The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1652 - Pete Hegseth DESTROYS Smug Democrats In 5 Mins

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

Pete Hegseth destroys Democrat senators, the Chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola gives Trump a commemorative inaugural Diet Coke, and President Trump announces an External Revenue Service to bring money back to America.   Click here to join the member-exclusive portion of my show: https://bit.ly/4biDlri   Ep.1652   - - -   DailyWire+:   Join the celebration! Use code 47 at https://dailywire.com/subscribe for 47% off your membership today!   "Identity Crisis" tells the stories the mainstream media won’t. Stream the full film now, only on DailyWire+: https://bit.ly/3C61qVU   Order your Mayflower Cigars here: https://bit.ly/3Qwwxx2 (Must be 21+ to purchase. Exclusions may apply)   - - -   Today's Sponsors:   Birch Gold - Text "KNOWLES" to 989898, or go to https://birchgold.com/knowles, for you FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide for Gold in the Trump Era and FREE gold information kit.   Good Ranchers - Visit https://goodranchers.com and subscribe to any box using code KNOWLES to claim $25 off, free express shipping, and your choice of free ground beef, chicken, or salmon in every order for an entire year.   - - -   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

Inocuration Day, January 20th, watch it with us. Vin Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Michael Knowles, Andrew Claven, and Jeremy Borenk, live from D.C. Donald Trump's historic second term officially begins. Coverage starts at 8.30 a.m. Eastern. Watch live on Daily Wire Plus. That's right, folks. History is happening. You can watch it live with us. The Daily Wire will be in D.C. for Donald John Trump's inauguration as the 47th president.

Do not miss a second of it. Plus, celebrate with 47. 7% off your DailyWR Plus annual membership. Join us at DailyWire.com slash subscribe using Code 47. President Trump's transition team faced its first major test yesterday when it sent its first cabinet nominee and one of the most controversial cabinet nominees, Pete Hegseth, to Capitol Hill for his Senate confirmation hearings. After Pete's testimony, I think the only concern left about his nomination is whether or not

the man committed war crimes when he so thoroughly destroyed the Democrat senators who were trying to tank him. We have the highlights and much more on Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles show. Welcome back to the show. A priest has been accused of a hate crime after he rightly did not permit a homosexual socialist mayor to receive Holy Communion. There's so much more to say. First, though, text Knowles, KNAWLAS, to 98, 98, 98. Increased tariffs on our trade party. partners, tax cuts, and regulation changes, you are going to want to diversify your portfolio, make sure that you've got some stability in these times. Gold is a viable diversification tactic now more than ever. Birch Gold, the gold company that I trust, is releasing their ultimate

guide for gold in the Trump era with a forward by Donald Trump Jr. Get your free copy along with Birch Gold's free information kit on gold. Text my name, Knowles, KennaWLAS 2-98-98. Here are the facts. the national debt continues to increase. Our interest payments on the national debt continue to increase. Gold is still your hedge against a weakened dollar. Birch Gold is still the company that I trust to help you convert an existing IRA or 401K into a tax-sheltered IRA in gold. I have a fair bit of mine portfolio in gold, which has made me very happy over this past year.

Text NOLS, KNAWLAS to 98-98-98. Get your free copy of the ultimate guide for gold in the Trump era, no obligation, only information, a plus rating with Better Business Bureau, countless five-star reviews, thousands of happy customers, you can trust Birch Gold. Text Noles to 98-98-98-day. Pete Hegseth destroyed these Democrat senators. If this were 2015-2016, the YouTube video would read, Pete Hegseth destroys with facts and logic and poise and composure.

All of these Democrat senators who were trying to tank him, this is really, really good news. The top line executive summary for what happened yesterday is. President Trump's transition team sent one of their most controversial nominees out first. Pete Hegseth was the canary in the coal mine. Let's see how tough these Democrat senators are going to be. Then, after Pete, for today, tomorrow, for the foreseeable future, it all the really easy nominees who were going to sail through no problem. Then the other controversial nominees, Tulsi Gabbard, Bobby Kennedy Jr., Cash Patel, they were all off in the future at some undetermined. date. Clearly, the transition team and the Republicans in the Senate were waiting to schedule all of those controversial nominees until after they figured out how Pete did. Pete passed his test

with flying colors. He could not possibly have done better. I don't just say it because I like the guy and he's a friend of mine. It was a grand slam, which is good, not only for Pete, he's going to be the Secretary of Defense. It's great news for Tel-Slam. It's great news for Tel-Slam. for Bobby Kennedy, for Cash Patel, really for all of the nominees. Pete's performance yesterday made President Trump's job much, much easier. We are not going to have a repeat, I strongly suspect, of 2016, where it took days and weeks and months and years to get Trump's nominees through the Senate. I think these guys are going to move very quickly. So what were the highlights? The worst performance, I think, on the Democrat side came from Kirsten Jillab,

