Hello everyone. This is Michael Moore.
This is my podcast. I want to respond to something
that Joe Biden said here at the end of last week.
On Thursday he had a little 3 1/2 minute press conference.
President Biden stepped into a a room.
I I believe he's at the White House and wanted to talk about
the campus protest and Needless to say, it was fairly
disappointing. He clearly doesn't understand
what's going on. He's been completely misinformed
about what the protesters have been doing.
Wow. This is going to be such a long
six months. What do we have?
About 6 months left to the election.
And like we we have this other huge job we've got to do, which
is to keep Trump out of the White House.
And yet we've got a president that is funding this horrific
war. We'll come up with something.
OK, You know me. I know you.
We're not letting Trump back in the Oval Office.
We're also not going to let Biden get away with this.
He's going to have to make the amends that need to be made to
the people who've suffered the most.
And a lesson needs to be taught to Democrats who consistently,
very sadly, make the wrong decision, whether it's regarding
women's rights or a whole bunch of other things.
The lame O responses that we have to deal with Roe V Wade
Supreme Court decision was in 1973 and they had 49 years
before the Supreme Court got rid of Roe V Wade almost two years
ago. Now 49 years.
The Democrats had to make it the law of the land to pass it in
Congress. During many of those years when
the Democrats held both houses of Congress and the White House
and didn't do anything about this legal rights amendment now
having passed in through 38 states, That's what's needed and
still not officially part of the Constitution because the White
House has to do one specific thing to make it legal.
What? What do we have to do here?
Democrats, please, come on. You've got a lot of people
listening to this that are more than happy to go elsewhere, to
third parties and all that. And I've talked about this
before and it's we have to change some things about our
election laws to make it more democratic, to make sure that
all voices are heard and have representation in Congress that
has to be fixed. That's not what we're going to
do here today. I'm just going to, I'm going to
actually play what President Biden said about the campus
protest. And if you don't mind, I'm going
to do a little, I guess, my own version of the Political Mystery
Science Theater 3000 and provide my own little.
I hope it's not too annoying, my running commentary to agree or
disagree or make comments on what Joe Biden said last
Thursday, hoping that he hears this and hoping that it's
helpful to him and to those of us who stand for peace.
So I will turn it over to you, Mr. President.
Go ahead. Before I head to North Carolina,
I wanted to speak a few moments about what's going on on our
college campuses here. We've all seen the images and
they put to the test 2 fundamental American principles.
The 1st is the right to free speech and for people to
peacefully assemble and make their voices heard.
That's a good start. Yes.
Both of those things are really good.
The second is the rule of law. Both must be.
Upheld. Yes, But let's make it clear
that the right to free speech and for the people to peacefully
assemble, to make their voices heard is like, that's a really
important rule of law. So when he says, then there's
the rule of law. Well, that is the law, the right
of free speech and to peacefully assemble to make sure that all
of our voices can be heard. We are not an authoritarian
nation. No, not yet.
Where we silence people or squash dissent.
I don't know about that. Seeing a few thousand police
officers on the streets of New York this week, police called in
to all these campuses. It's kind of looking like an
authoritarian nation, Joe, but continue the American.
People are heard. In fact, peaceful protest is in
the best tradition of how Americans respond to
consequential issues. Yes, very true.
And peaceful protest is exactly what we've been witnessing on
these campuses. Anybody who tries to tell you
different, ask them to show you the photographic evidence of the
organized protest. Beating people up, holding them,
pushing them down, causing injury.
That is not what's been going on on these campuses.
Anybody who tells you otherwise is lying to you.
But but neither are we a lawless country.
That's. Not really true, because we are
in the middle of one of our biggest lawless moments in our
history. We are violating our own
American law that says that any country that uses weapons that
we give them to kill civilians or to interrupt humanitarian aid
that needs to go to civilians, that is a violation of our law.
And that is exactly what's been happening now for these seven
months. Lawlessness.
Yes, that is lawlessness. We're a civil society.
An order must prevail. What order?
Whose orders? Sounds a little like something
you might hear from another era. They must have order.
Order must prevail. This isn't Pinochet's chili, and
it's certainly not Hitler's Germany.
It's not Tiananmen Square when you start talking about order
must prevail. The order has to start right
there in the Oval Office, by you not sending money to a regime
that is slaughtering innocent civilians by the 10s of
thousands. Throughout our history we've
often faced moments like this because we are a big, diverse,
free thinking and freedom loving nation.
And moments like this are always those who rush in to score
political points. Certainly not you, Mr.
President. Please continue but this.
Isn't a moment for politics. It's a moment for clarity.
So let me be clear. Peaceful protest in America,
violent protest is not protected.
Peaceful protest is. Oh, well, good.
Then we've got no problem here because that's what's been
happening on over 80 campuses across the country.
Peaceful protests. No buildings are being blown up,
no people are being sent to the hospital because of the actions
of the protesters. It's peaceful in and out,
through and through. It's against the law when
violence occurs. Unless, of course, again, it's
the violence is created by a regime that we fund and harm.
