← The Michael Knowles Show
The Michael Knowles Show
Ep. 1988 - Horrific: YouTuber Brags About Aborting His Baby With Down Syndrome
00:51:01
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Folks, very excited to say I will be at the Zeal for America 250 rally this June 13th. I will be there with His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke for a powerful day of prayer and conversation as we mark America's 250th birthday. If you are within driving distance of La Crosse, Wisconsin, I strongly encourage you to be there in person. If you can't make it, we will also be offering a live stream so you can still take part. Go to CatholicVote.org America250 to get your tickets or to sign up to watch. A prominent YouTuber goes viral for bragging about aborting his down syndrome child and appears to be absolutely shocked by the backlash. Then President Trump personally confirms Axios reporting that he called Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu effing crazy. The prime minister has responded, will the US Israeli relationship survive? And Megyn Kelly proposes a new political coalition that she says could transcend any and obliterate the distinction between the left and the right. I think most Americans agree with her. And also I'm a little bit skeptical. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles Show. Welcome back to the show. Republicans have been absolutely obliterating Democrats on Capitol Hill. This is very, very good for conservative policy. And more importantly, we're getting great clips out of it. So we will cover what's going on. First, though, I wanna tell you about Pepperdine. Go to go pepperdine.edu DailyWire Most people consume politics. A much smaller number of people make politics. They write policies, they advise elected officials, they shape institutions. They influence decisions that affect millions of people. And if we're being many of the people currently occupying those positions are not exactly covering themselves in glory. So where do future policymakers come from? Ideally, from places that still take ideas seriously. That is what makes Pepperdine School of Public Policy interesting. I've been a fan of Pepperdine School of Public Policy for a decade now. Probably people can specialize in national security, American politics or local government and learn directly from fellows including Victor Davis Hanson, Kieran Skinner, Robbie George and Barry Strauss. And because that program operates in both Malibu and Washington, D.C. one of those places is nicer than the other. Students get exposure to both intellectual formation and practical experience. I actually love Malibu's great, especially when it's not burnt to Ashes and D.C. foggy Bottom, I love it. Perhaps most importantly, Pepperdine remains committed to free inquiry at a time when many universities seem determined to discourage it. If that sounds like something worth exploring, visit Go Pepperdine. Edu Dailywire that is go Pepperdine. Edu Dailywire I'm very sorry that we didn't air the show yesterday. You all got to see my yes or no game with Dr. Josh Axe. But we were intending to shoot the show. I'm here in London right now. Last night I was at the Oxford Union debating the resolution. This House believes Trump has betrayed conservatism. I was obviously in the negative on that. It was a lot of fun. I did another speech, just myself, and then a long question and answer session head to head with the students. It's sort of like Jubilee, but with smart people. So, anyway, it was a great, great time. But right before we were about to start filming the show yesterday, the Professor, Jacob and I were at this fancy club in London. The professor had set up the whole studio in the club. And just before we start filming, the professor with all of his equipment, blew a fuse, may have nearly burned down this very old club and got us thrown out onto the street. So we're walking around the streets of London, you know, our bags in hand, like vagrants asking for handouts, and we were not able to do the show, I'm very sorry to say. And given that we were then kicked out of the club, I'm also sort of sorry to say that it didn't burn to the ground. But in any case, we're able to do the show now. There's a ton, a ton to get to. But I wanna start off with this awful. I guess the worst tweet that was ever tweeted. And the only reason it's newsy is it comes from this apparently very prominent YouTuber, Jesse Ridgeway, who goes by the YouTube name Mr. Jugger. No, sorry, Mickjugger Nuggets. And he posted about how he and his wife were going to have a child and then they found out that the kid might have down syndrome, so they killed their kid. And unfortunately, this is a very common story. It happens most of the time when parents get a Down syndrome diagnosis. Certain countries like Iceland, actually brag about how they've eradicated down syndrome. But there's no cure for down syndrome. The way that they say they've eradicated it is by eradicating people with down syndrome. So it's a very, very ghastly sort of statistic. This is what this YouTuber says. This week, my wife and I made the very difficult decision to terminate the pregnancy due to trisimy21. The choice was not made lightly. We really appreciate all of the personal stories that you guys shared with us, especially the Unconditional support we've received from fans with. No matter what we decided. Whoa, whoa, whoa. We'll get back to that in a second. I know some of you may be very disappointed to hear this news. We're devastated. This has been extremely traumatic for both of us. Yeah, I bet it has. You killed your kid. I bet it is traumatic. Especially Ashley, this guy's wife. She underwent the procedure. Notice all of these euphemisms. We terminated the pregnancy. We made the choice. She underwent the procedure. What procedure? What choice? Why was it traumatic? Why was it traumatic? He goes on, thankfully, everything went smoothly. Did it? Did it? Did it go smoothly? But emotionally, we're drained. Okay, so that's the opening. And then he goes on with this manifesto, trying to excuse what he did. So he says, Trisomy 21, also known as down syndrome, is caused by an extra chromosome. Yeah, we know. We know what down syndrome is. It's caused by an error in cell division, like a glitch. The odds of having a baby having it is one in a thousand. I think it's actually slightly higher than that. When I first confronted this news, I was shocked, but optimistic. If they're a little slow intellectually, we'll make it work. I signed on to be a parent, come what may, but I just didn't fully understand what down syndrome entailed. I signed on to be a parent. You didn't sign on to be a parent. You created a child. You produced a child. Once we made it public, it became clear most people don't know what down syndrome entails. 