The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1340 - 2nd Republican Debate Goes Off The Rails

00:00:00.000 Last night's cacophonous and chaotic Republican presidential primary debate ended with one of the

00:00:05.220 wildest questions ever posed in any presidential debate. None of you have indicated that you're

00:00:12.020 dropping out. So which one of you on stage tonight should be voted off the island?

00:00:20.600 Please use your marker to write your choice on the notepad in front of you.

00:00:25.020 15 seconds starting now of the people on the stage who should be. I'm absolutely serious.

00:00:31.120 With all due respect. I mean, we're here like we're happy to debate. I think that that's

00:00:35.220 disrespectful to my fellow competitors. Nobody wants to. Nobody wants to participate.

00:00:38.680 Let's do some questions. Let's talk about the future of the country.

00:00:43.440 There's a good answer from DeSantis. That was the smart way to play it.

00:00:47.180 What's funny is Christie then went along and he said, yeah, we don't want to participate.

00:00:50.560 But he was the first one when she said it. He just starts writing down on his board. But OK,

00:00:54.440 then they said, no, we don't want to participate at all. It's a terrible, terrible question.

00:00:59.480 And everyone now is attacking Dana Perino for that game show question. I, however,

00:01:06.960 thought the question was basically appropriate. It's not appropriate for a presidential debate,

00:01:12.720 but it is appropriate for whatever last night was. Because last night was not a presidential primary

00:01:19.320 debate because nobody on that stage is likely to be the Republican nominee for president.

00:01:24.440 The front runner, the far and away front runner, the front runner by 40, maybe 50 points

00:01:30.300 was absent. And so the entire debate was a little bit more than a mildly entertaining

00:01:38.480 sideshow. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles Show.

00:01:41.460 Welcome back to the show. AOC is fired up. I'm here in our nation's capital. I spent some time with

00:02:06.000 some members of Congress yesterday. And one of those members of Congress was not Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

00:02:11.860 She was too busy being fired up on immigration. We'll get to that in one second. First, though,

00:02:16.560 I'm going to give you the entire summary of what has been called a debate by some people

00:02:23.640 in about 60 seconds. I was on Tim Pool's show last night. We actually all had forgotten that the

00:02:28.740 debate was even on. So when I get there, he said, hey, man, we got to change the order of this show

00:02:34.060 because we got to react to the debate, I guess. So we watched it together. And I did find it mildly

00:02:39.020 entertaining. And I did find some of the answers pretty good. I thought DeSantis did very, very well.

00:02:44.760 DeSantis was the winner of the debate. He did better than he did at the first debate.

00:02:49.400 It was good. Vivek was the most under fire. Everybody was attacking Vivek. He did very,

00:02:57.380 very well. Not unexpectedly. You know, he's a sharp guy. He's able to think and speak very clearly.

00:03:03.100 But he was extremely under attack last night. And he did pretty well. Nikki Haley, I felt hurt

00:03:11.260 herself. She started out the debate pretty strong. And then she became angry. She seemed angry and

00:03:18.540 even somewhat insulting later on into the debate. So I think she sort of hurt herself. In fact,

00:03:23.580 one of the defining features of the debate was Nikki and Vivek just attacking each other. 1.00

00:03:29.800 This is infuriating because TikTok is one of the most dangerous social media apps that we could

00:03:35.820 have. And what you've got, I honestly, every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you

00:03:40.440 say, because I can't believe they hear you've got a TikTok situation. What they're doing is these

00:03:47.020 150 million people are on TikTok. That means they can get your contacts. They can get your financial

00:03:52.620 information. They can get your emails. They can get your text messages. They can get all of these

00:03:56.940 things. This is very important for our party. This is very important for our party. And I'm going to

00:04:01.300 say you've gone and you've helped China make medicines in China, not America. You're now wanting

00:04:06.580 kids to go and get on the social media that's dangerous for all of us. You and you were in business

00:04:11.300 with the Chinese that gave Hunter Biden $5 million. We can't trust you. We can't trust you. 1.00

00:04:16.440 That was pretty much it. That was basically the whole debate. And I think Nikki believed that she

00:04:28.040 looked good at the last debate when she went after Vivek. That was her best part of the last

00:04:32.920 debate performance. This I felt was too much though. And it was cacophonous. And some of the attacks

00:04:38.180 there, she seemed to suggest that Vivek was involved in paying off Hunter Biden or something. I don't think

00:04:44.480 that's the point she meant to make, but that's kind of what it sounded like. And it just didn't

00:04:48.400 look good for either of them, but it really didn't look good for Nikki. But other candidates were

00:04:53.340 interrupting too. Tim Scott interrupted throughout basically the entire debate. Anytime anyone was

00:05:02.120 asked a question on that stage, Tim Scott would try to respond so much so that they cut his microphone

00:05:07.620 and you could only hear Tim on everyone else's microphone through the ambient noise.

00:05:11.940 These are good people who are tainted by a broken system. And it's not the fault of anybody who's

00:05:18.180 involved. Thank you for speaking while I'm interrupting.

00:05:22.720 I learned so much, you know, that really showed me a new side of all of the candidates. I think

00:05:24.720 that's really going to affect my vote. Don't you? No, no, that was it. And

00:05:28.960 I learned so much, you know, that really showed me a new side of all of the candidates. I think

00:05:48.580 that's really going to affect my vote. Don't you? No, no, that was it. And Tim Scott was frustrated

00:05:54.880 because he felt he wasn't getting enough questions. But Tim Scott's not polling very high. So when he

00:05:59.720 kept trying to interject, it just seemed desperate. And the debate seemed desperate for

00:06:07.100 basically everybody. And the reason for that is because the guy who has had the commanding lead for

00:06:13.700 the entirety of the primary, going back 14 months now, didn't even bother to show up. That's how

00:06:19.460 inconsequential he felt the debate to be. And some voters, especially if you don't like Trump,

00:06:23.920 might say, well, that was wrong of him not to show up. And he owes us the respect of showing up.

