The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 705 - Being Less White

00:00:00.000 A whistleblower at Coca-Cola has leaked images from a sensitivity training slideshow

00:00:05.240 that implore the audience to be, quote, less white. Goodbye, pastel polo shirts. Au revoir, 0.83

00:00:14.600 cucumber sandwiches. Penny loafers, I think I will miss you most of all. But if woke corporations

00:00:20.640 say that I need to be less white, then dag nabbit, I'm going to be less white. I'm Michael Knowles. 0.84

00:00:25.200 This is the Michael Knowles Show.

00:00:30.000 Welcome back to the show. My favorite comment from Friday is from Andy Heron,

00:00:38.640 who shows us the Democrats' favorite game of chance, rock, paper, scissor, science. And you see,

00:00:48.240 obviously, rock beats scissors, paper beats rock, scissors beats paper, and science beats absolutely

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00:02:22.600 do yourself a favor, check out Lightstream today. Do I count as white? This is a perennial question

00:02:31.240 for those of us of Sicilian, more broadly Southern Italian descent. We're a little, uh, dusky as, 1.00

00:02:40.120 as the poets used to say, you know, we're a little swarthy. So are we white? Probably by the standards 0.90

00:02:46.660 of a neo-Nazi or some racialist, probably we're not all that white. You know, when Italians first came to

00:02:53.060 America, uh, Italians were broadly considered to be black, depending on what area of the country you

00:02:59.880 were in. Southern Italians were the victims of the largest mass lynching in American history. So,

00:03:05.660 you know, probably, I don't know, not, not so white, but then by the standards of the woke left,

00:03:10.940 definitely, definitely white. So I suppose I'm, I'm kind of caught in, in the middle here. And, 0.54

00:03:18.100 uh, regardless, I'm sure Coca-Cola would like me to be less white. Uh, the, the company is sort of

00:03:26.760 denying that they had this sensitivity training. I say sort of denying it because what they're saying

00:03:32.760 is that this slide that the, the whistleblower leaked, uh, this was not a mandatory aspect and

00:03:40.420 a lesson of the training, but it was part of the platform that Coca-Cola had the employees use.

00:03:46.280 So it's kind of like a denial, non-denial in any case, sort of sounds like mealy mouthed corporate

00:03:52.740 talk, uh, for they did it. This is, this is the sort of thing they're doing. So the slides

00:03:58.420 included, uh, typical platitudes that you, you see today with woke politically correct culture,

00:04:07.080 confronting racism, understanding what it means to be white, challenging what it means to be racist.

00:04:14.880 Okay. This is the kind of bland thing we've seen before. Another slide in the U S and other

00:04:22.060 Western nations, white people are socialized to feel that they are inherently superior because

00:04:27.820 they are white. Now this one I'm a little more skeptical of, you know, we don't see mandatory

00:04:35.580 corporate and university trainings, uh, to tell people of other races, how terrible they are and 0.99

00:04:42.100 how awful their races. We don't see other races becoming a popular and socially accepted synonym for 0.90

00:04:49.520 bad. You know, we don't, we don't, we don't see calls to eliminate Asian-ness or abolish blackness

00:04:57.120 or anything like that, but you do see those same calls for whiteness. So I think that second bullet

00:05:02.140 point BS. And then the third one, this is the one that's really gotten Coca-Cola in trouble.

00:05:07.600 Try to be less white. And this is the point I've made on this show a number of times. And I know a 0.95

00:05:14.420 bunch of left wingers who hate watch and hate, listen to my show. They do it just because they're

00:05:19.840 masochists. They want to, they want to get their blood up in the morning or something. They, they 0.61

00:05:24.060 have criticized this point. They've said, Michael, it is crazy for you to believe that white and

00:05:29.460 whiteness has become a synonym in our politically correct culture for bad. But of course it is.

00:05:36.020 You know, when, when we analyze the history of this country in a more sophisticated time,

00:05:42.880 we would have referred to concepts like original sin. We would have referred to the tradition and

00:05:48.740 how certain prejudices come down the line and they're no good and we have to get rid of them.

00:05:53.780 But because we don't have that, we don't have that moral language anymore. We don't have a

00:05:57.780 coherent moral framework. Everything is blamed on white supremacy or systemic white racism. And 0.95

00:06:04.940 that's why we have to abolish whiteness. And it's, it's just a stand in, a physical stand in for 1.00

00:06:10.480 the metaphysical concept of evil. I do want to give the, these left wingers their do here though.

00:06:19.160 There is some precedent for what they're doing. I actually kind of understand the logic, which is

00:06:24.780 that in, in the past, maybe if you've watched old movies, you, you would have heard this.

00:06:31.380 The word white was used as a synonym for good or virtuous. So, and you, you, you more frequently

00:06:40.060 would read this in old literature or hear this in an old movie, but you might hear the phrase

00:06:43.820 that's mighty white of you, meaning, you know, that's mighty good of you. That's mighty virtuous

00:06:48.060 of you. And so what, what the left wingers are doing is they're not bringing the word back to a

00:06:53.540 kind of value neutrality. They're not bringing the word back to, to not connote virtue or vice.

