Piers Morgan Uncensored - Piers Morgan Uncensored: Earps Deserve SPOTY? Trump Barred from Ballot, Cornel West and Eugene Kontorovich

Episode Date: December 20, 2023

On Piers Morgan Uncensored: Did Mary Earps deserve to win SPOTY? - with Bianca Westwood. Trump barred from the ballot - but is it making him more popular with Tyrus, And the latest on the Israel-Palestine war with Cornel West and Eugene Kontorovich. Watch Piers Morgan Uncensored at 8pm on TalkTV on Sky 522, Virgin Media 606, Freeview 237 and Freesat 217. Listen on DAB+ and the app.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tonight on Pittsburgh, not censor, Mary Earps is crowned sports president of a year after winning absolutely nothing in 2023. Is celebrating mediocrity or losing making Britain a nation of losers will debate? The poll show Donald Trump is on cause for a stunning return to the White House and defiance of his legal woes. Now, one state, sensationly ruled he should be struck from the ballot. Are the legal attacks on Trump making him even more popular and likely to win?

Thus Benjamin Netanyahu vows that Israel will not stop until Hamas is completely wiped out, as the Hamas-run Health Authority in Gaza claims 20,000 people have now been killed. Has Israel already gone too far? Dr Cornel West joins me live to debate that. Live from the News Building in London, this is Piers Morgan Uncensored. Good evening from London. Welcome to Piers Morgan Unsensored, the Sports Personality of the Year Award. used to be Britain's biggest celebration of sporting swagger.

It was the athletic Oscars, a crown of revelry for the sporting superstars who defied the odds, thrilled spectators and rallied the nation, all with a twinkle in their eye and a cheeky grin. Past winners included Rocket Man, Sterling Moss, World Cup hero, Bobby Moore, the audacious Ian Botham,

the impossibly gifted, Paul Gaza Gascoigne, Lennox the Lion Lewis, Golden Bulls David Beckham. And on it was. went, a veritable gilded scroll of indisputable greatness for all their charm, their hutspur, and yes, personality. What all those winners had in common is that they won a lot of things.

But at last night's ceremony, this happened. And the winner of the 2023 BBC Sports Personality of the Year is, from Nottingham, Mary Herbs. Well, look, Mary Earbs is the goalkeeper for the England women's national team. She seems a thoroughly decent human being with bags of personality. She's also an excellent women's goalkeeper playing for England at the peak of her career.

But this year was not the best for her or the lionesses. They lost the World Cup final to Spain. More people talked about the unwanted advances of Louis Rubialis from the Spanish Football Association, anything that the lionesses did on the pitch. And the lineesses then failed to qualify for Olympic Games. This is really a year where they want to just keep quite.

isn't it? Rather than go out there and accept awards for being the best sportsperson in the country. Those who missed out this year on winning were Frankie Detoury, the greatest jockey in history as he retired. Rider Cup hero Rory Macaroy, one of our greatest ever golfers. Cricket legend Stuart Broad, who ended a spectacular career on an incredible high and won the moral ashes. And what about Ronnie O'Sullivan, who won his eighth World Steelers? snooker championship a record and wasn't even nominated. Well, students of my common sense assessments of such things will recall I was equally scathing when the England men's team won team of the year in 2020, despite having lost the Euro's final

to Italy. The great Kenny Dalglish, who won eight league titles and three European Cups as a player and manager, was given a lifetime achievement award, and he said this. But for me, it's not about taking part, it's about winning. Yeah, it's not about taking part. It's not about participation prizes. It's about winning. That's what made Kenny Dowlish,

one of the greatest winners in the history of British sport. It's quite literally the definition, isn't it? Of sport, you compete to win. Now, we've now had three female winners of the BBC Sports Personality Award on the bounce. and to be clear, there's nothing wrong with women winning the title. Emma Radicano shot the world to win the US Open age 18. A worthy winner.

Beth Mead led the lionesses to an historic European championship title last year. A worthy winner. And in previous years, Dame Kelly Holmes won two gold medals at the Summer Olympics and she won it. Good, so she should. But Mary Earps this year won nothing. Even her club, Manchester United, rather like the men's version, won absolutely nothing. She did lead a virtuous campaign to her replicas of the women's goalkeeping shirt made available to buy. Okay, does that meet you the sports personality of the year?

Over Rory Macaroy? Stuart Broad? Frankie Datorie? Poor old Ronnie O'Sullivan. Does it? Does it even make you better winner than Katerina Johnson Thompson, who won a second heptathlon gold in the World Championships? Athletics? I don't think so.

It looks to me like that terrible scourge of virtue signalling box ticking has crept in to this once great award. It's become the national equivalent of a participation medal. Didn't they all do well? Losing doesn't matter. Winning would have been a problem. This is where we've gone, isn't it? We're a society that now celebrates mediocrity over winning.