00:06:29.800 But if you believe any of the polls, certainly if you believe all of the polls taken together,

00:06:35.240 which haven't really changed very much, Trump didn't have to do that. And nothing has moved

00:06:40.100 the needle. And I'm skeptical that anything is going to move the needle now. The one answer of the

00:06:44.740 night that I felt did land a real blow on Trump was given by Ron DeSantis. And it was in response

00:06:51.580 to Trump's attacks on Ron DeSantis's pro-life policies. How are you going to win over

00:06:57.620 independent pro-choice voters in Arizona? Same way we did in Florida. We won the

00:07:02.920 greatest Republican victory in a governor's race in the history of the state, over 1.5 million votes.

00:07:08.580 We were winning places like Miami-Dade County, Palm Beach that nobody thought was possible

00:07:12.580 because we were leading with purpose and conviction. I reject this idea that pro-lifers

00:07:17.620 are to blame for midterm defeats. I think there's other reasons for that. The former president,

00:07:23.620 you know, he's missing in action tonight. He's had a lot to say about that. He should be here

00:07:28.040 explaining his comments to try to say that pro-life protections are somehow a terrible thing.

00:07:34.000 I want him to look into the eyes and tell people who've been fighting this fight for a long time,

00:07:38.680 we're better off when everybody counts. And I think we should stand for what we believe in.

00:07:44.000 I think we should hold the Democrats accountable for their extremism, supporting abortion all the 0.99

00:07:50.340 way up until the moment of birth. That is infanticide and that is wrong.

00:07:55.460 This was basically a flawless answer. And it was a flawless answer because he rejected the premise of

00:08:01.600 the question. The premise being that pro-life policies and pro-life advocacy turn off moderate,

00:08:10.520 centrist, liberal voters. And he says, I don't think that's true. I think that we persuade people

00:08:16.060 when we lead with courage and conviction. So actually, if you've got a pro-life policy that is

00:08:21.840 consistent and coherent and you can explain your reasoning for it, that's going to persuade more

00:08:27.220 people than some middle of the ground, literally split the baby kind of policy where you say,

00:08:32.060 okay, we're going to kill babies who are this old, but we're not going to kill babies who are that old.

00:08:37.020 So I thought that was good. And then he pivoted off of it. And then he got his attack on Trump in,

00:08:41.680 which is the point of these debates is to articulate your view and be persuasive and then

00:08:46.780 attack your opponents. I thought he did that pretty effectively. And then he pivoted it to

00:08:51.080 Democrat extremism. So he didn't just leave himself at the very early part of the abortion

00:08:55.500 debate, which is harder to win. He brought it all to the end and he said, these Democrats want to

00:08:59.340 kill babies at the moment of birth or later. And that's completely insane. And that's out of step

00:09:04.060 with voters. And so we're going to keep articulating pro-life. It was a really good answer. Even that

00:09:09.620 answer, I don't think moves the needle. And the reason is because Trump has already served as

00:09:14.780 president. This is why Trump sees no need to go to the debate. I think he has no need to go to the

00:09:21.020 debate. This is why his poll numbers don't really seem to move after the debates because Trump

00:09:25.180 has a track record. So what Trump can do is if people don't like what he said about pro-life and

00:09:31.300 don't like him attacking Ron DeSantis' pro-life policies, even if he was probably only doing

00:09:36.700 that because he's attacking everything about Ron DeSantis and sometimes because DeSantis can sound to

00:09:40.880 the right of him on certain issues, he's going to attack him. Trump is going to attack DeSantis from

00:09:44.960 the left and that's going to irritate conservatives. But even then, Trump can just point to his record

00:09:49.880 and say, I got Roe v. Wade overruled. And that is going to be persuasive for most people, I think.

00:09:56.780 And my proof of that is his polls haven't moved, according to any of them. And now I know some

00:10:02.780 people are saying, well, Michael, did you believe the polls in 2016 when it showed Hillary Clinton was

00:10:08.540 leading Trump? When it showed that Hillary had a 99% chance of winning the election? And we have to

00:10:15.160 remember what actually happened in 2016. The polls showed Hillary was consistently up over Trump,

00:10:20.220 but that 99% number was a meta-analysis of some wonk sitting in an ivory tower somewhere saying,

00:10:27.680 well, given all of the data here, I just think the likelihood that Hillary wins, not the percentage of

00:10:31.800 people who are going to vote for her, but the likelihood that Hillary wins is 95, 97, 99%. And then 0.87

00:10:37.420 Trump outperformed the polls and Hillary underperformed. But we're talking about, in this case,

00:10:43.580 literally every poll that shows Trump up at least 20 points. And every poll in all these battleground

00:10:52.440 states where Trump has a significant advantage. So the conspiracy, the pro-Trump conspiracy among

00:11:01.700 pollsters and political scientists would have to be so pronounced that they've created a 30 or 40 or

00:11:08.740 more than 40 point mirage of support for Donald Trump. What is more likely? That or that Trump has

00:11:18.800 many of the advantages of an incumbent because he's running sort of practically as an incumbent? I think

00:11:23.420 probably the latter. The most surprising candidate, I think the one candidate who might actually really

00:11:29.760 have helped himself in the debate last night was North Dakota governor, Doug Burgum.

