Progressive Commentator (13:14)

I spent the weekend, like probably a lot of you did, looking at my phone and just feeling shocked and sick about what is happening in Minneapolis. These one video after another, screaming, people being torn from their families. Americans, people who are born in the United States, being pulled out of their cars for the crime of having an accent or whatever. Children, small children, babies being tear gassed, taken into custody, separated from their parents. Just one atrocity after another being committed by this gang of poorly trained, shamefully led, mask wearing goons. And that is what they are. They're goons and committing vile, heartless, and even criminal acts. And it's sickening to watch, and it's frustrating to watch. It's like we're all being forced to play a game that has no rules. They just make up the rules as they go along.

Ben Shapiro (14:03)

When you hear Kimmel label our law enforcement, they are ours. I mean, we pay their salaries as jackbooted thugs, mass thugs who are out there pursuing atrocities against Americans. That is the story that the left would like to tell. And they facilitated that story by obstructing federal law enforcement. This is the game. This is the game. And then Kimmel goes on to lie about the circumstances under which, for example, Renee Goode was shot.

Progressive Commentator (14:31)

They won't even admit that it was a mistake. I mean, they say the Honda SUV Renee Goode was driving was weaponized. They say the gun Alex Preddy had a license to carry in an open carry state or. All right, many of these same people screamed very loudly about when it was Kyle Rittenhouse carrying the gun, a gun that Alex Preddy did not even draw, did not touch. A gun that was taken from him by one of the agents before he was shot dead by the other ones. They fired 10 times on an ICU nurse. They're telling us, well, it was justified. You know, is that the law and order that you voted for? If you voted for this?

Ben Shapiro (15:06)

Notice what he's doing there. So he takes some facts and then he wraps a giant fiction around it. Okay, so it is true that Renee Goode, they claimed that she was a domestic terrorist. Dhs. It's true. They did the Same thing with Alex Brady. This is why I said at the very top that failures inside the Trump administration have made Democrats job easier for them in order to shut down law and order. But notice how he wraps that into a generalized critique of all law and order in the United States and the suggestion that the only possible solution is to simply allow our immigration law to go unenforced.

Progressive Commentator (15:41)

My wife and I have family in Minneapolis are afraid to take their kids to school, they're afraid to go to work. And I can only imagine how people aren't white feel about this. How does this end? What's the plan here is the plan to just keep doing this in every city that didn't vote for Donald Trump. Does anyone on any side believe this is good leadership?

Ben Shapiro (16:02)

What he is doing there is also a lie, right? This is only happening in blue cities because blue cities are the places that are not working with ice. Red cities are working with ice, so it's not a problem. Blue cities are not working with ice, so it is a problem. Okay? Now this is all incredibly frustrating to watch. If you are attempting to be objective minded about the very difficult realities of enforcing the law and you recognize that there has been a mechanism set up by blue states in order to obstruct the enforcement of that federal law and that the people attempting to enforce that law are then blamed when things go wrong. It's deeply, deeply frustrating. The problem is that frustration does not change the fact with regard to public opinion, when it comes to public opinion because of the ugly pictures on the tv. As I warned last week, when you look at those ugly pictures on your tv, opinions on whether people want to see the operations continue drop. So CNN's Harry Anton looked at this. He says this is turning into a political disaster area for President Trump.

Harry Anton (16:58)

Ice, dhs, Kristi Noem have been a political disaster because just take a look here. I mean ICE's net approval rating during Trump's, you go back to term number one, look, it was pretty even zero points. You go to June 2025, right? That was when all that stuff was going on in Los Angeles. They dropped down. Look at this, -17 points way in the basement. But then after Minneapolis, it's even lower, minus 27 points on the net approval rating of ICE. Of course this all being done under Kristi Noem. So no, what's going on in Minneapolis is not popular at all. What's been going on during this second term under ICE under the Trump administration under casino has very much not been popular. And it's only be Getting more and more unpopular.

Ben Shapiro (17:44)

Okay, so this is why yesterday the Trump administration attempted to change course. The way they attempted to change course is by honestly assessing what has been going on, recognizing that there are people attempting to obstruct the law and also attempting to change some of the staffing decisions that they have made with regard to heads up, very contentious efforts. And these are the right moves by the Trump administration. I encouraged them to do this actually yesterday on the show. So yesterday, Caroline Levitt was asked about Alex Preddy because obviously Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem had suggested he was a domestic terrorist who was attempting to inflict mass casualties. The same line was trotted out by Gregory Bevino, who is the official in charge of Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis. President Trump was asked about that earlier in the day yesterday, and he refused to give a green light to that description. And so Caroline Levitt over at the White House did the same.

