The Michael Knowles Show

00:00:00.000 Five days after being shot in the head, President Trump gave a 92-minute speech

00:00:04.480 to accept the Republican nomination for president. The speech began after Joe Biden went to bed and

00:00:10.260 lasted longer than Joe Biden can stay awake. And despite its length, it was perhaps the best

00:00:16.100 speech of Trump's political career. We will get into the key moments, as well as the terror

00:00:21.000 stirring in the hearts of Democrats. I'm Michael Knowles. This is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:00:30.000 The Michael Knowles Show. Top sources are breaking the news that Biden, rather, is about to bow out

00:00:52.660 imminently. And everyone seems to think this is an established fact. Biden, he's going to bow out

00:00:58.980 in a minute. I remain skeptical. It could happen. It could happen, but I remain skeptical, and I will

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00:02:51.760 against Biden that the Trump speech began after Biden went to sleep and it lasted longer than he

00:02:57.480 can stay awake, he was not awake for that speech. There was a statement issued by the Biden-Harris

00:03:04.560 2024 campaign, and it came specifically from the campaign chairman, Jen O'Malley Dillon.

00:03:11.000 Of course, the Biden campaign chairlady has two last names. Of course. Of course. I bet she

00:03:17.160 subscribes to Ms. Magazine too. She released this statement, but she made a big mistake.

00:03:24.520 The statement was written as though it came from Joe Biden, but Joe Biden was asleep and doesn't know

00:03:32.560 what his name is and might not even be the Democrat nominee anymore. So at the last minute,

00:03:37.340 they released the statement from the campaign chairman, Jen O'Malley Dillon, but they forgot

00:03:41.460 to change the pronouns. Libs, you'll notice, are very bad with pronouns. They don't know. They call

00:03:45.940 men she, they call women he, and this lady, Jen Dillon, identifies as the president of the United

00:03:53.500 States. It opens up. I won't read the whole thing. Tonight, Donald Trump rambled on for well over an

00:03:58.500 hour and failed to mention Project 2025 even once. Slight digression here. I had a lovely sit down the

00:04:04.920 other day with the head of Project 2025, Kevin Roberts, the head of the Heritage Foundation,

00:04:09.840 on his show, the Kevin Roberts show. You can go check that out on YouTube and over at Heritage.

00:04:14.280 I go on. He failed to mention how he had inflicted pain and cruelty on the women of America by

00:04:19.520 overtaking Roe v. Wade. And it's all just the classic Democrat talking points. But here's the

00:04:24.320 problem. Then it gets down to the next paragraph. I am running on a different vision. I am running

00:04:28.980 for an America where we defend democracy, not diminish it. I am running. I am more determined

00:04:34.080 than ever to defeat Donald Trump and Project 2025. But Jen O'Malley Dillon is not running for president,

00:04:40.000 to my knowledge. Maybe she's the person that the Democrats are going to use to replace Biden.

00:04:44.040 I don't know. It's just a it's a weak statement from a weak campaign that has a very weak candidate

00:04:54.180 where the candidate doesn't even matter. The candidate is just a placeholder. And you could

00:04:58.160 fill in Jen Dillon. You could fill in Kamala Harris. You could fill in Michelle Obama for all we care.

00:05:06.480 There's nothing to the campaign. The campaign is just the regular old Democrat talking points,

00:05:11.400 not even reacting in real time to what Trump said, not even getting the time right. They could have

00:05:15.820 said it was well over an hour and a half. They didn't. It's just this rote mechanical nonsense

00:05:21.260 that is not it does not know what time it is, whether we're talking about an 8 p.m. speech or a

00:05:26.980 10 p.m. speech. It just doesn't know whether we're talking about politics in 2024. They're talking

00:05:31.640 like it's 10 years ago. So what did Trump say? It was it was a marvelous speech. It went on really,

00:05:39.560 really long. I was actually at a dinner while this was going on. So I didn't watch the whole

00:05:43.260 thing in real time, but I had to watch much or most of it in real time. I couldn't pull myself away

00:05:50.000 because Trump opened up, you know, gave the usual pleasantries. And then he said, look,

00:05:59.200 you all want me to talk about the assassination attempt. I'll talk about the assassination attempt.

00:06:03.880 And you're only going to hear me talk about this once. So listen up.

00:06:08.100 I will tell you exactly what happened. And you'll never hear it from me a second time because it's

00:06:14.420 actually too painful to tell. I'm not supposed to be here tonight. Not supposed to be here.

00:06:21.080 Thank you.

00:06:41.320 But I'm not. And I'll tell you,

00:06:46.720 I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God.

00:06:56.360 A beautiful statement and classic Trump self-deprecation, classic Trump realism. People

00:07:04.440 accuse this man of being a narcissist and an egomaniac. And he certainly plays one on TV,

00:07:10.760 but I don't think he really is one in real life because you hear these little comments

00:07:15.120 where he'll, you remember years ago, he mentioned that he didn't drink. He said,

00:07:21.320 I've never, never had a beer. I'm probably the only president that's never had a beer. Could you

00:07:24.520 imagine if I did drink, I'd be the worst? I'd be, it's the only good thing you can say about me is

00:07:28.780 I never had a drink. And it was just a little line, but for people who don't pay close attention

00:07:34.380 to Trump's words, I think they sometimes believe this narrative or they believe the character that

00:07:39.120 he's a big narcissist and he thinks he can do no wrong. But that, that I don't think that's true.

