The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 207 - Michael Cohen’s Testimony Accidentally Helps Trump

00:00:00.000 Today on the Matt Walsh Show, Michael Cohen testifies to a House committee today.

00:00:03.640 The media tells us that his testimony is damning for Trump, but I actually think that he says a

00:00:09.060 few things that do more to exonerate Trump than implicate him, and we'll talk about that. Also,

00:00:15.080 ADHD was the topic of conversation on social media yesterday. I have an unpopular opinion,

00:00:20.740 which may surprise you, but I have an unpopular opinion about something. I have an unpopular

00:00:25.140 opinion on that subject, and we'll talk about that today. Plus, I'll get to your emails as well

00:00:29.320 today on the Matt Walsh Show.

00:00:35.140 So the circus continues. Apparently, attorney-client privilege is just not a thing anymore at all,

00:00:42.840 it seems. So Michael Cohen, President Trump's former lawyer, is on Capitol Hill today testifying

00:00:48.260 at a House hearing, testifying against the president. Now, Cohen, of course, is a known liar, 0.94

00:00:54.160 and he's going to jail for lying. So to any thinking person, his credibility is, shall we say, 0.67

00:01:01.780 a little bit compromised. But nonetheless, he supposedly comes with evidence of illegal

00:01:07.280 activity on the part of the president. But in fact, it seems that he succeeds more in exonerating

00:01:14.720 President Trump than he does in implicating him in any kind of actual criminal conduct.

00:01:21.740 And most of his testimony revolves around allegations of non-criminal conduct anyway.

00:01:29.300 So looking at his opening statement, just to give you an example, he says stuff like this. He says,

00:01:37.760 Mr. Trump is an enigma. He is complicated, as am I. He has both good and bad, as do we all. But the bad

00:01:44.620 far outweighs the good. And since taking office, he has become the worst version of himself. He is

00:01:49.340 capable of behaving kindly, but he is not kind. He is capable of committing acts of generosity,

00:01:54.340 but he is not generous. He is capable of being loyal, but he is fundamentally disloyal.

00:01:59.720 Donald Trump is a man who ran for office to make his brand great, not to make our country great.

00:02:04.820 He had no desire or intention to lead this nation, only to market himself and to build his wealth

00:02:10.760 and his power. Mr. Trump would often say this campaign was going to be the greatest infomercial

00:02:16.000 in political history. He had never expected to win the primary. He never expected to win the

00:02:20.580 general election. The campaign for him was always a marketing opportunity. Now, that last part there

00:02:27.540 about he didn't expect to win, it was just marketing. We'll get to this in a minute, but that's

00:02:31.960 actually significant, I think. That's a very significant point in favor of Trump, at least

00:02:39.500 in favor of Trump's innocence in regards to any criminal conduct. Now, it's not in favor of Trump's

00:02:47.500 integrity, if it's true, but when it comes to criminal conduct, I think that that's actually

00:02:52.340 going to be a point in his favor. We'll get to that in a minute, but most of what you heard there,

00:02:57.160 and there's a lot of this kind of stuff in his opening statement, it's the kind of thing that you put

00:03:01.520 in an attack ad when you're running against him in 2020, which of course is the point of this whole

00:03:07.540 hearing. It's just to get fodder for attack ads, it's to get this stuff. It's just video clips,

00:03:15.960 little bits of footage that you can then put into a montage when you're running against him and to

00:03:21.660 show, oh, what a bad guy he is. Just as long, and that's obvious, of course, but just as long,

00:03:27.420 I just want to make sure we're all on the same page and we realize what this is about.

00:03:31.520 Because even if it's true that Trump is an enigma, who's more focused on his brand,

00:03:36.440 that is not a criminal allegation. And if these hearings meant anything, which they don't,

00:03:43.820 but if they did, they wouldn't provide a forum for people to make subjective statements like that.

00:03:51.300 Cohen also, Cohen gets into talking about Trump, ran a campaign based on division and hatred. Again,

00:03:58.520 this is fine. I mean, that's the kind of thing that you say about a politician if you're trying

00:04:06.180 to damage them politically. Fine. But that's not what this hearing should be about. Cohen also

00:04:12.080 alleges racism. He says, while we were once driving through a struggling neighborhood in Chicago,

00:04:17.600 he commented that only black people could live that way. And he told me that black people would 1.00

00:04:23.180 never vote for him because they were too stupid. I have no idea if that's true or not. Obviously, 1.00

00:04:29.600 he has no evidence of it. This is coming from someone, again, who's going to jail for lying.

00:04:36.280 It strikes me as made up. I mean, I don't know. I don't know Trump personally. I have no clue what

00:04:40.760 he says behind closed doors. But it strikes me as the kind of thing that somebody would make up.

00:04:47.160 But who knows? And then he alleges dishonest and self-serving conduct from years before Trump was

00:04:54.740 elected. He says, Mr. Trump directed me to find a straw bidder to purchase a portrait of him that

00:04:59.620 was being auctioned at an Art Hampton's event. The objective was to ensure that his portrait,

00:05:04.200 which was going to be auctioned last, would go for the highest price of any portrait that afternoon.

