The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1314 - Libs Bring Back COVID Hysteria & Mask Mandates

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

COVID makes a comeback just in time for the 2024 election cycle, Hunter Biden’s lawyers threaten to put Joe on the witness stand, and Hungary celebrates its nation with a giant Cross in the sky.   Ep.1314    - - -     Click here to join the member exclusive portion of my show: https://utm.io/ueSEl   - - -    DailyWire+:   Become a DailyWire+ member to gain access to movies, shows, documentaries, and more: https://bit.ly/3jJQBQ7   Get your Jeremy’s Hand Soap here: https://bit.ly/3q2CCIg   Get your own Yes or No game here: https://bit.ly/3X6tlKY    - - -    Today’s Sponsors:   Good Ranchers - Get $30 off with promo code KNOWLES at checkout. https://bit.ly/43G8p0P    Renewal by Andersen - Get your FREE Consultation  Text KNOWLES to 200-300   PragerU - Have your donation TRIPLED at http://www.PragerU.com    - - -   Socials:   Follow on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3RwKpq6   Follow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3BqZLXA   Follow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/3eEmwyg   Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3L273Ek Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to your normal political order, COVID strikes again. According to a new report from deadline, COVID mask mandates are returning to Hollywood, with Lionsgate as the first major studio to officially reinstate masking and daily testing. The COVID rules are apparently also returning to campus as well, with Morris Brown College in Atlanta reinstating mask mandates and other safety plans. protocols. What's strange is the timing. Most places dropped the COVID mandates two and a half years ago. So you can't even say that this is a seasonal thing, that every fall we're just going to need to mask up again or something. We didn't mask up last fall. We didn't even mask up the fall

before that. And on top of all that, we now know, thanks to a study from Cochrane Library, the most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of scientific studies conducted on the efficacy of masks, reported even by the Liberal New York Times, that the masks do absolutely nothing to stop the spread of COVID. We also now know, thanks to an admission by the former FDA Commissioner, that the social distancing rule of six feet was completely arbitrary. We also now know that the vaccines didn't do basically anything that we were told they would do. They didn't stop people from catching COVID. They didn't stop people from spreading COVID. They weren't necessary.

They weren't particularly safe. And the mandates to take them were not constitutional. We now know all of that. And still, still, the liberal elite appears eager to bring it all back. Two and a half years later. Right on time. COVID-19 arrived the year, before the 2020 presidential election.

That's what the 19 stood for, 2019. And COVID-19 justified the complete upending of election rules to remove barriers to fraud and to favor Democrats, even in violation of, for example, the Pennsylvania state constitution. And now, right on time, 15 months before the 2024 presidential election, what do you know, that same malleable little virus appears to be cropping up again. COVID statistics have been notoriously dubious from day one.

But Donald Trump's poll numbers have not been so dubious. They seem to be pretty reliably high, and increasing, actually. The liberal establishment is going to try to throw him in jail first. But if they don't manage to lock him up, rest assured, plan B is to lock you up again instead. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles show. Welcome back to the show. This episode is brought to you by Good Ranchers. Get great meat at a secure price and 30 bucks off your order with my code NOLES. Go to Good Ranchers.com. Use my code Knowles today. Then you're going to have steak

and eggs for breakfast like me. Major scandal unfolding in Maui. The mayor of Maui won't say how many children are missing. This is a massive cover-up. It's basically been blacked out in the establishment media. We'll get to what's going on and why that is in just a moment. First, though, you might say, Michael, you sound kind of conspiratorial about COVID. What are you talking about? I don't think that the return, the apparent potential return of the mask mandates and the lockdowns and all that kind of stuff. That doesn't have anything to do with the presidential election. All I'm going to say is, some people got COVID right from the beginning. Some people got COVID wrong from the beginning. Some people got COVID wrong every single step of the way. Some people got it right.

Pretty much every single step of the way. And you know, I hate to say I told you so. But I'm at the very least happy to say that I was in the former camp here. I called it, guys. I called it. When everyone is saying, well, actually, maybe we should mask up. I said, the masks are stupid. When everyone said, well, maybe we should stay home in social distance. I said, that's ridiculous. And I returned to work within 36 hours. Even after they sent me home, I called up Jeremy. I said, I've got to come back to the studio. I'm going to lose my mind in my apartment. Flew around, questioned the Vax from day one,

said it seemed preposterous, bad idea, all these things. And so, I'd just like maybe, just maybe, look, if you're listening to this show, you're probably aware of how the liberal establishment used COVID-19 to its own purposes. But the timing here, I don't see how anybody, with even, A modicum of common sense, two brain cells to rub together, could look at this and say, hey, COVID returns for the first time in two and a half years. Wonder why that is right before the presidential election. What's the point of that? A big point of that is that Joe Biden is not doing well against any of the Republicans. Trump continues to lead in the polls. Trump continues to beat Joe Biden, according to head-to-head polls. And Biden's numbers are tanking. So what do they have to do? They've got to rig the system, especially because Joe Biden.

