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- [00:00]
Michael Knowles
American warships off the coast of Venezuela blowing up Venezuelan drug boats, demands that dictator Nicolas Maduro leave the country. And amid all the tensions, the threat of war with Venezuela. President Trump calls a White House address on all the networks in prime time. We were all waiting for for the declaration of war. And President Trump, as always, subverted our expectations. We'll get into exactly what he said. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles Show. Welcome back to the show. Our pal Vivek Ramaswamy has an essay in the New York Times. We'll forgive him for the New York Times called what is an American? In which he weighs in on the right wing civil war. All these questions about American identity and he makes a lot of good points. But he leaves out some good points too. We'll get into exactly his view, where it fits in with this brutal bare knuckle brawl on the right of what the future of America is. First, I want to tell you about Equip foods. Go to equipfoods.com Michael Knowles All One Word. Use code Michael Knowles All One Word this episode is sponsored by Equip Foods. You know what I hate? I hate protein bars. I do. Which is one reason the team and I love delicious Equip protein bars. The Equip food foods prime bar is the first of its kind. Grass fed beef protein with only real food ingredients. Absolutely nothing to hide. 20 grams of clean protein. Starting today our listeners will receive an exclusive discount on prime bar which it's the top. It's the cock of the walk here at the DW. Okay. These bars pack 20 grams of grass fed beef protein using just 11 clean ingredients like collagen, beef tallow, colostrum naturally sweetened with dates and honey, free from whey seed oils and artificial additives. Plain plus rigorously third party tested for contaminants. Great flavors like chocolate mixed berry. They taste like dessert but they are actually the cleanest protein bars on the market. I absolutely love the Equip prime bar. Go check it out right now if you want to try the cleanest protein bar on the market. Already sold out once. Equipfoods.com Michael Knowles Use code Michael Knowles at Checkout to get 25% off one time purchases or 40% off your first subscription order for a limited time. Equipfoods.com Michaelnolash M I C H A e L Ken Wlas is trying to do it fast. Use code Michael Knowles M I C H a e L Kenner W L e s at checkout all the news networks they all cover President Trump's major announcement. It's all being reported in the liberal media amid tensions with Venezuela. A major announcement from the president. And he walks up there and you know what he does? He totally punks him. There's no war. Hey, spoiler alert. Sorry, I should have maybe said this at the top. We're not at war with Venezuela. He goes in and he just talks about all of his biggest wins from the first year. Everything on the economy, on migration, on all the good stuff that's coming. It was just a recap of all the great stuff that he did. All from this cozy looking room in the White House with all the Christmas decorations up. He ends it with Merry Christmas. He pulled the old war with Venezuela fake out to make all of his enemies at the news networks cover all of his successes in prime time. A lot of people still watch primetime tv, even though everything's online. Makes all of. Even the digital media pay attention to him. Even. I usually catch up on the news later. I'm usually not watching it in real time because I'm doing something else.
- [03:57]
Admiral Brian Christine
This.
- [03:57]
Michael Knowles
I stopped what I was doing. I was gonna get my Christmas tree off my car and I stopped and eventually I just took the phone out with me. As it's going, I take the Christmas tree off my car. It was a total punking. Whether you love him, whether you hate him, it is beyond dispute at this point. President Trump is the greatest media manipulator ever to hold that office. So it was really good and it was important. It served really important political purposes because the Democrats right now have historically low approval ratings. The Democrats are in a really, really bad spot. They have no leading candidate for president. For the first time in 25 years, they're in a really bad spot. But President Trump's approval ratings have lagged a little bit in certain areas, especially on the economy. And this is frustrating for the White House because the White House has really good economic numbers this year. The White House has outperformed on gdp, on jobs. We were all told the tariffs were gonna destroy the country. They didn't. The tariffs have worked. The stock market hit record highs. The economy has done very, very well under Trump. Inflation has come way, real wage growth has gone up. I mean, the numbers go on and on, and yet people still feel the pinch in this economy, and they're right to do so. But the point that Trump is making is they feel the pinch because eggs cost 2 bucks a carton five years ago. Then Biden sped up inflation to over 9%, and then eggs cost 10 bucks a carton. And now eggs might be down to six bucks a carton or something like that, but everyone's remembering the halcyon days when they were two bucks a carton. Nevermind that Trump has reduced costs on a whole host of things because don't forget, Biden oversaw this massive spike in inflation and he blamed it all on Covid. But it wasn't just Covid. It was also his massive spending. It was also the so called inflation Reduction act, which even Bernie Sanders admitted didn't reduce inflation. It was also the big infrastructure bill that ballooned government spending. It was also Biden destroying the energy sector and killing the Keystone pipeline energy, which causes inflation throughout the economy. Biden really was responsible for a lot of the inflation. And so Trump needed to take this opportunity to set the record straight, to control the narrative. Even rolled out new things. Here's so fitting given the setting, given the time we're right before Christmas. Here's a new little bonus that President Trump gets that he is offering to some of our most deserving citizens because of tariffs.
- [06:26]
President Donald Trump
Along with the just passed one big beautiful bill tonight. I am also proud to announce that more than 1,450 thousand. Think of this. 1,450,000 military service members will receive a special we call Warrior dividend before Christmas. A warrior dividend in honor of our Nation's founding in 1776. We are sending every soldier $1,776. Think of that. And the checks are already on the way. Nobody understood that one until about 30 minutes ago. We made a lot more money than anybody thought because of tariffs. And the bill helped us along. Nobody deserves it more than our military. And I say congratulations to everybody. And by the way, we now have record enlistment in our military. And last year we had among the worst recruitment numbers in our military's history. What a difference a year makes.
- [07:31]
Michael Knowles
Bonuses for the vets in the amount of $1,776. I dare a Democrat to oppose them. Democrats never met federal spending they didn't love. I dare the Democrats to oppose a bonus for the vets for $1,776. The year our country was founded, on the 250th anniversary of our country. It was brilliant. And it's not just pandering to a very sympathetic and very revered group of Americans. Trump is also looking down the line at the Supreme Court, which potentially could overrule his tariffs. Tariffs which are key to his economic agenda. And so what does Trump do? He comes out and he says the tariffs have worked. They brought in a lot of money for this country and we're going to give some of that money out. We're not just going to hoard it for ourselves. We're not even going to use it just to pay down our debt. We're going to give it to some of our most deserving Americans who are often overlooked. Okay, Supreme Court, I dare you to get rid of my tariffs now. You want to take money out of the hands of hardworking veterans who've sacrificed for this country? Be my guest. Trump then pointed out that not only are his jobs numbers good this year, they're actually much, much better, some would say almost infinitely better than Biden's job numbers. Job numbers we've seen in recent years, really even recent decades, because the jobs under Trump have gone to actual Americans.
- [08:58]
President Donald Trump
For the first time in 50 years. We are now seeing reverse migration as migrants go back home, leaving more housing and more jobs for Americans. In the year before my election, all net creation of jobs was going to foreign migrants. Since I took office, 100% of all net job creation has gone to American born citizens. 100%. In the end, government either serves the productive, patriotic, hardworking American citizen, or it serves those who are, who break the laws, cheat the system and seek power and profit at the expense of our nation.
- [09:41]
Michael Knowles
There's a little known fact that the job growth in recent years has largely been illusory as those jobs are going to foreign born workers. So real Americans don't really benefit this year because of the Trump immigration policy because he closed off the border, so he stopped another 1 to 3 million illegals from coming into the country because he formally deported over half a million of them and because he caused at least 1.6 million, probably significantly more, to self deport. You see all the jobs going to actual Americans. Big, big win. How does he end it? Merry Christmas.
- [10:19]
President Donald Trump
When the world looks at us next year, let them see a nation that is loyal to its citizens, faithful to its workers, confident to its identity, certain to its destiny and the envy of the entire globe. We are respected again like we have never been respected before. To each and every one of you, have a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. God bless you all.
- [10:46]
Michael Knowles
Beautiful. Couldn't have said it better myself. Beautiful, beautiful stuff. I loved. One person responded when I tweeted out, I knew exactly what he was doing. The minute he opened his mouth, I said, ah, that's what he did. He tricked all the networks. None of them wanna give him good coverage. He's Gonna give a year end roundup right before Christmas. Great optics, great numbers, sets the record straight. And one person responded, said, I've been had. So that's true. We've all been had. But we had fun, it was good. And we're not going to war. This is the other thing, all these panic hands. We're going to war. We're going to war. I don't know. I don't freak out about Trump, especially when it comes to foreign policy. And it's not just because I blindly follow a leader or something like that. It's just based on reason, looking at precedent. We now have 10 years of precedent with Trump. The guy has been the best foreign policy president in my lifetime, probably including George H.W. bush, who was good in his own right. So he just has earned a little grace with me when it comes especially to foreign policy. Now, major shakeup also was announced yesterday, another one that's been a media rumor for months now. Dan Bongino, our pal Dan Bongino is leaving the FBI. Dan had a very, very successful podcast, business, news aggregator business. He's a great guy, Dan Bongino, and he's obviously a great broadcaster and a businessman. Dan was doing very, very well. I don't have the exact numbers of how much money he was bringing in through his business empire, his media empire. He was doing very, very well. And he gave it all up to take the job as deputy FBI director to serve the country. And I'm sure that's a very frustrating thing, especially when you're in the deputy position. You're not even in the director position. You're not the Attorney general, for instance. And so he did it. He did it for a year. He gave up a lot. He sacrificed for his country. He's done a great job. President Trump has confirmed this rumor.
- [12:45]
President Donald Trump
Dan did a great job. I think he wants to go back to his show.
- [12:51]
Admiral Brian Christine
Yeah, I do.
- [12:53]
Michael Knowles
I like the way Trump is leaving this, too. Trump and Dan have gotten along for a long time. He says, yes, Dan did a great job. He did it. He put in his year, put in a solid year in some jobs. In a presidential administration, that's a lifetime. Says now. I think Dan probably wants to go back to his show, which I think will be great. I think it's very honorable what he did. He gave up a lot. He actually did sacrifice for his country, and now I'm excited that he's gonna have a show. I assume he's going back to his show in any case. Notice something. This is the first quasi major Shakeup in the admin. From the beginning, President Trump has had the media gunning for a lot of his top appointees, especially Pete Hegseth. Notice the media have been trying to not just the media, the Democrats, the activists have been trying to get rid of Hegseth since before he was confirmed. They really tried to torpedo his confirmation. They've been going after him ever since. Every three days, it seems there's some rumor Hegseth's getting pushed out of the pent and yet it never happens. Oh, there's a big rumor. Kristi Noem is getting pushed out. Kristi Noem, Trump said. What are you talking about? Kristi Noem's great. Notice that Dan, deputy FBI director, is the first one to leave. And he's leaving on good terms and he's leaving of his own accord. Big, big difference between that and the first administration. When the secretary of state finds out he's getting fired via tweet and there's a lot of turnover in the first admin. And this to me is something that Trump didn't mention. It wouldn't have been fitting for the speech. But I think it's important to note we were going around here at the Daily Wire the other day to talk about what are the biggest wins and losses for Trump in the first year. To me, really, the biggest win was the personnel. Trump. He was totally new to it in the first term. That little interregnum period, I think actually probably helped him focus a little bit, figure out who the friends are, separate the wheat from the chaff. The second term, notice there's basically no turnover. Very, very good people in these positions. For the most part, there are a couple of people who are not quite as good as the others, but for the most part, very, very good people in these positions. And they're lasting and they're surviving. They're getting stuff done. It was very, very impressive year. All right. We have a lot more soaring political rhetoric to get to this time. Not from the President of the United States, but rather from Jasmine Crockett. We'll get to that momentarily. First, though, I want to tell you about PolicyGenius. Go to PolicyGenius.com knowles this Christmas season, you probably want a gift that lasts forever instead of just junk that falls apart in six months. Well, with our show sponsor, policygenius, you can give your family a gift that endures the security of life insurance and lasting peace of mind. Nearly half of American adults would face financial hardship within six months if they lost their primary income. But policygenius makes Finding life insurance simple. Helping you secure real coverage so your loved ones have the financial safety net they need when it matters most. If you've been putting off life insurance, now is a good time to sort it out before the year ends. Policygenius makes the whole thing way less painful than you'd think. It's a simple online marketplace where you can compare quotes from all the major insurers in one place, totally free. They've got a team of licensed experts who will walk you through everything, answer your questions, deal with all the paperwork, help you figure out what coverage actually makes sense for you without all the confusing insurance jargon. The whole point is to make the most affordable policy that fits your situation available to you. With Policygenius, real users have gotten 20 or $2 million policies for just 53 bucks a month. Don't wait until next year. Give your family the gift of security today with Policygenius. Go to policygenius.com knowleskennet w l e S to compare life insurance quotes from top companies. See how much you could save. That's policygenius.com knowles Jasmine Crockett, the gift that keeps on giving. Apparently trolled into running for Senate by the Republican Senate Committee. Inserted her name in a poll. Now it actually gets her to run. The gamble being that it'll screw it up for Democrats in Texas. Jasmine Crockett laying out her immigration plan. The reason why the Democrats support mass migration and open border. All these illegals pouring into the country. Democrats for years have told us it's because of humanitarian reasons. Because we care so much about the oppressed people on the other side of the border. The refugees. Jasmine Crockett says. Nah, that's bs. We were lying the whole time. The reason we need them is cuz I don't want to pick any more cotton.
- [17:23]
Jasmine Crockett
So I had to go around the country and educate people about what immigrants do for this country or the fact that we are a country of immigrants.
- [17:31]
Admiral Brian Christine
Right? Right.
- [17:32]
Jasmine Crockett
The fact is ain't none of y' all trying to go and farm right now. Okay, so I'm lying.
- [17:40]
Michael Knowles
Raise.
- [17:40]
Jasmine Crockett
Raise your hands. You not. You not. We done picking cotton? We are. You can't pay us enough to find a plantation.
- [17:58]
Michael Knowles
We need to import third world peasants because we want a new slave class. Why aren't y' all applauding? So for years I love her. For years the Republicans have pointed out the Democrats support mass migration from the third world, especially illegal immigration, but even some legal immigration. The whole reason that the Democrats wanted it is one to cynically give Them a permanent electoral majority by fundamentally changing the demographics of the country. And two, because they're in cahoots with big business, because they want cheap labor. They want to commit one of the sins that cries out to heaven for vengeance, namely defrauding the poor, oppressing the poor, the workers, giving them substandard wages. And then Jasmine Crockett comes out and goes, you're totally right. Dynamite. That was Jasmine Crockett putting on her. Her, like, 1970s jive voice. Of course, she. She engages in interviews where she sounds like a perfectly normal person. But I guess whichever group she was talking to there, she thought she had to dial it up, dial up the blaxploitation talk, you know? Listen here, man. We done picking that cotton? So what does it mean? What it means is we are bringing these people in to treat them like slaves. So thank you, Jasmine. You have totally admitted the Republicans were right the whole time. That was the justification for it. Amazing, too, that this clip is going viral right after you had this very sorry display in the US Capitol, where even Republicans went along with it. They tore down a statue of Robert E. Lee. They said, robert E. Lee, one of the greatest Americans ever to live. A man who said he rejoiced at the end of slavery, even though he was the general defending his homeland in the Civil War. He said he rejoiced that slavery would end. He called slavery, quote, a moral and political evil in any country. He was so happy that it was abolished. They tear down the statue of Robert E. Lee. They put up some lady no one's ever heard of. They feel so good about themselves. General Lee was a much, much better person, a much more moral person than any of the people tearing his statue down. General Lee was a much more moral person than Jasmine Crockett and had a much more moral political vision. General Lee, on the one hand, saying, look, I have to defend my home, my countrymen, my community. I have to defend them. But I hate slavery. Slavery is a moral evil. Not only in America, anywhere. I'm so happy slavery is abolished. That's the guy they're tearing down and the one that the Democrats are gonna run for Senate in Texas, saying, we need a new slave class. Yeah, we abolished slavery. That's good for me, I guess. Now let's import a bunch of Guatemalans, have them pick the cotton for no money. Am I right? Am I? Can I get an amen? You tear down the ancestors, the forebears, the people who built our country, the giants on whose shoulders we stand. And we think that we're flying. You tear them down because of some moral failings that they had, real or imagined. And who do we put in their place? We put Jasmine Crockett in her place. We put the modern Democrat party and the squish collaborators in the Republican Party. Much less moral, much less dignified people in every single way. So what is American identity? My friend Vivek Ramaswamy published a very thoughtful essay on this in the New York Times. We can overlook that. We can forgive him for publishing in the New York Times on what is an American? Really encourage you to check out this essay because. Because Vivek makes an important point. But I think he misses an important point too. He opens up. He says there are two competing visions now emerging on the American right and they are incompatible. One vision of American identity is based on lineage, blood and soil. Inherited attributes matter most. The purest form of an American is a so called heritage American, one whose ancestry traces back to the founding of the United States or earlier. Even earlier, I guess, referring to the Mayflower, which is a great cigar brand says this view is now popularized by the Groiper right, a rapidly ascendant online movement that argues for the creation of a white centric identity. This is a predictable response, one I anticipated in my book, to anti white discrimination over the last half decade. It is no longer just a fringe viewpoint. The alternative Vivek proposes. And in my view, the correct vision of American identity is based on ideals. Americanness is not a scalar quality that varies based on your ancestry. It's binary. Either you're an American or you're not. You are an American if you believe in the rule of law, in freedom of conscience, in freedom of expression, in colorblind meritocracy, in the US Constitution, in the American dream, and if you are a citizen who swears exclusive allegiance to our nation. So Vivek is saying that he fully endorses what is called the creedal view of America. If you believe in the ideals of America and if you check a box, you become naturalized as a citizen, then you are an American. It has nothing to do with heritage. The people you come from, your family's history here. And look, there's obviously a creedal aspect to the country. So he's getting at something that is partially true, but I think he's missing a point. Here's the problem for Vivek's argument is what about the guy who lives in West Virginia? What about the guy who lives anywhere in the middle of America, whose family's been here forever? Maybe they were on the Mayflower. Maybe they came around the Revolution. Maybe they came in the Civil War. Maybe they came 100 years ago. They've been Americans for many, many generations. Guy loves his American flag. He eats hot dogs on the Fourth of July. His kids are all American. Everybody, you know, he loves his country. But maybe he doesn't believe in absolute freedom of expression or something like that, which, as I argue in my book, Speechless is not really part of the Americans free speech tradition. Oh, thank you very much. I actually forgot about my bell. Yes. That, you know, this belief in total freedom of expression, that's not really the American free speech tradition. We outlaw all sorts of speech, obviously. Fraud, direct threats, obscenity. Now, we've weakened that over time. There were blasphemy laws on the books for much of American history that still are on the books in some places. What if he doesn't believe in that? Does that mean that he's not an American? The notion of colorblind meritocracy even. Take the colorblind part out for a second, just focus on meritocracy. The notion of meritocracy is, in its most extreme form, is a very modern innovation in America. If we believe in pure meritocracy, whatever that means, does that mean that we have to oppose legacy admissions in universities? Does this mean that people can't give some preference in hiring, say, in their family business? You know, they have a mom and pop family business that's been in the family for generations. You can't pass that business along to your kids or your grandkids. You can't favor hiring your grandkids over, I don't know, some random person on the street who maybe scored higher on the sat Taken to its fullest extreme, does that mean that we have to support totally free and open trade where we're competing against not just our countrymen, but the whole rest of the world for spots in schools, for jobs, for. I don't know. That's not really part of the American tradition. And I think there are plenty of people in America who don't totally go along with those ideas, who are nonetheless, I think, still American. There's someone from Tibet who comes over to America, let's say last week, and he gets naturalized as a citizen by hook or by crook. He has no experience in America. He doesn't have any of the learned traditions that come about, not just through a lifetime, but through the generations. He doesn't really know about hot dogs on the Fourth of July. Doesn't really know about fireworks. He passed a civics test, but he's not really part of the community. You're telling me that guy because he has memorized some portion of the Declaration of Independence, that that guy is American. But the guy who, I don't know, maybe he hasn't memorized every line of the Federalist Papers, nevertheless, his family's been here for 300 years. That guy's not an American. I don't think that holds. I don't think that really makes a lot of sense. I see what Vivek is looking at, but I think it's a false dichotomy. I don't think the only two choices are blood and soil nationalism, where heritage is all that matters, or this creedal conception where belief in what is imagined to be the American idea, which in many ways was a construction of the 20th century, that that's all that's American. I think there's something more to it. I don't think that the view that having rootedness in America is purely the domain of some fringe or unseemly or bigoted online right wing. I don't think that's true at all. Vivek goes on. He points out that antisemitic statements are now normalized online. That's true. Now, in fairness, all sorts of nasty, ugly things are normalized online. That's kind of what the Internet's for. The Internet's for porn and racism. Actually, we tried to circumscribe that in the 1990s with the communications Decency act and the Child Online Protection act, and it passed with Republican and Democrat support. And then unfortunately, judges gutted it because judges had a very, very liberal view of the American free speech tradition that wasn't really historical. But yeah, look, it bothers me. I don't like I hate anti Semitism. I hate nasty, cruel rac racism and misogyny and all the rest of that. But it's normalized online. Online is not. You know, the Internet