The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 540 - Court Jester Conservatism

Episode Date: May 5, 2020

In an interview conducted in front of the Lincoln Memorial, President Trump claims he’s the most persecuted president in history, including Honest Abe. While everyone on the Left and Right mock the wild claim, few are picking up on the keen piece of political wisdom in Trump’s statement. Then, Michigan dictatrix Gretchen Whitmer calls her conservative constituents Nazis, the New York Times wins a Pulitzer for rewriting American history, and the federal government predicts more deaths from coronavirus. Go to dailywire.com/subscribe to get started AND get 10% off with coupon code KNOWLES. That’s dailywire.com/subscribe, coupon code KNOWLES, and get the rarest of all beverage vessels, times two. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In an interview conducted in front of the Lincoln Memorial, President Trump claims he's the most persecuted president in history, including Honest Abe. While everyone on the left and the right mock the wild claim, few are picking up on the keen piece of political wisdom in Trump's statement. Then, Michigan Dictatrix Gretchen Whitmer calls her conservative constituents Nazis. The New York Times wins a Pulitzer for rewriting American history, and the federal government predicts more deaths from corruption. coronavirus. All that and more. I'm Michael Knowles and this is the Michael Knowles show. So which is it? Who is more persecuted? President Trump or Abraham Lincoln? I know a lot of factors to weigh here. You know, half the country seceding from the Union and getting shot in a theater and also

having to deal with Jim Acosta. Those are two key signs of persecution at the very least, more than two. So please let us know in the comment section below. People are making fun of him for this. it actually shows us a key political truth, something that lies at the heart of a lot of the conservative debates today, at the heart of politics. We'll get to that in a second. First, I got to thank our friends over at Paint Your Life. You know, I want to thank all of our sponsors for sticking with us in this very difficult time right now. And I want you to patronize our sponsors because not only are they sticking with us and keeping the show on the air, but they have an unbelievable product, particularly Paint Your Life. You know, I've taken up painting during this quarantine

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And the style point here is, why is Trump so mean? Why does he get into these fights? Why does he brawl with people who are critics of his and who are the mainstream media, but I repeat myself? And Trump's answer is very indicative of a major divide on the right. Here's the question. Why do you use descriptive words that could be classified as bullying? and why do not directly answer the questions asked by the press, but instead speak of past successes

and generally ramble. The USA need you. Please let go of those behaviors that are turning people away from you. Please hold on to your wonderful attributes that make you our great leader and let go of other characteristics that do not serve you. Good. I think I like that question. I'm not sure, but I think I like that question.

I appreciate it. I appreciate the prayers too very much. Now look at his response to this. His response is disproving a little bit. bit of the point that this woman is trying to make. Because a woman's saying, why are you so mean? Why are you such a jerk? Surely Trump is a jerk sometimes, but he's not a jerk all the time.

And his response, at least initially, is actually to charm her, right? It's not to yell at her and say, how dare you? I'm a nice guy. I'm a cool guy. He goes, I think I like that question. I think she's complimenting. I'm not so sure. But, okay, we'll get into it.

Thank you for the question. Thank you for the prayers. So we're seeing there are different sides to the guy's personality. But no one can deny. He does get into fights. He is mean. He does boast about his accomplishments. He does correct reporters and get testy with reporters.

He does that, as he says, because he has to. I am greeted with a hostile press, the likes of which no president has ever seen. The closest would be that gentleman right up there. They always said Lincoln, nobody got treated worse than Lincoln. I believe I am treated worse. You're there, you see those press conferences. They come at me with questions that are disgraceful, to be honest, disgraceful. Their manner of presentation and their words.

And I feel that if I was kind to them, I'd be walked off the stage. I mean, they come at you with the most horrible, horrendous, biased questions. And you see it. 94 and 95 percent of the press is hostile. And yet, if you look in Florida today, we had hundreds and hundreds of boats going up and down, the intercoastal, Trump, Trump. We have tremendous support. But the media is, they might as well be in the Democrat Party. You knew that President Trump could not do an interview sitting in front of this giant Abraham Lincoln without comparing himself to Lincoln.

And so that's the line that everybody's talking about. And that's the reason that the whole clip is going viral. And it's very good that that clip is going viral because it shows. a key defense of the Trump era, and it gives us a little bit of advice moving forward. Trump does not have the advantage of being nice. That's what he's saying. Saying, look, do I want to be nice? Yeah, maybe I do want to be nice.

