The Michael Knowles Show - July 23, 2024


Ep. 1536 - Even The Libs Are Shocked By The Assassination Hearing


Episode Stats

Length

47 minutes

Words per Minute

170.9933

Word Count

8,115

Sentence Count

740

Misogynist Sentences

32

Hate Speech Sentences

11


Summary

It s been 10 days since an assassination attempt on a former president of the United States, and the woman in charge of keeping that nominee safe still has her job, and she s still stonewalling members of Congress on basic aspects of the assassination attempt.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Did you know that over 85% of grass-fed beef sold in U.S. grocery stores is imported?
00:00:05.240 That's why I buy all my meat from GoodRanchers.com instead.
00:00:08.900 Good Ranchers products are 100% born, raised, and harvested right here in the USA from local family farms.
00:00:14.600 Plus, there's no antibiotics ever, no added hormones, and no seed oils.
00:00:18.820 Just one simple ingredient.
00:00:20.360 That's meat.
00:00:21.280 Best of all, Good Ranchers delivers straight to your door for added convenience.
00:00:24.760 So lock in a secure supply of American meat today.
00:00:26.980 Subscribe now at GoodRanchers.com and get free meat for life and $40 off with code DAILYWIRE.
00:00:32.420 That's $40 off and free meat for life with code DAILYWIRE.
00:00:35.700 Good Ranchers, American meat delivered.
00:00:37.640 While the political media want you to focus on the bread and circuses of who Democrat Party elites will crown as their next presidential nominee,
00:00:45.560 I would like to refocus our attention back on that little story that seems to have fallen out of the news,
00:00:51.200 namely that the Republican nominee was very nearly murdered nine days ago.
00:00:58.420 And how the woman in charge of keeping that nominee safe still has her job.
00:01:02.980 And how that woman is still stonewalling members of Congress on basic aspects of the assassination attempt.
00:01:09.940 Was it a lone gunman?
00:01:11.640 How'd he get on the roof?
00:01:13.440 Why was Trump permitted to take the stage?
00:01:15.940 To be fair, I am not the only one asking the questions.
00:01:19.840 Republicans aren't the only ones asking these questions.
00:01:23.480 Many people are surprised to see that during congressional testimony yesterday,
00:01:28.540 Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheadle faced calls to resign even from Democrat congressmen,
00:01:34.680 even from far left congressmen such as AOC.
00:01:37.740 So the notion of a report coming out in 60 days when the threat environment is so high in the United States,
00:01:46.180 irrespective of party, is not acceptable.
00:01:49.240 And I think it's very important to understand that.
00:01:51.780 This is not theater.
00:01:53.140 This is not about jockeying.
00:01:55.260 This is about the safety of some of the most highly targeted and valued targets internationally and domestically
00:02:04.880 in the United States of America.
00:02:06.820 So the idea that a report will be finalized in 60 days, let alone prior to any actionable decisions that would be made,
00:02:16.440 is simply not acceptable.
00:02:20.160 It has been 10 days since an assassination attempt on a former president of the United States, regardless of party.
00:02:27.280 There need to be answers.
00:02:29.560 AOC was not the only Democrat who called on Cheadle to resign.
00:02:32.780 Here's Big Lib Ro Khanna of California demanding the same.
00:02:36.820 You know, do you know what Stuart Knight did when he was in charge at the time of the Secret Service?
00:02:42.680 Do you know what he did afterwards?
00:02:45.280 He remained on duty.
00:02:46.660 He resigned.
00:02:47.760 He resigned.
00:02:49.020 He resigned.
00:02:49.960 What gives?
00:02:50.700 Why are Democrats siding with Republicans in demanding the resignation of a Biden appointee?
00:02:55.640 Have they suddenly cultivated some care for the common good?
00:02:58.640 Are they true statesmen willing to put aside partisan squabbles?
00:03:03.600 Of course not.
00:03:04.800 The Democrats are piling on the Secret Service director because she is small potatoes.
00:03:10.140 In fact, she's the perfect fall guy.
00:03:12.500 She's a far more convenient fall guy for the failed assassination attempt than, say, her boss, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
00:03:20.840 She's an infinitely more convenient fall guy than his boss, Joe Biden, whose legacy will still fuel Democrat prospects in this election, whether he's on the ballot or not.
00:03:31.360 If you are a Democrat legislator, this is a no-brainer.
00:03:35.320 I'm Michael Knowles.
00:03:36.020 This is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:03:36.920 Is Biden dead?
00:03:57.900 I wouldn't ask it.
00:04:00.440 I mean, a lot of people are asking that.
00:04:02.080 And Kamala Harris didn't ease people's worries when she seemed to suggest that she was playing a recording of Biden when she was supposed to be having a phone call with him.
00:04:11.540 And I don't—my friend Bridget Phetasy posted last night, she said, you know, it's kind of weird.
00:04:17.760 People are talking about whether or not the president of the United States is alive or dead, and it's only, like, the third weirdest thing that's happened in the last nine days.
00:04:25.460 It's true.
00:04:25.820 So we will examine whether or not President Biden still breathes.
00:04:30.320 First, though, we all know Biden called it quits, and the left's assault on America is far from over.
00:04:35.240 The election is pivotal, and you need the truth now more than ever.
00:04:38.420 The Daily Wire gives you the uncensored truth every day.
00:04:40.780 Go to dailywire.com right now.
00:04:42.120 Use code FIGHT for 47% off your annual membership.
00:04:45.240 Join us as we fight the left and build the future.
00:04:50.100 Before we get into Schrodinger's president, I don't want to move on too quickly from the Secret Service director.
00:04:55.980 Everything we learn about the Secret Service's handling of this assassination makes it seem worse and worse.
00:05:03.340 This was absolutely disastrous testimony from Kimberly Cheadle.
00:05:08.240 Congressman Andy Biggs asked a really basic question about the assassination attempt.
00:05:13.000 He said, okay, so you don't seem to have a lot of answers for us.
00:05:16.020 Let's just establish some basic facts.
00:05:18.180 Can you confirm that, at the very least, this was a lone gunman?
00:05:25.440 Here's her answer.
00:05:26.740 It is unfathomable that a 20-year-old on the radar of Secret Service and local law enforcement before President Trump went on stage
00:05:33.560 was able to climb onto the roof of a building with a rifle and fire off multiple rounds before he was neutralized.
00:05:39.820 Was Mr. Crooks acting alone?
00:05:43.920 Again, I would have to refer you to the FBI's investigation.
00:05:48.180 Was he just a lone gunman?
00:05:51.420 I would have to refer you to the FBI's investigation for motive.
