Ep. 1663 - BREAKING： 67 Passengers In Airplane and Helicopter Crash, No Survivors Found
Episode Stats
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Summary
American Airlines flight collided with a military helicopter in the first deadly commercial airplane crash in the U.S. since 2009. 67 people are feared dead. Immediately, well-adjusted people prayed, curious people speculated, and mainstream leftists tried to find a way to blame President Trump.
Transcript
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An American Airlines flight collided last night with a military helicopter in the first deadly
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commercial airplane crash in the U.S. since 2009. Right now, 67 people are feared dead
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between the airplane and the helicopter. Officials do not believe that anyone has survived.
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Immediately upon hearing the news, well-adjusted people prayed, curious people speculated,
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and mainstream leftists tried to find a way to blame President Trump.
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I'm Michael Knowles. This is The Michael Knowles Show.
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Welcome back to the show. Bobby Kennedy appeared yesterday before the U.S. Senate committee to
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testify to have his confirmation hearings. We will get to all the machinations of that. It's a big,
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big confirmation hearing for HHS. First, though, of course, have to talk about this horrific crash.
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First fatal commercial airline crash in the U.S. in 16 years. An American Eagle flight. This is an
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American Airlines flight that was operated. It's a smaller regional jet collided with a Black Hawk
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helicopter. And actually, a camera caught the explosion. There was a camera on the sky. This is
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right above Reagan Airport, the national airport in D.C. You can see the airplane right there so clear
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within view as it was landing. And then a massive, massive explosion, a fireball, and the remains of
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the aircraft go down into the Potomac. Immediately, people began to speculate. Immediately, you had all
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of this conflicting information. We still don't have all of the information right now. But people began
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to speculate. They were wondering what the helicopter was doing. There were some reports that the
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helicopter was flying dark, was not in contact with aviation authorities. There were all of the
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totally baseless speculation. Immediately, everyone on the internet became an aviation expert.
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Everyone became a military expert. Immediately, people were making all these sorts of crazy reports
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about people surviving. There's no evidence for that whatsoever. You could see it on camera. There's
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this massive fireball going down into a frozen river. But all of this wild speculation. Then from the
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left, there was immediate blame. You had people like, well, CNN. This is how CNN reported.
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It in real time. Mary, I have one more question for you. Look, it's January 29th. We are just nine
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days out from a presidential transition, an administrative transition. The FAA administrator
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resigned at the end of the Biden administration. So there is no permanent, confirmed FAA administrator
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right now. This is going to be a time when there's going to be a lot of public communication
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and a lot of investigation of what happened here. What do you anticipate this transition period is
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going to mean for what happens today and tomorrow and in the coming days as we find out what happened
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Do these people have no shame whatsoever? The answer to that question is obvious. They don't. They don't have
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any shame at all. You're reporting on this major tragedy. The first deadly commercial crash in the
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U.S. in 16 years. And your first thought is, you know, we're days after a presidential transition to
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power. And actually, the old FAA chief is out. So what? So what? Like there's no one running the
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aviation authority. Are you kidding me? Well, well, but Trump just came in. It's just, it's so
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disgusting. What a shallow sort of person you must be. What a, what a totally shallow individual you
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must be to think anything happens, including a really horrific national tragedy and just think,
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okay, great. First question, how do I blame Trump for this? Even what is the, even the most tenuous,
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barely even logically coherent argument that I could possibly make to blame Trump for an airplane
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crashing into a helicopter in the Potomac? You know, aviation crashes, they happen. They do,
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they're, they're infrequent, but they, they happen regularly. And the first thought, how do I blame
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Trump for this? And, and that CNN lady wasn't the only one, Bakari Sellers, who I think was also a CNN
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guy. He might be out now. He posts a picture from the, uh, transportation and infrastructure webpage,
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Trump's dangerous freeze of air traffic control hiring. And he posts eight days ago, eight days
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ago. Now he deleted this. I don't know because if it was because he finally got some shame and
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embarrassment, or if it's because he realized that the argument he thought he was making was just so
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preposterous, that because president Trump announced eight days prior that they were not
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going to be hiring new people immediately in the future, that somehow that would cause an airplane
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crash. Eight, that you think eight days is enough time to hire up and train new air traffic controllers?
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Totally absurd, totally despicable kind of argument. So even he is a pretty shameless fella. He, he deleted
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that. Other people though, Aaron Rupar, he used to work for more mainstream left-wing outlets. I think
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he's on his own now. He was a little fringe even for the mainstream left. Headlines from a week ago
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is an incident near DCA appears to be the deadliest aviation disaster in the U.S. since 9-11, which I
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don't, I don't know that that's true. There have been crashes since 9-11 that have been fatal. But
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in any case, the headline says Trump guts key aviation safety committee fires heads of TSA Coast Guard
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as if, as if that could possibly have an effect days later. In any case, yesterday was the first
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full day on the job for Sean Duffy, the new transportation secretary, who's a great guy. So,
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you know, obviously jumping in headfirst because this involved a military helicopter. This also
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involves Pete Hegseth, who was just confirmed what, four days ago he took the job. What day is it?
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Today's the 30th, so five days, four days before the disaster. This does happen, but it's relatively
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infrequent. And even we've had fatal incidents in the air in recent years that have not been crashes,
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so they don't really get lumped in with these kinds of incidents. But 2018, there was a passenger on
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Southwest Airlines that was killed because shrapnel from the plane's engine blew through the window,
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caused a drop in air pressure. The passenger suffered fatal injuries because the passenger
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was nearly sucked outside of the jet. That had been the first death on a U.S. commercial flight
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since 2009. That was seven years ago or so. But, you know, there are all sorts of
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crashes and all sorts of, you know, airplane incidents that happen over the years. Some are
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really, really bad, going all the way back to the early and middle 20th century. But they happened
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1945, 1956, 1982, 1989, 1999, obviously 2001. Then even after 9-11, a couple months after in 2001,
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another crash in New York, 2011, 2013. It happens. We don't think about it because U.S. commercial air
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travel is statistically just about the safest mode of transportation in the world. But it does happen.
