The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 513 - Never Let A Crisis Go To Waste

00:00:00.000 As the U.S. death toll from the Wu flu hits 100, some experts are wondering whether grinding the

00:00:05.760 global economy to a halt might have been something of an overreaction. We examine the scientific data

00:00:11.620 and the philosophical reasons why the left never lets a crisis go to waste. Then President Trump

00:00:17.840 officially secures the Republican nomination for president, and Joe Biden is set to sail to his own

00:00:23.080 party's nomination if he can only remember who and where he is. All that and more, I'm Michael

00:00:28.240 Knowles, and this is the Michael Knowles Show. Welcome back to the crisis. We are in a crisis

00:00:40.440 crisis, I think. There are so many crises, I don't know if I can even keep all of them straight in my

00:00:46.380 mind. Here are some numbers to update you on the Wu flu pandemic. The U.S. death toll has now reached

00:00:53.080 100. Coincidentally, that number is the same number of people who will die today in car accidents.

00:01:02.120 I'm not advocating some particular policy over another. I am simply giving you those two numbers

00:01:07.900 to give you some perspective. You have been watching the mainstream media shriek and wail and

00:01:14.480 gnash their teeth and rip their garments and tell you that this is the end of the world. 0.53

00:01:19.480 It's been about two months since we had the first confirmed case of Wu flu,

00:01:24.840 Kung flu, coronavirus in the United States. 100 people have died.

00:01:31.180 On average, 102 people will die today from car accidents. I'll give you another number.

00:01:36.660 7,452. That's the number of people who will die today just because. Just because. That's how many

00:01:46.380 people die every day in the United States? 7,452. Now, of course, is it a very bad thing if more

00:01:53.220 people than that die unnecessarily because of a pandemic? Yes, that's a very bad thing.

00:01:58.520 But why do I mention 7,452? I mention that number because if the media talked about 7,452 deaths

00:02:10.360 today, if they focused in on everyone, every story, every 24 hours a day you were hearing

00:02:16.580 about this, you would think that something is terribly, terribly wrong. And yet, that's how

00:02:21.740 life goes. Just every single day, nothing really we can do to stop it. Here's another number to give

00:02:28.420 you perspective. A lot of people keep comparing the United States to Italy because Italy had a bad

00:02:34.300 response to the coronavirus. They were sort of uniquely situated to have that virus run roughshod

00:02:40.420 through the whole country. We're told that we're 11 days behind Italy. Italy had a confirmed case 11

00:02:46.580 days before us. And so if you look at where Italy is, that's where we're going to be in 11 days,

00:02:51.060 except that isn't true. So at this point, we have 100 confirmed dead.

00:02:57.000 At this point in Italy, you know, 11 days ahead, they had 200 confirmed dead. So they had double

00:03:06.800 the number of deaths from coronavirus. And our population is five and a half times larger.

00:03:14.860 All right, that's shows you some, I got yelled at on Twitter the other day because I pointed out

00:03:20.900 that Italy and America are different countries. People were so upset by that because we all have

00:03:25.640 to be alarmists. We all have to be in the crisis all of the time. There's no limit to what we should

00:03:30.360 do to stop the crisis. Alarmists are saying we need to look and listen to the experts. I'm a little

00:03:37.260 skeptical of experts. Most people should be skeptical of experts. Experts tend to know a lot about their

00:03:41.660 one very narrow field and they don't know a lot about everything else. There is one expert who is

00:03:48.060 urging caution. You probably won't hear about him very much in the mainstream media. His name is John

00:03:52.500 Ioannidis. He's a Stanford epidemiologist. His specialty is meta science. Meta science is like

00:03:59.880 the science of looking at all those bogus scientific studies, right? It's the science of science. And he's

00:04:06.400 a very respected epidemiologist. So he looked at what's going on in the data here, right? And what

00:04:15.600 they're seeing is projecting the diamond princess mortality rate. So that was that cruise ship onto the

00:04:21.820 age structure of the US population. The death rate among people infected with COVID-19 coronavirus

00:04:27.380 would be 0.125%. He goes on. But since this estimate is based on extremely thin data, there were just

00:04:35.120 seven deaths among the 700 infected passengers and crew. The real death rate could stretch from five

00:04:41.640 times lower, 0.025%, to five times higher, 0.625%. Adding these extra sources of uncertainty,

00:04:50.920 reasonable estimates for the case fatality ratio in the general US population vary from 0.05% to 1%.

00:05:00.740 That could be the death rate, 0.05% to 1%. That huge range markedly affects how severe the pandemic is

00:05:08.300 and what should be done. A population wide case fatality rate of 0.05% is lower than seasonal influenza.

00:05:15.420 If that is the true rate locking down the world with potentially tremendous social and financial

00:05:19.940 consequences may be totally irrational, it's like an elephant being attacked by a house cat.

00:05:26.600 Frustrated and trying to avoid the cat, the elephant accidentally jumps off a cliff and dies.

00:05:31.640 That is from John Ionides. I don't know if I'm pronouncing his name correctly, but what he's saying

00:05:37.460 is absolutely sensible. And you're not allowed to inject reason and sense into a crisis because the

00:05:46.420 crisis has to be all emotion all of the time. But he makes a very good point on the data. We'll get

00:05:51.420 to that in one second. First, I got to thank our friends over at LifeLock. Something tells me over

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00:07:02.920 The point that this epidemiologist from Stanford is making is we just don't have reliable data.

