The Ben Shapiro Show - The Biden Health Coverup Is FALLING APART

All Episodes

Previous Next

July 31, 2025 - The Ben Shapiro Show

01:02:11

The Biden Health Coverup Is FALLING APART

Large

Audio Only |

Scroll

Time	Text
	All righty, folks, news breaking fast and furious.
	Today, on the Ben Shapiro show, Joe Biden's aides are now testifying before Congress, and they're pleading the fifth and are not recalling things.
	And that is not a shock because they are covering up one of the great scandals in American history.
	Plus, the mandonification of the Democratic Party, the radicalism of the Democratic Party, continues apace.
	Plus, we are joined by Dr. Mehmed Oz to announce a massive move by the Trump administration for health transparency, medical records release, and all the rest first.
	This month, Daily Wire Plus is giving you more than ever before.
	Streaming right now, Journey to the UFC, Joe Pfeiffer.
	This is not a UFC promo.
	It's a real American comeback story.
	Starting Monday, Answer the Call is Jordan B. Peterson's new series where he returns to what started it all.
	Answering your questions.
	No celebrities, no headlines, just real people, real problems, and real answers.
	Coming August 13th, the Pope and the Führer, the secret Vatican Files Plus, this fall, Isabel Brown launches her brand new show on the Daily Wire.
	And trust us, the left will hate it.
	Members, get all of it.
	First, ad-free, unfiltered, go to dailywire.com and join today.
	Well, while the political world has been consumed with talk about Jeffrey Epstein or Russia Gate, the truth is that the biggest scandal continuously hiding in plain sight is the fact that for several years, we did not have a president of the United States.
	Joe Biden, of course, was senile.
	And that is coming out more and more every single day.
	Yesterday, there was a House hearing that called in Biden aides to testify about what they knew when they knew it.
	Was President Biden with it at all for years at a time?
	And you had people around Biden, of course, trying to protect themselves because if it turns out they facilitated a senile human in being president of the United States so that they could sign what they wanted while he was mentally absent, well, that would presumably be some sort of crime.
	It could bring about liability.
	Well, yesterday, as we say, there were a bunch of people who testified.
	One of those people was Steve Roschetti.
	Steve Roschetti was a counselor to the president.
	And his opening statement was this: quote, the Trump administration's efforts to taint President Biden's legacy with baseless assertions about President Biden's mental health are an obvious attempt to deflect from the chaos of this administration's first six months.
	The committee's investigation is part of a concerted effort by the administration and its congressional allies to diminish the record of the former president by advancing the false narrative that President Biden was mentally unable to perform his constitutional duties and that members of his staff usurped the president's Article II powers.
	Let me be clear: at all times during his presidency, I believed that President Biden was fully capable of exercising his presidential duties and responsibilities and that he did so.
	Neither I nor anyone else usurped President Biden's constitutional duties, which he faithfully and fully carried out each and every day.
	Well, then, that solves nothing because you just say that you believed that he was with it.
	What else are you going to say?
	You're going to go to jail if you didn't believe that he was with it.
	According to Roschetti, senior White House staff kept the president fully informed so he could provide direction and make all important decisions.
	I firmly believe that at all times during my four years in the White House, President Biden was fulfilling his constitutional duties.
	Did he stumble occasionally, make mistakes, get up on the wrong side of the bed?
	He did.
	We all did.
	Well, I mean, that is a rather generous assessment of the situation, especially given the fact that according to CNN, earlier this month, three Biden aides, White House physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, former assistant to the president and senior advisor to the first lady Anthony Bernal, and former assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff, Annie Tomasini, pled the fifth in the face of questions from the panel.
	As you will recall, invoking the Fifth Amendment typically is a way to prevent yourself from being incriminated.
	Now, there's more information from CNN here that is kind of shocking.
	Apparently, Ron Clain, the former Biden chief of staff, told the committee last week that Hillary Clinton expressed concerns to him in 2023 that Joe Biden's age was an issue the campaign had not dealt with effectively, and that Jake Sullivan, the NSA, told him in 2024, after the presidential debate, that Biden wasn't as effective as he had once been.
	Well, I mean, duh on that one.
	Klain also told the committee he believed Biden had the mental sharpness to serve as president and saw no reason to doubt Biden's mental acuity.
	But again, according to a source familiar with an interview, an interview between Ashley Williams, a former special assistant to the president and deputy director of Oval Office Operations, she said for a transcribed interview with the committee.
	Apparently, she told the committee she believes Biden was in command the night of the debate and was fit to be president, including now.
	However, the source also said that Williams stated she did not recall many times during her five-hour interview to several questions.
	She said, I do not recall.
	Okay, I do not recall is an amazing way of avoiding a perjury trap.
	Because if you say you didn't recall, there's literally no way to catch you in perjury.
	You just say you didn't remember.
	I mean, tip, if you are ever called in to an investigation, that is the way to avoid an answer: I do not recall.
	Sometimes you don't.
	A lot of the time, you absolutely do recall, but there is no way to actually catch you on that lie.
	Apparently, Williams said she did not recall on questions, including questions about Biden using a wheelchair.
	She was asked, were there discussions in the White House about whether Joe Biden ought to use a wheelchair?
	And she said, I do not recall.
	I feel like you would recall that.
	I feel like if that conversation didn't happen, you would just say no.
	I do not, he's the sitting.
	I shouldn't use the word sitting when I'm talking about the president in a wheelchair, but he was the sitting president of the United States.
	If there were a conversation in the White House today about whether Donald Trump should use a wheelchair, do you think the people in that room might recall that in the future?
	I think probably.
	She also said she did not recall if there were discussions about Biden undergoing a cognitive test.
	That is clearly untrue.
	If she discussed Biden declining physically or mentally, she doesn't recall whether she ever had that conversation.
	If she ever had to wake Biden up again, we are talking here about a former special assistant to the president and deputy director of Oval Office Operations saying she did not recall if she ever had to wake Joe Biden up.
	I promise you, if you never had to wake the president up, you would just say you never had to wake the president up.
	She also said she didn't recall how she got involved in his 2020 campaign.
	She even said that she would not say that a good memory was an important trait for working at the White House.
	And that is a way of attacking two separate issues.
	One is, If you keep saying, I don't recall, to very obvious things, should you have been working there?
	And number two, do you think the president could recall anything?
	And if so, if you think that he had memory problems, should he be in the White House?
	And she's like, well, I don't think it's important to be able to remember things.
	Who am I?
	Where am I?
	I don't even know what we're talking about right now.
	The committee is expected to transcribe interviews with additional high-level aides next week, including with former deputy chief of staff for policy Bruce Reed on Tuesday and former senior advisor to the president for communications inita dunn on Thursdays.
	That investigation is going to continue and it's going to continue to damage the Democrats.
	Democrats still do not have a good answer on all of this.
	It is a sin that is indeed original to the Democratic Party and very difficult to escape because it encompasses pretty much the entirety of the Democratic Party.
	There is a reason that you have people like Pete Buttigieg, who's a member of the cabinet, who is trying to run deliberately away from this.
	He told NPR's Steve Inske: I told the truth, which is that he was old.
	You could see he was old.
	That ain't going to do it, Pete.
