The Matt Walsh Show | "Friendly Fire: The Next Decade Begins"

Date: October 17, 2025
Host: The Daily Wire (Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, Michael Knowles, Andrew Klavan, Jeremy Boreing, Isabel Brown)

Overview

This special episode marks the 10-year anniversary of The Daily Wire, doubling as a retrospective and a forward-looking conversation among its core personalities. The roundtable dives into the evolution of the company, debates the lines of "friendly fire" within the conservative movement, discusses hot-button cultural issues, celebrates milestones, and previews new content like the "Pendragon" series. The tone is playful, irreverent, and at times intensely serious, reflecting on victories and internal fractures on the political right.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Daily Wire’s 10-Year Anniversary: Reflection and Future Vision

• The panel shares the company’s origins—from humble beginnings in a pool house to a "media empire."

• Milestones highlighted:

  • Viral launch moments (Ben Shapiro vs. Piers Morgan, Shapiro on Dr. Drew)
  • Expansion into streaming, movies (“What Is A Woman?”, “Am I Racist?”), commerce (razors, chocolate), and daily news products.
  • Legal actions vs. the Biden administration over COVID mandates.
  • Elevating figures like Jordan B. Peterson.

• Notable quote:

  "The Daily Wire has always been about fighting the left and building the future."
  — Jeremy Boreing [79:48]

• Announcements:

  • Launch of "Daily Wire Lifetime Membership"—10,000 spots, exclusive benefits, gold lapel pin, and a signed copy of Michael Knowles's book.
  • Upcoming original content: the fantasy TV series "Pendragon."

2. Revisiting Humble Beginnings: Personal Anecdotes

• Matt Walsh reminisces about starting his show from a Volkswagen Passat in a Walmart parking lot, emphasizing Daily Wire’s organic growth and scrappy roots.
• Banter about evolving professional images—critiquing past hair, beards, and Knowles’s failed attempts at fitness for a movie role.
• Personal stories, including Ben Shapiro nearly spoiling Michael Knowles’s marriage proposal on air.

3. Major Cultural & Political Issues

a. Supreme Court & Race as "Disability"

• Discussion centered on recent Supreme Court oral arguments, with critiques of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s analogy comparing the effects of historical discrimination on Black Americans with disability:

  "[She's] making the case that that's somehow like Black people not having their own voting districts because they are somehow historically disadvantaged. [...] That's a bit of a differential. Okay, I'm sorry. She's dumb. There's no other way to put it."
  — Michael Knowles [16:44]

• The panel underscores what they see as the left's patronizing attitude toward Black voters and criticizes ongoing racialized districting.

b. Right-Wing Group Chat Leak & Internal Policing

• Breakdown of the Politico exposé on young Republican group chats containing offensive jokes (some referencing Hitler sarcastically).
• Matt Walsh insists the story is a distraction from left-wing political violence.

  "If you are speaking in private... and then somebody with obviously sinister intentions comes along and takes that private conversation and makes it public—in almost every case, my position is... I don't care."
  — Matt Walsh [39:07]

• Debate: Should the right police itself more aggressively, or is this playing into leftist tactics?
• Ben Shapiro:

  "There is no comparison whatsoever between some 19-year-old kid who's making edgy jokes in a group chat and a former state legislator, would-be top law enforcement official in Virginia, saying... he is not joking when he calls for the death of his opponents—and their children." [31:17]

• Klavan and Knowles both argue that internal "guardrails" are necessary, but warn about overcorrection.

4. Debate: Coalition Boundaries and “Friendly Fire”

• Who is “in” or “out” of the conservative movement?

  • Point: Calls for unity against an existential left-wing threat; practical need for coalition.
  • Counterpoint: Some (like Klavan) warn against open doors for genuinely anti-American or anti-Western stances, or those allying with foreign adversaries.

    "There is some kind of human decency level that you can cross where—you’re not on my side."
    — Andrew Klavan [48:32]

• Matt Walsh's perspective:

  “If you are not interested in conserving and defending Western civilization, then we’re not on the same side.” [49:16]

• Reflecting on Charlie Kirk’s coalition-building:

  • Many cite him as a unifier, refusing to excommunicate divisive figures but keeping clear lines.

5. Gen Z and the “De-Gayifying” Trend

• Key Theme: Is the younger generation rejecting trans/nonbinary identities?
• Ben Shapiro highlights a UK study: nonbinary identification peaked in 2023 and has since collapsed, with homosexual/bisexual identities remaining stable or only modestly declining.
• Isabel Brown (Gen Z Daily Wire host):

  “The idea of the cultural fad of the transgender cult… has already been disillusioned thanks to people boldly speaking the truth… We are not gay anymore. That’s the good news.” [59:39]

• Matt Walsh:

  “Trans and non-binary [identities] are losing steam… It was inevitable. Nobody ever really believed it to begin with.” [61:01]

• Klavan: Argues that transgenderism is a mental illness, whereas homosexuality is not. Praises Gen Z’s comfort in their own skin and predicts baby boom.
• Knowles: Skeptical, contends “victimhood” will now shift from sexuality to economic status among young people.

6. Middle East Peace and Trump’s Foreign Policy

• Knowles, from Jerusalem: Praises Trump's deal-making in the Middle East—U.S. help in freeing Israeli hostages and brokering stability.

  “The most successful element of Donald Trump’s presidency has been his handling of the Middle East... Trump’s real estate skills from New York somehow map exactly and directly onto the Middle East in a very bizarre... it worked.” [71:54]

• Klavan: Trump brought U.S. global leadership “not seen since Reagan,” and religious values back into the public square.
• Debate: Is de-emphasizing Israel/Palestine politically wise for U.S. conservatives?
  • Knowles: Yes, reduces coalition friction at home.
  • Klavan: No, supports a strong alliance with Israel and a win against terrorism.

7. Preview: "Pendragon" Series

• Jeremy Boreing premieres the trailer for Daily Wire's most ambitious TV project to date. It’s pitched as a transformative move in cultural influence.

  “It’s the biggest, most ambitious project in the company’s history and it's finally coming to Daily Wire Plus this January.”
  — Jeremy Boreing [79:48]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You look like an accountant who’s, like, three sheets to the wind and drove out to complain about his wife on TikTok.”
  — Andrew Klavan (to Matt Walsh) [05:26]

• “We launched two days before Charlie [Kirk] was killed, so everything just feels like a fever dream.”
  — Isabel Brown [69:00]

• “With friends like these, who needs enemies?”
  — Ben Shapiro (playfully) [01:17]

• “Limits at some point are going to have to be set. And it seems to me that the move on the right is... there must be no limit set, and any attempt to set a limit is somehow firing inside the tent.”
  — Michael Knowles [45:56]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:29] - Daily Wire’s 10th Anniversary and Matt’s 8 Years
• [10:06] - Daily Wire Documentary-Style Retrospective
• [14:36] - Segue to Supreme Court/race as disability discussion
• [26:51] - The Politico young Republican chat scandal
• [39:07] - Internal right-wing policing: where to draw boundaries
• [53:51] - Update on Jordan Peterson’s health
• [54:31] - Gen Z and the "de-gayifying" trend
• [71:54] - Trump’s Middle East diplomacy, live from Jerusalem
• [79:48] - Boreing's Pendragon trailer and vision for the future
• [84:28] - Thanking subscribers, pitch for lifetime membership

Tone and Style

The episode is marked by sharp wit, self-deprecating humor, occasional bickering, and both consensus and deep ideological disagreement. The hosts maintain an informal, conversational dynamic, moving seamlessly between ribbing each other and intense debate on conservative movement strategy and cultural issues.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a Daily Wire family reunion, blending nostalgia, internal debate over strategy and boundaries, cultural victories, and a ringing call to continued engagement. The legacy and future trajectory of conservative media are foregrounded—media that is, as Boreing puts it, "about fighting the left and building the future."

For listeners, this episode offers a candid snapshot of the contemporary right—its victories, challenges, and enduring internal arguments over the soul and strategy of the movement.