And when you do that, your society becomes inevitably mediocre itself, which is exactly how so many British people feel right now about our country and our place in the world. Well, join me now to discuss all this. This is sports broadcaster Bianca Westwood, talk to the contributor Esther Cracko, and Delhi-Mirres associate editor, Kevin McGuire. Right, right, Bianca Westwood.

You and I discussed recently Joey Barton's comments about women pundits and commentators, and I was with you on that. I thought he was talking a load of nonsense, actually, about the women's commentary and punditry lineup, many of whom are absolutely excellent and just as good, by the way, as many of the men, if not better, right? Which is how it should be.

You're there on merit. You're not there because you're a woman. On this one, I have a big problem with what happened, because I think it sends entirely the wrong signal. I don't understand why she won, other than it's a public vote. So a load of women, I presume, and girls who love the lionesses have gone, dum-d-d-d-dum-d-d-dum, and she wins.

But she's not a worthy winner. It doesn't do women sport any good. It doesn't do women any good. The number of women have messaged me, honestly, and said, you're so right. We don't want to win like this. We don't want to win this because we're women. We want to win because we win. Or we're as good or better than the men.

What's wrong with that? Did you vote? No. If you cared so much about it, why didn't you vote? But why didn't you vote? Ever since the British public voted to name a boat, boating boat phase, I realised they couldn't be trusted, right? You don't really have a leg to stand on them.

Well, no, I don't. I don't vote anything. All of those on social media are so angry about it. To be clear, I don't think it's... I don't think it's my right as a supposedly impartial television presenter of a news and current affairs show to vote in any of these things. So I don't, right? So let's just park that to one side.

All right, well, there's a few key elements, Here's my question. Did she deserve to win? Prince William was on Twitter today, saying hugely well-deserved Mary, signed it double-ly. Why was it hugely well-deserved? She deserved it as much as anybody else who was on the shortlist. What did she win? You have to look at the criteria, first of all. I actually didn't know what the criteria for the sports personality was, so I looked it up.

It says it takes into consideration the sporting achievements of the last 12 months and the impact of those achievements beyond the sport in question. That's key. But if you want to look at Mary Earp's achievements... She was the only loser of the seven nominees. I'll tell you what she did win. She won the World Cup Golden Glove, the FA Player of the Year, the FIFA Women's World's Best Goalkeeper,

England Women's Player of the Year, the WSL Golden Glove as well. She won that. She was a World Cup finalist. She won the Finalism. She also won the Arnold Clark Cup as well, which is another international... How many actual competitions did she?

How many competitions for the Club of Country did she win? If any England male player had won any of those, and especially if they'd won all of them, I don't think we'd be having this discussion. Really? No, I don't. If Jordan Pickford had won the best goalkeeper in the world, the FA best player of the season,

the Golden Glove in a World Cup, the Golden Glove in the Premier League, if he'd have won all those, would we be having this discussion right now? Do you genuinely in your heart believe that she is a worthier winner than Rory Macaroy, who's never won it. Ronnie O'Sullivan, who's never won it.

Frankie Dutori... Hang on the short list for some reason. Frankie Dutori has never won it. Stuart Brawl, one of the all-time greatling cricketers, never won it. None of these guys have ever won it. Ronnie wasn't even nominated. But it takes into consideration the sporting achievements of the last 12 months. I don't know when they make the shortlist.

Maybe it was before Ronnie had won the UK. That's a different argument. I'm not sure why he wasn't on there. But it's also about the impact. And you can't say that Mary Earps doesn't have an impact in her field of play. So my daughter comes home from school today, age 12. You know the first thing she said to me yesterday? She said, Daddard, she said, I had a great game of football today.

I went, well, a proper one. She went, proper one. I said, well, with girls and boys, I said, what happened? She said, we won. And I said, where did you play? She said, we're centre midfield, Declam Rice. I was like, wait, I love this. So I completely love the impact the lionesses have had on the nation's

the nation's females, young and middle age and old, whatever they want to be, to play football, to watch football, to love football, great, right? That's not for me in debate. It's great. Is that enough to warrant winning this? Well, I think, obviously, the answer is no, but I think your bigger issue is the voting British public as opposed to the fact that she's on the short list. Because, yes, of course, there are the people that won it, but it's who's more visible, right?

This woman is in a position of prominence, particularly for young girls, who probably have never voted for this. They thought, actually, this might be the first year I'll vote for this woman. So I think that's the bigger issue. I do take issue with the quip, though, about Manchester United, Mr. Pierce Morgan. And I will never forget that. As a traumatized United fan, I will remember that. It wasn't a quip.

It was a statement of fact. You won absolutely nothing. And you're not going to, because he got rid of Ronaldo. And ever since then, you've collapsed. And Eric Tenhoff has turned out to be completely useless. I need some mental health resources from this building. It wasn't equipped. It was a statement of fact.

Yes, but I'm deeply hurt by it. I'm deeply hurt by it. I'm covering from my illness. Well, then don't drive. Ronaldo out of your car. Kevin, give me some common sense take on this.

