Rents are due, but no one is working. And that’s just one of the practical challenges that comes with shutting down the global economy. Fortunately, socialist congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has the solution—if you can figure out what she’s saying. Then speaking of not speaking well, Joe Biden proposes postponing the Democratic National Convention despite widespread fears that time is not exactly on Joe’s side. We will examine what the move would mean for the Democratic Party.
Check out The Cold War: What We Saw, a new podcast written and presented by Bill Whittle at https://www.dailywire.com/coldwar. In Part 1 we peel back the layers of mystery cloaking the Terror state run by the Kremlin, and watch as America takes its first small steps onto the stage of world leadership.
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And that's just one of the practical challenges that comes with shutting down the global economy.
Fortunately, Socialist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has the solution, if you can figure out what she's saying.
Then, speaking of not speaking well, Joe Biden proposes postponing the Democratic National Convention, despite widespread fears that time is not exactly on Joe's side.
We will examine what the move would mean for the Democratic Party.
All that and more.
I'm Michael Knowles and this is the Michael Knowles Show.
The rent is too damn high and it's come due.
It's the start of the month.
Yet, unfortunately, people have not been working for weeks.
The New York Times is reporting, so take it with a grain of salt, but here I think they're probably close to accurate, that in New York City, Upwards of 40% of people might not be able to pay their rent this month.
I believe that.
New York housing, I've lived in it for a while, is very, very expensive, and nobody makes enough money.
Even people who are investment bankers don't make enough money, and nobody's been working for two or three weeks.
So probably a good chance that a lot of New Yorkers can't pay their rent.
This is very stressful.
This is very confusing.
Luckily, AOC is here to clear it all up.
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So, money is getting really tight and now, now really the rubber meets the road because landlords are expecting their rents and you gotta live.
So, what are we gonna do?
We're, of course, we're gonna turn to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
What else would we do?
She is here to clear up the whole situation for us.
As organized a rent strike, that is, okay, you just refusing to pay your rent is not necessarily a rent strike.
A rent strike is an organized action, which, you know, I encourage you to research or whatever if you're curious about that, but know that it's an organized action.
It's not just like, I'm a red strike.
It is a disciplined, organized action with concrete demands.
It often requires organizing, so make sure you do that, but research and read about that if that's something that you find curious.
Okay, I'm not sure I'm getting this totally right, but I think And bear with me here.
I think it has something to do with organizing and action.
And so if you're curious and you want to organize action, like you want to take an action, but right now you're a little disorganized, what you should do is organize your action, and that way the action that you enact will be organized.
That's how you're going to pay your rent, I guess.
You know, if you're going to be a radical, at least understand the radical ideas you're proposing.
I go after Bernie Sanders all the time.
Bernie Sanders is wrong about everything.
What he wants to do would breed nothing but misery everywhere.
His ideas, the ideas that he's espousing have only bred misery everywhere that they have been tried.
However, Bernie Sanders at least knows what the radical ideas are that he's proposing.
AOC can't even explain what the rent strike is.
AOC can't even explain what the rent strike is as she's proposing a rent strike or at least encouraging a rent strike.
So she doesn't get very far with this.
She's incredibly making Joe Biden look lucid and articulate, which is a rare occurrence.
She doesn't know what she's talking about and compounding the problem.
Her ideology doesn't make any sense in the first place.
There is actually a moment though, in this very long live stream where AOC drops the ideology for a second and actually addresses the question, which is how are people going to pay their rents when they don't have any money coming in?
All in all, just have the honest conversation with your landlord.
If you need just a break, if you need $500, if you need $1,000, if you can't pay at all, have that conversation.
But know that in the state of New York, Cuomo has called for a mortgage moratorium.
They can talk to their bank and have that discussion with them.
Hey, that was actually not a terrible idea.
This might be breaking news.
I think it's the first time I've ever suggested that something AOC said is not a terrible idea, but it's true.
What she's saying, you don't have enough money to pay your rent this month.
Something like 6 million people are about to be unemployed if they're not unemployed already, right?
So there are a lot of people who can't pay their rent this month.
Landlords understand that.
They're in the same tanked economy that we all are because of this damned Chinese pandemic.
So what are you going to do?
You don't have the cash, so...
I guess you just talk to your landlord.
Say, hey landlord, I'm really sorry, but we're all in this global pandemic and economic collapse, so I don't have the money.
That's your best shot of figuring out a solution.
Probably your landlord is going to be somewhat understanding.
But by the way, in your landlord's defense, it's not like they're just all flush with cash, swimming in, you know, $100 bills in their swimming pools.
They need money too because they've got to pay the bank.
So what she's saying is, well, talk to the banks because the government, state government, the federal government are working with banks to try to ease this problem.
Actually not a bad idea.
