Ep. 2085 - Pope STUNS Crowd After Having Cancerous Lung Removed

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Visit TRA.com, that is TRA.com, or call 800-575-4908. That is. One. Once more, 800-575-4908. Tax relief advocates, real solutions for real people. This episode is brought to you by Cardiff, America's favorite small business lender. Since 2004, they've backed Main Street with over $12 billion. Apply now for same-day funding at cardiff.co slash knolls. The most brutal political ad you've ever seen in your life drops in the Ohio governor race as Democrat Amy Acton's mother urges voters not to vote for her liar daughter. Then, the Pope has his lung, half of his lung, removed after doctors find cancer, and Elon Musk wants to give your kid part of his company. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles Show. ♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ Welcome back to the show. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democrat candidate in Michigan, freaks out on a voter at a town hall who asks him if he will disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. Unfortunately for Abdul, the exchange is just shedding more light on his very real connections to the Muslim Brotherhood. We'll get to all of that in a minute. First, though, forget about Michigan. Forget about Michigan. Let's turn to Ohio. I have been in and around politics for a long time. I work. I worked on my first political campaign, a congressional race, when I was, what, 19 years old? Something like that. I first became politically aware when I was six years old, campaigning around my first grade classroom for Bob Dole. I begged my mother not to vote for Clinton, to vote for Dole. I pulled the lever myself. I've been into politics for a long time. I have never in my life seen a political ad like this. This is Democrat gubernatorial candidate. From Ohio, Amy Acton. She's running against Vivek Ramaswamy. It's a very tight race. It's statistically tied. And here, in the October surprise, what, a week, two weeks before the election, Amy Acton's mother cuts a political ad urging voters not to vote for her liar daughter. My name is Donna Arthur, and I'm Amy Acton's mother. I work to Children and Family Service Associations. Building one of the first two sexual abuse programs in America. I love my daughter, but when I saw her lying about her opponent, it's not easy for a mother to say this, but Amy has a serious problem. She is a liar. She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true. She's lied her entire life. My daughter needs help. And she can't help you if she needs help herself. People can change, but first they have to tell the truth, and my daughter still isn't doing that. Don't vote for people who lie. Don't let her become your governor. If you think she'll make your life better, you're fooling yourself. It will only get worse. Oh my goodness. My skin is crawling as I watch the video. It's so, so brutal. So let's be as fair as we possibly can to Amy Acton. Amy Acton has for a long time said she had this horrible upbringing, and her mother lost custody of her when she was 12 years old, and she claims neglect and abuse, and she says she grew up in a tent for part of her upbringing. And the problem with those claims, Amy Acton's been pretty consistent in her political career. The problem with those claims is there's not a lot of evidence for them. I'm not saying that it isn't true, I'm just saying there's not a lot of evidence for them. There's not a lot of court records, there's not a lot of convictions, or really even solid accusations. And so, when the mother comes out and says, "Hey, Amy's just been lying about this forever. There was clear that the parents were divorced, there was some nasty family dynamics, no question about it." But the mother comes out and says, "Hey, my daughter is lying. Not just about me, but is lying about her upbringing. And not only has she told lies. She is a liar." Which is devastating. I mean, that is a devastating label to have put on you if you are in politics, if you're in business, in your personal life. It's not to say, "Oh, you screwed something up. Oh, you have a bad idea. Oh, you're politically radical." Those all can kind of be fixed. But if someone is just thoroughly dishonest, if you catch someone in a blatant lie or multiple blatant lies, it totally destroys trust. It totally destroys your credibility. It is the most brutal claim you can make about a politician, because a politician is someone who has the public trust. You elect, as Edmund Burke writes, you elect your representatives not just for this policy or that policy, but for their judgment, because you trust them to represent you. And so, I'm trying to be as charitable as I possibly can be to Amy Acton. What is she going to say in response to this? She can say one of two things. She can either say that her mother is lying. She can say that her mother is crazy, that her mother doesn't know what she's saying. "My mother needs some help. My mother, she's a maniac. She has mental problems. She's a drug addict." Whatever she's going to say. The problem is, we can see Amy's mother in the ad, and she sounds pretty reasonable. She doesn't sound like she's a schizophrenic or a drug addict or anything like that. She says, "Look, this is what I did. This is my career. I love my daughter, but she needs help, and she's pretty messed up." We know probably 97% of politicians are mentally unwell to begin with. That credibility of the mother kind of rings true, and the claim that the mother's a total lunatic doesn't ring true. So, then the other thing that Amy Acton can do is come out there and issue a statement and say, "My mother's a liar. My mother is a liar. She is maliciously lying about me. Don't listen to my mother." Mom says, "Don't vote for my liar daughter. No, don't listen to my liar mother." That looks horrible for Amy Acton. This is a brilliant, brilliant political ad. I know some people are going to say, "Oh, this is a little. Oh, gosh, my skin is crawling. Oh, therefore, I don't. This might have backfired. This might backfire on the Republicans. I don't know. It's too much. Leave