00:07:11.920 And so you see it among the people freaking out on the internet, you know, on the left, right,

00:07:15.980 and center. They're saying, look, we have this very small sample size, very limited information,

00:07:23.560 and we're all going to die if we don't shut down the global economy. I don't think that there's

00:07:28.500 sufficient evidence to draw that conclusion. And we are making massively destructive decisions

00:07:34.260 based on those limited data. I'm not saying it's necessarily the wrong decision that we're making,

00:07:42.220 but it is certainly the case that the decisions we're making are destructive. Think about how

00:07:46.620 many people are out of work right now. Think about how much wealth has been completely destroyed.

00:07:51.900 Think about how many businesses are going to go under as a result of this. Think about what the

00:07:55.560 world is going to look like two or three weeks from now, once the crisis of the Wu flu has passed.

00:08:03.960 Maybe it was worth it. Maybe it wasn't worth it. Maybe we overreacted. I'll give you an example of a

00:08:11.040 policy that may very well be worse than the thing it's fighting. Right now, I kid you not, in cities

00:08:17.580 across America, one of the responses to the coronavirus is to let criminals out of prison.

00:08:24.440 That's true. LA County announced that it would let 600 criminals out of jail because what you want

00:08:33.020 during a time of crisis, uncertainty, and panic is more criminals on the street, right? That makes

00:08:39.460 sense. I'm so glad we elect these guys. They're so smart. They totally get it. Right now in Philadelphia,

00:08:45.880 Philadelphia, the Philadelphia police department will no longer be making arrests for all narcotics

00:08:53.620 offenses, any kind of narcotics offense. You're selling, you're using, you're buying, whatever.

00:08:59.400 You're good. You're not getting arrested. A cop can watch you sell crack cocaine on the street.

00:09:05.320 You will not be arrested. Theft from persons. A cop can look at you, watch you rob somebody

00:09:12.460 and say, well, my hands are tied. I can't arrest you anymore because of a Chinese virus. Because of 1.00

00:09:19.380 it, let me, let's see how this logic makes sense. Because of a Chinese virus, if a police officer 0.73

00:09:23.800 watches a criminal rob an old lady on the street, he can't arrest the guy. Okay. Retail theft. You go

00:09:33.160 and rob a store. Can't get arrested for it. Enjoy. The stores are yours. Go on, go on in robbers.

00:09:39.160 You'll, you, you will get off scot-free. Theft from auto. Bust in and steal the guy's radio. That's,

00:09:46.220 that's, uh, totally fine. Burglary. Break into somebody's house. Vandalism. Bench warrants.

00:09:52.740 Stolen autos. Cool, man. It's going to be grand theft auto all over our streets, except in real life

00:09:58.160 now. Economic crimes, such as passing bad checks. We're going to need bad checks because nobody's

00:10:04.800 going to have any money pretty soon. Fraud and prostitution. That is all now effectively legal

00:10:13.000 in Philadelphia as a response to a, a very bad flu. Does that make sense to you? Does that make

00:10:23.700 any sense at all? The, the argument, the reason they're doing this, they say, is because they don't

00:10:27.980 want to overcrowd the jails. Cause I guess then there's a chance the prisoners get the Wu flu.

00:10:36.260 Even though the infection rate, certainly the mortality rate for people who are under 60 and

00:10:41.280 70, very, very low. They don't do that when there's a particularly bad seasonal flu, do they?

00:10:46.760 Did they do that during swine flu, which killed 15,000 Americans or more? I don't think so.

00:10:53.580 Did they do it during the Ebola crisis? They said, okay, no more, we're not going to arrest

00:10:57.040 people now for crimes. I don't think so. Alarmists always tell us that an overreaction is better

00:11:06.060 than an underreaction. They say this is true all, in all cases, all the time. We have to overreact.

00:11:13.620 Is that true? Let's say, for instance, just, just using the crimes that are now effectively legal in

00:11:22.200 Philadelphia as an example, let's say as a result of this, all these policies, one person,

00:11:30.220 one extra person survives the virus, but then another person overdoses on heroin because you're

00:11:39.680 no longer making arrests for narcotics offenses. Person overdoses on crack, gets hooked on some

00:11:48.100 horrible drug, ruins their life, or flat out dies. Then was the policy worth it? I don't know, even if

00:11:56.060 you're making this kind of cold utilitarian calculation of just the sheer number of people

00:12:00.960 who are going to live or who are going to die, you haven't saved a life in that, in that hypothetical,

00:12:05.920 right? Let's use another example. Let's say that as a result of this policy, one person survives the

00:12:13.180 virus, goes on to live another three or four years, mostly healthy, but a girl falls into prostitution 0.97

00:12:20.000 because you're no longer making arrests for prostitution. So it's easier for pimps to prey on

00:12:24.100 them, and the number goes up. Ruins her life. Was that worth it? I'm not saying it is or it isn't.

00:12:33.640 I'm not even, at this moment, advocating one policy or another, though I certainly have thoughts on some

00:12:39.520 policies like this dumb jailbreak decision in Philadelphia and Los Angeles and other places, too.

