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July 11, 2017 - The Ben Shapiro Show
22:19
Trump Jr.’s Big Meeting | The Ben Shapiro Show Ep. 337
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On Tuesday, David Brooks, the faux-conservative columnist for the New York Times, and a columnist so ensconced in wry analysis of the American upper-middle class that he seems to have completely lost touch with reality, penned a pretty condescending column, aren't they all, about how upper-middle class Americans have created their own society.
Brooks' thesis, quote, over the past generation, members of the college-educated class have become amazingly good at making sure their children retain the privileged status.
They've also become devastatingly good at making sure the children of other classes This is a pretty astonishing claim, given that income mobility in the United States hasn't really changed since the 1970s, and that income mobility in the U.S.
is the same as Europe's despite Europe's higher levels of redistribution.
Virtually all differences in income mobility Between the United States and Europe are attributable to dropping out of high school or having babies out of wedlock.
But according to Brooks, the new elite have chopped off the ladder behind them.
Brooks blames the pediocracy, stupid.
He cites these facts, quote, Quote, Upper middle class parents have the means to spend two to three times more time with their preschool kids than less affluent parents.
Since 1996, education expenditures among the affluent have increased by almost 300%, while education spending among every other group is basically flat.
Yes, it turns out that making more money does accord your children extra benefits.
But that doesn't mean that you are responsible for shutting off someone else's path to success.
According to Brooks, however, the upper middle class has now become exclusionary.
How so?
First, Brooks cites zoning laws in college admissions.
Fair game for a talk of bending rules in favor of the upper middle class, although it's important to note that the vast majority of high school graduates in the United States now go to college, 66% as of 2013, including 46% of graduates from low-income families.
But then, Brooks gets weird.
He goes after what he calls informal social barriers that segregate the lower 80%.
Here is his best example, quote, Recently, I took a friend with only a high school degree to lunch.
Insensitively, I led her into a gourmet sandwich shop.
Suddenly, I saw her face freeze up as she was confronted with sandwiches named Padrino and Pomodoro, and ingredients like soppressata, cappuccino, and striata baguette.
I quickly asked her if she wanted to go somewhere else and she anxiously nodded yes, and we ate Mexican.
This is idiotic.
Did Brooks seek to make his friend feel stupid?
Did he mean to suggest that his friend was not welcome?
Or did he just want a gourmet sandwich?
Attributing malice to people's preferences is as nasty as excluding people through selection of hoity-toity restaurants.
But Brooks continues, Sport the right baby carrier, have the right podcast, food truck, tea, wine, and Pilates taste.
Not to mention the right attitudes about David Foster Wallace, child rearing, gender norms, and intersectionality.
Status rules are partly about collusion, about attracting educated people to your circle, tightening the bonds between you and erecting shields against everyone else.
We in the educated class have created barriers to mobility that are more devastating for being invisible.
The rest of America can't name them, can't understand them.
They just know they're there.
Uh, no.
We have not created informal barriers to mobility.
We associate with people who think like us.
This is just as true for the shishi yoga instructor moving to Lubbock as it is for a Lubbock kid moving to Hollywood.
But to pretend that the habits of the upper middle class in Texas are the same as the habits of the upper middle class in Massachusetts is stupid and ignorant.
Brooks's column is just another way to suggest that low-income Americans have insuperable barriers to success in America.
And those barriers can be found in sandwich choices, not merely the institutional obstacles we can identify and tackle.
In his column, Brooks actually contributes to a far greater barrier to success in America than cultural striation.
He contributes to an unearned sense of victimhood, when the best option would be to encourage people to make solid life choices rather than lamenting their ignorance about soppressata.
For the record, I have no idea what the hell soppressata is because I keep kosher.
So there's a cultural barrier all to yourself.
I'm Ben Shapiro.
This is the Ben Shapiro Show.
So many things do we talk about?
E-I-E-I-O.
Okay, so everything is insane.
Donald Trump Jr.
has now blown up the news cycle.
He's released an email exchange, which we will talk about.
Is it illegal?
Is it treason?
So, obviously, Tim Kaine, the senator from Virginia, he's already out front saying that this is treason.
We'll discuss whether, indeed, Donald Trump Jr.
will be executed, or whether, in fact, the Democrats are going a little too far.
We'll discuss the facts here.
They're not great for Donald Trump Jr., but we'll talk about all of that.
Plus, I have a huge announcement coming up in about 30 seconds.
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birchgold.com Okay, so first, the big announcement.
I promoted this last Friday.
