Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool

All Episodes

Previous Next

July 17, 2020 - The Ben Shapiro Show

01:10:11

What If There Are No Good Answers? | Ep. 1054

Large

Audio Only |

Scroll

Time	Text
	Coronavirus continues to spread across the nation as the media decide Trump is to blame, Trump's niece provides comfort food for the Trump haters, and classical music is apparently racist.
	I'm Ben Shapiro.
	This is the Ben Shapiro Show.
	Don't let others track what you do.
	Stop that.
	Keep yourself safe at expressvpn.com slash Ben.
	Well, before we begin, let's just talk a little bit about investing strategy.
	You've heard all of the stories about people who got in sort of on the ground floor of some big new company, and then they just made a fortune.
	And other people who are sort of left out in the cold.
	Well, there is a group of people, they're called our crowd, and they believe every accredited investor should have access to those early sort of chances.
	So our crowd has brought their pre-vetted portfolio to you.
	And they're giving you the opportunity to invest early and be on the ground floor of some of the most promising companies in the world.
	Each year, Our Crowd reviews the most promising pre-IPO companies and selects just a few dozen to invest in, and then Our Crowd gives you an opportunity to join with their same early-stage pre-negotiated terms.
	Our Crowd has helped thousands of investors invest in almost 200 companies to date, some of which have IPO'd like Beyond Meat or been bought out by companies like Nike or Microsoft, Oracle, Uber, Comcast, Intel, and Snap.
	Today, one of the many opportunities in the Our Crowd portfolio is an innovative dairy-free Ripple Foods.
	Consumer demand for non-dairy alternatives has been growing, and Ripple found a way to ensure the same high amount of protein as dairy milk with a lot less sugar and a great taste, which is why customers are already buying Ripple products in over 15,000 stores.
	Now, maybe that's a great investment.
	Maybe it's not.
	But you actually have the opportunity to check it out.
	And lots of companies like it.
	And check them out.
	And maybe, just maybe, get in on the ground floor of the next big thing.
	Get in early on Ripple and other unique opportunities at rcrowd.com slash Shapiro.
	The rCrowd account is free.
	Just go to rcrowd.com slash Shapiro.
	That is rcrowd.com slash Shapiro.
	O-U-R-C-R-O-W-D dot com slash Shapiro.
	Okay, so, big news continues to be the spread of coronavirus across the nation.
	On a day-to-day level, the deaths seem to be somewhat stable.
	We've seen around a thousand deaths for the last three days, as well as a lot of last week.
	We have seen hospitalizations starting to slightly decline in some places like Texas and Arizona, so it's possible that we've already hit peak there.
	In Florida, doesn't look like they've hit peak yet.
	Hospital capacity is not being threatened so far as I can tell from the statistics in places like Florida or Texas or Arizona, which means that the curve was indeed flattened, nor are we seeing the sorts of death rates that we saw in New York.
	In New York, we're seeing 600 to 700 deaths every single day in New York City alone.
	In Arizona and Florida and Texas and California, you're seeing on the upper end about 150 deaths a day, which obviously is tragic and horrifying.
	And that number, if it were to last the entire year, would be absolutely stunning, right?
	Then you would see 35,000 deaths in a lot of these places.
	But we have not reached New York epidemic levels as of yet.
	So the media continue to focus in on the fact that this thing is spreading uncontrolled across the country.
	And that is true.
	I mean, the fact is, the number of positive cases continues to increase.
	Yesterday, the U.S.
	shattered its single-day record for new cases with more than 75,600 cases.
	According to the New York Times, this was the 11th time in the past month that the record has been broken.
	The number has more than doubled since June 24th, when the country registered 37,014 cases after a lull in the outbreak had kept the previous record, 36,738, standing for two months.
	In reality, is it possible we saw many, many more infections like this in the early stages?
	Absolutely.
	But testing was not ramped up to nearly the extent that it is now.
	So it's quite possible that, for example, the death rates were exactly the same today as they were back during the New York days.
	It's just that the testing capacity was not nearly what it was.
	So the denominator in the deaths over infections rate was just not correct.
	It's possible the denominator was way larger than it was originally purported to be.
	The previous single-day record, 68,241 cases, was announced last Friday.
	Thursday's record included more than 5,000 cases in Bexar County, Texas, which contains San Antonio.
	There was a backlog in test reporting.
	One of the weird things about the stats here is there are these backlogs that sometimes get reported late, so you'll see occasionally a very odd day where a huge number of deaths are tallied.
	And you're like, whoa, did just a bunch of people die that day?
	It's like, no, that's a backlog and that's being reported.
	Now, you're seeing this with some of the cases that are being reported.
	You're also seeing cases Where possible, COVID is being reported as probable or real COVID.
	You've seen cases in Florida where hospitals are reporting only positive results, which ticks up the percent positive rate.
	Now, does any of this change the underlying narrative that COVID is actually quite prevalent across the country and is apparently rising in terms of case number?
	No, of course that's true.
	The question at this point is, number one, does it overwhelm the healthcare system?
	And number two, are we actually seeing a declining rate of death?
	Now again, a declining rate of death with heavy levels of infection is still very dangerous.
	Let's say that this thing had a 0.2 death rate, about twice as deadly as the flu.
	Let's say that that was the actual death rate on this thing.
	And let's say that it's three times as infectious as the flu.
	Well then you're talking about something that will end up with six times as many deaths.
	It's three times as infectious, it's twice as deadly as the flu, and so you end up with 250,000 deaths.
	That's a horrifying, horrifying thing.
	But the bottom line to all of this is that nobody knows anything.
	And one of the narratives the media seems to be driving is that we know the answer to this.
	We know the answer to this.
	And when everyone else points to the fact that nobody really knows the answer to this, that we've seen the same policies adopted by Democrats and Republicans in different states to different outcomes, that Georgia opened the exact same time as Colorado.
	Colorado has seen a 40% decline in cases, while Georgia has seen a 200% increase in cases.
	And they pursued the exact same policy at the exact same time.
	Well, that says we don't understand the virus very much.
	We don't know the dynamics of the virus very much.
	When people in the media Point two, lockdowns work.
	And then you say, well, hold up.
	California never really let out a lockdown.
	And California is one of the states that is spiking right now.
	There seems to be no counter to that.
	The media, because they are seeking Epistemic closure here because they are looking for a scientific model where they can say follow the science and if you disagree with us, you're not following the science because the media are doing this.
	They're neglecting the fact that there are no great answers here.
	There just aren't.
	They keep pointing at New York.
	Look at New York.
	New York's doing great.
	34,000 people died in New York.
	It is possible that there are antibodies in like 50 to 60 percent of certain populations in New York because the thing ran roughshod through the population.
	So comparing New York where they had a massive wave where everybody got infected with Texas or Florida where there was no massive first wave and they're now experiencing a first wave of cases is utterly foolhardy.
	The same thing is true when it comes to a wide variety of issues.
	For example, let's talk about masking for a second.
	So I have said many, many times that out of an abundance of caution, I'm in favor of masking.
	That if you're in a crowded place, it seems to me that the least you can do is put on a mask when you go into the Walmart.
	I think it's a good idea.
	I think it's a smart idea.
	And if it's not 100% foolproof, but it's better than nothing, and if a lot of people do it, then you're reducing risk through a herd adoption of a measure that lowers risk by a certain percentage that we don't actually know.
	But let's be real about this.
	The evidence on masks is fairly divisive.
	Up until the last five minutes, the WHO suggested that if you were asymptomatic, you should not be wearing a mask.
	In fact, I believe the WHO still holds to that standard.
	And in fact, there are many countries that have done just fine with this thing that have not really done the masking thing.
	In fact, for example, there is a there's a chart showing whether Europeans are wearing masks.
	This was done just a couple of weeks ago.
	YouGov asked European citizens if they would wear a mask in public places.
	And what you can see in the chart is that under 10 percent of people from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden say they would wear a mask in public places.
	That's not just Sweden, right?
	I mean, that's Denmark and Finland and Norway as well.
	Meanwhile, you got 85% of the population in places like Italy saying they would wear a mask and Italy just got creamed.
	You've got other countries, like Spain, that have an uptick in the number of people who say that they would wear a mask.
	And you've got the UK, where a huge number of people say they would wear a mask.
	Those places have been really, really hard hit.
	So if it's just about the mask wearing, then why is it that some countries that have been really hard hit didn't do the masking, and some countries that did do the mask wearing have been really hard hit?
	Like, what exactly is happening here?
	And the answer is, nobody really knows anything.
