joining me now is bestselling author and commentator Douglas Murray make sure you pick up his latest International bestseller the war on the West Douglas let's start with the presidential pardon Hunter Biden has the broadest most sweeping pen imaginable and it comes after the Biden White House insisted that no one was above the law and that a pardon was Unthinkable well as you say R not only did they say that no one was above the law and say that because of Hunter Biden and because they believe that all judicial processes and America must be absolutely followed
and that somebody whose name happens to be Biden is absolutely the same as anyone with any other name they also said it of course during the repeated uh attempts to prosecute Donald Trump for a whole range of of issues in America if you set a special prosecutor or district attorney after somebody they look for crime and they tend to find one they'll find some difference between what somebody said in one interview three years ago and what they said uh in yesterday's interview and then they'll say ah evading Justice and so on um so so this
was this was a comment that Biden made about Trump but but now uh he says no one is above the law except except for my son certain other favorites it's not surprising and on a human level of course you know his son has had Untold uh difficulties uh that he has got through and it must be very disturbing for Joe Biden as a father however the pardon of course doesn't just cover things that he's already been convicted of it covers things that he could yet be convicted of in relation to the period yeah that his
father is in office and that that that is pretty unprecedented so far as I know yes and it starts in 2014 um when brisma came on the scene for the Biden family that the entire thing is astonishing uh staying in America what a difference a landslide election makes it wasn't long ago that the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was taking pot shots at Donald Trump but last week he was at maralago all smiles dining with the president-elect he even uh went on X and tweeted a thank you to the president but Douglas we have since
learned about what the talked about at the dinner table about that Trump Trudeau dinner from two people who were at the table we are told that when Trudeau told president-elect Trump that new tariffs would kill the Canadian economy Trump joked to him that if Canada can't survive without ripping off the US to the tune of100 billion dollar a year then maybe Canada should become the 51st state and Trudeau could become its governor governor Justin Trudeau yeah oh I love that diplomacy through strength is straight from the Trump Playbook Douglas what do you make of Justin
Trudeau's attempts to Cozy up to Trump after taking veiled shots at him for several years now well it's uh it's typical of the undiplomatic diplomacy which we've discussed before about other countries when it comes to Trump you know if there are two people running for office in your your nearest Ally uh it's very unwise to repeatedly lie about and make uh uh false claims about one of them and that's whichever way around you'd like to play it be very unwise for for people like Trudeau or the labor party in Britain or in Australia or anywhere
else to have insulted one of the other candidates in the election uh as it happened the one they chose to insult is the one that happens to have won so it's rather delicious watching rather more delicious even than dinner I'm sure uh watching uh the bimbo Trudeau uh trying to now uh make up for his undiplomatic diplomacy as for being governor of Canada all I say is I mean Justin trudo has been such a hideous prime minister of Canada I wouldn't trust him to be governor of anything uh I wouldn't I mean I other than
going back to drama teaching I just which and i' really pity his students even on that uh I don't know what Trudeau is good for he's a narcissistic uh little Playboy uh who has been vastly over promoted above his competency and the only person who doesn't seem to realize it is him um but I mean the Canadian public have a great opportunity quite soon to to wave farewell or or to steal the line to turn the page in Canada Turn the Page yes uh I love your line about Justin Trudeau I think you called him
once the prince of performative caring and I think that sums him up beautifully and if the polls are right his days are numbered so I don't think Donald Trump needs to worry too much about uh tariffs uh discussions with Justin because uh he's on the way out uh sticking with Donald Trump what do you make of the president-elect's threats against heras warning he will unleash hell in the Middle East if the October 7 host ages held by Hamas are not released before inauguration which is January 20 uh is that something that's going to be effective
uh you've spent a great deal of time in the Middle East in the past year is a warning like this going to have any sort of impact I think so I hope so um I was actually it happens with some of the hostage families yesterday again and of course they they say you know they want the release yesterday you know no they want it yesterday not not tomorrow not on January the 20th or any other time and the fact is is that the pressure um that Donald Trump threatens to bring can be brought and it
can be brought not just against Hamas but it should be brought against all of the governments in the region who have been backing and arming and training Hamas the mullers in tyan should fill the full force of American power H as they have Israeli power uh Hezbollah um the government in katar the corrupt uh Hamas supporting Hamas owning uh government of Qatar the government of turkey which is now hosting more of the Hamas leaders uh than it did a few weeks ago these governments should really feel that force and that pressure and it can be
