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[00:00:00] More details on the transgender person [00:00:02] who shot members of his family. Why [00:00:04] won't the media cover it? Plus, Dave [00:00:06] Chappelle pays tribute to Alex Prey. [00:00:08] That was the activist and agitator who [00:00:10] was shot by ICE. And we have the CBS [00:00:13] news controversy. Steven Coar trying to [00:00:15] get himself fired. First, if you are the [00:00:17] kind of person who checks reviews before [00:00:18] you commit, go take a look at the Pen [00:00:20] Dragon Cycle Rise of the Merlin. 86% on [00:00:23] Rotten Tomatoes. And if you scroll [00:00:24] episode by episode, something crazy [00:00:26] happens. The scores keep on going up. [00:00:28] Now, tomorrow is episode 6. This is the [00:00:30] Merlin you have been waiting for. You [00:00:32] know, all those battles you saw in the [00:00:34] trailers. This is that episode. Somehow, [00:00:36] there's also a love story that's going [00:00:37] to wreck the group chat. One request, [00:00:39] watch it on the biggest screen you can [00:00:40] find. Download that Daily Plus app on [00:00:42] Roku, Samsung, Apple TV, Vizio. It's [00:00:44] basically everywhere. Episode 6 of The [00:00:46] Pen Dragon Cycle: Rise of Merlin [00:00:48] premieres tomorrow only on Daily Wire [00:00:50] Plus. New details are now emerging about [00:00:52] the Rhode Island father who murdered his [00:00:55] ex-wife and one of their sons. is the [00:00:57] big story with regard to this particular [00:00:59] shooter. Of course, he was an identified [00:01:02] transgender person. And it turns out [00:01:04] there are new details about this [00:01:05] shooter. Apparently, this person who was [00:01:09] named Robert, but called himself Roberta [00:01:11] and is 56 years old, had inked a large [00:01:14] SS symbol on his right arm representing [00:01:17] the Shutzel Paramilitary Organization [00:01:19] under Nazi Germany. This is what the [00:01:21] picture looks like. Apparently, he was [00:01:23] buying a happy birthday balloon with his [00:01:25] SS gigantic tattoo. [00:01:29] Obviously, that you recognize the skull [00:01:31] there from also Graham Platner's chest. [00:01:33] That would be the Senate candidate in [00:01:35] Maine for the Democratic Party. [00:01:38] According to the ADL in Nazi Germany, [00:01:40] the death's head was a symbol of one of [00:01:41] the branches of the SS whose purpose was [00:01:43] to guard the concentration camps. This [00:01:46] particular shooter also had a long [00:01:47] history of spewing anti-semitic and [00:01:49] racist rhetoric on social media. [00:01:50] According to the New York Post, he [00:01:53] repeatedly referenced white power and [00:01:55] white pride worldwide and also retweeted [00:01:57] footage of people doing the seekle [00:01:59] salute. [00:02:01] He replied to a video praising Adolf [00:02:03] Hitler saying, "Really nice, but a [00:02:05] bleep." And the bleep would be a slur [00:02:07] for Asian person. Made that song. And of [00:02:10] course, the night before he shot up an [00:02:13] ice hockey rink and killed family [00:02:14] members, he had posted with regard to a [00:02:19] a post from Kevin Sorbo that Sarah [00:02:21] McBride is actually a man named Tim [00:02:23] McBride. He wrote back, "Keep bashing [00:02:25] us, but do not wonder why we go [00:02:27] berserk." Why is this important? It's [00:02:29] important because it turns out that the [00:02:31] vast majority of the legacy media are [00:02:32] not covering this. They're not covering [00:02:34] this. Again, only certain ideologically [00:02:36] motivated attacks are worthwhile for the [00:02:38] New York Times to cover. And when it [00:02:40] turns out that there has been a spate of [00:02:42] mentally ill transgender people who are [00:02:45] killing people, it turns out that the [00:02:47] left-wing media, the legacy media, will [00:02:49] simply ignore it to the best of its [00:02:50] possible ability. This is a point being [00:02:53] made by John Noly over at Breitbart. He [00:02:55] says the far-left New York Times is as [00:02:57] good as spreading disinformation by [00:02:59] refusing to report that the alleged [00:03:00] Rhode Island ice hockey shooter was a [00:03:02] transsexual. The Times printed a story [00:03:04] 800 words long. Five so-called reporters [00:03:07] were needed. [00:03:08] As close as the Time was willing to come [00:03:10] was this paragraph. Quote, "At a later [00:03:12] news conference on Monday night, Chief [00:03:14] Gon Calves said that the shooter's birth [00:03:16] name was Robert. She added that the [00:03:18] person also went by the name Robera, but [00:03:19] did not provide further explanation." [00:03:22] Well, I mean, we are in the middle of a [00:03:25] national debate right now about the [00:03:27] rise, the shocking rise of violence done [00:03:29] by transgender people, people who are [00:03:31] selfidentified transgender. So, it would [00:03:33] seem a little bit relevant that this [00:03:34] particular shooting, which was done by a [00:03:37] person who was transgender, had had sex [00:03:40] reassignment surgeries to no avail [00:03:42] because looks very much like a a bulky [00:03:45] dude, and who was in the middle of a [00:03:47] nasty divorce with his wife, who [00:03:49] apparently correctly noted that he was [00:03:51] narcissistic and had mental problems. [00:03:54] When the media ignore this kind of [00:03:55] stuff, they are only ignoring it for one [00:03:56] reason, and that is that the narrative [00:03:58] is more important than the reality. And [00:04:00] this speaks to the broader left-wing [00:04:02] problem. these days, the broader [00:04:03] leftwing problem these days, that [00:04:04] narrative is more important than [00:04:06] reality. And this is true everywhere [00:04:08] from the media to celebrity culture to [00:04:11] the Democratic party itself. We begin [00:04:13] with the big media controversy of the [00:04:15] day that of course is occurring at CBS. [00:04:18] So CBS is experiencing all sorts of [00:04:22] anger, internal rage. Somebody needs to [00:04:26] prescribe some amrazol over there [00:04:27] because everybody's got heartburn. [00:04:30] Steven Colbear is very upset because CBS [00:04:34] he did an interview with James Telerico [00:04:37] on CBS and James Telerico is the [00:04:39] probable Senate nominee for the [00:04:41] Democrats in Texas. [00:04:44] According to the Cali market, 75% of [00:04:47] people in that Cali market believe the [00:04:49] Telerico will be the nominee, not [00:04:50] Jasmine Crockett. Terico has been highly [00:04:53] touted by a wide variety of people on [00:04:55] the political spectrum including of [00:04:57] course Joe Rogan whose show he appeared [00:04:58] on [00:05:00] and CBS spiked the interview and the [00:05:03] reason that they spiked the interview is [00:05:04] because they're afraid of the so-called [00:05:06] equal time rule because the FCC says [00:05:09] that particularly if you are in a Senate [00:05:12] primary for example that if you provide [00:05:14] time to one candidate you also have to [00:05:17] provide time to the other candidate [00:05:19] equal time to the other candidate and [00:05:20] CBS said we don't want provide equal [00:05:22] time to say Jasmine Crockett or some [00:05:23] other fringe candidate. So, we're not [00:05:26] going to air the interview. Well, Coar [00:05:28] then went on the air and ripped into [00:05:30] CBS. At this point, Steven Coar wants to [00:05:32] be fired and I assume that at some point [00:05:35] he will be fired and they will have to [00:05:36] replace him in the job market. So, where [00:05:38] should they go to find the best person [00:05:39] to replace Steven Cobear? They might try [00:05:41] Zip Recruiter because that's the place [00:05:42] you should go as a business if you are [00:05:44] looking for brand new and better [00:05:47] employees. We here at the Daily, we use [00:05:49] Zip Recruiter all the time. Here's the [00:05:51] thing. Zip Recruiter allows you to [00:05:53] address key questions to see if somebody [00:05:55] could be right for the role before you [00:05:56] even begin. That's why you need Zip [00:05:58] Recruiter when you post your job. Zip [00:05:59] Recruiter suggests screening questions [00:06:01] to help you hone in on top candidates [00:06:03] faster. And today, you can try it for [00:06:04] free at ziprecruiter.com/dailywire. 