Has The Met Gala Finally Gone Too Far?

0:00 The Met Gala.

0:01 It is the annual high holy day of the secular left.

0:03 Basically, Democrats descend on the Metropolitan Museum of Art to dress

0:07 in costumes that cost more than the average American's mortgage.

0:10 All while lecturing you about the evils of the 1%.

0:14 Makes you nauseous.

0:15 It always has.

0:16 It always will.

0:17 But while the champagne was flowing inside, chaos was erupting outside.

0:21 We will look at the commie protesters targeting the event and predictably

0:24 event chair Jeff Bezos because apparently

0:26 building a company that revolutionized global

0:28 logistics and provides over a million jobs makes you a villain

0:31 in the eyes of people currently using

0:33 Amazon's delivered iPhones to organize their rallies.

0:35 We'll go outfit by outfit.

0:36 We'll pick the very worst dress.

0:38 Yes, it is worse than you could have imagined.

0:41 Also on the show today,

0:42 we're continuing our deep dive into Luke Rosia and the Daily

0:45 Wire's shocking investigation into massive Medicare fraud in Ohio.

0:48 Plus, Vic Ramaswami joins me to discuss the systemic rot

0:52 in the administrative state and what can be done to stop it.

0:54 And finally, because we all need

0:55 a break from the collapse of Western civilization,

0:58 I will be giving my first reaction

1:00 to the new trailer for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.

1:02 All that and more coming up.

1:03 I'm Ben Shapiro.

1:04 This is the Ben Shapiro Show.

1:10 Let's talk about a ridiculous thing.

1:11 The Met Gala is one of the most ridiculous things in America.

1:14 It's truly ridiculous.

1:16 The Met Gala is a charity event for the Metropolitan Museum.

1:20 Particularly, they they have a costume museum.

1:22 Jeff Bezos sponsored it this year.

1:24 Drop about $10 million so that he could be a co-host of the Met Gala.

1:28 And it's always ridiculous and stupid.

1:29 It is very very wealthy people who dress

1:32 up in absurd outfits while decrying their own wealth.

1:38 So, it it really is incredibly incredibly dumb.

1:41 But now in the last few years, we've had people keep trying to invade

1:45 the Met Gala as though they're storming the Bastile

1:47 in 1789 as though if they tackle Kim Kardashian at the Met Gala or something.

1:54 They're overthrowing the system.

1:56 So, we're now cosplaying the revolution on pretty much all sides.

2:00 So, one of the things that happened over at the Met

2:02 Gala last night was a protester attempting to enter the Met Gala.

2:07 The cops had to tackle him.

2:08 Here's what that looked like.

2:14 You see somebody trying to to get in and the cops charging the guy.

2:23 Well, things are going well over in New York.

2:28 Meanwhile, apparently some Met Gala protesters

2:31 decided to place hundreds of bottles

2:32 of pee inside the museum in order to protest Jeff Bezos.

2:36 The good news is that the Metropolitan Museum of Art,

2:38 they probably considered that a form of art.

2:40 So you could just stack those bottles of pee and call

2:42 it an art display probably and it would do fine.

2:46 But the the fact that they are very very angry at Jeff

2:48 Bezos for dropping $10 million to sponsor the thing is pretty astonishing.

2:52 In a statement accompanying the latest stunt, the activist collective,

2:56 it's called Everyone Hates Elon,

2:58 an anti-billionaire group funded by roughly a thousand donors worldwide.

3:01 They said, quote, "Amazon founder and oligarch Jeff Bezos just finished his Met

3:05 Gala pre-party at his penthouse and is getting ready for the big night.

3:08 We couldn't let him get away with using celebrity

3:10 and fashion to hide his crimes or exposing them instead.

3:14 What are Jeff Bezos's crimes other than being able to bring people

3:17 products and services at an incredibly

3:20 cheap price in extraordinarily mobile fashion?

3:23 What are what are the crimes?

3:25 Well, the crime is being rich.

3:27 That is the crime.

3:28 We again cosplaying the Marxist revolution in New York City.

3:33 So commie commie messages were were actually

3:35 projected onto Basos's New York City apartment.

3:38 Here's what that looked like.

3:41 Shame on you, Joe Basilos.

3:43 The people that need to be being celebrated

3:45 at the Met Gala are the workers, people like me.

3:50 We deserve that celebration.

3:53 We deserve so much more than we're getting.

3:56 There's power in numbers and there's more of us than there are of you.

4:02 Remember, Jeff, ordinary people like myself that helped make you billionaires,

4:08 if we built it, we can tear it down.

4:11 Think about that tonight, okay?

4:13 After that bottle of champagne when you go to bed.

4:16 We're going to keep growing and we're

4:18 going to keep building and we're gonna keep

4:19 protesting and we're going to keep marching

4:21 and we're gonna keep fighting this dystopian culture.

4:27 We're not stopping.

4:28 We're just getting cranked up.

4:30 Enjoy your damn gala.

4:35 Again, protesting the Met Gala, which again is a bunch of very rich Democrats.

4:39 That's really what it is.

4:40 Like Bezos may have voted Republican in the last election.

4:42 I don't know.

4:44 But I will say that disproportionately the Met Gala is

4:46 a bunch of Hollywood Democrats with a gigantic wad of cash.

4:50 It it is kind of amazing that you

4:52 have everyone cosplaying the revolution on all sides.

4:54 My my favorite outfit from the Met Gala by the way was there's an actress

4:57 named Sarah Pollson who's worth I believe $12

5:00 million and she showed up wearing this monstrosity.

5:02 She was wearing a a bizarre dress,

5:04 but she was wearing dollar bills over her eyes because money

5:09 is blinding her while wearing an expensive dress to the Met Gala.

5:13 Again, these are all Democrats.

5:15 These are all Democrats who are pretending that they

5:17 hate the system that they have benefited from.

5:19 It really is incredible.

5:21 Now, again, I do have to make fun of the the cultural aspect

5:24 of this because every year the outfits

5:25 of the Met Gala are increasingly bizarre and stupid.

5:28 Sam Smith, who used to be just a gay man and has

5:31 now decided that he is a non-binary fat gay man, I guess.

5:34 He showed up dressed as fat gay maleficent.

5:37 So, that was exciting.

5:39 Here, that that's an outfit.

5:42 Listen, I'll admit I'll admit the ostentatious

5:46 display of obnoxious wealth from some of the world's most useless people here

5:51 is enough to turn anybody into a communist.

5:53 Not because communism is good, but because this stuff is ridiculous.

5:57 It is ridiculous, but it is also not an aspect of capitalism per se.

6:01 It's an aspect of decadence.

6:03 That's a different thing.

6:05 Meanwhile, a trans Tony award-winning producer named

6:10 Jordan Roth showed up wearing a creepy sculpture

6:13 wearing like a creepy mannequin over his shoulder

6:16 while he was dressed as as a woman.

6:18 So, they Oh, man.

6:20 I don't even know what's going Lena Dunham showed up as a character

6:23 from Stranger Things who is apparently flayed

6:26 from the inside out by the mind flare.

6:29 I don't know what happened to this dress.

6:30 That's uh that's that's that's some scary stuff happening right there.

6:35 Yeah, kind of gruesome.

6:37 I I think my favorite outfit honestly was Katy Perry.

6:39 Katy Perry showed up wearing an outfit that was basically a peekaboo mask.

6:44 When I say that, I mean she is literally

6:46 wearing a door on her face that opens and shuts.

6:50 I just can imagine how excited Justin Trudeau is

6:53 about that because any 2-year-old would find that amusing.

6:56 So Justin Trudeau probably every time she closes that door,

6:59 Justin Trudeau is like, "Where did she go?

7:00 Where did she go?" And then she opens, "Oh my god,

7:02 Katy Perry's back." Which is really that must be exciting for him.

7:08 Or maybe when she gets annoying,

7:09 he just closes the [laughter] he just slowly closes the door on her face.