Now, you know, that was about six seconds out of the whole video started to make sense.
Then, unfortunately, AOC stops making sense again.
But also I think it's part of a larger conversation about capitalism because a lot of people's main income has to do with just owning property which you know there are some elements of it where like if you are doing repairs and all these other things it's a nuanced conversation but it's you know it's it's It's
an area that exposes a lot of income and socioeconomic inequity.
So, you know, there's so much there there, but I'm gonna move on to the next question.
But that doesn't mean it's not an unimportant conversation.
So there is a lot of there there when we're talking about the role of ownership and renting in an economy.
There is not a lot of there there in AOC's answer, obviously, because she just kind of runs out of steam.
Actually, this is another comparison to Joe Biden.
Joe Biden in his debate performances, he'll start talking and then he'll just lose his train of thought and say, well, okay, never mind.
Anyway, my time's up.
That's kind of what AOC did here.
And anyway, it's the rent and this inequality and capitalism and economics and big conversation, but she can't get into the conversation because she doesn't know what she's talking about.
It would appear from this stream that she is against rent in general, right?
I mean, that's what she's saying.
It's a big conversation, inequalities, and you can't, we got to talk about how bad this is in general.
Well, If you're against rent, just in principle, then what do you say to people who don't have enough money to afford their own home or to afford their own land that they own?
Which is most people, right?
Most people can't just go out and buy a nice house on a random Tuesday afternoon.
You have to rent for some time at least.
How's that going to work?
What are those people going to do?
The reason we have rent in the first place is for people who don't have all the cash to go buy a home or to go buy land, but they need somewhere to stay.
Is her suggestion then that people should not be landowners or building owners?
You know, she says it's terrible, or she insinuates at least, that it's terrible that some people make money by renting out property.
So if we've established that people need to rent property, right, not everyone can afford it, is the government just supposed to own all the property?
Actually, as part of AOC's Green New Deal, the government does take a much greater interest in property because they force every single building in America to be redone according to their new standards.
So in essence, the federal government is taking over a lot of property.
But even in that case, even if the government owns all the property and they're renting it to all the rest of us, There's still the government making money on everybody else's labor, which is the problem that she's identifying in rent.
But I guess the government exclusively makes money on everybody else's labor.
I see some flaws in her ideology.
AOC doesn't understand the problem she's trying to solve.
She just looks at rent.
She says, oh, those people...
We're paying money to that guy, the landowner, but he's not doing anything that I can see.
And they're all going to their jobs every day, so that's bad.
Not recognizing that the guy who owns the property has to keep up the property, has to pay property taxes, probably has some other properties too.
Maybe he's a little bit levered up.
Maybe he's making a lot of housing available to people, but he doesn't have a ton of money himself.
Maybe the people he's renting to have a higher income than he does.
She knows that she wants to destroy this idea of renting.
It's kind of like Chesterton's fence.
You know, you see the fence in the middle of the road.
The radical reformer just wants to get rid of it because he can't see the point of it.
And the wise reformer says, no, no, no, you've got to understand what it's for before I'll even consider letting you destroy it.
She doesn't understand We're good to go.
Jimmy McMillan of the Rent is Too Damn High Party.
Jimmy, who ran for governor of New York against Andy Cuomo, the current governor of New York, all the way back, I think this was 2010.
And he made a whole lot more sense on the subject of rent than AOC. People are working eight hours a day and 40 hours a week to sum a third job.
Women can't afford to take care of their children, feed their children breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
My main job is to provide a roof over your head, food on the table, and money in your pocket.
This is politics as usual.
Playing a silly game.
It's not going to happen.
The Rent Too Damn High movement, the people I'm here to represent can't afford to pay their rent.
They're being laid off right now as I speak.
They can't eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Listen, someone's child's stomach just growled.
Did you hear it?
You've got to listen like me.
Okay, Mr. McCullen.
Let's talk about the issue.
People can't afford to pay their rent.
Mr. Cuomo, 30 seconds for you, sir.
Rent is too damn high.
As a karate expert, I will not talk about anyone up here.
Because our children can't afford to live anywhere.
Nowhere.
There's nowhere to go.
Once again, why?
You said it.
The rent is too damn high.
The rent is too damn high.
AOC should take notes from Jimmy, who I should note is a very longtime friend of mine.
I've known Jimmy for probably 10 years now, and we've done different campaign things together.
And there's actually one video on the internet of I was over at Jimmy's apartment and I was there with Sweet Little Lisa back when we were still dating.
And it's a video of Sweet Little Lisa on Jimmy's couch and Jimmy playing a guitar with a silhouette of his face on it.
And he's singing a song about a homeless guy and how you react to homeless guys.
It's actually a profound, profound song.
There's a lot of profundity and entertainment, obviously, to what Jimmy has to say.
