lies the problem. The reason that Mamdani is winning is not just because obviously he's TikTok hot thing. It's also because Andrew Cuomo is a crappy candidate. Andrew Cuomo has never been a wonderful candidate in the state of New York, and he's run a really lackluster race. If Mamdani ends up as the actual mayor of New York, yes, part of the blame goes to Curtis for not dropping out of the Rays. But a huge part of the blame goes to Andrew Cuomo, who should have been able to defeat Zoran Mandani in a Democratic primary. Bottom line here is this. If you want an honest assessment of where New Yorkers stand, Curtis should drop out of the race. I've said it 10 times. I'll say it again. He should drop out of the race. He does not have a path to victory. 1. About 1/5 of New York City residents are eligible for the election are registered Republicans. Most of the rest are registered Democrats. If Sliwa continues to pick off 15, 20% of the vote. There is no shot for Cuomo. Cuomo, he's a bad candidate. But if you are hopeful at all for the future of New York, Zoram Hamdani as mayor is a bad idea. Now, again, I'm of divided mind about this because to my mind, I still have the H.L. mencken phraseology, and that is that democracy is the theory that people get what they vote for, good and hard. And so if New Yorkers really, really want Zoram Hamdani, they can have him. And then the prices in Palm beach will go up. But as somebody who would actually like to see New York not become even more of a bleep hole than it has become recently, I'm obviously rooting very hard for the defeat of this Marxist Islamist as mayor of New York. It says an awful lot about the state of the country, the state of Gen X and millennials, that this is even a close race and that Mandani certainly is likely to win, which is wild already. Coming up, we have the Senate majority leader, we have the EPA administrator, plus our own White House reporter, Mary Margaret Olahan stops by to talk about this White House reconstruction project. First, folks, the response has been huge. I did a signing on All Access Live with some of you a little bit earlier this week. Since then, Lions and Scavengers have been flying off the shelves faster than we can even restock the book. And get this, it is a New York Times bestseller. It's not just another book. It's a very, very important book. It's a rallying cry against the cultural rot poisoning our society. Lions and Scavengers tells the truth that people refuse to confront. With the holidays right around the corner, it makes a perfect gift for the real lions in your life, the people who still believe in courage, strength and truth. You need to move fast. The signed copies are disappearing very quickly. Go to dailywire.com shop right now. Grab your signed copy of the New York Times bestseller Lions and Scavengers before they're gone for Good. Again, that's DailyWire.com shop Meanwhile, the Democratic Party has its continued struggles with people who seem pretty warm toward both the sort of new Nazism in Hamas and also sometimes, I guess, the old Nazism. Graham Platner continues to be a controversial figure. He, of course, is Bernie Sanders endorsed candidate in that main Senate race and he got caught on tape. He actually released the tape because he knew he was going to break. He was caught on tape shirtless at A wedding a few years back. And the problem with that is not that he's shirtless at a wedding. Although, you know, just as a general rule, dudes, keep your shirts on at weddings, but particularly keep your shirt on at a wedding if you have a giant death's head tattoo, like a Nazi death's head tattoo. And for those who don't believe that that's what that is. I'm just going to point out that if you watch Schindler's List, ok, Ralph finds his character literally wears it on his collar as a member of the ss. This is not like an obscure symbol here. So now Graham Platner is trying to buy it back. He says, no, I never knew that. I didn't know it was a Nazi thing. I just thought it was like a cool pirate thing or something. And now he says that he is going to have. He had a tattoo redesign. This, by the way, is not like a tiny tattoo. It's a very large tattoo on his chest. He had a tattoo redesign. The only thing worse than the media cover up is the actual tattoo redesign, which is horrendous. I don't know who his tattoo artist is. Apparently they just got released from Rikers and they were using needle and ink that they swirled up in a toilet or something. I don't know who the tattoo artist here was. Let's just say not very good. And also, nobody needed to see Graham Platner shirtless. My God. So he went for the. He went for the fat, pregnant wolf cockroach. That's what he went for there. That's not ideal. Like this person's judgment. I think we've, we've seen enough of Graham Platner's chest and nipple there. I think we can move on with our lives. But this is the person who you want to be the next senator from Maine. Idiocracy is here, folks. Idiocracy is real. Mike Judge's movie was a documentary. Here's Bernie Sanders, another complete dunderheaded moron, defending Graham Platner. Of course, you said yesterday you are still supporting him. Why?
