The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 1445 - Did the Government Shield Diddy Like Epstein？

00:00:00.000 Today on the Matwell Show, Sean Combs, a.k.a. P. Diddy, has been finally arrested for alleged sex crimes, among other offenses.

00:00:07.040 Is this another Epstein situation? If so, will Combs meet the same fate?

00:00:11.120 Also, a sheriff in Florida threatens public shaming of delinquent children. Is that the right approach?

00:00:16.160 Kamala Harris has asked about reparations. Her answer is not really an answer at all.

00:00:19.680 Plus, my new film, Am I Racist?, is being criticized by some on the right who believe that we used unethical methods to make our film.

00:00:26.580 I'll respond to those claims today. All of that and more today on the Matwell Show.

00:00:30.220 Well, this is it. The final day for you to take advantage of our presidential deal.

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00:02:01.100 Some of the most revealing moments from the sordid saga of Jeffrey Epstein came when government officials were asked direct questions and then ducked them without any real explanation.

00:02:11.820 Case in point, five years ago, the labor secretary at the time, Alex Acosta, was speaking to reporters about his handling of the first Epstein criminal case from 2008 when Acosta was a U.S. attorney in Florida.

00:02:22.360 This was the press conference right before. This was the press conference right before Acosta's resignation as labor secretary.

00:02:27.940 For roughly an hour, Acosta tried to explain why his office had offered an extremely lenient plea deal to Epstein, one that offered immunity to his co-conspirators and barely required Epstein to spend any time in a jail cell.

00:02:40.340 Acosta was generally responsive to most questions during this press conference.

00:02:43.220 In fact, at one point, he waved off his assistant who wanted to end the press conference early.

00:02:48.880 But there was one question that Alex Acosta very clearly did not want to answer.

00:02:53.920 It concerned reporting in the Daily Beast that in a discussion with Trump administration officials before his appointment as labor secretary, Acosta had said that Epstein, quote, belonged to intelligence.

00:03:05.180 In other words, Acosta had reportedly suggested to the Trump team that when he was the U.S. attorney, he was told by senior U.S. government officials to go easy on Epstein so that he could stay out of jail.

00:03:15.280 Presumably, the idea was that Epstein could then continue connecting various powerful figures to his sex trafficking ring.

00:03:22.500 And that would, in turn, benefit U.S. intelligence agencies in some way.

00:03:27.040 Maybe they might want to blackmail Epstein's associates or collect information about them, for example.

00:03:32.140 So here's how Alex Acosta answered, or rather didn't answer, a reporter's question about the Daily Beast's reporting.

00:03:38.320 Watch.

00:03:39.700 Mr. Secretary, were you ever made aware at any point in your handling of this case if Mr. Epstein was an intelligence asset of some sort?

00:03:48.160 So there has been reporting to that effect.

00:03:53.740 And let me say, there's been reporting to a lot of effects in this case, not just now but over the years.

00:04:01.480 And, again, I would hesitate to take this reporting as fact.

00:04:10.880 This was a case that was brought by our office.

00:04:13.620 It was brought based on the facts.

00:04:16.340 And I look at that reporting and others.

00:04:18.520 I can't address it directly because of our guidelines.

00:04:23.480 But I can tell you that a lot of reporting is just going down rabbit holes.

00:04:28.800 A few more questions.

00:04:30.500 Now, that wasn't exactly a denial.

00:04:33.020 Instead of saying, no, I was not told to go easy on Epstein because he belonged to intelligence, Alex Acosta said that department policy prevented him from offering any kind of response.

00:04:42.080 It's not hard to conclude that Acosta was hiding something.

00:04:45.400 It's especially true since, according to public documents in Epstein's plea deal, it stated that Epstein had agreed to provide, quote, information to the FBI.

00:04:52.240 So the government's handling of Epstein's case raised the obvious question of how many other deviants like Epstein might enjoy protection from the government in one way or another.

00:05:03.400 How many other sex traffickers have been operating with impunity because the government is deliberately looking the other way?

00:05:08.880 That's an especially important question to be asking after what happened yesterday involving Sean Combs, a.k.a. Diddy, a.k.a. Puff Daddy, a.k.a. P. Diddy.

00:05:18.640 The U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York held a press conference announcing a series of criminal charges against Combs, including racketeering and sex trafficking.

00:05:27.700 And by the U.S. Attorney's own admission, these alleged offenses have been occurring for a very long time and often involve something that Combs called, quote, unquote, freak offs.

00:05:39.640 Watch.

00:05:41.020 The indictment alleges that Combs abused and exploited women and other people for years and in a variety of ways.

00:05:47.860 As alleged, Combs used force, threats of force, and coercion to cause victims to engage in extended sexual performances with male commercial sex workers, some of whom he transported or caused to be transported over state lines.

00:06:04.640 Combs allegedly planned and controlled the sex performances, which he called freak offs.

00:06:11.020 And he often electronically recorded them.

00:06:13.380 The freak offs sometimes lasted days at a time, involved multiple commercial sex workers, and often involved a variety of narcotics, such as ketamine, ecstasy, and GHB, which Combs distributed to the victims to keep them obedient and compliant.

00:06:30.560 In addition to the violence, the indictment alleges that Combs threatened and coerced victims to get them to participate in the freak offs.

00:06:38.280 He used the embarrassing and sensitive recordings he made of the freak offs as collateral against the victims.

00:06:46.720 Part of this investigation, in March of this year, special agents from HSI executed search warrants at Combs' residences in Miami and Los Angeles.

00:06:56.720 They also executed a warrant for Combs' electronic devices.

00:07:00.680 During those searches, agents seized evidence of the crimes charged in this indictment.

00:07:04.440 They seized firearms and ammunition, including three defaced AR-15s and the large capacity drum magazine.

00:07:13.620 They also seized evidence of the freak offs.

00:07:16.700 So according to the U.S. attorney, there's overwhelming evidence that these illegal freak offs occurred, such as text messages, videos, and more than a thousand bottles of baby oil and lubricants.

00:07:28.080 As soon as the feds executed the search warrants earlier this year on two of Combs' mansions, the evidence was all there.

00:07:33.620 And according to the indictment that was unsealed yesterday, there's also a lot of evidence that Sean Combs has been committing serious crimes for the past decade, right out in the open.

00:07:42.640 Quote, physical abuse by Sean Combs was recurrent and widely known.

00:07:45.760 On numerous occasions from at least in or about 2009 and continuing for years, Combs assaulted women by, among other things, striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at, and kicking them.

00:07:55.840 So that's from the grand jury indictment.

00:07:58.640 What's not stated in the grand jury indictment is why this widely known conduct was ignored for so long.

00:08:05.500 Why wasn't Sean Combs charged criminally for any of this conduct at any point until yesterday?

00:08:10.280 Why was he allowed to allegedly commit crimes that were, quote, recurrent and widely known since 2009?

00:08:17.900 As it happens, that was the very first question that the U.S. attorney received at yesterday's press conference, and here's how he responded.

00:08:24.100 The indictment describes aggressive, open, violent, hedonistic abuse that you say was recurrent and widely known.

00:08:34.700 Why did it take law enforcement so long to intervene?

00:08:38.820 How many women were victimized by Sean Combs and how many others were involved?

00:08:44.380 Look, our investigation is ongoing.

00:08:46.240 We are committed to bringing justice to everyone who's been victimized by the defendant.

00:08:51.200 I can't tell you why it took so long.

00:08:54.340 I think the better focus is on the fact that we are here today and we are committed to making sure that justice is done.

00:09:01.980 Next question.

00:09:02.700 So, like Alex Acosta, he has no answer whatsoever, and he says that it doesn't even matter now, but it definitely does matter.

00:09:13.920 I mean, this is the single most important question that he was asked during the entire press conference.

00:09:18.100 How exactly can people have any confidence in government or federal prosecutors if, by their own admission, it takes them well over a decade to bring charges when someone is allegedly committing crimes that are recurrent and widely known?

00:09:29.960 And also, by the way, heinous and disgusting.

00:09:33.460 Why exactly shouldn't we believe that P. Diddy was being protected for some reason, just like Jeffrey Epstein was apparently protected until he wasn't anymore?

00:09:42.160 At this point, the burden of proof is not on us to answer that question.

00:09:44.980 The burden of proof is on the government.

00:09:47.180 It certainly looks as though there was ample reason to at least investigate Combs going back a long time.

00:09:51.820 There's so much creepy and inappropriate footage involving Sean Combs that you could spend all day going through it.

00:09:56.760 But here, for example, is a video of Combs with Justin Bieber, if you haven't seen this, who at the time was just 15 years old, while Sean Combs was obviously very much a grown adult man.

00:10:10.200 And just watch this. Here it is.

00:10:12.760 Justin, he's in, you ever seen the movie 48 Hours?

00:10:15.580 Right now, he's having 48 hours with Diddy, him and his boy.

00:10:18.720 They're having the times of their lives, like, you know, where we hanging out and what we doing, we can't really disclose.

00:10:29.280 But it's definitely a 15-year-old's dream.

00:10:34.280 You know, I have been given custody of him.

00:10:37.960 You know, he signed to Usher.

00:10:39.320 I'm signed to Usher.

00:10:39.960 I had legal guardianship of Usher when, you know, he did his first album.

00:10:45.220 I did Usher's first album.

00:10:46.480 I don't really, I don't have legal guardianship of him, but for the next 48 hours, he's with me.

00:10:51.440 So, yeah, and we're going to go full, buck-full crazy.

00:10:56.900 We're going crazy.

00:11:01.100 He's going full crazy with a 15-year-old child.

00:11:04.480 Now, what kind of adult records a video like that with a child and says that what he's doing with Justin Bieber, he can't disclose?

00:11:15.480 Talking about having custody of him, like he had custody of Usher.

00:11:19.340 This would be disturbing, even if there were no other videos like it, but there's a lot of videos like it.

00:11:23.480 Here's another.

00:11:23.980 Watch as Sean Combs tells Kevin Hart that he used to wrestle with Usher when Usher was 10 years old.

00:11:30.180 Then he says something else that sounds inappropriate, and Kevin Hart reacts, as you would expect.

00:11:34.280 Watch.

00:11:35.700 That's my brother right here from day one. 0.91

00:11:37.580 We used to wake up and, I mean, damn, pause, but like, I mean, I mean, back in the days when he was like 10, and I was a little bit older. 0.69

00:11:45.880 His older brother, we used to fight over the, over the Frosted Flakes, you know what I'm saying, before Paws was invented. 0.98

00:11:51.200 You know what I'm saying, but it's my brother for real.

00:11:53.440 We used to actually wrestle off of the, off of the Frosted Flakes, because he used to always get up early with me, and now he's one of the richest stars in the world. 0.94

00:12:01.280 Yo, what the f*** did Puff just say?

00:12:04.920 Nobody's going to get up just with me. 0.97

00:12:06.820 Puff just said we used to wrestle over the Frosted Flakes, and we're streaming live. 1.00

00:12:11.760 That was stupid. 1.00

00:12:12.660 Listen, that was f***ing stupid. 1.00

00:12:14.840 Let's be having a good time, yo. 1.00

00:12:15.960 By the way, Combs is, I think, 10 years older than Usher, so when Usher was 10, he was 20, so he was a 20-year-old man wrestling with a 10-year-old over Frosted Flakes.

00:12:29.560 These kinds of videos have been all over the internet for a very long time.

00:12:35.940 Did anyone in the government follow up on any of this?

00:12:38.040 Did they ask anyone any questions about any of it?

00:12:41.240 Did they apply for any kind of search warrant to look closer at Sean Combs' text messages or to look for incriminating evidence on his properties?

00:12:47.480 If not, why not?

00:12:48.580 And for that matter, why wasn't Combs charged after this video service from a hotel in 2016, which appears to show him violently assaulting a woman on camera?

00:13:01.100 Watch.

00:13:02.420 Disturbing new video appears to support some of the accusations of abuse against music mogul Sean Diddy Combs.

00:13:08.180 We want to warn you that this video you're about to see is extremely graphic.

00:13:11.920 The surveillance footage that was captured inside of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016 allegedly shows Combs assaulting then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a hallway.

00:13:23.740 A now-settled lawsuit filed by Ventura claimed that she was trying to leave the hotel after a drunken Combs punched her. 0.90

00:13:30.760 The video appears to show Combs chasing her down the hall, throwing her to the ground, and then repeatedly kicking her.

00:13:36.520 So far, there's been no comment from Combs or his attorney.

00:13:39.140 So how exactly did that footage stay hidden for so long?

00:13:45.040 Long enough that the statute of limitations ran out and local prosecutors couldn't bring charges anymore?

00:13:50.140 That's the kind of question that a lot of people in the entertainment industry have been asking for a very long time.

00:13:54.940 When there are multiple videos where you appear to be committing a crime or engaging in very bizarre and disturbing conduct

00:13:59.480 or indicating that there is a crime going on behind the scenes, then under normal circumstances, you'd expect some kind of follow-up.

00:14:05.980 But there wasn't any follow-up.

00:14:07.400 For his part, Kanye West repeatedly called Sean Combs a fed, both in interviews and in text messages,

00:14:12.480 probably because there didn't appear to be any other rational explanation for how he could get away with all this stuff for more than a decade.

00:14:18.860 I mean, longer than that.

00:14:20.440 How can anyone engage in conduct like this without suffering any consequences for it for so long?

00:14:24.760 One theory is that, like Epstein, Sean Combs was very well connected with powerful people in Washington.

00:14:31.160 In April 2020, for example, Kamala Harris tweeted out this message, quote,

00:14:35.240 Thank you, Diddy, for hosting this town hall last night.

00:14:37.660 There's a lot at stake for our communities right now, and it's critical we bring to the forefront how coronavirus is perpetuating racial inequality and health disparities.

00:14:45.140 So Combs was helping to push Democrats' messaging that COVID was racist.

00:14:51.000 This was during the summer of 2020 when calling everything racist was the Democrats' official campaign strategy.

00:14:55.720 Meanwhile, other prominent entertainers, people like Jimmy Kimmel, suggested that Sean Combs could serve as president.

00:15:01.720 After all, you know, he's not morally bankrupt like Donald Trump, right?

00:15:07.060 Watch.

00:15:08.580 Maybe you could be president.

00:15:10.160 Do you ever think about anything like that?

00:15:11.980 No.

00:15:12.500 Really, never.

00:15:13.460 No.

00:15:13.900 Why?

00:15:14.460 I wouldn't make a good president.

00:15:15.640 You don't think you'd be good?

00:15:16.680 I wouldn't really pass any of the things that you have to pass, but I guess Trump did it.

00:15:21.400 Yeah, no.

00:15:22.060 No.

00:15:23.360 You would be a Boy Scout by comparison.

00:15:26.220 Yeah, yeah.

00:15:27.320 Nah, um, I like doing what I'm doing.

00:15:30.080 You like doing what I'm doing, yeah, yeah.

00:15:31.000 Yeah, there's no fun in that, is there?

00:15:33.120 I don't know if I could be responsible for the whole country.

00:15:36.520 You know what?

00:15:37.060 I think that at this point, almost anybody would be doing a better job.

00:15:41.700 What about you?

00:15:42.800 Yeah, and I wouldn't do a better job, but I think I would, you know what?

00:15:46.040 I would, if you agreed to run for president, I would be happy to be your running mate.

00:15:49.620 Let's put it that way, all right? 0.99

00:15:51.980 Now, one of the main takeaways from this is just the fact that the entertainment industry is full of extravagantly degenerate scumbags. 0.99

00:15:59.040 I mean, these are people engaging in debauchery and opulence. 0.97

00:16:02.920 Once reserved for the most corrupt Roman emperors, and now you've got people like Sean Combs, who produced some low IQ gangster rap in the 90s and found himself in the position of a corrupt Roman emperor. 0.99

00:16:17.380 This is why so much of, by the way, so much of what the entertainment industry produces is garbage, because it's made by morally reprobate parasites. 0.98

00:16:26.700 Now, these aren't flawed artistic geniuses like we've had in the past, but vacuous airheads who figured out how to sell trash to an audience often even more vapid than they are. 0.99

00:16:39.220 I mean, Jimmy Kimmel probably knew Sean Combs was a piece of garbage when he did this interview, but Jimmy Kimmel's also garbage, along with pretty much everyone else in the industry. 0.98

00:16:46.700 So we get clips like that one. 0.92

00:16:48.900 Meanwhile, you know, the Me Too movement came along back in 2018 or whenever that was, canceled some guys for some bad dates.

00:16:59.980 Aziz Ansari and those kinds of guys somehow missed Sean Combs entirely.

00:17:04.380 Somehow he flew onto the radar for more than a decade, even though, according to yesterday's indictment, he wasn't particularly good at hiding what he was doing.

00:17:12.400 If those details are true, Sean Combs is an Epstein-level monster, if not worse, potentially.

00:17:18.540 And yet no one did anything about it.

00:17:21.200 So the question now is whether Sean Combs will meet the same fate as Epstein.

00:17:26.180 Combs was just denied bail, even though his defense team offered to put up a $50 million bond secured by his various properties.

00:17:32.260 That's a sign that he'll be staying in jail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn for a very long time.

00:17:37.520 So as with Epstein, the government is now bringing down a hammer on Combs abruptly and without any real explanation of why they're doing it now, but didn't do it before.

00:17:48.460 And if Epstein is any indication, we probably will never get an explanation.

00:17:53.200 All we can say with certainty is that a lot of people in Sean Combs' orbit are probably very nervous right now.

00:17:58.380 And in turn, that should make Sean Combs himself very nervous.

00:18:02.260 Five years after the mysterious death of Jeffrey Epstein, we're no closer to getting a full explanation of his crimes or who he was associated with exactly.

00:18:12.560 Instead, with the arrest of Sean Combs and the sudden disclosure of his freak-offs, among other things,

00:18:18.500 there's reason to think that yet another massive cover-up is already underway.

00:18:24.020 Now let's get to our five headlines.

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00:19:59.300 So I want to start with this.

00:20:00.380 A sheriff in Florida, Sheriff Mike Chitwood, is pretty fed up.

00:20:05.160 His agency has wasted apparently thousands of dollars investigating threats at school,

00:20:09.780 most of which have turned out to be hoaxes.

00:20:12.120 But, you know, a lot of these threats are coming in, kids that are threatening violence.

00:20:18.060 He seems to be at the end of his rope with the hoax threats and all other kinds of threats.

00:20:23.040 And here's what he said he's going to do about it.

00:20:25.260 Watch.

00:20:25.440 You know, this is absolutely out of control, and it ends now.

00:20:29.620 Fifty-four and counting tips came in to Fortify Florida last night, okay?

00:20:35.460 That means investigators in the school district have been running around the clock to investigate these tips,

00:20:40.860 which are all turning out to be false.

00:20:42.260 So far, it's costed $21,000 to do these investigations.

00:20:47.900 We have two in custody.

00:20:49.420 We have an investigation looking at one other individual.

00:20:52.600 So far this year, there have been 207 threats who have come in.

00:20:57.220 We've arrested seven people for written threats to kill.

00:21:00.920 One student, if you remember, tried to bring a loaded firearm into a mainland football game.

00:21:06.100 We've had 11 weapons on our campuses this year.

00:21:10.060 So what we're going to start doing Monday is, since parents, you don't want to raise your kids, I'm going to start raising them.

00:21:16.600 Every time we make an arrest, your kid's photo is going to be put out there.

00:21:21.960 And if I can do it, I'm going to perp walk your kid so that everybody can see what your kid's up to.

00:21:27.340 The second point of this is, if I can in any way find out that a parent knew what was going on and wasn't doing anything,

00:21:35.300 your a** is getting perp walk with them. 0.82

00:21:38.440 The purpose of Fortify Florida is to send in tips that we're going to investigate because you believe something is going to happen.

00:21:45.620 To keep sending in these tips over and over and over again and think it's a big joke and nothing's going to happen to it,

00:21:53.300 starting Monday, we're going to have a billboard, we're going to have a poster out.

00:21:56.660 I'm going to show you every kid that's been arrested and where they go to school.

00:22:00.680 And then from there on out, we're going to publicly shame them and their parents.

00:22:04.040 So parents, do your job.

00:22:07.180 Don't let Sheriff Chitwood raise your kids. 0.99

00:22:09.700 This is absolutely ridiculous. 0.99

00:22:12.660 Go talk to the families who have lost a loved one in a school shooting. 1.00

00:22:16.680 These little knuckleheads think it's funny. 0.66

00:22:18.540 Go talk to those parents. 0.98

00:22:20.420 Let me cut out of that.

00:22:21.120 So he's upset and understandably, and you can understand where he's coming from. 0.72

00:22:30.640 I mean, as a general rule, I'm not in favor of perp walking and publicly shaming kids because they're kids and they do dumb things.

00:22:38.860 Obviously, there needs to be consequences. 0.94

00:22:42.940 Making a threat at school is more than a dumb thing. 0.82

00:22:46.520 I mean, it is a dumb thing to do, but it's more than that. 0.84

00:22:50.180 And there need to be very serious consequences for that. 0.62

00:22:52.600 But generally, I would say it doesn't need to be public.

00:22:54.960 And, you know, because you also don't want this, a kid even does something terrible when he's 12 or 13 or something.

00:23:05.620 That's still a kid with very much a not fully developed brain.

00:23:11.840 And you don't want that to follow him for the rest of his life, even as an adult.

00:23:20.700 That's usually my stance.

00:23:22.300 But in some of these schools and in some communities, the situation has gotten so bad.

00:23:27.580 It's so out of control that you have to resort to methods that you would prefer to not have to use.

00:23:32.980 And so I get that.

00:23:34.060 And so in this case, I think the sheriff's doing the right thing because it's like, well, what are we going to do with this?

00:23:41.320 It's it's it's as he said, it's completely out of control.

00:23:45.880 And so unfortunately, we have to ramp things up here and maybe that will get through.

00:23:53.980 Maybe that will make a difference.

00:23:56.100 And look, I'll say this, too.

00:23:57.760 I'm pretty hard on the school system.

00:24:00.540 I'm pretty hard on school staff and teachers when they deserve to be criticized, which they often do deserve to be criticized.

00:24:06.380 But I also recognize what an impossible situation they're in, especially the good ones.

00:24:12.920 And there are plenty of good ones, you know, good staff and teachers in these schools.

00:24:19.220 And they're dealing with the same thing the sheriff is dealing with here, which is kids who have not been raised.

00:24:27.540 Like the sheriff says, parents are making him raise their kids.

