The Megyn Kelly Show - America's Ability to Tolerate Risk, and Hillary's Cringe Comeback Attempt, with Mike Rowe and Maureen Callahan ｜ Ep. 822

00:00:00.580 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM channel 111 every weekday at noon east.

00:00:11.880 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show. With Independence Day just

00:00:16.560 around the corner, those who love this country and are proud of our history will be very interested

00:00:21.520 in a new film, all right? And it comes out tomorrow. It's by one of my favorite people.

00:00:26.080 I watched it last night and I loved it. I absolutely loved it. The timing could not

00:00:32.060 be better because while you and I want to celebrate our country, more and more people,

00:00:36.420 it seems, want to tear it down. You're seeing it, seeing it all over the place. You're seeing it

00:00:40.120 mostly from the left, but even some on the right now. And the man behind this movie reminding us

00:00:45.000 who we are has a name you probably know very well. Mike Rowe. He's an Emmy award-winning

00:00:51.360 television host, best known for the hit show, Dirty Jobs. And his new film is called

00:00:56.960 Something to Stand For. Here's a bit from the trailer. Watch.

00:01:02.140 My name's Mike Rowe, and this is Something to Stand For.

00:01:07.340 A film that celebrates a few extraordinary Americans who risked everything to build the nation

00:01:17.820 we call home. Americans who gave us something to fight for, something to be grateful for.

00:01:24.280 And today, all these years later, something to stand for.

00:01:27.980 Can't wait to talk about this film. First, I thought, okay, Mike says something he wants to

00:01:35.420 promote. We'll talk about it for a second and then we'll move on. But no, I want to talk all

00:01:39.060 about this movie, which was filmed entirely in Oklahoma with actors from Oklahoma. And it is so

00:01:45.580 fun. I woke up this morning and as you know, Doug also saw it and blurbed it for you. And my brother's

00:01:52.580 in town with his wife and where I had so much fun quizzing them. And I did it just the way you did it

00:01:58.600 in the movie on these various stories, because I want the audience to know what Mike does is he tells

00:02:04.260 you a really fascinating story about somebody. The story itself is full of great nuggets and you're

00:02:09.520 really enjoying it. And only at the end do you get the big reveal. It's just like your podcast in

00:02:15.780 many ways of who is the person you've just become so fascinated in and by. And it's always a big name

00:02:25.460 where you're like, oh, my God, I never knew this is your favorite thing to do and talk about our

00:02:30.220 history. And what's the slogan, Mike? Things, things you don't know about people you do something you

00:02:37.440 didn't know about somebody you do. And look, first of all, thanks for all the kind words. I wish I could

00:02:44.080 take credit for the format. I I stole it from the late, great Paul Harvey with the permission from

00:02:51.460 his son, Paul Harvey Jr., who actually wrote most of the rest of the story. That was the title that

00:02:58.560 most people will remember from the 70s and 80s. But, you know, this guy, Doug Brunt, he he borrowed

00:03:05.420 from it as as well. And, you know, I loved his book, too. But he uses the same kind of thing where,

00:03:11.940 you know, he's talking about diesel, but you can't believe what you're learning along the way.

00:03:17.680 So the trick to me, anyway, at least when it comes to history, is you have to you have to find a way

00:03:24.440 to make history interesting for people who would otherwise not give a damn. And if you can do that

00:03:31.920 with a new level of enthusiasm, great. We all had teachers who could who could do that. But for me,

00:03:37.660 it's it's always a bite sized piece, a little something you didn't know about somebody you do.

00:03:44.440 And that opens a portal, hopefully, and inspires something like curiosity, perhaps. So you come

00:03:51.380 into the shallow end of the pool, but there's plenty of room to go over to the deep end and take

00:03:56.900 a deeper dive if you want to learn more. Right. Instead of hearing all day, every day,

00:04:02.920 as we approach July 4th, about how this founding father owned slaves, you will hear about extraordinary

00:04:09.120 acts of courage they performed, risks they took, notwithstanding their positions in society,

00:04:15.280 not to mention the military stories that are in there. And just, you know, it's one thing to say,

00:04:20.700 we're the United States of America, we're the greatest source of freedom and liberty,

00:04:24.760 an example in the world, we liberated the world and saved it literally back in the 1940s and so on.

00:04:30.460 These are individual stories of the people who formed the country and became icons within it

00:04:36.300 for a reason because of our shared values and what they stood and fought for. It's stirring.

00:04:41.660 I actually had chills more than once in hearing the stories. We need that. This is the antidote

00:04:48.160 to the anti-Americanism that we're seeing.

00:04:51.280 Thank you. I mean, I'm literally blushing on satellite radio. That's so nice to hear,

00:04:56.580 especially from you. Because look, I, for me, the thing that worries me most about the time we're

00:05:03.420 living in right now is we've, we seem to have lost our nuance. We, we seem to have lost our ability to

00:05:10.240 hold, you know, two conflicting thoughts in our head at the same time. In this case, it's the fact

00:05:16.260 that, yeah, our country was formed by imperfect men. And yes, we are still under construction as a

00:05:24.280 country and an idea. There's still work to do. There's still progress to be made, but that does

00:05:32.520 not have anything or shouldn't have anything to do with our ability to, to celebrate the progress

00:05:39.760 that we have made and to be grateful for the steps that we have taken and to be proud of how far we've

00:05:48.380 come. And it just seems like you're either on one side or the other. And to, to see the coin with both

00:05:56.800 sides, to see the men for who they were and where they failed and how they tried and how they strived

00:06:05.780 and, and how ultimately we became better for it. It's not just a love letter to our founding fathers

00:06:13.660 and, and, and, and famous people. It's, it's a love letter to anybody who's ever put on the uniform

00:06:18.480 to defend those ideas and risk their lives for you and me and everybody list. And if we,

00:06:28.780 if we can't agree that, that that basic thing is worth standing for in 2024, then I'm,

00:06:34.600 I'm not really sure where we go from here.

00:06:36.520 Hmm. We need this. We need this now more than ever. All the stats are kind of depressing on the

00:06:44.300 falling patriotism in the U S I'll give you some of those numbers. Gallup does a poll every year.

00:06:49.680 It's depressing. It hit record lows in terms of, uh, Americans who feel patriotic and love a great,

00:06:55.200 extremely proud of the country in 2022. And it hasn't recovered since. Um, but we need it for people

00:07:00.860 like this gal. Uh, let's play sought eight. I'm here enjoying a nice day at the beach with my kids. 0.90

00:07:05.840 This guy. And I turn around, I got these flags planted here on the beach by these MAGA fucks. 0.99

00:07:14.360 Listen, this is all America. We know you didn't storm the beaches to stake out your territory on 0.98

00:07:21.780 the beach. This isn't the fucking moon. I get it. This is America, but I'm sick of my flag 0.99

00:07:27.860 being represented by white nationalist trash on a goddamn beach. Go fuck yourselves. 1.00

00:07:35.840 Okay. So he's not ironic, Megan. How ironic that the very flag he's so nauseous over represents 1.00

00:07:48.580 the very notions that give him the very right to run it down. Interestingly, about a hundred yards

00:07:57.880 from where the owners of the flag are sitting, which one might conclude would have something

00:08:03.860 unflattering to say about the conspicuous absence of courage in that particular gentleman, but far

00:08:11.600 be it for me to connect those dots. It's, um, crazy is whenever we get to the July 4th, I look into

00:08:18.480 these stories because I just find them depressing and also important. I, we got to keep our eye on

00:08:22.480 what's happening. This is from April, 2024 in Seattle, where a dance squad was set to perform

00:08:29.440 in the Emerald city hoedown, which sounds like an all American kind of event. So the dance squad gets

00:08:36.440 together. They show up at the hoedown and at the hoedown, Mike, they were told, um, they needed to

00:08:45.360 leave because they were wearing American flag shirts, which the hoedown organizers in Seattle

00:08:53.600 said might be triggering, uh, or upsetting to some in the audience. And therefore these girls were not

00:09:01.300 welcome. They had to take them off or leave. Uh, they said in particular people might bring up Israel's

00:09:09.500 war against Hamas or transgender issues. And those people might not like the American flag 0.94

00:09:15.880 on the shirts. God bless the girls. They refused to do it. They did not perform.

