Ep. 1721 - This Is Gross, And They Are Both Wrong

Summary

Summary of The Michael Knowles Show - Episode 1721: "This Is Gross, And They Are Both Wrong"

Release Date: April 24, 2025
Host: Michael Knowles
Podcast: The Michael Knowles Show, The Daily Wire

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1. Shannon Sharpe Rape Accusations and Cultural Depravity

Timestamp: 00:00 – 05:00

Michael Knowles opens the episode discussing the serious allegations against former NFL star and ESPN personality Shannon Sharpe. A 20-year-old model accuses Sharpe of rape, while Sharpe counters by accusing his significantly younger ex-girlfriend of attempting a "$50 million shakedown." Knowles emphasizes the troubling aspect of the case:

“Our current depraved culture actually makes it impossible to know the truth, even for the people who are involved” (00:00).

He delves into the complexities of consent and abuse, highlighting the conflicting evidence such as audio recordings where Sharpe's ex-girlfriend allegedly threatens him:

“...clear abuse, right? Guilty as charged. Pay up the 50 million bucks in the civil lawsuit...” (04:51).

Knowles argues that the erosion of objective legal standards surrounding consent has obscured the truth in such cases, leaving both parties potentially wronged by a culture that prioritizes subjective experiences over established norms.

2. Pete Buttigieg and the Custom Baby Controversy

Timestamp: 12:57 – 25:19

Transitioning from personal scandals to broader societal issues, Knowles critiques Pete Buttigieg's participation in Andrew Schultz's Flagrant podcast, where Buttigieg discusses the controversial process of "ordering a custom baby." Knowles questions the ethical implications of such practices, whether through IVF, surrogacy, or adoption, raising concerns about treating children as commodities.

Knowles states:

“How is it the way that Pete Buttigieg is talking about ordering a baby here is horrifying and dystopian...” (13:34).

He further critiques the potential moral decay stemming from viewing children as products, stressing the importance of traditional family structures. Knowles supports policies like President Trump's proposed baby bonus, advocating for incentives that encourage births within married, heterosexual unions to preserve societal norms and ensure the well-being of future generations.

3. Trump's Baby Bonus and Liberal Backlash

Timestamp: 25:19 – 43:35

Knowles addresses the controversial "baby bonus" proposed by the Trump administration, which aims to incentivize Americans to have more children amidst declining birth rates. He counters liberal criticism, particularly from figures like Joy Behar, who label the policy as racist. Knowles debunks these claims by highlighting the overall need to boost the national birth rate and argues that the baby bonus is designed to support the traditional family unit.

In response to Joy Behar's concerns:

“She says they might replace him with someone who's anti gay... Pope Francis referred to same sex marriage as a machination of the father of lies...” (37:16).

Knowles emphasizes that the policy targets the preservation of traditional marriage and family structures, not specific racial groups. He also touches upon the Democrats' inconsistent stance on immigration and deportations, citing a poll where 56% of likely voters support the deportation of migrant criminals:

“Jasmine Crockett is just a mixture of AOC and Donald Trump...” (43:35).

4. Republicans Versus Liberals on Deportations and Immigration

Timestamp: 25:19 – 43:35

The discussion shifts to immigration, where Knowles criticizes liberal approaches to deportations and border control. He references the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father with criminal links who fell out of the public eye despite initial attention from Democrats. Knowles suggests that this reflects the Democrats' shifting priorities and their failure to maintain consistent immigration policies.

He asserts:

“Mass deportations are a mainstream popular political issue among Republicans and Democrats.” (26:02).

Knowles contends that the lack of follow-through on deportations signals a weakness in liberal policies, reinforcing his stance on the necessity of stringent immigration controls to protect American societal norms and security.

5. Jasmine Crockett Attacks and the Media

Timestamp: 43:35 – 44:09

In the latter segment, Knowles critiques Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett for her relentless attacks on Elon Musk, whom he sarcastically labels as "the idiot known as Elon Musk." He draws parallels between Crockett's tactics and those of prominent liberal figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC):

“Jasmine Crockett is just a mixture of AOC and Donald Trump...” (43:35).

Knowles praises Crockett's political savvy in garnering attention through provocative statements but questions her long-term viability in politics. He underscores the polarized nature of modern political discourse and the media's role in amplifying divisive narratives.

6. Joy Behar’s Concerns Over Pope Francis

Timestamp: 36:32 – 37:16

Returning to cultural commentary, Knowles addresses Joy Behar's fears regarding the potential replacement of Pope Francis with a more conservative figure. He defends Pope Francis by highlighting his conservative stances on issues like same-sex marriage and abortion:

“...Pope Francis referred to same sex marriage as a machination of the father of lies...” (37:16).

Knowles argues that Pope Francis embodies conservative values more rigorously than many American politicians, challenging Behar's assertion and reaffirming his belief in the Pope's alignment with traditional Catholic doctrine.

