The Michael Knowles Show


Ep. 404 - Trump’s Big Challenge


Summary

Former Rep. Joe Walsh announces he will run against President Trump in the 2020 Republican presidential primary. Walsh says he s running because Trump is "unfit for office" and accuses the president of being a "liar." Michael Knowles and George Stephanopoulos react to Walsh's announcement.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 President Trump has got a new primary challenge from the right in the form of Joe Walsh.
00:00:07.200 Some complacent conservatives are laughing this off, but I don't think they should be
00:00:11.380 so comfortable because life has been good to Walsh so far.
00:00:15.180 We will examine Trump's real big challenge.
00:00:18.400 Then the trade war heats up and Jimmy John's, the sandwich shop, gets into trouble for shooting
00:00:23.580 an elephant.
00:00:24.600 We will analyze the hubbub.
00:00:26.180 All that and more.
00:00:26.860 I'm Michael Knowles and this is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:00:30.000 Joe Walsh has announced that he will run against President Trump in 2020.
00:00:41.780 Let's take a look at his big campaign announcement.
00:00:43.800 I have a mansion for a kiss of pride.
00:00:49.280 Ain't never been there, they tell me it's nice.
00:00:54.100 Walsh reportedly went on to boast, quote,
00:00:56.780 I live in hotels, tear out the walls.
00:01:00.280 I have accountants, pay for it all.
00:01:02.820 They say I'm crazy, but I have a good time.
00:01:05.640 I'm just looking for clues at the scene of the crime.
00:01:09.200 Life's been good to me so far.
00:01:13.660 I'm sorry, I'm just, I'm sorry, I'm just receiving word now.
00:01:17.500 President Trump is not being challenged by former Eagles guitarist and Rock and Roll Hall of
00:01:22.520 Famer Joe Walsh is actually being challenged by a squishy one-term congressman.
00:01:27.120 I'm very sorry for the confusion.
00:01:29.020 Here is former Congressman Joe Walsh announcing his Republican primary campaign for president.
00:01:35.640 And Joe Walsh joins us now.
00:01:37.100 Good morning.
00:01:37.660 Hey, George.
00:01:38.140 Good to be with you.
00:01:38.920 Have you reached a decision?
00:01:40.320 Yes, and it's great to be with you.
00:01:42.660 I'm going to run for president, and I'm happy to be on your show announcing my candidacy.
00:01:47.780 George, no surprise, we've got a guy in the White House who's unfit, completely unfit,
00:01:54.680 to be president.
00:01:55.940 And it stuns me that nobody stepped up, nobody in the Republican Party stepped up, because
00:02:02.520 I'll tell you what, George, everybody believes in the Republican Party, everybody believes
00:02:07.420 that he's unfit.
00:02:08.460 He lies every time he opens his mouth.
00:02:10.820 You say that.
00:02:11.360 You say everybody believes he's unfit, but one of the things the White House points to
00:02:14.160 and the president points to often is just about every poll shows more than 80 percent
00:02:18.300 support for the president among Republicans.
00:02:20.560 They don't have an alternative.
00:02:21.940 I'll tell you what, George.
00:02:23.160 And look, I'm running because he's unfit.
00:02:27.500 Somebody needs to step up.
00:02:29.600 And there needs to be an alternative.
00:02:31.840 The country is sick of this guy's tantrum.
00:02:35.920 He's he's a child.
00:02:37.920 Again, the litany.
00:02:39.340 He lies every time he opens his mouth.
00:02:41.800 Look at what's happened this week.
00:02:43.500 He is the president of the United States is tweeting us into a recession.
00:02:48.520 I can tell you, George, that most of my former colleagues up on the Hill, they agree
00:02:53.440 privately with everything I'm saying.
00:02:55.360 Then how do you explain why they stand behind him so strong?
00:02:58.300 Because they're afraid because they're scared to death.
00:03:00.240 They're scared.
00:03:00.940 That's why they're doing every Republican believes that President Trump is unfit for
00:03:05.060 office.
00:03:05.560 He said, well, I'm a Republican and I don't think he's unfit for office.
00:03:08.040 And I suspect many of you are Republicans and I suspect many of you don't think he's unfit
00:03:12.120 for office and actually he's got really, really, really high approval ratings among Republicans.
00:03:17.180 But at least Joe Walsh doesn't think that he is fit for office.
00:03:21.280 He also goes on.
00:03:22.200 I mean, this, this is the issue.
00:03:25.420 What's the alternative?
00:03:27.820 Because he goes on.
00:03:28.860 He says, President Trump is having a temper tantrums.
00:03:31.660 He's behaving like a child.
00:03:32.980 He's a little crazy child.
00:03:34.220 He's, you are doing what you were accusing President Trump of doing.
00:03:40.280 When you say he's behaving like a child, he's calling people names, that little child, that
00:03:44.360 little temper tantrum, you are calling him names.
00:03:46.880 You are speaking without any pointing to evidence, without citing any facts.
00:03:52.660 You're just name calling.
00:03:53.620 And actually, in the case of his first opening salvo, the statement he's making, I am running
00:03:59.480 for president because, that statement is a lie.
00:04:03.140 You said, I am running for president because everybody in the Republican Party opposes Donald
00:04:07.360 Trump.
00:04:07.780 That's an obvious lie.
00:04:09.140 It's demonstrably untrue.
00:04:10.720 First of all, the Republicans nominated him for president.
00:04:12.920 Then they elected him president.
00:04:14.460 Now, all of the polls show he has actually very strong support among Republicans.
00:04:19.440 So, if you're running because you think he's a liar, why would I vote for you?
00:04:23.480 You are obviously a liar as well.
00:04:25.700 That's your opening call.
00:04:26.880 Joe Biden fell into this same trap.
00:04:28.740 Joe Biden, when he launched his presidential campaign, the first line of his campaign was
00:04:33.240 about how President Trump called neo-Nazis good people in Charlottesville.
00:04:38.440 And Joe Biden is going to restore character and integrity because he's not going to lie to
00:04:42.640 you and he's not going to be a vicious bigot such as that.
00:04:46.600 What character?
00:04:47.520 Your first line to the American people is a lie.
00:04:50.460 What is the alternative?
00:04:51.600 When we look at this guy, Joe Walsh, frankly, I would rather the Eagles guitarist be the nominee
00:04:56.020 rather than this one-term congressman.
00:04:58.960 When you look at him, you have to ask, why would anybody believe that this guy is better
00:05:05.160 suited to be president than Donald Trump?
00:05:08.500 I'm not saying Trump is the greatest president in the history of the world.
00:05:11.260 I'm not saying he's the be-all and end-all.
00:05:13.760 I'm just asking, why is this guy any better?
00:05:16.560 There's another Republican running against Trump.
00:05:18.940 It's a so-called Republican.
00:05:20.380 He's not a real Republican.
00:05:22.340 Bill Weld, former governor of Massachusetts.
00:05:26.180 Even if you don't like Trump, even if you think he's a bad president, why would anybody
00:05:30.540 believe that Bill Weld is a better candidate or Joe Walsh is a better candidate?
00:05:35.760 By what measure can we say this is a better option than President Trump?
00:05:42.360 I mean, there are at least three categories, I think, and on everyone, Trump beats the
00:05:47.420 other guys.
00:05:47.780 We'll get to that in a second.
