The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 85 - The Art Of The Deal： A Play-By-Play

00:00:00.000 The king of reality TV just gave us one of his best episodes yet.

00:00:04.860 We will break down the DACA meeting scene by scene, line by line,

00:00:09.120 Democrat humiliation by Democrat humiliation.

00:00:11.580 Then, Allie Stuckey, Bradley Devlin, and Jacob Airy join the panel of deplorables

00:00:16.020 to discuss Trump's path to firing half of the EPA staff by the end of his first term,

00:00:21.960 absurd judicial overreach, and Warren Buffett's warning on Bitcoin.

00:00:26.100 I'm Michael Knowles, and this is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:00:30.000 What an incredible meeting yesterday at the White House.

00:00:38.600 So for those of you who didn't see it, Donald Trump invited up congressional leaders,

00:00:42.980 Senate leaders, and House leaders from both parties, cameras on.

00:00:47.300 He invited the press in the whole time, sitting around the table,

00:00:50.680 to talk about DACA and to talk about immigration.

00:00:53.200 This is his signature issue, and this is a very contentious issue,

00:00:56.700 and it has been a contentious issue for almost a century now.

00:01:00.720 And Donald Trump invited everyone in to do this.

00:01:03.620 Now, that does make him the most transparent administration in recent history.

00:01:08.380 He's been very open with the press.

00:01:10.260 He'll go on and speak to them at length, without scripts.

00:01:13.880 He's transparent in part because there have been so many leaks also coming from the White House.

00:01:20.100 But contrary to what people predicted, that he would be an autocrat, that he would be a tyrannical,

00:01:26.020 he hasn't been.

00:01:26.760 He's been very open.

00:01:28.360 And of course he is.

00:01:29.380 We always should have predicted this.

00:01:31.160 He pioneered reality television.

00:01:33.300 He pioneered a genre where people invite cameramen into their homes,

00:01:37.320 into their most private moments, into their bedrooms, and let them film him all the time.

00:01:41.120 Of course he's going to be transparent.

00:01:43.240 He couldn't be anything but transparent because that is his strength.

00:01:47.040 Playing to his strength, inviting cameras into his private life is something he's been doing since the 1980s.

00:01:53.020 So of course he's going to bring it into his White House and into his presidency.

00:01:57.860 And unfortunately for some of the politicians in our room who are not used to that kind of scrutiny

00:02:02.740 and that kind of clarity and transparency, doesn't totally play well for them.

00:02:06.860 And it really makes him look good.

00:02:08.140 Now this is not completely unprecedented.

00:02:10.120 Barack Obama held at one sort of similar meeting during his push for health care, for Obamacare.

00:02:15.200 But he totally botched it.

00:02:16.540 Here's Obama.

00:02:17.740 ...know that geography does not dictate what kind of health care they would receive.

00:02:22.920 I thank you, Mr. President.

00:02:25.260 Let me just make this point, John, because we're not campaigning anymore.

00:02:30.800 The election's over.

00:02:33.320 I'm reminded of that every day.

00:02:34.800 That, a total botch.

00:02:40.500 I mean, absolutely awful.

00:02:42.060 That's probably why he didn't make it a regular feature of his presidency

00:02:45.480 and why he presided over one of the least transparent administrations in American history.

00:02:50.800 He's there.

00:02:51.640 He can't help but be this crass, mean politician because all Barack Obama knows from his entire life is politics.

00:02:58.420 He, all he ever did was write about himself and why he should be elected president

00:03:02.800 before he actually was elected to Illinois State Senate and then the Senate for five seconds and then the presidency.

00:03:09.000 So he has to get those barbs.

00:03:10.980 All he knows is that little political attack.

00:03:12.920 Donald Trump knows much more than that.

00:03:14.160 He knows how to entertain and he has been a businessman for his entire adult life.

00:03:18.140 So it just allows him to interact with people and to interact with the cameras much better.

00:03:24.020 Here is Trump.

00:03:24.640 Here's how he opens.

00:03:26.380 Well, thank you very much, everyone, for being here.

00:03:28.580 I'm thrilled to be with a distinguished group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers from both the House and the Senate.

00:03:36.940 We have something in common.

00:03:38.400 We'd like to see this get done.

00:03:41.120 And you know what this means.

00:03:42.420 We're here today to advance bipartisan immigration reform that serves the needs of the American families, workers, and taxpayers.

00:03:52.800 It's DACA.

00:03:54.100 We've been talking about DACA for a long time.

00:03:56.200 I've been hearing about it for years, long before I decided to go into this particular line of work.

00:04:01.800 And maybe we can do something.

00:04:03.660 We have a lot of good people in this room, a lot of people that have a great spirit for taking care of people we represent, we all represent.

00:04:12.700 So you have Barack Obama in a similar sort of meeting, and he says, well, John, the campaign's over.

00:04:18.040 Wah, wah, wah.

00:04:18.760 I'm the president.

00:04:19.620 Wah, wah, wah.

00:04:20.260 And this is all, wah, wah, wah, right?

00:04:21.520 And Donald Trump opens up in a completely different tone, the opposite tone.

00:04:24.960 He says, we have a lot of good people here.

00:04:26.720 This problem has preceded me.

00:04:29.180 It's been around long before I was around as president.

00:04:32.820 And so, you know, we're going to take on this together.

00:04:37.000 I didn't ask to take this.

00:04:38.120 I didn't create the problem.

00:04:39.280 But now I'm in this line of work.

00:04:40.380 We're going to do it.

00:04:41.000 So what are the priorities?

00:04:41.920 The border security agents, the ICE agents, we have to give them the equipment they need.

00:04:50.460 We have to close loopholes.

00:04:52.780 And this really does include a very strong amount of different things for border security.

00:05:00.860 I think everybody in the room would agree to that.

00:05:02.720 I think that it's a question of amounts.

00:05:06.340 But I think everyone agrees we have to have border security.

00:05:08.760 I don't think there'd be anybody that says no.

00:05:11.080 Everybody agrees, right?

00:05:12.180 We all, we totally agree on that.

00:05:14.400 This is a verbal tick, particularly of New Yorkers.

00:05:17.260 But it's really fun and transparent and effective.

00:05:21.060 My stepbrother and I, you know, in New York, we would do this to each other all the time and say,

00:05:25.040 Hey, so I can have some of your whiskey?

00:05:27.780 Yeah.

00:05:27.960 Oh, hey, I can have your cigar.

00:05:29.680 What you do by saying, look, we all agree on this.

00:05:32.320 We're really just debating about this.

00:05:33.760 You're assuming the premise.

00:05:35.340 You're making people assume a premise that they might otherwise not take.

00:05:39.620 Donald Trump does this all the time, by the way.

00:05:42.100 He blows past premises and gets you to negotiating on his own terms.

00:05:45.480 So the most famous example is the central campaign promise.

00:05:48.720 We're going to build the wall and Mexico will pay for it. 0.92

00:05:52.360 That's the great example.

00:05:53.760 Before Donald Trump, building a wall across the southern border of the United States was a very controversial position.

00:06:00.500 Many people opposed it, even within the Republican Party.

00:06:03.060 Donald Trump didn't say, I'm going to build a wall and that's my strong point.

00:06:05.940 He said, of course we're going to build the wall.

00:06:07.220 The question is just who's going to pay for it, and he's going to make an apparently ridiculous claim of who's going to pay for it.

00:06:12.820 So the whole conversation became about who would pay for the wall.

00:06:16.640 They just swallowed that they're going to build the wall, a whole cloth.

