Ben Shapiro debunks narratives claiming the Iran conflict is a quagmire, asserting the war lasted only 12 days under Trump's strategic Friday-night strikes that destabilized Iranian leadership and naval assets. He condemns Democrats like Chuck Schumer for opposing the war while ignoring sleeper cell threats, attacks "horseshoe right" figures for spreading conspiracies, and criticizes James Tallarico's hypocrisy regarding faith and policy. Ultimately, the segment argues that liberal tolerance of radical Islam fuels domestic extremism, contrasting this with praise for Luca Cornett's stance against strip club promotions. [Automatically generated summary]
There are four big lies you're being told about the war in Iran.
These lies are coming in faster than the news cycle can even process them.
If you don't pause to think about each of them, you might be caught up in these lies as well.
This is the Bench Bureau Show.
One, this is a never-ending war, a quagmire.
Two, Iran has strong leadership.
Things are going amazing.
Three, our oil prices are going to absolutely skyrocket.
And four, that President Trump has no plan.
You are being lied to about the Trump administration's action against Iran.
You're being lied to over and over and over again because liars, you mean the Democrats, the horseshoe right, obviously terrorists, are working together to make the United States lose.
Well, today, I'm going to take you through each of the three big lies that you are currently hearing.
We're going to debunk them one at a time, and I'll explain why those lies are being put out there in the first place.
These are the catastrophic lies about oil at $200 a barrel and the evils of American military intervention and about inevitable quagmire or inevitable defeat.
These aren't just lies.
They are insane lies.
So let's start with lie number one.
This is a quagmire, an interminable, never-ending conflict, doomed to catastrophe.
We'll probably have to use nukes and all the rest.
This is nuts.
Can we be real about something for a second?
We are 12 days into this war.
12 days.
Not 12 years like Vietnam.
Not 12 months like the Spanish-American War, which ended with the United States winning Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines from Spain.
12 days about how long it takes cottage cheese to spoil in your fridge.
Okay, lie number two.
Iran is doing great.
They're outlasting us.
They've never been stronger.
They'll be able to stand up to us forever.
You see this in the AI slop all over X. People legitimately making up videos that do not exist and pumping them out, showing Iran with nuclear age weaponry.
Iran, basically with the weaponry that the aliens used in Independence Day.
Well, no, actually, the war is going incredibly poorly for Iran.
Actually, Iran is on its last legs.
I should say last leg, because it turns out that Moshtaba Khamineh, the new supreme leader of Iran, reportedly is down to one leg.
Apparently, the Israelis blew off the other one in that same strike that took out Moshtaba's dad.
Well, at least Moshaba still has a working dick.
Well, sorry to strike that.
His dick wasn't working even before he ended up in a reported coma.
Oh, yeah.
Did I forget to mention that?
Allegedly, Moshtaba isn't even conscious, which is why at a ceremony for Moshtaba, where the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps showed up so they could pledge allegiance to him, they used a cardboard cutout of him.
I am not joking.
Check it out.
They're pledging allegiance, not to him, but to a picture of him, like a poster board that they printed at Iranian Kinko's.
By the way, this is also how I run our office.
I put up a cardboard cutout and then my staffers talk to it and we call it a successful meeting.
But that's how Iran is currently doing its government, like right this very instant.
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Okay, so back to Moshtaba.
How terrible a pick is Moshtaba?
Well, according to the New York Post, Moshtaba's dad explicitly left a will saying, do not appoint this derelict impotent to replace me.
Here is the post.
Quote, assassinated Supreme Leader Ali Khomeini was so opposed to his son taking power that he noted it in his will, experts told the Post.
Quote, in Khomeini's will, he explicitly asked Moshtaba not to be named as a successor, said Khosro Isfahani, a research director for the opposition group National Union for Democracy with ties to Iranian intelligence.
Well, then they appointed Moshtaba anyway.
I guess at least his mother loved him.
