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Feb. 7, 2024 - The Ben Shapiro Show

44:54

I’m Retiring From Rap

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	So folks, we'll get to all the news in just one moment, but I have to tell you that today is, for me, a sad day.
	So a couple of days ago, Fact, by my friend Tom McDonald featuring me, dropped from the top slot on iTunes right after the Grammys after 10 days of pure magic.
	It is still the number one rated hip-hop song in America on iTunes, but Rap Hanukkah is officially over.
	And so, with tears in my eyes, I have a big announcement to make.
	To all the little homies who have been lifting me up since I began this journey.
	It was an inspiring moment.
	Some have called it a musical supernova.
	But now, the time has come for me to walk away from my art.
	And so today, I have to announce I am retiring from rap to spend more time with my family.
	It's been real, dawgs.
	And never forget, music never dies.
	So long as the beat is in your heart.
	R.I.P.
	Dr. Dreidel.
	I know, I know.
	I've been getting a lot of sad messages from people.
	People who grew up with my music.
	People whose lives were changed by the beats and by the flow.
	But, you know, I've decided to leave the industry to a young generation of truly great artists Of truly great rap artists.
	Artists like Ice Spice.
	She of the rhyming name.
	So, I have been informed, reliably, that Ice Spice is a human.
	And that Ice Spice also has a brand new charting song out.
	No, she has not surpassed Facts on the Charts yet.
	But we can only hope that for the sake of Western civilization, eventually, she is widely appreciated by the masses in the way that she so richly deserves.
	So, Ice Spice, As a brand new song out and the nature of this song is, I think, quite deep and requires a bit of explication.
	You know, we've deconstructed the culture on this show before.
	In fact, it was probably my extraordinary rendition of WAP that led eventually to my hip hop stardom and then, of course, to my short-lived but brilliant career in the industry.
	And so we have to deconstruct a little bit of the culture that I am now leaving.
	Because I gotta be honest, I was being drawn into, I mean, in that week, in that week where I was the top charting rapper in America, you know, I have to say, went to the clubs, sipping on some Henny, was wearing the bling.
	My wife, she was really getting into the lifestyle as well.
	But again, I have to leave it to the pros.
	Pros like Ice Spice.
	That was her given name when she came out of her mother.
	Her mother said, I shall call you Ice Spice.
	In any case, the name of her latest song is Think You the Sh** Fart.
	Yes, idiocracy is real.
	There are no words except for her own.
	And so I bring to you the future of the hip-hop industry now that I am no longer a part of it.
	Ice Spice in Think You the Sh** Fart.
	Think you the sh** fart.
	You not even the fart.
	She's flipping people off.
	She's just twerking and, uh... Um... Okay, it's just her twerking the whole video and other women spanking her on the video.
	Um, so... If you can't understand what she's saying, you're not alone.
	And so I will now do what I am most famous for doing when it comes to rap.
	I'm going to read you the lyrics in a language we call English.
	Okay, and here's what she's saying.
	Think you the st, bch.
	You not even the fart.
	Grah.
	I be going hard.
	Grah.
	I'm breaking they hearts like, b**ches be quick, but I'm quicker.
	B**ches be thick, but I'm thicker.
	She could be rich, but I'm richer.
	Ah, the words of a generation.
	I'm so glad that the industry remains in excellent hands like that of Ice Spice.
	Um, but, you know, those words will live on forever.
	And from now on, if anyone ever, ever gets uppity with you, just tell them that if they think they the sh**, they are not.
	They are indeed the fart.
	We'll get to more on this in just one second.
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	That wasn't actually the worst song that got released this week, believe it or not, in the rap industry.
	Another one challenging us for top slot on the rap charts is a song that is called Bo Bo Bo, or Bow Bow Bow, F My Baby Dad.
	Um, and apparently there's an older song, you know, a classic from our friend Sexy Red.
	She of the multiple STD bouts.
	And, um, she apparently did a rendition of this rap, F my baby dad, at a hospital after having her latest baby.
	Because nothing says lucky child quite like you're pushed out a mom and you're immediately Making sexual videos in which you say, F the dad of your child.
	That baby's gonna live, that's a happy life for that kid, getting, wow, wow.
	I mean, just absolute cultural genius happening.
	I can't imagine why Tom McDonald and I rapped about the shortcomings of rap culture, because it seems like it's doing well.
	It seems like it's really incentivizing excellent behavior.
	These pictures are insane, by the way.
	She's literally in the hospital bed, and she is posing, Like ass out and like touching herself in the hospital bed.
	I gotta say that the definition of sexy has radically changed in America.
	If people find this attractive in any way, shape or form.
	In any case, here is some of the video.
	She literally cut a music video from her hospital room after having a baby about F the baby dad.
