The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1653 - Trump Ends the Israel-Hamas War?

Episode Date: January 16, 2025

Israel and Hamas agree to a ceasefire just days before President Trump takes office, AG nominee Pam Bondi takes on Democrat senators, and TikTok might be banned in the U.S. on Sunday.   Click here to join the member-exclusive portion of my show: https://bit.ly/4biDlri   Ep.1653   - - -   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:   Balance of Nature - Go to https://balanceofnature.com and use promo code KNOWLES for 35% off your first order PLUS get a free bottle of Fiber and Spice.   - - -   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. I'm in D.C. Watch the Daily Wire's live coverage as President Trump is sworn in to be the 47th president. Celebrate with 47% off your Daily Wire Plus membership.

Use code 47. at Dailywire.com slash subscribe and join us in making history. After 466 days at war and with five days to go before President Trump's inauguration, Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire and hostage release to go into effect precisely one day before Trump's inauguration. The man has not even returned to office and he has already brought peace to the Middle East again. The good news almost makes one furious to think how much bloodshed and war could have been avoided had Trump simply remained in office after 2020.

But he's coming back to office now, and the legend only grows of a man who is, at this point, I think indisputably, a world historic figure. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Nulls show. Welcome back to the show. TikTok is set to shut down in the United States. It is imminent, and I have mixed feelings about it. I know a lot of conservatives are so, thrilled about that. I'm not so thrilled, actually. We'll get to that in a moment. First, though, I know someone's going to clip that out and say, Noel says Trump's a world historic figure. Guys, how many things does this guy need to do? He runs for president in earnest one time and wins. He's never held any political office before. He just wins the highest office in the

entire world. He takes over the entire Republican Party, then takes over the country, then wins for the second time in American history a non-consecution of second term, then survives multiple assassination attempts, survives multiple unprecedented attempts to imprison him and kick him off the ballot, brings peace to the Middle East, so much so that Israel names a town after him. And then, before he's back in office, brings peace to the Middle East again. What more do you expect of him? I don't, what else could you ask? Even Alexander couldn't conquer India, you know, this is pretty impressive. Now, what is the ceasefire deal? The U.S. and Qatar have said that the deal will take effect on Sunday, one day, hours before President Trump is inaugurated. 100 hostages are still held captive

by Hamas, so there will be three phases of the release. The first is 33 women, children, and older people, and also wounded people. They would be released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian women and children who are in prisons in Israel. Then in the second phase, soldiers and other men. We'll see if we get to those phases. The Democrats are going to try to make an argument and say, well, this is all thanks to Biden and Tony Blinken and the Biden administration. Okay, I get that that's going to be the political talking point. Can you really look me in the eye and with a straight face, say, given this timing, President Trump was reelected, overwhelming, popular vote, we are now days away from his inauguration. They get a deal that goes into

affect hours before his inauguration, you're telling me Biden deserves credit for that and not Trump. Biden has had a year and a half almost to get a deal done. Hasn't happened. Biden is the reason this war kicked off in the first place. I happened to notice that there was ample peace in the Middle East when Trump was president. Then war kicks off after Trump is president and war seems to be on the way out just before Trump becomes president again. I don't think any fair-minded person. I don't care how Democrat you are, could give credit for that to Joe Biden. Now, some people don't like the deal, not just the pro-Hamas side, even the pro-Israel side. Some of them don't like the deal because they say, well, we need to give Israel a blank check to do

whatever they want to Hamas forever and there should be no limits whatsoever. They're conservative Republicans who say that. However, if you are Israel, if you are pro-Israel and you don't like this deal, I guess all I would say is Trump gave you fair warning. Remember, when Trump got elected, he said, this war is going to be over before I'm inaugurated. And he was signaling, I think, to Netanyahu, do whatever you got to do, I get the job done, but this war ends when I am inaugurated. So that was warning primarily to Hamas. There was also a warning to Netanyahu. Hey, wrap it up. This has gone on for a while now. And I, Donald Trump, am not going to deal with this when I, enter into office. Good stuff. Blessed are the peacemakers. I love it. Now, speaking of the peacemakers

and the Trump administration, Trump's Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, was just brought up in front of the Senate, his old stomping grounds for his confirmation hearings yesterday, and he gave a beautifully articulate and precise view of the Trump doctrine on foreign policy. Out of the triumphalism of the end of the long Cold War emerged a bipartisan consensus. And this consensus was that we had reached the end of history, that all of the nations of the world would now become members of the democratic Western-led community, that a foreign policy that served the national interest could now be replaced by one that served the liberal world order, and that all mankind was now destined to abandon national sovereignty and national identity, and would instead become one human family and citizens of the world.