is not the same as real life. There's overlap, but it's not the same thing. He goes on. He says this pattern eerily mirrors the hesitance of prominent Democrats to criticize WOKE excesses in the run up to 2024. So, in other words, if the right does not excise the nasty fringes of its movement, it's gonna end up in the same electoral quagmire that the Democrats ran into because they adopted all the pro trans radical woke stuff that killed them in 2024. Yeah, okay, that's fair. Any political movement has to circumscribe itself. Just as a nation is known by its borders, that's what distinguishes it from other nations. So, too, with political movements, you gotta invite as many people in as you can in a way that is just and successful while also keeping some people out. Totally agree with. I totally agree with that. However, I just think the premise is a little bit wrong. No, I don't think that you need to ascribe perfectly to the present day's understanding of what America means as a creed. I don't think America's just an idea. I think it's a country. I think it's a real country. And countries are made up of people, made up of geography, made up of actions and traditions and sacrifices, and. And made up of creedal beliefs, of course. So it seems to me that there is a synthesis of some of these ideas. I alluded to this the other day when I talked about the Book of Ruth. I think the Book of Ruth is really instructive on what it means to be part of a political community. I think actually it provides the type of what a political community is because Ruth is a Moabite, but she assimilates and joins into the Israelites. And how does she do it? She does it in three ways. We'll get to what that is, and we'll get to, really, the heart of this question that we're gonna be debating for a year. What is an American? First, though, I wanna tell you about StopBox USA. Go to stopboxusa.com, use code KNOWLES. Folks, there's a big dilemma that comes with gun ownership. It's a great privilege. It's a great right in our Constitution. But there's a dilemma. You either can store your gun in the box that's super, super secure, and you don't need to worry about anybody getting into it. But then you can't get into it when you actually need it. Or you go to one of these devices where it's really easy to get in. Maybe it's a little bit too easy to get in when you have guests, when you have kids over. So what do you need? I don't want to have to rely on some retina scan or something to save me when the bad guys are at the door. What I would strongly recommend is Stopbox usa. It is the best of all worlds. It is mechanical, it's analog, it's old school. The electronics are not going to fail. And it's very, very secure. I think it's just terrific. In fact, I got a Desert Eagle in one right now. This Christmas season just got a lot safer and a lot more affordable. For a limited time only, our listeners are getting a great deal. Not only do you get 10% off your entire order when you use code Michael Knowles@stopboxusa.com they're also giving you buy one, get one free for their Stopbox Pro. It's the one that I have 10% off and a free Stopbox Pro when you use code Michael Knowles M I C H A E L K N O W L e s@stopboxusa.com yes, there's a creedal aspect to American identity, but there are two other aspects. There's sacrifice, there's contribution. One way that people have been Americanized in the course of history is when they fight in wars or when they contribute something really great. They're beneficent, they contribute to our economy, they contribute to our political community. Elon Musk is a good example of this. He's an immigrant and he's generated a lot of prosperity for people. He sacrificed some of his private interests to help the good of the country. Even working in government, that would be one way. And then the third part is the people. The people matter. Just a simple thought experiment. If you took all the people In America today, 330 some odd million people, and you swapped them out and you filled up the country with 330 million other people and they all had memorized the Declaration of Independence, they all had memorized whatever the current conception of the American creed is, would you still have the same country? Manifestly you would not. It would be a different kind of country. In Ruth, Ruth says three things importantly. She says, I'm going to leave the Moabites. I'm going to become an Israelite. Israel, which is the particular nation that is the type of all the nations, says, you people will be my people. I will marry and I will have children. Children that go down into the line of David and into the lineage of Christ. So assimilation is possible. You got to kind of marry in. You got to intermingle with these people. Where you go, I will go. Where you die, I will die. You're giving something up. I'm giving up the Moabites. I'm giving up Tibet. I'm giving up the Third World. I'm coming. I'm part of this. Your God will be my God. It's a creedal aspect. And when she marries her second husband, Boaz, after her first husband dies, she says, why are you accepting me? And he says, everything you've done for your mother in law, everything You've done for us, for our tribe, for our nation. That's been told to me, the sacrifice part, that's what the three of them are. And so there is a founding stock of America that's been radically changed over the centuries. We've had periods of no immigration. We've had periods of a lot of immigration. And then since 1967, we've had this mass influx of immigration and demographic change. But there is a founding stock. There really is. There's a people. And you can kind of marry into that. I mean, for me, use the example of the Mayflower. I'm only a quarter English. And even of the quarter English, the Knowles got here in 1660, and they married into the Mayflower line. They got here in 1620. So even if they, you know, I'm pretty swarthy, I'm pretty Sicilian. But there's still. There was intermarriage, there was. There was a period of. A long period of assimilation over the generations. You can't totally lose that. That's the icky part. That's the part that no one wants to talk about in our totally abstract modern life. That tells modern liberalism, that tells us that America is not a real country, it's not a real people. It's just an idea. No, there's a people component and there's a creed. But what's the creed? Is the creed 20th century liberalism, 21st century liberalism, or is the creed Christianity? John Adams says that the principles of the Christian religion are the general principles on which independence was won. We're kind of a Christian country, aren't we? John Jay writes about this in Federalist Number two. And there's an American conception of liberty. And so there's a civic belief and there's a religious belief which is grounded in Christianity. And there's contribution right now in American identity. We have none of the three. You don't have to be part of the people. You don't have to assimilate. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to believe anything. You can be a Muslim communist, it's fine, has no bearing on it. And you don't have to sacrifice. You actually, you're going to commit welfare fraud and you're going to take all the money from the tax bridge. So we have this really big problem. But going all the way back to classical political philosophy, classical civilizations, ancient Rome, which men have to think about three times a day all the way up to the present, you need all three. And to divorce one or the other, say it's only creed where it's only stock or even that it's only sacrifice. I think misses the point. So I think Vivek touches on a good point, but it's not complete. It's a partial truth. And it will be insufficient to persuade Americans now who are seeing the real results of demographic change, massive demographic change, contrived demographic change without any kind of assimilation that the partial truth will not persuade. You need the whole truth. Talking about the New York Times, I'm quoting the Washington Post today. Something's gone very, very wrong. But the Washington Post has a very important report out. The report is on Charlie Kirk's alleged killer. You see this news with Charlie Kirk's alleged killer told friends after the attack. This is Tyler Robinson. A patchwork of social interactions and a trail of online posts provide a view into Tyler Robinson's life and his beliefs. Really, really long piece. But important reporting says 55 minutes before he allegedly shot and killed right wing political activist Charlie Kirk, Tyler Robinson was bragging about his success playing the online puzzle game Wordle. So he was bragging about committing the crime. According to Wordle, he's got all of these other exchanges on different social media servers. Some of his friends, people referring to family interactions. His mother told police he'd become more, quote, pro gay and trans rights oriented. Had started dating a roommate who was undergoing a gender transition. Friends confirmed the pair's romantic involvement. Says the roommate was distressed about anti trans sentiment. Robinson sent the roommate a confession. Said, I've had enough of his hatred. Some hate can't be negotiated out. He wrote that in a message reportedly hours after the killing. The Post reached out to all of these other people and it's a very long article. I encourage all of you to read it. Maybe read it, I don't know, read it on a gift article. Don't give the Washington Post too much money, but it's important reporting and this is the kind of stuff that's all gonna come out in the prosecution. It's good to get a little bit of this. Now I mention all of it because some people have asked why I have not joined in on the personal side of the right wing civil war. There's always a right wing civil war, but sometimes it gets hotter than at other points and now it's particularly hot. I gave a speech on this at Belmont Abbey and I outlined some of my reasons for not getting so involved there. Beyond the virtue of loyalty, beyond any personal affections or personal hostilities or anything in the mix, there's a practical aspect as well as I've made perfectly clear when speaking about the issue. I have had no confusion whatsoever since the moment that this guy murdered Charlie, allegedly to the present that he did it. I do wonder how many more of these friends and transferee boyfriends and other people were involved, had advanced knowledge, were at least told after the fact. But I've had no doubt that he did it. And the reason for that is it's always the ones you most expect. And the reason for that is that, well, he's allegedly confessed to it, and his fingerprints were on the rifle and all the rest of it. But also because this is the kind of guy who does this kind of thing repeatedly. We've seen this consistently for years, and even in one case at a speech that I was giving at University of Pittsburgh. And so given that, this was all pretty clear, and we're going to get much, much more of this in the prosecution and in the courts. I'm sure there's a practical aspect here, which is that when things become really personal and really gossipy and really focused on reviling and detracting and defamation in some cases, but in detraction in other cases, when it gets all really personal, it distracts from the issue. And some people love that. A lot of people love that in politics and media. I think that's very counterproductive. And the chief lesson that I took from Charlie in his public life, not in our personal friendship, but in his public life, the chief lesson I took from him is you've gotta kinda tune out the noise, and you have to keep your eyes on the prize, and you have to focus on the issues, and you have to keep the team together, and you have to advance and you have to move, and you have to win the elections, and you win the elections by forming coalitions, and you move on. And in some cases, you have to confront the noise head on. In some cases, the facts of the matter are so apparent that they're going to come to light over the course of weeks or months or maybe a year, but they're going to come to light, and you can't allow yourself to get distracted. Now we're heading into America Fest, which is the last event that Charlie gave us. He planned this event. He invited people to this event. You can't get a hotel room in the city of Phoenix. Everybody is showing up to this thing. This is the group that he invited. This is the team looking ahead at the midterms, looking ahead at 2028. Charlie was very, very practical. And Charlie was a winner. He was a winner. He knew how to win. A lot of people have opinions. A lot of people like to blab. Charlie liked to win. And I think the truth is obviously coming out very clearly. Most people never really doubted it in the first place, but it's going to come out much more clearly. The common enemy, the radical left, is once again going to be pronounced. It's gonna come out very, very clearly. The stakes of losing, when you have an enemy that not only is willing to commit these kinds of crimes, but justifies it, excuses it, celebrates it, the stakes of losing and giving power back over to those people, I think those are gonna come into the fore. And I hope that the legacy of the last event that Charlie puts on, albeit posthumously, is a revitalization, a putting away of personal animosities and gossip and whatever and focusing, keeping the eyes on the prize, winning, moving together with some unity, with a clear vision, with practical steps to move forward, to win, to achieve results. Because the winners go to Washington and make laws and the losers go home. A very, very important lesson and probably the only time in my life that I will encourage people to read the Washington Post. In one week, on Christmas Day, episodes one and two of the Pendragon cycle, Rise of the Merlin start streaming on DailyWire plus for all Access members. Here is the truth. No one else was ever gonna make this. No one was gonna bring this legend to life at this scale with the conviction it deserves. Too big, too demanding, too risky. We built a company that could do it. So on Christmas Day, All Access members are gonna get episodes one and two before anyone else. January 22nd, the seven part epic launches for all members. The wait is almost over. The moment Rise of the Merlin hits your screen, you will get exactly why we went this big. Become a Daily Wire plus member right now. Get 40% off new annual memberships DailyWire.com subscribe Very important interview to get to. Speaking of winning, speaking of making policy, I'm so honored to have on the show Admiral Brian Christine, who is the Assistant Secretary for health at the U.S. department of Health and Human Services. Major announcement, big press conference coming out of HHS today. Obviously we've covered a lot of the big changes to the vaccine schedule, to how public health is treated after the massive scandals of public health during the Biden administration. One of the scandals actually pertaining to the very position that Admiral Christine holds. So, Admiral, thank you so much for coming on the show.
