The Michael Knowles Show - August 21, 2025


Ep. 1798 - Rabbi Shmuley Boteach Challenges Me To A Debate


Episode Stats

Length

47 minutes

Words per Minute

173.44452

Word Count

8,230

Sentence Count

707

Misogynist Sentences

11

Hate Speech Sentences

18


Summary

The Democratic Party faces a voter registration crisis, a new analysis shows. And even the New York Times has to admit that the party is all out of excuses. This is why it s time to start asking the question: How bad is it?


Transcript

00:00:00.000 These are questions that take cultures thousands of years to answer.
00:00:04.740 During Answer the Call, I take questions from people just like you
00:00:07.920 about their problems, opportunities, challenges, or when they simply need advice.
00:00:12.700 How do I balance all of this grief, responsibility?
00:00:15.800 How do you repair this kind of damage?
00:00:18.080 My daughter, Michaela, guides the conversations
00:00:20.540 as we hopefully help people navigate their lives.
00:00:24.080 Everyone has their own destiny. Everyone.
00:00:30.000 Right now on Daily Wire Plus, stream brand new episodes of
00:00:35.700 The Pope and the Fuhrer, The Secret Vatican Files of World War II.
00:00:39.160 Then be here for the premiere of the Isabel Brown Show on September 8th.
00:00:43.120 And don't miss the decade of the Daily Wire anniversary special coming soon.
00:00:47.400 Plus so much more. Here is why you should do it now.
00:00:49.820 You will save 40% on new annual memberships when you join today.
00:00:54.000 Use code SUMMER at dailywireplus.com.
00:00:57.020 In 2016, Trump won the Electoral College and Democrats wrote it off as a quirk of a system
00:01:03.700 in which they should have won because they won the popular vote.
00:01:08.160 Then in 2024, Trump won both the Electoral College and the popular vote.
00:01:13.100 And Democrats wrote it off as a quirk of having had a zombie incumbent and an incompetent replacement.
00:01:19.160 Then in 2025, the Democrat die-off trend is continuing.
00:01:26.040 And the party is all out of excuses.
00:01:28.160 And even the New York Times has to admit it.
00:01:31.380 I'm Michael Knowles. This is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:01:32.840 Welcome back to the show.
00:01:53.700 Shmuley Boteik.
00:01:55.360 Do you know Shmuley Boteik?
00:01:56.500 I mentioned him on the show yesterday.
00:01:57.900 He is a rabbi, apparently.
00:02:01.320 And Shmuley has challenged me to a debate.
00:02:04.360 We'll get into the details of that debate and whether or not that debate will happen.
00:02:08.540 But first, I want to tell you about Balance of Nature.
00:02:12.760 Go to balanceofnature.com.
00:02:14.220 Use promo code Knowles.
00:02:16.120 We all know we should be eating more fruits and vegetables.
00:02:18.740 But I want you to be honest with me.
00:02:21.360 You are not getting nearly enough variety.
00:02:23.140 That is where Balance of Nature comes in.
00:02:24.480 Because what you put in your body matters.
00:02:26.280 Their whole health system gives you 47 different whole food ingredients.
00:02:30.860 16 fruits, 15 vegetables, 12 aromatic spices, and 4 fibers.
00:02:35.160 We're talking real ingredients like wild blueberries, kale, turmeric, and psyllium husk.
00:02:40.080 When was the last time you just sat down and gorged yourself on some psyllium husk?
00:02:43.740 It's probably been a while.
00:02:44.800 No artificial additives, no sugar additives, just nature doing its job.
00:02:48.080 What I love about Balance of Nature is the convenience.
00:02:50.960 I can be on the road, as I often am.
00:02:53.700 Don't have sweet little Elisa making me a nice balanced meal.
00:02:57.000 You take the fruits and veggies capsules with water, chew them, open them up,
00:02:59.940 mix them into powder in your smoothies, your yogurt, sprinkle them on your oatmeal.
00:03:03.960 Fiber and spice blend mixes great into drinks too.
00:03:06.640 These supplements are vegan, kosher certified, and gluten-free.
00:03:09.280 They're terrific.
00:03:10.080 They will help you become a giga-chad like myself and Mr. Davies.
00:03:13.420 Go to balanceofnature.com.
00:03:16.060 Use promo code Knowles, K-N-W-L-A-S, for 35% off your first order as a preferred customer.
00:03:20.520 Plus, get a free bottle of fiber and spice.
00:03:22.480 That is balanceofnature.com.
00:03:24.360 Promo code Knowles.
00:03:26.280 This is my favorite New York Times article I think I've ever read, because it's an article
00:03:31.560 10 years in the making.
00:03:33.720 The Democratic Party faces a voter registration crisis.
00:03:38.720 The party is bleeding support beyond the ballot box, a new analysis shows.
00:03:44.660 It's under this little subheader here section, out of power.
00:03:48.280 Two of their journalists writing on this, national political correspondents, super duper long, lots
00:03:55.880 of charts, lots of graphs.
00:03:57.600 The reason I love this article so much and the news so much is because it means that the
00:04:03.820 Democrats are out of excuses.
00:04:05.180 The Dems love excuses.
00:04:08.560 That, oh, it was gerrymandered.
00:04:11.540 Oh, it was rigged.
00:04:12.460 Oh, we actually won the popular vote, which doesn't really matter.
00:04:15.460 But that means that we should have won.
00:04:17.360 Oh, it's because we switched our candidate at the last minute.
00:04:20.400 Oh, it's because the Russians like Trump.
00:04:23.740 Oh, it's because of, bro, it's, it's 11 years into this.
00:04:32.240 We're 11 years into this and Trump won twice and Trump then did win the popular vote.
00:04:39.920 And he won a big portion, increasing portion of black men and of Hispanics and of women
00:04:47.240 and of young women.
00:04:48.680 And now the last thing the Democrats could have said is, well, you know, listen, we still,
00:04:53.800 we still have the people.
00:04:54.840 They just, they didn't turn out to vote.
00:04:56.480 They weren't as motivated.
00:04:57.760 They were suppressed.
00:04:59.100 They weren't, no, man, you don't even have the voter registration anymore.
00:05:02.580 The Democrats have had a voter registration advantage on Republicans forever.
00:05:08.120 And they're even losing that.
00:05:09.900 Just a few little points from this article before we move on to the next way that the Democrats
00:05:15.820 are going to try to rig the system because they, they have a trick up their sleeve that
00:05:18.380 they're trying to work on more new voters nationwide chose to be Republicans than Democrats for
00:05:23.320 the first time since 2018, according to a report for the New York times, which relies on voter
00:05:27.860 registration data compiled by L2, a nonpartisan data firm of the 30 states that track voter
00:05:34.900 registration by political party, Democrats lost ground to Republicans in every single one
00:05:42.000 between 2020 and 2024 elections, often by a lot.
00:05:47.520 That four year swing toward the Republicans adds up to four and a half million voters, a
00:05:53.240 deep political hole that could take years for Democrats to climb out from.
00:05:57.940 So the other excuse is, well, the country is becoming polarized.
00:06:03.020 We're balkanizing.
00:06:03.480 The red states are getting redder and the blue states are getting bluer.
00:06:07.680 It's the great sorting.
00:06:09.320 No, no.
00:06:10.680 I mean, there's yes, sure.
00:06:11.800 People, it's, it's not even so much the great sorting is just the country is becoming more
00:06:16.380 Republican and the country is becoming more conservative.
00:06:18.840 And in all 30 states that track this, the Republicans have the advantage.
00:06:24.840 Democrats lost in every single one.
00:06:26.340 All told, says the New York Times, Democrats lost about 2.1 million registered voters between
00:06:34.020 the 2020 and 2024 elections in the 30 states, along with Washington, D.C. that allow people
00:06:39.340 to register with a political party.
00:06:41.680 In the remaining 20 states, voters do not register with a political party.
00:06:46.840 I mean, when you go to register to vote, you don't need to indicate a party.
00:06:50.340 There, Republicans gained 2.4 million.
00:06:52.920 This is devastating.
00:06:57.060 Add on to that, and the New York Times doesn't mention this, that Democrats have sometimes
