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July 28, 2021 - The Ben Shapiro Show

49:30

F*** The CDC | Ep. 1306

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	The Centers for Disease Control unleashes a new round of evidence-free masking recommendations for the vaccinated, the January 6th commission hearings begin, and Simone Biles pulls out of the Olympics and is treated as a hero.
	I'm Ben Shapiro.
	This is the Ben Shapiro Show.
	Today's show is sponsored by ExpressVPN.
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	Okay, so screw the CDC.
	I mean, that is the short answer from me to the CDC today.
	It is amazing.
	We are now being told that the pandemic is a pandemic of the unvaccinated.
	Meanwhile, the federal government is telling the vaccinated that they need to mask up again.
	And not only do they need to mask up, they need to mask up anytime they're around somebody, or they should at least consider masking up anytime they're around somebody who is unvaccinated, which presumably means children, like my kids, under the age of 12, are not allowed to get the vaccine.
	Remember, the vaccine has still not been cleared by the FDA for full authorized use.
	It is still operating under emergency use authorization.
	Meanwhile, you have cities and states and now the federal government mandating that people take a vaccine that does not actually have full FDA authorization.
	Which means, like, so what is the purpose of the FDA authorization?
	The federal government is just crappy at everything.
	Seriously, what is the purpose of the authorization?
	If I already have the vaccine, which I do, and then the FDA...
	It's still operating under emergency use.
	And so a year from now, they're like, okay, you can use it now, right?
	It's fully authorized.
	What are you gonna do, suck it out of my arm?
	What the hell are you talking about?
	Here is the thing.
	The reason that so many people are unvaccinated right now, I think the chief reason is not because of misinformation or disinformation from particular hosts on Fox News.
	I don't think it's because of the Tuskegee experiments of the 1930s.
	I think the reason that so many people are unvaccinated in the United States right now is because our authorities cannot be trusted.
	They've said everything it is possible to say on every single position throughout this pandemic.
	Yesterday, somebody on Twitter put together a compendium of all the various things that Anthony Fauci had said on various topics, and it's astonishing.
	When you watch it back to back, it really is mind-blowing.
	You do not need to wear a mask indoors if, in fact, you've been vaccinated.
	Good that you're vaccinated, but in a situation where you have people indoors, particularly crowded, you should wear a mask.
	So even if you are vaccinated, you should wear a mask.
	If, in fact, you are vaccinated, fully vaccinated, you are protected, and you do not need to wear a mask outdoors or indoors.
	When the children go out into the community, you want them to continue to wear masks.
	You know, if you look at children outside, particularly when they're with the family, walking down the street, playing a game or what have you, don't have to wear a mask.
	OK, that is Anthony Fauci on like two issues with 87 different positions.
	And the science didn't change anywhere in there, neither did our level of scientific knowledge.
	The science has been exactly the same since we knew what this pandemic was last summer.
	And Anthony Fauci has been shifting his position on this stuff for political purposes.
	So yesterday, the CDC put out new guidance.
	And the reason they put out the new guidance, of course, is because we are seeing an uptick in the Delta variant and its transmissibility.
	We are seeing a huge number of people get it.
	But as I have been mentioning over and over and over on the program, the stats, the death stats from COVID in the United States right now, Are not that high, okay?
	I'm looking at the stats.
	Again, the seven-day rolling average of death in the United States, according to the New York Times, is 290.
	330 people a day die from Alzheimer's in the United States.
	I know that people don't want to look at the stats, but the stats are relevant here.
	Why is it that none of the people who are recommending all of these stupid, ridiculous, nonsensical guidelines ever cite the stats?
	Because the stats don't support what they're doing.
	According to the CDC's own website, they're not talking about how you need to mask up again if you're vaccinated.
	According to the CDC itself, there are 161 million people in the United States who are vaccinated.
	161 million.
	Of those 161 million people, about 6,000 have had breakthrough infections resulting in hospitalization and way fewer than that resulting in death.
	Which means that your chances of being hospitalized with COVID after being double vaxxed are approximately 1 in 27,223.
	1 in 27,223.
	And because of that, we are going to ask you to mask up.
	Because of that?
	Seriously?
	And by the way, the idea here is that the vaccinated have to protect the unvaccinated by masking up because maybe the vaccinated can still transmit it.
	Every unvaccinated person in the United States has had the opportunity to get the vaccine if they are over the age of 12 already.
	And by the way, I'm not hearing from anybody who's unvaccinated saying to me, you know, Ben, you're vaccinated.
	I need you to mask up around me.
	The people who are unvaccinated don't care.
	They're the people who don't care the most.
	If they cared, they would go get the vaccine, like right now.
	I was talking to somebody yesterday.
	He's in his 60s.
	He did not have the vaccine.
	I told him, you should go get the vaccine.
	You are in the age group that is most likely at this point to die from COVID.
	If you're unvaccinated, you should go get vaccinated.
	He wasn't asking me to mask up in his presence.
	He wasn't afraid of me because I'm vaccinated.
	And frankly, if you were afraid, you would have gone and gotten the vaccine anyway.
	So what the hell are we talking about?
	The data do not back this stuff.
	But this is the distinction.
	I talk about it in my new book, The Authoritarian Moment.
