The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 1527 - Why The Plane Crash Was Entirely Foreseeable And Preventable

00:00:00.000 Today on the Matt Wall Show, it's becoming more and more clear that the American Airlines disaster

00:00:03.660 this week was preventable. It was also foreseeable, which is why many people, including myself,

00:00:08.100 warned about it for months and years ahead of time. So how did we see this coming yet the

00:00:11.820 federal government under the previous administration did not? Also, the confirmation

00:00:15.560 hearings this week prove why we should just stop having confirmation hearings. And J.D. Vance

00:00:19.800 sparks controversy with the provocative claim that we should prioritize our own children first

00:00:24.820 and foremost. All of that and more today on the Matt Wall Show.

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00:01:28.620 The more we learn about the midair collision involving American Airlines 5342 and a military

00:01:34.880 Blackhawk helicopter on Wednesday night, the more it's clear that we can now identify some reasons

00:01:40.520 why this catastrophe happened. And this is something that in the mainstream press,

00:01:45.100 you're not supposed to say out loud. You're supposed to believe that we can't really know

00:01:48.880 anything about what happened and that at a minimum, we should allow a few years worth of

00:01:53.340 investigation to take place before we arrive at any conclusions whatsoever. That certainly is the

00:01:59.060 position of CNN, which sent a reporter to the White House briefing yesterday to browbeat Donald

00:02:03.140 Trump because he cast blame on the Blackhawk pilots, DEI, and air traffic control. Watch.

00:02:11.000 We haven't yet known the names of the 67 people who were killed, and you are blaming Democrats and

00:02:16.680 DEI policies and air traffic control and seemingly the member of the U.S. military who was flying that

00:02:21.980 Blackhawk helicopter. Don't you think you're getting ahead of the investigation right now?

00:02:25.440 No, I don't think so at all. I don't think we're the names of the people. You mean the names of

00:02:29.240 the people that are on the plane? You think that's going to make a difference? They are a group of

00:02:35.800 people that have lost their lives. If you want a list of the names, we can give you that. We'll be

00:02:40.460 giving that very soon. We're in coordination with American Airlines. We're in coordination very strongly,

00:02:45.580 obviously, with the military. But I think that's not a very smart question. I'm surprised coming from you.

00:02:51.160 Now, we've talked a lot about how Trump is reforming Washington at a very rapid pace, largely with his

00:02:58.380 steady stream of executive orders and executive actions. But one of the most important changes

00:03:02.480 he's making is that he's introducing some accountability into the federal government. He's

00:03:06.320 demonstrating that he has no patience for the bureaucratic runaround that allows disasters like

00:03:10.780 this to occur in the first place, and then also allows for no one to ever be held accountable

00:03:15.960 for it, and no individual person to ever take any blame for anything. And the corporate media

00:03:22.500 obviously participates in that by running interference. And the idea is, well, now we're not going to allow

00:03:27.800 that to happen. So one of the reasons that's true is that in this case, we have primary sources that we

00:03:35.140 can rely on. There are a lot of aviation enthusiasts on platforms like YouTube, and they regularly upload

00:03:42.000 air traffic control data and audio. And those videos paint a pretty clear picture of what took place on

00:03:47.740 Wednesday night. So here, for example, is a reconstruction of the accident from the account

00:03:53.060 VASA Aviation. And it combines the radar tracking data with audio from air traffic control. And in this

00:04:00.240 footage, you'll hear the first relevant interaction between the tower and at Reagan Airport and the Blackhawk

00:04:05.480 helicopter crew. Listen.

00:04:09.220 Now, in case you couldn't hear what the tower says, it says, PAT-25, traffic just south of the

00:04:33.220 Woodrow Bridge, a CRJ. It's 1,200 feet setting up for runway 33. And then comes a response. PAT-25

00:04:39.480 has the traffic and site requesting visual separation. And then visual separation is granted.

00:04:44.480 This is a key moment. Contrary to what you may have heard in the media, the controller tells the

00:04:50.180 Blackhawk pilot exactly what plane to look out for and where it is at that exact moment. And the

00:04:56.420 Blackhawk pilot states that he sees the plane at the bridge and will avoid it. At this point,

00:05:02.260 everything's going normally. And then about 20 seconds later, an alarm goes off in the control

00:05:07.120 tower because the two aircraft are on a collision course that obviously signals that the Blackhawk

00:05:11.780 pilot may not have followed the instructions. And listen to what happens at that point.

00:05:15.980 Tower TESETFAC

00:05:18.880 Pass 25, youth is a CRJ insight. Pass 25, pass 5 in denig, I see you.

00:05:24.020 Pass 25 as aircraft inicht esc Crispy.

00:05:27.200 Disexation.

00:05:28.580 Ca

00:05:37.020 To

00:05:41.920 So this time around, the air traffic controller isn't very specific.

00:06:00.060 He doesn't state where exactly the passenger plane is.

00:06:02.320 He just tells the helicopter pilot to avoid a CRJ, probably because he assumes they're 0.98

00:06:07.440 still tracking the same plane he mentioned earlier.

00:06:09.360 He also doesn't give the helicopter pilots much time to respond.

00:06:12.900 And then, as you heard, within seconds, the two aircraft collided.

00:06:15.760 So right away, there's reason to speculate that maybe the Blackhawk helicopter was somehow

00:06:20.340 looking at the wrong plane, or maybe the Blackhawk lost sight of the passenger jet at some point

00:06:25.000 and failed to tell anyone.

00:06:27.080 Either way, it's clear that air traffic control's guidance in those final seconds was lacking,

00:06:31.140 to say the least.

00:06:31.840 And on top of that, based on the radar data, the Blackhawk's pilots made a series of other

00:06:36.740 mistakes, in addition to failing to see the passenger jet that was right in front of them.

00:06:41.380 As several aviation analysts have pointed out, the Blackhawk helicopter was supposed to be

00:06:45.980 below 200 feet at this point.

00:06:47.940 That's a requirement for all helicopters on that route at that point, right in front of

00:06:52.460 the runway at DCA.

00:06:53.780 The idea is that they'll pass below the arriving traffic at the airport.

00:06:57.160 But in this case, according to the radar data, the helicopter was flying above 300 feet.

00:07:02.120 And additionally, the helicopter appeared to be slightly off course.

00:07:06.200 According to the published charts for this area, the helicopter was supposed to be hugging

00:07:09.820 the land.

00:07:10.400 Instead, it was over the water.

00:07:12.460 So here's how one aviation analyst described the problem.

00:07:15.500 Listen.

00:07:17.100 This helicopter was operating on Route 1, coming down the Potomac River from the north, and

00:07:23.240 then transitioning to Route 4 and continuing the route to the south towards Davison Army Airfield.

00:07:29.600 If we look closely at Route 1, the maximum altitude, located right here, is 200 feet.

00:07:36.840 And this route is to hug the eastern shoreline of the Potomac River.

00:07:42.640 This route needs to be flown at or below 200 feet to stay below the arrivals into DCA.

00:07:50.040 Not until you get below or south of the Wilson Bridge are you then allowed to climb to 300 feet,

00:07:56.660 maximum altitude.

00:07:57.720 As we look at these two targets merged, check out the altitude, Pat 2-5 at 200 feet as required

00:08:03.160 on the route.

00:08:03.840 It looks like he's slightly to the right of the route.

00:08:05.880 Now he's up to 300 feet.

00:08:07.160 He's 100 feet high.

00:08:08.500 The CRJ descending to 500 feet, 400 feet, and then finally 400 feet, Pat 2-5 still at

00:08:16.020 300 feet.

00:08:17.920 There the altitudes merge right at the collision.

00:08:21.640 Now, late last night, the New York Times confirmed this analysis, quote, the Army Black Hawk was

00:08:27.520 supposed to be flying in a different location and lower when it collided with a passenger

00:08:30.600 jet, according to four people briefed on the matter.

00:08:32.560 So already, we have evidence of serious errors by pretty much everybody involved in this crash,

00:08:37.640 except the American Airlines flight crew.

00:08:39.400 They were apparently in the right place doing the right thing.