Unfortunately, that kind of profundity, it's just not there for...
Dear old AOC. And speaking of inarticulate Democratic candidates...
AOC is vying for the top spot with Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
Joe Biden made some news yesterday.
This was not a flub.
The only time he's ever in the newspapers these days is because he said something that just makes no sense at all and shows signs of his cognitive decline.
Joe Biden was on MSNBC. He was on a show with Brian Williams, and he suggested that After a lot of pushback from the Democratic Party, he suggested that the Democrats postpone their national convention for coronavirus.
And you really envision every prominent Democrat in this country from all 50 states inside a hot arena 104 days from now?
It's hard to envision that.
Again, we should listen to the scientists.
And, you know, one of the reasons why the Democratic Convention was going to be held early was the Olympics were coming after the Republican Convention.
There is more time now.
I think we're going to, again, we ought to be able to, we were able to, in the middle of the Civil War all the way through to World War II, have Democratic and Republican conventions and primaries and elections, and still have public safety.
There it is.
And you can trust Joe Biden's opinion on this.
Because Joe Biden was around during the Civil War, okay?
He was around during World War II. He remembers what it was like to have those conventions.
So he's got a lot of credibility on this issue.
Party leaders were pushing back against this very strongly up until Joe Biden came out and said it.
Now the Democrats are starting to get on board.
But it's no small decision to move the Democratic National Convention.
It actually is a microcosm We're just a good example of the problems in the economy generally.
The Democratic National Convention right now is supposed to run July 13th to 16th.
So you're asking, you're telling me we're not going to be done with coronavirus by mid-July?
I got plans, man.
I got stuff to do.
Well, that's what Biden and the Democrats seem to be saying.
It's...
It's supposed to be held to accommodate 4,750 delegates plus thousands of other party officials and reporters and activists and corporate sponsors.
So it's a lot of people in one place.
You remember at the very beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, that happened to coincide with CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, where I was speaking and a lot of other conservatives were speaking.
And one guy had coronavirus.
And that one guy happened to be backstage when I was there with...
Senator Cruz and RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and Kellyanne Conway and the Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, and just a ton of people in the government.
And all of a sudden, like, everybody's got to go quarantine because there was this one guy.
There were probably 10,000, 20,000 people at the whole conference.
Fortunately, by the way, I don't think a lot of people from CPAC got it.
You only heard about that one guy.
But still, everybody got so nervous.
Senator Cruz quarantined, Ronna McDaniel quarantined.
A lot of people were...
Nervous because they met a guy who met a guy who had the coronavirus.
Can you imagine what that would be like at the Democratic National Center?
That would be not great, especially when your presumptive nominee is right in the target group of people who can be vulnerable to coronavirus.
So this could cost millions of dollars, you know, speaking of the rent is too damn high.
If you were to cancel this convention, which, you know, just to compare it to 2016, 2016's Democratic convention generated $231 million for Philadelphia.
So who knows how much this one would generate?
That could lead to millions and millions of dollars of lost revenue.
What does this show?
It shows, one, that our economy is just extremely vulnerable right now because we ground the thing to a halt for now, what, three weeks?
It's going to be a month and a half at least by the time this is over.
It also shows that Joe Biden is being treated as the de facto head of the Democratic Party.
For some time, you had the DNC chairman, Tom Perez, saying that AOC is the future of the party.
This young, radical.
But now it's right back to old Joe Biden.
Okay, Joe Biden, who's been around forever, who's been in, he was in the Senate in the 70s, in the early 70s.
And he was vice president.
We've just known him forever.
That guy is in charge now.
He's calling the shots.
The party's against moving the convention.
He's for it.
Guess what they're going to do?
They're going to move the convention.
Very unclear what this means for the party, though, in 2020.
You know, if you had asked three weeks ago what this means, that Joe Biden is now the head of the Democratic Party, I would say that it means that Democrats have their best shot at beating Trump.
All of the polls were showing, and I think including the Trump internal polling, that Bernie Sanders was a bigger threat to Donald Trump than Joe Biden.
Or rather, vice versa.
I just pulled a Biden.
That Joe Biden is a bigger threat than Bernie Sanders.
Now I don't know.
I just don't know.
Who do you want in a time of crisis?
Do you want a guy who can't remember his own name?
Do you want a guy who's been in politics for so long and totally ineffective, a guy who lost in 1988, a guy who lost in 2008, a guy who never really accomplished much except for the 1994 crime bill, which he's now running away from?
Do you want that guy or do you want someone who's vigorous, energetic, clearly lucid, holding hours-long daily press conferences where he's answering reporters' questions on everything from military action in China or in the Middle East or wherever to this pandemic response, to the stimulus bill, to infrastructure.
