The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 366 - Harvard Sucks

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00:00:37.740 Harvard has rescinded its admission of well-known conservative activist Kyle Kashuv

00:00:42.520 over leaked chats of lewd jokes that he and his friends made when they were 16 years old.

00:00:47.840 We will examine what this means for the American University and how conservatives can fight back.

00:00:52.140 Then, President Trump endorses a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning.

00:00:57.740 And almost all of the conservative commentators instantly condemned the idea as anti-American.

00:01:03.560 I will explain the case for the amendment because I am not most conservative commentators.

00:01:08.260 Finally, 2020 Democrat presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg plays the gay card perfectly. 0.96

00:01:13.540 All that and more.

00:01:14.200 I'm Michael Knowles and this is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:01:15.960 A lot to get to today. 0.98

00:01:24.640 First and foremost, the news, I guess it's not news, but the obvious fact that Harvard sucks. 0.97

00:01:30.700 We'll get to that in a second.

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00:02:53.000 Harvard sucks. 0.99

00:02:54.300 Harvard has just rescinded its acceptance of Kyle Kashuv. 0.99

00:02:58.500 You know Kyle.

00:02:59.340 Kyle's a friend of the show.

00:03:00.440 He's come on here once or twice.

00:03:02.460 Kyle, he was working for TPUSA, the conservative activist organization around the country.

00:03:09.520 And they've rescinded their admission of Kashuv.

00:03:12.920 Now, Kashuv didn't just get admitted to Harvard because he's a celebrity.

00:03:17.060 Some other people who also became celebrities from that Parkland school shooting had pretty low grades.

00:03:22.620 And they got into very good schools because they became celebrities.

00:03:25.460 Not true of Kyle.

00:03:26.660 Kyle earned his way in there.

00:03:27.800 He got a 1550 on his SAT, which is almost perfect.

00:03:31.560 He has a 3.9 GPA in high school.

00:03:34.320 Again, almost perfect.

00:03:36.560 He worked really hard.

00:03:37.720 He's a very sharp kid.

00:03:38.940 I mean, I've known him a little bit for at least a year now.

00:03:41.700 And I can tell you, he's super smart.

00:03:44.060 He would do very well at Harvard.

00:03:46.240 So he gets admitted.

00:03:47.280 This is a big deal.

00:03:48.360 It can be a life-changing event for a young teenager.

00:03:50.960 If you get into an elite university, it means you can have access to certain networks.

00:03:55.320 You can go get certain high-paying jobs.

00:03:57.720 It just, it means a lot.

00:03:59.720 It's not, it's not nothing.

00:04:01.440 And then at the end of May, one of Kyle's political opponents posted an old Google document in which Kyle and some of his friends were saying the most outrageous things they possibly could.

00:04:13.840 So they were using the N-word in jokes.

00:04:17.040 They were using all sorts of profanity.

00:04:20.200 They were saying things, F me in the A.

00:04:23.200 Just saying the most grotesque and outrageous things you can possibly say.

00:04:28.000 As a result of this, Harvard has rescinded his admission because he made outrageous comments privately with his friends in a little chat box when he was 16 years old.

00:04:40.660 So the question that Harvard needs to ask now is, does this mean that any student who has ever said anything outrageous or offensive at the age of 16 will lose his admission?

00:04:55.960 How many students were admitted to Harvard, do you think, who didn't say something outrageous or offensive at the age of 16?

00:05:05.280 How many, do you, any, none, none, none is the answer.

00:05:08.640 Not one single student who was admitted to Harvard has never said something mean or outrageous or offensive or racial or sexist or whatever in their lives.

00:05:19.740 Not one.

00:05:21.860 Now, is Harvard going to investigate all of their other students and figure out what they said in their G-chats when they were 16 years old?

00:05:29.140 I assume Kyle Kashuk isn't the only student matriculating into Harvard class of 2023 who had the internet when he was a kid.

00:05:36.280 I assume he's not the only one who had Google documents and G-chats and Facebook Messenger and all those things.

00:05:41.620 I think if we're going to analyze Kyle's 16-year-old G-chats, maybe we should analyze every other student at that university.

00:05:49.500 How many matriculating Harvard students have ever said the N-word even once, even as a joke?

00:05:56.500 Because that's what this is about.

00:05:57.500 This is what the left is saying.

00:05:58.480 He said the N-word.

00:05:59.440 He said all that other stuff, but he said the N-word, so he has to have his life ruined and be kicked out of school.

00:06:06.840 How many students in that class have said the N-word even once, even as a joke?

00:06:13.020 Almost all of them.

00:06:14.440 That's how many.

00:06:15.640 Even once.

00:06:17.060 Even one time.

00:06:18.920 Maybe you were quoting somebody.

00:06:21.060 Maybe you were saying it ironically.

00:06:23.260 Maybe you were saying it to reclaim the word for yourself or for your friend or whatever.

00:06:27.460 Or even one time.

00:06:30.680 Have you ever said that word even once?

00:06:32.520 Yes, you have.

00:06:34.840 Did you read Huck Finn?

00:06:36.320 Did you say it out loud?

00:06:39.560 Every single one of them.

00:06:40.860 Are they going to be kicked out of Harvard?

00:06:42.640 No.

00:06:43.520 How many matriculating Harvard students have ever said F me up the A?

00:06:47.120 If that's a problem, Harvard's going to have a homophobia case on their hands.

00:06:52.580 Any of the other bad words.

00:06:54.100 100% of these kids did that.

00:06:55.700 So forget the kids for a second.

00:06:58.400 How about the Harvard Admissions Committee?

00:07:00.680 Because these aren't just the kids going into Harvard.

00:07:03.060 These are the gatekeepers.

00:07:04.380 These are the people who are deciding who gets to go in, who gets to be part of this diverse and inclusive community.

00:07:10.720 They're the most powerful people in the whole equation.

00:07:12.620 Do you think any people on the Harvard Admissions Committee, when they were 20 or 15, 16 or 10 years old, do you think any of them said the N-word even once, even as a joke?

00:07:27.440 I think they probably did.

00:07:28.840 Do you think any of them said some other racial?

00:07:30.740 Let's say they didn't say the N-word.

00:07:31.620 Let's say they said some other racial slur.

00:07:33.220 They said Guido or Guinea or Mick or something like that.