00:07:01.860 implicitly, sometimes explicitly relied on illegal immigration to boost their voter numbers.
00:07:07.080 That's why, that's the chief reason they support open borders.
00:07:10.160 Because even if the illegals don't vote, and sometimes illegals do vote, but even if the
00:07:13.800 illegals don't vote, their kids are going to get birthright citizenship, their grandkids
00:07:17.020 are going to get birthright citizenship, and they are, or at least have been, statistically
00:07:20.780 much more likely to vote for Democrats.
00:07:22.280 But the issue for them here is, Trump is deporting the illegal aliens.
00:07:26.180 And you could say, well, he's not deporting enough illegal aliens.
00:07:29.120 And the official numbers for the deportations, you know, Stephen Miller and Tom Homan and
00:07:33.480 Kristi Noem, that's only going to wind up at, I don't know, 400,000 by the end of this
00:07:38.660 term.
00:07:39.420 Maybe a little bit more, but they're not on track to deport a ton with ice throwing them
00:07:43.740 in the back of a van.
00:07:44.880 That might be true, except that most deportations are occurring thanks to self-deportation, which
00:07:50.800 is an initiative put forward by Trump quite intentionally.
00:07:54.000 There's even an app for it at ICE.
00:07:56.080 If you self-deport and you are geolocated in your country of origin, the government will
00:08:00.760 send you a little bit of money.
00:08:01.560 But even beyond the app, we have the Center for Immigration Studies report that came out
00:08:06.600 that showed that over 2 million foreign-born people have self-deported since January, 1.6
00:08:14.100 million of them illegal aliens.
00:08:15.680 That's one-tenth of the high end of the conservative estimate of how many illegal aliens are in the
00:08:20.400 country.
00:08:20.620 So not only are Democrats losing the registration fight among people who are ostensibly here
00:08:28.120 legally, they're also losing all their future voters.
00:08:31.540 And of the future voters who remain, that is to say, Hispanics of legal or illegal status,
00:08:37.780 that whole group is moving into Trump's camp.
00:08:41.160 It's just a catastrophe for the Democrats.
00:08:44.120 It's great news for us, and it's great news for America.
00:08:46.560 But this is a catastrophe, man.
00:08:48.700 And even the New York Times admits it.
00:08:51.680 No more excuses.
00:08:54.000 The Democrats, if they wish to survive and thrive in the foreseeable future, they have
00:09:00.060 to offer voters something different, something beyond promoting weird gay stuff, something
00:09:04.840 beyond promoting racial animosity, something beyond scaring people that the sun monster is
00:09:10.180 going to destroy the world, something beyond whining about how evil America is, something
00:09:14.800 they, but what are they going to offer?
00:09:16.820 What's the platform?
00:09:18.700 What are Democrats running on?
00:09:21.620 What the Republicans are running on is clear enough.
00:09:23.520 We're going to make America great again.
00:09:24.680 We're going to put the American interests first.
00:09:26.420 We're going to put American citizens first.
00:09:28.480 We're going to strive for peace, not for endless imperial wars.
00:09:32.800 We're going to defend the nation.
00:09:34.080 What are the Democrats pushing for?
00:09:38.200 The problem is, it's not even that they're just defending the opposite.
00:09:40.800 They don't even know what they're defending.
00:09:42.880 Are they for open borders or secure borders?
00:09:46.260 I don't know.
00:09:47.040 Try to ask one of them.
00:09:47.940 Try to get me a straight answer.
00:09:49.140 Are they for more imperial wars?
00:09:51.100 Are they for peace?
00:09:53.460 I don't know.
00:09:53.960 Ask them about Ukraine.
00:09:54.900 Ask them about Israel-Gaza.
00:09:56.420 Ask them about any of that.
00:09:58.620 Are they for tariffs to protect U.S. workers?
00:10:01.660 Are they for free trade?
00:10:04.080 You can't get a straight answer.
00:10:05.800 No clue.
00:10:07.900 And while they're trying to figure it out, they're going to bleed voters.
00:10:10.020 So there's one trick that the Democrats have that would immediately reverse all the Republican
00:10:15.000 gains and give them basically a lock on the political order for the foreseeable future.
00:10:19.080 That would be if Washington, D.C. became a state.
00:10:23.060 That's why they pushed for D.C. statehood.
00:10:24.840 The whole point of Washington, D.C., the whole reason it was created with territory seeded
00:10:30.380 from Maryland and Virginia is so that the nation's capital would not be in a state because
00:10:35.480 no individual state should have a lock on the nation's capital.
00:10:38.200 So the whole reason, the raison d'etre for Washington, D.C. is that it not be a state.
00:10:43.720 And the Democrats say, well, it's a grave injustice.
00:10:46.200 It's what an oversight that we didn't make it into a state.
00:10:48.820 Either they're totally ignorant, which is plausible, or they're being disingenuous and
00:10:53.600 they realize that if Washington, D.C. became a state, that means that Democrats would
00:10:57.320 immediately get another representative in Congress, two senators in the U.S. Senate,
00:11:03.220 shift the electoral college, give Democrats the country.
00:11:05.180 So it should not happen as a matter of justice, as a matter of the law, and as a matter of
00:11:09.920 practical politics.
00:11:10.900 But let's just entertain it for a second.
00:11:14.500 If D.C. were to become a state, the latest blue state, the latest Democrat state, it would,
00:11:22.560 and I have to give a hat tip to the Federalist for compiling these data, if D.C. were to become
00:11:27.400 a state, it would become the most dangerous one.
00:11:29.780 It is often said, if Washington, D.C. were its own country, the State Department would
00:11:36.580 tell Americans not to go there because it's too dangerous.
00:11:39.600 And if Washington, D.C. were a state, it would immediately become the most dangerous state.
00:11:46.500 D.C.'s violent crime rate, per the Federalist, was 54% higher than New Mexico, which is the
00:11:52.660 most dangerous state in the country.
00:11:54.480 D.C.'s violent crime rate was 220% higher than the national average.
00:11:57.900 D.C.'s murder rate, 169% higher than Louisiana's.
00:12:03.420 Louisiana is the deadliest state in the country.
00:12:06.040 D.C.'s murder rate is 523% higher than that of the average state.
00:12:12.700 How about robbery?
00:12:15.180 D.C.'s robbery rate is 370% higher than Maryland's, which is the worst state for robbery.
00:12:21.600 And D.C.'s robbery, I shouldn't laugh, it's sad for the D.C. residents.
00:12:25.140 D.C.'s robbery rate is 955% higher than that of the average, almost 1,000% higher than the
00:12:33.920 average state.
00:12:35.300 Of the 25 most populous cities in the country, D.C. is the first in robberies.
00:12:41.020 So when the Democrats say, we need D.C. statehood, on its face, it's ridiculous, constitutionally
00:12:46.360 ridiculous, politically so crass and vulgar and obviously self-interested.
00:12:50.480 But even if you're trying to make an argument, this is a great functioning place with its
00:12:55.080 own independent political culture, and it deserves to have the dignity of statehood,
00:12:58.280 and these residents need to have a greater say in our federal government.
00:13:01.780 This, if it became a state, it would be the worst one immediately.
00:13:05.960 But, and here's the cherry on top of the sundae, things are turning around for Washington, D.C.
00:13:11.340 And you won't believe why, you actually will believe why.
00:13:14.160 First, before we get to that, I want to tell you about Equip Foods.
00:13:16.980 Go to EquipFoods.com slash Michael Knowles, all one word, Michael Knowles.
00:13:23.060 Do that because I hate protein bars.
00:13:27.080 I hate them.
00:13:28.220 I don't like how they taste.
00:13:29.960 I don't like how they feel.
00:13:31.700 I don't like them.
00:13:33.280 But I love Equip.
00:13:35.760 I love Equip Foods' prime bar.
00:13:39.860 The whole team, we all love Equip Foods' prime bar.
00:13:44.120 Because, well, they work out a little bit more than I do.
