The Ben Shapiro Show - DOJ Catches Libs Funding The KKK
Aired: 2026-04-22
Duration: 56:16


=== SPLC Funding White Supremacists (14:36) ===

[00:00:00]  So, one of the most powerful liberal charities in the world has been donating money to the Ku Klux Klan.
[00:00:07]  Yep, the Southern Poverty Law Center, a left wing agitprop organization that raises something like $100 million every year, has been handing money to white supremacists.
[00:00:16]  Why in the world would they do that?
[00:00:17]  And what the hell is going on?
[00:00:19]  I will explain.
[00:00:19]  Plus, Virginia Democrats ram through an insane congressional map that basically makes Republican voters irrelevant, and President Trump makes a mysterious move on Iran.
[00:00:27]  This is the Ben Shapiro Show.
[00:00:36]  Alrighty.
[00:00:37]  So let's begin with this premise.
[00:00:38]  The demand for white supremacy on the left outstrips the supply.
[00:00:42]  What do I mean by this?
[00:00:43]  I mean that people on the left think, broadly speaking, that Americans are a set of horrible racists.
[00:00:49]  And then they look around in the world and it turns out that Americans are some of the least racist people in world history.
[00:00:55]  Like on the planet right now, Americans rank basically dead last in racism.
[00:01:01]  If you go to any other country on planet Earth, what you will notice is that there is significantly more racism than there is in the United States.
[00:01:07]  If you go to Japan, fair bit of racism in Japan.
[00:01:10]  Go to South Korea, fair bit of racism in South Korea.
[00:01:12]  Go to India, they've got some racism problems.
[00:01:14]  You come to the United States, and the poll statistics suggest that, for example, the vast majority of Americans are fine with living next to people of different races.
[00:01:22]  They are fine with intermarrying with people of other races.
[00:01:25]  We have very high rates in the United States of ethnic intermarriage.
[00:01:29]  All of that with America, like we are an extraordinarily tolerant and diverse people.
[00:01:34]  But in order for the left to make its play, For a sort of communitarian centralized government, they have to constantly suggest that the government must be there in order to ram down the throats of those evil racists, or the vast majority of Americans, according to the left.
[00:01:49]  They have to ram down their throat decency and goodness.
[00:01:53]  And the only way that you can sell that proposition is to create an airstat, a false supply of racism.
[00:02:01]  So this brings us to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
[00:02:04]  So you've probably heard of it, maybe you haven't.
[00:02:06]  The Southern Poverty Law Center is one of the most powerful left wing groups in America.
[00:02:09]  It's a supposedly civil rights nonprofit that was originally founded in 1971 in Montgomery, Alabama.
[00:02:16]  And originally, they built their reputation on using litigation and research.
[00:02:21]  And I say research here because the research is pretty shoddy to combat what they called white supremacists and other domestic extremist groups and advocate for marginalized communities.
[00:02:29]  That was their stated purpose.
[00:02:31]  And then over time, that turned into monitoring so called extremist movements.
[00:02:35]  They published a hate group list and a hate map, and they pushed programs on bias and intolerance.
[00:02:41]  And this was used.
[00:02:43]  To mainline their intel into everything from media to education to law enforcement.
[00:02:50]  The FBI, up until October 2025, was using inputs from the SPLC to determine the kinds of people to monitor.
[00:02:56]  And even in the private sector, SPLC data was being used.
[00:03:00]  So, Amazon under Jeff Bezos said that it used SPLC data to decide who to exclude from its Amazon Smile charity program.
[00:03:08]  So, there's a program on Amazon where if you want to give a little bit of charity, when you buy a book, for example, If you're a charity and you want to get that money, you have to be made eligible via the Amazon Smile program.
[00:03:18]  But Amazon would not accept you if you were on the SPLC list.
[00:03:21]  PayPal was working with the SPLC to identify accounts to borrow from its payment services.
[00:03:28]  How prominent was the SPLC and is the SPLC?
[00:03:32]  Well, since 2010, a search of the New York Times pulls up 711 instances where the SPLC is cited as an authority on hate or discrimination statistics.
[00:03:44]  So they are like the go to.
[00:03:45]  The New York Times sees a Jussie Smollett story and they call up somebody from the SPLC to talk about it.
[00:03:49]  There's a Nick Fuentes story.
[00:03:51]  They call the SPLC to talk about it.
[00:03:52]  There's a Charlie Kirk story, as it turns out, and they call up the SPLC to talk about it.
[00:03:57]  The New York Times.
[00:03:58]  And this will become relevant in just one moment, by the way.
[00:04:01]  Repeatedly quoted the SPLC's data in its coverage of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
[00:04:08]  That is the one where the media routinely claimed that President Trump said there were fine people on both sides, which was not what he actually said.
[00:04:14]  They lied about that.
[00:04:15]  But that Unite the Right rally has been the calling card for entire swaths of the left for a very, very long time.
[00:04:21]  And the New York Times repeatedly quoted the SPLC in its coverage of that Unite the Right rally.
[00:04:27]  And of course, they quoted the SPLC leadership to provide.
[00:04:30]  Historical context for the rise of the alt right.
[00:04:34]  In fact, a Google Gemini search of the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today shows that 20 to 25 percent of all analytical pieces on the Unite the Right rally referenced data or quoted directly from the SPLC.
[00:04:47]  Why is this relevant?
[00:04:49]  It turns out that some of the people funding the Unite the Right rally were allegedly the SPLC.
[00:04:55]  So yesterday, the acting attorney general, Todd Blanch, announced criminal charges for the Southern Poverty Law Center.
[00:05:01]  Here's what he had to say.
[00:05:03]  Today, a few minutes ago, in the Middle District of Alabama, a grand jury returned an 11 count indictment charging the Southern Poverty Law Center with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
[00:05:23]  According to the charges in the indictment, the SPLC is a nonprofit entity that purports to fight white supremacy and racial hatred by reporting on extremist.
[00:05:34]  Groups and conducting research to inform law enforcement groups with the goal of dismantling these groups.
[00:05:41]  As the indictment describes, the SPLC was not dismantling these groups.
[00:05:46]  It was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.
[00:05:57]  Okay.
[00:05:57]  So the basic charge here is pretty simple.
[00:06:00]  Fraud.
[00:06:00]  So what they are saying, the, the DOJ is that the Southern Poverty Law Center was basically paying all sorts of white supremacists and extremists in order to generate more white supremacy.
[00:06:15]  So then they could go fundraise.
[00:06:16]  See, here's the thing about the 501c3 world, meaning the nonprofit world.
[00:06:21]  And it's true pretty much everywhere.
[00:06:23]  Nonprofits exist theoretically to solve problems.
[00:06:26]  You give money to a nonprofit to solve a problem.
[00:06:29]  If the problem goes away, you no longer give to that nonprofit.
[00:06:32]  So let's say that you are the leader of a nonprofit or you're the leadership class of a nonprofit.
[00:06:36]  And it turns out the thing you're trying to solve has actually been pretty well and truly solved in the United States.
[00:06:42]  Like, for example, the racism of the American population.
[00:06:45]  That when you launched in 1971, racism was a very, very real and ever present part of American life.
[00:06:50]  And today, racism is not even a blip on most Americans' radar.
[00:06:54]  It's just not the way that most Americans think at this point.
[00:06:56]  But you're the Southern Poverty Law Center and you need to raise some money.
[00:06:59]  So what do you do?
[00:07:00]  You create a fake supply of white supremacy so you can go back to your donors and say the problem is worse than ever.
[00:07:07]  That's what you are doing.
[00:07:09]  So, if your donors are addicted to the fentanyl of the problem and the fentanyl is in short supply, what you do is you create Trank, a more viral version of the fentanyl that's more damaging, and then you go back to your donors in order to fund the methadone clinic to solve the problem.