00:05:56.180 He didn't ask about motive, lady.
00:05:57.820 What are you, what?
00:05:59.440 This is a layup.
00:06:00.820 I understand there are some questions that she is not going to want to answer during this testimony
00:06:04.920 because it was the biggest Secret Service screw-up since Reagan was shot in the 80s.
00:06:09.460 And it may be even crazier than that.
00:06:13.440 But he asked you a basic question.
00:06:15.280 Okay, well, during this major screw-up, there was a lone gunman, right?
00:06:18.800 He goes, ah, sorry, I can't answer that.
00:06:21.280 I can't answer questions about motive.
00:06:23.320 He didn't ask a question about motive.
00:06:24.620 He asked how many shooters there were.
00:06:25.720 You can't give me that answer.
00:06:26.920 You're the head of the Secret Service.
00:06:27.940 You can't tell me how many shooters there were who did succeed at murdering one citizen
00:06:32.600 attending a political rally, critically injured two, and nearly blew the head off the former
00:06:37.020 president, I hope future president, current leading presidential candidate?
00:06:42.720 What?
00:06:43.800 Then Nancy Mace, another Republican congressman, turned the grilling up even higher.
00:06:49.560 Both sides of the aisle today have asked for your resignation.
00:06:52.980 Would you like to use my five minutes to draft your resignation letter, yes or no?
00:06:57.040 No, thank you.
00:07:00.340 Was this a colossal failure?
00:07:04.060 It was a failure.
00:07:05.380 Yes or no?
00:07:06.300 Was it a colossal failure is the question, yes or no?
00:07:09.600 I have admitted this is a terrible...
00:07:10.880 This is a yes or no series of questions.
00:07:12.960 Was this a colossal failure, yes or no?
00:07:16.420 Yes.
00:07:17.680 Was this tragedy preventable, yes or no?
00:07:21.960 Yes.
00:07:22.980 Has the Secret Service been transparent with this committee?
00:07:27.440 Yes.
00:07:28.700 Would you say the fact that we had to issue a subpoena to get you to show up today as being
00:07:34.540 transparent, yes or no?
00:07:36.720 I have always been eager to come and talk to the committee.
00:07:38.060 Yes or no.
00:07:38.460 You didn't want to answer the question.
00:07:39.720 We had to issue a subpoena to get you to show up today.
00:07:42.220 That is not transparent, by the way.
00:07:44.160 You stated earlier, Secret Service is not political.
00:07:48.020 Is that correct?
00:07:49.220 Yes.
00:07:50.120 Okay.
00:07:50.540 Would you say leaking your opening statement to Punchbowl News, Politico's playbook, and
00:07:56.180 Washington Post several hours before you sent it to this committee as being political,
00:08:02.660 yes or no?
00:08:03.780 I have no idea how my statement got out.
00:08:07.080 Well, that's bull.
00:08:10.340 Okay, Nancy Mace goes on.
00:08:12.020 Her language gets a little bit saltier even as the grilling continues.
00:08:16.320 I don't think she needed to get salty.
00:08:20.020 I thought this was a great grilling by Nancy Mace.
00:08:22.720 She did a terrific job.
00:08:24.600 She didn't have to go blue in her language because the Secret Service director admitted
00:08:28.580 failure.
00:08:29.520 She got her on the question, was this a colossal failure?
00:08:31.520 Well, it was a failure.
00:08:32.260 Was it a colossal failure?
00:08:33.160 Well, I just said it was not great.
00:08:35.040 Was it a colossal failure?
00:08:36.200 Yes, it was.
00:08:36.940 She gets her on that.
00:08:37.720 But then, crucially, she gets her on the leaked testimony.
00:08:42.980 She says, is this US Secret Service political?
00:08:44.800 I'm not talking about agents on the ground actively protecting the president and other high-profile
00:08:50.880 politicians.
00:08:52.580 No one is suggesting that those guys are colluding with some political party.
00:08:56.880 We're talking about the political appointees.
00:08:58.680 We're talking about people like Kimberly Cheadle, appointed by Joe Biden.
00:09:02.120 Is the US Secret Service, from the perspective of the bureaucracy, the administrative state,
00:09:07.040 is it partisan and party political?
00:09:10.480 She says, no.
00:09:11.300 And then Nancy Mace says, well, how'd your speech get leaked to left-wing news outlets?
00:09:16.380 She says, I don't know how that happened.
00:09:17.560 Well, that is an admission of failure.
00:09:19.700 First of all, Nancy Mace doesn't believe her.
00:09:21.700 She thinks that Cheadle leaked it herself.
00:09:23.920 But even if Cheadle didn't leak it, Cheadle is saying, not only do I know that,
00:09:28.680 I don't have control over my job, which is to protect the presidents, not only do I not
00:09:33.760 have control over the security perimeters around these events, I don't have control over my
00:09:38.280 secretary.
00:09:39.120 I don't have control over my immediate subordinates.
00:09:41.780 I don't have control even to protect my remarks from going out to the establishment press.
00:09:47.960 So she doesn't have control over anything.
00:09:50.620 That admission, either she's admitting that the Secret Service has become politicized, as
00:09:55.540 have so many formerly nonpartisan aspects of our government under Joe Biden and under Barack
00:10:02.320 Obama before him.
00:10:04.000 But she's either admitting that or she's admitting that she can't perform even the most basic
00:10:09.620 aspects of leadership.
00:10:10.720 She can't even keep her own remarks from leaking out.
00:10:15.060 The more we learn, the worse this seems.
00:10:17.540 Jesse Waters just sat down with President Trump and J.D. Vance.
00:10:22.040 He asked President Trump, he said, hey, there was this security risk that was called in about
00:10:29.460 15 minutes before your speech, or more, actually.
00:10:32.500 I mean, according to some reports, the threat was seen an hour before, maybe even more than
00:10:37.740 an hour before.
00:10:38.920 So did anyone tell you?
00:10:40.080 Did they tell you to postpone the event?
00:10:42.740 Here's Trump's answer.
00:10:43.800 They were monitoring this guy for an hour beforehand.
00:10:46.860 No one told you not to take the stage?
00:10:49.700 No, nobody mentioned it.
00:10:50.800 Nobody said there was a problem.
00:10:52.820 And I would have waited for 15.
00:10:54.740 They could have said, let's wait for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, five minutes, something.
00:10:59.400 Nobody said, I think that was a mistake.
00:11:01.520 How did somebody get on that roof?
00:11:03.300 And why wasn't he reported?
00:11:04.860 Because people saw that he was on the roof.
00:11:06.580 When you had Trumpers screaming, the woman in the red shirt, she was screaming, there's
00:11:15.460 a man on the roof.
00:11:16.420 And then other people said, there's a man on the roof who's got a gun.
00:11:20.080 And that was quite a bit before I walked onto the stage.
00:11:24.100 So you would have thought somebody would have done something about it.
00:11:27.200 You sure would have.
00:11:29.040 If you're tracking this guy before the event even starts, you don't tell the president,
