The Michael Knowles Show - February 25, 2026


Ep. 1919 - I Was At The State Of The Union： Full Event RECAP


Episode Stats

Length

49 minutes

Words per Minute

168.45155

Word Count

8,410

Sentence Count

664

Misogynist Sentences

12

Hate Speech Sentences

30


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 President Trump dog-walked the Democrats at the State of the Union.
00:00:04.000 Democrat leadership begged their party to be normal.
00:00:07.880 The party failed, and Trump gave a performance that might save the midterms for Republicans.
00:00:13.860 I'm Michael Knowles. This is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:00:30.000 Welcome back to the show.
00:00:36.720 A reporter has asked a Danish filmmaker why the cast of his film about Danish history is entirely Danish.
00:00:45.520 We'll get to that if we have a moment, but there's so much good stuff to get to from the State of the Union.
00:00:50.220 And I was there, and I saw it all happen, and it was awesome.
00:00:54.320 And then went out afterward, had a little cigar, maybe a little Coca-Cola, talked about it, analyzed it.
00:00:59.240 This was one of the great oratorical triumphs of President Trump's entire political career.
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00:03:02.160 What a State of the Union.
00:03:03.780 Off the bat, I really want to thank House Speaker Mike Johnson for the invitation.
00:03:08.460 It was really great to get back to the State of the Union.
00:03:11.700 I had been to one before.
00:03:13.000 Remember, my congressman, my pal Andy Ogles had invited me to the State of the Union at
00:03:17.720 the end of the Biden term when they injected Biden with whatever they injected him with,
00:03:21.600 and he just screamed at one note for about 52 minutes or so.
00:03:25.060 No, it may be longer.
00:03:25.820 It was like 91 minutes.
00:03:27.340 I don't know.
00:03:27.580 Whatever it was, it was very, very weak compared to what we saw last night.
00:03:32.780 This was President Trump's first official State of the Union in his second term.
00:03:36.700 Last year, he addressed Congress in a joint session, but he had just been elected.
00:03:41.660 So, you know, there wasn't a lot to talk about other than what he had done in the first term
00:03:45.520 and the election.
00:03:46.440 And this time, we had a real record to defend.
00:03:49.380 And I thought Trump did masterfully.
00:03:52.720 The Democrats clearly did too.
00:03:55.080 And the Democrats clearly predicted that he would do masterfully.
00:03:59.660 Because Democrat leadership, Hakeem Jeffries, told his party, pleaded with his party to just
00:04:06.960 be normal, to sit down, to be quiet, not to make a spectacle of themselves.
00:04:12.360 Maybe don't even show up.
00:04:13.620 Maybe it would be better if you're not even there, Democrats.
00:04:16.840 Because Hakeem Jeffries knew this was a battle for normal.
00:04:20.620 Trump was going to try to position himself as the leader of the party that wants peace,
00:04:25.400 security, safety, normal, putting people at ease, pulling us back from this precarious
00:04:32.280 political situation we're in.
00:04:33.780 He knew that's what Trump was going to go for.
00:04:35.940 He wants Democrats to stake out this ground.
00:04:37.980 The Dems in the midterms have said they're going to model themselves after Abigail Spanberger,
00:04:42.240 who ran for and won governor of Virginia by running as a moderate and then immediately
00:04:46.800 becoming a radical leftist or admitting that she's a radical leftist when she won.
00:04:50.320 So that was the game.
00:04:51.660 Please, Democrats, don't make a spectacle of yourselves.
00:04:55.400 That lasts for less than five minutes.
00:04:58.900 We're sitting there.
00:05:00.580 I'm, I'm, uh, if you're, if you're looking at the president, I'm to the left.
00:05:05.100 I give a really close view of this.
00:05:07.300 And, uh, you hear ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States and Trump walks
00:05:12.140 in, clock starts ticking less than five minutes.
00:05:14.620 He gets to almost exactly in my, in my line, sitting down, looking at him.
00:05:20.340 He gets to this guy, Al Green, who got thrown out of the chamber last year for yelling and
00:05:25.300 screaming and shouting.
00:05:26.300 So Al Green, uh, unfurls a sign from my angle.
00:05:31.620 I cannot see what the sign says.
00:05:33.780 I know it's something unhinged, but I couldn't tell what it is.
00:05:36.720 And it is even more unhinged than I thought it would be.
00:05:40.180 Do we have the clip?
00:05:46.360 Do you see?
00:05:48.200 President Trump, it says black people.
00:05:51.480 What?
00:05:52.520 So can we zoom in?
00:05:53.560 Do we have the picture?
00:05:54.520 Yeah, the, the sign seems to say black people rent apes.
00:06:05.880 Poor Hakeem Jeffries, poor one out for Hakeem Jeffries, but Hakeem Jeffries says, hey, hey,
00:06:10.760 Democrats, please just be kind of normal.
00:06:12.840 Al Green says, I know exactly what to do.
00:06:14.620 You're right.
00:06:14.900 Don't worry, Hakeem.
00:06:15.680 I got you.
00:06:16.100 We're going to seem real normal.
00:06:17.220 Black people rent apes.
00:06:19.740 He's like, what?
00:06:20.880 And I guess the sign was supposed to say black people aren't apes, which most people would
00:06:27.960 agree with.
00:06:28.480 It's this kind of niche reference to a meme that someone had posted to Trump's account.
00:06:34.580 There wasn't even, it wasn't even a meme he posted, but then there was a meme that auto
00:06:37.820 played after the meme and it wasn't, and that was supposedly racist, even though that actually
00:06:41.760 wasn't really.
00:06:44.600 What?
00:06:45.600 You guys can't help yourselves, can you?
00:06:47.300 First good sign for the Republicans in the night is that the Democrats can't help themselves.
00:06:51.020 Al Green ends up being escorted out eventually anyway.
00:06:53.800 Then the best moment of the entire night, President Trump, he's just like an excellent
00:07:01.280 boxer.
00:07:02.000 He's got him on the ropes.
00:07:03.740 Look, sometimes even good boxers aren't doing that well, you know, and that's happened in
