Best of the Week： Biden Agrees to Debate Trump, Michael Cohen's Lies, and Jen Psaki's Fake News
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 6 minutes
Words per Minute
185.71873
Summary
Jen Psaki has a new book, and in it, she lays out her case for why Joe Biden didn t really check his watch during the Afghanistan fallen soldier ceremony. Plus, the Trump trial kicks into high gear this week as Phil Holloway and Viva Fry dive into the prosecutor s star witness, Michael Cohen. And entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk is here for the first time to talk about the way parents are today and the way they raise their kids without consequences and accountability.
Transcript
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Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at New East.
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Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show and this weekend,
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best of special. What a week. We had our pals from the Ruthless program on to talk about Jen
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Psaki's outrageous lie in her new book that President Biden didn't really check his watch
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during the Afghanistan fallen soldier ceremony. Hello, there's video. How on earth did she think
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she was going to get away with this? Marsha Clark and Mark Garagos were here to react with me in real
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time to the news that Donald Trump was going to debate President Biden. It's happening next month
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on CNN. And of course, the Trump trial kicked into high gear this week. We had Phil Holloway and
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Viva Fry on to dive into the prosecutor's star witness convicted felon, Michael Cohen. We also
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had entrepreneur and author Gary Vaynerchuk here for the first time to talk about the way parents
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are today and the way they raise their kids without consequences and accountability and with never
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ending trophies. It was a super fun conversation and he had a lot of good advice for those of you
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who are trying to grow your business online. Enjoy and I'll see you Monday. I'm going to start with
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Jen Psaki because I think what she did is so gross and she's just gross. So she has written a book.
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Let me see if I can find it. I have so many papers today. Kelly McGuire, tell me what page this is on
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if you can in my packet. She's written a book and in her book, she decided that it might be a good idea
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to describe and rehabilitate President Biden's incident at Andrews Air Force Base when the remains
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of our fallen soldiers in Afghanistan were returned after his debacle of a withdrawal
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from that war. And the name of her book is Say More Lessons from Work, the White House and the World.
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And I guess her lessons are when something bad happens, you just lie about it. And that makes
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perfect sense given that she was his press secretary and now she works for MSNBC.
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Um, here is what she wrote. This is per Axios, which has a copy the president. Now this is when
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at Andrews, when he, you know, infamously looked at that watch as the remains, uh, were in front of
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him per Axios hockey rights. The president looked at his watch only after the ceremony had ended.
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He, uh, moments later, he and the first lady headed toward their car. She also writes that Biden's
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critics were engaged in quote misinformation and huge use the image to make him appear insensitive,
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concerned only about how much time had passed. Okay. None of that is true. He checked his watch
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during the ceremony repeatedly, not just once during, look at this. This is while the bodies are still in
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front of him. He tries to slide it in there. He looks at his watch, even his most ardent defenders
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at the time who tried to fact check the claims that he checked his watch had to wind up admitting,
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all right, he did. In fact, he didn't just do it that once. He did it repeatedly. He wanted to get
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the thing over with. He was sick. There he is again. He was sick and tired of having to stand there
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and honor the fallen soldiers at Dover that we've talked about it repeatedly on this show.
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Sure. You guys have talked about it as well. And she has the nerve to try to launder that moment in
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advance of an election by saying it wasn't until the whole thing was over. It is a lie and it is a
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material lie. She told in that book. Now her account is not only at odds with what we saw with our eyes,
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but with fact checks done at the time, news agencies, photos from the ceremony at Dover
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and statements from Gold Star families. Hold on a second. This is from Axios here.
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Mark Schmitz, the father of Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz. Schmitz told Congress in April of
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2023 that, quote, while I stood there on the tarmac. No, actually, we have the sock cut. Let's watch it.
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Well, I stood there on the tarmac watching you check your watch over and over again.
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All I wanted to do was shout out. It's two fucking 30. Asshole.
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But out of respect to the other grieving families, I bit my tongue once again.
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God bless him. I'm so sorry for his loss. And you can feel his anger. And Jen Psaki calls him a liar
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by putting this lie of her own in her book. She's looking those Gold Star families in the face and
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saying, you lied. You put out misinformation to hurt our dear president. I'm the only one who will tell
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you the truth. She put it in her book, which she then read in audio form. And this is the same person
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who a week ago was out there lambasting Christy Noem for lying in her book. At least she just lied
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about a dumb ass meeting with a world leader. It's a it's a lie that's dumb to tell, but of no
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consequence. This is a middle finger to the Gold Star families. And there's been no apology.
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What she's done so far is first not respond when she was asked for comment by Axios. And then after
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they published their story, she said the detail in a few lines of the book about the exact number of
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times he looked at his watch will be removed in future reprints about the ebook. Then she makes it
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about Bo Biden because he's the go to of the entire White House team. Whenever controversy hits,
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she tries to say the story on Afghanistan is really about the importance of delivering feedback,
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even when it's difficult. Told through my own experience of telling President Biden that his
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own story of loss was not well received by the families who were grieving their sons and daughters.
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You see, I got it. I understand he shouldn't have brought up Bo Biden as then she does right here
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to excuse her, excuse her own lie and her offense caused to the poor Gold Star families. It's
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absolutely egregious. And by the way, no apology, zero apology to the Gold Star families, six of whom
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spoke to the New York Post and have demanded a retraction and an apology from her. Nothing.
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Look at this. How dare she insult them in an effort to score political points for her heartless boss?
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What do you guys make of it? Well, it's disgusting. You know, I haven't read her trash book,
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obviously, as I imagine many people in your audience haven't either. But I wonder,
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you know, while she was busily excusing him for checking his watch and disrespecting families to
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their face, whether she got into the fact that none of those families would have been there in the first
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place if it wasn't for Joe Biden. And the egregious missteps and just all out callousness as it dealt
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with our armed forces who'd been at that point 20 years into a mission of trying to withdraw at the
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height of the fighting season so he could make a deadline of a 20th anniversary of 9-11, which is
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what this is all about. I mean, none of those families would be there in that first place if he
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didn't want to do a big ceremony on 9-11 announcing that he had ended the war in Afghanistan. Like,
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never mind the fact that the facts on the ground didn't support what he was trying to do or he put
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their lives in danger. You got him killed. Like, just be honest with it. They would not have died
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if not for that decision making. So, his watch, whatever. You know, like, yes, she's a liar. But I
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made the mistake years ago of assuming that everyone who speaks for the Biden administration
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had no training at all. I think they had tons of training because I don't know how you can
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straight-faced lie so often without having some sort of at least remedial course in sociology.
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Well, it's a great point. But one way you can straight-faced lie so frequently is if you have
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a receptive audience. And Democrats certainly have that in the mainstream press. We always say
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that the easiest job in town is Democrat press secretary because they can say whatever they
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want and it will lead the story as if they're the hero and the Republicans are always quoted
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at the very bottom. And I think that conditions people like Jen Psaki into, like, this false sense
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of reality that, oh, you just lie. You'll get away with it. Just lie. Nobody's going to notice. Well,
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he was on camera and everybody, including that very, very sad story of that guy who, I mean,
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Megan, like, that video was heartbreaking. I feel so bad for that guy. And people like Jen Psaki
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just think they can lie to them and then move on to the next thing, the next cocktail party.
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And then say it's misinformation. The nerve of this woman to say it's misinformation to claim
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otherwise. She knows very well that the Gold Star families are on record as saying it happened.
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No, I mean, you said it very well. It's just, it is infuriating. And it is very infrequent that they
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get caught in the lies that they tell on a daily basis. But I think that's why it's so important
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that people like you, Megan, and people that are listening to this show are actively, vigilantly
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watching this president in this White House because you know that the media is not. And so it's
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dependent on your audience, Megan. It's dependent on people like you. It's depending on people like
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us at the Variety Program to hold them accountable.