00:12:46.340 I'm simply asking, are we sure that an overreaction is always a good idea? You let all the criminals 0.93

00:12:54.200 out of prison. What could go wrong there? Maybe it would have been better not to do that. Maybe it would

00:13:00.700 have been better not to close down every single business. Maybe, I don't know, I'm raising

00:13:05.640 uncomfortable questions. It seems very clear, though, to me that an overreaction is not always

00:13:12.340 better than an underreaction. Orange County right now, I saw a new regulation going around the internet.

00:13:20.840 I believe it's legitimate. I heard it from a pretty legitimate source that you can be punished with fines

00:13:26.620 or jail time. If you are caught walking outside in certain places in Orange County, California,

00:13:32.840 with people who are not in your household. So I'm in my apartment, you know, got sweet little Elisa

00:13:40.060 there. We want to go on a walk. That's okay. If I want to meet a friend who doesn't live with me for

00:13:44.120 a walk, I could go to jail. Does that make a lot of sense? Doesn't make sense to me. Is that legal?

00:13:49.600 I'm skeptical. Crisis always serves the left. This is something that even well-meaning conservatives

00:13:57.640 have forgotten during this coronavirus thing. Conservatives need to keep a cool head here because 0.99

00:14:04.200 otherwise, the left will transform our society, transform our politics before we even know what

00:14:11.120 happened. The left thrives on panic and crisis. That is why they are always trying to gin them up.

00:14:20.000 Okay. A great example, the last crisis before this crisis is the environmental crisis. That's what

00:14:27.240 they call it, right? Initially it was global cooling. Then it was global warming. Then it was

00:14:31.360 climate change. Now it has become climate crisis, which is really, really the sweet spot for the left.

00:14:38.200 And the climate crisis says, kind of sounds a little bit similar to what we're hearing now,

00:14:41.900 that the whole world is going to end in 12 years or 10 years or eight years or six months.

00:14:46.260 If we don't take dramatic action that radically transforms our society, that just coincidentally

00:14:56.000 and conveniently gives the left everything they've wanted for a hundred years.

00:15:00.080 If we don't pass the green new deal and pay out reparations for slavery, then the sun monster is

00:15:09.020 going to kill us. It's a crisis. The environment's going to fall apart. What do reparations for slavery

00:15:13.040 have to do with the environment? No idea. No time to ask questions. How dare you ask a question?

00:15:18.140 We're in a crisis. Just pass it. We got to read, we got to pass the bill so we can find out what's

00:15:23.560 in the bill. That's what they told us during Obamacare too. Crisis. Crisis does not serve

00:15:29.740 conservative ends ever. We'll get to why in a second. First, I got to thank our friends over at Ring.

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00:16:42.760 It's ring.com slash Knowles. Always a crisis. How about the water crisis? Remember that one? There's a

00:16:50.480 water crisis, and so we need massive government intrusion into our lives. You don't hear about that one

00:16:56.300 as much anymore. That was more popular maybe five or ten years ago. Hopefully the crisis got better.

00:17:00.700 What about the overpopulation crisis? Remember that one? That's a real deep cut. That one comes

00:17:04.700 back from the 70s. They were still talking about it, though, in the 80s or the 90s, that there are

00:17:09.500 too many people. So that's why you've got to go along with the left's agenda on sex, abortion,

00:17:17.240 everything. You have to, on government interference in those things, you have to do it because we've got

00:17:21.780 an overpopulation crisis. You remember in the 70s, they talked about the population bomb, that if we

00:17:28.300 didn't have all these radical leftist policies, really inhuman policies, especially in terms of

00:17:35.060 abortion, if we didn't have that, then within 10 or 20 years, there'd be mass starvation all over the 0.90

00:17:39.700 world. What happened? The world population doubled and were richer and fatter than ever before.

00:17:44.680 Looks like we survived that crisis. I'm real glad we didn't listen to all the alarmists during that

00:17:49.940 crisis. There's one now on college campuses, you hear this all the time, the campus rape crisis. We

00:17:55.100 are told that one in four or one in five women on college campuses are raped. They will be raped. 0.98

00:18:02.360 That number, that's a shocking, terrifying statistic, right? Then you got to think about it for a second. 0.98

00:18:08.240 If that statistic is true, then Harvard Yard is a more dangerous place for young women than downtown 1.00

00:18:17.240 Aleppo. You can saunter around the outskirts of Baghdad late at night. You'd be much safer than

00:18:23.880 if you walk through old campus at Yale. Does anybody really believe that? No, of course not.

00:18:29.120 But it's a crisis. Don't, don't ask these questions. We need to deprive people of their

00:18:35.440 due process rights. That's, that's one response to the, the crisis on campus. They have, instead of,

00:18:41.580 instead of putting rape, which is a very serious crime through the criminal justice system,

00:18:45.020 which is set up to deal with serious crimes, they have campus tribunals with professors,

00:18:50.280 the acting as judges and jury and executioner, at least figuratively. I don't know, maybe literally

00:18:56.200 too. They set that up. Well, and if you took two moments to think about the crisis, the statistic,

00:19:02.000 you'd say, wait a second, you're telling me we need to get rid of our due process rights in America,

00:19:06.420 the rights of the accused, run roughshod over those people's rights.