[00:07:24]  So, the SPLC was, in this case, allegedly literally generating the white supremacy so they could fight the white supremacy.
[00:07:33]  Which is crazy.
[00:07:34]  And then the media were playing along with this.
[00:07:37]  The media were treating the Southern Poverty Law Center as the tip of the spear in fighting racism while the Southern Poverty Law Center was taking its donor money and paying actual white supremacists allegedly.
[00:07:49]  It's totally insane.
[00:07:50]  So, according to the press release from the Justice Department, quote, between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million in donated funds to individuals who were associated with various violent extremist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, National Socialist Party of America, that's the American Nazi Party, and Unite the Right.
[00:08:10]  And again, Unite the Right happens to be one that kind of leaps off the page at you because the SPLC and the left made bank off the Unite the Right rally for years and years and years.
[00:08:19]  It was, again, the key example they used over and over and over again about how the right happened to be racist, even though, again, the right did not associate with the Unite the Right rally.
[00:08:30]  The full indictment says The SPLC's paid informant, quote, field sources engaged in the active promotion of racist groups at the same time.
[00:08:37]  The SPLC was denouncing the same groups on his website.
[00:08:40]  The SPLC also had a field source who was a member of the online leadership chat group that planned the 2017 Unite the Right event in Charlottesville, Virginia.
[00:08:47]  That field source made racist postings under the supervision of the SPLC and helped coordinate transportation to the event for several attendees.
[00:08:54]  So again, the SPLC supposedly against Unite the Right, they were literally paying a guy who was in the online leadership chat group and was making racist postings and was coordinating transportation to the event for other attendees.
[00:09:08]  According to the indictment, starting in the 1980s, the SPLC began operating a covert network of informants who were either associated with violent extremist groups such as the KKK or who had infiltrated violent extremist groups at the SPLC's direction.
[00:09:22]  These informants were referred to by some individuals within the SPLC as field sources or the Fs.
[00:09:27]  Between at least 2014 and 2023, the SPLC paid their Fs in a clandestine manner.
[00:09:32]  Doing so hid the fact that while the SPLC received donation money under the auspices that the funds would be used to dismantle violent extremist groups, This donation money was instead being used in part by the SPLC to pay leaders and others within these same violent extremist groups.
[00:09:46]  That money was then used for the benefit of the individuals as well as the violent extremist groups.
[00:09:50]  Okay, so presumably the defense from the SPLC would be listen, we're like James O'Keefe.
[00:09:54]  We were just paying people to infiltrate these organizations and get us information, and then we would make that.
[00:09:59]  But the information that they had apparently was never really made public, or at least there's no evidence that it was.
[00:10:05]  Instead, it looks like they were helping to gin up the racism so they could fight the racism.
[00:10:10]  That is what it looks like.
[00:10:12]  Again, we have a list of the people they funded.
[00:10:15]  One membership, one member of the leadership team, according to the indictment, who planned that 2017 Unite the Right event, was paid $270,000 by the SPLC.
[00:10:25]  There's a member of a neo Nazi group called National Alliance who worked for the SPLC for more than 20 years and was paid more than a million dollars.
[00:10:32]  What did they get for that money, by the way?
[00:10:33]  What did donors get for that money?
[00:10:35]  Did they get some sort of grand inside information?
[00:10:37]  Did it help them build out their hate map?
[00:10:40]  Or.
[00:10:41]  Was this all part of a larger sort of attempt to build out white supremacist organizations so you could then fight the white supremacist organizations?
[00:10:51]  So you set the fire in order to put out the fire.
[00:10:53]  They also paid an imperial wizard of the United Clans of America.
[00:10:56]  That's the KKK.
[00:10:58]  There's an officer of the American Nazi Party who secretly paid more than 300 grand by the SPLC between 2014 and 2020, allegedly.
[00:11:05]  And a former chairman of National Alliance was secretly paid 140 grand between 2016 and 2023.
[00:11:11]  That is the same period of time during which that same person Was featured on the SPLC's extremist file webpage from which it solicited donations, which is insane.
[00:11:20]  Okay, so they have listed on their website this person as an extremist and they were paying him at the same exact time.
[00:11:30]  Totally crazy stuff.
[00:11:31]  Crazy.
[00:11:32]  So the acting attorney general, Todd Blanch, was on Laura Ingram's show last night on Fox News and he explains that the Biden administration opened this investigation and then they closed this investigation.
[00:11:41]  I wonder why.
[00:11:44]  How did they get away with this for so long?
[00:11:47]  I mean, it's a great question.
[00:11:48]  I said today during the press conference that we know that this investigation was opened during the Biden administration and then mysteriously closed.
[00:11:54]  I really don't have any information about why it was closed.
[00:11:57]  And then we started again last year.
[00:11:59]  The FBI did, working with the U.S. Attorney in Alabama.
[00:12:02]  And it's extraordinarily egregious.
[00:12:04]  You just talked about it.
[00:12:05]  But imagine a donor to the SPLC if they were told, by the way, we're going to give the money you're giving us to the Ku Klux Klan.
[00:12:13]  Okay?
[00:12:14]  Like, in some cases, over a million dollars.
[00:12:16]  I mean, it's incredible.
[00:12:19]  Okay, so again, pretty astonishing stuff.
[00:12:21]  And we should remember the SPLC's game was to label anyone remotely conservative and extremist.
[00:12:27]  Matt Walsh points out that the SPLC had a whole section of their website devoted to him.
[00:12:31]  He says, they never offered me any money as part of their scheme.
[00:12:33]  I'm starting to feel a bit offended.
[00:12:35]  Other things that were in the SPLC extremist files Turning Point USA, Prager University, Chaya Reichick at Libs of TikTok, Moms for Liberty, the Center for Immigration Studies, Alliance Defending Freedom, and David Horowitz, none of whom are extremists.
[00:12:51]  So, this is the game.
[00:12:53]  And I will say that it does lend itself to the idea that much of what we consume in the media and in sort of the social media world and in politics generally is just not true.
[00:13:04]  A lot of it is ginned up.
[00:13:06]  That the hatred that a lot of Americans feel for other Americans and their recent poll statistics showing that a majority of Americans have negative feelings about other Americans, so much of that is ginned up by groups like the SPLC labeling huge swaths of Americans white supremacists.
[00:13:24]  I mean, the fakery here is quite real.
[00:13:26]  And people make money off of it because the algorithm favors it.
[00:13:31]  In the modern era, this can be done algorithmically.
[00:13:34]  The algorithm favors amygdala friendly responses.
[00:13:38]  So, to greatly simplify brain structures, the amygdala is the emotional center of your brain.
[00:13:45]  It's kind of your lizard brain, it is the thing that responds to fear signals, for example.
[00:13:49]  And the prefrontal cortex is the reasoning center of your brain.
[00:13:52]  That is the part of your brain that says that fear is not truly the thing that you should be worried about, it's not real.
[00:13:57]  The internet.
[00:13:58]  And virality are designed to appeal to your amygdala.
[00:14:00]  That is what they are designed to do.
[00:14:02]  And so, if you're the SPLC, what you say is white supremacy is a threat to you and your family.
[00:14:07]  It's virulent, it's violent, and it's racist.
[00:14:10]  Pretty much that whole pitch goes directly to the amygdala because at no point does the prefrontal cortex kick in and go, wait, hold on.
[00:14:16]  I know that I know from all my neighbors, none of my neighbors are racist.
[00:14:19]  They don't like racism, they think it's bad, they think white supremacy is bad.
[00:14:24]  And because the amygdala has kicked in, you now think worse of your neighbors, even though you have never really thought about the issue using the reasoning part of your brain.
[00:14:32]  Well, the same thing is true in the algorithmic space online.

