The Megyn Kelly Show - Biden Cognitive Cover-Up Exposed, Trump's Historic Peace Speech, and Diddy Trial Latest, with The Fifth Column

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00:00:31.000 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at New East.

00:00:42.400 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.

00:00:45.780 Wow, what a day yesterday.

00:00:48.660 President Trump, currently in Qatar as part of his historic trip to the Middle East,

00:00:53.220 where he's laying out a vision.

00:00:55.500 I mean, he's laying out his foreign policy vision.

00:00:57.540 It's incredible.

00:00:58.620 You should definitely go and watch it on YouTube when you can.

00:01:02.740 He, soup to nuts, said what he believes and why he's doing the things he's doing.

00:01:10.420 That he is after an era of peace and prosperity, saying, I don't like war.

00:01:17.520 I mean, it seems like something you wouldn't have to say, but you kind of do,

00:01:20.380 given the history, let's be honest, of the Republican Party in recent years.

00:01:26.860 It's already getting incredible results.

00:01:28.900 We're going to show you the highlights of the speech, which the mainstream media is all but

00:01:32.180 ignoring.

00:01:32.640 I mean, there's very little coverage of this.

00:01:34.940 In Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, this is like, this is a watershed moment.

00:01:38.120 It seems pretty clear to me this is a watershed moment for our country, the Republican Party,

00:01:44.440 and the dawn of a new era.

00:01:46.900 Yes, his election.

00:01:47.880 But this is him pointing the sails and letting us know where he's taking the United States.

00:01:55.440 And it sounded amazing.

00:01:57.720 I mean, I was really moved by parts of what he said.

00:02:00.900 It was a very honest assessment of some of the things we've done.

00:02:05.000 It wasn't an apology tour like Barack Obama took.

00:02:08.120 He wasn't saying he was sorry for anything, but he was free about criticizing prior U.S.

00:02:13.780 decisions without naming presidential names, I think, out of deference to mostly George W.

00:02:19.680 Bush, but also Obama to some extent as well.

00:02:22.940 And he's no fan of Joe Biden.

00:02:24.540 That was kind of mentioned, too.

00:02:26.280 Plus, the Democratic Party is going through hell week with a renewed focus on Joe Biden.

00:02:30.540 They thought they were done with him.

00:02:31.720 But now all these books come, not letting it die.

00:02:36.020 And the most latest, the most recent book is the one by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson.

00:02:41.320 It's called Original Sin.

00:02:42.820 And they're going to be on this show on Tuesday.

00:02:44.460 I'm actually really looking forward to this.

00:02:46.200 Let me just tell you something about it, because I know Jake personally, and I've told you guys

00:02:50.460 before, we're friendly.

00:02:51.480 I help him with his veterans charity, and I respect the work he's done to help vets over

00:02:56.140 the many years.

00:02:56.920 You know, our politics are very, very different, but I respect him, and I respect the work

00:03:00.800 he does in that department.

00:03:02.560 And I like him.

00:03:03.800 But it's going to be a contentious interview, because, well, you know all the reasons why,

00:03:09.620 and he knows that, okay?

00:03:11.080 He knows that.

00:03:12.520 I think he's looking forward to the opportunity to defend himself.

00:03:16.540 So he's coming to the right place.

00:03:18.540 Somebody who doesn't hate him, who knows all the criticisms about him writing this book,

00:03:24.680 who will raise them.

00:03:25.840 Don't worry.

00:03:26.540 I will.

00:03:27.000 But I'm also interested in the contents of the book, unlike the left, which doesn't want

00:03:31.960 to discuss them.

00:03:32.820 Or to the extent they do want to discuss them, they only want to use them to say, Kamala could

00:03:37.860 have won.

00:03:39.300 Kamala, she would have had it in the bag had it not been for the evil Biden.

00:03:43.020 Well, we have a different agenda, which is truth.

00:03:45.660 Kamala would not have won if Biden had dropped out earlier.

00:03:48.080 I have zero doubt about that.

00:03:49.400 She's a uniquely horrible politician, and so I don't buy that spin, but I think Jake

00:03:56.240 Tapper and Alex Thompson, and you know I've been critical of him, too, getting up there

00:04:00.220 saying we missed it.

00:04:01.840 You know, he says, I covered it, got this award.

00:04:03.400 We didn't miss anything, right?

00:04:07.060 So we're going to go over all that.

00:04:09.020 There's no holds barred.

00:04:10.160 There's nothing off the table, and I predict it will be the most interesting interview they

00:04:14.680 give on their book day launch, which is, again, this Tuesday.

00:04:17.520 Joining me now for the full show today, guys I know you love, and that's my friends from

00:04:23.280 the Fifth Column podcast, Camille Foster, editor-at-large at Tangle News, Michael Moynihan, host of Two

00:04:29.360 Ways, the Moynihan Report, and Matt Welsh of Reason Magazine.

00:04:33.240 Find their work and subscribe at wethefifth.com.

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00:05:36.860 Hi, guys.

00:05:38.500 Great to have you.

00:05:39.580 Hi, Megan.

00:05:39.980 Thanks for having us.

00:05:41.400 So do you think I'm doing the right thing by platforming Tapper and Thompson on their book?

00:05:47.560 Absolutely.

00:05:48.200 What are we even doing?

00:05:49.700 You know how you love that term.

00:05:51.760 It's, thankfully, it's 2025, and people have kind of quietly dropped that for the most part as a stupid criticism.

00:05:59.660 Now you have, like, the New York Times and Ezra Klein, like, hmm, maybe we should talk to Steve Bannon after all.

00:06:04.700 So, yeah, you're doing the right thing, and give them hell.

00:06:07.900 And we, I would say, speaking for the three of us, we like and know Alex Thompson especially, but also Jake Tapper, and it should be a thoroughgoing exchange of ideas.

00:06:18.320 Yes, I think it will be.

00:06:19.580 And no one's under any pretenses that it's going to be anything else, right?

00:06:23.980 It's like what I say about Jake and Alex and them writing this book, it goes out of this microphone.

00:06:29.900 It's not like I'm just whispering it in Doug's ear.

00:06:31.820 You know, I've been pretty open about my thoughts on the media cover-up of Joe Biden's problems.

00:06:38.420 So we'll do all that.

00:06:39.780 But I will say, if you're looking for it to be done through a hateful lens where I just emerge with these two left in a puddle of blood, that's not going to happen.

00:06:48.520 I mean, I will be respectful to them, as I am to anybody who does me the courtesy of Swinging by the Podcast.

00:06:53.200 You know, it's going to be contentious, but it's going to be robust and meaningful and honest and unsparing, but hopefully cordial in a way that makes them feel respected and glad they came, but makes the audience also glad they came by.

00:07:08.300 You know what I mean?

00:07:08.720 Yeah, I mean, you can also say that people were, shall we say, very, very slow on this story that over at the Fifth Column we figured out in 2021.

00:07:20.540 Maybe 2020.

00:07:21.860 Before that.

00:07:22.100 Maybe this guy's a little too old to be president.

00:07:24.120 But I'll give our friend Alex Thompson some credit because when he was doing it, you know, regardless of the speech at the Correspondents' Dinner, which I didn't listen to the whole thing, so I can't really comment on.

00:07:35.920 But he was telling us off the record then and I think on the record now that he was like being attacked pretty brutally by people within the administration for the reporting that he was doing starting in, I think, 2023 about the cognitive decline.

00:07:51.460 See, I'm interested in hearing that.

00:07:52.860 Yeah, so he's got a lot of stories about that.

00:07:56.360 Yeah, yeah, they went after him pretty much.

00:07:57.960 That's the thing, and I also do want to hear the stories, like, as much as we're all like, oh my God, how is Jake Tapper writing a book about, you know, that I do want to hear what Jake Tapper found because I think he's probably got sources a lot closer to Joe Biden than I do, you know?

00:08:11.840 So it's almost like you need these media figures to do this to some extent because, not that we didn't know, but aren't you interested in the details of how bad it was?

00:08:22.660 I am.

00:08:23.360 I'm reading all these excerpts, not just from this book, but from all the four, voraciously.

00:08:27.740 I'm like, I just feel so validated.

00:08:29.660 I'm sure you guys feel it too.

00:08:30.560 It's like, wait, no, right?

00:08:32.140 And then now you get the specifics of how right you were.

00:08:34.520 Yeah, and I haven't read the book yet, so I feel a little bit at a disadvantage trying to comment on it, but I do plan to, and as the guys have mentioned, we've talked to Alex about this a number of times during the period when he was getting a lot of criticism from outside.

00:08:48.160 I mean, it's hard to understate the consequences of groupthink and its ability to make you not see things that you don't want to see anyways.

00:08:57.080 So that is almost certainly a huge part of what happened in D.C.

00:09:00.740 But from the excerpts that we read already, the coordinated effort on the part of the Biden administration to try and obscure the fact that the president was in fading health and just kind of waning in terms of his actual capacities towards the end.

00:09:15.520 But really throughout his administration is one, again, not surprising to us, but it's really revealing to kind of read out in the open like that.

00:09:24.620 The disagreements between George Clooney and others, the kind of exercise of going through writing that letter, the fact that people were privately saying one thing about Joe Biden and what they knew was wrong and publicly saying quite another thing.

00:09:37.640 It's not just politics as usual, or perhaps it is, but that should make one very cynical and deeply concerned.

00:09:44.080 I think there's been a lot of kind of suggestion that the blame here is with the party who lied or with the administration who lied.

00:09:50.680 But as we've all pointed out already, a lot of the blame is with the mainstream media who just did not do their jobs for whatever reasons.

00:09:58.360 And those reasons are often complicated and can't simply be boiled down to, I don't think, contempt for Republicans or conservatives more broadly.

00:10:07.140 It's a little bit more complicated than that, I think.

00:10:09.380 So this is what the value, I think, the book's bringing, this book and the others.

00:10:16.260 None of us is going to soften on the media.

00:10:18.580 I mean, I think that's the reality.

00:10:19.900 Like, we know.

00:10:20.960 Anybody who's an independent journalist or right of center knows exactly what the media did with this story.

00:10:26.080 We know.

00:10:26.560 But I personally would like to see some sort of congressional investigation, like an actual commission looking into who was president, how bad was it, who covered up, who lied about the mental fitness of the sitting commander-in-chief who had access to the nuclear codes.

00:10:43.960 We need, like, a serious, maybe even bipartisan commission to actually get to the bottom of this.

00:10:50.340 And so big books by Democrats and their media enablers are helpful in that particular regard.

00:10:56.620 Like, the left does need to be aware that, I know they were willing participants in the lie, but they need to be aware of just how bad it was.

00:11:04.460 And this needs to be shoved down their throats so that they can't just be like, oh, it's backward-looking, which is what they're saying now.

00:11:11.320 Fuck you and your backward-looking.

00:11:12.580 We had a sitting president who was a vegetable.

00:11:14.840 Like, we need an investigation.

00:11:16.640 No, it's not.

00:11:17.300 You can't just dismiss it and pretend like it didn't happen by saying backward-looking.

00:11:21.500 It's here right now.

00:11:22.660 And I realize it's brand damaging for the Democrats.

00:11:24.800 I don't care if it has to be just a singular party investigation, then so be it.

00:11:29.560 But we do need to get to the bottom of it.

00:11:31.500 In line with what you just said, Camille, here's Jake Tapper speaking.