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Four out of five [00:06:44] employers who post on Zip Recruiter will [00:06:45] get a quality candidate within day one. [00:06:47] Try it for free at [00:06:47] ziprecruiter.com/dailywire. [00:06:50] That's ziprecruiter.com/dailywire. [00:06:52] Meet your match on Ziprecruiter. He goes [00:06:54] on the air after this interview is [00:06:56] spiked. And it was spiked, as we will [00:06:57] explore in a moment, for a fairly decent [00:06:59] legal reason. And he proceeds to rip [00:07:02] into CBS. And by the way, CBS allows [00:07:04] this to air. [00:07:06] You you you might have heard of this [00:07:08] thing called the equal time rule. Okay? [00:07:09] It's an old FCC rule that applies only [00:07:11] to radio and broadcast television, not [00:07:14] cable or streaming. that says if a show [00:07:16] has a candidate on during an election, [00:07:18] they have to have all that candidates's [00:07:20] opponents on as well. It's the FCC's [00:07:23] most timehonored rule right after no [00:07:25] nipples at the Super Bowl. [00:07:29] There's there's there's long been an [00:07:30] exception for this rule, an exception [00:07:32] for news interviews and talk show [00:07:36] interviews with politicians. Now, that's [00:07:38] crucial. How else were voters supposed [00:07:40] to know back in '92 that Bill Clinton [00:07:42] sucked at saxophone? [00:07:44] But on January 21st of this year, a [00:07:47] letter was released by FCC chairman and [00:07:50] smug bowling pin Brendan Carr. [00:07:53] In this letter, Carr said he was [00:07:55] thinking about dropping the exception [00:07:57] for talk shows because he said some of [00:07:59] them were motivated by partisan [00:08:01] purposes. Well, sir, you're chairman of [00:08:04] the FCC. So, FCCU. [00:08:10] >> Okay. So, by the way, Brennan Carr is [00:08:12] right. Steven Clar obviously is [00:08:14] motivated by partisan purposes. When was [00:08:16] the last time he had on a major [00:08:17] Republican guest? [00:08:19] When can you name it truly? When has he [00:08:22] invited on a major Republican guest or [00:08:25] and treated that person by the way if he [00:08:27] did with the same sort of kid gloves [00:08:29] with which he treats Democrats? Every [00:08:31] day on the Steven Colbear show is [00:08:33] basically an ad for some Democrat or [00:08:35] other. It is just MS Now but with some [00:08:39] bad jokes. [00:08:41] Well, CBS responded by saying the late [00:08:44] show was not prohibited by CBS from [00:08:45] broadcasting the interview with [00:08:47] Representative James Terico. The show [00:08:48] was provided legal guidance that the [00:08:50] broadcast could trigger the FCC equal [00:08:52] time rule for two other candidates, [00:08:53] including Representative Jasmine [00:08:55] Crockett, and presented options for how [00:08:57] the equal time for other candidates [00:08:58] could be fulfilled. The Late Show [00:09:00] decided to present the interview through [00:09:01] its YouTube channel with on air [00:09:02] promotion on the broadcast rather than [00:09:04] potentially providing the equal time [00:09:05] options. [00:09:07] So, first Coar and team sort of tried to [00:09:10] retail the lie that they would not allow [00:09:13] that the FCC had overtly banned CBS from [00:09:16] airing the interview. That is not true. [00:09:18] Then he tried to retail the lie that CBS [00:09:20] banned the interview with Terico because [00:09:22] what they were afraid of Terico and they [00:09:24] they were saying that if he aired it [00:09:25] with Telerico then presumably he would [00:09:27] also have to have on a Republican like a [00:09:28] John Cornin or a Ken Paxton in the Texas [00:09:30] Senate race. That is not what the equal [00:09:32] time rule says. They're in the middle of [00:09:33] a primary season. he would have had to [00:09:35] had on another Democrat, Representative [00:09:37] Jasmine Crockett. And the late show [00:09:39] itself, like the producers, decided not [00:09:41] to promote that interview on the air [00:09:43] because then they would have to do the [00:09:44] same for other Democrats. [00:09:47] For what it's worth, for what it's [00:09:49] worth, Telerico is basically just [00:09:52] straight Pete Buddha Judge. That is his [00:09:54] entiretick down to the Pastor Pete [00:09:56] routine. So, one of the most irritating [00:09:58] facets of the Pete Buddha Judge for [00:10:00] President campaign, if you can remember [00:10:01] back that far since every day in [00:10:03] American politics is now charted in dog [00:10:05] years. If you remember the Pete Buddha [00:10:07] Judge presidential run, the thing that [00:10:09] irritated me most is when he would cite [00:10:11] the Bible to say completely non-biblical [00:10:13] things where he would suddenly turn into [00:10:16] your world's worst Sunday school teacher [00:10:18] explaining to you that the Bible has [00:10:20] nothing to say about issues ranging from [00:10:22] same-sex marriage to abortion and that [00:10:24] basically it's just a social justice [00:10:26] document drafted by the Democratic [00:10:27] National Committee. Well, now James [00:10:29] Tarico is doing the same exact thing. [00:10:31] He's out there claiming that you're a [00:10:33] bad Christian if you believe that, for [00:10:34] example, same-sex marriage is [00:10:36] non-biblical. For the record, same-sex [00:10:39] marriage is non-biblical. There are many [00:10:41] books of the Bible that reference this, [00:10:43] not least of which is Leviticus. [00:10:46] But here is James Terico trying to do [00:10:48] the past repeat routine. [00:10:51] Jesus gave us two commandments. Love God [00:10:54] and love neighbor. And there was no [00:10:56] exception to that second commandment. [00:10:58] love thy neighbor regardless of race or [00:11:01] gender or sexual orientation or [00:11:04] immigration status or religious [00:11:05] affiliation. And it's why I have fought [00:11:08] so hard for the separation of church and [00:11:10] state in the state capital in Texas. [00:11:14] I'm sorry when Democrats try to retail [00:11:16] their own religiosity on the basis of [00:11:18] Jesus apparently was a post-religious [00:11:21] figure who is in favor of secular [00:11:24] humanism. I may not be a New Testament [00:11:26] expert, but it seems to me that Jesus [00:11:30] was in his human form a Jew growing up [00:11:34] under biblical law and that Jesus then [00:11:36] as the creator of Christianity proceeded [00:11:40] to suggest that people ought to follow [00:11:42] the precepts of Christianity rather [00:11:44] exclusively. [00:11:46] I feel it's a rather non-controversial [00:11:47] take on the Bible. But the thing that [00:11:50] Democrats do where they have they can't [00:11:51] just say, "Listen, they don't do the old [00:11:53] school Bill Clinton routine." It's [00:11:55] amazing how far Democrats have moved in [00:11:56] my lifetime. Democrats used to do this [00:11:58] routine where they would say, "Sure, the [00:11:59] Bible says that abortion is bad, that [00:12:02] Christianity says abortion is bad, [00:12:03] long-standing, several thousand years [00:12:05] old doctrine, that abortion is not a [00:12:07] good and that samesex marriage is not a [00:12:10] thing, and that homosexual activity is a [00:12:12] sin." Right? Like, these are [00:12:13] long-standing religious traditions. But [00:12:16] we have separation of church and state. [00:12:17] And so in terms of public policy, I [00:12:19] don't make public policy on the basis of [00:12:21] biblical law because this is not a [00:12:22] theocracy. That used to be the [00:12:23] democratic stance, [00:12:26] which I think is weak when it comes to [00:12:28] trying to make peace with Christians, [00:12:30] but at least is arguable. The new [00:12:32] democratic stance is that the Bible is [00:12:34] somehow a document that greenlights [00:12:37] same-sex marriage and encourages [00:12:39] abortion, and that if you truly were a [00:12:41] Christian, you would you would be in [00:12:43] favor of all these things. When when [00:12:44] Taller Rico says love thy neighbor means [00:12:46] love thy neighbor regardless of [00:12:48] immigration status or sexual [00:12:49] orientation. [00:12:51] What what when the Bible says that what [00:12:52] it means that you are supposed to love [00:12:54] thy neighbor as thyself but you are not [00:12:57] supposed to love his sin. [00:12:59] In fact you are not supposed to place a [00:13:01] stumbling block in front of the blind. [00:13:02] Another biblical injunction which is [00:13:05] commonly presumed to mean that you are [00:13:07] not supposed to allow your neighbor to [00:13:09] go without redress if he is sinning. [00:13:12] You're supposed to warn him. That is a [00:13:13] biblical injunction to warn your [00:13:15] neighbor if he is sinning. [00:13:18] But again, it's all about the virtue [00:13:19] signaling for the Democrats. And so, [00:13:21] back to CBS again, what what's happening [00:13:23] at CBS right now is an attempt to [00:13:26] basically scuttle the ownership change [00:13:28] at CBS and also to go after Barry Weiss [00:13:30] at CBS News. It is all a virtue [00:13:32] signaling point. It has nothing to do [00:13:34] with reality. [00:13:35] Democratic lawmakers, for their part, [00:13:37] are suggesting they're now going to [00:13:38] investigate CBS [00:13:44] Representative Darren Sodto of Florida [00:13:45] accused Brendan Carr of blocking [00:13:46] Democratic candidates as part of his [00:13:48] reign on unlawful censorship, vowing a [00:13:50] reckoning is coming and including an [00:13:52] investigation of this outrage by [00:13:54] Democrats on the House Energy and [00:13:55] Commerce Committee. Ooh, the vaunted [00:13:57] House Energy and Commerce Committee, an [00:13:59] investigation, [00:14:01] by the way, just shows you what [00:14:02] Democrats are going to do with Congress [00:14:03] if they