Jacob Fry (4:38)

I never thought in a million years that we would be invaded by our own federal government. Of course, there's different perspectives when a different party gets sworn into the White House. Of course, there are different ideologies throughout America. That's part of what makes our country great. But you don't get investigated for having a different opinion. You don't have militarized troops deployed to a city for having a different perspective or because a city happened to vote for the opposite party. That may be what happens in other countries, but it doesn't happen here. Here, this is America, and we've got to be standing up for these American values.

Michael Knowles (5:22)

I totally agree, Jacob Fry. A rare moment of total agreement. Maybe there would be more moments of agreement if you spoke English more often instead of Somali. But we agree you don't get investigated by the federal government simply for having a difference of opinion. Certainly not under Trump. Maybe under Joe Biden and the Democrats you do. When The IRS is weaponized against political opponents when the DOJ and the FBI are weaponized against political opponents, when they go spy on Catholics, when they go round up people who advocate on behalf of unborn babies. That's true. But under Trump, you're right. You don't get investigated for a difference of opinion. You do get investigated for obstructing law enforcement. You do get investigated for aiding and abetting crime. You do get investigated for undermining federal law. You will get investigated for that, and you could go to jail for that. He says, look, we have different ideologies, different beliefs in America. It's part of what makes America great. That's true. That's been a feature of America from the very beginning. Doesn't mean we tolerate all ideologies, but we do embrace differences of opinion, and we deliberate and we debate and we persuade each other. Yeah, yeah. That's all great. You don't get investigated for that. That's true. You do get investigated for undermining the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. Notice what he says there at the top. This is where he let the mask slip. He said, I never thought we'd be in a position where the federal government would invade our cities. What are you talking about? The federal government has done that many times, going back to the earliest days of the country, some of the big threats against federal power, against a unified United States, going back to, I don't know, the Whiskey Rebellion, Shays Rebellion, all the way up through the. All the way up through the Civil War. Certainly. I never thought. Well, now, I say. I say Mayor Jacob Fry here of Minneapolis. I never thought I'd see this Northern Aggression coming here to undermine my state's rights, my city's rights, to fund Al Shabaab. I never thought I'd see this here. This is unconstitutional. I see. What is he talking about? Is he now making secessionist arguments? You never thought the federal government sent troops in to desegregate schools in the 1950s? What are you talking about? You didn't think the federal government had power to enforce federal law? No. You knew that. You just want to harbor illegal aliens and other foreign criminals who should not be in this country. That's what they're investigating you for. They're investigating you for things like this.

Jacob Fry (8:06)

There's little I can say again that'll make this situation better. But I do have a message for our community, for our city, for our. And I have a message for ICE to ice. Get the out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here. Your stated reason for Being in this city is to create some kind of safety and you are doing exactly the opposite.

Michael Knowles (8:34)

That's what you're being investigated for. That kind of stuff. Get the F out. You're being investigated for your cringe millennial rhetoric. You're absolutely cringe inducing dictionary. Which is typical of our generation, I should say. But it's even beyond the vulgarity. That's why you don't have the right to order out federal law enforcement carrying out federal law. You don't have the right to impede and obstruct law enforcement to harbor criminals and keep them away from the federal government when they have committed federal crimes. You don't have the right to encourage and incite people, ordinary citizens, civilians, to obstruct law enforcement. That's the kind of thing you're being investigated for. Not just Jacob Fry goes all the way to the top in Minnesota. Here's Governor Walz.

Tim Walls (9:27)

When things looked really bleak, it was Minnesota's first that held that line for the nation on that July 3, 1863. And I think now we may be in that moment that the nation's looking to us to hold the line on democracy. Order to prepare the Minnesota National Guard. We have soldiers in training and prepared to be deployed if necessary. I remind you, a warning order is a heads up for folks. And these National Guard troops are our National Guard troops. They're teachers in your community. They're business owners. They're construction professionals. They are Minnesotans. Minnesota will not allow our community to be used as a prop in a national political fight.