00:11:35.980 The book, they published an excerpt in The New Yorker, and the advanced copy was obtained by The Guardian, and Axios has a piece of it.

00:11:46.400 That's where Alex Thompson's from.

00:11:48.200 And so the news reports are already hitting.

00:11:49.840 So Jake gave an interview on his own network, CNN, speaking to the lies.

00:11:53.980 That was his word yesterday.

00:11:55.280 Sat One.

00:11:55.600 Well, Alex Thompson and I were on the case, as were lots of other reporters, trying to figure out what was going on behind the scenes.

00:12:04.660 But the bottom line is the White House was lying, not only to the press, not only to the public, but they were lying to members of their own cabinet.

00:12:12.020 They were lying to White House staffers.

00:12:14.380 They were lying to Democratic members of Congress, to donors about how bad things had gotten.

00:12:21.040 And in fact, Alex and I started writing this book after the election of 2024.

00:12:25.840 And we spoke with more than 200 people, most of whom, almost all of whom were Democrats, and almost all of whom wouldn't be honest with us or wouldn't be candid with us until after the election.

00:12:38.180 And then after the election, we found out all of these things that when you looked at what was going on with President Biden at the time, it probably doesn't surprise you the extent to which he was deteriorating.

00:12:49.680 But now we have anecdotes and facts about what was really going on behind the scenes with details that Democrats wouldn't share with us until after Election Day.

00:12:59.720 Is anyone shocked?

00:13:01.060 I mean, and let's keep in mind also that a lot of the quotes, at least that we've seen in the New Yorker piece, are still anonymous, which is like campaign operatives said and high-profile Democrats said, we're not going to get anywhere close to fixing the ills and the rot that allowed this to happen without some actual accountability and honesty.

00:13:24.760 I think there's an interesting comp of a book that's out now, Megan, you interviewed David Zweig, as did we, at the fifth column about his book, An Abundance of Caution, which looks back at why did we basically close schools when the rest of the world had figured out that we shouldn't during COVID, boiling it down very quickly.

00:13:41.900 But the media was very complicit in that.

00:13:44.600 The elites were very complicit in that.

00:13:46.740 And part of his approach and understanding is like, hey, look, this can happen again in a different way.

00:13:52.380 We need an autopsy of this so we can figure this out.

00:13:55.520 Historians are going to be looking at this for a long time, just as they did with FDR's 1944 election when he was dying of congestive heart failure with Woodrow Wilson having a stroke in the White House.

00:14:06.260 We had Dr. Jill Biden chairing cabinet meetings.

00:14:10.380 And then the few that Biden was chairing, they put the names so that he could see them.

00:14:15.740 But we need to know exactly the habits of mind that allowed that kind of delusion.

00:14:23.600 I'm reading the New Yorker story and I want to throw a brick through my own window.

00:14:28.480 It's making me so infuriated because what is happening here?

00:14:32.620 This is less than 12 months ago, right?

00:14:36.200 The her report is already out in February saying that he's an old man and he's feeble.

00:14:40.220 The Wall Street Journal is doing good reporting, one of the only outlets out there doing good reporting, and they are getting absolutely slammed by the Joe Scarboroughs of the world and a lot of other people besides on cable news and elsewhere.

00:14:52.140 It's like, oh, well, it's Murdoch owned and they're bad and we can't be trusted.

00:14:57.120 We were literally talking 12 months ago about cheap fakes.

00:15:00.240 People who were in the audience when Joe Biden had no idea where he was, where Barack Obama is like guiding him off.

00:15:07.580 Oh, OK, this way.

00:15:09.040 And when when Fox News and other right of center organizations were pointing out like, wow, that looks bad.

00:15:15.340 They're like, oh, that's selectively edited cheap fakes.

00:15:17.900 It is, though, those habits of mine among journalists, let alone Democrats, that we need to sort of re.

00:15:25.320 Let me show one.

00:15:26.620 And let me show one.

00:15:28.100 Here's Brian Stelter.

00:15:29.580 June 19th, 19th, 2024.

00:15:33.940 We are five days before the debate, which I believe was June 24th, if memory serves.

00:15:39.680 But we are within days of the fall down debate.

00:15:43.820 And here's Brian Stelter trying to dismiss all these terrible videos of Biden with his aggressively deteriorating decline.

00:15:51.560 Stop 15.

00:15:53.040 We've been worried for years about AI deep fakes, that computer generated images are going to trick people into believing something that's totally false.

00:15:59.480 Cheap fakes are a little bit simpler.

00:16:01.020 They're cheap.

00:16:01.720 They're just distorted, out of context videos, chopped up in certain ways.

00:16:05.420 That's what the Biden administration, the Biden campaign is so worried about right now.

00:16:08.720 But make no mistake, they are worried about this.

00:16:10.900 This is a real problem.

00:16:12.040 This is not some made-up fiction.

00:16:13.900 The videos are oftentimes made up, but the problem is real.

00:16:17.560 Oh, my God.

00:16:18.600 It's a made-up problem.

00:16:20.340 That is, in fact, a made-up problem, Brian.

00:16:24.120 He said that.

00:16:24.380 I'm sorry to point that out to you.

00:16:26.080 Yeah.

00:16:26.600 It's amazing he said that.

00:16:28.020 Like, they actually were spinning.

00:16:29.540 The debate was the 27th on CNN and elsewhere, not just there, MS, of course.

00:16:34.560 Um, that really, the problem here is not at all Joe Biden.

00:16:39.700 It's these terrible right-wing cheap fakes that are manufactured and not believable fake videos of the alleged decline.

00:16:48.600 It's incredible.

00:16:49.780 This is not long after that Clooney fundraiser, which is detailed in this new book, and it's horrifying.

00:16:57.720 Again, we knew that.

00:16:59.000 We knew that.

00:16:59.620 But more details about just how horrifying it was.

00:17:04.280 And let me just give you a couple, and then I'll give it back to you in one hand.

00:17:07.640 Highlights.

00:17:08.200 Biden did not recognize George Clooney at this June 15th fundraiser.

00:17:12.360 And to me, it's so funny, because this is, of course, what led George Clooney to be like, oh, my God, he's really too far gone.

00:17:17.780 He doesn't know me.

00:17:19.360 Everyone knows me.

00:17:21.240 But, I mean, in his defense, he is world recognizable.

00:17:24.900 Okay.

00:17:25.580 Biden hobbled out from around the corner.

00:17:27.160 Clooney knew the president had just arrived from the G7 leader summit in Italy and might be a little tired, but holy shit, he wasn't expecting this.

00:17:33.840 I'm quoting here.

00:17:34.360 The president appeared severely diminished, as if he'd aged a decade since Clooney last saw him in December 2022.

00:17:39.760 He was taking tiny steps, and aides seemed to be guiding him by the arm.

00:17:43.440 It was like watching someone who was not alive, recalled a Hollywood VIP.

00:17:47.080 It was startling.

00:17:48.120 We all looked at each other.

00:17:49.240 It was so awful.

00:17:50.920 Thank you for being here, the president said to guests as he shuffled past them.

00:17:53.760 Thank you for being here.

00:17:54.620 Thank you for being here.

00:17:55.820 Clooney felt a knot form in his stomach as the president approached him.

00:17:59.240 Biden looked at him.

00:18:00.640 Thank you for being here.

00:18:02.160 Thank you for being here.

00:18:04.040 You know, George, the assisting aide told the president, gently reminding him who was in front of him.

00:18:09.440 Yeah, yeah, the president said to one of the most recognizable men in the world, the host of this lucrative fundraiser.

00:18:17.120 Thank you for being here.

00:18:18.700 Hi, Mr. President, Clooney said.

00:18:21.140 How are you, the president replied.

00:18:23.220 How was your trip, Clooney asked.

00:18:25.100 Fine, the president said.

00:18:26.880 It seemed clear that the president had not recognized George Clooney.

00:18:30.620 It was not okay, recalled the Hollywood VIP who had witnessed the moment.

00:18:34.320 That thing, the moment where you recognize someone, you know, especially a famous person who's doing a fucking fundraiser for you.

00:18:41.020 It was delayed.

00:18:42.680 It was uncomfortable.

00:18:44.220 George Clooney, the aide clarified for President Biden.

00:18:47.340 Oh, yeah, Biden said.

00:18:48.820 Hi, George.

00:18:50.240 Clooney was shaken to his core.

00:18:52.380 By the way, he would not come out with his story until after that debate, until after it was clear Joe Biden was imploding and wouldn't step aside.

00:18:58.580 He's a fucking coward.

00:18:59.640 Sorry, a lot of F-bombs.

00:19:01.320 My apologies.

00:19:02.200 The president hadn't recognized him, a man he had known for years.

00:19:06.360 And then they go on to say other June 15th L.A. fundraiser attendees were also concerned.

00:19:14.140 They described Biden as slow and almost catatonic.

00:19:18.260 There were obvious brain freezes and clear signs of a mental slide.

00:19:21.740 It was, to some of them, quote, terrifying Obama, who was there, decided that the fault lay with Biden's busy schedule.

00:19:31.340 But Obama would come to realize that scheduling was not the fundamental problem.

00:19:36.460 Okay, go ahead, Winnie.

00:19:37.180 Well, I love the included detail that he's known George Clooney for years.

00:19:43.780 It's George Clooney.

00:19:45.160 He could have known him for five minutes.

00:19:47.280 It's like the guy's in Ocean's Eleven.

00:19:49.460 It's not like Philip Michael Thomas from Miami Vice or something.

00:19:52.680 It's George Clooney.

00:19:53.900 You can't recognize that.

00:19:55.140 You can't run for president.

00:19:56.300 It's done.

00:19:56.880 It's over.

00:19:57.740 It's funny, too, by the way, is that pointing out this, like, B.C. and A.D. thing about the debate.

00:20:03.180 I looked this morning at a bunch of stuff from after the debate, immediately after the debate.

00:20:10.280 Biden calls in to Joe Scarborough, like a phone call.

00:20:15.520 Please, listeners to the Megyn Kelly show, go find these, because everybody, there was David Folkenflik on NPR, and they were like, Biden came back roaring.

00:20:25.360 He was full of vim, and he was angry.

00:20:27.500 And it's like, so the Teddy Ruxpin doll wasn't repeating, thanks for being here, thanks for being here.

00:20:33.280 He got angry for about five minutes, and they were like, I think it's done.

00:20:36.820 But the best thing about this, and, you know, to Alex Thompson and Jake Tabber's book, you know, to do this reporting of what's going on behind the scenes, you can't do in the way that they've done or appears the way they've done.

00:20:49.240 I haven't read the books, I've read the excerpts, in real time.

00:20:52.820 You do it afterwards, you do the reporting, you figure out what happened.

00:20:55.880 So that is incredibly useful.

00:20:57.860 But what is also useful, and I am maybe alone in this, is I'm happy that the press did what they did.

00:21:05.480 I'm a thousand percent happy and overjoyed by it.

00:21:08.780 And the reason is, is because I have eyes, I have a television set, I have ears, I have the internet, and all of us fucking knew this.

00:21:18.360 It's not like they were hiding something that we couldn't see, so we saw it.

00:21:22.540 So what is the result of this?

00:21:24.540 Well, we see that the people that are stumping for him in the media are doing something.

00:21:29.960 They're lying directly to you, and they're saying, you're seeing something that you're not saying.

00:21:34.100 You're gaslighting.

