The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1663 - BREAKING: 67 Passengers In Airplane and Helicopter Crash, No Survivors Found

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

An American Airlines flight collides with a military helicopter in the first deadly U.S. commercial crash since 2009, RFK Jr. faces Senate Dems at his confirmation hearing, and J.D. Vance makes the traditional Christian argument for deportations.   Click here to join the member-exclusive portion of my show: https://bit.ly/4biDlri   Ep.1663   - - -   DailyWire+:   Now is the time to join the fight. Watch the hit movies, documentaries, and series reshaping our culture. Go to https://dailywire.com/subscribe 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)   Find my exclusive collection at The Candle Club: https://bit.ly/42uunWi   - - -   Today's Sponsors:   Vandy Crisps - Visit https://vandycrisps.com/discount/KNOWLES for 20% off your order.   Birch Gold - Text "KNOWLES" to 989898 or go to https://birchgold.com/knowles for your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide for Gold in the Trump Era and FREE gold information kit.   - - -   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

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Save up to 40% your first year at lifelock.com slash Spotify. Terms apply. An American Airlines flight collided last night with a military helicopter in the first deadly commercial airplane crash in the U.S. since 2009. Right now, 67 people are feared dead between the airplane and the helicopter. helicopter. Officials do not believe that anyone has survived. Immediately upon hearing the news, well-adjusted people prayed, curious people speculated, and mainstream leftists tried to find a way to blame President Trump. I'm Michael Knowles. It's the Michael Nulls show. Welcome back to the show.

Bobby Kennedy appeared yesterday before the U.S. Senate Committee to testify to have his confirmation hearings. We will get to all the machinations of that. It's a big, big confirmation hearing for HHS. First, though, of course, have to talk about this horrific crash. First fatal commercial airline crash in the U.S. in 16 years. An American Eagle flights, this is an American Airlines flight that was operated. It's a smaller regional jet, collided with a Black Hawk helicopter, and actually a camera caught the explosion. There was a camera on the sky. This is right above Reagan Airport, at the national airport in D.C., you can see the airplane right there so clear within view as it was landing, and then a massive, massive explosion, a fireball, and the remains of the aircraft go down into the

Potomac. Immediately, people began to speculate. This was immediately, you had all of this conflicting information. We still don't have all of the information right now, but people began to speculate. They were wondering what the helicopter was doing. There were some reports that the helicopter was flying dark, was not in contact with aviation authorities. There were all of it, totally baseless speculation. Immediately everyone on the internet became an aviation expert, everyone became a military expert. Immediately, people were making all these sorts of crazy reports about people surviving. There's no evidence for that whatsoever.

see it on camera. There's this massive fireball going down into a frozen river. But all of this wild speculation. Then from the left, there was immediate blame. You had people like, well, CNN's. This is how CNN reported it in real time. Mary, I have one more question for you. Look, it's January 29th. We are just nine days out from a presidential transition and administrative transition. The FAA administrator resigned at the end of the Biden administration. So there is no permanent, confirmed FAA administrator right now. This is going to be a time when there's going to be a lot of public communication and a lot of investigation of what happened here. What do you anticipate this transition period is going to mean for what happens today and tomorrow and in the coming days as we find out what happened

here? Do these people have no shame whatsoever? The answer to that question is, obvious. They don't. They don't have any shame at all. You're reporting on this major tragedy. The first deadly commercial crash in the U.S. in 16 years. And your first thought is, you know, we're days after a presidential transition to power. And actually, the old FAA chief is out. So, so what? So what? Like there's no one running the aviation authority. Are you kidding me? Well, but Trump just came in. It's just, it's so disgusting. What a shallow. sort of person you must be. What a totally shallow individual you must be to think anything happens, including a really

horrific national tragedy and you just think, okay, great. First question, how do I blame Trump for this? Even what is the, even the most tenuous, barely even logically coherent argument that I could possibly make to blame Trump for an airplane crashing into a helicopter in the potential? You know, aviation crashes, they happen. They're infrequent, but they happen regularly. The first thought, how do I blame Trump for this? And that CNN lady wasn't the only one, Bakari Sellers, who I think it was also a CNN guy. He might be out now. He posts a picture from the transportation and infrastructure webpage, Trump's dangerous freeze of air traffic control

hiring. And he posts eight days ago, eight days ago. Now, he deleted. this. I don't know if it was because he finally got some shame and embarrassment, or if it's because he realized that the argument he thought he was making was just so preposterous, that because President Trump announced eight days prior that they were not going to be hiring new people immediately in the future, that somehow that would cause an airplane crash? You think eight days is enough time to hire up and train new air traffic controllers? Totally absurd, totally despicable. kind of argument. So even he is a pretty shameless fella. He deleted that. Other people, though. Aaron Rupara, he used to work for more mainstream left-wing outlets. I think he's on his own. Now,

