Part Of The Problem - The TP USA Spectacle

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

Dave Smith brings you the latest in politics! On this episode of Part Of The Problem, Dave and Robbie "The Fire" Bernstein talk about Trump's fake-out that was rumored to be an announcement of escalation with Venezuela, Ben Shapiro's statements at Turning Points' event vs. JD Vance's statements, and more.Order Lauren Smith’s book here: https://a.co/d/67djjBpSupport Our Sponsors:Brunt Workwear - http://bruntworkwear.com/ Use code PROBLEMCowboy Colostrum - Get 25% Off Cowboy Colostrum with code DAVE at https://www.cowboycolostrum.com/DAVEMars Men - https://mengotomars.com/ Use code "PROBLEM" at checkoutPart Of The Problem is available for early pre-release at https://partoftheproblem.com as well as an exclusive episode on Thursday!PORCH TOUR DATES HERE:https://robbernsteincomedy.com/eventsFind Run Your Mouth here:YouTube - http://youtube.com/@RunYourMouthiTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/run-your-mouth-podcast/id1211469807Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/4ka50RAKTxFTxbtyPP8AHmFollow the show on social media:X:http://x.com/ComicDaveSmithhttp://x.com/RobbieTheFireInstagram:http://instagram.com/theproblemdavesmithhttp://instagram.com/robbiethefire#libertarianSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

what's up what's up everybody welcome to a brand new episode of part of the problem i am dave smith he is robbie the fire burnstein we're back it's good to be back uh whew i i last spoke to you guys on uh wednesday when we did our last show and i do did i say i said on the show rob right i was like i'm pretty sure i have the flu right now and i'm about to go down with it i was correct I was correct. I had it. I went down mere hours after that show, and I basically just got back up.

But I won. That's a quick rebound for a man of your age. Just four days out with the flu. That's pretty good, bud. I think broad strokes were the same age. But yeah, okay, whatever, sure, I guess. I really understand. I'm not sure there's a big difference between early 40s and late 30s.

But anyway, yeah, whatever. The point is, I fought a battle with the flu, and I won. or well or at least I didn't know okay I lost I lost it was all flu it was the flu dominated me for for days there was I didn't even get a shot in but I got back up at the end of it yeah the later rounds and you did you did an unvaccinated foo flights a flu flight so it didn't stand a chance I've seen like I remember like when I was a kid but yeah I did it unbacked so I did pure blood um but uh i remember when i was a kid like i grew up in brooklyn when it was kind of rough and every now you'd see someone like almost like get beat up but like they got like jumped by two or

three guys and they get beat up and the guys like hit him a few times then they all kind of like run away and then like the guy who just got beat up he'll like get up and he'll go that all you got that all you got and you know it's just i mean you lost the fight but you saved like the littlest bit of pride being like i took the best you could give me and i was still there asking for more that's kind of what I did to the flu. I did that. It was rough. Dude, the first, I made it like four days without getting it and just taking care of the family, which was tough, but it is, you know, dads will relate to this. It's one of these things. It makes you feel good about yourself when you're a dad. You know, like every now and then your wife has to like go for the day and you got to take care of the baby for the whole

day. But then at the end, you're like, fed her three meals, you know, like pretty good. And, you know, it was never right. And in fact, they're not supposed to eat three meals. They're supposed to eat like six little meals, and then you realize you fed him food that is not safe for babies to eat. But the point is that, like, you did it. And you kind of, so I was doing that. I was getting through it. And it's awful. When you got little kids and your wife and they're all so sick and miserable, then

you're just like, I wish I could take it all, you know, just let them be comfortable and I could take all. But then you get it. And then you're like, all right, give 20% of this back to my wife. Like leave the kids alone, but like, Jesus Christ, I'll take 80. Is that reasonable? But anyway, it's good to be back. a lot happened this week evidently so we've got a lot to talk about um but it's good to be back

and talking with you rob how is your week of health you take for granted yeah it was uh it was fun i was out in colorado i did uh three shows were all good uh people showed up for my sunday afternoon day drinker which i was impressed by yeah sold out that uh that little venue also the nice thing about doing small venues is you can sell them out uh and uh for everyone at home go to robby the fire all one word on YouTube. I got the first episode of porching out. A lot of work went into that. Second episode coming out,

hopefully in the next two weeks. So go give that a watch. It's funny. Hell yeah, absolutely. All right. So let's talk about a few things. Oh, and then, of course, comicdapesmith.com.

Me and Rob will be back out on the road in just a couple weeks here now in the new year. So Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon, I believe, is coming up in January. comicdaversmith.com. Okay, so I guess the first thing we should address, and I'll address a little bit of the, I don't know, I've been, I've seen I've been criticized over this, which is, I mean, it's just seems beyond silly to address.

But the point that's more important is that when we left last episode on Wednesday, I had mentioned at one point, Dave DeCamp texted me in the middle of the episode that, you know, he had sources telling him that Trump was going to announce an expansion or a declaration of war against Venezuela. Tucker Carlson had on the record, I believe, with Judge Napolitano and said the same thing. I have a couple sources, you know, who are people, you know, I have a couple people who are like close to the White House, a couple people who are reporters who have sources there. I had heard the same thing after we got off the show.

You know, I texted some people and had heard the same thing. And then, of course, at the end of the day, Donald Trump, like, either trolled us or walked it back. himself or something he ended up after all of that um just doing like uh we interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you a special announcement from the president of the united states to announce nothing to just get on there and say that the economy is real good for a while i'm not i'm genuinely not sure what exactly happened there i don't think it's been made clear um it is there's there's different possibilities which are that you know don't trump wanted to make, you know, I don't know that he intentionally, like, gave the signal that he was

going to do that so that some people would look bad or something like that, or that he was, you know, people have speculated that he was trolling, people have speculated that he was going to make an announcement about Venezuela and then backed off of that. I don't know if any of that's true or he never planned on doing it. I do just know that whatever the answer is in any of the possibilities, I don't know, Rob. I'm just so over this shit, dude. it's just like Donald Trump's just gotten to a point with me I don't know man you guys I can you know my job here is to call him like I see him

and I know that this ruffles feathers when I'm as tough on Donald Trump as I have been for the last basically since the summer um that's just how I feel about it I'm just over this shit I don't find it entertaining or clever or anything it's like so this is the game it's kind of they reminded me of there was one scene in the office Rob where uh that like Michael Scott used to as a prank fire people and then they would get very upset and then he'd go gotcha and like he does it to Pam and she's he's like oh look at your face I got you you totally thought and she's like yeah I thought because you said it so I thought and like that's kind of how I feel

with Trump you're over there's go oh look you guys panicked he was going to start another war he goes huh you committed several acts of war and said you were going to start a new war so yeah we went hey that's sure not a good idea oh you panic it like how dumb is this rob it's just like too i don't know the whole thing is just too ridiculous like okay you still by the way by in actual reality donald trump has already launched a war on venezuela he's committing acts of war the question is how far he's going to take this and to just like what all of that resulted in was essentially just donald trump being joe biden again telling everyone that the economy is great even though none of you feel that way it's just because you're so stupid that

you don't recognize that tariffs have transformed the world and made it better for the economy, even though no one feels that in their life. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is IndyCloud. Indecloud is your online cannabis dispensary. They got gummies, curated flour, pre-rolls, and now zero sugar, zero calorie THC sodas, all federally legal THC, DEA certified, lab tested, and it's all shipped discreetly. So if you are 21 or older, make sure to go visit into cloud.co and use the promo code problem for 25% off and free shipping. All right.

Let's get back into the show. Well, if we're just speculating, because that's all you can do with Donald Trump is try and invent reasons for what might be going on, why he might be teasing announcements or going to war with Venezuela. I do think a lot of times they pretend like they have a plan and they tease things to see. see how the market might react. And I think on that day, he saw that, wow, I really don't think we have the support we need for this. And the backdrop of it is also that I saw an article in the journal today that Cuba is really not doing well.

They're obviously lying over the drug thing. I don't even understand why we care about Cuba at the moment. But it could be that, you know, they have no reason to rush a stronger military engagement because they see a pathway to, you know, I guess whatever their agenda. is so they figured you know we might as well sit on this one for now you know i i remember there was um one detail in uh in scott horton's book uh wonderful book provoked um which is as i've said many times the best book that's been written on the the the cold war the new cold war with russia and the lead up to the war in ukraine and one of the things i remember thinking was really

interesting because i really did my best to like you know because this book was first off it was like the best book on the topic and it's also if you've seen it i mean it's a huge It's a brick of a book with thousands of citations. And I did my best to really not only read the whole thing, Scott sent it to me a couple of years in advance before it was the finished version, not just read it, but really do all the research and go through all the things. One of the things, it was just like a little nugget. I thought it was really interesting was that the big push in 2008 at the Bucharest Summit

when it was first formally announced that Ukraine was going to join NATO. There was a lot of opposition to this. I believe, if I'm remembering correctly, it was really Merkel in Germany. It was like the biggest opposition. I believe the French might have been against it as well. But they were like, hey, hey, hey, don't announce this. Because like, dude, you're going to provoke a real fight with the Russians here.

And obviously, they're a little bit more concerned about it than we are because actually they're the ones that's kind of in their backyard. So they were like, hey, we don't want to like, you know, if you think you're Germany, you got a Poland and then Ukraine and Russia. You don't really want to fucking be provoking a big fight here. And anyway, the point is that from what I could deduce from all of Scott's footnotes there and the arguments he's making, it does seem like the overwhelming driving factor of it that pushed them to announce that Ukraine was going to join NATO at a NATO summit was

George W. Bush legacy building. And that's just like really that the administration was really like, yeah, but you know what? the Iraq war was supposed to be our legacy and the Afghanistan war was supposed to be our legacy and then the economy was supposed to be our legacy and what's it going to be Katrina? So like we need something here and it's just it's kind of a lesson almost in like basic public choice theory that like no dude this is like the it just in the same way that we all recognize that in a free market system there are economic incentives there are you know what I mean There are self-interested people who are working.

Nobody really thinks if you go to the restaurant on the corner and you buy a meal and you go, no one really thinks like, oh, that guy made me a meal because he really cares about me. He really cares about the community. He really wants to feed people in the community. Like, even though that might be true on some level, you're like, no, he's running a business. We know he's trying to succeed and make money at his business. This isn't wrong with that.

Like he's trying to give his family a good life or whatever. Well, the same thing, the same like self-interested incentive structure exists in government. And think of an example like Joe Biden refusing to resign. That wasn't in the DNC's interest. It wasn't in the Democratic Party's interest. Certainly wasn't in the nation's interest. But it definitely was in Joe Biden's interest. It was definitely in Jill Biden's interest.

It was, you know, in Hunter Biden's interest. So like, anyway, Marco Rubio's Cuban. This is my point. That's where I'm getting to with all of this. And I will say, like, don't underestimate how much that might be a factor in this. Like, if there was one guy you could point to who is the singular biggest influence on this policy, it's Marco Rubio. This has been his policy from all reporting he's been boxed out of Ukraine.

He's been boxed out of the Middle East. He is the fucking Secretary of State and the National Security Advisor. And they had to give him something. They had to give him some toy to chew on. and it happens to be Venezuela. And as you pointed out, Rob, they let it slip a lot, that this does seem to be very motivated by Cuba. And a lot of Cuban Americans, especially the Republican types,

which is most of them, they really do have, understandably, you know, I don't think they should use our government for it, but they do have a real vendetta against that Cuban government, and they really want that thing to fall and to open it up to, you know. Well, I think the problem at the moment is, I mean, typical of sanctions, or in this case, as well, oil money is not making its way to Cuba. I don't think they're helping the Cuban civilians.

Oh, yeah. No, that's right. The track record of America liberating your country is the worst thing for your country. So don't think just because America could ever convince you that there are some people suffering in a country. It's not therefore we ought to go liberate them, you know, with our army. I also think they just have a problem with the lie that they're using to pitch the war is just not compelling enough. So I think we all realize that it's clearly not over drugs,

but let's just say that it was over drugs. And let's imagine that drugs weren't coming in from other countries and literally all cocaine was coming from Venezuela, and that's where the fentanyl problem was. Let's just imagine that that was true. Drug addicts are not supposed to have so much sway in our society that we're going to war to save our nation's drug addicts. I understand if you want to pretend you've got to go to war

because someone else is going to destroy you or someone else supposedly has nuclear bombs. There's a lot of sales, but it's usually we can't continue to be a country and we won't have freedom or we're not going to be safe. Those are threats that people go to war over. Hey, you got to save the drug addict at the end of the street. Firstly, there's better ways to spend money than having our young men killed to go save that guy. And it's probably, you know, spend the money on a rehab or find the way for the guy to have a job.

