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Today on the Matt Walsh show, the coordinated smear campaign against Pete Hegseth continues and only proves why he's the right man for the job. Also, Pope Francis dies. Will a conservative pope be elected in his place? Well, there are a few problems with just the question itself. We'll talk about it. And Canadian nationalism is on the rise, we're told. But how can nationalism exist in a country steeped in self loathing and shame for its own existence? We'll talk about all that and more today on the Matt Wal Being a husband, a father and host of my own show means life never slows down. Imagine trying to eat 31 different fruits and vegetables every day. Sounds miserable and time consuming. Frankly, I just don't want to do all that. But with Balance of Nature fruits and veggies, there's never been a more conven dietary supplement to ensure you get a wide variety of fruits and vegetables every day with 31 different whole fruit and vegetable ingredients. Balance of Nature takes fruits and vegetables, they freeze, dry them, turn them into a powder, and then put them into a capsule. You take your fruit and veggie capsules every day and then your body knows what to do with them. Go to balanceofnature.com and use promo code Walsh for 35% off your first order as a preferred customer. Plus get a free bottle of fiber and spice. That's balanceofnature.com promo code Walsh. Just four days after Donald Trump was inaugurated for his first term in office on January 24, 2017, the FBI sent two agents to the White House to interrogate Trump's national security adviser, Michael Flynn. It wasn't billed as an interrogation at the time. They convinced Flynn that it was just an opportunity for, you know, a friendly chat. But in retrospect, their goal could not have been any more clear. They wanted to manufacture a pretext to secure Flynn's termination. And getting rid of Flynn would enable the FBI to continue to conduct a series of fraudulent investigations into the Trump administration. It would insulate the bureau from any kind of large scale reform and it would help the FBI spread the narrative that the Trump administration was secretly working for Russia in some way. Therefore, the FBI asked Flynn a few questions in the White House. Then they convinced Mike Pence that Flynn was had lied to them, even though to this day no one can explain what exactly Flynn said because the conversation wasn't recorded. But in any event, pence took the FBI's word for it. Michael Flynn was fired after less than a month. His tenure national security adviser, was the shortest in American history. Now, what happened to Michael Flynn is worth recalling this week, especially because it was not a one off. This wasn't a random act of sabotage by some unelected shadowy officials. It was, in fact, standard operating procedure. It is the default response of a bureaucracy that feels threatened. They will come up with a smear campaign, launder it through sympathetic media outlets, and ultimately pressure the decision makers to get rid of their target. Eight years ago, this is precisely how they got rid of Michael Flynn. And right now, it's how they're trying to destroy Donald Trump's defense secretary, Pete Hegseth. Now, from the moment that Hegseth was nominated, there was a concerted effort, as you probably recall, to smear him as an alcoholic who was too inexperienced to do the job. It was almost like the Brett Kavanaugh hearings all over again. Anonymous accusations began surfacing every other day. We were even told, if you could believe it, that Pete HEGSETH Once celebrated St Patrick's Day live on the air on Fox and Friends. That was supposed to be profoundly scandalous for some reason. In reality, the point of that fake scandal was never to convince anyone of anything. Instead, the point was to send a message to the incoming Trump administration. And the message was that the most powerful forces in Washington did not want Pete Hegseth to be confirmed. They wanted Donald Trump to pull his nomination and select someone more conventional, someone who would be more responsive to the needs of defense contractors, for example. But Trump didn't abandon Hegseth's nomination. He decided, after what happened in the first term, to trust his own instincts and to stand by his selection. And the result has been predictable. Just a few months into Donald Trump's term, Hegseth's enemies have begun yet another smear campaign. And like the campaign to oust Michael Flynn, it's not meant to withstand any kind of scrutiny. The point is to move quickly, create panic, and ultimately pressure the White House to fire Hegseth. It's not exactly a subtle operation. Yesterday morning, NPR came out with this story which directly states the outcome that they want to achieve. Quote, exclusive, the White House is looking to replace Pete Hegseth as Defense secretary. And according to npr, quote, the White House has begun the process of looking for a new leader at the Pentagon to replace Pete Hegseth, according to a US Official who was not authorized to speak publicly. This comes as Hegseth is again mired in controversy over sharing military operational details in a group chat. So here we have an unnamed source, just one person who's described only as a US Official. So