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Let me, let me, yeah, go ahead, Duncan. Go ahead.
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Well, I was going to say the only way you can really understand how somebody can be so successful
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at being such a bald faced liar is understanding this revolving door between liberal dark money
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groups, government, and then media. I mean, Jen Psaki came up in her career in a liberal dark money
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group and then waltzed her way right into the White House to be a spokesperson for the president of
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the United States. And then when she got tired of that job, she's on national television every single
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night. Like when you live a life like that, that's how you become a liar with no remorse.
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But I mean, look at this. We pulled this a couple of weeks ago when Ronna McDaniel got booted from the
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RNC. No, when she got booted from NBC, right? After like a day of service. Jen Psaki goes on her
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failing show at MSNBC. And maybe the audience remembers this. I compared her at the time to Dora the
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Explorer. She was like, I'm here for truth. I listen to what she said, how she described that
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path you just described. Duncan, listen. Some mainly in the right wing ecosystem have made the
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comparison to others who have come from government or politics into the media, including me. And that
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is a comparison. I felt like I had to address. I got into public service for the same reason that
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many people do to serve the American people. And there are many others who have followed a similar
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path who I have a great deal of respect for. But here's the thing. That kind of experience only
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matters and only has value to viewers, all of you, if it is paired with honesty and with good faith.
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Our democracy is in danger because of the lies that people like Ronna McDaniel have pushed on this
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country. OMG. And not for nothing, because I'm going to, I'm just going to show you the Dora clip
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because you weren't here. Here it is. To dance the candy cut dance, we need to scratch our
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candy paws, stomp our feet, and wag our candy tails. Here we got the mermaid freak. Yay!
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That's a perfect comparison. Not even the voice sounds the same.
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Are we sure Saki didn't do the voiceover for the other gig that she had on the way there?
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Do you believe this, Mug? I'm here to serve the American people. It only matters if it's paired
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with honesty and good faith and not lies. That's the thing is cloaking all of that bad faith under
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protecting democracy and saying any, any facts that are inconvenient to you or misinformation.
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Her books have been lying for the Bidens, not lessons from the White House, because
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she ran the same playbook when Joe was running the first time. They lied about Hunter's laptop. This is
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their game plan during the election season is they have to try to make everyone trick them again into
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believing that, oh, Joe Biden, he's nice Uncle Joe. He's a nice guy. He's not the callous monster who
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sits and looks at his watch when the soldiers who were killed because of him are being brought back
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to the country. I mean, that's unbelievable to do that as a president and to send out a spokesperson.
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She's still his spokesperson. Now she just gets to do it on MSNBC. To send out your spokesperson and try
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to lie to the American people again and say that didn't happen. Don't trust your lying eyes. It's
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disgusting. And then when caught to just say misinformation, his critics, you know, and then
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and now and now when caught red handed on that, those lies to say, oh, this small detail of exactly
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what the timing was will be corrected on the. No, that goes to the very heart of the matter that
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depending on when the timing was, there's either a huge controversy or there's absolutely nothing.
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You changing the time of when he looked at that watch changes the story into a nothing
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falsely. That's why this gold star dad was so pissed off the timing of it in the in the
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thought we played. That's why the six families are speaking in the New York Post immediately
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saying this is bullshit. This is whitewashing. She she knows very well. This isn't some minor
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edit of like, oh, gee, I said 915 when I really meant 920. She completely changed the facts. And
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by the way, guys, as I mentioned, she was on The View. Was it last week? Ripping Kristi Noem
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on her book controversy. Watch this last week. I've also never worked for somebody who's lied
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about a foreign leader they've met with. And Alyssa made this point. This is so true. Meeting with
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Kim Jong-un. There are a handful of people who have ever done this. It's very knowable. I just
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wrote a book. You read the book a thousand times. You read it out loud when you're doing the audio
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book. You think, oh, I need you need a comma there. That weird word is strange. When she said
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and I met with Kim Jong-un, did she say think to herself, I didn't meet with Kim Jong-un.
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When you when you read the audio book, you think about it a thousand times. Oh, that's that was my
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takeaway. You need a comma there. She is a liar. The president looked at his watch only after the
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ceremony had ended. This is a huge story. It was a huge story. Got coverage everywhere. She knows damn
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well that this matters. And either she didn't understand it at the time it actually happened
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and didn't bother to do any fact checking before she put this lie in her book, understanding
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that it could anger Gold Star families or she lied throughout. My money's on the ladder. I think
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she's a liar. By the way, no comment yet from MSNBC either, which they should do. They need to also
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make a comment saying we regret her error. She's going to make a make it right. And we're sorry.
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And then maybe put her on the air. But that's the same network that's employing Joy Reid,
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who lied to us about the FBI investigating who hacked her blog after mysteriously when she was
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the only one ever posting on it. All these homophobic comments appeared on it. But that's
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a federal crime lying to the FBI. Does she actually tell that shit to the FBI because she should be in
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jail if that's true? Well, you know, it's a funny thing. It's not an isolated incident. Obviously,
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we saw all of the lies that she had as as press secretary, like the one that I remember the most.
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Do you remember early on in the Biden administration when they had the border security,
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the border patrol on the horse? Yes, that was awful. And there was this left wing outfit that
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said that this war patrol agent was whipping people. Yeah. And immediately the press office
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in the Biden administration jumps to it, takes this absolutely hook, line and sinker, and they
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eliminate all kinds of things. They demonize the border patrol. They keep with the lie. And then it
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turns out, you know, you find out a week later, none of that is true. It was it was literally the
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reins on a horse, like as anyone who's ever ridden a horse can attest. But they didn't walk any of that
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back. And the damage was done. And the impressions amongst the Biden base voters only further
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deteriorated for border security personnel. I mean, it's it's not just the gold star father,
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it's anyone who gets in their way. And I think you said it best, Ashbrook, remorseless is the key.
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Yeah. Anybody who speaks for a living is going to make an a error along the way. The question is
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whether you feel bad about it and you correct the record after the fact we've all had to do that in
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some form or fashion. They don't and own it. And they don't. She doesn't doesn't even occur to her
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that that's a responsibility. She can't apologize to the gold star families because this was intentional
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and she knows it. If there's no way of saying this was an innocent mistake, this was a huge deal.
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She understands very well as the press secretary at the time what she was doing. She knew perfectly
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well. And she decided to take the hit because she's running cover for him. She wants abortion
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on demand more than she wants an honest relationship with her listeners, readers, viewers. And that's
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What do you make of the news that we're going to have at least two presidential debates, Mark?
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You want to know what I think? The cynic in me is that the reason that Trump agreed and he agreed so
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readily to CNN is that this is three dimensional chess. And he's he knows he's going to get or it's
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most likely he's going to get convicted in most state courts in New York included. If you get convicted
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of multiple felonies, most judges will remand you immediately into custody pending sentencing.
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He's forestalling. He's going to dare this judge. You put me in custody. I've got a presidential
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debate. You have definitely interfered with the election. And here you go. I want it in June.
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I think that's exactly what's happening. That's so interesting. I hadn't even considered that.
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Wait, could that happen? So if we if they wrap both cases by Monday or Tuesday, they have closing
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arguments maybe on Thursday because they're off on Wednesdays. The jury gets the case and we have a
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verdict potentially within two weeks from now. You're telling me the judge, if he's convicted,
00:19:08.940
could immediately sentence him to go to jail. Ask Marsha if she can name 10 cases where somebody has been
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convicted of multiple felonies while being cited for contempt during the trial. And any name a judge who
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has not remanded that person pending sentencing. It's almost virtually unheard of.
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True. Marsha. Very, very true. With all that he's got going on, not just this case, but a judge looks at
00:19:41.520
the entire picture of what this guy's got going on. And it's a lot of cases and there's a lot of
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jeopardy. He's also been cited for contempt a million times. He's shown that he has no regard for the law.
