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- [00:01]
Ben Shapiro
This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome?
- [00:06]
Marco Rubio
That's new.
- [00:07]
Ben Shapiro
It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block. Or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it, ready to make anything online make sense. There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability various 18 they hate America and they are Winning The Democratic Socialists of America are not hiding the ball. They despise America. Like truly despise America. And now they and their allies are forming a winning coalition, not just in New York, but they hope across America. I'll explain who they are, what they want, and why you should actually be terrified in just a moment. This is the Ben Shapiro Show. So Zoran Mamdani is the captain now. Three New York City congressional seats are now filled by DSA members or former DDSA members. The DSA is the democratic Socialists of America. We'll get to their actual platform in just a moment. In la, another Democratic Socialist of America member may end up as mayor. In New Jersey, a former Al Qaeda mouthpiece allegedly will likely win a congressional seat. In Michigan, a terrorist supporter will likely be elected to the Senate. In Maine, a dude with a literal Nazi tattoo will will likely end up in the Senate as well. The rise of the Hate America crowd is the story here. It's their pitch, okay? It's not a bug, it's a feature. I know a lot of people are saying, no, no, they're winning in spite of all that. Wrong. This is how you win with young people. It's how you signal that you're not part of the machine. Now, again, the seeds of all of this were planted long ago. In 2008, the Democratic Party coalition turned into the Barack Obama coalition. By 2012, the Obama coalition had turned into the Coalition of the oppressed. By 2016, that coalition of the oppressed was turned into the Anti Trump coalition. And now the anti Trump coalition is turning into the Hate America Coalition. Full scale, all masks off now. The seeds were always there. I cite this, this quote a lot from Barack Obama, from his book, his first memoir, because the guy has, I think, three memoirs at this point. Dreams from my father in 2007. I have a bad habit of actually reading political memoirs because it actually tells you a lot about the politicians he wrote. This quote. I have seen the desperation and disorder of the powerless, how it twists the lives of children on the streets of Jakarta or Nairobi in Much the same way as it does the lives of children on Chicago's south side. How narrow the path is for them between humiliation and untrammeled fury. How easily they slip into violence and despair. I know the response of the powerful to this disorder, alternating as it does between a dull complacency and when the disorder spills out of its proscribed confines, a steady, unthinking application of force of longer prison sentences and more sophisticated military hardware in is inadequate to the task. Again, that sentence could have been written by Zoramdani or by Chevalier, or by any of the variety of Democratic Socialists of America candidates. And that is the entire matrix of thinking there is. That all suffering all over the world is the fault of evil capitalist free market systems. And that what you really need is a an America that apologizes for its presence in the world. And that there is some sort of ideological solidarity between gang members on the south side of Chicago who after all are victims of the system and and teens in Jakarta. There was a reason that Barack Obama sat in Jeremiah Wright's church for decades. And that's because he agreed with Jeremiah Wright, pretty obviously. There's also a reason that Barack Obama loves Mamdani, because Mamdani is Jeremiah Wright, except he's much more smarmy and younger and has a better beard. Bernie Sanders almost won the Democratic nomination in 2016, running against the Democratic Party as an open advocate of anti American socialism. He won the youth vote outright. Well, now that Obama Sanders coalition has turned into the Mamdani coalition and it's going to keep getting worse. Here, by the way, is what the Democratic Socialists of America actually believe. This is their new platform. Abolish the Senate, replace the President and the Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to the Congress. Defund completely the Department of War, abolish all prisons, free Palestine, of course, naturally, because and this is the Omni cause. And all complaints about Western civilization must be projected into love for a pseudo state that loves terrorism. Loves it. End sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela and Iran, naturally. Abolish ice, grant amnesty for literally everyone. So open borders, public ownership of all major corporations and remake the elections nationwide. The ultimate goal, a democrat socialist republic. And this is what their official platform now in 2012, the DSA had 6, 500 members. By February of this year, that was over a hundred thousand. By the end of this year. It would be shocking if they don't have at least half a million registered members. Now the thing that you're hearing from all of your sort of left Wing friends and from your legacy media interlocutors is that the dsa, all these Democrat Socialists of America candidates are winning based on affordability. See, they're saying the thing, they just keep saying affordability. Here is the problem. That's not true. It's not true. They're winning primaries not based on affordability. When they get to a general, they might lie that they're running on affordability. But what's winning them primaries is a bunch of white college educated voters. So for example, Dariel Lisa Chevalier, who is a complete psychotic anti American nut job, she won her primary the other night with 32,790 votes. She won 50 to 60% of the votes among younger residents, majority college educated areas and higher income areas. So it was richer younger college educated people. Her opponent, Adriano Aspayat is a sitting congressperson, won about 30,000 votes. And this congressperson won 50 to 55% of the votes among lower income areas and majority Hispanic areas. So again, Chevalier is not winning the low income areas. She is not winning the minority areas. She's winning college educated white people. Chevalier also did not win the public housing precinct espalier 1St. Nick, which is apparently a public housing project in Central Harlem by 40 even as Chevalier won the Greater neighborhood by 30 points. Overall, SB won New York City Housing Authority precincts by 24 points across the district. How about Brad Lander? So Brad Lander is the pseudo Jew who was a member of the DSA and then dropped his membership in the DSA but actually is still a member of the dsa. Basically. Well, it turns out that even Dan Goldman won the public housing precincts by about 20%. Okay, so what do you notice? What you're noticing is that the Democratic Socialists of America is led by over educated white people. That, that, that is what is happening here and you can see it. There's a Pew poll that came out just a week ago showing what the Democratic Party looks like. And what it shows, unsurprisingly, is that membership in the so called leftward Progressives, the people who are the most left wing, the Democratic Socialist crowd, is highest among whites. It is lowest among blacks, unsurprisingly actually among black voters who vote for Democrats. By far and away the biggest group is what you would call order and opportunity. Leftists, meaning people who are still fairly pro free market. People who want some immigration restrictions but don't want total deportation. People who are relatively non socially leftist. And that is the biggest group among all Democrats, but among white people, among white people, disproportionately they are far to the left. But this isn't really a racial thing, okay? This is not about race. It's really much more about age. All right, coming up, Zoran Mamdani and his Hate America crew are getting ready to take over, not just New York, but, like, the whole country. They have a plan. We'll get into it. But first, here's a thought experiment. Imagine printing out your entire browsing history from the last 30 days. Every website, every search, every article, every purchase. Now imagine signing your name at the bottom of it and pinning it to your front door for the whole neighborhood to read. Most people wouldn't do that because that would be incredibly stupid. In fact, most people would probably consider it invasive, unsettling. But online, that happens all the time. Internet providers can see the website you visit? Yes. Even when you use incognito mode. In many countries, they're required to store records of online activity for years. In the United States, providers can legally sell your browsing data to third parties. This is one of the reasons I use Express VPN. ExpressVPN encrypts online activity before it even reaches your Internet provider, meaning providers can't meaningfully see, record, share, or sell your browsing history because they never actually receive it in readable form to begin with. One of the reasons ExpressVPN works so well is that it's simple. One tap on your phone, laptop, tablet, desktop, your connection is secured. Because privacy should not be treated like suspicious behavior. Privacy is normal. Privacy is healthy. But privacy is part of living in a free society. So if you'd like to join me in fighting for the right to privacy, now would be the best time to do it. Because ExpressVPN is now available at just3.49amonth. If you use my special link, you can get four extra months of service at expressvpn.com men that's E X P R E-S-S VPN.com Ben for four extra months of service. So, Zoran Mamdani, he says that they are ready. The DSA is now ready to be the face of the Democratic Party. They're building a coalition, right? And the coalition is. Is going to be national in nature. So here is Zormandani, a career, useless person, an absolute ingrate, a person who hates America as mayor of New York City, talking about how he's ready to be the face of the Democratic Party.