00:06:20.120 Now, what else will be in the final agreement?

00:06:24.180 I'm not sure I can speak for everybody, but a lot of the people in this room want to see chain migration ended.

00:06:29.920 And we have a recent case along the West Side Highway having to do with chain migration, where a man ran over, killed eight people, and many people injured badly.

00:06:43.380 Loss of arms, loss of legs.

00:06:45.780 Horrible thing happened.

00:06:46.900 And then you look at the chain and all the people that came in because of him.

00:06:50.500 Terrible situation.

00:06:52.220 And the others canceled the lottery program.

00:06:55.020 They call it visa lottery.

00:06:56.160 I just call it lottery, where countries come in and they put names in a hopper.

00:07:01.400 They're not giving you their best names.

00:07:02.920 Common sense means they're not giving you their best names.

00:07:05.320 They're giving you people that they don't want.

00:07:06.860 And then we take them out of the lottery.

00:07:09.900 And where they do it by hand, where they put the hand in a bowl, probably what's in their hand are the worst of the worst.

00:07:17.640 Notice the graphic, vivid language.

00:07:20.160 He opens up.

00:07:20.880 So he's been so nice.

00:07:21.780 We have a lot of great people in the room.

00:07:23.360 And then he opens up and immediately ties the issue of the border wall and the Dreamer or DACA people, 0.89

00:07:29.400 these people who were brought into the United States before they were fully grown adults.

00:07:34.640 He ties it to a terrorist attack in New York.

00:07:36.860 A radical Muslim terrorist attack that happened just last year.

00:07:40.280 And he's talking about body parts flying away. 0.75

00:07:42.660 I mean, really gross stuff, but things that create a very vivid picture in your mind.

00:07:46.780 He then moves on to the lottery.

00:07:48.540 And he says, some people call it the visa lottery.

00:07:50.840 I call it the lottery.

00:07:52.320 And by the way, there's no difference here, right?

00:07:54.140 He's not actually making any categorical distinction or substantive difference between the two.

00:07:58.920 He just knows that the language of visa lottery, you kind of your eyes glaze over what's a visa exactly.

00:08:04.700 I know it has to do with immigration and travel.

00:08:06.340 But for most Americans, they just, okay, I guess.

00:08:09.320 But he says it's the lottery, like when you go buy a lottery ticket.

00:08:12.380 And so he's got this image of your hand reaching into the bowl.

00:08:16.080 And, ah, yes, Juan Lopez Gonzalez, he's going to come in now and reaching into the bowl because that is absurd.

00:08:22.860 And the lottery system, as it currently stands, is absurd.

00:08:25.840 And he's drawing that comparison.

00:08:27.820 Listen, all of these images are floating around in your mind.

00:08:31.280 So that's how he frames the discussion.

00:08:32.660 Then he turns the cameras on the people in the room.

00:08:34.440 We also, as you know, it was passed in 2006, a essentially similar thing, a fence, a very substantial fence was passed.

00:08:45.960 But unfortunately, I don't know, they never got it done.

00:08:48.260 But they need it.

00:08:49.200 That's the beginning of that line.

00:08:52.780 Politicians are all talk.

00:08:53.740 Donald Trump is a man of action.

00:08:55.720 All talk, no action politicians.

00:08:57.560 And then Donald Trump.

00:08:58.640 But he points out, he says, you know, you already voted for this.

00:09:00.920 You already voted for this.

00:09:03.120 And a lot of Democrats already voted for that. 0.77

00:09:04.680 He starts calling them out because he says, look, this isn't me just being crazy and you're all dealing with me being crazy.

00:09:10.640 What you have done is what I am now executing.

00:09:13.940 You talked a lot about it.

00:09:15.160 Now we're going to make it happen.

00:09:16.140 That's why we brought you here.

00:09:18.240 And as a matter of fact, speaking of that, isn't it a little curious who's sitting right next to him? 0.86

00:09:23.880 Dick, perhaps you'd like to say a few words?

00:09:25.940 Well, thanks, Mr. President, for inviting us.

00:09:28.000 We're all honored to be part of this conversation.

00:09:30.800 September the 5th, you challenged us.

00:09:32.760 You challenged Congress.

00:09:33.700 He said, we're going to end DACA and I'll replace it. 0.56

00:09:37.020 As of today, we've not done that.

00:09:39.680 Dick Durbin is sitting right next to him.

00:09:42.220 He's the assistant Democrat leader, the second highest ranking Democrat in the Senate.

00:09:46.140 It's not Chuck Schumer, by the way.

00:09:47.520 It's not the leader.

00:09:48.540 It's the assistant.

00:09:49.520 It's a guy.

00:09:50.000 Trump is reigning supreme here.

00:09:51.980 But to his right, he's got the second highest ranking Democrat in the Senate.

00:09:55.860 And by the way, on his other side is Steny Hoyer, another Democrat, the Democrat minority whip,

00:10:00.720 one of the highest ranking Democrats in Congress.

00:10:04.060 But it isn't Chuck and Nancy.

00:10:05.820 It's not Nancy Pelosi.

00:10:06.720 They lost their chance.

00:10:07.840 These are guys that we can make a deal with.

00:10:09.720 And listen to how respectful they are to him.

00:10:12.840 It isn't the resistance.

00:10:14.080 We're expecting, yeah, show him, shove it right in his eye, shove a fork in his eye, the resistance.

00:10:18.420 And then he says, oh, thank you for inviting us here.

00:10:20.300 Oh, we didn't expect this.

00:10:21.640 Maybe the government is being run differently than the mainstream media are telling us.

00:10:26.320 Democrats can't back away here.

00:10:28.060 They can't back away.

00:10:28.820 They're framed exactly on either side of him.

00:10:31.760 They are part of this.

00:10:33.060 And what they get out of it is that they look like they have a seat at the table.

00:10:37.000 They get some credibility.

00:10:38.200 They're not just screaming little children.

00:10:40.380 Donald Trump is showing them some respect.

00:10:42.420 And they're going to have to show him some respect in return if they don't want to get booted out of the room like Chuck and Nancy.

00:10:47.080 So let's turn to the other side and talk to Steny Hoyer.

00:10:50.680 In my view, we can pass the protection in the, what I understand your position is, procedurally, it was not done correctly.

00:11:02.380 You then, as Dick has said, challenged us, pass it correctly.

00:11:07.400 That's incredible.

00:11:08.500 You now have the Democrat House whip basically admitting that Barack Obama violated the law.

00:11:13.760 He's saying this wasn't done correctly.

00:11:16.180 It wasn't Barack Obama didn't do this correctly.

00:11:18.320 Now we have to do it correctly.

00:11:19.460 I wonder if this was scripted.

00:11:21.440 If these points, these talking points were agreed upon by these three men ahead of time, clearly some terms were agreed upon for these opening remarks.

00:11:29.500 That in itself is a significant deal, saying we'll give you this.

00:11:33.340 We'll give you this public showing if you give us this public showing.

00:11:35.880 It's not like they went in there and ad-libbed it.

00:11:37.420 They had all of this scripted out.

00:11:39.900 The question is, what did they each know about where it was going to go?

00:11:43.280 You'll see at some points in the conversation, the conversation gets sidetracked.

00:11:46.880 This meeting goes off the rails a little bit.

00:11:48.980 They pull it back in.

00:11:49.960 But a lot of it is pre-scripted.

00:11:51.780 So Trump, in his typically subtle way, didn't want anybody to miss the point that the Democrat to his left just made.

00:11:59.500 I agree with him on that issue.