This wasn't just a fantasy. We now know it was a dangerous delusion. Here in America and in many of the advanced economies across the world, an almost religious commitment to free and unfettered trade at the expense of our national economy, shrunk the middle class, left the working class in crisis, collapsed our industrial capacity, and has pushed critical supply chains into the hands of adversaries and of rivals. An irrational zeal for maximum freedom of movement of people

has resulted in a historic mass migration crisis here in America, but also around the world. It's one that threatens the stability of societies and of governments. Across the West, governments now censor and even prosecute domestic political opponents. Meanwhile, radical jihadists openly march in the streets and sadly drive vehicles into our people. While America far too often continued to prioritize the global order, above our core national, international interests, other nations continue to act the way countries have always acted and always will in what they perceive to be their best interest. And instead of folding-

So there's so much to say, there's so much to say, this is a really precise statement, though, from a serious-minded Republican. My respect for Marco Rubio is only increasing. This is really smart stuff. When he comes out and he says, look, after the Cold War, we were told by people like Francis Fukuyama famously that we. We had reached the end of history and liberalism and globalism. We're going to dominate.

Everyone supported free trade, the Clinton Democrats, the gang-rich Republicans. We all wanted more and more and more free trade. And yeah, that was going to hollow out our manufacturing base. But who cares? Because we were going to get cheap electronics and T-shirts from China. And that was going to be good. And the world was flat and a rising tide lifts all ships. And we were all going to sing kumbaya.

We were going to surrender some national sovereignty to international organizations, not just like the United Nations or the European Union in the case of Europe, but also to the World Trade Organization and also to the International Monetary Fund. And we're going to give that away and we're all going to just hold hands and sing we are the world. And that didn't work out. That has not worked out. In fact, very often we have played by the rules, the World Trade Organization rules, all of these international treaty rules, and the other nations have not, especially China. In fact, they've just taken advantage of us. They've taken advantage of our generosity. They've also taken advantage of our idealism. Because it turns out that

everything we always knew about foreign policy didn't magically change in 1991. That the motivations of nations, the identity of nations, human nature didn't fundamentally change. And so, so says Marco Rubio, we are now going to return to a foreign policy that considers the American national interest, that just doesn't repeat the same platitudes of the 80s, 90s and 2000s, but responds to legitimate concerns about free trade, about mass migration, about globalism and losing American sovereignty. But that doesn't mean that we're going to become isolationist. Doesn't mean that we're only going to think about America.

And so he adds that little caveat. There's so much more to say. First, though, go to balance of nature.com promo code Knowles. balance of nature fruits and veggies is the most convenient way to get whole fruits and vegetables daily, especially if you have centered your New Year resolutions around creating a healthier lifestyle. Nature is pretty good at giving us the ingredients that we need, through fruits, through vegetables. So balance of nature takes fruits and vegetables, freeze-drys them, turns them into a powder, and then puts them into a capsule.

You take your fruit and veggie capsules every day and then your body knows what to do with them, and then you look hot and healthy and vigorous like me. Balance of Nature is just one ingredient of a balanced lifestyle, has no intention to replace a healthy diet, exercise, sleep, or any other healthy habits. It is intended to be used in concert with other healthy habits. I really love Balance of Nature fruits and veggies. You can tell I'm in Washington, D.C. right now. When I'm on the road, you know, occasionally it's a little bit more of a buy a hamburger at the airport. You're not always getting the healthiest food.

