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knowles Michael WIRE

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2nd on 14th disqual BS trifecta

merri ok

see wire

freq mma

pow provocateur? macho? strict fr? MISOGYNY

hate tag

see matt walsh

see rubber retaliate/mirror

SEE LEFT VIOLENCE BS dipippa fireworks

racism grievance they poc hate us coming for us

rww Tag: Michael Knowles

bAK 9 25

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BTB does origin

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they just pick up term in zeitgeist to crit right and flip it rubber glue reverse? eg Gaza

Using a slur, Michael Knowles claims "most Democrats want to genocide" babies with Down syndrome | Media Matters for America

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neg ad fuckery driven bc repeat fail eg doge or bad polls 10 26?

mma

Here are the right-wing media figures endorsing “despicable” ad from Ohio Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy

The ad features Democratic nominee Amy Acton’s estranged mother, who defended her husband’s reported sexual assault of Acton when she was a child

Written by Zachary Pleat

Research contributions from Gideon Taaffe

Published 10/21/26

Multiple right-wing media figures are promoting an ad released this week by Ohio Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign targeting his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, featuring her mother calling her a liar. However, Acton has been estranged from her parent since the age of 12 in 1978, when her mother defended the candidate’s stepfather against accusations he had sexually assaulted Acton for two years, then fled the state with him as he became a fugitive from charges of child sexual abuse.

In Ramaswamy’s ad, which right-wing media personalities praised as “brilliant” and “absolutely hilarious,” Acton’s estranged mother accused her of lying about her past. But court records accessed by ABC affiliate News 5 Cleveland back up Acton’s story, with the outlet reporting, “Mahoning County Court records we obtained show that Cledith Arthur was arrested and charged with sexually abusing Acton, then 12 years old. The abuse went from ages 10-12, she said.” The article continued: “After pleading not guilty, he posted bond and fled, becoming a fugitive of the state until his death in 2004. Police tried to find him for numerous years, documents state. He and Acton's mother moved to Pennsylvania, according to public records.”

Acton’s brother, Philip Stearns, issued a statement following the Ramaswamy ad’s release, saying, “It’s not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point. … After he was arrested and Amy and I were removed from their custody, our birth mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died.”

Yet some right-wing media personalities are celebrating the ad, which Ramaswamy campaign manager Jonathan Ewing said “is a campaign-ending moment for Amy Acton.” Ramaswamy also shared commentary on the ad and Acton more generally from right-wing podcaster Megyn Kelly.

Daily Wire host Michael Knowles praised Ramaswamy’s ad as “brilliant, brilliant.” Knowles added: “I think it's a very, very effective ad. It's brutal.” [The Daily Wire, The Michael Knowles Show, 10/20/26]

Newsmax host Greg Kelly: “Everybody in Ohio and the country should be listening to Amy Acton's mom.” Kelly repeatedly praised Acton’s mother, saying, “The mother speaks with love here. I believe the mother loves Amy.” He continued: “And she seems like a very nice lady, actually.” Kelly concluded: “Wow, that's some — the mother, I believe her.” [Newsmax, The Greg Kelly Show, 10/20/26]

Video

Citation

From the October 20, 2026, edition of Newsmax's Greg Kelly Reports

Podcaster and former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino said of Ramaswamy’s ad: “This is the most destructive political ad I have ever seen.” Bongino added: “How do you vote for this lady? It's her mom. That's mom dukes. Ma, mommy, mom, ma. My kid goes, Ma. How do you vote?” [Rumble, The Dan Bongino Show, 10/20/26]

Trump political operative Roger Stone used the ad to smear Acton, saying, “Turns out she’s been lying for personal gain.” Stone claimed that Stearn’s statement “seems like a poor explanation.” [Red Apple Audio Network, The Stone Zone, 10/20/26]

Gateway Pundit’s Wayne Allyn Root called the ad “absolutely hilarious.” Root used the ad to say, “The more you meet these Democrat candidates, they’re all crazy. They’re all covering up for the fact that they’ve had mental illness their whole life. They’re crazy, whacked-out people.” [The Gateway Pundit, War Zone with Wayne Allyn Root, 10/20/26]

Newsmax host on Vivek Ramaswamy attack ad featuring Amy Acton's estranged mother: “Everybody in Ohio and the country should be listening to Amy Acton's mom”

10/21/26 8:56 AM EDT

Daily Wire host praises “brilliant, brilliant” attack ad featuring Amy Acton's estranged mother: “Incredible stuff is going on”

10/21/26 9:00 AM EDT

Dan Bongino praises Vivek Ramaswamy attack ad on Amy Acton: “This is the most destructive political ad I have ever seen”

Dan Bongino rails at Republicans condemning attack ad featuring Amy Acton's estranged mother: “What kind of freaking party is this? Holy Moses, man, take the freaking gloves off.”

10/21/26

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sparked by renee good // blm? 2026 midterm fail?

mma

Daily Wire host calls for Republican candidates to “pledge to defend white men from the onslaught of racial discrimination that they will face if and when Democrats regain power”

Written by Media Matters Staff

:{Published 01/21/26

:{Video

Citation

From the January 21, 2026, edition of The Daily Wire's The Matt Walsh Show

MATT WALSH (HOST): In places like Canada and Virginia and New York and Minneapolis and every other jurisdiction controlled by leftists, those anti-white crimes will soon be excused if they aren't being excused already. We can't allow this to continue.

But Democrats will continue racking up wins like this unless we start fielding candidates that will recognize what the left is doing and call it out openly, and pledge to defend white men from the onslaught of racial discrimination that they will face if and when Democrats regain power.

You know, Republicans that are not afraid to say — to explicitly say that. These people hate white men and want to punish them for their — for the sin — for their perceived sins, and we're gonna stop that from happening. We need Republicans who are willing to just say that out loud. You know, we've mostly defeated the trans agenda, which would have been — you know, would have had civilization-ending consequences if we had failed. And now we have to confront the left's anti-white agenda, which as the rise of Democrats across the country demonstrates, will be a much harder campaign to vanquish.

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mma

AmericaFest, an annual convention run by the late Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA, kicked off this week under a cloud of chaos and contention, according to an MS NOW analysis, as the organization contends with conspiracies and control of Kirk's MAGA media empire being "up for grabs."

This year's convention, set to run from Thursday to Sunday in Phoenix, marks Turning Point's first since Kirk was shot and killed in September. Since then, "a revolving door of Republican politicians and commentators" has been "vying for screen time" on "The Charlie Kirk Show," the late pundit's web series noted for its popularity and influence on the far right.

As MS NOW's Andy Campbell noted in his analysis of the event, "none have emerged as a clear replacement for" at the head of Turning Point USA, not even his widow, Erika Kirk, who has taken over as CEO. Kirk's "audience and podcasting empire remain very much up for grabs," as does his position as "leader of a nationwide political youth movement."

"The events at AmericaFest may narrow the field: meet-and-greets have been scheduled with far-right provocateurs who built substantial podcast followings of their own amid Trump’s rise to power, including Jack Posobiec, Alex Clark and Michael Knowles." Campbell wrote.

The event also comes as Turning Point is contending with significant infighting among the MAGA influencer crowd over conspiracies surrounding Kirk's killing. This has been led largely by conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has floated numerous conspiracies about who she suspects might have been behind Kirk's death, ranging from the Israeli government to the French government to even unnamed members of Turning Point against whom she has "lodged vague accusations of financial fraud" without evidence.

Owens was initially invited to a livestream conversation about the dispute with Erika Kirk, but the event ultimately did not take place. Instead, the pair had what Owens described as "a 4.5-hour conversation" that left her still unconvinced of the official story of Kirk's death.

In September, 22-year-old Utah resident Tyler Robinson was arrested and charged with shooting Kirk at a Utah Valley University event. His parents turned in Robinson after they recognized him from security footage released to the public and after a conversation in which he allegedly implied he was the shooter.

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MMA

December 3, 2025, edition of The Daily Wire's The Michael Knowles Show

:{:{MICHAEL KNOWLES (HOST): I remember I was in school and I was having a debate with a very, very liberal friend of mine — very feminist, very liberal, probably wouldn't call me a friend anymore. But we're having this debate and, at the time, there was this this conversation about how there was a rape culture on campuses. You might remember. This is 10, 15 years ago. There's a rape culture on campuses. People were trying to argue that, you know, Harvard Yard was more dangerous for women than Botswana or something. So it's a rape culture.}:

And it was just because the liberals and the feminists didn't want to admit that hookup culture and promiscuous sex was bad, so they had to find a way to make it a crime or rape, but it was never tried in court. It was always tried by these kangaroo courts of professors, and it was this real jumbled knot that they twisted themselves in because they were hoisted on the petard of the sexual revolution. In any case, they said that there's a rape culture here. But at the same time, they would say, we can't judge any other culture. They'd say look, there's cultural relativism. No culture is better than any other culture. All cultures are different. We need to respect all cultures.}:

And so the obvious follow-up was, well, if we have to respect all cultures, don't we have to respect rape culture? How dare you, the feminists, you know, clutch their pearls. But it's a — it's not just a provocative question, it's quite pertinent because Somalia is a rape culture. Africa, the African continent is a rape culture. They rape people there a lot, in the Middle East, in the subcontinent. They that's what they do. And so we don't like that, right? We have a different culture. Well, that means that when we — if we take in immigrants, we need to exclude or severely restrict the people that we come from cultures that are discordant, that don't match up.

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Michael Knowles Warns Against Rising Left-Wing Political Violence at Harvard Event

On Thursday evening, over 200 people crowded into a lecture hall in Harvard Law School’s Austin Hall to hear political commentator Michael Knowles…

Oct 4 • The Harvard Salient and Declan Ignatius Merrigan Deady

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TESTIMONY YIKES

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no lnx

Trump ally's claim about 'left-wing violence' just doesn't add up

Former acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf testifies in the Senate. Picture: Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution.

Jordan Green November 02, 2025 |

Former acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf’s appearance before a Senate hearing on political violence this week resurfaced inconvenient remarks for a witness called by Republicans intent on painting rising political violence as a left-wing problem.

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) read back Wolf’s Senate testimony from five years ago.

“White supremacist extremists, from a lethality standpoint over the last two years … are certainly the most persistent and lethal threat, when we talk about domestic violent extremists,” Wolf said at the time.

On Tuesday, before the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, chaired by Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Wolff offered a strikingly different assessment.

“The increase in politically motivated violence over the last several years has been driven largely by radical, left-wing extremist groups and individuals that believe violence is a legitimate means to achieve political goals,” Wolf testified.

Wolf is now executive vice president of the America First Policy Institute. Founded in 2021 and closely aligned with Trump, former leaders include Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Secretary of Agriculture Brook Rollins and Attorney General Pam Bondi.

In a statement to Raw Story, Wolf did not disavow his 2020 assessment on white supremacist violence, but said: “America has experienced a historic rise in left-wing violence, especially following President Trump’s second election victory.”

At the time of Wolf’s September 2020 hearing, the U.S. had experienced a series of mass shootings by white supremacists, including Patrick Crusius, who killed 23 people, mostly Latinos, at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas in 2019, and Robert Bowers, who killed 11 at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018.

Both killers echoed Donald Trump’s rhetoric depicting immigrants and refugees as an “invasion” or “invaders.”

U.S. counterterrorism officials also took note of the 2019 massacre carried out by Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Crusius cited Tarrant as an inspiration. So did Payton Gendron, who killed 10 African Americans at a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y. in 2022.

Tarrant’s attack catalyzed the emergence of the term “saints” among white supremacists to glorify terrorists. The U.S. Justice Department is currently prosecuting three Terrorgram leaders on terrorism-related charges.

“White supremacist violence is clearly not the primary threat facing our country today,” Wolf told Raw Story. “All you have to do is look at the data, which has changed significantly in the last five years.”

Wolf cited incidents often mentioned by the administration and allies to make the case that political violence now emanates from the left: the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, two attempts on Trump’s life, the attempted assassination of conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and attacks on centers that offer an alternative to abortion services.

He did not cite the murder of Minnesota Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband by an abortion opponent; a recent death threat against Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) by a Jan. 6 rioter; or the bludgeoning of Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), by a QAnon follower.

Nor did Wolf mention some 1,500 individuals pardoned by President Trump over the Jan. 6 assault on Congress.

William Braniff, a former director of DHS’ Center for Prevention Programs under President Joe Biden testified alongside Wolf.

Braniff agreed that violent incidents are on the rise. But he told the subcommittee, “Violent events do not fit neatly into any one ideological category.”

Braniff noted that DHS contracted with the University of Maryland in 2005 to create a global terrorism database, by congressional mandate. In March, the Trump administration canceled funding.

Drawing on the database, Braniff said: “This year, compared to last year, terrorism events are up 67 percent. Fatalities are up nearly 150 percent. Americans are dying from ISIS-inspired, white supremacist, antisemitic, anti-government, anti-vax, anti-law enforcement and nihilistic attacks.”

‘Black Lives Matter and antifa riots’

In 2020, when Wolf flagged white supremacist violence, he was overseeing DHS as the first Trump administration deployed federal agents against protesters in Portland, Ore., a harbinger of the current standoff at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the city.

On Tuesday, Sen. Schmitt and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) cited rioting related to protests against the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, a familiar Republican talking point.

“There is an epidemic of politically motivated violence,” Cruz said. “And the politically motivated violence in this country is overwhelmingly emanating from the left. We saw that during the Black Lives Matter and antifa riots across the country, as cities across America burned.”

Schmitt complained that some studies of political violence “systematically ignore antifa and Black Lives Matter riots.”

Michael Knowles, a podcast host at the conservative outlet The Daily Wire, complained in testimony that “the Black Lives Matter riots, overtly leftist demonstrations that left dozens of people dead … fail to show up on registers of left-wing political violence.”

Cruz, Schmitt and Knowles did not delve into who was responsible for such violence. The data suggests they were presenting an incomplete picture.

Drawing on data provided by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), and multiple news reports, Raw Story counted 34 deaths plausibly linked to racial justice protests and unrest in 2020, not counting the police killings that sparked protests. Of those, three appear to involve perpetrators directly linked to Black Lives Matter, “antifa” or their supporters.

On May 28, 2020, the second night of rioting in Minneapolis, rioters set fire to a pawnshop. The charred remains of 30-year-old Oscar Lee Stewart Jr. were found in the ruins. Montez Terriel Lee was convicted of arson and sentenced to a decade in prison.

The following month, 16-year-old Antonio Mays Jr. was shot inside a stolen Jeep Cherokee that sped through an area of Seattle known as the CHAZ — Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone — and occupied by protesters. No charges have been brought, but bystander video appears to implicate an activist security team patrolling amid fears of a right-wing attack.

In late August 2020, Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a member of the far-right group Patriot Prayer, was fatally shot in Portland, Ore. Michael Reinoehl, the self-described “antifa” shooter, claimed self-defense. Before he could be apprehended, Reinoehl was killed by federal agents, an event President Trump described as “retribution.”

