The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1979 - They Just Made Another Iconic White Character Black

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00:01:00.000 Betty Boop is now black, Cuba is about to be America, and a Democrat congressional candidate 0.52

00:01:05.300 wants to put Jews into concentration camps. I'm Michael Knowles, it's The Michael Knowles Show. 0.85

00:01:09.620 Welcome back to the show. President Trump comes out swinging against James Tallarico,

00:01:33.860 the Democrat Senate candidate in Texas

00:01:37.020 who some have called the gay Pete Buttigieg.

00:01:39.380 We will get to that momentarily.

00:01:41.140 First, though, I want to tell you about Pure Talk.

00:01:43.460 Go to puretalk.com slash Knowles,

00:01:44.920 K-N-A-W-L-A-S.

00:01:45.620 One of the stranger habits people have

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00:01:51.640 while continuing to overpay for the same monthly bills

00:01:54.200 year after year without ever reconsidering them.

00:01:56.320 Wireless service,

00:01:57.000 probably one of the clearest examples of that.

00:01:58.820 Pure Talk, which is a veteran-led company

00:02:01.220 it is backed by 100% US-based customer service,

00:02:04.660 now offers unlimited high-speed data

00:02:06.600 for just $34.99 a month.

00:02:09.500 What is very interesting is this same plan

00:02:11.460 used to cost substantially more,

00:02:13.040 but PureTalk has kept lowering prices

00:02:14.560 while still using the same nationwide 5G network

00:02:17.700 that people already rely on.

00:02:19.500 Not just a similar network.

00:02:21.680 I want you to hear me clearly.

00:02:23.020 They're using the best towers, the best network.

00:02:27.460 So then the question is,

00:02:28.240 why are people paying more for these major carriers

00:02:31.560 Why are they paying these bloated fees?

00:02:33.440 And it's because, one, the corporations just have bloat in their employment

00:02:37.160 because they've got all of these sorts of stores.

00:02:39.520 They're paying for a ton of marketing.

00:02:41.540 Well, folks, I've had my PureTalk phone for years at this point.

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00:03:00.180 Switch to my wireless company, America's wireless company, Pure Talk.

00:03:04.380 All right, the most important global news that is going on right now, even as we speak,

00:03:11.900 the situation might be changing on the ground, is Mayflower cigars might be getting a new blend

00:03:18.000 because the United States might be conquering Cuba. Here is President Trump. While the Iran

00:03:24.280 crisis is still ongoing, simmering in the Strait of Hormuz at a very low boil,

00:03:29.840 President Trump turns to our little neighbor 90 miles off the coast of Florida and says.

00:03:36.320 CIA there. We have Marco is there. Marco's parents, as you know, we're from Cuba.

00:03:41.780 So we have a lot of expertise in Cuba. And it's not going to be like the biggest thing we've ever

00:03:47.780 done. But I will tell you, to a lot of people, it's going to be one of the most important.

00:03:51.840 They've been looking for this moment for 65 years.

00:03:54.440 Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, caramba. We might be taking Cuba. The USS Nimitz carrier strike group has 0.60

00:04:01.860 arrived in the Caribbean. The United States has indicted the 94-year-old Raul Castro,

00:04:08.780 former leader of Cuba, brother of El Comandante Fidel, a guy who, when he was in charge of the

00:04:15.400 Cuban military, shot down an American airplane. It looks like we're taking Cuba. And I love the 0.83

00:04:20.720 way that Trump talks about it. He goes, look, it's not going to be the biggest thing we've ever done.

00:04:24.440 And this is the key to the whole comment, because people have war fatigue.

00:04:28.440 People kind of have empire fatigue, even though, to quote the observation of Thucydides,

00:04:35.560 you know, we might not have wanted an empire, but we're probably going to be sorry to lose it.

00:04:39.360 It's just the fact of how nations grow and become strong and sometimes decline,

00:04:44.280 and we don't want to decline.

00:04:45.320 And President Trump's whole political raison d'etre is to make America great again.

00:04:49.940 So he says, look, it's probably not going to be the biggest thing we've ever done.

00:04:52.660 And he says that because taking control of Cuba is as American as apple pie.

00:04:58.440 We've been doing it for a very long time.

00:05:01.020 America has directly controlled Cuba three times in the last century or 120 years or so.

00:05:07.580 And America has indirectly controlled Cuba for many decades after that.

00:05:12.340 Marco Rubio wakes up almost every day just waiting to oust the communist regime in Cuba.

00:05:18.720 here he is in Spanish telling the Cuban people that the bright white cloud of freedom is on its

00:05:28.280 way to the island nation. In 1902, the Cuban flag flew for the first time over an independent

00:05:38.620 country. But today, the island you call home is going through unimaginable hardship. I want to

00:05:47.060 share with you the truth about the reason for their suffering. I want to tell you what we in

00:05:51.480 the U.S. are offering to help you, not only to alleviate the current crisis, but also to build

00:05:58.620 the future. The reason you're forced to survive 22 hours a day without electricity is not due to

00:06:06.060 an oil blockade by the United States. As you know better than anyone, you've been suffering from

00:06:13.020 blackouts for years. The real reason you don't have electricity, fuel, or food is because those

00:06:19.060 who control your country have plundered billions of dollars, but nothing has been used to help the

00:06:24.700 people. Okay, so he goes on and he's explaining how the Cuban communist syndicate takes all the

00:06:31.520 money from the people. And this is not the US's fault. It's not the 60-year-old embargo's fault.

00:06:35.860 It's not the fault of the oil blockade. It's the fault of the Cuban regime.

00:06:39.740 So he's establishing a cause of his belly here to go in there and liberate Cuba.

00:06:45.580 CIA has been on the ground in Cuba for weeks.

00:06:48.460 Well, CIA has probably been on the ground in Cuba for many decades,

00:06:51.260 but they've been pretty notably on the ground.

00:06:53.480 You know, the director of the CIA for weeks, Rubio himself now coming in and saying,

00:06:58.520 look, we're taking this, we're striking.

00:07:01.440 Why is Trump doing this?

00:07:03.740 Well, on the one hand, this is very different from Iran.

00:07:07.780 A lot of people don't like the war in Iran. A lot of people, myself included,

00:07:13.060 were very skeptical of the war in Iran before, during, before at the launch and as it's been

00:07:18.300 going on. Whereas I was not really skeptical of the raid to take out Maduro in Venezuela.