50% of babies have heart defects, 75% will have hearing challenges, delayed physical development, poor muscle tone, structural issues with the face. Yeah, their faces look a little different. You're right. Decreased lifespan. Well, now he has a very decreased lifespan. Sadly, the list is long. Feel free to look it up. Down syndrome isn't a blessing. It's objectively S H, I, T, T, Y. From a health perspective. I didn't realize how rough it is for the child. How rough it is for the child. He's trying to put this off onto the kid. You know, I actually did the right thing for him. You know, I put him out of his misery. Hold on, hold on. Regardless of anything else about the decision to kill a baby, it is just a fact, measurable across time and space. People with down syndrome are some of the happiest people in the world. And actually, families who have a child with down syndrome are happier than the median family. But, no, it's so bad for the child. So Much better to chop the baby up in the womb. The miscarriage risk is close to 50%. Well, now it's 100%. Yada, yada, yada. Goes on and on and on. Then again, he says to all my fans who have weighed in on this topic, we appreciate you. You matter a lot. We're glad you're here. I commend you for having the strength to push forward. But me, I killed my kid. Love you guys. Thank you for understanding. To me, the key word that tells you everything here is the word fans. I do not trust people who refer to their fans. I think back often to Rush Limbaugh. Rush Limbaugh, who had the biggest radio show ever, basically. Rush Limbaugh never talked about his fans. He talked about his listeners. He did have listeners, never talked about his fans. Fans is a real statement of hubris. Fans is a real statement of a division between you and the audience. It's a condescending term. So he says, oh, I've got all these fans. So look, I'm so glad you support me regardless of what you do. I don't know, I'd never heard of this guy. Apparently he's one of the big OG YouTubers. If I were a fan of his, I would not be a fan of his anymore. He killed his kid. Then there was a follow up. A lot of people responded to this post. And then he follows up, he goes, I've never seen such hate and vitriol for two people grieving the loss of their unborn child and making an impossible decision. Hold on, hold on, hold on. What's the impossible? It's very much a possible decision. You did it. You made that decision. It was possible. The consequence of that is you killed your kid. The last 24 hours have exposed a side of humanity that is deeply disturbing. Yeah, you're telling me, buddy, you're telling me. I don't think the disturbing part is on the side. You think it is being called murderous pieces of shit. Evil compared to Hitler receiving non stop death threats, is he? I haven't seen those. But it's all about him, right? He's the victim, he's the real victim here. And then he goes, seeing my 6 year old dog with stage 4 kidney disease be used as a weapon. So then I said, what on earth is this? I go, I look and this, this is the second most disturbing part of this story. He had posted not all that long ago and he, I guess his dog had some kind of disease and he writes this whole long manifesto. One year ago, Jenny was Diagnosed with stage four kidney disease after getting Lyme disease from tick. One of the saddest days of my life. Killing his kid. Not one of the saddest days of his life. His dog being diagnosed with the disease. One of the saddest days. I was heartbroken. She was given weeks to live. But here we are one year later, and Jenny is still with us. We defied the odds with doctor's advice. Curated a diet health plan that has kept her going. Although I believe our love and her will has been the true secret sauce. Man, if only you had that kind of love for your human child, not for your dog. She wants to be here with us. You know who would have wanted to be here with you is your kid. This is just awful. And the pathology is so much deeper. I don't know if we have the video. This guy posts a video of him and his wife reading the news that the kid has down syndrome and the wife is crying. And this guy makes content out of it. Everything's content. His kid has been sacrificed on the altar of content and the altar of convenience and the altar of selfishness. I won't belabor the point. And I won't read all of this guy's ridiculous words. Here's how it goes. If Mr. McJuggernuggets is watching this, two messages. You have to understand. You murdered your kid. You murdered your kid. Coincidentally, a friend of mine, Tim Gordon, his wife just gave birth to their, like, 57th child. He's a very, very fertile Catholic family, and their latest child has down syndrome. And Tim responded to this. He said, my kid's doing great. Just usual baby stuff. We love our kid. You killed your kid. And you killed your kid because he wasn't perfect in your eyes. And you did not give your child the same care that you gave to your dog. And you did not show him the same love. And you did not try to make him live. Allow him to. Not make him live. Allow him to live as you tried so hard to make your dog live. You killed your kid. And the other side of this is you can be forgiven for this. You can be forgiven. This guy is reacting very emotionally now, lashing out at the people who are pointing out this basic fact of what he did. He's writing these manifestos. Why? Because he feels really good about his decision. Because it was just a clump of cells. Because it's actually good for the baby to be murdered. No, he wrote the long manifesto in the first place because he knows not all that deep down what he did. And then he wrote the lengthy response because he knows even more consciously and explicitly what he did. And I guess the Christian response here is you can be forgiven. The blood can be wiped off your hands. The temporal effects owing to sin cannot be undone. Your kid really is dead and it's your fault, but you can be forgiven. From an eternal perspective, you can be forgiven, but first you have to accept the enormity of what you did. That's the key here. God offers us salvation, but it's not cheap. Salvation cost a lot of money. Not money. It costs much more than money. It costs the blood of God's only begotten son. That's the Christian understanding. And that price is so dear that you can be forgiven for your sins, but you have to acknowledge what you did. So now this guy has two choices. And really our society has two choices. This is why it's a matter of political import. We know that something's gone wrong. We all feel it. It's a society teeming with neurosis and anxiety and guilt and. And shame and all the rest of it. Cause of all the terrible stuff that we do. And so we can either double down on that by worshiping the God of the self and say, you know, this was my choice and it was an impossible decision that I made. It was a possibility, I guess, and it was the right thing to do. And it's actually good to murder