Destroying property is not a peaceful protest.
It's against the law. Are you again, Are you talking
about Gaza or are you saying that the protesters on campus
are destroying property? Can I see some evidence of this?
The buildings that have been destroyed, Classrooms destroyed.
A whole floor of dorm rooms destroyed.
Anything like that. Anybody can you set?
Go ahead. Mr. President.
I'm I I I will contact the your press office.
You can send me the photographic evidence of this.
Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses,
forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations.
None of this is a peaceful protest.
Well, let's unpack that, Mr. President.
Vandalism again. Yeah, I've.
I've seen some graffiti. Not cool.
Vandalism is the destruction again of property.
I saw a little window broken when they took over that
Hamilton Hall on Columbia's campus.
Where's the vandalism, the stakes being put in the lawn at
UCLA or USC with the tents? You know, the tent stakes?
Is that it? Is that the vandalism?
I'm confused. Trespassing.
First of all, as far as the students go, at some of these
colleges, especially the private ones, they're paying 60 to
$90,000 a year to go to school there and to live there.
That's their home. How do you trespass in a home
that you're paying $90,000 a year for?
It's not trespassing. It's your home.
The police are trespassing into your home.
That part I get. Is that what you're referring
to? Breaking windows?
OK, honest to God, I think the broken windows I've seen on the
videotape of the few students who shouldn't be doing that,
I'll bet you there aren't 10 windows that have been broken
across America shutting down campuses.
No campuses have been shut down by the protesters.
The ones that have shut down, have been shut down by the
administrators who have overreacted or are giving in to
the pro Israel side of this by trying to make this seem a lot
more awful, chaotic than it is forcing the cancellation of
classes. Again, no protesters have
demanded that classes be cancelled or have taken over
classrooms or put up blockades to prevent anybody from going
into their classroom. The cancellation and
graduations, Again, overreaction.
These kids should have their graduation with the demands of
the protesters. Have not one of them demand that
any graduation be cancelled? You say none of this is a
peaceful protest. All of it is a peaceful protest.
The inability of administrators to deal with students exercising
their First Amendment rights. That's been the problem and the
overreaction to it and the and the making up of problems that
don't exist. Threatening people, intimidating
people, instilling fear in people is not peaceful protest.
It's against the law. Again, threatening people.
Who's been threatened? Who's had a weapon pulled on
them? Who has been taken into custody
by the protesters? This is none of this has been
happening. Intimidating people.
Well, I think I know what you mean by that one.
There are some students who feel intimidated by some of the
chants and some of the signs. They don't like the sign that
says Free Palestine. They find it intimidating, they
find it scary or they call it anti-Semitic.
Calling for a place and a people to be free is anti-Semitic.
Sounds pro it sounds pro. Freedom and democracy instilling
fear in people. Again, nobody's instilling fear
in anybody. I understand why some people who
support Netanyahu and this regime feel fearful that maybe
the regime may fall, that maybe the theocracy will fall.
Because it's hard to explain how a theocracy can be a democracy,
any system of government that favors just one religion over
the others. And if you belong to the other
religions, you're a second class citizen, you don't have the same
rights. That's that's not really a
democracy, is it? So I get why some people don't
like hearing that and they get afraid we're going to lose our
whatever. Well, no.
What the protesters are asking for is either A2 state or even
A1 state solution where they all people, Israelis, Arabs, Jews,
Muslims, Christians, whoever, all live together in one country
where everyone is equal. A true democracy.
So if that makes people fearful, Ideas, these are ideas.
You can't say ideas threaten people or intimidate people or
instill fear people. And when I say ideas, I'm
meaningless in a philosophical way saying that that if you know
what a white supremacist would say, we're going to get rid of
all the black people, we're going to kill black people,
whatever that is a threat to people, to hurt people.
That's not what's going on here. Oh, but I'm going on too long.
Please, Mr. President, continue. Dissent is essential to
democracy. Absolutely.
But dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the
rights of others so students can finish the semester and their
college education. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
The dissent must never lead to disorder.
No, That's exactly what dissent is supposed to do.
That's what it means. A group of people are going to
express their feelings. They're going to dissent,
sometimes through civil disobedience, nonviolent,
peaceful. But that's going to lead to
disorder. They want disorder.
That's what the civil rights demonstrations were about.
Black people were not allowed into certain schools.
They were not allowed into certain stores, restaurants,
etcetera. And so they went in there and
peacefully sat down and created disorder.
We never would have changed a lot of things in this country if
the disorder wasn't created. Women thought they should have
the right to vote, so they created disorder through their
dissent. And the men didn't like the
disorder. They wanted women to be in a
certain place, not out there picketing and blocking the
entrance to the White House. So they were arrested.
They were thrown in jail. They created disorder.
What are the rights of the students that are being denied
that they have to walk around the demonstration?
They have to walk around to the other side of the the tent city.
So it took an extra 3 minutes to get to the library.
What rights have been denied to students, Students, according to
you, Mr. President, who want to finish their semester?