00:24:33.120 And if not him, then there's a whole bunch of kids that are basically being raised by the school system because the parents have are relying on the school system to do that because they're not raising their own kids.

00:24:44.880 They're not.

00:24:45.700 And what does it mean to raise your kid?

00:24:47.340 I mean, raising your kid is not just providing the essentials, shelter, food, clothing.

00:24:55.120 I mean, that's the first step, right?

00:24:59.980 That's like the bare minimum of what you need to be doing as a parent.

00:25:04.640 But that's not the raising part.

00:25:06.200 That's keeping your kid alive.

00:25:08.180 Raising is intellectual and moral formation.

00:25:12.480 It is helping your child become a civilized person in society.

00:25:22.700 That's what raising is.

00:25:24.260 That's the hard part.

00:25:26.680 And there are plenty of parents who are just simply not doing that.

00:25:31.420 Now, I don't think that's all parents or even most parents.

00:25:35.020 I also think parents get a bad rap sometimes in our society.

00:25:37.340 But we get blamed.

00:25:38.380 I mean, as a parent myself, I think we get blamed too often.

00:25:42.480 For things that are going wrong.

00:25:44.400 But there are plenty of parents who are just simply not doing that job and not even trying to do it.

00:25:52.360 And then these kids end up at the school.

00:25:53.880 It's like Lord of the Flies.

00:25:55.060 They're completely out of control.

00:25:57.080 And you can talk to any teacher.

00:25:59.740 We'll tell you the horror stories.

00:26:01.320 And if you are a teacher, you already know them.

00:26:02.960 But being in this environment with kids that have no discipline, no maturity, not even civilized people.

00:26:15.480 And now you've got a whole group of them.

00:26:17.860 And you've got them for six, seven hours a day.

00:26:21.340 And it creates just total chaos.

00:26:25.080 And eventually you have to resort to measures that otherwise you would prefer not to.

00:26:33.020 And I think that's what's happening here.

00:26:34.740 Kamala Harris was interviewed by the Black Journalist Association or whatever it's called.

00:26:39.040 This is the same group that Trump infamously sat down with.

00:26:41.820 And we remember how that went.

00:26:44.160 We remember how they treated Trump.

00:26:47.440 So let's compare that to the kinds of questions that Kamala got from these journalists.

00:26:56.100 And this first question is about her joy.

00:27:02.780 Kamala Harris is a very joyful person.

00:27:04.820 And let's hear that.

00:27:06.200 Why is joy important to you to insert into this election?

00:27:11.760 And what do you make of Republicans using that as a way to suggest that you're not a serious candidate?

00:27:20.300 Well, sometimes I think, and I'll say to whoever the young people are who are watching this,

00:27:25.080 there are some times when your adversaries will try and turn your strength into a weakness.

00:27:29.780 Don't you let them.

00:27:31.880 Don't you let them.

00:27:32.800 I find joy in the American people.

00:27:37.120 I find joy in optimism.

00:27:43.180 I find her so difficult to listen to. 0.97

00:27:46.380 Her just, she's so fake, so phony.

00:27:51.740 I find joy in the American people. 1.00

00:27:55.140 Oh, shut up. 1.00

00:27:57.300 And these journalists, total hacks, obviously. 1.00

00:28:01.040 But this was shocking even by their standards.

00:28:05.020 Madam Vice President, why are you so joyful and wonderful?

00:28:09.040 I've noticed that you're full of joy and your opponent, meanwhile, is Hitler. 0.91

00:28:13.900 Care to comment?

00:28:15.100 What are your thoughts on that?

00:28:18.120 Where is this joy, by the way?

00:28:19.620 What joy are they talking about?

00:28:21.680 We're constantly hearing from the left about all their joy and how much joy they have.

00:28:26.920 Where is it?

00:28:28.000 We never see it.

00:28:28.780 Where's the evidence of this joy?

00:28:30.260 What joy are you talking about?

00:28:33.940 I don't see that.

00:28:36.700 I mean, what I see from you is relentless demonization of your ideological enemies,

00:28:42.040 constant self-victimization.

00:28:44.920 Life is so hard.

00:28:46.040 It's terrible. 0.99

00:28:47.460 America is racist. 0.99

00:28:48.640 I mean, that's all we're getting from you. 0.94

00:28:51.020 So where does the joy come in?

00:28:56.300 But, you know, these are the same people that would point to the joy of, quote-unquote,

00:29:04.440 Elliot Page.

00:29:05.500 And meanwhile, you're looking and you just see nothing but pure misery.

00:29:11.320 And yet we're supposed to see that as joy.

00:29:13.120 So similar situation here.

00:29:14.860 She also was asked about reparations.

00:29:18.680 And let's hear what she has to say about that.

00:29:21.380 Last month, you eulogized Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.

00:29:25.860 Yeah.

00:29:26.540 Jackson Lee's signature bill, one of a few, was H.R. 40, which would create a commission

00:29:32.660 to study the history of U.S. slavery and study the issue of reparations.

00:29:37.340 She introduced H.R. 40 every session of Congress, taking up the mantle from Congressman John Conyers.

00:29:42.960 This is a bill that you have co-sponsored as a U.S. senator.

00:29:48.720 Yet this has, despite the fact that this has been, similar commissions have been created

00:29:54.520 on the state level and on the local level, is yet to pass in Congress, let alone come

00:29:59.060 out of committee.

00:30:01.640 Congresswoman Jackson Lee, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, and other advocates have called

00:30:05.820 for President Biden to take executive action to create this commission.

00:30:11.400 Would you, as president, take executive action to create this commission, or do you believe

00:30:18.160 that it should happen in Congress?

00:30:21.100 Well, first of all, I just, as you mentioned, Sheila Jackson Lee, she was an extraordinary

00:30:26.220 leader who we just recently lost.

00:30:28.640 And she was a friend and a real champion for so many issues.

00:30:34.040 So I feel compelled to say that about her.

00:30:36.740 On the issue of what we need to do going forward, look, first of all, we just need to speak truth

00:30:44.700 about history in spite of the fact that some people would try and erase history and try

00:30:49.240 and teach our children otherwise.

00:30:51.100 We need to speak truth about the generational impact of our history in terms of the generational

00:31:00.720 impact of slavery, the generational impact of redlining, of Jim Crow law.

00:31:07.280 I could go on and on and on.

00:31:09.520 These are facts that have had impact.

00:31:14.260 And we need to speak truth about it.

00:31:18.760 And we need to speak truth about it in a way that is about deriving solutions.

00:31:22.460 And frankly, I think that we, you know, and part of that is studying it to figure out exactly

00:31:28.860 what we need to do.

00:31:30.500 But part of what we can do right now is, for example, what I'm talking about in terms of

00:31:35.260 building an opportunity economy.

00:31:38.200 So there's no answer there.

00:31:40.780 And she doesn't answer the question.

00:31:42.880 It goes on and on.

00:31:43.740 It goes on for another minute or two.

00:31:44.960 And, uh, there's no answer to the question she, uh, rambles on and the answer is that

00:31:53.220 she does support reparations.

00:31:54.700 Like that's the actual answer.

00:31:56.160 She has been clear about that in the past, but she's not going to come out and say that

00:32:02.380 now, uh, because she knows how unpopular it is rightfully.

00:32:07.340 So, so we're not going to get the actual support for reparations from her right now.

00:32:12.320 Um, and instead we get this, this whole bit about how we have to be honest about our history

00:32:19.020 and teach our real history.

00:32:20.240 Cause of course that that's coming from this idea that, uh, somehow we're not talking enough

00:32:27.140 about slavery and kids aren't being taught about slavery in school.

00:32:31.600 This, this is the, this is the fantasy world that these people live in right on the left.