00:07:25.420 I'm not really skeptical of going into Cuba. In fact, many people who are foreign policy

00:07:30.960 restrictionists, they're restrained, they're even isolationists, don't really have so much

00:07:37.500 of a problem with the US intervening in the Western Hemisphere. This has been a cornerstone

00:07:40.360 of US foreign policy since the Monroe Doctrine in the early 19th century. And even the people

00:07:46.160 who are advocating a more restrained America to preserve our imperial resources, the ones who are

00:07:50.720 saying we need to focus more closer to home, retrench in the Western Hemisphere, a policy

00:07:57.060 like going into Cuba, it really actually fits with that pretty well. Even when Trump describes

00:08:03.460 Iran, he says it's a digression. I don't want to be in the Middle East. I don't want these 1.00

00:08:07.400 forever wars. I want to wrap up a little problem over there. You can debate the wisdom of going

00:08:12.060 into Iran. But he's doing that so that we can double down on our control of the Western 0.94

00:08:17.140 Hemisphere. Because doubling down on our control of the Western Hemisphere means kicking out our

00:08:21.580 adversaries, notably China, when we're looking at Venezuela or when we're looking at Cuba.

00:08:26.620 These nations don't exist in a vacuum.

00:08:29.360 China's very active in Cuba.

00:08:31.900 Venezuela, obviously, was very active in Cuba.

00:08:35.200 Russia's, for a long time, been very active in Cuba.

00:08:37.820 And the United States is saying, we've had enough of that.

00:08:39.840 We've had enough of this communist regime.

00:08:41.880 And Rubio here is establishing on moral grounds the argument to say,

00:08:45.500 this regime is brutal.

00:08:46.720 It's terrible.

00:08:47.480 We're not going to tolerate it anymore.

00:08:49.520 The other thing I think Trump is doing here is he realizes this is his second term.

00:08:53.180 And though some of us might like a third, fourth, and fifth term,

00:08:56.260 He's not going to be doing that.

00:08:57.960 He's not going to stay in power.

00:08:59.220 And I think he wants to reorder the world.

00:09:01.040 I think he wants to leave a lasting legacy.

00:09:03.960 That's why you get that talk about taking over Greenland, invading America's evil top

00:09:07.480 hack Canada.

00:09:08.660 And sometimes it more clearly works than other times.

00:09:13.840 In Venezuela, US policy for a quarter century had been ousting that socialist regime.

00:09:20.060 Trump does it.

00:09:20.860 Trump does it in 88 minutes, or he at the very least brings that socialist regime much

00:09:24.920 more into alignment with America. So Trump achieves an American grand strategic objective

00:09:29.760 that we've had for a quarter century. He achieves it. In Iran, it's been US policy for 50 years to

00:09:36.100 get rid of that Iranian regime, or at the very least to bring them into submission to the American 0.86

00:09:40.680 hegemon. Trump is trying to do that. He might not succeed. That's a much harder one. There are a lot 0.77

00:09:45.800 more variables in Iran. But same thing here goes with Cuba. Getting Cuba back from the Communist

00:09:52.340 Party has been the American objective since 1960. President Eisenhower ordered the Bay of Pigs,

00:10:00.980 and then it got bungled under JFK. Then you get the embargo. It has been US policy to oust this

00:10:07.140 regime for 66 years now. Trump wants to accomplish that. He wants to leave a lasting legacy.

00:10:15.860 And you can disagree with it, I guess. You could say it's a waste of money. You could say we only

00:10:20.580 should focus on domestic affairs. But presidents of both parties have supported this for a long

00:10:27.320 time. Trump wants to prove he's the only one who could do it. Okay. Speaking of American icons,

00:10:32.420 Betty Boop is now black, apparently. There's a story out in Variety in the trade publication

00:10:37.280 says that Quinta Brunson, am I pronouncing that correctly? Probably not. Quinta Brunson

00:10:43.220 is going to develop and star in a Betty Boop feature film from Fleischer Studios and Fifth

00:10:47.940 Chance Productions. She's stepping into the world's most famous flapper. And the problem, 0.97

00:10:54.020 of course, is that Betty Boop is not black. She's not black. This is the big problem. 1.00

00:11:02.040 Betty Boop is a white lady. Flappers in general were not black. There were flapper phenomenon 1.00

00:11:07.940 phenomena from the 1920s. There were parallel phenomena in Harlem where you had kind of like

00:11:14.860 flapper. But the flappers, as a cultural thing, they weren't black. They were middle-class

00:11:21.060 white women. And so Betty Boop really can't be black. Not everything has to be black. 1.00

00:11:28.280 This one is going to separate the conservative men from the boys, because nobody wants to be

00:11:34.560 called racist. But I remember this when people were floating Idris Elba for James Bond. And you

00:11:39.280 had some sort of very nice conservatives who they don't want to be called racist ever. They said,

00:11:45.860 oh, Idris Elba, he'd be a great James Bond. I have no problem with that. Oh, I have no problem

00:11:49.840 with that at all. And I think, look, Idris Elba is a great actor. He's a great actor.

00:11:55.220 James Bond's not black. Not everything has to be black. Tony Soprano is Italian.

00:12:03.720 Tony Soprano could not be played by George Lopez because Tony Soprano is a character

00:12:08.660 and the character is an Italian American. And that matters. James Bond is a white guy.

00:12:15.780 He's not a black guy. Betty Boop is a white lady. And it changes the story if you try to change 0.91

00:12:22.540 that. And it only ever goes in the one direction. This actually gets to a debate within theater and

00:12:27.460 film. It goes back some decades now. There's a debate between the artistic director up at the

00:12:32.520 American repertory theater, Leonard Brustein, and the author of Fences and a lot of the black

00:12:40.360 American theater, August Wilson. And the white liberal guy said that he supported colorblind

00:12:45.140 casting, that anyone from any race, any ethnicity can play any role. And it was the black guy or

00:12:49.620 half black guy, August Wilson, who said, no, some characters are black and I don't want a white guy

00:12:53.620 to play the black character. And some characters are white and I don't want the black guy to play

00:12:56.580 the white character. But notice it only ever goes in one direction. We're told that race doesn't 0.94

00:13:02.860 matter. It's a social construct. It's totally meaningless. So all the white characters can

00:13:07.700 and really should be played by black people or Hispanic people or just non-white people.