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Conclusion

In this episode, Michael Knowles delves into a mix of high-profile personal scandals, societal shifts, and political controversies. From dissecting the complexities of the Shannon Sharpe case to critiquing modern approaches to family and immigration, Knowles consistently advocates for traditional values and objective standards. His analyses emphasize the perceived moral decline in contemporary culture and the need for policies that reinforce established societal norms.

Notable Quotes:

• Michael Knowles (00:00): “Our current depraved culture actually makes it impossible to know the truth, even for the people who are involved.”

• Michael Knowles (13:34): “This is horrifying and dystopian because even if we're talking about adoption, we have to treat babies as human beings, proper subjects, with dignity and rights.”

• Michael Knowles (25:19): “Don't be surprised. Now, President Trump wants people to have more babies. I certainly want people to have more babies. We have a birth rate that has collapsed. We are literally a dying country.”

• Michael Knowles (37:16): “Joy Behar is worried that the Catholic Church... Pope Francis just on political issues was more right wing than any politician in America on every issue but immigration.”

• Michael Knowles (43:35): “Jasmine Crockett is just a mixture of AOC and Donald Trump. She knows what she's doing.”

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This summary is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of the episode's key discussions and viewpoints presented by Michael Knowles. For full context and additional insights, listeners are encouraged to tune into the actual podcast episode.

Transcript

[Michael Knowles]

A 20 year old model is accusing former NFL star and ESPN personality Shannon Sharpe of rape. Sharpe denies the accusations and is accusing his much, much younger ex girlfriend of a $50 million shakedown. None of which is surprising. Both of those things, NFL players abusing women and gold diggers falsely accusing men. Both of those things happen all the time. I don't know who's telling the truth. What is notable about this case is that our current depraved culture actually makes it impossible to know the truth, even for the people who are involved. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles Show. Welcome back to the show. Joy Behar is worried that Pope Francis is going to be replaced by, quote, some conservative guy. Pope Francis, who was more conservative, with the exception of maybe the immigration issue, more conservative than any American politician in either party. She's concerned he'll be replaced by some conservative guy. Now, I'm gonna get back to my brilliant point in one second. First though, go to expressvpn.com knowles Imagine going to your computer and hitting print on your browsing history and then signing your name at the bottom and nailing it to the front door of your house for all of your neighbors to see. That is essentially what most of us are doing every day. Unless you already use the sponsor of this video, ExpressVPN. That is because Internet providers can see every website that you've ever visited. Yes, even in the so called incognito window. In many countries they're required to keep logs of your online activity for years. Just in the government wants to take a peek. And in the US Internet service providers can even sell your data to whomever they please. You cannot stop ISPs from doing this, but you can encrypt your online activity before the federal agent shows up to your local Catholic Church. With ExpressVPN, my Internet service provider cannot see, record, share or sell my data because they never had it to begin with. I've been using ExpressVPN for years because it's the best out there. And it's so simple to use that even I can do it. I a Luddite. ExpressVPN makes it really easy. All your devices, boom, boom, boom. One click, you're done. If you would like to join in fighting for your privacy, join ExpressVPN today. Use my special link, get 4 extra months for free. Expressvpn.com knowles expressvpn.com K N O W L E S this Shannon Sharpe story is amazing because it's illustrative of our culture it's not amazing because a former football player did naughty things with women or potentially even committed crimes with women. It's not an amazing story because some woman is being accused of shaking down a rich guy. That's quotidian, okay? That's ordinary stuff. What's amazing is how our culture is ordered to make it impossible to know what the truth is for everyone, including them. What's happening here is this girl, she's now, when they started dating, she was 19 or 20. Now I think it's a couple years later so. She's 21, 22, something like that. She was dating Shannon Sharpe. Shannon Sharpe is in his early 50s. She has a $50 million civil lawsuit that she's levying against him because she says that during their two year relationship, he became abusive. That's what the case hinges on. Did Shannon Sharpe abuse his 19, 20 year old girlfriend? Now, Shannon Sharp was already in hot water for weird sex stuff because in 2024 he inadvertently made a sex tape and streamed it live to Instagram. You could only hear it, you couldn't see it. But at first he denied it and then he admitted, yeah, that was me. That's embarrassing. And I guess the sex tape was not with the girl. It was with some other girl or something. Anyway, who cares? Shannon Sharpe has been caught on audio. Audio presumably recorded by his much younger ex girlfriend making these damning comments regarding this case. You want to be a to me now? So I don't want to be. Don't manipulate me. Oh, Lord have mercy. If you said that one world more time, I'm going to choke out of you when I see you. Well, I'm not really interested in.

[Joy Behar]

Getting.

