Daily Wire's Michael Knowles attacks “squishes on the right” who criticized an anti-LGBTQ ad by the DeSantis campaign
Knowles praises DeSantis' ad: “We're gonna roll back the pride movement ... It gives the Republican base a justification for abandoning Trump and embracing the DeSantis”
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From the July 5, 2023, edition of The Daily Wire's The Michael Knowles Show
MICHAEL KNOWLES (HOST): The inevitable logical conclusion of the pride movement was we're going to go into your kids kindergarten and we're gonna teach them wild ideologies about sex and gender and, not only the relations between the sexes and within the sexes, but even one's understanding of human nature itself. And people have just said enough, enough with that. The DeSantis campaign is capitalizing on this right now. And DeSantis is being pilloried, not just by the libs, but by the squishes on the right for an ad that people are saying is homophobic. Here's the ad.
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KNOWLES: So, really leaning into this online sigma male, socially conservative, no, we're not gonna tolerate this rainbow pride stuff anymore. I think it's a great ad. I think it's a great ad. One, because it's funny. It's a self-aware ad. I don't think anybody really believes that Ron DeSantis is gonna be, you know, instituting Sharia law and throwing homosexuals off rooftops. Right? Nobody really believes that but the ad, with all of its sigma male Patrick Bateman, kind of, vaporwave aesthetic, is showing people a real aspect of his political legacy and his accomplishments, which is we're not going to enshrine special protections for this disordered view of human nature. We're gonna be nice to people. We're gonna tolerate things within reason, but no, we're gonna roll back the pride movement that's now made it all the way into your kid's kindergarten classroom.
And it's really, really good, and he's smart to go after Trump on this because Trump is by far the most pro-LGBTQ lmnop candidate that the GOP has ever run for president. And I don't think this is because Trump is some crusader for gay rights or transgenderism or anything like that. I think it's because Trump is just -- he's just an old school normal guy who doesn't really care about this stuff and he kind -- he's willing to pander to different groups to get their votes. But, you know, I don't think you can call him a rainbow activist or anything like that.
The reason this is a really good attack, though, on Donald Trump is it gives the Republican base a justification for abandoning Trump and embracing DeSantis. I'm not saying it's going to work, but it's one of the first things that will give the base that justification because right now, looking at the field, the real hardcore guys remain pro-Trump. It's just a fact. You might say that's not fair. You might say DeSantis is the more conservative candidate. Yeah, maybe that's all true. I don't know. I'm just saying the hardcore guys remain pro-Trump. And the more GOP establishment types, if they've got to pick between the two, are going for Ron DeSantis. So, DeSantis has this establishment baggage, even if it just comes by virtue of the fact that he's the guy who's posing a real challenge to Trump right now, he's got to deal with that. He has to somehow answer the fact that the GOP establishment and the mainstream establishment more broadly is going softer on DeSantis than they are on Trump. This is one great way to do it.
If he runs to the right of Trump on the social issues, specifically on the rainbow coalition, that will give the hardcore guys an opportunity to say, actually, if we really wanna be subversive, if we really wanna be edgy, we can – we're gonna follow this guy who's threatening the sexual revolution, which the libs hold very, very dear. And the other reason this works is, because while the establishment is very pro-rainbow, the people, broadly, including many Democrats, are not. This is a real wedge issue between the elites of the uni-party and the people broadly. The few and the many. It's one of these great wedge issues. So, really, really strong stuff for DeSantis. Now, does an ad showing that DeSantis is tougher on LGBTQT activism than Trump, does that make up a 30-point gap? I'm not sure about that, but it is still very early in the race. So, if there is a chance for DeSantis, this is probably it.