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Ben Shapiro
Today on the show we're going to go through Republican weaknesses leading into 2026. What do Republicans need to do to reverse the results of this week politically? We will also be getting to Sydney Sweeney and that amazing interview that she recently did. And we will also be getting to the government shutdown. Will it continue? When will it end? First, Friendly Fire returns Wednesday night, November 19th at 7:00pm Eastern on Daily Wire. Plus, what exactly is Friendly Fire? Well, we are glad you asked. It's the show where Matt Walsh, Michael Moles, Andrew Clavin and I get together to disagree for the entire Internet to watch and comment on in real time. This time we're world premiering the official trailer for the Pendragon cycle, the Rise of the Merlin. You've seen the teaser, now get ready for the trailer that's going to blow you away. It's all happening on Friendly Fire Wednesday, November 19th at 7pm Eastern on Daily Wire. Well folks, there are some lessons that must be learned by Republicans from the elections of this week. The reality is, I talked about a couple of days ago, the elections this week weren't just obviously in Virginia or in New Jersey or in New York City. Actually, Republicans did pretty poorly across the board. There's a point being made by Matt Cotton Eddy now of the Wall Street Journal. He says the off year Democratic wave flooded Republican safe harbors. Democrats flipped at least 13 seats in Virginia's House of Delegates. They plan to use their governing trifecta, control of the governor's mansion and both legislative chambers, to redraw the state's congressional map in their own favor. New Jersey Democrats now enjoy their largest assembly majority in 52 years. Georgia Democrats won two seats on the Public Service Commission. That's the state's utility board. No Democrat has won even a single race there since 2007. That is 18 years ago. One of the reasons for that is because the electricity prices have been spiking and have continued to kind of softly go up during President Trump's term. This obviously should be warning sign for Republicans. And when you look at the 2026 election, the importance of Republicans retaining the House, the Senate, it looks like Republicans are in fairly decent shape to retain. In order for Democrats to actually take the Senate in the next, in the next election cycle, they would have to flip a rather unlikely seat like, say, Iowa. But in Congress, where Republicans basically have zero margin at this point, Democrats do not need to flip very many seats in order to take the House. So there are approximately, according to Cook Political Report, 16 toss up seats. Those toss up seats right now, 10 of those are held by Republicans. So that's not great for Republicans. When you look at another eight that lean Republican and 10 that lean Democrat, you're talking about kind of a total possible variance of 34 seats. Now, Republicans would have to do really, really poorly to lose all of those. But again, they don't have to lose many of those to lose control of the House. If they lose control of the House, all you're going to get all day long are hearings and investigations and impeachments. And we know that all of this is the case, and we also know that, that it wouldn't solely be due to anything that President Trump is doing. Midterm elections almost always go the direction of the party that is out of power. Since World War II, according to Newsweek, the President's party has lost an average of 26 House seats and three to four Senate seats in midterms. When the President's approval rating is below 50%, the losses tend to be more severe. Presidents with a sub 50% job approval have seen their parties lose an average of 37 House seats, as opposed to when the president is popular, where they lose about 14 seats on average. So, again, Republican enthusiasm seems to not be nearly as high as it is when President Trump is on the ballot, obviously. And a sinking economy, or at least an economy that doesn't feel as though it is soaring, is having a significant downstream impact. There are audiences that President Trump brought in who are beginning to move against President Trump. One of those is Latino audiences. Latino voters, which went very heavily toward President Trump in the last election cycle, seem to be bleeding away. In New Jersey and in Virginia, Latinos back the Democrats by huge margins. According to the Washington Post, exit polls show Democrats regaining strength with Latinos. That's not because Democrats are doing an extraordinary job. It's because presumably there has been so much focus on the immigration crackdowns. It's one thing to shut the border. It's another thing if there's stuff all over your TV about Abuela being taken out and then deported. Now, again, I think that all of that media coverage has been pretty terrible, overblown, inaccurate. But just speaking politically, obviously, this is not resounding to the benefit of Republicans among Latinos at the very least. But the real issue here is the economy. And we all know that the real issue here is the economy. Every exit poll from this week, every single one, said the economy was the number one issue. And the reality is that our economy is on some shaky footing, not only because of the continued government shutdown, which will end, but because of a generalized feeling that the economic growth that we are currently seeing is not a broad based economic growth. That when we are looking at the stock market, for example, the vast majority of stock market gains, nearly all of them in fact, have accrued to the top seven companies in the market, all of which seem to be focused on tech and AI industries where jobs are being created, but not industries where the vast majority of people are holding jobs. They're not really service industries, which is where the vast bulk of American jobs are. The tech industry is really important, but if it's the entirety of your economic growth, you got a bit of a problem. And the reason that that is happening is because investors don't know where to put their money. That is due to tariffs, it is due to bizarre regulations. It is due to a generalized feeling of too much government involvement in private industry. It turns out the more the government is involved in the economy, the more investors are likely to try and discern where the government hand is likely to come down next and then place their money there. And that is a major problem. This is something that Republicans very much should be considering as they head into the next year. So, for example, there haven't been any Bureau of Labor Statistics data put out about job loss over the course of the last couple of months. But there are some private services that actually do put out numbers. Adp, a payroll processing firm, according to the New York Times, reported that employment at private companies fell in September but rebounded modestly in October. An alternative measure from Revelia Labs, a labor market data firm, showed the opposite. Data from LinkedIn, bank of America, and other sources paint a similarly mixed picture. The bottom line is that the trend line seems to be going down when it comes to private sector employment. It hasn't changed dramatically during the since the summer. Employers are apparently not adding many jobs, but they've avoided resorting to widespread layoffs. So again, everybody is sort of holding steady, which is why it does feel as though the economy is on the edge. We've already seen