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May 10, 2023 - Dennis Prager Show
01:12:29
25 Years Later
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Dennis Prager here.
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Hi everybody, welcome to the Dennis Prager Show.
President Trump was on trial for rape.
The rape that occurred.
What year was that alleged rape?
Mid-1990s.
How do you put somebody on trial?
30 years later, or nearly 30 years later, because they changed statute of limitations laws with regard to rape just like they changed the laws of college so that a boy charged with any sexual crime has basically no defense.
It is a feminist takeover of the legal system.
Where whatever is possible is done to favor a woman in a courtroom with regard to charges against a male, then that's what we have here.
Alan Dershowitz, who voted for Joe Biden, and one of the most famous Harvard Law professors until very recently when he became emeritus.
The mixed verdict delivered by the jury in the Donald Trump civil rape case will be interpreted differently by those who support and oppose the former president.
On the main count that Trump raped E. Jean Carroll, the nine-person jury unanimously found that he did not.
The plaintiff could not even satisfy its low burden of proof, namely, In so finding, the jury apparently disbelieved at least part of the plaintiff's testimony.
She was very specific about being raped, not merely sexually abused or molested, as the jury did find.
It's a strange verdict, Dershowitz writes.
The jury seems to have believed some of her testimony, namely, that she had an encounter with Trump at Bergdorf Goodman in the mid-1990s, which Trump has adamantly denied, both in depositions and in public statements.
He did not appear at trial either to testify or to sit in the courtroom, but his lawyer presented his denials to the jury.
It is also hard to reconcile the jury's finding that he did not rape her with its finding that he maliciously defamed her by essentially saying that he did not rape her.
Wow.
So, yes, you say that he raped you.
He denies that he raped you.
Says you lied about raping you.
We agree that he did not rape you, and he's guilty of maliciously defaming you.
I'm laughing because my alternative is to cry.
America, America, God shed his grace on me.
Without God's grace, I'm not sure much can be done, and I don't rely on that because I rely...
And I think God relies on humans to do the repair work on Earth.
Accordingly, the United States Court of Appeals for the second court to which this case will be appealed will have its work cut out for it.
There will be other substantial issues as well on appeal.
They include the extension of the statute of limitations after it had already expired.
That's what I said to you.
They changed the law on the expiration and statute of limitations with regard to expiration.
They changed the law.
So she came back.
What's to stop any woman from saying the same thing?
I was in Bergdorf Goodman in 1995, whatever the year was, and he raped me.
How many rapes take place at Bergdorf Goodman?
Is that a fair question?
I mean that.
Is it easy to rape a woman?
Where do you rape a woman and if she calls out for help, is it not heard?
Was it a changing room?
Did no other woman see a man go into a changing room with a woman?
Let's say they didn't.
Was nothing heard?
Was it a quiet rape?
And molestation.
Oh, the statute of limitations has not expired.
They changed it.
I think I'll charge him.
So there will be other substantial issues as well on appeal.
They include the extension of the statute of limitations after it had already expired, which allowed the plaintiff to bring a quarter-century-old case.
Exactly.
This may well constitute denial of due processes guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.
Other appellate issues will include the judge's strange ruling that the names of the jurors will remain anonymous even to the lawyers, thus denying them the ability to research them and determine whether any hidden biases may have existed.
We now have truly Stalin's judges.
As became clear yesterday with Julie Kelly and what is happening to January 6th prisoners, we have judges who, without doubt in my mind, are morally indistinguishable from the judges who served Stalin.
In the United States of America, how does a good country produce bad people?
That's the riddle of our age.
How do medical schools produce doctors who say that at two you know your gender dysphoria, you know that you're the other sex, and that they should begin to do indeterminate damage to you with hormone blockers hidden from your parents in many cases?
Before puberty.
That's why it's called a puberty blocker, or just as puberty begins.
How does a good society produce so many bad people?
How does a good society produce people who believe that the ex-Marine who took down this man who was threatening people on a subway car May be charged with murder when the people were dialing 911 asking for help against the man that this guy brought down.
How do we produce such people?
How do we produce the New York Times editors?
This is a very big question.
Additional appellate issues will include the judge's decision to admit some evidence presented by the plaintiff, such as the infamous Access Hollywood tape in which Trump says that women permit celebrities to touch their private parts.
That's amazing.
What you now say in private, thinking no one has heard you, can be held against you.
I don't mean when you say, you know, I'm going to murder Joe Jones over there.
The whole assessment of Trump on the basis of what he said privately was sick.
Every single one of you listening, every single one of you, the kindest, finest among you.
If everything you have ever said privately were exposed to the world, you don't think we could depict you in a bad way?
And yet they had a million women march.
I don't know how many came, but so it was called.
On the basis of something he had said years earlier in private to another guy.
The judge also excluded some evidence that the defendant sought to admit.
All in all, if the appellant in this case had a name other than Donald Trump, there's good likelihood that the entire verdict might be reversed, but almost nobody, whether they be a judge or a juror, doesn't have strong views about the former president.
Whether these views impact judicial decisions is a question about which reasonable people might disagree.