So it's wonderful to just have this ability. You pop your Balance of Nature fruits and veggies, and you're ready to go. Balance of Nature.com. promo code Knowles, K-N-W-L-A-S, for 35% off your first order as a preferred customer, plus get a free bottle of fiber and spice. Balance of Nature.com promo code K-N-O-W-L-E-S. Senator Rubia finishes up his remarks. And instead of folding into the post-Cold War global order,

they have manipulated it to serve their interests at the expense of ours. The post-war global order is not just obsolete. It is now a weapon being used against us. and all this has led to a moment in which we must now confront the single greatest risk of geopolitical instability and of generational global crisis in the lifetime of anyone alive and in this room today. Absolutely right. I think he makes a really good point. It is challenging to the thinking of Democrats and Republicans. It was really sober-minded for his seriousness and also because he's a former member of the Senate. he will sail through. There's no question about it. Two wonderful takeaways from Rubio's confirmation

hearings. One, Trump is offering an alternative. He's entering office offering an alternative on foreign policy from what we've seen at both parties in recent decades. And two, Rubio's going to sail through. In fact, I think after the Democrats really failed to lay a glove on Pete Hegsseff, I think pretty much all of Trump's nominees are going to sail through, including the feistyer nominees like Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi, who had a beautiful exchange with some random Democrat Senator yesterday. Senator, you were speaking. May I speak?

You cut me off when I was speaking. I hope you answer to Mr. Bondi. Well, I'd like to answer the previous one, Senator. When we met yesterday, you pointed your finger at me and said you were speaking. Let me answer my question. I'm not going to be bullied by you, Senator. 14th amendment of the United States of America, which was deeply disappointing. I guess you want to hear my answer today after I gave an opportunity to study overnight.

So can you tell me in this committee what the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment says? Senator, I'm here to answer your questions. I'm not here to do your homework and study for you. If I am confirmed, as attorney-in-law... Hey, you cut me off. Can I please finish? What does the 14th Amendment say? Senator, the 14th Amendment we all know addresses birthright citizenship. I've been a state prosecutor. I've been a state AG. I look forward to even given your remarks today, working with you and the people of California, if I am confirmed as the 87th Attorney General of the United

States of America. I didn't take your homework assignment. I'm sorry. I was preparing for today. So Rubio might be nice. Pam Bondi, she's a little less nice. She's a little less But very, very impressive. She absolutely manhandled these Democrat senators. It wasn't just that guy. I think she reserved her real ire for the man that President Trump refers to as Mr. Pencilnack. That would be Adam Schiff of California. Will it be your advice to the president? No, Mr. President, I need to go over them on a case-by-case basis. Do not issue blanket pardons. Will that be your advice to the president? Senator, I have not looked at any of those files.

If confirmed, I will look at the files for the parties as well as the ongoing. Will you be able to review hundreds of cases on day one? I will look at every file I am asked to look at. Of course you won't. So will you advise the president? Can I answer the question? Well, my question is? I would have plenty of staff.

You said, of course you want? You'll be able to review hundreds of cases on first day. I'm not going to mislead this body, nor you. All right, let me ask another question. You don't want to answer that. You were censured by Congress. Congress, Senator, for comments just like this that are so reckless. Oh, and there it is. It comes in just at the end, but that's the right hook at the end.

You were censured by Congress multiple times for comments just like this. This woman not only is impressing me, and I'm sure the Republicans on the panel, but this must impress President Trump. Because this is clearly what he wants in an AG. Trump needs a statesman and a nice guy who can make consensus and friends in the State Department. Trump needs an absolute bulldog in the Attorney General's office. Because you remember what happened the first time. President Trump picked a guy who I think is a good man, Jeff Sessions, to be the AG. I think he's a good man.

I think he's a serious conservative. But he was a little nice. And he didn't want to get down in the mud and the dirt and the blood with the Democratic. who very few people predicted were willing to go as far as they did in undermining President Trump's administration. And so Jeff Sessions's refusal to get down and dirty with the Democrats permitted Bob Mueller, Crossfire Hurricane to take off, all of these kinds of attacks from the Democrats in the administrative state to take down President Trump. And Trump doesn't want to make the same mistake again. I think this is why Trump wanted Matt Gates.