00:07:44.220 And you see this perfectly last night during the speech. He says, look, I'm not supposed to be here.

00:07:50.240 And they're all chanting. Yes, you are. Yes, you are. He goes, thanks for that. But I'm not actually.

00:07:55.580 I'm really not. I, I didn't survive the assassination attempt by my own skill and greatness.

00:08:02.920 I would also say Trump is obviously supposed to be here, but I think what he's saying is

00:08:09.860 according to the order of nature, I'm not supposed to be here. According to just

00:08:13.600 the, the working out of people's free wills in the regular order of business, I should be dead right

00:08:22.660 now. I am only alive by the order of grace. I'm only alive by this improbable. And I think most would

00:08:31.640 say miraculous intervention. The fact that I, I looked at this chart that was on the, the projector

00:08:39.100 just a nanosecond before the, the assassin's bullet flew. And so it hit my ear instead of

00:08:45.280 blowing the back of my head off. And so I'm not supposed to be here. I'm, I'm here by the grace

00:08:49.960 of God, which is a humble statement and a true statement. And Trump knows it's true. He knows it's

00:08:55.560 so true that he actually corrects his adoring fans and says, no guys, it's really, however miraculous

00:09:02.920 you think it is, you don't, you don't understand. I, I totally owe my life to God. It has, has really

00:09:09.620 nothing to do with me. Then you might've noticed if you were watching that clip, there's a firefighter's

00:09:15.580 uniform on the side of the stage. Trump then spent a good deal of, of the speech addressing

00:09:22.860 the supporter of his who was murdered by the assassin's bullet. There was one man killed at

00:09:28.300 that rally, uh, Corey Comparatore. And then there were, uh, two people who were critically injured,

00:09:34.720 but who happily have recovered. And, uh, many people who were scared, but didn't run away.

00:09:41.860 Everyone there, everyone showed really amazing courage under fire. Uh, Trump, when he, he made

00:09:47.060 a special point to discuss this supporter who, who was murdered, then he, he, he walked over

00:09:52.540 and he kissed the guy's fire helmet.

00:09:55.300 Corey, unfortunately we have to use the past tense. He was incredible. He was a highly respected

00:10:01.040 former fire chief, respected by everybody, was accompanied by his wife, Helen, incredible

00:10:08.320 woman. I spoke to her today, devastated and two precious daughters. He lost his life selflessly

00:10:15.960 acting as a human shield to protect them from flying bullets. He went right over the top of

00:10:21.100 them and was hit. What a fine man he was.

00:10:24.740 One gets a little misty eyed watching, especially this portion of the speech, because we've seen

00:10:50.780 this kind of thing from Trump before, uh, in, in some ways we saw the prefiguring of this moment,

00:10:57.600 uh, some years ago when Trump walked over, he said, I love America. I love America so much.

00:11:01.940 He goes over, he hugs the American flag and he kisses it. And it's a kind of funny, it's a comedic

00:11:08.360 expression of something true, which is that Trump really loves America and he doesn't love America

00:11:13.020 in some dorky, purely ideological way, the way that political nerds often do. He, he really loves

00:11:20.060 America. You know, he loves the flag. He loves hot dogs on the 4th of July. He loves fireworks. He

00:11:25.680 loves, you know, he loves America in, in, I think a deeper way than many ideologues do. And, and here

00:11:32.500 you saw a much more somber expression of that, but I think, uh, equally and perhaps even more

00:11:40.460 sincere than the first one when he walks over and he's not afraid to make himself look a little

00:11:45.640 silly or, or when he, he kisses the hat, I think he really thinks, man, this guy took a bullet

00:11:54.080 to support me. That's why he was there was to support Trump's candidacy. And immediately he took

00:12:02.260 a bullet to protect his family. And that's an extraordinarily honorable and noble thing.

00:12:06.700 And Trump is recognizing that. And so of course, nothing is going to ease the grief, uh, other

00:12:14.240 than time and faith for, for the family. Uh, but, but this is an amazing honor for a guy who deserves

00:12:21.120 it because he, he, he went out in the most honorable way you possibly can. And that's a, that's a sweet

00:12:28.020 memory for the family. And it's, it's, it's worth honoring real, a lot of misty eyed people there.

00:12:33.900 And then Trump gets into the campaign part of the speech, the stump part of the speech.

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00:13:43.700 Bank and Celtic Bank members, FDIC, terms and conditions apply. I tweeted out about halfway through. I said,

00:13:50.720 this speech is magnificent. It's a masterpiece in both letter and delivery. Because I think many

00:14:00.020 people who are not familiar with political oratory have failed to recognize how incredibly difficult

00:14:07.480 this speech was to give. We have just experienced an historic moment. This man was within millimeters

00:14:16.580 of being murdered. He survived by an apparent miracle. And then two days later, he's at a

00:14:23.440 political convention. And time keeps moving on. So we're just in the throes of the campaign again.

00:14:29.300 His opponent, the incumbent president, might drop out of the race because he has dementia.