00:19:09.900 because you're saying that Harvard Yard is more dangerous than, than Karachi? I don't,

00:19:18.680 is that true? I don't think that they'll, they have to push you past the point of reason in order

00:19:24.400 to get you to buy into their radical conclusions. Crisis always serves the left because crisis means

00:19:31.940 that everything is broken. It's not just like a little inconvenience. It's not just a little problem.

00:19:36.940 A little problem is actually a good place for conservatives because conservatives are in the

00:19:43.280 business of conserving. We like to fix things, fix things up a little bit, but not totally destroy

00:19:48.440 them or totally change them. We want to preserve, we want to conserve the tradition. Now, obviously,

00:19:55.220 over time, things wear down. They need repair. They can be improved, but that's where a conservative

00:20:03.100 thrives. If you're in a crisis, everything is broken. You've got to start from scratch. You've

00:20:08.820 got to fundamentally transform America, to quote Barack Obama. This is very advantageous to the

00:20:14.740 left. This is intrinsically not conservative. It means there, there's nothing really worth

00:20:19.620 preserving. Things have gone so horribly wrong. So what's going on in this crisis? What are people

00:20:24.960 saying? When you get past the tweets, when you get past the mainstream media, what are people

00:20:30.620 really saying about this? Well, people are saying that President Trump is doing a good job. You don't

00:20:36.620 need to just listen to the Republicans. You don't need to just listen to the conservatives. Even

00:20:41.100 some of the most left-wing Democratic governors in America who are working with Trump on this crisis,

00:20:49.180 on this pandemic, it's probably the more precise word to use, are saying that he's doing a very good

00:20:55.060 job. It's pretty shocking if all you watch is CNN. But if you're looking at people who have actually

00:21:00.940 interacted with this administration, you realize there's actually been some responsibility,

00:21:05.240 accountability, efficiency. Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York came out and he said, you know,

00:21:11.880 the Trump administration doing a great job. This government cannot meet this crisis

00:21:16.700 without the resources and capacity of the federal government. I spoke to the president this morning

00:21:26.960 again. He is ready, willing and able to help. I've been speaking with members of his staff

00:21:35.140 late last night, early this morning. We need their help, especially on the hospital capacity issue.

00:21:44.200 I think the president was 100 percent sincere in saying that he wanted to work together

00:21:50.500 in partnership. His team has been on it. I know a team when they're on it and I know a team when

00:21:59.140 they're not on it. His team is on it. They've been responsive late at night, early in the morning

00:22:05.180 and they've thus far been doing everything that they can do. And I want to say thank you and I want to

00:22:12.920 say that I appreciate it. Thank you. I appreciate it, man. That's a different tune than we've been

00:22:19.180 hearing from some Democratic officials for the last three years who say that Trump is Hitler and 1.00

00:22:23.700 he's terrible and he's a Russian who stooge and we got to throw him out of office and he's a racist 1.00

00:22:27.460 and a bigot. Well, the people who are working with him, even high ranking Democratic governors of 1.00

00:22:32.620 very left wing states are saying he's actually doing an excellent job here. It's not just Andy Cuomo

00:22:37.980 because you might say, well, Andy Cuomo has probably known Trump for a while. They're both New Yorkers

00:22:41.360 known each other a long time. No, it's not just Andy Cuomo. Gavin Newsom, Democratic governor of

00:22:46.780 California said almost exactly the same thing. We had a private conversation, but he said,

00:22:51.540 we're going to do the right thing and you have my support, all of our support logistically and

00:22:56.920 otherwise. So before he made those statements publicly, I had a private conversation with him

00:23:01.740 around 4.30 West Coast time and he said everything that I could have hoped for and we had a very long

00:23:11.500 conversation and every single thing he said, they followed through on. So I'm just not interested

00:23:17.840 in finding daylight on those statements because every single thing, his administration, and it

00:23:25.040 starts at the top, including the vice president, has been consistent with the expectation that we

00:23:32.140 repatriate these passengers and we do it in a way that does justice to the spirit that defines the best

00:23:37.660 of our country and the state of California. Sounds pretty good. They've, they've been very supportive.

00:23:43.540 They've followed up on all of their promises. Looks like the Trump administration is doing a good job.

00:23:48.480 I think now we talked about yesterday, how the left is trying to just use this crisis in a very

00:23:54.020 just basically political, political partisan hack way to attack Donald Trump all the time.

00:24:01.440 When you hear that, I don't think you need to send them those people, the updates from the

00:24:08.000 coronavirus task force. I don't think you need to send them even the statistics, send them those

00:24:12.220 clips, send them to maybe the two most prominent democratic governors in America saying that the

00:24:18.260 Trump administration is doing a good job, which I think up until this point, certainly they have been

00:24:23.480 doing an excellent job. Now, there are some proposals on the table that are maybe not as

00:24:29.980 excellent as what we've seen heretofore from the Trump administration. We'll get to those in a

00:24:34.600 second. We'll get to some of the polling on what Americans think about it and we will get to the

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00:25:52.100 Knowles. All right. There's a lot that the Trump administration could do. It's on the table right

00:26:01.020 now. There's even a chance that we might all be on the Yang Gang now. There's a proposal for a sort 0.98

00:26:06.080 of proto-universal basic income, free money from the government. What could go wrong? We'll get to

00:26:11.680 all of that. First, I have got to say goodbye to Facebook and YouTube. Head on over right now to

00:26:16.120 dailywire.com slash subscribe. Very important. We actually just launched a new show. It's called

00:26:20.540 All Access Live over at dailywire.com. It's Ben, Daily Wire, God King, Jeremy Boring. They kicked it

00:26:27.480 off Monday evening. Jeremy and I did one last night, so you can go check that out. We're going

00:26:32.580 to be doing episodes for the rest of this week at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific. I really like it.