And the Gates nomination was not going to make it through. But he thought, I want a pugilist. I want a vicious, brutal, nasty fighter who is not going to take anything from anyone. And Pam Bondi, I think, really demonstrated that well yesterday. Some Democrats are not happy about how well she did. Notably, a major figure in Democrat leadership in the Senate, Dick Durbin, who is apparently very, very worried that Pam Bondi might seek retribution against Trump's political enemies. Let's zero in on the hearing for Attorney General nominee, Pam Bondi. In particular,

much has been made of Donald Trump's wish for the Department of Justice to carry out a campaign of retribution against his political foes and the like. What sort of questions do you want to pose to her about that particular topic? How grave of a concern is it? Well, it's a very grave concern. Here's the bottom line. Pam Bondi is imminently qualified as a lawyer to be the attorney general. Ten years in Florida and her own private practice. I mean, she has the legal resume for the job. The question is, does she have the courage and the strength to say no to Donald Trump? So Bondi is such a good pick that even the top Democrats are not going to say that she's unqualified. They use that attack against Pete Hegesath, but they're not going to use it against Bondi.

they're just going to worry out loud that Bondi might use the office of the Attorney General to target President Trump's political opponents. Why might they be worried about that? Where does that grave concern come from? The guilty flee when none pursueth. I remember reading, we're going to be speaking to Father Mike Schmitz from Bible in a year later. I remember that line from the Bible. The guilty flee when none pursueth, Democrats are real concerned about the AG's

office wielding the power of the state to persecute political enemies. Might that be because that is exactly what Merrick Garland did for Joe Biden? Might that be because the Attorney General has, in an unprecedented way, sought to prosecute the former president, chief political rival to the sitting president? Might that be, even beyond persecuting Trump? Because the Attorney General's office has ignored legitimate terrorist threats in America and, in Instead, categorized parents and Catholics and pro-lifers as potential extremists and radicals spied on them in their churches, shown up to their home in front of all their kids, arrested them for peaceably demonstrating in front of abortion centers. Might that have something to do with it?

Might this fear be a projection and a confession from Democrats who realize, shoot? we have been behaving in a very naughty and maybe illegal way, certainly unprecedented way, for four years. And we thought we were always going to be in power. And we thought we had our permanent electoral majority. And uh-oh, not only did the Republicans win, but they won in a total landslide. And they got unified government.

And Trump even won the popular vote. And yikes, what's good for the goose might be good for the gander. I think that's what's going on here. I think it's the telltale heart. I think it's a little bit of a guilty conscience. Far more than anything Pam Bondi has said or done. That's what has Democrats worried about her. Now, some good news just before, even more good news, I guess I should say, just before the inauguration.

The FDA has just announced that it will ban red dye number three. The crunchy moms, the right-wing hippies everywhere are going to be thrilled about that. My wife, my wife is going to be thrilled about this. Many women we know. This is unusual because 10, 15 years ago, the left was the political faction that cared about organic food and worried about, you know, Monsanto or whatever and thought that all sorts of things that our water and food supply were going to poison us. And now that's totally flipped. And it's flipped because the Democrats have become the party of corporations.

And Republicans have been the party of independence and dissidents and small businesses and local government. That's what, that's what. started to flip here. Used to be when I was a kid, Republicans were the party of rich uncle penny bags and corporate America and the Democrats were the party of the little guy and the independent, the weirdo and the hippie, and that's totally flipped now. So you got to ask yourself this question. Why is the FDA banning red dye now? The FDA has known since 1990, the red three, was linked to cancer. They've known that for 30 years at this point, 35 years. Red dye

is linked to well, it's found in candies, snacks, fruit products. We're one of the last major countries to allow this stuff into our food. The EU stopped its use in 94. Japan, China, the UK,

Australia, New Zealand. Why? Why is this happening now? Because Trump is about to be inaugurated. And this is a Trump issue. It's kind of like the ceasefire deal in the Middle East. If this had happened six months ago, a year ago. You'd say, okay, it's because of Biden in his political program. Here, this is the FDA

trying to get ahead of something. This is the FDA getting ready for Bobby Kennedy to come into office. This is good regulation. And this can happen now, in part because of another major political shift,

which is that conservatives are warming up to some regulation. When I was a kid, Republicans hated regulation. They wanted to deregulate everything if they could shrink the government down into nothing. That would be better. Some Republicans spoke as though they were anarchists, for goodness sakes. The Democrats were the party of regulation in the popular consciousness. But of course, neither party is really totally for regulation or totally against