00:06:58.560 What they're doing is they're taking a word that in the distant past was used to mean

00:07:03.020 virtue and they're now using it to mean vice. So how is one to be less white? Let's say we take 0.89

00:07:11.880 Coca-Cola's challenge and demand and we say, okay, I'm going to try to be less white. What does that 0.98

00:07:16.840 mean? Well, according to the slideshow, it means to be less oppressive, to be less arrogant, to be

00:07:23.540 less certain, to be less defensive, to be less ignorant, to be more humble, to, to listen, to believe,

00:07:29.120 to break with apathy, to break with white solidarity. Wow, man, being white is pretty 0.86

00:07:38.020 terrible according to Coca-Cola. But even if you believe their description, even if you take that 0.98

00:07:45.220 for what it's worth, notice how you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. Because all

00:07:52.040 of these demands that are being made in the process of being less white, they're contradictory,

00:07:59.820 right? On the one hand, they say, be less certain. And then almost immediately afterward, they say,

00:08:05.220 believe, break with apathy. How can you be less certain and believe? To be less certain is to

00:08:14.400 embrace a kind of radical skepticism. But then to believe, and you hear this in other kind of left-wing

00:08:20.120 public campaigns, they'll say, believe all women. Not weigh the evidence and, you know,

00:08:27.300 give women the benefit of the doubt, but still, you know, take them seriously. No, just believe all 1.00

00:08:31.000 women. So be less certain, be more certain. But what they're really saying is, be less certain of

00:08:35.080 your views, be more certain of our views. And one of those views, by the way, it goes in here, is this

00:08:41.040 kind of radical skepticism that we can't trust anything anymore. And, and, and this comes up on the

00:08:48.820 left when you, you hear things like the questioning of objective truth, right? They'll say, there's

00:08:54.700 no such thing as objective truth. It's all socially constructed. There's no such thing as men or women. 0.94

00:08:59.340 It's all just socially constructed. There's no such thing as a baby in the womb. You know, it's just

00:09:04.320 kind of whatever we want it to be. If you want the baby, then he's your baby. And if you don't want the

00:09:08.620 baby, he's a meaningless clump of cells. It's this radical, radical skepticism and subjectivism.

00:09:14.260 Joe Biden is embodying this at the presidential level. He just did this town hall on CNN and

00:09:21.340 actually it gets to the same question of race and bigotry and even genocide. Joe Biden was asked

00:09:27.740 about China's genocide against the Uyghur people, the Muslim minority in China. Does he condemn it?

00:09:32.920 No, he's not going to condemn it. Why? Because he's owned by China. Practically the entire left is at 0.98

00:09:37.880 this point. But he attributes this genocide to, well, you know, that's just their culture.

00:09:46.000 You know, Chinese leaders, if you know anything about Chinese history, it has always been the

00:09:51.080 time when China has been victimized by the outer world is when they haven't been unified at home.

00:09:58.400 So the central, vastly overstated, the central principle of Xi Jinping is that there must be a

00:10:06.380 united, tightly controlled China. And he uses his rationale for the things he does based on that.

00:10:12.760 I point out to him, no American president can be sustained as a president if he doesn't reflect 0.96

00:10:18.220 the values of the United States. And so the idea, I'm not going to speak out against what he's doing

00:10:23.960 in Hong Kong, what he's doing with the Uyghurs in western mountains of China and Taiwan trying to end 1.00

00:10:33.040 one China policy by making it forceful. I said, and by the way, he said he, he gets it. Culturally,

00:10:40.920 there are different norms at each country and they, their leaders are expected to follow.

00:10:46.760 This is the most honest thing I have ever heard Joe Biden say. I actually agree with everything he

00:10:54.220 just said. It's, it's repugnant what he said, and it's repugnant that he's following this,

00:10:58.420 but his observations, first of all, that China feels they need a strongly unified China and they're

00:11:02.480 willing to do everything, including commit genocide to do it. That's true. He's right 0.71

00:11:07.220 about that. The other point that no American president can be sustained as president if he

00:11:13.060 doesn't attack China for this, I guess that's also true. But what's so crazy is that Joe Biden

00:11:20.060 is also describing that thought process. So he's saying, so look, what I need to do,

00:11:25.220 because I'm an American president, I need to go out there and pretend that I care about this

00:11:28.540 because otherwise the people won't sustain me. But you know, look, it's just, that's just China's 0.89

00:11:33.220 culture. Okay. And that's just our culture. So I'm going to perform our culture and China's going 0.98

00:11:36.660 to do their culture and whatever. It's no big deal. Just different cultural norms.

00:11:41.260 Not very convincing Joe, because if you're going to criticize China for committing the genocide,

00:11:47.420 you have to actually do it. But, but Joe can't even muster that. He's saying, yeah, okay,

00:11:51.960 well, bad. Yeah, it's no, I have to say it's bad. Well, if you say you have to say it solely,

00:11:59.000 not for the purpose of doing good or for the purpose of justice or the purpose of helping

00:12:02.860 this minority in China, but for the purpose of quote, sustaining yourself as president,

00:12:07.840 then you're not really doing it. Are you? It's this total relativism. It's this, it's this

00:12:15.280 not so tacit admission that you don't believe in objective truth. You don't believe in justice.

00:12:21.340 Because if you believed in justice, then sure, cultural norms can differ,

00:12:27.700 but there is also a prevailing moral standard. And it may be the case that liberalism

00:12:34.440 imposes too much of a universal standard on the whole world, but you can't go so far in the other

00:12:40.380 direction as to say, no, there's no standard of justice. That's true for all man. No Chinese, 1.00

00:12:45.580 Chinese people are totally different than us. Look, it's just in their nature. It's in their culture

00:12:49.440 to be genocidal maniacs. That's not in our culture, but whatever, live and let live. I don't 0.61

00:12:54.420 think so. I don't think that's a very good idea. Now, speaking of President Biden, some people still

00:13:05.520 don't want to acknowledge that Joe Biden is the president, but he is the president.

00:13:10.180 Some people want to point out that there were a lot of irregularities in the presidential election.

00:13:14.540 Well, that's obviously true. And the left is insistent on getting you to say and to believe

00:13:24.560 that there was no issue with the 2020 election, no big deal with the way the election laws were

00:13:30.680 changed beforehand. Nothing weird happened in Pennsylvania. Oh, forget about those strange vote

00:13:37.640 counts in Georgia. Nothing, nothing out of the ordinary here. Steve Scalise, a Republican leader in

00:13:44.420 the house was on ABC on the news show this week. And he was asked about the 2020 election and he's in a

00:13:53.260 lot of trouble for his answer. Clear this up for me. Joe Biden won the election. He is the legitimate

00:14:00.540 president of the United States. The election was not stolen, correct? Look, Joe Biden's the president.