I'm not sure if I mentioned it yesterday.
So, on September 14th, I will be going to Berkeley.
Yay!
So we'll see if Antifa shows up.
Young America's Foundation, who does wonderful work sponsoring me going all over the country, they have worked out that I will be going to Berkeley on September 14th.
And I fully expect that the administration of Berkeley will do its legal duty to prevent the heckler's veto.
Violence from Antifa is not going to stop us.
Attempted violence from Antifa is not going to prevent this.
And if the Berkeley administration decides they want to shut down my speech because they can't control their own students or outside agitators, well then that's going to be on their own head.
But we are coming to Berkeley in about, well, a couple of months now.
So in September 14th we are coming to Berkeley.
I look forward to seeing everyone there, and hopefully we can have a good, solid discussion as we have at campuses all over the country, wherever they let me speak.
So, Bennett Berkeley, it's right now, moving on Twitter, hashtag Bennett Berkeley, looking forward to seeing you all there on September 14th.
No hecklers veto.
Okay.
So, on to the news.
Well, actually, you know, before I mention the news, I know I'm really, like, stringing this out, but before I get to the huge news of the day, I just want to mention, have you seen this cup?
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Okay, so, the big news of the day is, of course, that Donald Trump Jr.
has politically pooped his pants.
So, this is a problem.
So, as we discussed yesterday, there was a story from the New York Times that said that there was a meeting between Donald Trump Jr.
and Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner and a Russian-connected lawyer named Natalia Veselnitskaya, which is an appropriately Russian name, and And I said that there were open questions about this.
There's a story that came out from the Times also, a follow-on story, that says that Trump knew that she was an agent for the Russian government.
There was an email exchange containing that information.
And that had not yet been confirmed, so I was a little bit skeptical of that information until we actually saw the emails.
And yesterday, the media decided that they were going to go nuts over this in lieu of seeing the emails.
They were going to suggest that the meeting itself was criminal no matter what.
There were some open questions.
Number one, was this woman Vesel Nitskaya actually a Russian agent?
Number two, did Trump Jr.
know that she was a Russian agent?
Number three, did he attempt to get information from her about Hillary Clinton?
And finally, number four, is that actual collusion?
And number five, I guess, is it illegal?
So we're going to go through all of those questions first.
The media and the left decided immediately that this was, in fact, criminal and it was collusion.
John Podesta, who has the most at stake here, because if he can claim that the Russians won the election for Trump, Then he looks less like a dope because he ran Hillary's idiotic campaign last year.
He says this is starting to smell like collusion.
This is yesterday, before the new revelations came out, which we'll talk about in just a second.
Well, you know, it's drip, drip, drip.
We keep learning more information.
The story keeps changing.
Now it is clear that they had a specific meeting to gather dirt on Hillary with a Russian lawyer with close ties to the Kremlin.
And, you know, the story, again, keeps changing.
We never knew about that meeting that Mr. Kushner attended earlier.
Donald Trump Jr.
said that he specifically went to the meeting with the hopes of soliciting negative information about Hillary.
It's starting to smell more and more like collusion to, I think, the public.
But most importantly, we really need to get the facts straight on this.
Okay, so this sort of drip-drip-drip language, of course, we had to take with a grain of salt because the Democrats have been saying this since literally the middle of last year, and that drip-drip-drip hadn't actually amounted to anything.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, he did the same thing.
He says, the meeting is criminal.
We don't know what happened.
This is yesterday.
We don't know what happened, but we know it's criminal.
Finally, we're going to get the smoking gun.
This will be our chance.
We will finally nail this sucker down.
Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut.
This meeting, and most especially Donald Trump Jr.' 's clear acknowledgement of the reason for it, is bombshell evidence of conspiracy and criminal intent, because he went to that meeting for a purpose, and that purpose was seeking dirt on Hillary Clinton, potentially in violation of the law.
What statute would that be?
And that would be 18 United States Code 1030, which is the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, among other statutes.
There are a variety of other statutes that might be covered.
But an agreement to violate the law, even if somebody doesn't know all the actions are going to be taken, is a conspiracy.
Okay, the legal provision that he just cited is really inapplicable.
The idea that this was absolutely collusion, from what we know, is that no information was actually passed and there was no actual collusion.
It was quote-unquote attempted collusion, if anything.
Okay, so we didn't even know that as late as yesterday.
And then, we finally get this email exchange.
So the New York Times is about to break a story on Donald Trump Jr.' 's emails.
And we're finally going to get the full story.
And that's when Donald Trump Jr.
makes the genius move of revealing all of the emails himself.
He reveals all of the emails himself, and they are not good.
So we are going to go through them, and I'm going to explain what exactly is happening here.
So first, I want to introduce you to a man named Rob Goldstone.
So Rob Goldstone was apparently an agent who was involved with one of the sponsors, a Russian family that's connected to the Russian government and to Trump originally.
That family was one of the co-partners or sponsors.
of the 2013 Miss Universe contest over in Moscow.
And Rob Goldstone was the agent for those people.
That's how he got to know Trump Jr. and the Trump family.
I first want to introduce you to Rob Goldstone, who is the go-between here, because honestly, if you're going to have a collusion scandal, it has to be done in the most ridiculous, stupid possible way.
Now, this will be clip 14.
Meet Rob Goldstone, the clever go-between in this collusion scandal.
This shit made me think of my childhood, and my favorite cartoon, that was a cartoon.
Whatever it was.
Children's TV character, Andy Pandy.
I shall now act out an episode of Andy Pandy.
This is how it began.
Andy Pandy's coming to town.
La la la la la.
Andy Pandy's almost there.
La la la la la.
Hello, Andy Pandy.
Can you see Ted?
Where's Andy?
I can't.
And there it is!
The nefarious criminal mastermind at the nexus of Putin and Trump.
We have finally discovered him.
Okay, so Rob Goldstone contacts Donald Jr.
Okay, this is June 3rd, 2016, just days before Trump is gonna lock up the nomination, effectively.
And here's what Rob Goldstone writes, okay?
And this is what Donald Trump Jr.
tweeted this out today.
Himself.
Which I guess is that, I mean, there's... I'm just thinking of the meme of that black dude going like this.
Right, like you can't be implicated for something bad if you expose yourself.
So here is the actual email from Rob Goldstone.
It says, Good morning.
Amin just called.
Amin is the guy who was a co-investor with Trump in the 2013 Miss Universe contest.
Amin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting.
The Crown Prosecutor of Russia just met with his father Aras this morning, and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.
This is obviously very high level and sensitive, but is part of Russia's and its government's support for Mr. Trump.
Let me repeat that.
Part of Russia's and its government's support for Mr. Trump.
Helped along by Aras and Amin.
What do you think is the best way to handle this information?
And would you be able to speak to Amin about it directly?
I can also send this info to your father via Rona, but it is ultra sensitive, so I wanted to send to you first.
Best, Rob Goldstone.
So, there are a few problems with this particular email that, again, Donald Trump Jr.
himself released today.
Problem number one.
This is openly stating that the meeting was based on the notion that the Russian government was going to provide information to the Trump campaign.
Number two, it openly says that this was going to be part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump.
Third, the email explicitly says that if we don't go to you, then we can just go right around you to Donald Trump Sr.
Right, the implication being that maybe they have some sort of connection to Donald Trump Sr., or at least could get some connection to Donald Trump Sr.
Trump Jr.
writes back, Thanks Rob, I appreciate that.
I am on the road at the moment, but perhaps I just speak to Amin first.
Seems we have some time, and if it's what you say, I love it.
Especially later in the summer.
Like, we can drop the information later in the summer.
Could we do a fir- call first thing next week when I am back?
Best done.
Okay, so.
Assume for a second that Donald Trump Jr.
is just a dope.
Right, okay, so he's just a dope, and he doesn't know any better, and he figures, okay, people gather information from all sorts of sources all the time.
In fact, there's a story last year that the Ukrainian government was meeting with surrogates of Hillary Clinton in order to provide them information about Trump and Russia.
So, the idea that foreign actors have no influence over American elections is just not true.
The Daily Caller's Peter Hafson reported that yesterday.
He pointed us to this Politico link where they talked about this last year at the time.
So, let's assume that Don Jr.
is thinking the same thing.
Okay, I'm just gonna go gather information.
He then goes to Manafort, who should know better, and Jared Kushner, and all three of them meet, but they're meeting with the notion that this is going to be some sort of Russian government source.
The email exchange continues.
And now, Rob Goldstone writes, hi, Don, let me know when you are free to talk with Amin by phone about this Hillary info.
You had mentioned earlier this week, so I wanted to try to schedule a time and day.
Best to you and your family, Rob Goldstone.
Okay, and then it continues.
So there's more of these email exchanges, like four pages of these email exchanges.
And the email exchanges continue along these lines.
They say that Amin is in Moscow.
