Ben Shapiro: You Can Like Trump’s Policies While Admitting He’s ‘Character-Deficient’

Good Trump vs. Bad Trump?

On today’s show, Glenn asked Ben Shapiro how conservatives can navigate the minefield of supporting President Donald Trump in the good things he does while still acknowledging when he does wrong.

Ben Shapiro: ‘Nikki Haley at the UN Is Basically My Spirit Animal’

We shouldn’t feel compelled to make excuses for bad behavior, and Trump doesn’t need conservative leaders to compromise their principles to cover for him.

“If we’re not willing to call out bad when we see it even from people [when] we like what we’re getting from them, then we can’t have an honest conversation,” Shapiro said. “It turns into simply fan-boying or fan-girling.”

This article provided courtesy of TheBlaze.

GLENN: Last hour, we were talking to a professor from George Mason and he was talking about how bad education is. And I was talking a little about the brainwashing that is going on and the activization of at least 10 percent of our college students that just want to be liberal activists. And who is doing that on the other side?

Who is activating today's youth to be able to get them to defend the Constitution and conservative principles? The answer is sitting in my studio right now. Ben Shapiro. How are you doing, Ben?

BEN: Hey. Doing well. How are you?

GLENN: Good. I know you had a great time in Connecticut yesterday. One hundred security officers to protect your speech and zero protesters.

BEN: Yeah. That's how it always goes. And you always think, why do we need these security officers, and half the time there's a riot.

But it was nice. I mean, it was 500 students who showed up. They closed it to the general public, which was too bad. They should have allowed another 5, 600 people in, because they had another 700 reservations, is what I heard. But in any case, it was a really nice event. Everybody enjoyed it.

GLENN: Did you anybody on the left that has -- because I have -- people who are hard on the left, who say, I'm really concerned about what's happening on college campuses?

BEN: I think that's a growing concern for a lot of people on the left. And I think anybody who is an honest person on the left, has to look at the way that they're cracking down on free speech and think to themselves, this is a problem. And it could reverse itself and bite us. This is not a single-edged blade.

GLENN: Right.

BEN: It's a serious problem, that they're allowing the hecklers veto to prevail here. That somebody from the community will threaten something, and suddenly 100 officers are necessary. And we ban everyone from the general public. They've now done this at northwestern. They did this at UC Berkeley. They just ban people from coming in entirely from the outside community. Whereas, last week, Anita Hill spoke at UConn, and it was completely open to the public. They barely needed security. It was totally fine.

GLENN: All right. So you're going to join us today for a few minutes on the television show. We'll do some stuff for subscribers only on TheBlaze. We'll talk about the future of the conservative movement. And what our principles are and how we navigate from here.

But I want to talk to you about kind of the news of the day. Get your point of view on, do we have the audio of the secret society? Or do you have the latest memo or piece?

Two days ago -- was it two days ago or yesterday, Ron Johnson comes out, and he said, and we have -- we have a source that says there was a secret society. Meetings that were going on. And we know we have this text message. And something didn't feel right.

I want everything released because if that is happening, but I also said, I think it was yesterday, that kind of sounds a little like McCarthy saying, I've got the names of 250 people right in my pocket. If you don't have it, you're going to destroy everything.

And here's what we found out yesterday, about what that -- that memo -- or that text message actually said. Here's the clip. Go ahead.

But we're going to have to decide --

GLENN: Sorry. Sarah, not that one. Go ahead.

STU: The single message -- again, the single text message sent the day after Trump was elected was from senior FBI lawyer Lisa Page to Peter Strzok, the top counterintelligence officer at the FBI and a key figure in the bureau's past investigation into Trump and Clinton.

Here's the quote: Are you even going to give out your calendars, Page asked Strzok. Seems kind of depressing. Maybe it should just be the first meeting of the secret society.

GLENN: Ben, that's not a secret society.

BEN: No. No. The way all Republicans are talking it up yesterday was like, this is going to be the view from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, where he looks down and there's just a bunch of people chanting. Tearing the guy's heart out and setting it on fire.

GLENN: Big fire. Cutting him up.

BEN: And what it actually ends up being is just a bunch of nerds who sit around and have beer and talk about work. But I really -- this is my big problem, is no one is waiting for all the evidence to come out, before and their narrative conclusion is Donald Trump definitely concluded with Russia, and the FBI is in the midst of one of the greatest investigations of our time that is going to uncover the real source of Donald Trump's victory. And any questions that are asked about that are completely out of line.

And then on the right, you have this counter-narrative, that the FBI is thoroughly corrupt. It has been completely run through with people on the left who don't care about the truth and are simply out to get President Trump.

And my tendency is to think that there's a lot of in between there, and it's probably somewhere in the in between. Meaning, that there probably are people like Strzok and Page, who don't like Trump. We don't really know the impact that they've had on this particular investigation. One of the texts that people seem to be ignoring on the right is the text from Strzok to Page, saying, it's going nowhere.

STU: Right. There's no there there, right?

GLENN: No, they're actually -- yeah, the right is now starting to use that and say, look, even this guy said, there's no there there. Well, you can't have it both ways. You can't say he's an evil guy trying to take him down, oh, and he didn't want to join.

BEN: None of it makes any sense. And all of these propositions can be true. It can be true that the FBI was politicized by the Obama administration. Most clearly in the Hillary Clinton investigation. There's no question that the FBI was political in that investigation.

GLENN: Yes, correct.

BEN: It's also true there are bad apples in the FBI. It can also be true that the investigation right now is doing what it's supposed to do. It can also be true that that investigation has gone beyond its original bounds and is now moving into obstruction, which seems to me a lot more of a stretch.

Right. All these things can be true at once. But people are not waiting for all the evidence to come out, before they jump to whatever facts support the conclusion that they want. Either the FBI is thoroughly corrupt, or the FBI is thoroughly pristine.

STU: And to find the real conclusion here. Doesn't the theater hurt? This idea that everyone comes out and screams about how we know we have a security society. And we know Russia has colluded with Trump.

Doesn't that really hurt the search for the actual truth?

