Ben Shapiro (clip or voiceover) (12:32)

11 months ago. I inherited a mess and I'm fixing it. When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years and some would say in the history of our country, which caused prices to be higher than ever before, making life unaffordable for millions and millions of Americans. This happened during a Democrat administration and it's when we first began hearing the word affordability. Our border was open and because of this, our country was being invaded by an army of 25 million people.

Ben Shapiro (13:10)

And President Trump then went on to go after the left. Here he was.

Ben Shapiro (clip or voiceover) (13:15)

For the last four years, the United States was ruled by politicians who fought only for insiders, illegal aliens, career criminals, corporate lobbyists, prisoners, terrorists, and above all, foreign nations which took advantage of us at levels never seen before. They flooded your cities and towns with illegal aliens, they decimated your hard earned earned savings, they indoctrinated your children with hate for America. Released, really. I mean, they just released a level of violent felons that we had never seen to prey on innocent. They caused war, they caused mayhem, they caused a horrible situation all over the globe. But now you have a president who fights for the law abiding, hardworking People of our country, the ones who make this nation run.

Ben Shapiro (14:08)

Now, again, the president is right about all of this. I know there was a lot of criticism of the president last night. This was pointless. Why are we doing this? What are we watching? Okay, that's true. But the question is, are you talking about the thing that he said? So maybe you're talking about the way in which he said it. Fine. But are you talking about the things that he actually said? If so, then it actually is a political victory. And this is something that I've had to learn as a political observer over the course of Trump's two terms now, because I also tend to look at the framework of how did he say it? Was it beautifully performed? And one of the things you realize in watching President Trump is that President Trump is fine with giving a mediocre performance as long as the spotlight is on him. And so bringing the spotlight back to him to talk about things he wants to talk about, even if you don't like the performance, is a way of redirecting the attention to a topic that he wants to talk about, which is what he did successfully last night. So President Trump started talking about his tax cuts, which, of course, are an economic victory.

Ben Shapiro (clip or voiceover) (15:04)

Next year, you will also see the results of the largest tax cuts in American history that were really accomplished through our great big beautiful bill, perhaps the most sweeping legislation ever passed in Congress. We wrapped 12 different bills up into one beautiful bill that includes no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security for our great seniors. Under these cuts, many families will be saving between 11,000 and $20,000 a year. And next spring is projected to be the largest tax refund season of all time.

Ben Shapiro (15:46)

Okay. He also went on to discuss bringing the economy back by bringing prices down, which is the thing most people are concerned about right now here at home.

Ben Shapiro (clip or voiceover) (15:55)

We're bringing our economy back from the brink of ruin. The last administration and their allies in Congress looted our treasury for trillions of dollars, driving up prices and everything at levels never seen before. I am bringing those high prices down and bringing them down very fast.

Ben Shapiro (16:15)