happen to win in 2026, which is [00:14:05] shut everything down. I mean, basically, [00:14:07] it's going to be investigations out the [00:14:08] wazoo. Nothing will happen ever again. [00:14:10] Meanwhile, Anderson Cooper is doing the [00:14:12] same routine. So, he is leaving 60 [00:14:14] Minutes. He actually was given an offer [00:14:15] by CBS News to remain, but apparently he [00:14:19] is turning that down. [00:14:21] You would assume the reason he's turning [00:14:22] that down is sort of a soft slap at [00:14:24] Barry Weiss and her takeover of CBS [00:14:27] News. [00:14:30] He put out a statement, quote, "Being a [00:14:31] correspondent at 60 Minutes has been one [00:14:33] of the highlights of my career. I got to [00:14:35] tell amazing stories and work with some [00:14:36] of the best producers, editors, and [00:14:37] camera crews in the business. For nearly [00:14:39] 20 years, I've been able to balance my [00:14:41] jobs at CNN and CBS. But I have little [00:14:43] kids now, and I want to spend as much [00:14:44] time with them as possible while they [00:14:45] want to spend time with me. So, I I [00:14:48] imagine that sometime in the near [00:14:49] future, he will come out with his [00:14:51] ringing critique of Barry Weiss and and [00:14:54] the Ellison's. And it is all about the [00:14:56] virtue signaling for the Democrats. It [00:14:58] is not about reality. Speaking of which, [00:15:01] Dave Chappelle has become increasingly [00:15:03] unfunny, which is sad to say because [00:15:04] Dave Chappelle is unbelievably talented. [00:15:06] If you watch some of his earlier [00:15:07] specials, he's an amazing storyteller. [00:15:10] I'm not sure that there there has ever [00:15:11] been a comedian who has as good a story, [00:15:14] just a pure storyteller as Dave [00:15:15] Chappelle, but increasingly he's sort of [00:15:18] just steering into left-wing wokeness [00:15:22] and and jokes that are predicated on the [00:15:24] idea that he is a rebel for saying [00:15:25] things that are essentially in the DNC [00:15:27] charter. [00:15:29] Well, over the last 48 hours, Dave [00:15:31] Chappelle decided that it would be [00:15:32] worthwhile to lay flowers at a memorial [00:15:35] for anti-ICE activist Alex Prey. He [00:15:38] visited the Alex Prey Memorial over in [00:15:40] Minnesota, did Dave Chappelle. [00:15:44] Here we go. [00:15:50] Cameras are following him. A lot of [00:15:51] cameras there. There he is delivering [00:15:52] his flowers. [00:15:56] Now, of course, he's doing this for the [00:15:58] cameras. as Dave Chappelle. Clearly, [00:15:59] when you're a person as famous as Dave [00:16:01] Chappelle, you are doing this for a [00:16:02] reason. [00:16:04] And and the goal here, of course, is to [00:16:07] serve as a critique of the Trump [00:16:09] administration and their immigration [00:16:11] policy. [00:16:13] So, why is he doing that? The answer, of [00:16:15] course, is to signal. It is a virtue [00:16:17] signal to his liberal audience that he [00:16:18] is one of them. He's not the first [00:16:20] comedian who had been sort of given a [00:16:22] soft treatment by the right who has done [00:16:23] this. Bill Burr, of course, has done [00:16:24] this repeatedly. Bill Burr made the [00:16:27] fatal career mistake of becoming [00:16:29] somewhat popular on the right to center [00:16:31] right and then he decided he had to [00:16:33] swivel hard left in order to show all of [00:16:35] his friends where he really stood. [00:16:36] Chappelle is doing some of the same [00:16:37] stuff. The reason I find this [00:16:38] hypocritical and ridiculous of course is [00:16:40] that when it comes to say immigration [00:16:42] issues, Dave Chappelle standing up [00:16:45] against ICE for tossing illegal [00:16:47] immigrants. kind of a fascinating take [00:16:49] from a dude who in 2022 quite famously [00:16:53] rebelled against his HOA because they [00:16:56] were going to build some affordable [00:16:57] housing in the general area. He showed [00:17:00] up at a village council meeting in Ohio [00:17:03] to protest the construction of a [00:17:04] residential community on a 52 acre plot [00:17:07] just north of his house and proceeded to [00:17:09] basically yell at everybody at the city [00:17:11] council. So you want to see nimism in [00:17:13] action? Nimism in action is illegal [00:17:15] immigration broadscale. I should stop [00:17:17] enforcing it, but never should you ever [00:17:20] build affordable housing within general [00:17:24] eyesight of my home. [00:17:27] Dave Chappelle attended a public hearing [00:17:29] in the Ohio village he lives in to [00:17:31] oppose a housing development plan. So, [00:17:33] at the meeting, Dave threatened to pull [00:17:35] a restaurant and comedy club he plans to [00:17:37] build in the town of Yellow Springs. If [00:17:40] the proposal, which included affordable [00:17:41] housing, went through, let's watch. I [00:17:44] cannot believe you would make me [00:17:46] audition for you. You look like clowns. [00:17:50] I am not buffing. I will take it all off [00:17:53] the table. That's all. Thank you. [00:17:57] So, yes, that one. I mean, nimism at its [00:18:00] finest. But unfortunately, this has [00:18:02] become the essence of the Democratic [00:18:04] party from again the media to celebrity [00:18:06] culture to the party itself. Celebrity [00:18:08] culture, by the way, Spike Lee made a [00:18:11] fool of himself. one of the most [00:18:12] overrated directors in modern American [00:18:15] history, Spike Lee. He went to the [00:18:17] Intuitit Dome in Southern California for [00:18:18] the NBA All-Star game. And he decided [00:18:21] that he was going to wear a pro [00:18:22] Palestinian look, a shirt that was based [00:18:24] on the Palestinian Kafia, as well as a [00:18:28] purse, which I'm sure would be [00:18:30] wellreceived in in the Gaza Strip. A [00:18:32] purse, a man purse with a strap with the [00:18:36] Palestinian flag upon it. Why did he do [00:18:38] that? Well, the the reason that he did [00:18:40] that is because for the first time an [00:18:42] Israeli player actually made the [00:18:43] All-Star game, a guy named Denny Aia who [00:18:46] plays for the Portland Trailblazers. [00:18:48] And so Spike Lee was obviously I mean [00:18:50] what a schmuck. Seriously, a dude from a [00:18:53] country that you're not fond of makes an [00:18:55] All-Star game and you decide that you [00:18:56] have to protest it. But this is who the [00:18:58] Democrats are. You know, Spike Lee, if [00:19:00] he is going to, you know, spend his time [00:19:02] critiquing other countries, maybe he [00:19:04] should spend some time in some of the [00:19:05] worst parts of the world so he could be [00:19:06] a little bit more grateful for Western [00:19:08] civilization. But while he's traveling [00:19:10] to those terrible parts of the world, [00:19:11] perhaps he should protect his internet [00:19:12] activity the way you should when you [00:19:14] travel with, you know what I'm going to [00:19:16] say, ExpressVPN. See, here's the thing. [00:19:18] When you go all over the world, you [00:19:20] actually don't know who's on your [00:19:21] network. If the Wi-Fi is secure, if the [00:19:23] government is watching your data, that's [00:19:24] why I take privacy seriously and why I [00:19:26] use our sponsor, ExpressVPN. It's fast. [00:19:28] It's reliable. It keeps my information [00:19:30] safe. ExpressVPN is the app I trust to [00:19:32] protect my privacy online. Period. It [00:19:34] reroutes your internet connection so [00:19:35] nobody, not your Wi-Fi admin, not your [00:19:37] service provider, not even government [00:19:38] agencies, can spy on what it is that you [00:19:41] are doing. Obviously, I travel a lot. [00:19:43] When I'm out of town, I have to use [00:19:44] public Wi-Fi. I'm using like hotel [00:19:46] Wi-Fi. And I don't know who's on that [00:19:47] network, so I'm using ExpressVPN. [00:19:49] ExpressVPN encrypts 100% of your data, [00:19:51] your login, credit cards, all of it. So, [00:19:52] hackers are completely out of luck. And [00:19:54] here's the thing. It is the only VPN [00:19:56] that I actually recommend cuz I use it. [00:19:57] It's ranked number one by the Virgin [00:19:59] CNET. You can use it on up to 14 devices [00:20:01] at once. That means your whole family is [00:20:03] protected. Right now, you can get [00:20:04] ExpressVPN for just 3.49 a month. That's [00:20:07] less than 12 cents a day. And my [00:20:08] listeners can get an additional four [00:20:10] months of service when you use my link [00:20:11] at expressvpn.com/ben. [00:20:13] That's exvvpn.com/ben [00:20:16] for four additional months of service [00:20:17] with ExpressVPN. I keep saying this on a [00:20:20] broad level, but it happens to be true. [00:20:21] So, the New York Times just did a focus [00:20:23] group on the Democratic Party among [00:20:27] Democrats [00:20:28] and people were asked, "What word would [00:20:31] you use to describe the Democratic [00:20:32] Party?" [00:20:34] People said sold out, afraid, paralyzed. [00:20:37] So, the focus group was 13 Democratic [00:20:39] voters. And according to the New York [00:20:41] Times, participants in