The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 137 - The Case Against Broward County Schools ft. Kenneth Preston

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00:00:37.940 An explosive new report by a Broward County student details dollar for dollar, failure by failure,

00:00:44.380 the corrupt decisions by Superintendent Robert Runcie and the Broward County School Board

00:00:49.400 that led to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February.

00:00:52.820 This report is a bombshell, and local authorities and media are already trying to suppress it,

00:00:58.260 so we will give the report's author a chance to spell out what it means.

00:01:01.840 Then, there's a lot of news.

00:01:03.180 Paul Ryan quits Congress, the feds raid Trump's lawyer, and we might go to war with Syria.

00:01:07.980 I thought we were already at war with Syria.

00:01:09.600 We might go to more war with Syria. 0.92

00:01:11.200 There is simply too much news for one man to cover.

00:01:13.900 Plus, I missed the girls.

00:01:15.000 So, we're bringing on Liz Wheeler, Roaming Millennial, and John Hershauer for an expert panel of deplorables.

00:01:21.600 It has been too long.

00:01:22.960 I'm Michael Knowles, and this is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:01:32.500 How long has it been since we've done a panel of deplorables?

00:01:35.480 It has been way too long, and it's the only way that I get to talk to girls.

00:01:39.960 Sweet little Elisa has to talk to me.

00:01:41.620 She's forced to do it, and you're like, meh, blah, let me go.

00:01:43.800 But, other girls in the real world, outside of my immediate future family, they don't do it.

00:01:51.120 So, we have to do the panel of deplorables.

00:01:52.800 Plus, John will come on too.

00:01:54.660 Before we get to my guest, this is a bombshell report, and it's being suppressed in Broward County.

00:01:59.820 And it explains that perhaps the AR-15 wasn't the problem here.

00:02:04.020 Perhaps there were huge systemic failures by corrupt government officials.

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00:04:25.960 My next guest, my guest is very strange.

00:04:28.620 He's one of the strangest guests I've ever had on my show.

00:04:31.160 Because after that awful school shooting in Broward County on Valentine's Day,

00:04:35.480 he didn't just go running straight to CNN.

00:04:37.980 He didn't, his first reaction after that horrible shooting wasn't just to become famous on TV.

00:04:44.760 I know that was everyone's, you know, that kid, the meme kid who went on and he called

00:04:49.380 Marco Rubio a terrorist and whatnot.

00:04:50.740 This guy is like the opposite of that. 0.51

00:04:52.900 Kenneth Preston is a 19-year-old Broward County student

00:04:55.720 who reacted to the shooting by actually investigating what happened.

00:05:00.240 Kenneth, thank you for being here.

00:05:02.120 It's my pleasure, Michael.

00:05:03.280 So you spent over 100 hours combing through thousands of pages of local government documents.

00:05:09.880 You spoke with dozens of school and law enforcement officials, past and present,

00:05:14.640 parents of victims of that shooting.

00:05:16.620 You got to know their families.

00:05:17.740 You spoke with members of the media.

00:05:19.600 In short, you did exactly what the Stoneman Douglas gun control kids did not do.

00:05:25.840 You actually did what every adult journalist in America failed to do.

00:05:30.120 The things that you found out in your report by actually doing the work of investigative journalism,

00:05:35.140 any of these news sites could have done it.

00:05:36.980 You're just the guy who actually did the work instead of shallow media grandstanding.

00:05:41.320 My first question, what were you thinking?

00:05:44.100 Actual investigative journalism is not going to get you on CNN, buddy.

00:05:47.640 Why did you investigate what happened?

00:05:50.340 Listen, journalism isn't dead yet, Michael.

00:05:52.960 You're like the last, it's you and Cheryl Atkinson, I think.

00:05:55.540 I think you're the two last journalists in America.

00:05:58.200 There you go.

00:05:58.900 It was a whole lot of anger.

00:06:01.460 Everybody in this county was angry.

00:06:02.760 But I was sort of bothered by the fact that I was constantly seeing officials in the county

00:06:07.880 going on, lobbying for more money for Broward County.

00:06:11.020 And if only more money were to flow into the county, we could have prevented,

00:06:14.940 or we can harden our schools in the future.

00:06:17.940 The issue, though, is that most people don't realize that we've had a whole lot of school

00:06:22.800 safety money that's been designated to Broward County schools, but it hasn't all been spent

00:06:28.300 properly.

00:06:29.180 But that's only part of the report.

00:06:31.500 So I want to know, the report is very good.

00:06:33.640 It's very detailed.

00:06:34.420 You source every syllable in it.

00:06:36.920 What are the main conclusions?

00:06:38.800 What's the 30,000-foot view of your investigation?

00:06:41.100 So basically, the findings of the investigation were twofold.

00:06:45.840 First off, there was $104 million designated specifically to school safety in 2014.

00:06:51.120 About five of that has been spent since that passage.

00:06:53.660 About five million?

00:06:54.420 That would be a 5%, five million point something, yeah.

00:06:58.700 Wow.

00:06:59.740 Yeah.

00:07:00.140 So, and then on top of that, the second part of our investigation was on school discipline

00:07:04.760 reform, school discipline matrices, the behavior intervention program, and the PROMISE program,

00:07:11.080 which is honestly what I think contributed more to this, far more to this than any funding

00:07:18.340 could have.