regulation. Democrats are pro-regulation when it comes to killing businesses. They're pro-regulation when it comes to taking children away from their parents and exposing children to radical gender ideology. They're very much in favor of regulation there. They're against regulation when it comes to, well, allowing people to do really weird, freaky stuff. They're against regulation when it comes to drugs. They're against regulation when it comes to sex. They're against regulation, personal sexual behaviors. They're against regulation when it comes to all sorts of derelict things. And same goes for Republicans. We like some regulations. We don't like other regulations. The question is not the procedural norm of do you regulate or not. Now we

recognize that the real debate is just over what kind of regulations are we going to have? We're going to have a government. We're going to pass laws. We're going to do good and avoid evil, I hope. So what's good? What are we going to do? What's bad? It seems to me that red dyes that give you cancer so that the Twizzlers look a certain color. That's probably bad. I don't want to besmirch Twizzlers. I don't know for a fact they use red dye number three. I'm just taking a guess here. Red dye is used in a lot of stuff. That's bad. Okay, that's a good regulation. I'll take it. I'll take this new mature, robust Republican Party that is willing to get down and govern.

And we have a reminder here. The Daily Wire will be live in Washington, D.C. for the inauguration of Donald J. Trump, as he has sworn in, as the 47th President of the United States. We are not just watching the story. We are bringing it to you live and uncensored to celebrate the 47th president. We are giving you 47% off new DailyWR Plus memberships. Plus, we're including a free $20 gift as a thank you for joining the fight. Remember, DailyWire Plus is the only place where you get our daily shows ad-free, uncensored, plus unlimited access to premium entertainment, hit movies, groundbreaking documentaries, join the celebration. Use code 47 at dailywire.com slash subscribe. You will get 47% off your membership today. Speaking of other major changes and regulations, TikTok is planning to shut its app for U.S. users on Sunday, just as I was about to.

become a TikTok star. Federal ban going into effect unless the Supreme Court blocks it. So the Supreme Court could block this law from going into effect and save TikTok. And I'm sure many zoomers would like that to occur. Now, China, which created TikTok, is trying to get around this. There's a new app that many, many millions of Americans are downloading to try to evade the ban. But right now it looks as though TikTok could be killed. And this also would seem to be because President Trump's about to take office.

And Republicans have been really vocal about the ban on TikTok. They've been very supportive of it. In principle, I'm supportive of it. I don't think anyone has a right, a natural right, a human right, a constitutional right, to this app. I think the app is probably bad for you. So I think social media in general, people should try to minimize their use of it. In principle, I'm all for a TikTok ban. especially because you have an adversarial nation that could easily use TikTok and probably is using TikTok to spread propaganda to our nation.

However, I've got to ask myself, who is most in favor of the TikTok ban? It's not Republican congressman. It's not Republican senators. The people who are most in support of the TikTok ban are Facebook and YouTube and Google. The people who are the most supportive people? That's going to be Mark Zuckerberg. That's going to be Sundar Pichai. That's going to be the big tech pros in America. And why? Well, because if you kill TikTok, you're killing off major competition for Instagram reels and Google shorts, YouTube shorts. That's why. And then I think, all,

let me think about those corporations for a second. So I don't love TikTok. I don't love China, but I do know that Facebook and Instagram have been censoring me for years. That's all come out. He said, hey, now that Trump's coming into office, no worry, we're going to fire the fact checkers and we're going to, you know, it'll be cool. We're cool, right, Republicans? You definitely don't want to regulate me or wield antitrust against me or anything, right? Too little, too late, if you ask me. So I know that Facebook has been trying to kill me for years, kill my political voice, and I know that Google and YouTube have been a little rough on conservatives too, haven't they? They've censored a lot of things that conservatives want to say, a lot of true things, especially. most obviously during COVID, especially during the contentious 2020 election,

but they've censored all sorts of other things. I think, hold on. I don't necessarily need to conclude that the enemy of my enemy is my friend to recognize that TikTok is a good counterbalance to Facebook and YouTube. And maybe Republicans shouldn't be so fast to celebrate its shutting down. My ideal world is Facebook and Google and YouTube get in line, and then we can turn off the Chinese app and we can just have good normal public square in America. If Facebook and YouTube we're not willing to play ball, throw a little TikTok in there, make them play ball. Speaking of digital media, Sam Alito, the great Supreme Court justice, has asked a wonderful question.