So, again, this was an attempt to shift the conversation, and I think that it will be the beginning of a sustained campaign to do precisely that. Now, of course, all of that relies on the economy continuing to hold up, the economy continuing to be good. It relies on economic growth. It relies on wage increases. It relies on a continued flattening of the cost curve when it comes to inflation. Right now, a lot of Republicans in purple districts quite worried because they're looking at the polls and they can see themselves losing their seats. And this resulted yesterday in four vulnerable House Republicans rebelling against Speaker Mike Johnson and backing a Democratic effort to force a vote on extending ACA subsidies. That'd be Obamacare exposing GOP fractures over surging health care costs headed into next year's midterm elections, according to the Wall Street Journal. And of course, when we talk about surging costs, what we mean is that Joe Biden put into place subsidies that expired. Those subsidies in expiring jack up costs. But the subsidies never should have been in place in the first place. The subsidies were, were actually part of the jacking up of the cost because when you subsidize a thing, what you get typically is a higher price. This is true anywhere and everywhere that the government pours money on a fire. Representative Mike Lawler of New York joined three Republicans from Pennsylvania swing district in signing a petition led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries that would force a vote on a three year extension of enhanced Obamacare subsidies. The lawmakers acted after GOP leaders blocked votes on compromise measures aimed at extending and trimming the subsidies that saying the needs of their voters were urgent. And again, the reason for that presumably is these purple district Republicans need to go back home and say, listen, I worked in bipartisan fashion to try to avoid that spike in your Obamacare premiums and if we didn't get it done, that's not my fault. So you can see why they did it. Now it's not going to matter because it'll go to the Senate and it will presumably die in the Senate. There are not 60 votes to push forward the Obamacare subsidies, but it will be added impetus for some sort of compromise deal, which is the most likely outcome of what happens here is some sort of compromise deal with a, an extension of the Obamacare subsidies for not three years, but maybe a year or two years, while other measures pushed by Republicans start to eat away at the costs. That I think is where this ends up. There's been an attempt to say that this is a blow to Mike Johnson's leadership, but again, I'm not sure exactly what you expect from the Speaker. Speaker Johnson, I think, has done an extraordinary job in navigating an incredibly fractious and tough caucus. He has a majority essentially of one vote. And so it's not a shock that a few people are going to defect and move over to the Democrats in order to preserve their own districts. Johnson had said he would not hold any vote on subsidies this week, citing widespread Objections from Republicans who call Obamacare a failed program that has done nothing to rein in health care costs. In a TV appearance early on Wednesday, Speaker Johnson warned colleagues against trying to bypass leadership, and he said the party would tackle broader health care policy changes in the new year. But if you're one of these four Republicans, again, the goal presumably is to be able to go back to your district and say, listen, I did my best. Now, Democrats, you have to admire the gall. Their basic move here was do nothing, obstruct. Don't come to a compromise, don't come to an agreement, don't try to fix things. According to Axios, that was the strategy. Don't give an inch to Republican moderates looking for an escape hatch. And it worked. By following that simple strategy, Jeffries got everything he wanted. A House vote on a three year extension of the subsidies without income cast caps or cost offsets. Now, Jeffries was pressed by several of his centrist members to throw his support behind one or two year extensions as we were talking about. But instead, he held firm and Republicans came to him. In the end, it's not going to help. In the end, there will be some sort of compromise deal that gets cut, which is, again, not a shock. The Wall Street Journal editorial page is very critical of these four Republicans. They say, quote, they did so even though Mr. Johnson suggested they could have a vote on an amendment to his bill if they could find spending cuts to offset the cost of the extension. This would have required proposing other reforms. And the Republican renegades said no. Their sole aim is to protect themselves from Democratic attacks. But signing the petition is unlikely to provide much insulation. It will instead give Democrats more confidence. They have Republicans on the run and Chuck Schumer more leverage to scare GOP senators to revolt as well. Now, one of the problems here is that in Congress, there's always a temptation to push things off until the crisis moment. Republicans should have been figuring this out six months ago. Republicans should have been attempting to push some sort of compromise solution six months ago so that they could say Democrats are the ones who are allowing the subsidies to expire. That would have been the thing to do. And presumably the Republicans will spend the next month doing that, coming up with some sort of compromise solution that they propose. And the Democrats keep voting down over and over and over. But for the moment, again, all this goes to is the reality for a lot of Republicans in purple states, in purple districts that if they continue to kind of double down as opposed to making moves to win their districts, they're likely to lose to. To lose their seats. President Trump's coattails are not endless, and President Trump's approval ratings are not that high. And so a lot of these people are thinking, how do I preserve my job? And that is absolutely normal in the world of electoral politics. We'll get to more on this in a moment. First, if you owe the irs more than 5,000 bucks in back taxes, I want to tell you about our sponsor, Priority Tax Relief. Look, I get it. Dealing with tax debt, it's stressful. Maybe you fell behind on filing, you had to pull from your 401k or you just had a rough patch. Whatever has happened, Priority Tax Relief can help. They're a team of experienced tax attorneys, CPAs, and enrolled agents who, who've been doing this for over 15 years. These folks negotiate directly with the IRS on your behalf, and they are good at it. They've handled thousands of cases and helped clients reduce their tax debt significantly. Some people who owed 25 or even 50 grand were able to get that reduced to a fraction of the amount. They completely understand how overwhelming all this can be. Their team walks you right through the process, step by step, so you're never in the dark about what's happening. And they move fast to stop or prevent things like liens, wage garnishments, and those penalties that just keep piling up. The IRS has stepped up their collection efforts lately, but Priority Tax Relief can step in before things escalate. They're offering a free consultation with no upfront fees and no obligation. Just go to prioritytaxrelief.com Ben that's prioritytaxrelief.com Ben and see how they can help you get this resolved. Also, as an advocate for truth, you know that women shouldn't have to share locker rooms with men, women shouldn't have to compete against male athletes, and they shouldn't be punished for speaking the truth. But across America, that is exactly what has been happening. Men are being allowed to compete in women's sports, robbing girls of scholarships, medals, titles, and safety. Now, for the first time in history, the U.S. supreme Court has agreed to hear two cases, West Virginia vs. BPJ and Little vs. Hecox, on January 13 that could decide the future of women's sports nationwide. It could be a watershed moment in the fight to protect biological reality and fairness. Alliance Defending Freedom needs your voice today. Visit joinadf.com ben or text BEN to to 83848 to add your name to their declaration inside with truth and fairness. That's joinadf.com Ben or text Ben to 83848. What starts in women's sports, spreads to schools, medicine and parental rights. This is our moment to push back. Stand with Alliance Defending Freedom today. They do extraordinary work. Go check them out right now. Alliance Defending Freedom. Fighting the battles on the front line for America's future. That's Alliance Defending Freedom. Meanwhile, a shock poll is out showing Alexander OCASIO Cortez defeating J.D. vance in a presidential race. 2028, presidential race 51 to 49. Now that is inside the margin of error, but that in and of itself should scare the hell out of Republicans if the poll is in any way accurate. Alexander Ocasio Cortez, of course I've said, is being underrated as a candidate. She also happens to be the most radical Democrat in the possible field. The fact that she is even in spitting distance of the Vice President of the United States suggests either that Republicans are in for a rough ride generally in 2028 or that there needs to be some course correction politically for Vice President Vance's incipient campaign. AOC was asked directly about this and she said of course I would stomp him. Which of course you would expect her to say.

