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Feb. 15, 2017 - The Ben Shapiro Show

19:52

Ep. 253 - Flynn's Out -- What The Hell Happened?

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	At the Grammys on Sunday, a great crime against humanity occurred with the entire world watching.
	Adele won the top Grammy, leaving Beyonce, the greatest human being who has ever graced our planet, out in the cold.
	Again.
	Why?
	Why, God, why?
	RACISM!
	Never mind that Adele's 25 was the top-selling album of the year while Beyonce's Lemonade showed up at number four, Adele had to apologize to Beyonce for winning the album of the year, and then she split her Grammy in half and said, quote, I can't possibly accept this award.
	The Lemonade album was just so monumental.
	Yes, Lemonade is groundbreaking.
	Beethoven-esque, a work of heartbreaking genius, with which only heaven or heaven's angel.
	Could have seen fit to grace us.
	Who else but Queen Bee could have given us these immortal lines?
	Y'all haters corny with that Illuminati mess.
	Paparazzi, catch my fly and my cocky fresh.
	The echoes of Shakespeare ring in every romantic lyric.
	So, why wouldn't artists of color naturally assume that Adele's victory at the Grammys represents a new form of Jim Crow?
	Here's the New York Times, quote, Before the 59th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, the music industry murmured about what it might mean for Adele to once again sweep the top awards, leaving Beyoncé snubbed in the major categories and with her third loss for Album of the Year.
	Having long faced accusations that the Grammys overlook young, progressive black artists, the last woman to win Album of the Year was Lauryn Hill in 1999.
	The Recording Academy faced a potential backlash for going all-in on a white, traditionalist choice like Adele.
	In the last five years especially, albums by Frank Ocean, Mr. Lamar, and Beyonce have been passed over for the top award in favor of releases by white artists Mumford & Sons, Daft Punk, Beck, Taylor Swift, and Adele.
	So, now the Grammys are just another repository of white racism.
	But, it's not enough that everyone in the music industry must pay tribute to Beyonce.
	It's not enough for the top-selling artists on the planet to bow before Beyonce, as required under international law.
	No, the Grammys must be boycotted until they recognize that incredibly rich, incredibly beautiful, world-famous black people have to win awards.
	Otherwise, they are just Bull Connor.
	Does anyone wonder why our culture is falling apart?
	Why the social fabric is fraying?
	We can't even listen to music or watch a silly music awards show without being hit with Colin Kaepernick lectures on the legacies of slavery, even while the whole world falls prostrate before the glories of Juju, celebrating ancient fertility rituals reenacted on stage as New Testament living tableaus.
	Yes, Hollywood clearly has a problem, but it isn't racism.
	It's race-based stupidity.
	I'm Ben Shapiro.
	This is the Ben Shapiro Show.
	This is the Ben Shapiro Show.
	There are a lot of angles to it, so we're going to analyze it from every single available angle, as we are apt to do!
	But first, we have to say thank you to our friends over at ZipRecruiter.
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	So, you get the whole shebang for free.
	You can post those jobs for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash Daily Wire.
	Use slash Daily Wire because that enables Okay, so lots of chaos last night.
	So it's always irritating when news breaks really late at night because I'm all ready to go to bed and my kids have stopped being a pain in the butt long enough for me to actually relax a little bit.
	That's what ZipRecruiter is for.
	Highly recommend them.
	Okay, so lots of chaos last night.
	So it's always irritating when news breaks really late at night because I'm all ready to go to bed and my kids have stopped being a pain in the butt long enough for me to actually relax a little bit.
	And then Donald Trump fires his national security advisor and all hell breaks loose.
	So I love my children, but they didn't let me sleep a lot last night.
	Neither, it turns out, did Mike Flynn and Donald Trump.
	So, last night, very late, Donald Trump fires Mike Flynn.
	So they're saying that Mike Flynn resigned and then Trump accepted the resignation.