00:05:48.500 But first, I've got to thank our friends over at Wise Foods.
00:05:52.380 Listen, I'm not a very responsible guy, okay?
00:05:54.980 I don't turn my script in until the very last moment.
00:05:58.580 I'm furiously writing my show up until the cameras go on, okay?
00:06:02.560 I barely get any sleep.
00:06:03.840 I go out every night on school nights.
00:06:05.400 I just, I'm irresponsible, except I can have peace of mind because of Wise Foods.
00:06:10.320 Wise Company takes an innovative approach in providing dependable, simple, affordable,
00:06:14.840 freeze-dried food for emergency preparedness and outdoor use.
00:06:19.020 Because at least on the extremes, I want to be responsible.
00:06:23.100 I live in Southern California.
00:06:24.120 We have earthquakes here, I think, every seven seconds.
00:06:26.800 And so you want to be prepared for when the big one hits.
00:06:29.480 When government resources are strained, it can be days, if not weeks, before you can
00:06:33.800 get to fresh food and water.
00:06:35.720 You cannot rely on someone else.
00:06:37.360 You can't rely on the government.
00:06:38.420 You have to rely on yourself.
00:06:39.640 And if you're like me, you probably wouldn't take much care for yourself in these situations.
00:06:43.540 But you've got to protect your most valuable resource, which is your family.
00:06:48.320 My wife, sweet little Elisa, is going to be very, very angry if the big one hits.
00:06:52.920 And we are not prepared.
00:06:55.000 You can't know what tomorrow may bring, but you can have peace of mind knowing that you
00:06:58.280 will be ready for it.
00:06:59.660 Don't put yourself in a situation where you need something that you don't have.
00:07:02.960 Get prepared today.
00:07:04.680 You'll just, you get it and you put it out of mind.
00:07:07.040 It's that simple.
00:07:07.940 Of all the things you got hanging over your head, all the things you're putting off and
00:07:10.620 procrastinating, get prepared today.
00:07:13.960 Put it to the side.
00:07:14.760 You don't have to think about it again.
00:07:15.980 This week, my listeners can get any Wise Emergency or Outdoor Food product at an extra 25%
00:07:21.980 off the lowest marked price at wisefoodstorage.com when you enter Knolls, K-N-O-W-L-E-S, at checkout
00:07:29.600 or by calling 855-453-2945.
00:07:34.220 Plus, shipping is free.
00:07:35.700 Wise has a 90-day, no questions asked return policy.
00:07:38.740 So I guess if the big one hits in 90 days and you don't need it, you can return it.
00:07:42.680 But you're not going to want to return it.
00:07:43.700 There's no risk in taking the initiative to get yourself and your family more prepared today.
00:07:48.660 Do it.
00:07:49.160 It is peace of mind and it's peace of mind at incredibly good value with really good supplies.
00:07:55.340 Wisefoodstorage.com, promo code Knolls, K-N-O-W-L-E-S.
00:07:59.520 Get any Wise Emergency or Outdoor Food at an extra 25% off and free shipping.
00:08:04.680 Go do it.
00:08:07.500 All of these guys who say that Trump is unprecedented, he's the worst, by what measure?
00:08:13.660 By what measure are we talking about that?
00:08:19.260 You know, if you look at the economy, President Trump's been president for what, two and a half years now?
00:08:24.840 The economy's been great.
00:08:26.540 The economy has been much better than the previous eight years.
00:08:29.940 What is Joe Walsh's record on the economy?
00:08:32.740 Why am I supposed to believe that we've currently got a president who's had a lot of economic growth in two and a half years?
00:08:38.380 He's a billionaire.
00:08:39.680 He's built many successful businesses.
00:08:41.660 He's been in the public eye for 40 years as a successful businessman.
00:08:45.180 Why am I supposed to think that a one-term congressman is somehow this economic genius and the billionaire who turned the economy around is adult?
00:08:54.940 Why am I supposed to believe that?
00:08:56.520 Joe Walsh doesn't really have any record to compare this to.
00:08:59.520 He ran for Illinois State House of Representatives twice and lost and then he was a congressman for two years.
00:09:05.520 But at least while he was a congressman, not that Congress has a big say over the economy, the economy was terrible.
00:09:13.160 Why else are we supposed to believe Walsh or Weld or anybody else is supposed to be better than Trump?
00:09:18.700 Is it because of these supposedly crazy things that Donald Trump says?
00:09:22.560 He does say crazy things.
00:09:24.140 He says funny things.
00:09:25.000 The other day he was talking about a trade war with China and he said, I have to fight this trade war with China.
00:09:31.300 Then he looked up to heaven and he said, I am the chosen one.
00:09:35.280 I am the one who's going to take on China.
00:09:38.240 He was joking.
00:09:39.740 He was kind of laughing at the time.
00:09:41.480 The reporters were laughing.
00:09:42.680 He talked about how he was joking afterwards.
00:09:44.920 He makes jokes.
00:09:46.980 I mean, he's a TV star.
00:09:48.580 He's made jokes his whole life.
00:09:50.020 He'll use the phrase very stable genius.
00:09:52.060 He'll tweet about covfefe, right?
00:09:53.420 This is a guy who tells jokes.
00:09:55.120 It's pretty clear.
00:09:56.940 Joe Walsh has also said plenty of crazy things.
00:09:59.180 When he's not joking, here is Joe Walsh giving an endorsement on film of giving four-year-olds mortar and grenade training after he got duped by Sacha Baron Cohen.
00:10:10.880 The intensive three-week kindergarten course introduces specially selected children from 12 to four years old to pistols, rifles, semi-automatics, and a rudimentary knowledge of mortars.
00:10:27.720 In less than a month, less than a month, a first grader can become a first grenader.
00:10:35.720 In less than a month, a first grader can become a first grenader.
00:10:39.640 And he's not even joking.
00:10:41.180 He's reading an obvious comedy script that Sacha Baron Cohen wrote for his Showtime show, Who is America?
00:10:47.340 And Joe Walsh, so thick, he doesn't even realize that he's reading a comedy script.
00:10:51.140 So if you're talking about the crazy things he says, I don't think this guy's a better choice than Trump.
00:10:56.560 It's hard to find someone who's said crazier things than Donald Trump.
00:10:59.480 And somehow the one guy who, you know, Bill Kristol is now supporting or retweeting,
00:11:04.800 the one guy that anti-Trumpers are supporting for president has said crazier things than Donald Trump.
00:11:10.900 Well, then what is it?
00:11:12.120 Is it the tweets?
00:11:12.920 Is that why we're supposed to vote for some guy over Trump because Trump sends crazier tweets?
00:11:18.880 Here, too, Joe Walsh has a much more incendiary record than President Trump.
00:11:23.980 And George Stephanopoulos, in this interview, called him out for it.
00:11:27.060 You said you want to make the case against the president.
00:11:29.740 The question is, are you the best messenger?
00:11:31.560 You said you want to make a moral case against the president.
00:11:34.040 Here's what the Washington Examiner, conservative newspaper, said in response to your potential candidacy this week.
00:11:40.120 There is the matter of his history of being Trumpier than Trump.
00:11:43.460 He's made a living on peddling the same sort of demagoguery, conspiracy mongering and right-wing bomb throwing for which he now condemns the president.
00:11:50.740 Your response?