The impact of this decision on Trump's political aspirations is also uncertain.
I will continue.
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I am reading to you Alan Dershowitz's analysis of this trial of President Trump.
25 years after the alleged act.
He raped me at Bergdorf Goodman.
Dershowitz is no Trump fan.
He voted for Joe Biden, among other things, which is quite something.
He's one of the last remaining liberals.
He's naive, in my opinion, about the Democratic Party, but I'm actually happy he's a Democrat because it gives credibility to what he says.
But Democrats don't listen to him in any event.
He told me and others he has lost all his friends for defending Trump.
Not defending Trump the man, defending Trump against charges that are wrong, like the impeachment.
There's no group hated more by the left than liberals, and yet liberals vote for them.
Liberals are the American problem because the left is incorrigible.
It's very rare that a leftist awakens to decency.
But liberals, many are decent, and they vote for the indecent.
That's the tragedy.
Anyway, that was a very important piece that he wrote here.
It is in The Spectator, and the rest is about his chances of getting the Republican nomination.
He ends the piece with, this verdict is only the tip of a much larger iceberg of charges against Donald Trump.
It is the first verdict directly involving his conduct.
It is unlikely to be the last.
Stay tuned.
That's correct.
There's another piece out, this time in the great journal, the City Journal, along with the Claremont Review of Books, two of the best, not the two best journals today.
There are many, many fine ones, by the way.
There really are.
And great websites.
But these are journals as well.
Well, what is it titled?
The Harm Caused by Masks.
A new study suggests that the excess carbon dioxide breathed in by mask wearers can have major health consequences.
It's an interesting question.
How is it that I, with no science background, Was right about lockdowns and masks and vaccinations.
And the vast majority of doctors were wrong.
I mean really, really, really wrong.
Dangerously wrong.
Frighteningly wrong.
How is that?
That's another interesting question.
Like, how does a good society produce bad people?
How is it that a layperson, like me, Was right on masks, lockdowns, and COVID vaccines, which I never took, by the way.
Got COVID twice, at least twice.
I may have had it again.
I don't bother testing anymore.
How is that?
Because doctors, like everyone else in the...
College and graduate school educated have not been taught to think independently, let alone taught to be courageous.
That is why.
Doctors have no more courage than taxi drivers or lawyers or, it doesn't matter, baseball players.
Why would they?
What in medical school teaches you to be courageous?
Now you are taught to be a sheep.
Medical schools are telling medical students not to use the word woman or man.
That's right.
I've read to you article after article, and there are more.
I could make this show only what happens at medical schools.
This could be a three-hour-a-day medical school update.
That's how sick medical schools are, and they've been for a while, apparently, because they produce all of these doctors, mostly women, who advocate gender-affirming care, which is as big a lie as the Inflation Reduction Act, which increased inflation, not reduced it.
They are, in fact, gender deniers, gender deniers.
You're not a boy.
We affirm you're not a boy.
We affirm you're not a girl.
So it's not gender affirming, it's gender denying.
But of course they'll say we have redefined gender to mean something that has nothing to do with sex.
Oh really?
When did that develop?
When they made it up.
That's when it developed.
The harm caused by masks by Jeffrey H. Anderson.
Evidence continues to mount that mask mandates were perhaps the worst public health intervention in modern American history.
While concluding that wearing masks, quote, probably makes little or no difference, unquote, in preventing the spread of viruses, a recent Cochrane review, that's the most prestigious review in epidemiology, Also emphasized that caught more attention should be paid to describing and quantifying the harms that may come from mask wearing.
A new study from Germany does just that.
And it suggests that the excess carbon dioxide breathed in by mask wearers may have substantial ill effects on their health.
And in the case of pregnant women, their unborn children's health.
I will continue and when we return, it is a very important question why I got it right and your doctor probably got it all wrong.
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Hello, everybody.
I'm Dennis Prager.
The harm caused by masks.
We'll put it up at DennisPrager.com from the excellent City Journal.
Excess carbon dioxide breathed in by mask wearers may have substantial ill effects.
This is a new study from Germany.
Why don't I tell you the name of the new study from Germany?
Let's see here.
All right, look at that.
It's in English.
I thought I'd get a chance to say some German.
I'm going to Germany next week.
Let's see.
Helion.
Possible toxicity of chronic carbon dioxide exposure associated with face masks use, particularly in pregnant women, children, and adolescents.
A scoping review.
And let's see here.
Department of Pathology, Durin Hospital, Durin, Germany.
Institute of Molecular and Cellular Anatomy, Aachen, Germany.
Department of Psychology, Siegen, Germany.
Non-clinical expert, veterinarian, Wagner MSI, Mallo, Germany.
And surgeon, private practice, Dusseldorf, Germany.
Those were the...
Authors of this particular report.
Mask wearers breathe in greater amounts of air that should have been expelled from their bodies and released out to the open.
Quote, a significant rise in carbon dioxide occurring while wearing a mask is scientifically proven in many studies, quote unquote, writes the German authors.
Quote, fresh air has around 0.04% carbon dioxide.
While chronic exposure at carbon dioxide levels of 0.3%, as opposed to 0.02, is toxic.
