The Michael Knowles Show


Ep. 428 - Should We Stay Or Should We Go？


Summary

In this episode of The Michael Knowles Show, we examine President Trump's decision to relocate U.S. forces in Syria. Then, NBC's Chuck Todd loses his mind, what little little he had left, as NBC s Chuck Todd gets caught in more foreign interference hypocrisy, and a hopeful note from Ellen DeGeneres.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Should we stay in Syria, or should we go?
00:00:03.700 Should we stay, or should we go now?
00:00:06.580 If we go, there will be trouble.
00:00:09.120 And if we stay, it will be double.
00:00:11.780 So come on, let me know, should we stay, or should we go?
00:00:16.100 We will examine President Trump's decision to relocate U.S. forces in Syria.
00:00:20.540 Then, NBC's Chuck Todd loses his mind, what little he had left.
00:00:25.080 Democrats get caught in more foreign interference hypocrisy.
00:00:28.340 And a hopeful note from Ellen DeGeneres.
00:00:31.000 All that and more, I'm Michael Knowles, and this is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:00:41.100 So much to get to today, but first, let's talk about something really important.
00:00:45.880 Forget about that foreign policy, pulling troops out of various countries and putting them into other countries.
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00:02:36.880 My first question today.
00:02:38.500 This is just, let me know your answers.
00:02:40.560 Let me know in the chat box and on Twitter.
00:02:43.220 What should we do in Syria?
00:02:47.400 What should we do?
00:02:48.160 Everybody seems to have a really strong opinion about this, about what President Trump should
00:02:53.280 do with our forces in Syria.
00:02:55.460 So I just, just right now, when you think you've got a really strong opinion about this
00:02:59.180 and you know that you're right and you know the people who disagree with you are wrong,
00:03:02.520 what should we do in Syria?
00:03:05.380 What, what does anybody know about Syria?
00:03:07.700 Could you find Syria on a map?
00:03:11.140 I, I'm not insulting anybody.
00:03:12.800 I'm, I don't know that I could find Syria on a map.
00:03:15.420 People like to think that they have so much more knowledge about foreign policy and the
00:03:22.300 affairs of other nations than they actually do.
00:03:25.260 Think about, close your eyes.
00:03:26.340 Think about Syria right now.
00:03:27.280 Then think about all the countries around Syria.
00:03:30.160 What are the, could you name the countries around Syria?
00:03:33.160 Where is Turkey?
00:03:34.700 Where in relation to Syria is, where's Russia?
00:03:37.760 Where is Iran?
00:03:39.120 Where is, it's very difficult.
00:03:40.640 All of this stuff, it seems so simple in the abstract.
00:03:43.120 It's very complicated in the, in the reality of it.
00:03:47.760 This Syria decision, which by the way is being completely misreported or at least misunderstood
00:03:53.980 in the, in the popular conscience.
00:03:55.580 This Syria decision is one of those times where people have a lot more in the way of opinion
00:04:01.580 than they have in the way of knowledge.
00:04:04.740 And I would bet you, if you go on, I'm sure, listen, if you're listening to this program,
00:04:09.720 you've got an erudite.
00:04:11.320 You've got a really open-minded way of viewing things.
00:04:14.760 But I bet your friends on Twitter don't, your friends on Facebook don't.
00:04:17.560 You're going to see people posting all these angry comments and all these strong opinions.
00:04:21.460 Probably the stronger opinion among your friends, the less knowledge they actually have.
00:04:28.960 What is the decision?
00:04:30.700 A lot of people are saying Trump is pulling out of Syria.
00:04:32.840 He's not.
00:04:33.780 Trump is not pulling out of Syria.
00:04:35.680 Actually, do you know how many troops he's going to be relocating?
00:04:39.560 Between 50 and 150 troops.
00:04:42.120 Not 50,000, not 5,000, not 500.
00:04:45.380 50 to 150 troops, specifically special operators.
00:04:48.960 We have 1,000 troops in Syria.
00:04:52.640 Not a huge force.
00:04:54.100 We have 1,000 troops in Syria.
00:04:55.440 He's going to relocate 50 to 150 troops.
00:04:58.760 Now, that's not nothing.
00:05:00.140 This decision is momentous because Trump is moving those troops to accommodate a Turkish invasion.
00:05:06.880 Turkey is going to invade part of northern Syria.
00:05:09.920 And so Trump is moving those troops, those U.S. troops, to get the troops out of the way.
00:05:14.540 Why does it matter that Turkey is invading part of northern Syria?
00:05:17.480 I mean, Syria is a complete mess, so who cares if Turkey invades?
00:05:20.380 Because Turkey is going to be invading a part of Syria that is specifically controlled by the Kurds.
00:05:26.240 And the Kurds are U.S.-allied forces, and they have helped the U.S. fight the war on terror.
00:05:32.100 And they've helped the U.S. in Syria.
00:05:33.940 And Turkey doesn't like the Kurds.
00:05:38.040 Simple enough so far.
00:05:39.100 It's getting more complicated, but it's simple enough so far.
00:05:41.260 Now, it gets a little more complicated because the Kurds, who are controlling this area in northern Syria,
00:05:48.320 currently also control tens of thousands of former ISIS fighters and supporters of ISIS.
00:05:57.320 You have tens of thousands of people in camps and prisons and just areas that they control.
00:06:02.420 So if Turkey invades northern Syria, takes over land that is currently controlled by the Kurds,
00:06:10.320 that has a lot of former ISIS fighters in it, that means Turkey is going to be responsible for those ISIS fighters.
00:06:17.400 Now you might be asking yourself, why on earth would anybody want to go into these areas with all these former ISIS fighters?
00:06:24.660 That doesn't seem like a real prize.
00:06:26.500 If I'm looking at real estate, I want to go to Fiji.
00:06:29.860 I want to go to Hawaii.
00:06:31.040 I don't want to go to some godforsaken sand desert where there are a lot of some of the worst terrorists on earth.
00:06:38.500 Why do they want to go in there?
00:06:39.480 They want to go in there because Turkey views the Syrian Kurdish forces,
00:06:44.460 so those Kurds that are controlling that part of northern Syria,
00:06:47.120 they view those Syrian Kurdish forces as being tied to other Kurdish forces who are in Turkey.
00:06:52.240 Turkey, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which is also known as the PKK.
00:06:59.000 I don't know why.
00:06:59.980 I guess in whatever language it's written in, P stands for Kurdistan and K stands for Workers' Party and K stands for Workers' Party.
00:07:08.060 I don't know, something like that.
00:07:08.840 The Kurdistan Workers' Party is the PKK.
00:07:11.280 Turkey considers the PKK to be a terrorist group and a separatist group,
00:07:15.580 and Turkey has been fighting the Kurdistan Workers' Party for decades.
00:07:19.060 And the Kurdistan Workers' Party, unsurprisingly, are allied with the Kurdish forces in Syria.
00:07:27.080 Okay.
00:07:28.620 Now, we don't really like being put in this situation.
00:07:32.320 This is a very difficult situation.
00:07:33.820 Why?
00:07:34.240 Because the Kurds have been helping us for decades, decades and decades.
00:07:37.160 Before September 11th, we had a relationship with the Kurds,
00:07:39.860 and they've been very good about the war on terror,
00:07:41.940 and they've been very good at specifically helping us fight ISIS.
00:07:44.720 So we like the Kurds.
00:07:45.820 We don't want to abandon the Kurds.
00:07:47.180 We don't want Turkey to roll in and massacre the Kurds.
00:07:50.760 Also, we have a relationship with Turkey,
00:07:53.600 and our relationship with Turkey goes back even further.
00:07:56.680 It's very difficult for us to imagine Turkey as some great ally right now,
00:07:59.980 but Turkey is in NATO.
00:08:01.980 Turkey is official.
00:08:03.340 Turkey is not just an ally of ours, but they're officially an ally of ours in NATO.
00:08:09.160 Now, when did Turkey enter NATO?
00:08:12.700 It wasn't after 9-11.