	All righty, folks, coming up, the insane leftism of the Democratic Party is now evident on every issue from the Gaza Strip to illegal immigration.
	Well, unfortunately, in this country, privacy has now become a luxury.
	To be honest, that's a real shame because privacy is a prereq to freedom.
	Without privacy, there is no freedom.
	Privacy is given to the government, but it's no secret.
	The NSA, among others, is surveilling us.
	They buy your information from data brokers.
	They watch the moves you make online.
	What if I told you there's a way to stop that transaction?
	What if I told you there's a way to get your privacy and freedom back?
	You can do it with ExpressVPN.
	I do with ExpressVPN.
	See, here's how it works.
	I take my phone.
	You see here?
	It says ExpressVPN.
	This is my ExpressVPN app.
	And right now, it is not in fact connected, but all I have to do to activate it and to protect my online activity is to connect it.
	Boom, it's green.
	That means I am now connected.
	And that means my internet activity is protected.
	With ExpressVPN, none of your online activity is logged.
	Just within the last 12 months, ExpressVPN received over 400,000 data requests from tech companies and government agencies.
	Do you know how many of their customers' information was shared?
	The answer is zero because ExpressVPN has a strict zero logs policy, giving you back your privacy.
	Plus, ExpressVPN is easy to use.
	It takes one click.
	It works on all your devices.
	You can have it on up to eight devices at once, protecting your whole family.
	Right now, you can get an extra four months for free when you use my special link.
	Go to expressvpn.com/slash ben, get four extra months of expressvpn.
	That's exp-r-e-s-s-v-pn.com/slash ben.
	Also, you know, in life, sometimes you can have option overload, right?
	Just too many choices.
	It happens sometimes when you go into a restaurant, there's like a gigantic seven-page menu.
	Well, the same thing applies if you're a business owner who's hiring.
	It can be overwhelming to have too many candidates to sort through, but you are in luck.
	ZipRecruiter now gives you the power to proactively find and connect with the best ones quickly.
	How?
	Well, they have an innovative resume database.
	Right now, you can try it for free at ziprecruiter.com/slash dailywire.
	ZipRecruiter's resume database makes it easy to find the right people for your job openings by letting you filter through candidates quickly and spot the best matches.
	When you see somebody who catches your eye, you can get their contact details right away to reach out.
	With over 320,000 new resumes being added every single month, you'll have plenty of fresh talent to choose from, and that means you can fill your positions faster.
	It's no surprise, ZipRecruiter has become the highest-rated hiring site on G2 here at the Daily Wire.
	We're always looking for top talent.
	Having the great features ZipRecruiter offers makes hiring a breeze for any business owner, big or small.
	Skip that candidate overload instead.
	Streamline your hiring with Zip Recruiters.
	See why four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the very first day.
	Just go to this exclusive web address, ziprecruiter.com/slash dailywire right now to try it for free.
	Again, that's ziprecruiter.com slash dailywire.
	ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire.
	Had former Vice President Kamala Harris actually run for California governor, she would have had to answer those questions, but that is the other piece of breaking news today.
	California is not going to have to be subjected to Kamala Harris as the governor.
	There's a lot of talk about her running for governor after her failed vice presidency.
	She put out a statement in which she said, quote, in recent months, I've given serious thought to asking the people of California for the privilege to serve as their governor.
	I love this state, its people, and its promise.
	It is my home.
	But after deep reflection, I've decided I will not run for governor in this election.
	Now, believe it or not, some people are trying to interpret this as Kamala Harris wants to run for president again in 2028.
	No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
	The thing about Kamala Harris is that as far to the left as Kamala Harris was, and she was really far to the left, she is not far enough to the left for the Democratic Party now.
	The Democratic Party has become the BDS, pro-Hamas, pro-illegal immigration party.
	And they are having a very difficult time.
	They are the party of Sidney Sweeney's breasts make you a Nazi.
	This is what the Democratic Party is becoming in real time.
	I don't know what was in the water, but whatever they drank made them insane, totally crazy.
	Harris said she will share more details in the months ahead about her plans.
	Well, we all wait with bated breath.
	I mean, if there's one thing the American people want more of, it's Kamala Harris in politics.
	She says, as we look ahead, we must be willing to pursue change through new methods and fresh thinking, committed to our same values and principles, but not bound by the same playbook.
	Well, thanks for that.
	That's deeply illuminating.
	How exciting.
	But of course, Kamala Harris was not going to run for California governor because, again, even if she ran, being California governor after Gavin Newsom means that she is now delayed from running for president if she wanted to.
	And again, I'm not sure that there is a guarantee she was going to end up as California governor.
	Was she going to win a primary in California?
	Not clear to me at all.
	The reality is that once again, Kamala Harris is in the wrong place in the Democratic Party.
	The Democratic Party has moved far to her left.
	Zora Mamdani, AOC, Bernie Sanders, these are the Democrats today.
	This is who they are.
	Last night, the Democrats voted on whether to continue to allow Israel to buy military weaponry.
	That was the issue yesterday.
	There was a bill that was put up by Democrats, a resolution rather, to block weapon sales to Israel.
	By the way, that is not about military aid.
	That is about whether Israel should be allowed to buy weapons from the United States with its own money.
	More than half of Senate Democrats voted for two resolutions to block weapon sales to Israel.
	That is how crazy the Democratic Party is.
	It's being led by, of course, Senator Bernie Sanders.
	Bernie Sanders is, as I've said, a thousand times as Jewish as a ham sandwich.
	He has no commitment to anything Judaic.
	The fact that he was born in an ethnically Jewish household means nothing to me.
	Jewishness actually has some aspects of, you know, culture, behavior, religiosity.
	Bernie Sanders has none of those things.
	Bernie Sanders went on the floor of the Senate, by the way, and continued to repeat an overt lie that we talked about on the show a couple of days ago, this picture that went around the world of a kid with cystic fibrosis being posed as though he was dying of starvation in Gaza.
	The Senate rejected both resolutions.
	The first would have blocked the sale of tens of thousands of assault rifles to Israel, assault rifles.
	You mean military weaponry for use by the IDF.
	It failed 70 to 27.
	The second, which would have blocked the sale of about $675 million of bombs and other material to Israel, failed 73 to 24.
	Democrats were split.
	And that included a bunch of supposedly mainstream Democrats.
	Now, there are some who want to run for president, like Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Alyssa Slotkin of Michigan, who missed the votes.
	But Bernie Sanders said the tide is turning.
	The American people do not want to spend billions to starve children in Gaza.
	We'll get to the situation in Gaza in a little while.
	Again, the situation in Gaza is being created by Hamas by the United Nations.
	This would all be over today if Hamas went into exile and released the hostages.
	That would be the end of the war.
	Everybody knows that.
	Everyone.
	President Trump, he gets this one right, is absolutely correct on this.
	The media onslaught over the course of the last couple of weeks is the last gasp of Hamas before it dies.
	That is what this is.
	The propagandistic release of false information designed to suggest that Israel is in fact committing a genocide when, in fact, Israel has shipped in literally 10 million meals since the end of May into the Gaza Strip via the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
	The idea that Israel is participating in mass starvation when Israel is literally the only source that is allowing food in, and the UN is blocking the entry of food because they want Hamas to steal all of it.