00:11:35.180 I think that the liberal left is, seems to be just completely bent on prosecuting law abiding

00:11:42.040 citizens that are gun owners, because every solution they have to this is take away the 0.61

00:11:46.920 second amendment rights of Americans. And somehow that's going to solve the problem. But all these

00:11:50.420 cities that we're talking about that showed the videos of tonight, they have some of the strictest gun

00:11:54.980 laws in the country. So we know that that's not what's working, but we have to do is get back to the

00:11:59.360 core issues about the family. We have to get back to behavioral health and mental health. We've got

00:12:04.640 to get back to actually enforcing the laws these people talked about. And like we've done in North

00:12:08.780 Dakota, where we're that we've got the goal and we're on the track to be in the most military friendly

00:12:12.460 state in the nation. We've got the most military and the most support of what we're doing in terms

00:12:16.740 of law enforcement, because the morale is down because we've been defunding the police because

00:12:22.000 they've been attacked in the press. The police have become the bad guys when they're the one they

00:12:25.860 there's all these jobs available in America. Why would you be a policeman if people only respect

00:12:29.760 them? Every time I see a policeman, the first thing I say is thank you. And so does everybody

00:12:33.820 else in my family and most of the people in our state, because they know we have to respect the

00:12:38.260 people that are out there defending us every single day. Doug Burgum, are you feeling the Burgum

00:12:43.180 momentum? Burgum momentum? Are you feeling it? Are you a Burgum maniac? Burgum probably not not

00:12:51.320 going to be the nominee. Burgum is pretty liberal on the social issues. But his numbers might improve

00:12:56.940 because I think he's somewhere around one percent. So he might double or triple or quadruple. He

00:13:00.700 actually did pretty well introducing himself to the people last night. So how did it end? It ended with

00:13:06.160 Vivek being bold and taking bold stances. He came out against birthright citizenship. I thought that was

00:13:11.400 very cool. Vivek takes a lot of bold stances and he's pursuing something similar to the Trump path

00:13:18.460 in 2016 in terms of ways to stand out. Maybe it will benefit him. He was so severely attacked last

00:13:24.460 night at the debate. I'm not I'm not sure which way it goes or if his numbers move at all. DeSantis,

00:13:29.700 he did a great job doing the DeSantis performance, which is to seem very disciplined, very competent,

00:13:36.220 have a clear political vision and just not be that sexy. You know, being Trump with perhaps more

00:13:42.180 discipline and less sexiness, which to some people sounds great, but to a lot of people,

00:13:46.700 it doesn't doesn't do very much. Nikki, I think probably hurt herself. Tim, I think probably hurt

00:13:50.540 herself a little bit. Was there anyone else on stage? Oh, Chris Christie. Chris Christie was not

00:13:55.900 did not have a good performance, did not look good, tried a few zingers out at Trump, didn't they didn't

00:14:00.040 quite land. So where does that leave us? In basically the exact same place that we were before the debate

00:14:06.580 happened, okay? These candidates, the ones who are not polling very well, need an off-ramp. And I would

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00:15:03.640 whether you have five employees or 5,000. Right now, get $250 when you join Ramp. Just go to

00:15:11.120 ramp.com slash Knowles, K-N-W-L-E-S. That is R-A-M-P dot com slash Knowles. Cards issued by Sutton Bank

00:15:18.460 and Celtic Bank members FDIC. Terms and conditions apply. Now, there's another debate that's going to take

00:15:24.140 place. Not with the primary contestants yet. That one will be in a little bit. The next debate coming

00:15:29.040 up is going to be between the California governor, Patrick Bateman, doing business as Gavin Newsom,

00:15:35.320 and Florida governor, Ron DeSantis. And Newsom is already trash talking DeSantis a month out from

00:15:42.320 the debate. Why are you doing that and what is your strategy? Well, I don't know if that's the right

00:15:47.780 question. Why is he doing it is the right question. He's running, I think, I'm not sure, after tonight.

00:15:54.140 But currently, he's running for president of the United States. Do you think he's still going to be,

00:15:58.880 do you think he'll still be a candidate in November 30th? That's an open-ended question. Part of me

00:16:02.300 wonders if, you know, the fact that he took this debate, the fact that he took the bait in relation

00:16:10.620 to this debate shows that he's completely unqualified to be president of the United States. That's my humble

00:16:15.320 first question. Why is that? You're baiting him with the debate offer? Of course. I mean, why is he

00:16:18.180 debating a guy who's not even running for president when he's running for president? He's showing up at the

00:16:21.920 Reagan Library, hollowed ground, and he puts out an ad today, not for his presidential campaign,

00:16:26.880 to promote a debate against the governor of California? I mean, this guy's distracted. So

00:16:32.940 I don't know that he has it in his heart. I think, here's my personal opinion about Ron DeSantis,

00:16:37.420 he regrets running for president. He made a huge mistake.

00:16:41.120 So he keeps going on like this, just taunting DeSantis, and it reminds me of a WWE match.

00:16:52.640 Or even in an actual sport that isn't just show business, like a boxing match, when they're

00:16:59.420 trash talking before boxing, you know, this guy, I'm gonna wipe the floor with him. This guy is a

00:17:04.020 complete joke. He, you know, my, I think he regrets running. He's a, he's unfocused. He's undisciplined.

00:17:08.900 He's just mocking him relentlessly. This too, is a sideshow. I mean, that, unfortunately,

00:17:17.000 that's the point that Gavin Newsom is right about, is that this debate probably will not determine

00:17:22.900 the 2024 presidential race. The thing that he's being dishonest about here is that he's not running

00:17:28.440 for president. Gavin Newsom is obviously trying to run for president. He's not willing to put himself

00:17:32.800 up against Joe Biden because he thinks that then Biden would grind him up in the way that Donald

00:17:38.560 Trump is attacking Ron DeSantis right now. But he obviously wants to run for president. And this

00:17:42.860 DeSantis versus Newsom debate is the undercard debate. If Joe Biden's marionette strings collapse

00:17:49.460 and, you know, he falls to the ground, or if Donald Trump is sent to Elba or St. Helena and, and,

00:17:55.900 or, or he's, you know, taken out with the Hillary special, then there'll be an opening and,

00:18:00.180 and DeSantis perhaps could fill that gap. But as of now, even that, and I think that could be a

00:18:05.940 substantive debate about two different visions for America. Do you want America to be like

00:18:09.780 California? Do you want America to be like Florida? Which way are the U-Haul trucks moving?