he was a little fringe even for the mainstream left. Headlines from a week ago as an incident near DCA appears to be the deadliest aviation disaster in the U.S. since 9-11, which I don't, I don't know that that's true. There have been crashes since 9-11 that have been fatal. But in any case, the headline says, Trump guts, key aviation safety committee, fires, heads of TSA Coast Guard, as if, as if that could possibly have an effect days later. In any case, yesterday was the first full day on the job for Sean Duffy, the new Transportation Secretary, who's a great guy, so, you know, obviously jumping in headfirst. Because this involved a military helicopter, this also involves Pete Hegseth, who was just confirmed, what, four days ago he took

the job? What day is it? Today's the 30th, so five days, four days before the disaster. this does happen, but it's relatively infrequent. And even we've had fatal incidents in the air in recent years that have not been crashes, so they don't really get lumped in with these kinds of incidents. But 2018, there was a passenger on Southwest Airlines that was killed because shrapnel from the plane's engine blew through the window, caused a drop in air pressure. The passenger suffered fatal injuries because the passenger, was nearly sucked outside of the jet.

That had been the first death on a U.S. commercial flight since 2009. That was seven years ago or so. But, you know, there are all sorts of crashes and all sorts of, you know, airplane incidents that happened over the years. Some are really, really bad, going all the way back to the early and middle 20th century. But they happen in 1945, 1956, 1982, 1989, 1999, 1999. obviously 2001, then even after 9-11, a couple months after in 2001, another crash in New York, 2011, 2013. It happens. We don't think about it because U.S. commercial air travel is statistically just about the safest mode of transportation in the world. But it does happen. And it doesn't have to be a crazy conspiracy, and it doesn't have to be that the CIA sent a helicopter unmanned to take out a commercial airplane for some unknown reason.

and it doesn't have to be that the new administration failed in its duties, and it goes all the way to the top, and it's all Trump's fault, and it doesn't have to be that. You know, sometimes you can just pray. Sometimes your reaction to news can just be to pray. You don't need to pretend to be an expert. You don't need to concoct the craziest theory in the world. You don't need to just hurl invective,

your typical political opponents, believe it or not, sometimes you can just pray and defer to people, or rather, I should say, defer to the one being that has infinitely more knowledge and power than you do. And you can just, you can, you're not, you don't need to be the expert on everything. You don't need to make it all about you. This is what Eric Swalwell did. Eric Swalwell. U.S. congressman, Democrat, who ran for president, though many, many people forget that, known for lots of other eccentricities on the national stage.

He immediately posted and said, you know, wow, I was just landing at Reagan. Wow, what are the odds? Man, you know, essentially saying that could have been me. And someone posted a meme in response to that said, you know, a guy looking in the mirror, he says, hey, Buster, you get out there and you make this national tragedy all about you. It doesn't have to be about you. You probably don't have expertise to offer on this. There will be major investigations.

It's very sad when these incidents happen every 15 or 20 years. sometimes more frequently. You can just pray. That's what I would recommend at least. Okay, turning back to political news, Bobby Kennedy was up yesterday for his confirmation hearing, his first confirmation hearing for HHS secretary.

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Are you denying that? Your name is on the petition. We brought that petition. after CDC recommended a COVID vaccine without any scientific basis or six-year-old children. Most experts agreed today, even the people who did it back then, COVID vaccines are inappropriate for six-year-old children who basically have a zero risk from COVID. That's why I brought that lawsuit. Okay, so right off the top, Ron Wyden seemed a little bit.

but more like Ron Winen, if you ask me, okay? He was just, whew-w-ha, you just had this awful voice, and he was just complaining at RFK. You heard their RFK had perfectly good answers. He said, yeah, the reason I signed this petition against this particular vaccine is because the information that was coming out of the CDC and the NIH and Dr. Fauci was wrong. It's been proven to be wrong, and I was right, so that's why I signed the petition. Frankly, that should be a mark in favor of my being confirmed to this position.

The most interesting part of the RFK hearing yesterday came from another. Democrat Senator, that is Sheldon White House. Now, Sheldon White House has been buddies with RFK for 40 years. They went to each other's weddings, I think. They were old buddies from law school, would spend a lot of time together, hiking, hanging out. So if it's a really close vote, if all the Democrats are against RFK, if some of the Republicans squish, like Collins, Murkowski, maybe McConnell, maybe others, there has been talk that Sheldon White House could be a deciding vote from the Democrats, a defection that could get RFK through. Now, a lot of people yesterday said that Sheldon White House was signaling that he won't do that. And you judge for yourself before I

give you my expert analysis. Mr. Kennedy, I only have five minutes with you. So, and I've got a lot of experience with CMS. So you're just going to have to listen. And frankly, you frighten people. Okay, and then he goes on. That's the super cut of this. It says, okay, listen, Mr. Kennedy, as if he doesn't know this guy for 40 years, Mr. Kennedy, I only have about five minutes with you.

You have the same amount of time as every other senator up there. So I'm not going to ask you any questions, but you frighten people and we're going to get really serious here. I'm just going to tell you what I think. This was Sheldon Whitehouse signaling that he probably, will vote for RFK if it comes down to it. That's what's going. And I can't believe that the political media and all the analysts are missing this. That's obviously what White House is doing here. Don't listen to the words he's saying. Don't listen to the tone in which he's saying.

