The Michael Knowles Show


Ep. 1758 - ＂Will You Strike Iran？＂ Trump Finally Answers


Summary

After days of speculation, President Trump has finally answered the question of whether or not he intends to strike Iran. Will he do it? And at what time? Plus, a big Supreme Court win for transgenders in a landmark case.


Transcript

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00:00:37.720 After days of speculation, President Trump has answered the question of whether or not he intends to strike Iran.
00:00:47.180 You don't seriously think I'm going to answer that question.
00:00:50.040 Will you strike the Iranian nuclear component?
00:00:53.720 And what time exactly, sir?
00:00:55.160 Sir, would you strike it?
00:00:57.640 Would you please inform us so we can be there and watch?
00:01:00.540 I mean, you don't know that I'm going to even do it.
00:01:02.680 You don't know.
00:01:03.340 I may do it.
00:01:03.960 I may not do it.
00:01:04.860 I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do.
00:01:06.240 I can tell you this, that...
00:01:07.900 Nobody knows what I'm going to do.
00:01:09.220 He starts making a joke to the guys behind him in the hard hats.
00:01:11.800 Hey, fellas, you hear this?
00:01:13.500 Hey, they want me to tell them when I'm going to hit the Iranian nuclear reactor.
00:01:18.740 Yeah, yeah.
00:01:19.360 Hey, hold on.
00:01:20.460 Synchronize your watches.
00:01:21.320 I want you to hear me clearly.
00:01:25.140 I say this without a hint of irony or exaggeration.
00:01:30.020 This is the ideal foreign policy.
00:01:33.520 This is more sophisticated foreign policy than we have heard from 99% of politicians, policy wonks, and pundits in my lifetime.
00:01:43.480 I may do it.
00:01:46.060 I may not do it.
00:01:48.620 And you may not like it, but this is what peak foreign policy looks like.
00:01:53.000 We will get into why.
00:01:53.920 I'm Michael Knowles.
00:01:54.580 This is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:01:55.400 Welcome back to the show.
00:02:16.160 Big Supreme Court win.
00:02:18.480 Though, actually, some conservatives are saying, is it really such a big win?
00:02:21.280 But I don't know.
00:02:21.720 It feels like kind of a big win.
00:02:22.660 The Supreme Court has upheld a Tennessee law banning transing the kids, and we've got the top lawyer behind the case.
00:02:31.040 Kristen Wagoner coming on later.
00:02:32.360 Hold on.
00:02:33.060 I have much more to say.
00:02:34.480 I have much more insight.
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00:03:59.960 All anyone is talking about is the war in Iran.
00:04:04.840 Israel's war in Iran that might become America's war in Iran that might already be America's war in Iran.
00:04:10.040 Why is America fighting a war in Iran?
00:04:11.920 Are we really?
00:04:12.600 Will we?
00:04:14.680 All the guys, any guy, I can't speak to the women, but any guy who is at all interested in politics right now is just obsessively refreshing X in the social media feeds.
00:04:25.940 Some would call this a waste of time.
00:04:29.080 The fellows would say, no, no, no, we're monitoring the situation.
00:04:31.680 No, no, no, we're just being close to it.
00:04:34.140 So what's going on?
00:04:34.800 What are we monitoring?
00:04:36.160 What's happening?
00:04:37.120 What does Trump want?
00:04:39.400 Trump wants no less than total victory.
00:04:44.880 He said I was going back home to make a ceasefire, not a ceasefire.
00:04:52.760 We're long beyond ceasefire.
00:04:54.160 And I said, why do you say that?
00:04:57.160 Why would you say ceasefire?
00:04:58.560 It's a bad term to use because a ceasefire means like everything's going swimmingly.
00:05:02.840 We'll take a little time off.
00:05:03.980 It's not.
00:05:04.760 We're not looking for a ceasefire.
00:05:06.380 We're looking for a total, complete victory.
00:05:08.360 Again, you know what the victory is.
00:05:11.380 No nuclear weapon.
00:05:14.000 So I thought it was a very badly worded statement by him.
00:05:17.640 And obviously I let him know that.
00:05:19.340 I love he just brushes it aside when they said you want a ceasefire.
00:05:22.840 In certain areas, you do want a ceasefire.
00:05:25.400 In Russia, Ukraine, winding that conflict down, you want a ceasefire.
00:05:30.360 Even Israel, Gaza, winding that conflict down, you probably want a ceasefire.
00:05:33.700 You want the hostages to come back, but you want a ceasefire.
00:05:35.520 Israel, Israel's other war with Iran, which is really just part of the same war.
00:05:41.160 It's the culmination of that same war.
00:05:42.940 It's actually has relatively little to do with nuclear weapons, much more to do
00:05:46.240 with the broader conflict around Israel, Palestine, Gaza, all the rest of it.
00:05:51.160 He says, we don't want a ceasefire.
00:05:53.820 I have been clear.
00:05:55.680 I don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons.
00:05:58.280 So it's not that I particularly care about this war or another war.
00:06:02.760 It's not that I particularly want regime change.
00:06:04.780 It's not that I want other goals of other nations, such as Israel in this case.
00:06:09.800 But my line, the Trump line that I've campaigned on for a decade,
00:06:14.420 Iran can't have a nuclear weapon.
00:06:15.880 So I'm not interested in a ceasefire.
00:06:17.380 You think the Israelis didn't tell the Americans when they were going to launch that attack?
00:06:21.380 Trump knows about this.
00:06:22.360 He wants more fire or he wants Iran to say we won't have nuclear weapons.
00:06:27.380 That's it.
00:06:28.660 He says, we're long past a ceasefire.
00:06:31.100 You had 60 days to make the deal.
00:06:32.520 Well, day 61, we light you up.
00:06:34.520 Sorry, the Israelis light you up.
00:06:36.240 But we kind of are involved to some degree.
00:06:38.980 And come on, you know, let's be real.
00:06:41.340 So what are the mullahs going to do in Iran?
00:06:44.660 Well, according to them, they say they will not surrender to the United States.
00:06:51.080 Here's Trump's reaction to their rejection of his demand for surrender.
00:06:55.680 Ron says that they will not surrender to the United States.
00:06:59.760 Say good luck.
00:07:01.760 What is the end game?
00:07:03.860 Say it.
00:07:04.660 I know the location's run out.
00:07:06.600 It's already run out.
00:07:08.180 That's why we're doing what we're doing.
00:07:10.220 They had 60 days and a big, you know, 60 days, plenty of time.
00:07:15.540 And they made a mistake.
00:07:16.780 Honestly, they made a mistake.
00:07:18.080 Their country's in ruins.