Zoran Mamdani (24:25)

Do you think that you'll beat that? You could beat J.D.

Ben Shapiro (clip or voiceover) (24:27)

Vance in a head to head race.

Zoran Mamdani (24:29)

For president as polling suggests in 2028?

Ben Shapiro (24:31)

Listen, these polls like three years out are, you know, they are what they are. But let the record show I was stop him. I was stomping. Okay. Now of course she's sort of half joking with that said, she is not the front runner for the Democratic nomination right now by the polling data. She is clocking in in the real Clear Politics polling average and of course it is very early right now. She is clocking in in the real Clear Politics polling average and in most of the polls in fourth place in the Democratic primary general vote, Gavin Newsom right now is the heavy favorite. Kamala Harris is still polling high, but that's for a hot moment because she was the last nominee. She is not going to end up as the Democratic nominee. The California Governor has been running very obviously for president for at least a couple of years now. Pete Buttigieg is holding down that third place slot, but he has a ceiling. He's probably not going any higher than where he currently is. Ocasio Cortez could theoretically pick up more of the Bernie Sanders vote, which is kind of sitting outside and waiting to see who runs at this point. With that said, if the Democrats are that competitive with the Republicans already, that of course, is a very bad sign. And it shows the necessity for a sort of political change. And this does mean, this does mean that on the right side of the aisle, there needs to be some reckoning with the idea that the era of Donald Trump running at the top of the ticket is now over. He is not going to be on the ballot in 2026, and he will not be on the ballot in 2028. Despite the most fond wishes of some people who I generally like, like Alan Dershowitz, it ain't happening. The President of the United States is constitutionally forbidden from running for a third term. And so that means that the next candidate will not be Donald Trump, and whoever that candidate is, is going to have to craft his own coalition. I'm going to say this over and over and over again. No one inherits someone else's coalition. If they do, it is usually a smaller coalition. George H.W. bush in 1988 inherited the Reagan coalition and he performed less well than Reagan did in 1984. In 2016, Hillary Clinton tried to inherit the Obama coalition and she significantly underperformed Barack Obama. If you take somebody else's coalition and you shrink it, you are likely to lose or at least not to perform as well, obviously. And that's particularly true in are very tight elections. We've been having tight elections in this country for basically the last 24 years, going all the way back to 2000. It's been a long time since we've had a true blowout election. You can say that 2008 was kind of a blowout election for Barack Obama. That's an exception to the rule. 2012, while it was a solid victory for Obama in the Electoral College, was a fairly tight race the entire way. And obviously 2000 was, was extraordinarily tight race. 2004 was a very tight race. 2016 was an incredibly tight race. 2020 was a tight race. 2024 was a tight race. None of these races could be considered blowouts. Republicans can't afford to drop even 2 percentage points and win national elections. And so that means that Vice President Vance is going to have to look at his own coalition building skills and figure out what coalition he believes he will be able to bring to the ballot box. And that is why I think a lot of the very online chatter that's been happening right now on the right, the sort of triumphalist attempts to, to transform the nature of how Americans think about Americanism, it is politically inept. What I mean by this is there's a big conversation that's currently happening on the right about what is an American? What is an American now traditionally, when I was growing up, and I think for most modern conservative history, the answer to what is an American? Is a person who lives in America, was born here traditionally, or immigrates to the United States, imbibes from the well of and assimilates to the values of the Declaration of Independence in the Constitution of the United States. That would be sort of the very short synopsis of what is an American. There's been an attempt, because people are rebelling now against the sort of creedal notion of Americanism, that ideas have anything to do with being an American. And, and I think that is a response to the fact that the left basically said that what is an American? Anyone who's here? And so what members of the right are now saying is it's no, it's not anyone who's here. It's people who historically are from here. But neither of those answers is correct. The actual answer is people who wish to join the American experiment and then assimilate to Anglo American traditions and Judeo Christian values. Those are traditionally the people who become Americans. And the history of America is which people can come here and do that? And that is why the genetic heritage of the United States is quite diverse. It's why only a very small percentage of Americans can trace their ancestry all the way back to the Mayflower. Well, this is all coming to a head because there are a lot of Republicans, again, who are starting to push the idea that that creedal idea, Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the United States, Anglo American values in terms of legality, property rights, general religious tenor, that all of that ought to be pushed to the side in favor of some sort of quote, unquote, heritage Americanism. And again, that's pretty ill defined because it's difficult to