Danielson’s death is the only politically motivated homicide in the U.S. linked to an identified antifascist in the past quarter-century.

In contrast, one study found that white supremacists and other right-wing extremists killed at least 329 between 1994 and 2020.

The circumstances of Danielson’s shooting remain unclear. As noted by ACLED, Trump supporters were staging a car caravan through downtown Portland, and some right-wingers “sprayed pepper spray and shot paintball guns at counter-demonstrators rallying in support of the BLM movement and against police brutality, as well as journalists.”

The entry also notes video showing right-wing demonstrators driving vehicles through left-wing counter-demonstrators attempting to block the streets.

‘Might shoot looters’

Eight other deaths in 2020 could be linked to racial justice protests, if not directly.

In some, civilian bystanders were killed by criminals who appeared to be exploiting chaos. Victims include David Dorn, a retired police captain in St. Louis whose widow spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention; Chris Beaty, a former college football player murdered in Indianapolis while assisting a woman being mugged; and Marvin Francois, a photographer killed in a robbery while leaving a protest in Kansas City.

Among the most shocking deaths associated with the 2020 protests is that of 8-year-old Secoriea Turner, shot by an alleged Bloods gang member manning a barricade in the area where Rayshard Brooks was killed by Atlanta police. Julian Conley was convicted of murder and other offenses, and sentenced to life in prison.

But in at least 23 cases — roughly two thirds — Raw Story found that perpetrators of unrest-related deaths were not linked to Black Lives Matter, antifa or their supporters. They include five people killed by police, one killed by the National Guard, others killed by motorists and shopkeepers, a man with severe mental illness, and a security guard for a news crew.

In one example, Steven Carillo, an airman active in the far-right Boogaloo movement, took advantage of unrest after Floyd’s death to murder David Patrick Underwood, a federal security officer guarding the federal courthouse in Oakland, Calif., and Damon Gutzwiler, a Santa Cruz County deputy sheriff attempting to serve a warrant.

Raw Story’s analysis tallied 11 Black Lives Matter protesters killed: roughly equal to the number of unaffiliated civilians.

Two — Summer Taylor and Robert Forbes — were struck by vehicles. Barry Perkins III was dragged by a tractor-trailer. Others, including James Scurlock and Italia Impinto, were shot.

Garrett Foster, an Air Force veteran marching with BLM protesters in Austin, Texas on July 25, 2020, was fatally shot by Daniel Perry, a former soldier who reportedly searched for locations of protesters and told a friend he “might go to Dallas to shoot looters.” Perry was convicted of murder, then pardoned by Gov. Greg Abbott.

Perhaps most memorably, Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two BLM supporters during unrest in Kenosha, Wis. in 2020. He was acquitted on all charges.

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AI Overview

Michael Knowles, a conservative political commentator, testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution on

October 28, 2025, at a hearing on politically violent attacks and the threat to constitutional order. In his testimony, he addressed the issue of violence associated with far-left extremist groups, including those operating under the banner of Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Antifa.

Key points from his testimony include:

His testimony focused on characterizing the violence as a form of "leftist terrorism" and a serious threat to the constitutional order, calling for a strong federal response.

daily sig

prominent conservative commentator Michael Knowles sounded off on the growing threat of political violence at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Tuesday.

“The federal government must act now to stop the consistent and accelerated threat of leftist terrorism. For a legislator to deny the threat and neglect the remedy might once have been chalked up to ignorance. Today, it is nothing less than a complicity,” Knowles declared in his remarks before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution.

The title of the hearing was “Politically Violent Attacks: A Threat to Our Constitutional Order.” In addition to Knowles, it featured testimony from Chad Wolf of the America First Policy Institute and a former acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; Daniel Hodges, a Washington, D.C., police officer; William Braniff, executive director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab in the School of Public Affairs at American University; and Kyle Shideler, director and senior analyst for homeland security and counterterrorism with the Center for Security Policy.

The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now

Near the beginning of his opening statement, Knowles outlined his position on whether the political Left or Right was more responsible for the violence flaring in the United States. The following are four takeaways from his testimony.

1. Left ‘More Violent’ Than the Right

“[L]est I be accused of partisan invective … no less an emblem of American liberalism than The Atlantic magazine published an article citing a recent study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, admitting that the Left is more violent today than the right,” Knowles said.

The political commentator then recounted his own brush with violent protesters that occurred in April 2023. The Daily Wire host had been invited to debate the issue of transgenderism at the University of Pittsburgh. Before the event, dozens of left-wing protesters, including some that had their faces covered, burned an effigy of the podcaster.

2. Encountering Violence, Up Close and Personal

“[A]s the Pittsburgh [fire department] put out my burning effigy, an Antifa operative named Brian DiPippa, hiding behind his wife, Krystal, rolled two smoke bombs under police barricades,” Knowles said. He then recounted how [Brian] DiPippa threw a firework at police officers, which resulted in several members of the police being burned and “life-altering injuries to a female officer.”

He ultimately received five years in prison while his wife was sentenced to three years’ probation. Knowles expressed frustration at the sentencing.

3. Punishment Must Be Commensurate With Crime

“I think we should all be able to agree that throwing an explosive at a group of people is no mere minor indiscretion. That is a very serious crime. That’s attempted murder, the kind of crime that merits life in prison,” Knowles said.

4) Backing Candidate Despite Violent Rhetoric Is Wrong

Knowles later pointed out in the hearing that Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., had endorsed Democrat Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones, despite the fact that Jones had said in text messages that he hoped a former Virginia House speaker would get “two bullets to the head.”

“You certainly cannot have law enforcement officers who would engage in this kind of violent rhetoric against half of their constituents. So long as anyone stands by an endorsement such as that, their words are meaningless. They are shedding crocodile tears on the topic of political violence,” he said.

Reflecting on the gunshot slaying of a friend, conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, Knowles said, “There was no more gracious, generous, or charitable debater on college campuses than Charlie Kirk, and he always endeavored to hear out the other side … to give them the benefit of the doubt. And he was killed for it. He was killed for ideological reasons. And it has to be an inflection point.”

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2025-10-28-PM_Testimony_Knowles

J.M.J. Senate testimony Michael Knowles Thank you, Chairman Schmidt, Ranking Member Welch, and all members of this committee. In light of the murder of my friend Charlie Kirk by a leftist assassin, I’m pleased to see that at least some members of our federal government are now confronting the consistent and escalating pattern of left-wing terrorism in this country. Even honest liberals have had to admit in recent weeks that left-wing terrorism exceeds rightwing terrorism. On September 23, no less an emblem of American liberalism than The Atlantic magazine admitted that fact in an article, based on a recent study, under the headline, “Left-Wing Terrorism Is On The Rise.”

Less honest liberals, including members of Congress, have nevertheless persisted in denying this fact. Democrat congressman Seth Moulton reacted to a leftist’s assassination of the most prominent proponent of civil debate on the American Right by blaming the Right. He claimed that three-quarters of political violence in the United States comes from the Right, while only four percent is committed by the Left.

That claim struck me as suspect, so I looked into just a few examples of left-to-right political violence. Consider the Covenant School massacre in Nashville, for instance, in which a transidentifying shooter murdered Christian children at school after leaving a manifesto outlining ideological motivations, such as gender ideology. That incident, according to authorities, lacked an ideological motive.

The Black Lives Matter riots—overtly leftist demonstrations that left dozens of people dead and over a billion dollars’ worth of property damage—likewise fail to show up on registers of left-wing political violence. Even an attack by Antifa operatives that targeted me personally for my conservative political views appeared in official records and data sets as nothing more than “obstructing law enforcement” on the rare occasion it appeared at all. It turns out the Left commits relatively little political violence when one does not count the political violence that the Left commits. I’m here today to speak about that single, illustrative incident.

On April 18, 2023, I was scheduled to participate in a debate at the University of Pittsburgh on the topic of transgenderism. Before the debate, left-wing protesters gathered outside the O’Hara Student Center, many dressed uniformly in black with face coverings. The demonstration grew to an estimated 300-350 people, who lit the street on fire while burning me in effigy with a miniature mustache drawn on my lip. All because I held the opinion that men cannot become women. I awaited the start of the debate from inside the auditorium and therefore did not witness these events directly, though many were filmed and posted to social media.

But according to an FBI affidavit, at approximately 7 p.m., the demonstrators moved to the front entrance of the student center and prevented vehicles from passing, despite that road’s serving as the main access to the hospital. Buildings in the area were placed on a “soft lockdown.” As the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire put out my burning effigy, an Antifa operative named Brian DiPippa rolled a smoke bomb under police barricades. Twelve minutes later, Dipippa, hiding behind his wife Krystal, lit a second smoke bomb and placed it among the attendees as well as the University of Pittsburgh Police officers who had been called to maintain order. Attendees waiting in line scattered while demonstrators shouted, “Fascists, go home!”

The demonstrators then moved to the side of the building with window access to the auditorium in which my debate was set to begin. Police, seeing the threat, moved to create a barrier between the leftists and the building. The debate moderator, my interlocutor, and I began to walk to the stage one minute after the event’s scheduled start time. But before we reached the stage, we heard an explosion, which caused our security personnel to escort us back into the wings. A demonstrator, later identified as DiPippa, had thrown a lit firework into a group of police officers protecting the rear of the building.

The explosion injured several officers, including severe and life-altering injuries to a female officer. Even the less severe injuries included burns, bruises, hearing loss, and possible concussions. Demonstrators continue to disrupt and threaten us in the auditorium after the event began. Four protesters began to shout, “Trans lives matter!” before security agents escorted them off the premises. Toward the end of the debate, a protester in a hat, sunglasses, and face mask stood up and walked threateningly toward the stage before taking a seat in the second row after the protection team began walking toward her. The debate ended early after campus police notified security personnel inside the auditorium that protests outside were becoming even more destructive, and the campus had issued a “safety emergency” notification.

While Democrat politicians and liberal journalists have sought to downplay and even deny the existence of organized, left-wing terror, the attack at the University of Pittsburgh provides just one example among countless of serious and increasing leftist terrorism. Brian and Krystal DiPippa were not merely two citizens impelled to protest a speaker with whom they disagreed. According to reporting by investigative journalist and Antifa expert Andy Ngo, the DiPippas were members of an extremist left-wing cell that met at the Big Idea Bookstore in Pittsburgh. Such anarchist bookstores operate as meeting and training grounds for left-wing terror attacks. The Torch Antifa Network later claimed the DiPippas as members and offered the opportunity to donate money for them through a tax-exempt non-profit organization.

Thanks to the efforts of a courageous FBI agent who happened to be on the scene, the Department of Justice was impelled to bring charges against the DiPippas. Unfortunately, our justice system gave them only a slap on the wrist. Throwing an explosive into a crowd of people constitutes attempted murder. Justice calls for life in prison. Our justice system sentenced Brian DiPippa to minimal jail time for “obstructing law enforcement.” His wife got off with probation. The federal government must act now to stop the consistent and accelerating trend of leftist terrorism. For a legislator to deny the threat and neglect the remedy might once have been chalked up to ignorance; today, it is nothing less than complicity.

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senate testimony knowles

...

The Black Lives Matter riots—overtly leftist demonstrations that left dozens of people dead and over a billion dollars’ worth of property damage—likewise fail to show up on registers of left-wing political violence. Even an attack by Antifa operatives that targeted me personally for my conservative political views appeared in official records and data sets as nothing more than “obstructing law enforcement” on the rare occasion it appeared at all. It turns out the Left commits relatively little political violence when one does not count the political violence that the Left commits. I’m here today to speak about that single, illustrative incident.

On April 18, 2023, I was scheduled to participate in a debate at the University of Pittsburgh on the topic of transgenderism. Before the debate, left-wing protesters gathered outside the O’Hara Student Center, many dressed uniformly in black with face coverings. The demonstration grew to an estimated 300-350 people, who lit the street on fire while burning me in effigy with a miniature mustache drawn on my lip. All because I held the opinion that men cannot become women. I awaited the start of the debate from inside the auditorium and therefore did not witness these events directly, though many were filmed and posted to social media.

But according to an FBI affidavit, at approximately 7 p.m., the demonstrators moved to the front entrance of the student center and prevented vehicles from passing, despite that road’s serving as the main access to the hospital. Buildings in the area were placed on a “soft lockdown.” As the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire put out my burning effigy, an Antifa operative named Brian DiPippa rolled a smoke bomb under police barricades. Twelve minutes later, Dipippa, hiding behind his wife Krystal, lit a second smoke bomb and placed it among the attendees as well as the University of Pittsburgh Police officers who had been called to maintain order. Attendees waiting in line scattered while demonstrators shouted, “Fascists, go home!”

The demonstrators then moved to the side of the building with window access to the auditorium in which my debate was set to begin. Police, seeing the threat, moved to create a barrier between the leftists and the building. The debate moderator, my interlocutor, and I began to walk to the stage one minute after the event’s scheduled start time. But before we reached the stage, we heard an explosion, which caused our security personnel to escort us back into the wings. A demonstrator, later identified as DiPippa, had thrown a lit firework into a group of police officers protecting the rear of the building.

The explosion injured several officers, including severe and life-altering injuries to a female officer. Even the less severe injuries included burns, bruises, hearing loss, and possible concussions. Demonstrators continue to disrupt and threaten us in the auditorium after the event began. Four protesters began to shout, “Trans lives matter!” before security agents escorted them off the premises. Toward the end of the debate, a protester in a hat, sunglasses, and face mask stood up and walked threateningly toward the stage before taking a seat in the second row after the protection team began walking toward her. The debate ended early after campus police notified security personnel inside the auditorium that protests outside were becoming even more destructive, and the campus had issued a “safety emergency” notification.

While Democrat politicians and liberal journalists have sought to downplay and even deny the existence of organized, left-wing terror, the attack at the University of Pittsburgh provides just one example among countless of serious and increasing leftist terrorism. Brian and Krystal DiPippa were not merely two citizens impelled to protest a speaker with whom they disagreed. According to reporting by investigative journalist and Antifa expert Andy Ngo, the DiPippas were members of an extremist left-wing cell that met at the Big Idea Bookstore in Pittsburgh. Such anarchist bookstores operate as meeting and training grounds for left-wing terror attacks. The Torch Antifa Network later claimed the DiPippas as members and offered the opportunity to donate money for them through a tax-exempt non-profit organization.

Thanks to the efforts of a courageous FBI agent who happened to be on the scene, the Department of Justice was impelled to bring charges against the DiPippas. Unfortunately, our justice system gave them only a slap on the wrist. Throwing an explosive into a crowd of people constitutes attempted murder. Justice calls for life in prison. Our justice system sentenced Brian DiPippa to minimal jail time for “obstructing law enforcement.” His wife got off with probation. The federal government must act now to stop the consistent and accelerating trend of leftist terrorism. For a legislator to deny the threat and neglect the remedy might once have been chalked up to ignorance; today, it is nothing less than complicity.