00:05:08.600 The portrait was purchased by the fake bidder for $60,000. Mr. Trump directed the Trump Foundation,

00:05:13.780 which is supposed to be a charitable organization, to repay the fake bidder despite keeping the art

00:05:17.780 for himself. Please see exhibit. Then he gives his evidence of this. And it should come as no

00:05:27.360 surprise that one of my common responsibilities was that Mr. Trump directed me to call business

00:05:31.680 owners, many of whom were small businesses that were owed money for their services and told them

00:05:35.380 no payment or reduced payment would be coming. When I advised Mr. Trump of my success, he actually

00:05:40.080 reveled in it. So this is stuff from before he was president, misleading, inappropriate. The idea

00:05:47.640 that Trump would buy his own portrait, that I do find perfectly believable, but it's not exactly

00:05:57.340 grounds for impeachment, is it? What are the grounds for impeachment? I mean, that's supposed to be the

00:06:04.280 point here, right? This is supposed to be, you've got the guy's lawyer. Okay. You've got the, this is,

00:06:11.280 this is Trump's fixer. This is his personal lawyer. The media keeps telling us, well, that he knows where

00:06:17.100 the bodies are buried. Okay. I mean, yeah, this is, this is, this is quite a coup on the part of the

00:06:23.560 Democrats. You've got this, the president that you hate, you have his lawyer now spilling the beans.

00:06:30.180 How often do you have an opportunity to like that, um, to get all the dirt on, on your, uh,

00:06:38.680 on your political opponent. And so he should have some really good stuff, right? If Trump is guilty

00:06:45.480 of breaking laws, if Trump is a criminal, this is the guy who will know it and he should be able to

00:06:51.420 give you, uh, some really good dirt. So what's the good dirt? Good for the Democrats anyway.

00:07:00.500 Um, here are the big, the supposed bombs that Cohen drops, uh, are first, we have this. He says,

00:07:08.440 you need to know that Mr. Trump's personal lawyers reviewed and edited my statement to Congress about

00:07:13.560 the timing of the Moscow tower negotiations before I gave it to be clear, Mr. Trump knew of and directed

00:07:20.080 the Trump Moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it. He lied about it

00:07:24.780 because he never expected to win the election. He also lied about it because he stood to make

00:07:28.580 hundreds of millions of dollars in the Moscow real estate project. And so I lied about it too,

00:07:32.780 because Mr. Trump had made clear to me through his personal statements to me that we both knew

00:07:37.380 were false and through his lies to the country that he wanted me to lie. And we made it clear,

00:07:42.420 uh, and he made it clear to me because his personal attorneys reviewed my statement before I gave it to

00:07:46.700 Congress. Now this is interesting. Uh, the bit there at the end about how Trump wanted him to lie,

00:07:53.060 we'll get back to that in a minute. But what did he just reveal here? I mean, think about this for a

00:07:59.480 minute. He revealed that Trump was directing the, not the Moscow negotiations. That is, he was,

00:08:06.300 he was trying to get a Trump tower built in Moscow. Um, which nothing criminal about that. When you're a

00:08:13.580 real estate developer, you're trying to get buildings built across the world. Okay. Um,

00:08:19.500 now Cohen says, this is what he says right here. And he mentioned it before too.

00:08:25.880 He didn't think Trump did not think that he would become president. He didn't think he was going to

00:08:30.600 win. What does that tell us? It tells us that Trump was not trying to leverage the presidency for

00:08:39.480 financial gain. He wasn't trying to get a deal going with Russia on the basis of him becoming

00:08:45.160 president. So it wasn't like he was saying, Hey guys, let us bill. He wasn't saying to Russia,

00:08:49.420 let us build, um, this, this thing, you know, in Moscow. And then when I'm in the oval office,

00:08:55.000 I'll scratch your back too. Now that would be illegal. That would be corruption. That would be

00:09:02.360 impeachable. If Trump was using the power of his office to enrich himself, uh, and enrich his business.

00:09:13.020 And if this was all him running for president was just some kind of ploy, not for him to,

00:09:17.720 you know, get attention to himself, which I mean, that's, that's part of the reason why anyone runs

00:09:22.260 for president. But if the ploy was, I want to become president so that I can then, you know,

00:09:29.020 make these business deals and enrich myself. Well then, okay, now you got something you would

00:09:35.900 need evidence of it, but now at least there's an accusation that is quite serious, but that's

00:09:41.860 exactly what Cohen is not alleging. He says that Trump didn't think he was going to win.

00:09:48.800 So he was just trying to keep his options open and his business going until inevitably in his mind,

00:09:54.820 he lost. That is very significant. This one little bit here, this, this one line about Trump

00:10:01.540 thinking he wouldn't win is a game changer, I think, because if that's true and I believe that

00:10:07.860 it is true. In fact, I said, I'm not just saying that now I said many times, this was, it's not a

00:10:12.700 secret. I was not a supporter of the president during the primary, um, to put it mildly. And one

00:10:19.720 of the things that I said about Trump during the primary is I don't think he wants to win. I don't

00:10:24.700 think he thinks he's going to win. I don't think he's in this to win. And according to Cohen,

00:10:30.440 that's exactly correct. And if that's the case, then it would seem to insulate Trump from any

00:10:37.040 accusation that he had some scheme to leverage the presidency. Now it's not good. It's not good

00:10:42.340 to run for president when you don't even want to win. Uh, and you're just doing it for some,

00:10:46.400 you know, for, for, uh, uh, to, to, you know, um, expand your, your, you know, reach and you're

00:10:56.480 doing that for the sake of your profile and all of that. Now, again, that's very common. Why do you

00:11:01.400 think Bernie Sanders is running for president? Bernie Sanders ran for president. He was basically

00:11:06.840 unknown for the most part. He was just some wacky, crazy, uh, Senator up there in Vermont. 0.90

00:11:11.200 He runs for president. Now he's known across the country. And what do you know? Uh, he puts out a 0.77

00:11:17.160 book a couple of years ago, becomes a bestseller. And now he's a millionaire. This is what people do.