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And someone like that, if you don't remand them, you're incompetent. So I have to say, no,
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I've never seen a case where they haven't. However, this would be the one where it doesn't happen
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because it's Trump. And I think the judge will probably not remand him. He may take his passport
00:20:08.740
and do the kind of interim things you can do to control someone, their movements and prevent him
00:20:16.600
from leaving town, maybe even give him an ankle monitor. But I don't think that he's going to get
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remanded. We could have a presidential debate with one of the presidential candidates wearing an ankle
00:20:26.320
monitor. Wait, let me give you one. Let me just add one little kind of twist to this. So you've got
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a presidential candidate who's being tried in the Supreme Court of New York, who I think the odds are
00:20:40.300
his best day is a hung jury. I don't think there's any chance of an acquittal given the jury. And he
00:20:46.600
potentially faces being remanded into custody. That is a real possibility. If he was anybody but Trump,
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he would be in custody. And you now have, as of yesterday, Hunter Biden scheduled not for one,
00:21:02.020
but two criminal trials in June as well. So the son of the current president and the leading contender
00:21:09.820
for president, both dealing with criminal jeopardy in the same single month.
00:21:16.080
I'm dead. I died. I can't. Can you just explain, Marshall, I'll give this to you. Explain remand.
00:21:25.280
That means being taken into custody. So when they say remanded into custody, he is sent back to the
00:21:32.260
custody of the jailer, whoever that is, county, state, whatever it is, federal.
00:21:36.900
So, Marshall, why don't you describe what happens in the courtroom when they read the guilty verdict?
00:21:43.140
You'll see them take off the watch, take off the pen, take off the belt, put their hands behind
00:21:49.020
their back, get cuffed and walked in the back door. Yeah. In the courtroom? In the courtroom.
00:21:55.700
In the courtroom, right into lockup. It happens every single time, absent some extenuating circumstance.
00:22:03.020
Yeah. Yeah. In state court. In state court. In state court. That's right. I can't vouch for what
00:22:10.500
happens in a federal trial, but this is a state trial. So, and I would imagine New York follows
00:22:14.520
what we do, Mark. I mean, it's the same procedure. They absolutely do. Federal court is more civilized.
00:22:21.080
Generally, if you've been out on bail or unreleased, they will put the case over for sentencing.
00:22:27.520
You're going to order the PSR, the pre-sentence report, and you'll be allowed to stay out of
00:22:33.400
custody pending sentencing. State court, completely different. You are remanded.
00:22:38.480
What about a court like this, a case like this, where most legal experts I've read do not predict
00:22:45.300
Trump will be sentenced to jail? But even under those, as somebody without a record, even under
00:22:51.220
those circumstances, would the likelihood be, if his name weren't Trump, he'd be remanded?
00:22:55.880
I don't know what legal experts you're talking to, but this judge has already threatened to put him
00:23:01.820
in jail for saying the unbelievable statement that this jury is 95% Democrat, and it's a Democrat
00:23:10.580
coming to get me. That is what he has been found in contempt of. So, and when you're threatening
00:23:16.600
jail over that, you get convicted of 34 felonies, he's going to go to jail.
00:23:23.000
Usually, that's absolutely true. By the way, he's also been cited for contempt for calling the judge
00:23:28.240
corrupt, the clerk corrupt, insulting their families. I mean, he's made outrageously disgusting remarks,
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and he, any other defendant would have already been sitting in jail for contempt. So, you know,
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look at how unusual, we call it in the law, sui generis this is. It's Trump, and therefore,
00:23:45.600
none of the rules apply. So, I mean, the fact that he hasn't, he isn't sitting in jail right now
00:23:50.000
is amazing. So, I don't predict that he's going to get remanded. I don't, it's possible he won't
00:23:56.180
get jail time. Although, given all of his behavior and everything that they've seen, if the jury does
00:24:01.960
convict, and I think it probably will, it would be really ridiculous not to give him some jail time.
00:24:09.600
We ought to think about what kind of precedent you're setting, because this is, you know, people have
00:24:14.820
talked a lot about the nature of these charges, and how unusual they are, and how they're trumped up
00:24:19.220
misdemeanors into a felony, etc. But it really was an effort to affect the election. There's no
00:24:25.120
question that that was the motive. He didn't care otherwise, and I do think the evidence has shown
00:24:29.440
that. So, whether you think he deserves jail time or not, it is a felony. And you have to think about
00:24:35.120
what other defendant would get away with no jail time, given all that he's done, and given what he's
00:24:40.040
convicted of, it's remarkable. But I don't think he will. I mean, honestly, if I had to put my money
00:24:45.000
on either side, I would guess he will not get jail time. See, that's my legal expert right there,
00:24:50.640
Mark. She doesn't believe it. I haven't seen, I mean, Charlie McCarthy, I haven't seen anybody
00:24:55.680
predicting that this is likely to result in a jail time sentence, given his complete absence of any
00:25:01.080
criminal history. And, I mean, you're saying this based on the fact that this is a Trump-biased judge,
00:25:07.260
which I agree with, which is why I don't think Trump's comments have been disgusting. I know
00:25:12.420
why you're saying that, Marsha, but I don't, I think he's running for president, and he's got
00:25:16.080
two wars to fight. You know, he's got a legal war, and he's got a PR war, and all those comments are
00:25:20.900
very important for the PR war, which is working for him. And I understand now he's, the judge has
00:25:26.180
got to run his courtroom, and he's been chastising Trump at every turn. But, Mark, on the subject of
00:25:31.200
jail time, is that just based on the fact that you think this is a Trump-hating judge?
00:25:36.680
No. I think that if this, I think most judges, when they, I'm just telling you, based on 40 years
00:25:43.260
of doing this, almost 99% of the time, in a case like this, even though it's a documents case,
00:25:51.200
you get convicted of a number of felony counts you're going to get remanded. Period. End of story.
00:25:57.500
And, by the way, I might bet Marsha on this. I still think we'll sentence him to jail. He may
00:26:04.700
not remand him now, because clearly, under any interpretation, that would interfere with the
00:26:12.520
presidential election. But I can see him sentencing him to jail, staying the jail time, citing the fact
00:26:20.420
he does not want to interfere with the election. But I don't think that this judge is going to say,
00:26:25.820
I'm going to give you straight probation. I don't think there's any chance of that, frankly.
00:26:33.280
I'm taking that bet. I don't think it's going to be a long sentence. I mean, I don't think
00:26:38.200
even if he does get jail, it'll be something minimal. Yeah, I think it'll be something minimal,
00:26:43.920
if not all. But I would take the bet that he does not get jail time. I'm in.
00:26:49.220
So you're saying no jail time and not remanded, and Mark's saying jail time and remanded.
00:26:55.820
I'm saying that I don't think he will remand. Most judges do. But if convicted,
00:27:01.620
this judge is going to sentence him to jail and then stay the jail sentence so that he doesn't
00:27:14.860
Yeah, no. What he will do is set a bail pending appeal, and that will to stay the immediate
00:27:23.900
imposition of jail time. But I will tell you right now, this case, in my humble opinion,
00:27:29.640
is so susceptible to being reversed on appeal, I can't even tell you. I mean, there's never any,
00:27:36.220
most appeals are affirmed for the prosecution or the conviction is affirmed. But this case,
00:27:42.660
frankly, is the most attenuated legal theory that I can even imagine.
00:27:48.160
Okay, so you do the jeopardy right there. That's it right there.
00:27:51.640
Do you think that, do you think we talked about maybe Trump is agreeing to this immediately because
00:27:55.720
he sees the debate as a disincentive to the judge to remand him or do anything too aggressive?
00:28:02.880
Because now it's like we're, we could be days away from, well, I guess it'll be a couple weeks
00:28:10.500
Unless they're going to allow him to debate from Rikers by video.