=== Why Enthusiasm Matters Online (02:11) ===

[00:14:36]  In a moment, we're going to get to a crazy story about how people are being scammed online by influencers who may not exist.
[00:14:43]  Plus, the Virginia Democrats just drew the craziest gerrymandering map that you've ever seen.
[00:14:48]  And Republicans talking about killing the filibuster, even while Democrats seem to be gaining an advantage in the polls.
[00:14:54]  Is that a good idea?
[00:14:54]  We'll get to all of it first.
[00:14:55]  When you're hiring, it's not just about qualifications on paper.
[00:14:58]  Producer Savvy was a candidate who immediately stood out.
[00:15:01]  She was sharp, but you could actually see that she wanted the job.
[00:15:04]  She wanted to learn.
[00:15:05]  We could feel the enthusiasm.
[00:15:06]  And for some reason, that enthusiasm has never waned despite all of the suffering we have put her through to this point in time.
[00:15:12]  She's still here enjoying her job.
[00:15:14]  And the reason is because, again, enthusiasm matters, which is why you should use our sponsor, Zip Recruiter.
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[00:16:07]  There are a lot of accounts that go extremely viral because they use extraordinarily charged language.
[00:16:12]  Extraordinarily charged language, by the way, tends to feature second person pronouns.
[00:16:16]  You.
[00:16:17]  If I speak directly to you, the minute I say you, it's probably firing up the centers in your brain that are more emotionally resonant.
[00:16:24]  If I use words like evil or wicked or soulless, those are words that are much more likely to fire up the emotional centers of your brain than appeal to your prefrontal cortex.
[00:16:35]  And it's a shortcut for politicians, for influencers, and for groups like the SPLC.
[00:16:39]  The more that you can use, Emotionally charged language that is second person directed, the better you will do.

=== The AI MAGA Influencer Scam (02:38) ===

[00:16:48]  And that's why we all seem to be living in a world that is totally different from reality these days.
[00:16:52]  The more time you spend online, the more you are, you are given this sort of stuff.
[00:16:55]  The stuff you see on X, the stuff that is, that is routinely retweeted and reposted is always the same kind of stuff.
[00:17:03]  Emotionally charged, deeply emotionally charged stuff.
[00:17:07]  That is the entire shtick here.
[00:17:09]  That is the entire game.
[00:17:12]  And that's why you feel alienated.
[00:17:13]  It's why I've said a thousand times on the show, and I will say it a thousand times more, that you ought to go talk to your neighbors in person.
[00:17:20]  Because when you talk with your neighbors, your prefrontal cortex will kick in, as opposed to your fear centers, your amygdala.
[00:17:26]  And you might learn that the neighbor who you disagree with about tax rates actually is not a racist.
[00:17:31]  I gave a speech last week at the University of Pennsylvania, and there's a guy who got up, and he, in the middle of the speech, in the question and answer session, he started asking about Obamacare.
[00:17:44]  And listen, healthcare in America is a very complex topic.
[00:17:47]  Trying to unwind the American healthcare system and rebuild it is a very, very difficult thing to do, obviously.
[00:17:53]  But what he said was, why do Republicans just want tens of thousands of people to die by restructuring Obamacare?
[00:17:59]  Well, Democrats want those same people to live.
[00:18:01]  And I stopped him and I said, Do you really believe that I want people to die because I want a different healthcare system?
[00:18:06]  I don't believe that Barack Obama wants people to die because he wanted a different healthcare system.
[00:18:12]  But the thing that appeals to the emotional center is the thing that is politically resonant.
[00:18:16]  And that's true on the right, just as it's true on the left.
[00:18:19]  And that's how you can have scam artists making bank online, true bank.
[00:18:24]  There's another story today.
[00:18:26]  It sort of fits in with this pattern.
[00:18:28]  This is from Wired.com.
[00:18:30]  Apparently, there was a top MAGA influencer who's now been revealed to be AI.
[00:18:36]  This top MAGA influencer was called Emily Hart, a registered nurse and a Jennifer Lawrence lookalike.
[00:18:43]  And according to this story on Wired, on an Instagram account for Emily, Emily Hart Nurse, there were photos of her ice fishing, drinking Coors Light, shooting off a few rounds at the rifle range with emoji laden captions like, if you want a reason to unfollow, Christ is king, abortion is murder, and all illegals must be deported.
[00:19:01]  And point of view.
[00:19:02]  You were assigned intelligent at birth, but you identify as liberal clown emoji.
[00:19:07]  Okay, when this account was launched within one month, this Emily Hart account had more than 10,000 Instagram followers.
[00:19:14]  And then they were upsold to an AI generated OnlyFans page on a competitor called FanView.
[00:19:23]  And this generated thousands of dollars a month.