	That is being facilitated by a media that wants Hamas to win and a Democratic Party that apparently would like for Hamas to win.
	And again, that falls right in line with the Pod Save America bros suggesting that basically all support for the state of Israel should end immediately from the Democratic Party.
	It's an amazing abdication of moral duty on behalf of the Democrat, but this is where it was moving anyway.
	And again, for those who don't believe me, here is exclusive footage from Daily Wire from Cassie Akiva showing the aid actively being looted.
	These are UN trucks.
	You can see them entering and then immediately being looted by Hamas.
	You can see a bunch of trucks that are about to enter into the areas of the Gaza Strip that are not controlled by the IDF.
	They roll in.
	It's a bunch of UN vehicles at the front.
	And then you can see a large crowd that forms, and that crowd is going to descend on these aid trucks and take everything.
	That is how aid distribution goes as facilitated by the United Nations, which, again, is just an adjunct to Hamas at this point.
	The amount of propaganda that is being released by the left, by Hamas, by its friends in the media, totally insane.
	And the Democratic Party has bought into all of it.
	This is the Zoran Mamdani Democratic Party, without a doubt.
	This is not an orderly distribution of aid.
	What they want is Hamas to survive.
	It's the same reason, by the way, that you see Canada now declaring.
	I mean, again, look at this b-roll.
	It's insane.
	People are just climbing up, grabbing the food, no orderly distribution.
	These are all young military-age males who are grabbing the food.
	Some of them have guns on them.
	Amazing stuff.
	But this is the way that apparently the left, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Democratic Party would prefer it.
	And they would like to reward the perpetrators of October 7th with a state.
	And the Democratic Party is talking about cutting off aid to Israel in the middle of all of this.
	Amazing, amazing stuff.
	Germany has now suggested that it is going to move forward with some sort of recognition of a Palestinian state.
	Canada's Mark Carney suggested they would recognize a Palestinian state at the UN.
	One of the hilarious things about all these countries doing this, which is like recognizing a state of Narnia, there are no borders.
	There is no government.
	There is no governmental structure.
	There is no control of territory.
	And yet, apparently, the state is going to magically exist only in the aftermath of the greatest terror attack on the state of Israel in literally its entire existence.
	Mark Carney of Canada, and he could be a Democratic Party apparatus, given his political priors.
	Yesterday, he announced that they would recognize a Palestinian state at the UN.
	Canada intends to recognize the state of Palestine at the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025.
	This intention is predicated on the Palestinian Authorities' commitment to much needed reforms, including commitments by the Palestinian authorities, President Abbas, to fundamentally reform its governance, to hold general elections in 2026, in which Hamas can play no part, and to demilitarize the Palestinian state.
	They're not going to do any of those things.
	So you're going to preliminarily accept a state of Palestine that will do zero of the things that you're calling on it to do.
	First of all, Mahmoud Abbas is 89 years old.
	There's not been an election held in the Palestinian Authority-controlled area since 2006.
	Mahmoud Abbas is currently in year 19 of a four-year term.
	If they hold elections, Hamas will win.
	You can call it by another name, but Hamas will win.
	It's ridiculous.
	It's ridiculous on its face.
	Germany is also making sounds along these lines because, again, the Europeans are just of the opinion that if you magically declare things, then bad guys go away, apparently.
	The United States has responded.
	President Trump has said, well, you know what?
	If Canada is so insistent on creating another terror state in the Middle East, maybe they don't need a trade deal with us.
	President Trump, again, the only voice of moral clarity in our modern politics, apparently.
	It really is an amazing, amazing thing.
	The United States has also placed sanctions on both the PA and the PLO because they are terrorist organizations.
	Fatah is a military wing of the Palestinian Authority.
	The Palestinian Authority still to this day pays terrorists to kill Jews.
	And you have all these people who are coming out of the woodwork in favor of a Palestinian state on the basis of what?
	On the basis of the successful Hamas propaganda campaign in which they steal aid, murder their own people, and then blame Israel.
	David Makofsky Has a good thread over at X.com.
	He's director of the program on Arab-Israel relations at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy.
	And he points out anyone who supports getting more food to people in Gaza must ask tough questions of the UN.
	The UN itself reports 87% of its 2010 food trucks in Gaza, 85% by tonnage from May 19th to July 29th were intercepted either peacefully by crowds or forcefully by armed actors.
	That is not an Israeli claim.
	That's a UN admission as per the UN website.
	Again, it is an insane op that we are watching play out in real time.
	And the Democratic Party is all on board.
	They are all on board.
	They're horseshoe theorying around to agreeing with Marjorie Hale-Green and Tucker Carlson, which is always amusing.
	But Zoran Mamdani is the direction of the Democratic Party going forward.
	And we'll see how it works out for them because it comes along with a lot of baggage.
	Anybody who thinks this is like a singular Israel issue for the Democratic Party, nope, this is a package deal.
	It is part of the broader omni-cause of the Democratic Party.
	And that broader omni-cause is the suggestion that America is an oppressive state, a police state that acts on behalf of white supremacy.
	It is all one giant blob of left-wing third worldism.
	That is what the Democratic Party has become.
	It's why you see Zoran Mamdani becoming a face of the Democratic Party.
	It's why I've warned that AOC is likely to be the Democratic nominee in 2028.
	And Zor Mamdani is not even running away from his own insanity, by the way.
	The New York mayoral frontrunner.
	He yesterday defended his proposal to defund the police.
	Yesterday, here's what he had to say.
	My statements in 2020 were ones made amidst a frustration that many New Yorkers felt at the murder of George Floyd and the inability to deliver on what Eric Adams, of all people, described as the right for all of us to be able to enjoy safety and justice, that we need not choose between the two.
	Unbelievable.
	This is who you guys are choosing.
	This is the direction you guys want to move.
	Okay, good luck to you.
	By the way, in 2014, he said that he wanted to disband the NYPD's strategy response group, which is their way of lowering crime rate, Zor Mamdani.
	Again, it's a package deal, gang.
	Now, for all those who believe that the Israel situation is just about Israel, the Gaza situation is just about Gaza.
	These are all localized issues.
	Ask yourself why it is the entire left agrees with Hamas, why they have decided to mobilize behind the idea that the most important thing is apparently for Hamas to retain control of the Gaza Strip.
	Why is that happening?
	Why is that a left-wing cause?
	Again, it's kind of bizarre.
	It's the queers for Palestine aspect of the left.
	Why are they supporting, in effect, a terrorist group, as well, by the way, as a population that continues to support terrorism against Jews on behalf of what would be another Sharia law state?
	Why are they doing that?
	And the answer, again, has to do with a coalitional approach to the destruction of the West.
	When I talk about my new book, Lions and Scavengers, the coalition of scavengers is very real.
	It has taken over the Democratic Party.
	It is a various coalition of third worldism, libertinism, and economic envy.
	And when you put all of that together, what you end up with is fellow travelers who just want to tear down the institutions of the society.
	And that is the Democratic Party right now.
	That is what the Democratic Party wants.
	And you can see it in every aspect of their policymaking.
	Are you coming up?
	More insane leftism.