00:26:38.340 It's pretty much just hanging out. The thing I like most about it, it's a perfect example of the

00:26:43.220 market working for us. You know, at any other time in history, we probably would not have had the

00:26:48.760 technology that we do now that would be able to just go straight back into your homes as you are

00:26:55.200 sitting on your couches and just speak to you during this time of crisis when we're all

00:27:02.320 quarantined. That's All Access Live. Go check it out. It's initially for our All Access members,

00:27:07.620 but that's what we want to do ultimately, but right now it's for all you guys. So head on over

00:27:12.140 dailywire.com. We'll be right back with a lot more. All right. So what do Americans think about

00:27:29.720 this response? Last month, 77% of Americans expressed confidence in the government's handling

00:27:38.000 of the virus. That was before all the quarantines, before all the restaurants and bars were closed,

00:27:43.300 before everybody was thrown out of work because of overzealous mayors and governors and those sorts

00:27:49.620 of people. 77% expressed confidence in the government's handling of the virus. That number

00:27:55.540 has dropped substantially. The current level is 61% of Americans who say that they are very or somewhat

00:28:00.720 confident in the government's response. 24% say they're very confident. 37% say that they're

00:28:06.120 somewhat confident. The drop is entirely Democrats. And it's, by the way, we should look at the wording

00:28:12.380 of this question. How confident are you in the government's response? That includes the federal

00:28:16.320 government, Trump, but also the state and local government. For me in Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti

00:28:21.760 is the mayor. Gavin Newsom is the, is the governor. So if I were asked that question, I would say, well,

00:28:28.820 I'm not confident in the local government's response. I am confident in the federal government's

00:28:36.120 response, but that's not really included in the question. So the drop is entirely Democrats.

00:28:41.980 Less than half of Democrats express confidence in the government's ability to handle an outbreak.

00:28:48.880 Republicans remain as confident. So what the polling reflects is that what we're seeing right now is a

00:28:55.780 leftist freak out, not only in terms of policy, but even in the reaction to the policy. Conservatives

00:29:01.440 feel basically the same way that we felt a month ago. Most people think the Trump administration is

00:29:09.280 doing a good job here. Democratic governors of the two most prominent left-wing states think that the

00:29:14.940 Trump administration is doing a good job here. All things seem to be under control. So why the freak

00:29:23.640 out? The answer here is the media. You remember Mara Gay. Mara Gay is the New York Times editorial

00:29:31.340 board member who was on MSNBC the other day with Brian Williams, and she confused her arithmetic by six

00:29:38.580 orders of magnitude when talking about Mike Bloomberg. You remember that? Somebody tweeted recently that

00:29:43.300 actually with the money he spent, he could have given every American a million dollars.

00:29:47.340 Got it. Let's put it up on the screen. When I read it tonight on social media, it kind of all became

00:29:54.180 clear. Bloomberg spent 500 million on ads, U.S. population 327 million. Don't tell us if you're

00:30:00.780 ahead of us on the math. He could have given each American one million dollars and have had lunch money

00:30:06.900 left over. It's an incredible way of putting it. It's an incredible way of putting it. It's true.

00:30:12.560 It's disturbing. Oh, it's true. It's disturbing. It's amazing. Wait a second. It's just not right.

00:30:18.560 It's wrong by six orders of magnitude. Okay. That Mara Gay, who then didn't apologize for saying that, 0.96

00:30:24.560 she actually then wrote a column about how if you criticize her for getting her math extraordinarily

00:30:30.920 wrong, then you're a racist. That's a member of the New York Times editorial board. Didn't take any

00:30:35.320 responsibility. Anyway, she's back and she is exemplifying the media dishonesty in this crisis 1.00

00:30:43.200 against President Trump. So Mara Gay tweets this, uh, about President Trump.

00:30:51.320 Quote, Trump told governors this morning, they are on their own respirators, ventilators, all of the

00:30:59.220 equipment. Try getting it yourselves. Mr. Trump told the governors during the conference call,

00:31:04.460 a recording of which was shared with the New York Times. Well, it sounds pretty bad, doesn't it?

00:31:09.440 He's saying you're on your own. Wow. What an irresponsible, feckless federal government.

00:31:14.200 They can't even get the equipment. They're saying you're on your own. We can't do anything,

00:31:17.200 right? Except that's not what happened. The very next line, which Mara Gay left out, quote,

00:31:23.820 we will be backing you, but try getting it yourselves. Point of sales, much better,

00:31:30.020 much more direct if you can get it yourself. That completely changes what the first sentence means.

00:31:40.660 And Mara Gay knows this. The New York Times know this. So they take out the part that shows what

00:31:46.920 the government response actually is. And they take the first line, twist its meaning completely,

00:31:51.340 and make it seem like Trump is pushing all of the responsibility onto the stats, states.

00:31:56.160 It's when, when Trump is telling them, respirators, ventilators, try getting it for yourselves.