00:07:37.120 Slurs for Irish and Italian people.

00:07:39.380 Do you think they ever said that once, one time? 0.93

00:07:41.620 Honky, slur for white people. 0.97

00:07:43.540 Cracker, slur for white people. 0.89

00:07:45.380 Do you think they ever said that? 0.73

00:07:47.240 Once, even one time?

00:07:48.240 Yes, they all did it.

00:07:49.280 All of them did it.

00:07:50.300 Sure would be a shame if the Dean of Admissions, William R. Fitzsimmons, sure would be a shame if it turned out that that guy had said some offensive things in his past when he was 16 and then we dug them up.

00:08:02.440 How many of those people could stand?

00:08:05.020 How many of those people?

00:08:06.180 None, of course.

00:08:06.880 None of them could.

00:08:07.360 The real irony here is that there is no evidence whatsoever that Kyle harbors any sort of actual racial bigotry.

00:08:15.200 I made this point on Twitter and all of a sudden the lefties came.

00:08:18.040 They said, of course there's evidence.

00:08:19.440 It's in the texts.

00:08:21.060 We see the G-chats. 1.00

00:08:22.500 He used the N-word.

00:08:23.960 Right.

00:08:24.360 I know he did.

00:08:25.300 I saw he said it.

00:08:26.140 They did it like 20 times in all capitals.

00:08:28.820 N-word, N-word, N-word, N-word, N-word.

00:08:30.280 But there's no evidence that he actually harbors racial bias or resentment or bigotry because in that same exact sentence he said, F me up the A.

00:08:40.800 So what do you think is more likely?

00:08:43.360 Do you think it's more likely that these chats reflect what Kyle really thinks and what he really feels deep in his core?

00:08:50.700 And therefore, Kyle is secretly gay or do you think that it was just a 16-year-old kid saying the most outrageous things he possibly could for shock value as all 16-year-old kids do?

00:09:06.080 It was the latter.

00:09:07.060 And you've done similar things and so has everybody else.

00:09:13.020 Now, there is a big irony here because while there is no evidence that Kyle Kashif has any racial bigotry in his body at all, there is a lot of evidence that the Harvard admissions office harbors a lot of racial bigotry.

00:09:27.840 There is a major lawsuit right now from Asian Americans who observe that Harvard unfairly discriminates against Asian applicants.

00:09:36.520 We know that this happens.

00:09:38.200 This is not some conspiracy theory or something.

00:09:41.480 The dean of admissions himself has testified that Harvard docs Asian applicants 250 points on their SAT. 0.93

00:09:49.260 So if you apply to Harvard and you're a black student, there is a lower bar for you according to the admissions office because the admissions office apparently thinks that black applicants can't compete or something like that because they're racial bigots.

00:10:02.880 If you are an Asian applicant to Harvard, there is a disadvantage.

00:10:09.100 So if you're an Asian applicant, you have to score higher on your SAT to be considered at the same level as students of other races. 0.58

00:10:15.800 There's no other word for that than racial bigotry.

00:10:18.520 You can use whatever euphemism you want, affirmative action or progress or whatever euphemism, social justice.

00:10:26.580 It's race discrimination.

00:10:27.520 That's what Harvard does. 0.97

00:10:30.960 That's not some G-chat from when you were 16 years old.

00:10:34.320 That's the current policy in the admissions office at Harvard.

00:10:37.800 So what happened?

00:10:38.500 Kyle apologized right away when these texts came out.

00:10:42.140 This was a mistake.

00:10:43.040 He shouldn't have done it.

00:10:44.160 He should have privately apologized to anybody that he offended, any of his friends who were offended or any people that he knew that he had offended.

00:10:52.180 Of course, I suspect none of them were actually offended by Kyle because he was just saying shocking, outrageous things.

00:10:58.700 Did Kyle have to apologize to his gay friends as well for saying F me up the A?

00:11:02.640 I don't know.

00:11:03.760 I don't remember that being a big issue. 1.00

00:11:06.240 Kyle Kashif does not owe a public apology to anybody for saying the stupid sort of things that kids say. 0.99

00:11:14.160 He doesn't owe a public apology to one single person. 0.99

00:11:18.260 This is the difference.

00:11:19.220 Obviously, people should grow.

00:11:21.180 They should have humility.

00:11:22.280 They should realize that when you're a kid, you act immature, and then you grow up and you act in a mature way.

00:11:27.840 So we don't want to say he should be proud of what he said.

00:11:30.360 No, of course not. 1.00

00:11:31.000 What he said was stupid. 1.00

00:11:32.220 It's what 16-year-olds say. 1.00

00:11:33.940 And if he privately offended anybody, okay, deal with that. 1.00

00:11:36.700 He doesn't owe anybody a public apology for being a stupid kid. 1.00

00:11:40.440 It's ridiculous. 1.00

00:11:42.360 He should not have bought into the leftist premise that he owed the public an apology. 0.72

00:11:46.480 He didn't.

00:11:46.920 I think it made it worse.

00:11:47.760 Some conservatives now are attacking him from another angle.

00:11:51.440 They're attacking him for wanting to go to Harvard in the first place.

00:11:55.940 And this is a fairly compelling argument because I don't care for Harvard and I'm pretty disenchanted with all of higher education at the moment.

00:12:02.660 They say, who cares?

00:12:03.900 Who cares if you go to Harvard? 1.00

00:12:04.940 Harvard's stupid. 1.00

00:12:05.920 Forget about Harvard. 1.00

00:12:06.620 What they say is conservatives talk a good game about the universities being worthless and pointless and just a worthless credential.

00:12:17.360 But then all of them go to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford.

00:12:20.080 They all go to those top schools.

00:12:22.300 Right.

00:12:22.460 What those conservative critics are missing is the actual point here.

00:12:27.980 The reason that the anti-conservative bias of schools like Harvard matters is because a Harvard degree does matter.

00:12:37.320 And that's what this is, by the way.

00:12:38.360 This is an excuse.

00:12:40.040 This has nothing to do with the N-word.

00:12:41.520 It has nothing to do with G-chats when you were 16.

00:12:43.420 This is just an excuse for Kyle's political opponents to get Harvard to kick him out for being a conservative.

00:12:50.660 That's all this is about.

00:12:51.800 This is about nothing else.