	Now, the New York Times is a columnist who's defending actual obstruction of justice, trying to stop ICE from doing its job first.
	Grand Canyon University, a private Christian university in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona, they believe we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
	GCU believes in equal opportunity and that the American dream starts with purpose.
	GCU equips you to serve others in ways that promote human flourishing and create a ripple effect of transformation for generations to come.
	By honoring your career calling, you impact your family, your friends, and your community.
	Change the world for good by putting others before yourself to glorify God.
	Whether your pursuit involves a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree, GCUs online on campus and hybrid learning environments are designed to help you achieve your unique academic, personal, and professional goals.
	With over 340 academic programs as of September 2024, GCU meets you where you are and provides a path to help you fulfill your dreams.
	The pursuit to serve others is yours.
	Let it flourish.
	Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University.
	Private, Christian, affordable.
	Visit gcu.edu.
	Again, that's gcu.edu.
	Go check them out right now.
	A lot of universities are teaching junk, are giving you a worthless degree.
	That is not the case at GCU.
	Go check them out right now, gcu.edu.
	Also, you may have noticed that we've been on the road a lot lately, and even more travel is coming up.
	I've realized some important things.
	One of them is that there's no better feeling than coming home after a long trip and actually sleeping in your own bed.
	Here's the thing: my bed isn't just any bed.
	I sleep on a helix sleep mattress, which was made just for me.
	And finally, home feeling, multiply that by 100 compared to the average mattress experience.
	I genuinely love my Helix sleep mattress because, again, it was made for me.
	It was personalized.
	That means it is firm but breathable, which is what I need when I'm on the road.
	Sometimes his mattress is too soft.
	Sometimes it heats up.
	Not so with my Helix Sleep mattress.
	And my appreciation for Helix has begun to spread.
	Producer Zach is now working with Helix on one of his recent mattress purchases.
	So, Zach, explain.
	I actually bought a Helix Sleep mattress right before we went on our travel.
	And so I didn't even get to sleep on it.
	So I came back and realized it was actually the wrong firmness for me.
	And I worked with their sleep specialist, Daylon, and he hooked me right up.
	He's like, you're still within the 100-day policy.
	So I got you hooked up.
	Here's the right comfort.
	I did the little sleep test, which I should have done from the beginning.
	And I actually used your promo code as well, got the 27% off, and we're good to go.
	And it's in the mail right now.
	Pretty excited.
	They make it very, very easy, as Zach can tell you.
	And let me tell you, Zach needs his sleep because otherwise this show just doesn't run right.
	It's true.
	Thanks, Ben.
	And right now, Helix is offering an incredible deal.
	Visit helixleep.com slash Ben.
	Get 27% off site-wide.
	That's helixleep.com slash Ben for 27% off-site-wide.
	Make sure you enter our show name after checkout so they know that we sent you.
	Again, just visit helixleep.com slash Ben for this exclusive offer.
	Go to illegal immigration for a second.
	When you talk about illegal Immigration.
	It seems pretty obvious to everybody that a country ought to have a border.
	Forget about what happens with the people already here.
	We're going to have all sorts of debates about people who have had children here or who have supposedly integrated into the economy.
	I'm talking about the very baseline question.
	Should people be allowed to illegally immigrate over our southern border?
	And should they be allowed to live here indefinitely?
	The left has taken the position that a closed border is somehow racist and wrong.
	And not only that, to facilitate lawbreaking is somehow good.
	Michelle Goldberg, another one of the execrable columnists for the New York Times, literally has a piece praising this today in the New York Times.
	Quote, Elizabeth Castillo wasn't an activist until immigration and customs enforcement started taking away her neighbors.
	It all began in June after Donald Trump directed ICE agents to sweep LA, then used scattered violence at protests of ICE tactics as a pretext to send in the military.
	Castillo felt her working-class neighborhood in Pasadena was under siege.
	So, what did she do?
	Well, she decided that she was going to act.
	When she saw ICE vehicles in the streets, she followed them in her car, honking and shouting to warn people they were coming.
	She started getting up before dawn to patrol her apartment complex.
	Then she contacted the National Day Labor Organizing Network, which runs a nearby job center.
	Through them, she was plugged into a citywide network of people who are constantly tracking ICE's activities.
	Doing those amateur anti-ICE reconnaissance in LA are people from established nonprofits that work closely with the mayor's office.
	Then there are more militant groups that, beyond simply documenting ICE's operations, try to actively disrupt them.
	Ron Gochez, a high school teacher and spokesman for one of the more radical organizations, Union Del Barrio, said, quote, we have people patrolling all over the city, starting at 5:30 in the morning.
	We get on the megaphone.
	We denounce the terrorists for being there, the terrorists that would be ICE.
	And then we inform the community in the immediate area that they are present.
	And then we say to the people, if you are documented, come out, come outside, join us.
	Help us to defend your neighbor.
	So this is Michelle Goldberg actively praising obstruction of justice and violation of the law.
	That is where we are with the Democratic mainstream left.
	It's totally insane.
	But if this is the way the left wants to play it, then we're going to see whether Americans like it or not.
	I suppose they've been relegated to this far-left perspective because they've been so unsuccessful at everything else.
	Despite all of the suggestions that President Trump is a wild man who's going to destroy the American economy, yesterday we had those Q2 GDP numbers.
	They came in at 3%.
	That's a very solid number.
	There's President Trump yesterday talking about the economy.
	I'd like to begin by saying a few words about the unbelievable kind of numbers that we've been putting up.
	And as I said, the number of 3% the pace in the second quarter, we smashed all expectations.
	They thought it would be maybe a little bit less than two.
	And it was three, a little bit more than three.
	Consumer spending is up.
	Business investment is way up.
	Domestic manufacturing is way up.
	Real disposable family income is up.
	And personal savings are up.
	Other than that, we're not doing so great.
	We have the hottest country.
	And I'll tell you, it's a great, we're having a lot of fun with it.
	And Democrats are freaking out over all of this, obviously.
	The National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett also added that the GDP release is showing great strength.
	The story, the anti-Trump story, has been that we're going to have a recession or a depression because of the tariffs, which are going to jack up prices and cause consumers to route to the exits headed back.
	Every single thing about this GDP release has shown strength.
	Okay, and he's not wrong about all of that.
	Treasury Secretary Scott Besson says, listen, the economy better stay strong because on the other side, you've got a bunch of rampant socialists ready to go.
	Why are we on the verge of Caracas on the Hudson in New York?
	Why is this guy getting traction?
	Because people, young people, are disillusioned with the system.
	So when you do this, you make everyone a shareholder.
	You make everyone a stakeholder.
	People who are part of the system do not want to bring down the system.
	Okay, so this means it's very important that the Trump economy stay on track.
	Really, really important.
	And here's where you have a lot of crosswinds in the Trump economy.
	The Wall Street Journal has an editorial talking about this GDP report.
	And there are some very, very salutary signs for the Trump administration.
	And there are also some kind of strange things about this GDP report that could signal choppy waters in the future.
	As the Wall Street Journal points out, most striking are second quarter reports' wild internal details.
	Net exports, meaning exports minus imports, added a remarkable 4.99% to GDP as imports fell 30.3%, meaning that the tariffs have meant that fewer people are importing and fewer people are buying imports, a lot of people buying domestic main product.
