The Matt Walsh Show - Friendly Fire： State of the Union Address Live

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00:00:30.000 We are now part of the endless Friendly Fire broadcast,

00:00:33.000 live coverage of the State of the Union.

00:00:35.000 That's right, by the time this is over,

00:00:36.000 Andrew Klavan will be dead.

00:00:37.000 And Matt Walsh, his beard will be gray,

00:00:40.000 and he will have no hair.

00:00:41.000 So, you know, a lot's going to happen in the next few years,

00:00:44.000 because that's how long we are slated to be together.

00:00:47.000 Basically, we are now doing the extended director's cut

00:00:50.000 of all three versions of all three movies of Lord of the Rings,

00:00:53.000 because that's what tonight is going to be.

00:01:00.000 So, we have with me, of course, Matt Walsh, who is suffering,

00:01:06.000 and Andrew Klavan, who is likely to suffer with me even more.

00:01:09.000 Somehow, Matt begged out of part of the show,

00:01:11.000 which, I gotta say, that's a smooth move.

00:01:13.000 Yeah, I know.

00:01:14.000 I'm also confused as to how Matt is able to pull rank,

00:01:17.000 and I'm stuck here all night with you, Klavan,

00:01:20.000 as we go wall to wall on this coverage.

00:01:23.000 It's a full-scale disaster.

00:01:25.000 Folks, this is why you should subscribe

00:01:26.000 for this kind of sparkling commentary.

00:01:28.000 So, I'll begin with Walsh,

00:01:29.000 because I'm going to get my money's worth out of Walsh.

00:01:31.000 He usually speaks in these Friendly Fire episodes.

00:01:33.000 I should get like, I don't know, 15 words out of Walsh

00:01:35.000 in a typical Friendly Fire episode,

00:01:37.000 so we have to get all 15 of them in

00:01:38.000 before the actual State of the Union address,

00:01:41.000 which is to begin at 9 p.m.

00:01:43.000 So, Matt Walsh, how pumped are you to be here

00:01:46.000 for yet another State of the Union address,

00:01:48.000 and can we expect your excitement levels

00:01:51.000 to achieve the highest form of excitement,

00:01:55.000 or will your soul leave your body in excitement?

00:01:57.000 How excited are you here?

00:01:58.000 Well, I don't have a soul to begin with,

00:02:00.000 so it can't leave my body.

00:02:02.000 What I'm excited about is that when you guys come back

00:02:06.000 to talk about and analyze the State of the Union,

00:02:08.000 I'm going to be fast asleep in bed.

00:02:11.000 I don't know what story I gave them,

00:02:14.000 but I'm just going to actually be asleep.

00:02:16.000 That's the truth of it.

00:02:18.000 Let's just be honest about it.

00:02:19.000 Look, I mean, you know, I feel the same way you do, Ben,

00:02:21.000 about the State of the Union address,

00:02:23.000 is that obviously they're mostly pointless,

00:02:25.000 and if there's any kind of movement in the polls,

00:02:28.000 it will last for five seconds and it won't matter anymore.

00:02:31.000 So that's generally the case.

00:02:33.000 I do think that if there's any, you know,

00:02:36.000 if I were to predict that anything out of this,

00:02:39.000 or if anything makes an impact out of this speech,

00:02:42.000 I would guess it's likely to be less what Trump says in the speech

00:02:47.000 and more the antics of the Democrats.

00:02:50.000 And I guess there's going to be fewer of them in the room now

00:02:52.000 because a lot of them are boycotting.

00:02:54.000 They're doing competing events.

00:02:56.000 They've got their own competing State of the Union.

00:02:58.000 I saw someone mention on Twitter.

00:03:00.000 It's like, it's literally the office.

00:03:02.000 I mean, it's like something Michael Scott would do,

00:03:05.000 and that's what they're doing now.

00:03:07.000 But I expect that we heard about some of the illegal immigrants

00:03:10.000 that are going to be attending, you know,

00:03:13.000 Ilhan Omar and others along with her.

00:03:15.000 And so, but I expect that the Democrats in the room,

00:03:17.000 they're probably going to get a lot of antics out of that. 0.98

00:03:19.000 And so if there's any, if anything really makes an impact,

00:03:21.000 it's going to be them embarrassing themselves.

00:03:23.000 And I think we're kind of at a point.

00:03:25.000 Look, I mean, the State of the Union has always been pointless.

00:03:27.000 I think we're all on the same page.

00:03:28.000 He should just send an email and be done with it.

00:03:31.000 But if there was ever a time when you could,

00:03:34.000 when there was any sort of function of the State of the Union,

00:03:37.000 which I guess is supposed to be,

00:03:39.000 you've got both sides that are there and they're kind of unified.

00:03:42.000 And we're hearing the vision for the country going forward.

00:03:45.000 And there's supposed to be a little show of kind of like unity

00:03:48.000 and togetherness and some decorum.

00:03:50.000 And I think that's kind of the point of it, the pageantry.

00:03:53.000 But that's out the window now.

00:03:55.000 We can't do that anymore.

00:03:57.000 That's, those days are long gone.

00:03:59.000 And so it just makes it all the more like,

00:04:02.000 why are we even still doing this with the State of the Union?

00:04:04.000 We're at a point now where the Democrats cannot even pretend

00:04:08.000 to have any basic respect for the other side at all.

00:04:13.000 They can't, they cannot do it.

00:04:15.000 They refuse to do it.

00:04:16.000 And so I imagine they're going to humiliate themselves.

00:04:19.000 I agree with that.

00:04:20.000 And I think it'll be amusing to see what sort of antics they play.

00:04:22.000 Will there be juggling?

00:04:23.000 Will eggs be hurled?

00:04:24.000 Will they bring illegal immigrants into the chamber?

00:04:27.000 That was mentioned by Cabot.

00:04:28.000 I had not heard that.

00:04:29.000 But again, I think it would be fabulous if Tom Homan just started muscling his way through

00:04:34.000 the Democratic caucus with handcuffs and started dragging people away.

00:04:37.000 That would be the best version of this.

00:04:39.000 Matt and I were actually in the room for this last time.

00:04:41.000 And so again, I'm jealous of Matt that he gets to, you know, go to sleep this evening.

00:04:46.000 Andrew Klavan, I want to get your commentary on this because it will be your last commentary

00:04:51.000 on this earth.

00:04:52.000 Because while Matt's soul is likely to leave his body out of excitement, yours is likely

00:04:56.000 to leave your body out of, you know, death.

00:04:58.000 But first, I do want to talk to you about the fact that you are still alive.

00:05:02.000 And I feel like one of the reasons you are still alive is because you've been eating your

00:05:05.000 fish.

00:05:06.000 That's why.

00:05:07.000 So I need you to tell me about Wild Alaskan.

00:05:09.000 I'm a lifelong fisherman.

00:05:10.000 Not many people know this.

00:05:11.000 I used to fish every single day when I was young.

00:05:14.000 I fished all over the place.

00:05:15.000 I fished lakes.

00:05:16.000 I fished in oceans and rivers.

00:05:18.000 And one of my favorite places to fish was Alaska because you can pull a halibut.

00:05:23.000 If you hook a halibut, they don't fight. 0.99

00:05:24.000 They just hang there on the line.

00:05:26.000 But they're really heavy.

00:05:27.000 So it's like lifting a piece of lead.

00:05:28.000 And they are just, they just taste great.

00:05:31.000 And that's why we can sell people with a good heart Wild Alaskan Company.

00:05:35.000 It's the best way to get wild caught, perfectly portioned, nutrient dense seafood delivered

00:05:41.000 directly to your door.

00:05:43.000 It's not me delivering it, but it is my soul delivering it.

00:05:46.000 You have not tasted any fish this good.

00:05:48.000 It's 100% wild caught, never farmed.

00:05:50.000 And this means there are no antibiotics, GMOs, or additives.

00:05:53.000 Just clean, real fish that support healthy oceans and fishing communities.

00:05:58.000 I mean, you're allowed to eat fish, right, Ben?

00:06:00.000 Yes, I am allowed to eat fish.

00:06:02.000 That is the thing that I'm allowed to eat.

00:06:04.000 But honestly, the person in my office, because of kosher reasons, who has been enjoying the

00:06:08.000 fish is producer Phil, who's looking fit as a fiddle and ready for love, as they say.

00:06:13.000 Well, apparently it is sustainably sourced, wild caught from Alaska.

00:06:16.000 Every order supports sustainable harvesting practices, and your membership delivers flexible

00:06:20.000 shipments, expert tips, and truly feel-good seafood.

00:06:23.000 Matt, I believe that you also are a fisherman.

00:06:25.000 I'm surrounded by men of the wilderness.

00:06:27.000 Matt, talk about how good this seafood is.

00:06:30.000 Yes.

00:06:31.000 Yes, Ben.

00:06:33.000 That's correct.

00:06:34.000 I also enjoy fishing.

00:06:36.000 It's one of my favorite things to do.

00:06:38.000 And when I like to catch fish, but I can, you know, I can catch fish, but I prefer to

00:06:44.000 have them sent to me.

00:06:45.000 It's a lot easier that way.

00:06:47.000 And I don't have to prepare it either.

00:06:49.000 Well, thank you for that sterling endorsement, Matt Walsh.

00:06:54.000 Not all fish are the same.

00:06:55.000 You're welcome.

00:06:56.000 Get seafood you can trust.

00:06:57.000 Head on over to wildalaskan.com slash friendly fire for 35 bucks off your first box of premium

00:07:02.000 wild caught seafood.

00:07:03.000 That's wildalaskan.com slash friendly fire for 35 bucks off your first order.

00:07:07.000 Thanks to Wild Alaskan Company for sponsoring this episode of Friendly Fire.

00:07:11.000 Okay.

00:07:12.000 So, Andrew, I was calling on you and then I immediately shifted into the way that we make 0.98

00:07:16.000 money, of course, which is, which is our ass. 0.94

00:07:18.000 So I'm going to throw it back to you because as the hours tick down on, on your life and 0.98

00:07:23.000 you realize that you're going to have to spend the next several hours with me listening to

00:07:27.000 an interminable address interrupted 1,273 times by applause.

00:07:32.000 What are your last thoughts on this earth?

00:07:34.000 I guess it's like head barreling into infinity.

00:07:38.000 You know, what I like about the Democrats is the last time there was a State of the Union,

00:07:43.000 they behaved so badly that even they must have felt, if they have the capacity for shame,

00:07:48.000 they must have felt a little bit of shame.

00:07:50.000 I mean, they, you know, Trump was praising a child with cancer and they sat on their hands.

00:07:54.000 I mean, they just could not, they couldn't applaud for anything at all.

00:07:57.000 So the question was, they must have gathered together and thought, can we act like adults

00:08:02.000 who respect our country and respect our fellow countrymen taking a vote and said, no, we

00:08:06.000 can't.

00:08:07.000 So it's not going to show up at all.

00:08:08.000 They're going to sit on the, at the children's table where you can throw food until mommy finds

00:08:13.000 out, you know, you can just play around and pretend that you're not part of the government.

00:08:16.000 And I think that that's actually the state we're in.

00:08:19.000 You know, I think it is, it is an amazing thing that we have reached a place where we have

00:08:23.000 two major parties.

00:08:24.000 One of them is kind of incompetent, the Republicans, but the other one is actually out to destroy 0.94

00:08:29.000 the country. 0.83

00:08:30.000 They actually feel, you know, when they get up and they say things like there are no

00:08:33.000 illegals on stolen land, they're actually saying this country doesn't belong here.

00:08:37.000 You're not supposed to be here.

00:08:38.000 And that we're supposed to vote for people.

00:08:40.000 And people do vote for people whose entire intent is to shut the country down and make

00:08:45.000 it go away.

00:08:46.000 And they're ashamed of us and they're ashamed of George Washington.

00:08:48.000 They're ashamed of everything.

00:08:49.000 So I think this is actually kind of a symbolic moment.

00:08:51.000 I too, I've come closer to you, Ben, on how I feel about the State of the Union.

00:08:55.000 I never, it never used to bother me, the imperial part of it.

00:08:57.000 But now it kind of does.

00:08:58.000 Now that our Congress is like a dead letter that they're just sort of sitting around the

00:09:02.000 Supreme Court is trying to wake them up with like the shock paddles, you know, take

00:09:06.000 back your powers.

00:09:07.000 Like, no, no, don't make us take back our powers.

00:09:09.000 Now it is kind of like having Caesar get up there and give a speech.

00:09:14.000 So it's kind of a, I don't know, the whole thing is a disgrace on every side.

00:09:18.000 And one thing you can be sure of is Trump will play right into that.

00:09:21.000 He's going to be cursing out the Supreme Court.

00:09:24.000 That's the part that, you know, I think that it's going to be an epic episode of Good

00:09:27.000 Trump, Bad Trump, right?

00:09:28.000 Which is something that I used to do on the show a lot was the Good Trump, Bad Trump.

00:09:30.000 I think you'll get some very good Trump.

00:09:32.000 He's going to call on the U.S. men's hockey team, which is going to be great.

00:09:35.000 And frankly, he should just call them down to the stage and just let them take the stage

00:09:38.000 and then he should just walk out.

00:09:39.000 I think that'd be the best version of this.

00:09:41.000 My ideal state of the union here is men's hockey team at the front and Tom Homan arresting

00:09:45.000 people in the back.

00:09:46.000 And that's America.

00:09:47.000 I think that's like the best version of this.

00:09:50.000 But I think that the high points will obviously be him calling out some of the people.

00:09:54.000 Erica Kirk is showing up as well, which I think is a terrific invitation by the president,

00:09:59.000 obviously, in the face of Candace Owens is a tremendous evil, which I'm just going to

00:10:03.000 put out there.

00:10:04.000 I'm hoping Candace Owens would fly by on a broomstick saying, send out Erica. 1.00

00:10:08.000 I mean, as a person who doesn't often use the adjective satanic, what Candace is doing

00:10:13.000 right now is absolutely satanic to Erica Kirk.

00:10:16.000 And I think Erica showing up at the State of the Union in honor of her husband so the president

00:10:20.000 can talk about left wing violence against right wingers is absolutely good by the president,

00:10:24.000 good on the president for doing it.

00:10:26.000 I think those will be high points.

00:10:29.000 Again, I'll be a little surprised if the Democrats sit on their hands for those things, because

00:10:32.000 I think that would be so unbelievable.

00:10:34.000 I mean, you're right, Matt.

00:10:35.000 Last year, they literally sat on their hands for a kid with cancer.

00:10:37.000 So anything is anything is possible at this point.

00:10:40.000 But Matt, I want to ask you, you know, if you were the president, what is the thing that

00:10:44.000 you would say to turn this around?

00:10:45.000 Because obviously he's kind of sinking the approval ratings.

00:10:47.000 He's not doing great.

00:10:48.000 The generic congressional ballot has the Democrats up five points.

00:10:52.000 And in all likelihood, that means the Republicans not only lose the House, but probably the

00:10:56.000 Senate falls to 50-50.

00:10:58.000 You're advising the president for a moment.

00:11:00.000 You're writing his speech.

00:11:01.000 What do you tell him to do?

00:11:02.000 Well, first, I would tell him, get a better advisor, because I'm the worst person you could

00:11:06.000 probably ask this question to.

00:11:08.000 And I will say that I do enjoy that this is the most cynical and depressing intro to State

00:11:13.000 the Union.

