The Michael Knowles Show - Friendly Fire： State of the Union Address Live

00:00:00.720 It's the family and friends event at Shoppers Drug Mart.

00:00:03.900 Get 20% off almost all regular priced merchandise.

00:00:07.080 Two days only.

00:00:08.180 Tuesday, February 24th and Wednesday, February 25th.

00:00:11.700 Open your PC Optimum app to get your coupon.

00:00:16.660 We are now part of the endless Friendly Fire broadcast live coverage of the State of the Union.

00:00:21.700 That's right.

00:00:22.080 By the time this is over, Andrew Klavan will be dead.

00:00:24.540 And Matt Walsh, his beard will be gray and he will have no hair.

00:00:28.000 So, you know, a lot's going to happen.

00:00:29.800 In the next few years, because that's how long we are slated to be together.

00:00:34.180 Basically, we are now doing the extended director's cut of all three versions of all three movies of Lord of the Rings, because that's what tonight is going to be.

00:00:49.840 So we have with me, of course, Matt Walsh, who is suffering, and Andrew Klavan, who is likely to suffer with me even more.

00:00:56.180 Somehow, Matt begged out a part of the show, which I got to say, that's a smooth move.

00:01:00.260 Yeah, I know.

00:01:00.800 I'm also confused as to how Matt is able to pull rank.

00:01:03.680 And I'm stuck here all night with you, Klavan, as we go wall to wall on this coverage.

00:01:10.160 It's a full-scale disaster.

00:01:12.180 Folks, this is why you should subscribe for this kind of sparkling commentary.

00:01:14.880 So I'll begin with Walsh, because I'm going to get my money's worth out of Walsh.

00:01:18.080 He usually speaks in these Friendly Fire episodes.

00:01:20.020 I should get like, I don't know, 15 words out of Walsh in a typical Friendly Fire episode.

00:01:23.960 So we have to get all 15 of them in before the actual State of the Union address, which is to begin at 9 p.m.

00:01:29.760 So, Matt Walsh, how pumped are you to be here for yet another State of the Union address?

00:01:35.340 And can we expect your excitement levels to achieve the highest form of excitement, or will your soul leave your body?

00:01:43.460 How excited are you here?

00:01:45.700 Well, I don't have a soul to begin with, so it can't leave my body.

00:01:48.480 What I'm excited about is that when you guys come back to talk about and analyze the State of the Union, I'm going to be fast asleep in bed.

00:01:58.440 I don't know what story I gave them, but I'm just going to actually be asleep.

00:02:03.700 That's the truth of it.

00:02:04.700 Let's just be honest about it.

00:02:06.060 Look, I mean, I feel the same way you do, Ben, about the State of the Union addresses, that obviously they're mostly pointless.

00:02:11.920 And if there's any kind of movement in the polls, it will last for five seconds and it won't matter anymore.

00:02:18.480 So that's generally the case.

00:02:20.080 I do think that if there's any, you know, if I were to predict that anything out of this, or if anything, you know, makes an impact out of this speech,

00:02:29.680 I would guess it's likely to be less what Trump says in the speech and more the antics of the Democrats. 0.56

00:02:36.800 And I guess there's going to be fewer of them in the room now because a lot of them are boycotting.

00:02:40.780 They're doing competing events.

00:02:43.700 They've got their own competing State of the Union.

00:02:45.620 I saw someone mention on Twitter.

00:02:47.340 It's like, it's literally the office.

00:02:49.900 I mean, it's like something Michael Scott would do.

00:02:52.140 And that's what they're doing now.

00:02:54.020 But I expect that we heard about some of the illegal immigrants that are going to be attending, you know, Ilhan Omar and others along with her.

00:03:02.780 And so, but I expect that the Democrats in the room, they're probably going to get a lot of antics out of that. 0.60

00:03:06.140 And so if there's any, if anything really makes an impact, it's going to be them embarrassing themselves.

00:03:10.100 And I think we're kind of at a point.

00:03:11.940 Look, I mean, the State of the Union has always been pointless.

00:03:13.800 I think we're all on the same page that he should just send an email and be done with it.

00:03:17.560 But if there was ever a time when you could, when there was any sort of function of the State of the Union, which I guess is supposed to be, you've got both sides that are there and they're kind of unified.

00:03:28.680 And we're hearing the vision for the country going forward.

00:03:32.400 And there's supposed to be a little show of kind of like unity and togetherness and some decorum.

00:03:37.440 And I think that's kind of the point of it, the pageantry.

00:03:40.760 But that's out the window now.

00:03:42.300 We can't do that anymore.

00:03:43.880 Those days are long gone.

00:03:46.580 And so it just makes it all the more like, why are we even still doing this with the State of the Union?

00:03:51.160 We're at a point now where the Democrats cannot even pretend to have any basic respect for the other side at all.

00:04:00.700 They cannot do it.

00:04:02.280 They refuse to do it.

00:04:03.880 And so I imagine they're going to humiliate themselves.

00:04:06.820 I agree with that.

00:04:07.280 And I think it'll be amusing to see what sort of antics they play.

00:04:09.820 Will there be juggling?

00:04:10.880 Will eggs be hurled?

00:04:12.220 Will they bring illegal immigrants into the chamber?

00:04:14.440 That was mentioned by Cabot.

00:04:15.240 I had not heard that, but again, I think it would be fabulous if Tom Homan just started muscling his way through the Democratic caucus with handcuffs and started dragging people away.

00:04:24.220 That would be the best version of this.

00:04:25.940 Matt and I were actually in the room for this last time.

00:04:28.420 And so, again, I'm jealous of Matt that he gets to go to sleep this evening.

00:04:33.280 Andrew Klavan, I want to get your commentary on this because it will be your last commentary on this earth.

00:04:38.680 Because while Matt's soul is likely to leave his body out of excitement, yours is likely to leave your body out of, you know, death.

00:04:44.520 But first, I do want to talk to you about the fact that you are still alive.

00:04:48.500 And I feel like one of the reasons you are still alive is because you've been eating your fish.

00:04:52.320 That's why.

00:04:53.220 So I need you to tell me about Wild Alaskan.

00:04:55.220 You know, I am a lifelong fisherman.

00:04:57.240 Not many people know this.

00:04:58.260 I used to fish every single day when I was young.

00:05:01.020 I fished all over the place.

00:05:02.320 I fished lakes.

00:05:02.960 I fished in oceans and rivers.

00:05:04.640 And one of my favorite places to fish was Alaska because you can pull a halibut.

00:05:09.660 If you hook a halibut, they don't fight. 0.99

00:05:11.360 They just hang there on the line.

00:05:12.400 But they're really heavy, so it's like lifting a piece of lead.

00:05:15.220 And they are just, they just taste great.

00:05:17.460 And that's why we can sell people with a good heart Wild Alaskan Company.

00:05:22.220 It's the best way to get wild caught, perfectly portioned, nutrient-dense seafood delivered directly to your door.

00:05:29.840 It's not me delivering it, but it is my soul delivering it.

00:05:32.680 You have not tasted any fish this good.

00:05:34.620 It's 100% wild caught, never farmed.

00:05:37.120 And this means there are no antibiotics, GMOs, or additives, just clean, real fish that support healthy oceans and fishing communities.

00:05:45.080 I mean, you're allowed to eat fish, right, Ben?

00:05:47.100 Yes, I am allowed to eat fish.

00:05:48.900 That is the thing that I'm allowed to eat.

00:05:50.260 But, honestly, the person in my office, because of kosher reasons who has been enjoying the fish, is producer Phil, who's looking fit as a fiddle and ready for love, as they say.

00:05:59.560 Well, apparently, it is sustainably sourced, wild caught from Alaska.

00:06:02.700 Every order supports sustainable harvesting practices.

00:06:04.920 And your membership delivers flexible shipments, expert tips, and truly feel-good seafood.

00:06:10.100 Matt, I believe that you also are a fisherman.

00:06:12.160 I'm surrounded by men of the wilderness.

00:06:14.480 Matt, talk about how good this seafood is.

00:06:16.680 Yes, Ben, that's correct.

00:06:21.180 I also enjoy fishing.

00:06:23.180 It's one of my favorite things to do.

00:06:25.580 And when I like to catch fish, but I can catch fish, but I prefer to have them sent to me.

00:06:32.460 It's a lot easier that way.

00:06:34.380 And I don't have to prepare it either.

00:06:36.360 So, that's also right.

00:06:38.280 Well, thank you for that sterling endorsement, Matt Walsh.

00:06:40.740 Not all fish are the same.

00:06:41.980 Get seafood you can trust.

00:06:43.620 Just head on over to WildAlaskan.com slash Friendly Fire for $35 off your first box of premium wild caught seafood.

00:06:49.800 That's WildAlaskan.com slash Friendly Fire for $35 off your first order.

00:06:53.780 Thanks to Wild Alaskan Company for sponsoring this episode of Friendly Fire.

00:06:58.100 Okay, so, Andrew, I was calling on you, and then I immediately shifted into the way that we make money, of course, which is our ads.

00:07:04.540 So, I'm going to throw it back to you, because as the hours tick down on your life, and you realize that you're going to have to spend the next several hours with me listening to an interminable address interrupted 1,273 times by applause, what are your last thoughts on this earth?

00:07:20.520 Yeah, it's like head barreling into infinity.

00:07:24.700 You know, what I kind of like about the Democrats is the last time there was a State of the Union, they behaved so badly that even they must have felt, if they have the capacity for shame, they must have felt a little bit of shame.

00:07:36.460 I mean, you know, Trump was praising a child with cancer, and they sat on their hands.

00:07:40.860 I mean, they just could not, they couldn't applaud for anything at all.

00:07:44.020 So, the question was, they must have gathered together and thought, can we act like adults who respect our country and respect our fellow countrymen, taking a vote, and said, no, we can't.

00:07:53.240 So, it's not going to show up at all.

00:07:55.420 They're going to sit at the children's table where you can throw food until mommy finds out. 1.00

00:08:00.020 You know, you can just play around and pretend that you're not part of the government.

00:08:03.280 And I think that that's actually the state we're in.

00:08:05.740 You know, I think it is an amazing thing that we have reached a place where we have two major parties.

00:08:11.180 One of them is kind of incompetent, the Republicans, but the other one is actually out to destroy the country.

00:08:16.520 They actually feel, you know, when they get up and they say things like there are no illegals on stolen land, they're actually saying, this country doesn't belong here. 0.64

00:08:24.240 You're not supposed to be here.

00:08:25.500 And we're supposed to vote for people, and people do vote for people, whose entire intent is to shut the country down and make it go away.

00:08:32.620 And they're ashamed of us, and they're ashamed of George Washington, and they're ashamed of everything.

00:08:36.020 So, I think this is actually kind of a symbolic moment.

00:08:38.560 I, too, I've come closer to you, Ben, on how I feel about the State of the Union.

00:08:41.920 I never, it never used to bother me, the imperial part of it, but now it kind of does.

00:08:45.700 Now that our Congress is like a dead letter, that they're just sort of sitting around the Supreme Court is trying to wake them up with like the shock paddles.

00:08:52.360 You know, take back your powers.

00:08:54.300 Like, no, no, don't make us take back our powers.

00:08:56.460 Now it is kind of like having Caesar get up there and give a speech.

00:09:00.420 So, it's kind of a, I don't know, the whole thing is a disgrace on every side.

00:09:04.920 And one thing you can be sure of is Trump will play right into that.

00:09:08.180 He's going to be cursing out the Supreme Court.

00:09:10.820 That's the part that, you know, I think that it's going to be an epic episode of Good Trump, Bad Trump, right?

00:09:14.800 Which is something that I used to do on the show a lot was the Good Trump, Bad Trump.

00:09:17.540 I think you'll get some very good Trump.

00:09:19.180 He's going to call on the U.S. men's hockey team, which is going to be great.

00:09:22.020 And frankly, he should just call them down to the stage and just let them take the stage and then he should just walk out.

00:09:26.280 I think that'd be the best version of this.

00:09:27.500 My ideal state of the union here is men's hockey team at the front and Tom Homan arresting people in the back.

00:09:33.040 And that's America.

00:09:34.120 I think that's like the best version of this.

00:09:37.600 But I think that the high points will obviously be him calling out some of the people.

00:09:41.440 Erica Kirk is showing up as well, which I think is a terrific invitation by the president, obviously, in the face of Candace Owens.

00:09:48.760 It's a tremendous evil, which I'm just going to put out there while she's doing to Erica Kirk right now.

00:09:51.500 I'm hoping Candace Owens would fly by on a broomstick saying send out Erica. 1.00

00:09:54.980 I mean, as a person who doesn't often use the adjective satanic, what Candace is doing right now is absolutely satanic to Erica Kirk.

00:10:02.680 And I think Erica showing up at the State of the Union in honor of her husband.

00:10:06.380 So the president can talk about left wing violence against right wingers is absolutely good by the president, good on the president for doing it.

00:10:13.540 I think those will be high points.

00:10:15.200 Again, I'll be a little surprised if the Democrats sit on their hands for those things, because I think that would be so unbelievable.

00:10:20.740 I mean, you're right, Matt.

00:10:21.800 Last year, they literally sat on their hands for a kid with cancer.

00:10:24.140 So anything is anything is possible at this point.

00:10:27.340 But, Matt, I want to ask you, you know, if you were the president, what is the thing that you would say to turn this around?

00:10:32.080 Because obviously he's kind of sinking in the approval ratings.

00:10:34.080 He's not doing great.

00:10:35.120 The generic congressional ballot has the Democrats up five points.

00:10:39.040 In all likelihood, that means the Republicans not only lose the House, but probably the Senate falls to 50-50.

00:10:45.660 You're advising the president for a moment.

00:10:47.140 You're writing his speech.

00:10:47.760 What do you tell him to do?

00:10:49.620 Well, first, I would tell him, get a better advisor, because I'm the worst person you could probably ask this question to.

00:10:55.260 And I will say that I do enjoy that this is the most cynical and depressing intro to a State of the Union that we've probably – and we've given some bad ones.

00:11:03.080 Like, it just gets worse every year.

00:11:06.160 And – but for good reason.

00:11:07.740 No, the thing is – and it's kind of funny, because although we feel this way about the State of the Union, I mean, Trump does have actually things to celebrate.

00:11:16.160 He has real achievements.

00:11:17.820 I mean, let's start with the fact that closing down the southern border is a real, significant, historic achievement that has made America a better place.

00:11:26.560 It doesn't solve all of our problems, but it's something that no president was able to do before him, and that's not his only achievement.

00:11:31.900 So he's got real things to talk about, real things that he can kind of brag about.

00:11:37.400 And so if I'm advising him, it's real simple.

00:11:39.640 Just focus on those things.

00:11:40.940 I mean, yeah, the great patriotic moments, talking about the Olympics, going to the hockey team, that's all great.

00:11:46.260 But talk about the things that you've achieved, the real things.

00:11:49.580 Yeah, we want to talk about the future also.

00:11:51.000 What do you want to do in the future?

00:11:52.020 But part of the point of the State of the Union is supposed to be – this is where we are right now.