00:07:07.080 some Trump speeches, but this one, he's just in his prime and he's just jab, jab, jab,
00:07:11.540 jab, he's jabbing him the whole time.
00:07:12.920 And then he lands this right hook and he lands the right hook by saying effectively, hey,
00:07:19.880 Democrats, if you are at all normal, if you support the most basic tenets, not just of
00:07:26.960 this country, but of any good country, stand up right now.
00:07:31.640 And they couldn't do it.
00:07:33.100 If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support.
00:07:39.620 The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal
00:07:45.580 aliens.
00:07:52.320 And they won't look.
00:07:53.620 We don't have time to play the whole clip.
00:07:55.320 This was the moment of the night because all the Republicans stand up and the Democrats
00:08:03.600 don't.
00:08:05.460 He said, this is one.
00:08:07.080 Look, when the Trump, when, when the president has the bully pulpit, sometimes he gets to put
00:08:10.540 you in a bad position and he can, he gotta, he's got, he can make you dance a little bit.
00:08:14.960 If you love puppies, if you love puppies and if you like sunsets and rainbows, stand up and
00:08:23.440 you gotta stand up, even if you don't like the guy.
00:08:26.380 In this case, it was even more basic than that.
00:08:29.160 If you think that America should protect Americans, that that's the chief responsibility
00:08:35.900 of government to protect Americans, not illegal, stand up.
00:08:39.200 The Democrats couldn't do it.
00:08:40.400 And Trump just stands back.
00:08:42.880 He just watches it.
00:08:43.640 He looks at them, points at them.
00:08:46.180 That clip is going to be played in every single midterm campaign.
00:08:54.320 Absolutely brutal, complete political malpractice from the Democrats.
00:08:58.920 And the Democrats, they kept it up all night.
00:09:00.740 There was one moment, we don't have time to get through all of it, but the whole speech
00:09:03.240 was masterful.
00:09:04.440 To the speech writers who worked on this, exceptional, exceptional job.
00:09:08.600 For Trump, the delivery was perfect.
00:09:11.940 Look, I'm on the team.
00:09:13.400 I obviously, I support the president.
00:09:15.520 Sometimes I'll say, oh, that wasn't that great.
00:09:17.440 Or this piece of legislation wasn't great.
00:09:18.780 This speech was 99.7998%.
00:09:23.740 Perfect.
00:09:25.860 And he was doing this all night.
00:09:27.580 All right, ladies and gentlemen, stand up.
00:09:30.620 If you support a little girl who can't walk, who might soon be able to walk, like that kind
00:09:36.260 of stuff, the Democrats can't stand up for the girl learning to walk.
00:09:39.440 At one point, he was talking about foreign policy.
00:09:41.100 He says, I got all those hostages home.
00:09:42.640 The hostages who were taken by the jihadis, I got them home.
00:09:46.320 I got them, the ones who were alive, I got them home alive.
00:09:49.200 And the ones who had already been killed, I even got their remains home.
00:09:51.780 Can we stand up for releasing hostages?
00:09:55.560 Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, who were right beneath where I was sitting, wouldn't stand up.
00:10:00.860 I mean, he was just pummeling them on the optics.
00:10:04.780 And then the second greatest moment of the night, Trump had to remind people of just how
00:10:13.020 nuts the Democrats had been.
00:10:14.000 If their strategy is, we're all going to be Abigail Spanberger, we're going to pretend
00:10:17.340 to be moderates, and then we're going to be radicals when we get elected, Trump had to
00:10:23.140 remind them.
00:10:23.540 He's been so effective at knocking down all their nonsense that we kind of forget.
00:10:27.860 Oh, yeah, there used to be DEI.
00:10:29.320 Oh, yeah, they used to trans the kids.
00:10:30.920 Oh, yeah, they used to have an open border with three million illegals coming in every
00:10:33.400 year.
00:10:33.580 Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, yeah.
00:10:34.300 Because he fixed it all overnight.
00:10:36.040 So he had to remind them of that.
00:10:37.380 And crucially, he had to show voters that the Democrats have not learned a thing, that
00:10:43.680 they've not changed their minds at all.
00:10:45.080 How does he do it?
00:10:45.800 He does it with the most extreme apotheosis of liberalism, which is transing the kids.
00:10:51.080 Wait till you see their reaction.
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00:12:15.460 Folks, you might be noticing I'm wearing this silly and whimsical, delightful little pin,
00:12:19.760 which is an ice cube that I designed with our excellent artists in the consumer products
00:12:25.380 division. I really wanted this for the State of the Union because I was speaking to some members
00:12:29.580 of Congress during the day, and then I was going to be at the State of the Union at night. I said,
00:12:33.040 I want this nice pin. So if you want the pin that I wore to the State of the Union, which is my ice
00:12:38.940 pin, show your support of ice. One of the most important issues, immigration, border security,
00:12:44.760 national sovereignty. This is it. If you want to show your support with this whimsical, beautifully
00:12:48.940 drawn pin, you got to go to dailywire.com slash shop. Here we go. Basically, the piece de resistance
00:12:55.740 of the night, Trump says, hey guys, hey Democrats, man, you're really, you're not, you won't stand
00:13:02.200 up for a little girl learning to walk. You won't, you guys won't stand up for America defending
00:13:06.460 Americans. Okay. All right. Hey, at the very least, he tells this whole anecdote. He says,
00:13:12.260 at the very least, you don't think that a child should be ripped away from his or her parents
00:13:18.960 because the parents won't castrate the little kid and pretend that the little boy is a little
00:13:24.700 girl, right? You won't, surely you don't think kids should be ripped away from their parents because
00:13:29.140 the parents won't mutilate and trans them, right Democrats? Surely we can all agree no state can be
00:13:36.920 allowed to rip children from their parents' arms and transition them to a new gender against the