00:11:51.620 I helped create Trump.
00:11:54.320 And, George, that's not an easy thing to say.
00:11:56.760 I, uh, look, we were divided before Trump.
00:11:59.680 I went to Washington eight years ago.
00:12:01.560 The part of the Tea Party class wanted to shake Washington up.
00:12:05.540 I got involved in the battles, and there were plenty of times where I went beyond the policy and the idea differences.
00:12:12.660 And I got personal, and I got hateful.
00:12:14.940 You did provide aid and comfort for the kinds of things he was saying.
00:12:17.620 You mentioned Obama.
00:12:18.400 You called President Obama Muslim, an enemy, a traitor.
00:12:22.420 And you often spoke out on racial themes.
00:12:25.560 I want to show a couple of tweets that you had right there.
00:12:28.520 Number one, we lowered the bar for Obama.
00:12:31.240 He was held to a lower standard because he was black.
00:12:33.880 That was just in 2017.
00:12:35.960 And then a few months after that, not just President Obama, Senator Kamala Harris said something really dumb.
00:12:41.080 Meh.
00:12:41.560 If you're black and a woman, you can say dumb things.
00:12:44.340 Lowered the bar.
00:12:45.120 That is kind of textbook racism and sexism.
00:12:48.200 Well, again.
00:12:50.840 Well, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, never mind.
00:12:53.460 I, um, sorry.
00:12:54.420 So even when you're talking about Twitter, this guy has said more incendiary things.
00:12:58.060 And I don't just mean to call out Joe Walsh.
00:12:59.780 Who cares about Joe Walsh?
00:13:00.960 Joe Walsh is going nowhere.
00:13:01.940 I'm saying it because in a way, everyone challenging Trump is a sort of Joe Walsh.
00:13:09.560 Everyone challenging Trump has their own Twitter history, has said stupid things on camera, has a weird personal life.
00:13:16.240 All of them.
00:13:16.960 Is it the character?
00:13:17.660 I mean, just look at character, right?
00:13:18.920 If you just look at the personal lives, Trump always gets knocked for his personal lives because he's been married multiple times and he's been divorced and all of that.
00:13:26.900 Well, here too, Joe Walsh, Joe Walsh, who is a stand-in for the Trump opponents.
00:13:31.600 Joe Walsh probably doesn't want to throw many stones.
00:13:34.020 He's divorced.
00:13:34.900 He's remarried.
00:13:35.940 His wife sued him because he didn't pay child support.
00:13:38.340 He then filed a motion with a judge to try to stop paying child support because he was unemployed.
00:13:43.300 That, that is the guy you say, I have this, Trump has a terrible character and I have Sterling character, even though I've done exactly the same things, I've said the same things, I've tweeted the same things, and I helped create Donald Trump.
00:13:58.860 Therefore, vote for me because Trump is bad.
00:14:00.700 And it's not just Joe Walsh.
00:14:03.960 We all created Donald Trump.
00:14:06.400 Trump is us.
00:14:07.920 Trump is America.
00:14:10.080 P.J. O'Rourke, the conservative satirist when Trump was running, he had a great article.
00:14:14.980 I'm going to paraphrase the headline because I don't quite remember it, but it was something to the effect of ugly hair, garish tastes, Donald Trump is America.
00:14:22.840 He is, and in a representative government, in a republic such as ours, the guy who's in office reflects the country.
00:14:31.720 He is us.
00:14:32.260 Look, we, a lot of people in this country get divorced and remarried.
00:14:35.460 A lot of people in this country say a lot of things on the internet.
00:14:38.080 A lot of people in this country make jokes.
00:14:40.440 A lot of people in this country are egotistical.
00:14:44.580 That's, he is us, right?
00:14:46.520 He is us, and he is certainly Joe Walsh.
00:14:49.120 Walsh is trying to spin the revelation of, of all of these things about himself as courage.
00:14:57.560 This is, he says, this is why other people won't run against President Trump.
00:15:02.340 There is a kind of courage involved here, but it's not the kind Walsh is talking about.
00:15:05.840 We'll get to that in a second.
00:15:06.800 But first, I've got to thank our friends over at ExpressVPN.
00:15:10.260 You probably can't trust certain elements in Silicon Valley, if you know what I mean, to treat conservatives fairly.
00:15:16.640 I'm not going to name out any companies here, but I think we all know what we're talking about.
00:15:21.340 You're probably watching this show on one of those platforms right now, unless the show gets kicked off, which it regularly does.
00:15:28.420 How can you trust those companies to handle your privacy and personal online data?
00:15:33.140 This is why I recommend ExpressVPN every time you go online.
00:15:37.540 Big tech companies can use your IP address to match your internet activity to your identity or your location.
00:15:43.020 If you are listening to this show, you probably tune in to some pretty weird stuff on the internet.
00:15:50.040 You probably don't want your browser history being publicized for all those, all those dark, crazy websites like dailywire.com.
00:15:58.880 You just don't want it.
00:15:59.780 You don't want it being publicized.
00:16:01.300 That is why I love ExpressVPN.
00:16:03.880 Search engines and media sites cannot see my IP address at all when I use ExpressVPN.
00:16:08.880 My identity is masked and anonymized.
00:16:10.840 It has the added benefit of encrypting 100% of your data to keep you safe from people who you don't want to have your data.
00:16:17.560 And I'm joking a little bit, of course, but I'm deadly serious about online privacy and data.
00:16:23.660 People don't think about it that much because, you know, you just go on the internet.
00:16:26.680 You think, oh, everything's free.
00:16:28.220 I just use all these services for free.
00:16:30.160 Nothing's free.
00:16:30.800 Ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
00:16:32.660 The cost is your data, and you don't want your data in the wrong hands.
00:16:37.300 Seriously.
00:16:37.600 You can protect your data today for a very, very, very low price, less than one or two cups of coffee a month, but you got to do it.
00:16:47.020 You just do it.
00:16:47.500 You flip it on, and you don't think about it again.
00:16:49.680 Protect your online activity today with the VPN that I trust to keep my data safe.
00:16:54.620 Here is how Walsh, Walsh as himself and as the stand-in for all the anti-Trump forces, tries to spin why his bad character is good,
00:17:23.980 but Trump's bad character is bad, and why he, who's accomplished basically nothing in his life, is going to save the country,
00:17:30.440 and Trump, who's accomplished a lot in his life, is going to destroy the country.
00:17:33.640 Here's his spin.
00:17:34.780 Look, George, this isn't easy to do.
00:17:36.520 I just sat down with you and said, I'm going to run for president.
00:17:39.400 I'm going to challenge this guy.
00:17:40.940 I'm opening up my life to tweets and attacks.
00:17:44.700 Everything I've said and tweeted now, Trump's going to go after, and his bullies are going to go after.
00:17:49.580 You ready for it?
00:17:50.240 Yes, I'm ready for it.
00:17:51.740 Right.
00:17:52.260 There is courage involved in running for office.
00:17:54.280 There actually is.
00:17:56.120 You open yourself up to all these attacks, but Trump has already demonstrated that, right?
00:18:00.280 It's kind of a wash.
00:18:01.220 It's easy to preen from the sidelines, but when you actually compare yourself, it's a little bit tougher.
00:18:06.560 You might find out, like Joe Walsh, you're not that much more virtuous than Donald Trump.