- [36:15]
John Thune
I am not overly impressed by a squad of media running around saying, what do you think about the tattoo on Grand Plotner's chest? He went into a dark period in his life. I suspect that Graham Platner is not the only American to have gone through a dark period, but what he did was he expressed his darkness on the Internet. Probably not a brilliant thing to do, I think, as a nation, especially given the fact that we have a president who is convicted of 34 felonies. Maybe we have to do a little bit of forgiveness.
- [36:57]
Ben Shapiro
Oh, my God. Really, Bernie? Really? You? Seriously? Well, I guess that the Red Brown alliance rides in tandem as per the usual arrangement. Meanwhile, the government shutdown continues apace. Doesn't seem like it's going to end anytime soon. Democrats seem to think that this is a winning issue for them, despite the polling that doesn't demonstrate that in any way, shape or form. Hakeem Jeffries, the House Minority Leader, he is trying to blame this on President Trump, which is wild because literally, Trump's position is, what if we just keep funding the government at the current rates? We are funding the government. Here's Hakeem Jeffries. I love that Democrats are now saying that we have to save health care. Wait, wait, why is it in danger? Why is it in danger? I thought that Obamacare saved healthcare. I was alive for Obamacare. I remember it because I'm more than like, 13 years old. So I remember when Obamacare became a thing, so I. So why didn't it save health care? Why aren't we done already? Wait, wait, are you saying Obamacare has been generally a fail anyway? Hakeem Jeffrey says we have to save Obamacare by shutting down the government. Donald Trump has spent more time on the golf course than he has in talking to Democrats on Capitol Hill to reopen the government, to enact a spending agreement that's bipartisan, and to address the Republican health care crisis. His behavior, unpresidential, unhinged, unpatriotic, un American throughout this process, speaks for itself. Now, I think that actually what speaks for itself is the bizarre Democratic insistence that we shut down the government so that they can undo a bill they were unable to stop a few months back. Joining me on the line is the Republican Senate Majority Leader, John Thune. Senator Thune, thanks so much for taking the time. Really appreciate it.
- [38:46]
John Thune
Thanks, Ben. Always good to be with you.
- [38:47]
Ben Shapiro
So let's talk about the latest on the government shutdown. Democrats seem to have shown very little sign that they are interested in caving. You have a few Democrats who are sort of moderates on the other side who have talked about the necessity to get past the government shutdown. Senator Fetterman being the most obvious. Where do you think we are at this point?
- [39:03]
John Thune
Well, we'll find out. I mean, I think right now we've got a vote later this evening to open up the government again. This'll be the 12th. I assume the Democrats will vote at down again tomorrow. We're going to give them a Different, something else to vote on. We gave them a defense appropriations bill to vote on last week which would have funded the troops, and they block voted against that. This one tomorrow is a Ron Johnson bill, which essentially what it does, Ben, is it basically just pays everybody who's working. So anybody in the federal workforce, furloughed employees, will obviously get back pay, but anybody today who is working in any government agency would get paid. And I don't know what they're going to do. But as you suggest right now it looks like they're sort of digging in, and I'm not sure why. I think this is a real losing hand for them to play. It's certainly costing people all over the country big time, particularly federal employees, and the longer this thing drags on, the worse it gets. But they, at this point, at least right now, don't seem prepared to want to come to their senses and actually do the right thing for the American people, which is to keep the government open.
- [40:05]
Ben Shapiro
Senator, they've talked a lot about the idea that what they're trying to do here is lower the cost curve on healthcare, that premiums are too high. What they really mean by that, I assume, is that they want to continue to subsidize Obamacare at essentially pandemic levels, despite the fact that the pandemic has been over for several years at this point. Isn't this also sort of a tacit admission that Obamacare didn't do its job? We were told that Obamacare was going to radically bend the cost curve and bring down the cost of premiums. And here you have Democrats openly acknowledging that absent a gigantic infusion of more government subsidy from the federal level, the premiums are too high.