00:08:42.960 The helicopter pilots were apparently too high and off course, and they clearly failed

00:08:47.100 to spot the plane that was right in front of them.

00:08:50.620 According to the defense secretary, they also had night vision on, which reduced their field

00:08:54.000 of view.

00:08:54.740 And the air cap traffic control also clearly failed to give all the guidance it needed to.

00:09:01.360 And that's not even scratching the surface of the extent of the failures here.

00:09:06.540 NBC News reports that, according to the FAA, staffing levels were not normal at the airport

00:09:11.820 at the time of the accident.

00:09:13.020 One controller was handling both inbound planes and helicopters, where normally two controllers

00:09:19.100 split those responsibilities.

00:09:21.340 So this is some of the most congested, critical airspace in the entire country.

00:09:26.400 And we're evidently running it at half capacity.

00:09:32.040 How exactly is that possible?

00:09:35.020 As you might remember, a little over a year ago, I did a few monologues on the fact that

00:09:40.000 a major aviation disaster was imminent in this country.

00:09:43.400 We talked about it several times over the course of a couple of months, you probably remember.

00:09:48.320 And it got to the point where it felt redundant after a while, because every week there'd be

00:09:52.420 a new series of near misses.

00:09:54.080 And every week, the conclusion on this show would be the same, that something terrible

00:09:58.520 is going to happen, and soon.

00:10:01.620 It's just a statistical reality.

00:10:03.360 You can't come that close that many times without something bad happening.

00:10:08.460 And really, we didn't even have time to talk about all the near misses.

00:10:11.260 In one of these monologues, I specifically pointed out that TCAS, which is the Onboard

00:10:16.080 Collision Avoidance System in most commercial airplanes, doesn't help prevent mid-air collisions

00:10:20.820 when aircraft are close to the ground.

00:10:22.080 It's not designed to work below 1,000 feet.

00:10:24.080 So I made the point at the time, there's a very high risk of a mid-air collision near

00:10:29.180 the ground, which is exactly what happened here.

00:10:31.620 But let's go back and watch that again.

00:10:34.260 Just this year, TCAS failed to prevent a mid-air collision at an international airport in this

00:10:39.060 country, Houston Hobby.

00:10:40.380 And fortunately and miraculously, nobody died as a result of that collision.

00:10:44.200 But it was very close to being disastrous, as you can imagine.

00:10:48.320 And that incident illustrates the obvious, which is that a failsafe is just that.

00:10:52.460 It's a failsafe.

00:10:53.040 It's not capable of solving all potential problems.

00:10:55.880 It's not capable of solving all mid-air collisions, nor is it designed to.

00:11:00.000 Especially when planes are close to the ground and covering a lot of ground very quickly in

00:11:03.960 close proximity to one another, things can happen too quickly for the system to respond.

00:11:08.420 We're closer than we've been in more than a decade to a disaster of truly historic proportions.

00:11:13.860 Like, it is going to happen, and probably soon.

00:11:17.320 And when it does, a lot of people will die.

00:11:21.760 So that was a little over a year ago.

00:11:24.460 And now, I'm not an aviation expert.

00:11:27.900 I'm not even a hobbyist.

00:11:29.420 I am a high school-educated podcaster.

00:11:31.680 But even I knew, more than a year ago, that this was a major risk.

00:11:38.600 Our mid-air collision failsafe simply do not work at low altitude.

00:11:41.880 That's especially true, given that some low-flying aircraft don't have TCAS at all, like military

00:11:46.240 Blackhawks.

00:11:47.640 Now, with that information, you might think that the FAA would consider, say, banning helicopters

00:11:53.840 from flying directly into the approach paths of major airports like Reagan National.

00:11:59.400 But they didn't think of that, apparently.

00:12:01.680 Instead, this is the chart that helicopters currently use to fly around.

00:12:06.040 You can see it there.

00:12:08.080 And as you can see, they just put the helicopter routes right in front of the airport.

00:12:12.340 Look at how close Route 1 and Route 4 are to the runway.

00:12:14.660 And if there's any deviation from those altitudes whatsoever, there's a major risk of a catastrophe.

00:12:21.540 I mean, there's almost no room for error here.

00:12:25.140 Everyone has to be perfectly on their game at all times, or else lots of people will die.

00:12:31.680 But as we know, very often, air traffic controllers these days are not on their game.

00:12:38.700 Almost all of the near disasters I've talked about over the years were potential mid-air collisions

00:12:42.860 caused by, at least in part, incompetent air traffic control.

00:12:47.080 Here's one of these near misses from Reagan National Airport, the same airport where the crash occurred on Wednesday.

00:12:51.640 This is from last April.

00:12:54.000 Watch.

00:12:55.720 JetBlue, 1554, traffic pulls off your right.

00:12:59.640 Wind calm, runway 4, clear for takeoff.

00:13:03.640 Takeoff.

00:13:16.640 Blue Street 52-26, left turn at November, behind the Embraer, ground point 7.

00:13:22.020 Left turn at November, behind the Embraer, ground point 7, blue street 52-26.

00:13:25.640 Stop.

00:13:26.280 West stop, stop, West 29-37, stop.

00:13:29.180 We stopped, we were cleared to cross runway 4.

00:13:31.500 Okay, so you can hear the controllers in the tower screaming once they realize their mistake.

00:13:44.260 And by the way, if you're listening just to the audio podcast, you'll understand what's happening there.

00:13:47.460 The air traffic controller was guiding a plane on the runway directly into the path of another plane.

00:13:54.400 Until at the last moment, they realized what they were doing.

00:14:00.220 And again, there was new footage like this every week.

00:14:03.020 That's why in 2023, there were 503 air traffic control lapses that the FAA categorized as significant,

00:14:10.800 which was a 65% jump year over year.

00:14:14.100 So I'll say that again.

00:14:15.160 Significant lapses by air traffic controllers increased by 65% in a year.

00:14:20.540 It's not hard to understand why this might be happening, given all the evidence of declining standards at the agency.

00:14:27.400 Which is another thing that we're not supposed to talk about.

00:14:30.580 But it's true.

00:14:32.660 Last year, for example, I published footage and documentation from whistleblowers in the FAA and the aviation industry.

00:14:38.040 What these whistleblowers made clear is that the FAA and the airlines have drastically cut their performance expectations across the board.

00:14:44.220 Actually, that's underselling what happened, because the FAA specifically went out of its way to punish white applicants.

00:14:50.780 They introduced a biographical questionnaire that dinged applicants that had relevant education or experience,

00:14:55.780 knowing that white applicants would be affected the most.

00:14:59.000 And in one case, an FAA official was even caught helping black employees and only black employees

00:15:04.120 to access inside information that would help them in the application process.

00:15:07.620 In the footage I reported on last year, a senior FAA official openly talked about the importance of reducing the number of white males in the aviation industry.

00:15:17.680 So they want to reduce a certain huge category of people who work in air traffic control.

00:15:25.580 And then we find out that in this case, air traffic control was understaffed.

00:15:30.680 Trying to reduce, understaffed, and we're supposed to believe there's no connection between those two things.

00:15:35.780 As increasingly underqualified air traffic controllers have been promoted, the situation has deteriorated further,

00:15:43.800 and that's produced a constant stream of near misses that continued right up until this disaster.

00:15:49.180 As the Washington Post reports, quote,

00:15:50.780 just 24 hours before the collision of American Eagle flight 5342 and an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport on Wednesday,

00:15:57.500 another jet trying to land there had to make a second approach after a helicopter appeared near its flight path.

00:16:03.220 So, you know, and that's what we know.

00:16:06.580 Airlines and the FAA deliberately lower their standards, near misses dramatically increase.

00:16:15.280 No one does anything about it or takes any preventative measures of any kind.

00:16:21.180 You've got people who don't know anything about aviation screaming from the rooftops that this is going to happen, and it does.

00:16:30.240 Now, based on those facts, do we know for sure that, you know, if DEI were never invented as a concept, then this accident never would have happened?

00:16:41.340 No, we don't know that.

00:16:43.440 You know, based on the information we have right now, we can't say that with certainty.