7:15 Beyonce showed up wearing an outfit

7:16 from the Day of the Dead celebration in Coco.

7:20 That's a that's a interesting outfit there from Beyonce.

7:25 Yeah, that's a that's a lot.

7:27 Tiana Taylor showed up dressed as a common door dog.

7:32 I'm not sure what this was here.

7:34 She looks she looks as though she's straight from 101 Dalmatians.

7:38 And Cardi B, I think, had probably the worst outfit.

7:41 She apparently has been plagued by massive

7:43 tumors on her feet and on her shoulders,

7:45 which is that that's what that that dress looks like.

7:49 Sad stuff happening.

7:50 Bad Bunny showed up dressed as Joe Biden.

7:53 I wish I mean he aged himself like 40 years and showed up dressed as an old man.

7:59 Yeah.

7:59 Again, ostentatious displays of wealth are

8:02 not likely to make capitalism popular.

8:05 But let's just remember every single person who is

8:08 doing this is preaching on behalf of anti- capitalism.

8:12 They preach about the decadence of capitalism

8:14 as they participate in it and ferment it.

8:18 Okay.

8:18 Meanwhile, in more serious news.

8:20 So yesterday, based on our investigation in Ohio,

8:23 the vice president of the United States put out a tweet

8:25 pledging that he would look into what was going on.

8:28 Quote, "The shocking allegations, if true,

8:30 show why the frauds task force work is so important.

8:33 I'm directing the task force to look into it and take immediate

8:36 action to prosecute any fraudsters involved

8:38 and stop all further payments as appropriate.

8:41 So, we are already getting action here at Daily Wire.

8:43 This is why we exist, not just to, you know,

8:45 bring you things that entertain you,

8:46 but obviously to change the world in better ways.

8:50 Luke Rosak, who is our senior investigative reporter over here,

8:53 he has the second part of his large-scale investigative series

8:56 today talking about the extent of Medicaid fraud in Ohio.

9:00 He points out that there are seven buildings along East Dublin,

9:03 Granville Road in Columbus, Ohio,

9:05 that are filled with hundreds of office suites,

9:06 all owned by a company called Cordova Real Estate.

9:10 Almost every tenant in the building bills Medicaid for the impoverished,

9:14 obviously as a home healthcare business that provides low-skilled,

9:17 usually non-medical care to elderly or disabled people.

9:20 So basically seems very much like what Nick Shirley was uncovering in Minnesota.

9:25 Essentially, we have these gigantic buildings

9:27 that are filled with home health care providers,

9:30 completely empty of people because we actually have

9:32 video of Luke walking through the halls here.

9:35 Here is Luke walking through the halls in an empty office

9:39 building in Ohio that presumably millions of dollars are flooding through.

9:45 I've noticed that you guys have gotten $10 million in Medicaid.

9:49 I can't tell you anything.

9:50 What exactly goes into a home healthare business?

9:55 Huh?

9:57 Horizon asking about the industry.

10:02 They don't need you guys.

10:03 You guys are racist people.

10:06 Again, the accusations of racism, him walking through full-on empty buildings.

10:12 Apparently, one Cordoba Road employee said that the government

10:15 actually pays people to take care of their own families.

10:18 This, of course, is the scam.

10:20 According to Luke's reporting, the Cordoba owned buildings in Columbus

10:24 house 288 businesses registered with Medicaid.

10:27 Together, they charge taxpayers more than a quarter

10:29 of a billion dollars between 2018 and 2024 in a city where there are only about

10:34 6,200 people who are 75 or older on Medicaid.

10:38 Apparently, at one address,

10:40 there are 80 companies that collectively build at least $73 million

10:43 to Medicaid and received $23 million from the state of Ohio.

10:48 Again, shocking levels of what appear to be alleged fraud.

10:52 And again, here is Luke talking to one of the employees at Cordoba Road

10:57 who admits the government basically pays you to take care of your own family.

11:01 In the Cordoba office building at 1425 East Dublin Granville Road,

11:05 we finally located a business suite with somebody in it.

11:09 GC Home Healthcare LLC.

11:11 Asked how he recruits employees,

11:13 he said employees and patients come as a package.

11:16 70% of the employees are just being paid

11:18 to spend time with their own family members.

11:21 The patients like they have someone in their family that has,

11:25 you know, the qualifications to be an aid and CVR and everything.

11:29 So, they just come together, they say, "Yeah, well,

11:32 um, [clears throat] I got uh approval from my doctor."

11:35 After getting a note from the doctor

11:37 vouching for the elers's need for personal services,

11:40 the family member of an elderly person isn't set up to bill Medicaid,

11:44 so a company stands in the middle.

11:45 I mean, we're just taking a small cut because, you know,

11:48 they pay us and then we pay them their [clears throat] hours.

11:51 He said the number of hours depends on a doctor's recommendation,

11:54 but it's often an hour a day.

11:56 Like, do you expect them to take time off

11:58 of work just to take care of the roads?

12:00 I mean, there has to be some sort of benefit.

12:03 I asked him why people wouldn't simply help

12:05 their aging parents with basic tasks out of human decency.

12:09 Well, the government didn't pay you to do it.

12:10 I mean, people see that as lucrative, so you know, they should jump on in.

12:15 Again, unbelievable stuff.

12:16 Are you, as a taxpayer,

12:17 willing to subsidize people to take care of their own aging parents?

12:20 This is crazy towns.

12:22 It's crazy.

12:23 Luke reports that there is one home healthcare service called Omega,

12:27 which charged taxpayers $11 million between December 2017 and October 2024.

12:33 Omega was incorporated in 2011 by a person named Muhammad Jama,

12:37 a Democratic politician.

12:38 Jamaa founded a newspaper called the Somali Post, also a Somali coffee house,

12:42 and has been affiliated with the Somali Education Resource Center,

12:45 which received $6 million in federal aid in 2023,

12:49 all on top of raising nine kids and working as an engineer.

12:53 When he ran for state senate as a Democrat in 2024,

12:57 that home healthcare business was not even mentioned in his profile.

13:01 So, you know, it's great.

13:03 We we also get to as taxpayers subsidize people running

13:06 for the state legislature as they clear millions of dollars in cash.

13:11 Joining us on the line, the man who broke this story,

13:13 Luke Rosiaak is a senior investigative reporter at the Daily Wire.

13:16 You can follow him on X at Luke Rosiaak.

13:18 He's a great follow.

13:19 Luke, thanks for taking the time.

13:20 Really appreciate it.

13:22 Thanks for having me, Ben.

13:25 So, the story has already had a gigantic impact locally, federally.

13:28 The VP is committing to an investigation.

13:30 What are the reactions that you've got

13:32 your eye on to your explosive expose here?

13:37 Yeah, it's funny.

13:37 I mean, we just kind of laid out the bare bones of what we had.

13:40 Part two just dropped and we've got a number of actual details going,

13:44 but JD Vance right from the beginning said

13:46 that the task force that he's helming with Andrew Ferguson,

13:49 who's a very competent lawyer, um, is going to be descending upon Ohio.

13:54 There's been a number of other reactions in the Senate,

13:57 including from the chairman of the aging committee and so on.

14:00 Um, but you know, at the center of this is the Medicaid waiver

14:04 program for home health care and in particular what they call personal services,

14:10 which is what I'm calling butlers for Somali.

14:13 Um, Medicaid is supposed to be for medical stuff.

14:16 And personal services is just like butlers.

14:19 It's people that go there to help you with whatever you need.

14:21 you could cook, you can clean.

14:23 Um, even just conversation and companionship and and so, you know,

14:27 I just got back from Columbus and you you

14:29 can walk through these buildings and there's a whole

14:31 street of them and you go inside these buildings

14:34 and there's like hundreds of the small businesses.

14:36 Nobody's in almost any of them and they'll have signs that just

14:39 say that that's the service they provide is companionship and conversation.

14:44 Um, and so that's kind of the question that's for fraud fraud investigators.

14:48 I think there's a lot of leads that that we're going to be providing to them

14:51 and people are going to see in the stories we have rolling out including today.

14:55 Um, but there's also the question of lowercase F fraud, which is um,

15:00 some of this may well be legal and it may well be very

15:04 poor policy decisions that our leaders have made that allow people to um,

15:10 bill for hanging out with their family members or hanging out

15:14 going to somebody's house to provide them with this this um,

15:19 companionship or cleaning their house in a way that's totally unverifiable.

15:23 And so I think there are both fraud uh questions.

15:26 Uh, and I think if if JD Vance's task force finds that they can't

15:30 prove with uh the standard that would be required in a court of law,

15:35 um, then you get to the question of do we just have to get

15:38 rid of these programs because maybe we had programs that used to work um,

15:42 in a time when Americans could be relied on to to be honest uh, uh,

15:48 that kind of break down in situations where you import uh,

15:51 people from low trust societies.

15:55 So Luke, take us back to the beginning of the story.

15:57 How did you first uncover th this level of fraud?

16:00 And what was it like, you know,

16:01 walking through these empty buildings that that supposedly hundreds

16:04 of millions of dollars are being funneled through for home healthcare?

16:08 Yeah.

16:09 So Doge back in February released um Doge working with HHS,

16:14 a database of Medicaid spending to what companies are getting paid by Medicaid.

16:18 And I've been trying to get that for many years because

16:21 when you look at that pie chart of the federal budget,

16:24 so much of it is in Medicaid to the point where a lot of liberals kind

16:28 of mocked Doge saying there's nothing to even cut

16:31 unless you're going to go for the non-discretionary stuff.

16:33 And so when we can actually see what Medicaid is going to and then

16:37 we find out that it's actually not

16:40 just all like untouchable like doctor's visits, it's like very much fair game

16:44 for those that want to make the government more efficient.

16:47 I think that's a huge um uh uh potential for kind of saving

16:52 our country and it's a huge win for transparency that they did that.

16:55 So I did my computer thing.

16:57 I've been doing data analysis for a long time and I had my computer run queries

17:01 that told me where the really sketchy stuff was

17:03 and it took me right to a red state,

17:05 Ohio, Columbus, and the northeast sector of Columbus,

17:09 which turns out to be uh where all the Somali live.

17:13 Um, but it's funny because I didn't go say I want to go find Somali's.

17:17 I didn't really tell it anything except tell me

17:19 where some really sketchy money stuff is going on.

17:21 And the data took me right there.

17:23 Um, and so I went and I had, you know,

17:25 a guy from the Capital Research Center, great researcher.

17:28 We both did our thing.

17:29 We poured through all the records and then we

17:32 did the kind of what Nick Shirley made famous.

17:35 We saw similar to what he did with the daycarees.

17:37 Nobody's there.

17:38 Um and and it was very creepy to walk down these long hallways.

17:43 I It looks like aliens abducted people on some day

17:47 at noon like months ago because a lot of them will

17:50 have signs saying we're out to lunch and it's like you

17:52 can tell they've been out to lunch for a long time.

17:54 Uh there's like mail piling up like postmarked from months prior.

17:58 Um, so at the end of the day, you know,

18:01 we kind of did the Nick Shirley thing and found the same results in Ohio,

18:04 but then we coupled that with really rigorous database research

18:08 and we went through all these individuals in public records.

18:11 And you know, for those that implied that somehow Nick Shirley

18:14 got the story wrong or didn't do a rigorous enough job,

18:17 I can tell you when you sp take two months and you

18:20 look up hundreds of these people and you tell the full story,

18:22 uh, it actually makes it worse

18:24 for the for the Medicaid people and the smallies, not better.

18:29 So, this is a five-part expose.

18:31 Obviously, today was just part two.

18:33 Do you have any clues as to what's coming?

18:37 Um, so you know, we'll have a person you'll you'll hear an interview

18:42 with me talking to a guy who's been charged 30 times in court,

18:47 all kinds of multiple fraud arrests, violence arrests,

18:50 and he's arguing me with me that it's

18:52 totally fine to to run a a Medicaid company.

18:56 Um, you know, he says, "I was just too dumb to know what the law is." And so,

19:00 this is what we're dealing with here.

19:02 I mean, that's the excuse of these people is I'm I'm really dumb.

19:05 I just didn't even know it was wrong to to to steal and lie constantly.

19:10 Um, but there's a lot to go through in in part two.

19:12 There's a tons of different examples from what just dropped.

19:15 Um, that's going to take, I think, people a while to to to go through.

19:19 Um, for example, a Democrat politician um by the name of Muhammad Jama who

19:25 ran for uh state senate with a with a Democrat endorsement in in Ohio.

19:30 Um he founded an 11 million home healthcare company.

19:35 Um while he was doing other stuff, he did it as a side business and he

19:39 didn't even mention it when he ran for office.

19:41 Um and that's a pattern that we keep seeing here

19:43 is like these people have these businesses on the side.

19:46 I mean, can you imagine making multiple millions

19:49 of dollars and it's not even what you do full-time.

19:51 It's just kind of your [laughter] just like a little side gig.

19:57 Well, Luke, you know, obviously the vice president has responded.

20:00 The state of Ohio, I'd imagine, is going to respond at some level.

20:03 What are you expecting from from Congress?

20:05 What do you think are the next steps going forward?

20:08 Um, what I'm really interested to see

20:10 is whether they will resend these Medicaid waiverss.

20:13 Um, I spent a great deal of time

20:16 investigating all these people and keeping track of, well,

20:19 Ahmed Muhammad and how does he relate to Muhammad

20:22 Ahmed and is Abdul Razak Ahmed the brother?

20:26 You know, it goes on and on.

20:27 It's very difficult to track these people because they don't even have birth.

20:30 A lot of them don't even know when they were born.

20:32 So, our system is designed to keep track of people based on the idea

20:35 that family members have the same names and you have birth dates and stuff.

20:38 It's very difficult.

20:39 and I put the time in and I was able to find some really good stuff,

20:43 but I'm certain that the government is not able

20:45 to do this at scale because it's just too laborious.

20:49 And I get the sense that there's whack-a-ole going on.

20:52 And I get into this in some

20:53 of the stories where somebody goes to jail for fraud,

20:56 but pretty soon all of his associates

20:58 are like popping up with like similar assets.

21:00 And it's like, are they just moving money around?

21:03 Is it really just a a game of whack-a-ole to be trying

21:08 to stop fraud when it's going to be really hard to prove?

21:12 At the end of the day, they may not even be punished that severely

21:14 and somebody else is just going to do it.

21:16 So, I'm interested to see whether um they resend these waivers.

21:21 I think the states are spending this money

21:22 pretty freely because it's the federal money.

21:24 It's other people's money.

21:26 Um, and it's a little unfair, I think,

21:28 for certain states to have waiverss like Minnesota and Ohio that let them bill

21:33 federal taxpayers for services that people

21:35 in in in other states don't get to do.

21:39 Um, and I think personal services is one

21:41 that maybe there's a policy solution here rather

21:44 than than you get at the root of the fraud and you just cut it off uh,

21:47 you know, at the root and say no more personal services,

21:51 no more butlers for Somali.

21:53 Um, if you if you have an aging parent and they need help

21:56 cleaning their house once a week or cooking a dinner once a day,

22:01 um, I think this is what people have done for all of human history.

22:03 You chip in to your family because it's the right thing to do.

22:06 Um, and you don't you don't insist

22:08 on a government paycheck because it's just too easily abused.

22:11 And even when it is abused, um, it's it's hard to prove fraud because this kind

22:15 of thing happens behind closed doors in private residences.

22:18 And I think we can no longer afford to have programs where proving

22:22 fraud to the standard that's required in court um is is is so hard.