00:07:19.040 I want to talk about that PROMISE program.

00:07:20.760 Adam Smith said, mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent, and we've seen that play out

00:07:26.320 in Broward County.

00:07:27.340 You write in the report, quote, according to the Broward School Services website, students

00:07:32.420 convicted of serious crimes, such as rape, murder, attempted murder, sexual battery, or

00:07:38.300 firearm-related activity, are given the possibility of entering back into the traditional school

00:07:44.520 system as part of the PROMISE program.

00:07:47.440 How did the PROMISE program come about?

00:07:49.300 What does it mean for the rest of the country?

00:07:51.100 What should we do about it?

00:07:52.500 So, let's separate something for a second.

00:07:54.200 The school discipline reform thing encompasses a lot.

00:07:57.640 That part isn't part of the PROMISE program.

00:08:00.600 That is part of what's called the Behavior Intervention Program.

00:08:03.280 The Behavior Intervention Program essentially works to move incarcerated students from incarceration

00:08:08.880 back into traditional school systems.

00:08:11.700 And as you've noted, students convicted of some pretty heinous felonies are eligible for

00:08:16.720 those programs.

00:08:17.340 The PROMISE program is a whole other mess.

00:08:21.240 But in particular, I focus my time on the school discipline matrix, which essentially

00:08:25.660 gives administration complete discretion over whether or not to report incidents to law

00:08:30.660 enforcement.

00:08:31.700 Why did they do it?

00:08:32.600 This is insane.

00:08:33.460 You know, sometimes people say in America, they'll say, you know, we lock up a lot of people.

00:08:38.240 We owe X percent of the population is incarcerated.

00:08:40.700 And I think, oh, good, that's good, because then the criminals are away from me and my family

00:08:45.600 and my friends, and that's good.

00:08:47.060 And maybe if we could get some more criminals in there, that would be even better.

00:08:49.920 Why did this come about?

00:08:51.140 This seems insane.

00:08:52.240 Well, the PROMISE program originally came about because the federal government under Arne

00:08:58.280 Duncan's education plan was to address problems of disproportionate minority arrests.

00:09:03.960 So this is under the Obama administration.

00:09:06.600 That was the implementation of it.

00:09:08.460 They put forward this plan.

00:09:10.920 Superintendent Runcie followed a lot of those plans.

00:09:13.840 And in a private meeting with him and some other district officials the other day, they

00:09:18.080 told me that they've accepted most of these as part of federal, not even guidelines, but

00:09:24.120 suggestions.

00:09:25.040 But ultimately, it was their job to implement those.

00:09:28.860 So the counties, what is the force behind this, though?

00:09:33.020 I wonder, why was this a priority of Arne Duncan?

00:09:36.080 What does Arne Duncan have to do with Broward County?

00:09:38.720 Why do they want to take dangerous people, murderers and rapists, and put them back to

00:09:43.840 a traditional school community?

00:09:45.960 Maybe I'm a little thick.

00:09:47.360 Maybe I'm a little slow here.

00:09:49.000 But that sounds like a bad idea on the face of it.

00:09:52.380 I'd imagine.

00:09:53.820 So as far as the policy, it was nationwide, these guidelines.

00:09:58.480 Some counties decided to adopt them.

00:10:00.780 My county was one of them.

00:10:02.220 But as far as Arne Duncan and the superintendent, they actually know each other pretty well.

00:10:07.960 Arne Duncan got the superintendent his job at the Chicago public schools.

00:10:12.060 So as far as those guidelines being implemented, I'm sure they shared some of the same views.

00:10:16.580 But ultimately, what the purpose of things like a behavior intervention program were, I

00:10:21.820 wish I could tell you, Michael.

00:10:23.160 That's a million-dollar question.

00:10:24.460 Because a lot of times, they try to push these programs as compassionate.

00:10:28.720 They'll say, oh, we have too many racial minorities going to prison. 0.84

00:10:32.840 And there's a school-to-prison pipeline or something like that.

00:10:36.380 And you say, okay, well, that's not good.

00:10:40.180 Those people should stop committing crimes, and that would be better.

00:10:42.800 Nobody wants to see one demographic going to jail at a higher rate than some other demographic.

00:10:47.000 But the solution they propose is just not to punish them.

00:10:51.720 But that isn't fair at all.

00:10:53.060 That isn't justice.

00:10:54.140 That's injustice.

00:10:55.300 You're treating some people differently for committing a crime than other people because

00:11:00.020 of factors that really shouldn't have very much to do with it, like the color of your

00:11:03.920 skin or the neighborhood you come from or something like that.

00:11:07.320 Yeah.

00:11:07.780 Well, what they throw around a lot is this right to education, but they often don't consider

00:11:12.180 the right to safety and the right to life for those other students that have to be surrounded

00:11:16.560 by these potentially violent students that oftentimes you wouldn't be aware are in your

00:11:22.940 classrooms.

00:11:23.920 Right.

00:11:24.120 And, you know, they'll say if they try to make it a racial thing, because the left always

00:11:27.580 wants to make this into a racial thing. 0.89

00:11:29.280 So they'll say, too many black people are going to jail. 0.96

00:11:32.400 The crime rates are too high. 0.95

00:11:33.920 And you say, OK, well, I don't see how your solution of putting those criminals back into

00:11:39.500 the traditional school system, how is that fair to the black students who don't commit 1.00

00:11:44.440 crimes? 0.79

00:11:45.100 You're imperiling their safety.