00:12:01.140 And interestingly, when you say that, President Obama, when he signed the executive order, actually said he doesn't have the right to do this.

00:12:08.320 And so you do have to go through Congress, and you do have to make it permanent.

00:12:12.340 Just in case you missed that, we wouldn't want you to miss that.

00:12:14.600 We wouldn't want anybody to miss what he just said. 0.99

00:12:16.360 But now notice how reasonable Donald Trump sounds as he's making that point, as he's saying Barack Obama's a dirty criminal liar. 0.98

00:12:22.780 Notice how reasonable. 1.00

00:12:23.920 That Michael Wolff book, that tabloid trash, has alleged that Donald Trump is a screaming baby. 0.99

00:12:29.100 He's all emotion. 0.99

00:12:29.900 He's all reactive.

00:12:30.880 Totally impulsive.

00:12:31.740 He can barely form a sentence.

00:12:33.260 We're not seeing that here.

00:12:34.240 Not only is he calm, he's conducting this discussion like an adult, like he's the adult in the room.

00:12:40.220 He's even being conciliatory.

00:12:42.060 We also know, by the way, a little sidebar, we know that the claim about Trump being impulsive, reckless, emotional, we know that isn't true because of Steve Bannon, because of how Donald Trump treated Steve Bannon.

00:12:53.440 Bannon was making a lot of shaky comments, negative comments, leaking things to Donald Trump since the moment he was fired, even before he was fired.

00:13:01.760 But Donald Trump held his fire.

00:13:03.240 He said, okay, we're not going to play around just yet.

00:13:06.640 It was only after Bannon lost Alabama, incredibly, a Herculean task and achievement for a Republican to lose Alabama.

00:13:16.080 So he's at his lowest point professionally, and he calls Trump and his family traitors.

00:13:20.360 Then he drops the hammer.

00:13:21.800 But all of this President Bannon, Trump doesn't know anything, he's just a vessel for my movement, he let that slide.

00:13:27.860 He played very nicely while Bannon was still relatively loyal, and then he pounced.

00:13:31.580 But that was planned out.

00:13:33.320 That wasn't just emotional one night he got angry and tweeted at Bannon.

00:13:37.500 So that, you can have one or the other, but you can't have both criticisms simultaneously of Donald Trump.

00:13:42.720 Okay, Mr. Conciliator, let's get some people on the record, okay?

00:13:45.820 This room would agree to that also, but we'll do it in steps.

00:13:50.280 And most people agree with that, I think, Rick.

00:13:52.240 We'll do it in steps.

00:13:52.900 Even you said, let's do this, and then we go phase two.

00:13:55.840 Kevin, what would you like to say?

00:13:57.240 He's like a parent mediating between children.

00:14:00.700 We've been told that he's the child.

00:14:02.180 Dealing with him is like dealing with a child.

00:14:03.900 But that's not what we're seeing.

00:14:04.680 I say, look, this is, and as you said, as you have already said, we need to do this, and we're going to have to negotiate and do this.

00:14:11.840 But he's the one there right in the middle.

00:14:14.300 He's even mediating between people within their own parties.

00:14:18.560 So now that the stage is set, let's start talking about the legislative solution itself.

00:14:23.260 Well, I think a good starting point would be Bob Goodlack, who has done a bill, and I understand you're ready to submit it.

00:14:30.920 And you're going to take that, and you'll submit, and they'll negotiate in Congress or the House.

00:14:36.340 And then it goes to the Senate, and they'll negotiate, both Republican and Democrat.

00:14:40.040 But it could be a good way of starting.

00:14:41.440 Now, if anyone has an idea different from that, but I think starting in the House might be good.

00:14:47.320 You're ready? I think you're ready to go?

00:14:49.420 I would like to add the words merit into any bill that's submitted, because I think we should have merit-based immigration like they have in Canada, like they have in Australia.

00:14:59.520 So we have people coming in that have a great track record as opposed to what we're doing now, to be honest with you.

00:15:08.400 Oh, I don't know. That seems like a good solution.

00:15:10.440 Hey, guys, just off the top of my head, I'm just spitballing here.

00:15:12.980 How about we start with the Republican plan for immigration in DACA?

00:15:16.100 How about we do that?

00:15:17.100 Obviously, we're going to start with good lad's bill.

00:15:19.280 And what Trump does is he immediately appears to break with it.

00:15:22.060 So he's sort of playing that, oh, I don't know, just came to my top of my head.

00:15:24.660 But, you know, by the way, before we do it, we're going to have to add merit.

00:15:28.000 All of these conversations have already happened.

00:15:29.740 This is totally performed for the cameras.

00:15:32.120 It's the performance of reality for the cameras.

00:15:34.360 Gee, who would be good at performing reality on television?

00:15:38.220 I can't.

00:15:39.160 Then his name escapes me.

00:15:40.360 Of course.

00:15:40.920 So nobody's going to disagree with that.

00:15:42.400 But did you catch his other line?

00:15:43.440 He says, does anybody else have a bill to start with?

00:15:46.120 Does anybody else?

00:15:47.660 Does anybody else have another idea?

00:15:49.500 The cameras are on.

00:15:50.700 Here's your chance.

00:15:51.800 You're always complaining.

00:15:53.240 You're always saying that we're not listening to you and you're being shut out.

00:15:56.620 What's your plan?

00:15:57.400 Do you have any plans?

00:15:58.380 And the Democrats are dead silent.

00:16:00.000 Throughout the meeting, Trump does this.

00:16:01.720 Hey, Johnny, Sally, do you want to add something?

00:16:04.280 Do you want to speak?

00:16:05.580 Because when you go on CNN later, you're going to say that we shut you up.

00:16:08.420 So here's your chance.

00:16:09.560 Speak up if you have anything.

00:16:10.760 Absolutely not.

00:16:11.780 It's easy to shriek resist and resist on CNN.

00:16:15.760 But now it's much harder.

00:16:17.500 Now it is much more difficult when the cameras are on you and you actually have to legislate.

00:16:22.740 So now we get to precisely what Donald Trump wants the public to take away from this meeting.

00:16:28.860 He gets things done.

00:16:30.300 He is not an all-talk, no-action politician.

00:16:33.300 He does things.

00:16:34.480 Take it away.

00:16:35.700 Thank you.

00:16:36.360 Very well said.

00:16:37.180 You know, one of the reasons I'm here, Chuck, so importantly is exactly that.

00:16:41.760 I mean, normally you wouldn't have a president coming to this meeting.

00:16:44.200 Normally, frankly, you'd have Democrats, Republicans, and maybe nothing would get done.

00:16:49.400 You know, our system lends itself to not getting things done.

00:16:53.200 And I hear so much about earmarks, the old earmark system,

00:16:56.960 how there was a great friendliness when you had earmarks.

00:16:59.740 But, of course, they had other problems with earmarks.

00:17:02.220 But maybe all of you should start thinking about going back to a form of earmarks.

00:17:06.620 Because this system...

00:17:07.960 This system...

00:17:09.960 This system really lends itself to not getting along.

00:17:21.120 It lends itself to hostility and anger.

00:17:24.080 And they hate the Republicans and they hate the Democrats.

00:17:27.060 And, you know, in the old days of earmarks,

00:17:29.120 you can say what you want about certain presidents and others

00:17:32.560 where they all talk about they went out to dinner at night

00:17:34.940 and they all got along and they passed bills.

00:17:37.380 That was an earmark system.

00:17:39.340 And maybe we should think about it and we have to put better controls

00:17:42.580 because it got a little bit out of hand.

