Conservative political commentator, writer, and lawyer Ben Shapiro speaks at the 2018 Politicon in Los Angeles, Calif. on Oct. 21, 2018. (Photo credit: MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images)
(CNS News) — Conservative podcast host Ben Shapiro argued that the media’s shift from a Russia narrative to a racism narrative was “absolutely planned,” in the Thursday episode of “The Ben Shapiro Show.”
“Now, just to recap, okay, Donald Trump is not a white supremacist,” Shapiro said. “Donald Trump’s history with condemning white supremacy is pretty long, meaning that it was, let’s put it this way, it was intermittent for a long time. There are a couple of instances in which he did not [condemn it] ,and in which I duly ripped the living crap out of him.”
“It’s not as though this was not planned,” the host and author said, describing the narrative shift. “It was absolutely planned. Dean Baquet of the New York Times literally said, in print, right after the Russia narrative collapsed, right after the Mueller report, they said we are shifting over our reporters to the racism beat.”
Shapiro suggested that this faux-controversy was used to overshadow the issue of potential court-packing if Joe Biden wins the presidency.
“This is where Wallace really failed. He should have held Biden’s feet to the fire on the very simple question as to whether he’s going to pack the Supreme Court,” Shapiro said, “which by the way is the single most transformative question up in this election. If you are taking one of the three branches of government and rendering it absolutely obsolete in terms of its legitimacy to the American public by packing it with a bunch of partisans, then that seems like that might be worthy of discussion, and Joe Biden should not have been able to get away with ‘go out and vote;’ that’s not how any of that works.”
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A transcript of the segment is available below.
Ben Shapiro: Alrighty, so, they’re already talking about the possibility of shutting down future debates so Joe Biden can go back into the basement and run out the clock, which, again, underscores the entire strategy here is to make it about Trump, and you saw this in the debate; this is where Wallace really failed. He should have held Biden’s feet to the fire on the very simple question as to whether he’s going to pack the Supreme Court, which by the way is the single most transformative question up in this election. If you are taking one of the three branches of government and rendering it absolutely obsolete in terms of its legitimacy to the American public by packing it with a bunch of partisans, then that seems like that might be worthy of discussion, and Joe Biden should not have been able to get away with “go out and vote;” that’s not how any of that works.
Okay, well all of this takes a backseat to the generalized narrative that the media have attempted to draw from the debate, and that is, once again, as always, that Donald Trump is a white supremacist. Now, just to recap, okay, Donald Trump is not a white supremacist. Donald Trump’s history with condemning white supremacy is pretty long, meaning that it was, let’s put it this way, it was intermittent for a long time. There are a couple of instances in which he did not [condemn it] ,and in which I duly ripped the living crap out of him. You’ll recall back in 2015 when he did an interview with Jake Tapper, and Jake Tapper asked him to denounce David Duke, and he said “I don’t know who David Duke is,” and then he refused to denounce him. And you’ll remember, I just ripped into him. I savaged him over this. It was right before the Louisiana primary. It was really, really ugly. And then, you’ll remember in Charlottesville where he actually did condemn white supremacists, but he said there were good people who were marching with the white supremacists, which happened not to be true, and that was shortly after he had said that some very bad things happened in Charlottesville and he sort of ignored the ideological component, then he came back and he revised and then he recognized the ideological component.
Okay, ever since then, I mean, he’s given multiple speeches in which he has talked about the evils of white supremacy. He has repeatedly condemned white supremacy. Trump has not been shy over the last several years in condemning white supremacy. In fact, you’ll remember in 2017, even during the Charlottesville mess where he was completely inept, he said that white supremacy should be totally condemned. This was in 2017.
Donald Trump: You had people, and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally, but you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists, okay, and the press has treated them absolutely unfairly.
Ben Shapiro: Okay, so the problem with that comment was the people other than the neo-Nazis and the white supremacists didn’t exist, but he says “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white supremacists,” and, in fact, you can compile a list of all the times he has condemned Nazis and white supremacists. He’s done it many, many, many times, but because the media ran out of the Russia narrative they decided immediately to shift over to the racism narrative.
It’s not as though this was not planned. It was absolutely planned. Dean Baquet of the New York Times literally said, in print, right after the Russia narrative collapsed, right after the Mueller report, they said we are shifting over our reporters to the racism beat. They put out a full article talking about this, how they were re-staffing up to cover racism in the lead-up to the 2020 election. This is a pre-set narrative and Wallace walked right into the pre-set narrative and Trump, because he is inept with human language, made a boo-boo, but it was not a boo-boo in which he was saying white supremacy is okay. You cannot read the comments that he said and come away with “white supremacy is okay,” unless you wish to have that conclusion going in.
Lucy Collins is a CNSNews intern and a student at Columbia University.