- [40:36]
John Thune
Right. And they created this crisis, this Covid cliff, if you will. And these enhanced subsidies, which did into effect, as you point out during the pandemic, it was supposed to be response to that. The pandemic's long over. They created the expiration date. So this is really a problem of their own making. But the broader point is the right one, and that is that everything that Obamacare has done, including these enhanced subsidies, has added to the cost of insurance policies. In fact, if you look from 2013 to 2025 to where we are today, insurance rates and exchanges, the Obamacare exchanges have gone up about 221%, if you can believe that. And so it's done nothing but inflate the cost that people are paying for health insurance across this country. And that's because the fundamental program is flawed. And then the enhanced Subsidies were flawed, too. They didn't have an income limit. So you got people that are making five, six hundred thousand dollars a year qualified. They have zero premium policies. So people don't even know they're covered. Insurance companies are incentivized to auto enroll people. And so it's become a money maker, you know, just a factory for insurance companies to make money because there are a lot of people out there that they enroll who don't even know they have coverage. And so you've got this flawed structure with no incentive to constrain costs. And as a consequence, you've got just the cost going up astronomical rates every year. So it's their problem. They created it. Now they're expecting Republicans to try and solve it for them. And that's their price for opening up the federal government. And it's a price that is a very stiff one because you're looking at to do it the way they want to do it. It's about $400 billion.
- [42:11]
Ben Shapiro
Senator Thune, Senator Fetterman has suggested that actually the filibuster ought to be nuked, which is, I think, unique. I've never seen a situation in which a member of the opposition party calls for the majority party to nuke the filibuster in order to get something done. Obviously, you have reservations about doing that. Every time the filibuster has been nuked in the past, it has led to a new precedent, which is that it no longer exists for those types of scenarios. That's obviously been true. When Democrats nuked the filibuster for judicial nominees, that led to the Republicans being able to actually get onto the Supreme Court, a bunch of nominees they otherwise might not have been able to get through. Why do you think it's important to maintain the filibuster in cases like this?
- [42:47]
John Thune
Well, I think that legislated. And by the way, the executive calendar, which is different, so that's judges, all the executive branch nominees are on the executive calendar. And we did change the rules. We changed the rules most recently here, just about six weeks ago, on nominees trump executive branch nominees. The Democrats had just completely filibustered and shut that process down. So we opened it up. The legislative filibuster is designed to protect the voice of the minority in this country. And it's been used effectively for a long time to do just that. And it's prevented a lot of bad things from happening. Republicans have used it in the past and, you know, most recently the Democrats tried to get rid of the filibuster for what they called their elections reform bill, which basically was consolidating all of elections in Washington D.C. it would have, you know, taken power to regulate elections away from the states, would have done away with voter idols. And had it not been for Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, they would have succeeded in doing it. At that time, they voted against it. But the Democrats have made it clear they would love to get rid of the filibuster, to enact their agenda, which includes statehood for Puerto rico and Washington D.C. an expanded Supreme Court, up to 15 seats there, abortion on demand, as I said, federalizing our election system. Those are just a few of the list of horribles that they put out there. And they all campaigned on that. But if we tried to do it now, all 47 of them, I can guarantee you would block vote against it. So it's just, it's situational for them. It's all about political power. And you know, now that they are on the outside, they're going to use this to their advantage. I just think that we ought to be able to do this the old fashioned way and that is open up the government by just having five more Democrats vote with us and that's all it's going to take. So we shouldn't be in this. Everything is harder than it should be right now because of Trump derangement syndrome. But I still think at some point to be some rank and file Democrats who break with their leadership and do the right thing for the country and that is open up the government.
- [44:39]
Ben Shapiro
Senator, one of the other things is that you've been busy actually getting President Trump's nominees through. There was a lot of heartburn about the inability to get nominees through. You have been getting an enormous number of executive branch nominees through. Judicial nominees you've been getting through. Can you give us an update on the nomination schedule and what's been going on there?
- [44:55]
John Thune
Right. We cleared the backlog. The Democrats had completely shut it down. And I mean, we were forced to be here. We've been here more days, more hours, cast more votes, votes than any Senate in history, at least in the last 40 years as a result of the Democrats obstruction. And so we did, we did make a change in the rules that enables us to start processing some of the executive branch nominations in batches and that's enabled us to catch up. So but those, there are more coming and on the judiciary side, we're doing some this week. We're going to do a circuit court at the end of the week. Nom, we're going to do we're doing district court judges. This, this. We had about 50 of those that were in the backlog. And we still have to do those the old fashioned way. We can't do those in batches. But as you know, the judiciary is an enormously important part of what we do here. And we want to make sure that we are filling those positions with people who are constitutionalists, who understand that the role of a judge is not to, you know, write the laws, but to interpret and apply them. And so those are the kinds of judges that we're looking for. And it's going to be really important for us to continue to fill the judiciary and the executive branch, President Trump's nominees to the executive branch, to be able to implement the agenda that he ran on and that the American people voted for.