- [09:41]
Zoran Mamdani
I think we can see from each of these candidates that they have exactly what it takes to succeed. And we've heard from Republicans time and again that they're going to try and make these candidates the face of, of the Democratic Party. To them I say that we are ready for that because for far too long we have been told that it is not possible to fight for working people and win. These candidates have shown that they can. Let the Republicans talk about that more.
- [10:05]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, so again he is going to make the claim that this is the face of the Democrat. Ok, so that's the. He pretends about affordability. As I just showed you, it's not about affordability. They're not winning primaries because they say affordability. They're winning primaries because they hate the country. Claire Valdez, who just won a congressional primary, this is the kind of stuff that she preaches in order to win a congressional primary that the nation was founded on genocide. On the Bituation room being a dual national. How does it inform your politics?
- [10:35]
Claire Valdez
Yeah, it's. I think it makes me, it does a couple things I think like it ties me very personally to the fights for self determination and sovereignty, you know, from Puerto Rico to Palestine. I think it's so essential that we're standing in solidarity in those, in those struggles. And I think it makes me think about immigration in a different way. You know, we hear all these, you know, white conservative men talk about who does and does not belong here. And look this, this nation was founded on, on genocide and the mass displacement of people. This is, it's just the history. And to say that some people cannot belong here, it's like, come on.
- [11:18]
Ben Shapiro
Again, they despise the country to say some people don't. I mean if you don't come here legally and if you hate our country, you probably shouldn't be here. Claire Valdez also, by the way, is April 30, she said that she wants to abolish pre check and nationalize the airline industry. And they are just communists who hate the country. This is not some sort of giant secret. They just say the thing out loud.
- [11:41]
Claire Valdez
My hot take is we need to abolish pre check. I've got like a million beefs with the airline industry and the process of having to fly. We need to like nationalize the airline industry. But let's start by abolishing pre check.
- [11:56]
Ben Shapiro
So it's not just Claire Valdez, Darieliza Chevalier, who is probably the nuttiest of these people, which is saying a lot. She was asked if she was a communist on MSNL and she said, well, if by communism you just mean basic kindness,
- [12:11]
Clint Romesha
all sorts of Republicans ads to say this is what you're going to get, if you vote for the Democrats, a communist.
- [12:16]
Darieliza Chevalier
You know, I think that is that framing is one that I've been very proud to be able to say. I don't respond to, one in which I have been very intentional to say. I won't be reactive. We are presenting a vision of what we're fighting for. And I think for far too long, we have had politics that is reactive to what Republicans are doing. We, what we need is Democrats who are actually going to present a positive vision, one that sets the tone for what we should be talking about, which is the issue of affordability, which is the issue of how our budgets are moral documents. For far too long, this reactive conversation of what we should be afraid of has prevented us from being able to have a politics of hope and a politics of life that Democrats can actually identify with.
- [13:05]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, so hope, light, and communism. That's what she's talking about. And of course, she's hiding it beneath all this pseudo academic nonsense jargon that she was taught over at Columbia. We'll get to that in a second. Now, again, this is what they believe. So the question is, how do they form a coalition for victory? Ok, so again, I hear a lot of Americans sighing as they listen. Okay, fines. That's New York. New Yorkers are crazy. We know this. They already elected Zoran Mandani. So they elect a few more crazy Congress people. So they elect a crazy senator over in Michigan, a person who hates America. So what if they elect a person who's an actual mouthpiece for terrorism, allegedly over in New Jersey. It's just a few. Like, there are 435 members of Congress. There's 100 senators, they're mayors all over the country. What's. What's the big deal? So how exactly do they take over? Okay, so I'm gonna show you how they take over, what the actual plan is. So look at this poll data again. This is poll data from Pew Political Typology by age, and it breaks down a bunch of different subgroups within each party. So notice the age bracket 18 to 29, which is again where the Democratic Socialists of America and the Radicals are putting all their focus. Notice that age bracket. 14% of people aged 18 to 29 are what they call leftward progressive. That would be the DSA. 14% compared to 2% of people above the age of 65, demonstrating once and for all that the young always and forever will remain the dumbest generation until they get older. That's how it works. So 14% are basically openly DSA. That represents, by the way, 26% of Democrats and Democratic leaning independents 26%. So over a quarter are basically DSA if you are young and a Democrat. Hey, then how about the people who are the left out left, what Pew calls the left out left, people who are disaffected with the Democratic Party and, and feel angry at the Democratic Party and who are perfectly willing to join the outsiders. 25% of all Democrats under 30 are part of the left out left. Okay, so that represents, by the way, a sheer majority of Democrats 18 to 29 are either Democratic socialists, meaning like actual communists, or people who hate the Democratic Party and are happy to watch outsiders smack it around. That's a sheer majority of Democrats aged 18 to 29. Then you have a couple of other groups among people aged 18 to 29 overall. Now again, overall, 14% of people, not just Democrats, 14% of people aged 18 to 29 are democratic socialists. 19% are people who are disaffected Democrats. Essentially the so called Left out left. 14% of all people aged 18 to 29 are what Pew calls the tuned out middle. These are people who are basically low information voters. They, they don't tend to pay attention to politics. They sort of culturally see it on their TikTok, they listen to Joe Rogan or Theo Vaughn, that kind of, that kind of folks. And then 9% who are the loyal liberals, Democratic Party voters. So the goal here is, and the proposed coalition for Mamdani is the DSA that 14% plus the disaffected Democrats, 19% plus the people who don't pay attention and who voted probably for Bernie in 2016 and then maybe for Trump in 2024, the tuned out middle, the Joe Rogan types, it's like 14%. And then the loyal liberals, right, the people who are sort of the binary thinkers, Democrats who say listen, I don't like all of this, but when it comes right down to it, if I'm forced to choose between Donald Trump and Zormandani, I'll choose Zormandani. That's 56% of everybody aged 18 to 29. That is the coalition they're looking at. And again, it's a youth based coalition because the hope always and forever is that the youth will bleed up into the rest of the population. So let's break down this coalition a little further because it's pretty fascinating. So start with the dsa. Who's leading all of this? Who's leading all of this? Who is the dsa, as we pointed out it is over educated, useless white people. Some of them are white, some are not. But bottom line is this professional, disproportionately white. The professional useless class. They've been manufactured over the last 20, 30, 40 years in university classrooms. They've been majoring in absolute junk. They're unemployable losers who have never held a real job. But they did go to the best colleges for years and then more years, and then they can't get real jobs. So they end up as community organizers or agitators or political aides for crappy candidates who hate the country. The Democratic Socialists of America is a make work machine for college educated losers. That's what it is. And this is who these folks are. Claire Valdez explains to Zoran Mandani, again, another useless person. Zoran Mandani went to a solid college and then he turned into a failed rapper. And that was his entire career path until he was elected to office in New York. He has never held a real job. Never. He's an over educated loser whose father taught at Columbia University and whose mom is a documentarian. He is a. He's a member of the elect in the United States, treating himself as though he's a member of the proletariat, which by the way, is a common theme. If you're looking for the people who lead revolutions, never look at the actual proles. Don't look to the proletariat. Don't look to the people who are working in factories. They're busy, they got a job. The people who always lead revolutions are disaffected pseudo intellectuals who feel disrespected and want to remake systems because they're bored and unemployable. It was true for everyone from Hitler to Lenin. And it's true for Zoran Mamdani as well. And it's true for Claire Valdez. So here is Claire Valdez explaining how she got into politics at Columbia.