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And it doesn't have to be a crazy conspiracy. And it doesn't have to be that the CIA sent a helicopter
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unmanned to take out a commercial airplane for some unknown reason. And it doesn't have to be
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that the new administration failed in its duties and it goes all the way to the top and it's all
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Trump's fault. And it doesn't have to be that, you know. Sometimes you can just pray.
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Sometimes your reaction to news can just be to pray. You don't need to pretend to be an expert.
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You don't need to concoct the craziest theory in the world. You don't need to just hurl invective
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at your typical political opponents. Believe it or not, sometimes you can just pray.
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And defer to people, or rather, I should say, defer to the one being that has infinitely more
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knowledge and power than you do. And you can just pray. You don't need to be the expert on
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everything. You don't need to make it all about you. This is what Eric Swalwell did. Eric Swalwell,
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U.S. congressman, Democrat, who ran for president, though many people forget that,
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known for lots of other eccentricities on the national stage. He immediately posted,
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and said, you know, wow, I was just landing at Reagan. Wow, what are the odds? Man, that,
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you know, essentially saying that could have been me. And someone posted a meme in response to it,
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said, you know, a guy looking in the mirror, he says, hey, Buster, you get out there and you make
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this national tragedy all about you. It doesn't have to be about you. You probably don't have
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expertise to offer on this. There will be major investigations. It's very sad when these
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incidents happen every 15 or 20 years, sometimes more frequently. You can just pray.
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That's what I would recommend, at least. Okay, turning back to political news,
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Bobby Kennedy was up yesterday for his confirmation hearing, his first confirmation hearing for HHS
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Bobby Kennedy comes out for his first confirmation hearing, and Ron Wyden, the ranking member of the top
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Democrat on the committee, opens it up by screaming, shrieking at Bobby Kennedy.
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Are you denying that? Your name is on the petition.
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We brought that petition after CDC recommended a COVID vaccine without any scientific basis for six-year-old
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children. Most experts agree today, even the people who did it back then, that COVID vaccines are
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inappropriate for six-year-old children who basically have a zero risk from COVID. That's why I brought that
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lawsuit. Okay, so right off the top, Ron Wyden seemed a little bit more like Ron Wyden, if you
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ask me. Okay, he was just, he just had this awful voice, and he was just complaining at RFK. You heard
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their RFK had perfectly good answers. He said, yeah, the reason I signed this petition against this
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particular vaccine is because the information that was coming out of the CDC and the NIH and Dr.
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Fauci was wrong. It's been proven to be wrong, and I was right, so that's why I signed the petition.
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Frankly, that should be a mark in favor of my being confirmed to this position.
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The most interesting part of the RFK hearing yesterday came from another Democrat senator,
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that is Sheldon Whitehouse. Now, Sheldon Whitehouse has been buddies with RFK for 40 years.
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They went to each other's weddings, I think. They were old buddies from law school,
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would spend a lot of time together, hiking, hanging out. So if it's a really close vote,
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if all the Democrats are against RFK, if some of the Republicans squish, like Collins, Murkowski,
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maybe McConnell, maybe others, there has been talk that Sheldon Whitehouse could be a deciding vote
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from the Democrats, a defection that could get RFK through. Now, a lot of people yesterday said
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that Sheldon Whitehouse was signaling that he won't do that. And you judge for yourself before I give you
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Mr. Kennedy, I only have five minutes with you, and I've got a lot of experience with CMS,
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so you're just going to have to listen. And frankly, you frighten people.
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Okay, and then he goes on. That's the supercut of this. He says, okay, listen, Mr. Kennedy,
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Mr., as if he doesn't know this guy for 40 years, Mr. Kennedy, I only have about five minutes with you.
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You have the same amount of time as every other senator up there. So I'm not going to ask you any
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questions, but you frighten people, and we're going to get really serious here. I'm just going to tell
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you what I think. This was Sheldon Whitehouse signaling that he probably will vote for RFK if
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it comes down to it. That's what's going on. And I can't believe that the political media and all
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the analysts are missing this. That's obviously what Whitehouse is doing here. Don't listen to
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the words he's saying. Don't listen to the tone in which he's saying them. Listen to the words that
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he's not saying. It's kind of like jazz. People say with jazz, it's not the notes they play. It's the
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notes that they don't play. That's where the real music is. Well, that's where the real
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questioning was there. He was in the lack of questioning. Sure, he took a mean tone with
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RFK, and he said people are very concerned or whatever, but he didn't ask him a single question.
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And he had this flimsy excuse. I only have five minutes. Everyone has the same amount of time.
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Give me a break. They can all ask questions. Why didn't you? Because you don't want to put him in a
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bad spot. Because you don't want the gotcha for RFK. You don't want to give him a bad clip.
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Sheldon Whitehouse was filibustering himself yesterday, which is good. I'm glad to see
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that. But if I were on the Kennedy team, if I were in the Trump Whitehouse right now,
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I would hear that testimony. I would not conclude that Sheldon Whitehouse is not going to vote for
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Kennedy. I would draw the exact opposite conclusion. This is Sheldon Whitehouse saying,
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hey, I'm really upset about your nomination. Hey, this is really, really bad. And that's why I'm not
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going to make this any worse for you at all right now. But please, I hope I don't have to vote for you.
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But if I have to vote for you, okay, I'll do it. That's my read on it.
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The silliest questioning came from a Senate, Senatrix Liawatha, who she did grill Kennedy.
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She asked him, first, she asked him, do you promise not to work for Big Pharma after you
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leave the agency? Do you promise not to cash in on your political experience with HHS? She asked the
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same sort of thing of Pete Hegseth. Will you promise not to work for defense contractors after
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you leave the Pentagon? So she asks him that. But then the follow-up question was what made her line
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of questioning totally ridiculous. So, Mr. Kennedy, I want to start with something that I think you and
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I agree on. And that is that Big Pharma has too much power in Washington. You've said that President
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Trump asked you to, quote, clean up corruption and conflicts. Sounds great. You've said that you will,
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quote, slam shut the revolving door between government agencies and the companies they regulate.