BEN: It does. And one of the biggest problems that I have here is that there is information that could easily be declassified and is not being declassified.

President Trump is the president of the United States. He is the chief executive. That means that he actually gets to declassify, for example, the FISA application on Carter Page. One of the big complaints from people on the right, I think quite -- quite -- quite possible this is true -- is that the FISA application on Carter Page was based on the Steele dossier, the Fusion GPS dossier that was funded by the Democrats and was essentially based on Russia disinformation.

Okay. If that's the case, then why not just release the application? Right? The FISA application, Trump can do that. He can do that right now.

And I've been told by people, well, he doesn't want to look like he's politicizing the investigation.

How does he not look like he's politicizing the investigation? I mean, the guy tweets about Jeff Sessions and Andrew McCabe and James Comey every five minutes.

All I want, you know, just as an American, all I want is more information and less conjecture. Because all I'm getting is conjecture and posturing. And now you've got -- the Democrats are putting out their memos. So now we have a memo fight. We have these secondhand memos that are not even based on the classified intel fighting with each other. It's all stupidity to me. I don't understand --

GLENN: Yeah. The classified memos -- even the people who are writing memos about them haven't seen the classified memos.

BEN: This is what the DOJ says. And if that's not true, then wouldn't you expect Devin Nunes to say, no, I have seen the classified material, and my memo was based on that classified material? But the DOJ emailed Devin Nunes, sent them a letter yesterday, and they said, listen, don't release that classified memo.

Because number one, a compromise to national security. But number two, you actually haven't seen the underlying classified materials you're talking about. So why are we reading a memo, not based on the classified materials that are actually at issue, especially when a lot of those classified materials could become declassified by the president?

All this says to me -- here's where I think this is going, based on the evidence that's on the table. Where I think this is going is I think Robert Mueller is going to try to establish a pattern of obstruction against President Trump. He's going to suggest that President Trump was trying to fire James Comey and go after his own DOJ and go after Andrew McCabe in order to stop an investigation into him. Because whether or not Trump is innocent, he thinks he's innocent. And, therefore, he was trying to, quote, unquote, obstruct the investigation. This is the problem with obstruction as a charge, there doesn't actually have to be an underlying crime in order for you to obstruct. Right? If you're obstructing an investigation, it doesn't matter whether there's actually underlying anything that went bad.

The problem is, I think we're going to get the worst-case scenario. Because I've become a pessimist, that we always get the worst-case scenario.

GLENN: Yes.

BEN: The worst-case scenario here is that, there is no actual legal obstruction. Right? Because the actual statutes and obstruction do not cover President Trump firing James Comey, or even saying to Andrew McCabe, who did you vote for? That doesn't -- obstruction is a legal charge.

As a lawyer, these charges in the US code do not apply to what President Trump has done. It doesn't matter.

The left seizes on Mueller's suggestion that there has been some sort of informal obstruction. And then they launch an impeachment push against President Trump. And then Republicans are forced into the position of having to defend some of the stupid and I think dismal things that Trump has done, from firing Comey, which I think was dumb, to demanding a loyalty oath. All these sorts of things that are not illegal, but are not smart.

And so we're sitting around, defending those. And then the Democrats are browbeating us and saying they need impeachment. It just -- it ends up being a battle over bad behavior, as opposed to a battle over criminality. And the left will charge that the right is fine with criminality. And the right will say that the right is trying to use the law in the wrong ways.

And, you know -- both will be half right, and both will be half wrong. And it will just be awful. It will be awful all the way around.

GLENN: That's good. Good. Good.

STU: That's optimism.

BEN: The good news is I honestly don't think the impeachment tribe will go anywhere. And I think people will survive.

Honestly, I don't think people care that much about this, other than the diehard political fanatics on the right who think Trump is absolutely innocent of everything and has never done anything wrong. And people on the left who think that Trump is absolutely guilty of everything and is going to be impeached. They're waiting for the deus ex machina to come in and just remove Trump from office, which is not happening.

GLENN: So I think we're in the same area. I talked about it a few weeks ago and said, I don't think anything is going to happen with the Trump information. But sadly, what I think is going to happen is we're going to miss the mark on Russia. This whole investigation --

BEN: Russia, we haven't mentioned that in 15 minutes.

GLENN: Russia. I know. This is not about -- look, I think Hillary Clinton was absolutely corrupt. And the FBI has mountains of evidence of lots of people in -- in our government in Washington, that were corrupt with Uranium One. Why haven't we seen any of that evidence? Now, whether she was personally corrupt, sure looks like it. But I don't know.

When it comes to Donald Trump, I don't like the meeting in Trump Tower, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But I don't know if there's any crime there that's been committed.

I do know this, the FBI has known things about Russia. And they have not -- they have not followed through. Why? Is there someone that is saying, you know, kind of like, what's his name that went in and took the documents out of the library of Congress, or the --

STU: Sandy Berger.

GLENN: Yeah. The national archives. Both sides were kind of like, no, that's pretty okay. I'm pretty okay with that. Because both sides are dirty with Russia. We need to know, can we trust our Justice Department? Yes or no?

Can we trust them to do independent investigations? And the second thing is, how bad are things with Russia? How could is the influence and the bribery and the scandal with his Russia? And let the chips fall where they may. I don't think it's going to happen.

BEN: I agree with a lot of this. And I also don't think it's going to happen. I think everyone -- if you're on the side of what the FBI is doing right now, then you're going to stand up for the FBI no matter what.

If you don't like what the FBI is doing right now, then you're going to suggest they're a nefarious institution in the pay of the opposite side.

GLENN: How do either of these not accomplish the goals of Vladimir Putin, of destroying our republic?

BEN: Well, I mean, I think that Putin was very smart. He realized that all he had to do was drop a hint of conspiratorialism into American politics, and everybody would jump on it with both feet.

And he was right. It's worked. We're at each other's throat over essentially -- I'm not sure there's much there there. And I think that's particularly true. If you look in another area, where Russia was supposedly nefarious, I really don't think that Russian bots were manipulating people's information hold during the last election cycle. I think people are jumping on that because they find it politically useful. So Russia interfered in the election. But I think what they've done even more -- to more success even, is they've allowed that impression that they interfered in the last election cycle to now create the basis on which everything else moves.