our group weren't [00:20:43] unclear about what the party stands for, [00:20:45] the greater good and the protection of [00:20:47] civil rights. But many also expressed [00:20:48] dissatisfaction with a lack of resolve [00:20:50] this past year during shutdown fights as [00:20:52] well as more broadly. Even recognizing [00:20:54] that there isn't always much Democrats [00:20:56] can do out of power, people wanted more [00:20:57] action and more aggression, especially [00:20:59] if and when Democrats take power again. [00:21:02] In particular, they wanted candidates [00:21:03] who are young, progressive, and from a [00:21:05] more modest or working-class background [00:21:06] with clear and simple messages. As for [00:21:09] the Democrats who are standing out to [00:21:10] these people, Jasmine Crockett, Pete [00:21:12] Buddha Judge, Zoran Mandani, Gavin [00:21:13] Newsome, many of them are ones who have [00:21:16] made a point in appearing in combative [00:21:17] media environments. [00:21:19] So bottom line is what Democrats want at [00:21:21] this point, what the Democratic base [00:21:23] wants at this point is people who shout [00:21:25] at the walls. They want people who [00:21:26] virtue signal. Whenever you spot an [00:21:29] uptick in the supply of a product, you [00:21:31] should also look for an uptick in the [00:21:33] demand for that product. And the reason [00:21:35] that you are seeing performative outrage [00:21:36] from Democrats across the spectrum in [00:21:38] the elected sphere and in celebrity [00:21:40] culture is because they feel that this [00:21:42] is what the people want from them. [00:21:46] Democratic voters are frustrated with [00:21:48] dominance of President Trump and so they [00:21:51] are interested in politicians who are [00:21:53] going to channel that anger and that [00:21:55] outrage apparently in the dumbest [00:21:57] possible ways. Not only that, it turns [00:22:00] out that the people who are outraged [00:22:02] programmed [00:22:04] are the ones who are going to vote in [00:22:05] primaries and fund a lot of the [00:22:07] Democratic projects, which is why the [00:22:08] Democratic Party systemically has a [00:22:10] problem where it can't moderate. Alicia [00:22:12] Nevs has a piece over at Compact [00:22:15] Magazine called Why the Democratic Party [00:22:17] can't moderate. And she points out that [00:22:20] the Democratic Party structurally has a [00:22:22] major problem. Quote, "Because the state [00:22:24] Democratic Party does not centralize [00:22:25] candidate funding, candidates must build [00:22:27] their own donor networks. That means [00:22:28] seeking support from national [00:22:30] progressive organizations and packs that [00:22:32] have the resources to fill the gap. To [00:22:34] access this funding, my candidate and I [00:22:36] spent hours completing detailed [00:22:37] questionnaires that functioned as [00:22:38] ideological purity tests. The answers [00:22:40] determined whether we would receive [00:22:42] money and how much. It also required us [00:22:44] to place their organizational logos on [00:22:45] the campaign's websites and display [00:22:47] their form endorsement on social media [00:22:49] channels. This meant adopting positions [00:22:51] and messaging crafted by outside groups [00:22:53] often centered on abortion rights, LGBTQ [00:22:55] plus issues, or national cultural [00:22:57] debates that were not the dominant [00:22:58] concerns of district voters. Our [00:23:01] district, writes Elicia, covering large [00:23:03] portions of San Antonio Southside, home [00:23:05] to a working-class, socially [00:23:06] conservative Hispanic population that [00:23:08] was focused on jobs, public safety, and [00:23:10] affordability. [00:23:12] This is a major problem for the [00:23:13] Democrats. By the way, it's a problem [00:23:14] for the Republicans, too, as I think [00:23:16] will become apparent in coming years. [00:23:18] The truth is that the political parties [00:23:20] have never been weaker. And because they [00:23:22] are weak, you have outside interest [00:23:23] groups that are basically dictating the [00:23:25] speed and tenor with which positions are [00:23:28] adopted. And that's how you have [00:23:30] normally fringe players like say Azoran [00:23:32] Mandani becoming mayor of New York. [00:23:35] Your Zoran Mandani update. By the way, [00:23:36] Democrats very warm on Zoran Mandani [00:23:38] these days. Well, he has just announced [00:23:41] a 127 billion budget proposal. $127 [00:23:46] billion. [00:23:48] So, how exactly is he going to pay for [00:23:50] all that? You know where this is going? [00:23:52] You know where it's going. Yep. He's [00:23:53] going to raise your taxes. [00:23:56] These are the kinds of reserves that [00:23:58] what we would rather do is ensure that [00:24:00] they remain as they are so that the city [00:24:02] can be on firm financial footing. [00:24:04] However, in order to get to this point [00:24:06] of closing the gap on both this fiscal [00:24:08] year and the next fiscal year, we are [00:24:10] forced to raid the rainy day fund, the [00:24:13] retirey health benefits trust reserve, [00:24:15] and to increase property taxes across [00:24:17] these other years. [00:24:19] So, remember that time that he said he [00:24:21] was going to reduce the rents? So, he's [00:24:22] going to reduce the rents by increasing [00:24:23] the rents because guess what happens [00:24:25] when you increase property taxes? What [00:24:27] do you think happens? That's right, the [00:24:29] rents go up. Yes. Well done once again, [00:24:32] Democratic Socialist of America. You've [00:24:34] done it. You've lowered the prices by [00:24:36] raising the prices. By the way, how much [00:24:38] money is he spending? Well, by way of [00:24:39] contrast, in 2001, Rudy Giuliani's [00:24:42] budget was $ 38.5 billion, and his [00:24:45] revenue was $38.5 billion. [00:24:48] Fast forward to 2014 under communist [00:24:50] Bill Delasio, the budget was $72.7 [00:24:52] billion. Revenue was $73 billion. [00:24:56] Eric Adams dramatically increased the [00:24:57] budget $118 billion revenue $119 billion [00:25:00] as of 2025. And now Mani is raising it [00:25:03] again $127 billion. His revenue [00:25:06] projected [00:25:07] creates a $5.4 billion gap. So how is he [00:25:10] going to fix that supposed crisis again? [00:25:12] A crisis that exists only because of his [00:25:14] insane overspending, a property tax hike [00:25:16] on everybody and forcing the state to [00:25:19] fill in the gap if they don't want to [00:25:21] see the property taxes hiked. She's [00:25:22] basically trying to blackmail the state [00:25:24] government to push a wealth tax in order [00:25:27] to avoid him property taxing everybody [00:25:29] in New York. Congrats to New Yorkers. [00:25:31] You have done a wonderful job of [00:25:32] absolutely screwing yourselves. Just [00:25:34] well done. Truly well done. [00:25:38] The 9.5% property tax hike would affect [00:25:40] all owners and indirectly all renters. [00:25:43] He also announced that he'd be drawing [00:25:44] down his rainy day fund and his retirey [00:25:47] health trust. Oh, you geniuses. You [00:25:50] you've done it again. People [00:25:53] get what they deserve in politics and uh [00:25:55] and New York City is no exception. [00:25:58] Joining me on the line is Jason Riley. [00:26:00] He's a senior fellow at the Manhattan [00:26:01] Institute and a columnist for the Wall [00:26:03] Street Journal. His new book, The [00:26:05] Affirmative Action Myth: Why Blacks [00:26:06] Don't Need Racial Preferences to [00:26:08] Succeed, is available right now. Jason, [00:26:10] thanks so much for the time. Really [00:26:11] appreciate it. [00:26:12] >> Thanks for having me. [00:26:14] >> So, obviously, Jesse Jackson passed away [00:26:16] over the course of the last couple of [00:26:18] days. his his legacy has been treated as [00:26:22] an unvarnished good mostly by by the [00:26:25] legacy media. There are some on the [00:26:26] right who have obviously been critical [00:26:28] of his legacy. You've been following [00:26:29] Jesse Jackson and his career for a very [00:26:31] long time. What do you make of Jesse [00:26:32] Jackson? Obviously, we're trying to be [00:26:34] respectful because the man just passed [00:26:36] away, but what was his legacy? [00:26:39] >> Well, it's it's complicated, Ben, [00:26:41] because it starts um out in the 1960s. [00:26:45] He's one of the youngest allies of [00:26:47] Martin Luther King and that's really how [00:26:49] he got his start. And then of course you [00:26:51] have the years in which he ran for [00:26:53] president 1984 and 1988 and he did [00:26:57] inspire a lot of black people to become [00:26:59] more politically engaged. I was in high [00:27:02] school in 1988 and I recall a lot of uh [00:27:05] black friends who uh volunteered for his [00:27:08] campaign and so forth and were very [00:27:10] excited to see a viable black uh [00:27:12] presidential candidate. Uh but the [00:27:15] reason his legacy is so complicated, [00:27:17] Ben, is because after that he really [00:27:20] turned to what I'd have to call racial [00:27:22] hustling. Um and that is his