	It's the same difference.
	It doesn't really make a difference.
	Bottom line is the National Security Advisor, he submitted his resignation and Donald Trump accepted the resignation.
	Which raises a question.
	What exactly did Michael Flynn do?
	So you may have noticed that here on The Ben Shapiro Show, we have not been covering the unfolding Michael Flynn saga at all.
	At all.
	And that's a conscious choice.
	And the reason it's a conscious choice is because there was no evidence that anything super wrong happened.
	There were a bunch of kind of rumors that maybe Flynn had talked to the Russians about sanctions before he was actually national security advisor while Obama was still president.
	And then he had denied those rumors and then the FBI had investigated and they said they found nothing untoward.
	And so we didn't cover any of that because it just seemed like a lot of back and forth.
	And frankly, even if it had come out that National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn had spoken with the Russian ambassador about sanctions, I don't think it's that big a deal.
	I don't.
	I mean, he was going to be the national security advisor in like three weeks.
	Trump was going to be president in three weeks.
	Barack Obama was openly offering flexibility to the Russians in the middle of an election campaign as president of the United States.
	In 2008, Barack Obama reached out to the Iranian government before he was president to tell them to just hold on.
	He was coming to help.
	So, I didn't see any of this as a big deal.
	I still don't understand what the huge deal here was.
	Here's sort of the timeline, okay?
	In a February 8th interview, this is according to the Washington Post.
	In a February 8th interview with the Washington Post, Flynn categorically denied discussing sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, repeating public assertions made in January by top Trump officials.
	So, Vice President Pence had said that That Flynn never talked to Kislyak about sanctions, and so did Sean Spicer.
	One day after the interview, Flynn revised his account.
	He told the Washington Post through a spokesman he couldn't be certain the topic never came up.
	U.S.
	intelligence reports during the 2016 campaign showed Kislyak was in touch with Flynn, according to officials.
	Communications between the two continued after Trump's victory on November 8, according to officials with access to intelligence reports on this matter.
	So Trump officials, including, as I say, Spicer and Vice President Pence, they had said the same thing to the media that Flynn had said, which is that he never talked sanctions.
	Now, would this have been a big deal even if he did talk sanctions?
	Again, I don't really see why it would.
	I don't see why it would.
	Nonetheless, he has now resigned.
	Supposedly he resigned.
	The reason that they're giving for him resigning is because they say that he lied to Pence, that he told Pence he didn't discuss sanctions, he actually discussed sanctions, and then Pence went on national TV, and then He was undercut by the fact that Flynn had actually talked sanctions and so he had to go.
	Maybe.
	Maybe.
	I find it highly doubtful that that couldn't be fixed with an apology.
	That Donald Trump couldn't have just gone to Flynn and said, you need to apologize to Pence.
	I understand that you didn't think Pence needed to be on the loop on that, but he needs to be in the loop on that.
	You need to issue a public apology and we all move on with our lives.
	The idea that that was enough to fire him, that doesn't seem particularly plausible.
	Here's Flynn's resignation letter.
	So here's what he said.
	He said, in the course of my duties as the incoming national security advisor, I held numerous phone calls with foreign counterparts, ministers and ambassadors.
	These calls were to facilitate a smooth transition and begin to build the necessary relationship between the president, his advisors and foreign leaders.
	Such calls are standard practice in any transition of this magnitude.
	OK, that seems like a pretty good excuse for everything that right there.
	He says, unfortunately, because of the fast pace of events, I inadvertently briefed the vice president elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian ambassador.
	I've sincerely apologized to the president and the VP, and they've accepted my apology.
	You would think that would be the end of it, right?
	But no, he actually resigned.
	And then he goes on to talk about how he's tendering his resignation, and he's honored to serve President Trump, and he wants to thank Trump for his personal loyalty and the friendship of people he worked with throughout the hard-fought campaign, and he talks about President Trump's leadership, etc., etc., etc.