How much CO2 do mask wearers breathe in?
The authors write that mask...
Masks bear a possible chronic exposure to low-level carbon dioxide of 1.41 to 3.2% carbon dioxide of the inhaled air in reliable human experiments.
In other words, while eight times the normal level of carbon dioxide is toxic, research suggests that mask wearers, specifically those who wear masks for more than five minutes at a time, are breathing.
I'd like you to take a guess.
All right?
I want you to come up with a number.
Eight times the normal level of carbon dioxide breathed in is toxic.
So how many times the normal level of carbon dioxide do mask wearers breathe in?
Eight is toxic.
Well, 35 to 80. Why would anybody think that that's okay?
Do you have to be a molecular biologist to say, it doesn't sound good?
The German study, a scoping review of existing research, aimed to investigate the toxicological effects of face masks in terms of CO2 re-breathing on developing life, specifically for pregnant women, children, and adolescents.
The latter groups have been among the most frequently subjected to mask mandates in schools, despite COVID's low level of risk for them and the evidence that masks don't work.
What can breathing too much carbon dioxide do to you?
The authors write that, quote, Now,
it's interesting because I have evidence for that.
Mask wearers keep wearing masks, even now.
So they, by definition, have impaired cognitive abilities.
The very fact that they're wearing masks now, in the middle of 2023, proves they have impaired cognitive development.
I don't know what else to say.
Hey everybody, welcome to the Male Female Hour every Wednesday, the second hour of the Dennis Prager Show.
And this is Wednesday.
Hence the male-female hour.
I think it's the most honest talk about men and women in the American media.
I was hesitating because I was thinking it's beyond media.
Academia, anywhere.
There are a number of reasons.
One, I'm not a man fan or a woman fan.
There are a lot of crappy men and a lot of crappy women and a lot of fine men and a lot of fine women.
That's it.
Are the numbers tied?
I think so.
That's interesting.
That would be a fun one to bounce off you.
Do you think percentage-wise there are more good men or good women?
That would be a fun topic.
But we're not doing it today.
It is a fun topic.
I pretty much believe that it's close to being tied.
And if I didn't believe it, I would say what I believed.
There are areas where men are better, men are worse.
There are areas where women are better and women are worse, as a generalized statement.
Every woman I know, for example, rather work with and for men.
Than with and for women.
Women do not generally like women bosses.
And I know, for example, the young woman I do my podcast, Dennis and Julie, with, the remarkable Julie Hartman, she regularly praises the Lord that everybody here is male.
As she said when we recorded Dennis and Julie yesterday, she said, you know, right after the show, Dennis and Sean, you know, really go at it with some real nonsense.
She said, what a joy.
It was an astute point.
Nobody's in a bad mood.
Except Zach.
Zach is always in a bad mood.
But he hides it.
So therefore, it's an existential question.
If he hides it, is he in a bad mood?
And that, my friends, is a great question.
Anyway, basically speaking, it's a fairly mood-free environment, in part because it's male.
Not every woman is moody, but...
You walk on eggshells with women more than you walk on eggshells with men.
On the other hand, when it comes to violence, men seem to have close to a monopoly.
Okay, alright, anyway, that's a very long statement of why I don't think either sex is better.
Although, the more I talk about it, the more I'm tempted to make it the topic.
This does happen.
I have a very, very spontaneous show.
Talk about spontaneity.
The Dennis and Julie podcast, we never know what we'll say from the beginning.
And then it really gets very deep, very quickly, very open.
Bill, today's topic is not which sex do you think is superior.
And in what ways?
Though that is definitely one I want to put on the short list of forthcoming topics.
Today's topic is the huge question of masculinity.
What is masculinity?
What is toxic masculinity?
Why did that term even arise?
So I will give you a working definition of masculinity, and I'm particularly interested in women's reactions, though obviously I welcome calls from men.
The recent episode in New York City on a subway train of a man, somewhat out of his mind, a man with 44 prior arrests.
It is a statement about the...
Corruption of our judicial system that a man with 44 arrests at the age of 30 was still around in public.
And he was threatening people on the subway and people were dialing 911 for help.
We have the recordings.
And this 24-year-old, I believe, ex-Marine got up and held the man around his head, around his neck.
And debilitated his ability to hurt these people.
He was acting masculine.
One of the first things we associate with masculinity is protection.
In all sorts of ways, physical, financial, emotional, whatever it means.
One of the definitions of masculine is a protector.
I have another characteristic, which is more in your face, not meant to be in your face, but it's not something most men would say, which sort of proves my point.
I believe that one aspect of masculinity, and one that women find attractive, though they often won't admit it, even some will attack it, is...
A man who is not easily intimidated by a woman.
Women don't like that.
I think that women almost naturally test men and they want them to pass the test.
It makes a woman feel secure.
If she feels she can intimidate him easily, It is not a good thing, I believe, for either sex.
So not to be intimidated by women in general and not to be intimidated by one's woman.
That doesn't mean you don't love her, respect her, treat her decently, kindly, all of that, of course.
That has nothing to do with whether or not you're easily intimidated.