about pornography. People are making fun of them for it, but it's actually a really, really good question that gets to an issue far beyond pornography, actually, gets to questions of free speech in the public square. Sam Alito asked if Pornhub.com has essays in it by Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, Jr. He said, this is, while they are considering HB. 1181,

this is a Texas law requiring porn sites to very, verify the age of users. Very simple stuff. Pornhub repeatedly has demonstrated that it would rather totally cease to do business in a state rather than comply with a simple law that says you got to make sure that kids aren't looking at your product. That's it. To me, that says a lot about a company. But FornHub is challenging this, of course, and they don't want to, quote, use reasonable age verification message.

messages to limit the distribution of their product. So the free speech coalition, which is a porn association, they call it free speech coalition, but it's just pro obscenity. It's pro licentiousness. They're trying to block this law. And Alito says, one of the parties here is the owner of Porn Hub. Is it like the old Playboy magazine? You have essays there by the modern day equivalent of Gorbadole, William F Buckley Jr. Everyone's making fun of him. I'm saying, You old boomer, you don't know what Pornhub.com is. You know, I think he does. I think Sam Alito, one of the most intelligent men in the country,

one of the greatest jurists in the country, I think he knows the answer to his question. And I think most good lawyers know you never ask a question to which you don't know the answer. What he's pointing out is the kind of free speech arguments that were made in defense of Playboy half a century ago do not hold for these digital media porn companies. in this case, porn hub, the biggest porn company in the world.

Back in the day, people could say, oh, I read Playboy for the articles. And they were probably being disingenuous, but the pro-porn faction pointed to the essays, pointed to the articles, and said, no, see, this has redeeming artistic merit. And so you can't call it obscenity and you can't ban it as porn. Do you know anyone who watches Pornhub for the articles? do you? I don't want to ask. Look, who knows? I don't want to log in and check to see if they've got articles on the website. But something tells me they don't.

What is the significance of essays? Well, it gets to the Miller test. The Miller test is the court's test to figure out what is obscene. Obscene content is not protected by the First Amendment. There's no right to go strip. naked and perform a lewd act in the middle of the street. That's not free speech. So the Miller test says that a work, in order to be considered obscenity, has to appeal to the prurient interest according to contemporary community standards. So it's got to appeal to lust.

It's got to depict in a patently offensive way, sexual content, and it has to lack serious artistic, political, or scientific value. Beautiful question from Alito. I think it should be absolutely deadly to Pornhub's case here. No one's watching Pornhub for the articles. So they can either institute reasonable age verification measures to make sure that little kids aren't using their product. Or it seems they really don't want to do that. They're just terrified of having to do that to make sure that kids aren't looking at their product. So then they're going to have to stop doing business in places like Texas.

Okay, works for me. Speaking of artistic merit, you're going to want to, you're going to want to, sit down for this one, folks. Pull out a hanky if you have it. Maybe pull out the world's smallest violin. Over 200 Hunter Biden paintings have been lost in the LA fires. You know, Hunter has been hiding out in, I think in Malibu, and he's been doing his little doodles, his little bubble paintings, and he's been selling them for a lot of money. Well, over 200 of his paintings, reportedly worth millions of dollars, have been destroyed in the fire. Okay, I am not doubting that the Hunter Biden paintings have at some point been priced at a value worth millions of dollars.

I think that's true. But if it makes Hunter Biden feel better, in four days those paintings were going to be worthless. Because the price of the paintings never had anything to do with the artistic quality of the paintings. The price of the paintings was always just a way to launder money to the Biden family. It was always a way to bribe the Biden family and to purchase political influence. That's all it ever was. I don't know if Hunter started to believe his own press releases, but his paintings are very, very bad. It was just a way to buy off his father. So, okay, it's sad.

He loses four days of opportunity to enrich himself even further. But even then, Joe Biden's not running the country. No one thinks Biden is responsible for anything going on in the country right now. So I guess they were already worthless. Now, speaking of the Bidens, you know, this is totally unsurprising. Biden is trying to take credit for that ceasefire deal. We'll see if his argument holds up. First, I want to tell you about my favorite comment yesterday.