00:13:11.820 But surely no one's ever casting Tom Cruise to play Malcolm X in the autobiography of Malcolm X.

00:13:17.560 and so this to me is just one of these instances where you're gonna say okay how how honest is a

00:13:27.660 conservative going to be are you willing to say without any animus whatsoever to any person who

00:13:32.500 is swarthy or dusky or in any way non-white hey sorry the character's white and the we can have

00:13:40.000 white characters are you willing to do that some people this you see this in the immigration debate

00:13:45.060 People say, well, the real problem with immigration is just how many immigrants we're taking in.

00:13:49.620 But are you willing to go further and say, no, no, no, you know what?

00:13:51.800 It's actually, historically in America, it's easier to assimilate an Englishman than it is to assimilate, I don't know, a Pole or a Hungarian. 0.59

00:14:02.660 And more to the point, it's much easier to assimilate an Englishman or a Pole or a Hungarian than it is to assimilate a Somali. 0.62

00:14:11.340 That's the part that a lot of the conservatives don't want to go to. 0.73

00:14:14.020 It's not just the number of immigrants, but it's the kind of immigrant.

00:14:17.200 And it's not out of any animus toward any race or ethnicity or whatever.

00:14:20.280 It's just, you know, different peoples are kind of different sometimes.

00:14:24.600 And their political systems are different.

00:14:26.000 Their cultures are different.

00:14:26.840 And it's much easier to assimilate one than the other. 0.99

00:14:29.020 And these differences do matter.

00:14:31.960 Are we allowed to say that?

00:14:33.080 Or is that terribly bigoted?

00:14:35.940 I don't know. 0.99

00:14:36.900 Is can Betty Boop be black?

00:14:37.980 I don't think so.

00:14:38.540 Now, speaking of black women, Stacey Abrams is giving us some really, really good news on MSNOW.

00:14:45.260 I've been talking since the Supreme Court's decision in Louisiana versus Calais on racial

00:14:50.560 gerrymandering, after the Virginia Supreme Court's decision on their referendum that basically

00:14:57.540 disenfranchised all of the Republicans in the state. I've said Republicans are very likely to

00:15:02.420 get a 14-point swing in the congressional seats, which really could help them in a challenging

00:15:06.680 midterm election where historically they should be wiped out of power. Stacey Abrams goes on MSNBC

00:15:12.260 now and MSNOW to say actually the situation's even better. We'll get to that momentarily first.

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00:16:38.320 Stacey Abrams bringing me some good news on the Left Wing Cable Channel. 0.99

00:16:42.820 Your ability to use those same democratic institutions to your benefit.

00:16:47.300 With these new maps, we know that analysis by Fair Fight and Black Voters Matters

00:16:52.720 So show that we could lose 19 to 20 congressional seats, but we could lose up to 191 state legislative seats.

00:16:59.840 And in the South, those state legislators draw city council districts, county commission districts, school board districts, and they draw state legislative lines.

00:17:10.340 And so if you want to know if your child is going to have fair and equitable access to education, that will be diminished if your families can't participate in elections and elect leaders who value your education.

00:17:21.980 If you want health care in the South, it's the state legislature that decides whether you have access.

00:17:27.980 All of the things that disproportionately harm communities of color will now be decided by people who disproportionately dislike and vote against the needs of people of color.

00:17:38.240 OK, so the part she says here at the end, obviously, is total nonsense. 0.67

00:17:42.060 She's pretending like black people can't vote as a result of the Supreme Court's decision. 0.98

00:17:46.520 the strongest opinion in the Supreme Court's decision written by a very, very black man 0.97

00:17:52.180 named Clarence Thomas. So that part isn't true. The idea that if you give Republicans the ability

00:17:57.720 to vote, if you allow Republicans in the states to do what the Democrats are allowed to do in 0.97

00:18:04.420 the states, that as a result of that, they're going to strip all the black people of health 0.96

00:18:07.700 care. Obviously, that's not true. But the point she's making at the top is very tantalizing, 0.96

00:18:13.080 where she says, you know, it's not even going to be 14 congressional seats that swing Republican.

00:18:16.760 It could be upwards of 20. And forget about even the federal congressional representation.

00:18:21.360 It's going to be those state legislators. Those state legislators are the ones who really do a

00:18:25.700 lot of that work. And there's going to be 120 seats swing as a result of these court decisions.

00:18:30.820 We say, great, that's a really good start because that's what matters. That's what matters in the

00:18:38.140 political order. This actually ties in with some of the primary races. Obviously, Thomas Massey's

00:18:42.420 Kentucky being the most prominent one, but Raffensperger in Georgia or Bill Cassidy in

00:18:47.580 the Senate or the Indiana state legislators. This is what matters. And Republicans are showing an

00:18:54.300 aptitude finally for real political power. What matters is redistricting. And to get the

00:19:04.260 redistricting, you've got to win the Supreme Court decisions. And the redistricting then will affect

00:19:09.320 even the state level. And then it's going to be those state legislators who are using the federal

00:19:13.660 Medicaid dollars. And it's going to be these politicians, these regulators, these office

00:19:20.420 holders who are going to be shaping the political order. And that's what matters. And we need to win

00:19:24.500 there. In order to make America great again, in order to advance the common good, you have to

00:19:29.820 win the elections. In order to win the elections, you need to have election conditions that are

00:19:34.160 favorable to you. And they're not totally rigged for the other side, as the Democrats have done

00:19:38.140 very well. You have to do that. That's what really matters. And sometimes we Republicans,

00:19:45.320 we focus on things that don't really matter. And the clearest example of this is we'll say,

00:19:50.940 look, we're getting all these tweets. We're getting all these likes. The podcasts are

00:19:55.700 really favorable to us. But that's all fine. If that doesn't translate into votes, if that doesn't

00:20:02.640 translate into ultimately political power, then that and a buck 50 will get you a cup of coffee.

