Daily Wire podcast host Michael Knowles on Wednesday said his call to eradicate transgenderism from public life over two months ago was to regain ground on the issue that liberals thought they had conquered.
“If we don’t have the courage to stand up for the basic nature of our humanity and the basic political unit, then we’re not going to stand up for anything,” Knowles told audience members during a TPUSA Faith Pastors Summit in Nashville, Tennessee. “We might as well close up the churches, throw it all in, and let the liberals run the country.”
During an interview with TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, the two conservative thought leaders discussed how the transgender ideology presents an affront to objective truth and the harmony of existence; they also encouraged faith leaders to care for their church congregation.
Knowles touched off a firestorm in March when he called for an end to the ideology of transgenderism at a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), especially after several left-wing media outlets misquoted his statement and published erroneous claims misrepresenting the podcaster.
“For the good of society and especially for the good of the poor people who have fallen prey to this confusion, transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely, the whole preposterous ideology — at every level,” Knowles told the gathering in Maryland.
Within hours of his statement, several outlets falsely reported that Knowles called for transgender people to be “eradicated,” even though he was targeting an ideology, not a group of people.
“I chose my words very carefully because I knew that the libs were going to run with it,” Knowles said. “But I wanted to make the point as clearly as I possibly could.”
Some publications, including Rolling Stone and HuffPo, edited their headlines and stories to acknowledge that Knowles never called for the “eradication” of any group of people. When Knowles pointed out that such outlets committed libel, the editorial departments retracted the claims.
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“These liberal media sites will run the lie on page one, and then they’ll maybe issue the correction on page 2,000 three weeks later, and nobody sees it,” he said.
However, Knowles said the issue resonated with the audience and why left-wing media and ideologues lied about his words was because he “endeavored to take back the ground that the liberals thought they conquered.”
“The liberals thought that they had already won on the issue of transgenderism,” he said.
“And so on these issues that are so fundamental — who are we? What is a man? What is a woman?” he said. “If we cannot take a stand and enshrine that stand in law, enforce that standard through our civil society, and yes, impose reality on people, then we simply cannot have a society at all.”
TPUSA Faith Pastors Summit kicked off its three-day event on Wednesday evening for over 30 Biblical faith leaders and other subject matter experts nationwide to speak about cultural and spiritual issues facing modern-day America.
Other speakers include former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Pastor Rob McCoy, and American author James Lindsay. The event also listed former All-American swimmer Riley Gaines, former NFL offensive tackle Michael Oher, and Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial artist Michael Chandler.