But the idea of going to war to save drug addicts, it's just I don't think anyone's, that oh oh it's so absurd and in the same way that like one of the similarities it's true with a lot of these wars but at the same way like with the war in iraq where they had this kind of like it's like the justification depending on what week or what month you were talking about like the justification for the war in iraq was like saddam is developing weapons of mass destruction saddam is friends with the terrorists and he was in on 9-11 um if we overthrow saddam democracy will sweep the region uh we're going to liberate the people of Iraq. We're going to bring, you know, voting rights and women's rights and all these.

And before you go, you're like, yeah, but that's like seven different things, which, by the way, none of them were true in that example. But like, why do you need seven different things if the first one wasn't bullshit? You know what I mean? It's like, they pick mold. And so even with Venezuela, it's like, right, Rob, it's like, no, we're doing this because the drugs. We're doing this because of the drugs, Rob. They're narco terrorists. They kill 100,000 Americans a year. And they're like, you point out something where it's like, yeah, like four percent of the the drugs come in from Venezuela, and they go, yeah, they, they, they flooded our country with immigrants intentionally. They opened the prisons and flooded them all in here. Like, okay, but is there

any evidence that that actually happened? They took the oil, Rob. They took the oil and the land from us. Oh, it's, they're in bed with Iran or they're, you know, something with Cuba or whatever. And you're like, okay, why are you giving me seven different justifications? By the way, all of which are bullshit. All of which are bullshit. So anyway, again, look, I'll say this, because there was, I had one and this was literally as the flu was was coming on and overtaking me um but so i got off the show yesterday on wednesday and i posted a couple tweets um one just trashing donald trump and what a disaster has been and then i had a long post um basically talking about how donald trump part of the reason that his base loved him was that he was critical of the war party and he sold out to the war

party at every single turn and then i said uh apparently tonight or i said tonight apparently Donald Trump's going to announce some type of escalation in Venezuela, just another example of him, you know, turning his back on his own supporters in favor of the war party. Something to that effect. And I, then I, you know, took some Motriot and passed out for hours and then woke up and saw that he hadn't, you know, done anything about the war. And so I deleted the tweet. And then a bunch of people, I mean, this is just how sad it all is. A bunch of the goddamn Zio bots are now trying to jump on that and go, oh, look, David. had to eat his words and delete his tweet and you're like yeah yeah i deleted the tweet i said

apparently tonight he's going to announce some escalation and he didn't so yeah that's right he didn't do that tonight so i took the tweet down i still stand by everything else i said in the tweet like this is their big and then they're trying i watched like a few of them trying to do this go look dave got the war in a round wrong and then he got this war wrong too and you're like did i didn't get any war wrong what are you talking about getting a war wrong is like supporting a war and then finding out the pretext for it was based off lies and a bunch of people got killed going i didn't get the war to ran wrong i got it completely right i what they all go where's the world war three you promised us like never fucking said it was going to be world war three i said you're risking catastrophe for absolutely

no reason by the way rob other news reported uh by abc uh the other day um Netanyahu's meeting with Donald Trump at the end of the month. The topic seems to be getting the U.S. to strike around more because they're developing intercontinental ballistic missiles according to Netanyahu. So where are we with this whole thing? Oh, yeah. They're three weeks away from whatever weapon Netanyahu made up. So it's just anyway, I guess it's just funny.

It's like after having the goddamn track record that me and you have had, Rob, over these last years. They're trying to make that like, oh, look, you got it wrong. You were worried about another catastrophic war. And then you suspected that the reporting that Donald Trump was announcing an escalation might be correct. Okay. Okay. Yes. Those are the big issues on my track record that I've gotten wrong. And your favorite Israel supporting hawk only got everything else wrong. they i got those too wrong but your favorite war hawk got um russia gate covid uh the vaccine the ukraine war the gaza war they got all of that wrong okay anyway i just i see like it's like they're piling it's like after years of this stuff now it's like the stuff they pile on me about just

seems to get more and more ridiculous and you're like guys is this really what you're going with i said apparently he's announcing an escalation and then he didn't okay you got me all right guys let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show which is cowboy colostrum if you want to fix your gut make your hair healthier and stronger and add some glow to your skin in 2026 you need to add colostrum to your daily routine cowboy colostrum offers the highest quality bovine colostrum available in the u.s cowboy colostrum is 100% made in america from 100% American grass-fed cows. Unlike other Cholostrum brands, Cowboy Clostrum, is true first-day, whole colostrum, rich in bioactives and growth factors. Cowboy is easy to drink and is made with

delicious natural ingredients and no artificial flavors. You simply add a scoop of their chocolate, Madagascar, vanilla, macha, or strawberry, into your coffee or smoothie and feel great the entire day. And for a limited time, our listeners can get 25% off their entire order. Just head to Cowboy Colostrum. dot com slash dave and use the promo code dave at checkout that's 25% off when you use the promo code dave at checkout at cowboy colostrum.com slash dave all right let's get back into the show all right let's uh we got to talk about this uh turning point USA um event over the the weekend Rob which was quite something um I don't know how much of it you you saw Rob it did look I guess it was a big event, a lot of big speakers in the conservative world, and obviously what

was highlighted right away was just, you know, the theme of politics over the last couple months, which has really just been like the deep divisions in the right, with especially with turning point being like right at the center of all of it. And, you know, I, talking about these things, there's almost like a tendency here to like, um, to get lost in some of the gossip of all of it. Like, did you hear Benj, Pierre and Megan Kelly aren't friends anymore and they're both fighting over Candace Owens and this or that? And I really, um, I really, I wish to avoid as much of that as possible. I just want to talk about what I find really interesting here. And the most interesting part of this to me was that J.D. Vance comes in and we're going to play, um,

some of, some of his comments here in a second. So that I found, I found very, very interesting. But so the event starts off, Rob, with, with Ben Shapiro. I guess Erica Kirk speaks, and then Ben Shapiro goes next. And Ben Shapiro delivers what, I don't know, Rob. Did you watch this, this speech? A fair amount of it. I watched, I watched some clips. I read the summary, and I watched about the first 10 minutes. It is just the, again, forget even the substance of it. I want to get into the substance, obviously, but just almost like my first takeaway on it, it is like, it is the anti-Karnegey doctrine, like how to lose friends and lose influence on people. I mean, he just starts off the event by just chastising everybody in the winiest possible.

manner for not condemning Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes and everybody's a coward who won't immediately jump up to condemn these people and lecturing everybody about their obligation to the truth. I mean, I just, I found it like, I couldn't believe that he settled on going in this direction, that there wasn't just like, like on some level, just like a, the dude party, you that just goes like, yeah, but don't come off like such a white. bitch through the whole thing I don't look I'm just saying this is honestly my my first reaction to it like I just couldn't believe that's how you thought you'd come out and fight this thing I also remind me how Douglas Murray approached our debate like you thought this would be

the way to do it the best way it would be I am here let me let you know everyone I am on my high horse first of all this high horse is above you you're down here I'm up here repudiate him Nick Fuentes hurt my feelings Candice Owens is a conspiracy theorist. Where are you? As if those are the issues of our time or something? Like, it's just too goofy. Sorry, Rob.

