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Feb. 12, 2024 - The Ben Shapiro Show

01:01:14

What I Learned From "The Big Game"

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	Alright, last night was the Super Bowl and I have notes.
	We'll start with the non-political notes and then we'll get to the political notes on the Super Bowl.
	Note number one that's kind of political is that people my age are now the olds.
	They're reacting to this the same way that people of my parents' generation used to react to, I don't know, like Prince showing up.
	And now it's us.
	We have become the old people.
	Because people who are like 10 years younger than I'm like, oh man, I grew up with Usher.
	Oh man, I grew up with Ludacris.
	And I'm too old for even that.
	So I'm like, I grew up with Brahms and Beethoven.
	I don't even know who these people are.
	So whenever I watch the Halftime Show, I feel more than a little bit out of touch.
	But the big note here is that my generation is now the generation being pandered to.
	Which means we are the olds.
	Which means, by the way, that our country is aging pretty quickly.
	The fact that we are constantly pandering to whoever is the group of people who are the biggest demographically, and that group of people have taste that runs toward 2004, which is when Usher's biggest album came out, apparently.
	I've only been told this by my staff, I don't know.
	But apparently that's when Usher was like super huge, was the mid-2000s, and it is now 2024.
	Demonstrates, once again, this country is not a young country.
	That has some fairly significant ramifications for the future of the country, but again, we'll get to the political later.
	Okay, I have other notes.
	So, we'll start with like the actual game, and then we'll get to the halftime show.
	So the actual game, Patrick Mahomes is unbelievably good.
	I mean, that guy...
	I didn't think I'd ever see anybody who's as good as Brady.
	Just on a pure talent level, Mahomes is better than Brady.
	He can run better than Brady.
	He can read from the pocket as well as Brady can.
	His QBR in the first six seasons is higher than Tom Brady's was in his first six seasons.
	Mahomes is truly a tremendous quarterback and you can feel it.
	I've been to a couple of Super Bowls.
	The first one that I went to involved Tom Brady, and then the second one that I went to also involved Tom Brady.
	And it was late Brady, but you always felt comfortable with Brady having the ball in his hands.
	And in that last drive where Mahomes is coming down the field, you feel as a fan comfortable watching Patrick Mahomes with the football in a way that you don't with somebody who actually looked like Brock Purdy.
	The fact is that Mahomes, with the football, he knows what he is doing.
	And you felt comfortable with a three-point deficit, him coming down the field and having a shot at winning the game because he is truly an amazing, amazing quarterback.
	Also, I would just like to point out this point that Travis Kelsey is a crazy person.
	So this would be Taylor Swift's boyfriend.
	And he's really good at his job.
	He's an excellent tight end.
	Also, he's a nutcase.
	Now, to be fair, pretty much everyone in the NFL is roided up beyond all reason.
	But very early on in the game, there was a fumble and Travis Kelsey comes out and just like destroys Andy Reid.
	It was amazing.
	He was so mad that he like comes up to Andy Reid and he bumps him.
	He's all chewing out this elderly walrus.
	It was real weird.
	Here was Travis Kelsey doing that.
	Oh man.
	He comes up to him and he like bumps Henry.
	Henry's like, what?
	Travis Kelce pulled away by other members of the team.
	He was informing him that Kathleen Kennedy should not be allowed to run the Star Wars universe anymore.
	It has to stop.
	It's just bad.
	So, good luck to Travis Kelce.
	And honestly, I'm happy for Travis Kelce because he was like this close to being the subject of Taylor Swift's next breakup song.
	But then he was saved by Patrick Mahomes.
	So now, maybe the Taylor Swift baby boom is going to happen.
	This has been my prediction, is that Travis Kelce is going to propose to Taylor Swift, they're going to get married, they're going to have kids, and suddenly a bunch of feminist-y 32-year-olds who never got married because girl power are going to realize marriage is good and then have babies, and it's going to save the country.
	Maybe that is the way that our country gets saved, is by Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift having genetically perfect babies.
	Maybe that's the way this actually works.
	Okay, which brings us to that fan box.
	So this is the first time I've ever watched a game where Taylor Swift is in the skybox, where my ire was not directed at Taylor Swift.
	So somehow, Ice Spice, a person whose name is Ice Spice, made me like Taylor Swift more.
	Why?
	Well, because Taylor Swift was always the neophyte in the box, right?
	Taylor Swift was always the person where you're like, why is she here?
	Does she understand how football works?
	Like, how seriously does she follow football?
	Why are we pretending like she's a big football fan when she's been to like two games ever, maybe?
	And now she's there explaining to Ice Spice how exactly football works.
	Literally explaining to her at the Super Bowl that this one team goes that way and that other team goes the other way.
	And Ice Spice is watching all of this as though she's trying to process higher mathematics like Winona Ryder at the Oscars a few years back.
	Here's Taylor Swift trying to explain to Ice Spice how football works.
	She's like, yeah, and then they go that way, and you see that way, and Ice is like, oh my god, oh!
	I get it now a little bit, but she doesn't really get it.
	You can see in her eyes that she has no clue what Taylor Swift is talking about.
	It's like Taylor Swift is teaching her calculus, or something.
	So that made me like Taylor Swift a little more, because Taylor Swift at least knows how football works, and Ice Spice, as many people pointed out, stole her hair from Annie.
	I don't understand what's going on.
	In any case, My favorite part of that was that this culminated in the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl, and Ice Spice celebrating with Taylor Swift as though she knew what the hell was going on.
	Like a bunch of 13-year-old girls who are gonna pretend that they're best friends forever, even though, like, two of them hate each other.
	Ice Spice just being super excited.
	What's going on?
	She doesn't know, but she's celebrating like crazy with Brittany Mahomes, who, by the way, has like a little more investment in all of this.
	Brittany Mahomes is actually married to the quarterback.
	Brittany Mahomes has been dating the quarterback since high school.
	Taylor's like the newbie.
	And then Ice Spice is there for no reason.
	In any case, here we go.
	And this was the Andy Reid special.
	Why is Ice Spice in the middle of this scrum?
	Why?
	No one knows why Ice Spice is there.
	So, that was the thing that was happening as well.
	We'll get some more on this in just one second.
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	Okay, now to the halftime show.
	So, quick notes on the halftime show.
	First of all, MVP is Auto-Tune.
	As always, Auto-Tune saves every single artist who has produced a piece of music since Auto-Tune became a thing.
	Because legitimately, none of these people can sing live.
	It is incredible.
	It's true of everybody who's in the stands, by the way.
	There's more talent in the stands than there was on the field for the halftime show.
	You had Taylor Swift in the stands.
	You had Justin Bieber in the stands.
	But none of these people without autotune can do a thing.
	So, Usher, who I've been informed is an artist of some sort by my team.
	They're all big Usher fans.
	So, if Usher is listening to this, Savvy says hello.
	I don't know why.
	But in any case, Usher comes out and he plays his hits.
	Again, I don't understand why he is so famous because I don't think his hits are good.
	But Usher comes out and he tries to sing.
	Points for moving around a lot.
	So Usher is a better dancer than he is a singer.