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That also sounds great. So here's an easy question. Will you commit that when you leave this job you
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will not accept compensation from a drug company, a medical device company, a hospital system, or a
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health insurer for at least four years, including as a lobbyist or a board member? So, Mr. Kennedy,
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will you also agree that you won't take any compensation from any lawsuits against drug companies
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while you are secretary and for four years afterwards? Okay, that's the beautiful part here.
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So, we cut out Kennedy's responses because they're exactly what you would expect. She goes,
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do you promise that you won't take money from Big Pharma? Bobby Kennedy is one of the biggest
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opponents of Big Pharma in the entire country. He has led the fight against Big Pharma for decades.
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They hate him. So, his answer is, yeah, I promise that. They hate me. They'll never hire me. What are
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you talking about? I'm their biggest opponent. So, she goes, okay, good. Well, then do you also promise
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not to fight Big Pharma? And he goes, wait, what? Hold on. You're asking me to promise that I won't work
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for Big Pharma or work against Big Pharma. So, can I do anything when I leave HHS if I just have to sit
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on my hands at home? What are you talking about? But this was, Elizabeth Warren is an intelligent
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woman. For all her foibles and flaws, she is a relatively intelligent woman. And so, that was
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the question she was really trying to get to. The first one was the setup for the second one.
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Because Elizabeth Warren is one of the biggest recipients of Big Pharma money in the U.S. Senate.
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Now, look, maybe the donations coincide with her sincere belief in defending Big Pharma.
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But we can't ignore this fact. She is in the pocket of Big Pharma. Bobby Kennedy is a big threat
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to Big Pharma. So, she wants to ensure, not that he's not going to go work for Big Pharma. That was
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never going to happen. She wants to ensure that he's not going to be the big foe of her big friends
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when he's in the agency or when he's out of the agency. This is the fight here. People are looking at
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the Bobby Kennedy nomination as a battle between Democrats and Republicans. Not really. Bobby
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Kennedy is a Democrat. He's a Kennedy, okay? And he ran for president as a Democrat. He's a Democrat.
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So, it's not a Democrat versus Republican thing. It's not even really a liberal versus conservative
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thing. Trump has created a new eclectic coalition. It's a little different than, say, the Bush coalition
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or the Romney coalition. So, it's not really that. The one big power that is opposing Bobby
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Kennedy's confirmation is Big Pharma. That's it. Pharmaceutical industry, to some degree,
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big agriculture or the food industry. That's it, okay? So, the question for his confirmation
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hearing is not can the R's overcome the D's. It's can the Trump coalition overcome this one huge
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special interest, the pharmaceutical industry? Remains to be seen. Now, there was one weak moment
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for Kennedy in this hearing. Some people are saying it was a weak hearing. He didn't do well. I thought
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he did just fine, all things considered. There was one moment where the Democrats land a clean blow on
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him. And it was because of a tactical error by Bobby Kennedy. And this blow came by way of Ben Ray
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Lujan, a senator that neither I nor anyone else had ever heard of. He had a back and forth with RFK
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over Medicaid. Here was Kennedy's mistake. Is it important that expectant mothers and newborns
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have access to health coverage? Absolutely, Senator. Mr. Kennedy, do you know how many
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babies born in this country are covered through Medicaid? I would guess, I don't know the answer.
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I would guess about 30 million. I have it, Mr. Kennedy. About 41 percent or 1.4 million babies' births
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are financed by Medicaid, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Yes or no, do you
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believe that Medicaid is a critical program? I believe that Medicaid is a critical program,
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but that it's not working as well as it ought to be. And President Trump has asked me to make it
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work better, that most Americans are not happy with it. So you can hear that he's dispirited after
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he loses this exchange. Yeah, I think Medicare is really, really important. Medicaid is really
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important. This question from Lujan is a typical cheap kind of political debate set up. It's essentially
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like asking a presidential candidate, hey, name me the capital of Uzbekistan. It's the sort of thing
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where out of context, I guess it makes you look dumb or ignorant, uneducated, if you can't name the
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capital of some country. But also like, I don't know, do you know the capital of Uzbekistan? I
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don't, I couldn't name it right now. You don't know. These are little gotcha questions. Hey,
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what's the statistic? What number is this? You know, how many, how many such and such live in
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this and that place? And Kennedy didn't know the answer. He made a mistake, which is an elementary
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mistake of negotiating, namely, whoever gives the first number loses. His answer, if he didn't know the
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answer and he was willing to admit that, then his answer should have been, I don't know, Senator,
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please inform me. Because the fact that he got the answer wrong by a multiple and an order of
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magnitude, right? The answer was what? One to one and a half million. And he answered 30 million. He
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got it so radically wrong. The Democrats are going to seize upon that to say, this guy just doesn't know
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his basic stuff. This guy, he's totally unqualified. Now, again, it doesn't really matter.
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RFK Jr. Not knowing that one particular statistic or his confirmation hearing in no way suggests
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anything about his ability to do the job. But it was just a political misstep, which is surprising
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from someone who has been in public life for his whole life, who is from one of the most political
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families in the country. That was unfortunate. I don't think it's going to knock him out,
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but it was unfortunate. Then the question that made me laugh the most, I suppose,
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was from another no-name senator, a Senatrix Tina Smith, who went after Bobby Kennedy because Kennedy
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had the audacity to question the wisdom of SSRIs, these depression pills that an increasing number
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of Americans are hooked on from their youth. The science shows that there is no link between
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school shootings and antidepressants. And in fact, most school shooters were not even treated
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with antidepressants. And of those that were, there was no evidence of association.
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I don't think you can say that, Senator, because HIPAA rules, nobody knows.