other [00:27:25] legacy. Um he began an organization that [00:27:29] essentially went around uh shaking down [00:27:31] businesses in particular and Wall Street [00:27:33] businesses especially for money. Uh they [00:27:36] would pay him to go away. he would [00:27:39] criticize them uh until they paid up and [00:27:42] then he would go away and move on to uh [00:27:45] the next company. And he became uh a [00:27:48] very uh wealthy man uh doing this over [00:27:51] the years, over the decades. And that [00:27:53] unfortunately is one of his legacies. [00:27:55] and and and and the reason it's it's [00:27:57] unfortunate is because when one of the [00:28:00] most prominent black people in the [00:28:02] country uh is known as a shakedown [00:28:05] artist, it's not particularly helpful uh [00:28:07] to other blacks in terms of their image [00:28:09] uh among other people in the country. [00:28:11] And and that is what I think uh is one [00:28:14] of the reasons his legacy is so [00:28:15] complicated. And he had been a [00:28:17] controversial obviously even in the [00:28:19] circles that that Martin Luther King [00:28:20] traveled in from very early on because [00:28:22] he had been telling stories out of [00:28:24] school about how he had been the person [00:28:25] cradling Martin Luther King when he died [00:28:27] after he had been shot. It turned out [00:28:28] that he was actually downstairs and he [00:28:30] wasn't he was in the building but but he [00:28:32] wasn't actually the person who was [00:28:33] cradling Martin Luther King at the time. [00:28:35] That was a big controversy at the time [00:28:37] when he was the person in charge of [00:28:38] Operation Bread Basket which was a a [00:28:40] program that was started by Martin [00:28:42] Luther King Jr. in order to achieve more [00:28:44] minority hiring with businesses that [00:28:46] hereto for had not been hiring enough [00:28:47] black people. There were allegations [00:28:49] that there was some financial impropriy [00:28:51] there and of course he also brought Al [00:28:53] Sharpton to the to the public scene in [00:28:56] 1969 when he when he actually hired him [00:28:59] to direct Operation Bread Basket. So So [00:29:01] there have been some some questions [00:29:02] about Jesse Jackson going back a pretty [00:29:04] long time. [00:29:05] >> Oh yes, absolutely. And and you're [00:29:07] right, it starts right there with the um [00:29:09] assassination of Martin Luther King in [00:29:10] Memphis where uh Ralph Abernathy, [00:29:13] another um uh lieutenant of uh and and [00:29:16] really mentor of Martin Luther King, [00:29:18] disputed Jesse Jackson's account of what [00:29:20] happened on that day. Uh so it does go [00:29:23] back a long ways. He was uh someone who [00:29:25] was known as a self arandizer, a big [00:29:28] self-promoter. And you mentioned El [00:29:30] Sharpton and some others there. And [00:29:32] that's another part of his legacy. I I [00:29:33] you know I I say that Jesse Jackson was [00:29:36] one of the leading figures in what [00:29:38] became um uh a sort of racial grievance [00:29:41] industry in this country. Uh Sharpton [00:29:43] also epitomized this. Uh they made a lot [00:29:46] of money uh blaming all black problems [00:29:49] on white people on white racism and [00:29:52] really doing things that helped [00:29:54] themselves personally rather than blacks [00:29:56] broadly as King had. I mean you it's [00:29:58] easy to tell to tell you what Martin [00:30:00] Luther King's legacy is. I mean, it's [00:30:02] the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It's the [00:30:04] Voting Rights Act of 1965. But what is [00:30:07] Sharpton's legacy? What is Jesse [00:30:08] Jackson's legacy? That's much much more [00:30:11] more more difficult. The other thing [00:30:13] that uh Jackson epitomized is really all [00:30:16] that went wrong with the civil rights [00:30:18] leadership. Uh starting in the 1960s, [00:30:22] King and his generation was all about [00:30:25] colorblindness. It was about uh equal [00:30:28] opportunity. [00:30:30] Jackson transformed this into uh racial [00:30:34] preferences, special treatment, not [00:30:36] equal treatment, special treatment. And [00:30:38] in doing so, black civil rights leaders [00:30:41] lost a lot of allies that they [00:30:43] previously had. Uh Jews, Jewish [00:30:45] organizations among them had been side [00:30:47] by side marching with King and so forth. [00:30:50] But when the shift moved to special [00:30:52] treatment instead of equal treatment, a [00:30:55] lot of these former allies says, "We can [00:30:56] no longer stand with you on this." and [00:30:59] and Jackson was part of that generation [00:31:01] that led that shift in emphasis. And [00:31:04] it's unfortunate because what Jackson [00:31:06] and others thought was necessary was [00:31:08] more black political power, per se, [00:31:11] particularly after the Voting Rights Act [00:31:12] passed. They thought that all of these [00:31:14] racial gaps in this country would be [00:31:16] closed if we could just get more of our [00:31:18] own people in office, more black elected [00:31:21] officials. That was part of his [00:31:23] presidential run. That was also part of [00:31:25] Obama's presidential run later. And we [00:31:27] found out uh uh today we know uh from [00:31:31] experience that you know the problems [00:31:33] that ail the black community are not [00:31:35] necessarily going to be solved by a [00:31:37] black president or by more black elected [00:31:39] officials. We've had black people [00:31:41] running large cities with large black [00:31:43] populations for decades now. But if you [00:31:46] look at, you know, Marian Barry's [00:31:47] Washington DC or Coleman Young's Detroit [00:31:49] or Sharp James' New York or David [00:31:52] Denkins New York and on and on and on, [00:31:54] what you see in many cases is are the [00:31:56] black poor becoming more impoverished on [00:31:59] the watch of these uh black mayors and [00:32:02] governors and and senators and [00:32:04] congressmen and so forth. So that is not [00:32:06] necessarily what is going to fix what [00:32:08] ails the black community. I've long said [00:32:10] that uh black people uh need much more [00:32:14] uh a black man in the home than they do [00:32:16] a black man in the White House. And I [00:32:18] think Obama's presidency proved that to [00:32:20] be the case. But what really got that [00:32:21] ball running, I think, was Jesse [00:32:23] Jackson's uh runs for president back in [00:32:25] the 1980s where he put out there this [00:32:28] idea that what black people really need [00:32:30] are is is more black political power in [00:32:32] this country and that will solve these [00:32:34] problems. Well, one of the things that [00:32:36] that really is sort of fascinating about [00:32:38] Jackson's career and the transformations [00:32:40] politically that you're mentioning is [00:32:41] that, you know, running as a person who [00:32:43] wanted sort of economic [00:32:45] redistributionism, which is something [00:32:46] that obviously MLK Jr. was very much in [00:32:48] favor of, right? Those of us who are on [00:32:50] the right love the individualistic [00:32:52] message of MLK Jr., but we were not [00:32:54] necessarily fond of his idea of how much [00:32:55] government should intervene in the [00:32:57] economy. But that was transformed by [00:32:59] people like Jesse Jackson and Al [00:33:00] Sharpton into, as you mentioned, a sort [00:33:02] of racial grievance industry. and and [00:33:04] that manifested itself in in Jackson and [00:33:06] in Sharpton in a fair bit of anti-Jewish [00:33:09] baiting that happened largely in in the [00:33:10] 1980s and early 1990s. Famously, Jesse [00:33:13] Jackson was caught on tape in 1984 using [00:33:15] slurs with regard to New York with [00:33:16] regard to Jews. And you mentioned the [00:33:18] sort of distancing that happened between [00:33:19] the Jewish community and the black [00:33:21] community as a result. And I think one [00:33:23] of the things that's fascinating about [00:33:24] our modern politics is how the [00:33:26] Democratic Party seems to have almost [00:33:27] embraced the grievance-based politics of [00:33:31] a Jesse Jackson circa 1984 or 1988 over [00:33:34] the redistributionism that was actually [00:33:36] preached by many of the civil rights [00:33:37] leaders in the 1960s. They they moved [00:33:39] away from the sort of class-based [00:33:42] argument that was being made on the left [00:33:43] by a lot of racial civil rights leaders [00:33:46] and they moved toward a more race-based [00:33:49] consciousness that has now infused the [00:33:50] entire Democratic party and really torn [00:33:52] apart the country in some pretty dark [00:33:54] ways. [00:33:56] >> Absolutely. And and as I say, your [00:33:58] Jacksons and Sharptons led the charge [00:34:00] here and it's been very lucrative. I I I [00:34:03] think that's one of the reasons it's [00:34:05] been sustained for so long. You can make [00:34:07] a very good living in this country if [00:34:10] you're a black person who goes around [00:34:12] blaming all problems in the black [00:34:13] community