He'll call you when he gets off stage.
And then finally, here is the critical email June 7th.
Don, hope all is well.
This is from Rob Goldstone.
Amin asked that I schedule a meeting with you and the Russian government attorney who is flying over from Moscow for this Thursday.
I believe you are aware of the meeting and so wondered if 3 p.m.
or later on Thursday works for you.
I assume it would be at your office.
Best, Rob Goldstone.
Okay, now the key phrase there is the Russian government attorney.
So, now I need to show you tape of the Russian government attorney, okay?
This Natalia Veselnitskaya lady.
So, we've already met the go-between, Andy Pandy.
Now we're about to meet Natasha from Natasha and Boris.
She is an attorney who clearly has links to the Russian government, but she was on NBC News crying about how she feels betrayed and talking about Trump Jr.
and says she doesn't actually work for the Russian government.
They had the impression, it appears, that they were going to be told some information that you had about the DNC.
How did they get that impression?
It's quite possible that maybe they were looking for such information.
They wanted it so badly.
And this morning she denies claims she is connected to a Russian government effort to aid Donald Trump's presidency.
Have you ever worked for the Russian government?
Do you have connections to the Russian government?
No.
Okay, so if you listen to Vesel Netskaya, then she's not related to the Russian government, but the Trump team was so eager to get information from the Russian government that they met with her randomly.
So none of this story makes any sense from her perspective.
She is clearly pretty closely linked to the Russian government.
She works closely with the Russian government, has represented state-owned businesses, and a senior government official's son.
She is what they call a cutout, meaning that she's somebody who has deniable links with Russia, but is pretty clearly associated Okay, so what is the upshot of all of this?
Is it illegal?
Is Donald Trump Jr.
going to be executed for treason, as Tim Kaine ridiculously suggested today?
Does it matter?
Is there more to follow?
We'll talk about all that in just a second.
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Okay, so.
Is this a crime?
So, let's assume that everything in this email is just as it suggests that it is, and let's talk about whether this is illegal or not.
So, Jonathan Turley, who's a professor over at George Washington University School of Law, he was talking about this yesterday, and the assumption, which was confirmed this morning, that Trump Jr.
met with the Russians knowing that they were the Russians, and that he was attempting to get information, he says, even if that's the case, this is not necessarily illegal.
I think he's right.
Here's his analysis.
I've been looking at, you know, some of the tweets from other former campaign operatives for other campaigns.
They said, you know, yes, we do lots of opposition research, but not with foreign entities, not with someone from another country.
First of all, it doesn't appear to be true based on the Ukraine connection that we heard about today on the DNC side.
But is that true?
Does it complicate this legally that it was a meeting with someone from another country who may have a tie to the Kremlin, as most people do in some tangential way or otherwise?
No, it's only if we get more information.
There could be some wire that's tripped.
But the fact that you receive information from a foreign source is not itself any type of crime unless you start to radically broaden the campaign finance rules.
The fact is campaigns and aides meet with foreign leaders and nationals all the time.
They share information about trade and other issues.
Sometimes they share information that runs against their opponent in a campaign.
Okay, what he's saying there is exactly right.
It is unusual, but it's not clear there's a criminal act.
making people like this meet with someone without knowing the nature of the meeting. - Okay, what he's saying there is exactly right.
It is unusual, but it's not clear there's a criminal act.
If we are now going to say that getting information from a foreign actor is a violation of campaign finance, that basically information counts as some sort of donation, Then, Hillary Clinton was getting information, apparently, from the Ukrainian government, as I mentioned earlier, and so it's a little bit difficult to make that case.
So, it may not be illegal, but it is certainly going to be the beginning of the Democrats really ramping this into high gear.
You thought they were rabid now.
Wait.
I mean, now they're going to get really rabid because they're going to say, okay, this was just the beginning.
Obviously, you have a willingness on the part of the Trump campaign to meet with members of the Russian government, or people who they thought were members of the Russian government.
Obviously, you have a willingness on the part of the Russian government to say straight out that they were attempting to swing the election for Trump.
Now, there's a way to read that, which is the Russian government was approaching Trump in an effort to entrap him, that basically they wanted to just mess with the election.
The only way to get to Trump was to say, we support you.
And so they said that in order to get to Trump.
But really, their entire goal was to mess with the election.
Bottom line is that this is going to ramp the Democratic machine into high gear.
They're not going to claim that there was absolute collusion.
However, however, this is not the whole story.
And I'm going to talk about what the whole story is in just a second.
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