explain why. Because your great great, great, great great grandfather got here. That is somehow better than someone else's great, great, great, great great great great grandfather getting here. As though the more grace you have in the grandfather, the more American you are. To a certain extent, that's kind of stolen valor because you're not the one who got here. It was one of your ancestors who got here. But the reality is that that is a losing political proposition. Forget about the morality of it or even the ideology of it. That is a losing political proposition that radically shrinks your base. It does. President Trump won a historic number of Hispanic votes for a Republican in the last election cycle. Many of the Hispanic voters that he's winning are first generation or second generation Americans. If you say that the longer you're in the country, the more American you are, you are alienating your potential voters. Because it turns out a lot of people in the United States got here in the course of the last 150 years. Again, it is a mistake to do the routine that you are now seeing on a political level. And the more you talk about it, the more you're alienating people. And if J.D. vance loses Latino votes from President Trump, if he loses black votes from President Trump, if he loses female votes from President Trump, if he loses blue collar votes from President Trump, he needs to make all this up somewhere. Vivek Ramaswamy, who's running for governor of Ohio, has what I think is a truly good piece at the New York Times titled what is an American? And he says there are two competing visions now emerging on the American right and they're incompatible. One vision of American identity is based on lineage, blood and soil. Inherited attributes matter most. The purest form of an American is a so called heritage American, one whose ancestry traces back to the founding of the United States or earlier. This view is now popularized by the Groiper Right, a rapidly ascendant online movement that argues for the creation of a white centric identity. This is a predictable response, one that I anticipated in my 2022 book Nation of Victims, to anti white discrimination over the last half decade. And it is no longer just a fringe viewpoint. The alternative and says Vivek Ramaswamy, in my view, correct vision of American identity is is based on ideals. Americanness isn't a scalar quality that varies based on your ancestry. It's binary. Either you're an American or you're not. You're an American if you believe in the rule of law, in freedom of conscience and freedom of expression, in colorblind meritocracy, in the US Constitution, in the American Dream. And if you are a citizen who swears exclusive allegiance to our nation, as Ronald Reagan quipped, you can go live in France, but you can't become a Frenchman. But anyone from any corner of the world can come to live in the United States and become an American. Now what Vivek is saying here is correct. The attack on so called creedal Americanism has been the idea that you can't shut the door based on creed. That's not true. Of course you can. That's why it matters where immigrants are coming from. It's why I am very much a fan of creedal Americanism. Because America is exceptional and different. When I say American exceptionalism. I don't mean, like Barack Obama, that Americans believe in American exceptionalism like Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism or Japanese believe in Japanese exceptionalism. America is in fact different. It is a nation based on an idea, not an idea based on a nation. It is the only state that was literally formed based on a set of ideas. Now, of course, many of the people who formed those ideas had a common ancestry. Many didn't, by the way. We now tend to obliterate all those differences because they seem minor in comparison to the sort of ethnic diversity of the United States. But there's some pretty significant conflict between, say, Scotch Irish immigrants to the United States at the founding and English immigrants to the United States at the founding, or Dutch immigrants to the United States at the founding, for that matter. New York was originally New Amsterdam, of course. But of course creedal Americanism can serve as a litmus test as to whether someone ought to become an American. And we can measure that and we can bar people who are unlikely to assimilate. Vivek says, no matter your ancestry, if you wait your turn and obtain citizenship, you're every bit as American as a Mayflower descendant. And as long as you subscribe to the creed of the American founding and the culture that was born of it, this is what makes American exceptionalism possible. And this is right. This is correct. One of the reasons that America is in fact so powerful is specifically because we can draw. We can brain drain everywhere else. We can values drain everywhere else. We can become the world center of commerce and the world center of small art Republicanism. We can do all those things because we can be a magnet for those things. The divide between these two views, says Ramaswamy, is more foundational than policy divides between Republicans and Democrats. Older Republicans who may doubt the rising prevalence of the blood and soil view should think again. My social media feeds are littered with hundreds of slurs, most from accounts that I don't recognize, about the pajits and street bleepers and calls to deport me back to India. I was born and raised in Cincinnati and have never resided outside the United States. This new online right movement doesn't represent the views of most real world Republican voters. Take it from the son of Indian immigrants who's dominating polling in Ohio's GOP primary for governor. But as one of the most vocal