Maybe.
Still, the critics argue catastrophe is upon us, which brings us to lie number three, which is that oil, the oil shock, is going to end this war.
Iran's just going to cut off the Strait of Hormuz forever.
They're going to be standing in line like the Jimmy Carter era, waiting to pump gas.
Well, not exactly.
You remember when like yesterday morning, people were freaking out about the strait of Hormuz and the supposed Iranian threat to global oil supply?
And there was talk about the price of crude per barrel going up to $150, $200.
Well, it was the fastest turnaround in probably modern market history because the price of oil soared by like $40 a barrel.
And then by the close of business yesterday, crude had dropped again below $90 a barrel.
So clearly, we're in trouble.
The economy is about to collapse.
That's true if you listen to the idiots.
You really thought, these people really thought that President Trump was going to launch a major action in the Middle East without any idea it might upset the oil markets?
I mean, if there's one thing President Trump understands, it is the impact on markets.
This is literally why he launches strikes on Friday nights, not just to annoy me because it's Sabbath and I can't cover it, but actually because the markets don't open until wait for it Monday.
Noticing a pattern?
He did it with Maduro.
He did it here.
And that is for a reason.
I mean, come on.
Yesterday, President Trump even announced that if Iran tries to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed, he might turn it into the Strait of America to go alongside his monopoly card Gulf of America.
The president also put up a statement over on Truth Social explaining his plans for the Strait of Hormuz.
If Iran does anything that stops the flow of oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America 20 times harder than they have been hit so far.
Additionally, we'll take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back as a nation again.
Death, fire, and fury will reign upon them.
I love when he starts just doing heavy metal lyrics.
This is not endless nation building under those types of quagmires we saw under Bush or Obama.
It's not even close.
Our generation of soldiers will not let that happen again, and nor will this president, who very clearly ran against those kinds of never-ending, nebulously scoped missions.
Those days are dead.
Instead, we're winning decisively with brutal efficiency, total air dominance, and an unbreakable will to accomplish the president's objectives.
Is anyone surprised that this is going to be a short war?
If so, why?
When we entered into this action in Iran, President Trump said the entire thing, the entire thing, would last three to four weeks, which is, by the way, two weeks shorter than the first Gulf War, the high watermark of successful short wars when he kicked Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait.
Now, this doesn't mean that President Trump is going to stop short of his goals.
He already made that clear.
Yes, President Trump said, we've already won a lot.
We've destroyed Iran's missile launchers, heavily damaged their nuclear facilities, wrecked hundreds of IRGC bases, hit oil supplies that funnel directly to the IRGC.
By the way, we should mention that.
There have been a lot of bad reports about how the Israelis are going off the leash and hitting oil supplies, and the Trump administration is mad.
Literally, the oil refineries they are hitting are specific oil refineries that fund the IRGC directly.
If you think that the Israelis are not coordinating with the Americans on that, you're out of your mind.
The United States so far has been highly successful.
Here is Secretary of State Marco Rubio doing a spectacular job describing our goals.
The goals of this mission are clear, and it's important to continue to remind the American people of why it is that the greatest military in the history of the world is engaged in this operation.
It is to destroy the ability of this regime to launch missiles, both by destroying their missiles and their launchers, destroy the factories that make these missiles, and destroy their navy.
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Now, for 10 years plus here on this program, we've been talking about good Trump, bad Trump.
But this is not bad Trump and it's not good Trump.
Again, to hear the Panicans tell it, there is no strategy.
I should mention here that all of the horseshoe right people who are saying that Trump was pressured into this, that somebody is pulling his strings, that somebody is behind the scenes forcing Trump to do this because they're cowards and they won't mention Trump's name.
Yes, I'm talking about Tucker Carlson and Megan Kelly and all the rest who continue to pretend that Donald Trump didn't make the call and isn't making the calls because they are cowards with a capital C.
