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--:-- Host John Bickley: Today is the 80th anniversary of the day that ultimately turned the tide of the Second Great War, the Allied Forces Invasion of Normandy. Codenamed Operation Overlord, the invasion involved 156,000 Allied troops, half of them Americans, who launched a bold assault on five German-occupied and heavily fortified beaches.
--:-- Host John Bickley: In this bonus episode, we sit down with Michael Reagan, son of America's beloved 40th President Ronald Reagan, who famously traveled to Normandy four decades ago to honor the brave soldiers who stormed those beaches.
--:-- Host John Bickley: I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley with guest host Emily Jashinsky, DC correspondent at Unheard. It's Thursday, June 6th, and this is a special D-Day anniversary edition of Morning Wire. Joining us now to discuss the 80th anniversary of D-Day is Michael Reagan.
--:-- Michael Reagan: Thank you so much for having me on.
--:-- Host John Bickley: First, why is recognizing D-Day still so important 80 years later?
--:-- Michael Reagan: Well, because this anniversary will be the last big anniversary where anyone who came out of a plane on D-Day 80 years ago is going to be present there at Normandy, France. There's a million people there right now. There's 46,000 people there right now guarding the million people and the president who's going to be arriving. It is a huge, huge day, this 80th anniversary of D-Day.
--:-- Host John Bickley: I've been there on two or three occasions. It's been large, but this one is humongous.
--:-- Michael Reagan: Now, many have commented that today's youth and military look a lot different than the generation that stormed the beaches. What aspect of the greatest generation are missing that you think need to be brought back into today's culture?
--:-- Michael Reagan: I think today's youth would dive out of planes to save the world as these did back 80 years ago. My problem is the people who are in school who don't even know why D-Day exists. I played golf with a young man not too many years ago, and I was invited to Normandy to raise the American flag at the American cemetery. And I was telling him I was heading to France to do that. And he asked me, why is there an American cemetery in France? He had no idea, no concept.
--:-- Host John Bickley: [pauses] Yeah.
--:-- Michael Reagan: I would tell you, if you run a survey of high school kids today, probably even college kids, and ask about D-Day, they have no idea about D-Day, why we have a cemetery there, and why it existed, and why we saved that part of the world and actually saved the whole world. That is the thing that bothers me. Not the ones who are in the military now, who have given their lives, their arms, pieces of their body, and what have you. The ones that are really scary to me are the kids in school who have no concept why and what we've done.
--:-- Host John Bickley: And what could be done to remedy this? How can we best go about educating today's students on World War II and the Holocaust?
--:-- Michael Reagan: You know, I learned it. I learned it from my dad. He was in the right front seat of a station wagon on any given Saturday morning, picking me up from my mom's house, driving me out to the ranch in Malibu. You all remember the ranch dad had during the presidency. This is the ranch I grew up on in Malibu. And regaling me, songs, military, army, navy, marine corps, coast guard, and telling me about this country, telling me about how great it was and is, and telling me stories.
--:-- Host John Bickley: [pauses] Too often we parents, conservatives also, leave it up to the schools to educate our kids. Well, how's that working out?
--:-- Michael Reagan: It's not working out. So we got to take it back ourselves, homeschool the kids, or at least educate them on this D-Day, this 80th anniversary, and what these people are willing to do and willing to give to save the world.
--:-- Host John Bickley: You mentioned your father. Can you explain your father's significance around recognizing formally D-Day?
--:-- Michael Reagan: Well, it's interesting because President Biden going to Normandy to speak on D-Day, but it was my father 40 years ago was the first president to actually go to Normandy on D-Day and speak as he did. Right. A truly historic moment in 1984.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Here's a bit of that famous speech. When all our allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy 40 years ago, They came not as conquerors, but as liberators. When these troops swept across the French countryside and into the forests of Belgium and Luxembourg they came not to take but to return what had been wrongly seized When our forces marched into Germany, they came not to prey on a brave and defeated people, but to nurture the seeds of democracy among those who yearn to be free again.
--:-- Michael Reagan: We salute them today. I would suggest to people listening to this, go to YouTube. Pull out dad's speech at Pointe de Hoc, the boys at Pointe de Hoc, and listen to that. And look at the videos and the cliffs these kids climbed at 17, some lied about their age at 16, 17, 18 years old, going up these cliffs with machine gun fire firing down at them. Listen to that speech. First president to speak on D-Day in Normandy, France.