=== Money Spent Per Vote (06:53) ===

[00:19:26]  There's only one problem.
[00:19:27]  This person wasn't real.
[00:19:28]  This person was created by a 22 year old aspiring orthopedic surgeon named Sam from Northern India.
[00:19:35]  It is very easy to game the amygdala of human beings.
[00:19:39]  Very, very easy indeed.
[00:19:40]  It's why it is our job constantly to try to look through the headlines and the self interest of people who are trying to appeal to emotions and get to the facts.
[00:19:51]  Because as I've frequently said, facts don't care about your feelings.
[00:19:54]  But as it turns out, feelings Do not care about your facts or any facts, as it turns out.
[00:20:00]  And so, trying to get past that is going to be the only way to save the country.
[00:20:05]  And that's why it's quite good that scam groups like the SPLC are being brought to heel for apparently allegedly generating white supremacy just to fight it and to appeal to those emotional centers.
[00:20:18]  And it's why when you go online, you should really consider whether the thing you're reading that is setting you off emotionally is actually true or not.
[00:20:26]  Or reflective of reality or not, reflective of what your fellow Americans actually think.
[00:20:30]  Alrighty, meanwhile, Virginia Democrats last night won a major victory in Virginia.
[00:20:37]  According to the New York Times, Virginia voters approved a plan on Tuesday to gerrymander the state's congressional map to significantly favor Democrats, according to the AP.
[00:20:45]  That new map could eliminate four of the state's five Republican held seats for the 2026 midterm elections, giving Democrats a significant boost in their quest to regain control of the House.
[00:20:54]  So you remember that Republicans had made a mid census redistricting.
[00:21:00]  In Texas and in California, there's an ongoing attempt to redistrict as well by Gavin Newsom.
[00:21:07]  Same thing with regard to Virginia.
[00:21:11]  So, Virginia, which was a 6 5 Democratic advantage in congressional districts, in a state that's like 55 45 Democrat, so that's a pretty fair map.
[00:21:20]  They decided to go all the way the other way.
[00:21:22]  They drew a 10 1 Democratic map, which is totally unfair and ridiculous.
[00:21:28]  Now, is it illegal?
[00:21:29]  This will be challenged in court.
[00:21:32]  The court in Virginia tends to be Democrat leaning.
[00:21:36]  It is, in fact, a massive power grab.
[00:21:39]  As the Daily Wire reports, a legal challenge is currently pending before the Virginia State Supreme Court.
[00:21:46]  But Democrats pulled out all the stops in favor of this thing.
[00:21:51]  Barack Obama, who has been very active lately, he's trying to retake control of his party by steering it further into Momdani land.
[00:21:58]  He filmed television advertisements for the Yes campaign, and he said it was a way to repudiate the White House and congressional Republicans.
[00:22:06]  He said by voting yes, you can push back against the Republicans trying to give themselves an unfair advantage in the midterm.
[00:22:11]  So disenfranchise.
[00:22:13]  45% of your population in order to fight the Republicans.
[00:22:17]  California voters, of course, have done the same thing.
[00:22:19]  They passed a ballot referendum and gained five blue seats in California.
[00:22:23]  North Carolina, Missouri redrew their maps for partisan purposes as well.
[00:22:27]  It may be that Florida does the same thing.
[00:22:30]  That's on the table as well.
[00:22:31]  Barack Obama put out a tweet saying, Congratulations, Virginia.
[00:22:35]  Republicans are trying to tilt the midterm elections in their favor, but they haven't done it yet.
[00:22:39]  Thanks for showing us what it looks like to stand up for our democracy and fight back.
[00:22:43]  And again, if you take a look at the actual voting map in Virginia, what you see is that basically the entire state voted against this, except for a couple of extremely Democrat counties.
[00:22:57]  And this thing passed 51 to 49.
[00:23:00]  Democrats, of course, are claiming that this is some form of enfranchisement as opposed to disenfranchisement.
[00:23:05]  Kamala Harris tweeted out that the power is with the people.
[00:23:09]  The power is not with the people who vote, you know, in like congressional elections.
[00:23:12]  The power is with a referendum that disenfranchises vast numbers of those people.
[00:23:17]  Glenn Youngkin.
[00:23:18]  The former governor of Virginia put out a statement.
[00:23:21]  Thank you to all the voters who turned out to vote against this egregious power grab.
[00:23:24]  The race was much closer than the left expected because Virginians know a 10 1 map is not Virginia.
[00:23:28]  I urge the Virginia Supreme Court to rule against the unconstitutional process that will disenfranchise millions of Virginians.
[00:23:34]  Now, there are a lot of Republicans who are saying that the National Republican Party really blew it here.
[00:23:39]  This is a close race.
[00:23:40]  Basically, if you look at the amount of money spent per vote, Democrats spent something like 40 bucks per vote in the state to push this thing, Republicans spent 13 bucks per vote.
[00:23:49]  And so, if they'd spent even a little bit of money, real money, then Republicans probably would have been able to prevent this from happening.
[00:23:59]  Apparently, according to Politico, Democrats outspent Republicans by a roughly three to one margin.
[00:24:04]  Virginians for fair elections, which led the yes effort, raised $64 million, boosted by nearly $38 million in support from the House majority forward, that is the House Democratic caucus leadership.
[00:24:16]  So there was not a lot of investment by Republicans.
[00:24:18]  Obviously, they should have done more.
[00:24:20]  This does speak to a problem.
[00:24:23]  Here's the problem Republicans very frequently get frustrated.
[00:24:27]  We get frustrated because we want things to happen and they don't happen in the fashion we want them to happen.
[00:24:31]  And so, what we do is we take the first available baton and we wield it.
[00:24:35]  And then, pretty predictably, that baton is turned back.
[00:24:37]  And this happens for both sides.
[00:24:39]  Harry Reid blew up the judicial filibuster because he was upset that Republicans were holding up federal judicial appointees under Barack Obama.
[00:24:46]  And Mitch McConnell warned him at the time if you blow up the judicial filibuster, that will be used against you.
[00:24:52]  And Harry Reid said, I don't care.
[00:24:54]  And he blew it up.
[00:24:55]  And pretty soon, Merrick Garland was up for the Supreme Court.
[00:25:00]  And the Republicans basically just held out because they had the majority.
[00:25:03]  And then.
[00:25:04]  Without the judicial filibuster in play, they put into place a bunch of Republicans or Republican appointees, rather, onto the Supreme Court.
[00:25:12]  So, any tool that you unsheathe from your arsenal will be used by the other side.
[00:25:16]  That is the nature of American politics.
[00:25:18]  It's one of the good things about American politics because if only one side were allowed to do it, you really would have a Democratic problem.
[00:25:24]  What is likely to happen from here?
[00:25:25]  What is likely to happen is redistricting in nearly every state, in which states that are slightly blue turn almost entirely blue congressionally, states that are slightly red turn almost entirely red.
[00:25:38]  Congressionally, where population movements mirror that, because let's say you're a frustrated Virginia Republican living in an outlying area, and now you're disenfranchised.
[00:25:48]  It doesn't matter how you vote in a congressional election.
[00:25:50]  So you don't bother to vote, and Democrats keep winning additional majorities in state races and in gubernatorial races and in all the rest.
[00:25:57]  And the only time you vote is for president.
[00:25:58]  And even then, you're like, you know what?
[00:26:00]  There are more and more Democrats here.
[00:26:01]  The big sort that has been happening in the United States is likely to exacerbate.
[00:26:06]  Now, in the long run, that may harm Democrats, because the reality is that people are leaving blue states at a faster rate than they are leaving red states.
[00:26:12]  People like living in In red states that are freer and increasingly more prosperous, and where business likes to be.

