Ben Shapiro tried to lecture a counterterrorism expert on authoritarianism - and it failed spectacularly

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro was left frustrated during his latest appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher, after fellow guest and counterterrorism expert Malcolm Nance educated him on authoritarianism.

In a segment discussing Shapiro’s upcoming book The Authoritarian Moment, which argues that the left “weaponised America’s institutions against dissent”, Nance said it’s a “nice title” and that people assuming the author was discussing “real authoritarianism” could be “trapped” in paying the $28.99 retail price.

“But let’s talk about bare facts. You’re talking about a guy, Donald Trump, who literally tried to suborn – or has probably suborned perjury – in order to overthrow a duly elected government, and managed to mobilise 40,000 people to lay siege to the Capitol, and over 1,000 or more entered the building, destroyed parts of the building, fought physically [with] law enforcement there, in order to stop American democracy.

“Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been around a little bit, and I’ve seen some dictators and warlords and authoritarians. That is authoritarianism,” he said.

Naturally, Twitter was keen to join in on the roasting:

And, of course, this classic clip resurfaced:

It wasn’t the only “embarrassing” moment for Shapiro on Real Time either.

During a conversation on critical race theory – which, according to Britannica, argues that that race is a social construct and that “the law and legal institutions in the United States are inherently racist” – Nance argued that the terminology had been “hijacked”.

“[It] has been hijacked and been framed around the left as they want to do all this, they want to rip down the entire social fabric of America and they want us to be guilty about everything.

“I want you to teach history. I had a lot of people in the military, senior officers who had to make life and death decisions, who were total morons about the cultures and institutions in countries we were going into, and people died because of that. I don’t need that here,” he said.

At which point, Shapiro replied: “If we agree that history should be taught, why are you defending critical race theory, which is not just history?”

“Did I not just say a moment ago that I think that term has been hijacked and that’s not what we’re talking about,” Nance responded.

After Shapiro then accused the author of defending the theory by “redefining it as just teaching history” – which he called a “cheap semantic trick”, Nance went on to ask: “Is this what you do on your show, ’cause it sucks.”

Clearly frazzled by the comment, Shapiro came back with the line: “Malcolm, I appreciate that, but I will comfort myself sleeping on my bed made of money.”