Biden faces this, this Hunter Biden issue that involves Joe Biden because the Hunter Biden corruption wasn't just about Hunter Biden. We now know that Joe was intimately involved in it. We've got the receipts. We've got the emails. We've got the handwritten notes. We've got the pseudonyms. We've got the calls that he set up. We've got it all. And now the Biden camp doesn't want to have to deal with this, the Joe Biden camp. The Hunter Biden camp is actually using it for leverage because Hunter Biden's lawyer reportedly threatened to place Joe Biden on the witness stand if Joe Biden's DOJ prosecuted Hunter Biden and didn't give Hunter Biden the sweetheart deal that the prosecutors tried to give him before the judge shot it down. Chris Clark, is Hunter Biden's former lawyer,

wrote a threatening letter to prosecutors last October, warning the department not to charge him, said President Biden now unquestionably would be a fact witness for the defense in any criminal trial, there can be no doubt that these leaks have inserted President Biden into the case. This of all cases justifies neither the spectacle of a sitting president testifying at a criminal trial nor the potential for a resulting constitutional crisis. As a result of this, the DOJ offered Hunter a sweetheart deal that said, yeah, you'll get off the hook for the tax crimes, you'll be diverted, you won't even really be prosecuted for the gun crimes and we'll just let you off the hook and then you won't have to deal

with any other future legal problems. Now, is this an example of Hunter and Joe being pit off against one another? I don't think so. I think this is the Biden family generally threatening the DOJ and the administrative government to say, hey, man, do you want to cause a constitutional crisis? I don't think so. So back away, back away. And there's some reason for that. Yeah, you don't want to cause a constitutional crisis. You want to give some deference to the president. you want to give a little bit of grace to the president just so that you don't have a group of unaccountable bureaucrats effectively running the country and undermining the way that the system was set up. But do you notice that the government is willing to do anything to avoid a constitutional crisis with regard to Joe Biden?

And yet they're accelerating a constitutional crisis with regard to Trump. This is where you know this, well, let's defer to the president. Let's try to maintain the constitutional order. This is how you know it's all BS. It's just a power grab by the liberals because the fact that they're trying to throw Trump in prison on at least four fronts right now and probably more by the 2024 election shows you that they don't really care about a constitutional crisis. What if Donald Trump wins the election from prison? Is he going to pardon himself? What if it's at the state level?

What's he going to do? Is he going to call him the federal marshals to drag him out of prison? Of course that's a constitutional crisis. The mere fact of prosecuting the leader of the political opposition in the United States was a constitutional crisis. They don't care about that because they don't care about the Constitution. They care about maintaining their power, keeping Joe Biden out of trouble, keeping the Biden family money rolling in, keeping America's influence being sold overseas to the highest bidder so that the liberal elites can continue to enrich themselves. and silencing and intimidating and outright imprisoning the conservative opposition.

And when you want to build up your base of knowledge as an American conservative, you got to check out Prager You. Right now, head on over to Prageru.com. A majority of Zoomers support left-wing policies like open borders and socialism. If we don't reach them and change their minds, the country we know and love will be lost forever. Prager You is the leading nonprofit when it comes to influencing young people. Prager U's educational, entertaining pro-America videos, meet young people where they are online, and open their minds to the truth.

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It's funded by people just like you. In order to keep making great content, reaching millions and changing minds, Prager You needs your help. Head on over to prageru.com to donate today. Even with the prosecutions, even with all the threats and the corruption, even with COVID lingering on the horizon,

Trump is absolutely crushing in the polls. And I'm giving these updates, in particular because we're now one day out from the presidential debate, but because the polls are not all over the place. They're not up and down and up and down so you say, I don't know if I can really trust the polls or all the polls say the same thing, which is that Trump is absolutely dominating, not just at the national level, but including in the early primary states, that any potential challenger to Trump would have to win to even have a shot at the nomination. In Des Moines, in Iowa, the Des Moines Register

says that Trump is up 23 points right now, 42 to 19 for DeSantis, and then Tim Scott is a full 10 points behind DeSantis, followed by Haley Pence, Christi, Vivek, Bergam, Heard. Who is heard? I remember Bergam. I actually don't even remember who Heard is. Okay, so it doesn't matter.

What about in New Hampshire? Right now in New Hampshire, Eschelon has a poll out, shows Trump at 34%. So not as dominant a lead as he has in Iowa. But still, he's up 20 points over the number two guy.