	Imports subtract from growth in the national accounts because GDP measures domestic production.
	Imports are produced overseas.
	But of course, imports are still crucial as inputs for businesses in the United States.
	The crazy swing in imports shows how much President Trump's up-and-down trade policies have disrupted business decisions and left companies scrambling to adapt.
	This seems to have had a negative effect on private domestic investment, which fell 15.6% in the second quarter after a surge in the first quarter.
	Non-residential business investment contributed only 0.27% to GDP as businesses rapidly drew down their inventories.
	Now, the consumer continued to spend, contributing 0.98% to GDP, which is a decent number.
	Final sales to private domestic purchases, which is a measure of demand, rose only 1.2%.
	Prices continue to remain steady, which is why you're not seeing inflation right now.
	So what does this mean?
	The answer is nobody knows, right?
	The Wall Street Journal is saying this openly.
	The second quarter was all but over before the passage of the one big beautiful bill.
	It's going to have new incentives for business investment.
	It could save the Trump economy.
	Trade, on the other hand, is pushing back against that.
	So you have a bunch of these sort of cross-cutting effects.
	The bottom line is that the economy must remain strong in order to prevent the insane Democrats.
	And I really mean this.
	The Democrats have lost their ever-loving minds.
	You thought that they were going to turn around after being defeated by President Trump and the Republicans and maybe get a little sanity.
	I've seen zero evidence that this is the case.
	They continue to swing out to the more and more insane left in the hopes that President Trump will collapse and basically hand them the presidency and the Congress.
	This apparently is the plan here.
	Now, does the Federal Reserve need to cut those interest rates?
	We are getting to the point now where if we have another quarter of no inflation, I think the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates.
	Yesterday, Jerome Powell said that the interest rates will remain unchanged.
	That, of course, is not a surprise.
	There was a lot of speculation that that was going to happen considering the fact that, again, President Trump is still negotiating out these tariffs and it's unclear what the effect of pricing is going to be from those tariffs.
	Again, one of the problems with sort of the tariffs is that one of the ways that prices stay stable, if the tariffs go into place, is that demand decreases.
	And so there, you would say, okay, fine.
	Well, then you need to jog the economy with presumably looser monetary policy.
	That's what President Trump is basically calling for.
	We'll see if that materializes next quarter.
	But here is Jerome Powell saying, before that happens, how to make sure the prices don't spike.
	Despite elevated uncertainty, the economy is in a solid position.
	The unemployment rate remains low, and the labor market is at or near maximum employment.
	Inflation has been running somewhat above our 2% longer run objective.
	In support of our goals, today the Federal Open Market Committee decided to leave our policy interest rate unchanged.
	We believe that the current stance of monetary policy leaves us well positioned to respond in a timely way to potential economic developments.
	Okay, so we will find out in very short order whether things change.
	President Trump says that he believes not only do we need to lower interest rates, but that probably next quarter we will.
	What you do is you lower them and let's see if there's inflation.
	Right now, there's no inflation.
	Everybody thought there would be.
	All we have is billions of dollars of cash pouring into our country from other countries that took advantage of us for many, many years.
	You know, they were taken advantage of.
	We were like the stupid people that didn't know what they were doing.
	They took advantage of us.
	Other countries, friend and foe.
	And by the way, the friend was oftentimes much worse than the foe when it comes to trade.
	So if that happens, what you do is you raise your rates and you do what you have to do to stop inflation.
	But we're keeping the rates high and it's hurting people from buying houses.
	And we don't want that.
	If for any reason that happened in a year or two, if there's some signs of inflation coming back, right now there's not.
	We have a great thing going.
	I think we're going to have the richest economy you've ever seen.
	So again, certainly I hope that President Trump is right because the future of the country rides on that.
	If the economy goes south, then the nuts are going to take over.
	Well, meanwhile, the Trump administration is making strong moves in other areas.
	The Make America Healthy Again agenda over at the Department of Health and Human Services continues apace.
	One of their big moves came yesterday.
	CMS, which is run by Dr. Mehmet Oz, Robert F. Kenny Jr., the president of the United States, they announced a new initiative that is going to make it much easier for you to keep track of your healthcare records, keep them all in one place, have access to those things, and ensure that you get better solutions faster.
	Joining us on the line to discuss is Dr. Oz.
	Dr. Oz, thanks so much for taking the time.
	Really appreciate it.
	Ben wonderful being with you.
	I know we've talked about medical information in the past.
	I think the big message that the president wanted to convey yesterday, and he wanted to host this event, it was at the White House, was that you own your medical records.
	They're yours.
	This isn't about some multinational corporation taking your data and sharing it elsewhere or information getting lost in the ether.
	Information is vital.
	It's yours, and we want you to own it.
	And we're taking precautions to ensure that with the right security, you'll be able to get access to your medical records, which unlocks a whole bunch of opportunities to help Americans.
	So let's talk about what's changed in terms of information and how you get your medical records.
	And then we'll talk about the privacy aspect of this and the protections that are still going to be in place, because I know that's been the objection in large part.
	So let's talk first of all about the difficulties of actually getting your medical records.
	I mean, I think everybody has experienced this in the current medical system.
	You don't have kind of a one-stop shop where all your medical records are aggregated.
	You have to send faxes.
	You have to send requests.
	It may take weeks at a time in order to gather those records.
	If you don't remember a doctor that you visited three years ago, you then have to go look it up.
	I mean, I've had this personally.
	I think everybody's had this personally.
	What's changing here?
	Ben, 60 years ago, literally this week, we started Medicare and Medicaid in this country.
	It is this beautiful gem.
	It's the backbone of the social safety net.
	It's worked so well.
	But the way you made a doctor's appointment in 1965 is pretty much how you do it now.
	You know, the way you exchange medical records, unfortunately, as a patient.
	Now, doctors and hospitals have different systems, and there's lots of technology in medicine.
	I'm a heart surgeon.
	Heart surgery has changed dramatically since 1965.
	But the actual core information transfer systems that patients use for most of the processes you outline have not been adjusted.
	And they should have.
	We don't stream Netflix videos or even watch content in any way similar to 60 years ago.
	We use Airbnb.
	We use Uber.
	We have Uber Eats.
	We have all kinds of things that have allowed us to make our lives more comfortable using information as an asset.
	But information, as you know, can be sold as well.
	And it's a profit center for some companies.
	And so the health technology and specifically with your medical records, companies were holding on to them, arguing that that was data that they would be able to sell.
	They could barter.
	They could use it for powerful purposes, but not always in your best interest.
	And even though there have been rulings and actually legislation in the first Trump administration forcing what's called interoperability, which means you have to share your data.
	You can't block it with make-believe reasons.
	There has to be transparency.
	You need to know what the hospital bill is going to be before you sign up, because otherwise you get stuck in this death spiral where you end up with bankruptcy liens.
	And that's what actually causes the number one bankruptcy cause in America is medical illness compounded with medical debt.
	So these are all the things that unfortunately have held us back over the last five years.
	That all changed yesterday.
	No more waiting to find out what the doctor appointment is going to look like or when it's going to be available.
	No more waiting around to see what the hospital bill is going to hold for you.