00:11:33.060 hey, hold off for a few minutes.
00:11:35.240 I've had to postpone my events.
00:11:38.180 He's the president of the United States, former president and future president.
00:11:41.080 I'm some guy.
00:11:42.020 I've had to hold my events when there were threats outside.
00:11:44.280 And threats that are less severe than a guy walking around potentially with a rifle using a rangefinder.
00:11:52.960 Apparently, the shooter had a drone over the site, though it's unclear if that was known to law enforcement beforehand.
00:11:59.800 The guy looked like a threat.
00:12:01.340 You know, how about you hold?
00:12:02.460 That's what they have holding rooms for.
00:12:04.120 That's what that's the purpose of a green room.
00:12:05.600 No one told Trump.
00:12:09.420 So now everyone's going to yell at the Secret Service director and they're going to probably chase her out of her job.
00:12:15.200 And then that'll be that, right?
00:12:16.720 That's that.
00:12:17.920 Do not.
00:12:18.720 Do not let this stop there.
00:12:21.700 Do not allow this to be memory hold.
00:12:25.000 Already, the story is being memory hold.
00:12:28.500 The former president, current leading presidential candidate, was very nearly murdered.
00:12:33.200 The only reason he is alive is by the grace of God, because of a nanosecond early, unpredicted head turn that prevented the back of his head from being blown out and only blew off the top part of his ear.
00:12:46.400 That was that was what, nine days ago now?
00:12:50.640 Don't let this get memory hold.
00:12:52.680 They fire this woman.
00:12:54.620 Everyone's going to say, move along, move along.
00:12:56.120 I want answers from Alejandra Mayorkas.
00:12:57.980 I want answers from Joe Biden.
00:12:59.340 If Joe Biden is still alive or is still able to speak.
00:13:03.200 There's so much more to say.
00:13:04.340 First, though, go to zapmydebt.com.
00:13:07.240 Do you ever think, how can I work this hard and still be in debt?
00:13:11.380 The piles of overdue bills, threatening phone calls, and never having money to do anything.
00:13:16.560 If you are trapped in debt, Zero Debt USA is the way out.
00:13:20.440 They have developed aggressive new strategies to end your debt permanently.
00:13:24.160 Zero Debt USA stands between you and the bill collectors.
00:13:26.660 They negotiate with creditors to lower or even forgive what you owe.
00:13:30.560 And they do it all without bankruptcy or new loans.
00:13:33.200 Zero Debt USA has powerful strategies that zap your debt quickly so you have more money in your pocket every month.
00:13:39.840 But you need to hurry because some debt solutions are time sensitive.
00:13:44.340 You do not want to miss out.
00:13:45.940 Go to zapmydebt.com.
00:13:48.540 Talk with one of their debt relief strategists for free.
00:13:51.600 Find out how fast they can get you out of debt.
00:13:54.800 Do not allow yourself to be troubled by those annoying phone calls and that anxiety anymore.
00:14:00.200 Go to zapmydebt.com.
00:14:02.580 That is zapmydebt.com.
00:14:05.640 Is Joe Biden alive?
00:14:09.080 I'll give you my opinion, my prediction in just a moment.
00:14:12.420 First, though, a lot of people are asking that.
00:14:15.600 Is Biden even, because we haven't seen him in, what, six days now?
00:14:21.400 And Biden stepped down as their Democrat nominee after weeks and weeks and months and months of saying, I will be the nominee.
00:14:28.500 Stop asking me about my age.
00:14:29.500 I will be the nominee.
00:14:30.540 He stepped down from that role through a picture of a letter that he supposedly wrote, posted to a social media account that he doesn't run.
00:14:39.540 And then we haven't heard from him since.
00:14:42.280 He's not even in the White House right now.
00:14:43.800 He's in his private home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
00:14:46.940 He left Las Vegas under kind of murky circumstances.
00:14:49.860 He gave a really bad speech out there.
00:14:51.520 Then we were told he came down with COVID, so he had to cancel another speech in Vegas.
00:14:55.540 We don't really know.
00:14:56.660 There are other unconfirmed kind of murky reports about maybe there was a more serious medical event that occurred in Las Vegas.
00:15:03.040 And that explains why it's been so long.
00:15:04.760 We just don't know.
00:15:05.760 And then Kamala Harris was trying to quell concerns about whether or not the president is still alive or conscious.
00:15:13.280 And she didn't do a very good job of it.
00:15:16.240 It is so good to hear our president's voice.
00:15:19.620 Joe, I know you're still on the call.
00:15:22.340 And we've been talking every day.
00:15:24.480 You probably, you guys heard it from Doug's voice.
00:15:26.820 We love Joe and Jill.
00:15:28.580 We really do.
00:15:29.860 They truly are like family to us.
00:15:31.380 How do we?
00:15:32.080 And we do.
00:15:32.840 Everybody hear those.
00:15:33.860 It's mutual.
00:15:37.720 I knew you were still there.
00:15:39.620 You're not going anywhere, Joe.
00:15:41.260 I'm watching it, kid.
00:15:42.760 I'm watching it, kid.
00:15:44.160 I love it.
00:15:44.800 I love you, Joe.
00:15:46.880 What?
00:15:49.160 Oh, man.
00:15:49.920 These guys.
00:15:51.480 Look, I think Joe Biden's alive.
00:15:54.120 However, the Democrats are doing a great job at convincing me he's not.
00:15:58.960 She starts out.
00:15:59.900 She goes, and I know we still have Joe on the recording phone call.
00:16:06.120 Humana, humana, humana.
00:16:07.100 I mean, yeah, I know.
00:16:07.960 We have him on the AI-generated computer tape.
00:16:11.880 I mean, I'm sorry.
00:16:13.020 No, what did I mean to say?
00:16:16.260 Skype or something.
00:16:17.960 Especially in the age of deepfakes.
00:16:19.320 Don't forget, all the actual videos of Joe Biden slurring his words and falling down,
00:16:24.400 and they were denounced as cheapfakes until the Democrats admitted that he doesn't know which end is up.
00:16:30.820 Now, the proof of life is that we hear audio that vaguely sounds like Joe Biden,
00:16:36.620 that his vice president, and now heir apparent who's taken over his spot as the nominee for president,
00:16:43.980 she begins to call a recording.
00:16:47.980 And then the moment that you have another interjection from Biden,
00:16:52.340 you hear her say, he says, I love you.
00:16:55.780 Hi there.
00:16:57.000 She goes, I knew you were still on the phone call.
00:17:00.640 Ha ha ha ha ha.
00:17:02.140 You know, that totally live thing with a live person who is alive on the other end?
00:17:07.820 Ha ha ha ha ha.
00:17:09.360 Thank you.
00:17:10.060 Yeah, I'm Joe Biden.
00:17:11.820 I like ice cream.
00:17:13.400 Beep boop.
00:17:14.160 No, don't say beep boop.
00:17:15.520 Got to fix that AI.
00:17:16.680 That's no good.
00:17:17.520 Really, really, really weird, as are many things.
00:17:22.140 Now, look, Kamala Harris is one of the worst orators I've ever heard.
00:17:25.740 So she just might be a little bit awkward.