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pix chill dudes smoke

Photos: People protest debate featuring Michael Knowles - The Pitt News

Anti-trans speaker met with protests - Pittsburgh Union Progress

Leah Libresco Sargeant, the chief of staff for debates and public discourse at political depolarization nonprofit Braver Angels, moderated the debate. It was sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and hosted by Pitt College Republicans.

More than 11,000 students signed a petition before the debate demanding Pitt cancel it. In response, Pitt stressed its commitment to the First Amendment. not bs scaife

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police1?

Federal prosecutors said DiPippa ignited and dropped two homemade smoke bombs near people waiting to attend the event, and later threw one at officers trying to keep protesters out of the building. A campus police sergeant told the court she had been knocked down when the device exploded as she tried to bat it away. She said she suffered burns to her legs, hearing loss and back injuries that required surgery.

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regent Square couple indicted in smoke bomb incident at April protest

Thursday, July 6, 2023

By SUSAN JONES

A married couple from Regent Square has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh in connection with the smoke bombs and fireworks that were set off during an April 18 protest outside a transgender-rights debate between Daily Wire host Michael Knowles and libertarian journalist Brad Polumbo at O’Hara Student Center.

More than 150 people were protesting outside the center — where the debate topic was “Should transgenderism be regulated by law?” — when a loud incendiary device was set off. The explosion was later attributed to a combination of a firework and smoke bomb.

Brian DiPippa, 36, and his wife, Krystal DiPippa, 40, were indicted on charges of conspiracy and obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder. Brian DiPippa also was charged with using an explosive to commit a federal felony.

The indictment, issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania, said, “Brian DiPippa ignited and dropped two homemade smoke bomb containers in and around a line of persons waiting to enter the O’Hara Student Center. … The Indictment further alleges that, when Pitt Police officers gathered and formed a barrier to prevent the protesters from entering the rear of the building, Brian DiPippa, concealed by his wife, Krystal DiPippa, ignited and threw a large explosive firework into the group of Pitt officers, causing a loud explosion and injuries to several officers.”

The protest prompted Pitt Police to send out alerts to warn people to stay away from the area. Several buildings were closed before police cleared the scene.

The charges of conspiracy and obstruction of law enforcement carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, a fine of $500,000 or both. The charge of using an explosive to commit a federal felony has a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years imprisonment, with a maximum fine of $250,000.

The FBI and its Joint Terrorism Task Force — of which the Pitt Police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and Pittsburgh Bureau of Police are all members — conducted the investigation leading to the indictment.

A Pitt spokesperson said in a statement: “The University appreciates the diligence of law enforcement agencies that partnered on the investigation into the devices used during demonstrations on campus on April 18. The indictment of the suspects today marks the next step in the process, and we will continue to fully collaborate with federal agencies.”

Although many students were at the protest, Chancellor Patrick Gallagher said shortly after the incident that he didn’t believe everyone involved was affiliated with Pitt.

At the April 20 Senate Council meeting, Gallagher condemned the actions of some demonstrators who he said abused their free-speech privileges. “Let me just be unambiguous: That is an absolutely unacceptable outcome that we saw here.

“Freedom of speech does not mean you get to throw explosive devices at anyone, including responding police officers,” he noted. “It does not mean you get to disrupt and light fires and close roads and deter patients from hospitals and all the other nonsense that we saw Tuesday night.”

Before the transgender debate and appearances by two other conservative speakers on campus, nearly 11,000 people signed an online petition asking Pitt to cancel the events.

Gallagher said on March 23 that a university is not a place to limit or quash ideas, no matter who is espousing them. The student-sponsored events were all paid for by entities outside the University.

In early June, the conservative nonprofit legal group Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter to Pitt saying the $18,000 in security costs the University is seeking from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Pitt College Republicans — which hosted the April 18 debate — violates the two groups’ constitutional rights

The University acknowledged receiving the letter but a spokesperson said Pitt could not comment on it because of “an implicit threat of legal action.”

*Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her atsuejones@pitt.eduor 724-244-4042.

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[###

LIVE: Congressional Hearing on Politically Violent Attacks - 10 ...

YouTube · Right Side Broadcasting Network

37.6K+ views · 6 days ago](https://www.youtube.com/live/-yE7beGh5qI)

[

2:26:35](https://www.youtube.com/live/-yE7beGh5qI)

LIVE: Congressional Hearing on Politically ... Michael Knowles Testifies Before the Senate on the Rise of Left-Wing Political Violence.

Missing: MATTHEW ‎BLM

[### Michael Knowles Testifies Before the Senate on the Rise of ...

YouTube · Michael Knowles

186.4K+ views · 6 days ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzs6dy74Ew8)

Michael Knowles Testifies Before the Senate on the Rise of Left-Wing Political Violence ... Violence During Kash Patel Committee Hearing.

Missing: MATTHEW ‎BLM

[### Political Violence Hearing Senate Judiciary

Rev

https://www.rev.com › transcripts › political-violence-h...](https://www.rev.com/transcripts/political-violence-hearing)

5 days ago — The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing focused on politically motivated violence. Read the transcript here.

[### 4 Takeaways From Knowles' Hill Testimony on Political ...

The Daily Signal

https://www.dailysignal.com › 2025/10/28 › conservati...](https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/10/28/conservative-pundit-shares-close-encounter-with-politically-violent-attacks-senate-panel-hearing/)

6 days ago — Conservative commentator Michael Knowles sounds off on the growing threat of political violence at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing.

Missing: MATTHEW ‎BLM

[### Michael Knowles Challenges Democrats on Political ...

VINnews

https://vinnews.com › 2025/10/28 › michael-knowles-c...](https://vinnews.com/2025/10/28/michael-knowles-challenges-democrats-on-political-violence-at-capitol-hill-hearing/)

6 days ago — Knowles, testifying before a House subcommittee, responded to suggestions that political violence is a “both sides” issue and should not be ...

Missing: MATTHEW ‎CONGRESS

[### JUST IN: Michael Knowles Takes On Seth Moulton's Claims ...

YouTube · Forbes Breaking News

114.5K+ views · 6 days ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bi9G5pE7gk)

5:37

Conservative pundit Michael Knowles delivers his opening statement at today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on political violence.

Missing: MATTHEW ‎BLM

[### 'Booker Left The Room...': Knowles Calls Out Radical Left On ...

YouTube · Times Of India

970+ views · 1 day ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgKwm20BkN0)

8:24

Conservative commentator Michael Knowles' testimony ... Michael Knowles Blasts Dick Durbin For Remarks He Made At A Political Violence Hearing.

Missing: MATTHEW ‎CONGRESS ‎BLM

[### Daily Wire hosts says political violence problem 'lies on the left ...

YouTube · The National Desk

2.6K+ views · 5 days ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZZABbi-E2g)

1:19

During a hearing examining the cause of political violence in America, Daily Wire host Michael Knowles proposed that the issue lies with ...

Missing: MATTHEW ‎CONGRESS ‎BLM

[### Senator Schmitt Announces Additional Witnesses for ...

Senator Eric Schmitt (.gov)

https://www.schmitt.senate.gov › media › press-releases](https://www.schmitt.senate.gov/media/press-releases/senator-schmitt-announces-additional-witnesses-for-hearing-on-politically-motivated-violence/)

Oct 24, 2025 — The witnesses are Michael Knowles, a victim of left-wing violence, Former Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf, and Kyle Shideler, an expert on the ...

Missing: MATTHEW ‎CONGRESS ‎BLM

[### 'The Problem Lies On The Left': Michael Knowles Brings ...

The Daily Wire

https://www.dailywire.com › news › the-problem-lies-o...](https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-problem-lies-on-the-left-michael-knowles-brings-the-heat-to-senate-political-violence-hearing)

5 days ago — 'The Problem Lies On The Left': Michael Knowles Brings The Heat To Senate Political Violence Hearing. “The federal government must act now to ...

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Right-wing media and MAHA figures are celebrating Trump’s Tylenol announcement and pushing unproven claims that vaccines cause autism

Some right-wing media figures celebrated the announcement while others pivoted to claim that “Tylenol is not what’s driving this epidemic” and vaccines are “the primary driver”

Written by Jack Winstanley & Payton Armstrong

Research contributions from Helena Hind & Gideon Taaffe

Published 09/26/25

President Donald Trump’s promotion of an unproven connection between the use of Tylenol during pregnancy and autism has drawn widespread rebuke from world health officials and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, even as right-wing influencers cheered the news, declaring that “what was once dismissed as ‘conspiracy’ is now official policy discussion” in the Trump White House.

Right-wing media personalities and “Make America Healthy Again” acolytes have bolstered the HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-created movement to exploit post-pandemic mistrust of public health infrastructure and pharmaceutical companies. Now, they are celebrating the president’s announcement as “incredibly bold” and the “most decisive action that could be taken.” Others highlighted Trump’s comments about vaccines, with some declaring that “Tylenol is not what’s driving this epidemic” and claiming that vaccines are “the primary driver.”

Trump announced the FDA will notify doctors that the use of Tylenol during pregnancy is linked to autism, leading OB-GYNs to denounce the policy as “not backed by the full body of scientific evidence”}:

MMA //

  1. ### How right-wing media sow distrust and confusion around vaccines and science

09/18/25 3:52 PM EDT

  1. ### Right-wing media downplayed the likelihood of a measles outbreak. U.S. cases just reached a new high since the disease was eliminated.

07/09/25 12:07 PM EDT

  1. ### Fox News completely ignored Senate hearing with ousted CDC director Susan Monarez

09/17/25

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MMA

June 12, 2025, edition of PBD Podcast streamed on YouTube

ADAM SOSNICK (PANELIST): I understand that there's the welfare state in the UK and, obviously, in California, but there's a big difference of people who just came in caravans two years ago, three years ago than people who've been here 10, 15, 20 years, or the children of illegal immigrants that came here 20 years ago--

MICHAEL KNOWLES (GUEST): Well they get to be citizens.

SOSNICK: --now they're 14, now they're 16. But there's a very nuanced discussion here. And I think what gets lost here is go after the gang members, not the gardeners. Okay? Go after the criminals not the construction workers.

KNOWLES: But most of them are economic migrants.

SOSNICK: But they all get kind of lumped in together and that's where we need to have a little nuance here.

MICHAEL KNOWLES: You actually have to go after the gardener I'm sorry to say. I like the gardener I'm sorry that Joe Biden opened the gates to them and and Democrats and some squish Republicans. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that they put them in that bad situation. But most of the people who are coming over are not face tattooed Satan worshiping criminals, though they work with them to get over here. Most of them are not refugees, very few of them are political refugees. Most of them are economic migrants. And so the question is, okay, if we're just gonna say, hey, the economic migrants get to stay and they get a path to citizenship and everyone else has to go, then you are effectively ramping up, not even just continuing, you're ramping up the incentive for that mass migration and you're going get millions and millions more.

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mma

As Trump has done “more to monetize the presidency than anyone who has ever occupied the White House,” a Daily Wire host claims he “hasn't really enriched himself relatively all that much”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published 05/28/25

Peter Baker in The New York Times examined the “breathtaking” scope of corruption in the second Trump administration:

The Trumps are hardly the first presidential family to profit from their time in power, but they have done more to monetize the presidency than anyone who has ever occupied the White House. The scale and the scope of the presidential mercantilism has been breathtaking. The Trump family and its business partners have collected $320 million in fees from a new cryptocurrency, brokered overseas real estate deals worth billions of dollars and are opening an exclusive club in Washington called the Executive Branch charging $500,000 apiece to join, all in the past few months alone.

Just last week, Qatar handed over a luxury jet meant for Mr. Trump’s use not just in his official capacity but also for his presidential library after he leaves office. Experts have valued the plane, formally donated to the Air Force, at $200 million, more than all of the foreign gifts bestowed on all previous American presidents combined.

And Mr. Trump hosted an exclusive dinner at his Virginia club for 220 investors in the $TRUMP cryptocurrency that he started days before taking office in January. Access was openly sold based on how much money they chipped in — not to a campaign account but to a business that benefits Mr. Trump personally.

By conventional Washington standards, according to students of official graft, the still-young Trump administration is a candidate for the most brazen use of government office in American history, perhaps eclipsing even Teapot Dome, Watergate and other famous scandals.

Video

Citation

From the May 28, 2025, edition of The Daily Wire's The Michael Knowles Show

MICHAEL KNOWLES (HOST): And he says — he accuses Trump of just enriching himself or something, turning the government to private interest. That's what Biden did. That's not really what Trump has done. Biden was the one whose son was going around with the open bag to all the most corrupt people around the world taking bribes on behalf of the enrichment of the Biden family.

Trump hasn't done that. In as much as Trump's ventures and properties have increased in value over his time in politics, one, he had four years in the wilderness where he was forced to found a technology and media company because he was booted off of the tech and media platforms that he used to speak on.

But two, he's totally open about it. He's totally transparent about his business interests, and he has long standing decades-old business interests. And he has sacrificed a lot of that for his political service. He hasn't really enriched himself relatively all that much, certainly compared to other other guys like Joe Biden. Joe Biden entered the vice presidency with with something like $100,000 net worth. Now he's worth many, many millions of dollars. And Hunter Biden, who really should not have made any money at all, has made many, many millions of dollars, a lot of it recorded on his laptop and on video. And he's — and according to his texts and and emails, he kicked back a lot of it to the big guy, Joe Biden. So it just doesn't it doesn't play.

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MMA

Michael Knowles: “Do your patriotic duty. Make America great again. You gotta have babies. OK? It's your marital duty. It's your patriotic duty.”

04/24/25

CIGar company founder Michael Knowles asks Trump for a tariff exemption 04/23/25 12:00 PM EDT](https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-knowles/cigar-company-founder-michael-knowles-asks-trump-tariff-exemption)

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MMA

Daily Wire host suggests women should not be allowed to be in military combat or fighting fires

Daily Wire host suggests women should not be allowed to be in military combat or fighting fires

Michael Knowles: “The moment that you say I think men and women can do exactly the same things. And, of course, women should be in military combat ... women should be fighting fires and carrying people out over their backs. And, of course — hold on. No.”

02/26/25

=-==

mma 1 25

January 24, 2025, edition of The Daily Wire's The Michael Knowles Show

MICHAEL KNOWLES (HOST): You might argue that mass migration is — or mass deportation, rather, is wrong. That's what Democrats are arguing. You — and there are even some libertarians and right-wingers who argue that mass deportations are wrong. The one thing you can't argue is that mass deportation is un-American.

I don't know if you guys are history buffs or not. Have you ever heard of the Trail of Tears? I know a lot of people don't defend the Trail of Tears. But that was a mass deportation. That was in, what, 1830? Have you ever heard of Operation Wetback when we actually deported a ton of Mexicans, like a 100,000 or more Mexicans? You might not defend Operation Wetback, in part because of the name because it's an offensive word. 1954. That was a mass deportation.