22:28 If if there's going to be blatant what seems like fraud,

22:31 what seems super sketchy with I don't think if anybody

22:34 was in those buildings that I was in in Columbus,

22:35 they'd be like, "Oh yeah, this is totally normal.

22:37 Totally normal that this person got $10

22:39 million." It doesn't pass the sniff test.

22:41 I don't think anybody who saw it, any taxpayer would agree.

22:44 Um, we may have to look at a policy solution rather

22:47 than just fraud enforcement and just eliminating some of these programs.

22:53 Well, the investigation is a massive win.

22:55 It's the reason why the Daily Wire exists because we don't just deliver stories.

22:58 We deliver actual real investigations that actually

23:01 change the way the United States is run.

23:03 Luke Rosak, thanks for your amazing work here.

23:05 Give Luke a follow again on Exit.

23:06 Luke Rosiaak, he's one of the best investigative reporters in the country.

23:10 Obviously, we're very glad that he's on our side.

23:12 Luke, thanks for the time.

23:14 Thanks so much, Ben.

23:15 All right, coming up, we'll be joined by Vive Ramaswami.

23:17 His primary for Ohio governor is today.

23:19 What would he do to stop all of this fraud?

23:21 Plus, later on in the show,

23:22 we're going to review the new trailer for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.

23:26 And we'll get to the latest in Iran.

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24:33 but we need people who are actually going to correct it.

24:35 Joining me on the line to discuss what comes next is Vive Ramaswami.

24:38 He has his Republican primary today in the state of Ohio,

24:41 the likely next governor of Ohio.

24:43 He is an entrepreneur, political commentator and author and of course he

24:46 ran for president in 2024 in the Republican primaries.

24:49 Vic, great to talk to you.

24:51 Good to see you, man.

24:54 So why don't we talk about first of all the state of the primary.

24:56 So obviously the primary is today.

24:58 You are widely expected to win.

25:01 What are the expectations for you in terms of sort of percentage?

25:04 Because obviously there's been a a large-scale movement to suggest

25:07 that that you're not doing as well as you should,

25:09 but the reality is that competitive primaries in Republican party areas

25:13 in Ohio have been quite common for a very long time.

25:16 So, what are you expecting today?

25:18 Yeah, look, I mean, the primaries are usually quite competitive.

25:21 I would say we're cautiously optimistic that we will

25:25 shatter recent norms for what those primary outcomes are.

25:29 If you look at the 2024 2022 governor and Senate primaries,

25:34 you had competitive primaries where Bernie Moreno

25:36 and JD Vance and Mike DeWine were elected.

25:39 You're looking at 40 at most 50% of the vote that went for the Republican.

25:45 Even if you go back to 2018 when Mike DeWine was first elected,

25:48 when someone else was elected to the Senate, you see the same thing.

25:51 It's been a ceiling of 40 to 50%.

25:53 So, we'll see what the results come in.

25:55 I don't want to count the chickens before they hatch, Ben.

25:57 But take a look at it tomorrow and or even late tonight.

26:00 And I'm cautiously optimistic that we're going

26:02 to significantly um significantly beat that ceiling.

26:06 But let's see.

26:09 So, obviously, we here at Daily Wire have

26:11 been covering extensively the investigative reporting of Luke Rosia

26:14 and the rest of our investigative team about what

26:17 appears to be alleged fraud in Ohio, Medicaid fraud.

26:21 Again, we've seen this in a wide variety of states.

26:23 the extent of it in in Ohio appears to be quite shocking.

26:26 Again, what you're looking at is buildings that look largely

26:29 empty with tons of registered businesses that are receiving Medicaid monies.

26:34 What do you make of that?

26:34 And what would you do as governor of Ohio to crack down on that?

26:38 So, look, I think that the reality is all states, including Ohio,

26:43 I think have turned a blind eye to this level of [clears throat] rampant fraud

26:47 of the welfare system broadly, including Medicaid.

26:50 And it starts then with enforcing the laws that are already on the books.

26:54 So you could talk about passing new laws.

26:56 I think that's a reasonable conversation to have,

26:58 but that requires a legislature.

27:00 That takes time.

27:01 And furthermore, you got to ask the question of what's the point of passing

27:04 new laws if the ones that are

27:05 already on the books aren't being sufficiently enforced.

27:09 So one of my top priorities is to take

27:11 the egregious cases here of fraud that, you know,

27:14 frankly, your reporting was really intriguing or, you know,

27:16 Daily Wire's reporting was really intriguing to me.

27:19 I wish I could say that it was a shock compared to what I hear on the ground.

27:22 Unfortunately, it was not a shock,

27:24 but I appreciate you putting a national spotlight on it in my own home state.

27:28 And I think what that does is it forces those who are in power to be able

27:32 to pay attention to an issue that may have

27:34 been swept under the rug for too long before.

27:37 When I am in power, hopefully if we're elected,

27:39 we're not going to sweep it under the rug.

27:41 We got to prosecute aggressively.

27:42 And what's the purpose of prosecuting?

27:44 Two purposes.

27:45 First is when someone does something wrong,

27:47 you have to actually punish the person who does the wrong thing.

27:50 But the second purpose, of course, is deterrence.

27:53 The idea that you're just going to get away with bilking the government.

27:56 And it's not really even bilking the government so much as bilinger,

28:00 the ordinary law-abiding American, the ordinary law-abiding Ohioan.

28:04 That's not okay.

28:05 And we have to send that deterrent signal.

28:09 So, in the end, Ben, it's as often happens in these things,

28:12 it's not as complicated as it sounds, right?

28:14 This isn't fancy stuff, okay?

28:16 In a modern era of AI,

28:17 you have a toolkit that allows you to spot a burn abnormalities

28:22 even more quickly and more reliably than at prior points in human history.

28:26 We have laws on the books.

28:27 In Ohio, we have a Republican state

28:29 that controls all three branches of government.

28:32 This is doable, but it does require a leader

28:34 at the top who's willing to act with a spine decisively.

28:39 And that's why I'm in this.

28:40 I mean, you think about why I sometimes get the question, why am I doing this?

28:45 Which, you know, politics can be frustrating at times.

28:48 I have to admit, sometimes I have to remind myself why I'm doing this.

28:51 And the reality is, I mean, it's not for fame or fortune.

28:55 There's better ways of acquiring those things.

28:56 And and I've been blessed in my life.

28:59 I'm doing this because I know we can get this done.

29:01 This is not complex stuff.

29:03 You know, fixing the waste, fraud,

29:04 and abuse, particularly in the Medicaid system.

29:07 And you think about the analogy

29:08 to that to every other system that's over bureaucratized which

29:12 you know we're not talking about today

29:13 with the public education system how broken that is

29:15 with the bureaucracy that suppresses the students

29:18 and their achievement and their ability to report

29:21 that to the public to in a different sense

29:23 keep legally bilking the public without standing for results.

29:27 You look at the overgrowth of government in every sector

29:31 from Medicaid to the welfare state to even public education,

29:34 K through2, higher education, it's a mess.

29:38 And I think what we need now more than ever in Ohio and frankly

29:41 in states like Ohio across the country are

29:44 real entrepreneurs who aren't willing to tolerate nonsense,

29:48 who are willing to cut through the nonsense when needed.

29:50 And that's why I'm doing this job because I know I can get it done.

29:55 So, Vake, obviously you were involved at the beginning with Doge.

29:59 Our reporting was largely based on some

30:01 of the revelations that came via Doge because

30:03 a lot of the information that Doge uncovered

30:06 served as sort of the basis for our investigation.

30:08 Why do you think it is that so many members of government

30:10 at the state and the federal level have brushed all of this under the rug?

30:14 Because you would assume that, you know,

30:16 good-hearted people in government who would like for these programs

30:19 to work efficiently would be unhappy with the fraud.

30:21 But it seems as though they have more

30:22 of an incentive to pretend the fraud isn't happening,

30:24 thus to claim that the programs are working better than they are or something.