=== Voter Fraud and Stability (14:57) ===

[00:26:19]  However, what we are watching is the bifurcation of the country.
[00:26:23]  And that's one of the big problems here.
[00:26:25]  All righty, coming up, we'll get to anger in the Republican camp at John Thune, the Senate majority leader.
[00:26:30]  Plus, we'll get to the latest on Iran and what is happening there, the president making mysterious moves.
[00:26:36]  First, let's talk about when you start something new.
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[00:27:59]  And that brings us to the Save Act.
[00:28:01]  So, yesterday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who I believe to be a competent majority leader, he is good at his job.
[00:28:11]  There's a lot of angst on the Republican side of the aisle over his failure to ram through the so called Save Act.
[00:28:16]  The Save Act is a good act.
[00:28:18]  It says that if your name is not legally on the voter rolls, you should be purged, and also that you should have to show a citizenship document at the first time that you register to vote.
[00:28:28]  That's fine.
[00:28:29]  Honestly, I'm all for it.
[00:28:31]  But.
[00:28:32]  But it is not a reconciliation bill.
[00:28:34]  It has nothing to do with budgeting.
[00:28:36]  And because it's not a reconciliation bill, that means that the Senate parliamentarian would be likely to strip it out of any reconciliation bill.
[00:28:43]  And not only that, you're going to then need a filibuster proof majority in order to pass it.
[00:28:49]  And so a lot of Republicans have been saying, okay, we're not going to pass anything until we pass the Save Act, which is cutting off your nose to spite your face.
[00:28:55]  So John Thune said, okay, you know what we're going to do?
[00:28:57]  We're going to table the Save Act because we don't have the votes for it.
[00:29:00]  And we also don't have the votes to kill the filibuster.
[00:29:02]  And instead, we're going to move forward.
[00:29:03]  With funding, for example, ICE and Border Patrol.
[00:29:05]  We'll separate that off.
[00:29:06]  We'll fund it for three years.
[00:29:08]  So that takes us forward in time.
[00:29:10]  Here was Jonathan announcing that yesterday.
[00:29:13]  What we have been forced to do, and frankly, this is not my preference, but it is a reality, we are going to use the reconciliation process to fund those two important agencies.
[00:29:25]  And so we will be getting on a bill later today, a budget resolution that will be the unlock the next step, which is budget reconciliation that will enable us to ensure that those who carry out law enforcement. responsibilities in this country are actually funded.
[00:29:43]  Okay, so a lot of Republicans are very, very upset about all this.
[00:29:46]  They're very upset about this.
[00:29:47]  They think that he should kill the filibuster on behalf of the SAVE Act.
[00:29:50]  So, for example, Representative Ana Paulina Luna, she's out there claiming that this is a thing he must do, that we should kill the filibuster in order to promote the SAVE Act.
[00:29:59]  Here's what she had to say to Catherine Herridge.
[00:30:02]  John Thune is a problem.
[00:30:05]  I do not like what he's done because he has every ability, and really it's him that's blocking voter ID.
[00:30:12]  He has every ability to embrace the standing filibuster or remove the Filibuster.
[00:30:16]  Democrats are going to do it anyways.
[00:30:17]  And by the way, the current form of the filibuster is a perversion of what it initially was.
[00:30:22]  Okay, so when she says the Democrats are going to do it anyway, maybe and maybe not.
[00:30:27]  But just as with the judicial filibuster, you take that tool out of the sheath, it is not going back in the sheath.
[00:30:34]  Democrats will certainly do it if they don't have to restore the filibuster, obviously.
[00:30:40]  And this goes to, again, part of the problem with the way that our politics is done.
[00:30:44]  I agree.
[00:30:45]  Voter fraud is not only a problem, it could be a major problem.
[00:30:50]  If we do not actually put in place restrictions.
[00:30:52]  Now, voting illegally in the United States is a federal crime.
[00:30:55]  It is, in fact, a federal crime.
[00:30:57]  And there is no evidence of gigantic number voter fraud in the United States.
[00:31:04]  Now, you can say that it's happening, we just haven't detected it.
[00:31:07]  That's fair, maybe.
[00:31:09]  But just on an evidentiary basis, the notion that tens of thousands of Americans every election cycle are voting fraudulently, that evidence does not exist.
[00:31:18]  Again, that doesn't mean that it's not out, that maybe it's there and we haven't found it yet, or maybe.
[00:31:22]  You think that you've seen a sign of it, but it hasn't been fully evidenced yet.
[00:31:26]  We do have statistics on the number of convictions for voter fraud in the United States since 1982.
[00:31:33]  It's kept up by the Heritage Foundation.
[00:31:35]  And this is a map of where voter fraud has taken place, documented voter fraud in the United States since 1982.
[00:31:41]  And what you will notice here is that the scale goes from zero cases of documented voter fraud in states like Oklahoma and Louisiana and South Carolina to the upper end of this.
[00:31:51]  Again, this is over the course of the last 34 years.
[00:31:55]  Is 138 cases in Minnesota.
[00:31:58]  That is the upper end.
[00:31:59]  Now, that can make a difference, right?
[00:32:01]  Elections matter.
[00:32:02]  And obviously, some elections are really, really, really tight.
[00:32:04]  And I'm quite suspicious of some election results, say, like Al Franken over Norm Coleman, where someone discovers a box of ballots five seconds after the necessity for Al Franken to become a senator.
[00:32:15]  Man, I think a lot of suspicious things happen.
[00:32:17]  Would the current voter bill actually stop that?
[00:32:20]  Not really.
[00:32:22]  I mean, I, I, the current, again, I'm in favor of it.
[00:32:25]  I think it's good.
[00:32:25]  I think that we should.
[00:32:26]  But if the idea is, number one, that you're going to kill the filibuster, which, by the way, I'm just going to point this out.
[00:32:33]  There is a very, very good shot that sometime in the next six years, Democrats will be in control of the House and the Senate.
[00:32:39]  And maybe the presidency.
[00:32:40]  You don't know.
[00:32:41]  28 could go the wrong way.
[00:32:43]  How would you like a Democratic Congress where the Republicans have already killed the filibuster?
[00:32:47]  They don't even have to make the argument.
[00:32:48]  They already have killed the filibuster and Democrats just waltz right in and do whatever they want.
[00:32:51]  Now, again, Democrats might do that.
[00:32:53]  themselves, which is why I have recommended to Senator Thune that what Republicans should propose is a constitutional amendment to enshrine the filibuster permanently.
[00:33:02]  And if Democrats won't do it, then you nuke the filibuster.
[00:33:05]  That seems to me a useful tool.
[00:33:09]  However, when we talk about voter fraud, one of the reasons why we distrust the stuff that goes directly to, again, your amygdala is the idea your vote is threatened.
[00:33:20]  Your vote is threatened by millions of people who wish to falsely vote in the election.
[00:33:23]  And to thwart your capacity to elect your officials, the government doesn't belong to you, it belongs to the fraudulent.
[00:33:28]  Right?
[00:33:29]  Okay, that pitch is an amygdala pitch.
[00:33:32]  And then on the left, there's a parallel amygdala pitch.
[00:33:35]  Any attempt, any attempt to require further documentation for voting is an attempt to stop you and your friends from voting and your family from voting.
[00:33:43]  Your wife won't be able to vote if the voter suppression bill is passed.
[00:33:46]  Here's Cory Booker, for example, making that case in March.
[00:33:51]  Massive voter suppression bill that would make it very difficult for millions of Americans, especially women.
[00:33:58]  Who have changed their name, their name on their birth certificate, no longer matches the name on their real ID or driver's license.
[00:34:05]  It would cause chaos to voting and really shrink the voting rolls 5 or 10 percent, given the effect it would have.
[00:34:14]  Okay, so again, the idea is it's voter suppression.
[00:34:16]  So Democrats are constantly claiming voter suppression, and Republicans are constantly claiming voter fraud.
[00:34:20]  And the answer is there is no voter suppression.
[00:34:22]  And the evidence of voter fraud on a mass scale again, yes, there are absolutely individual cases of voter fraud.