How about the Palmer raids of all the communists? 1919, 1920, deported, because a lot of the communists were foreigners who were in America deported lots and lots of commoners — communists, rather.

How about the Japanese? We always talk about Japanese internment during World War II. You know, we also deported a lot of Japanese. Again, you might say, well, that was all really terrible. OK. But it's American, though. We sure did. I'm noticing a trend here. How about the Haitians and the Cubans that we deported after the Mariel boatlift in 1980? That was a mass deportation. You say, well, that's wrong. It's anti-American — again, I know. Maybe you don't like it. Maybe you can make an argument that some of these things were unjust. But the one thing you can't say is that it's un-American or anti-American.

Mass deportation is as American as apple pie. OK? We've been doing it for a very, very long time. And, frankly, if you wanna argue that these things were deeply un-American, I would encourage you to look into the details of them, to put yourself in the historical positions of the people making decisions at that time. And I wonder if you wouldn't make the same decision.

In fact, I know the Democrats don't seriously believe that lots of these decisions were were unjust. I just look at Joe Biden. You know, the Japanese internment and deportations occurred on FDR's watch. It was an FDR policy. And so now the libs run their garments and gnash their teeth, and they say this was the worst thing ever. And, you know, they compare it to Hitler's concentration camps. And yet, Joe Biden had a big portrait of FDR hanging above his fireplace in the Oval Office. FDR is still considered one of the great Democrat presidents.

So, anyway, I don't wanna hear it from the libs. It's not American. What are you talking about? These these foreign nationals in our country are not American. The Haitian gang members and the Ecuadorian rapists and the those guys are not American. That's why they gotta go because they're harming Americans.

Trump campaign touts support of Michael Knowles, a leading opponent of “evil” and “immoral” IVF 09/06/24 mma

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  1. ### Michael Knowles defends J.D. Vance: “He says the country is run by childless cat ladies. Show me the lie.”

07/25/24

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earth 2 gaslight lie rep

Daily Wire host Michael Knowles: “The Trump movement has engaged in virtually no political violence ever”

06/26/24

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Michael Knowles claims transgender parents “scandalize” their children and should be imprisoned

05/14/24

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Michael Knowles says the federal government should pay Donald Trump's legal fees | Media Matters for America

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The Daily Wire's Michael Knowles: "White people are the only people who do not see color" | Media Matters for America

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mma 1 24 mg

After decisions in two states ruled that Donald Trump was disqualified from the presidential ballot because he “engaged in insurrection” on January 6, 2021, right-wing influencers called for Republican officials to retaliate in kind by dropping President Joe Biden from the ballot. It took only days for them to find someone willing to play the part: Jay Ashcroft, Missouri’s secretary of state and a candidate for governor.

Ashcroft said last week that he would enforce “the new legal standard” against Biden in his state if the Supreme Court sustains Trump’s removal in Colorado. He probably won’t be the last to make such a pitch given the incentives GOP officeholders have to follow the lead of the party’s media propagandists.

Colorado’s Supreme Court generated a legal firestorm when it ruled in December that Trump is ineligible for office under the 14th Amendment’s ban on officials who “engaged in insurrection,” for his “overt, voluntary, and direct participation” in the storming of the U.S. Capitol by his supporters. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows subsequently removed Trump from the primary ballot on similar grounds. Trump has appealed both decisions, and the Supreme Court said Friday it would review the Colorado ruling.

Prominent conservative legal scholars have argued in favor of Trump’s removal on 14th Amendment grounds. As conservative former federal Judge J. Michael Luttig wrote with liberal Harvard Law professor Lawrence Tribe, “any disinterested observer who witnessed that bloody assault on the temple of our democracy, and anyone who learns about the many failed schemes to bloodlessly overturn the election before that” would agree that January 6 was “an insurrection for which Trump bore responsibility.”

But Trumpist propagandists have spent the last three years crafting a bogus alternate narrative of January 6 in which the rioters were victims of a government conspiracy and the then-president who incited them based on lies did nothing wrong. And so they’ve responded to the rulings in Colorado and Maine by urging Republican officials to bump Biden from the ballot in retaliation.

“Due process is not taken into account any more in America in 2023 and certainly going into 2024, so Republicans should say Joe Biden is off the ballot in all the Republican-controlled-AG states because of his links, clearly, to bribery schemes,” Donald Trump Jr. offered on his Triggered podcast on December 28, 2023. “There's far more evidence of that than an actual insurrection.”

“I want to see a secretary of state in the next couple of days just put out the press release,” Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk said Wednesday. “Joe Biden's not going to be on the primary ballot. He's not going to be on the general election ballot.”

Like Trump Jr., Kirk made clear that any explanation for why a secretary of state would do such a thing would be a pretext, saying, “Shot across the bow. Power dynamics. Fight power with power.”

“We need a red state secretary of state to kick Biden off the ballot now,” Daily Wire podcaster Michael Knowles added Friday morning. “And they can come up with some explanation. It will probably be a more credible explanation than the one that the Democrats have come up with for kicking Donald Trump off the ballot.”

Knowles went on to say that a GOP secretary of state could cite a 2020 tweet by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign asking supporters to donate to a Minnesota bail fund to “help post bail for those protesting on the ground” there following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer.

“Certainly we can say Kamala Harris led an insurrection. She personally fundraised for rioters and criminals who were insurrecting against cities around the country during the George Floyd riots,” he explained. “So OK. Make it Kamala Harris, and then Kamala can't appear on the ticket, and you don't even need to go after Joe Biden.”

The incentive structure on the right is such that once major players like Kirk and Knowles start creating a demand for action, Republican officials will supply it. Ashcroft, who is seeking a promotion to governor but faces a competitive GOP primary against candidates including the state’s lieutenant governor, answered the call later on Friday.

“What has happened in Colorado & Maine is disgraceful & undermines our republic,” the Missouri secretary of state wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “While I expect the Supreme Court to overturn this, if not, Secretaries of State will step in & ensure the new legal standard for @realDonaldTrump applies equally to @JoeBiden!”

He subsequently used the story to direct people to his campaign website, saying on X, “Its time to stand and be counted. The future depends on it.”

It can be difficult to tell whether GOP officials are acting in response to right-wing media figures or if they’re converging on the same idea independently because they’re all swimming in the same milieu of Republican base voters. But notably, when Ashcroft discussed the potential rationale he would use to remove Biden from the ballot in an interview with NBC News, it sounded an awful lot like Knowles’ idea from earlier in the day:

Asked how he would disqualify Biden from the ballot for insurrection, Ashcroft said that he's “let an invasion unstopped into our country from the border.” Vice President Kamala Harris, he added, “supported people that were rebelling against the U.S. government during the riots in 2020,” referring to racial justice protests in the wake of George Floyd's murder.

“If this is the standard, does that suddenly mean she's not allowed to run? None of us can say, because there is no standard,” he said.

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rubber retaliate/mirror

Michael Knowles: "A red state governor needs to have a red state secretary of state kick Biden off the ballot" | Media Matters for America

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Michael Knowles: "I wanna hear every Republican candidate saying, yes, of course, we'll pardon Trump" | Media Matters for America

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Daily Wire host plots to smear Disney: "We need to turn Mickey Mouse into a Nazi" | Media Matters for America

mma 1 24

MICHAEL KNOWLES (HOST): Mickey Mouse has to become a Nazi. He has to. Because Disney is a very, very evil corporation that wants to trans your kids and fill their heads with all sorts of crazy ideas, and Disney's gotta go. Disney's gotta go, guys. You heard all the Disney executives talking about their not-so-secret LGBTLMNOP agenda. }:}:

You've seen what Disney has done in recent years, so much so that the governor of Florida had to take political action against them to stop Disney from trying to interfere in the democratic process in Florida to stop the libs from transing your kids. OK? Disney is really, really bad. And so, one of the best things that we can do right now is make the Disney characters toxic. And coincidentally, call it providentially, whatever it is, the Disney character is now in the public domain.}:

And what this means is we need to turn Mickey into a Nazi because Nazis are bad. We're not gonna turn Mickey into a Nazi because the Nazis are good. You see, I'm quite anti-Nazi. I assume you are as well. In fact, being a Nazi is the worst thing you can possibly be today and for a very long time. So, we need to turn Disney into the worst thing it can possibly be, and it can be done. In fact, I'm shocked that the mischievous people on places like 4chan and other internet boards haven't done this already.

Remember what they did to that cartoon frog? There was that cartoon frog -- this was many years ago. I'm dating myself to think back on the halcyon years of 2016. 2016, which was eight years ago, by the way. In my mind, 2016 was like two years ago. It was eight years ago. But, anyway, back in those days, there was this cartoon frog that a regular cartoonist had made, and it was kind of a popular webcomic. And then these guys on 4chan turned the frog into a Nazi. And since then, the frog has actually, I think, come out of his Nazi phase. I don't -- it's very difficult to track memes because it's -- it's mimetic. Right? It just kind of -- it moves through imitation, and it's -- it's really hard to get your hands on.

But for a while, the frog was a Nazi. And it drove the cartoonist who made the frog completely crazy because the frog became a hate symbol. It was listed on all -- SPLC, ADL, all these different lists. And we can do the same with Mickey Mouse. It's not just enough to make Mickey Mouse a serial killer as you're seeing in these movies. Mickey Mouse has to become the most odious kind of symbol in the entire world. And we have the ability to do it, not using any major institutional power, just through the power of memes by pseudonymous accounts on random internet boards. That's what's gotta happen because Disney's bad, and Disney's gotta go down.

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'Michael Knowles is a hypocrite': Right-wing pundit portrayed gay characters in multiple films - Alternet.org

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mma 11 23

MICHAEL KNOWLES (HOST): Speaking of dictators, the Democrats – they've got a new strategy for taking down Donald Trump. Well, they have a strategy for taking down Donald – the new strategy is the same as the old strategy. It's the strategy that they have been using the entire time to finally take down Donald Trump, and it is to compare him to a fascist dictator.

...

KNOWLES: And so, what's the response? What do conservatives say to this?

I think 10 or 15 years ago, what conservatives would have said is, no, we're not fascists. No, no. We actually – you just don't understand. We support smaller government. And you – and then what that argument – what that rejoinder turned into over time was, actually, Democrats, when you really think about it, you're the real fascists because, you see, you want to wield government power more than we do. So, you're just totally misunderstanding this whole situation because if anyone -- I'm not saying anyone's a fascist here, but if anyone's going to be like a fascist, it's you, not us.

And now do you know what the answer is? Do you know what I think -- at least this is my conservative answer to Joe Scarborough or any other Democrat who knows nothing about political philosophy, who knows, certainly, nothing about fascism, who knows nothing about the American political order as it once was and could be again, my answer is, OK. Whatever, bro. Sure. No, but you're a fascist, you're just like Mussolini. OK. That's fine. I got a little more hair than Mussolini. I don't know. My jaw is not quite as wide, but sure. Fine. OK. Why not? Why not?

Fascism doesn't mean anything anymore. It once, actually, did mean something. And unlike Joe Scarborough or any Democrat, really, at all at the national level, I've read the founding documents of fascism. For goodness sakes, my double major was in Italian literature. There isn't that much to read if you study Italian literature. It's Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, and the fascists. The fascist poets and the theorists and the aesthetic philosophers, and it's people like Marinetti, and Alceste de Ambris, and Giovanni Gentile, and Mussolini and then a bunch of poets in the 20th century. So, yes, I've read all the documents. I'm not a fascist. I don't agree with the premises of fascism. Fascism is much, much more progressive than anything that I believe in. But, sure, you're gonna call me that? Alright. Whatever.

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irs mj bs 11 23

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Michael Knowles: "Prejudice, broadly, is a very good thing" | Media Matters for America

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Daily Wire host suggests a judge allowing a lawsuit regarding Trump's eligibility for office under the 14th Amendment to move forward could result in another civil war | Media Matters for America

Daily Wire host suggests a judge allowing a lawsuit regarding Trump's eligibility for office under the 14th Amendment to move forward could result in another civil war

Michael Knowles: “Civil wars happen. And the liberals would appear to be cultivating the conditions to make it much more likely.”

WRITTEN BY MEDIA MATTERS STAFF

PUBLISHED 10/24/23

CNN reported about a Colorado judge allowing a lawsuit regarding Trump's eligibility for the ballot to move forward:

A judge has rejected three more attempts by former President Donald Trump and the Colorado GOP to shut down a lawsuit seeking to block him from the 2024 presidential ballot in the state based on the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban.”

The flurry of rulings late Friday from Colorado District Judge Sarah Wallace are a blow to Trump, who faces candidacy challenges in multiple states stemming from his role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection. He still has a pending motion to throw out the Colorado lawsuit, but the case now appears on track for an unprecedented trial this month.

A post-Civil War provision of the 14th Amendment says US officials who take an oath to uphold the Constitution are disqualified from future office if they “engaged in insurrection” or have “given aid or comfort” to insurrectionists. But the Constitution does not spell out how to enforce the ban, and it has been applied only twice since the 1800s.

Legal scholars are discussing whether or not former President Donald Trump can be legally removed from 2024 presidential ballots for his role in inciting the January 6 insurrection, citing a clause in the 14th amendment that bars anyone who “engaged in insurrection” against the United States government from serving in public office. Right-wing pundits have blasted the idea as a “vile attack on our elections” and warned that there will be an “insurrection” if Trump is removed from ballots.

:{:{Video}:

CitationFrom the October 24, 2023, edition of The Daily Wire's The Michael Knowles Show

A judge, a Democrat judge in Colorado, has just green-lit a campaign to keep Trump off the ballot in Colorado. This judge, Sarah Wallace, was appointed by the Democrat governor, Jared Polis, and she has denied a motion by Trump and the Colorado GOP to throw out a lawsuit seeking to block Trump from appearing on the ballot in Colorado. And why are they gonna block Trump from appearing on the ballot? Because he's an evil rapist, insurrectionist, Ukraine colluding, Russia colluding, mean old orange man who we really hate and in invisible ink in the Constitution that says that mean orange men can't be on the ballot. I think that's pretty much the substance of the lawsuit. And this Colorado judge says, OK, it can go ahead – or that's the substance of the campaign, rather. And the judge says, yeah, the campaign could go ahead. Sure. OK.

The last time we had a situation like this, I will remind you, was 1860. People sometimes say that in 1860, Abraham Lincoln didn't appear on the ballot in the southern states, which is not quite true because elections were conducted differently than they are today. You didn't have a formal ballot on a computer screen or even just printed out, it was parties who would produce the ballots, and the GOP didn't even invest in the South because they were never gonna win, and GOP was a new party with not a lot of resources. But the effect of it was basically that Abraham Lincoln was not a candidate that one could even really plausibly vote for in a lot of the country. And then when he got elected president, that was a cause of the Civil War because half the country felt that it didn't have any representation, it didn't really have any say whatsoever. This is not an identical situation, but it's pretty close.