opponents of left wing identity politics, I now see a real reluctance from my former anti woke peers to criticize the new identity politics on the right. And good for Vivek for writing this, because this is exactly right, he says. This pattern eerily mirrors the hesitance of prominent Democrats to criticize woke excess in the run up to the 2024 presidential election. This, of course is. Is exactly right. So what's the solution? Says Ramaswamy. We need to imagine a new American dream that delivers economic empowerment while also filling the next generation's hunger for purpose and belonging. To achieve that vision, four conditions must be met. First, conservative leaders should condemn without hedging groiper transgressions. That doesn't mean censorship, it means moral clarity instead of indulgence. Yes. Second, reduce cost of living. States can deliver quick wins, drive down home prices by eliminating local land use restrictions to increase housing supply, reduce reduce property tax burdens, etc. Etc. Third, create broad based participation in wealth generation from stock market gains, meaning we should have what are now being called the Trump accounts. And fourth, provide America the shared national project we badly need. America has a greater purpose in the world than what we have embodied thus far in the 21st century. Americans of all stripes long to be reminded of it through a modern day equivalence of the Apollo mission. Now again, I think that there's truth to this, that building big things tends to inspire the imagination. Now I don't think that that is a prereq. I think that an inspired vision for Americans is the dream. The dream. The American dream is the inspiring thing. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. And let's be real about young Americans. The opportunity is in fact in your hands. There are people out there who are going to lie to you. They're going to tell you you can't succeed in the United States. They're going to tell you that because it makes them stronger and them more powerful and them richer. But it's going to make your life worse and poorer. You can. In fact, you've been handed the opportunity. An opportunity that hundreds of millions, billions of people worldwide would kill to get. That is an opportunity that you were born into in the United States or immigrated to. And to pretend that this system is what is holding you down, absent a specific policy that you would like to change. And then we can all get on board. But a generalized grievance is not going to make your life better. And people who pander to you by telling you that failure is a result of generalized grievance without a solution, they are making your life actively worse. They're destroying your opportunity and they're destroying the American spirit. We'll get to more on this in just a moment. First, true self reliance begins with taking control of your own health. Our sponsor, Arm Rock Colostrum, harnesses nature's original blueprint for resilience. Packed with over 400 bioactive nutrients, colostrum fortifies your gut and strengthens your immune system from the cellular level up. When you invest in your health, you invest in your ability to show up fully, think clearly, and stay in control no matter what comes your way. Look, our bodies are under constant assault. Toxins, processed foods, relentless stress. Your gut is your first line of defense. Most supplements only address part of the problem. Amra Colostrum is different. This isn't just another supplement. It's a bioactive whole food a a pure concentrate of bovine colostrum that's sustainably sourced with a commitment to calf first sourcing. It's packed with over 400 bioactive nutrients that forfy your entire gut wall system, not just one piece. 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Now, maybe you've got something else sitting out there. You keep ignoring a car, a boat, maybe an old vehicle just hogging the driveway. It's not helping you. It's just taking up space and losing value. Donate it to Cars for Kids. Cars for Kids makes all this super easy. You go online, they schedule a free pickup at your convenience, and they'll tow away any old vehicle you've got sitting around. Cars for Kids then takes care of all the paperwork and the logistics. You walk away with a tax deductible receipt, a vacation voucher, and space in your driveway for your guests. So act right now. Call 1-877-cars-for kids or donate online at carsforkids.org Ben that's carsforkids.org Ben Cars with a K and yes, you should hurry. Time is running out for that 2025 tax deduction. Go check them out right now. That's cars4kids.org Ben 1877 cars for kids. You know the song. You can hear it in your head right now. So why not just go do the thing, get rid of that old car. Carsforkids.org Ben Alrighty. Last night, the President of the United States. There are people online again who are predicting that he was going to declare war with Venezuela or something. That of course, turned out to be untrue, as are many of their predictions. It is true, however, that the President is creating more of a blockade on Venezuela. The President is basically trying to stop the shipping of so called ghost ships out of Venezuela that are loaded with oil for illegal climbs in violation of international law. President Trump is very much focused on the oil in Venezuela, which, by the way, is correct. I know there are people who are uptight about this. Why? Venezuela was reliant largely on American companies to build their oil industry and then they nationalized their oil industry and ran their country directly into the ground. And President Trump says, you know, we built it and you took it and you've destroyed your country in the process. The president is not wrong here.