Go ahead. I also just felt there were some remarks that he made that I actually thought were very good advice. And I wish he would follow it. And so when he was making statements about just making sure that you're being truthful and honest and with the job of what the people are supposed to be doing in this role, it felt a little bit like this. the CNN, this is an Apple, where they were trying to, you know, advertise the fact that they're the truth tellers. And I feel like Ben Shapiro would not have to be doing all the whiny stuff if he was probably more honest on the Israel topic. And I think it was a little bit remarkable to hear him speaking about, you know, covering everything in a truthful way and that that's the obligation because that's not what he does. And then I'm sure we're going to get into the censorship aspect.

but for all of this talk about not asking questions and not just it's like well that's why you were wrong on COVID buddy and that's why you just keep shilling for the regime and that's why you're just pitching these topic talking points while telling everyone else that they shouldn't be allowed to have an audience because you're the only truth teller no absolutely dude and the uh the CNN this is an apple thing is a great comparison you know I forgot about that but this was what was it like 2017 or 2018 something like that but it was right in the height of Donald Trump's first term, the fake news, you know, a label had been, I think first the corporate press used it, but then Donald Trump reappropriated it and started calling all of them the fake news. And then it's the same thing. CNN runs this commercial. They go, look, this is an apple. Here at CNN, we call it an apple.

Now, you have a right to call it banana. You got a right to say what you want, but our job is just to tell the truth. It's like, look, man, there's no argument here where one side is saying we're against the truth. yes Ben Shapiro we also believe in telling the truth the whole argument here is who's telling the truth you know and it's just something it's funny where you think as like an effective tactic which is so transparent and obvious where you're just going to come in and be like okay so first of all I place myself in the seat of arbiter of truth

I'm just the one who tells objective truth now let's start from there like actually no CNN or Ben Shapiro that's not what we're going to start from here let's uh you hit on a lot of really good points there let's let's play uh one of these clips because we have a couple here let's let's check in on ben Shapiro candace owens decides to spend every day since the murder of charlie curler the murder of Charlie Kirk, casting aspersions at TPUSA, and the people who work here who works with Charlie every single day, his best friend, to cast aspersions at Mikey McCoy and Andrew Colvin and Blake Neff and Tyler Boyer, and yes, at Erica Kirk. And to imply or outright

claim complicity in a cover-up over Charlie's murder, to spew absolutely baseless trash, implicating everyone from French intelligence to Mossad to members of TPUSA in Charlie's murder or a cover-up in that murder, then we, as people with a microphone, have a moral obligation to call that out by name. Okay, let's pause that right here, because, you know, I don't know.

I find this to be so interesting. It's such a goddamn tactic, and it's one that we've seen, you know, used by a few really, really annoying people here where this is, okay, so this is the line they're going with. Keep in mind a few things here. Number one, I mean, I don't know, Rob. I think I've been saying this for at least two straight years now on the show. And I say this is somebody who's done about as many public debates on the topic of Israel as anyone, I think. I think just about as many as anyone. And it is amazing.

how much throughout this whole thing, these guys want to talk about anything except the issue. Anything else, man. Like, what are we talking about here? Are we talking about the fact that Israel just destroyed Gaza with U.S. complete support? Or are we talking about that? Are we talking about whether or not we should be allowing Netanyahu to come here and try to pitch us on getting involved in another war again on their behalf? Are we talking about that? No, no, no. We're talking about anything other than that what did darrell cooper say on tucker carlson show two years ago you're a moral coward rob if you don't call that out like what type of bullshit tactic is this ben shapiro and all you guys all the zionist way here saying this like again you don't get to

just put yourself in this chair like up here on a mountain where you're the arbiter of what everybody else is supposed to talk about how about fuck you you don't get to decide that it is incumbent on me, that my role must be internet hall monitor of the dissidents. And I must walk around to all of the dissidents who oppose the policy of U.S., you know, the U.S. supporting Israel's genocide. I must go to everyone who's against that and go, you did a racist, you did an anti-Semitic, you did a conspiracy theory, you'd connect the dots here that shouldn't have been connected. That was wrong.

Alex Jones, you were out over your scheme. here. Candice Owens, you made a claim you couldn't back up here. Why? Why the fuck is that my responsibility? Why can't I just say, I'll tell you how I feel. I want to talk about the issue here, the thing that matters. In every goddamn one of these things, if I was at, you know, I wasn't at this thing. I couldn't have gone even if they invited me. I was sick as a dog this week, but I wasn't at this thing. But Rob, if I was there and I was given a speech, what would my speech have been about. My speech would have been about the U.S. supporting Israel and what Israel's doing to the Palestinians and why we shouldn't be doing this. Why, this is evil and this is not in our national

interest. Something like that, I'd have gone there and talked about the issue. This is one of the things I said to Josh Hammer's face and my first thing I said at the debate that Charlie Kirk had me on. It's like, look at these guys. All they ever want to do is talk about everyone's character. The character of every person who's a critic of Israel must be smeared. Now, fuck you. Why am I supposed to help you do that when I disagree with the policy to begin with. Like, and when you go first, Ben Shapiro, you moral coward, where are you calling out Smotrich? The goddamn finance minister for the government that you support Israel has been openly calling for genocide and ethnic cleansing for two years.

Was Ben Shapiro calling that out left and right? No, but he's going to lecture us that we must have the moral clarity. Like, I have to be in the business of calling Candace Owens out. But, like, Rob, isn't the bigger lie so obvious there? Dude, your beef is with Candid— Your beef is not with Candice being a conspiracy theorist on Charlie Kirk. You're not even being honest about what your problem with her is. Is that why you fired her, Ben Shapiro?