If the liberals succeed at kicking Donald Trump off the ballot in 2024, it's going to tell us two things. One, it's going to tell us that Trump is obviously electable. One of the silliest lines I hear is that Donald Trump can't win the general election. He can't win a general election, which I know is false because he won at least one general election. He did. A lot of people who said the same thing in 2016, Donald Trump can never win a general election. They were quite surprised when he won the general election in 2016. But then they use the dubious election of 2020 to say, well, see, now he actually he can't win, although he could. I think he will. I'm just saying he could. So it's going to the fact that the Dems want to keep him off the ballot shows you they don't think it's going to be a slam dunk to defeat him at the ballot box. Even with the vote harvesting, even with the drop boxes, even with all of their nonsense and all of their shenanigans that open the elections to fraud, they still are not convinced they can beat him at the ballot box. So they want to they want to prevent voters from even having the choice at the ballot box. That's the first thing it's going to tell you.

The second thing it tells you is we are dangerously close to not having much of anything in common as a country. We are dangerously close to the conditions that we were at in 1860. And I'm not one of these catastrophists who says that we're always going to be on the brink of civil war, and we're all gonna – I'm certainly not encouraging civil war by any means. But it could happen. Just like people sometimes say, do you think we're living in the end times? My answer is, well, I don't think we are, but someone's gonna be living in the end times. I guess we could be. That's kind of how I feel about civil war. I'm not saying that we're headed for civil war, but we could be. Civil wars happen. And the liberals would appear to be cultivating the conditions to make it much more likely.

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Daily Wire's Michael Knowles claims the white nationalist "great replacement" conspiracy is "an empirical fact" | Media Matters for America

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Michael Knowles says Republicans voting against Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) are "squishes, they're liberals, their saboteurs. They're just awful" | Media Matters for America

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https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-knowles/daily-wires-michael-knowles-suggests-radical-environmentalists-set-maui-wildfires

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https://www.mediamatters.org/mark-levin/fox-news-mark-levin-says-jack-smith-has-started-war-against-country

https://www.mediamatters.org/greg-gutfeld/fox-news-gutfeld-says-indictments-donald-trump-are-payback-being-outsider

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-laura-ingraham-says-donald-trump-was-indicted-january-6-protect-joe-biden-and

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-jonathan-turley-claims-donald-trump-protected-first-amendment-charges-january-6th

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/monica-crowley-they-are-basically-indicting-donald-trump-joe-bidens-crimes

NOT FOX?  https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/steve-bannon-trump-was-doing-his-duty-make-sure-2020-election-had-been-fairly-decided

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https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-knowles/michael-knowles-trumps-third-indictment-they-want-kill-him

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https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-knowles/daily-wires-michael-knowles-science-mostly-fake

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Satan created a “woke mind virus.”

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-figures-prepare-spiritual-war-2024-claiming-their-opponents-are-demonic

no lnx many vid

right-wing media figures prepare for “spiritual war” in 2024 by claiming their opponents are demonic entities

Figures have invoked “demonic portals” and the occult to dehumanize LGBTQ people, perceived political enemies, and others

WRITTEN BY PAYTON ARMSTRONG & NOAH DOWE

PUBLISHED 07/05/23

Right-wing media figures are ramping up apocalyptic political rhetoric that literally demonizes LGBTQ people, perceived political enemies, and progressive causes, with some absurdly suggesting that demons are using portals to enter Earth and wage “spiritual war” against humanity.

Rhetoric about “demonic” influence and an existential, “spiritual” war has become a hallmark of right-wing punditry and Republican politics ​​ahead of the 2024 elections, as Christian nationalism grows in popularity among Republican voters.Language that demonizes and dehumanizes political opponents has been a staple of right-wing commentary for years, but these recent accusations are not simple rhetorical flourishes; a number of media figures have begun to warn their audiences about occult rituals from the left and supposed portals to hell from which demons would enter the Earth. Last year, Trump ally and provocateur Roger Stone even claimed that a “Satanic portal” had opened over the White House after President Joe Biden took office. 

This sort of framing, which posits that political enemies are literal “demons” waging a “spiritual war,” stems largely from a right-wing Christian movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation. For years, the NAR movement has reportedly sought “to take dominion over politics, business and culture in preparation for the end times and the return of Jesus.” Rolling Stone described the core NAR belief in spiritual war in a profile of one of the movement’s leading figures, commentator and self-proclaimed prophet Lance Wallnau:

NAR followers like Wallnau believe that America is specially anointed by God to project Christianity across the globe. And the NAR movement’s followers view foes of their quest as satanic. This is not metaphorical. They hold that the physical world is enveloped by a supernatural dimension, featuring warring angels and demons, and are convinced that demons afflict their enemies on behalf of the devil. The movement holds that these spiritual battles are reflected in earthly politics. As the late NAR founder C. Peter Wagner explained in a striking NPR interview in 2011: “I believe there’s a lot of demonic control over Congress … that needs to be dispersed.”

Fiery rhetoric of a spiritual war coupled with demonization of opponents has created an atmosphere in which violence appears permissible and justifiable to followers. For instance, the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was largely undergirded and inspired by boisterous cries of spiritual warfare from prominent figures on the religious right — including Wallnau — who have conditioned their audiences to consider political violence a legitimate tactic.

Over the last two years, right-wing media figures have increasingly adopted the scorched-earth rhetoric of movements like the NAR, setting the stage for a potentially dangerous political atmosphere in 2024. Here are a number of examples:

Right-wing media figures have suggested that demons are entering Earth, with some claiming they are using actual “portals” to hell

On several occasions, prominent right-wing media figures have claimed that demons are using “portals” to attack conservative causes or even fearmongered that Satan created a “woke mind virus.”

Right-wing media gadfly Roger Stone — who observers have noted has increasingly adopted rhetoric around “spiritual war” — claimed on Eric Metaxas’ Salem radio show that “a demonic portal” had been visible above the White House since Biden’s inauguration. Stone suggested that through the “portal,”demons began to “populate the Biden administration,” arguing “you can’t tell whether they are men or women.”

Video

Citation From a December 11, 2022, video posted to Eric Metaxas' Rumble page:

Salem media host Charlie Kirk said that “we’re in the midst of the most consequential spiritual war” in millennia because “there is no other way to explain the campaign of arson and destruction against our country other than diabolical, spiritually dark influences that are fighting for dominion over this nation.” He also argued that “witchcraft and the occult is a real thing, and there are portals to darkness and you have to be vigilant about this.” Kirk also alleged that Satan had created “the woke mind virus” to destroy America and called on religious leaders to “excommunicate … the demons of the woke.”

Video  an episode of Real Life with Jack Hibbs, aired on Fox Business Network on May 6, 2023

Conspiracy theorist and Infowars host Alex Jones warned that the European Council for Nuclear Research had used the Large Hadron Collider for “satanic rituals” which he claimed “definitely has opened up a gate” to hell and let demons into the Earth “like paratroopers.” Jones has also claimed that an “alien offworld force” with demons as its agents is “working against us around the clock because they know we are about to go from our embryonic level to birthing into the next level.” What’s more, in his trial for defamation of the families of the Sandy Hook massacre, Jones attacked the judge and plaintiffs’ lawyers as “committed to occult ideology of the new world order” and implied they were “demonically possessed.”

Video

CitationFrom the April 11, 2022, edition of Infowars' The Alex Jones Show

Daily Wire host Michael Knowles said of reports of interactions with aliens: “Aliens are just demons for liberals who don't want to admit metaphysical reality."

Right-wing media figures have labeled LGBTQ people, gender-affirming care, and abortion “demonic”

Conservative media figures have also revved up their attacks on trans people, LGBTQ Pride month, and abortion by claiming they are inspired by “demons in our society.”

Knowles — who demanded this year that so-called “transgenderism” be “eradicated from public life entirely” — claimed that trans people are “demonic” and that demons are “always trans.”

Video

CitationFrom the March 14, 2023, edition of The Daily Wire's The Michael Knowles Show

On her prime-time Fox News show, Laura Ingraham referred to gender-affirming care as “a demonic campaign to destroy the natural biological order.”

Daily Wire host Candace Owens called trans people “demons in our society” and smeared “any actor, actress, individual that supports this” as “demonic.” Owens has also argued that surrogacy is “deeply demonic.”

Video

CitationFrom the February 7, 2023, edition of The Daily Wire's Candace Owens

On Fox, now-former host Tucker Carlson used the Covenant School shooting in Tennessee to falsely claim that “the trans movement is targeting Christians, including with violence,” and denounced the trans community as part of “a deranged and demonic ideology.”

On YouTube, BlazeTV’s Liz Wheeler said that “if you took the three most disgusting, demonic ideologies that you could possibly think of and put them all in one flag you would get the trans flag.”

Doomsday prophet and repeat Trinity Broadcast Network guest Jonathan Cahn recently declared that Biden had put the United States under “demonic possession” at the hands of an ancient goddess of “sexual immorality” by lighting up the White House in the colors of the rainbow for LGBTQ Pride.

Two days after a shooter killed five people in a Colorado Springs LGBTQ club,Infowars host Owen Shroyer ran footage of drag queens and questioned whether “these people are even human,” ranting: “Demon possession is real. Satanic agendas are real. I don’t know how else to describe any of this.”

Video

CitationFrom the November 22, 2022, edition of Infowars' The Alex Jones Show

BlazeTV host Steve Deace partnered with far-right Christian filmmakers Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon to produce a right-wing movie that argued humanity is engaged in a spiritual war against demonic forces such as abortion and LGBTQ equality. On his podcast, in an episode titled “Hot Take: Demonic or Democrats?” Deace said that people who advertise drag story hours are “literally inhabited by a demon” and are “a manifestation of a demonic presence.” 

Salem Radio host Eric Metaxas and his guest John Zmirak proclaimed that Satan himself was behind the LGBTQ rights movement, with Zmirak decrying “blasphemous drag queen rituals, in your church, mocking Christ” and comparing the Pride flag to an inverted pentagram, claiming Satan “wants you to use the pronoun they.” Metaxas then warned his audience that if they did not boycott companies that celebrate Pride Month, they would be comparable to Germans who failed to stop the Holocaust, saying, “The death camps were the result of good people saying, ‘I don’t want to deal with this. Just let me live my life.’”

Christian nationalist pastor Jack Hibbs, whose sermons air on Fox Business Network, declared that transgender people are “satanic,” saying that in “the last days there’s going to be doctrines of demons and deceiving spirits. Wonder what that’s going to be like? You’re in it.” Per Right Wing Watch, Hibbs has also claimed that "demonism” has caused public support for trans rights. 

Christian nationalist influencer and repeat Fox guest Sean Feucht has described abortion and the movement for trans rights as demonic, ascribing public support to “demons” and “the demonic spirit.” Feucht is closely associated with prominent NAR movement leaders and “apostles.” 

Right-wing radio host Jesse Kelly said that “we have a society so full of demons that baby murder is now popular” and also referred to the LGBTQ community as “the LGTBQ demon mob.”

Lance Wallnau, a contributor for The Victory Channel’s Christian nationalist show FlashPoint, has repeatedly invoked demons while discussing LGBTQ people. In an April show, Wallnau said that transgender people represent “a fundamental deception” and that accepting them has made society “sympathetic with evil.” Wallnau said that demons target people to make them trans, saying, “I believe a demon comes along that enters into that confusion that affirms that they are the opposite gender.” Per Right Wing Watch, Wallnau also claimed that people become trans because "Satan has taken 'em over with crazy talk about them being in the wrong bodies.”

Video

CitationFrom the April 13, 2023, edition of The Victory Channel's Flashpoint

Right-wing media personalities have also warned that Democrats and other perceived enemies are “demonic” and “satanic”

Far-right Christian media figures and prominent right-wing commentators have told their audiences that the left is engaged with “satanic worship” and “demonic forces,” rationalizing ideological opposition as a product of the “demon-possessed.”

Fox prime-time host Jesse Watters claimed that viewers should be afraid of “demonic teachers” interested in “turning their classroom into a drag show.”

Carlson warned on Glenn Beck’s show that there are “spiritual forces surrounding” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), calling him “a force of darkness.” 

On a FlashPoint broadcast, contributor and pastor Hank Kunneman told viewers that “we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but principalities, powers, spiritual wickedness in high places — you know, demonic entities.” Earlier in the episode, Wallnau said that tragedies in society such as mass shootings should be understood through a lens where “you don’t deal with current events, you deal with a demonic spin cycle.”

BlazeTV founder and longtime conspiracy theorist Glenn Beck proclaimed that the 2020 election was not contested against Democrats, but against “Satan himself,” which he claimed was prophesied to him in a dream. Beck has an extensive history of linking progressives to “the devil” and warning of “demonic” influence.

Disgraced Trump ally-turned-podcast-host Steve Bannon suggested that Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is “satanic” because he “exudes … pure evil” and “hangs with Satanic Groomers.”

During his Christian nationalist ReAwaken America Tour, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn has frequently asserted that there is a “spiritual war” in America. He has also called former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) a “demon.”

Right-wing podcast host Benny Johnson attacked the grand jury forewoman investigating Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference in Georgia, calling her “borderline demonic” and “demon-possessed.” He has also claimed that “you can see demonic forces at work" in Schiff's district, claiming that the congressman is “on the side of the demons.” Johnson has previously embraced the rhetoric of spiritual warfare, saying, “This rabbit hole goes down so far into the occult … This is a spiritual battle. This is a battle of possession, and there are stages of demonic possession, and we are in the oppression stage right now.”

Far-right pundit Stew Peters fearmongered about “SatanCon,” an event that is hosted by “a progressive church that doesn't worship the devil but instead uses the word to get attention,” claiming it was evidence of “full-blown satanic worship” in America. His guest, Sean Feucht, insisted that we are witnessing “the total unveiling of this demonic realm, this demonic spirit.” Feucht then warned that these alleged forces of Satan were “agitated and upset and trying everything they can do to intimidate Christians.” 

On his BlazeTV podcast, Deace called the Democratic Party “a demonic construct, a satanically influenced entity, and a death cult.”

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3x 1 day

https://www.mediamatters.org/daily-wire/michael-knowles-claims-lgbtq-people-are-groomers-who-have-interest-children-because

https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-knowles/daily-wires-michael-knowles-says-trans-people-dont-have-right-job

https://www.mediamatters.org/daily-wire/daily-wires-michael-knowles-calls-banning-evil-pride-flag-every-public-space-forever

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false flag jun 26

https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-knowles/daily-wires-michael-knowles-suggests-neo-nazi-patriot-front-front-federal-law

KNOWLES (HOST): This is Proud Boys met by a group, I think called Patriot Front.It's hard to tell exactly who these people are because they wear masks over their faces. And this is a group -- in recent months, maybe a year, you've seen this group Patriot Front come to the fore and they march and they seem really on the nose. And I think -- I don't -- I've never really heard of this group and I'm pretty in it. You know, it's my job to read about what's going on politically in the United States, and especially on the right.I don't really know anything about these guys. It seems kinda like a, well, it's right there in the name. It seems kinda like a front. You know? We know that federal agents infiltrate these supposedly right-wing grassroots groups. We've seen the memoranda from the FBI. We've seen these guys get caught.