00:12:53.280 And the reason that that anti-conservative bias of these institutions matters is that having that degree from Harvard matters.

00:13:01.460 It means you will make more money or you're able to make more money.

00:13:04.920 You have a better chance of getting into a better graduate school or a law school or a medical school.

00:13:09.060 You get access to better alumni networks, old boys club.

00:13:12.140 You just get advantages from this.

00:13:15.300 Even if you don't learn anything, by the way.

00:13:16.820 Even if you have a kind of paltry education there, you will still get access to a terrific network because Harvard is the oldest university in America.

00:13:25.140 Now, this problem for Kyle is, there's no problem that he wanted to go to Harvard.

00:13:33.840 There's no problem that he apologized and said, please, Harvard, please take me back.

00:13:37.560 Don't do this to me.

00:13:38.320 It's actually incumbent on us as conservatives to keep the heat up on these universities.

00:13:45.060 We'll explain how in a second.

00:13:46.140 But first, there are a lot of things in life that aren't right. 0.98

00:13:51.480 There are a lot of things in life that aren't right, like kicking a kid out of college because he said something stupid when he was 16. 0.97

00:13:56.600 Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? 0.81

00:13:58.220 A lot of things in life that are not right.

00:14:00.160 We look around, and today, in this day and age, up is down, black is white, 2 plus 2 equals 7. 0.97

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00:15:42.460 We shouldn't blame Kyle for wanting to go to Harvard or for trying to salvage his Harvard admission.

00:15:49.040 We should keep up the intensity here.

00:15:52.320 I mean, conservatives should stop letting the left run through all of our institutions.

00:15:57.900 This is what they do.

00:15:59.480 They take over our universities.

00:16:01.300 They take over Hollywood.

00:16:02.180 They take over the mainstream media.

00:16:03.760 The left never gives an inch on any of these.

00:16:05.600 So why should we?

00:16:06.740 Why should we say, oh, forget about Harvard?

00:16:08.420 No way.

00:16:08.760 Harvard's a valuable commodity.

00:16:11.000 A Harvard degree is a valuable thing.

00:16:12.640 We shouldn't surrender it to the left.

00:16:14.360 So how do we fight back?

00:16:15.380 First of all, we should dig up every single thing that this dean of admissions has ever written or published.

00:16:20.180 Everything.

00:16:21.180 You know, the advantage of believing in grace and repentance in politics is that I'll face up to anything that I've ever said.

00:16:29.620 Anything I've said on this show or on tweets or in columns or whatever, I will face up to anything that I have said. 0.99

00:16:35.040 And in some cases, I'll say, oh, yeah, that was stupid. 0.98

00:16:38.140 I don't agree with that anymore. 0.98

00:16:40.220 In some cases, I'll say, well, yeah, I don't know.

00:16:42.620 Maybe I'll stand by that a little bit.

00:16:44.460 In some cases, I'll say, oh, I changed my mind.

00:16:47.300 I'm perfectly willing to do that because I believe in a society that has grace and repentance and in which people mature.

00:16:53.500 By the impossible standards that Harvard is now setting, no man can possibly stand.

00:16:58.440 No one, not a single person.

00:17:00.760 There's a line in The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare.

00:17:03.640 The line is, in the course of justice, none of us should see salvation.

00:17:09.380 We do pray for mercy.

00:17:11.020 And that same prayer doth teach us all to render the deeds of mercy.

00:17:15.200 And if all you're focusing on is justice, or I guess in this case, social justice, none of us will see salvation. 0.98

00:17:22.220 We will be totally destroyed because we all fall and sin and do stupid things when we're 16. 0.94

00:17:28.600 Now, ironically, the only way that we can show the need for mercy here is to hold Harvard to their own impossible standards. 0.98

00:17:37.160 We should dig up as much as we can on whatever the Dean of Admissions, William R. Fitzsimmons, ever put in his G-chats when he was 16 years old.

00:17:44.480 He's a little older than that, so maybe we'll have to look up columns that he wrote when he was a kid.

00:17:48.420 Maybe we'll have to look up correspondence that he's had as he's been an adult.

00:17:52.560 Because something tells me he has not had a perfect 100% series of communications and essays and articles and emails.

00:18:02.600 Something tells me that he's said some things that maybe he regrets.

00:18:05.860 And we should dig them up if they're going to hold Kyle to that standard.

00:18:08.840 If Harvard were smart, they would let Kyle in.

00:18:13.220 Because this is going to increase a lot of pressure.

00:18:15.000 We should keep the pressure up on this Harvard race discrimination case.

00:18:18.420 We should keep this up very, very hard.

00:18:20.480 The Supreme Court and the other courts watch the poll numbers.

00:18:23.280 They watch what's going on in the news.

00:18:25.300 This is how the left has won a lot of victories at the Supreme Court.

00:18:27.620 We should keep that up as well.

00:18:30.020 We'll keep following this story.

00:18:31.320 We don't want to let Kyle hang out to dry here.

00:18:33.700 Moving on to a different story, but another one actually that involves the Supreme Court.

00:18:37.560 Over the weekend, President Trump has endorsed a constitutional amendment to prohibit flag burning.

00:18:44.660 This has always been a big, touchy issue.

00:18:46.400 This new constitutional amendment has been suggested by Representatives Steve Womack of Arkansas and Steve Daines of Montana, Senator Steve Daines.

00:18:58.180 And so they put this idea out.

00:19:00.460 Right now, it's legal to burn an American flag.

00:19:03.740 This was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1989 in a case called Texas v. Johnson.

00:19:08.020 And the court found that burning an American flag is protected speech under the First Amendment.

00:19:14.160 What this constitutional amendment would do is specifically ban the burning of the American flag.

00:19:19.340 President Trump tweeted out, he said, all in for Senator Steve Daines as he proposes an amendment for a strong ban on burning our American flag.

00:19:27.660 A real no-brainer.

00:19:28.940 Remember, every pundit in the country, immediately when Trump said this, left, right, and center, came out and said, this is a terrible idea.

00:19:36.880 It's un-American. 0.82

00:19:37.660 It's indefensible.

00:19:38.480 We have to burn flags.

00:19:39.700 We must let people burn flags. 0.75

00:19:41.280 There's no argument on the other side.

00:19:44.300 Actually, there is.

00:19:45.160 There's a very good argument for this constitutional amendment.

00:19:47.680 We'll make that in just a second.

00:19:50.620 What is the argument for flag burning?

00:19:53.720 What is the argument to protect the right of people to burn the flag?

00:19:57.520 Every one of these pundits invoked Antonin Scalia, who put it very well.

00:20:01.440 He said this.

00:20:02.320 I would not allow people to go about burning the American flag.

00:20:06.080 However, we have a First Amendment, which says that the right of free speech shall not be abridged.

00:20:15.820 And it is addressed in particular to speech critical of the government.

00:20:21.600 I mean, that was the main kind of speech that tyrants would seek to suppress.

00:20:27.260 Burning the flag is a form of expression.

00:20:31.040 Speech doesn't just mean written words or oral words.

00:20:36.100 It could be semaphore.

00:20:38.820 Burning a flag is a symbol that expresses an idea.

00:20:42.940 I hate the government.

00:20:44.620 The government is unjust.

00:20:46.140 Whatever.

00:20:46.960 Listen to the argument.

00:20:48.240 He's made this argument many times.

00:20:49.700 He said, look, if I were king, this is another life.

00:20:52.280 I'm paraphrasing, but only slightly. 0.98

00:20:54.140 He said, if I were king, I would throw in prison every scruffy bearded sandal wearing weirdo who burns the American flag. 0.95

00:21:00.340 But I am not the king. 0.80

00:21:01.740 So all the left and the sort of liberal conservatives are heard here is we have a First Amendment that protects the right to burn the flag.

00:21:11.960 And so therefore, it's a good thing that we can protect the right to burn the flag. 0.72

00:21:16.280 That's not what Scalia said.

00:21:17.480 He said, if I were in charge, I would prohibit burning the American flag.

00:21:23.200 I was actually, I was covering a rally, a revolutionary communist rally just a week or two ago, and they burned American flags there.

00:21:30.520 I'd never seen an American flag burned.

00:21:32.240 It's a horrific sight.

00:21:33.860 It is, you don't know what it's like until you see it in person.

00:21:36.860 So Scalia makes the argument.

00:21:40.240 He says, actually, he makes the argument in the Supreme Court case.

00:21:44.080 In 1989, Texas v. Johnson, he joins some liberals.

00:21:46.620 He broke from some conservatives.

00:21:48.100 And he says that the First Amendment protects the right to burn the flag.

00:21:51.660 And I agree with him.

00:21:52.320 He's totally right with that.

00:21:53.580 Justice Brennan wrote the argument for the court there defending flag burning.

00:21:56.640 He wrote,

00:22:26.640 So see, really, flag burning is, flag burning is our strength or whatever ridiculous line they have.

00:22:43.620 Okay, so that's the, that's the cut and dry argument.

00:22:45.580 That's the cut and dry argument for allowing flag burning.

00:22:48.160 What's the argument against flag burning, even from the First Amendment perspective?

00:22:53.500 Justice Rehnquist and White and O'Connor dissented, and Rehnquist wrote the dissent.

00:23:00.900 He said, quote,

00:23:01.400 In holding this Texas statute unconstitutional, the court ignores Justice Holmes' familiar aphorism

00:23:07.820 that a page of history is worth a volume of logic.

00:23:11.160 For more than 200 years, the American flag has occupied a unique position as a symbol of our nation,

00:23:16.800 a uniqueness that justifies a governmental prohibition against flag burning in the way

00:23:21.440 Respondent Johnson did here.

00:23:23.400 So he's saying there's a unique place right here for the flag.

00:23:26.380 And then he goes on, and he, I love this line about how, the importance of history here

00:23:31.640 rather than just all doctrine.

00:23:33.180 And he gives the history of the place of the American flag in American history.

00:23:37.020 He then says,

00:23:38.380 The flag symbolizes the nation in peace as well as in war.

00:23:42.420 In 1931, Congress declared the Star Spangled Banner to be our national anthem.

00:23:47.180 No other American symbol has been as universally honored as the flag.

00:23:50.260 So even you think our national anthem is the flag.

00:23:54.920 What is a flag?

00:23:55.940 A flag is a symbol of the country.

00:23:57.460 That's all it is.

00:23:58.680 It's not a piece of cloth.

00:23:59.860 It's not, it's a symbol of the whole country.

00:24:04.240 And as such, our flag is such a symbol of our country that our national anthem itself is the flag.

00:24:10.280 It is the Star Spangled Banner.

00:24:12.700 It's a symbol, but it's not merely a symbol.

00:24:15.480 It is a symbol of the nation which precedes the Constitution.

00:24:18.520 And this is the key here.

00:24:19.820 This is the conservative argument for this constitutional amendment,

00:24:23.840 which I think is a perfectly fine idea.

00:24:25.380 We'll get to that in a second.

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00:25:47.860 So the argument that the conservatives, Rehnquist at least, is making in the Texas v. Johnson case

00:25:56.400 is that the flag is not just some regular idea.

00:25:59.740 It's not just some symbol.

00:26:01.020 It's a special symbol and therefore it supersedes the First Amendment.

00:26:07.500 So he says Congress and the states have enacted many laws regulating the use of the flag and how

00:26:13.460 the flag can be used since at least 1907.

00:26:17.020 And therefore it's not just merely a symbol.

00:26:21.380 He says the flag is not simply another idea or point of view competing for recognition in the

00:26:28.000 marketplace of ideas.

00:26:30.440 Millions and millions of Americans regard it with an almost mystical reverence, regardless

00:26:35.440 of what sort of social, political, or philosophical beliefs they may have.

00:26:40.440 I cannot agree that the First Amendment invalidates the act of Congress and the laws of 48 of the 50

00:26:45.380 states which make criminal the public burning of the flag.

00:26:48.760 So that's his argument.

00:26:51.320 He says this is super special.

00:26:52.740 It overrides the First Amendment. 0.74

00:26:54.600 I don't agree with that.

00:26:55.780 I agree with Scalia in this case and some of the liberals that the First Amendment permits the burning of the

00:27:01.040 American flag.

00:27:01.940 It is clearly expressive speech.

00:27:03.700 It is clearly political speech.

00:27:06.020 It's clearly protected by the First Amendment.

00:27:07.940 However, if there is a constitutional amendment to prohibit flag burning, there's no constitutional

00:27:16.060 problem.

00:27:16.880 I agree.