00:14:35.500 President Trump doesn't even know who his opponent will be. Everything is so up in the air. And so

00:14:41.320 Trump's got to come into the convention. He's got a bandage on his ear because part of it was blown off

00:14:47.800 days ago. Then he's got to talk about this, this national trauma that just occurred and give his

00:14:55.160 eyewitness again. He's got to relive the moment that he almost died and that one of his supporters

00:14:59.280 did die. He's got to pay honor to the man who did die. And then he's got to give a convention speech.

00:15:03.820 Then he's got to give a nomination acceptance speech. That is so, so difficult. And the big

00:15:11.080 criticism that the speech is getting is that it went on too long. And it went on really long.

00:15:15.220 By historical standards, it didn't go on extraordinarily long. But now we all have

00:15:19.080 the attention span of a gnat. So nobody can pay attention to anything longer than a TikTok.

00:15:23.700 It went on for 92 minutes. There is a rhetorical purpose for that length. Maybe Trump just went on and

00:15:33.200 he just had a lot to say. The guy was almost murdered a few days ago. I think he could speak

00:15:37.300 his mind. But the campaign purpose of giving this longest speech is to draw even more sharply that

00:15:43.420 contrast between him and Biden. Biden at this point, by the time Trump took the stage, Biden had

00:15:48.200 probably been asleep for hours. Sincerely, there's no way the guy was still up watching the speech.

00:15:54.120 And there's no way Biden could have spoken at this length with this clarity, with this energy

00:15:59.200 for even a fraction of the time Trump did. So just from the perspective of a campaign,

00:16:05.400 it is digging in and further highlighting the vast difference between these two candidates in

00:16:11.520 terms of their energy, in terms of their focus, in terms of their mental acuity.

00:16:15.980 So Trump gets into this portion of the speech where he talks about all of his accomplishments when

00:16:21.060 he was in office. And one of the stranger things that he included, I think some people were

00:16:26.320 scratching their heads, was his right to try regulations. Before I get into it at all,

00:16:33.720 here's Trump talking about it.

00:16:35.320 We got right to try. They were trying to get that for 52 years. Somebody is terminally ill.

00:16:43.600 And hopefully there's nobody in this audience, but it does happen a lot.

00:16:47.460 They're terminally ill and they can't use our new space age drugs and other things that we are way

00:16:52.840 ahead. We're the greatest doctors in the world, the greatest laboratories in the world. And you

00:16:57.560 can't do it. They've been trying to get that approved for 52 years. Was it that easy?

00:17:01.680 The insurance companies didn't want to do it. They didn't want the risk. The labs didn't want

00:17:05.380 to do it because if it didn't work, people are pretty far down the line toward death.

00:17:09.440 They didn't want to do it. The doctors didn't want to have it on their record. So I got everybody

00:17:13.840 into an office. 52 years they tried. Sounds simple, but it's not.

00:17:17.120 And I got them to agree that somebody that needs it will, instead of going to Asia or Europe or

00:17:23.740 someplace, or if you have no money going home and dying, just die. We got them to sign an

00:17:30.700 agreement, agree to it where they're not going to sue anybody. They're going to get all of this

00:17:34.500 stuff. They're going to get it really fast. And what's happened is we're saving thousands and

00:17:39.600 thousands of lives. It's incredible. So a lot of people were scratching their heads,

00:17:44.540 I think. And they said, why of, of all the big Trump accomplishments of all the big campaign

00:17:48.480 promises, why focus on right to try this, this medical regulation that allows people to have

00:17:56.500 early access to drugs that have not made it all the way through the approval process and been

00:18:00.500 released to the general public. And, and, and furthermore, why wouldn't he define what right

00:18:05.400 to try is? A lot of people don't know what right to try is. So why is he talking about it in this way?

00:18:08.980 And I thought this was a perfect little window into Trump's oratory and rhetoric.

00:18:16.980 First of all, he's talking about right to try because voters tend to be old. The reliable voters

00:18:21.860 tend to be people of a certain age. This is especially true for Republicans. So he's going

00:18:26.080 to highlight issues that are important to elderly conservative Americans. That's smart from the

00:18:32.400 perspective of what you include in the speech. But then two, Trump is not a dork. I've, I've hit this

00:18:40.500 point time and time again, and this is just another expression of it. Trump is a guy who speaks bluntly.

00:18:46.240 He seems energetic. He's not pushing his glasses up his nose, writing some white paper at a think tank.

00:18:51.840 So if he came out there and he said, and we did right to try, and what is right to try? Right to try

00:18:57.680 is a deregulation of the medical industry, which is afraid of the trial lawyers. So they wouldn't

00:19:05.400 allow people to have early access to certain drugs. So what we did was we moved up the number of weeks

00:19:12.280 after the clinical trials to that people would be asleep. He doesn't define it. He doesn't explain

00:19:19.040 like a professor does. He paints a picture. He just, he, he describes like an artist would.