00:11:57.560 This is the state of things right now.

00:11:58.720 So it's kind of also a review of the past year and being able to highlight those things and also, again, being able to contrast that with how the Democrats react to it.

00:12:08.120 I mean, politically, that's going to be very powerful because I think that, as you mentioned, we saw this last year in the room, that they refused to applaud anything.

00:12:18.540 It didn't matter what he said.

00:12:19.740 And so I would guess – I mean, this is one prediction I'll make is that when he has the line about political violence, condemning political violence, and he mentions Erica, I'm going to guess that a lot of Democrats are not going to applaud that because they're going to perceive that correctly in a lot of ways as a repudiation of them because all the political violence is coming from the left, and these are the people that have explicitly or implicitly encouraged it.

00:12:45.940 So I think even something like that, we're not going to get a unified response, and that will tell the American people a lot, I think.

00:12:55.460 So, Drew, you know, I'm going to ask you the same question.

00:12:58.360 You're now advising the president, and aside from telling him that he probably should not say that the Supreme Court is in the pay of a foreign power and that also he's amazing at reading legal opinions, what else would you tell the president to highlight?

00:13:10.660 I think a key thing here – you know, the polls are really bad for the president.

00:13:14.260 People are actually saying that they were better off a year ago, and it's hard for me to see how that could possibly be true.

00:13:20.840 I mean, not only is the border closed, crime is down, drug use is down, imports of drugs are down.

00:13:25.800 All of these things have actually improved, but it's got to be about the economy and I think the affordability question.

00:13:31.780 And the thing – I do not believe it would be possible to impress this on Donald Trump, but it's not a bad idea for him to acknowledge the fact that people are unhappy.

00:13:40.460 You know, this is something I used to say through the whole Biden administration.

00:13:44.380 People were going, you know, the inflation is killing us.

00:13:47.020 Biden's people would come out and say, no, no, you're really happy.

00:13:49.700 Things are great.

00:13:50.560 You know, I thought like, you know, I think people know when they can't make the rent.

00:13:54.620 I think people know when they can't get their kids the Christmas presents they want.

00:13:57.820 I think they know when they're not buying the same foods they were able to afford before.

00:14:01.440 So if people are saying they're unhappy about the economy, they probably are, and there's probably no chart you can point to and no statistic you can point to that's going to make them feel better.

00:14:10.760 So it wouldn't be a bad thing if Trump could muster up just that little mustard seed of humility.

00:14:15.640 And I know, don't laugh when I say Trump and humility in the same sentence, but, you know, if they could just muster that little bit of humility to say, hey, you know, I know this is not going as fast as I wish it would, but it is going to go faster and this is why.

00:14:29.580 You know, and I think that that's just something that is not in Trump's repertoire, and yet I think it would go a long way to just say, you know, it's not about, it's not always about Donald Trump.

00:14:39.880 It's sometimes about the people, and the people do feel bad about the economy.

00:14:43.520 I'm a little surprised by that.

00:14:44.900 It does seem to me that things have picked up, that not only has inflation gone down, but wages have actually gone up and outstripped inflation.

00:14:52.540 But apparently people are not feeling that yet, and hopefully they will soon, and hopefully that will turn around the predictions about the midterms.

00:14:59.920 So that would be my main thing.

00:15:01.300 You know, for my part, I will say that I think that the thing that has been missing, and this is true for both parties, I think the president has done an amazing job of fixing many of the problems left in his lap by Joe Biden.

00:15:13.740 I think that wiping out DEI, closing the southern border, as Matt mentions, going after the transgender agenda, these are all huge gaping holes in the American psyche that the president has done a great job of working to heal.

00:15:26.480 I think that what people are missing, and I think where people are feeling dyspeptic, which is my new favorite word, and also, you know, just feeling uneasy in their stomachs, is they don't know what are they supposed to think the country looks like in three years.

00:15:40.160 Matt, you've talked a lot about AI.

00:15:41.500 There are a lot of worries out there about AI, and I don't think those worries are completely unjustified.

00:15:46.140 Again, I tend to be more of a tech optimist.

00:15:48.000 Matt would like to take every computer, apparently, in America and just smash it with a hammer, sort of like office space.

00:15:53.900 But I think that Matt's sentiment, even for people who are tech optimists, were like, well, I think it'll be okay, but I'm not kind of like sure it's going to be okay.

00:16:01.920 And I think there are a lot of people out there who are wondering, what does life actually look like three years from now?

00:16:06.700 So listing off the accomplishments is one thing, but saying, look, here's what you can look forward to, right?

00:16:11.000 If things go the way that I want them to go, here is what industries are looking like.

00:16:15.540 Here's what your job looks like in a couple of years.

00:16:18.140 Here's what the international scene looks like in a couple of years, right?

00:16:21.200 Just read the trend lines that I've created and take people to a future and then say, and if you stick with me, we can get to this future together.

00:16:28.020 And that's something that actually no president that I can remember has actually ever done.

00:16:31.840 I think they virtually all talked about the thing they did in the last year, but none of them has actually talked about what they want the future to look like in sort of real terms that people can wrap their brains around.

00:16:40.840 The White House did on their YouTube feed actually put out an AI.

00:16:44.620 And again, we'll talk about things that I have wonders whether they help.

00:16:49.580 They put out an AI of President Trump listing his accomplishments.

00:16:53.900 It is a little weird and makes me also want to smash computers with a hammer, actually.

00:17:00.540 It is the president.

00:17:01.340 I don't know why there is a senator in the background who apparently is wearing a neck brace.

00:17:05.540 I don't know.

00:17:05.960 Teddy Kennedy has been dead for a long time.

00:17:07.640 And so I'm not sure what's going on right there.

00:17:10.740 This is a visual of the president apparently taking an oath of office while also listing all of it.

00:17:17.080 So he's, I don't know what's going on here, honestly.

00:17:20.500 And it makes me very disquieted about AI.

00:17:22.980 Guys, you need to stop showing.

00:17:23.900 We're in the uncanny valley.

00:17:24.800 I can't do this.

00:17:25.340 You need to take it away.

00:17:25.980 One of the things that really bothers me about the conversation, the American conversation, is we've skipped over that part where people say like, wow, human beings invented artificial intelligence.

00:17:36.760 We don't even do that anymore.

00:17:38.300 We go right to the disaster.

00:17:39.880 It's like, look, look, mother, look, I've invented artificial intelligence.

00:17:43.640 Oh, my God, we're all going to die.

00:17:45.480 And I really do think the tech optimism is more realistic at this point than, you know, the Terminator coming to life.

00:17:52.300 I think that it's a shame that we have no way of talking. 1.00

00:17:55.240 We can't even win a hockey match without people screaming at each other about some stupid comment in a locker room. 0.99

00:18:00.740 It is, it's really bad that this conversation is now just, we immediately go to the anger and the hostility. 0.99

00:18:07.840 Well, you know, Matt, go to the anger.

00:18:10.180 Go, do it.

00:18:10.700 Do it.

00:18:10.920 Go to the anger, Matt.

00:18:11.640 Go.

00:18:12.100 Good.

00:18:12.660 What is the tech?

00:18:14.180 And this is what I'd love to hear to the State of the Union.

00:18:16.440 I'd love to hear someone address it because this is a very real concern that a lot of people have.

00:18:20.260 It's very, very real.

00:18:21.080 And I'm certainly not the only one because when I look at it, as I've expressed a million times, what I see is a very high probability that at a minimum in the short to midterm, AI is going to come in, already has come in, and is going to wipe out millions and millions and millions of jobs.

00:18:39.780 And that's already happening.

00:18:40.840 So it's not even like I'm predicting it.

00:18:42.660 That's already happening.

00:18:43.920 The only prediction is that it's going to accelerate.

00:18:45.700 And I think that we have every reason to think that it will.

00:18:47.440 So that's what is almost certainly going to happen.

00:18:51.340 What's the optimistic vision?

00:18:53.680 Why shouldn't we freak out about this?

00:18:55.640 That's what I'd love for someone to explain.

00:18:57.680 I agree.

00:18:58.280 And this is why, again, I think that it would be great if you did it.

00:19:00.700 I mean, if I were writing the speech for the president, what I would probably say is your medical care is going to get wildly cheaper and better because of AI, which is just true.

00:19:07.920 It's going to get so much cheaper and so much better in the next five years.

00:19:10.420 It's going to make your head explode with how good it is.

00:19:12.980 But the possibility of you being able to organize your life in better ways is already here.

00:19:17.960 I mean, cloud AI is doing extraordinary stuff in terms of you being able to organize your workflow.

00:19:23.080 Small businesses are going to be able to start because the cost of starting a small business is going to be reduced so much you won't have to take out big debts in order to go hire five people to start your business.

00:19:31.480 You're going to be able to use AI to do all that sort of work.

00:19:34.180 You as a worker are going to become significantly more productive, which means that presumably your hours will be able to be shorter because you're able to be so much more productive with this stuff.

00:19:42.720 There's going to be expansion, particularly in industries where you use your hands.

00:19:46.240 There's going to be a lot of expansion in industries where the human body actually matters.

00:19:49.700 The places that are going to get hit pretty hard are the white collar industries and particularly kind of lower half of white collar.

00:19:54.640 You're going to see legal get smoked.

00:19:55.980 So if you really love lawyers, maybe you should be mad at AI.

00:19:58.520 But if you're one of the people who's been making lawyer jokes for the last half century, then probably you're a happy camper.

00:20:03.080 So there are a bunch of things about AI that actually are going to be quite awesome.

00:20:07.440 And I also do not think that the best form of AI is going to be AI alone.

00:20:12.020 I think it's going to be like people who play chess.

00:20:14.320 Yes, computers are better than humans at chess on an average level.

00:20:17.920 But the best version is a great person who is great at chess with a great computer.

00:20:22.440 Doing that is actually the best version.

00:20:24.120 That would actually be the pitch.

00:20:25.000 I'd love to hear somebody make that pitch, actually.

00:20:27.020 But here is my pitch to you.

00:20:28.600 If you want the best in investigative reporting, actual facts in your news and opinions from the most trusted names,

00:20:33.080 and conservative media, you need to subscribe right now at DailyWirePlus.com.

00:20:37.200 We are quickly expanding.

00:20:38.520 That only happens because of members like you.

00:20:40.540 Again, please head on over to DailyWirePlus.com so we can get you more fabulous investigative material

00:20:45.600 and, of course, sparkling commentary from the likes of those that you are hearing right now.

00:20:50.800 Okay, so to take it away from the State of the Union for just a second

00:20:53.800 and to take it toward what I think everybody really has their eye on, which is the midterm elections.

00:20:57.500 So, Matt, I want to get your take on where you think we are with the midterms, what to expect.

00:21:02.480 And, again, more broadly, how can the president kind of shift the momentum and turn things around?

00:21:07.680 Well, I think it's everything we've been covering.

00:21:10.580 There's a perception in America that, as we've talked about in the polls,

00:21:15.720 that we're sort of worse off than we were a year ago.

00:21:18.780 I think that that is objectively just not actually true.

00:21:23.840 But that's the perception people have, and elections are all perception.

00:21:29.060 Politics is all perception.

00:21:30.180 It's all that matters.

00:21:31.380 And so you need to change that perception.

00:21:34.740 And, you know, highlighting all the wins is one way to do it.

00:21:39.420 I think the messaging on that, it's not all about messaging,

00:21:43.060 but the messaging on that obviously has not been clear enough.

00:21:45.920 I mean, if we can agree that things are, by almost every metric,

00:21:52.700 things actually are not worse now than they were under Biden,

00:21:55.560 if we can agree on that, and yet there's this perception that it is,

00:21:59.200 then it's hard for me to see that as anything but a messaging failure.

00:22:03.320 What else can we call that?

00:22:04.740 And so I think that's going to be the key, not just in the State of the Union,

00:22:08.580 but going forward into the midterm elections is a kind of clear, coherent, unified message addressing that.

00:22:16.360 Yeah, I think one of the things, Drew, and I want to get your take on this,

00:22:19.120 were it to be I advising the administration, the thing I've been saying forever,

00:22:23.600 all Americans want is normalcy.

00:22:25.960 That's all they want.

00:22:27.200 They just want things to be quiet and normal.

00:22:29.440 That's all.

00:22:29.920 And so if you are able for five seconds to deploy people in your administration

00:22:34.340 who are effective at making things be quiet and normal,

00:22:36.880 this means Tom Homan and not, for example, Christy Noem at DHS.

00:22:40.320 This means, for example, Scott Besant at Treasury and not Howard Lutnick over at Commerce.

00:22:44.540 It means that if you deploy people who are pros,

00:22:47.360 Marco Rubio in the State Department who's doing a fabulous job,

00:22:50.220 if you deploy the pros and you tell the American people,

00:22:53.160 listen, we're taking mainstream normie positions that 65%, 70% of the American public agrees with,

00:22:58.740 like, deport criminal illegal immigrants. 0.54

00:23:01.200 And Democrats are out there, unified, ice out.

00:23:04.280 That, to me, has always been the Trump pitch.

00:23:06.340 And the problem for, I think, President Trump has always been

00:23:08.440 that the actual policy that he effectuates is at war with his rhetoric.

00:23:12.400 Because the policy is always this kind of 65% policy,

00:23:15.720 and he has a really good finger on the pulse of what that feels like,

00:23:18.560 which is why he shifts and he moves when he feels like he doesn't have the pulse.

00:23:21.740 But his rhetoric is always sort of the most extreme and inane version of that thing.

00:23:26.960 And I think that's, at a certain point, the American people are tired.

00:23:30.260 I think that's what you're getting right now.

00:23:31.200 I think the American people are extremely tired.

00:23:33.640 We are one year into the Trump administration, too.

00:23:36.000 And it feels like we are all Drew's age.

00:23:38.540 And I'm 42.

00:23:39.740 And Drew feels like he's been around since the 17th century.

00:23:43.460 Which I actually have.

00:23:44.740 That is one thing.

00:23:45.820 But no, you know, I always ask myself, you know, whenever I watch the Democrats,

00:23:49.180 when the Democrats were in power, when Joe Biden, the worst president in my lifetime,

00:23:52.580 which, as you say, goes back infinitely, you know, when he was in power, I kept seeing things like this. 0.99

00:23:58.420 They say, let's cut little boys' testicles off and turn them into little girls. 1.00

00:24:02.840 Let's, you know, let's hire people according to the color of their skin. 0.99

00:24:06.020 Let's make, you know, women into men and men into women and have them play women's sports. 1.00

00:24:10.960 And then they come out, find out they were unpopular, and they say, it must be our messaging.

00:24:15.160 You go, no, no, it's not your messaging.

00:24:18.020 And in the same way, I think with Donald Trump, there is, you know, a style and substance difference

00:24:23.300 that is really unnerving to people and plays into the prejudices of the media.

00:24:28.320 So, I mean, Trump says things that he shouldn't say, you know.

00:24:31.420 And I'm sorry, I keep saying this on my show all the time because it's so old-fashioned and yet so true.

