← The Michael Knowles Show
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- [00:00]
Michael Knowles
Chinese leader Xi Jinping threatens war with the US On President Trump's first day in the Orient. Libertarian favorite Thomas Massie might go down in a massive primary showdown with the White House. Tells us a lot about the state of the Republican Party. And high school students are drinking at record low rates and that is almost certainly a terrible thing. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles Show. Welcome back to the show. Very excited. Later on we're going to have Congressman Riley Moore joining the show, one of my very favorite members of Congress to discuss myriad topics, including a topic that my debate opponent at Dartmouth denied, which was the genocide of Christians in Nigeria and how the US should think about it and how we should act. First, though, I want to tell you about Bolen branch. Go to bolenbranch.com knowles k a w l e s code knowles folks, sheets do not usually fail all at once. It's never this dramatic moment where they just fall apart. It's the small things that creep up on you. The corners that won't stay tucked, the fabric that feels a little thinner, a little scratchier than you remember. You're waking up warmer than you should be, tossing around more than usual and you just don't feel as comfortable as you used to. Here's the thing. You don't always realize how bad your sheets have gotten until you finally replace them. That is why you need to upgrade to our sponsor bowl and Branch. If your sheets are piling, thinning, slipping off the mattress, or making you overheat at night, that is your sign. I've slept on Bowlin branch sheets for how long now? Almost a decade. I love them. I have purchased Bowlen Branch sheets. I've given them to family members. They're just phenomenal. Ok, Multiple US Presidents have slept on them. Your favorite podcaster, more importantly, has slept on them. They're made from 100% organic cotton. You will just sleep better. They're wonderful. You feel like you're sleeping at a five star hotel. Upgrade your sleep with bowl and Branch. Get 15% off your first order plus free shipping at bowl and branch.com knowles code knowles that's Boland Branch B O L L a n d branch.com knowles k n w l e s code knowles to unlock 15% off. Exclusions apply. All right, let's start out with some good news because the biggest story is that Trump is in China right now. And Trump opens up with these really nice comments about Xi Jinping trying to make peace, make friends, make sure we all get along. And Xi Jinping Comes out with a haymaker and essentially threatens World War three. So we'll get to what that means. And the strange. Not strange. Very popular, but I think misunderstood historical theory that is undergirding the Chinese bellicosity. First, though, a little bit of good news. I want a little bit of good news here. Woman named Desiree Cigar. As a cigar man myself, I don't claim her. I'm very ashamed that she shares the name of my favorite hobby. Desiree Cigar threatened Republicans on TikTok.
- [03:09]
Desiree Cigar
Okay, guys, so I would like to start a new movement called See Maga. Maga. Because people like that respond to fear and terror and aggression. That. Not logic and empathy and, I don't know, intelligence. It doesn't work for them. So fear works. So if we all get our guns and use our second amendment right and our common sense, at this point, this administration is begging us to rise up and revolt, and you see somebody with a MAGA hat. Pew, pew. That's what we do. That's the way. It's the only way. Put them back in their basements, make them scared again to be racist, homophobic, and terrible. Just awful pieces of. Because I would way rather live next to immigrants than MAGA people. MAGA people deserve to be terrified and scared to walk in the streets because they should know that real Americans are gonna kill them.
- [04:03]
Michael Knowles
Okay, that crazy lady was just sentenced to 14 months in federal prison after a jury found her guilty of making threats on TikTok. This is really good stuff. It deserves attention. It deserves applause. This is exactly right. I have been calling for this not just over the last year, since the near assassination of President Trump and the successful assassination of Charlie Kirk. I have been calling this for this for many years. And now the government is doing something about it. This is really good. What's important about that video, though, what's important about the case of Desiree Segari is that she is not an outlier. She's not a weirdo. There are about a zillion libs who have made exactly these kinds of threats. Notice this isn't a direct threat against a specific person. I'm sure she's made those too. But this is a more general threat. I mean, it's specific in that she's saying, look, go to the MAGA people and go shoot them. But then it's a little ambiguous. She says, and put them back in their basements. Are we gonna put them in the grave? We gonna put them in the basements? It's a little unclear because she does say, go out there. And shoot them. They need to live in fear. Well, hold on. This is exactly the kind of thing that the live streamer. Stephen Bonnell, who goes by Destiny, said. He said this right after Charlie was murdered. He said. Or no, I'm sorry, it was right after the. It's confusing. It was right after the near assassination of Trump. He said, these conservatives need to be afraid to go out in public. We need to threaten them. They need to be afraid to go out there in public. So why isn't he being prosecuted? Hasan Piker has threatened to kill, called for the killing of multiple sitting US Senators, Rick Scott and Tom Cotton. Ironic too, cuz they're not the most bombastic senators. They're pretty moderate and pretty middle of the road. He's called for their murder. Why hasn't Hasan Piker been prosecuted? I don't mean to just whine and complain. Conservatives love doing this. This is something great. The prosecution of Desiree Cigarette should be celebrated, maybe with a cigar, maybe with a Mayflower cigar. But this is just the beginning. This needs to be just the beginning. Because the really scary thing that we learned after, especially after Charlie was killed, is that this view is pretty mainstream. Huge chunk of ordinary liberals and Democrats think this way. Desire the murder of Republicans, threaten the murder of Republicans. And the only way that you're gonna change that behavior is first through prayer, second, through our behavior in the world. Modeling good behavior being the country you wanna be. But third, and you can't lose this point through ruthless prosecution because the law is a teacher. This is a really good start. Okay, speaking of violence, President Trump is in China, Jaina. And President Trump opens up, contrary to what people say about him, that he's belligerent, that he's undisciplined, that he's emotional. He's really not. He's really quite good at negotiations, as we've seen throughout his entire career. And he can be very, very charming. Trump opens up in this very friendly and notice very personal way, speaking about Xi Jinping, the leader of China.