00:21:34.840 It's true gaslighting.

00:21:35.780 I'm happy, because it's not like we wouldn't have known this otherwise.

00:21:39.120 We knew it.

00:21:40.320 You know, there was a poll in 2021.

00:21:42.660 2021 goes to eight months after Biden became president of, I think it was a Pew poll, an American saying that they didn't think he was very sharp, that he had lost a few steps.

00:21:53.080 I can't remember the phrasing of the question, but the thing that makes everybody angry, it makes people maybe come to the Megyn Kelly show and get pissed off at the media,

00:22:01.760 is not that they're saying, all right, well, you know, I think he can tough it out.

00:22:06.720 It's the fact that Joe Scarborough said in May of last year, I've never seen him better.

00:22:12.600 This is the best I've ever seen him.

00:22:14.760 When did you meet him?

00:22:15.620 The best I've never.

00:22:15.820 Two days before?

00:22:17.160 Like, what are you talking about?

00:22:18.760 The best you've ever seen him, he's falling asleep on stage.

00:22:22.140 He doesn't know who anyone is.

00:22:23.420 It's like, I feel bad for the guy, but you're saying it's the best that he's ever been?

00:22:26.680 Come on.

00:22:27.480 Here's a little more, a little more.

00:22:30.420 They say in this book that Biden's limitations got worse throughout his presidency, and he was worse in private than he was in public.

00:22:39.520 You mean it wasn't true when Karine Jean-Pierre and the others were saying, and Jen Psaki, they couldn't keep up with him behind the scenes?

00:22:47.280 I'm shocked, shocked.

00:22:48.440 But still, I enjoy reading it.

00:22:50.280 The real issue, they write, wasn't his age per se.

00:22:53.060 It was the clear limitations of his abilities, which got worse throughout his presidency.

00:22:57.360 I mean, I agree with that, because President Trump is, you know, 79 years old, and he's doing just fine.

00:23:03.740 What the public saw of his functioning was concerning.

00:23:06.840 What was going on in private was worse.

00:23:09.740 While Biden, on a day-in, day-out basis, could certainly make decisions and assert some wisdom and act as president,

00:23:15.120 there were several significant issues that complicated his presidency,

00:23:18.220 a limit to the hours in which he could reliably function, and an increasing number of moments when he seemed to freeze up,

00:23:24.620 lose his train of thought, forget the names of top aides, or momentarily not remember friends he had known for decades,

00:23:30.880 not to mention impairment to his ability to communicate, ones unrelated to his lifelong stutter.

00:23:37.500 An unnamed Democratic strategist says Biden stole an election from the Dem Party and guaranteed Trump's victory.

00:23:41.840 It was an abomination, said the strategist, abomination.

00:23:46.620 He stole an election from the Democratic Party.

00:23:49.000 He stole it from the American people.

00:23:51.060 And then they go on to say one of the people he forgot, he didn't forget his name,

00:23:55.480 but he forgot why he was calling him, was Chuck Schumer, then the Senate Majority Leader.

00:24:03.440 Sometimes the president would call him, and after some chitchat, admit, I'm quoting here,

00:24:08.180 that he had forgotten why he called.

00:24:11.280 Sometimes he rambled, sometimes he forgot names.

00:24:14.140 Schumer wasn't concerned about Biden's acuity, but he was worried about the optics.

00:24:18.900 Biden talked sluggishly.

00:24:20.220 His voice was not just slower, but oddly quieter, reminding Schumer of his mother, who had had Parkinson's.

00:24:26.500 His gait was slower.

00:24:28.260 And Schumer gets asked about this on TV, CNN, yesterday in SOT 6.

00:24:36.780 Listen here.

00:24:38.440 I'm interested to know whether the man that you saw sitting there on that couch on that day,

00:24:43.800 you were in there, you saw him up close and personal.

00:24:46.380 Did you really not have any idea that he was not fit to serve a second term?

00:24:52.440 Casey, we're looking forward.

00:24:54.380 We have the largest Medicaid in front of us.

00:24:57.060 We have the whole federal government at risk.

00:24:58.920 You're facing all of this because you lost a presidential election.

00:25:01.380 And is that not Joe Biden's responsibility for deciding to run again?

00:25:04.700 We're looking forward.

00:25:05.840 Forward.

00:25:06.540 Forward.

00:25:07.520 That's it?

00:25:08.520 That's it.

00:25:09.920 Oh, all right.

00:25:10.980 Senator Chuck Schumer, I know you got to go.

00:25:12.900 I appreciate your time today.

00:25:14.580 Thank you.

00:25:14.880 We'll see you soon, I hope.

00:25:15.720 Thank you.

00:25:16.220 Take care.

00:25:17.900 Oh, my God.

00:25:19.500 Is that going to fly?

00:25:20.860 I mean, that's another reason why I like the books being out.

00:25:23.500 It is leading to some awkward moments where Democrats are being, it's Democrat on Democrat blood.

00:25:29.480 Right?

00:25:29.780 Like, Dem on Dem violence, Camille.

00:25:32.040 Well, there's so much culpability to go around here.

00:25:34.900 I mean, you could talk about Joe Biden's responsibility and the fact that he shouldn't have run and that his administration tried to protect him.

00:25:40.240 But Schumer and other prominent Democrats were well aware of Joe Biden's deficit very, very early on.

00:25:46.760 We were having conversations about this back in 2016, to be totally frank.

00:25:50.820 There were questions about his ability to keep up with this job, to do this job, to run an effective campaign.

00:25:56.640 He did manage to squeak one out prior, but four years later, no one was surprised when he couldn't really do it.

00:26:02.360 Had Schumer had the courage to say something, the opportunity to field a better candidate wasn't after a debate.

00:26:08.420 It was during the primaries.

00:26:09.940 And they didn't do anything.

00:26:11.280 You heard radio silence from prominent Democrats.

00:26:14.580 I don't want to hear any of the nonsense about, well, he's the president.

00:26:16.980 He gets to make the call.

00:26:18.440 You people are supposed to be in leadership positions.

00:26:20.580 You're supposed to be dedicating yourselves to a life of service.

00:26:23.060 And if you see someone who is clearly incapable of doing the job in a meaningful and serious way,

00:26:29.340 fielding this person anyway is going to have consequences for your party, as it well should.

00:26:33.240 You should be out of power.

00:26:34.680 You should find yourself in the wilderness for a period of time.

00:26:36.900 And certain people should probably get fired.

00:26:39.220 Speaking of dem on dem blood, Chuck Todd weighed in on Chuck Schumer as follows.

00:26:48.260 Shot seven.

00:26:48.700 He is among the people that are responsible for this.

00:26:53.920 The leaders of the Democratic Party, the staff of the White House.

00:26:57.540 And I have to say, I find everybody now talking to these authors, get out of here.

00:27:02.800 Go home.

00:27:03.500 You're part of the problem.

00:27:04.640 Now you tell us.

00:27:06.200 So I just, and I find, you know, the reason why the Democratic Party has less credibility today.

00:27:11.120 Here's an unpopular president, and the Democratic Party has a worse rating than the Republican Party with this catastrophic governance that we've seen over the last 120 days.

00:27:21.240 And yet, why is the Democratic Party in worse shape?

00:27:23.520 Because of this distrust.

00:27:25.520 Because of this, frankly, what the public feels as if the party leadership let them down and let them let this happen.

00:27:34.220 He's as responsible as anybody else.

00:27:36.780 He was a leader in the party.

00:27:38.180 He could have said something sooner.

00:27:39.300 What does Jonah think?

00:27:41.340 If only Chuck Todd had a show last year.

00:27:44.900 He could have talked about it.

00:27:46.460 It's like he worked at Baskin and Robbins or something during the first administration.

00:27:50.000 It's like, dude, you had a fucking TV show.

00:27:52.440 Sorry for swearing.

00:27:53.120 It's amazing.

00:27:54.580 It's more gaslighting, Moynihan.

00:27:56.480 Thanks for telling us now.

00:27:58.100 Thanks for telling us now.

00:28:00.140 I know you don't have a show anymore, but you did then.

00:28:02.780 I mean, this is insane.

00:28:03.740 And also the Chuck Schumer thing, which I love.

00:28:06.280 I mean, what journalists have to do, and again, let's just ignore the fact that they ignored it in the past, just for a second, and say, yes, it's your job right now to prosecute the case against the current Democratic leadership, especially somebody like Chuck Schumer, and push them on this.

00:28:22.280 Tell the American people what you did.

00:28:24.000 Tell the American people why you handed that election to Donald Trump.

00:28:27.220 You know, I think he probably would have won anyway.

00:28:29.860 I mean, depending on, I don't think the Democrats could have run a candidate that would have beaten Trump.

00:28:34.020 I mean, he won the popular vote, et cetera.

00:28:35.440 But at the same time, it's like he says, we got to move forward.

00:28:38.980 We got to move forward.

00:28:40.040 I mean, imagine being on trial for murder and going in front of the judge, and it's like, I don't know, Your Honor, I just want to move forward with everything.

00:28:47.300 I don't want to dwell on that thing that I did.

00:28:49.420 It's like, no, you have to.

00:28:49.960 I like to live in the present.

00:28:52.020 Unbelievable.

00:28:52.300 My therapist says that's what's best for me.

00:28:54.320 It minimizes my stress levels.

00:28:55.880 It's amazing.

00:28:56.420 I mean, actually, like Chuck Todd is going to go along with this fake gaslighting.

00:28:59.880 Again, that word gets overused, but it's truly what's happening.

00:29:03.140 With the Biden decline, they were actually saying, don't believe your lying eyes.

00:29:06.580 Don't believe your lying ears.

00:29:08.080 He's fine.

00:29:09.100 You're being lied to by cheap, fake videos that aren't real.

00:29:12.980 And now, you know, all of us who said that's bullshit, he's deteriorating, have been validated and confirmed to be right.

00:29:19.680 They're saying, we can't believe we were lied to.

00:29:23.100 These are lies.

00:29:23.920 They're to blame.

00:29:24.880 They're to blame.

00:29:25.580 Except the fundamental problem with that position is that half of us in the media ecosystem, those who are independent and or right-leaning, all saw it and reported on it.

00:29:40.740 It cannot be a cover-up if half of the journalistic ecosphere saw it and reported on it, right?

00:29:48.940 Like, the fact that the first half is now pretending they never saw and are outraged because they were lied to doesn't excuse them because they've uttered the words cover-up.

00:30:00.600 That's what's so galling about the dynamic at play here.

00:30:04.560 Also, like, you know, it's not just half of the media ecosystem.

00:30:09.200 It's two-thirds of Americans in 2022.

00:30:12.120 Like, it's too old.

00:30:12.880 More than half of registered Democrats consistently said, as of 2022, dude is too old.

00:30:20.320 We should have other people running for president.

00:30:21.820 That would be a better thing to do.

00:30:23.940 And so, I mean, Kyle Smith, the great movie reviewer for National Review, Wall Street Journal.

00:30:28.780 I love him.

00:30:30.040 He's great.

00:30:30.620 Kyle Smith had a comment yesterday in the wake of all of this, tweeted out something like, you know, I guess there's a market for books where journalists try to figure out what Americans already concluded two years ago.

00:30:44.820 That's a little weird.

00:30:46.140 Part of what Chuck Dodd, I've seen him in the past.

00:30:48.960 You know, I'm glad that he's on his discovery tour.

