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- [00:00]
Ben Shapiro
We'll get to more on this in a moment. First, there are certain purchases that should be simple. Somehow they still feel stuck in another era. Window treatments are one of those things. You decide you want new blinds or shades, and suddenly you have to schedule an appointment and wait around for somebody to show up. And you sit through a sales pitch and then you brace yourself for a gigantic quote. Well, you know, there are a lot of home projects that are like this where you think you're fixing a light bulb and it turns out that you have to repair all of the electrical sockets in your house or something. Well, you don't need that. At least not for your window coverings. This is why I trust blinds.com. blinds.com lets you shop for custom window treatments online, but still gives you access to professional measuring and installation services if you want them. And honestly, that right there, that's the sweet spot. If you're the kind of person who knows exactly what you want, you can build a quote online in minutes. If you'd rather get some guidance, they will offer virtual design consultations on your schedule instead of making you wait around all day for an appointment. They'll also send samples directly to your door so you can compare colors, textures, materials in your actual home before you make a decision. Blinds.com carries everything from traditional blinds and shades to shutters, bamboo shades, outdoor shades for patios, and more. They've been around for 29 years. They've covered more than 25 million windows, making them the number one online retailer of custom window treatments. Plus, every single order is backed by their 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you're not happy, they'll make it right. Right now, blinds.com is giving our listeners an exclusive $50 off. When you spend $500 or more, just use code SHAPIRO at checkout limited time offer rules and restrictions apply. See blinds.com for details.
- [01:23]
Shannon Maldonado
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- [01:52]
Ben Shapiro
so much for that. Iran US memorandum of understanding. So yesterday, Iran fired on ships in the Strait of Hormuz. And last night, the United States responded by striking some 80 sites in Iran. And then this morning, President Trump declared that the memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States is effectively dead. I, for one, am totally shocked by. Well, I mean, I'm not. Since I said literally the first day that the MoU was a mistake and that it would fail. That's not because I'm smart. That's because there's this thing, it's called reality. And it doesn't stop existing just because we wish it didn't. Islam exists. We, the west, are not like them Iranian mullahs. And this has consequences. In just a second, I'm going to explain why that MoU was destined to fail from the beginning. What the west gets wrong about Islamic and what comes next. This is the Ben Shapiro Show. Well, in the least surprising news since Rosie o' Donnell came out as a lesbian, the United States resumed what it called powerful strikes on Iran last night after the Iranians began harassing ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Again. According to cnbc, the United States began a series of powerful strikes against Iran on Tuesday in retaliation for Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz. According to centcom, tensions have been rising since Iran attacked vessels moving through the strait earlier this week, with the United States also revoking a sanctions waiver on Iranian oil. Earlier on Tuesday, CENTCOM put out a statement via X explaining the strikes that they had committed. Well, U.S. central Command forces have begun launching a series of powerful strikes against Iran to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway. US Strikes are in response to Iranian attacks on three commercial vessels that were transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's demonstrated aggression was unwarranted, dangerous and a clear violation of the ceasefire. Well, again, there was no actual real ceasefire that was going on given the fact that Iran has been routinely harassing ships in the Strait. And the United States has also fired back against Iran for doing precisely that, while Iran has also been warning ships in the Strait of Hormones. We played you the audio on the show for several weeks at this point. Here is some more of the audio that FOX News played yesterday.
- [04:12]
Iranian Navy Radio Operator
This is the last morning. This is last warning. This is last warning. You are running danger. Don't put your life in danger. You are ordered all turbos to force us immediately. All turn force, support us immediately and use the south of lar to exit. If you disobey, you will be Targeted. This is the Navy out.
- [04:37]
Ben Shapiro
So they're not being shy, and they haven't been shy. They are in control of the Strait of Hormuz, and they are going to continue to maintain they are in control of the Strait of Hormuz. Well, because of all of that, the United States restored sanctions on Iran. According to the New York Times, the the Trump administration on Tuesday revoked a waiver allowing the sale of Iranian oil after three tankers were attacked in the Strait last month. The Treasury Department had issued a general license allowing Iran to produce, sell and deliver oil for two months. That exemption represented a major shift in America's approach toward Iran, which has been heavily sanctioned for decades. And we talked about it at the time, pointing out that if that had been made permanent, then Iran could have been able to reshape its economy. Now, the reality is that a temporary waiver on sanctions did not actually allow for markets to adjust. People were still not buying Iranian oil because they thought the sanctions would go back on, and they did not want to be tied into contracts with Iran that would then make them subject to snapback sanctions. For example, the license that was issued, according to the New York Times, by the Treasury Department in June was designed to give Iran greater access to American currency, and it allowed American importers to buy Iranian crude oil. But it turns out that nobody really wanted to do that. Well, President Trump then came out and he said, essentially, the deal is over. Here he was this morning at the NATO conference in Ankara, Turkey, saying, we attacked very powerfully last night.
- [05:56]
Donald Trump
We attacked very powerfully last night. The very dangerous people from Iran, they're sick. There's something wrong with them. We said, go and do your funeral stuff. And instead of that, they start shooting rockets at chips yesterday. And so we hit them very hard last night. Very hard. I would say 20 to 1, 20 times tougher. I told them, every time you hit, we hit. And of course, they're dirty players. So they. They go after everyone, probably including me. I've been number one on their list for years. And they're a bunch of scum. You want to know the truth? They're scum.
- [06:41]
Ben Shapiro
As the president seems to have had enough of all of this. The president then said about the memorandum of understanding, as far as he is concerned, is over. Is the ceasefire done?
- [06:54]
Devon Murphy Anderson
Is the MOU dead?
- [06:57]
Donald Trump
It's a very interesting question to me. I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them anymore. They're scum. You know what scum is? They're scum. They're sick. People. They're led by sick people and they're vicious, violent people. And if they had a nuclear weapon, they'd use it. As far as I'm concerned, it's over.
- [07:20]
Ben Shapiro
Okay? So again, we've now swiveled from their very reasonable and rational people to their very sick people. He is right now, and he was right before and he was wrong in the middle. Here's President Trump saying that the Iranians want to assassinate him and we have to rid the world of their cancer. Again, this is correct.
- [07:38]
Donald Trump
We took out their first set of leaders. We took out their second set of leaders. They want to take out the US Leader. Me, I'm on every list. I saw things this morning. I'm on every single one of their lists. And so far, I guess I've been a little bit lucky. But that maybe doesn't last very long because that's the way it goes. But we have great people, but these are evil sick people and we have to rid their cant cancer that cancer. And you know what you do? You got to cut out cancer early, man. That's the way I feel.