down syndrome people. And it's good. No, I did the right thing. This shame that I feel, this guilt that I feel is not real. I'm just gonna push it down and deny till I die. That's one option. And then your personal life and your society will continue to get worse. Or you can do something very difficult. It's easy, but. It's easy, but it feels very difficult, which is you can look yourself in the mirror and acknowledge what you did and ask God for forgiveness, and he will give it to you. But you have to recognize that reality first. Really, really horrifying. I guess one very slight silver lining here is that this post went very, very viral. And it's a lesson for other people. But this is a cautionary, cautionary tale. Our whole society has said these sorts of things for years. Maybe this guy even started to believe it. But deep down, when you're lying in your bed at night, you know it isn't true. Okay, speaking of crime, I want to get to another, another death. A black criminal stabbed another lady to death on another train. It seems to me we've heard this song before. I promise there's less gruesome violence later on in the show. But this story actually pertains to one of the things I was talking about at Oxford last night. So we'll get to that momentarily. First, though, I want to tell you about Mount Titano Media. Go to mount titanomedia.com as we approach America's 250th anniversary, here's a question worth asking. Is it possible to fix education, restore some civic sanity, and enjoy summer with your family all at once? Mount Tetano Media says yes, and they have the words to prove it. It's called Finding Our Words that Made America, a collection of the greatest speeches in American history. Many of them have been nearly forgotten, which is a shame because these are the words that defined what this country is meant to be this summer. You can read it or listen to the new Audible edition. I strongly recommend you check out the new Audible edition because it features voices you might recognize. Andrew Clavin, Spencer Clavin, you know, U.S. army generals. Who cares about all that? Me. It features me. I get to read one of the speeches. It's a great deal of fun. Every speech comes with a beautifully written essay by journalist Tracy Lee Simmons, so the listener fully understands the context of what he's hearing. It's a perfect summary. Go get this book right now. Go to mounttanomedia.com get your copy of Finding Our Words that Made America. That is Mount Titano. T I t a n o media.com seems to me we've heard this song before. There's another guy, a homeless black guy, criminal stabs another lady to death on another train. We have some B roll footage here. I don't know if you want to see it. This pertains to something I was talking about yesterday because I was up at Oxford talking about the murder of Henry Novak. And in the murder of Henry Novak, which I've spoken about on the show, we've talked about in the west now for a few days, this young white guy was stabbed to death by this Sikh, a Punjabi guy in the uk. And then the cops showed up. And as the guy is bleeding to death and saying, I've been stabbed, I've been stabbed, the cops don't believe him. They do believe the criminal. The criminal's family is covering up for him and the poor guy is left to bleed out on the ground. And the reason that this happened is because the UK has an intentionally racially discriminatory police force. They say, we don't want to arrest so many non white people. We want there to be More white people arrested as a proportion to non white people. And you have to be anti racist and you need to confront white fragility and microaggressions and you have to reflexively believe non white people and you should dismiss white people. And it goes on and on and on. You have this from the Police Action Plan, the Police Race Action Plan. You have this from the College of Policing, released guidance just a couple months ago. And the premise gets things totally wrong. It misunderstands the common good. It thinks of justice as a zero sum game where if you give more justice to one group, you have less justice for the other group. And that just fundamentally misunderstands what the common good is. Justice, security, peace and tranquility in polity. That is a common good. A material good is like a pizza or a bottle of wine. Those are goods. And when you share those goods with other people, you get less of them. You share the pizza with your friend, you get less pizza, you share the wine, you get less wine. But when you share a common good, a common good is the kind of good that is not diminished when it is shared. It's a kind of good actually that grows when it is shared. When more people share a life of virtue, peace, justice, tranquility, actually everybody gets more of that. And so in this case, let's bring it back to the US in this case we've seen the same story. You remember there was another black criminal stabbed or I think pushed an elderly man down the stairs. And this was after he'd been terrorizing women on the subway. The cops actually stopped this guy as he's chasing the women out of the subway. And the young women, the young white women refused to cooperate with the cop. And the 23 year old woman in that case said, well, yeah, I didn't want to put another black man in jail even though he was committing crimes. And the consequence of that is he then went on shortly thereafter to murder this elderly guy also on the subway. And she just had this perverse view that if you lock up criminals, especially black criminals, that will be bad for people or that will be bad for black people or one race or another race. And it's just not true. If you just locked up the homeless black criminals and the other criminals too. But this is the group we're talking about here. If you just locked up the homeless black criminals, this wouldn't be a racial issue. If you just applied fair policing standards, the racial tension that comes out of this would actually decrease. This wouldn't really be an issue at all when the UK's police force comes out and says, yeah, we do not want colorblind policing, we do not want racial equality. That's what they're saying. They think that that is a sort of Faustian bargain where, yeah, you're gonna let more criminals out and yeah, they're gonna victimize more innocent people, but it'll at least be better for race relations. But the opposite is true. It's worse for race relations. The fact that there are two tiered systems of justice actually inflames the race relations, makes the whole society worse. Okay, speaking of racial politics, the great Brandon Gill, rising star in Congress, he was just grilling an Ohio state senator. He asked a very simple question on these demographic issues. He asked her a simple question. Has Somali immigration been good for Ohio? Senator Antonio, thank you for being here. Has Somali immigration been good for Ohio?