00:16:47.360 One of the Black Hawk pilots was reportedly, according to Fox News, a woman with just 500 hours of experience,

00:16:52.940 but we don't yet know whether she was handling the controls at the time of the crash,

00:16:57.380 although that seems likely since her male co-pilot was doing the radio calls.

00:17:00.240 But we still don't know the full extent of her qualifications or anything else.

00:17:03.840 There is still a lot we don't know.

00:17:06.100 At the same time, as Donald Trump outlined yesterday, that's not really the point.

00:17:09.620 The point is that we should even have to wonder, even for a second, if DEI played a role in an incident like this.

00:17:16.840 But we do have to ask that question, because any agency organization that practices DEI cannot claim to be upholding the highest possible standards.

00:17:25.860 That's the whole point here.

00:17:28.000 It's not about whether any individual person involved in this incident was a quote-unquote DEI hire.

00:17:33.960 They may or may not have been.

00:17:35.420 We don't know.

00:17:35.980 We'll never know that.

00:17:36.720 The point is the lowering of standards that happens, and the inevitable results when you lower standards.

00:17:49.580 And as Trump pointed out, it never ends well, particularly in an industry like aviation.

00:17:55.300 Watch.

00:17:57.020 It's all under investigation.

00:17:58.540 I understand that.

00:17:59.900 That's why I'm trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash.

00:18:06.420 Because I have common sense, okay?

00:18:09.180 And unfortunately, a lot of people don't.

00:18:12.720 We want brilliant people doing this.

00:18:14.760 This is a major chess game at the highest level.

00:18:17.560 And I do want to point out that various articles that appeared prior to my entering office.

00:18:25.900 And here's one.

00:18:27.940 The FAA's diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities.

00:18:37.280 That is amazing.

00:18:38.640 And then it says FAA says people with severe disabilities are most underrepresented segment of the workforce.

00:18:46.520 And they want them in, and they want them.

00:18:48.980 They can be air traffic controllers.

00:18:51.080 I don't think so.

00:18:51.900 Now, if we want to avoid future disasters like this one, we have to address the problem that Trump's talking about there.

00:19:00.200 We don't really have a choice.

00:19:01.740 You simply have to establish high standards for jobs like this.

00:19:06.260 That's it.

00:19:07.060 You have to have high standards across the board.

00:19:08.520 And if you can't find enough applicants who meet those standards, if there's a shortage of qualified personnel, then the solution is to pay qualified applicants more so that you can attract competent people.

00:19:23.680 And if you can't do any of that for some reason, and you end up understaffed and with not enough people, well, then you need to drastically reduce the traffic and the amount of work these people are doing.

00:19:36.480 By, for example, not having helicopters flying right in the path of incoming planes.

00:19:44.320 At this point, we also need to take a full accounting of the damage that COVID lockdowns have done to this country, which is something that has never been done.

00:19:52.520 And I bring that up because this is an interesting point that I haven't heard anyone else bring up.

00:19:57.760 I received an email from a senior engineer at a major company in the aviation industry last night.

00:20:03.800 And this person brought up something, again, that I hadn't heard anyone else bring up, which is the effect of the COVID lockdowns on the aviation industry.

00:20:14.460 This person wrote, quote, while nobody had it easy, the aviation industry was hit particularly hard.

00:20:20.560 The demand for air travel plummeted when the lockdowns took effect, resulting in massive attrition of experienced people out of every corner of the aviation industry.

00:20:26.940 When demand came back about three years ago, these people were replaced by relatively young and inexperienced new hires.

00:20:32.340 I'd be utterly shocked if this did not in some way impact the midair collision at Reagan National.

00:20:37.180 That's another aspect to this incident that I don't think anyone had actually considered.

00:20:42.440 Very few I had.

00:20:43.540 We have too few qualified people, in part because of the devastation of the COVID lockdowns inflicted on this country.

00:20:51.060 Which is yet another reason why we can never allow anything like that to happen in this country again.

00:20:57.100 And the current White House seems to understand that.

00:20:59.700 Moving forward, the White House has now committed to rooting out existing DEI hires at the FAA so they can start recruiting competent employees.

00:21:06.060 Speaking to Fox last night, senior White House official Stephen Miller said that's exactly what's about to happen.

00:21:11.320 Watch.

00:21:12.740 It is a betrayal of the American people to say that you are going to prioritize the hiring of people with severe intellectual defects to serve at the Federal Aviation Administration.

00:21:27.320 The entity responsible for ensuring that every single passenger over American airspace safely takes off, safely flies, and safely lands.

00:21:37.420 And President Trump's made clear that he is not only, and he issued another order today, he's not only installing the highest standards possible,

00:21:44.520 but the order President Trump issued today tells the Secretary of Transportation to review every hiring decision at the FAA over the last four years.

00:21:53.220 And where someone was not hired, based on merit, qualification, or competence, then that person needs to be replaced.

00:22:00.740 This is the step we need to take.

00:22:02.180 We have no other choice.

00:22:03.120 Once an organization actually rewards competence, things start improving very quickly.

00:22:06.720 A competent FAA official might decide, for example, that it's a bad idea to have a helicopter route pass right in front of a major airport

00:22:14.980 on the assumption that the helicopter will never make a mistake and go 100 feet above or below their assigned altitude.

00:22:21.480 100 feet of altitude should not be the difference between life and death.

00:22:24.900 And when you've decided to have helicopters in the vicinity of airplanes.

00:22:34.740 Those are the kinds of practical, life-saving decisions that get made when you're focused entirely on your mission and nothing else.

00:22:41.900 They're the kinds of decisions that Americans just voted for in record numbers.

00:22:46.320 And they're the kinds of decisions that need to be made immediately before a lot more people die.

00:22:52.180 Now let's get to our five headlines.

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00:24:16.920 All right, more hearings on Capitol Hill yesterday.

00:24:19.160 Lots of great hearing fun.

00:24:21.600 And I got to tell you, and I know I'm not breaking any new ground here, but I'm so disgusted at this point by the farce of these hearings.

00:24:28.160 Really, any hearing on Capitol Hill, it's also totally pointless.

00:24:33.400 Or I should say there is a point, but the point is not to obtain information, which should be basically the sole focus of any hearing.

00:24:39.740 The point of a confirmation hearing is to learn about the nominees and then to decide if they should be confirmed.

00:24:44.660 But that's not what's happening here.

00:24:46.640 The senators on the committee are not trying to find out any information.

00:24:49.540 They aren't asking real questions, and we all know that they have all, or nearly all, made up their minds before the hearing even started.

00:24:59.060 So the whole thing's a joke.

00:25:01.360 Yesterday was a DNI nominee, Tulsi Gabbard, and FBI director nominee, Kash Patel, who were on the hot seat.

00:25:10.720 And we'll play a few clips, but the important point in all these clips, again, is that none of the senators interrogating them,

00:25:17.780 none of the senators interrogating the suspects here, are actually trying to figure out how they want to vote.

00:25:26.260 They all knew, long before they stepped into that room, how they'd vote.

00:25:29.820 In fact, they all knew at approximately 1 a.m. on November 6th, 2024, how they would be voting in this hearing on January 30th.

00:25:40.580 They all knew.

00:25:41.600 The moment Trump was confirmed as the winner, they all knew, the Democrats knew,

00:25:46.480 they'd be voting against whoever the nominee is for whatever position.

00:25:52.720 So again, it's all a farce.

00:25:54.520 It has all the significance and all the reality of professional wrestling.

00:25:59.140 And they're not even trying to hide it.

00:26:00.880 So I want you to watch this moment with Senator Michael Bennett and Tulsi Gabbard.

00:26:06.900 Watch.

00:26:07.180 Do you believe, as the chairman of this committee believes, as the vast majority of members of our intelligence agencies believe,

00:26:18.220 that Edward Snowden was a traitor to the United States of America?

00:26:22.680 Senator, I've confirmed as director of national intelligence.

00:26:25.920 I will work with you to make sure that there is not another Snowden-like leak.

00:26:30.480 This is not a moment for social media.

