Dave Rubin, Michael Knowles, and Batya Ungar-Sargon dissect an ICE shooting in Minneapolis where Knowles defends the killing while Ungar-Sargon blames progressive demonization. They praise Marco Rubio's Venezuela plan for removing Maduro without destabilization, contrast it with vaccine schedule reductions, and analyze Zohran Mamdani's NYC election victory driven by wealthy outsiders. The trio critiques online drama between creators and conservatives, noting that despite global engagement, most American Republicans remain pro-Israel, urging unity over infighting to win elections. [Automatically generated summary]
According to the paperwork I've just been handed, I'm Dave Rubin.
This is the Rubin Report, and it is a Friday, which means it's time for another Friday roundtable extravaganza.
And joining me today is the host of the Michael Knowles Show, my old friend Michael Knowles, and first time Rubin Report guest, the host of News Nation's Batya exclamation point, Batya Unger.
Batya, before we do anything, for any of my audience that doesn't know you, I'd like to give you 30 seconds to tell these people who you are and why you put an exclamation point in the title of your show, like Gutfeld.
I think I'm a lot like you, kind of like from the left.
I still consider myself to be like of the left or the left.
I'm sort of an FDR leftist, which means I really love Trump because I think he is too.
I did not put the exclamation point there.
The wonderful, wonderful people at News Nation did.
And I'm so glad they did because it gives people something to talk about every time they introduce me and then we can have a little laugh about it because it is totally ridiculous and I just love it.
Well, you just basically laid out exactly why I wanted to have you guys on together because yeah, Batya, you and I come from a similar position.
You still sort of, you're a little more in, I would say, some leftist circles, although we've discussed it publicly and privately.
It's getting harder to do that.
And as Michael has long pointed out to me over the years, I was going to end up the most hardcore right-wing maniac of all of us.
So we have someone that still associates with the left, a definite former lefty, and a man of the right.
Can the three of us get along for the next 45 minutes?
Let's find out.
Of course, the big story this week is this horrific incident out of Minneapolis, which falls to the backdrop of the ICE raids.
And I would say is deeply connected to all of the money laundering coming out of Somalia and the daycare center and just the overall temperature in that state and city, Minneapolis specifically.
So I wanted to start just quickly with the slow-mo version.
Everyone has seen it already, but the slow-mo version of the ICE agent shooting this woman who was not responding to their commands.
So guys, the key part here, obviously, is that you can see he does not take the gun out until she puts the car in forward.
And we played it repeatedly on my show because I think it's worth noting.
But in some sense, Michael, let me start with you on this.
In some sense, even if the three of us could all come to the same conclusion on that, or if 90% could all come to the same conclusion, in a weird way, is that irrelevant because everything is now partisan and the overall temperature of what these guys have to deal with out there is so crazy that whether it was the second before or the second after, the idea that you're going to watch that video and get a conclusion that everyone can come to is pretty much impossible at this point.
And I think even if we get higher quality video, I mean, we have the slow-mo video.
We have the video from the front angle, which shows that she actually hit the federal agent, which you're not allowed to do.
We have a photo of the bullet going through the windshield.
And the only way the bullet goes through the windshield is if he's in front of the car.
You're not going to get it from the back of the car, the side of the car.
So even if we agree on the facts that she was driving at him, he was in front of the car.
I think that we can still feel bad for her.
You know, I think the officer, the federal agent, was entirely justified and, in fact, had a responsibility to stop a person who's about to run someone over, himself included.
I think that this woman's death is entirely her own fault.
And I feel sorry for her.
And I guess the political conclusion that leads me to feel sorry for her is she really thought that it's okay to just park your car in the middle of the street, stop traffic and stop law enforcement.
She really thought that it's okay to drive into a federal agent.
She really thought there would be no consequences.
And I bet after she hit him, when he pulled out his gun and shot her through the windshield, I bet she was very, very surprised.
And part of the reason for that is that Democrat politicians, especially in Minnesota, especially Minneapolis, have for years now told citizens that they're allowed to obstruct law enforcement.
They're allowed to riot.
They're allowed to hurt people.
They're allowed to block traffic.
So, you know, in a way, I'm sorry for her that she was scandalized by the political order that said that this thing was okay and you're not going to have consequences.
And unfortunately, the only way you're going to restore a normal political order is there have to be consequences for these things.
And federal agents are under no obligation to let people run them over.
We used to know that and we have to know it again.
