00:00:57.620matt thanks so much for taking the time to join us okay before we talk about your new series which
00:01:04.720i'm super fascinated by i want to talk about some of the things that you said lately about criminal
00:01:09.680justice irena zarutska it was found that her killer was found incompetent to stand trial
00:01:15.900not even totally sure what that means or why but can you just give us your general reaction to
00:01:21.080that and what you think needs to change yeah so they're they're saying it's incompetent to stand
00:01:25.940trial. Now, one of the caveats there is fortunately, he also has federal charges and he hasn't been
00:01:31.600found incompetent there. So he still is facing that. And I was watching a news report today,
00:01:37.940a local news report, and somebody who was trying to explain this and sort of defend it was saying
00:01:42.420that, hey, just because he was found incompetent to stand trial doesn't mean that he's going to
00:01:46.160be released. He's going to go to a mental health facility, quote unquote. And he could, I think
00:01:50.820the phrasing in the report was he could very possibly be there forever, which, of course,
00:01:55.620what's implied there is that he could also possibly be released. And that has happened
00:01:59.520many times. I mean, there have been infamous cases, including recent cases, where people who
00:02:04.140were guilty of heinous, violent crimes, murder, were found incompetent, ended up being released
00:02:11.160back out into the public. So that could also happen, especially without the federal charges.
00:02:15.800The whole thing is completely insane. I mean, as I said on X earlier today, I'm totally radicalized on the issue of criminal justice at this point. By most people's standards, I've always been pretty radical on it, at least in recent years.
00:02:31.840But at this point, I'm completely radicalized on it.
00:02:35.440And I think, and to begin with, the concept of being incompetent to stand trial makes no sense.
00:12:40.980It's like if you committed murder, but you haven't been arrested for it, and you got
00:12:44.320away with it, and you did it 20 years ago or something, and you confide in someone who's0.83
00:12:49.200a Christian and say, well, I did this terrible thing, but I've repented of it.
00:12:52.440That person, if they're a good Christian, knowledgeable person, they would say, okay,0.97
00:12:56.440it's good you've repented, but that means you need to go turn yourself in and you need to go0.99
00:13:00.840accept the consequences. If you're not willing to do that, it means you're not sorry. And that's
00:13:03.980what being sorry means. And so, you know, if someone has done the world, you killed your own
00:13:11.000two-year-old daughter. I mean, it's the worst thing it's possible for a person to do. And if
00:13:15.560you've really done that and you're actually repented for it, then you should welcome that
00:13:21.400punishment because you know you deserve it. And, um, and to try to get out of it is I think a sign
00:13:27.380of, of a lack of repentance. And for my theological perspective too, God can save anyone at any time.
00:13:35.360And I, the idea of a sovereign God saying, shoot, I was going to save him next week and y'all ruined
00:13:41.840my plans to do that. And y'all have just completely messed it all up. That's just not how a sovereign
00:13:47.380God works. God, if we want to say, you know what, trial, conviction, found guilty, someone preaches
00:13:55.320the gospel to him, gives him an hour to think it over, repent, and then he dies by death penalty,
00:14:01.480I'm open to that. But how we have it right now that the death penalty is used so arbitrarily,
00:14:07.320that it's used so sporadically, that's what makes it unjust. It's not the death penalty itself that
00:14:12.540it's unjust. It's the fact that someone can get three square meals given to them by the taxpayer
00:14:18.840for 35 years and then maybe get out of prison because they're transgender. Like, that is the1.00
00:14:24.380injustice of the death penalty. And you said that you've been radicalized about our criminal justice
00:14:28.700system. I agree. But sometimes I just feel powerless to do anything about it. And it really
00:14:33.240is. It's kind of depressing when you start to think about it. Yeah, it is. It is. I mean,
00:14:38.340it's very depressing and that's one i mean maybe that's one of the reasons why this problem is not
00:14:43.540fixed i mean one thing it's a huge problem and there are a lot of different angles to it but
00:14:49.500also it's just really depressing to think about and talk about and so i think people prefer not