	The distinction between the science, trademark, and actual science.
	Actual science is a process where you follow the data and then you draw conclusions based on the data.
	The science is we will radically shift our standards based on whatever is in the air at a given moment.
	The Delta variant is creeping up.
	Well, I guess we all have to mask up again.
	Or alternatively, you could declare that your job here is done.
	Because guess what?
	Your job here is done.
	On a public health level, you have no more things to do.
	You've made the vaccine available to everyone in the United States.
	There are corporations that are already mandating that their people get vaccines, which probably is legal.
	You have states and localities that are mandating their employees get the vaccine.
	That probably is legal.
	I don't think it's a good idea, but that is legal, presumably.
	What else are you supposed to do?
	The answer is nothing.
	But the CDC is going to continue promulgating messages that make no sense and, by the way, dramatically undermine the willingness of people to get the vaccine.
	Why would I get the vaccine if I'm being told by the CDC it's not that effective?
	I mean, that's really what they're saying.
	It's not that effective because you could theoretically get a breakthrough infection.
	Not only that, you don't get to unmask.
	You have to keep the mask on forever.
	So I'm going to read you the new CDC guidelines, okay?
	Because these make no sense at all.
	They are not based on new data.
	They're not based on new knowledge.
	You know, Anthony Fauci says, well, you know, all of my conflicting statements over the past year and a half, all that's been because, you know, is because, well, with this new data.
	No, there is not.
	The data has been the same four months.
	And if the data changed, why don't you give me the data?
	But you're not.
	You'll never see Rochelle Walensky get on TV and then say, you know what the data said three months ago?
	It said A. Now it is saying not A and therefore we have changed our guidance.
	They never cite the underlying data because you're supposed to listen to them because they have a doctor before their name.
	It is that simple.
	So here's what the CDC is now saying.
	The following recommendations apply to non-healthcare settings.
	Fully vaccinated people can participate in many of the activities they did before the pandemic.
	For some of these activities, they may choose to wear a mask.
	They can resume domestic travel, refrain from testing before, after travel, and from self-quarantine.
	After travel, they can refrain from testing before leaving the United States for international travel, etc., etc.
	And here's where things begin to change.
	Infections happen in only a small proportion of people who are fully vaccinated, even with the Delta variant.
	However, preliminary evidence suggests that fully vaccinated people who do become infected with the Delta variant can spread the virus to others.
	Which is not a shock, right?
	If you have a breakthrough infection, then presumably you're infected and you are now transmissible.
	To reduce their risk of becoming infected with the Delta variant and potentially spreading it to others, CDC recommends that fully vaccinated people wear a mask in public indoor settings if they are in an area of substantial or high transmission.
	Okay, so even though, again, your chances of being hospitalized or dying from the virus, if you are fully vaccinated at this point, are somewhere around 1 in 27,000.
	They're recommending that if you go into a public area in a substantial or high transmission region of the country, that you should mask up even if you're vaccinated.
	Now, I want to show you a map.
	This is a map of what the CDC considers to be a substantial or high transmission area.
	The map I'm about to show you, you'll notice every area that is red or orange is substantial or high.
	Substantial counts as 50 to 100 cases per 100,000 people over the course of seven days.
	High is more than 100 cases.
	As you can see on this map, This is like the whole country, right?
	There are areas of the Northeast where there's low transmissibility.
	There are certain kind of rural areas of Montana and Wyoming and New Mexico where you have less transmission.
	Pretty much everywhere else is a substantial or high transmissibility area, which means that the CDC is effectively recommending mask mandates in public areas for two-thirds of the country.
	No!
	Are you insane?
	The hell are you talking about?
	Fully vaccinated people might choose to mask regardless of the level of transmission.
	Particularly if they or someone in their household is immunocompromised or at increased risk for a severe disease.
	Or if someone in their household is unvaccinated.
	So there are a couple ways to read that.
	And one is, they're saying, you know, you might, that's like a good idea.
	You might choose to mask because you wouldn't want to transmit this to somebody who's vulnerable or unvaccinated.
	Hey, you know what's a subgroup in the United States that's unvaccinated?
	Every human being under the age of 12 in the United States is unvaccinated because this has not been cleared for FDA authorized use, even under emergency use authorization for kids.
	So what they're actually recommending at this point is that you might consider, if you are vaccinated, putting on a mask when you are in the presence of your child.
	That's what they seem to be suggesting here.
	Again, fully vaccinated people might choose to mask regardless of the level of transmission if someone in their household is unvaccinated.
	Now, you could say, well, maybe the CDC is saying that you should mask up in public so you don't come home and transmit it to your 12-year-old.
	But again, if you're really afraid that you've got it and that you're transmitting it, then you should be masking up around your 12-year-old.
	Yeah, I'm not doing any of that crap.
	What are you talking about?
	By the way, the number of kids, according to the CDC, I'm quoting their own statistics at them.
	According to the CDC, the number of children under the age of 18 who have died in the United States as of yesterday was 337.
	A vast number of those children had serious underlying conditions.
	That means that of a subpopulation in the United States of 75 million people, 337 have died.
	And you're talking about people masking in the presence of their children, apparently, according to the CDC.