- [18:22]
Claire Valdez
That shift happened when I started working at Columbia University. It was a union job. And all of a sudden I had all this time. You know, it was my first proper 9 to 5 job. And that's revolutionary, I think, to so many workers who are used to working two, three jobs and nights and weekends. That's so much power. That power was something that I wanted to help win for other people. It felt like the most incredible gift in my life.
- [18:51]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, so she was working for Columbia University as a useless assistant and she had extra time. She started thinking about politics. She studied painting and art history at the School of Art Institute In Chicago. That's who this person is. Never held a real job, worked at a university again, another make work program for overeducated idiots, and now is leading the revolution. Or take Dariel Lisa Chevalier. She started college in 2008. I want to give you a college history because that way when you hear about her affordability problems, you understand where she's coming from. She started college in 2008, she went to Columbia. She graduated in 2016 with a degree in Middle Eastern studies. Now she is in her seventh year of her PhD at CUNY in Sociology. When I talk about career useless people who have never produced a thing of value, her name just comes right up here. She was explaining though that this created affordability problems with her. Again, the idea that you, you have an affordability problem because the system has failed you when you've been in college or grad school for half of your life is insane.
- [19:56]
Darieliza Chevalier
And as someone who has had to live with the question of whether I can even afford to stay in the city I love as someone who has struggled with this issue of affordability but yet seen time and time again my tax dollars, New Yorker's tax dollars be used to bomb children and families abroad instead of being invested in our communities here. I am tired of that type of politics and I'm running because I believe my community deserves the dignity of a representative who is going to fight tooth and nail for the things that they deserve.
- [20:26]
Ben Shapiro
I have to say Zormandani is absolutely unwatchable. Just the pasted on fake grin everywhere. He's got this creepy joker esque grin every time he appears on your screen. It's really very, very strange. But again, those are the leaders of the revolution, career useless people, pseudo intellectuals, not particularly smart but granted high degrees in useless crap who now have extra time on their hands and they're going to lead the revolution. So that is the core group. 14% of the people aged 18 to 29 and about a quarter of all Democrats in the in the pew poll aged 18 to 29. Alrighty. Coming up, we'll get to disaffected Democrats and how they fold into the Mamdani coalition. Plus we'll be having on recipients of the Medal of Honor to talk about what makes America actually awesome. First, people spend a lot of time these days talking about bringing manufacturing back to America, which don't get me wrong, that's awesome. It's also worth noting the industries that never actually left in the first place. One example, America's beverage companies, the drinks people have grown up with for generations. Sodas, sparkling waters, teas, sports drinks. The companies behind them have continued making those products here in the United States the entire time. Behind all of that are 275,000 men and women across all 50 states showing up every day and doing the real work. These are good paying jobs. Distribution, manufacturing, trucking, production. The kinds of jobs that support families and local communities. For more than a century, America's beverage companies have continued investing here, building here, employing American workers in America's hometowns. In an economy where so many industries moved operations overseas, that actually does matter quite a lot. Learn more about how they're keeping America strong @WeDeliver for America.org Again, that's We Deliver for America.org A lot of industries that left that never happened with the American beverage industries. They've been helping out Americans and obviously giving us the stuff that we like as well. Go check them out right now. We deliver for america.org then you have part two, the disaffected Democrats. Okay, this is where you have a bunch of people in the Democratic Party who are just annoyed with the Democrats.
- [22:21]
Mike Johnson
Why?
- [22:21]
Ben Shapiro
Well, because the Democrats are constantly promising the world and failing to deliver. They yell about Trump, but they don't give you enough. It is very easy, by the way, to campaign from outside a party saying the party doesn't do enough. It works on the right. President Trump did this. It works on the left. The DSA is doing this. So here is the DSA head co chair Gustavo Gordillo saying, we disagree with the Democrats, like we're using them basically. And this is a lot of people are warm toward this because again, they don't like the Democratic Party. They're Democrats, but they don't like it. And so what they're doing is they're weaponizing the disaffected. And again, that disaffected group for people 18 to 29, that is the second, that is the actual largest group. It's like 19% of people aged 18 to 29.
- [23:02]
Gustavo Gordillo
Our candidates run as Democrats. We're on the Democratic Party ballot line. We contest the primaries and when they're in the legislature, they're part of the Democratic Party caucus. But we don't agree with the way the Democratic Party establishment organizes or runs its party apparatus. And so we try to build independence by focusing on volunteer led movement. We think that everyone should be able to be trained and to become someone who can participate in the, in the political process. And we don't really think that Democratic Party campaigns in the establishment are run that way. And I think you know, you really see that difference in, in these, in the races like we're having tonight.
- [23:47]
Ben Shapiro
Again, they hate the Democrats and they are running from inside the party to destroy the Democrats. And a lot of Democrats are very much on board with this. Here is another DSA coach, her name Megan Romer, saying, she's not a Democrat, she's a socialist. We are explicitly socialist. We're not shy about it.
- [24:03]
Claire Valdez
We're not.
- [24:04]
Ben Shapiro
We're not the Democrats. We're like, no, no, no, no, we're not. Stop calling us that. Like, yeah, no, you can call us, that's fine. We're socialists.
- [24:11]
Claire Valdez
It's cool.
- [24:11]
Ben Shapiro
We're not fighting for a kinder, gentler capitalism. We're not fighting to soften the edges. We're fighting to have worker control of every aspect of our lives, of our housing, of, of our workplace, of our communities. Again, they're quite open about this, but the idea is they're going to recruit all the people who are unhappy with the Democrats. Harry Enten points out that this is working. Here he is looking at the polling data, Democrats versus say the dsa, the Democratic Socialists of America have a higher net favor rating than the Democratic Party does. At least those who members of Congress. I mean, just take a look here. Dem Socialists of America plus 17 points. Democrats in Congress plus 4 points. No wonder that Dem Socialists are getting nominated across the political map in different primaries because simply put, they are more popular than the Democrats currently in charge. Again, attacking the party is a very, very good way of winning power. And you can see how kind of more traditionalist Democrats, even very, very left wing anti Trump Democrats. New York Attorney General Letitia James. I told you earlier, the, the anti Trump coalition has turned into the Hate America Coalition. Letitia James literally tried to sue Trump out of existence. That was her entire raison d'.
- [25:21]
Donald Trump
Et.
- [25:22]
Ben Shapiro
And now she's being outflanked by Mamdani. And she said, quote, all of us are a little frustrated with the Democratic Party, but you don't blow it up. That's what MAGA has done. But no, no, no. That's the whole idea. You do blow it up. That is the entire promise. That is the pitch. This is why Zar Momdani says he's not worried about ticking off Letitia James. Here he was with Chris aids. She said she and other political leaders she's spoken to are disappointed in Zoram Mandani. All of us are a little frustrated with the Democratic Party, but you don't blow it up. That's what MAGA has done. What do you say to that?