00:11:46.420 That isn't that isn't good for anybody.

00:11:47.980 That isn't good for the school.

00:11:48.800 You quote a veteran deputy of the Broward Sheriff's Office as saying, quote, I'm sorry to

00:11:55.360 say, but we all knew some sort of tragedy like this was going to happen in Broward.

00:12:00.320 You can't just stop arresting kids and send kids straight from juvie back into schools

00:12:05.040 without expecting something like this.

00:12:07.600 As officers, our hands were tied.

00:12:10.140 The decisions were political ones, not well researched or backed by evidence.

00:12:13.260 Just follow the money.

00:12:14.480 If they really wanted to know what worked, they would have asked us, the officers.

00:12:18.740 Why aren't more law enforcement officials speaking up and speaking up publicly?

00:12:21.900 Well, they're employed by the county is the same county that failed them and failed our

00:12:28.380 students and teachers that day.

00:12:29.860 So, you know, the only reason he spoke to me is is because, you know, now he's retired

00:12:35.840 after after decades on the force.

00:12:37.540 So but but many of these people are not willing to come forward with their vote with their

00:12:42.960 voices because they're they're afraid of, you know, the backlash that they may receive.

00:12:48.520 Professional backlash.

00:12:49.300 Right.

00:12:49.540 Yeah.

00:12:50.180 Without question.

00:12:50.960 So you spoke.

00:12:52.560 Correct me if I'm wrong.

00:12:53.480 You spoke at the school board meeting last night.

00:12:56.220 I tried to.

00:12:57.400 Yeah.

00:12:57.740 What happened there?

00:12:58.760 This was you were going to present your findings, 100 hours of research.

00:13:02.600 You've combed through all the documents that journalists didn't comb through.

00:13:05.360 You're going to present it to the school board.

00:13:07.100 And then what happened?

00:13:08.080 Well, three weeks in advance, we had a set speakers list of seven speakers, which included

00:13:15.120 survivors, some families of victims, some were affected and just, you know, community

00:13:20.580 members that want to to have their voices heard.

00:13:23.860 And I had about six minutes of time different from the usual three because I had some time

00:13:29.440 relinquished.

00:13:29.720 So basically, the gist of what happened is an hour before this meeting, I had received

00:13:35.040 a call where they said all seven speakers were cut and my time would be cut in half.

00:13:40.840 Um, so I get there and I had an entire six minute speech prepared.

00:13:45.920 I had to basically, uh, throw that speech out and just come to the board and say, you

00:13:52.020 know, for the last week, you guys have been doing everything in your power to subvert our

00:13:56.500 message.

00:13:57.280 Um, and you know, so we pushed that, that message out to national media outlets and I'm, I'm

00:14:02.420 sure, uh, Runcie's, uh, sweating a little bit now.

00:14:06.560 That's Runcie.

00:14:07.400 Runcie is the superintendent in Broward County.

00:14:09.760 And he doesn't come out looking very nice in your report.

00:14:13.560 You see this a lot in local government where they'll say, oh, no one's going to pay attention.

00:14:17.880 We can cut this guy's time.

00:14:19.320 We can shut them up.

00:14:20.220 Who's going to find out?

00:14:21.120 What are you going to do?

00:14:22.120 National news cycles are going to move on and then we can keep being just as corrupt as

00:14:26.580 we ever were.

00:14:27.340 How corrupt is the Broward County school board and how corrupt is superintendent Runcie?

00:14:33.120 You know, it's funny in 2011, this was just before the superintendent got here, a grand jury

00:14:38.180 commissioned by the former governor looking into the Broward County school board said

00:14:43.400 that if, if it weren't for a constitutional mandate, they would recommend that the school

00:14:48.540 board be abolished entirely because of how deep seated the corruption were.

00:14:52.480 There were a couple of school board members that were arrested.

00:14:54.740 The superintendent had to step down and obviously the, uh, superintendent Runcie came and he was

00:14:59.760 in fact supposed to clean up the mess and bring about transparency to the district.

00:15:03.540 Um, so there is some deeply ingrained corruption without question.

00:15:09.700 Unbelievable.

00:15:10.300 So I, I, I want you to continue on that.

00:15:12.940 I, cause I want to hear more explicitly about this guy's corruption and I have one more question

00:15:18.460 for you.

00:15:18.800 But before we do that, we got to keep the lights on.

00:15:21.520 We have to keep the lights and we get to keep the lights.

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00:18:02.300 Okay.

00:18:02.840 Sorry to interrupt you.

00:18:03.960 Back to this awful rampant corruption at Broward County School Board.

00:18:08.040 Tell me more about the superintendent himself.

00:18:10.160 Sure.

00:18:10.640 The superintendent is an interesting guy.

00:18:12.560 He's very well spoken.

00:18:13.860 He'll run circles around you.

00:18:15.120 But he claims to be committed to transparency.

00:18:18.260 The only issue is that, I'm not sure if you're aware, the day before this meeting, I was called

00:18:22.700 into a last minute meeting with the superintendent where I was supposed to talk about my report.

00:18:27.720 I was told that I wasn't allowed to lawyer.