	And so it kind of looked like this.
	Oh, so here he is.
	Yeah, at one point he took off his shirt for some reason and then started dancing around.
	And by dancing, I mean spastically moving his body.
	And the meme says, when you're over 30, your doctor asks you to show them where it hurts.
	And that is what it looks like.
	Another one that I saw was you when you wake up and there's a spider on you.
	And that is also accurate.
	So points for effort for Usher, who also roller skated.
	So that was interesting.
	They also pulled a bunch of artists out of retirement who, again, this is not my bag.
	As America's top rap artist, I didn't know any of these people, but that's because, again, I'm out of touch with the younger generation, which is to say the mainstream older generation, like the 80-year-old in the room full of 60-year-olds in this country now.
	So, they brought forth Lil Jon, whose famous hit is Turn Down For What, which involves him screaming at the top of his lungs, Turn Down For What.
	They brought forth a person who is not CeeLo Green, whose name escapes me.
	Are we gonna play Turn Down For What here?
	Yeah, this was very funny.
	They're playing...
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	So they cut in real close on Lil Jon screaming at the top of his lungs.
	Turned down for what?
	And there's an unfortunate man who goes flying up in the background.
	No one knows what happened to him when he came down.
	It was awkward.
	Everybody's jumping around, then here he goes, he's going up, oh no!
	So that man is dead.
	Somebody should check on that guy.
	So, Lil Jon was there to scream into a microphone.
	Ludacris showed up and was indeed Ludacris and also dressed like Ben Stiller from Dodgeball, so that was the thing that happened.
	And Alicia Keys showed up and she can't sing, so that was sad.
	Yeah, there's Dodgeball, Ludacris.
	He showed up wearing like, I don't even know what he's wearing.
	It's like rollerblading uniform.
	That was strong.
	Guys, I don't understand.
	Whatever.
	Maybe our society is too wealthy.
	Maybe that's what's happened here.
	Okay, now to the actual politics of the Super Bowl.
	So, first thing to notice about the Super Bowl this year, they really tried to keep it apolitical.
	So they played the so-called Black National Anthem before the game.
	They've done this the last few years since George Floyd died.
	But they played it before the broadcast release, so nobody, I think, saw it.
	I remember when I was at the Super Bowl, it was the same kind of thing.
	They played it, but they played it like so far before the game that it was kind of non-controversial.
	And then that allowed the usual suspects to fuss about how people didn't stand for this Black National Anthem, which again, there shouldn't be a Black National Anthem.
	There's just one National Anthem.
	You want to sing a song that's fine.
	I'm not sure why you need a separate Black National Anthem at the one event that everyone in the country watches together.
	But in any case, the kind of message of the Super Bowl from all the advertisers was non-controversy.
	They were all desperately trying to avoid controversy.
	Because what people kind of just want is normality.
	I know, the Super Bowl is a weird place to get it, but that is what people wanted.
	They just wanted a football game that was about football, without the politics, without the crazy of the past few years.
	And that's what every commercial was about.
	So pretty much every commercial was just a normal 1996 level commercial with nothing really provocative about that, which is why when there was something provocative in the commercials, it really stood out.
	So really only two sort of provocative commercials along these lines.
	One was an ad for an organization called He Gets Us, the he being Jesus.
	And it's controversial because this take on Jesus is hippie Jesus.
	Now, obviously I'm not a Christian, I'm an Orthodox Jew, but I have read the New Testament, and virtually all my friends are very religious Christians.
	And I will point out at this point that even someone like me understands that the message of Jesus is not one of unending tolerance for behavior.
	It's love of human beings, but not tolerance for bad behavior.
	But apparently the He Gets Us campaign is about how Jesus really, really is fine with everybody's behavior, which is not the message that I got from the New Testament, where that is clearly not.
	The actual thing that Jesus is saying.
	Jesus was pretty hardcore.
	In any case, here were some of the He Gets Us ad campaign, which completely does not get Jesus.
	But again, I'll let Christian speak to that, but I'm pretty sure about this one.
	The ad begins with people washing each other's feet, because apparently Jesus was big into the feet washing, but not because he actually wanted to promulgate his belief system, just because he apparently really loved washing feet.
	So you've got a cop washing the feet of some... some dude.
	You have a cheerleader washing the feet of a red-haired lady.
	You have, like, a white guy washing the feet of a Native American.
	And then, my favorite, you have a lady, who is sort of a suburban mom, washing the feet of a lady outside a family planning clinic.
	Um, so, unless she's also trying to convince that lady not to have an abortion, I'm pretty sure Jesus is not so hot on the abortion, as it turns out.
	You have poor lady having her feet washed.
	You have Native American lady, environmentalist having her feet washed.
	Illegal immigrant having her feet washed.
	Again, Muslim having her feet washed.
	I mean, not to be weird about this, but Christianity is in fact a proselytizing religion.
	So, my understanding is there are certain values Christianity wishes to promulgate.
	Have, um...
	Old people washing their feet together.
	We have a Christian priest washing the feet of somebody who appears to be trans.
	Which again, jeez is not so hot on the boys or girls routine, is my understanding.
	And it says, Jesus didn't teach hate.
	He washed feet.
	I would just like to point out that Jesus did more than wash feet.
	I mean, again, I don't mean to be like the Christian proselytizer here, because I'll leave that to others who are actual Christians, but, um, that's not all he did.
	And hate of what?
	In fact, Jesus did teach hate of sin.
	Like, Jesus went out a fan of, like, my understanding of the Mary Magdalene story is that he didn't say to her, let me wash your feet and I'll go back to being a whore and I'm fine with it.
	Pretty sure that's the opposite of the story.
	So yeah, so that got political.
	A lot of people on the right didn't like the ad.
	I am one of the people who did not like the ad.
	Again, I believe that Christianity and people going back to church is maybe the only thing that can save the country in reality.
	And so the watered-down version of Christianity that basically is just paganism, Is something I'm not a big fan of.
	It's more on this in just one second.
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	So that was political ad number one.
	Political ad number two I was a little warmer on.
	And that was the RFK ad.
	So there was a super PAC for RFK who put out an RFK ad during the Super Bowl.
	So let me first state, this is super smart.
	This is really, really, really smart.
	The reason this is really smart is because Joe Biden forewent the honorary Super Bowl interview that every incumbent president gets.
	And the reason he did that is because he's too old for the job and he can no longer function as we saw last week, as we'll get into in just a moment.
	And Donald Trump didn't take out an ad.
	I don't know why Trump didn't take out an ad.
	This would be like a perfect time for Trump to take out an ad.
	I assume maybe the people broadcasting the Super Bowl didn't want Trump to take out an ad?
	But the fact is that RFK did.
	And this ad is very smart.
	The reason this ad is very smart is because, again, it is seeking normalcy.
	So what the RFK super PAC understands is that what Americans basically want is everybody to calm the F down.
	That's kind of what most Americans want at this point.
	All they want is to know that they go to work, they're gonna take home the vast majority of their money, they're gonna be able to raise their families without being victimized by street crime, that they're not gonna have their boys turned into girls or whatever.