on white people. Uh, black [00:34:16] politicians use this to get people to [00:34:18] the polls. You know, Jim Crow 2.0, uh, [00:34:22] voter ID laws, it's all the same. [00:34:24] Nothing's changed. That's been the [00:34:26] message coming out of the Black Left for [00:34:28] a long, long time. I'm I'm, you know, [00:34:31] more optimistic that it's starting to [00:34:32] work less and less. Uh, Ben, I I don't [00:34:35] think that it has the resonance that it [00:34:38] once did. Even organizations like Black [00:34:40] Lives Matter, I think, have lost a lot [00:34:42] of credibility with the general public [00:34:44] by playing from the song book that that [00:34:47] uh that was written largely by the Jesse [00:34:49] Jacksons out there. So, I I I'm [00:34:51] optimistic that it isn't working as [00:34:52] well. Uh, you're right, it is divisive. [00:34:55] Um, and and also it doesn't help black [00:34:58] people broadly. I mean what what the [00:35:00] civil rights leadership needed to focus [00:35:02] on after those tremendous gains, the [00:35:04] Civil Rights Act of 64 and the Voting [00:35:06] Rights Act of 65 were preparing uh the [00:35:10] black underclass in particular to take [00:35:12] advantage of these opportunities. Uh [00:35:14] that means uh uh you know developing [00:35:16] attitudes that are uh conducive to [00:35:18] upward mobility in terms of attitudes [00:35:20] towards school, attitudes towards the [00:35:22] rule of law and crime, uh attitudes [00:35:25] towards marriage and raising children [00:35:27] and so forth. These are sort of cultural [00:35:29] transformations that had to take place. [00:35:31] And instead, I think the black community [00:35:34] and the black leadership, I should say, [00:35:36] in particular, took their eye off the [00:35:38] ball and started pulling all of their [00:35:40] eggs in this basket of seeking more [00:35:41] political power, per se, as the answer [00:35:44] to these problems. And we've lo learned [00:35:46] the hard way that that was simply the [00:35:48] wrong way to go. That is Jason Riley, [00:35:51] senior fellow at Manhattan Institute and [00:35:52] columnist for the Wall Street Journal. [00:35:54] Go check out his book, The Affirmative [00:35:55] Action Myth: Why Blacks Don't Need [00:35:56] Racial Preferences to Succeed. Jason, [00:35:58] thanks so much for the time and the [00:35:59] insight. [00:36:01] >> Thank you. [00:36:02] >> Meanwhile, again, because the Democratic [00:36:04] Party is dominated by radicals, they [00:36:05] can't disconnect from their own [00:36:06] radicalism on immigration either. You've [00:36:08] seen them try to make some moves toward [00:36:10] this, saying that President Trump is [00:36:11] right about closing the border, that Joe [00:36:13] Biden went too far and and all the rest. [00:36:15] But the reality is that when forced to [00:36:18] the M, Democrats will always come out in [00:36:20] favor of sanctuary cities and soft on [00:36:22] the border policies. Philadelphia Mayor [00:36:23] Charelle Parker was asked a basic [00:36:25] question yesterday about sanctuary [00:36:27] cities. She couldn't even answer that. [00:36:29] >> What does the term sanctuary city mean [00:36:31] to you, Mayor? [00:36:34] What I want to tell you about [00:36:39] Philadelphia, and this is extremely [00:36:42] important, [00:36:43] that you, Claudia Vargas, have been [00:36:46] provided an answer to the question that [00:36:50] you just asked from our city solicitor, [00:36:54] Philadelphia. That means the chief [00:36:57] lawyer for the city of Philadelphia, [00:36:58] Renee Garcia, is our city solicitor. And [00:37:02] what we are, the term we use to describe [00:37:06] our city is that we are a welcoming [00:37:09] city. [00:37:12] It's a welcoming city. A welcoming city [00:37:14] for the drug addicts down in Kensington, [00:37:17] by the way, which is just go view the [00:37:20] episode that we did, Divided States of [00:37:21] Biden, where we went to Kensington, [00:37:23] which sort of an outlying area of [00:37:24] Philadelphia. They're doing an amazing [00:37:26] job being welcoming and uh and it's not [00:37:28] going amazing. [00:37:30] Contrast that with the adult in the [00:37:31] room, Marco Rubio. Secretary Rubio. He [00:37:34] was asked about throwing people out of [00:37:36] the country who are undermining American [00:37:37] interests. And he said, "Yeah, those [00:37:38] people should go." [00:37:40] I've said this repeatedly. I don't know [00:37:42] why it's so hard for some to comprehend [00:37:44] it. So, let me repeat it again. A visa, [00:37:46] no one's entitled to a visa. There is no [00:37:48] constitutional right to a visa. Okay? A [00:37:50] visa is a permission to enter our [00:37:53] country as a visitor. If you enter our [00:37:55] country as a visitor and as a visitor in [00:37:58] our country, be it a student, a tourist, [00:38:00] a journalist, whatever you want to be, [00:38:01] and you undertake activities that are [00:38:03] against the national interest, the [00:38:04] national security of the United States, [00:38:06] we will take away your visa. In fact, if [00:38:08] we knew you were going to do it, we [00:38:09] probably wouldn't have given you your [00:38:11] visa. [00:38:13] Yep. Yep. It turns out that adult [00:38:15] governance is the thing that is [00:38:17] necessary. Adult governance would be a [00:38:19] really, really good thing. Speaking of [00:38:21] which, the Trump administration right [00:38:23] now is not in good order with the [00:38:24] American people. Okay, those are just [00:38:26] the polls. I I regret to inform you that [00:38:28] the president is not polling [00:38:29] particularly well right now. His [00:38:30] approval ratings are not good. I wish [00:38:33] they were. They are not. His job [00:38:35] approval rating, according to Real Clear [00:38:37] Polling right now, is clocking in on [00:38:39] average at probably the lowest point of [00:38:41] either presidency. He's down at about [00:38:43] the 40% range. The latest polls from [00:38:46] Morning Consult have him down at 43% [00:38:48] with 55% disapproving. Reuters Ipsos has [00:38:50] him at 3860, which is a terrible split. [00:38:52] Obviously, the economist Yuggov has him [00:38:55] at minus 12. These are not good numbers. [00:38:58] And I've suggested before that I think [00:39:00] one of the reasons his numbers are not [00:39:01] good is because the people who are out [00:39:02] there representing him will not give us [00:39:04] a break. All Americans want is adult [00:39:06] governance. They're looking at the [00:39:07] Democratic Party. They still see a party [00:39:09] of open borders. They still see a party [00:39:12] of Steven Cobbears. They still see a [00:39:15] party that is promoting the idea that [00:39:17] men can be women. They refuse to let [00:39:19] that stuff go. And so all they're asking [00:39:21] from the Trump administration is good, [00:39:23] steady policym that makes their lives [00:39:25] better. In other words, a quieter [00:39:27] administration. I bring this up because [00:39:30] even the stuff that's kind of like dumb [00:39:31] online who cares stuff, it does shape [00:39:34] how you think about people. It just [00:39:36] does. And if the sort of clown act by [00:39:40] members of the Trump administration goes [00:39:42] over well on X to to the brains of [00:39:45] people who have who have broken brains [00:39:46] largely X is is a place of broken [00:39:48] brains. That doesn't necessarily mean [00:39:50] it's going to speak to the rest of [00:39:51] America. So two things can be true at [00:39:53] once. One stuff that's really funny [00:39:55] happens on X every single day. And two, [00:39:57] that is not the way you program an [00:39:58] administration if you are looking for [00:40:00] broadscale popularity and success. [00:40:03] Being too online is a problem. So, this [00:40:06] brings us to an ad that was put out [00:40:08] yesterday by the RFK MA Department of [00:40:13] Health and Human Services. And again, [00:40:15] listen, I understand it's meant to be [00:40:16] funny and and to a certain extent, I [00:40:19] think that it's it's I mean, it's very [00:40:20] memeable. It was obviously meant to be [00:40:22] cheesy. This isn't a rip completely with [00:40:25] regard to RFK Jr. or Kidrock or even the [00:40:28] social media team. This is this would be [00:40:30] good social media if we were not talking [00:40:32] about the Secretary of Health and Human [00:40:34] Services. But here we go. [00:40:42] >> So, for those who can't see, uh they are [00:40:44] apparently at some sort of club and uh [00:40:46] it says Rockout Workout with some very [00:40:48] cheesy VHS graphics and eagles and such. [00:40:51] And then Kid Rock decides to take off [00:40:53] his shirt um which I'm not sure anybody [00:40:56] needed. And uh and then you have RFK [00:41:00] who's about to go do the same. And here [00:41:02] you have RFK doing some bicep curls. And [00:41:04] then you have um and then you have both [00:41:07] him and Kid Rock doing some tricep [00:41:09] extensions. [00:41:17] And then you have them both in the sauna [00:41:19] with Kid Rock doing push-ups in the [00:41:23] background and then both of them riding [00:41:25] an exercise genie from like 1982 in your [00:41:28] grandmother's basement. And then you [00:41:29] have RFK in jeans getting into an ice [00:41:32] bath in jeans. [00:41:36] >> He's he's apparently it's fk never nude. [00:41:39] >> And then he says, "Where's Kid Rock?" [00:41:40] And Kid Rock is in the jacuzzi. And RFK [00:41:42] Jr. is looking at him skeptically and [00:41:43] there's Kid Rock and And now they're [00:41:45] going to play pickle ball. [00:41:57] And then they are drinking whole milk. [00:41:59] >> It does a body good. [00:42:04] >> Drinking whole milk and going in ice [00:42:06] baths with their jeans. And then it [00:42:08] says, "Make America healthy again." Now [00:42:09] again, is that the sort of thing that is [00:42:11] programmed to go viral? Sure. Is it [00:42:13] funny? Sure. I mean, I laughed when I [00:42:14] first saw it. I laughed. and it's meant [00:42:16] to be poking fun at itself and all the [00:42:18] rest of it, that's fine. However, if you [00:42:20] wish to be seen as a serious [00:42:22] administration and not as a joke, then [00:42:24] this sort of thing is not super duper [00:42:26] helpful. It just isn't. And the biggest [00:42:28] problem for President Trump and the [00:42:29] Trump administration is that the policy [00:42:31] has been 90% good and the rollout has [00:42:34] been 85% bad. And that's a huge problem. [00:42:37] It just is. Now, to be fair to RFK, RFK [00:42:40] has the highest approval ratings of [00:42:42] pretty much any cabinet secretary, [00:42:43] mainly because he's focused on things [00:42:45] that people actually care about, like [00:42:47] human health. With that said, it does [00:42:49] speak to a fundamental lack of [00:42:51] seriousness that sometimes characterizes [00:42:53] the administration, ranging from Christy [00:42:54] Gnome at the Department of Homeland [00:42:56] Security to Pam Bondi in the AG's [00:42:58] office. Again, there are two parties in [00:43:00] this country, and Democrats being bad at [00:43:02] their jobs and being unpopular does not [00:43:03] mean that they won't win an election. It [00:43:06] doesn't. If you look at the generic [00:43:08] congressional ballot right now, [00:43:09] Democrats are up solidly in the generic [00:43:10] congressional ballot with all of the [00:43:12] problems I have stated about them, with [00:43:14] their radicalism, with their lack of a [00:43:16] program, with their unpopularity. [00:43:18] The latest economist yuggov poll has [00:43:20] Democrats up seven in the generic [00:43:21] congressional ballot. Now, again, maybe [00:43:24] we can listen, we can cheerlead, we can [00:43:26] pretend along, we can suggest the polls [00:43:28] mean nothing, or we could try to course [00:43:30] correct. And I think that as [00:43:32] conservatives, it would be a worthwhile [00:43:34] idea to course correct if you don't want [00:43:35] to see Democrats in control of Congress. [00:43:37] It's a very narrow Congress in the first [00:43:38] place. Right now, joining me online is [00:43:40] Buck Ston. Of course, you know him from [00:43:42] the Clay Travis and Buck Ston show, [00:43:44] nationally syndicated, all across the [00:43:46] country. And the host of the podcast of [00:43:47] Buck Brief, where he discusses the news. [00:43:49] He now has a brand new book out. It is [00:43:51] called Manufacturing Delusion: How the [00:43:53] Left Uses Brainwashing, Indoctrination, [00:43:54] and Propaganda against you. Buck, thanks [00:43:56] so much for taking the time. Really [00:43:57] appreciate it. And congrats on the book. [00:43:59] Oh man, Ben, thank you so much for [00:44:01] having me. Uh, great to see you. [00:44:04] >> So, let's talk about, you know, the [00:44:06] subject of your book, how people engage [00:44:09] in mass delusion, which seems more and [00:44:10] more common these days. Obviously, [00:44:12] you're a former CIA analyst, and so [00:44:13] you've looked into how movements co-opt [00:44:16] people's brains. What are the sort of [00:44:17] tactics that we ought to look for, and [00:44:18] what are some of the historical [00:44:19] parallels? [00:44:21] >> So, no, it's so important, Ben. I I take [00:44:24] the position, it's actually a thesis in [00:44:26] the opening of the book that mass [00:44:28] delusion and mass hysteria. [00:44:31] These are and you can consider them to [00:44:33] be essentially the same thing. It's the [00:44:35] biggest threat that we face as human [00:44:37] beings today. It's actually not, as you [00:44:39] know, climate change. Uh it's not these [00:44:41] things that we're led to believe are [00:44:43] going to tear us all apart and we're all [00:44:44] going to starve to death or any of these [00:44:45] things. uh it's actually human beings [00:44:48] going insane in uh in crowds and then [00:44:51] only regaining their senses one by one [00:44:53] as as uh Mackey wrote a long time ago. [00:44:55] So when I was in the CIA, I was in the [00:44:58] counterterrorism center for much of the [00:45:00] time. I actually moved around a little [00:45:01] bit and so we dealt with radicalization. [00:45:03] And so I opened the book uh in a place [00:45:06] where it was my first CIA mission which [00:45:08] was in Nigeria which I had never really [00:45:09] talked about before because at the time [00:45:11] it was uh definitely classified uh [00:45:13] because we were looking for what seemed [00:45:16] to be the opening phase of [00:45:19] radicalization in a part of that country [00:45:21] that would eventually become Boo Haram. [00:45:23] Right? I mean that's the the short [00:45:24] version of the much longer story. And so [00:45:26] that was my first uh experience [00:45:28] personally with being in a place where [00:45:31] we were trying to track almost like a [00:45:33] virus of the mind uh radicalization. And [00:45:37] I realized as I went through some other [00:45:40] missions in Iraq, Afghanistan dealing [00:45:42] with jihadist, I mean very specifically [00:45:44] jihadist radicalization that there's [00:45:46] also there's a playbook. There are [00:45:48] similarities and if you go back to [00:45:51] really the origins of mind control uh as [00:45:53] as something of not just a science but a [00:45:56] political science something practiced by [00:45:57] regimes you go to the people that did it [00:46:00] in the most extreme way Stalin the [00:46:02] Soviets uh Mauist China and there are [00:46:06] variations on a theme if you will. So I [00:46:08] break it down into conditioning, sort of [00:46:10] Pavlovian conditioning, and then I get [00:46:12] into something called mentide, which is [00:46:14] actually from a psychiatrist who uh [00:46:17] debriefed uh Nazis in the Second World [00:46:20] War. He was Dutch. His name was Juice [00:46:22] Miru. Talking about the breakdown [00:46:24] process and then I get into [00:46:25] brainwashing, which I know you have a [00:46:26] great book, Ben, I read it years ago, [00:46:28] brainwashed, about Hollywood. Um uh but [00:46:31] the the brainwashing process as it was [00:46:33] practiced and very uh kind of [00:46:36] industrialized and mechanically and and [00:46:39] specifically in Mais China then some [00:46:41] cult stuff with indoctrination and then [00:46:43] we get into just propaganda which is [00:46:44] more media AI how this is all going to [00:46:48] change the future. So I kind of take it [00:46:50] it's not meant to be necessarily [00:46:51] historical as a timeline but it becomes [00:46:54] that because that's the the origins of [00:46:56] and the uh the progression of mind [00:46:58] control. But the reason I care about it [00:47:00] is because of COVID and because of what [00:47:02] like and because of people thinking that [00:47:04] BLM needs to be marching in the streets [00:47:06] because thousands and thousands of black [00:47:08] men are killed on like these are crazy [00:47:11] ideas and I know you you're dealing with [00:47:12] this on your show all the time that are [00:47:14] mainstream. In fact, they're mandatory [00:47:16] belief among Democrats. [00:47:19] So what are the most common tactics that [00:47:21] you're seeing? I mean obviously you're [00:47:22] tracing the history of this sort of [00:47:24] thing and a variety of tactics that have [00:47:25] been used in order to create these sorts [00:47:27] of delusions. What are the most common [00:47:29] tactics that you're seeing these days? [00:47:30] What are the ones that you're a common [00:47:31] citizen, you're just spending a little [00:47:32] bit of time on X, but you're not [00:47:33] immersed, but you should look out for [00:47:35] this sort of stuff because you can get [00:47:36] sucked in. [00:47:38] >> Oh, well, well, there's, for example, I [00:47:40] mentioned Menicide, so mind killing from [00:47:42] from Miru. Uh, and he's he's sort of the [00:47:45] the the godfather, if you will, of that [00:47:47] school of analysis for mind control, [00:47:49] because again, there's there's a lot of [00:47:50] crossover with really approaches to [00:47:52] these things. And with brainwashing [00:47:54] there's a Robert Lifton did a whole [00:47:55] series of studies on how they