A (8:23)
not, for the sake of the credibility of the court, I hope that the senators would vote against him. How the turntables. My, oh, my, how the turntables. Is that how the expression goes? Swalwell, one of the leaders here, along with you heard him reference Michael Avenatti. That was the other one. You remember him? He was the man, he was known as the creepy porn lawyer. He represented Stormy Daniels. Then it turned out he was a fraudster. He was robbing his own porn star client, blind, totally dishonest lawyer. Avenatti went down some years ago. Now Swalwell says these victims deserve to be heard. We need to air it all out. Not only are there allegations, there's video. I won't even play you the whole video, but you can see a little bit of it in the B roll. This is Eric Swalwell on what seems like a hotel room bed, I don't know, with some kind of hooker looking lady, I don't know, with other guys and girls in the room kissing this woman. Not good. Not good. Swalwell's been married for 10 years. Very sad. He has a bunch of kids, so, you know, we should pray for the family. It's very unfortunate. This guy obviously has no self control. No surprise there. He's bit of a doofus, that one. A reminder of one eternal maxim. The male feminists are always the biggest predators. Always, all the time. I remember one time when I was in college, this was at the beginning of the Title IX investigations, which actually started at my school. And then it kind of spread around the country. This idea that American campuses are rape cultures and women are less safe on Harvard Yard than they are in the back alleys of Botswana. It was all these girls talking about the rape culture. And it was very interesting. Some friends and I had a conversation one day with one of our real feminist friends on campus. Super Lib hated all of our politics. And he said, are you kidding me? You think this is a rape culture? What are you talking about? And she said, you know, it's not you guys. It's not the conservatives. It's not the right wingers generally. I mean, everyone's a little irresponsible on college campuses. But this issue here is not the conservatives. It's the liberal guys. It's the male feminists. They're the ones, the ones who say women need to be empowered and casual sex is empowering and men should never take any special care of women, and chivalry is bogus and ridiculous. Come on, girl. Let's empower yourself by sleeping with me so that I can just discard you the next day. It was plenty of blame to go around, but it was mostly the liberal guys. It was mostly the male feminist guys. It's always those male feminist guys. So what was this guy doing? I think it was Michael Tracy, the kind of liberal journalist who came out and said, you know, look, these girls who are claiming rape, I don't really buy it, because some of the staffers who are claiming this about Eric Swalwell, you know, they engaged in sexting with him, and they had long sex standing sexual relationships with him. And they say, you know, they got drunk one night and slept with him, but then they kept hanging out with him, and they kept seeing him multiple times. And this doesn't really sound like rape. And so this isn't really sexual misconduct because it's consenting adults. And the point here is, one, the women are saying, well, I was too drunk to consent. But even beyond that, I think the reason that you've seen a lot of the MeToo arguments center around this notion that women, even if they seem to consent or not really consenting, is because we all realize that there is more to misconduct than just consent or lack thereof. We all know that. We all know that there are things that ostensibly consenting adults can do that are still wrong. We all know that. But the liberal morality tells us we can't admit that. The liberal morality tells us that the source and summit of all morality is just consent. And that raises legitimate questions about consent. Can people really consent if they're drunk? No. Can people really consent if they're underage? We were told that kids could consent to transgender. Therapies and surgeries. But kids can't consent. That's why we have an age of consent, which is not for kids. Can people. I'll go further. Can people really consent if they're addicts? No. We would say no. He couldn't control himself. That's just his condition. He has the disease of alcoholism or drug addiction or sex addiction. Could Eric Swalwell really consent? Could he control himself? No, he obviously can't control himself. Does that let him off the hook? It obviously doesn't let him off the hook because there is more to morality than consent and because freedom. This is a point I come back to again and again. Freedom is not, as the liberals would have it, neutrality and choosing. I could pick this, I could pick that. Freedom, rather, is willing. It's the ability to will, to pursue your desires predicated on knowledge. Which is why if your will is messed up, like, for instance, if you're an addict, you can't really consent. And if you're ignorant, you just don't know what you're choosing. You also can't really consent. So what's the misconduct here? Well, I think we would at least say that a member of Congress has a greater degree of power than his staffers. And a member of Congress who's hitting on his staffers, who's asking his staffers to have sex with him, even if the staffers say they want to go