00:14:53.600to but if we're not going to think about it talk about it that means the problem will certainly
00:14:56.220never be fixed and um but it's a huge problem this is something i would like you know i i would like
00:15:01.640for at least to start with this could be step one is for the death penalty to become a live
00:15:08.840pardon the pun a live issue again in america for it to become a real issue that we at least talk
00:15:14.500about and debate because you know it used to be you go back to the 90s i think and and you know
00:15:19.680it was death penalty was was almost every state had it and it had like 80 approval i mean it was
00:15:25.760everybody almost it was one of the few things that almost all americans could agree on is that of
00:15:30.080course, you have the death penalty. And then you go back farther than that. It was like basically
00:15:33.480100%. And now, you look at the situation now in 2026, and the death penalty is almost never
00:15:39.980happens. I mean, many states have banned it. Many other states technically have it, but never use
00:15:44.780it. And even the states that do have it and do use it, use it very, very, very sparingly. So you
00:15:49.600only get a few basically executions a year. And then if you look at the public, the opinion polls
00:15:55.080on it. It's, you know, now it's like 50% supported or maybe less than that. But I just think that's
00:16:02.660because we've just, we don't talk about it anymore. We've just kind of like moved on. It's one of
00:16:09.240those issues where we're told by those in charge, oh yeah, that's, we already settled that. That's,
00:16:14.560we've moved past that. But when did we agree on that? I don't, I don't remember. I mean,
00:16:18.700the last time that we as a public were really talking about this issue and having a real
00:16:23.820debate about it and it was actually a part of political debate and maybe be the kind of thing
00:16:28.160that would come up in a in a debate between candidates for an election the last time that
00:16:32.340was the case was in the 90s and back then when people were really thinking about it it was 80
00:16:37.460approval so um i i think it's something worth uh worth at least debating again yeah absolutely
00:16:46.000and it's definitely protestants and catholics who i think have a lot of people just have it wrong on
00:16:52.000this, but you definitely have your work cut out for you when it comes to some of your
00:16:55.760fellow Catholics, when it comes to the death penalty, just because I think that a lot of
00:17:01.440at least recent Catholic teaching has talked about being against the death penalty.
00:17:05.000Certainly in evangelicalism, there's like a womb to tomb movement, which says in order
00:17:09.800to be holistically pro-life, you have to be against the death penalty, you have to be
00:17:15.020for welfare, you have to be for open borders and things like that.
00:17:17.580So, you know, I call that toxic empathy, but it's like a real theological issue, too, within our faith communities that people have just been very duped by the progressive propaganda about it.
00:17:28.760Yeah, I think that and that's, you know, if you look at the polls, I'm.
00:17:33.440I don't know, probably if the overall polls are 50 percent, kind of like a 50 50, if you looked at Catholics in America, probably be around that.
00:17:40.660I'm not sure to look at the polls, but I think part of what's happening is that you mentioned pro-life.
00:17:45.900It's that. I mean, Catholics, at least observant Catholics, are pro-life by definition.
00:17:56.580They must be if they're observant and they care about their faith.
00:17:59.860And I think for a lot of Catholics and Christians generally, you think that, well, pro-life, it means pro-life.
00:18:06.060It means you have to apply that across the board.
00:18:07.980And listen, I understand that because I've talked openly about the fact that if you go back six years or something, that was my position.
00:18:14.640I mean, there was a time when I was against the death penalty.
00:18:17.140I argued against it publicly and on this grounds that it was like, well, I'd say I'm pro-life.
00:18:22.660You know, I talk about the right to life.
00:19:02.360And very often the debate about whether or not to have it hinges on things like, is it a deterrent?
00:19:12.100You know, it's like sort of the practical questions.
00:19:16.140Or could we save money with the death penalty?
00:19:18.820And then the people that are against it will say, well, actually, it costs more to execute people than it does to keep them alive.
00:19:24.120But that's only because of the way that we approach the death penalty in the first place, which was made more expensive than it ever needed to be.