[00:34:27]  They are illegal.
[00:34:28]  We should prosecute them.
[00:34:29]  And yes, of course, we should pass the SAVE Act.
[00:34:31]  But if the idea, the reason I'm objecting to this is not because I think there might not be individual cases of voter fraud or even the possibility of LART.
[00:34:38]  The problem is if the case that is currently being made, that's being made on large slots of the left, is that every election that is lost is the result of voter suppression.
[00:34:47]  And if on the case on the right is every election that is lost is based on voter fraud, you cannot have a well respected election ever again.
[00:34:55]  And that is a trust issue.
[00:34:57]  That is a fundamental trust issue.
[00:34:59]  If Democrats are trying to blow up the filibuster for the so called Equality Act, so as to cram down ballot harvesting, That's terrible on two levels.
[00:35:07]  The Equality Act is trash, and also blowing up the filibuster is a terrible idea.
[00:35:12]  And there's this notion out there that is put forward by people on all sides that Congress is there to do things.
[00:35:17]  Wrong.
[00:35:18]  Congress is not there to do things.
[00:35:19]  Congress is there to do things that are widely approved by the American people.
[00:35:24]  That is why there are checks and balances.
[00:35:26]  The founders wanted it that way.
[00:35:27]  Why?
[00:35:28]  Because in order to manufacture popular legislation, they wanted you to have to jump through a bunch of hoops in order to get to a true majoritarian position.
[00:35:37]  If the United States starts to look like parliamentary democracies in other parts of the world where a coalition just rams through whatever it wants, and then the next four years, a new coalition comes in and rams through whatever it wants, there is no sense of stability.
[00:35:51]  There is no sense of trust.
[00:35:54]  That is the kind of stuff that is being eroded.
[00:35:55]  So in short, yes, the Save Act is a good thing.
[00:35:58]  It should be pushed.
[00:35:59]  Should we blow up the filibuster?
[00:36:01]  Should that be blown up?
[00:36:02]  That would be a large scale mistake.
[00:36:04]  Okay, meanwhile, a lot of focus obviously on the midterms.
[00:36:07]  I should remind you that whatever we say right now will largely be irrelevant by the time we hit the midterms because it is currently April and the midterms are in November.
[00:36:17]  Nate Silver has a chart showing sort of where things were in terms of the generic ballot and the presidential approval rating in mid April in past election cycles.
[00:36:28]  So the president's approval rating right now is 39.3%, according to Nate Silver's sort of average.
[00:36:35]  And Democrats in the generic congressional ballot have about a 5.7%.
[00:36:39]  Advantage.
[00:36:41]  So if you go back to the last time, this was kind of true.
[00:36:43]  Go back to 2018, the president at that point had a 40.7% approval rating, so pretty close to right now.
[00:36:50]  Democrats had a much larger generic ballot advantage.
[00:36:53]  It turned out they had a 7.6% generic ballot advantage.
[00:36:57]  And in the House popular vote, they ended up with about an 8.6% popular vote advantage.
[00:37:04]  And if you go back to 2006, same kind of thing.
[00:37:08]  2006, George W. Bush is president.
[00:37:10]  He's unpopular because of the The Iraq war turning into a counterinsurgency effort.
[00:37:14]  His approval rating is at 35.6%.
[00:37:16]  The generic ballot is up at 11.4% for Democrats.
[00:37:20]  And the House popular vote ends up being an 8% advantage.
[00:37:24]  So, listen, are Republicans in trouble in the House?
[00:37:28]  Of course.
[00:37:29]  Have they been in trouble this entire presidential election cycle?
[00:37:31]  Of course.
[00:37:32]  And the president's approval rating dived originally, not because of the Iran war, it dived because of Liberation Day.
[00:37:38]  This is a point made by Harry Enton on CNN.
[00:37:40]  Of course, this is just true.
[00:37:43]  Dude, just take the L, man.
[00:37:45]  Just take the L. Tariffs were the biggest unforced political error that I can recall in a long period of time.
[00:37:51]  Because if you're looking for just one turning point in terms of when Donald Trump went underwater, it was right around Liberation Day, man.
[00:37:59]  Just take a look here.
[00:38:00]  Trump's negative net approval rating.
[00:38:02]  Every poll since March 29, 2025, right?
[00:38:06]  Liberation Day was just a few days later.
[00:38:08]  That means that Donald Trump, there hasn't been a single poll that meets CNN's standards for reporting in which he has had Anything but a negative net approval rating for 389 days.
[00:38:19]  As I said, dude, just take the altarists, they are a terrible political thing for you, my man.
[00:38:27]  Okay, so the reason I point this out is because there is now an attempt to suggest that the Iran war uniquely is what is driving down congressional approval ratings for Republicans.
[00:38:34]  That is not true.
[00:38:36]  The generic congressional ballot for Republicans has been fairly stable and steady for the last multiple months, and it mirrors the president's approval rating, of course, of course.
[00:38:46]  And if the outcome of the war in Iran is good, then presumably there'll be a bit of a rebound.
[00:38:50]  And if the outcome of the war happens sometime in the next few weeks, nobody is going to be thinking about that come November.
[00:38:56]  Okay, however, when it comes to the outcome of the midterms, this is why I say don't unsheath weapons the other side is going to use once you've unsheathed them.
[00:39:05]  You can't unbreak the glass.
[00:39:06]  Once the glass is broken, it just stays broken.
[00:39:09]  Okay, so now the latest on Iran.
[00:39:11]  So last night, the president put out a truth in which he said that he was going to hold off attacking.
[00:39:18]  Iran.
[00:39:18]  That was the deadline, right?
[00:39:19]  There was a two week ceasefire deadline.
[00:39:21]  And the president put out a statement on Truth Social.
[00:39:26]  Quote Based on the fact that the government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so, and upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shabazz Sharif of Pakistan, we've been asked to hold our attack on the country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal.
[00:39:41]  I have therefore directed our military to continue the blockade and, in all other respects, remain steady and able, and will therefore extend the ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted and discussions are concluded one way or the other.
[00:39:52]  Now, there are a couple of ways to read this sort of mysterious move because a lot of people are saying, they didn't even send a team to Pakistan to negotiate.
[00:40:01]  They didn't even send a team to Pakistan at all.
[00:40:04]  So, what exactly are you waiting for?
[00:40:05]  So, Trump is saying, listen, they're not sending a team because part of their team wants to make a deal and part of their team is the IRGC and they don't want to make a deal.
[00:40:13]  And, of course, Iran is treating this as a sign of weakness.
[00:40:16]  They're trying to suggest that the president is extending the so called ceasefire.
[00:40:19]  It's not really a ceasefire, as we'll talk about in a moment, in order to avoid having to restart.
[00:40:25]  Military action.
[00:40:27]  Okay, let's get real.
[00:40:28]  Here is the reason the president is doing this.
[00:40:30]  The Iranians believe they have one chief weapon left in their arsenal.
[00:40:34]  It is not their ballistic missile capacity, it is not even their capacity to shut the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:40:39]  It's time.
[00:40:40]  They believe that so long as this lasts, President Trump's clock is ticking.
[00:40:44]  Now, President Trump has spent the entire week, the entire week, talking about how the clock is not ticking for him.
[00:40:50]  He says it over and over and over on Truth Social.
[00:40:52]  You guys keep trying to rush me, you keep trying to say time is running out.
[00:40:55]  I'm president for three more years.
[00:40:57]  Which is going to last longer?
[00:40:59]  Donald Trump's presidency or the Iranian economy, which is bleeding at the rate of $440 million every day, and they don't have an economy to start with.
[00:41:09]  So that's what's actually happening here.
[00:41:10]  The actual thing that's happening here is President Trump is perfectly happy to sit there and strangle the Iranian economy with the blockade on Iranian product.