00:13:43.120 parents' will. Who would believe that we're even talking about this? We must ban it and we must
00:13:48.940 ban it immediately.
00:13:54.720 Look, nobody says, these people are crazy. I'm telling you, they're crazy.
00:14:02.940 Amazing delivery. Amazing delivery. People don't appreciate stagecraft. Trump has stagecraft in
00:14:09.160 spades because he was a top network television star for a long time and he's been in movies and he
00:14:14.760 really gets it. He knows how to work stadia. I've seen this. I've seen it in real life at
00:14:18.680 MSG. He knows how to work it. This was working it. None of the Republicans were really surprised
00:14:25.320 that the Democrats still want to trans the kids. Some Republicans were slightly surprised that they
00:14:29.980 would be so brazen about it. But look, push comes to shove. The Dems know if they want to keep their
00:14:34.680 base with them, they have to say they want to castrate little kids. If they want to win normal
00:14:38.460 voters, they can't, but then they have to pick one and they picked their base. They picked the
00:14:43.100 Democrat voters. And Trump, he won't let the voters at home miss what just happened. He said,
00:14:50.380 I just said, kid shouldn't be ripped away from his parents because the parents don't want to castrate
00:14:54.940 him, turn him into a eunuch. And these people, you won't stand up. These people are crazy. And that's
00:15:03.340 the message. Those people, those Democrats, they're crazy. This is bring in Paul Simon,
00:15:09.860 bring in Paul Simon with the D45. I saw my old lover on the streets last night. This is it. We
00:15:17.260 were seeing our old lover, the Democrats, the Democrats who governed us for years, got Biden
00:15:22.180 was installed somehow as president. The Democrats said Obama led to the rise of wokeism. I saw my old
00:15:28.600 lover on the streets last night. And you know, talk about seeing that old lover. And what's the
00:15:33.920 conclusion? They're still crazy after all these years. That's what they are. They're still,
00:15:41.900 they want, it, it, it was such a masterclass in exposition. This truly, some Trump speeches,
00:15:52.180 they go on too long. They meander. I've talked about that for a long time, but some really stick out.
00:15:55.960 The one that sticks out for me from the first term was the Warsaw speech. Great defense of
00:15:59.800 Western civilization. This one might've been even better. It was just so rhetorically effective.
00:16:04.720 It was such a reset, you know, because Trump, in terms of the actual state of the union,
00:16:09.600 Trump has a ton of wins. The economy is doing great by virtually every measure. Recordized stock market,
00:16:16.560 good jobs numbers, good inflation, much better than inflation under Joe Biden. GDP is good. Even if it
00:16:22.260 was revised down a little bit in Q4, because Democrats shut the government down, it's still
00:16:25.760 pretty good. And yet people feel uneasy about the economy. Immigration is doing great. Trump shut
00:16:32.360 down the border single-handedly, proved the Democrats were lying when they said they needed
00:16:35.260 a new law to shut down the border. He did it overnight. Then he deported at least half a million
00:16:40.360 people in the first year. And when you include self-deports, and I think those data are really
00:16:44.320 well corroborated now, you're looking at something like 2 million people, which means that rents are
00:16:49.000 declining month after month. So he's got this really, really great record, but people don't feel like
00:16:53.080 it's a great record. They kind of forget how bad things were. They've gotten accustomed to how good
00:16:57.600 things have gotten. They forget how crazy the Democrats are and how bad things could be again
00:17:01.620 if they win. And Trump took two hours. He was even kind of measured on that. I thought it was going to
00:17:07.100 go three hours less, and I didn't. It was two hours, and it was two solid hours of Trump just reminding
00:17:12.520 people. The Democrats are still crazy after all these years. They're crazier than ever.
00:17:19.520 I mentioned, he called out certain people in the crowd. Really, really good anecdotes, and a crucial,
00:17:25.840 a crucial point to call out, both for justice, but also for political effect, for a political warning,
00:17:32.920 is that it's not just the Democrats want to let criminals in who threaten us. It's not just that
00:17:38.160 the Democrats want to let criminals out of jail who threaten our safety. Democrats themselves pose
00:17:44.460 a threat to our safety. They keep trying to kill us. There was a recent assassination attempt on
00:17:49.600 Trump. This is what, the third major one? One of them came so close, it actually blew off part of his
00:17:53.760 ear. And then there was the successful assassination, just six months ago, of our pal Charlie Kirk,
00:18:00.680 an assassination that was excused, justified, even celebrated in an uncomfortably large swath of the
00:18:11.840 Democrat Party. I'm very proud to say that during my time in office, both the first four years and
00:18:19.000 in particular this last year, there has been a tremendous renewal in religion, faith, Christianity,
00:18:25.760 and belief in God. Commendous renewal. This is especially true among young people. And a big part
00:18:35.820 of that had to do with my great friend, Charlie Kirk, a great guy. So last year, Charlie was violently
00:18:46.660 murdered by an assassin and martyred, really martyred for his beliefs. His wonderful wife, Erica, is with us
00:18:56.900 tonight. Erica, please stand. Thank you, Erica. Been through a lot. In Charlie's memory, we must all come together
00:19:11.900 to reaffirm that America is one nation under God, and we must totally reject political violence of any
00:19:19.840 kind. Okay, before we get to what happened after that last statement, because that was key, just want
00:19:25.640 to point out, this was a beautiful tribute from President Trump to his late friend, our late friend,
00:19:31.400 Charlie, and to his widow, Erica, who was sitting there. And her being there, I thought, was very