00:08:13.860 It wasn't just before 9-11.
00:08:14.980 This was 1952 they've been in NATO.
00:08:17.900 But what is NATO?
00:08:18.860 What's the purpose of NATO?
00:08:20.740 NATO was formed to fight the Soviet Union in the Cold War.
00:08:24.040 The Cold War has been over for decades.
00:08:26.440 So what purpose is NATO serving?
00:08:28.780 I guess it's to stem Russian aggression into the former Soviet states and Soviet-controlled areas.
00:08:35.360 But what sense does this make?
00:08:38.520 Now you are beginning to see the problem that we are facing, not just in the Middle East, but in our foreign policy broadly.
00:08:45.240 We have two allies who are going to come into conflict with one another in northern Syria.
00:08:50.920 The Kurds, who have been wearing the American flag and fighting alongside us against ISIS, and Turkey, which we don't really like very much.
00:08:58.480 And they're in many ways very adversarial to us, but they've been officially a NATO ally since the 1950s, since the early 1950s.
00:09:07.160 And NATO might be outdated, and there might not be any reason to have NATO in the first place.
00:09:12.860 All of that put together, which do we privilege, the Kurds or Turkey?
00:09:17.960 The Kurds are better allies.
00:09:19.740 Turkey is a more official ally.
00:09:21.440 And the sad fact of all of this is, the United States does not have permanent or even enduring relationships with sub-state entities.
00:09:29.220 The Kurds are not a nation.
00:09:30.980 There's no nation of Kurdistan.
00:09:34.220 There's no state, rather, is what I meant to say.
00:09:37.280 There's no official state in the nation-state system, in the United Nations and the Westphalian system.
00:09:42.600 There's no state called Kurdistan.
00:09:45.080 There is a state called Turkey.
00:09:47.000 And so we privilege our alliance with Turkey over our relationship with the Kurds, who are certainly a coherent group of people, but they are not a nation-state.
00:09:56.620 This gets to the biggest debate of the Trump era.
00:10:01.860 You can almost forget all of those details.
00:10:03.680 I mean, it's important context to have.
00:10:05.700 This gets to the biggest debate of the Trump era.
00:10:08.640 It's largely what the 2016 election was about.
00:10:11.160 It's largely what the 2020 election is going to be about.
00:10:14.520 It's a question much larger than Trump or one or two elections.
00:10:18.240 This is a question that will define the next 100 to 500 years of geopolitics.
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00:12:27.920 This whole Syria question and the Kurds and Turkey and Iran and Russia, which we haven't even really talked about,
00:12:36.060 this gets to the central question of the Trump era.
00:12:39.240 And it's a question that we've been kicking around since the end of the Cold War.
00:12:44.140 Will the United States be an empire or a nation?
00:12:50.120 Are we an empire or a nation?
00:12:51.740 Do we favor a system of government around the world that creates an empire or empires?
00:12:59.100 Or do we still favor the Westphalian system of nation states, which we've had for 400 years now?
00:13:06.360 What is it?
00:13:08.900 Neither of these terms are necessarily bad things.
00:13:11.480 You'll hear people use imperialism, which is just the form of empire.
00:13:15.820 They'll use imperialism or nationalism as pejoratives, as insults, as bad terms.
00:13:20.900 You're an imperialist.
00:13:21.940 You're a nationalist.
00:13:23.620 Neither of those terms are necessarily bad in and of themselves.
00:13:28.100 There have been terrific empires in the history of the world.
00:13:31.100 The government that we always kind of yearned back to in Western civilization is the Roman Empire,
00:13:37.980 the Pax Romana, the Roman peace.
00:13:41.400 And there have been wonderful nations.
00:13:43.140 Ours, of course, chief among them.
00:13:45.840 Obviously, nation states have protected liberty in a way that other forms of government have not.
00:13:51.480 This is the debate, though, and there are good arguments on both sides of it.
00:13:56.380 So you have Lindsey Graham, kind of the mouthpiece of those who favor a more imperial foreign policy.
00:14:03.160 Lindsey Graham is furious at this decision.
00:14:05.200 He called into Fox and Friends this morning to voice his displeasure with the president's move.
00:14:10.580 If I didn't see Donald Trump's name on the tweet, I thought it would be Obama's rationale for getting out of Iraq.
00:14:17.300 So here's what's going to happen.
00:14:18.500 This is going to lead to ISIS re-emergence.
00:14:22.660 Nothing better for ISIS than to create a conflict between the Kurds and Turkey.
00:14:27.180 The Kurds will now align with Assad because they have nobody to count on because we abandoned them.
00:14:32.420 So this is a big win for Iran and Assad, a big win for ISIS.
00:14:36.640 I will do everything I can to sanction Turkey if they step one foot in northeastern Syria.
00:14:43.900 That will sever my relationship with Turkey.
00:14:46.420 I think most of the Congress feels that way.
00:14:51.060 I will do a resolution for the president to reconsider this decision.
00:14:55.300 So he's coming out there.
00:14:57.560 It's a big win for all these awful people, and it's just like Obama.
00:15:02.220 That's what he's saying.
00:15:02.800 He's saying it's maybe politically helpful in the short term for President Trump, but in the long run, it's a disaster.
00:15:10.100 And really what he's implying is that it's based on insufficient determination to go out there and fight our enemies.
00:15:16.880 And the brutal twist the dagger, really going to try to needle Trump, is he's saying that if he didn't know any better, he would have thought that Obama had made this decision.
00:15:27.900 This was an Obama-esque decision.
00:15:29.460 I don't think that's quite fair.
00:15:31.020 I think there's an important distinction.
00:15:32.320 I think this is actually what Trump is getting at.
00:15:35.060 Barack Obama ran as an anti-war candidate.
00:15:36.920 And he ran and he said, we've got to get out of Iraq, even though as the 2008 campaign was going on, we were re-winning the war in Iraq because of the surge.
00:15:49.340 Obama comes in, completely screws up our victory in Iraq.
00:15:52.440 Then he launched a bunch of new wars.
00:15:54.880 The old joke was, if I vote for John McCain, then we're going to start another war in the Middle East.
00:15:59.800 And they were right.
00:16:00.820 I voted for John McCain, and we started more wars in the Middle East.
00:16:03.540 So Obama launches all of these new wars, a war in Syria, a new war in Libya, most notably.
00:16:10.500 I don't think President Trump is falling into Obama's trap, or at least he's trying not to.
00:16:15.100 I think he's doing his best to avoid Obama's trap.
00:16:17.780 So President Trump runs on basically getting out of the Middle East.
00:16:21.520 He ran on almost the same platform.
00:16:24.600 He said, we're going to totally destroy ISIS, then we're getting out of the Middle East.
00:16:27.920 What President Trump saw is that Obama ran on that platform, and then he got mired in all of these additional wars.
00:16:37.480 And I think what Trump is seeing is, I ran on that platform, I'm going to destroy ISIS, and then I'm getting out of there.
00:16:41.980 I don't want my legacy to look as bungled as Obama's legacy.
00:16:45.620 Because Obama looks weak, and he looks like a liar, and he looks like he couldn't accomplish what he sent out to accomplish.
00:16:50.260 And Trump doesn't want that.
00:16:51.560 He doesn't want history to look on him that way.
00:16:53.920 So that's the Lindsey Graham approach.
00:16:55.760 That's the empire approach.
00:16:57.340 That's what is called the neocon approach, or what is referred to as neocon.
00:17:01.740 Rand Paul has a different approach.
00:17:03.280 Rand Paul called in, he was speaking with Neil Cavuto, also on Fox News.
00:17:08.020 I guess this is, our foreign policy is just made on Fox News and Twitter.
00:17:11.940 That's where we are now in the United States.
00:17:13.920 So Rand Paul calls into Neil Cavuto's show, and he is thrilled by President Trump's decision.
00:17:19.560 He wants to get out of Syria as quickly as possible.
00:17:22.060 And he specifically goes out and lambasts the neocons, including Lindsey Graham.
00:17:28.320 We see the Turks come in.