We'll get to the presser in a moment because this one actually was probably even more newsworthy than yesterday's.
Who do you want?
Obviously, you'll want to go with Trump.
And yet, can a president get re-elected if there's 20% unemployment?
I don't think we've ever seen that before.
So, it's just totally up in the air.
I mean, we are now in uncharted territory.
Trump, by the way, is no longer playing defense.
And I think this is very important.
Initially, I was worried that the Democrats were using coronavirus yet again as a way to put Trump on defense.
You know, that's, that's what they've been doing.
Trump has been trying to plow through his agenda.
And so the Democrats are just trying to impede that first with the Russia hoax.
So they impede him from doing anything.
Even if the Russia hoax comes to nothing, even though Mueller finds absolutely nothing, it impedes him in a way from completing his agenda in the first couple of years.
Then they try to impeach him.
They know that he's never going to be removed from office, but they just do it to slow him down.
They just do it to put him on defense so that he's answering their questions.
It's kind of like if you ask a guy, hey, when did you stop beating your wife?
It will stop him in his tracks because there's no correct answer to that.
If you say, oh, I haven't done that.
They'll say, you haven't stopped beating your wife?
No, no, no, I don't.
I'm not doing that.
Well, when did you stop?
When, obviously, you did it in the first place.
They've been trying to do this for his whole presidency, but now Trump is proactively working to affect his agenda, even in the face of the virus.
So yesterday, during the press briefing, he moves on just from the strict questions of the pandemic and the spread and social distancing to get to Something he's a lot more interested in, and that is stopping Mexican drug cartels from crossing the border.
Here's President Trump.
As governments and nations focus on the coronavirus, there's a growing threat that cartels, criminals, terrorists, and other malign actors will try to exploit the situation for their own gain.
And we must not let that happen.
We will never let that happen.
Today, the United States is launching Enhance counter-narcotics operations in the Western Hemisphere to protect the American people from the deadly scourge of illegal narcotics.
We must not let the drug cartels exploit the pandemic to threaten American lives.
In cooperation with the 22 partner nations, U.S. Southern Command will increase surveillance, disruption and seizures of drug shipments.
And provide additional support for eradication efforts, which are going on right now at a record pace.
We're deploying additional Navy destroyers, combat ships, aircraft and helicopters, Coast Guard cutters and Air Force surveillance aircraft, doubling our capabilities in the region.
I love this answer.
And he goes on.
It's actually worth watching, at least that portion of the press conference.
The left has been making the coronavirus narrative work for them.
Okay, the left has been using the coronavirus, in many cases alarmism and hysteria, to work for them to try to institute massive government regulations, massive government spending.
UBI, for goodness sakes, direct checks to the American people, at least in a limited way.
They're trying to push for Medicare for all through this virus.
They're using the coronavirus to push their agenda, sometimes more successfully than other times.
Sometimes you can tie it directly to the virus, like in questions of health care.
And sometimes you can't do that, like in trying to reduce airplane emissions.
That doesn't make a lot of sense, but they're still, they're trying to use the narrative to push their agenda.
Now, President Trump is playing that game on his own.
He is also using the coronavirus narrative to push his agenda.
But at least when Trump is doing it, it does have a direct connection to stopping the pandemic.
Frankly, even if it didn't, I would cheer him on because at least he's, he's getting something through as the Democrats have impeded him now for four years.
But it is tied directly to it.
What are we talking about?
We're talking about open borders.
You know, right now there is a chance that the state of New York will have to close its border and not be able to come in and infect the rest of the country.
So surely we should close our border with foreign countries.
You know, the left-wing press even has been reporting that they're nervous about cases of coronavirus in Mexico.
Now, they're reporting it because they're, they're simply nervous about it in Mexico per se.
But if we have a completely porous border with Mexico, then obviously people who have coronavirus could get over here into the United States.
You cannot simultaneously say that the coronavirus is so serious that we need to border off, wall off New York State, but we don't need to wall off Mexico.
Okay, that, that does not work.
So Trump is, is making that argument.
Next part of this is because there's economic collapse, always drug use goes through the roof during recessions, during economic crisis.
We're already seeing 70,000 people per year dying from drug overdoses because of the opioid epidemic.
Most people on the left don't want to talk about that.
That number can only get worse during an economic downturn.
And so Trump is saying it is vital to the public health that we stop these drug cartels from using our porous border to bring poison into our country.
As the left is pushing for legalization of drugs almost across the board, certainly at the low level.
And some people are pushing for it generally.
Some Democratic presidential candidates were pushing for the legalization of all drugs.
Trump is saying, are you crazy?
That would be such a threat, it would so exacerbate these public health challenges if we did that right now as the opioid problem is only poised to get worse.
