The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1798 - Rabbi Shmuley Boteach Challenges Me To A Debate

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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.

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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. 0.93

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 0.99

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, 0.97

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 1.00

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. 0.95

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. 0.79

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. 0.61

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. 0.88

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. 0.96

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.

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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. 0.61

00:23:47.340 We'll get into exactly what that trick is in one second.

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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 0.67

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 0.61

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, 0.97

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

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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,

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00:34:12.260 Chatting live during the shows,

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00:34:15.080 And since it's our app,

00:34:16.380 we cannot be canceled,

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00:34:18.720 Don't just listen.

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00:34:20.140 Download the Daily Wire Plus app

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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, 0.93

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 0.60

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 0.99

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, 0.98

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 0.97

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. 0.63

00:41:55.000 Cut it. 0.63

00:41:55.320 I don't need to listen

00:41:56.080 to this woman lie anymore. 0.98

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 1.00

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. 0.93

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 0.64

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. 1.00

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 0.99

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.

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The Michael Knowles Show - August 21, 2025

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

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