	They just want a baseline level of normalcy.
	That's what most Americans are looking for at this point.
	And what that is is a throwback.
	And so this ad takes a 1960 ad.
	So obviously I'm big into presidential history.
	I recognize this ad right away.
	This is from the 1960 campaign.
	And it was an ad for John F. Kennedy.
	And it's a throwback ad.
	And basically it substitutes RFK's face into the ad.
	Now I'm not a fan of the Kennedy family.
	I think JFK was a wildly overrated president who blew it wildly on the Bay of Bigs, for example.
	I think that the rest of the Kennedy family, Teddy Kennedy was a likely murderer and also disaster area of a human being.
	R.F.K., R.F.K.
	Jr.' 's father, was a fairly corrupt guy with a very seamy personal life.
	So I'm not a fan of the Kennedy.
	Joseph Kennedy, the scion of the guy who founded the dynasty, was a Nazi sympathizer.
	So, again, Far be it from me to be saying that the Kennedy family is anything special.
	I don't like the Kennedys as a kind of family, but they do have brand recognition, as you might say, in American politics.
	And so RFK glomming onto that, but not glomming onto his own father, really, as much as he's glomming onto the 1960, let's get back to something resembling optimism and normality, Really smart.
	Really a smart ad.
	So here's what the ad sounded like and I will narrate through it because there's not a lot of talk.
	Okay, so it says Kennedy for president and then it has pictures of RFK where the JFK pictures used to be.
	And it's a mashup of all these pictures from sort of the Kennedy past with RFK pictures.
	And they're using the exact same song.
	They had all these songs back in the old days.
	It says, vote independent Kennedy.
	And what is the feel that you get from this ad?
	And then it says, Kennedy for president, and he looks like a button from 1960.
	So, this ad is really smart.
	Because essentially, RFK, this ad, is basically saying, make America great again.
	That's really what the ad is about.
	It's a throwback ad, and it's saying, vote independent, right?
	You don't like either of these parties, vote independent.
	So it's not even about anything that RFK is doing.
	It's not...
	Again, I think that's quite a brilliant ad.
	I think that you actually are going to see better name recognition of RFK, because if you look at the polls, most Americans don't really like very much either of the two candidates who are running for president.
	And so just saying, vote independent, and then slapping a Kennedy label on there is about as well as you can do with one of these ads.
	And using all of the throwback imagery here is super smart for RFK Jr.
	Very, very smart ad.
	And running it during the Super Bowl, the single most watched event in America, Quite politically astute.
	Quite politically astute.
	Which brings us to Joe Biden, the man who forewent the Super Bowl.
	So again, usually the Super Bowl is a piece of propaganda on behalf of the current President of the United States, because you get these sort of honorary pre-Super Bowl interview, and Joe Biden just forewent it.
	He just didn't do it.
	Instead, Joe Biden showed, in what he did react to the Super Bowl, that he is wildly out of touch and also too old for the job.
	So, after the Super Bowl, There have been all these weird, stupid conspiracy theories about how the CIA and the FBI were going to rig the Super Bowl so that Travis Kelce would propose to Taylor Swift and then Taylor Swift would get up and endorse Joe Biden at the Super Bowl.
	None of that was ever going to happen.
	It was incredibly dumb.
	And again, it comes from a desire on the part of some people to assume a level of control in politics that is absolutely foreclosed by the stupidity of most people in politics.
	So Joe Biden's online team, they then tweeted out a meme after the Chiefs won in overtime.
	It's a picture of Joe Biden with the kind of dark brands in meme with the glowing eyes.
	It says, just like we drew it up.
	And obviously it's mocking the people who had the conspiracy theory.
	This is super online, like really online.
	Because again, this conspiracy theory is something that's been sort of pushed by the media and exaggerated by the media as a major thing in American life.
	So the fact that his team is tweeting that as opposed to just sort of a warm welcome to the people who won the Super Bowl, and this is the big takeaway.
	Very online.
	Very insular.
	Joe Biden obviously had nothing to do with it.
	He has no clue what's going on.
	We'll get to more on this in just one second.
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	And that was betrayed by the fact that just before the Super Bowl,
	Joe Biden tried to cut a video.
	So he doesn't do the interview, but he does do a video from the White House
	about shrinkflation.
	Shrinkflation is this phenomenon in which you're spending the same for a bag of potato chips, there are fewer potato chips in the bag.
	It's sort of a hidden form of inflation, which has happened thanks to Joe Biden.
	Now he's trying to claim that this is because of corporate greed, when in reality, it's because he created an inflationary economy, the worst inflationary economy in 40 years.
	But what's worse about this particular video is that to say that Joe Biden looks like death in this video is an insult to death.
	He does not look like a warmed over corpse.
	The corpse does not look warmed over.
	It is quite honestly, like as an American whose president is this guy, it is really frightening that a person who is clearly no longer alive is the president of the United States.
	This is Weekend at Bernie's time.
	Here is Joe Biden, a video that he cut right before the Super Bowl.
	The Super Bowl is Sunday.
	If you're anything like me, you'll like to be surrounded by a snack or two while watching the big game.
	You know, when buying snacks for the game, you might have noticed one thing.
	Sports drinks bottles are smaller.
	A bag of chips is fewer chips.
	By the way, look how many cuts.
	They're still charging you just as much.
	He can't even say direct in the camera.
	What makes me the most angry is that ice cream trucks have actually shrunk in size.
	Like, set up a teleprompter in front of the camera, guys.
	What are you reading?
	I've had enough of what they call shrink fashion.
	Where's he looking?
	He's like all the way out here.
	That's not how teleprompters work, Joe.
	How many reads did he have to do to get this much video in a row?
	Okay, that is a truly awful video.
	That's not how teleprompters work, Joe.
	The American public is tired of being paid for suckers.
	I'm calling on companies to put a stop to this.
	Let's make sure businesses do the right thing.
	How many reads did he have to do to get this much video in a row?
	Okay, that is a truly awful video.
	He looks terrible.
	His big pitch going into the game is, I don't like shrink flay.
	First of all, who's the political wunderkind who told him talk about inflation before the Super Bowl?
	Because guess whose fault that is, Joe?
	In the corporations.
	By the way, this is like the one time in American life where everybody kind of likes the corporations because they like the ads.
	Most of the time, Americans are like, corporations suck.
	And they watch the Super Bowl like, that was a funny ad from from Dunkin Donuts.
	I enjoyed that.
	Tone deaf, not alive, too old.
	And that is the slogan for the 2024 Joe Biden campaign.
	The polls are getting worse and worse for Joe Biden on the age issue.
	I mean, truly awful for Joe Biden.
	So what we have in the 2024 election, this is why the RFK Jr.
	ad is smart, what we have is a president who is far too old and terrible at his job.
	I'm more concerned about him being terrible at his job, frankly.
	I think a lot of people are concerned about the fact that he's no longer sentient, that he's a houseplant hiding the water stain that is the Democratic Party policy.
	I'm more concerned about the water stain, to be honest with you.
	But By polling data, most people are very, very concerned about the House plant himself.
	So you have that on the one hand.