- [08:10]
Ben Shapiro
Folks, in a second, we're going to get to how we got ourselves into this sticky situation. First, when we started Daily Wire, it was very, very small, a couple of shows, very small staff out of a pool house. And now it's a very large company with merch and books and clothing and tumblers and all that. Well, the daily wear shop has grown over the years because we've made it easy for people to find what they want and actually complete their purchase. And that's where Shopify comes in. Shopify Checkout helps more customers finish their purchase. And when they come back, their information is already saved. One tap and they're done. That's always a satisfying sound. The best part is that Shopify handles the infrastructure so you can focus on building whether you're selling merch, books, artwork, products nobody else has thought of yet. Shopify removes the friction between having an idea and actually making a sale. Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, from companies like Mattel and Gymshark to businesses that are just getting started with Shopify. Nothing stands between your idea and a real business. So go make it one. Start your free trial@shopify.com Shapiro that's shopify.com Shapiro to start your free trial today. Again, shopify.com Shapiro go check them out. We've used them for years. You should use them as well. Shopify.com Shapiro okay, so let's take a step back for just a second. How do we arrive at this particular impasse? Well, we in the west keep making a pretty large scale mistake. We assume that Islamic actors in the Middle east are just like us. They want the same things for their kids. They want the same ends. Human flourishing. Right. That's what we want. That's what they want. We all just have different roads to get there. Wrong. If you're going to sit down and negotiate with somebody, you need to understand them. You need to understand their worldview. And you have to be very, very clear eyed about the differences between their worldview and our worldview. And if you don't, you are likely to walk away with a bad agreement that isn't really an agreement at all that ends in missiles and tears. So let us begin with the Western worldview. What is our worldview, the way that we operate in the world? Well, we here in the west are what Harvard professor Joseph Heinrich has referred to as weird. It's an acronym. Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic, Weird. Right. We are committed to a different set of values than cultures all around the world. We're weird, Right. That is not the norm. It's not what everybody thinks. It is what we think. Those values are naturalistic outgrowths of our Judeo Christian heritage. They did not come from nowhere. They came from originally the Old Testament and then the New Testament and then church. And they make us different from other cultures. So what are some of those values that make the west different? Well, some of those values are things like analytic thinking. And by the way, this is not rooted in some sort of theorizing. This is rooted in actual testable hypotheses about how people in the west think about problems, for example, and how people in, say, the Islamic world think about problems. So we in the west, we like analytic thinking. We like to break problems down and then strip them of context in order to solve them. Other cultures see problems holistically. They look at relationships between problems as sort of the key to life. So, for example, we may see the closure of the Strait of Hormuz as an isolated problem with an isolated solution, right? We pay a little bit of a bribe money and the Iranians let it go and everybody goes home happy. The Iranians don't see it that way. They see the Strait of Hormuz as a problem that is part of a larger interwoven series of problems. They see it as part of their global conquest strategy connected with everything from shooting protesters in the streets of Tehran to the maintenance of the terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon, to the increased power of the Houthis in Yemen and dominance over the Baba Mandam Strait. So all those things are intertwined, according to the Iranians. How about individualism? Well, we in the west, we are highly individualistic. We think of ourselves as individuals with individual motivations. We have a hierarchy of needs and wants. And so we are focused on individual flourishing. Other cultures see themselves and their personal identities is interwoven into networks, religious networks and kinship networks. So we say things like, hey, you guys, you should want to preserve the life and the lives of yourselves and your citizens. And they say, we want Islam to win. Totally different worldview. And we here in the west, we have something called impersonal pro sociality. So we have high levels of trust in the people who surround us. It's why we don't require as much government interventionism. It's why if you drop your wallet on a normal American street, there's a fairly good shot that somebody will return the wallet to you. That's because we don't predominantly operate in kinship networks, right? Like your cousins and your friends, we operate as a larger society with larger societal obligations. That also means we tend to think of rules as ways of governing the entire society, not merely as ways of screwing over other people. We are offended by dishonesty. In a lot of other cultures, that's not the case. It's your kin first. It's your tribe at first. I mean, literally your tribe. And that means that agreements with people like that are not worth the paper they're printed on because they are just methods of them getting something over on you. We here in the west, we focus on internal intentions a lot. There are lots of studies to back this in the West. Our murder laws, for example, are rooted in did you intend to do it, did you plan to do it, or did you do it by accident? Now, that's unusual. There are a lot of other cultures where that isn't the case, where the cause of accidental death means very little when it comes to the actual punishment. Other cultures have sort of a strict liability system of morality. If you did something I don't like, I don't have to analyze your intentions. I don't have to try to get in your head. You're bad and you ought to be destroyed. So this means that when we project our frame of mind onto other people, when we try to impute intentions to people who don't share our intentions, we make a category error and finally, self enhancement. We tend to think of ourselves in the west as competent, as in control, more in control than sometimes we are Other cultures tend to think of people as out of control, as weak, as only strong in the collective. So what does all of that mean in terms of our rules for negotiation? Well, in the west, it means that we tend to focus on incentives and strategies that appeal to people like us. We try to look for win win solutions where everybody is better off than they were before. And we try to set up incentives like economic prosperity or individual flourishing or safety or health. And we engage in strategies like logical problem solving, like we'll meet you in the middle. Conciliation. That's the stuff that the west prizes. But here's the thing. We're weird. We're not like other cultures at all. Which is why every single major agreement with an Islamic opponent has ended in tears. Unless you have completely defeated and destroyed the possibility of that Islamic opponent actually coming back and winning. Those are the only agreements that are durable at all in the history of agreement with Islamic State. We are certainly not like the Muslim theocracy in Iran. President Trump calls them crazy. And from our perspective, they are, because they don't share our way of thinking. But from their perspective, we're both crazy and also stupid and also weak because we don't think like they do, but we assume that they do. And so they look at us and we're saying things like why can't we just focus on human flourishing like you freaking pansies, we'll just cut your head off. So what exactly do they believe? Well, the Islamic Republic of Iran believes that, that in the absence of the infallible 12th Imam who will arrive at the eschaton to make the world Muslim, a qualified Islamic jurist possesses the absolute divine authority to rule both the state and society to ensure fidelity to Sharia law. But that is their actual worldview. That is why it is an Islamic regime. It can't be a democratic regime because that runs directly in the teeth of the idea that there is a divine authority absolutely invested in an Islamic jurist to rule society. This is why all of the talk about a moderate wing inside the Iranian government versus the radical wing inside the Iranian government, bunch of nonsense. In the end, the Ayatollahs run the place. And the irgc, which in some cases is more extreme than the Ayatollahs. The Iranian regime believes that it is their duty to prepare the entire world for the arrival of the 12th Imam. Their worldview centers on replacing the current western led international order with with a global system dominated by Islamic values. And this is where they get coalitional with Russia and China, because again, they agree on the first step, replacing the current Western led international order, and they disagree on the second step, what replaces it. Russia wants a Russian world order, China wants a Chinese world order, and Muslim states like Iran want an Islamic world order. They believe that Islam must become the dominant geopolitical and spiritual force on planet Earth and that secular capitalist Western systems are corrupt and destined to fail. So what does all that mean in terms of Islamic rules for negotiation if you're negotiating a deal? Well, it means that lying, taqiyah is the Islamic term for it is totally fine in wartime. It is encouraged if it gets you to where you need to go. In fact, Muhammad