00:07:21.420 So many people are dead.
00:07:22.660 They shouldn't be dead.
00:07:23.420 I say good luck.
00:07:26.120 What do you say to the Ayatollah who says that he won't surrender?
00:07:29.380 I say good luck.
00:07:30.780 You're going to surrender.
00:07:32.080 And Trump still, he is still pursuing something that's a little different from the Israelis.
00:07:36.240 It's not that the American and Israeli goals are the same.
00:07:40.340 And it's not even that the tactics necessarily are the same,
00:07:42.700 though they're obviously in concert with each other.
00:07:45.080 The Israelis clearly want regime change.
00:07:47.200 For the Israelis, that is primarily what this war is about.
00:07:49.440 It is not primarily about nuclear weapons.
00:07:51.020 For Trump, I think it is primarily about nuclear weapons.
00:07:54.320 And he believes some intelligence, which says that the Iranians are close to nuclear weapons.
00:08:00.380 Even though we've been hearing it for 45 years at this point,
00:08:03.060 that the Iranians are five seconds away from a nuclear weapon.
00:08:05.760 Some intelligence says that they are.
00:08:08.440 Some says that they aren't.
00:08:09.260 They certainly do have an advanced nuclear program.
00:08:12.320 There is zero question about that.
00:08:13.880 So for Trump, it's about the nuclear weapons.
00:08:17.660 And he's holding out the Israelis as the bad cop and saying, look,
00:08:20.620 they want to decapitate all the malas and reinstall the Shah.
00:08:24.740 Me, I haven't decided what I want to do.
00:08:27.280 So tell you what, give up your nuclear weapons and maybe we'll make a deal.
00:08:30.700 Now for the Iranians, it's very difficult because Muammar Gaddafi in Libya got that same deal.
00:08:34.920 And then what happened?
00:08:35.580 The U.S. went in and took him out even after he gave up his nuclear program.
00:08:38.720 So I understand it's a complex situation all around the Middle East.
00:08:44.260 And it's complex at home because Americans, especially Trump's base,
00:08:48.580 do not want to get bogged down in another dusty war in the sandbox to create a democracy in the Middle East.
00:08:58.240 They don't want a long war.
00:09:00.200 And they're shouting this at Trump from the rooftops.
00:09:02.540 And the point that I've been making on the show all week is,
00:09:05.380 you think Trump doesn't know that?
00:09:07.060 You think the guy who managed to recreate the Republican Party,
00:09:11.480 create a voter coalition that allows Republicans to win the popular vote for the first time in two decades,
00:09:17.440 the guy who wins the top political office in the world on basically his first try,
00:09:22.200 and then becomes only the second president in American history to win a non-consecutive second term.
00:09:26.900 You think that guy doesn't have his finger decently on the pulse of the American electorate?
00:09:31.200 Of course he does.
00:09:33.560 So he was asked about this.
00:09:35.000 Well, what about the fears of a long war?
00:09:37.460 Trump says, why do you think I want a long war?
00:09:40.920 Some of the people in the base don't want a long-term war.
00:09:43.300 They're afraid that we're going to get into a long-term war.
00:09:45.180 We're not looking for a long-term war.
00:09:46.280 We're looking, it's only, I only want one thing.
00:09:49.460 Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
00:09:51.160 That's it.
00:09:51.580 I'm not looking long-term, short-term.
00:09:53.300 And I've been saying that for 20 years.
00:09:55.140 I've been saying it as a civilian who got a lot of publicity.
00:09:57.820 People would cover it.
00:09:59.160 Very simply, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
00:10:02.160 Simple as, he says, look, I don't want a long-term war.
00:10:06.640 So that gives you a sense of Trump's view here.
00:10:10.280 Trump is saying, no, no, I am not George W. Bush.
00:10:14.060 I'm not Dick Cheney.
00:10:15.620 I'm not going to get bogged down like we did in Iraq or Afghanistan.
00:10:20.540 I'm not like Barack Obama for that matter.
00:10:22.300 I don't want to get bogged down in a long-term war.
00:10:24.240 But of course, the rejoinder to that is, well, maybe you won't have a choice.
00:10:29.780 When you go into war, you don't necessarily get to decide when the war ends.
00:10:33.100 Your opponent gets a say in war too.
00:10:35.020 And I think this is giving people flashbacks to 20 years ago, more than 20 years ago now,
00:10:40.760 23 years ago, when Defense Secretary Donald Drumsfeld was on a radio show.
00:10:47.740 He was trying to sell the war in Iraq.
00:10:49.760 I think this was November 2002.
00:10:52.360 And he infamously said, oh, the war in Iraq?
00:10:56.820 That's not going to be a long war.
00:10:58.500 We could wrap that thing up in months or weeks or even days.
00:11:05.980 The Gulf War in the 1990 lasted five days on the ground.
00:11:12.200 I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today would last five days or five weeks or five months.
00:11:21.140 But it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that.
00:11:25.420 It certainly isn't going to last any longer than five months.
00:11:28.940 And guess what happened?
00:11:30.600 It did.
00:11:31.360 So what does that mean for the Trump policy in Iran?
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00:13:14.660 Rumsfeld there says, look, the Gulf War in the 1990s,
00:13:16.960 the first Iraq war in 1990,
00:13:19.400 that lasted on the ground five days.
00:13:23.340 And the whole war lasted about five, six weeks.
00:13:26.100 And then we were out.
00:13:28.300 The second Iraq war did not last five or six weeks.
00:13:31.280 The second Iraq war lasted almost nine years.
00:13:34.560 But what was the difference?
00:13:35.940 Actually, in the second Iraq war, the hot fire, go in, declare victory.
00:13:40.700 That was relatively quick.
00:13:42.360 I even talked to buddies of mine who served in Iraq.
00:13:44.620 I mocked the notion that we would be greeted as liberators.
00:13:47.200 My buddies who were there say, no, no, we actually were greeted as liberators.
00:13:49.860 All the screw-ups occurred afterwards, disbanding the Iraqi military,
00:13:54.660 all the kind of political corruption, the attempt to nation build and all the rest of it.
00:14:01.040 But whatever the excuses, didn't work out.
00:14:04.580 Rumsfeld was catastrophically wrong in his predictions of what would happen in the second Iraq war.
00:14:11.000 And Americans have a political PTSD to that.
00:14:15.060 Our servicemen, many of them have literal PTSD.
00:14:17.500 And Americans have political PTSD.
00:14:19.400 We don't want that again.
00:14:20.640 We do not want to get bogged down in another nine-year war in the Middle East.
00:14:25.580 A war that does not seem to serve our direct national interests.
00:14:28.900 A lot of people scratching their heads, why are we even in this war?