Ben Shapiro (clip or voiceover) (40:30)

Just a blockade, not going to let anybody going through that shouldn't be going through. You remember they took all of our energy rights, they took all of our oil from not that long ago and we want it back, but they took it. They illegally took it.

Ben Shapiro (40:47)

The president then put out a statement on truth Social, quote, venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America. It will only get bigger and the shock to them will be like nothing they've ever seen before. He added, he is ordering a total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela. And he argued that Maduro's government is using oil revenue to finance illicit operations, including drug terrorism. The United States has already sanctioned three of Maduro's nephews, according to NBC News, and repeatedly conducted deadly military strikes against boats from the Caribbean that it alleges are carrying drugs. Venezuela responded by accusing Trump of violating international law, free trade and the principle of free navigation. Okay, Venezuela, you commies, you commie Iranian dictatorship loving horror show. It added on his social media. He assumes that Venezuela's oil, land and mineral wealth are his property. No, actually he assumes that if we drilled for the oil and helped your industry and then you nationalized it and stole it on behalf of your communist dictatorship, that that's A bad thing. Maduro's government plans to denounce the situation before the United nations will slow clap for you guys. Congrats. Now there are a lot of people who are claiming that President Trump is going to launch a full scale military invasion of Venezuela. No, he's not. No, he's not. Stop it. Stop being stupid. Representative Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado, is saying that as the President has talked about US Involvement in land.

Jason Crow (42:10)

Is it clear to you what that.

Ben Shapiro (42:12)

Would look like to you? US Involvement in a land war in.

Jason Crow (42:16)

Venezuela, how that would play out? Well, that would be complete insanity. We've spent the last 25 years, trillions of dollars, thousands of American lives, tens of thousands of Americans wounded with stress and invisible and visible scars of these battles. Hundreds of thousands of people died around the world in these conflicts. And most of these conflicts ended poorly.

Ben Shapiro (42:39)

Right?

Jason Crow (42:39)

Terrorism is still alive and well. We pulled out of Afghanistan. We saw how poorly that went. Iraq did not go well. The United States needs to get out of the regime change business.

Ben Shapiro (42:52)

Actually, I don't think the United States needs to get out of the regime change business. If by that he means that we should not root for certain regimes to change. We certainly should not invade Venezuela with hundreds of thousands of troops if that's what he's talking about. But I really don't think that President Trump is going for that. Why are you guys standing for the Venezuelan regime? And what President Trump is pretty obviously doing is cutting off the lifeblood of the Venezuelan economy and creating internal pressures inside the country for some sort of military coup or for a popular uprising to depose the dictator. Why is that bad? Like, let's be real about what he's doing. He is not Talking about using F16s to take out Maduro. He's not talking about unleashing the 101st Airborne. That's, that's not what he's talking about. Ilhan Omar, of course, another big defender of the Marxist regime in Venezuela. The answer is that this is not about drugs. This is about regime change. And we also have the White House chief of staff on record saying that this is about regime change. It has nothing to do with drugs. Well, I mean, I assume that it has to do with both regime change and drugs. But again, this notion that the United States is about to launch some sort of massive ground scale invasion into Venezuela is, is not correct. That, of course, is not correct. But economic pressure on Venezuela, I really don't see the problem, to be quite honest with you. Meanwhile, Democrats continue to focus like a laser beam on the fact that Pete Hegseth's Department of Defense launched a second strike at a drug boat in international waters. Representative Benny Thompson, who was last seen claiming that the shooting of a couple of National Guard members was a sort of bizarre accident. Well, now he's back and he's claiming that Trump's boat bombings are illegal.

Benny Thompson (44:42)

We are a nation of laws. The Trump administration's boat bombings are illegal under US and international laws. Simply put, these are war crimes. Further, the administration has failed to provide Congress with basic information even as Trump directs a massive buildup of U.S. forces and threatens war. And I might add, Mr. Speaker, those of us who've been in so called classified briefings still have not received any additional information beyond what's already in the eyes of the public and on tv. It's our duty as a Congress to rein in the lawless administration and prevent an illegal war.