That's Chris Christie. Does anybody seriously believe that Chris, look, I'm the biggest proponent of the chrysons that there is. Very pro cro croissants. But does anyone think

that Chris Christie is going to win the Republican nomination for president? Not very many people. He could maybe pose a challenge. He could mess things up for Rondasantis

or Vivek Ramoswamy. But he's probably not going to win it. He is at 14. Vivek is at number three with 11%. DeSantis is now fourth in New Hampshire. Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Trump has, I think, 150% at this point. But Iowa, New Hampshire, Desantis has got to come in number one in at least one of those states,

or a very close number two to have a shot. And he's now number four in New Hampshire, not good news. You might say, well, it doesn't matter, Michael, it's silly season. We haven't had the first debate yet. People aren't paying a lot of attention to the race in the summer. People don't really know where they shake. out. So who knows, maybe DeSantis will be able to come back. Maybe he will. If all of the other candidates drop out, I guess maybe he would have a chance. But this is not like an ordinary presidential election, which is something I've been trying to impress upon people. We have not seen an election like this since 1888, the last time we had a president running for a non-consecutive second term. The point of its silly season, no one's paying attention, let's wait until the

debate's kind of rhetoric, is the notion that the American public does not know the candidates yet. So we're going to get to know the candidates at the debates. Everybody knows Trump. Everybody already knows him. That's one of the consequences of him running effectively as an incumbent. To say nothing of the fact that he's been a celebrity for 40 years. He's not even showing up to the debate. Maybe that really hurts his poll numbers. I doubt that it will. So the people already know the candidates. Where's that 34% going to move? Where's the 42% in Iowa going to move? You might say, well, that's less than 50%.

Okay, let's see if every other candidate drops out and somehow the anti-Trump forces coalesce around one candidate. I'm skeptical that would happen. We were all waiting for that to happen in 2016. Remember all the genius commentators said, that's what's going to happen. There's going to be anti-Trump candidate. It'll be Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio and or John Kasich, they said at the end. And then that's the person who's going to get it.

And it never happened. Trump just walked away with the nomination, having had a problem. plurality in pretty much all the states. So is it going to be DeSantis? I don't know. Look, I love the guy. I don't want it to sound like I'm down on the guy. I really like him personally. He's super smart. He's a very good governor. I'd be perfectly happy if he were the nominee for pretty much anything in politics. I'm just looking at the numbers here, folks. Don't shoot the messenger, looking at the facts. It's not looking good for him. And I'm not the only one who's saying that. Rupert Murdoch, according to a report, has soured on the DeSantis candidacy. And apparently,

according to the Washington Post, so take it with a grain of salt, he encouraged Glenn Yonkin in Virginia to run in 2024. And you know, Yonken has set the stage to run. Yonken a few months ago released a national ad that positioned him as a Reagan-esque presidential candidate. It's pretty overwhelming to contemplate the future of America. It's such an honor to be. here with proud Americans who carry on President Reagan's cherished legacy. He brought peace by projecting strength. At a time when it's easy for us to lose faith, to worry that we are indeed that one generation when freedom becomes extinct. There are lights shining. We can usher in a new era of American values. President Ronald Reagan changed lives. And now it's our turn. A time to choose

life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness over oppression and dictatorial rule, mistakes are high. And the consequences couldn't be greater. So that's an ad. What's the point of putting that ad out to announce that he had a speech in April at the Reagan Library? No, the point of putting that ad out is to test the waters to see if he can be president. He's coming to Atlanta. He's coming to Atlanta this Saturday to serve as the closing speaker at a conference that Eric Erickson, you know, Eric Erickson, the conservative writer, has organized to showcase a bunch of Republican presidential candidates and all of a sudden Glenn Yonkin shows up. Why is he doing this? I don't think he's doing this because he's going to announce a run for president. I think he would be

a lunatic to announce a run for president. I think he would be absolutely suicidal to announce a run for president because he's an attractive candidate. He had a big upset. win in Virginia that actually some reporting from certain news outlets that rhyme with Bailey Schmeier seem to have helped across the finish line. He's an impressive guy. But if he were to declare right now, what is to prevent him from going into the same exact meat grinder that Ronda Santis is going into? Ronda is the most impressive governor in the country. And he has been brutalized by the Trump campaign machine. What is to stop the same fate from happening to Glenn Yonkin. So then why is he doing it? I think that Glenn Yonkin is doing this. One, in case

something happens with Trump, we're in a really tempestuous race where they're trying to throw the guy in an orange jumpsuit. So who knows? And we've got two relatively elderly candidates, even though Trump is youthful and vigorous and all the things he says he is. So I don't know, who knows? Maybe he ends up not being able to run for one reason or another. And then potentially Yonkin could jump in at the end. Or he's running for VP. Or he's running for a cabinet post. But Yonken cannot afford to get on Trump. bad side. One thing, one mistake that people make in politics is when they look at all these candidates, they assume that the circumstances surrounding all these candidates are the same. They assume they're all playing from the same basic premises. Oh, Yonkin's a governor of Virginia.