I wonder how people react, people listening to that aspect of masculinity.
1-8 Prager 776. Third, a masculine man fights for what is right.
He is not afraid.
That's a big part of masculinity, a man who is not afraid.
When I saw fathers wearing masks, Long after COVID had passed, I don't think he should have worn it when it was there, but that's not here or there on the masculinity.
An afraid man is not a masculine man.
That's a big factor.
We produce men who are afraid, men who are intimidated.
When I saw the medical students taking this vow, To be woke, that's exactly what it was, at the University of Minnesota Medical School, at Columbia University's Medical School, I saw how we are producing non-masculine men.
Society cannot survive with non-masculine men.
Who will fight for what is right?
Who will protect?
Who will be strong?
The whole feminist movement was a women-intimidating-men movement, and men fell, one after another.
Men who celebrated their wives going on the Million Woman March for no reason other than they wanted to express how victimized they are.
I don't think these men were being masculine.
They were being intimidated.
What will my wife say?
What will my daughter say?
It's important, but they're not masculine questions.
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Alright!
What is masculinity?
I've got four working definitions.
And that is, is not a fearful man?
Is not a sheep?
Is not intimidated by women?
Well, I got five then.
Is responsible, does what he needs to do, and protects.
I'll bet you most women hearing this go, whoa, that's my kind of guy.
That would be attractive.
So what is toxic masculinity?
I don't know.
The truth is, toxic masculinity is exactly...
Those who use the term, it is exactly what I just described.
Most obviously not a sheep and not intimidated by women.
That drives the feminist left, which is composed of many men, crazy.
Okay, let's see here.
By the way, you think we have too much or too little in America of masculinity?
Alright, let's go to Dale in...
How do you pronounce your city in Michigan?
I won't try.
Just how you think it would be.
Really?
You're named after the small intestine?
Well, that's what the name is.
It's about 20 miles south of Climax, Michigan, believe it or not.
That is hilarious.
I'm speaking to someone in Colon, Michigan, 20 miles south of Climax.
I'm not going to ask you what you're 20 miles west of.
I don't know what can be said on the air.
Near Kalamazoo.
Okay, fair enough.
Thanks for calling.
Go ahead.
It's a magic capital world, by the way.
Harry Blackstone Jr. is from the area.
Or the Harry Blackstone and Harry Blackstone Jr. Oh, really?
All right.
Yes.
Anyways, I can give you a trait of what I'm always told what toxic masculinity is, and that's overly aggressive.
And one of the things they always say is, it's toxic masculinity that gets us into wars.
But I have an answer for that.
In that I think that toxic femininity is what gets us into wars, because you're always going to have very aggressive aggressiveness that they say, well, that's what gets us into wars, but it's the appeasement or the feminine side that allows the wars to actually start.
If you have aggressiveness on both sides, which if someone says aggressiveness is toxic...
Then you're not going to get into any wars.
That's why the MAD, mutually assured destruction, you know, you've got aggressiveness on both sides.
That's a very interesting theory.
Thank you.
Very interesting.
So, was Winston Churchill toxic to carry on what was just said?
Was Winston Churchill a...
The possessor of toxic masculinity.
He was aggressive.
But he was aggressive in fighting evil.
The notion of, well, men get us into war, yes, that's because men have ruled countries.
I have no belief that a world run by women would be better.
Children's hospitals in the arena of gender dysphoria are overwhelmingly run by women.
The damage being done to children is akin to child sacrifice.
And people can destroy the world in many different ways.
There is moral aggressiveness and immoral aggressiveness.
But if the only people who are aggressive are bad or have bad values, and the good That's the answer to that question about men and aggression.
All right, let's see here.
Bob in Columbus, Ohio.
Hello.
Good afternoon, Dennis.
Good afternoon.
On your topic...
Masculinity, as I said to your screener, is demonstrated but rarely talked about.
When it is talked about, the interesting thing to me is that it's usually immature boys or women that talk about masculinity.
And I know this probably sounds very toxic, but real men don't talk about their masculinity.
They simply do what's right, and then they go and do what they can do in things that they enjoy.
So they've fulfilled their responsibilities to society by wanting and raising their children responsibly.
Do you have children?
That's part of the deal.
Yes, I do.
I've raised four of my own children and four of my grandchildren and a stepchild.
Why did you laugh when I asked you?
Because it seems like my life is full of children.
Okay, that's fair.
And I really enjoy them.
Are the boys masculine?
Yes.
Actually, the 18-year-old is a little bit too, and I have to tone him down sometimes.
The 16-year-old is coming along just fine.
He's smart and intelligent and masculine, but not overly so.
Well, congratulations, and I mean that sincerely.
I gave was one of the traits.
This is really big.
Well, they're all big.
Not to be a sheep.
There's nothing less masculine than being a sheep.
The left is emasculating society.
Look at what they're doing in the armed forces, which is why they can't recruit people.
This is the greatest recruiting crisis since we have had a volunteer Army, Navy, and so on.
the military courage That's masculine.
Some people say a man is made out of mud.
A bald man's made out of muscle and blood.
and bones.
Good one.