00:17:30.440 A lot of people in your own party from Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney, Nikki Haley, and on and on and on.
00:17:35.620 So this is a travesty.
00:17:36.720 It's a bad move.
00:17:37.680 It emboldens our enemies.
00:17:38.900 What do you say?
00:17:40.280 Well, it's kind of like you just listed the neocon war caucus of the Senate.
00:17:44.340 So yeah, they always want to stay at war.
00:17:45.960 They always think it's the best answer.
00:17:47.260 But I would say this.
00:17:49.120 I think President Trump recognizes what President Reagan recognized, unfortunately, too late in Beirut.
00:17:54.940 Leaving 300 or 400 people in an area that are vulnerable could lead to catastrophe, but also doesn't really do anything to secure our national security.
00:18:04.060 You know, I'm kind of of the belief, go big or go home.
00:18:06.800 You know, 200 or 300 people are just a tripwire to get us drawn into something and a tragedy, probably.
00:18:12.200 But they aren't enough to do anything.
00:18:14.220 In fact, there may be a couple of, there may be dozens of people at a time, maybe a dozen here, a dozen there.
00:18:19.300 They aren't enough to deter anything.
00:18:21.800 And part of the resolution of the war over there has to be people who live over there.
00:18:25.160 The Turks live over there.
00:18:26.300 The Syrians live over there.
00:18:27.960 He makes plenty of good points there.
00:18:29.520 What he's saying is, just like in the Beirut bombings, the Beirut attack that killed American troops, even if you only have a small number of troops, 100 or 200 or 300 troops, they become a target.
00:18:41.520 And so, even if it's a small number of forces over there, they could bring you into a larger conflict.
00:18:47.620 And what Rand Paul is saying is, what are we doing in Syria?
00:18:49.880 What's the purpose?
00:18:51.300 We're just there waiting for something to happen.
00:18:53.600 What is the end goal?
00:18:54.420 What does victory look like?
00:18:55.580 Why are we there?
00:18:56.320 And what he's really saying is, why are we an empire?
00:19:00.940 Why are we going out there and governing this empire and tamping down little conflicts and controlling Syria and controlling different parts of the world that have nothing to do with our nation here in the United States?
00:19:15.740 What's the point?
00:19:16.980 That's what he's asking.
00:19:17.680 Now, what's the charitable way to put it?
00:19:20.480 Charitable way to put his attacks on the so-called neocons is, they're people that want empire.
00:19:25.240 They're people who want nationalism.
00:19:27.800 And that's what the debate is.
00:19:29.080 Even the neocon, I try not to use the neocon label to refer to those who want to carpet bomb for various parts of the Middle East.
00:19:36.420 Because the term neoconservative used to have a meaning.
00:19:39.660 It was the leftists of the 1960s who became conservatives because they realized the bankruptcy of leftism.
00:19:46.380 Irving Kristol, for instance, Bill Kristol's father was a neocon.
00:19:49.660 And the term became just totally abused in the 90s and 2000s.
00:19:54.680 It was used in the 90s and 2000s the way that alt-right is used now.
00:19:59.120 It was used just as a way to smear anybody to the left or to the right, rather, of, say, Hillary Clinton.
00:20:05.100 And so I try not to use the term.
00:20:06.860 But that's basically what it means.
00:20:08.360 And this is the debate.
00:20:09.320 So President Trump has made clear he supports nationalism.
00:20:12.640 And here is his rationale for pulling out of Turkey, or for pulling out of Syria, rather.
00:20:17.500 Why are you siding with an authoritarian leader and not our Kurdish allies?
00:20:21.500 Well, I'm not siding with anybody.
00:20:23.280 We've been in Syria for many years.
00:20:25.040 You know, Syria was supposed to be a short-term hit, just a very short-term hit.
00:20:28.980 And we were supposed to be in and out.
00:20:30.560 That was many, many years ago.
00:20:32.420 And we only have 50 people in that area.
00:20:34.920 That's a small sector.
00:20:36.720 And I don't want those 50 people hurt or killed or anything.
00:20:40.700 I don't want anything bad to happen to our people.
00:20:42.680 And I told that to President Erdogan.
00:20:45.580 I said, don't hurt any of our people get hurt.
00:20:49.940 Big trouble.
00:20:50.820 I will tell you this, though.
00:20:52.080 We defeated ISIS.
00:20:53.680 So we defeated ISIS.
00:20:55.360 And if Turkey does anything to our troops, we want to get out.
00:20:57.700 I suspect that's what's going on.
00:20:59.120 I suspect he knows Turkey is going to come into northern Syria.
00:21:02.380 He doesn't care enough to create some big war with our ostensible NATO ally, Turkey,
00:21:08.660 to prevent Turkey from doing that.
00:21:10.160 And he doesn't want U.S. troops to be sitting ducks because one or two U.S. troops get killed out there.
00:21:15.480 Just one.
00:21:16.020 Just one U.S. troop gets killed.
00:21:17.400 And all of a sudden, you were drawn into this huge conflict.
00:21:19.440 And for what?
00:21:19.980 Why would that U.S. soldier have given his life?
00:21:23.240 What is the purpose?
00:21:24.300 What are we doing out there?
00:21:25.980 So Trump goes on in those comments to say his thesis, which is,
00:21:30.940 we want to bring our troops back home.
00:21:32.540 It's been many, many years.
00:21:33.660 It's been decades in many cases.
00:21:34.980 We want to bring our troops back home.
00:21:36.900 And I got elected on that.
00:21:40.280 Right.
00:21:40.740 He did.
00:21:41.080 He's been talking about this for years.
00:21:42.160 He's been talking about this not just since the campaign.
00:21:44.480 He's been talking about this since 2013.
00:21:46.800 In 2013, President Trump tweeted out, quote,
00:21:48.880 What will we get for bombing Syria besides more debt and a possible long-term conflict?
00:21:55.260 Obama needs congressional approval.
00:21:57.160 Then he tweets out later, what I'm saying is stay out of Syria.
00:22:01.040 Very explicit.
00:22:02.500 Last year, he tried to pull out.
00:22:03.880 Here's President Trump announcing that he's going to pull out of Syria.
00:22:06.680 We spent, and I was against it from the beginning.
00:22:10.380 They try and say, well, maybe not.
00:22:12.600 I was against it from the beginning.
00:22:14.920 And by the way, we're knocking the hell out of ISIS.
00:22:16.860 We'll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon.
00:22:19.500 Let the other people take care of it now.
00:22:22.140 Very soon.
00:22:23.180 Very soon we're coming out.
00:22:24.600 We're going to have 100% of the caliphate, as they call it,
00:22:29.300 sometimes referred to as land.
00:22:31.220 We've taken it all back quickly, quickly.
00:22:34.360 But we're going to be coming out of there real soon.
00:22:36.720 Going to get back to our country, where we belong, where we want to be.
00:22:40.400 That was April 4th, 2018.
00:22:42.900 We didn't do it.
00:22:44.040 And democracy is a fickle thing.
00:22:45.700 Democracy, on one day, the conservatives say, we want to pull out of Syria.
00:22:50.060 We want to get out of the Middle East.
00:22:51.100 We want to stay in our homes.
00:22:54.560 We don't want to go overseas.
00:22:56.420 The next day, they say, we need to invade every single country on Earth.
00:23:00.380 Okay, public opinion shifts.
00:23:01.980 I'm not even criticizing the American people.
00:23:04.360 That's how democracy works.
00:23:05.920 There are good arguments to make on both sides.
00:23:08.300 And if President Trump wants to avoid Barack Obama's mistake,
00:23:13.220 then when there isn't a clear decision here,
00:23:16.480 and when public opinion is going back and forth,
00:23:19.460 I think there's really only one maxim he has to follow,
00:23:22.460 which is sometimes even a wrong decision is better than indecision.
00:23:28.420 I think he understands that.
00:23:30.820 I mean, he announces we're pulling out of Syria a year ago.
00:23:34.480 Then he doesn't pull out of Syria.
00:23:35.960 He campaigns on it.