00:19:27.300 That's the difference. And people are going to call my rhetoric hyperbolic now, but I've been saying

00:19:32.400 this since 2016. Trump's Trump really does use the best words, folks. He, Trump has a sense of poetic

00:19:40.120 diction. I know, I know the libs are going to laugh and the Trump skeptics are going to laugh, but he

00:19:45.980 really does. That's why his slogans are so powerful. That's, that's how he recognized that

00:19:51.660 make America great again, which was his slogan sometimes used by Reagan. I think Nixon even

00:19:55.860 used it once, but it wasn't, wasn't the Republican slogan. He recognized this is powerful. Make America

00:20:02.080 great again. This is mostly Saxon words, short, pithy, evocative words. America, I guess is not a

00:20:11.140 Saxon word because our continent is named after an Italian, but you know, that's the name of the

00:20:16.000 country. What are you going to do? Make America great again. It's, it, it, it paints a picture in

00:20:20.460 your mind. That's why he's so good with symbols. The red hat, when he brought out that hat, the first

00:20:25.280 time it was a white hat. I actually have one of the original run of these hats back when it was white

00:20:29.520 and blue and he wore it and everyone made fun of him. Look at this big dumb hat says make America

00:20:33.560 great again. That symbol now is so powerful. He understands, he understands the symbol of the power

00:20:39.040 suit with the power tie. The man wears a uniform, pretty much the same thing all the time.

00:20:44.060 Just, it just paints a picture for you. His nicknames for his opponents just paints a picture.

00:20:49.880 There's low energy, Jeff, there's little Marco, there's whoever. It just, it, and so here you don't

00:20:56.040 need to know the specifics of this one deregulation that, that Trump did in office. You just, we did this

00:21:02.580 before people were dying. There was death. They were going home to die. They couldn't live.

00:21:07.760 And now people live instead of die. And it also pulls into the theme of the whole speech,

00:21:12.820 which is I was supposed to be dead. My opponents wanted me dead. They nearly left me dead.

00:21:18.540 God saved me. Now I'm alive. We're going to, we're going to bring this country back to life

00:21:22.720 is what we're going to do. Because politics is the medium through which we achieve not only

00:21:27.460 our natural lens, but our supernatural lens. This is it, baby. We're not abstract spirits just

00:21:32.060 floating around. We live in time and space. We are also bodies. We move in history and we're doing

00:21:38.520 it. And there's an intersection here. Reagan made this point during his famous time for choosing

00:21:43.700 speech. Says there's something going on. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn that

00:21:48.780 we're spirits, not animals. And, and, and there's something going on in time and space and beyond time

00:21:54.500 and space, which whether we like it or not spells destiny. You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.

00:21:59.240 It's very similar kind of rhetoric. Not, not exactly the same words, but it's the same thrust.

00:22:05.860 It's the same point. And he lands the whole thing on MAGA. There's so much more to say. First though,

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00:23:35.700 My favorite comment yesterday is from Politically Incorrect956, who says,

00:23:41.160 things have become more divided since I became president. Therefore, I will run for president

00:23:45.640 again. That is the Biden campaign theme. That is very true. Doesn't doesn't seem to make a lot of

00:23:50.780 sense, but most of the Biden campaign doesn't make a lot of sense. OK, we're going to move on from

00:23:55.240 Trump. But the final point he makes I love is on his campaign theme, which he's had for eight years.

00:23:59.960 It is what we were just talking about. It's MAGA. Greatest movement in the history of our country.

00:24:04.560 Make America great again. When they criticize it, they say, we're going to try and stop MAGA.

00:24:09.440 I said, MAGA is make America great again. What are you going to stop? There's nothing to stop.

00:24:15.100 Then they say, oh, that's right. It's very tough to fight it.

00:24:19.600 And all of the people that did try and fight it have failed.

00:24:22.980 What are you talking about? You're going to stop it. It's make America great again. How are you

00:24:25.880 going to stop that? And I love there are many politicians. They want to go out and they all

00:24:32.020 want to be Pericles. OK, and so they go and they use the soaring high flying rhetoric. Wow. Oh,

00:24:38.800 my goodness. All this elevated language. And Trump gets into that. Obviously, this was an

00:24:42.580 inspiring speech in many ways. But Trump is grounded. OK, and frankly, if you want to be

00:24:49.580 Pericles, you got to be kind of grounded, too. That's what allows you to soar, to use a similar

00:24:57.480 metaphor. Chesterton says the angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. Trump takes himself

00:25:02.980 lightly here. And so he goes from this really, really inspiring rhetoric. He goes, and they say

00:25:08.660 they're going to stop MAGA. Are you going to stop MAGA? What do you mean? It just means make America

00:25:12.040 great again. What's about you? It's like a punchline for a standup comedian. Really, really

00:25:17.340 a great speech. If it went on too long, I don't think it really matters because all that matters from

00:25:24.540 these speeches or the clips that go around, all that matters from the speeches are, well, rallying the

00:25:29.500 delegates immediately. Trump had already done that. And the clips, they can be used in commercials.

00:25:34.560 I think it achieved its purpose. I do wish Trump had taken the stage earlier. I wish that this

00:25:39.320 had been seen more in prime time. There was some delay, half an hour, 45 minutes. I wish he'd taken

00:25:45.500 the stage a little earlier so that more people could have seen it in real time. But I bet plenty of people

00:25:50.300 are going to see this. This is the craziest election cycle of any of our lifetimes. The Trump

00:25:54.820 rhetoric is so good. This is how you know it's so good. Not just, obviously, I'm a supporter of his.

00:25:59.520 But you don't need to just take my word for it. Even the Biden campaign is using his rhetoric. Here is

00:26:05.860 Democrat Congress lady Joyce Beatty, a Biden surrogate at a Biden-Harris campaign event.

00:26:12.860 Listen to her rhetoric.