	Good stuff happening here.
	She's in a hospital room and she's flinging around dollars in the hospital room, presumably
	not covered by insurance.
	She's twerking on her hospital bed after having a baby.
	Points for durability, I suppose?
	So there's a lot to say here.
	One thing I will say is that if this lady doesn't get to take a maternity leave, then why does Pete Buttigieg get three months off for a paternity leave?
	I'm confused about that.
	I mean, she's back to work within, like, seconds.
	And by work, I mean W-E-R-K work.
	So, yeah, this is solid stuff, guys.
	I know I understand that I had a place in the rap culture.
	I understand that I was an inherently important part of hip hop, but I have to, as I say, I have to leave it to the pros.
	The reason I spend time on this stuff, by the way, is I think folks need to understand, you know, we talk cover politics a lot on this show.
	The number of people who are drawn in by pop culture is insane.
	Pop cultural engagement in America is at levels not even remotely charted by politics.
	The number of people in America who watch politics is extraordinarily low.
	It's really, really, really low.
	In fact, if you look at the latest statistics with regard to, for example, news websites and political websites being visited, the answer is that the numbers are way down, like way, way, way down since the last election cycle.
	And if you look at big political events, for example, like the fifth Republican primary debate, that drew 2.5 million viewers.
	Trump's competing town hall had about 4.3 million viewers.
	Aggregate all of that and you're talking like 7 million viewers total.
	And then if you add in people on the other side of the aisle, people who are politically engaged, you're talking a maximum of 15 to 20 million people who are politically engaged on anything like a regular level.
	And even those people aren't engaged the way that you probably are, listening to the show, listening every day.
	The number of people who will engage with content in pop culture is so much wider and so much... I speak as a charting artist, as the number one rap artist in America, as a Hot 100 number 16 recipient on Billboard, without any radio plays.
	I speak as a great artist of my genre.
	And let me tell you, pop cultural engagement is so much more important in terms of how young people think and the values that are shaped than actual baseline politics.
	That's why we spend time on it.
	It's why we've done deconstructing the culture before.
	And it's why it sort of matters that garbage is being purveyed every day by people like Ice Spice and Sexy Red as our culture gets dumber and dumber and stupider and stupider.
	OK, meanwhile, on the political side of the aisle, there's a lot happening.
	So I have to say that Donald Trump's takeover of the Republican Party, there have been some interesting things about it.
	I liked a lot of his policy as president.
	But one of the negative things about having a singular figure atop the political pile for any party is that there is a tendency to follow them to stupid places.
	And today I have two examples from President Trump.
	Example number one, President Trump came out yesterday and he suggested that conservatives go back to buying Bud Light.
	Now you'll recall that it was just last year that Bud Light decided that they were going to sponsor, as a face of their brand, Dylan Mulvaney, a man who mocks womanhood by pretending to be a girl.
	And they made a Bud Light beer can and all this.
	And people like us at the show, my friend Matt Walsh, the Daily Wire personalities,
	pretty much everybody on the right said, okay, well, we're not gonna buy Bud Light.
	First of all, it tastes like horse piss.
	And then beyond that, it actually is promoting values that we don't like.
	It's a great American brand, Bud Light.
	Not Anheuser-Busch, which is now foreign owned, but the actual Bud Light brand
	is a deeply American intertwined brand.
	And they are sacrificing their brand, which is basically blue collar people
	in favor of upper class trans politics.
	And it's stupid, and it's bad, and it's bad for the country, and so we're not going to drink Bud Light anymore.
	And Bud Light took it directly on the chin.
	Their sales went directly through the floor.
	And they were in fact reduced to not the number one beer, but the number two or number three beer.
	Modelo actually overtook them, for example.
	Well, now President Trump is calling for an end to the boycott on Bud Light, which makes no sense.
	If you have a successful boycott, if you successfully Destroyed a large brand in order to make a political point.
	You then don't undestroy the brand before they've actually apologized for the thing.
	Now, Bud Light is trying to make some sort of obeisance to the other side of the aisle, to our side of the aisle, on the conservative side, by going and contracting with, say, Dana White over at the MMA.
	I like Dana.
	I'm friends with Dana.
	But the attempt to sort of buy back conservative love by hiring Dana, that doesn't make up for what you did in the first place when you spit in the face of all of your consumers.
	Well now Donald Trump is calling for an end to the boycott.
	He put out a missive last night on Truth Social.
	He said the Bud Light ad was a mistake of epic proportions and for that a very big price was paid.
	But Anheuser-Busch is not a woke company.
	Anheuser-Busch is a great American brand that deserves a second chance.
	What do you think?
	Perhaps instead we should be going after those companies that are looking to destroy America.
	Now why would he do that?