I'm really glad you said it up that way because the point is the federal agent did not wake up that morning going, man, I hope I get to shoot somebody today.
And I don't, and I totally agree with you.
I don't think she woke up that morning thinking I'm going to drive my car into a federal agent.
But that then gets to the overall temperature situation.
Batya, as someone maybe a little more on the left, are we being too sympathetic to law enforcement here?
She went to protest to protect these illegals who were being rounded up by ICE, who were focusing on a community that had committed massive fraud, including lying about the existence of hundreds of children to bilk the American people out of billions of dollars.
And in the name of this noble, noble action, this woman has been bamboozled into literally abandoning her own child and getting herself killed.
It's horrific and unforgivable.
Where is the blame here?
I mean, it's in an entire narrative that has captured the minds of affluent white progressives into destroying their actual children's lives.
It is utterly, utterly outrageous.
Of course, this was an entirely justified killing.
You could see the car driving right at the guy, accelerating and hitting him.
And it's amazing to me that the people who constructed the fantasy on which this woman died are out there watching the same video as us and just cannot see it.
They are literally blinded to the fact.
And then, of course, there are some who are lying about it.
So my mentions are full of people posting a still image of the car in reverse with the red reverse light on.
The second officer, not the one who shot, but the other one at the side with his gun pulled and saying, look, he shot her in the side while she was reversing.
And some truly believe this.
I think many don't.
But this is exactly how this happened, is the construction of myth upon myth upon myth upon myth with the sole purpose of demonizing half of the country and leading to tragedies like this.
Michael, Jimmy does his show somewhere in Los Angeles and undoubtedly has a $20 plus million dollar house.
I'm going to guess he has a gate at the front of his house and a lock on his door so that people can't just wander into his house.
Why is it okay that he wants people from Somalia to wander into Minnesota, bilk the system, and then have brainwashed middle-aged progressive women die in the name of that cause?
Not only does Jimmy Kimmel certainly have a house and certainly have a gate, I'm sure he also drives around in a lot of SUVs, which is why it's so strange that he doesn't understand that an SUV is a deadly weapon when you drive it at somebody.
The notion that this woman was unarmed is ridiculous.
She probably didn't have a gun or a knife on her, but guess what?
An SUV is a lot deadlier than a gun and a knife in the right circumstances.
Yeah, I mean, he literally is asking the Minnesota National Guard to fight ICE, quite literally.
It is far more of an insurrection than anything that happened on January 6th.
I'm glad you brought up the supremacy clause because that means I'm not the only dork around here because I repeatedly read it on air this week.
But yeah, I'm a simple guy.
But I do know that the federal government at the end of the day takes precedent over the states on things that are delineated to the federal government.
Well, you have to understand the Democrats believe that only Democratic presidents have Article II powers.
That's the first thing you have to understand about them.
You know, everything kind of goes down from there.
All of the powers that they believe they have, they think that Republicans should be denied.
I don't know that I would go to the like the S word so quickly.
I think that they, you know, obviously they have free speech rights, but what it really bothers me that both Walls and Fry lied about what happened in the video.
They had both clearly only seen the one video that very helpfully obscures the actual shooter in the moment of the shooting, which is where all the fake footage came from, all the stills that were wrong.
Either they hadn't seen the frontal video where you can see the officer getting hit, or they were pretending not to have, but they went out there and just lied about the situation immediately with the goal, of course, of creating this unrest.
Fortunately for them, fortunately for the nation, I don't think we're going to see George Floyd-style riots here.
For starters, the victim was white, which is going to have a huge impact.
Also, she was killed, not on the state, on the altar of civil rights, but on the altar of illegal immigrants, which, you know, most Americans understand the difference.
So I think it's really important to keep in mind that this, the people we're criticizing is not actually like the mainstream Democratic voter.
It's the sort of mainstream progressive activist.
And this is really a class that was in complete control of the nation from like, let's say, 2014 until 2021 and now is very much in retreat.
Like the, which is why, Michael, you can have so much compassion for this woman.
That's what happens when you get control back, both of the government, of the political power, and of the cultural power, is you're free to have compassion for the other side because they are in the grips of a psychosis, but we no longer are subjected to it.
The LA County police say that they have it under control.
Carrying a flag is not illegal, as you know.
What did happen in 1992 was so different from what we're seeing now.
I mean, that was a real riot.
unidentified
Video after video has shown that these agents are the ones provoking protesters and also making up aggression by these protesters that later video shows people were not aggressive.