Listen to the words that he's not saying. It's kind of like jazz. People say with jazz, it's not the notes they play. It's the notes that they don't play. You know, that's where the real music is. Well, that's where the real questioning was there. he was in the lack of questioning. Sure, he took a mean tone with RFK, and he said people are very concerned or whatever, but he didn't ask him a single question. And he had this flimsy excuse,

I only have five minutes. Everyone has the same amount of time. Give me a break. They can all ask questions. Why didn't you? Because you don't want to put him in a bad spot. Because you don't want the gotcha for RFK. You don't want to give him a bad clip.

Sheldon Whitehouse was filibustering himself yesterday, which is good. I'm glad to see that. But if I were on the Kennedy team, if I were in the Trump White House right now, I would hear that testimony. I would not conclude that Sheldon White House is not going to vote for Kennedy. I would draw the exact opposite conclusion. This is Sheldon White House saying, hey, I'm really upset about your nomination. Hey, I'm going to, hey, this is really, really bad.

And that's why I'm not going to make this any worse for you at all right now. But please, I hope I don't have to vote for you. But if I have to vote for you, okay, I'll do it. That's my read on it. the the silliest questioning came from a senator's liawatha who she did grill kennedy she asked him first she asked him do you promise not to work for big pharma after you leave the agency is do you promise not to cash in on your political experience with hHS she asked the same sort of thing of pete hseth will you promise not to work for defense contractors after you leave the pentagon so she asks him that but then the follow-up

question. It was what made her line of questioning totally ridiculous. So Mr. Kennedy, I want to start with something that I think you and I agree on, and that is that Big Pharma has too much power in Washington. You've said that President Trump asked you to, quote, clean up corruption and conflicts. Sounds great. You've said that you will, quote, slam shut the revolving door between government agencies and the companies they regulate. That also sounds great. So here's an easy question. Will you commit that when you leave this job, you will not accept compensation from a drug company, a medical device company, a hospital system, or a health insurer for at least four years, including as a lobbyist or a board member? So, Mr. Kennedy, will you also agree that you won't take any compensation from any lawsuits

against drug companies while you are secretary and for four years afterwards. That's the beautiful part here. So we cut out Kennedy's responses because they're exactly what you would expect. She goes, do you promise that you won't take money from Big Pharma? Bobby Kennedy is one of the biggest opponents of Big Pharma in the entire country. He has led the fight against Big Pharma for decades. They hate him. So his answer is, yeah, I promise that.

They hate me. They'll never hire me. What are you talking about? I'm their biggest opponent. So she goes, okay, good. Well, then do you also promise not to fight Big Pharma? And he goes, wait, what? Hold on. You're asking me to promise that I won't work for Big Pharma or work against Big Pharma. So can I do anything when I leave HHS? I just have to sit on my hands at home? What are you talking about? But this was Elizabeth Warren is an intelligent woman. For all her foibles and flaws, she is a relatively intelligent woman. And so that was the question she was really trying to get to. The first one was the setup for the second one.

Because Elizabeth Warren is one of the biggest recipients of Big Pharma money in the U.S. Senate. Now, look, maybe the donations coincide with her sincere belief in defending Big Pharma. But we can't ignore this fact. She is in the pocket of Big Pharma. Bobby Kennedy is a big threat to big pharma. So she wants to ensure, not that he's not going to go work for big pharma, that was never going to happen. She wants to ensure that he's not going to be the big foe of her big friends

when he's in the agency or when he's out of the agency. This is the fight here. People are looking at the Bobby Kennedy nomination as a battle between Democrats and Republicans. Not really. Bobby Kennedy is a Democrat. He's a Kennedy. Okay. And he ran for president as a Democrat. He's a Democrat. So it's not a Democrat versus Republican thing. It's not even really a liberal versus conservative thing. Trump has created a new eclectic coalition. It's a little different than, say, the Bush coalition or the Romney coalition. So it's not really that.

The one big power that is opposing Bobby Kennedy's confirmation is big pharma. That's it. pharmaceutical industry, to some degree, big agriculture or the food industry, that's it. Okay, so the question for his confirmation hearing is not can the R's overcome the D's? It's can the Trump coalition overcome this one huge special interest, the pharmaceutical industry, remains to be seen. Now, there was one weak moment for Kennedy in this hearing. Some people are saying it was a weak hearing he didn't do well. I thought he did just fine, all things considered. There was one moment where the Democrats land a clean blow on him.

And it was because of a tactical error by Bobby Kennedy. And this blow came by way of Ben Ray Lujan, a senator that neither I nor anyone else had ever heard of. He had a back and forth with RFK over Medicaid. Here was Kennedy's mistake. Is it important that expectant mothers and newborns have access to health Absolutely, Senator. Mr. Kennedy, do you know how many babies born in this country are covered through Medicaid? I would guess, I don't know the answer. I would guess about 30 million.