Brand, the senator from New York. The Democrats were all focusing in on women, on girl issues. One, they wanted to hit Pete for being a Casanova in his way were youth. And two, they wanted to hit Pete for saying that women should not serve in combat roles. An obvious fact that everyone agreed on until about five minutes ago and now is supposedly controversial. So here's Kirsten Gillibrand with a voice that just seems to get shriller and shriller with each passing second. trying to grill Pete on whether or not big hulking GI Joe's or dainty ladies are better at killing terrorists. We have hundreds, hundreds of women who are currently in the infantry. Lethal members of our military serving in the infantry.

But you degrade them. You say, we need moms, but not in the military, especially in combat units. So specific to Senator Conn's question, because Senator Cotton was giving you lay-up, to differentiate between different types of combat. And specifically, as secretary, would you take any action to re-institute the combat arms exclusion for female service members knowing full well? You have hundreds of women doing that job right now. And the standards, your two-mile run, Tom, is about the Army Combat Fitness Test.

It is not the requirements to have an MOS 11 Bravo, which is the infantry. These are the requirements today for people serving in industry, men and women, they are gender neutral, and they are very difficult to meet. They have not been reduced in any way. Okay. So that's the claim. Women in combat have not led the military to reduce standards in any way. That is just not true. The Army revised standards for the Army Combat Fitness Test a little over two years ago,

because women could not meet the standards. Julio Rosas at the Blaze just posted after this ridiculous grilling. He said, Never forget the Marine Corps did a nine-month study on women in combat units versus male-only combat units, which showed the male-only units outperformed the integrated units at nearly every event and sustained fewer injuries. Obama's Navy secretary, Ray Mabas,

said the study was just sexist toward women. until the Obama administration, pretty much everyone agreed women should obviously not serve in combat roles. Not only because men are stronger than women physically, period, Puntae Basta, no further discussion required, but also at a deeper level because it is a sick society that thinks that it is appropriate to send women out to the front lines to catch bullets from jihadis. That's just wrong. In civilized societies, men protect women. In barbaric societies, men send women out to protect themselves. selves. That's two sides of this, but on both sides, on the fitness of the military and also on

how civilized societies behave, women should not be in combat. And Kirsten Gillibrand, to defend women in combat, has to lie. And she lies with that unbearably shrill voice that Pete Hetzeth endured with great equitivity and dignity. Joni Ernst, a Republican, who was who was rumored to be holding up Pete Hegsett's nomination, Joni Ernst also gave him a little bit of a grilling on the question of women in combat. Senator, first of all,

thank you for your service, as we discussed extensively as well. It's my privilege. And my answer is, yes, exactly the way that you caveated it. Yes, women will have access to ground combat roles, combat rows,

given the standards remain high, and will have a review to ensure the standards have not been eroded. in any one of these cases, that'll be part of one of the first things we do at the Pentagon is reviewing that in a gender-neutral way, the standards ensuring readiness and meritocracy is front and center. But absolutely, it would be the privilege of a lifetime, if confirmed, to be the Secretary of Defense for all men and women in uniform who fight so heroic. They have so

many other options. They decide to put their right hand up for our country, and it would be an honor to have a chance to lead them. Perfect answer, Grand Slam. This answer is much like the conservative judicial nominees who went up before Rovi Wade was overruled and they'd be grilled about Roe v. Wade. That's all the Democrats wanted to talk about. Will you uphold this ridiculous court decision that created a fictional, constitutional right to kill babies?

Will you uphold that? And their answer was, well, Rovi Wade has settled law. If the conservatives had come out and said, we're going to overrule Roevey Wade, their nominations would have been sunk. So they couldn't say that, but they also couldn't lie and say, no, Rovi Wade's great and I totally support it and it's wonderful. So what they said was a true statement that had implications that different people could read into. And the answer was, well, Rovi Wade settled law. And that's true.

