Right-wing talk show host Ben Shapiro tore into his fellow pro-Trump Republicans for continuing to defend Andrew Tate, the British "manosphere" activist currently facing charges of rape and human trafficking in Romania.
Shapiro, who has a feud with Tate stretching back years, took particular aim at Trump attorney Alina Habba, who gushed over Tate in a recent interview and compared his legal troubles with the mountain of cases against Trump.
"Okay, what Alina Habba is saying there is not actually true about Andrew Tate," said Shapiro. "He is not of the same ilk as President Trump, 'find me the person and I'll find you the crime.' That is true of President Trump, that is not particularly true of Andrew Tate."
"I think the way some people are defending Andrew Tate today is the conflation of a couple different ideas," said Shapiro. "So, I think there is a big difference between having people on — have whoever you want on, that's totally fine, free speech and all the rest, that's totally fine — and cheering on bad people who don't actually care about your principles. And Andrew Tate is the latter. Now, again, let me say, right at the outset, I am not upset at all with anyone just interviewing Andrew Tate. Go for it, have at it. There are tons of excellent questions to ask Andrew Tate. But none of these people are asking Andrew Tate any of those questions. Instead, a lot of people are sort of glomming onto his very online popularity in order to get clicks."
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"And some people are dishonestly conflating interviewing Andrew Tate with cheering for Andrew Tate, or applauding him, or talking about how brave and wonderful he is," Shapiro continued. "And Andrew Tate is not brave and wonderful. He rips off thousands of people with his scam Hustlers University, he preaches the virtue of treating women in a way you would never, ever allow anyone to treat your wife or your daughter."
"What I'm saying is that if you say you're a conservative and you have someone who truly is disgusting on, and you proceed to tout them, praise them, nod along to everything they say, cheer them, you're doing more than platforming," he said. "There's a difference between having a conversation with a person and becoming a propagandist for that person."
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