- [07:08]
Donald Trump
Well, President Xi, I want to thank you very much. First of all, that was an honor like few have ever seen before. And I think I was particularly impressed by those children. They were happy, they were beautiful. The military is obvious, it couldn't be better. But those children were amazing and they represent so much, and I know they represent so much to you. You and I have known each other now for a long time. In fact, the longest relationship of our two countries that any president and president has had. And that's to me, an Honor. We've had a fantastic relationship. We've gotten along. When there were difficulties, we worked it out. I would call you and you would call me. And whenever we had a problem, people don't know whenever we had a problem, we worked that out very quickly and we're going to have a fantastic future together. But it's an honor to be with you, it's an honor to be your friend. And the relationship between China and the USA is going to be better than ever before.
- [08:15]
Michael Knowles
So notice Trump's tactic here. Trump's tactic is, it's wonderful to be with you, my friend. You and I, personally, individually, you and I, not America and China. You and I, she and Donald have known each other a long time. In fact, we have a longer personal relationship than any other previous president and president or chairman of the Chinese Communist Party because Trump has a non consecutive second term. So it's all this very personal aspect. Thank you for that personal display that you guys just put on for me. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be your friend. All personal. Then Xi Jinping comes out, drops all the personality and says that the two nations, China and the United States, might go to war.
- [09:05]
Xi Jinping
The whole world is watching our meeting. Currently, transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe and the international situation is fluid and turbulent. The world has come to a new crossroads. Can China and the United States overcome the Thucydides trap and create a new paradigm of major country relations? Can we meet global challenges together and provide more stability for the world? Can we, in the interests of the well being of our two peoples and the future of humanity, build a brighter future together for our bilateral relations? These are the questions vital to history, to the world and to the people. They are the questions of our times that you and I need to answer as leaders of major countries this year.
- [10:15]
Michael Knowles
Notice. Notice the totally different framing. I haven't seen anyone else talking about this, but this is crucial to understanding the showdown right now between Trump and Xi and America in China. Notice it's none of this. Hey, Don. Good to see you again, buddy. Love your suit. Hope we can go get a round of golf after this. How are the kids? It's none of that. It's all impersonal. This is a discussion of bilateral relations between your people and my people, the United States and China. Can we avoid the Thucydides trap? That's the key to the whole thing. What is the Thucydides trap? The Thucydides trap refers to the Peloponnesian, the history of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, the ancient Greek historian. Thucydides doesn't invent history. You have other history, Herodotus, you have histories that are a little more fantastical. But Thucydides gets credit for the first kind of realist history, really down to earth history, the, I don't know, the archetypal kind of history writing that we think of as history today. And in the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides writes this one line that has gotten a lot of play among political scientists recently. He writes, it was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable. So this is one line from Thucydides, but in recent years, specifically by a Harvard political scientist named Graham Allison, this has come to define what international relations geniuses call the Thucydides trap. And the argument is that when you have an established power like Sparta and a rising power like Athens, when those two forces are at play and the rising power really, really, really starts to rise, war becomes almost inevitable. And this Harvard political scientist, Alison says in a book, he writes that there are 16 historical instances of an emerging power coming to really rival a ruling power. And in 12 of those 16 instances, it led to war. So this is proving, almost proving, Thucydides's supposed argument that the war was inevitable. This is the perfect way to see the difference between how Trump thinks and Xi thinks, how America thinks and China thinks, because Trump is thinking in terms of individuals, great men, personalities, freedom, choices, opportunities. One man can change history. She a communist. Right? You have Donald Trump, an individualist, an American, a guy who thinks that anyone can do anything, especially in America. There's no limit to what Trump can do. I'll take over this industry and that industry. I'll put my name on big buildings. And then you have Xi, who's writing from the perspective of Chinese communism, who's thinking. No, history is defined by impersonal historical forces, the science of history. So he's not thinking about individual great men, he's thinking about these impersonal forces. So of course, he's much more given over to the thinking of the Thucydides trap, which gussies up modern, mostly left wing political theory in the robes of antiquity to give it this kind of patina of authority. But the question is, is that real? Is the Thucydides trap real? Is the argument real? And is America therefore in a collision course with China? We'll get to the answer, because I think Trump is right and Xi is Wrong. But first, I want to tell you about fast growing trees. Go to fastgrowingtrees.com code knowles there's something deeply satisfying about planting a tree. Not in the abstract, just like literally planting one, digging the hole, putting it in the ground, watching something grow over time instead of staring at another screen all day. My grandmother had a beautiful tree in her house that she had gotten from her mother. And it's a beautiful thing to see. It's one of the many reasons I love fast growing trees. They're America's largest online nursery with thousands of trees and plants for your yard and home. Fruit trees, privacy trees, flowering trees, shrubs, houseplants, whatever fits your space. Now, I don't really have a lot of land. Okay, I gotta sell some more cigars to get some land. But my producer, Mr. Davies, he does have a lot of land, so he's stolen my trees. Mr. Davies, can you please tell me about your trees?