I mean, listen to the president there.
Does that sound like a man who is being manipulated behind the scenes or a dude who is in control?
All righty, so what is the strategy from here?
To hear the so-called panicans tell it, there is no strategy.
Senator Mark Kelly, who somehow I think wants to run for president, despite his strange resemblance to Mr. Magoo, you have never seen them in the same place at the same time.
He says he does not understand the strategy, which is more about him than it is about a lack of strategy.
So because Mushtaba, captain failure to launch over there, is now in charge with one leg and in a coma instead of his dad, or because the regime has not fallen yet, or because they've been deprived of the vast majority of their ballistic missile launchers, their drone making and missile making facilities, and their nuclear facilities, he doesn't understand.
That's weird because the Iranian people understand it.
So do the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Azeris, the Kurds, even the Qataris.
And of course, the Israelis understand it.
But according to Mark Kelly and the Democrats, the strategy, you know, to totally wreck Iran's military infrastructure and their governing infrastructure and force them into a state of collapse, it's impossible to understand.
It's impossible.
It's a riddle wrapped in an enigma.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, he is also bemused, bothered, and bewildered.
He tweeted out yesterday, quote, about Trump.
He can't articulate a plan or vision because he has no plan or vision.
He can't even decide whether or not the country is at war.
He's risking the world economy and the lives of millions on whims and vibes.
Well, Chuck Schumer is totally full of crap, risking the lives of millions, millions, really, really.
Of course, if Chuck Schumer believed that, he might, you know, fund the Department of Homeland Security.
You see, right now, Democrats in the Senate are holding up full funding of the Department of Homeland Security.
This is why you might be sitting in an airport experiencing a flight delay while you listen to this right now.
They're doing so because they're still mad at ICE for deporting illegal immigrants.
But it turns out DHS is also responsible for things like the TSA and, say, protection from Iranian terrorist cells.
It's now being reported that Iran may have activated its final gambit sleeper cells.
According to the New York Post, quote, Iran sent out a possible operational trigger to activate sleeper assets abroad after the war with America and Israel began, according to an encrypted message intercepted by the U.S.
The coded signal was sent out following the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khomeini-e on February 28th, with the message appearing to hold instructions for covert operatives or sleeper assets.
ABC News reported, citing a federal alert sent to law enforcement agencies.
U.S. warning said intelligence had detected a broadcast station repeatedly transmitting a message to multiple countries outside Iran, according to ABC.
Quote, while the exact contents of these transmissions cannot currently be determined, the sudden appearance of a new station with international rebroadcast characteristics warrants heightened situational awareness, according to the memo.
So, with all that happening, now might be a good time to fund DHS, right?
Wrong, because the only thing that matters to Democrats is hurting President Trump.
The takeaway here, perhaps Democrats don't truly believe that America is at risk.
If they do, they should probably fund the protection of Americans, but they won't.
And then there's the horseshoe right, which can't stop, won't stop.
And what people like Levin, whom I'm not attacking, I feel sorry for because he's clearly living in hell, but what they're trying to do is a species of witchcraft.
And it's really simple.
You repeat something until it becomes true.
Khamini must die.
We're going into war.
We're going to knock off the government.
This is good for us.
Anyone who's against it is an anti-semit, a Nazi should be expelled.
Benedict Arnold, not allowed in the White House.
You keep repeating things that are untrue until they become true.
You speak, you create truth by speaking.
In the beginning was the word, right?
There's a holy power, there's a supernatural power in words.
Describing things is different from simply doing them.
And if you can talk reality into being, this is what an incantation is.
This is what a spell is.
It's not like spooky, like crazy stuff.
It's the lived reality of every person.
Say it and it becomes true.
And that's exactly what they're trying to do.
But there's something deeper.
There's like almost a spell.
I mean, Huckabee, for example.
You really think Huckabee is being threatened?
I know Huckabee well.
I'm sure you do too.