00:18:10.160 You're not anywhere near as impressive as Donald Trump.
00:18:12.780 You might find out that the narrative that Trump is the worst guy in the world is maybe just that.
00:18:16.540 It might just be a contrived narrative, and Walsh is not the only one who's doing this kind of stuff.
00:18:22.400 Trump is also being challenged in hysterical terms from everyone from the far right to the far left and the center right and the center left.
00:18:29.120 Here is Brett Stevens speaking on Meet the Press in even more hyperbolic terms than Joe Walsh.
00:18:35.880 The real issue for Republicans is simply to call out the fact that the president does not stand in any way for the traditional conservative economic principles that have defined the party for the better part of the last 70 years.
00:18:50.580 So what he just said is not true.
00:18:53.880 It's a misconception.
00:18:55.360 I'm not saying he's lying, but he's getting it wrong.
00:18:58.140 Stevens is making this economic argument that Donald Trump is totally reversing conservative and Republican economic policies of the last 70 years.
00:19:06.440 You hear this a lot from libertarians.
00:19:09.020 Trump is not a true conservative, capital T, capital C, trademark over the E, because he's questioning unfettered global free trade.
00:19:18.200 Is this really the test of a conservative?
00:19:20.980 Are you serious?
00:19:22.480 Maybe it is the test of a conservative, but it's probably not in the direction that Brett Stevens and the libertarians want it to be in.
00:19:28.580 The historical record is pretty clear.
00:19:31.080 The GOP was founded as a protectionist party.
00:19:33.560 It was founded in large part to oppose unfettered global free trade.
00:19:39.520 Abraham Lincoln, the founding president of the Republican Party, said, quote,
00:19:43.220 Give me a tariff.
00:19:44.320 I'll give you the best nation on earth.
00:19:46.160 By the way, I'm not making an argument against free trade right now.
00:19:48.580 I'm not making an argument for tariffs.
00:19:50.940 I'm making an historical observation that the GOP and conservatives generally have not always been the party of unfettered global free trade.
00:19:59.540 Actually, they've only embraced that fairly recently and for a short period of time.
00:20:04.220 Russell Kirk, who wrote The Conservative Mind, he identified free trade as one of the great threats to conservatism.
00:20:11.760 Russell Kirk's book is one of the founding books of the modern conservative movement in America.
00:20:15.160 What happened?
00:20:16.740 After World War II, because we were fighting a Cold War against Soviet communism, you had a lot of conservatives embrace global trade.
00:20:25.020 That was to win the Cold War.
00:20:27.000 That was to draw a distinction with the command economy of the Soviet Union.
00:20:31.480 But in politics, we don't just live as abstracted brains floating in the sky somewhere.
00:20:36.300 It's based on circumstances.
00:20:37.840 When circumstances change, then our strategies and our tactics change too.
00:20:41.940 Sometimes our enemies change, our opponents change.
00:20:45.340 So you had basically from the 1980s and into the 90s, you had the conservative orthodoxy on global unfettered free trade.
00:20:56.340 And that's pretty much when it ended.
00:20:57.880 I mean, you're looking at like maybe 20 years of that opinion.
00:21:00.800 Then pretty quickly, you had conservatives sounding a warning cry on global trade arrangements for the past 20 years.
00:21:05.920 Why? Because while there has been a lot of advantage to certain trade arrangements, there has been a big disadvantage to many others.
00:21:13.840 And this includes China, which we'll get to in a second, because the trade war with China is heating up.
00:21:18.380 There's a lot of misinformation going on about that.
00:21:20.920 So unlike what Brett Stevens is saying, you're not talking about upending 70 years of conservative opinion on economics and trade.
00:21:31.180 You're talking about maybe upsetting 15 or 20 years.
00:21:34.160 And by the way, Trump isn't even doing that.
00:21:36.400 I think he still holds the general conservative ideas, lower taxes, lower regulation, help out the economy.
00:21:43.300 Economic growth is a pillar of conservative thought.
00:21:46.640 Trump has repeatedly said he wants no tariffs.
00:21:49.360 He wants zero tariffs.
00:21:50.120 So he's not even upending what Brett Stevens is saying.
00:21:52.660 Just totally untrue.
00:21:54.560 But the arguments against Trump that are going on right now on the left and the right are not about facts.
00:21:59.740 They're about insinuation.
00:22:01.920 Right?
00:22:02.200 They'll say, okay, well, I've seen the tape.
00:22:03.740 Maybe he's not a racist.
00:22:05.280 But secretly, I think he is.
00:22:06.980 He said that he hates racism.
00:22:08.600 He condemns it repeatedly.
00:22:09.840 But secretly, I think he maybe he is a racist.
00:22:13.920 Maybe Trump hasn't caused World War III.
00:22:15.600 But secretly, secretly in my telepathic plane that I have with President Trump, secretly he wants to.
00:22:23.360 Maybe Trump isn't selling out conservative principles.
00:22:26.140 Maybe I'm misrepresenting conservative history and principles.
00:22:28.600 But secretly, secretly, though, he wants to.
00:22:31.680 And then you have Brett Stevens go for the jugular on the hyperbole.
00:22:35.300 Never mind the economic principles, broader principles of character.
00:22:39.260 I mean, what we saw over the last few days is a president who is either mentally unwell or morally unfit.
00:22:45.120 Maybe both.
00:22:46.020 I don't know.
00:22:46.980 But it's important to simply call these things as we as we see them.
00:22:51.620 You have behavior that is is unprecedented in any kind of presidential history in the United States or frankly elsewhere.
00:23:00.140 Unprecedented behavior, immoral, unfit.
00:23:02.520 You notice he can't name any of the behavior.
00:23:04.060 He just says it.
00:23:06.140 It's just insinuation.
00:23:07.400 That's what the critics do.
00:23:08.520 He can't name the behavior.
00:23:09.840 What behavior is unprecedented?
00:23:12.420 That he says outrageous things?
00:23:14.260 I think that's what it comes down to.
00:23:16.040 That he says outrageous things.
00:23:17.320 Just a quick trip down memory lane.
00:23:19.180 The Bush administration criticized its opponents for living in the, quote, reality-based community.
00:23:25.640 That's an actual quote.
00:23:27.100 This was a big moment in the Bush administration because the critics said, hold on.
00:23:31.100 You guys are living in such a fantasy land.
00:23:33.440 You're criticizing us for living in the reality-based community.
00:23:36.920 The point they were trying to make in the Bush administration was that the U.S. actually has so much influence that they can change the nature of reality.
00:23:44.180 Whether or not that was borne out is a matter for another time.
00:23:46.820 But it's a pretty outrageous thing.
00:23:48.940 Ronald Reagan on the radio one time declared the Soviet Union illegal and said the bombs would drop in five minutes.
00:23:54.940 Pretty, pretty outrageous thing to say.
00:23:57.500 Soviet Union went on high alert.
00:23:58.980 We almost had nuclear war because of it.
00:24:01.620 Lyndon Johnson said disgusting things.
00:24:03.620 One time, more than one time, he whipped out little Lyndon Johnson in cabinet meetings.
00:24:08.700 He held other meetings on the John.
00:24:11.340 Kennedy, John Kennedy pimped out his interns to his staffers in the White House swimming pool.
00:24:17.220 Pretty outrageous behavior.