	What would drive President Trump, one of the most vindictive voices in the history of American politics, to suddenly decide that it's time for forgiveness for Bud Light?
	Well, it could be the fact that apparently he owns about $5 million in Anheuser-Busch stock.
	It could also be the fact that a top Republican lobbyist for the company is hosting a fundraiser for Trump next month, with some tickets going at $10,000 each.
	So maybe it's that.
	Donald Trump Jr.
	has also previously defended Anheuser-Busch, saying the company donated more to Republicans than Democrats, and helped Kevin McCarthy's effort to assume control of the House.
	Now, as my friend Matt Walsh says, this is the most effective boycott probably in the history of conservative politics.
	Why would you end it on the basis of Donald Trump just says so?
	We'll get to more on this in just one second.
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	By the way, Caitlyn Jenner, of all people, is signing on to the chat to also call for an end to the Anheuser-Busch boycott.
	Quote, as someone that worked for this incredible American company and got to know them very well, I raced for Anheuser-Busch in the 80s.
	I agree with Donald Trump.
	Look at what the company does for so many Americans and their track record over the years.
	It made a huge mistake and it paid a large price.
	I think it is time to move forward.
	I'm saying we should focus on the big picture, agreeing with 45.
	The big picture is 45, of course, is President Trump, who's the 45th president.
	The big picture is not agreeing with President Trump.
	It's never been agreeing with President Trump.
	I agree with President Trump when President Trump deserves to be agreed with.
	And I disagree with President Trump when he deserves to be disagreed with.
	This would be one case where he deserves to be disagreed with.
	There's another case where he deserves to be disagreed with.
	And that was on Ronna Romney McDaniel.
	So let me tell you the tragic story of Ronna Romney McDaniel, who now goes by Ronna McDaniel.
	The reason she goes by Ronna McDaniel, this is not a joke, is because Ronna Romney McDaniel, who is in fact Related to Mitt Romney, of course.
	She used to go by... She's his niece.
	She used to go by Ronna Romney McDaniel.
	And then it turned out that when she became RNC chair and Donald Trump was the leader of the Republican Party, she dropped the Romney because Trump hated Romney so much.
	Because that's the kind of obeisance that is demanded by many people who really love Trump.
	And Trump himself.
	Is that you have to somehow drop actual parts of your name because he doesn't like your uncle, which is wild.
	And it's wild.
	Either she does a good job or she does a bad job.
	And then it turned out she did a crappy job.
	Rana Rami McDaniel is historically the single worst RNC chair.
	Of my lifetime, the only possible exception being Michael Steele.
	She's a terrible RNC chair.
	Truly a horrifyingly bad RNC chair.
	In fact, her tenure as RNC chair, which began January 19th, 2017, which was preceded by Reince Priebus, who ended up going into the administration briefly.
	When she assumed office in 2017, she assumed office with Donald Trump having a House majority and a Senate majority.
	That was the state of play when she took office.
	She then proceeded to lose the House in 2018, and she proceeded to lose the House and the Senate in 2020-2021, and then she proceeded to wildly underperform in the 2022 election cycle.
	And now the RNC is flat broke.
	The RNC has no money in the bank.
	So, she has sacrificed whatever principle she had, including the political principle that the RNC should be involved in choosing candidates on the primary level who can win, and then raising money for those candidates, and then boosting them to victory.
	Instead, she basically just said that Trump could have free reign of the place.
	So much so that the RNC, anytime there is a conflict inside the Republican Party between Trump and any other candidate, in the primaries, not in the primaries, with regard to the Senate, with regard to the House, the RNC always sided with Trump because McDaniel knew where her bread was buttered.
	Unsurprisingly, a bunch of losses.
	Huge string of losses for Anirani McDaniel to the point where, after the November 2022 elections, where Republicans, by polling data, were supposed to clean up.
	Republicans were supposed to win a broad majority in 2022.
	But the RNC didn't do its job.
	The RNC is a vehicle for victory.
	One of its jobs is to work with the Senatorial Republican Campaign Committee.
	And the NRCC, the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, and all the rest of these groups, in order to select good primary candidates, particularly in purple districts and purple states, in order to boost them to victory.
	And the RNC completely abdicated.
	The RNC instead spent a bunch of money on perks and flowers and nice dinners and limos.
	And then the 2022 elections were a full-scale disaster area in which the Republicans, not only did not regain the Senate, they ended up retaking the House by, like, a handful of votes.
	And that handful of votes is so small that Republicans can no longer do literally anything in the House of Representatives without making serious concessions to Democrats.
	That was all Ronna Romney-McDaniel.
	So, in January of 2023, in the period between November 2022 and January 2023, there was a serious effort to oust Ronna Romney-McDaniel.