00:20:07.120 it's like you know sometimes the democrats will say oh we won the popular vote they actually can't

00:20:11.840 say this in the last election because trump won the electoral college vote and the popular vote

00:20:15.500 say no no the popular vote that's irrelevant it's not that you're trying to change the rules of the

00:20:21.380 game but based on how the game is actually played we have to win and this is the key here we need

00:20:30.020 to recognize the democrats are so good at this there's a distinction between the the media or

00:20:35.420 popular perception and the hardcore political order. When Republicans, when we start to get

00:20:40.280 a lot of tweets, when we start to get a lot of viral clips or something like that, we say people

00:20:43.980 are waking up. People are realizing that the liberals are crazy. They're waking up. But if 0.99

00:20:50.100 that doesn't translate into hard political power, it doesn't really matter. Yeah, the people realize

00:20:55.740 the transgender thing is totally nuts. Yeah, many people realize that abortion is horrific. Yeah, 0.99

00:21:00.600 basically everybody understands that mass migration is terrible for the country. But the 1.00

00:21:04.760 Democrats are going to be pushing all of those things if we don't wrest political power from

00:21:09.820 them, if we don't reform the way that representation is allotted in America,

00:21:15.780 the way that elections are conducted, if we don't tighten up vulnerabilities like voter ID,

00:21:21.320 if we allow the Democrats to conduct elections in ways that are illegal or unconstitutional,

00:21:24.860 as they did in some states in 2020. And Stacey Abrams coming out here, she's pretty good at 0.98

00:21:31.240 this, this on the ground politics, because the left focuses on organizing, on regulating, 0.99

00:21:36.020 on controlling departments where the right is always just, I don't know, trying to get another

00:21:39.240 viral clip. I'm part of it too. Like I'm part of the pundit class, but viral clips are great,

00:21:44.840 but you got to translate it into real political power. The fact that she's saying, shoot,

00:21:48.400 these Republicans under Trump, they're actually translating their popularity into real political

00:21:53.080 power. You say, right, that's finally, that's a great start because the left, if they get power

00:21:59.900 back again, you're going to see exactly what you saw in Virginia, which is they're going to

00:22:02.480 campaign as moderates, and then they're going to enact the most radical legislation we've ever

00:22:05.760 seen. Trump is hitting Tallarico in the Texas Senate race for precisely this reason.

00:22:11.420 Every one of them. We have a great candidate, I believe, in Texas. And I believe the Texas

00:22:17.720 candidate, who's Ken Paxton, I think he'll win. I think probably he'll win very substantially.

00:22:24.220 And I think he'll go on to defeat a very defective candidate, a candidate that believes in six genders. 0.87

00:22:31.220 And he takes it to Jesus Christ and he's wearing a mask six months ago. 0.82

00:22:37.560 Anybody wearing a mask six months ago doesn't get it.

00:22:42.140 And he's a vegan. He's a vegan in Texas.

00:22:45.120 And you can't get elected as a vegan in Texas.

00:22:47.620 This is a similar attack to the one he made on Pete Buttigieg.

00:22:51.580 You remember years ago, Pete Buttigieg is running for president. He says,

00:22:54.740 he looks like Alfred E. Newman, the guy on Mad Magazine. Alfred E. Newman cannot be president.

00:22:59.860 Similar attack here at the end. He goes, this guy Tallarico, he's a vegan. You can't win elections

00:23:04.360 as a vegan in Texas. And then he's just pummeling him on all of the woke issues. He thinks there are

00:23:09.960 six genders. He's wearing masks every single day. He takes shots at Christ, at religion. 0.99

00:23:17.540 He's just pummeling him on these issues.

00:23:19.800 And I think for some people who are very online, who follow political trends very closely,

00:23:24.940 that's going to sound a little dated to them.

00:23:26.760 They're going to say, oh, come on, woke is dead.

00:23:28.600 Those fights, those were fights of 2022, 2023, peak wokeness.

00:23:33.440 But it's 2026 now.

00:23:34.740 We're a few years later.

00:23:35.640 That's not really where the fights are at.

00:23:38.520 And I think, once again, this is people being a little too online, a little too esoteric,

00:23:43.620 a little too in the know. For the majority of Americans, pummeling the left on these woke

00:23:52.540 issues still works. 2024 was the first real referendum on wokeness. There's still a lot of

00:23:59.040 runway on wokeness. And part of the reason there's still a lot of runway, even if the chattering 1.00

00:24:03.300 class is kind of exhausted of talking about it, even if now talking about transgenderism, for

00:24:07.620 instance, it's kind of like beating a dead horse for the pundit class. It is not so for the voters,

00:24:12.920 and it is not so crucially for the Democrat politicians.

00:24:17.700 Tallarico is full-on peak woke. 0.98

00:24:22.200 He is the gay Pete Buttigieg. 0.97

00:24:24.240 He will, if he is elected to the Senate, 1.00

00:24:27.660 double down on all of the craziest nonsense

00:24:30.320 that you saw on Reddit in 2022.

00:24:33.980 He will do that.

00:24:36.220 Wokeness isn't dead so much as it is laying dormant right now,

00:24:39.480 but they're all just waiting for it.

00:24:41.680 Look at Spanberger.

00:24:42.920 They're all just waiting to enact this radical left-wing policy.

00:24:45.740 And so Trump, this is the kind of leadership I want to see.

00:24:50.740 Five seconds after that primary campaign, after a lot of the primary campaigns have

00:24:55.840 been unfolding, five seconds after he decides, you know what?

00:24:58.700 I'm making my decision among the Republicans in the Senate race in Texas.

00:25:01.940 I'm going to back Ken Paxton, who's the favorite of the base.

00:25:05.660 I'm going to ditch John Cornyn, who's the incumbent.

00:25:09.140 I'm making my decision now.

00:25:10.580 He immediately turns to hit the left.

00:25:12.920 And he wants to show you the stakes of the left, which is not just changing tax rates a little.

00:25:17.260 It's not even just adjusting immigration levels.

00:25:19.320 It's castrating your kids. 1.00

00:25:21.100 It's attacking your religion. 1.00

00:25:23.260 It's totally undermining your culture.

00:25:25.540 That's what the vegan comment is about.

00:25:26.880 It's not a frivolous comment about dietary preferences.

00:25:29.340 It's saying, this guy is foreign to your culture, Texas. 0.87

00:25:32.880 He will subvert your whole culture.

00:25:34.900 There is no diminishing the radicalism. 0.98

00:25:37.660 The libs are still talking about killing Republicans, still threatening to kill Republicans, 0.97

00:25:42.040 still celebrating the murder of Republicans. Stakes very, very high. Okay. Now, speaking of 0.98

00:25:48.220 where the Democrat campaigns are, they're so bad right now that even the New York Times

00:25:52.060 is issuing a warning call. And I don't, look, I don't want to sound optimistic in the midterm

00:25:58.060 elections because we should be wiped out in a tidal wave, but there are signs from Stacey Abrams

00:26:02.920 on MSNBC to the New York Times that Republicans might do better in the midterms than we are

00:26:11.080 fearing. We'll get to that momentarily. First, though, I want to tell you about Shopify.