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You know, that's really outside of my
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purview of you're a state senator. Would you like to see more support? Well, as far as, as far as.
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As far as I'm processing your question and I'm. I have to say that I, I was almost brought to tears just now.
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70. Because the rate.
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The rate and the level of hateful
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rhetoric based on astounding rate and I think most Ohio shocking to me, the lack of even humanity to grow in humane to allow your own state to be defrauded at a pretty simple question. This woman is setting the feminists back 60, 70 years, which I guess is a good thing. So in that way I thank her for her response. Pretty simple question. Hey, you're an Ohio state, legislate state legislator has Somali immigration. Somalis were just caught perpetrating this massive fraud in Ohio. Has that been good for your state? What's her response? It's a yes or no. It's not that complicated. She says, I'm just processing your question. Okay, well, if your brain doesn't function well enough for you to understand a simple question, maybe you shouldn't be a legislator. But then the cherry on top is she says, your question almost brought me to tears. I need my fainting couch. I'm getting the vapors. Oh, yes. Well, state Senator Sally, or whatever her name is, she's just having a little fit of hysteria. So don't worry. The legislative session will resume any moment now. We just need to have state legislator Sally recover from her fit of the vapors. The question almost brought me to tears. If a simple question about politics causes you to fly into a fit of tears, you are probably not fit to Work in government or in the private sector or maybe even leave your home on any ordinary day of the week. I got great grilling here from Brandon Gill. He didn't even have to do that much. He's very, very talented at this, but he didn't have to do very much. She did all the work herself and she decided to set women in public life back 75 years. So for that, I guess we thank her. Okay. Speaking of women in politics, my friend Megyn Kelly is proposing a new political coalition. We'll get to that momentarily. First, though, wanna tell you about Bowland branch. Right now go to bolenbranch.com knowles folks, there comes a time in every trip I'm traveling right now. There comes a time in every trip when you start longing for your own bed. For me, that time came when Professor Jacob almost burnt down my hotel yesterday. But for you, it could just ordinarily come when you realize those beds you sleep on at the hotel, they're not that great. You want your bed, and what you want to accentuate your bed, to make your bed all that it could be is bowl and branch. I absolutely adore bowl and branch sheets. I have slept on them for, I don't know, 10 years now or something like that. We just ordered a new comforter. Sweet little Lisa wanted one. Where did we get it from? We got it from Boland branch. It's great. 100% organic cotton woven specifically for airflow in their sheets. No cooling chemicals, no synthetic cooling technology. The cooling comes from the way the fabric is actually constructed. Apparently 94% of customers say the sheets get softer with every wash. Right now go to boleandbranch.com get 15% off your first order, plus free shipping at bolandbranch.com knowles code knowles did I tell you what the URL is yet? It's bolandbranch.com b o l l a n d b r dash a n c h dot com knowles code knowles to get 15% off bolembranch.com knowles exclusions apply. We've heard about the Great Realignment, and this took place a little bit in 2016. Then you really saw it in 2024 where some voters who previously were centrist center left, definitely not Republicans, they came over to vote for Trump and we call that a realignment. My friend Megyn Kelly is proposing a new political coalition that she says is poised to rise out of and supersede the left right divide, which no longer describes politics. Here's her point.
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The line between left and right is merging you know, like, there's. There's something rising out of the middle of that. That is.
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You're talking with Anna Kasparian.
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Yeah, I love her.
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It's awesome.
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I love her. I'm pretty centrist in my politics now. My cultural sensibilities are definitely more on the right these days than they used to be. But I share a lot in common with some on the left. So I think something's coming out of the middle that is going to be the future. It's going to complicate politics in a really probably good way.