00:14:07.060 There were a few states that did not follow their state laws. That's really the dispute that you've

00:14:12.880 seen continue on. And look, if you're Joe Biden, you probably want to keep talking about impeachment

00:14:17.620 and anything other than the fact that he's killed millions of American energy jobs,

00:14:21.660 that he continues to. They just signed the Paris Accord. It's going to kill manufacturing jobs in

00:14:26.620 America. But at the end of the day, when you look at where we are in this country, either we're going to

00:14:32.640 address the problems that happened with the election that people are still, millions of people

00:14:36.500 are still concerned about. The Constitution says state legislature set the rules for elections.

00:14:41.600 That didn't happen in a few states. And so going forward, look, Joe Biden's the president,

00:14:46.860 but does he watch this? But I mean, I mean, I towards what people are angry about.

00:14:51.160 No, no, but, but you can't, Steve, you can't say that. All I want to get, you have to say what

00:14:55.460 Steve Scully said is 100% true. Joe Biden is the president. He won the election in the sense that

00:15:06.480 the president is determined by a vote of the electoral college that's then certified and then makes you the

00:15:10.960 president. And all that did happen. So yeah, it's, he's legitimately the president in that way.

00:15:17.940 But don't try to tell me that there was nothing weird about the 2020 election.

00:15:25.100 Pennsylvania election officials have violated the state constitution.

00:15:29.360 They changed election law so dramatically. Many, many other states totally upended election law in the

00:15:35.780 weeks preceding it. The way in which the votes were counted was deeply unprofessional, rife and open for

00:15:43.180 abuse. The use of ubiquitous widespread unsolicited mail-in ballots, that is rife for abuse, unprecedented

00:15:51.280 in American history. The extension of election day to election season, rife for abuse,

00:16:00.080 undermines election integrity. So don't, don't tell me that there were no questions. Of course,

00:16:06.860 there are questions. Of course, that's irregular. And those irregularities were down to the benefit of

00:16:12.500 Democrats, but they're so insistent. They are going to bully you. They're going to try to get you to,

00:16:18.260 to say under no circumstances, is there anything worth questioning? Don't let them do it.

00:16:23.340 Don't let them do it. This is just political intimidation. There is nothing unintellectual

00:16:30.280 or dishonest or disloyal about pointing out that crooked election officials changed a lot of the

00:16:36.380 rules in ways that they shouldn't have beforehand. But you know, who's in more trouble than Steve

00:16:41.600 Scalise? You know, which politician is in much hotter water these days? It's a simple, Ted Cruz.

00:16:49.700 He's in the hot water of Cancun. The biggest controversy, biggest political scandal going on

00:16:59.080 today. No, don't you try to tell me about Andrew Cuomo covering up the elderly deaths in New York

00:17:04.600 that his policies directly led to. I don't want to hear about that. I want to hear about the most

00:17:08.420 damning, serious political scandal that's going on right now. Ted Cruz took his family down to Mexico

00:17:18.380 for the weekend when the power was off. Can you, it's so outrageous. I have refused thus far even

00:17:25.880 to comment on this stupid non-troversy, but now that it's a, it's a big enough story and Senator 0.98

00:17:31.700 Cruz has publicly talked about it. So I guess, you know, if everybody's talking about it, I might as 0.98

00:17:37.320 well do it too. I have not spoken to Senator Cruz since all of this went down. We haven't filmed a

00:17:42.920 verdict show. We haven't talked about it. So this is just coming right off the top of my head here.

00:17:49.660 Nobody cares about this. Nobody really cares about this. A lot of people are pretending to care and a

00:17:55.660 lot of people are talking about Senator Cruz flying to Mexico during the power outage, but nobody

00:18:03.500 actually cares, which is why I haven't talked about it until now, because I think this is an entirely

00:18:10.660 contrived non-troversy. A number of people texted me when the big story broke that Cruz went to Mexico

00:18:20.680 for a few days. And they texted me because they know I host a show with Senator Cruz and, you know,

00:18:28.320 we're friends. And so they wanted my opinion on all of this. And I noticed to a person who texted me,

00:18:36.060 the Republicans who texted me were defending Cruz and the Democrats were attacking Cruz.

00:18:43.980 In other words, the people who support Cruz were still supporting him. And the people who hate Cruz's

00:18:51.140 guts still hated his guts and nothing actually changed. You know, Senator Cruz has said that it

00:18:59.000 was a mistake to go. And I suppose as a matter of optics, you know, sure, I guess that's that,

00:19:04.340 that probably was a mistake. I, I take his description of it and sure, fair enough. However,

00:19:11.880 does anybody really think Ted Cruz was going to climb a telephone pole with a wrench and start,

00:19:18.360 what, what did they expect to happen? That, that he was going to dust off the windmills or something?

00:19:24.780 No, of course not. So he came back right away and he helped out and he passed out water and

00:19:29.160 was assisting efforts. Okay. That's fine. But I don't want Republicans to take the wrong lesson

00:19:35.780 from the New York times attacking Ted Cruz. This doesn't matter. This doesn't matter as a

00:19:42.520 substantive matter. Cruz could do exactly the same work from an office in some hotel somewhere as he

00:19:47.200 could from his house without power. I guess probably he could do more work right if the power's on.

00:19:51.020 And this won't hurt him politically. I don't think, I don't think this would hurt any sort

00:19:57.260 of Republican politically. I think actually quite the opposite. I think when, when the left is

00:20:01.700 training all of their sights on you, it means they're afraid of you. I think that they did this

00:20:05.440 to Donald Trump for four years and now the big bad orange man is gone. And moreover, he's off of

00:20:10.480 Twitter. So they can't keep attacking him for the things he's saying. And they're going to the next

00:20:14.680 Republican. And I don't think Republicans should back down from this kind of thing. I think that when the

00:20:19.440 New York times is going after you for a bunch of BS, it shows that you're doing something right.