00:32:36.840 This is the, this is the fantasy world they're living in where somehow they're living in

00:32:42.320 and kids are not being taught about slavery.

00:32:44.560 And there, there, there are people out there who want to stop those kinds of conversations

00:32:49.620 from happening.

00:32:50.140 It's that's like one of the only facts about American history that the average student even

00:32:57.620 knows.

00:32:59.400 Hey, the average student knows like three things about slavery, about American history and slavery

00:33:04.780 is two of them.

00:33:05.760 Um, so how much more can we talk about it?

00:33:09.880 I mean, we, I, we, we, we've talked about it about as much as you possibly can.

00:33:13.800 There's as much focus on it in school as there could possibly be.

00:33:19.120 And as you know, I've said many times, uh, I actually think there should be more conversation

00:33:24.840 about slavery.

00:33:25.920 I just want to expand it.

00:33:28.720 We've covered American slavery.

00:33:31.280 Okay.

00:33:32.020 That's part of our history.

00:33:33.220 Yeah.

00:33:33.540 We should teach it.

00:33:34.500 Kids should learn about it.

00:33:35.760 Uh, I'd like to expand it and talk about the reality of slavery all across the globe.

00:33:41.220 Uh, the fact that slavery was a reality all across the globe to begin with is something

00:33:47.380 that we should be talking about.

00:33:49.620 Um, and that's not what about ism or an effort to minimize the horrors of the kind of slavery

00:33:58.220 we had in this country, but more just the historical reality.

00:34:01.340 And if you want to understand anything about human civilization, like these are things you

00:34:06.840 have to know.

00:34:07.120 The fact that slavery was an institution all across the world for thousands of years is,

00:34:11.440 uh, one of those crucial facts about human civilization and the development of human civilization that,

00:34:16.240 um, you just have to know if you want to understand anything about human civilization and thus,

00:34:20.660 uh, therefore yourself understand anything about yourself.

00:34:23.300 Um, so that's what I'd like to see.

00:34:28.600 But all of that, of course, is irrelevant to the question of whether or not there should

00:34:31.180 be reparations, which she's not going to say right now, but yes, she does support it.

00:34:35.860 All right.

00:34:36.060 This is a video that I've had here kind of on deck for a couple of days, haven't gotten

00:34:40.800 to, um, I'm going to play it now.

00:34:44.040 Now, Dave Portnoy, of course, a barstool posted a video a few days ago in support of a ballot

00:34:50.100 measure to legalize weed in Florida.

00:34:53.420 And this got a fair amount of attention.

00:34:55.780 And here he is making the argument for the legalization of weed in Florida and everywhere

00:35:00.360 else.

00:35:01.020 Watch.

00:35:01.160 Listen, it's Sunday afternoon, football on TV, pizza on the way in Massachusetts, smoking

00:35:14.540 a little weed, just enjoying my day, Florida.

00:35:18.780 You can't do this in my Miami house.

00:35:20.940 You can't do this.

00:35:22.260 Why freedom?

00:35:23.960 It's about freedom.

00:35:24.880 Half the States allow this legal marijuana, Florida.

00:35:28.480 I want to be able to watch football, eat pizza and smoke.

00:35:33.280 We're all adults here.

00:35:34.660 21 plus make your own decisions.

00:35:37.300 It's on the ballot.

00:35:38.860 Vote yes on three legalized recreational weed. 0.90

00:35:42.880 Come on.

00:35:43.440 Where are we, Florida?

00:35:45.900 Wake up, wake up.

00:35:48.500 Don't tell what other people what to do in their own house.

00:35:51.480 We're grown adults.

00:35:52.760 It's safe.

00:35:53.560 It's legal.

00:35:54.300 Over half the States in the country have it.

00:35:56.360 Why don't we in Florida?

00:35:58.080 I'm a Florida resident.

00:35:59.480 I want to be able to smoke in my house, watching football, eating pizza like a human.

00:36:03.460 I can do it in Massachusetts.

00:36:05.260 Make it legal on ballot day.

00:36:07.880 Vote yes on three in Florida.

00:36:09.620 Thank you.

00:36:10.240 So this is a common argument, of course.

00:36:17.620 It's about freedom.

00:36:19.560 We've heard that a million times.

00:36:22.700 And I think, as I've said before about legalizing marijuana, I used to support it.

00:36:28.980 I wasn't passionately in favor of it.

00:36:32.040 I don't smoke weed myself, so I don't, it's not a personal, I don't care about it personally.

00:36:37.180 So I was never, I wasn't some kind of pro weed advocate or activist out there, you know, marching with a picket sign.

00:36:44.500 But I used to take kind of a libertarian view that if people want to smoke, they should be able to.

00:36:50.680 And, you know, we let people drink alcohol and all that kind of thing.

00:36:55.780 That used to be my view.

00:36:56.960 And then I changed my mind.

00:37:00.840 And the reason I changed my mind is because new information came in, right?

00:37:07.800 You get new information and your opinion changes.

00:37:11.160 At least it should.

00:37:13.460 That's the way this is supposed to work.

00:37:16.560 The new information, the new data is from the places that have actually legalized it.

00:37:21.560 So we went from talking about legalization in theory, talking about it in the abstract, to having hard, tangible examples of legalization in America, in reality.

00:37:34.280 So we don't need to talk about it in theory anymore.

00:37:37.080 And if you're an advocate for legalizing marijuana, you have to deal with the actuality of it.

00:37:42.380 That this is what you wanted, and you got it in many places across the country.

00:37:47.060 And so now let's go back to those places and see how it worked out.

00:37:53.400 This is the thing that the pro-weed advocates, guys like Dave Portnoy, this is a thing they won't do.

00:38:01.600 They're not doing this.

00:38:02.340 Have you noticed that?

00:38:03.840 Like, you wanted this, you got it.

00:38:05.600 Why are you not going back to celebrate your achievements?

00:38:07.840 Like, go back to these communities that have legalized it and show us how great it's been.

00:38:11.820 Why aren't you doing that?

00:38:12.700 Um, it's a simple follow-up, right?

00:38:21.100 Hey, they did this thing that I wanted them to do.

00:38:23.940 How are things now?

00:38:27.800 The answer is that things are terrible.

00:38:30.680 I mean, marijuana legalization has been a catastrophe everywhere in the country that it's been tried.

00:38:36.360 We know that now.

00:38:38.060 We can see it with our own eyes.

00:38:39.460 It has not improved any of these communities.

00:38:43.460 It has made them worse.

00:38:44.400 You can see it.

00:38:45.660 Stop telling people to deny what they can see with their own eyes.

00:38:49.740 You're in these communities.

00:38:50.980 You can see, you can smell it.

00:38:52.100 You can see it and smell it.

00:38:55.040 Just go to any of these cities that have legalized it and walk around and see what it's like.

00:39:00.660 And if you were in these cities before they legalized it, you can compare the two and you can see it with your own eyes.

00:39:04.980 And I'm really tired of people telling us to deny what we can see with our own eyes.

00:39:09.020 And so when I do that, I'm willing to say, wow, okay, I guess I got that one wrong.

00:39:15.240 I can remember traveling.

00:39:17.620 You know, I've traveled a lot for work and I've traveled a fair amount the last 10 years.

00:39:22.840 And I can remember traveling to some of these cities shortly after marijuana was legalized.

00:39:31.020 And just walking around like this place, this is awful.

00:39:33.800 I mean, it just stinks everywhere.

00:39:35.740 People are just stoned walking around.

00:39:39.000 Everything about this place is worse now.

00:39:43.260 And that's what made me say, okay, well, it turns out this was a bad idea.

00:39:48.960 Yeah, I mean, I'm willing to admit that.