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00:27:28.160 Before we get to the most recent Kennedy campaign, Jack Schlossberg running for Congress in New York,

00:27:34.880 not quite his grandfather, John F. Kennedy, even the New York Times saying, man, this guy is out

00:27:39.260 there. Even before that, though, we have someone who's even more out there, which is Maureen

00:27:43.900 Galindo. Have you heard of Maureen Galindo? She's a Democrat candidate. She's running for Congress

00:27:49.080 around San Antonio, also in Texas. And Maureen Galindo has this really novel policy idea,

00:27:56.260 if she is elected. And the policy idea is to put the Jews into concentration camps.

00:28:00.380 i am barely i'm actually not really exaggerating at all maureen galindo do we have do we have her

00:28:10.780 post yeah here we go maureen galindo posts when maureen maureen galindo when she gets into

00:28:19.060 congress she will write legislation so that all zionism and support of zionism is undoubtedly

00:28:25.900 anti-Semitic. Zionism is anti-Semitic. Zionism, which is support for the Jewish state of Israel,

00:28:34.020 would be anti-Semitic. How do you make sense of that? She writes, since it's the Zionists who

00:28:38.240 are harming the Semites, because Semite is an ethnic designation. Part of the reason people 1.00

00:28:43.000 say anti-Semite rather than anti-Jewish is to say anti-Jewish is about religion. Obviously, 0.82

00:28:48.720 I don't believe in the Jewish religion. But so anti-Semitic saying, well, you oppose Jews on

00:28:53.840 their racial basis, their ethnic basis. But other people in the Levant are Semitic. So she says,

00:29:00.380 actually, it's the Zionists, the Jews who are anti-Semites. It says, Maureen will turn 0.63

00:29:05.280 Karin's ICE detention center into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for

00:29:12.300 human trafficking. So it's not just the Jews, because there are also Zionists who are not Jews.

00:29:17.140 There are Christian Zionists who hold to a fairly novel, narrow Protestant theology

00:29:23.980 that says that the nation state of Israel is a matter of biblical prophecy.

00:29:30.160 And there are Christian Zionists who are Christian who don't necessarily hold to that view,

00:29:36.020 but who support the state of Israel as a matter of indigenous rights or as a matter of,

00:29:43.860 I guess it's a matter of biblical prophecy, though there are some distinctions with the

00:29:49.060 Protestant theology. And then there are other people who are Christian who generally favor

00:29:56.660 the state of Israel based on political alliances, based on international law, UN treaties and what

00:30:02.520 have you. But anyway, she's saying all the people who support Israel, including the Jews, but some

00:30:08.620 non-Jews too, they need to go to concentration camps. And they also need to be thrown into the

00:30:12.900 concentration camps with the ICE officers, because enforcing immigration law merits

00:30:18.880 detention. It will also be a castrating processing center for pedophiles,

00:30:24.020 which will probably be most of the Zionists. Zionists are pedophiles, apparently. 1.00

00:30:30.900 At first, I thought it was her opponent who was posting this, misrepresenting her views. 0.98

00:30:34.840 She posted this herself. I thought, well, that's novel. Put the Jews in concentration camps. Who

00:30:41.960 who's ever, why didn't someone think of that before? This is a mainstream Democrat who is

00:30:46.680 running for office. And Zionism, Zionist is not synonymous with Jew, but many people do use it

00:30:54.280 that way. And I think she is using it that way as well. And you know, I made a video, I got into

00:30:58.580 some trouble in which I explained why I'm not a Christian Zionist and why I don't really even 0.68

00:31:03.980 support Zionism as a political ideology because it's a product of the 19th century. It arises out

00:31:09.440 of the nationalist ideologies, the nationalist revolutions, which I myself oppose because I'm

00:31:14.420 conservative. And so anyway, it gets into all sorts of political philosophy. But I'm generally

00:31:20.080 quite favorable toward the state of Israel. And not as an eternal matter, as a matter of

00:31:26.500 indigeneity, as a matter of religion or anything, just as a matter of practical political alliances,

00:31:31.580 as a matter of international law, which is the least popular position to hold. And it means that

00:31:36.580 you're taking fire from both sides. But here's another practical argument I would have to bring

00:31:42.900 in. Beyond my affection for the pastrami people, as I distinguish between the pastrami people and

00:31:48.580 the shawarma people, beyond my affection for the pastrami people, beyond my thoughts about

00:31:52.920 American alliances and international resolutions, one of the big reasons, even if you took all that

00:32:00.460 away, one of the big reasons that I can't really get on board with the hardcore anti-Israel stuff

00:32:06.100 is it codes left. It's a left-wing thing. It's a Greta Thunberg thing. It's a purple-haired

00:32:14.420 college freshman thing. It's an Islamist thing. It does not code onto my political views, 1.00

00:32:26.140 my political philosophy, or my political coalitions. There's a little bit of that

00:32:30.740 on the right too. There's no question about it. But that is one rule of thumb. If you don't think

00:32:35.880 all that deeply about ideology, religion, political philosophy, just one good rule of thumb is

00:32:41.760 if Greta Thunberg is on one side of an issue, I'm probably on the other. 1.00

00:32:48.420 And if this lady, who is a mainstream Democrat candidate for Congress, is on this side of the 1.00

00:32:54.320 issue, I just can't get that into it. There are other reasons I can't get into this stuff, but

00:32:58.460 that's a big one. It doesn't really work. Sometimes it plays online. It doesn't play

00:33:04.140 out in the real world. Okay, speaking of these disastrous Democrat campaigns, don't take my word

00:33:09.180 for how badly things are going for them. You can look at the New York Times. Inside Jack

00:33:13.540 Schlossberg's chaotic campaign to revive Camelot, erratic behavior and staff turnover have colored

00:33:20.140 Mr. Schlossberg's bid for a House seat in New York, raising questions about his readiness for office.

00:33:27.940 Reviving a political dynasty is best not left to chance. So on the morning that Jack Schlossberg,

00:33:32.620 the grandson of John F. Kennedy, announced his campaign for a house seat in New York City.