00:24:19.400 Whatever Trump is doing, I don't think it's unprecedented.
00:24:22.560 Don't forget what three presidents ago, not Obama, not Bush, but Clinton.
00:24:27.660 Don't forget what he was doing in the Oval Office.
00:24:29.940 Unprecedented.
00:24:31.680 Brett Stevens, I mean, hysterical.
00:24:33.580 No facts here.
00:24:35.000 Just insinuation.
00:24:36.180 And then we get, on CNN, on Reliable Sources, the most ironically named TV show in television history,
00:24:42.400 you get a psychiatrist named Dr. Alan Francis, who has really just gone for it.
00:24:47.580 He's done with all this mild-mannered talk.
00:24:49.960 He's saying Trump is Hitler.
00:24:52.420 Well, I think that medicalizing politics has three very dire consequences.
00:24:57.980 The first is that it stigmatizes the mentally ill.
00:25:01.660 I've known thousands of patients, almost all of them, have been well-behaved, well-mannered, good people.
00:25:08.760 Trump is none of these.
00:25:10.520 Lumping the mentally ill with Trump is a terrible insult to the mentally ill,
00:25:15.060 and they have enough problems and stigma as it is.
00:25:17.820 The second issue is that calling Trump crazy hides the fact that we're crazy for having elected him,
00:25:24.260 and even crazier for allowing his crazy policies to persist.
00:25:29.800 Trump is as destructive a person in this century as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao were in the last century.
00:25:36.420 He may be responsible for many more million deaths than they were.
00:25:40.340 He needs to be contained, but he needs to be contained by attacking his policies, not his person.
00:25:46.760 And there you have Brian Stelter looking really, really serious while he's making this crazy point.
00:25:51.480 Obviously, the political point he's making is very stupid, but the meta-political point that he's making,
00:25:56.500 the point about how we talk about politics, is actually a good point.
00:26:00.740 And this is what it comes down to.
00:26:02.060 This is what the big challenge for Trump comes down to.
00:26:05.080 What this psychiatrist, this lunatic, is saying on TV is that we shouldn't just bring on TV psychiatrists
00:26:10.760 and have them diagnose Trump with some medical condition based on nothing,
00:26:14.660 which is dangerous, and it makes psychiatrists look like even more of quacks than they already look like,
00:26:19.160 and it undermines the purpose of representative government, where we debate things in the public square.
00:26:25.560 Francis is right on this point.
00:26:27.580 If people want to take down Trump, they should try to do it by attacking what he's done,
00:26:33.820 not by attacking his person or his psyche.
00:26:36.600 This is President Trump's big challenge.
00:26:38.700 He has to convince people.
00:26:42.200 His big challenge isn't Joe Walsh.
00:26:43.600 His big challenge isn't Brett Stevens.
00:26:44.900 His big challenge isn't some TV psychiatrist.
00:26:46.560 His big challenge is he has to convince people that he's the normal one and that his opponents are the crazy ones.
00:26:54.500 He's got to convince people that he gets America, he gets what America wants,
00:26:58.300 he's delivered on a good number of his promises, he's got the right priorities,
00:27:02.100 he's turning the country in the right direction.
00:27:04.680 And what the media are going to try to do, and the left generally,
00:27:07.980 is they're going to try to pretend that they're the normal ones and he's the crazy one.
00:27:10.920 He's a bigot, he's a sociopath, he's all of that.
00:27:12.760 That's how they always defeat Republicans.
00:27:15.140 They convince people that Republicans are hateful and terrible.
00:27:18.180 Trump breaks through that because he's a celebrity.
00:27:20.980 Now he's got to use that celebrity to show that he's a very stable genius, as he said before.
00:27:25.220 That's how you use chaos.
00:27:27.900 You know, if the narrative is that he's undisciplined, he's a reckless child, he's impetuous,
00:27:31.420 that's what some of the anti-Trump right and the left says.
00:27:34.700 He's got to show he's stable, he's normal, his opponents are crazy, he's done a good job,
00:27:38.200 and he's getting a lot of help showing that from Democrats.
00:27:42.220 He's got to keep up that challenge.
00:27:43.940 Be the very stable genius and forget about all these nothings, all these little footnotes on
00:27:49.360 history.
00:27:49.760 They're not even footnotes on history.
00:27:51.540 He's getting a lot of help from Democrats like Joe Biden, who's showing that he's the stable one.
00:27:55.080 He's getting a lot of help from people leaking to the press.
00:27:58.140 There was a report out that Trump wants to nuke hurricanes.
00:28:00.680 I'll examine what I think that's really about, because I think it's actually not a good idea,
00:28:05.220 but it's a good idea to tell the press that.
00:28:07.540 Then trade war with China heating up, and we've got to get to Jimmy John's.
00:28:10.840 There's a lot more to get to, but you've got to go to dailywire.com.
00:28:13.500 Tune in tomorrow, 7 p.m. Eastern, 4 p.m. Pacific, for our latest episode of The Conversation.
00:28:19.060 Do you know who it's going to have on it?
00:28:20.560 Not Ben, not Drew, not Walsh, just me, little old me.
00:28:24.900 I will be answering your questions live on air.
00:28:27.040 My answers are sure to dazzle you.
00:28:30.220 They'll at least dazzle me.
00:28:31.200 I don't know if they'll dazzle you.
00:28:32.060 Tune in.
00:28:32.520 The episode is free to watch on Facebook and YouTube.
00:28:35.460 Only subscribers can ask the questions.
00:28:37.920 Subscribe to Daily Wire.
00:28:39.020 Get your questions answered by me tomorrow, Tuesday, August 27th at 7 p.m. Eastern, 4 p.m. Pacific,
00:28:44.640 and join the conversation.
00:28:46.380 Head on over to dailywire.com.
00:28:48.260 We've got a whole lot more to get to.
00:28:49.820 Trump's getting a lot of help showing that he's a normal one from Democrats, including
00:29:04.280 the leading Democrat of 2020, Joe Biden, because Joe Biden is showing that he's senile.
00:29:09.680 I don't mean that to throw bombs.
00:29:10.920 I just mean the guy is losing it.
00:29:12.420 Here is Joe Biden over the weekend in New Hampshire, explaining, of course, how happy he
00:29:16.940 is to be in Vermont.
00:29:19.100 I'm back.
00:29:19.780 I've been here a number of times.
00:29:20.900 Last time was, I think, all the way back in 2014.
00:29:25.100 But I've been here before that.
00:29:26.400 I love this place.
00:29:27.400 Look, what's not to like about Vermont in terms of the beauty of it?
00:29:30.800 And what a neat town.
00:29:32.640 What a, I mean, this is sort of a scenic, beautiful town.
00:29:35.880 The mayor's been a good guy and everybody's been really friendly.
00:29:38.940 I like Keene a lot.
00:29:40.020 He's not in Vermont and Vermont is not a town.
00:29:42.580 It's a state.
00:29:43.140 He somehow managed to screw up every single thing he said in that statement.
00:29:47.480 Been here a lot of times.
00:29:48.720 Been to Vermont.
00:29:49.860 Been here how many times?
00:29:50.960 Three, oh, three, three, oh, oh, Joe, Joe times.
00:29:56.840 He's not looking great.
00:29:58.760 And it's not just Joe Biden.
00:29:59.760 I don't just want to pick on him.
