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Jan. 24, 2018 - The Ben Shapiro Show

52:29

The Imploding Russia Probe | Ep. 460

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	Republicans and Democrats battle it out over the future of the Robert Mueller special counsel probe, Chuck Schumer searches for a strategy on illegal immigration, and we discuss the power of repentance.
	I'm Ben Shapiro.
	This is the Ben Shapiro Show.
	So the Russia probe is all over the news.
	We're going to discuss that.
	We are also going to get to illegal immigrants trying to shut down Disneyland, which is terrible.
	It's the happiest place on Earth.
	Why would you do that?
	Also, I'm confused why illegal immigrants would try to shut down Disneyland.
	It has a wall around it, and you need tickets to enter, and you are thrown out if you illegally trespass.
	So, that seems like a weird place to protest.
	But we will get to all of those things.
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	All right, so I want to bring you the latest on the Mueller investigation, so...
	There's a lot going on in the Mueller investigation, but very little of it has to do with Trump-Russia collusion.
	Now, we were promised that Trump-Russia collusion was what this entire thing was about.
	It appears more and more, day by day, that this investigation has nothing to do with Trump-Russia collusion.
	It has everything to do with obstruction of justice.
	That's what it looks like it is moving toward.
	So on Wednesday, there are a bevy of new stories about the Mueller investigation.
	And apparently the special counsel is now trying to get Trump himself in for an interview.
	Trump would be a fool to do the interview, because the minute that Trump interviews with the guy, it's a perjury trap.
	Every time you talk with the federal government, first rule, okay, just as a lawyer, and this is true, right, left, center.
	Everybody, if the police ever ask to talk to you, the answer is, wait, let me call my lawyer.
	Okay, that's always the answer.
	If you want to be safe, your answer is, wait, let me call my lawyer.
	Not because you distrust the police or you think they're going to do something wrong, but because you're going to get caught in traps where you don't know exactly how to navigate these waters, right?
	The first word of any defense counsel when you walk into that room is, don't talk here without a lawyer.
	And that would certainly be true for Mike Flynn.
	Mike Flynn talked to the FBI without a lawyer, and now he finds himself facing five years in federal prison.
	Do not talk to the FBI without a lawyer.
	This is certainly true of Trump, who has a tendency to babble on at the mouth.
	Well, this interview would presumably be focused on Trump's firing of former FBI Director James Comey, his alleged request to Comey to let now-indicted former National Security Advisor Flynn go, and his pressure on various officials ranging from Attorney General Jeff Sessions to Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe with regard to the Trump-Russia collusion investigation.
	So according to the Washington Post, Robert Mueller wants to investigate Trump especially about the firings of Flynn and Comey.
	Sessions and Comey...
	Both met with the special counsel investigators already, and a source has told The Post that Mueller, quote, has also expressed interest in Trump's efforts to remove Sessions as attorney general or pressure him into quitting.
	The person said the special counsel was seeking to determine whether there was a pattern of behavior by the president.
	So here's the pattern of behavior to go back in time.
	According to Comey, Trump asked him for a loyalty oath back in January.
	Then in February, Trump fired Flynn because back in December, Flynn had called up the Russian government and asked them to vote a certain way on a resolution at the UN, and then he lied about the FBI to it, so Trump fires Flynn.
	Immediately thereafter, Comey says that Trump asked Comey to let Flynn go.
	Trump didn't help his case when he tweeted out that he had to let Flynn go because Flynn lied to the FBI.
	That makes it sound like Trump was trying to manipulate Comey into allowing Flynn to get off on federal charges, which could be seen as him trying to move the investigation in one direction or another.
	Then in May, of course, Trump fires Comey and then says on national TV that he did it because of the Russia investigation.
	And then in May, Trump asked Andrew McCabe, the deputy FBI director, how he voted in the last election cycle when he was taking over as interim director.
	Throughout this period, Trump was harassing Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Twitter, presumably for accusing himself from the Russia investigation.
	So what exactly is Mueller doing with all of this?
	What here was illegal?
	Supposedly this is all about him obstructing justice, Trump obstructing justice, getting in the way of justice.
	And Democrats have been saying this for months, that this is the direction they thought the investigation was moving.
	Now note, this investigation began with the accusation that the Trump campaign worked with the Russians in order to win the election and to stop Hillary Clinton from becoming president.
	Now what we're talking about has nothing to do with any of this.
	So when you talk about an investigation that has broadened out and moved sideways, just like every special counsel investigation ever, this is what has happened here, and that is Robert Mueller's fault.
	When your job is to find crime, you find crime, even if that crime has to be manipulated on the back of other crimes, meaning that Flynn probably didn't do anything wrong when he called up the Russian government, but he lied to the FBI.
	So he's caught in sort of a perjury trap, as I suggested before, and then Trump is now going to be caught in an obstruction trap because he said something to Comey about it.
	At least that is what it looks like is happening here.
	Diane Feinstein, the senator from California, she's been suggesting this for months.
	Back in December, she said, quote, I think what we're beginning to see is the putting together of a case of obstruction of justice.
	I think we see this in the indictments, the four indictments and the pleas that have just taken place in some of the comments that are being made.
	I see it in the hyper frenetic attitude of the White House, the comments every day, the continual tweets.
	And I see it most importantly in what happened with the firing of former FBI Director Comey.
	It is my belief that it is directly because he did not agree to lift the cloud of the Russia investigation, that's obstruction of justice.
	Now, is it really obstruction of justice?
	As I've explained multiple times on the show, the answer is no.
	There are three separate federal laws that deal with obstruction of justice.
	There's 18 U.S.
	Code 1503, that is called the Omnibus Clause of obstruction of justice.
	It covers, quote, corruptly or by any threatening letter or communication, influencing or impeding or endeavoring to influence, obstruct or impede, the due administration of justice.
	But the clause requires a pending judicial proceeding that was supposedly obstructed.
	There is no pending judicial proceeding that has been found here as of yet.
	Okay, so that really does not apply.