Mine that's weak and a back that's strong.
You load 16 tons.
And what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
St. Peter, don't you call me cause I can't go.
Yes.
I owe my soul to the company store.
Who's singing this?
*music* Tennessee Ernie Ford.
I knew he was a well-known person.
By the way, it's not well-known that I was known as a kid as Tennessee Dennis Prager.
Yeah, you thought you knew all about me, Sean, didn't you?
That's right, Tennessee Dennis.
All right, everybody, the male-female hour every Wednesday, second hour of the show.
What is masculinity?
I've offered quite a number of traits here.
Not a fearful man.
I can't think of a less masculine trait than a frightened man.
Yeah.
That's a good one.
That's a big one.
Is responsible.
Exercise is self-control.
Not intimidated by women.
Is not a sheep.
And is a protector.
A lot of good stuff.
We should do a show, What's Feminine?
You think this is controversial.
It won't compare to what is feminine.
Feminism, which is merely a leftist movement in the name of women, just like communism was a leftist movement in the name of men, environmentalism movement is a left-wing movement in the name of the environment.
That's all they all are.
The proof on the environmentalists is that they're opposed to nuclear power, which would solve the entire issue of fossil fuels in a safe and dependable, unlike idiotic dependence upon sun and wind.
But their interest is not the environment they have.
It's a left-wing movement.
And so is feminism.
Feminism...
Hates femininity and hates masculinity.
Wants to make us all bland.
The more men are like women and women are like men, the better the left likes it.
Indeed, there aren't even men or women.
That's a subjective thing in their view.
All right, let's see.
Let's go to Gia in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir, for taking my call.
I'm a first-time caller.
I agree with your list.
I would add the word respect.
A man is always respectful, not just towards others, but a man is always respectful to a woman, regardless of the situation.
Because he has control over his emotions.
I totally agree with you.
It's very non-masculine to be ruled by your emotions.
That's entirely accurate.
I would only add that it's true for both sexes.
Correct.
It is.
It is for both.
But I think in particular for men because women can.
At times have a tendency to get very emotional and so forth.
No, get out.
Wait, wait.
When did you come up with that one?
Because I'm a woman.
Oh, that's right.
Yes.
And I raised one and I raised three sons.
But I would also tell you I raised my sons as a man.
You're to protect and provide.
That's right.
That I have on here.
I have protect.
I didn't say provide.
But that's right.
I like that.
Well, that's been denied.
This is a problem.
I mean, it is an issue that, not overwhelmingly, but I think the average couple now, he is not the primary provider.
And I think that has been challenging, I think, to masculinity.
Men love to feel that they are the provider, the key provider.
And it may be in any given area.
It may not even be just monetarily, but the provider of something that renders him indispensable to the family.
Traditionally, it was income, but it could be other things.
It could be the guiding light of the family.
Even theoretically, I don't think that it's...
It's definitionally non-masculine for the man to take on the parental role.
I know masculine men who actually have taken on that role.
Hello, everybody.
Welcome to the Dennis Prager Show.
A man I have great respect for, and I might add, if it's allowed affection for, Steve Cortez.
Whom I've had on a number of occasions.
He did one of the most important of the 550 PragerU videos on the lie about President Trump having said that there were fine Nazis.
It's an exceedingly significant video, as important today as it was when it came out.
Steve Cortez was a senior advisor to President Trump.
And now is to be found at Substack.
He's moved to Tennessee, which he adores, which is ironic, Sean, given that I told people I was known as Tennessee Dennis Prager as a kid.
Steve, I made that up.
It was just nonsense, but it was a lot of fun to say it.
Anyway, Steve Cortez has written quite a piece.
This major, major pro-Trump individual has now endorsed Ron DeSantis in an article in Newsweek for President of the United States.
And DeSantis has not even announced that he's running.
Is that right, Steve?
That is correct, although I believe that is very much forthcoming, but yes, correct.
Okay, excellent.
By the way, guys, it's a little loud coming in from Steve's Skype connection.
This is a very interesting development because you were such a protector and defender of Donald Trump.
What happened?
Sure.
And by the way, I'm making this announcement for the first time on radio on your program because I have great admiration and affection for you as well.
It is very much requited.
Let me say this.
I was very honored to work for President Trump, and I'm proud of the work I did on his behalf.
I think he was exactly the disruptor we needed.
Back in 2016. But when I look at the current political landscape, when I assess the losses of recent election cycles, and when I look into the future of what can be done and who should be the leader of patriotic populism, of the right-wing movement in America,
I firmly believe that Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has the record, the agenda, and the temperament to both win the election, crucially, and then also, just as crucially, To implement a conservative agenda once in office.
And I firmly believe that he is the better option than Donald Trump at this stage.
And I'm not repudiating at all the Trump movement or the massive good that I believe that Donald Trump did for this country.
But I also believe that every candidate, every man, every person has seasons in life where they are most valuable.
And at this stage...
I think Donald Trump has actually become harmful to the movement.
And conversely, in Ron DeSantis, I think we have a rising political star who has really pulled off a miraculous rally politically and otherwise in the state of Florida and deserves the shot to take on Joe Biden in the general election, which I would also say this, Dennis.