00:20:26.280 AOC cashed in on the optics here. So AOC, obviously radical Congresswoman from New York 1.00

00:20:33.160 decides that she's going to go to Texas for some reason, and she's going to raise money and she's

00:20:37.540 going to make herself a much bigger national figure. Now, AOC, maybe not the brightest bulb in

00:20:45.620 the pack. Maybe doesn't have the best education in the world. Maybe isn't the most honest person

00:20:51.640 out there. Sure. Absolutely true. But that woman is a good politician. She knows politics. This woman 1.00

00:21:01.500 knows how to make herself the center of every story. When the Capitol riot happened, AOC was in an

00:21:08.820 office building down the street. She wasn't even in the Capitol building. She made the thing all about

00:21:13.880 her. She said she was almost killed. She was almost tortured. I don't, I don't know. Maybe

00:21:19.660 she didn't, she was implying it at least. She, it was the most harrowing experience in the world for

00:21:25.360 AOC who wasn't even in the building. She was down the street in the office building. She's really good

00:21:30.460 at this. And AOC actually ties in here because she's always gone after Cruz and she, you know, went down to

00:21:37.620 Texas and made this a big deal. The real reason that the media jumped on Cruz's flight to Mexico

00:21:44.680 is because they're trying to distract from a legitimate political scandal, which is Andrew

00:21:50.700 Cuomo. Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, was hailed as the greatest governor on coronavirus.

00:21:58.540 Even though, you know, the death numbers were always right up there at the top and the death rate in New

00:22:02.960 York was always right up there at the top. But for whatever reason, Cuomo, he was the gold standard.

00:22:06.400 Those are the words of Joe Biden. And turns out his policies directly led to thousands and thousands

00:22:12.340 and thousands of elderly deaths in New York needlessly. And, and maybe even, even worse

00:22:18.120 than that from a political perspective, his administration knew about it and they covered

00:22:21.240 it up and now he's under a federal probe. So this is a serious scandal and the media doesn't want to

00:22:26.140 talk about that. So they're going to focus on Ted Cruz sipping a margarita. AOC, however,

00:22:32.580 because she's a really good politician, she's taken this very subtle approach here. So she's 0.75

00:22:38.320 going after Cruz and doing that, that sort of song and dance. She's also going after Cuomo.

00:22:43.660 AOC, probably the most nationally well-known politician in New York is calling for a quote,

00:22:51.420 full investigation of the Cuomo administration's handling of nursing homes.

00:22:56.160 This is going to work out well for her, I think, any way she plays it, no matter how the science on

00:23:05.460 coronavirus changes. By the way, Ben is going to be getting to the science of coronavirus and more

00:23:12.260 directly why Dr. Fauci should be fired. He's going to get to that. He's also going to be talking about

00:23:16.680 being less white on today's show. So make sure to check that out later on today. Also join us this

00:23:21.040 Wednesday, February 24th for this month's Backstage. We're going to have a great time

00:23:26.320 sparking up stogies, drinking whiskey. We entered 2021 with our debut into the world of entertainment.

00:23:32.160 We've kept the big news coming, most recently announcing our movie deal with Gina Carano.

00:23:36.600 Join us Wednesday as we talk through this big deal and much more. In other news,

00:23:41.220 we've got a new show coming out this Friday featuring our very own Ben Shapiro. There are so

00:23:46.300 many narratives around hot topic issues. It's hard to keep track of all the newest

00:23:49.660 controversies and non-troversies that the left decides to be offended by,

00:23:54.220 which is why you're going to want to tune into Debunked to see Ben expose leftist fallacies in

00:23:59.060 15 minutes or less. Climate change, socialist medicine, COVID policies, versus, bum, bum, bum,

00:24:06.680 facts and logic. This show will be available exclusively to Daily Wire members. So if you're

00:24:11.600 not already a member, go to dailywire.com slash subscribe. Use code DEBUNKED to get 25% off.

00:24:18.140 The reasons to join Daily Wire keep piling up. So use code DEBUNKED for 25% off today. Head on over

00:24:24.940 to dailywire.com. We'll be right back with a lot more. AOC is calling for a full investigation of

00:24:42.600 Cuomo administration's handling of nursing homes. She is such a clever politician. Not a clever 0.90

00:24:50.580 person, not necessarily book smart, but man, does she have a political gut. People are kind of shocked

00:24:57.680 by this headline. You've got the most prominent New York Democrat going after, I guess, the other most

00:25:04.640 prominent New York Democrat. Attacking a member of her own party from her own state. Why? Well,

00:25:11.440 in part, I think this is because the state Democratic establishment in New York hates AOC.

00:25:18.280 They've threatened to redistrict her, kick her out of her district. They've, they've tried to go up

00:25:23.240 against her. She kicked out the incumbent, Joe Crowley, one of the classic New York establishment

00:25:29.860 Dem politicians. So they don't really like her. I think she wants a little more political leverage 1.00

00:25:33.480 when she can get it. And also by calling for a full investigation, she's leaving herself an out.

00:25:39.420 This is something we talked about it last week that Democrats do. Joe Biden is doing it right now

00:25:44.480 on reparations policy. He's doing it right now. You've actually seen this beyond the federal level.