[Michael Knowles]

Choked, so I guess we're going. Yeah, I might choke you in public. Big, black, actual small white woman. It's not a good look, Shannon. Not a good look that you do what you did to me. Okay, so it's clear as day that this woman is recording him. He's not recording her. And you can hear her audio much more clearly than you can hear his. But it is a little bit unclear what the audio means. On the face of it. It's this guy threatening to choke the shit out of his much younger girlfriend. Clear abuse, right? Guilty as charged. Pay up the 50 million bucks in the civil lawsuit, except text messages have been released. Sharpe released the text messages in which his ex girlfriend sent him extremely lewd solicitations. At one point even included a price list for things that he could do to her and what it would cost. Here are the Key texts quote I wanna be abused, Daddy. End quote. I want like some hardcore bdsm, like sado masochistic stuff action though. I wanna be abused, daddy. The lawsuit hinges on whether or not Shannon Sharpe abused this young woman. This young woman told Shannon Sharpe she wants to be abused. So I guess he's guilty. But she asked him to do it, so he's not guilty. So, final piece of evidence. The accuser released some text message conversations in which she confronted Shannon Sharpe about a particular instance of alleged rape on January 2nd of this year. The text reads, but I cried when you left because I begged you to put a condom on and not put it in an area that we don't need to talk about. And you didn't listen. I don't care what our history is. No means no Shannon. Next message from her. I don't know how to process this. Can I call you later? So you read that and you think, okay, well, hold on. This doesn't sound like a kinky consensual relationship. This sounds like he raped her. But how would he know? Not even. How do we know? Not even how does the judge know? How would Shannon Sharpe know whether or not this instance was consensual? This woman sent him so many text messages, some of them saying, tie me up, abuse me. I wanna be abused. I want to be violated. I guess so how would he even know? I don't know whether this interaction was consensual or not. And you don't know. And I don't think we can know. But here's what I do know. Every single action, every single action that is alleged in this case was illegal for most of American history. In most of America. Fornication, that was illegal. Sodomy, that was illegal. Condoms, those were illegal. Making pornography, that was illegal. That still sort of is illegal on the books, but it's not enforced usually. And all of this would have been illegal. And so I'm not saying that we have to return to some 19th century understanding of sexual ethics in our law. Probably wouldn't be the worst idea. But I'm not saying we have to do that. But what I am saying is back when we had these laws for most of American history, and when they were enforced for much of American history and most of America, this woman would have been protected and Shannon Sharpe would have been protected. This lawsuit wouldn't exist. Both of these people who are claiming to be victims here, the woman claiming to be the victim of an abusive man, the man claiming to be the victim of a gold digging woman, both of them would have been protected. Everyone would have been better off. What did either of these people gain from this relationship? Shannon Sharpe got to be titillated a little bit and then maybe have his life ruined. And this girl got to. Even if these fantasies that she had were sincere, she got to degrade herself because she had a perverse fantasy. And then eventually, if she's sincere in the rape allegation, eventually she was traumatized. That's the good stuff that they got out of this. Why do we tolerate this? Back when we had laws against all of these things, at the very least there was some objective measure to say, okay, he did commit the crime. He didn't commit the crime. Now that we have taken out all moral considerations other than consent based on our misunderstanding of liberty as neutrality and choice, rather than willing predicated on knowledge, now we have no way of knowing because consent can be withdrawn at any time. Consent can be withdrawn even unwittingly on the part of the party that's supposed to consent. Well, you know, she wasn't in her right mind. Well, she was drunk. Well, she was. She was being brainwashed. Well, she was being manipulated. That was one of the words that comes up in that phone call. There's no way to know. I don't really feel that much pity for Shannon Sharpe because he's doing all sorts of depraved and degenerate things. So you get what you get and you can't get upset. I don't feel totally bad for this girl because she says, please violate me. Please violate me. Why did you violate me? But I feel bad for both of them because of their ignorance and vice. I wish they hadn't fallen into that. But there is no way for even Shannon Sharpe to know if he committed a crime here because she asked him to do the thing that he's being accused of. And yet the thing that he's being accused of is a crime. That's what happens when you live in the subjectivist culture that is predicated entirely on individual autonomy and preference preferences change. And now this guy's life might be ruined for it, and this woman's life might have been ruined for the same thing. Now, is that a good legacy? I don't think that's a good legacy. Don't go anywhere. We're gonna get back to this important point. First, though, go to legacybox.com knowles if you are not able to watch old family videos anymore because your VCR broke in the late 90s, you are going to love my friends at Legacy Box. 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Get 90 days of free access to Legacy Box Cloud LegacyBox.comKnowles American made trusted by families Speaking of changing mores, Pete Buttigieg just joined Andrew Schultz's Flagrant podcast to discuss the process that he underwent for ordering a custom baby.