Michael, it's days like this that guys like us really appreciate leaving that Los Angeles shithole, isn't it?
I mean, there's nothing better than a juxtaposition of the absurd rhetoric while they tell us not to see what you can see in the panel right next to them, right?
Those were totally non-threatening, peaceful rioters and assailants.
Yeah, no one buys it, though.
And they obviously had a little bit of cache during the Summer of Love and BLM and all of that.
I think at this point, the very fact that Trump won the popular vote in 2024 shows you that something really has shifted.
The fact that those establishment news outlets on the left collapsed in the ratings after the 2024 election is not because we tuned out, right?
It's because their own viewers turned out because they had been lied to.
So I'm not saying they don't have any persuasive ability left, but it's been greatly diminished.
So I agree with Batia.
I don't think that this is going to lead necessarily to some widespread riots.
The other reason that it's probably not going to read to widespread riots is that the federal government is extremely proactive here.
And so they will restore order.
It was very successful when they did it in D.C. and some other cities.
And so, you know, a little bit of order goes a long way.
And really, part of the reason that this incident even happened, this poor woman was psychotically persuaded to go out there and run over an ICE agent is because the law had not been enforced before.
So, you know, you look at this issue.
Immigration enforcement was one of the top issues in 2024.
However, the point that CNN sends people out there, no matter how much sort of cover they run for the bad guys, and yet they themselves are still under threat from these people.
I just love that they send the reporters out there because when you get these little glimpses, when the mask starts to fall and say, hey, hi there, we'd love you.
But all of these asymmetries are just making everybody crazy.
Let's put that aside for a moment.
I don't know if you guys heard that something happened in Venezuela this week.
We'll get to that in a moment.
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All right, guys, as you know, we snagged Nicolas Maduro.
Took 90 minutes, and not one American soldier even twisted an ankle.
I think we have a picture.
This was the famous picture of Maduro on board that Trump put up on Truth Social.
And I thought we would start with this because, regardless of what anyone thinks of any of this, the real question at this point is: what is going to happen with Venezuela going forward?
Well, Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who was born for this job, he laid out a threefold plan.
As we move forward, we'll describe our process, which is a threefold process in Venezuela.
I've described it to them now.
Step one is the stabilization of the country.
We don't want it descending into chaos.
Part of that stabilization, and the reason why we understand and believe that we have the strongest leverage possible, is our quarantine.
As you've seen today, two more ships were seized.
We are in the midst right now, and in fact, about to execute on a deal to take all the oil.
They have oil that is stuck in Venezuela.
They can't move it because of our quarantine and because it's sanctioned.
We are going to take between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil.
We're going to sell it in the marketplace at market rates, not at the discounts Venezuela was getting.
That money will then be handled in such a way that we will control how it is dispersed in a way that benefits the Venezuelan people, not corruption, not the regime.
So we have a lot of leverage to move on the stabilization front.
The second phase will be a phase that we call recovery, and that is ensuring that American, Western, and other companies have access to the Venezuelan market a way that's fair.
Also, at the same time, begin to create the process of reconciliation nationally within Venezuela so that the opposition forces can be amnestied and released and from prisons or brought back to the country and begin to rebuild civil society.
And then the third phase, of course, will be one of transition.
The word maturity really comes to mind here because what they did was they went in and managed to get the leader out without destabilizing the country.
Of course, you couldn't bring Maria Machado in there without there being a civil war.
Who knows how the generals are going to react?
They are very carefully plotting a delicate, delicate maneuver here that will be probably very good for the Venezuelan people, but much more importantly, it will be very good for the American people, both in terms of oil and the cost of energy, and getting the gangs out, getting 500,000 Venezuelans to go home.
And then, of course, the drugs aspect of this.
So it just, it was, it was, it was a perfect encapsulation of how Donald Trump's foreign policy, domestic policy, and immigration policy are all sort of three sides of the same coin.
Every action that is taken, just like Marco Rubio said in his confirmation hearings, is going to make us safer and more prosperous, or they're not going to do it.
So you can look and see the tracks that are leading to this.
And again, of course, the military, how amazingly they pulled it off.
And also, you know, look, we're used to like a disconnect from people on the left with reality.
Like we're watching all these crazy lefties, you know, hands off Venezuela and all this stuff.
