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Jan. 18, 2016 - The Ben Shapiro Show

47:41

Ep. 56 - Everyone Knows What 'New York Values' Are, So Stop Bitching

Ben talks Trump vs. Cruz, Hillary vs. Bernie, and why the only good comic book origin stories are Superman and Batman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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	It is a Monday, I am here, and as you can see if you're watching me on video, I may in fact have the black lung pop.
	I may be dying, so you'll see me blow my nose, you'll see me cough, you'll see tears.
	None of it will have to do with the Democratic debate, but I'm here with you.
	We soldier forth.
	We continue on.
	We have a lot to talk about.
	I'm Ben Shapiro.
	This is the Ben Shapiro Show. - Beyond political stuff. - Tend to demonize people who don't care about your feelings.
	So much to talk about.
	There's the Republican debate, there's the Democratic debate, and of course, as I mentioned, I may keel over in the middle of the show from walking pneumonia.
	But in any case, let's start with what happened last Thursday night.
	So last Thursday night, and this extended over the weekend, the final fight broke out.
	We have now entered Mad Ted Thunderdome.
	And it's Cruz versus Trump, and they're going at each other.
	And this all started because Donald Trump decided he had to go after Ted Cruz because Cruz was doing better in the polls.
	And so there is this exchange in the middle of the debate about the birther issue, and Ted Cruz won that exchange, and then there was a second issue.
	And this is the one that the media have decided to jump upon.
	Not the birther issue, which is a silly issue.
	They've decided to jump on an even sillier issue.
	Okay, so apparently Donald Trump, at his rallies, was playing the song Born in the USA, which, just, as I sideswipe here, Bruce Springsteen sucks and that song is horrible.
	But he's playing Born in the USA at his rallies because he's trying to make fun of the fact that Ted Cruz was born in Calgary, and Ted Cruz responded on a radio show, made some sort of cheesy joke about how Donald Trump should be playing New York, New York, because he has New York values.
	And this turned into a big to-do at the debate.
	First of all, If that's the best line you can come up with, I mean, I love Ted Cruz, but that is not a strong line, that Trump should be playing New York, New York.
	He should be playing like a virgin.
	I mean, there's like a thousand songs that he could cite for Trump instead of New York.
	In any case, Ted Cruz says New York values, and then he's asked about it in the debate, and this exchange ensues.
	Let's play it.
	I think most people know exactly what New York values are.
	I am from New York.
	You're from New York, so you might not, but I promise you in the state of South Carolina, they do.
	And listen, there are many, many wonderful, wonderful working men and women in the state of New York, but everyone understands that the values in New York City Are socially liberal, are pro-abortion, are pro-gay marriage, focused around money and the media.
	And I guess I can frame it another way.
	Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan.
	I'm just saying.
	Okay.
	Conservatives actually do come out of Manhattan, including William F. Buckley and others, just so you understand.
	New York is a great place.
	It's got great people.
	It's got loving people, wonderful people.
	When the World Trade Center came down, I saw something that no place on earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than New York.
	You had two 110-story buildings come crashing down.
	I saw them come down.
	And we saw more death, and even the smell of death.
	Nobody understood it.
	And it was with us for months, the smell, the air.
	And we rebuilt downtown Manhattan, and everybody in the world watched, and everybody in the world loved New York and loved New Yorkers, and I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement that Ted made.
	Okay, so, what do we learn from this clip?
	One, we learn that Cruz should have foreseen the 9-11 attack would come, and two, we learn that Donald Trump is a magnificent douchebag.
	Because here's the reality.
	When Ted Cruz says, New York values, there's not a person across America who doesn't know what New York values means.
	Now, a couple of things have to be said, number one.
	Does anyone, even people who hate Ted Cruz, truly believe that Ted Cruz was ripping on New Yorkers' response to 9-11?
	If I talk about Hollywood values, Do I mean that Hollywood is a very leftist place with a very specific set of social values?
	Or am I criticizing the LAPD for their handling of the 1993 riots?
	Like, what are you talking about?
	If I say San Francisco values, am I talking about them being wildly to the left?
	Or am I talking about their magnificent response to the 1989 earthquake?
	I think you can probably guess I'm talking about their values, especially because Cruz explicitly says...
	What those values are, right?
	They're pro-gay marriage, they're pro-abortion.
	Okay, all of what Cruz said is true.
	Now Cruz does something smart in that debate and he starts clapping when Trump says this because he doesn't want to look like he hates the people of New York.
	Everybody in New York lost their damn mind over this thing.
	I mean, people were going crazy.
	How dare you insult New Yorkers and our values?
	First of all, your attitudes are not your values.
	Okay, it's a distinction that's important to make.
	Your attitudes are not your values.
	Yes, you're rude, you're brash, it's the city that never sleeps.
	That's an attitude, it's not a value.
	I know lots of people who are like that who are bad people, I know some people who are like that who are good people.
	Your attitudes are not your values.
	I know people who are brash and rude who are Muslim extremists, and I know people who are brash and rude who are New Yorkers just trying to do their day job.
	You know that brash and rude is not a description of your values, It's a description of your attitude.
	So the idea that Cruz is ripping on the brash, rude New Yorkers when he says New York values is absolute nonsense.
	But what are New York values?
	Well, I think perhaps, you know, Donald Trump, who's a cynical, I mean, this stuff angers me because the fact is I don't like BS attacks on any candidate.
	It annoys me when there are BS attacks on any candidate.
	I've defended on this program Trump from nonsense attacks about him supposedly wanting a Muslim registry.
	I've defended Trump On a variety of issues on this program, but this is a nonsense attack, and I'll prove to you it's a nonsense attack.
	So Donald Trump acts, he doesn't know, I don't know what New York values are.
	The only New York values is firefighters running into buildings.
	First of all, that's not a New York value.
	That's actually a human value.
	There are people all over the planet who actually do that, and I understand New Yorkers take justifiable pride in their reaction to 9-11.
	That's fine, that's wonderful.
	But to pretend that those values of firefighters running into buildings is unique to New York is to rip on the courage of firefighters outside of New York, which is silly.