Nice man.
Like, what is this?
And I look at him and I see a man under a spell.
I mean, I mean this and I'll be mocked for it, but I mean it.
There's no practical conventional explanation for some of this behavior.
I mean, I look at Ted Cruz and I'm like, I think I know what's going on, Lindsey Graham.
I think I know what's going on.
But Mike Huckabee, I think he has, he is under a spell.
You thought you might have a pressing question or two on how Mark Levin's magic incantations work?
You stop that, sensor.
She's not the mother of the internet.
By the way, somebody really needs to do a wellness check on Tucker.
He's spinning out.
ELPA is a hell of a drug.
Well, there's something else that Democrats and the Horseshoe Right have in common, it seems, aside from their deep desire to watch America lose a war to Iran, a wellspring of optimism with regard to Islamism, radical Islam.
As we discussed yesterday on the show, on Saturday, two American-born ISIS-associated terrorists tried to throw IEDs at an anti-Islam rally.
Kayumi said in recorded post-arrest statements that he had watched ISIS propaganda on his phone and that his actions that day were partly inspired by ISIS.
The complaint also details statements made by Amir Balat after his arrests.
En route to the NYPD precinct, Balat made spontaneous statements without being questioned by NYPD officers that were captured on body-worn camera footage.
He said, this isn't a religion that just stands when people talk about the blessed name of the prophet.
We take action, we take action.
As well as, if I didn't do it, some will else, someone else will come and do it.
And later, after waiving his rights, he requested paper and wrote a message declaring in part, I pledge my allegiance to the Islamic State.
Die in your rage, you kufar.
Now, die in your rage is a commonly known ISIS slogan.
And kufar is an Arabic term that refers to non-believers.
Well, in case you missed it, Amir Balad, who's one of these ISIS-associated attempted terrorists, actually flashed an ISIS salute to photographers.
That's what that finger in the air is from a dude who shares, I assume, hair with Jim Morrison.
According to Foreign Affairs magazine, for followers of ISIS, a single raised index finger has become a sign of their cause.
It is increasingly common in photographs of militants.
Some have even gone so far as to call the symbol the jihadi equivalent of a gang sign.
Well, you remember that the mayor of New York, Zarn Mandani, he spent like 24 hours pretending that there was no radical Islam problem and the big issue of the weekend was a white supremacist rally that drew 20 people, not the terrorists throwing IEDs at people.
Well, yesterday, finally, he made a statement in which he acknowledged that radical Islam did something bad.
Quote, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi have been charged with committing a heinous act of terrorism and proclaiming their allegiance to ISIS.
They should be held fully accountable for their actions.
We'll continue to keep New Yorkers safe.
We will not tolerate terrorism or violence in our city.
Well, there is a ringing rebuke of radical Islam from our Islamist supporting mayor of New York.
You can feel safe now in your choices, New Yorkers.
Well, New York City may have gone to sleep on radical jihadism, but you need your actual sleep, like in your regular life.
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So, how did this Leopold and Loeb of Islamist terror join ISIS in the first place?
According to Balat's attorney, they found each other almost randomly.
It was kind of a meet-cute, apparently.
unidentified
I'm saying they're from different parts of Pennsylvania, they're in different age groups, they are not known to each other, they did not live together, they're not family or school ties.
There is no reason to believe they knew each other prior to this incident, and I don't know how well they knew each other at the time of this incident.
According to the New York Post: alleged ISIS-loving wannabe terrorists, Ibrahim Kayumi 19 and Amir Balat 18 grew up with successful immigrant families in idyllic white picket fence, suburban Pennsylvania, before they tried to detonate IEDs near Gracie Mansion.
The Post has learned.
Qayumi's parents even own a gorgeous $2.25 million home in Scenic Newton, symbolizing the family attaining the American dream after arriving from Afghanistan decades ago.
Records show.