00:11:22.580 This is one of the reasons. If you ever wonder when you see these people running for president

00:11:26.100 who have no chance of winning and they're, they're polling like number 17 or whatever,

00:11:31.500 and they stay in, if you're wondering why are they doing this? It's because of their profile.

00:11:36.260 And it's because they plan to write a book and they're going to make millions. So if that's

00:11:41.540 what Trump did, it's not illegal. It's not even unusual. I don't like it, but it would seem to

00:11:47.820 protect him from the more serious potential charge that he was using the presidency, um,

00:11:53.940 and trying to leverage it. So now compare this for a moment to Hillary Clinton. Okay. And this is

00:12:03.240 not what about ism. It's not what I'm doing. I'm just trying to give you an example of what it looks

00:12:08.240 like when business interests and political interests really do collide to create actual corruption. Okay.

00:12:14.360 I want to give you an example of the kind of thing Trump apparently did not do even according to his

00:12:21.440 now enemy. So when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, she did leverage her authority in that 1.00

00:12:29.360 position to enrich the Clinton foundation, uh, her, her own charitable organization. And we all

00:12:36.320 understand by the way, Trump foundation, it's not about charity. The Clinton foundation, not about

00:12:41.260 charity. All these politicians and business people, they have their foundations supposed to be nonprofit

00:12:46.280 or charitable. It's not what it's really about. We all, we all know that. Um, but she did use that

00:12:54.160 power to enrich the, the, the Clinton foundation, uh, and to provide benefits to its biggest donors.

00:13:01.400 So just for a quick overview, I'm going to read two paragraphs from an article in the national review

00:13:05.340 back in 2016, written by Andrew McCarthy. Uh, and this is what it says, Hillary and her husband,

00:13:10.600 former president, Bill Clinton operated the Clinton foundation, ostensibly a charity. The foundation

00:13:15.460 was a de facto fraud scheme to monetize Hillary's power as secretary of state, uh, among other aspects 0.65

00:13:21.420 of the Clinton's political influence. The scheme involved a, the exchange of political favors,

00:13:26.520 access, and influence for millions of dollars in donations. B, the circumvention of campaign finance

00:13:32.420 laws that prohibit political donations by foreign sources. C, a vehicle for Mrs. Clinton to shield her 1.00

00:13:38.460 state department email communications from public and congressional scrutiny while she and her husband

00:13:43.040 exploited the fundraising potential of her position. And D, a means for Clinton insiders to receive

00:13:48.220 private sector compensation and explore lucrative employment opportunities while drawing tax payer

00:13:53.840 funded government salaries. While the foundation did perform some charitable work, this camouflaged

00:13:59.500 the fact that contributions were substantially diverted to pay lavish salaries and underwrite luxury

00:14:04.820 travel for Clinton insiders. Contributions skyrocketed to $126 million in 2009, the year that Mrs.

00:14:12.860 Clinton arrived at Foggy Bottom. Breathtaking sums were donated by high rollers and foreign

00:14:17.860 governments that had crucial business before the state department. Along with those staggering

00:14:22.640 donations came a spike in speaking opportunities and fees for Bill Clinton. Of course, disproportionate

00:14:28.080 payments and gifts to a spouse are common ways of bribing public officials, which is why, for example,

00:14:33.200 high ranking government office holders must reveal their spouse's income and other asset information

00:14:37.940 on their financial disclosure forms. While there are other egregious transactions, the most notorious

00:14:42.980 corruption episode of Secretary Clinton's tenure involves the State Department's approval of a deal

00:14:48.740 that surrendered fully one-fifth of the United States' uranium mining capacity to Vladimir Putin's

00:14:54.500 anti-American thugocracy in Russia. Okay, now, this is just to give you an example. This is what

00:15:01.740 corruption looks like. This is classic. This is just classic corruption. If you look up corruption dictionary,

00:15:09.020 it's basically what you get. It's classic stuff here. Grade A corruption. The accusations about Trump

00:15:18.500 don't look like that. Even if you believe everything that Cohen says, which you can't, but even if you did,

00:15:28.160 you come away with the impression that Trump is kind of a huge jerk and a bit of a bumbling idiot 1.00

00:15:36.880 and extremely conceited, and he lies a lot to the media, to the public, and so on. And that's if you 1.00

00:15:44.800 take everything that Trump, that Cohen says as gospel. Even if you did that, that's the most you can draw

00:15:50.980 from it. Now, here's the other supposed blockbuster revelation. It says in, this is back to Cohen's

00:15:58.580 statement. It says, in July 2016, days before the Democratic Convention, I was in Mr. Trump's office

00:16:06.660 when his secretary of, when his secretary announced that Roger Stone was on the phone. Mr. Trump put Mr.