He's tying it into the military because as we are weakened, as we're hunkering down, bad actors around the world, including the jerks who gave us the damn disease, China, China, and who covered it up and who are solely responsible for the things spreading around the world, are going to be looking around and seeing if they can take advantage of us militarily.
And fortunately, our Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, is on the case and he's not going Last year alone, United States Southern Command's operations resulted in the seizure of over 280 metric tons of drugs, much of which was designated for shipment to America.
While this was an incredible achievement, there is much more work to be done.
Transnational criminal organizations continue to threaten our security by smuggling cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamines, and other narcotics across our borders.
These drug traffickers put our communities at risk and destroy lives.
Every year, tens of thousands of Americans die from drug overdose, and thousands more suffer the harmful effects of addiction.
You see this.
This is the Secretary of Defense.
So he does touch on, later in the show, other foreign policy threats that we've got, but he keeps focusing in on these international criminal organizations, the cartels, and the drugs.
He's going back to this.
70,000 people per year die from drugs.
General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Echoed this same point.
Explicitly mentioned, 70,000 people per year dying from drugs in the U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr comes up there, echoes the same point.
70,000 people per year dying from drugs in the United States.
This is a key point here because one reason that some people have overreacted to the coronavirus epidemic or have become panicked or who have just really worried themselves to death is because we don't remember that people die in the United States.
Most people don't know that between 30 and 70,000 people die from the flu each year.
Most people don't know that 38,000 people die in car accidents.
Certainly people don't know that 70,000 people die from drug overdoses.
And so when we hear numbers like maybe 50,000 or 100,000 people will die from coronavirus, or more, 200,000 people will die from coronavirus, Then we get shocked by that.
We say, that's such a shocking number.
It's unprecedented.
And so what they're driving home is, actually, guys, we see these numbers all the time and we're not taking any action to stop them.
So I think it's a great use of resources right now.
One, because if we stop these drugs from coming over, that actually will...
Help the public health specifically with regard to coronavirus, but it will make the broader point as well.
So speaking of our open border, a reporter asked President Trump in this briefing why he isn't giving any stimulus money to illegal aliens.
And you might expect that Trump would use this opportunity to just slam dunk on the reporter, but he doesn't.
His answer was a lot more measured and a lot wiser than that.
Over 5 million immigrants in this country do pay taxes through their IT numbers, yet they will not receive any money in their stimulus package.
And no undocumented immigrant will receive any aid from the government during this crisis.
How do you suppose they survive during the COVID-19?
Well, you know, you're saying undocumented, meaning they came in illegally.
And a lot of people would say we have a lot of citizens right now that won't be working.
So...
What are you going to do?
It's a tough thing.
It's a very terrible, it's a very sad question.
I must be honest with you.
But they came in illegally.
And we have a lot of people that are citizens of our country that won't be able to have jobs.
Now, I do think once we get rid of the virus, I think we're going to have a boom economy.
I think it's going to go up.
Rather quickly, maybe very quickly and maybe slowly, but it's going to go up and it'll all come back.
And I think it's actually going to come back stronger than what it was because of the stimulus.
But it's a really sad situation and we are working on it.
I will tell you, I'm not going to give you a hard and fast answer because I just want to tell you, it's something I think about and it's something we're working on.
I really liked this answer because the premise is absurd.
You know, the premise is, hey, when six million Americans are out of work, why aren't we giving more handouts to illegal aliens who flout our laws and cross over into our country and use our resources, right?
So it's a crazy question.
It'd be so easy to slam dunk on it.
But Trump doesn't slammer because the simple fact is everything about coronavirus is sad.
That's it.
The effect on people's health is sad.
The effect on the economy is sad.
The effect on our rights is sad.
And the effect on the illegal aliens is sad.
You know, most people, the vast majority of people who cross into this country illegally do so so that they can make money.
They want to advance themselves economically.
They want to have a better life.
It is not In the vast majority of cases, it is not because they're fleeing political or religious persecution as refugees.
It's simply because they're economic migrants who want to make more money.
Fair enough.
I get it.
If I came from a terrible country, I would want to go somewhere else and make some more money too.
Now, of course, we can't do that.
We can't just open our boards and take everybody in.
On the one hand, it's illegal.
You know, we the people have a right to govern our country and decide who comes in and who doesn't.
And we have the most generous immigration system in the world.
But also, it's just impossible.
You cannot take everybody from the entire world and put them in the United States.
Still, it's very sad.
It's sad that people with very little who've come here now have even less because of China.
Because China unleashed this plague onto the entire world.
And it's sad that they'll have fewer resources than American citizens.
Sad for them.
You know, it doesn't mean that we need to open our borders and give them a ton of resources when 6 million Americans are going to be out of work.
They committed the crime.
They have to deal with the consequences.