00:26:14.620 So yes, this November, we're going to make America great again.

00:26:20.520 I mean, Biden the other day in the Oval Office address after the assassination attempt,

00:26:26.060 Biden almost made the same mistake that his campaign surrogate just made. He's reading,

00:26:30.880 obviously, from the teleprompter. And just before he makes the mistake, Biden actually seems to

00:26:36.420 have been a little quicker witted than his flax.

00:26:40.760 So tonight, I'm asking every American to recommit, to make America so, make America,

00:26:47.700 think about it. What's made America so special?

00:26:50.280 And that's why I'm asking all of us to make America go what?

00:27:00.880 Think about it. Why is America cool or whatever? You know, never mind. Who put that in my prompter?

00:27:07.580 Who put the Trump slogan in my prompter? And this is the last thing the Biden campaign can do in

00:27:13.300 defense of whichever speechwriter put the Trump line in the mouth of the surrogate and almost in

00:27:18.560 the mouth of Joe Biden. The best chance that the Biden campaign has right now to beat Donald Trump

00:27:25.920 is to just run the Trump campaign. Biden wants open borders. Trump wants to close the border.

00:27:34.400 The American people want to close the border. The best shot Biden has is just to run on closing

00:27:38.440 the border. The Biden campaign is running on transing the kids. Trump doesn't want to trans the

00:27:45.200 kids. If Biden wants to improve his poll numbers, he should just adopt the Trump position on so many

00:27:50.620 issues. They got nothing, which is why there is all of this talk about Biden potentially dropping out

00:28:00.120 of the race. There's a report out from Axios right now. Dem sources say Biden will likely bow out.

00:28:08.200 So this is from Axios, a lib publication saying, the most likely scenario is Biden bows out and

00:28:13.640 endorses Harris, but also flicks to letting the delegates sort it out if the party feels otherwise

00:28:17.980 that would aim to diffuse any criticism that the Democratic Party was being undemocratic. Okay.

00:28:24.900 Take it seriously. Harris would be hard to stop, perhaps impossible if the Obamas and Clintons

00:28:31.480 join Biden, Representative James Clyburn and the Congressional Black Caucus in backing her.

00:28:35.820 It's not clear if the coordination would be so fast and clear, however. Okay. Now, Mark Halpern,

00:28:40.880 who is a very prominent journalist, has a lot of access to liberal sources, wrote that book Game

00:28:46.240 Change back in 2009, 2010. It says, breaking news, multiple sources outline the apparent state of play

00:28:53.480 on Biden at this time. First, plans to announce withdrawal from nomination as early as this weekend,

00:28:58.420 with Sunday most likely. Two, John Meacham, who's this awful liberal historian,

00:29:04.100 talking head pundit guy, polishing up his remarks. Joe Biden will not resign the presidency.

00:29:11.600 Biden will not endorse Harris. Open convention with Harris and about three others. Superdelegates will

00:29:17.920 not be allowed to vote on the first ballot. Superdelegates are the Democrat Party elites

00:29:22.820 that are not sent by the voters in the states to go choose the nominee. They're just, they're party

00:29:28.900 elites who get to put their thumb on the scale. So they won't be able to vote on the first ballot.

00:29:32.980 Harris is vetting at least four possible running mates, including Andy Beshear and possibly Shapiro,

00:29:36.900 Shapiro being the Democrat governor of Pennsylvania. Wow, that's weird. Those are conflicting reports.

00:29:43.440 And Axios is credible talking to the left. Mark Halpern is credible talking to the left. So

00:29:49.420 what is it? What's going on? I still don't buy it. I'm not saying, look, if Saturday or Sunday,

00:29:58.160 or even this afternoon, if it comes and Biden says, I won't run again, I won't be really that surprised.

00:30:05.140 But if you asked me to make a bet right now, put a gun to my head, some small amount of money,

00:30:09.760 I still think there is a very good chance Biden just remains the nominee.

00:30:16.280 No, I am, I think maybe the sole voice left in politics who is saying not that he will be the

00:30:23.040 nominee, just that there is still a very good chance that he's the nominee because he wants to be the

00:30:29.540 nominee. He's wanted to be president forever. It's very difficult for him to drop out of the race and

00:30:35.200 not resign the presidency. This ain't LBJ in the 60s. This ain't LBJ saying, I will not seek normal.

00:30:41.840 I accept my party's nomination for president because I won't win because the Vietnam war

00:30:47.480 destroyed my ability to win reelection. That's not, that's not what's going on here

00:30:51.660 because external circumstances have harmed my political odds. No, this is Joe Biden saying my

00:30:59.260 brain turned to pudding. And so I'm, I'm not mentally and physically able to do the job.

00:31:04.180 Well, if you're not able to do the job starting in January, then you probably aren't able to do the

00:31:08.480 job now, right? So how does he drop out of the race without resigning the presidency?

00:31:13.580 Very difficult to do that if you're him. Also, I don't think Joe Biden likes Kamala Harris because

00:31:17.960 Kamala Harris's whole campaign was about how he's a big racist. So I don't think there's any love

00:31:21.880 loss between those two. What does, what does Biden have to gain by dropping out? What does he have to

00:31:28.260 lose by staying in? Not very much. Biden's got the delegates. He can stay in if he wants to.