30:28 Yeah.

30:28 So, so a couple things there, Ben, and it's worth I mean,

30:31 I'm not going to just give you the standard

30:32 talking points you can read about anywhere, okay?

30:34 I want to give you some specifics from where I sit.

30:38 I think there's an incentive failure in the way that states

30:41 deal with the federal government as it relates to Medicaid.

30:44 And this is important to understand.

30:45 Okay.

30:46 As you said, it's well-intentioned people producing

30:49 outcomes that are not well that are

30:51 not really doing well by by the people who were supposed to serve.

30:55 Why is the question so this incentive failure is important

30:58 where if a given state today cracks down on this waste,

31:03 fraud and abuse, okay, cracks down on Medicaid over expenditures.

31:07 And you could talk about uppercase F for fraud

31:09 and there's also lowercase F for fraud which is

31:11 to say maybe technically legal but is doesn't comport

31:14 with anyone's sense of who should be getting these dollars.

31:17 The problem is the state that does that heavy lifting.

31:20 Okay, the equivalent of a DOA state say if you did that you

31:24 as a state don't really get to keep most of those dollars.

31:28 What instead happens is you get fewer

31:30 pass through payments from the federal government.

31:33 So that is a broken incentive system.

31:35 So, so for people aren't familiar how this works,

31:37 it's like you get reimbursed for your expenses,

31:40 almost all of them from the federal government.

31:42 So, if you cut those expenses, but you're losing the reimbursement,

31:46 then you as a state, let's say you're a governor of a state,

31:49 say, "Okay, well, I got other competing priorities because I

31:52 would rather look after some other priority in my state.

31:55 This is going to make me less popular,

31:57 giving free government money away to people who

31:59 could be voting for me." But in return,

32:01 the federal government is still the backs stop anyway.

32:05 Why bother?

32:06 So I think that incentive failure needs to change.

32:08 And one of the things that I intend to do when I'm governor,

32:11 my first two years, remember,

32:13 will be President Trump's last two years as president.

32:16 I have great relationships with many members of the cabinet,

32:18 with President Trump, of course, and and you know, Dr.

32:20 Raz and I have had great conversations

32:23 including in potential visits we've talked about

32:24 to Ohio to think about how we're able to change that game to be

32:29 able to say I mean having having a lot of these insights came to me

32:32 from the two and a half months that I did co-head doge we need

32:35 to fix those incentive structures just like

32:37 you would in a business where somebody

32:38 who's running a given division of a business

32:41 generates greater profitability you want that person

32:43 to be rewarded for it I'd say the same thing with respect to the states

32:48 that you know from the federal government

32:49 if you're saving the federal government the money.

32:52 You also as a state should participate in a greater portion of those savings.

32:56 So that'll be something that I'm definitely going

32:58 to work on when I'm governor and I'm

33:00 confident that with a friendly administration we able

33:02 we'll be able to deliver common sense solutions.

33:05 The other issue Ben is just human nature.

33:06 I mean at the end of the day if someone's grown dependent

33:10 on the federal welfare state most politicians are afraid to touch that.

33:15 And the reality is that goes for if we're calling a spade a spade,

33:18 Republicans and Democrats alike.

33:20 Democrats have been worse in this respect,

33:21 but a lot of Republicans prefer to talk

33:24 about or change the subject to other issues.

33:26 And at some point as a country, we're going to have to reckon with this.

33:29 We've got a $37 trillion national debt and growing.

33:33 Our children, our their generation are not going to be

33:35 able to sustain the brunt of this level of federal spending.

33:40 And you look at how the cro the creep scope

33:43 this the scope creep of these programs from welfare to SNAP

33:46 to Medicaid often now finding their way to individuals who

33:51 were never intended to be the beneficiaries of those programs.

33:54 That's not only bad for the federal budget, not only bad for state budgets,

33:58 it's in the long run also bad for the very

34:01 people who are supposedly the recipients of those dollars.

34:05 That's what's driving an epidemic of purposelessness,

34:08 of depression, anxiety, a loss of meaning.

34:11 When you ultimately aren't working and are permanently dependent on Uncle Sam,

34:16 that actually reduces your own sense of agency, too.

34:19 And this should be something that conservatives

34:22 are concerned with, conservatives are talking about.

34:24 And and I think it's really important

34:26 that we restore a direction in the Republican party

34:29 and in the conservative movement that confronts these issues

34:33 headon rather than changing the topic to, you know,

34:36 pandering about how we're going to create a different kind of nanny state.

34:39 I don't want that.

34:40 And so I'm hoping that this is a message that will

34:43 not only help save Ohio from a lot of this waste, fraud,

34:46 and abuse, but we use the waste, fraud, and abuse as a jumping off point to say

34:51 that we're also going to focus on empowerment.

34:54 How do we put that money back in your pocket

34:56 in the form of lower property taxes, lower income taxes,

34:59 lower capital gains taxes that attract higher paying jobs to our state

35:03 that ensure more of our young people graduating from high

35:06 schools and from universities then can get those high-paying jobs so

35:09 they don't have to be dependent on SNAP or welfare or Medicaid.

35:14 That's the way we should be building our country back.

35:17 And I think we will be in Ohio.

35:19 We're going to set an example.

35:20 And that that is why I'm in this.

35:22 I know we can get this done.

35:24 It does take somebody who understands how this stuff works,

35:28 understands how incentives work, understand how to manage a bureaucracy.

35:31 One of the things I learned while running a business, Ben,

35:33 is is often times if the right person is not a good fit for the job.

35:38 You got to make that decision and remove them from that job.

35:41 And a lot of people who run

35:43 these government bureaucracies are reluctant to do that.

35:45 President Trump's pretty good at it.

35:47 I like that about him.

35:48 And it's the way I'm going to lead Ohio is if you have people

35:50 who are running these massive bureaucracies underneath

35:53 them who are not willing to take action,

35:56 we're going to remove them from their jobs and put in place people

35:58 who are willing to do the job that the public hires them to do.

36:02 And you know, the most basic step to the point

36:04 of what we're talking about today starts with prosecuting the obvious waste,

36:09 fraud, and abuse that belongs the the dollars that are

36:12 being built belong in the pockets of actual law-abiding Ohioans.

36:16 And that's what I'm going to deliver.

36:20 Well, that is Vive Ramaswami.

36:22 He of course is running for governor of Ohio.

36:24 The primary is today, May 5th, to make sure that if you're voting in Ohio,

36:28 you go out and vote for him.

36:28 He's running a very brave race, by the way.

36:30 He's taking on a lot of these sort of grievance

36:32 party politics that we've talked about a lot on the show.

36:34 Vic wanted to ask you about that.

36:37 You know, that the fact is that you have delved

36:39 into areas that a lot of politicians have fears to delve into.

36:42 You have called out the sort of horseshoe

36:44 right and the and the left for undercutting Americanism,

36:47 for undercutting American exceptionalism.

36:49 That that's a risky business.

36:51 I mean, because the fact is

36:52 that obviously you're running in a competitive primary.

36:53 You're also running in a very competitive state.

36:55 I mean, the Ohio governor's race is not

36:56 a runaway race for Republicans in this election cycle.

36:59 You know, what what effect do you think that the sort of grievance party is

37:03 going to have on our politics going forward uh if it isn't if it isn't stopped?

37:08 Well, look, I I'd encourage you to take a look

37:10 at the Ohio primary results tonight or tomorrow morning,

37:13 Ben, and tell your audience about it when they're out.

37:15 I I'm actually really curious as well because if you

37:18 look at the person who's running against me in this race,

37:21 it's a guy who put up a YouTube video saying that he was

37:24 worried that AI was not highlighting enough of the good qualities of Hitler.

37:28 He claims that I can't be the governor

37:30 of Ohio because I'm an Indian, not an American,

37:33 despite the fact that I'm born and raised in Cincinnati,

37:36 Ohio, and I'm raising my kids in Ohio.