00:14:31.740 If it does serve American interests, it seems in a more abstract kind of way.
00:14:35.340 Like for the cause of nuclear nonproliferation.
00:14:38.640 So where does that leave us?
00:14:41.200 Well, it means that the doves have a point.
00:14:46.860 You don't always get to say when your war wraps up.
00:14:50.040 But you got to give Rumsfeld his due here.
00:14:53.760 The Hawks have a point too.
00:14:54.980 Because what the doves are saying is it's not possible to have a short war.
00:14:57.320 And that's not true.
00:14:58.180 The first Iraq war was really short.
00:15:00.240 The first Iraq war took about a month.
00:15:02.880 Okay?
00:15:03.740 So the Hawks have a plausible argument too.
00:15:09.460 And now it's up to Trump to reconcile these two factions that are within his government.
00:15:13.780 But Trump does that again and again.
00:15:15.600 Trump keeps rival factions on all manner of issues in his government.
00:15:19.020 You see this especially with tariffs and free trade.
00:15:21.760 You see this with people who are really pro-Ukraine, really skeptical of the Ukraine war.
00:15:26.960 You see this all over the place.
00:15:28.480 And we're waiting and we actually don't know what he's going to do.
00:15:34.300 I'm saying the thing that no political commentator is allowed to say.
00:15:38.660 Even though it's accurate.
00:15:40.300 Which is we don't know what Trump is going to do.
00:15:42.840 If you're a political commentator, you have to say with dead certainty.
00:15:44.720 I don't know exactly what Trump's going to do.
00:15:45.840 I can totally predict the future.
00:15:46.900 I've got a crystal ball.
00:15:47.880 You don't know.
00:15:49.040 That's the strength of the Trump foreign policy.
00:15:50.860 When he comes out there and says, I may strike Iran.
00:15:54.120 I may not strike Iran.
00:15:55.600 That is, without question, the bluntest, most truthful statement that man has ever made.
00:16:02.840 Because I'm not even sure he knows at that moment.
00:16:05.680 His unpredictability is his great strength in foreign policy.
00:16:11.320 But the stakes are very, very high.
00:16:13.820 Because it could be a really short war.
00:16:15.120 That really has happened.
00:16:15.980 It could, we could get bogged down for a decade.
00:16:17.840 That really has happened too.
00:16:19.260 And Trump might not strike them at all.
00:16:22.040 It would behoove the mullahs to make a deal.
00:16:24.600 Maybe it's too late.
00:16:25.840 Now, speaking of feuds that Trump has fought, and one that he recently won,
00:16:31.140 Trump has been feuding with Tucker Carlson.
00:16:33.900 Tucker's been hitting Trump pretty hard over the prospect of a war in Iran.
00:16:38.540 Trump has come out.
00:16:39.480 He said, hey, kooky Tucker Carlson needs to shut his mouth, basically.
00:16:42.840 And so Tucker got the nickname.
00:16:45.480 He got the much-coveted Trump nickname, kooky Tucker.
00:16:49.820 And then this happened.
00:16:52.240 Have you seen the Tucker Carlson, Senator Ted Cruz interview?
00:16:56.900 It seems like this issue on whether or not the United States should strike is kind of dividing a lot of your supporters.
00:17:03.600 No, my supporters are for me.
00:17:06.000 My supporters are America first.
00:17:08.060 They make America great again.
00:17:09.780 My supporters don't want to see Iran have a nuclear weapon.
00:17:13.880 Tucker's a nice guy.
00:17:14.740 He called and apologized the other day because he thought he said things that were a little bit too strong, and I appreciated that.
00:17:22.260 And Ted Cruz is a nice guy.
00:17:23.900 I mean, he's been with me for a long time.
00:17:25.620 I'd say once the race was over, he's been with me ever since, right?
00:17:28.500 But very simple.
00:17:32.760 If they think that it's okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, then they should oppose me.
00:17:38.320 But nobody thinks it's okay.
00:17:40.160 People that don't want to fight either.
00:17:42.440 I'm not looking to fight.
00:17:43.400 But if it's a choice between fighting and him having a nuclear weapon, you have to do what you have to do.
00:17:51.000 Maybe we won't have to fight.
00:17:52.400 Don't forget, we haven't been fighting.
00:17:55.820 We add a certain amount of genius to everything, but we haven't been fighting.
00:18:00.320 So notice what he puts in.
00:18:02.740 It's in this nice sandwich.
00:18:03.780 He's talking about policy, policy, policy, and the bread.
00:18:06.360 But then the meat of the sandwich is, yeah, Tucker, he's a nice guy.
00:18:08.820 He called to apologize to me.
00:18:10.720 Yeah, he said he went a little too far.
00:18:13.400 Which is great.
00:18:14.740 I was relieved to hear that.
00:18:17.260 I was really relieved to hear that.
00:18:19.800 Because, you know, like Tucker.
00:18:21.720 Tucker's been a great voice on the right for many decades at this point.
00:18:25.560 And I love Trump, and I don't want them to fight.
00:18:28.620 Just as I was relieved to hear that Trump and Elon kind of made up.
00:18:34.240 This is something that Trump is really good at.
00:18:38.580 See, people, when they're watching politics, what they want and what they expect.
00:18:43.240 But what they want, what they desire is division.
00:18:47.380 Even people on the right, even people who call themselves MAGA or America First or conservative,
00:18:52.260 they love the fighting.
00:18:53.960 They love the drama.
00:18:55.960 Trump doesn't love the fighting and the drama.
00:18:57.920 He's a pugilist.
00:18:58.720 He can throw a punch harder than pretty much anyone in national politics.
00:19:02.640 But he doesn't love the drama.
00:19:04.640 He tries to unite people.
00:19:06.880 And for all the little gossipy hens on the right, who love, ooh, do you see?
00:19:12.200 Ooh, ha ha, Elon and Trump are fighting.
00:19:14.360 Ooh, pick a side.
00:19:15.560 Are you team Elon or team Trump?
00:19:17.420 Ooh, I want to pick a side.
00:19:19.120 I want to tweet about it.
00:19:21.180 Ooh, whose side are you on, Trump or Tucker?
00:19:23.740 Oh, yeah, I like Trump.
00:19:25.480 No, I like Tucker.
00:19:26.300 Oh, yeah, let's let him duke it out.
00:19:28.540 Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.
00:19:29.360 All these little gossipy hens would rather have drama than results.
00:19:35.640 They would.
00:19:37.240 All they want to do is nitpick.
00:19:38.880 You'll notice I don't really pick fights on the right.
00:19:41.340 I try not to.
00:19:42.320 Occasionally you have to, but I try not to.