Actor (Merlin Cycle) (18:40)

On Stephen Miller's comments. Will Stephen Miller be apologizing to the family of Alex Pretty for calling him, quote, an assassin who tried to murder federal agents, despite the fact that, as you say, this is still under investigation?

Caroline Levitt (White House Spokesperson) (18:52)

Look, again, this incident remains under investigation. And nobody here at the White House, including the President of the United States, wants to see Americans hurt or killed and losing their lives in American streets. And we mourn for the parents. As a mother myself, of course, I cannot imagine the loss of life, especially losing one's child. And that same empathy from the President goes for the parents of angel families, parents of victims of illegal alien crime across our country as well. And that's exactly why the President continues to be wholeheartedly committed to deporting the worst of the worst criminals from our country.

Ben Shapiro (19:31)

Okay, but the thing she doesn't do there is defend Stephen Miller's language in calling Alex Preddy a potential assassin. Or the language of Gregory Bevino, or the language of Kristi Noem. And then she says what is obviously true. Obeying law enforcement used to be a sort of normally accepted part of American life. This is true, of course.

Caroline Levitt (White House Spokesperson) (19:48)

They have also used their platforms to encourage left wing agitators to stalk, record, confront, and obstruct federal officers who were just trying to lawfully perform their duties, which has created dangerous situations threatening both these officers and the general public and Minnesotans alike. This is precisely what unfolded in Minneapolis on Saturday morning. Obstructing federal law enforcement and incentives, inciting violence against officers is wrong and illegal. This used to be a universally accepted position in the United States.

Ben Shapiro (20:23)

So of course that is true. And Then she added that President Trump is fulfilling the will of the people when it comes to deporting criminal illegal immigrants. Again, notice the focus. Criminal illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants who have committed another crime.

Caroline Levitt (White House Spokesperson) (20:36)

As the duly elected president, the president is fulfilling the will of the people by arresting and removing these threats from our country and in cities from Los Angeles to New York and, yes, Minneapolis. Yet Democrat leaders in Minnesota with sanctuary city policies have actively defied federal immigration law and the will of the people. And as a result of that defiance, two Minnesotans have now tragically lost their lives on the streets.

Ben Shapiro (21:04)

Okay, again, this description is how the Trump administration should have been covering this in the first place. And then she laid out President Trump's path to restoring order in Minneapolis. All of which is the policy that should be followed.

Caroline Levitt (White House Spokesperson) (21:18)

And he has outlined a clear and simple path to restoring law and order in Minnesota. Number one, Governor Waltz, Mayor Fry, and all Democrat leaders should turn over all criminal illegal aliens currently incarcerated in their prisons and jails to federal authorities, along with any illegal aliens with active warrants or known criminal histories for immediate deportation. Number two, state and local law enforcement must agree to turn over all illegal aliens who are arrested by local police. And then thirdly, local police must assist federal law enforcement in apprehending and detaining illegal aliens who are wanted for crimes, especially violent crimes. If Governor Walson, Mayor Frye implement these common sense cooperative measures that I will add, have already been implemented in nearly every single other state across the country. Customs and Border Patrol will not be needed to support ICE on the ground in Minnesota. ICE and local law enforcement can peacefully work together as they are effectively doing in so many other states and jurisdictions. Additionally, President Trump is calling on the United States Congress to immediately pass legislation ending sanctuary cities once and for all.

Ben Shapiro (22:34)