00:17:44.120 But maybe that brings people together.

00:17:46.540 I love it.

00:17:47.420 I think Donald Trump is the first president in history

00:17:49.440 to publicly campaign on earmarks, that we need more earmarks.

00:17:54.340 The reason this sounds a little strange,

00:17:55.780 an earmark is pork barrel spending is what they call it, right?

00:17:58.140 And it says, well, if you come over on this piece of legislation for me,

00:18:03.680 I'll give you...

00:18:04.680 I'll vote for the post office in your district

00:18:06.700 and then we can both benefit and get re-elected, right?

00:18:09.120 John McCain turned the Republican and conservative opinion against this

00:18:12.840 when he ran for president.

00:18:14.180 He turned a lot of Republicans against earmarks

00:18:16.000 because, for one precise reason,

00:18:19.060 because John McCain is a big government,

00:18:21.980 spend-a-lot-of-money Republican.

00:18:23.720 He's a liberal Republican.

00:18:25.440 So he knew that if he was going to run against spending,

00:18:28.140 he couldn't run against the actual drivers of the debt and deficit,

00:18:32.220 which are Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security,

00:18:34.500 big entitlement programs, big federal programs.

00:18:36.740 He couldn't run against military spending.

00:18:39.240 John McCain is one of the biggest hawks in the United States Senate.

00:18:42.720 So he had to run against the only other little spending,

00:18:45.740 which is pork barrel spending.

00:18:47.540 The irony is, though, that pork barrel spending,

00:18:50.020 those earmarks, really didn't constitute even a blip on the federal budget.

00:18:54.340 That was a little slush here and there to make votes easier.

00:18:57.640 But all of the drivers are those federal programs that John McCain supports.

00:19:02.340 So it was a big distraction.

00:19:04.000 It distracted Republicans for a couple election cycles. 0.69

00:19:06.320 But we shouldn't be distracted by that.

00:19:08.200 The earmarks are nothing compared to the big challenges,

00:19:11.400 which are federal regulation, massive federal program spending,

00:19:14.840 and then entitlement spending, which actually drives our deficits.

00:19:18.060 So Trump, here then, Trump negotiates negotiation itself.

00:19:23.280 This is pretty masterful.

00:19:24.420 There are some things that you're proposing that are going to be very controversial

00:19:29.400 and will be an impediment to agreement.

00:19:32.060 But you're going to negotiate those things.

00:19:33.860 You're going to sit down.

00:19:34.860 You're going to say, listen, we can't agree here.

00:19:36.540 We'll give you half of that.

00:19:38.280 You're going to negotiate those things.

00:19:39.520 Mr. President, comprehensive means comprehensive.

00:19:41.480 No, we're not talking about comprehensive.

00:19:42.580 Now we're talking about comprehensive.

00:19:43.480 No, we are talking about comprehensive.

00:19:45.320 If you want to go there, it's okay, because you're not that far away.

00:19:47.620 Mr. President, many of the things that are mentioned

00:19:49.600 ought to be a part of the negotiations regarding comprehensive immigration reform.

00:19:54.280 If you want to take it this step further, you may, I'm going to have to rely on you.

00:19:57.640 You may complicate it, and you may delay DACA somewhat.

00:20:02.640 So, if you just missed that, he pits the Democrat congressional leaders against one another

00:20:08.960 with the entire American public watching and the entire press corps filming the whole thing.

00:20:13.500 So, he says, oh, you want comprehensive immigration reform?

00:20:16.200 Is that where this conversation is going?

00:20:18.120 Sure, we all want that, but that may delay DACA.

00:20:21.360 You know that thing that we're all here talking about that you insisted we talk about?

00:20:24.280 Well, we may delay DACA, and there's that threat.

00:20:27.060 And it's not a fire and fury threat.

00:20:29.080 It's legitimately a subtle threat.

00:20:32.500 So, you have, then on the other side, Dick Durbin, the Democrat Dick Durbin says,

00:20:36.560 no, no, no, we're not talking about comprehensive.

00:20:38.520 We're talking about DACA. 0.99

00:20:39.840 Shut up, Steny. 0.99

00:20:41.320 Stay focused. 1.00

00:20:42.240 And it's great, because it makes them look like they're squabbling.

00:20:45.200 They don't have their act together.

00:20:46.460 They don't have their agenda together.

00:20:48.120 Trump splits them.

00:20:48.920 And so, he's putting a wedge between them.

00:20:50.700 Great job.

00:20:51.400 This is one of the biggest wins for the Republicans in the meeting.

00:20:54.820 It gave Democrats the opportunity to humiliate themselves.

00:20:58.300 Here is Democrat Henry Quellar.

00:21:00.540 If you look at the latest DEA, if you're worried about drugs, look at the latest DEA report.

00:21:07.160 More drugs come through the ports of entry than in between ports.

00:21:11.580 But we're not even talking about ports of entry, number one.

00:21:14.500 Our bill does.

00:21:14.980 Our bill does.

00:21:15.340 I'm just saying, I'm just saying, I'm just saying, ports, let's finish this.

00:21:20.640 And some of us have been working this longer than some other folks.

00:21:23.660 Number one, if you look at the 11 or 12 million undocumented aliens, which is a second phase, 0.99

00:21:29.100 40% of them came through visa overstay.

00:21:31.680 So, you can put the most beautiful wall out there.

00:21:34.160 It's not going to stop them there, because they'll either come by plane, boat, or vehicle itself.

00:21:40.220 That's in our bill, too.

00:21:40.980 Yeah, and I know.

00:21:42.400 So, the other thing is, the other thing that we've got to look at, the wall itself, Mr. President,

00:21:47.860 if you talk to your Border Patrol chief or the former Border Patrol chiefs, I've asked them,

00:21:52.960 how much time does the wall buy you?

00:21:55.620 They'll say a couple minutes or a few seconds.

00:21:58.740 And it is just our own Border Patrol chiefs that have said that.

00:22:01.520 Don't mind.

00:22:01.980 But, but...

00:22:02.660 Not the ones I suspect it.

00:22:04.100 Well...

00:22:04.720 Not the ones I suspect it.

00:22:05.620 They say without the wall...

00:22:07.020 All right.

00:22:08.480 Smackdown, Smackdown, Smackdown. 0.76

00:22:09.960 He brings up a point.

00:22:10.760 Nope, not true.

00:22:11.480 Brings up another point.

00:22:12.240 Nope, sorry.

00:22:13.120 Also not true.

00:22:13.840 And he has to say, because he's a politician, so he can't say, oh, well, I didn't know that.

00:22:18.000 He says, oh, yeah, I know.

00:22:19.020 He said, no, you didn't know.

00:22:19.860 You just contradicted the point.

00:22:20.980 You just said something that is demonstrably false, and then you were contradicted. 1.00

00:22:24.820 That's not even all of the stupid platitudes and talking points that this guy dropped. 0.99

00:22:28.720 Quellar said, he said, we're playing defense on the one-yard line with border security. 1.00

00:22:34.440 Look how Mexico stopped immigration on their southern border.

00:22:37.320 Trump points out they didn't stop immigration on their border.

00:22:39.320 We stopped immigration on their border because overall illegal immigration has dropped since

00:22:45.040 Donald Trump was elected president.

00:22:46.900 So obviously the people who are...

00:22:48.540 No one's immigrating to Mexico because Mexico is a nice place.

00:22:51.440 Mexico is a terrible country, and it's not enjoyable to live in. 1.00

00:22:53.980 People are going through Mexico to get to the United States, which is Mecca, right? 1.00

00:22:57.600 It's just this heavenly, lovely place that everybody in the hemisphere wants to go to.