	We're now four months into lockdown, and revised lockdown in the United States, and people still don't know anything.
	Jim Garrity at National Review points this out.
	He points out that the most common strain of COVID-19 in the U.S.
	right now is extremely contagious and will prove difficult to contain even with wider and more consistent adoption of best practices.
	We'll get to that in just one second.
	First, let's talk about the fact that as you do your business this year, you cannot afford extra costs.
	You know what's an extra cost?
	Paying the lawyers.
	Lawyers are really expensive.
	They'll charge you on an hourly basis.
	They create this magnificent transaction cost that is difficult to get rid of.
	Or, theoretically, you could go check out LegalZoom right now.
	Don't let legal questions hold your business back.
	LegalZoom has been dedicated to helping you with the right solutions for more than 19 years.
	If you're looking to protect your family with a will or a living trust, or if you're thinking about the right way to start a business with a DBA, LLC, non-profit or more, LegalZoom has you covered.
	It's easy to get started online.
	If you need guidance, their network of attorneys can provide advice to ensure you make the right choices.
	And since LegalZoom is not a law firm, you're not going to have to leave your home and you won't get charged by the hour.
	Visit LegalZoom.com today.
	Take care of some of the important things you need to get done for your business and for yourself.
	New wills and living trust and all that.
	And you can do your business documents as well.
	That's LegalZoom.com.
	LegalZoom, where life meets legal.
	Go check them out right now.
	LegalZoom's doing great work.
	I've been using LegalZoom.
	I'm a lawyer.
	I've been using LegalZoom for many, many years, long before they were an advertiser on the program.
	They've saved me time, they've saved me money, and they make it really easy for you right now.
	Check them out at LegalZoom.com.
	Check them out right now instead of paying a lawyer a fortune.
	LegalZoom.com.
	Okay, so as Jim Garrity points out, a study released last month by the Scripps Research Institute concluded that the strains of the virus spreading so quickly in Europe and the U.S.
	have a mutated S-spike protein that makes them about 10 times as infectious as the strain initially identified in Asia.
	So now you're comparing apples to oranges when you say, why isn't this thing spreading in Hong Kong or Taiwan the same way that it spread in the United States or Europe?
	Because it ain't exactly the same virus, as it turns out.
	If it seems like the U.S.
	is having a tougher time controlling the spread of coronavirus than Asian countries did in winter and early spring, that's partially because this version of the virus is tougher to stop from spreading.
	More and more researchers, says Jim Garrity, are contending that SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, is airborne, meaning it is not merely being dispersed by the bodily fluids of those who have it, but also floating about in aerosolized form.
	It's also possible the virus is not truly aerosolized, but it's floating in tiny droplets so light and small they can easily be carried long distances by air currents.
	The European Center for Disease Prevention and the World Health Organization are now taking the aerosolized possibility seriously and with good reason.
	An aerosolized virus would mean most of our current pandemic control policies, like remaining six feet apart, are not enough by themselves to prevent contraction of the virus.
	As Jim Garrity says, the scale and complexity of the problem should not be understated.
	The country enacted unprecedented sweeping lockdowns that kept most Americans at home at great cost to the economy.
	The lockdown slowed the spread.
	They didn't stop it.
	Preventing more infections is not just a matter of convincing the president to wear a mask consistently or shutting down beaches or subways or requiring quarantines for those who travel between states.
	At every level of government, the response to the virus has met with mixed success.
	But it's important to recognize no one is ignoring any simple or easy solutions because the solutions do not exist.
	Now, one thing that is true is that the death rate has been dropping fairly dramatically.
	The CDC currently estimates the death rate at between 0.6 and 0.7 percent, about seven times as deadly as the flu.
	A new study puts it between 0.5 and 0.8.
	If there are a lot of asymptomatic or unconfirmed cases, that means it could be 0.2.
	But as I say, even a 0.2 fatality rate with half of the American population adopting the virus would mean a lot of dead people.
	So we will see whether there is a big spike here.
	Maybe not.
	But the bottom line is that everybody who's sort of counting on a vaccine to save us, that is not a strategy either.
	And the fact is that if we rush out a vaccine and it's no good, then it's no good.
	It's also possible that a vaccine that is truly effective and mass-produced and mass-adopted won't happen until mid-time next year, even in the most optimistic scenarios.
	So the notion that you're just going to be able to sort of sit around and wait for good things to happen, just stay at home and wait for good things to happen, that's not true either.
	The reason I'm pointing all of this out is because this is all hard stuff.
	This is all hard stuff.
	I'm looking right now.
	at a list from Worldometers, which compiles data from Johns Hopkins University, about COVID-19 deaths. And I'm going to give you the states that have the highest rate of deaths for 1 million population right now. OK, this is the list. New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, District of Columbia, Louisiana, Michigan, Illinois, then Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Mississippi, Indiana, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, New Hampshire, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Alabama, Iowa, Virginia, Florida. Right.
	Florida is all the way down there.
	California is next on the list, by the way.
	Florida, South Carolina, Nevada, California.
	One thing that you will notice is if you're gonna talk about strategies that worked, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, the top nine states in terms of death per million population are all Democratic-governed.
	And nearly all of them were pro-lockdown.
	New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, D.C., Louisiana, Michigan.
	These were all very pro-lockdown states.
	Maryland is a Republican-governed state.
	Larry Hogan is the governor over there.
	And he's been widely praised for his response to the virus.
	We've had him on the radio show.
	He was pro-lockdown.
	His state ranks about 10 to 15 slots above Florida in terms of the number of deaths per million.
	Ohio has a higher deaths per million stat than Florida.
	Now, it may not stay that way, but the notion that anyone has figured out how to solve this thing is just babbly-bloony.
	Like, there is no evidence that anyone has come up with the silver bullet on how to deal with COVID-19.
	So when you hear people screaming to the sky, Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott, lockdowns, no lockdowns, science!
	Understand, nobody knows anything.
	Here's the thing.
	There are no experts on an unprecedented disease.
	There are experts on disease generally, but there are not experts on this disease, which means that there's going to be a lot of conflicting evidence from experts.
	You can get Scott Atlas on the one hand saying, I'm not sure that masks are supremely useful.
	You can get Dr. Fauci saying masks aren't useful, and then masks are useful.
	You can get Fauci saying at one point, I'm not sure we can go back into full scale lockdown.
	And then you can have Fauci saying, well, we never should have let out a lockdown in the first place.
	If you just look at the statements of Fauci, who, by the way, I think is doing his best, just like everybody else in this situation.
	Fauci's statements contradict each other fairly regularly.
	Because again, no one knows anything.
	So when you see the media trotting out this level of epistemic certainty, we know how to solve... No, you don't know how to solve this.
	You don't.
	Again, this is true on masks.
	It is true on social distancing.
	It is true on whether this is aerosolized.
	It is true on whether kids should be in schools.
	On the one hand, you've got a fair bit of evidence that kids are not infecting their parents.
	There's good evidence from Iceland that this is the case.
	There's good evidence from China that this is the case.
	On the other hand, you saw a vast outbreak in Israel when they reopened the schools.
	Now, it turns out when they reopened the schools, it's quite possible one of the things that happened Is that a reason to keep schools closed?
	infected the other adults.
	Kids are getting the infection, they're not dying from the infection.
	A lot of kids can get it.
	If they don't die from it, that's not that bad.
	The problem is if they pass it on to their parents, that's what happened in Israel.
	Kids gave it to each other, and then a couple of people got it, some of the adults, and then the adults started spreading it amongst themselves, particularly in religious communities.
	Is that a reason to keep schools closed?
	Probably not.
	But the notion that there are any easy, hard and fast answers here is just very silly.
	Now, I know some wrong answers here.
	I know, for example, that it is a stupid answer for the New York City mayors to suggest that we're going to have mass-paid childcare, but not schools.
	Like, that makes no sense at all.
	Like, just on a commonsensical level, that's idiotic.
	New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday the city will provide free childcare to 100,000 students when schools reopen in September.
	Last week, the city released its plan for children to return to public school classrooms one to three days a week, depending on each school's capacity for social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic.
	Students will take classes remotely on the other days.
	The city aims to provide relief for working parents who either can't afford to stay home or can't find childcare for the days students aren't in school for in-person learning.
	The program will serve students from age 3 through 8th grade.
	There will be 50,000 available seats each day, with the idea that these seats will serve 100,000 students because of alternating in-person days at school.
	The city says it's trying to identify space in schools, community centers, libraries, and elsewhere.
	So basically they're going to have school, except the teachers don't have to show up and teach.
