Country. O his campaign is dead, totally dead. It went toes up last week from a fatal overdose of buttigieg. Not everyone has heard the news, the mourning hasnt even started, but beto for president is over. He is jeb bush now. Future generations will remember beto orourke, if they recall him at all, really, as a media story. H remember that guy with a weird nickname that all of the dummies on cable news fell in love with in a single day . That was bizarre. And it was bizarre. I saw him for the first time just a month ago when he sat down with oprah, and me and the rest of the people in the audience thought wow, this guy has this dynamic, positive energy. Yeah, he has that brought talent, he is very obamaesque. Womens voted for him in the suburbs of houston because they had a kind of beto crush going on. He is wholesome and earnest, somebody, the Texas Tribune said seeing him is like a jesus christ superstar, seeing this guy in front of people, he has a celebrity aura about him. The rock n roll loving 46yearold caught the nations attention. His offbeat social media post appealing to a younger generation, even taking them skateboarding at whataburger. Tucker keep in mind, that just happened. The frenzy just occurred, it was just last month. Collegeeducated adults in an advanced country with air travel and air conditioning, talking like that in public. Pretty embarrassing, my gosh. But before we get too judgey about it, a confession, we did it too. Betos magic distorted our journalistic objectivity for a second, may be the skateboarding or the weird resemblance to a young Bobby Kennedy. Whatever it was, we lost control like everyone else. Beto loves rock n roll, says gma. He is not like everyone else, he doesnt do stuffy speeches or policy programs. He is not going to bore you with entitlement projections or some scary stuff about the korean peninsula. Beto has a skateboard and wears nirvana tshirts. His vision for this country as 1995, the year he was living wai uptown in this walk up, working as a man, knew this dude at west 112th street withs some of the stickiest bud in manhattan. A little heavy, but sweet. It was a good time. Beto wants to bring us back to that time. We got a little carried away, sorry about that. It all seemed so innocent then, back a few weeks ago, back in march of 2019. It was beto and us and a dream. It was a simpler time. We thought anything was possible then, we thought we could write our own story. We didnt know that even fairy tales end, and one day ours did end. The magic turned to dust, bitter in our mouths, like a peyote button, one day the music died. Byebye, Miss American pie. Byebye, weirdly youthful middleaged white guy with a fufake hispanic nickname. There is a new heart heartthrob in cable news, he is younger, he is shallower, he is even less experienced. Hes got an even weirder name, plus he is gay. The perfect candidate for voters who say they love diversity but dont want to vote for Stacey Abrams. This candidate could have been created in a lab at cnn, and might have been. There is no stopping a man like this. At least until election day. On some level, beto must know it is over. He is no genius, but he can smell it. More than six months before the first votes are cast in iowa. He will keep raising money, his one real skill, but his political career is done. Cue the sad nirvana playlist. So what are the lessons of the sinking of the ss beto . Here is one he should have run on something. It is hard to win on charisma alone, Hillary Clinton recently discovered. So why not be the one person in the race with real ideas . They dont have to be big ideas, how about any idea . Beto could have tried that, but instead he strung together cliches like one of those word games. Remember mad libs that you used to play with your brother on the road trips . The long, seemingly coherent sentences that when you read them, dont actually mean anything. Beto was big on those. Here is beto doing that on the Green New Deal. This country was willing to sacrifice men and women all over the United States to make sure that we defeated germany, that we won that war, and for the following 75 years, we made this world safe for democracy. The Green New Deal called that service and scaled, scale of commitment, when it talks about the challenges wef face today. Tucker those are the questions that beto asked to just yesterday att uva. So the question for the rest of us is are voters ready to suffer, i dont know, 400,000 u. S. Combat deaths for the sake of the climate . What does a Carbon Dioxide canal look like . Co2 side pan, will we bomb tokyo again with firebombs . How would that affect the temperature . This is stupid, none of this is real. The Green New Deal isnt a deal, it is a Wish Fulfillment posing as legislation. But heres the thing, beto kept a straight face throughout that talk like he sincerely meant it. Who does that . Mediocre people do that. Mediocre people tell implausible lies and demand that you pretend to believe them. Is beto a mediocre person . We will let you decide. In 2017, beto orourke gave a total of less than 1 of his income onethird of 1 , to be precise to charity. Keep in mind, he is a rich, very rich. Here is his explanation for why he did that. I served in Public Office since 2005. I do my best to contribute to my community, my state, and now, of my country. There are ways that i do this that are measurable, and there are ways that i do this that are immeasurable. There are charities we donate to that we have recorded and itemized, others that we have not. But i tell you, i am doing everything i can right now, spending this time with you, not with our kiddos back home because i want to sacrifice everything to make sure that we have truth with everything that weve got. Tucker okay, so save that tape. v that