	In fact, you'll recall that right after the election in November 2022, I openly called on the show for the replacement of Ronna Romney-McDaniel because you don't get to lose this many times and still retain your job.
	At any job, if you fail over and over, if you fail once, okay, that's called life.
	You fail twice, okay, maybe you need a serious corrective.
	You fail three times, now you're starting to look pretty bad.
	You fail four times, you should lose your job.
	And she failed 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022.
	She failed four times, four separate times.
	Just complete failure.
	And now, no money in the bank, And the nominee of the party, for good or ill, is the person who basically put her in place.
	Donald Trump endorsed her, again, to become the RNC chair, over Harmeet Dhillon, who's a far more credible, far more serious candidate.
	Yup.
	Full disclosure, Harmeet Dhillon has acted as our lawyer in suing the federal government, for example, here at Daily Wire.
	Harmeet is great.
	There's some other people who have been talked about as an RNC chair who'd be good.
	So, now, Donald Trump, a couple of weeks ago, after having boosted McDaniel back into place, just in time for the primaries, where the RNC, every time it could, put its thumb on the scale for Donald Trump, Now that she bent the knee to Trump in every- Which way?
	Literally took Romney out of her name, bent the RNC to Trump's will at every possible point, now Trump is going full Joffrey and cutting off her head.
	So now, she's going to be out of a job.
	This is, again, directly after she was endorsed by Trump and won re-election as RNC chair.
	So now, Ronna Romney McDaniel is gone.
	She's expected to leave.
	According to the Washington Post, Quote, Ronna McDaniel is expected to leave her job this spring after former President Donald Trump had increasingly grown critical of her leadership, according to people familiar with the matter.
	Oh, did he?
	You mean after she ensured that he got everything that he could possibly want in 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023?
	So basically, she did everything Trump could have possibly wanted, and now he's defenestrating her so that he can blame her for all the problems with the RNC, despite the fact that, again, he boosted her to that position.
	We'll get to more on this in just one second.
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	Again, I'm glad she's leaving.
	She was incompetent.
	She did a bad job.
	The only point that I'm making is that you should agree with Donald Trump when it's good to agree.
	I agree with him about ousting Ronna Romney McDaniel.
	I also agreed about ousting her before she was even the RNC chair.
	And I disagreed with Donald Trump when he was attempting to foist her into place.
	The decision came as she visited Mar-a-Lago and met with Trump on Monday, but the situation remained fluid according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
	The news of her departure was first reported by the New York Times, which reported it was likely to occur after the South Carolina primary on February 24th.
	She was expected to serve until 2025, but has considered leaving for months.
	Her relationship with Trump soured over the Republican primary debates featuring his challengers this past fall.
	Trump wanted her to cancel them and she declined.
	So she provided so much fealty to him.
	I mean, she really did during the primaries.
	She didn't force him to sign any pledge saying he'd vote for the other candidates, despite the fact that she wanted all the other candidates to pledge they'd vote for Trump if, in fact, he won the nomination.
	She made room for him at every possible turn, but she wouldn't just outright hand him the primaries and got pissed at her.
	And now he wants her out, and now she's leaving.
	The point of the matter is that if you wish for good policy to emerge from Donald Trump or anyone else, that doesn't mean listening to Trump all the time.
	It doesn't mean listening to Trump when he says, end the Bud Light boycott.
	It doesn't mean listening to Trump when he tries to boost Ronna McDaniel back to the RNC chairmanship in January of 2023.
	It means sometimes he's right and sometimes he's wrong.
	You're an independent human being and you should have your own thoughts on matters and you shouldn't just follow any politician or people like me, anyone, literally anyone, blindly.
	You should actually think about these things and then decide whether or not it meets with your principles.
	Okay, meanwhile, speaking of the consequence of having a very narrow House majority yesterday, the House voted on impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security.
	Now, to be fair to the Republican Congress, people who voted against impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas, no high crime or misdemeanor was actually alleged.
	Okay, so there are some members of the House who argued against Donald Trump's impeachment, including Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin.
	He's a really good representative.
	I know Mike, I like Mike.
	Mike Gallagher voted against impeaching Mayorkas.
	Why?
	Because he said, listen, I voted against Donald Trump's impeachment because no crime was alleged.
	Here, no crime is alleged, so I'm also voting against impeachment.
	Now, the reason I would have voted for impeachment if I were in the House, and the reason why I think it was good that people voted for impeachment is because impeachment is obviously a political tool.
	Impeachment has obviously become a political tool.
	Trump was impeached twice without any serious high crime or misdemeanor even being charged in the impeachment documents.
	And so now that that's what it is, everybody's fair game.
	Because if the rules apply one way for Democrats and another way for Republicans, then there are no rules.
	No double standards.
	So if impeachment is a political tool, then it should be a political tool all the way.
	And then, we can make a deal, and we'll go back to status quo ante, where you only get impeached for actual impeachable offenses.
	But until then, you cross the line, and we'll treat it just like a political remedy.
	In any case, the reason that the Republicans couldn't get together a House majority is because their House majority was so narrow.
	So that goes back to the 2022 elections, in which the intervention of the RNC and Donald Trump and bad candidates ended up blowing the possibility of a Republican 15 or 20 seat House majority.
	And Republicans ended up with a tiny, slim, tiny House majority.
	And then, of course, George Santos was just ousted by Congress, which left them with one fewer Republican vote.
	And so the House ended up voting 216 to 214 against impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas.
	Only four Republicans voted in favor of keeping Mayorkas, or not impeaching him.
	The Republicans who voted against the impeachment resolution said that Mayorkas' conduct did not rise to the level of an impeachable offense.
	This is what Tom McClintock said.
	So Tom McClintock, by the way, is a border hawk.
	Tom McClintock in California.
	He is not some sort of border dove easy on immigration or anything.
	He just said the same thing that Gallagher said.
	He said the impeachment articles failed to identify an impeachable crime that Mayorkas has committed.
	Democrats were accusing Republicans of trying to score political points, which of course is true, but that's exactly what they were doing when they impeached Donald Trump twice.
	Representative Ken Buck of Colorado indicated another vote could take place once the House Majority Leader Steve Scalise returns to work.
	Scalise has been working remotely as he undergoes cancer treatment.
	In the end, probably, Mayorkas will be impeached.
	They do have enough votes to do it, but barely.
	So, the Democrats did wheel in people who are literally sick to try to get the vote to turn in favor of Mayorkas.
	Representative Al Green tried to vote on a second resolution targeting Mayorkas.
	But he backed off after receiving assurances from House leaders that the earlier effort would proceed at the committee level, and then he was actually wheeled in because he was sick to vote against impeaching Mayorkas.
	We'll get to more on this in just one second.
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	So, bottom line is, does this damage Republicans anyway?
	No, I mean, it just looks again like Republicans can't count votes, but we've known that for quite a while.
	In yet another element of Republican stupidity, it turns out that banging your head against the wall does not end up being a very good strategy.
	They got rid of Kevin McCarthy, as I said at the time.
	Like McCarthy or hate McCarthy, McCarthy knew how to count votes.
	You know what's happening now?
	Nobody knows how to count votes.
	And the deals aren't getting any better.
	So, slow clap for all the people who thought getting rid of Kevin McCarthy was going to fix the problems in Congress.
	But, in the end, do Americans, as we say, watch politics at this granular level?
	Or do they care about how the impeachment vote goes?
	No, they just get a general sense.
	They get a sort of...
	General Gestalt of the election.
	And then they vote accordingly.
	And the General Gestalt right now, the border is a disaster area and Joe Biden is the president.
	And so Republicans who are not passing this bad border bill They are winning a political victory right now.
	The media are trying to turn this into Republicans won't pass a border bill to give Joe Biden the authority he needs.
	But the border was considered a non-problem by Democrats until this very moment.
	So just to follow the Democrat logic for a moment, the border is not a problem at all.
	But if you don't give Joe Biden extra power to shut down the border, that's when the crisis emerges.
	I'm gonna need an explainer on that.
	If the border was in crisis, why isn't Joe Biden doing something about it?
	He has the authority to do so already, as everyone legally acknowledges.
	Joe Biden, however, is trying to play the hand that he has dealt himself.
	Again, he could just shut the border and take the issue away from Trump, but he's afraid of ticking off that left-wing base.
	And so now he's trying to blame Republicans for all of this.
	He says the border isn't secure because of Trump and his friends.
	This is not going to play at all in any way, shape, or form.
	This is why he is 30 points behind Trump on immigration.
	Every day between now and November, the American people are going to know that the only reason the border is not secure is Donald Trump and his maggot Republican friends.
	Um, so, um, no.
	That is not going to work.
	If you really think that MAGA is keeping the border open, that's wrong.
	Joe Biden is the President of the United States.
	Then Joe Biden was suggesting that Republicans need to show some spine and pass the bill.
	Um, we all know what's going to happen if that happens.
	If Republicans pass the bill, the border will remain largely open because Joe Biden will make sure that it remains largely open.
	And then, he will claim that he's been able to create a bipartisan deal to create responsibility at the border.
	And then, Now, all indications are this bill won't even move forward to the Senate floor.
	Why?
	A simple reason.
	And whatever are the future border problems will be co-owned by the Republicans.
	That's the politics of this.
	Why do you think Democrats are so desperate to pass this thing?