	And on the other hand, you have Donald Trump, who just keeps saying things.
	Stop saying things.
	If you want to... It's just the world's longest game of hold my beer.
	It's just... In any case, we'll start with Joe Biden.
	So, brand new ABC News Ipsos poll.
	86% of Americans think Joe Biden is too old to serve another term as president. 86%.
	Okay, let me explain.
	86% of Americans don't agree about anything.
	You can't get 86% of Americans to agree that Elvis is dead.
	You cannot get 86% of Americans to believe the moon landing is real.
	86% of Americans agree that Joe Biden is too old, and the other 14% are direct members of Joe Biden's extended family.
	Everyone knows he's too old for the job.
	Everyone knows he's no longer sentient.
	Everyone knows he's falling apart.
	So 59% of Americans think both he and Donald Trump are too old.
	27% think only Biden is too old.
	So the 59% who think that both he and Trump are too old are basically just saying we don't like either of these candidates.
	Because if you contrast Trump with Biden, Trump is clearly a much more alive human than Joe Biden.
	Like, Donald Trump is fully alive.
	Joe Biden is, in the words of the Princess Bride, mostly dead.
	It means slightly alive, but mostly dead.
	And he's gonna need Miracle Max to come in and revive him for anything remotely resembling a campaign here.
	62% of Americans think Trump is too old to serve as president.
	73% of Democrats think Biden is too old to serve.
	Only 35% of Republicans think Trump is too old to serve.
	91% of independents think Biden is too old.
	91%.
	I don't see how you can win re-election under those circumstances, frankly.
	The only way would be if, say, the other candidate wouldn't shut the hell up and just kept saying things that are likely to hurt his campaign.
	The Democrats are trying to walk past this one because they have no mechanism for getting rid of him.
	So according to news reports, Jill Biden is very, very upset.
	She's very upset because the special counsel report from Robert Herr came out and it said Joe Biden is certainly guilty of mishandling classified information, but a prosecution of him would be unsuccessful because he's a vegetable.
	Because he's essentially a drooling vegetable and we cannot allow any trial of him because he will just present himself thus and everyone will go, are we going to put that old guy in jail?
	Probably not.
	So don't bother with the prosecution.
	That's the case that Robert Heard, the special counsel made in short.
	And apparently sources at NBC News were like, well, Jill Biden says that the report is inhumane.
	Well, I mean, I guess you could choose the prosecution and see how that goes for you.
	Here was Meet the Press reporting.
	And a person who's close to the First Lady told me that she was directly involved in the crafting of this fundraising email.
	Jen, you know well it's not always the case that it's like that.
	She said, among other things, that she wanted to speak out in real American mom terms and say that this wasn't just inaccurate, that it was inhumane.
	And then she also wanted to make another argument that the First Lady did there.
	She said that Americans benefit from each of the President's 81 years.
	His experience, his expertise is what's allowed him to get things done.
	Okay, we're benefiting from each of his 81 years?
	Uh... Well, then we could get into his record.
	And we will in just a moment.
	Okay, but Democrats are trying to come up with whatever angle they can here.
	So what they are saying is that the special counsel is bad now.
	Oh, how every argument flips the moment it's your side.
	So, when it was Robert Mueller and Donald Trump was saying, The special counsel investigation is a joke and it's a witch hunt and it's terrible and it's politically motivated and there's a deep state that's out to get me.
	Then the entire press is like, that's unpatriotic.
	That's the president of the United States threatening democracy, threatening the bureaucracy.
	He can't do that.
	That's terrible.
	Oh, there are hearts a-flutter.
	Oh, there are fans a-waving.
	Oh, there is sweat a-breaking out on brows across the media landscape.
	But Joe Biden's entire team is out there.
	Senators, members of the press.
	Robert Herr is evil.
	He is out to get Joe Biden.
	Robert Herr's a mean man who's out to get Grandpa.
	Leave Grandpa alone!
	We'll get to more on this in just one second.
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	So we have Chris Coons, the Senator from Delaware, who's out there saying it's insulting to say
	that Joe Biden forgot the date of his son's death.
	OK, well, you know, as we'll see in a second, you know what you could do?
	You could release the transcript and we can see if that's true or not.
	You know who doesn't want to release the transcript of any of the interview with Robert Herr?
	Joe Biden.
	In any case, here is Chris Coons.
	What that poll could have been about is who understands that our alliances keep us safer?
	Joe Biden, who's led 50 countries to come to the defense of Ukraine?
	Or Donald Trump, who alarmingly last night bragged about a story where he claims he threatened a NATO ally to throw them to the Russian wolves if they didn't pay up?
	NATO isn't a protection racket, it is a security alliance.
	So the substance, the difference, Joe Biden and Donald Trump and most elected officials
	make small gaffes just like the ones you just showed.
	That's not what matters.
	We are in a fight for the soul of our nation and the idea that somehow Joe Biden forgot
	the date of his son's death is offensive and appalling.
	And what you should be focused on, in my view, what that poll should have focused on, what our nation should focus on, is the way that Donald Trump is undermining rule of law, democracy, and our safety as a nation.
	Okay, whatever, it's insulting.
	How dare the special counsel, how dare, then Adam Schiff, the biggest political hack of our generation.
	Adam Schiff, who literally went into the green room at MSNBC and CNN for like three years, claiming that just around the corner was a bombshell that would link Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin's slush fund.
	That garbage human, Adam Schiff, he's out there now saying that her is a political hack.
	Oh, pot calling kettle black here.
	But clients are told, hey, if you don't remember specifically the facts of things that happened years ago, which is not uncommon, don't try to reinvent what took place.
	And there's nothing, I think, unusual about a deposition in which people can't recall details of years ago.
	But to extrapolate from that and make a political attack, that's just hackery by Mr. Herr.
	Wow.
	Hackery.
	Says the world's largest hack.
	Okay, so here's the question.
	If it is hackery by her, then you know what they could do?
	So first of all, I'm with her.
	But in any case, if it is hackery by Robert Herr, you know what they could do?
	They could release all the transcripts.
	They could do that.
	Here is Joe Biden's lawyer saying they're not going to release all the transcripts.
	I wonder why.
	I wonder why you won't release the taped interviews with Robert Herr.
	Maybe it's because Joe Biden sounds senile in them.
	That would be the rationale.
	What you're talking about and letters you've released make it sound like there are indeed transcripts that you have of these conversations over the 8th and the 9th.
	Yes, I'm drawing here on my recollections, but yes, there are transcripts and as you heard Ian Sams in the press briefing room say, you know, there are discussions underway because it's a classified document about What could or whether will be or when released, I can't add anything to that today.
	Do you favor releasing them?
	Well, it's really a decision that has to take place within the government.
	It's a classified document.
	I'm the president's personal counsel.
	Right.
	Would you recommend that these be made public if they indeed back up your personal record?
	Again, there's a process underway.
	I'm not a specialist in that process, and so I really have to defer to those who have to work through those issues.
	So that'd be a no.
	They don't want those transcripts made public because what it's going to show is that Joe Biden is no longer sentient.