00:17:28.020 And it might well be Joe.
00:17:30.460 I think it's Joe.
00:17:31.120 I think he's alive.
00:17:32.060 Okay, that's what I'm saying.
00:17:33.080 I think Joe Biden is alive.
00:17:37.000 There have been three big options that we've been told could explain what's going on.
00:17:41.980 That Biden is really gravely ill, so bad off that we can't see him.
00:17:48.540 That he's in a hospital bed or in a hospice, some random Twitter account posted last night.
00:17:52.660 Or he's dead, and it's total weekend at Bernie's.
00:17:56.340 Or the third option, which I think is the most likely, is he's really, really, really irritated
00:18:04.880 because his supposed friends and allies took his job away from him, took his legacy away from him,
00:18:13.200 pushed him aside, threw him out like yesterday's news, and picked this woman whom I strongly
00:18:21.460 suspect he hates.
00:18:23.160 So I don't know that Biden feels very much sincerely or really can discern between truth
00:18:28.620 and falsehood.
00:18:29.420 But this woman launched her national political career, her presidential political career,
00:18:35.480 by calling Biden a racist who tried to keep her off a school bus when she was a little girl
00:18:39.700 because she's black.
00:18:40.480 Even though she's half Indian and like a little bit black and a little bit white and anyway, whatever.
00:18:47.060 I think he's really, really, really angry at the people around him, and he doesn't want to talk to anyone.
00:18:55.700 I suspect that that actually explains it.
00:18:57.860 And there's some evidence for this.
00:18:59.440 Ron Klain, who is the ostensible president's former chief of staff,
00:19:06.120 he tweeted out, now that the donors and electeds have pushed out the only candidate who has ever
00:19:10.760 beaten Trump, it is time to end the political fantasy games and unite behind the only veteran
00:19:15.400 of a national campaign, our outstanding VP Kamala Harris, two exclamation points.
00:19:21.360 Let's get real and win in November.
00:19:23.040 So I think those two exclamation points, there's a little wink here.
00:19:27.640 There's a little sardonic kind of irony here.
00:19:32.060 He's so excited.
00:19:33.280 He's so overly excited.
00:19:34.400 After he says the donors and electeds have pushed out the best candidate.
00:19:38.820 The only one who's ever actually beaten Trump.
00:19:40.720 So he's salty about this.
00:19:41.940 And I think that Biden's salty about this.
00:19:44.280 I don't think this was a sacrifice as the establishment media are trying to paint it
00:19:47.880 to mollify Joe Biden.
00:19:49.360 Oh, what a great man.
00:19:50.100 What a great.
00:19:50.340 So he didn't, this isn't a sacrifice.
00:19:51.660 He got pushed out.
00:19:52.320 This was a palace coup.
00:19:53.880 He obviously is furious about it.
00:19:55.580 He's not appearing in public.
00:19:57.940 He maybe called into a Kamala Harris event.
00:20:00.440 Maybe.
00:20:00.820 We're not even sure about that.
00:20:01.860 She called it a recording, started to call it a recording.
00:20:04.400 Ron Klain, one of the people closest to Biden, is saying openly he got pushed out that it
00:20:10.560 was a palace coup.
00:20:12.480 Not a sacrifice at all.
00:20:13.880 And he's going to be salty about it.
00:20:14.880 We'll see if he ever even addresses it.
00:20:17.480 He said he was going to address the nation later in the week.
00:20:20.760 Maybe.
00:20:21.760 Maybe.
00:20:22.220 I don't know.
00:20:22.680 No, no one.
00:20:24.420 The one thing that I can predict with certainty is that no one can really reliably predict
00:20:28.920 any of these coming events.
00:20:31.100 Now, if you have any familiarity with history, this whole thing probably seems oddly familiar.
00:20:36.980 I'm talking about recent history.
00:20:40.260 I'm talking about the 80s.
00:20:43.060 Biden feels like Chernenko.
00:20:46.300 Chernenko, the last leader of the Soviet Union before Gorbachev dismantled it.
00:20:50.600 And even before Chernenko, we had Andropov, who also was like one of these just doddering
00:20:58.520 old people who died very quickly.
00:21:00.280 Ronald Reagan made a joke.
00:21:01.540 He said, look, I want to cut a deal with the Soviet Union, but their leaders keep dying
00:21:05.440 on me.
00:21:06.480 Then he was finally able to work with Gorbachev.
00:21:08.200 It feels as though we defeated the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and then we became the
00:21:14.900 Soviet Union, which happens sometimes.
00:21:17.760 Sometimes victorious powers come to resemble the peoples that they vanquished.
00:21:23.900 The knock on the Soviet Union was that it was a decrepit bureaucracy that was extraordinarily
00:21:29.120 inefficient, that wasn't able to create really sustainable economic growth, that had been
00:21:34.440 captured by corrupt oligarchs, that was not accountable to the people.
00:21:38.200 Yeah, wow, boy, that had its empire beginning to fray and fall away.
00:21:44.120 Yeah, wow, does that sound familiar?
00:21:45.840 That was being led by extremely old men who didn't know what their name was anymore.
00:21:49.560 Yeah, boy, boy, oh boy.
00:21:52.080 History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
00:21:55.200 This really sounds like a rhyme.
00:21:58.580 And so I pointed this out yesterday, and someone said, well, Michael, does that mean, in this
00:22:02.260 analogy, does that mean that Trump is Gorbachev?
00:22:04.100 And in a way, I guess it does.
00:22:05.560 Because the explicit fear of the liberal establishment is that President Trump will upend the prevailing
00:22:14.720 political order and that he will dismantle the empire, the American empire involving pride
00:22:21.100 flags in Kandahar, and even though it was Biden who pulled out of Afghanistan, and Ukraine,
00:22:25.480 Ukraine is the 51st state or something, and that he'll upend American foreign policy.
00:22:30.920 That is an explicit worry of the establishment.
00:22:35.840 So yeah, it seems actually pretty similar.
00:22:37.980 And if the historical analogy holds, that does not bode very well for the stability of America
00:22:45.240 over the next few years.
00:22:47.140 There's so much more to say.
00:22:48.300 First, though, go to preborn.com slash Knowles.
00:22:51.920 It has been two years since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
00:22:56.220 Did you know that the number of abortions since then has actually increased?
00:23:00.060 Estimates show that more than 1 million babies were killed by abortion in 2023,
00:23:04.560 the highest number of abortions since 2012.
00:23:07.420 The overturning of Roe v. Wade has unfortunately made the abortion pill more available,
00:23:12.200 now accounting for up to 64% of all abortions.
00:23:15.440 But preborn continues to stand strong.
00:23:17.320 Preborn is the largest pro-life organization in the country.
00:23:20.300 They provide free ultrasounds to mothers with unplanned pregnancies
00:23:23.240 to introduce them to the precious life growing inside them.