But he doesn't have the advantage of being nice. Republicans and conservatives who actually want to accomplish something in politics do not have the advantage of being nice. that's if you want to accomplish something. That's if you want to win. Some Republicans and conservatives don't want to win. I'm not saying this as some kind of personal attack on them. I don't think I'm being hyperbolic here.

I think it's pretty clear that some Republicans and conservatives feel much more comfortable losing gracefully than winning. When you win, there's a risk to that. Then you have to do something. Then you're going to be held accountable for what you've done. You might make a mistake. you might do the wrong thing. If you lose gracefully, then you get to preserve your purity.

Then people can like you. Then the New York Times will write nice things about you once you've lost. I mean, I think of people like John McCain, for instance, in politics. John McCain didn't want to win in 2008. He didn't play to win. He played to lose. He suspended his presidential campaign. Like, you couldn't possibly show more clearly.

how you're not trying to win. John McCain wanted the New York Times to like him. John McCain campaigned on repealing Obamacare for years and years and years and years and years and years, and then he had the opportunity to do it, and he didn't do it. He didn't want to do it. He, and he's just one example among many. The Mitt Romney's, there are other Republicans too, who would much rather play by the rules of liberalism. I call this kind of conservatism, court jester conservatism.

They would rather be the court jester in the kingdom of liberalism than actually strike out on their own and change the political realities around us. You know, they would rather be different versions of this kind of conservative. They would rather be Archie Bunker or Ron Swanson, this kind of neat little liberal caricature of a conservative fit into a nice little box within the broader framework of liberalism. You know, somewhat likable maybe, but ultimately a joke. We see this now with the Justin Amash campaign for, president. Justin Amash is that libertarian congressman who's running for president now against

Donald Trump. Of course, he'll never win. As of now, his political career is completely dead. He is just a sort of media phenomenon and a, using phenomenon is stretching that word to a ridiculous extent. But he's playing a role within the liberal framework, right? He's playing by the left's premises and filling a role left for conservatives by the left. So, you know, Ron Swans, right, the Parks and Rec character. He's this kind of curmudgeonly conservative and he can't really accomplish anything. But, you know, he can be sort of frustrated in curmudgeonly. Same thing with any conservative character that has ever been on television, which is they make

him kind of curmudgeonly and, but ultimately you like him, but you like him mostly because he's ineffectual. There are a lot of conservatives who want to play that role, who want to be the curmudgeonly but ineffectual right winger who, you know, he resists the waves of progress with the capital P, but, you know, ultimately he can't really succeed. Those are the conservatives who want to lose. Some conservatives want to win. Okay. When you want to win, you've got to be everything. When you want to win, you've got to be the visionary, the speaker, the organizer, the policy wonk, the newsman, the entertainer, the critic, and the historian. And it's funny because when you're the

entertainer, in a way, you've got to be kind of a court jester. Or you've at least got to engage people on this level of entertainment, but you're playing by a different set of rules here. You've got to be everything, though. Donald Trump, in the same answer, has to be mean and serious and tough to Jim Acosta, but really nice and charming to his supporter. And he's also got to be the historian because the left always rewrites history. So he's got to remind everybody of his own accomplishments. And we'll see how the left rewrites history in just a moment with the New York Times. He's also got to be the newsman because the news can't be expected to report what he's doing, honestly. And so he's got to correct the record on the news. He's got to put out his own

counter news narrative. You've got to do all of these things if you want to accomplish anything because the entire edifice of politics is premised on liberalism. It is working against you. It is progressive. Probably the greatest example of this in the last 100 years is Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill, Trump compares himself to Abraham Lincoln. Now I'll try to make a comparison to Winston Churchill. Churchill did this the best, better than anybody. he was the visionary, he was the speaker, he was also the historian, he wrote the history of the English speaking people, the history of the Second World War, he was also the entertainer. He's probably known more for his one-liners for his wit than he is for his military strategy. He was also a newsman. He was actually a journalist himself during wars. He was an organizer. He was a policy won. He was all of it. You have to be all of it. The liberals, the left, don't have to be all of that. Because They've got the mainstream media to back them up. Joe Biden said just yesterday or the day before that the Biden campaign is relying on the media

to deal with this terror read investigation because he's not going to be able to do that. It's too difficult. They've got the media. They've got the bureaucracy. They've got the university. They've got Hollywood. They've got the historians, I guess, are at the university. And they're at Hollywood.