I have it, Mr. Kennedy. About 41% or 1.4 million babies births are financed by Medicaid, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Yes or no, do you believe that Medicaid is a critical program. I believe that Medicaid is a critical program, but that it's not working as well as it ought to be. And Trump has asked me to make it work better, that most Americans are not happy with it. So you can hear that he's dispirited after he loses this exchange. He says, yeah, I think Medicare is really important. Medicaid's really important. This question from Lujan. is a typical, cheap kind of political debate set up. It's essentially like asking a presidential candidate, hey, name me the capital of Uzbekistan. It's a sort of thing where, out of context,

I guess it makes you look dumb or ignorant, uneducated, if you can't name the capital of some country, but also like, I don't know, do you know the capital of Uzbekistan? I don't, I couldn't name it right now. You don't know. These are little gotcha questions. hey, what's the statistic? What number is this? How many such and such live in this and that place? And Kennedy didn't know the answer. He made a mistake, which is an elementary mistake of negotiating, namely, whoever gives the first number loses. His answer, if he didn't know the answer, and he was willing to admit that, then his answer should have been, I don't know, Senator, please inform me. Because the fact that he got the answer wrong by a multiple,

and in order of magnitude, right? The answer was what, one to one and a half million, and he answered 30 million. He got it so radically wrong. The Democrats are going to seize upon that to say, this guy just doesn't know his basic stuff. This guy, he's totally unqualified. Now, again, it doesn't really matter. RFK Jr., not knowing that one particular statistic or his confirmation hearing in no way suggests anything about his ability to do the job. But it was just a political misstep, which is surprising from someone who has been in public life or his whole life, who is from one of the most political families in the country. That was unfortunate. I don't think it's going to knock him out, but it was unfortunate. Then the question that made me laugh the most,

I suppose, was from another no-name senator, a senator's Tina Smith, who went after Bobby Kennedy because Kennedy had the audacity to question the wisdom of SSRIs, these depressed, Pills that an increasing number of Americans are hooked on from their youth. The science shows that there is no link between school shootings and antidepressants. And in fact, most school shooters were not even treated with antidepressants. And of those that were, there was no evidence of association. You know, I don't think you can say that, Senator, because hip-rules, nobody knows. Mr. Kennedy, this is personal for me.

When I was a young woman and I was struggling with depression, thankfully, I had the resources to help me get through it, including a new generation of SSRI uptake, re-inhibitors, which helped to clear my mind, get me back on track to being a mom and a wife and a productive, happy person. But then the killer part of this questioning was, the senator says, well, you know, I've been on SSRI. She's getting increasingly angry, unhinged. I've been on SSRIs and during periods of my life and I'm obviously so sane. It says, I don't know. I don't think your experience with these drugs is exactly that ballasting your argument that these are totally fine, these heavy psych drugs that you, the unhinged sentatrix

are familiar with. I don't know. That undercut the argument. Final point on RFK's testimony. is one conservative area for concern from our side with RFK, and that is that he's been pro-abortion for his whole life. He says he's Catholic. I know he went to church. He went to the church and my grandmother went to for like 60 years, okay? He's from my town, the area, the town in which I was born, town my grandmother lived in for a long time.

So I, you know, I'm somewhat familiar with his religious behaviors, and he's got these two conflicting poles. He says he's Catholic, but he's also big lib. those those are in contradiction to one another he was asked what do you think about abortion here's his answer well health care how are you going to handle time i'm going to support president trump's policies on title 10 i agree with president trump that every abortion is a tragedy i agree with them that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions here i agree with them that the states should control abortion um president trump has told me that

He wants to end late-term abortions, and he wants to protect conscious exemptions, and that he wants to end federal funding for abortions here abroad. That's Title 10. I'm going to, I serve at the pleasure of the president. I'm going to implement his policies. Thank you for that. Good. I love it.

The Democrats were trying to nail Kennedy on abortion because they wanted it to be a wedge issue for the conservatives. He says, look, I think every abortion's tragedy, regardless of what I've said or positions I've held as a Democrat, I'm here to implement the president's agenda. The president is pro-life, most pro-life president we've ever had. Okay, good enough for me. There's so much more to say first, though, text Noles to 98-98-98-9-8. Is your retirement protected against economic uncertainty? With looming national debt, volatile inflation, tax cuts and regulation changes, now is the time to consider diversifying with gold. I'm partnering with Birch Gold Group, a company I personally trust, to help you secure your financial future. Birch Gold has just released their exclusive ultimate guide for gold in the Trump era,

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Get the full episode on the Michael Nell's YouTube channel. Do not forget to subscribe for the ad-free version on Daily Wire Plus. Speaking of faces of the administration, Caroline Levitt is the press secretary at the White House doing a great job. such a great job that the ladies of the view feel the green monster coming upon them. They really don't like this woman. She's a good communicator. And so Joy Behar just offered her analysis on why Leavitt was picked for the role. I think she's probably been put in there because according to Donald Trump, she's a 10.