00:23:25.780 When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears his heartbeat,
00:23:29.400 she's twice as likely to choose life.
00:23:32.080 Every day, preborn rescues 200 lives.
00:23:35.360 One ultrasound costs only 28 bucks and could be the difference between life and death.
00:23:40.060 Please join the fight by sponsoring an ultrasound.
00:23:42.500 If you have the means, you can sponsor preborn's entire network for a day for $5,000.
00:23:47.780 Whatever gift you give will go towards saving lives.
00:23:50.880 All gifts are tax deductible.
00:23:52.300 Go to preborn.com slash Knowles to donate today.
00:23:54.600 I personally support this organization.
00:23:56.580 I strongly encourage you to give what you can.
00:23:59.060 Preborn.com slash Knowles or dial pound 250, say keyword baby.
00:24:03.040 That is pound 250, keyword baby.
00:24:05.960 Kamala Harris's campaign has officially kicked off.
00:24:08.620 And it's kicked off with a little bit of a stumble.
00:24:11.560 Kamala decided to follow in the footsteps of Jeb Bush.
00:24:17.820 Wanted to be here today.
00:24:19.000 He is feeling much better and recovering fast.
00:24:21.440 And he looks forward to getting back on the road.
00:24:24.060 And I wanted to say a few words about our president.
00:24:27.320 Joe Biden's legacy of accomplishment over the past three years is unmatched in modern history.
00:24:33.900 In one term, he has already, yes, you may clap.
00:24:40.680 You may clap.
00:24:41.660 Yes, yes, you may clap.
00:24:44.220 Not a great, in case you forgot it.
00:24:46.840 It's one of the great clips.
00:24:48.880 I know, you know, it's a Republican who's flopping around, but it's just a funny clip from 2016.
00:24:54.340 The next president needs to be a lot quieter, but send a signal that we're prepared to act in the national security interests of this country to get back in the business of creating a more peaceful world.
00:25:06.060 Please clap.
00:25:06.860 You know, if I want to win this presidential election in some of the toughest circumstances that we've seen in modern times, I know who I'll model my campaign after.
00:25:17.300 Jeb Bush.
00:25:18.780 That's a great idea, Kamala.
00:25:21.960 Despite, look, people's predictions are all over the place these days.
00:25:25.620 We're now trying to predict whether the sitting president is alive or dead.
00:25:28.280 I mentioned it takes a big, handsome man to admit when he's wrong.
00:25:33.920 I thought there was still a good chance Biden would stay in the race.
00:25:36.220 I do, however, feel totally vindicated on a prediction I made back in 2018 or 2019, before the 2020 election, where I said, I think Kamala Harris could go far.
00:25:47.500 I think she's, no one was really looking at her at the time.
00:25:51.120 Everyone was looking at the bigger ticket Democrat items.
00:25:53.900 But I said, Kamala, she's crafty, she's clever, she's a real careerist, she checks a lot of intersectional boxes.
00:26:00.480 Keep your eyes on Kamala Harris.
00:26:01.660 And it looked like I was wrong when she got out of the race before the primaries.
00:26:05.940 But then I felt quite vindicated when Biden picked her for the VP.
00:26:10.220 And now I feel extremely vindicated.
00:26:11.800 This woman is very good at working behind the scenes to amass political power.
00:26:17.000 So I don't mean to take anything away from her in that regard.
00:26:20.680 However, she is a horrible retail politician.
00:26:24.000 She is one of the worst retail politicians I have ever seen.
00:26:27.400 She can't connect with anyone in the public.
00:26:30.660 She can't speak very well.
00:26:32.440 And in many ways, a demented Joe Biden is a better orator than Kamala Harris at her prime.
00:26:37.720 She doesn't know anything.
00:26:39.480 That's why she just repeats herself the same platitudes about imagining what can be by being unburdened by what has been.
00:26:46.100 And boy, don't you like yellow school buses?
00:26:47.740 I love yellow school buses.
00:26:49.240 She doesn't have anything to say.
00:26:50.800 She doesn't believe in anything.
00:26:51.700 It's probably why the liberal establishment likes her so much.
00:26:53.900 She might not be the nominee.
00:26:57.240 She has secured officially enough delegates to be the nominee.
00:27:01.840 There are only something like 103 or 104 days left.
00:27:05.160 So 97% chance she is the Democrat nominee.
00:27:11.020 But if she stumbles, if she really continues to stumble on the campaign trail, if some of the big power players in the Democrat Party continue to withhold endorsements, there is a chance.
00:27:22.340 Look, as my friend Bridget Phetasy pointed out, we're debating whether the president's alive or dead.
00:27:28.500 And that's the third weirdest thing to happen in the last nine days.
00:27:30.820 My only real prediction here is that people who are making solid predictions have no idea what they are talking about.
00:27:41.620 Now, there's a big new hit on Trump regarding Kamala, assuming Kamala is the Democrat nominee.
00:27:46.020 Here's the big hit.
00:27:46.860 Ready?
00:27:47.060 Here's the big oppo research.
00:27:48.280 Donald Trump donated to Kamala.
00:27:52.800 He did.
00:27:56.980 I guess he did.
00:27:58.080 And from 2011 to 2013, Trump gave $6,000 to Harris's re-election campaign for California attorney general.
00:28:05.260 And his daughter gave a little money too.
00:28:08.460 Okay.
00:28:09.120 That's the best they got.
00:28:11.280 Of course, Trump donated to her.
00:28:12.580 She was an attorney general of a big state.
00:28:14.400 And Trump does business everywhere.
00:28:16.440 And he has bragged for decades about buying off politicians.
00:28:22.020 This line of attack, I can't even imagine the Democrats are foolish enough to try to use it.
00:28:27.000 This line of attack is the exact same line of attack they used in 2016 when they said,
00:28:32.840 ha-ha, Trump donated to Hillary.
00:28:34.880 And Trump flipped that attack back on them.
00:28:37.020 He said, yeah, Hillary can be bought.
00:28:38.520 I bought her.
00:28:39.360 I bought politicians on both sides of the aisle.
00:28:41.500 I'm an outsider.
00:28:42.560 I know how the political system works.
00:28:43.940 I've used the political system.
00:28:45.500 I know all these people.
00:28:46.540 I had them in my pocket.
00:28:49.040 And it was an effective line.
00:28:50.620 So I can't imagine the Harris campaign is going to want to use this.
00:28:55.460 Because it is not only pretty much as effective as it was in 2016 against Hillary.
00:29:02.440 It shows that Kamala didn't have money.
00:29:04.740 She could be bought.
00:29:05.840 And Trump gave her money.
00:29:08.400 It also highlights similarities between Kamala and Hillary Clinton.
00:29:12.920 Both terrible retail politicians.
00:29:16.680 Both seemed to credit some of their political rise, at least to men in their orbit.
00:29:21.600 Let's put it diplomatically and politely.
00:29:24.720 Neither has any particular accomplishments under their belt.