	It's just a stop to the teachers union by saying, okay, so we'll keep your kid locked up in the state care facility, but the teachers won't have to show up.
	So this is stupid because it's just as stupid as the anti-lockdown protests will spread COVID, but pro-George Floyd protests will not spread COVID.
	And saying that childcare is not going to spread COVID, but schools are gonna, like what, the teaching spreads the COVID?
	This of course is very silly.
	Like there's certain things that you can see done in policy that are dumb, right?
	Leaving the nursing homes open to COVID, stupid.
	Opening childcare, but not school, stupid, makes no sense.
	And, by the way, has some pretty dire secondary effect.
	I'm amused that the New York Times, the same New York Times that's saying we need to keep the schools closed for the sake of the teachers, is also observing that, by the way, a lot of private schools are coming back and rich parents can deal with kids being home and they can homeschool them.
	It's creating an actual more serious gap in education between poor and rich.
	My kids have done fairly okay in terms of education being home during this time.
	My six-year-old started off the pandemic reading at probably first grade level when she was in kindergarten.
	And now, before she enters first grade, she's reading at third grade level, right?
	She's got me at home.
	She's got her mom at home.
	She's got her grandparents there.
	So she's been doing just great.
	But what about kids who don't have that sort of support structure at home and aren't doing the Zoom classes?
	What do they do?
	The New York Times is recognizing this is exacerbating inequality.
	At the same time, they are cheering on the closing of the schools and shouting at President Trump for saying the schools should open.
	So we'll get to more of this in a second because if you believe that the media are objective and then you see the way that they weaponize uncertainty against Trump, it's pretty astonishing.
	We'll get to that in just one second.
	First, let's talk about the fact you need your sleep.
	I know I need my sleep.
	Let me tell you about my night last night.
	Okay, so I go to bed at 10 and I fall asleep on my magnificent Helix Sleep mattress.
	And then my baby wakes me up at 11.
	And then my baby wakes me up at 1.30.
	And then my baby wakes me up at 4.30.
	And then my son wakes me up at 5.45.
	What does this mean?
	It means that those spare moments when I actually get to sleep, I need to be on a comfortable mattress made just for me.
	And this is where Helix Sleep comes in.
	Helix Sleep has a quiz that takes just two minutes to complete, matches your body type and sleep preferences to the perfect mattress for you.
	Whether you're a side sleeper or a hot sleeper, whether you like a plush or a firm bed, with Helix, there's no more confusion and no more compromising.
	Helix Sleep is rated the number one mattress by GQ and Wired Magazine.
	CNN has called it the most comfortable mattress they've ever slept on.
	Just go to helixsleep.com slash bed, take their two minute sleep quiz.
	They will match you to a customized mattress that'll give you the best sleep of your life.
	They have a 10-year warranty.
	You get to try it out for 100 nights risk-free.
	They'll even pick it up for you if you don't love it.
	But indeed, you will.
	Helix is offering up to $200 off all mattress orders just for our listeners.
	Get up to $200 off at helixsleep.com slash ben.
	That is helixsleep.com slash ben.
	It's a mattress made just for you, and it is indeed spectacular.
	Helix, offering $200 off all mattress orders.
	It is risk-free.
	Check it out at helixsleep.com slash Ben.
	Okay, so the media have their narrative.
	The media's narrative is that Trump is ignoring the science.
	Now, there's only one problem with this, which is that Trump isn't actually ignoring the science.
	Okay, Trump provided the ventilators.
	There's good science to suggest that people need to go back to schools.
	I know of private schools and some public schools that are looking at reopening, and they're doing their best.
	I mean, it's a rough situation.
	We were talking about My Kids' Perspective School, and they're going to have the kids check in, there are going to be temperature checks at the front door, they're going to be trying to socially distance the kids, they're going to have the kids stay in the room and the teachers move from room to room as opposed to having the kids move around in the hallways.
	It's going to be rough.
	It's going to be rough.
	But the idea that the schools can remain indefinitely closed, or they can close down all of American society forever, that's just not a realistic scenario.
	And everybody knows it.
	Everybody understands this, except the media, which says that anything Trump says is bad.
	So perfect example of media bias yesterday.
	So here's the New York Times headline, okay?
	The White House press secretary says science should not stand in the way of reopening schools.
	Okay, so that is their actual headline.
	That the science should not stand in the way.
	So that makes it sound like Kayleigh McEnany, who actually is quite good at her job, that Kayleigh McEnany was saying that we should ignore the science and send kids back to school.
	And this leads Rob Reiner, The director to tweet out, Donald Trump wants to murder your children.
	It's like, no, you're that's that's the Demogorgon from Stranger Things, Rob.
	No, Trump does not want to murder your children.
	And that's also not what Kayleigh McEnany said.
	Here's the actual clip of Kayleigh McEnany.
	She never says at any point that we should ignore the science.
	In fact, she's saying precisely the opposite.
	She's saying there's plenty of science to back the idea we should open the schools.
	The President has said, unmistakably, that he wants schools to open.
	And I was just in the Oval talking to him about that.
	And when he says open, he means open and full, kids being able to attend each and every day at their school.
	The science should not stand in the way of this.
	And as Dr. Scott Atlas said, I thought this was a good quote, of course we can do it.
	Everyone else in the Western world, our peer nations, are doing it.
	We are the outlier here.
	The science is very clear on this.
	Uh, that, you know, for instance, you look at the JAMA pediatric study of 46 pediatric hospitals in North America that said the risk of critical illness from COVID is far less for children than that of seasonal flu.
	The science is on our side here.
	Okay, so the science is on our side here is not the same thing as ignore the science and reopen the schools.
	The media run with the actual lie.
	They don't bother with the actual truth, which is that she's making a scientific case for reopening schools.
	And the scientific case, by the way, is fairly strong.
	The media are touting an article today by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, who I think, you know, he's done his best during this pandemic.
	The fact, again, is that the rate of death per million population in Maryland is 556 per million population.
	The rate of death in Florida right now, the much maligned Florida, is 218, less than half, less than half of the death per million rate of Maryland.
	Hey, the rate in a lot of Republican states, as it turns out, is really, really, Texas, right, which is much maligned Texas, 130 per million, a lot, lot lower, like four times lower than Larry Hogan's Maryland.
	But according to Larry Hogan, it's all about Trump.
	He has a piece in the Washington Post, and this is the nice thing about having an unpopular president.
	You can always blame everything on the unpopular president.
	He says, I'd watched as the president downplayed the outbreak severity, and as the White House failed to issue public warnings, draw up a 50-state strategy, or dispatch medical gear or life-saving ventilators from the national stockpile to American hospitals.
	By the way, there was no shortage of ventilators.
	No one died for want of a ventilator in the United States.
	It did not happen.
	He says, eventually it was clear that waiting around for the president to run the nation's response was hopeless.
	If we delayed any longer, we'd be condemning more of our citizens to suffering and death.
	So every governor went their own way, which is how the United States ended up with such a patchwork response.
	I did the best I could for Maryland.
	Okay, now that's also called federalism.
	The idea that states get to respond to things like pandemics with the best they can do.
	That's our system.
	The idea that the president has a solution to this and he just crammed down everything?
	Let's assume that Trump had said, you know what?
	National mask mandate, which is unconstitutional.
	You can't do that on a national level.
	You don't have the public health power, really.
	But let's say that Trump did it.
	They would claim he was a fascist.
	Let's say he said, we're going to lock everybody in their homes for the next three months until no one has a case of this.
	Do you think people would have stood for that?
	Do you think Democrats would have stood for that?
	Especially when Democrats were claiming that you could not get COVID-19 if you protested for George Floyd and shouted at the cops.
	How do you think that would have gone?
	So no matter what Trump did here, he was doomed.
	Trump is overtly not fascist.
	He says, I'm not going to nationalize our systems.
	I'm not going to take everything over.
	And then they say, well, you know, you abdicated duty.
	And if he had done it, then he'd be a fascist.
	That's the way this works.
	I don't have a lot of sympathy for the idea that Trump's to blame for all of this.
	You see this again from Chris Hayes.
	Chris Hayes on MSNBC.
	He says, it's Republicans' fault because they are not pushing mask mandates.
	Here he was, Chris Hayes on MSNBC.
	They want the last few months to not have happened.
	To be wiped from everyone's memories.
	To be some fluke.
	An alternate dimension that we've accidentally warped into.
	And now we're just gonna warp back out into normalcy.
	And they've governed that way too, by and large.
	And it hasn't worked.
	That's why we're in the hell we are.
	And that is exactly what the fight about masks is about.
	I think.