You know that's what it is. I want to be clear, though, it's not her first job. It was her first press briefing. She worked in the previous Trump administration. Okay, so that lady, the fake Republican on the. view. She's kind of defending Caroline Leavitt here. She realizes that Joy Behaer has gone a little too far. What's Behaer saying? She only got that job because she's hot. That actually isn't true. She's a very nice looking lady, but it isn't true that that's why she got the job. She got the job because she was the national spokesman for the campaign, and she did a very good job in that role. And the campaign was hugely successful and communicated very effectively. That is why she got the job.

even if Caroline Leavitt weren't a pretty lady, even if she were a male, gremlin, monstrous looking fellow, she still would have gotten the job based on how effective the campaign communications was. Furthermore, Caroline Levitt ran for Congress. I was talking to Roger Stone about this when we were trying to figure out who the picks for the administration were going to be. He said, I think Levitt's going to get the White House press sex job. I think she earned the job. And I like that she has been in the fight. fire. She's run for office. So she's, she's taken the slings and arrows that go with being in the

active campaign politics. That's why she got the job. But even factoring in that she's a nice looking lady, I love it that the lives attacks on conservatives right now are that we're hot and cool. I love that. Hot and cool. I almost seem like opposites. But hot me, like, do you saw the New York magazine article. We talked about it yesterday on the show. The cover, whereas all these just hot young just drinking white claws and probably have tins of zen in their pocket. They're all wearing tuxedos properly and they're having a good time and they're just, they just look good and vibrant and cool and hip. You Republicans, you ha, you dastardly Republicans. You know what you are. You want to know what I really think of you, Republicans. I think you're really good looking and fun and cool. And I wish I

were you and you're really hot. Okay. Ooh, ouch. You got us. That's great. Okay. That's how dispirited the left is right now. Their best attack on the right is that we are hot and cool. You Republicans, you're so sexy. I hate you so much, you Republicans. Okay. Sorry. All right. Now, Caroline Leavitt, also, Catholic. Love that. She had a nice big cross that she was wearing during that briefing. Speaking of Catholics in the administration, got to give big props to to my man J.D. Vance over here. J.D. Vance was just doing an interview on Fox News, and he explained immigration. He countered a narrative that is building in some corners and some Christian corners that enforcing immigration law is somehow anti-Christian contrary to the faith, contradicting the teachings of our Lord. He countered

that argument, which I think is preposterous, using Catholic teaching, specifically using the logic of the angelic doctor. Our vice president, I can't believe I'm saying this in the year of our Lord, 2025. Our sitting vice president, just Thomas Aquinas-pilled people on national TV to explain immigration. But there's this old school, and I think it's a very Christian concept, by the way, that you love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world. A lot of the far left has completely inverted that. They seem to hate the citizens of their own country and care more about people outside their own

borders. That is no way to run a society. And I think the profound difference that Donald Trump brings to the leadership of this country is the simple concept, America, first. It doesn't mean you hate anybody else. It means that you have leadership. And President Trump has been very clear about this that puts the interests of American citizens first. And in the same way that the British Prime Minister should care about Brits and the French should care about the French. We have an American president who cares primarily about Americans, and that's a very welcome change. What is President Cheed doing? What is Vladimir? He's looking after the Chinese. Putin is looking after the Russians. They're entitled to do that.

Thank God. We now have an American president who's looking after the citizens of his own country. So beautifully said, get this man the Thomas Aquinas Award for mass political communications. I don't know if any institute puts that out. They should put one out and they should give it to J.D. Vance. What a beautiful way to explain in simple terms, the order of charity, which we can deduce using a reason which flows perfectly from Christian principles and which does not contradict the faith at all. Think about it this way. You're walking past a swimming pool and you see a little kid drowning. What do you do? If you have any courage at all, if you have any virtue at all, you're going to jump in that pool, try to save the kid. This actually happened to my father a few years ago. My father was by a swimming pool in his condo complex.

So a kid drowning jumps in, gets the kid out. Great stuff. Of course, every reasonable person would agree with that. Now, let's say there's a really big swimming pool and there are two kids drowning. God forbid, one of them is your child and then one of them is someone else's child. Who do you jump in to save first? You want to save them both, but who is it right to jump in to save first? Your kid, obviously, because you have a greater responsibility to your child than you do to someone else's child. You want to help them both, but if you can't help them both, if you have to prioritize things, as we all do in time and space, then you prioritize your child first. If you didn't, if you left your child to drown to go save someone else's kid, people would look at you weird.

People would think that there's something actually immoral about that, and there would be something immoral about that. And St. Thomas writes about this at great length, actually. And I'm sure J.D. Vance is familiar with that, and he is bringing the teaching of the angelic doctor. the Great Scholastic, two modern public years. That's how we have to think about immigration. It's not that we don't like people from around the world. It's not like that we don't like people in El Salvador. Well, we really like people in El Salvador because of Naid Bukele. But it's not that we don't like people in Venezuela or Honduras or Nicaragua. It's not that we don't like people in China or Tahiti or Africa. But there's an order of charity here.

It is the responsibility of the vice president and the president and of everyone in our country. to look first for our countrymen. You care first for your family, then for your local community, then your state, then your country. And then we look after people from elsewhere in the world. But you think of the Democrats

who voted against the Lake and Riley Act. President Trump signed his first bill into law yesterday for the second term. That's the Lake and Riley Act. And Lake and Riley Act says, if illegal aliens are caught committing theft and offenses that are lower level than murder and rape, but which might be the first step on the way to murder and rape as it was in the case of Lake and Riley's killer, then we're going to deport them. We're going to speed up the deportation of those people.