- [46:07]
Ben Shapiro
Now, Senator Thune, meanwhile, the Trump administration obviously very active on the foreign policy front. Over the course of the last couple of weeks, the Trump administration has made some extraordinary moves in the Middle east, particularly with regard to Israel and freeing Israeli hostages from the tender mercies of Hamas, trying to unite the rest of the world around extirpating Hamas in the Gaza Strip. I had the privilege of actually being in the Knesset when President Trump made his speech at the invitation of Ambassador Huckabee. What do you make of what the Trump administration has been doing in the Middle East? What do you think is the future of the Gaza Strip right now?
- [46:37]
John Thune
Right. Well, and I saw some of your coverage from over there, which I thought was great, Ben, and I just think that it is remarkable what the president has accomplished here and what his team has accomplished, and it builds on the success of the Abraham Accords. Obviously, we're far from being in a state where we can declare total victory because Hamas is still active. And in my view, they need to be completely obliterated or at least disarmed so that they are not a factor in governing the Gaza Strip. So there's still work to be done, but the way in which this administration has worked with the Israelis, with our Arab allies in the region, to bring about an outcome that I think nobody thought achievable just a few weeks ago, and that is getting these hostages released. And then now, obviously, the hard part begins and trying to come up with, with security force to maintain security there and figure out what the next step is in order to make that a place in the world that people want to visit, that enjoys some of the success and prosperity that folks in the neighborhood have. I think there is some tremendous opportunities. There wouldn't have been possible had it not been for President Trump and his leadership. And so congratulations to him. But we still have a lot of work to do. And Prime Minister Netanyahu and our president working together with our allies in the region, hopefully will continue to stabilize that area and make it a place that's a attractive for people to live and work and invest.
- [47:58]
Ben Shapiro
Senator Thune, once the government shutdown ends, and I have to assume that at some point in the future it will end, we won't be here a year from now with the government shutdown continuing, I would assume. Once it ends. What are the legislative priorities for you and for the rest of the Republican caucus?
- [48:11]
John Thune
Well, obviously funding the government the old fashioned way through the appropriations process. This is a short term funding resolution that buys us some time, but we need to do the full year. But I think there are a lot of opportunities out there. There are things like permitting reform, there are things like AI which has become a very, very big issue in our lives. There are we got to do a farm bill, we've got to do a highway, a transportation bill. There's a lot of work for Congress to do that has been put on the, you know, kind of on the back burner while the government's been shut down. But, you know, the most important thing that we do is, you know, take care and make sure that we protect the country. I always tell people, if you don't get national security right, the rest the of this conversation. So we did get the defense authorization bill across the finish line in the Senate. We tried, as I said earlier, to put the defense appropriations bill on the floor, which funds all those priorities, and the Democrats blocked it. But taking care of America's national security interests in what is a very dangerous world is going to continue to be a big priority for us. And then like I said, there are lots of other legislative priorities that I think and there are some areas where we can work together. There's some things that we can do in a bipartisan way with Democrats. But we, you know, we've got to get past this government shutdown and the Democrats holding the federal employees hostage basically, as if you will, to try and get a bunch of unrelated policy things that they want to get done. And I said I'm perfectly happy to have the conversation, talk with them about some of those things, but they, you know, we can't do that while the government's being held hostage.
- [49:42]
Ben Shapiro
Well, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senator, really appreciate your time and your hard work on all of the aforementioned topics. Thanks so much for your time Good.
- [49:49]
John Thune
To be with you. Thanks, Ben. Talk to you soon.
- [49:52]
Ben Shapiro
Meanwhile, the Trump administration, they're actually doing their best to actually not make the American people feel the pain of the government shutdown. That is a different thing that has happened in the past. Typically, if it's a Republican Congress that shuts down the government because they want changes and a Democrat in the White House who's attempting to fight back against that, for example, usually Democrats try to maximize the pains and bring pressure on Congress. Republicans are not doing that this time. They're actually running the government in a responsible fashion. One of the people doing that is the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Lee Zeldin. He joins us on the line right now. Lee, thanks so much for taking the time. Really appreciate it.
- [50:23]
Lee Zeldin
Always good to be with you, Ben.
- [50:26]
Ben Shapiro
So why don't you tell me about sort of what the impacts are of the government shutdown. I know that for most Americans, this has become kind of a rote thing, actually. I think that if you went back 10 years, this would have been the top headline every day for the last several weeks now, because we've gone through it a few times. I think most Americans just figure it'll eventually peter out, but it is having real impacts. What are those impacts? How are you seeing it?