Meanwhile, my Venezuelan housekeeper, who is really like a member of the family here, had tears of joy when I saw her the next morning and literally said to me, thank God for Donald Trump because she may see her family again.
Like it's just absolutely insane.
But Knowles, I'm curious, you know, this phrase regime change, and obviously we're all somewhat old enough to remember some of our misadventures in the Middle East.
To me, this is, I'm seeing some of the more libertarian-minded people on the right saying, oh, this is just another regime change war and is going to become this crazy quagmire.
Rubio also pointed out that this has nothing to do with the Middle East.
There isn't religious sectarian warfare.
It's our hemisphere, like a series of other things.
What do you make of that type of reaction from some people on the right?
And I do have a sympathy to the aversion for regime change.
But two, notice Tucker said that I think before the action.
So since the action, I haven't really heard even Tucker criticize it.
He's been very critical of a more muscular foreign policy.
And I think this is the genius of Trump here, is Trump managed to mollify both the hardcore neocons who want to bomb every country on earth and the restrictive isolationist types who don't want to get stuck in quagmires.
What's even crazier is Trump managed to mollify the Democrats as well as the Republicans.
Because you remember, Kamala came out right away and Kamala said, this action is unlawful.
And it was very awkward for her because her own administration called for precisely the arrest of Maduro.
And so you think, all right, this has been broadly U.S. policy for 25 years now, really since Chavez got elected.
And over that time, no one's been able to do it.
Trump did it, but it's not like the Bush-era neocons.
It's not an abstract ideological war.
Unlike the Bush-era neocons that's not on the other side of the world where we're much less familiar with the culture, this is grounded in over 200 years of American foreign policy in the Monroe, now Don Rowe doctrine.
It's very material in its aims.
It's very restrained, as Bhatti points out, not shifting the regime exactly, just telling them to get in line.
And the kind of irony of it all is Trump is really focusing on the oil and the material needs here.
But there actually are some ideals and some geopolitical moves in play because one, the guy was a communist dictator.
We don't like that.
But two, and this appeases the neocons more, by weakening Maduro, taking out Maduro, weakening the regime, you're also weakening China, the diplomats of which arrived the day before and are still waiting on their meeting with Maduro.
You weaken Iran.
You weaken Russia, which is already substantially weakened.
So it's unbelievable about Trump's action.
One, it was carried out flawlessly.
It took an hour and a half.
But two, he seems to have satisfied like everybody, including the Democrats.
The question is never asked how much does it cost when they're in the Mediterranean or the Red Sea or the Indian Ocean or the Pacific.
But now that they're in our hemisphere on a counter-cartel mission or ensuring that an indicted individual comes to justice, now you're asking the question of cost.
It's a disingenuous question to begin with.
You're trying to find any angle possible to undermine the success of one of the most historic military missions the world has ever seen.
The level of sophistication that Senate just was briefed on, and the House was briefed on, a classified level is something only the United States of America can accomplish.
The world is taking notice of that.
Certainly Venezuela is taking notice of that.
And it continues because two oil tankers, two overnight, were seized by the United States of America, stateless or sanctioned, because the oil blockade, the quarantine of oil out of unsanctioned or stateless, sanctioned or stateless vessels continues.
But the reason I want to show that clip, we don't have to go after CNN again, but it's just like, it's just more competence from people that are in this administration.
Like it's just clear and it's competent.
I don't know if you saw, but now the president of Colombia called up Trump and he's like, what can I do for you?
Because a signal has been sent to the world.
Stop sending drugs our way.
Stop working with gangs.
Like we might, I don't know, show up in the middle of the night and bring you here.
And to me, it's just, again, it's just all good.
It's sort of what Michael pointed out.
It's not to say nothing bad could happen in any of the transition, but that basically we're reasserting ourselves again as the one world superpower.
Like, there's like a lesson there for anybody who's like watching really closely here.
The Chinese are outraged.
The Russians are completely in retreat.
We seize their tanker and they're not going to do anything about it.
And I think it's just amazing to see them firing on all cylinders.
And at the bottom of everything is just benefit to the United States and our enemies absolutely howling.
And it's, you didn't even realize this.
I did not realize that this was possible, that you could have an administration that just every cabinet member was answering to the president and his one goal was to make America more prosperous and safer.
It's like a very, very unique time.
And I kind of feel like we're never going to have this again.
Like I remember when I went to vote for mayor in New York and I came out, I was like so depressed.