00:31:33.800 And here's, here's the other reason why, look, maybe this decision hasn't been made yet. Maybe

00:31:38.960 Biden's leaning one way or the other. If I'm the Democrats, I see no reason to believe

00:31:44.300 that anybody else would really do better. There's a new A plus poll out. It comes from SurveyUSA

00:31:49.520 pitting Trump against Biden, against Harris, against Gavin Newsom, and against the fever dream

00:31:56.060 of Michelle Obama. This is Republicans' favorite fan fiction to write. Oh, Michelle's going to get in

00:32:00.540 and Michelle's going to win a zillion states, which I don't buy for a second. I don't think

00:32:04.620 Michelle Obama wants it. And I don't think she's particularly popular. Her husband was popular.

00:32:09.480 She's not very popular. She's a woman who said she was never proud of her country until it elected

00:32:13.320 her husband. She's not that likable a person. Well, here's what the poll says. Trump beats Biden

00:32:20.780 and he beats Harris and he beats Newsom and he ties Michelle.

00:32:29.280 Forget Michelle wins 50 states. They're tied. Even Michelle is tied. And by the way,

00:32:34.340 the moment any of these people actually get into the race, their poll numbers will drop.

00:32:39.160 Every candidate looks stronger before they run. Hillary Clinton looked a lot stronger. Her poll

00:32:44.740 numbers, her approval rating was, was way better before she declared she was going to run in 2016.

00:32:49.040 So if now at the, at the highest point that these people are ever going to have an approval rating,

00:32:53.880 even in this crazy election cycle, where I guess nothing's really predictable because we haven't

00:32:58.860 seen anything like this before. I just don't see any mojo for any of these people. So if you're Biden,

00:33:05.740 you're going to get out of the race because you need to make way for a woman who also loses to Trump

00:33:10.680 or you, or you got to make way for a man who it would be hard for him to skip over Kamala Harris,

00:33:16.660 but Gavin Newsom who gets destroyed by Trump, according to this poll, he's losing to Trump by

00:33:20.880 11 points, according to, to a pretty, pretty reliable poll or for what even Michelle Obama,

00:33:27.300 the Hail Mary play who ties Trump. You're going to get out for that.

00:33:33.620 I don't think so. If I were, if I were Biden,

00:33:36.220 I would stick it out. That's what I would do. And I'm not even saying that because I want Biden to

00:33:40.860 stay in because I think it's kind of funny and helpful to us and predictable at least.

00:33:43.980 Uh, that's what I would do if I were him. And that's why I'm trying to put myself in his shoes.

00:33:50.300 Why would he get out? Unless he just really can't wake up anymore. Why would he get out?

00:33:56.500 He might still do it because he's not in command of his faculties, but if he's got any command left,

00:34:00.940 Joe, come on, don't subvert democracy. Give the people their choice. This week, we witnessed history,

00:34:06.720 obviously. Failed assassination attempt. President Trump throwing his fist in the air. And then last night,

00:34:12.220 he appears to accept the GOP nomination to become the 47th president of the United States.

00:34:17.020 As motivated as we are, this election is not over. Join us in the fight for truth and a better

00:34:20.780 America at the Daily Wire. Go to dailywire.com. You can get 47% off annual memberships with code

00:34:25.880 fight. And, uh, we can't do this without you. So right now get 47% off with code fight. Also,

00:34:31.720 you can go to mayflowercigars.com and get a 4.7% discount. My cigars are very competitively

00:34:39.280 priced. Okay. So I can't, I'm not giving, I don't, I don't mark it up enough. This isn't an

00:34:43.840 information product like the Daily Wire content. You know, this is a physical product made in

00:34:48.260 factories and farms. So, uh, best we can do for you is 4.7%. But go out there, show your support

00:34:54.020 for the 47th president and go check out mayflowercigars.com. You have to be 21 years

00:34:58.120 old or older to order. Some exclusions apply. Speaking of the Trumps, this week, I sat down with

00:35:03.080 Donald Trump Jr. for his first long interview after the assassination attempt on his father

00:35:07.700 and the miraculous moment that saved president Trump's life. Check out the teaser.

00:35:12.320 I got a call, you know, 615, whatever it was, your dad's been shot. I got ahold of my father and,

00:35:18.300 you know, surprisingly calm in the hospital. And, you know, by then I'd already gotten seen the video

00:35:24.380 and sort of him coming up defiant in the face of actual fire. It was sort of amazing. And he just

00:35:29.420 sort of said, you know, Hey man, you're the, you're the biggest badass I know. And cause I

00:35:33.740 genuinely believe that. Watch that episode now at the Michael Knowles YouTube channel

00:35:44.060 and subscribe to watch the ad free version on Daily Wire Plus. Our mailbag is sponsored by

00:35:49.860 Pure Talk. Go to puretalk.com slash Knowles, K-N-W-L-E-S to upgrade your cell phone service

00:35:53.900 to America's most dependable 5G network and save an extra 50%, 5-0% off your first month.

00:35:59.420 Take it away.

00:36:01.560 Good morning, Mr. Knowles. My name is Zach. I'm 26. I live in St. Paul, Minnesota. I just

00:36:07.220 got sober nine months ago. I was a heroin addict for seven years and I'm working on a speech

00:36:11.840 currently to present at NA and AA meetings in my area. The speech is comprised of four sections.