family out of it." But again, first of all, there's no disclaimer at the end of this ad that says, "Paid for by Vivek Ramaswamy." This didn't come from the Ramaswamy campaign committee. It's unclear where this ad came from. It's being reported all over the press right now, but I don't think this will backfire. This is an ad that conveys that there is some real rot in the family of the Democrat candidate for governor, and it raises real questions about that person's credibility. On top of all of the other questions about the Democrat candidate's credibility, I think it's a very, very effective ad. It's brutal. You think. Before this, you would say, "What was the most brutal political ad ever?" Maybe Willie Horton, George H.W. Bush, Dukakis on crime. Here's Willie Horton. This black criminal who got out and raped and murdered everybody. That's Mike Dukakis. He let him out of prison. At the time, this was assailed. This is race-baiting. This is fear-mongering. That was a really brutal ad. That ad is like Mickey Mouse Club compared to Amy Acton's mom coming out here. Just from the level of political operations, incredible stuff is going on. It's not just going on in the Ohio governor race. Let's turn up to the Maine Senate race. Troy Jackson is also tied right now with. Susan Collins, the liberal Republican, who in crucial moments can be a vote for the Republicans, but is not exactly reliable. Right now, the race could go either way, and if the political wins are strongly with the Democrats, then Troy Jackson is going to win. Who's coming out to knock down some of Troy Jackson's momentum? Of all people, CNN, particularly as it pertains to the Iran war. You talked about home heating oil. It's incredibly high here in Maine. You said that we should just get out of Iran as quickly as possible. How would that work? Would you be okay with just pulling out of Iran? What would that mean for the Strait of Hormuz, which is still, or would be certainly controlled by Iran if that happened, which would continue to keep the oil prices high? Well, Iran controlled it before, and the oil prices weren't anywhere near- They didn't. It was open. - Before the Iran war? No, it wasn't. well iran had the ability to do what they did before we started bombing them and and things were fine i'm sure that if we move out of iran things will stabilize and prices will probably go down uh i mean you think if the united states just leaves iran will say okay fine we're going to pull out of the strait of hormuz well it's a lot better than what we're doing right now and i definitely think that uh you know we need to make sure that we protect our troops getting out of there uh you know in a manner that they're safe but yeah i do i think we need to get out of that war and hopefully prices will stabilize i mean they rose because we got into it okay so just from this answer alone voters will conclude on the liberal network by the way troy jackson is not a serious person troy jackson think about his preparation for this interview he rolls out of bed he gets out of bed says goodbye to his cousin gets gets out of his bed walking walking walking walking walking walking walking walking walking walking walking walking walking they're getting out of bed says goodbye to his cousin gets out of his bed says goodbye to his cousin gets out of his bed at walk walks out of his boudoir, gets in the car, drives to the CNN studio. And he knows, you know, this is a friendly news network, but I got to dot my T's and cross my I's. Question comes up, what would you do about the Iran war? He says, well, you know, I'd just pull out. And the follow-up question, this is not a hard-hitting journalism. The follow-up question is, okay, well, what would that mean for the Strait of Hormuz and global energy markets? The reason we're still in Iran is because Iran now controls the Strait of Hormuz. So if you just pulled out unilaterally, you'd just be surrendering 20% of the world's oil supply to Iran. What would you do about that? And what does he say? He goes, well, you know, I mean, they controlled it before. And even CNN has to say, well, they didn't. They just didn't. I don't know. It's not, this isn't one of the, well, you have your opinion. I have my opinion. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. No, they didn't. They did not control it before. And one of the, one of the issues that has come about because the United States made good on its threats to set back the Iranian nuclear program and to disrupt the IRGC and the Malas. And one of the, one of the consequences is Iran took control of the Strait of Hormuz. And so now, even if you wanted to pull out of Iran, you have this problem, which is now you'd be surrendering 20% of the world's oil supply to Iran. So what would you do with that? So no, they didn't, they didn't control, control it before, but they didn't. So what? Well, I just think things were better before. Nobody disagrees that things were better before the, the debate over the Iran war was over the urgency of the Iranian nuclear threat on which reasonable minds disagree, but nobody disagrees that energy markets were better before the war questions. What do you do now? Cause the war changed the situation. And so what I love about this answer is it not only exposes the unseriousness of the Iranian nuclear program, but it also exposes the uncertainty of the Iran war. I mean, this guy is playing checkers while Susan Collins is playing chess, Susan Collins, who drives conservative Republicans crazy a lot of the time, but she is a political killer. She's a political survivor. It not only exposes Troy Jackson, but it also exposes the silliness of this argument over Iran. I'm an Iran skeptic. I was urging restraint before, during, and after the war. Okay. You're not going to see me cheerleading some major military operation into Iran, but I like to think I at least have a somewhat realistic, grasp of what's actually going on there. And you simply cannot just pull out of Iran. Trust me. If you could just do that without severely negative consequences for the United States and the world, we would have done it already, but you can't. So what are the Democrats