00:23:02.460 So Trump points that out.

00:23:05.200 And this is a rare interjection for him.

00:23:07.940 He's been letting them just smack each other around the whole meeting.

00:23:10.680 George W. Bush, a great man, but not great at this. 1.00

00:23:14.220 He never answered their stupid talking points. 1.00

00:23:16.860 You know, Donald Trump invites them all to come in in front of the cameras, and then he 1.00

00:23:21.260 smacks them down himself, and he allows them to hit each other.

00:23:24.440 A few major takeaways here.

00:23:25.780 One, Trump has a grasp of issues.

00:23:27.960 Contrary to popular media reporting, he has a grasp of the issues.

00:23:30.940 At one point, when Kevin Brady and Dianne Feinstein start fighting, McCarthy sums up

00:23:36.700 what they want, and Trump adds another, ending the lottery system.

00:23:42.260 It makes Democrats put up or shut up.

00:23:44.520 It involves them in the government.

00:23:46.580 So much for the resistance, right?

00:23:48.400 They're flanking him left and right.

00:23:49.960 He appears at least as impressive, and actually more impressive than all of those people.

00:23:54.260 I say more impressive only because they seem stiff.

00:23:57.620 A lot of the people in that room, like Queller, or Henry Queller is a good example, or Steny

00:24:02.080 Hoyer or Dick Durbin, they're fighting.

00:24:05.220 They go a little off balance, and we can see that.

00:24:08.040 The mainstream media cannot convincingly lie about what we see with our own eyes.

00:24:12.660 Most important takeaway, as the mainstream media breathlessly reports the admitted lies

00:24:17.040 in that tabloid book, the meeting makes Trump look less scary to the American people.

00:24:22.000 Barack Obama did this.

00:24:22.880 It was one of his great achievements in the 1990s with his first memoir.

00:24:27.260 You know, he released this memoir, Dreams from My Father, during that explosion of memoirs

00:24:33.020 by not famous people.

00:24:34.480 There was this fever pitch, the diving bell on the butterfly, the kiss.

00:24:38.180 All these memoirs in the 1990s of just regular people.

00:24:41.120 And Barack Obama released it.

00:24:42.200 And he said, yeah, I did coke, and I ate dogs in Indonesia, and I did this and that and this and that.

00:24:46.100 My father was a bigamist and everything.

00:24:48.980 But a real masterstroke, by the end of that book, you're not afraid of Barack Obama.

00:24:54.320 He isn't scary.

00:24:55.460 So he did that in memoir form in the 1990s during that explosion.

00:24:59.340 Donald Trump does it with reality television.

00:25:01.380 He brings in his strength, his preferred medium, reality TV, and it makes him less scary by the

00:25:06.580 end of that meeting.

00:25:07.180 Okay, let's bring on our panel. 0.98

00:25:09.540 But before we get to the panel, let's talk about looking good on camera.

00:25:13.720 So one way, if you want to look good on camera, I'll tell you, you need a good shave.

00:25:19.360 You need to, you know, you've got to pamper yourself a little bit, clean your hair, wash

00:25:22.300 your face, and shave.

00:25:23.820 Now, Dollar Shave Club is an amazing opportunity.

00:25:28.400 Their razors are excellent.

00:25:30.120 And you know now, when you go to stores, they'll have like the 75-blade razor that costs a gazillion

00:25:36.920 dollars, and you know, they just keep adding all these blades to make it seem like a better

00:25:40.880 shave.

00:25:41.280 That's really all they can add in the product.

00:25:42.540 So Dollar Shave Club is like the perfect razor.

00:25:47.180 And it's really good, especially when you use it with Dr. Carver's Shave Butter.

00:25:51.520 So I am not going to give up my membership.

00:25:53.820 And there are even more Dollar Shave Club products that you can add to your routine.

00:25:58.040 So these guys started out as this great thing.

00:26:00.140 You just get shavers in the mail, razors in the mail.

00:26:04.300 You don't need to think about it.

00:26:05.360 I never run out to the store.

00:26:06.500 I'm using old blades in the old days, you know, old blades from three years ago.

00:26:10.740 Don't do that.

00:26:11.320 Just don't think about it.

00:26:12.380 You'll get them in the mail.

00:26:13.160 They're on time.

00:26:14.200 But now Dollar Shave Club has a lot more products.

00:26:16.480 So they have products for your hair, face, skin, shower.

00:26:19.000 They have everything you need.

00:26:20.880 I do not go to drugstores or pharmacies and just get it mailed to you.

00:26:24.800 It's much, much easier.

00:26:25.760 It's a 21st century, folks.

00:26:27.160 Take advantage of our technology.

00:26:28.620 So they only use the finest premium ingredients and they deliver it to you just like they do their razors.

00:26:35.400 No more annoying trips to the store, going up and down the aisles.

00:26:39.560 Is it on aisle 7?

00:26:40.400 Is it on aisle 12?

00:26:41.320 You have to stand in line for three hours at my local drugstore.

00:26:44.840 I won't say the name of it.

00:26:45.800 So I use Dollar Shave Club for all of those things.

00:26:48.720 Razors, body cleanser, hair gel.

00:26:51.160 They even have a new product.

00:26:52.400 I don't even know if I can say this on the air.

00:26:54.020 It's a little personal.

00:26:55.160 You know, bathroom things were a little personal.

00:26:56.820 But, you know, sometimes, you know, in Europe they use bidets to clean themselves after they use the facilities.

00:27:01.940 Dollar Shave Club makes that even easier.

00:27:03.820 It's much more American.

00:27:04.960 Gets delivered to you.

00:27:06.260 It's worth it.

00:27:07.140 Let's be clean, everybody.

00:27:08.500 It's really good.

00:27:09.420 Mails right to your door.

00:27:10.240 So they have you covered head to toe.

00:27:13.020 And now is a great time to give Dollar Shave Club a try.

00:27:15.660 You can get your first month of their best razor, along with travel-sized versions of shave butter, body cleanser, and, yes, even that little cleanser for your derriere, for just $5.

00:27:27.540 So just do it.

00:27:28.460 I mean, it's practically free.

00:27:30.280 Go there right now.

00:27:31.460 After that, the replacement cartridge is shipped for just a few bucks a month.

00:27:34.780 It will save you time.

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00:27:37.020 It is a no-brainer.

00:27:37.780 And that first order is practically free.

00:27:40.780 It is the Dollar Shave Club starter set.

00:27:45.040 Get yours for just $5 exclusively at DollarShaveClub.com slash C-O-V-F-E-F-E.

00:27:52.760 Covfefe.

00:27:53.860 DollarShaveClub.com slash Covfefe.

00:27:55.820 What is that, Marshall?

00:27:57.120 Dollar Shave Club slash Covfefe.

00:27:59.280 Dollar Shave Club dot com slash Covfefe.

00:28:02.680 Why do we keep him around?

00:28:03.980 You're going to have to pay $10 for that, Marshall.

00:28:06.240 Everyone else is just $5.

00:28:07.520 Okay.

00:28:07.880 Let's bring on the panel. 0.85

00:28:09.480 We have got today Bradley Devlin, Jacob Airy, and most exciting of all, Allie Stuckey.

00:28:14.040 Stuckey.

00:28:14.960 Everybody, thank you for being here.

00:28:16.160 Allie, congratulations, by the way.

00:28:18.000 I know that you now have a show on CRTV.

00:28:21.300 Yes, I do.