- [14:28]
Mr. Davies
They are going to such good use right now with my family. Because also blueberries are, I don't know, like $40 a carton.
- [14:34]
Michael Knowles
Yes.
- [14:34]
Mr. Davies
So now we have edible landscape. That is unbelievable. A trees shipped directly to me and within three weeks my kids can pick the berries and are eating them and save me a ton of money.
- [14:43]
Michael Knowles
So my trees get you berries and you don't even bring the berries to me to give to my kid who loved the berries so much, I have to spend $40 a carton. That's real interesting. That's real nice. They have phenomenal deals on spring planting essentials. Up to half off select plants. Listeners to our show get 20% off with their first purchase using code Knowles at checkout. That's an additional 20% off. Better plants and better growing. At fastgreentrees.com, code knowles at checkout. That is fastgreentrees.com code knowles. Now is the perfect time to plant. Let's grow together. Code Knowles Save today offers valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. The Thucydides trap. I don't really like this phrase. I've invoked it before. I don't really like it though, because I think it's a way for modern, especially liberal poli sci people to borrow the authority of a great historian like Thucydides. But there were a lot of serious academic historians, not just random Harvard political scientists, who said the Thucydides trap thesis is a bunch of BS. It's not true. If you look at the 16 conflicts that Graham Allison points to, they don't really work for the thesis, there are plenty of other conflicts and potential conflicts that don't really match the thesis. And even when you go to the Peloponnesian War, I mean, the great historian Donald Kagan, who was a professor of mine, actually, he made the point. He was a Yale guy. There's another Harvard political science, or, sorry, another Harvard historian, Ernst Badian, who said that Thucydides trap is bunk. Actually, the reason that the war in the Peloponnesian War broke out is because there was a quarrel in Epidamnus. There was the Megarian decree, the economic policies of the Athenians. There were the perfidious designs of the Corinthians. There was the person of Pericles, who made specific decisions, who had free will, who made some decisions, some of which were not good. And then he died, by the way. He just sort of died because of the plague. And had he not died, maybe the war would have taken a different ending. The Thucydides trap is more appealing to communists and the we can work it out ideas of Donald Trump. It's more appealing to those who believe in great men. One is more appealing to China, one is more appealing to America. And I think Trump is right. And I think the Trump political project, Trump's whole raison d' et as a politician, is to prove that great men really can change the course of history, that great men really can play a role. And so we often have these two theories of history contraposed against each other. The impersonal forces theory and the great man theory. The great man theory, which comes from the 19th century, Thomas Carlyle, very conservative guy, and my own theory of history, not to take a squishy middle road, but my own theory of history is a kind of Christian version of the great man theory. That's great man, like the great man upstairs in that look, there's obviously providence to history. There are forces on the move in the world that are beyond our own individual will. God is sovereign over history, but God works through individual men, men who are made in the image and likeness of God and who are rescued by God himself, who becomes man in Christ and who enters into history and all the political workings of history. In the Roman Empire in the time of Augustus, who is crucified under Pontius Pilate, who suffers death, who conquers death on the cross, who is resurrected on the third day, who institutes a church that is visible within the world. And so there's a little bit of both of these. They're obviously historical forces at work, but men really have free will, men especially cooperating with God's grace really can make a difference. And that's what Trump is saying here. Trump is saying all your stupid communist theories, liberal theories, left wing IR theories, Thucydides trap, that's all a bunch of bunk. It's just me and you here, Xi. And if you make the wrong choice over Taiwan, we could blow up the world in World War Three. But if you make the right choice, we can work together and we can have peace and prosperity. Don't blame impersonal forces. Don't try to shove your responsibility off on some impersonal forces of history. No, no, no. It's me and you here, guy. And we've been friends for a long time, longer than any other leaders of our countries. So let's work it out. And I think Trump is right. But from the standpoint of history, 20, 30, 40 years from now, I think a lot of the judgment of what the Trump era meant will be a judgment of that theory of history. The American empire was really on a steep cliff of decline during the second Bush era. And then into the Obama era, we were really just crumbling. And then Trump comes in and he says, I'm gonna make America great again. Can I do that? Are the impersonal forces of history too great? Can one man make a difference anymore? That's what Trump is asking. That's the point of the Trump presidency. And here you see this great brewing conflict, and Xi Jinping is saying, I don't know that a great man can make a difference in history. I think China's rising. We're Athens, you're Sparta, and we're gonna come to conflict. What's it gonna be? I still think Trump is right, but it's a showdown. It's a showdown, really, to zoom out again. It is a showdown between a more Chinese view of the world and a more American view of the world. Okay, speaking of Trump as the great man kind of guy, The Vice President, J.D. vance just was asked a question yesterday. Keeps getting asked, hey, who's gonna be the nominee in 2028? Is it gonna be you? Is it gonna be Rubio? Is it gonna be someone else? Who does Trump want? Why does Trump keep asking these questions? You know, hey, crowd, do you like Vance? Do you like Rubio? What's that all about? Vance, I think, gave the perfect answer.