00:24:37.320 Manners actually matter, you know.

00:24:38.640 Good manners, you can get very far with good manners and determination just as far,

00:24:44.220 if not further, than you can get with determination and bad manners.

00:24:47.020 And so, as always with all of us, you know, Trump's flaws and his strengths are the same.

00:24:51.960 And one of his great strengths is the fact that he's willing to break the rules.

00:24:55.660 He's willing to go and be the bull in the China shop.

00:24:57.920 He's willing to say, oh, yeah, we've done this way for 50 years.

00:25:01.580 It's not working.

00:25:02.840 Let's stop.

00:25:03.560 That is a wonderful trait that Donald Trump has that makes him who he is.

00:25:07.180 But by the same token, he does the same thing with the way he treats people.

00:25:11.420 You know, yeah, usually you don't fire people like in public on the air.

00:25:15.400 No, that's the way I'm going to do it.

00:25:17.220 You know, usually you don't call the Supreme Court, you know, say they're in the pay of foreign powers.

00:25:21.740 You have some respect for the law.

00:25:23.180 No, I'm not going to do that.

00:25:24.060 So that same kind of unbridled, you know, feeling that he brings to his substance, which is great,

00:25:30.120 he brings to his style, which is not so great.

00:25:31.900 Well, I think this is where, you know, again, the president is at his best.

00:25:34.980 Where he can really deploy that is when he's got his book of enemies open and he because he is he is absolutely the most effective destroyer in modern American history.

00:25:44.700 He what I've always said about the president is that he has the art of politics is making it very hard to vote for your opponents and easy to vote for you.

00:25:50.520 And he's always been amazing at the former and, you know, kind of mixed bag at the latter.

00:25:54.720 Right. He's great at making it hard to vote for Democrats.

00:25:57.300 And so the question, you know, Matt, is who again, the president is looking for a target.

00:26:03.740 What is the target? Who is the target?

00:26:05.500 How how does he singularly polarize around a Democratic target?

00:26:08.760 Who is the who's the target rich environment that he should be going after right now?

00:26:12.300 I don't know. I mean, I think they all kind of are the the the the good thing that we have.

00:26:16.580 And we're talking about returning. Americans want normal.

00:26:18.820 We want a sense of normalcy. I think that's true.

00:26:20.500 And it brings to mind Gavin Newsom, who just I think yesterday was on CNN saying that, well, you know, the Democrats need to be a little bit more culturally normal.

00:26:29.760 So he's he's doing his whole his whole moderate shtick, you know, which, of course, is a shtick.

00:26:34.380 He mentions pronouns. So he said maybe we won't be so focused on the pronouns.

00:26:38.320 Very boldly coming out against the pronoun thing four years after that peaked anyway.

00:26:43.320 But the advantage that that Trump has and Republicans have is that Democrats actually can't do that.

00:26:50.380 Like, at least in theory, Republicans can be normal.

00:26:54.680 Many times a lot of weird stuff happens among Republicans, but we they can be normal.

00:26:58.880 That is a possible thing. With Democrats, it's not even possible.

00:27:01.500 It's like inherently impossible because it's they're progressive.

00:27:05.200 And so what that means and they would even admit this if you framed it in a more positive way.

00:27:10.020 But it means that you're constant. It's a it's a constant state of transformation all the time.

00:27:14.600 So there's always a new normal, you know. And so if there's always a new normal, it means that there's never a normal at all.

00:27:20.280 And so Democrats are just not just not capable of it.

00:27:22.800 I mean, they literally march under a banner that says dismantle.

00:27:26.160 You know, that's that's that they they they are the party.

00:27:29.320 They are the side that uses a word like dismantle in a positive way.

00:27:32.300 Conservatives almost never do that. And what are they always trying to dismantle?

00:27:35.420 It's always like fundamental aspects of human society, nuclear family and so on.

00:27:39.900 Human nature. So, right, exactly.

00:27:41.440 So they they can't do that. They can talk about it. They can't actually do it.

00:27:45.520 It's totally against their their political project.

00:27:48.300 And Republicans can. And so that's an advantage.

00:27:50.660 And that's maybe something that Trump could try to highlight.

00:27:53.680 We do have some people arriving at the State of the Union address.

00:27:57.120 Again, many Democrats are not showing up tonight.

00:27:59.800 You know, I wish I had not showed up tonight.

00:28:01.900 But, you know, here we are all together suffering through this, suffering through this together.

00:28:06.680 There are some old people. You can see them. I'm not talking about Klavan again. 1.00

00:28:09.180 Those are some old people who people elected. I don't know why. 1.00

00:28:12.380 You know, it's just the way this thing works.

00:28:13.940 This this elected government of ours is going so well.

00:28:16.900 And I believe that's Senators McCormick and Tim Sheehy.

00:28:19.480 McCormick, of course, from Pennsylvania. Tim Sheehy from Montana.

00:28:23.220 And then there are a bunch of people I don't recognize.

00:28:25.340 So, you know, I'm doing a great job.

00:28:26.900 You know, my color commentary here.

00:28:28.280 Wait until wait until I do tennis.

00:28:30.240 He hits the ball and then he also hits the ball.

00:28:32.000 Well, you know, I know that Kalshi, our sponsor, also has a rundown on what Trump is going to say during the State of the Union.

00:28:39.440 If you are feeling lucky and inspired, you can get into the action yourself with the help of our sponsors over at Kalshi.

00:28:45.780 You can head on over to Kalshi.com slash Friendly Fire.

00:28:47.960 Prediction markets are forecasting the odds of President Trump saying words like Somali's ballroom fake news and hoax.

00:28:54.020 Man, of those, I feel like there's also some odds on surprise guests.

00:28:59.200 I feel like of those words, I'm going to go like I'm going to go hoax.

00:29:02.540 I feel like hoax is always a good standby.

00:29:04.940 A prediction bonanza unseen since the Super Bowl.

00:29:07.140 So definitely check it out right now.

00:29:09.460 Some of the markets.

00:29:10.420 What will Trump say during the State of the Union?

00:29:13.260 So, as I say, some of those words will undoubtedly come up.

00:29:17.400 I believe that there there is a ballroom is at 50 some percent.

00:29:22.720 Hoax is at 50 some percent.

00:29:26.160 People are very optimistic about him saying words.

00:29:28.560 So that's that's exciting news from our friends over at Kalshi.

00:29:33.240 That might improve the State of the Union.

00:29:35.320 Yeah, exactly.

00:29:35.920 There's also a market, a prediction market on who is going to attend the State of the Union.

00:29:41.040 No points for Macho Man Randy Savage.

00:29:45.340 But I don't know, guys.

00:29:50.680 I'm probably shrunk already.

00:29:51.640 We haven't even begun this thing yet.

00:29:54.300 If you have any idea where to go from here, like you let me know.

00:29:57.600 This is why Knowles usually runs Friendly Fire, because believe it or not, it's the only thing he is more professional at than I.

00:30:02.440 But the reason Knowles is not with us is because Knowles is actually at the State of the Union address.

00:30:06.960 So is Isabel Brown.

00:30:07.780 That's how low they have sunk in the State of the Union.

00:30:09.480 I know.

00:30:09.800 They're really, really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

00:30:12.340 Truly scraping the bottom of the barrel.

00:30:13.540 Unless he's the usher.

00:30:14.600 I mean, I could see him being the usher.

00:30:15.820 I mean, my assumption is that in order for you to go to the State of the Union, you have to be hit in the teeth with a hockey stick.

00:30:20.600 So I volunteer right now to make that happen.

00:30:23.840 That would actually improve Knowles' face. 0.92

00:30:25.820 Okay, so, Matt, I do want your rant on how much Canada sucks, because that was pretty great. 0.93

00:30:31.060 I mean, the United States, if you could not feel a surge of pride at us defeating our communist northern neighbors who murder the disabled, then I'm not sure what exactly we're doing here. 0.92

00:30:40.780 Yeah, and it was the first hockey game that I've watched all the way through, and it was actually pretty exciting, but most exciting just to watch Canada get vanquished.

00:30:55.380 And what makes it so hilarious, of course, as many people have pointed out, is that hockey is the only thing they know how to do.

00:31:01.000 It's their only sport.

00:31:02.300 It's their only activity.

00:31:04.060 They put their kids in hockey when they're like six months old, and for us, it's a niche interest.

00:31:10.040 It's like not even a top-five sport.

00:31:11.980 We barely even know it exists, and then we just kind of wander over there.

00:31:15.200 We're like, yeah, fine, we'll take the gold in that.

00:31:16.760 So my whole pitch was that I think we should just do this now, and I think our next project should be assemble the greatest cricket team that the world has ever seen, and then go and dominate in cricket.

00:31:28.620 And I want a bunch of drunk Americans going to the Cricket World Series or whatever it's called, tailgating outside, being obnoxious, bragging. 1.00

00:31:35.480 We don't even know how the game is played or anything about it. 0.72

00:31:38.040 And that's what I think we should do.

00:31:40.640 And I will also say, just on the Canada point, that I'm not totally making the argument that we absolutely should invade Canada and depose its regime.

00:31:53.140 But I am saying that given that America has done this, and we just did it in Venezuela, many of the arguments that have applied and have justified those actions, if you favored them, really do apply to Canada.

00:32:08.560 It's not a crazy thing to talk about, and as you mentioned, Ben, I mean, they are in the middle of a campaign of eugenics. 0.70

00:32:15.480 They are executing not terminally ill people, but thousands of people who are just chronically ill, which is to say they're sick, but they're not going to die of the sickness.

00:32:25.200 And that's just what they're burning down churches, not arresting anybody for it, you know, a partial birth abortion. 0.86

00:32:30.800 I mean, it's really just a parade of atrocities in Canada.

00:32:33.360 And so I don't know, it's something we should talk about.

00:32:35.040 Maybe Trump will speculate about it in the State of the Union.

00:32:38.720 I would love that.

00:32:39.680 Well, also, by the way, we should mention here, before Walsh ducks out and gets his nighty-night sleep, that he has a new episode of Real History that is out right now about the history, the real history of Native Americans, about American Indians.

00:32:52.120 That episode is episode two in his wildly popular Real History series.

00:32:55.740 Matt, maybe you want to give people a quick rundown.

00:32:57.460 By the way, you can only get that if you subscribe, because if you don't give us money, then we can't do things at this company, people.

00:33:02.600 So if you want to see that and also give us money, then you should definitely subscribe to see Matt's Real History.

00:33:07.100 Matt, give a little bit of a pitch to episode two for yourself.

00:33:10.320 Yeah, I'm excited about it.

00:33:11.040 This was a fun one to do, and it's a topic that's really interested me for a long time.

00:33:17.040 I've been on this soapbox about the Native Americans for a long time.

00:33:22.380 And it's really important, because this is, we heard it from Billie Eilish at the Grammys, and this is the idea that America is built on stolen land.

00:33:31.660 We have no right to be here. 0.51

00:33:33.080 And that idea, as silly as it is, has been very persuasive to a lot of people.

00:33:37.160 It's been a justification for some of the worst policies that we've ever seen and some of the worst tyranny in this country and in places like Canada as well.

00:33:46.840 Well, so part of what we're doing in this episode is kind of inspecting that claim.

00:33:50.660 Is that actually true?

00:33:51.580 What actually happened with the Native Americans?

00:33:53.000 What's the real story?

00:33:53.820 We hear about the Trail of Tears, the smallpox blankets.

00:33:56.500 Well, it turns out, when you look into it, all that stuff is fake.

00:33:59.100 And we go into that in great detail, which, as you say, if you subscribe, you can hear all about it.

00:34:06.700 All right.

00:34:07.260 So, Matt, I appreciate that.

00:34:09.120 And I know that you're going to stay with us for a few more minutes while we watch a bunch of people walk into a room.

00:34:13.300 So that's really, really exciting.

00:34:15.180 Drew, what do you think of what they're wearing?

00:34:17.260 What do you make?

00:34:18.240 What is Chief Justice Roberts wearing?

00:34:20.320 What do you make of his robe?

00:34:21.520 Is it the most elegant robe or only the second most elegant robe you've ever seen?

00:34:25.080 You know, I appreciate that John Roberts trying to revive our Congress.

00:34:29.180 I thought that was so touching.

00:34:30.600 You know, it's like, couldn't Congress do something sometimes?

00:34:33.700 Come on.

00:34:35.700 Even the guys who agreed with him, the left-wing judges were like, no, we don't want that.

00:34:40.500 We just want to wait until Trump is gone.

00:34:41.940 We want to say Trump can't do it, but our president can do it when he arrives.

00:34:45.300 But John Roberts was like, please, please, Congress, do something.

00:34:48.340 And poor Clarence Thomas was going, Congress?

00:34:50.780 Is there still a Congress?

00:34:51.820 I don't remember that, you know?

00:34:54.580 So I'm glad John Roberts is there.

00:34:57.460 I appreciate the sentimental attempt to keep the American system alive.

00:35:03.060 I thought that was very, I was very moved by that.

00:35:05.640 And I know that the people, I'm sure the people in Congress were like going, shh, shh, we don't want to do that.

00:35:10.700 No, no.

00:35:11.260 Because, you know, then if we do things, people will blame us for them.

00:35:13.800 So I think that that's, you know, that John Roberts deserves to show up in his robes

00:35:17.720 and look like a justice from the old America where we had a Congress.

00:35:21.260 I mean, I'll be honest.

00:35:22.360 I'm just looking forward to watching the president jump out of the dais and full on pile drive John Roberts.

00:35:28.400 It'll be really entertaining.

00:35:31.040 I'm rooting for pyrotechnics at this point.

00:35:33.420 Speaking of lack of pyrotechnics, if there's one place more boring than the inside of the State of the Union,

00:35:37.460 it's outside the State of the Union where Brecca is on the mall watching a bunch of elderly Democrats mill around uselessly.

00:35:44.240 So Brecca, what is happening out there?

00:35:47.820 Is it the most exciting scene?

00:35:49.340 It is a small crowd, still not much of an update.

00:35:53.820 We just had Chris Van Hollen talk to people.

00:35:56.680 He talked about Minneapolis and how people need to be like the protesters in Minneapolis and, you know, rise ahead into the event, whatever.

00:36:05.040 And then other update, we just had a national scientist.

00:36:08.700 So, you know, not much going on.

00:36:11.780 Wow.

00:36:12.020 So excellent, excellent reporting, Brecca.

00:36:13.800 I mean, you're right in the thick of things where all the action is happening.

00:36:17.760 Yeah, I'm very excited that we have this sort of minute to minute.

00:36:21.660 What's happening?

00:36:23.200 Something.

00:36:23.400 When Americans fear they can be killed or taken by mass agents.

00:36:27.920 Nope, nothing happening.

00:36:28.600 Brecca, thank you so much.

00:36:30.080 I appreciate it.

00:36:31.920 Honestly, I love that they're bringing forth, you know, the real go-getters like Chris Van Hollen.

00:36:36.600 They're like, you know what?