	Also, you'd have to prove that Trump materially impeded the investigation.
	There's no real suggestion he's done that, right?
	The special counsel continues to investigate.
	He hasn't fired Robert Mueller.
	He fired James Comey, but that didn't stop the investigation.
	Whatever he said to Comey about investigating Flynn didn't stop Comey from investigating Flynn, as Comey freely admitted in front of Congress.
	Okay, second clause is 18 U.S.
	Code 1512c.
	First of all, it's not clear that an FBI investigation is actually an official proceeding, but also you have to prove intent under this crime.
	You have to prove that there was an intent to obstruct justice and a substantial step toward the accomplishment of that goal.
	What was the substantial step?
	Now, maybe you make the case that the substantial step was him firing Comey, but Trump can fire Comey for any reason whatsoever.
	That's not obstruction of justice.
	Unless he actually stops the investigation.
	Unless he stands in and stops the investigation cold and says, you are no longer allowed to perform this investigation.
	Even that may not be obstruction of justice, by the way.
	But he would actually have to come in and say, I want you to find me innocent.
	That would be obstruction of justice.
	He comes in, he says, I will fire you unless you find me innocent in this probe.
	That's probably obstruction of justice.
	But there's no clear Evidence that that was the case.
	He wanted Comey to find a medicine, but he didn't shut down the investigation after Comey refused to do so.
	Then there's 18 U.S.
	Code 1519.
	This provision covers destroying evidence.
	There's no evidence that Trump has destroyed evidence.
	So, what exactly is Robert Mueller doing at this point?
	It looks like he's setting the groundwork for what would be an impeachment hunt by Democrats after the 2018 House elections if they win back control of the House.
	All over non-illegal obstruction of an investigation that found no underlying crime other than lying to the FBI, which is a crime, but it was not the crime that we were promised.
	Now Trump is going to be tempted to pardon everybody who lied to the FBI.
	Republicans will surely defend Trump.
	Democrats will say this is all impeachable because people lied to the FBI and then Trump, quote-unquote, obstructed justice, even if he didn't legally do so.
	So you could get a nasty, knock-down, drag-out fight over an issue completely unrelated to Trump-Russia collusion.
	That's the direction that this investigation is moving.
	And it's no wonder that people in Republican places of power are finding this difficult to deal with.
	They're finding this discomforting.
	Because this is not what was suggested.
	This is not what the investigation was originally about.
	Democrats said Hillary Clinton's election was stolen.
	Donald Trump stole the election with Vladimir Putin's help.
	That obviously is not what has happened here and no evidence has been provided that suggests that this is what has happened here.
	Now, Democrats aren't letting the Russia stuff go, obviously, because they can't.
	They've told their base that Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia is behind everything.
	Like, just today, Dianne Feinstein and Adam Schiff, both Democrats from California, pushed Facebook and Twitter to investigate the Release the Memo social media campaign.
	That campaign, as you recall, we've talked about it for the last week, that is a campaign to release Devin Nunes' House Intelligence memo that apparently compiles a bunch of failures of FISA, Including, presumably, that FISA based its original investigation, its original warrant, on Carter Page, a Trump foreign policy advisor, on bad intel, right?
	On bad intel provided by a Democratic oppo firm.
	So now, Feinstein and Schiff are pushing Facebook and Twitter, suggesting that perhaps Russian bots are manipulating the hashtag release the memo.
	The whole goal here, by the way, is to push Facebook and Twitter so they shut down conservative news and information.
	That's what the Democrats want to do here.
	So, they are corrupt.
	They are pushing the Russia stuff in a way that is dishonest, I think.
	But, you know, I think that there's another side to this story, too.
	And in a second, I'm going to discuss the other side to this story, because the way that Republicans are responding to this investigation Could be right, and it could be very wrong.
	I'll explain what I mean by that in just a second.
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	Okay, so.
	With all of this said about the Mueller investigation, there is another controversy that has arisen.
	And that, of course, is whether the Mueller investigation should be done away with completely.
	Now, the Republican case that the Mueller investigation should be done away with completely is not that the Mueller investigation has found nothing on Trump-Russia so far.
	Because we don't know that, right?
	We don't know what Mueller has found.
	He hasn't revealed that.
	And it's a little bit of a jump from saying that the investigation was initially compromised to suggesting that the entire investigation will find nothing.
	We just don't know.
	Right?
	By all implication, I would think that they really have nothing.
	That's my opinion, though.
	I don't have the underlying facts, and so I'm trying to separate my own opinion from the facts.
	So we'll have to wait to find out whether the Mueller investigation actually finds something.
	If all they find is Flynn and obstruction of justice, I think everyone is going to be disappointed, and should be, at least in terms of what they were promised.
	So...
	Meanwhile, the Republicans are attacking the investigation itself by attacking the FBI.
	Here is the problem.
	Either the FBI was corrupted by Democrats or it is not corrupt and the Republicans are corrupting the FBI and targeting the FBI to defend Trump.
	Neither of these answers is good.
	Neither of these is good for the country.
	If it turns out that Democrats compromise the FBI in an attempt to stop President Trump from becoming president, and then continue to use the FBI in an attempt to curb Trump's presidency, then that is corruption at the highest levels.
	That is the destruction of one of the great American institutions.
	It is the destruction of a law enforcement agency that requires the trust of the American people.
	It's just along the lines of the Obama administration compromising the IRS and using it as a political baton.
	So, that's option number one.
	Republicans are right, and the FBI has been significantly compromised by Democrats, and there is a quote-unquote deep state problem going on.
	Then there's theory number two.
	Then there's theory number two, right?
	Theory number two is that the Democrats did not actually compromise the FBI.
	The FBI may have some problematic figures like Peter Strzok and Lisa Page in it, But that does not mean the FBI is actually compromised.
	The investigation is moving as most investigations do.
	There's not serious Democratic infiltration of the FBI.
	It's just working as a law enforcement agency does.
	In which case, Republicans are targeting a law enforcement agency for destruction in order to defend President Trump, which is a really, really bad look.