00:30:01.180 It does tell you something.
00:30:02.260 The front runner of the Democratic primary is losing his marbles, but it's not just him.
00:30:06.540 Here's a DNC speaker, William Barber, explaining how socialism is endorsed by both the Constitution,
00:30:13.420 and the Bible.
00:30:14.620 If we embrace moral language, we must ask, does our policy care for the least of these?
00:30:20.740 Does it lift up those who are most marginalized?
00:30:22.800 He's got kind of a strange outfit on anyway.
00:30:25.080 That's already got you a little bit on guard.
00:30:27.940 That is the moral question.
00:30:29.860 If someone calls it socialism, then we must compel them to acknowledge that the Bible must
00:30:35.440 then promote socialism.
00:30:36.520 Is that right?
00:30:38.160 I'm not so sure about that.
00:30:39.920 Reverend?
00:30:40.680 Is he a reverend?
00:30:41.460 I don't know.
00:30:41.660 Because Jesus offered free health care to everyone, and he never charged a leper or co-pay.
00:30:49.980 Yes, God healed the sick.
00:30:52.060 The Messiah healed the sick.
00:30:54.680 I don't think he upended the Roman health care system, though.
00:30:57.700 It's time for us to say, if you want to have a moral debate, bring it on, baby.
00:31:04.920 The Bible says that a nation will be judged by how it treats the poor and the sick and women and the immigrant.
00:31:13.300 The Bible says that God makes it rain on the just and the unjust alike.
00:31:17.840 If you want to call caring for folk socialism, then the Constitution is a socialist document because it calls us to promote the general welfare and to establish justice.
00:31:28.580 What on earth?
00:31:29.580 What on earth?
00:31:29.600 He's just saying words that don't seem to me.
00:31:32.480 He says, well, the Constitution is socialist because socialism is good and the Constitution says it should be good.
00:31:41.400 So, ha, ha, checkmate, capitalists.
00:31:46.300 The Bible says that it will rain on the just and the unjust alike, which is an observation about the nature of reality, that good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people.
00:31:57.480 Socialism, ha, gotcha, gotcha, checkmate, Christians, checkmate, constitutionalists.
00:32:06.920 What on earth does that mean?
00:32:08.160 He's, he's not saying anything other than socialism is moral.
00:32:13.560 And, I mean, we could debunk, we could debunk the Christian argument, the constitutional argument for a long time because all of these people who I suspect have never cracked so much as the spine of a Bible once in their lives, when they talk about how Jesus was a socialist, they, they never mention the scene when Jesus rebukes his apostles because they don't want him to use expensive perfume on his body.
00:32:38.560 They want him to sell the perfume and give all the money to the poor and he says, the poor will always be with you, but I will not always be with you.
00:32:45.500 Give me the nice perfume.
00:32:46.680 They seem to forget that scene.
00:32:47.800 They seem to forget the parable of the talents, which I refer to as the parable of the hedge fund manager, where, where the good master rewards the guy who got a good return on his investment and he casts the unprofitable servant into outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth.
00:33:01.620 You could go on and on and on.
00:33:02.760 As for the constitution, it's unbelievable.
00:33:05.120 Obviously, there's nothing in the constitution that would even remotely suggest socialism.
00:33:09.300 So they just have to go and they say, in order to promote the general welfare, which is in the preamble, and they say, see, and I think socialism promotes the general welfare.
00:33:17.440 So there you go.
00:33:18.440 I mean, that kind of craziness turns people off.
00:33:21.520 That turns people off.
00:33:22.560 And so I think President Trump is having a decent time showing that he's a normal one.
00:33:26.240 He's got to keep that up.
00:33:27.320 And one way he's doing it, by the way, speaking of crazy stories, is pretty counterintuitive, but I like it.
00:33:32.960 And nobody has given this read on it, as far as I can tell.
00:33:37.580 President Trump is pushing back today on reports that he wants to nuke hurricanes.
00:33:42.500 This story came out on Sunday that Axios reported that Trump wants to nuke hurricanes.
00:33:48.260 Here's the report.
00:33:48.940 Quote, Trump said, I got it, I got it.
00:33:50.800 Why don't we nuke them, according to one source who was there.
00:33:53.640 They start forming off the coast of Africa as they're moving across the Atlantic.
00:33:56.460 We drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it.
00:33:59.900 Why can't we do that, the source added, paraphrasing the president's remarks.
00:34:03.740 And the source allegedly said, you could hear a gnat fart in that meeting.
00:34:07.880 People were astonished.
00:34:09.080 After the meeting ended, we thought, what the F?
00:34:11.600 What do we do with this?
00:34:12.700 The source told Axios.
00:34:14.200 And then Trump dismissed these claims this morning on Twitter.
00:34:16.340 He said, quote, the story by Axios that President Trump, he refers to himself in the third person, of course.
00:34:21.020 The story that President Trump wanted to blow up large hurricanes with nuclear weapons prior to reaching the shore is ridiculous.
00:34:25.940 I never said this, just more fake news.
00:34:28.360 So what's going on?
00:34:29.100 Did he say it?
00:34:29.900 Maybe.
00:34:31.060 I'm not convinced he didn't say it.
00:34:33.060 Does he really want to nuke hurricanes?
00:34:35.000 I don't think so.
00:34:36.520 He benefits from pretending that he's crazy and from people thinking he's crazy.
00:34:40.100 I don't think we have any evidence that the president would use a nuclear weapon to stop a storm or ever use a nuclear weapon.
00:34:48.080 But I think he may have said it.
00:34:50.800 Why?
00:34:52.220 I think he may have said it to identify leaks.
00:34:54.560 Because what would it benefit Trump to say this, especially if he's not going to do it?
00:34:58.580 It would benefit him to say it because depending on who's in the room, he could make that statement and then assume that it's so outrageous that it would leak to the press.
00:35:09.000 And then you can tell because the source is being quoted here.
00:35:11.980 So it's not just that it's on background.
00:35:13.700 They're actually using the direct quote.
00:35:16.060 From that, it could help to identify leaks.
00:35:18.060 The White House has been incredibly leaky.
00:35:20.480 And the White House has also gotten better and better at governing itself.
00:35:23.380 There was so much chaos early on.
00:35:25.240 It's brought, there has been more order brought to the White House since those early days.
00:35:30.060 I wouldn't be surprised if this nuking the hurricane story is actually has nothing to do with weather, nothing to do with nuclear weapons.
00:35:37.220 It's all about identifying the leaks in the White House, which is very important as more and more people from Trump's orbit turn on the president.
00:35:44.360 Now, speaking of something that actually matters, we've got to get to China.
00:35:49.060 This trade war has been so misrepresented, most people have no idea what's going on.
00:35:54.560 Part of that is because trade negotiations are extremely boring and they're extremely complicated and all shallows are clear.
00:36:01.840 And if you think that there is a simple answer to our trade relationship with China, you are completely out of your mind.
00:36:08.240 That the only wrong answer on trade is that it's simple.
00:36:11.240 It's really, really not simple.
00:36:13.480 This trade relationship has been pretty poisoned since 2001 when we stupidly let China into the World Trade Organization.
00:36:21.260 We had no leverage on it whatsoever.
00:36:22.680 It was completely unlike our letting other economies in, you know, South Korea or Japan, where we had military leverage over them.