00:27:17.460 If you made a law right now that outlawed flag burning, I would say that's unconstitutional.

00:27:21.000 I wouldn't support it.

00:27:22.040 But if you have an amendment that says in the specific case of the American flag, you can't

00:27:30.060 desecrate it.

00:27:30.680 You can't burn it.

00:27:31.440 That is against the law.

00:27:34.380 There's no problem.

00:27:35.540 It doesn't make it unconstitutional.

00:27:37.400 It makes it explicitly constitutional.

00:27:39.820 And I don't see any reason not to do that.

00:27:42.200 Are conservatives so, have we gone so far in this direction that now we're celebrating the

00:27:48.960 right to burn the flag?

00:27:50.100 There's no good being accomplished by burning the flag.

00:27:53.200 By the way, it's not as though plenty of countries don't have laws against burning the flag.

00:27:58.120 Plenty of perfectly fine countries.

00:27:59.420 Flag burning right now today is illegal in Argentina, Austria, Croatia, Finland, France,

00:28:06.760 Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, Serbia, South Korea,

00:28:13.160 Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and Uruguay, at least.

00:28:17.380 All those countries.

00:28:18.860 Some of them not terribly developed.

00:28:21.140 Some of them very developed.

00:28:22.520 Some of them quite westernized.

00:28:23.760 Some quite liberal.

00:28:24.560 They all have laws against flag burning.

00:28:27.940 Do you know what country doesn't have any laws against flag burning?

00:28:30.760 Canada.

00:28:31.100 Who do you want to be more like?

00:28:35.920 Croatia, Finland, France, India, Japan, Israel, or Canada?

00:28:41.440 I don't want to be like Canada.

00:28:43.400 There are actually some countries in Denmark and Norway, it is illegal to burn their own

00:28:48.840 national flag, but it is illegal to burn other national flags, which is like exactly

00:28:53.760 the opposite of what, if you're going to have this kind of, that sort of silly law, I mean,

00:28:58.540 invert it, guys.

00:29:00.420 What are you doing?

00:29:02.260 This is a perfectly common idea.

00:29:04.880 Why are there laws against flag burning?

00:29:09.120 Because burning a flag is heinous.

00:29:11.700 It is a heinous act of national and cultural suicide.

00:29:18.000 I am perfectly fine with a constitutional amendment banning flag burning.

00:29:22.340 I think that is a perfectly okay thing to do.

00:29:25.040 It is, by definition, not unconstitutional.

00:29:27.080 And why am I okay with it?

00:29:28.860 Because the nation comes before the constitution.

00:29:32.400 You can have a country without a constitution.

00:29:34.920 There have been many countries without constitutions.

00:29:38.040 The vast majority of countries in the history of the world have not had a constitution.

00:29:42.860 Our country, our own country from 1620 up until the late 18th century didn't have a constitution.

00:29:50.200 For most of England's history, it didn't have a constitution.

00:29:52.940 You can have a country without a constitution.

00:29:54.500 You can't have a constitution without a country.

00:29:57.500 A constitution without a country doesn't mean anything.

00:30:00.580 By that, I mean the nation is the basis of the constitution.

00:30:07.080 Our First Amendment, which we all cherish, does not exist without America.

00:30:13.000 And the flag is a symbol of America.

00:30:15.900 The flag is not a symbol of the First Amendment.

00:30:17.780 Though, if it were, it would be just as incoherent to burn the flag as it already is.

00:30:23.600 Let's say that the flag were a symbol of the First Amendment.

00:30:26.880 And you say, see, I have the right to burn this flag because of my First Amendment.

00:30:31.180 And this flag actually represents my First Amendment.

00:30:33.800 And then you set the flag on fire.

00:30:35.200 What did you do?

00:30:35.680 You just set on fire your own First Amendment right.

00:30:37.940 You destroyed your right to burn the flag by burning the flag in the first place.

00:30:41.480 Well, it's even more the case that because the flag represents the country, without this

00:30:47.580 country, you don't get your right to your First Amendment.

00:30:50.980 You don't get your right to free speech.

00:30:52.620 The reason that kneeling for the national anthem, disrespecting the national anthem, disrespecting 1.00

00:30:58.000 the flag is so stupid, it's so profoundly stupid, is that without the country, you don't have 1.00

00:31:04.580 that right in the first place. 1.00

00:31:06.220 Without that flag, without what that flag represents, which is America, you have no First Amendment.

00:31:13.500 You have no freedom of speech.

00:31:14.960 You don't get to burn the flag.

00:31:17.340 There's this line that G.K.

00:31:18.960 Chesterton used.

00:31:20.180 He said, there is a thought that stops thought.

00:31:23.440 And that is the only thought that ought to be stopped.

00:31:26.280 That's what I'm seeing here in the flag.

00:31:31.180 When you burn the flag, what you are burning is the country.

00:31:36.600 Not only everything the country stands for, but everything the country is, everything about

00:31:41.940 the country that gives way to all of the things that you like about it, the First Amendment

00:31:45.700 and this civil liberty and this economic prosperity, you're burning it all up.

00:31:50.520 It is totally incoherent.

00:31:52.620 It doesn't make any sense.

00:31:54.060 And I think it is perfectly reasonable to pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting that.

00:32:00.680 It's a grand old flag.

00:32:01.960 It's a high-flying flag.

00:32:03.160 And forever in peace may she wave.

00:32:04.480 And I'm perfectly happy to answer any conservative who has become so obsessed with this idea of

00:32:09.800 liberalism without any limits on it that they're, for some reason, celebrating the right to burn

00:32:14.640 a flag.

00:32:15.140 Look, I agree with all of the arguments from the First Amendment.

00:32:21.420 I agree.

00:32:21.860 Today, it is perfectly legal and constitutional to burn a flag. 0.90

00:32:26.160 But if you pass a constitutional amendment, it's all good.

00:32:28.400 And by the way, if we could start passing more constitutional amendments, it would show

00:32:32.660 that our country really is alive.

00:32:34.460 We really do have some control over our government.

00:32:36.620 But Antonin Scalia, the one that they all keep invoking, he said before he died that the

00:32:41.560 one regret he has about the Constitution is that it's not easier to make amendments.

00:32:46.560 So that's a great idea.

00:32:47.780 It's as good as an amendment as I've ever seen.