diplomatic it can be economic or it can be something else uh but a very clear message needs to be sent hamaz started this war by murdering slaughtering and kidnapping Israelis these hostages should have been released on 8th of October and if they had have been 20123 and if they had have been this war could have been avoided but they started the war and the only person that can really end the war is them by handing back the hostages and alongside it making it clear that this will never happen again this is in their power and
only some of the dimmer bits of the international media and parts of the Biden Administration ever thought otherwise the hostages are not being held by Benjamin Netanyahu they are being held by Hamas Hamas has to release them it has to release them now now to France and after extensive damage the Magnificent nraam will be formally reopened by French president Emanuel macron but Douglas Pope Francis will not be there he will not be at the December 7 reopening in a move that has upset many including a number of French Bishops uh what do you make of
this decision you'd think the pope could surely change his plans to attend the reopening of such a significant cathedal it is s surprising I don't know maybe it's health reasons maybe it's something else else but uh you when you mention the significance of notam I mean I think that I hope I hope that the reopening really does remind the French and other publics of what was almost lost uh there uh everybody remembers those horrific photos of notam on fire and the fear that I think any civilized person has that we could have lost uh this
great tribute to Faith uh and more uh and and sometimes when you come very close to losing something like that it should make you love it and think about it more and I hope the French and other publics do it's not just uh that notam is a stunning work of architecture it's also a Cathedral of Faith and uh we'll see but maybe the public and the reopening of this can remind people of that I certainly hope that uh Emanuel macron and others in the French government don't simply regard this as being a a fine restoration
of a of a mere piece of French history it's far more than that absolutely culturally so significant uh the pope has prior engagement so he he is uh uh expected elsewhere but I just would have thought this was significant enough to change those plans before you go I want to play you a little clip from California governor and possible future Democrat presidential candidate Gavin nuum his incredibly boasting about California's record in tackling homelessness we have a national model what proposition one did is it reinforced that model provided more resources to advance that model uh and
we're very excited to get those dollars to work oh goodness me the Democrats don't have a great deal of talent so he is still up there as as a prime candidate to be the uh future presidential candidate and he's boasting there about California's record despite the fact that the state is responsible for one in two unsheltered people in all of America and they have this enormous issue Douglas with with homelessness with crime with elcd drug abuse despite huge resources being uh devoted to to tackling these issues they're spending around $447,000 a year per homeless person
and yet the problem doesn't seem to be diminishing no because uh idiots uh like Gavin Nome have done a number of things in recent years they have incentivized uh illegal migration they have incentivized people moving into their state they have made sure to punish everyone who is law abiding people like shop owners who don't like uh uh fishes on the human FES on the pavement outside their their stores they've made sure to punish all legal homeowners in California whereby you can get a an illegal encampment or an illegal tent or homeless um throwing up of
a of a of a shelter temporary shelter of some kind on somebody else's property and there's nothing that the people can do about it there's nothing that the law abiding hardworking taxpayer that we always hear about is actually allowed to do when it comes to dealing with and often illegal um non- taxpaying lawbreaking um person who's squatting and I'm afraid Governor Nome created that situation he created it in San Francisco he created it across California this is his fault so when he starts to boast he's getting to work and putting tax dollars to work first
of all good luck on the tax dollars thing because he's been superb at chasing talent and and and high net worth individuals out of his state but secondly I mean he's just simply not fit to do this because he made the problem and if he wanted to stop the problem he could stop the sanctuary City's nonsense he could stop the rewarding of illegal Behavior he could do all of that but he doesn't so these are totally totally Hollow words I'm afraid I used the word bimbo about the Canadian Prime Minister earlier but Gavin Nome is
the same mold he is narcissistic little Playboy uh who has never uh solved a real problem he wants to PR for the cameras but he has done so much to destroy the state he pretends to govern he is certainly very good at preining but you can't deny the fact that he is attractive and charismatic means something uh to me he is the front runner for the Democrats uh do you think there's anybody body else who stands out so they're saying that Cala Harris wants to run again in four years God forbid uh can you see
that happening I hadn't heard that rumor Rita uh um I would have thought that if camela wants to run again even the Democrats have enough survival Instinct to be able to say um didn't work out so well last time I think you're right after a billion dollars being squandered in record time I think her chances are very very small indeed uh Douglas maray thank you so much for your time this evening it's a pleasure as always thank you