00:25:51.220 You've seen this in a number of localities where there are calls to take down monuments and

00:25:57.020 statues of historical American figures. And you'll see people will call for a panel to review

00:26:02.140 and to study it. And all this does is slow walk the decision. So you can build political consensus

00:26:09.400 for the radical position while still leaving yourself an out if you need it. So by, if AOC says,

00:26:14.980 I'm calling for a full investigation into Cuomo's handling of nursing homes, and then Cuomo's political

00:26:20.060 fortunes rise again, and it's advantageous to AOC to cuddle up to him. Well, then she can say,

00:26:25.120 all right, there was an investigation and I think it's bogus and we all need to support

00:26:29.120 Andrew Cuomo. Or if she wants to keep the political pressure up on Andrew Cuomo, she can say, yeah,

00:26:33.640 we had an investigation and this guy's got to go. This guy's a crook and you should all vote for me 0.96

00:26:38.620 instead. It sets her up well. Either way it goes, it's a win-win for her. Maybe she's not going to get 1.00

00:26:46.260 invited to the Cuomo family Sunday dinner anytime soon, but it doesn't matter what she's losing in the

00:26:52.780 affection of New York state Democrats. She's gaining in the fear that they have of her because 1.00

00:26:58.380 she still has so much power. It makes her also more of a national politician. She'll, she'll be 1.00

00:27:04.180 considered someone who can go against her own party. This is more than you can say for the White 0.99

00:27:09.780 House. Joe Biden, through his spokesman, Jen Psaki, who's not much more articulate, unfortunately,

00:27:15.680 for Joe than he is. Jen Psaki is refusing to go after Andrew Cuomo. Take a listen. 0.97

00:27:23.960 Does President Biden still consider Andrew Cuomo the gold standard when it comes to leadership on

00:27:29.420 the pandemic? Well, John, we work with Governor Cuomo just like we work with governors across the

00:27:34.160 country. He's also chair of the NGA. So he's played an important role in ensuring that we're

00:27:40.200 coordinating closely and getting assistance out to people of his state and to states across the country.

00:27:45.260 And we'll continue to do that. And there, of course, will be a process. Investigations will

00:27:50.540 leave that to others to determine the appropriate law enforcement authorities to determine how that

00:27:55.200 path is going to move as we look forward. But we are going to continue to work with a range of

00:27:59.980 governors, including, of course, Governor Cuomo, because we think the people of New York, the people

00:28:04.020 of states across the country need assistance, not just to get through the pandemic, but to get through

00:28:09.420 this difficult economic time. And that's that's where our focus remains. All right. But Jen,

00:28:14.180 my question was, does President Biden still believe that Andrew Cuomo is the gold standard,

00:28:19.740 represents the gold standard on leadership during this pandemic? Just a yes or no.

00:28:25.000 Well, John, the president, the president, well, it doesn't always have to be a yes or no answer.

00:28:30.660 Well, no, it doesn't. It doesn't have to be. No, Jen, it does. Good on John Carl for pushing back

00:28:36.460 here. He goes, you're right. It doesn't always need to be a yes or no answer, but I'm asking you

00:28:42.300 a yes or no question. And it's a simple one. Joe Biden made a declarative statement. Andrew Cuomo is

00:28:47.760 the gold standard on coronavirus. It turns out not only was he not the gold standard, he's the worst 0.52

00:28:53.500 governor in the country. His policies were the worst. They killed people at higher rates and he lied

00:29:04.160 about it. He covered it up, which is why he's now under federal investigation, unlike all the other

00:29:09.160 governors who I guess were what the silver and bronze standards. So simple question, does Joe Biden regret

00:29:15.380 his remark? Does he change his opinion now and say Cuomo is not the gold standard? She's not willing to do

00:29:21.020 it. She has to just evade the question. And I don't blame her for evading the question. I think

00:29:26.860 she actually, given the administration's stance, she does have to evade the question. The problem

00:29:31.440 with poor Ms. Psaki is she doesn't evade the question very well. Meanwhile, Joe Biden, dead wrong

00:29:38.340 on coronavirus, dead wrong on the governors that are good on coronavirus, dead wrong on even conveying

00:29:43.180 that message about coronavirus. Joe Biden wants you to be very grateful to him because before Biden

00:29:49.980 came into office, oh man, COVID, it was a total mess. We had nothing, you know, there was just,

00:29:54.640 there was no vaccine. Well, there was. And, uh, you know, uh, we didn't have it under control. Uh,

00:30:00.940 we did. Uh, and, uh, we, uh, you know, had deaths in excess of the predictions. Uh, no, that's not true.

00:30:07.620 The deaths were actually way below the predictions. Uh, but in any case, you got to thank Joe Biden.

00:30:11.760 Just over four weeks ago, America had no real plan to vaccinate most of the country.

00:30:18.800 My predecessors, my mother would say, God love them, failed to order enough vaccines,

00:30:23.800 failed to mobilize the effort to administer the shots, failed to set up vaccine centers.

00:30:30.860 That changed the moment we took office. So notice the shift here. Notice the shift.

00:30:36.720 They used to attack Trump because the deaths were going to be higher than the predictions.

00:30:43.400 Remember, but the predictions were like 2 million deaths, you know, within just a matter of months.

00:30:47.660 And that just didn't happen. The real numbers were much, much lower. So they couldn't go after Trump

00:30:52.440 on that. So then they went after Trump on, uh, his, his own policies, you know, the travel policies in

00:30:59.080 it, but Trump's policies reduced the number of infections and deaths, right? Because Trump was the

00:31:04.780 one who said, we're going to shut down travel from China. We're going to shut down travel from Europe

00:31:08.140 actually over Democrat opposition. So they can't, they can't really attack them on that. Then they

00:31:14.240 attack them on the vaccine, but Trump came out and said, we're going to have a vaccine by the fall.

00:31:19.620 It was the Democrats who said, that's not possible, including Joe Biden. Joe Biden,

00:31:23.900 people are forgetting this now because the left rewrites history because they lie about it. And then

00:31:28.220 their lackeys in the media do the work of actually rewriting it and erasing the old

00:31:33.380 questions and, you know, pushing that down the memory hole. But Joe Biden was skeptical that

00:31:40.120 there would be a vaccine, forget by the fall, that there would be a vaccine anytime in 2020,

00:31:44.700 that maybe by the very end of 2020, maybe there'd be a vaccine, but who knows?