- [25:54]
Zoran Mamdani
I think what is the Democratic Party, if not its voters? And what we saw yesterday evening were Democrats across the city turning out and voting for a new kind of politics. And I've been clear time and time again that I believe the only majority in our country is that of the working class. And what we saw is that a focus on the working class, whether it's from Claire, whether it's from Dariel Issa, whether it's from Brad, is the kind of focus that New Yorkers want to see. And I have a deep amount of respect for my friend, Attorney General James, and I also believe that these are the kinds of candidates that we need to see in Congress.
- [26:29]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, so, again, running against the Democratic Party is a lucrative political strategy. Okay, fine. Now you have the third group, the people who aren't watching very closely, right? The Joe Rogans or the Theo Vaughns, who are perfectly happy, I am sure, to host members of the DSA and hit them with no difficult questions, but talk about how revolutionary they are and how they are. They are really changing it up politically. No deep questions, no serious policy ramifications. But they do make cool tiktoks. And as long as they're making the cool tiktoks, the inspiring tiktoks, and talking about the problems, which, of course, is the thing that the podcast sphere likes to talk about, they never like to talk about the solutions, but they do love people who will just complain about the problems with the system, because now you're in the know and all the rest of this nonsense. So that is a fairly large group, again, for people 18 to 29, the tuned out middle, that's 14%. And then finally, you have the loyal liberals, right, the. The partisans. And these are people who, if forced to choose between the psychotic left and the Trump right, will choose the psychotic left every single time. This is why the Democratic Party has no systemic immunity to any of this. I mean, they haven't had systemic immunity to any of this for 25 years. Again, the seeds of all this were planted in the Obama era. It's just all coming to fruition. Now. Here's Hakeem Jeffries basically giving up the ghost. You said Mamdani was not the future of the party. Do you regret those statements?
- [27:52]
Hakeem Jeffries
I think the future of the party
- [27:54]
Darieliza Chevalier
is
- [27:57]
Hakeem Jeffries
diverse and is anchored in the fact that we've got candidates all across the country who are running to take
- [28:04]
Marco Rubio
back control of the House of Representatives
- [28:06]
Hakeem Jeffries
so we can end the national nightmare that's taken place. Mayor Mondami has been off to a great start as mayor. We have a good working relationship and that will continue moving forward.
- [28:19]
Ben Shapiro
Again, that the, the kind of traditionalist left, which represents for young people about 9%, the loyal liberals, the Democratic Party voters who will choose, if forced to choose between Nazi tattoo guy and Susan Collins, they will choose Nazi tattoo guy because absolutely, Susan Collins might sometimes vote with Trump. You know, Joe Scarborough, who used to be a Republican, right, a long, long time ago, he, for example, is trying to shy away from the fact that every single one of these New York candidates is preaching pretty much open anti Semitism. And he says, no, no, no, it's really not about them, it's about Netanyahu in Israel. Right. It's sure. If it were Naftali Bennett or Yair Lapid, who was prime minister of Israel, I'm sure that Zaramdani would then be, you know, moderately pro Israel. Probably. This, this is just a terrible take from Joe.
- [29:05]
Clint Romesha
Hearing a lot of people say, talking about the anti Semitism in New York City and last night proved the anti Semitism in New York City. And this is Mom Donnie's fault. This is so and so's fault. And it's this, is this left? No, no, no, it's not. It's.
- [29:18]
Zoran Mamdani
It's really not.
- [29:18]
Clint Romesha
If you want to blame anybody for what happened last night, my opinion, if you want to blame anybody, Jonathan, I think you have to blame Benjamin Netanyahu. Four years of maximalist aims, four years of a historic goals in the Middle East.
- [29:35]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, I'll just point out at this point that's totally wrong on the facts. I mean, the fact is, what is this four years nonsense? Is he talking about like post October 7th? Is that what he's talking about? Just a brief refresher. Israel's attacked on October 7th. Since then, they've destroyed Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Hezbollah also fired thousands of rockets into the north. Israel responded to that. Iran got involved by firing missiles at Israel. So Israel responded to that. And the Houthis in Yemen were firing missiles on Israel, so they responded to that. But it wouldn't matter. I mean, let's be real about this. It's such a silly argument. If you know anything about Israeli politics, you understand that actually Netanyahu right now is being perceived as too moderate. He's being run against from the right by people who are the erstwhile left. People like Naftali Bennett, who's not a leftist. He's sort of a centrist as well as Gadi Eisenkot. But again, none of that matters. It's just nonsense. The reality is obviously Zormandani will remain as anti Semitic and anti Israel as possible. Same thing with Chevalier. Same thing with the rest of these clowns. Okay, but the point here is that all of the normie Democrats will fellow travel with the DSA if they have to. Now there is a problem for the Democrats and this new coalition. It's still not enough when you move outside that 18 to 29 age bracket, right? I told you 56% of all people aged 18 to 29 would be in that coalition I just described. But when you move outside of that age bracket to like the total of all available voters, that coalition starts to shrink pretty radically. Only 7% of all voters in this Pew Research poll would be left or Progressive Democratic Socialists of America. 12% would be disaffected Democrats. 9% would be the tuned out middle, the Rogan Theovan types. 11% would be the loyal Democratic voters. Well, you don't have to be great at math to do the math here. When you total all that up, that is only 39% of the total electorate, which is a far cry from 50%. Why? What does that leave out? Well, it turns out that what it leaves out if you go back to the chart, is one gigantic group of Democrats. In fact, the biggest group of Democrats, that biggest group of Democrats would be the Order and Opportunity Left. The Order and Opportunity Left. Again, the hope for the Democratic Socialists is that the Order and Opportunity Left basically continues to vote alongside the Democrats. If they do, if they were to do that, that would be a huge problem for the Republicans, obviously, because again, the Order and Opportunity Left is by the numbers, the single biggest group among voters. It is 18% of the entire voting base. So if you're able to stack 11 of that 18% on top, they end up with a majority, this coalition. But if Republicans are able to reach out to that Order and Opportunity Left, which is the the place they need to be reaching out to, then Republicans could win. Because again, people who don't hate capitalism but do hate crime, who want the border closed, but are not huge on sort of the immigration rates, who don't love trans politics, for example, that remains the single biggest swath of Democrat leaning people. Now the right has fallen into this idea that this is like the working class coalition. It's about the working class coalition. But notice something, the socialist nonsense that's being promoted by Mamdani is not being supported by the unquote workingclass coalition. What these people actually want is just moderation that's all they want. Meaning they want law and order, they want cops, they want immigration, law enforce, but they don't want raids in their workplace. They want capitalism, but with the rough edges shaved off. Right. That's the stuff that they actually want, probably. Okay, so it's an opportunity for Republicans. The more the Democrats push the left, the more opportunity there is for Republicans. With that said, Mamdani and company pretending away the threat is silly. They have a. They have reached a tipping point. They have enough of the Democratic Party to pose a serious threat to the future of the United States. And they hate the country. And that is their campaign is to hate the country. So how should the GOP react by pointing all of this out? Marco Rubio, back in 2020, again, his family came from a communist country. Here he was back in 2020 talking about Democratic socialism.