So, for example, the release of the memo hashtag that was trending last week, suddenly Dianne Feinstein and Adam Schiff are suggesting the reason it's trending is because of Russian bots. And they're calling on Facebook and Twitter to actually crack down on these nonexistent Russian bots that were supposedly sending this trending. Daily Beast did a report yesterday, and they said it wasn't Russian bots. That was just a bunch of Republicans who were hashtagging -- the point that Dianne Feinstein and Schiff are doing is -- what they are doing is they want Facebook and Twitter to crack down on right-wing media outlets, claiming that's a way of cracking down on fake news. So they're using the Russia bot stuff and they're using the Russia stuff as a proxy of getting to a political goal they want to get to. I swear, every day, I wake up and I think -- I'm cynical enough about politics today. And then by that night, I'm thinking, my God, I need to be twice as cynical as I was this morning. Because it just doesn't work.

GLENN: Back with more Ben Shapiro here in a second. Markets are beginning to price for potential interest rate hike in March. If you missed the show last night. I did a chalkboard. And it was really interesting.

Because I know I did this chalkboard a couple of times when I was at Fox. One that was similar. And I said, look, this is what I'm looking for. This is where we're going to start to have trouble. If these things happen.

Well, now, these things have happened. If you missed the chalkboard last night, make sure you watch it on TheBlaze.com/TV. Become a subscriber. And please, watch the first ten minutes of last night's show, because you will be prepared for what I believe is coming. And it's all due to math and history.

GLENN: Talking to Ben Shapiro, who I think is the leader of the future movement of the conservative -- of conservative thought in America.

He is everywhere on college campuses and everywhere online, where it counts with the youth.

We were -- we're in a weird situation right now, to where we have a president who is, in many ways, giving us as conservatives, things that we haven't seen since maybe Reagan. Okay? We have a great Supreme Court justice. Israel, for the love of Pete. Reagan didn't even do that.

BEN: Yep.

GLENN: So we have some great things. And then we're also in this position of having a guy who we -- is real -- lives a despicable life, if those porn star things are true. Okay? And I tend to believe they're true.

So you look at this, and for some reason, we can't say, I -- bad Trump, good Trump. Don't like that Trump. Like that one.

BEN: Yes.

GLENN: You have to buy into all of it. And I think that's killing us.

BEN: I totally agree. I mean, during the last election cycle actually coined the good Trump, bad Trump framework. I actually had sticks with faces of Trump on them. And when he would do something good, I would hold up the happy Trump. When he would do something bad, I would hold up the sad Trump.

We had -- we actually had the jingle on my podcast. Good Trump, bad Trump. Which one will it be today?

And that is -- I think the biggest problem I have right now with the way American politics are going, it really is not about Trump. It's about us. Because if we're not willing to call out bad when we see it, even from people that we like what we're getting from them, then we can't have an honest conversation.

It turns into simply, fanboying or fangirling for a particular political figure. You see this on the left too. They can't call out -- they couldn't call out Obama when Obama was engaged in obvious corruption with the IRS, for example. While saying, we like Obamacare. But we don't like what he's doing with the IRS. You see this on the right now, with regard to Trump's character.

Look, Trump is character deficient. There's just no question that the man is -- you would not have him babysit your children. Right? You have a list of people. He's near the bottom of the list in terms of people he would be responsible for like my one and a half-year-old son.

GLENN: Yes. My 13-year-old son.

BEN: May be more dangerous for the 13-year-old actually. You don't know what will pop up on the pay-per-view.

GLENN: Let's not even talk about him. People I really respect and like. Tony Perkins. What the hell was this?

STU: Interesting phrasing of that question.

GLENN: Yeah.

BEN: Yeah, so do I.

I think, again, we have to learn to live with cognitive dissonance. You can like a lot of the things he's doing. And as an evangelical Christian, or as an Orthodox Jew, as I am, I think you can stand and say, listen, this guy is standing up for religious liberty, with the judges that he's appointing. He's standing up for Israel. He's standing up for -- he spoke at the March For Life. He's standing up for a lot of religious priorities that I really like. And all of that is wonderful, and all of that is good. Also, you shouldn't have sex with porn stars while you're married and your wife just gave birth.

GLENN: If you're a religious leader, I think you should leave it at, you shouldn't have sex with porn stars, unless it's your wife.

(laughter)

Then you should talk to her about not being a porn star.

BEN: But the fact that we feel compelled to make excuses for bad behavior is something that I think leads people who are in the middle, not even on the left, people in the middle to say, well, you're not being intellectually honest about your own side. And you lose your own moral credibility in that line.

I'm not worried about Trump losing his credibility. Trump is a big boy. He can protect himself. He's shown that he's fully capable of kicking back of kicking back against people who criticize him. He does it all the time. He doesn't need people playing defense for his personal failings. And, by the way, his personal failings don't damage him politically.

I mean, I have an entire theory of what damages Trump politically. And the answer basically is what we call the -- the -- the strong efficient markets theory. Right? That when it comes to the stock market, there's a theory. That you cannot beat the stock market because everything is already priced in. Right? You have analysts who are all day sitting there and looking at companies and determining what their value is.

So unless there's a new piece of information, it's not going to change the stock price of any given stock. So you can't beat the market. I think that that holds true, particularly for Trump, even to the extent that new information doesn't change what you feel about Trump.

If you think Trump is despicable, you're still going to think Trump is despicable. If you think he's wonderful, you're still going to think he's wonderful.

Which suggests to me, that when he does something bad, we don't to have stand around and defend him. Like this is going to destroy his political career. The man won an election after being caught on tape, talking about -- bragging about grabbing women by the genitals. I don't think he requires your defense at this point. I think he'll be just fine. But I'm not sure that you will be just fine. Right? It's really about you. It's about what you are willing to say is good or bad. And what your friends think about you, and what people think of as a person, based on what you are willing to condemn and what you are willing to accept.

GLENN: But you can accept the policies and despise the actions in personal life.

BEN: 100 percent.