	I mean, you can say these are just wonderful values.
	They're not unique to New York values in terms of what happened on 9-11.
	Did people in DC react significantly worse than people in New York on 9-11?
	I mean, the Pentagon did get hit.
	But in any case, here is Donald Trump proving that he knows exactly what New York values are.
	This is from 1999.
	Notice he has nothing to say about New Yorkers' magnificent response to the 1993 World Trade Center attack.
	Here's Donald Trump.
	Do you think gays should be allowed to be married?
	It's something I haven't given lots of thought to.
	I live in New York City.
	There's a tremendous movement on to have and allow gay marriage.
	It's just something that is too premature for me to comment on.
	How about gays serving in the military?
	It would not disturb me.
	I mean, hey, I lived in New York City and Manhattan all my life, okay?
	So, you know, my views are a little bit different than if I lived in Iowa.
	Perhaps.
	But it's not something that would disturb me.
	Partial birth abortion.
	The eliminating of abortion in the third trimester.
	Big issue in Washington.
	Would President Trump ban partial birth abortions?
	Very pro-choice.
	And, again, it may be a little bit of a New York background because there is some different attitude in different parts of the country and, you know, I was raised in New York and grew up and work and everything else in New York City.
	But you would not ban it?
	No.
	Or ban partial birth control?
	No.
	I would, I would, I am, I am pro-choice in every respect and as far as it goes, but I just hate it.
	Okay, so in that one minute clip, Donald Trump cites his birth and upbringing in New York City five separate times.
	Five times to justify his support for, by the way, partial birth abortion, which is the most left policy you can have on abortion.
	Now, the point here is not that Trump hasn't switched his positions on these things.
	He has, presumably, although I'm even doubtful as to whether he cares about that, but let's assume that he's perfectly sincere.
	That's not the point.
	The point is that what did Donald Trump cite as the source of these left-wing values?
	His upbringing in New York, right?
	It's his New York values, right?
	My New York values mean I'm for gay marriage, and I'm for gays in the military, and I'm for partial birth abortion.
	That's what he cites.
	He doesn't say my New York values make me brash and rude, and so I think about these things in a brash, rude way.
	No, he says my New York values mean that I am pro-choice, that I am pro-same-sex marriage.
	What were the two examples that Ted Cruz used again in that debate?
	Oh yeah, pro-choice and pro-same-sex marriage is what New York values are.
	And I'm getting very sick of New Yorkers.
	I think New Yorkers are making a big deal out of this, but I don't think that New Yorkers understand something kind of crucial.
	People in the rest of the country find New Yorkers obnoxious.
	This has only been true for a couple of hundred years.
	Seriously, like Mark Twain was writing in the 1880s about how obnoxious New Yorkers were.
	He said that there may be a non-rude New Yorker, but they would have to be dead.
	They wrote that in 1885.
	So, like, people have been ripping on New Yorkers for a really long time, and for a pretty good reason.
	But for people, all the New Yorkers are saying, how dare Ted Cruz suggest that we have a set of values different from anyone else, or just the same as everyone else?
	It's just a set of American values.
	Okay, even people on the left don't believe this.
	They understand there's a difference between, say, Texas values and Chicago values.
	But if you really want to know what New Yorkers think of the rest of the United States, here they are complaining and whining and complaining and whining.
	You're so mean to New Yorkers.
	Okay, I thought you guys, for number one, were supposed to be tough, rough-and-tumble crowd, and you can't take a little bit of a ding from Ted Cruz.
	Here's what New Yorkers actually think of the rest of the country.
	This is a cover.
	Okay, so this is now 40 years old?
	40 years old?
	Okay, and what you see, folks, if you haven't subscribed, you can't see it, but here's what you see.
	It looks like a map of the United States, but what it actually is, it just says 9th Avenue, 10th Avenue, Hudson River, a brief stripe for New Jersey, and then the Pacific Ocean.
	In other words, to New Yorkers, the rest of the country simply does not exist.
	Right, New York values encompass also A certain elitism.
	And they believe that their values are American values, but that American values are not their values.
	In other words, New York defines America.
	So don't give me this routine about how New Yorkers don't know what Ted Cruz is talking about.
	Now, is it smart politics for Cruz to talk like that?
	Maybe not, in a general election, because you don't want to alienate any part of America.
	But in a primary, it actually is kind of smart.
	Because the truth is, nobody in Iowa likes New Yorkers or cares about New Yorkers being offended.
	In fact, they kind of think it's charming that Ted Cruz doesn't like New Yorkers.
	Nobody in South Carolina or New Hampshire or anywhere else in the country cares that New Yorkers are offended.
	Whenever New Yorkers are offended, like, understand something.
	The reason 9-11 was an outlier in terms of Americans' feelings about New York is because the rest of the time, i.e.
	99.9% of the rest of the time, we think New Yorkers are obnoxious and terrible.
	On 9-11, everybody fell into line and loved New Yorkers because New Yorkers showed what wonderful people they can be.
	But the truth is, New Yorkers are only wonderful people on occasion.
	And so, and so everybody sort of fell into line on 9-11 because they were wonderful and they demonstrated tremendous bravery on 9-11 and in the face of catastrophe they have before and will again, I'm sure.
	That's a very different question than, what are their values?
	Do we resonate to their values?
	And, by the way, even do we resonate to the attitudes?
	I mean, it's funny.
	Chris Christie will go out on stage, and he'll talk about how New Jersey people are rude and obnoxious, and it's a laugh line.
	Ted Cruz says the same thing about New Yorkers, and it's the end of the world.
	Which suggests that perhaps this is all just a little bit cynical.
	Perhaps all of this is just a little bit cynical.
	And when I say a little cynical, I mean, a lot cynical, because the fact is, again, everybody knows what New York values are.
	Governor Andrew Cuomo, just a couple of years ago, on the radio, he specifically said that he wanted to ban conservatives from New York.
	These are New York values, folks.
	Governor Andrew Cuomo.
	Their problem is not me and the Democrats.
	Their problem is themselves.
	Who are they?