Peters, look, I had a voted for Stuart Broad, but he didn't wing back the ashes. He won the moral ashes. But he didn't win back the ashes. Didn't win back the ashes. The fact is Earps has got bags of personality. She sells more shirts

and Jordan Pigford, the male England keeper. And it's a sports personality. Well, she qualifies for sports and she's got the personality. When was the last loser who didn't win anything? I mean, look, I put it on the side, All right.

But inside the individual golden gloves, and that's all fine, right? You know, but when was the last person who actually was a loser in a year to win that a woman? Well, the ones I know, think of Gaza. Gaza won in 1990. England didn't even get the World Cup final.

I thought he was a worthy winner. 1998, Owen, Michael Owen, Michael Owen, England didn't get to the final. Look, she got to the final. She won the golden gloves. She's inspired people like your daughter. And that's why she won. All those people, it must be tens,

hundreds of thousands of women. women have been inspired to play football because of the likes of her. And that's why she's won. I think my irritation about it is that I think the others are such worthy winners. And in terms of personality, there is no bigger personality in world sport than Frankie Dutori, for example. Ronnie O'Sullivan, the documentary about his life is unbelievable, right? He's won eight world titles and never won this, right?

You know, you look at Stuart Broad, I mean, one of the all-time great cricketers. You could go through a whole list of them. It's really the men who haven't won it. Now being eclipsed by somebody from the same team as the winner last year, and yet this year the team did very badly. To me, it looks like a reward for failure. I do take your point. I mean, I knew that not everyone had won,

so I was curious whether you knew. And it's a valid point to make. The points you make about all the individual things she's picked up is a valid point to make. The impact she's had on the game is a valid point to make. But no one can convince me that this year, those men that were eclipsed shouldn't have won it instead. Right.

Right. They have achieved more in their careers, unquestionably. However, they've had long careers. So in a sense, you don't get the impact she has got, because women's football is taken off. It's like a volcano erupted. And that's why people are gone. But that's why they were rightly honoured last year with almost every honour going, including the team of war. But they also won the individual personality of a year, which was the, I think she was the captain, right, Beth Miller. Perfectly good to do that. I just think when you start rewarding people, people for the failure of their team to win in a thing, which is really what this world done. It's not what they're rewarding her for. They're rewarding her for being an exceptionally good female football player who is inspiring people. That's why they're rewarding her.

You could argue that she's having more impact on young people than any of those other sportsmen. You know, Ronnie, as brilliant as he is, is he inspiring a generation of young kids to pick up a snoop? And also, the failure of a football player to not win anything. is down to the team as opposed to her as an individual. So we have to remember that. One thing I think we can agree on is Joey Barton is in his rant today.

It's other which I agree with. But in his rant today, he said, I'll score 100 of 100 penalties against Mary Earbs any day of the week, twice on a Sunday. Here's my challenge to Joey Barton. Right. You do that. Let's set that up. You take 100 penalties against her, right?

And every one you miss, you give 100,000 pounds to a charity of our choice. You'd be bankrupt. 100 grand per missed penalties. right? I reckon he'd be down a few million, right? Because she's a good goalkeeper. But the thing we can't agree on, he also said that he also was personally abusive, it said that she was

a sack of spuds or something, right? She's obviously a great athlete, she's supremely fit, she's at the top of her game, playing in World Cup finals and that kind of gratuitous abuse I think is completely unacceptable and unnecessary, right? So we can all agree on that. That's very different though

to question as you are why has she won when these sports people have over their careers, I think Joey Barton is, look, he just needs to get a life or get another manager's job or a partner or whatever, whatever.

He's just, again, he's just lost it. I think he's like a teenage boy enjoying the attention of the internet for the first time. You know that high where you're just incentivised and say whatever comes to your mind? I mean, I think the bigger issue

with this award is should she have been nominated in the first place for not actually having won anything? I don't think it's the fact that she won. I think it's a good point. Yeah, I think it's the nomination, not the fact that she won. Because last year, everyone, no one had any problem with Beth made with it, because they won the Euros, fantastic, right?

But I just think that I'm not sure that women should feel comfortable about this win. I think women should think, you know what, this looks like box ticking. But then you have to look at the criteria. What of the others won in the last 12 months? It was propelled by a bunch of young women. Who had never been interested in women's football? He was the driving force behind the winning of the rider cup, one of the biggest sporting events in the world.

We've Macro has never won this. Pierce, if England men's football... He didn't win an individual major this year. He didn't win the ultimate team event. If England men's football got the World Cup final, Jordan Pickford, Sondland lad, played blind her all the way through, best keeper in the game, they lose 1-0. And he won it?

Would you really... No, he would do. Well, you know, I've already said that when we lost the Euro's final, I didn't think the men should have won the team award. But you wax lyrical about Gazette, who was, you know, an unbelievable player. But in 1990, he hadn't won a thing. Why is that okay?