00:11:14.000 And we've given some bad ones.

00:11:16.000 It just gets worse every year.

00:11:20.000 But for good reason.

00:11:21.000 No, the thing is, and it's kind of funny, because although we feel this way about the

00:11:25.000 State of the Union, I mean, Trump does have actually things to celebrate.

00:11:29.000 He has real achievements.

00:11:31.000 I mean, let's start with the fact that closing down the southern border is a real significant,

00:11:36.000 historic achievement that has made America a better place.

00:11:39.000 Doesn't solve all of our problems, but it's something that no president was able to do

00:11:43.000 before him.

00:11:44.000 And that's not his only achievement.

00:11:45.000 So he's got real things to talk about, real things that he can kind of brag about.

00:11:50.000 And so if I'm advising him, it's real simple.

00:11:53.000 Just focus on those things.

00:11:54.000 I mean, yeah, the great patriotic moments, talking about the Olympics, going to the hockey

00:11:58.000 team, that's all great.

00:11:59.000 But talk about the things that you've achieved, the real things.

00:12:02.000 Yeah, we want to talk about the future also.

00:12:04.000 What do you want to do in the future?

00:12:05.000 But part of the point of the State Union is supposed to be, you know, this is where we

00:12:10.000 are right now.

00:12:11.000 This is the state of things right now.

00:12:12.000 So it's kind of also a review of the past year.

00:12:14.000 And being able to highlight those things.

00:12:16.000 And also, again, being able to contrast that with how the Democrats react to it.

00:12:21.000 I mean, politically, that's going to be very powerful.

00:12:24.000 Because I think that, as you mentioned, we saw this last year in the room, that they

00:12:29.000 refused to applaud anything.

00:12:31.000 It didn't matter what he said.

00:12:33.000 And so I would guess, I mean, this is one prediction I'll make, is that when he has the line about

00:12:38.000 political violence, condemning political violence, and he mentions Erica, I'm going to guess

00:12:43.000 that a lot of Democrats are not going to applaud that.

00:12:45.000 Because they're going to perceive that correctly, in a lot of ways, as a repudiation of them.

00:12:51.000 Because all the political violence is coming from the left.

00:12:55.000 And these are the people that have explicitly or implicitly encouraged it.

00:12:59.000 So I think even something like that, we're not going to get a unified response.

00:13:05.000 And that will tell the American people a lot, I think.

00:13:08.000 So, Drew, you know, I'm going to ask you the same question.

00:13:11.000 You're now advising the president.

00:13:13.000 And aside from telling him that he probably should not say that the Supreme Court is in

00:13:16.000 the pay of a foreign power, and that also he's amazing at reading legal opinions.

00:13:20.000 What else would you tell the president to highlight?

00:13:23.000 I think a key thing here, you know, the polls are really bad for the president.

00:13:27.000 People are actually saying that they were better off a year ago.

00:13:30.000 And it's hard for me to see how that could possibly be true.

00:13:34.000 I mean, not only is the border closed, crime is down, drug use is down, imports of drugs are down.

00:13:39.000 All of these things have actually improved.

00:13:41.000 But it's got to be about the economy and I think the affordability question.

00:13:45.000 And the thing, I do not believe it would be possible to impress this on Donald Trump.

00:13:49.000 But it's not a bad idea for him to acknowledge the fact that people are unhappy.

00:13:54.000 You know, this is something I used to say through the whole Biden administration.

00:13:57.000 People were going, you know, the inflation is killing us.

00:14:00.000 And Biden's people would come out and say, no, no, you're really happy.

00:14:03.000 Things are great.

00:14:04.000 You know, I thought like, you know, I think people know when they can't make the rent.

00:14:08.000 I think people know when they can't get their kids the Christmas presents they want.

00:14:11.000 I think they know when they're not buying the same foods they were able to afford before.

00:14:15.000 So if people are saying they're unhappy about the economy, they probably are.

00:14:18.000 And there's probably no chart you can point to and no statistic you can point to that's going to make them feel better.

00:14:24.000 So it wouldn't be a bad thing if Trump could muster up just that little mustard seed of humility.

00:14:29.000 And I know don't laugh when I say Trump and humility in the same sentence.

00:14:32.000 But, you know, if he could just muster that little bit of humility to say, hey, you know, I know this is not going as fast as I wish it would, but it is going to go faster.

00:14:42.000 And this is why, you know, and I think that that's just something that is not in Trump's repertoire.

00:14:47.000 And yet I think it would go a long way to just say, you know, it's not about it's not always about Donald Trump.

00:14:53.000 It's sometimes about the people and the people do feel bad about the economy.

00:14:56.000 I'm a little surprised by that.

00:14:58.000 It does seem to me that things have picked up that not only has has inflation gone down, but wages have actually gone up and outstripped inflation.

00:15:05.000 But apparently people are not feeling that yet.

00:15:08.000 And hopefully they will soon.

00:15:09.000 And hopefully that'll turn around the predictions about the midterms.

00:15:12.000 So that would be my main thing.

00:15:14.000 You know, for my part, I will say that I think that the thing that has been missing and this is true for both parties, I think the president has done an amazing job of fixing many of the problems left in his lap by Joe Biden.

00:15:26.000 I think that wiping out DEI, closing the southern borders, Matt mentions, going after the transgender agenda. 1.00

00:15:32.000 These are all huge gaping holes in the American psyche that the president has done a great job of working to heal.

00:15:39.000 I think that that what people are missing and I think where people are feeling dyspeptic, which is my new favorite word, and also, you know, just feeling uneasy in their stomachs is they don't know what are they supposed to think the country looks like in three years.

00:15:53.000 Matt, you've talked a lot about A.I. There are a lot of worries out there about A.I., and I don't think those worries are completely unjustified.

00:15:59.000 Again, I tend to be more of a tech optimist.

00:16:01.000 Matt would like to take every computer apparently in America and just smash it with a hammer, sort of like office space.

00:16:07.000 But I think that Matt's sentiment, even for people who are tech optimists, we're like, well, I think it'll be OK, but I'm not kind of like sure it's going to be OK.

00:16:15.000 And and I think there are a lot of people out there who are wondering what does life actually look like three years from now?

00:16:20.000 So listing off the accomplishments is one thing, but saying, look, here is what you can look forward to.

00:16:24.000 Right. If things go the way that I want them to go, here is what industries are looking like.

00:16:29.000 Here's how here's what your job looks like in a couple of years.

00:16:31.000 Here's what the international scene looks like in a couple of years.

00:16:34.000 Right. Just read the trend lines that I've created and take people to a future and then say, and if you stick with me, we can get to this future together.

00:16:41.000 And that's something that actually no president that I can remember has actually ever done.

00:16:45.000 I think they virtually all talked about the thing they did in the last year, but none of them has actually talked about what they want the future to look like in sort of real terms that people can wrap their brains around.

00:16:54.000 The White House did on their YouTube feed actually put out an A.I.

00:16:58.000 And again, I talk about things that I have wonders whether they help.

00:17:03.000 They put out an A.I. of President Trump listing his accomplishments.

00:17:07.000 It is a little weird and makes me also want to smash computers with a hammer.

00:17:12.000 Actually, it is the president. I don't know why there is a senator in the background who apparently is wearing a neck brace.

00:17:18.000 I don't know. Teddy Kennedy has been dead for a long time.

00:17:21.000 And and so I'm not sure what's going on right there.

00:17:24.000 This is a visual of the president apparently taking an oath of office while also listing all of it late.

00:17:30.000 So he's I don't know what's going on here, honestly.

00:17:33.000 And it does. It makes me very disquieted about A.I.

00:17:36.000 Guys, you need to stop showing. We're in the uncanny valley. I can't do this.

00:17:38.000 You need to take it away.

00:17:39.000 One of the things that really bothers me about the conversation, the American conversation, is we've skipped over that part where people say, like, wow, human beings invented artificial intelligence.

00:17:50.000 We don't even do that anymore. We go right to the disaster.

00:17:54.000 Look, look, mother, look, I've invented artificial intelligence.

00:17:57.000 Oh, my God, we're all going to die.

00:17:59.000 And I really do think the tech optimism is more realistic at this point than, you know, the Terminator coming to life.

00:18:05.000 I think that it's a shame that we have no way of talking. 1.00

00:18:08.000 We can't even win a hockey match without people screaming at each other about some stupid comment in a locker room. 1.00

00:18:14.000 It is. It's really bad that this conversation is now just we immediately go to the anger. 1.00

00:18:20.000 Well, you know, what is it?

00:18:22.000 What is it?

00:18:23.000 Go to it. Do it.

00:18:24.000 Go to the anger.

00:18:25.000 Good.

00:18:26.000 What what is the tech?

00:18:27.000 This is this and this is what I'd love to hear to the State of the Union.

00:18:29.000 I'd love to hear someone address it because this is a very real concern that a lot of people have.

00:18:33.000 It's very, very real.

00:18:34.000 And I'm certainly not the only one, because when I when I look at it, as I've expressed a million times, what I see is a very high probability that at a minimum in the short to mid term,

00:18:48.000 AI is going to come in, already has come in and is going to wipe out millions and millions and millions of jobs.

00:18:53.000 And that's already happening.

00:18:54.000 So it's not even like I'm predicting it. It's that's already happening.

00:18:57.000 The only prediction is that it's going to accelerate.

00:18:59.000 And I think that we have every reason to think that it will.

00:19:01.000 So that's the that's what is almost certainly going to happen.

00:19:04.000 What's the what exactly what's the optimistic vision?

00:19:07.000 Why shouldn't we freak out about this?

00:19:09.000 That's that's what I'd love for someone to explain.

00:19:11.000 I agree. And this is why, again, I think that it would be great if you did.

00:19:14.000 I mean, if I were writing the speech for the president, what I'd probably say is your medical care is going to get wildly cheaper and better because of AI, which is just true.

00:19:21.000 It's going to get so much cheaper and so much better in the next five years.

00:19:24.000 It's going to make your head explode with how with how good it is.

00:19:27.000 The possibility of you being able to organize your life in better ways is already here.

00:19:31.000 I mean, cloud AI is doing extraordinary stuff in terms of you being able to organize your workflow.

00:19:36.000 Small businesses are going to be able to start because the cost of starting a small business is going to be reduced so much you won't have to take out big debts in order to go hire five people to start your business.

00:19:44.000 You're going to be able to use AI to do all that sort of work.

00:19:47.000 You as a worker are going to become significantly more productive, which means that presumably your hours will be able to be shorter because you're able to be so much more productive with this stuff.

00:19:55.000 There's going to be expansion, particularly in industries that where you use your hands.

00:19:59.000 There's going to be a lot of expansion in industries where the human body actually matters.

00:20:02.000 The places that are going to get hit pretty hard are the white collar industries and particularly kind of lower half of white collar.

00:20:07.000 You're going to see legal get smoked.

00:20:09.000 So if you really love lawyers, maybe you should be mad at AI.

00:20:11.000 But if you're one of the people who's been making lawyer jokes for the last half century, then probably you're a happy camper.

00:20:16.000 So there are a bunch of things about AI that actually are going to be quite awesome.

00:20:20.000 And I also do not think that the best form of AI is going to be AI alone.

00:20:25.000 I think it's going to be like people who play chess.

00:20:27.000 Yes, computers are better than humans at chess on an average level.

00:20:30.000 But the best version is a great person who is great at chess with a great computer.

00:20:35.000 Doing that is actually the best version.

00:20:37.000 That would actually be the pitch.

00:20:38.000 I'd love to hear somebody make that pitch, actually.

00:20:40.000 But here is my pitch to you.

00:20:41.000 If you want the best in investigative reporting, actual facts in your news and opinions from the most trusted names in conservative media,

00:20:47.000 you need to subscribe right now at dailywireplus.com.

00:20:50.000 We are quickly expanding.

00:20:51.000 That only happens because of members like you.

00:20:53.000 Again, please head on over to dailywireplus.com so we can get you more fabulous investigative material.

00:20:58.000 And, of course, sparkling commentary from the likes of those that you are hearing right now.

00:21:03.000 Okay, so to take it away from the State of the Union for just a second and to take it toward what I think everybody really has their eye on,

00:21:09.000 which is the midterm elections.

00:21:10.000 So, Matt, I want to get your take on where you think we are with the midterms, what to expect.

00:21:15.000 And, again, more broadly, how can the president kind of shift the momentum and turn things around?

00:21:20.000 Well, I think it's everything we've been covering.

00:21:23.000 People, there's a perception in America that, as we've talked about in the polls, that we're sort of worse off than we were a year ago.

00:21:32.000 I think that that is objectively just not actually true.

00:21:36.000 But that's the perception people have.

00:21:39.000 And elections are all perception.

00:21:42.000 Politics is all perception.

00:21:43.000 It's all that matters.

00:21:44.000 And so you need to change that perception.

00:21:47.000 And, you know, highlighting all the wins is one way to do it.

00:21:53.000 I think the messaging on that, it's not all about messaging, but the messaging on that obviously has not been clear enough.

00:21:59.000 I mean, if we can agree that things are, by almost every metric, things actually are not worse now than they were under Biden, if we can agree on that, and yet there's this perception that it is, then it's hard for me to see that as anything but a messaging failure.

00:22:16.000 What else can we call that?

00:22:17.000 And so I think that's going to be the key, not just in the State of Union, but going forward into the midterm elections is a kind of clear, coherent, unified message addressing that.

00:22:29.000 Yeah, I think one of the things, Drew, and I want to get your take on this, were it to be I advising the administration, the thing I've been saying forever, all Americans want is normalcy.

00:22:39.000 That's all they want.

00:22:40.000 They just want things to be quiet and normal.

00:22:42.000 That's all.

00:22:43.000 And so if you are able for five seconds to deploy people in your administration who are effective at making things be quiet and normal, this means Tom Homan and not, for example, Kristi Noem at DHS.

00:22:53.000 This means, for example, Scott Besant at Treasury and not Howard Lutnik over at Commerce.

00:22:57.000 It means that if you deploy people who are pros, Marco Rubio in the State Department, who's doing a fabulous job.

00:23:03.000 If you deploy the pros and you tell the American people, listen, we're taking mainstream normie positions that 65%, 70% of the American public agrees with, like deport criminal illegal immigrants. 0.94

00:23:14.000 And Democrats are out there, unified, ice out.

00:23:17.000 That to me has always been the Trump pitch.

00:23:19.000 And the problem for, I think, President Trump has always been that the actual policy that he effectuates is at war with his rhetoric because the policy is always this kind of 65% policy.

00:23:29.000 And he has a really good finger on the pulse of what that feels like, which is why he shifts and he moves when he feels like he doesn't have the pulse.

00:23:35.000 But his rhetoric is always sort of the most extreme and inane version of that thing.

00:23:40.000 And I think that's at a certain point, the American people are tired.

00:23:43.000 I think that's what you're getting right now.

00:23:44.000 I think the American people are extremely tired.

00:23:46.000 We are one year into the Trump administration, too.

00:23:49.000 And it feels like we are all Drew's age.

00:23:52.000 And I'm 42.

00:23:53.000 And Drew feels like he's been around since the 17th century.

00:23:56.000 Which I actually have.

00:23:58.000 That is one thing.

00:23:59.000 But no, you know, I always ask myself, you know, whenever I watch the Democrats, when the Democrats were in power, when Joe Biden, the worst president in my lifetime, which, as you say, goes back infinitely.

