Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool

All Episodes

Previous Next

Oct. 6, 2020 - The Ben Shapiro Show

01:01:39

Trump Returns To The White House | Ep. 1109

Large

Audio Only |

Scroll

Time	Text
	Trump returns to the White House and causes new controversy with his masking habits.
	Trump tweets optimistically about COVID and the media lose their minds.
	And Joe Biden continues to skate toward the presidency.
	I'm Ben Shapiro.
	This is the Ben Shapiro Show.
	It's how my listeners secure their internet.
	Join them at expressvpn.com slash Ben.
	Well, we will get to all the news in just one moment.
	First, wouldn't it be nice if you could just save money on all of your phone needs?
	So here is the reality.
	You are paying far too much.
	Far too much on your cell phone bill.
	If your cellular plan is with Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, you're paying way too much for the exact same coverage you could be getting right now with Pure Talk USA.
	Take a look at your cell phone bill where it shows data usage.
	The average person who switches to Pure Talk is using less than 4 gigs of data a month.
	The big carriers are charging you for unlimited data, which is like paying for an entire row on an airplane but only needing one seat.
	Well, PeerTalk will save the average person over $400 a year on their wireless service, with unlimited talk and text, and 2 gigs of data all for just $20 a month.
	And if you go over on data usage, they're not going to charge you for it.
	So exactly what do you have to lose?
	Folks, switching to PeerTalk gets very, very easy, and it's going to save you a bundle.
	Grab your mobile phone, dial pound 250, and say my name, Ben Shapiro.
	When you do, you save 50% off.
	Your very first month.
	Dial pound 250.
	Say keyword Ben Shapiro.
	Pure Talk is simply smarter wireless.
	You're going to save money on your cell phone bill.
	And frankly, you can use the money.
	So why exactly would you not go and do that?
	Dial pound 250.
	Say Ben Shapiro once more.
	Dial pound 250 and say Ben Shapiro to get started with Pure Talk USA.
	You could be saving up to half of your money on your cell phone bill.
	Okay, so big news of the day yesterday is that President Trump made his grand return to the White House, and it was a return with style.
	See, this is the thing that Trump is best at.
	He is best at the imagery.
	He is best at the sort of reality TV of the presidency.
	Now, is it always appropriate?
	No.
	Is sometimes it very, very weird?
	Sure, but the guy definitely knows how to do imagery.
	We're going to get to the imagery, the pure imagistic magnificence of the president disembarking From the helicopter and going into the White House yesterday.
	We'll get to that in a second.
	But that was actually not the first controversy of the day yesterday, if we were gonna recount controversies.
	The first controversy of the day is that Trump tweeted optimistically, and you are apparently no longer allowed to do this.
	So Trump tweeted out yesterday, I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6.30 p.m., feeling really good.
	Don't be afraid of COVID.
	Don't let it dominate your life.
	We have developed under the Trump administration some really great drugs and knowledge.
	I feel better than I did 20 years ago.
	Well, probably that has less to do with the COVID than it has to do with, you know, going like three full days without the Diet Coke and the Hot Wings.
	But with that said, when Trump says, don't be afraid of COVID, this is what set people off.
	So he is correct that you shouldn't be afraid to live your life.
	The problem is that there are a lot of people who kind of should be afraid of COVID.
	I mean, if you are above the age of 70, then this thing is pretty deadly.
	If you're above the age of 70, About 5% of people who acquire the disease above the age of 70 could die from it, which is a very high number.
	If you are 20, then you should not be afraid of COVID, and he is right about this.
	So the fear level that you have with COVID has to be tranched by population, as we have been saying from the very outset.
	This is why when you hear Scientists say things like, we can't pursue herd immunity.
	We have to stop pursuing herd immunity.
	If what you mean is we shouldn't let the virus simply run roughshod through the population and hit everybody equally, that of course is true.
	Nobody wants to see this wipe through nursing homes the same way that it did the first time around.
	If, however, you mean that we have to stop everybody who is 20 from getting COVID, that's incredibly silly.
	Because if you're 20 and you get COVID, You're gonna be fine.
	I mean, by and large, you're going to be fine.
	That doesn't mean that a few people who are under the age of 20 aren't going to die.
	Some people will, but the rate of death from COVID, you obtain COVID and you're 20 years old, your rate of death is something like one in 10,000, maybe two in 10,000.
	In other words, not the kind of risk that you take into account when you go about your daily life.
	And that's if you obtain the thing, not even if you're just walking around as a 20-year-old, because your chances of obtaining the thing as a 20-year-old are not 100% anyway.
	So should you be walking around afraid?
	Probably not.
	But everybody gets very angry at Trump for saying, don't be afraid of the virus.
	Apparently you're supposed to be afraid.
	You're not supposed to be careful and cautious, which of course is perfectly appropriate.
	You're not supposed to take things seriously, which again is perfectly appropriate.
	You're supposed to live in deep and abiding fear of the virus.
	You're supposed to walk around each day with just an inane sense of dread that this virus is going to get you and it is going to come out of the woodwork and it is going to kill you.
	And again, the stats do not back this up, generally speaking.
	Just like any other disease, it will kill some people.
	This is not the bubonic plague, however, and the death rates on this thing are not the rates of Ebola.
	So the question as to how much fear you should have on a daily basis should be connected to the data in some way, shape, or form.
	For the media, however, they have been deliberately, for months, hiding the data so that you don't actually know your relative risk factor.
	This is why polls have shown that Americans think that this thing is, like, Somewhere between 50 and 100 times more deadly than it actually is.
	Meaning if you ask the average American, out of 1,000 people who get COVID, how many are going to die?
	A lot of people are going to tell you, you know, maybe 100.
	Okay, it's not even close.
	Even for the most vulnerable subgroups of the population, it's not close to that particular number.
	So how much fear should you have?
	Depends on your risk factors.
	Depends on your age.
	But should you be walking around in deep fear every day as opposed to, you know, with a certain amount of caution?
	Of course not.
	Now, that doesn't mean that Trump himself exemplifies that caution, and herein lies the problem.
	Let's say that all the way back in March or April, Trump had done something very, very simple with the virus.
	Just to look in on sort of his messaging strategy.
	Let's say that President Trump had taken a look at the virus and he said, listen, these lockdowns suck.
	They are bad.
	They are counterproductive.
	They do not do what they are supposed to do.
	They suppress the virus for the moment, which is what they are supposed to do, but they do not crush the virus, which is what people are now saying, right?
	We gotta crush the virus with lockdowns.
	You can't crush the virus with lockdowns, which is why when the lockdowns are alleviated, literally everywhere this is tried, There is some level of community spread.
	So how exactly do you, quote-unquote, stop the virus?
	Well, either the virus is at such low levels that you can actually test and trace it and then you mandatorily quarantine people the way that they were doing in China or the way that they were doing in South Korea.
	That is one strategy, presumably.
	The other strategy is that you're going to have to let it run through particularly healthy segments of the population at a low level with social distancing, with masking, taking precautions so you don't overrun the hospital system.
	And then you move on with your life.
	And that's sort of what Sweden has done, right?
	There was some masking, a little bit, not too much.
	There's a lot of social distancing in Sweden.
	And they never shut down the schools and they never shut down the businesses.
	And now community spread in Sweden is very, very low.
	Well, with its neighbors, it is significantly higher.
	So what if Trump back in April said, listen, lockdowns, they're not a good idea.
	We shouldn't do them.
	But in order for you to get back to work, what you should do is you should socially distance and you should mask up when you're in a crowded area.
	And then we can all get back to work and we can learn to live with the virus.
	What if he had said that as opposed to this sort of back and forth on whether masks are good or not, the sort of dismissive language with regards to masks, the sort of unwillingness to abide by basic social distancing protocols?
	If Trump had done all of those things, it wouldn't have left an opening for Joe Biden, which Joe Biden is running a truck through right now.
	With that said, the media took the other side from Trump because no matter what Trump does, the media will do the opposite.
	One of the amazing things that is happening right now in the United States is that you see how the left has gone full pro-lockdown?
	Well, if you take a look at Israel, by way of contrast, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, is a right-wing Prime Minister, right?
	He's a Likud Prime Minister.
	He has pursued full-scale lockdown.
	The people who are out in the streets protesting right now are the far leftists.
	Which shows you just how reactionary politics is all the way around the world.
	In America, anti-lockdown is right-wing.
	In Israel, anti-lockdown is left-wing.
	There are some religious parties who are also anti-lockdown in Israel.
	But it does show you that the sort of reactionary sides of the political debate, they tend to react to whomever is in power as opposed to reacting to the policy itself.
	Anyway, Trump tweets, don't be afraid.
	And the media immediately go, no, no, no, we have to be super duper afraid.
	How could he say don't be afraid?
	We should all live in fear.
	We should live in abject fear of this virus.
	No, you should not live in abject fear of the virus.
	Again, you should look at your risk factors and then you should take responsible action to protect yourselves and members of your family.
	My risk factors, I'm 36.
	I have very, very minimal risk factors.
	Thank God.
	I am healthy.
	I am young.
	My parents' risk factors are more substantial.
	They're in their mid-60s.
	And my dad takes statins.
	So, for that, that means that I take precautions when I'm around my parents.
	Again, everyone can do this.
	This is not all that difficult.
	But nobody is willing to go to the halfway point.
	So, Trump says, don't be afraid.
	Which, if he were also saying, act responsibly on a regular basis, would be no problem.
	He'd be exactly right.
	Instead, he's sort of promoting this, it's not a big deal.
	Meanwhile, the left goes, not only should you be afraid, you should be super afraid.
	You should spend your life cowering in fear.
	In fact, you should be living in your basement right now, peeing into jars like Howard Hughes.
	So here's the media's reaction to Trump simply saying, don't be afraid of the virus.
	Almost 210,000 Americans are dead.
	Speaking of outrageous, this outrageous tweet.
	Oh my goodness, Nicole, when I saw that Trump, I mean, I literally was overwhelmed.
	And now we see this tweet, which is heartless, it is Cruel.
	Jake, this is so disrespectful.
	I'm not even sure I can speak about this.
	It's incredibly disrespectful.
	What does that mean, don't be afraid of it?
	I mean, first of all, it's a contagious disease that kills people.
	There's nowhere to even begin.
	It's gross.
	Okay, that is such a wild overreaction.
	That is a wild and insane overreaction to don't be afraid of COVID, don't let it dominate your life.
	What he is not saying there is run willy-nilly out into the streets and start licking telephone poles.
	Go kiss somebody with COVID.
	That's not what he is saying.
	That's what half the Democratic Party was saying in late February.
	But, you know, none of that matters at this point.
	Nonetheless, the media wish to promote a sense of panic about the virus, and that is irresponsible.
	But that is the theme.
	The theme is that Trump's messaging on this virus has not been good.
	It continued to not be particularly good yesterday.
	And the media's overreaction to the virus is not only not good, it promotes really bad public policy.
	So, it's just a mess all the way around.
	Nobody is responsible in their rhetoric, and it's really, really irritating.
	We'll get to more of this in just one second.
	First, I gotta tell you about this new service that I've been trying.
	It is just fantastic.
	I am talking about myphoto.com.
	So, on your cell phone, you have a bunch of photos, right?
	You take a bunch of photos of your kids and your family every single day, and then they just pile up there.
	And then one day you're like, you know what?
	What should I do with all these photos?
	Maybe I'll make like a photo book.
	Except that's gonna take you a year of your life.
	You know what would be amazing?
	Is if you had a service where you could literally just take your favorite photos, send them in, and then within, like, a couple of days, you would get back a beautiful, a beautiful framed photo, or a beautiful, a beautiful piece of metal, glass, wood, with your photo on it.
	This is what myphoto.com does.
	It is a fantastic company.
	Makes it super easy.
	Makes really convenient gift-giving, especially come holiday season.
	So, the other day, for example, I was looking through my photo.
	I was looking through my photo album on my phone, and I saw a picture of me and my wife and my kids.
	And I immediately sent it to myphoto.com, and now I have this beautiful acrylic cube with the photo.
	It's just beautiful.
	I mean, the colors in it are glowing.
	It's incredible.
	And it goes right on my desk.
	It is fantastic.
	Okay, it took me five seconds.
	That's how convenient it is, and it didn't cost me a fortune.
	Go check out myphoto.com right now.
	It literally takes me two minutes to do it, and then you get it in five days.
	You gotta try it right now.
	Go to myphoto.com.
	You can easily see your photo on all their products and then you can simply purchase.
	You can like preview it and see what it actually will look like.
	Use the code BEN25 at checkout for 25% off.
	Go to myphoto.com right now.
	Use the code BEN25.
	You'll see how easy and fun it is.
	It can actually be addicting.
	It's pretty fantastic.
	You can stack your entire house with beautiful photos of your family that would have been forgotten on your phone for years until Like a year from now, you'd look back and say, what did I ever do with that photo?
	The answer is nothing.
	Go to myphoto.com and use the code BEN25 to preserve that photo for all time.
	By the way, I know the founders of the company.
	It is just a like wonderful, wonderful people, people that I trust personally.
	So it's a great company with great founders, and you're going to love the product.
	Go check them out right now at myphoto.com and use the code BEN25 at checkout for 25% off.
	Okay, so that wasn't the only media insanity of the day.
	Trump's doctors announced that he would be heading back to the White House and the media lost their mind yesterday.
	Now, be it noted that normally when you quarantine, you quarantine at home.
	Okay, so Trump going back to the White House and not being stuck at the hospital, it is not the end of the world.
	He doesn't have to stay at the hospital taking up hospital resources unless he requires hospital resources.
	Shipping him back home, Is pretty much what you would be instructed to do.
	If you went in and you tested positive for COVID at the hospital right now and you were not experiencing life-threatening symptoms, they would send you home and then you would isolate in your home, right?
	That is what you are supposed to be doing.
	So here are Trump's doctors announcing that yesterday and the media losing their minds over the prospect.
	I mean, I don't know what they want here.
	They just want Trump to be in the hospital forever, I suppose.
	They would like Trump to stay in the hospital until the end of this election cycle as opposed to going back to the White House.
	They're insulted by the fact that Trump is even going back to the White House.
	Here are the doctors announcing that Trump was headed back to the White House yesterday.
	So long as everything continues on the track that we're experiencing right now, this time, as the president already tweeted out.
	Is to get him home later today.
	And if he's still on that medication, how is it safe for him to return to the White House?
	We send patients home with medications all the time.
	How is it safe for him to drive around in a cloth mask yesterday?
	And how is it safe for him now to return to the White House where there have been so many cases?
	How's any of this safe?
	Okay, so the media were very, very upset that it's deeply unsafe.
	Okay, first of all, I promise you, the Secret Service, they're wearing PPE, they're wearing N95s, they're wearing goggles, apparently, in order to transport the president.
	This was true when he went on his little car ride, his slightly ill-advised car ride, over the weekend.
	The doctor said also that he may not be out of the woods yet because you never know what trajectory the disease is going to take.
	And this was taken as evidence by the media that it was medically irresponsible to send him back to the White House for him to shelter in place.
	Again, that is true of everybody who's not currently experiencing life-threatening symptoms.
	If you don't need any sort of...
	It's been more than 72 hours since his last fever.
	The White House also happens to have some medical facilities in the White House.
	So unless you need really sophisticated medical equipment, it is Trump is like the safest person in the world sheltering in the house in which he lives.
	Here's the doctor announcing yesterday that he may not be entirely out of the woods, but we're at least comfortable sending him home.
	It's been more than 72 hours since his last fever.
	Oxygen levels, including ambulatory saturations and his work of breathing, are all normal.