Because he's Gaza. Yeah, but he was Gaza. He was Gaza, and he cried in Italy, and that's why he won it. He was a more talented player. Took a free kick against Greece. That was why he won it that year. I tell you why, because he was the greatest footballer, English footballer. I don't think Ryan Gibson had won in his thing.

And with greatest respect to Mary, she wouldn't get into Gaza's junior team at school. Right? So let's be clear. Yeah, but it's in your chosen field. Let's be clear about that... Let's be clear about... If you're going to compare men to women... That's like saying cycling is the same as athletics.

If you are going to say... If you're going to compare her to Gaza, I'm going to say Gaza was not only... Hang on. It's who is best in their field? Not only was Gaza ten times better as a football player. He just was. But secondly, he had ten times the impact on the country.

Right? And if you don't believe me, go out and ask 100 people in the street tomorrow. Go down Oxford Street. I agree. Ask them two questions. Who's Paul Gas going? and then say who is Mary Earbs. And even though she's just won't have heard of Mary Earbs.

I agree with that. I'm not saying that they won't in five, ten years. Well, there you go. The growth of the game is fantastic. Nobody knew how brilliant. But please don't try and compare her to Gaza. No, but I was saying that, because you had said, that you had to have won something,

he hadn't won anything that year. That's a valid point. It cried in Italy. That is a valid point. And we all felt for him. But they were magical tears. They were magical tears. ball gas going in

1990, Michael Owen in 98, didn't win but they inspired people. And Mary Oaks has done the same again. That's it. It's the same. Well, I can only judge again, if my daughter's out playing football like Declan Rice and sent a midfield and ecstatic about it, something's happening. Something's happening, and I like it.

And I like it. So maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you persuaded me. You know what? You put up a very good defence. Thanks, Piers. Which doesn't surprise me. because you're very capable. But anyway, I appreciate it all.

Thank you very much indeed. On the Sensor next, Donald Trump's been kicked off the ballot by the Supreme Court in Colorado. Will it only make him stronger? We'll get another bombshell day in US politics. I'm joined by the mighty tyrant after a week. Welcome back to our senses. The landmark ruling Colorado Supreme Court

says that Donald Trump cannot run for president in the state next year, starting a constitutional insurrection clause over the January 6th riots. Critics say it's just the latest example of the open lawfare that's been launched again. Trump, most of which seems to help him.

So will this art, like all his other indictments, and the infamous mug shop, just make him more popular and more lucky to win? Well, joining me to discuss this and much more, as the author of the brilliant new book, Nuff said, Fox News Commentator and former wrestling superstar, Tyrus, Tyrus, great to see you. How are you? Happy holidays, Merry Christmas.

Always great to see you. Not in person this time, but I'll take it. Well, I'll look forward to seeing you soon in person. But I'm going to come to your brilliant book, and it is a brilliant book. I had a pleasure of one night in New York going through your life story with you for about an hour. One of the most extraordinary stories, I think I've heard in a long time. So I'm so pleased you put a lot of that in writing.

So we'll come to that. Let's just talk. First of all, before we get to Trump, we were just having a debate about the BBC sports personality of a year or war, going to a woman soccer player, as she would be called in America, who didn't actually win anything with either the England team or her club side this year and beat a lot of people who did.

What do you think of that? Are we rewarding too much mediocrity when we do that kind of thing? Does it help women to win something like that with a public vote when they haven't won something? Well, I think, well, in America, the fact that she's a biological woman winning an award for athletics is a great thing

because we're experiencing some different things here. I think when you get into awards now, you have to look at who's paying, what publicist. You know, that's the one thing I learned because I assumed getting into late-night comedy and stuff that would be up for an Emmy every year. But it doesn't work that way. Even if you're number one, if you're not paying the fees and doing the right things or appeasing the right people, you don't get awards. So I don't put much faith in awards anymore. So, you know, if the best athlete of the year should be the one with the most rings on at the end of the year or the best performance or the best, you know, most outstanding.

That's the reason why you have athlete of the year. Have we become a society terrorist? world we live in now. Yeah, I was going to ask you, have we become a society that now, you know, almost promotes losing above winning, that there's a kind of valor in failure, because then you can virtue signal about it, play the victim, get all the sympathy. It seems to be we're moving that way that in the old days, it used to be you won or you lost. Now it's like, oh, you came last. Great. How brave.

Not just that, but you're 100% right. But the other thing is like you're taking away. You want everyone. It's more of a socialist way of law. looking at things where, you know, capitalism's evil because those who work the hardest and work the longest tend to win. And the same thing with sports. Sports is the most discriminatory, easy way to call it, the best athlete wins.