00:28:17.100
This, I think, I think, frankly, it's, like I say, it's three-dimensional chess. He knows,
00:28:23.920
agree immediately. He's, they, they're going to, this case is going to go to the jury in no time.
00:28:30.560
There's no way that this state judge is going to remand him now pending a debate. He, you know,
00:28:38.180
there, there could have been a world where he would have remanded him for a small period of time,
00:28:43.960
but I just can't imagine it now with a debate that's in the same month when he gets convicted.
00:28:50.160
Okay. So how about Biden's calculation then? I mean, is Biden's calculation probably no more than
00:28:54.840
he's going to be fresh off of his first conviction. And I can't wait to discuss it in front of the,
00:29:02.400
I mean, that has to play into it. Don't you think that's the, this is, there's no more,
00:29:06.620
but it's, it's a good vulnerable point at which to confront Trump. Well, look at,
00:29:11.780
I'm talking to a convicted felon now, you know, I mean, this is who I'm debating. He can,
00:29:16.620
he can call him a six-year-old and everything else, but when you can call him an actual convicted felon,
00:29:21.140
that's a pretty nice position to be in. So I would, I would guess that has a great deal to do
00:29:27.860
with it. Yes. Cause Mark, it came out of the blue. I mean, I think most people did not expect Biden to
00:29:33.540
agree to these debates for the record. He's rejecting the commission on presidential debates
00:29:38.100
and their proposal, which we see in every election to hold three presidential debates
00:29:43.100
beginning in September and they happened in September, October. And he said, Biden said, no,
00:29:49.940
I'm not doing that. I don't want your traditional structures and I reject you. I'll do it with two
00:29:55.300
news organizations, one in June, one in September. And as I said, he said, pick the moderator from
00:30:00.120
your existing roster. And Trump too said, I don't want the commission on presidential debates either.
00:30:06.560
So they're both going outside the traditional colored lines. It's kind of interesting.
00:30:11.080
Trump wants an audience. He had his typical rhetoric, like it would, it's going to be extremely exciting.
00:30:15.920
And I can see, uh, Biden doesn't want crowds, although, you know, he must be used to not having
00:30:21.400
them. And Biden said, right. I don't want any crowds. I just want like in a news studio quiet.
00:30:27.740
And I want the opponent's mic turned off as soon as he's done answering. I don't know whether any of
00:30:34.100
those terms have been agreed to, but we have two dates. This could wind up being like the Ben Shapiro,
00:30:38.980
Candace Owens debate, which never happened, even though both parties said, yeah, bring it now. No,
00:30:44.000
didn't happen. This could wind up, but I think it's going to happen now that you've got the nets
00:30:47.500
involved. Um, but I do wonder whether this could backfire on Joe Biden, Mark, because as we've seen
00:30:55.580
all along, all the big lawfare efforts against Trump, whether it was the indictments, the mugshot,
00:31:01.060
the trial have, have wound up in the polls, either not hurting or helping him.
00:31:06.860
Well, I look, it could, could it backfire? I'm sure the calculus is, I don't have any inside
00:31:14.680
information, but I living in my kind of left wing democratic bubble on the, uh, that I exist in.
00:31:23.800
Everybody seems to think in my world that if he, if Trump is convicted, that the so-called swing
00:31:32.880
voters are going to swing against Trump. I think that's wrong. Frankly, I don't think that's the
00:31:39.260
case. I think that so far to echo your analysis here, every single one of these cases has imploded
00:31:47.120
spectacularly. And every prediction by conventional kind of lawyers or wisdom has been dead wrong. I
00:31:56.740
remember, Megan, you probably do as well. Everybody was saying the Fannie Willis recusal motion had no
00:32:02.980
legs. Everybody was saying that the, that, uh, the judge and, um, what's her name in the, uh, the
00:32:10.320
January cannon was going to, no, that's, that's checking. She was going to drive this thing to
00:32:16.760
trial. We were getting to trial. There's no way the Supreme court would entertain presidential
00:32:21.120
immunity. Every single thing by the chattering class has been wrong when it comes to these cases
00:32:27.460
and, you know, newsflash it's because most of these people do not practice in trial courts or
00:32:33.960
in appellate courts and don't have any understanding of what the legal issues are. And it's, it's too bad
00:32:39.300
because I think it misleads people who are watching or listening to these things as to what the odds are
00:32:45.660
in these cases. All right. I have kind of a very interesting update on the judge Chuck in January
00:32:50.900
sixth trial, which I'm going to get to in one second, but I just want to stay on New York for
00:32:54.100
one minute. Um, here's a bit of Joe Biden in his, and now we found out that he was willing to debate
00:32:59.260
by a video statement he released on X and then a follow-up with a written statement. And then Trump
00:33:04.900
immediately said yes, but here's, here's what Biden said in accepting the debate. Donald Trump lost two
00:33:10.440
debates to me in 2020. Since then he hadn't shown up for debate. Now he's acting like he wants to
00:33:15.000
debate me again. Well, make my day, pal. I'll even do it twice. So let's pick the dates,
00:33:20.620
Donald. I hear you're free on Wednesdays. Okay. An attempt to humor there because Trump's on criminal
00:33:27.540
trial and he's off on Wednesdays, which is annoying. I have to say, because he, Trump's not allowed to
00:33:33.860
talk about, you know, there's so much that Trump is gagged in responding to. And it's just annoying
00:33:39.620
that the sitting president would be bringing it up when he knows Trump has to fight with one hand
00:33:43.640
tied behind his back. Okay. But whatever, like he can't get out there and say, yeah, I'm on criminal
00:33:48.220
trial because I'm sitting in front of a jury. That's 95% democratic. And if you go by the
00:33:53.420
stats, no, he'll get, he'll get jailed. If he says that, okay, whatever. He puts out the thing.
00:33:58.540
He's looking for a laugh and enter the crew at morning Joe to provide it. Watch.
00:34:03.220
Well, make my day, pal. I'll even do it twice. So let's pick the dates, Donald. I hear you're
00:34:09.340
free on Wednesdays. Oh boy. Okay. So just a little preview of how it's going to go when CNN hosts the
00:34:24.980
debate. He wanted to be attorney general. He wanted to be taken along to the administration.
00:34:33.300
Trump was smart enough to realize, no, there's no role for you there. And then this is basically
00:34:39.420
what happened to Michael Cohen. He, he became very familiar to many of us who have seen this movie
00:34:44.860
many, many times. He jumped out immediately in all of the writings he did about Trump and podcasts he
00:34:50.080
did about Trump and testimony he gave about Trump becoming absolutely obsessed with the man.
00:34:55.120
I give you Glenn Close. I just want to be a part of your life. Oh, this is the way you do it,
00:35:01.860
huh? Shut up at my apartment. What am I supposed to do? You won't answer my calls. You change your
00:35:06.180
number. I mean, I'm not going to be ignored, Dan. Yes, that's Michael Cohen today. He makes his
00:35:14.140
living based on Donald Trump. He talks about Donald Trump. Even on the stand, he seemed a little
00:35:17.920
wistful about his earlier time when he mattered to Donald Trump. And now he's just like everything
00:35:23.220
about this guy is defined by Donald Trump. Um, he did switch his tune. I mean, I like, okay,
00:35:31.140
he has lied so many times. It's hard to keep up. Um, but he's praised Trump repeatedly. I'll just
00:35:38.540
give you a little, okay, here he is in Sot 3 in a montage. One thing Donald Trump is, he's a
00:35:45.940
compassionate man. He's a man of great intellect, great intuition, and great abilities. Mr. Trump's
00:35:51.980
memory is fantastic. And I've never come across a situation where Mr. Trump has said something
00:35:58.520
that's not accurate. Mr. Trump truly cares about America. He loves this country. He's an amazing
00:36:05.140
negotiator, maybe the best ever in the history of this world. The words the media should be using
00:36:10.240
to describe Mr. Trump are generous, compassionate, principled, empathetic, kind, humble, honest,
00:36:21.440
and genuine. He's not lying. He was protecting a friend. There's a difference. What is the difference?