offering? Nothing. The Democrats are just saying like, well, whatever Trump does, we want the opposite, but Trump, whether you agree or disagree with his arguments for going to Iran, he at least made some arguments, right? And he said, well, we have to stop the Iranian nuclear threat and Iran has been killing American troops and Iran has been threatening to kill the president of the United States and this, that, and the other thing. At least he's making arguments. What are the Democrats saying? You're just saying the opposite. Had Trump not gone into Iran, you know what Troy Jackson would be saying. He'd be saying, Donald Trump, he doesn't have the guts to go in and stop the Iranian nuclear threat. And he's, he's soft on the friends of Vladimir Putin, the mullahs, and it's just totally empty. Whatever you think about the substance of it, these guys are not sending their best. You got, Amy Acton having a fight with her mom over whether or not she's a liar on the national stage. You got Troy Jackson kissing his cousin goodbye, and then just babbling incoherently about the main geopolitical challenge that we face right now. You got Abdul El-Sayed, we'll get to him in a second. You got James Tallarico waxing theologic about the non-binary gender of God. These are pretty weak candidates. Susan Collins, just one before we move on from the main race, which again, tied up, Susan Collins did a great little twist of the knife in her debate a few nights ago with Troy Jackson. I'm sorry, somebody's interrupting. We'll have our security deal with that. AI data centers are destroying our climate. They are poisoning our water. So this is obviously one of Troy's supporters. Oh, shut up. I didn't, I didn't, I don't even know that kid. All right. Senator Collins, we'll give you the full minute to respond to the question. Okay. So you have this raving lunatic, oh, the data centers, you know, one of the handful of slogans that the Democrats are pushing in the campaign. And Susan Collins, just nice little mild-mannered Susan Collins, doesn't take the bait, doesn't react to the substance of the provocation. She goes, well, this is obviously one of Troy's crazy supporters. And what does Troy do? He does take the bait. He goes, oh, shut up. You're going to call an elderly woman. You're going to tell her to shut up on the debates. That's not going to play well. And then Susan Collins, she loves it. Probably the, probably the best thing she could have possibly heard. She then goes on cable news. It says, well, you know, it's just listen to how, look, listen to the way he talks to women. I was struck by how reflexive the response, oh, shut up, was. But then I thought about the reputation that Troy Jackson has in Augusta. Particularly when he's dealing with women with whom he disagrees. So in some ways, it didn't surprise me. And the fact that it seemed like such an automatic, quick reply was very telling. Oh, she's such a pro. I love her. I hate the way she votes some of the times, but I love her politics. I love her tactics. She just comes out. Well, yeah. Oh, no, I don't. Look, I'm not angry. I just, it's, it was really surprising how reflexively he hates women. And I don't, you know, people say, not me, but people say he has a reputation as a misogynistic wife beating psychopath. I don't, I, I'm not, I don't want to get into the mock about that. She did this earlier when it came out that Troy Jackson, I've alluded to it a couple of times on the show today. He sleeps with his cousin. He has multiple kids with his cousin. He's, he's a, he's a kissing cousin, a little more than kissing cousin. It's kind of weird. And Susan Collins was doing an interview right when the story came out and she just brings it up. She just brings it up, but she does it in this great way. She goes, well, look, I mean, there are a lot of facts and we can debate here in this race, but I'm not going to bring up personal matters like the fact that he has sex with his cousin. I'm not going to bring that up. I don't, I would never. She's kind of a pro. So I think, I think there's a very good chance she wins that race. The problem though, I'm being a little too rosy for the Republicans right now. The problem for the Republicans is that Susan Collins is winning. It doesn't actually protect the Republicans from most of Democrat nonsense. That's a problem. Let's say that the Democrats win the Senate, but Susan Collins wins her race on the really crucial votes on votes that pertain to impeachment, potentially on investigations. That are designed to just bleed the Trump administration by a thousand cuts. You could very easily see Susan Collins just siding with the Democrats. So even, even if we hold that seat, whether or not the Republicans win the Senate on the crucial matters, it, it just might not matter. And so the Republicans are still in a very, very brutal situation. So we'll move back to the potential Muslim Brotherhood linked lunatic who's running for Senate in Michigan. First though, I want to tell you about, go to bowlinbranch.com slash Knowles, K-N-W-L-E-S, use code Knowles. There's something about the weather getting colder that suddenly makes you notice your bed again. During the summer, you get in, throw half the blankets under the floor, go to sleep, and that's basically it. But now the temperature is down and there's no excuse to not having a cozy and adult looking bed. I absolutely love Bowlin Branch. I've been sleeping on Bowlin Branch sheets for the better part of 10 years now. They make the whole setup, signature organic cotton sheets, pillows, blankets, comforters, designed to be breathable, soft, and better over time. I adore them. 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BowlinBranch.com slash Knowles, code Knowles. exclusions apply so you got amy acton in a fight with her mom who calls her a liar you've got troy jackson telling the nice elderly female senator to shut up on stage and now you got abdul el sayyed feeling the pressure feeling the heat getting into a whiny little shouting match with a voter at a town hall specifically over his connections to the muslim brotherhood brotherhood what's your name no what's your name no what's your name no no what's your name no no what's your name what's your name i'm asking you a simple question you give me your name i'll answer the question okay hi tommy how are you i'm great are you do you know what the constitution of the united states is i have one simple question will you disavow sure yes they're a terrorist group okay no no but what are you implying do you assume that i wouldn't yes why not because i have not heard you disavow them yet have you disavowed them i haven't heard you disavow them yet i disavowed you great but here's the thing about it you're asking the question because implicitly you assume that i'll have dual loyalties a very very amateurish exchange so abdul's feeling the heat on this question we'll get to the reason why in a second he's feeling the heat on this question so instead of just saying okay here well here we go again here we go again people just because my name is abdul people some people some ignorant bigoted people suggest that i'm a terrorist i just want you to know i'm not a terrorist and you know what makes america i love america and what makes america great is we don't just judge people by the color of their skin we don't just judge people by their funny sounding names you know we we're all citizens here and we should treat each other with respect yes that's right abdul but he can't do that so what does he do says yeah what's your name what's your name what's your name big boy say uncle say uncle what's your name yeah how you doing yeah good yeah yeah hey i just have a simple question guy who wants to be senator will you disavow the muslim brother why don't you disavow the muslim brotherhood i don't know because i'm some random white guy from michigan and i have no connections to it and you have a bunch and you have a bunch that's the problem so abdul is reacting as if it's absurd to even suggest that he might have some connections to the muslim brotherhood what is the muslim brotherhood first of all the muslim brotherhood is an islamist group as soon as the muslim brotherhood is disavowed it's an islamist group from egypt okay so we got a little bit of an egyptian connection here but it's not just that abdul al-sayyed is egyptian and the muslim brotherhood is egyptian therefore we assume that the muslim brotherhood is uh you know it has a connection to abdul al-sayyed i'm from new york the yankees are from new york would you assume that i'm a yankee fan actually yes that would be a reasonable assumption but but it goes much deeper with abdul al-sayyed abdul al-sayyed's mother was a member of the muslim brotherhood fatin al-komey all right his mother was a member of the muslim brotherhood the the potential future senator from michigan his mom was an actual member of the muslim brotherhood abdul al-sayyed's sister imam abdel hadi who is a professor at u chicago says quote my family has long been in the muslim brotherhood abdul's father-in-law jukaku s tayyab is linked to the muslim brotherhood through the islamic society of north america and through care the committee on american islamic relations abdul al-sayyed's sister-in-law mariam jukaku is on a terrorism watch list she has the four s's on her boarding pass which is a security measure some people have it where you have to have secondary screening they have to patch you down once you're at your gate before you get on your airplane a former foreign affairs spokesman for the muslim brotherhood political party donated to abdul al-sayyed's campaign abdul al-sayyed when he was in college was the vp of the muslim students association the muslim students association was founded in collaboration with the muslim brotherhood abdul al-sayyed is swimming in associations to the muslim brotherhood now we we don't necessarily want to render a guilty verdict by association but that's why this guy is asking the question and for abdul al-sayyed one to just insinuate that the young man is a racist or a bigot of some kind or whatever is i think kind of cheap and silly for him to do it in this petulant way is not good optics but how about you just answer the question yeah oh you're at okay you want to know because my mom and like my whole family's in the muslim brotherhood and they're not in the muslim brotherhood and they're not in the muslim brotherhood and they're not in the muslim brotherhood and they're not in the muslim brotherhood and they're not in the muslim brotherhood like openly talk about how they support the muslim brotherhood you want to know if i'm in the muslim brotherhood well i'm not i don't support the muslim brotherhood i disavow their ideology the problem is he doesn't actually because in some of abdul al-sayyed's undergraduate or undergraduate or graduate work sometime when he was in university he actually wrote on one of the descendants of the founder of the muslim brotherhood ideology that's a little bit in the weeds but there's there are ideological links for him as well but but he he could at least say look i now at this age running for this office i've matured i've grown i don't agree with my family in the muslim brotherhood and i i disavow them but thank you for your question that's a serious question and i want to represent all michiganers not not just jihadis and like homosexuals dancing to oh you want to dance with somebody on tiktok i i want i want to represent everyone i'm a normal guy i take you seriously doesn't do that doesn't do that really really weak stuff the democrats it seems like the heat is getting to them in this last stretch they're starting to crack a little bit in part it's because of crazy october surprises like the ad from amy acton's mom like the federal investigation into ilhan omar which is heating up i don't know if we'll have time to get to it today but it's really heating up they've seized a bunch of her documents uh they're starting to crack a little bit in this these races according to the polls if they're to be believed are so so close you could see if the democrats lose their momentum in that final stretch republicans will hold the senate maybe only lose the house by a little lose a lot of their potential power problem for all of you voters is all of us voters is even if the democrats get a one-seat majority in the house they will have subpoena power and they will drive the news cycle for the next two years on all sorts of allegations of corruption and uh nonsense and just try to bleed the administration dry so in any case you're going to see a real slowing down of the momentum but if these people make it into the senate if these people make it into the governorships we are going to see the most radical left-wing government we've ever seen in this country okay now speaking of religion the news cycle's been so crazy we haven't even gotten to the fact that the pope has cancer and just had half of his lung removed the new pope the pope who was elected last year uh just had major major surgery for a very serious kind of cancer and a lot of people don't know how to react we'll get to that in a second first i want to tell you about cardiff go to cardiff.co slash k-n-w-l-e-s there are few experiences more humbling than assembling a piece of furniture you open the box there are 400 pieces the instructions appear to have been written by someone who has never actually seen a chair and three hours later you've built something that vaguely resembles the picture uh not for me the remarkable thing is how many institutions have managed to turn 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five hundred thousand tra offers an actual solution do not lose hope tra could reduce or even eliminate what you owe the irs their passion is taxes and helping individuals and businesses settle their irs problems they've earned over a thousand five-star google reviews and an plus from the better business bureau there is no need to fear the irs any longer substantial relief programs are available that can give you a fresh start so do not delay visit tra.com that is tra.com or call 800-575-4908 that is once more 800-575-4908 tax relief advocates real solutions for real people folks in the latest episode of michael and i have a seat over there with the legendary host of to catch predator chris hansen i told myself i said you know in this life i don't know what's going to happen but one thing i've resolved to do is never take a seat across from chris hansen and i violated that rule uh chris will reveal the shocking behind the scenes stories and discuss prime time the new robert pattinson movie that chris hansen says hollywood got completely wrong check out this teaser we found a house in beth page long island i'm driving out there and i'm thinking you know what if nobody shows up my producer calls and said look there's two guys in 45 minutes you know get here and that's where the rabbi showed up the military intelligence officer a lieutenant from the washington dc metro police department who was in charge of motorcades including the presidents those were the second sting right you leave the movie which is supposed to paint you as basically the devil himself you leave the movie thinking this movie is about as connected to reality as a scooby-doo animated cartoon movie i mean it's so crazy fictional are you going to sue them watch full episode now at the michael knolls youtube channel for the censored every version subscribe to daily wire plus the pope has cancer pope has lung cancer he just underwent surgery to have half his lung removed they found a lung nodule luckily it was detected at a very early stage but the tests afterward confirmed a diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma so they removed the lower lobe of his right lung and people don't really know how to react you have some very uncharitable people who think that the pope is a liberal or whatever and some of them are not exactly praying for his recovery you have a lot of people praying for his recovery of course the pope himself is showing a lot of strength just days after he got out of the hospital here is the pope addressing the people outside his window desidero ringraziare tutti coloro che in questi giorni hanno pregato per me i want to thank all the people who these days have been praying for me desidero ringraziare tutti coloro che in questi giorni hanno pregato per me for our support thank you thank you very much for your support he goes on and on he sounds good he's speaking with a full voice and he looks strong and so the signs are are pretty good but two thoughts come to mind one this is a pretty young pope this is a man in his 60s this guy could be pope for 20 years we all assumed when he was elected it said relatively a young man by pope standards he's pretty young we all assumed he would be pope for a very very very long time but then we we forget we do this in our own lives we just we create images of what our future is going to be with our loved one with our spouses and our parents and our kids and our friends and and then life just happens unpredicted things just happen the future is just an imaginary you know it doesn't actually exist yet and so there's a world in which he's not pope for 20 years you know uh john paul i was pope for 33 days he got elected he was dead 33 days later he was 65 years old basically the same age as pope leo john paul ii was pope for 26 years pope pius the ninth blessed pius the ninth pope for 31 years pope saint peter was pope for somewhere around 35 years the records are a little a little tougher from the first century but some popes you get for 30 plus years some popes you get for 30 plus days we don't really know but there's some for the people who especially the non-catholics out there who believe propaganda and they think that this pope is some left wing marxist whatever and i have plenty of questions about some things that the pope has said and i have uh reasonable disagreements on the matters where it is appropriate to disagree with the pope and all those sort of things uh however the idea that this pope is some left-wing marxist whatever when pope leo is on virtually every issue far to the right of any republican politician in the entire country it's kind of funny it just reminds us that placing modern american political labels on institutions that are older uh that have been suspended and that have been suspended and that have been suspended and that have been suspended since antiquity it doesn't always map on totally right but but the other bit of prudential advice i would have here is out of charity we should pray for the pope i think it's just good to pray for the pope as a general rule uh however a little little bit of practical prudential advice reading the tea leaves of the last papal conclave even if pope leo the 14th is not the most traditional conservative whatever kind of pope he was certainly the most traditional conservative pope we were going to get that's just based on the reporting things you hear out of the conclave and so if you don't like this pope you certainly should still pray for his full recovery but even as a purely practical matter i don't think you want another conclave right now that's how i would put it that way so everyone should pray for the pope either for you know um smaller political reasons or for broader christian charitable reasons speaking of the future elon musk is promising to give some of his company to your kid and to my kid and to all of our kids elon musk posts next year i will give one of my spacex shares to every kid in america this will be the first of many i love this elon's the man he's very impressive he's like a world historic figure and elon musk says i'm just going to give your kids effectively what i don't know what's it trading out right now i actually don't know what the what the price of spacex is i don't know 100 bucks 200 bucks whatever it's trading out right now i don't know what the price of spacex is i don't know 100 bucks 200 bucks i'm going to give that to every kid in america elon musk was briefly a trillionaire he remains the richest person ever in the history of the world so he can afford it but the reason i love this is the same reason i love the trump accounts not just because it's free money i'm happy to take free money for all my kids but because it buys people into the system and one of the big problems that we have now uh with people on the left even uh disillusioned young people and young men on the left and there have been threats of revolutions you saw this in the early 20th century end of the 19th century it is largely because people don't feel bought into the system this is one problem that men like gk chesterton or hilaire belloc were trying to address with their political economic theories of distributism or applying catholic social teaching one thing that they were trying to get it is giving people an investment into the country because if you don't have get people buy into the system they're going to rebel they're going to revolt they're going to revolt they're going to come crumbling down and everybody's going to become immiserated this is where a lot of conservatives get a little frustrated with some of the more beltway types establishment republicans who just think that the way to conduct politics is by mindlessly reciting the very same slogans that worked on tv in 1987 they think that that's going to work they think in other words that politics doesn't involve changing circumstances but of course that is at the heart of the very definition of politics and so they'll say well if you more traditional or classical conservative types if you ever suggest that we reform certain welfare programs that we involve the state in matters of the economy in any way that we reshore some manufacturing that we institute some tariffs or whatever if you ever suggest that you're basically a socialist you're bringing about socialism jd vance is facing a lot of these i think ridiculous criticisms right now and the response whatever you think of that claim the response is that you're basically a socialist you're bringing about socialism jd vance from the more traditional and classical conservatives is guys you people you just don't hear it if you just keep reciting the same slogans that worked for a brief period of time in the late 1980s the democrats are going to win and the democrats are now dominated by the socialists and you establishment beltway conservatives you ironically are going to hasten the advent of socialism whereas we classical conservatives who have i think a broader understanding of politics and a more durable understanding of politics when we point out that people complaining about affordability have kind of a point you know we feel your pain kind of when we at least try to speak to them to the pathos and the ethos while still applying some logos to it when we do that what we are doing is actually stemming the ride rise of socialism by offering some kind of alternative so anyway off my soapbox here back to elon this is really important the trump accounts are really important uh i just had a kid so i'm very especially excited about the trump accounts trump accounts say that when you have a kid now you get a thousand bucks and it will be invested over time it can grow to hundreds of thousands of dollars by the time the kid turns 18 or 25 or whenever he decides to cash it out this is great just getting them involved in the market because people who are bought into the market people who are bought in to the u.s system of government people who are bought into specific companies in the market are going to be more likely to support them they're going to take more care of it this is basic stuff this is this is private property 101 this is capitalism 101 i put the phrasing quotes because capitalism is actually a term popularized by carl marx it's a term a friend of mine made this point the other day for when right-wingers embrace this label of capital i'm a capitalist it'd be kind of like normal people embracing the term cisgender you know it was the radical lgbt people who came up with this term cisgender to marginalize normal people to quote norm mcdonald and so if we were to use that term for ourselves it would be a little weird it would be ill-fitting that's actually the same thing with capitalism we support robust markets we support largely free exchange but i'm not a capitalist in any ideological sense i'm a normal conservative i'm a christian i support the american tradition which involves a lot of private property and a lot of free exchange but also some guardrails on that and also a role for the political community to establish the boundaries of the market and that's the that's what we need to do we need to have buy-in is if people feel alienated from the market if people feel alienated from the market we need to have buy-in because if people feel alienated from the political order they're going to burn things down and the u.s is going to end up like france's right now okay we will get to some of the political disarray first though i want to tell you about gop votes the democratic socialists of america won primaries across the country next they're coming for congress and they're coming for you if they win the midterms they will defund the police reopen our border and force men into women's sports you are the last line of defense and gopvotes.org is your partner in the fight go to gopvotes.org right now make a plan to vote early if you live in the critical senate battleground states of alaska michigan maine ohio iowa or texas early voting is already underway this week democrats are energized the stakes have never been higher we cannot afford to have people like aoc and her communist cronies running the show that is why i need you to make a plan to vote early right now go to gopvotes.org to find your polling location vote early stop the socialist takeover of america paid for by slf pack not authorized by any candidate or candidates committee we've all heard radio advertisements about owing the irs money they lean on fear and try to frighten you into calling tax relief advocates does things differently whether you owe five thousand fifty thousand or five hundred thousand tra offers an actual solution. Do not lose hope. That is, once more, 800-575-4908. My favorite comment yesterday, speaking of, it's from Overtoast, says, fortunately, France has imported a bunch of doctors and engineers to fix Paris back to its former glory once the rioting stops. So true. So true. Thank goodness for mass migration. How would, how would, how would France clean up after the riots, if not for all those migrants who will eventually tucker themselves down, burning, burning down the country? But we know they're very industrious people, those migrants that Angela Merkel and Europe has brought into France, right? Right? Hmm. Maybe not. Speaking of, President Trump is hitting the campaign trail to give his views on Islam, Muslims in the country, and he uses his characteristic subtlety and nuance. And then today, a guy sends me something. His name is actually Abdullah something. It's Abdullah, Muhammad. I'll say that. So his middle name is Mohammed. So I was right. Almost. Oh, by the way, how about that guy? He's a jihadist. He's a radical left person, hates our country. He's a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. How about putting him on the Senate Intelligence Committee? I love this. Here's how you say this in pundit talk. In pundit, or maybe a little more academic, or when you say, well, yes, Abdullah Al-Sayed, his family's from Egypt. There were some connections, some associations with Muslim Brotherhood. He, his ideology is a little unclear because he panders to Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan, but then he also appeals to college educated white liberals. And that's like pundit talk, right? And then there's, there's president talk. Comes out, he goes, Abdullah, bah, bah, bah, bah, is a jihadist, jihadist, basically Osama bin Laden. He's a member of Al-Qaeda. Oh, la, la, derka, derka, bah, bah, bah, bah. You're going to vote for him? You want Osama in the Senate? Don't think so. And both of those statements can substantially convey truth. And they do. Some translated into the language of popular politics. Some translated into the language of an hour-long podcast or a column or an essay. I love it. He just has no idea. He's a jihadist. No, he has no hesitation. He has no trepidation. He just goes out there. He says, okay, what's the argument? Okay. We, the fact is Abdul Al-Sayed has distressing connections to radical Islam. That's the fact that is very concerning relations to radical Islam. How will I convey that? Will I do it in such a way that tries to mollify some of the Muslim voters? And does this know Abdullah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah. He basically, this guy basically worked with Mohammed when he was raping the Arabian Peninsula. Anyway, you want him to do that to DC? I don't think so. And then he goes on beyond Abdul Al-Sayed. He just starts making fun of Muslims generally. All right, let's go. Who wants to be president, everybody? Who wants to be Mohammed? What about you? Mohammed, Mohammed, Mohammed, Mohammed. Everybody's face. You know, if you're in doubt about somebody's name, you're in doubt about somebody's name. You're in doubt about somebody's name from the Middle East, just say Mohammed. You had about a 65% chance. Hello, Mohammed. I've done it for years now. I've never been wrong. Okay. So he says this and he is making fun of Muslims. He's making fun of Islam, but he is weirdly doing it in a way that a Muslim could laugh at because it's true. They're all named Mohammed. And when he says, oh, I've been doing it for years, I've never gotten it wrong. What he's saying is I've worked with Muslims for years. Trump is associated with lots of Muslims. He has very good relations with Muslim leaders in the Middle East. He famously gets along with these kinds of people, but he makes the jokes that resonate as true for everybody. And this is, it got me thinking about what separates a successful presidential candidate from an unsuccessful one. The main takeaway from Trump here, when he goes out, he goes, Abdullah, blah, blah, blah. And you know, let me tell you, you hear about this folks? You hear about this? I was saying for years, I forget a guy's name. He's a little brown. He has a turban. I say, hey, Mohammed, I'm right. 65% of the time. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. We'll get a load of this, you know? And he does, yeah, I was looking at the Republican Senate candidate the other day. He's got a great derriere, doesn't he? Yeah. All right. He has fun. Trump loves this. Trump relishes. He goes out there. He does two hours, three hours. It's like he's doing a standup bit. He really enjoys this, whatever this is. And Kamala Harris did not. Kamala Harris seemed nervous. Kamala Harris seemed kind of anxious. She was second guessing herself. She had that nervous laughter. She didn't know what to do. Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton's so stiff. She doesn't enjoy that retail side of things. She barely can speak to a human being. So Trump wins. And you think about Obama. I much prefer John McCain and Mitt Romney to Barack Obama, of course, but Obama loved the retail, loved the campaigning. He looked like he was having fun up there. The same cannot be said of John McCain and Mitt Romney. George W. Bush running against Al Gore, sanctimonious, insufferable Al Gore and John Kerry. John Kerry, who is a less likable Thurston Howell III. Bill Clinton, same thing. Bill Clinton, way, way more fun up there, way looser than Bob Dole or George H.W. Bush. This might be the crucial distinction between the winning and the losing presidential candidates. Because you can trace it back at least to Nixon. Nixon might be the one where you get back in history and you say, well, I don't know. I don't know. I don't say, okay, you know what? That guy didn't look like he was ever having fun. Nixon was a pretty stiff guy. He would walk on the beach in a suit and tie. But at least post-Nixon, it's the candidate who was looser, who was having more fun. He's the one who wins. I think that might be more crucial than all the other factors we attribute the victories to, height or education or whatever, even political climates. So speaking of people running for president, we also get J.D. Vance on the campaign trail. And at one of these rallies, J.D. faced a heckler. Here's how he handled it. For too long, ladies and gentlemen, we have been ruled by a corrupt far-left cartel that subjected this country to woke insanity for years. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to have to amend something I said earlier. I said that we have had zero illegal border crossings in the United States of America. But one isn't bad, right? Ladies and gentlemen, we know what the guy yelling at us behind us stood for, and we know what the far-left Democrats like Don Davis stand for. They stand for the idea that your government exists for fraudsters or criminals or illegal aliens when we know the American government exists for American citizens. Yeah, this is good stuff. This is good stuff. Very, very good response here from J.D. for two reasons. One, because he doesn't miss a beat. He doesn't get stiff. He doesn't do a Kamala Harris or a Hillary Clinton. You know, he just rolls with it, makes a little joke. He's like, hey, you know what? Actually, I got to amend something. You see that guy back there who looks like he's from Latin America, and he's got a little bit of an accent there. I don't know. I said we didn't have any illegals. I guess one of them snuck through. Well, whatever. We just took care of him, right? Okay, good. Doesn't miss a beat. And then he doesn't take the bait. This is the other key. Because what the heckler was trying to do was to get J.D. Vance to talk about, in this case, the Epstein files. There are a handful of things that the Democrats are trying to use to provoke the Republicans. But that's a losing issue. It's a losing issue for a few reasons. One, Epstein is a Democrat scandal. All the people that Epstein was palling around with, virtually all of them, and the ones that he was palling around with the most were Democrats. This was understood to be a Democrat scandal going all the way back to 2014 when the lid kind of got blown off of it, and that it was the Democrats who were trying to tamp it down. Then it only became a supposedly Republican scandal because Epstein was a member of the Mar-a-Lago club. He and Trump were friends for a little bit, but nowhere near the kind of relationship that Epstein had with Bill Clinton, to use just one example, or Prince Andrew, or on and on and on. So Epstein was a big proponent of major liberal causes, palling around with all the biggest libs in the country, Bill Gates, all the rest of them. On top of that, they've never found anything implicating Trump in any way. So Epstein was a big proponent of major liberal causes, any wrongdoing whatsoever with regard to Epstein. On top of that, they say he needs to release the files. Trump did release the files. He released over three million Epstein files. It was one of the largest declassifications. You can make the argument it was the single largest declassification. declassification, ever in American history. And I'm not even a proponent of mass declassification, by the way, because I think it can undermine due process and compromise national security, but that's another issue. In any case, J.D. could have explained all that. He would have explained it probably in a more articulate way than I just did. But you'd be losing. It's Ronald Reagan, so when you're explaining, you're losing. Much better for the Republicans on the trail to focus on things like immigration, which is one of the top issues. The fact that the joke he went to goes to immigration, one of the few uniting issues now for the country, and that is good for the administration. Very, very smart political instincts, very good political instincts. The thing about instincts is they're not smart. You just have to either have them or you don't. You just have to feel them, and J.D.'s are quite good. And then you move on, and you just stick on track. This was impressive stuff. Obviously, nobody on the trail is better than Trump, because Trump is like the greatest stand-up comedian of our age, certainly since Norm Macdonald died. But I thought that was a very good response. Now, the vice president also did a much-watched and discussed CBS, CBS Town Hall, in which he addressed all the big questions that dominate the online discourse. Mass migration, anti-Semitism, all the rest. We don't have time to get to that today, so I'm going to try to get to it tomorrow. Today is TEE Tuesday. The rest of the show continues now. 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