The Balat family lives about 12 miles away in a comfortable 3,200 square foot two-story house worth a respectable $653,000 in Leafy Langhorn, Pennsylvania.
His parents hailed from Turkey and became naturalized U.S. citizens in 2017, according to Fox News.
Authorities said the pair, who allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS after their arrests, appeared to have been radicalized online and plotted to detonate deadly homemade bombs at an anti-Muslim protest outside a Gracie Mansion on Saturday afternoon.
Now, there are a lot of questions to be asked here, and not a lot of answers available.
What did the parents believe?
Where did they go to the mosque?
Under what circumstances did they immigrate?
What sort of material were these people consuming online?
Did anyone notice?
But the real story here is even wilder.
Nobody really seems to care much about this.
In fact, this story, you know, the two ISIS-inspired young people who are throwing IEDs at a rally outside Gracie Mansion, it's a totally inconvenient story.
The national coverage of the attempted IE attack hasn't just been muted, it's been nearly non-existent.
That's presumably because it's really inconvenient to liberal sensibilities.
I think maybe the most darkly hilarious video of the incident was this one.
unidentified
You don't live in New York.
You're coming to New York to tell people who belongs in New York and who doesn't belong in New York.
We were born and raised in New York and we want everyone here to stay in New York.
Both the left and the horseshoe right have decided to look the other way at radical Islam.
Now, some of that is old school liberal suicidal tolerance, but for a lot of people, there's something beyond that, a third worldism that finds sympathy with Islamist tendencies.
Take, for example, Mahmoud Khalil.
Khalil, you'll recall, is an import from Syria by way of Lebanon.
This is the guy who was supposed to come to Columbia University to study international and public affairs, but instead ended up promoting jihadism via the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, which ended with his deportation order.
Well, now he's not only still in America, he's dining with the mayor of New York and his terror-supporting wife at Gracie Mansion.
According to the New York Post, quote, Meira Zor Mamdani hosted controversial anti-Israel activist and accused Hamas sympathizer Mahmoud Khalil, his wife and their young son for dinner at Gracie Mansion for the holy month of Ramadan.
And Mamdani put up an Instagram post, quote, last night, as we marked the one-year anniversary of his detention, Rama and I were honored to welcome Mahmoud Noor and their son Dean to Gracie Mansion to break our fast together.
Here is the beautiful picture of the wonderful dinner with a bunch of people who love terrorism.
I mean, it looks like Bain taking over the city from Dark Knight Rises.
Mamdani then waxed poetic about his pro-jihad friend, quote, for Mahmoud Khalil, this past year has been marked by profound hardship and by profound courage.
A year ago, Mahmoud was walking home through our city after sharing an iftar with his wife Noor when he was detained by federal agents, flown to Louisiana, and then held in an ICE facility for months.
In that time, he was forced to miss the birth of his first child.
All of this for exercising his First Amendment rights in protesting the ongoing genocide in Palestine.
And yet, even in the face of that cruelty, there has also been beauty.
New Yorkers raising their voices in solidarity, a city refusing to look away.
Folks, if you wonder why the West seems to be losing to radical Islam, well, it's because we're not just importing radical Muslims, we are electing them to high office.
And then, of course, there are the liberals, like the Normie liberals who support people like Mahmoud Khalil.
Meet Mahmoud Khalil's lawyer.
Her name is Amy Greer.
Here she is talking about how she hates the Constitution and would love to work toward the abolition of the legal system.
In my first year of law school, to like be like, okay, criminal law comes from property law.
You know, the Constitution was built while human beings were property, right, in the United States.
And so all of these conceptualizations were very present.
You know, as a public defender, I only made it, you know, less than a year because I felt like I was, my presence in the room made it constitutional to harm.
Are we creating more harm by using our skills to defend folks who are being swept into this system intentionally, purposefully?
You know, swept is probably even too mild of a word.