- [20:11]
Interviewer
Us, who are bringing this up. A couple days ago, Trump made this statement to people in the Rose Garden. Why do you think he does that? Do you think it's a little bit of toying with you both over your succession why do you think he brings that up, just number one?
- [20:25]
J.D. Vance
Well, I just don't think it sounds like the President of the United States to have a televised competition for who would succeed him as his opponent. I just think that's not at all what you would expect the president to do. But, no, look, I think the president, he's always been fascinated by politics. If you talk to him, he was fascinated by politics 30 years before he ever ran for office. So I think it's natural for him to joke around with us a little bit, to play around with the idea. But I can tell you the President is as focused as any of us on making sure we do as good of a job now for the American people.
- [20:57]
Michael Knowles
I love this answer. I love that he laughs it off, but with some real substance here. He says, hold on. Is your question that Donald Trump seems to be creating a. Some might call it a reality television show to determine who will succeed him in this big role? Wow. I don't think he would ever do that. Are you suggesting he might be extremely internationally famous for doing just that? Oh, yeah. Gee, I wonder. And then he turns it back to. But I'm not taking the bait. You know, I'm gonna play my role. Because the way that he's gonna get that apprenticeship is he's gonna play his role and he's gonna do a good job as vice president, which he is doing. And he's obviously the favorite to succeed President Trump. That was true when he picked him, and President Trump made that clear in his comments just a few days ago. But this is the way. This is the way to answer that question, especially this far out. We were talking about how AOC is currently the front runner for the Democrats yesterday. If I'm Gavin Newsom, I'm happy about that. I don't wanna be the front runner a year and a half out according to the polls. This is why, if I'm the vice president, I'm not that concerned that Rubio is looking good in the polls right now. Say, yeah, this is not the time to be peaking. You know, it's a little. This would be peaking a little bit too soon. But I like the way that Trump is dealing with this, too. One, he doesn't wanna say, this person is definitely my successor, because then he becomes a lame duck. How's he gonna negotiate with China or Iran or any of the other countries in the world if he does that? But two, he's saying, look, nothing is set by impersonal forces. Nothing is totally set in stone because the rules of The GOP say so. I'm the guy, okay? I'm the guy acting in history right now. I, Donald, am a great world historic figure. That's his claim. Whether it's true or not, that's his claim. And I think there's some good evidence that it is true. And so he says, look, we're gonna play this thing out. We're gonna see how it goes. And it's very American in the sense that this lack of confidence in the certainty of the science of history or progressivism or whatever opens up a lot of opportunity. He's saying, hey, even if things look kind of bad, you can do things. You can do things, you can succeed. We can change the supposedly doomed outcome of our country, our empire, what have you. You're really seeing this play out, by the way, in a congressional race in Kentucky, which we'll get to momentarily. First, though, wanna tell you about why teens are drinking less and why that's actually a bad thing. First. Even before that, wanna tell you about hallow. Go to hallow.com knowles k n a W L E S It's May, which means it's mental health month. And with everything going on in the world today, most people could use some help on that front. We hear a lot about mindfulness and stress reduction. Well, here's something less. Often mentioned, prayer has been shown to reduce stress, improve mental health, and even lower cortisol levels. That is why Hallow is introducing a new prayer challenge this month called the Detachment Challenge. If a man has been feeling stretched thin, juggling responsibilities, expectations and constant demands for his attention, he's not alone. This time of year only adds to it. Detachment does not mean caring less. It means letting go of what he cannot control and placing it in God's hands because his work, his family, his responsibilities matter. But they were never meant to carry the full weight of his heart. Through simple daily prayer and reflection, this challenge helps him find real peace. Not based on circumstances, but rooted in trust. I love Halo. It's an amazing app. There's a reason it has taken over the app store. It's really, really crucial. Especially in our distracted, self interested digital age. You need to find a way to focus on what matters. Go to hallow.com knowles Download the Hallow app and join for three months free. That is hallow.com, H-A-L-L-O-W.com knowles for three months free. The percentage of 12th graders who have ever consumed alcohol high school teens has collapsed. In 1975, 92% of 12th graders had ever, ever consumed alcohol. Today, 2026, I guess these data really only go up to 2024, just 47%. So it's cut in half, basically. That should be a good thing, right? Well, I don't know. Hold on. Who had ever consumed alcohol? I was having