- [41:58]
Admiral Brian Christine
No, Michael, thank you for having me on the show. I love what you do, I love your online presence and I'm really pleased to be here today.
- [42:05]
Michael Knowles
Well, thank you so much. A pleasure's all mine. I can't help but notice, Admiral, you are the Assistant Secretary for Health and you are wearing a men's uniform. And I believe your predecessor in that very position, though a man, wore a woman's uniform.
- [42:24]
Admiral Brian Christine
That's exactly right. No, my predecessor, Admiral Levine, wore a woman's uniform. No, I'm a man wearing a man's uniform. That speaks to the truth that boys are boys and girls are girls, and you can't change that.
- [42:38]
Michael Knowles
That alone, Admiral, I think, goes a long way to restoring some faith that our health department has a sane conception of what health even is. There's been so much. It's like a fire hose of information coming out of hhs. Can you tell us a little bit about what the department is announcing today?
- [42:57]
Admiral Brian Christine
Yes. Well, so you know that we have an issue in this country, the explosion of children who have gender dysphoria, who are being treated with castrating chemicals and surgeries that really do not address the problem. And so we've seen an explosion of this. We certainly saw that under the last administration. And my predecessor and I want to thank President Trump and Secretary Kennedy for saying no, we are going to be led by gold level science. We're going to be led by what's right. We're going to be transparent, and we're actually going to speak to parents, speak to these children and give them treatment that actually works. And treatment that actually works is not chemicals, puberty blockers and surgeries, but rather address this as you would any other mental health issue and give them compassionate, supportive, expert mental health counseling. That's the way forward with these kids, not surgeries or chemicals.
- [43:54]
Michael Knowles
The Biden HHS was transgender. The Trump HHS is transparent. I think that's a big, big improvement. This was an issue that I think scandalized a lot of voters. I think it is actually a big part of the reason why Republicans and President Trump won in 2024 is voters looked at that issue in particular, they said, this is such a travesty that is being done especially to children. Scandalous. It's destroying lives. It's not helping in any way. It's really making the problem worse. It represents such a total failure of judgment on the part of the previous administration. And Democrats, these guys, they don't have the judgment to be dog catcher in Palookaville, much less run a country. So can you just give us a little bit of a sense at the federal level of what the Biden trans kids policy had been and how today's Actions are changing that.
- [44:47]
Admiral Brian Christine
Right? I think they were driven more by a warped social and political agenda. Let's just say it for what it is. That was the driver in the last administration. The driver in this administration under President Trump and Secretary Kennedy and myself, is that we are going to look at science. We are going to let science guide us how we treat these vulnerable children and understand gender dysphoria is a real entity. Gender dysphoria does occur, but you don't treat it with chemicals and surgery. You treat it with counseling. And so we looked at this. We've looked at. We brought together the best scientists to look and to make recommendations. We've looked at the science and simply the science does not support the use of castrating chemicals and mutilating surgeries to treat these children. What science does support is, again, compassionate care, compassionate counseling. If parents want to loop in pastoral support, I think that's entirely reasonable. And I think that's appropriate as for any other disease process. But the important thing is that surgeries and chemicals are not the way forward. That is what was being pushed in the last administration. And what we are saying is, no, that's not correct. Science doesn't support this. What science does support is handling these children with care and with love and with counseling.
- [46:04]
Michael Knowles
I'm glad you mentioned, too, not just the scientific experts, but also the parents, the pastors, all these other social supports. I was given a speech at some school a couple years ago and a young gal walked up to the microphone and said, hey, Michael, I just wanna thank you for speaking out on the trans issue. Because I suffered from gender dysphoria and I thought I was the opposite sex. And I really wanted to go through the procedures and the hormones and the surgeries. And luckily I had good supportive parents and I had a good doctor who wasn't just guiding me down that path, a path that's very difficult to come back from, if possible at all. And I had a good priest and I had all of this social. And what she said was that she had undiagnosed autism. She was on the autism spectrum. And when the scientists, when the doctors started treating that issue, and there are a whole host of issues that can contribute to the gender dysphoria. She said, my gender dysphoria greatly abated. I'm in a much better place now, and I'm just so thankful that I wasn't misled in the way that all of the experts were telling us to. So I think it's a magnificent approach. Nuts and bolts. What can medical Providers, what can states, what can parents maybe whose kids are dealing with this, what can they expect from the policy change?