00:36:27.000
The difference is he was being a true friend. He was, it didn't matter to him. He will ultimately,
00:36:32.880
and I've said this so many times, he will ultimately go down in history as the greatest president.
00:36:37.740
Oh my God. With Chris Cuomo, who, by the way, has got his hands totally dirty in this whole thing,
00:36:43.260
too. So that's, that's the government star witness today, Phil. I mean, I realize he changed his tune,
00:36:49.760
but he, it's so self-serving. A jury will see through this.
00:36:54.680
I hope a jury will see through it, but we're talking about New York after all. And we've,
00:36:59.560
we've well documented that this jury, Alvin Bragg is counting on this jury to be sort of in the bag
00:37:05.540
for bragging against Trump. You know, when you've got a lawyer who is surreptitiously recording a
00:37:12.940
client and then basically saying this little snippet of a conversation proves all the other things that
00:37:19.620
I'm saying that are negative about him, which, by the way, weren't recorded, it just defies
00:37:24.120
credibility. There's just no way in the world that a rational jury in a rational legal system
00:37:29.180
would buy off on any of this, Megan. You've got this individual who's capable of saying all of
00:37:35.640
the things that you just played in that sot. And then fast forward to today, everything that he says
00:37:41.220
under oath before this jury is going to be diametrically different. Normally we would say
00:37:46.280
that that person is a compulsive liar and is not the kind of person you want to build a felony
00:37:51.260
prosecution around. They have not proven the elements of this case. There's been no evidence
00:37:56.540
yet in this case that Donald Trump committed a crime. They're going to have to hang their hat
00:38:01.240
entirely on the testimony of this liar. They're going to have to get a jury to say,
00:38:06.660
you know what, all the other times he's lied, we're going to give him a pass. We believe beyond
00:38:11.380
a reasonable doubt he's telling the truth here in court. And it's going to be all done without
00:38:15.640
any corroboration. There's no physical evidence. There's not going to be any documents. You're not
00:38:19.800
going to have Donald Trump writing a letter saying, hey, Michael, I want you to use this money. I want you
00:38:24.700
to pay it for something and I want to record it on the books in another way. No, this is payment for
00:38:29.100
legal fees or legal matters. And that's how it was legal expenses, which is even more ambiguous.
00:38:35.560
That's the word they used. And where's the accountant? Yeah, well, that's exactly right.
00:38:40.860
I mean, the CFO is in jail. He's at Rikers and I don't expect him. There's a real question about
00:38:45.700
whether they're going to drag him in and testify. And if they don't, whether they're going to get an
00:38:48.620
adverse inference drawn by jurist instruction, we'll see. But here's Michael Cohen. I gave you
00:38:55.060
the he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. That was like Glenn Close and Michael Douglas in
00:38:59.680
the beginning of the movie. The hot elevator sex, the days and days behind closed doors while the
00:39:05.260
wife was away. It was actually only one night. That was the beginning. Then Trump started to ignore
00:39:11.660
the calls. And much as it had the same effect on Glenn Close in fatal attraction. Here's what it
00:39:17.880
did to Michael Cohen. All right. I'll show you. Let's start with top five. Michael Cohen here with
00:39:23.100
another Michael Cohen reacts. Well, I've been receiving countless phone calls by people all
00:39:28.340
concerned because they're hearing on the media that Donald Trump is going to run again and he's
00:39:33.500
going to make this fucked up bullshit announcement sometime after the midterm elections. All right.
00:39:38.840
I still to this day maintain that he is not doing it. It is still part of this great grift of Donald
00:39:45.340
Trump. Now, for me personally, I hope to God that this fucking scumbag runs. I really do. And you
00:39:51.560
ask me why? Well, first of all, because 24 hours after that, I'm going to put together my own team.
00:39:56.940
I want to run as a Democrat. I want to put myself up on a stage against this fat fuck, this orange
00:40:03.900
crusted mandarin. Oompa loompa. So let's see. Let's see if I'm right. Stay tuned. I'll be back.
00:40:19.780
Well, I mean, I don't use the word grifter very often. I'm not going to use it now,
00:40:24.240
but that very much seems like someone who's going to say one thing when it's profitable one way and
00:40:29.060
say something that's the exact opposite when it's profitable the other way. And the other thing is
00:40:32.540
when he's out there, you know, praising Trump. First of all, I happen to agree with him back
00:40:36.520
then. But he's not just praising Trump because he is like a narcissist indirectly praising himself.
00:40:42.160
This is how smart Trump is, how good he is and all this stuff. And I'm his right hand man. I'm his
00:40:46.120
fixer. So it must be a reflection on my own greatness as well. But, you know, the idea that this guy is a
00:40:51.280
convicted perjurer, he is a confirmed liar, he's a scoundrel of the highest order. I am now
00:40:57.400
retrospectively reanalyzing Judge Engeron's decision in the E. Gene Carroll case where he
00:41:03.680
addresses Michael Cohen. And he specifically says it's very funny why he said it. This man is a
00:41:08.220
convicted perjurer. He's a liar. Some anger on was anger on was the fraud case, the 400 million
00:41:14.740
dollar fraud anger on was. Yes, the 455 million. And Cohen testified in that case. Keep going. Yes.
00:41:21.440
Not the E. Gene Carroll. Sorry, just to clarify that there. Angeron said as a matter of his decision,
00:41:27.480
Michael Cohen is a convicted perjurer. And while some triers of fact might not give much weight to
00:41:32.380
the words of a liar, I believe him here. I'm paraphrasing, but it's almost verbatim.
00:41:37.040
It's almost perfect. And now that I'm listening to that and rethinking it, it's like anger on was
00:41:41.520
phrasing what the jury has to spew out in terms of coming to a conviction here. Yeah, he's a convicted
00:41:46.200
perjurer. Some jurors might think he's a liar now, but we choose to believe him now because
00:41:50.580
once a perjurer, not always a perjurer. But I think anger on actually telegraphed and laid up
00:41:55.980
the script that the jury is going to gobble up to come to their foregone conclusion.
00:42:01.680
Everyone around him is a liar. Michael Cohen is a liar. He had a lawyer and continues to have a
00:42:07.500
lawyer. He's still represented by this guy, David Schwartz, who you may recall, Michael Cohen got
00:42:12.020
in trouble a couple of months ago when he was trying to get out of jail not long ago, late,
00:42:15.660
late 23. And he cited a bunch of case law to the judge. It was all made up.
00:42:20.080
It was fake cases that he used some AI generator to come up with. And his lawyer was this guy,
00:42:25.880
David Schwartz. And I've got to show you this. David Schwartz came on my show at NBC shortly after
00:42:30.700
this whole story broke about the $130,000 payment and so on and so forth. And now we know that that
00:42:36.720
Trump reimbursed Cohen for the 130. We know that. And it's almost better if Trump just would have
00:42:41.680
done it himself because you can make unlimited donations to your own campaign, but you can't have
00:42:45.260
a third party do it, which is how they're trying to get him. But anyway, there's no question that
00:42:49.240
Trump reimbursed Cohen for the 130. But the first defense that Cohen came out with was,
00:42:54.540
I was not reimbursed. And I just did this out of my love, again, back to the Glenn Close in the
00:43:01.600
elevator, for Donald Trump. And Schwartz came on my show and tried to spew this nonsense. Look at this.
00:43:07.060
He got approached. It'll take $130,000 to make this go away. He had to make a decision. Okay.
00:43:16.520
I get it. I'm not even challenging on that. I'm challenging on the impossibility that he paid
00:43:22.620
130 grand for something he didn't do and never sought reimbursement from his client.