00:36:18.960 The first section is defining your goals. The second section is creating a vision for the future.

00:36:23.780 The third is setting goals to work towards that vision. And the fourth section is application,

00:36:31.000 how to bring all that together. For my values section, I am confronted with a question of

00:36:36.340 how do I know that my values are good and correct? And for that, I am referencing Emmanuel

00:36:43.640 Kant's categorical imperative and his moral philosophy of moral absolutism and David Hume's moral philosophy

00:36:51.900 of moral relativism. And I'm trying to combine the two by way of Aristotle's philosophy on virtue

00:37:00.320 and the disposition of virtue and the transformation of one's desires towards the good through that

00:37:07.740 virtue and disposition of virtue. My question is, how would I go about doing this? I'm not exactly

00:37:15.360 stuck, but I could use some input as someone as educated as yourself. I'm an autodidact and I'm

00:37:23.180 just now learning all this stuff. So anything you would have to say about this would be much

00:37:27.360 appreciated. Or if you think I'm completely wrong and should do something else, I'd love to hear any

00:37:31.200 input you have. Thanks for all you do. And congratulations on the new kid.

00:37:36.780 Thank you. Hey, that's great. And congratulations on all of your achievements, obviously, that you're now

00:37:41.460 going to speak about and try to help other people. I don't think you're completely wrong. I think you're

00:37:45.240 just making it too complicated, much more complicated than it needs to be. So you're bringing up these

00:37:50.520 thinkers from modernity, like Emmanuel Kant and Hume, and you're trying to bring in the categorical

00:37:58.800 imperative, which is Kant's way to try to work up some moral criterion in a secular world, in a

00:38:06.900 post-Enlightenment world. But you don't need any of that because secularism is dumb and the

00:38:10.520 Enlightenment got many things wrong. So because you actually give yourself the answer in your

00:38:15.940 question, which is, and I'm trying to meld that with Aristotle a little. So, okay, good. If you're

00:38:19.900 going to give a speech based on Aristotle's understanding of virtue and the good, great.

00:38:26.380 I think that's what you should do. I think Aristotle is much to be preferred to Kant and Hume. I think

00:38:31.920 the ancients, and especially the ancients read through the scholastics and through the real

00:38:37.360 development of Christendom is much to be preferred to our modern secular liberal kind of dumb age.

00:38:44.620 So don't worry about it. Forget about Kant. Forget about Hume. I mean, you know, they're good to read

00:38:48.180 and everything, but just focus on Aristotle. And then you can read, obviously, the Nicomachean

00:38:55.940 Ethics. It might help you to read, or you should read the other Aristotle writings too. I mean,

00:39:00.400 there's really good stuff. De, what is it? De Animalis. My titles are a little weak here.

00:39:09.940 But, you know, you can read Aristotle on the soul and on the other animals. You can read Aristotle's

00:39:15.840 poetics. You can read Aristotle's politics. And then what I think is really good to do is read the

00:39:22.540 scholastics, the Christian writers in the Middle Ages, who are specifically St. Thomas Aquinas,

00:39:29.140 who are reading Aristotle through the lens of Christianity. And I think that's going to guide

00:39:34.760 you a lot better than a bunch of, you know, secular maniacs in modernity. Next question.

00:39:40.340 Hey, Michael, I had two questions for you. The first is, do you think that Donald Trump will pick

00:39:46.920 Nikki Haley to be his Secretary of State if he wins this coming November? The second is,

00:39:54.640 I was thinking of starting my own political podcast to share some of my own unique ideas

00:40:00.600 on politics and discuss areas that I feel are getting overlooked by most everyone.

00:40:09.280 But did you have any suggestions or tips to help me out? Thanks.

00:40:17.000 Yes. I don't think he's going to pick Haley to be the Secretary of State. It's possible, I guess.

00:40:23.440 But he has no reason to do that. Haley ran a very tough campaign against him and stayed in a long time.

00:40:29.260 So they've kissed and made up and she was able to speak at the RNC. And I think that was mutually

00:40:34.440 beneficial. But, you know, Trump can sometimes be a little rough on his former competitors.

00:40:41.160 So I don't really see that happening. If I were Nikki Haley, I would advise against going to any

00:40:48.240 dinners with photographers to discuss that job. As you remember, Trump humiliated Mitt Romney that way.

00:40:55.120 After Romney had attacked Trump for a long time, Trump said, okay, well, Mitt, you want to be

00:40:59.540 Secretary of State? Let's go talk about it over dinner. And there's this awful dinner where

00:41:03.060 Romney looks totally weak and sheepish. And Trump is grinning like the Cheshire cat.

00:41:08.500 And then, of course, he didn't give him the job. So, you know, they've kissed and made up. They're

00:41:12.940 both, you know, tough, tough people with thick skin. Maybe Nikki would play some role in

00:41:18.540 administration, but I don't I don't see Trump giving her a tough spot. As for a political podcast,

00:41:23.200 every white man between the ages of 16 and 55 has a podcast and I think is by statute obligated to

00:41:34.740 have a podcast these days. I don't know when that happened. But I would recommend if you have a

00:41:39.940 perspective that is not being represented in the political media space, then that's good. There's

00:41:46.960 your first step. You know, you don't you don't want to start a podcast if you're just parroting

00:41:50.180 everybody else. But what I would recommend is start with a tweet. And then maybe move up to a

00:41:56.920 column. And then maybe do an Instagram reel or a TikTok. And then and only then maybe move to a

00:42:05.020 podcast. There's an old line, which is that most books should be essays and most essays should not

00:42:09.880 be written. And I think that holds true for audio and video as well. You know, a podcast, what's that

00:42:16.080 going to be? Minimum 20, 25 minutes could be 45 minutes or an hour or two or three hours.