00:26:31.360 It's not a moment to propagate theories, conspiracy theories, or attacks on journalism in the United States.

00:26:40.460 This is when you need to answer the questions of the people whose votes you're asking for

00:26:46.140 to be confirmed as the chief intelligence officer of this nation.

00:26:55.780 As my colleague said, this is not about you.

00:26:58.940 It's about the people that serve the intelligence agencies of the United States.

00:27:04.880 Is Edward Snowden a traitor to the United States of America?

00:27:11.720 That is not a hard question to answer when the stakes are this high.

00:27:18.760 Senator, as someone who has served in uniform-

00:27:21.320 Your answer, yes or no, is Edward Snowden a traitor to the United States of America?

00:27:28.520 As someone who has worn our uniform in combat,

00:27:32.420 I understand how critical our national security is.

00:27:36.900 Apparently, you don't.

00:27:37.800 Apparently, you don't.

00:27:38.840 Let me ask you.

00:27:41.520 Okay, if you want her to answer the question, shut the hell up, Mike. 1.00

00:27:45.040 Can you shut your mouth for two seconds?

00:27:48.140 He doesn't give her even two seconds to answer.

00:27:50.720 She doesn't even start answering.

00:27:53.380 And he's already demanding the answer.

00:27:56.260 And then he has the gall to say, this is not a moment for social media.

00:28:03.620 Well, your whole performance, Mikey, is about social media.

00:28:07.980 What are you talking about?

00:28:09.880 You're worried about going viral.

00:28:11.620 That's what you want.

00:28:12.740 I mean, that's what all these-

00:28:14.740 That's all they're trying to do.

00:28:16.100 That's what every hearing-

00:28:17.220 Every hearing now is all these politicians who are glorified TikTok influencers now

00:28:22.940 that just want to go viral.

00:28:24.360 That's all they're thinking about.

00:28:25.180 The only thing they're thinking about is, I want to get a viral clip.

00:28:28.940 We shouldn't even have these hearings anymore.

00:28:31.740 I don't know what the process needs to be to do this, but just abolish the confirmation hearings.

00:28:38.620 Just get rid of them. 0.51

00:28:39.520 Seriously.

00:28:40.640 The whole thing.

00:28:41.080 The president won.

00:28:42.040 He has the right to fill in his cabinet with whoever he wants.

00:28:45.380 Okay, whoever he wants.

00:28:46.220 I don't care who he puts in there.

00:28:47.360 He won.

00:28:48.380 It's his cabinet.

00:28:51.200 So, whoever you want to put in there.

00:28:55.180 That's what people voted for.

00:28:56.820 The ability of the president to fill his cabinet and enact his agenda should not hinge on some committee of showboating, grandstanding, 90 IQ politicians who only just want to get that little 60-second clip that will go viral on X.

00:29:12.420 Okay, that's not what this should all hinge on.

00:29:18.400 But that was the whole hearing with Tulsi.

00:29:20.460 They didn't give her a chance to answer anything.

00:29:23.720 Just one more example of that.

00:29:25.240 This is her being, I mean, you can't even say questioned.

00:29:30.120 You can't even say interrogated because interrogated means like you're trying to pull information out of somebody.

00:29:34.340 And interrogation is actually exactly what this isn't.

00:29:36.400 But here she is with Senator Mark Warner.

00:29:43.540 Attention to the egregious civil liberties violations that were occurring at that time.

00:29:48.700 Ms. Gabbard, you said, Ms. Gabbard, I ask you a question.

00:29:51.580 Please give me the courtesy of responding.

00:29:53.460 You said the reforms now make you supportive.

00:29:56.700 What can you cite?

00:29:57.620 Which reforms?

00:29:58.380 There are a number of reforms to include getting rid.

00:30:01.420 In the new law, right?

00:30:02.140 That all of you and your wisdom, my time is getting short.

00:30:06.240 But I got to just tell you, after the reforms were passed into law in April of 24, you went on Joe Rogan's podcast in May.

00:30:20.720 Ms. Gabbard, I asked you a question.

00:30:22.500 Please respond.

00:30:23.940 Please respond.

00:30:25.000 I'm not going to let you speak.

00:30:26.320 But Ms. Gabbard, Ms. Gabbard, please respond with blinks and movements of your eyeballs.

00:30:35.300 Respond in Morse code.

00:30:38.300 Because she's not allowed to.

00:30:39.540 She was trying to answer the question.

00:30:40.920 He's like, well, what reforms do you want?

00:30:43.260 And she goes, well, for example.

00:30:45.840 And then he jumps in again because he doesn't want her to get a chance to answer it.

00:30:50.540 Just an absolute joke.

00:30:52.100 I think the Kash Patel hearing was no better, actually worse in many ways.

00:30:57.800 Here is Senator Alex Padilla questioning, or again, not questioning, but grandstanding performing in front of Kash Patel.

00:31:09.140 Mr. Patel, do you believe that background checks for firearm purchases are constitutional?

00:31:15.260 I don't know the in-depths of it, but I think that's what the Supreme Court has said, Senator.

00:31:22.760 So the word would be Y-E-S, yes. 1.00

00:31:26.640 Can you say yes, our background checks, constitutional?

00:31:29.940 I can say whatever the Constitution, the Supreme Court ruled is the rule of the land.

00:31:36.240 The word would be Y-E-S, yes. 1.00

00:31:39.320 You condescending, pointy-headed prick.

00:31:47.200 Like, what?

00:31:48.640 I wish Kash had said that.

00:31:50.060 Kash should have said that.

00:31:54.000 I understand why he didn't, but I wish he did.

00:31:57.780 And this is, because, look, why do you, you know, I mean, I actually think that all of the nominees,

00:32:03.180 I think they've all performed very well, given the circumstances.

00:32:09.400 But the only mistake that, you know, all these nominees are making is that they're too nice.

00:32:17.380 They're still too nice.

00:32:19.960 Like, you're under no obligation to sit there and take that from this guy.

00:32:23.280 Y-E-S, yes. 0.94

00:32:25.200 Like, shut up, you clown.

00:32:27.120 Who are you talking to?

00:32:28.540 Who do you think you're talking to?

00:32:30.240 Okay, I'm not a child.

00:32:31.120 Have some respect.

00:32:32.460 Like, address me with respect or I'm not going to talk to you.

00:32:34.580 How about that?

00:32:38.680 You can say that.

00:32:39.760 You should say that.

00:32:41.580 You're under no obligation.

00:32:42.780 That's not what this is supposed to be.

00:32:45.980 The whole thing now, it's like, okay, the president has nominees,

00:32:51.000 and so they have to run this humiliation ritual is the idea now. 0.98

00:32:56.740 The penalty of being nominated is that you have to just sit there

00:32:59.760 and be condescended to for two and a half hours on national television.

00:33:04.700 What?

00:33:06.140 Why?

00:33:06.660 Why is that the system?

00:33:07.820 What do we gain from that?

00:33:08.900 Here is Richard Blumenthal, who looks like he was AI-generated, doing his whole routine.

00:33:20.160 Here it is.

00:33:20.560 You've committed that the FBI will not be politicized.

00:33:27.240 So here's your first test.

00:33:29.240 Will you commit that you will not tolerate the firing of the FBI agents who worked with the special counsel's office on these investigations?

00:33:39.860 Senator, I appreciate the time to visit with you.

00:33:42.580 It is a yes or no answer, and it is your first test.

00:33:47.200 Senator, every FBI employee will be held to the absolute same standard,

00:33:51.220 and no one will be terminated for case assignments.

00:33:53.640 And I'm not going to accept that answer,

00:33:55.800 because if you can't commit that those FBI agents will be protected from political retribution,

00:34:03.260 we can't accept you as FBI director.

00:34:07.620 All FBI employees will be protected against political retribution.

00:34:10.700 They deserve, those individuals deserve to be protected from Trump retribution.

00:34:16.380 That was your first test.

00:34:17.920 You've failed it.

00:34:19.500 By saying all FBI employees should be protected?

00:34:24.100 He can't accept that.

00:34:26.600 He can't accept it.

