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May 18, 2017 - The Ben Shapiro Show
20:58
Ep. 305 - The Special Counsel Has Arrived -- But It Won't Satisfy Democrats
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As I predicted Tuesday evening, the Republican line of defense regarding President Trump's myriad foibles has boiled down to this.
Trump is a victim.
He's a victim of the press.
He's a victim of spineless Republicans who won't back his play.
He's a victim of the deep state.
In a world of snowflakes, Trump is a veritable one-man blizzard.
Here is the sad truth.
President Trump is a victim of himself.
All Republicans have to deal with basically the same enemies.
The media.
Mitt Romney was targeted as a bad man for supposedly strapping a dog to the top of his car and forcibly cutting a gay kid's hair back in 1720.
John McCain was allegedly a doddering old crazy person who wouldn't survive a term in office.
George W. Bush was a war criminal who sold blood for oil and murdered hundreds of thousands of people to get Halliburton some walking around money.
Spineless Republicans.
Remember Republicans who weren't willing to defend George W. Bush during his administration?
They were plentiful, and they included many of the same players as they do now.
Bush was uncouth, according to many of these people.
He had lied, people had died.
In fact, one of the spineless Republicans who jumped on the bandwagon against Bush was a fellow who had expressed tepid support for the Iraq war, then turned on Bush with a vengeance when things started to go south.
Some guy named Donald Trump.
As for congressional Republicans, they wouldn't even ram through Social Security privatization after Bush's re-election.
The Deep State.
Doesn't anyone remember the Bush administration actually launching an FBI probe to target leakers within the administration and in Congress?
You remember Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, appointed by one James B. Comey, to investigate the Bush administration leaks regarding Valerie Plame?
In October 2003, Bush told his top officials to quote-unquote stop the leaks to the press, and that order promptly leaked to the press.
Here's the difference between Trump and the rest of these Republican targets.
Trump.
They all have the same enemies.
But those enemies did not include Mitt Romney or John McCain or George W. Bush.
Trump is better at directly confronting the media than any of these other Republicans.
But his full frontal assault has really achieved not much, since he's unable to control himself.
He substitutes his own fibs for theirs.
He undermines his credibility dramatically.
He undercuts the credibility of his own surrogates.
Yes, he has helped rip down the media, which is great, but he's ripping himself down at the same time and thereby restoring American faith in the media.
Here's the sad fact.
Over the last week, the New York Times and Washington Post have been much more credible than the Trump administration.
Trump has a base of Republicans who won't support him, but it's far, far smaller than that of Bush or McCain or Romney.
In fact, unlike Bush's base, Trump's base isn't dependent on anything Trump does.
Bush's approval ratings dropped into the basement when he pursued bad policy, whereas Trump's remains really high among Republicans.
Even as he pursues the Cleavon Little and Blazing Saddles strategy of negotiation, he's currently riding at 79% approval rating among Republicans, with just 16% disapproving.
Spineless Republicans refusing to do his legislative bidding, that's really not the problem.
The problem is that he doesn't have a legislative agenda, and that he has not a lot of leverage with which to bargain with Republicans thanks to the incompetence.
Bush had his share of Republican naysayers, for sure, but he didn't spend his days offering them excuses to run for the hills.
Finally, there's the deep state.
Bush had leaks, but Bush locked down leaks, as Peggy Noonan wrote at the time, quote, The Bush White House doesn't leak because George W. actively and affirmatively does not want it to.
Trump hasn't filled the vast majority of top roles, meaning Obama holdovers likely still dominate his administration.
Trump also has no habit of instilling loyalty in those around him by pursuing an agenda or listening to advice or demonstrating he'll stand by his people.
Instead, he's showing he's willing to throw anybody under the bus at any time.
It's an easy, silly game to pretend that Trump's main opposition is the same opposition all Republicans face, even if that opposition is amped up this time around.
Trump's main opposition remains himself, and the sycophants who insist his only problem is that he's such a suffering martyr.
I'm Ben Shapiro.
This is The Ben Shapiro Show.
I know, pretty harsh on Trump, right?
Well, you know, they have now issued a special prosecutor, a special counsel in the Trump case, and this is entirely of Trump's own making.
I want to get to the fact that all of this seems to be a bit of a witch hunt about nothing, but we'll talk about what's real and what's not in all of this.