	They also say you're supposed to get tested if you're experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
	Okay, well, even that is kind of wild, considering that COVID-19 symptoms are everything.
	I've had a cold for the last couple of days.
	I've not gotten tested for COVID, because even though runny nose is a symptom of COVID, I've been vaccinated, the chances that I have a breakthrough infection from COVID are extremely low, and I have no other symptoms.
	They're saying, presumably, that I should go get tested right now.
	No, I don't have COVID.
	And even if I do have COVID, go get vaccinated yourself.
	Get tested three to five days following a known exposure to someone with suspected or confirmed COVID and wear a mask in public indoor settings for 14 days after exposure or until a negative test result.
	So now the suggestion is, somebody in our office was diagnosed with COVID.
	The suggestion is I was vaccinated.
	I am now supposed to get tested three to five days following a known exposure and wear a mask for 14 days after exposure.
	I'm not doing any of that crap that is unsupportable by data.
	There is no reason to do that.
	What in the world are you talking about?
	The vaccinated are not the method of transmission.
	The vaccinated are not passing this along in vast numbers.
	The government has no business here.
	There's no limiting principle.
	If what the government is saying is that you could get a transmissible disease and pass it along to anybody, that is always true forever.
	It is true for the flu.
	It is true for the cold.
	It is true for pneumonia.
	It is true for literally any transmissible disease at all times.
	We should all wear masks forever and ever.
	And then they say we're supposed to isolate if you've tested positive for COVID-19 in the prior 10 days or if you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
	So if I have a cold, I'm supposed to isolate for 10 days.
	What the hell was the purpose of getting vaccinated if this is the case?
	I don't know what the hell the purpose is.
	Really, like, I was young.
	You know, I am young.
	I'm 37.
	The chances that I'm going to die of COVID are very low.
	One of the reasons I got vaccinated is to go back to my regular life.
	I'm not going to deny statistics by following the CDC.
	These people are so bad at this.
	They're so bad at this.
	Even David Leonhardt of the New York Times, who's been a rather large-scale rule follower on a lot of this stuff.
	Even David Leonhardt is like, what the hell are they talking about?
	This makes no sense at all.
	This is absurd.
	It's absurd and it's self-defeating.
	If you want to encourage people to take the vaccine, you are doing precisely the opposite right now.
	Like exactly the opposite of what you ought to be doing.
	We'll get to more of this in just one second, because it is maddening.
	The CDC does not deserve your trust.
	They have not performed in able fashion anywhere along the line here.
	They've been highly politicized throughout the pandemic.
	The data have not changed, but they've changed their opinion multiple times.
	And again, the new principle seems to be that if you are the rare person with a vaccine who is capable of receiving and being infected by and transmitting the disease, on the basis of that, hundreds of millions of people should mask up In a time, by the way, when, again, we are suffering low hundreds of deaths in the United States from COVID, despite tens of thousands of diagnosed cases.
	Madness.
	We'll get to more of this in just one second.
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	Alrighty, so our trusted public health experts trotted out these asinine new restrictions yesterday.
	CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, again, utterly untrustworthy.
	This is a person who drew up guidelines with regard to schools at the behest of the teachers' unions, a highly political figure, Here is CDC Director Walensky announcing new restrictions for the vaccinated.
	As CDC has recommended for months, unvaccinated individuals should get vaccinated and continue masking until they are fully vaccinated.
	In areas with substantial and high transmission, CDC recommends fully vaccinated people wear masks in public, indoor settings to help prevent the spread of the Delta variant and protect others.
	Now, there is no evidence that the vaccinated are the chief method of transmission.
	And there's no limiting principle here.
	Because again, any person could theoretically be a transmission vector.
	This is the same logic that the CDC has been using on masking of children.
	Children are not the main vector of transmission for this disease.
	Particularly small children.
	And yet the CDC has been recommending that kids have to get the vaccine.
	Why?
	Because we have to protect the adult teachers who are fully capable of getting the vaccine but have decided not to.
	40% of school teachers in New York City have not gotten the vaccine at this point.
	Why should you mask up your three-year-old who's not going to die from COVID?
	Again, statistically speaking, the chances of a child dying are vanishingly low.
	The amazing amount of gaslighting that is going on with regard to these stats, it truly is an amazing thing.
	I don't think I'm ever going to get over that clip yesterday from Allison Camerata and Victor Blackwell browbeating a St.
	Louis area mayor, saying people are dying in St.
	Louis County.
	And then you look up the stats and one person a day is dying in St.
	Louis County from COVID-19.
	The stats are shockingly, shockingly low in places like New York State, where again, as of yesterday, the day-on-day average of death from COVID-19 in the entire state of New York, that is a state of 19 million people, the day-on-day average, as of yesterday, was four.
	Okay, like, I don't know how you can justify masking up hundreds of millions of people on this basis.
	But they continue to push this crap forward.
	Here's Rochelle Walensky saying that we need vaccinated K-12 students to mask inside and outside as well.
	CDC recommends that everyone in K-12 schools wear a mask indoors, including teachers, staff, students, and visitors, regardless of vaccination status.
	Children should return to full-time in-person learning in the fall with proper prevention strategies in place.
	Finally, CDC recommends community leaders encourage vaccination and universal masking to prevent further outbreaks in areas of substantial and high transmission.