	The blowback, by the way, here is somewhat bipartisan.
	A huge percentage of Democrats also think that Joe Biden does not have the mental acuity to be president anymore.
	Hillary Clinton can always be counted on to shiv every other Democrat in the back.
	Hillary Clinton is a walking shiv.
	That's what she is as a human being.
	Here she was saying that Joe Biden's age is a legitimate issue.
	Perhaps the reason that Hillary Clinton is saying that is because Hillary Clinton, she is currently... How old is Hillary Clinton now?
	Hillary Clinton is currently 76.
	So she's a spring chicken by our modern standards of the presidency.
	And maybe she's thinking, well, if Joe steps down, maybe it's me.
	Maybe.
	Hope never dies in Hillary land.
	Here she was going after Joe Biden on his age.
	The thing, the X factor in all of this, the thing that we keep seeing in poll after poll after poll is concern about Biden's age.
	Full stop.
	What should he do on this?
	Does he, is it, is a matter of sort of like, Underscoring his boundless energy?
	Or should he embrace his, you know, eight decades on earth and the great wisdom he's gained through all of this?
	I think only the above.
	Only the above.
	I mean, you know, I talk to people in the White House all the time and, you know, they know it's an issue.
	But as I like to say, look, it's a legitimate issue.
	It's a legitimate issue for Trump, who's only three years younger, right?
	So it's an issue.
	Once you say that, then you have to also talk about what's at stake in the election, and I'm for Joe Biden for re-election on the merits, because I think he's done a really good job as president.
	Okay, she's not.
	Bob Costas, right before the game, a sportscaster, he was like, yeah, maybe it's time for Joe Biden to go away.
	Perhaps the time has come.
	Just because the Republicans and Fox News and all the tributaries that come off of that will overstate it, Turn a blind eye to the fact that Trump, who has always been an unprincipled and reprehensible person, is now a ranting lunatic who has mental gaps of his own.
	So, it's a selective truth.
	But that doesn't mean it isn't true.
	Right.
	And when it comes to Biden, this is like the truth that no one until very recently wants to say out loud.
	But my friends will tell you I've been saying it for four years.
	This is Emperor's New Clothes stuff.
	Joe Biden should have run on a firm promise that he would be a one-term president.
	The only reason he is president is that he's not Donald Trump.
	Then the Dems could have gotten a lot of people up in the bullpen, and they could have sorted through those people.
	If Biden's hubris is such that he doesn't understand the best interests of his party, and more important, his country, then he has to be shown the door.
	Period.
	Okay, Costas is not wrong.
	There are a lot of Democrats who feel the same way about this, but here's the problem.
	There's no way to get him to leave.
	Joe Biden is a stubborn old codger.
	No one who attains the presidency wants to leave it, ever, under any circumstances.
	I mean, that is just the reality of the ego involved here, which is why Biden's campaign co-chair, Mitch Landrieu, is like, he's never going to quit, ever, under any circumstances.
	Here's Mitch Landrieu.
	How do you respond to Democrats who say they want to see a change at the top of the ticket?
	I'm in the process of doing it right now, and demonstrating that the President's accomplishments have really been second to none.
	And Joe Biden is going to get up every day.
	The one thing Joe Biden is never going to do is count on this.
	He is never, ever going to quit.
	Because that's not what he's done his entire life, notwithstanding the fact that, by the way, he lost another child early in his life, and he got up and he went to work.
	And then he had difficulty with his other son, and he got up and he went to work, and he's going to keep doing that.
	In other words, he ain't going nowhere, which puts Democrats in a heap of trouble if the Republicans cannot step on their own bleeps.
	Well, good luck with that.
	We'll get to that in a moment.
	All right, folks, I need your attention for a major announcement.
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	Okay, meanwhile.
	So, Donald Trump's re-elect would be a foregone conclusion here, if he could get out of his own way.
	And that's the real question of this election cycle.
	Joe Biden can't defeat his own inabilities.
	He can't.
	He is physically limited, he is mentally limited, his capacity is limited.
	He really has a bunch of boundaries that have been set by reality for him.
	And his own policies, we'll get to momentarily, are a disaster area that are significantly increasing the likelihood of World War III across the world, mainly through his cowardice and inaction.
	Donald Trump has one factor under his control that Joe Biden does not, and that is the capacity to shut his face.
	It is important to shut your face when you're in a presidential election.
	What you don't say is just as important as what you do say.
	You being on TV more does not mean that you're going to win more votes.
	Donald Trump does not need to up his profile at this point.
	Donald Trump needs everyone to be focused in on the fact that Joe Biden is a terrible president who is no longer competent to hold his office.
	And that his backup is Kamala Harris, who is the world's worst vice president, also not competent to hold her office, but for different reasons.
	That is what Donald Trump needs this election to be a referendum on.
	So what he doesn't need to do is make big boo-boos that allow the media to try to switch the narrative away.
	So, there's kind of the usual Trumpian nonsense.
	I don't think any of that's going to affect him.
	The Trumpian nonsense would be stuff like Donald Trump riffing about Taylor Swift before the big game.
	So he wrote a tweet saying, I signed and was responsible for the Music Modernization Act for Taylor Swift and many other artists.
	Joe Biden didn't do anything for Taylor and never will.
	There's no way she could endorse crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt president in the history of our country, and be disloyal to the man who made her so much money.
	Besides that, I like her boyfriend, Travis, even though he may be a liberal and probably can't stand me.
	Okay, like, this is dumb stuff.
	I don't know, like, who cares?
	I mean, it's like I'm the dumb ca- By the way, she's totally gonna endorse Biden.
	I mean, we all know this, right?
	And so's Travis.
	Like, we all get that?
	Now again, in a past world, no one would care because who cares what a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs and a pop singer have to say about politics?
	And in reality, I don't think it's going to move that many votes.
	Is that like a dumb thing to say?
	Yeah, it's silly.
	It's silly.
	Is that going to have any impact on the election?
	No, that one's not going to have any impact.
	But what Donald Trump says about policy, that does allow for lines of attack to open against him that he does not need to open.
	So Donald Trump was giving a speech and he was talking about NATO.
	Donald Trump's position on NATO is that NATO is important, apparently.
	The intelligent version of Donald Trump's position on NATO is that NATO is quite important in order to check foreign actors who have interests adversarial to those of the United States and the European Union, which is largely what comprises NATO.
	And yes, NATO, of course, is in fact a tool to counterbalance Russian aggression in the Balkans, in Ukraine, and other places.
	And for all of the foolish talk about how Russia is not an expansionist power, I urge everyone to pick up a book, any book, about the history of Russia.
	The history of Russia is literally a history of expansionism.
	The kingdom of Muscovy was a very small kingdom, and then it was a very large kingdom, and then it got even larger under the Soviet Union, and then it got a little smaller after the fall of the Soviet Union, and now it's gotten a little larger under Vladimir Putin.
	The idea that Russia is not an expansionist power is not correct.
	That is just not true.
	But, in any case, Donald Trump could say, listen, NATO, important, we like it, which is why we want everyone to pay up.
	We don't wish to pay the large share of the burden for NATO.