that some major companies are planning mass layoffs. That'd be Amazon, ups, IBM. Altogether, according to the New York Times, companies announced more than 150,000 job cuts in October, nearly triple the number in the same month a year earlier. Now, again, maybe that's wrong. Maybe the data come in and it turns out that things are going fine. But what the polls are showing is that people are deeply worried about the state of the economy. And earlier this week, and really since the beginning of this week, there's been a relatively significant decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. There's a rather large sell off on Tuesday. One of the things that's been happening in the market is because nobody knows where to put their money. They don't know how to invest in industries. Typically, if you're going to buy a stock, instead of thinking of stocks as though you're at the casino, you're supposed to buy a piece of a company that you like because you think it's a good company and it is likely to succeed into the future. That is not the way a lot of people are treating the stock market right now. They're treating the stock market the way they are treating crypto. If you're going to buy crypto, you should buy crypto as a hedge against inflation, for example, which is why I myself own some Bitcoin and some Ethereum, but nothing else. If you're treating crypto as a get rich quick scheme, if you're treating the stock market as a way of making a quick buck, that is not a solid way to treat your stock. Trading your stock portfolio. Just a general piece of financial advice, but that is how people are treating things right now, because people are looking around, things are more expensive. All of the inflationary money blown in during the last days of the Trump administration and then the entirety of the Biden administration is still in people's pockets. They don't know what to do with it. Now the Federal Reserve is lowering those interest rates again in an attempt to create more liquidity, which again, I've always found this strange. We do not have a dearth of, of liquidity in the United States right now. We don't. We have a dearth of opportunities for where to put the liquidity because nobody knows what to do next. It feels like the market is doing fine, but is also kind of paralyzed. And that's the problem. As James McIntosh at the Wall Street Journal points out, the more speculative an asset, the harder it fell. On Tuesday, big tech and artificial intelligence, penny shares, retail investor favorites and crypto all dropped together. Gold fell, too, failing in its role as a haven asset after attracting lots of new buyers of the big rise earlier this year. It's notable that for many of the most speculative assets, the sell off started last month. But until Tuesday, it hadn't drawn in the country's biggest companies. All right, coming up, we'll get into the media deciding that it's very, very bad for Elon Musk to be compensated by his own shareholders. 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 actually 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 and 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. Canines for warriors steps up to fill that gap, giving these heroes purpose, companionship and healing. That's exactly why Peer Talk, a veteran led company, supports them. Choose a wireless company that shares your values with Talk text. Plenty of 5G data for just 25 bucks a month, you could be saving a lot of money. Obviously, I'm on the road a lot these days. That means I'm using my phone to call my kids. I care about my calls, the quality of them, the cost of them. That's why I'm proud to use pure talk puretalk.com Shapiro to make that switch today again. Head over to PureTalk.com Shapiro switch to America's wireless company PureTalk. That's PureTalk.com Shapiro for the best coverage at the best price and a company that actually likes you, check them out. Peertalk.com Shapiro Also, if you're ever worried about the safety of your home, you need to hear about SimpliSafe and their early access Black Friday sale. Traditional security systems only respond after somebody has already broken into your home. SimpliSafe works differently. 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No wonder they've been named best home security systems by U.S. news & World Report for five years running. Don't miss out on Simplisafe's biggest sale of the year, 60% off. Right now our listeners can save 60% off on a SimpliSafe home security system@simplisafe.com Shapiro that's simplisafe.com Shapiro there's no safe like SimpliSafe. So there are drops, for example from Palantir, which I think is a good stock, but it plummeted 8% despite better than expected quarterly results. The Magnificent Seven big tech stocks fell 2.2% compared to compared with a drop of less than 1% for the rest of the S&P 500. Tesla felt the most and it is because of the stock market valuations, which are again wildly out of whack with the earnings of these companies. That is why you end up with a 1 trillion dollar package for Elon Musk. That is why. So one of the yardsticks that I look at when I'm determining whether I think stocks are overvalued is the PE ratio. That is the price to earnings ratio in A stock. And typically when you're looking at price earnings ratio, you want to look for low. Price to earnings ratio means that a stock might be undervalued. If you have really, really high, that means you expect the stock to just explode. Well, right now the current PE ratios at the top of the market are pretty much insane, like totally crazy. According to our friends over at Comet, my sponsors a Comet, a new web browser. By perplexity, the current PE ratios for the Magnificent Seven as of November 2025 include, include Apple at 36. Okay, again, Benjamin Graham suggested 16 to 18 36. Microsoft at 34. Nvidia at 53. Amazon at 34, Alphabet at 30. According to Comet, those figures reflect each company's trailing twelve month PE ratio as of the first week of November 2025. Tesla has the highest valuation by far, which is presumably why stockholders are desperate to keep Elon Musk there. So for example, right at the moment, the price to earnings ratio on Tesla is 307. That is a, that is a big bet that a lot of people are making on Tesla. And again, I love Tesla. I think it's a great company. I own a Tesla, I think Elon is genius. Also, a PE ratio of 307 is unthinkable. Benjamin Graham, who's sort of the financial forebear of Warren Buffett and his ideological mentor when it came to markets, he said that a typical PE ratio that was in safe zone was 16 to 18, 307. 307 is what we are talking about for Tesla, which feels, you know, a little wild to me frankly. Nvidia, their PE ratio right now is 54. That's very high. Now Nvidia of course has huge earnings because companies are spending enormous amounts of money on their chips. But if that peters out, do people really think that the stock is going to end up earning out 53 times the earnings? I mean, serious question. If you take a look at Alphabet, the PE ratio on Alphabet right now is significantly better. Okay, that is 28, which is closer to reality and fundamentals trading to me is always a safer bet than this sort of speculative trading. But the problem is that everybody doesn't know where to put their money. They want to make a quick buck. They're looking at the market, they're feeling like, okay, instead of investing in stocks that pay dividends, for example, stocks that have a nice steady cash flow, stocks that are a solid business with growth potential, that is steady but isn't exponential, instead they're like, okay, you know what, I'm going to jump on the bandwagon of one of the Mag 7. And this is precisely why Tesla had no choice but to give a gigantic pay package to Elon Musk. So people are pointing out, they're saying, oh my gosh, in this time of economic hardship for so many people, why is Elon Musk getting a trillion dollar pay package? Well, the answer of course, is that it isn't cash. He's not being given a trillion dollars in cash. He's being given stock and incentives. And the reason for that is because if he were not, if Musk were to break with Tesla, I think it's a fair assumption the stock would collapse and everybody at the board knows it. According to the New York Times, Tesla shareholders on Thursday approved a plan that could make Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. Now again, the New York Times is contrasting this with the tax the rich candidacy of Zoran Mamdani. Okay, the market rationale for why Elon Musk is getting that pay package is because the shareholders, meaning the people who actually own the company, believe he is worth that. They believe that without Elon Musk's brain driving the next creative steps for Tesla, the stock is going to collapse into oblivion. Right. If you were to take the Tesla stock right now and you were to bring its price down to a 20 PE ratio price to earnings ratio, then you'd have to divide the stock price by a factor of 15. And so what they're figuring is you're buying the future with Tesla. That's what the stock is. If you lose the future because you lose Musk and it just turns into a car company with some AI capacity, then you got to make a major, major problem that has nothing to do with quote unquote, taxing the rich. Taxing Elon Musk is not going to fix the real issues with the market. The real issue with the market right now is that the middle bulk of the market is not being invested in. And one of the reasons that it's not being invested in is sure there are hungry speculators with too much cash in their pocket thanks to the free reign of free money for a very long time. But also there's tremendous uncertainty if you're in a service industry or manufacturing industry about the tariffs. That does make a gigantic difference. There's no question that people are confused and discombobulated by the day to day action of the administration. As I've been saying for literally the entirety of the Trump administration, if the administration pursued lower taxes, lower regulation, free trade agreements, with everybody around China, the economy would be in better shape because the conditions that you need to succeed as a mid level to smaller company are conditions that allow for the fullest freedom of action in the labor markets, in the export markets, in the input markets. That's what you actually need. And so to this, this sort of economic policy where we keep sticking fingers in the pie is not going to make anyone quiescent and it's not going to produce more jobs. But that has nothing to do with Elon. And the attempt to kind of pin this on Elon and Tesla seems to me merely some class envy directed at Elon. Now, again, from a sort of generalized perspective, do what? Would I buy Tesla stock at its current price? I would not on a personal level, because that PE ratio is out of whack to me and I like to trade based on fundamentals. But the idea that somehow Elon Musk getting a big pay package is a justification of Zoran Mandani socialism is totally crazy. These two things are utterly unrelated. Zormandani's answer would be take away all the money of Elon Musk, prevent those kinds of deals, watch the stock of Tesla Crater and all the stockholders go down. Presumably that would somehow be better in some way. Remember, that pay package is dependent on people voluntarily engaging in transactions with Tesla and buying their stock, allowing for the issuance of new stock. That's where that money is coming from. The New York Times tries to admit this, you know, on paragraph eight, because that's what they do in a fib by omission, and then later they buy it back. These are vastly different arenas to be sure. But that split screen reality speaks to a larger divide in American business and politics. On one side are billionaires like Mr. Musk and their many supporters, including President Trump, who see the financial success of a small group of executives as something to be celebrated and emulated. On the other are progressives like Mr. Mohamdani, a Democratic socialist, who are calling for something more akin to the social welfare systems of Western Europe. I love how the New York Times keeps trying to pretend that he's just a Norwegian Mamdani. He literally said he hates capitalism. The DSA wants him to full on nationalize housing in New York. His proposals involving for example, gigantic rent freezes or government run grocery stores. That is not just social welfare system in Western Europe. But this is going to be the line. The line for Democrats going forward is going to be if the economy collapses. This is what I've been saying for literally months. I'M not saying anything new here. If the economy goes down, it's an existential danger to the Republican Party, meaning to the country, because the next step by a lot of people is going to be swiveling over and saying, we need more government, we need more centralized power. Now, the thing I'm saying is that it's the centralization of economic power in the White House. Yes, Even under President Trump, that has been preventing more growth for the middle class, more wage growth, more business innovation. And if the president would take his hand off the football, that would actually be a better thing than the sort of tariff in and out that we've been playing for a while here, that the attempts to force the Federal Reserve, for example, to lower the interest rates to inject more liquidity into the system. I've been against that pretty consistently because to me, the proper interest rate is a functioning economy should be zero. My money should be worth precisely what it was worth yesterday. You shouldn't just be able to degrade my savings by 2% every single year at the whim of a centralized bureaucrat. But I'll tell you what's not going to be a political winner. So the president yesterday denied that prices are going up. Now, listen, to be fair to President Trump, if you take a look at how they rose during Joe Biden's term in office, of course, was way higher. But there comes a point in a presidency, every presidency, where you can no longer say it's better than the last guy. You have to deal with the fact that inflation is still too high at nearly 3%, that people still feel like they're paying too much for groceries. And not only that, they feel very uneasy about their jobs. Because one of the amazing things, of course, about the gigantic investments being made at the upper end of the market in AI is that I think a lot of people, quite correctly, are worried about the job dislocations that will almost certainly occur as a result of AI growth. So you're going to have this weird situation in which the stock market continues to rise as productivity continues to rise, but jobs are going to decrease because in the initial term, before new jobs are found for everybody in new industries and creative endeavors, a lot of people can lose their jobs. Well, here's the president denying that the prices are going up. You know, again, I don't think that. I don't blame him, but I don't think it's a winning political pitch.