00:32:03.760 That if you say, try getting it for yourselves, because we're not going to get it for you.

00:32:07.640 That means something very different than try getting it for yourselves. We'll back you,

00:32:12.080 but it'll be more direct and simple and quick if you get it yourselves. Those are completely

00:32:17.160 different meanings. Mara Gay, it would seem intentionally twisted that. I don't know how it

00:32:23.180 couldn't have been intentional. The New York Times had the recording. Presumably, Mara Gay read the

00:32:27.760 article. So she just tweeted something out that was false, that was a lie. It was a lie. Trump did say

00:32:36.500 those words, but the words meant something completely different when you leave out the crucial part of

00:32:42.980 the statement. That's what we're hearing from the media. That's why I'm saying, if you're looking at

00:32:47.640 the media right now and you're panicking and you're freaking out, just don't. It's dumb. Don't tune 1.00

00:32:53.240 it out. These people, you're going to listen to Mara Gay. She's going to tell you the truth. I don't 1.00

00:32:57.460 think so. You know, if you want to whip yourself up into hysterics, then go watch the lying mainstream

00:33:03.480 media. But if you don't, if you want a more realistic view of what's going on, then you got to

00:33:08.460 look elsewhere. So what's the Trump administration's new response? Now things are getting a little bit

00:33:13.420 dicey. Steve Mnuchin, treasury secretary, gave a press conference yesterday in which he talked

00:33:18.360 about a new policy for relief that the federal government is considering. This came to them

00:33:23.940 from Mitt Romney. So just to give you a little preview of, of how great, great, this is going

00:33:29.060 to be wonderful, conservative, reasonable. Came from Mitt Romney. The policy is to send direct

00:33:36.540 checks to everybody. Free money. Here's Steve Mnuchin announcing the policy.

00:33:41.720 When you say a stimulus package for American workers, do you mean direct payments to Americans?

00:33:46.940 Or are you talking about a payroll tax holiday? Although the president likes the idea of the

00:33:51.500 payroll tax holiday, I will tell you what we've heard from many people. And the president has

00:33:55.880 said we can consider this. The payroll tax holiday would get people money over the next six to eight

00:34:01.340 months. We're looking at sending checks to Americans immediately. And what we've heard from

00:34:06.640 hardworking Americans, many companies have now shut down, whether it's bars or restaurants.

00:34:11.040 Americans need cash now. And the president wants to get cash now. And I mean now in the next two

00:34:16.680 weeks. I will be previewing that with the Republicans. There's some numbers out there.

00:34:22.780 They may be a little bit bigger than what's in the press. Maybe even bigger than what's in the

00:34:26.960 press. What's in the press is a thousand dollars. So it might be bigger. What, 1500, 2000, 2500? Who

00:34:32.760 knows? One man in particular in this country is particularly excited by all this. What did you say

00:34:38.300 about Mitt Romney? That he's joined the Yang gang. We're getting a lot of new members. Uh, certainly 1.00

00:34:43.320 under the worst circumstances anyone can imagine. He's joined the Yang gang. We're all on the Yang 0.99

00:34:47.760 gang now, man. The, one of the most radical democratic candidates for president. Looks like

00:34:52.000 his proposal is being endorsed by Mitt Romney. That's no surprise. Mitt Romney is one of the most

00:34:57.220 radical democratic candidates for president. Oh, wait, hold on. He was a Republican. Sort of,

00:35:01.140 maybe. Uh, but it is disappointing to see the Trump administration talk about this.

00:35:05.420 I guess we're all on the Yang gang, but it's a bad idea. Why is it a bad idea? Well,

00:35:09.740 let's give the policy it's due. If the policy were simply the government giving people short-term

00:35:19.140 direct relief one time without any other consequences, whatever, that's fine. Is it

00:35:26.800 going to work? I'm not convinced it would work, but I don't have any major problem with that.

00:35:31.960 It would probably be better if it were on the state and local level rather than at the federal level

00:35:35.580 because people are just more responsive there. It'd be, it'd be better if we could figure out

00:35:40.440 exactly who the money should go to because look, we've all taken a hit during this coronavirus,

00:35:45.140 but some people don't need the money. Some people really do need the money. Some people can afford

00:35:49.740 to miss two weeks of work. Some people can't afford to miss two days of work. So you want the money to

00:35:54.940 be targeted to the people who need it because there is real relief that has to come from this

00:35:58.660 awful virus that came out of China. We should send China the invoice. No question about that. 1.00

00:36:03.540 But if it were just in a vacuum, I could almost understand it. If the only stimulus they were

00:36:10.860 considering was giving people this direct money, I could maybe understand that. That's not the only

00:36:18.000 stimulus they're considering. They're considering a whole lot more as well. You've got every major

00:36:22.400 lobbying group now going, descending on Capitol Hill to try to get some of that money.

00:36:26.760 It's a bad idea because it will set a precedent. This is the precedent for the universal basic 0.98

00:36:35.720 income. The Yang is thrilled about it. The supporters of the universal basic income are

00:36:41.140 thrilled about it. And the universal basic income is awful. It's a terrible idea. There's no argument

00:36:45.080 for it. It's inhuman. It's a way to ensnare you and get you trapped and dependent on the federal

00:36:51.080 government, not even a more local government, which is at least easier to shake yourself out of. At least

00:36:55.740 there you can move. At least there, these are laboratories of democracy, each of our state

00:36:59.620 governments, but this would be a federal program. Do we really think you're going to mail somebody

00:37:04.360 $1,000, $2,000, I don't know, $3,000, this one-time check for relief. We really think it's

00:37:11.120 going to be one time. What if the coronavirus goes into July? They're only going to get one check.