00:39:54.080 So let's flip this around and pose the question this way.

00:39:56.980 I'd ask Dave Portnoy or anyone in his position this.

00:40:01.580 Can you give an example, just one example, of a state or city where life improved after legalization?

00:40:12.160 Can you give us a success story?

00:40:14.380 Can you show us the tangible, measurable benefits?

00:40:18.120 Where are they?

00:40:21.320 Show us a place where it was not legalized and then it was.

00:40:27.200 And now things are better.

00:40:28.940 Which things are better?

00:40:32.460 Give us examples.

00:40:35.160 And if you can't do that, then obviously this was a bad idea.

00:40:39.560 I mean, if you pass a law or put a policy in place that has zero benefit to the well-being of the community and in fact makes it worse in a lot of very obvious ways, it's a bad policy.

00:40:51.980 We shouldn't be doing that.

00:40:53.120 And if your only response is, for freedom, I should be able to do what I want.

00:41:00.440 No, you shouldn't be able to do what you want if it makes everyone's life worse.

00:41:05.520 If it's a thing that is destroying the community, no, you shouldn't be allowed to do it.

00:41:09.880 Actually, your ability to do whatever the hell you want is not the top priority of the country.

00:41:21.500 And it shouldn't be. 0.95

00:41:23.620 And any country that makes that the top priority will die, will be destroyed.

00:41:29.840 So I just, you know, I want to eat pizza and smoke weed.

00:41:32.380 It's like, that's your argument?

00:41:33.740 That's just a really weak, okay, you want to do it.

00:41:35.660 I don't give a what you want to do.

00:41:37.080 I mean, who cares?

00:41:37.540 You want to do it. 0.99

00:41:39.880 Who gives a shit what you want to do? 0.99

00:41:42.380 I understand you want to, fine. 0.99

00:41:44.160 But will it destroy the community if we legalize this or not?

00:41:47.820 And if the answer is yes, then I guess you can't do what you want to do with this thing.

00:41:51.860 You can still do a lot of other things you want to do.

00:41:55.660 But you can't do everything you want to do.

00:41:57.640 That's not how it works in adult life.

00:42:00.260 So this is what frustrates me about it.

00:42:02.480 And, you know, anytime I make this point, I'm accused of being some kind of anti-weed Puritan.

00:42:11.740 When even though, as I'm saying, I had the libertarian, I'm admitting, I mean, I wouldn't say this if it wasn't true.

00:42:18.760 I would not invent scenarios for me being wrong about things if I wasn't.

00:42:24.540 I'm not going to tell you that I'm saying I was on the other side of this.

00:42:30.160 And anyone who's followed me for long enough has heard me advocating in the past.

00:42:34.940 Again, not that often or that passionately, but still.

00:42:39.160 And so I was on that side and I'm sorry. 0.99

00:42:43.320 I'm just, I'm looking at the results and they suck. 0.99

00:42:46.440 The results suck. 0.99

00:42:48.700 They're terrible results. 0.99

00:42:50.740 So we should not be doing this.

00:42:54.760 I don't know.

00:42:55.460 Seems pretty, pretty straightforward to me.

00:42:58.080 Let's talk about something that matters.

00:42:59.860 Being a real man in a world that's trying to destroy masculinity.

00:43:03.160 The radical left wants you to believe that being a man is somehow wrong.

00:43:06.760 We should all be weak, passive, androgynous. 1.00

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00:44:47.540 Now let's get to our daily cancellation.

00:44:48.820 Most of the outrage over my new film, Am I Racist, has come predictably from the left.

00:45:02.040 But they aren't the only ones who have found reason to complain.

00:45:05.580 We've also been scrutinized from the right, specifically from some on the Christian right, for the methods we use to make the film.

00:45:12.500 And I'll give two prominent examples.

00:45:13.700 First, Andrew T. Walker, who's a theology professor and commentator, tweeted this in response to the film.

00:45:19.160 Quote, I just saw Matt Walsh's Am I Racist?

00:45:21.620 Entertaining and definitely illuminating on the absurd ideological struggle sessions our culture has gone through and our overcorrection on race.

00:45:26.820 Still, much of the film was accomplished through deception.

00:45:30.060 I'm not a fan of that tactic.

00:45:31.400 Outside of legally declared war, deception is enormously difficult to justify, especially deceptions that do not involve immediate questions of life and death.

00:45:38.380 Or deceptions willfully brought about and not occurring as a result of someone else's actions.

00:45:43.700 Walsh's right to capture and name the absurdity, the method to do so, is highly questioned.

00:45:48.920 Now, following up on this critique, Denny Burke wrote an op-ed for a Christian news site called World with this title.

00:45:55.320 Is owning the libs a justification for lying?

00:45:57.920 Matt Walsh's tactics in making his film raise questions.

00:46:00.980 Here's a bit of that piece.

00:46:02.020 The film lampoons diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and features Walsh posing as a DEI expert to expose and ridicule actual DEI experts in a Borat-style subterfuge that engages DEI opponents who are unaware that Walsh is not who he says he is.

00:46:15.880 A day before the film hit theaters, one of the duped DEI experts released a statement about her part in the film.

00:46:21.560 Robin D'Angelo claimed that Walsh lied to get her to take part in the film.

00:46:26.080 Walsh says he didn't actually lie to her, but simply told her that he was making a documentary about anti-racism, adding that DEI was well-paid for her appearance.

00:46:32.760 I wasn't there for the conversation between DEI and Walsh, so I obviously am not privy to what was actually said to procure participation.

00:46:38.680 Did Walsh outright lie, or did he simply give part of the truth without giving all of it?

00:46:42.900 According to Walsh, it was the latter.

00:46:44.360 According to DEI was the former.

00:46:46.260 I'll leave it to others to sort out.

00:46:47.640 Now, I do want to pause here to make a not insignificant point.

00:46:54.180 He admits that he doesn't know if I lied or not, and yet he essentially accuses me of lying in the title of the piece.

00:47:02.420 The whole editorial is written around the assumption that I did lie.

00:47:06.200 So if you don't even know if I lied, which you admit that you don't, are you not promoting a potential falsehood in the very article where you lecture me for my alleged falsehoods?

00:47:14.640 We'll return to that in a moment, but reading on, let me just say up front, exposing and lampooning DEI lunacy is a good cause.

00:47:21.700 I want to see the demise of this woke ideology as much as Walsh does.

00:47:24.940 But still, is it okay to use lies in service of the truth?

00:47:27.560 Christians who take scripture seriously understand that we have a duty to tell the truth.

00:47:31.000 Nothing can be clearer from scripture than our obligation to speak the truth.

00:47:33.800 Over the centuries, Christians have fought long and hard about what our moral obligation is if speaking the truth conflicts with another moral duty.

00:47:39.680 I happen to hold the view at known as non-contradicting absolutism, which says that moral norms only come into apparent conflict, but never into actual conflict.

00:47:49.180 If we understood the situation and our duties correctly, we would see that there is a way of escape no matter the situation.

00:47:55.320 This means that our obligation to tell the truth cannot be set aside merely to own the libs or even for the noble purpose of taking down the DEI regime.

00:48:03.000 I say three cheers for those fighting the good fight, but let's honor the truth when we do.

00:48:09.560 Let me start by filling in the rather crucial blank space in Debbie Burke and Andrew Walker's analysis.

00:48:16.080 Did I directly lie to these people?

00:48:18.560 No.

00:48:19.640 I don't think that's an accurate term to describe what I did.

00:48:24.460 I did give my name as Steven in the opening seminar scene, but intentionally said it in a way so that it'd be clear that I wasn't telling the truth.