	Are they these extreme conservatives who are right to life?
	A pro-assault weapon?
	Anti-gay?
	Is that who they are?
	Because if that's who they are, and if they are the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York.
	Because that's not who New Yorkers are.
	If they're moderate Republicans, like in the Senate, right?
	So moderate Republicans can stick around, but extreme conservatives have to go away.
	Yeah, those are some nice New York values right there.
	Alright, so we all know what New York values mean.
	Now, that doesn't mean that Trump is going to stop these ridiculous attacks.
	So, Jake Tapper...
	I mean, and the media are all over this.
	The media have decided that this is the kill shot.
	Why?
	Because you have to understand something about the media.
	The media don't care about America.
	The media don't care about American values.
	The media only care when they are being personally attacked or insulted.
	They're all from New York, and so they are personally insulted that anybody would say something nasty about New York City.
	Right, by the way, a city that just elected a communist as their mayor with 73% of the vote.
	So, Jake Tapper, who I think is wildly overrated over at CNN.
	I know there are a lot of conservatives who like Jake Tapper.
	I think that Jake Tapper is the best of the worst, which is to say, he's still not great.
	But here's Jake Tapper asking Donald Trump if Ted Cruz was anti-Semitic, for God's sakes, in saying New York values.
	I'm a Jew.
	I'm an Orthodox Jew.
	I have relatives who live in New York, okay?
	My sister is in New York right now.
	I know lots and lots of Jews in New York.
	If I say New York values, am I being anti-Semitic?
	Only if you're a complete and utter moron.
	But the media decided to do this anyway.
	Here's Jake Tapper.
	What do you think he means?
	I'm not sure that he knows what he means, to be honest with you.
	I thought it was very... He should have never said it.
	I thought it was very insulting to a lot of people, including Maria, who was asking the question.
	I thought it was very, very insulting.
	And I immediately thought of the World Trade Center and the bravery of New Yorkers and the genius of New Yorkers to be able to take that whole section and rebuild after The tragedy, the worst thing that ever happened to our nation in terms of an attack, worse than Pearl Harbor, because Pearl Harbor they were attacking the military, here they're attacking civilians, having breakfast and being in offices.
	And frankly, you had two 110-story buildings fall down.
	Thousands of lives, death, and the smell of death.
	I mean, the smell of death, and to see what happened, that resurrection, that whole thing take place.
	New York has gotten tremendous credit for it, and for him to be criticizing New York.
	You know, you're thinking about the firemen running up the stairs, knowing they may never be able to come down.
	I mean, those buildings were in bad shape.
	The first one comes down, and the second one, they're running up the stairs.
	And the policemen and everything else, I thought it was disgraceful that he brought that up.
	Okay, it's just, this stuff is so perverse.
	It's so perverse.
	Rudy Giuliani talked about 9-11 as the mayor of New York City and the media ripped him up over it.
	Donald Trump cites 9-11 to suggest that Ted Cruz is anti the New Yorkers on 9-11.
	It's just, it's so cynical and it's such BS.
	And he's not the only one doing this.
	Marco Rubio did it too.
	Rubio was smacking Cruz over the New York values comment.
	Here's Marco Rubio, the senator from Florida, doing the same thing.
	Very quickly, you brought up Ted Cruz and his use of the phrase New York values.
	What does that phrase mean to you?
	I've never used that phrase.
	I think we're all Americans.
	I'm campaigning on behalf of American values.
	And I don't seek to divide people against each other.
	That's the problem we have with the current president.
	I think the bigger problem is Ted has raised a lot of money out of New York.
	He didn't say that when he was there raising money.
	He says that in one state and then says something different in another.
	And time and again it's proven the sort of level of political calculation that voters are only starting to find out about now as the campaign gets deeper and more heated.
	These people are so tiring.
	They're so tiring.
	Everyone knows what New York values means.
	If I ran for president, I would raise money from New York, too, and Los Angeles, and I also would not want America to embrace the political values of New York, which is what Ted Cruz is talking about, or the moral values of New York, because I think that it's a left area, and I want to see America be more right-wing, not more left-wing.
	I guess we're all going to pretend now.
	We've got Donald Trump, the supposed arbiter of political correctness.
	He's going to say everything that's politically incorrect, except when it comes to New York values, he goes totally PC.
	Marco Rubio, who says he's anti-PC, going totally PC.
	And New Yorkers, who say that they're brash and rude and willing to take on the world, except if somebody dings them a little bit and then all of a sudden you prick them, do they not bleed?
	It's ridiculous stuff.
	All of this really is just an excuse for Donald Trump to go after Ted Cruz.
	So Trump's latest attack is one that I actually think is not going to work at all.
	And this is Trump's attack on Cruz in which he says that nobody likes Ted Cruz.
	That Ted Cruz is rude and terrible and so nobody likes him.
	Here's Donald Trump on Fox & Friends this morning about this.
	Okay, but that's not the way you do it.
	You get Congress, you get them together, you get everybody together in a room, you cajole, you get along, you have dinner, and you make deals.
	And, you know, everybody hates Ted.
	It's a very tough thing.
	They all hate him.
	I mean, for a lot of reasons, but they all hate him.
	And, by the way, he's attacked me, so when he attacks me, as you know, I'm a counterpuncher.
	You've seen a lot of people.
	You've all seen a lot of people attack me, and you see where they are right now.
	But he attacked me first.
	Well, that's inaccurate.
	Trump attacked him first with all the Birther stuff, obviously, but it's amazing.
	So he says that nobody likes Ted Cruz.
	I'll tell you why this particular line of attack is stupid.
	I don't want a Republican president who gets along with people.
	That's not my goal.
	I want a Republican president who's specifically not going to cut deals with the other side.
	Trump keeps saying, I'll make a good deal.
	I don't want you to make any deal with people on the left.
	I think the people on the left have the worst intentions for the country at heart.
	So I want a president.
	I want a Republican who really doesn't care about cutting a deal with folks on the left.
	I want a president who's going to veto everything left passes.
	I want a president who's going to use the bully pulpit.