	Though he may not entirely be out of the woods yet, the team and I agree that all our evaluations, and most importantly, his clinical status, support the president's safe return home, where he'll be surrounded by world-class medical care 24-7.
	Okay, so that is correct.
	That did not stop the media from losing their minds.
	Because again, no matter what Trump does, it is wrong for the media.
	If he goes to the hospital, that's wrong.
	If he comes home from the hospital, that is wrong.
	If he shelters in place, well then where is he?
	Is he safe?
	And then, if he doesn't shelter in place, then he's endangering everybody.
	That doesn't mean that Trump has been responsible throughout this.
	As we'll see, I don't think he has been.
	I mean, I've been pretty clear about that.
	But the media have been Two things can be true at once.
	Trump can be acting irresponsibly in many cases, and the media can absolutely suck at their jobs.
	So here's Brian Stelter going absolutely wild yesterday over Trump even leaving the hospital.
	Again, it is perfectly appropriate for him to leave the hospital when he is not in life-threatening condition, so long as the people around him are protected when he is in their presence.
	And then he goes back home and he shelters.
	Melania, right now, has COVID.
	She's in the White House.
	And she's sheltering in place in the White House.
	Here's Brian Stelter on CNN being a reliable source.
	It's not a real show of strength, but it's a performative show of strength.
	This is what strongmen do in autocratic regimes.
	Of course, thankfully, we are in a democracy.
	But this is the kind of thing you see from strongmen who want to appear to be leading.
	It's a dear leader sort of approach.
	And I think that is what we are seeing on our television screens.
	Meanwhile, there are big questions about the cover-up.
	You know, why won't they tell us about his testing history, when he was tested?
	We've moved from this possibly being a cover-up to actually being a cover-up.
	It's a strongman routine.
	You see him going back home.
	That is the strongman routine.
	Now, as we'll see, there is this habit that Trump has, which is the media make a criticism of him, and the criticism is utterly illegitimate.
	And then within about 35 seconds, Trump does something, you go, well, maybe it's not totally illegitimate.
	It's really irritating, right?
	The media will say, Trump is not taking masking seriously.
	And then Trump will actually take masking seriously.
	You'll be like, oh, that's unfair.
	And then five seconds later, Trump will be like, oh, a mask, they're stupid.
	God, why are you doing that?
	Why?
	Like Trump, he specializes in throwing gasoline on fires.
	He's just the gasoline on fire guy.
	Okay, so again, the media went nuts yesterday.
	CNN's Sanjay Gupta, he said he should stay in the hospital.
	Apparently forever.
	Sanjay Gupta is now his personal physician, knowing all of the intricacies of his medical condition.
	These are all the things that sort of make it pretty obvious he should stay in the hospital, and not the least of which, you know, this is a sort of illness that we know people can sort of be doing okay for a period of time.
	I don't think this is a medical decision.
	We'll see what the doctors say, as Caitlin pointed out, but I think this is his decision, and this is, you know, basically him saying, I'm going to do this.
	So I don't think the doctors, if you're just looking at the data, You're paying attention to his risk factors.
	You're paying attention to how sick he has been.
	You would advocate for this at all.
	Again, he has doctors who are treating him.
	He doesn't need Sanjay Gupta who misdiagnosed Chris Cuomo on air using a fuzzy cell phone video of a lung scan in order to tell Trump whether he can or cannot go to the hospital.
	All of this is illegitimate at this point, right?
	At this point in the narrative yesterday, this is all illegitimate.
	Trump is allowed to go back to the White House as long as people around him are shielded.
	He is allowed to go back and he is allowed to shelter in the White House until he is done with his 10-day course, right?
	That is the way that this is supposed to work.
	And then Trump actually went back to the White House.
	And again, the media doubled down on how terrible it was that he had headed back to the White House.
	So it was like, okay, Trump is not wrong.
	The media is wrong.
	Trump is not wrong.
	The media is not wrong.
	Then Trump is like, well, it's not so right what Trump is doing.
	We'll get to that in just one second.
	Everything is so stupid.
	We'll get to more of this in a second.
	First, let us talk about the fact that it's Halloween this month.
	Policy Genius would like to mark the occasion by making something less scary, life insurance.
	Shopping for life insurance, it can seem like a daunting task.
	PolicyGenius will make it easy.
	They combine a cutting-edge insurance marketplace with help from licensed experts to save you time and money.
	Right now, you could save 50% or more by using PolicyGenius to compare life insurance.
	When you're shopping for a policy that could last for more than a decade, those savings really do start to add up.
	Here's how it works.
	Well...
	First, you head on over to PolicyGenius.com.
	In minutes, you can work out how much coverage you need.
	You can compare quotes from top insurers to find your best price.
	PolicyGenius will then compare policies starting at as little as $1 a day.
	You might even be eligible to skip the in-person medical exam.
	And then once you apply, the PolicyGenius team handles all the paperwork and the red tape.
	Best part?
	They work for you, not the insurance company.
	So, if you hit any speed bumps during the application process, they'll take care of everything.
	Soup to nuts.
	So, If you need life insurance, head on over to PolicyGenius.com right now to get started.
	You could save 50% or more by comparing quotes.
	PolicyGenius, when it comes to insurance, it's nice and important to get it right.
	If you are a human with dependents, you need to make sure that your family is taken care of in case, God forbid, something should happen to you.
	Go check them out right now at PolicyGenius.com.
	There's a reason they have a five-star rating across over 1,600 reviews on Trustpilot And Google, you could say 50% or more by comparing quotes over at policygenius.com.
	Check them out right now at policygenius.com.
	Okay, so Trump finally returns to the White House.
	There's all this lead up.
	He gets on the helicopter.
	The media are complaining.
	How dare he leave the hospital?
	How dare he?
	And he has medical doctors who say he can leave the hospital.
	But you know who knows better?
	Brian Stelter and the anchors at CNN.
	And finally, Trump returns to the White House.
	And CNN promptly goes nuts over him removing his mask.
	So there were two videos originally that came out from CNN.
	First video was the one that people started to go nuts over.
	And again, this seemed to be unfair.
	Trump gets off the helicopter, he proceeds to walk up to the balcony of the White House, and then he takes off his mask for the photo op.
	And the media lose their minds over this.
	So here was Trump yesterday doing this.
	Again, in this particular video, he happens to be dozens of feet away from any other living human being and he is outside.
	Even if you have COVID, you do not need to wear a mask under those conditions.
	Okay, where you wear a mask is where you're afraid of transmitting it to somebody else.
	If I were alone on a beach in the middle of the wilderness and I had COVID, I mean, hell, if I had bubonic plague and I were alone on the beach in the middle of the wilderness, I would not need to wear a mask.
	That's stupid.
	That was the first video people were going nuts over.
	Here was Trump yesterday doing this.
	This is obviously sending a very different and incorrect message.
	And you see him here, he takes it off and he's getting ready for his pictures.
	The flags flank him.
	Right, Caitlin, this is what he did.
	This is the moment.
	This is what he produced it for.
	He wants the image to be.
	What the president is portraying by taking his mask off when he gets back to the Truman balcony to give this grand return to the White House is that everything is fine, and as he said, don't let coronavirus control your life.
	But that is very much still a president who has coronavirus.
	Okay, fine.
	So Chris Cuomo, of course, went completely nuts on this.
	He started ranting and raving about how this is BS and how the virus is reality.
	None of this is reality.
	The virus is reality.
	How dare Trump do a photo op?
	How dare he do a photo op over COVID?
	And Chris Cuomo, I just have a question.
	Here's Chris Cuomo, first of all.
	Tonight he had his video crew capture that stupid scene again so he could put out propaganda, fronting a lie to his people.
	Once again, just like, don't worry about the mask.
	Now he says, don't worry about COVID.
	Don't let it control your life.
	Just propaganda.
	That's all it is.
	I just have a question for Chris Cuomo.