is from uva yesterday, and youre going to want to download that and keep that for your grandchildren because beto, pedestrian as he is in so many ways, didca something that has never been done or attempted by a politician before, unique contribution to american political life. Beto has just made the case that his entire life, betos entire life, is a kind of charitable donation. All of us get the gift of beto,k just because he is here. Every time beto speaks, it is like endowing a library in burma. Or curing shingles in malawi. Or battle in Childhood Obesity in appalachia. Or sending mosquito nets to the congo. Every time he talks, when he tweets, it is an act of charity, something that makes this worldh wiser and better smelling. Beto is such a good person that he can write himself off his taxes if he wanted to. Thete irs would have to let him. His goodness is so clearly deductible, no lawyer would contest that. But beto doesnt do that, he doesnt shirk his duties. He will pay the extra tax because he cares that much. Now that you think about it, it is almost that he will never be president. Ben shapiro hosts one of americas top podcasts, the ben shapiro show, the author of the book the right side of history, and we are happy to have him on set tonight. I dont know how i kept a straight face while you did that. [laughter] tucker there are so many levels here, but i do believe this is the end of the beto orourke phenomenon. Yeah, i think he is toast. Tucker what lessons should we draw from y what we just saw . You can run in the moderately as a Bobby Kennedy candidate so long as nothing newer is on the block. Buttigieg came along and haddi intersectional credibility. The problem for beto had the problem of being straight and also white. Just like Bobby Kennedy was. Buttigieg is gay and takes precedence, and speaks more languages, including norwegian, and he doesnt just play guitar, he plays piano and does it with ben folds and the whole deal. Buttigieg has basically stolen all of his momentum, and i think youre right, i think beto is toast here. Bu tucker speaking norwegian and playing the piano. Im being sincere, actually impressive. Im impressed by them. But they are not really policy prescriptions, they are not ideas that are going to improve america. Neither is who you sleep with relevant to running the country so far as i can tell, or any of these criteria meaningful. Wheres the part where we get to debate their ideas for the country . The problem is obviously that there is only one thought leader in the Democratic Party right now, and that is Bernie Sandersy what you are seeing is a bunch of candidates who are attempting to steer into the Bernie Sanders lane. There is no room in that lane, Bernie Sanders has occupied that entire lane. You talk about candidates, the one who keeps shouting ideas from the rooftops is on native american candidate, elizabeth warren, who keeps spouting ideas every 5 minutes. Here is a new policy prescription, why is it anyone paying attention to me . The answer is because you are in Bernie Sanders lane. He is the thought leader in this lane. In the moderate lane, there are no thought leaders, they are just a bunch of people with platitudes. Biden is presumably be thought leader, but he doesnt have enough thoughts to be a thought exactly is going to come along and occupy that lane while still being able to win over theng woke intersectiol base of the Democratic Party . Whoever does that has a possibility a nomination can right now, buttigieg can do that only insofar as he can speak platitudes that sound moderate, but when he has pegged down, as you noted,d, he is just as far left as Bernie Sanders. Tucker telling us what a great christian he is, abortion up until birth, spare me yourni christian talk, please. It is absurd. Im struck by bernie could be the one guy i want to have a conversation about ideas,st because i think it is important, and clearly we need to make changes the way the country is going, but bernie doesnt seem to be an ideas candidate when you listen to him, he almost never says anything interesting, why is that . His ideas are so radical, but they are consistent. So everyone has followed him out to the range. Medicare for all, what you will see is every democrat pay homage to medicare for all, footnote, we dont really want medicare for all, want a gradual plan to achieve medicare for all sometime in the future. Everyone is trying to imitate bernie. N bernie is the guyut who is runng this race. He is any position right now that trump was in a 2016, everybody in themp Democratic Party is running, afraid to tick him off because they hope he eventually will collapse and they will get his support, but he is riding 25 to 30 in all the polls, extraordinarily durable. I dont think that it is going anywhere. He can stay in that lane, win iowa, new hampshire, do well in california and new york. Theres a reason democrats are running scared of bernie, what is puzzling to me is there so interested in what the journalists on twitter say, this echo chamber in the media, that they wont just go to where the mainstream of their own party is, which is the moderate area. Joe biden is a terrible candidate, he is actually leading and most of the polls because he is perceived as a moderate. Tucker thats totally true beto and buttigieg, thes reason both redoing well for a moment was because they were both perceived as moderate with all of the platitudes. When you get down to policy, it turns out they want to be more like bernie than biden, nobody in the Democratic Party has the stones to run as a moderate inside the Democratic Party, even though io is probably the best possible way for them to win the nomination. Tucker i think youre absolutely right, and her diagnosis is that they are captive of social media. I think