Sometimes Hollywood rewrites history too. They've got all of it. Okay. So their job is much, much easier. And for conservatives who don't care about winning, for conservatives who just want to go along to get along and play a role but not change anything in politics, they don't need to worry that much either. They've just got to fill their own little silo. But if you want to change things in politics, you've got to do a lot more. And sometimes that means being mean to Jim Acosta, and that's just too bad. We talked yesterday on the show about how this is not neutral playing ground. There's no kumbaya and no getting along. The left is not going to kumbaya with you. We'll get to have to have the show about how this is not. We'll get to have. that is in a second first. I've got to thank our friends over at Legacy Box. You know, Mother's Day is coming up. Shopping for Mothers is very difficult, but it doesn't have to be. You can just give her photos and videos of you. Isn't that really nice? She actually, I'm sure she

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the physical photos. I put them up on Legacy Box. Now, they're there forever. For a limited time Legacy Box is running 50% off Mother's Day special, or your Legacy Box today to take advantage of this incredible offer. This is one of the best discounts they've ever offered. LegacyBox is perfect for you or for someone you love. Legacybox.com slash Knowles save 50% while supplies last. You know, sometimes conservatives, like during the Tea Party era, for instance, they love to wave that Gadsden flag. That's the yellow flag with a snake on it. It says, don't tread on me. I like that flag. It's an early revolutionary flag. but that that flag kind of plays into that liberal premise a little bit I think in modern times

you know that don't tread on me just leave me alone I'm not really going to engage in trying to change politics I just want to be left alone and so it's not my favorite flag I you know I've still got it I've got it on my desks and things like that but the flag that I prefer is one of the original American flags it's called the Bedford flag and it really shows you political stakes it's a knight's arm, coat of arms, and it's holding a sword, and it says, Vince out Morire, conquer or die. That's politics for you, all right? To quote Cocaine Mitch McConnell, the winners go and make laws and the losers go home.

There's no, if you lose gracefully, you'll get a nice write-up in the New York Times, maybe, and you will have no effect whatsoever. Progressivism, as we talked about yesterday, is out to destroy everything. you cherish. You are the target. Okay, no kumbaya, no play nice on the left. Listen to the way that Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan talks about her conservative constituents. Some conservative constituents came out the other day. They were protesting these draconian and arbitrary lockdown orders. Regular, good old American patriots waving the American flag. Whitmer, I guess she was looking at a different scene at the Capitol than we all were. All she could see were Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.

place like the one that we saw at our capital is not representative of who we are in Michigan. There were swastikas and Confederate flags and nooses and people with assault rifles. And that's the very, you know, that's a small group of people when you think about the fact that this is a state of almost 10 million people, the vast majority of whom are doing the right thing. And that's why we've seen our curve get pushed down. We've saved lives in the process. And we have to keep listening to the epidemiologists and experts and not listen to the partisan rhetoric or these political rallies or tweets for that matter. We have to keep doing the right thing, the next right thing. All of my opponents are Nazis. They're all clansmen. They're racists. They're terrible,

evil, bigoted people. And we've got to tone down the partisan rhetoric. Okay. We shouldn't listen to politicians. We should only listen to epidemiologists. Hi, I'm Governor Gretchen Whitmer. PhD, MD. Is she? I don't, no, I don't think so. I don't think she's a doctor or an epidemiologist. No, I mean, it's cartoonishly absurd language that she's using. None of which is true. None of which is true. First of all, we don't need to only listen to the epidemiologists. We're a free people who govern ourselves.

Of course we need to engage in politics. We don't just export all of our politics and outsource them to the exalted Dr. Fauci. I don't remember reading that in the Constitution. We govern ourselves. And it's only the demagogues right now who are saying, get politics out of this. Kind of ironic. It's only the political demagogues who are telling people to get politics out of this. But then what about her claim? She says that there were all these Nazis and Ku Klux Klan at the rally. I mean, I didn't go to the protest in Michigan, but I saw a lot of

videos from it. And I got to tell you, I didn't see any swastikas. I didn't see any Ku Klux Klan hoods. We've got some video of it. Let me tell you, if you've seen any going around on the internet, if you can listen to the chance here, do you hear any people shouting in German? Ryan is just talking this crisis, and he's going to share his thoughts as the really wide role here today, guys. So let's give a big round of applause for Ryan. I'm looking around that scene. I got to tell you, I don't see any Nazi flags.

I see a lot of American flags. I see the one, actually the one Nazi symbol that I see is somebody depicting Gretchen Whitmer as Hitler. Maybe that's what she's on. She got confused. But if you're, if you've got to. sign portraying your political opponent as Hitler or Mussolini or whatever evil guy you want to talk about, then you're not a pro-Nazi protester. You're an anti-Nazi protester. Other than that, what do I see some Gadsden flags, the flag we were just talking about, don't tread on me.

I see a lot of American patriots who just don't want to have their rights trampled by an arbitrary government. And yet she calls all these people Nazis and racists. Imagine if you had a right-wing rally, or rather you had a right-wing governor and a left-wing rally outside. And the governor was asked, what do you think about the protests? You know, and at the, let's say it was a left-wing protest, so it had lots of left-wing symbols. It had, you know, the gay pride flag, and it had, I don't know, some like some environmentalist flag and it's just kind of typical symbols. You know, the right has the American flags and then the left has all these kind of special interest flags. And let's say that the Republican governor came out and said, oh, all those people,

yeah, they're a bunch of disgusting, despicable, deplorable, irredeemable, evil, awful people who have no place in this country. What would the reaction to that be? I wouldn't support, I'm a right winger. I wouldn't support that kind of rhetoric. The media obviously wouldn't tolerate that kind of rhetoric. But that's the place we're in. The conservatives generally try to play nice,

and the left is playing for keeps. They're doing this not just by rewriting the present. They're not just propagandizing in the present. Progressives are also rewriting the past. Not just the details. Not just some characters in the past that they're going to tweak a little bit. They are rewriting now the fundamental purpose of the American Revolution, and they're winning

Pulitzer prizes for it. We'll get to that in one second. First, I've got to thank our friends over at NetSuite. You know, with this level of economic uncertainty, businesses need systems that will give them complete visibility into their numbers. There is enough uncertainty going around right now. NetSuite reduces it by giving you visibility and control, with so many critical decisions to make, you need the right numbers and you need them right now.

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business uncertainty and schedule your free product tour right now at net suite.com slash Knowles, KNAWLS. L-A-S. Don't wait to get your free guide and schedule your free product tour at NetSuite.com slash Knowles, KnaWLES, NetSuite.com slash Knowles. New York Times just won a Pulitzer Prize. And the Pulitzer Prize came for its report. reporting on the 1619 project, 1619 project traces American history back to the arrival of the first African slave in the American colonies. Now, even the history of how slavery developed in the American colonies is a complex one. It's not actually purely a racial thing, as the New

York Times would have you believe. But that's not, look, we're not even getting into the details here. We're just talking about the fundamental premise. The piece that won them the Pulitzer's by Nicole Hannah-Jones. It's called, Our Democracy's Founding Ideals were False. When they were written, black Americans have fought to make them true. And ironically, or perhaps not, the piece that they won their Pulitzer for is fundamentally incorrect. So it begins. My dad always flew an American flag in our front yard. Skip a little bit. When I was young, that flag outside our home never made sense to me. How could this black man, having seen firsthand the way his country abused black Americans, how it refused to treat them as full citizens, proudly fly its banner.

I didn't understand his patriotism. It deeply embarrassed me. So at least she's admitting off the top that she hates her country. Right? Okay. Got to get points for honesty. Here we get to the false claim. Conveniently left out of our founding mythology is the fact that one of the primary reasons

the colonists decided to declare their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery. that is not true. There are many academic historians who wrote into the New York Times to say that that was not true and the New York Times ignored them. There is no evidence for that whatsoever.

There's a lot of evidence to the contrary. For instance, in the Declaration of Independence, one of the chief complaints against the British, one of the reasons for which they were declaring independence is because they blamed the British for foisting slavery on them, slavery which they detested. And then, of course, later on,

when they write the Constitution, the issue of slavery is a big controversy because there were many people who were drafting that Constitution who wanted to abolish slavery altogether. There were many people who did not want slavery to give a reward to the South as a matter of representation in Congress. And so they had to arrive at a compromise and they had to sunset the importation of slaves, which they did in the Constitution, and then ultimately the inevitable civil war came to and slavery. Nothing about this is true. This was then roundly. Oh, there's also another false claim in here, which is pretty funny. The woman who wrote it doesn't even know when the Declaration of Independence

was signed. So initially she wrote that it was signed on July 4th, but actually the signing began a couple weeks later on August 2nd. So, more than a couple weeks later on August 2nd. So already you've got the Pulitzer Prize winning essay that has multiple. corrections, right? A correction, an editor's note, and yet the Pulitzer Committee still gave it to them. Including supporters of the 1619 project, you had lots of academic historians say that this was trash. Northwestern University professor Leslie Harris writes of this. On August 19th of last year, I listened in stunned silence as Nicole Hannah-Jones, a reporter for the New York Times, repeated an idea that I had vigorously argued against with her fact-checker, that the Patriots

fought the American Revolution in large part to preserve slavery in America. I vigorously disputed the claim. Although slavery was certainly an issue in the American Revolution, the protection of slavery was not one of the main reasons the 13 colonies went to war. So, this

historian and many other historians spoke to the times about this said, guys, we support the project, we support making slavery, a big focus when you're writing the history of America. But just as a matter of history, this is not factually correct. And they ignored her, which is a pattern for the New York Times. In 2018,

the New York Times shared a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on Russia Gate, which, as you might recall, is a complete hoax. A complete hoax perpetrated by the left and the media, but I repeat myself, which is one of the reasons that President Trump can't be so nice with everybody all the time is because you've got the entire apparatus of modern liberalism trying to completely destroy this man, now they're trying to destroy American history as well. And it's not just happening

in the pages of the New York Times, if it were, it wouldn't matter because very few people read the New York Times, but the 1619 Project is now being taught in schools. This anti-historical trash is being taught in schools as though it were history.

Over the disputations of academic historians, Who support the New York Times? Who support the project? But even they are honest enough, doesn't matter. This will be taught in schools. And as we were discussing yesterday on the show, with regard to Phyllis Schlafly and the rewriting of history on the Equal Rights Amendment. This is the kind of stuff that's going to be remembered. The narrative is going to be remembered. And the real history increasingly is going to be forgotten. That's why they're rewriting it in the first place. This is happening all around us. It's not just these kind of broad.

questions of who was more persecuted Trump or Lincoln, kind of ridiculous questions. It's not just rewriting the American Revolution. It's happening in real time on coronavirus. President Trump finds himself in a very difficult political position right now, and we've at least got to shine a little bit of light on the hypocrisy. We'll get to that in one second. First, though, I've got to thank our friends over at you. Time is running out when you become a Daily Wire Insider Plus or All-Axist member. What do you get? You know, you get all the shows and everything. and you get the leftist tears tumbler, right? Oh, yes.

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So we're not just rewriting the Trump presidential politics. We're not just rewriting American history. We're also rewriting this pandemic in real time. So some bad news came from President Trump just a couple days ago, which is a revision up of the projected. mortality. You remember initially it was two million, that was half a million, that was 200,000, that was 100,000. Then Dr. Fauci and President Trump said it would be about 60,000, possibly lower. Now President Trump is revising those numbers up a little bit again.

We did the right thing. I do look back on it because my attitude was, we're not going to shut it down. Look, we're going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people. That's a horrible thing. We shouldn't lose one person over this. Okay, 80, hold on, 80,000. That's higher than 60. 60,000. Now the media going berserk at President Trump. How dare you, the numbers are going up. It was only supposed to be 60. You've mishandled this. It's all falling apart. So President Trump is getting hammered because he took the estimate from 60, which is based on the IHME model, goes from 60 up to 80, say. You know, numbers Fauci gave us. He's getting hammered for that.

But the left doesn't get hammered for bringing the numbers down from 2.2 million to 80,000 or whatever it is now. President Trump fell into bad political positioning here because it always looks bad to revise the numbers up and it always looks good to revise the numbers down. And the media had every incentive, the left, the Democratic governors had every incentive to scare the bejesus out of people and get everything locked down. it makes them look good, it makes them look like they're decisive leaders. They then discouraged employment through that stimulus bill. That was a key democratic provision to keep the economy down. And why do they want the economy down? Because it's an election year. And obviously, that will

help their side and hurt President Trump. They've even admitted this, you know, left-wing media figure Bill Maher came out and said he'd rather have a recession than get Trump re-elected. That's why we need to have a recession, right? So they haven't exactly been subtle about this. That is what their cheering for, and that's what we're getting. So Trump was already in that bad position, and in President Trump's defense, they keep moving the goalposts on what this virus is, on what qualifies as a death, on how it compares to other plagues. But they don't get any attacks for getting the numbers so wrong in the first place. The Intercept. This was on March 17th. 2.2 million people in the U.S. could die if coronavirus goes unchecked. Doesn't matter. That could have said 2.2 billion people.

in the U.S. You know, many, many, many times the U.S. population wouldn't have mattered. It wouldn't get called out for it. New York Times. You know those guys, those experts in American history. Nicholas Christoph column, the best case outcome for the coronavirus and the worst, will we endure 2.2 million deaths or will we manage to turn things around? Here's what he says.