00:32:51.420 I want to turn, also speaking of wrapping yourself in the flag in American history, I have to turn

00:32:57.040 to the 2020 race and Pete Buttigieg, because Pete Buttigieg, this guy is such a slick, smart

00:33:03.060 politician.

00:33:04.520 Pete Buttigieg was doing an interview and he's putting out material from Axios on HBO, which

00:33:12.840 is helping all the 2020 candidates.

00:33:14.920 He was asked if it's going to matter that he's gay, how that's going to affect him and what

00:33:20.640 that means for American history.

00:33:22.300 His answer was perfect. 0.71

00:33:25.040 Republicans claim that John Kerry was a traitor. 0.96

00:33:27.040 In Vietnam, that Barack Obama was a Muslim. 1.00

00:33:30.560 If you were to win the nomination, they'll say, you're too young, too liberal, too gay 0.99

00:33:35.040 to be commander in chief. 0.97

00:33:36.280 You are young.

00:33:37.020 You are liberal. 0.99

00:33:37.940 You are gay. 1.00

00:33:38.900 How will you respond? 0.99

00:33:39.800 I'll respond by explaining where I want to lead this country.

00:33:43.520 People will elect the person who will make the best president.

00:33:47.180 And we have had excellent presidents who have been young.

00:33:50.620 We have had excellent presidents who have been liberal. 0.98

00:33:53.060 I would imagine we've probably had excellent presidents who are gay. 0.82

00:33:55.860 We just didn't know which ones. 0.85

00:33:57.400 You believe that we've had a gay commander in chief? 0.95

00:33:59.480 I mean, statistically, it's almost certain.

00:34:02.700 And like in your reading of history, like, do you believe you know who they were?

00:34:07.060 My gaydar doesn't even work that well in the present, let alone retroactively.

00:34:10.580 But one can only assume that's the case.

00:34:12.440 My first reaction watching him was one word.

00:34:16.020 It was, uh, what?

00:34:18.360 What do you mean statistically, almost certainly, we've had gay presidents?

00:34:23.160 You can't name the gay presidents, but you're certain that we've had them.

00:34:26.660 You don't know which ones, but statistically, what does that mean?

00:34:29.560 So just that word statistically, what he's doing is he's cloaking his ideology in this guise

00:34:35.180 of science.

00:34:36.900 This is what the left always does because they worship at the altar of science.

00:34:40.620 So they say, yes, I'm, I'm not telling you historically there were gay presidents, but

00:34:45.400 scientifically there have to have been.

00:34:47.480 Can you name them?

00:34:48.320 Well, no, of course not.

00:34:50.220 What statistics are you talking about?

00:34:51.780 What are the statistics on gay presidents?

00:34:54.440 There, there aren't any statistics on gay presidents.

00:34:57.040 There's no statistical textbook or some data set on gay presidents.

00:35:01.240 You're just making that up.

00:35:02.780 But Pete Buttigieg, because he knows his base, is using the scientific language to make it

00:35:07.440 seem perfectly normal.

00:35:08.760 And he does it in this very monotone way.

00:35:11.840 He goes, yeah, well, of course.

00:35:13.580 Hey, I'm just perfectly reasonable.

00:35:15.080 What he said is a pretty radical thing. 0.83

00:35:17.380 He said, we've definitely had gay presidents. 0.50

00:35:21.640 That's news to me.

00:35:22.640 I don't remember gay presidents.

00:35:24.320 So this is the first lesson is just being very matter of fact and dress up your language

00:35:29.400 in science.

00:35:29.960 He also won't get specific.

00:35:32.300 Very, very smart.

00:35:33.580 Because when he says, we've almost certainly had gay presidents, what's he referring to?

00:35:38.480 The most obvious answer is James Buchanan. 0.97

00:35:41.480 This is the president that everybody always says he's the gay one. 1.00

00:35:44.800 He's guaranteed to be the gay president. 1.00

00:35:46.440 He was the 15th president of the United States. 0.99

00:35:48.600 He was a Democrat.

00:35:49.560 He was disastrous. 0.98

00:35:50.440 And some people say that he was gay. 0.82

00:35:52.780 He, he led to the panic of 1857.

00:35:56.260 He presided over Bleeding Kansas, a horrific early, early stage, an event in what would 0.98

00:36:03.420 lead to the Civil War.

00:36:04.940 He presided over secession.

00:36:07.040 And he presided over the, the beginning of that war. 0.95

00:36:09.760 Now, the reason they say that Buchanan was gay is because he's our only bachelor president.

00:36:15.940 So it's the same reason, you know, people say that Lindsey Graham is gay because he never 0.93

00:36:18.880 got married.

00:36:19.560 They say the same thing about James Buchanan.

00:36:21.240 He's the only president who was a bachelor.

00:36:22.940 He did have a romantic encounter with a woman when he was younger, but then that was the only

00:36:28.420 woman he ever showed any interest in.

00:36:29.640 He also had a close relationship with William Rufus King, who was this politician.

00:36:36.920 And he was sometimes referred to in Washington circles as Miss Nancy or Aunt Fancy.

00:36:42.460 These were terms for a feminine man, sort of like the 19th century version of being a little

00:36:47.920 light in the loafers.

00:36:49.340 And so there were rumors, I guess, that he, he was a gay guy or he at least surrounded himself

00:36:54.040 with gay guys, or at least that he was a confirmed bachelor.

00:36:56.920 So that's one.

00:36:57.760 Now, of course, I don't think Pete Buttigieg wants to claim him, one, because it's so presumptuous.

00:37:02.720 That becomes the story.

00:37:03.620 Pete Buttigieg calls James Buchanan gay, and that leads Buttigieg all the way from the news

00:37:08.820 cycle that he wants.

00:37:10.100 The other one is he was a horrific president and a Democrat, so Buttigieg probably doesn't

00:37:13.820 want to draw any comparisons between himself and the guy who started the Civil War.

00:37:18.160 The next president that they sometimes call gay is actually the next president, is Abraham

00:37:24.360 Lincoln, and the gay Republican group is called the Log Cabin Republicans, because Abe Lincoln 0.91

00:37:29.740 was born in a log cabin. 0.95

00:37:31.400 And they sort of tip their hat to this story that he was gay.

00:37:36.160 There's no evidence that Abe Lincoln was gay.

