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

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? 0.73

00:05:48.200 President Trump, it says black people. 0.96

00:05:51.480 What? 0.96

00:05:52.520 So can we zoom in?

00:05:53.560 Do we have the picture? 0.99

00:05:54.520 Yeah, the, the sign seems to say black people rent apes. 0.97

00:06:05.880 Poor Hakeem Jeffries, poor one out for Hakeem Jeffries, but Hakeem Jeffries says, hey, hey, 0.98

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. 0.99

00:06:17.220 Black people rent apes. 1.00

00:06:19.740 He's like, what? 1.00

00:06:20.880 And I guess the sign was supposed to say black people aren't apes, which most people would 0.83

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 0.85

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 1.00

00:09:36.260 of stuff, the Democrats can't stand up for the girl learning to walk. 1.00

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. 0.99

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. 0.56

00:10:29.320 Oh, yeah, they used to trans the kids. 1.00

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. 1.00

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 0.97

00:13:36.920 allowed to rip children from their parents' arms and transition them to a new gender against the 1.00

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. 0.99

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 0.57

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, 1.00

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, 0.94

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 0.96

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 0.93

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. 0.95

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 0.99

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 0.98

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 0.99

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 0.85

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. 1.00

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, 1.00

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,

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00:28:56.400 makes them special is that you get the same professional quality and comfort as a night

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 1.00

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, 0.94

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. 0.99

00:30:38.200 And he said something to the effect of like, I got a white girl or something. I think that was 0.98

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 0.88

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. 1.00

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 0.99

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 1.00

00:33:12.620 actions were totally predictable? Trump just totally achieved his goal here. I thought it was 0.99

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. 0.86

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 0.95

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 0.88

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 1.00

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 1.00

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 1.00

00:44:20.040 whatever. It's not acceptable for Sweden to be filled with Swedes. That claim itself is quite 0.99

00:44:26.160 dubious. I, for one, call me crazy. I think it's okay if Norway wants to be filled with Norwegians. 1.00

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 0.99

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 0.99

00:44:49.300 300 years ago to have been filled by Norwegians. In other words, it is not okay that Norway as such 0.96

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 0.98

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 0.99

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. 1.00

00:46:30.420 The Abigail Spanberger might run as a moderate. She's, she has already implemented the most radically 0.99

00:46:34.800 left-wing agenda we've ever seen in Virginia. Democrats are going to, uh, follow that, that model 0.91

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. 0.54

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. 0.87

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. 0.70

00:49:13.700 What matters to you now, mistress of lies?

00:49:15.840 You, nephew. 0.73

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.

The Michael Knowles Show - February 25, 2026

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

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