	Substantial and high transmission, as I mentioned, amounts to about two-thirds of the land area of the country.
	This is insane.
	I mean, utterly crazy.
	Disconnected from reality, it's about control.
	It's the Center for Totalitarian Control, not the Center for Disease Control.
	This is a Center for Totalitarian Control.
	They have no rationale.
	I can't explain it to you.
	When it comes to parenting, there are a couple of Sort of styles of parenting that people talk about.
	There's permissive parenting, where you let your kids do whatever they want.
	And then there's authoritarian parenting, and that is where you set rules, but you don't explain the rules to the kids.
	The answer is because I said so.
	And then there's authoritative parenting, which is where you set the rules for the kids, but you explain the rules to the kids so they know that you're doing what you're doing for a reason.
	The CDC is authoritarian in this way.
	They are not authoritative.
	And because they're not authoritative, just authoritarian, people aren't listening to them.
	And they shouldn't be listening to them because this is insane.
	Again, no limiting principles here.
	None.
	Is there any end point?
	At what point do you say, okay, kids can take off the masks?
	According to this calculus, the answer is never.
	At what point do you say that the vaccinated can take off their masks?
	According to this calculus, the answer is never.
	Because if I tell you that one in 27,000 people are getting hospitalized or dying from COVID after being vaccinated, and you say, then you should probably mask up, what does that stat have to be?
	One in a million?
	One in two million?
	Like, what the hell are you talking about?
	So what is the real excuse?
	It's always excuse-making.
	It's just excuse-making for more control.
	So the new excuse is, well, you know, sure, these vaccines have demonstrated that they are extremely durable against the Delta variant, thank God.
	And we demonstrated that we now know how to make mRNA vaccines for a wide variety of variants, presumably.
	But, Rochelle Walensky says, you know, we might have to mask up forever because, you know, there is the possibility that there could be another variant that crops up here.
	Okay, so in other words, because of a thing that might happen but has not and that you have no way of preventing, your recommendation is that we actively change every aspect of our lives now based on a possibility that you cannot possibly risk assess.
	I'm sorry.
	What?
	Who died and made you queen?
	Who?
	Here's Rochelle Walensky.
	The largest concern that I think we in public health and science are worried about is that virus and the potential mutations away we are from a very transmissible virus that has the potential to evade our vaccines in terms of how it protects us from severe disease and death.
	Right now, fortunately, we are not there.
	These vaccines operate really well in protecting us from severe disease and death.
	But the big concern is that the next variant that might emerge, just a few mutations potentially away, could potentially evade our vaccines.
	Okay, well if that is the case, then I suppose that we're going to be wearing masks forever and we should just resign ourselves to it.
	Because guess what?
	This disease is not only out there, it is out there in every major country.
	It has spread throughout the population extremely fast, and there's no way we're going to stop that.
	So I guess that we're just going to have to mask up forever, and we should resign ourselves to the total and utter control of the CDC forever, despite the fact that these vaccines have been wildly successful, despite the fact that this should be a triumph of public health.
	Now our public health experts are, in fact, just totalitarian dictators.
	That is all they are at this point, because they don't even try to explain what they're doing.
	Here's Jen Psaki trying to explain yesterday, just completely failing.
	I know this is slightly awkward timing, and I know there's a lot of reporting out there about the CDC guidance.
	It is not only appropriate for them to make the decisions, it's also appropriate for them to officially announce their own guidance.
	I will say, though, that how we view this, as you asked about, Alex, implementation of their guidelines that they'll outline on a call with all of you later this afternoon, that we are still in the midst of a once-in-a-generation pandemic battling an ever-evolving virus.
	Okay, so in other words, we don't have any data to back this, but scary, scary, scary, pandemic scary, virus scary.
	Man, stop treating, stop treating your politicians, stop treating your public health experts as though they're infallible, infallible godly figures, deities bringing you truth from on high.
	They're not.
	They're generally incompetent bureaucrats who suck at their jobs.
	In just one second, we'll get to more of this, because it really is an amazing thing.
	And the level that people are willing to give up control to these people is truly amazing.
	We'll get to more of this in a second.
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	Okay, and guess what?
	The CDC, our public health experts, they're going to get more and more and more restrictive and dictatorial.
	This is what they are going to do.
	They have felt the Yes, that's a very uncomfortable image.
	But this is what they are doing.
	They're just going to continue this.
	It's not going to stop.
	There's no limiting principle ever.
	Emergencies are an opportunity for these folks, apparently.
	At the same time that the White House is saying that the real threat right now is the unvaccinated.
	They're telling all the vaccinated they need to mask up.
	The White House today put up a sign saying that everyone needs to mask up coming into the White House again.
	Here's the White House saying that nearly all hospitalizations and deaths are among the unvaccinated.
	They put up a graphic on WhiteHouse.gov Quote, virtually all hospitalizations and deaths are among unvaccinated people.
	In Florida, officials have said more than 95% of those hospitalized were not vaccinated.
	In North Carolina, that number is 99%.
	In Colorado, that number is 96%.
	In Ohio, that number is 99%.
	So why are we focusing on masking up the vaccinated?
	And the answer is they want control.
	They just want control.