a little bit of wine at Christmas dinner when I was six years old. Okay. And maybe because I'm of Italian extraction, that's a little more normal, I don't know. But I didn't go to ragers or keggers in high school. It would sometimes be at parties where there was alcohol, but I didn't really indulge. But I would have alcohol a little bit with my parents understanding, you know, I mean, with, like, I'd have a cigar when I was a teenager, my mother would let me have a little bit of cognac or a little bit of wine. I don't know. Maybe that's unusual, but. But the point that my mother made was, one, you're gonna go to college soon, and you need to know how to drink so it doesn't get away from you and you end up in the hospital or something like that. But two, because alcohol is part of social and festive culture. When you go to Christmas dinner, when you go to a holiday and all the adults are having beer or wine, maybe they give you a little sip too to make you part of that. It's a social right. And so even when you think of the bad or abusive drinking that happens in high school, you know, parties and where the parents don't know, keggers, whatever. Why would it be a bad thing that teenagers are drinking less? Because it means that they're socializing less. That's obviously what it means. Some people are arguing, well, no, look, alcohol use has declined, but marijuana use has skyrocketed. Yeah, there's a little evidence that marijuana is much more popular than it used to be. But look at the marijuana chart. Same chart or same institute, the Institute for Family Studies shows that in 1975, 1977, 56% of 12th graders had ever used marijuana. Now, that had cratered down to only 33, 34% by 1992. Because, by the way, the war on drugs worked. One of the worst retconnings revisions of history is this idea that the war on drugs never worked, which was promoted by the left and the libertarian right. And that's totally fake. The war on drugs worked really, really well. We largely stopped people from doing drugs. The people who continued to abuse drugs, we put in jail and Society was better. Nevertheless, we'll go down to the bottom in around 1992. Then it spikes up again in the 90s, when we gave up on the war on drugs. But now it's fallen down a little bit too. So now we're at 34%. So even marijuana use has dropped among teens. Taken in isolation, I would think that's a good thing. Because marijuana is not the most social drug. Sometimes people do it. They pass a bowl around or something like that. But it doesn't make you a more extroverted. It's not a social lubricant. If anything, it makes you more introverted. But the fact that marijuana use has declined alongside alcohol use declining means this is not about people just becoming more temperate or something like that. It's because kids are not socializing. The Atlantic reports that face to face socializing among high school teens has declined by over 45% between 2003 and 2022. Exactly the same sort of rate that you're seeing among marijuana use and especially among alcohol use. This is a real crisis. Cause people need to socialize. Because man is a social creature. We're not just atomized individuals. We're a social creature. We need to socialize when we don't socialize in person. Because we're not just virtual creatures, we're not just spiritual creatures. We're incarnate creatures too. When we stop socializing in person, society breaks down. Cause the definition of society is people getting together. To say to celebrate that alcohol use among teenagers has dropped so precipitously is sort of like celebrating that peanut allergies declined in Nagasaki in 1945. Like, it's. Technically, it's true. And I guess that would be good. You don't want peanut allergies. But the reason the peanut allergies declined in Nagasaki, 1945, is because we killed everybody. To use a real world example, not peanut allergies. There was this celebration five, six years ago that Iceland had eradicated down syndrome. And you say, well, that's a good thing. Down syndrome is a difficult condition and it causes all these problems for individuals. But the reason that Iceland had eradicated down syndrome is because they killed all the babies that had down syndrome. She said, well, that's kind of a Pyrrhic victory. I wouldn't celebrate that. We're not gonna celebrate genocide or murder. This is a big crisis. We should all be hoping that the charts show that alcohol use among teenagers increases soon. Because if people are not socializing face to face, they're not having babies. They're not being well adjusted. They're not getting to know their community, they're not engaged civically. If teenagers are not drinking alcohol and it's not being reflected in the data, we're gonna have a lot more problems than 17 year olds having hangovers the next day. Okay, Speaking of elimination, Thomas Massie facing a real challenge now in Kentucky. So Thomas Massie is this libertarian favorite. The Libertarians love him. And, you know, I've liked a lot of what he's done over the years. I'm not, like, totally anti Massey. I'm not a Libertarian, so I'm not totally pro Massey. And I got really irritated when he made this turn against Trump. He made this turn, he decided he was gonna pal around with Democrats more frequently. And so Trump said, all right, you're out. You're out, guy, and I'm gonna primary you. And