00:18:13.860 I think it could be a great substantive debate, but once again, don't shoot the messenger here,

00:18:19.360 folks. I'm just the one who has to see things clearly past the event through to the election.

00:18:25.880 I don't see how this moves the needle. Now, speaking of Republicans engaging with corrupt

00:18:33.620 Democrat politicians, Bob Menendez still under fire. A lot of people calling on him to resign,

00:18:42.600 but oddly enough, not, not very many Republicans calling on Menendez to design and to resign rather.

00:18:49.060 And Mediaite has this headline. Mediaite says, why are no Senate Republicans calling for Menendez to

00:18:58.260 resign? Senate Republicans, Democrats have all attacked him, called on him to step down,

00:19:05.040 but the Republicans won't do it. What's that about? Why won't they do it? Two reasons. One,

00:19:10.600 because the DOJ is corrupt and the corrupt DOJ has been weaponized against Republicans in recent years.

00:19:17.580 So we are just generally more willing to give the accused the benefit of the doubt than Democrats are

00:19:22.960 when it comes to the DOJ. But that said, Menendez is obviously corrupt and we've all known it for a

00:19:28.760 decade. So why, why won't the Republicans call on him to resign? The simple answer is because

00:19:34.500 the longer this drags out, the longer Menendez holds onto that seat, the better chance a Republican

00:19:40.140 has of replacing Menendez once the seat eventually and inevitably opens up. So Menendez is holding on

00:19:47.020 because he wants to get a sweetheart deal so he doesn't spend the rest of his life in prison.

00:19:51.660 Democrats are clamoring for him to resign because they don't want this continued scandal and they

00:19:57.780 don't want to lose the seat. And Republicans, we're just going to sit back and watch the show.

00:20:01.460 I guess that's, that's the moment of politics that we're in right now is just sort of sitting back and

00:20:06.580 watching the show because there's not very much that we can do to alter the course of events in

00:20:12.560 politics. I don't think there's very much that we can do in the 2024 presidential primary. I think

00:20:17.640 it just is what it is. And it has been for 14 months. And I don't think there's much we can

00:20:21.560 do with Menendez. He's going to resign or he's not going to resign. But if we, if we at least don't

00:20:26.560 push him to resign, then this scandal is going to drag on and Republicans can win in New Jersey.

00:20:32.640 We have one in New Jersey. Even Chris Christie managed to get himself elected and we might be looking

00:20:36.700 at a Republican Senator. So keep it up, Mr. Menendez. We, you are innocent until proven guilty.

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00:22:01.020 I tell you all the time. I'll say it again, even though I hate to say it. And it pains

00:22:05.900 me. But don't say I didn't tell you so. The yes or no game has sold out over at DailyWire.com

00:22:13.880 slash shop. Again, you know it would. It will come back in stock, but you need to secure your

00:22:18.080 game if you have not already. If you already have the classic game, be sure to get the all

00:22:21.460 new Conspiracy Theory expansion pack in time for the spooky season. And speaking of my collection

00:22:26.700 and the rapidly approaching change of season, if you are even mildly familiar with this show,

00:22:31.240 you're probably aware of my autumnal affinity for a certain seasonal beverage. I am, in fact,

00:22:37.680 the PSL king of the Daily Wire, the pumpkin spice latte. So what better way to bring the fall

00:22:43.500 atmosphere into your home than with the all new Michael Knowles pumpkin spice candle, the pumpkin

00:22:48.380 spikele Knowles candle available now in my collection. I think that one sold out too,

00:22:53.620 but we've managed to get more in stock. Don't wait. Order your candles and your yes or no game

00:22:57.680 now. DailyWire.com slash shop. Speaking of Hispanic Democrats, AOC has a brutal accusation for Republicans,

00:23:09.800 which is that we run our mouths about the immigration problem all the time,

00:23:14.500 but we don't have any solutions. I didn't hear in your testimony,

00:23:19.160 the alternative sites you've advocated for. Could you remind me of which those are?

00:23:24.620 Well, in the conversation, as we know, as we've heard- I'm sorry, I only have 18 seconds. Which

00:23:30.580 are the sites that you propose as an alternative? I don't have a proposal. So you don't have a

00:23:35.540 proposal alternative? No proposed alternative. No solutions here. No ideas here. But Democrats,

00:23:46.280 we're authorizing 500,000 work permits so people can get on their feet and support themselves.

00:23:50.900 Democrats, we're proposing comprehensive immigration reform. Democrats, we're talking about saying,

00:23:55.820 let's reassess our foreign policies so that people aren't fleeing, you know, making sure that we

00:23:59.860 aren't participating in the destabilization of what's happening abroad. And all I'm hearing right

00:24:04.820 now is that we're not being met in the middle. No support, no path to citizenship, no identified

00:24:10.480 alternatives, just grievances. We need to get it together and make sure that we're getting on the

00:24:16.440 right page. And if the ideas being presented here in this committee are being disagreed with,

00:24:21.220 I'd like to see some actual functional alternatives that center and preserve the dignity of both people

00:24:25.940 who are coming here to fulfill an American dream and the American citizens here who want to support

00:24:29.800 them. That was a whole lot of words without any particular solutions that I heard from AOC either.

00:24:37.400 So this is her clip. AOC, she's taken a page out of the Daily Wire facts and logic clips where she got

00:24:44.220 the fast cuts and it goes on to the speaker and onto the questioner. And then she gets the nice 60

00:24:50.920 second zinger out there pioneered by Young America's foundation and other right-wing groups. And she's

00:24:55.520 flipping it. She said, you have no solutions. You have no solutions. And then she babbles and blathers

00:24:59.960 for 60 seconds without offering any solutions herself. The accusation isn't even legitimate.