Before the Dobbs decision, Roe v. Wade was settled law. Actually, Casey was settled law, but you get the point. Everyone knew what they were talking about. And then Dobbs came out, and Roe v. Wade no longer was settled law. settled law. Same answer here with Pete. Pete comes out and he says, I absolutely will support women in combat given that standards are not eroded. You're great at protecting your data, but lots of places could still expose you to identity theft. I thought it was safe. If that happens, LifeLock gives you a U.S.-based restoration agent who will stick by your side from start to finish.

Phone calls, filing documentation, preparing insurance claims. Your agent handles it all. In fact, we're so confident restoration is guaranteed. Pour your money back. Isn't it nice to have someone like that on your side? Save up to 40% your first year at lifelock.com slash Spotify. Terms apply. But of course, given that is doing a lot of work there because putting women in combat positions has eroded standards, period. That's it. When Pete says, I would be so proud to be the Secretary of Defense for all the men and women of the armed forces, that's a 100% true obvious state. women have always had roles in and around the military. Women have always had roles in service of the national defense. It's just that back when we were at least even slightly civilized, we didn't send

women out to the front lines to catch bullets to protect the men. But that's it. Women have always had some roles in there. And speed says, of course I want to be the secretary of defense for all men and women of the armed forces. And you know what? I'll go further, senators, I will support women In combat roles, provided that their presence there does not reduce standards, which it obviously has. It necessarily does. And so this is a really good answer and a sign of good things to come. There's so much more to say first, though, go to good ranchers.com. Use promo code noles.

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The greatest performance of the entire day came from a Republican senator. This would be Mark Wayne Mullen, who, after all of these senators came after him. Elizabeth Warren. What's her face? Tammy Duckworth, complete lunatic. Maisie Hirono. Tim Cain. We'll get to Tim Caines in a moment.

Tim Cain was particularly vicious. Remember, Tim Cain was Hillary Clinton's running mate. He was almost one heartbeat away from becoming the second woman president of the United States. Tim Kane was absolutely nasty to Pete. We'll get to that in a moment. But after all of this, you had Mark Wayne Mullen, this Republican senator, come out and he say, hold on. You want to talk about Pete's romantic history? You want to insinuate that Pete has a problem with alcohol based on nothing.

You want to go, hey, how about you guys quit accusing Pete and take a look at yourselves? Senator Kane, or I guess I better use the senator from Virginia, starts bringing up the fact that what if you showed up drunk to your job? How many senators have showed up drunk to vote at night? Have any of you guys asked them to step down and resign for their job? And don't tell me you haven't seen it because I know you have. And then how many senators do you know have got a divorce before cheating on their wives? Did you ask them to step down?

No. But it's for show. You guys make sure you make a big show and point out the hypocrisy because the man's made a mistake. And you want to sit there and say that he's not qualified? Give me a joke. It is so ridiculous that you guys hold yourself as this higher standard and you forget you got a big plank in your eye. You got a big plank in your eye. Such a great point.

These Democrat senators who are disreputable people, many of them are deeply disreputable people, have the audacity to attack Pete for what? Based on nothing, truly based on nothing, they accuse him of being a drunk. I've been around the U.S. Senate a little bit. I've been around Washington, D.C., a little bit. Some of these votes in the Senate, like Vodorama, they'll go into the wee small hours of the morning.

You think those senators haven't been at dinner? You think they haven't been thrown back a few glasses of wine, maybe a few martinis? I can tell you with certainty, those guys toss back a few and sometimes they walk to the Capitol. Okay, and they're going to accuse Pete of showing up drunk to Fox News. By the way, I've done Pete Hegsett's morning show on Fox very, very early many times. I've never worked at Fox News.

I've never been an employee of Fox News. But I've been in that green room at Fox with Pete Hegseth at 6 o'clock in the morning. I've been on air with him multiple times. The guy was never anything but much more alert and energetic than I was. He suggests he was, you know, hungover. It's completely absurd. I can tell you from firsthand experience. But to Mullen's point, he's saying, look at all of you.

You're going to go after him for drinking. You're going to go after him because he has a tough romantic history, a marital history? How many of you guys are sleeping with your staffers? How many of you guys are sleeping with? lobbyists. How many of you guys have gotten divorced because you cheated on your spouse? And the answer in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House is probably a little bit higher than the average American. That number of people, the rate of divorce in checkered romantic history, a little bit higher probably than the civilian population. You're going to go after Hague Seth. Really good. It shut down a lot of the debate.

but I do want to get to Tim Cain before we move on. Tim Cain, Hillary Clinton's running mate, decided that it would be a good idea to use Pete Hegsess little kid as a cudgel to try to beat back his nomination. Completely cleared. Can you so casually cheat on a second wife and cheat on the mother of a child

that had been born two months before and you tell us you were completely cleared? How is that a complete clear? Senator, her child's name is Gwendolyn Hope Hegseth. And she's a child of God, and she's seven years old. And you cheated on the mother of that child less than two months after that daughter was born, didn't you? Those were false charges? Well, no, do you know, fully investigated?