	Masks are a visual reminder that everything isn't normal, that we are in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic.
	And on the whole, the Republican Party would very much like you to forget that.
	OK, hold up a second.
	Just hold up a second.
	The idea that mask mandates are the real problem here.
	Again, I'm going to give you the case numbers, the rising case numbers.
	OK, so Florida is number one in terms of rising case numbers.
	They're also doing the most tests.
	It goes Florida, Texas, California, which is a Democratic state, Georgia, Arizona, Tennessee, Louisiana.
	Louisiana is a Democratic state.
	The states that were most hard-hit at the beginning, of course, were all of the Democratic states.
	This idea that the mask mandate was the real key here.
	So then, why did all the Democrat states get hit?
	And why is it, again?
	Does Trump have the power to mandate that Denmark and Norway and Sweden and Finland don't wear masks?
	Again, the idea that they have the clear answer to all of this is really just cover for we don't like Trump.
	And that's what you see from Andrew Cuomo, who's been the worst governor throughout all of this.
	Awful in every respect, and then makes posters to himself about how wonderful he is.
	Here is Andrew Cuomo basically saying that Trump is to blame for everything, including the fact that I'm garbage at my job.
	Tapper should say that Trump is to blame for the virus coming to New York because that's the fact.
	That's what the CDC just said.
	If Trump's government had done its job, the virus wouldn't come here.
	We don't do, governors don't do global pandemics.
	I was trying to explain that to Mr. Tapper.
	State governments don't do global public health.
	That's not in the state charter.
	The federal government does that.
	The virus didn't come here because of anything New Yorkers did.
	The virus came here because the federal government missed it.
	Oh, the virus came here because the federal government missed it.
	I see.
	It didn't come to New York because you guys were busy.
	Talking about how everybody should go down to Chinatown for Chinese New Year.
	It didn't come to New York because you shipped all the old people with COVID back into the nursing homes.
	Trump is just such a convenient whipping post for the Democrats that it doesn't matter that they don't have a solution for this either because no one has a solution.
	How about this?
	How about we just recognize there are no good answers here?
	Okay, coming up, we're going to get into another aspect of the anti-Trump campaign, which is when he's not a fascist, it's because he's incompetent.
	And when he does something strong, then he's a fascist, right?
	This is the Catch-22 for Trump.
	We'll get to that in just one second.
	First, let's talk about the fact that maybe your sleep quality is off.
	And maybe one of the reasons your sleep quality is off is because you have been staring at blue light right before bed.
	Maybe that's also why you're getting the headaches and the eye strain.
	Well, this is why you require Felix Grey glasses.
	Felix Grey.
	They filter out 90% of blue light in the most damaging range.
	They eliminate 99% of glare through a proprietary industry-leading lens technology only available with Felix Grey.
	9 in 10 Felix Grey customers report significant symptom relief.
	Felix Grey frames.
	They're hand-finished from durable, super lightweight Italian acetate.
	With over 200,000 happy customers, Felix Grey isn't just the right choice, it's the only choice.
	I spend an enormous amount of time every day in front of screens.
	It's why I really need my Felix Grey glasses.
	Exposure to blue light can really mess you up.
	This is why you need Felix Greys.
	Go to FelixGreyGlasses.com for the absolute best quality blue light filtering glasses on the market there.
	Durable, and they are great, and they last basically forever.
	That's FelixGreyGlasses.com slash Ben.
	Do what I did.
	Start taking care of your eyes, feel better, work smarter, and look good doing it.
	Shipping and returns totally free at Felix Grey.
	FelixGreyGlasses.com slash Ben.
	Again, that's FelixGreyGlasses.com slash Ben.
	Go check them out right now.
	I promise you will enjoy these glasses.
	FelixGreyGlasses.com slash Ben.
	Okay, meanwhile, as I say, the idea is that Trump was not a fascist on COVID-19, and therefore, he abdicated his duty.
	And then when Trump steps in to protect the rights of citizens that are not being protected by their own mayors, then he's a fascist.
	So case in point today.
	There are these reports happening from Portland where apparently federal forces under the DHS are going around Portland.
	They are labeled police, right?
	They're wearing full-on military regalia with police on their military regalia and they're getting out of unmarked vehicles and they're arresting looters and rioters and people who are disobeying curfew laws and all of this.
	And they're not just quote-unquote peaceful protesters.
	They're walking around at 2 a.m.
	smashing things.
	That's what's been happening in Portland for well over a month.
	Ted Wheeler, who is the idiot mayor of Portland, has allowed this to go on for really years.
	He's allowed Antifa to stop people in the middle of the street.
	He's allowed Portland to become the repository of sort of Antifa centers.
	So there are videos that are emerging of federal forces and members of DHS who are walking up on guys who are dressed in this kind of cosplay Antifa military stuff and arresting people.
	And so there are all these reports emerging.
	Oh, well, look at the feds.
	This is fascism!
	Fascism!
	Because they're coming and arresting people.
	What's it all about?
	Well, DHS basically announced what it was all about before.
	Let me read you how the media are covering this, and then we'll get to what's actually happening here.
	Because according to the media, this is basically Trump has authorized the jackboots to come in at night and just pick up peaceful protesters standing against racism.
	That is not what is happening here, guys.
	There's not a lot of evidence that the federal forces are just arriving to lock up the protesters.
	That's that's not okay.
	So here is the report that got all of this started.
	It's from the Oregon I guess it's Oregon Public Broadcasting is the source of this report.
	In the early hours of July 15th, after a night spent protesting at the Multnomah County Justice Center, protesting.
	We'll see.
	By protesting, they mean like firing things, breaking windows, and attempting to destroy.
	In the Mark Hatfield Federal Courthouse, Mark Pettibone and his friend Connor O'Shea decided to head home.
	It had been a calm night compared to most protesting downtown.
	By 2 a.m., law enforcement hadn't used any tear gas, and with only a few exceptions, both the Portland Police Bureau and federal law enforcement officers had stayed out of sight.
	A block west of Chapman Square, Pettibone and O'Shea bumped into a group of people who warned them that people in camouflage were driving around the area in unmarked minivans grabbing people off the street.
	So first of all, let's just be clear about this.
	Police routinely use unmarked vehicles.
	Because if you're in a marked vehicle, people run.
	If you want to arrest somebody, very often you use an unmarked vehicle.
	LAPD does not only use marked vehicles in my city.
	Federal forces are not required to only use marked vehicles.
	Now, you need probable cause to arrest somebody.
	It's not clear whether these arrests are arrests or detentions.
	People have been released.
	Guys in camo, Shay said, four or five of them pop out, open the door and it was just like, oh bleep, I don't know who you are or what you want with us.
	Federal law enforcement officers have been using unmarked vehicles to drive around downtown Portland and detain protesters since at least July 14.
	Now, you need probable cause to arrest somebody.
	It's not clear whether these arrests are arrests or detentions.
	People have been released.
	It's not like they're locking them up in Guantanamo Bay and leaving them there.
	There's probably, if I had to suggest a theory, here's my theory, that the feds have been monitoring a group of Antifa protesters for a long time.
	They have tape of them, and then they're going out and arresting them when they're violating curfew at night.
	Personal accounts and multiple videos posted online show the officers driving up to people, detaining individuals with no explanation of why they are being arrested and driving off.
	The tactic appears to be another escalation in federal force deployed on Portland City streets as federal officers and President Donald Trump have said they plan to quell nightly protests outside the federal courthouse and Multnomah County Justice Center that have lasted for more than six weeks.
	Federal officers have charged at least 13 people with crimes related to the protests so far.
	They're not crimes related to the protests.
	They are crimes of looting and rioting and violating the law.
	Others have been arrested and released, including Pettibone.
	They also left one demonstrator hospitalized with skull fractures after shooting him in the face with so-called less lethal munitions on July 11th.
	Officers from the U.S.
	Marshals Special Ops Group and Customs and Border Protection have been sent to Portland to protect federal property.
	But interviews conducted by OBP show officers are also detaining people on Portland streets who aren't near federal property.
	Nor is it clear that all the people being arrested have engaged in criminal activity.
	Well, if they are detained and then they are released, that does happen from time to time.
	And when the police detain you and then they release you, that is not technically an arrest by Supreme Court jurisprudence.
	And now, what is it, what exactly, why is all this happening?
	If you just read that piece, you would think, oh, well, these are peaceful protesters, right?
	I mean, that's all that's happening.
	It's just peaceful, peaceful protesting.
	Yeah, that's not exactly what has been happening.
	You have terrorists who are attempting to tear down, I mean, look, look at these apes!