And I was like, I mean, it wasn't just because like the candidates were such shit, you know, it was also because like it was the first time I was voting since 2024.
And it's like, even then, we couldn't have known like how much of what on like I didn't even realize I could have this on my wish list, you know, arrest Maduro, you know, it's like and not lose a single troop, you know what I mean?
And it'd be over before I even knew it was happening.
Michael, real quick before I get to the next clip, what do you think about what she just said there about like sort of the all-star cast of people around Trump right now?
To me, it's like, I agree.
This may be as good as it ever gets in government ever again.
It reminds you that success papers over a lot of problems.
The right is always fighting.
It's been true since the 50s.
It's been true before the 50s.
And all these people, because it's the second term, all these big figures in Republican politics might be aiming to be the next president or, I don't know, get some kind of position.
So, this is a moment when they should all be at each other's throats, but they're not because Trump has established very strong leadership and even down to the Rubio of it all.
You know, Rubio, I think it was President Trump pointed out, said, You know, I kind of hope Rubio never runs for office again because I want him to be Secretary of State basically forever.
Rubio himself said that.
Rubio, who's definitely a presidential contender, has come out multiple times now and said, No, I think JD Vance should be the president.
Maybe Rubio would be VP.
Maybe Rubio just stick on as Secretary of State.
That'd be pretty amazing, too.
Heg Seth is working so well with all of them.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, obviously, extreme competence.
Bobby Kennedy just got rid of 80% of the food pyramid.
You eat steak and milk and you're good forever.
But, you know, actually, the Bobby Kennedy of it all is important too.
This guy is not only a Democrat, a Democrat presidential candidate, not only a Democrat presidential candidate, but a freaking Kennedy, you know, one of the most important Democrat families in the country.
He's working marvelously well in the administration.
And it reminds you that politics and government involve two things.
One is ideology.
Sure, thoughts, views, ideas, policies.
Yeah, that's all important.
But the other one is competence.
You need to get smart, skilled, competent people if you want any of that policy to come to anything.
And at the very least, in the second term, Trump has clearly done it.
The Venezuelan government facilitated the transport of up to 250 tons of cocaine annually.
Experts believe that most of that cocaine, though, is bound for Europe, not the United States.
And also, for context, that total falls far, far short of what we see in many other countries.
For instance, according to U.S. data, Guatemala, a much smaller nation, saw 1,400-plus metric tons pass through 2018 alone, which we know did wind up flowing into the United States.
Cocaine is obviously dangerous and lethal.
It is not, though, the drug causing most overdose deaths in the United States.
That dubious distinction belongs, of course, to fentanyl.
This is the way you know the Democrats had absolutely nothing to criticize about the, because now they're defending a communist dictator and cocaine.
And I love actually the vice president had a great reaction to this because he said, look, guys, this invasion was predicated on a five-year standing arrest warrant for Maduro, who is not the legitimate president of Venezuela.
Over 50 countries don't recognize him as the legitimate president.
He stole the election.
It's predicated on Venezuela stealing our stuff and cozying up to our enemies and this, that, and the other thing.
There was a really funny New York Times or Washington Post article that seemed to suggest that the reason Trump ultimately arrested Maduro was because he was dancing and making fun of Donald Trump.
You know, the other irony of that, too, though, to reconcile both the idea of, look, retrenchment in the Western hemisphere, which now some people are saying, well, that means we're abandoning the rest of the world and we're letting our enemies run roughshod.
Forget about even the, you know, we've given them moral permission.
The Chinese communist.
Even just in terms of hardcore geopolitics, is it easier or harder for China to invade Taiwan when you just cut off a bunch of their oil?
It doesn't take an international relations genius to know.
It makes it harder for them.
Is it easier or harder for Iran to wreak havoc in the region and around the world when we just cut off a nice ally of theirs?
Is it easier or harder for Russia to win its war in Ukraine, which is a proxy war with us in Europe, when we boot out one of their partners?
You know, these things, these kinds of actions have cascading downstream geopolitical effects that ironically end up accomplishing the goals of even the most interventionist neocons, frankly, probably better than their own policies do.
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All right, here's Donald Trump on truth.
This is a condensed version.
Today, the Trump administration is proud to announce the United States of America's updated childhood vaccine vaccination schedule.
The schedule is rooted in the gold standard of science and widely agreed upon by scientists and experts all over the world, effective today.
America will no longer require 72 jabs for our beautiful, healthy children.