It's from Gina. We said, Michael, when you made the comment today about Tim Cain being almost one heartbeat away from the presidency, I thought you said harpy away from the presidency, which is still fitting. Love Your Show. Good point. Good point. I could have said either. It would not have changed my meaning. Joe Biden's trying to take credit for the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. Statement from President Biden. Does anyone think he's even read this? Today, after many months of intensive diplomacy by the United States, along with Egypt and Qatar, Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire and hostage deal. I laid out the precise contours of this plan on May 31st, after which it was endorsed by the UN Security Council. So you're saying, I did this. I did that. This is my plan. Even though it's happening right before Trump gets inaugurated, it's me, actually, seriously, guys, we welcome the news. I will speak about this soon. I am thrilled for all the stuff that I did. This reminds me of Jimmy Carter and Iran.

Some of you are old enough to remember that just as President Reagan was being sworn into office, the Iranians released American hostages. The American hostages had been held for a very long time, and the Carter administration totally failed to get them out. And just as Reagan is being inaugurated, the hostages are released. And the Carter administration tried to take credit for it. We're the ones doing the negotiations. We're the ones doing the diplomacy.

Yeah, maybe. But had Reagan not been inaugurated that day? Do you really think that the hostages would have been released? No. It was so clear. It couldn't have been clearer. The Iranians released the hostages because Reagan was coming into office. And the same thing here.

This ceasefire is happening. You want to talk about Joe Biden predicting things and offering specific solutions? Donald Trump, after he gets elected, he goes, hey, you're going to wrap up that war. Figure it out. You Hamas, you're in trouble for the next few months. And you, B, B, I like you, and I support Israel. It's great and everything. But wrap it up, I am not going to deal with this when I'm president.

Figure it out. And guess what happened? We have a ceasefire deal. Now, there's some question over whether or not the sides are going to honor the peacefire deal. I am fairly optimistic, at least over the next month or so. because I don't think Trump's going to put up with this. Trump, ironically, is much, much, much more pro-Israel than Joe Biden. And yet, perhaps even because of that, he might be able to wield a little power to say,

all right, BB, do what you got to do, whatever you want. We're going to look the other way for a few minutes here. And then it's over, okay? And that's not going to be thanks to the diplomacy of Joe Biden, certainly. Now, speaking of the Bidens, I've said for months now, you cannot convince me that Jill Biden and Joe Biden voted for Kamala. In fact, increasingly I would say, you can't convince me that didn't vote for Trump. Jill shows up on Election Day to vote, cameras all over, wearing a red dress. After Kamala lost, Joe Biden is making remarks at the White House.

And she says, aren't we all just feeling joy this season? Aren't we all feeling so much joy in this Christmas season? Because joy was the pathetic attempt at a campaign slogan. Sort of like fetch in mean girls. That Kamala never made it happen, but she really tried. Seemed clear as day to me. Jill, I think, voted for Trump. Joe, I don't know.

Maybe Joe wrote in his own name. Maybe Joe wrote in Mickey Mouse. Did Joe even vote? I don't know. But now we got proof. Jill Biden is on the record. She was starting the Washington Post. She was asked about her reaction to the

Democrat Party pushing her husband out. And she says, let's just say I was disappointed with how it unfolded. I learned a lot about human nature. She was asked about Nancy Pelosi in particular. And Jill said, I've been thinking, I've been thinking a lot about relationships. It's been on my mind a lot lately. And we were friends for 50 years. It was disappointing. 50 years. That's right. These people have been around for a long time. Joe Biden got elected to the Senate, what, 1972? Nancy Pelosi's been in the federal government since I think 1861. So it was somewhere around there, right?