	I want a president who's going to use executive orders to get rid of all the unconstitutional garbage in the executive branch.
	So, that's actually a good recommendation for Cruz.
	I want someone nasty.
	I want someone who's not liked.
	I don't need somebody who wants to get along with folks.
	If I wanted someone who's gonna make friends, I'd back that nice little puppy Marco Rubio, who seems like he makes friends with everybody, and he seems like a nice guy, and he's got good hair, and he seems all nice, and...
	That's not what I'm looking for.
	That's not what I'm looking for.
	Okay, let's move on to the Democratic debate.
	So that's the fallout from the Republican debate.
	By the way, Ted Cruz is going to win Iowa.
	If Trump continues to push on this New York Values thing, I don't think that that's a winner for him.
	I think he's going to move off of that pretty quickly and start talking about Cruz and Goldman Sachs and suggesting that Cruz is a Wall Street insider.
	Which, by the way, I think that it's worth noting.
	Whenever the left attacks Wall Street, nobody ever says, you're attacking all the people who died on Wall Street during the World Trade Center attacks in 2001.
	Remember, the World Trade Center is on Wall Street.
	It's at Wall Street.
	So the idea that you can attack anything is all about Cruz, right?
	So they don't like Cruz, so they're finding an excuse to go after him.
	Alright, let's go to the Democratic debate.
	Democrats held their big debate, their latest big debate, which I really shouldn't call big, last night.
	It was only two candidates plus Martin O'Malley.
	It was Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton and then Martin O'Malley they cut to every so often because they just want someone who looked like a leprechaun for comic effect.
	So Debbie Wasserman Schultz has scheduled all of these things when no one will watch.
	I think the next Democratic debate is actually during the Super Bowl on like a cable access channel being broadcast from a moving train or something.
	They definitely don't want anybody seeing these things.
	Number one, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and I call her Debbie Wasserman Binks because the resemblance is uncanny.
	I mean, there it is.
	I mean, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Jar Jar Binks separated at birth.
	And folks, this is why you need to subscribe so that you can see my dumb lookalikes.
	But it is accurate.
	I mean, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Jar Jar Binks, they are related.
	There's just no question about it.
	And what else is there to say?
	Debbie Wasserman Schultz, she was asked about why they're holding all of their debates on Sunday nights and Saturday nights and times nobody's watching.
	And she said, no, no, no, no, no.
	I want everyone to see these debates.
	Here's Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
	We have had a collection of robust viewership that, again, has broken our records for prior debates.
	And, frankly, we've had, more importantly, a much more substantive and serious discussion where Americans have a chance, instead of watching the food fight happening on the other side of the aisle, get to hear our candidates talk about how they're going to move our country forward.
	Obviously, it's in television network's interest to have more debate, but it sounds to me like you're not wiggling at all.
	There's no indication that you might add some to the calendar in the next couple of months.
	You know, Brian, it's really important that the candidates have a variety of opportunities to be seen by voters.
	We've had candidate forums and we'll be having additional forums going forward.
	But that's what kind of frustrates me, the Fusion forum earlier this week, the black and brown forum.
	You couldn't even see the ratings, they were so low on the Fusion network.
	I feel like your all's voices aren't getting heard the way they could be if there were more of these events.
	Well, we believe strongly that a combination of opportunities for voters to see our candidates and make sure that we're not pulling them off the campaign trail every other day to prepare for a debate.
	We have an early primary state window for a reason.
	So voters can get that up close and personal look and make sure that Unlike in later primaries, where there's a big collection on multiple Tuesdays, and harder for the candidates to spend that close-up time, that we're giving those candidates and the voters an opportunity to have that really up-close-and-personal kick-the-tires time.
	A lot more debates would take away from that.
	Brian, there's no number of debates that will satisfy everyone.
	So I did my best to make sure, along with my staff and along with our debate partners, to come up with a schedule that we felt was going to allow for the, to maximize the opportunity to vote for voters to see our candidates.
	I agree with you.
	There is no amount that would satisfy everyone.
	On the other hand, your All's Next Debate is February 11th.
	It's after Iowa and New Hampshire.
	GOP has two more between now and then.
	Just seems to me like we're learning a lot more about those candidates.
	Keep in mind, Brian, they have... I'm sorry, go ahead.
	They have a dozen candidates and we have three.
	So, I mean, I understand that, you know, they've got a reality TV star.
	Okay, we can cut off Jar Jar over here.
	So, Misa Love Debate.
	So, Brian Stelter, number one, over at CNN, I mean, if you could see the questioning, this guy is supposed to be unbiased and he's saying to her, I wish I could see more of your candidates because they're so glorious.
	He's supposed to be the unbiased anchor.
	But they're clearly trying to hide these people.
	There's a reason they're trying to hide the Democrats during the primaries.
	During the primaries is when the Democrats say all of their crazy crap.
	All of their crazy crap gets said during the primaries.
	So, for example, Hillary Clinton last night in the debate, she was asked about cops and Black Lives Matter, and here is what Hillary Rodham Clinton, the most charming woman ever to walk the earth, the godlike witness to her own power, here's what she had to say about cops.
	Well, sadly, it's reality.
	And it has been Heartbreaking and incredibly outraging to see the constant stories of young men like Walter Scott, as you said, who have been killed by police officers.
	There needs to be a concerted effort to address The systemic racism in our criminal justice system and that requires a very clear agenda for retraining police officers Looking at ways to end racial profiling, finding more ways to really bring the disparities that stalk our country into high relief.
	Just in time for Martin Luther King Day, she says that we have to get rid of this whole one standard of justice.
	For everybody, we need two standards of justice, okay?
	The number of black people...
	That cop is being prosecuted for first degree murder and there is no one on the right side or left side of the aisle who thought that he shouldn't have been prosecuted for first degree murder.
	It was a really bad case and everyone agreed it was a really bad case.
	But she has to spit out all of these, all of this pablum.
	shot by a cop in the back in South Carolina.
	That cop is being prosecuted for first degree murder.
	And there is no one on the right side or left side of the aisle who thought that he shouldn't have been prosecuted for first degree murder.