But I like that Trump is showing sympathy here because it undercuts the leftist argument that he's heartless and it shows the pernicious effects of illegal immigration.
This is what happens.
Democrats created that particular problem and some open borders Republicans created that problem and it's still showing strong leadership.
You know, we cannot tolerate the open border.
Then before we get to mailbag, there was one pretty telling exchange here.
And the exchange has to do with the exchanges.
The exchange has to do with the Obamacare exchanges.
A reporter asks Vice President Mike Pence, why don't you just reopen the Obamacare exchanges to deal with people who don't have health insurance right now?
There are a lot of people who are worried about getting sick and do they end up in a hospital?
People who are uninsured and will they be crushed by medical bills?
You were considering last month, it's last month already in March, reopening the healthcare.gov exchanges.
There has been a determination not to do that.
Could you tell us what the rationale was behind that decision and what you have as an alternative?
Okay, they took that up under the task force and maybe Mike, do you want to say a few words about that?
Well, thank you, Mr.
President.
What I can tell you is that the President has made a priority from the outset of our task force work to make sure every American knows that they can have a coronavirus and they don't have to worry about the cost.
And we were very inspired as well.
Because of the president's engagement with the leading health insurance companies in the country that now, so far, two of the top health insurance companies in America have announced that they're not only willing to waive co-pays on testing, and now testing is fully covered because of the bill the president signed for every American, but also that these two insurance companies have waived co-pays on all coronavirus treatment.
Okay, now Pence has to be careful here because you want to provide relief, but you don't want to vindicate a left-wing policy agenda.
The next question that leftists are asking is, okay, well, if free stuff and universal health care is good enough for coronavirus, why can't we have it all the time?
Why can't we just get Bernie-style socialist medicine?
Now, the answer is that Bernie wants to emulate the political and healthcare systems of Cuba and Venezuela.
And if we do that, then we're going to end up like Cuba and Venezuela, and we won't be able to give healthcare to anybody anyway.
We're not going to...
Forget global leadership.
We won't even be able to provide for our own people.
So...
That's one answer on it.
But at the same time, we are giving people relief right now because we happen to be a very rich country and we're able to afford that.
So what is the answer?
Okay, what is the answer that we're just going to let poor Americans die in the street?
Of course not.
Mike Pence gives an excellent answer on this when he's pressed on it.
We will get to that in a second.
First, I've got to thank our friends over at U.
I've got to thank you.
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So what are we going to do about this healthcare problem?
Are we going to do, like the left-wing premise always suggests, are we going to let poor people die in the street in America?
No, we're not going to do that.
And Mike Pence gives a very good answer, I thought, when he was pressed on it.
There will be people who don't have insurance who get sick before any of these mitigation efforts are put into place.
And without opening the healthcare exchanges, where can they find insurance?
People who aren't insured by these companies that are covering the cost of the copay, where can people go now to get health insurance if they get sick, before they get sick?
Well, all across America, we have Medicaid for underprivileged Americans.
I think that's a great answer.
The left forgets this.
They say, what are we going to do for people who can't afford health insurance who are on the lowest end of the income and wealth scale?
As if we don't already have an answer to that.
That's the point of Medicaid.
That is what Medicaid is.
Now, what the left might say to that is, well, Medicaid is very low-quality care.
You want to just give them Medicaid?
And the correct response to that is, You want to give everybody Medicaid.
Medicare for all, right?
Medicare for all would just be Medicaid for all, right?
It's just saying a government-run health care system.
If the quality is no good, then why on earth would we give that to every single person and force them to have that kind of health care?
The left always does this.
They push and they push and say, once and for all, we've got to end the health care problem for poor people.
We've got to end the health care problem for this group, for that group, for this group.
And then they get their bills passed.
And then what?
You remember what Obamacare was supposed to give us all universal health care?
That was the point of Obamacare.
And now they're complaining as though Obamacare never happened.
Because Obamacare didn't work very well.
We got Medicaid, right?
It's good to have Medicaid for people who can't afford health care.
Now they're complaining that Medicaid is no good.
Well, okay, then I sure as hell don't want it then.
Why would you expand that program to everybody?
Now, I thought it was a good answer.
President Trump disagreed, apparently.
He did not think it was a good answer.
He actually made fun of Vice President Pence for not directly answering the reporter's question.
We'll get through this using the full weight of the federal government and the full strength of the American economy.
John, I think it's a very fair question, though, and it's something we're really going to look at because it doesn't seem fair.
If you have it, you have a big advantage, and at a certain income level you do.
I think it's one of the greatest answers I've ever heard.
Because Mike was able to speak for five minutes and not even touch your question.
I said, that's what you call a great professional.
Let me just tell you, you really are, it's really a fair question and it's something we're looking at.
Absolutely brutal.
He just kneecapped the guy right after his answer.