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Mr. Kennedy, this is personal for me. When I was a young woman and I was struggling with depression,
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thankfully, I had the resources to help me get through it, including a new generation of SSRI
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uptake inhibitors, which helped to clear my mind, get me back on track to being a mom and a wife and
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a productive, happy person. But then the killer part of this questioning was, the senator says,
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well, you know, I've been on SSRIs. She's getting increasingly angry, unhinged. I've been on SSRIs
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during periods of my life. And I'm obviously so sane. He says, I don't know. I don't think
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your experience with these drugs is exactly ballasting your argument that these are totally
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fine, these heavy psych drugs that you, the unhinged senatrix, are familiar with. I don't
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know. That undercut the argument. Final point on RFK's testimony. There's one conservative area
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for concern from our side with RFK. And that is that he's been pro-abortion for his whole life.
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He says he's Catholic. I know he went to church. He went to the church my grandmother went to for
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like 60 years. Okay. He's from my town, the area, the town in which I was born, town my grandmother
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lived in for a long time. So I, you know, I'm somewhat familiar with his religious behaviors and
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he's got these two conflicting poles. He says he's Catholic, but he's also a big lib. Those are in
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contradiction to one another. He was asked, what do you think about abortion? Here's his answer.
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Health care. How are you going to handle it? I'm going to support President Trump's policies
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on Title 10. I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy. I agree with him
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that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year. I agree with him that
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the states should control abortion. President Trump has told me that he wants to end late-term
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abortions and he wants to protect conscious exemptions and that he wants to end federal
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funding for abortions here abroad. That's Title 10. I'm going to, I serve at the pleasure of the
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president. I'm going to implement his policies. Thank you for that. Good. I love it. I love it.
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Democrats were trying to nail Kennedy on abortion because they wanted it to be a wedge issue for
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the conservatives. He says, look, I think every abortion is a tragedy. Regardless of what I've said or
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positions I've held as a Democrat, I'm here to implement the president's agenda. The president
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is pro-life, most pro-life president we've ever had. Okay. Good enough for me. There's so much
00:25:17.340
more to say. First though, text Knowles to 989898. Is your retirement protected against economic
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And so if you want it, it makes a great Valentine's gift for the man in your life or the woman in your
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Candles at duckcandleclub.com. And speaking of smells and bells, you can get a really important
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encountered it quite personally. Check out this teaser.
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If you start digging into the occult, you're opening a door and you might not be strong
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Get the full episode on the Michael Knowles YouTube channel. Do not forget to subscribe
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for the ad-free version on Daily Wire Plus. Speaking of faces of the administration,
00:28:07.180
Caroline Levitt is the press secretary at the White House doing a great job.
00:28:11.320
Such a great job that the ladies of The View feel the green monster coming upon them. They really
00:28:18.500
don't like this woman. She's a good communicator. And so Joy Behar just offered her analysis on why
00:28:27.280
I think she's probably been put in there because according to Donald Trump,
00:28:33.500
I want to be clear, though. It's not her first job. It was her first press briefing. She worked
00:28:38.720
Okay, so that lady, the fake Republican on The View, she's kind of defending Caroline Levitt here.
00:28:45.020
She realizes Joy Behar has gone a little too far. What's Behar saying? She only got that job
00:28:49.540
because she's hot. That actually isn't true. She's a very nice looking lady, but it isn't true that
00:28:56.260
that's why she got the job. She got the job because she was the national spokesman for the
00:28:59.700
campaign, and she did a very good job in that role. And the campaign was hugely successful and
00:29:04.760
communicated very effectively. That is why she got the job. Even if Caroline Levitt weren't a pretty
00:29:10.200
lady, even if she were a male gremlin monstrous looking fellow, she still would have gotten the
00:29:17.100
job based on how effective the campaign communications was. Furthermore, Caroline Levitt ran for
00:29:25.340
Congress. I was talking to Roger Stone about this when we were trying to figure out who the picks for
00:29:30.100
the administration were going to be. He said, I think Levitt's going to get the White House press
00:29:33.460
sec job. I think she earned the job. And I like that she has been in the fire. She's run for office.
00:29:39.300
So she's taken the slings and arrows that go with being in the active campaign politics. That's why she
00:29:46.240
got the job. But even factoring in that she's a nice looking lady, I love it that the Libs attacks
00:29:52.620
on conservatives right now are that we're hot and cool. I love that. I love hot and cool. They
00:29:59.700
don't want to seem like opposites, but hot. Like, do you saw the New York Magazine article? We talked
00:30:03.720
about it yesterday on the show. The cover, where it was all these just hot young people just drinking
00:30:09.140
white claws and probably have tins of zen in their pocket. They're all wearing tuxedos properly and
00:30:13.500
they're having a good time and they're just, they just look good. They look good and vibrant and cool
00:30:18.400
and hip. You Republicans, you, oh, you dastardly Republicans. He know what you are. You want to
00:30:27.340
know what I really think of you Republicans? I think you're really good looking and fun and cool.
00:30:34.600
And I wish I were you and you're really hot. Okay. Ooh, ouch. You got us. That's great. Okay.
00:30:42.480
That's how dispirited the left is right now. Their best attack on the right is that we are hot
00:30:51.160
and cool. You Republicans, you're so sexy. I hate you so much, you Republicans. Okay. Sorry. All right.
00:31:00.500
Now, Caroline Leavitt, also Catholic. Love that. She had a nice big cross that she was wearing during
00:31:05.160
that press briefing. Speaking of Catholics in the administration, got to give big props to my man,
00:31:10.840
J.D. Vance over here. J.D. Vance was just doing an interview on Fox News and he explained
00:31:16.620
immigration. He countered a narrative that is building in some corners and some Christian
00:31:22.740
corners that enforcing immigration law is somehow anti-Christian, contrary to the faith,
00:31:29.420
contradicting the teachings of our Lord. He countered that argument, which I think is preposterous,
00:31:35.580
using Catholic teaching, specifically using the logic of the angelic doctor, our vice president.
00:31:44.600
I can't believe I'm saying this in the year of our Lord, 2025, our sitting vice president,
00:31:49.940
just Thomas Aquinas pilled people on national TV to explain immigration.
00:31:56.360
But there's this old school, and I think it's a very Christian concept, by the way, that you love
00:32:02.400
your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love
00:32:06.800
your fellow citizens in your own country. And then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of
00:32:13.440
the world. A lot of the far left has completely inverted that. They seem to hate the citizens of
00:32:18.500
their own country and care more about people outside their own borders. That is no way to run a society.
00:32:23.860
And I think the profound difference that Donald Trump brings to the leadership of this country
00:32:28.820
is the simple concept, America first. It doesn't mean you hate anybody else. It means that you have
00:32:34.960
leadership, and President Trump has been very clear about this, that puts the interests of American
00:32:40.100
citizens first. In the same way that the British prime minister should care about Brits and the French
00:32:45.260
should care about the French, we have an American president who cares primarily about Americans, and
00:32:50.380
that's a very welcome change. What is President Xi doing? What is Vladimir Putin?
00:32:53.700
Putin is looking after the Chinese. Putin is looking after the Russians. They're entitled
00:32:56.860
to do that. Thank God we now have an American president who's looking after the citizens of
00:33:02.660
So beautifully said. Get this man the Thomas Aquinas Award for mass political communications.
00:33:13.540
I don't know if any institute puts that out. They should put one out, and they should give
00:33:16.900
it to JD Vance. What a beautiful way to explain, in simple terms, the order of charity, which we can
00:33:25.660
deduce using our reason, which flows perfectly from Christian principles, and which does not
00:33:30.900
contradict the faith at all. Think about it this way. You're walking past a swimming pool, and you see
00:33:36.960
a little kid drowning. What do you do? If you have any courage at all, if you have any virtue at all,
00:33:41.480
you're going to jump in that pool, try to save the kid. This actually happened to my father a few
00:33:45.000
years ago. My father was by a swimming pool in his condo complex, saw a kid drowning, jumps in,
00:33:50.080
gets the kid out. Great stuff. Of course, every reasonable person would agree with that.
00:33:56.360
Now, let's say there's a really big swimming pool, and there are two kids drowning. God forbid,
00:34:00.800
one of them is your child, and then one of them is someone else's child. Who do you jump in to save
00:34:08.060
first? You want to save them both, but who is it right to jump in to save first? Your kid,
00:34:17.640
obviously, because you have a greater responsibility to your child than you do to someone else's child.
00:34:24.440
You want to help them both, but if you can't help them both, if you have to prioritize things,
00:34:29.760
as we all do in time and space, then you prioritize your child first. If you didn't,
00:34:35.440
if you left your child to drown to go save someone else's kid, people would look at you weird. People
00:34:40.440
would think that there's something actually immoral about that, and there would be something immoral
00:34:44.740
about that. St. Thomas writes about this at great length, actually. I'm sure J.D. Vance is familiar
00:34:51.220
with that, and he is bringing the teaching of the angelic doctor, the great scholastic,
00:34:55.000
to modern public ears. That's how we have to think about immigration. It's not that we don't like
00:35:01.620
people from around the world. It's not like that we don't like people in El Salvador. Well, we really
00:35:06.020
like people in El Salvador because of Naid Bukele, but it's not that we don't like people in Venezuela
00:35:09.820
or Honduras or Nicaragua. It's not that we don't like people in China or Tahiti or Africa,
00:35:13.600
but there's an order of charity here. It is the responsibility of the vice president and the
00:35:21.020
president and of everyone in our country to look first for our countrymen. You care first for your
00:35:30.000
family, then for your local community, then your state, then your country, and then we look after
00:35:38.840
people from elsewhere in the world. But you think of the Democrats who voted against the Lakin-Riley
00:35:44.140
Act. President Trump signed his first bill into law yesterday for the second term. That's the Lakin-Riley
00:35:49.180
Act. And the Lakin-Riley Act says, if illegal aliens are caught committing theft and offenses
00:35:56.180
that are lower level than murder and rape, but which might be the first step on the way to murder
00:36:02.020
and rape, as it was in the case of Lakin-Riley's killer, then we're going to deport them. We're going
00:36:07.200
to speed up the deportation of those people. The Democrats voted against that. Many Democrats
00:36:11.640
voted against that. Some voted for it. And they voted against it because they would rather
00:36:16.200
prioritize foreign rapists and murderers, at the very least foreign thieves, over innocent
00:36:22.460
American children and innocent university student like Lakin-Riley. It's not that they don't have a
00:36:27.920
big heart. Let's take all the cynical motives that the Democrats have out for a second. And let's say
00:36:33.940
they are motivated sincerely by sympathy for people in the third world, by sympathy for illegal aliens
00:36:41.320
who cross our border, but they don't have a lot of money. And they just, and sure, they steal stuff
00:36:45.540
from our stores. But let's say it's a sincere sympathy that they feel for them. And it's not
00:36:51.420
self-interest trying to get a permanent electoral majority. The problem is not that the Democrats
00:36:57.380
don't have a big heart. The problem is that their heart is in the wrong place. This is how GK
00:37:02.940
Chesterton described his friend George Bernard Shaw. George Bernard Shaw, who is an atheist and a
00:37:06.520
socialist. He said, my friend Bernard Shaw has a very big heart, but it's in the wrong place.
00:37:11.320
That's the issue here. You have to take care of your family, of your people, of your fellow
00:37:17.880
citizens first. Okay, you can't disadvantage them to go privilege some criminal from the other side
00:37:24.560
of the world. That is wrong. It's immoral. It's contrary to the faith. It's contrary to natural
00:37:30.680
reason. Now, there's a great update on the immigration enforcement issue, which we will get to in one
00:37:35.880
moment. First, though, I am going to feel so old. I'm going to feel so old.
00:37:41.320
Ten years ago, the Daily Wire started a fight. We took on the radical left's assault on truth.
00:37:48.000
We refused to bow to their delusions. And today, because of our members' support, we are winning.