One of the reasons I've come to this conclusion is a rematch of Biden versus Trump.
Is statistically a rematch that almost nobody wants.
I say statistically because if we look at polling, according to NBC polling, 70% of the American people do not want Biden to run again.
According to AP polling, that same number, 70% of the American people do not want Trump to run again.
So this is a movie we have seen before.
It is a sequel that no one essentially wants to see.
How do we prevent that?
I believe the best option by far is to nominate Ron DeSantis.
So this is really important, an important discussion.
I'd just like to add, and you're free to comment or not because I have obviously so many more questions, but I'd just like to add, I think that everyone who has thus far announced that I am aware of at any rate is a terrific person and terrific candidate.
Vivek Rawaswamy, Larry Elder.
And Ron DeSantis is not announced.
I think he's terrific.
I even think Nikki Haley is terrific.
I get a lot of negative feedback on her.
I think she did a great job at the United Nations.
I think she's powerful.
I think she could win.
Are you on board that there are a number of wonderful candidates?
I am not.
I believe that it is Ron DeSantis.
And I say it for this reason.
He's the only candidate who espouses, and not just espouses, but has in fact implemented an agenda of what I call patriotic populism, sort of the new right of conservatism as it is really defined now in 2020s America.
He's the only one other than Donald Trump.
But unlike Donald Trump, he does not carry with him the baggage and the chaos of Donald Trump.
He is not the polarizing figure that Trump is.
And I think what America is facing right now, I think it's one of the reasons that our country is miserable.
And we are miserable.
And that's not my opinion.
Again, by credible polling, that is the clear preponderance of the evidence right now.
For example, Wall Street Journal poll that goes back decades.
78% of the American people right now do not believe their children will have a better life than they have lived.
That is by far the worst mark in the history of that poll, which goes all the way back to the 1980s.
So the national mood, national confidence has tanked.
Anxiety, particularly economic anxiety, has soared.
And it's mostly because of the mismanagement and the disaster that created crises of Joe Biden.
But I think it is also because of a despondency over the political outlook of thinking that we have to have a choice between these two relics.
Both of whom are incredibly unliked and polarizing candidates in Joe Biden and in Trump.
So I think only in Ron DeSantis, among the candidates out there either announced or potential, only in Ron DeSantis, I think, do we find somebody who has bucked the trend of election losses, and bucked it with gusto, right, in what he pulled off in 2022, and has shown us an ability to build a team.
A unified, coherent team and to methodically engage in the policy and governing blocking and tackling that is necessary to build a successful state.
A state that has become a beacon for the entire country.
Where people have fled for economic opportunity, for sanity on COVID, for cultural protection.
He's shown an ability to take on big business like no one else in the Republican Party, most especially Disney, but other big businesses as well.
But an ability to take on willingness to take on the most powerful corporation in his state when they tried to insist on sexualized Toxic indoctrination for young children.
So I think a combination of his incredible biography, and he's really just an inspiring story with a sterling resume, academically, military service.
When we look at all of that, when we combine it with his record of winning and winning big, and his record of governing effectively, to me, there's no other candidate that is even close.
And even though, admittedly, right now, he's not close to Donald Trump in the polling.
He is clearly alone in second place.
There's nobody else near him regarding the field.
I expect that to remain the case as far as the people beneath him.
And of course, I project he's going to start closing that poll once he announces those polling gaps versus Donald Trump.
So I would support any of the people mentioned, including Donald Trump, because any Republican is better than Biden.
Or any of those, with the exception perhaps of Robert Kennedy Jr., which is a very interesting development.
I don't know where it'll go.
So here is my biggest question to you, because I am a DeSantis fan.
The argument is given to me and to everybody that there is a significant segment of Trump supporters who...
And I think it's a big error.
I think only Trump is as wrong as never Trump.
But I do believe that there are only Trumpers who, if they sat home, would mean a democratic victory.
Sure.
That is a legitimate concern.
Let me just say that out of the gate.
Now, I think we can persuade and convince a lot of those people because I totally concur with you that only Trump is just as illogical as never Trump and just as harmful to the country.
But certainly there is a segment that exists who will be unpersuadable.
My argument would be this, and I think the data supports this, that there are far more people, though, who are so turned off by Trump that they simply will not vote for him, but they would vote for another.
Credible, persuasive Republican nominee, that they will more than compensate, and I'm mostly talking about suburbanites here, largely women, that they will more than compensate.
For that stubborn portion.
And by the way, let me give you some evidence of that, because it's not just my suspicion.
I've looked very deeply into this, and I give the citation for this in my article.
Tony Fabrizio, who is Trump's pollster, so I'm not trying to cherry-pick here somebody who would be anti-Trump.
I think he's an excellent pollster, by the way.
But he happens to have done a lot of work for Donald Trump.
And this was published in the Wall Street Journal.
Of the supermajority that wants neither candidate, which is really...
Telling, in my view.
Again, I think that's such an important point.
We have seen this movie, and we don't like it.
So of the supermajority of Americans who do not want this rematch, if you force them to make the choice, say, well, too bad, this is your choice.