00:13:47.040 Equip Foods' prime bar is the first of its kind.
00:13:49.300 It is a grass-fed beef protein bar with only real ingredients and absolutely nothing to hide
00:13:55.600 with 20 grams of clean protein.
00:13:58.600 Starting today, our listeners will receive an exclusive discount on Prime Bar,
00:14:02.760 which has become our team's absolute favorite protein bar on the market.
00:14:06.140 20 grams of protein in every bar.
00:14:07.520 These bars pack 20 grams of grass-fed beef protein using just 11 clean ingredients like
00:14:12.680 collagen, beef tallow, and colostrum, naturally sweetened with dates and honey.
00:14:17.280 They're free from whey, seed oils, artificial additives.
00:14:20.340 Plus, they're rigorously third-party tested for contaminants.
00:14:23.660 Flavors like chocolate, mixed berry.
00:14:25.320 My problem with the protein bars always was they just tasted so artificial, and they were artificial.
00:14:29.300 And this is the real deal.
00:14:31.040 I love it.
00:14:31.460 If you want to try the cleanest protein bar on the market that has already sold out once,
00:14:36.680 go to equipfoods.com slash Michael Knowles.
00:14:39.380 That is code Michael Knowles, M-I-C-H-A-E-L-K-N-W-L-E-S at checkout.
00:14:43.620 Get 25% off one-time purchases or 40% off your first subscription order for a limited time.
00:14:48.200 E-Q-U-I-P foods.com slash Michael Knowles, M-I-C-H-A-E-L-K-N-W-L-E-S.
00:14:52.840 That is code Michael Knowles at checkout.
00:14:54.380 So, D.C. on violence, on murder, on robberies, on everything, it's doing so much worse than
00:15:02.520 basically anywhere else in the country.
00:15:05.840 But crime is dropping.
00:15:07.340 And I don't just mean crime is dropping for the last two years.
00:15:09.860 Some of the liberals tried to pretend that that were the case after a massive spike up
00:15:13.920 to 2023.
00:15:14.660 They said, D.C.'s crime rate has been dropping for 18 months.
00:15:17.420 And then actually now a D.C. police commander is being investigated for cooking the books,
00:15:22.840 for lying about those data, to try to make it look like D.C.'s crime was going down.
00:15:26.900 Well, now D.C.'s crime is going down.
00:15:31.000 Basically, just in the last week.
00:15:32.720 What happened in the last week?
00:15:35.000 Remember anything about D.C. in the last?
00:15:36.580 Oh, yes.
00:15:38.240 President Trump launched a federal takeover of Washington, D.C.
00:15:43.520 The liberal media breathlessly reporting on this.
00:15:46.500 He's federalizing the federal district.
00:15:50.440 He's not, he's actually, he's merely asserting his own authority that comes from the Constitution,
00:15:56.460 from 250 years of American history, and from the D.C. Home Rule Act itself.
00:16:02.120 The very thing that gave D.C. some home rule allows Trump to do what he's been doing.
00:16:06.440 But he's been using that authority, took over the D.C. police department,
00:16:10.520 got tough on crime, and guess what happened?
00:16:12.240 According to the local police union, robberies immediately dropped 46%.
00:16:21.000 First week after the Trump takeover of Washington, D.C.
00:16:24.840 Robberies dropped 46%.
00:16:26.660 Carjackings, the sort of thing that affected a Democrat congressman,
00:16:30.660 Henry Quellar, at Capitol Hill,
00:16:32.400 the sort of thing that could have began to affect the granddaughter of the then president,
00:16:37.660 Naomi Biden, in a Secret Service vehicle, carjackings dropped 83%.
00:16:42.580 Violent crime dropped 22% immediately.
00:16:48.080 This is like when Joe Biden was letting millions of illegal aliens in per year,
00:16:53.180 rapists and murderers and satanic gang members.
00:16:56.220 And he was letting them all in.
00:16:58.040 And Republicans and reasonable Democrats said,
00:17:00.280 hey, can you please stop that?
00:17:01.960 People are dying.
00:17:02.900 Young people are being raped.
00:17:03.940 And this is just horrible.
00:17:05.620 And Biden said, well, I can't do it, Jack.
00:17:07.640 I can't do it.
00:17:08.320 I need a new law, Buster.
00:17:10.040 Listen, come here, chief.
00:17:11.260 I got it.
00:17:11.680 You got to pass a new law.
00:17:13.140 Trump is calling his friends in Congress and they won't let me pass a new law.
00:17:16.600 And if without that law, I can't I can't stop it.
00:17:19.640 Right.
00:17:19.980 Which was always bogus.
00:17:21.320 It was ridiculous.
00:17:21.880 He just wanted amnesty, basically, for the illegals.
00:17:23.780 He wanted to make the problem worse.
00:17:25.080 So anyway, they don't get the new law.
00:17:26.800 Then Trump comes in day one, stops it.
00:17:29.140 He just stops illegal immigration.
00:17:30.420 And you say, well, I guess Biden lied.
00:17:33.600 Either he was totally incompetent or he lied.
00:17:35.700 But they didn't need a new law.
00:17:37.500 They didn't need a new law.
00:17:38.560 They just had to enforce the existing law.
00:17:40.340 Turns out the same thing's true in D.C.
00:17:43.080 It turns out you don't need to pass new laws and reexamine community policing
00:17:49.100 and address the systemic, historical inequalities and causes of oppression.
00:17:55.180 Turns out you just enforce the law.
00:17:56.700 You just put like you let cops, you let the cops who already exist do their job.
00:18:03.040 Maybe you bring in some more cops.
00:18:04.100 You just let them enforce the law.
00:18:05.820 And it turns out the criminals stopped doing the crimes.
00:18:08.720 It turns out it's really, really simple.
00:18:13.340 Robbery, carjackings, violent crime all way, way, way, way down.
00:18:16.800 And that also means that the Democrats are on the other side of that issue.
00:18:22.640 The Democrats who raised such a ruckus about Trump doing his most basic right and responsibility
00:18:29.460 in the federal district made life so much better for the residents.
00:18:35.480 Democrats taking the other side means that Democrats are the party of carjackings.
00:18:39.720 Well, you know, we are divided on a lot of issues in this country.
00:18:43.080 Some people don't want to see carjackings.
00:18:46.180 Some people are very pro carjackings, okay?
00:18:48.240 And that's just one of those debates we're going to have.
00:18:50.700 There's one party in this country.
00:18:52.960 Listen, these crazy Republicans, they want to stop robberies.
00:18:56.820 We want to defend your robberies.
00:19:00.520 It's the same thing with the border.
00:19:02.920 When Trump showed that Biden was just incompetent and or a liar on the border,
00:19:08.660 when he showed you could enforce the border, Democrats just didn't want to.
00:19:14.600 He revealed that Democrats just are the party of the open border.
00:19:18.140 They want face tattooed, Satan worshiping gangsters to come into the country and rape your daughter and kill your kids with fentanyl.
00:19:24.220 They're just, if they don't actively want that, they're at least passively desiring that because they think it'll give them an electoral advantage.
00:19:32.520 And the Republicans are the party of not doing that.
00:19:37.520 And Republicans are the party of stopping the robberies and the carjackings and the murders.
00:19:43.220 And it's just that simple.
00:19:44.740 The best argument for D.C. statehood that I've ever seen is letting Trump be the governor of the state.
00:19:49.740 Would they do that?
00:19:50.560 Would they go for that?
00:19:51.220 I don't think so.
00:19:52.720 So the only way, I'm not saying the only way Democrats can ever win again is for them to cheat.
00:19:57.560 That's not true.
00:19:58.100 Political winds change, desires change, people have a short attention span, events happen beyond our control.
00:20:04.620 So at some point, the Democrats might be in a good position again.
00:20:07.060 Right now, they are in the worst position I've ever seen them in in my whole life.
00:20:11.060 They don't control a single part of the government at the federal level, not the presidency, neither House of Congress, not the Supreme Court.
00:20:18.740 They can't count on the popular vote.
00:20:21.080 The trend lines are totally in the wrong directions for them.
00:20:23.820 They are deeply unpopular.