DeSantis is the governor of Florida. Okay, so the same calculus applies. It doesn't. The reason that DeSantis is running now is because he's going to get term limited out two years before the next presidential race. And people are going to forget about him over those two years. At least that's what he fears. And so he wants to run while it's still his moment. His big peak moment of national fame came during COVID when he stood up against Fauci and when he stood up against all the mandates. And so he has to capitalize on that because in politics, like comedy, timing is everything. He's going to get termed out and then who knows where he goes. He's got to run even if it's a tough year. Yonkin is going to get term limited out at the end of this term. Because Virginia is a weird

Commonwealth. In Virginia, you can't run consecutive terms for governor. So, so Yonkin gets elected. He's elected in 21. He's inaugurated in 24. He's going to be out in 2026. It's a four-year term. That means he can't run again until 2029. He can't even run for his second term until after the next presidential election. Maybe people will forget about him by them. Maybe he'll be more seasoned. Maybe he at least wants that opportunity to run again for re-election. But who knows? His political future is much more precarious and delicate, simply by virtue of the fact that he's from Virginia than Ron DeSantis is. So he's got to be very careful. If he gets ground up by Trump right now, the guy's done. He's done at the state level, at the national level. So his smart move is going to be to sit in the

background, wait for some of these candidates to get chewed up by Trump and then potentially either step in if Trump's been pushed out of the way or get a nice position by President Cofefefe. In the meantime, the potential number two candidates who are in the race are about to murder each other in Milwaukee. We'll get to that in one second. First, though, as I give you a little window into the political calculation in the GOP right now, let's talk about the windows in your home. Let's talk about renewal by Anderson. Right now, text Knowles to 200, 300. For most homeowners, window replacement is not something they've done before, and for many, it isn't something that they want to do, but rather something they have to do. If you've put off replacing the windows in your home because they're too expensive, I've got great news.

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these savings will not last long. Check it out by texting Knowles to 200, 300. That is, Knowles to 200300. Texting Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions posted at textplan.us. Texting enrolls for recurring automated text marketing messages. Messages data rates may apply. Reply stop to opt out. Go to window appointment now.com for full offer details. Folks, it is here. You know, things happen gradually and then suddenly, as Andrew Claven is fond of quoting Ernest Hemingway of saying, It took two years to get my set. Now we've got it. It took years to get the yes or no game,

the favorite game of everybody out there, the most beloved, cherished, controversial internet game show game in the world. And then it took, what, a year, a solid year to get, yes or no, the conspiracy expansion pack. This box looks excellent. It's a beautiful pack. It's available right now.

It's going to sell out, just like all of the yes or no games sell out. So make sure if you want it, you go to dailywire.com slash shop. We've got a new episode of yes or no right now with my friend, Eric July. Every Hollywood superhero moving forward will be required to have at least one LGBTQ character shoved into the story. We mean moving forward. We're already there, buddy. Right now go to daily wire.com slash shop. Get your copy of the yes or no game. We still have some boxes of that. They are going to sell out. So if you haven't bought the game yet, Make sure you get the game now if you are ever going to want it.

And also get the yes or no expansion pack. I believe they are still in stock, but you should order them now. The super conspiracy expansion. What's a conspiracy theory? Conspiracy theory is a truth six months early. That's what it is. The two guys who are vying for number two are going to murder each other. They're at least going to try to murder each other in Milwaukee on that debate state.

I'm talking about Florida Governor Ronda Santis and anti-woke business man Vivek Ramoswami. Here's my proof. An article came out yesterday from ABC. And it popped up in my Google alerts, I think, or it popped up on my feed. I said, why is this popping up? I don't have alerts on Vivek like the guy, but, you know, I don't monitor his every move. No, it's because it mentioned the Daily Wire. Here's the headline.

Wanting to be famous. how Vivek Ramoswamy sought podcast stardom prior to White House run. Quote, he's been wanting to be famous for a long time. One former aide told ABC News, the politician wanted name recognition? Oh, gee, you don't say, stop the presses. Hey, guys, stop the presses. An author and commentator and politician wanted to get some attention for the stuff he wants to do.

Can you imagine? Hold on. so unlike all of those other candidates who hate fame, who hate influence. They don't want any part of that, right? Okay, so it's this long hit piece from ABC News. This is weird. This is where it involved the Daily Wire.