performed taqiyah in the middle of the Quran and it is praised. It means that power and perception of power are literally the only coin of the realm. If you are perceived as weak, some other tribe will come and rape your wife and sell your kids into slavery. Historically speaking. Okay, so how do you make a deal with people who think like this, whose set of incentives is different, whose logical thinking is different, whose approach to negotiation is totally different? The only way to make a successful deal with people who think like this is to totally and completely devastate their capacity to win. You have to crush their hope for victory. Hope is the thing that destroys these agreements. You want to know why there has long been a feasible agreement between Israel and Egypt? It's not because Egypt is wonderful and moderate. You may have been watching the World cup over the course of the last few days. Let's just say the behavior of the Egyptian team gives the lie to the idea that that Egypt is filled with Muslim moderates. But why is there a durable agreement between Israel and Egypt? Because Egypt knows that if they go up against Israel, Israel will destroy them. And they know that because they tried it in 67 and Israel destroyed them. And then Israel destroyed them again in 73. And why is it that Oslo failed? Well, because not only was Israel not destroying its opposition, Israel was offering them hope and an olive branch that they could destroy Israel. The only way to have a successful agreement in the Middle east is for one side to be so thoroughly devastated that the only way out is to basically give up the ghost and try to play it as a win. And by the way, even if you do, you might get shot by your own people. Because that's what happened to Anwar Al Sadat in Egypt when he did this with Menachem Begin in Israel. And this is why the MoU was bound to fail, because we didn't do that. Now, President Trump looked at Iran on an Absolute level. And he kept saying, they're dead, right? Dead. Economy, military, basically defenestrated. Ballistic missile facilities, gone. Missile launchers, tremendously damaged. Nuclear facilities blown up. A navy at the bottom of the sea. A leadership class entirely dead. And he said, okay, well, I guess they're defeated. Now it's time for them to negotiate their surrender. Here's what they saw. An America that wanted to negotiate, an America that was afraid to finish them off. An America that was not going to forcibly open the strait and in fact, was begging for the strait to be open. Begging them for the strait to be open. Okay? So that's why the MOU was going to fail, because total misalignment. And that requires us to answer another question. So why is Iran doing this now? Why didn't Iran just wait this thing out? Right? Why didn't they take their oil money and their sanctions relief and basically string us along and then go ahead and violate the agreement? Why go so hard? Why harass shipping in the Strait of Hormuz? Well, the answer is something fundamental. Iran cannot appear weak. That is the entire game. And because Iran never cannot appear weak, right? The minute they appear weak, this is the entire game in the Middle East. Once they appear weak, their regime is in danger. It's the reason they were seeking a nuclear weapon in the first place. They never interpreted the nonsensical and empty memorandum of understanding negotiated by the Vice President the way that we did. They did not. Here's what actually happened. In a second, we'll get to what actually happened in these benighted negotiations. First, you know, there was this light bulb in our home, and it was out for solidly a year and a half, Really. A year and a half. It was hanging on one of those sort of big fixtures over our kitchen island. And we just left it there mainly because I was being lazy. And eventually, eventually I went and fixed it. But here's the thing. It's amazing how quickly people get used to systems that aren't actually working. And businesses do the exact same thing. Sometimes you've had the same insurance set up for years simply because nobody has had time to revisit it. And that's where super sure comes in. If your company has more than 25 employees, super sure is a super agency built specifically for businesses that need more than a policy setting in a filing cabinet. They're licensed in every state for business insurance and employee benefits. They stick with you throughout the year. I especially like their fine print fax tool. It takes legalese and turns it into plain English. So you can understand exactly what you're paying for. Their business value calculator helps estimate what your business is worth because it's hard to protect something if you don't know its value. Go to super sure.com Shapiro that's super sure.com Shapiro One super agency, one powerful platform. All your policies in just one place. Again, that is super sure.com Shapiro paid for by Super Short Insurance Agency, LLC, a licensed insurance agency. Vice President J.D. vance and the administration came home waving that MOU with Iran and shouting, peace in our time. But as I said at the time, it wasn't a deal. Not just because it wasn't a final deal, but because it wasn't a deal at all. A deal requires an agreement on the terms. A deal requires an agreement on the terms. Again, this is fundamental to contract law. If you and I have an agreement that means nothing, like there are no words in the agreement, it is not an agreement. You have to have defined terms where both sides have a meeting of the minds. There was no clarity on the single most important issue. What happens to the strait? The United States said, it's open. The Iranians said, nope, we control it. Or the second most important issue, Lebanon. The United States said, totally disconnected. And the Iranians said, no, no, no, Israel has to stop attacking our terrorist proxy, Hezbollah. Or the third most important issue, nuclear weapons. The United States said, oh, that'll be disarmed. And the Iranians said, we're not even letting inspectors in. Or the fourth most important issue, ballistic missile and drone development. We said, they're going to have to stop some of that. And they said, that's not in the agreement at all. It was not written from a position of strength. The administration misinterpreted what it was that was supposedly in the agreement. The vice president. There are two possibilities here. One was that he was wishcasting that he was trying to will into reality this fiction that Iran would somehow accept publicly that the United States controls the Strait of Hormuz. That's the thing he was selling publicly and that's what President Trump was selling, presumably because J.D. vance and Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner told him that that was the case. But that was never the case. Iran was always in control of the strait. Duh. We actually tried to do an operation that we then allowed the Saudis to shut down. By the way. I will never understand this. I'll never understand this. Supposedly, according to people on the left and the woke right, Israel is the bad ally. Israel is flying literal sorties alongside the United States and essentially acquiescing to the demands of the United States on every level. Meanwhile, the Saudis, who do nothing, literally nothing, the Saudi royal government has American bases there defending them. And they said to the United States, you can't use our bases to open these straits. That would mostly benefit the Saudis. And somehow we acquiesce to that why? We should have just told them there are bases and we'll do with them what we please. In any case, there was never any agreement by Iran to open the strait. So again, either J.D. vance is really, really naive and he thought that the Iranians were good, solid people. And the Pakistanis, he loves the Pakistanis. He loves Paxton. Doesn't matter that Pakistan and Iran are hand in glove. Doesn't matter that the Prime Minister of Pakistan literally went to Iran over the weekend and pledged fealty to the Iranian government. It doesn't matter for these negotiators that Qatar is an Iranian cutout. They're just naive. I mean, that's possibility number. They're naive. They got played. Or, or all these negotiat negotiators basically knew that the Iranians were never going to agree that the Strait of Hormuz was open. And they were fibbing to the President to try to get President Trump to buy into letting the Iranians off the hook, hoping that the Iranians would basically tap this out over time. Trump would get bored, he'd go home and everything would go back to normal, except that the Iranians would control the strait. Okay, but here's the thing. Iran could never in a million years have lived with the public perception that they don't control the strait. That chokehold is the whole game for them. Assume for a second, for a second that Iran didn't control the strait. Everyone would know that the war was over and they had lost. This is just a reality. If Iran, that is their big weapon, everyone knows that's their big weapon. Lose the strait and it's over and they know it. So they were never going to sign a piece of paper admitting that they didn't control the straight. The only thing that keeps them relevant, we spent months hammering the regime, Air Force, Navy, missile sites, nuclear program. That was the exact moment to press not to sign an mou. Because the moment you see weakness from Iran is the moment you ought to show aggression, because that's the way they think. You have to think like they think you want to get a good agreement. Put yourself in the side of the other, put yourself in the shoes of the other side and Then think like they do instead. We showed up as dumb Westerners and shook their hand and looked for mutually beneficial arrangements. Listen, if Iran wanted to engage in mutually beneficial arrangements with the west, they could have done so anytime over the course of the