	No more waiting to see what the drug's going to cost when you go to the pharmacy.
	They're waiting to stop.
	No more waiting for Washington, frankly, Ben.
	It's about time that we actually have stepped up.
	And it happened yesterday with the president's leadership, Secretary Kennedy full-throated endorsement as well, in part because we think this is how Maha will happen.
	You'll get healthy again because we'll be able to give you information based on your medical records, if you wanted and only if you wanted, that will nudge you to do the right thing in your life.
	So you asked me a specific question, what's changed?
	The two things government must do is authenticate that you indeed, Ben Shapiro, want your medical records.
	We cannot pretend that we know who you are when there are five other Ben Shapiros all over the country.
	And so we have got that issue worked out.
	We're working with the big companies.
	You know, you go to the airport and you have clear, they know who you are.
	There'll be ability to use your facial recognition or finger recognition.
	These are all tools that are going to become available over the next year.
	So government will do that.
	The other thing government will do is what's called a provider directory, which means specifically, where does your doctor work?
	Are they allowed to work there?
	You know, what's going on with them?
	Are they the right person to see you for whatever problem you have?
	We have many versions of provider directories, but we don't have a national gold standard.
	Those two things we have to do and we will pay for.
	But then outside of that, the building blocks from that are quite large.
	And it'll allow us to do all kinds of things that will benefit the American people.
	And we should talk about those.
	Yeah.
	So let's talk about what exactly is going to benefit me.
	I'm the patient.
	Now, presumably, I check the box.
	And what happens next?
	What do I have access to that I didn't have access to before more easily?
	Well, as an example, once you tell us that you want your information to be used for your benefit, companies that are making apps in the app store, Google Play, traditional consumer apps will be able to approach you and say, hey, Mr. Shapiro, we know you have a problem with your blood sugar.
	And here's a bunch of tools that we think will benefit you.
	And they're going to get paid if they're actually able to get your blood sugar down.
	Now, that helps you live longer, avoid heart attacks, avoid dementia, all the complications of diabetes.
	It helps the government, because I have to administer CMS.
	Medicare and Medicaid are in big trouble.
	I mean, Medicare Trust Fund will go bankrupt in seven years.
	Medicaid expenses increased 50% in the last five years.
	That's why it was so important to take the fraud, waste, and abuse out of it with the one big beautiful bill.
	And so those programs benefit because if you're not diabetic, on average, you cost $7,000 less to whatever insurance company is covering you, including Medicare and Medicaid.
	So that saves money for the American taxpayer.
	But there's other benefits as well.
	We'll be able to tell you, for example, that that food you're about to eat really isn't the wisest choice.
	And you might not have known that.
	You might have thought fruit first thing in the morning was a good idea, but it turns out that you're better off eating nuts first thing in the morning or a low sugar product, even though the sugar comes naturally in a fruit, which is normally good for you.
	In your specific instance, it's not the best first choice.
	Now, all that information accrues, but it gets fed to me, your doctor, because now I'll have information about you that can help me guide you better when you come to see me in the office.
	And instead of me looking to decide, typing, I don't know, Ben, has it ever happened to you?
	You're sitting with the doctor.
	You're supposed to have this precious moment with the doctor.
	The covenant between the doctor and patient is me looking you in the eyes.
	And we agree we've got something that we got to do together and you trust me and I'm going to use that trust to help you.
	Instead, this is a doctor.
	Click, click, click, click, click, click.
	And they're coding all these things to charge you more because they're paid based on how they code.
	Instead of actually focusing on you, that's going to go away.
	We're going to be able to gather information within the workflow of a doctor as he's taking care of you or she's managing your issues.
	And that's going to allow us to figure out how sick you are, how much should we pay the doctor for that, and allow the doctor to focus on you.
	And that's how we're going to deal with things like prior authorization, this heinous disliked problem.
	As you know, there was, you know, there was blood in the streets over this horrible practice, but the practice does have benefits when it's done right.
	So we've gotten all these companies together and asked them to, not ask them, told them that they need to figure out a solution to the prior authorization conundrum so patients and doctors aren't sitting around all day long trying to figure out if they're allowed to take care of an issue.
	That happens better if you have medical technology that's digital, because this way, when an insurance company is asked about where I queried about whether Ben Shapiro is allowed to have this medication for his diabetes, guess what happens?
	Boom, take a credit card.
	They immediately can tell what's going on.
	They know who you are.
	They know who the doctor is.
	They can immediately adjudicate it like a credit card and give you authority to move forward.
	That's how the practice of medicine gets lubricated so it works better.
	So the big objection to all of this, presumably, has been questions about privacy, the suggestion that now companies are going to have access to information they didn't have access to before, or they're going to use your information in ways that you don't particularly like.
	How do you answer those concerns about patient privacy?
	It's a top priority for us.
	And we think about it and talk about it continually.
	It turns out that people can hack your system and get your data pretty much anyway right now.
	So hospitals are vulnerable.
	We're vulnerable at CMS.
	We're a $1.75 trillion agency.
	It's twice the size of the Defense Department.
	So guess what?
	Makes you a big target for fraud.
	And we just busted with the Department of Justice two weeks ago, this $15 billion multinational criminal organization that was taking the beneficiary numbers, the numbers that Medicare patients have, and using them to pierce our security systems.
	Now, because we've got a great fraud war room, and because we're doing the kinds of innovation that I just discussed that the president launched yesterday at the White House, we have the ability to stop these scams down relatively quickly.
	So of the $15 billion, 80% or so we were able to hold on to.
	But once the money leaves the door, Ben, it goes overseas.
	This one in particular seems to have a Russian link.
	Once it's in Moscow, you're not getting that money back.
	So the information we're talking about is going to be used to protect you as well.
	By the way, you can opt out of the whole system.
	You don't have to participate at all.
	You can say, I don't care what you tell me.
	I don't believe it.
	I'm not going to be part of this.
	And I'm not going to bother you.
	And no one's going to come to you.
	And no information is going to be exchanged on you.
	We believe 90% of Americans will want information in the system to be used to help them if they're confident that it's secure.
	The same way your information is secure.
	And when you're going through an airport, for example, and use a clear test or one of the identification tools, it's going to be sort of the same way.
	In fact, those same companies are getting involved in this process.
	And we believe, and this is what happened yesterday, when you have the 60 top technology companies and health companies in the country, the biggest insurers, the biggest hospital systems, the biggest AI companies, they're all there.
	And they're all saying the same thing, which is, we're going to be meek.
	Now, what does meek mean?
	And this has been the pleat of them the whole time since the first day I took this position.
	Meek, as the Bible says, the meek shall inherit the earth.
	If you don't know what the word meek means, you might think that means weak or some other understanding of the phrase.
	To me, the word meek means you are a hard-nosed warrior.
	You've got a sword, but you decide, you decide to sheath that sword and put it away so that you can work with others to fix a bigger problem that's plaguing your community.
	That's what we're asking the medical technology community to do.
	Put all the stuff away that you use to fight each other.
	You'll be fighting in the future.
	You'll have plenty of time to do battle.
	But right now, we have a key infrastructure problem.
	We're not able to talk to each other like every other sector of the U.S. economy does.