Said, heading into 2022, Ramoswami had inked a deal and been working with the popular right-wing media company the Daily Wire on a project that was ultimately scrapped, according to multiple sources familiar with the project. The deal was unlike anything the Daily Wire had previously done with its talent. Now, before we get to that part, I want to point out. I think we may have mentioned that we were working with Vivek on something.

I mean, I've mentioned, obviously, he and I go back to college together. Vivek is friends with a number of us over here. I don't think this is some big super secret thing. He's been on all of our shows. We've worked with him on plenty of stuff. They say, oh, but he'd inked a deal. He was maybe going to work with the Daily Wire until he decided to run for president. He was maybe going to do this, that or the other thing. But then this is the line that got me. It said, the deal was unlike anything the Daily Wire had previously done with its talent. The company, which in 2022 said it made $200 million,

signed Ramoswami in the hope of developing a show around him. You mean the thing that Daily Wire's done with all of its talent ever, that it's ever hired? What do you mean? It was a deal unlike anything we've ever done. We hired a guy and then built a show around him. What else are we going to do? We're going to build a show around it before we hire him.

I don't know. Okay, maybe they mean it. They get specific here. The project, which was scheduled to debut in 2022, would have seen Ramoswamy as the face of a new podcast. Oh yeah, it's unlike anything we've ever done. We've never done podcasts around here. But it's a podcast focused on politics and the economy, according to multiple sources familiar with its development. So at this point, I'm reading this piece. I say, what is even the point of this piece? one, pretty weak journalism. It's a deal unlike anything the Daily Wire has ever done. Literally the exact same thing it's done with every single person it's ever hired. And they did that. But then it didn't happen because Vivek started another company and then ran for president. But here's what is telling about the piece. When asked for comment on this story,

Ramaswami's senior advisor, Tricia McLaughlin, told ABC News, referring to DeSantis, quote, does one of your sources live in a publicly financed mansion in Tallahassee, Florida? So the Vivek team is accusing the DeSantis team of planting this story as a hit piece on Vivek. And I don't know if DeSantis had anything to do with this story or anyone even associated with DeSantis. Who knows? Maybe it was Doug Bergam. Maybe it was Chris Christie. I don't know who I do who it is. But this piece is a pre-debate hit piece. That's all it is. Because the thesis of this piece is nothing other than, I don't like Vivek Ramoswamy. What's the allegation? The allegation is. is he wants to be influential.

The allegation is he almost had a podcast, like every single white millennial male in the country, if not the world. Like, and many, podcasting is particularly concentrated among white millennial males, but there are many other people, some women, some non-white people, some non-millials even. But a lot of people have podcasts. What is the,

it's just, wanting to be famous. That's the headline. He's a big jerk. That's all it says. We don't like Vivek. That's the point. The point of this is this guy's getting a lot of attention. He's got a lot of momentum going into the debate. And so we want to take him down. Expect a lot of pieces like that. Again, I'm not accusing the DeSantis camp of planting it. If I were in the DeSantis camp, I would plant something like that. So I don't, I think it would be reasonable and smart for them to do that sort of thing. And I think that the supposedly leaked memo from the DeSantis debate team, saying that DeSantis is going to go after Vivek really hard in Milwaukee.

I think that's probably smart too. He has to because Vivek is the threat in at least some of the early states and certainly in the national polls, Vivek is the threat to DeSantis. So DeSantis has to go after Vivek. If he doesn't, he would be derelicting his duty as a candidate, his duty to his voters and to his donors and to himself and to his campaign. Vivek, for his part, is going to have to go after DeSan. They're vying for the same position.

Chris Christie, who's behind both of those guys by a considerable margin, he's going to have to go after DeSantis first and then maybe Vivek. He has to. Even though Christie's whole campaign is premised on the idea that he's going to bring the fight to Donald Trump, none of these guys are really going to bring the fight to Donald Trump. They'll all get some zinger in there. They'll all have a – but they will only be doing that to – to harm the other candidates who are actually on that stage. Because Chris Christie is not going to go from 3% to 43% like Donald Trump in one debate. It's not going to happen.

He's going to have to knock the other guys out. So all of the incentives for the debate are going to be for the guys on that stage to fight each other. That's all it's going to be. You might say, well, they should just attack Donald Trump. They should just focus. Yeah, maybe. if it were possible for them to just attack Donald Trump, that would be better for the party. If my grandma had wheels, she would be a wagon, okay?