00:09:21.980 Well, because the girls wouldn't stand for that. This movie is not just about what we should stand

00:09:29.640 for. It's about what we shouldn't stand for. And you know, the, that's a, that's a very important

00:09:38.000 distinction to make. And I think, you know, just watching that last clip and listening to that story,

00:09:44.680 I, I had a conversation not long ago with a historian who I really admire. He told me that the

00:09:51.500 make America great, um, slogan, the motto, the hat and Trump and everything that all of that combined

00:10:01.160 it, it put the other side in a really difficult position because they were in this binary space.

00:10:10.680 And because they clearly understood that Trump was the devil, they had to take exception

00:10:17.500 to, and with everything he said. So suddenly a big chunk of the country was in a position of saying,

00:10:26.220 well, wait a minute, no, we're not going to make America great again. In fact, America was never

00:10:31.760 great at all. And here's why. And so suddenly we started having a, a conversation, not between

00:10:38.840 conservatives and liberals, at least not in the traditional way. We started having conversations

00:10:44.260 between that, which was American and that, which was anti American. And so both sides go back and

00:10:51.360 forth and the stakes are ratcheted up higher and higher and higher. And that's a hell of a thing.

00:10:58.540 I don't, I, I, it's, it's amazing to think that in our lifetime, Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan,

00:11:06.480 who tore each other's throats out by day, arguing over policy would go out at night and have a stake

00:11:14.040 and a bottle of wine and, and talk to each other like Americans. I don't know what to say about 1.00

00:11:20.100 that. Other than with regard to the guy in that clip and the people in the story you just told, I,

00:11:25.040 I didn't write the movie for them. I wrote the movie because of them, but not for them. This is,

00:11:32.220 this is still for people who, who really do believe our country needs to be better and constantly

00:11:38.980 improve, but nevertheless love it. And those people seem to be in shorter supply. Unfortunately.

00:11:47.260 Yeah. That's, that's what the Gallup poll shows. I'll give you the numbers. I'm sure you you're

00:11:51.760 familiar. Uh, this one's from June of last year. I'm sure shortly we're going to be getting one,

00:11:57.320 the one from 24, 39% of American adults say they are extremely proud to be an American 39%.

00:12:08.060 That's basically unchanged from the all time low of 38% in 2022. Uh, okay. So that's not adults. 0.54

00:12:16.560 It's just 39% of Americans say they're extremely proud to be. So it used to be, uh, let's say 2003,

00:12:23.000 70% were extremely proud. So a precipitous fall there. You break it down. This is again,

00:12:29.320 June of 23 by party, 60% of Republicans, extremely proud, 33% of independence, 29% of Democrats,

00:12:39.320 29% of Democrats. So the vast majority of Democrats would not say they are extremely proud to be

00:12:47.440 Americans. It was not always this way back to 2003, 65% of Democrats said extremely proud,

00:12:54.240 62% of independence back then. And 86% of Republicans, even the Republicans are starting

00:12:59.320 to fall now. And that too was probably, I mean, it was two years post nine 11. We were feeling

00:13:04.380 more proud and we weren't yet in the midst of Iraq. 90% of us adults then said, well, I'm extremely,

00:13:10.860 are very proud to be American. It's just going down and down and down. And today the lowest numbers of

00:13:16.520 all are of course, amongst the youth, only 18% of 18 to 34 year olds say that they're extremely proud

00:13:26.420 to be an American. That is really tough to believe. It just goes back to the framing of the argument.

00:13:33.300 You know, we're, we're in such thrall of the talismans, you know, everything now represents

00:13:40.240 something more than what it is. Everything is a flag status. A mask has repercussions and insinuations

00:13:49.400 that have absolutely nothing to do with, with health or medicine. Everything is a way to, to show

00:13:57.160 or indicate your belief. And when you conflate politics, uh, with patriotism, you're going to get

00:14:06.140 this one side is going to put the metaphorical and literal flag in the sand and they're going to own

00:14:11.600 it. And it's not going to leave the other side with much wiggle room, except to push back against

00:14:16.940 it. Unless they're of a mind to say, okay, wait, yes, of course I love my country. Of course. I

00:14:24.440 appreciate what Patrick Henry said, even though I don't agree with a, with the way he lived his life,

00:14:31.460 but look, that was 250 years ago. What's going to happen, Megan, 250 years from now. That's the

00:14:37.900 question for the guy on the beach. How is your great, great, great, great grandson going to feel

00:14:43.960 about you looking back through the mists of time with all of his or her enlightenment and awakening,

00:14:52.080 you know, somewhere down the road, what, what statues are going to be pulled down today? How are we

00:14:58.800 going to think about, I don't know, meat eaters? Right. I mean, well, it's so much easier to judge

00:15:09.040 than think. And that's why those polls suck so bad because we're not thinking about our country anymore.

00:15:19.960 And we're not thinking about the price that was paid for us. We're simply judging. We've all been

00:15:28.320 assigned a little gavel and now we all have, you know, our little smartphone and we all have our

00:15:34.300 connection and we're just out in the world, slapping the gavel down, passing judgment,

00:15:42.080 not just on our neighbors, not just on this news network or that news network, but on men and women

00:15:48.580 who have been dead for centuries. And so when I talked to the park rangers in this, in this movie,

00:15:56.120 a couple of random encounters that I had in DC, and they tell me that the first thing they do

00:16:01.920 every morning, they go out and they, they scrub the filth off the memorials. They get the graffiti

00:16:08.840 off of the monuments. One said, you know, I, I pray that we want people to express themselves. We,

00:16:18.100 we, we want a free country that allows for protest, but can't they just use chalk? Can't they just

00:16:25.220 write what they want on the sidewalk in chalk? So the rain will just wash it away. But no, there's

00:16:31.920 red paint in places where red paint should never be. And it's no, well, it's a, they'll never win.

00:16:39.520 Those guys will get up every day. They will continue washing the monuments. You can throw the paint on

00:16:44.180 them all you want. The United States of America will prevail in protecting the things it holds most

00:16:49.280 dear. And we saw vandalism, even at the Lincoln Memorial. That's insane. I mean, like who, who would

00:16:55.700 dare ever touch that treasure, but sure enough, there it is free Gaza. You know, I've been talking 0.94

00:17:01.140 to the audience this week, Mike is Doug and the family and I were in, um, Scandinavia last two weeks.

00:17:06.180 We went to, uh, Sweden, Norway and, and, um, Denmark. It was beautiful, absolutely gorgeous part of the

00:17:11.460 world. Lovely people. But you feel these things on an innate level about like who you are, what your

00:17:18.220 background is versus this new place that you're exploring. And one of the things I was noticing

00:17:22.560 was what's America. It's a capitalist country. We're not a socialist country, though. Some many

00:17:27.240 in the left would like us to be more and more. And these are democratic socialist nations and they

00:17:33.960 have different policies and they have definitely a better social safety net. But when we asked our one

00:17:38.560 guy, what are you paying taxes? And she said, 75% of my money. Okay. All right. Well, that's the

00:17:44.380 thing. All of these folks know that no matter what they do or choose, they will be supported by the

00:17:48.420 government till their dying day. And they also know that whatever they make, they're at best, they're

00:17:54.000 only going to take home, let's say 25% of it. Now, what does that do? Does that just make you feel

00:17:59.360 happy and secure and, you know, encourage entrepreneurship moonshots, right?