00:23:36.920 Then he won't campaign on it.
00:23:38.180 He saw what happened to Barack Obama for vacillating.
00:23:40.660 Sometimes even a wrong decision is better than indecision.
00:23:43.480 At least our allies can go on decisiveness.
00:23:48.700 They might not like the decision, but at least they can plan based on decisiveness.
00:23:51.900 That, I think, is what we're seeing here.
00:23:54.940 Moving on from serious and momentous aspects of foreign policy
00:23:58.400 to hilarious aspects of foreign policy,
00:24:00.620 I do have to compliment President Trump on his interactions with China.
00:24:05.400 President Trump recently, this was a few days ago, but I had to get to it.
00:24:09.580 You know, he's being criticized for his phone call with Ukraine,
00:24:13.100 which we all read the transcript of.
00:24:15.060 They might impeach him over his phone call with Ukraine
00:24:17.300 because he said Ukraine should look into the corruption of Joe Biden,
00:24:21.900 in Ukraine.
00:24:23.240 Well, the Bidens also got a crooked deal out of China.
00:24:27.020 Joe Biden's son, Hunter, flew on Air Force Two,
00:24:30.060 flew with Joe Biden to China,
00:24:31.760 and then shortly after that meeting secured $1.5 billion
00:24:34.620 in financing from Chinese government-affiliated entities.
00:24:39.680 Why?
00:24:40.140 Is it because Hunter Biden is such an expert on China?
00:24:42.160 No, he's not even as good an expert on China as he is on Ukraine,
00:24:46.060 and he doesn't know anything about Ukraine.
00:24:47.400 It's obviously grift.
00:24:48.720 It's obviously corruption
00:24:50.220 because his father was the vice president,
00:24:52.560 and so they're impeaching Trump.
00:24:55.680 A normal politician would say,
00:24:58.560 listen, well, a normal politician would keep quiet about it.
00:25:02.980 Then a more Trumpian politician might come out and say,
00:25:09.000 hey, listen, we're distracting from the big issue here.
00:25:11.420 I didn't mean in the Ukraine call that I was asking for a quid o'quo.
00:25:14.820 Here's what I meant.
00:25:15.480 He tried to explain himself.
00:25:16.440 But then President Trump himself,
00:25:20.840 a unique character in American politics,
00:25:24.020 decides he's not going to stay quiet.
00:25:26.000 He's not going to defend himself.
00:25:28.120 He's going to double down.
00:25:29.540 And so here is President Trump's response
00:25:31.200 on colluding with foreign governments
00:25:33.960 over the question of the Biden's corruption.
00:25:36.560 Well, I would think that if they were honest about it,
00:25:40.520 they'd start a major investigation into the Bidens.
00:25:43.660 It's a very simple answer.
00:25:45.680 They should investigate the Bidens,
00:25:48.140 because how does a company that's newly formed
00:25:51.200 and all these companies, if you look at it,
00:25:53.220 and by the way,
00:25:54.480 likewise,
00:25:55.020 China should start an investigation into the Bidens.
00:25:59.420 Because what happened in China
00:26:01.040 is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine.
00:26:07.280 So I would say that President Zelenskyy,
00:26:10.940 if it were me,
00:26:12.040 I would recommend that they start an investigation into the Bidens.
00:26:16.420 Because nobody has any doubt that they weren't crooked.
00:26:20.120 That was a crooked deal, 100%.
00:26:22.200 He had no knowledge of energy,
00:26:24.680 didn't know the first thing about it.
00:26:26.600 All of a sudden,
00:26:27.320 he's getting $50,000 a month,
00:26:29.700 plus a lot of other things.
00:26:31.640 Nobody has any doubt.
00:26:33.280 And they got rid of a prosecutor
00:26:35.440 who was a very tough prosecutor.
00:26:38.380 They got rid of him.
00:26:39.320 Now they're trying to make it the opposite way,
00:26:41.460 but they got rid.
00:26:42.400 So if I were the president,
00:26:44.340 I would certainly recommend that of you, Brent.
00:26:47.400 Absolutely the perfect response to this.
00:26:50.700 I guess it gets back to our point.
00:26:52.920 Sometimes the wrong decision is better than indecision.
00:26:55.140 I don't think this is the wrong decision.
00:26:56.780 I think it's perfectly defensible to tell Ukraine
00:26:58.820 to look into corruption
00:27:00.180 and their own interference in the 2016 election.
00:27:02.660 And I think it's perfectly right
00:27:04.260 for President Trump to double down on that.
00:27:06.000 Because what's he going to do?
00:27:06.720 He could apologize and explain himself to the press.
00:27:09.180 That's not going to get him anywhere.
00:27:10.360 And there's no reason for him to do it.
00:27:11.580 He doesn't owe those people one word of explanation.
00:27:15.560 And so what he does is he goes out there
00:27:17.280 and he makes a joke.
00:27:19.340 And even Marco Rubio,
00:27:21.720 who is obviously no particular fan of the president,
00:27:24.180 Marco Rubio was asked about this response from Trump
00:27:26.420 and he just explains to the press,
00:27:29.880 not President Trump's remarks,
00:27:32.160 he explains to the press how stupid the press is.
00:27:35.240 Do you think it's okay for President Trump
00:27:36.720 to ask China to launch an investigation
00:27:38.520 of Joe Biden and Hunter Biden?
00:27:40.060 I don't know if that's a real request
00:27:41.560 or him just needling the press
00:27:43.360 knowing that you guys were going to get outraged by it.
00:27:45.460 But he's pretty good at getting everybody fired up
00:27:49.100 and he's been doing that for a while
00:27:50.700 and the media responded right on task.
00:27:56.280 But you're one of the loudest critics
00:27:57.400 of China and its human rights abuses.
00:27:59.440 I mean, is it okay for him to ask and say that?
00:28:01.700 I don't think it's a real request.
00:28:02.940 I think, again, I think he did it to gig you guys.
00:28:05.520 I think he did it to provoke you
00:28:06.760 to ask me and others and get outraged by it.
00:28:09.940 Like I said, I mean, he plays it like a violin
00:28:12.100 and everybody falls right into it.
00:28:13.360 That's not a real request.
00:28:14.440 Of course.
00:28:16.420 I mean, this is now Senator Marco Rubio
00:28:18.860 not acting like a senator.
00:28:20.220 He's acting like he's a panelist on Special Report.
00:28:22.900 You know, he's acting like a political analyst
00:28:25.620 and he's saying, you idiots.
00:28:31.020 If President Trump were going to use the weight
00:28:35.320 of the federal government to leverage all of that
00:28:37.880 and get a foreign power and an adversarial power
00:28:40.200 like China to investigate his political opponents,
00:28:42.320 if he were really doing that,
00:28:44.900 he'd probably pick up the phone.
00:28:46.640 If he were really doing that,
00:28:47.660 he maybe wouldn't pick up the phone.
00:28:48.660 He'd get some back channel spy to go in and ask
00:28:51.920 and he would basically do it like Obama did it.
00:28:54.520 He'd do it like Obama and Hillary and the Democrats did it.
00:28:56.900 But that's not what Trump is doing.
00:28:59.200 He's forcing the press and manipulating the press
00:29:01.960 to expose their own hypocrisy.
00:29:03.340 And it's so obvious that one thing,
00:29:06.060 I like President Trump a lot.
00:29:07.980 He's not subtle.
00:29:09.140 The guy's not exactly nuanced, okay?
00:29:11.360 Big gold letters, everything he does.
00:29:13.500 And somehow the press misses this.
00:29:15.800 And it requires Marco Rubio to come out and say,
00:29:18.460 oh, you people, you schmucks.
00:29:21.460 What?
00:29:21.920 You can't even,
00:29:22.980 he plays you people like a fiddle.
00:29:26.080 And he does.
00:29:26.800 And believe it or not,
00:29:27.420 that's not even the most ridiculous and outrageous thing
00:29:30.300 that the press has done of late.