00:19:38.180 important, even just as a matter of justice, but it was very important for Democrats to look at her.
00:19:43.340 And it was very important for the Trump administration and the Republicans and, I don't know, maybe some
00:19:48.100 of the Democrats. I hope I didn't, I was mostly looking at Erica. I wasn't really looking at them
00:19:51.640 at that moment, to pay tribute to her. This is how we should be talking about Charlie's legacy
00:19:58.120 and Erica and the Kirk family and TPUSA. And really, this whole episode, I guess, is just
00:20:05.360 rhetorical, oratorical lessons from President Trump that many Republicans can learn from.
00:20:11.360 This is one that I hope right-wing influencers pay close attention to, because I've noticed it
00:20:18.200 in recent days, recent weeks. I want to be charitable about this, because I think it comes from a normal
00:20:25.340 part of human nature, but it's worth paying attention to. It's worth learning good oratorical
00:20:30.120 lessons from the president here. Some right-wing influencers seem to think that the best way to
00:20:36.160 honor Charlie's legacy and to support Erica and the family is to spend all of their time talking about
00:20:45.740 the people criticizing and antagonizing Erica and Charlie's friends and family. Does that make a lot
00:20:52.700 sense of sense to you? There are people who seem to think the best way to honor Erica and TPUSA and
00:20:59.900 Charlie is to focus all of the attention all the time on the relatively few people who are criticizing
00:21:09.460 and antagonizing Erica. The most famous, of course, being Candace, who I guess has a new series about
00:21:13.840 Erica, but some other people too, some smaller accounts as well. This theory, this strategy seems to be
00:21:21.520 a little bit misguided, wouldn't you say? Whether you love Candace, whether you hate Candace,
00:21:27.960 whether you think Candace is sincere, whether you think she's insincere, whatever psychobabble
00:21:33.900 analysis you have, do you think it makes sense, if you want to support someone, do you think it makes
00:21:39.680 sense to focus all of your attention all the time talking about someone antagonizing that person,
00:21:47.200 constantly publicizing all of the content that would antagonize that person? Doesn't make a lot
00:21:53.000 of sense to me. And so there's this meme that's cropped up among the right-wing influencers, which
00:21:57.040 is we must stop Candace and others, but she's the most famous one. We must stop Candace by whining
00:22:04.940 about her on the internet all the time. I just want to pause here, looking at rhetorical strategy.
00:22:11.700 Is there any evidence that has ever worked? Has anyone ever stopped, Candace especially, but
00:22:20.740 other people as well, has anyone ever stopped these guys from saying something by whining about them
00:22:27.920 more on the internet? I don't think that's ever worked even one single time. That seems like a bad
00:22:33.860 strategy. On the substantive point, obviously, I mean, I've said this for, well, since the beginning,
00:22:40.440 but I think Erica is a national hero. I think she deserves our immense support and sympathy.
00:22:47.060 So obviously I disagree with Candace on that and, and, you know, some other people.
00:22:53.100 I am, I am hopeful that Candace and others will be persuaded that, you know, okay, actually maybe,
00:22:59.880 maybe Michael and some others are right here and Erica's the victim and we should support her and
00:23:03.880 show some sympathy. One thing I am certain of is that no one will ever get Candace to say or do
00:23:11.880 anything by whining more about her on the internet. No one will destroy Candace or anyone else by
00:23:19.720 whining about them more on the internet and giving them more publicity and attention specifically on the
00:23:26.960 project you supposedly don't want to promote. So where does this come from? It's really the lesson
00:23:32.680 to take here is not even specifically about Charlie or Candace or this or that. The lesson to take here
00:23:39.960 is why, why do people engage in this kind of counterproductive strategy? And I think it's a very
00:23:49.620 human thing. I don't put myself above it, but I think a lot of people would rather feel good or seem
00:23:57.120 good than actually do good. I think a lot of people would like, would rather feel emotional catharsis,
00:24:04.420 screaming, yelling, this is awful. This is terrible. They'd like to feel that catharsis or they would like
00:24:12.320 to posture, preen, present themselves as the most moral lily white, beautiful, innocent does than
00:24:21.280 actually do good. They would rather feel and seem good even at the expense of actually doing good. Even
00:24:29.040 when feeling and seeming good actually promotes the things that you say are bad. Even when it results in
00:24:39.660 a totally counterproductive strategy. And so zooming out from this particular moment, I just want to
00:24:46.420 observe Trump never does that. Trump never does that. When Trump has a disagreement with someone,
00:24:53.720 he tries to persuade them. He doesn't just excoriate them all the time. He doesn't preen. He doesn't,
00:25:01.420 he tries to persuade them. He's got all sorts of different tactics for persuading people. Art of the
00:25:05.840 Deal, that's his book. But Trump is interested in getting things done. He never presents himself
00:25:11.820 as some paragon of philosophical or moral purity. Even when what he is doing is actually better than
00:25:19.100 what he says he's doing. You know, even when his actions are better than his speech. He is a guy who
00:25:24.300 just wants to get things done. He's a fixer. Drew said this in the first term. He said, you know,
00:25:30.220 thing about Trump, he's kind of like a plumber. You know, a lot of these pretty boy politicians,
00:25:34.220 they want to go out there and make these beautiful, eloquent speeches and look really nice and
00:25:38.040 quaffed. You know, Trump, though, he's a plumber. He just wants to fix things. He wants to go out
00:25:42.340 there and get things done. He wants the effect. And the rhetorical effect of this speech was
00:25:48.060 magnificent. And look, it's pretty basic stuff. Put your opponents in a bad situation. Focus on the good