	If you're going to say that it's BS to do a photo op after emerging from COVID, I'm just gonna note that you famously emerged from your basement like a groundhog in order to proclaim that you are now COVID-free after infecting your entire family and, of course, traveling outside your home.
	There are plenty of media members who have the credibility, I guess, to say something about this.
	Chris Cuomo is not one of them.
	The media went nuts over those particular images.
	Those particular images drove them absolutely batty.
	So for example, CNN's Erin Burnett, she suggested this was like North Korea.
	No, North Korea is where you take a brother-in-law and you strap him to an anti-aircraft gun and then you blow him away.
	North Korea is where you take your distant relatives who may or may not be a threat to your rule, and then you poison them in an airport.
	I'm sorry, the president going up onto a balcony and taking a picture, that is not like North Korea.
	If we're just talking about, you know, staged photo ops, Barack Obama did a fair number of them.
	That is not like North Korea either.
	It can be self-aggrandizing.
	It can be egotistical.
	It can be stupid.
	It can be arrogant.
	It is not like North Korea.
	Here's Erin Burnett comparing things that are not like North Korea to things that are like North Korea.
	What we're seeing here really looks like it's like something out of North Korea.
	The dear leader comes out right with the magnificent helicopter entrance and up the stairs and off goes the mask as he pauses, you know, and preens for the shots.
	Yeah, I was half expecting him to hold up a Bible at the end of that shot.
	Oh my god, this is your objective media.
	Journalism is getting everywhere, guys, and it's hot and sticky.
	It's just everywhere.
	Really, really gross.
	Really gross journalism.
	Joy Reid, who's a wonderful journalist in her own right, she said she was absolutely disgusted by this display.
	I'm just gonna note that this entire media was totally fine with people burning cities five seconds ago.
	Like, burning them down.
	People murdering people in the streets.
	That was totally cool because that was all for racial justice.
	But Trump got off a helicopter and stood on a balcony and took off a mask when he was dozens of feet from other people.
	Here is Joy Reid being very, very disgusted with all of this.
	I am speechless.
	I am stunned.
	I have to be honest with you, I'm disgusted by what I just saw.
	This man is contagious.
	He just exposed his Secret Service agents, who, as Nicole Wallace pointed out, are some of the finest, most professional people anyone who's ever experienced the Secret Service knows they are true professionals.
	In every moment of their job, would take a bullet for this president, not take one from the president.
	Okay, so, you know, it was terrible.
	How could he go back?
	Jim Acosta was saying as well, he said this could be patient zero returning to the White House.
	Because of course, Trump is suspected of perhaps infecting people who are around him.
	So this is patient zero returning.
	That's where he lives, guys.
	I mean, he's the President of the United States.
	I know you can't deal with that fact, but that is where he lives.
	So here is Jim Acosta being Jim Acosta.
	Keep in mind, this is not just the president returning to the White House.
	This may be patient zero.
	This is the virus coming back to the White House.
	And I will tell you, Wolf, having been here all day, it is eerily quiet and empty inside the corridors of the West Wing, with Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, testing positive for the virus, two press assistants testing positive for the virus.
	They evacuated much of the West Wing.
	Okay.
	God, Jim Acosta.
	He's just the worst.
	I'm sorry.
	Of course Kayleigh McEnany went home.
	She tested positive.
	all of those staffers have gone home.
	So forget about the emperor has no clothes.
	The emperor has no staff tonight.
	Okay.
	God, Jim Acosta, he's just the worst.
	I'm sorry.
	Of course Kayleigh McEnany went home.
	She tested positive.
	What do you think?
	She's just gonna hang around in the hallways?
	I know White House employees who are on the job and staying away from Trump because Trump is still contagious.
	Okay, so all this seems really unfair.
	You're like, why is the media doing this routine?
	He's just literally going back to the White House.
	And then the initial photos were of him getting off the helicopter and then walking up the stairs and then taking off the mask when no one else was around.
	Okay, that was the initial tape.
	And then Trump does what Trump does, which is he proceeds to go too far.
	And then it just all...
	We'll get to that in just one second.
	First, let us talk about the fact that as we grow closer to this contentious election end, we are now only three weeks away from the end of this election cycle, you need a great pair of premium wireless earbuds.
	You're into the news.
	You are consuming it with daily fervid fervor.
	This is why you need a great pair of wireless earbuds, but not the super expensive ones that are like one size fits all.
	They don't fit your ear all that great.
	You instead need wireless earbuds from Raycon.
	Raycon's newest model, the Everyday E25 earbuds, those are the best ones yet.
	Six hours of playtime seamless Bluetooth, pairing more bass, a more compact design, a noise-isolating fit.
	Raycon earbuds are stylish and discreet, no dangling wires, no stems.
	Give them a try.
	Raycon has a 45-day free return policy, so you can be sure that they are the pair of wireless earbuds for you.
	I love my Raycon specifically because they have a variety of fits, so they fit perfectly in my ear.
	For a limited time, get 15% off your order at buyraycon.com slash ben.
	That is B-U-Y-R-A-Y-C-O-N dot com slash ben.
	For a special 15% discount on Raycon wireless earbuds.
	Make sure to check it out now while the deal is running.
	Buyraycon.com slash ben.
	Get 15% off your order by going to buyraycon.com slash ben.
	Okay, so the media, they're overreacting to all of this.
	Trump said, don't be afraid.
	And they took it as he's saying you should willy nilly just go out there and obtain COVID yourself.
	Trump decides to go back to the White House.
	That is the end of the world.
	When he left the White House in the first place, that was the end.
	Everything is the end of the world.
	Then Trump proceeds to do something that apparently is incredibly unwise.
	He goes up onto the balcony and he takes off the mask.
	And then what the video shows is that he is in close Consultation with other people apparently not wearing the mask.
	And he does this in full public view.
	So it becomes pretty clear later that what he was doing was he was shooting a video in which he is backshadowed by the Washington Monument.
	We'll see that video in just one second.
	But you can see in this video that he is in very close consultation with other people.
	Again, he is contagious.
	He does have COVID.
	He's around a bunch of other people, including apparently cameramen.
	That's not responsible.
	That is not responsible.
	Okay, if you know that you have COVID, it is morally wrong to be inside a particular radius with other people without wearing a mask so that you are less likely to transmit COVID to them.
	By the way, it is no less wrong to go and do that with the flu.
	If you have a transmissible disease, and you get within a certain distance of people, and you can transmit it to them, you need to be, at the very least, wearing a mask.
	You should be protecting them.
	So Trump does that.
	And now, you've entered the territory where the media's criticisms start to look a little bit less crazy.
	It looked like they were going absolutely nuts over nothing yesterday.
	And then, Trump does that, and you see the video of it, and you're like, okay, well, Why would you do that?
	Why?
	And I understand from a lot of Trump fans, like, well, he's trolling them.
	He's trolling them.
	Well, guess what?
	The trolling is not particularly useful all the time.
	It turns out that when you keep trolling and you keep trolling and you keep trolling, sometimes people get annoyed.
	And I'm not talking about members of the media.
	I'm talking about, like, the general American public.
	I think that right now what you're watching in the poll is in the polls right now.
	And it's still early.
	Maybe there's time to make it up.
	But right now you're watching an enormous break for Joe Biden in the polls.
	There's a poll out today.
	Biden plus 16.
	There's a poll out yesterday.
	Biden plus 14.
	I know there are people who are now in the business of un-skewing the polls.
	I'm not in the business of un-skewing the polls.
	I'll tell you why.
	In 2012, many of us on the right Spent days and days going through the interior poll statistics to try and quote-unquote unskew the polls.
	What we came up with was that Romney was going to win.
	It was a much closer election than this one.
	Right now, the polls are not close.
	In the RealClearPolitics National Polling Average, Donald Trump is down nearly 10 points.
	In various states, it is significantly closer, but in Arizona, the latest poll has him down 8.
	In Florida, the latest polls have him down somewhere between 3 and 5.