00:25:07.260 Republicans have very clear solutions. Here is my solution. I got two of them for immigration.

00:25:13.120 We should restrict immigration and we should expand deportations. 1.00

00:25:20.160 I solved it. Do I get a prize from AOC? I did it.

00:25:23.660 But we should restrict it. We should restrict all immigration. Obviously, illegal immigration, 1.00

00:25:31.920 but also legal immigration because we have way too many people coming into the country. And it's 1.00

00:25:36.300 no knock on the people. But the movement of foreigners into the United States over the last

00:25:40.340 65 years is the largest movement of human beings ever in recorded history. And it's led to social

00:25:46.140 breakdown because there's no longer a coherent, cohesive society. So we got to slow that down

00:25:51.400 drastically. I'm not saying we totally seal up the border and don't let a single human being in. 1.00

00:25:55.820 I don't think that's practicable. I don't think, but we could drastically reduce all immigration, 1.00

00:26:01.040 illegal and legal immigration. And we could do it pretty easily. We've done it before in American 0.75

00:26:05.780 history. And then what about deportations? Am I saying we're going to deport every single

00:26:09.220 illegal that's in the United States? No, I don't think it's practical. I don't think most people

00:26:13.060 would want it. It's not going to happen. But we could drastically expand deportations. 0.98

00:26:19.380 You've got criminals now who go around, who kill people, who sell drugs, who sell flesh,

00:26:25.920 who are pimps, who are working for the cartels. And then they get arrested and they get let off the

00:26:29.540 hook. So we could just reduce the threshold for which someone is deported drastically. That would

00:26:37.240 drastically increase the deportations while not going after the really sweet, innocent little

00:26:42.900 person who's just following his or her lights, who doesn't commit all that many crimes other than

00:26:48.460 the crime of entering the country illegally. And the kind of person who most Americans don't want 0.90

00:26:52.880 to see deported, okay, they're going to be at the bottom of the deportation list. So it's probably

00:26:56.460 not going to happen. But why can't we do that? Why can't we just directionally enforce laws that

00:27:01.460 are already on the books and drastically restrict immigration and drastically expand deportation?

00:27:06.940 That seems simple. That's my solution. Yet they won't do it. The Democrat, AOC is not going to do

00:27:12.320 that. She wants to open the border completely and flood the country with foreigners. But the Republicans

00:27:16.620 don't want to do it either. The Chamber of Commerce Republicans don't want to do it. But don't tell

00:27:22.040 me we don't have solutions. I got a simple solution. We've used it many times in American history and

00:27:25.800 it worked out great. And now that we're not following my solution, things are not working.

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00:27:56.800 Now speaking of transporting people, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, he decided to do his job

00:28:04.420 for a little bit. He took a break from the breastfeeding and the paternity leave. And

00:28:11.000 Mr. Buttigieg has gone on TV to say that we have got to shift to electric cars because the electric

00:28:19.240 cars are coming. It's going to happen. Whether you want it or not, whether we do anything or not,

00:28:25.480 cars are going to become electric, so get on board.

00:28:27.800 That concern in terms of the transition and who would suffer during that transition,

00:28:33.040 what's your response to that?

00:28:36.960 Well, it's absolutely right. Look, I come from South Bend, Indiana. It's the home of UAW Local 5

00:28:42.580 and UAW Local 9. I saw how the past generation of union auto jobs helped build the middle class and

00:28:50.860 build communities like the one that I grew up in. I also saw what happened when those factories closed.

00:28:57.280 What the UAW is trying to do right now is to make sure that this next chapter of the auto industry,

00:29:04.560 which let's be very clear, these cars are going electric with or without us.

00:29:09.460 Look, they're going electric. And so the union workers who are protesting because all these

00:29:14.380 mandates, mostly climate change BS mandates from the Biden administration to stop building normal

00:29:20.260 cars and shift everything, often with government subsidies, to this electric stuff that many people

00:29:25.100 don't really wind. It's just going to happen. It's just happening, okay? So you got to just get on

00:29:31.020 board with it. I don't really care about Pete Buttigieg or the cars or what's going on in the strike

00:29:38.400 here. This story to me is about all of the progressive technocrat project. Progressive technocrats

00:29:47.560 thrive on depoliticizing human beings. What they thrive on is, oh, look, it's going to happen.

00:29:54.300 It's just going to happen. You have no say over it. You have no say over your own life.

00:29:57.760 You can do, you can cry and you can whine and you can vote and you can organize politically,

00:30:02.360 but it doesn't matter. It's happening because progress demands it. Progress with a capital P

00:30:07.600 demands my very, very specific political program that the Biden administration is spending a lot of

00:30:14.400 money and power to enforce. It's obviously not true. If it were true, the Biden administration

00:30:20.000 wouldn't need to mandate all this stuff. If it's just going to happen naturally, they wouldn't need

00:30:24.520 to spend so much political capital and actual capital money to push this. Electric vehicles are

00:30:34.220 spreading now because of a particular government focus and because that's what they want. And okay,

00:30:42.200 but maybe some of us don't want that. Maybe some striking workers don't want that. Maybe some

00:30:46.680 ordinary citizens don't want that. And maybe we're going to voice our opinion. And even if Pete

00:30:50.840 Buttigieg insists that history and progress or the capital H and capital P demand that we get rid of

00:30:55.880 our gas guzzling cars, maybe we want to keep them. And so what, what are we going to do then?