00:20:25.980 So I think it is perfectly fair to say the only way that they can win today is to cheat.
00:20:33.520 And one way that Democrats cheat is they have some shenanigans with the voting.
00:20:41.360 This is not some radical, crazy conspiracy theory.
00:20:44.300 I'm not talking about any voter systems in 2020.
00:20:47.920 I'm using their own words.
00:20:50.120 LBJ stole a Senate seat in 1948 in Texas.
00:20:53.380 The case went all the way up to the Supreme Court.
00:20:55.900 The Supreme Court didn't want anything to do with it.
00:20:58.460 This really, it really was only confirmed in, what was it, 1990, 1991 with the Robert Caro biographies,
00:21:04.340 which note that when LBJ lost an earlier race, his mentor, Franklin Roosevelt, told him,
00:21:09.260 Lyndon, you ran a good race, but you forgot to sit on the ballot box.
00:21:12.480 You forgot the shenanigans on the day of elect.
00:21:14.980 You forgot that you got to control the vote count.
00:21:17.960 Okay, so Democrats have admitted this at the highest levels.
00:21:21.080 Two Democrat presidents have talked about this, okay?
00:21:24.040 One way that they can cheat is through mail-in voting, which is often not secure.
00:21:30.540 I have to choose my words very carefully here because of the liberal censors.
00:21:35.440 Trump knows this.
00:21:36.680 Trump posts about this on Truth Social in one of these monologue posts.
00:21:41.300 I won't read the whole thing, but he says,
00:21:42.300 I'm going to lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots and also, while we're at it,
00:21:45.660 highly inaccurate, very expensive, and seriously controversial voting machines,
00:21:48.940 which cost 10 times more than accurate and sophisticated watermark paper,
00:21:52.300 which is faster and leaves no doubt at the end of the evening as to who won and who lost the election.
00:21:56.460 So true.
00:21:57.960 We are now the only country in the world that uses mail-in voting.
00:22:00.420 All others gave it up because of the massive voter fraud encountered.
00:22:03.060 We will begin this effort, which will be strongly opposed by Democrats
00:22:06.440 because they cheat at levels never seen before by signing an executive order
00:22:09.080 to help bring honesty to the 2026 midterm elections.
00:22:12.040 Then he says, remember, the states are merely an agent for the federal government
00:22:16.000 in counting and tabulating the votes.
00:22:17.700 They must do what the federal government, as represented by the president of the United States,
00:22:21.140 tells them for the good of the country to do.
00:22:22.660 So this is the controversial part.
00:22:25.580 Because the states in themselves are not merely instruments for the federal government.
00:22:30.120 The states in themselves are not merely managers for the president.
00:22:33.780 That's not the job of a governor.
00:22:35.540 That's not quite what Trump's saying.
00:22:36.920 Trump is saying, in these votes, we're talking about the midterm elections,
00:22:39.680 the states are an agent for the federal government.
00:22:42.040 Because at the very least, when we're talking about federal offices,
00:22:46.440 that is a much more defensible point.
00:22:48.960 But the states do control the elections.
00:22:50.900 That's what he's admitting here.
00:22:51.820 So the question is, can he, from the federal government,
00:22:56.000 force the states to change their voter laws?
00:23:00.000 And the answer is, yeah, maybe.
00:23:02.560 Yeah, maybe.
00:23:04.520 Congress could pass a law.
00:23:06.240 That's not some new twisting and perversion of our system because of the Supreme Court or whatever.
00:23:12.860 That's just in the Constitution.
00:23:14.260 Article 1, Section 4, quote,
00:23:16.380 The times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives
00:23:20.080 shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof.
00:23:23.220 But the Congress may, at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations,
00:23:28.880 except as to the places of choosing senators.
00:23:33.980 The other thing Trump could do would be even more delicious,
00:23:39.240 because it would be using what is usually a tool of the left
00:23:43.500 to hoist the liberals with their own petards.
00:23:47.340 We'll get into exactly what that trick is in one second.
00:23:49.640 First, though, I want to tell you about Helix Sleep.
00:23:54.140 Go to helixsleep.com slash Knowles.
00:23:56.720 Are you having trouble sleeping?
00:23:57.760 I'm having trouble sleeping.
00:23:58.960 Do you know why?
00:23:59.940 Because I don't have enough time to sleep,
00:24:01.500 and people keep inviting me out to have cigars,
00:24:03.380 and I got to work and travel a lot.
00:24:05.060 You know when I do sleep very well?
00:24:06.980 When I get home to my nice, comfy bed.
00:24:09.900 Do you know how long I've had a Helix mattress?
00:24:12.100 I want to say five years now or something like that.
00:24:15.980 It's so wonderful.
00:24:17.060 It's so beautiful that I've given it, not just to one,
00:24:19.640 but to both of my little boys who are sleeping in beds
00:24:22.720 and not in cribs anymore.
00:24:23.660 It's just phenomenal.
00:24:25.480 So unbelievably comfortable.
00:24:27.900 Helix does not just sell you a random mattress.
00:24:30.360 Helix will match your body type, your sleep preferences,
00:24:33.260 to the perfect mattress for you.
00:24:35.120 They've got you covered.
00:24:36.140 You take their sleep quiz,
00:24:37.940 and two seconds, you are ready to go.
00:24:40.660 I love it.
00:24:41.240 Right now is the perfect time to upgrade your sleep,
00:24:44.880 because Helix is offering a fantastic sale.
00:24:47.660 Go to helixsleep.com slash Knowles,
00:24:49.360 Canada WLAS to get 27% off site-wide.
00:24:51.440 That is helixsleep.com slash Knowles, Canada WLAS.
00:24:53.560 For 27% off site-wide,
00:24:55.120 make sure you enter our show name at checkout
00:24:57.620 so that they know that we sent you.
00:24:59.780 That is helixsleep.com slash Knowles.
00:25:03.460 And then you can know what it's like to sleep with me.
00:25:06.520 And if that's not an inducement,
00:25:07.840 you can get it because it'll give you a good sleep anyway.
00:25:10.600 The other thing that Trump could do
00:25:12.640 to deal with the mail-in voting problem.
00:25:17.880 And we'll get into, you know, look,
00:25:19.720 the Democrats are going to say
00:25:21.580 mail-in voting is totally secure.
00:25:24.020 They're going to say there's never a problem
00:25:25.600 with mail-in voting.
00:25:26.400 There's no reason mail-in voting.
00:25:28.080 The Republicans are just questioning it
00:25:29.560 to throw a wrench in our elections
00:25:30.960 because they're authoritarian
00:25:31.740 and they deny democracy.
00:25:33.060 And how dare anyone ever question
00:25:34.960 the security of mail-in voting?
00:25:36.820 I think we have a clip here.
00:25:38.540 2008.
00:25:40.200 Chris Matthews show.
00:25:42.100 Barack Obama being asked his opinion
00:25:44.080 of mail-in voting.
00:25:46.560 What did Obama have to say then?
00:25:49.500 Very last question.
00:25:50.800 There's word from Florida
00:25:51.800 that they intend to put out a mailing
00:25:53.560 sort of a campaign.
00:25:55.360 I mean, an election process
00:25:56.560 whereby they make up for the
00:25:58.500 primary they had before,
00:26:01.160 which was ruled out of order
00:26:02.300 by the Democratic National Committee
00:26:03.940 and you did not campaign.
00:26:05.100 And they're talking about mailing it,
00:26:06.860 people mailing in their ballots.
00:26:08.360 Do you trust the security,
00:26:09.540 the honesty of such an election process?
00:26:12.460 Well, I think we'd have to figure out
00:26:13.860 whether this was fraud proof.
00:26:15.720 I mean...
00:26:17.080 I think we'd have to figure out
00:26:19.300 whether this was fraud proof.
00:26:20.480 Hold on, hold on, hold on.
00:26:22.740 I was told,
00:26:24.600 I was reliably informed in recent years
00:26:26.980 by the likes of Barack Obama included,
00:26:28.720 that mail-in voting
00:26:31.180 was absolutely, totally secure.
00:26:32.780 There is no question
00:26:33.600 as to its integrity.
00:26:34.680 Even ballot drop boxes
00:26:35.920 where you take your mail-in votes
00:26:37.460 and you just drop it off