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Republican Commentator
So I don't want to hear about the affordability, because right now we're much less, if you look at energy, we're getting close to $2 a gallon. Gasol with Biden, it was $4.50, $5. Another thing, inflation. We had the worst inflation in the history of our country. Now we have virtually no inflation at all. It sounded a very low number and a very normal number. So the affordability is much better with the Republicans. The only problem is the Republicans don't talk about it. And Republicans should start talking about it and use their heads because we have great numbers.
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Ben Shapiro
Well, again, I agree with much of what he is saying, but it's not going to be a sort of winning electoral proposal. Democrats are just going to campaign on the fact that people don't feel great about the economy. Now, ironically, one of the things that could help the Trump presidency is if the Supreme Court strikes down the tariffs. If the Supreme Court strikes down the tariffs, the economy is going to rip because a lot of investors who've been sitting on the sidelines are going to suddenly feel secure that their inputs are not going to be increased, jacked up randomly by 30, 40, 50%, depending on where they're getting their products from, and they're not going to fear as much that export markets are going to disappear. So it actually could be a blessing in disguise if the Supreme Court smacks down the tariffs. Coming up, are President Trump's tariffs actually inhibiting the growth of the economy? And if so, could there be sort of a blessing in disguise if the Supreme Court strikes them down first? What if you could consistently find whatever it is you're looking for? Right now, we're talking everything from that important email to the perfect recipe for dinner to your keys when you're already running late. Imagine how much time you'd save. Well, you might not ever instantly find these things if you're hiring. You can instantly find qualified candidates time and again with ZipRecruiter. And today you can try it for free@ziprecruiter.com Daily Wire. Finding the right talent doesn't have to feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. ZipRecruiter's powerful matching technology cuts through the noise and and connects you with top candidates fast. No endless scrolling, no guesswork, just results. 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Guarantee you get 120 nights to try it out and a limited lifetime warranty. So it's not working for you. Returns and exchanges are totally seamless. It's basically a risk free way to finally get the sleep you deserve, especially when you need it most. I've had my Helix sleep mattress for years. I got home very, very late last night, plopped on that mattress and man it was just Fantastic. Go to helixleep.com ben for 27% off site wide that's@helixsleep.com ben for 27% off Site wide make sure you enter our show name into the post purchase survey so they know we sent you helixleep.com Ben as the wall Street Journal points out, the Trump administration has misused executive authority Here they have the power of the purse belongs to Congress. Tariffs are in fact taxes on Americans. But again, beyond the legal it would be better for the country to if we had Lower tariffs. Now, I understand that this is very near and dear to the president's heart. I get it. And I understand his, his feeling that we have been screwed in past trade negotiations. I don't even disagree with that. But the answer to that is to negotiate better deals with countries, not to put blanket tariffs on allies that we need. Is this going to be the precursor of change? I don't know. Here's the head of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett. He says our agenda will not be slowed.
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White House Official
But the thing I want everybody to listen to right now from this White House is that they are not going to slow down our agenda. They are not going to upend our agenda, that we're working every day so that when the government gets open, we can, you know, basically fire hose new policies at the Senate and get everything that we can possibly think of accomplished this year if they open the government. So President, President Trump, they're trying to slow down President Trump's agenda, but they're not going to be able to do it. They need to give up that thought and put the American people first.
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Ben Shapiro
Okay, so again, if what we're talking about here are more tariffs or more interventions, you know, I understand that President Trump likes the headline of some firm telling him they're going to invest $10 billion in the United States and build a factory. I've yet to see that money actually delivered and actually build the factory. Joe Biden used to say the same kind of stuff. Of course, he used to say, well, going to take tax dollars and we're going to chip sack. And by tomorrow morning, you're going to see one bajillion, bajillion million jobs and chip may. And you know what? That never materialized. So you might get a bit of a sugar high from an announcement, a sort of corporatist announcement, where the United States government has taken a stake in X Company. But the conditions that lead to long term economic prosperity, particularly in times of change, are conditions that allow for innovation, investment adjustment on the fly. Let the free market work. Let it work. That is my recommendation. Now. Meanwhile, the government shutdown continues apace. The Senate is apparently exploring some sort of plan in order to end the government shutdown. The Wall Street Journal reports that Senate Majority Leader Thune told Senate Republicans on Thursday that they should expect to vote on a new proposal today aiming to end the government shutdown, according to people familiar with the plan. Democrats say that they are not sold on the emerging package. Some say they would need their core demand of extending Obamacare subsidies to be part of any legislation. The plan to vote on a revised proposal comes as the impact of the shutdown continues to grow. Obviously, government workers, many of them are not being paid. Low income families are seeing cuts in snap. Airlines are cutting flights because of the faa. The new proposal would apparently combine a short term spending measure with a package of three full year funding bills covering the legislative branch, agriculture and military construction, and Veterans Affairs. It was unclear whether the interim measure would keep the government open through mid December or January. Democrats, of course, have been saying they only want more Obamacare, more Obamacare subsidies. They want to