	The reason the Democrats are desperate to pass this thing is because they see it as
	a political win.
	Here was Joe Biden trying to force Republicans into voting for it.
	It's not going to happen.
	Now all indications are this bill won't even move forward to the Senate floor.
	Why?
	A simple reason.
	Donald Trump.
	Because Donald Trump thinks it's bad for him politically.
	therefore he doesn't, even though it helps the country, he's not for it.
	He'd rather weaponize this issue than actually solve it.
	So for the last 24 hours he's done nothing, I'm told, but reach out to Republicans in the House and the Senate and threaten them and try to intimidate them to vote against this proposal.
	And looks like they're caving.
	Frankly, they owe it to the American people to show some spine and do what they know to be right.
	I mean, I gotta say, there are two problems with this.
	Number one is the argument.
	The other is that, I swear, Joe Biden at this point, he looks, no joke, like Julian Glover as Walter Donovan at the end of Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail.
	He looks like he drank from, he chose poorly.
	Literally every video of him is a state of further physical and mental degradation.
	He's degrading before our eyes.
	Everyone can see it.
	It's impossible not to see it.
	By the way, Joe Biden is admitting, by the way, the bill will actually allow people to enter the country more quickly.
	We all know what the real agenda is here.
	Here's President Biden admitting this yesterday.
	This bill would also establish new, efficient, and fair process for the government to consider an asylum claim for those arriving at the border.
	Today, the process can take five to seven years, as you all know.
	They show up at the border, get a bracelet, told they'll come back when called.
	Five to seven years, now in country.
	That's too long and it's not rational.
	With the new policies in this bill and the additional of 4,300 more asylum officers who spend hours, I might add, with each immigrant to consider their claims, whether they qualify, we'll be able to reduce that process to six months, not five to seven years.
	Okay, again, he's trying to reduce the time period between when you apply for refugee status and when you are granted refugee status.
	His goal is to get more people into the country, not fewer people into the country.
	The only thing that the bill does that is presumably good is it changes the definition of asylum.
	In order to have a legitimate asylum claim, you now not only have to claim that you fear to go back to your home country, you have to have some sort of credible fear that you cannot, such that you cannot relocate inside your home country or in any country that you have passed through before.
	But how do you establish that sort of thing?
	Like seriously, do you think that Joe Biden and his processing centers, people are going to come and they're just going to say that.
	They're just going to say, I can't move inside my own home country because people are pursuing me.
	How do you confirm that?
	Then they're going to say Mexico isn't accepting me in order to live there and the gangs are following me and there's no place I can go.
	And then they just say new magic words.
	So listen, I get why border patrol agents, some of them, are in support of the bill.
	They think that it gives them some additional tools if they're allowed to do their job.
	But I think they're assuming that Joe Biden is going to allow them to do their job.
	And that is an assumption, as we say in the law, not in evidence.
	Meanwhile, Joe Biden has tied all of these issues together.
	He has tied his version of the border bill together with Ukraine aid, together with Israel aid.
	Which is kind of amazing because he doesn't have to do that.
	It demonstrates his failure of the power of the bully pulpit.
	If Joe Biden actually had any level of popularity, he could probably force each of these issues through one at a time.
	Let's say that he wanted Ukraine aid.
	He could probably force that through.
	He could make an argument to the American people.
	He could say, listen, Ukraine is going to be overrun by Russia.
	If we don't give them the aid, then Vladimir Putin is going to be standing in Kiev by the end of the year.
	They need the aid.
	Most of the aid is going to go toward paying our military contractors anyway.
	We need to restock our supplies and all the rest.
	He could say all that sort of stuff, but he can't because he's really, really unpopular.
	And so he's trying to lump that together with a significantly more popular proposition, which is aid to Israel.
	In fact, he came out yesterday and said he would not even sign off on an independent aid to Israel clean bill, which is totally crazy.
	He says he wants that.
	He's the one who proposed it.
	He's saying he wants $14 billion in military aid to Israel and $10 billion for the other side.
	He wants $10 billion in so-called humanitarian aid to Gaza.
	I say so-called because Hamas and terrorists hijack a huge amount of that and then use it for weaponry.
	That's what he says he wants.
	So the Republicans are like, OK, fine, we'll give you 14 bill for Israel and no 10 bill for Gaza and no 60 bill for Ukraine.
	And Biden's like, I'll veto that.
	He has to tie everything together.
	He has to turn it into a crap sandwich.
	It's his only hope of passing his main priorities at this point.
	We'll get to the situation in Ukraine in just one second.
	First.
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	And meanwhile, the situation in Ukraine continues to be rather dire.
	Best reports suggest that Russia is going to mobilize another all-out assault on Ukraine sometime later in the year, and as Western support for Ukraine declines, Ukrainians are very much in fear that Kiev theoretically could be overrun.