	He's now trailing by a slight margin in places like North Carolina.
	Those are not the kind of numbers he needs in order to win re-election.
	So put aside the immorality of standing close to people when you know you have COVID, wearing no mask, Put that aside.
	Is it smart politics to do any of this?
	It is not, in fact, smart politics to do any of this.
	And in fact, you know, I gotta say, you know, as somebody who, maybe I take COVID a little more seriously than other people my age, maybe I take COVID a little bit more seriously than other people with my job, but the reality is, That I take COVID a little bit more seriously because I think that it's actually fairly serious.
	I don't think that it's, again, bubonic plague.
	I don't think that the vast majority of people are going to die from it.
	I'm the only person in the media, I believe, who's been spending a lot of time on a day-by-day basis talking to actual doctors, literally on a day-by-day basis on my show, trying to cite you actual statistical data from various countries and from around the world.
	I've tried to be as accurate as possible in conveying that information.
	Trump's rhetoric on this stuff has not been good, and it is coming back to bite him directly in the butt.
	Okay, so Trump cuts this video yesterday.
	And frankly, he looks pretty good in the video, right?
	He says he's standing outside the... Actually, there were three videos that came forth from the Trump campaign.
	Video number one, he talked about perhaps he was immune.
	Okay, so he's talking about how he's had COVID.
	He reiterates you shouldn't be afraid of it.
	Again, I think that the answer is you shouldn't live your life in complete fear.
	Again, I generally agree with this message, right?
	That you shouldn't live in fear of it.
	And he does look pretty good, right?
	I mean, he's standing flanked by two American flags.
	You can see behind him the Washington Monument.
	This apparently is the little video that he was taking when he was in fairly close contact with other people.
	Here was Trump talking about his experiences with COVID.
	Don't let it dominate.
	Don't let it take over your lives.
	Don't let that happen.
	We have the greatest country in the world.
	We're going back.
	We're going back to work.
	We're going to be out front.
	As your leader, I had to do that.
	I knew there's danger to it, but I had to do it.
	I stood out front.
	I led.
	Nobody that's a leader would not do what I did.
	And I know there's a risk, there's a danger, but that's okay.
	And now I'm better, and maybe I'm immune.
	I don't know.
	Okay, so number one, he is not yet immune.
	He is still in the throes of the virus.
	One of the things that's happened, I know people who have literally died of the virus, who started off, it looked okay, it looked a little worse, it looked a little better, and then it got a lot worse.
	So we're not quite out of the woods yet.
	I mean, his own doctors say we're not out of the woods.
	Trump's original message there, which is, You know, don't live in complete abject fear of the virus is the correct message.
	We don't need to lock down again.
	This is where the president's rhetoric connects to public policy.
	We don't need to lock down again.
	We shouldn't live in abject fear of the virus, right?
	Again, that original tweet, don't be afraid, was not the end of the world.
	In fact, I think that the tweet was actually not bad.
	It is the last part of what he says where you start to go, come on, right?
	When Trump says things like, as your leader, I had to go, I had to, I had to lead.
	What?
	Are you not suggesting that as the leader of the free world, as the president of the United States, you had to get COVID?
	Is that the suggestion here?
	Is that in order to show people that COVID is livable, that you had to get COVID, that you knew you were going to survive?
	So I have general moral objections to treating, quote-unquote, defeating a disease as some sort of act of willpower.
	I don't think that's actually how disease works.
	I hate it when people discuss cancer in these terms.
	You'll see people, and they get cancer, and then, if they, God forbid, die of cancer, you'll see people say, well, they lost their battle with cancer.
	They didn't lose their battle with cancer.
	Okay?
	It's not like if they'd had a better strategy, they'd win.
	Or if they'd only had more willpower to push over that final hill, then they would've defeated cancer.
	Everybody enjoys living to the extent that they've not committed suicide.
	What that means is that you are not quote-unquote defeated by the disease.
	The disease may defeat your health system, but it has not defeated you because I do not identify you with your immune system.
	Nor is it an act of willpower to defeat COVID.
	It's not as though you are morally superior should you beat COVID and you are morally inferior if you die of COVID.
	I hate this sort of language.
	This idea that Trump went out there and he was like, you know, I had to be brave so I wore no mask and I went in front of other people and we hung out together because I'm a leader.
	Like, it is not non-leadership to be cautious.
	Megan, I agree that there is a moderate halfway point between willy-nilly doing whatever the hell you want and being Joe Biden and hiding in your basement the rest of your life.
	And, you know, I get it.
	Joe Biden's 78 years old.
	He doesn't want to get COVID because, again, he is in the high-risk category.
	But there is a halfway point.
	And the halfway point is the social distancing.
	It is the mask wearing.
	And Biden, more and more, has been getting out and actually doing some of that mask wearing.
	And you're seeing him start to message this.
	This is why when Trump does the sort of triumphal procession back to the White House, here's what his attitude should have been after he got healthy from COVID.
	Thank God for my doctors.
	My doctors were excellent.
	Thank God for the medication that we have developed, the therapeutics we have developed.
	It shows that many of the policies we have been pursuing are the correct and right policies.
	Now that I have COVID, I can tell you it's a serious thing.
	I mean, he was on oxygen twice, right?
	I can tell you that it was very unpleasant.
	It was serious.
	We have a great medical system in this country.
	It is important to socially distance and mask up if we don't want to see that medical system overwhelmed.
	If you are in a vulnerable population, you should do all of those things.
	And we can get back to work.
	Instead, because Trump is Trump, he decided to treat his emergence from COVID as some sort of great moral victory for himself.
	So he put out this video yesterday.
	And I mean, frankly, like the video itself, if you saw this context-free, you'd have literally no idea what the video is celebrating.
	So the video shows Marine One landing on the lawn over at the White House.
	And I know, listen, I know this is an unpopular view on my side of the political aisle.
	I get it, but tough.
	Okay, so here's Marine One landing on the lawn.
	So Marine One comes and it lands on the lawn of the White House to the triumphal music, right?
	To the triumphal movie music.
	And then you're gonna see the president of the United States get out of Marine One and he gets that glory shot where he stands up on the balcony and he salutes.
	Again, none of this is like morally wrong in the way that the media are suggesting, oh, it's terrible and awful and no good and very bad.
	But it is strategically obtuse.
	Here's a bit of the video.
	Here's Marine One landing on the lawn at the White House in slow motion.
	you The wheels come down.
	The door opens.
	His Secret Service agents come off wearing masks.
	He comes off wearing a mask.
	And there he is walking on the lawn like a hero.
	Okay, and then he goes up to the balcony, and off comes the mask, and he salutes Marine One as Marine One flies away.
	Okay, so I'm just gonna note right here.
	First of all, I want this sort of treatment every time I successfully complete a grocery list that my wife has assigned to me at the grocery store.
	I have yet to successfully complete one of these grocery lists.
	I always forget one thing.
	In fact, before I go to the grocery store, I ask my wife, which thing would you prefer I forget?
	Because I will forget at least one thing.
	So you need to tell me which one you want me to forget.
	You don't get, I'm sorry, you do not get a triumphant return video with, like, dramatic movie music for not dying.
	This is how low our bar is in American politics.
	Trump doesn't die, so he gets a triumphant video.
	And all Joe Biden has to do to be president, apparently, at this point, is not be a dead human.
	Like, actually not be dead.
	So both of our candidates right now, their campaign is, I'm not dead.
	Which I gotta tell you, like, not the most inspiring campaign slogan.
	I survived COVID and all I got was this stupid White House.
	It's not like the most inspiring, it's not the most, or I hung out in the basement and what I got is this stupid, so now we've got, Captain, I hide in basements, and Captain, I survived COVID.
	And like, I'm sorry, what does any of this have to do with bettering the lives of the American people?
	Why exactly am I supposed to be, like, I'm super happy that Trump recovered.
	Okay, and anybody of good heart should be very happy when the President of the United States recovers from a deadly disease, and God willing, he should be healthy going forward.
	Obviously.
	I don't understand, like, just in general treatment of disease, I don't understand why we as a society treat it as some sort of act of will to defeat a disease to the point where you deserve a sort of, like, Self-glorifying video about how you fought the disease and you defeat and it wasn't just that right the Trump campaign Released a video and I understand it's supposed to be funny.
	I get it.
	Okay, and it is I mean, it's like on a raw level It's funny.
	I guess they released a triumphant video of Trump Literally tackling, like beating the hell out of, it's Trump as football player running roughshod over another football player with COVID as the head.
	It's just me, Marie, on Twitter and it's unbelievably stupid.
	But like, imagine that you are somebody who's had a family member or you know somebody who's actually suffered with COVID and didn't emerge.
	Is it because they weren't as tough as Trump?
	Is that the theme here?
	Here is Trump as a 49ers football player.
	It's Trump's head, and he's running down the sideline, and COVID tries to tackle him and he just brushes COVID off because he's just that tough.
	Oh, he just leaps right over COVID.
	Look at that.
	And scores a touchdown.
	There's President Trump.
	And then doing a funny dance.
	And then the inevitable cut of the crazy lady from 2016 screaming into the air.
	And then Trump hence make America great again.
	That came from the Trump campaign.
	That came from the Trump campaign.
	So let me just say a couple of things.
	One, on a raw level again, hilarious.
	Who is the crowd for this?
	Like, I understand.
	It's funny to me, too.
	I get it.
	It's funny.
	But is the trollery worth it?
	Because right now, that dude needs to make up 16 points in the polls.
	Like, at this point, he's got a little bit of ground to make up, particularly among everyone.
	Not particularly among, like, one group, but particularly among all the humans.
	Like right now, by issue.
	I understand I'm telling you things you don't want to hear.
	But guess what?
	Guess what?
	If you want Trump to win, he's going to need to turn a corner.
	We are running out of time here.
	It is October 6th.
	The election happens in less than one month.
	We are 28 days to the election.
	And in two national polls, he is losing by 14 to 16 points.
	Those are not the numbers.
	You show me a polling outfit that gets an election that wrong.
	I don't mean 3 to 5 points wrong like they did in the States.
	I mean nationally.
	14 to 16 points wrong?
	20 points wrong?
	And I will show you a place that literally cannot be in business next time around.
	We'll get to more of this in just one second.
	First, let us talk about the fact that a lot of businesses, unfortunately, have gone under during this time of COVID crisis.
	We've been very fortunate here at Daily Wire, not only because of you, not only because of our constituents who have helped and pitched in and really joined the team, but also because we have excellent leadership here.
	My business partner, Jeremy Boring, for as much as we make fun of him and his wispy facial hair, Jeremy has done an excellent job leading the company.
	And that is why, you know, if you're looking for some business tips, I would go to Jeremy.
	In fact, we're doing a Sunday special coming up with Jeremy, but you don't need to wait for that.
	Instead, you could take advantage of a discounted ticket to Expert Ownership Live.
	It's a virtual conference, October 21st and 22nd, featuring world-renowned leaders like John Maxwell, the founders of Duck Commander and OtterBox, the Benham brothers, and, of course, daily wear god-king Jeremy Boring.
	This two-day virtual conference will set you up with the skills you need to lead through a crisis.
	You'll hear stories about the challenges of startup journeys and the tough times that come with any company.
	How these individuals push through failure to come out successful on the other side.
	It's a great lineup.
	We'd love to have you join today for only $97.
	Go to expertownershiplive.com slash men before midnight to register for $97 with an opportunity to buy a second ticket for a friend.
	50% off.
	Come on.
	You don't want to miss Jeremy.
	Do it for Jeremy.
	Again, that's ExpertOwnershipLive.com slash Ben for 97 bucks today.
	Go right now to ExpertOwnershipLive.com slash Ben to secure your spot.
	Okay, we are going to get to the polling numbers and the fact that Joe Biden, because of Trump's behavior, because Trump needs to be front and center all the time, Joe Biden has been able to completely escape all scrutiny.
	All scrutiny, we'll get to that in just one second.
	First, in case you missed it, we had another great episode of the Sunday special this weekend.
	Academy Award-winning actor, Jon Voight, joined me to discuss his illustrious acting career, his journey to conservatism.
	Head on over to Daily Wire, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts to go check that out right now.
	And in case you didn't get enough politics last week, this Wednesday, October 7th, will be the vice presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris.
	Ooh, ah!
	Daily Wire's Matt Walsh will be the one we forced to suffer He'll be live reacting to the debate as part of a special edition of All Access Live.
	Members can join Matt Wednesday night at 8.30pm Eastern, 5.30pm Pacific at dailywire.com to live chat with him on the live stream and in the comments.
	If you're not a part of Daily Wire already, join now as an All Access member and get 20% off with code DEBATE so you can watch all of our upcoming debate coverage live at dailywire.com, Apple TV, or the Roku.
	Join us on All Access Live every single night for live stream discussions.
	You also get not one, but two leftist-tier stumblers with your membership, as well as early and sometimes exclusive access to new Daily Wire products.
	That's this Wednesday, October 7th, 8.30 p.m.
	Eastern, 5.30 p.m.
	Pacific.
	Join us.
	Get 20% off your All Access membership with code DEBATE when you sign up today.
	you're listening to the largest, fastest growing conservative podcast and radio show in the nation.
	So Joe Biden has been able to completely escape.
	Because of Trump's behavior, because Trump is the center of attention, because everything that he does has to be big and glorious and macho because it's Hector Camacho.
	Macho Camacho.
	Because he basically went out to the balcony and decided to fire machine guns in the air over defeating COVID.
	He's been able to completely monopolize the attention.
	Now, I understand that normally in a presidential race, if you monopolize attention, then you win.
	But that's because you're usually spending that time attacking your opponent and characterizing your opponent.
	Well, Joe Biden has completely avoided any and all scrutiny.
	In fact, he's made his entire campaign, at least I'm not that guy.
	And he's especially doing that with regard to masks.
	He put out literally a three second video on his Twitter feed, and it was just a graphic of Trump taking off his mask and Joe Biden keeping his mask on.
	And that was the entire thing.
	Now, again, I agree with Trump that very often what you see from Democrats and what you see from Joe Biden is mask signaling.
	You see people who are in the middle of nowhere wearing masks, right?
	They're out running.
	They're out jogging.
	They're not near anybody.
	And they're wearing masks in the middle of the heat.
	And you're like, what are you doing?
	And then people yelling at you if you don't wear a mask, if you're out in the middle of the heat.
	OK, like all of that is incredibly silly.
	But the generalized message It would only work if people had the perception that Trump was not being responsible.
	And right now, here is what the polls say.
	Hey, you don't have to like the data, but the data are the data.
	And I understand we can completely dismiss all of the data.
	We can pretend that the data don't exist or that it doesn't matter.
	We can hope against hope that the data is wrong this time.
	But I just don't know why you would stake your hopes on this when you could theoretically do things to alleviate the polling gap that exists.
	Right now, the RealClearPolitics national average has Joe Biden up 9.2 points.
	9.2!
	By way of contrast, Hillary Clinton was up 4 at this point in the national polling data.
	In the battleground states, Biden is currently leading in Florida by 2.3, in Pennsylvania by 6.6, in Michigan by 5.8, in Wisconsin by 6.0.
	All three of the battleground states in the Midwest, those are all outside the margin of error.
	In North Carolina, Biden is now leading by 1.2.
	In Arizona, he is now leading by 3.4, including a late-breaking poll in which he is leading by 8.
	These are not the kinds of numbers that Donald Trump requires, obviously.
	Quite obviously, in fact.
	And so why exactly would we be sanguine about that?
	If you want to see Biden defeated, as I do, why would you be sanguine about any of this?
	Likely voters, according to a new CNN poll, broadly prefer Biden over Trump on a number of issues.