Michael Knowles (10:07)

Tim Walls is radical and openly radical, but he's so bumbling that he doesn't even realize he is just admitting to crimes. He's just openly committing crimes here and he's not even doing it the way he thinks he is. So he comes right out, he says, this is Civil war. This is 1863. This is civil War. Except the irony is he's pretending that he is. In the analogy to the Civil war in the 1860s, he's on the side of the Union, but he's not on the side of the Union. In this case, he would be on the side of the Confederacy because he is resisting the enforcement of federal law along with federal troops. So he says, this is just like the 1860s. First of all, you're admitting, okay, this is civil war, this is insurrection, and we're on the side of the secessionists and the insurrectionists. Why would you admit that? And then he doubles down, he says, we're calling up the National Guard and it's Minnesota National Guard, in other words, to oppose the federal troops. So, yeah, that's insurrection. And the libs tried to pretend that Granny's taking selfies in The Capitol on January 6 was insurrection for years and years and years. Now we gotta give it to him. We gotta give it to him good and hard. I'm pleased to see that the DOJ is investigating. I do have confidence that the DOJ is gonna do what's right and is gonna get all the information, all the evidence, and nail these guys. Jail time. Jail time for the insurrectionists need to have it, because Joe Biden put people who were far, far less guilty, far, far less plausibly committed insurrection in prison for years. So we gotta do it, because if we don't enforce the law, then all we're doing is getting the left riled up, and they're gonna do to us again what they have already done. If your fear is that we're gonna shatter norms or something like that, I think it's pretty clear the left already shattered all those norms. So the only question is now, are we going to hold them to account? Are we gonna hold them to their own standard? Are we going to weaken them politically in accordance with the law and justice?

Mary Margaret Olihan (12:20)

Or.

Michael Knowles (12:22)

Or are we not? Or are we just gonna rile them up and are we going to wait for the next time they take power so that they can do far worse to us? We're not just looking here at the governor and the mayor. We are also looking at Don Lemon. Don Lemon, as you know, also admitted to committing crimes on camera on Sunday. And I don't know what these. These people, they're like a moth to a flame with the attention. We were talking about it, even with the Livestream Influencer Club night that was going viral. I don't know. They all want to be on camera all the time. And they admit to things that they probably should keep private if they don't want to be prosecuted. Don Lemon admitting to conspiring with a mob that invaded a church during a worship service. And now he might be held to account, including through the Ku Klux Klan Act. We will get to that momentarily. First, I want to tell you about Ave Maria mutual funds. Go to avemariafunds.com Michael M I C H A E L I, for one, think that you should not have to compromise your beliefs when it comes to investing. Why would you put your money into companies that oppose all the stuff you fight for? That is exactly why I love our sponsor, Ave Marie Mutual Funds, and why I am proud to serve on their board. They've been around since 2001. Founded by George Schwartz, today they manage nearly $4 billion in assets with more than 100,000 shareholders. What sets them apart is simple. They refuse to invest in companies tied to abortion, pornography, embryonic stem cell research, or those supporting Planned Parenthood. Whether you are saving for retirement, your kid's education, or just want to grow your wealth responsibly, Ave Maria Mutual Funds offers a range of options so you do not have to compromise. I strongly support these guys. You ought to check them out. Learn more@avemariafunds.com Michael avemariafunds.com Michael all mutual funds are subject to market risk, including possible loss of principle. Request a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, fees, charges and expenses and other information you should read carefully and consider carefully before investing. The prospectus can be obtained by calling 1-866-283-6274 or it can be viewed at avemariafunds.com Ave Maria mutual funds are distributed by Ultimus Fund Distributors, LLC. Harmeet Dhillon, who is the number two there at DOJ, Assistant Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General. She came out very strongly discussing with Benny Johnson whether or not Don Lemon, who insists that he's merely a journalist covering the invasion of the church by the mob on Sunday, whether or not he's gonna be charged.

Harmeet Dhillon (14:56)

Yeah, the Klan act is one of the most important federal civil rights statutes and it goes back to the time when President Lincoln emancipated the slaves. And yet the Southern states, Dixiecrats mainly, were refusing to give them equal rights. In fact, that you had sheriffs and you had law enforcement harassing the newly freed slaves. So the Klan act is a law that makes it illegal to terrorize citizens, to violate their civil rights, to get together and conspire to violate the civil rights. Some of these folks who did this have, have self identified. Don Lemon himself has come out and said he knew exactly what was going to happen inside that facility. He went into the facility and then he began, quote, unquote, committing journalism. And as if that's sort of a shield from being a part, an embedded part of a criminal conspiracy. It isn't. Everyone in the protest community needs to know that the fullest force of the federal government is going to come down and, and prevent this from happening and put people away for a long, long time.