	And if we can help healthcare technology be great again and make them great again, it'll have addressed a major crisis.
	It'll also, Ben, it'll save us tens of billions of dollars of fraud, waste, and abuse.
	We probably have $100 billion of administrative expenses that are unnecessary.
	Let's pour that money into dealing with the vulnerable members of the population.
	Then I'm coming to you broadcasting from the Healthy Human Services Building.
	Secretary Kennedy is right above me.
	Every time we walk into this building, we see a quote on the wall from Hubert Humphrey.
	And it says, it is the moral obligation of government to take care of those at the dawn of life, our children, those at the twilight of life, our elderly, and those who are living in the shadows.
	This is the Judeo-Christian tradition of respecting humanity and its preciousness and taking care of everybody, no matter where they are in their life journey.
	To do that correctly, we have to focus on those populations, but we can't, for that reason, be throwing money at other issues or getting defrauded or losing money because we're inefficient and throwing it in the trash.
	That incineration of the American taxpayer dollar is ending in this administration.
	As you know, President Trump spoke beautifully yesterday, powerfully about how he needed industry to work together to deal with these issues.
	The power to convene is something that he represents in a very bold way.
	We have an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal making the same argument that the power to convene arguably is one of the greatest tools we have because without going through a long legislative process and Congress doesn't always want to move on some of these issues and the rules making process takes sometimes years.
	You can get companies to, in a very nimble way, address the needs of the American people if they know where they're headed.
	But the key goal here is to make sure that it's a vision, not a hallucination.
	And you know it's a vision when other people can see it.
	And Secretary Kennedy also spoke strongly about the fact that for Maha to live, to thrive, to grow, we have to be able to meet people wherever they are.
	That's what technology has done in other sectors of the U.S. economy.
	It needs to work for the American patient as well.
	And to me, on a personal level, the biggest thing here is the ability for people to quickly access preventative solutions.
	I mean, everybody who's spent any time looking at the healthcare situation in the United States knows that the number one lack is that people don't take these sort of preventative solutions that would stop the cost curve from building on them as they get older.
	If you're worried about Alzheimer's, there's stuff you need to do when you're in your 30s in order to prevent you from getting Alzheimer's.
	That's stuff like nutrition, that's stuff like the exercise, that stuff like taking, you know, going to see your doctor about issues when you're 30 that could affect you when you're 70 or 80.
	And when you just wait until the last minute.
	And that's one of the things that our healthcare system has really incentivized is because it's hard to get your records together, because it's difficult to kind of constantly monitor your own health.
	You wait until the issue actually materializes and wrecks your life, as opposed to what you're suggesting now and what you're attempting to do.
	If you make all this information more available to you, make it more transparent, and work with healthcare companies in order to ensure that you actually have options to do these things early.
	You're going to make your quality of life better and longer.
	Ben, you hit a point I want to highlight.
	Maha is about exercise and eating and spiritual development and being able to sleep because you've made peace with the world around you.
	All that's critical.
	But you also have to engage the healthcare system when things aren't working right.
	Sometimes they dealt a bad hand in the card game of life.
	And if you've got a medical illness, you've got to deal with it.
	Right now, we actually chase people away.
	They're scared of the financial implications.
	They don't know how to engage this system accurately.
	We don't help.
	So we want to, on your phone, within a year, meet you and show you stuff about yourself that you might not understand from your own medical records that we can help you with.
	And if you want to take supplements or you want to engage in different types of dietary practices, all that's great.
	We want to give you some advice on it.
	Again, all that information will flow back to you only if you want it.
	Security is a top priority, but it unlocks an opportunity to help Americans.
	And here's why it's critical.
	The U.S. health economy is growing 3% faster than the general economy.
	That's unsustainable.
	That means that we now spend more than twice as much as any other country on the planet, usually three times as much.
	And despite that, Ben, life expectancy in this country has dropped since when we were young.
	Now we used to be tied to Europe.
	Now we're about five years behind Europe.
	Number three cause of death in America, medical errors.
	So we're spending a lot of money.
	We're not getting our money's worth.
	Where's the value?
	Technology can help make us more efficient.
	It can make the whole system flow with the information a little more elegantly.
	And by using our biggest ally, which is the American people, because you want to be healthy.
	It's the most narcissistic thing in your life is your own health.
	Pay attention to it.
	If we can make it cool to watch your health, this is what Secretary Kennedy was saying yesterday, then we can actually make Maha come alive in your home.
	And maybe you might not be focused on those issues.
	Other families around you might be, but you'll finally get the bug as you see information about yourself that's actionable.
	And the Maha movement is primarily about mops worried about their families.
	We've made it hard to be healthy in America.
	Let's use technology to identify those issues.
	If there's mold in your house, if you're living in an area where there are toxins and there's a lot more illness or allergies than normally you would expect, we should inform you about that.
	But likewise, if you happen to have some autoimmune problem that's undiagnosed and we can use AI to start looking at the things that you're doing and help you figure that out, or frankly, just talk to you.
	Ben, you know what the number one cause of increased health bills in Medicare is?
	Being Lonely when there's no one around you, you have no one to crutch on, then you get scared.
	Your first resort is to call the ER or an ambulance.
	You know, that's the kind of adjustment we can make.
	I yesterday was, you know, was able to see some avatars based on AI evaluation of your medical records.
	I mean, it's as good as a doctor.
	Now, you need a doctor as well to help you deal with the emotional elements and triage to make sure it's accurate.
	But the conversation that I was having with these avatars, it's like you're talking to a doctor.
	And so if I can combine that information gathering exercise that a doctor needs to do first with an actual real doctor or nurse who can help you deal with the consequences of it, that actually saves a lot of time and money and allows our medical community to extress itself a bit more.
	Because in many parts of the country, we don't have enough doctors or nurses.
	That's what the one big beautiful bill is seeking to address with the $50 billion investment in the Rural Health Transformation Fund.
	That's an effort to give us the ability to get into local communities and help them get healthy again.
	In rural America, life expectancy is four years shorter than the rest of the country.
	So we really have a massive shift that needs to happen in the country.
	And the president's pledged that, and we're going to make it come true.
	Well, that's Dr. Oz.
	He is the 17th administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
	Dr. Oz, thanks so much for your hard work on this and thanks for the time.
	God bless you.
	Meanwhile, controversy has broken out over a proposal from Senator Josh Howley to push forward a stock trading ban.
	And honestly, I'm a little bit confused by the objections.
	So there's already a bill in place called the Stock Act.
	This is a bill that was originally called the Pelosi Act as a way of targeting Nancy Pelosi, who's gotten extraordinarily rich off of stock trading while she's been in Congress.
	To be fair, she was already rich before she went into Congress.
	Her husband is very wealthy and all the rest.
	But the Pelosi Act was retitled the Honest Act.
	What's the difference between the two acts?
	Well, I asked our sponsors over at Perplexity this question.
	The STOP Act prohibits members of Congress, congressional staff, and federal officials from using non-public information gained through official positions for personal financial benefit, including insider trading.
	Major features include reinforcing that existing insider trading laws apply to members of Congress and all federal officials and requiring prompt public disclosure of many financial transactions like stock trades rather than just annual reporting.