00:43:27.300
When you're looking at it in a vacuum, like when, but if you understand the relationship here,
00:43:32.220
it makes complete sense that he's approached, am I going to go to the boss or am I not going to go
00:43:37.700
to the boss? All right. What do I do? He chose not to go to the boss. He chose to take care of this
00:43:43.360
thing. Why wouldn't he get 130? Why would he pay 130 grand of his own money?
00:43:47.320
Well, you know what? You're going to, when Michael Cohen does come out, you're going to,
00:43:50.540
you're going to find out the mechanics of that. No, you're not answering. You're dodging.
00:43:53.780
You're getting out of bounds. I am answering you. What's the truth?
00:43:55.940
The truth is he loves, he loves the boss and he did it out of love. He did it out of love and he
00:44:12.220
did it out of loyalty. All right. So they laughed openly at him. We know that he was reimbursed.
00:44:17.780
Of course he was reimbursed and that's his lawyer. He's the lawyer is a liar. Cohen is a liar. The jury's
00:44:25.660
not stupid. I know they hate Trump, but they're not stupid. And I just gave you one soundbite.
00:44:31.400
Here's a little bit more of Michael Cohen on the record since the breakup talking about Trump.
00:44:36.180
I think he's hit the panic button a while ago. However, what he's very good at is hiding it
00:44:42.740
in front of the camera. He's calm, cool and collect because he's a sociopath.
00:44:47.420
I looked at him and I said to myself, boy, what a sad looking, pathetic, deflated individual.
00:44:56.140
He is playing to the lowest denominator of American that exists in this country. He is
00:45:02.880
truly the most dangerous person right now in this country and possibly the world.
00:45:14.120
Okay. So the thing is, the prosecution's trying to front a lot of this in direct. So to take the
00:45:24.420
sting out of what's going to be an absolutely brutal cross, but there's no way they can take
00:45:30.100
all the state. They'd spend every day, all day for the next two weeks, beating him up. If they really
00:45:33.920
wanted to get after everything, the defense is going to do to him. And I just can't believe that
00:45:38.140
once the defense is done, the jury is going to be having any feeling other than I want to vomit,
00:45:42.980
get him out of here. But Megan, you say that the jury's not dumb. The problem is they're partisan
00:45:49.260
in all likelihood. And that's a big, it's a big distinction. They're not going to do what they're
00:45:52.860
going to do out of stupidity. They're going to do it out of partisan prejudice. And, um, and that's
00:45:58.260
what I think is a foregone conclusion, but everyone should rewatch that Michael Cohen and just
00:46:02.220
appreciate confession through rejection. Everything that Cohen just said about Trump is true of himself,
00:46:06.040
but making one thing about Phil, I sorry, I cut you off. Um, you mentioned it a moment ago,
00:46:10.040
and it's something that people should really understand by reimbursing Cohen. The allegation
00:46:14.580
is that it was a disguised campaign contribution because, uh, you know, Cohen made it and then he
00:46:20.420
got repaid for it. The bottom line is, even if that's the case, and that's the theory of the case,
00:46:24.980
it should be Cohen who should be the defendant in this and not Trump, because like you astutely
00:46:29.500
observed, you can't, you know, over donate to your own campaign. And so if it was Trump camp
00:46:33.920
donating to his own campaign in kind or whatever, it's not a crime. If it's Cohen who did it because
00:46:38.680
he got reimbursed and it exceeded his campaign contribution, Cohen should be the one on the
00:46:43.260
defense. Well, here's the other thing. Here's the other thing, Phil. I heard Andy McCarthy raising
00:46:46.720
this point. And as usual with Andy, it was a good one. Um, who was defrauded? Who was the victim of
00:46:55.600
this alleged fraud? Because Michael Cohen paid the money, Michael Cohen and everybody around him,
00:47:01.720
the testimony is consistent. He got paid back and Trump paid him double what he paid out so that
00:47:08.740
he could pay full taxes, 50% on all the monies. So New York state did not get defrauded.
00:47:14.000
The only thing that was defrauded was a book allegedly in which they didn't write down
00:47:20.300
reimbursement for hush money payment to stormy Daniels. They wrote legal expenses paid to Michael
00:47:26.100
Cohen pursuant to a retainer agreement. And the testimony was there was no written at retainer,
00:47:30.440
retainer agreement. But meanwhile, all these lawyers are coming forward to saying,
00:47:33.060
I never have one written down. I I've had so many cases in which I don't have a written down
00:47:36.780
retainer, even if you're supposed to anyway. So who was defrauded? The book, the book was given
00:47:42.480
bad information that was kept internally at Trump organization. The book wasn't even filed as an
00:47:50.580
addendum to a tax return or to some sort of corporate submission that was required.
00:47:54.660
It went on the shelf and it sat there until Alvin Bragg subpoenaed it. So who was defrauded?
00:48:02.500
Because fraud in the ether is not actionable. And the law is really clear on that. They won't
00:48:08.920
enforce fraud claims unless there's an identifiable victim, which is one of the reasons why the whole
00:48:13.060
fraud came claim under anger on was so outrageous. But there, at least we had a specific statute
00:48:18.060
saying it was OK. Yeah, well, anger on, of course, doesn't require any victims before he
00:48:24.280
labels something fraud. Neither does Letitia James. And apparently neither does Alvin Bragg.
00:48:30.680
In the in the tick tock video with Michael Cohen, when he says he might run and, you know, in 20 because
00:48:36.240
he wants to be sort of on stage. Well, that's what's happening right now. He's got his way. He is
00:48:41.880
on stage. This whole thing is a theatrical stage production. It's not a court of law. This is
00:48:47.340
nothing that's based on reality in the term in terms of law, because for the reasons you pointed
00:48:52.360
out, there's no victims, no victims, no fraud. It's the only time in history that I know of where
00:48:56.960
two misdemeanors, arguably with the statute of limitations having passed, are combined together
00:49:02.640
to make a felony or 36 felony fraud counts where nobody was defrauded. It's absolutely ridiculous
00:49:10.200
to call this thing a court of law. This is simply a theatrical production. And Michael Cohen has
00:49:17.100
gotten his way. He is now on center stage with Donald Trump and his tech talk followers are just
00:49:23.780
going insane. And his and his own star in his own mind is on the rise. But let there be no doubt,
00:49:30.320
Megan, that this jury is going to make their decision based on their feelings about not about Donald Trump,
00:49:37.300
not about what's going on in this courtroom. I can only hope that there's one or two, maybe even
00:49:43.060
three that will say, look, you know what, even though we don't like Donald Trump, we don't see a crime
00:49:48.260
here. I'm Megan Kelly, host of the Megan Kelly show on Sirius XM. It's your home for open, honest and
00:49:55.460
provocative conversations with the most interesting and important political, legal and cultural figures
00:50:00.380
today. You can catch the Megan Kelly show on Triumph, a Sirius XM channel featuring lots of hosts you may
00:50:06.680
know and probably love. Great people like Dr. Laura, Glenn Beck, Nancy Grace, Dave Ramsey, and yours truly,
00:50:14.640
Megan Kelly. You can stream the Megan Kelly show on Sirius XM at home or anywhere you are. No car required.
00:50:21.280
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00:50:29.040
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slash MK show to subscribe and get three months free. That's Sirius XM.com slash MK show and get three
00:50:51.280
In my job, I think that people trust me because they know I give them facts and I've researched what I say.
00:50:58.680
I don't just come out here and read what I what I saw on X. And over the years, people build up a trust of you,
00:51:05.160
you know, with you like, OK, she hasn't misled me. I can take it to the bank. And they know that like to deliver
00:51:11.040
these complex things in a way that's digestible does take a lot of work. I would say that's the difference between
00:51:15.920
myself and many, many in the news industry. Like I will spend hours figuring it out. So my audience
00:51:23.260
I watch everybody and everything. It's what I do for a living. I'm completely aware that you didn't
00:51:33.320
Mm hmm. And everyone can do it. I mean, it doesn't matter what it is that that's your particular
00:51:37.140
Everybody can do it if they're self-aware. They have to find things that are like I'll give you
00:51:43.600
an example. I was an atrocious student because I wasn't passionate about Saturn. I didn't want to
00:51:48.120
learn that. I just didn't, you know. And so I think what hurts people is they're also not willing to be
00:51:54.480
humble enough to say I'm not good at this and I don't like that, you know. And I think, right,
00:52:00.060
you like that. I'm glad that you picked up on that. There's something really powerful to that.