00:31:49.160 The week before last, the head of the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Redfield said it would be

00:31:54.560 summer before the vaccine would become generally available to the public. You said that he was confused

00:32:02.740 and mistaken. Those were your two words. But Dr. Slaoui, the head of your operation,

00:32:08.900 Warspeed has said exactly the same thing. Are they both wrong?

00:32:12.520 Well, I've spoken to the companies and we can have it a lot sooner. It's a very political thing

00:32:16.420 because people like this would rather make it political than save lives.

00:32:20.200 This man is talking about a vaccine. Every serious, every serious company is talking about

00:32:26.600 maybe having a vaccine done by the end of the year. But the distribution of that vaccine will

00:32:32.440 not occur until sometime beginning or the middle of next year to get it out. If we get the vaccine

00:32:37.440 and pray God, we will. May God, we will. Mr. Vice President, I want to pick up the vaccine.

00:32:42.320 I want to pick up. This is an amazing clip. I hope that you save it. I want you, if you're watching

00:32:48.860 this, take this, clip it out, save it to your desktop. If you're listening on audio podcast,

00:32:54.980 record it on your phone because they're going to try to get rid of this clip.

00:32:59.220 Chris Wallace says the head of the CDC and the head of the operation Warp Speed,

00:33:03.860 President Trump, say that there's no way you're going to get a vaccine out this year and it's not

00:33:08.660 going to become available to the public until next summer. What do you, what are you saying

00:33:13.680 that you know better than your top genius scientists? And Trump says, yes, I do know

00:33:19.040 better than them. They're wrong. We're going to get it out much quicker. We're going to get the

00:33:22.280 vaccine by the fall and we're going to get it out to the public. Not, not too long thereafter.

00:33:28.180 Are you crazy? Oh my gosh. And Trump said, no, I'm not crazy. This is what's going to happen. 0.99

00:33:33.000 This is what's, I know this because I talk to these people in my office every day and you guys,

00:33:37.520 you, Chris Wallace and you, Joe Biden and you democratic media are just trying to make this

00:33:42.480 political so that you can score some points, but I'm right. And they're all wrong. The scientific

00:33:47.220 establishment, the media and the democratic party wrong, Trump, right? And guess what? It turns out

00:33:52.140 he was correct. Then Joe Biden, who's a little bit cagey or here, right? He says, well, you know,

00:33:58.840 I'm talking about when the vaccine is going to come out. We're not going to get that out for quite a

00:34:02.380 while. Now the vaccine did start coming out not long after, you know, to the public, not long

00:34:07.700 after it was announced. And by the way, when was the vaccine discovery announced? Days after the

00:34:13.180 election. Sounds pretty political to me too, but even given that it was days after you're talking

00:34:19.620 about the early days of November, the vaccine was announced much sooner than Biden, the Democrats

00:34:26.500 and the media pretended it would be. So all of this raises a question. Forget that Trump was right

00:34:34.620 and all the scientists, geniuses and the media and the Democrats, but I repeat myself, were wrong.

00:34:42.160 When are we going to get back to normal? You know, Fauci was asked, simple question,

00:34:48.260 when can we hug our family? When can we hug, when can we spend time with our grandparents and our

00:34:53.240 grandkids? And when can we just go back home? Fauci does not give us the answer we want.

00:35:02.240 My parents have already gotten their second dose. They're fully vaccinated. Does that mean it's okay

00:35:07.600 for them to spend time with their grandchildren who obviously have not been vaccinated? What's your

00:35:11.980 recommendation? You know, I, I'm not going to make a recommendation now, except to say that these

00:35:18.620 are things that we really do. I mean, literally every day, Dano, we look at that. We look at the

00:35:23.920 data. We look at what's evolving about how many people are getting vaccinated and there will be

00:35:28.740 recommendations coming out. I don't want to be making a recommendation now on public TV. I, we want

00:35:34.100 to sit down with the team, take a look at that and you will be seeing relaxation of some of the

00:35:40.500 stringencies as more and more people get vaccinated. I promise you that, but I don't want to really do it

00:35:45.760 right now. Now, listen here. When people talk about follow the science, I've pointed out many

00:35:51.800 times, Dr. Fauci is half a scientist, half a politician. And I'm, that's not some insult or

00:35:57.240 anything. I'm that's, that is his job. If you're in public health, then you are dealing both in

00:36:00.840 science, that's the health part and politics, which is the public part. So the CNN host asks Fauci

00:36:07.360 a scientific question is if the grandparents have been vaccinated, can you go hug your grandparents?

00:36:14.820 It's just, it's just a question about how the vaccine works. And he gives a political answer.

00:36:19.260 He says, well, I, first he says, I don't want to give a recommendation just now.

00:36:25.040 Why not? If you have, he's not saying I don't have the answer. He's not saying, I don't know what

00:36:29.460 the science says. He's saying, I don't want to give a recommendation just now. And then he gives an

00:36:35.680 even more political answer. He says, we're going to be seeing how many people get vaccinated.

00:36:39.540 And then I'm going to maybe give a recommendation.

00:36:44.600 What does the total number of people vaccinated have to do with the particular question of your

00:36:52.880 grandparents are vaccinated? Can you hug them? The risks of hugging your grandparents, if your

00:37:00.720 grandparents have been vaccinated, do not depend on whether someone has been vaccinated seven states

00:37:06.040 away, does not depend on the aggregate number of vaccinations. The particular functioning of the

00:37:12.880 vaccine in a particular circumstance does not actually have all that much to do with the

00:37:20.080 epidemiological consideration of how many people have been vaccinated. But Fauci's goal here is a

00:37:24.780 political one. He wants the greatest number of people possible to take the vaccine. So what he's

00:37:28.780 going to do is withhold your ability to see your grandparents until you be a good little boy and

00:37:35.840 comply and go get the vaccine. Even if you don't really need it, let's say you're young and healthy

00:37:39.520 and you're not really at risk. He's going to hold your grandparents hostage from you until you do that.