	According to Ukrainian media, the Ukrainian parliament has now passed a law approving a presidential decree to extend martial law in Ukraine for another 90 days, from February 14th until May 13th.
	Apparently, this is basically a unanimous legislative act because, of course, the country is still, in fact, at war.
	And all of this is, again, coming to a head, not just because the United States is unlikely to grant $60 billion in aid to Ukraine based on the current voting constituency in the House of Representatives, but also because Tucker Carlson is now jet-setting over to Moscow to interview Vladimir Putin.
	So here was Tucker confirming that he's interviewing Putin, and here he was explaining why he's doing it.
	We're in Moscow tonight.
	We're here to interview the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin.
	We'll be doing that soon.
	Almost three years ago, the Biden administration illegally spied on our text messages and then leaked the contents to their servants in the news media.
	They did this in order to stop a Putin interview that we were planning.
	Last month, we're pretty certain they did exactly the same thing once again.
	But this time, we came to Moscow anyway.
	We are not here because we love Vladimir Putin.
	We are here because we love the United States and we want it to remain prosperous and free.
	Okay, so the entire case that he is making is that you're not getting the full information and that we need an interview with Putin.
	Okay, that's all fine and dandy.
	I mean, I'm fine with anybody interviewing Putin.
	Hell, I'd love to interview Putin.
	Good for Tucker for getting the interview.
	You know, I will say that the only thing that's going to matter about this interview are the questions that he asks.
	Meaning that if he goes in and he basically just allows Putin to spout about denazification efforts in Ukraine and about how Ukraine is actually a country that is filled with wild left liberals who are promoting LGBTQ values but they're also Nazis and that's why he's invading and that's why he needs to take out Vladimir Zelensky or whatever.
	That will not, in fact, be a public service.
	That will not, in fact, be information that is added to the information that people need to hear.
	The questions that need to be asked, obviously, are what are the off-ramps?
	Why are you holding American journalists like Evan Gershkovich in jail?
	Why is that a thing?
	Well, Tucker says in this video that nobody has actually wanted to interview Putin.
	That's not true.
	I mean, a huge number of people have requested interviews with Putin in the legacy media.
	Putin just hasn't granted any because he feels that the legacy media in the United States are very much opposed to him.
	And there's truth to that.
	I think for some pretty good reasons.
	Number one, that Vladimir Putin has sort of a nefarious history of having his political enemies jailed and or poisoned and or pushed off of buildings.
	But in any case, if Tucker wants to provide another side to the conflict so that we can all get more information, that'll be great.
	But we're only going to know exactly how that goes once the interview actually airs.
	I'm not going to prejudge the interview.
	I certainly have no problem with Tucker interviewing Vladimir Putin.
	I hope he doesn't do the same thing that he actually did with Kanye West when he had on Kanye.
	On his show and proceeded to cut out all of the craziest sections of the interview with Kanye when she was spouting even at the time wild anti-semitic kind of stuff and Tucker cut it out and then put out the interview with Kanye and it made Kanye look like he was a lot more sane than he actually was at that time.
	You know, again, I think Tucker is a super smart guy.
	I think that he does care about the country, and I would love to hear him ask some really solid questions of Vladimir Putin, so we'll see how it goes.
	I will say that the Kremlin is expecting that they know how it goes.
	According to DNYUZ, Carlson's trip is exciting a lot of people over at the Kremlin.
	On Tuesday, Alexei Benediktov, the former editor of Echo Moscovy radio station, said, as I understand, Tucker Carlson got what he wanted.
	Apparently, a source close to the presidential administration told the Moscow Times, quote, Tucker has been expected here for a long time.
	He is welcome here.
	To underscore the depth of Carlson's commitment to the Russian cause, state media programs pointed out that in America, he's called out as a traitor and his trip is being compared to Jane Fonda's visit to Vietnam in 1972.
	Now, again, the It's not like Jane Fonda unless he's actually a propagandist for the Kremlin.
	So, let's see.
	I don't want to prejudge anything until I've seen it.
	I'm not going to prejudge Tucker's interview.
	I know a lot of the media are already doing that.
	I'm not going to do that until I see the questions that he asks.
	It's a massive opportunity, obviously.
	Could it have an impact in theoretically opening eyes to the possibility of a future solution?
	Sure.
	Could it also be a propaganda interview?
	Good.
	I mean, presumably that's why Putin is doing it.
	Apparently.
	During an interview with The Evening with Vladimir Solovyov, political scientist Sergei Mikhaev said, quote, a few words about Tucker since he's a popular figure.
	He says, if Tucker dares to broadcast this interview in the United States, first and foremost, this will blow up their informational blockade from within.
