Loading summary
Transcript35 lines
- [00:00]
Michael Knowles
A man repeatedly rated the most conservative member of Congress is set to lose his primary tonight after President Trump singled him out for removal. We will examine the totally misunderstood political odyssey of Thomas Massie. Then an MSNBC anchor nearly combusts on air after Mike Johnson paraphrases the Declaration of Independence. I guess that should be expected. And an American mayor turns out to be a Chinese spy. Michael I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles Show. Welcome back to the show. Panda Express has just asked customers in MAGA hats to leave and even called the police. You know, there's an ancient Chinese idiom, no ticky, no washy, that refers to dry cleaners. Well, I think there's a new one that we have to add, which is Ware. Hattie. No, no. Crab Rangooni. I don't know. I still have to workshop it a little bit. But anyway, we'll get to this very unjust discrimination. First, I want to tell you about Balance of nature. Go to balanceofnature.com, use code knowles. The reality is most Americans do not eat enough fruits and vegetables. It's true. Everybody knows it. You should eat better. Everyone has plans of becoming the kind of person who's juicing kale at 5:30 in the morning. Then life happens. You travel, you work, you grab food on the run, you eat whatever's available between meetings or kids activities. You have Arby's multiple times a week when you're on the road. I don't know, I'm just being hypothetical here. That is one of the many reasons I love Balance of Nature. Balance of Nature takes whole food ingredients from fruits and vegetables, uses a special vacuum cold process to stabilize the naturally occurring phytonutrients. The ingredients are then powdered and encapsulated, making it easy to supplement your diet with real whole food ingredients. The goal is not to replace eating fruits and veggies. It's to help supplement your diet. Realistically. This is very important for me because, you know, I'm on the road a lot and I'm not always eating the best. Balance of Nature focuses on whole food phytonutrition rather than trying to market some miracle chemical compound of the week right now. You can go to balanceofnature.com today. Get an additional 10% off the fruit and veggie supplements subscription when you use discount code Knowles K N O W L E S All eyes are on Kentucky, just north of my state of Tennessee, because Thomas Massie, who has been repeatedly over the years, at least rated the most conservative member of Congress, Thomas Massie might very well go down tonight in his primary challenge because President Trump has singled him out for removal. So one is that likely to happen? It's looking pretty good. The prediction markets, which are not 100% reliable, but they have Massie going down. The, the polls are looking very rough for Massie right now. And over the weekend, President Trump scored another one of these primary wins. Trump pointed to Bill Cassidy, Republican Senator, and he took him out in his primary. Bill Cassidy had voted against Trump. He's a Republican, but he voted against Trump and Trump beat him. He opposed Cassidy. Cassidy finished third in Louisiana Senate race, so that means he won't be in the GOP runoff. Now we turn to the lower house and see if Trump can take out Thomas Massie. What is the issue with Massie? Massey's a little bit of a different, different character because if you look at all the various scorecards, the Conservative Review and the Liberty Score and all these organizations that rank members of Congress over the last 10 years or so, Thomas Massie has ranked as one of, if not the most conservative congressman. So why would Trump single him out for removal? JD Vance was asked this question at a TPUSA event. Here's his answer.
- [03:54]
J.D. Vance
I think the problem with Thomas, and I've told him this in private and now I guess I'll say it in public, is it's one thing to disagree with the party on a particular issue. It's one thing to take, you know, to take to have your independent stand on a number of questions. And by the way, some of the stuff where Thomas Massie has been independent against the Republican Party, I've agreed with him, with Thomas and I worked together during 2023 when where I was trying to stop the limitless flow of American money to Ukraine and Thomas was one of the people I was working closest with it. But that's one thing. Being independent, having your own opinions is one thing. Voting against the party on every single issue, you're eventually going to make too many enemies. And that is the problem that Thomas has had. It's not one issue. It's not three or four issues. It's that every time that we've needed Thomas for a vote, that he has been completely unwilling to provide it. That is why the President, United States has trained his ire on Thomas Massie. It's because we can never count on him for some of the most difficult votes. I wish that that weren't the case. I say that as somebody who's known Thomas well before I got into politics, but Politics is politics. And when you always vote against the party, you can't expect the party to actually back you.
- [05:08]
Michael Knowles
Okay, before everyone bites my head off or bites the vice president's head off Here, notice what J.D. vance is saying. J.D. vance is not saying that Thomas Massie votes against the Republicans 100% of the time. He says that Thomas Massie has voted against the Republicans recently on all of the crucial votes. Not on the easy votes, but on the crucial votes. The votes when the party needs him, when they lean on him, they say it's gonna be a tough vote, but we need your support. JD Vance is saying on those votes, that is when Massie has voted against the gop. And so a lot of people love Massey. Massey is super libertarian. So especially the libertarian wing of the GOP loves Massey. I'm not a libertarian. I think the libertarians are wrong on first principles. I think they misunderstand human nature. Libertarianism is an offshoot of liberalism. I'm not a liberal. There are plenty of liberals and classical liberals and libertarians in the conservative coalition. I'm not part of that wing of the conservative coalition. I'm part of the conservative wing of the conservative coalition, the traditionalist wing, the. The old school conservative. Nevertheless, I like Thomas Massie well enough. I have nothing in particular against Thomas Massie. So the big Massie supporters are gonna blame two or three big forces if he does go down tonight. One, they're gonna blame Trump cause Trump singled him out for removal. Two, they're going to blame the pro Israel donors because Thomas Massie has opposed aid to Israel in certain cases. And a lot of pro Israel donors are pouring money to remove him from office. But I don't think that totally explains it. There have been other members of Congress who have opposed Trump at different points over the years in a modest or moderate way. There have been plenty of GOP congressmen who have opposed Israel, who have voted against funding for the state of Israel or extra military aid or whatever. Trump didn't single them out for removal. Even the super pro Israel donors didn't dump all the money in to remove them. Obviously, those two factors are at play. But I think what J.D. vance is saying is the more perceptive observation. In this most recent term, Thomas Massie has voted with the GOP 77.7% of the time. The median GOP Congressman. Don't forget Republicans on Capitol Hill. It's like herding cats. They're very independent. That's generally a strength of the gop because the Dems are always in lockstep so when things are working for them, it works really well. And when things aren't working, like in the case of peak wokeness, then it works really, really badly and they get blown out in all the election. But it is undeniable that Thomas Massie has voted with the GOP much less this recent term than the median GOP Congressman. And this is crucial. Thomas Massie has voted with the GOP much less in this term than he has in previous terms. In the previous Congressional term, Massie voted with the GOP 91% of the time. That's a lot more than 77.7. And in the term before that, Massey voted with the GOP 95% of the time. So you can like Thomas Massie. I'm not saying you can't like Thomas Massie, especially if you're a libertarian. You probably love Thomas Massie and you can think that Massie is right to buck the gop. You can say, I hate the GOP and I'm glad that Massey's bucking the gop. That's entirely your right to think that. But there is no denying that that Massie is voting against the party more frequently these days and that there is a trend that as the years go by, in the last two or three terms, he is voting with the GOP less and less and he has become unreliable on the crucial votes. And so the point that JD is making is not that Thomas Massie is the worst person in the world and he's absolutely terrible and he's worse than a leftist. The point that JD is making is that if you buck the party, especially on the crucial votes, you cannot expect the party to support you. And you should not be terribly surprised when the party garners all of its resources, the donors and the media and the elected politicians to try to take you out and replace you with someone who is going to be more supportive of the party. You can say, to hell with the party, I don't like the party. That's not the point I'm making. That's not the point that the Vice President's making. The point is just this is how electoral politics work in a system when you have two political parties. And so Massey should not be surprised by this. You even see this Laura Loomer, an eccentric character, Laura Loomer just posted this video of Thomas Massie expressing his feelings for the Republican Party.
- [09:46]
Rob Finnerty
So, Congressman, in the last two weeks you repeated AOC's talking points in Venezuela and Jasmine Crockett has reached, tweeted you, when will you change your Party affiliation to Democrat.
- [09:58]
Michael Knowles
I thought you knew.
- [10:00]
J.D. Vance
I vote with Republicans 91% of the time, and the 9% I don't. They're taken up for pedophiles starting another war or bankrupting our country.
- [10:09]
Michael Knowles
Okay, so hold on, hold on. You see, obviously Massie's had enough of this hostile line of questioning, but notice what he says. First of all, he says, I vote with the GOP 91% of the time. That was true last term. That's not true this term. But then he says, no, look, I vote with the gop. I'm part of the gop. I vote with the gop. Except they're a bunch of pedophiles. That's what he's saying. That's the first charge he makes. He says, no, I vote with the gop, except when they're dirty rotten pedophiles, which they're not pedophiles. That's not even political hyperbole. It's just a lie. But what that expresses is a contempt for the party, a special kind of contempt that you don't really see with other GOP congressmen who have voted against any of these issues that Massey's talking about, who have voted against spending bills, who have voted against funding of Israel, who have voted against. Who have voted against Trump. Sometimes it represents a special kind of contempt. And so it should not be surprising that the party has turned on him. Some people are asking what on the substantive questions, you know, when Massie votes against the gop, what do you think of that? Well, you go through the list of what he's voted against the GOP on. He voted against the GOP on House leadership. He voted against Mike Johnson. I think Mike Johnson's great. I think he's actually a very good House speaker, especially cuz that's the worst job in Washington. He voted against the big beautiful bill. I support the big beautiful bill. I think it was, given the practical constraints of politics in the year of our Lord 2026, not in some ideal world where the government operates totally differently than it does, but in practical reality, which I hate to say it, the Libertarians have difficulty with. So they take their supposedly principled votes that don't actually accomplish anything politically. But on those votes, I actually don't think Massey was totally right. He might be principled in his votes, but I don't think he was totally right. Regardless, this dynamic should not be surprising, and the stakes are very high here. If Trump is able to remove Thomas Massie, what that means is Trump still has an ironclad grip on the GOP if Massie wins his primary, what that represents is that actually maybe local politics matters a little bit more than we all thought it did. We all thought our politics were just totally national. Now maybe local politics really does matter. And two, maybe there are real fractures and fissures within the conservative coalition. Those are the stakes tonight. And for the people who are viewing this in this hyper ideological way, I would say that is not the best way to view politics. Cause politics is not abstraction. Politics is not pure philosophy. Conservative politics should not be ideology. Conservatism, in my view, as I've said many times over the years, is more an inclination. There are certain fundamental objective truths, a transcendent moral order, the recognition that God created the world, the recognition that there is such a thing as providence, all the things that our founding fathers and framers wrote about. But there is not a five point list of policies on the back of a napkin that defines conservatism. Conservatives have held different views on all manners of policies. Free trade versus tariffs, more migration versus restricting migration, foreign intervention versus foreign restraint. Conservatives have held both sides of those issues. For the people who want to say that Massey is the truest conservative because he's libertarian, I'll point out that the conservative movement became synonymous with libertarianism only about 50 years ago. It really wasn't for most of the history of conservatism. And I don't think true conservatism really is libertarian. So those are the stakes tonight. Will the party reassert control over its members? Kick out people who are hostile to the party? Does Trump still have control of that party which he took over in a hostile way 10 years ago? And are the fissures over issues like foreign funding or Israel funding? Issues like spending, which the GOP always talks a good game on but never actually shows up on, probably cause of the practical constraints of lowercase D Democratic politics. For all of these issues and more, is there a real crack in the conservative movement? That's what's on display tonight. But people who are trying to make this a pure game of ideology, I think they're missing the point. Politics is not chiefly about ideology. And conservative politics is actually averse to ideology in its very foundation. Okay, speaking of Congressman, speaking of Mike Johnson, MSNBC's anchor Katie Tour nearly combusted on air when she heard Mike Johnson describe God and the Declaration of Independence. Before we get to that, speaking of God, I want to tell you about hallow. Go to hallow.com knowles May is mental health Awareness Month and it is probably arriving at just the right time for a lot of people. Maybe a little too late actually. Because even when life is objectively good, modern life can feel exhausting. Constant notifications, constant pressure, constant responsibility. Work, family, schedules, finances, headlines, obligations. It can feel like your attention is being pulled in 10 different directions all the time. This time of year often makes it even more intense. School years ending, summer schedules, starting vacations to plan, events to attend. Even more commitments stacked onto an already busy life. A lot of people are carrying stress. They barely even notice anymore because they've gotten so used to operating at that level constantly. That is one reason prayer really matters. Studies have shown that prayer can help reduce stress, improve mental health and lower cortisol levels. Clavicular would be very happy. Beyond the science of it, prayer creates space to step outside the noise for a moment and remember that not everything depends entirely on you. That is the idea behind Hallow's new detachment Challenge. Detachment doesn't mean indifference or withdrawing from your responsibilities. It means loosening your grip on things that ultimately you cannot control. Placing them in God's hands instead. Right now go to hallow.com knowles download the hallow app get three months for free hallow.com, h a l l o w.com knowles Canada wl ets for three months free folks. Very exciting. As America turns 250 we celebrate a quarter millennium of the greatest country that we all love. I am thrilled to announce the limited edition America 250 expansion pack for the Daily Wire's best selling game yes or no Pre order right now@dailywire.com Shop over 120 brand new cards covering the great American debate. Was the Civil War about slavery? Should Greenland be the 51st state? Was Truman right to drop the nuke? I have my answers. I want to know yours. More importantly, we need to know what your mother in law thinks. Pre order right now dailywire.com Shop Limited release these will only be available this year. America's 250th. You have to secure yours now. They will not last and it's just a beautiful pack. The yes or no America 250 expansion pack available exclusively@dailywire.com shop pre order now. There was an event over the weekend. I didn't make it out to it. A lot of my friends were there. I did not make it out to it. I will be doing another America 250th religious event actually coming up in Wisconsin, but I didn't make it out to this one. So Mike Johnson showed up, gave an Excellent speech about the role of God and Providence in the founding of America.
- [17:00]
Mike Johnson
And now, as we approach the 250th anniversary of American independence, we face a new, new set of challenges in a new era. In recent years, we've seen sinister ideologies sow confusion and discord among our people. We've witnessed attacks on our history, on our heroes, and the cherished moral and spiritual identity of this great nation. These voices insist to the young and impressionable that our story, the American story, is one of oppression and hypocrisy and failure, and that this story can only be understood through the lens of our sins. But Father, we reject that. We rebuke it in your name. Those voices have seeked to distort the self evident truth that we know so well that our founders boldly proclaim the Declaration that our rights do not derive from the government. They come from you, our Creator and Heavenly Father.
- [18:04]
Michael Knowles
Okay, this is basic stuff. This is American Civics 101, which of course was too much for Katie Tur on msnbc, Mississippi. Now it's called who nearly Combusted on Air by this shocking suggestion of Mike Johnson that our rights come from God. What about this passage from Mike Johnson
- [18:27]
Mike Johnson
declaring that our rights do not derive
- [18:30]
Michael Knowles
from government, they come from you, our Creator and Heavenly Father.
- [18:35]
Mike Johnson
Is this him putting God over the declaration of independence?
- [18:40]
Michael Knowles
McKay?
- [18:41]
McKay (MSNBC Anchor)
Well, you know, I actually think that that idea is not wholly uncommon. I mean, the idea that we have certain inalienable rights that come from God can be read in a fairly benign way, which is basically that we have innate human rights that our Constitution and our government, our democratic government are meant to codify, right? That idea is not totally abnormal. I think that the thing that, you know, might alarm some people is some of the rhetoric that we heard at this rally that we are in a spiritual battle, right? That the forces of good and evil are at work here and that partisan politics is injected directly into the spiritual biblical rhetoric.
- [19:28]
Michael Knowles
I love this poor guy, this poor guy who's trying not to embarrass the MSNBC anchorage, but who realizes that what she's saying is completely crazy. She says this idea that Mike Johnson just brought up, that our rights come from God, I mean, isn't that contradictory? When you read the Declaration of Independence, isn't that totally opposed to the Declaration of Independence? And you say, well, hold on, it's been a minute since I read the Declaration, but I seem to recall that the Declaration says in its most famous passage, we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Not only is the notion that our rights come from God, not contrary to the Declaration, that is the thesis of the Declaration of Independence. That is the central claim of the Declaration of Independence is that our rights come from God. And therefore the Founding Fathers had a right to. To overthrow their government. That's the whole foundational premise of the American Revolution. And so Katie Tour apparently was not aware of this, had not read the Declaration, just thought that it sounded like the sort of thing that would be contrary to the Declaration. And then this guy who realizes that she's wrong, he says, well no, I mean it's not like the craziest thing, cuz it's exactly what the Declaration says. But you know, and it might be kind of benign, but. And you say but what? He says, but what's really freaking people out is the notion that there is spiritual battle. The left is now denying spiritual battle. Hold on. The nation is predicated on the belief that God exists. God spirit, that God exists, and that he endows us with certain rights which are not physical, they're not material, they are an immaterial substance like a spirit. And that there are some good things and some bad things. Some things are better than other things. Like for instance, overthrowing a tyrannical government would be a good thing. Better than suffering under oppression, again part of the central claim of the Declaration of Independence. So his answer is totally incoherent, but at the very least he recognizes that the left is in a big conundrum here because they have inadvertently placed themselves in direct opposition to the Declaration of Independence. And then they project that onto the right. Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, who is basically just quoting the Declaration of Independence. And they, in their ignorance, or maybe their willful ignorance, they accidentally admit to the thing that they are projecting onto their political opponents. Bad news for the Democrats, because politics 101. Whenever it's election time, we have to get Back to Politics 101. Here's a really basic piece of political advice if you want to succeed in politics, usually 999 out of a thousand times, you need to wrap yourself in the flag. You need to express your views as if they are part of the tradition of your country, as if they come from the deep wellsprings of your country. Now ideally that would be true. But cynical revolutionaries, at the very least, the good cynical revolutionaries recognize that at the very least you need to pretend that your ideas come from the wellsprings of the country, the traditions of the country. The left can't really do that. Right now. They're out here mocking the Declaration of Independence in an election year where all the historical forces say they should win in a landslide and they're totally squandering it, which is fine by me. Now, speaking of great powers, President Trump has just posted a picture that has raised eyebrows. It is him walking around a military base next to a gigantic bald, gray alien. And this has raised eyebrows. I love this post. I love it because it tells me everything I need to know about supposed ufo, uap, extraterrestrial disclosure. We'll get to that momentarily. First, though, I want to tell you about Mack weldon. Go to mackweldon.com, code Michael M I C H A E L Seasons change and sometimes you're going to rotate out your routine a little bit. Okay? There's always a point a year where people start behaving like human beings again. The weather improves, calendars fill up, people start going outside voluntarily. Suddenly you realize half your wardrobe was built around surviving the winter. That is part of the reason brands like Mack Weldon make sense this time of year. Mack Weldon makes clothes that hit a very specific sweet spot, comfortable enough for everyday life, still polished enough that you can look put together when you leave the house. Most men are looking for exactly that. Not flashy clothes, not trend chasing, just classic pieces that fit well, feel comfortable and work. Whether you're traveling, heading to dinner, working, or running around all day, I strongly recommend Mack Weldon's stretch twill chinos and button downs. They're really, really good examples of that. You can feel comfortable, you can be a little sporty, but also you can look really good at the meeting, at dinner. I love it. I'm a big, big fan of Mack Weldon. The Ace collection in particular is especially built around modern life right now. Get moving. With Mack Weldon Comfortable anywhere, go to mackweldon.com get 20% off your first order of $125 or more with promo code Michael. That's M A C K W-E-L--O-N.com promo code Michael M I C H A E L Trump posts a picture on Truth Social. It's obviously an AI generated image of him walking next to an alien in handcuffs. Now it's not the best AI picture because the handcuffs actually aren't even connected. His right hand handcuff is it not connected to the chain that is connected to the left hand handcuff. But anyway, it's fine. He's walking around with some military personnel, secret service agents. And there's an added joke in the picture, which is that you see some guy's fingers somewhat covering the lens. It's charming. Assuming that this is not a real photograph, that Trump is not walking around with a 7 foot tall, gray, bald alien with gigantic black eyes, what this tells us about the UFO disclosure, I've gone deep on this position. I've put all of my chips on Red 23 on this position, is that the UFO disclosure is a bunch of nothing. It is a nonsense. It's not that there aren't objects flying around our airspace, objects that we may not know the origin of potentially, but there are no aliens. Aliens aren't real. Even if there were aliens, we don't have their bodies. We don't work with them, they don't control our governments. They don't rise up from out of the ocean. They don't appear in grainy images. This is kind of even a joke about the grainy images of the aliens, because this is a really clear image of an alien. If the Trump administration were on the brink of massive UFO disclosure, where we talk about how the aliens secretly run the world, if that were real, as many people on the Internet say, that it is real, Trump would not be posting this picture. If the UFO disclosure were a real super serious thing, Trump would not be making jokes about it. It's a big joke. It's kind of fun, it's weird, it's eccentric. It's the sort of thing that gets people really animated. It's tabloid. It's all the stuff Trump likes. But I'm willing to double my bet. Now, I already went all in, but I'm willing to double my all in bet. The aliens are not real. Your move, Matt Walsh. Your move, buddy. What you gonna say now? Now, speaking of aliens, we turn to aliens closer to home, the kind that come from foreign countries, not foreign planets. And we find out that there is a mayor, a Southern California mayor, who is a Chinese spy, and she's pled guilty to being a Chinese spy. She's a foreign agent for America's chief adversary around the world, Communist China. And what's so delightful about the story is that NBC News and reporting on this NBC having a rough day. NBC did the earnest version of a Norm MacDonald joke. This is how NBC News reported on it. All right, go back to my NBC post. The resignation of a Southern California mayor who pled guilty to acting as a Foreign agent for China has sparked backlash and reignited fears of anti Asian discrimination. Hold on, wait, hold on. Discovering that America's chief adversary around the world has installed a mayor in a Southern California town, like one of our elected officials is actually secretly a spy for China. The first emotion that that evokes in me is not fear of a potential anti Asian backlash. That's not my chief concern. My chief concern is that China is installing spies throughout our government. The Norm joke, I've played it before, I'll play it again. You can never watch too much, Norm. Norm made the same joke five, 10 years ago about ISIS.
- [28:18]
Norm MacDonald
Well, I can't say my friend's name, but he said his biggest fear is that ISIS or some terrorist group like that would get a hold of a dirty bomb and exploded over a major city within the United States and kill tens of millions of people. Because then the blowback against innocent Muslims would be absolutely terrible. Yeah, that's Ruth, that's true. Okay, let's do some jokes.
- [29:02]
Michael Knowles
Of course. No, I mean, that's the fear. Could you imagine the backlash? Could you imagine 10 million dead Americans? The backlash would just be terrible. NBC straight faced that joke, just like Norm's guest couldn't actually laugh at the joke. So this woman, it's Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang, who confessed, she admitted to federal law enforcement, she quote, secretly served the interests of the Chinese government. And this is always how the libs react to this. Do you remember a story, we covered it on the show last week. There was this guy, this black mentally ill criminal, who had a rap sheet a mile long and he was most recently arrested cause he pushed an old man, a 78 year old white guy, down the stairs of a subway, killed the guy almost instantly and he was finally taken in. And then it turned out this guy had been brought in for questioning multiple times, including from incidents on the subway. He goes up to these two young women on the subway, starts grabbing at him, kicking at them, chasing them through the subway. They finally run out of the subway station. Luckily he's still following them. They run into some cops and the cops stop the guy and they say, hey ladies, is everything okay? And the young women, these 23 year old white women say, huh? Oh yeah, it's fine, I'm not cooperating with you cops. They refused to describe what the criminal had done to them on the subway. And so the cops had to let the guy go. And when the woman was asked about this, one of the 23 year olds, she told the New York Post, yeah, well I didn't wanna cooperate with the cops because, you know, I don't know, I mean, I guess I just didn't want another black man to go to jail. I was just so feared of the backlash. I didn't want a black criminal to go to jail. So now an innocent elderly white man is dead. I would rather have an innocent elderly white man dead than a black mentally ill criminal go to jail. I just, you know, the backlash would be so terrible. That's exactly what they do. The libs are always prioritizing the perpetrators of crime over the victims of crime and they're always prioritizing foreigners over our own citizens. You saw this even there was a now famous heat map that was going viral about a year, year and a half ago where it showed that conservatives care most about the people closest to them. Our kids, our wives, our families, and then people in our town and then people in our state and people in our country. And so what the vice president described as the Ordo amori strung on St. Augustine or the Ordo Caritati strung on St. Thomas Aquinas, the order of charity, the notion which comes from the Bible, it comes from First Timothy, I think first or second Timothy, which says that we have a special obligation to care for those closest to us. If we care for those who are furthest away from us more than we care for those who are closest to us, we've actually done something wrong. That's actually disordered and unnatural for the libs. That just is their disposition. The libs always care about humanity in the abstract. They just don't like humans here at home. The lib will. Well, they actually don't give that much to charity, but they'll give taxpayer money to fund some poor person that they've never met on the other side of the world. But then they'll murder their own babies in the womb or they'll disown their own families here at home. They're always doing this. And so here the fear is not that a hostile foreign government is taking over political offices in our country. No, no, no. The fear is, can you imagine the backlash against other agents of the Communist Chinese Party? Okay, speaking of the Chinese, Panda Express, a Panda Express location has just asked customers wearing MAGA hats to leave and then went further, called the police on them. We'll get to this report. Very few people are talking about it. Rob Finnerty at Newsmax says very few other people are. We'll get to that momentarily. First, though, my favorite comment Yesterday from James Langford981. I hear Chud the builder was born at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Yeah, I mean, I hope the SPLC at least sends CHUD some cigarettes in jail, because they're prison. Because that's not. He really got hung out to dry, didn't he? Okay, if you wear a MAGA hat, I guess we'll find out if there are true fissures in MAGA tonight in that primary in Kentucky. But if you still wear the MAGA hat, you better not walk into a Panda Express.
- [33:03]
Rob Finnerty
They don't seem to like my hat, guys. They're very angry about it. So I was wondering what the deal was. Did I do something? Thank you seem like it? No. You're just staring at me. I gave you a thumbs up. You appreciate it? No. You like it? Oh, no, I was on my way out. I was just giving him a thumbs up. We could leave. I'll leave. We will. We will. Thanks. I appreciate you guys. You guys are very sweet and nice. You're very nice. Thank you. I appreciate you. It's the chefs that seem very angry.
- [33:38]
Michael Knowles
Okay, so he's in there, and these workers at Panda Express are saying, I leave. Get out of here now. You say, well, why is this guy filming? I don't know. Yeah, I'm always a little skeptical of these videos if they're maybe gotcha videos where the guy's filming. But here, by all accounts, they go in, guy's on his phone, and they order their Panda Express. They're wearing Trump hats, they're eating, and these workers are making faces at them. And you see some of the workers saying, get out. You know, pushing, moving their thumb, saying, get out of the store. And then the way that I really end up siding with the guys filming is one of the workers follows these guys out of the store. They even call the cops.
- [34:16]
Rob Finnerty
I just gave you a thumbs up. And you guys seemed angry. And then they told me to leave. So I'm. I'm on a live.
- [34:21]
Michael Knowles
Just look at you. You're good?
- [34:22]
Rob Finnerty
Yeah.
- [34:23]
Michael Knowles
You're good?
- [34:24]
Rob Finnerty
We're good.
- [34:24]
Michael Knowles
Okay. It's not that serious. It's a public Saigon. We don't actually edit. It's just calling. You can go. We can stay here. We left.
- [34:33]
Rob Finnerty
Yeah, no, I was in there, and they were, like, staring at me, and he wouldn't say anything. I just gave him a thumbs up. And then he. You guys need to leave. I was like, all right, I'll leave.
- [34:41]
Michael Knowles
So I walk outside.
- [34:42]
Rob Finnerty
I'm still record. And then she starts calling the police on me.
- [34:45]
Unidentified Interviewer or Caller
Yeah, Danny. What. What the cops do and did they ever tell you, like, why they were so offended by a Make America Great Again hat, which had been around now for more than 10 years?
- [34:55]
Michael Knowles
Man, the cops showed up, they were great, you know, but they didn't tell us why the hat offended them. No.
- [35:02]
Unidentified Interviewer or Caller
You gonna go back to that Panda Express?
- [35:04]
Michael Knowles
We might.
- [35:06]
Unidentified Interviewer or Caller
Let me know if you do.
- [35:06]
Rob Finnerty
I don't blame it.
- [35:07]
Michael Knowles
We might do a flag wave there. I hope they do go back to the Panda Express. The thing Rob says here I think is crucial. It's not just that these guys walked in wearing a political hat, especially the disfavored political hat of our politically correct regime, not the disfavored hat of the people. Cuz don't forget Trump won the popular vote. So most people support Trump, or at least supported Trump in 2024. But what's so crazy is the hat's been around for 10 years. This is not new, this is not shocking. It's the most recognizable symbol of modern American politics for the last decade. And even that was enough to get these guys kicked out of a restaurant, which is illegal, that's a violation of their civil rights, and gets the workers to call the cops on them, to call the cops for wearing the hat of the President who just won his second term with the popular vote. So these guys are totally in the right. Even if I'm skeptical of guys filming in a restaurant or you're trying to get content or whatever, these guys are totally in the right. And it's a reminder of what's gonna happen if we lose, if we lose solidarity in our political party. So we fray so that we give our opponents, who are totally unified, the ability to take political power again. If we let the perfect get in the way of the good, what's gonna happen? They're going to kick us out of restaurants for being ordinary conservatives, center right. They're going to threaten us with violence. They're going to celebrate if violence is committed against us. They've shown this repeatedly time and time again. And so we really do have to stand our ground and we have to wield political power. And I think this might also play into a little bit why some people react negatively against politicians who are more interested in taking individual stands, who are more interested maybe in going on television, who are more interested in sole votes where they're not really working to accomplish all that much, but they're just kind of making a stand to, I don't know whether for moral reasons or just to puff themselves up. That totally misses the moment. It misses the stakes of the Politics we actually live in now, Speaking of real hardcore nuts and bolts, politics and injustice, a beloved liberal relative of mine texted me an article just yesterday and said, and it was an article about Trump's apparent corruption. Terrible, awful corruption. Always trying to get me to be a liberal Democrat or something. So this is the terrible corruption. What is the corruption? Well, apparently this refers to the recent creation of a $1.8 billion fund. It's actually a $1.776 billion fund, 1776, to compensate people who were targeted by the Biden Justice Department and by Democrats. So it is a taxpayer fund that will go to compensate people who were the victims of political persecution under Biden. And this goes back even further. Cause, yes, Biden was spying on Catholics. Yes, Biden was imprisoning pro life grannies. Yeah, Biden was really wielding in an unjust way. This goes back much earlier. Barack Obama turned his IRS into an attack dog to try to suppress conservative groups. Lois Lerner, the IRS deputy who was in charge of this, admitted to it, came out and actually apologized after the IRS inspector general found out that Obama was wielding the power of the state to suppress conservative groups to subvert our democracy. And so Trump just unveiled this. Why? Because Trump was suing the government for $10 billion. He was suing the IRS, the aforementioned IRS that had been suppressing conservatives. And so as the settlement for this lawsuit that Trump had brought as a private citizen, not as the president, there was this new fund that was set up, $1.776 billion, because the IRS was going after its political enemies, which included Trump and his family, but included many, many other conservatives. So before you start to claim that this is a corrupt fund, it's worth pointing out that Trump will not be paid out of the fund. The Democrats are trying to pretend that Trump is creating the slush fund to enrich himself and his family. He will not be paid out of this. Part of the settlement is the IRS