00:42:22.000 Do you have that much to say? I don't know. Most people, most people who have podcasts don't have

00:42:26.820 that much to say. But I would I would I would test it out first. OK, I think I've got this great

00:42:32.300 45 minute podcast worth of insights. Let me just distill all of that down into its most concentrated

00:42:37.660 form. Put it out there in a tweet or in a short TikTok or Instagram reel. Let's see if that gets

00:42:42.940 traction. Let's see if that goes viral. You do enough of those people are going to ask you to

00:42:46.080 start a podcast. Then you're in a good position because you've already got a built in audience

00:42:49.480 and you're not going to have to try to to make this massive lift of convincing people who've never

00:42:53.560 heard of you to give up an hour of their day to listen to your thoughts. That's going to be a lot

00:42:58.600 harder, especially if you don't have a ton of money to invest in marketing and advertising to get it

00:43:02.260 started. Next question. Hey, Michael, I have a question for you about political strategy.

00:43:07.640 Specifically, you recently defended the change in the Republican Party platform as an expression of

00:43:14.560 prudential judgment in order to help candidates get elected. I understand that. But my question is,

00:43:21.280 you've also expressed concern about the social truce of the Tea Party era and even raised questions about

00:43:27.860 the fusionism of the Bill Buckley era. How is Trump distancing himself from Project 2025 or J.D.

00:43:35.700 Vance expressing openness to the legality of the abortion pill or the changes in the party platform

00:43:43.120 substantively different from the social truce or the fusionism of the past? Why are you critical

00:43:50.380 of those compromises in the past, but defensive of these changes today? What is your means for

00:43:59.360 evaluating political strategy versus principle? Thanks. I love the show.

00:44:04.020 Great question. It's a difference between doing and saying. That's the difference. If by social

00:44:11.140 truce, you mean, as many people meant during the Tea Party era, we're not going to touch abortion.

00:44:16.840 We're not going to defend marriage. We're not going to protect unborn babies. We're not going to defend

00:44:21.760 our national traditions and makeup and our borders even, which is, that's quite a social policy. You

00:44:27.780 would say mass migration. If that's what you mean by social truce, then the social truce is awful and

00:44:34.220 it's not going to win you any elections anyway. And it wouldn't matter if it did because you wouldn't

00:44:38.220 really win anything. But if by social truce, you mean, we're just not going to talk about it quite

00:44:43.960 so much between mid-July and November every two to four years. Well, that I think actually has

00:44:51.840 something to recommend it. A good example of how to walk this line on the social truce was the

00:44:57.560 governor of Indiana who was rumored to be running for president, Mitch Daniels. Mitch Daniels was

00:45:02.780 in some ways a social trucer. But even as he's talking about how we need to, we're going to

00:45:09.980 de-emphasize the social issues for a moment as the election season's ramping up. He also defunded

00:45:16.960 Planned Parenthood in the state of Indiana. So that's kind of what I'm recommending. If Trump

00:45:22.940 had come out and said, we support abortion now, we support weird sex stuff, we support whatever,

00:45:27.480 all these liberal social policies, I would say that's very bad. That's going to hurt us in the

00:45:32.780 end. But if all he's saying is, hey, we're going to de-emphasize it a little bit in some tough

00:45:36.780 election cycles after the Dobbs decision comes down that fundamentally reorders how we can even

00:45:42.400 campaign on abortion in America. But hey, listen, guys, I'm still your pro-life guy. I'm the first

00:45:46.820 sitting president ever to show up to the March for Life. I'm the guy who got Roe v. Wade overruled.

00:45:50.740 You think, okay, well, great, let's do that, because then you can get elected and do more

00:45:54.060 pro-life stuff. That's the distinction to me. If we can speak in a prudent and restrained way

00:46:01.480 and then do the most conservative stuff we can, great. But Project 2025, Project 2025 is a database

00:46:10.840 of potential personnel for an administration. It's great. I was sitting down with the head of it the

00:46:16.780 other day. He's a genius. It's a great idea, and I can't wait for it to be put into action.

00:46:22.260 But if Trump comes out and says, I'm really not directly involved in this thing, I don't know,

00:46:25.480 I haven't agreed to do anything with Project 2025. That's a true statement. And then he gets into

00:46:30.240 office and he hires some great personnel. And if some of those great personnel are in the Project

00:46:36.340 2025 database, I assume a good number of them will be. There just aren't that many professional

00:46:41.060 conservative politicos in the country. Well, all the better. We can be prudent. That is actually

00:46:49.440 the chief political virtue. We got more to get to. It's Fake Headline Friday. The rest of the show

00:46:55.440 continues. Now, you do not want to miss it. Become a member. Use code NOLSKIN at WLES at checkout for two

00:46:59.440 months free on all annual plans.

Ep. 1534 - Trump's Greatest Speech Summarized In 5 Mins

Summary

Transcript