00:37:38.340 When he was a young man, he shared a bed briefly with another guy.

00:37:42.740 This was common at the time because people didn't have a lot of money, and so they would

00:37:46.300 sleep in the same bed together.

00:37:47.960 I've slept in plenty of beds with dudes.

00:37:49.820 Maybe I'm giving too much information.

00:37:51.420 But I think everybody has.

00:37:52.680 You know, if you go, you're like on a road trip, and there's only one bed, you got to

00:37:55.760 share the room.

00:37:56.820 Or, I mean, that sort of thing happens all the time.

00:37:59.400 That's what happened with Abraham Lincoln.

00:38:01.420 And I don't know, maybe he thinks there have been other gay presidents.

00:38:05.600 Who knows?

00:38:05.980 I couldn't possibly say, you know.

00:38:09.040 But, who knows?

00:38:11.880 But, my second reaction to this was that this was brilliant.

00:38:18.940 I mean, this was absolutely a brilliant way to handle it.

00:38:22.420 Why?

00:38:23.340 Because the question to Buttigieg was, are you too young?

00:38:28.560 Are you too liberal? 0.99

00:38:29.740 Are you too gay to be president? 1.00

00:38:32.280 And so, what the kind of stupid leftist would answer is, well, we should have a young president. 1.00

00:38:37.800 It's about damn time we have a young president. 1.00

00:38:39.840 Well, it's about damn time we have a liberal president. 1.00

00:38:43.500 It's about damn time we have a gay president. 1.00

00:38:45.640 That's the stupid leftist reaction, where you claim victimhood and you say, I've been 1.00

00:38:49.440 oppressed. 1.00

00:38:50.040 And okay, that's the knee-jerk reaction of our age.

00:38:54.040 The smarter reaction is, oh, we have a long tradition in America of liberal presidents.

00:39:00.680 A long tradition of young presidents. 0.98

00:39:03.600 A long tradition of gay presidents. 0.96

00:39:06.040 It's like, what are you talking about? 0.64

00:39:07.260 We know for a fact we haven't had any gay presidents.

00:39:10.900 We don't know the sexual desires of every single president, you know, but none of them 0.56

00:39:16.800 behaved in a gay way or had a gay husband or so.

00:39:20.220 Like, we just know we didn't.

00:39:21.480 But he says it with a straight face.

00:39:22.980 Because the way to change America, the way to push your innovative, progressive platform

00:39:29.940 is not to set yourself up in opposition to America.

00:39:32.980 It's to pretend that America has secretly been this way all the time and you're just bringing

00:39:37.960 out the best in America. 0.99

00:39:39.060 Oh, yes, the presidents have always been gay. 0.99

00:39:43.020 Like, okay, all right. 0.99

00:39:44.740 It's really brilliant.

00:39:45.720 I mean, this is what the civil rights movement did.

00:39:47.660 They said, I mean, the reason we talk about Martin Luther King is because Martin Luther King

00:39:52.200 didn't say America's an awful, racist, terrible, irredeemable place like Malcolm X did.

00:39:57.660 He said America needs to live up to her creed.

00:40:01.100 America needs to live up to her traditions.

00:40:04.160 And that got everyone to buy into it.

00:40:06.560 Same thing with women's suffrage and the women's rights movement. 1.00

00:40:10.400 This has been all a part of America.

00:40:12.120 We just haven't lived up to it yet.

00:40:13.460 And now we're going to live up to our creed.

00:40:14.900 And that's what Pete Buttigieg is going to do.

00:40:17.220 This guy is dangerous for Republicans.

00:40:19.980 I mean, he is a sharp politician.

00:40:22.000 I initially wrote off a small town mayor from South Bend who is the mayor of 100,000 people

00:40:30.100 or something, not ready to be president.

00:40:32.180 But he's really good.

00:40:33.560 And one of his pitches, especially if he's pitching himself for vice president, is that

00:40:37.960 it'll be great to watch him go up against Mike Pence, who the left has completely unfairly 0.84

00:40:42.680 painted as some sort of anti-gay bigot or something like that. 0.53

00:40:46.200 Really sharp guy. 0.85

00:40:47.320 He's playing everything right.

00:40:48.740 And I suspect he's going to keep rising up in the polls.

00:40:51.840 One thing I have to get to before we go is this little clip from Donald Trump's interview

00:40:56.200 with George Stephanopoulos, which just leaked out today.

00:41:00.440 It was kind of some of the extra footage there.

00:41:02.840 And it shows an interaction that is actually very telling about Donald Trump.

00:41:06.840 So Trump is talking to Stephanopoulos.

00:41:08.300 He's giving an answer.

00:41:09.400 And then his budget, or rather his former budget director and now his chief of staff,

00:41:13.520 Mick Mulvaney, coughs in the background.

00:41:15.200 And Trump stops the footage, stops the cameras, says, we got to reset because he was coughing.

00:41:21.060 Listen to this.

00:41:22.240 At some point, I hope they get it.

00:41:23.780 You're going to turn it over?

00:41:24.620 No, at some point, I might.

00:41:26.820 But at some point, I hope they get it because it's a fantastic financial statement.

00:41:31.800 It's a fantastic financial statement.

00:41:35.000 And let's do that over.

00:41:36.460 He's coughing in the middle of my answer.

00:41:38.000 Yeah.

00:41:38.380 OK.

00:41:38.720 I don't like that.

00:41:39.580 You know?

00:41:40.280 Your chief of staff.

00:41:41.160 If you're going to cough, please leave the room.

00:41:43.020 If you should get a shot of, and I'll come over here.

00:41:45.820 You just can't.

00:41:47.360 Just to change the shot.

00:41:48.160 OK.

00:41:48.760 Sorry.

00:41:50.820 OK.

00:41:51.260 Do you want to do that a little differently then?

00:41:52.920 Yeah.

00:41:53.120 We just changed the angle.

00:41:54.160 OK.

00:41:54.340 Yep.

00:41:55.200 Thank you.

00:41:55.580 So at some point, I look forward to, frankly, I'd like to have people see my financial statement.

00:42:03.400 Because it's phenomenal.

00:42:04.560 No, it's not up to me.

00:42:05.540 It's up to lawyers.

00:42:06.480 It's up to everything else.

00:42:07.480 But they're asking for things that they should never be asking for.