Very funny, but certainly brutal.
From a traditional political perspective, this would seem to hurt Trump because he's undercutting his own guys and his own administration.
But actually, I think this is what makes him charming is he just doesn't care.
He doesn't stick to the script.
Okay.
And part of the reason that President Trump not sticking to the script works is that everyone else in his administration does stick to the script.
And they rounded out this presser, This is the last point before we get to the mailbag.
They rounded out this presser by linking the virus to the key aspect of President Trump's policy agenda.
They link it to that big, beautiful wall that Trump has been promising us for five years.
Can you talk about how tight that southern border is right now?
Absolutely.
We continue to build miles of the wall every day.
We're up to over 150, I believe.
We're continuing to build new miles of wall.
And a lot of folks ask about replacement wall or new miles.
And it's a new capability on our southwest border that we haven't had before.
So whether you talk to the agents, the Border Patrol agents, they like that capability, they like that impedance and denial that it provides them, and it provides the ability for those agents to focus elsewhere on parts of the border that are very difficult to patrol so we can use our resources in a different way.
This is key.
First, it's important that President Trump can show progress on the wall before his re-election.
This was a key part of his 2016 campaign.
If he can't show progress on it, that's not going to look good to his base.
Second, though, it's important that Trump controls the narrative on the virus.
Okay, and so far I think they've done a good job on this because the virus has vindicated the Trump policy agenda.
It's vindicated Trump on China, on relying on the supply chain from China when everybody, virtually everybody in both parties, made fun of him for making such a big deal about having manufacturing in China, not being tough enough on China.
Guess what?
Turns out he was right.
It vindicates him on open borders.
Again, when many people in the Republican Party, as well as the Democratic Party, were saying open borders is not a big deal.
We need amnesty.
We need a path to citizenship.
We need to create more incentives for people to cross over.
Now we're learning open borders are not so great, especially in a global pandemic.
Okay, and it vindicates him on drugs, on the drug issue that a lot of people were not focusing on.
Now we're right in the thick of it.
It vindicates...
So much of this agenda, this globalization generally, they've got to keep focused on that.
That's the only way that they can take this crisis, which is really bad and really does back them into a corner.
I mean, if the worst part is the economic, you know, even if we're just talking about the economic side of it, really bad for Trump's re-election chances.
They've got to take that from backing them into a corner and use it to show...
That it's actually vindicating what they've been doing the whole time.
All right, I'm usually, typically, running late, but let's try to get through some mailbag.
From Nick.
Obviously, we're in the middle of a crisis, the crisis of not knowing which show to watch next while quarantined.
Any movies, documentaries, or series UNSLA suggest watching?
The obvious answer.
One of the greatest works of documentary film ever made.
Tiger King.
Just started watching it last night.
It's magnificent.
That one's great.
I'm watching Succession right now.
It's really good.
Really, really good.
The acting is superb.
The writing is superb.
It's a really great show.
And I've been going through some old movies, too.
You know, I had actually never seen The Man Who Shot Liberty Balance.
Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne movie directed by John Ford.
What a magnificent film.
You can get it on Amazon Prime for free.
Just an amazing film.
Profound, subtle, especially for that era of film which was not always terribly subtle.
Really subtle.
About the end of the West and what that means and the relationship between exploration and settling and the law and civilization.
Wow, what an amazing movie.
I mean, it's considered one of the great classics of film and I can't believe I didn't see it until now.
I just watched Sunset Boulevard a little while ago, another just magnificent film that's pretty old and people don't watch as much anymore.
Great movies.
So much great stuff to watch once you have finished watching all of...
The Michael Knowles Show, Verdict with Ted Cruz, and the PragerU Book Club Show.
From Alana.
Dear Michael, I'm not a person who takes relationships lightly, and I have been dating this guy for a little while now.
Things have been going perfectly.
Even though we're in a long-distance relationship and quarantined, I feel so loved and appreciated.
The problem lies in our ideological differences.
I'm a devout Christian.
My boyfriend was raised Mormon.
He parted with his church in his teens and is now agnostic, preferring spiritualist ideas such as shared consciousness or Buddhism.
Ugh.
He knows how important my faith is and I know that he respects it in me.
But when I think about how I want to raise my kids in the future, I know that I need a partner as devout as I am who will instill strong conservative values, which he does not share.
My question is, is this worth continuing my relationship with someone I've fallen in love with despite our differences or am I wasting my time?
Love the show.
Thanks.
Depends how old you are.
Different answers depending on how old you are.
If you're, you know, 16, then maybe let it play out for a little bit.
If you're 18 or 20, I don't know.
If you're 30 or 35, then the timeline gets a little tighter, doesn't it?
I mean, it kind of depends where you fall on that scale.