00:28:22.480 I do.

00:28:23.020 I'm very excited.

00:28:24.200 I'm excited for you to show me the podcast ropes.

00:28:27.000 That's what I'll need.

00:28:27.780 I don't know anything about it.

00:28:29.420 You know, some people ask me for advice on how to publish a book.

00:28:32.780 I don't know anything about books.

00:28:33.900 I wrote a book without any words.

00:28:35.080 This one, I guess, this has some more words.

00:28:36.920 Really just take a lot of Covfefe, and it will help you in your podcasting skills.

00:28:40.960 What's the show going to look like?

00:28:41.800 Perfect.

00:28:44.140 Well, I'm not exactly sure yet.

00:28:46.760 We can decide here.

00:28:47.680 I'll be doing two shorter videos a week, and then every two and a half weeks, there will

00:28:55.300 be a longer form video, and it'll be a variety of different things, and then it'll be a weekly

00:29:01.020 podcast.

00:29:01.640 So I'm not up to the level that you are of a daily podcast.

00:29:05.540 It'll be a weekly podcast.

00:29:07.200 You know, spreading fake news, not everyone can do it, but it's God's work.

00:29:11.740 Some of us are called to spread the Covfefe.

00:29:14.660 Right, and I am not, I suppose.

00:29:16.920 But it'll all launch by the end of the month, so I'm very excited about it.

00:29:22.380 That is good.

00:29:23.080 This actually might get me to subscribe to CRTV.

00:29:26.120 I've, you know, I don't use, I use Crowder's mug as an ashtray when I smoke cigars, so I

00:29:31.200 wasn't going to do it for that, obviously.

00:29:32.980 But now that you're there, I'm much more compelled to do it.

00:29:36.180 I'm not a vacant.

00:29:37.000 We're the end roaming.

00:29:38.340 And roaming.

00:29:38.920 That's right.

00:29:39.340 Roaming millennials getting a show, too.

00:29:41.140 All right.

00:29:41.680 Well, both of you together, I guess that's a pretty good argument to do it, despite Nake

00:29:47.240 Jared and Crowder being over there, too.

00:29:49.200 Okay, well, listen, I know that you all on Facebook and YouTube want to hear from the

00:29:54.080 panel. 0.99

00:29:54.360 We have to talk about this stupid judge in the middle of San Francisco ruling against 1.00

00:29:58.580 DACA and preventing Donald Trump from executing his office, because we've elected him to do 1.00

00:30:03.040 that.

00:30:03.860 There are a lot of other things.

00:30:04.640 We're going to talk about Bitcoin in a little bit.

00:30:07.340 We're also going to talk about Donald Trump just burning the government to the ground and 0.98

00:30:10.840 firing all these useless bureaucrats. 0.80

00:30:13.360 But you don't get that unless you subscribe to DailyWire.com. 0.97

00:30:17.680 If you subscribe, what do you get?

00:30:19.260 Well, you get me.

00:30:20.380 You get the Andrew Klavan Show.

00:30:22.000 You get the Ben Shapiro Show.

00:30:23.320 All of that is well and good.

00:30:25.020 But forget about it.

00:30:25.720 What you really need is this.

00:30:28.260 Because that meeting, that DACA meeting that we all just walked through and analyzed, we're

00:30:33.780 going to get that wall, folks.

00:30:35.060 And when that wall goes up, it's actually going to make the floods of leftist tears even worse,

00:30:38.900 because there's going to be nowhere for the tears to go.

00:30:40.840 They can't go down and flood Mexico and Central and South America.

00:30:44.360 They're going to be stuck here, and you are going to want to protect yourself and protect

00:30:47.800 your family with the leftist tears tumbler.

00:30:49.540 So go to DailyWire.com right now.

00:30:51.260 We'll be right back.

00:30:51.780 OK, so this San Francisco district judge, William Alsop, a Clinton appointee, has temporarily

00:31:08.860 blocked President Trump from phasing out DACA.

00:31:12.920 Bradley, what is this about?

00:31:13.920 What is the judicial argument for blocking the end of a totally unconstitutional immigration 0.96

00:31:19.740 power grab?

00:31:21.760 Well, first, thanks for having me on, Michael.

00:31:23.660 I have had a great time on winter break watching all this conservative policy go through.

00:31:28.280 It's been a great turn of events from Twitter trolling to actual policy.

00:31:32.560 It's fantastic.

00:31:33.080 You don't need one or the other, you know, I think, but they both go very well together.

00:31:36.640 We can have both.

00:31:36.940 We've been getting both.

00:31:38.280 It's been great seeing Bannon implode.

00:31:40.560 Anyway, the legalities behind the injunction to end the DACA rescinding from the Trump administration.

00:31:48.360 If you actually read, I was reading some of the excerpts from his 49-page ruling, this

00:31:54.620 argument looks exactly like the argument a conservative judge would make when Obama was

00:31:59.600 pushing through DACA using prosecutorial discretion back in 2012.

00:32:06.800 And so it says that Alsop said in the injunction, plaintiffs have shown that they are likely to

00:32:12.800 succeed on the merits of their claim that rescission was arbitrary and capricious.

00:32:17.160 Hmm, that's interesting.

00:32:18.720 The Obama administration was awfully arbitrary and capricious when deciding that they weren't

00:32:22.860 going to uphold the rule of law and give amnesty to all these DACA recipients who can

00:32:27.260 now work, have papers, and receive welfare.

00:32:31.180 That was practically the Obama campaign slogan.

00:32:33.480 Obama 2012, arbitrary and capricious.

00:32:36.780 Right.

00:32:37.640 The judge went on to say that the injunction was appropriate because our country has a strong

00:32:42.440 interest in the uniform application of immigration law and policy.

00:32:47.160 Oh my gosh.

00:32:48.500 Are you kidding?

00:32:49.320 This is insane.

00:32:50.540 Okay.

00:32:50.780 You cannot say that you want to have the uniform application of immigration law and policy

00:32:54.320 because if that was the case, you'd be on the Ann Coulter train and say, deport all of

00:32:57.240 them.

00:32:57.360 It doesn't matter.

00:32:58.080 Right.

00:32:58.260 The law is clear.

00:32:59.240 The law is clear, folks.

00:33:00.640 Well, this brings up a problem really because the law contradicts all of these regulations

00:33:05.160 that came out of the executive.

00:33:06.640 So I do see a certain argument saying, well, we made this promise.

00:33:10.180 We made this executive regulation.

00:33:12.020 And even though that itself contradicts law, violating that would pose other legal problems.

00:33:18.480 Jacob, is this a problem with the judiciary or with the regulatory state?

00:33:23.520 Both.

00:33:24.860 It's a problem that the executive branch was basically Congress gave this power to President

00:33:32.180 Obama, even when the Republicans were in charge.

00:33:35.040 Obama would say, oh, I'm going to write out an executive order.

00:33:38.160 And the Republicans just went, okay.

00:33:39.820 But then on the flip side, when Trump actually says, hey, I'm going to give this power back

00:33:45.180 to Congress, a judge can say, no, you can't give that power back to Congress.

00:33:49.940 What?

00:33:50.480 What universe are we living in?

00:33:52.640 I don't think that the San Francisco federal judge even has the authority to do this.

00:33:58.240 So if I was President Trump, of course, this is probably very unwise advice, but I'd

00:34:04.000 be like, okay, you made this ruling.

00:34:05.600 Now you have to enforce it because it's completely an illegal, it's a completely an illegal ruling.