broke down [00:48:00] and then reprogrammed the minds of [00:48:02] people in in Mauist China Cultural [00:48:04] Revolution. You know that history very [00:48:05] well. Um but a t tactic specifically for [00:48:08] example in in menicide confusion and [00:48:10] degradation and I take that to the [00:48:13] transgender issue today where so much of [00:48:16] this is rooted in confusing of course [00:48:19] the individual who is the you know the [00:48:21] transgender uh the person uh but also [00:48:24] everyone around them. How are you [00:48:26] allowed to speak about this? What really [00:48:28] is this issue? Is it an issue? Is it [00:48:30] only an issue because we're talking [00:48:32] about it? I mean you you've seen this so [00:48:33] many times. This happens. It's it's not [00:48:35] happening. It's only happening a little [00:48:36] bit. It's a good thing that it's [00:48:38] happening. These are all tactics of [00:48:39] confusion in the public discourse that [00:48:41] are meant to uh undermine people's [00:48:44] ability, I think, to see through uh and [00:48:46] and this is really truly out of out of [00:48:48] the playbook to see through what's going [00:48:49] on. And then degradation, so confusion [00:48:51] and degradation. Degradation meaning say [00:48:54] that a man can uh or say that a woman [00:48:56] can have a penis. I mean, say things [00:48:58] that are fundamentally obviously untrue, [00:49:01] even if you don't believe it. being [00:49:02] forced to mouth the preferred slogans of [00:49:04] the regime has the effect of undermining [00:49:08] your ability to resist mind control, [00:49:11] undermining being kind of brought into [00:49:13] the mass hysteria le herd. And so that's [00:49:17] those are two very specific ones within [00:49:19] this the uh the menicide framework. Um [00:49:22] and then in brainwashing another one for [00:49:24] example false confession. Then as you [00:49:27] know and this was used by the Soviets [00:49:29] too. Uh one of the things they love to [00:49:30] do is the bend the bend the knee like [00:49:32] did you you know you you dead named [00:49:34] somebody and again on the transgender [00:49:36] thing you can do this on a whole range [00:49:37] of things or you know you said something [00:49:40] that was in some way racially offensive [00:49:42] that you didn't mean to. You for a time [00:49:44] were supposed to go out and profess how [00:49:48] deeply sorry you were to everybody. uh [00:49:50] even if you didn't think you did [00:49:51] anything wrong because again that is [00:49:53] degrading and undermining and part of [00:49:56] the process of rewiring your thinking [00:49:58] and changing your thinking so that [00:49:59] you'll fall within this uh this [00:50:01] framework that they're building of this [00:50:03] is how you think about it this is how [00:50:05] you act [00:50:07] so the book is manufacturing illusion [00:50:09] buck what what's the best way for people [00:50:11] to stand up to this sort of stuff [00:50:12] because we are inundated now through our [00:50:14] phones more than any time probably in [00:50:15] human history with these sorts of of [00:50:17] tactics you don't even know they're [00:50:18] they're being used against And in a time [00:50:20] where institutional trust is really low, [00:50:22] it it becomes actually extremely easy [00:50:24] for people to fall into beliefs and in [00:50:27] delusions because an anti-establishment [00:50:30] orientation, which which very often is [00:50:31] is proper, can can be directed in some [00:50:33] pretty negative ways. [00:50:36] >> Well, that's absolutely true. you're [00:50:37] seeing this with the rise of an I would [00:50:41] say Ben an expectation that you um you [00:50:45] know meaning anyone who's following [00:50:47] events uh believes whatever the [00:50:49] conspiracy theory of the moment may be [00:50:51] in fact you cannot be trusted in the [00:50:54] online discourse these days unless [00:50:56] you're somebody who goes oh that crazy [00:50:58] conspiracy that's got to be true right [00:50:59] as long as it's anti-establishment or in [00:51:02] some way like breaking from whatever the [00:51:03] the dominant paradigm may be and I think [00:51:06] a lot of people are taking advantage of [00:51:08] this. Political movements, uh, uh, [00:51:10] podcasters, a whole range of folks are [00:51:13] deciding that their move right now is to [00:51:16] take a point of view that is just [00:51:17] contrary to fact, but somehow because it [00:51:20] is subversive, it's inherently more [00:51:23] honest or they present it as inherently [00:51:25] more honest. And you you mentioned also [00:51:27] the in the defense against this. When [00:51:30] you see the way that uh in uh technology [00:51:33] is moving so rapidly right now such that [00:51:37] people are able to create more and more [00:51:39] effective deep fakes, whatever you want [00:51:42] to call them. Uh and to use those to [00:51:44] shift the narrative. We're going to get [00:51:46] to a point, Ben, very soon if we're not [00:51:47] already there where people will just [00:51:49] say, "Oh, no, that's AI." And and you'll [00:51:52] say, "Well, no, it's not." Well, maybe [00:51:53] it is. Right? And and these are all [00:51:55] subtle ways to try to uh shape [00:51:58] narratives toward things that are that [00:51:59] are false. And and in terms of the [00:52:01] defense of this uh because that's [00:52:04] something very important I thought about [00:52:05] the whole time like why why didn't I and [00:52:07] why didn't you why didn't so many people [00:52:08] just fall hook line and sinker for co [00:52:12] stuff for example or some of the co [00:52:14] stuff you know Fouchy on masks and all [00:52:16] this other nonsense that end up [00:52:18] happening and it's you just have to not [00:52:20] live by lies to borrow from souls and [00:52:21] eaten every time someone's lying to you [00:52:23] or lying about something or wants you to [00:52:25] lie you have to just say no there's a [00:52:27] problem here and and if you take that [00:52:29] mindset at in whether it's someone [00:52:32] pushing a conspiracy theory on you or [00:52:34] trying to get you to mouth the preferred [00:52:36] slogans of the regime, whether it's on [00:52:38] transgender issues or climate change or [00:52:40] Black Lives Matter or, you know, [00:52:41] whatever it may be. Trump worked with [00:52:43] Russia to hack into the voting machines [00:52:45] in 2020. These are all or 2016. These [00:52:47] are all crazy ideas that have caught on [00:52:50] dramatically in certain quarters. Uh the [00:52:53] second that someone is lying to you, you [00:52:54] have to recognize that there's a [00:52:55] problem. There's no good I'm lying to [00:52:57] you for your own benefit stuff when it [00:52:59] comes to these large narratives and [00:53:01] these understandings of the world around [00:53:02] us. So, uh, but it's going to get harder [00:53:04] and I'm very honest about that in the [00:53:06] book. It's going to get more and more [00:53:07] difficult and I think that this is [00:53:08] something that people hopefully that's [00:53:10] why they'll get the book. They'll see [00:53:12] cuz again I break down in each chapter [00:53:14] there's specifics about the the tactics, [00:53:16] the repetition, the things that are [00:53:18] done, fire hose of falsehood. I mean, [00:53:20] you know, it's there's a whole book, [00:53:21] right? So, people can go see how I lay [00:53:23] these things out. But I think also [00:53:25] familiarity with them, Ben, is a very [00:53:28] useful part of the defense against [00:53:30] falling into this kind of thought reform [00:53:33] as the Mauist would call it or [00:53:35] brainwashing as I think we we call it [00:53:37] much more readily here. [00:53:40] >> Well, the book again is Manufacturing [00:53:41] Delusion. The author is Buck Sax and [00:53:43] Bbuck. Thanks so much for stopping by [00:53:44] and again, congrats on the book. [00:53:46] >> Thanks so much, Ben. Good to see you. [00:53:49] >> All righty, folks. Coming up, the show [00:53:50] continues for our members. We'll get to [00:53:52] a federal judge who is now suggesting [00:53:54] that Kilmer Abrogo Garcia, you remember [00:53:55] that guy, cannot be redetained by [00:53:57] immigration authorities. Rogue judges [00:53:59] doing their worst. Meanwhile, President [00:54:01] Trump mobilizing more resources to the [00:54:04] Middle East to face down Iran. We'll get [00:54:06] to all of that in a moment, but you can [00:54:08] only see that if you are a member. So, [00:54:09] head on over to Daily Wire Plus right [00:54:11] now. Become a member and use code Shiro [00:54:13] checkout for two months free on all [00:54:14] annual plans. Click that link in the [00:54:16] description and join us. [00:54:17] >> Okay. [00:54:20] I wish you love. [00:54:32] >> No, not even close. Two, three, [00:54:35] whatever. You know what? Two, three, [00:54:38] four. [00:54:45] >> I cannot believe we're back here again. [00:54:46] Ben, [00:54:47] >> if the Ben Shapiro shows mom and Ben [00:54:49] after After Dark is a cool mom, [00:54:53] >> Jay, [00:54:55] >> you know, like irresponsible