The incentives are not there, which is what I have said about this race from the beginning. People say, well, what if we all just turn on Trump? I don't think that would be a good thing. But even if that were a good thing, it's not going to happen, guys. There are structural issues built in. Now, all of the top candidates, This is what I love so much about the 2024 primary. All of the top candidates, even arguably including Vivek,

but certainly Trump and DeSantis, are running relatively illiberal campaigns. They're not running on the same old crap that we've heard from the GOP and certainly from the Democrats for 50 years. They're not running on, I don't care what you believe, just that you think for yourself. I don't care what our students are taught. I don't want to teach them what to think, just how to think. I don't, listen, we don't care about borders or immigration or trade deals or people in middle America.

We just care about the free marketplace of goods and services and the free marketplace of ideas. And we don't believe that anything's true or good or right or anything. No, we're just whatever, man, shut up and leave me alone and cut my taxes. none of the top candidates are running on that at all. Trump is running on build a wall, even if he's not going to do it. He's at least running on build a wall, stop outsourcing jobs, slap a bunch of tariffs on foreign businesses so we can stop globalization. Mercantilism for the 21st century.

Salute the flag. Stop being a jerk. Believe in make America great again. America used to be greater than it is today. Cut all the crap with liberalism. DeSantis arguably is doing the. that even more than Trump. DeSantis goes in. He took over a school in Florida, a new college, and he said, we're going to kick the wokeness out of here, and we're going to put good people on the

board, and we're going to ban bad things, and we're going to encourage good things. And, you know, I know that the DeSantis team has gotten in trouble with the liberal media for supposedly banning books. And then the squishy people on the right come in, and they say, he's not banning books. He is banning books. And he's right to ban books. He's banning gay porn in elementary schools. That's a good thing to do. We're for that. I'm not saying we just go out and throw, have pires of books burning of Shakespeare and Dante and Milton, but we certainly should ban bad books from kindergarten classrooms at the very least.

Book banning is not, it's not the worst thing in the world. Every smart person in history has done it. Plato was in favor of book bans and book burning. The apostles in the Acts in the New Testament burn books, the books of the sorcerers. in the New Testament. You've got plenty of doctors of the church have encouraged the banning of books.

The Vatican, until very, very recently, had a list of prohibited books. And even if you're of a more Protestant persuasion, Martin Luther was a big fan of burning books. I'm not saying we should indiscriminately burn all sorts of books or be Philistines or be ignorant or backward or anything like that. But we have obscenity laws in this country for a reason. There are certain things that are not conducive to our virtue or our edification or our education,

that are actually contrary to that, and that encourage vice and make us d'emar and more bestial. And that's the sort of stuff that we should get out of the public square. Well, DeSantis has done that too. Even Vivek, in his attacks on the woke corporations, on ESG and DEI, he's running a fairly illiberal campaign, modern, classical, or otherwise.

Well, we're seeing a really good example of that outside of our country in Hungary. Hungary just had a celebration of its nation's birth in the form of St. Stephen Day. St. Stephen was the first king of Hungary. This was around the year 1,000, and the government is actually justified on the crown of St. Stephen.

So how did they celebrate? They had big festivals all day long. I was just in Budapest. It's a beautiful place. And then at the end, they had these drones fly up into the sky and create an image of the Hungarian coat of arms, then the crown of St. Stephen.

And then this is what was controversial and crucial, pun very much intended. The drones dissolved and formed into a cross. The cross of Christ in lights in the sky to celebrate the nation's identity, which is part and parcel of the excellent Prime Minister over there, Prime Minister Orban, saying that Hungary is not a liberal democracy. It's an illiberal democracy. and what he means by illiberal democracy, he says, is Christian democracy.

We're a Christian nation, a Christian democracy. What's so amazing, you're going to hear some libs screech about fascism. Oh, it's fascist. Everything I don't like is fascist. Not only is this not fascist, obviously. Not only does this have nothing to do with fascism. Not only is Victor Orban popularly democratically elected. So they say he's a tyrant or a dictator.

He's stolen elections. Not only is Christianity not synonymous with fascism, the fascists were actually rather opposed to Christianity, but this is the sort of thing that we did in our own country not so long ago. There's a picture from 1956. Rod Dreher just pointed this out on Twitter. Picture from 1956, Easter Sunday, New York City, the three big buildings, big skyscrapers, all have their windows, the lights turned on to be crosses for Easter Sunday. All three, like the three crosses on Mount Calvary. This was New York City, 1956. And in 1956 in Hungary, the communists had taken over, and Christianity was quashed.

Christianity was suppressed by that officially atheistic regime. And Rod made the point. He said, what was unthinkable in Hungary in 1956 is happening today. And what was commonplace in America in 1956 is unthinkable today. What a switch that is. I was thinking about this the other day because Xi Jinping, the supposedly communist dictator of communist China, came out and he said that he was not going to give stimulus checks to his people because he didn't want to get hooked on welfareism. In America, we don't go more than five minutes without sending people stimulus checks in manipulating our currency and getting people hooked on all manner of welfareism. What a bizarre time it is when the supposedly communist dictator of China is more capitalistic than the United States.