Michael Knowles (16:01)

Terrific. That's great. Obviously has to happen. What the mob did was obviously in violation, as Harmeet mentions of the Ku Klux Klan act of 1871 as well, as of the FACE act, which is a much more modern act which exists really just to protect abortion mills from people demonstrating or praying outside of them. But as a little fig leaf, they gave to the conservatives to pass it, they said, look, okay, we'll protect. Will protect the abortion mills, which is the church of the left, and we'll also protect the churches, which is the church of the right. So, yes, this is really all about the abortion mills, but in order to get some votes to pass it, okay, fine, we'll also protect the churches and stop people from demonstrating at the churches. But they never do that. Really. It's really just about protecting the abortion mills. So in any case, they have a good case here, especially against Don Lemon. Because Don Lemon says, I'm just committing an act of journalism. I'm just a real shoe leather journalist covering this event. But that's not true at all. It's not that some event happened, and then Don Lemon showed up and said, I'm here at the scene. I'm Don Lemon, fired from CNN on, you know, lemonparty.com or whatever, I don't know, whatever his new news website is. And so, hi, this is what's happening. And we're learning all the facts right now. That's not what he did. He rides up with these guys. He says, ooh, I know a secret. I know what we're about to do, but I can't tell you yet. But just you wait and see. Admitting that he is conspiring with them, not merely even to demonstrate, but to break the law. And then there are videos going around. He's giving him coffee and donuts afterward. He's working with these guys. And then he thinks he's being real cute and clever. He says, but I'm a journalist. Hold on, wait. Put the coffee and donuts away. Forget about that stuff I said about knowing the secret and planning with these people. Now I've got my journalist out. I'm a journalist. That doesn't work. You can't, like, go out and murder your wife and then say, oh, I'm a journalist. No, hold on. No, you don't understand. You. You can't arrest me. I'm a journalist. I'm just covering this murder. No, you committed the crime, and then just like, talking about it on camera does not absolve you of the crime. Anyway, Lemon's gotta go to prison. He's gotta go to prison. He is daring the government to throw him in prison. That's what this is all about. Yeah, come and get me. Yeah, you Gonna do it? Yeah. You think you're tough, punk? That's what he's doing. That's why he's doing all of this on camera one after his CNN firing. I think he wants some attention and he wants some money. I'm sure all of that's. But as a political act, he's daring the government to enforce the law. He's trying to humiliate the government because he thinks that they're too chicken to do it. The government has to prove him wrong. Okay, speaking of the Ku Klux Klan, you know, yesterday was Martin Luther King Day, and I didn't see a ton of people talking about it. A little bit. A little bit, people. But first of all, I'm still salty because DW did not give us the day off. The secular saint of the liberal liturgical calendar. A lot of the country gets a day off. We didn't have the day off. But I've noticed, having observed the major solemnity of Dr. King since I was a child, I noticed it's a little less robust in its festivities. As time goes on, people, I don't know, people just don't seem to care that much. The libs were pouncing on Trump yesterday because they said Trump did not issue a Martin Luther King proclamation. And these articles hit the news. But then you click on the article and it said, here is what Trump said about Martin Luther King. And the White House did. They didn't do it first thing in the morning. So then the libs said, ah, see, he hates civil rights, so he's not. But broadly speaking, I don't see the kind of fervor and excitement for Martin Luther King that I did 10, 20 years ago. And I think that's to be expected. I'm not an MLK hater. I know there are people on the right actually on the left too, but there are people on the right who are big MLK haters who, when Charlie Kirk actually was quite anti mlk, quite publicly anti mlk. And I see the reasons for it because Martin Luther King is presented as this Reverend, this Christian leader, but he didn't believe in the most fundamental aspects of Christianity. He didn't believe in the Trinity. He didn't believe in the divinity of Christ. I don't think he even necessarily believed in the virgin birth. So he didn't. Now, again, you could say the same thing about many of our founding fathers. So this is one of the reasons I'm not a huge MLK hater. To call him a Christian is kind of silly. He didn't believe in the central mysteries of the Christian faith, but his view on the Christian faith was basically the same as John Adams. And I like John Adams, so I'm not gonna knock Martin Luther King for that. As a political matter. Then people point out Martin Luther King, he was an adulterer. I think the FBI has it on file that he observed a rape and laughed about it, didn't intervene. So, you know, he had a messy personal life. And, oh, yeah, that's true. So some people, they say, well, this guy, he was the worst. And we hate Martin Luther King. I'm not a Martin Luther King hater in the sense that he was a good writer. He plagiarized his thesis. So even when you call him Dr. King, he did plagiarize his thesis. I get. What I'm saying is I get why people aren't all that into Martin Luther King, but I'm not a big Martin Luther King hater because as a symbol, he stood for something admirable. And really what it comes down to is not the personal life of the man. It's not his academic work, such as it is. Letter from Birmingham Jail is a powerful, powerful document, but it's really the I have a Dream speech. The King legacy boils down to I have a Dream speech. And so the reason that I think Martin Luther King is much less important now than he was 20 years ago is the left just openly rejects that. The idea that you won't be judged on the color of your skin, but on the content of your character, the left openly rejects that. And Martin Luther King, who is a figure of the left. I know we sometimes claim him as a Republican. He was a socialist. He was a figure of the left. The left now would reject a lot of what he's famous for. But because the left rejects that, the right has to view it as utopian. Because the abstract legacy of Martin Luther King is the I have a Dream speech. It's like one speech that he gave. He gave other speeches where he was more identitarian, more socialist, but that's the big famous one. And the practical legacy is all the civil rights legislation, which does not live up to the I have a Dream speech. The civil rights legislation, which boils down to reverse discrimination, largely discrimination against white people or against Asian people, which boils down to. It's just not I have a Dream. It's not, you're judged on the content of your character. It is, you're judged on the color of your skin. And so because the concrete legacy doesn't live up to the abstract legacy. And because half the country, the American left, rejects the abstract legacy, even in principle. He's just not gonna be one of these enduring figures. The reason is not because he had a messy personal life. All figures in history have messy personal lives, some more than others. But they become heroes of history or secular saints because of legends about them, because of what they represent. The problem is harder for Martin Luther King because what he represents is now rejected by half the country. And when it was put into concrete political practice, it failed. That's the problem. So I don't know what comes next. Probably not Malcolm X Day, Ibram Kendi Day, Robin d' Angelo Day. I don't know. I don't know. In any case, I had to go to work yesterday and I'm still salty about it. Now we will get to more racial politics cuz Michelle Obama is going off about how she prefers black owned brands to other brands. But before we get to that, I want to tell you about Preborn. Go to Preborn.comKnowles There is new research that reveals something heartbreaking. More than 7 million American women are dealing with severe, long lasting emotional pain after having an abortion. Grief, flashbacks, a deep regret that goes on and on and on for many. Our sponsors at Preborn see this suffering up close every day in the thousands of clinics they support across the country. Here's the good news. There is hope. It starts with something really powerful. 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It's £250 keyword baby or go to preborn.comknowles preborn.com knowles I am very excited right now. Before we get to Michelle Obama, any opportunity to put off talking about Michelle Obama. We are joined by the Daily Wire's very own Mary Margaret Olihan, a star of Washington, D.C. a frequent visitor to the halls of power, who is coming to us now at or around the White House, I think, telling us about Trump's first year in office. Mary Margaret, thank you for being here.