reverse the one big beautiful bill on Obamacare. Republicans are acknowledging something else Senator Thune said the Democrats are walking back or slow walking this, that they're the ones who are really holding this back. Apparently one of the elements that's under consideration by the Senate and again, this is Republicans making concessions right now. The Republicans said clean cr, Democrats said no, no, no, no, no, and started screaming like babies. And we've now been in a government shutdown for well over a month. Well, Republicans now have a choice, which is, I think, a politically smart one. They are going to make some targeted concessions to Democrats and then Democrats can either take it or leave it, because then it's Republicans who are showing movement, not Democrats. One element under discussion includes a proposal to stop or even roll back some of the firings the White House initiated at the start of the shutdown. It'll be interesting to see whether Democrats cave at all on all of this. Senate Democrats are divided, apparently. According to the Washington Post, the deal that TH is proposing could appeal to about a, a dozen Senate Democrats, or at least it was poised to do so. And then Democrats did really well in New Jersey, Virginia and New York City. And now Democrats are saying this shutdown stuff is great for us. Maybe we should just continue it. Most of the party is currently expected to reject the proposal, leaving it short of the 60 votes it would need. So by the way, for those who are saying what Democrats are doing here is not political, it is eminently political and they're admitting it. Senator Chris Murphy, who's one of the far left senators, he says, quote, Tuesday was a watershed moment. The country first and foremost was making a referendum on Donald Trump's corruption and his mishandling of the economy. But they were also making a statement about this fight. Well, the statement they're making is that they want the shutdown to end and they think that as a punishment to President Trump, Trump will make concessions and then Democrats will end the shutdown. If what Democrats Take away from that is we must continue the shutdown under all circumstances. I'm not sure how that's going to play because it will, in fact, change the game if Republicans make concessions and Democrats refuse to move one iota, one inch. And now, you know, the, the Republicans have been trying to minimize the cost of this thing. They really have. So, for example, when Barack Obama was president and there was a government shutdown over Obamacare, he shut down things like open air, World War II memorials in an attempt to make people feel the pain. He shut down national parks to make people feel the pain. The Republicans are not doing that. Republicans have been trying to minimize the damage while being in compliance with the law. Now, bizarrely, yesterday, a judge ordered the Trump administration to continue to pay SNAP benefits. The problem is that's actually illegal. And the case that was made by the Trump. The Trump administration would be perfectly happy continuing to pay out SNAP benefits because, again, the idea here is that Republicans don't want to leverage people. Republicans are not interested in using food stamps as a way of harming Americans, thus to get the other side to cave. They understand they're the party in power, but they actually are not supposed to just empty emergency funds from SNAP because the government refuses to go into session and pass a cr. Well, a federal judge in Rhode island ordered the Trump administration to release full funding for November food stamps by Friday. That oral order came as many, many Americans, 42 million Americans have lost access to some benefits under SNAP. U.S. district Court Judge John McConnell, who is, of course an Obama appointee, no surprise, said, quote, last week, SNAP benefits lapsed for the first time in our nation's history. This is a problem that could have or should have been avoided. The government knew there would be a long delay in paying SNAP benefits and failed to consider the harms individuals who rely on those benefits would suffer. Well, I mean, I'm just. Yes, it's true that it should have been avoided with a clean cr. I'm not sure how that means that you get to unilaterally change the law. Again, this bizarre notion that a single judge can force the opening of the law and the misuse of the law this way is strange. The vice president, J.D. vance, slapped back at the ruling.
- [34:20]
Vice President J.D. Vance
It's an absurd ruling because you have a federal judge effectively telling us what we have to do in the midst of a Democrat government shutdown, which what we'd like to do is for the Democrats to open up the government. Of course, then we can fund snap, and we can, we can also do a lot of other good things for the American people. But in the midst of a shutdown, we can't have a federal court telling the President how he has to triage the situation. We're trying to keep as much turned on. We're trying to keep as much going as possible. The president and the entire administration are working on that. But we're not going to do it under the orders of a federal judge. We're going to do it according to what we think we have to do to comply with the law, of course, but also to actually make the government work for people in the midst of the Democrat government shutdown. If they would like to end this, we would be welcome. We would welcome working with them to end this government shutdown, and then we wouldn't have to triage what we're going to fund and what we're not going to fund.
- [35:17]
Ben Shapiro
Okay. Now, again, I think that he is absolutely correct in his assessment of the situation. But, you know, it's a good thing that Republicans have really good friends, you know, people who are fighting the left. People really, really fighting the left. Like, for example, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has spent zero time fighting the left, but instead is making the rounds in order to go after President Trump. Speaker Johnson, you know, continuing to undermine the party and receive these strange new respect so do to a woman who once famously posted about Jewish space lasers. Here we go.
- [35:48]
Marjorie Taylor Greene
Actually, I'm doing exactly what I've done the entire time I ran for Congress in 2020, criticizing Republicans and, and Democrats equally. And one of my campaign lines was, I'll go to Washington and hold Republicans accountable. And that's exactly what I'm trying to do right now, is hold the Republican Party accountable to work for the American people on the promises that they made. I'm one of those Americans that feels disenfranchised by my government. And I feel that our government has failed the American, American people on both sides of the aisle.