	Okay, here is the basis for all of this.
	So, in the last few weeks, here are the revelations regarding alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and most of all, regarding the FBI's investigation of it.
	Okay, text messages between FBI agents Peter Strzok and his mistress Lisa Page talked openly about a quote-unquote path you threw out for consideration in Deputy Director Andrew McCabe's office as a quote, insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you're 40, with reference to a Trump election.
	I mean, here's how it reads, anyway, just to allayment.
	What it reads like is, we have an insurance policy against Trump being elected, and that is this investigation into Trump.
	Strzok worked heavily on the Hillary investigation.
	He helped exonerate her.
	He was also deeply involved in the Trump-Russia collusion investigation.
	Okay, that's breaking story number one.
	Breaking story number two.
	Representatives Trey Gowdy and John Ratcliffe, they said that there are text messages between Strzok and Page that referenced a quote-unquote secret society working against Trump.
	We haven't seen any of that so far.
	And now, Senator Ron Johnson, who had echoed those comments, he said that his secret society comments were based on an informant and the words used in the Strzok-Page text exchange.
	He says he does not know exactly what they meant.
	So everybody is taking that super seriously and suggesting that the secret society is some sort of You know, Bilderberg conspiracy to take down Trump inside the FBI.
	Ron Johnson is saying that he doesn't really know what that means, so we gotta take all that with a grain of salt.
	More nefarious is that the FBI somehow lost a batch of text messages between Strzok and Page.
	They turned over about 50,000 Strzok-Page text messages, but the period in which they do not have messages from Strzok to Page and vice versa is December 2016 to May 2017, which is during this entire compromising period.
	It's during the bulk of the investigation into Flynn, the firing of Comey, the supposed quasi-threat to Andrew McCabe.
	Okay, and apparently the text messages stopped going missing, conveniently enough, the day that Robert Mueller took over the probe.
	Which suggests that maybe they were texting about James Comey, and then they got rid of all of those texts.
	All those texts were deleted, or the FBI got rid of all of them as soon as Mueller took over because it made the investigation look bad.
	Okay, the FBI did change its language regarding Hillary Clinton before Hillary was even interviewed.
	And, of course, the news that the Democrats hate is this House Intelligence Committee Chairman Nunes four-page memo that purportedly blew the lid off the FISA malfeasance in the Trump-Russia collusion case, presumably suggesting that the original FISA warrants against Carter Page was garnered based on a bad dossier compiled by Fusion GPS at the behalf of Democrats and in collusion with the Obama administration, the DOJ, and the FBI.
	Okay, so that's all of the information.
	Now here's the question.
	Is the FBI actually a corrupt, deeply corrupt place?
	So there are a bunch of Republicans who are suggesting that the answer is yes, that there's a deeply corrupt thing going on here, right?
	President Trump is suggesting this himself.
	President Trump tweeted this out yesterday.
	He tweeted out...
	So that, of course, is a joke.
	The Democrats and the media don't understand a joke, so they thought that Trump was actually blaming Samsung, which is idiotic.
	He is joking that the FBI did away with these.
	There were not, by the way, 50,000 text messages that were lost between Strzok and Page.
	There are 50,000 text messages total between Strzok and Page, and some of those were lost.
	We don't know exactly how many.
	Sarah Huckabee Sanders says that Trump is deeply concerned that the FBI agents are biased against him and that the FBI has been deeply corrupted and compromised.
	Why does he think this is one of the biggest stories in a long time?
	I think he thinks that there's a great cause for concern.
	That five months worth of text messages have gone missing, particularly given the individual Part of that process has already been shown to be extremely biased against the president and was involved in what seems to be some very inappropriate behavior.
	And that certainly is a great concern.
	You guys are absolutely obsessed with everything to do with collusion, if it has anything to do with the president.
	We hope that you'll take some of that same obsession, energy, and fervor and direct it to some of the places where it looks like there could have been some Okay, so obviously the Trump administration thinks that the FBI is going after them.
	Ron Johnson, as I mentioned, the senator from Wisconsin, he's suggesting the same thing.
	He says, So when the DOJ sent you this letter saying that there was this glitch that prevented those five months of text from being released to you, did you buy it?
	Do you buy it?
	Well, I'm suspicious.
	I want to get to the bottom of it.
	And there's so many experts in IT that say that those messages are somewhere and they need to be retrieved.
	We need to see it because the timing is very suspicious.
	From mid-December of 2016 after the election, Okay, so this is the Republican theory, right?
	The Republican theory is that the Trump administration is being targeted from inside the FBI by a secret society.
	You know, this all sounds conspiratorial.
	Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.
	But one of two things is true.
	Okay, so this is the Republican theory, right?
	The Republican theory is that the Trump administration is being targeted from inside the FBI by a secret society.
	You know, this all sounds conspiratorial.
	Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.
	But one of two things is true.
	Either the FBI is deeply corrupt, or the Republicans are targeting the FBI in order to defend Trump, which would be deeply corrupt in and of itself.
	Now, I was really disappointed yesterday.
	Rush Limbaugh, who, of course, I'm a big fan of.
	He's the granddaddy of us all in talk radio and in sort of the conservative commentary, at least those of us who speak for a living.
	Yesterday, Rush, I thought, went over the line when he was discussing the intel community.
	He suggested in almost You remember what the intelligence agencies were telling us in the war in Iraq?
	You remember what they were telling us?
	There was detail.
	There were photos.
	There was conclusive evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
	And it wasn't just U.S.
	Agencies were telling us of the war in Iraq.
	Do you remember what they were telling us?
	There was detail.
	There were photos.
	There was conclusive evidence Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
	And it wasn't just U.S. intel.
	It was MI5, MI6.
	It was intelligence agencies all over the world.
	What if?
	Just what if?
	Remember, they all thought Gore had won that election until the Supreme Court came along and stole it for Bush.
	This is what they thought.