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Not.
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Not for the existing parties, but who there will be as a result of that emergence. There will be a candidate or more who stand for what's happening there in the middle. There's a few issues on which I think we agree removes culture wars from the discussion. So in other words, the leftists who are there. I'm not trying to cut off the body parts of our children.
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I think Meghan is totally sincere about this. Not only do I think Meghan is totally sincere, I think most Americans agree with her. I think if you went to a dinner party and you proposed this solution saying, you know, the left and the right, they're both terrible. The Republicans and Democrats are both terrible. And I think we're poised to see this new party or this new movement emerge out of the middle, and that's gonna represent most Americans, and that's gonna be the future of politics. I bet most Americans would agree with her on that, but she's wrong. She's wrong. People have these ideas and they have these desires as a perennial matter, but it never seems to happen. And the reason is that the parties and the political coalitions actually are relatively coherent. The left and the right have existed by those names since the French Revolution. We've got almost 250 years of the left and the right and that divide between the more conservative element and the more radical element that has existed going all the way back to the very earliest polities, probably going back to the cave. But we see this in ancient Greece. We see this in Pericles and kimonos and so on. Meghan kind of, I think, explains why this isn't actually gonna happen there at the end. In a way, I think she undercuts the suggestion, which is she says, look, I'm not gonna vote for a party that wants to cut off the body parts of children. So I guess for that reason, I'll still vote for Republicans, but I hate them. That's why it's not gonna happen. That's why. And I think ultimately not just what people say, but what people actually do. That's what's going to happen. Be the reason that this third movement does not arise. I was doing an event at TPUSA with Matt in Idaho not that long ago, and some speaker, one of the questioners, was just lambasting the Republican Party. And I said, yeah, yeah, no, the Republican Party, it's awful. It's the worst political party in the United States other than the Democrats. And that's enough actually. Cause there actually is some coherence. You know, sometimes people especially more of the, you know, disillusioned liberals who are coming over to the right, but they want to bring some more of their liberalism over. This was more prominent about 10 years ago. They would say, look, why can't we have low taxes and low government regulation, but a little bit of abortion, but not like a ton of abortion, but some abortion and a bunch of gay stuff. And foreign policy was kind of a split then as it is now, as it probably always will be. You say, why can't we have that? And it's because that actually is incoherent. The same reasons that drive someone to protect the life of an unborn baby will incline those people to protect private property, at least to a substantial degree. The same things that motivate a person to defend an unborn baby will motivate a person to defend innocent people on the street and therefore to arrest more criminals. And there the same motivations. I mean, I'm focusing on the abortion issue because that's what we were talking about at the top of the show. But the same things that motivate you to protect an unborn baby will motivate you to protect a national border. It seems like immigration and abortion are totally unrelated issues, but they're not really. They derive from the same basic assumptions about the country, the same basic desires, the same inclinations and preferences. So they're going to remain the same. And people that can be dissatisfied with the left and the right, they certainly will be. It's a fallen world. These things are going to be imperfect. But I would not put my money on some kind of third way movement arising to eliminate this distinction or to supersede this distinction. It's not would that it were so simple, but I don't think it's going to happen. All right, Very, very important story coming up. First though, before we get to that, I want to tell you about preborn right now go to preborn.com knowles Father's Day reminds us of something important. Almost no One starts out feeling ready to be a father. In fact, if you talk to enough dads, you will hear the same story over and over again. They didn't feel prepared. They didn't feel qualified. They weren't entirely sure what they were doing. And yet, somehow, through love, sacrifice, and grace, they grew into the role. That is one reason that I really appreciate the work preborn does. Sometimes people don't have anyone to lean on, or they don't know how to find the necessary resources. When an unexpected pregnancy happens, pretty people focus on the practical questions, the financial questions, the logistical questions. Sometimes what people need most is hope. Sometimes they need help seeing that a future they never expected can still become something beautiful. That's exactly what happened to a young father named John. When John and the mother of his child visited preborn, they received a free ultrasound. Everything began to change. What felt frightening suddenly felt real. What seemed impossible suddenly felt possible. For the first time, he could imagine himself as a father. And today, you can help create that moment for someone else. For 28 bucks, you can sponsor an ultrasound. The ultrasound gives the baby twice the chance of surviving. Right now. To donate 250, say keyword baby. That's keyword baby 250. Or go to preborn.com knowleskanaw L E S preborn.com knowles okay, now, speaking of fractured political coalitions, there was reporting some days ago that Trump had this nasty phone call with Bibi Netanyahu over the war in Iran. And the reporting came out that Trump yelled at him and said, you're effing crazy, and you owe the fact that you're not in jail to me because I kept you out of jail. And then Netanyahu downplayed it a little. It was unclear. Is this just what the White House wants us to believe? Did this really happen? Is this bad reporting?