00:37:18.140 $3,000 even is not going to last you through July. What if it goes away because viruses die in the

00:37:26.680 heat and then the summer is fine and then it comes back again in the fall? Are we going to get another

00:37:30.640 $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 check? Are we going to get another trillion dollar bailout program?

00:37:35.960 We'll need one. We'll need one. Look, we need one. The economy is collapsing because of these dumb

00:37:42.220 policies. Some policies are smart. Some policies are pretty dumb. Trouble with the crisis is you 0.99

00:37:48.380 can't really sift the smart ones from the dumb ones. Is this going to be the last bailout? I don't think 0.97

00:37:55.180 so. Is this going to be the last we've heard of UBI? I don't think so. It's going to be the precedent

00:37:58.440 and it's going to go forward and become a regular policy. We might not get Yang style UBI now but we

00:38:07.880 will get a lot closer to it. We will hasten that day of getting UBI style redistribution. If a

00:38:16.420 Republican conservative administration does this, you've got to be much, much more careful about this

00:38:21.960 and the states are really happy that the federal government's been supporting them. Maybe we need

00:38:25.720 to support the states. And if you want direct relief, and by the way, people need direct relief.

00:38:29.820 Okay? People, you can't just go in and say, hey, nobody can work for two months. All right,

00:38:34.480 you're on your own. Right? You can't do that. That's wrong too. You need some way to make them whole.

00:38:40.160 But a massive, bloated, inevitably corrupt program from the federal government that's going to set the

00:38:47.000 stage for a massive new welfare program, probably not the way to do it. All right. The Chinese 1.00

00:38:53.900 government is not making this any easier on us in this crisis. Chinese government is now,

00:39:00.900 I can't tell if they're parroting American leftist propaganda or if the American leftists are parroting

00:39:05.900 Chinese propaganda. It's a real chicken or egg situation. But China is jumping on the identity 0.95

00:39:10.640 politics bandwagon. They are now saying that it is racist to refer to this virus as a Chinese virus,

00:39:18.340 to call it the Wuhan virus or the Wu flu or the Kung flu or the chop flu or the sweet and sour

00:39:23.500 sickened or lung pao sickened or there are a lot of, obviously there are a lot of nicknames for this.

00:39:28.540 But China doesn't have a problem with any of those names in particular. China has a problem generally

00:39:34.660 with pointing out that the virus came from China. The news service China, Jinhua News, which is a

00:39:42.360 mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party, they tweeted out, quote, racism is not the right tool

00:39:48.620 to cover your own incompetence. Racism. If you call it the Chinese virus, the Wuhan virus,

00:39:55.180 if you point out where it came from, you're a racist. China is obviously stoking divisions that 0.96

00:40:02.940 are already in the United States. Worth remembering for our useful idiot friends who parrot propaganda 1.00

00:40:09.020 from communist governments. These totalitarian regimes have been doing this for a long time. 1.00

00:40:15.140 So during the, especially during the 1960s, the Soviet Union was fanning the flames of racial division

00:40:21.580 because the America experts in the Soviet Union know a whole lot about our political divisions.

00:40:28.800 Same thing in China. The Chinese communist government knows a lot about our political divisions. They are

00:40:34.700 fanning the flame and useful idiots in the United States are parroting that propaganda. Don't parrot 1.00

00:40:40.260 that. If you call the Wu flu or the Wuhan virus or any of those terms, if you call that racist,

00:40:46.380 you are parroting the propaganda of one of the most evil regimes on the face of the earth.

00:40:52.880 Dr. Fauci, Dr. Fauci gives us another update. Fauci is the, he's the kind of public face of public

00:41:01.680 health here in the coronavirus epidemic. He was asked, is this president Trump's fault?

00:41:08.440 Is the lack of testing president Trump's fault? He says, absolutely not. He says it's no, nobody's

00:41:14.800 fault, but certainly not the president's fault. So when you hear left-wingers blaming Trump saying that

00:41:22.760 the testing, there, there aren't any tests. You point them to Dr. Fauci. All right. Dr. Fauci has a lot

00:41:27.400 of credibility. He's been around in public health for decades and decades. And he said, yes, it's too

00:41:32.680 bad that we don't have a lot of testing, but it's not the president's fault. It's part of the system.

00:41:38.140 Before we go, I got to get to a little bit of 2020 news. Last night, President Trump officially

00:41:42.060 clinched the Republican nomination for president. Poor Bill Weld, his primary challenger is, he's done.

00:41:48.860 He's finished. Obviously Trump was going to get it though. There is something worth noting here.