[Pete Buttigieg]

Literally different lists. If you say that you want a white kid only versus if you say that doesn't matter, like, literally a different list, what is that? What do you mean by that? The list for why kid only is longer. And not only that, there was actually a discount or you didn't have to pay a deposit on the fee. This is like how it works. I couldn't believe it. So we didn't know anything about the racial identity of the kids until they started to look mixed race, which they are. And like, contending with like the hair.

[Michael Knowles]

Thing is already like, contending with like the hair thing. Contending with like the hair thing because black people have different hair. So it's been a little bit unclear how Pete Buttigieg and his partner acquired their babies because two fellas can't make a baby together. There's a question. Was it IVF and surrogacy? Was it that kind of custom order baby industry? Was it adoption? How is it the way that Pete Buttigieg is talking about ordering a baby here is horrifying and dystopian because even if we're talking about adoption, and I think adoption can be a wonderful thing because you are rectifying a wrong, which is the wrong of a baby not having parents who will raise him. So that can be a good thing. It's not that you're intentionally creating a market for babies or anything like that. It's not that you are treating babies necessarily as a product to be purchased. You are rectifying a wrong. You're taking in an orphan. That's a really good thing. And the mothers who give up babies for adoption are at the very least not killing the baby, which is where our culture pushes them to do. But even here, even when it comes to adoption, we have to be very, very careful not to treat babies as products to be purchased or even to be custom ordered. We need to be very, very careful to treat babies as human beings, proper subjects, with dignity and rights. What strikes me about this clip, Pete Buttigieg is the most presentable, slick representative of the sexual revolution. You know, hi, it's Pete Buttigieg. He went to Harvard. Yeah. He's been running for president since he was in grade school. And he's just. He's totally likable, you know, just a nice guy. And yet the most polished and attractive representative of this sexual revolution is horrifying. This is horrifying to speak of babies this way. Yeah, you know, we got. There's the list. There's the list to get the white kid or the black kid, and then what kind of hair are we gonna get? What kind of hair do you want? You know, what color eyes do you want on the kid? I don't know. I'm not sure. I mean, when I was younger, I was more like. I'd wear brown shoes and a brown belt and a leather strap watch. But then sometimes, I don't know, I moved to, like a bracelet watch. So maybe what kind of kid would go better with my. With a bracelet watch? Maybe a blonde kid with hazel eyes. Blue eyes is too much. What do we think? What do you want, honey? What kind of baby do you want? Why does Pete Buttigieg need to either order a baby through IVF or adopt a baby? Because he refuses to get married and make a baby the old fashioned way, which is fine. It's his prerogative. Nobody's making him. Nobody's forcing him to get married. And if he wants to do. Wants to do stuff with another fella, no one's sending the purity police around to him. But then Pete Buttigieg has to pretend that that's marriage. And if that's marriage, and if we live in a culture that views children as something that we're entitled to rather than as a gift from God, then Pete Buttigieg is entitled to a baby. And whole industries have to crop up to service that supposed entitlement. And when those industries crop up, well, we are going to treat babies as something that we are entitled to, which is to say we're gonna treat them like property. Don't be surprised. Now, President Trump wants people to have more babies. I certainly want people to have more babies. We have a birth rate that has collapsed. We are literally a dying country. So President Trump as a plan for a baby bonus. It's unclear exactly what the details are right now, but the admin is reportedly looking into giving a $5,000 baby bonus to incentivize people to have more kids, which is great. I'm all for it, actually. I know the libertarians and the establishment conservative types are gonna say this is bad cause it's the government getting involved, incentivizing things and whatever other nonsense you can expect. But yeah, the government exists. The civil authority exists for our good. It is supposed to conduce to the common good. And. And the collapse in the fertility rate is an existential political problem. It's not just a personal inconvenience. It's not just a private misery that some people endure. It's a political problem because if your country doesn't make babies anymore, then your country dies. So it's a political problem. It needs to be dealt with, we hope in a wise way by the government. And paying people to have babies is a perfectly fine idea. However, we gotta be smart about it. We don't just want more babies. We want more babies born in the proper way so