On Friday, appearing with Fox News’ “The Story” with host Martha MacCallum to discuss his new book, “The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great,” Daily Wire Editor-In-Chief Ben Shapiro spoke of the recent furor triggered when the left-wing British publication The Economist first insultingly referred to him as “alt-right,” then apologized, only to change the adjective to “radical conservative.” Shapiro channeled Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, saying, “I’m rad, dude. I can skateboard and everything, brah.”
MacCallum began by citing President Trump’s remarks on Thursday at a rally in Michigan in which Trump weighed in on the Jussie Smollett saga. Trump’s remarks prompted the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to state that Trump’s “silence on the rise of white nationalism across the country only signals his complicity,” adding, “Where was the president’s call for an investigation when white nationalists marched across the campus of the University of Virginia?”
MacCallum also noted Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel suggesting Trump and the atmosphere he has created were the reason that Smollett allegedly faked his hate crime.
MacCallum introduced Shapiro and his new book, commenting, “It’s a New York Times best seller; they cannot keep it in stock.” She asked Shapiro what he thought about the CBC and Emanuel’s comments regarding President Trump.
Shapiro replied:
Well, it’s obviously untrue. We’ve seen racial hoaxes before going all the way back to Al Sharpton in the 1980s. The story here is that there is an actor who wanted to increase pay, according to the Chicago Police Department, and so he decided to perpetuate a racial hoax and slander half the country in process, believing that it would make him more popular and more marketable, particularly with the people in Hollywood. That’s the entire story, and he didn’t mind if he slandered the Chicago Police Department; he didn’t mind if he slandered Rahm Emanuel, the city of Chicago. By the way, it is worth noting that the CBC representative saying that President Trump’s feds didn’t investigate Charlottesville — that’s just not true. The FBI did investigate Charlottesville. The DOJ did an investigation of Charlottesville as well. So that is just factually false.
MacCallum played a clip of Anthony Anderson, the host of the NAACP awards, saying of Smollett’s nomination for an award, “I hope he wins. I’m happy for him that the system worked for him, in his favor, because the system isn’t always fair, especially for people of color.” MacCallum commented, “I think that’s very interesting. He said the system worked ‘for him in his favor’ because the system isn’t always fair.” She added, “There’s a lot of ways you could read into that statement.”
Shapiro commented:
It seems like what he’s trying to say is that social justice ought to trump individual justice. In other words, he believes the criminal justice system is biased presumably against black people and gay people, and Jussie Smollett happens to be black and gay, and therefore, even though he’s obviously guilty by all available evidence and according to the prosecutor’s office that just dismissed the charges, he’s guilty, despite that, he should be let of the hook because it’s sort of pay back for the system not working for other people. That is a fundamental violation of principles of justice. If somebody is guilty of a crime, they ought to do the time, regardless of their intersectional credentials being in order.
MacCallum asked why Smollett is not pressing for an investigation considering he had alleged he was the victim of a hate crime. She then referred to Smollett’s attorney suggesting that the Nigerian brothers allegedly involved in the attack were wearing white face underneath the mask at the time of the alleged attack.
Shapiro quipped, “My theory of the crime is it was actually Virginia Governor Ralph Northam dressed in black face and then dressed in white face on top of the black face. That’s my going theory of the crime.”
That caused MacCallum to laugh, then shift to how the British magazine “The Economist” labeled Shapiro “alt-right,” and then, after Shapiro fired back, apologized and changed the appellation to “radical conservative.”
Shapiro replied, “There’s no such thing as a ‘regular conservative,’ so frankly, I’m embracing the title. It’s like Beto O’Rourke, ‘I’m rad, dude. I can skateboard and everything, brah.’”
That triggered more laughter from MacCallum.
Shapiro continued: “What is amazing about it is to be ignorant enough to call me a member of the alt-right when I have probably been the leading antagonist of the alt-right for at least the last four years. I was their number one target online, according to the ADL in 2016. I still have to hire security to walk back and forth to synagogue because of the alt-right. To label me that just demonstrates either the ignorance or the malice of members of the media who don’t want to do a simple Google search.”
MacCallum said, “There’s definitely a fascination with you. When you read this article, they’re trying to figure out why you’re so popular, why do kids on college campuses care what this guy has to say; they talk about how you’re impeccably dressed, and you’re sharp in every way. They can’t figure it out, Ben.”
Shapiro joked, “Obviously, it is because of my great handsomeness and physical size. I’m very intimidating and people are just attracted to me the same way that they would be attracted to Tom Cruise. That’s just who I am; that’s what my wife tells me anyway.”
MacCallum agreed, “As she should. All wives should tell their husbands that.” She continued, “Eric Holder said the president wants to go back to when America was great, and Holder saw that as a racist assessment in the president’s eyes. You talk a lot about what makes the idea of America great in your book. So what would you say to him about that comment?”
Shapiro said bluntly:
It’s an asinine comment. Really there are two views of the United States. View number one is that the United States is founded on eternal, true, immutable and good principles, and we haven’t always lived up to those principles, but the story of America is that the foundational philosophy of the country is inherently rooted in human nature and natural law and God’s creation. And that’s what American philosophy’s about. Again, it’s a job of trying to expand that promise to all Americans.
And then there’s the view of Eric Holder which is that America is founded on racial hierarchy and that all of these ideas of Western civilization are essentially a façade for perpetuating this evil power hierarchy. Well, if you feel that way, you have to rip up American civilization at its roots. I don’t think most Americans believe that; I think most Americans do believe that America has been great in the past. There’s no point at which America was “better across the board” for everyone, but there are certainly moments in American history that we can point to. Was America not great when we liberated Europe? Was America not great when Martin Luther King was speaking on the Mall in Washington? Was America not great when we were defeating the Soviet Union in the Cold War or when we were creating such prosperity that 80% of world’s population was lifted out of abject poverty since 1980? It seems like America was great all of those times.
MacCallum concluded, “The book is number one and they can’t keep it on the shelves. Congratulations.”
Watch below: