A (4:52)

I agree with that. And I think it'll be amusing to see what, what sort of antics they play. Will there be juggling? Will eggs be hurled? Will they bring illegal immigrants into the chamber? That was mentioned by Cabot. I had not heard that. But again, I think it would be fabulous if Tom Homan just started muscling his way through the Democratic caucus with handcuffs and started dragging people away. That. That would be the best version of this. Matt and I were actually in the room for this last time. And so again, I'm jealous of Matt that he gets to, you know, go to sleep this evening. Andrew Clavin, I want to get your commentary on this because it will be your last commentary on this earth. Because while Matt's soul is likely to leave his body out of excitement, yours is likely to leave your body out of, you know, death. But, but first, I do want to talk to you about the fact that you are still alive. And I feel like one of the reasons you are still alive is because you've been eating your fish. That's why. So I need you to tell me about Wild Alaskan.

D (5:41)

You know, I am a lifelong fisherman. Not many people know this. I used to fish every single day when I was young. I fished all over the place. I fished lakes, I fished in oceans and rivers. And one of my favorite places to fish was Alaska because you can pull a halibut if you, you hook a halibut. They don't fight, they just hang there on the line. But they're really heavy, so it's like lifting a piece of lead. And they are just. They just taste great. And that's why we can sell people with a good heart. When Wild Alaskan company It's the best way to get wild. Caught perfectly portioned, nutrient dense seafood delivered directly to your door. It's not me delivering it, but it is my soul delivering it. You have not tasted any fish this good. It's 100% wild caught, never farmed. And this means there are no antibiotics, GMOs, or additives. Just clean, real fish that support healthy oceans and fishing communities. I mean, you're allowed to eat fish, right, Ben?

A (6:33)

Yes, I am allowed to eat fish. That is the thing that I'm allowed to eat. And but honestly, the person in my office, because of kosher reasons, who has been enjoying the fish is producer Phil, who's looking fit as a fiddle and ready for love, as they say. Well, apparently it is sustainably sourced wild caught from Alaska. Every order supports sustainable harvesting practices and your membership delivers flexible shipments, expert tips, and truly feel good seafood. Matt, I believe that you also are a fisherman. I'm surrounded by men of the wilderness. Man, talk about how good this seafood is.

C (7:04)

Yes, yes, Ben, that's correct. I also enjoy fishing. One of my favorite things to do and when I like to catch fish. But I, I, you know, I can catch fish, but I prefer to have them sent to me because it's a lot, it's a lot easier that way and I don't have to prepare it either, so.

A (7:24)

Well, thank you for that sterling endorsement, Matt Walsh. Not all fish are the same. Get seafood you can trust. Head on over to wildalaskan.com friendlyfire for 35 bucks off your first box of premium wild caught seafood. That's wild alaskan.com/friendly fire for 35 bucks off your first order. Thanks to Wild Alaskan Company for sponsoring this episode of Friendly Fire. Okay, so Andrew, I was calling on you and then I immediately shifted into the way that we make money, of course, which is, which is our ads. So I'm going to throw it back to you because as the hours tick down on, on your life and you realize that you're going to have to spend the next several hours with me listening to an interminable address interrupted 1273 times by applause. What are your last thoughts on this earth?

D (8:08)

Yes, as I head barreling into infinity. You know what I like about the Democrats is the last time there was a State of the Union, they behaved so badly that even they must have felt, if they have the capacity for shame, they must have felt a little bit of shame. I mean, Trump was praising a child with cancer and they sat on their hands. I mean, they just could not, they couldn't applaud for anything at all. So the question was they must have gathered together and thought, can we act like adults who respect our country and respect our fellow countrymen taking a vote and said, no, we can't. So we're not going to show up at all. They're going to sit at the children's table where you can throw food until Mommy finds out. You know, you can just play around and pretend that you're not part of the government. And I think that that's actually the state we're in. You know, I think it is an amazing thing that we have reached a place where we have two major parties. One of them is kind of incompetent, the Republicans, but the other one is actually out to destroy the country. They actually feel, you know, when they get up and they say things like, there are no illegals on stolen land, they're actually saying, this country doesn't belong here. You're not supposed to be here. And that we're supposed to vote for people. And people do vote for people whose entire intent is to shut the country down and make it go away. And they're ashamed of us, and they're ashamed of George Washington. They're ashamed of everything. So I think this is actually kind of a symbolic moment where I, too, I've come closer to you, Ben, on how I feel about the State of the Union. I never. It never used to bother me, the imperial part of it, but now it kind of does. Now that our Congress is like a dead letter that they're just sort of sitting around, the Supreme Court is trying to wake them up with, like, the shock battles, you know, take back your powers. Like, no, no, don't make us take back our powers now. It is kind of like having Caesar get up there and give a speech. So it's kind of a. I don't know. The whole thing is a disgrace on every side. And one thing you can be sure of is Trump will play right into that. He's going to be cursing out the suprem.

A (9:56)

You know, that's the part that, you know, I think that it's going to be an epic episode of Good Trump, Bad Trump. Right. Which is something that I used to do on the show a lot, was the good Trump, bad Trump. I think you'll get some very good Trump. He's going to call on the U.S. men's hockey team, which is going to be great. And frankly, he's just called them down to the stage and just let them take the stage, and then you should just walk out. I think maybe the best version of this, my ideal State of the Union here, is men's hockey team at the front and Tom Holman arresting people in the back. And that's America. I think that's, that's like, that's like the best version of this. But I think that the high points will obviously be him calling out some of the people. Erica Kirk is showing up as well, which I think is a terrific invitation by the president. Obviously, in the face of Candace Owens is a tremendous evil, which I'm just going to put out there, fly by

D (10:38)

on a broomstick saying, send out Erica.

A (10:41)

I mean, as a person who doesn't often use the adjective satanic, what Candace is doing right now is absolutely satanic to Erica Kirk. And I think Erica showing up at the State of the Union in honor of her husband so the president can talk about left wing violence against right wingers is absolutely good by the president. Good on the president for doing it. I think those will be high points. Again, I'll be a little surprised if the Democrats sit on their hands for those things because I think that would be so unbelievable. I mean, you were right, Matt. Last year, they literally sat on their hands for a kid with cancer. So anything is, anything is possible at this point. But Matt, I want to ask you, you know, if you were the president, what is the thing that you would say to turn this around? Because obviously he's kind of sinking in the approval ratings. He's not doing great. The generic congressional ballot has the Democrats up five points. In all likelihood, that means the Republicans not only lose the House, but, but probably the senate falls to 50. 50. You're advising the president for a moment. You're writing his speech. What do you tell him to do?

C (11:35)

Well, first I would tell him get a better advisor because I'm the worst person you could probably ask this question to. And I will say that I do enjoy that. This, this is the most cynical and depressing intro to a State of the Union that we've probably, and we've given some bad ones like we, it just gets worse every year, but for good reason. No, the thing is, and it's kind of funny because although we feel this way about the State of the Union, I mean, Trump does have actually things to celebrate. He has real achievements. I mean, let's start with the fact that closing down the southern border is a real significant, historic achievement that has made America a better place, doesn't solve all of our problems, but it's something that no president was able to do before him. And that's not his only achievement. So he's got real things to talk about, real things. That he can kind of brag about. And so if I'm advising him, it's real simple. Just focus on those things. I mean, yeah, the great patriotic moments, talking about the Olympics, going to the hockey team, that's all great, but talk about the things that you've achieved, the real things. Yeah, we want to talk about the future also. What do you want to do in the future? But one of the. Part of the point of the state union is supposed to be here. You know, this is where we are right now. This is the state of things right now. So it's kind of also a review of the past year and being able to highlight those things. And also, again, being able to contrast that with how the Democrats react to it. I mean, politically, that's going to be very powerful. Because I think that, as you mentioned, we saw this last year in the room that they refused to applaud anything. It didn't matter what he said. And so I would guess, I mean, this is one prediction I'll make is that when he has the line about political violence, condemning political violence, and he mentions Erica, I'm gonna guess that a lot of Democrats are not gonna applaud that because they're gonna perceive that correctly, in a lot of ways, as a repudiation of them, because all the political violence is coming from the left, and these are the people that have explicitly or implicitly encouraged it. So I think even something like that, we're not gonna get a unified response. And that will tell the American people a lot, I think.

A (13:41)

So, Drew, I'm gonna ask you the same question. You're now advising the president, and aside from telling him that he probably should not say that the Supreme Court is in the pay of a foreign power, and that also he's amazing at reading legal opinions. What else would you tell the president to highlight?

D (13:57)

I think a key thing here. You know, the polls are really bad for the president. People are actually saying that they were better off a year ago. And it's hard for me to see how that could possibly be true. I mean, not only is the border closed, crime is down, drug use is down, imports of drugs are down. All of these things have actually improved. But it's gotta be about the economy. And I think the affordability question and the thing. I do not believe it would be possible to impress this on Donald Trump, but it's not a bad idea for him to acknowledge the fact that people are unhappy. You know, this is something I used to say through the whole Biden administration. People were going, you know, the inflation is killing us. Biden's people would come out and say, no, no, you're really happy. Things are great. You know, I thought, like, you know, I think people know when they can't make the rent. I think people know when they can't get their kids the Christmas presents they want. I think they know when they're not buying the same foods that we'd be able to afford before. So if people are saying they're unhappy about the economy, they probably are. And there's probably no chart you can point to and no statistic you can point to that's gonna make them feel better. So it wouldn't be a bad thing if Trump could muster up just that little mustard seed of humility. And I know don't laugh when I say Trump and humility in the same sentence, but if they could just muster that little bit of humility to say, hey, I know this is not going as fast as I wish it would, but it is going to go faster. And this is why, you know, and I think that that's just something that is not in Trump's repertoire. And yet I think it would go a long way to just say, you know, it's not about. It's not always about Donald Trump. It's sometimes about the people. And the people do feel bad about the economy. I'm a little surprised by that. It does seem to me that things have picked up, that not only has inflation gone down, but wages have actually gone up and outstripped inflation. But apparently people are not feeling that yet, and hopefully they will soon, and hopefully that'll turn around the predictions about the mid midterms. So that would be my main thing.

A (15:48)

For my part, I will say that I think that the thing that has been missing, and this is true for both parties, I think the President has done an amazing job of fixing many of the problems left in his lap by Joe Biden. I think that wiping out dei, closing the southern border, as Matt mentions, going after the transgender agenda, these are all huge, gaping holes in the American psyche that the President has done a great job of working to heal. I think that what people are missing and I think where people are feeling dyspeptic, which is my new favorite word, and also, you know, just feeling uneasy in their stomachs is they don't know, what are they supposed to think the country looks like in three years. Matt, you've talked a lot about AI. There are a lot of worries out there about AI, And I don't think those worries are completely unjustified. Again, I tend to be more of a tech optimist. Matt would like to take every computer, apparently, in America, and just smash it with a hammer, sort of like office space. But I think that, that Matt's sentiment, even for people who are tech optimists, we're like, well, I think it'll be okay, but I'm not kind of like, sure it's going to be okay. And. And I think there are a lot of people out there who are wondering, what does life actually look like three years from now? So listing off the accomplishments is one thing, but saying, look, here is what you can look forward to, right? If things go the way that I want them to go, here is what industries are looking like. Here's how. Here's what your job looks like in a couple of years.

E (17:04)

You.

A (17:04)

Here's what the international scene looks like in a couple of years, right? Just read the trend lines that I've created and take people to a future and then say, and if you stick with me, we can get to this future together. And that's something that actually no president that I can remember has actually ever done. I think they virtually all talked about the thing they did in the last year, but none of them has actually talked about what they want the future to look like in sort of real terms that people can wrap their brains around. The White House did on their YouTube feed, actually put out an AI. And again, we talk about things that I have wonders whether they help. They put out an AI of President Trump listing his accomplishments. It is a little weird and makes me also want to smash computers with a hammer. Actually, it is the President. I don't know why there is a senator in the background who apparently is wearing a neck brace. I don't know. Teddy Kennedy's been dead for a long time, and so I'm not sure what's going on right there. This is a. A visual of the President apparently taking an oath of office while also listing all of it. So he's. I don't know what's going on here, honestly, and it doesn't. It makes me very disquieted about AI Guys, you need to stop showing. We're in the uncanny valley. I can't do this. You need to take it away.

D (18:12)

One of the things that really bothers me about the conversation, the American conversation, is we've skipped over that part where people say, like, wow, human beings invented artificial intelligence. We don't even do that anymore. We go right to the disaster. It's like they go, look, look, mother, look. I'VE invented artificial intellig. Oh, my God, we're all gonna die. And I really do think the tech optimism is more realistic at this point than, you know, the Terminator coming to life. I think that it's a shame that we have no way of talking. We can't even win a hockey match without people screaming at each other about some stupid comment in a locker room. It's really bad that this conversation is now just. We immediately go to the anger and the hostile.

C (18:54)

What is the.

A (18:55)

Go to the anger. Go. Do it. Do it. Go to the anger, man. Go.

C (18:58)

Good. What is the tech? And this is what I'd love to hear to the State of the Union. I'd love to hear someone address it, because this is a very real concern that a lot of people have. It's very, very real. And I'm certainly not the only one. Because when I look at it as I've expressed a million times, what I see is a very high probability that at a minimum in the short to midterm, AI is going to come in already has come in and is going to wipe out millions and millions and millions of jobs. And that's already happening. So it's not even like I'm predicting it. That's already happening. The only prediction is that it's going to accelerate. And I think that we have every reason to think that it will. So that's what is almost certainly going to happen. What's the optimistic vision? Why shouldn't we freak out about this? Okay, so that's what I'd love for someone to explain.

A (19:43)

I agree. And this is why, again, I think that it would be great if you did. I mean, if I were writing the speech for the president, what I would probably say is your medical care is going to get wildly cheaper and better because of AI, which is just true. It's going to get so much cheaper and so much better in the next five years. It's going to make your head explode with how. With how good it is. The possibility of you being able to organize your life in better ways is already here. I mean, Cloud AI is doing extraordinary stuff in terms of you being able to organize your workflow. Small businesses are going to be able to start because the cost of starting a small business is going to be reduced so much. You won't have to take out big debts in order to go hire five people to start your business. You're going to be able to use AI to do all that sort of work. You as a worker are going to become significantly more productive which means that presumably your hours will be able to be shorter because you're able to be so much more productive with this stuff. There's going to be expansion, particularly in industries that. Where you use your hands. There's going to be a lot of expansion in industries where the human body actually matters. The places that are going to get hit pretty hard are the white collar industries, and particularly kind of the lower half of white collar. You're going to see legal get smoked. So if you really love lawyers, maybe you should be mad at AI. But if you're one of the people who's been making lawyer jokes for the last half century, then probably you're a happy camper. So there are a bunch of things about AI that actually are going to be quite awesome. And I also do not think that the best form of AI is going to be AI alone. I think it's going to be like people who play chess. Yes, computers are better than humans at chess on an average level. But the best version is a great person who is great at chess with a great computer. Doing that is actually the best version. That would actually be the pitch. I'd love to hear somebody make that pitch, actually. But here is my pitch to you. If you want the best in investigative reporting, actual facts in your news, and opinions from the most trusted names in conservative media, you need to subscribe right now@dailywireplus.com we are quickly expanding. That only happens because of members like you. Again, please head on over to daily wire plus.com so we can get you more fabulous investigative material and of course, sparkling commentary from the likes of those that you are hearing right now. Okay, so to take it away from the State of the Union for. For just a second and to take it toward what I think everybody really has their eye on, which is the midterm elections. So, Matt, I want to get your take on where you think we are with the midterms, what to expect, and again, more broadly, how can the president kind of shift the momentum and turn things around?

C (21:54)

Well, I think. I mean, I think it's everything we've been covering, people. There's a perception in America that, as we've talked about in the polls, that we're sort of worse off than we were a year ago. I think that that is objectively just not actually true. But that's the perception people have. And elections are all perception. Politics is all perception. It's all that matters. And so you need to change that perception. And highlighting all the wins is one way to do it. I think the Messaging on that. It's not all about messaging, but the messaging on that obviously, has not been clear enough. I mean, if we, if we can agree that things are, by almost every metric, things actually are not worse now than they were under Biden, if we can agree on that, and yet there's this perception that it is, then it's hard for me to see that as anything but a messaging failure. What else can we call that? And so I think that's going to be the key, not just in the State of Union, but going forward into the midterm elections, is a kind of clear, coherent, unified message addressing that.

A (23:02)

Yeah, I think one of the things Drew and I want to get your take on this, were it to be I advising the administration, the thing I've been saying forever, all Americans want is normalcy. That's all they want. They just want things to be quiet and normal. That's all. And so if you are able for five seconds to deploy people in your administration who are effective at making things be quiet and normal, this means Tom Holman and not, for example, Kristi Noem at dhs. This means, for example, Scott Besant at Treasury and not Howard Lutnick over at Commerce. It means that if you deploy people who are pros, Marco Rubio in the State Department, who's doing a fabulous job, if you deploy the pros and you tell the American people, listen, we're taking mainstream normie positions that 65%, 70% of the American public agrees with, like deport criminal illegal immigrants, and Democrats are out there unified, ice out. That to me, has always been the Trump pitch. And the problem for, I think President Trump has always been that the actual policy that he effectuates is at war with his rhetoric, because the policy is always this kind of 65% policy. And he has a really good finger on the pulse of what that feels like, which is why he shifts any moves when he feels like he doesn't have the polls. But his rhetoric is always sort of the most extreme and inane version of that thing. And I think that's, at a certain point, the American people are tired. I think that's what you're getting right now. I think the American people are extremely tired. We are one year into the Trump administration, too, and it feels like we are all Drew's age, and I'm 42, and Drew feels like he's been around since the 17th century.

D (24:29)

That is, I actually have. That is one thing. But no, you know, I always ask myself, you know, whenever I watch the Democrats, when the Democrats were in power when Joe Biden, the worst president in my lifetime, which, as you say, goes back infinitely. You know, when he was in power, I kept seeing things like this. They say, let's cut little boys testicles off and turn them into little girls. Let's, you know, let's hire people according to the color of their skin. Let's make, you know, women into men and men into women and have them play women's sports. And then they come out and find out they're unpopular and they say, it must be our messaging. No, no, it's not your messaging. And in the same way, I think with Donald Trump, there is, you know, a style and substance difference that is really unnerving to people and plays into the prejudices of the media. So, I mean, Trump says things that he shouldn't say, you know, and I'm sorry, I keep saying this on my show all the time because it's so old fashioned and yet so true. Manners actually matter. You know, good manners, you can get very far with good manners and determination, just as far, if not further than you can get with determination and bad manners. And so, as always with all of us, you know, Trump's flaws and his strengths are the same. And one of his great strengths is the fact that he's willing to break the rules. He's willing to go in to be the bull in the China shop. He's willing to say, oh, yeah, we've done this way for 50 years. Let it's not working, let's stop. That is a wonderful trait that Donald Trump has that makes him who he is. But by the same token, he does the same thing with the way he treats people, you know. Yeah, usually you don't fire people, like in public on the air. Nah, that's the way I'm gonna do it. You know, usually you don't call the Supreme Court, you know, say they're in the pay of foreign powers. You have some respect for the law. Nah, I'm not gonna do that. So that same kind of unbridled, you know, feeling that he brings to his substance, which is great, he brings to his style, which is not so great.

A (26:18)

Well, I think this is where, you know, again, the President is at his best, where he can really deploy that is when he's got his book of enemies open. And he, because he is, he is absolutely the most effective destroyer in modern American history. What I've always said about the President is that he has the art of politics is making it very hard to vote for your opponents and easy to Vote for you. And he's always been amazing at the former and, you know, kind of mixed bag at the latter. Right. He's great at making it hard to vote for Democrats. And so the question, you know, Matt, is who? Who Again, the president is looking for a target. What is the target? Who is the target? How. How does he singularly polarize around a Democratic target? Who's the. Who's the target rich environment that he should be going after right now? I don't know.

C (26:59)

I mean, I think they all kind of are. The, The. The good thing that we have, and we're talking about returning Americans want normal. We want a sense of normalcy. I think that's true. And it brings to mind Gavin Newsom, who just, I think yesterday was on CNN saying that, well, you know, Democrats need to be a little bit more culturally normal. So he's doing his whole moderate shtick, you know, which, of course, is a shtick. He mentions pronouns. So he said, maybe we won't be so focused on the pronouns very boldly coming out against the pronoun thing four years after that peaked, anyway. But the advantage that Trump has and Republicans have is that Democrats actually can't do that. Like, at least in theory, Republicans can be normal. Many times a lot of weird stuff happens among Republicans, but they can be normal. That is a possible thing with Democrats, it's not even possible. It's, like, inherently impossible because they're progressive. And so what that means. And they would even admit this if you framed it in a more positive way, but it means that you're constant. It's a constant state of transformation all the time. So there's always a new normal, you know, and so if there's always a new normal, it means that there's never a normal at all. And so Democrats are just not. Just not capable of it. I mean, they literally march under a banner that says dismantle. You know, that's, that's that. That they, they are the party. They are the side that uses a word like dismantle in a positive way. Conservatives almost never do that. And what are they always trying to dismantle? It's always, like, fundamental aspects of human society, nuclear family and so on.

D (28:26)

Human nature.

C (28:26)

So. Yeah, right, exactly. So they, they can't do that. They can talk about it, but they can't actually do it. It's totally against their political project. And Republicans can. And so that's an advantage. And that's maybe something that Trump could try to highlight.

A (28:40)

We do have some people arriving at the state of The Union address again, many Democrats are not showing up tonight. I wish I had not showed up tonight. But, you know, here we are all together, suffering through this together. There are some old people. You can see them. I'm not talking about claving again. Those are some old people.

E (28:56)

Who.

A (28:56)

People elected. I don't know why. You know, it's just the way this thing works. This, this elected government of ours, it's going so well. I believe that's Senators McCormick and Tim Sheehy. McCormick, of course, from Pennsylvania, Tim Sheehy from Montana. And then there are a bunch of people I don't recognize. So, you know, I'm doing a great job. You know, my color commentary here. Wait until, wait until I do tennis. He hits the ball and then he also hits the ball. Well, you know, I know that. Kalsha, our sponsor, also has a rundown on what Trump is going to say during the State of the Union. If you are feeling lucky and inspired, you can get into the action yourself with the help of our sponsors over at Kalshee. You can head on over to kalshee.com/friendlyfire. Prediction markets are forecasting the odds of President Trump saying words like Somalis, ballroom, fake news and hoax. Man, of those, I feel like there's also some odds on surprise, guys. I feel like of those words, I'm gonna go, like, I'm gonna go hoax. I feel like hoaxes is always a good standby, a prediction bonanza unseen since the Super Bowl. So definitely check it out right now. Some of the markets, what will Trump say during the State of the Union? So, as I say, some of those words will undoubtedly come up. I believe that there, there is. Ballroom is at 50 some percent. Hoax is at 50 some percent. People are very optimistic about him saying words. So that's, that's exciting news from our friends over.

D (30:20)

Improve the State of the Union.

A (30:21)

Yeah, exactly. There's also a market, a prediction market on who is going to attend the State of the Union. No points for macho man Randy Savage, but I don't know, guys, I'm punched drunk already. We haven't even begun this thing yet. If you have any idea where to go from here, like, you let me know. This is why Knowles usually runs Friendly Fire, because believe it or not, it's the only thing he is more professional at than I. But the reason Knowles is not with us is because Knowles is actually at the State of the Union address.

D (30:52)

So is how low they have sunk in the State of the Union.

A (30:55)

I know they're really, really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Truly scraping the bottom of the barrel.

D (30:59)

Unless he's the usher. I mean, I could see him being the usher.

A (31:02)

I mean, my assumption is that in order for you to go to the State of the Union, you have to be hit in the teeth with a hockey stick. So I, I volunteer right now to make that happen.

D (31:09)

That would actually prove for Michael.

A (31:12)

Okay, so, Matt, I do want your rant on how much Canada sucks, because that was pretty great. I mean, the United States. If you cannot feel a surge of pride at us defeating our communist northern neighbors who murder the disabled, then I'm not sure what exactly we're doing here.

C (31:28)

Yeah. And I. It was the first hockey game that I've watched all the way through, and it was, it was actually, it was, it was pretty exciting and, but most exciting just to watch Canada get vanquished in. And what makes it so hilarious, of course, as many people have pointed out, is that hockey is the only thing they know how to do. It's their only sport. It's their only activity. They, they, they put their kids in hockey when they're like six months old, and then, and for us, it's a niche interest. It's like not even a top five sport. We don't, we barely even know it exists. And then we just kind of wander over there. We're like, yeah, fine, we'll take the gold in that. So my, my whole pitch was that I think this, we should just do this now. And I think our next project should be assemble the greatest cricket team that the world's ever seen and then go and dominate in cricket. And I want a bunch of drunk Americans going to the cricket World Series or whatever it's called, tailgating outside, being obnoxious, bragging. We don't even know how the game is played or anything about it. And that's what I think we should do. And I will also say just quick, on the Canada point that I, you know, I'm not totally making the argument that we absolutely should invade Canada and depose its regime, but I am saying that given that America has done this and we just did it in Venezuela, many of the arguments that have applied and have justified those actions, if you favored them, really do apply to Canada. It's not a crazy thing to talk about. And as you mentioned, Ben, I mean, they are in the middle of a campaign of eugenics. They are executing not terminally ill people, but thousands of. Of people who are just chronically ill, which is to say they're sick, but they're not gonna die of the sickness. And that's just what. They're burning down churches, not arresting anybody for it. You know, partial birth abortion. I mean, it's really just a parade of atrocities in Canada. And so, I don't know, it's something we should talk about. Maybe Trump will, maybe Trump will speculate about it in the State of the Union. I would love that.

A (33:25)

Well, also, by the way, we should mention here, before Walsh ducks out and gets his 90 night sleep, that he has a new episode of Real History that is out right now about the history, the real history of Native Americans, about American Indians. That episode is episode two in his wildly popular Real History series. Matt maybe want to give people a quick rundown. By the way, you can only get that if you subscribe because if you don't give us money, then we can't do things at this company, people. So if you want to see that and also give us money, then you should definitely subscribe to see Matt's Real history. Matt, give a little bit of a pitch to episode two for yourself.

C (33:56)

Yeah, I'm excited about this. Was, this was a fun one to do. And it's, it's a topic that's really interested me for, for a long time. It's been, I've been on this soapbox about the Native Americans for a long time. It's really important because this is. We heard it from Billie Eilish at the Grammys. And this is the idea that America is built on stolen land. We have no right to be here. And that idea, as silly as it is, has been very persuasive to a lot of people. It's been a justification for some of the worst policies that we've ever seen and some of the worst tyranny in this country and in places like Canada as well. Well, so part of what we're doing in this episode is kind of inspecting that claim. Is that actually true? What actually happened with the Native Americans? What's the real story? We hear about the Trail of Tears, the smallpox blankets. Well, it turns out when you look into it, all that stuff is fake. And we go into that in great detail, which, as you say, if you subscribe, you can hear all about it.

A (34:53)

All right, so, Matt, I appreciate that and I know that you're going to stay with us for a few more minutes while we watch a bunch of people walk into a room. So that's really, really exciting. Drew, what do you think of what they're wearing? What do you make, what is Chief Justice Roberts wearing? What do you make of his robe. Is it the most elegant robe or only the second most elegant robe you've ever seen?

D (35:11)

You know, I appreciate John Roberts trying to revive our Congress. I thought that was so touching. You know, it's like, couldn't Congress do something sometimes? Come on. Even the guys who agreed with him, the left wing judges, were like, no, we don't want that. We just want to wait until Trump is gone. We want to say, Trump can't do it, but our President can do it when he arrives. But John, Robert's like, please, please, Congress, do something. And poor Clarence Thomas was going, congress. Is there still a Congress? I don't remember that. You know, so it's, I'm glad John Roberts is there. I appreciate the sentimental attempt to keep the American system alive. I thought. I was very moved by that. And I know that the people, I'm sure the people in Congress were like going, shh, shh. We don't want to do that. No, no. Because, you know, then if we do things, people blame us for them. So I think that that's, you know, that John Roberts deserves to show up in his robes and look like a justice from the old America where we had a Congress.

A (36:07)

I mean, I'll be honest, I'm just looking forward to watching the President jump out of the dais and full on pile drive John Roberts. It'll be really entertaining. I'm rooting for pyrotechnics at this point. Speaking of lack of pyrotechnics, if there's one place more boring than the inside of the State of the Union, it's outside the State of the Union where Breca is on the Mall watching a bunch of elderly Democrats mill around uselessly. So, Breca, what is happening out there? Is it the most exciting scene?

B (36:35)

It is a small crowd, still not much of an update. We just had Chris Van Hollen talk to people. He talked about Minneapolis and how people need to be like the protesters in Minneapolis and, you know, rise ahead into the event, whatever. And then other update, we just had a national scientist, so, you know, not much going on.

A (36:57)

Wow. So excellent, excellent reporting, Brea. I mean, you're, you're right in the thick of things where, where all the action is happening. Yeah, I'm, I'm very, I'm very excited that we have this sort of minute to minute. Up, up. What's happening?

D (37:09)

Something when Americans fear they can be killed.

A (37:13)

Nope, nothing happening. Re. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Honestly, I love that they're bringing forth, you know, the real, the real Go getters like Chris Van Holland. Like, you know what, we got to get the guy who really, who really going to sell this thing. Let's get Chris Van Hollen. Most recently seen like a schmuck down in El Salvador hanging out with Kamara Garcia, the guy who was alleged to have beaten his wife. Well, meanwhile, the first family has arrived in the box. Barron Trump, whose head stretches all the way to the top of the Capitol dome, is, is standing there. Melania has entered. The President's other children are there as well. So they are, they are all.

D (37:49)

I would like, I would like to praise Melania for a moment. Melania has become for me the symbol of how petty and small hearted and small minded the left is. I mean, look at that woman. There's a beautiful first lady that we've got. She hasn't been on the COVID of one lousy magazine. Can you imagine the small kind of like miserly pinch heartedness of going, we're

A (38:08)

not going to let her on the

D (38:09)

magazine because people might think she was pretty.

A (38:13)

The magazines are so bad that Time magazine featured Eileen Gu. Like the lady, the traitor. Yeah, exactly. And meanwhile, you've got the American hockey team with some of the greatest photos of all time. Didn't make the COVID of Time. The secretaries are entering the chamber. Secretary of State Marco Rubio entered just a moment ago. There you have RFK Jr who thankfully for us, is wearing a shirt and not jeans today. So that's exciting. He's not doing any push ups on the floor of the chamber. Again, I was kind of rooting for it. Also, Scott Besant, the Treasury Secretary is there as well.

C (38:49)

Can I say something, actually, can I say something about Melania? I really resent her, actually. I actually really resent her. No, I do, because up until a month ago, I had the biggest opening weekend for any documentary at the box office of the decade. And. And then she comes along and she blew you, beats you out of the water. It's not fair. She. Well, she had the President, United States at the premiere. It's like, I can't compete with that.

A (39:20)

I think the moral of the story is next documentary, you try on so many shoes, the number of shoes that you try on pantsuits, like, we really go for it. I think we're gonna have to blow out the budget on footwear for Matt Walsh is, I think what we need to happen for the next. It's called what am I Wearing? That is the, that is the next Matt Watch documentary.

D (39:38)

And it's unfair because they unleashed the same amount of hate against her that they unleashed against you. And she was just showing off her clothes. That's truly unfair.

C (39:47)

Yeah, I gotta. Well, I gotta work hard for the hate.

D (39:49)

I know. You gotta work for your hatred.

A (39:51)

Yeah. Well, we are awaiting the president entering the chamber for the State of the Union. When that happens, we are going to obviously go to the State of the Union. You can watch it live here and stick with us. And then afterward, stick around, because Matt is gonna go to sleep. But the rest of us are gonna stay here and suffer through this interminable evening with you. There will be drinks. There won't be hard drugs, because I know that there are law enforcement authorities watching. But we will be here back with you on the other end for all of our hot takes. Michael Knowles will somehow make his way to a place where we can talk to him. God love us all. And others, A wild cast of luminaries will be joining us post the State of the Union after the president speaks, which may or may not end anytime in the future. So we still have people who are entering the chamber. This is happening slowly. Matt and I were there last year. Matt. It was like 20 minutes late, right? It was 15, 20 minutes late, something like that. 10 minutes late. It took a while.

C (40:41)

Yeah. And the speech was very, very long. It was yout can't get up to use the bathroom at any point. Which I started to worry about that a little bit about two thirds of the way through. I'm just like. But that's even rougher for the president. I've always wondered, what do you do if you're the president, given the speech, and you gotta use the bathroom? These are the questions that are never asked.

A (41:03)

The Mike Mulligan and the steam shovel questions. And obviously, the president has tremendous stamina. He loves going on stem winders at these things. And yeah, I mean, I think that caffeine is not an inappropriate solution for some people are in that room pretty obviously.

D (41:18)

This is the worst commentary.

A (41:21)

You know what, Drew, you take the lead. All right? It's all you. Let's see you do better, Drew. Hyper Critical.

C (41:27)

Let's talk.

D (41:30)

Let's talk about picking over here.

A (41:33)

What movies are we going to talk about? Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights. Oh, my God. By the way, we totally good. It was horrific.

D (41:39)

You know, the book isn't that good. I mean, I've always oh, my God.

A (41:43)

That's where you're going to.

D (41:44)

But I've always been a big Jane Eyre fan. I've never thought that Wuthering Heights was that Good. A book.

A (41:48)

Okay, well, that was a really interesting conversation, by the way. We're building something bigger than just another News outlet. Daily Wire gives you live, uncensored shows every day. Can see why normally we'd like to censor them because of this breaking news in real time and investigative journalism that gives you the real story. No algorithms deciding what you get. No outside pressure telling us what to say. And if you believe in that mission, head on over to DailyWire.com Become a member today. I can't believe that your take on Wuthering Heights true is that you don't like the book I haven't seen. Do not. Do not.

D (42:15)

Do I want to see.

A (42:16)

No, you do not. I mean, it looks terrible. Yeah. You've seen the 1939 version, right?

D (42:20)

Yeah, which is good. That's actually a good movie because they only have the first half of the book.

A (42:23)

Yeah, yeah. It's a fabulous movie. Merle Oberon and. And Lawrence Olivier. Terrific, terrific film with a great score. This movie is one of the worst movies ever. And it's really immoral and quite, Quite evil and quite terrible. Well, speaking of, I don't know, whatever, there are a bunch of people who are coming in. Lee Zeldin, the head of the epa, is entering. Other cabinet secretaries entering. There's a very beardy fellow in the back who I don't recognize. And so I'll just physically describe people. Oh, my God, Matt. I can't. You know what, Matt? Say something. Say something, Matt. Save me from myself.

C (42:55)

I was. That was a. That was a great transition. Speaking of. I don't know, whatever. That was good. I really appreciated that. I'm just. I'm enjoying watching you, Ben, try to sell your way through.

A (43:10)

Yeah.

D (43:10)

Stretch this.

A (43:11)

I know.

C (43:13)

Here's the thing.

D (43:13)

We can talk. We can. We can talk about Mexico because finally, I am now the only person on Earth with the nickname El Mencho. That was a good thing. They killed El Mencho, leaving me the highest ranked person with that nickname.

A (43:26)

It is something to say that in the last week we have defeated both of our neighbors at their top sport.

D (43:34)

Exactly. Exactly. And another thing about Canada. I have another thing to say about Canada. Not only are they killing people, but they're bad sports. They complained about. They said we played better than the Americans because we got more off more shots. You know, the goalie was this amazing, and the goalie was. Must be flash from the comics. He was like, just moving around, blocking every shot. And somebody has to explain to the Canadians, it doesn't matter how many Shots you take. It actually matters how many blocks go into the goal. So I think that alone.

A (44:01)

That is stellar sports commentary. It does not matter how many shots you take.

D (44:04)

That is my reason for invading them. That is my reason for invading them.

A (44:07)

It looks like they are about to welcome the President. I know. How long am I supposed to stretch this? It's unbelievable. The vice President and the speaker of the House are, of course, behind the President of the United States. We are moments away from the President of the United States entering the chamber. And the State of the Union will begin shortly. There is the special envoy for the President on foreign policy that Steve Witkoff, who's been entering the room. The Democrats are not sort of garbed in their usual. Usually they have. They have kind of these matching Halloween costumes.

D (44:37)

Costumes they wear.

A (44:38)

Yeah, yeah. Last year they did the all white routine. This year, I guess they wore their invisibility cloaks. Many a lot of those seats are clear. Matt, I've run out of things to say. Continue. Whatever it was that you. I know it's criticism of me, but you know what? I can take it. We need to fill this time somehow. Go for it.

C (44:54)

You've run out of things to say, so you throw to me. I'm your guy. I'm your guy. You break.

A (44:59)

I'm getting my money's worth from you, Matt Walsh. Like, for God's sake, you get to. You get to ditch us all in the middle of this and go enjoy your family.

C (45:06)

And meanwhile, we could do a live stream of me sleeping if we want. We could just cut to that.

D (45:11)

That would be a little more exciting. But can we exalt in the fact that the Democrats didn't show up and they're still humiliating themselves? Nobody's there, by the way.

A (45:20)

I will say, you know, more seriously, it could theoretically be an important speech. Really, it could, because we are sort of an inflection point in the Trump presidency. If things keep going the way they are going for the president and the midterms go the wrong way, it's going to be very difficult for him to effectuate his agenda. This is an opportunity where all the networks and we are live casting this entire thing. And that means that if he says something that truly is outstanding or if there's anything clippable or memeable that comes out of it, then theoretically it could open a new front in sort of the narrative war that he's going to have to fight leading up to the midterm election.

C (45:50)

So I think also this is an opportunity to aggressively defend ICE you have the Boli pulpit, and I mean, we saw the Kalshi. Is he going to say the word Somalis? I hope he does, because let's talk about the Somalis and what they're doing and why, why ICE is there and who they're deporting. And this is an opportunity to really, to really highlight that.

D (46:07)

And also, I mean, when did it become all right to throw things at law enforcement? You know, I mean, can we not talk about the. Is that like, just normal? Oh, what's happening now? Something.

A (46:17)

Now that the president is about to enter the chamber. He's coming in right now.

D (46:21)

We've been rescued by Donald Trump. I think this is like one, once

A (46:24)

again, just like 20, 24 election, we've been rescued by the president. So here he is entering the chamber. Obviously, if Matt and I were there last year, Drew, you've never been there, so you know you can't be part of this conversation. Yeah, I know. I mean, you've never received this honor, which I think is fitting. And typically when this happens, there's a big crowd that sort of comes around the president, people taking selfies with the president for postcards back home and such. And he's getting a big hand. The Senate Majority Leader, John Thune, is behind him. You see him entering slowly. Takes him a while to get to the podium. Obviously, you can see the Democrats are sort of standing there turning the other way or ignoring him. You have a couple of Congress people who are wearing the MAGA hats. Obviously, the president, I'm sure, is going to be quite happy about that. The Republicans happy to see the president, obviously, as. As you would, as you would expect and suspect. So you can watch as we say, the entire thing live. On the after end of this, we are going to be talking with various members of the Daily Wire team. Mary Margaret Olahan is going to be with us. So will Michael Knowles. He will stop by to explain what he saw in the room. The president continues to make his way down. I have to say, does the man ever age? He's exactly the same age as when he came down the escalator in 2015. It is really kind of an incredible thing.

D (47:39)

Yeah. There is a picture of him in the hall at the White House. He gets older and older, but yeah. And he is, you know, he's also got a lot of. He's still got a lot of verve, a lot of energy. He's just like, you know, the New York Times has been running these series of articles every now and again on how he's Falling apart. And it's just, it's like everything else in the New York Times, when you compare it to reality, there's no match whatsoever. He's just an incredibly energetic person. He's a good advertisement for not drinking. Luckily, I haven't taken that on board, but still.

A (48:06)

Yeah, unfortunately, he's also a great advertisement for not exercising, since he famously does not exercise in order to preserve his life force. And he looks great. I mean, really, like, like eat like trash, but don't have beer and also don't exercise. And you can, you too, can, can be President of the United States and be extraordinarily well preserved. This is why it was always so funny, Democrats trying to come back at the President with, well, you know, just like Joe. You're just like Joe Biden. And it was like, no, you know what he's not like is Joe Biden, who was legitimately a barely ambulatory corpse by the time he left the office. So Isabel Brown is there tonight as well, so half the Daily Wire team or more is there. He is walking by John Roberts. He kind of walks right by John Roberts and right over to Brett Kavanaugh, which, which is not exactly surprising. He kind of ignored Amy Coney Barrett right there. He's, he's shaking the hands of the Supreme Court justices. He likes playing duck, duck. Yeah, he's playing duck, duck, goose with the Supreme Court justices, basically. And now he is greeting the general, the, the chiefs of staff or the armed forces of the military and making his way up onto the podium. Democrats are standing there not clapping. You can see Elizabeth Warren in the background as, as, as non. Moving as the statue we have of her in our studios. And, and the President is making his way up to the podium right now. He is getting a big ovation from the Republican side of the aisle, of course, J.D. vance behind him, the Vice President, speaker of the House behind him as well. The President is approaching the microphone. He's going to wave to the room a little bit. I assume that in a couple of moments he will begin to speak. Everyone on the Republican side of the aisle on their feet up to and including the rafters. The Trump family, which of course is very large, is up in the rafters, cheering. You can see there's tremendous enthusiasm for the Republican side of the aisle and the President pointing to members of the crowd clapping as he, as he prepares to walk forward to the speech. Again, one of the benefits of having Mike Johnson behind the President is that he won't be ripping up the President's speech. In the immediate aftermath of the State of the Union address, the president turning to the Vice president as well as the speaker, in just a moment, he will be approaching the microphone to begin speaking. All right, in just a moment, we're going to go live to the President of the United States in the room. Pretty long ovation here for the President. It's good.

C (50:23)

It's good color commentary. Ben, thank you. You know, like, you know, I got a lot of respect. I have more respect now for the cable news people that like, they could

A (50:31)

just kind of wing it and say nothing.

C (50:33)

Wing it, Wing it over these moments

A (50:34)

and actually listen, dude, you know what? I have a pathological aversion to saying nothing. And they put me on the air here and they're like, you know what, Phil? 20 minutes while he walks down a hall.

C (50:41)

I do not have that. I don't have that aversion at all.

A (50:45)

I notice somebody's got to fill the time, dude. And someone, one of the three of us will just sit there for long periods of time saying nothing quite comfortably. And somebody's got to say something. All right, finally, members of Congress have the high privilege and distinct honor of

F (51:03)

presenting to you the President of the United States.

E (51:09)

Well, thank you very much, everybody. It's really an honor. Speaker Johnson, Vice President Vance. Today our border is secure. Our spirit is restored. Inflation is plummeting. Incomes are rising fast. The roaring economy is roaring like never before. And our enemies are scared. Our military and police are stacked. And America is respected again, perhaps like never before. The stock market has set 53 all time record highs since the election. Think of that one year boosting pensions, 401 s and retirement accounts for the millions and millions of Americans. They're all gaining. Everybody's up, way up. In four long years, the last administration got less than $1 trillion in new investment in the United States. And when I say less, substantially less. In 12 months, I secured commitments for more than $18 trillion pouring in from all over. The. Think of it, much less than $1 trillion for four years versus much more than $18 trillion for one year. What a difference a President makes. A short time ago, we were a dead country. Now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world. The hottest. We ended DEI in America. We cut a record number of job killing regulations. And in one year we have lifted 2.4 million Americans, a record off of food stamps. And for all of these reasons, I say tonight, members of Congress, the state of our union is strong. Our country is winning again. In fact, we're winning so much that we really don't know what to do about it. People are asking me, please, please, please, Mr. President, we're winning too much. We can't take it anymore. We're not used to winning in our country until you came along with just always losing. But now we're winning too much. And I say, no, no, no, you're going to win again. You're going to win big. You're going to win bigger than ever. And to prove that point, to prove that point, here with us tonight is a group of winners who just made the entire nation proud. The men's gold medal Olympic hockey team. Come on in. The members of this great hockey squad will be very happy to hear, based on their vote and my vote, and in this case, my vote was more important, that I will soon be presenting Connor with our highest civilian honor, which we will be given and which has been given to many athletes over the years. But when I say many, not too many. Like 12. It's called the highest civilian honor in our country, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Under our bill, parents like Megan can also activate their children's brand new Trump accounts. And I didn't name it. I did not name it. I did not name that. Nobody believes me, but I did not name it. It was named by a very tall man standing right there in the third row. So with modest additional contributions, these young people's accounts could grow to over $100,000 or more by the time they turn 18. Think of it. How much money is that? For somebody that started with nothing, over 100,000 could be much more than that. To make this investment in our children's Future, go to TrumpAccounts.gov under my just enacted Most Favored Nation Agreements, Americans who have for decades paid by far the highest prices of any nation anywhere in the world for prescription drugs will now pay the lowest price anywhere in the world for drugs anywhere. The lowest price. First year of the second term should be my third term. But strange things happen. Members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information. They stood up for that. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Did Nancy Pelosi stand up? If she's here, doubt it. Pass the Stop Insider Trading act without delay. But when it comes to the corruption, that is plundering, really, it's plundering America. There's been no more stunning example than Minnesota, where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer. Oh, we have all the information and in actuality, the number is much higher. Than that. And California, Massachusetts, Maine and many other states are even worse. This is the kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of a nation. And we are working on it like you wouldn't believe. So tonight, although started four months ago, I am officially announcing the war on fraud to be led by our great vice president, J.D. vance. The only thing standing between Americans and a wide open border right now is President Donald J. Trump and our great Republican patriots in Congress. Thank you. Thank you. The American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens. Isn't that ashamed? You should be ashamed of yourself. Not standing up. You should be ashamed of yourself. That is why I'm also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens. In many cases, drug lords, murderers all over our country. They're blocking the removal of these people out of our country. And you should be ashamed of yourselves. And no more crooked mail in ballots except for illness, disability, military or travel. None. And even the new communist mayor of New York City. I think he's a nice guy, actually. Speak to him a lot. Bad policy, but nice guy just said they want people to shovel snow. They got hit hard, wants them to shovel snow. But if you apply for that job, you need to show two original forms of ID and a Social Security card. Yet they don't want identification for the greatest privilege of them all voting in America. No, it's no good. And here is one more opportunity to show common sense in government. In the gallery tonight are Sage Blair and her mother, Michelle. In 2021, Sage was 14 when school officials in Virginia sought to socially transition her to a new agenda. Treating her as a boy and hiding it from her parents. These people are crazy. I'm telling you, they're crazy. My great friend, Charlie Kirk. Great guy, great man. So last year, Charlie was violently murdered by an assassin and martyred, really martyred for his beliefs. His wonderful wife Erica is with us tonight. Erica, please stand. Thank you, Erica. Been through a lot in Charlie's memory. We must all come together to reaffirm that America is one nation under God. And we must totally reject political violence of any kind. Last summer, 23 year old Irina was riding home on the train when a deranged monster who had been arrested over a dozen times and was released through no cash bail stood up and viciously slashed a knife through her neck and body. No one will ever forget there were people on that train. No one will ever forget the expression of terror on Irina's face. As she looked up at her attacker in the last seconds of her life, she died instantly. She had escaped a brutal war, only to be slain by a hardened criminal set free to kill in America. Came in through open borders. Mrs. Zaretzka, tonight, I promise you, we will ensure justice for your magnificent daughter, Irina. Under the ceasefire I negotiated, every single hostage, both living and dead, has been returned home. Can you believe that? As president, I will make peace wherever I can, but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must. That's why, in a breakthrough operation last June, the United States military obliterated Iran's nuclear weapons program with an attack on Iranian soil known as Operation Midnight Hammer. After Midnight Hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, and in particular, nuclear weapons. Yet they continue starting it all over. We wiped it out, and they want to start all over again. For years, large swaths of territory in our region, including large parts of Mexico, really large parts of Mexico, have been controlled by murderous drug cartels. That's why I designated these cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. And I declared illicit fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. We've also taken down one of the most sinister cartel kingpins of all. You saw that. Yes. Yesterday. The revolution that began in 1776 has not ended. It still continues, because the flame of liberty and independence still burns in the heart of every American patriot. And our future will be bigger, better, brighter, bolder, and more glorious than ever before. Thank you, God bless you and God bless America.

A (64:23)

Punctuated by some pretty horrific Democratic behavior, which I think is going to be the story of the night. The President was obviously in fine fetal. He was in a very good mood throughout. There were some pretty great call outs in the audience. A lot of call outs in the audience. He. He is. Last year, he did a thing where somebody was essentially made an honorary member of the Secret Service in the audience. He did that a couple of times. This time, somebody was given the Congressional Medal of Honor. Somebody who was announced was. Was going to receive the Presidential Medal of Honor. But again, I think the big headline coming out of this, aside from the length of the. Of the speech, which ran almost two hours, it ran approximately an hour and 48 minutes. For those who are in the calcium markets, I believe that is the official time. We'll find out shortly. With that said, the. The big thing to me, Drew, and we're here with Andrew Clavin and Mary Margaret Olahan. The big thing to me, Drew, was the behavior of the Democrats, which you predicted. It, we all sort of thought it was going to happen. Uniquely bad tonight. Pretty horrific all the way through. We saw particularly Democrats sitting on their hands at odd moments. The president specifically called it out at one moment where he said, I basically cannot believe that you are sitting for this. When he said, why are you. Basically, we stand for Americans. We don't, we work for Americans, we don't work for illegal immigrants. And Democrats sat on their hands. And I think he almost couldn't believe, believe that they were going to fall for this trick. And then they fell for the trick. And of course, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlieb made fools of themselves. What was your big takeaway, Drew?

D (65:47)

The only thing I would say differently than that is I don't think the takeaway was how badly they acted. I think it's how brutally he slapped them down. And I am not somebody who's always in favor of Trump's tendency to brutality against his enemies, but tonight I was, because the Democrats have been behaving like this for years. They've been having been behaving like this is not their country, that this country is not our country, that this is not the place they work for. The only time they cite American freedoms is when they're defending a gangster or an illegal immigrant or a killer. They never cite them in favor of actual American natives. They have embarrassed themselves, they've humiliated themselves. They've shown themselves to be petty and nasty and small. And he didn't. He maneuvered them into this situation where he dug the pit, but they had to walk into it. And they did. And I was sitting there. I have to say, these speeches are not always the most interesting. This was a long speech. It had moments where it seemed to be gone forever. But in that moment, I sat up straight and I was watching people get what they deserve. And I'm not for vengeance, but I am for justice. And that was justice. And I just thought it was terrific to watch this master of the put down find a group of people who had earned every little bit of it. And I thought it was beautiful. I thought it was great. And obviously, you know, I love all the celebrations of great heroes, the hockey players. Erica Kirk. It's wonderful. But that was just magnificent. And as you say, it was two things he did. He said, we are here. Our first job is to protect American citizens, not illegal immigrants. They sat on their hands. And then he told the story of a woman essentially being legally kidnapped so that they could transfer into a man. And he said when they sat on their hands, then he Said, you people are crazy. Just thought that was absolutely great. I'm telling you, if they hadn't earned it, I would think it was uncivil. But it was just right. It was just he did the right thing and it was great.

A (67:38)

Well, Mary Margaret Olan, our White House reporter, is here with us. So, Mary Margaret, you were in the room for it. What was sort of the mood? Obviously, when you have these sorts of events, you have the Republicans on one side of the aisle, the Democrats on the other side of the aisle. The big game seems to be now trying to figure out when Democrats stand, when they don't stand. Were there any moments where they actually stood in unity or was it pretty much on their hands the entire time?

B (68:01)

No, I wouldn't say there were any moments when everyone stood in unity. I think, you know, many of them stood for Charlie Kirk, thankfully, and there was chance of Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. Not everyone stood for him. And I think in general, the mood in the room was Democrats on the one hand, kind of saltily sitting around, and then a few of the more radical Democrats shouting, yelling. In fact, I'm hearing from other reporters in the room, I didn't hear it myself, that Ilhan Omar said the F word at one point towards Trump. Can't confirm that myself, but again, that's what other reporters are saying. And then meanwhile, the President himself, the reporters at Daily Wire, we were all talking about this earlier. His mood was almost jovial. It was exuberant. He was just so excited going into this speech, all the way through it. And I listened to the President a lot. I spent a lot of time listening to his remarks. He sailed through the speech. He, you know, touched on every single point, on every single guest, but he moved really quickly through it. It wasn't really the more we V. Speech that we might have been expecting, that we might have even seen last year. And to me, Ben and Drew, I think that signals that he is very aware that he had the eyes of the nation, if not the world, on him. And he was using this speech to great effect. The midterms are coming up. He knows he needs to spend a lot of time reaching American voters, letting them know what his agenda is. And to me, a lot of this was showing American voters, don't forget that the Democrats are not on your side. Look at all these different examples of things that they don't stand with you with. Don't forget that they still support radical gender ideology. Don't forget that they don't want to protect your young women on the metro. They don't care about your young women as they're taking Metro rides and if they're brutally killed by violent criminals. And so all of these messages are going to make for fantastic talking points going forward. They're going to make for fantastic stories going forward. And, you know, especially when it came to gender ideology, I found this really interesting because you all know that I spent a lot of time covering this before I became the White House correspondent. He harpened on that one specific word, crazy. He says this is true. And that is one of the messages of his 2024 campaign that I think resonated so deeply with American voters who are so tired of hearing about radical gender ideology and being told that it was normal and not insane. And so he's hearkening back to those words and reminding the public, no, it's not okay for a little girl to be taken away from her parents by the state and transitioned. And he actually suggested he might do something about that as well, which I have a lot of sources is telling me. They're trying to get him to sign an executive order on that. So I was really interested in that as well.

A (70:35)

And one of the things that I think was pretty astonishing about the speech is how little actual policy there was in it. So you mentioned some of the policies that of course, he has promoted, as you say, Mary Margaret, he moved really fast through that. So he would mention a policy that he'd done, and then he'd move pretty quickly into story time and he would pick somebody out of the audience and explain how the policy had personalized, impacted somebody in the audience rather than going into the details of the policy, which I thought was actually quite smart because the overall sort of tenor of the speech was less about. Here are the things that I'm doing that you may or may not agree with or understand and more about. I actually care about people, and these people over here don't care about people. And them not clapping for the people became, I thought, his chief weapon tonight. I thought he used it to great effect. For those who missed it, obviously the most evocative moment was a moment when the president got into a war of words with Ilhan Omar. He was speaking about fraud in Somali communities in Minnesota. She started screaming back at him, saying that he should be ashamed of himself. She did not have the microphone. And that is a major disadvantage when you are talking about a in a speech like this one, just for those of us who are watching it on TV and are not in the room. I remember last year when I was in the room you can hear pretty clearly what Democrats were shouting. But if you're watching it on TV through a screen, you can't hear at all what the Democrats are shouting. You can only hear what Trump, Trump is saying back to them. And so what you ended up with was something that sounded like this. Do we have the clip of the president going at it with Ilhan Omar and Rashida Talib?

E (71:58)

Lay sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens, in many cases, drug lords, murderers all over our country, they're blocking the removal of these people out of our country. And you should be ashamed of yourself.

A (72:38)

Now, I will say that one of the shots that was excluded from that clip was a shot that appeared to be into the crowd, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar at that point. And it's pretty obvious from just some basic lip reading that while, while people were chanting usa Rashida Tlaib was mouthing kkk, which is pretty astonishing stuff. And, and if indeed that is what she was mouthing, then that is going to be a massive headline tonight and tomorrow as well it should be. She, of course, is a radical. She, she, she support, she's stood with terror supporters her entire career in the Congress. Same thing is true of Ilhan Omar. If they want to make that the face of the Democratic Party, man, you are welcome to it. What a, what a, what a massive boo. Boo for the Democratic Party. Mary Margaret, while we have you, I want to ask you about the, the sort of most fun moment of the night, which obviously was the, the U.S. men's hockey team coming in, which was a kick. I mean, I love that we, we basically got the president as sportscaster, which was really, which was really fun. He basically narrated the game and talked about the various numbers of saves and all the rest of it. What was the mood in the room like when they came in?

B (73:42)

Well, they're just so much fun. And they came in right in between all of the press. So, you know, the Capitol Hill press are sitting all together in their, their press seats and they're looking a little dour, not super into the whole evening. And this USA men's hockey team just came down in between them. There's a really funny shot on Twitter that people should check out where there's a reporter who has a mask on and he's kind of slumped over his computer and looking really dejected. And then right next to him, these hockey players are just beaming, absolutely full of life, delighted to be there. It's a Hilarious contrast. But the room just exploded with shouts and excitement. And the President, obviously, he knows every play of that game because he watched it, he understands it, he cares about it. He loves these guys genuinely as well. We know from the video of him interacting with them as they were in the locker room celebrating their win. I heard that these guys were hanging out in a side room with pizza and beer, which I think is a fun way to help them enjoy the State of the Union without being too locked in while they're still celebrating. And, you know, this is just a very fun part of this evening, and I think also lends itself to the very patriotic element of this State of the Union. You know, we're celebrating American excellence. We're celebrating patriotism. We're celebrating, for example, this service member who was part of the raid on Maduro. I loved the story that the president told about him, how his wife dipped his dog tags in holy water before he left because she knew he was going on some dangerous mission. And now he was here and honored in front of the whole world for his heroism in that mission. So just so many examples like this of American being honored and the President celebrating how truly amazing our country is. And it gives me chills just talking about it. It's just we've been experiencing patriotism unlike anything we've seen in many years, and it's a lot of fun to be a part of it.

A (75:33)

Now, Drew, obviously you mentioned earlier the these people are crazy clip. So did you, Mary Margaret, and we do have that clip as well. For those who missed it, this was the moment when the president basically lost it at the Democrats for failing to recognize that, hey, maybe, you know, treating minor girls as though they are boys is a crazy thing to do. Here's what that sounded like when the president went off.

E (75:55)

What? He stands up. These people are crazy. I'm telling you. They're crazy. Amazing. Boy, oh, boy, we're lucky we have a country with people like this. Democrats are destroying our country. But we've stopped it just in the nick of time, didn't we?

A (76:24)

Yeah.

D (76:25)

You know, this is a really. A really interesting question about this. We always talk about the State of the Union, and we always try to be honest about the fact that it usually doesn't move the needle very much, but it can change the dialogue sometimes. And one of the things that's been shocking to me, me, as Trump's polls have not been very good, as people have said, unbelievably, that they're still as bad, they're worse off than they were a year ago. One of the things that will be interesting to see if maybe he did remind people of what it was like under Joe Biden, why they voted him back into office and what it would be like to have them back. I mean, how can anybody think, you know, Trump is so bad, this guy is so bad that we have to go back to children being butchered, to people being hired according to race, to this absolute unrelenting hatred of the country as an entity. I just, it's hard for me to see how people can really think that I may be wrong. Maybe the polls are right. But I do wonder if that, if that idea is so fragile that he may be broken.

A (77:24)

You know, Drew, I think one of the things that tonight showed, and I think this is why Republicans have been looking for a face of the opposition to identify. I think one of the big flaws that Republicans have had to face down is the fact that Joe Biden was so forgettable that we've all forgotten that he was president already. I mean, truly, like he was such a non entity that by the end of his presidency, he was not even really the president. Kamala Harris was effectively the president. And so what that means is that it's very easy to sort of go, yeah, who was even president before this guy? Maybe it was better. Like it doesn't even clock in your memory that Joe Biden was president. If you had told me that Donald Trump was president and then he was president again and there was no kind of mid middle term of Joe Biden that wouldn't shock like 30 years from now, people are not going to remember that in the same way that people kind of don't remember the Benjamin Harrison served between Grover Cleveland. You know, like, I think that, that, that, that is going to be a reality. And so I think that's been a challenge for President Trump. There is no one of his stature in the Democratic Party for him to pummel. And I think that one of the things that you saw tonight, and this is why that Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib fail is a real fail for the Democrats and I think a real danger for the Democrats. People don't like those people. They don't like them. The Ilhan Omar and Rashida. Yes, I mean Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are totally radical and insane. Rashida Tlaib was wearing watermelon earrings in solidarity with the Hamas, the Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. Rashida Tlaib was wearing a button that said F ice on the air. Right. There is a point at which Ilhan Omar pretty clearly on camera mouthed about the President that he was a sick f. Right. All that stuff was happening. It was all on camera. And so when. When you put that on the camera, you say, okay, here are your choices. It's this versus this. President Trump in a vacuum always doesn't pull very well. He never has pulled amazingly in a vacuum, going all the way back to 2015, 2016. He always tends to pull a lot better the minute you put somebody else on the other side. Because, again, as I said earlier on the show, Mary Margaret, you know that there are two things in politics that are important. One is making it hard to vote for your opponent, and second is making it easy to vote for you. And the president sometimes has trouble with the second, but he's always very, very good at the first, and he needs an opponent. I've been saying for a decade that the president is a hammer in search of a nail, and when there aren't enough nails, he starts to hit kittens. Well, right now, he may have found some nails to hammer here, and I think that tonight was pretty good evidence of that, Mary Margaret.

D (79:41)

Absolutely.

B (79:42)

And, I mean, earlier today, we saw Kamala Harris saying that she might be considering running again. So I'm sure the President is excited to actually have a foe on the other side of the aisle, because until now, we haven't had anyone truly declare. So we might have another Kamala, and that would be a very fun presidential run. But, yeah, I think the president is looking out there. He's seeing Ilhan Omar in a hijab, shouting insults, shouting swear words, just shouting and acting in a rowdy way. And. And she's not a formidable opponent. She's very aggressively progressive. She's very radical. The whole world knows that. So that's an easy win for the White House, where they can point to her and say, americans don't agree with you. And in Kamala Harris, he might have a. Might have a better opponent. But, you know, he's got Gavin Newsom imitating his style on Twitter again. It's not a formidable opponent. And so when it comes to things like this, where he can literally look. Look the American people in the eye and say, do you see all these Democrats not standing for the things that you care about so deeply? And I keep coming back to that young woman who was on the train who was so cruelly attacked by that criminal and killed, this actually happened maybe days before Charlie Kirk was assassinated. And it was one of the last things that he himself talked about, how deeply he felt this and to see these Democrats not stand for her mother, just unthinkable. So I think that's one that's really going to resonate with people. It's going to stay with us for a long time. And whether or not these people are protesting specific policies, they have to understand that these are real lived American stories. They're the most powerful weapon that we have in favor of the truth because they literally lived these things. And so Trump having all these Democrats look them in the eye and not do anything about it, I just, it was very well done, very well executed, contributed in terms of a oration style strategy. And I think his comms team is probably patting themselves on the back tonight because this was a well well played speech.

A (81:36)

You know, the president obviously took on inflation as well. He talked a lot about the economy. He really relegated his foreign policy remarks to the end, which I think is smart politics. Obviously, the American people are much more concerned about domestic political issues than they are right now about foreign policy. It was sort of fascinating on a foreign policy level to hear what the president had to say, given the fact that we have such an enormous military presence ready in the Middle east right now about Iran, obviously the president's comments about Iran, he seems skeptical of the idea that Iran is going to come through with some sort of last minute concessions. His he's maintaining the same position he has maintained for legitimately his entire political career, which is that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. But he went a little bit further than that as well, talking about, about their ballistic missile capacity, their attempts to redevelop terrorist support, all of those are sort of issues in negotiation. There is supposed to be at the end of this week some sort of proposal from the Iranians, sort of last ditch proposal to stave off the possibility of American strikes. Here is what the President of the United States had to say about Iran in the middle of the speech.

E (82:39)

My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain. I will never allow the world's number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon. Can't let that happen.

A (83:00)

Well, joining us on the line is Michael Knowles. Michael has finally reached a place where he can talk. My nightmares are all coming true. For a while there we were, we were okay. But now Michael has arrived looking dapper, his hair a little bit mussed after spending nine hours in that room during the State of the Union address. I do have to say he's got the young Republican look going there. MICHAEL Mul. So Michael, you were in the room for that. Last year it was me and Walsh. This year it was you and Isabel. So what was it like? Did you enjoy yourself? Was it the party you'd always imagined?

C (83:39)

It was.

F (83:40)

This was my second time at the State of the Union. We seemed to be trading on and off, except the first time that I went, Biden was speaking, and so it was a much stranger experience because it was clear they had injected him with some kind of methamphetamine. And that was the year that he just kind of screamed everything at exactly the same volume for 91 minutes. And so this was my first year getting to see President Trump. You and Matt got to see Trump last year, though technically it was not a State of the Union. It was actually just a jointed rest of Congress. So anyway, I was honored to be at the first President Trump State of the Union. And he was great, you know, because he was focused. He did a little weaving here and there, but he really stuck to the script. The script was written extraordinarily well, and where Trump did improvise, it was extremely effective. I was sitting front row right over the Democrats, so I got a pretty keen look and very little surprises me in politics. Some of their behavior surprised and viscerally angered even me when Trump set them up and he said, hey, stand up. If you agree with this statement, America should be for Americans, and the Democrats wouldn't stand up for it. It was an amazing setup line, but really pretty shocking. And then it got worse from there. There you go. You say, look at these foolish Dems. This is crazy. But from there, President Trump cheered, bringing the hostages home from Gaza. I noticed Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who were right down there in front of me. They did not stand up. I think other Dems didn't stand up either. That was pretty shocking. And then the most egregious moment of the night, this beautiful tribute to Charlie Kirk and to his widow Erica, who was there directly across the way we could see her. And the Democrats refuse to really acknowledge it. President Trump then gives them the final out, even moving past Charlie to the message we should all take away from Charlie's assassination by a leftist. Trump says we're one nation under God and we should reject political violence of all kinds. And many Democrats refuse to stand up for that. Chilling. A reminder that they want to kill us. I'm not saying all of them want to kill us, but a surprising number of them want to kill us. Overtly support political violence in the Chamber of Commerce. In the Chamber of Commerce at the State of the Union address. Really chilling political malpractice by the Democrats. And so I understand why Hakeem Jeffries early on said, hey, Dems, just chill out. Or you know what, maybe don't show up at all. Just please don't pull your usual shenanigans. We want to look half normal. And they couldn't even do that.

A (86:15)

Well, you know, we do have that clip of the President basically baiting them where he says America should be for defending Americans, and the Democrats take the bait. Honestly, like, the President is a master of this game. He. He knows the game better than anyone else in it. He has changed the game fundamentally in just the time that he's been president, because this sort of stuff never used to happen. I'm old enough to remember when it was a national scandal, when Joe Wilson, a congressman for from South Carolina, once yelled, you lie at President Obama, who was, in fact, lying. And now this has become the way that politics is done, and the president's taken advantage of that to full effect. Here's the President saying, hey, guys, maybe you should stand up if you think that, you know, America is for the American people.

E (86:55)

If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support. The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.

A (87:36)

And, yeah, there are the Democrats committing political suicide on the air. So, again, amazing decisions being made there. Now, Michael, you know, obviously the President comes into this with a low approval rating, historically low approval rating for him. The midterm elections. You know, right now, Democrats are running about five points ahead in the generic congressional ballot. The real question about every State of the Union address, as we were discussing beforehand, is whether it really is going to reset the table. Will it be a sort of inflection point, or will it just be a thing that happened? And a week from now, we'll be back to sort of business as usual. What do you make of it? Do you think the President can generate some sort of lasting momentum on the back of what was a pretty tremendous speech?

F (88:19)

This was a great pivot. And I'm not saying that this will save the midterms for the Republicans or anything, but it certainly reset the message in exactly the way the President had to do it. We were all making our predictions before the State of the Union, and I got a bunch of the particulars wrong, you know, how long it would be or who you'd call out or whatever. But the one part that I got right wasn't even a prediction of what would happen so much as Something I was really hoping would happen, which is that President Trump would say, look, Americans, we're making you safer. We're making this country normal again. These people, those people over there are crazy. That was an actual line from the speech, and it completely landed because the Dems refused to back down from transing the kids. I mean, it was, you know, the extreme of their ideology. What he had to do was say, look, Americans, I understand that you feel things are a little precarious right now, whether we're talking about migration, whether we're talking about the economy. This is why I think some of the economic favorability numbers are low, even though a lot of the actual nuts and bolts of the economy are pretty good, is just people feel uneasy. They feel big shifts. They are uncertain about the future. And what Trump had to do is say, we've got you. We're the adults in the room. We're going to make you safe, we're going to make you wealthy. We're going to restore the norms and the kind of country that you've loved for 250 years, because this is America's birthday. I think he completely achieved that objective. And so I think it does give him very good momentum going into the midterms. But, of course, now, one speech is not enough. Now the Republicans need to stay on message. Impossible for Republicans. And two, they need to be able to carry that through the miasma of misinformation and Democrat ops through November.

A (90:04)

I mean, obviously, I think that it is true that Republicans must stay on message. It will definitely help if we don't have, you know, to deal with questions about whether Erica Kirk killed her husband or not. That seems to be a, you know, a gigantic fail that is happening in the midst of the Republican online space. That. That seems like a very stupid thing for people to follow a rabbit hole on. And a lot of the infighting that's been happening around conspiracy theories surrounding the President. If you would like to see the President not impeached after the Democrats win back Congress, then now would be a really good time to actually look at all the things that, that he has done over the course of the last year to fix many of the problems left by Joe Biden. Mary Maga. What is actually on the schedule for the President in the coming days and the coming weeks? Because very often you'll see after the State of the Union, that there's sort of a tour that happens where the President goes around and tries to retail some of the bigger messages that he has been pushing.

B (90:57)

Yeah, the President is flying out of state to have another affordability event. These are something that we hear about a lot because the legacy press is obsessed with asking the White House, why isn't the president talking about affordability more, though? He talks about it all the time. So currently this week, I believe he's headed to Georgia. I need to double check on which state. But he is having another affordability event. These are really heralded or shepherded by Susie Wiles, who's really trying to keep the president focused on this affordability message so that, you know, all these critics who are saying he's too focused on foreign policy won't be able to say, I told you so. When the midterms come and go, if the president doesn't do so well, if his candidates don't do so well. So that's definitely on his radar. But all of these topics that we heard him talking about tonight going into the future, these are things that he's going to continue talking about. We were able to pretty accurately assess what he'd be talking about tonight based on what the White House has been harping on. They've been really consistent in what they're focused on. What doing they're talking about is the economy, it's immigration, it's keeping our cities safe. It's this foreign policy, ending all these wars. They've been very consistent and focused on these issues. And the president has been hammering this home. So I think when you head into the midterms, unlike what we're hearing from legacy media, that Americans only care about affordability, that this is all they want to hear about from the President. There's a lot of different topics that we've been hearing the president talk about. And like I was saying earlier, this, this sense of patriotism and pride in our country, I don't think that's lost on the public. I don't think that the USA men's hockey team winning this victory, I don't know that that's just a victory on, I was going to say the hockey field. I don't know how to talk about sports. The hockey rink, I think it's bigger than that. And we all see that. It's this sense that this is bigger than sports, this is bigger than these hockey players. This is American pride returning to our country. And so these are all things that are playing into the situation going forward. And the president can talk about them all, but now he also can talk about these Democrats not standing for these very important issues. And when Ilhan Omar goes home tonight and she gets all excited to have her team post that clip on Instagram of her just sitting there for all these issues. That's her big win. That's the Democrats big win tonight. And they clearly don't understand the massively tragic optics of these things. So for Trump and his team, I think they're going to go to bed feeling pretty good about themselves tonight, and they'll have a lot to talk about on the road on these affordability campaign stops. And I don't think it will be just affordability that will be the topic of conversation.

A (93:27)

Well, Mary Margaret, I know that you need to go to sleep because you need to get up early in the morning and then go cover the rest of this over at the White House. Thanks for stopping by the coverage. And Isabel is going to be joining us in a minute in just a moment. I know that she was at the State of the Union as well. So, Michael, you know you were. I'm going to ask you some more questions because Drew and I had to suffer for like several hours in your absence. You should have heard me tap dancing in order to just get to the president, get to getting to the microphone. It was an astonishing feat of leisure to main, I must say myself. But, you know, I think that the big question that's always the takeaway from all of this is also, did the president sort of reunify the party? This has always been sort of a problem in the aftermath of a second term victory. Presidents have a tough time holding their coalition together. And obviously you're seeing a lot of fracturing inside the coalition right now. I think that, you know, people blame different folks for that fracture, but the president is the person who at the end is the leader of the coalition. And the agenda that he spelled out is a pretty widely agreed upon agenda inside the Republic. Do you think that he's going to get some of the reluctant Trumpers sort of back on board, given his focus on his victories?

F (94:39)

Yes, I think he has done that. And it's remarkable because Trump has been called a divisive figure for the last decade, or really more than a decade, but certainly a decade in politics. And so the fact that this man is now probably the most used unifying figure on the right is really impressive. I mean, we saw this in his reelection in that he was reelected this time with the popular vote. And then so much focus has been paid to conspiracy theories and division on infighting on the right. And, you know, really factions of the right splintering off into ways that are almost unrecognizable. And what I think is quite charming about that, actually, is we, we seem to look to the activists and the pundits and the chattering class for unity, but they really have no incentive to unify or to even accomplish very much at all in politics. And so where pundits and podcasters have been irresponsible with their rhetoric, Mr. Trump, who everyone tells us is the most irresponsible orator of our time, Trump is actually the one who's being responsible here and who is reaching out. I think he's really been able to bring together a broad coalition of people. And even the way he spoke tonight about foreign policy, you know, there were people who veer a little more on the isolation side, a little more skeptical of intervention, who were up there standing for strength and the Fordo strikes in Iran. And there were people who were, you know, there were people who were a little skeptical of, you know, the tariffs, who were right up there cheering with President Trump when he was casting a little bit of shade at the Supreme Court, but not too much shade at the Supreme Court because he knows he's going to need the Supreme Court in the future. So, you know, Drew loves to talk about how Trump learns things over time, and he obviously does. And one of the things he's learned is to be nuanced with his words. And I think that showed tonight.

A (96:33)

Isabel, Sorry, I want to welcome in Isabel Brown. And then we can get to Andrew, who has been sitting there, as always, awaiting death, you know, but, but before we do that, Isabel, who is significantly more sprightly than any of us right now.

D (96:46)

All of us put together, all of

A (96:48)

us has, has, has joined us here. So, Isabel, what, what was the big day under the big top like over at the United States Capitol?

G (96:59)

I don't know if sprightly is the right word, but I think I just don't sleep at night right now with a 10 month old. So I'm used to being up into all hours of the night. I'm feeling good tonight. It's a great time. The energy here is so palpable and I think we've touched on a lot of the negativity surrounding the speech. Certainly there were a lot of shocking moments sitting in the gallery. I was across the room, it seems, from where Michael was sitting this evening, but closer to the president's guests and looking across the room at most of the Democrat colleagues from the Republican side who refused to stand up and cheer for America, to call for an end to political violence, to offer condolences to widows and grieving mothers whose children had been killed by radical extremists and repeat offenders. But you also saw a bit of an American comeback tonight, and I don't want the media to forget that, that we saw a resounding standing ovation from virtually every single individual, clapping and cheering and singing for multiple minutes on end when the USA Hockey team walked in to show us their Olympic gold medals and chanting USA across party lines. That's something that would have been impossible about 12 months ago. And yet here we are celebrating American exceptionalism again without being called racist for it. So I think there's a lot to glean from some of the negativity, certainly, but there's a lot to look forward to and so much optimism to have to know that in many ways, our country is back.

A (98:22)

So, Michael, you know, well, actually, no, I've barred Drew from this conversation for too long, and I can see that he really, really wants to talk more about the State of the Union address.

D (98:31)

I actually do want to say something, though, about what Isabel said and what Noel said before. I think the great triumph of the speech was a negative triumph. I think that he did bring the. Bring it back into the center of our attention how crazy and bad the Democrats are and will be again if they get back in office. He made them acted out. It was brilliant theater. It was great stuff. The positive message is going to be harder because the positive message means that people have to feel it in their pocketbooks because they're never, ever going to see it in the mainstream press. The press has practiced inducing amnesia. They don't. The minute Trump solves a problem, it vanishes from the news. The minute the border is closed, nobody talks about the border anymore. They just always leap in to the next big problem. Oh, isn't the way people are being deported terrible? And that's been the trick that they've used and it's been pretty effective. But I think at some point, at some point, people are going to stop and take a breath and say, are things really worse? And do I want these people back? He set up the negative really well tonight. I don't think any words are going to accomplish the positive message that he wants to put forward. I think that's going to have to happen over time. I think he should be hammering away at it. He should be telling people what he's done. But people are going to have to feel it in their pocketbooks before it's real. I myself, it was months ago, but I myself was driving along and suddenly noticed that gas prices had plummeted. I hadn't read anything about it in the paper. I just suddenly saw it there. Nobody's been talking about it. And yet gas prices, of course, were one of the big headlines for a long time. Every problem Trump solves disappears from the headlines. But eventually, I think put together, they will seep into the consciousness of America. And you just have to hope they do that in time before the midterms. And I also just want to add quickly that I'm really glad that the Virginia governor is delivering the response, because that's 25 minutes in which you won't be raising my taxes.

A (100:21)

Well, she actually is Tamigal Span of Virginia, and she is. And she apparently one of the things that I'm noting from, from our friends over on X is that apparently they have militarily regimented the amount of employees flaws that the, that the audience can deliver for her lines. They legitimately, like, they're basically saying you can applaud for three seconds and you sit down, which sounds like it's unnatural and weird. And also, I want implemented pretty much every State of the Union from now on, because the amount of time is like a football game where the amount of time between plays is really, really, really long. So we'll, we'll see whether there is yet to be a really good response to a State of a Union address, I think, in my lifetime. My guess is that what you're saying, Abigail Spanberger is, is the last you will see of the speech ever, because we've been doing this for years and years and years, and never have we ever seen that, that sort of thing. Michael, when we look at sort of the impact going forward, I think one of, one of the questions here, and it was something you mentioned, Drew, is that Trump has solved a bunch of problems. And because those problems are solved, you don't think about them anymore. And this is something that I believe some of the consultants had told the Republican Party was, you know, Trump basically solved the southern border problem, so don't even bother talking about it because nobody cares because it's already solved. And this is again, part of the issue for him is that when a thing happens, we no longer think about that thing, whereas when it is sort of percolating, then we think about the thing. And so the president has been so dominant in, for example, getting rid of DEI that if he mentions dei, we all kind of go, well, yeah, I mean, he did do that, but have we thought about that very much lately? That's why I thought it was effective, Michael, for him to go to stories that remind us that These are very, very real phenomena.

F (101:56)

Yes. And the personal stories are the key too. So the anecdotes, which remind us, especially in the present, that these things still exist. Gavin Newsom didn't say, I want to see more trans kids three years ago. Gavin Newsom said, I want to see more trans kids like three weeks ago. This is still percolating here. So when a guy like Andy Beshear, who is a serious presidential candidate, Democrat, governor of Kentucky, when he comes out and says Abigail Spanberger is the model for Democrats this year, what he's saying is we're going to lie and run like moderates, and then if we are elected, we're going to implement the most radically left wing agenda that you can possibly imagine. So they're kind of honest about it. They're honest liars. And what President Trump needs to do is remind us this isn't really dead. You know, the Democrats can reopen the border tomorrow just as President Trump is. Trump shut the border without a new law, and he did it basically overnight. So too the Democrats can just reopen it. They can let the criminals out of prison. They can re implement all of the DEI and the radical gender agenda and the ideology. They can go down this litany, to say nothing of the economic havoc. Do not underestimate, to quote Barack Obama, do not underestimate the degree to which Joe Biden can f things up. Well, that's true of the whole Democrat party. And so I think Trump needs to remind us that these threats are still here. And really what is called for for the Republican campaigns is a kind of Willie Horton campaign on steroids. A reminder, one, there are actual super predators that the Dems are letting out of prison to light women on fire on New York City subways and rape and murder and kill. That's happening right now. But two, you're seeing this at an international scale when we're looking at Venezuelan and Mexican drug cartels or frankly, in the Middle east or in Russia or in China, you're seeing this throughout the country. These threats really are imminent. The Republican Party is not the party of chaos. We're not the party, as the Democrats say, that is bringing chaos to the streets of Minneapolis. We're the party that is restoring order. The Democrats bring the chaos. We restore the order. Trump gave us some really evocative images for that tonight. And I think it's an effective model going into November.

A (104:08)

Isabel, I want to give you the. Isabel, I want to give you the last word here, because I'll be honest with you, it's been a really, really long night and I would really, really like to go to sleep now. So you get the last word and then we can all go to bed.

G (104:21)

You know, I think it's obvious, Ben, more than ever before, that for many, many years now in our country, we have been living in two different Americas. Clearly in what we applaud for and what we fight for and against, but also in just our most basic values as Americans. What I saw tonight, sitting in the gallery of the U.S. house of Representatives, with half the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs, the entire Presidential cabinet, the President and Vice President of the United States, certainly almost every member of Congress, and the most influential Americans from across multiple walks of life, was a clear dichotomy between the United States of America as well. We have known and loved it for the last 250 years. The greatest society the world has ever known built upon the foundation of our identity as one nation under God and complete Marxist. Total chaos. Anarchy in society that rewards criminals over our citizens, that champions open borders, that refuses to prosecute those who are killing our citizens day in and day out, who champions political violence for your enemy enemies rather than trying to come over our differences to be united in the concept of E pluribus unum. Again, this is not sustainable. As Abraham Lincoln is famous for saying, a house divided cannot stand. But I am hopeful that what we're seeing inside of Washington with this concept of the Unity Party is beginning to extend to the rest of the country as well. Most of these issues we talked about this evening were not the economy. Shockingly, they were social issues like Trans Am, our kids, and some of these conversations we've been having for many years in the E space, but very few people here in Washington have been having. I think that was intentional because these are 9010 issues. These are American issues versus chaos and Marxist issues. And voters have a very clear image moving forward into midterms in 2028 and beyond, what kind of a country we have the chance to save versus the one that's going to come into fruition if we fail to act courageously today.

A (106:12)

Well, folks, I hope that you enjoyed this so much more than I personally did. But if you enjoy our work here at Daily Wire, please become a subscriber and a supporter over at DWPlus because that allows us to continue to bring you awesome and or mediocre content like we have been bringing you all night long. For my colleagues, Andrew Clavin, Michael Knowles, Isabel Brown, thanks so much for stopping by. We're another year older. Congrats it's now 2029, and we will see you in just a little bit. Lifelock. How can I help?

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