GLENN: And it's perfectly okay. But people aren't willing to embrace that. Tonight, 5 o'clock, Ben Shapiro will be joining us on TheBlaze.com/TV.

youtu.be

RADIO

Why Stacey Abrams' INSANE ultrasound LIE is 'TERRIFYING'

Failed candidate for governor of Georgia, Stacey Abrams, has a new pro-abortion conspiracy theory: There's no such thing as a fetal heartbeat at 6 weeks! It's "manufactured" by men to control women's bodies. Glenn and Stu discuss just how ridiculous this "misinformation" is and the dangerous implications it could have if people are willing to believe it: "If they will buy that, you're at the Salem Witch Trials"

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So Stacey Abrams says, there's no such thing as a fetal heartbeat at six weeks. That's weird. Because I know there's a fetal heartbeat on the -- on the sixth week. The seventh week. The eighth, ninth, 11th, 12th. All the way, still heartbeat.

Even now. I still have a heartbeat. It's weird. It's not fetal. But I still have a heartbeat. So no such thing as a fetal heartbeat in six weeks. Not true, says she.

Now, she says that this is a manufactured sound. If you haven't heard, a fetal heartbeat, here's a fetal heartbeat from...

Okay. What is that sound? What is that sound? Fetal heartbeat. No. No. That's the sound you hear at a cheap motel. Something is going on in the room up above. Listen to it again. Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me I'm wrong.

That's what it is. That's what it is. And we put them into this magic box, okay? Just, we go and we tape from seedy motels. We tape the goings-on in other rooms. We put it in this magic box. And then just because we're trying to get rid of the hand sanitizer that New York had. It's all expired now, that they bought with taxpayer money. We take that hand sanitizer. That's what it is. They say it's a gel. But you just wipe it on a woman's belly. And you take that magic stick. On that magic stick. When you position it right, you hit a switch. And it makes the magic box, play what you recorded at the hotel.

STU: That's science for you. That's Stacey Abrams' branded science.

GLENN: I'm quoting. Do we have her actually saying this in audio? Here she is.

VOICE: There is no such thing as a heartbeat -- it is a manufactured sim designed to convince people, that men have a right to take control of a woman's body.

GLENN: Wow. Wow.

You know, I thought it was a big deal, that she thought she was the governor, you know. When she wasn't the governor.

And then she had this amazing turnaround, where she said she never said that. I thought that was kind of amazing -- this is -- for people who follow the science.

Now, I don't know if you follow the science. But for people who follow the science, I'm pretty sure that's not a manufactured sound. I'm pretty sure what that is, is a heartbeat.

Now, I'm only saying that because that's what science tells us.

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: And the evil magic box. I don't know if I trust it anymore.

STU: Well, the evil magic box was designed by men. You know, men who wanted to take -- I mean, what was the quote?

That men have the -- it was a sound designed to convince people.

GLENN: That men have the right to take control of a woman's body. Amen.

STU: What a weird -- see, what a strange view of the world.

GLENN: Can I just tell you, as a man, as a man, and, you know, let's say a dirtbag man. The worst side of me, as a man. If I'm getting women and children pregnant, and I have no desire to settle down. Yeah, can I drive you there? How can I pay for that abortion? Okay?

Guys would be all in for that. That is much better than having a child, with a woman you were just sleeping with and you don't really want to have a relationship. And then that kid comes knocking at your door going, daddy. Men would rather you have an abortion.

That's what makes sense to me. Well, how -- I'm trying to understand. I'm trying to understand.

STU: You think men, if they designed the machine, would make it sound like nothing. Because they want to get out of whatever weird night they had last nature.

GLENN: I could be a cancerous growth. I could be a cancerous growth. I may be a tumor. I may be a tumor. That's what it would say.

STU: This is, of course, why so many on the left opposed the policy of having ultrasounds before abortion. Because they know they will hear the heartbeat. They will see if there's -- there's a scan to see. They can see the movement. They can see the baby formed.

When people are --

GLENN: Yeah. And it's 80 percent. The mother is 80 percent more likely to have the baby, than kill the baby. If she hears the heartbeat.

They know this. So that's why she's not discrediting men. She's not just saying -- I mean, she's absolutely wrong about men. We -- we did that, so you would have children?

I don't think so. So she's wrong about that. But what is she doing? She's discrediting the machine.

I mean, in such a --

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: A neophyte way.

It's almost like, well, I was at this airport. And I just had to tell them, look at how heavy that thing is!

That's not going to be able to fly. They're putting you into a hypnosis trap. They're saying they're flying you someplace. You're not actually going anywhere. They're putting a mind trick in, so you think you went into your Cleveland office.

STU: This really is, we never went to the moon level conspiracy. You can see -- you can see it on the video. You can see the heartbeat.

You can hear it. This is what is going on. It is --

GLENN: It's a manufactured sound.

STU: If you want to defend abortion. Go ahead and defend it. Defend what you're actually doing. Stop denying what is reality. That's all you have to do. If this is such a great defensible policy, then just come out and defend it.

But they never can. You notice after the Dobbs thing, they're not talking about abortion. They're talking about, well, what if you have an ectopic pregnancy. Well, what if a woman has a miscarriage. You can't get it removed. First of all, none of this has anything to do with the laws that you pass on abortion. But secondarily, you notice how they can't go to the thing they say is important. They keep defending these other things that aren't true, and are much totally different process, as we've been talking about. But like, if they really believe, this was so defensible. They might occasionally defend it.

GLENN: That's why they were successful for a long time. Because they said, look, you don't want somebody else making decisions for the woman and for the people involved.

That's -- let the doctor and the woman figure this out. And we pray, or we hope, that it is rare. But it has to be safe and legal. That's how they talk you into the boat.

Because that's how most people feel. Most people are not for abortion, at the very end. They're not -- but if -- if -- most people feel, okay. I don't know exactly when life begins. I mean, I think I do, because the egg is alive and the sperm is alive. So it is life when they join. But you can do argue about this back and forth.

Most people feel like, hey. Once it's, you know, kind of identifiably as a baby, then we shouldn't kill it. And they would say, I -- I hope that it doesn't happen. But in cases of incest or rape, or something like that, then, you know, go ahead.