You can't lie in the numbers and stuff. So you have to offset that by saying, well, we pick someone who deserved it because we just feel like they should do it. And when you're dealing with feelings instead of statistics, you're always going to end up with these weird situations where people who are. clearly didn't deserve, the best person didn't win, and they'll say, well, you know, he's misogynistic, or, you know, she's not being feminist enough. Those things should have absolutely nothing to do when it comes to sports. But we're seeing, unfortunately, sports has been infected with this feelings

propaganda that we're seeing abroad, you know, in just the Western world alone, it's just, it's a really weird time right now. It absolutely is. It's also weird time politically. Donald Trump, obviously roaring away the head of the Republican nominee polling to be the nominee. And it's extraordinary development overnight with a Colorado Supreme Court ruling he can't run for president in the state because of the actions that they said represented an insurrection ahead of the January 6th riot. Now, it's important to note this will probably get overthrown by the federal Supreme Court. But notwithstanding that, the fact that a state Supreme Court has done this,

without Trump actually being convicted of any crime in relation to January 6th yet. I mean, he might be, but he hasn't been a sting stand. What does that tell you about the state of politics in America and indeed the law? Well, it's scary because in America, which was the whole place, was supposed to be founded on justice for all. And even we have the statue with the blindfold on. Well, clearly the blindfold's off now, and it depends on if you see things the same way as the judge that's over.

you. So if I get in trouble, I hope that there is a Republican voting judge who likes to lift weights and there's a good chance that maybe he'll see my side of things. As far as I know, and I do work technically at a news station, although I'm not a very newsy guy. I think Trump being arrested or convicted of insurrection would be front page news. So they're saying he can't run because what exactly was he convicted of yet? As far as I know, and none of the charges have anything to do with insurrection, which I'm pretty sure is considered treason, which would be a pretty, he'd have bigger problems to worry about them whether he was able to run for president. So it's a joke, and you're 100% right. Their guy did it. They knew it would probably be overturned, but that's

the problem in itself. There shouldn't be, and the vote was, I think it was two Republicans and three Democrats that voted, and they just voting not off. And the one place you're supposed to be safe is in courts. It's supposed to be about the rule of law and facts, not how you vote. and how you feel in America, it's really a black eye on the justice system that we're seeing left-leaning, right-leaning, whatever your political politics is a new religion in America. So whatever your religion, your political religion is, the judge is going to see your way, and that's dangerous and scary. Across the pond, we're looking at the American presidential election with a kind of slightly

raised British eyebrows saying, what is happening here? On the one hand, you've got... Both eyebrows should be raised. Yeah. I mean, you've got the incumbent President Biden, who is incredibly unpopular, record unpopularity and new polls out this week. On almost every metric, two-thirds of Democrats don't want him to run again. He seems determined to do so, despite clearly, you know,

his age and an obvious senility, if not even dementia, is becoming a laughing stock on the national and global stage. So you've got Biden determined to do it. You've got Trump facing nearly 100 criminal charges. charges, and we've no idea how those are all going to play out, other than at the moment, he's playing the victim, the master, and it's working politically for him. But just take yourself away from that side show for a moment. It's a big side show that will become the main show.

Can America not find new people who are not 81 and 78, who are not have all this baggage, you've not got all these problems? You're one of the great countries of the world, 320 million people. I talk to people like you, Taras, and I see such energy and dynamism and clarity of thought and all these things. Where are the politicians that have that? Well, the problem is because America, we have a real problem with term limits. When you have the Mitch McConnell's and the Nancy Pelosi's where politicians is an establishment and it's a money-making business, what it turns out for lawyers and people who weren't very good at Wall Street.

But when you're good at inside trading, then all of a sudden you're family members, I'm geniuses at it. So America's got a real problem with term limits. We don't get someone like a career politician is probably one of the most crooked people on the planet because you don't take a job and service for that long at that rate of pay and end up with mansions. It just doesn't, even our most socialist politician Bernie Sanders, ended up with two mansions. So I mean, you know, so the corruption is unbelievable. They control who can get in and get out. I would honestly say if it wasn't for the attacks by the

media on President Trump, he probably wouldn't have ran again. Yeah. But I think he almost have to. Whether you support Trump or not, if you were ever in that situation where he was elected and his entire presidency, one, they tried to say he wasn't legitimate,

he cheated with Russia, they ran with false stories the entire time, they ran two impeachments, they weren't concerned with what it did to the country or whatever, they just ran and created this monster. And President Biden, who couldn't get elected in 50 years to be president, became president because he became, don't vote for Trump, vote for me. They didn't vote for President Biden.

If you ask an American, any Democrat or any, ask Bill Moore, do you like President Biden? They'll be like, well, you know, because they don't. And they're going to try to do the same thing again where it's, it's fine that Biden can't walk upstairs. If you were a betting man, I don't know if you're a betting man, but if you were a betting man, Taurus, who do you think we'll be making a year? Not to your level, but I do bet. I bet like 20s and tens. to your level. Who would you think we'll be making the inauguration speech in January 2025?

Well, I think it's going to be one of those. Here's, it's one or two things. One, there'll be a representative for incarcerated President Trump reading the inauguration speech. Or two, there'll be Kamala reading for Biden because he's exhausted. So either way, we're not going to have either one, whoever is, whomever is president. probably will not be fit to be able to read. Somebody said to me, what do you think is going to happen? I said, Trump will either end up in prison or re-elected or potentially both, because the Constitution would allow him to be president even if he's incarcerated.