Okay, it's binary.
These two.
Joe Biden, according to Fabrizio, Joe Biden beats Trump by 39% within that disaffected cohort.
All right, we'll be back with Steve Cortez in a moment.
Back to Steve Cortez's article in Newsweek, and his first announcement on air is here.
He is endorsing Ron DeSantis.
Let me go over that last poll figure you gave, which you trust.
39% of Americans who do not want a Trump-Biden campaign would favor Trump if the two were in fact nominated.
Is that correct?
No, no, no.
The other way is a 39% advantage for Biden.
Oh, I thought, yeah, it's funny.
My wife also thought you said the other.
That doesn't matter.
I was, it didn't make sense to me.
So now that does...
Of the actual numbers, let me give you...
Right, okay.
Of those who disapprove of both, who do not want the rematch, which again is the majority of Americans, according to Fabrizio, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, and I give the citations in my article, 54% say if forced to choose, 54% go for Biden, only 15% go for Trump, and then roughly a third undecided or just saying, I'm not voting.
But the point is, 54 to 15, 39% spread among the disaffected masses who don't want this matchup at all.
And that is largely independence in America.
And by the way, even though, again, admittedly, right now, I'm joining an underdog team with Ron DeSantis.
We are clearly in second place, somewhat distantly so right now.
I believe that gap will close.
But nonetheless, I'm honest enough to admit that we're far back in polls.
One place where we're not back at all is if you look at polling among independents right now.
We are beating, in a general election, we are beating Joe Biden by twice the margin that Trump is.
Why?
Because Trump still remains.
Very toxic to independent voters.
And independents have risen dramatically in their prominence in America.
According to the latest poll out from Gallup, half of all Americans now identify as independent.
So it is literally as large, literally as large as the two other parties put together and has continued to grow for years and years.
In recent elections, and I think this is so crucial, Dennis, 2018, 2020, 2022. We have not won.
We have lost, and in some cases lost miserably because of an inability to convince and persuade and motivate those very independents.
I think we as conservatives have to be honest about this.
I don't believe our agenda is wrong.
America is a center-right country, but we are being governed as if the whole country is Berkeley, California, okay, or Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Why?
Because we keep losing winnable elections.
So I think if we do a real reflection and a self-assessment, Let's look at the outlier.
For example, in November of 2022, who won and who won running away?
It was Ron DeSantis in Florida, where he took what was a swing state that he barely won in 2018. He took that and it went all the way to a nearly 20% landslide victory.
And not only that, but he had magnificent coattails, meaning he lifted the entire slate, all Republican statewide office holders in Florida, for the first time since Reconstruction.
So that is the exact opposite of what we have seen with Donald Trump.
He has the opposite of a net effect, of a tailwind, effectively, right, for the slate.
In other words, he's very problematic for other folks on the ballot.
So to me, when we look at Ron DeSantis with much of the Trump agenda, without the Trump chaos, without the polarization and the negatives, and somebody who brings discipline and focus to governing, Something we just didn't get out of Donald Trump.
He did a lot for this country, but he did not bring discipline and focus.
Ron DeSantis brings that in spades.
By the way, I just want to say on your behalf that you, of course, worked for Donald Trump, supported Donald Trump.
You were the opposite of a never-Trumper.
You were a big-Trumper.
I just want people to understand this.
So how do you react to this today?
I think this was put out, I mean, it's ironic that it is today, and it was put out by Real Clear Politics, but it comes from the American mind.
Trump can win, Dan McCarthy, and this is what he writes.
The final Real Clear Politics polling average for the 2016 race showed Hillary Clinton beating Donald Trump by 3.2 points.
As of May 1st, 2023, the same polling average shows Trump ahead of Joe Biden by one point.
How do you react to that?
A couple things.
First of all, look, I'm thrilled that Joe Biden is losing to any Republican, including, of course, Donald Trump.
And you're exactly right, by the way.
I have spent my professional life for the last seven years advocating for and defending Donald Trump.
So I don't come to this decision flippantly at all.
Right, right.
That's why I'm having you on.
But I'm a patriot first, and my loyalty is always to this country, to this country and this movement far beyond any politician.
I have been a loyal worker for Donald Trump, proud of what I did in that regard.
I think it is now time for a very new chapter.
Now, to the point of your poll, though, that you cited, I do believe Biden is incredibly vulnerable, right?
Because of those stats I named.
Previously about how anxious the country is, how depressed the country is, frankly.
The created crises of Biden, an open border, an economy that's incredibly difficult for working class people.
Yes, Biden is absolutely very, very vulnerable.
And I think that he can and will lose to a Republican.
But what I'm saying is, let's take our very best shot.
Let's not nominate the least popular, most polarizing Republican in America.
You know, let's make the face and messenger of the party and the movement this young rising star who has a record, very recent record, of winning and winning big because of really competent conservative governance.
You know, he just signed, Ron DeSantis did, he signed five education bills yesterday to conclude one of the busiest legislative sessions in the history, not just of Florida, but of any state in America.
That's the kind of methodical, almost maniacal process and dedication he brings to governing.