00:19:44.420 I try to get along with people on the right.
00:19:46.860 Not just because I'm an amiable, civilized fellow, but because I realize that I am in politics to do a thing.
00:19:55.280 I am in politics to advance something.
00:19:58.160 I'm in politics to advance the common good of the United States, and I recognize that I have enemies, I have opponents, and I have people that I have to work with in my coalition.
00:20:09.320 And I might not like some of the people in my coalition, and I might have political or personal problems with people in my coalition, but I realize that I need to put my ego aside for a second because I have a bigger job to do.
00:20:23.440 That's how I view politics, at least.
00:20:25.040 That's how Trump views politics.
00:20:26.200 And all the gossipy little hens who just want to see everyone fighting because it makes good reality TV, they are not helping the situation.
00:20:34.120 It's kind of funny that Trump is the big reality TV star, but he gets that you got to get along, get together.
00:20:39.040 He fought that brutal primary against Ted Cruz.
00:20:41.320 He goes, oh, Ted, yeah, we get along great.
00:20:43.700 Oh, love Ted.
00:20:44.280 Yeah, we fought that race.
00:20:46.180 But, you know, ever since then, we get along great.
00:20:48.600 Yeah, love Ted.
00:20:49.540 We get along.
00:20:50.080 Yeah, Tucker, we get along.
00:20:51.340 Yeah, it's all good.
00:20:52.100 Don't worry.
00:20:52.560 We're going to move forward.
00:20:54.500 Trump is particularly good at unity.
00:20:57.340 And this is, by the way, part of the anti-ideology of America first.
00:21:03.940 What does America first mean?
00:21:05.220 America first means a million things.
00:21:06.660 It's a phrase that's been used for a very, very long time.
00:21:08.520 But when I say America first, I mean the movement that Trump made.
00:21:11.620 That phrase lay dormant for a very, very long time, many, many decades.
00:21:15.500 And then Trump picked up that phrase because he liked it and he turned it into something distinct.
00:21:20.100 Just like Trump picked up the phrase, make America great again.
00:21:22.460 That wasn't Trump's original coinage.
00:21:24.080 Ronald Reagan used that phrase.
00:21:25.020 I think Richard Nixon might have used that phrase.
00:21:27.020 But Trump picked it up.
00:21:29.080 He made it his own thing.
00:21:30.300 And the Trump version of America first is an anti-ideology.
00:21:35.100 It's rather different than some of the other political movements.
00:21:37.580 It's libertarianism, even traditionalism, even all these different isms, isms,
00:21:42.220 neoconservatism, paleoconservatism, ism, ism, ism.
00:21:45.640 He says, no, no, no, America first.
00:21:47.000 And that has a profound meaning because it means we're going to bring in people
00:21:50.500 who have disparate ideological views.
00:21:52.360 We're going to make them work together.
00:21:53.420 The free traders and the tariff people.
00:21:55.460 The pro-Israel people, the pro-Arab people.
00:21:59.320 I don't know.
00:22:00.020 We're going to bring in all sorts of the big business guys,
00:22:03.560 the more mainstream populist guys.
00:22:05.160 We're going to bring them all in.
00:22:07.580 We're going to put America first, not your ideology first,
00:22:10.680 not your special political monikers first,
00:22:13.820 not your favorite pundit or your favorite senator first.
00:22:17.220 No, no, no.
00:22:18.640 America first.
00:22:20.380 That's what Trump means.
00:22:21.420 But that's not necessarily what other people have meant by that.
00:22:23.600 But that's what Trump means by it.
00:22:24.900 And he's very good at it.
00:22:26.520 And it's an anti-ideology.
00:22:28.340 But it doesn't, they don't totally agree.
00:22:30.440 Elon Musk and Peter Navarro don't totally agree on trade.
00:22:32.580 Yeah, shut up, nerd.
00:22:33.500 Don't care.
00:22:33.920 I guess who's the president.
00:22:35.520 Neither of those guys.
00:22:36.840 Trump is.
00:22:38.280 And he's created a coalition that won.
00:22:41.180 And its policies do not satisfy the purest ideologue.
00:22:47.280 That's why it worked.
00:22:48.860 That's what's great about it.
00:22:51.240 And we're just going to, when people start to get a little uppity and a little big for their britches and a little out of line,
00:22:56.420 you know, we're not going to just duke it out on TV and on Twitter and yell and scream at each other.
00:23:00.140 We're going to pick up the phone.
00:23:01.840 Oh, hey.
00:23:02.400 Hey, Tucker.
00:23:02.880 What's up?
00:23:03.300 Oh, you're sorry for saying those mean things about me?
00:23:05.800 All right.
00:23:06.140 It's cool.
00:23:06.580 You're a nice guy.
00:23:07.280 Whatever.
00:23:07.780 All right.
00:23:07.920 Back to work.
00:23:08.480 Here we go.
00:23:09.540 Oh, hey, Elon.
00:23:10.400 Yeah.
00:23:10.620 No worries, buddy.
00:23:11.440 It's all right.
00:23:12.060 Hey, we figured it out.
00:23:13.100 It's all right.
00:23:13.640 Let's back to work.
00:23:14.800 Back to work.
00:23:15.740 Keep moving forward.
00:23:16.580 Don't get distracted by the gossipy, stupid nonsense.
00:23:22.060 That's my ideology.
00:23:23.740 It's an anti-ideology is really what it is.
00:23:25.740 But I dig it, man.
00:23:26.940 Now, speaking of apologies, people have called for me to make an apology.
00:23:32.560 I've gotten emails about this, and I want to address it.
00:23:37.080 I know you're itching for me to get to my next pearl of wisdom.
00:23:41.140 But before we get to that, you got to go to Shopify.com slash Knowles.
00:23:46.580 You know, I've started a number of businesses over the years.
00:23:49.760 It's funny.
00:23:50.100 I never really had thought of myself as a businessman, but I actually have had a bunch
00:23:53.060 of businesses, including my Mayflower.
00:23:55.120 So I obviously love that.
00:23:56.460 And Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and
00:24:03.680 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S.
00:24:06.160 Shopify is the platform.
00:24:08.980 We use it in our own daily wire shop to make sure things are running smoothly and efficiently
00:24:12.520 so you all get the goods.
00:24:14.860 Now, you might be asking, what if I can't design a website?
00:24:17.580 What if I'm worried people haven't heard of my brand?
00:24:19.920 Don't worry about it.
00:24:20.940 Shopify has you covered even there from the start with beautiful ready-to-go templates
00:24:24.920 that match your brand style and help you find your customers through easy-to-run email
00:24:29.500 and social media campaigns.