00:25:58.020 things. Focus on what you want to talk about. Don't let your opponents dictate what you want to talk
00:26:02.500 about. You set the agenda, Mr. President, and then provide clarity on the political situation
00:26:09.740 because clarity is charity. When we're talking about political violence here, you heard that
00:26:15.280 clip right there from the very end. But do we have the longer version of that clip? I'm not sure that
00:26:21.020 we do. Because you've got to see the camera pan around. President Trump says, we're a nation under God
00:26:27.880 and we should all reject political violence of all kinds. Some of the Democrats, all the Republicans
00:26:35.120 stood up. Some of the Democrats stood up. None. Sorry, not none. Like a third of the total Democrats,
00:26:44.960 none of the really extreme, crazy Democrats stood up. That was astounding because it drives home this
00:26:52.020 point. I was talking about it in the lead up to the speech. You've got to connect all of these dots,
00:26:56.000 the economy, and the migration, and the crime. Right now, the Republicans are leading on immigration
00:27:00.500 and especially on border control and especially on crime. It's a little more ambiguous on the
00:27:06.200 economy, on health care, on government reform or defense of democracy. Republicans are underwater
00:27:13.660 on some of those. So how do you tie it all in? Democrats are threatening you. They're threatening
00:27:19.160 you at the border. They're threatening you with the criminals they're releasing onto your street.
00:27:22.000 They're threatening your 401ks. They're threatening your economy. They're threatening you certainly
00:27:28.120 economically, but they themselves are a threat. You got a third, two thirds of Democrats, however many
00:27:35.540 it was that were sitting down on that basic claim. You got them saying, yeah, we want to kill you.
00:27:41.840 We want to kill you. And it puts the focus back on there. Rather than on, I don't know, digressions,
00:27:49.760 rather than on right-wing infighting or influencer wars or whatever. Trump just has this amazing
00:27:56.300 message discipline and he gets no credit for it. They say he wanders off and he's undisciplined.
00:28:01.060 Not so. Trump is not a guy who lets his emotions run away with him. Trump is not a guy who would
00:28:07.580 rather feel good and seem good than actually do good. That was real discipline there. They're going
00:28:12.500 to play that clip throughout the midterms as well. Totally, totally achieved his goal.
00:28:17.540 One last clip to show you the absolute perfidy and decay of the Democrats. One last clip from
00:28:25.020 State of the Union. Then we have to go on to USA Today crying about the hockey team. First though,
00:28:29.520 I want to tell you about Remy. Go to shopremi.com slash Knowles. Since I was a little, little kid,
00:28:36.240 I have ground my teeth. Do you grind your teeth? Have you ground your teeth? If you're a part of the 30%
00:28:41.180 of Americans who grind their teeth, then your smile needs protection too. Make it your year by grabbing
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00:29:00.120 guard from the dentist, but Remy costs you 80% less and is way more convenient than having to
00:29:03.980 schedule appointments and go into the dentist's office. You know, this is kind of how I feel about
00:29:07.960 it. It's not that just, look, I could use my HSA or whatever I could. I'm not saying, I'm very cheap,
00:29:13.200 but I'm basically willing to pay for dental work, but it's the hassle. You got to go to the office.
00:29:17.860 You got to do this. Remy makes it so easy. They send you the kit. You get your impression kit
00:29:21.520 straight to your door. Then you follow Remy's step-by-step instructions, get your perfect
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00:29:29.720 guard back, you can start protecting your teeth right away. I really, really support this. It was so
00:29:33.840 easy. They just sent me the kit right to my door. I can send it in. It's very, very simple.
00:29:38.120 If I can do it, you can do it. Start the new year right and use code Knowles,
00:29:41.340 to get 50% off your purchase of a new night guard. 50% off at shopremi.com slash Knowles
00:29:47.740 with code Knowles. Thank you, Remy, for sponsoring this show. You think, okay, what's the most extreme
00:29:52.500 example of something that the Democrats should be able to get behind? We already did it. Do you think
00:29:58.820 America should be for Americans? We should defend Americans over illegal aliens? They wouldn't do
00:30:03.480 that. Do you think we should discard political violence? You know,
00:30:10.060 a shoe political violence? No, they got rid of that one. Do you think kids shouldn't be ripped
00:30:15.280 away from their parents because the parents won't trans them? No. Okay, so is there more? Yes,
00:30:20.220 there's maybe one more evocative example or at least one that's on par. Do you remember the
00:30:24.940 slaying of Irina Zarutska? This young girl, I guess she was from Ukraine, she's sitting on this
00:30:32.900 Charlotte subway. And this maniac guy just comes up behind her and just starts stabbing her in the neck.
00:30:38.200 And he said something to the effect of like, I got a white girl or something. I think that was
00:30:41.080 reported. But an acknowledgement, he was aware that he had just done something awful and he made
00:30:46.460 it sound even more sort of prejudiced and wicked afterward. And this poor girl, just no one helped
00:30:52.660 her. And it was just so awful, right? Trump invites the mother of Irina Zarutska to the State of the
00:30:59.460 Union address. He says, hey, we probably shouldn't have violent, lunatic career criminals slaying sweet
00:31:07.000 little blonde girls on the subway, right? And the Democrats couldn't stand up for that.
00:31:13.260 Arrested over a dozen times and was released through no cash bail, stood up and viciously
00:31:19.480 slashed a knife through her neck and body. No one will ever forget there were people
00:31:25.120 on that train. No one will ever forget the expression of terror on Irina's face as she looked up