- [50:46]
Lee Zeldin
Well, one, as you saw with Congresswoman Clark over the course of these last couple days, talking about how they acknowledge Congressional Democrats that this is causing American families to suffer, and she refers to it as leverage that needs to be used in this negotiation. So there is an acknowledgement that this does cause suffering. As time goes by and, you know, snap payments start to be missed, paychecks start to be missed, I think more Americans will be feeling it in the days and the weeks to come. The other thing, too, is that this is a shutdown where the Republicans keep voting to have the government open and it's the Democrats voting no. I think if it was reversed, some of these outlets, like New York Times, it might be, you know, above the fold, front page every single day that the Democrats are having votes to, to have the government open and the Republicans would be voting no. So I think that the shoe is on the other foot. We see different media coverage for us here at the epa, we operate off of a lot of carryover funding. It's not necessarily a fiscal year that ends on September 30th. We have funding that's multiple that multiple years. We, we had a furlough that kicked in a little over 4,000 people this past Monday. As we move forward in coming weeks, that will go up if we had a total lapse of funding, that would be about an 89% furlough here at the agency. And the more you furlough this agency, the more that we are unable to fulfill our statutory obligations and work to implement the people's agenda of ensuring clean airline and water for all Americans, which gets to our core mission.
- [52:24]
Ben Shapiro
Minister Zelda, one of the things that the Trump administration has done differently during this government shutdown than the Obama administration did during government shutdowns that happened under their watch. The Obama administration really attempted to maximize pain. And I'm old enough to remember when they attempted for example, to shut down open air World War II memorials and not let anybody into national parks and all the rest of it. You and the Trump administration, by contrast, have been attempting to minimize the impact on Americans lives. You have a contingency plan for a shutdown that still allows your agency to continue functioning even under these circumstances.
- [52:56]
Lee Zeldin
Yeah, that's such a great point, Ben. We're trying to minimize, mitigate the impact of the shutdown as much as possible. When I said that we just had this furlough kick in of about 4,000 employees, this isn't something that we enthusiastically did on October 1st. We prevented it as long as we possibly could, as long as there was funding that was available. A total lapse of funding, as I pointed out, would be an 89% reduction in, in the services that we provide. I mean, listen, we could, we could attempt to do that right now, but we're trying to mitigate the damage of this shutdown on the American people. That's an example of one agency looking to do its part. We're hearing the same thing from other agencies trying to accomplish the same. We want to mitigate impacts as much as we can and hope that congressional Democrats decide to vote yes on what is a clean cr. This is not something that is, you know, filled with a partisan wish list of conservatives. This is just a funding bill to keep the government open.
- [54:01]
Ben Shapiro
And Minister Zelda, I also want to talk to you about the fact that, that the EPA has done extraordinary work under your auspices in making sure that the economy functions. One of the things that's been kind of amazing to watch over the course of President Trump's second term. There have been a lot of crosswinds. I mean, obviously the tariffs have roiled a lot of people. People have been worried about those. You've had the concerns over the government shutdown. You've had the one big beautiful bill. It has not been, shall we say, like the smoothest economic road for people who are looking for consistent policy. But one of the areas that has really spurred the economy and ensured that the economy continues to grow, investment continues, has been the EPA's approach to the economy. The attempts to streamline and cut regulation is a massive thing you've been doing over over at the epa.
- [54:40]
Lee Zeldin
Yes, sir. We choose to both protect the environment and grow the economy. It's not a binary choice. There was this belief that in order to protect the environment you had to strangulate entire sectors of the economy. We this year at the Trump EPA reject that notion. We are going through an amount of deregulation that when finalized in one year would be more deregulation than entire federal governments have done in the past across all federal agencies, across entire presidencies. That's just at one agency. Here at the EPA. One proposal alone, a proposed rescission of the 2009 Obama endangerment finding, if finalized, would be the largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States. We are not just imposing our will on the American public and saying this is what we believe to be right. This is our final decision and we implement it. We have a proposal that goes out to the public, there's a public comment period, we respond to those comments and then we meet our final decision. Ben, you're somebody who follows Supreme Court decisions. You're well read in, in our law and our Constitution. The Supreme Court in recent years, they issued a decision in the Loper Bright case overturning the Chevron doctrine, saying essentially that agencies like the EPA can't use vague language in getting creative and giving themselves more power. If some, if there's an absence inside of statute, doesn't say that the agency can't. Well, I guess that means we can. That was an interpretation of the past. Now that the Chevron doctrine is overturned, we at the EPA will follow the plain language of the law. We will follow the law and we will not take creative liberty in giving ourselves more power because of it. That was one of the ironies by the way of this no kings protest that just took place. The President's directive to me at the agency is that every single day we should be reducing our powers, that we should be empowering states, empowering the people to be in charge of their own lives and to help the economy flourish. One other quick point I wanted to mention. We've gone through substantial efficiencies over the course of this year to save tax dollars. The annual operating budget of EEPA is about $10 billion. I've canceled over $29 billion worth of grants, 750 million annually in staffing reductions, money saved in media consolidations, real estate consolidations. I'm sorry, media cancellations of subscriptions, real estate consolidations, closed an EPA museum that no one knew about or even visited. And the savings just keep getting racked up on behalf of the American taxpayer. Another important thing to fight for Americans, American families, and also the American economy.