00:36:30.500 We were providing a lot of their defense.
00:36:32.280 They were relatively small economies.
00:36:34.120 We could manage that relationship.
00:36:35.760 China, not the case.
00:36:36.780 They had over a billion people, huge economy.
00:36:39.280 Obviously, they don't rely on our military protection.
00:36:41.960 From the beginning, this was a tough problem.
00:36:44.660 They've been cheating from the beginning.
00:36:46.080 They've been stealing our property, illegally subsidizing steel and aluminum,
00:36:49.460 stealing our jobs by illegally devaluing their currency.
00:36:52.680 So it's not just that it was the natural flow of market forces that took some of our manufacturing jobs away to the tune of three million or more.
00:36:59.760 That's not what happened.
00:37:00.940 We would have saved millions of jobs had we stopped them from illegally devaluing their currency,
00:37:06.600 which violates the World Trade Organization treaties.
00:37:10.280 And it's something that we can't really fight against because if we devalued our currency,
00:37:14.320 the world would spin into economic chaos because we are the superpower.
00:37:19.100 We are the global reserve currency.
00:37:21.240 I'm not even scratching the surface.
00:37:22.680 On how complicated this trade relationship is, I'm just telling you it's very complicated.
00:37:26.360 And so when people say, you know, drop the tariffs, that is just nonsense.
00:37:30.260 That is not an adult way to handle this.
00:37:33.100 So this trade war has been heating up.
00:37:35.100 It's been tit for tat, tit for tat.
00:37:38.000 China goes hardcore in its negotiating position.
00:37:42.960 People walk away from the table.
00:37:44.760 Things are looking really bad.
00:37:45.840 President Trump has to face re-election in 2020.
00:37:48.560 Then, apparently, allegedly, the White House call, or China, rather, called the White House over the weekend and asked the White House to get back to the negotiating table.
00:37:57.260 Why?
00:37:57.980 Because President Trump said, rather than backing down on the tariffs, which he also signaled he might do,
00:38:02.700 that he would raise the existing duties on a quarter, on $250 billion worth of Chinese products to 30% from 25% starting on October 1st.
00:38:13.000 He also said that tariffs on another $300 billion of Chinese goods would take effect on September 1st, and they would now be 15% instead of 10%.
00:38:20.920 So he just, at the moment when it seems like he's going to back down because it's hurting his own base, it's going to hurt him in re-election,
00:38:27.780 he says, nope, I'm going all the way, baby.
00:38:30.600 I'm turning the covfefe up to 11.
00:38:32.960 Guess what happened?
00:38:33.700 The Chinese yuan fell to an 11-year low against the dollar.
00:38:38.740 And China, it looked like the U.S. was going to blink.
00:38:41.640 Now it looks like the U.S. isn't going to blink.
00:38:43.640 China, perhaps, is blinking.
00:38:45.080 This is a huge win for the United States.
00:38:47.500 It doesn't solve the problem.
00:38:48.840 It's not even close to solving the problem.
00:38:50.180 It just shows that we're moving in the right direction.
00:38:53.040 And the left is furious about that.
00:38:54.800 Here is the CNBC headline.
00:38:56.800 This is the CNBC headline reporting on this latest turn.
00:39:00.120 Chinese newspaper editor debunks Trump's trade war claims, says China didn't change its position.
00:39:07.600 Oh, okay.
00:39:08.820 Well, if the Chinese newspaper editor said, what newspaper was that, by the way?
00:39:12.540 Could you, okay, let me see.
00:39:13.540 They go, uh, Hu Jixin is editor-in-chief of the Global Times, a tabloid under the People's
00:39:19.940 Daily, which is the official newspaper of communist China.
00:39:23.740 It's the official party newspaper.
00:39:28.140 Oh, oh, you're saying that the Chinese government disagrees?
00:39:33.560 The Chinese government doesn't want it to become clear that the U.S. has just won its position
00:39:38.420 on the trade war?
00:39:39.640 Wow, that's so, I wouldn't have expected that.
00:39:41.740 Thank you for reporting that, CNBC, for carrying the Pravda of China and, and their, their propaganda
00:39:48.420 against the United States.
00:39:49.860 It's ridiculous.
00:39:51.280 This is good news.
00:39:52.300 I mean, I hate agreeing with Chuck Schumer on anything.
00:39:54.680 The only place I've probably ever agreed with the guy, two places, on the Iran deal and on
00:39:59.360 this trade war with China.
00:40:00.480 He said not to back down.
00:40:02.520 It requires a lot of political courage for President Trump not to back down on this issue.
00:40:07.640 Um, but it's very important that he doesn't.
00:40:11.540 I, I think if he does blank, if he does back down, actually it will hurt him in the 2020
00:40:16.220 presidential election because it will show he's weak and he's weak on one of the biggest
00:40:19.660 issues facing our country and one of the biggest issues he talked about on the campaign trail.
00:40:23.620 The other reason I think he shouldn't back down is I think he's going to win.
00:40:26.300 And I don't think that, that Americans are going to vote based on bean counting.
00:40:30.420 I don't think that we're going to vote because GDP is a little bit lower.
00:40:34.280 If we go into an all out recession, we might have some trouble, uh, in reelection, but
00:40:38.700 otherwise people want to win.
00:40:42.360 They want to solve this problem.
00:40:43.920 They want someone to fix it.
00:40:45.140 Neither party has done it for 20 years and they want Americans to be respected, American
00:40:51.480 jobs, American manufacturing.
00:40:53.060 They want to make America great again.
00:40:55.100 This was Reagan's call in the eighties, actually pursuing similar policies.
00:40:59.580 This is Trump's call now.
00:41:00.580 I think it'll work.
00:41:01.260 You got to stay strong.
00:41:02.080 He's done a good job so far.
00:41:03.280 It's probably the highlight of his, uh, administration, even though some nervous Nancy's on the right
00:41:09.420 who are clutching their pearls and who are nervous that their stocks are going to tick
00:41:12.840 down a few days out of the week are saying that he should give up and let China eat our
00:41:17.220 lunch.
00:41:17.880 Terrible idea.
00:41:18.940 Speaking of eating lunch, I got to close today on Jimmy John's.
00:41:23.220 One of my favorite sandwich shops, huge fan of Jimmy John's.
00:41:27.300 Now I'm sort of even more a fan of Jimmy John's because the founder of Jimmy John's, Jimmy
00:41:31.580 John, Leah Toad, I didn't know his name was Jimmy John, but that's great.
00:41:35.980 I really liked that.
00:41:36.960 He was caught in a photo hunting.
00:41:42.420 And this is causing calls for a major boycott on Jimmy John's, one of the great sandwich
00:41:49.700 shops.
00:41:50.020 Part of the outrage is that he was hunting an elephant and people don't want you to hunt
00:41:56.260 elephants.
00:41:56.980 Now this crops up every time someone goes and hunts big game, the hysterical left, the
00:42:02.100 environmentalist left, the backwards left throws a fit about it.
00:42:05.880 They don't point out that big game hunting is actually serving the purposes of conservation
00:42:12.580 because it costs tens of thousands, if not a hundred thousand dollars to buy the licenses
00:42:16.540 to kill these animals.
00:42:17.940 These animals are usually not reproducing anymore.