37:39 It's an embodiment of what the Twitter lab creates in the real world.

37:43 And it's frankly disappointing.

37:45 A lot of the policies sound socialist just like my other opponent

37:49 in the Democrat race is also a socialist opponent I'm going to face.

37:53 And so I I oppose that form of grievancriven

37:56 identitarian socialism whether it emerges on the left

38:00 against for example in the candidate who I'm

38:02 running against in the general election or whether it

38:04 emerges on the so-called right and I can't

38:06 even call it the right because it's not really

38:08 conservative at all but the so-called right which

38:10 is what my primary election has been defined by.

38:13 So to your question about what impact is

38:14 this going to have on the politics of the future,

38:17 I think that's where my my primary will be

38:19 will be pretty telling to be able to say,

38:21 okay, I told you, you know, historically the Republican front runner,

38:24 the person who wins the primary gets between 35

38:26 and 50% of the vote in competitive Republican primaries in Ohio.

38:30 You know, let's see how I do.

38:31 And I think that that will be a leading indicator of where

38:34 the future direction of the actual voter base is for the Republican party,

38:39 which may or may not be.

38:40 I think it probably is going to be very

38:42 different from the loudest voices you hear on some,

38:46 you know, sick corner of the internet.

38:49 So, we'll see.

38:50 But, you know, for me, I think that the reason I'm doing it is

38:53 if I was entering politics as a career, right?

38:55 This was my way of collecting a paycheck

38:57 and securing a comfortable life for my family, I wouldn't be doing any of that.

39:01 Of course, it's not not exactly what a, you know,

39:04 standard political playbook would tell you is the talking

39:06 points you're supposed to bring to a campaign these days.

39:09 If it were, you'd see other Republicans doing it, and they're not.

39:12 So, that's that's the reality.

39:14 But I'm not in this for that reason.

39:16 I would rather I really am committed to winning this election.

39:20 But if I had to choose, I would rather speak the truth and convey my beliefs

39:24 and lose an election rather than to win by saying some,

39:27 you know, fake canned talking point.

39:29 And I think we're going to win by actually speaking the truth.

39:32 But that's what I'm committed to.

39:34 You know, my parents came to this country

39:36 half a century ago with nothing to their name.

39:38 My dad worked for a five-f figureure salary at GE in Evendelle,

39:41 Ohio for almost his entire career.

39:44 My mom took care of nursing home patients

39:46 and worked at the VA in Cincinnati as a psychiatrist.

39:49 They couldn't afford private schools.

39:50 I went to public schools through 8th grade.

39:52 They saved up.

39:53 I was able to go to Catholic private high school.

39:56 Now I founded multi-billion dollar companies.

39:57 I mean two different one is Royant.

39:59 It's a 20 plus billion dollar business listed

40:01 on the NASDAQ chapter is a multi-billion dollar fast growing company.

40:05 Both of which I founded.

40:06 one I led as a CEO, several others as well.

40:09 My opponent, my Democratic opponent daily accuses me of being a billionaire.

40:13 It's probably one of the few true things that she says,

40:16 but I wasn't born a billionaire.

40:17 I wasn't born a millionaire.

40:18 I wasn't born in anything air.

40:20 I was born an heir to nothing, actually, literally.

40:23 But what I love and what I'm so grateful

40:26 to is a country that allowed me to achieve those things.

40:29 And God willing, being in a position to lead

40:31 the state where I was born and raised,

40:33 that story is only possible in the United States of America.

40:38 And I am so grateful to this state and to this country

40:41 for giving me those opportunities that I feel a moral duty

40:44 to revive that American dream where we teach our kids the number

40:50 one factor that determines what you achieve in life is you.

40:55 That was the lesson of my upbringing.

40:56 It's not the billionaires.

40:58 It's not the white people.

40:59 It's not the black people.

41:01 It's not the patriarchy.

41:02 It's not the Jews.

41:03 It's not the foreigners.

41:04 It's none of those things.

41:06 It is you.

41:07 That's what the American dream is built on.

41:09 That's what I'm running this campaign on.

41:12 It's a tough message at times to deliver.

41:14 It's not one that lands well on everyone's ears.

41:18 But at a certain level, I don't care.

41:20 That's the truth.

41:20 And that's what I'm going to give you.

41:22 And I'm going to give it to you because I'm grateful to this country.

41:24 And I think that is what is going to be required to save this country.

41:28 And you know, I think the red team, blue team stuff, it's fine.

41:33 You know, it's the way partisan politics works.

41:35 But I think that there's a deeper project we're going to have to undertake

41:39 in this country to revive the spirit

41:42 of that American dream from a culture of victimhood,

41:45 from the popularity of socialism in the many

41:48 in the many avatars in which it shows up today.

41:51 That's hard work ahead.

41:53 And I believe, biased obviously,

41:56 but I believe that my winning this election in Ohio

42:00 will help us take a step forward as a country, as the former rust belt,

42:07 as a state in the direction of economic empowerment,

42:11 in the direction of educational achievement, in the direction of, dare I say,

42:15 reviving that American dream that people like

42:18 you and me have lived in this country.

42:20 And if we do that in in one little state in the heart of the country,

42:24 happens to be the sixth or seventh largest state in our economy,

42:27 I think it'll be a good step for our country and I'm working on it every day.

42:32 You can go check out Vake's campaign of Vake for Ohio.com Ramaswami.

42:36 Thanks so much for taking the time.

42:37 Really appreciate it.

42:38 Good to see you, man.

42:40 And again, that is a very fraught seat.

42:43 The governor's seat in Ohio, that's a very close election.

42:46 The Khi odds over there.

42:48 Again, Cali is one of our sponsors.

42:50 In the Ohio governor's race, it's basically 50/50.

42:52 That is a tossup seat for the Ohio governor's race.

42:55 And so backing Vav would be a strong

42:58 move in favor of Republican governance, obviously,

43:01 in a state that has gone red but used to be a lot more purple.

43:05 And meanwhile, the permission structures for violence

43:08 that have been fermented by the left continue ups.

43:12 According to Politico, on Monday,

43:14 an episode unfolded in the late afternoon when plane closed officers

43:17 determined that a person had a gun apparently near the White House.

43:22 The man exchanged fire with officers while trying to flee the area,

43:25 according to the deputy director of the Secret Service.

43:27 A weapon was recovered from the man.

43:29 Unclear what the intentions were.

43:31 Apparently, the vice president's motorcade drove through

43:33 the area not long before the shooting occurred.

43:37 This is obviously scary stuff.

43:39 We are seeing increasing threats to politicians and again the glorification

43:43 of acts of violence is a huge part of the problem.

43:46 We've talked about permission structures

43:47 for violence that have been created ideologies

43:49 that suggest you must do violence in order to save the country from fascism.

43:55 Well, now it turns out that those gigantic fires in Los Angeles,

44:00 the catastrophic Palisades fire were allegedly

44:03 set by one person named Jonathan Renderneck,

44:06 who was apparently obsessed, according to the New York Post,

44:09 with the accused healthcare CEO killer Luigi Manion.

44:13 He had routinely searched free Luigi

44:15 and let's take down all the billionaires online.

44:19 He did billions of dollars in damage destroyed people's lives.

44:22 All based on the idea that violence against people who are rich is somehow good.

44:28 Apparently, this person, the alleged arsonist,

44:32 was an Uber driver and he ranted to customers about Luigi Manion's arrest.

44:37 According to prosecutors,

44:39 many of the defendants Uber passengers on December 31st,

44:41 2024 and January 1st of 2025 described the defendant as angry and tense,

44:46 driving erratically and ranting about being pissed off

44:49 at the world and Luigi manion capitalism and vigilantism.

44:53 Anti- capitalism, anti-institutionalism, these have consequences.

44:58 And when you celebrate people who do violence, this is what you end up with.