- [57:31]
Ben Shapiro
Well, that is EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. Lee, thanks so much for your hard work. And thanks for joining us on the show. Really appreciate the time.
- [57:38]
John Thune
Thanks, Ben.
- [57:39]
Ben Shapiro
Meanwhile, Democrats are complaining ad nauseam about the White House redesign. POLITICO's coverage is typically over the top. Quote, it's your house and he's destroying it. Trump demolishes White House East Wing. I'm just telling you, I've been to the East Wing. It's not iconic. It's a bunch of office spaces. It is not the West Wing. It's not what the Oval is. It's not literally none of the rooms that you care about are in the East Wing of the White House. Let me just tell you that, okay? Because I've been there. In fact, in order to get into the East Wing of the White House, they usually have to set up these giant tents outside if it's raining or snowing or something. And then the room where they hold these, these sort of events with foreign dignitaries hold like 200 people. It's tiny. These are tiny rooms. Putting in a ballroom is not only not a bad idea, it's quite a good idea. And yet Democrats are freaking out over it. Images of a partially destroyed East Wing, according to Politico, first published by the Washington Post on Monday, sparked an outcry online and a quick defense from the White House. The National Trust for Historic Preservation added to criticism of the administration in a letter to the National Park Service and other organizations Tuesday warning the current redesign of the ballroom threatens to overwhelm the White House and requesting a freeze on further construction until a commission that oversees the iconic urban landscape of the nation's capital is consulted. Hillary Clinton said it's not his house, it's your house and he's destroying it. Madam, may I recommend that you sit down on this one. Your husband literally had oral sex with an intern in the Oval Office. We're talking about degrading the spaces of the White House. I think you are not the per. You stole, like, the silverware from the White House when you guys left. You are not a good person to talk about this. Like, not a good person to talk about this at all. Meanwhile, President Trump was showing photos and plans of the future ballroom. And frankly, it looks kind of nice. Nobody's actually seen anything quite like it. I think it'll be one of the great ballrooms anywhere in the world. It's about $300 million. It's set to do many, many things, including meetings of foreign leaders, including the honoring of foreign leaders. You can see this, this is a plan. If it's got tables so that you honor a foreign leader, we have a proper space. Right now. We have a space that with tables, holds about 79 people. And this is a proper kind of a thing. Now, what the White House is, was.
- [59:55]
Lee Zeldin
Doing, as you know, as they were.
- [59:57]
Ben Shapiro
Putting tents out on the lawn, this is an interior shot of the ballroom. I think there'll be nothing like it. So, again, I don't see anything wrong with this ballroom design, like at all. And this idea that something historic is being destroyed. It was built in 1942 by FDR. Again, it's a bunch of small offices. Very silly. A reporter went after Trump over it. Trump then promptly body slammed the reporter, as is his want. I just want a quick follow up on that question. You're responding to people who say that you haven't been transparent enough about it. I haven't been transparent. That's some of your critics feel it. I've shown this to everybody that would listen. Third rate reporters didn't see it because they didn't look. You're a third rate reporter, always have been. So third rate reporters didn't look. Well, again, the fact that Democrats think this is a winning issue, they are so starved for a winning issue at this point, it really is amazing. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said the obvious, well, you know, you're going to be able to use it as well. Actually.
- [61:01]
John Thune
President Trump's going to have the greatest improvement to the White House in the history of the building since, since it was originally constructed in 1800. The ballroom is going to be glorious. It's going to be used for everybody. And by the way, hey, Democrats, if you win the White House back, you get to use it too. This is for the American people and he's using private funds to do it.