=== Strangling Iran Economically (05:01) ===

[00:41:17]  It is the rest of the world that has a clock.
[00:41:19]  It's China that has a clock because they need the oil moving through the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:41:24]  It is Japan that has a clock.
[00:41:25]  It's Europe that has a clock.
[00:41:27]  But President Trump is like, listen, you want to, you want to take your time?
[00:41:31]  Take all the time you need because you don't have an economy and it's getting worse every single day.
[00:41:36]  This is a point that was made by Scott Besant on Twitter, the Treasury Secretary.
[00:41:40]  Letting sort of the cat out of the bag on the strategy here.
[00:41:44]  He said, as the president has made clear, the United States Navy will continue the blockade of Iranian ports.
[00:41:48]  In a matter of days, Karg Island storage will be full and the fragile Iranian oil wells will be shut in.
[00:41:53]  Constraining Iran's maritime trade directly targets the regime's primary revenue lifelines.
[00:41:57]  The U.S. Treasury will continue to apply maximum pressure through economic theory to systematically degrade Tehran's ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds.
[00:42:05]  Any person or vessel facilitating these flows through covert trade and finance risks exposure to U.S. sanctions.
[00:42:11]  We continue to freeze the funds stolen by the corrupt leadership on behalf.
[00:42:14]  Of the people of Iran.
[00:42:15]  Now, again, the idea here is their economy is toast and it's getting toastier every single second.
[00:42:21]  It is getting burned.
[00:42:24]  Well, President Trump then put out another truth socialist.
[00:42:26]  He says, listen, Iran is trying to save face here.
[00:42:29]  He posted this after the extension of the ceasefire, which again is not really an extension.
[00:42:33]  He says, Iran doesn't want the Strait of Hormuz closed.
[00:42:35]  They want it open so they can make $500 million a day, which is therefore what they are losing if it is closed.
[00:42:40]  They only say they want it closed because I have it totally blockaded and closed, so they merely want to save face.
[00:42:45]  People approached me four days ago saying, Sir, Iran wants to open up the strait immediately.
[00:42:49]  But if we do that, there can never be a deal with Iran unless we blow up the rest of their country, their leaders included.
[00:42:53]  Okay, that's the whole thing.
[00:42:54]  But he's saying, Our chief leverage now is their economy.
[00:42:57]  And if you want me to open up the strait, then I'm going to blow up.
[00:43:01]  Those are the two choices.
[00:43:03]  And that is right.
[00:43:04]  And this is why the Iranians are thrashing against the box, just thrashing against the box.
[00:43:09]  The foreign minister, Abbas Arahi, put out a statement blockading Iranian ports is an act of war and thus a violation of the ceasefire.
[00:43:15]  So he's calling for an end to the ceasefire.
[00:43:17]  The Iranians are saying the ceasefire is over, not President Trump.
[00:43:20]  Not President Trump, who's seeking an off ramp in the form of a peace deal here.
[00:43:25]  And the Iranians are like, no, no, no, this is an act of war.
[00:43:28]  That's pretty pathetic stuff here.
[00:43:30]  They're blockading the entire Strait of Hormuz except for their own product.
[00:43:33]  Trump blockades their product and they say, hey, that's an act of war.
[00:43:36]  That's a step too far.
[00:43:38]  And this was shortly before, apparently, the Iranian Navy fired upon multiple ships.
[00:43:48]  They seized, the IRGC said it seized two ships, according to NBC News.
[00:43:52]  And then targeted a third.
[00:43:53]  Quote, three ships have been targeted this morning by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, the semi official news agency Fars has reported.
[00:43:59]  A Greek owned ship named Euphoria is now stranded on Iran's shores, Fars reported in a telegram post.
[00:44:04]  Fars reported that the IRGC had also targeted two other violating ships, the MSC Francesca and Apimanandes, which it said belonged to the shipping giant MSC and had been attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:44:15]  So they are the ones who continue to blockade and fire on the ships.
[00:44:18]  And again, this entire time during the so called ceasefire where the Strait of Hormuz was supposed to be open, it has not in fact been open.
[00:44:24]  They have been continuing to close it.
[00:44:27]  It's just the president realized that, hey, it hurts them significantly worse than it hurts us.
[00:44:31]  See, as I say, Tehran is losing $500 million a day.
[00:44:35]  The United States, we could lose $500 million a day.
[00:44:39]  And our federal budget alone, at the tune of $500 million a day, it would take like 1,500 days for the federal budget to be paid for by that amount of money.
[00:44:49]  That's how big we are compared to the Tehran government.
[00:44:55]  So, again, they're basically thrashing against the box.
[00:44:57]  They're trying to generate angst inside the United States, anger inside the United States.
[00:45:03]  The United States is also taking measures to sanction individuals, entities, and aircraft based in Iran, Turkey, and the UAE for involvement in procuring or transporting weapons or weapons components on behalf of the Iranian regime.
[00:45:13]  So, we're strangling them economically.
[00:45:14]  We are also strangling them in terms of what can be shipped in and out.
[00:45:20]  And the reality is that this is also hurting China, right?
[00:45:23]  China wants this to come to an end.
[00:45:24]  As the Wall Street Journal points out, An opinion piece?
[00:45:29]  China, according to multiple reports, has provided Iran with satellite imagery, components, and intelligence needed to attack infrastructure and shipping, as well as U.S. targets in Gulf countries.
[00:45:40]  But all this means is that Gulf countries are now realigning with the United States.
[00:45:44]  In 2024, Saudi supplied 14% of China's crude, Iraq 10%, Oman 7%, UAE 6%.
[00:45:50]  Those four Gulf states accounted for about 37% of China's oil imports.
[00:45:55]  China's enabling of Iranian aggression endangers suppliers that collectively matter more than three times as much to the Chinese economy.
[00:46:01]  As Iran does.
[00:46:04]  So, again, this idea that Trump is doing something totally un.
[00:46:07]  We don't understand what he's doing.
[00:46:09]  What he's doing is perfectly obvious if you have the eyes to see it.
[00:46:13]  He is strangling the Iranian economy.
[00:46:15]  And as he says, if we opened up the strait, we'd have to bomb him.