00:29:33.140 You'll see from NBC's Chuck Todd
00:29:35.180 that just totally showing their cards
00:29:37.640 as being divorced from reality
00:29:41.360 and so, so in the tank
00:29:44.240 that all they are is propagandists for left.
00:29:46.040 We'll get to that in a second.
00:29:47.160 Then we'll get to a nice note from Ellen DeGeneres.
00:29:49.360 It was actually a very nice,
00:29:50.500 nice note for the culture,
00:29:53.140 which so rarely happens.
00:29:54.320 But first, I've got to say goodbye
00:29:55.860 to Facebook and YouTube.
00:29:58.000 And I got to tell you,
00:29:58.700 I know you're not going to believe me.
00:30:00.980 You've heard so many false promises
00:30:02.880 from so many people for so long.
00:30:04.640 But I wouldn't lie to you.
00:30:05.740 And I am telling you,
00:30:07.140 the Daily Wire's long-awaited app
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00:31:03.160 Go to dailywire.com.
00:31:04.080 We'll be right back with a lot more.
00:31:05.500 Speaking of craziness from the press,
00:31:21.980 Chuck Todd on NBC,
00:31:24.140 who at various times
00:31:25.420 has tried to portray himself
00:31:26.640 as a more moderate figure
00:31:28.000 or a more objective figure,
00:31:29.240 just a journalist,
00:31:29.900 just going after the facts.
00:31:31.680 Chuck Todd made one of the most
00:31:33.300 egregious statements
00:31:34.400 the other day that I saw.
00:31:35.220 This isn't the clip
00:31:36.300 that was going around viral
00:31:37.400 where he said,
00:31:39.000 Chuck Todd came out
00:31:39.780 and he said,
00:31:40.480 we're in a national emergency.
00:31:42.740 This is a national nightmare
00:31:44.320 because President Trump
00:31:46.220 talked to the Ukrainian president,
00:31:48.500 though Chuck Todd did that too
00:31:49.560 and it was hysterical and ridiculous.
00:31:52.120 But Chuck Todd was giving,
00:31:53.840 doing an interview with John Brennan.
00:31:55.300 John Brennan,
00:31:55.820 the old Obama crone
00:31:56.880 who has become
00:31:57.920 one of the most hysterical voices
00:31:59.740 of the anti-Trump left.
00:32:01.600 And he has John Brennan on.
00:32:05.100 John Brennan, by the way,
00:32:05.940 almost certainly complicit
00:32:06.940 in a lot of the wrongdoing
00:32:08.300 that was going on
00:32:09.080 in the federal government's
00:32:10.620 interference in the 2016 election
00:32:12.140 trying to go after
00:32:13.160 President Trump.
00:32:15.160 Chuck Todd goes on there
00:32:16.180 and he has the audacity,
00:32:18.720 the gall,
00:32:20.080 to say
00:32:20.860 that half of this country,
00:32:23.120 conservatives in this country,
00:32:24.680 are divorced from reality.
00:32:27.180 They don't believe reality.
00:32:28.180 And Chuck Todd is the voice
00:32:30.160 of the mainstream media
00:32:31.320 and the left.
00:32:32.120 But I repeat myself,
00:32:33.900 he is the guardian
00:32:34.880 and custodian
00:32:35.880 of reality.
00:32:37.580 Here's Chuck Todd.
00:32:38.780 Well, here's why we're here.
00:32:40.020 Because there is a disinformation,
00:32:41.200 we have two sets of realities
00:32:42.960 that live here.
00:32:43.780 There is a 40% of the country
00:32:45.080 that is only getting fed
00:32:46.820 one reality.
00:32:48.920 Arguably 60% are getting
00:32:50.460 what I would argue is reality.
00:32:53.540 So there's roughly half
00:32:55.540 of the country,
00:32:57.180 a little bit more.
00:32:57.800 He says that he represents
00:32:59.120 the majority of the country,
00:33:01.120 the reality side of the country.
00:33:02.860 You know,
00:33:03.080 the left
00:33:03.560 and the Democrats
00:33:04.680 and the mainstream media,
00:33:06.220 they represent about 60%
00:33:08.020 of the country.
00:33:08.940 I mean,
00:33:09.140 Hillary still lost the election,
00:33:10.400 but you know,
00:33:10.980 they're 60%,
00:33:12.120 massive majority of the country.
00:33:14.520 And then you have
00:33:15.120 the conservatives
00:33:15.660 and they are 40%
00:33:18.200 of the country
00:33:18.740 and they just,
00:33:20.420 they just don't get reality.
00:33:22.040 They just don't have
00:33:22.720 any connection to reality.
00:33:24.640 Let me put that
00:33:25.500 in starker terms.
00:33:26.340 The left,
00:33:28.660 which believes that men
00:33:30.320 can just magically become women
00:33:32.760 by wishing it to be so.
00:33:35.060 The left,
00:33:35.820 which believes that
00:33:37.000 the sun monster
00:33:38.960 and the weather
00:33:39.520 are going to destroy humanity
00:33:41.780 within 10 years.
00:33:43.980 There will be a mass extinction event.
00:33:45.780 That's the phrase
00:33:46.720 that's been going around.
00:33:47.980 The left,
00:33:48.960 which believes,
00:33:50.280 based on nothing,
00:33:51.080 that President Trump
00:33:51.760 colluded with Russia
00:33:52.740 to rig the 2016 election
00:33:54.800 in the face
00:33:56.100 of all evidence
00:33:57.080 to the contrary
00:33:57.780 and a two and a half year,
00:33:59.280 $30 million investigation.
00:34:03.140 That's the left.
00:34:05.760 They are the custodians
00:34:07.420 of reality.
00:34:09.180 And then the people
00:34:09.900 who believe
00:34:11.240 that there are
00:34:13.340 two biological sexes,
00:34:15.340 the people who don't think
00:34:16.540 that humanity
00:34:17.300 will be wiped off
00:34:18.100 the face of the earth,
00:34:20.060 those people,
00:34:21.180 they don't have a connection
00:34:22.120 to reality.
00:34:22.880 Let me just,
00:34:23.380 I'm just,
00:34:23.820 I'm just trying to work
00:34:24.500 through this in my head.
00:34:25.380 The left,
00:34:26.600 which believes that
00:34:27.560 unborn babies in the womb
00:34:28.920 who have all their little limbs
00:34:30.300 and all their little fingers
00:34:31.240 and they look like babies
00:34:33.780 and they sound like babies
00:34:34.740 and by the way,
00:34:35.220 they are babies,
00:34:36.400 that they're not babies,
00:34:37.640 that they're just
00:34:37.960 a random clump of cells.
00:34:39.780 They're the custodians
00:34:40.640 of reality,
00:34:41.760 but the right,
00:34:44.060 which believes
00:34:44.880 that babies are babies,
00:34:45.800 they're not,
00:34:46.240 they're not the custodians
00:34:47.520 of reality.
00:34:48.700 They're disconnected
00:34:49.400 from reality.
00:34:51.180 The left,
00:34:52.620 which so often
00:34:53.820 denies reality itself,
00:34:56.500 denies objective truth,
00:34:57.880 which we hear
00:34:58.380 from campus to campus,
00:35:00.520 that there is no truth,
00:35:01.500 there's your truth
00:35:02.320 and my truth,
00:35:03.600 that everything
00:35:04.160 is simply a matter
00:35:05.000 of preference,
00:35:05.780 everything is simply
00:35:06.400 a matter of will.
00:35:07.420 They are the custodians
00:35:08.540 of reality,
00:35:09.680 but the right,
00:35:12.160 which believes
00:35:12.800 in objective truth,
00:35:13.960 which extols
00:35:14.760 the virtues
00:35:15.420 of objective reality,
00:35:16.860 they have no connection.
00:35:17.840 This is exactly backwards.
00:35:22.300 Chuck Todd,
00:35:23.440 Chuck Todd
00:35:24.140 is talking to John Brennan,
00:35:26.180 one of the most prolific
00:35:27.400 and famous liars
00:35:28.560 and hysterics
00:35:29.860 in the federal government.