	It was a really bad case.
	And everyone agreed it was a really bad case.
	But she has to spit out all of these all of this pablum.
	By the way, the pandering to the Black Lives Matter movement on the part of the left is just insane.
	And it demonstrates that they believe their new winning coalition is basically black and brown people and single women.
	That's their winning coalition.
	And so they are going to push that to the utmost even at the expense of the cops.
	Hillary did the same thing just a few minutes later.
	She said there's a double standard on incarceration between blacks and whites, which is not true.
	Again, here she is.
	One out of three African-American men may well end up Going to prison.
	That's the statistic.
	I want people here to think what we would be doing if it was one out of three white men.
	And very often the black men are arrested, convicted, and incarcerated for offenses that do not lead to the same results for white men.
	So we have a very serious problem that we can no longer ignore.
	Okay, that is not true in the slightest.
	1 out of 3 black men are not in prison.
	That's ridiculous.
	Okay, there are 15, let's see, we're a 10% black country.
	That means there are approximately 30 million black people in the country.
	That means there are 15 million black males in the country.
	Okay, there are not 5 million black males in prison.
	That's insane.
	Okay, the entire prison population of the United States is 2 million people.
	What she's saying is crazy.
	Okay, what's amazing is the way the media treat this stuff, by the way.
	The Washington posted a fact check on this, and they said, The Bureau of Justice Statistics compiles annual reports on the constitution of U.S.
	prisons.
	At the end of 2014, 453,000 white men were in state or federal prison, compared with 517,000 black men.
	As a proportion of the national population, it's a staggering difference, blah blah blah blah blah.
	But the fact is that that is not even close to 1 in 3, of course.
	It's not true in any sense.
	The Washington Post says her point was valid anyway.
	The Washington Post says everything she says is wrong, but her point is valid.
	Yeah, no, it's not.
	It's not.
	And by the way, which of those criminals do you want to let out?
	I always want to ask Hillary Clinton this and Bernie Sanders.
	So which of those criminals do you want to let out?
	The pandering never stops, by the way.
	Bernie Sanders, apparently.
	Killer Mike, who's a rapper, I guess.
	Killer Mike has endorsed Bernie Sanders.
	He came out today, he said he endorsed Bernie Sanders for two reasons.
	One, he was smoking pot.
	Two, he was reading Bernie's tweets.
	Seriously, that was his rationale for endorsing Bernie Sanders.
	Which, by the way, at least one of those two things is the reason everyone endorses Bernie Sanders, and isn't reading his tweets.
	So, Hillary Clinton is moving far to the left.
	Bernie Sanders is doing so, too.
	He's pulling her to the left.
	One of the things that's telling, I think, is that in these debates, Hillary Clinton is tying herself very strongly to Barack Obama.
	The reason that she's doing this is twofold.
	One is, she has not a lot of draw with black folks.
	Black folks are not that enthused about Hillary Clinton.
	She hopes by tying herself to Obama that suddenly they'll become enthused.
	That's number one.
	Number two is, Hillary Clinton basically got blackmailed into being Barack Obama's biggest supporter when the Obama administration dumped all of this criminal investigation stuff on her.
	Edward Klein was a reporter for the New York Post.
	And just a few months ago he reported, I think it was about eight months ago, he reported that it was Valerie Jarrett of the Obama administration who originally leaked the news that Hillary was using a private email server.
	And so the Obama administration leaked all this out to put pressure on Hillary and naturally she has been moving over to the Obama administration side all throughout this debate process.
	Hillary, by the way, the number one question that was asked about Hillary Clinton in the Google searches during and after this debate, the number one question was, will Hillary Clinton be prosecuted?
	That was the number one question that was being Googled yesterday during this debate.
	And the answer is, it depends on what Barack Obama feels like, really.
	And by the way, Jake Tapper asked Hillary, if the FBI has questioned her about her server, if you want to watch her get super, super, duper nervous and upset, watch this clip.
	Jake Tapper on CNN.
	One last question for you.
	In terms of the status of the FBI investigation into your private email server, have you been interviewed by the FBI yet?
	No.
	You haven't.
	All right.
	Secretary Clinton, thanks so much.
	Really appreciate your time.
	Good luck at the debate tonight.
	Oh, that is the death glare.
	And Bill Clinton has received that on more than one occasion, by the way.
	Bill Clinton has received that a lot, I would imagine.
	Hillary says that she will take Bill's advice in this campaign.
	She looks forward to using him on the campaign trail.
	At the same time, apparently Linda Tripp is now coming out and saying that Monica Lewinsky told her that Bill had had sex with literally over a thousand women while married to Hillary Clinton, and also that there was a second person in the White House that Bill was having sex with.
	Well, well, the Monica thing was going on.
	The fact that we're even talking about Bill coming back into the White House is really kind of sickening.
	Okay, back to the other side of the aisle for just a second.
	Donald Trump, you know, we were talking about the Republican debate.
	Donald Trump is campaigning now for the evangelical vote.
	He wants to win the debate.
	He wants to win the primary in Iowa.
	If Trump wins the primary in Iowa, Trump probably wins the nomination.
	If he wins Iowa, he will win New Hampshire, which means he'll win South Carolina.
	He could in fact run the table if he wins Iowa.
	So he's pushing very hard for the evangelical vote.
	Today he was over at Liberty University, and Liberty University hosted him, and he was introduced by Jerry Falwell Jr., Jerry Falwell's son.
	And Jerry Falwell's son said that Trump was a great Christian, and Trump then cited two Corinthians.
	Which is not the name of, it's not like Five Guys Burgers.
	It's like Two Corinthians is apparently Second Corinthians, is what it's called.
	Trump doesn't know that, so he called it Two Corinthians apparently.
	And then Trump proceeded to talk about his religious scruples.
	He's really pushing hard for the evangelical vote now.
	Here is Donald Trump talking over the weekend to Jake Tapper about his religious scruples.
	I mean, when I say that Trump is insincere, this is what I mean.
	Let me ask you, because one of the potential attack lines has to do with an answer you gave to Frank Luntz months ago when you said that you've never asked God for forgiveness.