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Trump has confirmed it, which you were angry with him. You said, are you effing crazy? What are you effing doing? I helped you stay out of jail. Is that true? Did you speak to him in those terms? I did. I wouldn't say angry. I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon. You know, at some point I said, maybe we got to stop this. We got to stop it. But I have a very good relationship. We've done well, done well together. He always says we could never have done it, but everybody knows that we could have never done it without the United States. But we've, we've. I've worked very well together. I like Bibi a lot, and I'VE worked very well with him. We had a, you know, where he, I'm a wartime president, he's a wartime prime minister, very important part of the world. And I think we've done, you know, very well. We've gotten along very well together.
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Yeah, I said it. I totally said it. But notice here, it wasn't him yelling emotionally like that crazy state senator lady who was being grilled by Brandon Gill. He's just saying, look, yeah, I spoke to him. I said, you're effing crazy. You owe your political viability right now to me, and you gotta knock it off. We've gotten along very, very well together. But here is one where we're diverging. This is, hate to say I told you so. This is exactly my diagnosis of it from a few days ago, which is, yeah, whatever the precise nature of the reporting, the US And Israel are allies. We have a lot of interests in common. We've gotten along very well together. We'll very likely get along very well together again in the future. But it's two different countries and sometimes the interests diverge. And right now on Iran, the interests are diverging because it's in the US Interest to get a peace deal and reopen the Strait, and it's in the Israeli interest to keep going until there's regime change. Netanyahu responded. So let's talk about the call that you had with him this week, which is getting a lot of attention. The president confirmed that he, that he said, you're effing crazy. How did you react to that? What really happened in that call?
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Well, I'm not going to get into details of our conversations. We've had thousands. Well, a lot, A lot of them. And if you think this is a crisis, you should be in some other conversations. But we've always found a way. We have so many agreements. We agree on the main things. We want to get Iran, the nuclear program in Iran finished. We want to make sure that Iran doesn't pose a threat to Israel, to the Middle east, to America, that it doesn't develop nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them not only to Israel and to every capital in Europe, but to every city in the United States. That's our common goal. That's what we set out to do and to expand the circle of peace, as the president and I did in the Abraham Accords together. So we have common goals. Sometimes we have, as in the best of families, you have these tactical disagreements. We always find a way to work them out, and we do so as great friends. We can disagree in the morning, and by the afternoon, we have common action.
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A
These are good statements from both men. These are actually good statements from both men. And it's the one view that you're really not allowed to hold on the US Israel alliance. Some people say it's the most important alliance ever and they're our greatest ally and our interests are totally aligned. Some say Israel is the most awful, evil, satanic power that's ever existed in the entire world. And the one view you're not allowed to have is, yes, sometimes we work really well together, sometimes we have different interests, we're broadly aligned, but sometimes we gotta restrain them, and sometimes we gotta yell at them on the phone. And that's how it works. We're two different countries, and we work with them in a practical, prudential way. But notice that's how the relationship actually works. That is the view of a very small minority of us podcasters and pundits. Very, very slim minority. But also that is the view of Trump and Netanyahu. Neither of them are escalating this into some big war of words, some huge feud where they're yelling and screaming each other. Recriminations on both sides, just saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, we had a tough phone call and, yeah, I don't like what he's doing here, and we're gonna try to stop that. But, you know, we get along on the broad strokes. But that's the answer. That's how it works. That's how political coalitions actually work. Okay, speaking of the presidency, we do have a potential Democrat presidential candidate who is going to try to upend his own party. We don't have a ton of time to get to that today because I have to get to. Before we. Before we cut into my favorite time of the week, the mailbag, I have to get into Scott Bessant just absolutely savaging the Democrats on Capitol Hill. Here is Scott Besant being grilled by Democrat Senator Ron Wyden.
- [36:14]
E
Senator Wyden has mendaciously slandered the Treasury Building in an attempt to cover up his son having an investment meeting with Jeffrey Epstein to ask for funding. Thank you,
- [36:32]
A
Mr. Chairman.
- [36:34]
D
Yes.
- [36:36]
A
Let's be clear here. Nobody is interested in the ramblings of a capo in the most corrupt regime in American history. We want to get some facts about this deal. That's what we're here for. Thank you. Well, thank you. And I will ask my questions first today.
- [36:53]
E
And we would like to hear what Adam Wyden and Jeffrey Epstein talked about your son's Largest investment position was Rick's Cabaret. So did your son and Jeffrey Epstein talk about pole dancing as he begged him for money using your limited credibility.
- [37:14]
D
Should I just proceed?