The Democrats voted against that. Many Democrats voted against that. Some voted for it. And they voted against it because they would rather prioritize foreign rapists and murderers, at the very least, foreign thieves over innocent American children and an innocent university student like Lake and Riley. It's not that they don't have a big heart. Let's take all the cynical motives

that the Democrats have out for a second. And let's say they are motivated sincerely by sympathy for people in the third world, by sympathy for illegal aliens who cross our border, but they don't have a lot of money, and sure, they steal stuff from our stores. But let's say it's a sincere, fear of sympathy that they feel for them. And it's not self-interest trying to get a permanent electoral

majority. The problem is not that the Democrats don't have a big heart. The problem is that their heart is in the wrong place. This is how G.K. Chesterton described his friend George Bernard Shaw, George Bernard Shaw, who is an atheist and a socialist. He said, my friend Bernard Shaw has a very big heart, but it's in the wrong place. That's the issue here. You have to take care of your family, of your country, of your people, of your fellow citizens first. You can't disadvantage them to go privilege some criminal from the other side of the world. That is wrong. It's immoral. It's contrary to the faith. It's contrary to natural reason. Now, there's a great update on the immigration enforcement issue, which we will get to in one moment.

First, though, I am going to feel so old. I'm going to feel so old. Ten years ago, the Daily Wire started a fight. We took on the radical left's assault on truth. We refused to bow to their delusions, and today because of our members' support, we are winning. On January 20th, President Trump signed an executive order banning the chemical and surgical mutilation of children. It's a major victory that we led the way on, a battle that other conservatives, some of them, weren't even willing to take on a decade ago. We took the heat, we took the losses, we took the risks, and today, reality wins. It's amazing to think even that the Daily Wire has existed for 10 years. And I was going back, I was thinking about all the ways that we've been involved in the trans fight.

And it occurs to me, I have been attacked. I've given a billion speeches. I have been attacked precisely two times, physically at these speeches. Both times were when I was talking about transgenderism. This was one of my earliest speaking tours was called the Men Are Not Women and Other Uncomfortable Truths tour. And I was attacked by some wacko who busted in a fire door who then ended up getting arrested. So Ben got attacked by some trans-identifying dude on T-E. TV. Then I got attacked by some trans-identifying dude at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

It was ultimately invited by now Congressman Eric Burleson to finish my speech at the Missouri State House. Then, obviously, then Matt came out with his movie. That was a huge game changer. But then I was thinking even, I gave a talk at University of Pittsburgh. Some dude is in federal prison right now, some Antifa terrorist, because they tried to blow us up for the speech of Pittsburgh. This issue has been such a fiery issue. And the left isn't going to give up. up, so we're not going to give up, so thrilled that President Trump has signed this into law. Right now, you need to go to dailywire.com slash subscribe. Help us continue that fight.

My favorite comment yesterday from Sherry Ford 667, who says, I am so happy to learn how much these illegals love their native countries and what a kind act Mr. Tom Homan is doing by giving them a complimentary flight home. So true, that's charity, isn't it? They love waving their flags, the Mexican flag, sometimes flags of other countries. They love speaking in that language. they love attacking America. Well, great. And America's a racist, horrible, evil place. So great. Mr. Homan, what a great act of charity. We have got an update on the deportations. You know, I sit on this show. I've been saying it for the past week or two.

We need to really ramp up the arrests. They're doing a great job in the first few days of the admin. But, you know, they were bragging that they had a thousand arrests in the first week. Well, it's not hard to do the math. A thousand. arrests in the first week is 52,000 arrests a year. It's 208,000 arrests and deportations by the end of the term. 208,000 out of 11 to 16.8 million is not a fraction of a fraction. And I said, I'm giving them a little grace. What they're trying to do is very difficult now, but they got to up it. Well, they are up in it. There's an enforcement update yesterday. January 29th, 1,016 arrests, 814 detainers lodged. Okay, now we're ramping it up. It was. whatever it was, I think it was 538 or 540 deportations in the first week, and then hundreds more who were detained or something like that.

So, okay, you say it's 1,000. Then it was 1,000 alone on Sunday. Now we're getting 1,000 arrests, 800 detainers lodged. Those are ICE daily statistics as of midnight. So you are seeing it ramp up. You were seeing this administration getting aggressive. There were people, including immigration hawks, who are very skeptical of Trump.

Okay? I'm an immigration restrictionist. I don't merely think... The Democrats think we should have totally open borders. Many Republicans think, and President Trump has even said sometimes, that we should have no illegal immigration, but we should have even more legal immigration. My view is the third view,

which happens to be the majority view of Americans, which is that we actually need a reduction in overall immigration, and we need a drastic reduction in overall immigration. Multiple public opinion surveys show that this is the view of the majority of Americans. Certainly my view, I think it's obviously right. And there were people who were immigration hawks who said, oh, Trump, he's actually weak on this issue. He's going to give us much more migration. Some people even suggested you should vote for Kamala because Trump is so weak.