00:18:07.360 Risk, invention, risk, right? No, I would suggest it does exactly the opposite. And this to me

00:18:15.120 manifested in small ways. You, when you're not in a capitalist society, you walk into a hotel

00:18:21.660 and the bellman, you know, who normally would rush to take a woman's big bag coming off of it.

00:18:26.180 They're like, eh, you're good. They don't, there's no rush. They're not hustling for a tip. They don't

00:18:32.360 care. You go to the restaurants and there's not a waiter who's going above and beyond to try to,

00:18:39.220 you know, give you good, good service, make sure you have a good time so that he gets a good tip.

00:18:43.620 That's the American capitalist spirit. If I work harder for you, presumably you will reward me

00:18:49.680 with something that says I value you. Nope, not there. It's like, we don't really do that here. And

00:18:56.760 my government's got me. I mean, it was, you could feel it. And I missed that American hustle. I missed

00:19:02.900 the gunner, you know, that you see, I miss going, like I live outside of New York. You go into the

00:19:08.240 city, you see these guys everywhere. You go into a cocktail lounge and these are the movers and shakers

00:19:14.620 of the world having drinks. They're talking about the future. And then you go out on the street and you

00:19:20.140 see the guys who are drilling the streets and with the, you know, doing the dirty jobs. And they say,

00:19:25.500 Hey, sweetheart. And you say, Hey, yo, you, you go guy. And you thank the cops for their service.

00:19:30.020 And they'd got the New York acts. I missed all of it. I didn't really, I couldn't see life at a 6.5.

00:19:37.580 You know what I mean? I much rather live in a place where there are ones intense.

00:19:42.180 Well, you round the edges off of the thing, you know, and everything is smooth and careful and all

00:19:48.820 terribly polite. It's, it's really, I think the only four letter word that, that really matters in

00:19:54.920 this conversation is risk and the willingness to accept it and society's decision to either

00:20:02.580 reward it, encourage it or punish it and discourage it. We're coming out of a three-year period,

00:20:09.800 Megan, right now. I, I think we're, we're risk in all of its forms has been mitigated. Uh, we've,

00:20:17.480 we've attempted to erase it, eliminate it. You know, I was listening to an old clip. I posted something

00:20:24.520 a few years ago when Andrew Cuomo as governor, uh, said no measure, no matter how draconian

00:20:33.100 could be deemed excessive if it saves a single life. And, you know, you think about what would

00:20:41.820 really happen to a society that actually believed that. And we started to see it. And when you read

00:20:49.900 the texts of our founding fathers and when you look at the affirmative steps that were taken a couple

00:20:57.340 of hundred years ago, the amount of courage, the amount of risk that the signers of the declaration

00:21:03.960 had to assume and knew they were assuming before they put pen to paper, it's mind boggling when you weigh

00:21:12.120 and measure it against, uh, today's state of mind. It's we're like a frog in the boiling water with

00:21:20.940 regard to that. We've, we've truly embraced a literal safety first mentality in our country,

00:21:28.680 which is absurd. Safety is never first. If it were, we'd still be in our homes. If it were our,

00:21:37.120 the speed limit, Cuomo could have dropped the speed limit to five miles an hour, made rubber cars and

00:21:44.600 made all motorists wear a helmet and eliminated left turns. And it would have saved 35,000 lives

00:21:50.780 a year. But we don't do that because people weren't made to stay in their homes and cars weren't made to

00:21:57.840 set in the driveway and, and, and ships weren't made to stay in the Harbor. And, and all of that

00:22:04.440 freedom and all of that individuality, that's what I think you guys probably missed in Scandinavia.

00:22:10.980 It was the, the freedom to screw it up. It was the, the right to try and the concerted effort to

00:22:20.360 encourage the trying and the failing, the flaw, all of it, the stuff that makes it interesting,

00:22:27.680 that walk down that New York city street, you just invis envisioned, you know, it, who knows what

00:22:34.080 that construction worker is going to say next. He might go too far. Who knows how that we don't

00:22:39.100 know. We're not supposed to know. It's not supposed to be that anodyne and safe, you know, that's back

00:22:47.560 to Franklin, right? Safety and security. And you get those two things mixed up. You don't deserve

00:22:53.400 either. Yeah, no, the, uh, the right to try. That's what we give you here in America. You have

00:23:00.140 the right to try. You don't have the right to win, no guaranteed success and no guaranteed safety net

00:23:06.460 for a lot of Americans. That's also true, but the right to try and to change your station in life,

00:23:12.060 unlike any other country in the world. And all right, this brings me back to the movie and one of 0.74

00:23:19.180 my favorite stories. So now, as I said to the audience up top, it's got about 10 or so stories

00:23:24.580 of people whose names you will know for the most part, some of you won't, but you'll recognize the

00:23:30.220 role that they're being highlighted for. And my, and the fun part is getting the big reveal at the

00:23:35.120 end. So I'm not going to ruin it for the audience because I hope they would experience it the same way

00:23:39.580 I did, but I'm going to tell, I think, and I have your permission, I think to tell one just so they can

00:23:44.440 get a feel for what's in this movie. And it's my favorite one. Okay. So you're going to help me

00:23:50.100 tell it. Um, here's a little bit from the movie that will jumpstart this particular story, uh, about

00:23:58.160 a guy named Harry sought for Bill believed that Harry's daughter would make an excellent wife and

00:24:06.400 planned on proposing after he graduated from Stanford. All he had to do now was convince Harry that he was a

00:24:13.880 good match for his little girl, a challenge that would require him to swallow a mouthful of bull 1.00

00:24:20.640 testicles. And you literally mean bull testicles. So the stars of this little story are Harry, 1.00

00:24:29.340 his daughter and Bill who needs to impress Harry in order to win the hand or his blessing for the hand

00:24:36.600 of the daughter whom Bill would like to date. You take it from there. Yes. Yes. So when I wrote that

00:24:42.780 story a couple of years ago, uh, the title was not inclined to judge because our hero, Bill was not

00:24:51.440 a judgmental guy. He, he took everything at face value and he always played the cards he got and he,

00:24:58.540 and he fell in love with this woman, Harry's daughter. And so he basically goes to court her,

00:25:06.220 to woo her. This is a Stanford student, by the way, smart fellow,

00:25:10.180 but he's a bit out of his depth on the lazy B ranch and the old man, Harry, you know, he knows his

00:25:17.720 daughter's a catch. And when the suitors arrive, he likes to weigh and measure them and see how

00:25:23.540 they'll respond. In this case, he has them go through some, uh, uh, dehorning, which is a very

00:25:29.760 difficult thing to do on a ranch and basic animal husbandry practices and branding and things like

00:25:36.700 that. And then of course we move on to castration, which on a personal level, uh, was kind of a big

00:25:42.280 deal for me during dirty jobs. In fact, when I castrated lambs in season four, uh, won an Emmy

00:25:48.340 award. I don't know if you can see it back there, but there it sits. So I, I, I knew this, I knew that

00:25:54.640 this topic would hit a chord. And so, uh, I tell the story of what Bill does and spoiler alert,

00:26:03.340 he's up for the job. Old Harry takes these testicles off of these bulls with the help of 0.99

00:26:11.680 his daughter who really seems to enjoy it by the way, and runs him through an ice pick and then puts 0.99

00:26:17.340 them on an open flame. He calls them shishka balls and he hands one to Bill and Bill takes it off the

00:26:25.800 ice pick and he eats it. Now this is a true story. In fact, I'm going to show you something. This,

00:26:30.720 it's so weird that you brought this up. Your viewers should know, I swear this isn't scripted,

00:26:35.700 but the prop director two days ago in camp Pendleton gave me this. We screened the movie

00:26:41.740 for about a thousand Marines the other day. It says hero bull testicle. I'm going to open it up for 0.99

00:26:47.100 you, Megan. I'm going to, Oh God, this is what you saw. This is what you saw on the film.