00:26:38.340 in an unsecure location,
00:26:39.780 sometimes far away
00:26:40.580 from the county clerk's office.
00:26:41.540 I was told that if you question
00:26:43.800 the security of that system,
00:26:45.540 you are an existential threat
00:26:47.480 to democracy.
00:26:48.520 But in that old pixelated clip
00:26:50.660 that's kind of hard to find
00:26:51.960 on the internet these days
00:26:53.060 from that old show
00:26:54.280 by Chris Matthews,
00:26:55.600 way back when Barack Obama
00:26:57.200 was running for president,
00:26:58.040 he admitted
00:27:00.300 that mail-in voting
00:27:03.460 is vulnerable to fraud.
00:27:05.640 He demonstrated
00:27:07.020 that it is reasonable
00:27:08.040 to question
00:27:09.340 the security of mail-in voting.
00:27:11.800 He and Trump basically agree,
00:27:14.000 at least on raising the question
00:27:16.140 about mail-in voting.
00:27:17.880 So what could Trump do
00:27:19.040 from a federal level,
00:27:19.800 getting back to the juicy
00:27:20.680 little thing he could do?
00:27:22.820 He could, seems to me,
00:27:25.680 invoke the Voting Rights Act.
00:27:28.040 The Voting Rights Act
00:27:29.140 is this ostensibly noble
00:27:32.180 piece of legislation
00:27:33.080 to defend the right to vote
00:27:34.180 of every single American.
00:27:35.460 But usually what it is
00:27:36.740 is an instrument for the left
00:27:38.020 to stop basic protections
00:27:40.980 for people's right to vote.
00:27:42.300 Ironically, it is used
00:27:43.260 contrary to its purpose.
00:27:44.600 The purpose is to make sure
00:27:46.000 one man, one vote.
00:27:47.440 The way the Voting Rights Act
00:27:48.600 is often employed
00:27:49.560 is to stop states
00:27:52.520 from implementing
00:27:53.220 reasonable voter security.
00:27:54.820 Because when a fraudulent vote
00:27:56.400 is cast,
00:27:56.900 that actually deprives
00:27:57.960 an eligible citizen
00:27:59.800 of his vote.
00:28:01.440 When you have a legit vote
00:28:02.780 and an illegitimate vote,
00:28:04.020 they cancel each other out.
00:28:05.920 So really,
00:28:06.780 the Voting Rights Act
00:28:07.540 should be defending
00:28:09.500 measures like voter ID.
00:28:12.680 But they're not.
00:28:14.660 It's usually to strike down
00:28:15.980 measures like voter ID.
00:28:16.840 So what Trump could do
00:28:19.060 is invoke Section 2
00:28:20.200 of the Voting Rights Act
00:28:21.060 to challenge
00:28:22.820 some of these
00:28:23.700 mail-in voting laws
00:28:24.540 as a civil rights violation.
00:28:27.900 You'd say,
00:28:28.260 look, we have evidence.
00:28:28.980 You'd have to present
00:28:29.720 serious evidence
00:28:31.360 that there is fraud
00:28:33.720 in mail-in voting.
00:28:35.360 You'd have to make a case
00:28:36.620 to a judge
00:28:37.540 who would be willing
00:28:38.660 to hear it.
00:28:39.260 And it would be
00:28:39.860 a little bit tricky.
00:28:40.880 You could at least make
00:28:41.440 the argument to the public,
00:28:42.260 but you could do it
00:28:42.880 in a court
00:28:43.680 and say, look,
00:28:44.780 the way that mail-in voting
00:28:46.600 is being carried out
00:28:48.200 in America
00:28:48.660 is tantamount
00:28:49.820 to a civil rights violation.
00:28:50.860 Because you're robbing
00:28:51.900 eligible voters
00:28:52.900 of their vote
00:28:53.780 by canceling them out
00:28:55.180 with fraud.
00:28:56.620 And in some cases,
00:28:57.360 the mail-in votes
00:28:57.820 are just simply illegal
00:28:58.700 like in Pennsylvania.
00:29:01.560 Widespread,
00:29:02.120 unsolicited mail-in voting.
00:29:03.800 In any case,
00:29:04.560 lots and lots
00:29:05.560 of options,
00:29:06.620 some trollier than others,
00:29:08.260 and Trump's got the wind
00:29:09.140 at his back.
00:29:10.680 Now,
00:29:12.080 the liberals
00:29:12.680 are very upset about this
00:29:13.600 and they're accusing
00:29:15.260 Republicans
00:29:15.740 of rigging the vote.
00:29:17.280 Timothy McBride,
00:29:18.700 who goes by Sarah,
00:29:19.780 he's a fellow
00:29:20.400 in Congress
00:29:21.000 who thinks
00:29:22.220 he's a woman
00:29:22.700 and because
00:29:23.740 we live
00:29:24.360 in a decadent
00:29:25.800 late-stage empire,
00:29:27.100 we tolerate this
00:29:28.380 and pretend
00:29:28.960 that this is normal.
00:29:31.040 So,
00:29:31.580 who was the Roman emperor
00:29:32.520 who sent his horse
00:29:33.420 to the U.S. Senate
00:29:34.200 as a kind of absurdity?
00:29:36.100 Well,
00:29:36.220 a man pretending
00:29:37.040 that he's a woman
00:29:37.720 passing laws
00:29:39.040 that are ostensibly
00:29:39.920 based on reason.
00:29:41.440 Not far off.
00:29:42.480 In any case,
00:29:43.460 he's accusing
00:29:44.120 Republicans
00:29:44.800 of gerrymandering.
00:29:47.240 He says,
00:29:48.260 this president
00:29:48.960 is taking notes
00:29:50.040 from his favorite dictator.
00:29:52.660 Who's he talking about here?
00:29:53.480 Is it Putin or something?
00:29:54.780 Let's be clear.
00:29:56.600 A president
00:29:57.160 with popular policies
00:29:58.560 wouldn't need
00:29:59.620 to illegally
00:30:00.320 gerrymander districts,
00:30:03.060 ban voting machines,
00:30:04.360 or abolish
00:30:05.000 vote by mail.
00:30:06.620 This is an all-out assault,
00:30:08.480 not just on free
00:30:09.640 and fair elections,
00:30:10.280 but on American democracy itself.
00:30:11.440 So,
00:30:12.320 questioning vote by mail.
00:30:14.380 That's something
00:30:15.020 that Trump and Obama
00:30:16.160 agree on.
00:30:16.820 Take that one off the list.
00:30:17.900 Ban voting machines.
00:30:19.100 Well,
00:30:19.280 the question,
00:30:19.680 we just want to make sure
00:30:20.260 that the voting machines
00:30:21.140 don't have any problems.
00:30:22.580 There were lots of questions
00:30:23.500 raised,
00:30:24.000 well,
00:30:24.240 in many elections,
00:30:25.220 but including
00:30:25.740 the most recent ones
00:30:26.660 about voting machines
00:30:28.040 where more ballots
00:30:29.840 were tabulated
00:30:30.520 than voters
00:30:31.060 who came in to vote,
00:30:31.940 for instance.
00:30:33.020 In any case,
00:30:34.460 you know,
00:30:34.700 if we can hack
00:30:36.040 Bitcoin wallets,
00:30:37.700 probably we can hack
00:30:39.060 some voting machines
00:30:39.740 and we just need
00:30:40.160 to be careful about it.
00:30:40.820 We need to,
00:30:41.140 we need to make sure
00:30:41.780 that voting machines
00:30:42.380 are secure.
00:30:43.020 Okay,
00:30:43.220 cross that one off the list.
00:30:44.980 Go back.
00:30:45.840 Hold on.
00:30:46.240 Go back.
00:30:46.680 There we go.
00:30:47.340 They're trying to move me past.
00:30:48.380 No,
00:30:48.920 leave me on
00:30:49.960 Tim McBride's tweet.
00:30:52.040 Sorry,
00:30:52.420 Sarah,
00:30:52.860 Sarah McBride.
00:30:54.340 You wouldn't need
00:30:55.020 to illegally gerrymander districts.
00:30:56.420 This is my favorite one.
00:30:59.380 Now you can move on
00:31:00.340 to the vice president's note.
00:31:03.260 Illegally gerrymander districts.
00:31:04.680 These Republicans
00:31:05.280 are gerrymandering.
00:31:06.380 They're carving up
00:31:07.140 congressional districts
00:31:08.040 that shouldn't exist
00:31:08.940 to get a cynical
00:31:09.740 political advantage.
00:31:10.400 As I mentioned on the show
00:31:11.940 some weeks ago now,
00:31:13.580 and as the vice president
00:31:14.600 mentioned on Twitter,
00:31:16.680 California,
00:31:17.360 Democrat state,
00:31:18.180 is currently
00:31:19.020 gerrymandering its districts
00:31:20.380 in one of the most
00:31:21.900 egregious ways
00:31:22.700 I've ever seen.
00:31:23.840 As Vance says,
00:31:25.360 of their 52
00:31:26.220 congressional districts,
00:31:27.240 nine of them
00:31:27.800 are Republican.
00:31:29.140 That means 17%
00:31:30.060 of their delegation
00:31:30.640 is Republican
00:31:31.200 when Republicans
00:31:32.180 regularly win
00:31:32.900 40% of the vote
00:31:34.240 in that state.
00:31:34.700 How can this possibly
00:31:35.660 be allowed?
00:31:36.400 Not just California.
00:31:37.720 Illinois 13.
00:31:39.720 Illinois 13.
00:31:41.580 If you're just looking
00:31:43.080 at the show right now,
00:31:45.580 if you're not just
00:31:46.020 listening to it,
00:31:46.720 it looks like a pistol.
