The Matt Walsh Show Ep. 1647 — The Left Still Won’t Let Go Of Their Worst Poster Boy

Date: August 26, 2025
Host: Matt Walsh (The Daily Wire)

Episode Overview

Matt Walsh offers his uncompromising take on the latest cultural and political controversies. In this episode, Matt focuses on the left’s continued defense of Kilmar Abrego Garcia—a figure he calls their “worst poster boy”—and delves into themes of immigration, progressive messaging failures, corporate “wokeness,” changing demographics, airline policy reversals, and the debate over flag burning. His tone is sardonic, forceful, and distinctly combative throughout.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Kilmar Abrego Garcia: The Left’s Problematic Poster Boy (02:56–16:31)

• Background & Comparison to Elian Gonzalez

  • Matt recounts the Elian Gonzalez saga as an example of previous leftist/progressive messaging, contrasting the sympathetic child figure of the 90s with Abrego Garcia today.
    • “Now, right away, that doesn’t bode well for Democrats… Instead, they’re trying to force feed us a narrative about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, someone no rational person would want living anywhere near them.” (05:50)
  • Details Abrego Garcia’s dark criminal allegations: Ms-13 connections, human trafficking, spousal abuse, and even murder.
    • Reads from a DOJ filing:
      • “According to a co-conspirator, the defendant stated that he participated in the murder of a rival gang member’s mother in El Salvador…” (06:37)

• Left-Wing Media Narrative

  • Asserts that Democrats and sympathetic activists are stuck with supporting Garcia, despite his lack of sympathetic qualities.
  • Criticizes media for referring to Garcia as a “Maryland resident”:
    • “We’re supposed to feel sympathy for this…because he has no connection to Uganda. Various outlets, as you’d expect, have repeated this framing…” (08:26)
  • Suggests media and activists conflate empathy with open borders, regardless of individual factors.

• Deportation Controversy & Trump Policy Support

  • Walsh is adamant that illegal immigrants shouldn’t be allowed to dictate “the terms of your exit.”
    • “When you break into the United States, you don’t get to tell us where the deportation flight should go. You don’t get to just look at the map and say, ‘Hmm, I’d really like to visit this place.’” (12:50)
  • Supports punitive deportation measures, including sending illegals to “countries they have no connection to” as a deterrent.
    • “Millions of Mexicans would much rather be back home in Mexico than shipped to some hellhole overseas where they’d never been.” (10:09)
  • Argues the legal system already provides American citizens with “punitive incentives” for plea deals, so Garcia’s treatment is not exceptional.

• Judicial Overreach & Special Protections for Illegal Immigrants

  • Claims an Obama-appointed judge is subverting federal immigration enforcement.
    • “The District of Maryland has imposed a standing order which prohibits the federal government from deporting any illegal alien as soon as that alien’s lawyers or the alien himself files a petition in federal court.” (14:05)
  • Decries this as unconstitutional and unsustainable.

• Democratic Desperation & Demographic Shifts

  • Proposes that Democrats are using Garcia “because they have no other options”—due to shrinking electoral prospects, declining populations in traditional blue states, and not enough new immigrants counterbalancing the loss.
    • “Democrats are losing population in their power centers… and they’re not adding enough new illegal aliens to make up for the shortfall…” (16:00)
  • Lampoons activist efforts, such as the “Rapid Response Choir,” for performative support.
    • Quotes them mockingly: “Kilmar is our neighbor. You can’t have him, Trump.” (16:41)

2. Cracker Barrel Rebrand & ‘Woke’ Corporate Culture (20:30–43:30)

• Cracker Barrel’s Tone-Deaf Rebrand

  • Reads Cracker Barrel’s apology statement following backlash over its new logo and restaurant style—calls the changes unnecessary and ill-conceived.
    • “A rebrand is like a joke… if you have to explain it, then it didn’t work…” (21:10)

• Corporate Leadership as Culture Driver

  • Attributes corporate missteps (not just Cracker Barrel, but across American business) to a DEI-driven purge of “straight white males” from leadership.
    • “Corporate America, as most people know, used to be run almost exclusively by straight white males… now, in recent years, that demographic has been run out of town, not just at Cracker Barrel, but in the corporate world generally.” (22:40)
  • Details (based on a quick online search) the gender makeup of Cracker Barrel’s executive and marketing teams:
    • “The whole team are women… run by the CMO, also a woman, who reports to the CEO, also a woman. I mean, that doesn’t happen naturally.” (24:40)
  • Matt extends the critique to their PR firm ("Blue Engine"), also headed by women.
  • Connects this trend to a loss of connection with traditional, rural, or Southern audiences.

• Extrapolation to the NFL & Broader Trends

  • Spotlights the NFL’s football operations team as evidence that even male-dominated sports are experiencing the same phenomenon.
    • “There is no way in hell, there’s no possible way, that any of them were more qualified than the hundreds of male candidates that were passed over…” (31:30)
  • Asserts that “straight white men have just been run out everywhere, and not because of lack of performance.”
    • “Go down a list of the 500, let’s say, a thousand greatest innovations, achievements in the history of Western society. And how many of them were not done by white men? 2% at most.” (32:30)
  • Contends these changes are ideological, not natural or meritocratic, and have made organizations less effective.

3. Southwest Airlines Ends Size-Inclusive Policy (43:30–50:00)

• Policy Shift Details

  • Southwest Airlines will require passengers too large for one seat to buy a second seat starting January 2026, ending a long-standing plus-size-friendly policy.
    • “Fat people will have to pay for a second seat if they’re too bulbous to fit into one.” (03:11)

• Response from Plus-Size Activists

  • Plays a TikTok clip of a plus-size woman’s protest:
    • “My body isn’t the problem. The system is. When you’re forced to buy two seats or squeeze into a space that wasn’t designed for your body, it’s not just inconvenient, it’s dehumanizing. This isn’t a luxury. It’s a basic human right to travel with dignity.” (44:25)
  • Matt pushes back sharply:
    • “You’ve chosen discomfort. There is no way to be comfortable while eating yourself to death… Burning your feet is exactly what you deserve if you stand on hot coals…” (46:25)
    • “Morbid obesity is a moral failing… Gluttony and sloth, those are two of the seven deadly sins. And that is what causes morbid obesity.” (47:17)

• Fat Acceptance as Narcissism

  • Outlines difference between overweight people who feel shame (“the chair breaks, they feel embarrassed”) versus those who blame others (“they blame their friend for not providing sturdier chairs to sit in”).
    • “If you’re fat and you ever find yourself crossing the threshold…you are becoming an awful, evil person.” (48:20)
    • “The villain origin story for every fat acceptance activist is that they sat on a chair and it broke, and then they had their villain turn because of that. That’s kind of like their Joker falling into a vat of acid moment.” (48:50)

4. Flag Burning: Trump’s Executive Order & the Battle Over National Symbols (50:00–1:14:15)

• Brief Supreme Court & Legislative History

  • Outlines how the legality of flag burning shifted due to two Supreme Court decisions in 1989–1990 (Texas v. Johnson, etc.), and became enshrined as protected speech—contrary to the previous position in almost all states.
    • “It wasn’t until 1989, in a 5 to 4 decision… that the Supreme Court determined… flag burning is in fact protected political speech.” (52:13)
    • “So in an instant, the Supreme Court overruled the judgment of the vast majority of Americans.” (53:48)

• Trump’s Executive Order

  • Details the contents: DOJ to prosecute public flag burners, especially foreign nationals, using any applicable state/local laws.
    • “The order also directs the Secretary of State to… seek removal from the US whenever there has been an appropriate determination that foreign nationals have engaged in American flag desecration…” (57:01)

• Reaction & Free Speech Debate

  • Plays news segment with a FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) spokesperson saying the issue is constitutionally settled in favor of flag burners.
    • “‘It’s a settled question.’ The Supreme Court has not once but twice made it clear…” (58:20)
  • Matt responds: “No, it’s not settled. No, it’s never settled. Okay? They can be wrong.” (59:02)
  • Argues that in today’s America, which punishes hate speech and protects LGBTQ+ symbols, not protecting the national symbol is inconsistent.

• Optics and Political Strategy

  • Highlights how leftist activists are planning a mass flag burning, and how this “bait” plays into Trump’s hands.
    • “Every degenerate, unkempt, mouth-breathing communist in Seattle is going to set fire to the American flag on Sunday. What’s that going to do to Democrats’ chances in midterms next year?” (1:09:35)

• Walsh’s Position

  • Acknowledges the abstract case for free speech absolutism, but rejects it in practice:
    • “We don’t live in a society like that… Burning the flag should be illegal.” (1:12:12)
    • “These people are our enemies…the ones burning the flag… Am I going to defend these people and stand up for their right to desecrate the flag? No, I’m not. We’re in a war.” (1:13:17)
  • Urges conservatives to stop playing by "old" rules and defend the American symbol, just as other nations do.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the left’s choice of poster boys:

  • “It’s one thing to use a six year old child to garner sympathy… But in this case, they’re using one of the least sympathetic, most grotesque foreign nationals that they possibly could have picked.” (05:36)

• On assimilation:

  • “He’s been in this country for a decade and… he still can’t speak English… you have to try not to learn it.” (08:26)

• On deportation policy:

  • “You have made yourself into a problem for us, and so we’re going to handle it in whatever way is most convenient.” (13:11)

• On corporate culture and gender:

  • “You don’t end up with women running everything unless you set out to make that happen.” (25:55)

• On the “fat acceptance” movement:

  • “Burning your feet is exactly what you deserve if you stand on hot coals… you deserve the logical outcome of your choices…” (46:50)

• On flag burning and political enemies:

  • “These people are our enemies. The ones burning the flag are our enemies. Every single person who burns the flag is an enemy. All of them. They hate you. They hate your family. They hate your country. They want it all destroyed, Every single one.” (1:13:17)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Kilmar Abrego Garcia case & left-wing defense: 02:56–16:31
• Cracker Barrel’s rebrand & corporate demography: 20:30–43:30
• Southwest Airlines “customer of size” policy: 43:30–50:00
• Flag burning, Trump’s executive order, and cultural conflict: 50:00–1:14:15

Tone and Style

Matt Walsh’s delivery is acerbic, direct, and frequently caustic. He employs sarcasm, sweeping generalizations, and polemical analogies to drive home his conservative worldview. He is unapologetically confrontational, positioning himself and his audience as embattled participants in a cultural war.

Summary for Non-Listeners

This episode is a rapid-fire, unapologetic critique of progressive causes and symptoms of “woke” America, as Walsh frames them. He uses the left’s support of a deeply unsympathetic immigrant figure (Kilmar Abrego Garcia) to underscore what he perceives as the Democrats’ strategic desperation. He extends this point to corporate American culture, arguing that embracing “diversity” for its own sake leads to self-destruction and loss of identity, as in the Cracker Barrel rebrand. His commentary on Southwest’s seating policy and flag burning similarly centers around personal responsibility and the need for cultural cohesion and unapologetic defense of American symbols. At every step, Matt frames these debates as existential and urgent, urging conservatives to fight back directly—abandoning abstract principles when they clash with practical, cultural realities.