00:19:29.140um but what was what was i think clarifying for me is when i realized that well actually there is
00:19:37.300there is a deterrent factor to it um and yeah it's expensive but it doesn't need to be it's just the
00:19:41.900way we've chosen to do it uh and and if it's not as much of a deterrent now that's because of how
00:19:47.320we approach it it's because even if you get convicted and given a death penalty it's not
00:19:51.620going to actually happen for like 30 or 40 years you might die of old age before it happens and
00:19:55.580And that really minimizes the deterrent factor.
00:19:57.920But all of that is almost to the side.
00:20:00.720The real reason is the simplest reason.
00:20:04.080The real reason why you need the death penalty is because of justice.
00:22:40.500and so we are two of the only people that i see like prominent conservatives out there pushing
00:22:48.880for the death penalty so i agree with you we need to push it to at least be a debate a topic of
00:22:53.940conversation because it is a matter of justice and for me immigration and criminal justice of
00:22:59.780course along with abortion are like the biggest issues because they have to do with the safety
00:23:04.280and the security of my family of my daughters and future generations and so more people need
00:23:09.320to care about it. Yeah, absolutely. And they have to do with, like I said, they have to do with
00:23:14.640justice. And I think that that is what, on top of the fact that our children are not nearly as safe
00:23:20.420as they should be living in a society where these monsters and animals are released back into
00:23:25.800communities. But also, people are hungry for justice. And I think they look around and they
00:23:32.000see, you know, as you say, immigration is part of this, like people could just flout our laws,
00:23:36.620It doesn't matter. You can do what you want. And it's just, it's one of the most, you know,
00:23:42.500we have a need for food and water and shelter, and that's true. But as human beings, we have
00:23:49.100deeper needs than that. We have spiritual needs, love, you know, that's a real need. And justice,
00:23:54.220justice is a need. You need that to be, to live and be happy and thrive and to have a civilized
00:23:59.280society. And I think that in our society today, we are greatly starved for justice. And, you know,
00:24:06.180this would help that okay i want to get to your series specifically i want to talk about the
00:24:10.900installment on the civil war but before we do i have to play this clip by gavin newsom's wife
00:24:16.500you've been talking about her a little bit on x really everyone has but this has to do with what
00:24:21.960we're talking about with these heinous criminals as she says she's basically just like them here's
00:24:26.760stop 14 i lost my older sister a few days before my seventh birthday and i blame myself for her
00:24:32.560death. And I share that because that they ultimately were accused of committing these
00:24:41.020violent crimes and sentenced for life. And I think it shocked them that this, you know,
00:24:45.920blonde lady who was, you know, interviewing them had a similar story, was perhaps in the
00:24:54.300wrong place at the wrong time, but wasn't punished the way they were because clearly
00:24:59.600it was an accident but theirs was probably an accident too okay so she says basically that
00:25:06.520everyone on death row that they it was just an accident that they killed someone
00:25:12.080yeah i mean total madness to be using her own and to be what happened to her sister and what
00:25:22.800happened to her is a terrible tragedy i mean i can't imagine that as a parent uh it's an awful
00:25:26.420thing. I think, and I don't, you know, she was seven years old when it happened. Like, of course,
00:25:30.780I don't, she says it was an accident. I believe her. Yeah. I don't blame her for that. But using
00:25:36.200it now as an adult, as a 50-year-old woman, as this kind of cudgel to drive home a point,0.92
00:25:43.580a political point, not just any political point, but a deranged, the most deranged point you can
00:25:48.100make, which is that every violent criminal actually just did it by accident. I mean,
00:25:53.620what? That's, that's insanity. I mean, that, that's the kind of thing that in a just insane
00:26:00.340country, um, you would be totally disqualified from ever holding any kind of position of
00:26:07.120leadership. Um, and, and, and your husband would be too. Like, it's so crazy that we should look
00:26:11.940at that and say, oh, well, these people can't be anywhere near any position of authority. That's
00:26:16.020total, that's, that's just total lunacy. But, um, and maybe it will have that effect on Gavin
00:26:21.940Newsom. I mean, I, you know, as others have remarked, I do think it's quite funny in some
00:26:26.620ways that Gavin Newsom is going through great effort, great pains to present himself as this