- [33:52]
Marco Rubio
The bottom line is that unless the Democratic establishment steals it from them, Bernie Sanders, a Democratic socialist, is going to be the Democratic nominee for president. And that's a really big deal because Democratic socialism sounds benign, but at the core of Democratic socialism is Marxism. And at the core of Marxism is this fake offer that if you turn over more of your individual freedom, we're going to provide you security, we're going to provide you free health care, we're going to provide you free education. But the problem is that when they can't deliver on it or when you're not happy with it, you don't get your freedoms back. And by freedoms, I don't just mean elections. I'm talking about the right to choose your own doctor, the right to make health care decisions for yourself. What your kids learn in school, what schools they go to, all that stuff you lose control over and you don't get it back just because the security they promised you didn't happen. So that's what we're on the verge of having to decide here in this country. It's a reason why people flee countries that have this stuff. It's a big deal for America.
- [34:49]
Ben Shapiro
Well, that is right. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, he points out that Hakeem Jeffries is not holding the line inside the Democratic Party.
- [34:58]
Mike Johnson
Hakeem Jeffries, my counterpart, you know, the Democrat leader here in the House was booed at some of these return parties last night. You saw that on social media and some of the clips when he was being interviewed on the screen. The crowds in New York, in his own backyard in the Bronx, in one of these districts, were booing him. And they shouted, you're next, Hakeem. Jeffries has a tall task ahead of him right now. He's got to go out and somehow make a credible pitch to Democrat establishment donors that that's a good national investment right now. That's a tough one to make. He has just proven that he cannot even hold the line in his own battle backyard. How can he possibly defend against the Marxist march around the country in these other districts?
- [35:38]
Ben Shapiro
And again, this is going to be the pitch by Republicans. President Trump added to this chorus. He says 2028 should be easier because the Democrats are going crazy.
- [35:47]
Clint Romesha
Does this tell you that The Democratic Party's 2028 nominee will likely be or could likely be a Democratic socialist?
- [35:55]
Donald Trump
Well, it should make it easier for Republicans, Republicans, because most of the nation is composed of sane people. They don't want to, you know, if you look throughout history, go back thousands of years, you've always had socialism and communism by different names. It's never, ever worked. It's not going to work this time.
- [36:18]
Ben Shapiro
Yeah, again, the president is not wrong about that. But, but what this does require is for Republicans to look not crazy. Again, this has been my constant pitch. Whichever party is the first to not crazy, land is the party that likely wins. And this brings us to yesterday's hullabaloo that happened with regard to the Trump administration and a housing bill. So, according to Politico, President Trump abruptly canceled the bill signing for major bipartisan legislation on housing affordability on Wednesday. He said he would not support the law until Congress passes his elections bill. Now, again, he's not vetoing it, and if he just doesn't do anything about it, it naturally becomes law within 10 days. Okay, so that's just how it works. He was scheduled to sign the 21st century road to Housing bill on Wednesday afternoon, but he said that, you know, essentially he's not going to sign the bill until Congress rams through the SAVE Act. So what exactly is in this bill? Again, it's got some good stuff, it's got some bad stuff. It's bipartisan, which means that it's kind of a crap sandwich. The good stuff is that it reduces federal regulations, it streamlines environmental reviews, it speeds up the construction process, it expands financing and encourages manufactured homes, and it offers funding to local governments that actually build more housing. So it increases the housing supply. On the bad side, you have the, the dumb populist nonsense about how corporate investors should not be able to buy up single family homes, which, again, we've discussed this on the program before. None of that actually lowers the rent or lowers any of the the housing prices, when you do that, it's just that that's not the way the economy works. It is a marginal part of, of the housing stock, and actually it disincentivizes production of new homes, which is what you actually need. Okay, so there's kind of one dumb part of the bill and then some good parts of the bill. President Trump, for his part, he says he doesn't care about the housing bill. Now, this seems like a political own goal. Why not sign it, make a big deal out of it and say that you're working on affordability. If you really believe affordability is a major electoral issue, you sign it, you make a big deal out of it, and you wave it around instead. The President seems to think that he's got leverage with Republicans to what, destroy the filibuster based on the SAVE act if he doesn't have a signing ceremony or something. So the President put out a statement yesterday. The Elizabeth Pocahontas Warren centric housing bill, which is of minor importance compared to the lower interest rates and even fisa, pales in comparison to passing the Save America Act. That is what Americans, both Democrats, Republicans and everyone else, care about. Get the bad Republicans to approve it, or better yet, terminate the filibuster and approve it and everything else Republicans have ever dreamed of. The Democrats will do it in one hour. 100% Republicans will feel very stupid if they don't do it first. I'll be watching with tears in my eyes. And so he wants them to destroy the filibuster, which of course, you're going to miss it when it's gone. If there's one thing that we have learned about Senate filibuster rules, once the glass is broken, it cannot be unbroken. The President says that he doesn't really care that much about the housing bill. Again, I'm not sure what the purpose of this would be. You finally get some piece of legislation passed that you can wave around and you're like ripping on your own legislation. This just is not logical. It is. It is a political mistake. If the housing bill that you didn't
- [39:20]
Donald Trump
sign today, that came to a destination. I'm not signing the housing bill. I want to see what happens with. Look, the housing bill is housing. I made billions of dollars with housing. I know housing better than anybody, maybe anywhere. It's all about the interest rate. Lower the interest rates, you can have all the housing you want. But you have to understand, I don't want to. I don't want to hurt people that own houses, too. These People for the first time in their lives, they have valuable houses, they become rich. I don't want to hurt them either. What you want to do is what good for everyone. Get the interest rates down.
- [39:57]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, so again, he keeps talking about getting the interest rates down. The problem is we now have inflation and so the interest rates are probably likely to to go up. Well, a lot of this broke out into the open, actually behind closed doors in the Senate. So one of the problems with the President's approach to the Senate is he's alienated a lot of senators at this point. He's attacked a bunch of senators ranging from Bill Cassidy to Thom Tillis. There are a bunch of senators who aren't on board in general with a lot of what President Trump is trying to do. So a bunch of fighting occurred behind closed doors between Republicans and the President. The President was on the right side of some of these fights and on the wrong side of others. I'll say that he's on the right side when he is angry at Republicans who voted along with Democrats to suggest that he has to, quote, unquote, end action in Iran. It's a symbolic vote that doesn't mean anything. It's probably also unconstitutional if carried to its fullest extent. Now, again, what is in the SAVE act that the President is so agitated over? A bunch of stuff that I generally agree with. Obviously, it requires individuals to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when you register to vote in a federal election. So states will not be able to accept a voter registration application unless you actually give that kind of proof. That would require a passport or a birth certificate or naturalization certificate. A real ID card wouldn't be allowed because again, real ID cards can be issued to illegal immigrants in places like California. It adds photo ID requirements for in person voting and photo ID requirements for requesting and submitting absentee ballots. And eligible voters could only register or re register in person without with an election official. So no voter registration by mail or online voter registration or stuff like that. Now, again, I'm in favor of a lot of these provisions. Do I think that we ought to blow up the filibuster over that? Again, you're going to miss it when it's gone. Also, you don't have the votes for it. So Speaker Johnson is coming up with a workaround. His workaround is that we'll shove the SAVE act into a reconciliation bill. And reconciliation is this process that avoids the filibuster by allowing a sheer majority in the Senate to just vote for it. The problem, of course, is that any reconciliation bill, you're going to have people in the Senate who try to strip provisions out of the House version. But this is the Speaker's workaround.