at the time, a lot of people said, look, you can primary someone like Adam Kinzinger, you can primary someone like Liz Cheney, people who are not particularly popular with the base. But Thomas Massie has a pretty loyal base of support, especially among his local constituents and especially among the more libertarian side of the conservative movement. So I don't know, you might be going a little far. President Trump. And right now, the Kalshi markets have Massey's primary opponent at Gallrain in the lead, 55% to 47. Now, it's changing by the minute. So even as I'm saying this right now, it might have already changed, but you're seeing public opinion polls showing this, too. Qantas Insights reported that out of 908 respondents, Galrain, the primary opponent, got 48.3% of the vote. Massie was over 5 points, down at 43.1%, 7.6 undecided. So the undecideds could decide it. And then among the undecided voters, 52.4% said they leaned toward Gallrain, Massey's primary challenger. On top of this, there is a new scandal that has supposedly come out about Thomas Massie. This from Axios. Again, this is just days before a primary campaign, so we need to take some big grains of salt here. But Axios reporting that an ex girlfriend of Thomas Massie, I guess from after his wife had died, his wife died somewhat recently. Then an ex girlfriend from after that period between his wife dying and his remarriage is accusing him of offering her hush money because he got her a job with this other congressman, Victoria Spartz, and then it didn't work out in that employment, and then she didn't wanna sign an NDA to get. So it was this. I don't know. It's very, very complicated. It's not really related to any accusations of sexual impropriety or sexual crimes or anything like that.
- [32:09]
Riley Moore
I don't know.
- [32:09]
Michael Knowles
To me, this reads like a typical campaign dirty trick. Both parties play it. That's just how politics. Nevertheless, I'm not really interested in this supposed scandal with Thomas Massie or supposed hush money or any of that stuff. What I'm interested in is Will Massey go down. A lot of outside money has flooded into the race, and a lot of money specifically around the issue of pro Israel or anti Israel cause Massie has taken more of an anti Israel stance. And so a lot of pro Israel donors have flooded money into the race. But it's not just the Israel issue. To me, what's even more interesting than that is what it comes down to over Trump saying, hey, you're out. You turned on me. You're not toeing the party line anymore. You're going a little bit rogue. Thomas Massie, you're palling around with Democrat Ro Khanna. You're creating a lot of problems for the Republican political coalition and for the White House. So I'm taking you out. And Thomas Massie says, come and get me, bro. I'm really popular in my district. This is kind of the showdown as to whether or not President Trump has an ironclad grip on the party. If Trump and Trump's political machine can unseat Thomas Massie, it is indisputable that Trump and his coalition and his donors and his voters and his everybody has an ironclad grip on the party. If Massie squeaks by and wins, I think there's still a ton of evidence that Trump has a huge, substantial hold on the gop. But it'll be a different thing if Massie goes down. I don't see how anybody denies that Trump has the GOP in a lock. It is just. It is his party. He took it over in 2016. He changed the coalition, he grew the coalition, and the GOP is him. Okay, much more to get to. There is a wild Democrat congressional primary going on right now where John F. Kennedy's grandson, Jack Schlossberg, is, I guess he's sort of the front runner. But the campaign is so bad, even the New York Times is calling it out, calling it a chaotic campaign with erratic behavior, staff Turnover, questioning young Mr. Schlossberg's readiness for office. And all of that has me really actually just wanting to endorse Jack Schlossberg because it would be the funniest outcome in a solid Democrat district. Maybe we'll get to that tomorrow. I also want to get to a kitchen knife that now has a firmware update. We have to subscribe to everything now, including our knives. What happens if you don't pay the subscription? It's going to jump off the counter and go right at you, stab you in the chest. But speaking of Congress, we have an excellent, excellent guest, one of my very favorite members of Congress coming on Rylan Moore to discuss an issue that was denied during my Dartmouth debate with Mehdi Hasan a week ago. My favorite comment yesterday is from Jessica Haggerty, Z8X who says unhoused X cross out, done, untoothed, check mark. That's where it's at. It's like the Drake meme. It used to be bums and vagrants and indigence to refer to those people on the street. Then it became homeless, then it became unhoused. But Karen Bass has changed it. It's now untoothed. They don't have teeth. That's why we need to give your taxpayer money to give fake teeth to homeless, violent, schizophrenic meth heads. Of course, it's political common sense. Speaking of political common sense, very, very pleased to be joined now by one of my very, very favorite members of Congress. That would be West Virginia's Riley Moore. Congressman Moore, thank you for coming on the show.
- [35:48]
Riley Moore
Hey, Michael, thanks for having me on.