Totally crazy. Trump is going to be a squish or something. This first week and a half, this is the greatest first week and a half of any presidential administration ever. Okay, can you think of a better one? I can't. And what's important here is not just the daily numbers, it's the trend line. Trump is getting more aggressive. Love this. Really, really good news. And the hits just keep on coming as Meta, the parent company for Facebook, agrees to pay Trump $25 million, $22 million of which will be going to the Trump presidential library. Why? Because Meta is, is, is, settling a lawsuit filed by President Trump because META suspended Trump's social media accounts after January 6th, the worst day in the history of this reign of republic. This is according to three people familiar with the matter and according to reporting. This on top of ABC News agreeing to pay $15 million to President Trump's library because of defamation

that was advanced by George Stephanopoulos, the political anchor for ABC News, this is really good stuff. I am so excited. I am so excited for the President Trump, the Donald J. Trump presidential library and casino to be located in Atlantic City. That is what I am lobbying for. I am excited in no small part because,

as of now, this whole thing is going to be funded by the most left-wing organizations that have been trying to destroy Trump for 10 years. This is so, so beautiful. The left has given up. they fought. They tried to kill Trump the first time. Well, metaphorically, they tried to kill Trump the first time. Then they justified literally killing Trump afterward, but they tried to undermine his administration. They worked against him. They then Mark Zuckerberg committed huge sums of money to

rigging the election for Democrats in 2020. ABC News lied about Trump on air. Everyone tried to take this guy out, and then he won, and the left is totally defeated. They've just given up the fight. All right, Trump, Zuckerberg is going to go to the inauguration. He's going to go there. He's going to go kiss the ring. Okay, fine. All right. We're going to, Facebook tried to destroy the Daily Wire's business. Very nearly succeeded. We were the number one publisher on Facebook. Number one publisher in the world. They one day just turned to the switch, tried to kill our business. We survived by the skin of our teeth. Okay, all right. So our, whoopsie, Daisy? Our bad. We give up. Hey, Trump, here you go. He's 25 million bucks. ABC. Okay. Trump, where you go? Well, they were actually forced by judge. Here is 15 million bucks. Okay. All right, fine. You win, Trump. You win. And he is clearly using his victory aggressively. He's not letting the opportunity go to waste. Can't wait.

Can't wait to celebrate that victory at the Trump Library and Casino. Now, speaking of presidents and Trump and money, the former president of Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta, has had, the greatest response to the people whining and crying about Trump cutting funding, not just in domestically, but also whining and crying about people overseas. We're saying, why is Trump cutting the funding? Here is President Kenyatta. People the other day crying, oh, I don't know, Trump has removed money. He said he's not giving us any more money.

why are you crying is not your government is not your country he has no he has no reason to to give you anything I mean you don't pay taxes in America he is appealing to his people shawri yeah this is a wake-up call for you to say okay what are we going to do to help ourselves instead of crying To do you'll listen, what are we going to do? I'm a little bit of your pen. Now we're doing with what are we going to do? Yeah?

To support ourselves. Because nobody is going to continue holding out a hand there to give you. It is time for us to use our resources for the right things. We are the ones who are using them for the wrong things. I love this as total common sense. I'm noticing something coming out of Africa recently, which is a lot of common sense, a lot more common sense, actually, than we're seeing out of the West. You think about this, when the Vatican issues new guidance that's a little strange, a little quirky,

seems to be undermining 2,000 years of church teaching, it's the African bishops. It's the African cardinals who come out and they say, we're not doing that. Basically saying, why are you gay? So they're saying, no, no, no. and actually the Vatican kind of defers to the African bishops on that. It is the Africans who are coming out and saying, why do you think that you're just entitled to the money of American tax peers? No, you're not.

You think that President Trump, having been elected by the Electoral College and the majority of Americans, doesn't have the right to change American foreign policy? Of course he does. And you need to defend yourself sometimes. And you need to focus on your own problems. And you need to improve. You have some responsibility, okay? And this has been Trump's foreign policy from the beginning. He says, hey, NATO, we'll defend you and stuff, but you need to meet your obligations. You can't just become weak. It's like a good father with his kids. You want to give your kids every advantage in the world, but you don't want to spoil your kids. You don't want your kids to end up being weak. That's going to be bad for everybody. And speaking of Trump, restoring this kind of reality, you are seeing a real toughness on foreign policy, even with regard to Russia. You know, President Trump,

President Trump had this to say when he was asked about Russia. Vladimir Putin doesn't come to the table to negotiate with you. Will you put additional sanctions on Russia? Sounds likely. Do you think that the war should be frozen currently along the world? The war should have never started. If you had a competent president, which you didn't, the war wouldn't have happened. The war in Ukraine would have never happened if I were president.