- [61:21]
Ben Shapiro
Yeah. Well, again, utterly uncontroversial. Joining us on the line to discuss is our own White House reporter, Mary Margaret Olahan. Mary Margaret, thanks so much for taking the time. Appreciate it.
- [61:30]
Mary Margaret O'Hanlon
Good morning, Ben. Thanks for having me.
- [61:33]
Ben Shapiro
So, as always, it's been a busy week at the White House. You're on the White House grounds. You've obviously seen the construction that's going on over on the East Wing. Apparently, this is one of the great disasters of the modern era. It's equivalent to tearing down the Washington Monument or burning down the Statue of Liberty or something. Why don't you explain what exactly is going on over there? What is the White House saying about it?
- [61:54]
Mary Margaret O'Hanlon
Yeah. So I don't know if you can see behind me over my shoulder, there is smoke, kind of a cloudy look coming from the demolition of the East Wing, which the President is removing, changing to make room for the ballroom that he and his donors are funding. So this is a huge, costly endeavor, but the American taxpayer is not paying for it. The president is. And donors that he calls great American Patriots. There has been a lot of hubbub about this around here, a lot of backlash. As I was coming in this morning, a lot of the photographers and videographers were getting footage of the smoke back there. I myself took videos of it because it's interesting. This is newsy, but what we're hearing from everyone is that how could the President do this? How could the president remove the East Wing? And, you know, there's a lot of history, Ben, of different presidents making renovations to the White House, from Teddy Roosevelt to Harry Truman. All of these presidents have made changes to the White House. But this one in particular seems to have raised the ire of a lot of the reporters around here, a lot of Democrats on Capitol Hill who do not want the President to do this. Now, Trump himself is saying that this is a gift to the American people. He's saying this is something that will be long lasting and that many generations of Americans and American presidents and their families and their guests can enjoy. And it does look beautiful. I was in the Oval Office last night. He had a mock presentation of this new renovation out on the table that all the reporters could look at. And he had all the plans with him. So he kind of whipped them out and showed them to us and said, well, I've been talking about this the whole time. I wanted to show this to anybody who will listen. And he showed us these pictures of what he wants the new ballroom to look like. You know, Alex Pfeiffer, one of the President's former staffers, I saw him tweeting about this last night, how the President has always been putting these pictures out there. It's very clear that the East Wing wasn't there in the photos. In fact, the ballroom was. So a lot of the hubbub around here seems more noise than actual concerns for reality. And I think, as Josh Hawley said last night, Senator from Missouri, there's a lot of people who are upset about this that had no problem with pulling down monuments to history over the past several years. So another ruckus news cycle at the White House. There's a press briefing later today and I'm sure we will hear about it there. But in the meantime, it's an interesting news cycle to follow and I think we'll soon have a beautiful ballroom here on the White House grounds.
- [64:14]
Ben Shapiro
Now, Mary Margaret, I think that most Americans, they don't understand kind of how the White House is laid out. They see these rooms, the interior of the rooms. They don't understand where they are in the building. So you've spent time in the East Wing. You actually typically have to walk through the East Wing in order to get into sort of the main part of the building to get to the West Wing and all the rest of it. What is actually in the east wings? I think people think that the Oval Office and some of the more famous rooms in the White House are in the East Wing of the White House.
- [64:39]
Mary Margaret O'Hanlon
No, no, they're not. In fact, you know, I'm standing right now on pebble beach, which is right outside the White House. The West Wing is where a lot of the offices of the comms team are. The main section of the White House is where a lot of these other important offices are, including the Oval Office, which is kind of, you know, we go back to, it's a little hard to explain, but you go through the White House and it's on, on the back on the right. So it's not on the East Wing side of things. And a lot of the ruckus that's been raised about this has been suggesting that there's some kind of historical significance that's being destroyed with this. But again, there's been renovations throughout the history of the White House. For years. There have been many presidents who have made changes or modifications, you know, updating the White House for modern appliances, modern security endeavors. I mean, one thing that I found really interesting about the ballroom is that the President said it's going to have, I believe, a steel proof ceiling. So a lot of different security measures that are being put in that he said the army and the military is involved with. So it's really interesting on many levels. One thing that I find really interesting interesting is that the man who is designing the ballroom is actually someone that I know that I've spent some time with, James McCreary, who's an architect, he's a Catholic architect. He's built some really beautiful churches around the country. So I think that's, you know, if anything, very encouraging to know that we have a traditional classical architecturist who is taking this pro, this plan into his hands and making a beautiful historic ballroom. And I for one, hope that you know it, if there is a White House Christmas party for the media this year, it would be really cool if it was in there and I would love to see it.