00:36:37.320 We got to get the guy who really is going to sell this thing. 0.96

00:36:40.200 Let's get Chris Van Hollen, most recently seen like a schmuck down in El Salvador, hanging out with Camaro Abrego Garcia, the guy who was alleged to have beaten his wife. 0.59

00:36:48.480 Well, meanwhile, the first family has arrived in the box, Baron Trump, whose head stretches all the way to the top of the Capitol Dome, is standing there. 0.51

00:36:58.200 Melania has entered.

00:36:59.660 The president's other children are there as well.

00:37:02.620 So they are all-

00:37:03.600 I would like to praise Melania for a moment.

00:37:05.900 Melania has become, for me, the symbol of how petty and small-hearted and small-minded the left is.

00:37:12.100 I mean, look at that woman. 1.00

00:37:13.060 There's a beautiful first lady that we've got. 1.00

00:37:14.980 She hasn't been on the cover of one lousy magazine.

00:37:17.580 Can you imagine the small, kind of like miserly pinch-heartedness of going, we're not going to let her on the magazine because people might think she was pretty, you know?

00:37:26.340 Dude, the magazines are so bad that Time magazine featured Eileen Gu, like the lady- 1.00

00:37:32.440 The Chinese-

00:37:32.940 The Chinese- 1.00

00:37:33.620 The traitor. 1.00

00:37:34.620 The Chinese spy. 0.99

00:37:35.040 Yeah, exactly.

00:37:36.260 And meanwhile, you've got the American hockey team with some of the greatest photos of all time, didn't make the cover of Time.

00:37:43.360 The secretaries are entering the chamber.

00:37:45.180 Yeah, they are.

00:37:45.560 The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, entered just a moment ago.

00:37:49.040 There you have RFK Jr., who, thankfully for us, is wearing a shirt and not jeans today.

00:37:53.760 So that's exciting.

00:37:54.880 He's not doing any push-ups on the floor of the chamber.

00:37:56.880 Again, I was kind of rooting for it.

00:37:59.440 Also, Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, is there as well.

00:38:02.800 Can I say something?

00:38:03.520 Actually, can I say something about Melania?

00:38:04.860 I really, I really resent her, actually.

00:38:09.920 I actually really resent her.

00:38:11.620 No, I do, because up until a month ago, I had the biggest opening weekend for any documentary at the box office of the decade.

00:38:23.460 And then she comes along and beats us. 1.00

00:38:26.820 She blew you out of the water. 0.99

00:38:28.840 It's not fair.

00:38:29.900 Well, she had the President of the United States at the premiere.

00:38:31.880 It's like, I can't compete with that.

00:38:32.980 And Matt, I think the moral of the story is, next documentary, you try on so many shoes.

00:38:38.240 The number of shoes that you try on, pantsuits, like, we really go for it.

00:38:42.560 I think we're going to have to blow out the budget on footwear for Matt Walsh, is I think what we need to happen for the next.

00:38:48.040 It's called What Am I Wearing?

00:38:49.740 That is the next Matt Walsh documentary.

00:38:51.720 And it was unfair, because they unleashed the same amount of hate against her that they unleashed against you, and she was just showing off her clothes.

00:38:59.640 That's truly unfair, yeah.

00:39:01.140 I got to work hard for the hate.

00:39:03.040 I know, I know.

00:39:03.860 You got to work for your hatred, yeah.

00:39:05.160 Well, we are awaiting the President entering the chamber for the State of the Union.

00:39:08.140 When that happens, we are going to obviously go to the State of the Union.

00:39:11.540 You can watch it live here and stick with us.

00:39:13.040 And then afterward, stick around, because Matt is going to go to sleep.

00:39:16.140 But the rest of us are going to stay here and suffer through this interminable evening with you.

00:39:20.380 There will be drinks.

00:39:21.420 There won't be hard drugs, because I know that there are law enforcement authorities watching.

00:39:26.520 But we will be here back with you on the other end for all of our hot takes.

00:39:30.440 Michael Knowles will somehow make his way to a place where we can talk to him, God love us all, and others.

00:39:36.420 A wild cast of luminaries will be joining us post the State of the Union after the President speaks, which may or may not end anytime in the future.

00:39:46.360 So we still have people who are entering the chamber.

00:39:48.900 This is happening slowly.

00:39:49.940 Matt and I were there last year.

00:39:50.700 Matt, it was like 20 minutes late, right?

00:39:51.940 It was 15, 20 minutes late, something like that, 10 minutes late.

00:39:54.180 It took a while.

00:39:55.280 Yeah, and the speech was very, very long.

00:39:57.320 It was.

00:39:57.460 You can't get up to use the bathroom at any point, which I started to worry about that a little bit, about two-thirds of the way through.

00:40:06.640 I'm just like, but that's even rougher for the President.

00:40:10.720 I've always wondered, what do you do if you're the President giving the speech and you've got to use the bathroom?

00:40:14.760 These are the questions that are never asked.

00:40:16.460 The Mike Mulligan and the steam shovel questions, and obviously the President has tremendous stamina.

00:40:22.180 He loves going on stem winders at these things.

00:40:24.880 And yeah, I mean, I think that caffing is not an inappropriate solution for some people who are in that room, pretty obviously.

00:40:32.640 This is the worst commentary.

00:40:34.900 You know what, Drew?

00:40:35.980 You take the lead, all right?

00:40:37.580 It's all you.

00:40:38.600 Let's see you do better, Drew.

00:40:40.300 Hypercritical.

00:40:41.380 Let's talk.

00:40:43.580 Picayune.

00:40:44.140 Let's talk about movies.

00:40:45.000 Just nitpicking over here.

00:40:45.820 What movies are we going to talk about?

00:40:48.940 Wuthering Heights?

00:40:49.540 Wuthering Heights?

00:40:50.080 Oh, my God.

00:40:50.700 By the way, totally good.

00:40:51.900 It was horrific.

00:40:53.560 You know, the book isn't that good.

00:40:55.320 I mean, I've always...

00:40:56.420 Oh, my God.

00:40:56.800 That's where you're going to?

00:40:58.360 I've always been a big Jane Eyre fan.

00:41:00.060 I've never thought that Wuthering Heights was that good a book.

00:41:02.080 Okay, well, that was a really interesting conversation.

00:41:03.920 By the way, we're building something bigger than just another news outlet.

00:41:07.620 Daily Wire Plus gives you live, uncensored shows every day.

00:41:10.020 You can see why normally we'd like to censor them because of this.

00:41:12.260 Breaking news in real time and investigative journalism that gives you the real story.

00:41:15.960 No algorithms deciding what you get.

00:41:17.360 No outside pressure telling us what to say.

00:41:19.780 And if you believe in that mission, head on over to dailywire.com.

00:41:22.140 Become a member today.

00:41:24.080 I can't believe that your take on Wuthering Heights, Drew, is that you don't like the book.

00:41:27.460 I haven't seen the movie.

00:41:28.360 I haven't seen the movie.

00:41:29.080 Do not.

00:41:29.460 Do not.

00:41:29.680 Do I want to see the movie?

00:41:30.600 No.

00:41:30.780 You do not.

00:41:31.080 I mean, it looks terrible.

00:41:32.880 You've seen the 1939 version, right?

00:41:34.660 Yeah, which is good.

00:41:35.320 That's actually a good movie because they only did the first half of the book.

00:41:37.720 Yeah.

00:41:38.040 Yeah.

00:41:38.260 It's a fabulous movie with Merle Oberon and Lawrence Olivier.

00:41:41.060 Terrific, terrific film with a great score.

00:41:42.820 This movie is one of the worst movies ever.

00:41:44.620 And it's truly immoral and quite evil and quite terrible.

00:41:48.860 Well, speaking of, I don't know, whatever.

00:41:51.340 There are a bunch of people who are coming in.

00:41:52.680 Lee Zeldin, the head of the EPA, is entering.

00:41:55.520 Other cabinet secretary is entering.

00:41:56.880 There's a very beardy fellow in the back who I don't recognize.

00:41:59.520 And so I've just physically described the people.

00:42:04.700 Oh, my God.

00:42:05.880 Matt, I can't.

00:42:06.580 You know what?

00:42:06.900 Matt, say something.

00:42:07.760 Say something, Matt.

00:42:08.500 Save me from myself.

00:42:09.580 I was a, that was a, that was a great transition.

00:42:13.760 Speaking of, I don't know, whatever.

00:42:17.900 That was good.

00:42:18.760 I really appreciated that.

00:42:20.100 I'm just, I'm enjoying watching you, Ben, try to.

00:42:23.580 Yeah, to stretch this.

00:42:24.900 This is a.

00:42:25.460 I know.

00:42:26.360 You know, we can talk about, we can talk about Mexico.

00:42:29.200 Because finally, I am now the only person on earth with the nickname El Mencho.

00:42:33.660 That was a good thing.

00:42:35.740 They killed El Mencho, leaving me the highest ranked person with that nickname. 0.55

00:42:40.620 It is something to say that, you know, in the last, in the last week,

00:42:43.760 we have defeated both of our neighbors at their top sport.

00:42:45.780 Yeah, exactly, exactly.

00:42:49.600 And another thing about Canada, I have another thing to say about Canada. 0.97

00:42:52.200 Not only are they killing people, but they're bad sports. 0.66

00:42:55.220 They got, they complained about, they said, we play better than the Americans

00:42:58.320 because we got more, off more shots.

00:43:00.120 You know, the goalie was this amazing, and the goalie must be Flash from the comics.

00:43:03.980 He was like, just moving around, blocking every shot.

00:43:06.300 And somebody has to explain to the Canadians, it doesn't matter how many shots you take.

00:43:09.940 It actually matters how many blocks go into the goal.

00:43:12.920 So I think that, that alone, that is stellar sports commentary.

00:43:16.680 It does not matter how many shots you take.

00:43:18.220 That is my reason for invading them.

00:43:19.620 That is my reason for invading them.

00:43:20.760 It looks like they are about to welcome the president.

00:43:23.620 I know, how long am I supposed to stretch this?

00:43:25.660 It's unbelievable.

00:43:26.720 The vice president and the speaker of the house are, of course,

00:43:29.160 behind the president of the United States.

00:43:31.600 We are moments away from the president of the United States entering the chamber,

00:43:35.000 and the state of the union will begin shortly.

00:43:37.320 There is the special envoy for the president on foreign policy,

00:43:41.980 that's Steve Whitcoff, who's been entering the room.

00:43:45.600 The Democrats are not sort of garbed in their usual.

00:43:48.740 Usually they have kind of these matching Halloween costumes that they wear.

00:43:51.600 Those costumes they wear, yeah.

00:43:52.720 Yeah, last year they did the all-white routine.

00:43:55.160 This year, I guess they wore their invisibility cloaks.

00:43:58.200 A lot of those seats are clear.

00:44:00.840 Matt, I've run out of things to say.

00:44:02.220 Continue, whatever it was.

00:44:03.320 I know it was criticism of me, but you know what?

00:44:05.180 I can take it.

00:44:05.900 We need to fill this time somehow.

00:44:07.060 Go for it.

00:44:08.380 You've run out of things to say, so you throw to me.

00:44:10.640 I'm your guy.

00:44:11.940 I'm your guy you bring in.

00:44:12.880 I'm getting my money's worth from you, Matt Walsh.

00:44:15.260 Like, for God's sake, you get to ditch us all in the middle of this

00:44:18.660 and go enjoy your family.

00:44:20.860 And meanwhile-

00:44:21.800 We could do a live stream of me sleeping if we want.

00:44:23.820 I mean, we could just cut to that.

00:44:25.440 That would be a little more exciting.

00:44:26.980 Can we exult in the fact that the Democrats didn't show up

00:44:30.540 and they're still humiliating themselves?

00:44:32.300 I said, nobody's there.

00:44:33.640 By the way, I will say, you know, more seriously,

00:44:36.300 it could theoretically be an important speech.

00:44:38.080 Really, it could.

00:44:38.740 Because we are sort of an inflection point in the Trump presidency.

00:44:41.320 If things keep going the way they are going for the president

00:44:43.320 and the midterms go the wrong way,

00:44:45.180 it's going to be very difficult for him to effectuate his agenda.

00:44:48.000 This is an opportunity where all the networks and we are live casting this entire thing.

00:44:52.280 And that means that if he says something that truly is outstanding

00:44:54.900 or if there's anything clippable or memeable that comes out of it,

00:44:58.080 then theoretically it could open a new front in sort of the narrative war

00:45:01.420 that he's going to have to fight leading up to the midterm election.

00:45:04.560 And also, Eddie, I think also this is an opportunity to aggressively defend ICE.

00:45:09.680 You have the bully pulpit.

00:45:11.220 And I mean, we saw the Kalshi. 1.00

00:45:12.720 Is he going to say the word Somalis?

00:45:14.100 I hope he does because let's talk about the Somalis and what they're doing 0.96

00:45:16.760 and why ICE is there and who they're deporting.

00:45:19.420 And this is an opportunity to really highlight that.

00:45:21.320 And also, I mean, when did it become all right to throw things at law enforcement?

00:45:25.540 You know, I mean, can we not talk about this?

00:45:27.580 Is that like just, oh, what's happening now?

00:45:30.460 Something actually.

00:45:30.920 Well, now that the president is about to enter the chamber, he's coming in right now.

00:45:34.880 We've been rescued by Donald Trump.

00:45:36.420 I think this is like.

00:45:37.780 Once again, just like 2024 election, we've been rescued by the president.

00:45:40.780 So here he is entering the chamber.

00:45:43.760 Obviously, if Matt and I were there last year, Drew, you've never been there.

00:45:47.320 So, you know, you can't be part of this conversation.

00:45:48.920 No, I know.

00:45:50.140 I mean, you've never received this honor, which I think is fitting.

00:45:53.000 And typically when this happens, there's a big crowd that sort of comes around the president,

00:45:56.520 people taking selfies with the president for postcards back home and such.

00:46:00.600 And he's getting a big hand.

00:46:02.320 The Senate Majority Leader John Thune is behind him.

00:46:05.400 You see him entering slowly.

00:46:06.820 It takes him a while to get to the podium, obviously.

00:46:10.480 But you can see the Democrats are sort of standing there turning the other way or ignoring him.

00:46:14.680 I have a couple of Congress people who are wearing the MAGA hats.

00:46:18.920 And obviously, the president, I'm sure, is going to be quite happy about that.

00:46:23.380 Now, the Republicans are happy to see the president, obviously, as you would expect and suspect.

00:46:29.120 So you can watch, as we say, the entire thing live.

00:46:32.240 On the after end of this, we are going to be talking with various members of the Daily Wire team.

00:46:37.100 Mary Margaret Olihan is going to be with us.

00:46:39.220 So will Michael Knowles.

00:46:40.320 He will stop by to explain what he saw in the room.

00:46:43.820 The president continues to make his way down.

00:46:46.940 I have to say, does the man ever age?

00:46:49.140 He's exactly the same age as when he came down the escalator in 2015.

00:46:51.960 It is really kind of an incredible thing.

00:46:53.420 Yeah.

00:46:54.000 There is a picture of him in the hall at the White House.

00:46:55.840 He gets older and older.