00:18:32.040 I wasn't allowed to record the meeting because it was supposed to be just between myself, a couple parents, and the superintendent.

00:18:38.300 Once I got there, it was stacked 10 district officials, all of whom worked for him, himself.

00:18:45.220 And they took two hours to speak with me about my report to try and sort of pick it apart and tell me what was wrong with it.

00:18:51.860 So the issue with this whole process and him in particular is I just can't imagine that a superintendent who is in charge of 300 plus schools, 15,000 students, and 270,000 – or 15,000 teachers and 270,000 students – has the time to speak to a 19-year-old about a report that he doesn't believe there's any substance to.

00:19:13.800 So Runcie's sweating a little bit.

00:19:17.340 That's a great point. That is a great point. He is clearly – you don't do that. You don't line up your officials and take the time unless you think this is a big deal.

00:19:26.000 And what they're always going to tell you is, oh, it's nothing. It's lies. It's nothing. This is it.

00:19:29.800 Keep the pressure on him, man. You are doing excellent, excellent work. It's really, really admirable. Great to have you here.

00:19:36.180 Kenneth Preston, you can read about the report. I saw one published in The Hill and some other national media are covering it, too.

00:19:44.360 Keep the pressure on them. That goes for every conservative out there, people who want to help education reform, and also to Kenneth.

00:19:51.060 Kenneth, thank you for being here.

00:19:53.480 Thanks.

00:19:54.520 All right. Now, look, Kenneth was great. It was nice to have him here. I enjoy that and everything.

00:20:01.180 But now we get the panel of deplorables. This is really good. It has been so long.

00:20:05.360 It has been so long. I have not seen Roaming in a long time. I haven't seen Liz Wheeler.

00:20:11.920 There are a lot of others we want to bring on. Maybe we'll bring them back every so often.

00:20:15.920 Liz Wheeler is the host of Tipping Point on One America News.

00:20:19.400 Roaming Millennial hosts Roaming Millennial Uncensored on CRTV, hubba hubba.

00:20:24.800 And John Hershauer is some guy.

00:20:27.340 No, John has written all over the place. He's written at National Review and Daily Wire, New York Times, Fox News Nation, and the Fairfield Mirror.

00:20:35.940 He was also the national undergraduate winner of the Buckley Program Ideas Essay Contest.

00:20:40.900 That's how I know him.

00:20:42.680 Ladies and John, thank you for being here. Let's dive right in.

00:20:47.380 Paul Ryan is retiring from Congress. Here is Speaker Ryan.

00:20:50.860 This has been one of the two greatest honors of my life.

00:20:55.640 The job provides incredible opportunities.

00:20:59.320 But the truth is, it's easy for it to take over everything in your life.

00:21:05.100 And you can't just let that happen.

00:21:07.460 Because there are other things in life that can be fleeting as well.

00:21:11.560 Namely, your time as a husband and a dad, which is the other great honor of my life.

00:21:17.680 Well, that's why today I'm announcing that this year will be my last one as a member of the House.

00:21:24.460 Paul Ryan has been in Congress since the age of 28.

00:21:27.940 He's been in Congress for 68% of all of our lives.

00:21:31.860 And he's probably been in Congress for more for the pretty young things like John out there.

00:21:37.720 You know, the 22, 23 year olds.

00:21:39.780 First of all, Roaming, are you broadcasting from hell?

00:21:42.540 What is going on behind you?

00:21:44.060 I am broadcasting from my shiny new CRTV set.

00:21:47.400 Now we have CRTV resources behind us.

00:21:51.320 So yeah, this is a fireplace that we actually built for the set.

00:21:53.940 And I say we because I, you know, of course managed and supervised it.

00:21:58.100 But I feel like that's an important part too.

00:22:00.280 That's excellent.

00:22:00.960 All right, Liz, we'll come back to you in a second, Roaming.

00:22:03.300 Liz, is Paul Ryan jumping off of the Titanic?

00:22:06.600 Is that what this is about?

00:22:07.640 Or is this about the midterms?

00:22:09.340 Or does he just want to see his kids more?

00:22:11.240 What's the real story here?

00:22:12.420 Why is Ryan quitting Congress? 0.54

00:22:13.560 Listen, I am never going to castigate someone who says that they're quitting their time-sucking

00:22:20.400 job because they want to spend more time with their family.

00:22:22.520 I actually think we should commend that.

00:22:24.260 More politicians probably should be better examples like Paul Ryan of being a good husband

00:22:28.260 and a good father.

00:22:29.120 So I'm never going to criticize him in the personal sense.

00:22:31.180 But didn't we learn our lesson a couple of weeks ago between the difference of criticizing

00:22:35.540 the person when it came to the students from Parkland, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High

00:22:39.820 School kids, criticizing the person and criticizing the policies.

00:22:43.680 And that's where I would separate my criticism of Paul Ryan.

00:22:46.000 He seems like a good man, good husband, good father.

00:22:48.320 His kids are going to be lucky to have him around more.

00:22:51.220 But I don't think that he's quite the right fit for the job of Speaker of the House.

00:22:56.740 I mean, he doesn't seem to have that so-called fire in his belly to actually fight for conservative

00:23:02.320 principles like he did maybe when he was first in office.