00:34:28.140 He won't accept it, because he doesn't agree with it.

00:34:29.920 He doesn't agree with the answer that he's been given, so he won't accept it.

00:34:33.980 But isn't, wait a second, Richard,

00:34:38.220 isn't the point of the hearing to get Kash Patel's answers?

00:34:41.460 Aren't we interested?

00:34:42.720 Or is Kash Patel supposed to just sit there and say whatever Richard Blumenthal wants him to say?

00:34:48.320 Is that the point of the hearing, Richard?

00:34:51.680 Is to hear them like puppets repeat whatever your opinion is?

00:34:57.840 Aren't we interested in his opinion, in his perspective?

00:35:01.640 What do you mean you won't accept it?

00:35:04.300 That's what he thinks.

00:35:06.820 That's his answer.

00:35:11.000 But the cringiest, most pathetic moment of the whole hearing came to us courtesy of, naturally, Adam Schiff.

00:35:19.140 Adam Schiff, the human planter wart.

00:35:22.980 Here's his Oscar-worthy performance.

00:35:25.580 I want you to turn around.

00:35:28.620 There are Capitol Police officers behind you.

00:35:30.760 They're guarding us.

00:35:31.380 Take a look at them right now.

00:35:33.320 Turn around.

00:35:34.560 I'm looking at you.

00:35:35.700 You're talking to me.

00:35:36.400 No, no, no.

00:35:36.520 Look at them.

00:35:37.840 I want you to look at them if you can, if you have the courage to look them in the eye, Mr. Patel,

00:35:41.960 and tell them you're proud of what you did.

00:35:44.440 Tell them you're proud that you raised money off of people that assaulted their colleagues,

00:35:50.140 that pepper sprayed them, that beat them with polls.

00:35:52.980 Tell them you're proud of what you did, Mr. Patel.

00:35:55.500 They're right there.

00:35:56.560 They're guarding you today.

00:35:58.040 Tell them how proud you are.

00:35:59.060 That's an abject line.

00:36:00.300 You know it.

00:36:00.800 I've never, never, ever accepted violence against law enforcement.

00:36:07.080 I've worked with these men and women, as you know.

00:36:09.260 Oh, no, no.

00:36:09.500 You didn't accept it.

00:36:09.760 You glorified it.

00:36:10.160 Let me just turn it off.

00:36:12.000 Turn around.

00:36:13.300 Talk to them.

00:36:14.160 Say, what is this, Simon Says?

00:36:17.300 Turn around.

00:36:18.180 Stand up.

00:36:19.280 Yeah, I didn't say Simon Says.

00:36:20.680 Put your, put your right hand up.

00:36:24.660 Put your right hand in.

00:36:25.520 Was it like, you want him to go get up and dance the hokey pokey?

00:36:27.720 Is that, what do you want?

00:36:30.600 Like, now you're giving him choreography to perform?

00:36:36.980 I can't.

00:36:37.620 I mean, Adam Schiff, he's like an old irritable woman. 1.00

00:36:40.680 I mean, imagine being trapped in a room with this guy, listening to him nag. 1.00

00:36:44.720 It's cruel and unusual punishment.

00:36:46.660 It's unconstitutional.

00:36:48.400 We should abolish these hearings on the basis that they are human rights violations.

00:36:52.820 Nobody should be forced to listen to, much less look at, Adam Schiff.

00:37:01.020 That's my stance on that.

00:37:03.780 All right.

00:37:04.080 J.D. Vance started some controversy this week by saying something obviously correct in an interview.

00:37:07.880 Here he is talking about the hierarchy of love, the order of people that we are called to love and prioritize in our lives.

00:37:18.840 Let's listen to that.

00:37:19.900 But there's this old school, and I think it's a very Christian concept, by the way, that you love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country.

00:37:32.660 And then, after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.

00:37:37.660 A lot of the far left has completely inverted that.

00:37:40.480 They seem to hate the citizens of their own country and care more about people outside their own borders.

00:37:45.560 That is no way to run a society.

00:37:47.380 And I think the profound difference that Donald Trump brings to the leadership of this country is the simple concept, America first.

00:37:55.640 It doesn't mean you hate anybody else.

00:37:57.540 It means that you have leadership, and President Trump has been very clear about this, that puts the interests of American citizens first.

00:38:05.100 In the same way that the British prime minister should care about Brits and the French should care about the French, we have an American president who cares primarily about Americans, and that's a very welcome change.

00:38:15.000 What is President Xi doing?

00:38:16.200 What is Vladimir Putin doing?

00:38:17.180 He's looking after the Chinese. 0.99

00:38:18.280 Putin is looking after the Russians. 0.89

00:38:19.680 They're entitled to do that.

00:38:21.520 Thank God we now have an American president who's looking after the citizens of his own country.

00:38:25.500 It really is amazing in all the best ways that we have a vice president who talks about the principles of subsidiarity, which is what this is, to have a vice president who actually says interesting, insightful things.

00:38:39.720 When was the last time we had that?

00:38:41.380 I mean, not in my lifetime, certainly.

00:38:42.840 The vice president has always just been, in my lifetime, a blabbering bore.

00:38:48.120 And so here we have someone saying things that are true and interesting.

00:38:53.480 The point is, again, obviously correct, which means just as obviously that people are upset about it.

00:38:58.440 This was trending on social media.

00:39:00.100 A bunch of people on the left saying that J.D. Vance's philosophy on love is cruel and bad and in contradiction to the gospel because, of course, a bunch of secular atheists really care about the gospel and know about it.

00:39:15.100 So we should listen to them.

00:39:16.760 But the point itself feels almost pointless to defend because it is so clearly, obviously, self-evidently true.

00:39:23.400 Obviously, you're meant to love your family, your spouse, and your children first and foremost and prioritize them.

00:39:28.660 And you're supposed to love your nation before the nations of the world.

00:39:34.340 Human society is built on this system.

00:39:36.500 It's how every human being is naturally wired.

00:39:40.420 Our legal system is built on it.

00:39:42.540 Right?

00:39:44.040 Which is why if you're fed and warm and comfortable and your child dies of starvation and exposure, you will go to prison forever, and you should.

00:39:52.860 But if a homeless guy across town dies of starvation and exposure, you're not going to go to prison.

00:39:59.320 You'll be sad if you find out about it, but you're not going to go to prison for that.

00:40:03.240 Nor should you, because the law recognizes that you have a special obligation to make sure that your children don't starve.

00:40:08.940 You do not have a specific legal obligation to make sure that the homeless guy across town doesn't starve.

00:40:16.820 And in fact, if you had to choose between the two, you'd choose your own children a thousand times out of a thousand.

00:40:24.700 Helping the homeless guy across town is something that you only do after you've taken care of your own family.

00:40:32.220 And then, yes, if there's someone in need in your community, you should try to help them.

00:40:38.940 And that person should take priority over a homeless guy in China.

00:40:44.140 Right?

00:40:44.600 That's the way that it works.

00:40:46.320 And again, it's so obvious.

00:40:47.820 What's more interesting to me is why the left pretends to not understand this.

00:40:54.720 That's the more interesting question to me is why, as, as J.D. Vance points out, they, they've inverted this.

00:41:01.240 They've totally inverted kind of this pyramid, this, this hierarchy.

00:41:04.580 And so now they prioritize the world, the nations of the world, you know, the global community over their actual community and even their family and, and certainly their nation.

00:41:17.500 And why?

00:41:20.920 Because again, it's not even how, we're not wired there.

00:41:23.220 It goes against our wiring as human beings.

00:41:25.620 Everything about it makes no sense.

00:41:28.540 And I think there's a reason for it.

00:41:31.000 Which I also think that people maybe sometimes miss.

00:41:35.280 Here's why.

00:41:36.760 Okay.

00:41:38.920 The left likes to prioritize the kind of universal love of mankind.

00:41:43.400 And put it ahead of love of family and love of country, or at least on the equal playing field.

00:41:50.720 And the reason that they do that is because loving the world is easy.

00:42:00.320 It requires nothing of you.

00:42:03.300 You can just sit on your couch and love the world.