00:16:12.320 Stone on the speakerphone. Mr. Stone told Mr. Trump that he had just gotten off the phone with Julian

00:16:18.840 Assange and that Mr. Assange told Mr. Stone that within a couple of days, there would be a massive

00:16:24.080 dump of emails that would damage Hillary Clinton's campaign. Mr. Trump responded by stating to the

00:16:29.360 effect of, wouldn't that be great? All right. Um, so he doesn't say that Trump directed anyone to hack

00:16:40.780 the emails, uh, or that he asked anyone to leak the emails or that he had any hand in it at all,

00:16:49.160 which again, now that would be a crime. If, if Trump somehow organized the hacking of Clinton's

00:16:57.700 emails, now you've got a serious crime on your hands, but that's not even what Cohen says. He says

00:17:04.360 that, uh, someone called him and told him that in a few days, this was all going to be coming out.

00:17:08.680 And Trump was happy about that. Okay. Honestly, I don't even understand why, what are we supposed,

00:17:19.140 how am I supposed to react to that? So someone completely separate from Trump hacked the emails

00:17:25.920 and then some other third party completely separate from Trump, WikiLeaks was going to,

00:17:31.020 was going to put them out and Trump was happy. So of course he was happy.

00:17:38.520 You're running, you're running against someone and you find out that, uh, there's going to be

00:17:42.640 embarrassing information coming out about them. How, what do you expect them to say? Oh no,

00:17:46.040 well, this is, we need to alert them right away. We need to alert the Clinton campaign so they can

00:17:51.320 be prepared for this. This isn't fair. No, I, well, I, well, certainly I want to beat her in the 1.00

00:17:55.980 election, but I don't want her to be embarrassed. That's not what I want. Is that really what I was

00:18:01.520 expected to, that's exactly what anyone would say. When you're running for office and you find out

00:18:07.880 that, Oh, there's going to be something, there's something coming out about your opponent. Okay,

00:18:10.440 good, great. Awesome. That's what I would say if I was running against somebody. It's just,

00:18:16.640 that is such a weak and the media is taking this and they're plastering it everywhere,

00:18:21.460 making headlines out of it. Trump says that would be great when he finds out about WikiLeaks.

00:18:26.960 Okay. Um, and in the end, uh, when it comes time for the rubber to meet the road and for Cohen to

00:18:38.780 really get to the meat of things and talk about actual criminal behavior, he does the opposite.

00:18:44.520 Uh, for one, he admits that Trump never told him to lie to Congress. He says, and I quote,

00:18:49.300 Mr. Trump did not directly tell me to lie to Congress. That's not how he operates. He says

00:18:55.380 that Trump implied that he wanted him to lie with facial expressions and with indirect comments and

00:19:03.360 that sort of thing. So he says that Trump, uh, you know, gave the impression he, he, he, he didn't say

00:19:09.260 it, but he just gave the impression that that's what he wanted, um, Cohen to do. And so Cohen did.

00:19:15.180 Uh, but that is, that's pretty weak sauce. Uh, that's, that's not enough to justify any kind of

00:19:23.600 impeachment or, or anything. And then there's this. Cohen says, questions have been raised about

00:19:30.280 whether I know of direct evidence that Mr. Trump or his campaign colluded with Russia. I do not.

00:19:36.420 I want to be clear, but I have my suspicions. And then he goes on to talk about his suspicions,

00:19:41.300 but he has no evidence or knowledge of collusion. And that's what this was all originally supposed

00:19:49.180 to be about, right? Isn't, I mean, that's what this was all supposed to be about is that Trump

00:19:53.820 colluded with Russia. And now you've got the guy, I mean, this is the guy who know the media says he

00:19:59.980 knows where all the bodies are buried. He knows, um, he knows all the bad stuff. He's got all the dirt.

00:20:06.600 He's got nothing left to lose. He's going to jail. So if anyone with direct knowledge,

00:20:14.480 if anyone would have direct knowledge of something like this and be willing to say it,

00:20:18.360 it would be him. And yet he says, no, I don't know anything about that. I have no direct knowledge.

00:20:24.320 So, I mean, I mean, if, if, if, if Russian collusion was supposed to be the big crime,

00:20:33.500 the big scandal, then the headline of this, uh, of his testimony is that

00:20:39.860 according to this testimony, um, he has no knowledge of Russian collusion.

00:20:45.860 So what do we do with all this? Uh, I suspect that we do nothing with it. If you already hated

00:20:55.840 Trump going into this, then you're still going to hate him. And you're going to see this as

00:21:00.760 vindication of your hatred for him. If you loved him, then you'll still love him. And you'll just

00:21:04.860 dismiss all of this because, Hey, this is a liar. And a lot of what he's saying is not criminal and

00:21:10.760 so on. If, uh, if you like me, or, you know, take a more kind of, uh, I think balanced approach,

00:21:17.320 then you'll probably look at this testimony and you'll say, okay, uh, he alleges some things that

00:21:22.820 if true are morally reprehensible, but, um, particularly the racist comments,

00:21:28.780 uh, but we don't know if they're true. They're almost certainly not completely true given the source

00:21:36.520 and they're probably not completely false because this is coming from a guy who would know the dirt

00:21:42.440 and Trump, Trump probably has some dirt on him. So probably not everything he said was, was, was

00:21:49.320 false. Uh, so what was true, what was false? Who knows? A lot of what he alleges is not criminal.