- [41:59]
Mike Johnson
The only path, I think, to get that done, because you're never going to get seven Democrats to join 53 Republicans in the Senate to do that. They will not do it. Chuck Schamber will never vote for that or release any Democrat to do it. You have to put it on a reconciliation bill. We believe that if you create a great grant program that ties it to reconciling the budget and you allow blue states, if they come to their senses and they want to avail themselves of election integrity proposals and ideas and policies, they can draw down from a federal fund and use those funds. We're willing to invest heavily in that. And House Republicans will put together a reconciliation bill, reconciliation 3.0, that will have that. I talked the President through that in detail this morning, as I have in the past, and he said, can we do it? I said, we can if the Republicans will stand together.
- [42:46]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, so, I mean, if they stand together in the House is really not the question. It really is much more about the Senate. Naturally, Democrats used this quasi breach between Trump and the Senate Republicans as an opportunity to smack him. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who again was behind part of this housing bill here, she was on Ms. Now ripping on the President. He is in trouble. And instead of changing his policies, instead of doing what the American people need and want, he's off saying, I'm going to keep a bunch of them from voting. And that's what he's thrown down on. This is Donald Trump trying to subvert democracy because he understands that democracy is not going to be in favor of Donald Trump and the Republicans come November. Okay, so again, I will say I think that all the heartburn on all sides of the SAVE act is wildly overstated. When Democrats suggest that having to show ID to register to vote is some sort of great subversion of democracy, that's an overstatement. When Republicans suggest that the reason that they're losing particular elections, especially after they just won the House, the Senate and the presidency, is because millions and millions of illegal immigrants are voting or some such, that is not the problem. The problem is ballot harvesting, which, by the way, is not stopped by the SAVE act. That is a major problem. But the idea that you have, like, tons of people who are illegally voting, the evidence for that is scanty at best, given the sort of current situation. Again, that doesn't mean it's not a problem or that we shouldn't fight it. But treating this as sort of like the existential crisis in America is just not related to what we currently know about voting procedures in the United States. All right, meanwhile, on the foreign policy front, Mark, Rudy, who's the Secretary General of NATO, he showed up at the White House yesterday. He has a good relationship with the President. The President, I think, was rightly ripping on NATO for their failure to help out in the Iran war and to keep the straight open, which again, I've made the case. And instead of cutting a truly crap deal with the Iranians, what the administration should be doing is simply saying, listen, we did what we wanted to do in Iran. We destroyed their nuclear factories, we buried them under rubble. We went after their ballistic missile facilities. We already destroyed their air force and their navy. And you know what? We don't care about the strait. The strait is your problem. I actually think the President was right about that to a certain extent. You know, I think in the best of all possible worlds, I think we just open it up by force. But if we're not going to do that, we're better off walking away and saying to the Europeans, listen, you guys need their oil way the hell more than we do. Chinese and Japanese, you guys want to go in and work with the Iranians. Your problem now, in any case, the President is not wrong that our allies did nothing for us when it came to Iran. They just said a bunch of words.
- [45:22]
Donald Trump
But I was disappointed. I was disappointed with Italy. I was disappointed with the UK he's now gone and you know, he had a lot of problems, but we were disappointed with the UK we were disappointed with Germany and France. We're disappointed with most of them. Spain is a horror show. Spain is terrible, even from your standpoint. I mean, they don't want to pay anything. They think they're in for a free ride. Spain is not a. Not a good group, not a good group at all.
- [45:51]
Ben Shapiro
So again, I do not blame the President for being really upset about all of that. I think that he is right about all of that. He says, listen, some loyalty would be nice. We're always fighting for them, which of course is true. And also the President, you know, he did try to take Greenland from Denmark and such. So, you know, it's a mixed bag, shall we say? You want the allies to do more than what they are doing right now. Do you want to ask?
- [46:16]
Donald Trump
I just want their loyalty. We don't need their money. We don't need anything. We have the most powerful military in the world by far. But But I just want loyalty. You know, we're so loyal to them. We're always fighting for them. We have thousands of troops all over Europe. In Germany we have 50,000 troops. And then you want a little, give us a little nudge, give us a little kiss. We don't want much. And they say, no, we can't do it. We're paying hundreds of millions of dollars for the troops that we have in Germany, the troops that we have in uk the troops are with, have all over, all over Europe.
- [46:52]
Ben Shapiro
And so again, he's not wrong about all of that. That, that part is absolutely true. Now, the Secretary General, he's trying to claim that NATO was supportive because American planes were taking off from European bases. But I mean, we basically pay for those European bases. I don't know.
- [47:09]
Hakeem Jeffries
I know there have been debates about whether your allies in Europe were with you enough. I just want to say one thing which is. Yeah, but let me say one thing which is. I know you think, but let me. And I know about the, let's say
- [47:22]
Zoran Mamdani
your
- [47:24]
Hakeem Jeffries
irritation about that. But when you look at the numbers, four to 5,000 U.S. planes taking off from bases in Europe in the six weeks this war took place, still the ceasefire took place mid April Bucharest. The airport in Romania, it had to close for commercial traffic because they had to make sure that you were able to send the tanker aircraft up in the air. So this is what I know there have been isolated cases about which you are really disappointed. But generally speaking, your European allies have been there with you. I really want to make the point. Four to five thousand US planes taking off from European air bases.
- [48:05]
Ben Shapiro
Now, again, whatever you think about our relationship with NATO, I will say this. The President going out of his way, Mark Rudy too, to talk about helping Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who's the dictator of Turkey, who is an Islamist who supports actual terrorism all over the region. The, the infiltration of the Turkish point of view into American foreign policy is disastrous. Turkey, Qatar, they are working at cross purposes with the interests of the United States. Now we are talking about giving them F35 parts, which is nuts. I'm sorry, that's crazy. Erdogan openly, openly talks about expanding the reach of the old style Ottoman Empire throughout the Middle East. He openly talks about this. This is not like some sort of hidden secret. He is openly allied with Russia. The country holds Russian S400 air defense systems. They support Hamas openly. And the President was praising them yesterday, like, this is just a misread.
- [49:04]
Clint Romesha
Are you going to Turkey with a big Gift bag for Erdogan?
- [49:07]
Donald Trump
Yeah, I think so. Look, he's a member of NATO. Some people don't consider himself, but he really is. He's a strong member of NATO. Yeah. I'm going to probably do something that's going to make him very happy.
- [49:19]
Hakeem Jeffries
And Turkey.
- [49:20]
Donald Trump
Tell him hello, right? Tell him hello. He's a good man.
- [49:22]
Hakeem Jeffries
And Turkey has a huge defense industrial base, 3,000 companies working all on over the alliance, also in the United States.
- [49:28]
Donald Trump
So strong people don't know how big Turkey is in terms of the military. It's a very strong. They have a lot of our equipment. A very strong military. Because of him.
- [49:40]
Ben Shapiro
Because of him. Because of the magic of Erdogan. Again, the mystery of Erdogan is astonishing here. Not the only Middle Eastern misread, of course. The attempt to tie Lebanon into the Memorandum of Understanding on Iran has been fully disastrous. It's a disaster area. According to Reuters, Lebanon and Israel began a new round of talks on Tuesday in Washington. And the talks did not go amazing. And the reason they didn't go amazing is because Lebanese government was working with the United States government and with Israel in order to extirpate Hamas, Hezbollah, which is an Iranian terror group in Lebanon. And that was going really well. Marco Rubio was brokering all of that. Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, he said that the hope was that the Lebanese government would be able to control more of their own territory and then Israel could withdraw from that territory. And here was the Secretary of State yesterday with what was supposed to be the goal here.