And I was completely clear. Absolutely revolting questioning from Tim Kaine. Pete Hegseth had an unplanned child. Tim Kaine supports murdering unplanned children. Tim Cain has voted repeatedly for years and years to murder at a national scale children who are born in inconvenient or unplanned circumstances. Pete Hegseth doesn't support that. Pete Hegseth thinks we need to defend children and protect the innocent. And for that, for Pete Hegseth's moral clarity on a very important issue, Tim Kaine decides he's going to use that, going to use his own little kid to try to tank his nominate. absolutely revolting display from Tim Cain.

He should be deeply ashamed of himself. The words coming out of his mouth are the words of the devil. That was disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. And it did not play well. And Tim Cain had that look on his face. He looked like Jack Nicholson is the Joker and Tim Burton's Batman. Wild hair.

Someone should have handed him a comb before he walked into the Capitol. Wilder. Yeah. And you had a kid inconveniently. Yeah. Because Pete, unlike Tim Cain doesn't think we should murder children who were inconveniently conceived or born in unplanned circumstances. Revolting. And then Tim Cain, almost worse, actually, in Tim Cain's display was when

he came out and he just leveled all of these hypothetical questions at Pete Hegseth. And then he didn't seem to know what a hypothetical question is. Did you ever engage in any acts of physical violence against any of your wives? Senator, absolutely not. But you would agree with me that if someone had committed physical violence against the spouse, that would be disqualifying to serve as Secretary of Defense, correct? Senator, absolutely not, have I ever done that? You would agree that that would be a disqualifying offense, would you not?

Senator, you're talking about a hypothetical. I don't think it's a hypothetical. Violence against spouses occurs every day. It literally was a hypothetical. I don't know how to explain it in blunter terms to the U.S. Senator. But he said, first of all, he did the joke. The joke is, hey, hey, buddy, do you still beat your wife? Which is a question that has no correct answer.

You say, yes or no, you look bad. So he actually does that. There is no suggestion even anywhere that Pete Exf has ever been violent toward women. And he says, do you still, do you beat me your wives? He says, no, what are you talking about? What? He goes, yeah, but it would be disqualifying if you did, huh? And Pete says, hold on, I'm not going to engage in all these sorts of hypothetical questions.

Now, Tim Kane said, if someone did such and such, that would be such and such. And Pete says, that's a hypothetical. I'm not going to engage with that. Tim Kane says, I don't think that's a hypothetical. It's literally when you were using the conditional tense, when you're using the subjunctive and the conditional, and you're raising a hypothetical situation, that is a hypothetical question. That might be the most scandalous aspect of this whole testimony. That sitting U.S. senators, all these Democrats, have a tenuous grasp, not just on the law and

political philosophy, they have a tenuous grasp on the English language. And they did absolutely horribly, horribly, which is good for Pete. It's good for President Trump. Good for America. these nominees are going to sail through. Now, other Democrat senators decided not to make the same mistake that Kirsten Gillibrand,

Tim Cain, and Elizabeth Warren, and Tammy Duckworth, and all the rest of them were making. John Federman, a man who, as he has recovered from a brain injury, has become more and more right-wing, just went down to Mara Lago

to meet with President Trump. Now, people are asking all sorts of questions. There was a journal piece. Is Fetterman moving to the right, or is he just kind of cynical politician who sees which way the wind is blowing. To me, it's so clear it's the latter. We joke about as he recovers from a brain injury, he's become more right-wing. His previous positions, he's called himself a progressive. He has supported Bernie Sanders. He is supported letting

criminals out of prison. He's supported legalizing drugs. He presently supports so-called same-sex marriage. He has supported abolishing the filibuster in the Senate. He has supported amnesty for illegals. I think he's a man who is on the left who recognizes that the wind has blown in a very different direction. And that's great news for conservatives. I'm happy to take Federman's support. And who knows, maybe it is the case that as this man has grown in politics, as he has recovered from an injury, he has become more conservative in a sincere way. Maybe I'm perfectly open to that possibility. But even if it's all just cynical and he just wants to succeed in the Senate during Trump's administration, fine, I'll take it. What that tells us, what John