00:48:31.760 If it's acting, I'm playing a character, that's part of the comedy of the scene.

00:48:37.100 The joke is that they obviously won't believe it.

00:48:42.000 I can't even believe I have to explain this.

00:48:43.700 And I don't want to have to explain the joke because once you do that, it isn't that funny.

00:48:49.300 But even when I'm asked the second time my name and I go, it's Steven.

00:48:56.300 I'm stuttering over it and there are people responding to that as if I really got, like I accidentally got tripped up and then I, and then, oh no, I was exposed.

00:49:08.340 No, that's, that was the, I, it's funny that I was stumbling over my own name when they, like, that's the point.

00:49:14.900 That's the joke.

00:49:15.620 Like, it's a film, I'm acting in that.

00:49:17.880 I'm not really, you know, that was the point of it.

00:49:22.320 Even the wig I wear for the rest of the movie is comically and deliberately unconvincing.

00:49:27.280 Now, it turns out that it did convince a lot of people, but that is also part of the joke.

00:49:33.760 So I don't want to spend this whole conversation, though, quibbling over what qualifies as deception.

00:49:37.980 So purely for the sake of argument, I will accept their framing.

00:49:42.980 Let's, let's, let's call it deception for now.

00:49:47.020 If I agree with that premise, which I don't, but if I do, I could still defend it.

00:49:54.820 After all, deception is used by undercover journalists all the time.

00:50:00.420 That's the only way we know that about Planned Parenthood, selling aborted baby parts, for example.

00:50:04.780 Deception is used by undercover cops.

00:50:06.420 It's used to catch pedophiles and murderers and drug traffickers.

00:50:10.080 It's not difficult to think of dozens of examples where deception, up to and including outright lying, is used in ways that are rarely found objectionable.

00:50:19.520 Indeed, to take the position that deception is always wrong, which is what at least Burke seems to be arguing,

00:50:25.400 is to say that undercover police work and undercover journalism and all those other dozens of examples simply should not be done.

00:50:31.520 And if that's your view, fine, but, I mean, I think it's absurd on its face.

00:50:38.100 Should we just never use undercover work to catch pedophiles?

00:50:41.160 Like, should we just say that, well, if the only way we can catch them is by lying to them,

00:50:44.560 then I guess we're not going to, they're going to go out and abuse more children.

00:50:47.340 Is that, really?

00:50:47.880 I mean, would anybody take that position?

00:50:51.320 It's wrong to lie to pedophiles to stop them from abusing kids?

00:50:57.840 I don't think most people would take that position.

00:51:00.160 And I certainly don't.

00:51:01.940 And the reason that I don't is that, in my view, not everyone has a right to be told the truth.

00:51:12.500 Okay?

00:51:12.840 Not everyone has a right to the truth.

00:51:17.580 If somebody broke into my house late at night and I confront them in the living room

00:51:22.780 and he asks me whether I'm alone in the house,

00:51:26.120 I am under no moral obligation to tell him that,

00:51:30.940 well, in fact, my wife and children are sleeping right upstairs.

00:51:35.260 Now, this is an extreme case, obviously, but it's enough to make the point.

00:51:38.840 That man who has intruded into my home has no right to be told the truth.

00:51:43.340 He is demanding information he has no right to.

00:51:47.360 So, sure, I could refuse to say one way or another.

00:51:50.620 You know, I could, if I wanted to avoid lying, I could say,

00:51:55.500 well, I'm not going to give you that information.

00:51:57.360 But saying, I won't tell you if my kids are home is the same thing as admitting that they are.

00:52:02.520 So, I would lie.

00:52:04.620 My obligation to protect my family far, far, far outweighs his right to be told the truth.

00:52:13.740 So, if we can agree in this extreme case, and it is extreme,

00:52:18.960 but I think everyone would agree on this extreme case, or most people would,

00:52:22.100 then we've at least established that deception and lies are not absolutely wrong.

00:52:27.920 Now, they may be usually wrong most of the time, but they're not absolutely always wrong.

00:52:34.720 Now, granted, the methods we used in our film were not used in a life or death emergency.

00:52:41.640 We also are not undercover cops.

00:52:46.700 We're not even really undercover journalists in the sense that Dave Daleiden was when he exposed Planned Parenthood.

00:52:52.660 We were making a piece of entertainment.

00:52:55.340 Yes.

00:52:55.740 But that entertainment had a point, and the point was to expose an insidious agenda and the people who push it.

00:53:02.160 Specifically, in this film, in our first film, we were looking to expose and humiliate the so-called expert class,

00:53:08.900 our self-assigned moral superiors who imposed their insane, morally perverse doctrines on us from on high.

00:53:15.700 If we had to use deception to do it, and again, I use that term only for the sake of argument,

00:53:21.260 then my question to the critics is this, how else are we supposed to do it?

00:53:27.580 How else can these people be exposed?

00:53:31.020 Now, yeah, you can make your arguments, you can present your opinions,

00:53:34.720 you can explain why you think these people are full of it.

00:53:38.160 That doesn't expose them.

00:53:39.580 Not in the way that Robin DiAngelo was exposed, or the professor from What is a Woman,

00:53:43.560 or any of the other unwitting co-stars in our film.

00:53:46.860 They cannot be exposed unless they are out in the open.

00:53:51.120 Okay, they must come down from their perch and make themselves vulnerable.

00:53:56.900 But these people will never do that intentionally.

00:54:00.140 They exercise this profound influence and control over the culture and our lives,

00:54:05.380 and they do it from a distance, insulated, protected.

00:54:12.680 So what then?

00:54:14.980 Either we throw up our hands and we let them hide behind all these layers of intellectual protection,

00:54:19.900 which they've set up for themselves,

00:54:21.120 or we use more innovative and perhaps even ruthless techniques

00:54:26.140 to lure them out from behind that wall that they're hiding behind.

00:54:32.220 That's the basic idea behind our film.

00:54:34.060 We coax them out into the open.

00:54:37.840 We set up the scenario where they can embarrass and bury themselves.

00:54:41.280 And then, yes, we laugh at them.

00:54:43.540 Is it nice?

00:54:45.140 No, it's not nice.

00:54:47.280 Is it necessary?

00:54:48.460 I believe so.

00:54:49.240 Is it moral?

00:54:50.040 I'm confident that it is.

00:54:51.540 Is it funny?

00:54:52.980 Hell yes.

00:54:54.220 It is funny.

00:54:56.280 Now, I want to say one other thing.

00:54:58.980 I'm not offended by the criticism.

00:55:00.660 In fact, I appreciate anyone who watches the film and shares their thoughts about it.

00:55:03.640 Whether good, bad, or in between.

00:55:06.020 Films are meant to be discussed.

00:55:07.740 And good films will give you plenty of fodder for discussion.

00:55:11.040 So I welcome all of that.

00:55:13.360 But I can't help but note a certain strain of Christianity.

00:55:16.340 One that does not seem to be confined to any particular branch or denomination.

00:55:21.860 That is always standing by, ready to nitpick and find a reason to be spiritually troubled

00:55:31.560 by any Christian who leaves the realm of theory and argument and discussion and actually tries

00:55:37.120 to go out and do something.

00:55:38.500 So say what you want about me and our movies.

00:55:42.480 I know I'm not everybody's cup of tea.

00:55:44.280 I know the movies are not.

00:55:46.180 But we are trying to actually fight this culture war.

00:55:50.360 That's what inspired me to get into filmmaking to begin with.

00:55:52.620 It's a creative outlet that I find truly fulfilling in a way that nothing in my professional

00:55:56.360 life ever has been.

00:55:57.400 But it's also a way to change the culture.

00:56:01.900 Actively change it.