We are moving to a far more reasonable schedule where all children will only be recommended to receive vaccinations for 11 of the most serious and dangerous diseases.
Parents can still choose to give their children all of the vaccinations if they wish, and they will still be covered by insurance.
However, this updated schedule finally aligns itself with the United, finally aligns the United States with other developed nations around the world.
Congratulations to HHS Secretary Bobby Kennedy, CDC Acting Director Jim O'Neill, FDA Commissioner Marty McCary, CMS Administrator Dr. Oz, NIH, Dr. Jay Batari, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
So, Bahia, I mean, this just seems good to me.
We'll get into some of the autism stuff in just a second, but we know that our schedule has been rapidly escalated for the last 30, 40 years, way more than in Europe.
We've seen at least some corollary evidence that this is connected to some behavioral things and other issues.
I don't have a problem with the administration doing this.
This is obviously patronage, right?
So Bobby brought in the maha moms.
They were probably decisive in Arizona and other places where they tend to congregate.
And, you know, they like this.
And so this is a kind of very sort of give it, it's classic patronage, and that's totally fine, like democratically, politically, whatever.
My problem is that Americans are unhealthy because they are fat and they are fat because they are poor.
And Bobby Kennedy doesn't know this because he doesn't know any poor people.
He's extremely privileged, nepo baby, entitled rich person who has the problems of that demographic, which are all these like, you know, like, for example, I'm sure he's done keto or whatever.
Like, this is what a rich person would tell a poor person who is struggling to be healthier: is like, oh, just to eat more steak, you know, like, great, you know, what's next?
Like, eat more caviar?
Like, why don't you recommend more truffle mushrooms?
And now I think the president is doing everything he can to fix that.
He's been great on healthcare.
He got down the cost of drugs.
This is really important to seniors.
But to me, the Kennedy stuff is just so offensive because it suggests that the things that rich people obsess over when they obsess over their health are at the root of the problem.
And the problem is actually, I think, much more systemic and deeper and out of reach for someone like a Kennedy.
No, listen, I'm all for blaming people for growing up as Kennedys.
I like Bobby Kennedy, but I don't have any special affection for the Kennedy family.
However, part of your thesis, Bacha, I think, is difficult to argue because even with wealth inequality or economic problems that we have today, affordability or any of the slogans or any of the real economic problems, Americans today, including poor Americans, are still objectively materially much richer than they were 50 years ago or 100 years ago, by virtually every measure.
And people are fatter today than they were then.
So I grant you it's true.
It's more expensive to eat in a healthy way, usually, depending on where you live.
But also, a big part of that is we do have a bunch of unhealthy stuff and addictive kind of stuff in our foods, which probably requires a little bit more regulation, which is the exact kind of thing Bobby Kennedy campaigned on and that he's actually brought to the fore.
So not only on the vaccine point, which I think he's quite salient on, but also when it comes to, to Dave's point, getting the dyes out of foods, you know, minimizing sugars and trying to discourage that kind of stuff.
You know, we can all get a new flat screen TV or whatever every year.
But the hallmarks of the American dream, housing, healthcare, and education and a retirement have skyrocketed by thousands of percents in the last 60 years while working class wages have stagnated.
And so, yeah, they can afford things, but a lot of people are driving broken down cars for hours just to get to work.
Like these aren't people whose life, and I feel like there's just a radical disconnect between like the way that the people who set policy are living and thinking and the way that a lot of, and by the way, these are Republicans now.
I'm just going to make this point because I have to make this point whenever I have a captive Republican audience.
You know, it used to be that Republicans were the party of the rich and the Democrats represented labor.
So it made sense for the Republicans to try to get tax cuts for rich people, patronage.
But now the Republicans are the party of the working class and the Democrats are the party of the rich.
Every tax break you guys give to a rich person, you're giving to a rich Democrat who's going to use that money because they don't need it because they're rich to fund a Democratic politician like Mamdani to screw you guys over and screw over your voters.
And you're taking that money from people who are probably Republicans.
Like I feel like there's this muscle memory.
And this is the thing that I want Republicans to most understand because if you don't get this, you're going to lose and then they're going to put Donald Trump in jail and I'm going to be very upset.
You get it on the large institutional investors not buying single-family homes.
You're seeing a lot of focus on that in other areas of the administration.
In terms of the tax breaks, yes, Trump doubled down on the tax cuts generally, which I think was good because the economy would have really suffered otherwise.