00:30:51.600 It's ELO 1979 here, but part of it is that he's one of the people who have said, and I've heard this a lot, like, you know, I can't believe that the – I trusted the insiders who told me he was doing well.

00:31:05.620 I couldn't believe that they did.

00:31:06.540 Right. I feel burned.

00:31:07.980 No, dude.

00:31:08.660 Like, there's – when you are critiquing and covering power, and this is true of critiquing and covering Donald Trump as well, different set of stories, but you can't just take the word of people who are very near the throne of power that they're not going to be operating according to their own sort of response to the incentives of wielding that power.

00:31:31.160 You have to treat all of that with skepticism.

00:31:33.260 You have to treat – like, I love the unnamed person who said that Biden totally screwed us.

00:31:36.940 The unnamed person named David Plouffe.

00:31:39.020 That's who that was.

00:31:39.860 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:31:41.080 My life savings, which admittedly isn't that much, that that was David Plouffe.

00:31:44.720 And, of course, he's the guy who squandered a billion dollars trying to elect Kamala Harris by not having her give a single interview.

00:31:50.540 So true.

00:31:51.460 I mean, he's been – I have to say, David Plouffe has been pretty rich in these excerpts of the book.

00:31:56.400 Like, they effed us.

00:31:57.580 They absolutely effed us.

00:31:58.960 Of course, he's looking to pass the blame on his colossal, historic loss, his absolutely terrible implosion as he tried to sell this lady.

00:32:11.120 You gotta take responsibility for what happened in your administration.

00:32:15.300 Yes, you do.

00:32:16.320 You gotta take responsibility for what happened in your campaign, too, Plouffe.

00:32:20.460 Tried to sell that lady to us as the next Obama, right?

00:32:24.440 He's a liar, too.

00:32:25.560 I'm sorry, but, like, his gaslighting is just as bad as the others.

00:32:28.340 Like, we could have done it if we had more than 107 days.

00:32:32.060 No, you had, honestly, one of the – probably the worst presidential candidate in U.S. history.

00:32:38.900 Sarah Palin looked like an Einstein next to that total moron you tried to sell to us.

00:32:44.940 You know, one thing I think is important to mention here with respect to, like, the Correspondents Association and the speech that Alex gave there is that them finding religion and him saying, clearly, we missed the mark here.

00:33:00.820 We made some mistakes.

00:33:02.700 It's not obvious.

00:33:03.680 They don't have to do this.

00:33:05.040 There's a world where you just try to ignore this, where you just don't talk about it anymore.

00:33:10.340 That's the world that we live in when it comes to a lot of the mistakes made during the pandemic.

00:33:13.840 That's the world that we live in when it comes to the insanity of 2020 from the period of May on through the end of the year.

00:33:21.560 In fact, right up to January when we had some similar craziness on the right, which we seem to imagine happened in a vacuum.

00:33:28.560 But, no, we all kind of lost our minds there, and we do not talk about it.

00:33:32.620 We don't talk about the political failure.

00:33:33.960 We don't talk about the failure of the media during those periods.

00:33:36.420 Those are things that happen and have still continued to happen.

00:33:40.080 So the fact that people are actually talking about this, that some of them are even willing to look in the mirror, accept some responsibility for having gotten this wrong, is important and worthwhile to bear in mind.

00:33:50.000 And, again, it's why I say that I think that's a little more complicated than just saying, well, it's obvious political bias is what motivated this.

00:33:56.580 Well, political bias is motivating that other thing, too, at least in part.

00:34:00.420 But we don't talk about it at all anymore.

00:34:02.260 So I do think that especially that what you suggested earlier, Megan, an actual inquiry from this officially, formally, something bipartisan and trustworthy, something that's transparent, that's more interested in getting at what the hell happened than just finding someone to blame,

00:34:16.300 is really valuable and would be valuable for all of the aforementioned things.

00:34:21.260 Mm-hmm.

00:34:22.040 We did what you wanted us to do, in part, and we found President Biden calling in to Morning Joe the day after that June debate.

00:34:31.100 Here we go.

00:34:31.460 Let's take a listen.

00:34:32.140 Fiery Joe.

00:34:33.240 Yeah.

00:34:34.300 I am not going anywhere.

00:34:35.800 I wouldn't be running if I didn't absolutely believe that I am the best candidate to beat Donald Trump in 2024.

00:34:43.040 We had a Democratic nominating process for the voters so clearly.

00:34:47.420 I won 14 million of those votes, et cetera.

00:34:50.000 So I just want—I not only believe that from the beginning, but I wanted to reassert and demonstrate that it's true.

00:34:57.880 And I'm going to be doing that all through this week and from here on.

00:35:01.200 So we noted yesterday that it was quite a contrast.

00:35:08.800 All right.

00:35:09.460 Well, that didn't have the piece in it, but you got it.

00:35:11.600 He was calling in to do his rehab tour, and they rolled out the red carpet for that.

00:35:15.320 I mean, anybody who watched the Megyn Kelly show the night of the debate, we did live coverage immediately after,

00:35:20.960 knows I said within seconds of popping up on YouTube Live, his presidential campaign is over.

00:35:27.180 And Sirius XM2, it ended tonight.

00:35:29.740 No matter what they tell you, no matter what happens, he's out.

00:35:33.040 He will not be the nominee.

00:35:34.680 And what you had on MSNBC was that.

00:35:38.140 And you had—it was a bad night.

00:35:40.180 Everyone has a bad night, which was the official line that Kamala Harris used and Obama used and Joe Biden eventually used.

00:35:46.500 And all of his enablers pushed the same bullshit cover for him lies until they started to get the first polling back,

00:35:55.080 which showed the American people had had it.

00:35:59.120 You know, to your point earlier, they knew.

00:36:01.500 They knew for years.

00:36:02.920 And then their noses were rubbed in it by Joe Biden Live,

00:36:06.500 and they were done pretending that it was a possibility he could do it.

00:36:10.540 I remember Matt and I, I know, were together the night of that debate at a friend's apartment with a bunch of other people.

00:36:20.080 Yeah, I mean, we were—there was a lot of people there, and I had had, I think, about 17 vodka sodas.

00:36:27.260 I was pretty well in.

00:36:28.820 And I just remember looking—the crowd was looking across like—I mean, it was a pretty bipartisan crowd.

00:36:34.240 People were like, what is going on?

00:36:36.160 And right when he said, I killed Medicare, I was like, no, you just killed your campaign, buddy.

00:36:42.100 We finally beat Medicare.

00:36:43.380 We finally beat Medicare.

00:36:44.840 It's like, you beat your campaign to death.

00:36:46.300 Oh, we have that.

00:36:47.360 Point in hand, my team cut that.

00:36:48.540 They knew you were coming, and they baked this cake.

00:36:50.520 Here it is.

00:36:51.060 That was my favorite bit.

00:36:52.100 That's fantastic, yeah.

00:36:53.200 All those things we need to do—child care, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our health care system,

00:36:59.780 and making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the—with the COVID.

00:37:09.540 Excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with—

00:37:14.120 Look, if we finally beat Medicare—

00:37:20.880 Thank you, President Biden.

00:37:22.220 President Trump?

00:37:23.680 He's right.

00:37:24.340 He did beat Medicare.

00:37:25.320 He beat it to death, and he's destroying Medicare, because all of these people are coming in.

00:37:30.600 They're putting him on Medicare.

00:37:33.020 Trump's no dummy.

00:37:34.020 Oh, my God.

00:37:35.120 By the way, kid—

00:37:36.480 I heard you.

00:37:38.260 We've been, over on the fifth column, we've been critical of Trump a lot recently, trade war stuff in particular.

00:37:45.640 But let's go back and say something positive about him.

00:37:47.980 He was—everyone said, you know, he can't restrain himself.

00:37:50.840 He restrained himself in such an amazing way during that, in the best, most subtle line.

00:37:57.700 And it's not even that subtle, but for Trump, it's subtle.

00:37:59.600 When he said, I don't even know what he said, I don't think he knows what he said.

00:38:02.180 And that was it.

00:38:02.840 That was amazing.

00:38:03.700 And then he moved on.

00:38:03.940 It's like, wow.

00:38:04.560 Yeah.

00:38:04.900 That was actually brilliantly done.

00:38:07.680 Look at this one.

00:38:08.600 Okay, the same debate.

00:38:09.860 People forget this happened.

00:38:10.680 Now, watch this exchange with the understanding that also revealed in this book, the Tapper Thompson book, is the fact that his aides were having serious discussions about how he needed to move into a wheelchair.

00:38:24.100 But they knew they couldn't move him into a wheelchair, even though he needed to, during the campaign.

00:38:29.160 That it just had to wait until he won re-election.

00:38:32.680 They had already done the short stairs on Air Force One.

00:38:35.400 They'd switched him over to the sneakers.

00:38:37.560 They were shortening the walks he had to do publicly.

00:38:40.380 They were trying to put more handrails wherever he had to do stairs or wherever he could get them in general.

00:38:47.380 And on top of all that, they recognized that he was going to need to go into a wheelchair.

00:38:52.040 He was having, among other problems, severe deterioration in his spinal column, which they lied about and said was an ankle problem.

00:38:58.780 They wouldn't reveal that he had severe arthritis and degeneration in his back.

00:39:03.960 So it's all part of the lies.

00:39:05.300 Nothing could be just, no one could be honest, even about a physical deterioration, which isn't, you know, arguably as concerning as a mental in any event.

00:39:13.140 So watch, that's the conversation they were having behind the scenes as you watch this clip.

00:39:20.260 Look, I'd be happy to have a driving contest with him.

00:39:22.720 I got my handicap, which when I was vice president, down to a six.

00:39:29.500 And, but by the way, I told you before, I'm happy to play golf if you carry your own bag.

00:39:34.940 Think you can do it?

00:39:36.480 That's the biggest lie, that he's a six handicap of all.

00:39:39.780 I was an eight handicap.

00:39:41.240 Yeah.

00:39:41.860 Eight?

00:39:42.980 Never.

00:39:43.640 But I have, you know how many?

00:39:44.780 I've seen you swing.

00:39:45.920 I know you swing.

00:39:46.940 Let's not act like children.

00:39:48.540 President Trump, we're going to carry...

00:39:49.780 Let's not act like children.

00:39:50.980 I love, I've seen his swing, is the best line in the history of presidential debate.

00:40:01.500 I've seen that swing.

00:40:02.760 And by the way, he's like, you know, I have a handicap, but it's like, no, clearly you do.

00:40:07.400 And it's not, I mean, if you're talking about golf, apparently, but that kind of whispering thing.

00:40:12.460 And it's funny because you go back and you try to remember what he was like in like 2021.

00:40:19.420 It's like, was it, and you know, you realize something, Megan, you've had...

00:40:22.900 Let's play some, as Moynihan speaks, let's play some VOs.

00:40:25.480 Let's please play V1, him falling at Air Force graduation, V2, repeatedly falling up the stairs onto Air Force 1.

00:40:30.940 Oh, yeah, I can narrate this if you want.

00:40:32.580 Yeah.

00:40:33.140 You talk and we'll watch.

00:40:34.900 Down he goes.

00:40:36.580 There he goes.

00:40:37.960 He got shot there.

00:40:39.660 Oh, my God.

00:40:40.440 It looks like it.

00:40:43.580 He should get up with, you know, his hand and a clenched fist.