Dr. Neil M. Ferguson, a British epidemiologist who is regarded as one of the best disease modelers in the world, produced a sophisticated model with the worst case of 2.2 million deaths in the United States. I asked Ferguson for his best case. About 1.1 million deaths, he said. When that's a best case scenario, it's difficult to feel optimistic. 1.1 million. Doesn't matter, though. So you have these hysterical alarmist numbers. 1.1 million at best, 2.2 million at worst. Shuts down the entire economy. Will certainly lead to many deaths, ruined many lives. I think it's upwards of 40% of small businesses might go out of business within six months. No consequences for that. But President Trump touts a number from Dr. Fauci, 60,000, it's revised

up by 20,000. He gets dragged for it. And the goalposts continue to move. Another place we've seen this is with flu deaths, right? And early on, when we're looking at this virus, people said, okay, well, how does this compare to other diseases, other viruses? Makes perfect sense. One of the comparisons was to the flu. And we said, okay, well, you know, upwards of 50, 60, 70,000 people can die from a bad flu year. So if the projections were getting for deaths from coronavirus or 50, 60,000, 70,000, then, yeah, it seems about right. I guess we could make that comparison, right? And then the left told us, no, you can't compare it to the flu because that would counter the hysterical alarmist narrative. So this is going on for about five, six weeks.

now. And the left has had it with the flu comparison. So now they're touting a doctor Jeremy Samuel Faust, emergency medical physician and instructor at Harvard Medical School, who published a blog post on Scientific American saying that actually the numbers we have for the flu deaths are not really the numbers for the flu deaths. So the preliminary estimate for flu deaths in the 2017-2018 season is around 61,000. So certainly within the ballpark of coronavirus. But the total number of confirmed flu deaths is actually much lower, he says. He says it's 15,620. I don't know.

I'm not an expert on these things. None of us is. We've been relying on the numbers that the scientific community has been giving us, which is 60, 70,000. Now all of a sudden we're being told, no, actually 60,000 is 15,000. So the number you've got to compare coronavirus to is 15,000.

That's why coronavirus is so much worse. Which is it? I can't keep up. If we're told we have to listen to the experts, then the experts have to give us reliable information. So if the experts are going to keep moving the goalposts, then we can't rely on them at all. Then it seems more and more to many Americans who are clamoring to reopen, like this is a rigged game. There is no political cost. I mean, even on this case, the flu debts, no cost to lowering the estimates.

And yet there is a great political cost to increasing the estimates. The new numbers here do not tell us anything. The new numbers on not just the flu, but on coronavirus, ticking it up from 60 to 80,000, doesn't tell us anything. Doesn't change our behavior at all. I wish that it could change our behavior, but it doesn't. It's just a one-way political attack on Trump, and it can never be used in the other direction. Why does it not change our behavior?

Well, because the only policy that they've come up with is the lockdowns, right? Social distancing, wear the mask everywhere, shut down the businesses. The only two things that the lockdowns can possibly accomplish are flatten the curve and prevent the hospital system from being overwhelmed and flatten the curve and bias time until we get a vaccine. It doesn't mean stop the virus. It means flatten that curve and spread it out. We know that the hospital systems have not been overwhelmed, certainly not here in California, not even in New York. Javitt Center Hospital was completely empty. That hospital ship, the USNS comfort, very empty. we know that we're not going to get a virus anytime soon as this disease, this virus, or we're not going to get a vaccine rather anytime soon as this virus spreads throughout the population.

So what does the extra 20,000 deaths tell us? Doesn't tell us anything about our own behavior, just kind of some sad news and politically it's a way to attack Trump. The key element to this pandemic is hypocrisy, okay? No mistake by the left is too great. No mistake by the right is too small. Any miscalculation by the right is evidence that the right got it totally wrong. Any miscalculation by the left, whoopsie daisy, never mind, throw it down the memory hole.

What do you mean 2.2 million deaths? No, that doesn't ring a bell to me. You see this most clearly with Andy Cuomo, Andy Cuomo, governor of New York. Being hailed as the great leader in the coronavirus. What a strong, articulate, wonderful, prepared leader. So much better than Trump. Democrats should nominate Cuomo in 2020. he could go head to head with Trump. Quomo has failed. He's done a terrible job.

