Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro blasted the leftist argument that Donald Trump was a tyrant during his four years as president, saying that President Joe Biden has pushed far more authoritarian policies since taking office.
Shapiro appeared on the Lex Fridman Podcast on Tuesday with leftist live-streamer and political commentator Steven Bonnell, who is known as “Destiny.” During the two-hour podcast, the two debated multiple issues from higher education and wokeism to foreign policy and a potential rematch between Trump and Biden in the 2024 election.
“One of the big problems that I have with, for example, all the talk about ‘Trump tyrant,’ ‘Trump executive power,’ I mean Joe Biden has used executive power in ways that far outstretch anything Trump did,” Shapiro said.
Bonnell interjected: “Every president has been stretching and stretching and stretching executive power.”
“Joe Biden has gone well beyond anything Trump even remotely attempted to maintain via just pure executive power,” Shapiro replied, adding, “Biden literally used the Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration to try to cram down vaccine mandates on 80 million Americans. That’s insane.”
.@benshapiro explains to @TheOmniLiberal why Biden is tyrannical and Trump isn't
Ben: "Joe Biden has used executive power in ways…well beyond anything Trump even remotely attempted… Biden literally used the Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration to try to cram down… pic.twitter.com/617THMAzlM
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) January 23, 2024
Shapiro added that while he has never liked a lot of Trump’s rhetoric, his leadership on foreign policy and the economy, among other issues, far surpassed Biden’s.
“In terms of foreign policy, in terms of domestic policy, I think that Trump was significantly better than Biden has been,” the Daily Wire host said.
Shapiro then pointed out that divisive rhetoric isn’t unique to Trump, arguing that Biden is also viewed as an “incredibly divisive” leader.
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“A huge percentage of Americans are deeply unhappy not only with [Biden’s] performance, but don’t believe he’s a uniter,” he said. “That’s just the reality.”
According to Shapiro, another important aspect when looking at Biden’s divisiveness is to consider that he ran a campaign on bringing the country back together, but he has proceeded to demonize Trump supporters, whom he labeled “MAGA Republicans.”
“Joe Biden started off with a patina of being non-divisive and now has emerged as divisive,” said Shapiro.
.@benshapiro tells @TheOmniLiberall how Biden is more divisive than Trump pic.twitter.com/FXhJBjsB1j
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) January 23, 2024