00:40:46.620 No, you've had on the show, Megan, one of America's greatest and most underrated comedians, Kyle Dunnigan, who does hands down the best Joe Biden impression.

00:40:58.220 And Kyle Dunnigan's impression in 2021 was Joe Biden not being able to say a coherent sentence.

00:41:05.100 And if you're a comedian and it doesn't ring true, it doesn't work.

00:41:08.740 So if it's clearly, like, we forget about the fact that even Dana Carvey, too, was doing that impression of him, like, just rambling and mumbling in 2021.

00:41:19.140 And it's like, you can't do those impressions if that wasn't the person that we were seeing every day.

00:41:23.940 And also...

00:41:24.500 I know.

00:41:25.060 Oh, God, it's crazy.

00:41:25.960 Remember, too, I mean, some of us are old enough to remember Joe Biden when he was just a yappy senator, right?

00:41:32.880 Yappy plagiarist.

00:41:34.120 And he played, too.

00:41:35.540 But he was yappy.

00:41:37.040 He would love to hold court and talk and, come on, man, and I know this.

00:41:41.460 We've got to split Iraq into three different provinces and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:41:44.440 That's not the whispery guy.

00:41:46.480 The New Yorker piece, the excerpt was infuriating also.

00:41:51.240 Shout out to the great filmmaker, Steven Spielberg, and the whatever he is, Jeffrey Katzenberg.

00:41:56.240 Because in the year of our Lord 2024, they were out there adjusting the microphone levels.

00:42:03.340 They wanted to make sure that he didn't sound like he was, which is the opposite of what he used to be.

00:42:12.420 What are you doing?

00:42:13.440 You people are great filmmakers.

00:42:15.400 Spielberg is.

00:42:16.240 And you're trying to basically use the magic of Hollywood cinematic arts to pull a fast one over on the American public.

00:42:26.640 That ain't cool.

00:42:28.020 Super not cool.

00:42:29.620 You know, there's a thing that we do with if we love our olders and our elders, you know, which is when grandpa says he can still drive, as Biden was asserting Joe Scarborough, you say, well, you can't.

00:42:43.220 So give me the case, my sainted mother, who's sharp as a tack.

00:42:48.460 She's voluntarily stopped driving because she is a moral person and thought like, oh, maybe I'm losing it just a tiny little bit.

00:42:55.920 You don't expect morality from presidents or the power seeker because they're going to be mad with power.

00:43:01.860 But the wife, Dr. Jill, at any given time could have said, you know what?

00:43:06.040 Um, my husband's old.

00:43:07.720 Maybe he needs a nap on the beach.

00:43:09.340 Um, and she did by all accounts.

00:43:11.320 She was right there in the middle.

00:43:13.000 He is fit as a fiddle.

00:43:14.780 Uh, that was a Giselle Fetterman, you know, propping him up.

00:43:19.180 She wanted to be in the limelight.

00:43:21.420 It was all about her and her, you know, she loved being first lady, loved it.

00:43:25.820 And she loved that more than she loved her husband and shame on her.

00:43:29.440 She should know better as a doctor.

00:43:31.920 She's a doctor.

00:43:32.900 Don't talk about a doctor.

00:43:33.780 She's definitely a doctor.

00:43:35.060 She's, I know.

00:43:35.640 What am I doing?

00:43:36.600 Um, here's another gift for you.

00:43:38.300 This is from this show on, in April of 2022.

00:43:42.220 Uh, Vladimir, uh, Pukin is, not, not, not, not Pukin.

00:43:48.660 The, the guy, the guy without the shirt, man, he's a bad dude.

00:43:53.800 He's a liar, man.

00:43:56.020 Not to be trusted.

00:43:57.820 So I, I don't believe a word that guy says.

00:44:00.700 He's like, he's like corn pop.

00:44:03.500 Some guys in the world, man, you just, you just can't.

00:44:09.760 Can't trust him, man.

00:44:11.200 Hey, uh, did you, did you shit my pants or did I?

00:44:17.440 What happened when you, you seem to call for regime change earlier this week, something

00:44:22.660 that is not U S policy and actually could place other world leaders, including men like yourself

00:44:27.420 in danger.

00:44:28.680 Why'd you do that?

00:44:29.980 Huh?

00:44:33.540 What did I do?

00:44:35.120 You said it.

00:44:36.280 You said it.

00:44:36.920 I didn't say nothing about that.

00:44:40.260 I love that last line.

00:44:44.240 It's Kyle done again.

00:44:45.620 You did it.

00:44:48.660 You said it.

00:44:50.120 Pal.

00:44:54.400 Amazing.

00:44:55.460 He's so talented.

00:44:56.820 And, but yeah, like that was 2022 and yes, it did go back early, but I'm just saying

00:45:02.800 like, they, so somehow like Jake Tapper wasn't able to figure it out, but, but Kyle Dunnigan

00:45:10.380 had it.

00:45:10.960 Like he, he had it.

00:45:12.340 You know, like that's the problem with all of these books.

00:45:15.220 It's like, gee, there were some, even lay people without a journalist's smell for deception

00:45:21.040 who's, who managed to put two and two together.

00:45:24.200 That's, that's why, that's why actually the New York post is reporting today that, um,

00:45:29.320 Thompson and Tapper have hired a crisis PR agent, uh, not confirmed by us, but that's

00:45:34.080 what the New York, New York post is reporting.

00:45:36.080 They have a PR agent through their publishing house and I'm sorry, political, not the post

00:45:40.700 and, uh, that they've hired, have to, had to hire this other woman who does crisis PR.

00:45:45.520 It's actually kind of funny.

00:45:46.700 Cause I was, I re I remember seeing her name.

00:45:49.780 She's, um, she's done PR work.

00:45:53.200 Her name is Risa Heller.

00:45:55.700 She's done.

00:45:56.400 She's repped Jeff Zucker during a CNN downfall, Anthony Weiner and Jeffrey Toobin.

00:46:01.940 So I don't think she's very good.

00:46:03.540 I think that wiener to combo specialty, quite literally, but all right, um, wait, I have

00:46:14.340 one more for you.

00:46:15.180 One more for you.

00:46:16.060 Watch, watch and love.

00:46:18.520 Hey, trans Trump.

00:46:19.980 It's so stunning.

00:46:21.940 So terrific.

00:46:23.060 Trans Trump.

00:46:25.380 You got, look, look, you got to vote for me.

00:46:28.000 You got no choice.

00:46:31.120 You got to vote for me.

00:46:32.440 He goes on to go, you got to do it.

00:46:34.840 You got to do it.

00:46:36.240 Trans Trump.

00:46:37.460 Again, if you get anything from the show, Kyle Dunnigan is the best comic in America.

00:46:41.620 I said, do you think you could win one of these contests?

00:46:44.440 Mr. Trump, cause I, you know, with all due respect, you don't seem like the most beautiful

00:46:47.880 of the ladies who are in this pageant.

00:46:49.620 And he says, there she goes again.

00:46:52.320 Megan Kelly attacking me.

00:46:54.040 She's a nasty lady.

00:46:55.340 Okay.

00:47:00.300 Okay.

00:47:01.240 Back to that debate of June of 2024.

00:47:03.940 There was no better story coming out about when that happened.

00:47:07.660 Then when art of the surge launched on the Tucker Carlson network done by his former executive

00:47:15.160 producer who put together a behind the scenes, multi-episode look at the Trump campaign, including

00:47:20.640 in Butler, Pennsylvania, and had all sorts of like great nuggets.

00:47:24.820 You hadn't seen any place else.

00:47:26.700 I mean, Butler among them, but they were there with team Trump during the June debate and they

00:47:33.700 got on camera the behind the scenes reaction with Laura Trump, Ben Carson, Lindsey Graham

00:47:40.120 was there, JD Vance is in it.

00:47:42.440 And you can see the jaws fall open.

00:47:46.360 We pulled it back up.

00:47:47.520 Here it is.

00:47:47.920 Life does not sound good right now.

00:47:50.940 So we'll see.

00:47:54.020 To $15 for an insulin shot as opposed to $400.

00:48:00.080 No senior has to pay more than $200 for any drug, all the drugs they can include beginning

00:48:05.460 next year.

00:48:06.700 His debt, we'd be able to help make sure that all those things we need to do, child care,

00:48:11.400 elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our health care system, making

00:48:16.040 sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been

00:48:21.900 able to do with the, with the COVID, excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to

00:48:28.900 do with, look, if we finally beat Medicare.

00:48:37.080 Thank you, President Biden.

00:48:38.580 What the fuck she says.

00:48:41.780 Oh man, I've never seen that.

00:48:43.480 That's incredible.

00:48:43.860 I've never seen that.

00:48:45.200 That is so good.

00:48:46.380 The look of concern on many of their faces.

00:48:48.740 Yeah.

00:48:49.180 I mean, you wouldn't think that their guy was in trouble.

00:48:51.940 But no.

00:48:52.400 Right.

00:48:52.980 They're just watching Joe Biden implode and cannot believe it.

00:48:58.540 I was kind of watching.

00:48:59.420 They had a human reaction first.

00:49:00.620 Before they had a partisan reaction, they had a human reaction.

00:49:02.800 Yeah.

00:49:03.280 Oh my God.

00:49:04.000 What is happening?

00:49:05.260 Medic.

00:49:06.260 I remember wondering if he might die on stage.

00:49:09.720 Like it was, it was that bad.

00:49:11.800 Whew.

00:49:12.000 Uh, Michael, um, mentioned the, uh, the party that we were at to watch it after 20 minutes.

00:49:18.260 And this is people who are way too politically engaged in New York, bipartisan after 20 minutes,

00:49:23.660 it was so until towards Kamala that people left to go in the back of the room because

00:49:29.580 they couldn't face it.

00:49:30.480 Like it was upsetting as America.

00:49:31.860 We're laughing now because we like to laugh.

00:49:33.780 Um, but it's, it's genuinely upsetting when the president of the United States is not there.

00:49:38.940 Uh, and you realize you've been lied to and that he's been not there for a long time.

00:49:43.040 How did we get there?

00:49:44.080 That's a, it's terrifying.

00:49:45.600 I, I wasn't upset.

00:49:46.720 I was like every hair in the back of my neck stood up like, holy, oh my God, it's happening.

00:49:52.640 It's happening live.

00:49:53.600 Like it's every, we'd been enjoying the debate as a family with some friends.

00:49:56.980 And then it was like, shut up.

00:49:58.660 Everyone shut up.

00:50:00.060 You know how like you're kind of watching with one eye.

00:50:02.440 You can miss the long discussion on Medicare, but it was like, everyone be quiet.

00:50:07.280 Even my kids were like, what's wrong with him?

00:50:09.500 What's wrong?

00:50:10.320 It was just one of those moments.

00:50:12.380 Okay.

00:50:13.120 Um, there's a lot more to discuss.

00:50:14.260 I do want to get to what Trump said in Saudi Arabia, because it was really telling and it's

00:50:17.880 already lighting up the Republican party.

00:50:20.340 Um, and I'll tell you how fifth column is here.

00:50:22.640 The whole show.

00:50:23.960 What a treat.

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00:51:56.620 advice.

00:51:57.620 So Trump goes to Saudi Arabia, he gets a king like welcome, which they're no dummies.

00:52:07.140 They know exactly what he loves and how to soften him up.