	I mean, look at the defacement of public property!
	You can see what's happening here.
	Okay, they're having to use tear gas on protest, on quote-unquote protesters and looters who are flinging objects at the cops.
	They're firing fireworks, literally firing fireworks at federal buildings.
	This is not peaceful protesting.
	Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement earlier this week, the city of Portland has been under siege for 47 straight days by a violent mob, while local political leaders refuse to restore order to protect their city.
	Each night, lawless anarchists destroy and desecrate property, including the federal courthouse, and attack the brave law enforcement officers protecting it.
	He said instead of addressing violent criminals in their communities, local and state leaders are instead focusing on placing blame on law enforcement and requesting fewer officers This failed response has only emboldened the violent mob as it escalates violence day after day.
	The DHS then released an extensive list of violence caused by leftist protesters since basically the end of May.
	We're talking about graffiti.
	We're talking about assault.
	I mean, there's tape literally last night of Antifa dragging fencing over toward the federal courthouse to try and set up their own Chop Chaz.
	In Portland.
	So why exactly?
	Here they are, right?
	Here they are.
	They've defaced the federal court building and now they are dragging, fencing over there to prevent the cops from coming in.
	It's a bunch of idiot white kids.
	It's a bunch of moron, woke white liberals who are engaging in this sort of activity.
	And that's criminal activity.
	And the locals refuse to do their job and arrest the criminals.
	And so the feds are coming in and they're doing it.
	Which is legal.
	Which is legal.
	So the media's response has been Trump's a fascist.
	This is the overwhelming response.
	Literally, Trump is a fascist was trending on Twitter today.
	So if Trump enforces the law, he's a fascist.
	If Trump doesn't take over all aspects of America's lockdown policies, then he is an incompetent.
	You guys are gonna have to pick one, or you're gonna have to pick the other.
	But again, it all comes down to the cops are the bad guys, except the cops aren't the bad guys.
	There's one black officer from Portland who, I mean, this is pretty moving stuff, talked about the situation in Portland.
	He said, basically, I want to have conversations with some of the people who are protesting, and these white woke jackasses keep coming between me and the people that I'm talking to, and then calling me racist names.
	Here is this black police officer from Portland.
	His name is Jackson.
	I got to see folks that really do want change, like the rest of us, that have been impacted by racism.
	And then I got to see those people get faded out by people that have no idea what racism is all about.
	A lot of times, someone of color, black, Hispanic, Asian, come up to the fence and directly want to talk to me.
	Hey, what do you think about George Floyd?
	What do you think about what happened about this?
	I go up to the fence.
	Someone white comes up.
	F the police.
	Don't talk to him.
	That was the most bizarre thing because I could see it coming.
	Okay, he says in this clip also that some of these white protesters were coming up to him and saying, I've never seen a nose that big.
	Like, overtly racist stuff.
	And yet, these are the good guys.
	According to the media, the protesters are the good guys.
	The cops are the bad guys.
	And this fits into a broader narrative that the cops are the bad guys generally.
	We're going to get to that in just one second.
	Because that ties into the broader narrative that America is racist and Trump is the figurehead of all that racism.
	He's the prowl of the racist ship.
	We'll get to that in just one moment.
	First, let's talk about the fact that you probably don't feel like going to the post office right now.
	Like, who the hell does feel like going to the post office?
	Right now.
	Post Office is great.
	They do a lot of great stuff.
	You don't want to be standing in line with a lot of people who might be sneezing or coughing or anything like that.
	Instead, why not just do all this from home and save a bunch of money by doing so?
	With Stamps.com, you can print postage on demand and skip those lines and crowds at the post office.
	Plus, you can actually save some money with discounts you can't even get at the post office.
	As if that wasn't enough, Stamps.com also offers UPS services with discounts up to 62% and no UPS residential surcharges.
	Here at Daily Wire, we've used Stamps.com since 2017.
	No more wasting our time.
	Stamps.com brings all the services of the U.S.
	Postal Service directly to your computer in the safety and comfort of your own home, office, anywhere else you are hunkering down right now.
	Whether you're a small business sending invoices, or an online seller shipping out products, or you're just working from home and you need to mail stuff, Stamps.com can handle it all with ease.
	Simply use your computer to print official U.S.
	postage 24-7 for any letter, any package, any class of mail, anywhere you want to send it.
	Like I said, with Stamps.com, you get great discounts too.
	5 cents off every first-class stamp and up to 62% off shipping rates.
	Stamps.com is a no-brainer, especially now.
	It saves you time, it saves you money, it keeps you safe in these crazy times right now.
	My listeners get a special offer.
	It includes a four-week trial, plus free postage and a digital scale.
	No long-term commitment.
	Just go to stamps.com.
	Click on the microphone at the top of the homepage.
	Type in Shapiro.
	That is stamps.com.
	Type in Shapiro.
	Check them out right now.
	We use it at Daily Wire.
	You should, too.
	All right.
	We're going to get to more of this in a second.
	The assault on the police.
	This is part of a broader sort of argument.
	The police are evil.
	And Trump, because he's pro-police, is evil.
	And the police and Trump are racist.
	We'll get to that in a second.
	First, it is that glorious time of the week when I give a shout-out to a Daily Wire member.
	We have reached that point.
	Today, it's Allie Burkholder on Instagram, who's keeping on top of the COVID-19 pandemic.
	In the picture, Allie's elite Tumblr is resting on a table next to a well-organized set of medical testing supplies.
	The caption reads, While doing my part to study the spread of COVID-19, weekly blood tests and nasal swab all negative results so far.
	Thumbs up.
	Hope it stays that way.
	We do too.
	Glad to hear you're healthy.
	We hope you stay that way as well.
	Thanks for the picture.
	Thanks for being a Daily Wire member.
	By the way, my new book, How to Destroy America in Three Easy Steps, it goes on sale Tuesday, July 21st, 6 p.m.
	Eastern, 3 p.m.
	Pacific.
	We'll be doing a virtual live signing event the day of release with your purchase of a signed copy.
	You can write in a question which may be read and answered as I sign your book live on the air.
	You can pre-order your signed copy, write in your question at dailywire.com.
	I've been talking about the book is really about what is going on in the country right now.
	A vision of America that says that America's history is evil, America's philosophy is evil, America's culture of rights is evil, and a traditional vision of America that unifies us.
	That is the battle going on between not even just left and right.
	Unionists, people who want to hold the union together, and disintegrationists, disintegrationists who want to use cancel culture and cruelty and malice and the power of government to build a whole new world order by tearing everything down.
	The book is How to Destroy America in Three Easy Steps.
	It is the antidote.
	To everything that is going on right now, you should get a copy for yourself and get a copy for a liberal friend, because I think it's vital that everybody read this.
	I don't think you have to be a conservative to agree with this book.
	Check out dailywire.com slash ben to order your signed copy today.
	Join my live signing on Tuesday, July 21st.
	You're listening to the largest, fastest growing conservative podcast and radio show in the nation.
	Alrighty, so the argument about the cops in Portland and the law enforcement in Portland, when it has just been run by Antifa for a month and a half, it's...
	It's really insane and really it's driven by the broader American narrative that the police are the bad guys.
	And the narrative here is based on an extraordinary reading of history.
	Ayanna Pressley, who is the representative from Massachusetts, she is the Ringo star of the squad.
	She actually said yesterday that our policing system emerged from slave catching.
	Now that Is a bit of a stretch.
	The idea that the cops right now are trying to stop black people from being murdered are an extension of a system that was designed to catch black people and bring them back to slavery is patently crazy.
	But this is part of the narrative.
	The cops are just all of history is just one unified blob.
	Nothing has progressed over time, and so the cops are just mere outgrowths of that, according to Ayanna Pressley.
	While Juneteenth is meant to be a day of celebration and of freedom and emancipation, again we must take stock of this moment and be sobered about the work that lies ahead.
	Mr. Crenshaw, is it fair to say that the policing system in our nation grew out of the practice of capturing and often murdering individuals trying to escape from slavery?
	Could you speak to the history of our policing system and how you see that influencing modern-day policing?
	Okay, that linkage is so crazy.
	How do you see it influencing modern-day policing?
	That in 1832 there were slave-catching bands that were going around and they were called police and they were going around catching slaves?
	Like, come on.
	But again, this is part of the broader narrative.
	If you're pro-cop, you're racist.
	And this also ties into the narrative that the way you make your city safer is by getting rid of the cops, despite all evidence to the contrary.
	This is how you can have moron mayor Bill de Blasio literally say yesterday that for seven years we've made the city safer.