	The Democrat Party Okay, Rush goes on here to basically suggest that maybe the Iraq War intel was compromised in order to get Bush, which doesn't make any sense along the timeline.
	The Iraq War wasn't launched until 2003.
	Bush was elected in 2000.
	Beyond that, the Iraq War never would have gone forward if it had not been for 9-11.
	Ann Coulter has been targeting the FBI as well, suggesting the FBI was always corrupt.
	What's weird is that she's conflating corrupt and incompetent.
	The FBI has certainly made mistakes, no question about it.
	She suggests that the FBI is responsible for 9-11 to a certain extent, which I think is dubious in the extreme.
	But this is the danger that Republicans run into.
	You can question corruption at the FBI without even questioning the corruption of the entire institution.
	You can say there were bad apples at the FBI who corrupted this investigation, fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine, the entire investigation is corrupt.
	But instead, Republicans are falling into this trap of now targeting the entire FBI, which of course is not good for the country.
	And it's especially not good for the country if the Republican Party is corruptly targeting the FBI because there is something there and they're just defending Trump no matter what.
	I don't know enough to answer this question.
	You don't know enough to answer this question.
	The only way this question gets answered is once we know exactly what Mueller knows, know what was in that FISA warrant, which by the way, Trump can declassify at any time that FISA warrant on Carter Page.
	I want to know what's in that warrant, don't you?
	Trump can declassify it at any time.
	I want more information before I decide that either the FBI is corrupt or that the Republicans are corrupt for calling the FBI corrupt.
	One of these two things is apparently true, and there is no third answer.
	There really is no third answer.
	Maybe there's a third answer.
	I think the third answer actually would be that there are members of the FBI who were corrupt like Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, but not the entire FBI, and that doesn't necessarily compromise the entire investigation.
	Or if it does compromise the entire investigation, that's not an indictment of the entire FBI.
	That would be, I think, the reasonable third position.
	But those are not the positions people are taking.
	Democrats are saying the FBI is spotless, and therefore Trump was engaged in obstruction of justice in attempting to get the FBI.
	Republicans are saying the FBI is deeply corrupt and was corrupted by the Obama administration, and therefore ending the Mueller investigation is necessary.
	I don't think actually either of those two positions are correct, and I think both of them lack significant evidence.
	Well, in just one second, I want to move on to the fallout from DACA.
	And what's coming next on the DACA negotiations.
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	I think that would be a big mistake at this point.
	Believe me, if it turns out that there's nothing to the Mueller investigation, if it turns out that this is really, I think, flimsy stuff, then people will be out there I've been trying to take as much as I can a factually based look at what's happening here and try and base my opinion on those facts.
	I'm going to wait for more facts to decide whether or not this investigation is just deeply corrupt.
	I will say that it looks like there are problems inside the FBI.
	I don't know if those problems go to the entire FBI.
	I don't know if they discredit the entire investigation.
	I'll also say that, you know, the pattern of obstruction that Mueller is trying to find in Trump can be explained one of two ways.
	Either Trump is trying to obstruct justice in order to defend his friends and hide from something nefarious, or Trump is dolt, is a dolt, and he just says stuff because he feels it.
	Like, I like Flynn, call me, could you leave him alone?
	Or Flynn's, or Comey's annoying me because he won't just say I'm innocent, I know I'm innocent, he's fired.
	Right?
	Honestly, what makes all of these scandals seem to go away a little bit, anyway, is if you suggest that they are mostly based on stupidity rather than malice.
	When it comes to government, that's almost always a good bet.
	It's not just true of Trump, it's true of pretty much everyone.
	Stupidity rather than malice usually rules the day.
	When it is malice, it's pretty clear.
	Like Adam Schiff and Dianne Feinstein suggesting that Russian bots are behind Release the Memo, that's malice to me because Feinstein and Schiff are both smart people and they know better than this.
	But, All of this mostly looks like an insane amount of stupidity piled on top of stupidity rather than malice in a get-Trump effort, but my mind is willing to be persuaded on any of these scores.
	I just need more evidence.
	Okay, so, meanwhile, more fallout from DACA.
	So obviously the government shutdown ended earlier this week.
	Democrats got nothing in return.
	But they are receiving some protests, which is quite entertaining.
	Apparently, there were a bunch of DACA recipients, DREAMers, who actually went outside Chuck Schumer's house and were protesting outside Chuck Schumer's house yesterday.
	That wasn't the only place that they were protesting, by the way.
	They apparently blocked an entrance to Disneyland on Monday.
	Now, we were at Disneyland on Sunday.
	We had a great time, met some fans, which is always A party?
	It's kind of fun going to places like Disneyland.
	You meet a lot of listeners, and hello to all of the people I met at Disneyland.
	That was always a party.
	But according to the LA Times, the next day, Monday, DACA recipients stood in a crosswalk at South Harbor Boulevard around 10 a.m.
	and blocked buses from entering the Anaheim theme park.
	Fifteen protesters were quickly removed by law enforcement officers and were relocated to a sidewalk where they held signs and chanted, no dream, no deal.
	So there's about 20 people and Disneyland operated completely normally.
	I do have a question, as I say, as a regular Disneyland patron and, yes, season ticket holder.
	I have two young children.
	This is insanely idiotic.
	What in the hell does the happiest place on earth have to do with people illegally in the country retaining their ability to stay in the country?
	It ought to be noted that Disneyland has a pretty strict immigration policy.
	No ticket, no entry.
	And they have a wall, a giant fence around the entire park.
	And if you try to climb the wall, they will call the police on you.
	So Disneyland, unless they were protesting for free entry to Disneyland, which is something I might be able to get behind on occasion, I don't know why they would do this.
	But it just demonstrates that demonstrators themselves just do things without really any thought, simply to get the press.
	Meanwhile, Chuck Schumer is idiotically trying to blackmail Republicans.
	I don't think any of this is going anywhere, as I suggested yesterday.
	I don't think a DACA deal is imminent.
	I don't think that Mitch McConnell is going to push one.
	I don't think Trump is going to sign one.