00:31:02.020 Well, what the progressives do then, what the liberals do then is they say, well, you don't have a right

00:31:05.820 to say that. You don't have a right. And what we respond is, well, we, this is government of the

00:31:12.840 people, by the people, for the people. What do you mean? I can't set my own environmental standards

00:31:16.020 and my own manufacturing standards. They say, no, no, this is a liberal democracy. Meaning we're going

00:31:23.620 to do liberalism. And when the democracy goes along with that, we're going to celebrate. And when the

00:31:27.340 democracy opposes liberalism, we're going to tell that democracy to shut up. So it's a constant

00:31:34.020 process of deep politicization, even beyond what Buttigieg is talking about here. You see this

00:31:39.240 in the constant pointing to science. When, when the liberals and the progressives and the technocrats,

00:31:44.180 they say, no, the science says that we have to do this, this, and that. It's not me. It's not my

00:31:48.600 political desire. It's not people debating how to live together, coming from perhaps different first

00:31:53.340 principles and different chains of thought. No, no. It's just the science says that. The history says

00:31:58.520 that. The textbook says that. The computer says that. The progress says that. So you got to do it.

00:32:04.020 And you lose your political. Did you know that over 85% of grass-fed beef sold in U.S. grocery

00:32:09.960 stores is imported? That's why I buy all my meat from GoodRanchers.com instead. Good Ranchers products

00:32:16.160 are 100% born, raised, and harvested right here in the USA from local family farms. Plus, there's no

00:32:21.840 antibiotics ever, no added hormones, and no seed oils. Just one simple ingredient. That's meat. Best of all,

00:32:28.420 Good Ranchers delivers straight to your door for added convenience. So lock in a secure supply of

00:32:32.620 American meat today. Subscribe now at GoodRanchers.com and get free meat for life and $40 off with code

00:32:38.060 DailyWire. That's $40 off and free meat for life with code DailyWire. Good Ranchers, American meat

00:32:43.520 delivered. Right. Now, speaking of depoliticizing, this is my favorite. We'll have to refer back to

00:32:48.720 the debate for just one brief second. The New York Times was fact-checking the debate,

00:32:53.040 and they fact-checked a statement from Vivek Ramaswamy. Am I allowed to quote Vivek from the

00:32:58.960 debate on a certain social media platform that doesn't like when you say true things? Okay,

00:33:03.400 well, I'll just do it. Vivek said, transgenderism, especially in kids, is a mental health disorder.

00:33:10.900 Obviously true. And then the New York Times, this woman, Azeen Grayson, a part of it got cut off,

00:33:22.440 says, this is her fact-check of it. She says, this is false. This is false. Transgenderism, 1.00

00:33:29.040 especially in kids, is a mental health disorder. No, it's not. Boom. Fact-check. Roasted. 17 Pinocchios.

00:33:35.760 Science. Fact. Fact-check. That's not my opinion. It's a fact-check. And the fact says

00:33:41.400 transgenderism is not a mental health disorder. It's totally normal and healthy when you think

00:33:46.840 you're the opposite sex and chop your body up and lower your life expectancy. Totally normal. 1.00

00:33:52.360 Which reminds me of something that I've known for many years now, and you have probably known for

00:33:56.260 many years, but people who are not very political, who don't pay close attention, are beginning to

00:34:01.800 realize, which is these fact-checks are just deceptive left-wing opinion columns. That's all

00:34:09.180 they've ever been. The fact-checks is just a way of saying, it's just the progressive, liberal way

00:34:17.120 of cramming their opinion, often completely insane opinions like this lady at the New York Times'

00:34:23.480 opinion, down our throats without having to take ownership of their opinions. They'll say, no,

00:34:29.780 this is just a fact. A lot of people don't understand the distinction between a fact and

00:34:34.720 an opinion, because a lot of people don't understand the distinction between an opinion

00:34:38.860 and a preference. So they'll say, well, look, everyone's entitled to his own opinion, but

00:34:43.660 he's not entitled to his own facts. But an opinion is a statement of fact from your perspective.

00:34:51.360 An opinion is not like a preference where you'd say, well, do you prefer vanilla ice cream

00:34:57.440 or chocolate ice cream? Oh, I prefer vanilla. But that's just my opinion. No, that's your

00:35:02.780 preference. If it were your, you could say, I think that vanilla is objectively a better

00:35:07.960 ice cream than chocolate, and that is my opinion. And that would be you stating a fact from your

00:35:12.640 perspective, a fact that is controversial with which people might disagree. But you're

00:35:16.960 still making a statement of fact. And so what they do here with the liberal fact-check,

00:35:22.100 so-called, is they just aren't honest about what an opinion is. They probably don't even know what

00:35:26.820 an opinion is. And what's especially ironic about the liberal fact-check is that the opinions that

00:35:32.640 they express are almost always wrong. They're doing this today, even on the most obvious issues,

00:35:40.180 like can a man become a woman? Can a little boy become a little girl? Speaking of scandalizing

00:35:45.100 kids, a federal judge in Texas, in Texas, what the hell is going on in Texas? A federal judge

00:35:51.420 has blocked the implementation of a Texas law banning sexually oriented performances in front

00:35:57.400 of minors. This is Judge David Hittner of the Southern District of Texas said that the law violated

00:36:02.200 the First Amendment and chilled free speech in the state. And this rule, we've seen similar rulings.