00:42:07.840 What does it mean to love the world?

00:42:09.560 What does it mean for me to love and care deeply about a homeless guy in China?

00:42:16.540 I can't do anything about it.

00:42:19.400 I can't really do anything for the world.

00:42:23.460 So loving just means that you're just, you know, you could just, you can do that anytime.

00:42:26.620 You could sit on your couch and eat Doritos and watch TV and love the world at the same time.

00:42:30.120 Because all that means, really, is that you just have sort of warm, general feelings about the world.

00:42:35.940 And you want things to go well for people in the world.

00:42:39.840 And you just kind of, warm, well wishes for everybody is what loving the world means.

00:42:46.100 That's easy.

00:42:47.520 Great.

00:42:48.060 Okay.

00:42:49.140 Check that box.

00:42:50.160 I have warm, well wishes for everybody.

00:42:52.720 Check.

00:42:53.840 That's it.

00:42:54.720 Now I'm a good person.

00:42:57.500 Right?

00:42:57.740 Now loving your family, on the other hand, requires work.

00:43:04.340 It requires you to do.

00:43:06.100 It requires you to get up off of your couch and sacrifice.

00:43:10.020 Loving your family is an activity.

00:43:13.100 It's a thing that you do.

00:43:14.460 It's a sacrifice.

00:43:16.240 You cannot love your family and just sit on your couch the whole time.

00:43:19.620 Because your family needs things of you.

00:43:22.020 They need your help.

00:43:23.100 They need your sacrifice.

00:43:24.540 They need your service.

00:43:25.520 They need your leadership.

00:43:26.820 They need you to provide for them.

00:43:32.280 If I'm just sitting on my couch and not getting off the couch, I cannot even claim that I love my children.

00:43:37.660 What does that mean?

00:43:39.080 I can't say that I love my children and I'm neglecting them and not caring for them.

00:43:42.260 Because to love my children is to care for them.

00:43:44.540 And so loving the people closest to you is an obligation and a sacrifice.

00:43:56.380 And even loving your country, which comes after loving your family.

00:44:00.480 But even loving your country, there are things you can do for your country.

00:44:03.540 There is, it's not as much of an all-encompassing obligation.

00:44:09.900 I mean, for some people it is if you join the military, for example.

00:44:12.020 But for most of us, it's not.

00:44:14.720 But still, there are things you can do for your country.

00:44:19.080 Right?

00:44:19.480 Ask not what your country can do for you.

00:44:20.800 Ask what you can do for your country.

00:44:21.700 And so there are things you can do for your country.

00:44:24.340 There's basically nothing that you can do for the world.

00:44:29.020 There's almost nothing.

00:44:32.040 There's a whole lot every single day you can do for your family.

00:44:35.080 And there's less but still a lot that you can do for your country.

00:44:39.780 And so those are the kinds of love that loves that the left is not interested in and doesn't like.

00:44:47.520 And doesn't want to talk about and wants to de-emphasize.

00:44:52.920 Because it requires them to do things.

00:44:55.120 And it carries with it an obligation.

00:44:57.360 And the last thing that they ever want is an obligation.

00:45:02.200 So I think that's what's happening here.

00:45:03.540 Let's get to the comment section.

00:45:04.720 If you're a man, it's required that you grow a beard.

00:45:08.240 Hey, we're the sweet baby gang.

00:45:11.820 No one ever asked why doctors prescribed SSRI drugs to people without ever testing their serotonin levels in the first place.

00:45:21.720 Well, yeah, this is a question I've had about the many alleged mental disorders that doctors prescribe drugs for.

00:45:26.400 I've had this question, you know, forever.

00:45:28.080 And they say that, well, it's strange that they assure us that all these things, depression, ADHD, anxiety, etc., all of these things are actually diseases of the brain, which is what they'll claim.

00:45:42.200 Although they still call them mental disorders or mental illnesses, when really if they were clearly diseases of the brain, you would call them neurological disorders.

00:45:49.860 And there's a difference between a mental disorder and a neurological disorder because a neurological disorder is something that is in the brain.

00:45:59.440 And yet they talk about mental disorders in the same way because they want to medicalize these things and they want them to be on the same sort of playing field as physical illnesses.

00:46:08.520 And yet, in the vast majority of cases, they don't diagnose these things with brain scans.

00:46:14.880 So they'll tell you that, oh, yeah, you can totally find ADHD in the brain.

00:46:18.740 An ADHD brain is different from a regular brain.

00:46:21.600 That's what they tell you.

00:46:22.780 Okay, well, then why don't they ever do a brain scan?

00:46:24.680 Like, why is it then that you can go and get your kid diagnosed with ADHD without anyone ever looking at his brain?

00:46:32.420 There's no brain scan.

00:46:35.020 How is that?

00:46:36.580 If it's clearly so evident in the brain?

00:46:40.940 And that's a question they don't have an answer for.

00:46:42.760 I hate to say it, Matt, but if you disqualified every teacher that's on SSRIs, you'd have to close every school in the U.S.

00:46:52.040 I fail to see the problem.

00:46:53.480 That is a feature, not a bug.

00:46:55.800 I'll have to tell you.

00:46:58.120 Do you support these onesies?

00:47:00.620 What a clown and what a silly time to be alive.

00:47:02.460 If RFK Jr. resigned, what the hell does Bernie expect him to do?

00:47:05.060 He has no control over what an organization.

00:47:07.020 He's no longer a part of cells.

00:47:08.120 Yeah, a lot of people were reacting to Bernie Sanders taking RFK Jr. to task for onesies that were on sale by an organization that RFK Jr. is no longer affiliated with.

00:47:20.200 And I think a lot of people felt that talking about onesies at a confirmation hearing in the Senate was a bit absurd, a bit asinine.

00:47:30.380 I understand that feeling, but I will say this.

00:47:32.920 I will say this about onesies since Bernie Sanders brought the subject up.

00:47:39.200 I think there is a conversation about onesies that we should be having as a country and that we're not.

00:47:49.500 Because I personally support only one kind of onesie, and that is the onesie with the zippers.

00:47:56.360 And this is something I actually feel very strongly about.

00:47:58.580 This is an issue that's really important to me and near and dear to my heart.

00:48:02.260 It's a big issue for me and for the nation, but I think that there's not been nearly enough conversation about it.

00:48:11.560 The snap-on onesies are bull.

00:48:14.500 Okay, those things are ridiculous.

00:48:16.260 The onesies with the snaps.

00:48:18.640 And if you don't have kids, you don't realize this.

00:48:20.480 The majority of onesies they sell have snaps.

00:48:23.820 And not just like two or three snaps, but 50 snaps.

00:48:28.940 To the point where when the onesie is unsnapped, it doesn't even look like clothing.

00:48:34.080 It's just a piece of cloth.

00:48:35.800 It's a weirdly shaped piece of cloth, and you have to snap it up.

00:48:39.340 It's like origami.

00:48:40.740 It's an arts and crafts project all of a sudden when you're just trying to get your kid changed.

00:48:44.920 And now you've got this wiggling baby who's crying, and you want to get him to bed,

00:48:49.240 and you've got to do all the snaps.

00:48:52.360 Snaps over the whole thing.

00:48:53.320 This is so many of the onesies.

00:48:54.640 I'm telling you, it's most of the onesies.

00:48:57.980 It's all just snaps.

00:49:02.100 Meanwhile, you get a zipper.

00:49:03.700 You just put the kid in.

00:49:04.660 You zip it up, and you're done.

00:49:06.180 And I know what the answer is, because this is a point of contention among some parents.

00:49:12.880 Well, you can't do the zippers because babies are all fat, and you get their skin stuck in the zipper. 1.00

00:49:18.700 That's not hard.

00:49:19.360 Look, I've had six kids.

00:49:21.180 I've zipped up many a onesie in my time.

00:49:23.640 Okay, I've done the zip.

00:49:24.840 I've done that.

00:49:25.460 I've probably done that 10,000 times.

00:49:28.700 Never once did I get the skin caught in the zipper.

00:49:31.200 It's not hard to avoid.

00:49:32.180 So this is a real issue.