- [50:28]
Marco Rubio
The only reason Israel is in Lebanon is because Hezbollah launches rockets and drones from there. They've made that clear. And we have the talks continue today. They started yesterday, they're going on today, they'll go on tomorrow. And that's exactly what they're talking to the Lebanese about with our mediation. And that is our hope that the Lebanese Armed forces, the legitimate sovereign Lebanese government for, will continue to be able to control and secure more and more of their own territory, because that's who needs to control Lebanese territory, not a terrorist group like Hezbollah. So that's the goal. And I think the Israelis have been clear. They don't have any quarrels with the Lebanese people. They don't have any claims on the territory of Lebanon. The reason why they're involved there is because the territory of Lebanon is being used to launch drones and missiles against Israel. But the more of that area, the Lebanese area armed forces is able to secure, the less of it's in Hezbollah's control, the less Israel will be in Lebanon.
- [51:20]
Ben Shapiro
Again, the Secretary of State is correct about all of this. One reporter tried to claim that Israel acting against Hezbollah somehow undermines President Trump's deal with Iran. Here is the Secretary of State rejecting that. Do you believe, as some elements of US Intelligence have assessed, that Israel is interested in undermining the current.
- [51:39]
Marco Rubio
I don't know what you're talking about. Well, but it's being reported. I don't know where you're getting that stuff from. We're working on this. The Israelis are exactly know what we're working on. All of our partners in the region are what we're working on. Everybody understands what the President's red lines and positions are on this. I don't know what reports are referring.
- [52:03]
Gustavo Gordillo
Are you going to.
- [52:05]
Ben Shapiro
Now, again, it's two separate. It's two separate tracks. Rubio's track is the right track, and then the Vice President's track is the wrong track. The Vice President is trying, because of the threats of the Iranians, to wrap Lebanon into the Iranian portfolio, which totally destroys any possibility of any actual real deal between Lebanon and Israel. Because if simultaneously Israel and Lebanon want to destroy Hezbollah and the United States is telling them not to do it because we're trying to appease the Iranians, and that's not going to work. And so at a certain point here, we're going to have to make up our mind what we want. Now, again, the President's rhetoric with regard to the MOU is, is divorced, shall we say, from the realities on the ground. So the President yesterday said that he would block any deal that included fees on shipping. I mean, I hate to, I hate to break it to Everybody, but the MoU explicitly says that after 60 days, there will likely be fees on shipping that Iran and Oman will be. Will be working out, essentially transit fees, which are, which are just tolls. Would you block a final Iran deal if including any kind of fees on shipping or maritime equity?
- [53:08]
Donald Trump
It would be unacceptable to me because we have numerous straits. And if you did that for them, you'd have to do it for other people. You have other straits. I wouldn't allow it there either.
- [53:17]
Clint Romesha
Yeah, it would.
- [53:17]
Donald Trump
It would be a game changer.
- [53:21]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, so I'm just going to point out that literally this morning, the IRGC was announcing via the radio that vessels could not transit without their permission. So this idea of the United States is in control of the strait is not true. It is not true in the slightest. And the fact that they are keeping it open so they can ship out their oil and enrich themselves, which is the way they're. They're building back up. And we waived a bunch of sanctions on them. We never should have waived. And that's how they're enriching. It's not that we're unfreezing all of their funds this moment, although we are unfreezing some of their funds supposedly to buy soybeans or some such, which, which will immediately, by the way, be stolen and then sold by the irgc. And all of this is misbegotten. Here is actual footage of the Iranian Navy announcing that their vessels are going to stop any vessels that try to trans without permission.
- [54:06]
Donald Trump
Attention all vessels. Attention all vessels. Attention all vessels in Persian Gulf and Oman Sea. This is second Navy warning. Transiting in strait aformals is only possible with SEPA Navy permission and undesignated routes. If any vessel attempt to transit in the strait without our permission or AIs off or outside of the designated route, it's responsible for any consequences of any danger. This is 780 out.
- [54:40]
Ben Shapiro
Again, they're, they're openly announcing that they control this stuff. It's just dunk after dunk. At a certain point, we're gonna have to change our, our attitude and our approach on all of this. It's just gonna be a thing that has to happen because reality is going to intervene. Alrighty. There's no better way to celebrate America's 250th than to take some time to thank and appreciate our veterans. Joining me on the line is Clint Romesha. He's a former army staff sergeant, combat veteran, Medal of Honor recipient, and Pure Talk brand ambassador. And today he continues to advocate for, for veterans and serves as a board member for America's Warrior Partnership, working with Pure Talk to support the veteran community. Clint, thanks so much for taking the time. Really appreciate it.
- [55:16]
Clint Romesha
Oh, Ben, thank you so much for having me today.
- [55:18]
Ben Shapiro
So obviously you were awarded the Medal of Honor. There's no higher honor in the United States. Tell that story.
- [55:25]
Clint Romesha
You know, being called a hero is always kind of an interesting thing, Ben, because for me, like true heroes are those that don't come home. We lost eight great men that day. And to give a quick snapshot, it's 2009, Afghanistan. We're at a combat outpost feeding 50Americans, two Latvians. Six o' clock in the morning, we get hit with 300 Taliban fighters. Odds are not in our favor. What ensues out of that is a 15 hour firefight. Again, like I said, we ended up losing eight amazing men. But yet it's kind of weird when you kind of go through combat, how much love you see for your. Your fellow soldiers to your left and right. As kind of the dust settled on that outpost because it set in such a vulnerable spot, the military deemed it a indefensible position. But I can tell you this. I got to watch 50Americans defend the indefensible. And it wasn't because of politics or any of that. It because they loved each other so much and the enemy hated us. And it was that love overcoming and knowing you have someone to have your back thick and thin when you have the uniform on. And more importantly, when you take the uniform off, you still have those that are always going to have your back.
- [56:35]
Ben Shapiro
So, you know, your specific actions obviously ended with you being awarded the Medal of Honor. What. What was that day like for you on a specific level?