00:31:32.940 at her attacker in the last seconds of her life. She died instantly.
00:31:37.960 She had escaped a brutal war only to be slain by a hardened criminal set free to kill in America,
00:31:44.920 came in through open borders. Mrs. Zarutska, tonight I promise you we will ensure justice for your
00:31:52.460 magnificent daughter, Irina.
00:31:54.740 Thank you.
00:31:55.740 How do you not stand? How do you not stand?
00:32:20.740 What an amazing line. These aside, this is because Trump knows how cameras work.
00:32:28.240 And so when they don't stand for, you know, we shouldn't take kids away from their parents if
00:32:32.640 they don't trans them. He says, these people are crazy. You know, when they won't stand for
00:32:38.900 America is for Americans. He steps away, you know, he looks, he points, he shows. And then here,
00:32:44.580 this is a different kind of aside, a different approach, but it's the same effect. Because how
00:32:51.760 do you not stand for that? Oh golly, there you go again. This is Ronald Reagan's. Oh, there you go
00:32:57.280 again. Wow. How do you not stand for that? How do you, and truly, how do you not stand for little
00:33:06.300 blonde girls shouldn't be, have their heads chopped off on the subway by, by maniacs whose, whose
00:33:12.620 actions were totally predictable? Trump just totally achieved his goal here. I thought it was
00:33:17.460 beautiful. Really, really beautiful speech. It doesn't mean that the Republicans are going to win
00:33:21.080 the midterms, by the way, because what has to happen now is the Republicans have to stay on message,
00:33:29.580 which is impossible. Pigs flying, a chilly day in hell, and Republicans staying on message. Those
00:33:36.720 all have roughly the same probability. But this was a good message. This was really good discipline
00:33:42.200 here. They've got to do that. They've got to keep their eyes on the prize, and they need to recognize
00:33:46.420 that the battle here is for security, safety, normal. I know things are precarious, but we got it.
00:33:55.000 Don't worry. Those guys are the party of chaos. We're the party of order. Okay.
00:34:00.240 The libs just fuming and crying and shrieking. USA Today, really, really upset over some of
00:34:07.460 President Trump's guests at the State of the Union, who I got to see as they were entering
00:34:12.260 right next to the chamber. And that would be the U.S. men's hockey team, the Olympic hockey team.
00:34:17.080 First, though, folks, last night, before the State of the Union, then during the State of the Union,
00:34:20.680 except I dipped out, and then after the State of the Union, when I got back to the office,
00:34:23.600 we brought you coverage on Friendly Fire of the whole big speech. And the way that we can do that,
00:34:29.580 the way that we're able, and we're so grateful to be able, to bring you analysis, commentary,
00:34:34.840 really handsome headshots, all of that, along with investigative journalism, along with new
00:34:39.940 documentaries, is because you subscribe to The Daily Wire. No knock on the public out there,
00:34:45.440 the hoi polloi just watching on the public platforms. You know, it's great. I appreciate
00:34:48.840 having you. But we need the creme de la creme. All right. That's actually what keeps the lights on in
00:34:53.780 here, in this hotel and also in our studios. So thank you. If you're not a Daily Wire Plus member
00:34:58.960 yet, you got to join. Go to dailywireplus.com. Then, very crucial, download the app and follow
00:35:04.620 me on there. I don't care what you do with the other guys or the other movies or it doesn't matter.
00:35:09.440 Me. You got to follow me. Go to Daily Wire Plus right now. My favorite comment yesterday
00:35:13.920 is from PNW Vibes, who is channeling Gavin Newsom, who says, my dad also left to get milk and cigarettes
00:35:22.720 and never came back. Gavin Newsom, probably. Yeah, no, he did almost that exact thing. In that other
00:35:28.400 interview where he was talking about eating mayonnaise sandwiches and mac and cheese and
00:35:33.200 playing hoops until his mom's called him in. In that segment, Newsom said, he was like, you know,
00:35:39.700 my dad's wasn't around much as a kid. You think, you mean because he was like a judge or what?
00:35:44.860 Was he like a judge? He had a very professional, I guess, public service job. He was an advisor
00:35:51.620 to the Getty family. Yeah, he wasn't home from like 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. maybe because he was like
00:35:59.000 working hard for your family. But I think he came home. Okay. USA Today takes the cake for whining.
00:36:04.400 This is amazing. This is over. The men's hockey team, we didn't even get to it, but there are too many
00:36:09.040 good clips from the State of the Union even to get to. I can't, I don't have time.
00:36:14.460 USA Today. The USA men's hockey team utterly failed to meet the cultural moment.
00:36:22.480 Like many United States hockey fans, I grew up loving Miracle. I wasn't born yet when the U.S.
00:36:27.560 stunned the Soviet Union en route to the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics, but I knew the story
00:36:32.940 as if it were my own memory. It was all great. Loved the Miracle on Ice thing. Okay, it's great.
00:36:37.560 And then he says, I was so happy when the American team in this Olympics beat the Canadians,
00:36:42.720 the new evil empire, America's evil top hat. And then he goes on and says, but there was this
00:36:49.160 ice bucket thrown on the event because President Trump invited them to the White House.
00:36:57.960 It was just so awful. First, the FBI director went in and celebrated with the team in the locker room.
00:37:03.180 Can you imagine the FBI director celebrating with the American Olympic team? And then the
00:37:07.480 president congratulated them and that was awful. And then the president invited them to the White
00:37:11.200 House. I'm not sure. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels as if a bucket of cold water has
00:37:18.260 been dumped on your head after listening to that exchange. That exchange where he's like joking with