00:34:13.100 He has no basis for this, and it makes no sense as far as the Constitution goes.

00:34:18.620 And it'll be overturned.

00:34:19.520 It'll, I'm not worried about it. 1.00

00:34:21.220 He's making some stupid point. 0.99

00:34:23.040 And that, this is what gets to it. 0.99

00:34:24.400 Ali, lest we become all talk and no action, to quote a great man, how do we combat this

00:34:29.260 sort of absurd judicial overreach?

00:34:32.540 Well, it is absolutely absurd.

00:34:34.120 And I think Senator Cornyn actually said it best. 0.58

00:34:37.220 He said, it's absolutely ridiculous to think that Obama can create something that President

00:34:41.920 Trump can't uncreate.

00:34:43.720 That's just not how it works.

00:34:46.220 And what I think is interesting about this as well is that this judge, and I think previous

00:34:50.680 judges, but this judge I know is using Trump's recent tweets to try to psychoanalyze his motive

00:34:58.740 behind rescinding this.

00:35:00.220 So Trump tweeted not too long ago that he basically wants the dreamers to stay, that

00:35:04.940 all of these well-accomplished dreamers that have contributed so much to society, are we

00:35:09.680 really going to deport them?

00:35:11.320 Which was kind of amazing when he tweeted that.

00:35:13.860 But he did.

00:35:14.740 And so this judge is basically saying, look, the president really wants them to stay.

00:35:19.480 The only reason he's trying to rescind this is for the illegality.

00:35:24.940 And it is not what this judge is trying to say, is that it is not the executive branch's

00:35:29.820 role to say whether something is illegal or not. 0.88

00:35:32.900 It is the Supreme Court's role, which I think is completely hypocritical.

00:35:36.580 Because if this guy, if this judge was so concerned with legality, illegality, something being

00:35:42.400 constitutional, he would have raised similar concerns when Obama was passing this in the

00:35:46.420 first place.

00:35:47.120 Precisely.

00:35:48.120 Exactly what Bradley was saying.

00:35:49.640 And I think that's funny, and that's a trend that we see kind of across the board.

00:35:53.100 And I just realized that I'm not really answering your question.

00:35:55.260 I'm just talking a lot.

00:35:56.300 Oh, that's okay.

00:35:56.900 An interesting point is that an interesting trend that we're seeing with all these judges

00:36:02.640 that are pushing back on Trump's attempt at immigration reform is that they all of the

00:36:09.860 sudden care about constitutionality.

00:36:11.940 They all of the sudden care about legality and following the rule of law.

00:36:16.420 They all of a sudden have all of these concerns about keeping our democratic system in line

00:36:21.180 when they never had those concerns, when they agreed with the policies that Obama was unilaterally

00:36:28.580 pushing through completely unconstitutionally.

00:36:30.920 So I think that point alone just shows that this is a completely partisan move that, like

00:36:35.560 you said, I think will be overturned.

00:36:37.240 Absolutely.

00:36:37.920 And there are two lines of attack here as well.

00:36:40.540 So obviously one is nominating originalists to the court, people who, and textualists to

00:36:45.860 the court, people who believe that words have meaning, constitution has a meaning, and the

00:36:51.000 words of laws have meanings that we cannot just interpret willy-nilly however we'd like.

00:36:56.340 That's one track.

00:36:57.020 The other is to reduce the size of the regulatory state so that we defer less to them on the

00:37:02.860 execution of their own policies, so that the courts defer less to them over democratically

00:37:08.420 enacted laws.

00:37:09.280 And that takes me into the next news story.

00:37:11.460 The Washington Examiner yesterday reported that Donald Trump's EPA is on track to cut 47%

00:37:18.620 of the EPA staff by the end of his first term.

00:37:22.340 That's just through retirement.

00:37:23.980 That's just through attrition, losing people regularly.

00:37:27.300 We're talking about losing 7,000 or 8,000 people at the EPA.

00:37:31.980 Even Ronald Reagan, the greatest American president of his century, at least, did not reduce the

00:37:37.380 size of the government.

00:37:38.460 Allie, will Trump reduce the size and scope of the federal government finally?

00:37:42.720 Yeah, I think so.

00:37:44.700 And Scott Pruitt was saying that the reason for this, like you said, it's through retirement

00:37:48.400 and through just shrinking the agency in general.

00:37:52.100 The reason for this is because they want to go back to the basics when it comes to these

00:37:58.020 regulations and protecting the environment.

00:38:00.120 I mean, I think that there is a very careful balance of trying to protect the environment

00:38:04.780 through common sense regulations, perhaps, and not seeing it in the way of job creation.

00:38:10.340 And we know that that's a top priority of this president and the administration.

00:38:14.780 And this agency hasn't been as small as it's supposed to be.

00:38:18.220 I think it's around 14,000 since Ronald Reagan was president, which is pretty incredible, especially

00:38:23.880 for all of the people that keep on saying that Trump's a Democrat, Trump's not a conservative.

00:38:28.740 I was one of those people.

00:38:30.260 But if you look at his track record, especially with diminishing the scope of the government,

00:38:34.660 I mean, he's one of the most, if not the most, conservative president that we've had

00:38:38.980 in decades.

00:38:39.820 Right.

00:38:40.240 Absolutely right.

00:38:41.180 And I was surprised, too.

00:38:42.580 I fell for that.

00:38:44.160 Donald Trump is a lifelong New Yorker.

00:38:45.780 He won't really cut the government.

00:38:47.000 Right.

00:38:47.140 But we're seeing unbelievable cuts.

00:38:48.920 And this does lead to a question, Jacob.

00:38:50.880 Why have past Republican presidents not reduced the size of the government?

00:38:54.780 I honestly think it's because of laziness outside of-

00:38:58.580 Don't you call Ronald Reagan lazy.

00:38:59.980 How dare you?

00:39:00.600 Well, Ronald Reagan, he had a Democrat Congress.

00:39:03.840 And so in that case, it was the Congress being combative.

00:39:08.800 But I honestly think that's what it is.

00:39:10.620 I mean, we saw certainly when President George W. Bush was in power, he had a Republican Congress

00:39:16.500 for a while, and he didn't shrink the EPA.

00:39:18.600 And I really think that that's what it is.

00:39:20.520 You get distracted.

00:39:21.640 And of course, with President Bush, we had the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan,

00:39:26.080 which grew the government to some extent.

00:39:28.780 So I honestly think it's not some sort of malicious thing, but I just think, oh, well,

00:39:34.220 shrinking the EPA, will that really affect my numbers?

00:39:37.540 Eh, probably not.

00:39:38.460 So I'm just going to let it be.

00:39:40.200 And there is a question.

00:39:41.280 I mean, we don't- you don't exactly need Congress to fire people within your own branch of the

00:39:45.980 government.

00:39:46.720 Right.

00:39:46.940 But there is a- you know, these guys are feds.

00:39:49.560 I once got to talk to Antonin Scalia, and we asked about states' rights.

00:39:53.160 He said, states' rights are dead.

00:39:54.580 They've been dead since the 17th Amendment and the direct election of senators.

00:39:58.160 What, are you going to look to me to protect states' rights?

00:40:00.840 I'm a fed.

00:40:01.860 I work for the federal government.

00:40:03.800 And there is an aspect of a president coming into office and saying, you know, it is sure

00:40:08.440 helpful if I've got all of these big agencies there so that I can wield my own power for

00:40:13.300 perfectly good policy, let's say.

00:40:15.220 But it's- it's much harder to say we're just going to cut people.

00:40:18.620 We're going to fire.