00:33:36.040 His team had a carefully orchestrated plan. Go on, they say the aides had teed up all these

00:33:41.300 phone calls with the media outlets, some donors, Democrat luminaries. The goal was to make it

00:33:47.500 clear that Jack Schlossberg, who is 33 years old, he's known mostly for just posting on social media

00:33:53.240 sometimes, is a serious candidate. But just hours into his day one launch, the candidate abruptly

00:33:59.800 announced a change of plans. According to three people familiar with the events, forget dialing

00:34:03.580 for dollars, Mr. Schlossberg said he needed a nap. He then effectively disappeared for the day,

00:34:08.780 leaving his team reeling. Mr. Schlossberg, a first-time candidate with little traditional

00:34:13.880 work experience, he's never really had a real job, realized this was kind of par for the course for

00:34:20.880 his behavior and goes on to point out, this guy is something out of Veep. This guy is something

00:34:27.660 out of Parks and Rec. I actually went to school with Jack. I didn't know him very well. His sister

00:34:32.020 was in my class, his late sister. She just recently died, sadly. But we had mutual friends,

00:34:38.160 and I said, you know, anyway, I don't mean anything personally against him. He might be

00:34:42.500 a perfectly nice fella. But this campaign is absolutely cartoonish. Some are calling him

00:34:49.600 the most millennial candidate ever for office. He posts crazy things on social media. He has

00:34:56.640 never taken a job all that seriously, including this job where he wants to win political office

00:35:01.820 based entirely on nepotism, and he's spending his days taking naps.

00:35:06.460 And this has actually changed my calculus on the race. Previously, I was generally opposed to

00:35:12.480 Schlossberg in Congress. He now has my complete endorsement. This New York Times article has

00:35:17.980 changed my view. He has my complete and total endorsement because it's a solidly Democrat

00:35:23.580 district. There's not, there is not a snowball's chance in hell that a Republican will ever win

00:35:27.640 this district. It is going to a Democrat. Therefore, I want it going to the funniest

00:35:31.860 Democrat. If we can't get political power here, if we can't redistrict it out of existence,

00:35:37.480 I at least want the funniest option. I want good content. Schlossberg will provide it.

00:35:43.380 Jack has my complete 100% endorsement in this race. I am even considering donating to him.

00:35:50.520 now getting back to matters of actual hardcore political power we turn up to Ohio where Daily

00:35:58.500 Wire's own Luke Rosiak just had a great exchange with an Ohio Democrat lawmaker this actually

00:36:04.300 brings us all the way back to our top story about Betty Boop and you know racial politics

00:36:10.720 Luke Rosiak has uncovered massive fraud in Ohio and this is a little different than the stories

00:36:15.960 that you saw from Nick Shirley or Chris Rufo in Minnesota or California because those guys

00:36:19.800 uncovered massive fraud. They did a great job uncovering fraud in blue states. Luke Rosiak

00:36:25.200 has said, wow, the fraud is so bad that these left-wing patronage networks exist even in red

00:36:29.400 states. So he goes in, he's being grilled by the Ohio House, and some left-wing Ohio lawmaker

00:36:37.360 pulled the race card on him. Also, I would like to point out that the majority of people on

00:36:43.880 Medicaid in Ohio are not from the Somali community or from communities of people of

00:36:51.100 color. The majority are actually white. So for you to imply the racist information that you're

00:36:57.200 on Medicaid or home health? On Medicaid and home health. When you look at the numbers of people

00:37:05.640 that are in Ohio, the white population versus people of color, you're implying that most of 0.97

00:37:13.560 The fraud is happening in communities of color. 0.98

00:37:16.320 I'm not implying it. 1.00

00:37:17.040 I'm stating it.

00:37:19.460 I would like to see actual numbers besides the numbers, besides the overall.

00:37:24.760 Just please, through the chair, with your back and forth.

00:37:28.800 Thank you.

00:37:30.840 Mr. Rosiak, you are implying that the massive billions of dollars in fraud in Ohio are mostly being perpetrated by communities of color.

00:37:42.800 And she's waiting for Luke Rosiak, who's done all this reporting, to walk back.

00:37:47.860 He's going, no, no, no, I'm not saying that.

00:37:48.960 I'm just saying in certain instances.

00:37:50.120 And he goes, no, no, no, I'm not implying that.

00:37:52.360 I'm stating that.

00:37:53.560 That is a fact. 1.00

00:37:55.600 The fraud in Ohio is being perpetrated by communities of color. 1.00

00:38:00.740 It's just a fact. 1.00

00:38:03.140 And she goes, well, I want to see the numbers beyond your reporting.

00:38:09.260 Excuse me, Luke Rosiak.

00:38:10.800 Can you please give us some proof of your statement other than the five-part investigative

00:38:16.440 series you've published? Can you give us some numbers other than the numbers you've uncovered?

00:38:22.300 This is one of these showdowns. What the libs are saying here is you cannot state the facts

00:38:30.200 if the facts contradict our preferred racial narrative. And the question that she's asking

00:38:36.380 is, are you willing to do that? Are you willing to be called a racist? You don't want to be

00:38:41.760 unjust in your racial observations. You don't want to be cruel. You don't want to be, but

00:38:45.920 are you, do you prioritize the truth over the comfort of not being called a racist?

00:38:52.880 And Luke Rosiak says, yeah, I prioritize the truth. And I think the truth is better for everybody.

00:38:57.540 For all of the communities, including the communities of color,

00:39:00.960 we're going to state the truth and your Jedi mind tricks don't work on me. That's basically

00:39:04.700 what he's saying here. They have no answer to a confident statement of facts.

00:39:11.960 You don't have to walk back your claims. You don't have to get super angry about it. You don't have

00:39:16.720 to double down. You don't have to go be Chud the Builder and start screaming the N-word at people

00:39:20.280 on the street. Nobody wants you to do that. But can you confidently state the facts in charity

00:39:26.780 in a way that is clearly intended to promote the common good? If you do that, they really have no

00:39:32.640 answer. Notice how quickly she backed down. Initially, she made this claim, the fraud is 1.00

00:39:36.820 mostly from white people. And you're implying that it's mostly communities of color. And he goes,

00:39:41.560 yeah, no, I'm not implying that. I'm stating that. That's a fact. And she goes, oh. And she

00:39:45.300 doesn't double down on her first claim. She just, she says, well, I want to see the numbers. Well,

00:39:49.860 you got the numbers because Luke Rosiak published a five-part series in the Daily Wire.