But it should be rare. But it should also be safe, and legal.

That was winning.

Celebrate your abortions. I've had 1800 abortions. And I loved every one. I think it was my -- well, it was my 300th. That's when I will always remember, that it was so great, that I celebrated at the time. I mean, that's where they lose everybody.

And because they've celebrated their abortion. And are losing regular people. You can't put that genie back in the bottle. What do they have to do?

They now have to take the insane step, of discrediting medical machines and technology.

STU: This is after two years, by the way, claiming that the biggest scandal in the world, were people saying the voting machines were hacked, after they had previously said that voting machines were hacked in previous elections they lost.

Do a search, real quick. On Twitter. Social media.

Is Stacey Abrams -- does she have a warning that this is mis or disinformation? Because this is important medical information. Right?

This is important medical information. She's saying that ultrasounds are not real. That the sound of the baby --

STU: That's true.

GLENN: Is not real.

STU: That's really what she's doing. And this is a relatively recent thing from the left. Where they started calling it a flicker instead of a heartbeat. Remember that whole thing? The New York Times called it a flicker instead of -- wait a minute. A flicker. It's been a heartbeat. We know it's a heartbeat. It's one of the most amazing moments of early pregnancy. You're there. Maybe your spouse is with you. You hear a heartbeat for the first time.

It's an overwhelming emotional experience. Or it's created by men to control women. Or it's just a mechanical sound of some sort.

GLENN: Now, honestly, gang, think this through. Because this is where life gets very scary. This is where you go to authoritarian rule. And you can kill millions of people. Because you're truly, now. Discrediting things that everyone knows is true. Okay?

So if you disagree with it. You can do say, that's an evil magic box, that has made-up sounds in it, to convince people.

If they will buy that, you're at the Salem witch trials. You're at the Salem witch trials.

Well, if she doesn't float, she wasn't a witch. That's what you're looking at, right now. And what's frightening is, she can say this with a straight face, and no one discredits her from her own side. No one is saying today, you know, I was for Stacey Abrams, and then I heard that. And that's just evil magic box stuff. That's witchcraft. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? I can't support her.

This is -- this is a woman who is delusional, and has dangerous thinking. You know, we can't put her into a role of any kind of authority. If she thinks this. And she really believes this. And if not, she's just -- she doesn't care about lying. Nobody is saying this. Nobody is saying that on the left. Not a soul.

You don't think that they can convince those people, that you are a terrorist? Because of the way you vote?

Of course, they can. They're so emboldened right now, she thinks she can get away with saying this, and people in the audience don't laugh at her or stand up in that public setting and go, come on.

STU: Every one on the panel, nods in vigorous agreement.

GLENN: Nods their head. You don't think they can convince half the country, that you should be eliminated, liquidated. Put into a camp. Whatever authoritarians love to do.

I got news for you, I would be saying the same exact thing. If people on the right were doing this.

We are headed toward dangerous, dangerous times. We better wake up and stand together.

Because this is a frightening -- it's hilarious. But because people are taking it seriously. It is a terrifying statement.

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Would you EVER have believed ANY OF THIS would be called 'NORMAL'?

In an especially Orwellian move, Planned Parenthood has redefined what it used to consider a fetal heartbeat to now just being "cardiac activity." Why? Apparently, because Stacey Abrams said so. Glenn reviews this 1984-esque reversal, along with a list of other things that society now insists are "normal." But if you were told 10 years ago that this would be America's future, would you ever have believed it?

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Okay. So, Stu, yesterday, we got the news that those evil magic boxes make the -- make up the heartbeat sound, because there is no heart in that baby.

STU: You're saying from Dr. Stacey Abrams?

GLENN: Yes. From Dr. -- you're not mocking her, are you?

STU: No. I called her that.

GLENN: Because things have changed. Since we last spoke, Planned Parenthood has still edited its language about fetal development. Asserting that there is no heartbeat between weeks five and six. Now, this is a change, that they made and was noticed yesterday after Stacey Abrams.

It -- it calls now -- as of July 25th, Planned Parenthood said, between the fifth and sixth weeks of gestation, a very basic beating heart and circulatory system develop. Okay.

Now, they claim that at five to six weeks, a part of the embryo starts to show some cardiac activity.

STU: What -- what -- which part of the embryo would that be?

GLENN: The heart part.

STU: That's not a heart.

GLENN: It's not a heart. It's cardiac activity. Quote, it sounds like a heart on the ultrasound. But it's not, because it's not a fully formed heart.

STU: What's the definition of cardiac?

GLENN: Cardiac? Chest. I think that means chest cavity.

STU: Really? Because what I see here is relating to the heart. But it's just cardiac activity.

GLENN: All right. Monster, stop the hate. Okay. I just want to quote something completely unrelated. Completely unrelated from 1984. Just listen to this.

Quote, every record has been destroyed or falsified. Every book has been rewritten. Every picture has been repainted. Every statue and street and building has been renamed. Every date has been altered, and that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute.

History has stopped. Nothing exists, except an endless present. In which the party is always right. End quote.

I don't know why I brought that up. By the way, I'm reading another book. And it's out today.

Check it out. Check it out. Do you think that will catch on, if we said that every time? Like, hey, Blaze TV, you get your subscription. You get a discount by going to Blaze TV/Glenn or we can. Check it out.

Write that down.

STU: Write it down. Write it down.

GLENN: Yeah. I can see T-shirts being sold by the millions.

All right. So there's this book called The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World. Okay? It's written by Andrew Doyle. He's from Great Britain. So there's one section in here that I think is just fantastic, fantastic. That just, remember, this is Great Britain. But all the same stuff is happening here, okay?

He says, perhaps a little thought experiment will help us see what really is at stake.

Ten years ago, could anyone have imagined that in a decade's time, the British police, would be routinely investigating citizens, for noncrime, hate crime.

Noncrime, hate crime. What the hell is that? Well, it's just an update. It's just an update. There is no past. It's just a never -- never-ending present. Noncrime hate crime. That makes total sense. That is a hate crime, that feels like a hate crime, but isn't a hate crime. So they can't arrest you. Because you haven't done anything.