00:31:47.680 It looks like this weird
00:31:48.340 little snake
00:31:49.000 snaking around
00:31:49.760 St. Louis
00:31:50.580 all the way up
00:31:51.420 Northeast.
00:31:52.260 Obviously gerrymandered
00:31:53.220 to keep the Republicans
00:31:54.320 out and give a solid
00:31:55.500 Democrat win.
00:31:56.580 Maryland 6.
00:31:58.740 The Maryland 6
00:31:59.620 congressional district,
00:32:00.740 the,
00:32:00.860 what is this?
00:32:01.540 This is the earmuffs district.
00:32:03.680 Cuts around.
00:32:04.320 It looks like a pair
00:32:04.760 of earmuffs.
00:32:05.360 Totally ridiculous.
00:32:06.460 Only carved up that way
00:32:08.520 to leave in just enough
00:32:09.780 Republicans
00:32:10.300 to disenfranchise Republicans,
00:32:11.940 but not enough Republicans
00:32:13.380 to actually threaten
00:32:14.020 to make its swing.
00:32:15.240 Illinois congressional district
00:32:16.220 four.
00:32:16.500 I could be here all day.
00:32:18.040 I could be here all day.
00:32:22.200 None of these arguments work.
00:32:24.760 None of these arguments
00:32:25.860 are persuading anybody.
00:32:27.840 And the arguments
00:32:28.760 are being made
00:32:29.500 by a person
00:32:30.740 who in his very behavior
00:32:32.880 and comportment
00:32:33.640 and appearance
00:32:34.420 is an exemplar
00:32:36.400 of the Democrats
00:32:38.880 having totally lost
00:32:39.860 touch with reason
00:32:40.600 and is one of the
00:32:42.880 chief reasons
00:32:43.680 that ordinary people
00:32:45.140 who don't even pay
00:32:45.800 that much attention
00:32:46.320 to politics
00:32:46.860 turned off the Democrats
00:32:48.300 in the last election.
00:32:50.940 That was why that issue,
00:32:52.540 which we've harped on
00:32:53.580 for a number of years now,
00:32:56.040 the transgender issue,
00:32:57.240 especially transing the kids,
00:32:58.680 that it,
00:32:59.020 the Democrats kept arguing,
00:33:00.040 oh, it's trivial,
00:33:00.660 it doesn't affect
00:33:01.040 a lot of people,
00:33:01.580 it's minor,
00:33:02.120 it's a distraction.
00:33:02.680 That was the issue
00:33:04.200 because it said,
00:33:04.660 oh wow,
00:33:04.860 Republicans,
00:33:05.320 Democrats rather,
00:33:06.280 have totally lost the plot.
00:33:08.080 You cannot be a normal person
00:33:09.500 and vote for Democrats anymore
00:33:10.860 because they are exhibiting
00:33:12.840 obviously terrible judgment.
00:33:14.780 If you think a man is a woman,
00:33:16.240 you have lost your capacity
00:33:17.340 to reason.
00:33:19.580 Doesn't work.
00:33:21.040 Might explain
00:33:22.060 the Democrats'
00:33:23.420 broader problem.
00:33:24.160 Okay,
00:33:24.700 enough about the Democrats,
00:33:25.980 enough about the hard,
00:33:26.920 in the weeds,
00:33:27.880 in the districts.
00:33:30.400 Soup to nuts politics
00:33:31.520 because,
00:33:32.760 speaking of eccentric fellas,
00:33:34.980 I've been challenged
00:33:35.880 to a debate
00:33:36.640 by a man
00:33:38.200 who is purportedly
00:33:39.020 a rabbi.
00:33:40.120 I believe he is also
00:33:40.840 a vendor of sex toys.
00:33:42.760 That would be
00:33:43.180 Shmuley Boteik.
00:33:45.120 Quick question.
00:33:45.760 Do you have the Daily Wire Plus app
00:33:46.840 on your phone or TV?
00:33:47.960 If not,
00:33:48.360 you should
00:33:48.800 because when you tap
00:33:49.820 follow under my picture,
00:33:51.180 you will get notified
00:33:52.040 the second I go live,
00:33:53.940 the second I drop an episode.
00:33:55.300 Do you need to step away?
00:33:57.020 It's okay.
00:33:57.480 It's no problem.
00:33:58.000 You can jump right back
00:33:58.740 to where you left off.
00:33:59.520 Want something quick?
00:34:00.720 Watch my shorts.
00:34:01.900 The clips that everybody,
00:34:03.040 all the cool kids
00:34:03.840 are sharing on social media
00:34:04.840 right there on the app.
00:34:06.020 And with the Explore tab,
00:34:07.160 every show,
00:34:07.800 every episode
00:34:08.240 is all in one place.
00:34:09.220 Easy to find.
00:34:10.660 This is where our community
00:34:11.560 actually lives.
00:34:12.260 Chatting live during the shows,
00:34:13.480 sharing ideas,
00:34:14.180 debating big questions.
00:34:15.080 And since it's our app,
00:34:16.380 we cannot be canceled,
00:34:17.400 filtered,
00:34:17.720 or censored.
00:34:18.720 Don't just listen.
00:34:19.540 Join us.
00:34:20.140 Download the Daily Wire Plus app
00:34:21.280 now in the App Store,
00:34:22.400 Google Play,
00:34:22.900 Roku,
00:34:23.280 Samsung,
00:34:23.560 and more.
00:34:25.300 I want to tell you
00:34:27.480 my favorite comment yesterday.
00:34:28.920 Tracy Jacobs,
00:34:29.740 P5I,
00:34:30.600 who says,
00:34:31.540 Trump truly believes,
00:34:32.600 as many of us do,
00:34:33.360 that his life was spared
00:34:34.040 by God in Butler, PA.
00:34:35.060 Yeah, I think that's true.
00:34:35.780 I loved Trump's point
00:34:36.820 when they said,
00:34:37.320 why do you want to
00:34:38.100 stop the meat grinder
00:34:39.020 in Ukraine?
00:34:40.600 Like, it's so crazy.
00:34:41.500 Why do you want,
00:34:42.160 why do you want to end
00:34:42.920 an 11-year war
00:34:43.900 that has led to the deaths
00:34:45.060 of well over a million people?
00:34:47.860 And he says,
00:34:49.080 because as though,
00:34:49.940 as though he even
00:34:51.340 has to answer that question,
00:34:52.600 he says,
00:34:52.920 gee,
00:34:54.920 because I want
00:34:55.460 to go to heaven.
00:34:56.880 I want to go to heaven.
00:34:58.420 Okay?
00:34:59.300 And I know that right now
00:35:01.460 my odds aren't looking so good.
00:35:02.860 You know,
00:35:03.120 I might be at the bottom
00:35:04.000 of the totem pole,
00:35:04.820 actually,
00:35:05.860 which is an expression
00:35:06.640 of humility,
00:35:07.420 a recognition
00:35:07.980 of his own fallenness,
00:35:09.620 original sin
00:35:10.240 and his own personal sins,
00:35:12.120 a recognition
00:35:12.560 of the need
00:35:13.100 for God's grace.
00:35:13.920 Contrary to what
00:35:14.420 some people were saying
00:35:15.180 when they were reading
00:35:15.840 a bunch of nonsense
00:35:16.800 into his tweet,
00:35:17.820 that is a recognition.
00:35:19.000 I need God's grace
00:35:20.400 because I'm not trying
00:35:21.360 to earn my salvation.
00:35:22.620 I don't think
00:35:23.180 that I can deserve
00:35:24.160 to go to heaven.
00:35:25.040 I need God's grace
00:35:26.340 and I'm going to try
00:35:27.660 to cooperate
00:35:28.040 with God's grace
00:35:28.780 because faith looks
00:35:29.980 like something
00:35:30.480 because as St. James
00:35:31.700 tells us,
00:35:32.520 man is justified
00:35:33.280 by works
00:35:33.960 and not by faith alone.
00:35:35.040 Faith without works
00:35:35.680 is dead.
00:35:36.620 We need God's grace.
00:35:38.380 Our initial justification
00:35:39.260 comes entirely from God,
00:35:40.620 not from us.
00:35:41.620 But as St. Thomas Aquinas
00:35:44.340 paraphrases St. Augustine,
00:35:46.720 while God made us
00:35:47.620 without our participation,
00:35:48.680 he will not save us
00:35:49.380 without our participation.
00:35:51.160 Love that.
00:35:52.220 I don't think
00:35:52.620 he can be shot in the head
00:35:53.560 and not thinking
00:35:54.520 about the final things.
00:35:56.560 Speaking of religion,
00:35:58.080 Rabbi Shmuley Boteik.
00:36:00.820 Shmuley has challenged me
00:36:04.060 to a debate
00:36:04.860 because,
00:36:06.460 as I mentioned on the show,
00:36:07.620 I think it was yesterday,
00:36:09.200 but Shmuley has this piece
00:36:10.220 in the Times of Israel
00:36:11.320 attacking me
00:36:12.960 and Ben Shapiro
00:36:14.060 and the Daily Wire
00:36:15.660 of, quote,
00:36:16.560 desecrating the six million
00:36:18.180 by supposedly
00:36:20.460 propping up
00:36:22.920 a Nazi collaborator.
00:36:25.400 They were calling
00:36:25.760 Pope Pius XII,
00:36:26.660 one of the great men
00:36:27.240 of the 20th century,
00:36:28.320 a hero,
00:36:28.820 not only to Christians
00:36:29.540 in the whole world,
00:36:30.080 but especially to Jews,
00:36:31.300 being a Nazi collaborator.
00:36:32.840 It was very, very silly.
00:36:34.520 So I pointed out
00:36:35.440 that this was silly
00:36:36.500 and that Shmuley Boteik
00:36:38.920 is frequently wrong
00:36:39.720 but never in doubt