	I think, in all likelihood, we hit the March 5th deadline for reinstating deportations, and Trump just says, We're not going to give you papers, but we're also not going to deport most of the DREAMers.
	And they go back to sort of this in-the-shadows, in-between status.
	I got some emails yesterday, and they're quite correct, suggesting this is bad for the DREAMers because with their current sort of green card status, they can get jobs.
	Trump would prevent them from getting jobs.
	The truth is that illegal immigrants in this country have been working for a very long time, which is how they've been able to stay in the country.
	And yes, it will revoke certain legal status in terms of work, but it won't actually deport them.
	Anyway, Chuck Schumer is trying to blackmail McConnell saying, you have 16 days, or I'm gonna get really mad.
	Like, he's saying that he's not gonna shut down the government again, or at least he's implied that, so I'm not sure what the stick is.
	I understand that the carrot is the docket deal, I just don't know what the stick is.
	Here's Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader, warning McConnell.
	So, the Republican majority now has 16 days.
	To work with us to write a bill that can get 60 votes and prevent the Dreamers from being deported.
	The clock is ticking.
	16 days.
	That's not much time.
	Gotta get moving.
	Okay, so I don't know what clock is ticking.
	Like, on February 8th, are they going to shut down the government again?
	I mean, Schumer just gave away all his leverage.
	He also said yesterday that it was pretty obvious the Democrats weren't going to be willing to shut down the government for the Dreamers.
	I mean, he said this literally yesterday.
	Now, for two days, the government was shut down.
	But all of us in the Democratic caucus, not just the moderates, but the liberals as well, came to the view that if we carried it on much longer, two things would happen.
	A, no one would budge.
	The public would lose support of the shutdown.
	The public does not like shutdowns.
	And we'd actually lose support for DREAMers, too, because people love the DREAMers but don't want the government shut down for it.
	So we cut the best deal that we could.
	So I'm really confused as to what the threat is.
	He's saying you have 16 days, or I won't shut down the government again because our people don't want us to do this?
	Good luck with that strategy.
	It's going nowhere.
	The reality is Schumer doesn't want a deal because he wants to be able to claim Republicans stopped a deal.
	Republicans do want a deal, but not on the terms Democrats are offering.
	And the Democrats are basically offering nothing now.
	I mean, Schumer yesterday decided that he was going to withdraw his pittance of an offer, $1.6 billion in border security in return for legal status for the Dreamers and their parents.
	And Trump said no, and then Schumer withdrew the offer after Trump said no.
	So this is going nowhere.
	What is hilarious I mentioned is the Dreamers showing up at Chuck Schumer's house.
	Here are some of the Dreamers protesting outside Schumer's house.
	If Chuck won't let us dream, we won't let him sleep.
	Okay, it says, if Chuck won't let us dream, then we won't let him sleep.
	No.
	Note to these people, Chuck Schumer was not sleeping in his house last night.
	He was in Washington, D.C., so very bright stuff.
	Again, the Democrats are offering nothing.
	Blumenthal, Senator Blumenthal from Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, he said that Democrats would support increased border security but no wall, so obviously this negotiation is going nowhere.
	A border wall is a waste of money.
	Squandering billions of dollars on an ineffective solution to border security is really reprehensible.
	So we are going to be supporting border security.
	Surveillance, drones, more training for the agents who are there and additional agents.
	Okay, this is nonsense.
	They don't want more border security.
	They don't want a deal.
	They don't want a deal of any sort here.
	Okay, so here's the reality.
	The Democrats are not interested in a deal because Democrats aren't in favor of illegal immigration.
	They really are.
	The reason that I say this is because the state of California, my home state, perhaps I don't think perhaps.
	It is the dumbest state in the union.
	Apparently, there's a new California policy that begins on April 2nd that automatically registers people who obtain or renew driver's licenses to vote.
	Okay, this is the new policy.
	The new state policy is that you are registered to vote automatically when you obtain or renew your driver's license.
	Well, here's the problem.
	In the state of California, illegal immigrants have driver's licenses.
	So you can renew, you can actually register to vote in the state of California as an illegal immigrant right now.
	So, the idea that they're trying to crack down on illegal immigrants is silly.
	By the way, there are certain principalities, I believe, in California where they're openly saying, maybe we should allow illegal immigrants to vote.
	We'll just give them de facto citizenship and allow them to vote.
	So, pretty amazing stuff.
	But Democrats obviously have an interest in the continuation of illegal immigration.
	That's why they are fighting so hard against border security.
	And that is constantly worth pointing out.
	Okay.
	In just a second, I'm going to discuss with you the latest that's happening at UConn.
	I'm supposed to speak at University of Connecticut tonight.
	Plus...
	Is it worthwhile to forgive President Trump for his sins, for his trespasses?
	Because it seems like some evangelicals are willing to do just that, and I'll discuss whether that's appropriate or not.
	But first, you're going to have to go over and subscribe.
	So, first of all, before we get to that, I just want to say that on January 30th, you need to be watching, because our president is going to be speaking to the nation in the first State of the Union address, right?
	It's going to be a really exciting event, and you should watch it with us here at The Daily Web.
	We're doing a special broadcast.
	It's going to be awesome, starting at 8 p.m.
	Eastern, 5 p.m.
	Pacific.
	We're going to be hanging out with you the entire time, leading up to During, after the address, we will be there for every wild hand gesture, for every crazy statement, for every Democrat refusing to stand for particular heroes.
	We will be there for all of it, right?
	And you can catch the live streams at Daily Wire, Daily Wire Facebook, or Daily Wire YouTube to spend the evening with me, with Andrew Klavan, with Michael Moles, and with Daily Wire god, King Jeremy Boring.
	And a bunch of special guests who are going to be dropping by.
	People that you know and love and who may or may not have mugs.
	We're going to be having all of them in to relentlessly mock our government and our political leaders.
	It'll basically be like MS3TK Mystery Science Theater.
	It'll be like that, except with politics.
	It should be a lot of fun.