James Tallarico on Christians vs. Atheists00:10:48
I mean, what do Mahmoud Khalil and his lawyer, his very white lawyer, have in common wanting to tear down the system?
Do Islamists need even more friends?
Well, they do have the legacy media.
Here is CNN's coverage about the two New York City ISIS terrorists.
Quote, two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could have been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather.
But in less than an hour, their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs during an anti-Muslim protest outside of Mayor Azarn Mandani's home.
If you want the full details, head on over to dailyware.com/slash lifetime.
Download the app, tap follow, get yourself entered today.
Well, there are leftists who wish to rip down our systems and ally themselves with radical Islam.
And then there are leftists who just wish to rip down Christianity from the inside.
One of those voices is James Tallerico.
He's the Texas Democratic candidate for United States Senate.
James Tallerico defeated hilarious cartoon character Jasmine Crockett in the primaries.
Now he's been deemed the great super duper white hope for Democrats to turn Texas blue again.
They seem particularly excited that he cites the Bible while pushing far-left social policies.
This is not because Democrats love the Bible.
It's because they largely do not like the Bible and would prefer that it be corrupted from the inside.
That's why the media love Tallarico.
That's the only takeaway I have for Tallerico's brand of Christianity, which seems directly opposed to biblical thinking, traditional biblical thinking on every single score.
But, you know, there are things that he does stand against, James Tallarico, really important things.
So, for example, you know what Jesus would have hated?
The Ten Commandments being in classrooms.
That's what he would have hated.
The Bible really hates when people post sections of the Bible in places where people can see them.
If there's one thing that is very clear from the words of the Bible, it is that God hates it when people spread the words of the Bible, particularly to children.
God despises it.
At least that's what James Tallarico is telling people.
And Democrats are lapping this crap up, really lapping it up, because he looks like a refugee from a bad Sunday school program.
I have met so many Hindus, Buddhists, Sikh, Jews, Muslims, atheists, agnostics who are more Christ-like than some of the Christians I serve with in the Texas legislature.
I mean, again, I can name all sorts of religious people who I think act poorly, but that does not mean that somehow Christianity is to blame or that a brand of Christianity that is significantly more traditional than your own.
And what he's doing right now, we'll get to in a second, is it is in fact religious heresy.
But here was James Tallarico talking about abortion.
Again, remember, according to James Tallarico, the biggest thing about Christianity is it says that we shouldn't have carbon emissions, but also Jesus had nothing to say about abortion.
Look at this deep devotee of biblical principles, like in the book of Genesis, where it says male and female, he created them.
So here's that howdy-doody looking weirdo who loves trans kids, but isn't that hot on unborn kids, apparently, saying all of this in the name of Christianity.
Well, this is not going to play in Texas.
I'm just going to put it out there, not going to play in Texas.
Maybe they would have been better off with Jasmine Crockett, who, again, is an entertaining cartoon character.
But it is playing among precisely the crowd you would imagine.
New York Times columnist, David French, who is or was a conservative Christian, and he's a person who I've considered a friend.
He wrote a truly awful piece about Tallarico for the Times this week.
David calls Tallarico, quote, one of the most faith-forward politicians in the United States, saying he doesn't, quote, just root his policies and ideology in his Christian beliefs.
He's a seminarian willing to dive deep into theology.
Now, French acknowledges that Tallarico's politics are far left, but says David, Tallarico is giving people hope.
What's the hope?
Well, according to David French, Tallarico is one of the few openly Christian politicians in the United States who acts like a Christian.
And by acting like a Christian, he reveals a profound contrast with so many members of the MAGA Christian movement that's dominated American political life for 10 years.
It does really matter, says David, whether a politician is pro-life or pro-choice, but there is no spiritual or political scenario where you can abandon Christian virtue for the sake of the alleged greater good.
And if a Christian politician abandons Christian virtue, then Christian believers should abandon him or her.
So this is pretty silly.
It's just silly.