00:40:19.660 We're going to not replace people after they retire.

00:40:21.640 And at least for this first year, for these first 12 months, we have seen historic cuts

00:40:27.440 in the federal government.

00:40:28.500 And we- we can only hope that they continue.

00:40:30.720 Let's move on, finally, in our- in our last minutes.

00:40:33.680 Let's move on to something that- that is unrelated, I suppose, to Donald Trump.

00:40:39.600 But it's- I've resisted running this story.

00:40:42.260 I know a lot of conservatives and Republicans, they've gotten very into cryptocurrencies.

00:40:46.420 They've gotten into Bitcoin.

00:40:48.440 People invested 35 cents in Bitcoin 10 years ago, and they're now gazillionaires.

00:40:53.040 They're now richer than Warren Buffett.

00:40:54.660 But Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, is now saying that cryptocurrencies are headed

00:40:59.680 for trouble, that it won't end well.

00:41:02.080 The Bitcoin surge is now much, much larger than even the tulip bubble in Holland.

00:41:10.160 I've been referring to them as digital beanie babies.

00:41:13.740 Bradley, you're a youth.

00:41:15.240 You're a young kid.

00:41:17.040 Are people of your generation, people at college campuses, young conservatives, are

00:41:22.100 they investing in cryptocurrencies?

00:41:24.560 And are they- are they afraid of losing all of their money?

00:41:27.840 They're obsessed.

00:41:29.100 I mean, my friend just became a miner the other day.

00:41:31.580 My buddy is the chairman of the blockchain at Berkeley Club.

00:41:35.740 And we've been talking for a long time about- about Bitcoin, because I'm really struggling

00:41:39.240 to understand it.

00:41:39.800 Because when we're- we're learning about money in classic economics classes, there's two types

00:41:43.160 of money.

00:41:43.420 There's fiat money, which its value is determined by government institutions that back it.

00:41:48.160 And then there's commodity money, which means that that money or exchange piece holds intrinsic

00:41:53.260 value and can be used and therefore is worth something.

00:41:57.460 Bitcoin is none of those things.

00:41:58.860 It's neither fiat nor commodity money.

00:42:00.740 The only thing that this thing applies to in classical economics is a supply and demand

00:42:05.260 graph.

00:42:05.900 It derives its value from people being willing to supply it and people demanding it.

00:42:11.160 And so that's seriously problematic when we're talking about money, because Bitcoin rapidly

00:42:15.820 appreciates when there's a good article about it, when consumer demand goes up, but then

00:42:21.260 drastically drops when they can't maintain that hype.

00:42:24.080 And when you can't maintain that hype, that money's not going through a money multiplier

00:42:27.480 system.

00:42:28.340 We're not going to have cryptocurrency-based societies in the future. 0.67

00:42:31.820 It's foolish to think otherwise.

00:42:32.860 Of course. 0.67

00:42:33.360 It isn't a currency.

00:42:34.460 It doesn't meet any criteria of currencies.

00:42:36.580 And it also isn't even an asset.

00:42:38.460 It is just speculation.

00:42:40.400 And look, I like going to casinos as much as the next guy.

00:42:42.500 So if you've made money gambling, good on you.

00:42:44.840 But it isn't, you know, one kind of wacky conservative investment I made is I bought a

00:42:49.260 bunch of rhodium, which is a precious metal.

00:42:51.420 I have a bar of rhodium.

00:42:52.600 And I made 100% return last year.

00:42:54.820 So I've only been referring to that as coin coin, this newfangled thing where you get a

00:42:58.820 physical asset that you can invest in.

00:43:01.160 Allie, are cryptocurrencies, are they just a fad and they're going to go bust?

00:43:05.260 I hope so, because that means that I don't actually have to understand it.

00:43:08.860 I think that Bradley did a very good job of explaining why this is so confusing to me.

00:43:14.420 I mean, God just did not create my brain to understand cryptocurrency.

00:43:18.240 Therefore, I want nothing to do with it.

00:43:20.180 And if Warren Buffett says that it's a fad that I don't need to pay attention to, that

00:43:25.040 means that I'm in good company.

00:43:26.920 Maybe I do understand it a lot more than other people do.

00:43:29.840 And that's why I don't want to spend any time thinking about it.

00:43:32.540 Not only did he say that he wants nothing to do with it.

00:43:38.080 He himself said, I don't understand this thing.

00:43:41.800 When Warren Buffett says, I don't understand this thing, so I'm not sure of it.

00:43:44.780 It's because we're stable.

00:43:45.920 Only stable audiences don't understand cryptocurrency.

00:43:49.360 I guarantee you our president doesn't either.

00:43:51.280 We're going to find out Donald Trump has just stores and stores, hard drives and servers

00:43:55.900 full of Bitcoin.

00:43:57.260 That's stable genius.

00:43:58.360 All right, panel, that's all our time.

00:43:59.840 Thank you for being here.

00:44:01.100 Excellent to have all of you today.

00:44:02.800 That's our entire show.

00:44:04.520 Make sure to tune into Another Kingdom, by the way.

00:44:06.800 So Another Kingdom is back after the Christmas break.

00:44:09.880 And Hollywood, I don't want to tell tales out of school.

00:44:13.160 Andrew Klavan talked about this on his show the other day.

00:44:15.700 Hollywood, which saw the immense popularity of this podcast, the narrative podcast I'm doing

00:44:20.380 with Andrew Klavan, they saw it.

00:44:22.120 It's got, I think, 1,600 five-star reviews now.

00:44:25.580 It's got a lot of downloads.

00:44:27.260 Very, very popular.

00:44:28.020 Always charting on iTunes.

00:44:29.540 They called us in to pitch this for television.

00:44:32.920 And then I think they Googled Andrew Klavan.

00:44:34.400 And then they were all cold meetings.

00:44:36.760 We found out one of the production companies now is part of the resistance or something

00:44:40.360 like that.

00:44:41.080 It is really crazy. 0.76

00:44:42.160 So please shove it down their throats.

00:44:43.740 Please send Another Kingdom to your friends.

00:44:46.540 Write a review.

00:44:47.520 Tweet it.

00:44:48.020 Post it.

00:44:48.840 Get it out there.

00:44:49.700 Subscribe.

00:44:50.640 Because the bigger that this project has gotten, the more Hollywood wants to put its

00:44:56.980 finger in its ears and say, la, la, la, la, la.

00:44:59.480 We won't have any conservative art here.

00:45:01.500 No, la, la, la.

00:45:02.260 Look at my lapel pin in my black clothing.

00:45:04.380 La, la, la. 0.95

00:45:04.940 So please help us shove it down their throats.

00:45:06.760 We really appreciate that.

00:45:07.720 Get your mailbag questions in for Thursday.

00:45:09.460 I'm Michael Knowles.

00:45:10.120 This is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:45:10.860 See you tomorrow.

00:45:11.220 The Michael Knowles Show is produced by Marshall Benson, executive producer Jeremy Boring,

00:45:22.300 senior producer Jonathan Hay, supervising producer Mathis Glover.

00:45:26.440 Our technical producer is Austin Stevens, edited by Alex Zingaro.

00:45:30.660 Audio is mixed by Mike Coromina.

00:45:32.920 Hair and makeup is by Jesua Olvera.

00:45:35.460 The Michael Knowles Show is a Daily Wire Forward Publishing production.

00:45:38.740 Copyright Forward Publishing 2018.

00:45:40.460 ...

The Michael Knowles Show - January 10, 2018

Ep. 85 - The Art Of The Deal： A Play-By-Play

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