that we are respecting the rights of the babies. We are actually conducing toward the common good of our country. We're not committing immoral actions in our blindness and haste to pursue the good of babies. You know, babies are good, but good ends do not justify immoral means. You can make a baby through rape, that doesn't justify rape. So we need to make sure that we're encouraging a new baby boom in the right way. We want more babies born to mothers and fathers who are married. So you could do this through the law. You could say married couples get the baby bonus, unmarried couples or single women or something do not. Now that'll be challenged in court. And our judiciary might be so liberal at this point and our jurisprudence might be so liberal that they might say, no, if you give the baby bonus to married couples, you need to give the baby bonus to single mothers. And that would be very unfortunate. Who knows, they might even say you have to give the baby bonus to single fathers who go out and just make the baby Thrive EF on their own or something. I mean, we'll have to see how radical our regime has become. But assuming we can still legitimately distinguish in our law between married couples and single people, then you have to say, okay, it's just for married couples. And I think you need to give the baby bonus to the mothers. I'm not saying this cause I'm a feminist or anything like that. You know, I like the old traditional idea that the husband is the head of the household. But you have to do this because we've redefined marriage in our law because Anthony Kennedy and the Supreme Court decided to write romantic poetry in 2015. So you now have unions of two men and two women who are pretending to be married couples. So does this mean that the Pete Buttigiegs of the world have a right to 5,000 bucks because they go and order a custom baby? That would be very bad. That would be disrespecting the rights of babies because babies have a right to their mother and father joined together in a lifelong union. So if you say, all right, it's for married couples and the women get the bonus, at the very least, you're doing this kind of Rube Goldberg strategy to try to make sure that the baby bonus is actually encouraging babies to be born in the way that is best for babies, best for families, best for the country, which is the whole purpose of the policy in the first place. And before the liberals come in and argue that, you know, there's no evidence that it's better for children to be raised by a mother and a father than by two fellows or two women and four guys and a billy goat or something. There are lots of studies. We don't have time to get into them now. There are lots of social scientific studies proving that it is worse for children to be raised by two men or by two women or by a single woman or by a single man. There are many, many studies. You don't need the studies to know this, but there are many, many studies that show that it is much better for children to be raised by a man and a woman who are married, who are stably married, who are married for life. So we want our policy to reflect that. At the very least. If you say it goes to the women, then you're excluding the unions of two fellas, you know, the Pete Buttigieg of the world from the baby baby bonus. You're excluding single individuals. You're encouraging people to get married. But we need to think of this as a political problem. Not having kids is A major danger to your country. And this is where you get an expression from Victorian England that has come up through our present day, which is close your eyes and think of England. Just lie back, dear, and think of England. This is an expression of that is said to women who don't want to sleep with their husbands. But you know, they feel that it's a marital duty. They say, well, dear, just do your patriotic duty. Close your eyes and think of England. Well, that's what we're telling people. We're saying, hey guys, close your eyes. Get rid of the contraception. Close your eyes and think of America. Do your patriotic duty. Make America great again. You gotta have babies. Okay? It's your marital duty. It's your patriotic duty. It is fun. Let's not forget it is like a fun thing to do. At least I don't know, I'm a fellow. So maybe, maybe the women have different views sometimes. But you gotta do it, folks. Close your eyes and think of America and maybe you'll get 5,000 bucks. I have to take a break to tell you about the extremely important Rabbit Air which can help clear the air of your cigar smoke and other pollutants in your home. Have you ever heard about Rabbit Air's A3 purifier? It is extremely impressive. They've won awards for their design. Uses six stages of filtration to clean your air. Doesn't just pretend to clean the air around you. 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Be among the first in line to get your Dating and relationships expansion pack order [e-mail] shop today not everyone Likes Trump's Baby bonus. Establishment liberals hate it. The ladies on the View are attacking Trump's baby bonus in the only way they know how. They're calling it racist.

[Joy Behar]

They're saying that the US birth rate is declining. However, in 2024 there was a 1% increase in US births, but that increase was with Hispanic mothers and Asian mothers. Ahaha. So they don't seem to be concerned about that increase. They seem to be more concerned about a decrease in other populations. Say it. No, I said enough based on though. And so. Well it's just based. It's just based on a study and so the other thing I will have.

[Michael Knowles]

They said that anywhere?

[Joy Behar]

I mean I feel like yeah, it's just. It's just fair to hope. It's just a.

[Michael Knowles]

Have they said that this is to target only white families? Oh, I didn't.

[Joy Behar]

I didn't say that. You have to read between the lines. I just gave the statistics about economics.

[Michael Knowles]

It's racist. Don't you see? Here's the proof because they say that America needs to have more children cuz we have a below replacement fertility rate. But we had a 1% increase in births last year because of Hispanic women and Asian women. And so this baby bonus is just about making more white people and black people I guess. But nevermind, forget about that. We're still trying to call the Trump administration racist. It's just about white people. We had a 1% increase last year. We had a 1% increase. What are you worried about? Here's what I'm worried about. We've had a Below replacement birth rate since 1971. That's what I'm worried about, a 1% increase. You think that's gonna solve the problem? Give me a break. We need to increase births dramatically. And so, fine. I mean, this is what the liberals are dealing with through mass migration. They're trying to solve the problem, the labor problem, and get some electoral bonus for themselves through mass migration. But hold on. Just the other day, the liberals were arguing that we needed mass migration because we don't have enough babies in America because we need to prop up our economy. So you were acknowledging the problem five seconds ago, out of one side of your mouth, you were acknowledging the problem. But now when we move away from migration, and you're not trying to justify open borders, now you're trying to attack Trump for encouraging people to have babies. Now you're saying, no, no, no, we don't have a birth rate problem. We don't need to prop up our economy through artificial means like mass migration. So which is it? Furthermore, the way you know that this argument is just so preposterous that Republicans are just concerned with boosting the white birth rate and suppressing the birth rates of others. If that were true, why would Republicans and conservatives be pro life? The pro life movement disproportionately saves black babies. It also saves some white babies and some Hispanic babies and some Asian babies, but it disproportionately, vastly disproportionately, saves black babies. Black babies are the most in danger of being killed through abortion. 60% of black babies in New York are aborted. The most dangerous place for a black person in New York City is in his mother's womb. So if conservatives just wanted relatively more white babies than black babies, why would they ever be pro life? It is because it seems to me, it is morally good not to murder babies. It is morally good to have babies. It is morally good to encourage families. We can know this from, from the natural law. We can use our reason for this. And also, it is a matter of political justice and political prudence. No. How do we. Hmm. Hey, listen, Democrats, how do we. How can we possibly campaign against babies? You know, everyone loves babies, don't they? Okay, I know what we'll do. We'll call it racist. Now, speaking of Republicans supporting stuff, as I suggested yesterday on the show, the libs are trying to take out Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense, because they think he's the weakest link and he's just the easiest scalp they can get from the Trump administration. I said, I don't think that Trump is going to back away from Hegseth. I think the libs have been trying to do this since before he was confirmed. It hasn't worked yet. I don't think it's gonna work right now. Vice President J.D. vance seems to be proving that prediction yesterday on a tarmac reaffirming the administration's support for Hegseth. Question on Secretary PK Sec. There's been staffers who've come out saying.

[Jasmine Crockett]

That he's not fit for the job.

[Michael Knowles]

Do you still have confidence in the secretary?

[J.D. Vance]

Look, I have 100% confidence in the secretary. I know the president does, and really, the entire team does. It's one of the most bizarre things about the Hexif nomination. From the very beginning, the media seemed to want to take it. And when they failed and they got confirmed, they decided they wanted to keep on that effort to destroy Pete Hegseth as the man, as the Secretary of Defense. I think he's doing a great job. I think that he's brought a certain spirit back to the Department of Defense. And if you look at our military recruitment numbers, that's, in my view, the best testament to his leadership of the military is that for the first time in a very long time, we don't have terrible recruitment problems in the army, the Navy, and the Air Force. That's a great testament to his leadership. And I wish, frankly, the press to talk more about that and not about anonymous sourcing from random staffers.

[Michael Knowles]

Yeah, great answer. And it's going on offense, which the admin should be doing and does a very good job at generally. It's not just that Pete Hegseth is fine or he's okay. It's not just that. No, no, no. He's qualified. No, seriously, really, he is. No, come on. He's not that bad. He's very good as Secretary of Defense. He's very good. Just look at the recruitment numbers. He's very good. Look at the Houthi bombing campaign. There hasn't been a major military engagement yet since Trump was inaugurated. That's good. That's also a testament to Pete Hegsett's leadership and certainly to President Trump's leadership. But let's look at the military under Joe Biden, the disastrous pullout from Afghanistan, the loss of the lives of American servicemen and of Afghan citizens, the giving up of billions of dollars worth of military equipment to the enemy that we had been fighting for 20 years, the collapse in military recruitment numbers. It was dreadful. And yet we never saw these headlines about Lloyd Austin we never saw these baseless insinuations that Lloyd Austin was irresponsible, even though Lloyd Austin disappeared from the job for days, didn't even tell the President. Remember that one? And we never heard, oh, he's irresponsible. He's probably out boozing or something like that. They say all of this nonsense about Hegseth, and yet it's not merely that Hegseth is doing okay. Pete Hegseth is doing an excellent job. The only thing they can knock him on is that Pete Hegseth texted other members of the administration on signal Chat, something that every politician and political operative in both parties does. So they got nothing on this guy, and yet they keep going after him. I think JD Vance is right to raise this question. Why is it that you guys are just so obsessed with taking him down for nothing? Pete Hegseth, for his side of things, decides that he's gonna go on offense as well.

[Pete Buttigieg]

At the Defense Department, that means no more distractions, no more social engineering, no more climate change worship, no more electric tanks, no more gender confusion, no more pronouns, no more excuses, no more quotas, no more woke bull that undermines commanders in command climates. We are laser focused on our mission of war fighting.