along with it, that's misconduct. That's not appropriate. That would be disqualifying. Cheating on your wife. Probably not appropriate, right? Probably. That counts as misconduct. Doing this for years and years and years while you are a hypocrite on television, going after Brett Kavanaugh for nothing. Not good misconduct. Hypocrisy is the only other slight caveat to liberal morality. It's all about consent. But hypocrisy is a big point there, too. This is why Norm MacDonald, he had this great bit. It's kind of a sad story with Bill Cosby doing all the creepy sex stuff. And they said, you know, someone told me that the worst part about the Cosby scenario is the hypocrisy. But I don't think that's the worst part. I think it's the raping. I think hypocrisy, the raping, the scheming, the drugging. Hypocrisy is pretty low down on the list. So all weekend, people say, is Swalwell gonna drop out? Is he not gonna drop out? Republicans jumping on, making fun of Swalwell. I was making fun of Swalwell. Everybody was doing it. What's he gonna do? And is that actually good for Republicans? We'll get to that in a second. First, I wanna tell you about Hillsdale College. Go to Hillsdale Edu Knowles K W L E S. You do not need to be Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg or Winston Churchill rallying a nation to make a powerful point. You just need to know how to use your words. The truth is, language is one of the best tools that we have. When you learn to wield it well, it can move minds, shape culture, and even change history. If you've ever wanted to sharpen your ability to think clearly, speak persuasively, and argue with precision rather than mere passion, Hillsdale College has you covered with their brand new course, Classical logic and Rhetoric. You don't see a lot of these classes anymore. I was very lucky. There's a very small seminar when I was in college on oratory and statecraft. They used to teach this. This was part of the trivium, part of medieval education, ancient education. But it's fallen by the wayside. Hillsdale's brought it back. One of their leading professors is leading this completely free online course that walks you through the tools of sound reasoning and rhetoric, the same skills that form the backbone of every good debate in every civilized society. Once you're in, you'll find Hillsdale offers 40 other courses for free. Everything from the book of Genesis to how the Allies won World War II, the fall of the Roman republic, the American founding, the Constitution. It's really, really great. I just love Hillsdale. I've been honored to do some work with Hillsdale over the years, including a new series that they've got coming out soon. Go right now to Hillsdale Edu Knowles to enroll. No cost, easy to get started. Hillsdale Edu knles to enroll for free. Last night, 7:36pm Eric Swalwell posts. I am suspending my campaign for governor. Oh, man, they got him. The illegal residency. He was gonna just knuckle through it. White knuckle through it. Then the payouts to his wife from the campaign. Very corrupt. He was gonna get through this one. They got him. I said it to sweet little Lisa after like the third woman came out. I said, they got him. They got him. Dead to right. They already had him. I'm suspending my campaign for governor. To my family, staff, friends and supporters. I am deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I've made in my past. In my past, by the way, not being 20, 30, 40 years ago, my past in this case Being like yesterday. And then he concludes, I will fight the serious false allegations that have been made. But that's my fight, not a campaign's. In other words, let me translate that for you. I'm dropping out of the governor's race. I'm deeply sorry for all the things I didn't do. What a joke. What a joke. This goofball at the end of his political career can't even make a coherent statement. This guy, he's been in politics his whole life. He's accomplished precisely nothing. He's humiliated himself. He's humiliated his family and friends. He's out. And he still doesn't understand the basics of logic or the English language. Now he gives himself a little out. I should be fair. He says, I will fight the serious false allegations that have been made. He doesn't say, all of the allegations are false. He doesn't say, I will fight all of these allegations. He says, I'll fight the serious false allegations that have been made. All of the allegations, it would seem, are true. There's a lot of evidence for all of them. He slept with his staff. He cheated on his wife. He hung out in hotel rooms with hookers or whatever. There's a video that appears to show that. But I don't know. Maybe at some point someone called Swalwell late for dinner. I don't know. And maybe at some point, they said Swalwell was wearing a blue shirt, he was really wearing a white shirt, and that. So there could be a minor false allegation there, but pathetic. Really pathetic. Now, why is he quitting in this way? I'm quitting. I'm really sorry for all the things that you've now seen, not only alleged, but on video, but I didn't actually do them. The reason he's quitting in this way and the reason this is bad for Republicans is because he's gonna quit the race for governor. He says, look, I'm totally unqualified to be governor. I'm unfit as a matter of morality and my character. I do not deserve the public trust to be governor, but I will remain in Congress. Look, I know that Congress doesn't have the best reputation right now or ever, really. But how is it that you do not have the character for the public to trust you to be governor, but you're totally fine to remain in Congress? Well, I'll tell you why. Because it would be very bad for the Democrats to kick Swalwell out of Congress. So they're going to try to avoid doing it. But it's Very good for Democrats for him to drop out of the governor's race. And you know why? You know what this is really all about. Let me see a lot of headlines here today to pick through. Here it is. This from April 9th. It's from governing.com, but it's backed up in a lot of other polls and outlets. Top three candidates in the California governor's race. You got two Republicans up there. Polls show some Democrats in a large primary field gaining support. But if the election were held today, two Republicans would likely advance to the runoffs, shutting Democrats out. So there's so many Democrats running for California governor that they're splitting up the Democrat vote. Also, Democrats under Gavin Newsom have so destroyed California that even in California, voters are looking to Republicans right now. And. And because of the way the California electoral system works, if the race were held right now, a Republican would win. That's what this is about. That's all that this is about. This has nothing to do with sexual misconduct. This has everything to do with Democrats losing power. So the Democrats came in and they said, sorry, Swalwell, you're out. People have known. I was talking to some friends of mine in Congress. People have known these stories about Swalwell forever. In fact, you had some Democrats, as they were pulling their endorsements from him over the weekend, saying, you know, I knew about these rumors, and I asked Swalwell about it. I said, do you think this is gonna hurt your chances at governor? He said, no, it's no big deal. Don't worry. We'll get through them. And he would have gotten through. If the top two guys in the Republican poll, in the California governor polls right now were not Republicans, not one Democrat would have said, peep about this. This guy would be governor of California. This is entirely, entirely about power. So the only thing Republicans can do now is try to force a vote to kick Swalwell out of Congress. If he doesn't have the integrity, which he obviously doesn't, to resign himself. You at least have to shame. Not even him. He is incapable of shame. But the other Democrats, you at least have to put them in a bad spot in Congress and make them vote to keep Swalwell in Congress now, again, is California. So if they boot out Swalwell, they'll just send another Democrat in there. This is something they're willing to deal with. It's the same reason why the Democrats were fine getting rid of Al Franken. Al Franken had this scandal where he was shown taking a picture pretending to grab a girl's boobs. And apparently he got a little grab happy in some photo lines and so they threw him out. And the Democrats say, see, this is proof. We police our own party. That's not true. They just booted him out cuz they knew they could easily replace him with another Democrat and it'd be simple and they wouldn't lose any power. When push comes to shove though, when it comes to the real tough races, when it comes to Bill Clinton, greatest example, when it comes to impeaching Bill Clinton for not only sexual misconduct, but perjuring himself for the same misconduct that Eric Swalwell seems to have engaged in, but also perjuring himself, breaking the law. The Democrats close ranks. It's strictly about power. What's so amazing, you have this leading candidate for a Democrat governor of California and he was taken out entirely by Democrats because he wasn't a strong enough candidate. So now you're gonna get someone like Katie Porter or some other Democrat to come up there to maybe pose a greater challenge, consolidate the field, take those Swalwell votes so such that the Republicans are not gonna win in California. Not good. Not good. I mean, I'm tempted to start a Republicans for Swalwell campaign right now. I know I can't bring myself to do it and still be able to keep my breakfast down. But not every time a Democrat goes down, is that a win for Republicans. In this case, it's a loss. In fact, the whole thing was coordinated by Democrats. Now you're seeing a similar thing happen in Hungary. Hungary, which was the exemplar, the last remaining bastion of conservatism at any extreme degree in Europe. The one guy who stood up to Brussels and said, we are not taking the migrants in. We're not gonna destroy our country, we're not gonna erase our cultural patrimony, we're not gonna ruin our society by flooding it with foreigners who don't want to assimilate. And he went down in flames in the election last night. And some people, some unfortunately benighted, ignorant people on the right, think that it's a good thing because they say the candidate who beat him, he's actually even more right wing than Viktor Orban, the ousted prime minister. We'll get to that in a second, folks. You're being taken for a ride first, though. Then of course, we'll get to President Trump's posts about the Pope and his later post about religion generally that offended even Protestants. We'll get to that momentarily. First, wanna tell you about Brickhouse Nutrition. Go