00:36:07.380 This blocks a law signed by Greg Abbott and the Republicans. And the judge says,

00:36:14.400 not all people will like or condone certain performances. This is no different than a person's

00:36:19.540 opinion on certain comedy or genres of music. But that alone does not strip First Amendment

00:36:25.700 projection. However, in addition to the pure entertainment value, there are often political,

00:36:29.680 social, and cultural messages involved in drag performances which strengthen the plaintiff's

00:36:34.480 position. So this judge was appointed by Ronald Reagan. And you know I love Reagan. I'm as big

00:36:41.420 a Reagan fan as there can be. But the Reagan era wasn't totally perfect. You know, Reagan addressed

00:36:46.560 his problems of his day in the way that he thought was best. But there have been some issues with that,

00:36:51.260 one of which is a focus in order to win the Cold War on maximizing individual autonomy and individual

00:36:59.360 choice and a skepticism, if not even a neutrality, in the face of good and evil or true and false,

00:37:05.900 right and wrong, beautiful and ugly. And so this judge says that drag shows, including ones that 1.00

00:37:13.200 little kids can walk up to, those are protected speech. That has never been the case in the history

00:37:18.720 of the United States until maybe 50 years ago. And this is the issue. This is what I was talking about

00:37:25.820 a couple years ago when I wrote my book, Speechless Controlling Words, Controlling Minds, which had a

00:37:29.880 thesis at the time, somewhat controversial, I think now less controversial, which is that,

00:37:33.620 thank you, which is that we like free speech in practice. We like the American tradition of free

00:37:40.040 speech, but there is a risk of people making an idol out of free speech. And if they make an idol out

00:37:46.540 of free speech, they're going to take it out of its historical context, out of all semblance of prudence

00:37:51.080 or the traditional American way of life. And we're going to end up with judges saying that

00:37:55.900 James Madison enshrined the sacred right of perverts to twerk around in front of little kids and that 0.67

00:38:01.100 this was the purpose of the First Amendment, which it obviously never was. That what's so smart about

00:38:05.300 what the judge did here is the judge said, he didn't just say, look, it's kind of entertaining and

00:38:10.360 I really like drag shows, so everyone should be allowed to see them. He said, no, this speech could be

00:38:14.980 political speech. So he's acknowledging that the purpose of the First Amendment is to protect

00:38:19.260 political speech, not appeals to the prurient content, not appeals to the prurient interest,

00:38:23.860 not appeals to obscene content. He's saying, no, it's obviously about political stuff, but

00:38:27.980 there are often political, social, and cultural messages involved in drag performances.

00:38:34.660 Sure, but by that standard, then you could say that any speech is political speech. By that standard,

00:38:40.080 you can say that any performance, any expression, any pornography is political speech. If the political

00:38:46.320 speech intended is that bans on pornography are bad, you could have the most disgusting degenerate

00:38:54.580 pornography, which is similar to what happens at a lot of these drag shows. And it could be obviously

00:39:00.300 only about appealing to people's lusts and the prurient interest and spreading obscenity. But then

00:39:05.960 the moment that it's under attack, the people behind the drag shows and the porn can very easily make the

00:39:14.100 claim. Well, no, the very act of putting the porn out there into the world is a political act,

00:39:18.720 because my political point is that we shouldn't have bans on these things. So now we've got two

00:39:25.660 options. We either get rid of all limitations on obscenity and gross stuff and public indecency,

00:39:32.780 even in front of little kids, or we return to the just and prudent and normal limits that have

00:39:40.440 surrounded the First Amendment and our understanding of political speech for all of American history and

00:39:44.840 all of the history of our civilization. But it's going to be one of those two things. And right

00:39:49.380 now, conservatives want to sound like absolutists on the First Amendment, but they obviously want to

00:39:54.300 live in the world where we're not having indecent, disgusting performances in front of little kids.

00:39:58.480 Well, what I'm saying is, and what I've said for a few years now is, I hate to say I told you so,

00:40:02.440 you got to pick one. Now, everyone, everyone is talking about convicting a murderer and how it

00:40:09.120 has completely blown up making a murderer's narrative of Stephen Avery being falsely convicted

00:40:13.120 for the murder of Teresa Hallbach. There are already so many people from around the country

00:40:17.680 commenting about how they've changed their minds about Stephen Avery after watching convicting a

00:40:21.480 murderer. Take a look at the series. Coming up on convicting a murderer. The key was the biggest

00:40:28.020 piece of evidence that viewers to this day believe was planted. It was a story that was really

00:40:33.240 tailor-made for Hollywood. It was on TV constantly saying, it's Manitowoc County, they're framing me.

00:40:39.040 It's got to be a setup. Because if I didn't do it, they had to plant the stuff.

00:40:43.320 It seemed like almost everyone believed these filmmakers.

00:40:46.120 What do we want? Justice! 0.84

00:40:48.240 What do we want? Now!

00:40:50.080 His body language comes across as very suspicious.

00:40:53.260 It looked like he was caught.

00:40:55.980 And that is exactly what the filmmakers led you to believe.

00:40:59.480 Why are you editing my courtroom testimony?

00:41:02.520 You should be still faithful to the facts.

00:41:05.160 I started to realize more and more that this was an entertainment piece.

00:41:08.620 This wasn't a piece of journalism like I thought it was going to be.

00:41:11.400 New episodes of Convicting a Murderer are released every Thursday exclusively on Daily Wire Plus.

00:41:24.300 If you're not a member, head on over to dailywire.com slash subscribe to sign up for access to this

00:41:28.840 groundbreaking series and the rest of Daily Wire's content.

00:41:32.320 My favorite comment yesterday is from Dirk at Work 33, who says,

00:41:35.340 Why is it that only Democrats hear these racist dog whistles?

00:41:38.820 Very good question.

00:41:40.160 What is it?

00:41:40.820 What does it say about you if you're the one who hears the dog whistles?

00:41:44.120 The biggest story of the day I'm just getting to now,

00:41:46.400 which is that a judge in New York has ordered Trump's businesses to completely shut down.

00:41:54.240 They tried to lock Trump up for rape or something because of this imagined fantasy of this woman in Bergdorf Goodman or whatever. 0.89

00:42:06.000 They tried to lock him up for donating to his own campaign in the Stormy Daniels case.

00:42:10.860 They tried to lock him up for, as president, calling the Georgia Secretary of State and asking what was going on in the election.

00:42:16.080 They tried to lock him up for this, that, and everything else.

00:42:20.920 Insurrection.

00:42:21.320 Now they're trying to take away all of his property.

00:42:27.040 This judge ruled that Trump had inflated the value of his properties and thereby gotten sweetheart bank loans.