They should have been able. Everybody should have been.
The only people that shut down the semester were the college
administrators because they didn't know how to handle free
speech, free freedom of assembly.
Nobody was calling for anybody to be denied their college
education. Look, it's basically a matter of
fairness. It's a matter of what's right.
There's the right to protest, but not the right to cause
chaos. Again, Mr. President, yes, thank
you. There is a right to protest.
But that implies there will now be chaos.
When people protest, they hold a large demonstration.
Sometimes it spills out into the street.
They decide they're going to walk across the bridge from
Brooklyn to Manhattan as part of a protest.
Yes, there will be some chaos. And again, that's what the
public safety officers, the police should be doing, is
making sure nobody gets hurt or hit by a car or or whatever.
Nobody's opposed to that. In fact, that can be a good
thing. People have the right to get an
education, the right to get a degree, the right to walk across
the campus safely without fear of being attacked.
Yes, people do have the right to get an education and I'm sorry
that these colleges got in the way of students being able to go
to class and get their education.
Nobody's taken the right to get a degree away from them.
Now you're over exaggerating things.
The right to walk across the campus safely without fear of
being attacked. I would say every American would
like that, right? Not just to walk across the
campus, not just to be afraid for your safety.
I think that is a very common feeling no matter where you live
in this country. And frankly, if you look at any
of the statistics, crime is way down in the United States.
It's not some scary place. I mean I I'm saying this knowing
that people from other countries are listening to be say that and
and we have already had close to 150 mass shootings just since
New Year's Day. So I probably will have to
withdraw that last comment because we're all all of us are
under some sort of fear of being attacked of being hurt because
of the laws that we don't have in this country.
A culture that we don't have in this country, that that says
guns are not the tools of a democracy anyways, that's
another movie, please. Continue.
Let's be clear about this as well.
There should be no place on any campus, no place in America, for
anti-Semitism or threats of violence against Jewish
students. Absolutely, 100% in agreement.
Everybody I know agrees with that.
Every protester I know agrees with that.
Every everybody I know who is, who is Muslim, Arab, Arab,
American. They don't participate in that.
They don't believe in it. They don't want any threat of
violence against any Jewish student.
People. I know the people that are
running these protests. First of all, they're running it
with Jewish students as part of the coordinating committees.
They are against all forms of bigotry, misogyny, homophobia,
you name it. These are the kids we raised.
Everybody is with that statement and we will not tolerate any
anti-Semitism or any threat of violence against not just Jewish
students, against any Jewish person on this planet.
There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind,
whether it's anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or discrimination
against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans.
Thank you, Mr. President, for saying those words out loud.
It's simply wrong. There's no place for racism in
America. That's right.
Certainly not, considering we're a country that was founded on
racism, founded on genocide, based in racism.
Absolutely right. There is no longer a place for
that in America. It's all wrong.
It's on American. I understand people have strong
feelings and deep convictions in America.
We respect the right and protect the right for them to express
that. But it doesn't mean anything
goes. It needs to be done without
violence, without destruction, without hate, and within the
law. You know, I'll make no mistake.
As president I will always defend free speech and I will
always be just as strong as standing up for the rule of law.
That means you have to stop sending weapons to a rogue
regime that is using our weapons and our tax dollars to kill
innocent civilians. That's law number one right now,
Joe, Are you going to stand up for the rule of law?
That's my responsibility to you, the American people, my
obligation to the Constitution. Thank you very.
Much. And then, as he started to walk
away from the podium, Reporter shots a question or two.
Adam. Mr. President, have the protest
forced you to reconsider any of the policies with regard to the
region? No.
Oh, great. OK.
So thanks for telling the students or no real need to have
any protest or free speech, because I'm not going to listen
to anything you're saying about stopping this war in Gaza.
You have to reconsider your policies regarding Gaza and
Palestine and Israel. You have to do it because it's
morally right. You have to do it because I know
I got to believe in deep in your conscience, deep in your
Catholic faith. You know this is wrong, wrong,
wrong. Wrong.
And politically speaking, the longer you hold off from putting
an end to this, the more young people you turn away from voting
for you, the more you create a situation where Trump makes it
back into the White House. And that is unacceptable to all
of us. You have to listen to the
millions of young people who do not like what you're doing here.
Mr. President, do you think the National Guard should intervene?
No. That's the right answer.
Thank you for that. Please do stop the police.
Do not bring in the National Guard.
Do not kill our young people for standing up for something very
moral and very, very correct and right.
Thank you everybody for listening to my podcast.
Thank you for writing your representatives and President
Biden and telling them that we want an end to this assault.
And the people in Gaza tell them that we care very deeply about
those who lost their lives on October 7th.
And we want all the hostages returned.
And we want the political prisoners held in jails without
trials in Israel to be released. There's a way out of this.
There is a way out of this. We do not have to sink into our
despair that this is an unfixable problem.
Thank you for listening. Thank you to Angela Vargos for
being the executive producer of this podcast and the editor.
Thanks everybody. Talk to you in a few days.