	So, there are a bunch of theories floating around about what actually happened here, because Here's the deal.
	Okay, there were a bunch of leaks that came out of the administration suggesting that Flynn had actually talked sanctions on the line.
	But it was Trump that had to fire him.
	Trump had to accept the resignation.
	Okay, so this is on Trump.
	The real question here is why Trump, why he accepted the resignation.
	We understand why the intel community is targeting Trump.
	A lot of the intel community was appointed under Obama.
	We understand there are members of the intel community who are upset with the idea that Trump might be close to the Russians.
	Okay, those are leaks.
	They're not good.
	And Trump has responded to that.
	We'll get to the leaking in just a second.
	But the real question here is why Trump accepted the resignation in the first place.
	And there are a few theories floating around, so I'm just going to offer you the theories and you decide for yourself based on evidence as it comes in.
	Theory one is he lied to Pence, and presumably Trump didn't know about it either, right?
	And so Flynn basically went rogue and lied to everybody about having discussed sanctions on this call.
	Do I think that's a super plausible theory?
	Nah, I don't think it's a super plausible theory that he was discussing sanctions on this phone call with the Russians and he lied to everybody and that pissed off Trump so much that Trump had to let him go.
	That does not seem super plausible to me, specifically because Trump knew one month ago that this was the case and then he proceeded to appoint Flynn anyway.
	So that seems implausible.
	There's another theory, and I think this is the most plausible theory, which is that Trump said to Flynn, you go ahead and you talk to the Russian ambassador, say what you want to say, He didn't explicitly tell him to talk about sanctions, but Flynn talked about sanctions, and then there was blowback, and Trump didn't like the blowback, and so he threw Flynn under the bus.
	So Flynn offered his resignation, and there was all these leaks coming out suggesting strong ties between Flynn and the Russians, despite the fact that people have been accusing Flynn of this for literally months, and Trump had gone along with him.
	And so Trump said, OK, you have to go.
	And he used the Pence thing as sort of a pretext.
	Then there's theory three, which is that Pence and Reince Priebus, the RNC chair, they have enough sway within the administration to force Trump to toss Flynn out on his ear for lying to them.
	Again, I find that implausible.
	Trump's the president of the United States.
	If Pence doesn't like it, Pence can stick it.
	I mean, Trump's the one with the power.
	And then finally there's the fourth theory, and this is the one the left is glomming on to, and that's the theory that the real reason that Trump decapitated Flynn is because he thought that this was going to lead back to him.
	That he actually told Flynn, go make nice with the Russians, he was afraid that that was going to come out, and then it did start to come out, so he decapitated Flynn hoping that would end the story.
	Right?
	That's sort of the theory.
	that the left is relying upon.
	One thing is clear, there is absolute chaos inside the administration.
	So yesterday we played a clip of Stephen Miller, the senior advisor to President Trump, talking about how to say that we are in control of events is a significant understatement.
	That's not what it looked like today.
	And again, if you're rooting for Trump to do well, then you need him to do better than this.
	If you're rooting for Trump to have a successful presidency, you need him to do better than this.
	And don't worry, we'll talk about the Democratic hypocrisy because there's tons of it.
	We'll talk about the media wanting to get Trump because it really is vicious and nasty and drooling.
	But first we have to talk about what's actually going on.
	So, yes, there is chaos inside the administration.
	That chaos was on full display yesterday.
	Kellyanne Conway goes on national TV.
	This is like 3.20 in the afternoon Pacific time.
	She goes on national TV and she says that General Flynn has Trump's full trust.
	Yes, General Flynn does enjoy the full confidence of the President, and this is a big week for General Flynn.
	He's the point of contact for many of these foreign visits, if you look at the official schedule.
	Today we had the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, here obviously for bilateral meetings.
	On Wednesday we're welcoming Benjamin Netanyahu here to the White House.
	And behind the scenes, they're doing a number of different meetings where they're talking about trade, they're talking about terrorism, security, the fact that Canada and the U.S.
	are very— But the bottom line is, she says that Flynn has Trump's full trust.
	And then, literally within an hour—so I guess that's about 4 o'clock Eastern time—so literally within an hour, Sean Spicer comes out and issues a statement saying, we're going to be releasing a statement about this.
	So, clearly one hand is not talking to the other in any of this.
	And remember, Donald Trump said just like last Friday that he had no idea what was going on with Flynn.
	He hadn't been reading any of the reports.
	He said he didn't know what reports that people were even talking about.
	This is clip 19.
	I don't know about it.
	that General Flynn had conversations with the Russians about sanctions before you were supported? - I don't know about it.
	I haven't seen it.
	What report is that?
	- Is there a number of questions?
	- I have.
	- Washington Post is reporting that he talked to the ambassadors of Russia before you were inaugurated about sanctions.
	Maybe right there?
	I'll look at that.
	Okay, he hasn't seen it.
	He'll look into it.
	Except that the reports say that he was briefed on it over a month ago.
	Okay, so there's a lot of confusion happening and then finally Flynn is gone and Paul Ryan comes out and says that Trump made the right decision on the Flynn resignation.
	National security is perhaps the most important function or responsibility a president has.
	And I think the president made the right decision to ask for his resignation.
	You cannot have a national security advisor misleading the vice president and others.
	So I think the president was right to ask for his resignation.
	Okay, so even there, even there, there's a communications gap because Trump says that Flynn offered his resignation and now Ryan is saying that Trump asked for his resignation, right?
	So there's all sorts of communications gaps here and a lot of confusion as to what exactly is going on.
	One thing is clear, we're not, we don't know all the facts yet.
	So all we can do is wait to hear all the facts.
	Again, I'm puzzled.
	The reason I'm, you know, talking about this and the reason I think it's interesting is because I'm puzzled as to why any of this was fireable.
	I just don't see, like, of all the things that people around Donald Trump have done throughout the campaign and afterward that merit firing, it seems to me that talking to the Russians about sanctions before you actually take office is, like, the last thing on the list.
	That's really low on the list.
	And fibbing to Mike Pence and Sean Spicer, you think that Trump cares deeply about that?
	Maybe he does.
	If so, that'd be the first time that he's really been that tight with either of those guys.
	And Paul Ryan, obviously, is part of the sort of Reince Priebus wing that wants to see Flynn go.
	So there's a lot of talk today about the conflict inside the administration between Steve Bannon and his wing of the administration, and the Reince Priebus wing of the administration, because Bannon's outlets, like Breitbart today, they're pushing Priebus.
	The headline at Breitbart today was that basically Priebus is responsible for Flynn's ouster, even though Trump is the one who did the firing.
	A lot of confusion reigning.
	So the best available explanation, the easiest available explanation, and the minimum explanation is that there's a lot of amateurishness and incompetence happening at the highest levels with regard to this particular issue.
	And that's not a good thing.
	Now, there's another issue that may be even deeper.
	There's another issue here that may be even deeper.
	And that is the leaks.
	So, again, because we don't know the extent of what exactly happened here, why Trump fired Flynn, again, that's the big question.
	Why did he accept the resignation?
	There's a secondary question, and this is what Trump is focusing in on.
	Trump tweeted out today that the real issue here is the leaks.
	Why is his administration so damn leaky?
	He tweeted out, the real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington?
	Will these leaks be happening as ideal on North Korea, etc.?
	Trump is obviously very frustrated with the intelligence community.
	He's been saying that they've been leaking about him for literally months, and he's not wrong.
	They have been leaking about him for literally months.
	There's a certain irony to Donald Trump being very angry at leaks, considering that for literally a year and a half, he was happy with leaks so long as they helped him.
	Now he's unhappy with leaks if they don't help him.
	But it does demonstrate that the intel community The so-called deep state is very invested in hurting Donald Trump and taking out a lot of people around him.
	Is that for good reasons?
	Is that for bad reasons?
	We don't know, but it's not a good thing, okay?
	The intel community is not supposed to be waging war against the administration that it's supposed to be serving.
	And so Trump has a point here.
	He does have a point.
	Now, it still doesn't answer the question, right?
	The intel community could be leaking and Trump could have just said, so what?
	Leak what you want.
	I'm keeping Flynn.
	Deal.
	But he didn't.
	So that keeps that first question, what is Trump doing, on the table.
	But yes, the intel community and their focus on Trump is going to be a long-standing problem for Trump.
	I'm not sure how he cleans house.
	I'm not sure what he does about it.
	So two things can be true at once.
	The leaks can be really egregious and they can be really heavy.
	And second, there could be something nefarious going on inside the Trump administration, and we have to have an explanation as to why Trump actually fired Flynn, if nothing bad was happening here.
	Again, I'm looking at the scandal, and I don't see the scandal.
	Like, where's the scandal?
	Why is it a scandal that the future NSA talks to the Russians?
	I don't get it.
	That Trump thought it was enough of a scandal to fire somebody, so we're not getting the full story in all of that, and that's a problem.
	It's still raising, you know, credibility issues.
	Matt Lauer interviewed Kellyanne Conway about this, and you can see the confusion.
	You can see the fact that we now have a scandal on our hands because of what appears to be sort of a cover-up from the Trump administration.
	Here's Matt Lauer with Kellyanne Conway, and Kellyanne looks really bad in this exchange.
	Well, that's one characterization.
	But the fact is that General Flynn continued in that position and was in the presidential daily briefings, was part of the leader calls as recently as yesterday, was there for the Prime Minister's visit from Canada yesterday.
	And as time wore on, obviously the situation had become unsustainable and General Flynn That makes no sense.
	Last month the Justice Department warned the White House that General Flynn had misled them and that as a result he was vulnerable to blackmail and at that moment he still had the complete trust of the President?
	Matt, I'm telling you what the President has said, which is that he's accepted General Flynn's resignation, and he wishes him well, and that we're moving on.
	There are at least three candidates, very strong candidates, that will be considered for a permanent position here.
	Obviously, General Keith Kellogg is the acting National Security Advisor starting today, and the President is moving forward.
	And she continues by saying, we're not gonna say what we knew and when we knew it, which is never a good sign, okay?
	You never want an administration saying that.
	We're gonna get to the hypocrisy of the Democrats in the media here in just a second, because it is rich.
	It is rich.
	There's absolutely rich, disgusting hypocrisy from the Democrats in the media.
	The media are claiming this is the biggest cover-up, the biggest story since Iran-Contra.
	Absolute garbage.
	Not true.
	The Obama administration was replete with corrupt, nasty officials doing corrupt, nasty things who were never fired by Obama.
	At least Trump fired Flynn, okay?
	So, we still have to know why.
	I think that's the big question here.
	Because, again, I don't see what Flynn did that was so wrong here that an apology couldn't have solved.
	But the idea that this is unprecedented, that this is something new, that this is the worst since Iran-Contra, a bunch of crap, just absolute crap.
	The National Security Advisor under Barack Obama, Ben Rhodes, was literally a fiction writer who literally wrote a fictional story about how Iran had reached out to the United States, the moderates in Iran, over an Iran nuclear deal.
	The entire media swallowed the entire thing whole.
	And then, and then Rhodes came out and said, yeah, I fooled y'all and no one cared.
	Susan Rice, the UN ambassador, went on national television and lied, what was it, 13 times?
	About how a YouTube video was responsible for what happened in Benghazi.
	Or she was lied to by the CIA.
	It's the same sort of situation.
	And no one seemed to care on the left.
	So there's rich hypocrisy happening all over from the Democrats to the media.
	But we'll get to that in just a second.
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