[Michael Knowles]

Simple. As you know, I'm generally opposed to politicians using swear words in public. I don't like it. I don't like it when Democrats do it. I don't even really like it when President Trump does it. And I'm about as big a fan of President Trump as you could possibly get. But I think the Secretary of Defense, I think he gets a pass if he wants to use BS or something like that. You know, all this woke bs. He says the real word after George Patton. If you've ever read George Patton's speech to the third army, which is included in the movie Patton, and they actually had to clean up the language in the movie Patton, which is already vulgar enough, because Patton's whole speech is these effers and these GD and this, that, and the other thing. I think if you're around the military, you get a little bit of a political pass. And I think it's very smart of Hegseth to go on offense here, make it clear or at least define why the people are trying to get you. If the left is just dead set from the moment your name was floated on taking you out, then define the issue. Make an argument as to why they're trying to take you out, and if the argument as to why they're trying to take you out is because I want to end wokeness in the military. I want to return the military to high standards. I want to recruit the best of America most courageous fighters. I want to win wars. I want to be judicious in how we use force and I want to be extremely lethal when we do use force. If that's it and your opponents have to take the other side of that, you're in a good political position. At the Daily Wire, we ask the hard questions and we go get the answers. That is why Ben Shapiro went to Ukraine, a nation under fire, for an exclusive sit down with President Volodymyr Zelensky. I hope he handed him a bill. From U.S. aid and Corruption to Putin's imperial ambitions and the fight for religion and religious freedom. Nothing was off the table. This is not spin. This is clarity in the fog of war. Watch the interview. Everyone is going to be talking about an all new episode of the Ben Shapiro show streaming today, 11am Eastern on Daily Wire. Now my favorite comment Yesterday is from TheStoned Sailor0672 who says, how about we all stop talking about Kanye West? We can't. We can't. He commands attention. Some people just command attention. Remember, this is like people in 2016 said, why don't we just stop talking about Trump? You can't. Why don't we all. They would have said in the 19th century, why don't we all just stop talking about Napoleon? You can't. He just commands attention. I don't know that Kanye west would score very high on an IQ test. I don't know that he would do a great job on the sat, for instance. But the guy has a certain kind of genius. I don't think his music is exactly Stravinsky, okay? But he has a certain kind of creative genius and he will command your attention whether you want it or not. Now, speaking of people in important offices and actually returning just very briefly to the View, Joy Behar is voicing the opinion of many, many secular liberals when she expresses her fear that Pope Francis will be replaced by, quote, pope, some conservative guy.

[Joy Behar]

I was watching a 60 Minutes piece that he was interviewed on and he said we have to get over our hearts to feel again, we cannot remain indifferent in the face of such human dramas. The globalization of indifference is a very ugly disease that this country is suffering from. That's the kind of pope that he was. And that's the kind of pope that I hope will replace this pope after the Congress. I wonder, though, because there might be a backlash against how good he was and how much humility he had compared to some of the leaders in this world right now. So there might be a backlash to it and they'll get some conservative guy in there who you know is anti gay and everything else.

[Michael Knowles]