But police come to your door to investigate you, because you made somebody feel bad with words. Okay? That's happening. Would you have thought that that was even possible, or was that a joke?

How about this? Senior members of the UK government are arguing in favor of laws now to criminalize professional comedians for jokes. Activists would be demanding statues of Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi, and even abolitionists should be torn down. Or that corporations would be paying a fortune for teachers to come in and berate their staff for their white privilege, telling them that they should try to be less white. Would you have believed ten years ago, that one of the most prestigious schools in London would be separating its pupils by skin color? Or that a school district in Canada would be burning thousands of books because the contents are offensive to modern sensibilities? And if that's not enough, that they would refer to this event as, quote, a flame purification ceremony.

Would you believe that ten years ago? Because it's happening now. Ten years ago, would you have even possibly conceived that in 2022, politicians and judges will be stumbling and stuttering, when asked, can you define a woman?

And that they would be unable to answer the question. Or that woman would become a dirty word. That mom would be a dirty word. Ask that companies, charities, media outlets, even some factions of our health department and our hospitals, would be favoring phrases like menstruators, people who bleed, and individuals with a cervix. Or that a man would be nominated for Woman of the Year. Or that male rapists would be identifying as female, and then moved into a women's prison, where they can rape all they want.

Or that gay children would be encouraged to think that they were in the wrong body. Or that straight children would be told the same. And without parental permission, that they would be encouraged to be fast tracked into stationer. Or that the head of the LGBT rights charity in England, stonewall, would be calling lesbians, who don't want to include men in their dating pool, sexual raises. And comparing them to anti-Semites. The LGBT rights community, the L, lesbian. The L, lesbian. That -- that that group is calling the L lesbians, bigots, for not wanting to date a guy. Or that reputable medical journals and hospitals and even medical schools, would be denying biological relate. Claiming that sex is not binary at all. Or that a woman would be fired from her job, and subjected to threats of death and rape, just for saying that biological sex is real.

Would you have believed those? Now, let me ask you this: That's happening over there. But all those things are happening here too.

Well, the non- the hate crime. Non-hate crime. I mean, that's just. Let me ask you this: Ten years ago, if I said that a FBI veteran S.W.A.T. team guy, you know, one of the elites of the FBI, would be fired because he refused to be a part of what he said was politicized and an excessive raid, that it was not following FBI and agency policy, and it was trampling American citizen's rights. And there were 20 other people that were saying the same thing in the FBI. And that nobody would say anything, if they were all fired. That's what happened yesterday. Special agent Steve Friend. He -- he didn't tamper with evidence. He didn't -- you know, try to kill a national security adviser or anything else. He was just standing up for the Constitution, and they fired him yesterday. How about this one? If I told you ten years ago, that Venezuela would be emptying their prisons and sending them through Mexico, all the prisoners, to cross into our country -- if I told you that ten years ago, you would be like, well, maybe. But then I followed it with, and our government wouldn't be doing a damn thing about it. Would you have believed it? Would you have believed that we hired Chinese people, Chinese as in like China, passport China, to go work in a section of Las Alamos, to design nuclear weapons.

And then we let them leave and go home, when they want to go home to China, with all of our information. Would you believe that? Because that happened yesterday, as well. How about this one? Would you have believed ten years ago, that the House homeland chairman asked the DHS and DOJ to investigate, right? Venezuela. No. No.

The flights from Florida to Martha's Vineyard. Yeah. That's what they're working on. How about this one? Love this. Ten years ago, ask your friends this. Ask your friends. Hey, pedophilia, right? It's just a choice. We don't need to judge those people, right? Okay? There isn't anyone I know, anyone I know, that says, hey. These child -- these child -- well, child molesters. Child rapists. People who prey on our children. You know, I really feel for a them. And I think we should just accept them. Because sometimes the kids want it. No. No. No. Yeah. Guess who is not coming to your birthday party? Me. Guess who is never having you or anyone you like around my children? Me. Okay.

Gay rights, a gay rights group, gays against groomers. Have been kicked off of the system PayPal. So they can't raise any money or sell any product or anything else. Gays against groomers have been kicked off. You know who is on PayPal and not kicked off?

Prostasia. That's a pedophile advocacy group. So the pedophiles can sell their T-shirts promoting pedophilia. And the gay group that says, hey. You know, that's a real problem. I don't think -- they've been kicked off and silenced. Would you have seen that ten years ago? How about this one? This happened yesterday too. San Francisco just passed a surveillance plan, that allows police to have access to private cameras, without a warrant. Oh.

How about this one? The -- the Manhattan DA, that kind of got a surprise yesterday. He -- he gave this guy -- look, he's 25 years old. He was out one night. And she was walking across the street. Sure, she was 16 years old.

But she wanted it. She wanted it. And so he raped her.

And the DA was like, hey. Don't do that again. Will you promise me that?

Okay. I won't do that again. So they let him go. And yesterday, shock of all shoppings. He's raped five more people. And really nobody is upset with that. And probably not going to be covered in the mainstream media, ten years ago. Do you think it would have been?

Oh, two days ago, two or three days ago, we found out about a story where a guy, 45, 41 years old, gets into his car, after an argument with a teenager. And he starts to follow him.

And he eventually runs him down and kills him, and doesn't understand what he did wrong.

Because he was an extremist MAGA Republican. Two days after that, Joe Biden goes on television, and again says, Americans, good Americans have got to fight back against these extremist MAGA Republicans. Would you have believed that?

I would say no. I wouldn't have believed those things. And I still stand and say, nope. All of those things are wrong. Shouldn't be happening in America. Have you changed?

Have your friends changed? Ask them that. Because if you are excusing any of this stuff, you're going over the cliff.

All you have to do right now, is just stand where you've always stood. Yeah. The pedophilia thing. No. Not going to give you that. Uh-uh.

That's the only thing you have to do. Just stand and politely say, no. Not going there.