Mary Margaret Olihan (25:42)

Thanks for having me.

Michael Knowles (25:44)

Good to see you. You're physically frozen on my screen, but at least I can hear you. Where are you right now? I'm trying to make out what room that is.

Mary Margaret Olihan (25:51)

I am in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. You've been here, I know, for interviews with Trump officials. That's where I am today. And we are right across the street from the White House.

Michael Knowles (26:01)

Marvelous. So, Mayor Margaret, we're just talking about how people didn't remember there was Martin Luther King Day yesterday. And I think a lot of people don't realize it's the first year of Trump. This is the trumpiversary right now. And you're getting, obviously, you get all the criticism from the left that he's Hitler or whatever, but there is criticism from the right that's come against the Trump administration. A lot of it, I think, very unfair. But the criticism basically saying, well, Trump hasn't lived up to his promises, he didn't do what we wanted him to do. Again, I find it cynical and opportunistic. But what's the takeaway? What's the summary? What, you know, now we gotta take score. It's been one year. What do you do? Do we lose it? We lost. Mary Margaret. Well, one. Listen, one thing I will agree with the critics on is that the White House could improve its WI fi. It could. You know, I've been to the White House a number of times, and the WI fi is a little spotty. The cell phone connection is spotty. I think it's probably for security reasons. Mary Margaret, we have you back.

Mary Margaret Olihan (26:59)

I am back. I'm so sorry about that. I totally agree with you, Michael. I know you're saying that some people are concerned about what has done so far, but I'd argue that if you look at the past year and all of the things that the administration has started to check off its list, it's a pretty good amount of things. For a first year in office, Trump campaigned on immigration, he campaigned on fixing the border, he campaigned on fixing the economy, on keeping our city safe. And a lot of those things have, in fact, been coming to pass. If you look at how he's cleaned up Washington, D.C. for example, how the border literally has been closed the entire year, the amount of on deportations that are taking place. I know there's people that want there to be more, but a lot took place this year. If you look at the ICE enforcement activities, his foreign policy, and he'll tell you himself, and he's told me and others many times, he's ended eight wars across the world, maybe nine and maybe more. He's strong armed and shown the world how he means what he says when it comes to people like Nicolas Maduro. He's, he's shown us all over the world that when he threatens, he means what he says. And Rubio has emphasized this, but now the rest of the world understands this as well. And then if you think about, I mean, Michael, the things that we have talked about, you and I, Matt, Ben, everyone at the company for years now, the culture wars, keeping men out of women's sports, protecting children from gender transition procedures, bringing pro lifers who were imprisoned for protesting outside of abortion clinics, all of those things were semi rectified in the first month and a half of his administration. So we did a big story on this last night and this morning for Daily Wire and kind of laid out the picture of all the things the president has done in the last year. And it is no small thing. So, you know, absolutely, there are things that his supporters want him to continue to do. Absolutely. There are things that many on the right want him to improve on. One thing is abortion, which I know you and I have talked about. Many on the right have talked about. There's many who want to see him improve his protections for the unborn. But he's kicked off with a pretty good start, a very legacy building start. And his critics would tell you that they're very upset with this first year. And I think that's a good sign.