00:29:29.520 Maybe one or two here or there.
00:29:30.800 But still not.
00:29:31.700 They're really being graded on a curve if they're being considered presidential material.
00:29:35.400 The only difference, I guess, is that Hillary was more widely hated because Hillary was more widely known for a longer period of time.
00:29:45.960 Many people, probably most people, don't even really know who Kamala Harris is.
00:29:48.780 But that is a fear for the Democrats.
00:29:51.460 They are running a woman who in many ways resembles the last candidate to lose to Trump.
00:29:58.840 They replaced a guy who can claim to have beaten Trump with someone who is much closer to the woman who lost to Trump than the guy who ostensibly beat him.
00:30:13.000 So lots of people are miffed about the Kamala choice.
00:30:15.460 Lots of Democrats are miffed about the Kamala choice.
00:30:17.460 And a lot of Republicans.
00:30:19.660 I'm a little miffed about it.
00:30:21.160 GOP had built a campaign against Joe Biden.
00:30:23.620 And then the Democrats cleverly switched at the last minute.
00:30:28.100 And I don't think it changes the fundamentals of the race.
00:30:30.980 But it is going to make it harder for Republicans to pivot.
00:30:33.320 The other guy who's really irritated is J.D. Vance.
00:30:35.280 Because J.D. Vance really wanted to debate Kamala Harris.
00:30:39.240 By the way, speaking about takebacks, I was told I was going to get to debate Kamala Harris.
00:30:44.880 And now President Trump's going to get to debate her?
00:30:50.500 I'm kind of pissed off about that, if I'm being honest with you.
00:30:53.040 Now, speaking, I mean, look, if I were J.D. Vance, I would be pretty miffed, too.
00:31:07.880 Could you imagine?
00:31:08.340 That debate would have just been so absolutely magnificent.
00:31:11.020 People have pointed out that J.D.'s wife, Usha, is also of Indian descent.
00:31:16.580 And so J.D. has this special talent for resolving conflicts with Indian women, you know, as any married man will know.
00:31:25.880 It's good, you know, when you have discussions with your wife, sometimes there are disagreements that can help.
00:31:30.580 So all sorts of jokes about this, including being made by J.D. Vance.
00:31:34.980 But it does off-foot the Republicans.
00:31:40.300 We don't know who she's going to pick for her VP.
00:31:42.480 It does require a change in campaign strategy.
00:31:45.180 The Democrats are clever.
00:31:46.620 They will go to any lengths to win.
00:31:49.440 They will change all the voting rules in the lead-up to an election to give themselves an advantage if they think they're not going to win otherwise.
00:31:56.500 They'll advocate locking the whole country down if they think it'll give them an advantage.
00:32:01.540 They'll boot out the sitting president of the United States.
00:32:04.320 They will kick him off his own presidential ticket over his strenuous objections.
00:32:09.680 They'll send him to his home in Rehoboth Beach and lock him up if they think it'll give them any advantage.
00:32:16.240 So J.D. is ticked off.
00:32:18.600 Speaking of people who are ticked off, Elon Musk sat down with my friend and colleague, Jordan Peterson, yesterday.
00:32:25.740 And the part of this discussion that's really gone viral is when Elon describes his political revolution, how he came to so oppose what he would call the woke mind virus.
00:32:39.900 And it's personal for him.
00:32:41.840 It's not just something he saw on TV or read about in a newspaper.
00:32:45.400 It affected his family personally.
00:32:49.180 Okay, so I see.
00:32:50.360 So that's a personal connection.
00:32:51.120 I was tricked into doing this, and it wasn't explained to me that puberty blockers are actually just sterilization drugs.
00:33:03.340 So anyway, and so I lost my son, essentially.
00:33:11.100 So, you know, they call it dead naming for a reason.
00:33:16.000 Yeah, I...
00:33:16.940 All right, so the reason it's called dead naming is because your son is dead.
00:33:24.120 So my son Xavier is dead.
00:33:26.680 Killed by the woke mind virus.
00:33:29.380 I'm sorry to hear that.
00:33:31.040 Yeah.
00:33:31.380 I can't imagine what that would be like.
00:33:34.880 Yeah.
00:33:38.960 So...
00:33:39.360 Yeah, and there's lots of people in that situation now.
00:33:42.700 Right.
00:33:43.000 It's not pretty.
00:33:44.000 And lots of demolished kids.
00:33:46.360 Yes.
00:33:47.620 Yeah, well, that's a good reason to be the final straw.
00:33:52.220 All right, so let's...
00:33:52.980 So I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that.
00:33:59.780 And we're making some progress.
00:34:03.400 Join the club.
00:34:05.460 That was it.
00:34:07.700 Simple enough.
00:34:08.420 If you could put yourself in Elon's shoes.
00:34:10.140 I mean, you really feel for the guy hearing this.
00:34:12.580 Yeah, that would do it.
00:34:13.760 I mean, I'm miffed by plenty of abstract political issues.
00:34:16.500 And I'm devoted to trying to improve aspects of society in the abstract.
00:34:21.900 But when it hits your kid like that, and you get tricked into going along with it,
00:34:26.260 and you're wracked by guilt and fury and all these things.
00:34:29.700 Yeah.
00:34:29.980 And you happen to be the richest, one of the richest and one of the most powerful men on earth.
00:34:34.580 Yeah, you're going to devote yourself to attacking that.
00:34:38.780 He uses this phrase, and it's a popular phrase, the woke mind virus.
00:34:42.320 I think my friend Gad Saad came up with the phrase.
00:34:45.320 And it's a useful phrase.
00:34:47.340 But it's a little difficult to pin down for a lot of people.
00:34:51.060 What is it?
00:34:51.520 Even conservatives have struggled to define what is woke.
00:34:55.000 The woke mind virus is just a roundabout way of saying liberalism.
00:35:00.900 It's just liberalism.
00:35:03.060 It's the logical conclusion of liberalism.
00:35:06.300 That's the woke mind virus.
00:35:07.660 A lot of people want to distinguish between liberalism and the woke mind virus because they
00:35:12.640 want to consider themselves liberals.
00:35:14.620 They want to hold on to the premises of liberalism.
00:35:17.180 They don't want to have to call themselves right-wing or conservative or this or that or
00:35:21.700 the other thing.
00:35:22.360 But it's just, and even a lot of conservatives would still call themselves liberals.
00:35:26.200 But it's just liberalism.
00:35:29.040 Liberalism is the centering of individual autonomy in the political order.
00:35:33.900 Liberalism is an exaltation of the self as primary in politics.
00:35:43.300 Liberalism is an indulgence of any desire, rational or appetitive, from the individual.
00:35:50.740 And it's really a worship of the self.
00:35:53.920 That's it.
00:35:54.620 And so the logical conclusion of that is, if politics ought to allow you to do whatever
00:36:02.040 it is you want to do, no matter how irrational, then the logical conclusion of that is, I
00:36:06.820 ought to be able to be anything that I could even be.