last 47 years. If Iran wanted a humming economy, they could have just not been Islamists. They could have not done that. They could have even been an Islamic State. Saudi is an Islamic State. UAE is an Islamic State. Bahrain and Qatar Islamic states. All they had to do was just open up and you not, you know, not fund gigantic terror apparatuses around the Middle east and not try to overthrow surrounding regimes. They could have normalized any time they wanted to. They didn't do any of that. Why? Because that's not their logic. They didn't want the handshake. We extended a handshake and they slapped us in the face, which is absolutely predictable. So here are three things that we need to take away from all of this. First, they do not think like us. They don't think like us. They have a different worldview. They have a different theology. And projecting our thinking onto them is not just wrong, it is catastrophically stupid, because they do not think the way we do. Two, there is no such thing as a good agreement with an evil enemy unless you absolutely force them to the floor. And third, it is now time to force them to the floor. Okay, if this is just another of the myriad twists and turns in the journey of life, if it turns out that this is just prelude to another set of dumb negotiations where we completely misinterpret what they want, if this is just prelude to, oh, no, the MOU is still on. It was just tit for tat, then this will not end and it will not get better. And believe you me, right around the time of the election, the Iranians will shut the strait to screw Trump right before the midterms because they know that the Democrats will be far friendlier. So what exactly could be done? Well, first, we could force open the strait. I know. We haven't even tried it. We didn't try it. We could do it. We could. If you think that the US Military does not have contingency plans for opening the Strait of Hormuz along with our allies, you're out of your mind. We do. We just decided we didn't want to because we. We got chicken with Saudi and we were told by our magical negotiators that a deal was. Was in the offing, which was a lie. It wasn't true. We could open the strait. We could destroy Kharga island, which is their oil export facility. We could destroy the South Paris gas field. We could basically put their economy on unsupportable legs. We could put the regime into its death rows. Those are all things that we could do. Or we could just walk away and let our allies do any or all of those things. We could do any of those things. But here's the thing we should not do. Demonstrate weakness by going back to the table and pretending once again that they are reasonable, rational people. The greatest prize you can hand to Islamic terrorist regimes is the perception that they are rational actors in the way that we mean rational actors. Because they, that is the whole game. They use that perception, they twist it on you, and then they use that perception to destroy you. If that's a lesson that we haven't learned over the course of the last several decades, then again, we are too stupid for words. Alrighty. In just a second, we'll get to the latest on Graham Platner. Is he going to stand and just torture the Democrats? Maybe. Well, here's the thing. The summer can be torture for you because, I mean, it's really, really hot outside down here in Florida. It is just hot and humid. It's basically a sauna. But also, my kids are home and that's the good part. But it also means it's really, really busy. I don't have lots of time and, and we're going to have a baby and I'll have even less time. 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And Ukraine will be supplied with further missiles, which is the right move. But in a bad move, the United States appears to be trying to make nice with Turkey. Now, Turkey is another Islamic regime. Turkey has its own millenarist view of the world. They have their own view, which is that they want to reconstitute an Ottoman Empire. This is not something that recipe Tayyip Erdogan is shy about. He is the leader of Turkey. He's the dictator of Turkey. He has been in power since 1999 or so. Well, Erdogan has been very clear that he wants the power of Turkey expanded in the region. Syria is essentially a Turkish cutout state at this point. It was Turkish interference that prevented a Kurdish uprising from moving into Iran early in the Iranian war because the Turks and the Kurds are enemies. Well, the president has a warm relationship with Erdogan, mainly because Erdogan kisses the president's ass while at the same time fostering terrorism all around the region? Well, there's been a lot of discussion over whether the United States ought to sell F35s to Turkey. The answer, of course, is is no. This is a very stupid idea, handing F35s to a regime that openly supports Hamas and that the president, by the way, admits may have taken the opposite side in the war. That seems like not a smart move. Now, I understand the geopolitics here, which is we can't let Turkey fall to Russia. You know, if we alienate Turkey, maybe they'll start being pro Russian. Here's the actual thing that should happen. We should move toward removing Turkey from NATO allyship. Turkey is a bad ally. I mean, why in the world should Article 5 of NATO be invoked if, for example, Turkey starts a terrorist driven shooting war with Israel or something, which is not crazy. Why precisely should Turkey, which is an expansionist power, like a true expansionist power in the region and openly an expansionist power in the region that allies again with the Muslim Brotherhood. Why precisely should we be handing F35s to them? Well, on Tuesday, the President said that he plans to lift US Sanctions on Turkey and signaled he is preparing to move forward with the long stalled sales of F35 stealth fighter jets. Now, remember, the reason this happened in the first place, the cutoff in aid to Turkey was because Turkey was buying a Russian missile defense system. The only reason that you buy a Russian missile defense system is because you are seeking to protect against America's allies. That is the reason you buy those systems. Well, the President said that he is going to do this and he's very much in favor of it here. He was.
- [32:25]
Donald Trump
I can tell you we're going to be taking the sanctions off. Okay? I don't want him to waste his time answering that question because we're working very closely with Marco Rubio, very famous man, great Secretary of State, and with Scott Bessant and with Pete and everybody else. We're going to be taking the sanctions off. It's time to do that. Okay? We don't want to sanction friends. It's very simple.
- [32:57]
Ben Shapiro
Well, I mean, are they friends? I mean, it's a real question. Are they friends? I mean, here's an indicator. They're not friends. The President himself says that Turkey thought about getting into the fight on the other side. That's pretty good indicator. They're not amazing friends here.
- [33:12]
Donald Trump
You know, I hear some people saying about their relationship with Israel, they could have gotten into the fight. They're a very powerful military nation. They didn't do that. Maybe they didn't do that because of me, but they could have gotten into the fight on the other side. They are a nation that's been very, very good. And I can only, I can speak for myself as President. They've been extraordinary in many ways with respect to our relationship, including trying to end the war with Iran or whatever you call. It's not even a war. It's a military operation. It's a denuclearization. That's really what it is.
- [33:55]
Ben Shapiro
So they could have taken the other side and he convinced them not to. I don't know. I feel like it's a bad idea to sell F35 fighter jets to a, to a team that quote, unquote, could have taken the other side and only your personal intervention prevented it. I don't know. Seems like not a great move. Again, there are a lot of members of this administration who seem to be deeply embedded with foreign states, including our ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack. The, the. Let's, let's put this way, the comfort level of many in the, in the administration's orbit with the dictators, and they are dictators of Qatar are passing enormous sums of cash to family members or to Turkey or to other states in the Middle East. It seems like not the best way to make policy. It seems like not the best way to make policy. I mean. Well, significantly closer to home, the Democrats are now in serious trouble in Maine. They're in serious trouble in Maine. Not just because it turns out that Graham Platner, the oyster farmer who only farmed oysters from. For his mom's restaurant, the blue collar man who grew up Silver Spoon, the, the, the guy who, who said, yeah, you know, if somebody tried to break into my. I hope someone tries to break into my house, I'd rape him. Not in a gay way. Well, it turns out that there are now rape allegations, multiple rape allegations against Graham Platner. And the Democratic Party's like, we don't want any more of him. And he's like, well, too late. You can't make me go. Well, yesterday, Lindsey Fifield, who is Graham Platner's ex, this is the Republican ex. So because she was a Republican ex, that meant Democrats could ignore her. And then there was a Democratic socialist ex who alleged rape, and now they have to pay attention. So it's believe all Democrat women is the way that this works. In any case, here she was describing alleged abuse, including the rather unpleasant revelation that during sex, he would randomly remove the condom that they had agreed to use because she was not on birth control, which in, in many countries actually is a crime. Here. Here was Lindsay Fifield with Jake Tapper
- [35:59]
Lindsey Fifield
explaining when Jenny told her story,
- [36:05]
Donald Trump
what,
- [36:05]
Lindsey Fifield
if anything, aligned with your experiences.