	The problem with the Stock Act is that the actual fines are basically de minimis, sometimes $200 per violation.
	No sitting lawmaker has been prosecuted under the Stock Act.
	So the Honest Act is supposed to go further.
	It bans stock trading entirely for all members of Congress and their spouses while in office.
	It broadens the trading ban to include the president and the vice president, not just members of Congress.
	President Trump was upset with this because, of course, he has large-scale stock holdings.
	This would not apply to the current president and vice president.
	It would only kick in, I believe, in the next term.
	Aims to close loopholes around direct trades and addresses enforcement shortcomings that have limited the Stock Act effectiveness.
	Now, there have been objections from the Trump administration and from some Republicans who say basically this is also going to be unenforceable.
	That what you're essentially saying is that you can't own stock at all.
	If you're a member of Congress, that you have to divest your stock.
	Now, the Honest Act does allow you to put your stock presumably into a blind trust.
	So you can take your money, put it in a trust, appoint the trustee, and then the trustee has control over the stock trading, and that creates sort of a firewall between you and your stockholdings.
	Critics will say that this means that if you're a member of Congress, well, now you are disincentivizing anybody who has large-scale stock holdings and is active in markets from being in Congress.
	Honestly, I think that Howley's argument is not a bad one, which is that you don't want people rigging the system on their own behalf in favor of their stock trading using inside information.
	Now, this libertarian perspective on this would be that insider information as a general ban is actually kind of foolish because when people trade on insider information, actually, it means that insider information becomes public faster than if they didn't trade on it because you just follow their trades, just follow Nancy Pelosi's trades, mirror what she's doing, and now you have access to the same insider information she does.
	And honestly, maybe that would be a better policy.
	Maybe the better policy would be immediate revelation of all stock trades by members of Congress and not a 30 to 45 day disclosure, like in real time.
	We have the tech to do that now.
	And that way, if you would just want to follow their trades, then you can follow their trades and you can see exactly what they're doing.
	If that were possible, that seems like that might be a good solution.
	In any case, President Trump was upset about this.
	He went after Josh Howey, suggesting that he is a second-rate senator.
	Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio called the effort a publicity show.
	Senator Moreno noted he'd co-sponsored the original Pelosi Act.
	He said it's important for us to restore faith in our institutions, but to just put a vote out there when we have literally no idea what we're voting for is gross incompetence.
	It's the most absurd process I've ever seen.
	And again, one of the critiques here is that the bill is not fully drawn up, that basically it was dumped out there with very little notice and that people don't even know what's in it.
	And so that is always a fair critique, and it happens often in Congress that nobody had a chance to actually look at the bill.
	But the generalized perspective, which is that members of Congress should not be trading on the information that they are in control of.
	If you're in control of the rules, you should not be trading on behalf of that.
	That seems like not a particularly bad idea, obviously.
	Josh Halley, the senator from Missouri, says this is a tough bill.
	Senator Scott made really clear he's opposed to this bill and he was attempting to kill the bill.
	That would have taken, it would have gutted all the bill, taken all of its key provisions out.
	We would have been left with just some study.
	And frankly, I think we're beyond time for studying.
	I think we know what the problem is.
	The problem is members of Congress who are getting rich off of information the public doesn't have.
	We decided to ban that.
	And that's what this does.
	This is a tough bill.
	I mean, we've heard my colleagues complaining about it.
	It's a tough, tough bill.
	Okay.
	So again, I'll be interested to see more of the details of the bill as we learn more.
	But obviously, in concept, I certainly have no objection to the bill itself.
	President Trump, I think, in concept doesn't even have objection to the bill.
	He may quibble with some of the details.
	But for example, it is Donald Trump who's been criticizing Nancy Pelosi for years over her alleged insider trading.
	Nancy Pelosi became rich by having inside information.
	She made a fortune with her husband.
	And I think that's disgraceful.
	So in that sense, I'd like it, but I'd have to really see the, I'd have, you know, I study these things very carefully and this just happened.
	So I'll take a look at it.
	But conceptually, I like it.
	And what I do think is Nancy Pelosi should be investigated because what she has the highest return of anybody practically in the history of Wall Street, save a few.
	And how did that happen?
	It happened by she knows exactly what's going to happen, what's going to be announced.
	She buys stock and then the stock goes up after the announcement's made.
	Okay, so, again, he is not wrong about that.
	Nancy Pelosi was asked about her history of alleged insider trading by Jake Tapper over on CNN, and she got pissed.
	Nancy Pelosi became rich.
	I might have to read that.
	We're here to talk about the 60th anniversary of Medicaid.
	That's what I agreed to come to talk to.
	That means in the election.
	I wanted to give you a chance just to respond.
	He accused you of insider trading.
	What's your response to that?
	That's ridiculous.
	In fact, I very much support the stop, the trading of members of Congress.
	Not that I think anybody's doing anything wrong.
	If they are, they are prosecuted and they go to jail.
	But because of the confidence it instills in the American people, don't worry about this.
	But I have no concern about the obvious investments that had been made over time.
	I'm not into it.
	My husband is, but it isn't anything to do with anything insider.
	That's awkward.
	It's pretty awkward.
	And that is the reason why there's been so much ire over this issue.
	Some clarification from Senator Holly would be good.
	I assume many Republicans will end up jumping on board if this moves forward.
	And again, I don't think President Trump has objections.
	I mean, he has said he doesn't have objections in principle to a bill along these lines.
	He's very rich.
	He doesn't need to be using insider information.
	And I assume that he is not, in fact, using insider information unless proven otherwise, right?
	That would sort of be the way this goes.
	Okay.
	Meanwhile, speaking of insider information, apparently the director of the FBI, Cash Patel, announced yesterday that there are thousands of sensitive Trump-Russia probe documents inside burn bags in a secret room at the FBI, which is kind of shocking.
	According to Fox News Digital, sources say that the burn bag system is used to destroy documents designated as classified or higher.
	Sources told Fox News Digital multiple burn bags were found and filled with thousands of documents.
	And apparently one of the documents FBI officials found in that burn bag was the classified annex to former special counsel John Durham's final report, which includes the underlying intelligence he reviewed.
	The declassification of that classified annex is now being done in coordination between the CIA Director John Radcliffe, Cash Patel, DNI Tulsi Gabbard, A.G. Pambondi, and acting NSA Director William Hartman.
	And it will be transmitted over to the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, who will then release the document to the public.
	Sources exclusively briefed on the contents, including that the U.S. intelligence community had credible foreign sources indicating the FBI would play a role in spreading the alleged Trump-Russia collusion narrative before the Bureau ever launched its controversial crossfire hurricane probe.
	So that is all alarming.
	Presumably, as those details emerge, we will cover them.
	But again, RussiaGate is a very real scandal.
	And the fact is that there were people in the intelligence community who were pushing absolutely manufactured narratives originally stemming from the Hillary Clinton campaign.
	You wonder why Trust in Institutions is gone?
	Well, that would be the reason.
	All righty, folks, as we continue, we're going to be jumping into the vaunted Ben Shapiro show mailbag.
	So make sure to head on over there.
	Remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member.
	If you're not a member, become a member.
	Use code Shapiro checkout for two months free on all annual plans.

▲