	If you watched our election night broadcast, it was a lot of fun.
	This should be even more fun because there isn't the pressure of worrying about Hillary Clinton becoming president and or Donald Trump becoming president.
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	Eastern, 5 p.m.
	Pacific.
	Follow us on Facebook and YouTube.
	Get notified when we go live so we can spend every single terrible moment of the state.
	I hate the State of the Union.
	I freaking hate it.
	I think the State of the Union is garbage.
	I'll talk about that more next week, but I really, really hate the State of the Union.
	I think it's an imperial spectacle.
	That is absolute nonsense and hogwash.
	It is not mandated by the Constitution.
	The Constitution suggests that the President can be requested to give an update to Congress from time to time.
	He can send it in a letter.
	That, I think, would be better.
	But instead, we're all going to have to pretend to think this is a great American spectacle.
	Anyway!
	We're going to be there and be negative and terrible about it, or at least I will.
	And then Michael Knowles and Andrew Clavin will be all happy-dappy-do about it.
	And then Jeremy Boring will sit there and drink.
	So that'll basically be how the evening goes.
	And you can join us, again, at Daily Wire, Facebook, Daily Wire, YouTube, my Facebook page as well, dailywire.com, all the usual places for that.
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	I got a great email from somebody today, actually, about the Tumblr.
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	well, we are the largest, fastest growing conservative podcast in the nation.
	All righty.
	So I want to give you the update from University of Connecticut.
	So I am supposed to speak at University of Connecticut tonight.
	Originally, this event was open to the public.
	As always, as usual, the left made enough trouble that now they're staffing up with police officers and they have barred the general public from attending the speech, which is just inane.
	Apparently, we're only in a room that fits about 250 people.
	There have been over 500 student reservations at a minimum.
	If they'd opened it up to the public, there probably would've been another 1,000.
	But as it is, it is restricted to students alone.
	They say for security reasons.
	Oddly enough, when Anita Hill spoke here just about a month and a half ago, there was no security presence necessary, essentially, and everyone from the general public was allowed to attend.
	This is the new way of preventing the message from getting out, is by preventing the public from coming and listening.
	Now, I'm not going to put that all on UConn.
	I don't think it's the administration that is making this issue happen.
	Except to the extent that they are allowing the heckler's veto to prevent the public from hearing what we do.
	So that is happening tonight at 7 p.m.
	at UConn's.
	We'll be speaking there.
	The Antifa group there is upset with me.
	Apparently they had encouraged people to show up and directly confront Lucy and Winfrich, but instead of protesting me directly, they say that they are going to set up a parallel event with some guy that I've really never heard of, who's kind of an obscure gadfly who, as far as I can tell, his only prominence in life has come from writing a piece about me for an For a magazine that he self funds or funds on charitable contributions and that nobody has ever read except for this one article about me He's speaking at the same time.
	So I will say I am very excited that I have generated an entire bendistry I'm very excited that I have generated an entire cottage industry of people who can just follow me around critiquing me.
	So that's exciting But they're having a separate event because they're trying to draw people away from hearing my message because this is what the left does instead of holding their event at a different time or coming to the event and then asking questions and Instead, they're going to hold a separate event where they have some guy deliberately misconstrue everything I've ever written, and then talk about how I'm not as smart as I think I am.
	That's actually the title of it, that I'm not as insightful as I think I am, which is weird, because I actually don't think I'm that insightful.
	I actually think that I say things that are pretty obvious most of the time.
	In any case, Antifa says that I am an extreme conservative who thrives on media attention of his campus opposition, so rather than getting people out to fill the auditorium, we decided at our general meeting to support students pushing for alternative programming to counter his toxic politics.
	So, you know, good.
	Don't show up and ruin my event.
	That's great.
	I'd prefer, I'd much prefer to push instead for civilized conversation.
	My favorite part of their little letter to the editor is that my beliefs caused me to overlook the need for ethnic studies and diversity-related education in the United States.
	Oh no!
	Oh no, I oppose ethnic studies!
	Eww!
	Useless branches of study that provide zero jobs to anyone outside of the ethnic studies divisions at universities like UConn!
	Eww!
	So, they've decided that they're going to fight for social injustice.
	That makes sense.
	They're fighting for social injustice, that's true, in our own forums in which we frame the message.
	They're not going to come to my event tonight.
	That's fine with me.
	I don't need you at my event, it turns out, to get the crowd out.
	Turns out a lot of people want to hear what I have to say anyway, so that works for me.
	So we'll give you all of the updates tomorrow after this speech.
	Beyond that...
	In other news, there is a lot of hubbub now over comments from Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.
	So I know Tony Perkins.
	I like Tony Perkins.
	But he made some comments that I thought were sort of weird regarding bad behavior in public fora.
	So here is what Tony Perkins had to say about President Trump and his bad behavior.
	In 2016, he allegedly paid off a porn star $130,000 to avoid talking about an affair that they had while he was married to Melania and shortly after she'd given birth to their son, Barron.
	Here's Tony Perkins defending Trump.
	Let me try to understand.
	You used the exact word mulligan to talk about this.
	And obviously the most recent allegations involve an affair with a porn star that began a few months after his wife gave birth, the president's wife.
	And they also involve the president's personal attorney reportedly paying off the porn star for her silence.
	And you're saying you get a mulligan, you get a do-over here.
	I'm quoting you.
	Why?
	Well, if this behavior were occurring today, right now, as he is President of the United States, I can assure you that my support and the support of evangelicals would be dissipating very rapidly.
	But we're talking about something that occurred 10 years ago, among a number of things that occurred with this President prior to being President, and myself, along with a lot of evangelicals, were not supportive of him.
	In fact, I campaigned hard for one of his competitors.
	It was when it was down to him and Hillary Clinton.
	He wanted to have the support of evangelicals and he came to them saying, I'm going to pro-life justices.
	I'm picking a pro-life conservative running mate.
	So here's my big problem with all of this.
	Okay, so he's basically saying that Trump gets a mulligan because it happened 10 years ago.