- [56:42]
Clint Romesha
You know, for me, it was. It kind of sounds weird, Ben, when I say this felt like the first day I did my job in the military. You know, we always growing up, you know, you think I grew up. My dad was a Vietnam vet. My granddad in World War II, grew up in the 80s. You think of war heroes and stuff as Chuck Norris and all these combat action videos, but it was really a sense of just doing your job. And for that day, it felt like I got to do it. And it was leading guys. You know, at one point, the enemy had breached our perimeter, was inside our wire. We knew that there was guys that were cut off, isolated. We had no idea if they were alive, dead. And the big fear became, you know, thinking about coming back home and having to tell a Gold Star family, I didn't bring your son home. So initially it was leading a group of guys to go counter attack. The enemy that had us outnumbered, had us outgunned, pushing them off our ammo supply points so we could continue to fight because we were running out of ammo, shut the front gate so they couldn't just keep pushing in on us and then go into recover those fallen heroes so the enemy couldn't get them. It was kind of one of those surreal things where you're kind of just living life by the moment, but you're also understanding that, you know, we. We don't need to win this here now. We just need to take those steps. And that's really what it was for me that day was to break it down. Here's the first thing we need to do. If we can accomplish that, we can take our next step. And like I said, that was initially getting guys to believe in me, to follow me when I asked them to basically go on a, what was potentially going to be a one way mission of counterattacking an enemy that had us outgunned 8 to 1 odds that had us, you know, out, you know, just outmanned, out, situated, outmaneuvered. They had the high ground. There was no place you could be outside where you weren't exposed. But they trusted enough in me to follow and I was just so proud to be along their sides to be able to provide that support again. It just goes back that that's what I think we do as Americans. So often we don't realize the potential we have and it does take kind of some of these over the top things to really unlock that and challenge us. And we just continue to see it time and time again. What impressed me was the 18, 19 year old kids, guys like Copas, 19 years old, he was the only young left in the fight on our defensive perimeter. He's setting him a Humvee for 15 hours, most of the time by himself, holding the whole eastern side of the camp on lock with his mark 19. No one would have blamed him for saying, hey, I need to displace and abandon this position. But that kid did it that day, so proud of him. And now he's a guidance counselor out in Cleveland, Ohio for a high school. What he's done after life has been amazing.
- [59:25]
Ben Shapiro
So let's talk about that transition back to civilian life. So obviously we hear all the time about how difficult it is for a lot of veterans to transition back to civilian life. Being from the firefight back into, you know, what we would normally consider normal life. How does that transition go and, and how is it that America's Warrior partnership helps out?
- [59:46]
Clint Romesha
You know, each veteran, you know, we look at them kind of overall as a mass, you know, we understand they have certain difficulties, but really it comes down to 1v1. Each veteran has their own unique experience. And as you make that transition, one of the biggest things we've noticed is just that, that lent that loss of kind of self identity. You're part of something bigger and then all of a sudden you're out. The guys like I can still tell you to this day what Razz's feet smell like. They're freaking ranch corn nuts. Like you're so embedded with these guys and you know them so deeply and then when you take that uniform off, the next day they're gone, they're half a country away. And losing that kind of sense of identity and connection really kind of makes it hard for veterans to kind of trust in going out and experiencing something that many of them haven't done. That's one thing in the military, as a leader, you're trying to tell your soldiers what to do. Because, you know, leaders always lead from example, lead from the front. But that's the first thing you do as a leader in the military that you've never done, that you're trying to lead your, you know, give your guys advice on. And so when a lot of them get out in the civilian world, most time they just don't know what they don't know. And that's where America, where partnership steps in. And we've understood like, there's so many great nonprofit veterans out there that specialize in certain things. We don't need to reinvent the wheel, but we need to know these veterans and we need to plug them in with those, you know, those opportunities, those earned benefits, help them navigate the va, help them write resumes, help them find proper employment. Not just hiring veterans to hire veterans. That's one of our great initiatives is if you know a vet televote, there's what, almost 16 million veterans out in the, out in the U.S. we need to know all of them because each and every one of them are very unique and the challenges they face
- [61:37]
Mike Johnson
when
- [61:37]
Ben Shapiro
it comes to you personally and reintegrating into civilian life, obviously a lot of people struggle to find a purpose after experiencing what for a lot of folks would be sort of the height of camaraderie and the height of you sort of visceral experience of life. How did you find purpose coming back?
- [61:55]
Clint Romesha
For me, it was, you know, I got up to North Dakota, I started getting work in the oil fields. And for me, I'd understood that even though my time in the military was precious and I will never, you know, never have that taken away from me. That's not who I was going to always have to be. And I had the mentality that when I got out, the only thing I was ever owed was the opportunity to prove myself. And I knew I had to start from somewhere and just prove it. And like I said, I didn't know what I was actually going to be doing in the oil fields. And I went from low man on the totem pole to managing eight hydro excavator trucks, learning how to be a safety guy. But it was those tools the military gave me that so many veterans bring to the table. We just don't know how to convey that, how we can convey, hey, we've got initiative in the absence of orders we know what wrong looks like and we can confront it. We have tact to be able to talk to various different, you know, people from around America. Those are those soft skills that you kind of take for granted. Getting out of the military into the breakdown of communication, that's what was hard for me. I was thinking to myself, my first job, it's like, okay, I'm a reconnaissance guy who's going to hire someone that can grow, throw 60 pounds on their back, run up and down mountains, shoot a weapon. I could be maybe a mall security cop at best. But it was really those small things, the attention to detail, rules and regulations, enforcing standards, being a team player, those are what got me through. And more importantly, it was two other veterans I worked with that mentored me in my journey because they had been through it, and that was a critical thing. That's what helped me.
- [63:31]
Ben Shapiro
So, you know, obviously Pure Talk has partnered with America's Warrior Partnership in order to help veterans. Maybe you can talk a little bit about what that partnership looks like and why it's so important for people to support it.
- [63:41]
Clint Romesha
You know, PeerTalk's been an amazing partner with America Warrior Partnership, the roundup that they've been doing with their customers. I mean, so many, so many Americans always come up and, you know, want to thank you for your service. And they, I know I didn't serve, but felt like it should do more well. Service the country doesn't have to come from wearing the uniform. It comes from showing up and doing what you can. And I think to date right now, just with the roundup of the customers from PureTalk have been doing, has raised almost $750,000 for America's Warrior Partnership. It's been amazing. One of the other great things that has came out of the partnership with PeerTalk and AWP is one of our initiatives known as Deeds Not Words said that there's so many veteran nonprofits out there, there's a lot of resources available for veterans, but there's always those one offs that they come against the challenge and there's nothing to really fill the gap. One example real quick was we had a veteran that had got into a new work opportunity, was trying to pursue that, and he needed $300 to buy the tools to get to his new job. So he's trying to come off his disability, trying to improve himself. He didn't have the $300 for these tools to work this new job that was going to lift him up. And Deeds, Not Word stepped in. And it's great to see those Americans that will step in, like peer talk and the military leadership that they come out of to say, hey, sometimes we need to do something, not just talk about doing like let's, let's make action when others talk about action. And that partnership between PeerTalk America, Warrior Partnership and all of those that are supporting it has been just hands down so amazing.
- [65:22]
Ben Shapiro
Well, Clint Romesha, former Army staff sergeant and a Medal of Honor recipient, thank you so much for your time. And obviously thanks so much for your service and everything you continue to do for America's warriors today. Really appreciate it.
- [65:35]
Clint Romesha
Thank you so much, Ben.
- [65:37]
Ben Shapiro
All right, folks, the show continues for our members right now. We'll get to Larry David ripping on the UFC fight at the White House and a supposedly nonpartisan documentary series coming out on Netflix about the American experiment. I have some questions. It's all that in a moment. First, if you're not a member, become a member right now. Use code Shapiro. Check out for two months free on all annual plans. Click that link in the description and join us. We have a terror warning in Northern Virginia.
- [65:59]
Marco Rubio
Radical Islam has designs openly on the West.
- [66:01]
Ben Shapiro
The FBI thwarted a terror plot on New Year's Eve. Violent attack over the Halloween weekend in Michigan.
- [66:07]
Clint Romesha
Protests on college campuses showing no signs of stopping.
- [66:47]
Donald Trump
Sa.
- [67:12]
Darieliza Chevalier
Sam.