betterman going to Mara Lago tells us is the conservative wing of politics is the mainstream. Trump is the mainstream. Mass deportations is a mainstream political position. Woke, leftism, liberalism is in retreat. And if you want to succeed in politics today, and I know it sounds implausible given what we've gone through for the last 10 years, if you want to succeed in politics today anywhere? You want to get on Trump's good side. I have a question for you. Does Ben Shapiro have an

okay radio voice? Will I let my hair go gray? Little touch of gray, pull up Mitt Romney. Do reading glasses make conservatives look like lesbians? These are just a few of the questions answered and finally put to rest. In my latest episode of Yes or No with Glenn Beck, check out this teaser.

The race card is more useful than an Ivy League degree. One of those really, really educated, because I'm like a bus driver. Okay, you're talking to Ralph Krampton here. I have no idea. You've seen the show. Now you can join in the fun, by the way. You know there is the yes or no game. The game. You can get it at DailyWare.com slash shop. I'll give you a little taste. Here's a card right on the top. It is possible for a Christian to be a socialist. Mr. Davies, how would I answer that?

That's tough. I say you would say yes, but they go. go to purgatory first. It's a different question. Is it possible to go to heaven even if you've been a socialist? That may be. But can a Christian, there's a simple answer. You got it wrong, so you have to drink. I don't know what kind of booze you.

This is the first loss I've gotten here. Yeah, it's wrong. And do you know why? You don't need to just use your own private understanding or anything. It's because the Pope says so. It's because Pope John the 23rd said it is not possible for a Christian to engage even with moderate socialism. And he's following the

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with the expansion packs, lots of great expansion packs, to play with up to nine people. Test your families and friends, knowledge and opinions. Go to dailywire.com slash shop to grab yes or and watch the commercial free and uncensored episode of Yes or No with Glenn Beck exclusively on DailyWR Plus. So Fetterman went down to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring, meet with President Trump.

This is American Versailles. It's a beautiful. I've been to Mar-a-Lago on a number of occasions. It's a beautiful, beautiful place. And it is effectively the center of power now in much the same way that Louis XIV built Versailles to be the center of power outside of the imperial city, little further away. so the devilish saboteurs have more trouble over there. He goes down and here's what Trump says about him.

It was a totally fascinating meeting. He's a fascinating man and his wife is lovely. They were both up. I couldn't be more impressed. He's a common sense person. He's not liberal or conservative. He's just a common sense person, which is beautiful. This is good stuff.

This would be my tactic. as well. This would be my response as well. You got a guy who's on the other side of the aisle who comes down to your home to show you a little respect. This is kind of like the mob. It comes down, kisses the ring, shows a little respect. You're going to be gracious to that person. And you're going to give him a reputation to live up to. Is John Federman a common sense person? Maybe he's done some things that could lead one plausibly to conclude that. Now maybe he's just being cynical, maybe he's just testing something out. But regardless, anyone who's ever run a company, anyone who's ever been a parent knows. An effective way to lead people is to give those people a reputation

to live up to. Oh, buddy, you wouldn't do that kind of naughty thing. You're not the kind of person who would do that. Talk to your employees. Say, listen, I know, I know you're capable of a lot. I know you're really good. You're going to do a great job. You're giving them something to live up to. And that's what Trump's doing here. And I think this line is really important. This to me sums up the whole election and the path forward. Words like common sense. Words like normal.

Really good. This is how we have to think about it. As I mentioned, I think on a show earlier this week, the terms left and right come from the French Revolution. The right referred to traditional Catholic monarchists and the left referred to secular liberal Republicans. those left and right don't exactly map onto our present political situation. And now with everyone within the American right saying,

you're secretly on the left, no, you're on the left. No, you're awoke. No, you're not a true conservative. No, you're this, no, you're that. It's not helpful, especially with a coalition that just brought over a lot of Democrats, brought over a Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy Jr., brought over another Democrat presidential candidate, Tulsi Gabbard, brought over guys like Elon Musk, Joe Rogan,

brought over one of five black guys, brought over half of Hispanics, almost brought over 40% of women under the age of 30. A lot of people who consider themselves on the left, but just not with those guys, who consider themselves independent or even kind of liberal.