Let's turn to your book, and I'll say quickly. It's a terrific book because you and I agree about so many things. And all the hot-button issues that you talk about, all the woke nonsense, all the canceled culture, you talk about three scams you believe are in the world today. The Black Lives Matter, the group behind it you think is just a hustle, the concept of reparations to black people. You're very strong about that.

You think it's just ridiculous. On all those things, I think you're such a clear thinker. But what was the motivation do you think for you to get to where you've got to? To achieve what you've achieved? Because I look at your earliest, you know, there was nothing. in your early life that could have said this guy is going to go right to the top. Somehow, you fought your way, literally there. I think I never really liked failure. And I would listen to the people, no, was always, no, you can't be that. Oh, you can't do that. And people

love to tell me what I couldn't do. And I was just the most hardheaded child. If you tell me I'm in your spite, I fed off spite. Spite was like my mutant power. Every time I was dyslexic, you're not going to be really good at reading and school and stuff because you see things backwards. You know, or, oh, man, you don't have a dad or you, this or that, whatever. You always have dirty clothes at school because you wear the same two outfits every day. Like, anytime someone, instead of curling up in a ball, it would just tough of me and be like, watch, you watch what's going to happen. Bet.

And that's really been a story in my life. So I always give thanks, even in my book, I said, you know, there's supposed to be acknowledgments and all that stuff. And I acknowledged pain, loss, and failure. because those are the three greatest teachers in my life. And I've been lucky to have a lot of people across every spectrum of color or sexuality that have been helped me and have been listened there, have been mentors for me. But the biggest thing was always every time I failed, I didn't spend too much time on the failure. It was more about the looking, I'm like, all right, what's now.

Okay, I can't go. This door's closed. I'm going to find another door. So I think it was just my incessant need to, to, to be better and I loved, I just enjoy like one of the things I loved about wrestling and football I love playing on the road.

I love getting booed at home and you do, I see a little twinkle in your eye. Exactly the same. You kind of like that and I'd be like I know what you cheer for, your booze give me self-esteem. So I just never accepted the word no and I think that's built and I've always been willing to outsource and seek knowledge. If I don't know something,

I don't just say, well, I feel like it's this way. I will go seek it out. And I think that has served me well. You see, Torres, that is why you and I get on so well, because that's exactly my outlook on life. I think you learn more from failure. I think I've had a lot of ups and downs in my career and life, and I've always used it to fuel me to drive to the next thing.

I think it's such an important quality. I see an epidemic of anxiety amongst kids these days, and I want to sit down with all of them and say, look, this is normal life stuff, and how you deal with the tough stuff, is what defines the way you lead your life. It really is. So you've got to toughen up, and here's how you're going to do it.

And I tell you how they should do it. They should read your book. Nuff said, if they read your book, they will understand what it takes to succeed in life and how you overcome adversity. It's a brilliant book. Taras, thank you for joining me. Always a pleasure, man.

Appreciate you. Merry Christmas. Give your family my love, and hopefully we'll get together soon. I'll see you in New York. Take care. All the very best. Well, Unsettisnernerner,

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will not stop until Hamas is completely eradicated. What does that mean? How long will this go on? What is the end game? What happens next? Presidential Challenger, Dr Cornel West says he's a war criminal. He's live next.

Welcome back to Unsencent. Hamas says the death toll in Gaza has now surpassed 20,000 people with nearly 2 million others displaced from their often destroyed homes or calls for a permanent ceasefire are growing ever louder. in a defiant speech today, Benjamin Netanyahu said,

Israel will not stop. Which is the hope that we'll answer, just not muchabre to the war, to the attack all the matriot that's up. Hizu al-Hasim, shihrush our chafenupean, and asserat the U.S. now back calls for a ceasefire and could Israel face sanctions with a scale of its response for October the 7th?

During discussed, this is the independent presidential candidate, Dr. Cornell West, and international law expert, Eugene Kondolovic. Welcome to both of you. Kono West, great to have you back on the program. Let me ask you, first of all, Benjamin Netanyahu tonight, very unequivocal. Israel will keep fighting Hamas until they are eradicated, which means there's going to be months and months more of what we've been seeing.

What is your response to that? Well, as you know, I've called for Netanyahu and IDF to be brought. before the ICC, the International Criminal Court, Article 6, 7, and 8, crime of genocide, crime against humanity, and war crime. And what I mean by that is we need to live in a world in which we fundamentally believe that Palestinian suffering has the same value as Jewish suffering, Jewish suffering has the same value as Palestinian suffering, if this were a Palestinian occupation of domination,

the Palestinian genocide against Jews in which there were nearly 8,000 precious Jewish babies, He's killed in 50 days. We'd have a qualitatively different discussion, qualitatively different response. And I believe Biden, Harris, Austin, we can go right down the line. Kirby, Blinking, they're complicitous with Israel's war crimes against the Palestinians. Has Hamas committed war crimes? Absolutely, they've committed war crimes. But not crimes of genocide.