Hey, this is good policy. And this is the policy the Trump administration should be pursuing. They're also again, changing some of the personnel who are in charge of implementing this policy. Instead of essentially leaving this in the hands of Kristi Noem over at dhs, who I think has not done a good job, as I've made clear over and over, or Gregory, Gregory Bevino, who seems to not be PR wise or capable of handling difficult situations like this, he is sending the person who should have been in charge all along the borders are Tom Holman, who since the beginning of this has been the law and order. Let the full investigations take place. We're enforcing the law, guy. Tom Homan has always been the adult in the room on this policy. According to the Washington Post, Caroline Levitt said that Trump maintains full confidence in Kristi Noem, but he is sending Tom Homan to Minneapolis and Homan will report directly to the president. He is taking over from Greg Bevino, the Border Patrol commander who has been the face of the operation in Minneapolis as well as previous forays into LA and Chicago. Levitt said that Bavino will continue to lead operations around the country, but this is pretty clearly a demotion. According to the Atlantic, Gregory Bevino has been removed from his role as Border Patrol commander at large and and will instead return to his former job in El Centro, California, and he is expected to retire soon. That's according to the Atlantic. Again, kind of disputed reports from the Trump administration on all of that. Now, this also comes amid President Trump changing some of his language with regard to, for example, Tim Walls. So yesterday the president put up a statement on Truth Social. Quote, Governor Tim Walls called me with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota. It was a very good call. And we actually seemed to be on a similar wavelength. I told Governor Walz I would have Tom Homan, Colin and that what we're looking for are any and all criminals that they have in their possession. The governor very respectfully understood that. And I was speaking to him in the near future. He was happy that Tom Holman was going to Minnesota, and so am I. We have had such tremendous success in Washington, D.C. memphis, Tennessee and New Orleans, Louisiana, and virtually every other place that we have touched. And even in Minnesota, crime is way down. But both Governor Walz and I want to make it better. President Trump. So that is President Trump being conciliatory toward Governor Walls. Now, yesterday on the show, I recommended that actually he throw the issue in Walls's lap and say, listen, it's our job to enforce federal immigration law. You tell us what we have to do and what you have to do to make sure that federal immigration law is enforced in the most efficient possible way. Since you seem to think that you can both obstruct federal law enforcement and encourage people to obstruct federal law enforcement, the president seems to think that he is going to win over Walls and Democrats more with honey than with vinegar, which is a fair approach. The president then made a similar statement with regard to Jacob Fry of Minneapolis, quote, I just had a very good telephone conversation with Mayor Jacob Fry of Minneapolis. Lots of progress is being made. Tom Holman will be meeting with him tomorrow in order to continue the discussion. Thank you for your attention to this matter. While Tim Walls, for his part, then put out a statement afterward in which he said, quote, governor Walz had a productive call with President Trump earlier today. The governor made the case that we need impartial investigations of the Minneapolis shootings involving federal agents and that we need to reduce the number of federal agents in Minnesota. The president agreed he would talk to his Department of Homeland Security about ensuring the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is able to conduct an independent investigation, as would ordinarily be the case. The president also agreed to look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota and working with the state in a more coordinated fashion on immigration enforcement regarding violent criminals. The governor reminded President Trump the Minnesota Department of Corrections already honors federal detainers by notifying ICE when a person committed to its custody isn't a US Citizen. There's not a single documented case of the departments releasing someone from state prison without offering to ensure a smooth transfer of custody. Now, in a second, we'll get to the lie that is inherent there because there is a lie that is being told by omission in that statement by Governor Walls. But clearly what is happening here is the Trump administration is reorienting toward the better parts of the administration in terms of handling this and trying to de escalate the situation. Whether that de escalation is possible is going to be at least in large part up to the state of Minnesota and the city of Minneapolis. With that said, the Trump administration is doing the right thing by handing more power over to Tom Homan inside the administration. Apparently, this has been a battle brewing internally inside the administration for quite a while. According to Jenny Tayr, reporting for our Daily Wire, there have been dividing lines drawn inside the administration already. On one side, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Border Patrol Commander Greg Bevino, and Corey Lewandowski, a top Trump adviser and temporary government employee who has had a long rumored relationship allegedly with Kristi Noem. On the other side, our borders are Tom Homan and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons. Noem's camp is focused on aggressive and showy tactics, fiery press conferences and Pavino marching through town with a squad of Border Patrol agents in tow and is fixated on increasing arrest numbers home. Inside is focused on the quality of arrest and getting the worst criminals off the street, which they feel is a job best suited for ICE rather than Border Patrol. And again, that split into the open when Noem and Bavino started making statements that were not backed by the facts. With regard to the killings of Alex Preddy and Renee Goode, officials inside nome's own department slammed her rush to judgment. According to to sources who spoke with the Daily Wire. One official said it was a horrible response. Many people I've heard say it was unprofessional. She doesn't know what she's doing. The people in DHS are frustrated with Secretary Noem and the way DHS is handling the media. The employees want a more professional response, not memes and one liners. So I highly doubt that the changes at the top of DHS have stopped. It