00:23:05.760 We've heard him in the last two years more often and more vehemently criticize the president

00:23:11.440 than we've heard him stand up for actual conservative values, cutting wasteful spending, scaling back

00:23:18.300 the size and scope of government and enabling people to be successful for themselves and get

00:23:23.100 government out of the way.

00:23:24.100 I hate to interrupt if the sound is still going on now.

00:23:28.100 I am getting in my ear a 75 minute delay from when your lovely selves are talking and when

00:23:36.980 I can actually hear what you're saying.

00:23:39.000 So I think this is probably Bashar Assad if I had to blame this on anybody.

00:23:43.020 And I think I'm willing to blame it on Bashar Assad. 0.68

00:23:45.240 This is an attack on the show.

00:23:47.700 Very devastating because I want to talk to you all, but I guess it's just going to have to

00:23:51.120 be another time.

00:23:51.880 I'm going to have to go through it myself that, you know, absence makes the heart grow

00:23:55.880 fonder.

00:23:56.840 I guess this will be a sanctifying experience as I have to say goodbye to all of you.

00:24:00.480 Liz, I'm going to see you on your show later today.

00:24:02.520 So I'll at least get to talk to you.

00:24:04.020 Roaming, I miss you terribly.

00:24:05.540 John, you know, good to see you, buddy.

00:24:07.280 And we'll have to bring you on when we have a better news cycle and also a better control

00:24:13.080 room.

00:24:13.460 And we're out of the broom closet of the Ben Shapiro show.

00:24:15.940 I'm going to do the news myself.

00:24:16.940 See you guys.

00:24:20.500 Absolutely devastating.

00:24:21.780 I am so sorry to see my dear friends go.

00:24:24.600 Do I have to sign off of Facebook now too?

00:24:27.020 So sad.

00:24:27.740 All right.

00:24:27.920 I'm going to cover all the news on the back end of Facebook.

00:24:30.220 That's fine.

00:24:30.800 Listen, you know, I invite people on.

00:24:32.540 I'd like to get their opinions, but really I, the only opinion I really care about is

00:24:35.800 my own.

00:24:36.320 So I'll be able to tell you that then.

00:24:38.020 You can find my show as ever, The Michael Knowles Show on dailywire.com, Facebook, YouTube,

00:24:43.800 and iTunes.

00:24:44.460 Like and subscribe to your favorite platform and get notifications when I go live and to

00:24:50.260 get more Daily Wire content.

00:24:52.420 Also, I'd like to put in a quick plug.

00:24:54.060 I'm going to be on tour next week.

00:24:55.920 I'll be giving a speech on Tuesday in Mobile, Alabama at the Alabama Policy Institute.

00:25:02.280 Tickets are available there if you want to come see that.

00:25:04.540 We're going to be talking about the future of conservatism.

00:25:06.280 Conservatism in the age of Donald Trump.

00:25:08.960 I'm going to swing by New York City, New York, New York, the city's so nice they named it

00:25:12.440 twice, and go to the Buckley Program Disinvitation Dinner.

00:25:15.720 This is a black tie affair.

00:25:17.180 It's a wonderful event.

00:25:18.420 Charles Murray is going to be speaking if you'd like tickets to that.

00:25:21.000 Go to disinvitationdinner.com or buckleyprogram.com.

00:25:24.880 And then I'm going to be giving a speech at the University of Pennsylvania, Trump's alma

00:25:29.540 mater.

00:25:30.100 So I'll get you more details on that when they come out.

00:25:33.500 But, you know, if you're in the area, come by, say hi.

00:25:35.540 It'd be nice to see you.

00:25:36.280 Look, I know.

00:25:39.340 You pay $10 a month or $100 for an annual membership.

00:25:41.740 You get me, The Andrew Klavan Show, The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:25:43.540 That's fine.

00:25:45.020 You need this.

00:25:46.560 Really, what you need today is a Michael Knowles Tears Tumblr because of how sad I am

00:25:50.400 to say goodbye to my panel of deplorables with the tech issues.

00:25:53.140 But the leftist Tears Tumblr is very important, too.

00:25:56.000 In particular, because of some of the news that we're going to be talking about, because

00:25:59.660 I suspect that Roaming Millennial is right. 1.00

00:26:01.480 I suspect this is just another false alarm and Trump's demise ain't going to happen.

00:26:05.820 They didn't get him in 2015, 2016, 2017.

00:26:08.520 They ain't going to get him in 2018.

00:26:10.040 And you're going to need this to protect your family.

00:26:11.780 Go to dailywire.com.

00:26:12.660 We'll be right back.

00:26:25.120 All right.

00:26:26.220 We'll hit all three of these news stories before we have to go here because they are

00:26:29.380 really important.

00:26:30.080 This is one of the biggest news days I can remember in a while.

00:26:32.520 Paul Ryan is out.

00:26:34.200 Paul Ryan has been in Congress since the age of 28.

00:26:36.980 This should throw up red flags for anybody.

00:26:39.100 It isn't good for someone to be in Congress that long.

00:26:41.600 He's been in Congress for 68% of my life.

00:26:44.720 And that said, unlike a lot of other conservatives, I'm going to defend him.

00:26:48.960 I like Paul Ryan.

00:26:49.940 I think he's pretty good.