00:26:54.000 I'm sorry, but it looks like a penis. It doesn't even look like a testicle. It looks like 0.99

00:26:57.340 a severed penis. I can't speak to that, Megan. I don't know what your experience has been 1.00

00:27:02.660 testicle versus penises, bulls versus, you know, aardvarks, but that's a good size testicle. 0.99

00:27:08.720 And that's the prop that we use. Was it recently severed? There's still blood marks on it. 1.00

00:27:12.640 No, no, that's just all Hollywood magic. That looks like a vein, doesn't it? It's so realistic.

00:27:17.260 God, that's disgusting. This is what Bill had to eat. Okay. In order to win Harry's approval,

00:27:25.080 in order to get a chance to date his daughter, he does. And the two get together and they kind of

00:27:33.600 live happily ever after, except for the fact that Bill waited too long to propose. And another guy

00:27:42.000 comes to the ranch, another Stanford student who also passes the same testicle test, he proposes 0.80

00:27:49.260 and winds up marrying Sandra Day. His name, of course, was O'Connor. And so that couple goes off

00:27:59.020 into the sunset. But what about Bill? Poor Bill, the man who's not inclined to judge? Well, that was

00:28:05.500 Bill Rehnquist. He and Sandra Day sit on the Supreme Court for decades together. And the families become

00:28:15.080 dear friends brought together by the father of a pretty young girl who wanted to see what the men in

00:28:23.740 her life were made of and decided to do that with a litmus test that involved the recently severed 0.63

00:28:29.780 testicles of a bull. Now. A pair of scissors the dad called the emasculators. The emasculator. Look, 0.98

00:28:38.180 when you show up, I don't know what your dad was like, but when your old boyfriend showed up knocking

00:28:42.440 at the door, when the old man answers holding a bloody emasculator and says, come in, I'd like to

00:28:49.360 have a word, right? I mean, that to me is so relatable. Never mind history. You know, if you're

00:28:58.800 trying to get permission to tell somebody a larger story or to make a bigger point, you have to get

00:29:05.440 their attention. That's Dirty Jobs 101. So the reason that that story is in the film, it's different

00:29:12.820 from all of the other ones. But the reason I wanted it in there was because it has to do with judgment

00:29:19.400 and it has to do with what people will do in order to get to the heart of a thing, the truth of the

00:29:26.980 matter, the character of a man. How do we measure that today? And regarding my earlier comments,

00:29:33.960 you know, how will we judge these people from our past and how will we be judged from our grandkids

00:29:40.700 somewhere down the road? How do we think about our history? We, we get to do all that. But to me,

00:29:47.520 for, for, for Bill Rehnquist and Sandra Day to become great friends and colleagues in spite of

00:29:56.300 everything, I just found something really hopeful in that metaphor. And, and so the way it works in

00:30:04.220 the movie is it's just a piece of the puzzle. And the other piece of it, Mike, that, that I love too,

00:30:10.000 is, um, in the film you get to, and in 1981, um, president Ronald Reagan would ask chief justice,

00:30:23.200 William Rehnquist, whether he thought a woman he was considering to appoint to the high court,

00:30:29.500 the very first woman ever could handle being on a court with all men being surrounded by that much

00:30:36.960 testosterone. And all people said, Mr. President, she's good. She's got me. She is not going to be

00:30:48.440 intimidated by eight old bulls, you know, like, I mean, they, it just must've been one of those

00:30:55.280 great moments. Look, this is why my podcast is called the way I heard it. I wasn't there when

00:31:00.940 Ronald Reagan asked Bill Rehnquist, if he could recommend Sandra Day for that position. But I know 0.86

00:31:09.280 for a fact that Bill was there when Harry Day tossed him a severed testicle as his daughter 0.98

00:31:16.380 applauded and hoped that he would have the intestinal fortitude to take a bite out of that ball. Well, 0.97

00:31:24.960 he did. And I, in, in my mind as a, uh, you know, a fake cinematographer and an erstwhile writer,

00:31:33.260 I want to see that scene. I want that moment because I can see it in my mind's eye. So to

00:31:40.040 suddenly have permission to cast Ronald Reagan and William Rehnquist and create that little moment

00:31:46.040 in history that nobody ever writes about. I found that story buried in a footnote and a biography

00:31:52.880 on, on Sandra Day's life. And to be able to make that a centerpiece of a story that that's a fun way

00:32:05.300 to turn history on its head. You know, all the facts are right, but it is the way I heard it. I don't

00:32:12.620 know. I don't know exactly how Reagan put it. I don't know precisely what Rehnquist said, but I'd bet

00:32:18.620 big that somewhere in the reptilian part of his brain, he was remembering the emasculator and the

00:32:24.880 way young Sandy applauded in glee. Those two must've had such fun behind the scenes chemistry

00:32:31.740 when they were deliberating on these cases. I can't imagine, especially because now Rehnquist was

00:32:37.140 not exactly her boss, but in a, in a even more powerful post than hers, uh, I would have loved to

00:32:42.880 have been had a bird's eye view. I did go to, um, you know, I was at many arguments where they were

00:32:47.000 present. And, uh, I went as a reporter to cover chief justice Rehnquist funeral. It was actually

00:32:53.240 an amazing event. I mean, everybody was there of course, but, and it led to my, my one and only

00:32:57.860 meaningful interaction with justice Antonin Scalia, my very favorite justice ever who I saw on the steps

00:33:05.920 of the, of the, um, facility, the church was coming out and he came right over to me, Mike. And I was

00:33:12.800 like, this is it. He's going to tell me he appreciates my coverage. He probably watches Fox.

00:33:18.620 He's a more conservative guy. He's going to tell me I'm the only one who truly gets it. You know,

00:33:23.780 I'd practice law for 10 years. So I got a leg up on all these other people. And he did come right

00:33:28.520 over to me and handed me his camera and said, miss, could you please take my picture with this man

00:33:33.740 right here? Yeah. Oh my God. That, I mean, and, and, you know, though, Megan, you know, he knew exactly

00:33:44.360 who you were, you know, Oh, he knew, but that is such that, that that's great. I mean, that tells you,

00:33:52.780 I mean, you, you could take that moment and that would get people interested in hearing more

00:34:00.140 about who Scalia was and why he took the positions he took because, and that, and that's the point of

00:34:07.460 all these stories. You know, if, if I can find something in your background that informs and

00:34:14.240 foreshadows the kind of woman you're destined to become, that's, that's where the story starts.

00:34:21.260 That would, that's what Paul Harvey was so good at doing. And that's what I've tried to, uh,

00:34:25.140 you know, speaking of, uh, some of the desecrations of our flag and people getting upset over seeing

00:34:32.280 the American flag triggered now, you know, in the United States of America, it is legal to burn the

00:34:37.240 flag, which is something we should be proud about. And Scalia was one of the ones who casted the

00:34:42.660 deciding votes, affirming that saying it is legal. It is constitutional in this United States of America

00:34:49.580 to burn the flag. And he said, if this were the United States of Antonin Scalia, I would make it 0.73

00:34:55.840 illegal. I would make it unconstitutional, but I am a job. I am a lawyer in a robe whose job it is to

00:35:02.700 interpret the constitution as written. And as written, we have this very precious thing called

00:35:07.940 the first amendment that gives you a right, a freedom of expression that's written right there.

00:35:13.200 And it's really unambiguous. And the reason it's so important to let people burn the flag is because

00:35:19.980 the right to do it is more important than their objection. Uh, the objection to seeing somebody do

00:35:25.080 it. It's funny though, isn't it? How that logic doesn't quite transfer to say the Nazi flag or

00:35:33.240 maybe, I don't know, pick your favorite flag today. I mean, maybe it's the pride flag. Do we feel

00:35:40.880 as magnanimous about that? That guy on the beach you showed me 20 minutes ago, if those flags waving

00:35:50.180 in the breeze behind them were the rainbow flags, would he still be spewing the same kind of thing?

00:35:57.140 And how would we feel about it? You know, how do we feel about a person who protests today, uh, behind,

00:36:04.860 uh, a bandana or a mask? Are we generous with them? It, it, it, it feels like we kind of are, but

00:36:12.920 isn't it interesting? Like what's the difference between a Klansman who wants to go out there and

00:36:20.400 set something on fire and a protester today who wants to go out there and set something on fire.

00:36:26.240 If both of these people are primarily concerned with covering their face. So yeah, I, I'm with

00:36:36.500 Scalia. If I, if, if I were wearing the robe, my first duty of care is to the constitution,

00:36:42.120 but he's also, it's incumbent on him to share his personal feelings too, because he's an individual

00:36:48.740 and a human. That's right. And, and that I object. I don't like it. I don't want you to do it,

00:36:55.220 but I'm not going to say you don't have that right. Especially as a Supreme court. I mean,

00:36:59.900 this is turning into an X-rated show people. He's banned this. I, I object to this prosthetic

00:37:05.820 testicle. I I'd rather not eat it, but I will, I will because there's, there's something greater at 0.99

00:37:14.580 stake. Do with that metaphor, but you will. Stand by quick break more with Mike Rowe. You've got to

00:37:24.060 check it out. The movie is something to stand for. You're going to see it in movie theaters. He's

00:37:28.420 making it easy on you. Uh, and it starts tomorrow only for a limited run. This is not going to be

00:37:33.200 out in the theaters for that long. He's just trying to get people to think about this country,

00:37:36.620 something to stand for back in a moment. Joe Biden knows how to do this. Yes. He knows how to do this.

00:37:42.960 He's, he's quite good at this. And, you know, you can't refute anything with him because he just,

00:37:49.360 when I say him, I mean. He rambles. Trump. Trump. Yeah. He tends to just.

00:37:55.540 But can I mention one thing? Because Trump is out there calling. Did you say his name?

00:38:03.320 I said his name. It was a trick. So that was Whoopi Goldberg spitting,

00:38:08.840 openly spitting on the show of The View, on the set of The View after saying Trump's name,

00:38:12.560 something she has sworn never to do. She would never say President Trump. She told

00:38:16.920 David Axelrod years ago. And, um, she, I guess she just caught herself letting his name slip out

00:38:23.880 and thought that was worth spitting openly on the set of ABC news. Uh, welcome back to the Megan 0.84

00:38:29.760 Kelly show here with me today, Mike Rowe, writer and star of something to stand for, which is in

00:38:35.720 theaters tomorrow. Tomorrow. You can check it out by going to something to stand for.com. And then

00:38:39.660 it'll show you exactly where you can find it. Um, that's the Sop movie. Okay. Stop movie. That's

00:38:47.040 how you find it. That's the state of America today where we no longer have the Walter Cronkite's of

00:38:52.120 the world, but we have openly spitting when the name of the former president comes out of your

00:38:58.020 mouth on the set. So there's been a slippage in terms of courtesy and behavior and standards.

00:39:05.420 I think we can agree on that thoughts of any on that, Mike, and also on whether you're going to

00:39:11.140 be watching what could be the only presidential debate of this entire election season on Thursday

00:39:17.580 night. They say there's going to be two. We'll see. There's definitely going to be at least this

00:39:21.240 one. I'm not sure there's going to be the one. I think the whole situation is, uh, fluid as they

00:39:28.220 say, but sure. I'll watch. I might even make popcorn. I mean, I, what can it, what else can you

00:39:33.000 do? Uh, but, but bear witness and, and there's a lot to watch, you know, I, I don't quite know yet

00:39:41.160 what to think of the reports I've read about the president hunkered down in, uh, in an airplane

00:39:49.560 hangar with 16 people coaching and prepping and preparing for a moment. Well, 90 moments, right?

00:40:00.620 It's a 90 minute debate. It just, I don't know. Again, when I think about the people in this movie,

00:40:07.220 when I think about our founding fathers and, and how they would prepare and how people spoke

00:40:13.900 back then and just the, the, the sheer poetry of so many of these people, their mastery of the,

00:40:24.060 the, the language, their control of rhetoric, their ability to make a case on the fly, uh, to make a

00:40:33.600 point, to be understood that stuff. I, I don't know where that went. I mean, hell, our ability to write a

00:40:41.680 letter, Megan, if you go back and read the letters from soldiers during the revolution or the civil

00:40:49.660 war, even in the first world war, that it was, we, we had such a better control of even common people

00:40:59.980 had a, a seemingly more facile, uh, control and understanding of how to be understood. It's just,

00:41:09.280 this thing has been reduced on all sides, especially on the media side to a kind of, uh,

00:41:17.980 kabuki, you know, I don't even, I, I don't even know what to watch for when I look at a debate like

00:41:26.480 this, because all of it reeks of preparation, performance, and the moment it, it just,

00:41:33.800 it's drenched with it. You mentioned Cronkite. This is something else that, that I think a lot

00:41:39.400 about, you know, he used to sign off. Do you remember how he would sign off every newscast?

00:41:45.280 And that's the way it is. August 4th, 1977, or whatever it was. Well, that's over, isn't it?

00:41:54.680 Nobody can look in the lens now and tell you the way it is. I mean, they try, but you can almost hear

00:42:00.600 the masses giggling from sea to shining sea. What do you mean? That's the way it is. Who are you to

00:42:05.480 tell me? That's the way it is. What do you know? We don't trust anybody in front of the camera,

00:42:12.000 anywhere close to the degree that we used to trust uncle Walter. And that's because we don't trust,

00:42:19.260 nor should we, right? We should be skeptical first and foremost, but the reason we need to be more

00:42:25.240 skeptical today than we've ever been in the history of bipeds is because our media has never been less

00:42:32.260 skeptical. We need people who are willing to hold the elected officials' feet to the fire,

00:42:40.900 regardless of your personal feelings. We need more people like Scalia, who to your earlier point

00:42:47.080 would, would not do a thing, but would enforce the law. And our media is just not doing their job.

00:42:54.340 And so it's incumbent on the rest of us to embrace this heightened level of skepticism, which means

00:42:59.320 that Walter Cronkite is not only dead and gone, but any attempt to say, trust me, is over. This is

00:43:06.300 impacting every single thing in our world, Megan, from paid spokespeople like me, from time to time,

00:43:12.640 to journalists, to politicians. I would suggest to you that anyone who stares into the lens of the

00:43:21.540 camera and speaks with great earnestness about a thing and then concludes with something along the

00:43:27.700 lines of take my word for it is about the most unconvincing, unpersuasive. That's not for sale

00:43:37.340 anymore. In my view, the way to be persuasive today is to say, don't take my word for it. I actually

00:43:46.120 wasn't there. But this is what I read and this is what I think and this is what I believe. And that's

00:43:52.160 why, whether it's a product that you use or a fact that you're reporting or a headline you're calling

00:43:58.120 into question, we've entered into a place where people are now so skeptical and so dubious and in

00:44:04.820 many cases so cynical that I honestly don't think there's any upside in being persuasive by trying

00:44:13.680 to be persuasive. So that's a long way of saying, I can't wait to see what happens in this debate

00:44:19.660 because I don't know how either of these two men are going to fundamentally overcome the deep suspicion

00:44:31.240 held so close by so many viewers who are watching. We smell a fake. We we can smell it. We've I mean, I can't

00:44:42.400 believe anybody uses a teleprompter anymore, but present company excluded. But I mean, from a from a

00:44:49.880 persuasive standpoint, what what are we doing? We say on the one hand that we're desperate for authenticity

00:44:56.980 and then we watch people perform. You know, there's nothing wrong with a prompter, but show me

00:45:04.080 the wide shot. They're both going to do it. But Biden's I mean, there's no question Biden's

00:45:08.840 rehearsing way more than Trump is and he's going to have his canned lines. And I think Trump will be

00:45:13.220 much more off the cuff and ad lib. But when you were talking about, you know, Walter Cronkite and

00:45:18.520 what's changed, all I could think is. We we've made a critical error and it's something a Mike Rowe would

00:45:25.480 never have allowed had you been in charge of all the journalism. And that is we've let our journalism

00:45:30.600 class become part of the elites. You know, they're they're no longer those shoe leather, scrappy

00:45:38.140 working class guys and gals shoving dimes into the payphone, trying to work their sources. 0.94

00:45:44.580 F the man. I I'm not on his side. I'm on the side of my readers and my viewers and my listeners.

00:45:50.520 No. Now they are on this. They are the man. And worse than that, they've forgotten their

00:45:56.960 connection to the other side. You know, I think about it in terms of my own life. You can go

00:46:01.740 on a Scandinavian vacation. You can enroll your kids in the in the summer club where they learn

00:46:07.880 how to play tennis. But you should never forget that you spent your own childhood. Your summer

00:46:12.900 yacht club was your mom's sprinkler in the backyard. Right. Like that to forget that is the unforgivable

00:46:18.860 part of what the journalism class has done. Yes. A thousand times. Yes. You I mean, we often say,

00:46:27.240 look, our our elected officials work for us. Well, of course they do. But they have a duty of care

00:46:33.600 to groups. They have a duty of care to their own party. They have all sorts of other things,

00:46:40.020 all kinds of chronologies and hierarchies that make that platitude not not terribly plausible.

00:46:46.940 Journalists don't. Journalists work for all of us. We need you on that wall. Right. We need you to

00:46:56.960 be skeptical. We need you to be disagreeable, unlikable and unflappable in your relentless pursuit

00:47:05.840 of the truth. Because if you don't do that, if you don't question the experts in every other field,

00:47:12.780 you will leave us no choice but to do that for ourselves. And we can't because we don't know

00:47:18.760 who to believe anymore, because anybody anywhere can go to any website to find any number of self

00:47:24.380 appointed experts to confirm that which they hold dear. And so we're lost. We need you guys.

00:47:33.640 We need journalists back and we need them scrappy and pissed off and highly dubious of every single

00:47:40.840 thing. You said it exactly right that the goal of any journalist should not be to be liked. It

00:47:47.700 should be to be respected. That's it. If you're in the being liked game, you're failing. Mike Rowe,

00:47:52.740 both likable and respectable, the very rare combination with the movie Something to Stand

00:47:58.860 For. Go and see what theaters you can watch it in at something to stand for dot movie. Great to see

00:48:04.560 my friend. It is great to see you. Please tell Doug hello. And I swear to God, if there's any justice

00:48:10.560 in this world, we all have to get together in person sometime with a frosty beverage and do this

00:48:15.960 right. Oh, it's happening. It's all three of us are counting the moments. I look forward to it. All

00:48:21.720 the best, sir. Till then. Thanks. See you soon. And we'll be right back.

00:48:25.540 I'm Megan Kelly, host of the Megan Kelly show on Sirius XM. It's your home for open, honest and

00:48:32.440 provocative conversations with the most interesting and important political, legal and cultural figures

00:48:37.380 today. You can catch the Megan Kelly show on Triumph, a Sirius XM channel featuring lots of hosts

00:48:42.800 you may know and probably love. Great people like Dr. Laura, Glenn Beck, Nancy Grace, Dave Ramsey,

00:48:49.980 and yours truly, Megan Kelly. You can stream the Megan Kelly show on Sirius XM at home,

00:48:55.540 or anywhere you are. No car required. I do it all the time. I love the Sirius XM app. It has ad

00:49:03.080 free music coverage of every major sport, comedy talk, podcast, and more. Subscribe now. Get your first

00:49:09.180 three months for free. Go to Sirius XM dot com slash MK show to subscribe and get three months free.

00:49:16.880 That's Sirius XM dot com slash MK show and get three months free. Offer details apply.

00:49:25.540 Hillary Clinton is out with a new op-ed in the New York Times, giving President Biden tips

00:49:33.480 on how to handle Donald Trump during the debate tomorrow night. Surprisingly, one of her tips

00:49:38.220 was not to get the questions ahead of time from the DNC. That is so helpful. Donna Brazile did me a

00:49:45.020 solid. That's really what her op-ed should have said. Plus, why is Jennifer Lopez suddenly trying 1.00

00:49:49.740 to pretend she's not mega rich, flying economy, and obviously leaking a picture of herself to TMZ? 0.98

00:49:55.480 There are so many stories to get to with our friend, Daily Mail columnist Maureen Callahan.

00:50:00.920 I want to tell you right now, Maureen is also out with a must-read new book. This is the must-read

00:50:10.480 book of the summer. It's called Ask Not the Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed. You will fly through

00:50:20.660 this thing. There's so many interesting new nuggets on this bizarre family. Trust me, you're going to

00:50:29.020 want to read it and you're going to want to buy it for everyone you know. She's giving us the first

00:50:33.400 exclusive interview on it ahead of the book's release next week. Maureen, welcome back to the show.

00:50:38.280 Megan, thank you so much for having me and thank you so much for supporting this book.

00:50:45.320 As I've said before, your opinion means so much to me and giving my book your stamp of approval

00:50:53.600 is just, you're the best. You're the best. Oh, oh my gosh. Thank you so much. I enjoyed every page

00:51:01.080 and some of these topics and cases that you go into, I have studied pretty extensively. I learned

00:51:07.600 so many new facts, even on the things I thought I knew well. It left me feeling I never want to

00:51:14.740 really do a story again without having Maureen research it. She just gets things nobody else

00:51:21.100 gets. Anyway, we'll get into all of it. Let's tick through a couple of the news headlines because I

00:51:25.840 always love getting your take on what's in the headlines, but then I really want to spend all of

00:51:29.360 time on your book because it's just so good. Um, let's start with politics. Okay. First of all,

00:51:35.060 we showed our audience this clip the other day. Let's just remind them sought 22 of AOC going into

00:51:41.640 the Bronx, acting like Cardi B like, yeah, yo screening, trying to get people riled up for what

00:51:47.840 to vote for Jamal Bowman, fellow member of the squad who went down in flames last night. So let's

00:51:55.980 remind them what AOC looked like rallying for him.

00:51:58.980 Yeah, yeah, me and my son, you know what they're picking. Cheap and expensive, you know what the

00:52:03.060 difference. You know what it's getting, you know what it's giving. Here, reels, come in there. I can

00:52:06.720 survive in the cold, it's conditions. Bang all day, tone, they spend. There's five, soap and

00:52:10.720 the dishes. I'm black, pressure like boy, constricted. I'm so old, you, daddy, I'm not gonna do. I'm in Miami, I put up on 0.81

00:52:16.980 two ships. You in Miami for all two weeks. Let's not play! 0.85

00:52:18.980 Step this damn people on that can't breathe. Whips the hair down. 1.00

00:52:22.980 Well, apparently not, Maureen, because Jamal Bowman, the

00:52:52.980 I didn't really pull the fire alarm congressman, uh, was booted out very easily by his Democratic

00:52:59.940 challenger for this role. And they were not ready to fight on behalf of anything AOC was selling,

00:53:05.660 as it turns out, in the Bronx. What do you make of it?

00:53:07.800 Or take anything back. I mean, what a ridiculous and embarrassing display. This woman 1.00

00:53:14.400 is positioning herself as a future elder stateswoman of far left. So what does she do? She gets up and

00:53:23.220 she cosplays as Cardi B, singing along to lyrics, calling women bitches and hoes, in support of a guy 1.00

00:53:33.360 who is a rape denier, who said that what Hamas did on the 7th was an out-and-out lie, that there was no 0.98

00:53:42.640 such thing as mass rapes or killings of women and babies. This is, I mean, you have to marvel, 1.00

00:53:49.840 as ever, at the lack of self-awareness. It's amazing to me. Jamal Bowman then getting up in his, like,

00:53:57.840 sleeveless muscle shirt, slamming this stool around and, you know, yelling all manner of

00:54:05.580 things about taking things back and blah, blah, blah. And you contrast that with his appearance

00:54:10.440 in Westchester in, like, a suit and a tie and being all decorous, you know, as a would-be. It's just,

00:54:18.460 it's remarkable. It's a great kickoff to the summer.

00:54:21.060 There it is. Yes. Well said. I agree with that. So Jabal Bowman in the, in the final stretch before

00:54:27.820 he knew he was going to lose, played the race card, uh, came out and said during his final debate,

00:54:32.800 I'm an outspoken black man. And, uh, said his, his challenger supporters don't want that

00:54:38.740 because it challenges their power, right? When in doubt, play the black card. It didn't work.

00:54:44.660 And even now in defeat where he didn't concede, he came out and played the victim. Listen.

00:54:53.000 We should be outraged when a super pack of dark money can spend $20 million 0.95

00:55:00.780 to brainwash people into believing something that isn't true. Unfortunately, some so-called

00:55:09.340 Democrats are aligning themselves with radical racist right-wing Republicans. We should be

00:55:15.260 outraged about that. Ah, you see, that's why he lost to Democrat George Latimer, 58.4 to 41.6,

00:55:24.200 because those dumbass misinformed Democrats align with racist Republicans, Maureen. 0.99

00:55:31.360 Well, Megan, I think you really have a hard time playing that card in a post-Obama America. 1.00

00:55:37.580 I think if you're going to call that segment of the electorate racists, I think you then have to

00:55:44.080 turn to Hillary Clinton, who endorsed Latimer. And lastly, I think the loss lays at your feet when,

00:55:53.240 as at that rally, you take the stage full of vim and vigor, and you yell things like, 1.00

00:55:59.620 we're going to show them who the fuck we are. Well, you did, and you lost. 1.00

00:56:04.480 Right, noted. And we are moving on. Okay, back to, speaking of Hillary, her op-ed, which is really

00:56:14.080 pretty spectacular in the New York Times. First of all, my team just showed me this. Have you seen

00:56:19.720 the cover for her new book? It's something lost, something gamed. Gained. A gamed is with Freudian

00:56:30.220 slip. And she, I, like, the amount of retouching on this face I haven't seen since, you know,

00:56:38.740 Joan Rivers had her 15th surgery. God love Joan. This, I don't know what she's trying to be with 0.96

00:56:44.880 this soft focus. My executive producer, Steve Krakauer, is like, she looks nothing like herself.

00:56:50.200 I said, well, why are you saying that? Like, she's Cindy Crawford. That's a good thing in the case of 0.98

00:56:54.580 Hillary Clinton. We shouldn't be upset. Sorry, personal insult, but yeah.

00:57:00.040 It's on my mind, though. Like, the air-toucher, the retoucher deserves a huge raise. This is a much

00:57:10.040 more soft, welcoming, friendly, I suppose, Hillary. Although, again, to self-awareness,

00:57:18.220 something lost, huh? I wonder what that was, really. You know? The woman who wrote a book called

00:57:25.240 What Happened, like, marveling over all the external forces that could have caused her loss

00:57:30.800 in a presidential election that was handed to her on a silver platter. And then you get into this

00:57:36.760 op-ed, which, again, is just remarkable for what's in there. She has a paragraph in there

00:57:42.300 about all the prep she did to debate Donald Trump herself in 2016. And she ends that passage

00:57:48.860 with these two words. I kid you not. It worked. It worked? You lost. If it worked, you would have

00:57:58.760 won. Why aren't you the president, if you're so smart about how to debate Trump, asking for a friend?

00:58:05.820 Like, it didn't work out for you. But she comes in like the elder stateswoman, like,

00:58:10.620 you can do it perfectly, is really what she's arguing. And it won't help, because you can't

00:58:16.720 debate this insane man. She writes, it's a waste of time to try to refute Mr. Trump's arguments

00:58:21.760 like in a normal debate. It's nearly impossible to identify what his arguments even are. He starts

00:58:28.500 with nonsense and then digresses into blather. This has gotten only worse in the years since we debated.

00:58:34.620 So this is these are just insults, right? It's like, actually, what he did was he got out there

00:58:40.860 and said you'd be in jail if he were in charge. And people loved the challenge of power of somebody

00:58:47.900 who'd been considered untouchable. You, in the meantime, as we now know, were cheating behind

00:58:52.980 the scenes of these debates. He was not cheating with the Russians or anyone else. And he was raising

00:58:59.660 issues that really mattered to working class in middle America, whom she totally ignored.

00:59:06.020 None of that's in the op-ed. None of it's in the op-ed. By the way, she also has a line in which

00:59:13.100 she refers to Biden. She calls him this, the most empathetic president we've ever had.

00:59:19.260 I cannot repeat this enough. Ashley Biden's diary. Was I molested? I think so. Showers with my dad.

00:59:30.200 Probably not appropriate. Let's talk about the debate tomorrow night. Let's talk about

00:59:36.000 which moderators are going to go all in on Donald Trump. And I guarantee you the opening question

00:59:42.180 is going to be Mr. Trump, President Trump, rather. You are now a convicted felon. How is it that you 0.94

00:59:48.580 can tell the American people you possess the character for the highest office in the land? Do we think a

00:59:55.680 single one of those people is not only going to raise Ashley Biden's diary verified by Ashley herself

01:00:01.620 in court filings? Do we think they're going to raise the concerns of world leaders at the G7

01:00:07.620 who said they have never seen an American president so out of capacity mentally and physically? Are we

01:00:17.760 going to reference the Wall Street Journal story two weeks ago in which 45 government officials,

01:00:24.320 Republican and Democrat, Republican and Democrat said that they were so concerned about Biden's

01:00:30.680 fitness for office and all but said he falls asleep in meetings and he clocks out at three in the

01:00:36.460 afternoon? What are we going to discuss this? I would love for Hillary Clinton to have raised some of 1.00

01:00:41.720 these truths in this self-reflecting, self-regarding op-ed in which she, the biggest loser in modern American 0.51

01:00:51.460 politics, is telling President Biden how to beat this guy. The other absurdity is in all of these 0.92

01:00:58.340 debates, whether Trump was debating Hillary or Joe Biden, the moderators were on the opposing side.

01:01:04.920 They were all against Trump. She had the assistance of every moderator they appeared in front of,

01:01:10.200 as did Joe Biden. That was obvious to anybody watching. It's a lot easier to feel you did well

01:01:15.020 when you're not getting asked the most pointed questions, when the other guy is taking all of the

01:01:19.720 frontal blows. And you're right. Like if this, by the way, a prediction, I think if they asked Biden

01:01:26.260 about his age and infirmity, then they'll feel the need to ask Trump the same question. They're

01:01:30.200 going to, both sides of that one, like, oh, well, they're both old. Yeah, they're both old. And Trump

01:01:34.600 has normal, I'm getting older signs of aging, like he mistakes a name here or there, stuff that we all

01:01:41.180 kind of do after we hit 50. It's not there's no comparing what Trump is experiencing and what Joe

01:01:47.820 Biden. No, no comparing and no respectable, honest debate moderator would feel the need to both sides.

01:01:54.280 It will see whether they do it. OK, so we'll see. That's tomorrow night. Much more to get to here.

01:01:58.780 I got to ask you about Jennifer Lopez. This story has been everywhere. You're the only one I wanted to

01:02:05.580 talk to you about it. Now, J-Lo, when she left, when she and A-Rod broke up, he was cheating on her.

01:02:14.260 All the tabloids had the fact that he was dating some reality secretly star while he was supposed to

01:02:19.840 be living with J-Lo. And like that, she was suddenly all over the magazines. She suddenly had

01:02:25.660 the tabloid photographers catching her everywhere. And within about two minutes, she was back with Ben

01:02:31.060 Affleck and completely changed the news narrative to Bennifer. They're back. They're amazing.

01:02:38.340 Not J-Lo is kind of past her prime and got cheated on. Right. That's she didn't want that headline. 1.00

01:02:43.760 And I understand why. But I'm convinced she got back together with Ben Affleck to get rid of those

01:02:49.080 headlines. Then she went so far as to marry the guy. And shock of all shocks, it's not working out.

01:02:55.100 So now the PR campaign is back into gear, Maureen. And you see her. I mean, I'm sure you saw the

01:03:04.060 shots of her in Italy on a boat, like by herself, taking pictures of her own ass. 1.00

01:03:10.900 I saw those pictures, Megan. And I was like, this woman is maybe 13 years old emotionally. 1.00

01:03:19.740 Like your marriage matters. Every project you've put out this year has failed. You had to cancel your

01:03:27.880 tour because when you reduced your tickets to $9, Americans still don't want any part of you.

01:03:35.340 You vamoose to Italy to lick your wounds. You're in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

01:03:42.080 And what do you do? You take out your cell phone to shoot pictures of your own ass. Are you kidding 1.00

01:03:49.220 me? Oh, my Lord. I think we've talked about this before. But for anyone who hasn't seen her

01:03:56.380 documentary called The Greatest Love Story Never Told about her and Ben Affleck. I mean,

01:04:02.480 never told immediately. It is beyond incredible. And like the way that Ben talks about her on camera,

01:04:10.940 he talks about her, Megan. He literally says like, she's a bottomless pit of need.

01:04:15.000 Right. This is her husband. Oh, my Lord. And then the shot of her in coach. That was like

01:04:22.780 chef's kiss. Okay. So tell them what you're talking about.

01:04:26.860 So she's on like a almost like a puddle jumper in Europe. It's like an hour long flight between

01:04:33.460 countries. And somebody gets a picture of JLo looking downward, seated in coach. Jenny from

01:04:41.620 the block. She's just Jenny from the block. She's not trying to like us, like us not trying to unload

01:04:47.360 a 60 million dollar mansion, you know, and navigate a divorce while we all know she's like frantically 1.00

01:04:53.920 trying to line up her next victim because she cannot be single for a single second. You know, 0.99

01:05:00.400 we have to all participate in this delusion that Jenny's just a dewy little starlet, not like a 0.90

01:05:06.520 thrice divorced mother of two. Yeah. And oh, my God. Yeah. I mean, like fresh off the heels of trying

01:05:15.760 to sell this relationship as the greatest love story. Never mind the never told never told it's

01:05:22.080 been told incessantly. We're just not that interested. We pulled knowing that you were

01:05:26.680 coming on a clip from said, quote, documentary. Here's a here's a bit of it. Stop 24.

01:05:34.520 On that first day, I showed everybody this book. This book is a book that they gave me on our first

01:05:41.740 Christmas back together. It is every letter and every email that we wrote to each other

01:05:47.100 from 20 years ago and today. It became like our Bible and we just left it there in the studio and

01:05:52.960 people would thumb through it. They're like, can we look at it? It's like you have been showing all

01:05:58.860 the musicians all those letters that and they're like, yeah, we call you Penn Affleck. And I was like,

01:06:05.460 oh, my God. What's so because what's a love letter from your husband if you don't share it with the

01:06:14.140 world? Right. I mean, Jenny from the block is such a strong, proud Latina, you know, a real woman who 0.99

01:06:23.780 gets shit done. But it doesn't mean anything if the world and by the way, the like 35 songwriters she 0.88

01:06:32.340 had to hire to articulate this great personal love story do not have access to the JLo and Ben Affleck,

01:06:40.980 quote unquote Bible. And, you know, watching that documentary, which I did with my jaw on the floor

01:06:46.700 the entire time, what really struck me was there's a real strain of cruelty in there because that

01:06:52.240 Bible, which she so proudly holds up to the camera is dated like 2001 to 2024 and counting. And what that

01:07:02.360 says is he was writing to her the entire time he was married to Jennifer Garner, the mother of his

01:07:08.720 three children. On what planet does this woman feel the need to try to humiliate a woman that in her 1.00

01:07:17.140 mind, you know, she's like vanquished, you know, as the one who landed the amazing Ben Affleck, you know, 0.74

01:07:24.160 the alcoholic degenerate gambler who, despite his protestations, we all kind of believe screwed the

01:07:30.360 nanny in the house. Yeah. Yeah. Who won't, who won't, who finds Republicans so disgusting. He 0.99

01:07:35.500 won't even act in a movie across from one that's from his own lips. So she was just fine with him

01:07:43.620 marrying him. And now that it's going South, he must be destroyed. We're seeing all the articles leaked 0.99

01:07:49.300 about how he's mean. He's sourpussed. She's done all she can Maureen, but he's just too unhappy and

01:08:00.100 unlikable to save. She's really got to move on now. It's like, this is yet another failed marriage for

01:08:06.980 her. She's trying to dump it all on the guy, right? She's taking no responsibility. I tried,

01:08:12.160 I did my best. I lied to everybody about the greatest relationship. Um, what more can a girl do? 1.00

01:08:18.360 I guess it's back to my ass. I'm sorry. I have zero respect for this person. And I see what she's 0.99

01:08:24.060 doing with the tabloid press and America's too smart to fall for this. She's failing. She's failing 0.96

01:08:29.220 in all of her professional lanes. The only way she's not failing is she's got a huge social media

01:08:35.340 following. So she's reinventing herself as a Kardashian. Yeah, she is. But you know, I think

01:08:41.500 part of the factor here is that the American people, like we just don't like her. We don't like her.

01:08:46.860 We know she's a big phony. We know all the stories about her. Like the one thing you can say about 1.00

01:08:53.440 Ben Affleck is like, reportedly he is a great tipper and wherever he goes, he will lay down

01:08:58.740 like hundreds or thousands. And she snatches those tips back out of the hands of working people.

01:09:05.360 Jenny from the block. She does?

01:09:06.260 Oh, yes. She takes the tips? 0.97

01:09:09.420 Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

01:09:12.140 Well, how do we know this?

01:09:12.840 She's well known in Vegas for doing this. Oh, it's all over the place. You just, you know,

01:09:17.360 Megan, really, you've got bigger things to worry about. Like the likes of me,

01:09:20.540 I control like corners of the internet for these little breadcrumbs that I just adore,

01:09:25.540 really. But it says everything. Like this woman who's worth, you know, more than he is,

01:09:30.840 she's worth like $450 million. So flying coach, that's bullshit. But pulling tips out of the 1.00

01:09:38.440 hands of working people in like the hospitality industry, one of the hardest industries to work

01:09:44.640 in, you are lower than low. So we don't like her. Also another nice little nugget for Jenny's 1.00

01:09:51.480 Annis Horribilis. Sephora is discontinuing her cosmetics line. Great. Great. She will be

01:10:00.040 reduced to a reality show. I think you're right. She's going to go the route of the Kardashians,

01:10:04.440 try to make herself relatable. No one wants to hear it. 0.61

01:10:08.060 Yeah, it's done.

01:10:11.300 Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

01:10:21.480 Thank you.

The Megyn Kelly Show - June 26, 2024

America's Ability to Tolerate Risk, and Hillary's Cringe Comeback Attempt, with Mike Rowe and Maureen Callahan ｜ Ep. 822

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