00:36:09.500 I could even imagine being even contrary to nature.
00:36:12.840 If I'm a man, maybe I can be a woman.
00:36:15.080 I can have a new name.
00:36:16.540 I can have a new personality.
00:36:17.940 I can violate the laws of logic and physics and biology and anything.
00:36:25.020 That's it.
00:36:25.560 That's the woke mind virus.
00:36:27.300 But that's just following liberalism to its logical conclusion.
00:36:33.880 And so in order to stop the woke mind virus, the reason I mention this is not so we can
00:36:37.440 all sit around in a philosophy seminar.
00:36:38.980 The reason I mention this is if you actually want to stop the woke mind virus, you have
00:36:43.120 to pull it out from the root.
00:36:46.260 Another term for that is eradicate it.
00:36:48.240 You have to get down to the core issues.
00:36:52.640 And so the core issue are the premises of political liberalism.
00:36:58.100 And that means you're going to have to give up a lot of things that are fashionable and
00:37:02.100 modern and, you know, you ostensibly would go along with.
00:37:04.820 But you're not going to eradicate the woke mind virus by trying to rewind politics three
00:37:08.700 to ten years.
00:37:09.960 That's not going to work.
00:37:10.840 You have to fundamentally rethink your premises.
00:37:14.200 While the left is in panic mode, we are bringing together the most trusted voices in
00:37:17.760 conservative media to break it all down for you.
00:37:20.220 Tonight, 7 p.m. Eastern, The Daily Wire is backstage is live.
00:37:23.880 Join me along with Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Andrew Klavan, and Jeremy Boring as we discuss
00:37:28.060 who the left is going to prop up next and how we are going to keep America from falling
00:37:31.560 off the cliff.
00:37:32.400 Do not miss Backstage Live tonight, 7 p.m. Eastern on Daily Wire Plus.
00:37:35.520 It is free.
00:37:36.120 It is live.
00:37:36.560 It's going to be legendary.
00:37:39.960 My favorite comment yesterday is from the drummer's workshop, Norm's Music, who writes,
00:37:44.380 if Joe Biden really did write that letter, it would have ended with, put pencil down.
00:37:48.240 Stop, repeat the line, put pencil down.
00:37:51.880 It's so true.
00:37:52.640 He did not write that letter.
00:37:53.880 I am quite certain.
00:37:55.700 Speaking of working your way through institutions and gaining an advantage and what Wall Street
00:38:04.140 Journal purports to have the secret to getting ahead.
00:38:07.360 And it is apparently Riz, R-I-double-Z, cool Zoomer slang for charisma, Riz.
00:38:19.820 Is Riz the secret to getting ahead at work?
00:38:22.520 Whether you call it charisma, charm, or magnetism, some people seem like naturals.
00:38:26.420 Good news, it can be learned.
00:38:27.740 So I'm going through this article and the thrust of it.
00:38:33.560 I won't read it in verbatim, but the thrust of it is you need to be approachable and relatable.
00:38:39.700 You need to recognize that everyone's important.
00:38:41.520 You're not just nice to the people ahead of you who you're trying to suck up to and impress.
00:38:45.800 You got to be nice to everybody, even the low people, even anybody.
00:38:51.800 You just got to be nice to them, and you got to remember their names and aspects of their life,
00:38:57.900 and then they're going to like you, and then you're going to get promoted.
00:39:01.640 That's pretty much it.
00:39:03.480 That's pretty much the whole article.
00:39:04.920 It is, if you've ever read the most famous self-help book of the last hundred years,
00:39:10.620 How to Win Friends and Influence People, it's by Dale Carnegie.
00:39:14.720 You've gotten that.
00:39:15.660 You read that book.
00:39:16.580 I read it because it was so prominent.
00:39:18.280 I said, okay, I guess I'll read this book.
00:39:19.440 I'm not really a big fan of the self-help genre, but sure, why not?
00:39:21.860 I'll read it.
00:39:22.540 And it basically comes down to be nice and learn people's names.
00:39:26.060 That's it.
00:39:27.880 But here's the key, and this is something that the Wall Street Journal, I think, is missing here.
00:39:32.640 And then a lot of self-help books, and a lot of hustler gurus, and Sigma Grind said,
00:39:37.340 here's how you get ahead, guys.
00:39:38.620 Here's what they miss.
00:39:40.880 You can't fake it.
00:39:42.920 You can't fake it.
00:39:44.280 People write into the show a lot, and not even in terms of how to get ahead at work.
00:39:47.500 They'll write into the show on how to ask a woman out on a date, or how to impress a woman on a date.
00:39:53.020 And my answer is always, oh, you have to like them.
00:39:56.040 You should like them, and you should be interested in them and what they have to say.
00:40:01.000 And they will like that.
00:40:03.600 But you can't fake it.
00:40:04.940 It has to be sincere.
00:40:06.760 This is good advice.
00:40:10.240 Especially the advice of be nice to everybody.
00:40:12.040 There was an old line I remember back when I was a young man working in show business.
00:40:16.700 You always hear, be nice to the people on your way up because you're going to see the very same people on your way down.
00:40:21.560 There's another image, comes from the Middle Ages, and has been transported to network primetime television, which is the Wheel of Fortune.
00:40:29.820 Lady Fortuna just spins her wheel.
00:40:31.560 And sometimes you're at the top, but then sure, if you're at the top, you know for certain you're going to go back down to the bottom again.
00:40:39.160 And if you're at the bottom, that's very unpleasant.
00:40:41.100 But one consolation is the only place you can go is up, and that's just how it works in the tribulations and vicissitudes of this life.
00:40:47.940 That's where you are.
00:40:49.760 And so you're going to see the same people, and you've got to be nice so that they don't hate you.
00:40:53.340 And so maybe they'll even help you on your way up or on your way down.
00:40:58.800 Yeah, that's good advice.
00:40:59.940 You can't fake it.
00:41:02.980 People will know if you're faking it.
00:41:04.700 People will know if you're using them as instruments and tools for your own self-aggrandizement.
00:41:09.140 People can sniff that out.
00:41:10.280 People aren't stupid.
00:41:12.120 People can tell when you're flattering them, and everyone hates a flatterer.
00:41:15.800 It's got to be sincere.
00:41:17.520 So then what's the advice?
00:41:19.400 What's the secret to getting ahead?
00:41:21.080 Is it riz?
00:41:22.200 Is it flattery?
00:41:24.520 Is it hustling?
00:41:25.660 Is it this, is it that?
00:41:26.360 No, what all this really comes down to is practicing virtues.
00:41:31.560 That's what it is.
00:41:33.440 How do you get ahead?
00:41:35.260 You are courteous to people.
00:41:37.820 You are prudent in your speech and your actions.
00:41:40.900 You are just.
00:41:41.860 You treat people as they ought to be treated.
00:41:44.000 You are, you're, maybe you show a little grace and mercy sometimes if people screw up.