	Leanna Nguyen has been a real top-down control freak throughout this pandemic.
	She's on CNN.
	Getting her expertise all over the place.
	Here we go.
	Before, the CDC said that if you're vaccinated and you're exposed but you don't have symptoms, you don't need to be tested.
	You don't need to be quarantining.
	Right now, the CDC is essentially admitting, we don't really know.
	With the Delta variant, if you are exposed to it, we don't know what is the likelihood that you could be asymptomatic, still carrying the virus, and be able to transmit it to others.
	And so they are recommending, in that case, that people should be testing and quarantining.
	So if you now are vaccinated, the purpose of the vaccine is that you're not going to get infected or that if you do get infected, you're not going to be hospitalized and you're not going to die.
	And now they're reshifting.
	Now, if you're exposed to someone who has COVID, you're supposed to quarantine just as if you're unvaccinated.
	Absolute madness.
	Absolute madness.
	What's the purpose of the vaccine?
	This is the case, guys.
	What is the purpose of the vaccine?
	And yet at the same time, they're saying that the vaccine is essentially purposeless.
	Joe Biden is pushing a mandate for all federal employees.
	He did this yesterday.
	Will you require all federal employees to get vaccinated?
	That's under consideration right now, but if you're not vaccinated, you're not nearly as smart as I thought you were.
	And by the way, I love that he's constantly insulting journalists and they just take it.
	You're not nearly as smart as I- If you don't get the vaccine, you're not as smart as I thought you were.
	Great, great.
	What if I'm listening to you guys and what I keep hearing is that the vaccine is less effective than you guys keep saying it is?
	You're conflicting messages out of the problem here.
	Our public health... Like, they've literally taken the only institution in American public life, namely scientific institutions, and they've perverted them and destroyed them.
	I do talk about this in my book, The Authoritarian Moment.
	Every major institution that has earned the trust of Americans has been perverted by the left and then used as a weapon.
	To the point where now, med schools, according to Katie Herzog, writing for Barry Weiss's Substack, are now denying biological sex.
	Not kidding.
	According to Katie, during a recent endocrinology course at a top medical school in the University of California system, a professor stopped mid-lecture to apologize for something he'd said at the beginning of class.
	The physician says in a recording, quote, I don't want you to think I'm in any way trying to imply anything.
	And if you can summon some generosity to forgive me, I would really appreciate it.
	Again, I'm very sorry for that.
	It was not my intention to offend anyone.
	The worst thing I can do as a human being is be offensive.
	Is that the worst thing you can do as a human being?
	What did this person do?
	This doctor used the term pregnant women.
	Quote, I said, when a woman is pregnant, which implies that only women can get pregnant.
	And I most sincerely apologize to all of you.
	Medical school professors are now apologizing to their students for using the terms of male and female.
	I'm sorry.
	No one's going to trust medicine now.
	No one's going to trust science.
	This is what you guys have done.
	You've politicized science, and then you're shocked when people don't listen to you.
	You can't undermine your own credibility forever without there being consequences to that.
	The consequences are coming.
	By the way, I think Democrats think that they're going to get a net win out of shutting down again because there's an almost pagan fervor for shutting down and masking and lockdowns and zero COVID and all of this.
	I think they're going to get a rather large surprise.
	In St.
	Louis County, the board of supervisors over there just voted 5-2 to ban mask mandates.
	That board is fairly evenly split.
	A couple Democrats voted with the Republicans on that board.
	And St.
	Louis County is one of the quote-unquote hotspots.
	Americans are not up for this.
	We've been doing this for well over a year at this point.
	We are not up for the CDC changing its standards every day to determine what we can and cannot do in our everyday lives, when again, we are now, if you're vaccinated, you are extremely safe from death and hospitalization from this virus.
	It's maddening.
	It's just maddening.
	Okay, in just one second, we'll get to the January 6th commission.
	A lot of dramatics.
	Yesterday, a lot of theatrics.
	Yesterday, we'll get to that in just one second.
	First, let us talk about the fact that since the pandemic started, 20% of homeowners have refied their homes.
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	Why wouldn't you save hundreds of bucks a month if you could?
	Head on over to AmericanFinancing.net to get started right now.
	Again, that is AmericanFinancing.net, or give them a call at 866-721-3300.
	That is 866-721-3300.
	Now, quick reminder, I'm thrilled to announce my book, The Authoritarian Moment, brand new.
	It is now on sale.
	It is available everywhere.
	Books are purchased.
	The book covers an in-depth look at how the left is taking control of our institutions, from the scientific institutions, to entertainment, to education centers, even our relationships.
	For example, our great nation's leader is now entertaining the idea of requiring vaccines for all federal employees, and the CDC is recommending that all vaccinated folks wear masks, and Gavin Newsom is the first to adopt it.
	Not even creeping.
	The galloping authoritarianism that we are now seeing is a symptom of a broader authoritarian movement in our society.
	That's what I talk about in the book.
	It's time to fight back by reading up on the truth and then organizing.
	The Authoritarian Moment is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or any other major bookseller.
	Go get your copy right now.
	Leave a five-star review to let others know this book is worth their time.
	I thank you for doing that.
	Also, I hate saying this, the world is not okay.