- [36:10]
The eyes, the dead eyes where he
- [36:13]
Ben Shapiro
couldn't hear your protests.
- [36:18]
Lindsey Fifield
I just know exactly what that looks like. I know exactly what it looks like. And it's. That is something that I feel like people need to understand is it was almost like looking at, like a pit bull where they just. There's. It's nothing. But not just nothing, but like a capacity for violence. And you see it and you know it's there and it's terrifying. And I. But also. Yeah. A deafness to any thing that. Yes. Like, I'm going. Like this is going to happen. And I think that was the hardest part.
- [37:00]
Shannon Maldonado
Oh, God, I'm sorry.
- [37:03]
Ben Shapiro
Hey. So she also told The Washington Post again that he repeatedly removed protection without her consent while they were having sex. Said, quote, he would pull condoms off. He would do it in a sneaky way. He wouldn't tell me. She estimated that Platner removed condoms without her consent at least six times when they had sex at both of their residences in D.C. during their two year on and off again relationship. She said she told him she was upset about it, but he would make light of the situation. He would act cute about it, like, oh, sneaky me. So I, I don't know, I feel like there were some red flags here. Like a few red flags that, you know, maybe the Nazi tattoo guy was not the best candidate. I know. Crazy, right? So Democrats have decided they're done with him. Now, let's be real. The reason they're done with him is because he's going to lose. They're not done with him because of any of these allegations. And in fact, here is the theory. The theory is that if Graham Platner sticks around for another week and a half, Democrats will start coming back around to him. Because we are now past the point of candidates stepping down out of honor or decency. We are long past that point, obviously. And so now the question becomes whether Democrats come back to the fold after Graham Platner stays in and they decide it's just that important. They need, they need Rapey McNazie over here to replace Susan Collins. Representative Debbie Dingell. She says that there are more explosive grand platinum stories coming again. The reason why they want him out is because he's down in the polls. And also there's more to come.
- [38:28]
Unnamed Democratic Socialist Ex
You know, I'm going to not give you names because they're people that I have a great deal of respect for as well. But they have said to me, you were right, your gut was right, your instincts were right. He lied to me. I am going to tell you point blank that I, I'm not even going to give you gender because I've discussed it with people of both genders, said that they'll never forgive him for lying the way that he did. And I think a lot of people have been stunned by the continuing pattern of stories. And quite frankly, I am told that there are more. More I do talk. This is a community that I work in. And there are other credible reports that people have told me up.
- [39:11]
Ben Shapiro
Well, unfortunately for the Democrats, they can't actually force him out, so they're withdrawing endorsements and all the rest. Bernie Sanders put out a tweet saying that he recommends that you step Aside, the Nazism was one thing that was bad. And the. And the allegation of him getting a little rapey with a Republican, that was also not great. But not. Not disqualifying. Not disqualifying. I mean, if he supported Israel, that would be disqualified, you know. But I have spoken, he says, with Graham Platner about the best path forward for Maine in light of these very serious allegations. I have recommended that he step aside. Well, he's not going to step aside. Just get ready for it. He's not. Rashida Tlaib says that she also is withdrawing her. Withdrawing her endorsement of Graham Platner, mainly because he wasn't in Gaza and raping Jewish women on the other side of the Gaza border. If he had done that different sort of endorsement available, but instead, he allegedly raped a Democratic socialist and he wants. She wants Graham Platner to be replaced by a progressive fighter who will deliver for the people and help win back the Senate. She says these allegations are devastating and must be taken seriously. Zaramdani says that he believes it's time for Graham Platner to. To drop out of the race. Yeah. Yeah. All right, here we go.
- [40:27]
Unnamed Democratic Official
I believe that it's time for him to drop out of the race. And when it comes to my own endorsements, I've made eight endorsements at the state and federal level. They've all been right here in New York City. I'm incredibly excited at the fact that they won their races. And that's where my focus is for now. You know, I think the focus of today should be to respond to the gravity of what so many of us have read. And I think that the only appropriate response is for the campaign to come to an end.
- [40:59]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, well, we will find out whether he has any sort of truck there. The answer, of course, is no. Senator Jean Shaheen, she's out there also saying it's time for Grand Platinum to go. Remember, they were all fine with this until Sunday. All the other stuff is fine. The real answer is bad polls started to drop and they got scared.
- [41:20]
Unnamed Democratic Commentator
Yes, I think he should step down. It's time, and the sooner the better.
- [41:27]
Mika Brzezinski
Have you been moved by this latest accusation? Or all along, have you been concerned about this candidate?
- [41:35]
Unnamed Democratic Commentator
There are a number of issues that have surfaced with respect to Mr. Platner. And I think, taken together, it means that the Democrats need to look for another candidate.
- [41:47]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, so the reason the Democrats are panicking is because if Platner stays in, he's almost certainly going to lose. He was probably gonna lose Anyway, now he's almost certainly going to lose. And if they don't grab Maine, they don't grab control of the Senate. It is that, which means that he actually has pretty much all of the leverage right now. Graham Platner can stay in, and then what he can do is he can say he's only handing over the nomination to somebody who he likes, and then he can claim that he was the hero who saved the republic if that candidate ends up winning. Or he could just stay in himself. The main Democratic Party executive director, a woman named Devon Murphy Anderson, is now calling for him to drop out and also not be involved in the picking of his replacement. That is not going to go the way she thinks it's going to go.
- [42:33]
Devon Murphy Anderson
As you know, the Maine Democratic Party has been working around the clock to develop a process to replace our U.S. senate nominee that is open, inclusive, transparent, and fair. The integrity of this process is just as important as the outcome, and we are committed to ensuring that Democrats across our state can have confidence in both. Unfortunately, Graham Plotner's team has repeatedly reached out to us in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like. We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner's team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the US Senate, nor in determining what this process looks like. We have also reiterated that Graham Platner must drop out of this race so that Democrats in Maine can focus on defeating Susan Collins this November. We look forward to making this process public as soon as Graham Platner formally withdraws from this race.
- [43:30]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, but he's not going to formally withdraw. I don't think he will. I don't think he will. By the way, the Cal Sheet markets and again, their sponsor say that there were like 85% who's going to withdraw yesterday. Now they're down around 50%. They're going to keep drawing. The longer he. The longer he stays in, the better a shot it is that he just stays in for the long haul. Meanwhile, it's kind of fun to watch Democratic commentators mope around and pretend that this is all very sad and unforeseeable. The Pod Save America Bros who are all in on Graham Platner, all in on Grand Platner. They're having a sad. They're enmeshed in the thicket of sad today. Watch the sad.
- [44:08]
Lindsey Fifield
Yeah, it's just. The whole situation's just terrible. Even after the June 4 story, she said I am still technically on the ballot, but didn't reactivate the campaign. So, you know, you know, it's a terrible situation and the story is horrible. And my thoughts go to, like, think of that person who finally felt like they didn't get their story out the first time the story ran. They felt they had to come forward and tell it in even more gruesome detail. And that is terrible and a brave thing to do. And I still hope we win that seat.
- [44:38]
Ben Shapiro
Yeah, yeah. A lot of sad happening. Maybe you shouldn't immobilize behind the Nazi guy. Maybe. Maybe Molly Jongfast and all of her various hair colors had some thoughts on this as well.