there are captive to social media, the intersectional, woke base afraid that they are going to be held hostage to the dictates of the New York Times editorial board, people suggesting they are not wokek enough if they dont pay homage to the latest flavor, slavery reparations or whatever it is today. Tucker the person who gives the finger to that momhe gets the support of millions. I think that is right, and has a good shot in the general. But i dont think any of them tucker get my support. Someone would stand up and say i will take orders from you, how would that sound . T dont even care what they are for, i would vote for them. So desperate for that. That isot why they democrat were able to do that, they would win sweeping support. But i cant do that. We have been saying this for years, i have to do is not be crazy. [laughter] tucker so good. Greatt to see you ben shapiro, great to see you. Great to see you, too. Tucker all they have to do is not be crazy, and they cant do that. After the break, Bernie Sanders has become a rich man by attacking other people getting rich under our system of capitalism. Now he denies his success reflects either capitalism or the American Dream actually works. What is he saying exactly . We will find out after the break. And new developments in the ongoing Corruption Scandal that points to deeper corruption, almost total in our higher education. We will give you another set of details after the break. Findican be overwhelming. R dry eyes. For relief that lasts. You want soothe xp from bausch lomb. Soothe xp helps restore the eyes lipid layer. Seal in moisture. And protect against further irritation. Soothe xp. The right choice for dry eyes. Tucker andrew yang is running for president of the United States. He is a democrat. We disagree on plenty of issues, but he is a serious person, smart, cares, and has a deep o understanding of the problems the country faces. He may be the one person running this year who is preaching a series of reforms that might actually help the countrys middle class. One proposal is worth telling you about, the salary of top government officials. Currently, the president of the United States make 400,000 a year. The position, of course is lucrative and the former president can give speeches for hundreds of thousands, and they do, they can serve on corporate boards. They can, in effect, spend the rest of their lives cashing in on the position they held as president. And they have. Bill clinton has made more than 100 million from being a former president since he left office in 2000. Former cabinet members get rich, but on a different scale. Its not hard to see what this does to the country. Our leaders have a big incentive to defend the winners of the Current System because they are paid by those a winners. They go to work at banks because they make bankers happy. Tech regulators join up with google or facebook. The only incentive to promote public good isat the kindness of their hearts. Up against that, is all the accrued wealth of global capitalism. It is not really a fair fight. And not attacking anyone, just the way it works. The system itself is inherently corrupt, thats corruption, and acts inherently against your interest. Yang has a solution that is not stupid decrease the pay of our top officials by a lot, make president s pay up to 4 millionu a year, pay top regulators 1 million a year. Heres the catch, the president from joiningned corporate boards orr giving speeches for money. Regulators banned from cashing in on the private side of deals they regulate. They will make a lot more money while they do their job, but their only incentive will be promoting the good of the country, not enriching themselves afterwards. If yangs idea has a flaw, it is only that it does not go far enough. Why not apply this to members of congress . Hike their pay but bar them from cashing in on lobbyists or joining corporate boards the moment they leave. We should do that immediately because Public Service should be service. It is not a way to enrich yourself for life. If we did that, the rest of us could stop being cynical as we justifiably are about their behavior on capitol hill. Speaking of being cynical about peoples motives, Bernie Sanders is the most highprofile socialist in the world. But he doesnt live like one. He has become very rich, by the way, ironically, promoting a book about socialism and how great it is. Sanders is a capitalist success story. We may say he embodies the American Dream, but on this channel two nights ago he said that is not the case at all. Watch. Ne when you wrote the book and made the money, isnt that the definition of capitalism and the American Dream . No. [laughter] i mean, you know, what we want is a country where everyone has opportunity. I have a college degree. Im a united a states senator. A lot of people dont have a college degree. A lot ofat people are not United States senators. What we are fighting for is a society not where a few people can make a whole lot of money, but a society where everybody in this country has the opportunity to live in security and dignity. Tucker a former Bernie Sanders surrogate that joins us tonight. Thanks for coming on. Im not begrudging sanders writing a book, good for him. It doesnt bother him he got paid for it either. I have two concerns why not say it is in fact the American Dream . M . You did something people found impressive and got rewarded, why not just say that . I think the American Dream is a much bigger idea. Arguing that we have a select few,. 1 , who essentially lobbied to get away with not paying taxes are not paying their fair share of taxes. So when we talk about Bernie Sanders making 580,000 or so last year on the sales of his book, thats not about the American Dream, everyone should have the opportunit