Because she had theories about how Charlie Kirk got murdered? Or did you fire her two years before that when she said, sure is messed up the way Israel's killing all these babies? Oh, that's right. Is your beef with Tucker that he had Nick Fuentes on? Were you guys cool before that? No, your beef with Tucker is that he doesn't support the U.S., unconditionally supporting Israel. So why don't you tell the truth about what your beef actually is,

and then we could all talk about the issue that matters. This is all just a giant fucking distraction technique that you're going to race in there. You're the dude who's been supporting a genocide for the last two years. And on the moral high ground to get up here and go, there's a conspiracist amongst us. And you all have a responsibility to call out the consensual. Spiricist. Get the fuck out of here, Ben Shapiro. I don't know. Anything. Yeah, no, you're 100% right. I didn't even really realize how much of a distraction it was by reframing and avoiding

the Israel issue to hone in on. That's not what we're discussing. What we need to discuss is whether or not people are calling out Candace. And you're right. It's not, it's not the bigger issue. The bigger issue is the actual policies of what's taking place in Israel and Gaza. What really just spoke to me, it's the, it's the censorship of there's some topics that shouldn't be explored and people need to condemn people if they are exploring the topics. And then on top of that, this just does feel like the very woke. It's not enough to not be racist, but you also have to be an anti-racist. And like you have to, you know, you have to like pledge your allegiance to causes and you have to like actively pursue those causes. And I don't think anyone has like the moral obligation. Like if I'm over here and I'm really interested. in the way the government's spending money and I want to talk about the Federal Reserve and then you start yelling at me well I'm mortally reprehensible

because I'm not talking about these other things I mean that's like a more advanced form of censorship or you're like telling me the thing that I'm interested in I shouldn't be talking about what I really need to do is take up your cause pledge allegiance to that and go after that instead of what I think's important which is like a more advanced degree of like

it's even worse than that right because that's why I think you had it Right, the first time when you said it's that it's not enough to not be racist. You must be actively anti-racist, which was the creed of one of those woke black studies authors. Because what it, because think about it like this, Rob, it's not even, Megan Kelly, for example, one of the people Ben Shapiro calls out and calls a coward. Megan Kelly isn't saying, hey, I'm focusing on this. I'm not taking an opinion on who killed Charlie Kirk. Megan Kelly is coming out and going, I'm convinced Tyler Robinson.

killed Charlie Kirk. And there is no broader conspiracy here. She's taking the opinion that Ben Shapiro wants her to take. But she's not condemning Candace for taking a different position. So it's not even not talking about it. It's that you have to talk about it. And then you also must condemn all of the people who Ben Shapiro decides has gone too far. Now, again, to your point here, because there's a few different layers to all of this. Now, to the point that you made, and you're absolutely right, there is this like look obviously there's a version of hiding behind just asking questions that would be like bullshit where like you're implying a thing that you have no reason to be implying the hiding behind questions like you know what I'm saying there's something to that

I can't even think of a good example but like you know if you were like uh if someone in the corporate media was like did Vladimir Putin help Donald Trump win the election in 2020. We're asking the question here, but you're implying it also and you have no reason for this. Like there is a version of that. But of course, there's also a version of mocking just asking questions that is no different than mocking doing your own research, which was, you know, Jimmy Dorr had the great bit about during COVID. They'd literally mock you for reading. They'd mock you for doing research and looking into what was going on. And that was because they were full shit. And actually it didn't take a genius to do their own research and figure that out.

And so obviously, like, there is an example of just asking questions that would be implying something that you don't really have evidence for. But there's also a version of dismissing just asking questions that is shutting down the idea of asking questions, which often is very important. Sometimes it's important to raise questions that you don't even have the answer to for sure. That's usually the first step in getting the answer to those questions is to raise them um and so that's there's something devious about that and just shutting down like where the legitimate inquiry is and where it's not but you know ben again as as you pointed out before you know it's like when these people try to go oh you guys you know you guys thought

the war with Iran was going to turn into world war three or something like that or they just make that up but there's a reason why people want to do that because track record really does matter and i think it's a big part of our strength on this show and so people want to chip away at that if they feel like they can but again like you you already said it rob it's like hey ben you got covid all wrong like you were still over a year and a half into covid you were still telling people calling them dopes who didn't want to get the vaccine and by the way was go go look at how many children do we know died now i think we got 11 kids who died who died from the vaccine on record over the last month or so.

How'd Ben Shapiro do on that very real conspiracy that was COVID? How do he do on the lab leak? How do you do on lockdowns? How do you do on the vaccine? Okay. So when you fail the biggest ones, forgive me if I don't care for you to lecture me on the methodology of when we're allowed to ask questions

and do our own research and have conspiracy theories. Well, there are conspiracies. All this shit just comes down to methodology. That's all it's about. It's like, do you have a good argument here? Do you have a good case for your theory or not? Now, let's play the end of this clip and then we'll go to the other one. So when Candace Owen says, I don't know, no, but I know, that is retarded.

And we are all more retarded for having heard it. Okay. So, you know, the only thing, before we go to this next clip, I guess the thing I would just say there is like what you may note throughout the whole thing is that also he, he doesn't take apart any of Candace's like arguments or claims. He doesn't, he mentions that once she said, I don't know, but I know, no, or I know, or I, you know, I don't know no, but I know or whatever. It's like, okay, can you, like, I don't even know what he's referring to. Can you give me the context on that? Like, what do you mean by that? Ironically, that's actually what he's doing by dismissing Candace. Right. That's literally what he's doing. He's going, I'm not taking apart what she's saying. I just know her to be wrong. So I just know, no.

He's making the same retarded argument. Yeah, like what, I mean, like what he didn't take on one thing she's saying this and she's got this wrong here, which is like, if she is fine. But anyway. And I don't, you know, again, I just, I guess like I've felt this way for a long time. And, you know, I, in years past, where I didn't have as big an audience or the show wasn't as big as it is now, but I got into, you know, I, I platformed back in, like, the height of wokeism. You know, I had, like, a lot of the alt-right guys on the show and had Nick Fuentes on the show back in, back in the day and stuff. And, and I was still, like, you know, I still had kind of like one foot in the comedy world, which was like a very woke world.

like it was crazy to people i mean i you know i uh you know whatever i wasn't like i i had been doing stand-up comedy for like 11 12 years or something like that in new york city so i was like established enough on the scene that like people knew who i was and now all of a sudden i had like all these lefty comedians who just hated my fucking guts over the fact that i talked to some people who they disagreed with and then in the libertarian world there was like a whole woke leftist section of them they were all outraged by it and there would always be these constant demands that I denounce this person or denounce that person. And it would be people who, you know, like I have a lot of strong disagreements with.

But they had come on the show. We had disagreed. We had been respectful and, you know, discussed it like gentlemen and just, you know, disagreed about stuff and then agreed about some other stuff. And then there'd be this call from some woke leftist that I have to publicly denounce them now. And like half the time, Rob, it literally would be like a 20. 22 year old with blue hair going like, Dave, you must denounce. And you're like, hey, young lady, you don't fucking dictate who I must denounce on command.

Like, I'm not your fucking trained monkey. And like, I'm not treating you like you're mine. So definitely don't treat me like I'm yours. Who the fuck are you? Like, I would always just refuse. Like, I'm not denouncing anyone. And then, like, I just don't see what, this was always the position when talking to woke retards, but it's Ben Shapiro, a woke retard.

So it's the same thing. you'd go, hey, listen, man, if you want to ask me, like, if you want to be an adult and treat me like an equal and look me in the eyes and ask me how I feel about something, I will gladly tell you. Criticize me for all the things you want. I don't think I hold back how I feel on issues of politics. I'm happy to talk about controversial issues, how I feel about racial relations or how I feel about whatever, you know. So I'll tell you how I feel. and you can, I don't know, you can judge me based off that. But the fact that you need me to go denounce somebody else when it's already clear where we disagree, that's just lame.

And all Ben Shapiro's doing is just a different version of that. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Mars men. Look, I'm 42, and I know some of you guys in your late 30s, getting into your 40s. You know, you start to notice that you don't have the same recovery, the same energy and stamina that you used to have when you were younger. Well, a lot of guys are trying Marsmen for that very reason right now. It supports healthy T levels, energy and stamina. It's made in the USA, third party tested, and it comes with a 90-day money-back guarantee. So there's no risk.

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That's men go to mars.com. promo code problem for 60% off for life and three free gifts. All right. Let's get back into the show. All right. Here, let's play the next Ben Shapiro clip. Well, today, I want to talk about the future of the country. And the future of this country, this amazing country,

relies on the future of the conservative movement. It relies on what TPUSA defines as its core mission, freedom, free markets, and limited government. And most of all, most of all, the future of this country relies. No. No, dude. No, that's what we do. No. No. Freedom and free markets and limited government. Ben Shapiro, you don't get to just talk like your Ron Paul all the sudden. And by the way, what did you say about Ron Paul when he was running for president? Oh, you called him a Jew hater, a racist, a part of the alt-right, the evil bigot. But you did the same. You demanded everybody denounce Ron Paul, right? You don't believe in liberty or freedom. free markets because we couldn't be a world empire that would prop up israel if we had that you you need the federal reserve and this crazy uh easy monetary system in order to fight all of these wars tell me about how you believe in liberty we and limited government yeah limited government uh

with a carve out for wars no rob all ben shapiro wants tell me if you don't find this to be a coherent worldview ben shapiro wants a limited government that is only powerful enough to be a world empire. And then censor people that criticize it. That's it. Yes, that's right. And also probably, yeah, we have to shut down people who criticize it. Also, you have a moral obligation to denounce any of the people who oppose this gigantic regime. But yes, Rob, there is one defining characteristic of governments that become global empires is that they're usually not small. you're usually large

turns out it takes a lot of resources to be a world empire rob anyway here let's keep lying real small but just empower oracle to buy up everything to make sure that there's good censorship on behalf of israel that will preach wars and then fund the wars but other than that we could be really small teeny of this country relies on truth This country relies on truth because victory, true, real, lasting victory, cannot be achieved without truth. Victory without truth is victory for a lie, and that is no victory at all.

And unity without truth is no unity. It is merely solidarity and falsehood. The conservative movement is also in danger, from charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle, but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty, who offer nothing. but bile and despair, who seek to undermine fundamental principles of conservatism by championing enervation and grievance. These people are frauds, and they are grifters, and they do not deserve your time. And they are something worse than that, a danger to the only movement capable of stopping the left from wrecking the country wholesale. Wow, there you go. Okay, so, yeah, I don't know.

or anything like that. Rob, if we unify over disagreement, then the only agreement we've unified over has been to disagree. And that is not agreement at all. Yes, that is good. Very good point, Ben Shapiro. Wow.

That was like your Obama impression or something like that where you just like say absolutely nothingness, bullshit, you know, empty phrases that go like, oh, it's like literally designed to trick dumb people. And don't get me wrong, I'm a dumb person. So, like, I'm capable. You almost feel yourself going like, oh, he said something. Like, that kind of rhymed.

That sounded good or something. But then you're like, oh, yeah, there's nothing to that. Yeah, we all agree. Telling the truth is important. You know, Ben Shapiro is going to say that we have to come together over telling the truth. And we can't jump into these conspiracy theories or whatever. Um, again, how did Ben Shapiro do on like the last like, I don't know, like six major conspiracies? Like, how did he do in real time?

Or like, I don't know, man. It's like, you know, I guess maybe this is, tell me if this makes sense, Rob. I guess maybe this is a little part of the frustration here. And maybe not to make this personal, but it's hard not to. But it's almost like, so Ben Shapiro presents it here as, look, obviously the same thing with Mark Levin and all of them. The genocide that was just committed in 4K that we all funded is not even relevant here. That's not even like a topic of discussion. That's like a minor little part of this whole story, not even worth bringing up in your speech. The real thing here, like the issue is that

Candace Owens is going after these wild conspiracy theories or that Tucker Carlson normalized Nick Fuentes, who is a horrible Jew hater and the hard, you know, like that's the real issue here is, come on, can't we all agree that, you know, people putting together wild conspiracy, without evidence is wrong and anti-Semitism and bigotry is wrong. Like, can't we at least agree with that? And it's like, even if like that has some people on the surface convinced that like, okay, yeah, I guess we could agree there. You know, what are you almost left with then?

So are you sitting there and saying like, well, hey, almost implicitly, Rob, if the big issue isn't Israel, Gaza and our support for it. And the big issue is, like, Nick Fuentes being anti-Semite or Candice being a conspiracy theorist. It's like, isn't the implication there that, like, it would be reasonable if they weren't an anti-Semite, if they weren't crazy conspiracy theories? If they just opposed this policy and had, like, legit arguments for that, that would be a different story, right? That's almost like obviously implied here. Okay, well, who does that apply to, Rob?

just just saying i mean like look and by the way i'm not calling nick an anti-semite i'm not calling kansas a wild conspiracy theorist like you know what i'm saying i'm just saying like if that is ben shapiro's position on this that it's like that's what's so beyond the pale it's like okay dude well there's actually a whole lot of us who don't really do too much of the the conspiracy you know like true crime stuff and aren't like putting together theories about who killed who or something like that. There's people like us who don't talk about the Jews or blame like the Jews and just have a legitimate beef with a lobby and a government and members of our own government.

And I've been called an anti-Semitic Hamas supporter every day for two years. So like, I don't know, dude. You're sitting here and making the demand that I must condemn everybody who also disagrees with this policy who you deem as like a step out of bounds. Meanwhile, anyone who opposes this policy at all is treated like they're out of bounds. We all get labeled with all this same shit all the time. So, no.