- [44:51]
Unnamed Democratic Commentator
Look, with this story, as someone. I mean, what she says in this story is that she is. I mean, the misogyny that I found in the story was this poor woman is saying it was non consensual when it was obviously rape. And she couldn't say that because she was, you know, trying to protect him to some extent. So in my mind, this is a really serious, you know, as a woman and a mother of a daughter, you know, as serious as it gets. And you see, you know, the ways in which the culture, you know, this victim is protecting this man. So in my mind, this is, you know, but it's not up to me because I don't even live in Maine. It is up to the voters of Maine.
- [45:37]
Ben Shapiro
No, it's not up to her because she's not in Maine. Yeah, that's. That's the get out of jail free card right there. Mika Brzezinski went after Adam Wren, who is one of the co writers on the Politico piece, talking about the alleged rape. And here she was grilling him.
- [45:51]
Mika Brzezinski
What, what is the actual. Is there evidence between her and him? Evidence of a crime? Because he's being, he's being accused of rape. So what is the. What, what put this over the edge? Because he says he didn't and he has people on his side who say he didn't. She says he did. And there are people, but none. There's. I'm trying. What's the through line? What ties this together and gives you the evidence to bring this story to the point of publishable?
- [46:27]
Ben Shapiro
So again, we'll see whether Democrats re coalesce around Grand. He is being advised, apparently by Morris Katz, who is his insane left wing progressive advisor, that he probably should step down. We'll see whether he does it. I don't see an upside to him in stepping down, frankly. Like, what does he get? What's his prize? What is the thing he get? He's not Going to run for governor in Maine. Like, this is his shot and he knows it. Meanwhile, it's. It is incredible. The woke right being the dirtbag left in disguise. They continue to militate in favor of Graham Platner. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is just despicable. She's awful. And I will never get over the fact that all it took for her to get the strange new respect routine from the left, which is ripping on Trump. She went from being the dumbest person in the United States Congress, which, by the way, is an incredible prize to get. You know how many dumb people are in Congress? I know tons of people in Congress. And let me just say, that is a repository for retardation. That place has a collective IQ that is barely above room temperature. And somehow Marjorie Taylor Greene took the cake as dumbest person in the United States House of Representatives. Then she was ousted in a primary in Georgia, or basically she was about to be. So she decided she was not going to run, and then she started ripping on Trump, and now she's on the View all the time to talk about how the real story. The real story about Graham Platner and him being rapey. Wait for it, wait for it. Wait for was.
- [47:49]
Donald Trump
You're not.
- [47:49]
Ben Shapiro
You're not going to guess. You won't be able to guess her theory. You won't. You were able to guess it was the Jews.
- [47:57]
Zaramdani
It's unfortunate that rich donors that put Israel first are playing in American politics, just like my friend. It's American donors. To be clear, it's Americans who care
- [48:09]
Ben Shapiro
about you at least.
- [48:09]
Lyndon Blake
No, no, no.
- [48:10]
Zaramdani
They care about Israel first. Israel is committing genocide. Did you know that? Murdering children. Only Americans citizens to contribute to aipac. Let me tell you, the future of this country is Americans are sick and tired of funding Israel's genocidal wars that are killing children. Millions of Americans, including me, support Israel. For the record, that may be your favorite. I don't support the government of Israel. I support people and I support Americans and I support our tax dollars being used for our purposes.
- [48:38]
Ben Shapiro
Do you see how this is?
- [48:39]
Zaramdani
However, AIPAC took out one of my good friends, Thomas Massie. Okay? And Thomas Massie worked for his district. Thomas Massey lost because Donald Trump endorsed against Thomas Massey. You're going to blame a Mary.
- [48:55]
Ben Shapiro
Okay, again, she's talking about Graham Platner. That's how the conversation started. You understand? It's because she put out a tweet suggesting that AIPAC was behind the rape story about Graham Platner. What can't AIPAC do, aside from Avoid the headlines and accomplish nearly nothing in a wide variety of races. What can't they do now? I will never get over the magical powers ascribed to the Jews who can't seem to, you know, like, get rid of any of their key enemies. It's, it's like, it's amazing. They can reach out and tap anyone on the shoulder at any time. They're hiding under your bed by the time how Marjorie Taylor Greene's just walking around enjoying her life, being on the View. Get on that massage. Like, what are we even talking about? It's just, it's insanity, but it's insanity that's, that's eaten the brains of an enormous number of people, unfortunately, including a large swath of the Democratic Party, which is why they're about to nominate a true terror supporter named Abdul El Sayed in Michigan for the Senate. He, he is out there running in the Senate and saying that his race is a defining moment for the party. That's true because again, Michigan is going to decide whether they ought to nominate for the Senate or make a senator, a person who legitimately is quite warm toward terrorism.
- [50:10]
Mika Brzezinski
Do you think your race is a defining moment for the party and what it believes?
- [50:14]
Lindsey Fifield
I think it absolutely is. Because if the kind of politics that can be about unlocking our political system for everyday people can win in Michigan, it's going to send shock waves to the party. Everybody who's planning to run for president in 2028 is going to have to pay attention to this race
- [50:32]
Ben Shapiro
again. They want to convert the entire party into this. And it's working. By the way, Breitbart reports on a, on an exchange with regard to cnn, a representative named Becca Baland from Vermont, Democrat, she went to a bipartisan House anti Semitism task force meeting. And apparently at that particular meeting, there was a person who came up to her and, and said that there was no such thing as anti Semitism anymore, quote, because all the Jews are rich. That would be a Democrat sitting in the House of Representatives. This is where we are. The Democratic Party has embraced this full scale. The woke right has embraced this as well, which is why you have Democratic campaign organizers out there arguing openly on behalf of Ayatollah Khamedi is a Massachusetts Democratic political organizer. He was a leader to all people of the world who struggle against imperialism, against arrogance, against Zionism, against genocide. To me, he was the greatest anti imperialist leader to have lived during my lifetime. Again, the psychotic Jew hatred is truly an insane thing. It really is. And it is low IQ crap. It Want to ruin your life? Really? Imbibe deeply from this. Well, speaking of psychotics, ambulatory psychotics, Candace Owens is at it again. So unfortunately for Candace Owens, reality exists and it continues to exist. So the second day of the Charlie Kirk murder. Preliminary hearing occurred yesterday. And on Tuesday, prosecutors showed a bunch of security footage of Tyler Robinson on the UVU Utah Valley University campus on September 10, the day that he was accused of shooting and killing Charlie Kirk. Now to understand that this is rather damning for Candace Owens and her conspiratorial clique of morons, she suggested that Tyler Robinson was never on campus. Like a week and a half ago, two weeks ago, with fellow dolt Sean Ryan. Who do you think is behind this?
- [52:39]
Candace Owens Supporter
I don't think Tyler Robinson was there.
- [52:42]
Ben Shapiro
You don't think he was there?
- [52:44]
Candace Owens Supporter
I think he's a total patsy. I think they get look alikes and they got everybody wearing the same outfit. I think he played a role and I believe that what he did was he picked up clothes and he dumped them behind the Dairy Queen. I think he had a role, but I do not believe that Tyler Robinson is the person who was walking in that staircase. I do not believe that to. The person walking in the staircase was even the person that we saw running
- [53:09]
Ben Shapiro
off of the roof.
- [53:10]
Candace Owens Supporter
I don't even know what day that person was running off the roof.