- [35:50]
Michael Knowles
Look, I wanna get your opinion on about a billion things. The first one, though, pertains to me. The things that pertain to me are on top of my mind.
- [35:59]
Donald Trump
More.
- [36:00]
Michael Knowles
I was at Dartmouth last week and I was debating the left wing pundit Mehdi Hasan. He used to have a show on msnbc, one of the leading left wing pundits, and we were debating whether or not President Trump has upheld the Constitution. I'm happy to say that I actually persuaded the Dartmouth audience Trump's constitutionality won the day. Even in the liberal Ivy League cause, it was clear it was the easiest case to argue in the world. Obviously upheld the Constitution. There was this weird digression in the debate where Mehdi Hasan denied that there was a genocide of Christians occurring in Nigeria. It was such a bizarre swerve and it was really shocking to me, actually. I thought, how could anybody deny this? And I know that among all the excellent work you're doing on domestic issues, other foreign issues, you have really focused in on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. So much so that the President has focused on that a little bit too, just to settle the score. Clear the record here is Mehdi Hasan, right? There's no genocide of Christians in Nigeria or what's going on.
- [37:03]
Riley Moore
Mehdi Hasan is absolutely wrong. And the interesting thing is this is the same narrative, I guess. They just send out, like talking points to every liberal and it's like, hey, here's the new narrative. They're saying the same thing in Congress. We had a hearing on this in Congress. Jay, Paul and everybody else were denying that there's any Christian genocide. They're trying to make it about this farmer herder violence, intercommunal conflict, when it's very clear what's happening. I've been to Nigeria. I went there. We went there in a congressional delegation, investigated this issue because the President asked me to do so. And I can tell you I've seen it with my own eyes. And the investigation that we undertook and the report that we presented to the President makes it very clear what is happening in Nigeria is a Christian genocide. So I'll give you an example. In the previous administration, Joe Biden, he kind of set the tone on this. He said, well, the violence is actually. It's being precipitated by climate change.
- [38:07]
Dr. Horton Advertiser
We have.
- [38:09]
Michael Knowles
I shouldn't laugh.
- [38:10]
Daily Wire Narrator
It's too dark.
- [38:11]
Michael Knowles
But the genocide is because of climate change.
- [38:15]
Riley Moore
Well, that's why people are getting killed because of climate change, because it's Ariel land conflicts and herder farmer conflicts. And so because of climate change, it's made it harder to grow crops and you graze cattle and all these things. Not due to the fact that there are Islamic terrorists just roaming the middle belt of Nigeria and just murdering men, women, children, priests, nuns, everybody, because they are Christian. They've burned down over 20,000 churches in Nigeria. We have well over 100,000 Christians murdered since 2009. And that just continues now because of the work President Trump has done. What we have done, we did see the administration over there in Nigeria start to move in a positive direction, but it's kind of backslid right now. And I did come out with a pretty forceful statement on it. But I can tell you as a fact, I met with people living in IDP camps, Internally Displaced Persons, Benway State, which is over 80% Christian, but 100% of those camps are filled with Christians. So these Fulani Islamic militants, if it were about land, why are they attacking refugee camps? I met a woman who had all five of her children murdered right in front of her. I met another woman who had her two daughters and husband murdered in front of her and they killed her unborn child. I mean, these are real horrific genocidal crimes that are taking place in Nigeria. That as Christians and you and I as Catholics, we can't turn a blind eye to. We cannot turn a blind eye to this. And they're trying to smooth this thing over as intercommunal violence or whatever it is. They can't take the narrative that there are Islamic terrorists, Muslims running around murdering Christians. It is what's happening. I've been there. It is exactly what is happening.
- [40:12]
Michael Knowles
Right. It's not the land, it's not the sun monster. It's specific people. We were talking about this at the top of the show when we were talking about Trump's trip in China. These two apparently different views of history. China taking this much more structural science of history, Thucydides trap kind of view of history, and then Trump taking, taking the individual, great man view of history. And you think, hey guys, it's not just the impersonal forces coming from the freaking sun. It's Islamic terror groups who are killing Christians. Those are really specific groups for specific reasons. But then on the question of America's role on the world stage, on America turning a blind eye or not turning a blind eye, how are we to think about this? Because so much of the language of the Right Maga, America first, has been about focusing on, on domestic issues and getting out of conflicts in the rest of the world. But then when you hear about an Islamic genocide of Christians in Nigeria, I don't know, I think any person with a beating heart and a well formed conscience says, well, hold on, we have to do something here. We can't just totally look away from this. So how should we be thinking of America's role in these conflicts?