- [36:25]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, so thanks. Yeah, that's, that's super duper helpful, but at least you're getting your moment in the sun again. The rumor is that she wants to run for president. Good luck with that. Congresswoman Greene, who would be completely obscure if it were not for President Trump, the president who she is currently attacking incessantly. All right, coming up, who is the leader of the Democratic Party? Democrats have legitimately. No idea. First, let's talk about something that actually matters. Honoring American veterans on Veterans Day. Legacy Box has been with the Ben Shapiro show for years. They've helped preserve the memories of over a million families now they're teaming up with all of us here at the Daily Wire to give back in a big way. Legacy Box is donating ten grand worth of Legacy boxes to American veterans so those incredible stories of service and sacrifice don't get lost to time. Here's where it gets personal. If there's a veteran in your family, head on over to get.dailywire.com legacybox or click the link in the show notes. But even if you don't have a veteran in your life, you still have a legacy worth preserving. Right now, Legacy Box is giving all of my listeners exclusive access to this deal in honor of Veterans Day. Just nine bucks per tape to digitally preserve your family memories. Legacy Box is the world's largest digitizer. They've helped over a million families relive their most important moments, digitizing every tape, photo and film reel by hand right in Chattanooga, Tennessee. If you order right now, you can still get your digitized memories back in time for the holidays so you can relive those precious moments as a family. You know, my family, my parents, we digitized a bunch of old film reels and now I can see my grandparents, what my parents were like as kids. They can see memories that they haven't accessed for, you know, 50 years. Whether it's a loved one in uniform or your family's holiday mornings, preserve the stories that shaped you. Head over to legacybox.com Shapiro today to preserve your family's history. That's legacybox.com Shapiro also, here's the reality. Over 90% of Americans are not getting enough dietary fiber. Most of us aren't hitting that recommended variety of fruits and veggies either. I know I wasn't. That's why I tried Balance of Nature supplements. These aren't some artificial knockoff trying to mimic what nature provides. They simply let nature do its job. We're talking about 47 real ingredients. Mango, wild blueberries, spinach, kale, shiitake mushrooms, broccoli, the works. Plus their fiber and spice blend is also unique. It combines four whole fibers like psyllium, husk and flaxseed with 12 aromatic spices including turmeric and cinnamon. You're not going to find another supplement that does this. I also appreciate there are no artificial additives and and no added sugars, just clean ingredients. They're vegan, kosher, certified by the OU and gluten free. You can even mix the powder into smoothies or sprinkle it over food. No bags, no mess, no measuring. I use it wherever I go. I'm popping it right in the smoothies. It's helping keep me healthy, despite the fact I'm on planes all the time these days. After years of research and development, they've created something that makes getting proper nutrition actually convenient. Go to balanceofnature.com and use promo code SHAPIRO for 35% off your first order as a preferred customer. Plus get a free bottle of fiber and Spice. That's balanceofnature.com, promo code Shapiro. Well, meanwhile, Democrats are struggling on their side of the aisle, too. They don't know who their leader is. According to Politico, Democrats still don't have a leader to guide them out of the wilderness. So they did a poll conducted by Public first in the closing weeks of the election, and they found a complete lack of consensus among 20, 24 Kamala Harris voters on the question of who do you consider to be the leader of the Democratic Party? And the number one answer is don't know. 21% don't know. 16% still Kamala Harris. So that that is not real. Okay. No. No one actually believes Kamala Harris is the leader of the Democratic Party. That just add that 16% also don't know. So you're 37% don't know. And then you also have to add another 11%. Nobody. So now you're talking about 48% don't know. Kamala Harris witches don't know and nobody. So at least half the. About half the Democratic Party has no idea who the leader of the Democratic party is. About 8% say Akeem Jeffries. About 7 and a half say Chuck Schumer. About 7 and a half say Barack Obama. The only person who is running for president who's on this list is Gavin Newsom, who's clocking in at 6.2%. Bernie is at 2%. Donald Trump is at 0.8%, which is hilarious. AOC is at 1%. So Democrats are fragmented, according to Lauren Harper Pope, Democratic strategist. She says the party is divided factionally and ideologically. I couldn't tell you who the leader of the Democratic Party is either. And I work in Democratic politics now. That's actually not a terrible place for the Democrats to be in one sense. Once they appoint a leader, that leader becomes the sort of chief of the opposition, and all Republican fire can focus on them. So if you say it's Mamdani, they're in trouble. If you say it's Spanberger, they're in trouble. So the best thing for them to do probably is for them to maintain a sort of confused status about the future, which is why it's, as a Republican, encouraging that one of the dumbest people in American politics, Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who also for some reason seems to want to run for president based on the fact that he's a human existing in time, I suppose. He says that the future of the party is Mamdani. I think the future of the party is Zorin and Abigail and Mikey. Right. The future of the party is that we're a big tent party. Okay? So that big tense is going to have to decide what exactly they are. What exactly are they going to be? And the answer is quite unclear at this point in time. The answer is unclear for the Democrats. He says the future is Zoran and also Abigail. And it's a point I've been making about the right. And it's also true of the left. If you let the nuts run your party, you're opening the door to defeat even when you seem on the verge of victory. Democrats could make a large scale mistake by embracing Mamdanism, because how crazy is Zoran Mamdaniism? The Democrat Socialists of America have now put out a demand sheet articulating the organization's demands for Mamdani. Those demands include divest city pension funds from Israeli bonds and securities, withdraw city funds from banks that lend money to Israel or do business in Israel, and city contracts with companies that do business with Israel, operate city run grocery stores free from Israeli products, investigate real estate agents hosting illegal sales of stolen lands in the west bank, evict weapons manufacturers and transporters from the New York City metropolitan area, divest CUNY endowment and reinstate wrongly fired professors. Dismantle Eric Adams, New York City Israel Economic Council, remove nonprofit status from any charity that raises funds for the IDF and NYPD training with Israel and arrest Benjamin Netanyahu and any active IDF soldier for war crimes. That is their list, which is psychotic. Every single one of their policies is about Israel. That's their list of demands. Their list of demands is not about free busing. Their list of demands is not about affordable housing. Their list of demands is just Jews. It's just Israel. The obsession is real and insane. And if Democrats decide to side with this sort of stuff, then good luck. Now again, one of the things that I've seen, you've seen this sort of again, horseshoe around is people who are claiming. Well, you know, the thing that distinguished Zormadani from everyone else on the stage is that he, he said on in a debate. I've heard this now from Anna Kasparian I know that Tucker has said something similar. Is that what distinguished Mamdani? The reason he won is because he said I don't care what's happening in the Middle East, I only care what's happening here. Has ever a more gaslighting statement been made than that? What absolute nonsense. Zoran Mandani is the most Israel obsessed candidate in America. His entire political career was built on hatred of Israel. It's why he was a student for justice in Palestine activist. So Democrats, you know, I guess that you break it, you bought it and I, I suppose you can enjoy the people with whom you have chosen to ride. We'll see how it works out for you. Meanwhile, the old guard and the Democratic Party is fading away. Nancy Pelosi, who was, I'm old enough to remember, the most left wing member of the Democratic caucus and then became the speaker and now she has been supplanted by people even further to her left, announced that she will not seek reelection.
- [44:18]
Republican Commentator
I will not be seeking re election to Congress. With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative. As we go forward, my message to the city I love is San Francisco. Know your power. We have made history, we have made progress. We have always led the way and now, now we must continue to do so by remaining full participants in our democracy.
- [44:50]
Ben Shapiro
I think what I like most about that video is the visiting angels music underneath it. I mean, I feel like it's age appropriate for sure. But you know, with her going, one of the things that I think is funny, you're seeing Republicans, some, some people online saying we pushed her out. Dude, she's been in Congress since before John F. Kennedy was born, okay? Like that lady has been in Congress since Charles Sumner was being caned on the floor of the Senate. She served in Congress with John Quincy Adams. Like you didn't push her out, she left. Okay, can we just be real about that? But if there is a message to this in Democrats, that the old guard Democrats are in fact being supplanted by their crazies and we'll see if that works out for them, I do not think that it will. The thing that scares me, of course, is that American politics is a reactionary game again. If the economy goes south, then the progressive nut jobs could actually win. But is this a smart move for Democrats? I think not. Well, someone else signed in to chat about Nancy Pelosi. Marjorie Taylor Greene's Democrat apology tour continues. She was on CNN yesterday praising Nancy Pelosi, a person she once said was a traitor and guilty of treason. She's now praising Nancy Pelosi while ripping into Mike Johnson. What a great Republican she is. Truly.
- [46:04]
Marjorie Taylor Greene
However, I will praise Nancy Pelosi. She had an incredible career for her party.
- [46:12]
Ben Shapiro
Yes, things are going well. Okay. Meanwhile, in actual good news, New York has a candidate for governor on the Republican side. A very strong candidate, in fact. Elise Stefanik, congresswoman from New York. She has now announced that she will be running for governor. Here was her campaign launch.
- [46:30]
Political Ad Narrator
As a working mom, congresswoman and fighter, Elise knows families need more help and she'll make New York affordable. That's why she authored and passed the largest middle class tax cut in New York's history, letting working families keep more of their hard earned money. Elise will reduce your energy, utility and grocery bills. She fought woke insanity in our schools, stood proudly with law enforcement, champions, small businesses, and will never back down from fighting for New York families. With everything on the line, we need someone who will deliver results and make New York affordable and safe for families and small businesses to not just survive but thrive. Elise Stefanik will clean up Kathy Hochul's catastrophe and restore New York York's greatness. Elise Stefanik for governor. It's time to save New York.
- [47:28]
Ben Shapiro
Yeah, well, that's a good ad. And Elise Stefanik is a very strong candidate. Kathy Hochul put out her own ad attacking Stefanik. She didn't really attack the congresswoman as much as she attacked President Trump.
- [47:39]
Elise Stefanik
Meet Elise Stefanik, the greatest president in.
- [47:42]
The history of our country, President Donald J. Trump.
- [47:45]
She's Donald Trump, Trump's top ally in Congress.
- [47:48]
I'm proud to be one of his top allies on Capitol Hill. This goes back to fighting against the witch hunt, impeachment. It goes back to being the first member of Congress who endorsed him.
- [47:57]
Now Elise Stefanik is running for governor of New York to do what she's always done, put Trump first.
- [48:04]
Republican Commentator
She is phenomenal. She is a friend of mine.
- [48:07]
Elise Stefanik
Phenomenal at putting Trump ahead of you. Like when she proudly cast the decision deciding vote to pass Trump's agenda that rips health care away from 1.5 million New Yorkers.
- [48:18]
Republican Commentator
She's doing me a big favor.
- [48:19]
Elise Stefanik
Stefanik put five rural hospitals in her district on the chopping block just to keep Trump happy.
- [48:25]
And I've been proud to be President Trump's top ally in Congress.
- [48:29]
She voted to greenlight Trump's tariffs too, even though they're hurting New York farmers and jacking up costs on everything from groceries to coffee to building and owning a home. And when the Trump administration tried to cut $187 million in counterterrorism funds from New York. Elise Stefanik didn't raise a finger or say a word. And New Yorkers noticed.
- [48:53]
Political Ad Narrator
Elise Stefanik.
- [48:59]
Elise Stefanik
Elise Stefanik. She'll always put Donald Trump ahead of you.
- [49:07]
Ben Shapiro
So we'll see if that works. We'll see if that works for her. Just saying Trump over and over and over and over. Maybe it will because obviously New York's a very blue state. But I don't know. I think the New Yorkers might fear a Kathy Hochul Zoran Mandani governing duo than they do. You know, Elise Stefanik at the head of the New York Governor's Mansion. I think it'll be fascinating to find out. Joining us on the line is Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who of course launched her campaign today. The polls show her essentially in a dead heat, maybe even slightly ahead of the current governor, Kathy Hochul, who is deeply unpopular in the state of New York. Congresswoman, thanks so much for taking the time and joining the show.
- [49:45]
Elise Stefanik
Great to be with you, Ben. People are following this race very closely.
- [49:51]
Ben Shapiro
So let's talk about why you're jumping into the gubernatorial race. Obviously, New York has been a blue state in terms of the governorship for quite a while. What makes you think things are going to change?
- [50:01]
Elise Stefanik
Well, look at what just happened in New York City, Ben. The world was watching and they elected a radical, anti Semite, defund the police, tax hiking, abolish private property socialist who I call communist commie mom dummy. And Kathy Hochul bent the knee. She endorsed him and he just slightly got above 50%. And traditionally in New York, which is outnumbered from Democrat to Republican 7 to 1, traditionally the Democrat nominee gets in the 70s, he did not. And nearly half New Yorkers opposed him. So they know that this reeling off a cliff is going to be a disaster for New York state. I also am running because the top issues for New York families are making New York affordable and safe. Kathy Hochul has made New York the most unaffordable state in the nation. We have the highest taxes, the highest energy prices, utility prices, grocery prices, rent. The, the list goes on. And we also have a crime crisis where you have failed bail reform where under Kathy Hochul's failed leadership, they release violent criminals onto the streets who literally have killed New Yorkers. So those are the top issues. And I'll tell you, it's been 20 years next year since we've had a Republican governor. It is time. And this coalition will be not just Republicans and independents. But Democrats as well, who are fed up with the direction far left that that is happening in New York.
- [51:18]
Ben Shapiro
So, Congresswoman, obviously you look at New York, New York, as we say, has traditionally been Democratic. And that means that Kathy Hochul has decided she's going to run her reelection campaign on the basis of President Trump. Obviously, she's going to try and just say President Trump's name over and over and over in the hopes that because you have been in Congress a supporter of President Trump, this is somehow going to push her over the finish line as a piece of sort of anti Trump backlash. What do you make of that line of attack and how do you plan to talk about that?
- [51:45]
Elise Stefanik
Well, first of all, it's Kathy Hochul who's on the ballot and we're going to hold her accountable for her record. And the reality is, let's dig into the facts. Kathy Hochul is an accidental governor. This is not someone who ran through when she first was governor, a primary. She was elevated because Cuomo stepped down. She was a lieutenant governor, a do nothing lieutenant governor and a weak lieutenant governor. Cuomo knew that. That's why he selected her. And when she ran in 2022, she didn't really, she was unknown. Now she's known for her incompetency, for her weakness and for this failed record when it comes. She won 3.1 million votes in New York. President Trump actually won close to 3.4 million votes in New York state. So this is about turnout. It's about turning out lower propensity voters. We believe, I know that. I've done that in my district. We have the highest turnout of any congressional district in New York State. And we're going to have to do that across New York. But you can feel the energy and enthusiasm. Meanwhile, Hochul can't triangulate between the radical far left socialist and maintaining her middle, which she has lost. And it's never coming back.
- [52:49]
Ben Shapiro
So obviously, as you say, that that is a major issue for Kathy Hochul, because right now Zaramdani has proclaimed that he has these massive plans for New York City. A huge number of them are reliant on the state of New York, the state legislature and the governor actually signing off on incredibly large tax increases in the state. And it's unclear at this point whether Hochul's gonna go for that. And so she's sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place if she attempts to raise taxes dramatically on people living in the state of New York, already one of the most overtaxed states in the country, then there will be a bit of a rebellion. If she does not, then presumably the progressive left is going to be deeply upset with her and maybe try to eat her alive. That that is an unenviable political position for her.
- [53:25]
Elise Stefanik
Well, Ben, you're exactly right in your political assessment. But let's be clear. Kathy Hochul has already raised taxes on New Yorkers. She is the reason why we have the highest taxes in the entire nation. And it took less than 24 hours for Zora Mamdani supporters to heckle her, to chant tax the rich. Tax the rich. To run her off the stage. For her to change her position and say she's now open to raising taxes. She will be forced by a Democrat run state senate, Democrat run state assembly, with Mamdani and the dsa, the Democrat socialists on the march, to bend the knee. At every opportunity. Kathy Hochul bends the knee. She is controlled by the radical far left, by Mondami. And she will do that in the case of raising taxes. This was the situation with her endorsement of Mamdani. She didn't intend to. She said she wasn't planning on endorsing and then she did. She because of her bad polling, she's well under 50% among Democrat voters in New York State.
- [54:18]
Ben Shapiro
So when you look right now at the polling data, obviously there've been some variant polls that suggest she's ahead. There's one poll that suggests that you are actually ahead in this race. But the biggest factor here is the fact that she has never been a popular governor or even a gubernatorial candidate. In the last election cycle in which Kathy Hochul ran against Lee Zeldin, who of course is now the head of the epa. She only won in the state of New York by something like five and a half points. And that was in fact an off year election, just like this one will be. What do you make of the fact that it is an off year election? Obviously, Republicans tend to turn out significantly more during presidential election years. Is that going to be a hindrance or is it just going to be an opportunity for you to reach out to independents and moderate Democrats who may be put off by the radicalism of the current Democratic Party?
- [55:01]
Elise Stefanik
I think it's both, Ben. We're very focused on turning out those lower propensity voters. As I pointed out before, we've worked on this. In my district, we have the highest voter turnout of any congressional district in New York State. People are looking for a leader and a reason to get out and vote and saving New York State. I mean, this is dire. This is dire for families. And that's only exacerbated when you look at the New York City mayor's race. People do not want Kathy Hochul. She failed as governor. And these non, you know, traditionally wouldn't be necessarily part of the Republican coalition. They're now coming on board. My phone's been ringing off the hook from Democrats who either voted for Hochul or supported Hochul financially in terms of donations and bundling. They are coming on board our team because she's left them far behind. So we view it as an opportunity to broaden the tent, reach out to new communities and run up the score to save New York state once and for all.
- [55:54]
Ben Shapiro
Well, that is Elise Stefanik. She's a congresswoman from New York. Hopefully, she'll be the next governor of New York as well. Congresswoman, thanks so much for the time and congrats on the run. If people want to support your campaign, what's the best way to do so?
- [56:05]
Elise Stefanik
Elise forgovernor.com they can follow me on social media at. Elise Stefanik.
- [56:11]
Ben Shapiro
Well, again, thank you so much and good luck. Alrighty, folks, the show continues for our members. Right now we'll be getting into the amazing Sydney Sweeney's interview. She, she, she did, she did an interview with some crazy Hollywood press lady and it really went poorly for that lady. Remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member. If you're not a member, become member. Use code shapiro. Check out for two months free on all annual plans. Click that link in the description and join us.