00:42:20.340 In some cases, like when you're hunting rhinoceros, they're actually taking a toll on the population
00:42:25.660 because they're not reproducing and they're harming younger animals who could be reproducing.
00:42:31.960 None of that is included.
00:42:32.900 None of that is mentioned, that the conservation movement was founded out of a love of hunting.
00:42:39.260 None of that is mentioned.
00:42:39.960 It's just the emotional appeal.
00:42:42.080 How awful it is to kill a beautiful elephant.
00:42:44.320 I love elephants and it's terrible.
00:42:46.540 It's good to hunt certain elephants.
00:42:48.700 It's a good thing.
00:42:49.760 It's not even just an okay thing.
00:42:50.860 It is a positive good because you can protect other elephants.
00:42:55.980 We need to shoot the elephants so we can protect the elephants.
00:42:58.400 We need to protect the elephants so we can shoot the elephants.
00:43:00.000 Just to show you the moral backwardness of this, you have Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker, tweeting
00:43:06.980 out, thumbs up to a boycott of all Jimmy John's restaurants with apologies for posting this
00:43:14.460 obscene photo.
00:43:15.660 It's the obscene photo of the owner of Jimmy John's with the elephant.
00:43:19.040 A few months ago, it came out that Mark Hamill sent aggressive text messages and notes to
00:43:26.800 his son's girlfriend, begging her and pressuring her and intimidating her to kill her child because
00:43:33.900 Mark Hamill's son knocked up the girl and Mark Hamill insisted that the girl go to an
00:43:39.060 abortion clinic and murder her own child, his own grandchild.
00:43:42.940 That would be good.
00:43:44.480 And he was saying how awful it would be if she wouldn't do that.
00:43:47.940 This is a grown man, a millionaire actor, pressuring some poor girl to kill her own child, his own
00:43:52.740 grandchild.
00:43:54.980 That's a good thing.
00:43:57.100 But the idea of killing an old elephant is unthinkable, unspeakably immoral.
00:44:02.020 This is the moral backwardness of the left.
00:44:04.700 They hate people.
00:44:07.540 They love animals.
00:44:09.200 They hate conscious beings.
00:44:10.860 They love unconscious beings.
00:44:12.420 I love, I love elephants.
00:44:13.640 Elephants are my favorite animal.
00:44:14.720 It's the only animal I want to go see at the zoo.
00:44:16.460 I like appreciating the beauty of elephants.
00:44:18.600 If an old elephant is going to die anyway, no one here gets out alive.
00:44:22.040 I'd much rather some hunter goes out and kills it and gives a lot of money to conservation
00:44:25.720 and cuts the thing's head off and puts it on the wall.
00:44:28.080 And I get to admire the beauty of the elephant head.
00:44:30.480 I'd much rather do that.
00:44:32.740 I'd also much rather protect human beings.
00:44:35.080 I think that's a good thing to do too.
00:44:37.800 But we're in a culture that is very confused.
00:44:40.640 I can't even say it's just the fault of materialism.
00:44:42.860 It's just the fault of atheism.
00:44:45.280 It's just the fault of environmentalism.
00:44:47.060 It's not.
00:44:48.100 Because it's so confused.
00:44:50.460 It doesn't make sense.
00:44:51.420 If we're all just meat, if we're all just clumps and blobs of cells, then it doesn't
00:44:56.160 matter if I kill the elephant and it doesn't matter if I kill the baby.
00:45:00.400 If we all have souls, if we're all totally dignified.
00:45:04.260 And the mouse is just as dignified and valuable and a creature and in the image of God as
00:45:11.880 a man is, then we shouldn't kill either the animal or the human.
00:45:15.500 Obviously, humans are built to eat meat.
00:45:17.480 Most people still eat meat.
00:45:18.720 So I don't think that's the argument people are making.
00:45:21.840 Then there is the traditional argument that man has dominion over the sea and over the
00:45:25.780 air, that man is a steward of his natural environment, that all the animals are here
00:45:30.540 for us to be stewards of, that the animals are here for our pleasure, for our enjoyment,
00:45:37.400 and we don't want to be cruel and we don't want to be gluttonous and we don't want to ravage
00:45:41.060 our environment, but we want to protect it for us.
00:45:43.760 That's the traditional idea and that's the only idea, it seems, that everyone agrees
00:45:47.180 we need to get rid of and they're pursuing just other kind of incoherent versions of it.
00:45:51.740 It's just outrageous and the outrage comes up every single time.
00:45:55.660 Maybe we should, instead of posting around the photo of this lovely elephant, which is
00:46:00.260 going to provide meat to people, possibly, it's going to provide beauty to people when
00:46:04.800 it's put up on a wall and it's going to provide money to conservation.
00:46:07.600 Instead of sharing that as the image of gross immorality, maybe we should all tweet at Mark
00:46:11.520 Hamill, send him a picture of a little baby and say, hmm, maybe we should boycott the
00:46:15.340 Mark Hamill movies.
00:46:16.440 Maybe we should boycott the Star Wars movies for a genuinely immoral act compared to this
00:46:24.260 moral confusion on the question of environmentalism and beautiful animals.
00:46:28.980 That's our show.
00:46:29.680 That's a big challenge, not just a big challenge for Trump.
00:46:31.780 It's a challenge for all of us.
00:46:33.680 We are in a representative government.
00:46:36.040 We are in a republic.
00:46:37.240 The government reflects us.
00:46:39.560 We are the government.
00:46:40.800 We are the people.
00:46:42.220 If you want to make a change, you've got to change yourself.
00:46:44.340 If you want to make sense, you've got to make sense yourself.
00:46:46.420 If you want to recapture a culture that will make America great again, that starts with
00:46:50.940 you.
00:46:51.180 A big challenge, not just for Trump, but for all of us.
00:46:53.520 That's our show.
00:46:54.240 Come back tomorrow.
00:46:54.920 In the meantime, I'm Michael Knowles.
00:46:56.420 This is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:46:57.560 See you then.
00:46:57.900 If you enjoyed this episode, and frankly, even if you didn't, don't forget to subscribe.
00:47:09.420 And if you want to help spread the word, please give us a five-star review and tell your friends
00:47:13.840 to subscribe.
00:47:14.800 We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you listen to podcasts.
00:47:19.420 Also, be sure to check out the other Daily Wire podcasts, including The Ben Shapiro Show,
00:47:24.760 The Andrew Klavan Show, and The Matt Walsh Show.
00:47:26.940 The Michael Knowles Show is produced by Rebecca Dobkowitz, director Mike Joyner, executive
00:47:32.180 producer Jeremy Boring, our senior producer is Jonathan Hay, supervising producer Mathis
00:47:37.780 Glover, technical producer Austin Stevens, editor Danny D'Amico, our audio mixer is Mike
00:47:43.700 Coromina, hair and makeup by Jesua Olvera, production assistant Nick Sheehan.
00:47:48.780 The Michael Knowles Show is a Daily Wire production, copyright Daily Wire 2019.
00:47:52.940 Hey everyone, it's Andrew Klavan, host of The Andrew Klavan Show.
00:47:56.040 The left is unhappy because conservatives are using the same nasty techniques against
00:48:01.440 them that they always use against us.
00:48:03.660 Sad panda, they can dish it out, but they can't take it.
00:48:06.760 So we'll mock them cruelly on The Andrew Klavan Show.