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It SHOULDN'T have taken THIS for Democrats, media to FINALLY care about the border crisis

Comedian Jamie Kilstein has undergone quite the transformation over the past few years, from being surrounded by liberals who have abandoned him to realizing conservatives are much more "open-minded." So, he wasn't surprised by how quickly the rich leftist residents of Martha's Vineyard shipped out the illegal immigrants Gov. Ron DeSantis sent over. Jamie gives his take on that hypocrisy, as well as the why he believes "nuance shouldn't be edgy"...

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Jamie, how are you, my man?

JAMIE: I laughed so hard, at that intro. Because it was like -- I felt the same way. I was like, oh, tragic. Tragic. Tragic. No, I'll be funny. Everything is fine. And you're like, back in the day, before my life imploded, you know, a comedian gets introed for a radio show. And, you know, you've heard this guy on Conan O'Brien, and now my intros are just this long, tragic tale. And my next guest is searching for redemption, from purgatory.

GLENN: Right. Right.

My next guest has been considering suicide, but today he's fine.
(laughter)

JAMIE: We caught him on an off day! He doesn't know how to tie a proper knot.

But, man, I'll tell you, you did say something. And you covered this on your podcast. But you did say something so wild. Which is, me being painted as this sort of outside thing to be examined, is so bizarre. Because like, new answer shouldn't be edgy. Having multiple opinions on different issues, shouldn't be controversial. And the fact that I feel like, the people -- and you've gotten this too. Who have gotten the most thrown under the bus now. And don't get me wrong. I used to be that way. Pick a side. And started losing friends like the rest of us. But now, I think it's so healthy. And I also think it is representative of the majority of people. But the majority of people, are too nervous, to anger their own tribe stop if they do -- you know, if it's a conservative, who is like, I don't really care about gay marriage. Or if it's a liberal, who is like, yo. These drag shows are like, not okay. They're afraid to sort of get ostracized from their own group. Because, you know, things are so rough retain. We're clinging on any sort of life support. That we just keep it quiet. So I think the majority of people are going to start speaking up, like, hey, man, there's crazies on both sides, and there are also really cool people on both sides.

GLENN: So if your life hadn't exploded or imploded, do you think you would have come to this, or did it take a shipwreck to get you there?

RUSS: I think about this a lot. I think about this a lot. I do really think it has taken some sort of shipwreck.

GLENN: Yeah. I have to tell you, I think -- you know, I've said this all the time. You know, I'll be at church. And they'll be like, oh, share your testimony. And I'll be like, yeah. I really feel sorry for you guys. That you didn't have a life that imploded. Because I really needed redemption. You know what I mean?

I really needed -- and I don't know if I would have actually found it, if it wasn't -- you know, if I wasn't on a ledge.

JAMIE: Yeah. And I'll tell you, I -- you know, I -- I know I'm supposed to be funny. But I think this is important.

GLENN: No. Just be you. Go ahead.

JAMIE: Yeah. I think -- I think that it was -- and not to, you know, kiss up. When on a radio conservative show, people always tweet me pictures of red pills. Like, I know. I know. It's happening. But I will say, I did not feel that way for ten years. Because for ten years, I was only still surrounded with liberals.

And, you know, I'll -- I'll show many of them off-air, off any -- I would love to have you on my podcast. Like, I don't want to get in trouble. For the record, I don't think what you did was bad. And, you know, I cheated on my girlfriend in my 30s.

And my wife is furious. She thinks what happened to you wasn't bad at all. Anyway, we can't be seen together in public, and if you could lose this number.

And then I started, when I moved to Austin, Texas, which is I think legally required for white podcasters. When I moved down here, I suddenly -- I was hanging out with conservatives and moderates and Libertarians.

And people who, they didn't have to go check Twitter to see if they could be your friend.

People who just sincerely saw you for who you are.

How do you treat my family? How do you treat my kids? How do you treat me?

And these are people from Jiu-Jitsu. You know, all over the place. And not necessarily from the political sphere. And that's when -- I mean, we're talking this year at 40. You know, I had an affair ten years ago, eight, ten years ago. We're talking this year at 40 years old is the first time. Meeting you, it's the first time, that I've been like, oh, what happened to me was a blessing. What happened to me did lead me to find God. It did leave me to open my mind. It did lead me to changing my views on certain things. But, dude, when it felt like nobody had your back, it was just me -- and I've had people tell me.

You know, I had a great comedian. Brendan Fraser, I did his podcast a long time ago. And I was still living in LA. And he was like, bro. This is going to be a blessing. You get to restart. And I was just like, shut up. Like, my life is awful. Like, I live -- my apartment in LA, after my divorce was so bad. You know how hard it is to break a lease, especially like in LA and New York. It was so bad, that when I couldn't afford it anymore, and I went up to the landlord to be like, hey. I have to break the lease. He literally looked me in the eyes and goes, just don't tell anyone what you saw here. And I was like, oh. Okay. Like, that's out of a horror movie. It's out of a horror movie.

So then I was like, no. Dude. I don't see how things are good.

And now that I've been around -- and I never thought I would say this -- the more open-minded people. I thought liberals were the open-minded people, because we listen to Kendrick Lamar. But, like, no. The conservatives I've hung out with are more open-minded. And, again, it's funny. Because I used to make fun of religion too. It's like, no. They're the ones that talk about forgiveness. I thought liberals were the ones that talk about forgiveness. Because of prison reform. I thought we were open-minded. But the ones who absolutely practice what we preach. Who I've met. And there are plenty of liberals who are cool.

GLENN: And there are plenty of conservatives, that they suck.

JAMIE: That's the total opposite, and that will be monsters. So it's fine.

GLENN: Right. Right. Right. Right.

So let's talk a little about Ron DeSantis. Ron DeSantis. And how did you view this? And what did you -- what did you learn?

JAMIE: Put your lab coat, buddy. I went all over the place with this. I went so schizophrenic with this. Because when it first happened. I was like, stupid, liberals.

I thought it was so funny. Because I've hung out with rich liberals. Like, there's part of me, that I'm surprised the Martha's Vineyard didn't have the immigrants like, sentenced to death.