Only in the Democratic Party could you be the head of the worst prepared state, the hardest hit state for this pandemic, and have that taken as an example of some great success. Here's just one little policy to show it to you. On Thursday, Andy Cuomo announced that they're going to start cleaning the subways. You know, the subways in New York are absolutely filthy. They run. all the time. And so now they're going to, for a couple hours a night, they're going to start deep cleaning the subways. And this is important because they've reduced the number of trains. So already you're cramming more people onto the subways. Already the subways are moving homeless shelters and have been for many years. So now they're going to start cleaning them.

Two months into this pandemic. Now they're going to start cleaning the subways? Why didn't you do that two months ago. You, you great leader, you brilliant visionary who's so prepared, Cuomo says any essential worker who shows up and gets on a train should know that that train was disinfected the night before because a lot of transit workers are getting sick and they don't want to come into work. It's realistic. It's an essential. How realistic is it? What's the alternative? Yeah, it is essential. It is realistic. Why didn't you do it two months ago? Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Cuomo's not going to get called out on it. Another aspect of the hypocrisy on this whole pandemic. And this is probably my favorite one, is the my body, my choice argument.

You know, the left has told us for 50, 60 years now, my body, my choice. You have no right to tell me what to do with my body. This is the argument they use to defend abortion. Now, some conservatives are saying with regard to our imprisonment in our apartments and the lockdown and the arbitrary exercise of power, we say, wait a second, what about my body, my choice? I'm going to go to the beach because it's my body my choice. And the left responds and says, that's not just your body, because when you go out during a pandemic, you're endangering everybody else's body. But of course, that plays to the very same point that the conservatives are making when it comes to abortion, where we say, right, it's not just your body either. It's the body inside of you that you're killing.

The left refuses to recognize this hypocrisy. And by the way, it's not hypocritical for the right to use, first of all, we're using this argument a little tongue in cheek against the left to prove a point. But there are actually separate questions of imperiling other people's lives. Because when you go out during a pandemic, you are calculating certain amounts of risk, right? So you're not just walking up to people and coughing right in their face and like licking their cheek, are you? No, you're going out, you're being cautious, you're staying mostly away from people, you're washing your hands. And there is some risk, obviously, that diseases could spread. as there is always a risk that diseases could spread, as happens every single day, even in normal times.

But there's a risk of natural death. When you are sanctioning abortion, you are not calculating a risk of someone dying of a natural death. You are permitting murder. You're permitting the targeted killing of an innocent person. Those are categorically different things. All of those distinctions are lost on the left, even the broader hypocrisy is as well. the reason for this is that the left is not playing by some nice set of rules, that this is not a fair game. Okay, this is not a neutral playing ground where we're all just kind of having a debate and we'll see which ideas win. And, you know, we've just, the right needs to play by the Marquess of Queensbury rules and everything will get along fine. No. A key political truth that we are being reminded of.

And an unfortunate political truth, perhaps, but a truth nonetheless. is that politics in practice is not primarily about principles. It's about winning. And that is what the left is in to do. Joe Biden, in a rare moment of lucidity, admitted this just the other day. When he's talking about the coronavirus and the response to the coronavirus, he said, the quiet part out loud, he said that this is a wonderful opportunity to experience. To experience, exploit this coronavirus and fundamentally transform America. And I truly think that if we do this right, we have an incredible opportunity to not just dig out of this crisis, but to fundamentally transform the country. Fundamentally transform the country, if that phrase rings a bell to you, it's because that's the phrase that was used by Barack Obama.

He said, we're about to fundamentally transform this country. It's part of the reason why we suggested maybe Obama doesn't love his country so much, is because you don't want to fund. fundamentally transform things that you love. When I put my head on my pillow at night, lying next to sweet little Elisa, I don't say, okay, good night, good night, honey. I'll see in the morning, and, you know, then I'll just get back to fundamentally transforming you. I love you so much. I love you so much.