Like, I don't know. That just seems totally reasonable to me to be like, no. How about I don't have to, just because you are like a tattletale nerd doesn't mean you get to force the rest of us to be one. I'm not the hall monitor of fucking Alex Jones and Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson. It's not my job to sit here and I must speak out every time I don't agree with them on something

or I think they're out over their skis. No, I think all of those people that I just named are correct on the most important issue actually right now. And so I'm just going to talk about that and criticize the regime and people who support it like you. Seems reasonable to me. It's the Ben Shapiro censorship tour. Yeah, really. And I mean, again, with always, always, Rob, as I will say, like, I guess what, like, if we're trying to, like, steal man and be completely fair here, we would say they,

they always do it with, like, one layer of plausible deniability where they can go, oh, I'm not saying anybody should be censored. What are you talking about? I'm just going to do a struggle session on anybody who maybe would talk to them or anybody who doesn't criticize the person who talked to them like okay yeah you're right it's it's one degree different than saying the government should force social media companies to kick them off but also again this is why i brought it up as someone who was doing some of those interviews the platforming who was a person who battled with the actual woke left over that you're saying all the exact same

things they said all the exact same things maybe minus one or two but it's all the same exact tones we're not mad you had him were mad you didn't shriek racist at him the whole time he was there okay you know he should at least be fair and uh send out offers to people of going here's the pre-approved talking points and here's uh the paycheck for if you do it yeah yeah no that's right you know yeah for all of us talk about just speaking to truth and not uh asking questions in the name of uh having an audience uh why don't you why don't you share the wealth of uh why you preach your talking points Yeah, well, I mean, the thing is, dude, is that Ben Shapiro also is, look, obviously, and this is not rocket science, and everybody can see this. And it's not, look, Ben Shapiro is still, I'm not making it, people overstate it sometimes.

It's not that Ben Shapiro's audience has, like, evaporated. Ben Shapiro is still has a big show. He's still a relevant guy. There's a reason we're talking about him. He's still a relevant guy in, in, you know, in this world. No, I mean, listen, very few people can be the hammer. Nobody's got that guy's raw sex appeal. But the thing is that Ben Shapiro was so huge.

And he's fallen so far from where he was. And just in terms of like the level of like grassroots, like respect is like just it's really, you know, like Ben Shapiro is he was a guy who was getting tens. Ben Shapiro was getting tens of millions of views on videos before me and you ever hit 10,000 on a, you. You know what I mean, Rob? But, like, he's now very much within striking distance. And obviously, the people who are just on these meteoric rises in the right-wing conservative, you know, commentary world are Candice Owens and Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes. These guys are just like, you know, taking off. And Ben Shapiro is really retreating.

And so for Ben to come out and say, he's now in the – and then he's now – and then he's – lumps Megan Kelly in there, too. I think for the crime of like just not just like talking to us and not condemning, you know, people like me and more so Tucker and Candace. But so now who's Ben Shapiro is going to come out here and go, hey, we all must condemn. I mean, think about this list. Nick Fuentes, Candice Owens, Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly. Like, what, this is Brian Stelter.

demanding we condemn Joe Rogan all over again, you know? What position are you in? Who the hell are you, man? You should be like, it's just a weird thing. Again, it reminds me of how Douglas Murray came into that debate on Joe Rogan and why it backfired so spectacularly for him. And it reminds me actually of a lot of, you know, how a lot of Zionists are this way. And I'm not saying it's a Jewish thing because Douglas Murray ain't Jewish and he came in and had this, but they're like this thing where I sit up here on the throne and you're down here. And you're like, no, dude, you got to get down here. Ben Shapiro, your attitude right now is you should be lobbying for a public debate with

Nick Fuentes or Candice Owens or Tucker Carlson or Megan Kelly. You should be trying to get a debate because you got to win the argument back, dude. You're the guy holding up the Israeli flags. There's like no American political commentator who is holding up the Israeli flag higher and holding it tighter than Ben Shapiro. And he's doing this over a period of time where support for Israel has collapsed, like 50 point collapses in the polls. So your side is losing.

You don't then get to come out and dictate that everybody else must condemn everybody else who's a big critic of my side, who's winning this argument. all right guys let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show which is brunt workwear been telling you about them for a while choosing work boots used to mean sacrificing comfort or durability if they felt good they didn't last and if they lasted they wrecked your feet but brunt thought that was BS so they built a tough boot that feels great from day one no break in no sore feet I will tell you guys I was a little skeptical about this claim they sent me a pair of the boots they are real deal sturdy work boots. I use them around my property when I'm plowing snow or taking out garbage or in the bad weather. They're strong, serious work boots. And they feel like a worn in sneaker the first time you wear them. They really are great. Get it for the man who works hard and deserves to be comfortable in your life. Or if that's you, get it for yourself. Also, our listeners will get $10 off their entire order if they use the promo code problem when they check out at bruntworkware.com.

that's brunt workware.com promo code problem for $10 off all right let's get back into the show dude i was uh i was thinking that too when i first saw the clips i was like oh wow did ben shapiro actually debate uh tucker carlson when i just saw the headlines and i was like and i think that just speaks to the point of uh him is that you know if you really believed all this and you really thought he was on the side of truth uh he would debate these things and obviously i think yourself Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, there's a lot of individuals who would be happy to have this conversation with him. And I think it's quite telling of the fact that Ben Shapiro just needs a platform where nobody can give him pushback in order to just tell you that everyone else is wrong and

that he's right. Dude, I mean, just with the like basic assumption of like it's promoted the right way, we did like a big event, I'm literally telling any of those debates that you just mentioned, if Ben Shapiro debated me, if he debated, obviously, if he debated Fuentes, if he debated Bannon, if he debated Tucker, Candice, any one of those would guaranteed be like one of the biggest political debates in the United States in years. Like it'd be up there with one of the biggest, like most watched, most consequential debates. and he don't want to do that. Now, people try to make a thing.

You could sit there and say, oh, he did offer to debate Candace or Tucker at one point. But like, look, if he just wanted it, there's, you know, like you just said, Rob. I mean, I know Fuentes. I mean, I'm speaking out of turn. Like, I'm not saying Fuentes told me this, but I know he would do that.

I know he would do that. I certainly would do it. I've challenged him a million times. I bet Bannon would do it. You know, yeah, it's just, and it would be huge. Ben Shapiro, but that's not what he wants to do. Now, anyway, I want to get to this, because we are coming up to the end of time here.