00:37:45.620 And then he'll give his recommendation. So Fauci was asked, are you a hypocrite, Fauci? Have you been 1.00

00:37:50.440 seeing your own family? His answer, cold as ice. Just to make it personal, I mean, you've been very open

00:37:57.260 about the fact that you've been skipping holidays with your family. You're fully vaccinated. Are you

00:38:01.640 seeing your family? Right now, not yet. Not yet. I mean, I would look forward to it within a reasonable

00:38:09.560 period of time as the rest of my family gets vaccinated. I mean, obviously, I'm with my wife

00:38:14.140 every day. She has gotten her first dose, will soon get her second dose. But my children, when they get

00:38:19.300 vaccinated, obviously, I look forward to seeing them. And I'm sure that by that time, recommendations will

00:38:25.100 come out to guide us in a more precise way. Recommendations will come out. They're your

00:38:30.480 recommendations, dude. You're the one giving them out. Fauci at the beginning of the epidemic,

00:38:36.560 remember, he said, come on, I don't really need to wear masks, all that. Masks are kind of stupid. 1.00

00:38:41.480 They don't really do anything. And look, I washed my hands. It's not a big deal. It's fine. Now he's 1.00

00:38:45.380 saying, I'm not going to see my family for months and months and months. In part, I think this is

00:38:49.000 because he's a politician. He doesn't want to get caught, as he has been caught on the masks,

00:38:52.880 violating his own mandates, right? Fauci says, you always have to wear a mask. He wears a mask

00:38:56.920 on the baseball diamond in the middle of the baseball field when he's dribbling the first

00:39:00.400 pitch at the Nationals game. But then when he thinks the cameras are off him in the stands,

00:39:04.200 he's sitting next to friends of his that he doesn't even live with. And he's got the mask off

00:39:07.280 and he's chatting because he just thinks he's not going to get caught. He's been photographed like

00:39:11.740 this before. So he doesn't want to get caught with the family. In part, I assume this is his worldview.

00:39:15.520 You know, for Fauci, the most, for an epidemiologist, if your chief goal is to prevent

00:39:22.440 infection, then you're going to orient all of your actions and behaviors to prevent those sorts of

00:39:26.720 infections. Me, I'm not an epidemiologist. I'm just a dude. I'm a dumb Catholic. We talked at the top of

00:39:32.540 the show. I'm of Italian extraction. You know, I'm American. I'm a New Yorker. So because my identity

00:39:38.200 is not chiefly wrapped up in not catching colds and flus and various viruses that go around,

00:39:43.400 I prioritize other things. I'm not, I have other goals and I have greater goals in life than not

00:39:50.200 catching the coronavirus. Fauci, namely seeing my family, seeing my grandparents, you know,

00:39:55.240 I prioritize those things over not catching the, the Wu flu. Fauci does not. These are different

00:40:02.600 visions, political visions, moral visions, and ethical visions, and ours are better and his are perverse.

00:40:07.520 The question then becomes, when are we going to get back to normal?

00:40:17.480 Dr. Fauci was interviewed on CNN, and this is a simple question. And actually,

00:40:22.060 to the credit of the CNN interviewer, she, she asks it directly. Fauci, tell us,

00:40:29.000 you know, we had 15 days to slow the spread. It seems like that was a lifetime ago.

00:40:32.900 So we're coming up on a year of 15 days to slow the spread. When can life return to normal?

00:40:39.340 You and the president have suggested that we'll approach normality toward the end of the year.

00:40:44.860 What does normal mean? Do you think Americans will still be wearing masks, for example, in 2022?

00:40:52.060 You know, I think it is possible that that's the case. And again, it really depends on what you mean

00:40:58.560 by normality. Right. That's what I want you to define it. Exactly the way it. No, Dana, it's

00:41:05.340 important. Good for her. I like this lady. You know, she probably says a lot of liberal things. 1.00

00:41:10.560 I don't watch her show really ever, but I love that she's pushing Fauci here because she goes,

00:41:14.720 okay, so come on, dude, when are we getting back to normal? Well, you know, it depends on what you

00:41:19.240 mean by normal. Right. I'm asking you that question. Why don't you answer it, Fauci,

00:41:24.940 after 11 freaking months of this nonsense and you constantly contradicting yourself and changing 0.91

00:41:31.260 your guidance at a moment's notice and constantly moving the goalposts another two weeks, another 0.81

00:41:36.000 few months, another several years. Tell me, you tell me. And then what does Fauci do? Because he's

00:41:40.860 caught. Oh, well, you know. Oh yeah. He's a classic back-slapping politician, Anthony Fauci. Oh yeah.

00:41:50.940 Well, yeah. No, it's a good question. It's, I know it's a good question, pal. We've been asking it

00:41:57.460 since last March and you have given answers and then contradicted those answers and then moved the

00:42:03.960 goalposts, contradicted yourself again, sometimes outright lied and admitted the lie, by the way.

00:42:10.960 You remember, people are going to memory hole this one too. Dr. Fauci said, don't wear masks. Masks

00:42:15.740 don't really do anything in a pandemic. Then when he was, when he changed his guidance, he was asked,

00:42:22.360 wait, hold on. Wait, why'd you change your guidance? He says, well, look, the reason I, I'll do it in the

00:42:27.040 Fauci voice. Well, look, the reason, although this is a paraphrase, I don't think it's a direct quote.