--:-- Host John Bickley: The education of young conservatives continues through the efforts of the Reagan Library and the Reagan Ranch. Is that the legacy of your father?
--:-- Michael Reagan: Oh, absolutely right. The library does a great job. Big events celebrating the 20th anniversary of my dad's passing this week. Of course, the 40th anniversary of him going to Normandy. What they do there, the scholarship programs that they have there. I go there so often. I'm probably there once a month. I take people on tours. I play docent for a day. I love doing it. So they refer to me at the library as the prequel because I have stories behind the stories that they tell.
--:-- Host John Bickley: And I work a lot with the Young America Foundation who bought the ranch back in 1998. I'll be speaking to 200 high school students at the Ranch Center in Santa Barbara on the 19th of this month, and they'll be up at the ranch, be able to walk in the footsteps of my father, see the building. The ranch house is exactly the way it was the last time my dad was there.
--:-- Michael Reagan: He didn't know he wasn't going back because of Alzheimer's, and Young America's Foundation has done a phenomenal job of taking care of it. Now I've bought the boyhood home there in Illinois. Now they're in charge of the home. He was born in Tampico, Illinois, and they bring kids from the Midwest, all over the world, actually, to come in, learn about my father.
--:-- Host John Bickley: So that's where the legacy is, is through the Young America's Foundation and the ranch and the homes and the Reagan Library with what his accomplishments were prior to becoming president, but also as president.
--:-- Michael Reagan: So just, if you haven't been any of those places, you need to go.
--:-- Host John Bickley: And why do you think it important for younger generations to understand who Ronald Reagan was and what do you think they need to know about him and his beliefs?
--:-- Michael Reagan: The humility. We've lost humility in this country. Nobody's humble anymore. You know, my dad, one of his greatest lines was what? Don't worry who gets the credit. You accomplish so many things if you don't worry who gets the credit. Today, there's too many people taking credit and not giving credit.
--:-- Host John Bickley: [pauses] I mean, look what he accomplished with Mikhail Gorbachev, because he was willing to give him credit. He knew he had to build up Mikhail Gorbachev in Russia in order to get ultimately what he needed, which is the Berlin Wall coming down.
--:-- Michael Reagan: He had to work with many people. You talked about this country with leadership and where we are, but there's no leaders in the world. There's no manufacturers, Michael Havel, Helmut Kohl, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pope John Paul. None of those people exist today.
--:-- Host John Bickley: And Dad found a way to work with all of them to accomplish, you know, ending the Cold War, bringing down the Berlin Wall.
--:-- Michael Reagan: And that's why we honor through my Reagan Legacy Foundation, which people can go to ReaganLegacyFoundation.org and go there. We have a scholarship program for the kids that serve on the USS Ronald Reagan. We provide them scholarships not only for them, but for their family members that are home waiting for them, trying to better education.
--:-- Host John Bickley: We have a brick project. You can go online and purchase a brick for $250 for a tax-inductible, 501c3. Put a name on it, or if you don't, donate the money to the foundation. We'll put the name of someone who dove out of a plane in a European theater 80 years ago, and we'll honor them with a brick at St. Mary Glee's Normandy, France, which is the first town freed by America on D-Day morning at 4 a.m. in the morning.
--:-- Michael Reagan: So go there and see what we're doing. If you really want to get involved, that's the way to get involved.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Final question. Have you seen the new Reagan film starring Dennis Quaid?
--:-- Michael Reagan: No, there is a big preview of it on August 20th here in Hollywood. And I think it opens on Labor Day weekend.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Are you excited or nervous about watching it?
--:-- Michael Reagan: I'm always nervous when I see somebody play my dad. I'm always nervous, you know, I'm saying, okay, you know, and or interpreting what he did or what he's doing. I'm always nervous.
--:-- Host John Bickley: So I've known Mark Joseph forever, so I trust him. But you always get nervous.
--:-- Michael Reagan: But my family will be there on the 20th of August to see the whole thing. I'm sure that'll be a very notable experience.
--:-- Host John Bickley: Thank you so much for talking with us.
--:-- Michael Reagan: Hey, thank you very much. God bless.
--:-- Host John Bickley: That was Michael Reagan, and this has been a special D-Day edition of Morning Wire.