00:56:03.940 Change it by creating it.

00:56:06.620 I'm tired of talking about it all the time.

00:56:09.160 Criticizing has its place and its use, I suppose.

00:56:12.560 I do it all the time.

00:56:13.460 But I want to do more than that.

00:56:16.340 I mean, it sounds quite cliche to say that I want to make a difference.

00:56:20.140 So sorry for the cliche.

00:56:21.580 But yeah, I want to make a difference.

00:56:24.240 An actual difference.

00:56:25.300 And there is no way to do that without opening yourself to criticism from your own side.

00:56:30.700 And if I've learned anything these past few years, it's that.

00:56:35.460 Anyone on our side who tries to do anything aside from just talking about this stuff,

00:56:44.660 it will get picked apart by their own side.

00:56:50.480 And I know that the justification is always that, well, hey,

00:56:53.280 iron sharpens iron and we're just trying to make you better.

00:56:58.680 Like, okay, but fine.

00:57:02.260 But it doesn't seem like that always.

00:57:06.280 It actually seems sometimes that there are people on our side who,

00:57:10.540 they just really don't want you to do anything.

00:57:12.120 Like, all they want to do is just talk constantly.

00:57:16.400 Talk and give my opinion.

00:57:17.880 And here's this and analyze and criticize.

00:57:23.320 They just don't, they take exception when anyone tries to like stand up and say,

00:57:27.640 okay, here's, I want to do something different here.

00:57:29.660 I'm going to try to go out and do something.

00:57:30.900 This is also why Christian or conservative entertainment has been generally so abysmal for so long. 0.98

00:57:37.500 Because anytime one of us tries to do anything remotely interesting or provocative,

00:57:40.940 there are always people on our side lined up and ready to explain why it's problematic and unbiblical and so on.

00:57:48.100 The best way to avoid those complaints is to be boring and safe and to steadfastly avoid pushing any boundaries whatsoever.

00:57:56.000 And this is how we on the right have approached art for a long time.

00:58:00.520 It's why most of it has been so woefully bland.

00:58:04.340 It's why very little of it has made any lasting impact on the culture.

00:58:09.920 I mean, can you make a list of like five pieces of conservative art or entertainment

00:58:14.120 that have impacted the culture in the last 20 years?

00:58:18.620 Can you even name five?

00:58:21.740 Can you name three?

00:58:22.660 Culture is shaped by art or misshaped as the case may be.

00:58:30.860 There is no culture war.

00:58:32.920 We cannot even claim to be fighting it if we are not producing any art of our own.

00:58:39.400 Or if what we produce is only intended to be a pleasant distraction for our own side,

00:58:44.380 like a kind of ideological elevator music.

00:58:46.580 If we want to make films and shows and music that actually moves the culture,

00:58:53.840 then the stuff we make must be challenging in some way.

00:58:57.520 We cannot be totally allergic to anything that seems provocative.

00:59:03.000 Art, after all, should provoke something.

00:59:05.340 Joy, laughter, awe, anger, shock, sadness, whatever.

00:59:09.980 It needs to stir the audience in some way, elicit something out of them, bring something out,

00:59:15.340 or else what's the point?

00:59:17.760 Now, I know that a movie like Am I Racist, this is not Rembrandt.

00:59:22.880 I'm not saying it's some kind of staggering work of artistic genius, but it is a film,

00:59:27.300 and film is an art form.

00:59:28.520 Which is a long way of saying that we approach the film the way we did and use the methods we did

00:59:37.820 for the sake of getting the message across and exposing the grifters, yes.

00:59:44.080 But also as an artistic choice.

00:59:47.060 And I understand that that justification will be very unconvincing to the kinds of people

00:59:51.500 who make this criticism to begin with.

00:59:53.240 They'll say, well, artistic, that's the only reason.

00:59:58.000 And it's not the only reason, but it is one of the reasons.

01:00:00.620 But the fact that that justification will seem so ridiculous to people on our side is part of the problem.

01:00:09.900 Because, look, frankly, if everyone in the film had known exactly what was going on,

01:00:16.120 it would not have been as good of a movie.

01:00:18.920 It would not have been a good movie at all.

01:00:21.140 It would have been me as myself having straightforward conversations with people

01:00:25.020 who already agree with me, because they're the only ones who would have participated.

01:00:28.500 Or else it would be me having a series of debates as predictable and ultimately pointless

01:00:32.780 as the debates you see on cable news every day.

01:00:35.160 It would have been one long, elaborate podcast episode.

01:00:40.820 It would have been a boring, bad, lame movie.

01:00:45.160 I wanted to make a good movie.

01:00:47.560 And making a good movie was, I freely admit,

01:00:51.140 our first priority.

01:00:54.020 Even more than the message.

01:00:55.480 Even more than landing a blow in the culture war.

01:00:58.480 We wanted to make a good movie.

01:01:02.100 Right?

01:01:03.340 That was our first priority.

01:01:05.200 Number one is it has to be good.

01:01:07.340 Go get good footage, good movie.

01:01:10.220 That's the most important thing here.

01:01:12.560 And if making a good movie is not your first priority,

01:01:18.340 then you shouldn't be making them.

01:01:21.640 This has been the baseline problem for conservative art for as long as I've been alive.

01:01:26.380 It's been made by people who, often though not always, 1.00

01:01:30.340 don't care that much about the art itself.

01:01:33.240 The first priority for them is not the art form.

01:01:35.900 And you can tell in the final product.

01:01:39.480 So, we're trying to help change that.

01:01:42.960 And if that changes,

01:01:46.860 then so does the culture.

01:01:49.940 And that is why the Christian critics of my new film are today canceled.

01:01:57.120 I do still welcome the criticism,

01:01:58.700 but I just have to end the segment that way.

01:02:00.500 Because those are the rules.

01:02:01.600 And that's how this segment ends.

01:02:02.860 So, what can I do?

01:02:05.900 Anyway, that'll do it for the show today.

01:02:07.540 Thanks for watching.

01:02:08.160 Thanks for listening.

01:02:09.460 Have a great day.

01:02:10.400 Godspeed.

01:02:10.660 I'm going to sort this out.

01:02:32.840 I need to go deeper undercover.

01:02:36.260 They don't say I'm racist.

01:02:37.580 Joining us now is Matt, certified DEI expert.

01:02:41.040 Here's my certification.

01:02:42.080 What you're doing is you're stretching out of your whiteness. 0.71

01:02:44.900 This is more for you than this for you.

01:02:45.900 Is America inherently racist?

01:02:47.460 The word inherent is challenging there.

01:02:49.400 I want to rename the George Washington Monument to the George Floyd Monument.

01:02:52.580 America is racist to its bones.

01:02:54.460 So inherently. 0.98

01:02:55.300 Yeah.

01:02:55.480 This country is a piece of... 0.98

01:02:56.980 White folks. 0.98

01:02:59.420 White. 1.00

01:02:59.600 Trash. 1.00

01:02:59.940 White supremacy. 1.00

01:03:00.740 White woman. 1.00

01:03:01.320 White boy.

01:03:01.820 Is there a black person around here?

01:03:03.140 What's a black person right here? 0.86

01:03:04.440 Does he not exist?

01:03:07.040 Hi, Robin.

01:03:07.800 Hi.

01:03:08.160 What's your name?

01:03:09.100 I'm Matt.

01:03:09.600 I just had to ask who you are because you have to be careful.

01:03:12.200 Never be too careful.

01:03:13.120 They gon' say you racist.

01:03:14.060 In theaters now.

01:03:15.280 Rated PG-13.

The Matt Walsh Show - September 18, 2024

Ep. 1445 - Did the Government Shield Diddy Like Epstein？

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