	We should pay a proportional share for NATO.
	And you guys who are in Europe, you should see how vital this is.
	We rebuilt your economy with the Marshall Plan.
	80 years ago.
	We have rebuilt your economies to the point where you guys can have these giant social welfare states where half your population is dependent on the government.
	You can certainly afford a little bit more for NATO.
	And you should.
	I think that's the argument that Donald Trump is making here, which is badly articulated.
	So Donald Trump is making the argument here that if NATO doesn't pay up, the United States will not.
	That's called leverage, okay?
	So using leverage is not the end of the world.
	Saying out loud things like, we will not defend our NATO partners if they don't pay up, is not exactly an inducement for Vladimir Putin to stop his aggression, precisely.
	So here is Donald Trump over the weekend.
	One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, well, sir, if we don't pay and we're attacked by Russia, will you protect us?
	I said, you didn't pay?
	You're delinquent?
	He said, yes.
	Let's say that happened.
	No, I would not protect you.
	In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.
	Okay, so, he's obviously quasi-joking here.
	That is not how foreign policy decisions get made.
	But, does it matter when a presidential candidate says, I would encourage them to attack you if you don't actually pay your ne- Again, this is Donald Trump speaking in hyperbole because that's the language he speaks.
	That's the reality.
	Hey, you can tell when he's joking, when he's not.
	This is a story, by the way, that for sure never happened.
	No major country got up and said to Donald Trump, if we don't pay our fair share, are you going to let the Russians invade us?
	That is a conversation that never happened in the same way that Donald Trump routinely retells conversations with other political candidates who come to him crying for his support, which is not a reality.
	None of that happens.
	Donald Trump exaggerates for effect.
	This is an exaggeration for effect.
	But when you're a presidential candidate, opening the door up to critique is not exactly your smartest strategy.
	So the White House, of course, jumped directly on that with both feet.
	Suggesting that this was incredibly dangerous, how could he possibly say this sort of stuff?
	Now, the normal counter to this is, you know who didn't invade Ukraine while Donald Trump was president?
	It would be Vladimir Putin.
	So all the talk about Donald Trump being bad for NATO, there are a lot less violations of NATO's presumed reach or threats to NATO's presumed reach under Donald Trump than there were under Joe Biden, because Joe Biden's a weakling.
	But NATO put out a statement.
	NATO Secretary General Jan Stoltenberg said NATO remains ready and able to defend all allies.
	Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the U.S.
	and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk.
	I expect that regardless of who wins the presidential election, the U.S.
	will remain a strong and committed NATO ally.
	And then leaders in Germany and Poland also swiftly criticized Donald Trump's comments.
	So you understand where they're coming from.
	I mean, the reality is that if you are an Eastern European country or a country in the Baltics and the President of the United States is like, you don't pay up and they might invade you.
	And you're talking about like Latvia or Lithuania or Estonia and these places have GDPs that are minute compared to the GDP of the United States.
	I mean, the GDP of Poland is like $680 billion.
	The annual budget of the United States, not the GDP, the annual budget is like 10 times that amount.
	So let's say that you are Poland and you are currently spending 3.9% of your GDP into military goals, including twice NATO's current 2% target for NATO.
	Like you have to say that you're gonna spend a certain percentage of your money on your military budget in order to fulfill your duty under NATO.
	Let's say you're Poland.
	And what you hear from the president of the United States is that an attack on the collective, that is NATO, Will be accepted by the United States so long as it's like Latvia and they're paying, say, 1.8% or something.
	If you're Poland, does that make you sanguine or does that make you upset?
	So again, I understand exactly what Donald Trump is saying here.
	And what he's actually saying is he's trying to leverage everybody into spending what they should be spending on their own defense spending.
	But putting out that signal publicly is not the same thing as doing it privately because, of course, Vladimir Putin and company are listening and they sense any sort of weakness as a chance for aggression.
	So that opens Donald Trump up to critique, that he doesn't need.
	That he doesn't need.
	It's useless.
	It's not useful to his campaign to do that sort of thing.
	Other things that are not useful to Donald Trump's campaign, lashing out at Nikki Haley's husband.
	Like, why is this a thing?
	Nikki Haley is not important in this race.
	Nikki Haley is not going to win any more primaries.
	Nikki Haley was over after New Hampshire.
	I mean, to be frank, she was over before New Hampshire.
	This race was over after Iowa.
	I said so after Iowa.
	It was over.
	It remains over.
	Why Donald Trump is spending his mental energy going after Nikki Haley and then going after Nikki Haley's husband by proxy.
	Is this the sort of stuff that's going to attract the suburban women that you need in order to win a general election?
	I don't think so.
	And of course, it's not just about what he says.
	It's about the fact that he opens the door.
	This is Trump as a personality.
	One of the benefits of Donald Trump is he doesn't give a bleep, right?
	That's his big thing.
	I don't give a bleep.
	The problem is, when you have the world's biggest target on your back, which Donald Trump does, not giving a bleep makes it harder for you to get done what you need to get done.
	I'm not saying he should care what people think.
	I'm saying that he should care about strategic thinking so that he is more likely to win.
	So, for example, if you know that the quote-unquote deep state has its eye on you, you know what you shouldn't do is refuse to turn over boxes of documents in Mar-a-Lago after they request them.
	Just turn them over.
	What's the point of anything else?
	If you know that all you have to do is just point at the elderly, doddering, senile old man on the other side and win election, Why are you ripping on Nikki Haley's husband and allowing a spate of headlines about Nikki Haley's husband?
	Like, why?
	Just what is the logic here?
	If you want Trump to win, I'm asking this question.
	Because this is totally under Trump's control.
	The big problem for Joe Biden.
	Many of his problems are not under his own control.
	For Donald Trump, I know he wants to be in the limelight.
	I know he likes the rallies.
	I know he's a comedian.
	I get the jokes.
	Also, like, what's the... Strategically, why would this be helpful?
	Forget about whether he's gonna win or not.
	Is this helpful?
	Here he was going after Nikki Haley's husband.
	The greatest president in my lifetime, she said.
	I will never run against him!
	Then she comes over to see me at Mar-a-Lago.
	Sir, I will never run against you.
	She brought her husband.
	Where's her husband?
	Oh, he's away.
	He's away.
	What happened to her husband?
	What happened to her husband?
	Where is he?
	He's gone.
	Okay, so what he's actually implying right there?
	What he's actually implying is that Nikki Haley's cheating on her husband.
	Let's be clear about what he's implying right there because that is what he's doing.
	There have been these rumors long-standing with affidavits and all of this sort of stuff.
	Where is Nikki Haley's husband?
	He's an active duty member of the American military.
	He's overseas right now.
	How is that helpful?
	Again, just forget about the morality of what he's saying, which I don't like.
	How is that helpful?
	Especially because, again, Joe Biden is a terrible president.
	Why not focus on Joe Biden?
	Forget about Nikki Haley.
	Focus in on Joe Biden.
	The reality is that Joe Biden's weakness is leading to a larger chance of a larger-scale war breaking out.
	So, for example, in the Middle East right now, there are several things happening.