00:46:58.040 And he is, you know, he's also got a lot of, he's still got a lot of verve, a lot of energy.

00:47:02.300 He's just like, you know, the New York Times has been running these series of articles every now and again on how he's falling apart.

00:47:08.140 And it's just, it's like everything else in the New York Times when you compare it to reality, there's no match whatsoever.

00:47:13.340 He's just an incredibly energetic person.

00:47:16.000 He's a good advertisement for not drinking.

00:47:18.260 Luckily, I haven't taken that on board, but still.

00:47:20.440 Yeah.

00:47:20.640 Unfortunately, he's also a great advertisement for not exercising since he famously does not exercise in order to preserve his life force.

00:47:25.760 He looks great.

00:47:26.560 I mean, like eat like trash, but don't have beer and also don't exercise.

00:47:31.460 And you can, you too can be president of the United States and be extraordinarily well preserved.

00:47:35.520 This is why it was always so funny, Democrats trying to come back at the president with, well, you know, just like Joe, you're just like Joe Biden.

00:47:42.280 And it was like, no, you know what he's not like is Joe Biden, who was legitimately a barely ambulatory corpse by the time he left the office.

00:47:51.800 So Isabel Brown is there tonight as well.

00:47:53.960 So half the Daily Wire team or more is there.

00:47:56.120 He is walking by John Roberts.

00:47:57.140 He kind of walked right by John Roberts and right over to Brett Kavanaugh, which is not exactly surprising.

00:48:02.400 He kind of ignored Amy Coney Barrett right there.

00:48:04.260 He's he's shaking the hands of the Supreme Court justices.

00:48:06.920 He likes he's playing duck, duck goose with the Supreme Court justices, basically.

00:48:11.020 And now he is greeting the general, the the chiefs of staff or the armed forces of the military and making his way up onto the podium.

00:48:19.740 Democrats are standing there not clapping.

00:48:22.140 You can see Elizabeth Warren in the background as as as non-moving as the stature we have of her in our studios.

00:48:28.040 And and the president is making his way up to the podium right now is he is getting a big ovation from the Republican side of the aisle.

00:48:35.820 Of course, J.D. Vance behind him, the vice president, speaker of the House behind him as well.

00:48:40.680 The president is approaching the microphone is in a wave to the room a little bit.

00:48:47.600 I assume that in a couple of moments he will begin to speak everyone on the Republican side of the aisle on their feet up to and including the rafters, the Trump family, which, of course, is very large, is up in the rafters cheering.

00:48:57.720 You can see there there's a tremendous enthusiasm for the Republican side of the aisle on the president pointing to members of the crowd clapping as he as he prepares to walk forward to the speech.

00:49:07.860 Again, one of the benefits of having Mike Johnson behind the president is that he won't be ripping up the president's speech in the immediate aftermath of the State of the Union address.

00:49:16.360 The president turning to the vice president as well as the speaker in just a moment.

00:49:21.180 He will be approaching the microphone to begin speaking.

00:49:27.720 In just a moment, we're going to go live to the president of the United States in the room.

00:49:33.580 Pretty long ovation here in front of the president.

00:49:37.240 It's good. It's good color commentary, Ben.

00:49:39.340 Thank you.

00:49:39.980 You know, I got a lot of respect.

00:49:42.400 I have more respect now for the cable news people that like they could just kind of wing it and say nothing.

00:49:46.980 Wing it. Wing it over these moments.

00:49:48.380 Listen, dude, you know what?

00:49:49.880 I have a pathological aversion to saying nothing and they put me on the air here and they're like, you know what?

00:49:53.860 Phil, 20 minutes while he walks down a hall.

00:49:55.680 I do not have that.

00:49:56.720 I don't have that aversion at all.

00:49:59.280 I noticed.

00:50:01.380 Somebody's got to fill the time, dude.

00:50:03.860 And someone, one of the three of us, will just sit there for long periods of time saying nothing quite comfortably.

00:50:10.840 And somebody's got to say something.

00:50:13.580 All right.

00:50:14.160 Finally.

00:50:14.500 Members of Congress have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the president of the United States.

00:50:20.380 Well, thank you very much, everybody.

00:50:25.040 But it's really an honor.

00:50:27.320 Speaker Johnson, Vice President Vance.

00:50:31.440 Today, our border is secure.

00:50:33.060 Our spirit is restored.

00:50:35.240 Inflation is plummeting.

00:50:37.940 Incomes are rising fast.

00:50:40.920 The roaring economy is roaring like never before.

00:50:45.200 And our enemies are scared.

00:50:47.460 Our military and police are stacked.

00:50:49.840 And America is respected again, perhaps like never before.

00:50:54.580 The stock market has set 53 all-time record highs since the election.

00:51:05.240 Think of that.

00:51:05.980 One year, boosting pensions, 401ks, and retirement accounts with the millions and millions of Americans.

00:51:14.060 They're all gaining.

00:51:15.160 Everybody's up.

00:51:16.060 Way up.

00:51:17.000 In four long years, the last administration got less than $1 trillion in new investment in the United States.

00:51:24.640 And when I say less, substantially less.

00:51:27.940 In 12 months, I secured commitments for more than $18 trillion pouring in from all over the globe.

00:51:35.980 Think of it, much less than $1 trillion for four years versus much more than $18 trillion for one year.

00:51:52.940 What a difference a president makes.

00:51:55.100 A short time ago, we were a dead country.

00:52:01.480 Now, we are the hottest country anywhere in the world.

00:52:05.220 We ended DEI in America.

00:52:12.220 We cut a record number of job-killing regulations.

00:52:14.220 And in one year, we have lifted 2.4 million Americans, a record off of food stamps.

00:52:20.220 And for all of these reasons, I say tonight, members of Congress, the state of our union is strong.

00:52:27.220 Our country is winning again.

00:52:34.220 In fact, we're winning so much that we really don't know what to do about it.

00:52:41.220 People are asking me, please, please, please, please, please, Mr. President, we're winning too much.

00:52:48.220 We can't take it anymore.

00:52:50.220 We're not used to winning in our country.

00:52:51.220 Until you came along, we're just always losing, but now we're winning too much.

00:52:57.220 And I say, no, no, no.

00:52:59.220 You're going to win again.

00:53:00.220 You're going to win big.

00:53:01.220 You're going to win bigger than ever.

00:53:02.220 And to prove that point, to prove that point, here with us tonight is a group of winners

00:53:08.220 who just made the entire nation proud, the men's gold medal Olympic hockey team.

00:53:09.220 The men's gold medal Olympic hockey team.

00:53:10.220 Come on in.

00:53:38.220 The members of this great hockey squad will be very happy to hear, based on their vote

00:53:58.720 and my vote, and in this case, my vote was more important, that I will soon be presenting

00:54:05.220 Conor, with our highest civilian honor, which we will be given and which has been given

00:54:10.680 to many athletes over the years.

00:54:13.220 But when I say many, not too many, like 12, it's called the highest civilian honor in

00:54:22.000 our country, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

00:54:33.280 Under our bill, parents like Megan can also activate their children's brand new Trump accounts.

00:54:38.280 And I didn't name it.

00:54:40.280 I did not name it.

00:54:42.280 I did not name that.

00:54:49.280 Nobody believes me, but I did not name it.

00:54:51.280 It was named by a very tall man standing right there in the third row.

00:54:55.280 So, with modest additional contributions, these young people's accounts could grow to over

00:55:02.280 $100,000 or more by the time they turn 18.

00:55:05.280 Think of it.

00:55:06.280 How much money is that for somebody that started with nothing?

00:55:10.280 Over $100,000.

00:55:11.280 It could be much more than that.

00:55:13.280 To make this investment in our children's future, go to Trumpaccounts.gov.

00:55:18.280 Under my just-enacted, most-favored-nation agreements, Americans, who have for decades paid, by far,

00:55:26.280 the highest prices of any nation anywhere in the world for prescription drugs,

00:55:31.280 will now pay the lowest price anywhere in the world for drugs.

00:55:35.280 Anywhere.

00:55:36.280 The lowest price.

00:55:37.280 First year of the second term, should be my third term, but strange things happen.

00:55:49.280 Members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information.

00:55:56.280 They stood up for that.

00:56:08.280 I can't believe it.

00:56:13.280 I can't believe it.

00:56:15.280 Did Nancy Pelosi stand up if she's here?

00:56:19.280 Doubt it.

00:56:21.280 Pass the Stop Insider Trading Act without delay.

00:56:27.280 But when it comes to the corruption that is plundering, really, it's plundering America.

00:56:33.280 There's been no more stunning example than Minnesota.

00:56:38.280 The members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer. 1.00

00:56:46.280 Oh, we have all the information.

00:56:48.280 And in actuality, the number is much higher than that.

00:56:51.280 And California, Massachusetts, Maine, and many other states are even worse.

00:56:57.280 This is the kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of a nation.

00:57:01.280 And we are working on it like you wouldn't believe.

00:57:04.280 So tonight, although it started four months ago, I am officially announcing the war on fraud to be led by our great Vice President, J.D. Vance.

00:57:15.280 The only thing standing between Americans and a wide open border right now is President Donald J. Trump and our great Republican patriots in Congress.

00:57:33.280 Thank you. Thank you.

00:57:34.280 The American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.

00:57:46.280 Isn't that a shame? You should be ashamed of yourself not standing up.

00:57:51.280 You should be ashamed of yourself.

00:57:53.280 That is why I'm also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials.

00:58:03.280 Who blocked the removal of criminal aliens.

00:58:07.280 In many cases, drug lords, murderers all over our country.

00:58:11.280 They're blocking the removal of these people out of our country.

00:58:16.280 And you should be ashamed of yourself.

00:58:18.280 And no more crooked mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military or travel. None.

00:58:30.280 None.

00:58:31.280 And even the new communist mayor of New York City.

00:58:34.280 I think he's a nice guy, actually.

00:58:36.280 Speak to him a lot.

00:58:37.280 Bad policy, but nice guy.

00:58:39.280 Just said they want people to shovel snow.

00:58:43.280 They got hit hard.

00:58:45.280 Wants them to shovel snow.

00:58:46.280 But if you apply for that job, you need to show two original forms of I.D.

00:58:51.280 and a social security card.

00:58:53.280 Yet they don't want identification for the greatest privilege of them all voting in America.

00:59:00.280 No, it's no good.

00:59:02.280 And here is one more opportunity to show common sense in government.

00:59:08.280 In the gallery tonight are Sage Blair and her mother, Michelle.

00:59:13.280 In 2021, Sage was 14 when school officials in Virginia sought to socially transition her

00:59:22.280 to a new gender, treating her as a boy and hiding it from her parents. 0.98

00:59:27.280 These people are crazy. 1.00

00:59:29.280 I'm telling you. 1.00

00:59:30.280 They're crazy.

00:59:33.280 My great friend, Charlie Kirk, a great guy, a great man.

00:59:37.280 So last year, Charlie was violently murdered by an assassin and martyred.

00:59:53.280 Really martyred for his beliefs.

00:59:56.280 His wonderful wife, Erica, is with us tonight.

00:59:59.280 Erica, please stand.

01:00:07.280 Thank you, Erica.

01:00:23.280 Been through a lot.

01:00:25.280 In Charlie's memory, we must all come together to reaffirm that America is one nation under God.

01:00:32.280 And we must totally reject political violence of any kind.

01:00:37.280 Last summer, 23-year-old Irina was riding home on the train when a deranged monster,

01:00:46.280 who had been arrested over a dozen times and was released through no-cash bail,

01:00:51.280 stood up and viciously slashed a knife through her neck and body. 1.00

01:00:56.280 No one will ever forget there were people on that train.

01:01:01.280 No one will ever forget the expression of terror on Irina's face as she looked up at her attacker in the last seconds of her life.

01:01:09.280 She died instantly.

01:01:10.280 She had escaped a brutal war only to be slain by a hardened criminal set free to kill in America.

01:01:18.280 Came in through open borders.

01:01:20.280 Mrs. Zaretska, tonight, I promise you, we will ensure justice for your magnificent daughter, Irina.

01:01:29.280 Under the ceasefire, I negotiated every single hostage, both living and dead, has been returned home.

01:01:35.280 Can you believe that?

01:01:50.280 As President, I will make peace wherever I can, but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must.

01:01:54.280 That's why, in a breakthrough operation last June, the United States military obliterated Iran's nuclear weapons program with an attack on Iranian soil known as Operation Midnight Hammer. 0.68

01:02:17.280 After Midnight Hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, and in particular, nuclear weapons.

01:02:30.280 Yet they continue starting it all over.

01:02:33.280 We wiped it out, and they want to start all over again.

01:02:36.280 For years, large swaths of territory in our region, including large parts of Mexico, really large parts of Mexico,

01:02:45.280 have been controlled by murderous drug cartels.

01:02:49.280 That's why I designated these cartels as foreign terrorist organizations,

01:02:54.280 and I declared illicit fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.

01:03:00.280 We've also taken down one of the most sinister cartel kingpins of all.

01:03:07.280 You saw that yesterday.

01:03:08.280 The revolution that began in 1776 has not ended.

01:03:13.280 It still continues because the flame of liberty and independence still burns in the heart of every American patriot.

01:03:22.280 And our future will be bigger, better, brighter, bolder, and more glorious than ever before.

01:03:29.280 Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

01:03:36.280 It's been punctuated by some pretty horrific Democratic behavior, which I think is going to be the story of the night.

01:03:41.280 The president was obviously in fine federal.

01:03:44.280 He was in a very good mood throughout.

01:03:45.280 There were some pretty great call-outs in the audience.

01:03:48.280 A lot of call-outs in the audience.

01:03:50.280 Last year, he did a thing where somebody was essentially made an honorary member of the Secret Service in the audience.

01:03:57.280 He did that a couple of times.

01:03:59.280 This time, somebody was given the Congressional Medal of Honor.

01:04:01.280 Somebody who was announced was going to receive the Presidential Medal of Honor.

01:04:05.280 But again, I think the big headline coming out of this, aside from the length of the speech, which ran almost two hours.

01:04:11.280 It ran approximately an hour and 48 minutes for those who are in the Calci markets.

01:04:14.280 I believe that is the official time we'll find out shortly.

01:04:17.280 With that said, the big thing to me, Drew, and we're here with Andrew Klavan and Mary Margaret Olehan.

01:04:23.280 The big thing to me, Drew, was the behavior of the Democrats, which you predicted it.

01:04:28.280 We all sort of thought it was going to happen.

01:04:30.280 Uniquely bad tonight.

01:04:31.280 Pretty horrific all the way through.

01:04:33.280 We saw particularly Democrats sitting on their hands at odd moments.

01:04:37.280 The president specifically called it out at one moment where he said,

01:04:41.280 I basically cannot believe that you are sitting for this.

01:04:44.280 When he said, why are you, basically, we stand for Americans.

01:04:47.280 We work for Americans.

01:04:49.280 We don't work for illegal immigrants. 1.00

01:04:50.280 And Democrats sat on their hands.

01:04:52.280 And I think he almost couldn't believe that they were going to fall for this trick.