Ben Shapiro (45:36)

Also, meanwhile, Chuck Schumer is claiming that the video of the boat strike turned his stomach. It turned his. Okay, I mean, you want to go with blowing up drug boats is bad. I guess that's a take. The unedited video of what happened on September 2nd I've seen turns your stomach. It is awful and people should see it. What the hell is Hegseth hiding? His excuse about classification. It's false. Okay. All right. I mean, I guess if they want to run with this, they can. The Senate did pass a Pentagon bill pressing Pete Hexeth to disclose bode strike evidence on Wednesday. According to the Washington Post. It was an addendum to the $900 billion defense policy bill. It advanced 77 to 20. So I assume that at some point the footage will come out and then we'll find out whether in fact the. The people on the boat were signaling others to be picked up. That that's sort of the question at issue, legally speaking, is is somebody considered or to combat when their boat gets wrecked, or could they get back in the fight by getting on another boat, calling somebody, is the boat still salvageable and whatnot? By the way, the original accusation, which was that Pete Hegseth said kill everyone and then stood there while they nuked these people, is is false. And that was already reported by the New York Times. So the original report from the Washington Post made a claim that has already been specifically debunked by the New York Times. Okay. Meanwhile, in other Trump administration news, Dan Bongino says he will step down from the FBI in January. According to the New York Times, he said on Wednesday he would step down next month, bringing an end to his brief but tumultuous stint at the bureau, he wrote on social media, I will be leaving my position with the FBI. In January. He announced this. He said, I want to thank President Trump, AG Bondi, and Director Patel for the opportunity to serve with purpose. Most importantly, I want to thank you, my fellow Americans, for the privilege to serve you. God bless America and those who defend her. Now, again, I think that Dan deserves extraordinary praise for what he's done over the course of the last year. He gave up legitimately tens of millions of dollars to go into public service for no reason other than his own patriotism. You can't name a reason why he would do it other than he wanted to help the country. He certainly didn't do it for the money. He certainly didn't do it for the love. And Dan has taken some, some real hits from dishonest people, claiming that he abandoned his position as a person who wants to get to the truth. And by the way, full credit to Dan for telling the truth, even when it was not in his political interest to do so. I mean, Dan had been one of the lead purveyors of much of the questioning surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, but it was Dan who had to do that investigation and look into all the evidence and then tell the truth to the American. That's a hard job. Telling the truth to the American people is a much more difficult job, as it turns out to be, then lying to them and telling them what they want to hear, particularly if they're in your base. Dan deserves enormous credit for that. Dan deserves huge credit for being instrumental in the arrest of the January 6th pipe bomber. Again, the, the, the, the IR that you see for Dan online. I think a lot of it is sort of competitive hatred for Dan. It's coming from other people who are afraid he's going to come back to his podcast and do really well. I hope he comes back to his podcast and I hope he does do really well, because Dan is a very talented guy. But again, what Dan deserves most of all is thanks for having put aside his own personal interests on behalf of the country, even if it was for a year. Most people don't do that, and that is not an easy decision to make. Well, in other news, Zoran Mamdani's tenure is going exactly how you thought it would. According to the New York Post, Mamdani has now tapped a controversial lawyer who defended an Al Qaeda terrorist and a radical anti Israel campus leader at Columbia for a high ranking position at City Hall. How exciting. Ramsey Kassem, who Is also a law professor at City University of New York and a member of Mamdani's transition team for legal affairs. Is the top candidate for chief counsel, the most important advisory role in the mayor's office. Can't see how this would go wrong. In addition to defending Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University protest leader who was also engaged in trespass in violation of law, Qasem helped to defend terrorist Ahmed Al Darby, an Al Qaeda member who was convicted in 2017 of bombing a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen in 2002. All this, of course, follows a pattern for Zoran Mandani. He was supposed to be a moderate. Yeah, that's not happening so much. Not really seeing it. Meanwhile, he appeared with Trevor Noah, who apparently is still in the media. I didn't even realize that Trevor was still active. Good for you, Trevor. And he declared that free buses are going to lower crime. Okay, Charlie, we'll see how that works out for you.

Zoran Mamdani (50:21)

When we made those bus routes free after a year, assaults on bus drivers dropped by 38.9%. On the bus drivers on the bus drivers. Because unlike the train, the act of fare collection on the bus happens on the bus.

Ben Shapiro (50:34)

It's there.

Zoran Mamdani (50:35)

Drivers, bus drivers and unions have shared anecdotally that about 50% of assaults happen around the farebox. So when you eliminate the farebox, you make for a safer experience for the bus driver, for everyone on the bus.