45:03 Incredibly enough, the left refuses to stop doing this.

45:06 like legitimately refuses to stop doing this.

45:08 So Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is campaigning with Bernie Sanders

45:13 and he's out there once again claiming that they're fighting fascism.

45:16 If you keep saying that your opponents are fascists without evidence,

45:20 you are contributing to a permission structure for violence.

45:22 That's what this is.

45:23 Here is the Minnesota Attorney General.

45:27 Is anybody Is anybody here to fight fascism?

45:33 I'm here to fight fascism.

45:35 I am here to fight me some fascism with you.

45:39 All right?

45:41 Cuz fascism I ain't got no use for it at all.

45:45 It's really really getting on my nerves right up in here.

45:51 I mean, obviously the the way that you fight fascism in a fascist

45:54 country is that you have free speech to go and call it fascism.

45:57 That that's obviously what's going on.

45:59 But again, this is part and parcel of a left-wing permission

46:02 structure that says that political opposition is somehow an aspect of evil.

46:07 And and the beautiful thing about this is that once you decide

46:10 that your generalized political opposition is in fact the font head of all evil,

46:14 well then that excuses pretty much anything.

46:17 It excuses anything.

46:18 So the mot the the Michigan Senate candidate for the Democratic party,

46:23 the likely Senate candidate is a man named Abdul Elsa.

46:26 We've talked about him before.

46:27 He is a terrorist supporter.

46:28 He's a person who said that he would not come out in favor

46:30 of the killing of Ayatah Kmeni because

46:32 too many of his constituents liked Ayatah Kmeni.

46:36 Well, he's out there of of course of course

46:38 he he had campaigned with Hassan and he says

46:41 that it's totally fine to campaign with Hassan because

46:44 his opponents support genocide which is a total lie.

46:47 Again, it's actually a double lie.

46:48 First of all, Israel did not commit a genocide in Gaza.

46:51 The population of Gaza has increased since the beginning of the war,

46:54 which is the most unsuccessful genocide in human history.

46:56 if that is the case.

46:58 And second of all, it is a lie that anyone has called for a genocide.

47:03 But of course, it's all a permission structure to support people

47:06 who are truly terrible like the Hassan Pikers of the world.

47:11 If you're more frustrated by the idea that I would campaign

47:14 with Hassan than you are frustrated by the idea that we

47:16 have backs stopped a genocide or that we continue to rob

47:19 people of getting basic healthcare in their in their country,

47:23 I think you don't understand morals.

47:25 To me, morals are about big things.

47:27 People should have healthare.

47:28 We shouldn't kill children.

47:29 Those are to me morals.

47:30 And you need to be able to figure out how to do those things in the world.

47:35 Sometimes working with people who don't share your morals.

47:37 And like that's what makes politics hard, but it's not complicated.

47:43 What?

47:44 Again, anything can be justified through this matrix.

47:47 Anything.

47:48 And of course, so can every conspiracy.

47:50 So, Midas Touch is a newly popular left-wing show and one of the hosts is

47:56 now suggesting that President Trump is constructing

47:59 a ballroom in order to stage a military coup.

48:03 What in the world?

48:04 What in what in the what?

48:06 Huh?

48:07 Okay.

48:09 there is a fear that he ain't leaving and and and that is something to be

48:16 taken very seriously because you know it almost

48:18 sounds humorous that he wouldn't but he will

48:22 and he's he said in a rally speech I'll never forget it that his greatest regret

48:25 was leaving the White House in 2021

48:28 and he should have just you know hunkered down.

48:32 He's building an additional 100,000 square feet to give

48:35 him the opportunity to hunker down this time

48:38 with a military installation below this giant ballroom

48:42 that will clearly never be used for balls.

48:46 Do you worry, as some of us do, that there is a coup that is on its way?

48:53 The ballroom will be Hitler's bunker.

48:55 Is that that that's the basic idea here?

48:57 But but of course then they decry all violence.

48:59 You say that the president is a fascist.

49:01 You say that you're willing to campaign

49:03 with people who openly support terrorism because

49:05 the Republicans are so terrible and all the rest of this truly amazing stuff.

49:10 Amazing stuff from the left, which is of course another justificatory structure

49:15 for how they can back people like Graham Platner, the main Senate candidate.

49:20 So Platner of course is the guy with the toten cuff tattoo,

49:25 meaning like an SS tattoo on his chest, which doesn't happen by accident.

49:29 You don't just wake up one morning with a death's head tattoo on your chest.

49:32 A giant one, by the way.

49:34 People generally know why they get the tattoos they got.

49:38 Also, he has appeared on the podcast

49:40 of neo-Nazis like Stu Peters and all the rest.

49:43 So, you know, he's kind of a bad person, Graham Platner,

49:46 but the entire Democratic party is is now mobilizing behind him

49:50 because obviously if you want to beat the evil evil Republicans,

49:53 you have to side with people like Graham Platner.

49:55 John Favro at the Pod Save America crew.

49:57 He put out a tweet saying,

49:58 "Graham Platner isn't just our best and only chance to beat Susan Collins.

50:02 He's a good decent man who struggled

50:04 and grown and is always trying to do better.

50:06 He has struggled." You might call all of this my struggle.

50:11 You might you you might in fact

50:12 suggest that that he's suffering through main com.

50:18 But again, this is just insane.

50:20 I'm sorry.

50:21 the the fact that the left is willing to side with legitimately

50:24 anyone anyone for any purpose to quote unquote stop the fascist right.

50:29 This is how you end up where we are right now.

50:32 And the temperature is really really high.

50:35 Okay.

50:35 Meanwhile, in more serious news,

50:37 obviously it it appears that that some sort of action may be imminent in Iran.

50:42 President Trump announced yesterday that the United States

50:44 will guide non-sanctioned ships through the straight of Hormuz.

50:47 This is an amazing move by the president.

50:48 He says countries from all over the world,

50:50 almost all of which are not involved in the Middle Eastern

50:52 dispute going on so visibly and violently for all to see,

50:55 have asked the United States if we could help free up their ships,

50:58 which are locked up in the Straight of Hormuz

50:59 on something which they have absolutely nothing to do with.

51:02 They're merely neutral and innocent bystanders for the good of Iran,

51:04 the Middle East, and the United States, we've told these countries we'll guide

51:07 their ships safely out of these restricted

51:09 waterways so they can freely andyly get on with their business.

51:14 So what does that mean?

51:15 Well, Pete Hexat, the Secretary of Defense, he announced today,

51:19 this morning, that Iran cannot block international waterways indiscriminately.

51:23 Here is what the Secretary of Defense had to say.

51:26 American forces won't need to enter Iranian waters or airspace.

51:30 It's not necessary.

51:31 We're not looking for a fight.

51:34 But Iran also cannot be allowed to block

51:36 innocent countries and their goods from an international waterway.

51:41 Iran is the clear aggressor, harassing civilian vessels,

51:45 threatening mariners from every nation indiscriminately and weaponizing

51:51 a critical choke point for its own financial benefit, or at least trying to.

51:58 Well, over the course of the last 24 hours,

52:00 the United States did help guide a tanker through the straight,

52:04 a very large mayor's tanker through the straight.

52:06 They're also trying to change the incentive structure so that more tankers

52:09 are willing to go get insurance and then ship through the straight.

52:12 Hexath announced that Iran had been embarrassed by the fact

52:14 that we are now opening up some lanes.

52:17 Basically, if you think of the straight of Hormuz as a freeway,

52:19 there are certain lanes that are further from Iran.

52:21 Those lanes are now open and the United

52:23 States is making sure that they remain open.

52:28 Two US commercial ships along with American

52:31 destroyers have already safely transited the straight,

52:34 showing the lane is clear.

52:36 We know the Iranians are embarrassed by this fact.

52:40 Uh they said they control the straight.

52:42 They do not.

52:45 Well, this is a major problem for Iran.