00:49:37.620 I think that the snap-on onesies should be federally banned.

00:49:42.600 I don't know why they're still on the market.

00:49:43.960 I don't know why we allow this.

00:49:45.480 And I don't understand why the majority of onesies are that.

00:49:48.780 It makes no sense.

00:49:50.500 It's crazy.

00:49:51.220 Let's see.

00:49:54.460 Now that I got that off my chest.

00:50:02.600 One other comment.

00:50:03.340 I'm so disappointed that RFK Jr. acquiesced and said he's supportive of vaccines.

00:50:09.560 I don't think that he acquiesced.

00:50:11.980 I'm pretty sure his position is that he doesn't have any kind of philosophical problem with the concept of vaccines.

00:50:17.660 He's not saying that there's anything wrong with just like the idea of giving someone a drug to prevent a disease.

00:50:24.440 His point is that the vaccines have to be properly studied and tested and vetted, and they have to be safe and effective, which in his view is not the case for many of them.

00:50:32.880 I mean, I think that's his position, and that's the position he was articulating in the hearings.

00:50:39.520 I have heard that a little bit, that he seemed to backtrack or whatever on vaccines, but that's not the way that I read it.

00:50:46.900 And I'll admit, I haven't tracked RFK Jr.'s career and everything he said about vaccines over the past 20 years as closely as apparently a lot of people have.

00:50:57.420 But what I've heard him say about it in the hearing, to me, made sense.

00:51:01.300 Where he's saying, no, I got no problem with the concept of it.

00:51:05.900 It's not like some philosophical sort of like in principle objection that I have to the very concept.

00:51:11.780 It's that what he's saying is, in his view, very often these vaccines are not properly studied and not properly tested and are sold as safe and effective when they aren't.

00:51:25.160 And, you know, immediately we could all think of one major example of that, which, of course, is the COVID vaccine.

00:51:32.060 Hopefully by now you've joined millions in watching my movie, Am I Racist, the box office hit comedy and number one documentary of the decade.

00:51:39.320 Today I've got something new for you.

00:51:40.360 Clearing the air, the making of Am I Racist, is streaming exclusively on Daily Wire Plus.

00:51:44.700 And that's me, director Justin Folk, and the whole movie crew showing you exactly how we put this thing together.

00:51:50.980 And, of course, if you haven't watched Am I Racist, you should probably start there.

00:51:54.080 But then you're going to want to watch the making of, because that's a whole movie unto itself.

00:51:56.960 It's a whole story of how we actually pulled this off, which is a question, of course, we get all the time.

00:52:01.620 And it's all streaming right now on Daily Wire Plus.

00:52:04.340 Now let's get to our daily cancellation.

00:52:11.680 I was going to include this in the comment section yesterday, but I decided that's probably worth fleshing out in a monologue.

00:52:17.440 So I'm going to close the show by answering not just one comment, but a great many comments all circling around the same theme.

00:52:27.860 And these are comments that I am always peppered with any time I discuss, as we have this week, the issue of foreign aid or foreign policy in general.

00:52:37.520 In fact, I've been trending on X this week, ended up in a media-ite headline because of this issue.

00:52:45.000 And it's kind of funny, seeing as I'm not all that interested in foreign policy, I only talk about it sparingly because my focus is, and always has been, on American culture.

00:52:55.780 That's what I care about the most.

00:52:56.960 That's where I feel like I have the most to offer is with that.

00:53:02.360 So my pronouncements on foreign policy issues, while they are, I believe, correct, and I stand by them, you wouldn't think are terribly newsworthy.

00:53:11.560 And yet, apparently, they are.

00:53:15.360 There's been quite a lot of conversation about it this week.

00:53:17.720 On the show and on X, I have explained, certainly not for the first time, my position on foreign aid.

00:53:23.300 My position is that I'm against it, in principle.

00:53:26.440 I don't think we should be sending tax money to any foreign government.

00:53:29.320 I've said that any country that can't survive without our aid actually has no right to exist.

00:53:34.540 If you can't exist as a nation without the indefinite support of another nation, you're not a real nation.

00:53:39.980 And you should be conquered and ruled by a superior country. 1.00

00:53:44.480 That's how the world used to work and, in my opinion, should still work.

00:53:48.160 Rather than using foreign aid as this kind of backdoor way of colonizing, sort of bureaucratically colonizing a country, I would prefer it just be done directly.

00:54:03.380 And I'm old-fashioned that way.

00:54:05.720 Now, my views are, in every sense, America first.

00:54:09.700 You might call them isolationists.

00:54:11.300 I think that label is often used as a pejorative, but it doesn't bother me.

00:54:15.480 I mean, you can call me that if you want to.

00:54:16.660 My position is that our government has an obligation to our people.

00:54:20.540 America should be America's priority.

00:54:22.940 Americans should be the American government's priority.

00:54:26.220 I'm a simple man, and that is my simple, but also, I believe, again, correct way of looking at it.

00:54:32.240 And that brings us to the comments, which you'll find all over social media right now if you look for them, or even if you don't.

00:54:38.460 And they're all some variation of this one.

00:54:41.360 I'll just read one as an example.

00:54:42.580 Quote, Matt, you say you want to end foreign aid,

00:54:46.060 but I bet you won't include Israel in that.

00:54:50.160 This is the theme of many of these comments, accusing me of excluding Israel from my foreign aid position

00:54:54.740 because I'm afraid that I'll get fired or whatever.

00:54:58.560 And I probably don't need to read every version of this tweet in my ex-feed.

00:55:01.260 Suffice it to say that there are many, and they're all implying or outright stating that I'm a bought-and-paid-for shill

00:55:06.880 who would never have the guts to be consistent on this issue.

00:55:09.640 I'm nothing but a pawn of the Israeli government, is the idea.

00:55:14.660 Now, of course, there's a faction of that group that will accuse me of this literally no matter what I say about anything ever.

00:55:21.620 But there are enough questions about it and enough apparent interests,

00:55:25.040 given the tens of thousands of people tweeting about my foreign policy and Israel's stance this week for some reason,

00:55:30.180 that I think it's worth addressing on the show.

00:55:32.280 And granted, I have addressed it.

00:55:34.420 I've already answered this specific question multiple times,

00:55:36.760 but I'll answer it here so that you have it in one convenient place.

00:55:39.560 So the answer, of course, is that I do not make an exception for Israel.

00:55:43.580 Yes, I want to end foreign aid to Israel.

00:55:46.420 I want to end foreign aid to every nation on Earth, 1.00

00:55:50.000 and I would include Israel as a nation on Earth.

00:55:53.160 I oppose, again, foreign aid in principle, and I make no exceptions. 1.00

00:56:00.380 I oppose foreign aid because it breeds dependency among the nations that receive it,

00:56:05.100 and because there's no evidence that it actually helps any of these countries in the long run,

00:56:09.160 and because the results of foreign aid have not been good historically,

00:56:12.460 but mostly because I simply object to American tax dollars going to foreign governments.

00:56:18.420 I object to that.

00:56:21.660 Or going to NGOs and nonprofits that are then supposed to use it to help these foreign countries.

00:56:27.660 The NGOs and nonprofits, by the way, are just as corrupt as the government's,

00:56:30.660 if not more so, much of the time.

00:56:32.040 So I object to all of that.

00:56:34.300 The fact that foreign aid makes up a small fraction of the federal budget is irrelevant.

00:56:38.820 I don't believe that one single dime of tax money should go from your paycheck

00:56:41.960 into the government's hands and then into some other government's hands.

00:56:45.760 The fact that the government wastes much more money in other areas of the budget

00:56:50.040 does not make this waste, this scam, any better.

00:56:54.500 I also think, as I've said before, that there are some basic issues of taxation without representation here.

00:57:01.760 Taxation with representation, this is a basic concept.

00:57:04.440 If a foreign government is using my tax money, I'm not represented by that.

00:57:08.940 I have no representation.

00:57:10.420 I have no say over it.

00:57:12.420 I'm not benefiting from it.

00:57:14.020 How is that not taxation without representation?