	Okay, you don't get a mulligan.
	What you do get is us saying we like your policies but please you having sex with porn stars and then paying them off allegedly is disgusting behavior and inexcusable and gross and I don't understand for the life of me why religious people, Christians, Jews, anyone can't understand this simple distinction.
	You don't have to defend every bad thing that Trump does or give him a mulligan on it just because he's doing a bunch of stuff that you like.
	Lots of people do stuff that I like.
	Bill Clinton pursued policies that today I would like in terms of deficit reduction.
	Okay, that doesn't mean that I gave him a pass on all of his evils.
	And the idea, by the way, that evangelicals or religious people would break with Trump en masse if it turned out he was having sex with a porn star right now in the White House is just not true.
	It's just not true.
	I don't see any basis for that in any of the polling data that I've seen so far.
	And this is anti-biblical, okay?
	I'm just gonna put it out there.
	It is anti-biblical to suggest that Trump gets a mulligan, he gets a do-over for the evils that he has committed, when he's never repented.
	When he's never repented.
	So normally we save the Bible segment for the end of the show, but let me talk a little bit about what the Bible has to say about repentance.
	Because President Trump is somebody who has said that he doesn't seek forgiveness, right?
	This is back in 2015.
	Trump was asked about seeking forgiveness, and here's what he had to say.
	Okay, so if you never were able to ask God for forgiveness, let me just point this out, okay?
	The reason that he is not like David is because David did repent, okay?
	Psalm 32, David famously repents, right?
	Okay, so if you never were able to ask God for forgiveness, let me just point this out, okay?
	The reason that he is not like David is because David did repent, okay?
	Psalm 32, David famously repents, right?
	It says, Okay.
	Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them, and in whose spirit is no deceit.
	When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
	For day and night your hand was heavy on me, my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.
	Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and did not cover up my iniquity.
	I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
	That's the point.
	If you want to rejoice in the Lord, you actually have to confess.
	You actually have to repent.
	This is something Trump has not done.
	So it is not Tony Perkins' job, or my job, or your job to provide absolution to the President on these charges.
	The President is going to have to go to God for that absolution.
	We can say that we back all of his policy when it comes to abortion.
	We back his policy when it comes to religious freedom.
	We back a lot of his policies when it comes to judges.
	It is not our job to give him mulligans on personal transgressions.
	If you can't hold these two thoughts in your head at the same time, I would suggest that you are doing something wrong.
	I think part of the problem here is that there has been a widespread worship of government that has spread throughout the land.
	There's a poll from yesterday from the Wall Street Journal-NBC that suggests Americans, when they were asked whether government should do more or whether government is already doing too much, they split 58-38.
	Right, saying that the government should do more, 58%, while the government is already doing too much, 38%.
	Worth noting, in 1995, after Republicans took over Congress in the Republican Revolution of Gingrich, the split was 32% said more government, 62% said less government.
	In October 2010, just before the GOP swamped Democrats and took back the House, that divide was 45 to 50.
	So in other words, more Americans thought we should have a government that does less than have a government that does more.
	But ever since, we've thought the government ought to do more, and that now includes a large number of Republicans.
	A huge number of Republicans now say that the government should do more.
	So if you look at January 2010, the role of government, 17% of Republicans in 2010 said that the government should do more.
	Today that number has almost doubled.
	33% of Republicans say the government should do more.
	If you think that the government is going to save you, if you think that the government's job is to help you, and save you, and enrich your life, and it's not just there to protect you, Then you're more likely to give a lot of leeway to politicians.
	You're gonna say, I want the guy in charge who agrees with me because the government needs to save me.
	The government needs to help me.
	This is a mistake.
	It's a big mistake.
	You shouldn't be worshipping the head of the government just because he's the head of the government.
	And you shouldn't be making excuses or giving him mulligans over behavior that he has not repented for.
	I find this whole thing rather distasteful.
	Now speaking of distasteful, John Kerry apparently, John Kerry did something so insane yesterday or the day before that it's just, it's ridiculous.
	According to the Jerusalem Post, the White House confirms that since the Jerusalem declaration there's been a complete disconnect between the Palestinian Authority and the Trump administration, but it now turns out the previous administration maintains contact with PA officials.
	Ma'arif reported that former — that's an Israeli newspaper — reported that Secretary of State John Kerry met in London with a close associate of terrorist Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, terrorist is my word, for a long and open conversation.
	Apparently, this guy who's representing Abbas, a guy named Hussein Agha, reported details of the conversation to senior PA officials in Ramallah.
	A senior PA official confirmed to Ma'arif the meeting took place.
	So what exactly did Kerry say?
	Listen to this.
	This is insane.
	During the conversation, according to the report, John Kerry asked Acha to convey a message to Abbas and to ask him to hold on and be strong.
	Telled Abbas, a terrorist leader who openly came out two weeks ago and said that Trump's house should basically burn down, and suggested that Nikki Haley should feel the wrath of God, and suggested that Israel is not Jewish territory, and suggested that terrorism ought to be pursued, hold on and be strong.
	This is the former administration that goes around saying that Trump is a danger to the Middle East and the world?
	This administration?
	The Obama administration?
	I mean, you wonder why evangelicals rally to Trump?
	They shouldn't rally to his sins.
	But you wonder why they rally to Trump?
	It's because of garbage like this.
	John Kerry apparently told Agha, who is again the stand-in for Mahmoud Abbas, who's now serving the 14th year of his four-year election term.
	He was originally elected Stay strong in his spirit and play for time.
	He will not break.
	him.
	He's never given up power since.
	He's the quasi dictator.
	Apparently, Kerry said that that a boss should, quote, stay strong in his spirit and play for time.
	He will not break.
	He will not yield to President Trump's demands.
	So you have Kerry over there performing his own foreign policy.
	Hilarious that Mike Flynn is basically gonna go to jail because he lied to the FBI about a supposed violation of the Logan Act.