Christians who support President Trump are doing so because his policies most mirror their own.
They're not doing it because they think that President Trump's sexual history is somehow praiseworthy or that Trump acts like, you know, one of the guys they go to church with.
Trump doesn't even talk about himself that way.
But what David French is doing right now is boiling Christianity down to being nice, to manners.
He's pretending that manners ought to overcome Tallarico's blatant violation of the third commandment.
That's the commandment that says, thou shalt not take the Lord's name in vain, which you might know if it were posted on like a Texas school classroom wall.
It's one thing to take political positions contrary to scripture.
A lot of people do that all the time.
It's another to claim that you are actually speaking in God's name when you do that thing.
That right there is a grave sin.
And most Christians know that, which is why James Tallarico, and it is amusing to me how every so often there will be a figure who arises in the left-wing community who quotes the New Testament, but only a few sections of Matthew, really.
And then the entire left-wing says, here is our culture warrior here, right here.
Like the one who's saying that Jesus was super good with the gay marriage?
Like that one?
And like abortion on demand?
That's who you're picking?
See, Democrats, they still would love to have the appearance of the presence of blue dog Democrats in their coalition, but all the blue dogs are dead.
They took them out and shot them out back like Christy Noam.
And that means that they are now left with people who cosplay as Christians and give the sort of nice mannered appearance of Christians while speaking actual heretical ideas in the name of the Bible.
Well, speaking of Christians who do live out their actual faith, props here to Luca Cornett he's center for the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA.
He spoke out earlier this week about an Atlanta Hawks promotional night for Magic City, which is a strip club.
That's a thing that was happening.
The Atlanta Hawks decided that they wanted to have a night honoring Magic City, a strip club.
So Cornett went on Substack.
He said, this week, the Atlanta Hawks announced a special one-night collaboration to celebrate the city's iconic cultural institution, Magic City, during the team's home game against Orlando on Monday, March 16th.
In its press release, the Hawks failed to acknowledge that this place is, as the business itself boasts, Atlanta's premier strip club.
Cornett says, given this fact, I would like to respectfully ask that the Atlanta Hawks cancel this promotional night with Magic City.
The NBA should desire to protect and esteem women, many of whom work diligently every day to make this the best basketball league in the world.
We should promote an atmosphere that is protective and respectful of the daughters, wives, sisters, mothers, and partners we know and love.
We desire to provide an environment where fans of all ages can safely come and enjoy the game of basketball and where we can celebrate the history and culture of communities in good conscience.
The celebration of a strip club, says Cornett, is not conduct aligned with that vision.
And good for him.
Good for him.
And by the way, it actually worked.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver had the Hawks cancel the night, explaining: When we became aware of the Atlanta Hawks' scheduled promotion, we reached out to Hawks' leadership to better understand their plans and rationale.
While we appreciate the team's perspective and their desire to move forward, we have heard significant concerns from a broad array of league stakeholders, including fans, partners, and employees.
I believe canceling this promotion is the right decision for the broader NBA community.
That is the right move.
Now, if only the NBA would stop training its cheerleaders to dance like they're moonlighting during their Magic City off hours.
Well, meanwhile, the rest of the globe continues to spin.
Thanks to the capture of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro by the Trump administration, Venezuela's oil flow to Cuba has stopped dead.
And that means that Cuba is now in serious economic trouble.
Protests are breaking out there regularly.
hear some of the video of the protest breaking out in Cuba.
This regime is in serious trouble.
They are.
They have no money.
They are cut off from everyone.
They have no oil revenues.
And the people are tired of this, truly tired of this.
The freeing of Cuba after decades would be a signal achievement by President Trump, who is at this point single-handedly changing the geopolitics of planet Earth.
He is the most impactful president since Ronald Reagan in this respect, by far.
President Trump yesterday said the United States might actually liberate Cuba.
He said, listen, I think they'll liberate themselves, but maybe we'll help.