These terms are not going to help. You say, no, no, we like common sense. Also because if you embrace common sense as your political moniker, then you are not going to be bound up by fragile and insufficient ideologies. One of the tricks that the left uses on us, Solilinsky writes about this in Rules for Radicals,

is the left forces us to live up to our own standards. Standards that are wise or unwise, right or wrong, but they force us to live up to our own standards. They never play by those standards. So they try to trip us up in ideology, ideology which in itself is dubious. One way to avoid that is to just, Put ideology a little bit to the side and refer back to common sense, refer back to just prejudice.

Recognize it in the words of Michael Oakshot, ideology is the formalized abridgment of the supposed substratum of rational truth contained in the tradition. And we don't need it. That's kind of a technical definition, but it's a good definition. The formalized abridgment. It's not the whole thing. It's just this little abridgment of the supposed substratum of what we think, at the very heart of rational truth, our own little small stories of reason contained in the tradition. We all need to do that. We don't need manifestos on a back of a napkin. We can just

be normal. You know, you could just be normal. We can just do the things that we've been doing before. We can just use our common sense. You don't need to write a 50-page essay to defend common sense. You don't need to have 100 studies on why men shouldn't go into the women's bathroom. You don't need to undertake years-long investigations with scientists and sociologists to explain why face-tattoed Satan worshiping criminal cartels should not be allowed to cross our border illegally. Okay, you can just do it, okay? And if anyone has a problem with it, they can shut up, you know? If some nerd says, oh, actually, we did a survey to show why Emma's 13th will be a lot of America. Like, give that guy a swirly, okay? You don't need a study. You don't. You can just be normal.

It's okay. And that's what Trump's saying to John Federman. That's what John Federman saying to his own party. And that is a winning message for the American people. Trump is normal. He is normal now. You want proof that he's normal? Carrie Underwood is going to sing at his inauguration. And the view is furious about it. I wouldn't do it, even though I can't sing.

No, I would not. I would not normalize him. And she says, I love our country. How do you love your country and support and normalize somebody who was a convicted felon who really wants to destroy the country, in my opinion? I don't understand how you say you love your country at the same time as you normalize this convicted felon, which I can say now every day. A lot of my family voted for Trump. They love the country and vote for him. I think that people make these decisions for a lot of reasons. Okay, fine. And I would not be the person to say, don't do it because I believe in free speech and everything about it. I personally would not do it. Joy Behar just said normal or normalized, what, three, four times there?

Joy Behar would not normalize the two-term president elected for only the second time in American history to a non-consecutive second term who won the popular vote as a Republican for the first time in 20 years. A man who before he ran for office was the super famous, popular billionaire mogul, beloved host of a top. operated network television show for, what, 15 years? I think he's normal. Sorry to break it to you, Joy. I'm pretty sure he's normal. So you guys say, well, I don't want to normalize him. Okay, he doesn't need you to normalize him.

He doesn't need Carrie Underwood to normalize him. Trump is not normal because Carrie Underwood is singing at his inauguration. Carrie Underwood is singing at his inauguration because he's normal. he's the mainstream. He's what most people like. And if you want to win over most people, if you want to speak the language that most people speak, you're going to get on board with him too. Further proof of this, the chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola just took a picture giving President Trump a commemorative inaugural bottle of Diet Coke, his favorite drink, Diet Coke. I love this picture. I love it, not because of the bottle. It's a...

whatever, not because I care that much about Coca-Cola. I rarely drink Coca-Cola. I love this picture because this is just the latest bit of evidence following Mark Zuckerberg sucking up to Trump and giving him all that money for his inauguration and changing the fact-checking rules after Trump's victory to finally let conservative speak on Facebook again. This Coca-Cola CEO is just the latest figure in corporate America to say, okay, you win, buddy, you win, you're normal, we're going to treat you. And this is it. This is all they're doing. They're saying, we're going to treat you just like we would treat any other president. That's it. Corporations would give all sorts of funny little chotchkes to other presidents, Democrat,

and Republican. They would donate to the inaugural committees of other presidents, Democrat and Republican. It's not that they're giving Trump's special treatment. What's so gratifying is, they're just finally treating him like any other president. That was Trump's big battle. We were told he was beyond the pale. He was so crazy. He was so extreme. There's nobody like him. We can't normalize this. And he won the battle to be normal. To make his movement the normal movement. It's massive. So he's in that way, he's much more significant than other presidents. He's achieved much more than other presidents, obviously, just to the fact that he won a non-consecutive second term. But the sign of that is he is being considered among the other presidents.