=== Alito and Thomas Clash (07:18) ===

[00:46:19]  So, their choice.
[00:46:21]  Their choice.
[00:46:22]  Or they can just come to the table.
[00:46:23]  Their economy is totally bleeding out.
[00:46:26]  They're fracturing because their economy is bleeding out.
[00:46:30]  Meanwhile, there's a lot of talk about the possibility that Samuel Alito.
[00:46:35]  Justice on the Supreme Court, one of the best justices on the Supreme Court, might step down before the midterm elections in an attempt to ensure that a good, solid textualist fills his slot at the Supreme Court.
[00:46:45]  Joining me on the line is Molly Hemingway.
[00:46:46]  She's editor in chief of The Federalist, a senior journalism fellow at Hillsdale College, and a Fox News contributor.
[00:46:51]  And her latest book is titled Alito, the Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution.
[00:46:56]  Molly, thanks so much for taking the time.
[00:46:57]  Really appreciate it.
[00:46:58]  Ben, it's great to be here with you.
[00:47:02]  So let's talk about Justice Alito.
[00:47:04]  I, of course, am a huge fan of Justice Alito's.
[00:47:06]  There's been a lot of talk.
[00:47:07]  About the possibility that he's going to step down from the Supreme Court in the near future.
[00:47:11]  What do you think is the case for?
[00:47:12]  Do you think he's going to do that?
[00:47:14]  Well, a lot of people are pushing him to retire because they think that Trump would be able to appoint someone much younger.
[00:47:21]  They don't push Justice Thomas, who's our longest serving and oldest justice on the court, because Justice Thomas has said he's going out feet first.
[00:47:30]  So people just know not to pressure him.
[00:47:32]  But both Thomas and Alito, they kind of let it be known they're not retiring at the end of this term.
[00:47:38]  That matches my understanding, particularly with the Alito chambers.
[00:47:43]  But I do think there's a possibility that there will be a retirement still.
[00:47:47]  We have three Republican appointed justices in their seventies.
[00:47:51]  Uh, and one of them, it's the Chief Justice, who's the second longest serving member currently on the court.
[00:47:58]  But we'll have to wait and see, I guess.
[00:48:02]  So, your book about Samuel Alito, for a lot of people who aren't court watchers and who are constantly kind of watching the more colorful justices in terms of their opinions, and right now, Chief Justice Roberts gets a lot of attention.
[00:48:13]  Clarence Thomas has gotten an extraordinary amount of attention since Justice Scalia's passing.
[00:48:17]  But Justice Alito has been perfectly consistently textualist and originalist in his interpretations for a long time.
[00:48:23]  You say that he's the one who reshaped the Supreme Court.
[00:48:25]  What do you mean by that?
[00:48:27]  Well, people have rightly given Justice Thomas and Justice Scalia a lot of due for what they have done on the court.
[00:48:36]  When Kerry Severino and I were writing our bestselling book on Justice Kavanaugh's confirmation, so many of the people on the court or near the court kept saying, you know, Alito is kind of this giant on the court and nobody ever talks about him.
[00:48:50]  And nobody ever talks about him because he's extremely reserved.
[00:48:54]  He does not seek celebrity in any way.
[00:48:56]  And yet he's kind of the workhorse on the court, the guy who agrees maybe with Thomas.
[00:49:02]  Although just now we got a rare issue from the Supreme Court where Thomas wrote, The opinion with the liberal justices, and Alito wrote the dissent with many of the conservative justices.
[00:49:13]  But they almost always agree.
[00:49:15]  But Thomas will have this really big philosophical position, and he'll say, I think we should be over here.
[00:49:21]  And Alito might disagree, or I'm sorry, Alito might agree with that, but he thinks, okay, how are we going to get there?
[00:49:28]  And he puts that work in, that incrementalist work to get the court to where it should be on religious liberty or on protecting the speech rights of laborers who are not in unions.
[00:49:38]  And it can be a slow, laborious process, which is also less.
[00:49:41]  Dramatic, and yet it's so significant.
[00:49:44]  I think by the time he authored the Dobbs decision and kept the five justices together, at that point, people realized oh, the guy who did the landmark decision, the thing that the conservative legal movement had been hoping for for 50 years, maybe we should be paying some more attention to him.
[00:50:01]  And so I knew I wanted to write the book and tell the inside story of who he is and what's happening on the court and what his peers think of him.
[00:50:11]  So, Molly, one of the things that you talk about at length in the book is obviously the Dobbs decision, as you say, the seminal Supreme Court decision of our lifetimes.
[00:50:18]  And there was so much that went into that, the negotiations behind the scenes, but also that extraordinary, insane leak of the Dobbs opinion early and the supposition that we still have no idea who did it.
[00:50:29]  One of the great mysteries in modern American legal history who leaked the Dobbs decision.
[00:50:33]  You have a fair bit of coverage of that in the book.
[00:50:35]  So, why don't you talk about that a little bit?
[00:50:37]  Well, one of the things I found most interesting in my research for Alito was that.
[00:50:42]  After the leak happened, if you remember, the lives of the justices who signed on to the Dobbs decision were immediately under threat.
[00:50:50]  They had to be moved to secure locations.
[00:50:52]  They had to wear bulletproof vests.
[00:50:55]  The Kavanaugh family had to face down an assassin on their street.
[00:50:59]  I mean, it was a very bad situation firebombings of churches and pro life centers.
[00:51:04]  The situation was fraught.
[00:51:05]  And yet, when they go to meet in conference to kind of find out, like, when is the decision going to come out?
[00:51:11]  And it needed to come out because until a decision is issued by the court, publicly, it's not official.
[00:51:17]  So if one of those justices had been killed, then Roe v. Wade would not have been overturned.
[00:51:22]  And so they find out from their liberal colleagues that they, the liberal colleagues claimed, oh, we're nowhere near being done with our dissent.
[00:51:30]  Even though they'd had like 50 years to work on it and the oral arguments had been in December of the previous year and they'd had the majority opinion since early February, they then proceeded to slow walk it.
[00:51:41]  They said, we can't possibly get it done till June.
[00:51:44]  And then even when they got that done, They put a little note in there, a reference to a decision that really wasn't near being written up, so that it delayed it another three plus weeks.
[00:51:59]  So even though they knew their colleagues were fighting for their lives and were in complete distress and their kids and their spouses, they slow walked the dissent from coming out in order to keep that decision delayed as long as possible.
[00:52:12]  It is actually amazing that there's as much collegiality on the court as there is, given that these types of antics are being used.
[00:52:21]  So let's talk about the collegiality on the court for just a second, Molly.
[00:52:23]  So, obviously, there's this sort of famous relationship between Justice Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who are on completely polar ends of the spectrum when it came to Supreme Court jurisprudence.
[00:52:32]  What is the situation at the Supreme Court right now in terms of collegiality?
[00:52:36]  Again, that's been sort of a famous aspect of the court for a long time.
[00:52:40]  People have focused on it for a long time.
[00:52:42]  Chief Justices, they used to all live together when they were in session in a house near Capitol Hill.
[00:52:48]  They, Rehnquist famously said it was difficult because they're all as independent as.
[00:52:53]  Nine hogs on ice.
[00:52:56]  They all have their strongly held opinions.
[00:52:58]  But previously, they used to keep their problems with each other confined to what they wrote.
[00:53:04]  So they might write a decision or dissent where they complain about each other.
[00:53:09]  Justice Scalia once said that Clarence Thomas had crafted a freedom destroying cocktail with a certain opinion he had.
[00:53:18]  So the next time they went out for drinks, Clarence Thomas ordered a freedom destroying cocktail.
[00:53:24]  The idea being they didn't take it personally.
[00:53:26]  What we've seen more recently is that the liberal justices are publicly going after some of their colleagues and publicly undermining the integrity of the court itself.

=== Clean Water and Fire (02:38) ===

[00:53:37]  This is a longstanding norm that has been broken in recent years.
[00:53:42]  And I think it also is adding to the trouble, even as they genuinely do try to get along and keep things civil.
[00:53:50]  They only have their eight colleagues, they have to, and they've got lifetime appointments, so they try to keep things civil.
[00:53:58]  Well, the book is a must read about Samuel Leto, again, one of the great justices in American history.
[00:54:01]  It's called The Leto, the Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution.
[00:54:05]  Molly Hemingway is the author.
[00:54:06]  Molly, thanks so much for taking the time.
[00:54:07]  Really appreciate it.
[00:54:08]  Thank you, Ben.
[00:54:11]  Well, meanwhile, there is a new episode of Be a Man with Me with Pavel Widowski out right now.
[00:54:16]  You should go check it out over at Daily Wire Plus.
[00:54:18]  It's awesome and it's hilarious.
[00:54:19]  Pavel's, he's just great.
[00:54:23]  Fire needs three things to exist air.
[00:54:25]  Yep.
[00:54:26]  Fire.
[00:54:28]  You want me to?
[00:54:28]  What is this, by the way?
[00:54:29]  It's kind of.
[00:54:31]  Let's say you're driving on the highway and the worst possible thing happens nuclear explosion.
[00:54:38]  E M P. Your car doesn't work, you're alone, you're in the woods, you have no water, no food, you need to survive long enough to get back to civilization.
[00:54:47]  What are you going to do?
[00:54:48]  Come with me if you want to live.
[00:54:50]  This is Mitch Vayouf.
[00:54:52]  Mitch knows everything and he can do anything to show me how to survive.
[00:54:58]  What am I doing here?
[00:54:59]  That's a great question.
[00:55:00]  We're going to try to make sure you don't die.
[00:55:02]  Okay.
[00:55:03]  We're going to be building what's called a debris shelter.
[00:55:05]  We're going to have to find the water.
[00:55:06]  We're going to have to clean the water.
[00:55:08]  So we're building fire right here.
[00:55:09]  Yep.
[00:55:10]  We need to split this down into all of our kindling.
[00:55:17]  Why men are meant to struggle?
[00:55:19]  It's because good things worth doing are hard to do.
[00:55:24]  I love that you did it all just using your hands when you have that sweet pocket knife with a saw in the back of it.
[00:55:30]  That is a valid point.
[00:55:31]  It's okay.
[00:55:35]  When you see something. living, just throw something at it.
[00:55:46]  That's great.
[00:55:47]  Go check it out right now over at Daily Wire Plus.
[00:55:49]  And by the way, I'm going to watch that because I feel like I need some survival tips.
[00:55:53]  I mean, I'm like a fast talking Jew who lives in urban areas.
[00:55:56]  So if there were an EMP, I'd be the first to go.
[00:55:59]  All righty, coming up, we'll get to the latest on the economy calls to basically seize property from older Americans from a columnist over at the New York Times.
[00:56:09]  Remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member.
[00:56:10]  If you're not a member, become one, use code Shapiro.
[00:56:13]  Check out for two months free on all annual plans.
[00:56:14]  Click that link in the description and join us.