00:26:32.320kind of moderate, this sort of normal guy, and which is all fake. But he's trying, he's trying
00:26:38.140to do it. And then he's got his wife out there trying to put herself at the center of the story
00:26:42.420and just, and saying the most insane nonsense. It's, and maybe she's the one who sinks his
00:26:48.400campaign. Ultimately, that would be that would be poetic justice. Yeah, I would love for her to
00:26:52.220keep talking. I had no idea she was so chatty and had so many opinions. But I certainly think
00:26:56.300that it helps us in 2028 if she is out there front and center. All right, let's talk about
00:27:01.300some more nonsense. You've uncovered some nonsense when it comes to history and how history has been
00:27:06.880told to us, taught to us. And now you have a new episode in your real history series about
00:27:12.760the Civil War. And one of the main points that you say at the top, which I think is so interesting,
00:27:18.180is basically that the North wrote the history of the Civil War, and that's why we think of it the
00:27:23.620way we do. So I'll just let you kind of run with that. What do we need to really know about what
00:27:28.760went on? Well, I think, you know, and this is a series where we look at various different
00:27:36.120historical episodes and, you know, recent going much farther back into the past. And what we want
00:27:44.640to do is, it's very simple. We call it real history for a reason, is look at the reality
00:27:50.640of what actually happened and try to actually look at it as objectively as one can, which
00:27:57.360is not entirely objective. And what we don't want to do in this series is replace what
00:28:03.660we know is the kind of cartoonish left-wing version of these historical events with an
00:28:09.620equally cartoonish opposite view of those same events from the right. We don't want
00:28:14.280to do that either. What we want to do is look at this and say, look, these are, everyone likes to
00:28:20.560say, you know, claim everything is nuanced these days. Well, some things actually are nuanced. And
00:28:25.740when it comes to huge historical topics, like we started with slavery, I mean, slavery is
00:28:31.520an institution across the entire globe for thousands of years, very complicated, complex,
00:28:37.200nuanced topic, and it requires a sober-minded objective analysis and the Civil War as well.
00:28:42.880Civil War, in American Civil War, of course, was much, much more contained in terms of the number of years that it occurred. But it's the most brutal war ever fought by Americans by far. And the reasons for it, what led up to it, the personal motivations of the people on the ground doing the fighting versus the political reasons why the war happened.
00:29:08.660All of these things are very complicated. And so we try to look at it objectively and just give you a straightforward, you know, doesn't matter. This might be upsetting to some people. It's obviously going to be unorthodox, according to the mainstream narrative. Don't really care about that. This is what actually happened.
00:29:26.460And we kind of start in this episode looking at this interesting shift that's happened.
00:29:36.400And I think a lot of people don't realize this happened because we take certain things for granted.
00:29:40.180that, you know, if you go back 100 years ago, people back then had a much more kind of sober,
00:29:54.020sort of objective view of the Civil War. And by and large, they were able to look at the event
00:30:01.520and say, hey, it was a terrible thing that it happened. But there were actually heroes on both
00:30:08.980sides. I mean, there were men on both sides of great heroism and courage and dignity, and they
00:30:14.720were fighting for what they believed in, you know? And we can respect that, and we can honor that,
00:30:19.900we can celebrate that. And that's why, you know, 100 years ago, you saw a lot of Robert E. Lee
00:30:23.880statues go up and things named after Robert E. Lee. And then it's really, but think about that.
00:30:29.280100 years ago, there were people who, they were much closer to the event, obviously, in terms of
00:30:36.060time. And there were people a hundred years ago that like their grandfathers fought in the civil
00:30:40.100war. I mean, they would have known people that fought in it or saw it. I mean, they were that
00:30:45.500close to it. How could it be that the people who are that close to it have a more objective
00:30:51.480view of it than us now? It kind of doesn't make any sense because you would think that for them,
00:30:56.820well, the wounds are still raw, much more raw than they are for us. And so it would be harder
00:31:01.780for them. But you'd think with us, now we have more distance. None of us knew anyone who fought
00:31:06.640the Civil War. None of us had any relatives we ever met who fought in it or anything like that.