seems to me that Kristi Noem's in a very vulnerable position given her failures on this topic, among others. And frankly, I think that that's appropriate. I think that she has not done a credit to the president as DHS secretary, which is her job. If you are a secretary working under the president at the pleasure of the president, then you really should be facilitating the success of his administration, not undermining it with photo ops and bad statement. Noem, for her part, seems to be giving up the ghost to Homan. She said on X Monday it's good news for peace, safety and accountability in Minnesota that Homan is going to Minneapolis. Quote, I've worked closely with Tom over the last year. He's been a major asset to our team. His experience and insight will help us in our wide scale fraud investigations which have robbed Americans and will help us to remove even more public safety threats and violent criminal illegal aliens off the streets of Minneapolis. We continue to call on the leadership in Minnesota to allow for state and local partnership in our public safety mission. So again, we'll have to see how far the fallout goes. House Democrats are looking at Kristi Noem for possible impeachment. Apparently they are set to open an investigation as early as next week. Democrats are going to conduct their investigation, according to the Washington Post, without the majority party. They acknowledge they're unlikely to remove Nome in the short term, but they want to signal obviously to their own constituents that they are taking the problems with GNOME and with DHS and with this entire illegal immigration cleanup operation seriously. Which brings us to the Democrats. The Democrats are clearly sensing blood in the water here. They clearly sense momentum. They do, which is why this entire chaos operation run by the Democrats is a disaster area. If you can politically win by obstructing federal law, that is a massive problem. It's a massive problem and it's why the President is right to seek conciliation. But obviously conciliation with red lines. Federal law must be enforced. And if the state of Minnesota and the city of Minneapolis refuse to allow the enforcement of actual federal law, then we have an impasse. I think the president is right to replace Noem with Homan in this. In this position, Homan, again, is the adult in the room. And I think that the president is not wrong to reach out to Walls, but I think that has to be the predicate to an actual conversation with Walls, because Walls is fibbing now. So Walls put out an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal in which he suggested federal officials are lying. He said the Trump administration's assault on Minnesota long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement. It is a campaign of organized brutality against the people of our. Of our state. It isn't just. It isn't legal, and critically, it isn't making anyone safer. Okay? Now, again, the notion this is a campaign of organized brutality against all the people of Minnesota is a lie. It is untrue. And this sort of posturing from Walls is utterly inappropriate. Utterly inappropriate. Immigration law is enforced or should be enforced. There's a duty to enforce it. Under the law by every executive branch head, every president has a duty to enforce immigration law. Just because Joe Biden refused to do it doesn't mean he didn't have a duty to do it. Donald Trump is doing the thing that all these other presidents said they were going to do, and it is, in fact, the job of state and local officials not to get in the way. So what Homan does, he says that he's working with the feds, but he isn't really. He isn't really. Because there is a fundamental lie that is being told here. So Wall says the pretext for all this is the Trump administration's insistence that our immigration laws would otherwise go unenforced. This federal occupation of Minnesota is. Administration officials insist about our predilection for releasing violent, criminal illegal aliens from state custody. I can't stress this enough. The Trump administration has its facts wrong about Minnesota, and then Walls claims. The administration claims that Minnesota jails release the worst of the worst. In reality, the Minnesota Department of Corrections honors all federal and local detainers by notifying ICE when a person committed to its custody isn't a U.S. citizen. There's not a single documented case of the department releasing someone from state prison without offering to ensure a smooth transfer of custody. Yet the lies persist. This week, ICE tweeted that rural Cottonwood county had refused to honor a detainer for an alleged child sex predator. That's not true. The county sheriff followed procedure and contacted ICE when the subject posted bail. But ICE agents were too busy wreaking havoc in the Twin Cities to do their actual job and pick the prisoner up. Some of the administration's claims are ridiculous on their face. For example, it claims 1,360 non US citizens are in Minnesota prisons. The truth? Our total state population in the prisons is roughly 8,000. Only 207 of them are non citizens. And then the administration, he says, published what it claimed was a list of people who have been arrested as part of the ICE sweep, asserting this list represents the worst of the worst criminals, implying we have been protecting them from capture. Minnesota Public Radio investigated and found most had been transferred to ICE custody at the end of their time served in Minnesota prisons. And then he says, everyone wants to see our immigration laws enforced. This isn't what's happening in Minnesota. Okay, so here is the problem. Here is the lie. Yes, it is true that Minnesota, on the state level, the state Department of Corrections honors ICE detainers. But you know who doesn't? In Minnesota city and county jails, they do not honor ICE detainers. So, in effect, Walls is pointing out that if you go to prison having committed a crime and being convicted, then they will honor an ICE detainer. But if they pick you up for sexual assault before you have gone through all of the rigmarole of a trial, they will not notify ice. If they pick you up for an alleged rape, ICE is not notified. And so unless the case goes all the way through to conviction and then time in the jail system, ICE is not notified. Well, there are an awful lot of people who have experiences with law enforcement who don't end up going to jail, who ends up with traffic violations, multiple traffic violations. This is why you'll see people with a record as long as your arm who've been picked up by the police over and over and over, who never ended up in the State Department of Corrections. They never went to actual prison. They were in jail temporarily, and then they posted bail or they were released or whatever it is. That is a much larger number than the number of people who end up in the State Department of Corrections. President Trump and ICE are asking for people to work with ICE to allow for the deportation of migrants who are arrested for crimes. According to CBS News, the jurisdictions of Minneapolis and St. Paul will not hold someone for ice because they say they lack the legal authority to detain people on ICE detainers, which are administrative warrants, not judicial warrants. But that's not true. It happens all over the country. Not only that, the Minnesota Secretary of State, Steve Simon, according to Care11.com has refused all requests for driver records Medicaid data at voter rolls, citing privacy laws. So they're attempting to block fraud investigations, for example, into illegal immigrants. Meanwhile, Keith Ellison, the Attorney General of the state, wrote that DHS's operations in Minnesota were, quote, a federal invasion and cited the administration's fraud claims as a pretext for political targeting because of the viewpoints of the state's leaders. So Walls is attempting to kind of, you know, edge around the reality of the situation. And this is an issue that came up when I was talking with Governor Gavin Newsom of California. He made the same claim. Oh, no, we work with ICE all the time. Well, then what is the point of you being a sanctuary state? What does that designation mean? And the answer is, what the designation means is that they will not work with ICE unless the person is full on in the Department of Corrections. That's what it means. And sanctuary cities will not allow, for example, their police departments to gather immigration data on the people that they arrest, which is a massive problem. It is a huge, huge problem. And it means that people who are repeat criminals are, are in fact being allowed back onto the streets if they don't do actual hard prison time. If there's a plea agreement that ends with house arrest or if there is some sort of fine that is paid, those people just end up back on the streets and ICE is never notified. So this is where the Trump administration is going to have to be careful. Now, maybe they go for the titular victory here. Maybe they say, well, you know, Tim Walls has given up the ghost. He's no longer going to pursue his sanctuary state policies with such alacrity. We seem to have come to an agreement. They look for an off ramp that that's possible politically here. But again, if the message that comes out of this for Democrats is obstruct federal law and get away with it, that is going to be a massive problem. And by the way, that does seem to be what Democrats are aiming for. So it's quite possible here that Democrats win the battle but lose the war. Meaning that if they win the battle against ice, if they get Americans to briefly see ICE as the problem and illegal immigration as a secondary issue, if they get all of that to happen in the, in the short term, that may not be the result in the long term. We saw the same exact thing happen in 2020 when the police briefly were treated as an invading army by the Democrats, and for a moment, the police were wildly unpopular. And then it turns out that when you do that, crime rates radically skyrocket and people get mad and then they don't like the Democrats for that, which is why the Democrats have been underwater on the immigration issue and also on policing for years on end. So Democrats theoretically here could win the battle against the Trump administration in Minneapolis. The but lose the war politically. So again, Democrats seem to want to take this too far. As always, when the pendulum swings, it always swings too far in one direction. Ro Khanna, who wants to run for president for some odd reason, the Democrat from California, he was out there on the streets of Minneapolis pandering. The New York Post is saying this has gone too far. You know, it's gone too far. They've gone too far killing American citizens. I mean, no one signed up for this. No one who voted for him thought they would be killing a 37 year old American nurse. It's tiresome. Again, this is what's so annoying about this situation. Many things can be true at once. The Trump administration is right to want to enforce the law. The Secretary of Homeland Security and the Border Patrol chief botched the handling of bad situations. Democrats have set up a chaos operation to obstruct federal law. And our legacy media and Democratic politicians are attempting to facilitate the obstruction of federal law. Like all those things can be true at once. And also it can be politically advantageous for Democrats, unfortunately. I wish that weren't true. All of that is true. But are Democrats going to go too far? Probably. Probably the only sane Democrat again is, is John Fetterman. Again, I don't agree with Senator Fetterman. When Fetterman says that the operations in Minneapolis should end. But he also opposes, for example, a government shutdown over ice. He put out a statement saying the operation in Minneapolis should stand down and immediately end. It has become an ungovernable and dangerous urban theater for civilians and law enforcement that is incompatible with the American spirit. He says, I believe our nation deserves a secured border and that we should also deport all criminal migrants. I believe there needs to be a path to citizenship. But then he says, I will never vote to shut our government down. And he says, a vote to shut our government down will not defund ICE. DHS already has $178 billion in funding from the one big beautiful bill act, which I did not vote for. I want a conversation on the DHS appropriations bill and support stripping it from the minibus. It is unlikely that that will happen and our country will instead suffer another shutdown. So again, Fetterman is trying to sort of have the baby here. That, that is, that is the, the, I think most sane Democrat position that I've seen articulated, although obviously I disagree, that quote unquote, all operations should end in Minnesota. That's just nullification of federal law. Many more Democrats are going way further than Senator Fetterman. So Governor West Moore, who wants to run for president despite all of his protestations to the contrary, the Governor of Maryland, he supports a government shutdown over ICE funding. The idea that we should have a government shut down, it hurts my state more than any state in the country. But I also know this. We cannot continue to allow of this funding of the 13th largest military force by funding in the world to continue to exist. Meanwhile, Senator Chris Van Hollen says the real domestic terrorists are in the White House.