00:39:53.200 This is not 2010, lady. Your Jedi mind tricks do not work on me. Okay. Speaking of the fraud

00:39:58.580 task force, which is being led by the vice president, you're seeing a yet another example

00:40:04.860 and a very encouraging example of how the political media and political social media

00:40:09.420 do not reflect the real life of politics because everybody's trying to drive a wedge between the

00:40:14.800 vice president, J.D. Vance, and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio. The only people who don't

00:40:19.060 want to do that, it seems, are J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio. We'll get to that momentarily.

00:40:22.760 First, though, my favorite comment yesterday is from XScalierSolid1194, who says,

00:40:29.940 Michael's comment about SSRIs reminded me of something.

00:40:32.920 The feminists like to bring up the women who were drugged to keep them docile and that

00:40:36.760 women's health allegedly wasn't taken seriously for much of Western history.

00:40:40.000 How is constantly putting women on SSRIs to dull their emotions any different?

00:40:43.440 Just a thought I had. 0.99

00:40:44.140 Yeah, exactly.

00:40:45.260 Exactly. 0.99

00:40:46.780 They'll sometimes say, the libs and the feminists, they'll say, you think the 50s were so great? 0.94

00:40:51.260 You had all these women who were just, you know, alcoholics because they were so unhappy with their life or who were popping pills because they were so unhappy with their life of oppression.

00:41:01.280 That was such a much worse time than now when we have doctors prescribe them pills to take because they're so unhappy with their lives.

00:41:10.160 And actually, when you measure it, they're much less happy with their lives than they used to be. 0.63

00:41:13.260 Do you know back in the old days when women became hysterical, we would have these doctors go in and scramble up their brains? 0.98

00:41:21.260 with lobotomies. But now we live in a much more civilized society where we just give them heavy 0.99

00:41:26.520 psych drugs that chemically scramble up their brains and that they can never get off of.

00:41:31.620 We're much more civilized. We take women much more seriously. This was in response to these women

00:41:35.920 who are on video saying that it would be, it's a good thing that the United Healthcare CEO,

00:41:41.540 Brian Thompson, was murdered. His kids are better off without him. I said, that is like

00:41:44.440 one of the worst things I can possibly imagine hearing. The most charitable explanation is that

00:41:49.940 these women are just doped up on SSRIs and we've made one in five American women sociopaths 0.98

00:41:54.780 because we don't want to deal with their hysterics and we don't want to tell them to calm down 1.00

00:41:57.800 and get a hold of themselves, women. But we should do that. You shouldn't just ply women

00:42:03.100 with drugs. Sometimes you got to tell them like, hey, lady, calm down, get a hold of yourself. 1.00

00:42:08.420 And other things too. But there are other remedies that are much longer lasting. Okay.

00:42:13.120 Okay. J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio. We're told these guys are running shadow presidential

00:42:20.140 campaigns. We're told there's all this sort of division in the Trump White House and the GOP.

00:42:25.460 If you look online, lots of partisans of Marco Rubio in particular are trying to drive wedges,

00:42:32.560 trying to hit the vice president, probably because the vice president is the heir apparent right now,

00:42:37.160 so he's the more obvious target. Also, Rubio is doing a great job as secretary of state,

00:42:40.180 So they're really trying to promote this division.

00:42:43.140 So is that what we're going to get?

00:42:44.620 The two top dogs in the Trump administration going to be going at each other's necks?

00:42:49.920 Let's ask Rubio.

00:42:51.920 What do you think about that?

00:42:54.160 Would you want to be president?

00:42:55.440 Look, I know this is going to sound like a typical job.

00:42:58.100 I'm going to be in this job for the next two and a half years.

00:43:00.340 I'm going to do that job.

00:43:01.460 I'm going to finish the job for this president.

00:43:02.960 I'm enjoying it very much.

00:43:04.600 I think we're going to make a lot of good things happen.

00:43:07.080 J.D. is a very good friend of mine.

00:43:08.300 If J.D. runs for president, I think you'd be a phenomenal candidate.

00:43:10.900 I've said publicly, and I'll say it again, I'll be the first person to sign up and support him.

00:43:14.300 I think J.D. would do great.

00:43:15.440 Would you want to be a vice president?

00:43:17.220 I want to be the secretary of state, and I'll worry about the future and the future.

00:43:20.340 I'm not saying, you know, I'm not telling you that that's what I'm aiming for.

00:43:23.020 You know, I've been doing this for a long time, too.

00:43:24.840 I was in the Senate starting in 2010.

00:43:26.620 So I'd like to do some other things with my life at some point,

00:43:29.320 although public service is an honor to be able to be involved in.

00:43:32.320 No ambiguity.

00:43:33.400 No ambiguity in that answer.

00:43:34.680 Notice, because you're waiting to hear the way that he gives himself a way out.

00:43:39.600 Even when he says, I think J.D. would be a phenomenal candidate.

00:43:42.860 Well, that doesn't preclude him from running against J.D.

00:43:46.900 Because he could say, yeah, I said J.D. would be a phenomenal candidate, but I'm a better one.

00:43:50.380 But that's not where Rubio leaves it.

00:43:52.060 Rubio goes further.

00:43:52.980 Again, he's already done this in the past, but this was a recent interview on NBC.

00:43:56.480 He comes out and he says, I think J.D. would be a phenomenal candidate.

00:43:59.120 And if he runs, I will be the first to sign up to support him.

00:44:03.180 No ambiguity, no wiggle room, no place to walk it back.

00:44:07.420 It says, I endorse J.D. Vance for president.

00:44:11.480 And this might disappoint some of the people who are trying to drive a wedge between Vance and Rubio

00:44:18.140 and some of the people who want to undermine the Trump administration.

00:44:20.940 There are a lot of people who would like Rubio to run against Vance for their own reasons,

00:44:26.460 whether it's because they view Rubio as being more amenable to the Republican establishment,

00:44:30.600 may be friendlier to neoconservative priorities.

00:44:34.360 If that's what they're trying.

00:44:34.940 Again, I don't think it's fair to call Rubio

00:44:38.520 just an establishment Republican or a neocon

00:44:40.640 or anything like that.

00:44:41.560 But there are establishment Republicans and neocons

00:44:44.140 who are trying to project their desires onto him,

00:44:47.220 capture him for themselves,

00:44:48.360 and use him to take down J.D. Vance.