	One of the things that's happening is that apparently, according to several U.S.
	defense officials, and this will be Open Source Intelligence Monitor reporting, preparations are now underway for a total or partial withdrawal of U.S.
	and coalition forces from Eastern Syria and Iraq due to pressure from Iranian-backed groups, including Kataib Hezbollah.
	Okay, now, you can make the case that we shouldn't have outlets over there, but if you are going to withdraw people, you don't do it in the face of Iranian terror.
	If you want to make the case that independently we don't need people over there and it's a waste of time and a waste of resources, make that case.
	But don't let Iranian terror groups quote-unquote drive you out of the region.
	What do they do after that?
	They declare victory.
	What do they do after that?
	They go after the next easiest target.
	Whether that's Saudis or Israelis or Americans or in other bases around the region.
	Showing your neck is the worst thing you can do in the Middle East and the Biden administration is doing it over and over and over again.
	They're doing it with regard to Israel right now.
	Joe Biden, he believes that he can only win election if he panders to terror supporters in Michigan.
	That's what he believes.
	And that's why he is deploying top Biden aides to Michigan to do meetings in Dearborn to rip on the Israelis who are an American ally.
	You know who's not an American ally?
	Hamas.
	Not an American ally.
	At least last I checked.
	According to the Times of Israel, U.S.
	Deputy National Security Advisor John Finer made comments Thursday during a visit to the city of Dearborn, in which the top White House official said he did not have, quote, any confidence in the current Israeli government.
	Now, I would just like to point out at this point, the current Israeli government is not just run by Benjamin Netanyahu, who's been made the bugaboo and the enemy of the press.
	Benny Gantz is the prime opposition, the person who in every poll, if an election were held today, would be Prime Minister of Israel.
	That guy is in the coalition right now for the purposes of the war.
	And yet the goal here is to try to convince, I guess, Michigan pro-Hamasniks, that the Biden administration is trying to draw a middle line between Hamas and the Israeli government.
	And then he apparently called some unnamed Israeli officials, quote, abhorrent.
	And said the administration should have taken a stronger stand against those who compared, quote, residents of Gaza to animals.
	Now that is a lie.
	The person he's talking about there is Yoav Galant, who's the defense minister of Israel, who compared members of Hamas to animals.
	And guess what?
	They are animals.
	If you're a member of Hamas and you rape women and you kill babies, you are an animal.
	But Galant was specifically talking about Hamas, not every Palestinian who's living over there.
	Meanwhile, Joe Biden, again, an attempt to buy Michigan support.
	He apparently told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday that Israel should not go ahead with a military operation in the Gaza border town of Rafah without a credible plan to protect civilians.
	Now, what exactly does that mean?
	First of all, Israel has been attempting to protect civilians this entire time because of Israel, which has complete air superiority for the 1000th time, wished to kill Two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
	They certainly have the aerial capability to do that, but they are not doing that.
	In fact, there are Israeli soldiers, who I know, who are going literally house to house and door to door in the most densely populated areas of some of the most densely populated places on planet Earth, so as to not kill civilians.
	In fact, I met with an Israeli soldier on Friday night who literally had his buddy gunned down right in front of him as he was going into an apartment complex in Gaza last week.
	Like, Why are they even on the ground there?
	The reason is to preserve civilian life.
	Not only that, the reason they're on the ground is to save the hostages.
	So while Joe Biden was apparently telling Israel not to go into Rafa, which again is the only major stronghold Hamas has left.
	They apparently have four battalions in Rafa.
	In order for Israel to finish off, this is basically like Joe Biden saying to the American military during World War II, guys, once you get around Berlin, just stop there.
	Just stop right around Berlin.
	Like, no, that's not the idea.
	Every Hamas official is now in Rafah.
	Everyone knows this.
	This is clearly true.
	Not only that, all the hostages are in Rafah.
	Miraculously, we found out last night during the Super Bowl, Israel actually rescued two hostages alive in Gaza last night, which is like an amazing, miraculous story.
	You have right now about 100 hostages who are being kept We don't know how many are dead.
	Nobody knows how many are dead.
	But Israel actually rescued two hostages alive in Rafah while the Biden administration was telling them not to go in.
	According to the Wall Street Journal, the Israeli military said Monday the rescue of Fernando Simon Marmon and Louis Haar was a complicated operation performed under fire in the heart of Rafah, a city in southern Gaza near where Palestinians are seeking refuge from the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
	At roughly 2 a.m.
	local time, military forces and a police SWAT team broke into a house in Rafah and engaged in a gunfight with Hamas militants while shielding the hostages with their own bodies before evacuating them to a secure location.
	Israeli airstrikes in Gaza killed 164 people overnight, including dozens in Rafah.
	Of course, those targeted strikes were at military members of Hamas who hide behind civilians.
	And having talked again to people who are serving in Gaza right now, the embedding is insane.
	The line between civilian and military in Gaza, between civilian and terrorists in Gaza, is incredibly thin.
	Huge percentages of civilian households in Gaza contain weaponry.
	Huge percentages are hiding terror tunnels.
	Not just them, by the way.
	According to the Wall Street Journal, Hidden deep below the headquarters of the UN Aid Agency for Palestinians in Gaza City is a Hamas complex with rows of computer servers that Israel's armed forces say served as an important communication center and intelligence hub for Hamas.
	The compound is directly below the United Nations Relief and Works Agency buildings in Gaza City, and they're running on electricity drawn from the UN.
	So whenever people talk about the vaunted UN, remember, the UN RWA is Hamas.
	They are indistinguishable in the Gaza Strip.
	And meanwhile, Biden is trying to tell the Israelis not to go in and rescue their own people, which is amazing.
	Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, he says, listen, we're not going to stop here.
	Hamas is eliminated when you destroy their fighting formations.
	Here he was on Sunday.
	You've defined victory and you said the war will not end until Hamas is completely eliminated.
	How are you going to know when that is?
	How do you know when Hamas is completely eliminated?
	When you eliminate their organized fighting formations, and as I've said, we've taken 18 out of their 24 terrorist battalions out of commission, you're mopping up the remaining individual terrorists, and when you Release the hostages, of course, and ensure that Hamas, that Gaza is no longer a threat to Israel.
	You don't have to kill every last terrorist.
	You didn't have to kill every last ISIS terrorist, but you made sure that ISIS was finished as a military force that you have to dismantle.
	Hamas is a military force that controls territory.
	We're well within reach, and we shouldn't stop.
	Meanwhile, the Biden administration is trying to stop Israel from actually finishing the job with Hamas, which of course leads to more violence in the region if Israel would stop because Hamas would walk out, hold up a Hamas flag, say that they won even though they've completely devastated Gaza and every ounce of blood is on Hamas, which started this war and which has maintained this war.
	And then Hezbollah in the North would probably start prodding further and trying to kill more Israelis, knowing that Joe Biden is a weakling.
	And it's not just in the Middle East.
	It's also with regard to Ukraine.
	So let's be clear at this point.
	Joe Biden's failure to define mission in Ukraine has led to an impasse in the Senate and in the House.