	59% prefer Biden on COVID, over 38% for Trump.
	59% for Biden on COVID, over 38% for Trump.
	On healthcare, 59 to 39.
	On racial inequality, 62 to 36.
	On crime and safety, 55 to 43, which is insane.
	How in the world is Trump losing to Joe Antifa Biden, 55 to 43?
	I call him Antifa Biden because the guy literally refused to condemn Antifa from the stage.
	He called it an ideology or a philosophy, not a not a movement or an organization.
	52% of Americans now say they have a positive view of Biden.
	That is not because they have a positive view of Biden.
	That's because they have a negative view of Trump.
	Opinions on Biden haven't shifted one iota.
	It's just that people look at candidates in comparison to one another.
	Only 39% of Americans have a positive view of Trump.
	Likely voters consider Biden more unifying, 61 to 33.
	More honest and trustworthy, 58 to 33.
	They say that he cares more about people like you, 58 to 38.
	They say he has a clear plan to solve the nation's problems, 55 to 39.
	These stats are awful.
	Biden has expanded his edge over Trump among women, 57 to 37.
	Among people of color, Biden's advantage is now 59, I'm sorry, 69 to 27.
	I'm sorry, 69 to 27.
	So he has picked up 10 points since September.
	Among white men without college degrees, Trump's support has actually increased from 61% to 67%.
	But among all other groups, he is down and he is down heavily.
	In fact, among white voters overall, he is now trailing.
	He is now down 4% among all white voters.
	So bottom line here is that if you take seriously any of the stats, then you would think that Trump has some ground to make up.
	And here's the thing, he could make it up if he allowed Joe Biden to be the center of attention.
	All Joe Biden has been doing, his entire campaign right now, again, because he's the anti-Trump, all he's doing is just pointing at Trump and saying he's botching COVID, and then as we go into the fall and the numbers start to uptick in certain areas, he has been downplaying any success that we're seeing from the virus.
	Now, here's the thing.
	There was such an open lane for Trump here on COVID, such an open lane, and I said it in real time, so this is not 20-20 hindsight.
	I said it at the time.
	All Trump had to do was say, no lockdowns, be responsible.
	No lockdowns, be responsible.
	That's it.
	If he just said that over and over, no lockdowns and be responsible, it would have been totally okay.
	And not only that, if he said no lockdowns and be responsible means no mass gatherings, no huge mass gatherings, then when Democrats decided randomly it was okay for millions of people to go in the streets and shout and spit on each other about George Floyd, all he would have had to do is say, listen, You guys now own this.
	You proclaim that it's totally fine to do all of this in the name of racial justice.
	Okay, well, whatever spike happens, that's now on you.
	Because it is worthy of note that while people suggested that those rallies did not actually increase COVID rates, the data suggests that the rallies actually increased COVID rates.
	Shockingly.
	Shockingly.
	Who could believe it?
	Biden, however, is now going to basically stake his entire campaign on the pandemic not being over and also on how much he loves masks.
	That's now the entire campaign.
	And I understand that that creates a reactionary need on the right to say that masks are entirely bad.
	They're not entirely bad.
	The evidence on masks is mixed.
	When you're in close contact with other people, you should be wearing a mask.
	When you're on an airplane, as I recently was, you should be wearing a mask.
	By the way, Biden is now proposing policies that are already in place.
	That's how stupid we are.
	We're like, Biden's going to fix all the problems.
	Biden isn't fixing a damn thing.
	The airlines have had policies in place right now that require you to wear a mask if you are above the age of two.
	I was on a plane yesterday with my children.
	My children were wearing masks except for the little tiny baby.
	Anyway, here was Joe Biden saying the pandemic is far from over yesterday.
	He did this event in Miami.
	Since the president entered the hospital on Friday, More than 100,000, since Friday, more than 100,000 more people have been diagnosed with COVID.
	And this week, at least 5,000 more will die.
	Cases and deaths are climbing in many states.
	I hope the president's recovery is swift and successful, but our nation's COVID crisis is far, far from over.
	Okay, so again, this is going to be his campaign.
	And then he suggests we should impose a mask mandate on interstate travel.
	Okay, well, first of all, if you're talking about like airlines, they already do.
	I was just on a plane yesterday.
	They do.
	They will throw you off the plane.
	And by the way, for folks who try to resist the airlines, if you do that, they will put you on the federal watch list.
	You won't be able to fly anymore.
	So just know that going in.
	But here was Joe Biden doing that routine yesterday.
	I was glad to see the president speaking and recording videos over the weekend.
	Now that he's busy tweeting campaign messages, I would ask him to do this.
	Listen to the scientists.
	Support masks.
	Support a mask mandate nationwide.
	Require masks in every federal building and facility and interstate travel.
	Urge every governor and mayor to do the same.
	We know it saves lives.
	Okay, so again, this is what his campaign has been able to boil down to.
	And part of that is that he's been very on message, and he's been able to hide in the basement.
	And part of that's Trump's fault.
	I'm sorry, it is.
	Because guess what?
	He could have prosecuted a case against Biden.
	I've been saying since the riots, he needs to say that Joe Biden has been standing aside and letting it happen.
	And Joe Biden, in that debate, I know that we're completely ignoring what Biden said during the debate.
	In that debate, Joe Biden refused to get on Antifa, He refused to say anything whatsoever about serious racial violence in the cities, except for blaming white supremacists, oddly enough, for the violence that has been plaguing the United States.
	I mean, Joe Biden is a disaster area on this.
	And when he was asked, why don't you call up some of the heads of major cities and say crackdown on crime?
	He said, well, I'm just a retiree.
	I'm just an old retired gentleman.
	Really, are you?
	Or are you the head of the Democratic Party, as you said?
	He's been able to get away with all of this.
	He's been able to get away with gaffe after gaffe after gaffe because all the focus is on Trump.
	Hey, over the last 24 hours, Bernie Sanders again underscored the fact that Bernie Sanders says he will be literally the most progressive president ever, ever.
	Hey, nobody's looking at Joe Biden's agenda because nobody is looking at Joe Biden, period.
	And that is because of Trump's pathological need to be the center of attention, which has been a mistake since the beginning.
	I've said it one million times on this show.
	If you wish to lose this election, make it a referendum on Trump.
	If you wish to win this election, make it a referendum on Biden.
	Trump has spent zero time making this election a referendum on Biden.
	It's been all about Trump from beginning to end.
	And gotta say, that's on Trump.
	It really is.
	Here's Bernie Sanders telling the sad truth about exactly who Joe Biden is.
	It is no secret, no great secret at all, that Joe Biden and I have differences of opinion.
	But I also want to tell you that in fairness to Joe, if his campaign proposals were to be implemented, they would significantly improve the lives of tens of millions of working families,
	And would make Joe Biden the most progressive president of the United States since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
	Okay, how is that not the campaign?
	How is that not the campaign?
	But it's not the campaign.
	Right?
	It's not.
	Joe Biden is able to get away with anything because, again, there's a bigger, shinier headline right here.
	Joe Biden yesterday, in the middle of an event, suggested that he's been able to stay in his basement because black women keep the shelves stocked.
	Imagine if Trump said this for half a second and recognized just how racist it sounds.
	Here was Joe Biden saying something that certainly, if any Republican had said, it would be considered the end of the world.
	Because the American public, the blinders have been taken off.
	They've all of a sudden seen a hell of a lot clearer.
	The reason I was able to stay sequestered in my home is because some black woman was able to stack the grocery shelf.
	Why are the black women stacking the grocery shelves, Joe?
	That old doddering fool is leading Donald Trump by double digits right now.
	That guy, who's a horrible vice president, a horrible senator, a man who, in open debate, I mean, he did a town hall yesterday, and he proclaimed that he, as VP, had dealt with Cuba and Russia.
	He as VP, as part of an administration, made nice, made lovey-dovey with Raul Castro, and gave Vladimir Putin complete control over Crimea, as well as Syria.