00:24:30.780 If you need a hand with everyday tasks, their AI tools created specifically for commerce can
00:24:35.520 help enhance product images, write descriptions, and more.
00:24:37.720 Plus, their award-winning customer support is available 24-7 to share advice if you ever
00:24:42.440 get stuck.
00:24:43.560 Turn your business into with Shopify on your side.
00:24:47.060 Sign up for your $1 per month trial.
00:24:49.900 Start selling today at shopify.com slash Knowles.
00:24:52.520 K-N-A-W-L-E-S.
00:24:53.360 That is shopify.com slash Knowles.
00:24:56.780 K-N-A-W-L-E-S.
00:24:57.940 Shopify.com slash Knowles.
00:25:01.900 Before we get to the weird drag performance in the Oregon House of Representatives, before
00:25:10.680 we get to the return of an illegal alien who was deported to El Salvador, he's coming back
00:25:16.420 to America, before we get to any of that, people have asked for me to make an apology.
00:25:21.220 Because they say, I am mispronouncing the country that we might be at war with.
00:25:26.800 I ran.
00:25:27.820 I say, I ran.
00:25:29.500 Sometimes I've said Iran.
00:25:30.860 Sometimes I've said, have I said Iran?
00:25:32.900 I've said Iran.
00:25:33.760 I don't know.
00:25:34.200 I've said a bunch of different ways.
00:25:36.400 But they're upset that I said, I ran.
00:25:38.380 I said, Michael, you Philistine.
00:25:41.300 You silly fool.
00:25:42.900 I got an email about this.
00:25:44.220 You fool.
00:25:45.300 You say, I ran.
00:25:46.940 Don't you know the country is pronounced Iran?
00:25:50.820 Iran.
00:25:51.440 And to which I have to ask you, when you go to the country that's shaped like a boot on
00:25:57.680 the map of Europe, do you say, oh, I'm really excited.
00:26:01.720 Yeah, this summer, my wife and I are going to go on our honeymoon to Italia.
00:26:07.260 Oh, yes.
00:26:08.160 I'm really excited to have some food.
00:26:10.620 That is all italiana.
00:26:13.320 I cannot wait to have some spaghetti alla carbonara.
00:26:16.920 Va bene.
00:26:17.940 Cosa pensate voi?
00:26:19.420 Bravissimi ragazzi.
00:26:20.560 Ai, ai, ai.
00:26:21.260 No.
00:26:22.440 You don't say that.
00:26:23.400 You know what you say?
00:26:24.900 You say Italy.
00:26:25.800 I'm going to Italy.
00:26:28.020 I'm going to eat some Italian food.
00:26:30.200 You know why you say that?
00:26:30.980 Because you're an American and we're in America and we speak American.
00:26:33.340 That's why.
00:26:34.080 And it goes even further with Iran.
00:26:35.740 The Iran, Iran, this and that.
00:26:38.100 I ran so far away.
00:26:39.680 Because you know where the word comes from?
00:26:42.740 Arya.
00:26:43.900 Like Aryan.
00:26:45.500 Aryan.
00:26:46.220 I mean, it's come from Aryan, actually.
00:26:47.660 The Shah of Iran.
00:26:49.740 See, I just did.
00:26:50.300 I don't know.
00:26:50.540 I go back and forth.
00:26:51.180 What do I care?
00:26:51.680 I speak American.
00:26:52.340 I don't care how they pronounce it.
00:26:53.220 But the Shah of Iran is styled the king of kings in the light of the Aryans.
00:27:01.540 Aryans.
00:27:02.060 Like the old, like, you know, obviously in the 20th century that word gets a lot of currency
00:27:06.380 because of the Aryan ideology of the Nazi party.
00:27:09.240 But they view themselves as the Aryans.
00:27:12.320 Okay?
00:27:14.180 And how do you pronounce Aryan?
00:27:16.620 Do you say Aryan?
00:27:18.700 No, you don't.
00:27:20.580 Aryan.
00:27:21.420 Okay?
00:27:21.940 I have become, in this explanation, I have become the light of the Aryans.
00:27:25.360 Even though I'm a little dusky.
00:27:26.520 Like the Persians, who call themselves Aryan.
00:27:28.560 It's Iran.
00:27:29.420 Speak American.
00:27:31.660 No apologies.
00:27:33.200 Okay.
00:27:33.860 Speaking of interpretation, we turn now to interpretive dance.
00:27:38.060 This was on the floor of the Oregon House of Representatives.
00:27:42.580 There was a resolution.
00:27:43.540 A resolution was proposed to celebrate the, quote, artistry of black drag performers.
00:27:52.880 We have a massive invasion of foreign nationals in our country.
00:27:56.880 Millions of people per year for many, many years now.
00:28:00.320 We are involved in at least one war.
00:28:03.520 Obviously, the war in Ukraine and Russia.
00:28:06.000 We might get involved in a direct way.
00:28:08.200 In another war in Iran.
00:28:10.020 We might even have to take out nuclear reactors there.
00:28:15.180 But the Oregon legislators think it's really important not only to celebrate black drag performers,
00:28:20.840 but to have a black drag performance on the floor of the legislature.
00:28:24.920 This is how and why, Julia.
00:28:54.900 Julius Caesar took over in 49 BC.
00:28:58.140 This is how, people, they don't get how, in our modern conception of democracy,
00:29:03.420 we think that Julius Caesar is the bad guy.
00:29:07.500 Julius Caesar is the good guy.
00:29:09.200 And the Roman people understood Julius Caesar to be the good guy.
00:29:14.680 You know why?
00:29:15.540 Because the institutions of the republic, the Roman senate, and even just the public morals in the Roman republic at this point,
00:29:25.680 had so decayed that you had this kind of stuff.
00:29:29.200 You had legislators.
00:29:31.440 You had senators.
00:29:33.100 Who were taking bribes.
00:29:35.640 Who were corrupt.
00:29:36.760 You had widespread sexual immorality and license throughout the society.
00:29:41.420 You had creepy, filthy, degenerate, shallow, degrading stuff.
00:29:49.580 And then Caesar comes in.
00:29:52.300 None of the, there used to be old stoic Roman virtues in the republic.
00:29:56.240 By the time Caesar comes around and crosses the Rubicon, those are pretty well worn.
00:30:01.180 You know, they've atrophied quite a lot.
00:30:03.160 And that's the same thing that we're seeing here.
00:30:09.820 When you ask why people want a strong man like Trump to come in,
00:30:15.400 and really one of the big complaints about Trump is he's not,
00:30:18.280 it's not that he's too authoritarian, it's that he's not nearly authoritarian enough.