Senator Chris Van Hollen (39:52)

This has become part of the disgusting White House cover up of these killings. They said the same thing about Renee Goode. They really think the American people are stupid. I mean, we can all see the videotapes. We saw the videotapes with Renee Goode. We've seen the videotape today with Alex Preddy. It is clear that Stephen Miller and this White House are engaged in a cover up. And it's criminal to try to cover up a killing like this. Look, the reality is that the real domestic terrorists, they're in the White House right now. They're people like Stephen Miller, they're people like Donald Trump. They're the ones who are terrorizing the community. These communities having nothing to do with public safety.

Ben Shapiro (40:36)

That's Senator Chris Van Holland of Maryland, who is indeed a stupid person. He is the same person who went down to El Salvador to visit with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, as you recall, a man who was deported, having allegedly committed a wide variety of crimes, including domestic violence against his spouse. So that is Chris Van Halen. Again, Democrats are going to go too far in this direction. That is very, very likely. Ilhana Omar of Minnesota, she of course is going the furthest of anyone. She says ICE is beyond reform. She put out a tweet. Voting no on the DHS funding bill is the bare minimum. Backing Kristi Noem's impeachment is the bare minimum. Holding law, breaking ICE agents legally accountable is the bare minimum. ICE is beyond reform. Abolish it. Right. So some Democrats, the most radical Democrats are going all the way here. Are Democrats going to follow that path? The sort of Zorn mom zonification of their party? I think it's unlikely. Instead, Democrats seem to be coalescing around a set of demands for the funding of dhs. According to Axios, when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer returns to Washington this week, he will have a growing bloc of Democrats demanding significant concessions from President Trump. A group of around 10 Senate Democrats is coalescing around a list of demands for changes at dhs, including requiring warrants for arrests. I assume they mean judicial warrants, not administrative warrants. And mandating that federal agents identify themselves, multiple sources said. They also want to demand that DHS cooperate with state and local investigations into incidents like the shootings of Renee Goode and Alex Preddy. In Minnesota, some moderate Democrats might not be willing to go that far. Presumably that would be Senator Fetterman, for example, who doesn't want a government shutdown. So be interesting to see the Democrats fight it out over what is, quote, unquote, enough for their base on this subject. It is quite possible, as I said again, that Democrats are going to win the battle in Minneapolis but lose the war as Americans actually reject their anti law and order positioning in general. Because there are lots of ugly pictures coming out of Minneapolis and they're not all about ICE or border patrol. Yesterday, local PD had to arrest protesters at a hotel who decided that they were going to vandalize the hotel, break in, harass people. You piece of freedom of speech. Right? People being arrested. Again, this is local pd. Is Minneapolis PD arresting? I, I will say that, you know, one, one thing that we are watching across the country is a. A bored society, a truly bored society with a lot of young people with not enough to do who are spending their days fulminating about basic law enforcement operations and deciding that that heroism requires they stand up in the streets against the allegedly jackbooted thugs. And Democrats facilitating that sort of stuff will end in more violence. It just will. That is the reality. The sort of unhinged language that's being used about law enforcement will end with more confrontations. It will end with more death. And I do not think that that is going to end with the Tom Homan deployment to Minnesota, so long as Democrats see the political gain in attempting to radicalize an entire youth population against law enforcement. Okay? Meanwhile, in cultural news, Kanye west has now apologized for his anti Semitism. In a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal, he basically says what we all suspected about Kanye and some of us ripped up and down for saying it at the time, which is that he suffers from bipolar disorder. And because he's bipolar, he says crazy things and when he's on a manic high, he says things and he can't be stopped. This has always been my take on Kanye West's anti Semitism. It doesn't justify the anti Semitism. But his anti Semitism and his craziness is significantly more justifiable than that of his sane followers. People who are not bipolar who have decided to follow him down that primrose path because they see the clicks and the giggles and all of