00:36:40.420 and I encourage people
00:36:41.340 to go get the facts
00:36:41.960 at my show,
00:36:42.560 The Pope and the Fuhrer,
00:36:43.320 available exclusively
00:36:44.440 at Daily Wire Plus.
00:36:45.200 So Shmuley tweets at me yesterday
00:36:48.960 and he says to Michael J. Knowles,
00:36:52.100 if I'm so ignorant
00:36:53.220 on the Nazi collaborator,
00:36:55.100 Pope Pius XII,
00:36:56.180 Hitler's Pope,
00:36:57.300 then surely you'll agree
00:36:58.380 to a live debate against me
00:36:59.640 where each of us puts up
00:37:00.720 a $10,000 bond beforehand
00:37:02.540 and a panel of independent people
00:37:04.840 decide who won the debate.
00:37:07.080 Like, he doesn't say $10,000,
00:37:09.480 you know,
00:37:09.800 to a charity of our choice
00:37:11.160 or something.
00:37:11.720 It's just 10 grand.
00:37:12.900 You have my guarantee
00:37:15.000 that I will annihilate you
00:37:16.440 on any debate
00:37:17.480 about the ignominious
00:37:18.760 and downright shameful
00:37:19.600 Pius XII,
00:37:20.340 one of the most
00:37:20.760 excruple popes
00:37:21.560 in Roman Catholic.
00:37:22.040 I don't even want to read
00:37:22.940 this sacrilegious talk.
00:37:27.000 Even the Catholics
00:37:28.020 want no part of Pius XII,
00:37:29.500 which is why he has not
00:37:30.320 been canonized,
00:37:31.000 beatified,
00:37:31.440 or made into a saint.
00:37:32.800 Just usage note,
00:37:34.000 canonized and made into a saint
00:37:35.780 mean the same thing.
00:37:36.880 It's a little repetitive there.
00:37:39.260 Not sure if Shmuley
00:37:40.140 quite gets the nuance.
00:37:43.240 Though Pope Pius XII
00:37:44.060 has been named
00:37:44.880 not only servant of God
00:37:45.720 but the venerable,
00:37:46.540 so he's on his way
00:37:47.320 to sainthood,
00:37:48.360 which usually takes
00:37:49.740 a little bit of a longer time.
00:37:51.040 In recent history,
00:37:51.760 some popes have been fast-tracked
00:37:52.840 but can take centuries.
00:37:55.000 In any case,
00:37:56.580 I would be delighted
00:37:57.380 to debate Shmuley
00:37:58.380 on this topic.
00:37:59.840 I would be delighted
00:38:00.920 to do it
00:38:01.440 as I let him know.
00:38:02.460 It was kind of odd
00:38:03.280 because Shmuley tweets this at me
00:38:05.340 and I saw he tweeted it
00:38:06.260 multiple times
00:38:07.320 and posting pictures of me
00:38:09.540 and it was a little weird.
00:38:11.260 And then when I saw it,
00:38:12.700 basically the moment I saw it,
00:38:13.880 I said,
00:38:14.080 oh great,
00:38:14.380 I would be delighted
00:38:15.120 to debate you on this topic,
00:38:16.540 Shmuley.
00:38:17.580 Just message me.
00:38:18.800 I started following.
00:38:19.520 He was following me.
00:38:20.180 I followed him
00:38:20.800 so he could DM me.
00:38:22.120 I said,
00:38:22.640 just message me
00:38:23.220 a good email address
00:38:23.880 to connect our teams together
00:38:25.020 so that we can set the terms
00:38:26.400 for a proper debate.
00:38:27.460 And I haven't heard back.
00:38:31.980 Funny that.
00:38:33.180 So he's tweeting
00:38:34.080 all these sort of nasty insults
00:38:35.540 and I said,
00:38:36.460 okay,
00:38:36.600 I'd be happy to debate you.
00:38:37.580 Just message me
00:38:38.220 and we can debate.
00:38:39.700 And then didn't hear back.
00:38:41.100 But I don't know,
00:38:41.380 maybe he's busy.
00:38:41.920 I'm not on Twitter that much.
00:38:43.860 But I saw he did tweet this
00:38:46.380 multiple times.
00:38:47.460 He was tweeting a bunch
00:38:48.440 about this
00:38:49.340 hours after I accepted
00:38:52.580 in general
00:38:54.500 the opportunity to debate him.
00:38:57.460 He actually tweeted this
00:38:58.680 like 11 times yesterday.
00:39:01.740 Including several
00:39:02.580 after I accepted
00:39:03.340 his offer to debate.
00:39:04.820 So anyway,
00:39:05.520 I don't know what's going on
00:39:06.200 with Shmuley
00:39:06.920 but it seems like
00:39:08.540 a fun opportunity.
00:39:09.400 I would be happy to do it.
00:39:11.100 So anyway,
00:39:12.040 if you're serious about it,
00:39:13.500 Shmuley,
00:39:13.920 and you're listening to the show,
00:39:15.420 just shoot me a note
00:39:16.140 with a good email address.
00:39:17.560 We'll connect the teams.
00:39:18.300 We'll set up the terms
00:39:19.040 and it'll be
00:39:19.900 a great deal of fun.
00:39:22.380 Okay.
00:39:23.020 Speaking of
00:39:23.720 unfortunate public relations,
00:39:25.920 this is the most important story
00:39:27.380 of the day.
00:39:29.660 I've been a little loose today
00:39:31.760 about how the Libs
00:39:32.600 are losing everything
00:39:33.560 and they've lost
00:39:34.520 in the political order
00:39:36.360 and they've lost the government
00:39:37.420 and they've been losing
00:39:38.320 in the culture.
00:39:39.160 Well,
00:39:41.060 there's one institution
00:39:42.100 that they still seem
00:39:42.960 to have their claws into.
00:39:45.080 The Libs are trying
00:39:46.120 to ruin Cracker Barrel.
00:39:49.060 Cracker,
00:39:49.540 I love Cracker Barrel.
00:39:51.960 Cracker Barrel
00:39:52.660 is apparently rebranding.
00:39:54.800 The beloved restaurant
00:39:57.040 and old country store
00:39:58.080 is rebranding.
00:40:00.500 They are going
00:40:01.660 from their old logo.
00:40:02.680 If you're watching this right now,
00:40:03.540 you can see it.
00:40:04.920 You got the man
00:40:05.580 sitting on the chair
00:40:06.320 next to the barrel,
00:40:07.220 nice Cracker Barrel,
00:40:08.100 nice beautiful
00:40:08.660 stylized font
00:40:10.400 with a stylized
00:40:11.440 little kind of shape
00:40:12.360 behind it
00:40:12.840 and then
00:40:13.000 old country store.
00:40:15.000 Cracker Barrel,
00:40:15.760 old country store.
00:40:17.420 Oh,
00:40:17.740 what a trip back in time
00:40:19.120 when you go into Cracker Barrel.
00:40:20.380 They got the little,
00:40:20.960 the candies
00:40:21.480 and the little toys
00:40:22.440 for the kids
00:40:23.120 and then you walk in
00:40:24.640 and you sit
00:40:25.080 and you have your nice
00:40:25.960 delicious grits
00:40:27.080 or whatever you're going to have
00:40:27.800 and it's just great.
00:40:29.640 It's my kid's favorite restaurant.
00:40:31.040 My kid's favorite restaurant
00:40:32.500 is Cracker Barrel
00:40:33.340 and they're trying
00:40:35.420 to take it from us.
00:40:36.480 In fact,
00:40:37.020 in the new logo,
00:40:39.160 the genius executives
00:40:40.740 at Cracker Barrel
00:40:41.540 have removed the cracker
00:40:43.600 and the barrel.
00:40:45.000 They took away
00:40:45.920 the old guy
00:40:46.880 and the barrel
00:40:47.800 are out.
00:40:48.560 They changed the shape,
00:40:49.720 they changed the font
00:40:50.920 and now it looks like
00:40:52.920 just some generic
00:40:54.140 millennial
00:40:55.760 clinical sterile
00:40:58.060 soulless slop.
00:40:59.760 Here is the CEO
00:41:00.660 of Cracker Barrel
00:41:01.520 explaining the change
00:41:02.460 on Good Morning America.
00:41:04.500 Honestly,
00:41:05.220 the feedback's been
00:41:05.980 overwhelmingly positive
00:41:07.320 that people like
00:41:08.020 what we're doing.
00:41:08.740 I'll give you
00:41:09.160 another soundbite.
00:41:10.120 I actually happened
00:41:10.860 to be in Orlando
00:41:11.560 last week
00:41:12.020 with all of our managers.
00:41:13.100 We bring them together
00:41:13.860 once every other year.
00:41:16.200 And the number one
00:41:17.540 question that I got asked
00:41:18.400 Michael was,
00:41:19.360 how can I get a remodel?
00:41:20.440 When can I get a remodel?
00:41:21.480 How do I get on the list?
00:41:22.600 Oh, really?
00:41:22.940 Because the feedback
00:41:24.440 and the buzz is so good,
00:41:25.880 not only from our customers
00:41:26.880 but from our team members.
00:41:28.240 They want to work
00:41:29.040 in a wonderful restaurant.
00:41:30.840 So we're doing everything
00:41:32.420 for our guests
00:41:32.900 and our team members.
00:41:33.980 Well, Julie Messino,
00:41:34.720 it's wonderful to have you here.
00:41:36.100 Pleasure to be here.
00:41:36.680 Thank you again.
00:41:37.440 And thank you for answering
00:41:37.680 those questions
00:41:38.200 for all the Cracker Barrel fans
00:41:39.340 out there.
00:41:40.380 A lot of great changes.
00:41:42.060 Thank you so much.