I want to fundamentally transform you. I want you to be completely unrecognizable to me by the time I'm done with you. That's how much I love you. No, you don't. But the left doesn't love this country. They don't. That's why they're trying to rewrite the whole history of this. this country and say that America was evil and rotten from the very start. And the whole reason

that this country exists was so that a bunch of evil bigots could defend chattel slavery. And they get Pulitzer surprises for writing that in the New York Times. And they get applauded by the left for saying they're going to fundamentally transform America. That's what this is about. This is about winning. Okay. And you can either allow the left to win and say, okay, you're right. You got it. I'll play by your rules. I'll play my role as the kind of curmudgeonly conservative who, who, you know, pushes back a little bit to give legitimacy to your ideology and to your regime. But ultimately, I'm going to suspend my presidential campaign. Ultimately, I'm going to pull back. I'm going to let you win. And then the system will move on. That's one type of conservative.

okay, you can be that kind of conservative if you want, or you can be the kind of conservative that wins. And that's not always going to be nice and you're not always going to get invited to the nicest parties and maybe your grades are going to get hurt if you speak out too much at university and maybe you're not going to get that promotion you wanted if you speak up around the water cooler at your job. But at least you will be accomplishing something. At least you will be fighting for something. At least you will believe in something rather than playing some clown role, some court jester role in an ideology that you pretend to despise. Listen, you know, before we go, I saw this clip on CNN. It was Don Lemon, one of my favorite people on CNN.

There are too many to count, but he's one of them. And Don Lemon has, you know, let the mask fall a little bit in recent years. Initially, he was a little more of this serious newsman who was subjective and increasingly in recent years, he's just let that fall and he's shown how much he despises, not just conservatives, but this president in particular. He wants to fundamentally transform the country just like Joe Biden. Listen to this nasty monologue he gives about how much he hates Donald Trump. What is it about President Obama that really gets under your skin? is it because he's smarter than you? Better educated, made it on his own, didn't need daddy's help.

Wife is more accomplished, better looking. I don't know. What is it? What is it about him? That he's a black man that's accomplished, became president, that he punked you on the whole birth certificate thing. What is it about him? Just wondering. You think that's kumbaya?

You think Don Lemon, when he accuses President Trump, of being a dumb, idiot, racist who's married to this awful woman who's also dumb and an idiot and unaccomplished and, you know, he doesn't like his wife and all this. Do you think he's just talking about Trump or do you think he's also talking to Trump supporters? It seems to me when the left goes after Trump, they're also going after the Trump supporters. Hillary Clinton made this clear, right? Trump supporters are deplorable and irredeemable. Can't be civil with these kind of people, that's what she said.

That's not kumbaya. That's not okay. Let's all just get along. I wish we could all get along. I wish we could all be nice. I wish that Donald Trump didn't have to be mean to Jim Acosta. Okay? I wish that we could have a more elevated politics, a wittier politics.

I wish we lived in a more graceful and elegant time. We don't. The left doesn't let us live in that time. Because when you push them even just a little bit, that's what you get. That kind of attitude. kind of talk from Don Lemon. The New York Times rewriting your history and saying the whole country is rotten to the core and we got to rip it all down. That's what you get when you push them. Those are the stakes. So how are you going to push back? You're going to play nice and pretend that it's all

just fun and games and it doesn't really matter if you win. Or are you going to recognize that there really are stakes here and there really are things worth defending and we really do love our country and we really do love our countrymen, all of our countrymen, even Don Lemon. That's why we want to preserve a good country, even for him, even for Hillary Clinton, even for Joe Biden. And sometimes you've got to be tough to do it. Sometimes it's more important to be successful than to be liked. That's our show. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles show. I'll see you tomorrow. If you enjoyed this episode, and frankly, even if you didn't, don't forget to subscribe. And if you want to help spread the word, please give us a five-star review and tell your friends to

subscribe. We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Also, be sure to check out the other Daily Wire podcasts, including the Ben Shapiro Show, the Andrew Klayman Show, and the Matt Walsh Show. The Michael Nulls Show is produced by Ben Davies and directed by Mike Joyner, executive producer Jeremy Boren, supervising producers, Mathis Glover, and Robert Sterling, technical producer Austin Stevens, assistant director, Pavel Wadowski, editor and associate producer Danny Domeico. Audio mixer, Robin Fenderson, hair and makeup, Nika Geneva, production assistant, Ryan Love. The Michael Knowles Show is a Daily Wire production. Copyright Daily Wire 2020. Hey, everyone, it's Andrew Claven, host of the Andrew Claven show. The New York Times has won the

Pulitzer Prize for whying about the history of slavery and America, proving that white guilt is good for elites of both colors, but very bad for the rest of us, black and white. We'll talk about it on the Andrew Claven Show. I'm Andrew Claven. Thank you.