- [66:12]
Ben Shapiro
So, Mary Margaret, obviously a lot of drama also over the course of last weekend over this no Kings protest movement. Some 7 million people apparently showed up to these protests around the country. What has been the mood in the White House about all of that?
- [66:25]
Mary Margaret O'Hanlon
Yeah, this is interesting because on the one hand, these no Kings protests were largely full of, I would say else, elderly Americans who are very left leaning Democrats protesting things that they did not really understand. So, for example, our colleagues Amber, Joe and Breca did a phenomenal job this weekend covering the no Kings protests in D.C. and they asked people, why are you protesting no Kings if President Trump is not a king? And it was a really great video and if anyone hasn't seen it, you should check it out. But at the same time, there was a very radical element of these protests. And if you, if you look at some of the footage in Denver, in Chicago, in Los Angeles, Even in Washington D.C. there were individuals that came to these protests specifically to advocate for violence. One person that I noticed besides President Trump that was receiving a lot of these very violent, explicit calls to violence was Stephen Miller. So he is Trump's deputy chief of staff. He received a lot of hate, I would say, In D.C. i saw. But then also in different cities around the country, people explicitly calling for acts of violence against him. We just covered a story for this. It's live on the daily wire site about how I talked to the FBI about whether they're investigating any of these specific calls for violence. Explicit, I would say, calls for violence. And you know, I was told the FBI can't confirm active investigations. They don't traditionally do that. But I was told they are aware of very specific instances and that they are keeping an eye on them. So, you know, I think this is the closest we can get to confirming without actually confirming that there's investigations into these people. One that I found really disturbing and I just wanted to flag was this couple that were photographed in Denver. They're part of the Denver Communist group. And this couple, each of them were wearing a different shirt calling for violence against individuals Specifically Republicans, conservatives. And they kind of harkened back to the death of Charlie Kirk. One of the shirt said make assassinations great again. And the other one said that not enough politicians are being killed nowadays. And that one I found particularly disturbing because on the graphic of the shirt, there's a little sign that says live, indicating that the person who was being killed on the shirt was being filmed as it happened live. So this is really sickening, disturbing kinds of content. And I think that, you know, our story is evidence that the FBI is looking into this DHS mail also be looking into this. And we're trying to get more answers from them on who exactly they're examining and when those people will be arrested or, you know, at least investigated at the bare minimum.
- [68:54]
Ben Shapiro
Well, that's Mary Margaret Ohan. She's our White House press correspondent. Mary Margaret, really appreciate your time. Thanks so much for the insight as always.
- [69:02]
Mary Margaret O'Hanlon
Thanks, Ben.
- [69:04]
Ben Shapiro
All right, folks, the show is continuing for our members right now. We'll get to President Trump blowing more ships out of the water. Drug boats coming from Venezuela. Plus, President Trump has now canceled a planned meeting between Russia and Ukraine. Remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member. If you're not a member, become a member. Use code Shapiro. Check out for two months free on all annual plans. Click that link in the description and join us. Matt, say something that'll get us canceled.
- [69:24]
Lee Zeldin
If you really want me to.
- [69:25]
Ben Shapiro
Friendly fire is back. Should we ever do this again? No, no safe zones do not unify around your crazy. I don't want your olive branch.
- [69:34]
Andrew Cuomo
Screw you.
- [69:35]
John Thune
It's absolutely despicable.
- [69:36]
Ben Shapiro
Nothing off limits. You will get to sound off on whether or not black people are disabled as the Supreme Court Reliable, huge announcements. Brand new, massive, incredible series. The Pendragon cycle. Ambitious and big and beautiful. And this is the thing that sets us apart. More revelations on the way. I just want to make one more point here and then you can say whatever you want. I'm not going to play that game with you.
- [70:01]
Lee Zeldin
What makes you a conscious conservative?
- [70:02]
Ben Shapiro
No, I don't think that's right. Well, hold on.
- [70:05]
John Thune
I just want to say I agree with that.
- [70:06]
Lee Zeldin
I totally disagree with it.
- [70:07]
Ben Shapiro
I have to say that friendly fire October 29, 7pm Eastern.
- [70:12]
John Thune
The friendly fire should stop across the.
- [70:14]
Zoran Mamdani
Board and you mean the show?
- [70:16]
Ben Shapiro
Not just that.