...

So we know this kind of stuff happens. And there's a video of the Proud Boys going up to these supposed American neo-Nazis and saying, get the hell out of here. You guys are not part of us. You're obviously Feds. Go away.

...

Now, look, I don't know if those guys are Feds. I don't know if those guys are there just to try to make the right look bad or -- I -- I really -- I don't know. I don't know. I don't know, I don't really care. However, there is one good piece of evidence that these guys might have -- I'm not saying that they're actual employees of the federal government, but that they might have some kind of connection, you know, to the federal government. One piece of evidence here that they're Feds is from Adam Kinzinger, former Republican member of Congress, who's a total shill for the liberal establishment. He tweets out, he says, these people -- referring to conservative pundits who were laughing about this video -- these people, all blue checks, are celebrating a seemingly MAGA assault on federal officers. Now, I don't know what this really is, but take a gander at the comments of the patriots who love America. And reading that comment, you say, hold on. Wait. You're admitting that Patriot Front is a bunch of Feds? Did you -- Adam Kinzinger, who is not the swiftest politician out there, that's why he's no longer in Congress. Not necessarily the sharpest tool in the shed. He's -- he's out there, he's saying, this is outrageous. All these conservatives are laughing at an attack on federal agents. You say, no, man, you're supposed to pretend that they're not federal agents.

And, anyway, just a reminder that the --you really shouldn't believe everything you read in the liberal establishment papers. Because the -- the reality of what's going on on the right is not the way that it is portrayed. And I think people are beginning to wake up to this, and you're seeing it reflected in the polls and priorities of the real conservatives.

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no lnx twt

Edgelords at risk of falling off: Daily Wire hosts confirm YouTube strikes, suspensions

After stripping advertiser revenue from Matt Walsh’s YouTube channel, the platform suspended Candace Owens and Michael Knowles for violating the terms of service

Special PROGRAMS

LGBTQ

WRITTEN BY ARI DRENNEN

PUBLISHED 06/15/23

In what is becoming a regular series of disclosures, Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing took to Twitter Sunday night to report that podcast hosts Candace Owens andMichael Knowles had both been suspended for receiving second strikes against their accountson Friday and that Jordan Peterson had been given his first. Three strikes against a YouTube account in a 90-day period leads to its termination. 

Matt Walsh’s YouTube account was stripped of advertiser revenue in April for hateful conduct against trans Bud Light model Dylan Mulvaney. Walsh said in a speech denouncing Media Matters that the move had cost him more than $100,000 per month, and he complained that “it doesn’t seem that other channels are being held to this standard right now.”

That seems to be changing: Boreing alleged that “in the last 90 days, our accounts have received 104 violations for ‘Hateful and Derogatory’ content, earning them ‘limited monetization,’” He added that “nearly every one of these violations comes from our coverage of the trans debate.”

The Daily Wire once again credited Media Matters for YouTube’s decision to enforce its existing terms of service, with vice president of public relations Alyssa Cordova sharing an article from March that enumerated the anti-trans hate published across Daily Wire YouTube channels.

In a Twitter thread posted Wednesday, Knowles claimed that he had received a weeklong suspension from YouTube for violations including implying that trans people are “mentally inferior” and referring to Mulvaney using he/him pronouns.

Recent weeks of Candace Owens have featured the personality urging viewers to avoid shopping at Target “or else you’re gay and you’re a pervert,” claiming that “transgenderism” is “a cancer and we should fight it,” and bragging that she could “beat up” a nonbinary Navy service member.

Knowles has argued that banning books and drag queens is “very American,” called to ban the Pride flag and other LGBTQ symbols, and breathlessly warned viewers that “hypnosis pornography” might turn them trans. This dark and dehumanizing rhetoric fits with a larger vision of state violence against marginalized communities.

In his thread about the suspensions, Boreing called out investment firms Blackrock and Vanguard,joining  a larger conservative effort to cancel companies with pro-LGBTQ policies.Peterson called the two companies “sworn enemies” and promised retribution that would make Target and Bud Light “sideshows by comparison.”

Despite the action on YouTube, the DailyWire+ app remains available on the Google Play Store, which says that it disallows “apps that promote violence, or incite hatred against individuals or groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, caste, immigration status, or any other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization.”

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The DailyWire+ app is also available on the Apple App Store, which claims to ban “defamatory, discriminatory, or mean-spirited content, including references or commentary” about sexual orientation and gender, particularly if the app or content “is likely to humiliate, intimidate, or harm a targeted individual or group.” Apple removed Infowars, the podcast hosted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, from the platform in September of 2018, spurring other tech companies to do the same, and severely limiting the reach of Jones’ harmful rhetoric.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/daily-wire/daily-wires-authoritarian-vision-increasing-state-sanctioned-violence-against-oppressed

no lnx vid

the Daily Wire’s authoritarian vision for increasing state-sanctioned violence against oppressed communities

The right-wing media outlet has become increasingly open about using police, prisons, and bans on books and Pride events to carry out its conservative agenda

Special PROGRAMS

LGBTQ

WRITTEN BY JOHN KNEFEL

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM JACINA HOLLINS-BORGES

PUBLISHED 06/13/23

“The law is a teacher,” Michael Knowles said last month as he launched into one of his darkly ministerial rants about punishing trans and LGBTQ people. But for Knowles and his colleagues at The Daily Wire, it seems the law is more like a weapon, and one that they feel increasingly comfortable aiming at their perceived enemies.

This year alone, several of the site’s marquee stars — including Knowles, Matt Walsh, and Candace Owens — have called for massive expansions of the death penalty and the prison-industrial complex, and have celebrated state-backed repression of ideas and freedom of assembly though bans on books and LGBTQ events. Taken together, these calls to expand state capacity to reinforce existing racial and gender hierarchies — by targeting those who deviate from or challenge those structures — articulate a broader ideology, with the unambiguous goal of using state power to make life in the United State intolerable for anyone they label as a disfavored group or organization.

On May 23,the Daily Wire announced that it would begin working in partnership with Twitter to stream its shows for free on the increasingly extremist-friendly platform. It remains to be seen what effect this will have on the Daily Wire’s overall reach, but the move signals the outlet’s potential ascension, or at least aspiration, to serve as an alternative to Fox News. The joint effort with Twitter will also likely increase the ability of Daily Wire hosts to directly affect government policy; for instance, Walsh was an early supporter of a Tennessee bill, now a law, that prohibits gender-affirming care for trans youth. The outlet already has a sizable footprint on Facebook, generating millions of interactions through its anti-trans content. At the same time, YouTube has at times demonetized or suspended Daily Wire shows for violating the platform’s anti-hate speech policy.

Conservative media have historically embraced the rhetoric of small government while simultaneously advocating for expansive “big government” policies that entrench existing inequalities. Right-wing media have long advocated for using state power to control abortion and reproductive rights, to limit marriage rights to heterosexual couples only, to prohibit and penalize the use of racialized drugs, to expand policing in majority Black and brown communities, and to construct racist legal regimes, such as Jim Crow. That suite of policies in no way represents a small or limited vision of government — it exerts tremendous coercive power over individuals’ daily lives.

Current right-wing punditry, especially at the Daily Wire, has abandoned even the fig leaf of small government rhetoric. Daily Wire hosts now openly embrace the power of the state to punish, imprison, and kill those under its control, as the examples below —  all from this year alone — demonstrate.

The Daily Wire’s approach to the death penalty: “Just execute them all”

Among Daily Wire hosts, Walsh is the most open in his desire to use state power to execute people he has deemed undesirable. As Media Matters previously reported, Walsh praised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for signing a bill in early May that would expand the death penalty as a potential punishment for people convicted of sexual assault of a child younger than 12. The new law is in direct violation of Kennedy v. Louisiana, a Supreme Court case that ruled the death penalty is available as punishment only if the offender murders the child as well.

Walsh’s endorsement of DeSantis’ new law needs to be understood within the larger campaign right-wing media have waged against LGBTQ communities. Over the last year, conservative pundits have resurrected the myth that gay people, trans people, nonbinary people, and drag performers are a threat to children, referring to them as “groomers” and “pedophiles.” Florida’s expansion of the death penalty under the guise of protecting children is in fact an extension of the state’s totalitarian project to eliminate trans people from public life all together, a goal that Daily Wire hosts share.

Video

CitationFrom the May 2, 2023, edition of the Daily Wire's The Matt Walsh Show

In discussing the new law, specifically in the context of the Kennedy decision, Walsh celebrated the fact that in theory “we don't have to make choices” between executing murderers and child sex abusers. “We can execute all of them.”

“We should be able to, anyway. Execute all the worst people, all of the worst criminals. Just execute them all,” he added. “And this is the right first step. There's a lot more that needs to be done. I mean, this is actual criminal justice reform.”

Walsh then justified his policy on the grounds that long-term imprisonment is costly, when in reality, studies have consistently found that the death penalty is more expensive than life-without-parole sentences. “I would say that along with everything else, it is an unjust and undue burden on society,” Walsh said. “You know, as a taxpayer, I should not be required to keep child rapists alive just because we're too squeamish to execute them as we should.”

He then proposed further cutting costs by abolishing the criminal appeals process for these cases altogether.

“And if we're really starting to understand that society — if we're really starting to reform the system, you know, then we're going to start talking about not only are we executing these people, but we're doing it quickly. We're not giving them 30 years to appeal, OK? The conviction is passed down, you're convicted, you're guilty, you've been found guilty, and then the execution is carried out the next day — how about, carried out at dawn following the conviction.”

Walsh had made similar comments in February. After describing what he sees as a vast conspiracy in the medical community to cover up the harms of gender-affirming care — which is in fact safe and associated with positive health outcomes — Walsh outlined his preferred remedy.

“The next step under a Trump administration, or any Republican administration, should be to arrest the culprits, the hundreds and hundreds of them, if not thousands of them, and throw them in federal prison,” Walsh said. “Now, this can't be a matter of simple fines and financial penalties – I mean, that should be part of it. But the only real recourse here, the only semblance of justice, would be prison sentences, very long ones.”

“Now, if it were up to me, you know, we'd go further than that,” he continued. “As far as I'm concerned, mutilating and castrating children should be legally considered a capital crime and it should earn the prescribed penalty for such crimes. But if we can't have that, then prison will have to suffice.”

Walsh’s bloodlust doesn’t end there. He has advocated for expanding the death penalty to include people convicted of selling illicit drugs, a position he shares with former President Donald Trump. In his May 18 episode, Walsh read a news story about the spread of xylazine, a tranquilizer that is sometimes combined with illicit drugs, including fentanyl.

Video

CitationFrom the May 18, 2023, edition of The Matt Walsh Show

“The people that are actually selling this stuff, the people that are responsible for turning our cities into zombified wastelands, we should be discussing much more severe penalties for them,” Walsh said. “And when I say, ‘much more severe,’ I mean the most severe penalties — the death penalty.”

“It is a form of murder,” Walsh added. “You’re giving these drugs — the fact that they want it doesn’t make it any different, doesn’t make it better. You are killing people en masse and the distributors of these drugs are mass murderers, there’s no question about that, and they should face the penalties prescribed for that.”

Walsh isn’t the only Daily Wire host who sees the salutary effects of expanding the death penalty. His colleague Knowleshas called for the return of public executions, which “would do a lot to bring back the deterrent effect of capital punishment, certainly,” a position he shares with other conservatives.

Hangings in the town square, or their contemporary equivalent, would also have the added benefit from Knowles’ perspective of foregrounding Christianity in public life. “And so, we live our lives trying to put it out of our head. But death is very important,” Knowles said. “It's one of the four final things — death, judgment, heaven, and hell. You're living your life as a preparation to die, and you need to be prepared for your death.”

In May, Knowles offered his own circumscribed support for DeSantis’ bill to expand the death penalty, again appealing to the Bible’s authority.

“Ron DeSantis says we’re challenging that now if you rape a child, pretty much the most heinous crime you can imagine, you get the death penalty. Totally agree with that in principle,” Knowles said. “I see no problem with that in principle. I see no problem with the death penalty in principle. In fact, I think it's quite natural, biblical.”

Knowles' hesitancy was due to his fear that the law could create unintended incentives, but he had no compunctions about the morality of it.

“I don't actually agree with this particular instantiation of the death penalty in practice,” he said. “In principle, I do. But in practice, the only reason I don't is that as a matter of prudence, if you don't kill child rapists, if you, if the punishment is not execution, then it creates some incentive for the rapist not to murder his victim. So if there's any way that through the law, we can incentivize a rapist not to murder his victim, I think that's probably wise and prudent. In principle, they deserve death, certainly.”

Daily Wire hosts frequently find inspiration from some of the world’s most oppressive legal punishment systems. In late May, Knowles criticized a New York Times tweet about a new anti-LGBTQ law in Uganda, claiming that the paper’s social media post had implied that the death penalty could apply to all gay people in the country.

“The death penalty is not for just being a little light in the loafers; the death penalty is for raping children,” Knowles said. He then contrasted the Twitter post to the Times’ print article, which foregrounded that aspect of the new law and clarified what the social media feed elided.

“The New York Times is defending Ugandan child rapists to own the cons,” he added, referring to conservatives. “Now call me a hardliner if you want, but I think it is not unreasonable to execute child rapists.”

“Attempted child rape only gets 14 years in prison,” he continued. “If anything, that aspect of the law is too lenient.”

Walsh praised the law as well, calling for its universal implementation and doubling down on his call to expand the death penalty beyond capital offenses. “This should be happening everywhere,” Walsh said. “Of course child rapists should be put to death. The idea that you can only put someone to death if they also kill their victim — it’s absurd, really. It’s an absurd idea.”

The Daily Wire’s vision for using police and prisons against its enemies: “We have to stop them aggressively, by force, by law.”

The death penalty is the ultimate form of state violence, but not the only one. As the above examples demonstrate, Daily Wire hosts frequently fantasize about incarcerating their declared enemies for extraordinary lengths of time.

Walsh hands out theoretical prison sentences with all the gusto of a tyrant-in-waiting. In addition to demanding mass arrests of LGBTQ health care providers and people who sell drugs, he also called for “life sentences for those who falsely accuse someone of rape because to falsely accuse someone of rape is just as bad as being a rapist,” specifing on Twitter that life sentences should be “mandatory.”