And when Nathan Yahoo invokes Amalak, 1st Samuel 15 and 3, in the biblical text. And I speak as a Christian. I know the difference between those divine sanctioned genocidal commands. Kill every woman, kill every child in order to procure our end. He's invoked a number of times. After number 28, he's invoked Amalach. That's genocidal intent.

And it's genocidal attack flowing from that intent. We have to have a moral consistency across the board. Every baby, no matter who they on the world, have the same value. Let me go to Eugene then. Your response to that, I mean, you'll be aware, Eugene, that much of the world is now watching with horror the scale of Israel's response. And when they hear Netanyahu's saying, this isn't going to stop until we've got rid of all of Hamas.

And at best estimates, they've only killed 6 to 7,000 Hamas terrorists, and that's just if you take IDS word for it. That means that 80% of Hamas has not been eliminated yet. How many civilians are going to get killed in the world? the next few months or even years before Hamas is eradicated. And how, in the end, does that help either peace in the region or how does it stop just massive escalation and radicalization against Israel?

So how many civilians will die is largely a function of Hamas's decisions? Because Hamas has a specific strategy of trying to kill as many Israeli civilians as they can, as they did on October 7th, and trying to get as many of their own civilians. killed, which they do by hiding in tunnels under populated areas, basing themselves in schools, in hospitals. Their strategy is to roll up their civilian death toll, which at the same time,

Israel does everything to limit. Israel is only targeting Hamas. Now Hamas makes it difficult by hiding amongst civilians, and the deaths of those civilians are Hamas war crimes. The accusations of genocide, it's what psychologists call projection, accusing. your enemy the other side of exactly what you're doing to distract and whitewash what you're doing. October 7th was a genocidal invasion of Israel where Hamas invaded Israel, chopped up families in front of each other, burned people alive, and now Israel is responding more moderately than any country would. But let me put you on that.

In terms of its supposed moderate response, in the last few days alone, We've seen the IDF shoot dead, three Israeli hostages who were wearing no shirts and had a banner asking for help. It was surrendering whoever they were. They turned out to be hostages. Then we had two women, innocent women, standing outside a Catholic church who were also gunned down by IDF snipers in an action that the Pope called terrorism. You've also got President Biden describing the bombing campaign as indiscriminate, which in itself, that description implies a war crime. So this idea that Israel's being moderate in its response,

I don't think he's borne out by reality, is it? President Biden has actually said, and other American officials have said that Israel is acting more morally than any other army. Now, show me a war without inadvertent civilian casualties. When America cleared ISIS out of Mosul, 10,000 civilians were killed in that city alone, and America was not fighting an enemy next door

that was actively shooting rockets at it and holding its citizens hostage. If Professor West had his way, Nazi Germany would still rule Europe because, of course, hundreds of thousands of German civilians died in the war against Nazi Germany. The Confederacy would still rule real half of America. Hold on, let me just say about the hostages,

about the hostages, because that's a sensitive point. That's a tragic incident, of course. And we saw today that the mother of one of the hostages, said she does not blame the Israeli soldiers. She embraces them because she knows that Hamas, again, is responsible for their deaths, because Hamas has used every kind of subterfuge to trap Israeli soldiers, fake surrenders and suicide. Let me bring back in Cornel West. Cornel West, the moral conundrum here for many people is that what happened on October the 7th was utterly horrific, an appalling terrorist attack on mostly civilian,

innocent people. He's a precious human being. And when you have, but when you have, here's my question. Here's my question. When you have Hamas stating since October the 7th, we want to do that again and again and again.

When it is their mission statement to wipe out Israel and any Jews who live in Israel, when we all can see and hear them say this with brazen impunity, what is Israel supposed to do other than trying to remove Hamas? Amos is very much like the Jewish Ergon, which is a terrorist group responding to vicious British imperialism that killed innocent Arab.

Every resistance movement against colonialism, domination, and oppression, apartheid-like conditions, you have nonviolent streams. You have nonviolent streams. The first intifada was nonviolent. The second one was primarily nonviolent only with rocks. And what a JFK said, when you make nonviolent revolution impossible, you make violent revolution inevitable. You had to, with the Jewish Ergon there's always been terrorist expression. The problem is the IDF, which comes out of Jabotinsky, which was tied to the Jewish and terrorist history. And this is the part of Jewish history. It's not all. There's been the Einstein's and then Albert Magnus and others who call for very different things.