What a strange time it is when Hungary, under communist depression, officially atheist for 45 years, is more overtly Christian than the United States, which was founded to be a model of Christian charity, a city on a hill, founded by people who call themselves pilgrims to be a Christian nation. What the hell happened? You know, when Jordan P. Peterson made the decision to join the Daily Wire, it was a major win for people who champion intellectual debate. With one year of unparalleled output, his contributions have set new standards and remained unmatched by any other platform. Daily Wire Plus now has a vast array of exclusive Jordan Peterson content, offering hundreds of hours of captivating content that you will not find anywhere else. Jordan has created thought-provoking works that reshape your perspective on life, which include vision and destiny, marriage, and dragons, monsters and men, the ands in Jordan's content, make it very difficult to distinguish one piece from the next. There are so many commons, so many topics. Additionally, you can immerse yourself

in discussions that nurture your spiritual side like Logos and Literacy in Jordan's groundbreaking series on the book of Exodus. I haven't even mentioned his Beyond Order lecture series or his extensive archive of lectures and podcasts. This is the compendium of all things Jordan. Plus, there's even more new exclusive content on the horizon. It's only the beginning. becoming a DailyWire Plus member, you will embark on an unforgettable experience that will fuel your thirst for knowledge and inspire personal growth like never before. Go to DailyWire.com slash subscribe to become a member today. My favorite comment yesterday is from Alex Clare, who says,

is Michael now the boss of Jeremy and Ben or something? His set is now by far the coolest. Thank you very much. You know, Jeremy is off in Hungary. Ben is in Florida. When the cats away, the mice will play. this is I decided

well everyone was out of Nashville I was going to take all the resources of the Daily Wire stop them from going to any other silly project that we don't need and funnel them all

into my set and I think it was money well spent okay I think it was money well spent before we move on from Hungary I really like I was very impressed by Hungary

the final objection that people are going to make to a big cross in the skies they're going to say, well, what if you don't believe in Christianity? What if you don't believe in the rainbow flag? I don't believe in the rainbow flag. I believe in the rainbow, which is a sign of God's promise, never to destroy the world again in a flood. But the rainbow flag is something else. I don't believe in it. I don't think it's true as a matter of human nature. I don't think it's good as a matter of virtue. And I think that pride, which it represents, is the queen of all vice.

So I'm quite opposed to the rainbow flag. Barack Obama lit the White House up in a rainbow flag. Barack Obama lit the White House up in a rainbow flag. Joe Biden just put not only the rainbow flag, but the kind of terrorist rainbow flag. You know, the really threatening one with the trans and the BLM and all that kind of stuff. Put that right in the center of the White House portico, flanked by American flags,

an obvious violation of flag code. To say, this is our sacred symbol. All cultures are going to have sacred symbols. In Hungary, what they say is, I heard this from the mouth. of the government ministers. They say, look, we don't really care what you personally believe.

And they prove it, too. The Jewish quarter, for instance, in Budapest is probably the nicest Jewish quarter anywhere in the world, including Israel. Beautiful, vibrant, really nice, fun bars, second largest synagogue in the world. So they obviously are quite tolerant of people who have other religious views.

But they say, but as a political matter, we're a Christian country. The country's justified by the Crown of St. Stephen. And so as a political matter, That's what we're going to order our country around. The cross stands still as the world turns. It's the axle on which the world turns. And that's going to be our national identity.

Our national identity right now is a bunch of fruity rainbow flags and people doing all sorts of decadent, vicious things. You're going to have a symbol. Either way, what's it going to be? What are we going to light up in the sky to what will we pay homage and declare our loyalty and obeisance? Speaking of our brave new world, Cuba has just taken a major step toward a cashless economy. Cuba, which makes sense, it's a tiny little communist island nation, so they've got a lot of control over the economy there.

The Cuban government just said that entrepreneurs can no longer take out more than 5,000 pesos in cash. That's 20 bucks. businesses can no longer take out more than 20 bucks a day in cash, which is going to force the businesses to do their transactions electronically, which is going to give the government a greater ability to spy on the citizens and figure out what kinds of things they're purchasing, control black markets, obviously, but also to control what goods are being legally purchased. If they don't like the Cubans are buying too many beans, they'll shut down that.

They don't like that the Cubans are buying too many cigars. They want to ship those cigars off to more lucrative markets like in China. They're going to shut that down too. And this sort of thing is coming to the United States. There's a push for a digital currency here. You saw this during COVID. This was one of the convenient consequences of COVID lockdowns for the liberal establishment is that there was a coin shortage, you remember.