Joy Behar is worried that the Catholic Church, the College of Cardinals, will replace Pope Francis with some conservative guy. With the exception of immigration, of borders and all the rest, Pope Francis just on political issues was more right wing than any politician in America. Without exception. It's not even close. She says they might replace him with someone who's anti gay. Pope Francis referred to same sex marriage as a machination of the father of lies that seeks to deceive and confuse the children of God. When asked if the Vatican would bless same sex marriages, he said God cannot bless sin. He mocked the notion of transgenderism. Of course, he said that getting an abortion is like hiring a hitman. There is not one politician at any level of American politics who was more right wing than Pope Francis on political issues, with the exception of the immigration issue, is not one. Now, that doesn't mean that you can't say that Francis pontificate was liberal or confusing or even bad for the church. You can say that Pope Francis pontificate was confusing and did sometimes raise questions about whether or not he was being heterodox or just raised a lot of eyebrows from the standpoint of the Catholic Church. But the left right political paradigm does not map neatly onto the Catholic Church because the Catholic Church predates the left right paradigm by 1700 years. 1780 years, actually. So it doesn't. What do they mean? It does show you the fact that the liberals, really, the secular liberals who are not Christian, they seem to love Pope Francis so much. It does show you that there's probably a reason that the Francis pontificate appealed to them and it probably was some of the confusion that came from it. Probably it was some of the seemingly contradictory statements. But to use this phrase, you know, they are going to replace him with some conservative guy who's anti gay. One of Pope Francis most famous public expressions was che gia tropa frocagine, which means in English, there is already too much faggotry. When he was smacking down the notion of homosexual seminarians. Okay, so don't, you know, I'm not saying it wasn't confusing. I'm not saying it wasn't liberal by the standards of the Catholic Church. I'm not saying it wasn't even. I'm not saying there aren't issues that are gonna have to be worked out in the Next pontificate. But like, come on, man, even American conservatives, when they said, this Pope, he's so left wing. He is more right wing. He was more right wing than any of the politicians you love on every issue but immigration. So now there's a difference between religious issues and merely political issues. There's at least a distinction to be made. I get it all. But, you know, come on, guys, come on. Let's look at the facts, okay? We want the facts now. Speaking of immigration, new poll EV from Rasmussen. 56% of likely voters say that it is very important to deport migrant criminals. Only 5% say that it is not important at all. And you say, okay, well, that's just among all voters, all likely voters. What do the Democrats say? 43% of Democrats say that these deportations are very important. Only 8% of Democrats say they are not at all important. Which raises one question for me. Whatever happened to Kilmara Abrego Garcia? You remember him? He was all we could talk about. He's the Maryland father who multiple judges found was likely a member of MS.13 and who had a restraining order filed in court by his wife for domestic violence. But he was a Maryland father. A Maryland. He was an illegal alien. He had no right to be in America, but he was a Maryland father. Like, he showed up to Maryland at some point, and the Democrats were so obsessed with him, they wanted to make him the poster child for their party. Senator Chris Van Hollen flew from Maryland down to El Salvador to go on a romantic lunch date with him to caress his hair, say, are you. Are you okay, Senor Garcia? Como estas, mi amor? Como estas? Senor Garcia, can I help you in any way? Would you like me to help you traffic fentanyl or some of human beings? Or do you. Then he disappeared from the headlines. Why? I think it's because of polls like that. The Democrats realize it's like the trans issue. You notice the Dems are. They're backing away from the trans issue. Even the very liberal prime minister of the UK right now saying, oh, look, I think a man can't be a woman. Look, we're gonna. Hey, come on, give it up. It's all right. The same thing here with the deportations, mass deportations. We learned this in the 2024 election and it is proven true again and again and again. The libs keep trying to poison that issue. They keep trying to turn public opinion against it. Doesn't work. Mass deportations are a mainstream popular political issue among Republicans and Democrats. Finally, the Democrats it took them a little while, but they're finally wise to let this Kilmar Abrego Garcia thing go. Now, speaking of immigrants, I want to turn to a legal immigrant, Elon Musk. Jasmine Crockett. You know Jasmine Crockett, she's this new member of Congress, this new sensation liberal who says outrageous, cruel, nasty, vulgar things and gets a lot of clicks for it. Jasmine Crockett, who I don't think is a rocket scientist, who I don't. I don't think she's a member of mensa. She just called Elon Musk the wealthiest man in the world, one of the most successful men of our lifetimes. An idiot.

[Jasmine Crockett]

Level of incompetence is almost like incomprehensible. It is so bad. And when you bring up the idiot known as Elon Musk, he is not only, like, very sinister and has no idea what he's doing. And people are like, oh, no, he absolutely knows, because he's the richest man in the world. Like, yes, he knows how to hire smart people, but don't conflate that and believe that he is the genius, because he ain't.

[Michael Knowles]

And so, you know, the idiot known as Elon Musk and all those clapping seals and what is that, Jimmy Kimmel's show in the audience. You know, it's just. It's like when I was a boy and George W. Bush was the president, and they would all say, george Bush is an idiot. And all these people whose IQs were much, much lower than George Bush's was like, bush was an idiot. George Bush, who sometimes he was inarticulate, but he graduated Harvard Business School, right? He had a pretty successful career, became president. Oh, yeah, he's a big dummy. Chris Hitchens actually made fun of Bill Maher's audience for laughing at that. Well, she's doing the same thing, same playbook. And it means she's a very skilled politician. Might be the only conservative in America who's saying positive things about Jasmine Crockett. But game recognized game, man. She's good. She's good. She knows what she's doing. Jasmine Crockett is just a mixture of AOC and Donald Trump. Trump commands attention, too, and he says provocative things. He gets a lot of attention. He does it in a good way, like for the cause of justice and with the prospects of having a much longer career. Trump has been at the top of his game for almost half a century. He's been a major figure in American public life since at least the 80s. Jasmine Crockett, I don't know if she's got the legs for it, but she'll go far, at least for a little while. You gotta give it. She's the new aoc. If I were aoc, I would be furious right now. I think the person in America who is most likely to be angry about and worried by Jasmine Crockett, it's not some Republican. It's not elon Musk. It's AOC. Because she's taken AOC's whole shtick and she's doing it pretty well. Finally today we get a member block. And I want to apologize. I've been on the road a lot. This has been my big travel month. April is the cruelest month. And then all these new trips come up. So I go, I visit my wonderful grandmother for Easter. And then this. I'm invited to the White House for the Easter Egg Roll. So I gotta divert my whole family. We go up for the Easter Egg Roll. And then I gotta go to Los Angeles to film episodes for the book club at Prageru. And I know we haven't had a lot of Membrum Segmentum, so I've got a very special one for you today about the movie American Miracle with all sorts of people. You know, Kevin Sorbo. We got a couple other guest special actors on there, one you might know very well. The rest of the show continues now. You don't want to miss it. Become a member. Use code Knowleskin at WLAS at checkout for two months free on all annual plans.