	Do you regret making that remark?
	No, I have great relationship with God.
	I have great relationship with The Evangelicals.
	In fact, nationwide, I'm up by a lot.
	I'm leaving everybody.
	But I like to be good.
	I don't like to have to ask for forgiveness.
	And I am good.
	I don't do a lot of things that are bad.
	I try and do nothing that's bad.
	I live a very different life than probably a lot of people would think.
	And I have a very great relationship with God.
	And I have a very great relationship with the Evangelicals.
	And I think that's why I'm doing so well with Iowa.
	Evangelicals, I have to ask you one question.
	Are you out of your damn minds?
	Okay, if you actually believe that Donald Trump has a great relationship with God, that he spends a lot of time thinking about God every day... Okay, I'm a deeply religious person.
	I know lots of deeply religious people.
	I have yet to identify a deeply religious person who says they never...
	Say sorry to God.
	They never do repentance, they never do penance, because they try to do good things every day.
	I've also never heard a religious person say, I have a great relationship with God, I have a great relationship with evangelicals.
	Like in the same sentence.
	Okay, that's called pandering.
	Okay, he says that the same way that he says he has great relationships with Democrats, or the Chinese, or the Russians.
	My relationship with God is not on the same plane as my political relations with other people.
	First of all, I don't have the confidence to say that my relationship with God is great.
	It's really more of His determination than mine.
	I feel like I have deep and abiding knowledge of God in my own heart, and I believe deeply in God's providence in the world.
	That doesn't mean that I can say with great pride that I have a great relationship with, like, me and God, we're like this.
	Like, that's really not my call.
	Like, God is the one who knows if we're like this, right?
	I mean, like, I feel close to God, and that's wonderful, but I would never say I have a great relationship with God.
	I have a great relationship with Jeremy, right, my friend.
	Like, what is this?
	They're not on the same plane.
	Because I can, like, Jeremy talks back to me.
	We can talk about when we're having issues.
	Like, God is not famous for getting back to me very often.
	It's mostly me leaving God messages and God sometimes answering, but I can't, that's me just trying to interpret his answers, sometimes it's not what I want.
	It's such irreligious, silly language, but I guess if you're gonna buy into it, you're gonna buy into it.
	Donald Trump at one point a few months ago was asked by Mark Halperin what was his favorite Bible verse.
	And again, you wanna vote for him, vote for him.
	I just think that, let's not be stupid here, folks.
	And saying that he's a deeply religious guy, listen, I've said Barack Obama's not a deeply religious guy, because he's not.
	Donald Trump does not strike me as a deeply religious man, end of story.
	Donald Trump was asked a few months ago about his favorite Bible verse, and his actual answer was he wouldn't say it because the real reason is because he can't cite a Bible verse.
	But he said, what was your favorite Bible verse?
	He said, it's too private.
	I don't want to tell you what my favorite Bible verse is.
	And Mark Halpern went, wait, wait, it's too private?
	Like everybody's read that document.
	It's not like we're talking about love letters here.
	I mean, everyone's read the Bible.
	It's the most widely read document in the history of mankind.
	He said, no, no, no, it's too private.
	It's too private for me.
	Okay.
	Really?
	Is it?
	I mean, there are a few that I can name off the top of my head that I'm a real big fan of.
	And I can cite them in the original Hebrew.
	Very big fan of... Right?
	That means that... Make your plans and plan your plans, God is with me.
	Right?
	Lots of Bible verses are wonderful.
	This whole thing is...
	Uh, it's so cynical, and I guess that that's what we've come to.
	And again, I'm not somebody who's been bashing Trump this whole time, I'm really not, but I think that we've now reached the edge of the rational.
	Okay.
	Time for some things that I like and some things that I don't like.
	So, instead of doing something that I like today, I'm gonna do, just, I wanna tell you what's on my reading list right now, because that way maybe we can read these things together.
	So I just finished a book called The Wisdom of Crowds that's very good.
	And that I enjoyed a lot.
	I'm also reading David Copperfield, and I know that Clavin, Drew, is a huge Dickens fan, and I have to say, I think Dickens is overrated.
	This may be an unpopular opinion, I'm 690 pages into David Copperfield, and I'm waiting for it to get good.
	So it's, there's only 50 pages left.
	There's not that much time left.
	So he's, it's not that it's bad, it's just really long-winded, and he was paid by the word, and so that makes perfect sense.
	If I were paid by the word, I'd write a lot too.
	But it's, it's, He has sections that are wonderful, and then he has 200 pages of description of the chancellery, and I just... okay.
	So it's entertaining, it's fine, I'm not in love with it.
	I have a bunch of other Dickens books on my shelf, I'll have to maybe read through more of them, but this is legitimately the first book that I have spent the time bullying through, like, where I got halfway through and I was like, should I put this away?
	And then I said no.
	Like, normally when I ask that question, it immediately goes on the shelf, but this one I actually bulled my way through.
	And I have to say, like, it's good bedtime reading because it's not gonna keep you up at night, you're not gonna stay up all night reading David Copperfield.
	So, that's what's on my, that's what's on my shelf.
	And I'll tell you what's on my shelf tomorrow, hopefully I'll finish that book tonight, because if not, I don't know if I can, I don't know if I can handle it.
	Alright, things that I hate.
	BuzzFeed has now, just in time for Martin Luther King Day, they've put out a video on the struggles that certain Americans face.
	That video is called The Struggle of Being a Mixed Race.
	The Struggle of Being a Mixed Race.
	So, I know that we all think that black people have it rough, and Hispanic people have it rough, and Asian people have it rough.
	We all have it rough.
	But now there's a special category of rough.
	The special category is if you're half black, or if you're half Hispanic, or if you're half Asian.
	So, BuzzFeed, tell me about the struggles of being mixed race.
	I think I'm what Hollywood would call ethnically ambiguous.
	When people first glance at me, I mean, the first thing they see is a white guy.
	And usually I'll have to end up explaining to people that I am half Mexican and half white.
	No one has ever been able to correctly identify who I am my entire life.
	I've gotten Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, half black, half white.
	People think I'm Asian.
	Egyptian, Polynesian, Asian.
	Fully white or fully Asian.
	Almost everyone misreads me in some way.
	It's very hard to guess Danish and Indian from a first glance.
	I've honestly heard everything.
	Sometimes I wish I could walk in and just like be recognized as like a Mexican-American.
	Sometimes people will come up to me on the street and like start speaking Spanish frantically and I can't respond because I don't speak Spanish.
	I find that depending on where I am, people read me differently.
	They tend to think that I'm whatever they are.
	These are the saddest, most pathetic people in the world.
	First of all, the music.
	I mean, this is like an emphysema commercial, right?
	You got the meaningful piano music in the background, and you think they're gonna tell you about how they lost their leg in Nam or something?
	Like, it's gonna be a real moving story?
	Or I have a child who died of bone marrow cancer or something?
	No.
	It's that I walk up on the street and somebody doesn't know that I'm half Danish and half Indian.
	Like, who's gonna guess that?
	I'm sorry, we talk about going off the board for an ethnic selection right there.
	Like, who's gonna go, oh, yeah, I got that right away.
	I looked at you and you were half Danish, half Indian.
	First of all, if you think of somebody in those racial terms, the first thing you think about is them and racial.
	Isn't that the problem?
	If I look at you and the first thing I go is, oh.
	That one's probably an octoroon.
	Isn't that a problem?
	I thought that's what we've been fighting against, right?
	It's Martin Luther King Day here, folks.
	I thought that the idea was, I'm not supposed to judge you based on what your ethnicity is.
	I'm supposed to judge you based on whether you're a good person or not and you do good things.
	You know, there's people whining now that I can't identify you.
	Right, oh, I guess that if only I had known that you have one black grandparent, that would have changed everything.
	What?
	Why is it these kids, and they're kids, I mean, they're all young people.
	I mean, the guy who looks, for folks who can't see, the guy who's talking about being half Mexican definitely looks like a white guy, right?
	I mean, he looks fully like a white guy with the red, ruddy cheeks.
	I mean, he looks like he's just, he's 40 years early for Santa.
	But I guess he has a rough life because people don't identify him as Mexican.
	For most of human history, most of human history, people were upset that people could identify them ethnically.
	For most of human history, people were trying to pass as ethnicities that were not theirs if they were part of a minority.
	Now they're upset that you can't properly identify them as the ethnic minority from whence they sprang.
	You can't have it both ways.
	Right?
	A society in which we force people to pass for white, which used to happen in the country in order to be treated properly, is a nasty society.
	And now, we're saying to people that you can be whatever you want to be, and then they're upset about it.
	We're not going to identify you by race.
	They go, well, with the meaningful piano music underneath.
	Again, I mean, when you first hear this, this sounds like a 30 for 30 special on ESPN, and we're going to talk about their poor childhoods.
	They grew up in a closet somewhere, beaten by their parents, and... It's just... What a self-indulgent, ridiculous society we have become.
	When your biggest complaint against the freest society on the face of the planet and in human history is that people cannot properly identify you as half Danish and half Indian.
	What in the world?
	Okay, so I got a bunch of emails also over the weekend.
	Last thing.
	I got a bunch of emails over the weekend.
	Last Wednesday, I guess, I mentioned that I wanted to talk comic books a little bit on the program.
	And, uh, and I didn't do it.
	And so I got a lot of people who are asking me if I could talk comic books.
	So I will do it briefly here.
	Talk about some comic books.
	They're destroying the comic books industry.
	Okay, like, truly destroying the comic books industry.
	So, the latest author for the Black Panther series is Ta-Nehisi Coates.
	Ta-Nehisi Coates is a radical racialist, and he is writing for D.C.
	now.
	Black Panther is not supposed to be a superhero, now he's gonna be a fighter on behalf of black liberation or some such nonsense.
	They had a picture from the D.C.
	meeting, I guess, a few weeks ago, and at this D.C.
	meeting, excuse me, at the D.C.
	meeting, They actually had, um, it was a ton of heesey coats, and there's a Muslim gal, I guess, who writes for DC Comics wearing the hijab now, and it was just a bunch of lefties figuring out how they could infuse the comics with leftism.
	And it makes me absolutely crazy, because I really enjoy the comic books, and they're getting worse and worse.
	Captain America is now cracking down on anti-illegal immigration groups, and you've got Superman fighting the cops in one of the latest Superman cartoons, in one of the latest Batman, in one of the latest Batman comic books by Brian Nazarello, There's a scene where a cop shoots young Trayvon Martin, basically.
	And it's getting worse and worse, because they've decided that they're now going to take over every element of our culture, and it really makes me upset.
	Now, there was always something, mildly, to the left about the comics.
	There really was.
	And that is, the comics now... Less so.
	Less so.
	It used to be less so, really.
	The comics now focus almost entirely on backstory.
	Everything is backstory.
	What happened to these comic book characters as children?
	And we're doing that now with Han Solo.
	I guess there's a new movie they're gonna do where they back-cast Han Solo and they talk about what he was like as a teenager.
	Let me make something clear about... We got Batman's origin story, right?
	Batman... There are a couple of them who have cool origin stories.
	Batman, Superman have cool origin stories.
	All the rest of the origin stories blow.
	Okay, those are the only two origin stories that are worth anything.
	Mathis is shaking his head.
	Who else has a good origin story, man?
	No!
	Spider-Man has a terrible origin story.
	Captain America's origin story isn't really an origin- it kind of is an origin story, right?
	I mean, his origin story is that he's missing for 70 years.
	Right?
	I mean, like, that's his origin story.
	So all of his development takes place while he's encased in ice, basically, because time moves on and he's just who he was back in 1945.
	But Iron Man's origin story is okay, but you could get rid of Iron Man's origin story and he'd still be cool.
	Right?
	If you got rid of Iron Man's origin story, he would still be this really cool machinist who makes cool We'll have to bleep that.
	But he's this really cool machinist who makes cool stuff and has an implant in his chest.
	His persona is that he's a cynical libertarian.
	That's his thing.
	He's a cynical libertarian.
	That's Iron Man.
	If you didn't know anything about him beforehand, he'd still be cool because he's a cynical libertarian.
	Captain America, if you didn't know his backstory, there's no flaw in his character that needs to be explained by a backstory.
	Superman, you need to explain his backstory because he's actually an alien from another planet.
	How did he get formed on Earth is part of the entire story.
	Batman, you need to explain the conceit.
	Why he doesn't kill people, right?
	That's the big thing.
	Why is a rich guy bent on revenge?
	That's really the Batman question.
	So you need to answer that.
	Captain America, there's nothing that needs answering.
	Captain America is just a guy who fights bad guys in an old-fashioned way.
	Iron Man is just a cynical libertarian who's super rich.
	So you actually don't need a backstory for those two.
	The reason that I'm anti-backstory as a general rule is because backstory is people's way of explaining why they do stupid crap in their lives.
	Backstory is what we do, if you're a defense lawyer in a criminal case, backstory is making of a murderer.
	Backstory is where we explain how you were beaten as a child, and that's why you torture kittens and rape people.
	In the comic books, comic books are different from the Bible.
	Actually, the comic books are much more like the pagan universe, which makes sense.
	I mean, they are pagan, which is not to say that they're bad.
	I mean, there's a lot of, I think that reading Greek myths is worthwhile.
	Greek myths are all about the backstory of the various gods, because the idea is the gods are supposed to be just like you and me, right?
	Gods are human beings, and they're supposed to be just like you and me.
	Religion is the opposite.
	Religion is that God is not you and me.
	If we make God over into our own image, Then we are committing a grave sin.
	We're actually taking God's name in vain.
	That's why when you read the Bible, what does it say about any of the main characters in the Bible?
	They're born because they're lineage, and then we go straight to them doing stuff.
	Right?
	You never know.
	What was Moses doing at age 13?
	No clue.
	What was Jesus doing at age 13?
	No clue.
	Right?
	What were any of these?
	We don't know.
	Right?
	Wouldn't you think that, I mean, especially in the New Testament, if you're talking about God on earth, wouldn't you want to know what he was like as a teenager?
	God doesn't care.
	He didn't tell you, according to the Christians, right?
	Not my book, but for the Christians, that's a holy writ.
	So, you know, in the Old Testament, same thing with Moses.
	Wouldn't I like to know what it was like growing up as an ethnic Jew in the court of the... in Pharaoh's court?
	Yeah, it seems like that might be good in... God doesn't care.
	God didn't see fit to tell us, right?
	Because the bottom line is that Moses is responsible for Moses's actions from the time he becomes an adult.
	And you can tell a great adventure story with the character fully formed.
	All that matters is the decisions that they're making.
	And in fact, it makes them cooler, right?
	Han Solo, his backstory being told, actually makes him uncool.
	I don't want to know who Han Solo was as a teenager.
	I don't want to know why he had an arrested stage of development, he met a girl, the girl got killed, he became a cynic.
	I don't care.
	I want the guy who, I walk into the bar and he's shooting Greedo, and yes, he shot first, right?
	That's what I want.
	I want him, I want him to arrive fully formed on the stage, he's badass, and that's what you love about him.
	That's the cool thing about Han Solo.
	The comic books have now gotten very involved in the backstories of all of these people, and it's kind of...
	It's kind of annoying, a little bit.
	Like, I wanna know how does Superman deal with the great tension in his life, right?
	This is why you need the Superman backstory, but even without that, right now, I already know his backstory.
	His backstory doesn't need to be messed with, by the way.
	His backstory is great, because there's always the tension between he's God, but he's also a man, right?
	He's supposed to be Jesus.
	That's who Superman is supposed to be, and everyone who reads Superman knows this, which is why in Superman Returns, there are half a dozen poses of him with his arms outstretched, floating above Earth, right?
	I mean, it's obvious, the symbolism.
	The idea is, his conflict, Superman's conflict is, do I become God?
	Or do I let people make their own decisions?
	Right?
	That's Superman's conflict.
	And Wonder Woman's conflict, she doesn't have any conflict.
	Wonder Woman is, I'm just gonna take over everything.
	And Batman's thing is, I'm, you know, trying to fight crime on a day-to-day level, but I'm doing so as somebody who is, you know, the most privileged class.
	Okay, all of this is interesting and you don't need a backstory for it.
	One of my great objections is that the comics have now become all about the backstory all the time.
	And I don't think the backstory is nearly as interesting as the conflicts that could be created between these various ideologies.
	I'd like to see more of that in the comic books, but I don't think we will.
	I think we'll instead get all this back- Black Panther, it will turn out, According to Ta-Nehisi Coates, was Trayvon Martin.
	He was shot and survived and became buff and decided that the cops were racist or some such nonsense.
	And I don't care about that story.
	I don't.
	I want stories about good and I want stories about evil and I want stories about the in-between.
	But what I don't care about is why you lost your dog when it was hit by a car when you were 14 and you got all sad about it.
	This is why I think Peter Parker's backstory is dumb.
	I think Spider-Man's backstory is silly.
	Because there's no conflict for Spider-Man.
	Of all the comic book characters, Spider-Man is the most overrated.
	Spider-Man is wildly overrated.
	Spider-Man is literally just a teenager who shoots webs.
	That's his entire thing.
	And by the way, he got bit by a spider.
	That's your backstory?
	Really?
	Cool backstory, dude.
	I got bit by a spider, too.
	I didn't turn into a superhero.
	Like, if the backstory could have happened to me, I'm not interested in the backstory.
	I wasn't born on another planet.
	That's a cool backstory.
	My parents weren't shot when I was a kid.
	That would be a dramatic backstory.
	It would be a horrible backstory.
	Bit by a spider?
	My wife got bit by a spider also, and then I killed the spider.
	I'm sorry, it's a bad backstory.
	But we'll have more comic book talk, I'm sure, as we continue in future episodes of The Ben Shapiro Show.
	And you can send all of your hate mail to bshapiro at dailywire.com.

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