to takelean.com code knowles this episode is sponsored by Brickhouse Nutrition. You've probably heard about those weight loss injections everyone's talking about for good reason. The results can be pretty incredible. They work by helping regulate blood sugar and keeping your appetite in check. But here's the thing. Not everyone wants to deal with weekly injections, especially when you start hearing about some of the side effects that can come with them. That's where Lean comes in. It's a weight loss supplement developed by doctors, and people are seeing some really impressive results. The ingredients in Lean are backed by research showing they can help lower blood sugar, diet, turn stored fat into energy, reduce those constant cravings and hunger pangs that make dieting so hard. One important thing to know Lean is not just designed for someone who wants to drop a couple of pounds. The doctors at Brickhouse Nutrition formulated it for people who've been struggling to lose 10 pounds or more and are ready for something that actually works. Multiple producers and employees at the Daily Wire have tried Lean. They are looking sexier than ever. They have been very impressed by how effective Lean has been in such a short period of time. Get started with 20% off and free rush shipping so you can add Lean to your healthy diet and exercise plan. Go to takelean.com, enter code knowles for your discount promo code knowlesakelean.com Orban, the great conservative right wing leader of Hungary, has gone down. The guy who beat him is this guy Peter Magyar. Who? Magyar. M A G Y A R. Magyar is the name of the Hungarian language. It's like a name of Hungary. His name is basically Peter Hungary. And this guy wins and he's a center right candidate. But some are now arguing he's even more right wing than Orban. So we shouldn't be upset about losing Orban because, yeah, it's too bad. A guy who's a real ally of American conservatives. So much so that the vice president just flew over to help campaign for him. So much so that President Trump endorsed him. So much so that a lot of American conservatives have gone there to help support Hungarian conservatism, myself included. I've been to Hungary three times in the last three years. I think twice in one year. I wanted to get back there. This year, unfortunately, I couldn't make the schedule work. He goes down and people are saying, no, don't worry. The new guy who took over, he's even more right wing. The only reason they ousted Orban is because he's corrupt. And I would just say, guys, please try to Recognize that politics is not debate club. This is one of my big problems. This is one of my big problems with the way some of the wonks and the academic people in politics debate. This is one of my big problems with the podcast war. This is one of my big problems with how people are reacting to these election results and campaign collapses. Politics is not just about ideology. Politics is not debate club. I want to just show you my evidence here. Here are the people celebrating Orban losing to the supposedly far right anti immigration candidate in Hungary, Hillary Clinton. The end of Viktor Orban's autocratic regime is a victory not just for Hungary, but for people who value democracy around the world. Congratulations to Tisa, the party that won, to incoming leader Peter Magyar, and to Hungarians everywhere. First of all, I love this first line. The end of Viktor Orban's autocratic regime. They've been saying that Orban is a dictator, he's an autocrat, he destroyed democracy for years. It was always total nonsense. Have seen it firsthand and now the whole world has seen it firsthand because he lost an election and he conceded power immediately. Small consolation for us. See, we were right. You called us fascists, but we're not really fascists. You know, the libs don't care. They level these accusations totally cynically. But the question you gotta ask yourself, why, if a far right wing anti immigration candidate just won in Hungary, why is Hillary Clinton so happy about it? Alex Soros, who's now running the Soros organization, son of George Soros. The people of Hungary have taken back their country. A resounding rejection of entrenched corruption, of foreign interference. Gavin Newsom, J.D. vance, I love. Also, Alex Soros is saying, hey, we ousted Orban in Hungary. Thank goodness there is no foreign interference. Hillary Clinton and I and Barack Obama and Gavin Newsom and the eu, we all ousted the Hungarian leader. Thank goodness there's no more foreign interference. Give me a break. Gavin Newsom, J.D. vance proves he's a lightweight. Congratulations to the people at White. Newsom is trying to attack JD Because JD Is the heir apparent to the Trumpism and to the Republican Party. So Newsom wants to be president. He realizes JD Is the toughest guy in the race. He's most likely gonna be the nominee. I'm just gonna use any excuse to attack JD Congratulations to the people of Hungary. Democracy, free press and human rights win. There's hope. Tim Walls, that old knucklehead former vice presidential candidate for the Dems. A big win for freedom and democracy. The tides are turning. Barack Obama, the Victory of the opposition in Hungary yesterday, like the Polish election, 2023 is a victory for democracy not just in Europe, but around the world. Most of all, it's testament to the resilience and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. If Orban's loss in Hungary is secretly really good for the right, how come the entire global left, the very worst elements of the global left, are unanimously celebrating? Doesn't take a PhD in political science. Doesn't take a dissertation on Machiavelli and Count von Metternich to know this is a loss for conservatives. Major loss. Now their rejoinder is, well, no, this is actually just about corruption. See, Orban was corrupt and this new guy, he's not corrupt. Yeah, okay, we're talking about Central and Eastern Europe. Okay? Corruption is just kind of part of the game. All right, we're talking about former Soviet bloc countries. Corruption is just kind of part of the game here. But you're telling me, hold on, you're telling me that the global left is excited about a truly anti immigration, right wing, stalwart conservative new prime minister because they're so concerned about corruption. Hillary Clinton, that vaunted enemy of corruption, she's just so excited. Thank goodness corruption lost today. If there's one thing Hillary hates, it's corruption, wouldn't you say? Obama, Newsom, Brussels, the Soros family. No, I'd love to be proven wrong. I hope that this guy, Peter Magyar in Hungary can resist Brussels. But if I were a gambling man, I would say probably not. Okay, Speaking of tough news for the global right generally, especially the American right. President Trump, last night, he Pope posted, he launched this broadside against the Pope. I won't read the whole thing because it was very, very long. But here's the first part. Pope Leo is weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy. So right off the top, foreign policy, one can debate, what does it mean that the Pope is weak on crime? You know, there used to be a Vatican executioner who killed some, executed some 500 criminals back when the Papacy controlled substantial territory called the Papal States. We haven't had that in like 150 years or more. So what does it mean, weak on crime? There is a Vatican penitentiary because it is a city state. But what does it mean for the Pope to be weak on crime? You can say foreign policy. Okay, there's this disagreement, this tweet comes in the context of a disagreement between the President and the Pope on the Iran war. The crime thing, I don't really get that. Then terrible for foreign policy. He talks about fear of the Trump administration. But he doesn't mention the fear that the Catholic Church and all other Christian organizations had during COVID when they were arresting priests. Ministers. Hold on. The Catholic Church was arresting priests? No. I think probably what the President means here is when the liberal politicians, the secular authority, was arresting priests and a lot of Christians rolled over for COVID lockdowns. That's true. Not sure the church exactly rolled over for the arresting of priests, but sure, not just the Catholic Church, but Christians broadly did go along with the COVID lockdowns in a way that I didn't like, certainly. Okay, so I see that he goes, I like his brother Louis. The Pope's brother Louis is apparently more right wing. I like Louis much better than I like him. Cause Louis is all maga. He gets it. Leo doesn't. I don't want a Pope who thinks it's okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. So this is really what it's about. It's not about crime. It's not about COVID This is about Iran. I don't want a Pope who thinks it's terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a country that was sending massive amounts of drugs in here. I was elected in a landslide. And the only reason Leo was elected is because they wanted an American to counter me in the Vatican. And he met with David Axelrod. The Pope apparently met with this liberal advisor to Obama. And that's bad. Axelrod's a loser from the left. And this Pope should focus on being a great Pope, not a politician. It's hurting him very badly. And more importantly, it's hurting the Catholic Church. Okay, okay. Not great. Don't love this. Don't love this at all. One in five Americans is Catholic. One in five Americans is Catholic. And there are plenty of non Catholics who don't like seeing attacks on the Pope. One of five Americans is Catholic. The Catholic Church is the largest single Christian denomination in the United States, to use the modern terms. President Trump sends out the post, and he also clarifies to the reporters what he means. I don't think he's doing a very good job. He likes crime, I guess. He hit us. Think of it. He's worried about fear. What about the fear when the ministers and the priests and the. All of those great people that were arrested during COVID and in many cases, they're outside, 10ft apart, and they were arrested. So we don't like it. We don't like a Pope that's going to say that it's okay to have a nuclear weapon. We don't want a pope that says crime is okay in our cities. I don't like it. I'm not a big fan of Pope Leo. Okay, so he says, I don't like the Pope. Now, you'll remember, some of you will remember, some of you were too young. In the early days of the Iraq War, one of the last things that Pope John Paul II did was speak out against the Iraq war. And you didn't see President Bush say, I don't like the Pope, which I hold is spiritually a very bad thing to do. But even politically. Politically, I think it's not a good thing to do. And I assume someone has told this to the president already. But if not, I'm as bona fide a Trump supporter as ever there was. I have voted for Trump in every presidential election that he's run in, and I really like the guy, and I love all the good that he's done. Spiritually, I think this is bad, and politically, this is not good. I get it. Because there's a tension that goes not just through the Trump era or the Bush era, but goes all the way back to antiquity between the Pope and the emperor. There's a tension that goes back between the spiritual authority and the secular authority, all the way back to the beginning of our civilization. But I don't think this is very helpful. So the Pope himself has now responded to reporters on the papal airplane. I will not enter today. The things that I say are certainly not meant as attacks on anyone. And the message of the gospel is very clear. Blessed are the peacemakers. I will not shy away from announcing a message of the gospel, of inviting all people to look for ways, of building bridges for peace and reconciliation, of looking for ways to avoid war anytime that's possible. To put my message on the same plane as what the President has attempted to do here, I think, is not understanding what the message of the gospel is, and sorry to hear that. But I will continue on with what I believe is the mission of the church. Church in the Mormon. That's the key. That's the key phrase here. To put my message on the same plane is not a good understanding. That's the key phrase. And this gets back to this perennial tension between the secular ruler and the spiritual ruler. I mean, let's not forget, in the Middle Ages, you had popes and emperors fighting wars against each other. So actually, by historical standards, this is relatively tame. But this idea that there are different planes here, this, I think, is the key. And I think the Pope's statement here was very effective. And the way to understand this conflict and the way, I think to move forward in a good way requires us to reacquaint ourselves with how this debate has been settled going back to the fifth century. We'll get to that. And then we'll get to how the President also seemed to have offended Protestants, just Christians generally. We'll get to that momentarily. First, though, as we clear the air, I want to tell you about Rabbit air. Go to rabbitair.com the other day a pal here at the office stops me and said, michael, I heard you say something earlier. Is it do you really smoke cigars in your car? I said, of course I smoke cigars in my car. I'm a man, of course I do, and I'll buy the cheapest car in the world. But the one thing I ask for is I want leather seats. So I get smoke in the car. It doesn't stay in the fabric for people who want to smoke in their home, in the man cave, in the office, in wherever you know you want to do it. It's nice, especially when it's rainy outside. But you don't want that air to linger lest your wife yell at you or you know you just did. You know what you need? You need the Rabbit Air A3. It is the best. I've used them for years. I have multiple in my house and I smoke a lot of cigars. The rabbit air A3 is not merely an air purifier, it's a sentry. Ever watchful, ever refined. 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Very hard to find These days you need to know why it matters from people that you trust who are not just complete lunatics. And I want you to be part of the conversation. So right now, DailyWire plus members can be part of the chat of the shows live. You have to join though DailyWire.com subscribe My favorite I have two favorite comments from Friday. One is from Aldous Huxtable. Great name. Wow, great name. Says also providential that I mentioned Bill Cosby. I never mentioned Bill Cosby. See, all nature is but art unknown to thee all chance direction which thou canst not see. Anyway, the comment is Michael, I'm being sincere when I say this. Your sane washing is truly brilliant. Thank you. I really appreciate that. I like that phrase, sanewashing. There's brainwashing. That's what you get on the other shows. That's what you get from governments. But there's sane washing. That's what I like to do. And it's a related comment. It's kind of funny, people, but I don't even remember what this is directly in response to, but it does get to something I tried to do, which is from A Studios 9930 says, well done, Knowles. Your real one most logical coverage over this dumb mess. I don't even know what that's in response to, but that's what I try to do. And folks, sometimes I think it hurts my ratings because the temptation in political media, especially in podcasting, is to take the most extreme stance, is to take the most provocative extreme stance. I find a lot of podcasters, what they do, they often, sometimes they'll just say totally crazy things, but sometimes they'll say relatively moderate things, but they'll say them in the most provocative, offensive way possible. Whereas what I try to do is the opposite. I try to say sometimes radical things in the most moderate, reasonable way possible. And it's not. It's not always the best for ratings. That's what I try to do, folks. That's what I'm trying to offer you, trying to offer you a constructive way forward. My friend Yoram Hazoni made the point one time when all the right was talking about how we need more critical thinking. We need critical thinking. I said, do we need critical thinking? And Yoram made this point. He said, we don't need critical thinking. We have enough of that. We need constructive thinking. That's what I try to offer an insight of the conservatives is that it's easier to destroy than to build. So often people just want to destroy. We've all done it. We all have those videos. So and so destroys so and so. But we want to build. We want to build, especially when we're in power. So how do we think about this fight between the Pope and the President? Two planes. Here I go back to my old buddy, Pope Gelasius. I, you know, I mean, hardly a day goes by we don't talk about Pope Gelasius. He writes a letter in AD 494 to Emperor Anastasius, the Byzantine emperor. And he opens the letter, he says, hey, I'm sorry you seem to be offended that I didn't send you greetings. He opens up, he says, I heard you're offended. I heard you're upset with me. Emperor, Mr. President. Mr. President. Emperor. I heard you're offended with me because I didn't, I wasn't flattering enough or I didn't. I wasn't courteous enough or something. But hey, the only reason that I didn't send you a letter, the reason I didn't call is because you were upset with me. So I didn't want to further annoy you or anything like that. But I'm gonna say what I'm gonna say and you're gonna say what you're gonna say. And then here's what he says verbatim. I pray your piety not to judge my duty toward the divine plan as arrogance. Far be it from the Roman prince, I beg that he judge the truth that he senses in his heart to be an injury. This is the key. For there are two o Emperor Augustus, by which the world is principally ruled. The sacred authority of pontiffs and the royal power, the spiritual authority and the temporal power, among which, how much heavier is the burden of priests? Such that they will have to render an account to the Lord at the time of judgment, even for the very kings. He says there are two powers in the world, the spiritual authority and the temporal power. And they're distinct. But the greater weight lies with the spiritual authority because the Pope is responsible for the president in a way that the president is not responsible for the Pope. This is this long standing debate. Now, fast forward to the Middle Ages. You have Dante. Truly, hardly a show goes by. I don't talk about Dante. Dante is fighting the Pope. He's a member of the pro pope party. There are the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. The Guelphs are pro pope, the Ghibellines are pro emperor. Dante's part of the pro pope party, but the pro pope party divides into factions, the black welfs and the white Guelphs. Dante is part of the more favorable to the emperor side of the pro pope party. He's kind of like a medieval rhino Dante there, even as he is fighting, he wants to diminish the temporal power of the Pope. He wants to increase the temporal power of the Emperor. He'd be inclined to take the president's side over the Pope's side. He writes this in his treatise about how the Pope is wrong and the Emperor needs more power. He concludes it with this line, important for us to keep in mind. Let Caesar honor Peter as a firstborn son should honor his father, so that refulgent with the light of paternal grace, he may illumine with greater radiance the earthly sphere over which he has been set by him. God, who alone is ruler of all things spiritual and temporal. Even Dante is saying, hey, Pope, lay off. Hey, Emperor, you should get a lot more power. But even there, he says, but Emperor, you should be respectful toward the Pope. You should allow the spiritual authority to illumine the temporal authority, which is distinct. I think the issue with the President's commentary here is less the substance and more the tone. It's actually, I hate to sound like a lib or like a woman, but, you know, like sometimes like a liberal woman, really. Like, it's not what you said, it's how you said it. But really here the tone is the key, because reasonable minds can disagree over foreign policy. Reasonable minds can disagree over certain political judgments. The President does have the politics as his lane, but it's the tone. The temporal authority, while distinct, should be respectful of the spiritual authority, as we are respectful of our fathers. You don't always have to agree with your father, like your dad, your regular dad. You don't always have to agree with him. Sometimes you do. In certain limited circumstances, you do have to do what your father says. But a lot of the time you don't have to do what he says. You're your own man, especially when you're. But you always have to be respectful toward him. God tells you to be respectful to your father, and that's how we feel with the spiritual authority. So what do we make of this? Some people are saying, well, look, even Catholics are saying, well, the Pope is only infallible on certain matters of faith and morals, defined through a definitive act ex cathedra. And so you don't have to listen to the Pope on anything else. That's not quite it either, because some people basically want to say the President should do politics and the Pope should do religion, and never the Twain shall meet. That's not gonna cut it, guys. That's a cheap way out, but it's not gonna cut it. There's a reason this issue has been going on since the 5th century, at least. It's not gonna cut it because you can't do politics. The President can't do politics without recourse