00:26:51.060 He comes from the wing of the party that seems to care mostly about economic issues,

00:26:55.040 but he's been pretty good on it. 0.99

00:26:56.660 And he's also the only Republican and conservative who's really had the cojones, the cofefones,

00:27:02.340 to go after entitlements, which are the biggest driver of debt and deficits, that are some 0.55

00:27:06.960 of the greatest threats to our liberty.

00:27:09.100 Since we've been in there, he was the guy who put forward the path to prosperity.

00:27:13.660 He said, we'll touch the third rail.

00:27:15.200 We'll reform Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security.

00:27:17.840 He gets a lot of credit for that. 0.97

00:27:19.380 A lot of Republicans are far too cowardly to even touch those issues. 0.83

00:27:23.380 With regard to Donald Trump, he played it fair enough. 0.96

00:27:27.040 There were a lot of Republicans, some of whom are now employed by the administration, some

00:27:30.460 of whom are in high posts in the administration, who threw Trump under the bus, who said, I won't

00:27:35.380 support him.

00:27:35.960 He should drop out.

00:27:36.660 He should get out of here.

00:27:37.400 Paul Ryan didn't quite do that.

00:27:39.440 Paul Ryan played nicely.

00:27:41.620 He didn't want to say that the Republican Party made this awful error.

00:27:46.140 He didn't pull the Mitt Romney and say, this is the end of the world and, you know, what 1.00

00:27:50.860 an idiot you would be to vote for Donald Trump. 1.00

00:27:52.700 He didn't do that. 1.00

00:27:53.400 He basically was respectful of the American people and fairly respectful toward the president.

00:28:00.020 So I give him a lot of credit for that too.

00:28:01.740 When he took the job as speaker, nobody wanted to be speaker.

00:28:04.500 It's easy to forget in these 24-hour news cycles, but the Congress was hopelessly divided

00:28:09.280 at that time between the Freedom Caucus and the establishment types.

00:28:12.860 Boehner was considered a toxic figure.

00:28:16.040 The conservatives really didn't like him at all.

00:28:17.880 They felt he didn't stand up enough to Barack Obama.

00:28:20.780 And Paul Ryan took it as a consensus job.

00:28:23.760 He was the one guy who could do it.

00:28:25.400 Didn't seem like he really wanted to that much.

00:28:27.600 He was doing a wonderful job for his own career and for the country as a budget chairman.

00:28:32.120 And he took the job and he did fine in it.

00:28:35.120 He's not rock-ribbed on some of the social issues.

00:28:38.020 He's not rock-ribbed on immigration.

00:28:40.080 But c'est la vie.

00:28:41.180 All in all, I think he's done a pretty good job.

00:28:43.440 Who knows?

00:28:44.060 When someone's been a politician for that long, basically his entire life, usually there

00:28:48.720 are some other considerations here.

00:28:50.000 It's not just to see his kids.

00:28:51.380 And it's not just because he's been in Congress for 20 years.

00:28:54.300 One suspects that he thinks that the Republican Congress is not going to survive the election,

00:29:00.460 perhaps.

00:29:01.000 He suspects that Donald Trump might not survive the election.

00:29:03.540 Or he just wants to run for another office.

00:29:05.280 But all in all, I think conservatives should be nice to him.

00:29:07.660 We shouldn't eat our own.

00:29:08.720 We should wish him well.

00:29:09.500 He did some good stuff.

00:29:10.900 And compared to a lot of other politicians and issues, he's a lot better than they were.

00:29:15.440 Moving on to some scarier news.

00:29:17.280 The feds have raided President Trump's longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen.

00:29:21.660 And what this seems to be is Democrats and bureaucrats trying to overturn a presidential election 0.79

00:29:27.880 over a hooker, over a hooker 10 years ago. 1.00

00:29:30.920 Donald Trump met a hooker. 0.97

00:29:32.940 They allegedly had one tryst together and that was it. 0.97

00:29:38.480 And when I heard that story, I was shocked.

00:29:41.220 I actually was really shocked that Donald Trump only did it once. 0.94

00:29:44.140 I figured, you know, she was a famous porn star. 1.00

00:29:47.320 I figured it would have been at least five or six times.

00:29:49.180 Just one night.

00:29:49.840 And they're going to try to overturn a presidential election for this.

00:29:53.800 I had the privilege of talking to Antonin Scalia before he died.

00:29:58.120 And on two occasions, I got to meet him.

00:30:00.660 And we asked him what the greatest threat to American liberty was.

00:30:03.360 And he didn't hesitate.

00:30:04.320 He said, the bureaucracy, the unelected executive agencies.

00:30:08.160 And this is what people mean by the deep state.

00:30:10.400 The deep state isn't some secret underground bunker with computers and everything.

00:30:14.720 You know, I guess they probably have that too.

00:30:16.160 But that's just because it's the federal government.

00:30:17.840 And it's not this crazy conspiracy.

00:30:20.600 It's just bureaucrats. 0.93

00:30:22.140 And he observed that.

00:30:24.400 There's nothing conspiratorial about recognizing that.

00:30:27.620 And this is bureaucrats trying to undo a presidential election. 0.94

00:30:31.300 The Mueller investigation has clearly exceeded whatever limits it had.

00:30:35.580 I suppose it didn't really have any at all.

00:30:38.040 The investigation was supposed to be into Russian interference in the election.