	Governments all over the world, including ours, are trying to squeeze their citizens out of every last drop of freedom and unfortunately, they are succeeding.
	That is why it's time for your favorite voices of reason to get together and discuss how we can stop this anti-freedom communist ideology from spreading into the place we call home.
	Join me, Matt Walsh, Jeremy Boring, Michael Knowles, and Andrew Klavan with a special appearance from Candace Owens tonight for an extra exciting cigar-packed session of Backstage.
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	♪♪ Alrighty, well, yesterday also featured the beginning of the January 6th commission, the long-awaited January 6th commission.
	And everybody on all sides basically acknowledges that this is political.
	What I mean by that is that we're not uncovering any new information.
	And yesterday didn't uncover any new information.
	We had a bunch of Capitol Police officers.
	The police are good again.
	That's exciting.
	I mean, honestly, like, I'm glad about this.
	The left has decided that the cops are good again, as long as the cops are being assaulted by people who are purportedly right-wing.
	If the cops are being assaulted by Black Lives Matter protesters, literally by the hundreds, If that is happening across an entire summer, the cops are all systemically racist and bad and kind of have it coming.
	If, however, the cops are assaulted by a bunch of right-wing droogs, then the cops are good.
	Again.
	Which is really exciting news.
	Now, the January 6th Commission is not designed to actually elicit new information.
	All it's designed to do is focus in on how bad January 6th was.
	And what the left is seeking to accomplish via this, I understand.
	You know, I understand what Democrats are doing.
	They are trying to keep January 6th front and center.
	They are trying to smear everybody who is of conservative bent with January 6th by saying that they're okay with it.
	Or that it was fine, or that they voted for Trump and therefore they're responsible for it.
	I think that Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, I think the reason they're doing this is because they believe that Trump needs to be purged from the party.
	And so if they somehow go along with this commission, this will separate Republicans off from Trump, not understanding that in the reactionary way our politics works is precisely the opposite.
	That the more time you spend talking about Trump, the more people on the right are going to glom onto Trump, no matter his various heresies.
	In any case, Commission hearing yesterday was not particularly newsworthy.
	It just wasn't.
	I'm sorry, it's not news when people talk about things that we've known for months.
	It's not news when you explain what you felt while a video that we've already seen was happening.
	There's nothing new there and yet it was treated with blanket wall-to-wall coverage.
	Again, at least the Benghazi hearings were an attempt to get Hillary Clinton to testify.
	She was a major political figure.
	She was the Secretary of State.
	She could talk to policy.
	Those were actually at least somewhat newsworthy.
	These hearings, I just don't understand what the point is.
	Are we uncovering anything new?
	They're talking to police officers about their feelings.
	Well, I am very sympathetic to the feelings of the police officers.
	I just don't understand what exactly is new here and what really is a stage for Democrats to grandstand.
	So Liz Cheney led this thing off.
	She said, you know, we should really be taking this seriously because do we really hate our political adversaries more than we love our country?
	Again, no.
	But the question is, do Democrats?
	Meaning, a little perspective here is necessary.
	January 6th was really ugly.
	The stuff that Donald Trump said between November 4th and January 6th about the election was almost entirely not true.
	With that said, I'm not seeing a lot of love coming from the Democratic side of the aisle for Republicans when this entire commission is almost overtly designed to malign the entire Republican Party as complicit in January 6th.
	Here's Liz Cheney going along with that.
	The question for every one of us who serves in Congress For every elected official across this great nation, indeed for every American, is this.
	Will we adhere to the rule of law?
	Will we respect the rulings of our courts?
	Will we preserve the peaceful transition of power?
	Or will we be so blinded by partisanship that we throw away the miracle of America?
	I have a question.
	When was the miracle of America thrown away?
	Vice President Pence presided over the certification of the election.
	The idiots who ran into the Capitol building have all been arrested.
	They're going to jail.
	By the way, whenever I see the media do this routine about how this is the worst attack on the Capitol since 1812, the Capitol was bombed a few times during the 60s.
	Like, the Senate building was bombed during the 60s.
	So, I have some questions.
	I have some questions.
	Adam Schiff, who...
	If you wanted this commission to be taken seriously, you would not put the clown that is Adam Schiff on stage.
	Adam Schiff is a clown.
	He's a clown who pitched a pump tent outside of the green room of CNN and left it there for four years proclaiming that just around the corner lurked all of the information about Donald Trump's Russian collusion.
	And now he's out there trying to proclaim that January 6th was the worst thing that has ever happened to the country and ginning up some tears for the purpose.
	There's a lot of crying yesterday in this commission hearing.
	And I got to say, I'm pretty consistent on this.
	I'm not a big fan of politicians crying.
	I just don't think that it's a thing.
	I don't think that, but that's because I don't think politics is generally a place for performative empathy.
	I think politics is a solution driven business or should be.
	I'm not seeing a lot of solutions.
	I am seeing a lot of emotion.
	And if we're so driven by bigotry and hate that we attack our fellow citizens as traitors, if they're born in another country where they don't look like us.
	And God help us.
	But I have faith because of folks like you.
	I'm sorry, I don't believe politicians generally speaking, right or left, when they do this routine.
	And I certainly don't believe Adam Schiff, who I think is a congenital liar.
	So, no, I don't buy it.