to religion, because you can't do politics without laws, and you can't do laws without morality, and you can't do morality without religion. So the President has to engage in religion, even if he doesn't want to admit it. This President, I think, does want to admit it. This president is openly pro religious most of the time. The vast majority of the time. Same with the Pope. You can't just say, hey, Pope, just do religion, don't do politics. Because the Pope has to shepherd a flock that lives in the world, so the Pope necessarily has to do politics. Even if you're not Catholic, you don't care about the Pope. Your pastor has to do politics. Whoever your spiritual guidance comes from, that guy has to do politics. To some degree, there is overlap, there is a relation between the two. And so we want the two to work together, each respecting the legitimate prerogatives of the other, but cooperating. That's how it's gotta work. It's really the tone. You can say, pope, I respectfully disagree with you here, but those are the two planes that we're talking about. Okay, before we get to Cabot, the line that I think then offended not only the Catholics, but the Protestants as well is the post that followed immediately after the post. Post the Pope, post, Sally sold seashells by the seashore. It's very difficult to say all those words in a row. The President posts this picture of. It's a meme. It's like an art meme of him. It appears to be as Jesus holding what might divine light, whether that's the Blessed Sacrament or whether that's just a divine light in clothing that is typical of Christ in artistic depictions, putting his hand on an ailing man, healing him with these angels or demons or celestial beings coming out of the clouds with the American flag. And it's obviously kind of trolly. What I think Trump is trying to say here is, look, I'm healing the country. I'm really great for the country. And I think even further, he's trying to say, I've been really good for Christians. You know, Joe Biden locked up Christians, locked up pro life Catholic grannies, and I pardoned them and I let them out. And I overruled Roe v. Wade. And I, you know, I've been good for religious liberty. I'm good, you know, what's the matter with you Christians? What more do you want from me? I think that's what he's trying to say. But the post is sacrilegious. It just is. It's just inescapable. It's just a sacrilegious post. To put oneself in the position of Christ is just sacrilegious. I don't think that was the intention exactly. I don't think this was thought out for all that long. I think it was a meme. And so I would say with all the grace that we can give and all the charity with which we can speak, it is a fact that in an irreverent age, sometimes people don't know what taboos are legit and what taboos are nonsense, what taboos are woke shibboleths that should be made fun of. In that irreverent age, we just, sometimes comedians, they tell a joke that's a little out of line. And I would say in this case, for both spiritual reasons and political reasons. I'm sure someone's already told the President this, but if not, the post should come down simple as I think I could go further and say I think it would benefit the President spiritually and politically to just take it down. It's okay. And we can remember that he's been very good at promoting Christian causes against the godless left that wants to destroy the church. But sometimes people make mistakes. Even a guy who's right 99.7% of the time, politically, sometimes people make mistakes. I think it should probably, definitely come down okay. There's so much more I want to get to. There's a guy who went viral for saying religion stole his sexual prime. He's really upset. He got married young, then he divorced, and now he's upset that he didn't go to orgies or something in his 20s. I want to get to that because it's just. It's the most. Oh, my goodness. It's the most millennial 2026 complaint I've ever heard in my entire life. I also want to get to the left wanting to kill us all. This basically admitted by Ezra Klein in the New York Times. I also want to get. I do have to get. Well, I can cover this story quickly. They sent the vice president last best hope to go get a deal with the Iranians in Pakistan. Just didn't happen. We've been trying to get a deal with the Iranians for 47 years. It hasn't worked out. So the Iran war continues on really, really tough because it means that there is a very good chance that the United States will either have to lose stature or invade Iran, neither of which people really want to do. So, as we said, when I was sitting with Kabat on the day the Iran war started, I said, this is the highest stakes action the president's ever undertaken. Had I been on the National Security Council, I would have argued against it, as I'd been arguing against it. But I see the good that could be done. I see the good that President Trump is aiming at. If this works, it'll be the greatest stroke of grand strategy since the end of the Cold War. If it doesn't work, this is the greatest danger that Trump's presidency's ever had. I think that's what we're seeing out of Pakistan. But speaking of Cabot, we'll have to get to all those things tomorrow. Cuz I want to bring Cabot on right now to talk about his new show and some actual good news. A little sliver of good news in a rough news day. Cabot, excellent to see you.