After the singer Lizzo defied Tennessee’s ban on drag shows, Walsh tweeted: “Throw her in jail.” He tweeted that a middle school teacher who gave her kids an LGBTQ-themed book “deserves to be in prison.” When college students protested an appearance by anti-trans activist Riley Gaines, Walsh wrote: “They all should be expelled and thrown in prison.”

During his June 2 show, Walsh illustrated how he repurposes anti-LGBTQ language to demand the imprisonment of the Daily Wire’s other enemies — in this case, a teacher giving students a sex ed lesson. Walsh played a clip of a teacher describing some of the basics of human sexual anatomy and then explaining that some big box stores sell sex toys.

“I can keep saying it and sounding like a broken record, but I will say it every time — that woman should be in prison. That should be a prison sentence,” Walsh said. “That’s the next step, the next phase — or it should be, for Republicans. There’s been a real effort to ban this kind of discussion from classrooms, which is good, but next we need to start saying that the teachers who engage in this behavior are sexual predators.”

“You are preying sexually on kids. You need to go to jail for that” Walsh added. “We will know that some semblance of sanity has been restored to this country when we see a video like that, but instead of just cutting off, it ends with police officers walking into that room, putting that disgusting predator in handcuffs, and carting her out of the room, and then throwing her into a jail cell. Throwing her into a cage like an animal.”

Far and away, Walsh directs most of his carceral demands at LGBTQ communities. On June 6, he reacted to a video of the West Hollywood Pride parade by saying every participant, and potentially every spectator, should be imprisoned for life. “In a functioning, civilized society, everyone involved in that parade — really a combination of public indecency and child abuse — would be arrested and never let out of prison.”

In March, Walsh laid out a typically vengeful fantasy of how to deal with parents who brought their children to an all-ages drag show.

Video

CitationFrom the March 2, 2023, edition of The Matt Walsh Show

“There are varied motivations for all of these adults,” who either performed at or attended the show, Walsh said. “But one thing that they all have in common is that they should all be sitting in a prison cell right now, and we will know that we have restored some semblance of sanity and dignity in our culture when — but not until — we start seeing law enforcement officers swarming these kinds of events, handcuffing every adult in the room, and frog marching them out of the building and into a prison cell.”

He then endorsed submitting drag performers to the very real threat of sexual violence at the hands of other incarcerated people or guards. “You can take the drag perverts, in their thongs, and just throw them right in the jail. We’ll see how sexually expressive they want to be in that environment,” Walsh continued. “And then you take the kids away from the parents, and you throw the parents into jail right alongside them.”

“That’s how we have to respond, because these perverts are not going to stop on their own. They will only get more brazen,” he concluded. “We have to stop them aggressively, by force, by law. And that’s why we need every Republican presidential candidate for 2024 to promise a federal ban on these child drag shows.”

Walsh isn’t the only Daily Wire host who frequently demands that parents lose custody of their children and face prison time if they have attended an LGBTQ event. On March 3, Knowles called for “the heavy hand of the state” to separate families, jail parents, and shutter businesses that host drag events.

Knowles called for “the heavy hand of the state” to separate families, jail parents, and shutter businesses that host drag events.

“I don't see how these parents should be permitted to keep their children,” Knowles said. “They're abusing their children. They're sexually abusing their children by taking them to these events.”

“I don't see how whatever company is hosting this should be allowed to keep its doors open,” he continued. “All of this should be shut down by the heavy hand of the state. All of these people, other than the children, should be arrested and some of them should face pretty severe consequences.”

Knowles used the phrase again on June 8, also targeting LGBTQ people and organizations that support them. “We need the heavy hand of the state to go in, as our duly elected representatives, and break up that Pride cartel,” he said.

In May, Knowles reacted to a TikTok post calling for civil disobedience from trans people and their health care providers to protest anti-LGBTQ laws in Mississippi. “If they do that, then we need to give them what they ask for,” Knowles said. “If they do that — say, ‘We’re gonna break the law, consequences come what may’ — we need to throw them into prison. And that’s going to be the next step.”

Video

Citation From the May 19, 2023, edition of The Daily Wire's The Michael Knowles Show

“Signing the legislation is really really great, and it’s good stuff for the Republican governors who have done that and legislatures that have done that, but now, when people break the laws, when they peddle porn to kids in elementary schools, when they trans the children — we’re getting reports that in Texas Children’s Hospital some of these quacks perform sex change procedures on kids as young as 11, OK?” Knowles continued. “When these people break the law, we need to throw the book at them.”

Knowles then mischaracterized former Marine Daniel Penny’s killing of Jordan Neely, a Black unhoused subway performer, to further articulate whom the law should punish and whom it should protect. “We’re now living in a system in which if you’re a good American Marine who has served your country, you’re a good patriot and you protect people from a career-violent criminal with dozens and dozens of arrests, including for assault, and you protect them from a guy who’s saying, ‘I’m going to kill an F, I’m gonna kill, I don’t care, I’m prepared to die,’ you’re gonna go to prison — they’re going to throw the book at you.”

“But if you chop off kids’ genitals, you’re not even going to get a slap on the wrist, OK? We’re living in that system right now,” Knowles concluded. “And we need to flip that situation. We need to live in a system that does not punish people for doing good things, but encourages them to do good things. And we need to live in a system that punishes people for doing bad things — very, very bad things, in this case.”

Fellow Daily Wire host Owens has also called for people who provide gender-affirming care to trans youth to be imprisoned and prevented from practicing medicine. On May 16, Owens discussed a video from a TikTok personality named Zaya who described the challenges she faced following bottom surgery.

Owens has also called for people who provide gender-affirming care to trans youth to be imprisoned and prevented from practicing medicine

Owens blamed Zaya’s transition on the so-called social contagion effect — an anti-trans fiction that has been debunked — concluding that “Zaya was then harmed by a doctor who should be in prison. I believe that if you are chopping off people’s penises you should probably be in prison and you should not be allowed to practice medicine at all.”

Like her Daily Wire colleagues, Owens doesn’t limit her calls for harsh prison sentences to LGBTQ communities. She joined Knowles in invoking Neely as an appropriate target of state power, arguing that his previous arrest record showed the state had been too lenient in doling out punishment, and that subjecting Neely to custodial measures amounting to torture would’ve been in his own self-interest.

“So, yes, if he had been locked up and in solitary confinement — which is where I would have put him if I was running that city — then he would still be alive. He would be,” Owens said. “Someone that has 44 arrests over 10 years is someone to me that does not deserve another chance, OK? He should have been locked up permanently about 40 arrests ago.”

In addition to Owens’ extreme and tyrannical proposition that four arrests should result in lifetime imprisonment, it’s worth underscoring how dictatorial her concept of judgment and sentencing is. She imagines how she would respond “if I was running that city,” articulating a revealing conceptual slippage that transforms an elected mayor into a totalitarian ruler who also occupies the role of judge and jury.

The Daily Wire’s desire to control adults’ behavior extends to their imagined subjects’ media consumption habits as well. On at least two occasions this year, Walsh has called for a ban on pornography. In one instance he proposed imprisoning people in the industry.

On May 3, Walsh discussed a Utah law mandating age verification to access Pornhub in the state. Industry representatives and free speech advocates opposed the law on the grounds that the law was unconstitutional and counterproductive to its stated goals of protecting minors. Walsh responded to the objections by calling for a total ban on pornography under threat of prison.

“It behooves you, if you’re a porn enthusiast or if you’re someone who is involved in the porn industry — it behooves you to figure out a way to keep this filth away from kids, because if you can’t figure it out then the next step is that it’s all banned,” Walsh said. “And then anyone involved in Pornhub goes to prison. How about that?”

“I’d be fine with just skipping right to that part, but if we’re not, then I think this is a reasonable compromise,” he continued.

Walsh returned to the topic on May 30 in a segment dedicated to porn’s supposed responsibility for the purported decline of testosterone in men in the United States, and what he argued was the lower birth rates that resulted from it.

“If our political leaders wanted to take a serious step to increase fertility rates, by the same token, they could start passing laws to help free the population, especially the young male population, from the stranglehold that the porn industry has on it,” Walsh said.

The overt desire for centralized, discretionary carceral power also finds expression in the Daily Wire’s collective adoration of El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele. Just as Knowles found common ground with Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ law, Daily Wire hosts have repeatedly praised Bukele, a right-wing authoritarian who has dramatically expanded his country’s carceral system by building a so-called “mega-prison” under the pretext of addressing gang violence.

Daily Wire hosts have repeatedly praised Bukele, a right-wing authoritarian who has dramatically expanded his country’s carceral system by building a so-called “mega-prison”

Knowles celebrated the new prison — which is rife with human rights abuses — at least three times this year, including arguing in February, “We in the United States need to follow the lead of the government of El Salvador.”

Owens echoed him in early March. “You would think that America should look at this and applaud it and say, ‘We need this,’ because crimes are getting so insane in America,” she said.

Days later, Walsh struck the same note. He began by discussing a Financial Times report that found the prison was “overcrowded by design” and if filled to its expected capacity would provide space that “is a fraction of what is expected for humane incarceration and less than half the minimum required under EU law to transport midsized cattle by road.”

Video

CitationFrom the March 8, 2023, edition of The Daily Wire's The Matt Walsh Show

After playing footage from inside the prison aired by CNN, Walsh commented, “This is actually justice,” before affirming the prison’s cruelty as a desirable feature.

“Prisons are not supposed to be comfortable,” he added. “They are supposed to be the kinds of places that you really don’t want to go to. It’s supposed to be a punishment. You’re supposed to suffer when you’re in prison. That’s what punishment is meant to do. It is meant to cause suffering.”

“Not just suffering for its own sake but for a purpose — and the purpose ultimately is justice,” he continued. “There is no such thing as justice if you are not causing suffering to evildoers.”

The next month, Walsh pushed for authorities in the United States to construct “50 new prisons” to produce exactly that type of suffering. “And if you don't have the money for it,” he suggested, “then raise the taxes in these cities.”

The Daily Wire’s totalitarian drive to outlaw same-sex marriage and adoption, criminalize gender-affirming care, and "ban transgenderism entirely”

Sometimes the Daily Wire hosts’ threats of state violence are implicit, rather than overt. The network’s on-air talent frequently calls for bans of various sorts — typically of books or events associated with LGBTQ communities and identities, or of institutions that provide health care to trans people. In these cases, the repressive apparatus of the state looms in the background, its coercive power unstated but omnipresent.

On June 8, Walsh hyped a hoax he performed on a healthcare provider for trans people, then laid out his desired consequences. “Several states now have more than enough justification to issue subpoenas to these telehealth providers to see just how fraudulent their operations really are, and how far this goes,” he said.

Back in early February, Walsh responded to Minnesota trans activist Amber Mom expressing her fear that her state — which she described as relatively accepting — could pass bans on trans health care and her resulting desire to “flee the country.” To Walsh, that was a desirable outcome.

If Mom is “doing that, you know, in part in response to some of the laws that were — that are being passed around the country, then I consider that another great benefit of those laws,” he said.

Later that month, Knowles praised an anti-trans bill in Kansas that, in his words, was “a beautiful bill because it doesn't just say don't trans the kids,” but because “it bans transgenderism for all practical purposes in the state for everybody.”

“I love this bill because it is so much more aggressive than the other bills we've seen,” Knowles added, repeatedly using the phrase, “You have to ban transgenderism entirely.”

In addition to the existing onslaught of state bills targeting LGBTQ communities, Knowles frequently advocates for even more extreme laws.

On May 21, Knowles argued against adoption rights for same-sex couples, saying “we should outlaw” surrogacy.

Three days later, Knowles elaborated on his point. He read a paragraph in a news item about two married Black women who were struggling to find a Black sperm donor, and reiterated his arguments for prohibiting same-sex adoption while strongly implying that same-sex marriage should be illegal too.

“Whatever laws we need to pass to make that paragraph unintelligible, or less intelligible than it already is, to make it implausible in society — we need those laws,” Knowles said. “‘A woman and her wife’ — that is not real. That is not a semantically meaningful phrase. That is not the sort of thing that ought to be culturally accepted or understood, and it certainly shouldn’t be legal.”

He added that donating sperm is “extremely disordered and obviously should be illegal.”

“How are we going to fix that?” Knowles asked later in the segment. “Are we going to fix that by boycotting the sperm banks? Are we going to fix it by boycotting USA Today? No. We can wield our cultural and commercial power. The only way to fix that is by wielding political power.”

“The only way to fix that is by changing the law and then enforcing the law and then having the law be a teacher and changing the culture in the process,” he concluded.

During the same show, Knowles implored the conservative movement: “The Pride flag symbol, we need to make that toxic,” and then “to bring in the cavalry, we've got to come back in with more political force to ban some of this stuff and to say no.”

The next day, Knowles celebrated Montana’s new law banning drag shows for children, commenting: “That’s great news. Keep it up Montana.”

In addition to pushing to use state power to control acceptable family formations and social functions, Knowles repeatedly expresses his desire for the state to ban books. In April, Knowles defended banning books and LGBTQ events, as well as sodomy laws, by appealing to the United States’ history of discriminating against gay and trans people.

“Banning books is very American. Banning drag shows is obviously very American,” Knowles said.

“All sorts of weird sexual behaviors were illegal in the United States until the Supreme Court invented some right to do weird sex stuff in the mid-2000s, OK?” he added. “So, it is deeply, deeply American to proscribe this sort of weird behavior.”

The examples go on. “If the book is being banned by just and wise and prudent authorities, then maybe don't read the book,” he said in January. DeSantis’ book bans are “something he deserves praise for,” Knowles said in March. In May, he appealed to biblical precedent to support not only banning books, but burning them as well.

Punishment, conformity, and control

The Daily Wire’s articulated philosophy is one of discipline, punishment, and conformity, rigidly and ruthlessly enforced by state power. The mechanisms of achieving the Daily Wire’s desired society are prisons and police, to be deployed against internal enemies who challenge these hosts’ authoritarian, theocratic vision of society.

Walsh, Knowles, and Owens are very clear about the future they want. Those who want something different — a society that is more just, more equal, and more free — need to be just as clear in their opposition.

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see reawaken anti-semite, seems like far rt trying to out-nazi each other?!

https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-knowles/daily-wires-michael-knowles-i-would-probably-happily-burn-many-books

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https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-knowles/daily-wires-michael-knowles-warns-hypnosis-pornography-will-lead-transgenderism

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https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-knowles/daily-wires-michael-knowles-**calls-indictments-prominent-criminal-libs**-you-should

mma 3 23

MICHAEL KNOWLES (HOST): Pretty much every campaign finance matter is bogus because money is fungible. So if you give X amount of money to a candidate's campaign committee, that can land you in prison. But if you give ten times that amount of money to a Super PAC, that's totally fine. If one group gives money, it's okay. If an individual or a different group gives money that can be a big problem. So it's all basically bogus. But the reason this is especially bogus is that Trump is the candidate and candidates can give as much money to their campaigns as they want.