	I'm sorry, I don't buy the emotion.
	There.
	I don't.
	You've had every opportunity to figure out what you're going to say and what you come up with is that?
	All right.
	Okay, so then we had a bunch of Capitol Police officers describing the events in very colorful ways.
	And listen, I'm not going to doubt the accounts of the police officers.
	They did say one of the police officers said something that wasn't true, said that Brian Sicknick was killed on site.
	That, of course, is not true.
	But I'm not going to doubt the experience of police officers who got beaten up trying to defend the Capitol building.
	But again, I will note the Democrats are very sympathetic toward a particular type of police officer, depending on who does the beating.
	I'm sympathetic to these police officers because I'm sympathetic to all police officers trying to stop criminality.
	But these police officers got fairly political yesterday, and I think there's a reason the Democrats were very happy to call them to testify.
	Here's Capitol Police Officer Michael Fanone yesterday.
	What makes the struggle harder and more painful is to know so many My fellow citizens, including so many of the people I put my life at risk to defend, are downplaying or outright denying what happened.
	I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them and the people in this room.
	But too many are now telling me that hell doesn't exist or that hell actually wasn't that bad.
	The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful.
	Okay, so that makes for a good TV.
	I'm wondering what the indifference is.
	Like, really, who's totally indifferent about January 6th?
	Are there lots of people who are indifferent about it?
	Or are there people who are saying January 6th was horrifying and terrible, and the people who are the criminals should go to jail?
	And also, that riot, which it was, is no different in content than the riots of BLM over the summer, and treating it as some sort of radical outlier, as opposed to another act of criminal activity, is blowing this thing out of political proportion.
	For political purposes.
	I don't blame him for feeling angry about this sort of stuff.
	But I am going to say that I think the Democrats are putting this thing together for a reason and I think that CNN is getting what they want out of it, obviously.
	Capitol Police Officer Daniel Hodges then described the events as well.
	Again, I'm fine with all these people testifying.
	I'm just wondering when we get the testimony of all the police officers.
	I mean, I know police officers who were literally hit with bricks during the BLM riots.
	Not one of them will have their face shown on TV by any of these networks.
	One counter-protester, a black man, was backpedaling away from a white man in a Trump-labeled face mask, who was closely following him with an outstretched arm.
	Myself and my colleague first arrived and physically separated the two, but a crowd of Donald Trump's people had gathered.
	They attempted to bait the counter-protester into attacking, shouting insults such as, your mother's a whore, and accusing him of hiding behind the cops.
	Cut off from our leadership, which was at the front of our formation, we huddled up and assessed the threats surrounding us.
	One man tried and failed to build a rapport with me, shouting, are you my brother?
	Another takes a different tack, shouting, you will die on your knees.
	Yeah, I mean, that's ugly and horrifying and worthy of, worthy of remembering.
	Is it a transformative moment in American politics?
	I'm not sure why precisely it should be, considering, again, the goals of the protesters, not protesters, the goals of the criminal rioters were not met.
	In fact, they were completely rejected and those people are going to end up in jail.
	And then you have police officers who are drawing political conclusions.
	You have Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who called Trump a hitman, said that Trump was a hitman.
	Now, again, testifying outside the area of expertise, I think, would be the best way to put this.
	What I ask from you all is to get to the bottom of what happened.
	And that includes like, I echo the sentiments of all the other officers sitting here.
	I use an analogy to describe what I want is a hit man.
	If a hit man is hired, and he kills somebody, hit man goes to jail.
	But not only does the hit man go to jail, but the person who hired them does.
	There was an attack carried out on January 6.
	And a hitman sent them.
	I want you to get to the bottom of that.
	Okay, so Trump apparently sent these people, right?
	Now we are beyond the scope of what these officers know, or have an ability to know, of course.
	But that's not the point.
	The point is, what can they say on TV?
	And because they're police officers, you're supposed to just take, at face value, their political analysis.
	I'm willing to take at face value their experiences that day, obviously.
	I have no reason to doubt it.
	It's on tape.
	Also, I generally trust police officers when they testify about what they have experienced.
	But I don't see that they have any specific credibility when it comes to how things went down regarding the activities of the White House or whether Trump was somehow organizing with the people who invaded the Capitol building.
	But again, this was the real point of the January 6th commission in the first place.
	Capitol Police Officer Aquilino Ganel did the same thing.
	He said Trump created this monstrosity.
	You hear former President Trump Say, quote, it was a loving crowd.
	There was a lot of love in the crowd.
	How does that make you feel?
	It's upsetting.
	It's a pathetic excuse for his behavior for something that he himself helped to create.
	This monstrosity.
	I'm still recovering from those hugs and kisses that day that he claimed that so many writers Terrorists were assaulting us that day.
	If that was Hoxton Kissett, then we should all go to his house and do the same thing to him.
	Oh, great.
	Yes.
	Excellent.
	All right.
	Meanwhile, by the way, Harry Dunn, the second-to-last officer that we discussed a moment ago, he actually suggested that because people mistreated him, this is all of America.
	This is political, guys.
	If it was supposed to be not political, if it was just supposed to be about uncovering the truth, you wouldn't be asking questions like, how did it make you feel?
	How did it make you feel is not a question that elicits truth.