But when I hear my brother Eugene say, they've only killed the Hamas. They killed two Christian women in front of a church, a mother and a grandmother. You mean almost 8,000 children are being. shielded by Hamas. Do you really believe the world is going to think that serious? These justifications are as weak as pre-Swed and Kool-Aid when we see the massive suffering of precious Palestinians who are innocent. So this notion that somehow you can continue to lay put forward these lies, though,

brother Eugene, the world is no longer convinced. And you know the Jewish community. I've got to leave the debate. I'm sorry, we've run out of time. I've got to leave a debate there. It's an interesting debate. passions run high on both sides. Thank you both for us joining me. Cornel, I want to wish you

ongoing success with your campaign in the presidential race. The economist... Both of you brothers. Both of you brothers, I pray for your families and stay strong and let's try to hold up a bloodstained banner of some serious morality and spirituality in a moment of massive hatred and tribalism.

In the name of Amos, in the name of Isaiah and in the name of Jesus. I would certainly agree with that, but I was going to read you a quote from the economist today. We said, Cornel West has the charisma and energy of James Brown if the Godfather of Soul had also gone to graduate school.

And if that isn't something you want to put on your tombstone one day, Corner West, you're mad. Well, that's not true. James Brown is far beyond me, but I aspire to that kind of movement and that funk. That kind of funk, my brother. Absolutely. It's great to see you. And thank you

very much, Eugene, as well, for joining me. I appreciate it. Well, on sense of next, Variety announces its 100 best TV shows ever. only one of them is British. Can he guess which one and why is it only one? I'll debate with someone from America who obviously got dozens and dozens in there. It's Tommy Leran next.

Welcome back to us. I'm joined now by the host of Outkicks. Tommy Lairn is Fearless. The great Tommy Fearless Lairn. Welcome to you, Tommy. Two things I'll talk to you about. One is this bombshell news that the names are more than 170 associates

of convicted sex offender and obviously he's dead now. Jeffrey Epstein could be made public in early January after a ruling from a U.S. judge, including we hear Prince Andrew, but also another host of rich, famous, powerful people. This could be quite devastating, couldn't it? Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it, peers. I'd like to think that this is actually going to be released, but it feels like we've been promised this for so long, and then there's always the redactions, there's always some reason that this gets hidden. And I'll tell you this. The names on that list and the flight logs and everything involving this. There's a reason

it's been hidden so long. It's because the elites that are on it, the elites that are connected to it, they are very nervous, but they also wield a lot of power. Pears, do you think if it was a bunch of conservative talk show hosts or Fox News personalities that were involved in this or potentially on a list? Do you think it would be hidden for so long? I don't think so. I don't think so. If Donald Trump was on that list. The number of people who've been held to account for for being around Epstein when this stuff was going on, is minuscule compared to the numbers that we know were flocking over to that island on his plane.

Right. And a lot of these folks claim they have no knowledge of all the nefarious things going on, the sex trafficking, the prostitution rings. They claim they have no knowledge, but I think we all know that that's probably not true. So we need to see the names. We need full transparency here. I don't know why elites and oftentimes liberal leftist elites

go to such lengths to shield pedophiles and child predators, but it's really becoming a trend in quite the problem, if you ask me. Well, talking of problems, let's segue way to what I think is a grotesque problem, which is a variety magazine has come out, as a Hollywood Bible, obviously, has revealed its 100 best television shows of all time today. And there is one British show in the entire 100, which is Flea Bag at number 82. Almost all the others are American. No Monty Python. No. faulty towers, no Brideshead revisited, no downton

Abbey, not even the original office. It's got the American version, but not the great original one with Ricky Jervais. What is going on here? Even you can't surely pretend this is any way genuine. Well, I looked at the list

and I agree with some of it. I disagree with others, but peers, you and I have talked about this before. We export culture over to you guys in the UK. We export all of that, and sometimes it's good. and it's great content and sometimes it's woke crap. So you have to take the good with the bad, but unfortunately, we still do reign supreme

when it comes to content and entertainment, love it or hate it. I am happy to say, though, that a lot of these shows... Well, let me just say, look, number three was the sopranos. And here's a lot of these shows on the list are... Look, the Sopranos, look, I'll give you Sopranos was great. Mad Men number two, great. And by the way, the West Wing for me is the greatest series of all time, and that's in there, that's great.

But number one, I love Lucy. Come on. That's the greatest TV show ever made. Really? No, I disagree with that wholeheartedly. Pears, I think maybe your show, maybe up there on the list. Of course, our shows on the Fox News channel, I would put them on the list. So I think that maybe we need another list.

I am happy to say, though, that a lot of these shows on the list, at least they're not woke. At least they're not about transgender refugees of color somewhere on an island. You know, that will probably be the list in the next 10 years. But as of now, Talking of non-woke shows, the one I loved this year more than any other was Yellowstone, which is actually a beautiful antidote against the woke mindset and world. It's set in cowboy country, it's brilliant. You and I can probably agree that Yellowstone is brilliant, right?

Yellowstone is brilliant, and as somebody who comes from a ranching family in Middle America, I got to tell you, there's a reason why that stuff does so well. And even liberal audiences love it. Unfortunately, all the liberals are also moving to Montana, which we don't necessarily love. I like to move. I want to move to Montana. I want to buy a ranch in Montana.

Time me later. We run out of time. Great to see you. See you soon. Thank you very much.