	Except for, you know, the doubling of the murder rates in New York City over the past month and a half.
	Here is moron, giant weirdo, groundhog murderer Bill de Blasio.
	For seven years, we have made this city safer and safer by working with communities, by recognizing the leadership of community leaders, organizations, clergy, elected officials, seeing what people can do to build peace in their own community, and building a different and better relationship between communities and the NYPD.
	It's true.
	You have made the city safer and safer, except for all the dead people.
	Except for that, you've been doing a fantastic job there, Bill de Blasio.
	But again, if the narrative is the cops are the bad guys, then you can claim this is true even when it is not true.
	The mere absence of cops makes everybody safer, according to people like Bill de Blasio.
	Now, again, this ties into the broader narrative about Trump.
	So much of what is going on right now is simply about Trump.
	About the fact that the left cannot accept that Trump won the 2016 election.
	They've never been able to accept it.
	And so the idea must be that the people who voted for him are not only in league with the Russians, which was the argument for two years, they're vicious racists.
	And you can see this in some of the media coverage, right?
	The actual heads of the New York Times, and Dean Baquette, he suggested that as soon as the Russia stuff was over, before the whole Ukrainian nonsense, that he was going to have to staff up on racial issues.
	Go back and look at it.
	Jim McHead said that they were going to staff up on racial issues because that was the new narrative.
	Well, why was that the new narrative?
	Because the media have decided to drive that narrative.
	And so what they're looking for right now is to link everybody who voted with Trump with the deplorables again.
	Everybody who voted for Trump is indeed a vicious, brutal, horrible racist.
	And indeed, all of American society is plagued by racism.
	So not only is all of American society plagued by racism, but also the top of the heap is Trump.
	Trump is the face of that American racism.
	And this is why you have this masturbatory adulation for Mary Trump's new book.
	So Mary Trump is Trump's niece.
	I literally have no idea what she does or where she came from or why she is relevant.
	I have extended relatives.
	They don't know me all that well.
	If I were running for president, I would not really trust what they had to write in a book.
	I do not know why, if Mary Trump is such a relevant figure, she has only come about in 2020 when it was time for her to write a book.
	Nonetheless, the very first day that this book was on sale, Mary Trump's book, it sold 950,000 copies.
	Why?
	Well, because it's just, it's comfort food.
	It's comfort food for Democrats who can't get over the fact that Trump won.
	And now, Mary Trump is making allegations that she doesn't even put in her book.
	Now she's just being basically asked whether Trump eats children by various members of the media.
	And she's like, yeah, Trump eats children.
	Yeah, I know for a fact that he's got a kid in a cage in the back of the White House and he feeds that child to fatten them up and then he eats them.
	So Rachel Maddow last night on MSNBC asks Mary Trump whether Trump uses the N-word and anti-Semitic slurs and she's like, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
	Where were you five years ago if this was the case?
	That seems like something that would have been relevant when he was running for president the first time.
	But apparently, Mary Trump, here to clean up all the cash.
	New hero of the republic, Mary Trump.
	Here's Rachel Maddow.
	I have to press you on it a little bit.
	Just to ask if the president, if your uncle was an exception to that in your family, or if you ever heard him express, either use anti-semitic slurs, or the n-word, or other racist slurs, or other sentiments like that.
	Oh yeah, of course I did.
	And I don't think that should surprise anybody given how virulently racist he is today.
	Have you heard the president use the n-word?
	Yeah.
	And anti-Semitic slurs specifically?
	Yes.
	Well, amazing.
	Amazing how that didn't make it into the book.
	Incredible.
	Now, breaking news as I'm selling a book, Trump used that.
	By the way, that would have been the kill shot in 2016, would it have not?
	There are not a lot of people in America in 2020 who are fond of people using the N-word.
	But here's Mary Trump, look, emerging from the woodwork, and Democrats are like, oh well, you know, because that links with the American racist system, and Trump is just the face of that giant American racist system.
	Now, color me a little bit skeptical on this, just a little bit skeptical, that a man who's been in the public eye for nearly all his life, and who has sought the public eye for nearly all his life, routinely uses the N-word, and somehow nobody else has ever said that he uses the N-word.
	Like, this is the first person in human history who said this.
	Well, she's selling a book.
	Yeah, I'm gonna go skeptical on that one.
	Again, this is all part of the broader miasmatic attempt to paint everything in America as racist.
	So as to say that the current president of the United States is the biggest problem.
	We get rid of him and we can start to really do the hard work.
	I don't know if the memo went out at major newspapers last night, but now classical music is under fire.
	There's an article in the Washington Post called, That sound you're hearing is classical music's long overdue reckoning with racism.
	Classical music?
	What, did they uncover some of Mozart's old tweets or something?
	I mean, like, Wagner was pretty obviously a Jew-hater, but I'm not sure what that has to do with the price of tea in China right now.
	That's weird.
	Okay, that's not the only article like this.
	There's a second article with the New York Times saying that orchestras have to end blind auditions.
	Why?
	Because they need more faces of color.
	This is absurdity.
	These came out the same day, by the way.
	The memo went out in the cultural world.
	It was time to go after classical music.
	I very much look forward to the vast media review of rap music for racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and violent lyrics.
	I feel like they might get a little further with that than with classical music is inherently racist.
	Going after Brahms.
	According to the Washington Post, however, The late great soprano Jessye Norman reserved just one chapter of her 24-hour memoir, Stand Up Straight and Sing, for discussion of the discrimination she faced so often throughout her career, even as one of the most decorated performers on the international opera stage.
	But it's safe to assume race was a running theme in her magnificent life, a dissonant motif that emerged again and again in the form of careless slurs and slights from conductors, TV roles that would have reduced her from ditto on stage to a maid on screen, offensive questions from bumbling critics, nosy security guards challenging her right to exist in the hotel pool.
	Those who would imagine that the rarefied realms of classical music or opera are somehow removed from the rancor of racism would be, as Norman put it, mistaken.
	Sadly mistaken.
	And so too would those who imagine that our nation's intensifying reckoning with racial injustice merely marches past the concert hall.
	Yes, I'm sure that when most protesters looked at an officer Brutally treating George Floyd.
	What they were thinking was, you know what, we need to go down to the Metropolitan Opera House right now and solve racism in Dido and Anais.
	Front and center, we need to go after the Rossini operas.
	Must happen.
	Data collected from 500 American orchestras for a 2016 study by the League of American Orchestras paints a starkly white picture when it comes to diversity in classical organizations.
	It's key finding.
	The proportion of non-white musicians represented in the orchestra workforce, and of African-American and Hispanic-Latino musicians in particular, remains extremely low.
	Okay, I just have one question.
	Have they ever recognized how many great, great Asian musicians there are?
	Okay, so I'm a classical violinist.
	I've been playing since the age of five.
	Disproportionately overrepresented among classical violinists are Jews and Asians.
	Okay, that's just the way it is.
	Both minority groups.
	But they don't count as minority groups.
	The only minority groups who count as minority groups are minority groups who are seen as victimized.
	Okay, and if you're too rich, or if you're too successful, then you're not counted.
	It's an absurdity.
	How absurd is this?
	It's so absurd that, again, this brings us to the second piece from the New York Times.
	They want to get rid of blind auditions.
	So there was a theory a while ago that the reason there weren't enough musicians of color in orchestras, and these are really female musicians, there weren't enough female musicians in positions of power in orchestras, is because when women were trying out, there were sort of these evil sexist directors of orchestras who would not give them the time of day.
	And so orchestras started using blind auditions.
	And counter to public perception, what actually happened is the number of women in positions of power in orchestras went down.
	It turned out that women were actually being kind of slightly favored in some of those things.
	Well now, it turns out that the New York Times wishes to get rid of blind auditions.
	They literally want to make the orchestras worse.
	They want to have worse musicians so long as the diversity photo looks appealing.
	If ensembles are to reflect the communities they serve, the audition process should take into account race, gender, and other factors, according to Anthony Tomasini over at the New York Times in the Critics' Notebook.
	Blind auditions, as they became known, proved transformative.
	The percentage of women in orchestras, which hovered under 6% in 1970, grew.
	Today, women make up a third of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
	They are half the New York Philharmonic.
	Blind auditions changed the face of American orchestras.
	So, by the way, I'm not sure the data actually support this, but he's now counting against his own argument.
	He's saying blind auditions were good because they allowed people who had historically been discriminated against to get into orchestras.
	But now, we need to get rid of the blind auditions and have worse musicians so that we can have more faces of color in the orchestra.
	Again, I really look forward to these standards being applied to the NBA.