52:47 Their number one piece of leverage here was closing the straight of Hormuz.

52:50 They basically have two pieces of leverage left.

52:52 One is to try and blow up all the oil supplies

52:54 in surrounding countries and the other is the straight of Hormuz.

52:56 And if the straight of Hormuz is reopened and the only

52:59 stuff that can't get in or out is Iranian, they have a massive massive problem.

53:02 They can't project power.

53:04 They don't have a a working economy.

53:07 President Trump announced yesterday that Iran was taking shots at chips.

53:10 It it is a desperation play at this point that they are taking shots at chips.

53:15 The president says Iran has taken some shots

53:16 at unrelated nations with respect to ship movement,

53:19 Project Freedom, including a South Korean cargo ship.

53:22 Perhaps it's time for South Korea to come and join the mission.

53:25 We've shot down seven small boats, or as they like to call them, fast boats.

53:27 It's all they have left.

53:29 Other than the South Korean ship,

53:30 there has been at this moment no damage going through the straight.

53:34 The Sencom Admiral Brad Cooper detailed the nature

53:36 of the Iranian attacks in the Strait of Hormuz.

53:39 Here's what it sounded like.

53:41 The cruise missiles were going after both US Navy ships,

53:44 but mostly after commercial shipping.

53:46 Uh we defended both ourselves and consistent with our commitment,

53:50 we defended all the commercial ships.

53:52 Uh we've had uh drone launches against uh commercial ships,

53:56 all of which were defended against consistent with our commitment.

53:59 And then the small boats were all going against commercial ships.

54:02 Uh and all were sunk by Apaches and Seahawk helicopters.

54:07 So again, this is a massive move.

54:09 The United States reopening the straight and ensuring

54:12 that shipping can move through at the same

54:14 time that Iran cannot get its stuff out is disastrous for the economy of Iran.

54:18 This is why Iran has now been attacking UAE.

54:22 I mean this ceasefire is not a ceasefire from the Iranian side.

54:24 They've not ceased fire.

54:26 According to the Wall Street Journal, the UAE's defense ministry said late

54:29 on Monday it intercepted 12 ballistic missiles,

54:32 three cruise missiles, and four drones launched from Iran.

54:35 Again, sort of a warning shot.

54:36 What what Iran is mostly worried about at this point is

54:39 that the United States permanently degrades its capacity for economic recovery.

54:43 The easiest move for the United States to make

54:45 right now would be to just blow up Car Island.

54:49 Car Island, you could do an amphibious operation there.

54:52 It's it's a lot riskier.

54:53 Or you could just blow it up.

54:54 And that means that Iran has no refinery capacity.

54:56 And that means their economy is basically sunk for the foreseeable future,

55:00 which means the regime has no money to pay its own people.

55:04 Now, it seems that the Trump administration would like

55:05 to give Iran one final opportunity before that happens.

55:08 That's what this chokeold is on Iranian resources moving in and out.

55:12 President Trump says it's only a matter of time before their resources run dry,

55:16 before they have to turn off their wells.

55:18 Here's President Trump talking to Hugh Huitt.

55:22 They have a problem coming up because they have uh

55:25 it's a very explosive situation in a lot of different ways.

55:29 you know, their oil when you turn

55:31 off the oil underground and the mechanical too,

55:34 but underground has a tendency in in like almost 100%

55:39 of the cases to literally explode and just destroy everything around it.

55:44 And you can never get that oil again.

55:46 In other words, you can get back 30 to 40%.

55:49 But it can never be like it is right now.

55:51 It does tremendous damage to the oil system in a country if that happens.

55:56 Now, Mr.

55:57 last time you were on.

55:58 They've run out of areas for storage.

56:00 Oh yeah.

56:01 And they say that in two weeks, you know, when they talk about time,

56:04 in two weeks they're going to have an a natural explosion of their oil

56:08 that's going to make it impossible for them to really recover from.

56:14 Okay, the president is not wrong about any of this and and Ron knows

56:17 the time is running short for them

56:19 and that is why they are getting increasingly aggressive.

56:21 Now again, the United States has a lot of steps that we can take.

56:24 We have a lot of things that we can do.

56:25 We could blow up Kar Island.

56:26 We could hit other energy resources inside the country.

56:28 We could take down another layer of the IRGC.

56:31 We'll probably have to do at some point another kinetic action against missile

56:35 facilities that have been uncovered over the course of the last few weeks.

56:37 Iran has been digging out these missile launchers from underground,

56:41 which actually is not very good for them.

56:43 But anybody who believes at this point that Iran

56:45 is winning this war is missing the boat.

56:47 I mean, totally missing the boat.

56:49 By the way, about 3/4 of Americans,

56:51 according to a Harvard Harris poll that just came out,

56:53 believe that Iran is losing the war.

56:55 So, despite all of the bad information coming out online,

56:58 Americans are not stupid and they are not missing the story.

57:01 All righty, folks.

57:01 Time for a thing that I like or maybe don't like.

57:04 I haven't seen this yet.

57:05 So, my my producers have brought out the new trailer for the Odyssey.

57:09 As you all know, I'm a massive fanboy of Christopher Nolan.

57:12 So, let's watch this together and we'll see what I think.

57:17 Tell me what you remember.

57:19 [music] a wife, [music] a son, and then what?

57:35 [music] We won the war.

57:43 Help me go home.

57:47 Okay, so far so good.

57:49 This is a household waiting for master.

57:55 I want you to choose the cast is great.

57:58 [music] I think king is coming back.

58:01 No, he's not.

58:06 Okay, there's the cyclops.

58:08 What would he do if he came back here and find all these suitors in his house?

58:14 You're pining for a daddy you didn't even know.

58:17 like some [music] sniffling bastard.

58:22 Who's looking after your wife and son?

58:25 Do you see him and Robert?

58:30 [music] So I guess people were pissed at that he said dad there, right?

58:33 Bringing it to all.

58:41 Yeah.

58:42 So I know a lot of people are upset about the casting of Helen and Troy.

58:44 I'm not upset about this.

58:46 These are all mythical characters.

58:49 I need everyone at this party dead.

58:51 Also, I mean, let's be clear.

58:52 Everybody would have looked very, very Greek.

58:54 Nobody would have looked like a like a Nordic person.

58:58 You're a man who is not a Greek extraction.

59:03 He cannot control this.

59:07 Okay.

59:06 That world is God.

59:11 No one could stand between me.

59:12 I mean, I'm going to watch the hell out of this.

59:13 I don't understand the problem.

59:15 Use the word dad.

59:16 That's what we're supposed to be pissed about.

59:17 You let the gods.

59:20 Keep us.

59:24 I mean, this looks great.

59:25 I don't understand.

59:27 Again, maybe again I I'm I will admit Tenant is not a good movie.

59:31 That is the only Christopher Nolan movie I will admit is not a good movie.

59:35 All the other ones are range from great to some of the best movies ever made.

59:39 And so I'm watching this and I understand that there are some people again like,

59:42 "Wow, it's too colloquial.

59:43 He said daddy and dad in the trailer.

59:45 That's terri.

59:46 Can I just be clear about this?

59:48 Every single language has some sort of dimminuative for father.

59:52 Okay.

59:52 Every single one.

59:53 What do you call your father?

59:54 You call him father?

59:55 Probably not.

59:56 You probably call him dad.

59:58 Okay.

59:58 So, I promise you that way back when people were using

1:00:01 a dimminative when they were talking

1:00:02 about their fathers also because that's normal.

1:00:05 Okay.

1:00:06 So, yeah, that that looks great.

1:00:07 Everybody is whiny.

1:00:08 Stop complaining.

1:00:09 You have an original filmmaker making one of the greatest

1:00:12 stories in human history with a huge budget.

1:00:14 You should just be happy that it's going to hit your screens this year.

1:00:17 I am.

1:00:18 All righty.

1:00:18 Coming up, we're going to jump into the mailbag and take some of your questions.

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