00:30:22.440 It's that, it's not that he isn't deporting enough people,
00:30:25.020 or rather, it's not that he's deporting too many people,
00:30:26.840 it's that he's not deporting nearly enough people.
00:30:28.800 It's that he's not, he's not bringing his fist down nearly hard enough on the bureaucracy
00:30:34.380 and the criminals in the streets and the foreign nationals pouring into our border
00:30:39.060 and the adversaries abroad who are mocking us and the,
00:30:42.960 the degenerates who are corrupting children and all of it.
00:30:48.080 That's the complaint.
00:30:49.160 That's the only complaint.
00:30:49.920 And by the way, he's the guy who won the popular vote.
00:30:51.700 Okay.
00:30:52.820 That's how, because you look at those legislators
00:30:55.720 and, and those legislators would be the first to tell you these libs in order.
00:30:59.860 They say, we are defending democracy against the authoritarians.
00:31:06.420 We are the brave, intrepid keepers of the republic, a republic if you can keep it.
00:31:13.180 And that is why it's so important to have gross, degenerate,
00:31:16.820 sexual fetish performances on the floor of the legislature.
00:31:21.680 You say, okay, whatever that is, I want the opposite.
00:31:24.120 Caesar, please Caesar, oh my Caesar, why do you abandon me?
00:31:32.460 The bridle is fitted, but the saddle is empty.
00:31:34.800 Why, why?
00:31:36.300 That's why, that's why.
00:31:39.920 The more I see of that, please.
00:31:41.940 They say, they say no Kings.
00:31:43.480 There's going to be a no Kings protest against Trump.
00:31:45.540 Okay.
00:31:46.860 All right.
00:31:47.400 I guess for now what we have to wait for Barion, Barion, Barion,
00:31:50.980 Octavian, Augustus, Trump, the first to, to be the king.
00:31:55.060 Okay.
00:31:55.500 I guess we have to wait a little longer.
00:31:57.280 Speaking of the federal government, the department of justice has announced that it will return
00:32:04.780 Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
00:32:07.000 I know the news cycle moves very, very fast.
00:32:08.900 You probably forget that name.
00:32:10.160 Do you, do, do any of you remember the name Kilmar Abrego Garcia?
00:32:12.740 He is Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen's boyfriend.
00:32:16.940 You know, he's the guy, he's the, judges found him very likely to be a member of MS-13.
00:32:23.320 And he appears to be a human trafficker.
00:32:27.700 And he is certainly an illegal alien.
00:32:30.400 And he was deported.
00:32:32.300 There seemed to be a court filing from his wife for an order of protection because of
00:32:37.500 domestic abuse.
00:32:38.300 So this guy was deported, this illegal alien probable gang member wife beater.
00:32:43.680 He was deported.
00:32:44.940 And then a Democrat Senator from Maryland flew down to take him out on a romantic lunch because
00:32:49.000 he didn't, doesn't care about his constituents, doesn't care about the people who are the
00:32:51.820 victims of these illegal criminals.
00:32:53.420 He, he wanted to wine and dine the gangster.
00:32:57.840 Well, the libs won, sort of.
00:33:01.120 The court said, you've got to fly this guy back home.
00:33:03.940 This is what Trump is up against.
00:33:05.220 You got to fly this illegal alien gangster back home.
00:33:08.300 Okay.
00:33:09.460 So the DOJ says, all right, we're going to, we're going to bring him back home.
00:33:12.900 And we are immediately going to prosecute him.
00:33:15.600 So actually, maybe this guy Garcia, maybe he would rather stay in El Salvador.
00:33:20.940 He's, he's being returned to the United States to face charges that he smuggled many migrants,
00:33:25.880 including minors.
00:33:27.420 He's a child smuggler into the United States, allegedly.
00:33:30.960 Secondly, this is a guy who was told six years ago that he would be deported.
00:33:37.760 There's not even a slight question about his legal status, but what Trump is up against is courts.
00:33:44.360 Even one random, one federal district court of 700 presumes to stop the executive agenda of the United States.
00:33:55.120 But the courts have said, all right, you got to, you got to fly Senator Van Hollen's boyfriend back home.
00:33:59.620 Okay.
00:34:00.660 All right, fine.
00:34:02.160 Prosecute him.
00:34:04.180 Throw him in prison.
00:34:05.140 Throw away the key.
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00:34:20.980 Speaking of conservatism and foreign policy, one last point on foreign policy from our director of national intelligence.
00:34:26.440 There are reports out now that DNI Tulsi Gabbard is on the outs with the Trump administration because she's much more dovish.
00:34:33.560 She ran for president herself as a Democrat on a more non-interventionist foreign policy.
00:34:39.260 She served in the military herself.
00:34:41.500 She posted a video just before the tensions in Iran really kicked off.
00:34:45.560 And it was a video, curiously, not about this conflict, but about a previous actual nuclear conflict, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
00:34:58.380 I recently visited Hiroshima in Japan and stood at the epicenter of a city that remains scarred by the unimaginable horror caused by a single nuclear bomb dropped in 1945, 80 years ago.
00:35:15.560 It's hard for me to find the words to express what I saw, the stories that I heard, the haunting sadness that still remains.
00:35:26.560 This is an experience that will stay with me forever.
00:35:30.840 This attack obliterated the city, killed over 300,000 people, many dying instantly while others died from severe burns, injuries, radiation sickness, and cancer that set in in the following months and years.
00:35:45.560 Yet this one bomb that caused so much destruction on Hiroshima was tiny compared to today's nuclear bombs.
00:35:52.880 The bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima had a yield of just 15 kilotons of TNT, whereas today's nuclear warheads range in size from 100 kilotons to over one megaton.
00:36:06.640 A single nuclear weapon today could kill millions in just minutes.
00:36:10.760 So, people were scratching their heads.
00:36:14.780 Some people said, why is the United States apologizing for using nuclear weapons?
00:36:19.520 Now, I don't think that's what Tulsi's video is.
00:36:22.760 However, I think it's important for Americans to consider the ethics and morality of our actions.
00:36:31.460 Even if you say, well, I would have done it anyway.
00:36:34.080 I would have dropped the bomb anyway.
00:36:35.440 I would have dropped the first bomb and not the second bomb.
00:36:37.240 Or, I don't know, I might have just tried to push for a surrender from Japan, but maybe we couldn't have gotten that.
00:36:41.760 At the very least, we need to subject even past historical events to principles such as just war.
00:36:47.820 Just war theory.
00:36:48.700 Does dropping the nukes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki justify the criteria of just war?
00:36:54.680 Hmm?
00:36:56.740 That's kind of dubious, isn't it?
00:36:59.520 Well, you say, what about the bombing of Tokyo?