00:37:25.120 the men's hockey team. This is great. I love this. USA Today, please keep running these op-eds.
00:37:31.180 Libs, please. I think a lot of the Dems didn't even stand for the hockey team. The way it worked,
00:37:37.020 there aren't a lot of seats in the hall. So Trump didn't actually give the hockey team seats
00:37:41.000 for the State of the Union, but he welcomed them in. They came in, they were standing right behind
00:37:46.460 the president. And the Democrats didn't stand. A lot of them wouldn't even stand for the U.S. men's
00:37:54.140 gold Olympic hockey team. You think, great, this is what I want. It's like politics 101. Wrap yourself
00:38:03.640 in the flag, you know, eat a hot dog on the 4th of July, you know, pat the back of your fellow Americans.
00:38:11.880 Americans say that you prefer Americans to foreign criminals, you know, like kind of basic stuff. We're
00:38:19.040 not getting into esoteric political philosophy here, and the Dems couldn't do it. So what is Trump?
00:38:23.660 Trump is the party of protecting innocent people. Trump is the party of peace over political violence.
00:38:29.260 Trump is the party of economic booms. Trump is the party of the gold medal winning hockey team.
00:38:35.700 Trump is the party of little girls learning to walk. Trump is the party of not separating you from
00:38:40.840 your baby. And the Dems, it's not just that Trump stole that. The Dems gave that away.
00:38:48.700 And Trump used the State of the Union to clarify it.
00:38:53.180 And then it became clear. Really crazy stuff. Okay. Speaking of tradition and the Trump White House,
00:38:59.000 there's a story I've been meaning to get to for over a week now, but I have to get to it because it
00:39:03.840 really does tie in on the State of our Union. You might've seen this article come up a little while
00:39:08.360 ago. Trump plans to install Christopher Columbus statue outside the White House. The president has
00:39:14.180 worked to recognize the Explorer, saying Italian Americans should remember his efforts when they
00:39:17.960 go vote. So true. So true. In this, you know, in this house, in this hotel room, Christopher Columbus
00:39:22.580 is a hero and a story. The Libs really are upset about this, that you might recall five years ago,
00:39:29.060 they were tearing down all the statues of Christopher Columbus, even longer. They've been,
00:39:31.800 they've been anti-Columbus for a long time. And Trump says he's going to install a statue in the
00:39:35.700 White House. Why does this matter? And why does it matter now? Because this year is the 250th
00:39:39.960 anniversary of America. The 250th anniversary of what? From when, ask you? From 1776. But you know,
00:39:49.800 America's actually older than 1776. America's older than the revolution. Where'd the guys from the
00:39:56.580 revolution come from? Well, they were the colonists. They were the colonists who fought the French and
00:40:01.100 Indian War. They were the colonists who settled on many ships in Massachusetts Bay, in Virginia,
00:40:08.440 in Plymouth, the Mayflower, going back to 1620. America goes back earlier. And then you have to ask,
00:40:16.440 well, did America just spring out of the ether in 1620? Look, the Mayflower is great. It's a great
00:40:21.300 cigar brand, by the way. But no, it didn't spring out of the ether in 1620. America comes from England.
00:40:29.200 England. And England comes from somewhere. England was part of the Roman Empire. England was converted
00:40:36.220 to Christianity. It goes back further and further and further. And this has been something I've been
00:40:40.120 really delighted about. Because one nasty habit among American conservatives, at least in the latter
00:40:47.000 part of the 20th century, but maybe even longer than that, is they played around with this liberal
00:40:53.420 tendency to pretend that history started in 1776. You know, this actually was a punchline on Parks and
00:41:01.480 Rec, on Ron Swanson. He would say, history began on July 4th, 1776. Everything before that was a mistake.
00:41:10.120 This is the caricature of the boomer, libertarian, inflected conservative. And it's kind of funny,
00:41:15.920 you know, that's a lovable character, but that's not true. America is older than 1776,
00:41:21.440 goes back to 1620, goes back to 1492, goes back to Columbus sailing the ocean blue.
00:41:28.680 You've seen this with the Trump White House. There was that wonderful essay from the State
00:41:32.060 Department that came out that was extolling the virtues of Europe. And it drew a connection between
00:41:37.000 America and not just John Locke or Russo or something, Thomas Paine, but further back,
00:41:44.320 drew a connection between America and Thomas Aquinas, drew a connection between America and
00:41:48.280 Aristotle, recognizing that America is not a break with the Western tradition, the European tradition,
00:41:54.020 the tradition of Christendom. America is an extension of, perhaps even a fulfillment of
00:42:00.000 that very tradition, but we're part of it. By putting Columbus at the White House,
00:42:06.360 what the president is saying is, America is bigger and sturdier than just a revolution.
00:42:15.020 The revolution is good. The revolution is part of it, but we're actually older. We're sturdier.
00:42:20.080 We're more established than that. We have more resources, cultural, historical, political,
00:42:25.420 to draw on than just that. This is a beautiful corrective. And I don't think I'm reading too
00:42:33.180 deeply into this. You know, the Trump White House has written about these kinds of things explicitly.
00:42:37.320 And Trump has just, he's got such a good gut, but this is it. And not an unimportant aspect for us
00:42:45.180 Italian Americans, Christopher Columbus is a hero. Okay. End of story. I mentioned this at the top of
00:42:50.920 the show, but speaking of history, a reporter in confusion, in shock, in fury, just asked a Danish
00:43:00.200 filmmaker why his cast in an epic about Danish history is entirely Nordic.
00:43:08.060 This is a cast and Danish production, which is entirely Nordic. It therefore has some lack of
00:43:15.660 diversity, you would say, as also new rules are implied in Hollywood.