- [37:15]
A
I'm going to proceed with my questions. And Mr. Secretary, I'm going to start with regard to the issues that Senator Wyden raised. Scott Bessant is my absolute favorite form of the political animal that was such a savage attack on Ron Wyden. Hey, Ron. Hey. Hey, Ron. How's your son doing? How are his investments? Yeah, they talking over the stripper polls together. He just, he brings the receipts. Scott Bessant is my favorite form of the political animal in as much as he is intelligent, he's articulate, he's well coifed, he's clubbable, and he is a bloodthirsty savage beast. You get all these reports out of the White House of how he's just like beating people up in the west wing, just like body checking them into the walls. But he's eminently clubbable. You could take him to a very fancy dinner. He's smart, he's read a lot of books, but he's got a mission. He's just absolutely bloodthirsty. He takes no prisoners. He has no quarter for our political opponents. It's just beautiful. You just love to see it. Go to armra.com knowles k n a W L E S We are currently participating in the largest uncontrolled experiment in American history. We spend most of our day indoors. We stare at screens from morning until night. We eat foods our great grandparents wouldn't recognize. Then we wonder why so many people feel tired, run down, bloated, or generally off. Their digestion is off. They're constantly getting run down. Every solution seems to involve some futuristic powder developed in a laboratory by a man wearing goggles. Then every once in a while you discover something that sounds almost suspiciously old fashioned. That is what happened when I learned about armor Colostrum. Colostrum is nature's original blueprint for health. Armor colostrum contains over 400 bioactive nutrients that help fortify gut health, strengthen immune health and support performance and recovery. Mr. Davies swears by Colostrum he is a gigachad. So right now I would strongly recommend you check out the deal we worked out for our audience, which is 30% off your first subscription order. Go to armor.comknowles that is a R M R A dot com knowles or enter code knowles to get 30% off your first subscription order. Armor.comknowles okay, finally, finally, we've arrived at my favorite time of the week when I get to hear from you in the mailbag. Our mailbag is sponsored by PureTalk. Go to purertalk.com knowles k n w L E S to claim unlimited high speed data for just $34.99.
- [39:42]
F
Hi Michael, it's the Schuckmeister. It seems for the first time in a long time the entire Rite is aligned on one issue and that's James Tallarico. And honestly, I can't stand it. I'm fatigued. All the clips are the same and in the deluge of coverage, everyone is missing the point.
- [39:59]
B
Point.
- [39:59]
F
Yes, his reading of Scripture is really terrible, but it's totally unsurprising because his opinions are typical for your high churched Protestant in seminary. This has been an issue for decades and I've observed it personally by talking to compromised Presbyterians. And even influencers like Radim Zoomer have been leading reconquistas against it for years. So before everyone realizes that it's just the natural progression of Protestantism and everyone should just convert to something a bit more traditional and apostolic, what can people covering this person do to shift the conversation about the root of the issue? Thanks.
- [40:34]
A
Very, very good point. Talarico is not an outlier. I mean, he might be a little touch Fringier maybe, but I know, I think you're probably right. The mainline Protestantism, the sort of high church liturgical forms of Protestantism, I mean, they've been collapsing for years. Yes, Protestant palace of mine have been trying to lead this Ray Conquista of the mainline Protestant churches. I don't think it's going to be successful. I think it's way too far gone. But I was sitting there at the inauguration in the National Cathedral when that bishopress lady was scolding President Trump and Vice President Vance on immigration. It was so pathetic. I thought, this is it. Henry viii. This is what it was for. So that down the line you can have some Episcopalian priestess bishopress with a short haircut whining about immigration. I don't know. Yes, that is relatively mainstream. I guess the silver lining is I don't think it's gonna have that much cache. Cause there aren't that many mainline Protestants anymore. And the lower church Protestants usually don't go for this stuff. Your hardcore Baptists, Evangelicals, they generally don't go for that kind of stuff. But it's a good point. It's a good point to ask, not just politically, how did the Democrats get here in the way that they're perverting Christianity Really? In the case of Talarico, to satanic ends, using the Virgin Mary as an example of why we should have abortion. He's done that. But yes, to ask more deeply, well, what gave him the license to do that? From the position of certain Protestant denominations. That's a good point.
- [42:06]
G
Good morning, Michael, this is Arun. Okay, so I just figured out how to end the Iran war and I want to know what you think. So I love Israel partly because I love Jews, but also because they are a reliable ally. They rightly call us the senior partner and they are the subservient, or as Prime Minister Netanyahu says, the junior partner. So how about this? We do a ground invasion of Iran, but the IDF provides the troops and we merely facilitate. How is this not the best idea ever? Thank you as always for your thoughts.
- [42:42]
A
Great question, Harun, as always, I love your belligerent Zionism, your Indian American belligerent Zionism, while also getting a kick out of the podcasters who are the most anti Israel. You do. You might be the third way. The thing that Meghan was talking about where there's gonna be this political faction that totally transcends the. You might have done it. There was this tweet. I don't know if you guys saw this going around. This was a while ago, but during the Gaza war, there was a tweet an Indian guy posted of Netanyahu and Hitler sharing a face. Like one half was one guy, one half was the other guy. And the tweet said, they underestimate him. And lest there be any confusion, what the Indian guy was saying was he was comparing Netanyahu to Hitler because he likes them both. And he was saying this is a very confounding. I haven't processed. I need to process like the state senator lady, but to the substance of your question, why can't the state of Israel just provide all the troops, but we provide air support or something like that? Because there are really no half measures in a war like this, especially in a regime change war. So what Iran will do is just attack American interests. Because even if the IDF is providing all of the ground troops, if they can only do so with the support of the United States, then the way that Iran is going to try to stop the war and defend the regime is by disproportionately attacking the United States and all of our Gulf allies. So we'll be dragged into the war. There's really no way to slice it. This is an unfortunate conclusion from the war in Iran, but it just seems to Me, there are no good options whatsoever. And this is why you're seeing the US And Israeli interest diverge.