	No one knows what the off-ramp is because Joe Biden has not actually spelled out what he thinks the off-ramp is right here.
	So what's become very clear is that Vladimir Putin is basically banking on the West just retreating in Ukraine.
	Vladimir Putin, in that interview with Tucker Carlson, Yeah, people are saying that he offered an off-ramp.
	No, he really didn't.
	His off-ramp was, no American support for Ukraine ever again.
	Which Ukraine is not going to agree to.
	Who else is going to provide the support?
	He has not made clear his territorial demands either.
	And in that interview, where he spells out all of Russian history from his vantage point, he says Ukraine literally does not exist, and that the regime needs to be quote-unquote, denazified.
	Which means that Vladimir Putin's goals have really not changed.
	His goals are not Donbass and Crimea.
	His goals are Kiev, still.
	And he is banking on the West, basically saying, okay, fine, you know, we're tired, whatever, okay.
	What that would require for Joe Biden to make the argument is not just alarmism, it would be an actual explanation of what is going on in Ukraine.
	That Ukraine, yes, there is corruption.
	Yes, certainly, a percentage of the money that goes to Ukraine will probably end up in the wrong hands because that happens with pretty much every country that we give foreign aid to.
	This is one of the problems with foreign aid.
	There's some countries that are very transparent about it.
	There's some countries that really are not.
	Ukraine happens to be a place with a lot of corruption.
	Sure, there are problems with Vladimir Zelensky as a leader.
	Vladimir Zelensky has cracked down on the opposition.
	There's no question that he has done that.
	He did that actually even prior to the 2022 invasion by Russia.
	With all of that said, it is not in America's direct interest to have Russia control Kiev, Ukraine, and put that Ukrainian border directly on the borders of NATO, threatening places like Hungary and Poland.
	That is not in America's interest.
	And providing some additional aid, which amounts to a drop in the bucket for Americans, compared to the generalized budget of the American budget right now.
	That is a well worthwhile... He has to make that case.
	He's not making that case.
	He's simply declaring that everyone who opposes him is badly motivated and everybody who opposes him wants Russia to win the war and wants them to take Kiev and all the rest, which is not helpful in any way, shape or form.
	Plus, he has never suggested what he thinks the end of this war looks like.
	If he came out tomorrow and said, listen, we all know what the end of this war looks like.
	What the end of this war looks like is Russia essentially retaining the Donbass and retaining Crimea.
	And the United States and the Europeans providing security guarantees without them joining NATO to Ukraine.
	And that's what the end of this thing looks like.
	And until Vladimir Putin is willing to accept that, this war continues.
	It would make pretty clear exactly what Vladimir Putin's aims are.
	It's the vagary of Western policy that has allowed space for Vladimir Putin to create doubt about whether the West even wants to end the war at all, when in reality, it seems like the West may be the only party that wants to end the war at this point.
	Maybe not Zelensky, but the West more broadly, the EU and the United States as well.
	Joe Biden, first of all, slow-walked the aid to Ukraine in the very first place.
	And then after slow-walking the aid, he failed to actually allow for an off-ramp.
	In fact, he fostered a non-off-ramp.
	And now, he's failing to make clear what exactly the mission is.
	And so, the very clear reality is that there could be a point where Ukraine does, in fact, collapse again.
	Because Russia will just keep doing this.
	I think one of the things people don't understand about the Russian mindset with regard to war is that additional casualties are not a disincentive for the Russians.
	Additional casualties are proof of the heroism of the Russian people.
	This goes all the way back to the Napoleonic era.
	This is not just the World War II era for the Russians.
	So all of this radically increases all of the possibilities of serious war, not just in Ukraine, not just in the Gaza Strip, not just in the north of Israel, but also China and Taiwan.
	China looks at Taiwan right now and they say to themselves, who's going to stop us?
	Seriously, who's going to stop us?
	The American people don't have the willpower to even spend the money on Ukraine.
	Joe Biden seems to want to stop Israel from crushing a terror group.
	We're much more powerful than either Russia or Hamas.
	If we grab Taiwan, who's going to do bleep?
	Seriously, who's going to stop us?
	If we grab it, if we blockade it, if we blockade it and we get access to their technology and we upgrade our military radically, who exactly is going to say boo?
	Joe Biden has not demonstrated the courage of his supposed commitments.
	It's a real problem.
	And meanwhile, there are people who are making arguments that I think are really poorly articulated about exactly how America's military policy should actually be pursued.
	One of those people, unfortunately, is Senator Marco Rubio, who I generally like, senator of my home state.
	So over the weekend, he said that we can't give any foreign aid until we solve America's problems.
	So first of all, let's just be clear about this.
	America is currently spending $7 trillion a year.
	$7 trillion.
	It is certainly in America's interest to spend foreign aid money rather than sending American soldiers to places to ensure the freedom of the seas, for example.
	Having other people doing our fighting is a lot better than us having to actually expend blood and treasure in order to do things.
	Beyond that, what's happening at the southern border right now is not a question of money.
	He says that we have to spend the money on the border before we spend money on foreign aid.
	First of all, Congress has never seemed to have a problem spending anything, including Senator Rubio, who has voted for a lot of budgets that have been very, very, very large.
	But when Senator Rubio says that we have to spend the money on the border, not anywhere else, can we be clear on something?
	The problems at the border are not about expenditure.
	The problems at the border are about Joe Biden wanting to keep the border open.
	I've talked to the head of the Border Patrol Union.
	He says this is not about staffing.
	It's not about pay.
	This is about misdirection of currently allocated resources.
	So, again, I don't think that the argument that Rubio here is making is sustainable as a matter of American foreign policy.
	I want to get to border in a second, but just to clarify something, are you in support of aid to Ukraine?
	I think if we secure our own border here in the United States, I've said that we should help Ukraine.
	Look, half the money that's going to Ukraine is not going to Ukraine.
	It's to buy back our own weapons that we gave them, to restock our own shelves.
	And obviously Taiwan is included there as well.
	My problem is this.
	Before we do these things, we have to make America and Americans a priority again.
	Okay, I'm extraordinarily in favor of making Americans quote-unquote the priority again.
	I just don't think that foreign policy is disconnected from American priorities.
	I don't think it's good when China takes over Taiwan.
	I don't think it's good when Russia shuts off the supply of shipping in the Black Sea, or when it takes over one of the chief grain producers in the world, or when it threatens directly NATO borders.
	I don't think it's good when Hamas, along with its Iranian sponsors, is attacking an American ally and other Iranian proxies are attacking shipping in the Red Sea.
	I don't think any of that is good or useful.
	To kind of make this hard divide between American domestic policy, that helps Americans, and American foreign policy, which is just, what, us gallivanting around and spending money in... That doesn't make sense.
	That's not what American policy is for.
	American policy is to forward America's interests.
	We can argue about whether certain policies forward America's interests, but the idea that any sort of foreign policy expenditure Or any sort of foreign policy that is hawkish is somehow a betrayal of American interests is bizarre to me.
	It's pacifistic and counter to most of America's modern history in a globalized world.
	The world is a pretty small place these days.
	All right, coming up, we'll jump into the border problems.
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