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Michael Knowles is an American Conservative political commentator, author, and host of “The Michael Knowles Show” podcast on The Daily Wire who recently called climate activist Greta Thunberg a “Mentally ill child” on Fox News Monday night.
Knowles joined anchor Harris Faulkner and liberal commentator Christopher Hahn on The Story and said of Greta Thunberg, “If it were about science it would be led by scientists rather than by politicians and a mentally ill Swedish child who is being exploited by her parents and by the international left,”
“Yeah, I mean, you’re a grown man and you’re attacking a child—shame on you,” Hahn responded. Knowles attempted to backpedal and clarify his remarks, insisting he was attacking “the left” and her parents for “exploiting a mentally ill child”.
“Relax, skinny boy, I got this,” Hahn shouted back. “OK? You’re attacking a child, you’re a grown man!” Knowles refused to back down and stood by his remarks throughout the remainder of his appearance, causing Kahn to unleash on him.
“Maybe on your podcast you can get away and say whatever you want because nobody’s listening. You’re on national television. Be a grown-up when you’re talking about children. She’s trying to save the planet because your president doesn’t believe in climate change and kids need to take to the streets to worry about their future.” Kahn told Knowles.
Pretty much everybody including Fox News was shocked by Knowles’ comments. The network released a statement that read “The comment made by Michael Knowles who was a guest on The Story tonight was disgraceful—we apologize to Greta Thunberg and to our viewers.” The network also said it has no plans to book Michael Knowles in the future.
Michael Knowles started out as an actor before becoming a conservative commentator in 2016. He’s part of a new wave of conservative voices that make controversial remarks in order to attract as much media attention as possible in the vein of Donald Trump.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Michael Knowles Was an Actor Before Becoming a Political Commentator
Prior to joining The Daily Wire in 2016, Knowles was an aspiring actor. He trained at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting as part of its Advanced Teen Conservator and produced first English rendering of Niccolò Machiavelli’s play Andria in 2012 while attending Yale University.
After graduating from Yale, he appeared in two web series as himself, Never Do Business with Friends and Survive. He also appeared in a pilot episode of I’m Back and TV movies Life Coach and Blend In.
He continues to act in addition to his job at The Daily Wire appearing in 4 movies since including The Outdoorsman, American Criminal, Clipped Wings, They Do Fly, and The Savant which is about “Only 25 autistic savants in the world…and his skill is fighting.” according to IMDB.
2. He’s Part of Ben Shapiro’s Conservative News Network “The Daily Wire”
Michael Knowles is an author and star of “The Michael Knowles Show” on The Daily Wire. The network was started by former Breitbart editor-at-large Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing in 2015. The duo worked together at TruthRevolt and started the website with former TruthRevolt employees after securing seed funding from Dan and Farris Wilks.
Michael Knowles joined first appeared on The Andrew Klaven Show on The Daily Wire in 2016. Knowles was friends with Klaven’s son Spencer from their time working on theater productions together at Yale.
He eventually gained a large enough following and started the third podcast on the network “The Michael Knowles Show”. He also regularly contributes written pieces to The Daily Wire Blog including “No One Actually Cares About Blackface” and “They’re Turning The Frickin’ Penguins Gay”.
3. He Authored a Book of Mostly Blank Pages Titled ‘Reasons to Vote for Democrats’
In 2017, Knowles published a book titled “Reasons to Vote Democrat” that consisted of mostly blank pages with a few chapter headings that include “Economics,” “Foreign Policy,” “Immigration,” and “Values.” The book is 266 pages and features 1,235 total words.
The mostly blanks pages were a parody by Knowles that became very popular in the Conservative community. The description on Amazon describes the book as ““Read the book that President Donald Trump called “a great book for your reading enjoyment!” The most exhaustively researched and coherently argued Democrat Party apologia to date, Reasons to Vote for Democrats: A Comprehensive Guide is a political treatise sure to stand the test of time. A must-have addition to any political observer’s coffee table.”
President Trump tweeted about the book calling it, “A great book for your reading enjoyment.” Knowles made a large profit off the book despite the fact that it included no information and was essentially a gag gift.
4. He Was Attacked During an Appearance at a College Campus
youtube.com/watch?v=68Lo5KLciiY
Michael Knowles was invited to speak by at the University of Missouri-Kansas City by the student group “Young Americans for Freedom”. The event was called “A Night with Michael Knowles.” and the topic of the lecture was “men are not women.”
Before he even arrived, there were protests on campus that attempted to get his appearance canceled. There were protestors outside carrying signs that read “Trans rights are human rights,” “Respect my existence,” and “Trans men are men.” Several protestors also got inside and attempted to disrupt the event. The protests were non-violent until they were escorted out by police. That’s when a protestor who’s since been identified as Gerard G. Dabu, threw a liquid substance at Knowles.
Police went to detain Dabu and the scuffle turned violent. Campus police were forced to taser on one protester and used pepper spray, or O.C. spray, on several others.
Knowles was OK and continued the lecture while Dabu was charged with assault and resisting arrest.
5. She Was Called out by Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez for Trying To “Mansplain” Her Childhood
Knowles has made a name for himself by stirring controversy. In December 2018, Knowles responded to a tweet by Cortez where she said she was from the Bronx by saying “The average household wealth of the town in which you grew up is $1.2 million.”
Ocasio-Cortez shot back, “Yep. As everyone knows, I grew up between two worlds + experienced 1st hand how a child’s zip code can shape their destiny. It was scrubbing those households’ toilets w/ my mother that I saw and breathed income inequality. I decided to make a difference. You decide to do this.”
Knowles responded to another reply in the thread who explained to him that cities have large discrepancies in income levels due to rich and poor neighborhoods being located right next to each other by saying “Right, but @Ocasio2018 didn’t grow up in a city. She grew up in a small, homogenous, affluent suburb, where she attended excellent schools before pretending she grew up in the Bronx.”
“In which a Republican literally tries to mansplaining *my own childhood* and life to me.” Ocasio-Cortez shot back. “And in true mansplaining form, he’s doing it wrong with a great degree of confidence. It begs the question: is the GOP really “sending us their best?” ?”
Knowles has been a frequent critic of Ocasio-Cortez and responded on his podcast to the tweet argument.
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