So even if the prosecutors in New York argue that this was an improper donation to the campaign -- maybe it was done through a kind of improper channel, maybe the paperwork was a little bit off. But it's still Donald Trump donating to his own campaign. It's so patently absurd. It's so obvious that the Democrats here just want to stop the people from having a chance to re-elect Donald Trump because they're afraid that if Trump can appear on a ballot, they're afraid that if Trump can mount a real presidential campaign, that the people will vote for him. And so they're doing everything they can - they tried to disqualify him using the 14th Amendment. They tried to -- they had multiple suits to try to keep him off the ballots in different states around the country. They have tried to impeach him multiple times. They tried -- now they're trying to lock him into prison, from which place he could still run for president, but it obviously would hurt his campaign if he were stuck in a jail cell instead of holding rallies.

It's so obvious that these guys fear Trump and want to do everything they can to prevent the people from having a choice-- that this is the silver lining of this whole storm cloud. The silver lining is that I think we can finally dismiss, once and for all, all the ridiculous piffle that the Democrats tell us about our sacred democracy. Our -- Donald Trump and the Republicans are a threat to our sacred temples of democracy, our cherished norms. We don't act like this in America. We are better than this. No, you're not better than this. You're breaking all the norms. You are undermining our allegedly sacred democracy. You're jailing your political opponents like a two-bit dictator in a banana republic, which some of us conservatives have observed for a long time.So, okay, that's how they want to play, fine. I do not want to hear it anymore about our sacred democracy or any of that other stuff. Don't want to hear it one little bit.

What should the Republicans do in response? I think that a Republican governor or, more precisely, I guess a Republican attorney general, should arrest a prominent criminal lib. There is no shortage of candidates of prominent liberal politicos who have committed crimes. Look around the Clinton circles. Look around the Biden circles. Look at Clinton and Biden themselves. Plenty of big criminal libs out there who have completely gotten off the hook. And there are plenty of Republican governors and attorneys general out there -- I think you would need a Republican governor as well as an attorney general, because if the attorney general indicts a big prominent criminal lib and there's a Democrat governor, the Democrat governor will apply political pressure or eventually, probably, just pardon the criminal lib. So I think you need to have a Republican governor there as well.

But let's do it. Let's -- let's indict a big criminal lib. Let's -- let's indict two of them. That they are going after our guy, let's go after five of their guys. There's no risk here. Some people push back against this suggestion. They say, well, we're better than them, Michael. We're -- yeah, sure. I think we are better than them. I'm not suggesting we do anything illegal or unjust. I'm not saying we go after an innocent lib, I'm saying we should go after a criminal lib against whom the law has not been applied. The argument against doing that is that we want topreserve our norms and we don't want to live in a country where we throw the vanquished political opposition into orange jumpsuits. I agree. I don't want to live in that country.But the only reason for which we should be concerned about that norm is if the norm continues to exist. The libs are breaking that norm, that's not our fault. We have nothing to say. We're saying don't violate the norm. Don't -- don't start arresting the opposition leaders in our country. But if they're going to do that, then we've got to play the game. Otherwise we're just surrendering to the people who are abusing our political system the most.

So, okay, they want to indict Trump? Fine. I want to see every Republican governor and attorney general with the political capital, with the power to do so, to indict prominent criminal libs. And I think you should indict multiple and you should throw the book at them and you should find every stupid little fake misdemeanor charge and you should trump it up as high as you possibly can. Okay? You -- the reason that you have to do this, the reason this would be good for our political order is because it would show the libs that there are consequences to their actions. It would discourage further predations on our political order.

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https://www.alternet.org/michael-knowles-portrayed-gay-characters/

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https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-knowles/daily-wires-michael-knowles-calls-bringing-back-public-executions

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an 3 23

no lnx pix

Alexander Hinton, Rutgers University - Newark

In early March 2023, I mixed with the Make America Great Again faithful at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference – a popular meeting, often known as CPAC, for conservative activists and political figures.

I walked, ate and sat with the attendees at the National Harbor in Maryland over the course of four days. Many of them were dressed in MAGA and pro-Trump gear such as sequined hats and shirts that said things like “Trump won” the 2020 election. A few had tattoos of Trump’s face.

Media reports show that CPAC, which did not publicize the number of attendees, had lower-than-normal attendance and fewer high-profile sponsors.

Approximately 62% of CPAC attendees participating in a straw poll said they support Donald Trump for president in 2024.

Understanding CPAC

Many commentators and others have labeled CPAC extremist. The program was loaded with sometimes incendiary figures reviled by the left, including Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, as well as former Trump political advisers Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller.

I am a scholar of extremism in the United States and went to CPAC for two reasons. First, I wanted to hear firsthand what conservatives, and especially Trump followers, said. At a time of high political polarization, it is important to understand different positions.

Second, almost half of people in the U.S. fear political violence and civil war. I wanted to take the pulse of the conservative right and assess points of division ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

The conference’s theme was “Protecting America Now.” Who and what were the perceived threats? And, amid the polarization, was there any common ground shared by conservatives and liberals?

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I discovered five frequent demons at the conference: there were China’s Communist Party and border criminals – including Mexican drug cartels and undocumented immigrants. “Radical left Marxists” and the ideologies of “wokism” and “transgenderism” were also frequent targets.

While I also found a few glimmers of hope for political common ground between the left and right, it was apparent that Trumpism – and the election denial, misinformation and scapegoating that come with it – is stronger than some think and, I believe, remains a threat to U.S. democracy.

A man in a wheelchair goes past a booth in a convention room that says 'Believe in America, not the media.'

CPAC attendees visit booths promoting political groups and products for sale.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

China

China was one of the biggest common enemies identified at the conference. Just days after senior U.S. intelligence officials said that China is the United States’ biggest national security threat, speaker after speaker at CPAC harped on this theme.

The first day included panels titled “Caging the Red Dragon” and “No Chinese Balloons Above Tennessee.”

Such language plays to the growing number of Americans who view China as the country’s biggest enemy.

Border criminals

The focus on China connected to another target at the conference – Mexican cartels that engage in human and drug trafficking. This includes groups that bring fentanyl – a drug that is Chinese-manufactured or made from Chinese-produced chemicals – into the U.S.

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Many speakers accurately noted the staggering number of fentanyl deaths in the U.S., including over 100,000 overdose deaths in 2021. But they did so in often apocalyptic terms.

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They were quick to blame the Biden administration, ignoring that these issues have a long history and also existed under former President Donald Trump.

The crisis, CPAC speakers said, includes large numbers of undocumented migrants crossing the border – who they sometimes derogatorily referred to as“illegal aliens.” Oddly, those crossing the border were depicted both as victims of the violent cartels and as criminal and economic threats to Americans.

American Marxism

CPAC speakers and attendees spotlighted what they saw as equally dire demons lurking within the country.

“Radical leftist Marxists” – a stand-in for all Democrats – stood at the top of the list. These leftist radicals, CPAC speakers suggested, were intent on turning the U.S. into a socialist country like China in which the state controlled bodies and minds and quashed individual rights and freedoms.

The Democratic Party “hates this country,” Fox TV personality Mark Levin claimed on the CPAC stage.

“This American Marxist movement,” he continued, his voice raising, “took off big time during COVID” and then “rode the wave of Black Lives Matter, Antifa and the cop-hating, to advance this racist, Marxist, bigoted, socialist, anti-American agenda – which is everything today the Democrat Party today stands for!”

The crowd responded with loud applause and cheers – ignoring that these often repeated claims have little basis in reality.

Wokism

This anti-American agenda, Levin and other CPAC speakers argued, was illustrated by “wokism.”

Being woke generally means understanding societal issues like racial and social justice. But CPAC speakers, who didn’t define the term, suggested that these efforts were really part of a “radical leftist” plot to control what people think and say – an idea that the right has derided as “political correctness” in the past.

‘Transgenderism’

There was also an emphasis on gender and the perceived threat of transgender people. Some of the anti-transgender sentiment was casual, such as when Rep. Gaetz quipped, “We had to spend four, five days asking the Chinese spy balloon what its pronouns were before we were willing to shoot it down.”

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Perhaps the most strident remarks were made by conservative political commentator Michael Knowles, who stated, “for the good of society … transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely.”

Despite his inflammatory language and use of “transgenderism,” a derogatory term suggesting that transgender people have “a condition,” Knowles received loud applause.

So, too, did other speakers who disparaged transgender identity – an issue that has become a culture wars flashpoint.

The Anti-Defamation League, among other human rights groups, has shown that the idea transgender people are predatory “groomers” or pedophiles is false and is being circulated by some Republicans only for political gain.

In March 2023, Tennessee became the first state to pass a law that restricts drag performances in the presence of children – a move that likely violates the First Amendment’s free speech protection and, in my view, is based on fear, not facts. Other Republican-led states are considering anti-drag legislation.

A large crowd of people look toward a screen that shows a white man in a dark suit. Next to the screen is a large American flag

[Guests listen to former President Donald Trump address the Conservative Political Action Conference as the headline speaker.

The warrior

By the time Trump took the stage, the CPAC crowd was primed. People danced and waved “TRUMP WAS RIGHT!” placards.

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Trump offered an apocalyptic vision of the country’s future.

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“Sinister forces” are seeking to turn the U.S. into a “lawless open-borders, crime-ridden, filthy, communist nightmare,” Trump said.

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Trump promised to fight back against these forces. “I am your warrior,” he told the adoring crowd. “I am your justice.”

The rocky ride ahead

I went to CPAC to find areas where the left and right might find common ground. Both sides worry about issues like inflation, fentanyl and crime. And, even as they may disagree on the path to get there, both want a better future for the country.

But politics is another demon lurking in the room. Most of the speakers at CPAC seemed to be there to rile up the crowd, which included many activists.

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This was especially true of Trump, whose divisiveness was on clear display at CPAC.

All of this suggests the U.S. faces a rocky ride to the upcoming 2024 election.  The Conversation

Alexander Hinton, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Director, Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers University - Newark

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https://www.mediamatters.org/daily-wire/not-content-eradicate-transgenderism-daily-wires-michael-knowles-attacks-gay-marriage

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https://www.alternet.org/michael-knowles-college-dehumanizing-rhetoric/

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https://www.alternet.org/daily-wire-divine-right-kings/

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https://www.mediamatters.org/daily-wire/right-wing-media-rally-behind-michael-knowles-eliminationist-anti-trans-rhetoric

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knowles an 2 23

Right-wing host wants to 'ban transgenderism entirely' because of 'occult sexual rituals'

Brandon Gage

Last Thursday, the Kansas State Senate voted 26-10 along party lines to pass what it calls a "Women's Bill of Rights" which seeks "to define a 'woman' as a biological female for leg...

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rww february 27, 2023 5:08 pm

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year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, tens of thousands of civilians have been murdered, tens of millions of Ukrainians are displaced, and billions of dollars in damage have been inflicted on homes and buildings across the country—and the American far right is still pushing the narrative that the war in Ukraine is fake.

Coinciding with the one year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, conspiracists, far-right influencers, and trolls have made a coordinated effort to push the conspiracy theory that the entire conflict in Ukraine has been staged.

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The narrative that the war was fake first emerged in the early days of the invasion, and one of the key pieces of “evidence” used by those spreading the disinformation was a video they claimed showed “fake bodies” in body bags.

The video, which shows the body bags moving in the background, was in fact taken at a climate change protest in Austria about a month before Russia invaded Ukraine. Over the weekend, it was once again shared as “evidence” that the mainstream media was lying about the war.

The most popular post came from an anonymous right-wing Twitter account called Amuse, which shared the video with the comment: “Stop Moving - You’re Supposed to be Dead! Psyop?”

The tweet currently has been viewed over 3.9 million times and been liked over 45,000 times.

When it was pointed out that the video was not taken in Ukraine, the account holder responded: “Someone told me it is some sort of crazy four dimensional misinformation—video might be from Austria. Not sure who is pushing it - Ukraine or Russia. Without embedded journalists we’ve got this mess.” They later added: “No one seems to know who is responsible but it is clearly a Psyop.”

The same video was shared widely across Facebook and Twitter in recent days.

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At the same time, Catturd, a hugely influential MAGA shitposter favored by Elon Musk, posted a screen on Twitter that questioned the reality of the war in Ukraine because he apparently has not seen any footage from the war front.

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“We get no footage, no detailed updates, no graphs explaining how the war is going, who has control of what land,” Catturd wrote. “All we get is Biden fake air raid sirens and one famous actor or politician a day happily prancing around Kiev with Zelenskyy with no helmets or body protection offering him 100s of billion of dollars.”

Catturd’s tweet has been viewed over 10.4 million times, despite Twitter’s fact-checking community appending a note to the post saying: “Footage and analysis of the Russian war on Ukraine from multiple media sources including reporters embedded with Ukrainian troops is and has been available.”

On Truth Social, disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn endorsed Catturd’s claims, writing: “What Catturd said, and I double dare anyone to say he is wrong.”

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Kyle Becker, a far-right commentator who has in the past worked for Fox News and Tim Pool’s podcast, also shared the claim that there was no footage available of what’s likely the most-documented war in human history.

“I am sick and tired of the lack of footage of the Ukraine war. I worked in cable news. I am initiated. If it bleeds, it leads. Where is the war footage? Where are the Pulitzer Prize winning photos? This smacks of a scam and the American people are fed up,” Becker tweeted.

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Meanwhile Stew Peters, a far-right podcaster and COVID conspiracist, added to the conversation by posting a video from the Ukrainian government that shows how the country has been working to fix some of the damage inflicted by the war over the last year.

According to Peters, the video is not a positive story about the resilience of the Ukrainian people, but proof the war is “100% fake” and that the damage was never inflicted in the first place.

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Peters spent the weekend pushing the narrative that the media and governments around the world are lying about the war.

“The world is a stage,” Peters tweeted on Sunday. “It’s ALL fake. When enough people realize what has been done to them, and they’re ready to admit it, there will be NOWHERE safe for these criminals to hide.”

One other strand to the conspiracy about the war in Ukraine being fake is a renewed push to surface videos from the former life of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a comic actor and using it to claim he is merely playing the role of a head of state.

One of the most prominent people sharing this claim in recent days was Donald Trump Jr. who shared a clip of Zelensky dancing in high heels and leather from a 2014 parody video with the comment:

“Just so we understand, this is the leader of the left’s new religion, Ukraine. He replaced Lord Fauci who replaced goddess Greta as the leader of the leftist lunacy movement. Give him all of your money forever it doesn’t matter how much or for what… the Gods have spoken!”

The tweet has racked up almost 9 million views in the space of just 24 hours.

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TAGGED:UKRAINE DISINFORMATION CATTURD STEW PETERS FAR RIGHT TWITTERWORLD NEWS

Tags: Michael Knowles Scott Adams Scott Perry Round-Up

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