01:04:55.280 And then they fell for the trick. 0.98

01:04:57.280 And of course, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib made fools of themselves. 0.93

01:04:59.280 What was your big takeaway, Drew? 0.69

01:05:01.280 The only thing I would say differently than that is I don't think the takeaway was how badly they acted.

01:05:05.280 I think it's how brutally he slapped them down.

01:05:08.280 And I am not somebody who's always in favor of Trump's tendency to brutality against his enemies.

01:05:13.280 But tonight I was because the Democrats have been behaving like this for years.

01:05:17.280 They've been having been behaving like this is not their country, that this country is not our country, that this is not the place they work for.

01:05:23.280 The only time they cite American freedoms is when they're defending a gangster or an illegal immigrant or a killer.

01:05:29.280 They never cite them in favor of actual American natives.

01:05:33.280 They have embarrassed themselves.

01:05:35.280 They've humiliated themselves. 0.98

01:05:36.280 They've shown themselves to be petty and nasty and small. 0.97

01:05:39.280 And he didn't.

01:05:40.280 He maneuvered them into this situation where he dug the pit, but they had to walk into it.

01:05:45.280 And they did.

01:05:46.280 And I was sitting there.

01:05:47.280 I have to say these speeches are not always the most interesting.

01:05:50.280 There was this was a long speech.

01:05:51.280 It had moments where it seemed to be gone forever.

01:05:54.280 But in that moment, I sat up straight and I was watching people get what they deserve.

01:05:58.280 And I'm not for vengeance, but I am for justice.

01:06:00.280 And that was justice.

01:06:01.280 And I just thought it was terrific to watch this master of the put down find a group of people who had earned every little bit of it.

01:06:11.280 And I thought it was beautiful.

01:06:12.280 I thought it was great.

01:06:13.280 And obviously, you know, I love all the celebrations of great heroes, the hockey players, Erica Kirk.

01:06:18.280 It's wonderful.

01:06:19.280 But that was just magnificent.

01:06:21.280 And as you say, it was two things he did.

01:06:24.280 He said, we are here.

01:06:25.280 Our first job is to protect American citizens, not illegal immigrants.

01:06:29.280 They sat on their hands.

01:06:30.280 And then he told the story of a woman essentially being legally kidnapped so that they could transfer into a man. 0.99

01:06:36.280 And and they and he said when they sat on their hands, then he said, you people are crazy. 0.84

01:06:41.280 I just thought that was absolutely great.

01:06:44.280 I'm telling you, if they hadn't earned it, I would think it was uncivil.

01:06:48.280 But it was just right.

01:06:50.280 It was just he did the right thing.

01:06:51.280 And it was great.

01:06:52.280 Well, Mary Margaret Ohan, our White House reporter, is here with us.

01:06:55.280 So, Mary Margaret, you're in the room for what was sort of the mood?

01:06:58.280 Obviously, when when you have these sorts of events, you have the Republicans on one side of the aisle, the Democrats on the other side of the aisle.

01:07:03.280 Yeah, the the the big game seems to be now trying to figure out when Democrats stand when it when they don't stand.

01:07:08.280 Were there any moments where they actually stood in unity or was pretty much on their hands the entire time?

01:07:12.280 No, I wouldn't say there were any moments when everyone stood in unity.

01:07:17.280 I think, you know, many of them stood for Charlie Kirk, thankfully, and there was a chance of Charlie Charlie Charlie Charlie.

01:07:22.280 Not everyone stood for him.

01:07:24.280 And I think in general, the mood in the room was the Democrats on the one hand kind of saltily sitting around and then a few of the more radical Democrats shouting, yelling.

01:07:34.280 In fact, I'm hearing from other reporters in the room.

01:07:37.280 I didn't hear it myself that Ilhan Omar said the F word at one point towards Trump.

01:07:41.280 Can't confirm that myself.

01:07:42.280 But again, that's what other reporters are saying.

01:07:44.280 And then meanwhile, the president himself, we're the reporters at Daily Wire.

01:07:48.280 We were all talking about this earlier.

01:07:49.280 His mood was almost jovial.

01:07:51.280 It was exuberant.

01:07:52.280 He was just so excited going into this speech all the way through it.

01:07:56.280 And I listened to the president a lot.

01:07:58.280 I spent a lot of time listening to his remarks.

01:08:00.280 He sailed through these speech.

01:08:02.280 He, you know, touched on every single point on every single guest, but he moved really quickly through it.

01:08:07.280 It wasn't really the the more we the speech that we might have been expecting that we might have even seen last year.

01:08:13.280 And to me, Ben and Drew, I think that signals that he is very aware that he had the eyes of the nation, if not the world on him.

01:08:21.280 And he was using this speech to great effect.

01:08:23.280 The midterms are coming up.

01:08:25.280 He knows that he needs to spend a lot of time reaching American voters, letting them know what his agenda is.

01:08:31.280 And to me, a lot of this was showing American voters, don't forget that the Democrats are not on your side.

01:08:37.280 Look at all these different examples of things that they don't stand with you with.

01:08:41.280 Don't forget that they still support radical gender ideology.

01:08:45.280 Don't forget that they don't want to protect your young women on the Metro.

01:08:48.280 They don't care about your young women as they're taking Metro rides and if they're brutally killed by violent criminals.

01:08:54.280 And so all of these messages are going to make for fantastic talking points going forward.

01:08:59.280 They're going to make for fantastic stories going forward.

01:09:02.280 And, you know, especially when it came to gender ideology, I found this really interesting because you all know that I spent a lot of time covering this before I became the White House correspondent.

01:09:11.280 He harpened on that one specific word, crazy. 0.57

01:09:15.280 He says, this is just crazy.

01:09:17.280 And that is one of the messages of his 2024 campaign that I think resonated so deeply with American voters who are so tired of hearing about radical gender ideology and being told that it was normal and not insane.

01:09:29.280 And so he's hearkening back to those words and reminding the public, no, it's not OK for a little girl to be taken away from her parents by the state and transitioned.

01:09:38.280 And he actually suggested he might do something about that as well, which I have a lot of sources telling me they're trying to get him to sign an executive order on that.

01:09:45.280 So I was really interested in that as well.

01:09:48.280 And one of the things that I think was pretty astonishing about the speech is how little actual policy there was in it.

01:09:53.280 So he mentioned some of the policies that, of course, he has promoted.

01:09:56.280 As you say, Mary Margaret, he moved really fast through that.

01:09:59.280 So he would mention a policy that he'd done and then he'd move pretty quickly into story time.

01:10:04.280 And he would pick somebody out of the audience and explain how the policy had personally impacted somebody in the audience rather than going into the details of the policy,

01:10:11.280 which I thought was actually quite smart because of the overall sort of tenor of the speech was less about here are the things that I'm doing that you may or may not agree with or understand and more about.

01:10:20.280 I actually care about people and these people over here don't care about people and them not clapping for the people became, I thought, his chief weapon tonight.

01:10:28.280 I thought he used it to great effect for those who missed it.

01:10:30.280 Obviously, the most evocative moment was a moment when the president got into a war of wars with Ilhan Omar.

01:10:36.280 He was speaking about fraud in Somali communities in Minnesota.

01:10:40.280 She started screaming back at him, saying that he should be ashamed of himself.

01:10:44.280 She did not have the microphone.

01:10:45.280 And that is a major disadvantage when you are talking about a speech like this one.

01:10:50.280 Just for those of us who are watching it on TV and are not in the room.

01:10:52.280 I remember last year when I was in the room, you could hear pretty clearly what Democrats were shouting.

01:10:55.280 But if you're watching it on TV through a screen, you can't hear at all what the Democrats are shouting.

01:10:59.280 You can only hear what Trump is saying back to them.

01:11:01.280 And so what you ended up with was something that sounded like this.

01:11:04.280 Do we have the clip of the president going at it with Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib?

01:11:08.280 The sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens.

01:11:21.280 In many cases, drug lords, murderers all over our country.

01:11:25.280 They're blocking the removal of these people out of our country.

01:11:30.280 And you should be ashamed of yourself.

01:11:43.280 USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

01:11:52.280 Now, I will say that one of the shots that was excluded from that clip was a shot that appeared to be into the crowd.

01:11:58.280 Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar at that point.

01:12:00.280 And it's pretty obvious from just some basic lip reading that while people were chanting USA,

01:12:05.280 Rashida Tlaib was mouthing KKK, which is pretty astonishing stuff.

01:12:10.280 And if indeed that is what she was mouthing, then that is going to be a massive headline tonight and tomorrow.

01:12:16.280 As well, it should be she, of course, is a radical.

01:12:19.280 She stood with terror supporters her entire career in the Congress.

01:12:22.280 The same thing is true of Ilhan Omar.

01:12:24.280 If they want to make that the face of the Democratic Party, man, you are welcome to it.

01:12:28.280 What a massive boo-boo for the Democratic Party. 1.00

01:12:32.280 Mary Margaret, while we have you, I want to ask you about the sort of most fun moment of the night,

01:12:37.280 which obviously was the U.S. men's hockey team coming in, which was a kick.

01:12:42.280 I mean, I love that we basically got the president as sportscaster, which is really fun.

01:12:46.280 He basically narrated the game and talked about the various numbers of saves and all the rest of it.

01:12:51.280 What was the mood in the room like when they came in?

01:12:56.280 Well, they're just so much fun.

01:12:57.280 And they came in right in between all of the press.

01:13:00.280 So, you know, the Capitol Hill press are sitting all together in their press seats

01:13:04.280 and they're looking a little dour, not super into the whole evening.

01:13:08.280 And this U.S. men's hockey team just came down in between them.

01:13:11.280 There's a really funny shot on Twitter that people should check out where there's a reporter who has a mask on

01:13:16.280 and he's kind of slumped over his computer and looking really dejected.

01:13:19.280 And then right next to him, these hockey players are just beaming, absolutely full of life, delighted to be there.

01:13:24.280 It's a hilarious contrast.

01:13:26.280 But the room just exploded with shouts and excitement.

01:13:30.280 And the president, obviously, you know, he knows every play of that game because he watched it.

01:13:36.280 He understands it. He cares about it.

01:13:37.280 He loves these guys genuinely, as we know from the video of him interacting with them as they were in the locker room celebrating their win.

01:13:44.280 I heard that these guys were hanging out in a side room with pizza and beer, which I think is a fun way to help them enjoy the State of the Union

01:13:51.280 without being too locked in while they're still celebrating.

01:13:54.280 And, you know, this is just a very fun part of this evening and I think also lends itself to the very patriotic element of this State of the Union.

01:14:03.280 You know, we're celebrating American excellence. We're celebrating patriotism. We're celebrating, for example, this service member who was part of the raid on Maduro.

01:14:12.280 I loved the story that the president told about him, how his wife dipped his dog tags in holy water before he left because she knew he was going on some dangerous mission.

01:14:22.280 And now he was here and honored in front of the whole world for his heroism in that mission.

01:14:28.280 So just so many examples like this of Americans being honored and the president celebrating how truly amazing our country is.

01:14:36.280 And it gives me chills just talking about it. It's just we've been experiencing patriotism unlike anything we've seen in many years.

01:14:43.280 And it's a lot of fun to be a part of it.

01:14:47.280 Now, Drew, obviously you mentioned earlier the these people are crazy clip. So did you, Mary Margaret.

01:14:52.280 And we do have that clip as well for those who missed it.

01:14:55.280 This was the moment when the president basically lost it at the Democrats for failing to recognize that, hey, maybe, you know, treating minor girls as though they are boys is a crazy thing to do.

01:15:05.280 Here's what that sounded like when the president went off. 1.00

01:15:09.280 These people are crazy. I'm telling you, they're crazy. 1.00

01:15:14.280 We're lucky we have a country with people like this. Democrats are destroying our country, but we've stopped it just in the nick of time, didn't we? 0.98

01:15:36.280 Yeah. You know, this is a really a really interesting question about this.

01:15:41.280 We always talk about the State of the Union and we always try to be honest about the fact that it usually doesn't move the needle very much, but it can change the dialogue sometimes.

01:15:50.280 And one of the things that's been shocking to me as Trump's polls have not been very good, as people have said unbelievably that they're still as bad.

01:15:59.280 They're worse off than they were a year ago. One of the things that will be interesting to see if maybe he did remind people of what it was like under Joe Biden, why they voted him back into office and what it would be like to have them back.

01:16:12.280 I mean, how can anybody think, you know, Trump is so bad, this guy is so bad that we have to go back to children being butchered, to people being hired according to race, to this absolute unrelenting hatred of the country as an entity.

01:16:27.280 I just it's hard for me to see how people can really think that I may be wrong.

01:16:32.280 Maybe the polls are right. But I do wonder if that if that idea is so fragile that he may be broken.

01:16:38.280 You know, Drew, I think I think one of the things that that tonight showed and I think this is why Republicans have been looking for a face of the opposition to identify.

01:16:45.280 I think one of the big flaws that Republicans had to face down is the fact that Joe Biden was so forgettable that we've all forgotten that he was president already.

01:16:51.280 I mean, truly, like he was such a non entity that by the end of his presidency, he was not even really the president.

01:16:56.280 Kamala Harris was effectively the president. And so what that means is that it's very easy to sort of go, oh, yeah, who was even president before this guy?

01:17:03.280 Maybe it was better. Like it doesn't even clock in your memory that Joe Biden was president.

01:17:07.280 Joe Biden was president. If you had told me that Donald Trump was president and then he was president again and there was no kind of mid middle term of Joe Biden that that wouldn't shot like 30 years from now.

01:17:18.280 People are not going to remember that in the same way that people kind of don't remember the Benjamin Harrison served between Grover Cleveland.

01:17:23.280 You know, I think that that that that is going to be a reality. And so I think that's been a challenge for President Trump.

01:17:29.280 There is no one of his stature in the Democratic Party for him to pummel.

01:17:32.280 And I think that one of the things that you saw tonight, and this is why that Ilhan Omar Rashida Tlaib fail is a real fail for the Democrats.

01:17:39.280 And I think a real danger for the Democrats. People don't like those people. They don't like them.

01:17:44.280 The Ilhan Omar and Rashida. Yes. I mean, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are totally radical and insane.

01:17:50.280 Rashida Tlaib was wearing watermelon earrings in solidarity with the Hamas, the Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. 0.77

01:17:57.280 Rashida Tlaib was wearing a button that said F ice on the air. 1.00

01:18:01.280 Right. There is a point at which Ilhan Omar pretty clearly on camera mouthed about the president that he was a sick F. 0.98

01:18:08.280 Like all that stuff was happening. It was all on camera. 0.97

01:18:11.280 And so when you put that on the camera, you say, OK, here are your choices.

01:18:14.280 It's this versus this. President Trump in a vacuum always doesn't pull very well.

01:18:18.280 He never has pulled amazingly in a vacuum going all the way back to 2015, 2016.

01:18:22.280 It always tends to pull a lot better the minute you put somebody else on the other side.

01:18:25.280 Because, again, as I said earlier on the show, Mary Margaret, you know, there are two things in politics that are important.