We're normal again. Who's on the other side? This video, I cannot stop watching it. Jennifer Rubin, who was the conservative columnist for the Washington Post. And a decade ago, almost, she turned on Trump and she would just comment. constantly screech about how awful Trump was and how awful Republicans are and how awful the conservatives are. And she continued to pretend to be the conservative columnist for a while. Then when that was totally implausible, she said, well, you know, she's the pro-democracy columnist.

She's one of those people, the principled conservatives, the principled conservatives who support open borders, pro-abortion, marriage abolishing, tax raising. America destroying Democrats, but they're principled somehow, somehow because they oppose Trump. So she was doing that for a while. She's just decided she's going to quit the Washington Post. She is going to team up with Norm Eisen. Norm Eisen, long-time Democrat staffer, worked for the ADL, one of the worst groups for censoring people in the country, Barack Obama's campaign, Barack Obama's White House. He's just a big lib. Jennifer Rubin is teaming up with him.

to bring back a major cultural movement to grab the center of American politics and finally oust Trump. This is what they're going to do. Do politics. We're going to do law, but we know that any successful pro-democracy movement also has to be very vocal about culture. We'll have a humor column. We'll even have a cooking column, but we're going to sprinkle in a little bit of pro democracy flavor. How do you do, fellow kids?

We're cool. We have the culture. We're going to write our screeds that people don't read anymore, but we're going to have cartoons and recipes. We know the culture, do you? I don't know I have to correct some. The producers just caught this. When I described the American left,

and I talked about how they abolished marriage and opened up our borders and destroyed our country. This is the people these two have teamed up with. Do you think this is the culture? Do you think this is the mainstream? They say it's pro-democracy. They can't say it's conservative. They say it's pro-democracy content. What does pro-democracy mean when their opponents were just elected by most people. It's not just that Trump won in the landslide in the Electoral College. He won the popular vote, and it wasn't particularly close. What does pro-democracy mean when these anti-Trump lunatics take that title today? What does pro-democracy mean when the democracy, any way you slice it, any definition of democracy, the democracy supports Trump? Are you tired of what you? Tired of

winning yet. Are you not entertained? This is not why you are here. Are you tired of winning yet? No. No, the winning has only just begun. The Daily Wire will be live in Washington, D.C. for the inauguration of Donald J. Trump, as he's sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. We are not just going to watch history. We're bringing it to you live and uncensored to celebrate the 47th president. We are giving you 47% off new DailyWR Plus annual memberships. Plus, we're including a free $20 gift as a thank you for joining the fight. Remember, or DailyWire Plus is the only place where you get our daily shows, ad-free and uncensored, plus unlimited access to premium entertainment, hit movies, groundbreaking documentaries, join the

celebration, use code 47 at dailywire.com slash subscribe for 47% off your membership today. My favorite comment yesterday is from Living Quite Simply. Michael, I appreciate how polite you always are. However, can you really call a woman who sleeps with 1,000 men, a lady? As a lady myself, I find it offensive. Just as a gentleman must behave in a certain way, so does a lady. I suppose that's fair. I could call her a strumpet.

I could call her a hussy. I could, I don't know. There are all sorts of words I could call her. Perhaps I was using the term with a hint of irony, and maybe also to give someone a reputation to live up to, just as we were discussing earlier. Now, speaking of the inauguration and the new administration and the confirmations,

what's going to happen in the first hundred days. President Trump has just announced a really great idea. This is not merely to reform the Internal Revenue Service, not merely. Sometimes we hear conservatives say they want to abolish the Internal Revenue Service, libertarians especially. And look, I'd love to save money on my taxes, but Trump has a suggestion that I actually haven't heard from anyone,

but it's a very good suggestion. He writes, For far too long, we've relied on taxing our great people using the Internal Revenue Service, IRS. Through soft and pathetically weak trade agreements, the American economy has delivered growth and prosperity to the world while taxing ourselves. It is time for that to change. I am today announcing that I will create the external revenue service to collect our tariffs, duties, and all revenue that come from foreign sources. we will begin charging those that make money off of us with trade, and they will start paying. Finally, their fair share.

January 20th, 2025 will be the birth date of the External Revenue Service Make America Great Again. I love this. I love this. There are going to be people, especially libertarians, who pull their hair out of their head because they say they hate tariffs and tariffs are always bad. And it's a betrayal of Republican and conservative principles to support tariffs, which is not true. George W. Bush used tariffs. Ronald Reagan famously used tariffs to protect U.S. Steel.