00:24:08.000 You know, when he was in power, I kept seeing things like this. 0.99

00:24:11.000 They say, let's cut little boys' testicles off and turn them into little girls. 1.00

00:24:16.000 Let's, you know, let's hire people according to the color of their skin. 0.99

00:24:19.000 Let's make, you know, women into men and men into women and have them play women's sports. 1.00

00:24:24.000 And then they come out, find out they were unpopular, and they say, it must be our messaging.

00:24:28.000 You go, no, no, it's not your messaging.

00:24:31.000 And in the same way, I think with Donald Trump, there is, you know, a style and substance difference that is really unnerving to people and plays into the prejudices of the media.

00:24:41.000 So, I mean, Trump says things that he shouldn't say, you know, and I'm sorry, I keep saying this on my show all the time because it's so old fashioned and yet so true.

00:24:50.000 Manners actually matter.

00:24:51.000 You know, good manners, you can get very far with good manners and determination just as far, if not further, than you can get with determination and bad manners.

00:25:00.000 And so, as always, with all of us, you know, Trump's flaws and his strengths are the same.

00:25:05.000 And one of his great strengths is the fact that he's willing to break the rules.

00:25:09.000 He's willing to go into be the bull in the China shop.

00:25:11.000 He's willing to say, oh, yeah, we've done this this way for 50 years.

00:25:15.000 It's not working.

00:25:16.000 Let's stop.

00:25:17.000 That is a wonderful trait that Donald Trump has that makes him who he is.

00:25:20.000 But by the same token, he does the same thing with the way he treats people.

00:25:24.000 You know, yeah, usually you don't fire people like in public on the air.

00:25:28.000 No, that's the way I'm going to do it.

00:25:30.000 You know, usually you don't call the Supreme Court, you know, say they're in the pay of foreign powers.

00:25:34.000 You have some respect for the law.

00:25:36.000 No, I'm not going to do that.

00:25:37.000 So that same kind of unbridled, you know, feeling that he brings to his substance, which is great.

00:25:43.000 He brings to his style, which is not so great.

00:25:45.000 I think this is where, you know, again, the president is at his best where he can really deploy that is when he's got his book of enemies open.

00:25:51.000 And he because he is he is absolutely the most effective destroyer in modern American history.

00:25:57.000 He what I've always said about the president is that he has the art of politics is making it very hard to vote for your opponents and easy to vote for you.

00:26:03.000 And he's always been amazing at the former.

00:26:05.000 And, you know, kind of mixed bag at the latter.

00:26:08.000 He's great at making it hard to vote for Democrats.

00:26:10.000 And so the question, you know, Matt, is who?

00:26:13.000 Again, the president is looking for a target.

00:26:16.000 What is the target? Who is the target?

00:26:18.000 Who is the target? How how does he singularly polarize around a Democratic target?

00:26:21.000 Who is the who's the target rich environment that he should be going after right now?

00:26:25.000 I don't know. I mean, I think they all kind of are the the the the good thing that we have.

00:26:29.000 And we're talking about returning. Americans want normal.

00:26:31.000 We want a sense of normalcy. I think that's true.

00:26:33.000 And it brings to mind Gavin Newsom, who just I think yesterday was on CNN saying that, well, you know, the Democrats need to be a little bit more culturally normal.

00:26:42.000 So he's doing his whole his whole moderate stick, you know, which, of course, is a stick.

00:26:47.000 He mentions pronouns. So he said, maybe we won't be so focused on the pronouns.

00:26:51.000 Very boldly coming out against the pronoun thing four years after that peaked anyway.

00:26:55.000 But the advantage that that Trump has and Republicans have is that Democrats actually can't do that.

00:27:03.000 Like, at least in theory, Republicans can be normal.

00:27:07.000 Many times a lot of weird stuff happens among Republicans, but we they can be normal.

00:27:12.000 That is a possible thing. With Democrats, it's not even possible.

00:27:14.000 It's like inherently impossible because it's they're progressive.

00:27:18.000 And so what that means and they would even admit this if you framed it in a more positive way.

00:27:23.000 But it means that you're constant. It's a it's a constant state of transformation all the time.

00:27:27.000 So there's always a new normal, you know, and so if there's always a new normal, it means that there's never a normal at all.

00:27:33.000 And so Democrats are just not just not capable of it.

00:27:36.000 I mean, they literally march under a banner that says dismantle.

00:27:39.000 You know, that's that's that they they they are the party.

00:27:42.000 They are the side that uses a word like dismantle in a positive way.

00:27:45.000 Conservatives almost never do that.

00:27:47.000 And what are they always trying to dismantle? It's always like fundamental aspects of human society, nuclear family and so on.

00:27:53.000 Human nature. So, right, exactly. So they they can't do that.

00:27:56.000 They can talk about it. They can't actually do it. It's totally against their their political project.

00:28:01.000 And Republicans can. And so that's an advantage.

00:28:04.000 And that's maybe something that Trump could try to highlight.

00:28:07.000 We do have some people arriving at the State of the Union address.

00:28:10.000 And many Democrats are not showing up tonight.

00:28:13.000 You know, I wish I had not showed up tonight.

00:28:15.000 But, you know, here we are all together suffering through this, suffering through this together.

00:28:20.000 There are some old people. 0.81

00:28:21.000 You can see them. I'm not talking about Klavan again. Those are some old people who people elected. 1.00

00:28:25.000 I don't know why. You know, it's just the way this thing works.

00:28:27.000 This this elected government of ours is going so well.

00:28:30.000 And I believe that's Senators McCormick and Tim Sheehy.

00:28:33.000 McCormick, of course, from Pennsylvania.

00:28:34.000 Tim Sheehy from Montana.

00:28:36.000 And then there are a bunch of people I don't recognize.

00:28:38.000 So, you know, I'm doing a great job.

00:28:40.000 You know, my color commentary here.

00:28:41.000 Wait until I wait until I do tennis.

00:28:43.000 He hits the ball and then he also hits the ball.

00:28:45.000 Well, you know, I know that Kalshi, our sponsor, also has a rundown on what Trump is going to say during the State of the Union.

00:28:52.000 If you are feeling lucky and inspired, you can get into the action yourself with the help of our sponsors over at Kalshi.

00:28:58.000 You can head on over to Kalshi.com slash friendly fire.

00:29:01.000 Prediction markets are forecasting the odds of President Trump saying words like Somali's ballroom fake news and hoax.

00:29:07.000 Man, of those, I feel like there's also some odds on surprise guests.

00:29:12.000 I feel like of those words, I'm going to go like I'm going to go hoax.

00:29:15.000 I feel like hoax is always a good standby.

00:29:17.000 A prediction bonanza unseen since the Super Bowl.

00:29:20.000 So definitely check it out right now.

00:29:22.000 Some of the markets.

00:29:23.000 What will Trump say during the State of the Union?

00:29:26.000 So as I say, some of those words will undoubtedly come up.

00:29:30.000 I believe that there is, yeah, ballroom is at 50 some percent.

00:29:36.000 Hoax is at 50 some percent.

00:29:39.000 People are very optimistic about him saying words.

00:29:41.000 So that's exciting news from our friends over at Kalshi.

00:29:45.000 That might improve the State of the Union.

00:29:48.000 Yeah, exactly.

00:29:49.000 There's also a market, a prediction market on who is going to attend the State of the Union.

00:29:54.000 No points for Macho Man Randy Savage.

00:29:56.000 I don't know, guys.

00:30:03.000 I'm punch drunk already.

00:30:04.000 We haven't even begun this thing yet.

00:30:06.000 If you have any idea where to go from here, like you let me know.

00:30:10.000 You let me know.

00:30:11.000 This is why Knowles usually runs Friendly Fire, because believe it or not, it's the only thing he is more professional at than I.

00:30:15.000 But the reason Knowles is not with us is because Knowles is actually at the State of the Union address.

00:30:20.000 So is Isabel Brown.

00:30:21.000 How low they have sunk in the State of the Union that Knowles is actually there.

00:30:23.000 I know.

00:30:24.000 They're really, really scraping the bottom of the barrel, truly scraping the bottom of the barrel.

00:30:26.000 I know.

00:30:27.000 Unless he's the usher.

00:30:28.000 I mean, I could see him being the usher.

00:30:29.000 I mean, my assumption is that in order for you to go to the State of the Union, you have to be hit in the teeth with a hockey stick.

00:30:34.000 So I volunteer right now to make that happen.

00:30:37.000 That would actually improve Knowles' face.

00:30:39.000 Okay. 0.96

00:30:40.000 So, Matt, I do want your rant on how much Canada sucks, because that was pretty great. 0.94

00:30:44.000 I mean, the United States, if you could not feel a surge of pride at us defeating our communist northern neighbors who murder the disabled, then I'm not sure what exactly we're doing here. 0.94

00:30:54.000 Yeah, and it was the first hockey game that I've watched all the way through, and it was actually pretty exciting, but most exciting just to watch Canada get vanquished.

00:31:08.000 And what makes it so hilarious, of course, as many people have pointed out, is that hockey is the only thing they know how to do.

00:31:14.000 It's their only sport.

00:31:15.000 It's their only activity.

00:31:17.000 They put their kids in hockey when they're like six months old, and for us, it's a niche interest.

00:31:23.000 It's like not even a top-five sport.

00:31:25.000 We barely even know it exists, and then we just kind of wander over there.

00:31:28.000 We're like, yeah, fine, we'll take the gold in that.

00:31:30.000 So my whole pitch was that I think we should just do this now, and I think our next project should be assemble the greatest cricket team that the world has ever seen, and then go and dominate in cricket.

00:31:41.000 And I want a bunch of drunk Americans going to the Cricket World Series or whatever it's called, tailgating outside, being obnoxious, bragging. 1.00

00:31:48.000 We don't even know how the game is played or anything about it, and that's what I think we should do. 0.53

00:31:53.000 Come on.

00:31:54.000 And I will also say, just on the Canada point, that I'm not totally making the argument that we absolutely should invade Canada and depose its regime.

00:32:07.000 But I am saying that given that America has done this, and we just did it in Venezuela, many of the arguments that have applied and have justified those actions, if you favored them, really do apply to Canada.

00:32:22.000 It's not a crazy thing to talk about, and as you mentioned, Ben, I mean, they are in the middle of a campaign of eugenics. 0.70

00:32:28.000 They are executing, you know, not terminally ill people, but thousands of people who are, you know, just chronically ill, which is to say they're sick, but they're not going to die of the sickness.

00:32:38.000 And that's just what they're burning down churches, not arresting anybody for it, you know, partial birth abortion. 0.86

00:32:43.000 I mean, it's really just a parade of atrocities in Canada.

00:32:46.000 And so, I don't know, it's something we should talk about.

00:32:48.000 Maybe Trump will speculate about it in the State of the Union.

00:32:52.000 I would love that.

00:32:53.000 Well, also, by the way, we should mention here, before Walsh ducks out and gets his nighty-night sleep,

00:32:57.000 that he has a new episode of Real History that is out right now about the history, the real history of Native Americans, about American Indians.

00:33:05.000 That episode is episode two in his wildly popular Real History series.

00:33:09.000 Matt, maybe you want to give people a quick rundown.

00:33:10.000 By the way, you can only get that if you subscribe, because if you don't give us money, then we can't do things at this company, people.

00:33:16.000 So, if you want to see that and also give us money, then you should definitely subscribe to see Matt's Real History.

00:33:20.000 Matt, give a little bit of a pitch to episode two for yourself.

00:33:23.000 Yeah, I'm excited about it.

00:33:24.000 This was a fun one to do, and it's a topic that's really interested me for a long time.

00:33:30.000 I've been on this soapbox about the Native Americans for a long time.

00:33:35.000 It's really important because this is, we heard it from Billie Eilish at the Grammys, and this is the idea that America is built on stolen land.

00:33:45.000 We have no right to be here.

00:33:46.000 And that idea, as silly as it is, has been very persuasive to a lot of people.

00:33:50.000 It's been a justification for some of the worst policies that we've ever seen and some of the worst tyranny in this country and in places like Canada as well.

00:33:59.000 Well, so, part of what we're doing in this episode is kind of inspecting that claim.

00:34:03.000 Is that actually true?

00:34:04.000 What actually happened with the Native Americans?

00:34:06.000 What's the real story?

00:34:07.000 We hear about the Trail of Tears, the smallpox blankets.

00:34:09.000 Well, it turns out, when you look into it, all that stuff is fake, you know?

00:34:12.000 And we go into that in great detail, which, as you say, if you subscribe, you can hear all about it.

00:34:19.000 All right.

00:34:20.000 So, Matt, I appreciate that.

00:34:22.000 And I know that you're going to stay with us for a few more minutes while we watch a bunch of people walk into a room.

00:34:26.000 So that's really, really exciting.

00:34:28.000 Drew, what do you think of what they're wearing?

00:34:30.000 What do you make?

00:34:31.000 What is Chief Justice Roberts wearing?

00:34:33.000 What do you make of his robe?

00:34:34.000 Is it the most elegant robe or only the second most elegant robe you've ever seen?

00:34:38.000 You know, I appreciate John Roberts trying to revive our Congress.

00:34:42.000 I thought that was so touching.

00:34:43.000 You know, it's like, couldn't Congress do something sometimes?

00:34:46.000 Come on, you know?

00:34:49.000 Even the guys who agreed with him, the left-wing judges were like, no, we don't want that.

00:34:53.000 We just want to wait until Trump is gone.

00:34:55.000 We want to say Trump can't do it, but our president can do it when he arrives.

00:34:58.000 But John Roberts was like, please, please, Congress, do something.

00:35:01.000 And poor Clarence Thomas was going, Congress?

00:35:04.000 Is there still a Congress?

00:35:05.000 I don't remember that, you know?

00:35:07.000 So I'm glad John Roberts is there.

00:35:10.000 I appreciate the sentimental attempt to keep the American system alive.

00:35:16.000 I thought that was very, I was very moved by that.

00:35:18.000 And I know that the people, I'm sure the people in Congress were like going, shh, shh, we don't want to do that.

00:35:23.000 No, no.

00:35:24.000 Because, you know, then if we do things, people will blame us for them.

00:35:26.000 So I think that that's, you know, that John Roberts deserves to show up in his robes and look like a justice from the old America where we had a Congress.

00:35:34.000 I mean, I'll be honest.

00:35:35.000 I'm just looking forward to watching the president jump out of the dais and full on pile drive John Roberts.

00:35:41.000 It'll be really entertaining.

00:35:44.000 I'm running for pyrotechnics at this point.

00:35:47.000 Speaking of lack of pyrotechnics, if there's one place more boring than the inside of the State of the Union, it's outside the State of the Union where Brecca is on the mall watching a bunch of elderly Democrats mill around uselessly. 0.69

00:35:57.000 So, Brecca, what is happening out there?

00:36:01.000 Is it the most exciting scene?

00:36:02.000 It is a small crowd, still not much of an update.

00:36:07.000 We just had Chris Van Hollen talk to people.

00:36:10.000 He talked about Minneapolis and how people need to be like the protesters in Minneapolis and, you know, rise ahead into the event, whatever.

00:36:18.000 And then other update, we just had a national scientist.

00:36:22.000 So, you know, not much going on.

00:36:24.000 Wow.

00:36:25.000 So excellent, excellent reporting, Brecca.

00:36:27.000 I mean, you're right in the thick of things where all the action is happening.

00:36:31.000 Yeah, I'm very I'm very excited that we have this sort of minute to minute.

00:36:35.000 What's happening?

00:36:36.000 Something.

00:36:37.000 Well, when Americans fear they can be killed or taken.

00:36:40.000 Nope.

00:36:41.000 Nothing happening.

00:36:42.000 Brecca, thank you so much.

00:36:43.000 I appreciate it.

00:36:45.000 Honestly, I love that they're bringing forth, you know, the real the real go getters like Chris Van Hollen.

00:36:49.000 Like, you know what?

00:36:50.000 We got to get the guy who really who really going to sell this thing. 0.93

00:36:53.000 Let's get Chris Van Hollen most recently seen like a schmuck down in El Salvador hanging out with Camaro Abrego Garcia, the guy who was alleged to have beaten his wife.

00:37:02.000 Well, meanwhile, the the first family has arrived in the box. 0.76

00:37:06.000 Barron Trump, whose head stretches all the way to the top of the Capitol dome, is is is standing there.

00:37:11.000 Melania has entered the president's other children are there as well.

00:37:15.000 So they are.

00:37:16.000 They are all.

00:37:17.000 I would like I would like to praise Melania for a moment.

00:37:19.000 Melania has become for me the symbol of how petty and small hearted and small minded the left is. 0.90

00:37:25.000 I mean, look at that woman. 1.00

00:37:26.000 There's a beautiful first lady that we've got. 1.00

00:37:28.000 She hasn't been on the cover of one lousy magazine.

00:37:31.000 Can you imagine the small kind of like miserly pinch heartedness of going?

00:37:35.000 We're not going to let her on the magazine because people might think she was pretty. 1.00

00:37:40.000 The magazines are so bad that Time magazine featured Eileen Gu, like the lady. 0.96

00:37:46.000 The Chinese. 0.54

00:37:47.000 The Chinese spy. 0.55

00:37:48.000 Yeah, exactly.

00:37:49.000 And meanwhile, you've got the American hockey team with some of the greatest photos of all time.

00:37:55.000 Didn't make the cover of Time.

00:37:56.000 The secretaries are entering the chamber.

00:37:58.000 Secretary of State Marco Rubio entered just a moment ago.

00:38:02.000 There you have RFK Junior, who thankfully for us is wearing a shirt and not jeans today.

00:38:06.000 So that's exciting.

00:38:08.000 He's not doing any push ups on the floor of the chamber.

00:38:10.000 Again, I was kind of rooting for it.

00:38:12.000 Also, Scott Besson, the Treasury secretary, is there as well.

00:38:16.000 Can I say something?

00:38:17.000 Actually, can I say something about Melania?

00:38:19.000 Please.

00:38:20.000 I really resent her, actually.

00:38:23.000 I actually really resent her.

00:38:25.000 No, I do.

00:38:26.000 Because up until a month ago, I had the biggest opening weekend for any documentary at the box office of the decade.

00:38:38.000 And then she comes along and beats us. 1.00

00:38:40.000 She blew you out of the water. 0.99

00:38:42.000 It's not fair.

00:38:43.000 Well, she had the President of the United States at the premiere.

00:38:45.000 It's like, I can't compete with that.

00:38:46.000 Matt, I think the moral of the story is next documentary, you try on so many shoes.

00:38:51.000 The number of shoes that you try on, pantsuits, like we really go for it.

00:38:55.000 I think we're going to have to blow out the budget on footwear for Matt Walsh, is I think what we need to happen for the next.

00:39:01.000 It's called What Am I Wearing?

00:39:03.000 That is the next Matt Walsh documentary.

00:39:05.000 And it was unfair because they unleashed the same amount of hate against her that they unleashed against you, and she was just showing off her clothes.

00:39:12.000 I mean, that's like, that's truly unfair.

00:39:14.000 Yeah.

00:39:15.000 I got to work hard for the hate.

00:39:16.000 I know, I know.

00:39:17.000 You got to work for your hatred.

00:39:18.000 Well, we are awaiting the president entering the chamber for the State of the Union.

00:39:21.000 When that happens, we are going to obviously go to the State of the Union.

00:39:24.000 You can watch it live here and stick with us.

00:39:26.000 And then afterward, stick around because Matt is going to go to sleep.

00:39:29.000 But the rest of us are going to stay here and suffer through this interminable evening with you.

00:39:33.000 There will be drinks.

00:39:34.000 There won't be hard drugs because I know that there are law enforcement authorities watching.

00:39:39.000 But we will be here back with you on the other end for all of our hot takes.

00:39:43.000 Michael Knowles will somehow make his way to a place where we can talk to him.

00:39:46.000 God love us all and others.

00:39:49.000 A wild cast of luminaries will be joining us post the State of the Union after the president speaks, which may or may not end anytime in the future.

00:39:59.000 So we still have people who are entering the chamber.

00:40:02.000 This is happening slowly.

00:40:03.000 Matt and I were there last year.

00:40:04.000 Matt, it was like 20 minutes late, right?

00:40:05.000 It was 15, 20 minutes late, something like that, 10 minutes late.

00:40:07.000 It took a while.

00:40:08.000 Yeah, and the speech was very, very long.

00:40:10.000 It was.

00:40:11.000 You can't get up to use the bathroom at any point, which I started to worry about that a little bit about two-thirds of the way through.

00:40:20.000 I'm just like, but that's even rougher for the president.

00:40:24.000 I've always wondered, what do you do if you're the president giving the speech and you got to use the bathroom?

00:40:28.000 These are the questions that are never asked.

00:40:30.000 The Mike Mulligan and the steam shovel questions.

00:40:33.000 And obviously, the president has tremendous stamina.

00:40:35.000 He loves going on stem winders at these things.

00:40:38.000 And yeah, I mean, I think that caffing is not an inappropriate solution for some people who are in that room, pretty obviously.

00:40:45.000 This is the worst commentary.

00:40:47.000 You know what, Drew?

00:40:49.000 You take the lead.

00:40:50.000 All right?

00:40:51.000 It's all you.

00:40:52.000 Let's see you do better, Drew.

00:40:54.000 Hypercritical.

00:40:55.000 Let's talk.

00:40:56.000 You picayune.

00:40:57.000 Let's talk about movies.

00:40:58.000 Just nitpicking over here.

00:41:00.000 What movies are we going to talk about?

00:41:02.000 Wuthering Heights?

00:41:03.000 Wuthering Heights?

00:41:04.000 Oh, my God.

00:41:05.000 By the way, totally good.

00:41:06.000 It was horrific.

00:41:07.000 You know, the book isn't that good.

00:41:08.000 I mean, I've always...

00:41:09.000 Oh, my God.

00:41:10.000 That's where you're going to?

00:41:11.000 I've always been a big Jane Eyre fan.

00:41:13.000 I've never thought that Wuthering Heights was that good a book.

00:41:15.000 Okay, well, that was a really interesting conversation.

00:41:17.000 By the way, we're building something bigger than just another news outlet.

00:41:20.000 Daily Wire Plus gives you live uncensored shows every day.

00:41:23.000 Can see why normally we'd like to censor them because of this.

00:41:25.000 Breaking news in real time and investigative journalism that gives you the real story.

00:41:29.000 No algorithms deciding what you get.

00:41:30.000 No outside pressure telling us what to say.

00:41:32.000 And if you believe in that mission, head on over to dailywire.com.

00:41:35.000 Become a member today.

00:41:37.000 I can't believe that your take on Wuthering Heights, Drew, is that you don't like the book.

00:41:40.000 I haven't seen the movie.

00:41:41.000 I haven't seen the movie.

00:41:42.000 Well, do not, do not.

00:41:43.000 Do I want to see the movie?

00:41:44.000 No.

00:41:45.000 You do not.

00:41:46.000 It looks terrible.

00:41:47.000 You've seen the 1939 version, right?

00:41:48.000 Yeah, which is good.

00:41:49.000 That's actually a good movie because they only did the first half of the book, yeah.

00:41:51.000 Yeah, it's a fabulous movie with Merle Oberon and Lawrence Olivier.

00:41:54.000 Terrific, terrific film with a great score.

00:41:56.000 This movie is one of the worst movies ever and it's truly immoral and quite evil and quite terrible.

00:42:01.000 Well, speaking of, I don't know, whatever.

00:42:04.000 There are a bunch of people who are coming in.

00:42:06.000 Lee Zeldin, the head of the EPA, is entering.

00:42:08.000 Other cabinet secretaries entering.

00:42:10.000 There's a very Beardy fellow in the back who I don't recognize. 0.99

00:42:13.000 And so I've just physically described the whole people.

00:42:18.000 Oh my God.

00:42:19.000 Matt, I can't, you know what?

00:42:20.000 Matt, say something.

00:42:21.000 Say something, Matt.

00:42:22.000 Save me for myself.

00:42:23.000 I was a, that was a, that was a great transition.

00:42:27.000 Speaking of, I don't know, whatever.

00:42:30.000 That was good.

00:42:31.000 I really appreciated that.

00:42:33.000 I'm just, I'm enjoying watching you, Ben, try to.

00:42:36.000 Yeah, to stretch this.

00:42:37.000 This is a.

00:42:38.000 I know.

00:42:39.000 Look, look, look.

00:42:40.000 You know what we can talk about?

00:42:41.000 We can talk, we can talk about Mexico.

00:42:43.000 Because finally, I am now the only person on earth with the nickname El Mencho.

00:42:47.000 That was a good thing.

00:42:49.000 They killed El Mencho, leaving me the highest ranked person with that nickname. 0.55

00:42:53.000 It is something to say that, that, you know, in the last, in the last week, we have defeated

00:42:57.000 both of our neighbors at their top sport.

00:43:00.000 Exactly.

00:43:01.000 Exactly.

00:43:02.000 And another thing about Canada.

00:43:04.000 I have another thing to say about Canada. 0.98

00:43:05.000 Not only are they killing people, but they're bad sports.

00:43:08.000 They got, they complained about, they said, we play better than the Americans.

00:43:11.000 Cause we got more off more shots.

00:43:13.000 You know, the goalie was this amazing.

00:43:15.000 And the goalie was must be flash from the comics.

00:43:17.000 He was like just moving around, blocking every shot.

00:43:19.000 And somebody has to explain to the Canadians. 0.56

00:43:21.000 It doesn't matter how many shots you take.

00:43:23.000 It actually matters how many bucks go into the goal.

00:43:26.000 So I think that, that alone.

00:43:28.000 That is stellar sports commentary.

00:43:30.000 It does not matter how many shots you take.

00:43:31.000 That is my reason for invading them.

00:43:33.000 That is my reason for invading.

00:43:34.000 It looks like they are about to welcome the president.

00:43:37.000 I know.

00:43:38.000 How long am I supposed to stretch this?

00:43:39.000 It's unbelievable.

00:43:40.000 The vice president and the speaker of the house are of course behind the president of

00:43:43.000 the United States.

00:43:44.000 We are moments away from the president of the United States entering the chamber and the

00:43:48.000 state of the union will, will begin shortly.

00:43:50.000 The, there is a, the special envoy for the president on foreign policy.

00:43:55.000 That's Steve Whitcoff.

00:43:56.000 Who's been entering the room.

00:43:58.000 The, the, the Democrats are not sort of garbed in their usual.

00:44:02.000 Usually they, they have, they have kind of these matching Halloween costumes that they

00:44:05.000 wear.

00:44:06.000 Costumes they wear.

00:44:07.000 Yeah.

00:44:08.000 Yeah.

00:44:09.000 This year, I guess they wore their invisibility cloaks.

00:44:11.000 Many, a lot of those seats are clear, Matt.

00:44:14.000 I've run out of things to say, continue whatever it was that you were doing.

00:44:17.000 I know it was criticism of me, but you know what?

00:44:18.000 I can take it.

00:44:19.000 We need to fill this time somehow.

00:44:20.000 Go for it.

00:44:21.000 You, you've run out of things to say.

00:44:23.000 So you throw to me.

00:44:24.000 I'm your guy.

00:44:25.000 I'm your guy.

00:44:26.000 I'm getting my money's worth from you, Matt Walsh.

00:44:28.000 Like for God's sake, you get to, you get to ditch us all in the middle of this and go

00:44:33.000 enjoy your family.

00:44:34.000 And meanwhile, we could do a live stream of me sleeping if we want.

00:44:37.000 I mean, we could just cut to that.

00:44:38.000 That would be a little more exciting, but can we, can we exult in the fact that the

00:44:43.000 Democrats didn't show up and they're still humiliating themselves?

00:44:45.000 I said, nobody's there.

00:44:47.000 By the way, I will say, you know, more seriously, it could theoretically be an important speech.

00:44:51.000 Really, it could because we are sort of an inflection point in the Trump presidency.

00:44:54.000 If things keep going the way they are going for the president and midterms go the wrong

00:44:58.000 way, it's going to be very difficult for him to effectuate his agenda.

00:45:01.000 This is an opportunity where all the networks and we are live casting this entire thing.

00:45:05.000 And that means that if he says something that truly is outstanding or if there's anything

00:45:09.000 clippable or memeable that comes out of it, then theoretically it could open a new front

00:45:13.000 in sort of the narrative war that he's going to have to fight leading up to the midterm election.

00:45:17.000 I think also, this is an opportunity to aggressively defend ICE.

00:45:22.000 You have the bully pulpit.

00:45:24.000 And I mean, we saw the Kalshi. 1.00

00:45:25.000 Is he going to say the word Somalis?

00:45:27.000 I hope he does because let's talk about the Somalis and what they're doing and why ICE 1.00

00:45:31.000 is there and who they're deporting.

00:45:32.000 And this is an opportunity to really highlight that.

00:45:34.000 And also, I mean, when did it become all right to throw things at law enforcement?

00:45:38.000 You know, I mean, can we not talk about this?

00:45:40.000 Is that like just normal?

00:45:43.000 Oh, what's happening now?

00:45:44.000 Now that the president is about to enter the chamber, he's coming in right now.

00:45:48.000 We've been rescued by Donald Trump.

00:45:49.000 I think this is like...

00:45:51.000 Once again, just like 2024 election, we've been rescued by the president.

00:45:54.000 So here he is entering the chamber.

00:45:57.000 Obviously, if Matt and I were there last year, Drew, you've never been there.

00:46:00.000 So, you know, you can't be part of this conversation.

00:46:02.000 No, they won't let me in.

00:46:03.000 No, I know.

00:46:04.000 I mean, you've never received this honor, which I think is fitting.

00:46:06.000 And typically when this happens, there's a big crowd that sort of comes around the president,

00:46:10.000 people taking selfies with the president for postcards back home and such.

00:46:14.000 And he's getting a big hand.

00:46:15.000 The Senate Majority Leader John Thune is behind him.

00:46:18.000 You see him entering slowly.

00:46:20.000 It takes him a while to get to the podium, obviously.

00:46:23.000 You can see the Democrats are sort of standing there turning the other way or ignoring him.

00:46:28.000 I have a couple of Congress people who are wearing the MAGA hats.

00:46:32.000 Obviously, the president, I'm sure, is going to be quite happy about that.

00:46:36.000 The Republicans, happy to see the president, obviously, as you would expect and suspect.

00:46:42.000 So you can watch, as we say, the entire thing live.

00:46:45.000 On the after end of this, we are going to be talking with various members of the Daily Wire team.

00:46:50.000 Mary Margaret Olihan is going to be with us.

00:46:52.000 So will Michael Knowles.

00:46:53.000 He will stop by to explain what he saw in the room.

00:46:56.000 The president continues to make his way down.

00:47:00.000 I have to say, does the man ever age?

00:47:02.000 He's exactly the same age as when he came down the escalator in 2015.

00:47:05.000 It is really kind of an incredible thing.

00:47:06.000 Yeah.

00:47:07.000 There is a picture of him in the hall at the White House.

00:47:09.000 He gets older and older.

00:47:10.000 And he is, you know, he's also got a lot of, he's still got a lot of verve, a lot of energy.

00:47:15.000 He's just like, you know, the New York Times has been running these series of articles every now and again

00:47:20.000 on how he's falling apart.

00:47:21.000 And it's just, it's like everything else in the New York Times.

00:47:24.000 You can't compare it to reality.

00:47:25.000 There's no match whatsoever.

00:47:26.000 And he's just an incredibly energetic person.

00:47:29.000 It's a, he's a good advertisement for not drinking.

00:47:31.000 Luckily, I haven't taken that on board, but still.

00:47:33.000 Yeah.

00:47:34.000 Unfortunately, he's also a great advertisement for not exercising since he famously does not exercise in order to preserve his life force.

00:47:39.000 He looks great. 0.54

00:47:40.000 Like eat like trash, but don't have beer and also don't exercise.

00:47:44.000 And you can, you too can, can be president of the United States and be extraordinarily well preserved.

00:47:48.000 This is why it was always so funny.

00:47:50.000 Democrats trying to come back at the president with, well, you know, just like Joe, but you're just like Joe Biden.

00:47:55.000 And it was like, no, you know what he's not like is Joe Biden, who was legitimately a barely ambulatory corpse by the time he left the office.

00:48:04.000 So Isabel Brown is there tonight as well.

00:48:07.000 So half the Daily Wire team or more is there.

00:48:09.000 He is walking by John Roberts.

00:48:10.000 He kind of walked right by John Roberts and right over to Brett Kavanaugh, which, which is not exactly surprising.

00:48:15.000 He kind of ignored Amy Coney Barrett right there.

00:48:17.000 He's he's shaking the hands of the Supreme Court justices.

00:48:20.000 He likes playing duck, duck goose with the Supreme Court justices, basically.

00:48:24.000 And now he is greeting the general, the the chiefs of staff or the armed forces of the military and making his way up onto the podium.

00:48:33.000 Democrats are standing there not clapping and see Elizabeth Warren in the background as as as non moving as the statue we have of her in our studios.

00:48:41.000 And and the president is making his way up to the podium right now is is getting a big ovation from the Republican side of the aisle.

00:48:48.000 Of course, J.D. Vance behind him, the vice president, Speaker of the House behind him as well.

00:48:56.000 The president is approaching the microphone is in a wave to the room a little bit.

00:49:00.000 I assume that in a couple of moments he will begin to speak everyone on the Republican side of the aisle on their feet up to and including the rafters.

00:49:07.000 The Trump family, which of course is very large, is up in the rafters cheering.

00:49:11.000 You can see there there's a tremendous enthusiasm for Republican side of the aisle.

00:49:15.000 The president pointing to members of the crowd clapping as he as he prepares to walk forward to the speech.

00:49:21.000 Again, one of the benefits of having Mike Johnson behind the president is that he won't be ripping up the president's speech in the immediate aftermath of the State of the Union address.

00:49:29.000 The president turning to the vice president as well as the speaker in just a moment, he will be approaching the microphone to begin speaking.

00:49:38.000 In just a moment, we're going to go live to the president of the United States in the room.

00:49:46.000 Pretty long ovation here for the president.

00:49:48.000 It's good. It's good color commentary, Ben.

00:49:52.000 Thank you.

00:49:53.000 You know, like, you know, I got a lot of respect.

00:49:55.000 I have more respect now for the cable news people that like they could just kind of wing it and say nothing, wing it, wing it over these moments.

00:50:01.000 Listen, dude, you know what?

00:50:02.000 I have a pathological aversion to saying nothing.

00:50:04.000 And they put me on the air here and they're like, you know what?

00:50:06.000 Phil, 20 minutes while he walks down a hall.

00:50:08.000 I do not have that.

00:50:09.000 I don't have that aversion at all.

00:50:11.000 I noticed somebody's got to fill the time, dude.

00:50:16.000 And someone, one of the three of us, will just sit there for long periods of time saying nothing quite comfortably.

00:50:24.000 And somebody's got to say something.

00:50:26.000 All right.

00:50:27.000 Finally, members of Congress have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the president of the United States.

00:50:33.000 Well, thank you very much, everybody.

00:50:38.000 It's really an honor.

00:50:41.000 Speaker Johnson, Vice President Vance.

00:50:44.000 Today, our border is secure.

00:50:46.000 Our spirit is restored.

00:50:49.000 Inflation is plummeting.

00:50:51.000 Incomes are rising fast.

00:50:54.000 The roaring economy is roaring like never before.

00:50:58.000 And our enemies are scared.

00:51:00.000 Our military and police are stacked.

00:51:03.000 And America is respected again, perhaps like never before.

00:51:07.000 The stock market has set 53 all-time record highs since the election.

00:51:18.000 Think of that.

00:51:19.000 One year.

00:51:20.000 Boosting pensions, 401ks, and retirement accounts with the millions and millions of Americans.

00:51:27.000 They're all gaining.

00:51:28.000 Everybody's up.

00:51:29.000 Way up.

00:51:30.000 In four long years, the last administration got less than $1 trillion in new investment in the United States.

00:51:38.000 And when I say less, substantially less.

00:51:41.000 In 12 months, I secured commitments for more than $18 trillion pouring in from all over the globe.

00:51:47.000 Think of it.

00:51:59.000 Much less than $1 trillion for four years versus much more than $18 trillion for one year.

00:52:06.000 What a difference a president makes.

00:52:08.000 A short time ago, we were a dead country.

00:52:15.000 Now, we are the hottest country anywhere in the world.

00:52:18.000 The hottest.

00:52:23.000 We ended DEI in America.

00:52:38.000 We cut a record number of job-killing regulations.

00:52:41.000 And in one year, we have lifted 2.4 million Americans, a record off of food stamps.

00:52:51.000 And for all of these reasons, I say tonight, members of Congress, the state of our union is strong.

00:53:03.000 Our country is winning again.

00:53:05.000 In fact, we're winning so much that we really don't know what to do about it.

00:53:11.000 People are asking me, please, please, please, Mr. President, we're winning too much.

00:53:16.000 We can't take it anymore.

00:53:18.000 We're not used to winning in our country.

00:53:20.000 Until you came along, we're just always losing, but now we're winning too much.

00:53:25.000 And I say, no, no, no.

00:53:27.000 You're going to win again.

00:53:29.000 You're going to win big.

00:53:30.000 You're going to win bigger than ever.

00:53:32.000 And to prove that point, to prove that point, here with us tonight is a group of winners

00:53:38.000 who just made the entire nation proud.

00:53:41.000 The men's gold medal Olympic hockey team.

00:53:45.000 Come on in.

00:54:02.000 USA!

00:54:03.000 USA!

00:54:04.000 USA!

00:54:05.000 USA!

00:54:06.000 USA!

00:54:07.000 The members of this great hockey squad will be very happy to hear, based on their vote

00:54:12.000 and my vote, and in this case, my vote was more important, that I will soon be presenting

00:54:18.000 Conor with our highest civilian honor, which we will be given and which has been given to

00:54:24.000 many athletes over the years.

00:54:26.000 But when I say many, not too many, like 12, it's called the highest civilian honor in our country,

00:54:36.000 the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

00:54:39.000 Under our bill, parents like Megan can also activate their children's brand new Trump accounts.

00:54:52.000 And I didn't name it.

00:54:54.000 I did not name it.

00:54:56.000 I did not name that.

00:54:58.000 Nobody believes me, but I did not name it.

00:55:04.000 It was named by a very tall man standing right there in the third row.

00:55:08.000 So, with modest additional contributions, these young people's accounts could grow to

00:55:15.000 over $100,000 or more by the time they turn 18.

00:55:19.000 Think of it.

00:55:20.000 How much money is that for somebody that started with nothing?

00:55:23.000 Over $100,000.

00:55:24.000 It could be much more than that.

00:55:26.000 To make this investment in our children's future, go to trumpaccounts.gov.

00:55:31.000 Under my just-enacted most-favored-nation agreements, Americans, who have for decades paid by far the highest prices of any nation anywhere in the world for prescription drugs,

00:55:44.000 will now pay the lowest price anywhere in the world for drugs.

00:55:48.000 Anywhere.

00:55:49.000 The lowest price.

00:55:50.000 First year of the second term, should be my third term, but strange things happen.

00:56:03.000 Members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information.

00:56:09.000 They stood up for that.

00:56:22.000 I can't believe it.

00:56:26.000 I can't believe it.

00:56:28.000 Did Nancy Pelosi stand up if she's here?

00:56:31.000 Doubt it.

00:56:35.000 Pass the Stop Insider Trading Act without delay.

00:56:40.000 But when it comes to the corruption that is plundering, really, it's plundering America,

00:56:46.000 there's been no more stunning example than Minnesota.

00:56:51.000 The members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer. 1.00

00:57:00.000 We have all the information.

00:57:01.000 And in actuality, the number is much higher than that.

00:57:05.000 And California, Massachusetts, Maine, and many other states are even worse.

00:57:10.000 This is the kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of a nation.

00:57:15.000 And we are working on it like you wouldn't believe.

00:57:17.000 So tonight, although started four months ago, I am officially announcing the war on fraud to be led by our great Vice President J.D. Vance.

00:57:28.000 The only thing standing between Americans and a wide open border right now is President Donald J. Trump and our great Republican patriots in Congress.

00:57:47.000 Thank you. Thank you.

00:57:51.000 The American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.

00:57:56.000 Isn't that a shame?

00:58:01.000 You should be ashamed of yourself not standing up.

00:58:04.000 You should be ashamed of yourself.

00:58:07.000 That is why I'm also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens.

00:58:21.000 In many cases, drug lords, murderers all over our country.

00:58:25.000 They're blocking the removal of these people out of our country.

00:58:30.000 And you should be ashamed of yourself.

00:58:36.000 And no more crooked mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military or travel.

00:58:43.000 None.

00:58:44.000 And even the new communist mayor of New York City.

00:58:47.000 I think he's a nice guy, actually.

00:58:49.000 I speak to him a lot.

00:58:50.000 Bad policy, but nice guy.

00:58:52.000 Just said they want people to shovel snow.

00:58:57.000 They got hit hard.

00:58:58.000 Wants them to shovel snow.

00:59:00.000 But if you apply for that job, you need to show two original forms of ID and a Social Security card.

00:59:06.000 Yet they don't want identification for the greatest privilege of them all voting in America.

00:59:13.000 No, it's no good.

00:59:15.000 And here is one more opportunity to show common sense in government.

00:59:21.000 In the gallery tonight are Sage Blair and her mother, Michelle.

00:59:27.000 In 2021, Sage was 14 when school officials in Virginia sought to socially transition her to a new gender, treating her as a boy and hiding it from her parents. 0.98

00:59:41.000 These people are crazy. 0.95

00:59:43.000 I'm telling you. 1.00

00:59:44.000 They're crazy. 0.96

00:59:46.000 My great friend, Charlie Kirk.

00:59:49.000 Great guy.

00:59:50.000 Great man.

00:59:51.000 So, last year, Charlie was violently murdered by an assassin and martyred, really, martyred for his beliefs.

01:00:09.000 His wonderful wife, Erica, is with us tonight.

01:00:12.000 Erica, please stand.

01:00:13.000 Thank you, Erica.

01:00:14.000 I've been through a lot.

01:00:15.000 In Charlie's memory, we must all come together to reaffirm that the

01:00:18.000 President of the United States and the United States and the United States and the United States and the United States and the United States and the United States.

01:00:20.000 America is one nation under God.

01:00:21.000 And we must totally reject political violence of any kind.

01:00:22.000 And we must all come together to reaffirm that America is one nation under God.

01:00:23.000 And we must totally reject political violence of any kind.

01:00:25.000 Last summer, 23-year-old Irina, who was the United States and the United States and the United States and the United States and the United States and the United States, the United States and the United States and the United States.

01:00:30.000 Thank you, Erica.

01:00:31.000 I've been through a lot.

01:00:32.000 In Charlie's memory, we must all come together to reaffirm that America is one nation under God.

01:00:33.000 And we must totally reject political violence of any kind.

01:00:50.000 Last summer, 23-year-old Irina was riding home on the train when a deranged monster who had been arrested over a dozen times and was released through no cash bail stood up and viciously slashed a knife through her neck and body.

01:01:10.000 No one will ever forget there were people on that train.

01:01:15.000 No one will ever forget the expression of terror on Irina's face as she looked up at her attacker in the last seconds of her life.

01:01:23.000 She died instantly.

01:01:24.000 She had escaped a brutal war only to be slain by a hardened criminal set free to kill in America.

01:01:32.000 Came in through open borders.

01:01:34.000 Mrs. Zaretska, tonight, I promise you, we will ensure justice for your magnificent daughter, Irina.

01:01:42.000 Under the ceasefire, I negotiated every single hostage, both living and dead, has been returned home.

01:02:02.000 Can you believe that?

01:02:04.000 As president, I will make peace wherever I can.

01:02:10.000 But I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must.

01:02:16.000 That's why, in a breakthrough operation last June, the United States military obliterated Iran's nuclear weapons program with an attack on Iranian soil known as Operation Midnight Hammer. 0.68

01:02:30.000 After Midnight Hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, and in particular nuclear weapons.

01:02:43.000 Yet they continue starting it all over.

01:02:46.000 We wiped it out, and they want to start all over again.

01:02:49.000 For years, large swaths of territory in our region, including large parts of Mexico — really large parts of Mexico — have been controlled by murderous drug cartels.

01:03:02.000 That's why I designated these cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and I declared illicit fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.

01:03:12.000 We've also taken down one of the most sinister cartel kingpins of all — you saw that yesterday.

01:03:22.000 The revolution that began in 1776 has not ended.

01:03:26.000 It still continues because the flame of liberty and independence still burns in the heart of every American patriot.

01:03:36.000 And our future will be bigger, better, brighter, bolder, and more glorious than ever before.

01:03:43.000 Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

01:03:50.000 ...punctuated by some pretty horrific Democratic behavior, which I think is going to be the story of the night.

01:03:55.000 The president was obviously in fine federal. He was in a very good mood throughout.

01:03:59.000 There were some pretty great call-outs in the audience, a lot of call-outs in the audience.

01:04:03.000 He is — last year, he did a thing where somebody was essentially made an honorary member of the Secret Service in the audience.

01:04:10.000 He did that a couple of times. This time, somebody was given the Congressional Medal of Honor.

01:04:14.000 Somebody who was announced was going to receive the Presidential Medal of Honor.

01:04:18.000 But again, I think the big headline coming out of this, aside from the length of the speech, which ran almost two hours —

01:04:24.000 it ran approximately an hour and 48 minutes for those who are in the Calci markets.

01:04:27.000 I believe that is the official time. We'll find out shortly.

01:04:30.000 With that said, the big thing to me, Drew — and we're here with Andrew Klavan and Mary Margaret Olehan —

01:04:36.000 the big thing to me, Drew, was the behavior of the Democrats, which you predicted it.

01:04:41.000 We all sort of thought it was going to happen. Uniquely bad tonight.

01:04:44.000 Pretty horrific all the way through. We saw particularly Democrats sitting on their hands at odd moments.

01:04:50.000 The president specifically called it out at one moment where he said,

01:04:54.000 I basically cannot believe that you are sitting for this.

01:04:57.000 When he said, why are you — basically, we stand for Americans. We work for Americans.

01:05:02.000 We don't work for illegal immigrants. And Democrats sat on their hands. 1.00

01:05:05.000 And I think he almost couldn't believe that they were going to fall for this trick.

01:05:08.000 And then they fell for the trick. 0.98

01:05:10.000 And of course, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib made fools of themselves. 0.93

01:05:13.000 What was your big takeaway, Drew? 0.69

01:05:14.000 The only thing I would say differently than that is I don't think the takeaway was how badly they acted.

01:05:19.000 I think it's how brutally he slapped them down.

01:05:21.000 And I am not somebody who's always in favor of Trump's tendency to brutality against his enemies.

01:05:26.000 But tonight I was because the Democrats have been behaving like this for years.

01:05:30.000 They've been behaving like this is not their country, that this country is not our country,

01:05:35.000 that this is not the place they work for.

01:05:37.000 The only time they cite American freedoms is when they're defending a gangster or an illegal immigrant or a killer.

01:05:42.000 They never cite them in favor of actual American natives.

01:05:47.000 They have embarrassed themselves.

01:05:48.000 They've humiliated themselves. 0.98

01:05:49.000 They've shown themselves to be petty and nasty and small. 0.97

01:05:52.000 And he didn't.

01:05:53.000 He maneuvered them into this situation where he dug the pit, but they had to walk into it.

01:05:58.000 And they did.

01:05:59.000 And I was sitting there.

01:06:00.000 I have to say these speeches are not always the most interesting.

01:06:03.000 There was this was a long speech.

01:06:04.000 It had moments where it seemed to be gone forever.

01:06:07.000 But in that moment, I sat up straight and I was watching people get what they deserve.

01:06:11.000 And I'm not for vengeance, but I am for justice.

01:06:14.000 And that was justice.

01:06:15.000 And I just thought it was terrific to watch this master of the put down find a group of people who had earned every little bit of it.

01:06:25.000 And I thought it was beautiful.

01:06:26.000 I thought it was great.

01:06:27.000 And obviously, you know, I love all the celebrations of great heroes, the hockey players, Erica Kirk.

01:06:32.000 It's wonderful.

01:06:33.000 That was just magnificent.

01:06:34.000 And as you say, it was two things he did.

01:06:37.000 He said, we are here.

01:06:39.000 Our first job is to protect American citizens, not illegal immigrants.

01:06:42.000 They sat on their hands.

01:06:43.000 And then he told the story of a woman essentially being legally kidnapped so that they could trans her into a man. 0.99

01:06:49.000 And and they and he said when they sat on their hands, then he said, you people are crazy. 0.89

01:06:54.000 I just thought that was absolutely great.

01:06:57.000 I'm telling you, if they hadn't earned it, I would think it was uncivil.

01:07:01.000 But it was just right.

01:07:03.000 It was just he did the right thing.

01:07:04.000 And it was great.

01:07:05.000 Well, Mary Margaret O'Han, our White House reporter, is here with us.

01:07:08.000 So, Mary Margaret, you're in the room for what was sort of the mood?

01:07:11.000 Obviously, when you have these sorts of events, you have the Republicans on one side of the aisle, the Democrats on the other side of the aisle.

01:07:17.000 The big game seems to be now trying to figure out when Democrats stand, when they don't stand.

01:07:22.000 Were there any moments where they actually stood in unity or was it pretty much on their hands the entire time?

01:07:26.000 No, I wouldn't say there were any moments when everyone stood in unity.

01:07:31.000 I think, you know, many of them stood for Charlie Kirk, thankfully.

01:07:35.000 And there was a chance of Charlie, Charlie, Charlie.

01:07:37.000 Not everyone stood for him.

01:07:39.000 And I think in general, the mood in the room was the Democrats on the one hand kind of saltily sitting around.

01:07:45.000 And then a few of the more radical Democrats shouting, yelling.

01:07:48.000 In fact, I'm hearing from other reporters in the room.

01:07:51.000 I didn't hear it myself that Ilhan Omar said the F word at one point towards Trump.

01:07:55.000 Can't confirm that myself.

01:07:56.000 But again, that's what other reporters are saying.

01:07:58.000 And then meanwhile, the president himself, the reporters at Daily Wire, we were all talking about this earlier.

01:08:03.000 His mood was almost jovial.

01:08:04.000 It was exuberant.

01:08:05.000 He was just so excited going into this speech all the way through it.

01:08:10.000 And I listened to the president a lot.

01:08:11.000 I spent a lot of time listening to his remarks.

01:08:13.000 He sailed through this speech.

01:08:15.000 He, you know, touched on every single point, on every single guest.

01:08:19.000 But he moved really quickly through it.

01:08:21.000 It wasn't really the more weavy speech that we might have been expecting, that we might have even seen last year.

01:08:27.000 And to me, Ben and Drew, I think that signals that he is very aware that he had the eyes of the nation, if not the world, on him.

01:08:35.000 And he was using this speech to great effect.

01:08:37.000 The midterms are coming up.

01:08:38.000 He knows that he needs to spend a lot of time reaching American voters, letting them know what his agenda is.

01:08:45.000 And to me, a lot of this was showing American voters, don't forget that the Democrats are not on your side.

01:08:51.000 Look at all these different examples of things that they don't stand with you with.

01:08:55.000 Don't forget that they still support radical gender ideology.

01:08:58.000 Don't forget that they don't want to protect your young women on the metro.

01:09:02.000 They don't care about your young women as they're taking metro rides and if they're brutally killed by violent criminals.

01:09:07.000 And so all of these messages are going to make for fantastic talking points going forward.

01:09:12.000 They're going to make for fantastic stories going forward.

01:09:15.000 And, you know, especially when it came to gender ideology. 0.81

01:09:18.000 I found this really interesting because you all know that I spent a lot of time covering this before I became the White House correspondent.

01:09:24.000 He harpened on that one specific word, crazy.

01:09:29.000 He says, this is just crazy.

01:09:31.000 And that is one of the messages of his 2024 campaign that I think resonated so deeply with American voters who are so tired of hearing about radical gender ideology and being told that it was normal and not insane.

01:09:43.000 And so he's hearkening back to those words and reminding the public, no, it's not okay for a little girl to be taken away from her parents by the state and transitioned.

01:09:51.000 And he actually suggested he might do something about that as well, which I have a lot of sources telling me they're trying to get him to sign an executive order on that.

01:09:58.000 So I was really interested in that as well.

01:10:01.000 And one of the things that I think was pretty astonishing about the speech is how little actual policy there was in it.

01:10:06.000 So he mentioned some of the policies that, of course, he has promoted.

01:10:10.000 As you say, Mary Margaret, he moved really fast through that.

01:10:12.000 So he would mention a policy that he'd done and then he'd move pretty quickly into story time.

01:10:17.000 And he would pick somebody out of the audience and explain how the policy had personally impacted somebody in the audience rather than going into the details of the policy, which I thought was actually quite smart because the overall sort of tenor of the speech was less about here are the things that I'm doing that you may or may not agree with or understand.

01:10:33.000 And more about I actually care about people and these people over here don't care about people and them not clapping for the people became, I thought, his chief weapon tonight.

01:10:42.000 I thought he used it to great effect. For those who missed it, obviously, the most evocative moment was the moment when the president got into a war of wars with Ilhan Omar.

01:10:50.000 He was speaking about fraud in Somali communities in Minnesota. She started screaming back at him, saying that he should be ashamed of himself.

01:10:57.000 She did not have the microphone. And that is a major disadvantage when you are talking about a speech like this one.

01:11:03.000 Just for those of us who are watching it on TV and are not in the room, I remember last year when I was in the room, you could hear pretty clearly what Democrats were shouting.

01:11:09.000 But if you're watching it on TV through a screen, you can't hear at all what the Democrats are shouting. You can only hear what Trump is saying back to them.

01:11:15.000 And so what you ended up with was something that sounded like this.

01:11:18.000 Do we have the clip of the president going at it with Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib?

01:11:22.000 The. Sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials who blocked the removal of criminal aliens.

01:11:35.000 In many cases, drug lords, murderers all over our country. They're blocking the removal of these people out of our country.

01:11:44.000 And you should be ashamed of yourself.

01:11:46.000 Now, I will say that one of the shots that was excluded from that clip was a shot that appeared to be into the crowd, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar at that point.

01:12:13.180 And it's pretty obvious from just some basic lip reading that while people were chanting USA, Rashida Tlaib was mouthing KKK, which is pretty astonishing stuff.

01:12:23.520 And if indeed that is what she was mouthing, then that is going to be a massive headline tonight and tomorrow as well.

01:12:30.180 It should be. She, of course, is a radical. She stood with terror supporters her entire career in the Congress.

01:12:36.100 Same thing is true of Ilhan Omar. If they want to make that the face of the Democratic Party, man, you are welcome to it.

01:12:41.640 What a massive boo-boo for the Democratic Party. 1.00

01:12:45.760 Mary Margaret, while we have you, I want to ask you about the sort of most fun moment of the night, which obviously was the U.S. men's hockey team coming in, which was a kick.

01:12:55.560 I mean, I love that we basically got the president as sportscaster, which was really fun.

01:12:59.980 He basically narrated the game and talked about the various numbers of saves and all the rest of it.

01:13:04.600 What was the mood in the room like when they came in?

01:13:06.740 Well, they're just so much fun.

01:13:10.980 And they came in right in between all of the press.

01:13:13.580 So, you know, the Capitol Hill press are sitting all together in their press seats, and they're looking a little dour and not super into the whole evening.

01:13:21.580 And this U.S. men's hockey team just came down in between them.

01:13:25.020 There's a really funny shot on Twitter that people should check out where there's a reporter who has a mask on, and he's kind of slumped over his computer and looking really dejected.

01:13:32.900 And then right next to him, these hockey players are just beaming, absolutely full of life, delighted to be there.

01:13:38.640 It's a hilarious contrast.

01:13:40.480 But the room just exploded with shouts and excitement.

01:13:44.440 And the president, obviously, you know, he knows every play of that game because he watched it.

01:13:49.640 He understands it.

01:13:50.300 He cares about it.

01:13:51.060 He loves these guys genuinely, as we know from the video of him interacting with them as they were in the locker room celebrating their win.

01:13:57.580 And I heard that these guys were hanging out in a side room with pizza and beer, which I think is a fun way to help them enjoy the State of the Union without being too locked in while they're still celebrating.

01:14:08.580 And, you know, this is just a very fun part of this evening and I think also lends itself to the very patriotic element of this State of the Union.

01:14:17.780 You know, we're celebrating American excellence.

01:14:19.520 We're celebrating patriotism.

01:14:20.760 We're celebrating, for example, this service member who was part of the raid on Maduro.

01:14:25.420 I loved the story that the president told about him, how his wife dipped his dog tags in holy water before he left because she knew he was going on some dangerous mission.

01:14:35.660 And now he was here and honored in front of the whole world for his heroism in that mission.

01:14:41.400 So just so many examples like this of Americans being honored and the president celebrating how truly amazing our country is.

01:14:49.780 And it gives me chills just talking about it.

01:14:51.660 It's just we've been experiencing patriotism unlike anything we've seen in in many years.

01:14:57.340 And it's a lot of fun to be a part of it.

01:15:00.460 Now, Drew, obviously, you mentioned earlier the these people are crazy clip.

01:15:04.700 So did you, Mary Margaret.

01:15:06.140 And we do have that clip as well.

01:15:07.840 For those who missed it, this was the moment when the president basically lost it at the Democrats for failing to recognize that, hey, maybe, you know,

01:15:15.660 treating minor girls as though they are boys is a crazy thing to do.

01:15:19.420 Here's what that sounded like when the president went off. 1.00

01:15:22.660 When he stands up, these people are crazy. 1.00

01:15:26.220 I'm telling you, they're crazy. 1.00

01:15:27.900 Amazing.

01:15:39.260 Incredible.

01:15:40.960 Boy, oh, boy.

01:15:42.200 We're lucky we have a country with people like this.

01:15:45.380 Democrats are destroying our country, but we've stopped it just in the nick of time, didn't we?

01:15:51.700 Yeah.

01:15:52.240 You know, this is a really, a really interesting question about this.

01:15:55.160 We always talk about the State of the Union, and we always try to be honest about the fact that it usually doesn't move the needle very much.

01:16:01.480 But it can change the dialogue sometimes.

01:16:04.020 And one of the things that's been shocking to me, as Trump's polls have not been very good, as people have said, unbelievably, that they're still as bad.

01:16:12.900 They're worse off than they were a year ago.

01:16:15.480 One of the things that will be interesting to see, if maybe he did remind people of what it was like under Joe Biden,

01:16:21.440 and why they voted him back into office, and what it would be like to have him back.

01:16:25.500 I mean, how can anybody think, you know, Trump is so bad, this guy is so bad,

01:16:29.780 that we have to go back to children being butchered, to people being hired according to race, 0.73

01:16:36.220 to this absolute unrelenting hatred of the country as an entity.

01:16:40.580 I just, it's hard for me to see how people can really think that.

01:16:44.760 I may be wrong.

01:16:45.640 Maybe the polls are right. 0.98

01:16:46.980 But I do wonder if that idea is so fragile that he may be broken.

01:16:51.400 You know, Drew, I think one of the things that tonight showed, and I think this is why,

01:16:55.280 Republicans have been looking for a face of the opposition to identify.

01:16:59.140 I think one of the big flaws that Republicans have had to face down is the fact that Joe Biden was so forgettable

01:17:03.320 that we've all forgotten that he was president already.

01:17:05.520 I mean, truly, like he was such a non-entity that by the end of his presidency,

01:17:08.440 he was not even really the president.

01:17:09.880 Kamala Harris was effectively the president.

01:17:11.840 And so what that means is that it's very easy to sort of go, oh, yeah, who was even president before this guy?

01:17:17.100 Maybe it was better.

01:17:17.900 Like, it doesn't even clock in your memory that Joe Biden was president.

01:17:21.540 If you had told me that Donald Trump was president and then he was president again

01:17:25.560 and there was no kind of mid-middle term of Joe Biden, that wouldn't, like, 30 years from now,

01:17:31.500 people are not going to remember that in the same way that people kind of don't remember

01:17:34.500 that Benjamin Harrison served between Grover Cleveland.

01:17:37.000 You know, like, I think that that is going to be a reality.

01:17:39.900 And so I think that's been a challenge for President Trump.

01:17:42.540 There is no one of his stature in the Democratic Party for him to pummel.

01:17:46.380 And I think that one of the things that you saw tonight, and this is why that Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib fail,

01:17:51.660 is a real fail for the Democrats and I think a real danger for the Democrats.

01:17:54.780 People don't like those people.

01:17:56.600 They don't like them.

01:17:58.360 Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, yes. 0.98

01:18:00.300 I mean, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are totally radical and insane. 0.92

01:18:03.700 Rashida Tlaib was wearing watermelon earrings in solidarity with the Hamas terrorists.

01:18:09.760 In the Gaza Strip, Rashida Tlaib was wearing a button that said F ice on the air, right?

01:18:15.000 There was a point at which Ilhan Omar pretty clearly on camera mouthed about the president 0.98

01:18:20.060 that he was a sick F. 0.99

01:18:22.020 Like, all that stuff was happening. 0.99

01:18:23.680 It was all on camera.

01:18:24.680 And so when you put that on the camera, you say, OK, here are your choices.

01:18:27.680 It's this versus this.

01:18:28.980 President Trump in a vacuum always doesn't pull very well.

01:18:31.580 He never has pulled amazingly in a vacuum going all the way back to 2015, 2016.

01:18:35.060 He always tends to pull a lot better the minute you put somebody else on the other side.

01:18:39.200 Because, again, as I said earlier on the show, Mary Margaret, there are two things in politics

01:18:43.480 that are important.

01:18:44.040 One is making it hard to vote for your opponent and second is making it easy to vote for you.

01:18:47.700 And the president sometimes has trouble with the second, but he's always very, very good

01:18:51.120 at the first and he needs an opponent.

01:18:53.740 I've been saying for a decade that the president is a hammer in search of a nail.

01:18:57.840 And when there aren't enough nails, he starts to hit kittens.

01:18:59.840 Well, right now, he may have found some nails to hammer here.

01:19:03.760 And I think that tonight was pretty good evidence of that, Mary Margaret.

01:19:08.800 Absolutely.

01:19:09.440 And I mean, earlier today, we saw Kamala Harris saying that she might be considering running

01:19:13.820 again.

01:19:14.280 So I'm sure the president is excited to actually have a foe on the other side of the aisle

01:19:18.160 because until now, we haven't had anyone truly declare.

01:19:21.120 So we might have another Kamala and that would be a very fun presidential run. 0.93

01:19:25.780 But yeah, I think the president is looking out there.

01:19:27.640 He's seeing Ilhan Omar in a hijab, shouting insults, shouting swear words, just shouting

01:19:32.280 and acting in a rowdy way.

01:19:33.680 And she's not a formidable opponent.

01:19:36.160 She's very aggressively progressive.

01:19:38.560 She's very radical.

01:19:39.840 The whole world knows that.

01:19:40.900 So that's an easy win for the White House where they can point to her and say, Americans 0.99

01:19:44.660 don't agree with you.

01:19:46.320 And in Kamala Harris, he might have a better opponent.

01:19:50.480 But he's got Gavin Newsom imitating his style on Twitter.

01:19:54.120 Again, it's not a formidable opponent.

01:19:55.760 And so when it comes to things like this, where he can literally look the American people

01:20:00.220 in the eye and say, do you see all these Democrats not standing for the things that you care

01:20:04.600 about so deeply?

01:20:05.620 And I keep coming back to that young woman who was on the train, who was so cruelly attacked

01:20:10.360 by that criminal and killed.

01:20:11.820 This actually happened maybe days before Charlie Kirk was assassinated.

01:20:15.060 And it was one of the last things that he himself talked about, how deeply he felt this.

01:20:19.180 And to see these Democrats not stand for her mother, just unthinkable.

01:20:24.300 So I think that's one that's really going to resonate with people.

01:20:26.720 It's going to stay with us for a long time.

01:20:29.500 And whether or not these people are protesting specific policies, they have to understand that

01:20:35.120 these are real lived American stories.

01:20:37.460 They're the most powerful weapon that we have in favor of the truth because they literally

01:20:42.280 lived these things.

01:20:43.240 And so Trump having all these Democrats look them in the eye and not do anything about

01:20:48.040 it, I just, it was very well done, very well executed in terms of a oration style strategy.

01:20:55.500 And I think his comms team is probably patting themselves on the back tonight because this

01:21:00.140 was a well, well played speech.

01:21:02.860 You know, yeah, the president obviously took on inflation as well.

01:21:06.200 He talked a lot about the economy.

01:21:07.980 He really relegated his foreign policy remarks to the end, which I think is smart politics.

01:21:12.120 Obviously, the American people are much more concerned about domestic political issues

01:21:15.860 than they are right now about foreign policy.

01:21:18.100 It was sort of fascinating on a foreign policy level to hear what the president had to say,

01:21:21.600 given the fact that we have such an enormous military presence ready in the Middle East

01:21:25.320 right now about Iran.

01:21:27.420 Obviously, the president's comments about Iran, he seems skeptical of the idea that Iran is

01:21:32.420 going to come through with some sort of last minute concessions.

01:21:35.520 He's maintaining the same position he has maintained for legitimately his entire political career,

01:21:39.460 which is that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

01:21:41.560 But he went a little bit further than that as well, talking about their ballistic missile

01:21:45.800 capacity, their attempts to redevelop terrorist support.

01:21:49.060 All of those are sort of issues in negotiation.

01:21:52.040 There is supposed to be, at the end of this week, some sort of proposal from the Iranians,

01:21:55.540 a sort of last-ditch proposal to stave off the possibility of American strikes.

01:21:59.960 Here is what the president of the United States had to say about Iran in the middle of the speech.

01:22:04.880 My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy.

01:22:10.720 But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world's number one sponsor of terror, 0.96

01:22:15.720 which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon.

01:22:18.780 Can't let that happen.

01:22:19.700 Well, joining us on the line is Michael Knowles.

01:22:31.020 Michael has finally reached a place where he can talk.

01:22:34.120 My nightmares are all coming true.

01:22:36.340 For a while there, we were okay.

01:22:38.900 But now Michael has arrived, looking dapper.

01:22:41.980 His hair a little bit must after spending nine hours in that room during the State of the Union

01:22:46.720 address, I do have to say.

01:22:48.940 He's got the young Republican look going there, Michael Knowles.

01:22:51.420 So, Michael, you were in the room for that.

01:22:54.120 Last year, it was me and Walsh.

01:22:56.460 This year, it was you and Isabel.

01:22:59.640 So, what was it like?

01:23:01.200 Did you enjoy yourself?

01:23:02.400 Was it the party you'd always imagined?

01:23:06.300 It was.

01:23:07.200 So, this was my second time at the State of the Union.

01:23:09.460 We seemed to be trading on and off.

01:23:11.340 Except the first time that I went, Biden was speaking.

01:23:14.880 And so, it was a much stranger experience because it was clear they had injected him

01:23:20.040 with some kind of methamphetamine.

01:23:21.720 And that was the year that he just kind of screamed everything at exactly the same volume

01:23:25.980 for 91 minutes.

01:23:27.880 And so, this was my first year getting to see President Trump.

01:23:31.040 You and Matt got to see Trump last year, though technically it was not a State of the

01:23:34.260 Union.

01:23:34.480 It was actually just a joint arrest of Congress.

01:23:35.920 So, anyway, I was honored to be at the first President Trump State of the Union.

01:23:39.020 And he was great, you know, because he was focused.

01:23:43.920 He did a little weaving here and there, but he really stuck to the script.

01:23:47.800 The script was written extraordinarily well.

01:23:50.320 And where Trump did improvise, it was extremely effective.

01:23:53.800 I was sitting front row right over the Democrats.

01:23:57.740 So, I got a pretty keen look.

01:23:59.580 And very little surprises me in politics.

01:24:01.440 Some of their behavior surprised and viscerally angered even me.

01:24:06.760 When Trump set them up and he said, hey, stand up if you agree with this statement.

01:24:11.000 America should be for Americans.

01:24:13.480 And the Democrats wouldn't stand up for it.

01:24:15.420 It was an amazing setup line, but really pretty shocking.

01:24:18.680 And then it got worse from there. 1.00

01:24:20.480 You know, there you say, look at these foolish Dems. 1.00

01:24:22.220 This is crazy. 0.99

01:24:23.220 But from there, President Trump cheered bringing the hostages home from Gaza. 0.51

01:24:27.260 I noticed Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who were right down there in front of me, they did not stand up.

01:24:32.640 I think other Dems didn't stand up either.

01:24:34.160 That was pretty shocking.

01:24:35.880 And then the most egregious moment of the night.

01:24:38.280 This beautiful tribute to Charlie Kirk and to his widow Erica, who was there directly across the way.

01:24:43.820 We could see her.

01:24:44.820 And the Democrats refused to really acknowledge it.

01:24:48.960 President Trump then gives them the final out.

01:24:51.300 Even moving past Charlie to the message we should all take away from Charlie's assassination by a leftist.

01:24:58.200 Trump says, we're one nation under God, and we should reject political violence of all kinds.

01:25:03.900 And many Democrats refused to stand up for that. 0.91

01:25:07.540 Chilling a reminder that they want to kill us.

01:25:11.560 You know, I'm not saying all of them want to kill us. 0.84

01:25:13.300 But a surprising number of them want to kill us, overtly support political violence in the Chamber of Commerce at the State of the Union address.

01:25:26.160 A really chilling political malpractice by the Democrats.

01:25:28.980 And so I understand why Hakeem Jeffries early on said, hey, Dems, just chill out.

01:25:34.000 Or, you know what, maybe don't show up at all.

01:25:35.680 Just please don't pull your usual shenanigans.

01:25:38.500 We want to look half normal.

01:25:39.880 And they couldn't even do that.

01:25:41.140 Well, you know, we do have that clip of the president basically baiting them where he says America should be for defending Americans and the Democrats take the bait.

01:25:50.900 Honestly, like the president is a master of this game.

01:25:54.260 He knows the game better than anyone else in it.

01:25:56.720 He has changed the game fundamentally in just the time that he's been president because this sort of stuff never used to happen.

01:26:01.720 I'm old enough to remember when it was a national scandal when Joe Wilson, a congressman from South Carolina, once yelled, you lie, at President Obama, who was in fact lying.

01:26:09.660 And now this has become the way that politics is done.

01:26:13.020 And the president has taken advantage of that to full effect.

01:26:14.840 Here's the president saying, hey, guys, maybe you should stand up if you think that, you know, America is for the American people.

01:26:21.980 If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support.

01:26:26.680 The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens. 0.61

01:26:34.020 So where do you think that, you know, America is to protect American citizens.

01:26:47.640 You're sorry, you're so sorry.

01:26:50.340 Thank you.

01:26:50.920 And, yeah, there are the Democrats committing political suicide on the air.

01:27:07.260 So, again, amazing decisions being made there.

01:27:11.380 Now, Michael, you know, obviously the president comes into this with a low approval rating, historically low approval rating for him.

01:27:18.180 The midterm elections.

01:27:19.500 You know, right now Democrats are running about five points ahead in the generic congressional ballot.

01:27:24.380 The real question about every State of the Union address, as we were discussing beforehand, is whether it really is going to reset the table.

01:27:30.380 Will it be a sort of inflection point or will it just be a thing that happened?

01:27:33.480 And a week from now we'll be back to sort of business as usual.

01:27:36.540 What do you make of it?

01:27:37.620 Do you think the president can generate some sort of lasting momentum on the back of what was a pretty tremendous speech?

01:27:43.100 This was a great pivot.

01:27:47.620 And I'm not saying that this will save the midterms for the Republicans or anything, but it certainly reset the message in exactly the way the president had to do it.

01:27:56.680 We were all making our predictions before the State of the Union.

01:27:59.640 And I got a bunch of the particulars wrong, you know, how long it would be or who he'd call out or whatever.

01:28:03.900 But the one part that I got right wasn't even a prediction of what would happen so much as something I was really hoping would happen, which is that President Trump would say, look, Americans, we're making you safer.

01:28:15.900 We're making this country normal again. 0.93

01:28:18.140 These people, those people over there are crazy. 0.95

01:28:21.240 That was an actual line from the speech. 0.98

01:28:23.160 And it completely landed because the Dems refused to back down from transing the kids. 0.73

01:28:28.020 I mean, it was, you know, the extreme of their ideology.

01:28:30.240 What he had to do was say, look, Americans, I understand that you feel things are a little precarious right now, whether we're talking about migration, whether we're talking about the economy.

01:28:39.760 This is why I think some of the economic favorability numbers are low, even though a lot of the actual nuts and bolts of the economy are pretty good.

01:28:48.220 It's just people feel uneasy.

01:28:50.080 They feel big shifts.

01:28:52.220 They are uncertain about the future.

01:28:54.980 And what Trump had to do is say, we've got you.

01:28:57.680 We're the adults in the room.

01:28:58.900 We're going to make you safe.

01:29:00.260 We're going to make you wealthy.

01:29:01.880 We're going to restore the norms and the kind of country that you've loved for 250 years because this is America's birthday.

01:29:08.200 I think he completely achieved that objective.

01:29:11.240 And so I think it does give him very good momentum going into the midterms.

01:29:15.440 But, of course, now one speech is not enough.

01:29:18.220 Now the Republicans need to stay on message.

01:29:20.380 Impossible for Republicans.

01:29:21.480 And two, they need to be able to carry that through the miasma of misinformation and Democrat ops through November.

01:29:30.880 I mean, obviously, I think that it is true that Republicans must stay on message.

01:29:36.160 It will definitely help if we don't have, you know, to deal with questions about whether Erica Kirk killed her husband or not.

01:29:42.460 That seems to be a gigantic fail that is happening in the midst of the Republican online space. 0.99

01:29:48.620 That seems like a very stupid thing for people to follow a rabbit hole on. 0.98

01:29:52.700 And a lot of the infighting that's been happening around conspiracy theories surrounding the president. 0.97

01:29:56.080 If you would like to see the president not impeached after the Democrats win back Congress, then now would be a really good time to actually look at all the things that he has done over the course of the last year to fix many of the problems left by Joe Biden.

01:30:07.760 Mary Margaret, what is actually on the schedule for the president in the coming days and the coming weeks?

01:30:13.100 Because very often you'll see after the State of the Union that there's sort of a tour that happens where the president goes around and tries to retell some of the bigger messages that he has been pushing.

01:30:21.780 Mary Margaret, what is happening?

01:30:51.980 So that, you know, all these critics who are saying he's too focused on foreign policy won't be able to say, I told you so, when the midterms come and go, if the president doesn't do so well, if his candidates don't do so well.

01:31:02.740 So that's definitely on his radar.

01:31:04.820 But all of these topics that we heard him talking about tonight, going into the future, these are things that he's going to continue talking about.

01:31:11.680 We were able to pretty accurately assess what he'd be talking about tonight based on what the White House has been harping on.

01:31:17.040 They've been really consistent in what they're focused on, what they're talking about is the economy, it's immigration, it's keeping our city safe, it's this foreign policy ending all these wars.

01:31:26.920 They've been very consistent and focused on these issues, and the president has been hammering this home.

01:31:31.080 So I think when you head into the midterms, unlike what we're hearing from legacy media, that Americans only care about affordability, that this is all they want to hear about from the president, there's a lot of different topics that we've been hearing the president talk about.

01:31:44.180 And like I was saying earlier, this sense of patriotism and pride in our country, I don't think that's lost on the public.

01:31:50.720 I don't think that the USA men's hockey team winning this victory, I don't know that that's just a victory on the, I was going to say the hockey field, I don't know how to talk about sports, the hockey rink.

01:32:02.100 I think it's bigger than that, and we all see that.

01:32:05.000 It's this sense that this is bigger than sports, this is bigger than these hockey players, this is American pride returning to our country.

01:32:12.340 And so these are all things that are playing into the situation going forward, and the president can talk about them all.

01:32:18.960 But now he also can talk about these Democrats not standing for these very important issues.

01:32:24.180 And when Ilhan Omar goes home tonight and she gets all excited to have her team post that clip on Instagram of her just sitting there for all these issues, that's her big win.

01:32:33.440 That's the Democrats' big win tonight.

01:32:35.080 And they clearly don't understand the massively tragic optics of these things.

01:32:40.060 So for Trump and his team, I think they're going to go to bed feeling pretty good about themselves tonight.

01:32:45.080 And they'll have a lot to talk about on the road on these affordability campaign stops.

01:32:48.980 And I don't think it will be just affordability that will be the topic of conversation.

01:32:54.520 Well, Mary Margaret, I know that you need to go to sleep because you need to get up early in the morning and then go cover the rest of this over at the White House.

01:33:00.280 Thanks for stopping by the coverage.

01:33:02.500 And Isabel is going to be joining us in just a moment.

01:33:05.320 I know that she was at the State of the Union as well.

01:33:07.680 So, Michael, you know, I'm going to ask you some more questions because Drew and I had to suffer for like several hours in your absence.

01:33:14.840 You should have heard me tap dancing in order to just get to the president getting to the microphone.

01:33:20.460 It was an astonishing feat of leisure to main, I must say myself.

01:33:23.420 But, you know, I think that the big question that's always the takeaway from all of this is also did the president sort of reunify the party?

01:33:31.940 This has always been sort of a problem in the aftermath of a second-term victory.

01:33:37.300 Presidents have a tough time holding their coalition together.

01:33:40.220 And obviously you're seeing a lot of fracturing inside the coalition right now.

01:33:44.720 I think that, you know, people blame different folks for that fracture.

01:33:48.240 But the president is the person who, in the end, is the leader of the coalition.

01:33:51.920 And the agenda that he spelled out is a pretty widely agreed-upon agenda inside the Republican Party.

01:33:57.420 Do you think that he's going to get some of the reluctant Trumpers sort of back on board, given his focus on his victories?

01:34:06.440 Yes, I think he has done that.

01:34:08.960 And it's remarkable because Trump has been called a divisive figure for the last decade, or really more than a decade, but certainly a decade in politics.

01:34:17.020 And so the fact that this man is now probably the most unifying figure on the right is really impressive.

01:34:25.520 I mean, we saw this in his re-election, in that he was re-elected this time with the popular vote.

01:34:30.340 And then so much focus has been paid to conspiracy theories and division on infighting on the right and, you know, really factions of the right splintering off into ways that are almost unrecognizable.

01:34:42.760 And what I think is quite charming about that, actually, is we seem to look to the activists and the pundits and the chattering class for unity, but they really have no incentive to unify or to even accomplish very much at all in politics. 0.98

01:34:58.060 And so where pundits and podcasters have been irresponsible with their rhetoric, Mr. Trump, who everyone tells us is the most irresponsible orator of our time, Trump is actually the one who's being responsible here and who is reaching out.

01:35:12.680 I think he's really been able to bring together a broad coalition of people.

01:35:16.360 And even the way he spoke tonight about foreign policy, you know, there were people who veer a little more on the isolation side, a little more skeptical of intervention, who were up there standing for strength and the four-door strikes in Iran.

01:35:29.580 And there were people who were, you know, there were people who were a little skeptical of, you know, the tariffs, who were right up there cheering with President Trump when he was casting a little bit of shade at the Supreme Court, but not too much shade at the Supreme Court, because he knows he's going to need the Supreme Court in the future.

01:35:46.800 So, you know, Drew loves to talk about how Trump learns things over time, and he obviously does.

01:35:53.160 And one of the things he's learned is to be nuanced with his words, and I think that showed tonight.

01:35:59.580 Well, I want to welcome in Isabel Brown, and then we can get to Andrew, who has been sitting there, as always, awaiting death.

01:36:07.840 But before we do that, Isabel, who is significantly more sprightly than any of us right now.

01:36:13.180 All of us put together.

01:36:14.540 All of us has joined us here.

01:36:17.720 So, Isabel, what was the big day under the big top like over at the United States Capitol?

01:36:26.400 I don't know if sprightly is the right word, Ben.

01:36:28.700 I think I just don't sleep at night right now with a 10-month-old, so I'm used to being up into all hours of the night.

01:36:34.080 I'm feeling good tonight.

01:36:35.380 It's a great time.

01:36:36.520 The energy here is so palpable, and I think we've touched on a lot of the negativity surrounding the speech.

01:36:43.080 Certainly, there were a lot of shocking moments sitting in the gallery.

01:36:46.360 I was across the room, it seems, from where Michael was sitting this evening, but closer to the president's guests and looking across the room at most of the Democrat colleagues from the Republican side,

01:36:55.400 who refused to stand up and cheer for America, to call for an end to political violence,

01:37:00.620 to offer condolences to widows and grieving mothers whose children had been killed by radical extremists and repeat offenders.

01:37:07.700 But you also saw a bit of an American comeback tonight, and I don't want the media to forget that,

01:37:13.400 that we saw a resounding standing ovation from virtually every single individual clapping and cheering and singing for multiple minutes on end

01:37:22.660 when the USA hockey team walked in to show us their Olympic gold medals and chanting USA across party lines.

01:37:29.100 That's something that would have been impossible about 12 months ago, and yet here we are celebrating American exceptionalism again without being called racist for it.

01:37:37.360 So I think there's a lot to glean from some of the negativity, certainly,

01:37:41.060 but there's a lot to look forward to and so much optimism to have to know that in many ways our country is back.

01:37:48.920 So, Michael, you know, well, actually, you know, I've barred Drew from this conversation for too long,

01:37:53.680 and I can see that he really, really wants to talk more about the State of the Union.

01:37:57.560 I actually do want to say something, though, about what Isabel said and what Noel said before.

01:38:02.700 I think the great triumph of the speech was a negative triumph.

01:38:05.400 I think that he did bring it back into the center of our attention how crazy and bad the Democrats are and will be again if they get back in office. 0.89

01:38:14.680 He made them act it out. It was brilliant theater. It was great stuff.

01:38:19.140 The positive message is going to be harder because the positive message means that people have to feel it in their pocketbooks

01:38:24.840 because they're never, ever going to see it in the mainstream press.

01:38:28.160 The press has practiced inducing amnesia.

01:38:31.560 They don't – the minute Trump solves a problem, it vanishes from the news.

01:38:35.240 The minute the border is closed, nobody talks about the border anymore.

01:38:37.860 They just always leap in to the next big problem.

01:38:40.720 Oh, isn't the way people are being deported terrible?

01:38:43.600 And that's been the trick that they've used, and it's been pretty effective.

01:38:46.020 But I think at some point, at some point, people are going to stop and take a breath and say,

01:38:51.140 are things really worse, and do I want these people back?

01:38:54.460 He set up the negative really well tonight.

01:38:57.040 I don't think any words are going to accomplish the positive message that he wants to put forward.

01:39:01.780 I think that's going to have to happen over time.

01:39:03.420 I think he should be hammering away at it.

01:39:05.020 He should be telling people what he's done, but people are going to have to feel it in their pocketbooks before it's real.

01:39:09.500 I myself – it was months ago, but I myself was driving along and suddenly noticed that gas prices had plummeted.

01:39:17.620 I hadn't read anything about it in the paper.

01:39:19.420 I just suddenly saw it there.

01:39:21.080 Nobody's been talking about it, and yet gas prices, of course, were one of the big headlines for a long time.

01:39:26.020 Every problem Trump solves disappears from the headlines.

01:39:30.040 But eventually, I think put together, they will seep into the consciousness of America,

01:39:35.140 and you just have to hope they do that in time before the midterms.

01:39:38.600 And I also just want to add quickly that I'm really glad that the Virginia governor is delivering the response

01:39:43.800 because that's 25 minutes in which you won't be raising my taxes.

01:39:48.360 Well, she actually is Abigail Spanberger, the new governor of Virginia.

01:39:53.060 And she is – and she apparently – one of the things that I'm noting from our friends over on X

01:39:57.580 is that apparently they have militarily regimented the amount of applause that the audience can deliver for her lines.

01:40:03.500 Legitimately.

01:40:04.320 They're basically saying you can applaud for three seconds and you sit down,

01:40:07.260 which sounds like it's unnatural and weird, and also I want implemented pretty much every state of the union from now on

01:40:12.960 because the amount of time – it's like a football game where the amount of time between plays is really, really, really long.

01:40:19.720 So we'll see whether – there is yet to be a really good response to a state of a union address, I think, in my lifetime.

01:40:25.340 My guess is that what you're seeing of Abigail Spanberger is the last you will see of the speech ever

01:40:29.940 because we've been doing this for years and years and years and never have we ever seen that sort of thing.

01:40:35.300 Michael, when we look at sort of the impact going forward, I think one of the questions here –

01:40:39.920 and it was something you mentioned, Drew – is that Trump has solved a bunch of problems.

01:40:44.500 And because those problems are solved, we don't think about them anymore.

01:40:47.020 And this is something that I believe some of the consultants had told the Republican Party was,

01:40:50.900 you know, Trump basically solved the southern border problem, so don't even bother talking about it

01:40:54.320 because nobody cares because it's already solved.

01:40:56.320 And this is, again, part of the issue for him is that when a thing happens, we no longer think about that thing,

01:41:03.020 whereas when it is sort of percolating, then we think about the thing.

01:41:07.260 And so the president has been so dominant in, for example, getting rid of DEI that if he mentions DEI,

01:41:11.440 we all kind of go, well, yeah, I mean, he did do that, but have we thought about that very much lately?

01:41:15.820 That's why I thought it was effective, Michael, for him to go to stories that remind us that these are very, very real phenomena.

01:41:20.940 Yes, and the personal stories are the key, too.

01:41:27.380 So the anecdotes, which remind us, especially in the present, that these things still exist.

01:41:33.980 Gavin Newsom didn't say, I want to see more trans kids three years ago.

01:41:37.880 Gavin Newsom said, I want to see more trans kids like three weeks ago. 0.94

01:41:41.100 This is still percolating here.

01:41:42.920 So when a guy like Andy Beshear, who is a serious presidential candidate, Democrat governor of Kentucky,

01:41:48.340 when he comes out and says Abigail Spanberger is the model for Democrats this year,

01:41:52.400 what he's saying is we're going to lie and run like moderates,

01:41:55.800 and then if we are elected, we're going to implement the most radically left-wing agenda that you can possibly imagine.

01:42:00.680 So they're kind of honest about it. 0.90

01:42:02.580 They're honest liars.

01:42:04.180 And what President Trump needs to do is remind us this isn't really dead. 0.71

01:42:08.160 You know, the Democrats can reopen the border tomorrow.

01:42:10.800 Just as President Trump shut the border without a new law, and he did it basically overnight,

01:42:15.940 so too the Democrats can just reopen it.

01:42:18.560 They can let the criminals out of prison.

01:42:20.720 They can reimplement all of the DEI and the radical gender agenda and the ideology.

01:42:28.060 They can go down this litany to say nothing of the economic havoc.

01:42:32.560 You know, do not underestimate, to quote Barack Obama,

01:42:35.940 do not underestimate the degree to which Joe Biden can F things up.

01:42:39.880 Well, that's true of the whole Democrat Party.

01:42:41.780 And so I think Trump needs to remind us that these threats are still here.

01:42:45.220 And really what is called for for the Republican campaigns is a kind of Willie Horton campaign on steroids.

01:42:52.060 A reminder, one, there are actual super predators that the Dems are letting out of prison 0.99

01:42:56.300 to light women on fire on New York City subways and rape and murder and kill. 0.98

01:43:00.220 That's happening right now. 0.94

01:43:02.000 But two, you're seeing this at an international scale when we're looking at Venezuelan and Mexican drug cartels,

01:43:08.000 or, frankly, in the Middle East or in Russia or in China.

01:43:11.460 You're seeing this throughout the country.

01:43:13.840 These threats really are imminent.

01:43:16.480 The Republican Party is not the party of chaos.

01:43:18.940 We're not the party, as the Democrats say, that is bringing chaos to the streets of Minneapolis.

01:43:23.200 We're the party that is restoring order.

01:43:25.600 The Democrats bring the chaos.

01:43:27.020 We restore the order.

01:43:28.640 Trump gave us some really evocative images for that tonight,

01:43:31.320 and I think it's an effective model going into November.

01:43:35.320 Isabel, I want to give you the last word here, because I'll be honest with you.

01:43:38.960 It's been a really, really long night, and I would really, really like to go to sleep now.

01:43:43.300 So you get the last word, and then we can all go to bed.

01:43:45.780 You know, I think it's obvious, Ben, more than ever before that for many, many years now in our country,

01:43:53.560 we have been living in two different Americas,

01:43:56.160 clearly in what we applaud for and what we fight for and against,

01:43:59.920 but also in just our most basic values as Americans.

01:44:03.300 What I saw tonight sitting in the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives

01:44:06.360 with half the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs, the entire presidential cabinet,

01:44:10.420 the president and vice president of the United States,

01:44:12.560 certainly almost every member of Congress and the most influential Americans

01:44:16.320 from across multiple walks of life,

01:44:18.820 was a clear dichotomy between the United States of America

01:44:22.100 as we have known and loved it for the last 250 years,

01:44:25.340 the greatest society the world has ever known,

01:44:27.720 built upon the foundation of our identity as one nation under God

01:44:31.420 and complete Marxist total chaos, anarchy in society

01:44:36.020 that rewards criminals over our citizens,

01:44:38.960 that champions open borders,

01:44:40.420 that refuses to prosecute those who are killing our citizens day in and day out,

01:44:45.560 who champions political violence for your enemies

01:44:48.120 rather than trying to come over our differences

01:44:50.700 to be united in the concept of e pluribus unum again.

01:44:54.700 This is not sustainable.

01:44:56.160 As Abraham Lincoln is famous for saying,

01:44:57.780 a house divided cannot stand.

01:44:59.540 But I am hopeful that what we're seeing inside of Washington

01:45:02.600 with this concept of the unity party

01:45:04.340 is beginning to extend to the rest of the country as well.

01:45:07.100 Most of these issues we talked about this evening were not the economy, shockingly.

01:45:10.980 They were social issues, like transing our kids 1.00

01:45:14.140 and some of these conversations we've been having for many years in the E space.

01:45:18.260 But very few people here in Washington have been having.

01:45:20.420 I think that was intentional because these are 90-10 issues.

01:45:23.720 These are American issues versus chaos and Marxist issues.

01:45:27.540 And voters have a very clear image moving forward into midterms in 2028

01:45:30.900 and beyond what kind of a country we have the chance to save

01:45:34.500 versus the one that's going to come into fruition

01:45:36.560 if we fail to act courageously today.

01:45:39.620 Well, folks, I hope that you enjoyed this so much more than I personally did.

01:45:44.100 But if you enjoy our work here at Daily Wire,

01:45:47.220 please become a subscriber and a supporter over at DW+,

01:45:50.400 because that allows us to continue to bring you awesome

01:45:53.660 and or mediocre content like we have been bringing you all night long.

01:45:57.740 For my colleagues, Andrew Klavan, Michael Knowles, Isabel Brown,

01:46:01.300 thanks so much for stopping by.

01:46:03.180 We're another year older.

01:46:04.560 Congrats.

01:46:05.000 It's now 2029, and we will see you in just a little bit.

01:46:14.100 Thank you.

The Matt Walsh Show - February 25, 2026

Friendly Fire： State of the Union Address Live

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