01:18:30.280 One is making it hard to vote for your opponent. And second is making it easy to vote for you.

01:18:34.280 And the president sometimes has trouble with the second. But he's always very, very good at the first.

01:18:38.280 And he needs an opponent. I've been saying for a decade that the president is a hammer in search of a nail.

01:18:44.280 And when there aren't enough nails, he starts to hit kittens. Well, right now, he may have found some nails to hammer here.

01:18:50.280 And I think that tonight was pretty good evidence of that, Mary Margaret.

01:18:55.280 Absolutely. And I mean, earlier today we saw Kamala Harris saying that she might be considering running again.

01:19:00.280 So I'm sure the president is excited to actually have a foe on the other side of the aisle because until now we haven't had anyone truly declare.

01:19:07.280 So we might have another Kamala and that would be a very fun presidential run. 0.93

01:19:12.280 But, yeah, I think the president is looking out there. He's seeing Ilhan Omar in a hijab, shouting insults, shouting swear words, just shouting and acting in a rowdy way.

01:19:20.280 And she's not a formidable opponent. She's she's very aggressively progressive. 1.00

01:19:25.280 She's very radical. The whole world knows that. So that's that's an easy win for the White House where they can point to her and say, Americans don't agree with you.

01:19:32.280 And in Kamala Harris, he might have a might have a better opponent.

01:19:37.280 But, you know, he's got Gavin Newsom imitating his style on Twitter. Again, it's not a formidable opponent.

01:19:42.280 And so when it comes to things like this where he can literally look the American people in the eye and say, do you see all these Democrats not standing for the things that you care about so deeply?

01:19:52.280 And I keep coming back to that young woman who was on the train, who was so cruelly attacked by that criminal and killed.

01:19:58.280 This actually happened maybe days before Charlie Kirk was assassinated.

01:20:01.280 And it was one of the last things that he himself talked about, how deeply he felt this.

01:20:06.280 And to see these Democrats not stand for her mother, just unthinkable.

01:20:10.280 So I think that's one that's really going to resonate with people is going to stay with us for a long time.

01:20:15.280 And whether or not these people are protesting specific policies, they have to understand that these are real lived American stories.

01:20:23.280 They're the most powerful weapon that we have in favor of the truth, because they literally lived these things.

01:20:29.280 And so Trump having all these Democrats look them in the eye and not do anything about it, I just, it was very well done, very well executed in terms of a oration style strategy.

01:20:41.280 And I think his comms team is probably patting themselves on the back tonight because this was a well played speech.

01:20:48.280 You know, the president obviously took on inflation as well. He talked a lot about the economy.

01:20:54.280 He really relegated his foreign policy remarks to the end, which I think is smart politics.

01:20:59.280 Obviously, the American people are much more concerned about domestic political issues than they are right now about foreign policy.

01:21:04.280 It was sort of fascinating on a foreign policy level to hear what the president had to say, given the fact that we have such an enormous military presence ready in the Middle East right now about Iran.

01:21:13.280 Obviously, the president's comments about Iran, he seems skeptical of the idea that Iran is going to come through with some sort of last minute concessions.

01:21:21.280 His he's maintaining the same position he has maintained for legitimately his entire political career, which is that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

01:21:28.280 But he went a little bit further than that as well, talking about their ballistic missile capacity, their attempts to redevelop terrorist support.

01:21:35.280 All of those sort of issues in negotiation.

01:21:38.280 There is supposed to be at the end of this week some sort of proposal from the Iranians, a sort of last ditch proposal to stave off the possibility of American strikes.

01:21:46.280 Here is what the president of the United States had to say about Iran in the middle of the speech.

01:21:52.280 My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy.

01:21:57.280 But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world's number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon.

01:22:05.280 Can't let that happen.

01:22:07.280 Well, joining us on the line is Michael Knowles.

01:22:17.280 Michael has finally reached a place where he can talk.

01:22:20.280 My nightmares are all coming true.

01:22:22.280 For a while there, we were we were OK.

01:22:25.280 But now Michael has arrived looking looking dapper, his hair a little bit must after spending nine hours in that room during the State of the Union address.

01:22:34.280 I do have to say he's got the young Republican look going there.

01:22:37.280 Michael Knowles.

01:22:38.280 So, Michael, you were in the room for that.

01:22:40.280 This last year, last year it was me and Walsh.

01:22:43.280 This year it was you and and Isabel.

01:22:46.280 So so what was what was it like?

01:22:47.280 Did you did you enjoy yourself?

01:22:48.280 Was it the party you'd always imagined?

01:22:50.280 It was.

01:22:53.280 It was.

01:22:54.280 This was my second time at the State of the Union.

01:22:56.280 We seem to be trading on and off, except the first time that I went, Biden was speaking.

01:23:01.280 And so it was a much stranger experience because it was clear they had injected him with some kind of methamphetamine.

01:23:08.280 And that was the year that he just kind of screamed everything at exactly the same volume for 91 minutes.

01:23:14.280 And so this was my first year getting to see President Trump.

01:23:17.280 You and Matt got to see Trump last year, though technically it was not a State of the Union.

01:23:21.280 It was actually just a joint arrest of Congress.

01:23:22.280 So anyway, I was honored to be at the first President Trump State of the Union.

01:23:25.280 And he was great, you know, because he was focused.

01:23:30.280 He did a little weaving here and there, but he really stuck to the script.

01:23:34.280 The script was written extraordinarily well.

01:23:36.280 And where Trump did improvise, it was extremely effective.

01:23:40.280 I was sitting front row right over the Democrats.

01:23:44.280 So I got a pretty keen look.

01:23:46.280 And very little surprises me in politics.

01:23:48.280 Some of their behavior surprised and viscerally angered even me.

01:23:53.280 When Trump set them up and he said, hey, stand up if you agree with this statement.

01:23:57.280 America should be for Americans.

01:23:59.280 And the Democrats wouldn't stand up for it.

01:24:01.280 It was an amazing setup line, but really pretty shocking.

01:24:05.280 And then it got worse from there. 1.00

01:24:07.280 You know, there you say, look at these foolish Dems. 1.00

01:24:08.280 This is crazy. 0.99

01:24:09.280 But from there, President Trump cheered bringing the hostages home from Gaza. 0.51

01:24:14.280 I noticed Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who were right down there in front of me.

01:24:18.280 They did not stand up.

01:24:19.280 I think other Dems didn't stand up either.

01:24:20.280 That was pretty shocking.

01:24:22.280 And then the most egregious moment of the night.

01:24:24.280 This beautiful tribute to Charlie Kirk and to his widow Erica, who was there directly across the way.

01:24:30.280 We could see her.

01:24:31.280 And the Democrats refused to really acknowledge it.

01:24:35.280 President Trump then gives them the final out.

01:24:38.280 Even moving past Charlie to the message we should all take away from Charlie's assassination by a leftist.

01:24:44.280 Trump says, we're one nation under God and we should reject political violence of all kinds.

01:24:50.280 And many Democrats refused to stand up for that. 0.94

01:24:54.280 Chilling a reminder that they want to kill us. 0.96

01:24:58.280 You know, I'm not saying all of them want to kill us, but a surprising number of them want to kill us. 0.73

01:25:04.280 Overtly support political violence in the Chamber of Commerce at the State of the Union address.

01:25:12.280 A really chilling political malpractice by the Democrats.

01:25:15.280 And so I understand why Hakeem Jeffries early on said, hey, Dems, just chill out.

01:25:20.280 Or, you know what? Maybe don't show up at all.

01:25:22.280 Just please don't pull your usual shenanigans.

01:25:24.280 We want to look half normal.

01:25:26.280 And they couldn't even do that.

01:25:28.280 Well, you know, we do have that clip of the president basically baiting them where he says,

01:25:33.280 America should be for defending Americans and the Democrats take the bait.

01:25:37.280 Honestly, like the president is a master of this game.

01:25:40.280 He knows the game better than anyone else in it.

01:25:43.280 He has changed the game fundamentally in just the time that he's been president,

01:25:46.280 because this sort of stuff never used to happen.

01:25:48.280 I'm old enough to remember when it was a national scandal,

01:25:50.280 when Joe Wilson, a congressman from South Carolina, once yelled,

01:25:53.280 you lie at President Obama, who was in fact lying.

01:25:56.280 And now this has become the way that politics is done.

01:25:59.280 And the president has taken advantage of that to full effect.

01:26:01.280 Here's the president saying, hey, guys, maybe you should stand up if you think that, you know,

01:26:05.280 America is for the American people.

01:26:08.280 If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support.

01:26:13.280 The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens. 0.61

01:26:20.280 .

01:26:50.280 And yeah, there are the Democrats committing political suicide on the air. So again, amazing decisions being made there. Now, Michael, obviously the president comes into this with a low approval rating, historically low approval rating for him. The midterm elections, right now, Democrats are running about five points ahead in the generic congressional ballot.

01:27:10.560 But the real question about every State of the Union address, as we were discussing beforehand, is whether it really is going to reset the table. Will it be a sort of inflection point or will it just be a thing that happened? And a week from now, we'll be back to sort of business as usual. What do you make of it? Do you think the president can generate some sort of lasting momentum on the back of what was a pretty tremendous speech?

01:27:29.880 This was a great pivot. And I'm not saying that this will save the midterms for the Republicans or anything. But it certainly reset the message in exactly the way the president had to do it. We were all making our predictions before the State of the Union. And I got a bunch of the particulars wrong, you know, how long it would be or who he'd call out or whatever. But the one part that I got right wasn't even a prediction of what would happen so much as something I was really hoping would happen, which is that President Trump would say,

01:27:59.600 look, look, Americans, we're making you safer. We're making this country normal again. These people, those people over there are crazy. That was an actual line from the speech. And it completely landed because the Dems refused to back down from transing the kids. I mean, it was, you know, the extreme of their ideology. What he had to do was say, look, Americans, I understand that you feel things are a little precarious right now, whether we're talking about migration, whether we're talking about the economy. This is why I think some of the economic favorability,

01:28:29.460 the economy numbers are low, even though a lot of the actual nuts and bolts of the economy are pretty good. It's just people feel uneasy. They feel big shifts. They are uncertain about the future. And what Trump had to do is say, we've got you. We're the adults in the room. We're going to make you safe. We're going to make you wealthy. We're going to restore the norms and the kind of country that you've loved for 250 years because this is America's birthday.

01:28:54.660 I think he completely achieved that objective. And so I think it does give him very good momentum going into the midterms. But of course, now one speech is not enough. Now the Republicans need to stay on message. Impossible for Republicans. And two, they need to be able to carry that through the miasma of misinformation and Democrat ops through November.

01:29:17.660 I mean, obviously, I think that it is true that Republicans must stay on message. It will definitely help if we don't have to deal with questions about whether Erica Kirk killed her husband or not. That seems to be a gigantic fail that is happening in the midst of the Republican online space.

01:29:35.220 That seems like a very stupid thing for people to follow a rabbit hole on. And a lot of the infighting that's been happening around conspiracy theories surrounding the president. 0.98

01:29:43.280 If you would like to see the president not impeached after the Democrats win back Congress, then now would be a really good time to actually look at all the things that he has done over the course of the last year to fix many of the problems left by Joe Biden.

01:29:54.560 Mary Margaret, what is actually on the schedule for the president in the coming days and the coming weeks?

01:29:59.860 Because very often you'll see after the State of the Union that there's sort of a tour that happens where the president goes around and tries to retail some of the bigger messages that he has been pushing.

01:30:11.560 Yeah, the president is flying out of state to have another affordability event.

01:30:15.740 These are something that we hear about a lot because the legacy press is obsessed with asking the White House, why isn't the president talking about affordability more, though he talks about it all the time.

01:30:24.300 And so currently this week, I believe he's headed to Georgia. I need to double check on which state, but he is having another affordability event.

01:30:31.340 These are really heralded or shepherded by Susie Wiles, who's really trying to keep the president focused on this affordability message so that, you know, all these critics who are saying he's too focused on foreign policy won't be able to say, I told you so, when the midterms come and go, if the president doesn't do so well, if his candidates don't do so well.

01:30:49.120 So that's definitely on his radar. But all of these topics that we heard him talking about tonight, going into the future, these are things that he's going to continue talking about.

01:30:58.500 We were able to pretty accurately assess what he'd be talking about tonight based on what the White House has been harping on.

01:31:04.040 They've been really consistent in what they're focused on, what they're talking about.

01:31:07.980 It's the economy. It's immigration. It's keeping our city safe. It's this foreign policy ending all these wars.

01:31:13.700 They've been very consistent and focused on these issues, and the president has been hammering this home.

01:31:17.860 So I think when you head into the midterms, unlike what we're hearing from legacy media, that Americans only care about affordability, that this is all they want to hear about from the president,

01:31:27.420 there's a lot of different topics that we've been hearing the president talk about.

01:31:31.240 And like I was saying earlier, this sense of patriotism and pride in our country, I don't think that's lost on the public.

01:31:37.480 I don't think that the USA men's hockey team winning this victory, I don't know that that's just a victory on the, I was going to say the hockey field.

01:31:46.400 I don't know how to talk about sports. The hockey rink. I think it's bigger than that, and we all see that.

01:31:51.800 It's this sense that this is bigger than sports. This is bigger than these hockey players.

01:31:56.940 This is American pride returning to our country.

01:31:59.860 And so these are all things that are playing into the situation going forward, and the president can talk about them all.

01:32:05.680 But now he also can talk about these Democrats not standing for these very important issues.

01:32:11.320 And when Ilhan Omar goes home tonight and she gets all excited to have her team post that clip on Instagram of her just sitting there for all these issues, that's her big win.

01:32:20.240 That's the Democrats' big win tonight.

01:32:21.540 And they clearly don't understand the massively tragic optics of these things.

01:32:26.980 So for Trump and his team, I think they're going to go to bed feeling pretty good about themselves tonight.

01:32:31.940 And they'll have a lot to talk about on the road on these affordability campaign stops.

01:32:35.760 And I don't think it will be just affordability that will be the topic of conversation.

01:32:40.260 Well, Mary Margaret, I know that you need to go to sleep because you need to get up early in the morning and then go cover the rest of this over at the White House.

01:32:47.080 Thanks for stopping by the coverage.

01:32:49.280 And Isabel is going to be joining us in just a moment.

01:32:52.100 I know that she was at the State of the Union as well.

01:32:54.960 So, Michael, you know, I'm going to ask you some more questions because Drew and I had to suffer for like several hours in your absence.

01:33:01.400 You should have heard me tap dancing in order to just get to the president getting to the microphone.

01:33:07.300 It was an astonishing feat of leisure to me, I must say myself.

01:33:10.260 But, you know, I think that the big question that's always the takeaway from all of this is is also did the president sort of reunify the party?

01:33:18.840 This has always been sort of a problem in the aftermath of a second term victory.

01:33:24.120 Presidents have a tough time holding their coalition together.

01:33:26.940 And obviously you're seeing a lot of fracturing inside the coalition right now.

01:33:31.320 I think that, you know, people blame different folks for that fracture.