00:21:55.200 So there's not much we can do that would do with this on balance. I think that's what,

00:21:58.480 if you take more balanced approach, that's kind of where you'll, you'll end with it.

00:22:02.440 And here's the other thing. It's the Democrat party, um, that is obviously trying to destroy

00:22:11.920 Trump here, right? They're the ones organizing this whole campaign, obviously. So anyone with

00:22:18.520 a moral compass has to take that into account. Uh, we have to take into account the fact that

00:22:26.920 the Democrat party is an evil institution, um, an institution full of people who support 0.90

00:22:32.580 infanticide, people who support socialism, people who support the legal persecution of Christians, 0.98

00:22:38.540 uh, people who have no qualms about organizing smear campaigns and trying to destroy their political

00:22:44.700 opponents with blatant falsehoods and lies, as was the case with Kavanaugh. So we have to factor that in.

00:22:51.280 You know, there, there are a lot of Republicans or there are a lot of conservatives. I should say

00:22:57.160 a lot of conservatives who are disillusioned with the Republican party and have been for a long time.

00:23:02.140 And a lot of those same, uh, Republican conservatives don't like Trump or even actively really dislike

00:23:10.560 him, but they cannot align themselves with the Democrats and they feel morally obligated to support

00:23:19.700 the opposition to support whoever opposes the Democrats, uh, which in this case would be Trump

00:23:24.980 and his administration because the Democrats are just so evil because especially the Democrats support

00:23:31.900 fund facilitate the slaughter of, of millions of babies. You know, someone asked me today, um, when I

00:23:40.220 was giving my impressions of, of Cohen's opening statement on Twitter and making all the points that

00:23:46.940 I've made here and somebody said, well, you're just, uh, you know, you're just taking Trump's side

00:23:51.700 because you're pro-life and the Democrats are pro-abortion. Well, that's not true. You know,

00:23:57.480 I'm giving my honest analysis of what Cohen had to say. So that's not true. But does that factor in

00:24:05.100 to my approach to Trump? Uh, yeah, of course it does. How could it not? I don't, I don't pretend

00:24:15.280 otherwise. I'm not ashamed to say that. Of course, I have to keep in mind here that the people who are

00:24:23.060 trying to destroy Trump, uh, are not only blatant liars and have shown themselves to be that, but 0.91

00:24:29.060 these are really evil people, um, who, and there are other things besides the abortion issue, but I 0.97

00:24:38.480 don't even need to get beyond that. I mean, these are people who, if, if they had it their way and if

00:24:44.500 they controlled everything, abortion would be legal through every stage of presence, through every

00:24:50.520 stage of pregnancy and beyond. These are people who, uh, facilitate, fund, support the mass slaughter

00:25:01.120 of millions of babies, just evil, evil stuff.

00:25:05.600 And so that means that I will, I'll never take their side on anything. That doesn't mean that

00:25:14.660 I'm always going to defend Trump on it. I've criticized Trump plenty of times. If I think

00:25:18.400 Trump is wrong about something, I'm going to criticize him. And I'll even criticize him very

00:25:21.440 harshly as I have done plenty of times over the last two years and before that, but I'll never align

00:25:27.860 myself with the Democrats. I'll stake out a third position where you've got Trump, the Democrats,

00:25:33.920 and I'll be over here. I'll do that sometimes, but I'm never going to go over here with them.

00:25:37.320 Never, ever. I could never do that. I, I, I, I think any moral person has an obligation to not do that

00:25:44.900 because of how evil these people are and because of what their intentions are and what they want to do.

00:25:54.020 All right. What else? Uh, I, I wanted to mention this, this briefly, just because it's a subject

00:26:00.040 that's near and dear to my heart. Uh, as you know, because I've talked about it many times

00:26:03.860 on the show and I've written about it. So I can't, I have to say something, uh, when this is,

00:26:09.760 when this is a subject people are talking about a writer for New York magazine, Yashar Ali wrote a long,

00:26:16.320 um, Twitter thread about ADHD yesterday, um, describing his own experiences with the so-called

00:26:23.640 disorder. And the thread went, um, massively viral. ADHD was the top trending topic on Twitter

00:26:30.520 yesterday. Uh, you know, across, across the country, I believe as everybody was talking about

00:26:35.340 ADHD and describing their own experiences with this alleged affliction. Uh, although I did kind of find,

00:26:42.820 I found it sort of ironic that, uh, Yashar wrote this, he wrote such a long Twitter thread about ADHD.

00:26:49.240 And so those of us with ADHD, you know, we're, we're like, well, I can't read all that. That's

00:26:54.660 too much. Um, now, as I've shared plenty of times in the past, I myself definitely without question

00:27:01.060 have what is described as ADHD. That is, if I went to a doctor and I described, described my, my,

00:27:09.640 my symptoms to the doctor, I would certainly be diagnosed with it. And they would give me whatever,

00:27:14.200 uh, drugs I asked for relating to this, to this, uh, disorder. There's no question about that yet.

00:27:23.260 I do not believe that ADHD exists. And I want to explain what I mean by that,

00:27:31.460 because I think that there's a, there's kind of a false paradigm that goes on with this discussion.

00:27:37.720 Um, when I say that, that I don't think ADHD exists, what I mean by that is I don't think

00:27:46.060 it's a disorder. I fully believe that ADHD type personalities exist. I know that firsthand. I live

00:27:53.100 with it every day, but the word disorder is embedded into ADHD. It's right there in the acronym.

00:27:58.860 And that's what I take, take issue with. Uh, so the, the, the ADH part, I don't have a problem with

00:28:07.920 that. Attention deficit, hyperactivity, whatever. Yes. It's when you attack that D onto it that I have

00:28:15.740 a problem. Now, if you, if we were to change that D to something else, if we were to say attention

00:28:20.400 deficit, hyperactivity disposition, uh, then all of a sudden I would say, sure. Yeah, that exists.

00:28:25.920 That's a thing, but disorder, I have a problem with that. As I've tried to argue over the years,

00:28:31.920 I think we've committed, and I think it's such an important point. So I go back to it whenever I can.

00:28:36.700 We have committed a category error with regards to this issue. And we commit the same error,

00:28:42.060 in my opinion, with many other alleged mental disorders. And the error is philosophical.

00:28:48.260 This is a philosophical question. It's not a medical one. So anytime I talk about something like this

00:28:53.860 and, uh, someone says, you're not a doctor. You can't say that. What do you, what do you know?

00:28:59.820 Well, where, where, where did you, you, where did you get your medical degree there, Matt?

00:29:04.440 Well, first of all, where's your medical degree? Uh, you know, 99% of the people,

00:29:09.360 when you try to share an opinion about a topic like this, 99% of the people who shout at you,

00:29:13.640 you're not a doctor. Your opinion doesn't count. 99% of them are not doctors either.

00:29:18.240 Yet they have no problem sharing their own opinion, which is not based on any kind of medical degree.

00:29:25.100 So what they really, what they really mean to say is, if you're not a doctor, you're not allowed

00:29:30.360 to share your opinion about this, unless you agree with me, in which case you can, in which case your

00:29:35.440 opinion is totally fine. It's completely credible and based on, you know, research and logic and all

00:29:41.140 of that. So that's what they mean. And that's, that's a, that's a, a pet peeve of mine that is kind

00:29:46.840 of a separate issue, but this thing people do where they, uh, pretend not to take your opinion

00:29:54.460 seriously if you don't have the right credentials. And the problem with that is most of the time they

00:30:01.740 do it hypocritically because, uh, they don't really care about the credentials. What they really care

00:30:06.560 about is the fact that you disagree with them. If you didn't disagree, they wouldn't care about the

00:30:09.740 credentials. But even aside from that, the credentials aren't important. If someone is saying something

00:30:16.480 that's true, it doesn't matter what credentials they have for saying it. It's true. If somebody is making

00:30:22.260 a logical argument, then you as a thinking person should engage with the logic of their argument,

00:30:29.640 regardless of their credentials. They could be an illiterate person who's never read a book in their life.

00:30:36.100 But if they make a logical argument, you should be able to engage with it.

00:30:39.780 And if there are logical problems with it, point out the logical problems.

00:30:46.080 If you can't point to any specific problem, then falling back on, Hey, you don't have the right

00:30:51.040 credentials for this. That's just intellectual cowardice. And it's a, it's obfuscation. It's

00:30:56.360 deflection. But the bigger point here is that this is not a medical question. Um, nobody denies

00:31:05.460 that, that people exist who are easily distracted, who have trouble focusing, who have trouble staying

00:31:11.400 on task, who have minds that go in a million directions at once. Okay. I know what that's

00:31:16.320 like. I, you know, and, and no one denies that. The question is, is, is whether that is a disordered

00:31:24.560 way to be. Um, in other words, the philosophical question is, should people be that way?

00:31:31.800 And the next question or the question before that is how is a person supposed to be?

00:31:41.580 What is a normal person? So we say, well, that's abnormal. Okay. Well, number one, what

00:31:48.780 is normal? Uh, what is the normal mind? Who is the normal person? What is the ideal that

00:31:56.460 we're all supposed to be striving for? And even if you could prove that there is such

00:32:01.800 a thing as a normal person and a normal brain and a normal mind, which you can't because

00:32:06.180 that doesn't exist. But even if it does, who says that there's anything wrong with being

00:32:11.140 abnormal? Now, what I would say is that, is that hundreds of millions of people have

00:32:20.580 an ADHD disposition, including millions of people in school. And it is, but it is not

00:32:29.400 a disorder. And the fact that hundreds of millions of people have it is kind of an indication

00:32:34.040 that, uh, it's actually not that abnormal at all. Now, obviously if hundreds of millions

00:32:41.260 of people, if there's some sort of flu epidemic going around and hundreds of millions of people

00:32:45.660 are dying from it, um, then the fact that a hundred million, hundreds of million people

00:32:50.160 have it and it's, and it's normal in that sense, that doesn't mean that it's not a, that it's not

00:32:53.840 an illness. Of course, in that case it is, but that's totally different because the flu

00:32:58.760 actively physically harms you no matter what context you're in. That's the thing. It's not

00:33:05.640 like the flu is only harmful if you're in school and you're trying to complete a worksheet

00:33:10.560 or the flu is especially harmful at work. No, the flu is equally harmful no matter

00:33:15.580 where you are, no matter what you do for a living, no matter how old you are. Well,

00:33:18.820 it does depend on how old you are. Uh, but, um, it's, it's, it's harmful no matter what context

00:33:23.260 you're in. The thing about ADHD and the same for legitimate brain diseases, like, uh, like for

00:33:30.200 instance, dementia. Um, if you have dementia, they can look at a brain scan, they see you have it

00:33:35.560 and you're going to have it no matter where you are. You'll have it on a train. You'll have it on a

00:33:38.760 plane. You'll have it in a school classroom. You'll have it on a job. You'll have it everywhere

00:33:44.180 because that's the way that a disease works. ADHD is not like that. Uh, ADHD, a diagnosis of ADHD

00:33:52.280 depends largely on context. It depends on, does it interfere with your schooling? If you're a kid,

00:33:59.620 does it interfere with your job? Uh, does it make this and that thing in life more complicated or

00:34:05.500 difficult, but just because something, a certain disposition or personality makes it difficult to

00:34:16.220 complete a certain task, that doesn't mean that it's a disease. That doesn't mean that it's a

00:34:20.840 disorder. That doesn't mean that you're ill or that you have a mental problem. 0.81

00:34:25.320 It could mean, uh, it could mean many other things. Uh, it could mean that, uh, that there's

00:34:33.700 something wrong with the thing that you're, you're with, with the context. In other words,

00:34:38.460 we say that, uh, you know, all of these kids aren't able to focus in school, aren't able to, to,

00:34:45.420 to, uh, achieve what they need to do in a, in a school environment. And so that means that

00:34:53.580 they all have mental disorders and we got to put them on drugs.

00:34:56.880 Well, I would suggest that it's no, the kids aren't the ones who dis disordered. It's the

00:35:02.040 school environment that is disordered. If the school system operates in such a way

00:35:08.300 that it can only operate if millions of kids are on drugs, then what that tells me is not that those

00:35:15.780 kids have a disorder. It's that there's something wrong with the school system. There is something

00:35:20.080 wrong with the system. So maybe we have decided that everybody, especially kids, the, everyone

00:35:29.360 should be the sort of person who can sit at a desk for hours a day and complete busy work

00:35:36.280 and read this and fill that out and just do that for hours a day with, for hours a day with very

00:35:41.240 little exercise, with very little physical activity. We've decided that everybody should

00:35:45.800 be able to do that, including kids. And what I'm saying is maybe we're wrong. Maybe just some

00:35:54.160 people aren't built for that. Maybe that's not natural. Maybe it's perfectly natural and normal

00:36:01.100 for there to be all, for there to be millions of people, billions even, who really can't do that.

00:36:06.240 Who just aren't made for it. Who just aren't those kinds of people.

00:36:13.480 And that's the point.

00:36:16.900 Again, we, we have, this is a philosophical determination that we have made that everybody

00:36:25.020 should be the kind of person who can succeed in these sorts of confined, very calm kinds of

00:36:35.460 environments where there's a lot of memorization and regurgitation. We've decided that everybody

00:36:40.980 should be that kind of person. And I think, and that is a, that's a philosophical position that,

00:36:49.040 that people have taken. I think that it's, it's, it's wrong. It is, it's completely wrong.

00:36:53.400 Um, so maybe rather than, you know, treating everyone like they have a disorder, maybe we

00:37:05.060 need, maybe there needs to be a whole, I hate to use the phrase, maybe there needs to be a whole

00:37:08.240 paradigm shift. Um, maybe we need to change these systems. Maybe we all like diversity, right? Maybe we

00:37:18.160 need to allow for some diversity of personality and in education and in every other walk of life.

00:37:27.120 Maybe we should allow for people to be all different kinds of ways and to have all kinds

00:37:32.600 of different personalities. Maybe that's okay. All right. Um, I want to move ahead to, uh, to,

00:37:40.600 to emails here. A lot of interesting ones. Matt wall show at gmail.com. Matt wall show at gmail.com

00:37:47.220 is the, uh, is the email address. A couple of emails reacting to our, uh, to our conversation

00:37:52.640 yesterday. We had, this is from Kate says, hi, Matt, I'm a big fan, but I think you went too far

00:37:57.400 in your podcast today by arguing that every Democrat is evil based on the born alive bill.

00:38:01.780 I agree that voting no on the bill is evil, but I don't think you can know if people voting Democrat

00:38:07.780 are evil based on that. I hate the articles that argue Republicans are evil because they're directly

00:38:12.860 or indirectly supporting Trump. If you don't like being painted, painted as evil on a single issue

00:38:17.400 that I don't think it's fair to call all Democrats evil either. After all, there were a few who voted

00:38:22.540 yes. Well, Kate, I appreciate that you're being charitable and I understand that. I did allow for

00:38:29.520 the fact that there are, when it comes to just average everyday Democrats, there are plenty who are 1.00

00:38:34.340 extremely ignorant. And so they might not really know, uh, just how extreme their party has gotten 0.96

00:38:40.120 on issues like abortion. They may, they might not have even heard of this vote. The media is trying

00:38:44.880 to cover it up. Um, as the media always runs cover for the Democrats pro abortion extremism.

00:38:51.020 So I, I, and I allow for that. There are plenty of ignorant people. My point though, is that there is 1.00

00:38:55.820 no excuse for that ignorance. Uh, if you are ignorant in the information age, you are without 0.99

00:39:03.980 excuse. And if you're going to support a certain political party, it is your moral obligation, moral 0.97

00:39:10.360 and intellectual obligation to become informed about that party and what it stands for. And, and,

00:39:15.980 you know, the positions that it takes, the policies that it supports and your knowledge should

00:39:23.500 encompass where the party is today, not where the party was 40 years ago, but where it is today.

00:39:29.980 And so that is your obligation. And anyone who has failed to fulfill that obligation, I, you know,

00:39:35.260 they're not evil necessarily, but I do think that it is a, that it is a moral flaw on their part as

00:39:40.840 well as an intellectual one. Um, but for everyone else, like if you know, um, that this party supports

00:39:49.480 infanticide and this party supports funds, facilitates the slaughter of millions of children,

00:39:55.440 then, uh, and yet you still support it, then I think you're just not a good person and you could

00:40:03.600 improve. You could be, you could get better. I hope you do. I'm not saying it's, it's hopeless for you,

00:40:08.300 but to intentionally and knowingly, um, support the mass slaughter of children.

00:40:18.680 I don't see how anyone could do that and still be in any sense, a good or decent person.

00:40:27.320 To me, it's just that simple. As far as the, you know, there were three Democrats who voted against

00:40:32.040 it and I'm glad that they did. But again, um, they stay, they have a moral obligation. They should

00:40:38.100 be, what is, you know, they should leave the party. It's not enough anymore to just disagree with the

00:40:44.600 party on, on these issues, but then stay aligned with them. You need to leave. There is no moral

00:40:51.900 excuse anymore, uh, for staying aligned with this party that supports the slaughter of millions of

00:40:57.560 children a year. This is from hope. He says, uh, she, uh, sorry. Well, I guess I hope, I guess I should

00:41:02.880 not presume to place a gender on you one way or another. Uh, Hey Matt. So somebody on your show

00:41:09.200 brought up weed and you mentioned that you don't know, you don't know much about it. I'm a believer

00:41:13.440 who is firmly against weed and know a lot about it due to personal experience. One hit can get you

00:41:19.020 high. Many people claim I smoke because it helps me sleep. You will get no REM sleep while high.

00:41:24.180 Therefore you will not process information and it will remain in short-term memory until that gets too

00:41:29.000 full and the information is then dumped. Also, weed may not be physically addicting, but it is very

00:41:34.500 emotionally addicting. On a more biblical note, where the modern Bible says sorcery in many places,

00:41:39.400 the Greek root is pharmakeia. So quite frequently the scriptures, uh, list using drugs as bad.

00:41:46.800 In Galatians 5, it is in the same list as drunkenness. Anyway, I have many unprovable theories as to why

00:41:52.560 it's so bad. So I will just leave it at this. Thank you for taking the time and please don't ever

00:41:56.240 endorse smoking weed. The last thing we need is more Christian households letting that in. 1.00

00:42:01.240 Uh, oh, and last note, it's very easy to get contact high. So that's Hope's opinion. Now I'm

00:42:06.480 going to go to another email. This is from someone who just signs their name. Listener. Listener says

00:42:11.380 to answer your question about marijuana, it is much safer than alcohol. It is not addictive.

00:42:15.540 It won't destroy your liver. You can't die from marijuana poisoning. And yes, plenty of people smoke

00:42:21.080 socially and don't get high. It just relaxes. Uh, as you said about alcohol, marijuana occurs

00:42:27.220 naturally. God made it. There must be a reason for that. Uh, and finally, this is an interesting,

00:42:33.380 this is kind of a longer discussion, but, um, all right, I wanted to, maybe I'll, uh, maybe I should

00:42:39.020 save this for tomorrow. The question is, this is from Heidi. He says, hi, Matt. I had an interesting

00:42:43.460 argument with a friend recently. She was arguing that sometimes it can be morally acceptable for a person

00:42:48.280 to steal. If someone is in a desperate, desperate situation, it can be morally okay for them to steal

00:42:53.800 as long as they are not physically hurting someone else. What do you think is stealing objectively

00:42:59.540 morally wrong, or is it only wrong depending on the situation? So I, this is a really interesting,

00:43:04.460 I've thought about this before. I had an argument with, about this exact issue with, uh, some people

00:43:08.060 in my family a couple of years ago, and it's an interesting question. And it's also very relevant

00:43:14.180 because it goes to this whole idea that wealth is, is immoral and, you know, touches on all that

00:43:20.120 kind of stuff. Uh, and the more I thought about this question, I realized that my answer is gonna

00:43:25.300 be very long. So I think I will save that for tomorrow. So tomorrow, towards the end of the show,

00:43:28.780 we'll, we'll, I'll try to tackle that subject, uh, and we'll leave it there for today. Thanks

00:43:34.000 everybody for watching. Thanks for listening. Godspeed. I'm Michael Knowles, host of the Michael

00:43:44.420 Knowles show, disloyal dirtbag and convicted felonious lawyer, Michael Cohen appeared on Capitol

00:43:49.480 Hill to dance for the pleasure of Democrats today. We will analyze his pathetic showing. Check it out 0.99

00:43:55.020 at dailywire.com.

The Matt Walsh Show - February 27, 2019

Ep. 207 - Michael Cohen’s Testimony Accidentally Helps Trump

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