00:57:19.720 And so for those reasons, because my position on foreign aid is a position in principle,

00:57:23.900 a fundamental position, obviously, I don't make an exception for Israel.

00:57:29.060 Now, frankly, I would like to turn the question around on the 10,000 people tweeting at me about this,

00:57:33.300 demanding to know whether my foreign aid position includes Israel.

00:57:35.720 It does.

00:57:36.380 Because I'd like to ask those 10,000 people whether their foreign aid position includes any other country besides Israel.

00:57:43.460 Because it seems that many in that crowd take exception to the foreign aid,

00:57:47.020 but only ever complain specifically about foreign aid to Israel,

00:57:49.940 even though dozens of other countries receive collectively billions of dollars.

00:57:53.940 Ukraine, of course, right now is at the top of that list.

00:57:55.960 And I'm equally opposed to all of it.

00:58:00.620 I don't think any of it should be happening.

00:58:03.760 Now, is my position at odds with the position held by Ben Shapiro and by the CEO of this company, Jeremy Boring?

00:58:10.820 Yes, it is.

00:58:12.380 They, in fact, very heartily disagree, which is not a secret.

00:58:16.100 We have debated this issue publicly and also privately a number of times.

00:58:21.940 Am I going to get fired for doing this segment?

00:58:25.420 No.

00:58:27.060 I really don't think so.

00:58:29.480 Will my direct and explicit answer to these questions actually matter to many of the people asking the questions?

00:58:35.120 Also, no.

00:58:35.900 I realize that.

00:58:37.120 In fact, after I said a very condensed version of this on X yesterday,

00:58:40.080 the comments started filling up, insisting that I'm only saying that I also want to end foreign aid to Israel

00:58:46.800 because Ben Shapiro told me to say it as some kind of ploy or cover story.

00:58:51.840 So they went from Ben Shapiro won't let you say that you oppose foreign aid to Israel

00:58:56.820 to Ben Shapiro is telling you to say that you oppose foreign aid to Israel in record speed.

00:59:02.800 It's almost as though there's literally nothing I can say that will move them off their preconceived conclusions.

00:59:08.300 Nothing.

00:59:09.400 It's almost as if there is no way to win when you're dealing with the social media mob.

00:59:14.820 And yet here I am talking about this.

00:59:16.520 If I can't win, if nothing I say is going to matter anyway,

00:59:19.160 if I'm a bought and paid for shill regardless, why bother discussing this?

00:59:24.480 Well, first of all, it's my job to talk about stuff.

00:59:27.500 So that's really the main reason.

00:59:28.740 But second, I have no doubt that at least some of the people asking me about this are sincere.

00:59:34.340 So I'm really talking to them, whoever they are.

00:59:36.880 And finally, there's also this.

00:59:38.740 There's another point I wanted to make that is a slightly broader point.

00:59:42.780 Because one of the most frequent rejoinders that I will hear and always hear to any point that I make about anything ever goes like this.

00:59:57.440 Yeah, you'll say that about foreign aid or fill in the blank random issue.

01:00:03.980 But why won't you say this other thing that I also want you to say?

01:00:08.620 You'll say that about Israel or about whatever.

01:00:11.960 But why won't you make this other point that may or may not be related to the topic?

01:00:18.500 Sometimes I feel like that's 80% of the feedback I get, especially on social media, is why are you talking about this other thing?

01:00:27.760 Are you scared?

01:00:28.580 Now, a lot of people seem to have this laundry list of things that they want me to say, opinions they want me to express.

01:00:36.760 And my refusal to say those things and express those opinions is, they're quite sure, evidence that I am, again, a bought and paid for shill, a grifter. 0.57

01:00:45.600 There are a lot of other points surrounding foreign policy, Israel, etc., that people on the Internet want me to make, things they want me to say.

01:00:54.120 By not saying those things, I am providing evidence in their minds that I am deceitful and phony and insincere.

01:01:00.700 Well, let me answer that whole category of objections slash accusations all at once, if I may.

01:01:09.080 And this, again, this could be a separate clip.

01:01:11.180 You could post this around for anyone, anytime this is brought up.

01:01:14.220 Here's my answer.

01:01:15.600 If I have not expressed a certain opinion, it is for the very simple reason that I just don't happen to hold that opinion.

01:01:26.080 I don't happen to agree with the proposition that you are insisting I put forward.

01:01:31.700 I say the things I say because I believe those things.

01:01:36.340 I don't say other things because I don't believe those other things.

01:01:40.660 I may be wrong, but if I'm wrong about something, it's because I'm wrong, not because I'm fearfully muzzling myself or cynically adopting a position I don't actually believe.

01:01:52.180 In the social media age, it seems like a great number of people assume that everyone else in the world must agree with them about everything so that if a man expresses an opposite view or even just fails to positively affirm their view on something, it's because he is a phony and a grifter.

01:02:08.740 That's the only possible explanation, the idea that anyone might just sincerely disagree has been ruled out.

01:02:16.500 They live in a world where it's inherently impossible for anyone to ever have a different perspective.

01:02:23.500 Everyone that claims to have a different perspective is automatically a liar, a con artist, and a fraud.

01:02:28.740 I mean, this is really, truly how a significant number of people apparently see the world, which is why I've been called a grifter for every opinion I've ever held on any side of any issue.

01:02:44.740 Even the smallest little opinions, even the most irrelevant, you would think, opinions, even the smallest.

01:02:51.680 Someone, I'm not making this up, someone just the other day, because there was another round of outrage on the internet, I'm not even sure why this time, there's another round of outrage where I found that I was trending, this time not Israel, it was because of anime.

01:03:06.080 Now, I haven't even said anything recently about anime.

01:03:08.520 I said one thing about it, you know, I think I've, really it's one thing I said about it offhandedly two years ago, and it just continually comes up, where the anime community on Twitter, just, they remember it.

01:03:20.480 And they're so overcome with anger that, yet again, there's an outrage cycle anew.

01:03:26.680 And so, in the middle of that, someone, not just one person, but someone called me a grifter.

01:03:33.720 A grifter for not liking anime. 0.70

01:03:37.660 They apparently believe that I really do like anime, and I really do recognize its artistic merits, but I'm claiming that I don't as some kind of money-making grift.

01:03:48.740 I'm just raking in all of those millions of anti-anime dollars.

01:03:54.180 The thought didn't occur to them that maybe I just actually, sincerely don't like it.

01:04:02.060 Maybe I should like it.

01:04:04.240 Maybe I'm wrong for not liking it.

01:04:06.280 Maybe I am uncultured swine who fails to appreciate the beauty and grandeur of this art form.

01:04:12.260 That might be the case.

01:04:13.440 But I will tell you this.

01:04:16.180 If I am uncultured swine, I am at least sincere uncultured swine.

01:04:22.760 Now, my, my, I have a dream, okay?

01:04:25.860 I have my own dream.

01:04:26.760 My great dream for us all is that we might get to the point where we can argue with each other by addressing the points that are being made,

01:04:36.080 rather than what we perceive to be the internal and invisible motivations in the mind of the person making the point.

01:04:44.940 I would love it if people presented arguments that began with the statement,

01:04:49.860 you're wrong about that point because,

01:04:52.540 instead of the much more common opening these days, which begins,

01:04:56.580 well, you're only saying that because.

01:04:59.080 As for me personally, the only reason I ever say anything is because I believe it to be true.

01:05:11.060 And I've been in public life for a long time.

01:05:14.240 And I have only ever been brutally honest about what I believe.

01:05:19.740 To a fault.

01:05:20.640 I can't promise that I'm always right about what I think.

01:05:26.400 But I can promise that you will always know what I think.

01:05:32.100 Although I'm probably right also.

01:05:34.260 Goes without saying.

01:05:36.420 That'll do it for the show today.

01:05:37.240 Thanks for watching.

01:05:37.840 Thanks for listening.

01:05:39.220 Have a great weekend.

01:05:40.380 Talk to you on Monday.

01:05:41.900 Godspeed.

The Matt Walsh Show - January 31, 2025

Ep. 1527 - Why The Plane Crash Was Entirely Foreseeable And Preventable

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