01:33:35.000 But the president is the person who, in the end, is the leader of the coalition.

01:33:38.700 And the agenda that he spelled out is a pretty widely agreed upon agenda inside the Republican Party.

01:33:44.220 Do you think that he's going to get some of the reluctant Trumpers sort of back on board, given his focus on his victories?

01:33:53.200 Yes, I think he has done that.

01:33:55.740 And it's remarkable because Trump has been called a divisive figure for the last decade, or really more than a decade, but certainly a decade in politics.

01:34:03.700 And so the fact that this man is now probably the most unifying figure on the right is really impressive.

01:34:12.300 I mean, we saw this in his re-election in that he was re-elected this time with the popular vote.

01:34:17.220 And then so much focus has been paid to conspiracy theories and division on infighting on the right and, you know, really factions of the right splintering off into ways that are almost unrecognizable.

01:34:29.560 And what I think is quite charming about that, actually, is we seem to look to the activists and the pundits and the chattering class for unity, but they really have no incentive to unify or to even accomplish very much at all in politics. 0.98

01:34:44.840 And so where pundits and podcasters have been irresponsible with their rhetoric, Mr. Trump, who everyone tells us is the most irresponsible orator of our time, Trump is actually the one who's being responsible here and who is reaching out.

01:34:59.460 I think he's really been able to bring together a broad coalition of people.

01:35:03.140 And even the way he spoke tonight about foreign policy, you know, there were people who veer a little more on the isolation side, a little more skeptical of intervention, who were up there standing for strength and the Fordo strikes in Iran.

01:35:16.340 And there were people who were, you know, there were people who were a little skeptical of, you know, the tariffs who were right up there cheering with President Trump when he was casting a little bit of shade at the Supreme Court, but not too much shade at the Supreme Court because he knows he's going to need the Supreme Court in the future.

01:35:33.580 So, you know, Drew loves to talk about how Trump learns things over time, and he obviously does.

01:35:39.960 And one of the things he's learned is to be nuanced with his words, and I think that showed tonight.

01:35:46.340 Well, I want to welcome in Isabel Brown, and then we can get to Andrew, who has been sitting there, as always, awaiting death.

01:35:54.620 But before we do that, Isabel, who is significantly more sprightly than any of us right now.

01:35:59.960 All of us put together, right?

01:36:01.420 All of us has joined us here.

01:36:04.500 So, Isabel, what was the big day under the big top like over at the United States Capitol?

01:36:13.160 I don't know if sprightly is the right word, Ben.

01:36:15.500 I think I just don't sleep at night right now with a 10-month-old, so I'm used to being up into all hours of the night.

01:36:20.860 I'm feeling good tonight.

01:36:22.160 It's a great time.

01:36:23.300 The energy here is so palpable, and I think we've touched on a lot of the negativity surrounding the speech.

01:36:29.860 Certainly, there were a lot of shocking moments sitting in the gallery.

01:36:33.140 I was across the room, it seems, from where Michael was sitting this evening,

01:36:36.320 but closer to the president's guests and looking across the room at most of the Democrat colleagues

01:36:41.040 from the Republican side who refused to stand up and cheer for America, to call for an end

01:36:46.320 to political violence, to offer condolences to widows and grieving mothers whose children

01:36:51.360 had been killed by radical extremists and repeat offenders.

01:36:54.480 But you also saw a bit of an American comeback tonight, and I don't want the media to forget

01:36:59.520 that, that we saw a resounding standing ovation from virtually every single individual clapping

01:37:06.380 and cheering and singing for multiple minutes on end when the USA hockey team walked in to

01:37:11.560 show us their Olympic gold medals and chanting USA across party lines.

01:37:16.020 That's something that would have been impossible about 12 months ago, and yet here we are celebrating

01:37:20.940 American exceptionalism again without being called racist for it.

01:37:24.140 So, I think there's a lot to glean from some of the negativity, certainly, but there's

01:37:28.280 a lot to look forward to and so much optimism to have to know that in many ways our country

01:37:32.700 is back.

01:37:35.700 So, Michael, you know, well, actually, you know, I've barred Drew from this conversation

01:37:39.820 for too long, and I can see that he really, really wants to talk more about the State of

01:37:43.920 the Union.

01:37:44.780 I actually do want to say something, though, about what Isabel said and what Noel said before.

01:37:49.100 I think the great triumph of the speech was a negative triumph.

01:37:52.200 I think that he did bring it back into the center of our attention how crazy and bad the 0.93

01:37:58.120 Democrats are and will be again if they get back in office. 0.52

01:38:01.460 He made them act it out.

01:38:03.620 It was brilliant theater.

01:38:04.840 It was great stuff.

01:38:05.920 The positive message is going to be harder because the positive message means that people

01:38:10.120 have to feel it in their pocketbooks because they're never, ever going to see it in the

01:38:13.780 mainstream press.

01:38:14.940 The press has practiced inducing amnesia.

01:38:17.900 They don't, the minute Trump solves a problem, it vanishes from the news.

01:38:22.000 The minute the border is closed, nobody talks about the border anymore.

01:38:24.640 They just always leap in to the next big problem.

01:38:27.520 Oh, isn't the way people are being deported terrible?

01:38:30.380 And that's been the trick that they've used, and it's been pretty effective.

01:38:33.060 But I think at some point, at some point, people are going to stop and take a breath and

01:38:37.540 say, are things really worse?

01:38:39.660 And do I want these people back?

01:38:41.240 He set up the negative really well tonight.

01:38:43.400 I don't think any words are going to accomplish the positive message that he wants to put

01:38:47.980 forward.

01:38:48.560 I think that's going to have to happen over time.

01:38:50.200 I think he should be hammering away at it.

01:38:51.780 He should be telling people what he's done, but people are going to have to feel it in

01:38:54.660 their pocketbooks before it's real.

01:38:56.820 I myself, it was months ago, but I myself was driving along and suddenly noticed that

01:39:02.000 gas prices had plummeted.

01:39:03.920 I hadn't read anything about it in the paper.

01:39:06.220 I just suddenly saw it there.

01:39:07.880 Nobody's been talking about it.

01:39:09.140 And yet gas prices, of course, were one of the big headlines for a long time.

01:39:12.820 Every problem Trump solves disappears from the headlines.

01:39:16.820 But eventually, I think put together, they will seep into the consciousness of America.

01:39:21.920 And you just have to hope they do that in time before the midterms.

01:39:25.560 And I also just want to add quickly that I'm really glad that the Virginia governor is delivering

01:39:29.920 the response because that's 25 minutes in which you won't be raising my taxes.

01:39:33.920 Well, she actually is Abigail Spanberger, the new governor of Virginia.

01:39:39.840 And she apparently, one of the things that I'm noting from our friends over on X is that

01:39:44.860 apparently they've militarily regimented the amount of applause that the audience can deliver

01:39:49.320 for her lines, legitimately.

01:39:51.100 They're basically saying you can applaud for three seconds and you sit down, which sounds

01:39:55.100 like it's unnatural and weird.

01:39:56.340 And also, I want implemented pretty much every state of the union from now on because the

01:40:00.660 amount of time, it's like a football game where the amount of time between plays

01:40:03.820 is really, really, really long.

01:40:06.520 So we'll see whether there is yet to be a really good response to a state of a union

01:40:10.600 address.

01:40:11.000 I think in my lifetime, my guess is that what you're seeing of Abigail Spanberger is the

01:40:14.920 last you will see of the speech ever because we've been doing this for years and years

01:40:18.720 and years and never have we ever seen that sort of thing.

01:40:22.080 Michael, when we look at sort of the impact going forward, I think one of the questions

01:40:26.460 here, and it was something you mentioned, Drew, is that Trump has solved a bunch of problems.

01:40:30.900 And because those problems are solved, we don't think about them anymore.

01:40:33.820 And this is something that I believe some of the consultants had told the Republican

01:40:36.380 Party was, you know, Trump basically solved the southern border problem.

01:40:39.800 So don't even bother talking about it because nobody cares because it's already solved.

01:40:43.100 And this is, again, part of the issue for him is that when a thing happens, we no longer

01:40:48.360 think about that thing.

01:40:49.700 Whereas when it is sort of percolating, then we think about the thing.

01:40:54.060 And so the president has been so dominant in, for example, getting rid of DEI that if he mentions

01:40:57.740 DEI, we all kind of go, well, yeah, I mean, he did do that, but have we thought about that

01:41:00.880 very much lately?

01:41:02.580 That's why I thought it was effective, Michael, for him to go to stories that remind us that

01:41:06.080 these are very, very real phenomena.

01:41:10.480 Yes, and the personal stories are the key, too.

01:41:14.140 So the anecdotes, which remind us, especially in the present, that these things still exist.

01:41:20.780 Gavin Newsom didn't say, I want to see more trans kids three years ago.

01:41:24.380 Gavin Newsom said, I want to see more trans kids like three weeks ago. 0.94

01:41:27.840 This is still percolating here.

01:41:29.720 So when a guy like Andy Beshear, who is a serious presidential candidate, Democrat governor of

01:41:34.720 Kentucky, when he comes out and says, Abigail Spanberger is the model for Democrats this

01:41:38.740 year, what he's saying is, we're going to lie and run like moderates.

01:41:42.580 And then if we are elected, we're going to implement the most radically left-wing agenda

01:41:45.980 that you can possibly imagine.

01:41:47.460 So they're kind of honest about it. 0.96

01:41:49.340 They're honest liars.

01:41:50.520 And what President Trump needs to do is remind us, this isn't really dead. 0.67

01:41:54.960 You know, the Democrats can reopen the border tomorrow.

01:41:57.800 Just as President Trump shut the border without a new law, and he did it basically overnight,

01:42:02.640 so too the Democrats can just reopen it.

01:42:05.320 They can let the criminals out of prison.

01:42:07.480 They can re-implement all of the DEI and the radical gender agenda and the ideology.

01:42:14.280 They can go down this litany to say nothing of the economic havoc.

01:42:19.360 You know, do not underestimate, to quote Barack Obama, do not underestimate the degree to which

01:42:25.280 Joe Biden can F things up.

01:42:26.720 Well, that's true of the whole Democrat Party.

01:42:28.560 And so I think Trump needs to remind us that these threats are still here.

01:42:31.640 And really what is called for for the Republican campaigns is a kind of Willie Horton campaign on steroids.

01:42:38.760 A reminder, one, there are actual super predators that the Dems are letting out of prison to light women on fire on New York City subways 0.99

01:42:45.620 and rape and murder and kill. 0.98

01:42:46.980 That's happening right now. 0.92

01:42:48.780 But two, you're seeing this at an international scale when we're looking at Venezuelan and Mexican drug cartels,

01:42:54.960 or frankly, in the Middle East or in Russia or in China.

01:42:57.880 You're seeing this throughout the country.

01:43:00.640 These threats really are imminent.

01:43:03.280 The Republican Party is not the party of chaos.

01:43:05.820 We're not the party, as the Democrats say, that is bringing chaos to the streets of Minneapolis.

01:43:09.980 We're the party that is restoring order.

01:43:12.380 The Democrats bring the chaos.

01:43:13.820 We restore the order.

01:43:15.420 Trump gave us some really evocative images for that tonight.

01:43:18.400 And I think it's an effective model going into November.

01:43:22.100 Isabel, I want to give you the last word here because I'll be honest with you.

01:43:25.700 It's been a really, really long night, and I would really, really like to go to sleep now.

01:43:30.080 So you get the last word, and then we can all go to bed.

01:43:35.460 You know, I think it's obvious, Ben, more than ever before, that for many, many years now in our country,

01:43:40.340 we have been living in two different Americas.

01:43:42.900 Clearly, in what we applaud for and what we fight for and against,

01:43:46.700 but also in just our most basic values as Americans.

01:43:50.080 What I saw tonight sitting in the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives with half the Supreme Court,

01:43:55.000 the Joint Chiefs, the entire Presidential Cabinet, the President and Vice President of the United States,

01:43:59.720 certainly almost every member of Congress, and the most influential Americans from across multiple walks of life,

01:44:05.500 was a clear dichotomy between the United States of America as we have known and loved it for the last 250 years,

01:44:11.960 the greatest society the world has ever known, built upon the foundation of our identity as one nation under God

01:44:18.200 and complete Marxist total chaos, anarchy in society that rewards criminals over our citizens,

01:44:25.580 that champions open borders, that refuses to prosecute those who are killing our citizens day in and day out,

01:44:32.340 who champions political violence for your enemies rather than trying to come over our differences

01:44:37.480 to be united in the concept of e pluribus unum again.

01:44:41.480 This is not sustainable, as Abraham Lincoln is famous for saying,

01:44:44.560 a house divided cannot stand.

01:44:46.320 But I am hopeful that what we're seeing inside of Washington with this concept of the unity party

01:44:51.120 is beginning to extend to the rest of the country as well.

01:44:53.980 Most of these issues we talked about this evening were not the economy, shockingly.

01:44:57.740 They were social issues, like transing our kids and some of these conversations we've been having for many years in the e-space,

01:45:04.700 but very few people here in Washington have been having.

01:45:07.220 I think that was intentional because these are 90-10 issues.

01:45:10.500 These are American issues versus chaos and Marxist issues.

01:45:14.320 And voters have a very clear image moving forward into midterms in 2028 and beyond

01:45:18.440 what kind of a country we have the chance to save versus the one that's going to come into fruition

01:45:23.340 if we fail to act courageously today.

01:45:26.400 Well, folks, I hope that you enjoyed this so much more than I personally did.

01:45:30.880 But if you enjoy our work here at Daily Wire, please become a subscriber and a supporter over at DW+,

01:45:37.180 because that allows us to continue to bring you awesome and or mediocre content

01:45:42.080 like we have been bringing you all night long.

01:45:44.500 For my colleagues, Andrew Klavan, Michael Knowles, Isabel Brown, thanks so much for stopping by.

01:45:49.960 We're another year older. Congrats.

01:45:51.780 It's now 2029, and we will see you in just a little bit.

01:46:00.880 The 2026 Maverick with Ford Flex Bed Storage System.

01:46:06.140 For those that see more than a stack of lumber.

01:46:09.060 More than four empty walls.

01:46:12.160 More than just a blank page.

01:46:15.440 The Ford Maverick.

01:46:16.780 Made to fit. Designed to flex.

01:46:19.140 Right now, get purchase financing from 4.99% APR for up to 72 months on all 2026 Maverick models.

01:46:26.560 Visit your Toronto-area Ford store or Ford.ca today.

01:46:30.880 ulpata State Park

01:46:33.340 Parece

01:46:33.360 Korean 0.73

01:46:46.920 Although you really have it on the way of talking.

01:46:48.140 If you don't sit directly home, you'll have a Saya tribe and I have paid attention to it.

01:46:53.100 Then you can see that the Ford Maverick model may

01:46:54.140 prepare to open the door on the fixed plan post

01:46:56.340 andadore on the sole queda.

The Michael Knowles Show - February 25, 2026

Friendly Fire： State of the Union Address Live

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript