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Michael Knowles
Betty Boop is now black, Cuba is about to be America and a Democrat congressional candidate wants to put Jews into concentration camps. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles Show. Welcome back to the show. President Trump comes out swing against James Tallarico, the Democrat senate candidate in Texas who some have called the gay Pete Buttigieg. We will get to that momentarily. First though, I wanna tell you about PureTalk. Go to PureTalk.com knowles kenna w l E S One of the stranger habits people have is spending huge amounts of time trying to save a few dollars on trivial purchases while continuing to overpay for the same monthly bills year after year without ever reconsidering them. Wireless service, probably one of the clearest examples of that. PureTalk, which is a veteran led company, it is backed by 100% US based customer service now offers unlimited high speed data for just $34.99 a month. What is very interesting is this same plan used to cost substantially more but PureTalk has kept lowering prices while still using the same nationwide 5G network that people already rely on, not just a similar network. I want you to hear me clearly. They're using the best towers, the best network. So then the question is why are people paying more for these major carriers? Why are they paying these bloated fees? And it's because one the corporations just have bloat in their employment because they've got all of these sorts of stores. They're paying for a ton of marketing. Well folks, I've had my PureTalk phone for years at this point it is phenomenal. The service is great, the customer service and the cell service is wonderful. You can even take it overseas. If you're going on vacation across the pond this summer, go to PureTalk.comKnowles K wlas claim unlimited high speed data for just $34.99. That is PureTalk.comKnowles Switch to my wireless company, America's wireless company, PureTalk. All right, the most important global news that is going on right now, even as we speak, the situation might be changing. On the ground is Mayflower cigars might be getting a new blend because the United States might be conquering Cuba. Here is President Trump. While the Iran crisis is still ongoing, simmering in the Strait of Hormuz at a very low boil, President Trump turns to our little neighbor 90 miles off the coast of Florida and says CIA
Marco Rubio
there we have Marco is there. Marco's parents, as you know, were from Cuba. So we have a lot of expertise in Cuba and it's not going to be like the biggest thing we've ever done. But I will tell you, to a lot of people, it's going to be of the most important. They've been looking for this moment for 65 years.
Michael Knowles
Ay, ay, ay, ay, caramba. We might be taking Cuba. The USS Nimitz carrier strike group has arrived in the Caribbean. The United States has indicted the 94 year old Raul Castro, former leader of Cuba, brother of el Commandante Fidel, a guy who, when he was in charge of the Cuban military, shot down an American airplane. It looks like we're taking Cuba. And I love the way that Trump talks about it. He goes, look, it's not gonna be the biggest thing we've ever done. And this is the key to the whole comment, because people have war fatigue, people kind of have empire fatigue. Even though, to quote the observation of Thucydides, you know, we might not have wanted an empire, but we're probably gonna be sorry to lose it. It's just the fact of how nations grow and become strong and sometimes decline, and we don't wanna decline. And President Trump's whole political raison d' make America great again. So he says, look, it's probably not gonna be the biggest thing we've ever done. He says that because taking control of Cuba is as American as apple pie. We've been doing it for a very long time. America has directly controlled Cuba three times in the last century, or 120 years or so. And America has indirectly controlled Cuba for many decades after that. Marco Rubio wakes up almost every day just waiting to oust the communist regime in Cuba. Here he is in Spanish, telling the Cuban people that the bright white cloud of freedom is on its way to the island nation. 1902, the Cuban flag flew for the first time over an independent country. But today, the island you call home is going through unimaginable hardship. I want to share with you the truth about the reason for their suffering. I want to tell you what we in the US are offering to help you, not only to alleviate the current crisis, but also to build the future. The reason you're forced to survive 22 hours a day without electricity is not due to an oil blockade by the United States. As you know better than anyone, you've been suffering from blackouts for years. The real reason you don't have electricity, fuel or food is because those who cannot, who control your country, have plundered billions of dollars, but nothing has been used to help the people. Okay, so he goes on and he's explaining how The Cuban Communist Syndicate takes all the money from the people. And this is not the US's fault, it's not the 60 year old embargo's fault, it's not the fault of the oil blockade, it's the fault of the Cuban regime. So he's establishing a casus belli here to go in there and liberate Cuba. CIA has been on the ground in Cuba for weeks. Well, CIA's probably been on the ground in Cuba for many decades, but they've been pretty notably on the ground. You know, the Director of the CIA for weeks, Rubio himself, now coming in and saying, look, we're taking this, we're striking. Why is Trump doing this? Well, on the one hand, this is very different from Iran. A lot of people don't like the war in Iran. A lot of people, myself included, were very skeptical of the war in Iran before, during, before, at the launch and as it's been going on. Whereas I was not really skeptical of the raid to take out Maduro in Venezuela. I'm not really skeptical of going into Cuba. In fact, many people who are foreign policy restrictionists, they're restrained, they're even isolationists, don't really have so much of a problem with the US intervening in the Western Hemisphere. This has been a cornerstone of US foreign policy since the Monroe Doctrine in the early 19th century. And even the people who are advocating a more restrained America to preserve our imperial resources, the ones who are saying we need to focus more closer to home, retrench in the Western Hemisphere. A policy like going into Cuba really actually fits with that pretty well. Even when Trump describes Iran, he says it's a digression. I don't wanna be in the Middle East, I don't want these forever wars. I wanna wrap up a little problem over there. You can debate the wisdom of going into Iran, but he's doing that so that we can double down on our control of the Western Hemisphere. Because doubling down on our control of the Western Hemisphere means kicking out our adversaries, notably China. When we're looking at Venezuela or when we're looking at Cuba, these nations don't exist in a vacuum. China's very active in Cuba. Venezuela obviously was very active in Cuba. Russia's for a long time been very active in Cuba. And the United States is saying, we've had enough of that, we've had enough of this communist regime. And Rubio here is establishing on moral grounds the argument to say this regime is brutal, it's terrible, we're not going to tolerate it. Anymore. The other thing I think Trump is doing here is he realizes this is his second term. And though some of us might like a third, fourth and fifth term, he's not going to be doing that. He's not gonna stay in power. And I think he wants to reorder the world. I think he wants to leave a lasting legacy. That's why you get that talk about taking over Greenland, invading America's evil top hat, Canada. And sometimes it more clearly works than other times in Venezuela. US Policy for a quarter century had been ousting that socialist regime. Trump does it. Trump does it in 88 minutes, or he, at the very least, brings that socialist regime much more into alignment with America. So Trump achieves an American grand strategic objective that we've had for a quarter century. He achieves it in Iran. It's been US policy for 50 years to get rid of that Iranian regime, or at the very least, to bring them into submission to the American hegemon. Trump is trying to do that. He might not succeed. That's a much harder one. There are a lot more variables in Iran, but same thing here goes with Cuba. Getting Cuba back from the Communist Party has been the American objective since 1960. President Eisenhower ordered the Bay of Pigs, and then it got bungled under JFK. Then you get the embargo. It has been US policy to oust this regime for 66 years now. Trump wants to accomplish that. He wants to leave a lasting legacy. And it's not. You can disagree with it. I guess you could say it's a waste of money. You could say we only should focus on domestic affairs. But presidents of both parties have supported this for a long time. Trump wants to prove he's the only one who could do it. Okay, Speaking of American icons, Betty Boop is now black. Apparently. There's a story out in Variety in the trade publication says that Quinta Brunson. Am I pronouncing that correctly? Probably not. Quinta Brunson is going to develop and star in a Betty Boop feature film from Fleischer Studios and Fifth Chance Productions. She's stepping into the world's most famous flapper. And the problem, of course, is that Betty Boop is not black. She's not black. This is the big problem. Betty Boop is a white lady. Flappers in general were not black. There were flapper phenomena from the 1920s. There were parallel phenomena in Harlem where you had kind of like flapper. But the flappers as a cultural thing, they weren't black. They were middle class, white women. And so Betty Boop really can't be black. Not everything has to be black. This one is gonna separate the conservative men from the boys because nobody wants to be called racist. But I remember this when people were floating Idris Elba for James Bond, and you had some sort of very nice conservatives who. They don't want to be called racist ever. They said, oh, Idris Elba, he'd be a great James Bond. I have no problem with that. I have no problem with that at all. And I think, look, Idris Elba is a great actor. He's a great actor. James Bond's not black. Not everything has to be black. Tony Soprano is Italian. Tony Soprano could not be played by George Lopez because Tony Soprano is a character and the character is an Italian American, and that matters. James Bond is a white guy. He's not a black guy. Betty Boop is a white lady. And it changes the story if you try to change that. And it only ever goes in the one direction. This actually gets to a debate within theater and film. It goes back some decades now. There's a debate between the artistic director up at the American Repertory Theater, Leonard Brustein, and the author of Fences and a lot of the Black American Theater, August Wilson, and the white liberal guy said that he supported colorblind casting, that anyone from any race, any ethnicity can play any role. And it was the black guy or half black guy, August Wilson, who. Who said, no, some characters are black, and I don't want a white guy to play the black character. And some characters are white, and I don't want the black guy to play the white character. But notice it only ever goes in one direction. We're told that race doesn't matter. It's a social construct. It's totally meaningless. So all the white characters can and really should be played by black people or Hispanic people or just non white people. But surely no one's ever casting Tom Cruise to play Malcolm X in the Autobiography of Malcolm X. So this, to me, is just one of these instances where you're gonna say, okay, how honest is a conservative going to be? Are you willing to say without any animus whatsoever to any person who is swarthy or dusky or in any way non white, hey, sorry, the character's white. We can have white characters. Are you willing to do that? Some people, you see this in the immigration debate. People say, well, the real problem with immigration is just how many immigrants we're taking in. But are you willing to go further and say, no, no, you know what? It's actually, historically in America, it's easier to assimilate an Englishman than it is to assimilate, I don't know, a Pole or a Hungarian. And more to the point, it's much easier to assimilate an Englishman or a Pole or a Hungarian than it is to assimilate a Somali. That's the part that a lot of the conservatives don't want to go to. It's not just the number of immigrants, but it's the kind of immigrant and it's not out of any animist or any race or ethnicity or whatever. It's just, you know, different peoples are kind of different sometimes and their political systems are different, their cultures are different. And it's much easier to assimilate one than the other. And these differences do matter. Are we allowed to say that, or is that terribly bigoted? I don't know. Can Betty Boop be black? I don't think so. Now, speaking of black women, Stacey Abrams is giving us some really, really good news on Ms. Now, I've been talking since the Supreme Court's Decision in Louisiana vs Calais on racial gerrymandering after the Virginia Supreme Court's decision on their referendum that basically disenfranchised all of the Republicans in the state. I've said Republicans are very likely to get a 14 point swing in the congressional seats, which really could help them in a challenging midterm election where historically they should be wiped out of power. Stacey Abrams goes on MSNBC now and Ms. Now to say actually the situation's even better. We'll get to that momentarily. First though, I want to tell you about Bolen branch. Go to bolenbranch.com knowles k a w L E S Use code Knowles I love my Boland Branch sheets. Bowl and Branch's summer bedding options. They are breathable. They are lightweight. They're designed to keep you cool all night long. 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Bolandbranch.com knowles code knowles bolenbranch.com, b, O, L L A N D branch.com, code knowles 20% off. Bowlingbranch.com knowles code Knowles exclusion supply. Stacey Abrams bringing me some good news on the left wing cable channel.
Stacey Abrams
Your ability to use those same democratic institutions to your benefit. With these new maps, we know that analysis by Fair Fight and Black Voters Matter show that we could lose 19 to 20 congressional seats, but we could lose up to 191 state legislative seats. And in the south, those state legislators draw city council districts, county commission districts, school board districts, and they draw state legislative lines. And so if you want to know if your child is going to have fair and equitable access to education, that will be diminished if your families can't participate in elections and elect leaders who value your education. If you want health care in the south, it's the state legislature that decides whether you have access. All of the things that disproportionately harm communities of color will now be decided by people who disproportionately dislike and vote against the needs of people of color.
Michael Knowles
Okay, so the part she says here at the end obviously is total nonsense. She's pretending like black people can't vote as a result of the Supreme Court's decision. The strongest opinion in the Supreme Court's decision written by a very, very black man named Clarence Thomas. So that part isn't true. The idea that if you give Republicans the ability to vote, if you allow Republicans in the states to do what the Democrats are allowed to do in the states, that as a result of that, they're gonna strip all the black people of healthcare. Obviously, that's not true. But the point she's making at the top is very tantalizing, where she says it's not even gonna be 14 congressional seats at swing Republican. It could be upwards of 20. And forget about even the federal congressional representation. It's gonna be those state legislators. Those state legislators are the ones who really do a lot of that work. And there's gonna be 120 seat swing as a result of these court decisions. We say, great, that's a really good Start. Cause that's what matters. That's what matters in the political order. This actually ties in with some of the primary races. Obviously, Thomas Massey's in Kentucky being the most prominent one, but Raffensperger in Georgia or Bill Cassidy in the Senate or the. The Indiana state legislators. This is what matters. And Republicans are showing an aptitude, finally, for real political power. What matters is redistricting. And to get the redistricting, you've gotta win the Supreme Court decisions. And the redistricting then will affect even the state level. And then it's gonna be those state legislators who are using the federal Medicaid dollars, and it's going to be these politicians, these regulators, these office holders who are gonna be shaping the political order. And that's what matters. And we need to win there. In order to make America great again, in order to advance the common good, you have to win the elections. In order to win the elections, you need to have election conditions that are favorable to you and they're not totally rigged for the other side, as the Democrats have done very well. You have to do that. That's what really matters. And sometimes we Republicans, we focus on things that don't really matter. And the clearest example of this is we'll say, look, we're getting all these tweets, we're getting all these likes. The podcasts are really favorable to us. But that's all fine. If that doesn't translate into votes, if that doesn't translate into ultimately political power, then that and a buck fifty will get you a cup of coffee. You know, sometimes the Democrats will say, oh, we won the popular vote. They actually can't say this in the last election because Trump won the Electoral College vote. And the popular vote, we'll say, no, no, the popular vote, that's irrelevant. It's not that you're trying to change the rules of the game, but based on how the game is actually played, we have to win. And this is the key here. We need to recognize the Democrats are so good at this. There's a distinction between the media or popular perception and the hardcore political order. You know, it's like when Republicans, when we start to get a lot of tweets, when we start to get a lot of viral clips or something like that, we say, people are waking up. People are realizing that the liberals are crazy. They're waking up. But if that doesn't translate into hard political power, it doesn't really matter. Yeah, the people realize the transgender thing is totally nuts. Yeah, many people realize that abortion is Horrific, Yeah. Basically everybody understands that mass migration is terrible for the country, but the Democrats are gonna be pushing all of those things. If we don't wrest political power from them, if we don't reform the way that representation is allotted in America, the way that elections are conducted, if we don't tighten up vulnerabilities like voter id, if we allow the Democrats to conduct elections in ways that are illegal or unconstitutional, as they did in some states in 2020. And Stacey Abrams coming out here, she's pretty good at this, this on the ground politics. Cuz the left focuses on organizing, on regulating, on controlling departments, where the right is always just, I don't know, trying to get another viral clip. I'm part of it too, like I'm part of the pundit class. But viral clips are great, but you gotta translate it into real political power. The fact that she's saying, shoot, these Republicans under Trump, they're actually translating their popularity into real political power. You say, right, that's finally, that's a great start. Because the left, if they get power back again, you're gonna see exactly what you saw in Virginia, which is they're gonna campaign as moderates and then they're gonna enact the most RA legislation we've ever seen. Trump is hitting Talarico in the Texas Senate race for precisely this reason.
Marco Rubio
Every one of them. We have a great candidate. I believe in Texas, and I believe the Texas candidate, who's Ken Paxton, I think he'll win. I think probably he'll win very substantially. And I think he'll go on to defeat a very defective candidate. A candidate that believes in six gender and he takes hits at Jesus Christ. And he's wearing a mask six months ago. Anybody wearing a mask six months ago doesn't get it. And he's a vegan. He's a vegan in Texas and you can't get elected as a vegan in Texas.
Michael Knowles
This is a similar attack to the one he made on Pete Buttigieg. You remember, years ago, Pete Buttigieg is running for president. He says he looks like Alfred E. Newman, you know, the guy on Mad magazine. Alfred E. Newman cannot be president. Similar attack here at the end. He goes, this guy, Talarico, he's a vegan. You can't win elections as a vegan in Texas. And then he's just pummeling him on all of these, the woke issues. He thinks there are six genders. He's wearing masks every single day. He takes shots at Christ, at religion, he's just pummeling him on these issues. And I think for some people who are very online, who follow political trends very closely, that's gonna sound a little dated to them. They're gonna say, oh, come on, woke is dead. Those fights, those were fights of 2022, 2023, peak wokeness. But it's 2026 now. We're a few years later. That's not really where the fights are at. And I think once again, this is people being a little too online, a little too esoteric, a little too in the know. For the majority of Americans, pummeling the left on these woke issues still works. 2024 was the first real referendum on wokeness. There's still a lot of Runway on wokeness. And part of the reason there's still a lot of Runway, even if the chattering class is kind of exhausted of talking about it, even if now talking about transgenderism, for instance, it's kind of like beating a dead horse for the pundit class. It is not so for the voters and it is not so crucially for the Democrat politicians. Talarico is full on peak woke. He is the gay Pete Buttigieg. He will, if he is elected to the Senate, double down on all of the craziest nonsense that you saw on Reddit in 2022. He will do that. Wokeness isn't dead so much as it is laying dormant right now. But they're all just waiting for it. Look at Spanberger. They're all just waiting to enact this radical left wing policy. And so Trump, this is the kind of leadership I wanna see. Five seconds after that primary campaign, after a lot of the primary campaigns have been unfolding. Five seconds after he decides, you know what, I'm making my decision. Among the Republicans in the Senate race in Texas, I'm gonna back Ken Paxton, who's the favorite of the base. I'm gonna ditch John Cornyn, who's the incumbent. I'm making my decision now. He immediately turns to hit the left and he wants to show you the stakes of the left, which is not just changing tax rates a little. It's not even just adjusting immigration levels. It's castrating your kids. It's attacking your religion. It's totally undermining your culture. That's what the vegan comment is about. It's not a frivolous comment about dietary preferences. It's saying, this guy is foreign to your culture. Texas, he will subvert your whole culture. There is no diminishing the radicalism. The libs are still talking about killing Republicans, still threatening to kill Republicans. Still celebrating the murder of Republicans. Stakes very, very high. Okay, now, speaking of where the Democrat campaigns are, they're so bad right now that even the New York Times is issuing a warning call. And I don't. Look, I don't wanna sound optimistic in the midterm elections. Cause we should be wiped out in a tidal wave. But there are signs from Stacey Abrams on MSNBC to the New York Times that Republicans might do better in the midterms than we are fearing. We'll get to that momentarily. First, though, I want to tell you about Shopify. Go to shopify.com knowles One of the most interesting things about modern business is people can now build entire companies around a very specific audience, a very specific point of view, even a niche cultural movement without needing massive corporate infrastructure behind it. A lot of that is possible because of platforms like Shopify. 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Sign up for your $1 per month trial at shopify.com knowles can a w l e s shopify.com knowles shopify.com/knowles before we get to the most recent Kennedy campaign, Jack Schlossberg running for Congress in New York. Not, not quite. His grandfather, John F. Kennedy. Even the New York Times saying, man, this guy is out there. Even before that, though, we have somebody who's even more out there, which is Maureen Galindo. Have you heard of Maureen Galindo? She's a Democrat candidate. She's running for Congress around San Antonio, also in Texas. And Maureen Galindo has this really novel policy idea if she is elected. And the policy idea is to put the Jews into concentration camps. I am barely. I'm actually not really exaggerating at all. Maureen Galindo, do we have her post? Yeah, here we go. Maureen Galindo posts. When Maureen Galindo, when she gets into Congress, she will write legislation. So that all Zionism and support of Zionism is undoubtedly anti Semitic. Zionism is anti Semitic. Zionism, which is support for the Jewish state of Israel, would be anti Semitic. How do you make sense of that? She writes, since it's the Zionists who are harming the Semites, because Semite is an ethnic designation. Part of the reason people say anti Semite rather than anti Jewish is to say anti Jewish is about religion. Obviously, I don't believe in the Jewish religion, but so anti Semitic, saying, well, you oppose Jews on their racial basis, their ethnic basis, but other people in the Levant are Semitic. So she says, actually it's the Zionists, it's the Jews who are anti Semites. It says, Maureen will turn Corinth's ICE detention center into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking. So it's not just the Jews, because there are also Zionists who are not Jews. There are Christian Zionists who hold to a fairly novel, narrow Protestant theology that says that the nation state of Israel is a matter of biblical prophecy. And there are Christian Zionists who are Christian who don't necessarily hold to that view, but who support the state of Israel. And as a matter of indigenous rights, or as a matter of, I guess, as a matter of biblical prophecy, though there are some distinctions with the Protestant theology. And then there are other people who are Christian who generally favor the state of Israel based on political alliances, based on international law, you know, UN treaties and what have you. But anyway, she's saying all the people who support Israel, including the Jews, but some non Jews too, they need to go to concentration camps, and they also need to be thrown into the concentration camps with the ICE officers because enforcing immigration law merits detention. It will also be a castrating processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists. Zionists are pedophiles, apparently. At first I thought it was her opponent who was posting this, misrepresenting her views. She posted this herself. I thought, well, that's novel. Put the Jews in concentration camps. Why didn't someone think of that before? This is a mainstream Democrat who is running for office. And Zionism, Zionist is not synonymous with Jew, but many people do use it that way, and I think she is using it that way as well. And, you know, I made a video, I got into some trouble in which I explained why I'm not a Christian Zionist, why I don't really even support Zionism as a political ideology because it's a product of the 19th century. It arises out of the nationalist ideologies, the nationalist revolutions, which I myself oppose because I'm conservative. And so anyway, it gets into all sorts of political philosophy, but I'm generally quite favorable toward the state of Israel. And not as an eternal matter, as a matter of indigeneity, as a matter of religion or anything, just as a matter of practical political alliances, as a matter of international law, which is the least popular position to hold. And it means that you're taking fire from both sides. But here's another practical argument I would have to bring in. Beyond my affection for the pastrami people, as I distinguish between the pastrami people and the shawarma people, beyond my affection for the pastrami people, beyond my thoughts about American alliances and international resolutions. One of the big reasons, even if you took all that away, one of the big reasons that I can't really get on board with the hardcore anti Israel stuff is it codes left. It's a left wing thing. It's a Greta Thunberg thing. It's a purple haired college freshman thing. It's an Islamist thing. It does not code onto my political views, my political philosophy, or my political coalitions. That's one. There's a little bit of that on the right, too. There's no question about it. But that is one rule of thumb. If you don't think all that deeply about ideology, religion, political philosophy. Just one good rule of thumb is if Greta Thunberg is on one side of an issue, I'm probably on the other. And if this lady who is a mainstream Democrat candidate for Congress is on this side of the issue, I just can't get that into it. There are other reasons I can't get into this stuff, but that's a big one. It doesn't really work. Sometimes it plays online. It doesn't play out in the real world. Okay, Speaking of these disastrous Democrat campaigns, don't take my word for how badly things are going for them. You can look at the New York Times inside Jack Schlossberg's chaotic campaign to revive Camelot. Erratic behavior and staff turnover have colored Mr. Schlossberg's bid for a House seat in New York, raising questions about his readiness for office. Reviving a political dynasty is best not left to chance. So on the morning that Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of John F. Kennedy, announced his campaign for a House seat in New York City, his team had a carefully orchestrated plan. Go on. They say the aides had teed up all these phone calls with the media outlets, some donors, Democrat, Luminaries, the goal was to make it clear that Jack Schlossberg, who is 33 years old, he's known mostly for just posting on social media, sometimes is a serious candidate. But just hours into his day one launch, the candidate abruptly announced a change of plans, according to three people familiar with the events. Forget dialing for dollars. Mr. Schlossberg said he needed a nap. He then effectively disappeared for the day, leaving his team reeling. Mr. Schlossberg, a first time candidate with little traditional work experience. He's never really had a real realized this was kind of par for the course for his behavior and goes on to point out, this guy is something out of Veep. This guy is something out of Parks and Rec. I actually went to school with Jack. I didn't know him very well. His sister was in my class, his late sister, she just recently died, sadly. But we had mutual friends and I said, you know, anyway, I don't mean anything personally against him. He might be a perfectly nice fellow, but this campaign is absolutely cartoonish. Some are calling him the most millennial candidate ever for office. He posts crazy things on social media. He has never taken a job all that seriously, including this job where he wants to win political office based entirely on nepotism and he's spending his days taking naps. And this has actually changed my calculus on the race. Previously, I was generally opposed to Schlossberg in Congress. He now has my complete endorsement. This New York Times article has changed my view. He has my complete and total endorsement. It's a solidly Democrat district. There is not a snowball's chance in hell that a Republican will ever win this district. It is going to a Democrat. Therefore I want it going to the funniest Democrat. If we can't get political power here, if we can't redistrict it out of existence, I at least want the funniest option. I want good content. Schlossberg will provide it. Jack has my complete 100% endorsement in this race. I am even considering donating to him. Now getting back to matters of actual hardcore political power, we turn up to Ohio, where Daily Wire's own Luke Rosiak just had a great exchange with an Ohio Democrat lawmaker. This actually brings us all the way back to our top story about Betty Boop and racial politics. Luke Rosiak has uncovered massive fraud in Ohio. And this is a little different than the stories that you saw from Nick Shirley or Chris Rufa in Minnesota or California because those guys uncovered massive fraud. They did a great job uncovering fraud in blue states. Luke Rosiak has said, wow, the fraud is so bad that these left wing patronage networks exist even in red states. So he goes in, he's being grilled by the Ohio House and some left wing Ohio lawmaker pulled the race card on him. Also, I would like to point out that the majority of people on Medicaid in Ohio are not from the Somali community or from communities that people of color. The majority are actually white. So for you to imply the racist information that you're on Medicaid or home health. On Medicaid and home health,
Marco Rubio
when you look at the numbers of people that
Michael Knowles
are in Ohio, the white population versus
Marco Rubio
people of color, you're implying that most
Michael Knowles
of the fraud is happening in communities of color. I'm not implying it. I'm stating it. I would like to see actual numbers
Marco Rubio
besides the numbers, besides the overall.
Stacey Abrams
Just please, through the chair with your back and forth.
Michael Knowles
Thank you. Mr. Rosiak, you are implying that the massive billions of dollars in fraud in Ohio are mostly being perpetrated by communities of color. And she's waiting for Luke Rosiak, who's done all this reporting, to walk back his comment. No, no, no, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying in certain instances. And he goes, no, no, no, I'm not implying that. I'm stating that that is a fact. The fraud in Ohio is being perpetrated by communities of color. It's just a fact. And she goes, well, I wanna see the numbers beyond your reporting. Excuse me, Luke Rosiak, can you please give us some proof of your statement other than the five part investigative series you've published? Can you give us some numbers other than the numbers you've uncovered? This is one of these showdowns. What the libs are saying here is you cannot state the facts if the facts contradict our preferred racial narrative. And the question that she's asking is, are you willing to do that? Are you willing to be called a racist? You don't want to be unjust in your racial observations. You don't want to be cruel. You don't want to be. But are you. Do you prioritize the truth over the comfort of not being called a racist? And Luke Rosiak says, yeah, I prioritize the truth and I think the truth is better for everybody, for all of the communities, including the communities of color. We're gonna state the truth and your Jedi mind tricks don't work on me. That's basically what he's saying here. They have no answer to A confident statement of facts. You don't have to walk back your claims. You don't have to get super angry about it. You don't have to double down. You don't have to go be chud the builder and start screaming the N word at people on the street. All right, nobody wants you to do that. But can you confidently state the facts in charity in a way that is clearly intended to promote the common good? If you do that, they really have no answer. Notice how quickly she backed down. Initially she made this claim the fraud is mostly from white people. And you're implying that it's mostly communities of color. And he goes, yeah, no, I'm not implying that. I'm stating that that's a fact. And she goes, oh, and she doesn't double down on her first claim. She just. She says, well, I wanna see the numbers. Well, you got the numbers. Cause Luke rosiak published a five part series in the Daily Wire. This is not 2010, lady. Your Jedi mind tricks do not work on me. Okay, speaking of the fraud task force, which is being led by the Vice president, you're seeing yet another example, and a very encouraging example of how the political media and political social media do not reflect the real life of politics. Because everybody's trying to drive a wedge between the vice president, J.D. vance, and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. The only people who don't want to do that, it seems, are J.D. vance and Marco Rubio. We'll get to that momentarily. First though, my favorite comment yesterday from X Scalier. Solid 1194, who says Michael's comment about SSRIs reminded me of something the feminists like to bring up. The women who were drugged to keep them docile. And that women's health allegedly wasn't taken seriously for much of western history. How is constantly putting women on SSRIs to dull their emotions any different? Just a thought I had. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. They'll sometimes say, the libs and the feminists, they'll say, you think the 50s were so great. You had all these women who were just alcoholics because they were so unhappy with their life or who were popping pills cause they were so unhappy with their life of oppression. That was such a much worse time than now when we have doctors prescribe them pills to take because they're so unhappy with their lives. And actually when you measure it, they're much less happy with their lives than they used to be. Do you know, back in the old days when women became hysterical, we would have these doctors go in and scramble up their brains with lobotomies. But now we live in a much more civilized society where we just give them heavy psych drugs that chemically scramble up their brains and that they can never get off of. We're much more civilized. We take women much more seriously. This was in response to these women who are on video saying that it would be, it's a good thing that the United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered. His kids are better off without him. I said, that is like one of the worst things I can possibly imagine hearing. The most charitable explanation is that these women are just doped up on SSRIs. And we've made one in five American women sociopaths because we don't want to deal with their hysterics and we don't want to tell them to calm down and get a hold of themselves women, but we should do that. You shouldn't just ply women with drugs. Sometimes you got to tell them, like, hey, lady, calm down, get ahold of yourself. And other things, too. But there are other remedies that are much longer lasting. Okay. J.D. vance and Marco Rubio. We are told these guys are running shadow presidential campaigns. We're told there's all this sort of division. And in the Trump White House, in the gop, if you look online, lots of partisans of Marco Rubio in particular, are trying to drive wedges, trying to hit the vice president, probably because the vice president is the heir apparent right now, so he's the more obvious target. Also, Rubio's doing a great job as Secretary of State, so they're really trying to promote this division. So is that what we're gonna get? The two top dogs in the Trump administration gonna be going at each other's necks, Ask Rubio, be even. What do you think about that? Would you want to be president?
Marco Rubio
No. Look, I'm. And this is going to sound like the typical job. I'm going to be in this job for the next two and a half years. That's. I'm going to do that job. I'm going to finish the job for this president. I'm enjoying it very much. I think we're going to make a lot of good things happen. J.D. is a very good friend of mine. If J.D. runs for president, I think he'd be a phenomenal candidate. I've said publicly, and I'll say it again, I'll be the first person to sign up and support him. I think JD Would do great.
Would you want to be a vice president?
I want to Be the Secretary of State, and I'll worry about the future in the future. I'm not saying, you know, I'm not telling you that that's what I'm aiming for. You know, I've been doing this for a long time, too. I was in the senate starting in 2010. So I'd like to do some other things with my life at some point. Although public service is an honor to be able to be involved in.
Michael Knowles
Okay, no ambiguity. No ambiguity in that answer. Notice, because you're waiting to hear the way that he gives himself a way out. Even when he says, I think JD Would be a phenomenal candidate. Well, that doesn't preclude him from running against J.D. cause he could say, yeah, I said J.D. would be a phenomenal candidate, but I'm a better one. But that's not where Rubio leaves it. Rubio goes further. Again, he's already done this in the past, but this was a recent interview on NBC. He comes out and he says, I think JD Would be a phenomenal candidate, and if he runs, I will be the first to sign up to support him. No ambiguity, no wiggle room, no place to walk it back. He says, I endorse J.D. vance for president. And this might disappoint some of the people who are trying to drive a wedge between Vance and Rubio and some of the people who want to undermine the Trump administration. There are a lot of people who would like Rubio to run against Vance for their own reasons, whether it's because they view Rubio as being more amenable to the Republican establishment, maybe friendlier to neo conservative priorities, if that's what they're trying. Again, I don't think that's. I don't think it's fair to call Rubio just an establishment Republican or a neocon or anything like that. But there are establishment Republicans and neocons who are trying to project their desires onto him, capture him for themselves, and use him to take down J.D. vance. J.D. vance, who is viewed as being a little more favorable to the populist wing of the party, to the traditional conservative wing of the party, to the right wing flank of the Republican Party. But Vance is coming out there and he's saying, I'm not playing your game. You're not gonna use me. I'm not gonna be your stupid pawn. I'm good buddies with J.D. vance, and I'll endorse him. I'll be the first person to sign up if he runs. So now all of a sudden, you're seeing the Rumor that JD And Marco could run as a ticket. That's seeming more plausible, especially after President Trump himself says, I think that's the perfect ticket. Vance, Rubio. And by the way, even for the people who are trying to drive a wedge between these two guys, it actually might serve them pretty well to push them together. Because if it is the case that Rubio is a little more amenable to the establishment side or the neocon side, he's got probably a little more expertise in foreign policy, being the Secretary of State. And Vance maybe has a little more cred with the populists, a little more cred with the traditional conservatives. He's a little more focused on domestic issues. Rubio's over here trying to fix the situation in Iran and Cuba. And you got Vance, who's trying to. Who's leading the fraud task force on domestic issues. That's. That's a pretty good combination that actually unites the party. It's kind of like Reagan, Bush, almost. These guys are more aligned than Reagan and bush were in 1980. But it brings the party together and it focuses on the real enemy. The real enemies. This is pretty good stuff. No matter who is trying, whether it's the left, whether it's factions in the right who are trying to drive a wedge between these guys, they're not going for it. And this has Barack Obama very, very worried.
Barack Obama
You're right. The Presidential center is nonpartisan. And the reason I want to mention that is because I'm worried about the Republican Party, not just the Democratic Party. When I was president, people would ask me, what change would you like to see in Washington? I'd say, I'd love a loyal opposition. I'd love a Republican Party party that was conservative in some ways, that didn't agree with me on a whole bunch of stuff, but believed in rule of law and judicial independence and empirical evidence and science, and wasn't constantly tapping into our worst impulses. And there has been a Republican Republican Party like that in the past. And I want to see that returned, because I think you have to have
Michael Knowles
two healthy parties so you get all these cheap shots. He says Republicans are idiots. Republicans are ignorant. They don't know anything. They reject science. You know, this is just more of the bitter clingers kind of. Kind of very insulting language that Obama's used for half the country for many years now. But he gives away his game. Not only is he saying, I want a more docile Republican Party, I want one that's more favorable to my political agenda. Notice what he said he goes, I want them to be a loyal opposition. And I think what he's saying here is, I want a Republican Party that is content to be in the opposition. I want a Republican Party that is happy to be the junior partner in this political project. The Democrats are leading things, but the Democrats require Republicans to legitimate their rule. So it doesn't look like a totalitarian state. But we want them to be in the opposition. We want them to complain. There are a lot of good things that'll go along with this. You get to go on television or on podcasts and whine and complain, and that'll get you clicks and views and that'll make you money. And you can stand up supposedly for your principles, even though you'll never have any real political effect, but you'll look valiant and you can puff yourself up. And I want that Republican Party. What's with this Republican Party that's going to redistrict what's with this Republican Party that is going to fire a bunch of bureaucrats? What's with this Republican Party that's gonna dismantle our patronage networks and maybe even establish some support systems of their own? I don't want that Republican Party. I don't want a Republican Party that's actually gonna challenge our rule. That's very scary. That's a threat to American democracy. I don't want a Republican Party that's got its act together, that's not constantly just infighting and treating politics like debate club. I don't want a Republican Party that's already, even before the midterm elections, proposing a unity ticket for the presidential election. I don't want that Republican Party. That's scary. I don't want that. Can't we just go back to the old ways? I don't think so. Okay, one bit I really want to get to. I don't know that I have time is our friend Brandon Gill, who is a rising star, as you know, freshman class of Congress Brandon Gill, who's coming out swinging against Islam. But we don't have time to get to it today. But it really actually, it gets right to the heart of the debate between the hard political class and the political media class. Brandy Gill swinging out against Islam because it starts to bring into stark contrast the political horseshoe of the far right and the far left. But we're gonna have to wait to get to that tomorrow. I'm on a flight. There's no Membrum segmentum today. I've gotta fly to our nation's capital. As a matter of fact, I'll tell you why. Maybe tomorrow. In the meantime. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles Show. See you then, Sam.
They Just Made Another Iconic White Character Black
Date: May 21, 2026
Host: Michael Knowles (The Daily Wire)
In this episode, Michael Knowles covers several hot-button political and cultural topics, with a strong focus on the U.S. potentially intervening in Cuba, the cultural significance of “race-swapping” with the announcement that Betty Boop will be played by a Black actress, and escalating radicalism within the Democratic Party. Through each segment, Knowles emphasizes the importance of having the courage to state unpopular truths and how Republicans can only win if they translate rhetoric into measurable political power rather than just online popularity.
“Taking control of Cuba is as American as apple pie. We’ve been doing it for a very long time.” (04:05)
“Betty Boop is a white lady … Not everything has to be black.” (11:27)
“It only ever goes in one direction … all the white characters can and really should be played by black people … but no one’s ever casting Tom Cruise to play Malcolm X.” (13:06)
“All of the things that disproportionately harm communities of color will now be decided by people who disproportionately dislike and vote against the needs of people of color.” (15:43)
“If that doesn’t translate into real political power, then that and a buck fifty will get you a cup of coffee.” (18:05)
“He’s a vegan in Texas and you can’t get elected as a vegan in Texas.”
“She’s saying all the people who support Israel … need to go to concentration camps.”
“This campaign is absolutely cartoonish … If we can’t get political power here … I at least want the funniest option. … He now has my complete endorsement.” (32:32)
“I’m not implying it. I’m stating it.” (36:13)
“If J.D. runs for president, I think he’d be a phenomenal candidate. I’ll be the first to sign up and support him.” (42:15)
“I’d love a loyal opposition.”
“They want Republicans to be content to be in the opposition … legitimate Democrat rule without truly challenging it.” (46:21)
| Timestamp | Topic | |------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:00-10:45| U.S. Cuba Intervention & Trump’s Foreign Policy | | 10:46-14:56| Betty Boop “Race Swap” and Colorblind Casting | | 14:57-21:48| Redistricting, Black Voter Impact, and GOP Political Power | | 21:49-23:35| Trump’s Culture War Messaging in the Texas Senate Race | | 24:09-29:56| Radical Anti-Zionism from Democratic Congressional Candidate | | 29:57-33:15| Jack Schlossberg’s Embarrassing Congressional Run | | 33:16-36:32| Medicaid Fraud and Racial Narratives in Ohio | | 41:55-42:32| Rubio Signals Unity—Endorses J.D. Vance for President | | 45:29-46:21| Obama Wants a “Loyal Opposition” GOP, Not a Governing One |
Michael Knowles uses this episode to reiterate his core belief: that Republicans and conservatives must be honest about politically incorrect truths and translate popular or viral sentiment into hard political power. The episode blends sharp cultural observation with political strategy, providing commentary on both the micro (Betty Boop casting) and macro (redistricting, foreign policy) levels.