	It's a question that elicits a subjective perception.
	That's fine.
	But let's not pretend this is a fact-finding operation, because it isn't.
	One woman in a pink MAGA shirt yelled, you hear that, guys?
	This n----- voted for Joe Biden.
	Then the crowd, perhaps around 20 people, Joined in screaming, boom!
	The fact that we had our race attacked and just because of the way we look, you know?
	To answer your question, frankly, I guess it is America.
	It shouldn't be, but I guess that's the way that things are.
	It is America.
	Okay, or maybe it's not.
	Maybe it's not.
	You wonder why a lot of Republicans didn't want to go along with this?
	Because they knew that this is what it was going to be.
	They knew that this is going to be a bunch of conclusory Non-evidenced-based accusations against America rip more broadly.
	And again, the high cynicism of Democrats turning into big cop supporters depending on who exactly is being targeted by the police is quite fascinating.
	Okay, meanwhile, The other major controversy of the day is that Simone Biles withdrew from the Olympics yesterday.
	So Simone Biles, of course, is probably the greatest gymnast of all time.
	She's attempted things in competition that have never been attempted before.
	She withdrew yesterday.
	The reason that she withdrew, originally they said that she didn't actually have a physical problem.
	She had some sort of mental, a mental problem.
	Not meaning she suffered from mental illness or something.
	It later came out that she was suffering from what people call aerial disorientation, which means that when she goes up in the air, she was kind of losing her place.
	That's very dangerous.
	It can happen with pilots.
	It causes pilots to crash.
	It can happen with gymnasts.
	And if it happens with a gymnast, you can come down on your neck.
	You could theoretically break your neck.
	Here was Simone Biles describing her withdrawal yesterday from the Olympics.
	I want to focus on my well-being and you know there's more to life than just gymnastics and it is very unfortunate that it has to happen at this stage because I definitely wanted this to look and feel a little bit better.
	Put mental health first because if you don't then you're not going to enjoy your sport and you're not going to succeed as much as you want to so it's okay sometimes to even sit out the big competitions to focus on yourself because it shows how strong of a competitor and person that you really are.
	Okay, so this is now broken down along political lines because everything does in the United States.
	There's a group of people who say she's a villain and there's a group of people who say she's a hero.
	She's neither.
	She is not a villain because, again, the reality is that she had one vault attempt.
	She did not perform well on the vault attempt.
	She said she wasn't in the right headspace and then she was afraid that she was going to damage her teammates and that she would basically prevent her teammates from winning silver if she continued to compete.
	And so she withdrew.
	Does that make her some sort of villain?
	I don't think that really makes her a villain.
	She is, again, maybe the greatest gymnast of all time.
	She's tried things in competition nobody else has tried.
	I don't think it makes her a villain to walk away and say that she is not competing.
	I also object to the idea that she is a great hero.
	And this is the part that's kind of amazing, is that the media have now declared that when you walk away from things you're supposed to compete in, this makes you a hero.
	They did the same thing with Naomi Osaka with regard to the French Open.
	And she walked away from the Open saying that she didn't want to do media interviews.
	It's like, well, even if you have sympathy for that, that doesn't make you a hero.
	The media have decided that now she is a hero, right?
	That the leader of the team walking away in the middle of the Olympics makes her heroic, right?
	Lindsey Krauss has a piece in the New York Times titled, Simone Biles doesn't need a gold medal to win.
	There's another piece in the Washington Post by Alyssa Rosenberg saying, quote, rooting for Simone Biles means recognizing the greatness in her decision to step back.
	OK, we would never apply the standard to any male athlete of any kind ever.
	If Tom Brady threw two interceptions in the first half of the Super Bowl and said, listen, I don't have it today, guys.
	I need my backup to take over.
	We'd all be like, wow, that's a choke.
	If LeBron James did that in game seven of the NBA finals, which this is, if he had said, listen, I don't have it today, and I'm just not feeling it, and I think we're better off with my backup, people would be like, no, no.
	Heroism is when you overcome the obstacle, not when the obstacle overcomes you.
	That doesn't make her a villain, but to try and valorize walking away from competition because you broke, that's not an act of valor.
	Again, it's not an act of ability, but it's certainly not an act of valor.
	But the problem is that in our society, everyone is either a hero or a villain and there is never any in between where people are just people and they do things that are sometimes in their own best interest.
	Maybe even in the best interest of their team, but only because they feel they can't do what they're supposed to do.
	Like this is just a person doing a human thing and we're allowed to say it's a person doing a human thing without suggesting.
	That it's a person who's being a villain or a hero.
	The people who I do think are doing something that is horrible for the culture are people who are suggesting that it is an act of heroism and valor to somehow walk away from the Olympics as the greatest gymnast of all time.
	That is a weird thing, culturally, to proclaim.
	And we have seen a bunch of people who are proclaiming that.
	I strenuously disagree.
	Alrighty, we'll be back here later today with an additional hour of content.
	In the meantime, go check out The Michael Knowles Show.
	That's available right now.
	I'm Ben Shapiro.
	Shapiro, this is the Ben Shapiro Show.
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	On today's show, the floodgates open on vaccine mandates, the refund the police movement gains momentum, and troops withdraw from the Middle East.

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