00:41:42.720 All right.
00:41:43.180 Thank you, Robin.
00:41:44.360 Can I get a line
00:41:45.060 that the peg game
00:41:45.900 is going to stay?
00:41:47.080 The peg game is staying.
00:41:48.240 Okay.
00:41:48.560 So are the rocking chairs,
00:41:49.900 fireplace,
00:41:50.880 vintage decor.
00:41:51.760 It's all there.
00:41:52.200 All right.
00:41:52.600 Oh, it's all there?
00:41:53.340 Oh, it's all there?
00:41:54.660 Cut it.
00:41:55.000 Cut it.
00:41:55.320 I don't need to listen
00:41:56.080 to this woman lie anymore.
00:41:57.400 So she's lying.
00:41:58.540 This new CEO,
00:41:59.320 she was appointed
00:41:59.680 a couple years ago.
00:42:00.680 This new CEO says,
00:42:01.720 oh yeah,
00:42:03.140 the feedback's been really great.
00:42:04.920 Now, already I know
00:42:07.020 she's a liar
00:42:07.540 or has no idea
00:42:08.220 what she's talking about.
00:42:09.100 Because if you look
00:42:09.880 on the internet,
00:42:10.900 the changes to Cracker Barrel
00:42:12.280 are universally deplored.
00:42:14.880 Universally.
00:42:15.480 You will not see
00:42:16.300 one positive comment about it
00:42:17.760 because they're awful.
00:42:18.940 And we were just looking
00:42:19.880 at the logo,
00:42:20.560 weren't we?
00:42:21.220 And the logo,
00:42:21.800 just the logo change.
00:42:24.120 You think,
00:42:24.660 oh no.
00:42:26.520 Oh no,
00:42:27.060 they're taking this beautiful,
00:42:28.560 ornamented,
00:42:29.400 rich,
00:42:29.920 traditional,
00:42:30.760 cool store and restaurant.
00:42:32.400 You're going to turn it
00:42:34.080 into a dentist's office.
00:42:35.160 You're going to turn it
00:42:35.860 into some bougie
00:42:36.840 like brunch place.
00:42:38.580 Some mid-tier
00:42:39.760 bougie brunch place
00:42:41.300 from Midtown Manhattan.
00:42:42.620 You're going to ruin
00:42:43.220 my Cracker Barrel.
00:42:45.480 Oh, but no,
00:42:46.380 don't worry,
00:42:47.300 says the CEO.
00:42:48.780 Oh, the inside's
00:42:49.760 all going to be great.
00:42:51.240 It's that same old
00:42:52.240 Cracker Barrel
00:42:52.740 you love,
00:42:53.240 traditional,
00:42:54.180 sweet,
00:42:54.720 cool.
00:42:55.140 So we have a clip
00:42:56.500 from what it looks like
00:42:57.980 on the inside.
00:42:59.680 I'll describe it to you.
00:43:00.940 On the wall,
00:43:04.500 instead of the nice
00:43:05.240 old cool traditional
00:43:06.120 banjos and stuff
00:43:07.300 with old tin pans,
00:43:08.740 it's just a bunch
00:43:09.780 of gay millennial art.
00:43:11.460 It's just gay millennial.
00:43:12.420 I don't know how else
00:43:12.980 to put it.
00:43:15.040 This,
00:43:16.580 all they had to do,
00:43:19.760 this is one of the most
00:43:20.360 beloved brands in America.
00:43:22.200 All they had to do
00:43:23.420 was keep the nice
00:43:25.320 Southern,
00:43:25.960 traditional,
00:43:27.340 nice Southern,
00:43:28.340 traditional,
00:43:28.920 comfortable,
00:43:29.420 home style,
00:43:31.000 scratch cooking,
00:43:32.180 step back in time,
00:43:33.440 nostalgia.
00:43:35.000 And the new CEO said,
00:43:36.160 great, great.
00:43:36.740 It's like the Don Draper meme,
00:43:38.120 you know,
00:43:38.300 great.
00:43:38.640 Oh, that's great.
00:43:39.580 But instead of that,
00:43:41.580 how about
00:43:42.260 your
00:43:43.220 gay middle class
00:43:45.260 millennials,
00:43:46.180 bougie,
00:43:46.700 soulless,
00:43:47.220 sterile apartment
00:43:48.020 outside of New York City?
00:43:49.460 How about,
00:43:49.780 how about we just do that
00:43:50.660 instead?
00:43:52.840 I hate it.
00:43:53.720 I hate it.
00:43:55.160 I hate when they do
00:43:55.860 stuff like this.
00:43:57.280 There have been a number
00:43:58.020 of other places,
00:43:58.820 even,
00:43:59.000 even some,
00:43:59.480 speaking of New York,
00:44:00.440 even old,
00:44:01.040 nice traditional places
00:44:01.840 in New York
00:44:02.360 and the remodel,
00:44:03.200 the Renault's,
00:44:04.140 just turn it into,
00:44:05.360 they turn it into
00:44:06.360 a dentist's office.
00:44:07.460 They turn it into
00:44:08.280 like a modern gym.
00:44:09.560 They say,
00:44:10.120 how about,
00:44:11.180 instead of places
00:44:11.940 with charm and character,
00:44:13.020 we make everything Panera?
00:44:16.760 And the key here,
00:44:17.720 she says,
00:44:18.060 oh,
00:44:18.240 and the customer,
00:44:19.040 the customers love it.
00:44:21.200 But even,
00:44:21.760 it's not just the customers.
00:44:23.060 This is for our team members too.
00:44:25.460 That's the giveaway
00:44:26.220 that the customers hate it.
00:44:27.900 She says,
00:44:28.480 oh yes,
00:44:29.240 our customers,
00:44:30.160 and you know what,
00:44:30.900 we're doing this remodel,
00:44:32.040 not just,
00:44:32.440 it's not just the excitement
00:44:33.320 from our customers,
00:44:34.100 it's also from our team members.
00:44:35.700 One,
00:44:36.080 I don't really believe you.
00:44:37.280 Two,
00:44:37.600 I don't care what your team members
00:44:38.740 want or think.
00:44:40.060 I don't care what they,
00:44:41.420 I've actually met some great,
00:44:42.680 over the years,
00:44:43.300 I've met some great
00:44:43.800 Cracker Barrel team members,
00:44:44.640 but I don't care
00:44:45.720 what their taste is
00:44:47.980 for wall decor.
00:44:49.640 I don't care
00:44:50.640 what utopian vision
00:44:53.480 they have
00:44:53.940 to turn Cracker Barrel into.
00:44:56.220 I care
00:44:57.580 about Cracker Barrel.
00:44:59.980 I want the little peg game
00:45:01.860 and I want the little like
00:45:04.080 dumplings on the side
00:45:05.840 and I want my iced tea
00:45:07.900 and I want to buy my kid a candy
00:45:09.820 when we walk out
00:45:10.880 and I want that
00:45:12.560 and I want banjos on the walls
00:45:14.140 and I want that
00:45:14.940 and I,
00:45:16.520 it's like you can never
00:45:17.420 let your guard down.
00:45:19.100 You can never let your guard,
00:45:20.660 you think,
00:45:21.200 oh man,
00:45:21.580 we're winning,
00:45:22.180 the libs are done,
00:45:23.360 everything is,
00:45:24.220 liberalism's on retreat,
00:45:25.960 we're getting our country back,
00:45:27.440 we're making America great again,
00:45:28.980 the federal buildings
00:45:29.940 are going to be neoclassical again,
00:45:32.000 this is awesome,
00:45:33.440 we're not toppling statues anymore,
00:45:35.460 we get to,
00:45:35.860 we get to have our,
00:45:36.760 and you're taking Cracker Barrel from me.
00:45:38.340 Vanity,
00:45:42.360 vanity,
00:45:42.680 all is vanity,
00:45:43.280 I guess.
00:45:45.300 There,
00:45:45.580 I need,
00:45:45.860 we need,
00:45:47.680 Trump needs to arrest this woman.
00:45:49.780 We need to federalize,
00:45:50.620 forget about just federalizing Washington,
00:45:52.260 D.C.
00:45:53.560 We,
00:45:53.820 I'm calling on the president
00:45:55.020 and on the White House.
00:45:56.480 We need to federalize Cracker Barrel.
00:45:59.620 We need to federalize Cracker Barrel,
00:46:01.160 we need to arrest the CEO,
00:46:03.120 we need to deport her
00:46:05.040 to Bukele's mega prison
00:46:07.720 in El Salvador
00:46:08.420 just to be safe
00:46:10.040 so that she can't do this
00:46:10.960 to any other beloved brand.
00:46:13.640 Stop this now,
00:46:14.420 it's not too late.
00:46:15.240 I bet most Cracker Barrels
00:46:16.380 still look good.
00:46:17.520 Stop this,
00:46:18.180 but it's not too late.
00:46:19.060 We all thought it was too late
00:46:20.060 in 2020,
00:46:21.340 2022,
00:46:22.220 2023,
00:46:23.060 we've lost our country,
00:46:24.300 it's too late.
00:46:24.900 No,
00:46:25.620 we can take our country back.
00:46:27.040 We can take Cracker Barrel back too.
00:46:30.540 All right.
00:46:31.240 There is so much more to get to.
00:46:32.760 Yes, today
00:46:33.320 is Theology Thursday.
00:46:35.500 I am Michael Knowles.
00:46:36.740 We will get to all of that
00:46:38.040 in the Membrum Segmentum.
00:46:39.280 You don't want to miss it.
00:46:40.000 Use code Knowles
00:46:40.720 at checkout for two months free
00:46:42.060 on all annual plans
00:46:42.780 and you'll get to watch
00:46:43.420 The Pope and the Fuhrer,
00:46:44.720 Secret Vatican Files of World War II.
00:46:46.260 We will be right back
00:46:46.900 in the Membrum Segmentum.
00:46:57.040 You don't want to miss it.