00:42:11.160 That they've never asked another president for.

00:42:13.360 They want to go through every deal that I've ever done.

00:42:15.420 They've, what they're doing is a disgrace.

00:42:17.240 What other presidents have turned over?

00:42:18.160 They're trying to do step, step, step.

00:42:20.800 They want to keep it going as long as possible to try and demean and hurt as much as possible

00:42:26.520 so they can possibly win the presidential election.

00:42:29.260 This is a very telling exchange. 1.00

00:42:31.180 And it, I hope, puts to rest one of the stupidest takes on Donald Trump, 1.00

00:42:36.960 which is that he's this completely undisciplined, wacko lunatic who doesn't know what's going on 1.00

00:42:41.820 and he shoots from the hip and he's only just belching various emotions all the times. 0.97

00:42:47.800 No, this guy knows how to work a camera.

00:42:50.660 This is a pretty calculated guy.

00:42:52.540 How do I know that?

00:42:53.300 Because he's giving this answer that he wants to give to Stephanopoulos.

00:42:56.140 And he hears a cough in the room.

00:42:57.780 And Trump's a showbiz guy.

00:42:58.880 He had 15 seasons of a network show, hit network show.

00:43:01.580 And he knows that that sound is going to ruin that clip and they're not going to be able to use it.

00:43:05.560 So he says, all right, stop.

00:43:06.720 We got, you can't, you can't cough on set.

00:43:09.100 What are you doing?

00:43:10.320 Get out of here if you're going to cough on set.

00:43:12.320 He says, okay.

00:43:12.880 He's like, all right, let's reset it.

00:43:13.980 Maybe we'll do it a little differently.

00:43:15.360 He's talking like a guy either who's in a movie or at least who's, who's doing a nonfiction TV show.

00:43:22.400 He's like, reset.

00:43:23.520 And then the guy's reset.

00:43:24.620 And then the camera guy screws up and he moves.

00:43:26.740 And Trump catches that again.

00:43:28.260 And he resets.

00:43:29.360 He's like, all right, guys, here we go.

00:43:30.420 Then they do it and he resets.

00:43:32.980 And then Trump gives the message that he wants to the American people.

00:43:36.640 And he gives it as though it's right off the cuff.

00:43:39.240 He gives it like he's in a reality TV show.

00:43:41.580 And look, and this and that.

00:43:43.020 It's not like he's giving this perfectly scripted monologue.

00:43:45.880 But he is letting you know, you, the American people, the people who watch ABC News,

00:43:51.360 which is a lot more people than watch cable news or Fox News.

00:43:55.080 He's telling them what he wants them to hear.

00:43:58.500 This is a disciplined guy.

00:44:00.480 This is a guy with situational awareness.

00:44:03.020 And this is a guy who knows how to communicate.

00:44:05.580 No accidents.

00:44:07.280 No accidents here. 0.98

00:44:10.320 People are still going to pretend that he's this total buffoon who just accidentally has succeeded 0.95

00:44:14.620 at the highest levels of everything he's ever tried. 0.87

00:44:16.680 But this was more revealing than the Billy Bush tape, which was a guy engaging in locker room

00:44:22.080 talk when he thought he was off camera.

00:44:23.860 This is much more telling about how Trump's brain works and how he views politics and the

00:44:30.900 Oval Office and imagery and how he views mass communications.

00:44:35.060 That's our show.

00:44:36.360 Oh, I should point out, by the way, Sarah Sanders is stepping down as press secretary. 0.87

00:44:40.780 And some people have suggested that maybe she should be replaced by me.

00:44:46.860 I don't I don't know who's been suggesting this.

00:44:48.940 Someone pointed out that my new Twitter handle is potential White House press secretary, Michael

00:44:52.300 Knowles.

00:44:52.600 That's a total coincidence.

00:44:53.720 That's an old nickname that I had in high school.

00:44:56.220 It's just it's just a thing.

00:44:57.420 But, you know, it's funny that they've suggested it.

00:44:59.340 I do think, you know, if my country called on me, I would certainly serve.

00:45:02.860 And my experience of dealing with shrieking leftists on campuses around the country has

00:45:07.440 prepared me to deal with Jim Acosta.

00:45:09.240 But, Mr. President, you have my phone number.

00:45:11.300 You know, I'll keep you posted.

00:45:12.660 You know when the phone rings.

00:45:13.620 That's our show.

00:45:14.300 Come back tomorrow.

00:45:14.920 In the meantime, I'm Michael Knowles.

00:45:15.940 This is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:45:16.940 I'll see you then.

00:45:17.480 The Michael Knowles Show is produced by Rebecca Dobkowitz and directed by Mike Joyner.

00:45:27.860 Executive producer, Jeremy Boring.

00:45:29.880 Senior producer, Jonathan Hay.

00:45:31.640 Our supervising producer is Mathis Glover.

00:45:33.880 And our technical producer is Austin Stevens.

00:45:36.460 Edited by Danny D'Amico.

00:45:37.980 Audio is mixed by Dylan Case.

00:45:39.880 Hair and makeup is by Jesua Olvera.

00:45:42.080 And our production assistant is Nick Sheehan.

00:45:44.160 The Michael Knowles Show is a Daily Wire production.

00:45:46.140 Copyright Daily Wire 2019.

00:45:48.460 Hey, guys.

00:45:49.160 Over on The Matt Wall Show today, some Republicans are once again trying to ban flag burning because

00:45:54.020 this is something we have to do every few years, it seems.

00:45:56.960 But is flag burning a form of speech?

00:45:59.800 Is it protected speech?

00:46:01.280 Is it covered by the First Amendment?

00:46:02.680 I say yes, obviously, on all three counts.

00:46:05.420 But we'll take a look at that subject and talk about it.

00:46:07.780 Also, we'll look at a very powerful yet heartbreaking and tragic video of an incident that transpired

00:46:14.780 outside of an abortion clinic recently.

00:46:17.080 And finally, Taylor Swift has a new song out.

00:46:20.520 It is incredibly boring, yet obnoxious at the same time.

00:46:25.020 And that is an impressive combination, which Taylor Swift seems to have protected or perfected,

00:46:30.480 I should say.

00:46:30.960 So we'll talk about that today as well on The Matt Wall Show.

The Michael Knowles Show - June 17, 2019

Ep. 366 - Harvard Sucks

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