00:52:03.100
I'm going to say it again. You have to have the humility to say I'm not good at this and I don't
00:52:08.080
like that. And what happens is if you have that sentence with yourself, then you end up going to
00:52:12.960
the place of I am good at this and I do like that. And so I'll give you an example.
00:52:16.920
Don't you think, Gary, this is another reason why false praise from one's parents is not,
00:52:23.820
The parent doesn't have to be putting the child down all the time, but should not be falsely
00:52:27.220
praising things that the kid is actually not good at.
00:52:29.740
I don't know if you can see this. I literally, do you see the goosebumps I have right now?
00:52:35.420
Do you know why? You know why I have this? I know you love your mama.
00:52:39.000
Well, I love my mama the most, but let me say from where you're going, I believe that eighth
00:52:43.900
place trophies over the last 30 years have done more mental health damage. Do you understand
00:52:50.880
that these kids, and I'm very fortunate, we hire so many kids right out of school. I have
00:52:54.640
hundred, I mean, seven, 800 employees, maybe even a thousand now that are 22 to 25. And I can
00:53:00.980
tell you unequivocally, and so much of my audience is this age. I read all my DMs. I,
00:53:05.500
like you, do the research. I read. When I tell you the amount of kids today that are scared
00:53:11.300
to lose, because we taught them that losing was bad, it's so bad that we'll give you a
00:53:16.780
trophy, even though your team lost 14 to one in this game. And you'll appreciate this. I
00:53:23.240
think this will make sense to you. All of this was well-intended. It wasn't like all these
00:53:27.960
parents came out 30 years ago and said, let's create soft kids that are zoo animals that can't
00:53:33.680
live in the wild and are going to have really tough lives because they don't have a backbone
00:53:37.580
or they can't deal with adversity or they don't have the stomach for pressure. They just thought
00:53:44.420
they were doing the right thing. The problem was it wasn't. To your point, you can do anything
00:53:49.000
is true for about a nanosecond until you start trying. I can tell you right now that I see
00:53:54.340
unlimited six, seven, eight-year-old kids on sports fields all around New York City that
00:54:00.040
immediately I can tell you that child is not capable of playing in the National Basketball
00:54:04.800
Association. You know what I mean? And that's okay. Like there is, when I walk through a classroom
00:54:10.380
and see the art hanging that the kids made in sixth grade, I can save a lot of time right
00:54:14.680
now. It is not true that any one of those kids can make art that will sell at Sotheby's
00:54:20.160
in the future. That's great. You can try everything, but you can't be everything. And when you fall
00:54:28.740
in love with who you are versus who you wish you were, then it becomes game over. I, in fifth
00:54:34.840
grade, wanted to play for the New York Jets. I, by sixth grade, realized I was more likely to buy
00:54:42.100
the New York Jets than to play for them. That made me go into entrepreneurship, not professional
00:54:48.240
sports. And by the way- I love this story, by the way. I want to hear the story. You finish your
00:54:52.680
point, but I want to hear the story about your mom and your sweater. I thank you for that. I'm always
00:54:57.900
happy to share the greatest human being of all time, my mom's story. To finish my story, this is very
00:55:03.320
important, I think, for a lot of people. This is a big one, actually. I'm 48 years old. When I was
00:55:09.980
getting D's and F's in school in the late 80s and early 90s, as you know, and a lot of people
00:55:14.760
listening right now, entrepreneurship wasn't cool. It wasn't a thing. Everything was about what's the
00:55:20.900
best university you can get into, and then what's the best job you can get into. That was the status.
00:55:27.960
That was the cool. That was the, right? There was, I don't, when I heard entrepreneur
00:55:32.240
in my youth, that meant that you were like a loser and you made pretend that you worked.
00:55:37.700
Yeah. And when you heard about somebody dropping out of college to go pursue, you were like, oh my
00:55:43.780
Loser. And so, you know, I, but I was willing to lean into who I was because that's where my
00:55:50.100
happiness was. And then I got fortunate that the timing of the world went in my favor. And now I walk
00:55:56.860
around the world and people want to take a picture with me. This is nothing I even thought in a million
00:56:00.220
years. All I wanted to do was sell wine for my dad's wine store. Do you know what I mean? Like,
00:56:04.180
I just wanted to be a businessman. I didn't call an entrepreneur. I'm going to be a businessman when
00:56:08.080
I grow up. That's just what I want for everybody. Don't worry what we think. Don't worry what I
00:56:12.340
think or Megan thinks or your friends think or your family thinks or the neighbors and definitely not
00:56:16.100
anonymous people, anonymous people on social media. Think about what you think. Think about what you
00:56:21.560
think because you're going to be 90 years old one day laying there. And if you have regret,
00:56:25.320
I promise you that's going to taste a lot worse than people making fun of you because you want to
00:56:29.960
open up a bike shop or you're quitting your corporate job to do landscaping. This judgment of
00:56:35.900
others is destroying our happiness. And, and it must stop as if anybody else's judgment has anything to
00:56:42.780
actually do with your life. It's so true. Oh, I love what you said. And I love it. I've heard you say
00:56:48.600
that you don't believe in regrets. And I think my audience knows same. I just, I don't really have
00:56:54.060
many. I don't spend my time thinking about that kind of thing. I think it's a real mental block
00:56:58.120
toward going forward and advancing your life, your wellbeing, your happiness. But anyway,
00:57:02.140
one of the reasons you're like this and wound up a happy, seemingly well-adjusted man is mom.
00:57:08.040
And that brings me to the Jets and your childhood experience. Can you just tell us that? I love this
00:57:12.740
story. Yeah. Thank you. I'm going to try, I'm going to try to compose it here. Like this is such a big
00:57:18.300
deal. Like it's, you know, when I tell you that without a shadow of a doubt, it is uncomfortably
00:57:25.140
clear to me that 89.6% of why I have happiness and contentness. And by the way, back to my
00:57:32.760
professional success, I'm detached from my professional success. Meaning I love my career.
00:57:38.640
I love being good at it. I'm humbled by the admiration and opportunities of doing things like
00:57:43.640
this. It leads me to, but I don't think it defines who I am. Like, I don't think like I'm good or a
00:57:50.900
good guy or a winner because I'm good at business. I think it's a skill I have that is now kind of
00:57:56.600
revered a little bit more than it has. It's always been respected, but now it's cool, right? It's pop
00:58:01.140
culture. And all of that is because of my mom. My mom was back to what I just heard you say. I think
00:58:07.160
you would love her parenting style. She was rainbow and sunshine. Like I never had, I had nothing but joy.
00:58:13.640
around my household, except when I did things that were not right, which led to real accountability.
00:58:21.360
I was grounded and punished four times a year, like clockwork, because I brought back a report card
00:58:27.860
that looked like garbage and that was unacceptable. And other than that, I was a pretty good kid. But
00:58:33.320
if I ever did anything, like I would, first of all, let me go to a place that I think may resonate
00:58:37.780
with you. I never even contemplated disrespecting my mom or dad.
00:58:41.700
Oh gosh, my mom. I mean, I did it because I was a bratty teenage girl, but man, oh man, my mom,
00:58:50.480
Yeah. And by the way, Tamara made my sister Liz pay for the same teenage girl thing. I never went
00:58:55.640
through that phase, but on real talk, it was because I was worried. She was an old school,
00:59:00.720
like we don't play that around here. Like, like we are in an era now. Look, I can wrap my head around
00:59:07.140
why we stopped spanking our kids. Though, if I'm being unbelievably transparent, like I could get,
00:59:13.400
you know, get a couple of glasses of wine in me and I could, I can get into like a thoughtful of
00:59:16.860
like, is there an angle there? But, but the fact that we don't even ground our kids anymore in
00:59:22.300
modern parenting, are you kidding me? All we're teaching people is that there's no consequences
00:59:27.520
in life. Do you know why everyone's so interesting on Twitter? Because you can't punch them in the face
00:59:34.260
when they say something to you. I grew up in Jersey in very blue collar, lower middle class
00:59:40.000
neighborhoods. Let me tell you what happened when we would say something fresh to each other.
00:59:45.020
Somebody might get punched in the face, right? And so we live in a society now where there aren't
00:59:51.240
ramifications, there aren't consequences. And I couldn't agree more with people understanding,
00:59:58.440
like, actually, actually, maybe you'll like this. Do you know why the book cover is purple?
01:00:02.100
Because we become, and boy, oh boy, nobody understands this better than you and this
01:00:06.140
audience. America's become unbelievably red and blue. Like, woo, we are really loving red and blue.
01:00:13.220
When it comes to parenting, if you can be purple, then you win. To your point, and you said it earlier,
01:00:19.220
I'm not talking about scolding your children. I'm not talking about what a lot of parents did to
01:00:23.400
their children. Listen, I'm going to be vulnerable here. My grandmother, what she did to my father,
01:00:28.600
and she was a Russian woman in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, 60s, 70s. This is no judgment. They grew up in
01:00:33.820
a, people don't understand the USSR, Megan. The USSR was like North Korea. You weren't allowed to leave.
01:00:39.520
It was jail. It was, I promise for everyone that's listening here, which means you listen to a lot of
01:00:44.540
politics and world news and care about this stuff, you have no clue what the USSR was from 1917 to 1991.
01:00:50.880
It was bad, bad. So I don't judge my grandma, but I'm very aware of what a human looks like when they
01:00:57.920
don't get positive reinforcement, when they get negative, when they get that all the time. My
01:01:02.180
father is one of those people. And it, it really, it's a real challenge to have true self-esteem
01:01:08.340
when you're parented in that negative of an environment. So I'm not saying to everybody to do
01:01:14.880
that, but to parent in a delusional way where everything is great and you're the best and go
01:01:22.000
fight your kids fights. Megan, do you know the parents go to school and try to argue with parents
01:01:26.260
to give their kid a better grade? Do you know how crazy that is? I know it's absolutely nuts and
01:01:30.940
beyond in corporate America too. I've told a story before, but we had a friend at a huge investment
01:01:35.300
bank in New York city. We had dinner with he and his wife and he was telling us that he actually
01:01:39.200
received a phone call from a new hire at this major American bank from a new hire's mom complaining
01:01:47.080
about her son's tough schedule. Yeah. I mean, I mean, to me, look, you know, what's amazing.
01:01:53.260
You know what, you know, you know, what's amazing about being born in the Soviet union and living in
01:01:56.900
America. You realize that people have options. My parents were, were granted jobs that they couldn't
01:02:03.340
transfer from in their early twenties before we moved to America. When, when people come to my company
01:02:08.560
and we have a, listen, I believe in a happy culture in a way that you can't imagine, but not
01:02:13.200
delusion, not entitlement. And when people are like, yo, this blows, this stinks, this sucks, this,
01:02:18.660
this, I, you know, I always, honestly, I take it pretty serious. I'm not ivory tower. I try to attack
01:02:23.900
it. I try to have meaningful conversation. We go try to address it. But when somebody comes a second,
01:02:28.140
third, fourth, fifth time and complains about things that don't matter, like it's one of the most
01:02:33.400
joyous things that in my career that I'm able to say is like, Hey, unlike me who was born in a
01:02:39.780
communist country. And luckily I got out and definitely unlike my parents and grandparents,
01:02:44.560
you have options. You don't, you don't like this company, but you don't want to have said to that
01:02:48.940
mom. I said, mom, first, and this is that I'm going to tell you exactly what I would have said,
01:02:53.260
not for this show, but real life. I would have said, first mom, I think it's very sweet that you're
01:02:58.040
calling for your son in one part of me. The other part of me thinks that your son's in big trouble.
01:03:02.960
Because if you're fighting his fights and he's a grown ass man, he's got a big problem.
01:03:07.200
And here's the answer to your question. Yeah. And here's the answer to your question.
01:03:11.300
He's more than welcome to do this schedule. We hired him for a reason. We think he's got talent,
01:03:15.040
but if this schedule is too tough for him, he really needs to consider doing something else.
01:03:20.760
Yeah. That's what I always say. I always say on my team, you know, you don't want to work
01:03:23.580
weekends. Occasionally, you don't want to work a late night when news breaks, go work at key bank.
01:03:27.580
It's wonderful. You know exactly what the hours are. Go show up at nine before you're good.
01:03:31.140
And I want everyone to hear this because this is an important nuance. And I don't judge them. You
01:03:36.000
don't want to? Good. Know yourself. No problem. News may not be free. Mazel tov. You want to go
01:03:42.980
chill? Do you? Do you? I chose to completely punt school. Everyone told me that I should get A's and
01:03:49.700
B's. I told myself I should get D's and F's. And it was joyous. It was joyous until I got grounded
01:03:56.400
every marketing period. But it was more than fun for me. Same now in real life. I may want to be
01:04:02.740
hungry and build meaningful, everlasting empires that have positive impact and selfish and selfless
01:04:09.700
goals. But if you are structured a different way and you value something else, and to your point,
01:04:16.100
the occasional discomfort of needing to do something that's out of the normal structure,
01:04:20.920
then that's amazing. You shouldn't work in an entrepreneurial, in my world or your world,
01:04:26.060
fast-paced reality. You shouldn't be a fireman if you're not willing to wake up when the fire
01:04:30.340
happens. Right? And that's okay. That's very okay. This is important. I do not judge people
01:04:36.100
that do not have my ambition or work ethic or interests. I just want them to be themselves.
01:04:42.620
But what I don't want, and this is where I think you're going, and the theme of this,
01:04:46.260
and this will land with everyone, I don't want people to think they can get compensated
01:04:51.040
when they're not that person. Right? That's right.
01:04:54.380
If you don't want to be the, let me make this simple for everyone to understand. If you don't
01:04:57.900
want the pressure of being the quarterback, and you want to be the backup linebacker,
01:05:03.420
well, then you better not expect to get quarterback money.
01:05:08.540
So if you're like, can we have the conversation, everyone? Like, you're allowed to do whatever you
01:05:13.100
want. But when you start sneaking into entitlement, that you should, there is no should. You want,
01:05:18.960
you, hey, everybody, everyone who's listening, you want to get way happier? You want things to go
01:05:22.860
way better? Let me give you something. Eliminate the word should from your vocabulary. There is no
01:05:28.260
should. It's too nuanced. What do you mean should? This is why I get so crazy, Megan, about everyone
01:05:35.060
judging everybody else. You have no idea what's going on in their house. You don't know their
01:05:38.840
background. You don't know what's going on today. What? I said something the other day,
01:05:42.600
a kid comes in yelling about their manager, who's been good to them for three years. I hadn't had
01:05:47.740
the information yet to know what was going on. But I said to the kid, I said, but you've loved
01:05:52.240
her for three years. What if she's been, what, what if you're struggling with her for the last
01:05:56.680
three weeks? Because three weeks ago, she found out that her mom is terminally ill, and she hasn't
01:06:01.020
told anybody yet. Maybe that's why she's not showing up to the meeting, and over coddling every
01:06:08.040
moment. Like, you know what I mean? I don't think we, you know, people love, people love throwing
01:06:12.320
around empathy until it's not working for them. Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show.