- [53:14]
Ben Shapiro
Every time I watch an exchange like this kind of thing between Candace Owens and Sean Ryan, I feel a disturbance in the forest. As if billions of brain cells suddenly cry out in terror and are suddenly silenced. I mean, you become markedly stupider by imbibing this kind of trash content. Markedly stupider. Retardation is infectious, apparently. So. Here is some actual video. He was never on campus, you see. Never on campus. Well, I mean, here, here was the tape of him on campus. I know. Unbelievable. Who could have foreseen?
- [53:52]
Lindsey Fifield
Do you believe you recognize who that person is?
- [53:54]
Iranian Navy Radio Operator
Yes.
- [53:54]
Lindsey Fifield
Who is that?
- [53:55]
Unnamed Democratic Official
I believe that's Tyler Robinson.
- [53:58]
Lindsey Fifield
Where does he go from there?
- [54:01]
Unnamed Democratic Official
He heads out of the parking garage on foot into the campus and actually goes to the quad area of the campus. That time he makes contact with some representatives from tpusa. By quad area, sorry, the amphitheater is what I previously referred it to.
- [54:21]
Lindsey Fifield
So he goes up on campus, visits the. The amphitheater area, the courtyard or quad.
- [54:25]
Unnamed Democratic Official
Correct.
- [54:27]
Ben Shapiro
And then what do we see here?
- [54:28]
Unnamed Democratic Official
Now he returns on foot back to the same vehicle.
- [54:31]
Lindsey Fifield
And what time is he returning back to the vehicle?
- [54:33]
Unnamed Democratic Official
It's about 9:25am
- [54:38]
Ben Shapiro
by the way, Tyler Robinson and the video and footage of him were identified also by his parents as being Tyler Robinson. Don't worry. Candace has a theory. She has a theory. Perhaps it came into her. It came to her in a dream. Perhaps in a dream. Perhaps her magical connections with the great beyond informed her of this stellar theory. Quote, the person walking in the video they are presenting is very clearly a tall person. Well above 6ft. No way that is a 5 10, or 511 person. How tall is Lance Twiggs? Just genius. Genius level stuff. Genius level stuff. Fellow conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones, host Jesse on Fire, Jesse Merle is now making the case that Charlie, believe it or not, is still alive and well, which must be breaking news to his wife and children.
- [55:29]
Alex Jones
I think this thing is a hoax. I don't believe that Charlie's dead. The standard pushback that I get has always been, do you? So what, Charlie's just gonna take himself and live, like in the. In the wilderness? And he's never gonna see his wife and kids? I'm like, what are you talking about? Charlie's a wealthy person. Charlie is.
- [55:46]
Donald Trump
Is in.
- [55:47]
Alex Jones
In league with the most powerful people in the world. Charlie would be In a self sustaining 25, 000 square foot, you know, doomsday home in Montana. And his family is there with him. They're homeschooling their kids. They're all there. They're interacting with all the top people all the time. Charlie's still running tbusa. That is exactly why Erica becomes the CEO of. Absolutely. Inexplicably. For any other reason. How would she become the CEO immediately after?
- [56:17]
Ben Shapiro
Do you feel smarter? Because if so, that is just the oxygen leaving your brain. You are so stupid if you watch this. Seriously, you are making yourself dumber and you are making the world dumber. I don't know how else to put it. People, this is the great warning. You are being made stupider. But. But good news. Candace has another backup theory. Her backup theory. Wait for it. You're never going to believe this. You won't believe it. You're not. I know. It's unthinkable. Wait, wait. It's the Jews. Or specifically, specifically this Jew. It was me. I did it. Apparently, according to Candace, because I said yesterday that my security was coordinating with Charlie's security. Why would that happen? Well, I don't know. Maybe it's because my security team knew Charlie's security team because I do TP USA events. Or maybe it's because my security was checking in with Charlie's security because Charlie's security, no one knew where Exactly. The shooter was at this time, he was at large. And my team basically went into lockdown. And I would bet money, good money, that Charlie's people at tpusa that I was not the only person who was being talked to by people at tpusa about security arrangements. But. But according to Candace, because my security was talking to Charlie's security, what that means is that clearly we were coordinating the hit or the COVID up. She put out a tweet quote. Everything Ben did following the assassination made my alarm bells go off. Well, I mean, if her alarm bells are going. That's not the alarm bells. Those are just the voices in her head. I have told you guys there is something about the Daily Wire and their relentless stalking of me following my firing that has made me feel altogether unsafe. Yes, she is. She's unsafe. Candace Owens. I have felt their obsessive focus on destroying me is deranged and increasingly dangerous. What did Andrew Colvitt mean when he told me it was supposed to be you? Why did Turning Point betray Charlie so quickly by allowing Ben to open at Amfest after declaring immediately that he would pick up Charlie's blood mic? I mean, what I said is we all have to pick up Charlie's bloody microphone because no one person can fill the gap left by Charlie. Why didn't Ben mention this before today that he was receiving status updates while Charlie was bleeding out? Well, because I didn't feel that my personal experiences were particularly relevant until yesterday when we were talking about the preliminary hearing. I clocked that Ben was too invested in this. Too invested. Too invested. As opposed to Candace, who spent literally every waking moment since Charlie's death trying to spread conspiracy theories about his wife and, yes, his children and his organization. His energy on stage demanding that Megyn Kelly call me evil. By the way, Megan playing this little game now, Megan is doing this routine. Just side note, she's doing this routine. Can we put aside the all the animus just for today? You know, Megan, you know, you could have done the right. You could still do the right thing. You could still point out what Candace is doing. You can still do it today, like right now, because time exists and we're in it. You can still. Anyway, his energy on stage demanding that Megan call me evil, and his overprotective stance on Erica always registered to me as deeply nervous. You mean me saying that you shouldn't attack the widow of the guy who got shot that made you deep, that. That was deeply nervous? Ben Shapiro. And here's the conclusion. Of course, Ben Shapiro is satanic. Satanic is Candace's term for anyone who disagrees with her bat unise. Everything in my soul tells me he worships Satan. Literally. Okay, I, I'm, I'm just going to point out at this point the things in her soul. I'm not going to speculate as to what is Candace Owens's soul, assuming she has one. But the idea that I worship Satan, literally, no, I, I worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, you know, as described in the Old Testament as. I'm a Jew. And I understand what Candace is trying to do because this is her entire shtick and it's vile and it's disgusting. But, you know, Candace is going to. Candace, the only reason to continue pointing this out is because again, people like Candace continue to draw a crowd. If you wish for the conservative movement in the United States to have the brain worms completely eat the prefrontal cortex, if you wish for a conspiratorial conservative movement that is unable to distinguish basic, obvious truth from overt stupid lies, if you wish for a conservative movement led by the ambulatory psychotic, then please continue down this road, please, and ignore all the facts being presented in court and ignore all the tape and all the DNA evidence and reality itself, and instead follow this posse of clowns, liars and losers down the primrose path to both moral and political hell. Seriously, you could, you could do that or you could just click away. Your choice. It's a free country. Joining me on the line is Daily Wire investigative reporter Lyndon Blake. She, of course, has been covering the Charlie Kirk murder hearings over in Arizona. Lyndon, thanks so much for taking time. Really appreciate it.
- [61:24]
Lyndon Blake
Of course, Ben.