	That guy is able to get away with it, because everybody's distracted by the shiny object, and the shiny object wants to be the distraction.
	That is unconscionable politically.
	Okay, meanwhile, Meanwhile, we are prepping this week for a vice presidential debate.
	Now, one of the strategies that I had recommended all along, it's very frustrating when you recommend a particular strategy and it is then ignored, and then the electoral gap begins to open wide.
	I mean, really open wide.
	I suggested, as soon as Kamala Harris was made the vice presidential candidate by Joe Biden, that she should be the issue.
	Now imagine for just a second if Donald Trump had done that.
	Imagine if he hadn't made the issue Donald Trump.
	Imagine if not every news cycle were about Donald.
	Imagine if he just receded to his basement and watched Shark Week and said to Joe Biden in that debate, not just talked over him for an hour and a half or had this sort of grumpy old man, Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon fish fight on the ice.
	Imagine if instead Donald Trump had said, OK, you know what, Joe?
	What you say here, your assurances... First of all, your assurances mean nothing, because you won't condemn Antifa, because you refuse to condemn Black Lives Matter violence, because you took sides.
	You literally took sides with an alleged rapist in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as opposed to siding with the police.
	You said the police should be arrested, and the alleged rapist required a phone call of sympathy from you.
	That's the case of Jacob Blake.
	Instead of doing that, instead of saying, you know, Joe, your opinion, frankly, I don't think it matters that much, because the American people know that you're probably not going to fill out two terms, and maybe not even one term.
	Instead, we should be focused on Kamala Harris.
	You know Kamala Harris has not done a single press conference?
	She has not done one press conference this entire time.
	She was nominated vice president by Joe Biden in July.
	In July.
	Right?
	At the very end of July, it was clear what was going to happen.
	Was it early August?
	It may have been early August.
	Late July, early August.
	She was nominated.
	It is now October.
	She has not done a single press conference.
	She's done a couple of interviews where she's avoided questions studiously, like the plague.
	Like, she's been as good at avoiding questions as Joe Biden has been at avoiding COVID.
	And she's been able to avoid all of that.
	How has she not been the issue?
	She is one of the most radical senators in the United States Senate.
	She is his hand-chosen successor.
	He picked her.
	He may not like her, but he picked her.
	He is not in great shape.
	He is 78 years old.
	He is doddering.
	He is stumbling over himself.
	So, theoretically, if Donald Trump had put the focus on Kamala Harris, the Pence-Harris debate might actually matter a little bit.
	Because it should matter.
	Because, by the way, Pence-Harris is significantly more representative of the ideological gap in this country than Trump-Biden.
	Trump is a non-ideological figure, and people hate him for non-ideological reasons.
	People don't hate Trump because he's a conservative.
	I mean, they do, right?
	If Trump weren't conservative, they wouldn't hate him the same way.
	But the things about Trump that they hate are not the things about his conservatism.
	What they hate about Trump is not even his policy.
	Because he's a conservative, they hate him.
	But the things that, if you ask anybody on the left why they hate Trump, they will never talk about his policies.
	They'll talk about him personally.
	The gap between Mike Pence, who's kind of traditional Republican, and Kamala Harris, who is the mainstream of the Democratic Party, is much, much more indicative of the political differences between right and left in this country than any of the kind of personality battles between slow old Joe and Donald Trump.
	So this VP debate would matter an awful lot.
	And right now, here's what's amazing.
	Despite how unpopular Trump is, and the numbers show he's very unpopular with the American people, right now Mike Pence is running dead even with Kamala Harris in the polls.
	If they were just talking about popularity, if it were just Harris versus Pence head-to-head, A little less than half of likely voters, 48%, said they would vote for Harris in a head-to-head with Pence.
	45% said they would opt for Pence.
	Okay, and that is Pence in the middle of an incredibly unpopular administration by polling data.
	So imagine if Trump, if Pence were not part of a Trump administration.
	Imagine if this election, for a second, just, you know, imagine for a second that this election were between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris.
	I think Pence wins that election, by the way.
	If this election were between Trump and Harris, and Trump had the... Here's the problem.
	If Trump had the capacity to get out of his own way, he would even win this election against Biden.
	But he can't get out of his own way.
	And so normally, this would be an excellent time for people to focus in on the VP debate.
	Because there's a high likelihood that Kamala Harris will be the 47th president of the United States if Joe Biden becomes the 46th.
	High, high probability.
	And I don't mean when she wins an election.
	I mean when he...
	God forbid something happens to him.
	I mean, again, he's 78 years old.
	So this would be a time when her campaign would be extremely, extremely relevant.
	And here's the thing.
	Pence knows that.
	And by the way, Pence is going to skunk her in the debate.
	Here's my prediction.
	My prediction is that Wednesday night, Pence is absolutely going to wreck her.
	She's going to try and separate him off from Trump.
	She's going to go after Trump.
	And Pence is going to be a good soldier, and he's going to defend a lot of the kind of indefensible things that Trump does on a personal level.
	But when it comes to policy, she's got nothing.
	Also, Kamala Harris happens to be a not very good debater.
	I know that the media are building her up to be this excellent, wonderful debater.
	She is not a good debater.
	The reason I know she's not a good debater is because she had one good debate with Joe Biden in which she levied an accusation at Joe Biden.
	And then she immediately provided zero evidence to back it up and then fell apart on the stage.
	And then Tulsi Gabbard took her apart.
	Tulsi Gabbard.
	So I think that Mike Pence will do the same thing.
	Kamala Harris is a lackluster performer.
	She's a lackluster performer.
	Here was Kamala Harris over the last 24 hours trying to imitate Joe Biden.
	She's tried to remake herself from radical Democrat, Medicare for all, racial justice, to, I'm just like Joe, you know, I'm like a moderate, you know, we're fighting for the soul of our nation.
	Broad, general nonsense that she's never asked a tough question.
	This campaign, our campaign, as Joe says, is about fighting for the soul of our nation.
	And when we talk about, when Joe talks about fighting for the soul of our nation, it's about fighting for working people.
	It's about fighting for families.
	It's about fighting for children.
	It's about fighting for health care.
	It's about fighting for good union jobs.
	It's about fighting to preserve our climate and clean air and clean water.
	She's so bad at this.
	I mean, she's so bad at this.
	And Mike Pence is going to actually push her on these issues.
	Remember that Mike Pence really wrecked Tim McCain in the last vice presidential debate.
	And it's fun to watch the media try to build her up as though she's really good at this.
	She's so bad at this.
	She dropped out of the primaries before they even voted in California.
	So that Pence-Harris debate in a normal election year, especially one where you have a 74-year-old and a 78-year-old running against each other, That would be a very relevant debate.
	Unfortunately, I wonder whether it'll be relevant at all to the polling data.
	I wish it were because I think that Pence is absolutely going to damage her in that debate.
	As well, he should.
	Okay.
	Well, we'll be back here later today with two additional hours of content.
	Otherwise, we will see you here tomorrow in preparation for that vice presidential debate.
	I'm Ben Shapiro.
	This is The Ben Shapiro Show.
	The Ben Shapiro Show is produced by Colton Haas.
	Our Technical Director is Austin Stevens.
	Executive Producer, Jeremy Boring.
	Our Supervising Producers are Mathis Glover and Robert Sterling.
	Assistant Director, Paweł Wajdowski.
	Our Associate Producer is Nick Sheehan.
	The show is edited by Adam Sajewicz.
	Audio Mixed by Mike Karomina.
	Hair and Makeup is by Nika Geneva.
	The Ben Shapiro Show is a Daily Wire production.
	Copyright Daily Wire 2020.
	Hey everybody, it's Andrew Klavan, host of The Andrew Klavan Show.
	You know, some people are depressed because the American Republic is collapsing, the end of days is approaching, and the moon has turned to blood.
	But on The Andrew Klavan Show, that's where the fun just gets started.

▲