00:41:48.880 You care about others.
00:41:50.540 You're not only focused on yourself, but you're actually interested in other people because man is a social creature.
00:41:56.520 You're, you just, you just do the right thing.
00:42:01.160 That's what you're, that's, that's the secret to getting ahead.
00:42:03.020 Wow, breaking news story, headline.
00:42:04.900 Can I, can I write an essay in the Wall Street Journal about this?
00:42:09.120 That's it.
00:42:09.620 Because every time you try to cheat it or find a shortcut, people are going to notice it.
00:42:15.300 It can be learned.
00:42:16.460 The riz can be learned.
00:42:18.540 But it's not going to be learned from some hustler or some pimp or someone trying to give you a shortcut to get ahead.
00:42:24.240 Riz can be learned by, by practicing the moral and intellectual virtues.
00:42:28.320 That's how it's going to be learned.
00:42:29.160 But, uh, speaking of riz and going on dates and things like that, Americans are not having kids.
00:42:35.860 And our friends in the establishment media, I think this might be the journal too, actually.
00:42:40.440 Wall Street Journal, not, not having a great, great week.
00:42:44.760 Wall Street Journal has this headline, why Americans aren't having babies.
00:42:48.800 Subheader.
00:42:49.900 The costs and rising expectations of parenthood are making young people think hard about having any children at all.
00:42:55.640 Okay, so that part's obviously true.
00:42:59.160 Uh, women without children, rather than those having fewer, are responsible for most of the decline in average births among 35 to 44-year-olds during their lifetimes so far.
00:43:07.560 So it's not just that people are having smaller families.
00:43:09.540 It's that many more people are just not having any children at all.
00:43:13.220 This, according to the Census Bureau, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
00:43:16.580 Childlessness accounted for over two-thirds of the six and a half percent drop in average births between 2012 and 2022.
00:43:26.420 Why?
00:43:27.040 Why is that?
00:43:27.820 Well, according to the article, according to what a lot of people are saying these days, it's because of the cost of having children.
00:43:35.820 It is very expensive to have children.
00:43:37.300 That's true.
00:43:37.720 Now, the journal sees something here beyond that, which is, it's not just that kids are expensive, it's that we are expected to have a higher standard of living today than maybe our parents or our grandparents did.
00:43:47.840 So, yeah, maybe you could keep the kid alive for a modest amount of money, but if you want to buy him the latest toys and put him in the fancy school and get him the gizmos and the gadgets and the screens and the college-educated, cage-free, range-free eggs or whatever, you know, then that's all going to be, if you need to have the really big house.
00:44:08.100 Our grandparents had smaller houses.
00:44:09.520 We have bigger houses now, if we have houses at all.
00:44:12.200 But they don't really make those small houses quite so much anymore.
00:44:14.760 It's either people living in apartment pods or they're living in a bigger kind of a house.
00:44:19.300 So, there's this greater expectation.
00:44:21.420 But I guess my problem with this analysis is it just doesn't match up with what I observe and have observed for years.
00:44:30.860 My friends who don't have kids are not poorer on average than my other friends.
00:44:36.740 They're richer.
00:44:38.520 They're richer.
00:44:39.920 They have a higher income.
00:44:42.580 They have more powerful jobs.
00:44:44.760 They live in the wealthier areas.
00:44:49.640 Financially, they're better off.
00:44:51.900 The people I know who have lots of kids, with some exception, tend to be less wealthy.
00:44:58.860 So, what's that about?
00:45:01.140 It's not—I don't buy this story for a second.
00:45:03.280 Oh, it's just so hard out there.
00:45:04.380 I wish I could have children, but it's just, you know, the money is so hard.
00:45:08.180 No.
00:45:08.900 It's because you like going to brunch.
00:45:10.120 It's because you like buying the $25 cocktail at the special bar in Tribeca.
00:45:15.260 It's because you want to have the fancy car and go on the fancy vacation.
00:45:19.800 It's—money is a problem here.
00:45:22.620 But I suspect what it is is that people get addicted to money.
00:45:26.480 It's the temptation of money.
00:45:27.780 It's the temptation to self-indulgence.
00:45:31.480 There are plenty of people who just can't have kids because they're infertile and because, well, there are all sorts of reasons why people are suffering infertility these days.
00:45:37.920 But there are many, many people who are perfectly fertile who just choose not to have kids, and that's driving the population decline.
00:45:47.480 And it's not—don't let them lie to you and tell you it's because, well, it's just too hard to make a buck these days.
00:45:51.980 I don't think that's true at all.
00:45:55.240 It's because—the poor can always have children.
00:45:59.180 Children were once called the poor man's wealth, which changes a little bit in the industrial age.
00:46:02.740 But nevertheless, that remains a visible phenomenon.
00:46:07.720 It's because people get attracted to the things of this world.
00:46:10.340 It's because of selfishness, basically.
00:46:14.320 Usually is.
00:46:15.220 You don't need big headlines here.
00:46:16.300 Wow, shocking.
00:46:17.380 Here's the secret to getting ahead.
00:46:19.120 Be diligent and do your work and be virtuous.
00:46:21.520 Wow, here's why people aren't giving of themselves to other people.
00:46:25.820 It's because they're kind of selfish sometimes.
00:46:27.500 Yeah, yeah, wow.
00:46:29.260 Amazing.
00:46:29.700 Everything old is new again.
00:46:32.900 It's amazing how the tradition and the eternal facts continue to appear.
00:46:38.060 It is Teehee Tuesday.
00:46:39.260 We have got Lib reactions to Biden dropping out.
00:46:42.340 The rest of the show continues now.
00:46:43.360 You do not want to miss it.
00:46:44.100 Become a member.
00:46:44.560 Use code KnowlesKnowles or check out for two months free on all annual plans.
00:46:59.700 And it will actually be routed out.
00:47:00.520 Hope you did this one.
00:47:02.040 I know.
00:47:11.260 It UCLA is so great.
00:47:11.800 It's great.
00:47:13.080 It's so great.
00:47:13.360 I know.
00:47:14.160 We have got a lot of私.
00:47:14.700 It's a great kitchen.
00:47:15.480 We have got two things here.
00:47:16.880 Court of zoals Least.
00:47:17.580 We have got a lot of us.
00:47:18.360 We have got one.
00:47:19.200 It's funny.
00:47:19.600 We have never been working on all the questions.
00:47:20.420 We have got a lot of people.
00:47:21.020 We have got a couple of other questions.
00:47:23.120 We have got a lot of people.
00:47:24.400 Here's your first time.
00:47:25.160 We have got a little bit of people.
00:47:26.060 We have got all kinds of activity.
00:47:26.880 We have got in the lives.