We use tariffs. The Republican Party, in fact, was founded on tariffs. Abraham Lincoln said, give me a tariff, I'll give you the greatest nation on earth. Abraham Lincoln, our first Republican president. But they'll still pull their hair out of their heads because they want total free trade. But the problem is we don't really have free trade. Because all of our trading partners use tariffs. themselves. China manipulates its currency. China subsidizes industries. All sorts of countries

use tariffs and rig trade agreements that are disadvantageous to us. So I love the way Trump uses this. He says, we're going to make them pay their fair share. The left and the right have been caught in this debate running around in circles over who among the Americans to tax to make them pay their fair share. The 1%, they're the bad ones. No, it's actually the bottom 50% don't pay any taxes practically. And no, you're bad. No, you're bad. Hey, how about we make our adversaries or, if you want to look at it from a different perspective, our imperial subjects pay their fair share. We're the global hegemon still, even though China's on their eyes. So if you think about this in more classical political terms, usually empires grab money from the people that they have conquered. And America

conquers more through soft power and NGOs than through horrid military power. But regardless, we're the global empire. So how about we benefit a little bit from that? And we have less internal strife. And then we don't need to worry about American citizens sleeping intense in North Carolina because they haven't been able to recover from a hurricane. We don't need to worry about people in Los Angeles who don't have homes because half that city burn down. We don't have to worry so much about American veterans who don't have a pillow to lie their head on at night while we're sending all sorts of money all around to the rest of the world. And then importing workers from the rest of the world to compete with American workers. So you think, you know, everyone else gets all the

benefits of the American empire, but the American citizens seem to be getting short shrift. And Trump's saying, look, we're an empire. Well, let's act like one. You know, and how about we give Americans some advantages as well, finally. This gets to a broader point, though. What should the newly elected Republicans do? What do they do? Trump won with a coalition that we have not seen in a very long time, really that we've never seen.

So do we win over those new voters by saying all sorts of nice things, but then just go back to doing the same thing Republicans have been doing for 30, 40 years? Seems like a really great way to squander the new coalition. coalition we've made. I was even thinking I was talking with a friend of mine about this. Why did Trump lose in 2020 if you are of the sort that is inclined to say that he lost in 2020? Let's just say Trump lost in 2020 and there were not too many shenanigans. Let's just say let's just go with that. Is it possible that he lost support from 2016 to 2020 in part because he didn't totally lean in to all of the promises he made to give himself that coalition that brought him to power in 2016.

You know, he didn't totally follow through on the tariffs. He started too. COVID kind of interrupted that. He didn't totally follow through on the wall and the deportations. He didn't totally lean into immigration restriction. He didn't totally, you know, what was the big legislative accomplishment was the tax cut. And the tax cut was fairly unpopular, fairly quickly. I think according to an NBCW, Wall Street Journal poll in 2018, so about a year after the tax cut, And tax cut had something like 28% approval. I like paying lower taxes. I'm not complaining about a tax cut myself.

But politically, I don't know that it really worked. And so maybe if Republicans want this coalition to be enduring, if we want to recognize, look, Trump broke the old kind of politics. And he broke it for the better. He assembled a stronger coalition than Republicans previously had. But that means we got to live up to that now. There are going to be a lot of entrenched interests that want to smack all that stuff and just go back to business as usual and go back to the policies of George W. Bush and go back to the policies of the followers of Ronald Reagan, who in many ways, I think, betray Ronald Reagan's real legacy. But regardless, are we just going to go back to that? We're just going to pretend it's the 80s and the 90s and the 2000s again or no. Are we going to follow through on President Trump's somewhat ambitious and clearly popular policies?

Trump's signaling, he's going to move forward with this. External revenue service. We're not backing off of tariffs. We're going to raise revenue from overseas. And we're going to deport people who should not be here. And we're going to lean into American greatness. And we might even buy Greenland for goodness sakes. Either we do that and maybe we keep winning in these landslide victories.

Or we can go back to business as usual and you can expect the same electoral results that we usually get. Okay. I have a really important guest coming on the show. Adam Vina, who is the star of our new movie that we put out here, Identity Crisis, Adam lost his child to the transgender ideology and to a mother who embraced the gender ideology. We'll get into all of that in a moment. The rest of the show continues now. You do not want to miss it.

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