It's been a long time with these people. And Nancy shoved her good friends, the Bidens, right under the bus the moment it became convenient. And Joe Biden didn't like that. There's a lot of infighting. We always focus on the infighting. on the Republican side, because there is a lot of infighting. But there is a different kind of infighting on the Republican side versus the Democrat side. The Republican infighting, I think, is primarily ideological because there is no homogeneity to the Republican

coalition. You have libertarians, you have neocons, you have traditionalists, you have social conservatives, you have the religious right, you have this, you have that, you have the other thing. On the Democrat side, you just have progressives. Now, you have infighting on both, but on the Republican side, it is ideological. On the Democrat side, I think it is personal. I think it is opportunistic. I think it is cynical. And that's what you saw here. Nancy Pelosi, to this day, by the way, still defends pushing Biden out. It says if Biden had gotten out sooner, maybe we could have gotten a good candidate in, unlike Kamala Harris, and then maybe we would have beaten Trump. I think Biden would have done better against Trump than Kamala Harris did. I don't even think

that should be particularly controversial. I still think Trump would have beaten Biden. But I think Biden's right to think he would have done better than Kamala. In any case, the Democrats are all fighting each other. It's not about ideas. It's not about the common good. It's not about what they think is best for America. They're just fighting petty personal grudges. And I am totally here for it.

Okay. Speaking of bitterness, there's a story I meant to get to yesterday. A priest in Spain has been accused of a hate crime after a homosexual, a practicing homosexual socialist mayor was not permitted to receive Holy Communion. Now, for those of you who are not Catholic, I'll give you a little primer here. To receive Holy Communion, one must be in a state of grace. That means one must have confessed one's sins and have avoided mortal sin, at least, since that time. It's just getting to socialism, putting homosexuality aside for a second, just socialism. The popes have been very clear.

A Catholic cannot be a socialist. Pope John the 23rd said it well. He said a Catholic cannot subscribe even to a moderate form of socialism. Pope Leo the 13th writes about this in Ray Rheum Navarum. This is reaffirmed by Pope John Paul II in Chintessimus Anu. You have a number of the piouseses. Pius the 10th, the 11th, the 12th talking about, maybe Pius the 9th, talking about how Catholics can't be socialists. So that alone would be a big problem for this mayor. Add on to that, that he's a practicing homosexual.

This is one of the sins that historically, one of the four sins that historically has been understood to cry out to God for vengeance. This is a grave mortal sin that is disordered and requires confession and absolution. And, you know, the guy, who knows about the other problems? But anyway, if he's very public and he's a public figure about these sins, makes perfect sense for the priest to say, hey, you know, you need to go confess. You need to do what the Catholics do in order to receive Holy Communion. and the mayor says no he wants to accuse him of a hate hate crime here

the reason that a priest would withhold holy communion from this mayor is for the mayor's own good because St. Paul says that if you receive our Lord in the Holy Communion and you are not in a state of grace you are eating your own damnation

so it is actually an act of charity to withhold the Holy Communion from such a person until they get their life back in order the mayor says no you have to give it to me. Why? Why does the mayor want Holy Communion so badly? He doesn't want to follow the faith. He doesn't want to follow the teachings of the Catholic Church. He clearly doesn't believe the Holy Communion is what Catholics believe the Holy Communion is. So why does he care so much? Because this is

radicalism. This is what radicalism always does. It seeks to make reality bend to its own fantasies. This is what it does. This is just like same-sex marriage. I have no particular issue with people who have certain afflictions and inclinations like that. But you can't tell me that marriage is other than it is. When a LGBT activist says, we demand same-sex marriage, we demand marriage equality, I say, well, I can't give that to you because marriage just is what it is. And it's like you're asking for wet fire.

There's just no such thing as wet fire. It's not within the nature of fire to be wet. I demand a dark sun. Well, I can't give you a dark sun. It is not within the nature of the sun to be dark. Well, I demand. Catholic Holy Communion, but I'm not going to practice the Catholic faith. Well, I'm sorry, the priest says I can't give you that.

when they are demanding these so-called rights, what they are really demanding is a redefinition of reality. And I can't give them that, and a politician can't give them that, and even a priest can't give them that. Their issue is not with any of us. Their issue is with reality. Now, speaking of priests, we have a marvelous priest. And a famous priest, a celebrated priest coming on the show.

That would be one of the top podcasters in America, Father Mike Schmitz. The rest of the show continues. Now you do not want to miss it. Become a member. Use Code Knowles, KnaWLAS, a checkout for two months free on all annual plans. How many discounts does USAA auto insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi-vehicle discount. Safe driver discount?

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