I've entertained all sorts of crazy religious ideas in my life.
You know, I would have called myself an atheist for probably 10 years.
And I might have even fallen into that awful trap that millennials fall into where they say, I'm spiritual but not religious.
This is like the most popular religion among millennials right now.
And I get it.
I probably would have said it myself, except what that really means is I'm not that curious about the objective nature of the world and of God or Creator, but I am very interested in myself.
I find myself very interesting.
So...
Whatever.
That's just a dumb idea that's become very popular.
It's not necessarily his fault with that.
You've got to see if he can move on over because, you know, if you are going to raise your kids Christian, then he's got to get on board with that.
And if he's not going to get on board with that, then you might have to move on no matter how much affection that you have for one another.
But if time is on your side and if he's open-minded and you think you can talk through these things and he's curious, then...
I would maybe consider letting that play out, too.
I mean, he's already gone from Mormonism to this kind of vague agnosticism, which means he was disenchanted with the Mormon Church.
But that disenchantment might fall away after a while.
He might become curious again and ask these questions.
He might be searching and he might find an answer that's more amenable to your point of view.
From Michael.
Hi, Pedro Knowles.
Why is the panic over Kung Flu...
So much higher than swine flu.
Swine flu infected 60 million, yet we did not shut down the economy.
Thanks.
You know, I think the reason is that we just have no idea what the cure for this would be.
Well, part of the reason is because Donald Trump is president and the Democrats don't want him to be re-elected, so the media are willing to gin this up and create hysteria and talk about how 2 million Americans are going to die when the models don't really show that.
But the other part of the reason is We know what a swine flu is.
We knew what a swine flu was.
So even though it killed a lot of people, 15,000 people or so, we knew how to handle it.
Whereas for this, we don't have a vaccine and we only recently discovered a treatment that looks promising.
So to give them, the alarmists, the benefit of the doubt, I think that's part of what it is.
But people who are still pushing outdated hysterical numbers, that's clearly just political.
From Michael.
Hello, Mr.
Knowles.
I've been tremendously enjoying your new show, The Book Club, on PragerU and recently finished reading Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl after hearing about it in your first episode with Dennis.
While reading the book, I was intrigued to hear that Viktor Frankl said we can't pursue happiness, but that must ensue as an unintended side effect of being devoted to a higher cause.
Does this contradict the Declaration of Independence, which says that we have a right to pursue happiness?
Well, they're talking about different things here.
I mean, in the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson is talking about natural rights, and he's invoking John Locke here, who says we have a right to life, liberty, and property.
And he's saying the pursuit of happiness.
You don't want to give people too many wrong impressions about having a right to own property.
We don't have a right to be given property by other people, though we have a right to possess the property that we have.
And so he uses this phrase, the pursuit of happiness, but I think it's imprecise, and I think probably Viktor Frankl is telling you something more profound there, which is that you can't just say, I really want to be happy.
I mean, people do this all the time at holidays.
They'll very often say, you know, I just want this Thanksgiving to be really good and they try so hard to have a good time and they don't.
It's why Valentine's Day is almost always miserable.
People are so invested in making it perfect and just, you know, the ideal day that nothing could live up to that and end up miserable.
You can't do that.
You have to be pursuing the good.
And then happiness will come alongside that, or joy will come alongside that.
But if you're just pursuing this emotion of being happy, you're not going to get it.
Last question from Canaan.
Hey, I'm currently reading The Divine Comedy, and I just finished The Inferno.
I was wondering if you think the real hell will have such creative punishments tailored for specific sins.
Thanks.
Great question.
So, one key aspect of Dante...
Especially in Hell, Dante Inferno, is that the punishment fits the crime.
So, maybe the most famous canto is about Paolo and Francesca, these adulterous lovers who are swept away on the wind.
That's their eternal punishment.
They're just swept constantly away in the wind.
They have no control over where they're going because adulterous lovers are slaves to their own passions.
They can't control where they're going.
They're swept away on the winds of lust.
The punishment fits the crime.
The suicides...
People who commit suicide are in hell and their bodies have been transformed into these sort of trees, bodies hanging from branches, and they don't have their own body because they threw away their body in their own lives.
The punishment fits the crime.
This is certainly true of...
Eternal justice.
If it's true of our own justice, it's true of eternal justice.
And generally, people get what they're after.
People get what they want.
There is a natural consequence to our actions.
And so I think Dante illustrates that beautifully and precisely.
All right, that's our show.
We've got more to get to, but we're already running late.
So have a good weekend.
We'll have some other fun stuff coming out over the weekend, so stay tuned.
In the meantime, I'm Michael Knowles.
This is The Michael Knowles Show.
See you at least on Monday.
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The Michael Knowles Show is produced by Ben Davies and directed by Mike Joyner.
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