will apologize to Trump and to his family, but Trump and his family will not be paid out of the new fund. Who will be paid out of the new fund? People who were targeted who are some prime suspects. We don't know exactly who's gonna be paid out of it. Do you remember the McCloskeys and in St. Louis, the McCloskeys iconic photo. It should have been the COVID of Brooks Brothers magazine. The BLM riders show up to their home to threaten them as they're murdering dozens of people, as they're burning down houses and buildings across the country. They show up to Their home. And the McCloskey showed up outside their own door with weapons saying, hey, don't try to burn down my home. It's not gonna turn out well for you. Wearing a great pink Brooks Brothers polo shirt, nice chinos, just the emblem of conservative Republicans. And the government went after the McCloskeys for this, for exercising their basic constitutional rights and their really basic rights to defend themselves. Getting back to what we were talking about at the top of the show when MSNBC was shocked and appalled that we believe that our rights come from God and not the government. The civil law is an ordinance of reason for the common good by him who has care of the community and promulgated. The civil law in America derives from our conception of natural rights. Natural rights, which are themselves a derivation of natural law. Natural law, which is man's participation in the eternal law. So you have this line from basic civil laws, you know, even laws against jaywalking all the way up to God and morality and the rights of Americans have been violated by the government. Todd Blanche, the Attorney General, says the machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American. And it is this department's intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens again. This is so crucial, because here's what happens. The Democrats wield the government against us, and then there are all these horrible wrongs. You know, the McCloskeys or Pro Lifers, have jackbooted thugs show up to their homes in front of their seven kids, arrest them for praying and demonstrating at abortion clinics, arresting pro life grannies, spying on churches, on and on and on. The Democrats do all that. Then the Republicans get into power and they say, we're gonna expose this. See, we've got the proof that you were persecuting us for years, and then nothing happens. And it's not like we shame the Democrats. They don't have any shame for that. All that happens is when we lose power, eventually the Democrats just do it again. In other words, there's no justice, there's no compensation, there's no teeth to the exposure. So what Trump and the attorney general are doing here and what the IRS has done in its settlement is say, no, there's gonna be a consequence. We are going to compensate the conservatives who we, the government, under Democrat leadership, abused. It's gonna hurt us, the government and the liberal establishment. We're gonna have to pay you guys back. For the people who say this is a slush fund for the enrichment of Trump, one that's just like, literally not True. Cause Trump isn't getting paid out of it. But two, for those who say this is evidence of, I don't know, political favoritism paying off, our political allies say, hold on, that isn't what this is. But what do you think USAID was? Remember Elon came in in the early days of this Trump administration with Doge and started tearing up usaid. Usaid, which was paying for a bunch of stupid stuff overseas, like transgender ballets in the Philippines, but also which was funneling taxpayer money, laundering it through left wing NGOs like the Tides center, the Tides foundation, and then Tides, taking that money, not sending it overseas as USAID money is supposed to do, but sending it right back into America to fund the BLM riots. The BLM riots which were murdering dozens of people, which were burning down buildings, which were threatening people like the McCloskeys. That's your taxpayer money that's doing that. What do you think this stuff is? What about all those Medicaid programs that were supposed to help poor people in Minnesota and California and Ohio? What do you think that is? That's not going to help poor people. By and large. What that's doing is going to fund foreign criminals, in some cases, going to fund foreign criminals who are in America who are sending that money to foreign terrorist groups overseas. What do you think that is? That's a slush fund. That's corruption. That's paying off your political allies. What Trump is doing here is a beautiful corrective to this because one, practically speaking, it's true money will go toward conservatives, but money will go toward conservatives who have been abused by the liberal government. This is great. I love this. My only complaint about this fund, this 1776 $1.8 billion fund, I wish it were bigger. I wish it were bigger. And I wish it would go to many more conservatives who have been abused by the system. Okay, so much more to get to. A lot of people trying to draw a wedge between Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President J.D. vance, trying to create division within the GOP. I guess that's the whole theme of the show today, creating division within the gop. GOP trying to establish unity. Well, Rubio's not taking the bait. We'll have to get to that tomorrow because it's TE Tuesday. The rest of the show continues now. You do not want to miss it. Become a member. Use code knowleskander Wles at checkout for two months free on all annual plans.