Ben Shapiro (50:54)

It's going to be so safe when nobody has to worry about the fares and when people are just riding around the buses and using them as homeless encampments. If there is one thing that Zoran Mandani is going to bring, it's going to be safety to New York City. Man, you guys, you voted for this, and now you're going to get it good and hard. That's the theory of democracy in a nutshell. He also described to Trevor Noel what socialism means. You'll notice that he doesn't actually define what socialism means. This is a favorite habit of socialists, is to say things like, if socialism means that everybody lives a better life and is richer, then I'm a socialist. It's like, well, no, that's not what socialism means. It actually has a definition. Here is Zoran Mandani doing his best?

Zoran Mamdani (51:28)

But I think, you know, many people have caricatures in their head as to what it means. Yeah, I often turn to Dr. King to describe socialism. He said, call it democracy or call it democratic socialism. There must be a better distribution of wealth for all of God's Children in this country, it comes back to dignity. It comes back to ensuring that whatever you need to live a dignified life that you have, that you should not be priced out of a necessity. We're not talking about want or like, we're talking about need. You should not be priced out of. Of being able to have a home to call your own, of being able to send your kid to school, being able to ride the bus. And I've found actually that when you're speaking to New Yorkers one to one, they've actually had far fewer questions of how I describe my politics and far more of does my politics include them? Are their struggles part of my focus? And I found that there are many people who might describe themselves in a different way, but when I speak about what this would mean for New York City, they start to see themselves in that vision. And that's. I think the key of this is, how is this a politics that actually reflects the struggles of working people, the.

Ben Shapiro (52:37)

Irritation of people like Mom? This is crap. I mean, Mamdani and Sanders, they all do this routine. The routine is, here's something I wish everybody had, and if I believe that everybody should have it, then they should have it. Now. They never tell you how they're gonna get from point A to point B. Because what socialists actually believe is if everyone deserves a. Deserves a house, then what that means is we should seize the means of production and we should either tax the living hell out of people and then build houses and just give them to people, which was called the affordable housing projects of the 1960s and 70s, gigantic failure, or we should seize current housing stock and just put people in those houses. And these programs invariably end with failure. I want people to have houses, too. And the way that you get more people in more houses is with additional supply. And, you know, it's a great way to create better houses, additional houses, houses with more amenities, houses that aren't the crap boxes that your grandparents owned in the middle of Peoria in 1952, which were just brick structures with no internal air conditioning and half the time no toilet. You know, what's the best way to do that? Market economics. Market economics. So, no, socialism isn't just a quote unquote call for you to have things. It's an actual program for how to achieve that. And that program is always ugly and it's always a failure. And we'll see how it works out for New Yorkers. If honestly, Mandani's saving grace is that he's not going to be able to do all the things that he says he wants to do. All right, coming up, we're going to jump into the vaunted Ben Shapiro show mailbag. Remember, you have to be a subscriber in order to access the mailbag and become part of the show. Head on over to DailyWire.com right now to subscribe.

Narrator or Voice Actor (Pendragon cycle) (54:07)

All of this is an illusion, an.

Ben Shapiro (54:10)

Echo of a voice that has died.

Narrator or Voice Actor (Pendragon cycle) (54:14)

And soon that echo will cease. They say that Merlin is mad. They say he was a king in Doverd, the son of a princess of lost Atlantis. They say the future and the past are known to him. That the fire and the wind tell him their secrets. That the magic of the hill folk and druids come forth at his easy command. They say he slew hundreds. Hundreds. Do you hear that? The world burned and trembled at his wrath. The Merlin died long before you and I were born, Merlin. Emrys has returned to the land of the living.

Ben Shapiro (clip or voiceover) (55:19)

Vortigern is gone.

Ben Shapiro (55:21)

Rome is gone. The Saxon is here.

Narrator or Voice Actor (Pendragon cycle) (55:26)

Saxon Hengist is assembled. The greatest war host ever seen in the island of the Mighty. And before the summer is through, he means the to take the throne. And he will have it if we are too busy squabbling amongst ourselves to take up arms against him. Here is your hope. A king will arise to hold all Britain in his hand. A high king who will be the wonder of the world.

Ben Shapiro (55:51)

You to a future of peace.

Ben Shapiro (clip or voiceover) (55:58)

There'll be no peace in these lands till we are all dust. Men of the island of the Mighty, you stand together. You stand as Britons. You stand as one. Ganta, gown.

Narrator or Voice Actor (Pendragon cycle) (56:14)

Great darkness is falling upon this land. These brothers are our only hope to stand against it.

Ben Shapiro (56:22)

Not our only hope.

Narrator or Voice Actor (Pendragon cycle) (56:25)

They say Merlin slew 70 men with his own hands. Like a say he slew 500.

Ben Shapiro (56:33)

No man is capable of such a thing. No mortal man.

Narrator or Voice Actor (Pendragon cycle) (56:53)

Sam.