I thought this was actually the thing that was the most interesting about any of this to me. So it was like, Ben Shapiro started. He was the first speaker. He does that. Then Ben Shapiro just gets torched by like a ton of speakers after that. And there's the weird dynamic where like Michael Knowles and people like that are there. And you could tell they just like, they're like, yeah, but dude, I don't want to be hated by everyone in our movement. So, like, could I just be cool with everyone?

But then Tucker was great. He trashed Ben Shapiro. Bannon trashed Ben Shapiro. He said interesting things about how he was trying to take over. Bright Bart at the time when Bannon kicked him out or whatever. And anyway, but then J.D. Van spoke. And this to me was very interesting because obviously there is no one, no one in the United States of America. has got to be more concerned and focused and aware of this dynamic that we're talking about than J.D. Vance, right, Rob? I mean, you got, look, Donald Trump's in there and all the dumb Marya Madelson talk about a third term. I don't think any of that's happening. I think this is Donald Trump's last term. So you got a major division within MAGA. And Rob, again, think of the dynamics here, right? You got a division. It's not exactly a 50-50 civil war, now is it? But it's a division where, like,

On one side, let's say broadly speaking on our Tucker Carlson, you know, on the right-wing critic of Israel, non-interventionist type side, you've got 80% of the base, you know? And if you're somebody who's trying to become president of the United States like J.D. Vance, 80% of your base is something that's very important to you. on the other hand over on this side you have 100% of your donors okay so 100% of your donors are over on this side and it does seem to me I'm curious to get your thoughts Rob but it seems to me this is something I've been thinking about for a while here there I've seen I'm sure you have two reports and you know different high profile individuals demanding that J.D. Vance denounce Nick Fuentes demanding that he denounced Tucker Carlson for having Nick Fuentes on. So their side is already making these demands of him.

And then it just seems to me like the fundamentals on the ground here. And I've watched this play out a few times. Like really, I've talked about it a lot on the show, but I watched this play out when I went to that Turning Point event when Charlie was still alive at the Student Action Summit. And I debated. And I've watched this play out when I was just on Megan Kelly's show here, right? it's not my it's not really my doing but the dynamic becomes that you do kind of have to pick aside

and everyone starts getting pushed into this world because what happens is charlie goes okay 80% of my base is against this thing that i support so i got to at least like can i at least like host moderated debate on this and then the 100% of the donors go no you're evil now so like you're you're going to get forced into saying something. And at a certain point, I don't see how J.D. Van, like, I don't see, at least right now, how you could be a Republican candidate and not take a position on this. And so I was curious, like, what is J.D. Vance going to say here, man? This has been the topic of the whole thing. Anyway, let's play the clip, and then you'll, you can go first and give your thoughts on it, Rob. I didn't bring a list of conservatives to denounce or to

de-platform. And I don't really. care if some people out there, I'm sure we'll have the fake news media denounce me after this speech. But let me just say, the best way to honor Charlie is that none of us here should be doing something after Charlie's death that he himself refused to do in life. He invited all of us here. Charlie invited all of us here for a reason because he believed that each of us, all of us, had something worth saying, and he trusted all of you to make your own judgment. And we have far more important work to do than canceling each other. We have got to build, and President Donald Trump is a builder.

okay so let's pause it there and in fact i think we can just end it that's really what i what i wanted to play so here rob you can you can go ahead but it was this was like directly him the first time i've ever really seen him go like hey i'm without saying it i'm not on ben shapiro's side here i'm on tucker carlson side which i mean was pretty clearly the subtext of that that opening well i think he's uh being a good politician because he's not saying a whole lot uh he is obviously refuting what Ben Shapiro said. I did find something interesting in his words, though, of we shouldn't, if we shouldn't do in Charlie Kirk's death what he didn't want to do when he was alive, which I think would also include not platforming Nick Fuentes. So it's a little bit of a, you know, a double comment

there where he clearly is refuting what Ben Shapiro was saying and saying, let's not engage in censorship. Everyone should have a voice. But it is within, I guess, the Charlie Kirk's lane. of who can be platformed and how can they be platformed. So it's a little bit open-ended and kind of politician sneaking. And then, of course, he just works it back into and Trump's a builder. So let's build. Hurrah. Yeah.

So, you know, it's an interesting point you make. I didn't take it that way about Fuentes and Charlie not wanting to platform him. I thought it was more just a statement about the people who were there and like Tucker and Megan and these guys getting like condemned or whatever. No, look, I mean, I guess my takeaway from that would be that it's interesting to see J.D. Vance way into this for the first time, really, that I've seen, and weigh in on the right side. So I want to give him credit for that because it did seem like, now, I just do think that the issue, and this isn't even something that I am insisting on. I mean, I suppose I would be insisting on this if it were like campaign time and he's trying to win. my support or something like that. It's like, well, then you'd have to be running on things that I

believe in and that, you know, but whatever, that's a whole different thing. I'm just saying, like, right now, I just don't think this is good enough. Like, look, I'll give him credit. Like, it was better than nothing and he was on the right side of it. But Rob, if you think you're just going to yada yada of this and that's why Donald Trump's a builder and then kind of move over that, the problem is here, right, is that everyone, and I did, I will say we didn't have time to play this too, Megan Kelly had one great clip, and it was kind of, um, it, it was fairly simple what she said, but I thought it was really great where, uh, you know, at one point, it was, uh, Jack Posabiac was, was like interviewing her at Megan Kelly at this, this event. And at one point, you know, she was like,

she said like, like Ben Shapiro, I don't know why he thinks he's the guy who gets to dictate who we all must condemn and everything else. That's crazy. She mentioned a thing about how she made his career, which is kind of true. Um, she used to boost him all the time. Anyway, And she goes, look, the whole thing's over Israel. Can we just admit that? Can we just admit that that's what the whole thing's about? And it was so simple, but so obvious and true. And it was just like, look, the whole issue, Ben Shapiro and those guys,

they want to pretend this isn't the issue. But that is what the issue, that is what the split is over here. And so you're going to have to take a position on that. And that's going to be, I think, much trickier for him to do. In fact, I don't know how he's possibly going to walk this tightrope. Anyway, I thought it was really interesting that he at least said the right thing there. Like you said, Rob, he's a politician. He at least knows I am not throwing Tucker Carlson under the bus right now.

I'm not throwing like the most influential guy who's like I have a really good relationship with who I'm going to needs help over the next few years. Like I'm not doing that. So there you go. A decent politician at least. All right. Thank you guys so much. Regular schedule this week.

We're back at it. Catch you guys tomorrow with a brand new episode. Peace. You know what I'm going to be.