Michael Knowles (29:09)

That's a great point. You know, one rule of thumb is the way you want to judge the success of a political campaign is how angry your opponents are. And the left is apoplectic right now. It's funny, even as you're running through the litany of successes, the cleaning up of Washington, D.C. i had totally forgotten about that one. I'm in Washington, D.C. all the time. I fly in there quite frequently. And it's, I mean, it's just unbelievable how far that city had fallen. And that's just a minor point on the deportations. I think you're right. You know, there are some who are really trying to downplay claiming that Trump's only deported two or three hundred thousand people, the same number or less than Obama. The Obama numbers are cooked because the Obama numbers include turnaways at the border. But even by the formal figures, you got over half a million deportations. Plus from the center for Immigration Studies and from the Labor Department, you see the number of people who have left just by self deportation. So it's potentially up to like 2 million illegal aliens. I think Trump even claims it's more than that. So that's a huge number. And then even just sealing the border, we were told in the waning days of Biden that he really wanted to seal the border, but he needed some new legislation to do it. And that dastardly Trump was calling Republican lawmakers and telling them not to support his beautiful legislation to close the border. So his hands were tied and the border was open. And then what happens? Trump comes in and just immediately shuts off the border, and you realize, oh, that was all just a bunch of lies from Biden. They did not need any new legislation whatsoever. You see the same point on tariffs. They said, oh, the tariffs are gonna destroy the economy. It was gonna be awful. They were gonna be inflationary. What happened? The opposite happened. The tariffs were totally fine. US Economic growth outperformed, and the tariffs actually ended up being deflationary. So it just. I don't know. To me, I'm not saying it's all perfect and tickety boo. There's a lot more to go. We were in a very deep hole. But broadly speaking, not just because I have affection for the guy in the administration, it seems as though the admin has outperformed expectations. Am I being too rosy?

Mary Margaret Olihan (31:11)

No, I would argue that you are completely on point, Michael. And look, a year ago, right before Trump took office, we still had Biden as president. There were so many Americans who were in jail over their political beliefs. That alone is a massive difference. And now you're seeing that the president freed all of them pretty much immediately. And just that alone is a massive, massive difference from the past administration. You no longer are seeing weaponization of the doj, against school parents, against Latin Mass Catholics, against people who don't want their children transitioned, against people who spoke out against child transition, against people who spoke out against the Biden DOJ and FBI. So there's so many people who are no longer in danger because of this presidency. And that alone, like I was saying, is a massive difference. But then if you think about Americans all over the country who are actually proud of this administration, they're proud of our foreign policy, they're proud of our posturing, now our military is cleaned up. There's no longer woke ideology at the Department of War. Pete Hagseth is telling the generals to be fit, not fat. I mean, it's just a complete culture change for the past year. And I think that's. That's very evident when you look, when Americans look around at the country that they've been living in. Obviously there's more changes people want to see. Obviously, people want their grocery bills to be smaller, they want to pay less at the gas pump. These are things that are going to be ongoing and the president is promising that he's going to fix them, but they're coming down the pipe. That's what we believe. And, you know, these tariffs, we've been told not to be panicking. We'll see. We'll see how things, how prices are lowered and where the President takes things. But, you know, if you look at this on its face, I think Trump is happy with what he's done, and I think the rest of the administration is as well.

Michael Knowles (32:54)

Yeah, I agree. Even you mentioned the freeing of the pro lifers. I mean, they're like pro life Catholic grandmothers who were in prison, political prisoners under Joe Biden. They were freed. I mean, that alone. And I had forgotten about it. And that's an issue I care about a lot. You think about drug overdose deaths just dropping consistently last year. You think about rents falling four months, year over year. I don't know. You know, it's funny. Thank you for this pep talk, Mary Margaret, because I broadly, I think it's been a successful first year, but I had forgotten even a lot of the highlights. And it drives me nuts. It drives me nuts when people from the sidelines start throwing popcorn, you know, and just whining and complaining when you think this. People just don't appreciate how awful this could have been. They don't understand what a precipice we were at and what a Kamala presidency would've looked like. Anyway, I'll let you get back to it. Please give my regards to all of our friends down there in the swampland. And I'll see you next time you're out here or I'm out there.

Mary Margaret Olihan (33:53)

Stay soon.

Michael Knowles (33:54)

Good to see you. Okay. All right, back to how bad things could have been. Cause I wanna talk about Michelle Obama. Folks, it is here. What day is it? We're two days away. Very, very exciting. The Pendragon cycle. Rise of the Merlin is coming. This is Daily Wire's most ambitious project by far. Like, by an order of magnitude, at least. Multiple continents. An amazing story, a deeply Christian story, deeply mired in history and legend. Think of before King Arthur, Camelot, the Knights of the Roundtable. It's just terrific. I just love that this is the project that we are launching massive premium entertainment on. It just came out magnificently. It's beautiful. You need to see it. Which means you need to be a Daily Wire member. Right now, you get 35% off an annual Daily Wire membership, or I'm pleased to announce, you can grab The Pendragon Pass, three months of DailyWire plus for just 30 bucks. That gives you one month absolutely free. With the Pendragon Pass, you will also receive exclusive Pendragon collectible cards and automatic entry to win a trip for two to Budapest. It's one of the primary filming locations of the series. I actually flew out there for a separate reason right when Pendragon was getting started. It's one of my favorite cities in the world. Go to DailyWirePlus.com right now. Be there when episodes one and two of the Pendragon cycle rise in the Merlin. Premiere Thursday exclusively on Dailywire. My favorite comment yesterday is from Joe Rjoe U60, who says lemon said, don't push me after he storms the church with protesters.

Tim Walls (35:18)

Yep.

Michael Knowles (35:19)

What Don Lemon did was the equivalent of going up to that pastor, grabbing his wrist, hitting him with it in the face and saying, hey, stop punching yourself. Stop punching yourself. Why are you punching yourself? Come on. Why are you doing that? It was so not only childish, but in Lemon's case, actually criminal. And he needs to put on an orange jumpsuit and rot in prison. Who know, maybe I like prison. I don't know. Let's turn to Michelle Obama. Michelle Obama has just gone viral on Martin Luther King day of all days for arguing. Well, I'll tell you the description. This is what she went viral for. You tell me if what she says matches the viral description. The description for which she went viral was Michelle Obama tells people not to shop at white owned brands. Now, you tell me if what she said matches that description.

Michelle Obama (36:10)

If I hear of someone whose fashion that I like, and I know that they're a person of color, I try to make it a point, but the.

Michael Knowles (36:18)

Clothes have to be available.

Michelle Obama (36:20)

You know, I think we can all do some work to think about that balance in our wardrobe. You know, what does our closet look like and who's in it? Who are we supporting in it? You know, And I think if you have the money to buy Chanel, then you have the money to buy everybody.

Mary Margaret Olihan (36:39)

Right.

Michelle Obama (36:40)

And so let us be mindful, I think would be my advice. Yeah.

Tim Walls (36:46)

Okay.

Michael Knowles (36:47)

So actually, at A superficial glance, just hearing what she says verbatim. I think you would have to say that that description is not fair. Cuz nowhere does she explicitly say don't shop at white owned brands. Nowhere does she say shop at black owned brands, not white owned brands. That's not fair. In defense of Michelle. I don't defend Michelle Obama a lot, but that's not explicitly what she said. She said, yeah, if I see a black owned brand and I like their stuff, I'll choose the black owned brand. But she stops herself. She doesn't say and I won't buy. She doesn't say I only do it because it's the black owned brand. She says if I like their stuff. Well yeah, if you like their stuff and you have the money, probably you will buy it. But she injects this racial thing. She says, and if it's black, then I especially want to buy it. And if you have the money to buy Chanel, not a black owned brand, I take it, I guess I don't really know the corporate structure of Chanel, but assuming it's not, if you have the money to buy Chanel, you have the money to buy. And she stops herself. She doesn't say the black owned brand. She says everybody. Well, hold on. What she's doing here is she's trying to privilege the black owned brand. She wants to be a racial identitarian when it comes to the positive of buying, of supporting the business. But she stops short of being a racial identitarian when it comes to not shopping at the other places. She doesn't say don't shop at the white brands. She says you need to shop at the black brands and everybody, you need to shop at the black brands, but maybe not less at the white brands. You have. It's this gobbledygoop. Which is why ultimately I think that the description of the video is fair. It just, it doesn't totally. See, it's like the IQ bell curve meme. It's like it starts out, she says don't shop at white stores. And actually she said to shop at black stores, but to also shop at white stores. Actually she said to shop less at white stores because her minor premise here is wrong. She said if you have the money to buy Chanel, you have the money to buy everybody. That's not true because money is a finite resource. Just because you have the money to afford one expensive brand doesn't mean you have infinite money. And furthermore, even if you did have infinite money, you have finite closet space, you have a finite Number of dresses you're gonna wear. You have finite number of days of the week where you're gonna wear the dresses. This is the problem with the whole diversity ideology is if you privilege one thing, you are necessarily disadvantaging another. This is the problem with affirmative action is we all say, oh, it's great, we should help out black people. We say, that's great. Who doesn't want to help out? I mean, I guess there are a small number of people who don't want to help out black people. But I for one, let me speak for the majority of Americans. Yes, it would be great to help out black people. Let's help out black people. But affirmative action in practice means there's a finite number of spots at the university, there's a finite number of jobs that you can fill. So when you give an advantage to black people simply for being black, you are necessarily disadvantaging, discriminating against, on the basis of race, white people or Asian people. In the case of college admissions. And so there's an injustice that comes with that too. When you say, I'm gonna shop at the black brand, you are necessarily saying at the margin case, the last dress you can fit in your closet, you are necessarily saying, I will not shop at the white brand. I will choose not. Even if I like the dress, I will choose not to go into that shop because that person is white. I will discriminate against that person strictly on the basis of that person's race. That's what Michelle Obama's saying. She's saying it without saying it. She doesn't really wanna go all the way. But there is no other conclusion to reach from her premises. That's the problem. This is the issue. I mean, this ties in directly with why people don't really talk about MLK as much anymore. Part of it is that the left rejects him because he was too conciliatory and egalitarian in some of his speeches. But the other reason is the practical politics doesn't match the reality. I have a dream that one day we'll all be judged on the content of our character and okay, say his successors. In order to achieve that dream, we need things like affirmative action, we need things like the diversity ideology, we need things like dei, but then in practice, that simply undermines the premise of the speech. We're gonna judge white people on the color of their skin. And taken to its extreme, we're gonna try to abolish whiteness or not shop at white owned businesses. Which means that even if you Agree with the premise of the Martin Luther King speech. You're totally undermining it with the practical implications, the practical consequences of that speech. So for Michelle Obama, I don't begrudge her shopping at the black owned business. Exactly. But if you're gonna. I guess my message to Michelle Obama is if you're gonna say it, say it with your whole chest. Go out and go. Actually finish the sentence. You should shop at the black businesses. And again, let's look at the board of directors, let's look at the stakeholders. Are we gonna look at, is it 50% plus one is black, then you can shop there. If it's 50% minus one, then it's white or not black. And then you can't. I don't know how to calculate it, but whatever it is, say it with your whole chest. Say shop at the black businesses, don't shop at the white businesses if that's what you want. And if not, then buy the dress you like. But she's not going there. Speaking of the nasty implications of leftist politics, a lot of us, even social conservatives such as myself and many of you would say, well, we ought to be nice to people who have kind of weird sexual hangups. We ought to be nice to them. We ought to be inclusive in as much as justice permits. We would all. I think we say, I certainly say that. But the problem is the practical implications of those inclusive policies result in a lot of injustice. Here's a video that was going viral of an Irish teacher being arrested after he was fired for refusing to embrace the transgender pronouns.

George Brian Krieger (43:10)

George Brian Krieger knew what would happen today. This is insanity.

Michael Knowles (43:16)

Power.

George Brian Krieger (43:16)

It is abusive power. You're working transgender. It's illegal school in the country, workplaces, businesses. And he's abusing his power. Working government will not accept transgenderism. That's what he's doing.

Michael Knowles (43:37)

Well dressed guy.

George Brian Krieger (43:40)

Abuse of power. Absolutely insanity. Absolute insanity. What's happening here at Wilson. Every boy and girl and man and woman forcing transgenderism on them. Nobody accepts this. They don't believe this. People don't want to be told what to believe in, what they must believe in. They don't believe.