- [47:14]
Admiral Brian Christine
I think what they can expect is that we are offering hope in this administration and this Department of Health and Human Services. We are offering hope to these parents and we're offering the right treatment, trying to guide them toward the correct treatment for their children. One of the things that you brought up is other co occurring issues that can occur in these kids. You mentioned the autism with this one individual. You have to treat all of these things. Again, you just simply don't jump to a knife or to a syringe of chemicals to treat these kids. You treat the underlying issues, the mental health issues. You treat whatever else might be going on, whether it be autism or something else. We know that these kids, if you give them this kind of support, the vast, vast, vast majority, by the time they get into their middle or late teens, will be very comfortable in their skin. So the wrong thing is to go in and jump in with surgeries that castrate, make infertile or chemicals that do the same thing that do irreversible, irreparable and horrible harm to these kids. We're offering hope. The most important thing is, I think, Michael, is that we're offering this approach backed by science. We are being very transparent about this. We are united about this. This is critically important for President Trump and Secretary Kennedy to protect these vulnerable children. We don't look at them as pawns for warped social and political agenda. We look at them as our children, as our patients, as people who matter. We want to do the right thing. And we believe, and we know, because science backs us up, the right thing is to approach treatment the way we suggest, not operate on them, not give them chemicals.
- [48:49]
Michael Knowles
Of course, if a kid comes to a parent or to a doctor and says, you know, I think deep down I'm really an F150, you wouldn't have the doctor say, okay, well we're going to get you into the operating room and put a catalytic converter in you. That would be absurd. And yet that's the exact kind of treatment, treatment so called, that the experts under the Biden administration were pursuing. And as you point out, it's still very ideologically hot on the left. Do you. And does HHS expect pushback from the courts, any other bureaucrats, any of the usual suspects, or is the administration confident that, that they won't have many impediments to restoring some sanity to health?
- [49:31]
Admiral Brian Christine
Well, we are absolutely confident that what we are saying is right. We are absolutely confident that what we are suggesting for the best treatment for these kids is the right treatment. We have absolute confidence in that. Yes. I'm sure there are going to be detractors from the left or detractors who have their own social agenda. We're not worried about that. What we're here to do is to evangelize parents to tell them that the best way to treat their kids is with this compassionate care. So we're gonna march forward and do that because it's the right thing for our kids. It's the right thing for our country. It's the right thing for President Trump and Secretary Kennedy and for the rest of us at the Department of Health.
- [50:08]
Michael Knowles
And Human Services, Admiral, it's great. And I think for a lot of people, you know, they'll say, my goodness, you know, this is how medicine was practiced for approximately all of human history until, I don't know, 2020 or something. And so they say. It's just unbelievable that we've gotten to a place as a society where this kind of thing needs to be said and done. It just shows you how far we had degraded. The course correction is greatly welcomed. I really appreciate your efforts on this, the efforts of the entire Trump hhs, and I'm sure a lot of people are gonna be tuning in to that press conference and hearing even more details about it. Admiral, thank you so much for coming on the show.
- [50:46]
Admiral Brian Christine
Thank you, Michael. Bless you and have a very blessed Advent and Christmas.
- [50:50]
Michael Knowles
Thank you. You as well, sir. And thank you to all of you. Same message, actually, to all of you. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles Show. So I'll see you tomorrow. All of this is an illusion, an echo of a voice that has died. And soon that echo will cease.
- [51:30]
Narrator
They say that Merlin is mad. They say he was a king in Dovered, the son of a princess of lost Atlantis. They say the future and the past are known to him. That the fire and the wind tell him their secrets. That the magic of the hill folk and druids come forth at his easy command. They say he slew hundreds. Hundreds. Do you hear that? The world burned and trembled at his wrath.
- [52:11]
Michael Knowles
The Merlin died long, long before you and I were born.
- [52:17]
Narrator
Merlin. Emrys has returned to the land of the living.
- [52:22]
President Donald Trump
Vortigern is gone. Rome is gone.
- [52:26]
Michael Knowles
The Saxon is here.
- [52:29]
Narrator
Saxon Hengist has assembled the greatest war host ever seen in the island of the mighty. And before the summer is through, he means to take the throne. And he will have it if we are too busy squabbling amongst ourselves to take up arms against him. Here is your hope. A king will arise to hold all Britain in his hand. A high king who will be the wonder of the world.
- [52:54]
Admiral Brian Christine
You.
- [52:57]
Michael Knowles
To a future of peace.
- [53:01]
President Donald Trump
There'll be no peace in these lands till we are all dust. Men of the island of the mighty, you stand together.
- [53:10]
Admiral Brian Christine
You stand as Britons.
- [53:13]
Michael Knowles
You stand as warned.
- [53:17]
Narrator
Great darkness is falling upon this land. These brothers are our only hope to stand against it.
- [53:26]
Michael Knowles
Not our only hope.
- [53:28]
Narrator
They say Merlin sluice 70 men with his own hands. Like Cathay, he slew 500.
- [53:37]
Michael Knowles
No man is capable of such a thing. Immortal man.