Again, I think it's important to note that Trump shot himself in the foot, and the only reason that his foot is now separated from his body is because he pulled the trigger.
But we'll get to that in just a second.
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Okay, so, the big news of the day is that a special prosecutor, special counsel, has now been appointed in this investigation of Trump-Russia.
Again, I want to state, there is no evidence that Trump is guilty with regard to collusion with Russia.
Let me repeat that again.
There is no evidence that Trump is guilty with regard to collusion with Russia in any way, shape, or form.
No evidence has been presented.
This is all smoke.
It's no fire.
There are people who are looking pretty shady right now.
Mike Flynn, his former national security advisor, is one of them.
We'll talk about Flynn in a little while here.
Paul Manafort, his former campaign manager, is another.
But, is this Watergate?
No, it's not Watergate.
It looks like, if it's going to be a scandal, it's going to be much more like a Ron Contra, where it looks like a subordinate did something, and the president doesn't necessarily know about it.
This is a case where Trump, it really looks like Trump is innocent.
I understand why Trump is upset.
I understand why Trump is tweeting.
This morning, Trump was tweeting, if I were him, I'd be tempted to do it too, is the truth.
Trump went out there this morning and he was tweeting that Hillary, there was never a special prosecutor associated with Hillary Clinton, there's never a special prosecutor under Obama, there's never a special counsel, he spelled it wrong but he's right, there's never a special counsel that was appointed for Benghazi or Fast and Furious, a case in which the DOJ clearly could not investigate itself, or on the IRS scandal.
He's absolutely right about all of those things and if you're Trump and you're sitting there in the White House going, I didn't have anything to do with any of these things, why is everybody bothering me about this?
Yes, you too would be irritated.
But the fact that Trump can't control himself is why we now have a special prosecutor.
Because let's rewind.
The reason that this happened in the first place is because Donald Trump fired James Comey.
That's why there is now a special prosecutor.
Remember, James Comey was the guy in charge of investigating all of this stuff.
Trump didn't like and was impatient with the fact that Comey wouldn't just say that Trump was innocent even if Flynn and Manafort and others were still involved in an investigation.
So he fired Comey on the recommendation of Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney General.
Because he had to come up with this cover of using the Deputy Attorney General's letter, Rod Rosenstein's letter to fire Comey, and then Trump came out two days later and came out, no, it wasn't about that letter at all.
It was really about the Russia stuff.
Well, now Rod Rosenstein can't be involved in the Trump-Russia investigation because Trump has now involved him in it.
In a witness capacity.
Because now Rod Rosenstein will probably be called in this case, if there is a case at all, it'll probably be subpoenaed and brought before Congress to talk about what he knows about the Trump-Russia investigation and whether there was an attempt to stifle it or why Comey was fired.
So Rosenstein can actually be involved.
So because Trump fired Comey, made up an excuse, and then debunked his own excuse, Now Rosenstein has to basically recuse himself.
Sessions already had to recuse himself.
Now Rosenstein has to recuse himself, which means that he basically has to appoint a special counsel.
So this is all because Trump just decided to make a decision without a thought for the consequences.
Now here's the truth.
This could actually be a good thing for Trump.
The special counsel thing could actually be a good thing for Trump if and only if Trump can control himself.
This is always the big question.
Can Trump control himself?
The reason that this could be a good thing for Trump is because the person who is in charge here is going to be a guy named Robert Mueller.
Robert Mueller, if you recall, was the head of the FBI under George W. Bush, and then he was reappointed for a couple of years by President Obama.
He worked in the Department of Justice for a dozen years as a U.S.
attorney.
He was an assistant attorney general under George H.W.
Bush.
In 2004, as director of the FBI, Mueller, along with Comey, Now, what does a special counsel mean?
So Mueller is a professional.
He's 72 years old.
He's not going to want this investigation to drag on forever.
Now, what does a special counsel mean?
There are a lot of people who are opposed to the basic concept of a special counsel.
And that's for good reason.
That's for good reason.
Special counsels have a long history of exceeding their mandate.
So Patrick Fitzgerald, who I mentioned earlier, was a special counsel appointed to look into the leaks about Valerie Plame.
You remember this.
Valerie Plame was working at the CIA, and her husband, Joe Wilson, ran a story about how there had never been yellow cake sold to the Iraqis, and it was kind of a shoddy story, but somebody leaked his wife's name to the press, Valerie Plame, and she was working for the CIA at the time.
It turned out that it was Richard Armitage who was working for the administration, but Patrick Fitzgerald didn't prosecute Armitage, he went all the way to Scooter Libby and then prosecuted him for basically catching him in supposed perjury.
So, the problem with special prosecutors, Kenneth Starr on the right, you know, with regard to the Lewinsky investigation, or Patrick Fitzgerald on the left, the problem with a special prosecutor is a special prosecutor's basic job is to dig and dig and dig until you hit bedrock, and if you don't hit bedrock, if you just You hit more dirt, you just keep digging.
So they're going to dig until they find something, which is why the Wall Street Journal has come out against the appointment of the special counsel, the special prosecutor.
Now, Trump can fire him.
The problem is, of course, that if Trump fired him, it would just redouble the pressure on the scandal.
But here's why this could be good news for Trump.
Number one, Mueller has a history of keeping his mouth shut.
He is not leaky like James Comey.
So he is not going to be out there every day in the press talking about what his investigation is doing.
And in fact, he's not even answerable under the law to the Attorney General as far as informing him as to what is going on on a regular basis.
So, theoretically, Mueller could just say to everybody, okay, everybody calm down.
Everybody shut up.
I'm looking into all this stuff.
I'm looking into all of it.
And we'll get to the bottom of it.
So sit down.
Shut up.
Wait a year, I'll be back.
Right?
And then, Trump, anytime somebody asks him a question, he can say, listen, there's a special prosecutor, a special counsel looking at this, and because the special counsel's looking at this, I have nothing else to say on this matter.
I'm sure he'll do a thorough job.
Right?
That's what Trump could say.
It would probably go away for a year.
Right?
Everything would go quiet.
The Democrats wouldn't have any reason to complain because Bob Mueller is well-respected on both sides of the aisle.
It could take pressure off Congress for subpoenaing people because now they can say, listen, Mueller's doing the job.
It's not our job to do it.
Let Mueller do it.
So it could really be a good thing for Trump in a weird sort of way, but Trump has to stop shooting himself in the foot.
So him going on Twitter, I understand why he's frustrated, but him going on Twitter this morning, In talking about how he's the most persecuted president in the history of presidents, it's not helpful.
It makes him look like he's desperate, it makes him look like he's angry, it makes him look like he has something to hide.
If he really has nothing to hide, his statement yesterday was the right statement.
He made a statement yesterday from the White House where he said, listen, we'll do a full investigation and they'll come up with nothing, as I'm sure every other investigation will as well, and I'm focused on the work of the American people.
That was the proper answer.
Should have left it at that.
Instead, instead, he started tweeting this morning about how He was the, this is the biggest witch hunt in the history of the presidency.
Again, you know, it is true that the media have amped up their game for Trump, for sure, but this is not good strategy.
I'm just putting aside the truth of it for a second.
It's not good strategy.
If you're the president of the United States, your best bet now is to sit down, shut up, let the investigation take its course.
They're not going to find anything on you, so let it go.
Instead, it just seems like chaos is reigning.
Even Tucker Carlson, who's obviously a fan of the administration, he was upset at the administration last night because they'd offered Kellyanne Conway to come on the air, and then Kellyanne Conway pulled out last second.
Here's what Tucker Carlson had to say about it.
They said, we want to send over Kellyanne Conway?
Great.
And then not long before air, they canceled it for reasons that weren't exactly clear.
Now, I think a lot of the descriptions in the press about what's going on at the White House are false, or they're animated by the hate the press has for Trump, which is totally real.
But it does seem a little chaotic over there, I gotta be honest with you.
Is it as chaotic as it seems?
I was over there today, I have to say it was like, whenever you get inside the bubble, it's so much more tranquil.
People are just doing their jobs, nobody's running around.
I think if you take a step away from their daily jobs, this is a lot on a White House staff.
This is more breaking news around an administration than we've seen in, I don't know if we've ever seen it before.
And I think that comes with a certain amount of stress.
Yeah.
That's on these folks.
And they also have this- The point here is that Carlson is obviously upset because the White House is not handling its business properly.
Again, the White House could come out of this.
It's so easy here.
It really is.
And it's been easy every step of the way because self-created problems are also problems you can solve yourself.
Trump is capable of solving these problems.
All he has to do, appoint a director of the FBI who's going to be a bipartisan pick, and then appoint somebody and then let the special prosecutor do his job.
That's it.
That's it.
That's all he has to do.
We'll talk about whether he's going to do that in just a second.
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Okay, so.
The Democrats, meanwhile, are pushing on the Comey stuff.
So now the Democrats are basically silenced on the Trump-Russia investigation as far as Mueller.
So Mueller's looking into it.
There's nothing for them to talk about.
But they're amping up their game with regard to the Comey firing.
So remember, they're going to focus in on the supposed cover-up, not on the supposed crime.
For the fourth time this show, there is no evidence that Trump personally colluded with Russia in any way.
Zero evidence whatsoever.
So, what are they focusing on?
They're focusing on the supposed cover-up of evidence that they have no proof exists.
They're focusing on Trump firing Comey.
As I said yesterday, what actually happened in the firing of Comey, in all likelihood, was that Trump thinks that Mike Flynn is innocent, and so he asked Comey, can you leave him alone, not because he thinks Flynn is guilty and wants Comey off his case, but because he thinks Flynn is innocent, she's like, can you leave him alone?
Comey says, well, not really.
And then a couple of months later, Trump is pissed because Comey won't just say that Trump is innocent.
And so Trump fires Comey, and then he handles it really, really badly.
So the Democrats are jumping on the Comey firing to suggest a coverup, even though there really is not even evidence of a coverup yet.
It's really over the top.
So the Democrats are focused on bringing Comey before Congress and talking about Comey as much as possible.
Mark Warner, senator from Virginia, he says that the American people want to hear from Comey.
The real thing that the American public wants to hear is they want to hear from Jim Comey.
They want to hear from him in an open hearing.
And I think the appropriate venue is the Senate Intel Committee.
If he chooses another committee, that's fine as well, but as long as he gets a chance to make his case.
Okay, so the Democrats are jumping all over this, and the White House, again, is handling this about as badly as you possibly can.
Sean Spicer, White House Press Secretary, at least for the moment, he says that the White House has nothing to say about the news that broke yesterday about the James Comey memo, the memo that suggested that he had been told by Trump to drop the investigation, or that Trump had suggested he drop the investigation.
Here's Sean Spicer basically ignoring it.
Oh, we don't have that.
So Spicer actually said that.
But here's the truth.
Here's the truth, okay?
Easy answer to all of this.
Easy answer.
Comey said in open testimony that people were not trying to quash his investigation.
That people were not trying to get in his way.
Here's a flashback.
James Comey, like a week ago, talking about how he was never pressured to halt his investigation.
If the Attorney General or senior officials at the Department of Justice opposes a specific investigation, can they halt that FBI investigation?
In theory, yes.
Has it happened?
Not in my experience.
Because it would be a big deal to tell the FBI to stop doing something without an appropriate purpose.
Oftentimes they give us opinions that we don't see a case there and so you ought to stop investing resources in it.
But I'm talking about a situation where we were told to stop something for a political reason.
That would be a very big deal.
Okay, so he said in open testimony people weren't trying to stop him.
Now, people on the left are saying, well, he was talking about the Attorney General.
You really think that if he was asked that question and he wanted to say the president's been trying to stop me from investigating, he couldn't have dropped it right there?
So Comey himself is saying that he wasn't really pressured to drop this FBI investigation.
Why isn't the White House pushing that line?
The Democrats are out over their skis here.
They're really out over their skis.
Jason Chaffetz, who's going to be retiring, this congressman from Utah, head of the House Oversight Committee, he says, and he's right, the Democrats don't have anything here.
They really don't.
So do you think that the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel to look into this Russia question, whatever that question is, will stop the acceleration we've seen in the last week, talk of impeachment, of removing Trump somehow from office.
No, no.
How would it not?
No, it's not going to slow them down.
Now they're just going to change their talking points.
The Democrats, by the way, I love their newfound commitment to openness, transparency and accountability.
I mean, where did that come from?
All of a sudden, come January 20th, they were all for it.
But they're just going to change their talking points and say this administration is in chaos.
And by the way, it's under investigation itself.
It had to have a special counsel.
You'll hear them.
I mean, you could just already hear them in advance.
It's an insatiable desire.
They have I have no idea.
Chaffetz is totally right.
Chaffetz is totally right that the special prosecutor isn't going to make the Democrats feel any better, but it's at least a good cover for the Trump administration if the Trump administration is willing to use it.
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