- [41:21]
Riley Moore
Look, Michael, we're a Christian nation. We are 100%, we are a Christian nation. And I think we have an obligation to do something here. These are our brothers and sisters in Christ that are suffering for the profession of their faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We have to do something on this. And look, the President has designated them a country of particular concern, which opens up a bunch of levers in terms of sanctions and visa restrictions and all these things we can do. He did send the terrorists a Christmas gift last year, 12 Tomahawk cruise missiles. And I do believe that we are going to start to continue to engage in a more forceful manner on this if the Nigerians can't figure this out. We had come to the table wanting to work with them in Cooperation and coordination to help stabilize their country. And someone will say, well, you're only talking about the Christians. Yes, Muslims are being killed too. Of course they are. Because some of them won't submit to isis. They won't submit to Boko Haram. And it's horrific. Every life has value. It's terrible when anybody's murdered, but it is 5 to 1 Christians being killed in that country versus Muslims in a country that is 50% Muslim, 50% Christian. So it's the numbers bear it out. It all bears it out, what's happening here. But we have a duty, in my view, as a Christian nation to stand up for our brothers and sisters.
- [42:44]
Michael Knowles
Now, before I let you go, Riley, there are so much more I wanna talk to you about. I wanna talk to you about the Middle East, I wanna talk to you about China. I wanna talk to you about domestic issues. But I can't let you go because we've been talking about so much of Congress today without asking what is going to happen in the midterms. Obviously, there's a lot of focus on Thomas Massie's seat in Kentucky, just north of me, right here on that Republican primary. But then, even more important, what is going to happen for the gop, broadly. Because I was sitting down with a mutual friend of ours and your leader in the House, Mike Johnson. This was a couple months ago. And Speaker Johnson said, michael, I think we're gonna grow the majority. I said, what's in your coffee cup? Can I have whatever he's having? Can I get a shot of that too, please? That sounds great. And I know it's sort of his job to be encouraging, optimistic and rally the troops. But then I started to see the redistricting in Florida. I saw the redistricting, obviously, in Tennessee following the Supreme Court decision in Louisiana versus Calais, which struck down the Democrats. Racist gerrymandering, which gave some seats over to the gop. I saw the Virginia Supreme Court strike down the absurdly deceitful referendum, which duped a bunch of Virginia voters into disenfranchising the Republicans. All of a sudden, I'm saying, hold on. The GOP might pick up potentially 14 seats in the House. Maybe I don't need to be such a doomer. Where do we stand in the midterms?
- [44:07]
Riley Moore
Well, look, before they overturned that referendum in Virginia, I was not feeling very optimistic. But you had that VRA getting struck down. I'm feeling a lot better about it. So we're going to have a lot less seats that we're going to have to defend. That we're going to have to defend in this upcoming election, obviously. Look, history's against us in this. It has happened before, though, where we're able to maintain the majority. The end of the day, you're talking about 15 seats. 15 seats are going to decide the majority. And so we now have to play less defense and can go on more offense. I feel cautiously optimistic is what I'd say right now. But it's gonna be hard. This is not gonna be easy. This is not a slam dunk. This is gonna be hard, but it's gonna come down to 15 seats.
- [44:51]
Michael Knowles
Maybe just we need like three or four more court decisions. Get rid of like three or four more states and Democrat representation there, and then I'd feel even better. Riley, wonderful to see you. We could go on for another hour, so I very much look forward to having you back to talk about everything else.
- [45:08]
Riley Moore
No, thanks, Michael. God bless. Thank you.
- [45:10]
Michael Knowles
Good to see you. Now, speaking of God's blessings, today is Theology Thursday, and I'm very, very pleased to be joined by another friend of mine who has an important message for everybody. And to chatting with all of you in the Membrum segmentum, which means we gotta say goodbye to the hoi polloi. I love you guys too, on YouTube, but you gotta come on over if you want the real stuff, the hardcore black tar concentrate of the Michael Knowles show, go to DailyWire.com, use code KNOWLES K W L E S and check out for two months free on all annual plans.
- [45:49]
Daily Wire Narrator
Martin Luther King, Jr. Is an American icon widely considered one of the greatest Americans who ever lived. A man who had a vision for a colorblind society in post racial America. He had a dream. It's just not the dream you thought of were his true aims a colorblind society or something far more radical who bankrolled him? What unfolded behind the scenes in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963 was civil disobedience actually peaceful? We wanted to show you a clip of the I have a Dream speech, but according to our lawyers, we can't. In fact, King's family has made a lot of money suing media outlets. They want to silence critics like us. What they're doing makes it very difficult to judge Martin Luther King Jr. Not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character. Is America today stronger, more unified, and racially equal than before King's rise? These questions demand answers. And as Americans, we are entitled to a full accounting of the civil rights movement and its consequences. King's movement fundamentally transformed our country and our system of government.
- [46:54]
Michael Knowles
I speak as a citizen of the world. Each day the war goes on. The hatred increases, though the cause of evil prosper.
- [47:04]
Daily Wire Narrator
The first part of our two part special on the Civil Rights movement, a new Constitution, available now on Daily Wire. Plus,
- [47:17]
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