	But you got John Kerry going out there and openly saying to foreign terrorists, by the way, just hold on, don't do anything, we're coming and we're gonna help you.
	Funny how the media don't seem to care about this story very much.
	Funny how it's just the right-wing media picking up on this and the Jerusalem Post.
	When Mike Flynn was talking to the Russians during the transition, this is a big story, but John Kerry, who's not in power and hasn't been in power for a year and a half, John Kerry is sitting around talking with the Palestinian terrorists about why they should hold up hope against Trump.
	And then he said, maybe it was time for the Palestinians to define their peace principles and present a positive plan.
	And then he suggested that he was going to run for president.
	Then he suggested that if he just waits till 2020, then Trump will be ousted and perhaps Kerry will run for president.
	This is why Republicans do not trust Democrats.
	It's why people don't trust the media.
	If the media refused to cover stories like this, but they are going to go hog-wild over Trump-Russia collusion, no wonder the media has lost the trust of the American people.
	Okay, so now let's do some things I like and some things that I hate.
	So, one quick thing that I like today.
	So we've been doing fantasy stories.
	This, of course, is the classic fantasy story of all time.
	It's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
	It's just a delightful book.
	Forget about all the allegations about Lewis Carroll for just a second, because I don't think we need to get into whether he was into small children in order to judge the quality of his work.
	This is actually an interesting issue.
	There are a lot of people who think that if somebody's a really bad person that we can't enjoy their art.
	I've always found this a bizarre stipulation.
	If the art itself is replete with disgustingness, that's one thing, but if you're just saying that a bad person can't make a great painting, I think that's idiotic.
	This book is really terrific, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
	I remember reading this when I was Probably eight.
	And the characters, the wordplay, it's just, it's a lot of fun.
	Children's books from that period are so clever.
	You read Winnie the Pooh, it's incredibly clever.
	Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, incredibly clever.
	The Wizard of Oz, incredibly clever.
	Children's literature now is, I think, not clever at all.
	I know a lot of people love Harry Potter, which is really children's literature.
	Harry Potter can't hold a candle to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
	It is, I think, Dunderheaded and right on the nose.
	I'm not a Harry Potter fan, but Alice's Adventures in Wonderland I think is quite great and and utterly worth reading.
	Okay, time for a couple of things that I hate.
	Okay, so first thing that I hate, The New York Times' Mike Rosenberg actually tweeted out, he was very upset because, I guess he's a Seattle Times reporter, actually?
	So, he was very upset because after the Amazon Go launch, Amazon Go launched yesterday, and Jeff Bezos' stock gained about $2.8 billion in value.
	Okay, Amazon Go are basically these convenience stores, you walk in, there's no attendant, you grab your products off the shelf, you walk out, no problem, it's charged to your Amazon account.
	And so, Jeff Bezos had a stock gain, because this is a cool invention.
	So here's what Mike Rosenberg tweeted.
	Jeff Bezos made $2.8 billion in one day after his company introduced technology that eliminates the need for cashiers.
	All cashiers in America make an average of $210 million a day combined.
	So what?
	I'm confused.
	Why is that a thing?
	Like that doesn't make... Like what?
	Here's why that's a stupid point.
	The reason that's a stupid point is even if you were to assume that Jeff Bezos is somehow taking money out of the pockets of a bunch of poor cashiers, The reality is that it's not that he's making $2.8 billion off cashiers losing money to the tune of $210 million a day.
	That means that if he saved the entire industry, the cost of cashiers for 10 days, they would pay for that $2.8 billion.
	The point is that, number one, the statistic is severely flawed.
	They're taking the stock price, which is reflecting the power of a new technology that is going to affect the market over time, and comparing that to a one-day takeaway for cashiers?
	The statistic just makes no sense, but the suggestion, of course, by Mike Rosenberg, is that something terrible has happened here.
	That the evil Jeff Bezos has stolen the livelihoods of cashiers.
	No, evil Jeff Bezos just made technology better and lower your costs at the supermarket.
	Because guess who pays for those cashiers?
	It's you, right?
	When you go to the supermarket and you pay for things, you're paying the cashiers.
	Why do you think that all of these, like Ralph's, has put in these self-use...
	items, right, these self-use kiosks where you can check out yourself.
	The whole point is to cut costs.
	What absolute silliness and lack of economic understanding.
	Okay, other things that I hate.
	So Lester Holt over at NBC, he went to North Korea, and then he proclaimed that he had been treated with respect by the North Koreans.
	We arrived in North Korea on Saturday.
	We flew the North Korean state airline.
	It's about an hour and a half flight from Beijing.
	They even make an announcement in flight when you've actually crossed the border into North Korea.
	We quickly passed through immigrations, went through a very lengthy and very detailed customs inspection of not only our equipment, but our personal items down to the novels we were reading.
	Yeah, so what?
	Right?
	case a toothbrush of our crew members but we have been treated uh with respect here we have been uh invited and our guests of the ministry of foreign affairs we stayed in a guest house outside pyongyang uh last night and then made our way to this ski resort to get a look at a part of north korea that most americans don't see yeah so what right so so was so was um walter duranti treated by the soviets uh the
	The idea that they were treated really well by an evil regime, that means the regime is fine, just stupidity.
	He's raked over the coals as well he should be.
	Okay, we'll be back here tomorrow.
	We'll be broadcasting, I believe, from Dallas.
	We're moving around the country a lot.
	We'll be broadcasting from Dallas, but I will give you the update on how it went at UConn tonight.
	You can also watch the UConn broadcast tonight at yaf.org.
	I believe we'll also put it up on our Facebook page and Twitter and all of the usual places, so check it out.
	I'm Ben Shapiro.
	This is The Ben Shapiro Show.
	The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Mathis Glover.
	Executive producer, Jeremy Boring.
	Senior producer, Jonathan Hay.
	Our technical producer is Austin Stevens.
	Edited by Alex Zingaro.
	Audio is mixed by Mike Carmina.
	Hair and makeup is by Jesua Alvera.
	The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire Forward Publishing production.

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