	He said that an interview with Putin will have some interesting consequences, quote, it will blow them up into pieces.
	This is the United States.
	And then he said, God willing, there will be a civil war in the United States because of it.
	Now, again, I think that's some wishful thinking on the part of some Russian propagandists, but it's worth pointing out that the only thing that's important about an interview is the content of the interview, not just the faces of the people who are in the interview.
	And by the way, the United States does have a very strong interest in Ukraine, not actually just becoming a Russian protectorate.
	I've said since the since near the beginning of the war that the solution to this conflict was going to be in simply recognizing the frozen battle lines that are already present in the Donbass and in Crimea.
	The areas of the Donbass that are currently occupied by Russia and in Crimea that are currently occupied by Russia are largely Russian speaking.
	Those are areas in which Vladimir Zelensky did not win when it came to the last election cycle.
	Those are areas that didn't vote, some of them, in the last election cycle because they'd already been occupied by Russia in 2014, but those are areas that had not voted for the more European-minded Ukrainian politicians.
	They'd already voted for the more pro-Russian politicians in those areas.
	Those conflicts are not likely to be undone.
	Those areas are not likely to become sovereign Ukrainian territory again anytime soon.
	The battle lines have not moved for a year.
	And so, the idea of the off-ramp is American and European security guarantees to Ukraine, more military material put in to prevent a future invasion, and setting of the final lines, kind of where they are right now, everyone knows that's the solution.
	The question I hope Tucker asks Putin is, is that a solution for you?
	Right, because otherwise there's no off-ramp and it just continues.
	Putin is counting on the West to just get tired and eventually just give him Kiev.
	That's effectively what Putin is waiting for right now.
	Okay, meanwhile, Gina Carano, our friend, who of course starred in Terror on the Prairie for us.
	We hired her after she was fired from The Mandalorian for the great sin of saying that people should not dehumanize one another.
	That's really why she was fired from The Mandalorian.
	She put up a meme saying essentially that othering ends with murder, which is, I thought, kind of a mainstream point of view.
	In any case, they fired her, we hired her, and she was in terror on the prairie,
	and it was sort of a big win for everyone.
	Now, Gina is suing the Walt Disney Company.
	So according to Deadline Hollywood, three years after Carano was axed
	by then Bob Chapeck-run Disney for comparing the political climate in America
	to Nazi Germany, that's not what she was doing.
	Carano sued Disney and the Star Wars shingle Lucasfilm for dropping her from the Bounty Hunter series,
	and X is paying, Elon Musk is actually paying for her lawyers because I love it.
	According to the complaint, quote, a short time ago in a galaxy not so far away,
	defendants made it clear that only one orthodoxy and thought speech or action was acceptable in their empire
	and that those who dared to question or fail to fully comply would not be tolerated.
	And so it was with Carano.
	The rule of law still reigns over the defendant's empire.
	Carano has returned to demand they be held accountable for their bullying, discriminatory
	and retaliatory actions that inflicted not only substantial emotional harm
	but millions of dollars in lost income.
	Now you'll recall that it was in February, 2021, not long after she had been in the Mandalorian,
	that they put out a scathing statement on their business with her.
	They said, By the way, there was no social media post denigrating anyone based on cultural or religious identity.
	her to be in the future.
	Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their
	cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.
	By the way, there was no social media post denigrating anyone based on
	cultural or religious identity at all.
	So she says defendants also discriminated against Carano by treating her
	differently from her male co-stars, who also made public political
	That, of course, is absolutely true.
	Pedro Pascal, who's the star of The Mandalorian, put out a meme about how basically the immigrants, illegal immigrants, were being held in detention facilities.
	Those were like concentration camps.
	He put out that tweet, nothing.
	She said her male co-stars were not disciplined, let alone terminated, in a way to destroy their careers, even though some would find their statements abhorrent.
	And she points out those statements by Pedro Pascal.
	As well as Mark Hamill comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.
	So, Carano is amplifying all that, and then Elon Musk put out a statement saying, anybody else who wants to sue Disney, let me know.
	Which, revenge is best served cold.
	He put out a tweet saying, quote, if you were discriminated against by Disney or its subsidiaries, just reply to this post to receive legal support.
	Because he received an anonymous source that showed Disney general entertainment content and inclusion standards that violate basic civil rights law and basically create all sorts of racist hiring practices.
	And there are a bunch of people who are going to take him up on that.
	Would not be surprised to see Disney sued from a thousand different directions over that because DEI must, in fact, die.
	And Elon is doing God's work on that one.
	Alrighty, folks, the rest of the show continues right now.
	You're not going to want to miss it.
	We'll be joined on the line by Mark Morgan, the former acting Border Patrol commissioner.
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