it. Again, whether you choose to forgive somebody for their actions or not is up to you. Certainly I've always felt that, that Kanye West's mental illness, knowing people who are schizophrenic, knowing people who are bipolar, when people are in the throes of this mental illness, they say and do things that are truly unjustifiable even by them. That is just a reality of life. And recognizing that truth doesn't obviate fighting anti Semitism, obviously. But again, I actually blame Kanye West a lot less than all the people who decided to host him on their podcast and treat him as a sane and rational human being or chop out sections of his schizophrenic nonsense in order to make him appear more rational to a broader population so that when he actually started spewing his Nazi trash, this suddenly seemed legitimate alongside all of his other commentary, or all the people who decided that he had now opened the Overton window to Nazism enough that they were then going to capitalize. I blame those people much more than I blame a bipolar man who has always suffered with significant psychic breaks. Again, I think Kanye is less to blame for this than a lot of the people surrounding Kanye, for sure, who continue to make money off of him and make clicks off of him and all of the rest. His statement in the Wall Street Journal, he says, bipolar disorder comes with its own defense system, denial. When you're manic, you don't think you're sick, you think everyone else is overreacting. You feel like you're seeing the world more clearly than ever, when in reality you're losing your grip entirely. Once people label you as crazy, you feel as if you cannot contribute anything meaningful to the world. It's easy for people to joke and laugh it off, when in fact it's a very serious debilitating disease you can die from. According to the WHO and Cambridge University, the people with bipolar disorder have a life expectancy shortened by 10 to 15 years on average and a 2 to 3 times higher all cause mortality rate than the general population. So the scariest thing about this disorder is how persuasive it is when it tells you you don't need help. It makes you blind, but you're convinced, you have insight, you feel powerful Certain and unstoppable. I lost touch with reality. Things got worse the longer I ignored the problem. I said and did things I deeply regret. Some of the people I love the most, I treated the worst. You endured fear, confusion, humiliation, and the exhaustion of trying to love someone who was at times unrecognizable. And looking back, I became detached from my true self. In that fractured state, I gravitated toward the most destructive symbol I could find, the swastika, and even sold T shirts bearing it. One of the difficult aspects of having bipolar type 1 are the disconnected moments, many of which I still cannot recall, that lead to poor judgment and reckless behavior that oftentimes feels like an out of body experience. I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state. And I'm committed to accountability, treatment, and meaningful change. It does not excuse what I did, though. I'm not a Nazi or an anti Semite, I love Jewish people. Again, bipolar people are bipolar. And recognizing that reality means that, yes, we should have sympathy for them. I have zero sympathy for the people who decided that the worst excesses in which Kanye west was engaging were somehow justifiable or good or brilliant insights. Those people being sane, cynical, and disgusting. That's the part that is truly egregious and unforgivable. Not the ramblings of somebody who clearly has a mental disorder and who has admitted as much. Some of us said this at the time several years ago, I will point out. And meanwhile, speaking of people who are unhinged but like, you know, not crazy, just. Just politically unhinged. I don't know why Democrats have decided that their response to Joe Rogan is an obnoxious white lady who just says crazy shit. It's confusing to me. So Jennifer Welch is apparently the. The hot new thing, I guess. Hold this. Jennifer Welch. I don't think that any of those descriptors actually apply. In any case, here she was yesterday suggesting that white evangelical Christianity is a cancer.

Jennifer Welch (48:07)

White evangelical Christianity is a cancer. These are the worst of our country. These are the worst people in our country because they use their religion in two ways. As a weapon and as a shield. They weaponize it whenever they want to and say, we're on the moral high ground. You're a lesbian, you deserve to die. You're a lesbian. The cops shouldn't have revived you. Oh, your parents are Mexicans and they brought you over here. Yeah, you should go to jail and eat worm food. And then when you call them out on it, oh my God, they're after the Christians. How dare they? How dare they. We're so oppressed. White Christians are so oppressed in this country.