could be, you know, anyone in any position stating that the White House is planning to fire Pete Hegseth. And based on this one nameless official who supposedly serves somewhere in the United States government, could literally be anywhere. The narrative has been set. Pretty much every outlet picked up this story. They're all trying to convey the perception that Hegseth removal is a foregone conclusion. And meanwhile, there's a steady drip of new information that's supposedly even more damning than the last hit piece. You can tune into CNN and they'll tell you that Hegseth needs to be removed because of a new Signal chat that's suddenly been uncovered. Watch. Today, we are learning some new details following reports of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sharing some detailed military plans in a second Signal group chat that included his wife, a lawyer, and his brother. Multiple sources telling cnn Hegseth revealed strike plans against Houthi targets in Yemen, similar to what was shared in that other group chat, which came to light after the editor of the Atlantic was mistakenly added to it. We've also learned that Hegseth directly addressed the matter with President Trump during a phone call last night. Earlier today, the president defended Hegseth. He's doing a great job. It's just fake news. They just bring up stories. I guess it sounds like disgruntled employees. You know, he was put there to get rid of a. Of bad people, and that's what he's doing. So you don't always have friends when you do that. Now, before we go into the specifics, I need to make it clear that, you know, I was a fan of the Hegseth pick when it was initially announced. But after seeing this unrelenting smear campaign that started before he was even confirmed and hasn't let up since, I have to say, I'm now an even bigger fan of the pick. I mean, it's clear that the establishment sees this guy as a threat to their agenda. He's in a position to do extraordinary damage to their interests, and it seems like he's already doing a lot of damage, which is why he needs to stay in that position at all costs. And as you saw, Donald Trump doesn't really need to be told that he understands exactly what CNN and the rest of the corporate press are trying to do here. The coverage is breathless and fast moving because you're not supposed to stop and scrutinize any of it. If you think about it for five seconds, you'll realize that, as was the case with Michael Flynn, the hysteria makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. So, to recap, the case against Pete Hegseth is that the national security adviser, Mike Waltz, mistakenly added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of the Atlanta magazine Atlantic magazine, to a classified group chat about a US Military strike. And even if this is true, even if we pretend for a moment that a rabidly anti Trump journalist with extensive ties to the Deep State was somehow accidentally added to a highly sensitive group chat, it's still not remotely clear why Pete Hegseth should be fired as a result. I mean, he's not the one who made the mistake here. The next alleged scandal, as reported by the New York Times, concerns a signal chat that involved Hegseth and a dozen other people, including his lawyer, his wife Jennifer, and his brother Phil, who works at the Pentagon. And the chat was called Defense Team Huddle. Also reportedly included Dan Caldwell and Darren Selnick, two former Hegseth advisors who were just fired after a leak investigation. And supposedly during this chat, Hegseth again discussed war plans involving Yemen, although no one's sure exactly what was communicated. And now, under the circumstances, it would be reasonable to wonder if Dan Caldwell or Darren Selnick might have had a role in placing the story in the New York Times. After all, they were just fired from the Pentagon for leaking. They were both members of this group chat, and now they're publicly attacking Pete Hexth's Defense Department and implying that the Pentagon wants to pursue a reckless war with Iran. Now, as it relates to unelected operatives in the Pentagon, you know that that might be true. I'm not in a position to dispute that claim. Maybe there are some people in the Pentagon doing that, but anyone who's paying attention to what Pete Hegseth is doing, both in public and in private, knows that he's going to do everything he can to prevent that outcome of a war with Iran. Here's what Hegseth told Fox News earlier this month. Quote, trump is dead serious that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. He said that for 20 years he's been consistent. That is clear. He's dead serious that he wants it all done at the negotiating table. He wants it done peacefully. And that's why he's going straight to these talks. He set that deadline. But he's also dead serious that if we can't figure this out at the negotiating table, then there are other options to include my department to ensure that Iran never has a nuclear bomb, close quote. So, in other words, his primary objective is not to attack Iran. It's a peaceful diplomatic resolution and a Couple of days later, the New York Times confirmed that in private, Hegseth had personally helped avert a military strike on Iran that could have spiraled into World War Three. Quote, Israel had planned to strike Iranian nuclear sites as soon as next month, but was waved off by President Trump in recent weeks in favor of negotiating a deal with Tehran to limit its nuclear program, according to administration officials and others briefed on the discussions. Inside the Trump administration, some officials were becoming skeptical of the Israeli plan. In a meeting this month, one of several discussions about the Israeli plan, Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, presented a new intelligence assessment that said the buildup of American weaponry could potentially spark a wider conflict with Iran that the United States did not want. A range of officials echoed Ms. Gabbard's concerns. In the meeting, Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President J.D. vance all voiced doubts about the attack, close quote. Now that report was published, if you're keeping track at home, on April 16, and it states very clearly that Hegseth had helped stop a military attack on Iran, which could have easily devolved into all out war. Four days later, on April 20, the Times published a story outlining Hegseth's second signal chat, which is supposedly grounds for his termination. So in other words, we get a new scandal right after Hegseth enrages the defense contractors that would have made many millions of dollars, if not more from an all out conflict with Iran. And then hot on the heels of the new scandal, we get an unverified, barely sourced report by how the White House is supposedly looking to replace Hegseth. Now at this point, I can only assume that that's another fake smear because you know it would be a disastrous mistake Trump to cave to the pressure and offer up his defense secretary as a sacrifice. It's the kind of mistake that could derail his entire presidency. And it would be a major victory for establishment Washington, which is becoming increasingly desperate by the day. You can see the signs of the desperation everywhere, by the way. Here's one of them. On Monday, four more Democrat lawmakers made a pilgrimage down to El Salvador to visit that MS.13 gangbanger following the visit by Senator Chris Van Hollen that we discussed last week. And the lawmakers were Robert Garcia of California, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Yasmin Ansari of Arizona and Maxine Dexter of Oregon. And these politicians, like the rest of the Washington establishment, are pulling out all the stops to defend their open borders globalist agenda, making a martyr out of Abrego Garcia is one way of doing that. Making a scapegoat out of Hegseth is also part of that plan. Now, to be clear, I see no indication that this is going to work. It doesn't look like this Ms. 13 gangbanger is going to be returned to the United States any more than it looks like Pete Exeth is about to be replaced by another Raytheon board member. The idea that the White House is planning to cave to the demands of establishment in Washington at the moment seems like yet another fabrication from the corporate press. And for the sake of the world, which wouldn't exactly benefit from nuclear Armageddon, it should remain a fabrication and nothing more. Now let's get to our five headlines. Let's be honest, I have a long list of things I'd rather do than maintain my gutters Cleaning gutters rank somewhere between sitting through a DMV line and filing taxes. But there's an easier way. Leaff Filter so you never have to clean out your gutters again. 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Plus, a Leaffilter Trusted Pro will clean out, realign and seal your gutters before installing the system. Protect your home and never clean out gutters again with Leaffilter, America's number one gutter protection system. Schedule your free inspection and take advantage of the Spring Spectacular Sale with up to 30% off your entire purchase@leaffilter.com Walsh. That's a free estimate, free inspection, and 30% off@leaffilter.comWalsh see your representative for warranty details. Okay, to begin with, as we get into the show. Delayed today. Haven't had a chance to talk about the death of Pope Francis. So rest in peace to Pope Francis, of course. Now, Pope Francis died yesterday, as you no doubt heard. This news does not come as a shock. He was very old and very sick, but it's still a major earth shaking event. And look, if you've been a fan of this show or follow my work for any length of time, then you probably know, or at least you won't be surprised to learn that I was a critic of Pope Francis. I was not a fan of many of the decisions that he made or of the way that he chose to operate during his papacy. However, with that said, as a Catholic and as a decent person, or at least someone who tries to be a decent person, I'm not going to use the occasion of his death to air my grievances. I've seen a number of Catholic pundits doing that and I think it's unseemly. I don't want to do that. There'll be plenty of time for the autopsy of Pope Francis reign. I don't think that right now is the time that needs to happen. All that I will say, looking forward, is that I pray that the cardinals elect a new pope who will lead with courage and clarity and a deep respect for tradition. And you know, you're going to hear a lot in the coming days, as you've already heard, no doubt, about the conservative Pope candidates and then, and then versus the liberal pope candidates. So there's going to be, I've already seen, you know, tons of articles in corporate media about this. But just a word of caution. The problem with this language is that, well, there's a couple of problems. First of all, this is not, it's not an election in the way that your local congressional candidate runs for election. This is an election guided by the Holy Spirit. So all of the handicapping that goes on, the betting markets getting involved, the analysts predicting, as a Catholic, I find it kind of absurd and I will be the first to tell you, I truly have no idea who will be chosen. This is not the kind of thing where you can check the polls and get a good read on which pope candidate is going to win out. So that's the first thing to keep in mind. Also, the labels conservative and liberal cannot be so easily overlaid on top of this situation. So for example, I read an article, I can't remember where, that named one pope candidate, the one supposed pope candidate as liberal. This is another one of those articles. Here are the conservative candidates. Here are the liberal. And this was a cardinal who they were describing as liberal because he preaches about helping the poor. And so he's one of the liberals now, according to the corporate media. But of course, there's nothing liberal about that. That's just called being a Christian. That's called the gospel. Right now in the west, in the United States in particular, we read helping the poor as something that is left wing coded. Because in our country, when politicians talk about helping the poor, they usually mean entitlements, the welfare state, and all of that. And it's also true that when religious leaders talk about helping the poor, very often they might mean the same thing, unfortunately. But there's not anything actually liberal about helping the poor that's not a liberal position. So I think these labels are not always the most helpful. And that's also why I'm not praying for a quote, unquote, conservative pope, because again, when you hear conservative, you think, oh, he's Republican. I'm praying for a Pope who respects and loves Catholic tradition, who will lead with moral clarity. Clarity is very important. There's a lot of confusion in the world today, and moral courage. And the Pope will be unafraid to face down the true evils that we face in the world and the evils that are threatening human souls. Call that conservative if you want, whatever you want to call it. But that's what the church needs, and that's what the world needs right now. Let's move to something a whole lot less important. I don't know, I just been. I've been flummoxed by this. So Joe Biden released. Maybe you've seen this, or his handlers released a photo of Joe with his family on Easter. And we'll put the photo up on the screen so you can see it. And there they are sitting on the front steps. You've got Jill there and some of the grandkids. Hunter is there. Hunter is. Hunter's passed out in a motel somewhere, we can assume. But then in the back, you see Joe and you look at that photo and you realize immediately that it is 100% Photoshopped. That is not real. I mean, that mother effort is not real. They have photoshopped Joe into this photo of his family for certain. I mean, for certain they did that. That's not a conspiracy theory. It's like 100%. They photoshopped Joe Biden into a photo with his family. I mean, first of all, he's in a full suit while the rest of the family is dressed casually. He's not the president. If he was still the President. That would make sense, cuz the President just wears a suit all the time. But there's no way this dude is still walking around in a suit every day at his own house. He's walking around in a suit at his own house. That's just. Now sure, it is possible that he still thinks he's President. It's possible that they've told him that he's still president. So he dresses up for the, you know, he dresses up every day for Oval Office meetings which are held in his foyer with his grandkids and like a collection of large stuffed animals. That is possible, but still it looks fake. The position of his body doesn't make sense. His height doesn't make sense. It looks like it's just his severed torso sitting on the top of the steps. Then you can see what I, what I guess is supposed to be his hand on somebody's shoulder. But that, that doesn't look right. Unless he has T Rex arms now I mean, unless his arms shrank as a symptom of dementia. I'm not sure if that's a symptom or not. So it's definitely Photoshopped. But that raises the question of why, I mean, why the hell would you photoshop him into a picture? What is the point of that? Can't you take an actual picture of him with his family? Does his family hate him that much that they won't even pose for a picture with him? Now then again, I will say that getting a good Easter photo with the whole family is tough, I've learned. So maybe you have to use Photoshop sometimes. We go through this every year in, in my family. Every year, this is my wife's never ending quest, is to get a good photo on Easter of the family, you know, the kids. But she's always foiled because she never gets the photo that she wants that lives up to her standards. Because the thing is, when you have young kids and parents know this, when you have young kids and you get them dressed up in their Sunday finest, you have a very, very small window of time where they will look presentable. The top, the clock is ticking. As soon as you put them in all the, you go through the whole laborious effort of getting them in the outfits. It's like T minus 12 minutes. And then the 5 year old's hair will look like, you know, she stuck her finger in electrical outlet. The two year olds will have dirt and food stains even though they didn't eat anything and they weren't around any dirt as far as you Know, it's just. There's a. There's a whole mess. So, you know, you've got a very short window of time to do this. And then you go, you set all the kids up, you take the picture, and then, you know, you've got one kid forgot how to open their eyes, another one looking off in the distance, a kid crying, you know, the whole thing. So it is tough. But that's what taking a picture with young kids is like. That's not an excuse for Biden. So the mystery still remains here. I don't get it, but it is the fact that they're still playing this game. You don't have to do this anymore. He lost. Well, he didn't even. He lost before the election even happened. He's not in office anymore. And. And we all know that he has dementia. So the secret's out. All right? We've heard from this guy before, Ellie Mistol, talking about why he thinks all laws before the 1960s don't count. And I guess he's written a book about it. So he's just on this tour, you know, talking about this. Here he is again on the same subject. Listen to this. I don't give a lot of constitutional weight or heft to laws passed before 1965, right? Because nobody asked me and nobody asked anybody to look like me. So why should I care what some old white judge and some old white legislature and some old white president decided was right for me? Living under the laws of the people who kidnapped my people and held us in bondage? That's not something they do anywhere else in the world. It's not like South Africa said, like, oh, that apartheid was bad. But you know what? We're just gonna, like, clean up some of these laws and. Okay, now we have no. They were like, take your bore constitution and put it in the trash. We will write another one, this time including everybody. So he says, why should I care about laws that were passed a long time ago? Because nobody asked me or anyone who looks like me. That's. That's his argument. Well, there's a couple of things here. First of all, as I've already explained, this would delegitimize a lot of laws that I assume this morbidly obese Q Tip still likes, such as the laws abolishing slavery. I assume he's a fan of those laws. The First Amendment is another one that he enjoys for himself anyway. Maybe not. He doesn't like that other people have it, but he enjoys it for himself. The entire constitution was established without consulting Elie Mistol or anyone who looks like him. So is that what you want, Ellie? You want the Constitution to be abolished? Really? I mean, really, should we do that now? Should we just go ahead and do that right now? I mean, you want Trump to just go ahead and do that? Because, I mean, if Trump came out tomorrow and said that the Constitution is null and void, you couldn't object. After all, it was passed by old white men, right? I mean, by your logic. But also more to the point, perhaps you know this idea that the law doesn't count because nobody asked him, well, that's totally ludicrous because nobody asked him about any laws that exist, even the ones after 1965. Every law in the books has been written without Elie's direct consent or input, unless it was a referendum or something. But most laws are passed without asking Elie Mistol or any of the rest of us. Really. We elect people who write laws, but they don't actually ask us directly before voting. And even if they did, does that mean that all laws have to be reset with every new generation of Americans? Every new generation is governed by laws that were written before they were born. So should we reset every 25 years? Every 25 years we throw out every law, every single one, and start over? Maybe Elie is dumb enough to want something like that, but it would be a recipe for a non functioning society. It would be a recipe for a failed state, a failed civilization. And this is the problem really, with the kind of like social contract theory, this idea that we're all part of this contract that we sign up for and consent to and can withdraw our consent at any time. Well, no, that's not actually how it works. It's never worked that way anywhere, ever. It can't work that way. So this is all nonsense. Finally, here's a bit of a cringe fest for you. Somebody sent me this. It's a. And a few days ago we did a segment where I was responding to some of the TikTok and social media influencers who were angry at me for my take on the Austin Metcalf murder. And I guess we miss this guy. He's a Christian influencer responding to my tweet about the Austin Metcalfe killing where I talk about how young black males are disproportionately violent. And this guy who goes by the handle Nerdy Christian and has a bit of a following, but he didn't like that very much. And here's what he has to say. Listen.