00:37:01.220 That was actually worse than Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
00:37:02.700 Yeah, you're right.
00:37:04.260 What about Dresden?
00:37:05.260 Yeah, well, good questions.
00:37:06.380 You're right.
00:37:07.740 I don't think that Tulsi is releasing this video to get us to hate our own country.
00:37:12.360 I don't think that's the point at all.
00:37:13.360 And I don't think it's about the past.
00:37:14.320 I think it's about today.
00:37:15.980 Because the war in Iran, and to some degree, the conflict in Russia-Ukraine, is about nuclear weapons.
00:37:23.040 And about how different nuclear weapons are today than they used to be.
00:37:26.480 And it's got to get us to think about those results.
00:37:29.220 In some ways, her video could be taken by a hawk who says, yeah, that's why we need to stop Iran's nuclear program.
00:37:38.160 Just as it could be taken by a dove to say, yeah, we should be much more circumspect before we go into these conflicts.
00:37:43.700 But my point actually has very little to do with foreign policy and more to do with political philosophy, which is that kind of a video, that kind of reflection from the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, tells you a lot about what it means to be a political conservative.
00:38:00.680 Which is that being a political conservative entails both patriotism and, at the very least, a quiet circumspection.
00:38:08.980 It entails being on your side, on the side of your country.
00:38:14.880 Your country, do or die, because it's your country.
00:38:18.300 But having at least a quiet reflection, a moral reflection, you're not just some robot.
00:38:22.740 You're not just a grunting baboon.
00:38:24.100 You're a thinking creature with reason.
00:38:26.040 And in this country, you're supposed to have a say over your own government.
00:38:29.200 And you have to have a little quiet reflection about that.
00:38:31.180 That, I think, is what's going on.
00:38:33.740 And even furthermore, to be a political conservative requires one to resign oneself to aspects of the fallen world.
00:38:45.460 Not to be utopian, but to resign oneself.
00:38:48.160 Ah, yeah, this is how it works.
00:38:49.220 To resign oneself to the ideological impurity of any effective coalition.
00:38:55.380 To resign oneself to give up ideology.
00:38:59.740 To have moral principles.
00:39:01.720 To, you know, apply those principles, but apply them with prudence and practice in a world that will, at the terrestrial level, be disappointing.
00:39:10.140 That's what I think this is about.
00:39:11.580 And I think it's an important lesson.
00:39:12.680 I think Trump has exemplified that better than, certainly than any president in my lifetime.
00:39:18.460 There are others who did pretty well.
00:39:20.140 Nixon would be an example who comes to mind.
00:39:22.700 That's a conversation for another time.
00:39:23.960 In any case, much, just as the Trump administration has reordered the political parties, he would seem to be remaking geopolitics as we speak.
00:39:34.480 Today has bravely chosen to self-identify as a holiday we're celebrating the only way that makes sense.
00:39:39.500 By watching Am I Racist?
00:39:41.180 The official movie of Juneteenth in theaters.
00:39:44.340 Became the number one documentary of the decade on Daily Wire+.
00:39:46.460 It became the most-watched piece of content in platform history.
00:39:49.140 Now, thanks to an unverified but enthusiastic number of fans, it is being celebrated as the official movie of Juneteenth.
00:39:55.480 If you've already seen it, watch it again.
00:39:56.940 If you haven't, today is the day of reckoning.
00:39:58.460 Am I Racist?
00:39:59.040 The official movie of Juneteenth.
00:40:00.100 Streaming now only on Daily Wire+.
00:40:02.920 My favorite comment yesterday is from Stray1239.
00:40:06.360 The founding fathers may have had Harvard, but we have Harvard with remedial math courses.
00:40:10.620 So take that, Jefferson.
00:40:11.560 Oh, yeah, aren't we so much smarter now?
00:40:13.820 It's like that viral girl on TikTok.
00:40:16.160 We're so much smarter today.
00:40:17.900 You see, back in the founding era, they only had Harvard, but we have Harvard with seventh grade algebra because the students don't know how to do basic math.
00:40:26.740 Okay, now speaking of young people not understanding basic concepts and older people not understanding basic concepts, you know there's been this ideology in recent years that has been, in my view, the apotheosis of the sexual revolution.
00:40:39.820 So I don't think it came out of nowhere, but it's distinctly absurd.
00:40:43.180 It's the transgender ideology which says that a man can be a woman and vice versa.
00:40:46.800 And it's an ideology which, taken to its logical conclusion, has to apply to children.
00:40:51.980 So not just transing the adults, but transing the kids.
00:40:54.500 And that was what was at issue in one of the most important Supreme Court battles in recent years.
00:41:00.500 We've had a few pretty big ones in the last five or ten years, but this was up there.
00:41:04.560 This would be the case involving my own attorney general, Jonathan Skirmetty.
00:41:09.500 Tennessee passes a law, says you can't trans the kids.
00:41:11.700 States, the libs take this all the way up to the courts.
00:41:16.860 The attorney general defends the law.
00:41:18.440 The Supreme Court decides yesterday, 6-3.
00:41:20.980 Yes, states can pass laws to say that you can't castrate little children based on a preposterous ideology.
00:41:30.320 So on the one hand, we say, great, huge Supreme Court win.
00:41:33.460 This is awesome.
00:41:34.040 But on the other hand, you say, man, has our country decayed this much that this is what we celebrate?
00:41:38.780 Yes, states now have the right not to mutilate little children based on the sexual perversions of confused adults.
00:41:49.200 Man, I'm thrilled.
00:41:50.920 It was a huge win.
00:41:51.900 But on the other hand, you say, how is it?
00:41:54.020 It should be 9-0.
00:41:55.500 How is it 6-3?
00:41:56.580 How has our country fallen this far?
00:41:58.160 So I'm so pleased to be joined to discuss this with one of the most important lawyers in the United States.
00:42:03.500 That would be the head of the Alliance Defending Freedom, Kristen Wagoner, who is the top lawyer in this whole case.
00:42:11.260 Kristen, thank you so much for coming on the show.
00:42:14.160 Oh, thanks for having me, Michael.
00:42:15.760 So, Kristen, ADF has been obviously not behind only this case and this issue, but so many of them over the years on transgenderism,
00:42:27.400 on defending life, on defending all the good stuff in our judicial system.
00:42:33.220 Tell me about this case because I skim through the opinion.
00:42:37.480 I'm not a lawyer.
00:42:38.020 What do I know?
00:42:38.920 I skim through the opinion.
00:42:39.680 I say, okay, this is all basically good stuff.
00:42:43.120 However, I noticed the court used pro-trans pronouns.
00:42:47.060 So on one side, the court is concluding, yeah, transgenderism, at least for kids, is ridiculous.
00:42:52.000 But they're using the language that would seem to affirm the trans ideology.
00:42:57.960 Well, I noticed that too.
00:42:59.760 And at the same time, though, I think recognizing that it was a 6-3 victory is important.
00:43:05.620 As you have just talked about, the ideologies that Americans have really succumbed to for about 10, 15 years now are very destructive.
00:43:15.820 And frankly, this decision is one to return us back to common sense and biological reality.
00:43:22.000 But ultimately, even the law and the cases that come before the Supreme Court are a reflection of a flawed vision of what it means to be human.
00:43:30.040 And we have to correct that.
00:43:31.560 That is the biggest medical scandal and, I think, the biggest issue that is ravaging the next generation.
00:43:38.480 So I was delighted to see the victory.
00:43:40.400 I think it helps us turn the corner.
00:43:42.040 And it's also, I think, a phenomenal story for people to understand who all played a role in this because it's far beyond the lawyers.
00:43:50.180 And it even includes the Daily Wire in terms of us all standing up for truth to get this result.
00:43:55.500 Well, thank you.
00:43:56.240 You know, I wasn't going to flatter myself here on this.
00:43:58.800 But, you know, DW has certainly been really interested in this issue for a long time.
00:44:03.040 So I was really pleased to see the decision.
00:44:04.940 As you say, this might mean that we're turning a corner.
00:44:07.760 And that's what I'm hoping for.
00:44:09.220 Because it's been my assumption from the beginning that just as transing the kids didn't come out of nowhere, I don't think that it's untransing the kids is going to lead nowhere.
00:44:18.780 You know, it seems to me transing the kids comes from the whole sexual revolution.
00:44:22.580 This radical idea of feminism that men and women are basically the same, which leads to the LGBT movement, which says men and women are basically the same, which leads to redefining marriage.
00:44:29.760 And the Obergefell decision, which says men and women are basically the same, all the way to the trans stuff.
00:44:34.840 So once you reach the apotheosis of that idea, then you start moving in the other direction.
00:44:40.280 It seems to me you keep pulling on that thread.
00:44:42.040 Maybe you will get, as Justice Thomas points out in his concurring opinion, or as Justice Alito points out in his concurring opinion, maybe that Bostock decision enshrining transgenderism in civil rights law, maybe that's got to go too.
00:44:57.200 Maybe I'm just being too hopeful.
00:44:59.140 What do you see coming next?
00:45:01.320 Well, right now we have two cert petitions pending at the United States Supreme Court, and they've been sitting there for some time, and they involve women's sports, the equal opportunities for women and girls to be able to participate without having to compete against boys, who we know have a distinct physical advantage.
00:45:18.860 Those petitions we've been waiting on, and we believe they've been held pending this last decision.
00:45:23.520 It's important to also remember that just as 26 or so states pass laws to stop the medical transition or to stop activists from imposing harmful drugs and surgeries on children,
00:45:39.240 about the same number of states have taken that same action to ensure that girls have privacy in their locker rooms and their bathrooms and that they also have fair opportunities to compete on the playing field.
00:45:51.420 Those issues are undecided, and while this decision is going to substantially impact those decisions, they don't necessarily resolve them.
00:46:00.880 In fact, I don't think they do at all because of the way the United States Supreme Court resolved this particular issue under the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.
00:46:09.640 Can you just say, before I let you go, Christy, could you just say a little bit more about that?
00:46:12.860 How did they resolve this issue in such a way?
00:46:16.180 Because you would imagine this would have sweeping implications.
00:46:19.020 If you say, look, you can't trans the kids, it would seem to suggest, okay, well, maybe you're suggesting that men can't actually become women.
00:46:25.860 But the court doesn't go that far.
00:46:27.240 Maybe you're suggesting that transgenderism is not actually protected as a suspect class under civil rights law or whatever.
00:46:35.080 But it doesn't really go that far.
00:46:36.220 So what is it, how do they do it?
00:46:38.140 They're very, you know, the court tends to be a little Jesuitical in some of its argumentation.
00:46:43.000 So what does the court really say here, and what does the court not say?
00:46:47.020 The court generally, in issuing its decisions, is going to do so on an incremental basis.
00:46:52.540 And so this is what happened here, is they dealt with just the issue at hand.
00:46:56.340 And under the Equal Protection Clause, the question is, if you have people that are similarly situated, is the legislature treating them similarly?
00:47:04.160 Absolutely. So are boys and girls similarly situated?
00:47:07.360 And does this law discriminate on the basis of sex?
00:47:11.400 That was the primary issue before the court.
00:47:13.880 And the court said it does not.
00:47:15.480 Instead, the classifications that are in it involved age, and then it applies to minors.
00:47:20.360 And it involved what you're using the drugs for.
00:47:23.060 What is the purpose of the puberty blocker or the cross-sex hormone?
00:47:26.180 And that's the basis on which they ruled.
00:47:29.200 Now, there are concurring decisions in this case that then take it further, like Justice Thomas focuses a lot on the science.
00:47:35.940 Justice Barrett focuses a lot on the fact that transgender status isn't a protected class, meaning that it gets higher scrutiny.
00:47:43.080 And so all of these other issues have to be fleshed out by the court, including Bostock, that decision that you referred to that applied to Title VII.
00:47:51.860 It was a wrongly decided case.
00:47:54.080 We hope that it is reversed eventually, and we are working towards that.
00:47:57.940 But we also need to cabinet because it's toxic to the rest of this issue.
00:48:03.380 And I would say that this does have profound implications, this current decision, when it comes to if you think about the executive order that Trump issued on stopping federal funding for these types of surgeries and these types of procedures.
00:48:16.980 It will have a massive impact.
00:48:18.880 It will have an impact on any time federal funding is at issue or equal protection under these so-called medical transitions that we know are harmful to kids.
00:48:27.580 But we still have the playing fields as well as secret transitions in public schools that are going on and all the other ways that gender ideology is ravaging this generation.
00:48:38.340 We have to fight that fight, and it takes all Americans to do it.
00:48:42.080 We have to speak truth.
00:48:43.280 And we know that science is on our side as well as common sense.
00:48:46.120 Well, it's a great win, and it's a great victory for ADF and for Jonathan Scrumetti, for Tennessee, and for anyone of good conscience and common sense in the country.
00:48:58.080 But as you point out, Kristen, a lot more fights to fight, a lot further to go.
00:49:04.220 So thank you so much.
00:49:04.920 Keep up the magnificent work at ADF.
00:49:07.400 Thank you to all of you.
00:49:08.900 We will be right back in the Membrum Segmentum.
00:49:16.120 We will be right back in the Membrum Segmentum.