- [61:26]
Ben Shapiro
So obviously these preliminary hearings, as we've been discussing on the show, basically lay out in sort of bare bones fashion, the evidence that the prosecution is going to present at trial. The defense can make objections to the introduction of that evidence. The purpose of the preliminary hearing is to demonstrate to a judge that there is enough evidence to actually go through with a full prosecution in the full trial. But we are learning some things in these preliminary hearings over the course of the first couple of days. What are some of the big things that we've been seeing?
- [61:52]
Lyndon Blake
Yeah, Ben, you nailed it. A lot of people don't, do not realize this preliminary hearing is not a trial. But you explained it perfectly. Perfectly well. This is to introduce evidence to be admitted to trial. A big development on day two.
- [62:03]
Mika Brzezinski
We.
- [62:03]
Lyndon Blake
We talked DNA. We talked DNA on the screwdriver that was found on the rooftop where the prosecution says Tyler Robinson kneeled down on that sniper pad to take the, to take the shot at Charlie Kirk. And there was also DNA found on the towel that was found wrapped around the rifle that the prosecution says that Robinson used. So the DNA that was. People are calling it a bombshell. It's not surprising that Lance Twigs, his DNA and Tyler Robinson's DNA were found on the objects because they were roommates. And. But still, to hear Lance Twigs, the roommate, the lover that has been the mysterious character in all of this, to hear his name brought up in court from both witnesses, from the prosecution and the defense as having DNA on that screwdriver and, and the towel along with Tyler Robinson's, was some new information that we haven't heard before. I want to specify that the majority of the DNA there was a mixed DNA found on objects. We talked about mixed DNA a lot on the show. 95% of the DNA on one of the objects was Tyler Robinson's. 5% was Lance Twigs. On the other object, 89% was Tyler Robinson's. 11% was Lance Twiggs. So the majority of the DNA that showed up on these objects was Tyler Robinson. But that's where he left off on Tuesday with this DNA expert that was tested fine for the defense. Just explaining the DNA. And the defense, of course, is trying to question her, her authority on the DNA to try to poke holes in. Are you sure the testing's accurate? Are you sure that you did all the steps correctly? And of course the prosecution in their cross examination of the DNA expert was just making her clarify the facts. Another big thing that we learned on the second day, the preliminary hearing, we got to see a lot of new surveillance video, raw footage from Utah Valley's campus of what the prosecution says is Robinson. And the person on the stand for the prosecution says that that is Tyler Robinson. He was on campus multiple times. One thing that was stood out to me was the officer, Officer David Hull said that Tyler Robinson came to campus, walked around left, came back, walked around left, then came back with a change of clothes. And that's. You got to see the person that they're saying is Robinson walk with that weird leg gait that limp up the stairs. And there's a lot of video of that. The officer was able to identify Robinson on the roof and he said that you could clearly see on the roof that he had something concealed there before he jumped off the roof. And then what was interesting is Officer David Hull said that Robinson had a run in with a different officer hours after the shooting around 6:30 on September 10th. And the officer got Some type of weird instinct took down the license plate. And then the early morning hours of September 11th actually told officer David Hull, yeah, I ran his tag and it came back for Tyler Robinson. So these are just new details that we haven't been given before. And this is not going to be. If this goes to trial, that's when the prosecution is going to lay every bit of evidence they have. This is more of a low burden for the prosecution. They're not going to show all their cards. They just have to prove probable cause. Tyler Robinson probably did this and the judge will decide to send this to trial. But still you're getting some interesting information, some new evidence introduced that the public hasn't had a chance to learn about.
- [65:29]
Ben Shapiro
So Lyndon, what can we expect for the rest of this week in terms of more of the evidence that's going to be presented? Obviously is going on the entire week. It's supposed to end on Friday, I believe. And then do we know how long the delay is between the preliminary hearing than the actual trial?
- [65:42]
Lyndon Blake
No, there's been no trial date set. But I think what everyone is waiting on is this recorded statement from Lance Twigs. That's the big piece of evidence that we have been told from sources close to the situation that this will be introduced. Lance Twigs will not be there in person. Ben, if you remember, this was argued a lot. The defense wanted him there in person to cross examine him. And the judge said for a preliminary hearing, not necessary. We have a recorded statement, an official recorded statement with Lance. Lance Twigs. We can play this and that's what we're waiting on. It could come today. The prosecution says they have about 40 to 50 exhibits. That just means pieces of evidence to present during the preliminary hearing. So we don't know when that'll happen. According to though the state, they have one more witness. They listed four witnesses on day one and we've heard from three of them. So there's one more witness, unless they call someone new that will talk. And so today could be the day that we get that recorded statement from Lance Twigs giving an on record official statement about this heinous crime on Charlie Kirk. And I think that's the piece of evidence that everyone is waiting to hear.
- [66:48]
Ben Shapiro
So, Lyndon, I mean, obviously even in the first couple of days there have been enormous number of conspiracy theories that have been trotted out by psychotics over the course of the last 10 months or so that have been completely destroyed there. There's a theory that was put out by Candace Owens, of course, who's been the leader of the psychotic brigade on all of this, claiming that Tyler Robinson was never on campus. As you mentioned, we now have copious footage of Tyler Robinson on campus. There were claims that the DNA was false. That of course is not true. There were claims that Tyler Robinson again, was, was some sort of patsy. There's been no evidence adduced to that by, by anyone at this point. What do you make of these sort of broadcasts, broader context in which all of this is happening where you have legitimately an entire ambulatory psychotic wing of the, of the woke, right, that has decided that they are going to unspool conspiracy theories. And every single day those conspiracy theories are being debunked. And yet it doesn't seem the conspiracy theories ever go away.
- [67:41]
Lyndon Blake
Yeah, I have a lot to say about that. The first thing I would say is this is a public hearing. You can watch it for yourself. We're going to have it on the Daily Wire today. It starts at 3pm Eastern. And this judge, Judge Tony Graff, from what I've seen and the people I've talked to that have been in this business for years, he is a good judge. He is doing a good job of handling this preliminary hearing right now. And for all the conspiracy theorists, I would say watch the information. And social media is a dangerous thing. And even in the last day when I have just been reporting what the witnesses have said on the stand, people are coming at me, oh, you, you said this. No, they said that. No. In the world of social media where everyone thinks they're a journalist, in times like this, it's important to follow the people that know how to relay accurate information. You can spin information any way you want to, any. And distribute it any way you want to, but that does not mean the information is accurate. You need to follow people that know how to cover a court case and know how to give the accurate information. Information out. It has gotten to the point where it is nasty, it is disgusting and it's unprofessional. Let the facts play out in court. Watch the facts, watch the cross examination, watch the clarification of the facts and you will see a clearer picture of what happened on September 10, 2025.
- [69:03]
Ben Shapiro
That's Lyndon Blake. She, of course, our investigative reporter here at Daily Wire, Lynnon. Thanks so much for the time. Thanks for the coverage.
- [69:09]
Lyndon Blake
Of course. Thanks, Ben.
- [69:10]
Ben Shapiro
Alrighty, folks, you thought the show was over, but that's silly. There's plenty more to come. We're going to get into Mitch McConnell. Is he alive, is he dead? But we'll get into all of that, plus new tape of Elliot Page demonstrating that Elliot Page may not be a man or a woman, as it turns out, may in fact be a marionette. If you're not a member, become a member. Use Coach Shapiro. Check out for two months free on all annual plans. Click that link in the description and join us.
- [69:36]
Donald Trump
Sam.