00:31:11.220It's always just been ancient history to us. And so you'd think that we'd be the ones who'd be
00:31:14.880able to say, look, this happened a long time ago. And so let's just be objective. And yet we're the
00:31:20.020ones who, no, no, no, we look at the Robert E. Lee statues and say, oh, we got to tear those down.
00:31:24.240I can't even look at it. I can't even look. I can't even see that. It's still so raw to me.
00:31:29.460And how could we be saying that 150 years later, but 100 years ago, they didn't feel that way?
00:31:33.900Or even 10 years after the war, they didn't quite feel that way that we do about it.
00:31:38.720And what's happened is the propaganda, is this shift in the way things were taught in the school system, in media.
00:31:50.680And that's what we're living in right now.
00:31:52.700And so we try to kind of go back and, as I said, take a more objective view.
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00:33:04.820Voice of the Martyrs. They need our support. Our brothers and sisters in Christ need our support.
00:33:09.860Go to vom.org slash Allie. When I was little, 90s, early 2000s, I grew up in Texas. My husband's
00:33:22.340from Georgia, but my parents are from Arkansas and Louisiana. And so definitely from the South
00:33:27.820where it was like normal for boys to, you know, play civil war and you would have your little
00:33:34.280like Robert E. Lee, um, little figurine. And of course, if you were a boy in the South,
00:33:40.880you never wanted to be a Yankee. You never wanted to be one of the union soldiers. You wanted to be0.70
00:33:45.340Robert E. Lee. You wanted to be the Confederate soldier. And of course to these families and0.69
00:33:49.920these little boys, it had nothing to do with, oh, well, I really wish slavery were still around,
00:33:54.780had nothing to do with that. And I think people now, they can't separate at all slavery from the
00:34:01.480Civil War. But as you kind of like retell what really happened to the nuances of the Civil War,
00:34:06.780you say, well, for a lot of the people, not even now, but then like there was a separation there.
00:34:12.200It wasn't just everyone fighting wasn't just saying, yes, slavery is great.
00:34:16.660Right, of course. And now slavery was not, and this is why I say we don't want to replace a cartoonish sort of left wing version with a cartoonish right wing version. And you find that sometimes sort of like Civil War revisionism where you have people say, well, actually slavery had nothing to do with it at all. And no, the Confederates weren't the evil villains. It was the Union. That's not true either. I mean, slavery was very much a part of the story, but it wasn't just that.
00:34:44.380There was the cultural differences between the North and the South, the economic concerns.
00:34:49.020There was a lot of things that went into it.
00:35:12.480The men and boys who went and fought and died horrifically. I mean, horrifically. Why were they doing that? What compelled them to do that? And what we're supposed to believe, if you listen to the mainstream narrative, is that, well, Confederate soldiers went to the battlefield to fight and die to protect the rights of rich plantation owners to have slaves on their plantations.
00:35:42.480And meanwhile, these union men and boys left their homes, came down south and died horribly because they just believe so much in freeing these poor black slaves.
00:35:54.820That is total nonsense. That is not at all. I mean, that is not at all the case.0.89
00:36:01.120One thing you have to keep in mind is that this was the 1860s. Like by our standards today, everybody was racist, not just white people.
00:36:09.140Everyone who lived on the planet anywhere in 1861
00:39:07.220And I just think you're, you know, you'd have to be a dishonest person to look at that and say you don't at least understand the moral dilemma he faced.
00:39:17.440And you can't at least understand why he made the choice that he made.
00:39:21.480Because I tell you something, if I was in that exact same spot, I'd make the same choice.
00:39:25.720Like, I'm going to fight alongside my family and for my home.
00:39:30.020Under no circumstances am I leading an army against my own home and my own family ever.
00:39:45.440He was heroic in his courage, as many of these men were.