00:52:10.900 And I mean, it worked and it's, I guess it's working both ways because Trump is announcing

00:52:17.600 major investments into the United States and even cooperation on defense spending with the

00:52:24.960 Saudis.

00:52:25.440 Now he's claiming it's some 600 billion or possibly more.

00:52:29.760 Others are suggesting it's less than that, but definitely there's been some investment here.

00:52:36.000 He is okay, but all of that to the side, because it's good to get money given to us by other

00:52:40.320 countries, but Trump laid out his foreign policy vision like once and for all in a 40 minute

00:52:45.800 speech that was well delivered and had the Saudis clapping for him over and over and over.

00:52:52.660 Now my pals over at commentary who've probably described themselves as neocons were not clapping.

00:52:59.540 They were unhappy this morning as I listened to just a bit of their show, because I'm curious

00:53:04.440 to see what, you know, what, what their reaction is, uh, not happy.

00:53:08.360 And, uh, Trump took direct aim at neocons and sort of talked about repeatedly.

00:53:13.600 It's the dawn of a new day and we are not going to be treating enemies as enemies just

00:53:19.360 for old time's sake.

00:53:20.520 We're going to reevaluate everyone because what we want is prosperity and economic cooperation

00:53:25.900 and no more chaos and went on about how he doesn't like war.

00:53:30.100 Here's a little bit to kick us off.

00:53:31.760 Yeah, I'm here today, not merely to condemn the past chaos of Iran's leaders, but to offer

00:53:39.740 them a new path and a much better path toward a far better and more hopeful future.

00:53:46.400 As I've shown repeatedly, I am willing to end past conflicts and forge new partnerships for

00:53:51.900 a better and more stable world.

00:53:54.060 Even if our differences may be very profound, which obviously they are in the case of Iran.

00:53:59.640 I have never believed in having permanent enemies.

00:54:04.420 I am different than a lot of people think.

00:54:07.200 I don't like permanent enemies, but sometimes you need enemies to do the job and you have

00:54:13.140 to do it right.

00:54:14.500 Enemies get you motivated.

00:54:16.060 In fact, some of the closest friends of the United States of America are nations we fought

00:54:21.680 wars against in generations past.

00:54:24.420 And now they're our friends and our allies.

00:54:28.440 Let me give you one more.

00:54:30.000 Sat 24.

00:54:32.860 The transformations have been unbelievably remarkable.

00:54:37.200 Before our eyes, a new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts of tired

00:54:43.500 divisions of the past and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not

00:54:49.200 chaos, where it exports technology, not terrorism, and where people of different nations, religions

00:54:56.140 and creeds are building cities together, not bombing each other out of existence.

00:55:02.600 We don't want that.

00:55:03.820 Okay, I lied.

00:55:12.120 I got, I got, let me just go through this because I was setting it up what his message

00:55:15.640 was.

00:55:16.180 So he follows up on that.

00:55:17.780 No more bombing each other, right?

00:55:19.400 Like let's cooperate.

00:55:20.400 Let's have cooperation and not chaos and commerce and not chaos.

00:55:23.720 Sat 26.

00:55:24.240 As I said in my inaugural address, my greatest hope is to be a peacemaker and to be a unifier.

00:55:33.380 I don't like war.

00:55:35.480 We have the greatest military, by the way, in the history of the world.

00:55:38.540 You know, I rebuilt our military in my first four years and rebuilt it into the most powerful

00:55:44.820 military there is.

00:55:48.440 And you saw that when I knocked out ISIS in three weeks.

00:55:51.380 People said it would take four years, five years.

00:55:53.420 I did it.

00:55:54.000 We did it in three weeks.

00:55:56.320 Just days ago, my administration successfully brokered a historic ceasefire to stop the

00:56:01.600 escalating violence between India and Pakistan.

00:56:05.780 And I used trade to a large extent to do it.

00:56:08.660 I said, fellas, come on, let's make a deal.

00:56:11.300 Let's do some trading.

00:56:13.240 Let's not trade nuclear missiles.

00:56:17.240 Classic Trump, the negotiator, because he's everything is a possible deal.

00:56:21.720 That's been his approach domestically.

00:56:23.820 It's been his approach to foreign policy.

00:56:25.900 And last but not least, here is the shout out against the neocons, Sat 25.

00:56:31.800 The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called nation builders,

00:56:38.560 neocons or liberal nonprofits like those who spent trillions and trillions of dollars failing

00:56:45.280 to develop Kabbalah, Baghdad, so many other cities.

00:56:52.000 Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought by the people of the region

00:56:58.000 themselves, the people that are right here, the people that have lived here all their lives,

00:57:02.120 developing your own sovereign countries.

00:57:04.660 In the end, the so-called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built.

00:57:10.360 And the interventionalists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even

00:57:17.800 understand themselves.

00:57:19.060 That last one is so big and to me is so right on.

00:57:28.160 I have to say, like, I was almost standing on my feet cheering for it because I feel like

00:57:34.820 when I was on Fox News, all we did was cheerlead these wars, you know, and kind of dismiss or

00:57:43.180 express disdain for people who had serious questions about them, most of whom were Democrats.

00:57:49.060 And in retrospect, you know, with the benefit of all this hindsight, that was wrong.

00:57:54.680 Like we, we cheerlead ourselves right into two forever wars in which we expended countless

00:58:01.500 lives, blood and treasure.

00:58:03.940 And for what, you know, now we have the benefit of hindsight to look back and say, for what?

00:58:08.360 Yes, there was some good.

00:58:10.180 ISIS is no more.

00:58:11.820 And we didn't get attacked again domestically for 20 years.

00:58:14.880 That's, you cannot say that's nothing.

00:58:16.280 Um, but I think like a lot of the troops who were over there, I, I have serious questions

00:58:21.380 about whether any of it was worth it or whether that thing should have ended when, when George

00:58:27.800 W. Bush declared mission accomplished after the opening bombing campaign in Afghanistan,

00:58:33.360 period.

00:58:34.020 And not 20 more years and not Iraq and on and all of that stuff.

00:58:36.580 So to hear the sitting president, a Republican, right, 24 years later, I mean, truly like officially

00:58:44.860 declare it a failure and say, we're going in a different direction.

00:58:50.140 We cannot nation build the greatest nations that have thrived over that time period have

00:58:55.620 thrived thanks to their own ingenuity.

00:58:57.360 Yes.

00:58:57.540 America has supported Saudi Arabia in, in large measure, but he's saying thanks to yourselves,

00:59:02.420 your, your desire to improve your community, not thanks to the great hand of America that

00:59:07.240 came in and tried to impose democracy on you.

00:59:10.260 And it's just to me like a before and after line where he's declared the past approach over

00:59:15.560 and not successful.

00:59:17.360 And it's him saying, this is the dawn of a new day.

00:59:20.660 We're taking the world in a new direction.

00:59:23.780 It says, you know, the, the head of the greatest superpower on earth still for now, what are

00:59:28.820 your thoughts?

00:59:29.160 I think some of that was, is aspirational.

00:59:32.460 Um, you know, the dawn of a new day, it's possible, like it's possible.

00:59:35.820 We can get a deal done with Iran, which would be great.

00:59:38.220 Um, but a lot of people have thought such things were possible in the past.

00:59:41.580 So I think you're right to point out that this is kind of a needle scratch, um, on American

00:59:48.300 policy.

00:59:49.580 And that also it is refreshing to hear someone say that like nation building didn't work.

00:59:57.600 Um, I do have questions about, of course, Trump can't just leave it there, right?

01:00:02.840 He does name names.

01:00:03.700 He named Biden in particular.

01:00:05.380 And, um, it is weird.

01:00:07.300 I'm old enough to remember 9-11, um, that 15 of the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia.

01:00:12.200 They were, uh, it's not a small thing.

01:00:15.420 The Wahhabist ideology, uh, or a strain of Islam is baked in Saudi Arabia.

01:00:21.280 The family of bin Laden, uh, was, but wait, can I just say, I don't have my finger on

01:00:27.220 the pulse of Saudi Arabia.

01:00:28.200 I readily confess, but there have been reforms there.

01:00:33.080 They, the, they really have been pushing a crackdown on jihadism over there and trying

01:00:37.640 to send the message, you know, the King and the crown prince, no more of that shit.

01:00:42.620 Like they are trying to turn a page into more of an economic based society without so many

01:00:48.840 radicals, you know, festering the jihad in, in the ranks, but keep going.

01:00:53.780 That's true.

01:00:54.240 And they are also still one of the most dictatorial regimes on the planet.

01:00:58.380 Um, they repeatedly come in the bottom 20, oftentimes the bottom 10 on people who measure

01:01:04.640 stuff, uh, such stuff.

01:01:05.960 And that's, yes, I don't want, I don't want us to, uh, to bomb them.

01:01:10.560 I don't want us to, I would, but wait, this is an important point because this is another

01:01:16.480 before and after moment pivot point because we, one of the reasons we got ourselves involved

01:01:22.460 in so many conflicts around the world is because we have approached the world as we are this

01:01:27.240 superpower and we know better.

01:01:29.620 We will be the arbiter of who's committing human rights violations.

01:01:33.460 And frankly, we, we haven't been wrong.

01:01:35.600 You know, I mean, in most of these instances, we're totally right.

01:01:37.860 It's not like the Chinese Uyghurs are having a great life and we should just look the other

01:01:43.360 way though.

01:01:44.120 We are right.

01:01:44.740 So like there are real human rights violations happening in other countries, but Trump also

01:01:49.180 offered a new entry point on thinking about that.

01:01:53.460 Here it is in, um, SOT 22B.

01:01:56.660 In recent years, far too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it's

01:02:02.800 our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use U.S. policy to dispense justice

01:02:09.060 for their sins.

01:02:11.200 They loved using our very powerful military and now it's really the most powerful it's

01:02:17.300 ever been.

01:02:17.820 We just are getting a budget approved $1 trillion, highest budget we've ever had in history for

01:02:25.060 military, $1 trillion and, uh, we're getting the greatest missiles, the greatest weapons.

01:02:31.480 And, you know, I hate, I hate to do it, but you have to do it because we believe in peace

01:02:36.780 through strength.

01:02:37.680 You have to have the strength.

01:02:38.760 Otherwise bad things could happen, but hopefully we'll never have to use any of those weapons.

01:02:44.240 I believe it is God's job to sit in judgment, my job to defend America and to promote the

01:02:52.660 fundamental interest of stability, prosperity, and peace.

01:02:56.160 That's what I really want to do.

01:02:59.580 So I really believe this and I'll give you the floor, but I just want to say one other

01:03:03.360 thing.

01:03:03.800 I really believe this because Trump came under fire for doing deals with Saudi Arabia and

01:03:08.180 being open to Saudi Arabia after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a reporter, American reporter.

01:03:14.520 And, um, the, the messaging back from the administration at the time was basically like,

01:03:19.160 we don't love it.

01:03:20.980 Okay.

01:03:21.420 We don't love it, but we actually need to get along with them for all sorts of reasons.

01:03:26.280 Not least of which is we have a mutual foe and that's Iran.

01:03:30.740 And, you know, like Trump all along is the deal maker.

01:03:34.920 You know, he looks and he's like, it's not great.

01:03:37.140 I don't love it, but it's more important to me that at the 30,000 foot level, we're getting

01:03:42.200 along with them because they can be helpful to the United States and not getting along

01:03:47.020 with them is too big a disaster.

01:03:48.740 Okay.