Michael Knowles (43:57)

Then the cops roll up the window and they just drive away. Now, I think this was taken. He had already been fired. He was fired. He was by all accounts a good teacher. He was fired because he wouldn't call boys girls and girls boys. He was fired for this. And he returns to his place of employment. They arrest him for it. His place of employment, his former place of employment. I don't know, but this is the consequence of that. And it's funny, someone made the observation, I forget who it was. One of the good Twitter accounts, though, made the observation that America's an empire. And the Western countries, including Ireland, France, continental Europe, all these, they're our vassals, you know, they're kind of our colonies overseas. And so sometimes what happens in America takes a little while to trickle down there. And sometimes we move past these fads while these other colonies formerly known as the sovereign nations of Europe and Western civilization, that they get them long after we even discard them. So transgenderism feels like it's kind of over here. The left ideologically still has to hold onto it, but they realize it's a total loser politically. But even after we think we're past the peak of woke, which was maybe 2022, 2023, it's still peaking over in these other places. You're seeing that now. And it's actually helpful for us because the fever has passed for a lot of us, but we can see it play out with a little bit more, I don't know of a dispassionate view of it. And you see just how crazy it all was. And you see the implications of all politics, I guess, is what the left presents, is this limitless vision of politics. We can be whatever we wanna be, we can do whatever we wanna do, and it's all upside and no downside. But in real politics, there's pretty much always an upside and a downside because real politics exists in the real world, which has limits, which is finite, which takes place in nations, borders. So when you privilege people for being black just for being black, you necessarily disadvantage people on the basis of their race just for being white or just for being Asian. You can't have one without the other. In the imaginary liberal fever dream utopia, you can have one without the other. But in reality, which is constrained by logic and time and space, you can. In the liberal fever dream utopia, we can indulge in all sorts of Humpty Dumpty word redefinition so that we just let people be whatever they want to be in a different sex or whatever. But in the finite practical world, you have to enforce limits such that if you don't buy into the utopian ideology, you lose your job and maybe you get arrested. There's a return of limits. I think that's what we're recognizing that's been one of the big takeaways from the first year of Trump, is that one limits can be restored. That was an Open question at the end of Biden, can limits be restored? Can we have a border? Biden openly said, we cannot have a border unless you pass new legislation which would have given amnesty and would have been a disaster. We cannot have a border under current conditions. And Trump said, we can, we can, we cannot arrest criminals in the streets. Trump comes in. He says, we can, we cannot try to gain advantages in trade. We are simply slaves to the global market and international institutions. Trump says, no, we can, we can use protective tariffs. We can renegotiate trade. We can, we can impose limits. We can oust a dictator in Venezuela. We can stop the Iranian nuclear program or halt the Iranian nuclear program, delay it. We can, we can, we can, we can actually say no, stop limits. And not only can we, but the second conclusion is things really improve when we do that. Things really improve, like, fast, like even I have here. This is what is ABC News. I think it's ABC. Yeah. US overdose deaths fell through most of 2025 rents. I mentioned it to Mary Margaret. Rents decline four months in a row, year over year. The tariffs end up totally outperforming expectations, doing the opposite of what most of the economists feared. GDP outperforms. Not only can we impose these limits, they can have real political effects pretty quickly. Good conclusion for a first year. Okay, today's Tee Hee Tuesday. The rest of the show continues now. You do not want to miss it. Become a member. Use code Knowles, Canada. To be released at checkout for two months, free on all annual plans.

Characters from The Pendragon Cycle (fictional voices) (48:55)

What was it like, Marlon, to be alone with God? Is that who you think I was alone with? I knew your father.

Michael Knowles (49:12)

I am yet convinced that he was not of this world.

Characters from The Pendragon Cycle (fictional voices) (49:18)

All men know of the great Taliesin.

Michael Knowles (49:21)

You are my father.

Characters from The Pendragon Cycle (fictional voices) (49:22)

That the gods should war for me.

Michael Knowles (49:24)

My soul.

Characters from The Pendragon Cycle (fictional voices) (49:25)

Princess Garrus, savior of our people. I know what the bull God offered you. I was offered the same. And there is a new power at work in the world. I've seen it. A God who sacrifices what he loves for us.

Michael Knowles (49:44)

We are each given only one life. Singer.

Characters from The Pendragon Cycle (fictional voices) (49:47)

No, we're given another. I learned of Yazu, the Christ. And I have become his follower.

Tim Walls (49:56)

He's waiting on a miracle.

Michael Knowles (49:57)

And I think you can give him one.

Characters from The Pendragon Cycle (fictional voices) (49:59)

Trust in Yezu. He is the only hope for men like us. Fate of Britain ever rests in the hands of the great light. Great light, Great darkness. Such things mattered to me then. What matters to you now? Mistress of lies, you, nephew. The sword of a high king. How many lives must be lost before you accept the power you were born to wield.

Mary Margaret Olihan (50:32)

So.

Characters from The Pendragon Cycle (fictional voices) (50:32)

Clinging to the promises of a God who has abandoned you. I cannot take up that sword again. You know what you must do. Great life, forgive me. The time has come to be reborn.