00:30:41.060 For some reason now, we're looking at President Trump's personal lawyer and communications he had with some hooker 10 years ago. 0.62

00:30:48.100 I don't know how we got there.

00:30:49.820 And it's really put him in a tough spot because the investigation has gone on way too long.

00:30:56.120 It's gone way too far.

00:30:57.160 We shouldn't be talking about hookers 10 years ago. 0.88

00:30:59.760 If it's actually about Russia, we should talk about Russia.

00:31:01.660 But now, if Trump fires Mueller, he looks guilty, even if Mueller has nothing.

00:31:06.560 If Trump doesn't fire Mueller, Mueller could indict him over the pack of bubble gum that Trump lifted from the Queen's 7-Eleven in 1955.

00:31:14.460 Who knows?

00:31:15.140 These investigations are really big.

00:31:16.460 You can indict a ham sandwich in New York or D.C.

00:31:18.920 So, what should be done about Mueller?

00:31:22.080 My gut instinct is that the Mueller investigation hasn't turned up very much of what it was trying to turn up.

00:31:29.160 Namely, Donald Trump, the Manchurian candidate, wearing a trench coat like Boris from Rocky and Bullwinkle, 0.89

00:31:35.820 talking to the Russians, you know, in secret meetings and colluding with them and undermining the integrity of the United States. 0.87

00:31:43.700 I don't think they got any of that.

00:31:44.980 I think they're throwing spaghetti at the wall and grasping at straws and you're going to end up with a lot of procedural crimes

00:31:50.100 and talking to hookers and things for nights in a hotel 10 years ago. 0.88

00:31:56.240 So, my instinct tells me don't fire Mueller.

00:31:58.680 The only way you can guarantee that Trump looks guilty in the court of public opinion,

00:32:04.080 which is frankly the only one that really matters in politics, is to fire Mueller.

00:32:08.480 That looks like an admission of guilt.

00:32:10.260 It almost seems like he's being baited into firing him.

00:32:13.060 So, I think that probably that would be a mistake to do that.

00:32:15.880 But it's really frustrating and it shows all the more reason why we elected Donald Trump.

00:32:20.680 We elected Donald Trump to stop this ridiculous nonsense and to stop unelected bureaucrats from telling us how to run our country.

00:32:27.320 That's how they do it in Europe.

00:32:28.580 That's how they do it in Brussels.

00:32:29.940 That's how they do it in the United Kingdom.

00:32:31.040 That's how they do it in a lot of places in the world.

00:32:33.620 I guess not in the UK anymore since Brexit.

00:32:36.060 But that's not how we do it in America.

00:32:38.020 It shouldn't be how we run our government in America.

00:32:39.880 America and the bureaucracy is the threat.

00:32:42.780 That's the threat to freedom.

00:32:44.840 And then in other news, we may go to war with Syria. 0.59

00:32:48.420 Our dear President Covfefe tweeted that we're about to fire missiles at Syria.

00:32:53.240 You remember when FDR tweeted about how he was going to drop the atomic bombs.

00:32:58.420 You remember how they tweeted, get ready.

00:33:00.320 I guess we actually did drop leaflets down on the people and tweet it, you know.

00:33:04.360 The tweet from President Trump read, quote, get ready, Russia, because they will be coming nice and new and smart.

00:33:11.940 Get ready, Russia in Syria. 0.93

00:33:14.580 In another tweet, Trump said that our relationship with Russia is worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the Cold War.

00:33:21.260 That's the alleged Russian stooge. 0.96

00:33:22.960 That's Boris and Natasha, according to the Democrats.

00:33:25.720 He's talking about how awful our relationship with Russia is, which it is.

00:33:29.580 Reports suggest that the Syrian government under Bashar Assad dropped bombs filled with chemical weapons on Duma.

00:33:37.240 That attack, that alleged attack, came just after Donald Trump declared that he would be pulling troops out of Syria.

00:33:44.980 And now there's a question.

00:33:46.060 Do we respond?

00:33:47.820 Do we have to fire more missiles, throw some soldiers in there, do some more things?

00:33:51.700 Some conservatives are skeptical here.

00:33:53.220 Guys like Tucker Carlson.

00:33:54.240 They point out that we don't have firm evidence that this was an attack by the regime, that it doesn't make much sense for the regime to be using chemical weapons as they're about to get exactly what they want.

00:34:06.200 They want the Americans out of there. 1.00

00:34:08.100 They're about to get exactly what they want.

00:34:09.440 It's announced that they'll get what they want.

00:34:11.800 And then Bashar Assad, what a dummy, has this chemical attack.

00:34:15.540 Also, in February, Defense Secretary Mattis admitted that there was no evidence that Bashar Assad used sarin gas on his citizens, despite reports that he did.

00:34:26.720 If you consulted the mainstream news, if you asked the average person who reads the newspaper, they'd say, oh yeah, Bashar Assad used sarin gas on his citizens.

00:34:34.300 But General Mattis, Defense Secretary Mattis, said, no, we don't have any evidence of that.

00:34:38.260 That's just a thing people report. 0.80

00:34:39.580 Now, Bashar Assad is a butcher. 1.00

00:34:42.720 I mean, he's an absolute monster and a psychopath and a butcher. 1.00

00:34:47.180 But why would he do this? 1.00

00:34:49.780 Why on earth would he do this sort of chemical attack now?