	I think that we need to get rid of blind auditions for the NBA.
	We need to specifically seek out more Jewish players in the NBA.
	We need to seek out more Asian players in the NBA.
	We need more people who are 5'5 in the NBA.
	We do.
	We need more women in the NBA.
	It's an extraordinarily non-diverse league.
	Why exactly are we focusing in on the skill level of the people who are playing?
	Why aren't we focusing in on the diversity?
	We need a racially and gender and sexual orientation representative NBA.
	And if we don't have that, then it just ain't gonna work, guys.
	We need people like Juwanna Man in the NBA.
	We need it.
	Because if we don't have that, then the NBA is just not a diverse place.
	And I don't hear anybody making that argument, of course, because it's a stupid argument!
	But you start making it about orchestras because too many white people, and all of a sudden, you are woke and standing up against racism.
	Now, There are real bad things happening in the world right now.
	I mean, truly evil things happening in the world.
	And we are ignoring all of them in favor of this stupidity.
	So we are focused in like a laser beam on Trump and COVID-19 and how he blew it, even though nobody has a handle on this thing.
	Nobody.
	No one has a good handle.
	And don't give me that the United States has a different treatment than Hong Kong.
	Again, different strains.
	Also, different caseload from the very beginning.
	We're focusing it on Trump.
	Trump's evil.
	We're focusing it on Trump's a fascist.
	We're focusing it on classical orchestras aren't diverse enough.
	Get rid of blind auditions.
	And meanwhile, the Chinese are literally sending Muslims into concentration camps after shaving their head on trains.
	Remember that time people were like, never again after the Holocaust?
	It's happening like right now.
	Like right now.
	There's tape that has emerged of the Chinese loading Uighur Muslims onto trains.
	And then taking them to concentration camps.
	There is video of Uyghurs with their heads shaved being shuttled into these concentration camps.
	If people risk their lives to break this sort of tape, this is hideous, hideous stuff.
	What's the world doing about it?
	Nothing.
	What does America's left care about?
	Not one whit about this.
	Not one iota about this.
	LeBron James, Captain Woke over here, he's still claiming that we don't properly understand China.
	The NBA is still trying to make common cause with the Chinese.
	That's not a misdirect.
	It is a misprioritization.
	It is a misread of the idea that America is uniquely evil.
	That the American system is uniquely evil.
	To be so myopic that you focus only on America when truly evil things are happening around the world and when America really provides the only bulwark against that true evil.
	Is insane.
	But that's the world we now occupy.
	An insane world where we're supposed to be deeply concerned, deeply, deeply concerned about racism in classical music.
	But, you know, do we have a moment to spare for millions of people being shuttled into abject slavery because of their religion?
	By people we're doing a lot of business with?
	Nah, not so much.
	Alrighty, time for a quick thing that I like, or not so quick thing that I like.
	So yesterday, I had the privilege of having on Vice President Mike Pence on the radio show.
	I thought that it was a good and interesting interview.
	So here is what that sounded like.
	Joining us on the line is Vice President Mike Pence.
	Vice President Pence, thanks so much for taking the time.
	I know you're very busy these days.
	Ben Shapiro, it is great to be back with you.
	I'm speaking to you from the White House.
	And just thank you.
	Thank you for your strong, conservative voice on the airwaves and on the Internet all across this country.
	Well, thank you so much.
	So let's talk about the biggest thing on a lot of Republicans' minds these days, the campaign.
	So obviously, the campaign has an uphill climb here.
	I mean, the polling data right now so far is not great.
	What does the campaign plan to do to turn this thing around?
	It seems like you've kept a lot of ammunition in store.
	It seems as though the campaign really hasn't gotten started thanks to a variety of factors.
	What do you think the campaign is going to do to push forward in the coming months?
	Well, I think first and foremost, we're not going to pay any more attention to the polls in this election than we did in 2016.
	I just saw a poll come out this morning that That had us down double digits.
	And a friend reminded me that the exact same poll had the president down double digits about this time in 2016.
	So, look, elections are about choices.
	I can't wait to get out on the campaign trail.
	I'll be in Wisconsin tomorrow talking about everything that we were able to accomplish in the first three years of this administration, the president's leadership through this extraordinary pandemic.
	We continue to move the nation forward.
	We continue to meet the needs of the American people, of families, and making sure hospitalization, healthcare workers have the support they need.
	And we continue to see America opening up.
	You know, we lost 22 million jobs at the height of this pandemic.
	But given the foundation, the strength of the American economy, the foundation this president poured in the first three years, Ben, we've already seen nearly 8 million jobs return.
	We're going to continue to open up America, open up America's schools, even while we work every single day to put this coronavirus in the past.
	That's the record we're going to take to the American people.
	And that record of leadership and accomplishment built on principles, free-market principles of growth, will contrast so dramatically with the more taxes, more regulation, big government, social, liberal agenda that Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, AOC, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer are going to take to the American people.
	So I'm confident about November 3rd.
	We're going to talk about the record.
	We're going to talk about the contrast.
	We're going to deliver a great victory for the American people.
	And Vice President Pence, one of the most difficult things that the administration's had to deal with literally since day one and before day one has been the media bias against the administration, the media obviously militating in favor A variety of causes, none of which are particularly good for the United States.
	On occasion they'll just overtly lie.
	After President Trump gave what I thought was an excellent speech at Mount Rushmore, they simply labeled it racist.
	They labeled it a defense of Confederate monuments when he didn't make a single reference to Confederate monuments.
	And that's sort of been the theme of the media throughout this campaign, and frankly throughout the last few years, has been the idea that everything the president does is evil and wrong.
	It was all about how the president wasn't providing ventilators when he was, and then once the ventilators were provided, that sort of just went away.
	It was all about how the president was involved with Russia, and when that went away, then they just moved on to the next topic.
	How do you fight back against a narrative in the media that is so overwhelming and dominant?
	And how do you fight back, especially when they are fear-mongering about COVID-19, which is a very dangerous virus, but that doesn't mean that we can all live in our basements from now until a vaccine.
	I think we just continue to tell the American people the truth.
	We tell the American people the truth about what we accomplished in our first three years.
	I mean, this president, I actually think, Ben, this president kept more promises than he made to the American people in 2016.
	I mean, we rebuilt our military.
	We renewed the constitutional foundation under our courts.
	More than 200 conservatives confirmed to our federal courts.
	And on the economy, this president cut taxes, rolled back regulation, unleashed American energy, fought for free and fair and better trade deals for the American people, and we saw 7 million jobs created.
	And as I said, that laid a foundation even with this pandemic striking our nation from China.
	The president was able, again, to marshal the resources not just of the government, But a whole-of-America response, where we saw American ingenuity, American businesses stepping up.
	We reinvented testing.
	We saw the creation of more than 100,000 ventilators in 100 days.
	No American who required a ventilator was ever denied a ventilator.
	Hundreds of millions of medical supplies that we continue to surge.
	As we see outbreaks and an increase in cases along the Sun Belt.
	And then you saw the news this week with the advent of new vaccines that are moving through clinical trials at a record pace.
	I have to tell you, Ben, from where I've sat in this process, despite the criticism, not just over the last three and a half years, but over the last four months, from the media.
	I say only with this president and only in America.
	And I have every confidence as we go forward, we're going to continue to take that case.
	And I truly do believe that there's greater enthusiasm for the president and his agenda today than there was at this time in the election in 2016.
	So we're going to keep dealing with this pandemic.
	We're going to make sure every state has everything they need to provide for their citizens that are impacted by the coronavirus, the same level of healthcare you or I would want for any member of our family.
	But we're gonna keep opening up, we're gonna open up our schools, we're gonna keep telling the American people the truth.
	And you're gonna see this president and this team back in the winner's circle on November 3rd.
	Vice President Pence, the other aspect of our politics that seems to be so dominant over the last few months is this extraordinarily radical vision of the United States as a place steeped in racism and bigotry in which all of our institutions have been thoroughly corrupted from inceptions resulting in.
	Everything up to and including tearing down statues of Thomas Jefferson, defacing statues of George Washington, I think connected to larger scale rioting and looting.
	The Democratic Party seems completely feckless in the face of this sort of behavior.
	How do you and the president plan to take the message on the road that there really is a threat to some of the fundamental ties that bind us in the United States?
	Well, Ben, I think, as you said, I think that's what the Mount Rushmore speech was all about.
	And to some extent, the July 4th speech from the South Lawn of the White House reiterated that.
	Look, this is a president.
	That's going to defend America.