But he also added new tax breaks for people who work in service.
No tax on tips and no tax on Social Security.
What are people who are working on fixed incomes?
However, I guess my only question is: why is that Bobby Kennedy's fault?
You know, the things we're focusing on here are like, you just don't like Bobby Kennedy.
How about I have you guys on again, the two of you again, in six months from now, once we have six months of the big beautiful bill results, where a lot of these tax cuts and some of the other things Trump has done, and we'll see if some of the things that Bhatya brought up are addressed.
I think that might be an interesting thing to do and we can throw back to this video.
But just quickly on the vaccinations, again, I want to show you this because, you know, Jenny McCarthy, who's of our young, young, my producers had no idea who she was, but she was cool back in the day on MTV.
But she's become a real anti-vaccine advocate because of one of her children.
She went on Katie Miller's podcast and listened to this.
And I did talks over the country over the past 15 years, talking to moms face to face who had a vaccine-injured child or just woke up and did not do that.
And they said, my child that is not vaccinated hasn't been to the doctor in like eight years, doesn't get sick, the strongest immune system, doesn't have allergies.
So the reason I want to show you that clip is the three of us are all parents of young kids.
I'm not going to ask you a vaccine status of all of your children, but I also hear a lot of what she just described right there when we talk to parents at the playground or wherever it might be.
When the preeminent public health officials lie to you and get caught in multiple lies in a short period of time, then it's actually reasonable to at least entertain some of the alternative theories.
I have three boys, and we started out, we got like one or two of the vaccines for one.
Then we said, I don't know, we're a little, you know, COVID, Fauci's lying, maybe we won't do as much.
And we kind of didn't, I think the second one, I don't know if we gave any two, maybe one or two, and then the third.
Now, all of that, I say all of that because it means I don't have a strong ideological position or scientific opinion on vaccines.
I have much more of a practical prudential opinion.
The vaccine schedule, as it was as of two weeks ago, was so much more abundant and faster than it was when we were kids.
So there has been a massive change.
And clearly, there is some correlation with health consequences here because there's always a risk, any medical intervention.
So, you know, what the Trump administration has done here is not to say you can't have these vaccines or to totally wipe them off the schedule.
Batya, I know you don't like Bobby Kennedy, but the number two at HHS, Jim O'Neill, acting head of the CDC, who coincidentally is a friend of mine of a very, very long time, very intelligent person, very serious person, totally supportive of what the department's doing, helping to roll out a lot of this.
He was on my show the other day.
He comes out and he says, look, we're just trying to give parents a little more transparency here and a little more choice.
So they're not told that their kid's not even allowed to join a medical office if they don't stick them with 72 shots right at once.
And I'll just give you the anecdotal practical summation from me.
Some of my kids have some vaccines, some have none or barely any or this or that.
But also, speaking of the HHS, it is worth pointing out anecdotally, you hear one thing, but in terms of actual influenza cases, a whooping cough, whatever, these numbers are not really different than all that different than they have been in years past.
I think some of it is just the media ginning it up to make the vaccines more of an issue.
You live in New York and we're going to have to talk about New York because you people elected an Islamist socialist communist jihadist who's one of his housing people is this lady.
I think the reality is that for centuries, we've really treated property as an individualized good and not a collective good.
And we are going to, and transitioning to treating it as a collective good and towards a model of shared equity will require that we think about it differently.
And it will mean that families, especially white families, but some POC families who are homeowners as well, are going to have a different relationship to property than the one that we currently have.
You know, like it's impossible to get, you know, a liberal arts education and not think that way and talk that way pretty much.
And I love how she allowed that, like in the, you know, that there are some POC Kulaks too who are going to have to go, you know, like I have to face the firing line.
Like, you know, rare moment of honesty from one of these people.
It's, it's just ridiculous.
You know, it's just, it's just ridiculous.
And I, I, but not surprising, like you said, you know, it's like shocking, but not surprising.
Like they all think this way.
But I am very hardened to see a big pushback against this.
Like, I think for a long time, you were not allowed to say the fundamental truth that anti-white racism is racism.
And there is this feeling now, like, you know, in 2020, there would have been no pushback to that because everybody was saying that, which is probably when she was saying it the most.
And now there is this understanding.
I think there's been a real shift in the culture.
Like, actually, no, it's not okay to say disgusting things about white people.
You know, like, actually, no, you're not allowed to just act like they are the enemy and you're not allowed to take their property.