So, sorry, we just can't take cash. I guess you're going to have to pay online. And then we're going to have to see your bank statements. And then we're going to have to shut down your money. Political dissidents have had their banks shut down. you saw this with Nigel Farage in the U.K. It's not just in the U.S. either. In the U.K., Nigel Farage, major opposition leader over there, was debanked because they don't like what he does. They don't like his political activities. After all, that's the man behind the Brexit. That's going to happen here.

So what are we going to do about it? We should resist it. We should definitely resist it. But it's most likely going to happen. Our individual use of cash is not going to stop this. cultural coming together through civic associations to say we're going to use cash. It's not going to stop it. We need a political solution. This is where the politics is downstream of culture thing falls flat. This is where the libertarian dream that we can all just act individually and that will reshape the political order comes up a little bit short. This is happening. This will happen short of political action to stop it, we're going to have the cashless society. Even with political action, we might have it. But that's going to be the only shot we have

of stopping it. Now, this will, the political action will be spurred in part by individuals gathering together in various cultural ways. The Biden administration couldn't push the vaccine mandate until enough Americans had voluntarily taken the vaccine that it had a significant base of political support that the remaining people wouldn't be able to cause too much trouble. That's true. It's a complex interplay of features, but we need a political solution, and it's a nice sign in the GOP that the top candidates all recognize that fact, and the candidates who might be more inclined to get rid of the government or not use the hand of the state or whatever. They're all polling in the single digits right now. Before we go,

before we go, Maui, the mayor of Maui will not say how many children are missing. What we've been told is that officially there are about 100 people who have died in the fires. But there are a thousand people missing. Missing. Now, how many days later? Here's what the mayor of Maui has to say. Yes, you do. How many children are missing? You know. I'd say I knew the answer to that. I'd be happy to answer that. You have no estimate as how many children are missing? I guess we can end this right now if you guys want. This is one of the biggest questions that the people are behind a half, but you know what I answer. one or two to ruin it for everybody.

Please, this is our first one. Well, we could say that about you. You've ruined it for everyone. You're in this, sir. You're the media. You can say whatever you want. You're a disaster. All right, okay.

Please. You've been the worst mayor we could possibly imagine. You don't even wait. Respect, respect what? This is the most dismal response with your half. You won't wait for your turn. You want to shout over these guys and are legitimate. Why don't you give them the real answers?

Give them the real answers. That's not his question. Let him. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. You can go. Here's our age. Sorry. Oh, sorry. Good on the journalist. I'm all for being respectful in these kinds of things. But first of all, there aren't that many journalists there. So the mayor of Maui's trying to deflect. So there's not your turn. Not your turn.

Give me an answer. How many kids are missing? Oh, we don't know. Yeah, we don't know. No big deal. Okay, moving on. He says, what the hell you mean you don't know? You don't know? Days later? This seems like a cover-up. Yeah, well, sometimes one of these. guys are going to ruin it for everybody. Rune it for everybody. These are like five journalists here. You're not answering the most important question. What's going on? This is most likely a major scandal. The liberals tried to deflect and say, oh, the Maui fires that were caused by global warming. It was the sun monster. Okay, look away. No one believes that. No serious person believes that.

So the question is, was it the incompetence of the government that should have mitigated the threat of wildfires that acknowledged the threat four years ago and did not? nothing about it because it diverted all of its resources into fighting the sun monster, the imaginary, scary, catastrophic apocalypse man in the sky? Or was it arson? We know that there's been a ton of arson set off by radical environmentalists in Maui and throughout the rest of the world in recent years. We know that there are hundreds of these incidents that occur regularly. So which is it? Either way, not good. And now we hear potentially a thousand people, lots of them children just burned alive, roadblocks, complete mismanagement. Every time an illegal alien child at the border caught a cold during the Trump administration,

it was national headline news AOC pretending to cry outside the gates. But a thousand people potentially dead in Maui, many of them, if not most of them, children, and nothing, nothing, a media blackout, blackout from the mayor, should be a major national scandal. Nothing, which doesn't tell you very much about the Maui administration, doesn't tell you very much about global warming. It tells you a lot about the media. That's what it tells you.

And it tells you a lot about how the liberal establishment in this country works and how the political order works, especially as we approach elections. Got other focuses here. We've got to worry about COVID, folks. The rest of the show continues now. You don't want to miss it. Become a member and use code Knowles, K&WLA, as at checkout, for two months free on all plans. It is Trans Tuesday. You know I can't talk about trans on YouTube, or they'll cast me into

the outer darkness. So we talk about it in my brand new set on Tuesday. We'll see you over there in a minute.