00:35:33.440 And he is talking to him
00:35:34.800 about they understand reality.
00:35:35.960 This is what I mean
00:35:39.240 when I say
00:35:40.140 the left gets things
00:35:42.020 exactly backwards.
00:35:43.520 It's not like Chuck Todd
00:35:44.740 is a little bit off.
00:35:45.980 It's not like he's just
00:35:46.980 missing the mark
00:35:47.540 a little bit.
00:35:48.820 He is getting it
00:35:50.060 exactly backwards
00:35:50.960 and he's getting it
00:35:51.580 exactly backwards
00:35:52.340 from his own position.
00:35:54.480 Chuck Todd says
00:35:55.260 he's a journalist.
00:35:56.160 Here he's concerned
00:35:57.040 about the truth.
00:35:57.960 He is behaving
00:35:58.660 as nothing but
00:35:59.600 a propagandist
00:36:00.420 for the left.
00:36:01.600 Nothing but a propagandist
00:36:02.720 for the Democratic Party.
00:36:03.960 Nothing but a propagandist
00:36:04.960 for people
00:36:05.380 who want to overturn
00:36:06.300 this presidential election.
00:36:07.760 How often have we
00:36:08.400 played the montage
00:36:09.060 on this show
00:36:09.740 of people talking
00:36:10.880 about Trump's in a corner,
00:36:11.960 the walls are closing in,
00:36:13.000 impeachment is coming,
00:36:13.940 he colluded with Russia,
00:36:14.880 that didn't work,
00:36:15.380 he colluded with Ukraine
00:36:16.220 even though
00:36:16.600 they're mortal enemies,
00:36:17.900 he did all these things.
00:36:19.500 Those people who lie to you
00:36:20.760 24-7,
00:36:23.240 they have the gall
00:36:25.000 not just to keep lying
00:36:26.180 to you through their teeth
00:36:27.000 but to go on television
00:36:28.220 and say
00:36:28.620 we are the custodians
00:36:29.880 of reality
00:36:30.380 and you guys
00:36:31.320 have no connection
00:36:32.480 to reality.
00:36:33.780 That's the media folks,
00:36:35.320 that's the left
00:36:36.140 and that is why
00:36:37.620 as I've learned
00:36:38.820 and relearned again
00:36:40.080 in recent weeks,
00:36:41.960 you shouldn't believe
00:36:42.660 everything you read
00:36:43.240 in the newspapers
00:36:43.740 and you shouldn't believe
00:36:44.460 everything you see on TV
00:36:45.360 and you should ignore
00:36:46.280 people like Chuck Todd
00:36:48.360 who are lying
00:36:50.000 through their teeth
00:36:50.560 and just keep on
00:36:51.600 keeping on.
00:36:52.900 This is a degree
00:36:55.760 of political fantasy
00:36:58.760 that Chuck Todd
00:37:00.280 is talking about
00:37:00.980 that really
00:37:03.120 boggles the mind
00:37:05.400 and that's why
00:37:06.980 I'm so glad
00:37:07.820 that there is a,
00:37:09.360 there was a rejoinder
00:37:10.220 to this
00:37:10.580 because we are increasingly
00:37:11.500 told by the left
00:37:12.300 anyone who disagrees
00:37:14.120 with you on anything
00:37:14.900 is evil,
00:37:15.960 is stupid,
00:37:17.440 is not worth speaking to,
00:37:19.840 is deplorable,
00:37:20.720 is irredeemable,
00:37:21.780 is all these
00:37:22.360 terrible things.
00:37:24.340 By the way,
00:37:24.860 we don't believe that
00:37:25.500 about the left.
00:37:26.080 We on the right
00:37:26.620 think that the left
00:37:27.400 is just wrong.
00:37:29.100 They just get it wrong.
00:37:29.980 They get it backwards.
00:37:30.820 They get it,
00:37:31.220 they're missing something.
00:37:32.720 I don't think
00:37:33.120 they're all evil.
00:37:35.220 They're just really wrong.
00:37:37.140 I guess some people
00:37:37.740 are evil.
00:37:38.740 Some people are evil
00:37:39.580 on both sides.
00:37:40.360 There are very terrible
00:37:40.980 people on both sides
00:37:41.880 to paraphrase
00:37:43.520 the statement
00:37:43.980 of the president's.
00:37:45.080 But the left
00:37:47.200 really believes that
00:37:47.900 about us.
00:37:49.500 Increasingly,
00:37:49.900 and here's the evidence.
00:37:51.580 Ellen DeGeneres
00:37:52.300 was at a Dallas Cowboys game.
00:37:54.720 She was there
00:37:55.140 over the weekend.
00:37:56.780 She was there
00:37:57.320 hanging out
00:37:57.880 with her friend,
00:37:59.200 George W. Bush.
00:38:01.200 I guess she's been
00:38:01.700 friends with George Bush
00:38:02.540 for a while
00:38:03.080 and they were
00:38:03.800 in the owner's box
00:38:05.260 at the Cowboys game
00:38:07.020 and they were watching
00:38:07.560 the game.
00:38:07.860 They had a nice time.
00:38:08.440 And a picture went
00:38:09.180 around the internet
00:38:10.160 of Ellen
00:38:10.780 having a good time
00:38:11.720 with George Bush.
00:38:13.240 The left went crazy.
00:38:15.480 The left said
00:38:16.260 you're not allowed
00:38:17.080 to be friends
00:38:18.620 with people
00:38:18.940 on the other side
00:38:19.460 of the aisle.
00:38:19.960 Here is one guy,
00:38:21.200 Ben Norton,
00:38:21.860 who is somebody
00:38:22.400 who has a blue check mark
00:38:23.300 for some reason.
00:38:24.340 He tweets out,
00:38:25.460 I'm friends with George Bush,
00:38:26.980 boasts Ellen,
00:38:27.760 saying it's good
00:38:28.340 to have friends
00:38:28.880 with different views.
00:38:29.900 But this isn't
00:38:30.640 a matter of views.
00:38:31.600 It's a matter of crimes.
00:38:33.600 Bush is a war criminal
00:38:34.800 with the blood
00:38:35.700 of one million Iraqis
00:38:36.840 on his hands.
00:38:37.520 He should be in prison.
00:38:40.060 What war crimes
00:38:41.000 did George Bush commit?
00:38:42.320 What?
00:38:42.900 Can't name them.
00:38:45.080 He was a war president.
00:38:46.900 That's true.
00:38:47.960 He's not a war criminal.
00:38:49.420 This guy,
00:38:49.780 Ben Norton,
00:38:50.140 goes on.
00:38:50.540 It's one thing
00:38:51.200 to be friends
00:38:51.700 with people
00:38:52.080 with different
00:38:52.540 political views.
00:38:53.480 It's something
00:38:53.920 totally different
00:38:54.660 to be friends
00:38:55.480 with a mass murderer.
00:38:56.860 Mass murderer?
00:38:57.680 Who ruined
00:38:58.340 millions of lives,
00:38:59.360 destroyed thousands
00:39:00.000 of families,
00:39:00.760 and made children
00:39:01.560 orphans,
00:39:02.480 and destabilized
00:39:03.380 an entire region
00:39:04.180 of the world!
00:39:04.920 Exclamation point.
00:39:05.760 This is what they
00:39:06.340 always do on the left.
00:39:08.100 They say,
00:39:08.440 oh yeah,
00:39:08.880 I'm totally open-minded.
00:39:10.100 I can be friends
00:39:10.620 with different people.
00:39:11.740 That's fine to be friends
00:39:12.820 with conservatives.
00:39:15.460 But you can't be friends
00:39:16.160 with actual conservatives.
00:39:17.220 It's always the but,
00:39:17.980 and then it's always
00:39:18.480 what follows.
00:39:19.080 They say,
00:39:19.460 look,
00:39:19.720 I'm friends with plenty
00:39:20.680 of conservatives.
00:39:21.360 I just am not friends
00:39:22.180 with people who want
00:39:23.860 to protect innocent life
00:39:25.040 and support a traditional
00:39:25.920 definition of marriage
00:39:26.880 and think that we should
00:39:27.880 secure our border
00:39:28.620 and support enforcing our laws
00:39:29.940 and think we should
00:39:30.380 have lower taxes.
00:39:31.240 But other than those guys,
00:39:32.440 I'm friends with a lot
00:39:33.100 of conservatives.
00:39:34.160 They just,
00:39:34.520 they just say,
00:39:35.800 they're not friends with,
00:39:36.500 they can't say they're friends
00:39:37.220 with any actual conservatives.
00:39:38.200 They're just friends
00:39:38.680 with conservatives in theory.
00:39:39.980 The left loves humanity.
00:39:41.120 The left just doesn't
00:39:41.680 like humans very much.
00:39:43.120 Another leftist,
00:39:43.960 Sean King,
00:39:45.020 you know,
00:39:45.380 he's the Black Lives Matter guy,
00:39:47.040 although I think he's in trouble
00:39:47.920 with Black Lives Matter
00:39:48.860 because he's a complete fraud,
00:39:50.400 so he's gotten a little kickback
00:39:51.840 from Black Lives Matter.
00:39:53.040 He tweets out,
00:39:53.780 quote,
00:39:54.340 it appears many of you
00:39:55.660 may be genuinely unaware
00:39:56.920 that insiders said
00:39:58.140 nobody worked harder
00:39:59.620 to get Brett Kavanaugh
00:40:00.860 on the Supreme Court
00:40:02.160 than George W. Bush.
00:40:03.380 He fought for a constitutional amendment
00:40:05.200 to ban gay marriage
00:40:06.220 and the Iraq war,
00:40:07.480 which was based on a lie,
00:40:08.580 killed millions.
00:40:10.740 So the big,
00:40:11.800 the big issue
00:40:12.780 that Sean King
00:40:13.480 has with George Bush
00:40:15.240 is he supported
00:40:17.100 Brett Kavanaugh,
00:40:18.100 perhaps the most milquetoast lawyer
00:40:19.760 in the history of the country,
00:40:21.320 to be on the Supreme Court.
00:40:23.960 You can't be friends
00:40:24.740 with somebody
00:40:25.320 who supports
00:40:26.380 the president having,
00:40:28.000 a different president
00:40:28.680 having the right
00:40:29.460 to put a Supreme Court justice
00:40:31.320 on the court.
00:40:32.220 That's it.
00:40:32.640 That's the line.
00:40:33.780 And that's increasingly
00:40:34.680 what the left tells us.
00:40:35.980 Thankfully,
00:40:36.500 fortunately,
00:40:37.220 Ellen had a different
00:40:38.920 point of view.
00:40:40.140 Portia,
00:40:40.620 and that was Charlotte Jones
00:40:41.620 that Portia was talking to
00:40:42.900 and George W. Bush,
00:40:43.960 and then in front of us
00:40:44.760 was the tallest man
00:40:45.560 in the world.
00:40:45.960 And so I've got to say,
00:40:49.060 when we were invited,
00:40:50.640 I was, you know,
00:40:51.440 I was aware
00:40:52.060 that I was going
00:40:53.040 to be surrounded
00:40:53.600 with people
00:40:54.280 from very different views
00:40:55.540 and beliefs.
00:40:56.080 And I'm not talking
00:40:56.800 about politics.
00:40:57.760 I was rooting
00:40:58.300 for the Packers,
00:40:59.180 and get this,
00:41:00.240 everybody in the Cowboys suite
00:41:01.540 was rooting
00:41:01.900 for the Cowboys.
00:41:02.960 And so I had
00:41:03.940 to hide my cheese hat
00:41:04.960 in Portia's purse.
00:41:06.220 And don't get me wrong,
00:41:07.860 I like the Cowboys.
00:41:09.140 I love the Cowboys.
00:41:09.920 I love all the village people,
00:41:11.120 as a matter of fact.
00:41:11.680 But during the game,
00:41:13.920 they showed a shot
00:41:14.700 of George and me
00:41:15.460 laughing together.
00:41:16.780 And so people were upset.
00:41:20.280 They thought,
00:41:20.840 why is a gay Hollywood liberal
00:41:22.280 sitting next
00:41:22.820 to a conservative Republican
00:41:23.940 president?
00:41:25.040 Didn't even notice
00:41:25.760 I'm holding
00:41:26.200 the brand new iPhone 11.
00:41:30.060 But a lot of people
00:41:31.000 were mad,
00:41:31.560 and they did what people
00:41:32.300 do when they're mad.
00:41:33.160 They tweet.
00:41:33.980 But here's one tweet
00:41:35.080 that I loved.
00:41:35.800 This person says,
00:41:36.780 Ellen and George Bush
00:41:37.560 together makes me have
00:41:38.460 faith in America again.
00:41:39.600 And here's the thing.
00:41:42.920 I'm friends with George Bush.
00:41:44.280 In fact,
00:41:44.660 I'm friends with a lot of people
00:41:45.720 who don't share
00:41:46.280 the same beliefs
00:41:46.940 that I have.
00:41:47.780 We're all different,
00:41:48.660 and I think that we've forgotten
00:41:49.660 that that's okay
00:41:50.360 that we're all different.
00:41:51.720 An excellent,
00:41:53.340 excellent point from Ellen,
00:41:55.000 who I've always really
00:41:56.060 gotten a kick out of.
00:41:56.740 I think she's just
00:41:57.260 a terrific entertainer,
00:41:58.940 and she's pretty funny,
00:42:00.940 but she's just a great
00:42:01.980 kind of showbiz figure.
00:42:03.380 And she comes from
00:42:04.620 a little bit more
00:42:05.180 of an old school,
00:42:06.680 an old school of Hollywood
00:42:09.440 and an old school of politics.
00:42:10.720 She's as liberal as they come,
00:42:11.980 but she tolerates
00:42:13.900 people having other opinions.
00:42:16.140 She tolerates
00:42:16.980 the complexity of life,
00:42:18.240 and she even enjoys
00:42:19.500 the diversity
00:42:20.080 and complexity of life,
00:42:21.120 which is something
00:42:21.680 that, as a conservative,
00:42:23.400 I certainly do.
00:42:24.160 I think that's one
00:42:24.840 of the greatest values
00:42:26.560 that conservatives have.
00:42:28.280 Which brings me,
00:42:29.100 I just want to mention this
00:42:30.340 before we go today,
00:42:31.700 to some of the hypocrisy
00:42:33.280 on the impeachment,
00:42:34.520 because what we are told
00:42:36.220 on this impeachment
00:42:37.200 is that President Trump
00:42:39.720 asked a favor
00:42:41.180 of the Ukrainian president,
00:42:42.980 and it would help him
00:42:43.660 politically,
00:42:44.360 and this is very bad.
00:42:46.280 And we're not sure
00:42:47.100 what law this violates
00:42:48.320 exactly,
00:42:48.740 but it's very bad,
00:42:49.600 and we need to impeach
00:42:50.180 him for it.
00:42:51.860 So a transcript
00:42:52.660 just came out.
00:42:53.740 I think Tucker Carlson
00:42:54.520 found this.
00:42:55.660 It comes out from 2000
00:42:56.800 from the Bill Clinton
00:42:57.480 Presidential Library.
00:42:58.800 The year 2000,
00:42:59.820 right before
00:43:00.240 presidential election,
00:43:02.320 Bill Clinton
00:43:02.780 is having a phone call
00:43:04.040 with Tony Blair,
00:43:05.700 who is the Prime Minister
00:43:06.840 of Britain.
00:43:09.960 And Tony Blair,
00:43:12.060 he says to Tony Blair,
00:43:14.240 I think more than anything else,
00:43:17.860 let me ask you something
00:43:20.240 on a much more mundane issue.
00:43:21.980 Yesterday,
00:43:22.520 I met with some
00:43:23.200 cabinet members,
00:43:24.020 and Rodney Slater said,
00:43:25.380 we put some more ideas
00:43:26.480 down to resolve
00:43:27.040 the airport dispute
00:43:27.960 with British Airways,
00:43:28.960 USA,
00:43:29.360 and American Airlines.
00:43:30.380 Would you take another
00:43:31.120 look at that
00:43:31.640 and see if we can get it done?
00:43:32.620 So this is a very minor issue
00:43:34.500 that affects Great Britain
00:43:36.060 and the United States.
00:43:37.760 Tony Blair says,
00:43:38.520 I'm not completely familiar
00:43:39.400 with that.
00:43:39.700 He doesn't even know
00:43:40.140 about the issue.
00:43:41.200 Clinton goes,
00:43:42.800 I know you're up to your ears
00:43:43.760 in other things,
00:43:44.460 but we've been dealing
00:43:45.160 with this for years,
00:43:46.180 and it's sort of a big issue here.
00:43:48.420 Rodney told me
00:43:49.220 he put some more stuff
00:43:50.100 down on the table.
00:43:51.220 In a political season,
00:43:53.120 it would be big over here
00:43:54.280 to get this open sore resolved.
00:43:56.460 If you could have somebody
00:43:57.140 take a look at it.
00:43:58.520 I've never been seeing
00:43:59.680 a more agitated
00:44:00.260 who's trying to get it solved.
00:44:01.040 Blair says,
00:44:01.560 sure,
00:44:01.660 I'll take a look.
00:44:02.620 Imagine if Trump used the words
00:44:06.140 in a political season
00:44:07.220 just before an election year.
00:44:09.080 I need this favor.
00:44:10.240 I mean,
00:44:10.400 this is explicitly asking
00:44:11.820 for a favor.
00:44:13.600 Blair says,
00:44:14.100 yeah, yeah,
00:44:14.380 I'll take a look.
00:44:17.260 I don't care
00:44:18.220 that Clinton did this.
00:44:19.020 I don't think
00:44:19.360 it matters whatsoever.
00:44:20.420 I think this is
00:44:20.880 what politics is.
00:44:23.460 It shows that there is
00:44:24.920 a little more complexity
00:44:25.900 to these issues,
00:44:26.660 and the people
00:44:27.200 clamoring for impeachment now
00:44:28.840 because Trump did
00:44:30.020 something far less clear
00:44:31.300 than what Clinton did
00:44:32.200 and what I think
00:44:33.560 virtually every
00:44:34.400 American president
00:44:36.160 has done at some point
00:44:37.020 or another.
00:44:39.440 They're failing.
00:44:40.760 It's not that they're wrong
00:44:41.900 about the other guy.
00:44:42.620 It's not that they're wrong
00:44:43.280 about Trump.
00:44:43.820 It's not that they're wrong
00:44:44.600 about seeing corruption
00:44:45.280 in the government.
00:44:45.820 It's not that they're wrong
00:44:46.580 about not liking
00:44:48.500 how politics is
00:44:49.400 because politics is
00:44:50.360 very ugly.
00:44:51.420 It's like that old quote
00:44:52.200 from Otto von Bismarck.
00:44:53.960 It's best not to see
00:44:55.120 how the sausages are made.
00:44:56.420 This is something
00:44:58.020 that's true of laws
00:44:59.220 and it's true of sausages.
00:45:00.860 It's true of meat.
00:45:01.800 Best not to see
00:45:02.360 how it gets made.
00:45:03.100 Just see it at the end.
00:45:05.360 There is great complexity here.
00:45:07.180 This is on everything
00:45:07.880 from getting an airport
00:45:08.760 dispute resolved
00:45:09.860 in the U.S. and Britain
00:45:12.540 to the U.S. position
00:45:15.720 in northern Syria.
00:45:17.480 There is great complexity here.
00:45:19.760 We all lack
00:45:20.840 a lot of knowledge.
00:45:21.700 We would all do
00:45:22.320 to have a bit more humility,
00:45:23.540 and most importantly,
00:45:24.360 we would do
00:45:24.900 to have a bit more
00:45:25.780 humility and grace
00:45:27.180 with regard to
00:45:27.800 our fellow Americans
00:45:28.640 to take a lead
00:45:29.380 from Ellen DeGeneres here
00:45:30.880 and not say,
00:45:33.540 as Chuck Todd says,
00:45:34.520 that half the country
00:45:35.280 is completely lost.
00:45:38.700 We can't even have
00:45:39.280 a conversation with them.
00:45:40.180 They're totally lost.
00:45:40.920 We can't reach them,
00:45:41.740 ignore them,
00:45:42.380 dismiss them.
00:45:43.220 Don't dismiss them.
00:45:44.240 Even if you think
00:45:44.880 half the country is wrong,
00:45:45.780 talk to them.
00:45:47.060 Make some arguments.
00:45:48.120 Have a conversation with them.
00:45:49.820 Don't think that
00:45:50.420 half the country,
00:45:51.080 like Hillary Clinton does,
00:45:51.860 is deplorable and irredeemable.
00:45:53.120 Reality is much more complex,
00:45:56.100 much more wonderfully diverse
00:45:57.740 than hardline ideologues
00:46:01.500 would have us believe.
00:46:03.300 A good note to end on,
00:46:04.480 Ellen DeGeneres says,
00:46:05.640 be kind.
00:46:06.580 I would add to that,
00:46:07.480 be humble.
00:46:08.080 That's our show.
00:46:09.020 I'm Michael Knowles.
00:46:09.640 This is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:46:10.740 I'll see you again tomorrow.
00:46:11.400 If you enjoyed this episode,
00:46:19.740 and frankly,
00:46:20.520 even if you didn't,
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00:46:24.120 spread the word,
00:46:24.880 please give us a five-star review
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00:46:33.660 Also, be sure to check out
00:46:34.960 the other Daily Wire podcasts,
00:46:36.900 including The Ben Shapiro Show,
00:46:38.600 The Andrew Klavan Show,
00:46:39.680 and The Matt Walsh Show.
00:46:40.760 The Michael Knowles Show
00:46:42.020 is produced by Rebecca Dobkiewicz
00:46:43.860 and directed by Mike Joyner.
00:46:45.740 Executive producer,
00:46:46.840 Jeremy Boring.
00:46:47.760 Senior producer,
00:46:48.660 Jonathan Hay.
00:46:49.440 Our supervising producer
00:46:50.620 is Mathis Glover.
00:46:52.040 And our technical producer
00:46:53.120 is Austin Stevens.
00:46:54.780 Assistant director,
00:46:55.780 Pavel Wydowski.
00:46:57.120 Edited by Danny D'Amico.
00:46:58.620 Audio is mixed by Mike Coromina.
00:47:00.660 Hair and makeup
00:47:01.240 is by Jesua Olvera.
00:47:02.940 And our production assistant
00:47:03.960 is Nick Sheehan.
00:47:05.320 The Michael Knowles Show
00:47:06.160 is a Daily Wire production.
00:47:07.880 Copyright Daily Wire 2019.
00:47:09.540 Hey everyone,
00:47:10.960 it's Andrew Klavan,
00:47:11.800 host of The Andrew Klavan Show.
00:47:13.560 There's a debate
00:47:14.320 among conservatives
00:47:15.200 over whether Trump
00:47:16.100 is doing the right thing
00:47:17.180 by pulling out of Syria,
00:47:18.580 which tells you something.
00:47:19.860 It tells you
00:47:20.480 there's a debate
00:47:21.280 among conservatives,
00:47:22.400 not so much on the left
00:47:23.600 where it's all hate,
00:47:24.480 hate, hate,
00:47:25.000 orange man bad,
00:47:26.000 no matter what he does.
00:47:27.400 We'll talk about it
00:47:28.140 on The Andrew Klavan Show.
00:47:29.460 I'm Andrew Klavan.
00:47:30.300 The Andrew Klavan Show.
00:47:33.940 Thank you.
00:47:34.740 I'm Andrew Klavan.
00:47:35.980 See you next time on The Andrew Klavan.
00:47:45.320 See you next time on The Andrew Klavan+.