And I think that this is a very actually healthy moment because these people who were like running the show are now being kind of chased down the street and made to cry.
Well, Knowles, I know there's nothing that you people at the Daily Wire like more than liberal tears.
So this one's going to bring a smile to your face from the New York Post.
Zorhan Momdami's woke privileged tenant advocate, Sea Weaver, that's the lady we just showed you, breaks down crying when asked about hypocritical gentrification comments because it turns out that her parents live in a $1.4 million home.
You know, having done it myself, actually with Ben, though we went to, we went to different places because I went to Nashville where this lady's from, and he went to the promised land of voter return.
But I, but, so look, I did it and I abandoned Dave and it was, it's a whole thing.
However, I think basically Ben is right.
Like he's 10% right in that, like we all do it.
And sometimes you need a tactical retreat.
But 90% of what I want to see is, no, you guys kick into your community and keep the Mamdanis out, man.
If people didn't move so much, we wouldn't have Mamdani there.
Yeah, I'll take it in reverse order because I gave a speech about this at Turning Point, actually.
And I was slotted in between Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson, which is kind of like being in between India and Pakistan, you know, and cashmere.
You make a good point.
So I find the fighting on the right to be interesting in that it's not really about actual policies most of the time.
It's certainly not about candidates.
Basically, everyone supports Trump.
Basically, everyone thinks JD is going to be the nominee next time.
And so, weirdly, we all kind of agree on that.
It's all within the chattering class.
And I think there can be perfectly principled moral reasons for that.
But there's an incentive to it, also, which is that for politicians, they have to get policies done and win elections.
For the chattering class, we get clicks and views, and it's good for clicks and views, and that's kind of how the internet works.
So, I've made a very conscious effort to avoid doing that.
And the same thing, you know, specifically when it comes to Candace.
I am the godfather to Candace Owens' daughter.
I am probably the last person on the internet who has not inveighed against or white-knighted for everything that Candace has ever said.
I just, for my political views and because of my sacramental role, I try not to do that.
But can't one simply say, Yeah, look, I think Erica Kirk is a wonderful woman.
I think she's done a great job running TPSA.
I think they're all heroic people.
I don't really entertain lots of conspiracy theories.
Some people entertain conspiracy theories because we got lied to by public officials like five years ago.
So, I kind of get it.
But can't we just say, Hey, guys, chattering class, enough, knock it off, keep your mouth shut, let's keep our eyes on the prize and win the midterms and win 28.
Am I the last man in America who wants to do that?
Like, I speak for the swing voters who really love the MAG movement and got you guys in power.
Like, I wouldn't be so sure JD Vance is a done deal, nor should you want him as a candidate.
I don't think he's electable.
So, I, you know, from what I can see right now, talking to working class people who love Trump all the time, I just don't feel that he is, he can win a general election.
So, I, you know, I, when you say we're all on the same page about that, I'm not, but I may not be in the club.
You know, people are like, yeah, she joined the movement five minutes ago.
And I just very much disagree with where she's landed on this issue.
And I think a lot of us feel a little bit gaslit.
Just it's obviously not about Israel.
You know, even the problems with Tucker, like I started with when he had the first Holocaust denier on and then the second Holocaust denier.
So it's just not about Israel at all.
And when people try to pretend that it is, like, that does not feel good.
But I think Megan Kelly was a very good friend to the Jews at a time when we really needed one.
And I'm just never going to forget that she did that and everything she's done for me personally.
So it's, you know, hopefully everybody will move past this.
I think that this is all just online drama.
I just think there's a huge divide between conservatives and content creators.
And you see this again and again and again.
You know, the content creators were against the Venezuela thing.
99% of Republicans loved it.
The content creators were against the Iran thing.
87% of Republicans loved it.
You know, the content creators are turning on Israel.
You know, 90% of Republicans, 85% of Republicans still support Israel.
So it's just, to me, it's just so divorced.
And you're seeing on the right the exact thing that destroyed the left, a bunch of very loud people who are in the elites, in this case, who make a lot of money off of content, are getting money because the internet is global and they've totally lost sight of who the American working class is, who is the Republican base now.
It's just a very different party now.
And I would really urge people who want to see Republicans win to take that into consideration and to remember that and to keep their one foot in the ground, in that ground, because the majority of this engagement is not American.
And the algorithmic tricks and just a generation that's grown up on trolling, it's very hard to figure out where the touch points are between the digital world and the real world.