00:42:31.100 The reason that I told people not to wear masks is because there was a fear that the healthcare

00:42:36.600 workers wouldn't get the masks. So even though I knew the masks were really, really good,

00:42:41.860 and I, at least in my Fauci mind, believed the masks to be good, I only wanted certain people to

00:42:47.500 get them, not other people. So I told the other people that they weren't good so that the people

00:42:52.380 who I wanted to get the masks could get them. That, that is a lie, right? Well, and then he sort of

00:42:58.120 tries to defend it and says, does science change? Well, but we're not talking about the science here.

00:43:02.620 You made this political declaration, this political guidance here. So she calls him on his BS.

00:43:10.280 He finally sort of answers the question. Normality means exactly the way things were before we had

00:43:18.520 this happen to us. I mean, I can't predict that. I mean, obviously I think we're going to have a

00:43:23.680 significant degree of normality beyond what the terrible burden that all of us have been through

00:43:31.480 over the last year that as we get into the fall and the winter, by the end of the year,

00:43:37.120 I agree with the president completely that we will be approaching a degree of normality.

00:43:42.620 It may or may not be precisely the way it was in November of 2019, but it'll be much,

00:43:48.260 much better than what we're doing right now.

00:43:50.440 It'll be much, much better than what we're doing right now. So says Dr. Fauci. Yeah,

00:43:58.140 we might not really get back to normal, but it'll be better. Don't worry. You'll like it. Trust me.

00:44:02.920 The only thing I trust that Dr. Fauci has said is when he said, I can't predict.

00:44:09.880 That's it. Those three words, that's what I trust him to say. The rest I take with a grain of

00:44:15.980 salt because the thing about normality is normality has to do with norms. Something we were talking

00:44:24.000 about earlier in the show, Joe Biden, when he wrote off genocide against the Uyghurs in China as

00:44:28.380 a cultural norm. Norms are the sorts of things that Dr. Fauci doesn't get to dictate, at least not in a

00:44:36.680 healthy country. Norms are the sort of things that we just all do. Norms has to do with politics

00:44:41.740 and culture. We're supposed to have a say in our norms, but we've become atrophied in our ability

00:44:50.240 to exercise self-government here in the United States. And we've exported all those norms to

00:44:56.140 Dr. Fauci. So we talk about the new normal, the masks and the no shaking hands and not seeing your

00:45:02.800 grandpa, not going to church. That will become normal if we do it for long enough. Some people

00:45:09.040 might suggest that that's one of the reasons that politicians are exploiting the Wu flu and dragging 0.96

00:45:15.020 this out is to turn certain aberrant behaviors into normality. The longer this goes, every minute

00:45:22.680 that this goes on, it becomes more normal. Now people feel abnormal if they walk into a store

00:45:31.740 without some filthy cloth mask over their face. Now people feel abnormal if they shake hands. You know,

00:45:37.920 from the beginning of this epidemic, just about, I have ignored all of these guidelines as best I can

00:45:45.600 with some exceptions. You can't, you're not allowed on an airplane if you don't wear the mask, so I have

00:45:48.800 to wear the mask. But otherwise I see a ton of people. I go to events with lots of people. I rarely

00:45:54.920 if ever wear the mask. I shake hands. Basically my biggest concession to the virus is I no longer

00:46:00.680 French kiss strangers as I approach them on the street. Other than that, you know, things are 1.00

00:46:06.540 pretty normal. Handshakes, hugs. I'm seeing relatives. I just, I just don't care to listen

00:46:11.460 to this twerp Fauci. I just, this, this guy who would upend our political order and, and bully us

00:46:19.860 into doing it and contradict himself while he's doing it. But this is becoming the norm. It's why

00:46:25.900 time matters. You know, in liberal societies, we kind of forget about time. We delay having kids. We

00:46:30.260 delay getting married. We delay doing this. We delay doing that because we just think we have all the

00:46:34.420 time in the world. We don't. We don't. Politically we don't either. You know, President Trump is

00:46:40.080 slated to speak at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference. He's apparently going to speak

00:46:46.120 about the future of the Republican Party. And this is very important. Time is of the essence here because

00:46:53.440 things are changing. Norms are changing very quickly. And we, we need to focus in on, on not just how

00:47:01.180 things have been and not just even how things were upended, but what kind of country we want

00:47:07.200 in the future. Do we want the technocratic liberalism of the Fauci's of the world? Or do

00:47:13.360 we want some different kind of norm going into the future? And what are we going to ground that norm on?

00:47:17.940 I suppose we'll have to wait and see, but we can, we can do some of that work to, to determine what

00:47:22.620 country do we want. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles Show. See you tomorrow.

00:47:32.640 If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe. And if you want to help spread the

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00:47:42.780 Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Also, be sure to check out the other

00:47:48.340 Daily Wire podcasts, including The Ben Shapiro Show, The Andrew Klavan Show, and The Matt Walsh Show.

00:47:53.400 The Michael Knowles Show is produced by Ben Davies. Executive producer, Jeremy Boring. Our technical

00:47:59.080 director is Austin Stevens. Supervising producers, Mathis Glover and Robert Sterling. Production manager,

00:48:05.500 Pavel Vidovsky. Editor and associate producer, Danny D'Amico. Audio mixer, Mike Coromina. Hair and

00:48:12.180 makeup by Nika Geneva. And production coordinator, McKenna Waters. The Michael Knowles Show is a Daily Wire

00:48:18.100 production. Copyright Daily Wire 2021. Disney adds an offensive content disclaimer to the Muppets.

00:48:24.620 Dr. Fauci declares that we may have to wear masks into 2022, and Kendall Jenner faces claims of cultural

00:48:30.320 appropriation. Also, Alexandria Queza-Cortez takes a trip down to Texas to, quote, help during the winter

00:48:35.280 storm. All of that and much more today on The Matt Walsh Show.

The Michael Knowles Show - February 22, 2021

Ep. 705 - Being Less White

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