- [44:32]
H
Hi Michael. I just wanted to ask you about the statues you mentioned recently. So while I think it's cool that your ancestor got a statue and all that, I noticed some incongruities in your thinking. You thought it was awesome that the statues were of ordinary men that no one had ever heard of. Well, a couple of months back you were upset by the way a Robert E. Lee statue at the Capitol was replaced with the ordinary black teen no one has ever heard of. I think it was Barbara Rose Johns. Yeah, I had to look that up. Anyway, how do you reconcile with the fact that both statues are a people no one has ever heard of before? To someone, I'm sure that black girl statue is really cool. Just like your however Many Greats grandpa statue is cool to you. What are your thoughts?
- [45:17]
A
Well, the issue.
- [45:18]
H
Thanks for the great show, Michael. I'm a Daily Wire plus subscriber, but I only ever watch your show. I like how you're always kind and civil in your discourse. Ben is too grumpy and he talks too fast and Matt is too rustic. So yeah, you're the best. Looking forward to hearing from you.
- [45:35]
A
You're clearly a woman of excellent taste. Okay. You're a very sophisticated woman, probably very beautiful as well. And so I think your misperception here on the statue is only on one point. My issue is not necessarily with the random black lady. I don't even really remember who the statue was of going up somewhere. My issue was with the fact that the statue replaced a great man of American history. The issue is chiefly with the replacement. I don't know whether or not the lady who got the statue deserves it or not. When it comes to the ordinary men who have their statues, the ordinary men of the American Revolution who have their statues up, including my great, great, great, great, great Grandpa in Washington D.C. now we know that they did something great. We know that they sacrificed themselves for years and years and years to give us, our country, the most important sacrifice in the history of the United States. So we're certain that they did something very, very important that they've not been lauded for. But also their statues didn't replace someone else's statue. They didn't go into the Capitol and take down the new lady statue and replace that lady with my grandpa. Which if it were in the case of my grandpa, that would be totally fine. But if it were just, you know, if we're just going to live in this world of constant statue toppling and constantly trying to change out, erase parts of history and install new parts of history. That would be a little bit more difficult, especially when it comes to someone like Robert E. Lee, who's a very virtuous man and who's very important. He's a very good figure in American history who's been, I think, very, very unfairly maligned. So that's the distinction. The problem is more on the pulling of the statue down than it is on putting new statues up. But if we're going to put new statues up, let's make sure that the people are really deserving of them and that valorizing them will be good for the United States. In the case of that lady, I just don't know. I don't know anything about her. In the case of these ordinary soldiers of the American Revolution, we know that their sacrifice was great, and we celebrate it this year on the 250th. Okay, last question.
- [47:34]
E
Greetings, Michael. I have a question about something you spoke about recently regarding the legislation of speech. You said correctly that the purpose of speech is expressed expressing the truth. Therefore, to have legislation which curtails that would be unjust. I'm curious if you meant that. Absolutely. As a fellow Catholic, I'm sure you are aware of the sin of detraction. And as all laws legislate morality, in theory, there should be nothing wrong with outlawing detraction, provided it could be practically and justly enforced. But all laws are contingent on just enforcement. Would you disagree? If so, why, thank you.
- [48:18]
A
I suppose we'd have to define it and make sure we're talking about the same thing. But if by a law against attraction, you mean a law against revealing the private sins of others, I guess in principle you could have that. Though I probably wouldn't do that for the same reason that St. Thomas Aquinas says you might not want to totally outlaw prostitution. It's not that there's any right to prostitution. It's not that prostitution is good. But it's that within a polity, you have people at different levels of virtue. And if you're too tough, if you're too harsh, if your standard is too high, you can actually have the opposite effect that you want, which is you'll crack people and you'll make the vice even worse. But then for politics, politics runs on detraction. So one of the difficulties here is, as a public matter, sometimes people's private sins, well, they always have public effect, but sometimes they're really politically relevant. So, like, for instance, if you see someone commit a crime, and then the police ask you, they say, hey, did you see that guy committed a crime? You say, well, I don't want to commit the sin of detraction. You know, I don't want to look, I don't want. That's not mine to reveal. That's between him and his priest. No, there is a political role just in the enforcement of justice for telling on people. So probably you're not going to get a law against attraction, but people should do less of it. That's true. It's good to be a more civilized society. And the more civilized and virtuous we are, the less need we have for a multitude of laws. Okay, that's our show. I'm afraid that Professor Jacob is going to burn down this hotel as well. So we're not going to have the member block today. But I will be back in the studio coming up very, very shortly. I'll be leaving the motherland unless my visa is canceled. I don't. You know, people keep canceling visas here. So assuming I don't become an expat, I'll see you in the studio on Monday. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles Show. See you then.