But that couldn't happen because the election was rigged. Yeah, go ahead. Okay, so notice this. He's asked about Russia, because this war is still going on, even though it's sort of fallen out of the news. There is still this war in Ukraine, which does still threaten a lot of global instability. And Trump has been accused for 10 years of being in the pocket of Russia. He's a KGB stooge. He's working for the Russians. They've got compromise on him. All this nonsense, total nothing. But what does he say? What's his actual policy on Russia? He says, I'm not looking to hurt Russia. I love the Russian people and always had a very good relationship with President Putin. this despite the radical left's Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. We must never forget that Russia helped us win the Second World War, losing almost 60 million lives in the process. All of that being said, I'm going to do Russia, whose economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big favor. Settle and stop this ridiculous war. It's only going to get worse if we don't make a deal soon. I have no other choice but to put high levels of taxes, tariffs, and sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to

the United States and various other participating countries. Let's get this war, which never would have started if I were president, over with. We can do it. The easy way, the hard way. The easy way is always better. It's time to make a deal. No more lives should be lost. This is going to shock members of the liberal press. It's not going to shock any serious person who's been paying attention. Trump is going to be tougher on Russia than Joe Biden was. Trump is going to be tougher on Russia than Barack Obama was. Trump already was tougher on Russia than either of those guys were. Despite being told that Trump is softer on Russia because

Trump's argument here he's saying, look, I can get along with Putin. Look, Russia's helped us out. Look, Russia's not the most evil country in the world. But, if Russia doesn't get in line and do what I want, my hands are tied. I'm going to be forced to destroy your country. Just like in the

first administration, when Trump reportedly said to Putin, look, hey, Vlad, you know, I like you a lot. I get along with you pretty well. Unlike those other past presidents who didn't get along with you. I get along with you. But if you do something I don't like, I'm going to blow up your capital. I'm going to blow up your house and kill you. So, you know, let's try to get along, okay? And Putin, even if he thinks there's a 5% chance that that's going to happen, Putin has to take that seriously because Trump is unpredictable. This is the big foreign policy prediction that it, to me,

is so obvious that, I don't know, some people are just missing. Yeah. Trump is going to, be both softer and harder on Russia. He's going to be softer in the ways that are helpful for diplomacy, and he's going to be tougher on Russia in the ways that matter when the rubber meets the road. Now, speaking of the Trump administration, there are multiple confirmation hearings going on today. Obviously, there's ongoing coverage of the horrific plane crash yesterday in D.C. And we will have live coverage of all of that. Thanks to my friend, Cabot Phillips. Cabot, good to see you. It's very good to see you, Michael. Cabot, obviously a ton going on.

Before we get to the confirmation hearings, is there any update with the plane and the helicopter crash yesterday over the Potomac? We're still waiting for more news there. The investigation obviously just getting underway. We still don't know how this could have happened, how the sensors in this plane were not better alerting the pilot that there was a helicopter coming, how the helicopter even ended up in the path. Right now, we do know that they fear there are no survivors.

so those rescue efforts have shifted to recovery efforts. Everyone on board was killed. But we still have no word yet. President Trump will be holding a press conference shortly with Transportation Secretary Duffy within the next 40 minutes. So we'll get coverage of there on the Daily Wire. Keep in mind, this was Transportation Secretary Duffy's first day on the job. Now he has this disaster to contend with.

But still very, very few answers regarding how this could have happened. Okay, so what's going on with the confirmation here? What's the order of hearings today? Yeah, so Cas Patel just kicked off about 20 minutes ago. He's before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Tulsi Gabbard is before the Senate Intelligence Committee. And RFK Jr. is before the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Gabbard and RFK got kicked off about 10 minutes ago.

So all three of them are happening simultaneously. We've got a live watch party going on all day on the Daily Wire. Yours truly will be hosting it. I'll be in the chat hanging out with people. but the ones we're watching most closely are going to be Gabbard and Kennedy, from what we're hearing from Trump world, those are the two they're most concerned about getting confirmed ultimately. Yes, I thought Tulsi would be tough because, as Chuck Schumer says, the intel agencies can get you 20 ways from Sunday, and they don't like her. She has alternative views. I thought Kennedy would be pretty tough as well because Big Pharma is so powerful. And you saw that through their employee, Elizabeth Warren yesterday. Elizabeth Warren was really grilling them. Tina Smith to that. to that effect, too. So we'll see. Cash Patel, I can't tell. He doesn't seem quite as big a threat to the

Intel agencies as Tulsi does, so they might not go quite as hard on him. But anyway, I guess it's all going on right now. So I'm going to turn it over to you so you can cover it. Thank you very much, Michael. I appreciate that. And yeah, the big question right now when it comes to Tulsi Gabbard is if the vote out of the Senate Intel Committee will be public. Historically, the Senate Intel Committee votes behind closed doors when it comes to the confirmation hearings for this position, Director of National Intelligence. But Trump World wants this vote to happen publicly. There are 17 members on the Senate Intel Committee, nine Republicans, eight Democrats. Those eight Democrats are expected to vote no. The nine Republicans are some of them on the fence. Susan Collins is one of those

nine Republicans. If they vote behind closed doors, the concern is a few of these Republicans could vote no. And their constituents back home would never have any way of knowing that they voted no. Trump world is saying we are going to support primaries against any Republican that votes against our cabinet picks. So the big question is, will we ever get the results ultimately of those votes? Or will they be private? And we don't have any way of knowing.

Again, right now, Cash Patel speaking, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., speaking, Tulsi Gabbard, about to speak. So we're going to get you guys now back to that hearing where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is speaking before the health, education, labor, and pensions committee. Let's hear some more of his opening statement. All right. I'll be tuning in. I'm Michael Nulls. This is the Michael Nulls show. See you tomorrow.