Ben Shapiro (48:51)

God, these obnoxious. Okay, this is a great way to win back men. Great job Democrats. Really excellent stuff that, that seems very, very rational and, and well articulated. If this is the direction Democrats want to go, if this is their, their response, which is to I guess drive harbor into the wine non moms with this sort of, with this sort of appeal, good luck to them on the economic front. Meanwhile, it turns out that Obamacare is a giant fail. So a brand new article from the Wall Street Journal points out that Obamacare has actually now started to cost people more than their mortgage. According to the Wall Street Journal, millions of Americans are starting to see their monthly health insurance bills rise, a new pressure point for a nation still frustrated with the high cost of living. Expanded subsidies again for Obamacare expired on December 31st. Now those newly calculated insurance bills are coming due. Americans are having to figure out how to pay up or go without. So Lenny and Mandy Wilson, who are 47 and live in Charleston, West Virginia, paid 255 bucks a month last year for a low end ACA plan. Last year they learned their bill would be going up to $2,155 a month. That is a sum nearly triple their monthly mortgage payment. So great job. Obamacare again, which continues to have to survive on the basis of federal subsidies and taxpayer dollars. Gigantic infusions of taxpayer dollars. Now will that blow back on Republicans again? This is the beauty of Democratic programs. When you fail, you simply blame lack of spending on the Republicans. Which is why you've seen some Republicans in moderate states call for a temporary revision of the subsidies, at least for a year or two, while other measures are implemented that bring down costs. That's sort of the transitional plan here. Suffice it to say, as always, Democratic subsidized programs end up costing people a gigantic sum of money. And the only way out of it is, is further subsidization. That is the only way. No wonder then that voters feel less and less secure. According to a brand new New York Times Sienna poll. Asked what they feel is affordable, it's sort of fascinating. All of the areas that are most subsidized by the government are the areas that are least affordable, according to Americans. That is not a coincidence. Because every area of American life subsidized by the government, the price has gone up radically. Education, 58% say unaffordable. Housing, largely subsidized by the government, 54% say unaffordable health care subsidized by the government, 47% say unaffordable. When you get to say groceries, 28% say unaffordable, which, again, groceries are up because of inflation, but groceries are plentiful and you can still get them. And again, compared to the sort of cost of food historically, you can get a lot, even though the prices are really, really inflated. Transportation, 22% say unaffordable, as opposed to 47% who say somewhat affordable and 28% who say mostly affordable. So the pressures are all in the areas that the government has stuck its grubby fingers into. And the democratic solution, as always, and this is the mistake that you see Republicans making too, is that government solves that problem. Government does not solve that problem. Government creates that problem. Have a transitional plan and get the government out of these programs. A transitional plan for the people who are in trouble and the people who are reliant on the subsidies. And then create better incentive structures because capitalism makes things more plentiful and cheaper and government subsidization makes things more scarce and more expensive. All right, folks, Coming up, we'll get into the great California wealth exodus. People leaving California because of all of the bad policy over there. Remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member. If you're not a member, become a member. Use code Shapiro. Check out for two months free on all annual plans. Click that link in the description and join us.

Actor (Merlin Cycle) (52:41)

What was it like, Merlin, to be alone with God? Is that who you think I was alone with? Maradin?

Ben Shapiro (52:57)

I knew your father. I am yet convinced that he was.

Actor (Merlin Cycle) (53:00)

Not of this world. All men know of the great Taliesin who are my father. That the gods should war for my soul. Princess Garrus, savior of our people. I know what the bull God offered you. I was offered the same. And there is a new pirate work in the world. I've seen it. A God who sacrifices what he loves for us. We are each given only one life. Singer. No, we're given another. I learned of Yazuv and I have become his follower.

Ben Shapiro (53:41)

He's waiting on a miracle. And I think you can give him one. Trust in Yaasiel. He is the only hope for men like us.

Actor (Merlin Cycle) (53:49)

Fate of Britain never rests in the hands of the great Light. Great light, Great darkness. Such things mattered to me then. What matters to you now? Mistress of lies. You, nephew. The sword of a high king. How many lives must be lost before you accept the power you were born to wield? So clinging to the promises of a God who has abandoned you. I cannot take up that sword again. You know what you must do. Great Light, forgive me. The time has come to be reborn.