00:42:37.160 And he said this constitutes fraud, and so Trump's going to have to forfeit all of his companies.

00:42:43.200 Which sounds completely insane, just in general.

00:42:46.820 But then when you zoom in on what the judge is even talking about, you see that the details are crazy, too.

00:42:54.440 This judge said that Mar-a-Lago, this is Trump's Palm Beach resort, is worth $18 million.

00:43:03.700 Mar-a-Lago brings in $25 million a year.

00:43:06.540 So the judge says that the entire Mar-a-Lago business is worth significantly less than one year's revenue from Mar-a-Lago.

00:43:18.900 But then it gets even crazier because that's not taking into account the real estate, which, where Mar-a-Lago is situated, is some of the most expensive real estate in the entire country, in the world.

00:43:31.160 Mar-a-Lago stretches from water to water.

00:43:34.680 There's water on both sides of it because it stretches across the entire island.

00:43:37.260 And the island is extremely valuable, and it's in one of the most valuable parts of the island.

00:43:42.680 If you look on Google Maps, I was doing this with Tim Pool last night.

00:43:46.120 If you look at the tiny little property just north of Mar-a-Lago, which obviously only has access to the water on one side, and it's much smaller.

00:43:55.260 It's probably a quarter of the size.

00:43:57.940 That property was worth between $50 and $100 million.

00:44:03.500 Okay?

00:44:04.300 It's just completely—so hold on.

00:44:06.640 You're telling me—so the property that's very tiny and north and not nearly as built up and not nearly as cool and storied and the buildings are not as nice, you're telling me that is worth double, more than double what Mar-a-Lago is worth?

00:44:22.160 It's nuts.

00:44:23.100 Mar-a-Lago is probably worth hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars.

00:44:25.820 One expert put the value of Mar-a-Lago at over $1 billion, which is reasonable, actually.

00:44:33.580 That's not out of the realm of possibility.

00:44:35.540 Trump's own estimate of the market value is $612 million, which I think is perhaps even conservative.

00:44:44.320 So it doesn't make sense.

00:44:45.500 But we've got to stop trying to make this make sense.

00:44:48.580 We've got to stop.

00:44:49.280 They want to get him.

00:44:54.440 In the olden days, when a political leader was a threat to another political faction, that political leader would be ostracized, would be physically removed, could be assassinated, would be sent to a prison island somewhere, would be kicked out of the polity for 10 years, and they would just get rid of him.

00:45:14.060 Now we don't do that, because we pretend that we live in this totally normal, neutral political order where it's all fine.

00:45:21.020 But that's not what this is about.

00:45:23.260 None of these cases are about Trump raping a woman in Bergdorf Goodman's.

00:45:26.900 That obviously never happened.

00:45:28.280 None of these cases are about Trump paying off Stormy Daniels and making an in-kind campaign contribution to his own campaign, which he's allowed to do.

00:45:35.300 None of these cases are about a president of the United States calling the secretary of state of Georgia.

00:45:39.900 None of these, none of it is about any of that.

00:45:42.260 None of it's about Mar-a-Lago being worth $50.

00:45:45.800 None of it's about Mar-a-Lago being worth less than some apartments in New York City.

00:45:50.600 This is about getting Trump, and it will never stop.

00:45:53.620 It will never, ever stop.

00:45:55.420 He is literally Hitler, and they will stop at nothing to prevent him from being president again. 0.95

00:46:00.660 This is an argument both for and against Trump in 2024.

00:46:04.860 The people who prefer other candidates in 2024 are saying, the GOP is suicidal by picking Trump because the Democrats will never let him win again.

00:46:14.660 They'll lock him up.

00:46:15.640 They'll kill him.

00:46:16.160 They'll rig the vote.

00:46:17.000 They won't let him win.

00:46:18.160 And the pro-Trump people are saying, yeah, because he's right over the target, because he's obviously a threat to the Democrat political order in a way that previous Republican presidents and presidential candidates have not been.

00:46:32.840 And furthermore, are we just going to let the Democrats now pick our candidates?

00:46:35.800 Because they say, no, that one's unacceptable, so you can't have him.

00:46:38.720 So we're going to say, okay, fine.

00:46:40.200 Yeah, they might lock him up.

00:46:41.120 They might take his property.

00:46:42.060 So, no, sorry.

00:46:43.700 It's an argument from both sides.

00:46:47.140 We're for both sides.

00:46:48.780 But all of this still redounds to my point.

00:46:51.480 I, who I guess I'm the last conservative in America who really likes Donald Trump and really likes Ron DeSantis and likes Vivek and likes a lot of these other candidates, and I'm not endorsing in the primary.

00:47:02.560 But my observation from that is, regardless if you love him or hate him, Trump is sui generis.

00:47:12.420 Trump is unique.

00:47:14.500 He is an American original.

00:47:16.200 There's no comparison.

00:47:17.460 There's nobody like him today.

00:47:18.820 There's probably been nobody like him in American history.

00:47:22.720 And so if you're trying to impose him on the ordinary rules of politics, it ain't going to work.

00:47:32.400 Okay, today is Theology Thursday.

00:47:37.580 I have a whole plan for Theology Thursday given to me by Professor Jacob, who's sitting right across from that camera wearing a wife beater, looking like, you know, Fredo Corleone over here, maybe Sonny Corleone.

00:47:50.500 The show continues now.

00:47:52.120 You don't want to miss this.

00:47:53.640 Become a member.

00:47:54.140 Use code Knowles, K-N-W-L-E-S, at checkout for two months free on all annual plans.

00:48:02.400 You don't want to miss this.

00:48:11.400 You don't want to miss this.

00:48:21.300 You don't want to miss this.

The Michael Knowles Show - September 28, 2023

Ep. 1340 - 2nd Republican Debate Goes Off The Rails

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