	From the founding of this country, we expressed a set of ideals, and every day in the long history of this country, we have marched toward a more perfect union.
	And the American people, I think, can be proud of the progress that we've made.
	We can celebrate that progress, even while we continue.
	We continue to aspire to make those ideals more real for more Americans.
	And with regard to the cancel culture that we have in this country, you're going to continue to see the president and our entire team stand up for the ideals of this country and stand up for America.
	But with regard to the whole issue of law and order and law enforcement, I met yesterday with the leaders of the top law enforcement associations in America, Ben, and there is There's no excuse for what happened to George Floyd, and justice will be served.
	But there's also no excuse for the rioting and the looting and the destruction of property and violence against persons that followed that.
	And yet we still see everyone from Joe Biden on down.
	Talking about defunding the police.
	I mean, Joe Biden, in an interview just in the last week, was asked if he would support transferring funding out of police departments, and he said, absolutely, yes.
	And a lot of members of the mainstream media are denying that he said that, but it's what he said.
	And, you know, we're not going to defund the police.
	We're going to defend the police.
	We know, you know, most of the men and women who put on the uniform of law enforcement every day are the best people in this country.
	Every single day, they strap on a sidearm and they count our lives as more important than their own.
	And we also know that nobody hates bad cops more than good cops.
	So we're going to continue to look for ways to fund the police, to improve public safety, but we're not going to defund the police.
	We're going to back the blue.
	And that's why I know the president was so proud To receive the endorsement that he just received from a major police association.
	And I truly do believe that whether it's the economic record, whether it's standing on all of our best constitutional ideals, the courts, whether it's rebuilding our military, or whether it's standing for law and order and with law enforcement, that I believe the majority of the American people are with us and not with Joe Biden and the radical left.
	And we're going to carry that message all across this country every day between now and November 3.
	We're speaking with Vice President Pence.
	So, Vice President Pence, the President is unparalleled when it comes to characterizing his opposition.
	It's one of his specialties.
	He's one of the best in the history of American politics at boxing in his opponents and certainly labeling his opponents.
	What is the strategy with regard to Joe Biden?
	Because it seems like there have been a couple of attacks that have been tried.
	One is obviously that Joe Biden is not what he used to be.
	And then the second attack is that Joe Biden is a lot more radical than he is making it out.
	I think that, frankly, Biden is running a pretty smart campaign by staying in the basement and mouthing sort of platitudes that he thinks appeal to a broad range of Americans while sort of winking and nodding at the radical left.
	That makes it kind of hard to characterize him.
	How does the president plan on going after Joe Biden more specifically?
	Well, we're just going to talk about we're going to talk about the record, because, look, Joe Biden is a liberal, been in Washington, D.C.
	for 40 years.
	But the Democratic Party today has been overtaken by the radical left.
	And all you need to do is look at the fact that here in the middle of a pandemic, at a time when American businesses are starting to get back on their feet, people are going back to work, even as we continue to deal with the outbreaks across the sunbelt in this country.
	Joe Biden actually unveiled a plan To raise taxes by $4 trillion, raise taxes by nearly $2 trillion on American families, but $2 trillion on American businesses.
	And I have to tell you, we're going to carry that message everywhere, because at the end of the day, we're focused on two things right now in this administration, and that is saving lives.
	And opening up America again.
	It's protecting the vulnerable, making sure our healthcare workers have everything they need to meet this moment, and bringing our country's economy back.
	I mean, what the President's understood from early on, Is that it's not a choice between the health of the American people and a growing economy.
	It's a choice between health and health.
	We have to have a growing economy.
	We have to open up our country again for the health and well-being of every American.
	And that goes equally for our schools.
	You know, the president and I, I was in Louisiana just a couple of days ago.
	We're working with leaders in every state in the country, working with the CDC, to get our kids back to school.
	You know, you're a parent.
	You know, I'm a parent.
	My kids are a little bit older than yours.
	But look, we know that the risk of serious illness from the coronavirus to Americans under the age of 18 is very low.
	And with the CDC's guidance, we know that we can safely bring young people back to school, back to our college and university campuses.
	And yet we're continuing to see Democrats around the country push back on that, and we're going to keep opening up.
	So it's about talking about a plan of the radical left that Joe Biden is standing on, a platform he's standing on.
	But also, don't leave out $4 trillion in tax increases, but a little bit later today we're going to be on the South Lawn talking about all the regulations that this president has cut in the last three and a half years that have unleashed the American economy.
	Joe Biden also announced his version of the Green New Deal, literally $2 trillion in green subsidies.
	And I don't think I have to remind you or your listeners about the Solyndra deal in the last administration, $500 million down the drain in a bankrupt solar company.
	Now they want to spend $2 trillion and bring back the whole regime of cap and trade to crush American energy, crush American energy independence.
	It is a pathway toward economic downturn.
	It will wage war on economic recovery.
	And that's the message we're going to take beyond all the other issues, having to do with the culture, having to do with our ideals, having to do with the right to life, a strong military and law enforcement.
	We're going to talk about our view for the economy, that work before is working again, and Joe Biden's view that'll hold this country back through higher taxes and more regulation.
	And Vice President Pence, one other area where there's a clear point of differentiation is obviously with regard to China, where Joe Biden has a very long record of being soft on China.
	What exactly is the administration doing, given the fact that the Chinese have now essentially reduced Hong Kong back into a state of tyranny?
	And meanwhile, there's video emerging today of the Chinese literally forcing Uyghurs onto trains, which obviously brings up some rather nasty imagery from the past.
	There are over a million Uyghurs who are living in concentration camps at this point.
	What is the administration doing to counter China these days?
	No president in my lifetime has been tougher on the Chinese Communist Party than President Donald Trump.
	I mean, when we took office after eight years of the Obama-Biden administration, half of our international trade deficit alone was with China, a country that had policies like forced abortion.
	And in the years that followed, we saw the oppression of the Uyghur population, people literally being marshaled into concentration camps.
	And then in recent days, we saw them break their word, not just to the U.K., but to the world about Hong Kong.
	They made a commitment for at least 50 years that they would respect the freedom, the democracy of the people of Hong Kong, and they unilaterally changed that.
	And that's why this president has taken strong stands to impose tariffs.
	On China, the vast majority of those tariffs, even with a phase one deal we did, continue to be in effect because China has not opened up their markets yet.
	But with regard to freedom of navigation, we have a battle group, two aircraft carriers in the South China Sea, and the Secretary of State just reaffirmed our nation's commitment The freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
	We've taken a strong stand for human rights, spoken out against the oppression of the Muslim Uyghurs.
	And as you saw earlier this week, the president signed an executive order taking decisive action, changing the status of Hong Kong, which has been an economic Asset for China, because they had a separate status from China.
	He's taken dramatic steps to hold China accountable, and will continue to do that.
	All of that said, Ben, this is a president that believes in engagement in the world.
	He believes in dialogue.
	We want a better relationship with China.
	We want better for China.
	But we're going to continue to stand strong.
	We're going to stand strong for basic human liberties and human rights in China, for freedom of navigation, and we're going to stand with the people of Hong Kong.
	Well, Vice President Pence, really appreciate your time and appreciate you serving the country the way that you do.
	Thanks so much.
	Ben, it's great to be with you.
	Thanks.
	Thanks for your clarion voice on the airwaves and all across this country.
	I look forward to talking to you soon.
	Sounds great.
	Well, folks, that brings us to the end of this week's show.
	However, there are two more hours of content coming your way when you go to dailywire.com and subscribe.
	Also, make sure to pick up a signed copy of my book, How to Destroy America, in three easy steps at dailywire.com or pick it up from amazon.com.
	It comes out next week.
	You want to be one of the first to receive it.
	I think it's deeply important.
	I think that everybody should read it, not just because I wrote it, but I think it actually is a deeply important piece of work.
	Otherwise, have a great, safe weekend.
	I'm Ben Shapiro.
	This is The Ben Shapiro Show.
	The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Colton Haas, executive producer Jeremy Boring, supervising producer Mathis Glover and Robert Sterling, assistant director Pavel Lydowsky, technical producer Austin Stevens, playback and media operated by Nick Sheehan, associate producer Katie Swinnerton, edited by Adam Sajovic, audio is mixed by Mike Koromina, hair and makeup is by Nika Geneva.
	The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire production, copyright Daily Wire 2020.
	You know, the Matt Wall Show, it's not just another show about politics.
	I think there are enough of those already out there.
	We talk about culture, because culture drives politics, and it drives everything else.
	So my main focuses are life, family, faith.
	Those are fundamental, and that's what this show is about.

▲