00:41:53.280 Turnout has been very, very high. Uh, there, the Trump campaign actually posted a video about how

00:42:02.900 high the turnout has been. President Trump cruises to victory with a record-breaking

00:42:06.960 Republican turnout. Trump got more total votes than Obama got as an incumbent. Republican turnout

00:42:12.580 operation in Texas is extraordinary. Complete domination. Receiving more primary votes than than

00:42:17.700 any sitting president. We're winning. We're winning all over. We have record turnout for an incumbent

00:42:24.560 president. The Republican party has never been unified like it is now. Turnout was also huge for

00:42:32.940 Donald Trump. President Trump celebrating a record-breaking victory. It's not even a party. It's a

00:42:37.760 more than President Obama had by a wide margin. Let's realize how good Donald Trump's political

00:42:45.880 operation is. To all Americans tonight. I'm with you, the American people. I am with you. I will fight

00:42:57.100 for you. And I will win for you. And we are going to keep America great. Keep America great. There it

00:43:05.720 is. I mean, this is a big number. We've been talking about it since New Hampshire. The Democrats are

00:43:10.240 expecting record-high turnout in 2020. And yet, the turnout's been lower than it was in 2016,

00:43:17.640 very often in states all around the country. Whereas President Trump, who is guaranteed to

00:43:22.120 get the nomination, his turnout has been double that of Barack Obama when he was looking at re-election,

00:43:29.440 of George W. Bush when he was looking at re-election. It's been double that. So what does that tell us?

00:43:34.960 It tells us there is still a lot of enthusiasm for Trump. And if the numbers hold on the government's

00:43:39.300 response to coronavirus, then it looks like those turnout numbers will hold in November. Unless the

00:43:46.900 economy completely tanks. And that's a real open question right now. On the other side of the aisle,

00:43:53.520 Joe Biden just clinched the Democratic nomination for president. He clobbered, I mean, he didn't clinch

00:43:58.800 it, but he clinched it. Right? He didn't, he's still got to go and get all the, all of the delegates,

00:44:03.100 but he, he clinched it. He won Florida, Arizona, and Illinois. He now has 1,147 delegates to Bernie's

00:44:10.240 861. Bernie does not have a path to victory right now. The only reason Bernie is staying in this race

00:44:16.960 is in case Joe collapses. I don't mean that electorally. I mean that physically. Joe Biden

00:44:21.960 does not seem to be particularly vigorous. We, there was, he was giving a campaign speech the other

00:44:28.700 night. And at the end of it, he just stood there. Like he didn't know where to go. He didn't know

00:44:32.800 what should happen next. And, and his, his wife actually had to come out and try to drag him off 1.00

00:44:36.620 the stage. Thank you all. Thank you all for listening. Oh, thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Okay.

00:44:52.420 Okay.

00:44:58.700 So what is that? I mean, we don't, we don't know what it is. Maybe they were filming a commercial.

00:45:04.920 Maybe he was giving a small speech. We don't know. It's been floating around the internet

00:45:07.900 outside of context, but whatever he's doing there, I hope he's not in front of a large crowd

00:45:13.520 because it's totally quiet. But even if he's just standing there in front of a camera giving a

00:45:17.540 message, he looks like a zombie. He looks like he's going to go, thank you. Thank you all for listening.

00:45:24.040 And then he's sort of standing there oddly. And, and his wife kind of walks out looking nervous and

00:45:32.940 we're just like, ah, okay, Joe. And then she gives him a hug and he looks, oh, hey, you're there.

00:45:37.180 Huh? Okay. Oh, okay. All right. Well, bye. That's not a candidate who looks like he's about to run away

00:45:44.440 with the presidency. And so Bernie's staying in the race to try to take it from him. It's going to be a

00:45:49.800 much more exciting election now than we thought it would be when the economy was going gangbusters.

00:45:54.400 I thought Trump would win 57 states. Now another crisis or maybe the reaction to the crisis is

00:46:01.220 throwing that reelection victory into great question. I guess we'll have to wait and see

00:46:07.000 how the rest of it shakes out and hope that president Trump doesn't overreact to the overreaction,

00:46:12.660 which would put us in even more peril. All right. That's our show. Come back tomorrow.

00:46:17.020 In the meantime, I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles show. See you then.

00:46:19.800 If you enjoyed this episode, and frankly, even if you didn't, don't forget to subscribe.

00:46:30.320 And if you want to help spread the word, please give us a five-star review and tell your friends

00:46:34.720 to subscribe. We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you listen to podcasts.

00:46:40.720 Also, be sure to check out the other Daily Wire podcasts, including the Ben Shapiro show,

00:46:45.360 the Andrew Klavan show, and the Matt Walsh show.

00:46:47.840 The Michael Knowles show is produced by Ben Davies and directed by Mike Joyner.

00:46:53.240 Executive producer, Jeremy Boren. Supervising producers, Mathis Glover and Robert Sterling.

00:46:58.940 Technical producer, Austin Stevens. Assistant director, Pavel Widowski. Editor and associate

00:47:04.600 producer, Danny D'Amico. Audio mixer, Robin Fenderson. Hair and makeup, Nika Geneva. Production

00:47:11.680 assistant, Ryan Love. The Michael Knowles show is a Daily Wire production. Copyright Daily Wire 2020.

00:47:18.260 Hey everyone, it's Andrew Klavan, host of the Andrew Klavan show. Hell yes, it's the Chinese virus. 0.75

00:47:23.540 It's the doggone Chinese virus. I'll explain why on the Andrew Klavan show. I'm Andrew Klavan. 0.99

The Michael Knowles Show - March 18, 2020

Ep. 513 - Never Let A Crisis Go To Waste

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