00:44:50.480 J.D. Vance, who is viewed as being a little more favorable

00:44:53.520 to the populist wing of the party,

00:44:55.220 to the traditional conservative wing of the party,

00:44:57.920 to the right-wing flank of the Republican Party.

00:45:00.600 but Vance is coming out there and he's saying, I'm not playing your game. You're not going to

00:45:04.480 use me. I'm not going to be your stupid pawn. I'm good buddies with JD Vance and I'll endorse him. 1.00

00:45:11.320 I'll be the first person to sign up if he runs. So now all of a sudden you're seeing the rumor

00:45:16.820 that JD and Marco could run as a ticket. That's seeming more plausible, especially after President

00:45:21.840 Trump himself says, I think that's the perfect ticket, Vance Rubio. And by the way, even for

00:45:26.680 the people who are trying to drive a wedge between these two guys, it actually might serve them

00:45:30.560 pretty well to push them together. Because if it is the case that Rubio is a little more amenable

00:45:35.500 to the establishment side or the neocon side, he's got probably a little more expertise in

00:45:41.500 foreign policy being the secretary of state. And Vance maybe has a little more cred with the

00:45:45.620 populists, a little more cred with the traditional conservatives. He's a little more focused on

00:45:49.520 domestic issues. Rubio's over here trying to fix the situation in Iran and Cuba. And you got Vance

00:45:56.140 who's leading the fraud task force on domestic issues, that's a pretty good combination.

00:46:01.560 That actually unites the party. It's kind of like Reagan-Bush almost. These guys are more

00:46:07.960 aligned than Reagan and Bush were in 1980, but it brings the party together and it focuses on

00:46:12.360 the real enemy, the real enemies. This is pretty good stuff. No matter who is trying, whether it's

00:46:19.720 the left, whether it's factions in the right who are trying to drive a wedge between these guys,

00:46:23.580 They're not going for it. And this has Barack Obama very, very worried.

00:46:28.820 You're right. The presidential center is nonpartisan. And the reason I want to mention

00:46:33.680 that is because I'm worried about the Republican Party, not just the Democratic Party.

00:46:40.160 When I was president, people would ask me, well, what change would you like to see in Washington?

00:46:44.780 I'd say I'd love a loyal opposition.

00:46:49.980 I'd love a Republican Party that was conservative in some ways, that didn't agree with me on

00:46:57.920 a whole bunch of stuff, but believed in rule of law and judicial independence and empirical

00:47:07.000 evidence and science and wasn't constantly tapping into our worst impulses.

00:47:14.780 Um, and there has been a Republican party like that in the past.

00:47:18.980 And I want to see that return because I think you have to have two healthy parties.

00:47:22.920 So you get all these cheap shots. 1.00

00:47:24.100 He says, Republicans are idiots. 1.00

00:47:25.560 Republicans are ignorant. 1.00

00:47:26.780 They don't know anything. 1.00

00:47:27.760 They reject science.

00:47:28.780 You know, this is just more of the bitter clingers kind of, kind of very insulting language

00:47:32.720 that Obama's used for half the country for many years now.

00:47:35.680 But he gives away his game.

00:47:38.120 Not only is he saying, I want a more docile Republican party.

00:47:40.900 I want one that's more favorable to my political agenda.

00:47:43.720 Notice what he said.

00:47:44.340 He goes, I want them to be a loyal opposition.

00:47:46.220 And I think what he's saying here is,

00:47:47.980 I want a Republican Party that is content

00:47:50.000 to be in the opposition. 0.70

00:47:52.020 I want a Republican Party

00:47:53.320 that is happy to be the junior partner

00:47:56.260 in this political project.

00:47:58.120 The Democrats are leading things,

00:47:59.380 but the Democrats require Republicans

00:48:01.400 to legitimate their rule

00:48:03.020 so it doesn't look like a totalitarian state.

00:48:05.440 But we want them to be in the opposition.

00:48:07.100 We want them to complain.

00:48:07.920 There are a lot of good things

00:48:08.660 that will go along with this.

00:48:09.700 You get to go on television or on podcasts

00:48:12.640 and whine and complain, and that'll get you clicks and views, and that'll make you money.

00:48:16.440 And you can stand up, supposedly, for your principles, even though you'll never have

00:48:19.700 any real political effect, but you'll look valiant, and you can puff yourself up.

00:48:23.400 And I want that Republican Party. What's with this Republican Party that's going to redistrict?

00:48:29.340 What's with this Republican Party that is going to fire a bunch of bureaucrats? What's with this

00:48:34.360 Republican Party that's going to dismantle our patronage networks and maybe even establish

00:48:38.360 some support systems of their own? I don't want that Republican Party. I don't want a Republican

00:48:41.640 Party that's actually going to challenge our rule. That's very scary. That's a threat to

00:48:46.540 American democracy. I don't want a Republican Party that's got its act together, that's not

00:48:50.000 constantly just infighting and treating politics like debate club. I don't want a Republican Party

00:48:54.860 that's already, even before the midterm elections, proposing a unity ticket for the presidential

00:48:59.180 election. I don't want that Republican Party. That's scary. I don't want that. Can't we just

00:49:03.940 go back to the old ways? I don't think so. Okay, one bit I really want to get to, but I don't know

00:49:09.500 that i have time is uh our friend brandon gill who is a rising star as you know freshman class

00:49:16.340 of congress uh brandon gill who's coming out swinging against islam uh but we don't have time

00:49:23.500 to get to it today but it really actually it gets right to the heart of the debate between the hard

00:49:29.280 political class and the political media class brandon gill swinging out against islam it gets

00:49:34.820 because it starts to bring into stark contrast

00:49:39.660 the political horseshoe of the far right and the far left.

00:49:42.180 But we're going to have to wait to get to that tomorrow.

00:49:44.520 I'm on a flight.

00:49:45.380 There's no Membrum Segmentum today.

00:49:47.240 I've got to fly to our nation's capital.

00:49:48.920 As a matter of fact, I'll tell you why maybe tomorrow.

00:49:50.960 In the meantime, I'm Michael Knowles.

00:49:52.080 This is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:49:53.680 See you then.

00:50:04.820 Amen.

The Michael Knowles Show - May 21, 2026

Ep. 1979 - They Just Made Another Iconic White Character Black

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