That's what we need.
We need to win, and then we need to implement the agenda.
And I worry with Donald Trump we won't get either, or maybe we get the win, but then we don't get the agenda.
We don't get the implementation part because he doesn't have the discipline and focus.
But listen, I'm primarily, though, trying to persuade people not as an anti-Donald Trump candidacy, but as a pro-Ron DeSantis.
I really believe that we have...
In Governor DeSantis, an incredible opportunity to knock off a clearly vulnerable, increasingly unpopular Joe Biden.
And that's why I wrote this article.
Again, I don't come to this flippantly or easily.
I know you don't.
That's why, as I said, I'm having you on.
We're going to continue.
I'd like to take some calls, and I'd also like to have you respond.
I don't know what it will be.
I'm dying to know how honest you think the last election was.
I have no agenda other than truth-seeking.
Back in a moment with Steve Cortez.
Long-time supporter and even senior advisor to Donald Trump made the big video that went viral.
It's on PragerU a number of years ago about the lie about Donald Trump calling Nazis fine people.
So he has a very...
Pristine record in support of Donald Trump.
And he has just now come out for Ron DeSantis for president.
And I'm going to take some of the calls.
And I'm very curious to hear how the callers will react and how you will react to them.
I just want to win.
I'm not sure America can survive four more years of left-wing rule.
We have political prisoners for the first time in American history.
We have judges who would do well under Stalin.
And I say these things literally, not as a means of hyperbolic attack.
So I don't know if I've discussed this with you, and I'm just curious.
There are people I respect who say it almost doesn't matter what Republican will win because they'll figure out a way to cheat.
Do you believe that the 2020 presidential election was honest?
I do not.
I have, and I've been long on the record on this point, I have enormous problems with the conduct of the 2020 election.
And just so that I'm clear, most of my problems center around two areas.
The interference of big tech.
And what it did to suppress and censor information, effectively hiding the truth from the American people.
So that's the one facet.
And for me, the other, it's not the machines, it's not a server somewhere in Germany.
For me, the other is simple violations, simple but profound violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, meaning that Trump voters, who were overwhelmingly game-day voters, were subjected to an entirely different and more stringent level of scrutiny and filtering.
Then were mail-in ballots.
That is patently illegal by long-standing president of the United States, most recently and most maybe famously, Bush v.
Gore.
So I think the 2020 election, under the guise of COVID and supposed concern for public health, was really Bush v.
Gore on steroids.
But I would also point this out regarding this election, because this is inescapable.
Donald Trump was the president of the United States, was the most powerful man in the country while that election.
Conversely, I think very clean elections have been run in Florida while Ron DeSantis was governor of that state.
And they do mail-in balloting there, which to be honest, if it were up to Steve Cortez, there wouldn't be mail-in balloting, but regardless, they do it there, but at least they do it in a way that is far, far more secure and safe than was done all over the country in 2020. So that is my view.
Again, that's speaking for Steve Cortez.
Right, but what control does a president have over states?
Voting.
Yeah, no, you're correct that it's a state issue, but there's a lot more control than you would think.
If the Department of Justice was getting involved, for instance, because it's a 14th Amendment violation, right, then it is a federal issue.
And by the way, the federal government interferes in state voting procedures.
All the time.
Almost always from the left, right?
From a leftist perspective.
But it certainly could be done from the right as well.
But it's not even just that in terms of the actual tactics.
It's also the bully pulpit that is the presidency.
And Trump was caught, and I know this as part of the Trump campaign and somebody who dealt with him.
He was caught in a very tough spot.
Why?
Because he had allowed Fauci to effectively take the keys to the kingdom.
In many ways, Fauci was turned into a dictator over large parts of the United States, not Florida, thankfully.
But the reality is, because he had given such deference to Fauci, it was almost impossible then for Trump to turn around and say, well, wait a second, these new voting procedures are not valid and they're not appropriate and they're not legal.
So he was in a very difficult position, but because he had already surrendered so much authority to Fauci, and what did the left then do with that authority?
They did a lot to America and abused us in so many ways.
But one of the ways was they effectively took control of the elections, and a lot of states just made it up as they went along and said, we're going to have the kinds of procedures we want regarding mail-in voting, drop boxes, etc.
Listen, I think there's a lot Trump could have done, and I know for a fact it was being talked about at the time in the summer of 2020. None of it was done.
And the reality then was we had a highly, highly suspect and corrupted election.
Why would it be different in 2024?
Yeah, well, listen.
A couple of reasons.
Number one is, thankfully, they at least don't have the beard, the cover of COVID, right?
So they can't do some of the extrajudicial, extralegal things that they were doing then.
But number two, thankfully, I do think that we are awakened to that reality and eyes on the process, even though it's a very imperfect process.
But I'm not going to say that it's going to be by any sense.
Perfect.
I think it will be much, much better than 2020. But I think this is a years-long campaign that we need to engage in of making our election procedures a lot more sound.
But again, Florida is an exemplar in that sphere as well.
Yes, it certainly is.
That's true.
Back with Steve Cortez in a moment.
Dennis Prager here.
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