00:43:19.340 Are you on to? Sorry, but from the get-go, from the get-go, there is said. Well, first of all,
00:43:25.080 the film takes place in Denmark in the 1750s. Well, you might say there are not enough black
00:43:33.340 people in your movie about early modern Norway. Why is that? And then you see this, the guy,
00:43:40.780 the director, the producer, whoever it is, kind of laughs. And then the other guy says,
00:43:44.340 the movie takes place in 1750. They didn't have any black people in Norway in 1750.
00:43:54.020 Is that what we are told today in places like Norway or Sweden, which has taken a whole slew of
00:44:01.080 Afghan migrants, which increased the rape rate from like zero to much higher, to infinitely higher
00:44:06.780 because the rape rate was about zero. What we're told is that today it is not acceptable for Norway to
00:44:13.340 be filled with Norwegians. That's not acceptable. That that's racist or bigoted or prejudiced or
00:44:20.040 whatever. It's not acceptable for Sweden to be filled with Swedes. That claim itself is quite
00:44:26.160 dubious. I, for one, call me crazy. I think it's okay if Norway wants to be filled with Norwegians.
00:44:30.840 I think it's okay. I think it's okay if Ghana wants to be filled with Ghanaians. And it's okay if
00:44:35.400 Norway wants to be filled with Norwegians. But to show you the radicalism, what the left is now saying
00:44:41.980 is not only is it not okay for Norway today to be filled with Norwegians, it is not okay for Norway
00:44:49.300 300 years ago to have been filled by Norwegians. In other words, it is not okay that Norway as such
00:45:02.180 ever existed. It's not just saying to these nations, you have no right to exist today. It's
00:45:09.060 saying you, you never had a right to exist. We should blot you out, not just from the world today,
00:45:15.160 but from the history books, from the movies. How dare you? How dare you make a movie about
00:45:21.500 Norwegian history that has Norwegians in it? Are we going to make, let me ask if, is Hollywood going to
00:45:29.820 make Wakanda forever starring Sidney Sweeney? Is that going to happen? Does anyone, it's almost
00:45:36.360 trite, it is trite at this point to, to say, you know, is some, uh, Nigerian director going to be
00:45:41.760 asked why he doesn't have any, uh, any Finns in his movie about Nigeria? You know, it doesn't have
00:45:47.540 any Scots in his movie. But are we, what are we going to do? We're going to make Wakanda forever
00:45:51.700 with, with, uh, Sidney Sweeney? I don't think so. Obviously it only cuts one way and the radicalism
00:45:57.880 grows. And that's the message here. The radicalism on the left grows. Some people think woke was cured
00:46:05.120 by the 2024 election or even a little bit before that. Now the Democrats are pivoting, they're
00:46:10.340 moderating. They're not, they're not. They might lie. They might rhetorically try to seem like that.
00:46:17.120 So Gavin Newsom pretends to be friends with Charlie Kirk on his podcast and then also calls
00:46:23.920 Stephen Miller a fascist and says he wants to see more trans kids in the very next breath.
00:46:30.420 The Abigail Spanberger might run as a moderate. She's, she has already implemented the most radically
00:46:34.800 left-wing agenda we've ever seen in Virginia. Democrats are going to, uh, follow that, that model
00:46:41.360 in November. They've only gotten more extreme. It is the job of Republicans following Trump to expose
00:46:50.720 that, to offer an alternative, a positive vision that is safe and secure to not get off track,
00:46:57.960 to not get off topic and to push forward into November. And maybe, maybe there's a chance we
00:47:02.920 don't even catastrophically lose the midterms. I feel, we'll still probably lose the midterms,
00:47:07.920 just how these elections work. I feel a lot better this morning, even having not slept. Oh,
00:47:14.800 because by the way, after the state of the union, I went out with a Senator Cruz and had scotch and
00:47:18.140 cigars, as is our tradition. Now, after the state of the union, you can see that on the verdict
00:47:21.740 podcast. Uh, but even so, even staying out very late, I feel a lot better about the state of the
00:47:30.580 country after that speech, but the state of the union after that speech than I did going in. Okay.
00:47:35.140 That's our show. I'm on the road. I got to catch a flight. I got to go do a bunch of stuff. So no
00:47:39.000 Membrum Segmentum today. We will be back in the Membrum Segmentum tomorrow. I'm Michael Knowles. This
00:47:43.700 is the Michael Knowles Show.
00:47:57.020 What was it like, Merlin, to be alone with God?
00:48:05.140 Is that who you think I was alone with?
00:48:12.220 Merlin, I knew your father. I am yet convinced that he was not of this world.
00:48:19.800 All men know of the great Taliesin.
00:48:23.200 You are my father, that the gods should war for my soul.
00:48:27.520 Princess Garrus, savior of our people.
00:48:30.520 I know what the bull god offered you. I was offered the same.
00:48:37.600 And?
00:48:39.100 There is a new power at work in the world. I've seen it.
00:48:43.260 A god who sacrifices what he loves for us.
00:48:45.980 We are each given only one life, singer.
00:48:48.740 No.
00:48:49.860 We're given another.
00:48:50.620 I learnt of Yezu the Christ.
00:48:56.000 And I have become his follower.
00:48:57.880 He's waiting on a miracle.
00:48:59.420 And I think you can give him one.
00:49:01.460 Trust in Yezu.
00:49:02.780 He is the only hope for men like us.
00:49:05.720 Faith of Britain never rests in the hands of the great light.
00:49:08.720 Great light.
00:49:09.880 Great darkness.
00:49:11.320 Such things mattered to me then.
00:49:13.700 What matters to you now, mistress of lies?
00:49:15.840 You, nephew.
00:49:21.980 The sword of a high king.
00:49:26.260 How many lives must be lost before you accept the power you were born to wield?
00:49:34.060 Circling to the promises of a god who has abandoned you.
00:49:37.260 I cannot take up that sword again.
00:49:40.020 You know what you must do.
00:49:43.500 Great light, forgive me.
00:49:45.840 The time has come to be reborn.