00:37:53.060
On January 20th, President Trump signed an executive order banning the chemical and surgical mutilation
00:37:57.640
of children. It's a major victory that we led the way on. A battle that other conservatives,
00:38:01.700
some of them, weren't even willing to take on a decade ago. We took the heat. We took the losses.
00:38:06.700
We took the risks. And today, reality wins. It's amazing to think even that the Daily Wire has
00:38:11.100
existed for 10 years. And I was going back. I was thinking about all the ways that we've been
00:38:15.780
involved in the trans fight. And it occurs to me, I have been attacked. I've given a billion speeches.
00:38:21.360
I have been attacked precisely two times physically at these speeches. Both times
00:38:27.440
were when I was talking about transgenderism. This was one of my earliest speaking tours. It was called
00:38:33.620
the Men Are Not Women and Other Uncomfortable Truths Tour. And I was attacked by some wacko who
00:38:40.240
busted in a fire door who then ended up getting arrested. So Ben got attacked by some trans-identifying
00:38:46.820
dude on TV. Then I got attacked by some trans-identifying dude at the University of
00:38:51.760
Missouri, Kansas City. Was ultimately invited by now Congressman Eric Burleson to finish my speech
00:38:57.580
at the Missouri Statehouse. Then, obviously, then Matt came out with his movie. That was a huge
00:39:02.400
game changer. But then I was thinking even, I gave a talk at University of Pittsburgh. Some dude is in
00:39:08.360
federal prison right now, some Antifa terrorist, because they tried to blow us up for the speech of
00:39:13.260
Pittsburgh. This issue has been such a fiery issue. And the left isn't going to give up. So we're not
00:39:18.000
going to give up. So thrilled that President Trump has signed this into law. Right now, you need to go
00:39:21.880
to dailywire.com slash subscribe. Help us continue that fight. My favorite comment yesterday from
00:39:28.220
Sherry Ford 667, who says, I am so happy to learn how much these illegals love their native countries
00:39:33.120
and what a kind act Mr. Tom Homan is doing by giving them a complimentary flight home. So true. That's
00:39:38.380
that's charity, isn't it? They love waving their flags, the Mexican flag, sometimes flags of other
00:39:43.720
countries. They love speaking in that language. They love attacking America. Well, great. And
00:39:50.020
America is a racist, horrible, evil place. So great. Mr. Homan, what a great act of charity.
00:39:55.640
We have got an update on the deportations. You know, I said on the show, I've been saying it for the past
00:40:01.400
week or two. We need to really ramp up the arrests. They're doing a great job in the first few days of
00:40:07.820
the admin. But, you know, they were bragging that they had a thousand arrests in the first week.
00:40:15.340
Well, it's not hard to do the math. A thousand arrests in the first week is 52,000 arrests a
00:40:19.660
year. It's 208,000 arrests and deportations by the end of the term. 208,000 out of 11 to 16.8
00:40:25.440
million is not a fraction of a fraction. And I said, I'm giving them a little grace. What they're
00:40:31.880
trying to do is very difficult now, but they got to up it. Well, they are upping it. There was an
00:40:36.500
enforcement update yesterday. January 29th, 1,016 arrests, 814 detainers lodged. Okay, now we're
00:40:45.200
ramping it up. It was whatever it was. I think it was 538 or 540 deportations in the first week,
00:40:53.700
and then hundreds more who were detained or something like that. So, okay, you say it's a
00:40:57.080
thousand. Then it was a thousand alone on Sunday. Now we're getting a thousand arrests, 800 detainers
00:41:05.140
lodged. Those are ICE daily statistics as of midnight. So you are seeing it ramp up. You are
00:41:09.780
seeing this administration getting aggressive. There were people, including immigration hawks,
00:41:14.960
who are very skeptical of Trump. Okay. I'm an immigration restrictionist. I don't merely think,
00:41:23.520
the Democrats think we should have totally open borders. Many Republicans think, and President
00:41:27.900
Trump has even said sometimes, that we should have no illegal immigration, but we should have even more
00:41:32.040
legal immigration. My view is the third view, which happens to be the majority view of Americans,
00:41:37.400
which is that we actually need a reduction in overall immigration, and we need a drastic reduction
00:41:42.860
in overall immigration. Multiple public opinion surveys show that this is the view of the majority
00:41:48.140
of Americans. Certainly my view, I think it's obviously right. And there were people who were
00:41:52.300
immigration hawks who said, oh, Trump, he's actually weak on this issue. He's going to give
00:41:57.940
us much more migration. Some people even suggested you should vote for Kamala because Trump is so weak.
00:42:04.560
Totally crazy. Trump is going to be a squish or something. This first week and a half, this is the
00:42:09.940
greatest first week and a half of any presidential administration ever. Okay. Can you think of a
00:42:15.840
better one? I can't. And what's important here is not just the daily numbers, it's the trend line.
00:42:22.660
Trump is getting more aggressive. Love this. Really, really good news. And the hits just keep on coming
00:42:28.300
as Meta, the parent company for Facebook, agrees to pay Trump $25 million, $22 million of which
00:42:36.800
will be going to the Trump presidential library. Why? Because Meta is settling a lawsuit filed by
00:42:45.800
President Trump because Meta suspended Trump's social media accounts after January 6th, the worst
00:42:52.780
day in the history of the Serenity Republic. This is according to three people familiar with the
00:42:57.280
matter and according to reporting. This on top of ABC News agreeing to pay $15 million to President
00:43:05.680
Trump's library because of defamation that was advanced by George Stephanopoulos, the political
00:43:13.760
anchor for ABC News. This is really good stuff. I am so excited. I am so excited for the President
00:43:21.280
Trump, the Donald J. Trump presidential library and casino to be located in Atlantic City. That is what
00:43:27.060
I am lobbying for. I am excited in no small part because as of now, this whole thing is going to be
00:43:32.900
funded by the most left-wing organizations that have been trying to destroy Trump for 10 years.
00:43:39.360
This is so, so beautiful. The left has given up. They fought. They tried to kill Trump the first
00:43:47.700
time. Well, metaphorically, they tried to kill Trump the first time. Then they justified literally
00:43:51.940
killing Trump afterward. But they tried to undermine his administration. They worked against him.
00:43:57.320
They then, Mark Zuckerberg committed huge sums of money to rigging the election for Democrats in 2020.
00:44:05.380
ABC News lied about Trump on air. Everyone tried to take this guy out and then he won and the left is
00:44:11.000
totally defeated. They've just given up the fight. Okay. All right, Trump. Zuckerberg is going to go to
00:44:17.320
the inauguration. He's going to go there. He's going to go kiss the ring. Okay, fine. All right,
00:44:22.640
Facebook tried to destroy the Daily Wire's business. Very nearly succeeded. We were the
00:44:27.040
number one publisher on Facebook, number one publisher in the world. They one day just turned
00:44:31.680
the switch, tried to kill our business. We survived by the skin of our teeth. Okay. All right. So
00:44:37.700
whoopsie-daisy, our bad. We give up. Hey, Trump, here you go. Here's 25 million bucks. ABC. Okay.
00:44:43.100
Trump, here you go. Well, they were actually forced by a judge. Here's 15 million bucks. Okay.
00:44:47.320
All right, fine. You win, Trump. You win. And he is clearly using his victory aggressively. He's
00:44:57.880
not letting the opportunity go to waste. Can't wait. Can't wait to celebrate that victory at the
00:45:03.140
Trump Library and Casino. Now, speaking of presidents and Trump and money, the former president of Kenya,
00:45:10.320
President Uhuru Kenyatta has had the greatest response to the people whining and crying about
00:45:19.200
Trump cutting funding, not just in the domestically, but also, uh, whining and crying about, uh,
00:45:26.760
people overseas. We're saying, why is Trump cutting the funding? Here is President Kenyatta.
00:45:33.360
People the other day crying. Oh, I don't know. Trump has removed money. He said he's not giving us
00:45:44.040
any more money. Why are you crying? He has no, he has no reason to, to give you anything.
00:46:00.980
I mean, you don't pay taxes in America. He is appealing to his people.
00:46:07.840
Yeah. This is a wake-up call for you to say, okay, what are we going to do to help ourselves?
00:46:16.240
Instead of crying, to, to, to, to, to, to you, what are we going to do? Hi, I ametua you a
00:46:22.600
peso. Sasa tutafanya na mnagani jameni. What are we going to do? Yeah. To support ourselves.
00:46:29.700
Because nobody is going to continue holding out a hand there to give you. It is time for us to use our
00:46:37.660
resources for the right things. We are the ones who are using them for the wrong things.
00:46:41.440
I love this. It's total common sense. I'm noticing something coming out of Africa recently,
00:46:47.460
which is a lot of common sense, a lot more common sense, actually, than we're seeing out of the West.
00:46:54.780
You think about this when, when the Vatican issues new guidance, that's a little strange,
00:47:00.400
a little quirky, seems to be undermining 2000 years of church teaching. It's the African bishops.
00:47:06.400
It's the African cardinals who come out and they say, we're not doing that.
00:47:11.640
Basically saying, why are you gay? And so they're saying, no, no, no. And
00:47:15.140
actually the Vatican kind of defers to the African bishops on that.
00:47:19.340
It is the, the Africans were coming out and saying, why do you think that you're just entitled
00:47:25.080
to the money of American taxpayers? No, you're not. You think that president Trump having been
00:47:29.500
elected by the electoral college and the majority of Americans doesn't have the right
00:47:33.000
to, to change American foreign policy? Of course he does. And you need to, you need to defend
00:47:38.240
yourself sometimes and you need to focus on your own problems and you need to improve. You have
00:47:42.240
some responsibility. Okay. And this has been Trump's foreign policy from the beginning. He says,
00:47:46.660
Hey, NATO, we'll defend you and stuff, but you need to meet your obligations. You can't just become
00:47:51.780
weak. It's like a, it's like a good father with his kids. You want to give your kids every
00:47:56.180
advantage in the world, but you don't want to spoil your kids. You don't want your kids to end up
00:47:59.960
being weak. That's going to be bad for everybody. And speaking of Trump, uh, restoring this kind of
00:48:07.280
reality, you are seeing a, a real toughness on, on foreign policy, even with regard to Russia,
00:48:13.420
you know, president Trump, uh, president Trump had this to say when he was asked about Russia.
00:48:22.200
Vladimir Putin doesn't come to the table to negotiate with you. Will you put additional
00:48:26.720
sanctions on Russia? Sounds likely. And do you think that the war should be frozen currently
00:48:32.480
along? The war should have never started. If you had a competent president, which you didn't,
00:48:36.380
the war wouldn't have happened. The war in Ukraine would have never happened if I were president,
00:48:40.780
but that couldn't happen because the election was rigged. Yeah, go ahead.
00:48:45.000
Okay. So notice this. He's, he's asked about Russia because this war is still going on,
00:48:49.160
even though it's sort of fallen out of the news, there is still this war in Ukraine,
00:48:52.380
which does still threaten a lot of global instability. And Trump has been accused for
00:48:57.700
10 years of being in the pocket of Russia. He's a KGB stooge. He's, he's working for the Russians.
00:49:02.400
They've got compromise on him. All this nonsense, total, total nothing. But what does he say?
00:49:07.440
What's his actual policy on Russia? He says, I'm not looking to hurt Russia. I love the Russian people
00:49:11.800
and always had a very good relationship with president Putin. And this, despite the radical
00:49:15.780
left's Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. We must never forget that Russia helped us win the second
00:49:18.960
world war losing almost 60 million lives in the process. All of that being said, I'm going to do
00:49:25.520
Russia whose economy is failing and president Putin a very big favor, settle and stop this
00:49:31.200
ridiculous war. It's only going to get worse if we don't make a deal soon. I have no other choice
00:49:34.460
but to put high levels of taxes, tariffs, and sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to
00:49:40.000
the United States and various other participating countries. Let's get this war, which never would
00:49:44.720
have started if I were president over with. We can do it the easy way, the hard way,
00:49:48.220
the easy way is always better. It's time to make a deal. No more lives should be lost.
00:49:53.280
This is going to shock members of the liberal press. It's not going to shock any serious person
00:49:59.140
who's been paying attention. Trump is going to be tougher on Russia than Joe Biden was. Trump is
00:50:05.240
going to be tougher on Russia than Barack Obama was. Trump already was tougher on Russia than either of
00:50:12.160
those guys were, despite being told that Trump is softer on Russia. Because Trump's argument here,
00:50:21.400
he's saying, look, I can get along with Putin. Look, Russia's helped us out. Look, Russia's not
00:50:25.600
the most evil country in the world. But if Russia doesn't get in line and do what I want,
00:50:31.640
my hands are tied. I'm going to be forced to destroy your country. Just like in the first
00:50:36.920
administration when Trump reportedly said to Putin, look, hey, Vlad, I like you a lot. I get along with
00:50:41.380
you pretty well. Unlike those other past presidents who didn't get along with you. I get along with
00:50:45.500
you. But if you do something I don't like, I'm going to blow up your capital. I'm going to blow
00:50:49.240
up your house and kill you. So, you know, let's try to get along, okay? And Putin, even if he thinks
00:50:57.480
there's a 5% chance that that's going to happen, Putin has to take that seriously because Trump is
00:51:02.420
unpredictable. This is the big foreign policy prediction that to me is so obvious that, I don't
00:51:10.940
know, some people are just missing. Yeah. Trump is going to be both softer and harder on Russia.
00:51:16.900
He's going to be softer in the ways that are helpful for diplomacy. And he's going to be tougher
00:51:20.680
on Russia in the ways that matter when the rubber meets the road. Now, speaking of the Trump
00:51:25.720
administration, there are multiple confirmation hearings going on today. Obviously, there's ongoing
00:51:31.020
coverage of the horrific plane crash yesterday in DC. And we will have live coverage of all of that
00:51:37.180
thanks to my friend, Cabot Phillips. Cabot, good to see you.
00:51:47.200
Before we get to the confirmation hearings, is there any update with the plane and the
00:51:53.960
We're still waiting for more news there. The investigation obviously just getting underway.
00:51:57.600
We still don't know how this could have happened, how the sensors in this plane were not better
00:52:04.020
alerting the pilot that there was a helicopter coming, how the helicopter even ended up in
00:52:07.460
the path. Right now, we do know that they fear there are no survivors. So those rescue
00:52:12.880
efforts have shifted to recovery efforts. Everyone on board was killed. But we still have no word
00:52:19.120
yet. President Trump will be holding a press conference shortly with Transportation Secretary
00:52:23.500
Duffy within the next 40 minutes. So we'll get coverage of there on the Daily Wire. Keep in mind,
00:52:29.440
this was Transportation Secretary Duffy's first day on the job. Now he has this disaster to contend
00:52:35.500
with. But still very, very few answers regarding how this could have happened.
00:52:39.440
Okay. So what's going on with the confirmation hearings? What's the order of hearings today?
00:52:43.880
Yeah. So Kaspatel just kicked off about 20 minutes ago. He's before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
00:52:48.760
Tulsi Gabbard is before the Senate Intelligence Committee. And RFK Jr. is before the Health,
00:52:54.420
Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Gabbard and RFK got kicked off about 10 minutes ago. So
00:53:00.060
all three of them are happening simultaneously. We've got a live watch party going on all day
00:53:05.220
on the Daily Wire. Yours truly will be hosting it. I'll be in the chat hanging out with people.
00:53:09.440
But the ones we're watching most closely are going to be Gabbard and Kennedy. From what we're
00:53:13.340
hearing from Trump world, those are the two they're most concerned about getting confirmed
00:53:16.720
ultimately. Yes. I thought Tulsi would be tough because, as Chuck Schumer says,
00:53:22.740
the intel agencies can get you 20 ways from Sunday and they don't like her. She has alternative views.
00:53:27.880
I thought Kennedy would be pretty tough as well because Big Pharma is so powerful. And you saw
00:53:33.600
that through their employee, Elizabeth Warren, yesterday. Elizabeth Warren was really grilling
00:53:37.640
them. Tina Smith to that effect too. So we'll see. Kash Patel, I can't tell. He doesn't seem quite
00:53:44.380
as big a threat to the intel agencies as Tulsi does. So they might not go quite as hard on him.
00:53:49.460
But anyway, I guess it's all going on right now. So I'm going to turn it over to you so you can cover
00:53:52.420
it. Thank you very much, Michael. I appreciate that. And yeah, the big question right now when
00:53:57.860
it comes to Tulsi Gabbard is if the vote out of the Senate Intel Committee will be public.
00:54:04.420
Historically, the Senate Intel Committee votes behind closed doors when it comes to the confirmation
00:54:09.940
hearings for this position, Director of National Intelligence. But Trump rolled once this vote to
00:54:14.820
happen publicly, there are 17 members on the Senate Intel Committee, nine Republicans, eight Democrats.
00:54:21.640
Those eight Democrats are expected to vote no. The nine Republicans are some of them on the fence.
00:54:26.940
Susan Collins is one of those nine Republicans. If they vote behind closed doors, the concern is
00:54:30.660
a few of these Republicans could vote no. And their constituents back home would never
00:54:35.240
have any way of knowing that they voted no. Trump rolled as saying we are going to support
00:54:41.380
primaries against any Republican that votes against our cabinet picks. So the big question is,
00:54:46.980
will we ever get the results ultimately of those votes or will they be private? And we don't have
00:54:53.140
any way of knowing. Again, right now, Cash Patel speaking, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaking,
00:54:57.800
Tulsi Gabbard about to speak. So we're going to get you guys now back to that hearing where
00:55:01.000
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is speaking before the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Let's
00:55:06.540
hear some more of his opening statement. All right, I'll be tuning in. I'm Michael Knowles. This is