00:34:54.540 It doesn't make a lot of sense.

00:34:55.980 It doesn't mean that he didn't do it.

00:34:57.280 It's just a little strange.

00:34:58.480 It doesn't quite add up.

00:35:00.860 So what is our strategic interest in Syria?

00:35:02.820 President Trump has just appointed Ambassador John Bolton, one of the greatest men in the country, with one of the greatest mustaches in the country, to be his national security advisor.

00:35:10.780 Will the very hawkish, cartoonishly hawkish John Bolton push for an increased military presence in Syria?

00:35:17.920 That's what people are suggesting.

00:35:19.040 They're saying, John Bolton never met a country.

00:35:20.960 He didn't want to bomb.

00:35:22.040 John Bolton never saw a Middle East country.

00:35:23.920 He didn't want to invade.

00:35:25.060 That's the caricature of John Bolton.

00:35:27.260 That's the cartoon that they portray him as on TV.

00:35:29.700 I suspect that he won't push for much increased action in Syria because John Bolton, despite that caricature that the Democrats have made of him, is a very serious strategic thinker.

00:35:43.740 And the guy that you get on TV also is not the guy you get in the government.

00:35:48.720 They are the two different media.

00:35:51.860 And full disclosure, I've known the Bolton family for a while and I'm friends with some of them.

00:35:57.260 And I got to meet him on an occasion and was immediately impressed by how incredible his breadth and depth of knowledge is.

00:36:07.860 The guy can just monologue with precision and detail on virtually any topic in foreign affairs.

00:36:13.500 This is not a guy who goes hopping along and saying, bomb, bomb, bomb.

00:36:16.580 We need to bomb everybody, you know.

00:36:18.600 He doesn't have a giant button on his desk and he just keeps clicking it.

00:36:21.320 But John Bolton has also pointed out that the great threat to the world order, the great threat to the United States, is Iran.

00:36:28.160 It's not Syria. 0.92

00:36:28.960 He's actually called the Syrian civil war a sideshow.

00:36:31.980 He said it's a tragic event.

00:36:33.320 It's awful to see.

00:36:34.060 It's been going on for seven years.

00:36:35.560 But it's ultimately a sideshow.

00:36:37.540 It doesn't quite threaten American national interests.

00:36:40.940 And we have this question.

00:36:42.260 Is it worth getting bogged down in a full-scale war there?

00:36:44.740 Is it worth spilling a lot of American blood over there or is it better to keep our powder dry for a conflict with Iran? 0.95

00:36:52.260 It seems to me that the clear answer is the latter.

00:36:56.400 And I suspect that's the position of John Bolton based on statements that he's made in public. 0.96

00:37:02.480 And I suspect that that's the view of Donald Trump who campaigned against stupid wars in the Middle East, 0.97

00:37:08.060 who campaigned against intervening in every country that has a problem. 0.97

00:37:11.640 So I wouldn't worry about it too much.

00:37:13.620 I think it's being really hyped.

00:37:14.600 I think it's being played up a lot.

00:37:16.340 I think these sort of attacks, these red lines, are being catered to in the media.

00:37:21.840 But I don't think there's any evidence from the doves to the hawks in our government

00:37:25.040 that we're going to get bogged down there and probably we shouldn't anyway.

00:37:28.420 Okay.

00:37:29.120 That's all the time I have.

00:37:31.020 I'm sorry that I couldn't bring you the pretty girls and John.

00:37:33.800 I wish I could have done it.

00:37:35.820 We're going to have to try to bring them back next week.

00:37:37.980 I will see you tomorrow.

00:37:39.920 Get all of your mailbag questions in.

00:37:41.660 It is going to be a very good show and I can answer all of them.

00:37:45.240 And the ones I can't answer, I just won't pick.

00:37:46.740 So it's not a big deal.

00:37:47.660 I'm Michael Knowles.

00:37:48.440 This is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:37:49.220 I'll see you tomorrow.

00:37:49.620 The Michael Knowles Show is a Daily Wire Forward Publishing production.

00:37:58.500 Executive producer, Jeremy Boring.

00:38:00.640 Senior producer, Jonathan Hay.

00:38:02.540 Supervising producer, Mathis Glover.

00:38:04.680 Our technical producer is Austin Stevens.

00:38:07.000 Edited by Alex Zingaro.

00:38:08.760 Audio is mixed by Mike Coromina.

00:38:10.760 Hair and makeup is by Jesua Olvera.

00:38:13.200 Copyright Forward Publishing 2018.

00:38:14.900 Thank you.

00:38:19.620 This Men's Mental Health Month, CAMH is confronting a silent crisis.

00:38:25.160 Did you know men account for 75% of all suicide deaths in Canada?

00:38:28.720 Many struggle alone, held back by stigma.

00:38:31.320 But there is hope.

00:38:32.540 CAMH is on the front lines pioneering breakthroughs and expanding access to compassionate support.

00:38:37.380 Your donation fuels this vital work so no father, son, brother or family is left behind.

00:38:42.000 To join us in building better mental health care for men across Canada, visit camh.ca slash supportmen.

00:38:48.040 That's C-A-M-H dot C-A slash supportmen.

The Michael Knowles Show - April 11, 2018

Ep. 137 - The Case Against Broward County Schools ft. Kenneth Preston

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