I hung out with people, who will tweet about Black Lives Matter, but will cross the street when they see a real life black person. I've been to vegan Hollywood parties, that are just missing a whites only sign.

And separate water fountains. I've been around these people. And so, seeing them have to confront their own hypocrisy was good.

And just to the liberals, by the way, and to attack the media. The media just wants us to see the worst cases.

You know, there were people who took residence, and who fed them, who cooked them meals, and we've never seen that stuff. You know, the media --

GLENN: Yeah. But I'll bet you, it wasn't the people who had the big houses. I'll bet you it was the average person that was there year-round, and those aren't rich people.

JAMIE: No. I bet you, you're 1,000 percent right, 1,000 percent.

Yeah, that's always the funniest thing. When you see Black Lives Matter, or the little lawn sign, in between like eight layers of armed security.

Where it's -- it's performative, right? And so I thought that, you know, I was like, good. But then, I don't know if you had this moment. Where you are on DeSantis.

Oh. And I also will say, I do love this sort of no nonsense exit. Where it's just like -- where we sent a bunch of people -- it's the Texas attitude. And I feel like Florida is like the Texas of the sea.

But then there was this moment -- there was this moment, where I was like, ha, ha, and I was looking at my conservative friends on Twitter, and they were making jokes about it. And it was really funny. And then, again, I don't know if you guys had this. But I was like, where did he get those brown people from? I had this moment of like, wait a second. Did Ron DeSantis like, did he kidnap a bunch of immigrants? Did he traffic them? Was he holding them in his basement?

I had no idea, where -- and that, by the way, that's the most Florida man thing you can do is just kidnap a bunch of immigrants.

The only thing that would have made that more Florida, is if you would have had an alligator guarding them. Bro, just hire actors. Just hire Mexican actors.

They're in right now, cast Latino-esque, or whatever they're called. But don't take real starving, desperate people and trick them, just to own the libs.

Like, I would have rather Ron DeSantis like put on a festive Mexican costume and the little fake mustache, and just gone to Martha's Vineyard himself.

Like, it would have been great. But that was one of those moments, where like, I couldn't let myself fully get wrapped up in --

GLENN: But wait a minute. Wait a minute. He didn't. And everybody signed a release form. They knew where he was going. Come on, man. You wouldn't -- I will -- I'll claim to be an illegal, if you'll -- if he'll send me some tickets to go to Martha's Vineyard.
(laughter)

JAMIE: Yeah, but then you do ask yourself questions, right? Where you go -- like, what I had to do was take myself out of it. And go -- and think about being.

I mean, it's the crazy thing, right? Where you just go, okay. What's it like to be those people?

And I think we're so used to looking at the news through the lens of social media. Where it seems like a video game. And as a video game. That's hilarious. And round one. And the liberals look ridiculous. And I will give Ron DeSantis credit as well. Which is, this is what it took. The media. This is how far we have to go, to get the media to cover this crisis.

GLENN: Yes.

JAMIE: And I was also really surprised -- because I said them, where I was like, hey, did Ron DeSantis just kidnap a bunch of Mexicans or whatever? Venezuelans, whatever? And a lot of conservatives, who I thought were essentially just build a wall. Not my problem. I don't want to see that. Were actually giving me very heartfelt responses. Where it's like, no. Dude. Of course, we don't want to see immigrants families starving. It's just the system has been so broken, that this is what happens, right?

They see that both sides.

GLENN: I have to tell you, when the response from the left and the media has been so telling. They -- they keep saying, all these cities keep saying, they're sanctuary cities. We don't have room.

Wait. You have -- New York, you think a little teeny town of 20,000 people can handle 25,000 people that just came across the border? And you don't even talk about it. You don't talk about the fentanyl. You don't talk about the actual smuggling of humans. The rape that is happening from these drug cartels, as they're bringing people over. It's a horror show. And they don't care.

JAMIE: Yeah. I'm so glad you said that, because this reminds me.

Because I was thinking of when you said New York, I started thinking about LA. And there was part of me that was like, God, LA can just build houses for TikTok influencers. Like, why don't we help real people, right?

But I remember the last time I went to LA, which was just a couple of weeks ago.

It was bad. I mean, the homeless problem was just as bad, if not worse, than you do see on social media.

And I have this like, heartbreaking moment. Because, again, as we look at stereotypes of the left, and the right.

You have liberals saying, hey, man. Don't worry about it. Likable, you know, let them build a tent. Let them -- and they're doing it under the guise of, we would be compassionate. And then you have conservatives, which I've seen. Who just go, ew, gross. Look at this. Look at what a disgusting mess this city has become. Blah, blah, blah. And what's not happening in the middle is legit compassion, where when you walk by these people, seeing them as people. Asking yourself, how we got here. And then looking for a solution, right? So you have politicians like -- I think it's Michael Shellenberger, who tried to dethrone Newsom.

GLENN: Yeah, yeah, he's great.

JAMIE: He's great. And he was a big liberal. And all my friends on the left, hated this guy. So when I researched him, I thought he was just going to be like, march the homeless in the ocean.
(laughter)
And I started like reading what he's trying to do, and it's like, no. This guy is actually willing to be hated. And is trying to say, don't put them in tents. Don't put them in hotels. It literally doesn't work. You believe in science? It doesn't work. We have to get them into treatment. We have to help them.

And very similar to what you were saying, about immigration. Where it's just like, I feel like the left is so good at pretending to care, right?

And pretending to be compassionate. But it's like, man, if what we're doing isn't working.

GLENN: Right.

JAMIE: And, in fact, making it worse. We have to look at the other side.

Glenn's Show Prep

Ben Shapiro: You Can Like Trump’s Policies While Admitting He’s ‘Character-Deficient’

Ben Shapiro: ‘Nikki Haley at the UN Is Basically My Spirit Animal’

Why Stacey Abrams' INSANE ultrasound LIE is 'TERRIFYING'

Transcript

Diesel trucks are RACIST? The latest INSANITY from ban-happy California

Would you EVER have believed ANY OF THIS would be called 'NORMAL'?

Transcript

It SHOULDN'T have taken THIS for Democrats, media to FINALLY care about the border crisis

Transcript