00:39:51.480He was a military genius. I mean, a lot of his tactics and strategies are still taught in military schools to this day. I think that shouldn't be controversial. I mean, he was certainly a military tactical genius.
00:40:07.080When you look at, and yeah, the South obviously ultimately lost. I think they survived a lot longer than most people would have thought that they would. And they were outmanned, outgunned considerably. They were marching these armies of 17-year-old farm boys who sometimes didn't even have shoes.
00:40:28.580um and uh so to to to have some of the the bad the victories that he did on the battlefield i think is
00:40:36.620um extraordinary genius he was a risk taker he took he took huge risks didn't always pay off
00:40:42.000that's what how it is with risks um and that's another reason why you know that's why this is
00:40:48.140this is why you get a statue made to you like if you are a great genius of history and you do things
00:53:26.360But maybe there's a less cliche way of putting it
00:53:28.560that I'm just not clever enough to come up with.
00:53:29.700But it is in large part that, you know, we should have the benefit as Americans in the year 2026.
00:53:41.080We have all this human history behind us.
00:53:43.640And not only that, but we have access to more information and more knowledge than any humans in the history of the race, the human race ever have.
00:53:54.000I mean, we carry around in our pockets the sum total of human knowledge in our pockets, right?
00:54:00.320I mean, we consume more information in a day than our ancestors did in their entire lives.
00:54:06.140And so there should be a benefit to that, which is that we're able to learn the lessons of the past and we can actually become wiser because of it.
00:54:17.260That's wisdom. Wisdom is not just having information and it's not just knowing stuff.
00:54:24.000It's having the information, which becomes knowledge, which then informs how you act today, informs your actions today.
00:54:33.060It's learning the lessons from that information and from that knowledge that you have.
00:54:37.680But you're not going to do that if you're walking around with this comic book idea of history.
00:54:45.680And then the other problem, too, is that there's a sense of humility and gratitude that we should have when we think about our nation's past and we think about our ancestors.
00:55:05.880Humility and gratitude and also pride.
00:55:08.820But it's a humble pride because it's not a pride in anything that we did.
00:55:11.700And it's like the pride that you take. And if a family member achieves something great and we say, I'm proud of that. But it's not because you're taking credit for it. It's because you are humbled by their accomplishment and you love them. And so that's what you mean by pride. And we should have those things for our country and for our ancestors.
00:55:31.700um but many people in a country today don't don't have that instead they have this sense of um
00:55:40.600of entitlement this this kind of like snobbiness this i think it was c.s lewis talked about
00:55:47.360chronological snobbery there's there's a lot of that feeling better than than the people who came
00:55:53.180before us looking at our country with this kind of resentment all of that i think stems in large
00:56:01.520part from not knowing our, not knowing our history. Yeah. And I don't think it's a coincidence
00:56:09.340that in the past, I don't know, 15 to 20 years, as we've become more sensitive about these periods
00:56:15.360of history, that we have also become less stable when it comes to, like, our modern sense of
00:56:21.840justice. Like, people are actually more incensed about injustices and perceived injustices from
00:56:27.260200 years ago than they are about some of the things that we talked about at the top of the
00:56:31.080show and to me like that's just not a coincidence it's like this progressive worldview and social
00:56:37.840justice that actually perverts real justice and also it just gets human nature wrong it gets good
00:56:44.660and evil wrong i think that's part of the reason why what you're doing is really important it just
00:56:49.620makes us look more factually and objectively about who humans are and what they've done for better
00:56:55.660and for worse there are much better lessons to be drawn from that than this like you know as you
00:57:00.580said clownish narrative on either side of history. We can't learn anything from things that aren't
00:57:06.120true. Where can people find your series? You can go to dailywire.com. It's available for
00:57:12.680subscribers. You got to subscribe. And we have three episodes, I believe, currently up. And
00:57:18.680we just recorded our next episode, which I won't get into right now, but I'm excited about it. It's
00:57:24.280going to upset all the right people. So we're continuing to make episodes, but you got to