01:03:48.960 Now I'm done.

01:03:49.520 Go ahead.

01:03:50.100 I wish that he would have put it like that.

01:03:52.040 Megan and said, he says, you are great.

01:03:53.640 And the crown prince, super great.

01:03:55.140 One of the greatest man I've ever seen blows smoke up his skirt.

01:03:58.200 And I don't like that as an American.

01:04:00.260 I just don't.

01:04:01.180 Especially at a time when you're praising their record and their friendship.

01:04:06.340 And you are also acting kind of like a dick to Denmark, which is an actual ally because

01:04:12.520 we want Greenland for some reason.

01:04:14.200 You're referring to Canada as the 51st state.

01:04:17.080 So yeah, we're going to be totally friends with everybody.

01:04:18.960 And we might act like a jerk if you are in our hemisphere and in our sphere of interest.

01:04:23.040 So of course it's going to be inconsistent.

01:04:24.820 I loved his last line and rightly pointed out that, you know, let God sit in judgment.

01:04:29.980 My job is to protect the United States.

01:04:31.720 That is the national interest.

01:04:32.820 That is the job of the president.

01:04:34.300 And I think too many presidents, and he's right to point to this out, as are you.

01:04:37.880 And I would just point out that libertarians are, in addition to Democrats, who have been

01:04:41.640 skeptical of many of those wars.

01:04:43.660 I mean, engagements.

01:04:44.580 And I like the libertarians better, so I shouldn't have left them off the list.

01:04:48.220 There's not many.

01:04:49.360 Anyways.

01:04:50.940 I'm the one.

01:04:51.620 So Saudi Arabia has always been skilled for 80 years, in a bipartisan way, though, tilting

01:04:56.800 more towards Republicans, of inserting themselves into American national interests, whether they

01:05:01.720 need to be there or not.

01:05:02.720 So they're, you know, they're hosting the Ukraine-Russia talks.

01:05:05.720 Do they have a direct interest in that?

01:05:07.340 Not really.

01:05:07.820 But they know that Trump cares about that.

01:05:09.660 And I think you're also right.

01:05:10.860 And I think this is very underrated about Donald Trump.

01:05:13.020 I think he is very sincere about wanting his legacy to be as a peacemaker.

01:05:16.860 I think he sincerely has a revulsion towards war.

01:05:20.820 And people who like to dismiss Donald Trump, and I criticize him every waking hour of my

01:05:25.860 life, in my head at least, they underrate that.

01:05:29.560 He is sincere about that.

01:05:31.480 Whether he's going about it the right way, whether he's going to lead to that vision that

01:05:35.520 he sketches out, completely different question.

01:05:38.060 But it is interesting.

01:05:39.220 And we should take, I think, him a little bit at his word because it's consistent with

01:05:42.980 what Marco Rubio told you at the first week of this presidency and what the United States

01:05:48.800 Foreign Policy Wing has been doing in the second Trump administration.

01:05:52.140 You guys remember when Hillary Clinton tried to press that big reset button over in Russia

01:05:56.740 and it was spelled wrong and it was a disaster.

01:05:59.840 You know, it was a nightmare.

01:06:01.020 She was Barack Obama's secretary of state and she completely fumbled it.

01:06:04.140 They were looking for a reset with the Russians, like, let's be friends again.

01:06:07.620 That's what this is, only it's sincere and it has the potential to actually be effective.

01:06:12.200 I mean, Trump's basically saying, we don't, can we just get along?

01:06:15.860 Like, literally saying it to everybody, like Iran, like, we don't want to bomb you.

01:06:20.020 We will totally bomb you.

01:06:21.280 But we, we have this.

01:06:23.940 Here's a little bit of it in SOT 23.

01:06:28.040 Iran can have a much brighter future, but we'll never allow America and its allies to

01:06:34.180 be threatened with terrorism or nuclear attack.

01:06:37.140 The choice is theirs to make.

01:06:39.160 We really want them to be a successful country.

01:06:42.280 We want them to be a wonderful, safe, great country, but they cannot have a nuclear weapon.

01:06:48.200 This is an offer that will not last forever.

01:06:52.280 The time is right now for them to choose right now.

01:06:55.900 We don't have a lot of time to wait.

01:06:57.460 So he's like, let Iran, we can get along.

01:07:01.360 He lifted the sanctions on Syria.

01:07:03.080 He announced that yesterday, which is big, saying, we're going to try to help you succeed.

01:07:06.980 Now, you who have taken over for Bashar al-Assad, you with like weird Al-Qaeda background or

01:07:12.000 terrorist backgrounds.

01:07:13.620 But you know what?

01:07:14.560 Let's give you a chance and see how you can do.

01:07:16.420 He's trying to foster peace between Ukraine and Russia, way more so than the last administration.

01:07:23.060 He's trying to foster peace in Israel and Gaza, like working tirelessly through Whitcoff

01:07:27.960 and others to try to get those two sides to come to the table.

01:07:30.700 He did.

01:07:31.260 The United States and Trump in particular was very instrumental in settling for now the

01:07:35.800 India-Pakistan war that started a couple of days ago.

01:07:38.640 He's bringing home hostages, American hostages from country after country.

01:07:43.060 I mean, Trump truly, like he is devoted to finding peace in the world and to saying, I

01:07:51.960 know these people have done awful things.

01:07:54.480 It's 2025.

01:07:56.400 We're turning the page.

01:07:57.800 We're willing to give you kind of a pass, a buy without blessing it to try to go forward

01:08:05.720 in a better way, to try to say, you could be business partners with the hottest ticket

01:08:09.620 in town, the United States of America.

01:08:12.780 We'll do business with you.

01:08:13.960 We'll help your economy get better.

01:08:15.440 We'll help you have skyscrapers like they have in Riyadh.

01:08:18.860 But you're going to have to back off the killing all the Jews thing and the terrorist thing.

01:08:23.540 And we'll see whether that's cool with some of these actors.

01:08:27.020 But to me, it's so refreshing to hear somebody state the mission as like an actual reset and

01:08:33.340 and the thought of like possibilities.

01:08:37.220 I mean, the words are fine.

01:08:40.080 I mean, the words are good.

01:08:41.180 I think they're slightly naive in some places and they're slightly aspirational, as Matt

01:08:45.140 said in others.

01:08:46.620 But, you know, I'll say a couple of good things first and not be entirely negative.

01:08:50.760 But, you know, the Abraham Accords was an enormous success.

01:08:54.280 And it actually managed to kind of hold through October 7th, which was what a lot of people who

01:08:59.360 care about the region were worried about.

01:09:00.920 And so, you know, giving him credit for that in that lasting success is something that no

01:09:06.580 one was willing to do the first term and most people forget about now.

01:09:10.260 But what a lot of this stuff is contingent upon is, I mean, I think that it's also mostly

01:09:15.300 true that, you know, people don't love war.

01:09:19.180 I mean, there are some.

01:09:20.060 I mean, I know that there's this idea of these bloodthirsty warmongers.

01:09:23.520 But I think by and large, that's not the case.

01:09:26.340 Yeah, I mean, there's John Bolton.

01:09:27.260 I mean, Donald Trump, of course, hired John Bolton, but which is a weird thing.

01:09:31.620 And then also, and look, and also, you know, he's I mean, yeah, I mean, you're talking about

01:09:35.140 the evolution of politics.

01:09:36.820 He's talking about this Iran deal and praising this Iran deal, the potential of this Iran

01:09:40.500 deal, which most of the observers of this stuff in the JCPOA basically say pretty much

01:09:45.600 the same thing, which, you know, very similar.

01:09:48.220 And he called the Obama deal the worst deal in American history.

01:09:50.700 So I think he's probably moved on a lot of these issues as his son has moved on a lot

01:09:55.740 of these issues.

01:09:56.200 And he's John.

01:09:57.360 I mentioned John Bolton, who, yes, worked for Trump for a short time.

01:10:00.020 But like he this is a blatant condemnation of the Bush administration.

01:10:03.200 I mean, it's it's it is.

01:10:04.780 Of course.

01:10:05.720 It's it's Donald Rumsfeld.

01:10:07.640 It's Dick Cheney.

01:10:08.920 It's Condoleezza Rice.

01:10:10.300 And it's John Bolton.

01:10:11.420 It is all of them.

01:10:13.400 Colin Powell, too, on the coals without calling them out by name, saying that era is done.

01:10:18.520 And Trump's felt it for a long time.

01:10:20.100 He was very critical of the war in Iraq.

01:10:22.720 It's one of the main things he's he was saying when he first ran about how wrong that war

01:10:27.200 was.

01:10:27.680 And he was saying it at the time.

01:10:29.040 He said it on Fox and Friends.

01:10:30.000 He said it elsewhere.

01:10:30.780 Like he's had this general aversion to the knee jerk march toward war for, I think, his

01:10:37.340 whole life.

01:10:38.580 No, I don't doubt that.

01:10:39.680 And I think that, you know, what he did in 2016 when it came to Iraq was actually open

01:10:44.920 that lane up for people to criticize it.

01:10:47.060 And actually now to say the opposite of that would be surprising to hear a Republican say

01:10:52.000 on stage or on debate stage.

01:10:53.320 He was the first one to do it.

01:10:54.340 And then everyone kind of followed suit after it was like, OK, here's a signal that that

01:10:58.140 part is gone.

01:10:59.100 But what a lot of this relies upon.

01:11:01.220 I mean, again, the rhetoric is fine.

01:11:03.680 And I don't want wars either.

01:11:06.120 The what it relies upon, though, is our enemies or our new comrades and allies.

01:11:12.440 It depends on them.

01:11:13.560 It depends on, you know, there isn't a peaceful Middle East.

01:11:16.540 That's not happening right now.

01:11:18.240 I mean, if you look at what's happening, hasn't settled.

01:11:21.680 And, you know, also to say like he made a deal with the Syrians and there's some interesting

01:11:26.660 things about that.

01:11:27.720 As you point out, al-Jelani was a leader of the al-Nusra brigades, which was an al-Qaeda

01:11:33.560 affiliated organization.

01:11:34.980 And he was arrested by the Americans in Iraq.

01:11:37.020 I mean, he's affiliated with al-Qaeda.

01:11:38.480 So after 9-11, Matt remembers it, it's not great.

01:11:42.080 I mean, we remember, not good, not a great, al-Qaeda's bad.

01:11:45.120 But the thing about it is we remember this stuff.

01:11:47.940 The Taliban is in power in, you know, sitting on American Abrams tanks.

01:11:53.860 You know, there's a head of al-Qaeda that is running Syria right now.

01:11:57.940 No change in anything in Iran.

01:12:01.040 We're always promised these sort of new liberal leaders.

01:12:03.760 There's Qatar giving Trump possibly a jet or being an ally, despite the fact that they

01:12:09.580 fund Hamas and encourage Hamas.

01:12:12.880 And by the way, we saw this, and this is Trump, you're talking about getting hostages out.

01:12:16.460 He negotiates that without the Israelis involved with Qatar.

01:12:19.860 And Qatar says, OK, here's the American, meaning that the Qataris have the power to get rid of,

01:12:25.360 get all those hostages back or actually quell some of the stuff.

01:12:29.000 So there's a lot of problems.

01:12:30.940 Because he doesn't get caught up in that, there's a lot, but when he steps back, I mean,

01:12:35.200 one of, by the way, this is an interesting point I haven't seen anyone make, but I wonder

01:12:39.180 what will happen to Europe now that the Trump administration has said to Syria that they're

01:12:43.600 going to lift all the economic sanctions.

01:12:45.620 The response to that in Syria was people on the streets cheering, flying flags, and a million

01:12:52.300 Syrian refugees are in Europe.

01:12:54.400 And do some of them come home now?

01:12:56.000 Because the funny thing is, you said about the Saudis, Megan, they know how to speak

01:13:00.200 Trump's language.

01:13:01.320 What did the former head of al-Qaeda in Syria say to Trump?

01:13:04.800 You can build a Trump tower in Damascus.

01:13:06.740 That's literally what he said.

01:13:08.680 Literally what he said.

01:13:09.880 And he was like, all right, let's do it.

01:13:11.540 Sanctions done.

01:13:12.140 He clearly lifted the sanctions on Syria at the request of the Saudis.

01:13:19.220 He said that in speech.

01:13:20.680 As soon as he said, I'm lifting the sanctions on Syria, he looked at the crown prince and

01:13:25.020 he goes, oh, what I do for you.

01:13:26.840 The things I do for you.

01:13:29.140 It was right there.

01:13:31.120 He's not trying to hide anything.

01:13:32.920 But that's the transactional Trump.

01:13:34.880 Other than we had trans-Trump and we have transactional Trump.

01:13:37.840 We prefer transactional.

01:13:41.560 Interestingly, a virtue that I don't know that I've ever attributed to Donald Trump

01:13:45.740 before in this particular context is modesty.

01:13:48.900 The foreign policy disposition here appears to be that I understand that interventionism

01:13:55.240 in the foreign policy context is going to be of kind of limited potential and has very

01:14:01.120 recently resulted in pretty profound failures.

01:14:03.500 We probably need a different approach and one that's centered on finding opportunities

01:14:08.880 for a mutually beneficial exchange is probably a way for us to have some meaningful influence

01:14:14.020 here.

01:14:14.420 Does it mean doing really difficult things like trying to carefully select your words

01:14:18.520 in public when talking about someone who you're looking for a partnership like this with

01:14:22.560 while behind closed doors, we hope having sober conversations about the things that they're

01:14:27.360 doing that are unacceptable?

01:14:28.940 Yeah, it means that.

01:14:29.840 Does it also mean acknowledging that the world is complicated?

01:14:32.040 That while you're exchanging the stick for the carrot in the context of Syria, you also

01:14:37.360 have really severe problems that you're still dealing with.

01:14:39.880 I think it was the Houthis attack during the speech.

01:14:42.780 So the real world problems still exist, but the limitations of the previous disposition

01:14:48.780 towards trying to reshape the Middle East by way of U.S. policy as opposed to finding ways

01:14:56.020 to gently entangle our shared interests from an economic standpoint, I think is really important.

01:15:03.540 I think this is probably one of the better moments of the second Trump presidency.

01:15:07.760 The challenge, however, is that it is somewhat overshadowed in certain contexts by the appearance

01:15:13.860 of corruption.

01:15:14.980 The scandal with respect to the Qatari plane is one thing, but also the fact that his sons-

01:15:19.180 Houthis says, zero chance Trump ever steps out on that plane.

01:15:22.200 He's not-

01:15:22.500 That's probably true.

01:15:23.200 It's not going to happen.

01:15:23.940 Too much blowback from him.

01:15:25.240 But his sons were also-

01:15:25.940 And John Thune came out yesterday saying, no, you're not getting congressional approval

01:15:29.580 for that.

01:15:30.080 Yeah.

01:15:30.300 Though John Thune, I don't know that he's known for really standing up against Trump when

01:15:33.980 the chips are down.

01:15:35.100 We'll see.

01:15:35.700 But Halpern says-

01:15:37.000 We still have a Congress?

01:15:37.640 I didn't know we had a Congress.

01:15:39.120 Yeah, they're still there.

01:15:40.860 We'll see how much Trump wants to fight for the plane.

01:15:44.720 But I also think the fact that his sons have been in these same countries in the weeks before,

01:15:50.420 in days before the president got there, essentially striking deals for the Trump organization.

01:15:55.660 Again, is there anything explicitly corrupt about any of this?

01:15:59.020 Does any of it suggest that there is necessarily some sort of quid pro quo?

01:16:03.540 No, I haven't seen any evidence of that.

01:16:05.400 But as we said repeatedly when we talked about Biden and Burisma, the appearance of corruption

01:16:10.420 is often as important and consequential as actual corruption.

01:16:14.180 And I think that that is a material concern.

01:16:15.620 Well, the plane's hard.

01:16:16.280 The plane is a tough one.

01:16:17.360 But if the quid pro quo is for us, the United States, it's a different story.

01:16:21.400 You know, if he's getting things for the United States, it's a different story.

01:16:25.560 And this is what I was saying when Trump was running, that like, yes, he's a narcissist.

01:16:29.680 All presidents are narcissists.

01:16:31.680 I mean, very, very few, I think, are the exception to that.

01:16:33.460 But I was saying, like, you look at him and you think, well, that could be very useful to us

01:16:38.140 if the payoff is not exactly like if Trump's ego is served not by compliments, yes, of him,

01:16:44.640 but not just by that, but by wins for the United States.

01:16:48.320 If we can get the United States lined up with Trump's ego, this could be very, very beneficial for us.

01:16:54.280 And I really think that's what's happening.

01:16:56.040 But I think as a foreign policy matter, this is the declaration of a win for the restrainers,

01:17:02.600 you know, for the J.D. Vances of the world, for the Tuckers of the world who have had enough.

01:17:06.800 And even Marco Rubio, who's a much more interesting figure because he talks restrainer.

01:17:11.800 He definitely gets it and he's on board with it.

01:17:13.540 And I talked to him myself about that.

01:17:15.520 But he's got a neocon past.

01:17:17.880 You know, he understands that other wing of the Republican Party that, you know, where he says

01:17:23.620 it is terrible what's happening in Gaza.

01:17:25.960 And every single one of those deaths is the fault of Hamas, right?

01:17:28.960 Like, that's what the neocons want to hear.

01:17:30.960 Like, there's a clear understanding of morality in the world from the United States of America.

01:17:36.880 And they're willing to toe the line to make sure the right side is supported, right?

01:17:41.540 Like, that's kind of so he's more of a hedge bet.

01:17:44.280 In any event, it was fascinating to hear Trump just spill it out.

01:17:47.380 At the same time, he's saying, we're going to reset.

01:17:49.680 We won't hold the past sins against you.

01:17:51.180 We're not going to try to import culture.

01:17:52.760 You do your thing.

01:17:53.980 It's for God to judge your decisions, not for me.

01:17:56.560 At the same time, he's like, we might invade Greenland and Panama and might have to take

01:18:01.780 Canada, too.

01:18:02.400 So it's like, oh, well, just like easy wars.

01:18:05.800 I mean, we can beat the Greenlanders.

01:18:07.880 I mean, that's pretty simple.

01:18:08.720 But the thing is, Megan, is that I think what the difference is, is that this has been the

01:18:15.660 kind of unwritten policy of America and Americans for a long time, but it's non-interventionist.

01:18:22.020 That, after Iraq, was just not going to happen for a long time.

01:18:25.580 I think what will be interesting, particularly vis-a-vis the Israelis, who are kind of mad

01:18:30.440 at Trump right now, the hostage negotiation that happened without them, his cozying up

01:18:35.020 to the Qataris in any way makes them angry.

01:18:37.980 So, I mean, we'll see how that relationship, because, you know, the Tucker wing, they can't

01:18:42.780 stand Israel.

01:18:44.140 They can't stand Netanyahu.

01:18:45.560 So it'd be interesting to see if that relationship fractures at all.

01:18:49.140 But I think the real thing-

01:18:50.240 I don't know if-

01:18:50.600 I mean, I don't think it's fair to say Tucker can't stand Israel, but they're critical

01:18:54.040 of Israel.

01:18:54.520 He's a very, very-

01:18:56.040 And there are people who are a restrainer.

01:18:56.540 He's become more skeptical in recent-

01:18:59.240 He just did an interview with the comedian Dave Smith, where they were not very positive on

01:19:05.540 Israel, but I would say that it's a matter of what do we do about foreign funding of

01:19:11.720 things.

01:19:12.060 Like, so funding the Ukrainians, funding the Israelis.

01:19:14.900 And look, there was something that happened in Israel the other day, in the Knesset, about

01:19:19.200 stopping all American military aid, which has been something that's been floated by a

01:19:24.380 lot of Israelis.

01:19:25.480 Cool.

01:19:25.640 You know, our friend, Jake Siegel, who is a big Zionist, you know, writes her tablet,

01:19:31.780 wrote a thing.

01:19:32.780 Matt has written about this too, of like, okay, enough of this.

01:19:36.160 It's not going to stop the people who say that we're still too close to Israel.

01:19:39.540 But if that is the next phase of pulling American support out for allies in a military

01:19:46.020 way, that would be really shocking to me.

01:19:50.940 And that would be-

01:19:51.640 Yeah, that would be a very big development.

01:19:53.160 But, you know, when we were talking about how the United States did the forever worse,

01:19:57.820 you know, the Iraq disaster, staying too long in Afghanistan, not knowing, you know, not

01:20:02.200 having any plan, training all these troops, then leaving all of our tanks behind, all

01:20:05.440 of it, such a nightmare.

01:20:06.980 But we have been messing in foreign policy throughout the world for a long, long time.

01:20:12.820 You know, we're talking about Ukraine and Russia.

01:20:14.420 We, of course, were over there under the Clinton administration.

01:20:17.080 You know, we were there under the Obama administration.

01:20:19.580 Hillary Clinton was over there trying to make regime change happen.

01:20:23.640 I think this is Trump saying, we're done with that.

01:20:26.600 We may invade you, but we won't quietly try to change your leadership like we did in Ukraine,

01:20:34.400 like, you know, we clearly would, some would like to do in places like Russia.

01:20:37.840 He's like, those days are over.

01:20:39.760 So the verdict was in the day he was reelected.

01:20:44.080 But this is him really spelling it out.

01:20:45.900 And I'd love to find, I'm sure, well, we can, who wrote that speech, because that was

01:20:50.400 a barn burner.

01:20:51.240 And Trump, he delivered a fine.

01:20:52.880 He was a little quiet in the messaging.

01:20:54.420 I think he was tired.

01:20:55.580 There was video of him maybe falling asleep.

01:20:58.020 The White House denied it.

01:20:58.940 But I didn't blame him.

01:20:59.700 It was like, it looked very, very hot and kind of boring in there to some extent, because

01:21:04.780 we saw this from Trump, here it is, watch, yeah, let's stand by, watch this, V5.

01:21:15.240 So he's not actually asleep.

01:21:17.240 This is from Fox News, but he's doing the old, I'm closing my eyes for a minute.

01:21:21.680 This is boring.

01:21:22.880 I don't know what he's listening to.

01:21:23.980 Joe Biden 2.0.

01:21:25.980 He's not in the middle of a speech, so.

01:21:27.880 I gotta say, there's a difference between boredom and infirmity, because he didn't,

01:21:34.100 when you look over at Marco Rubio at the event, and did you guys see this picture of him

01:21:37.940 yesterday?

01:21:38.360 It's amazing.

01:21:39.300 Look at him.

01:21:45.500 Marco.

01:21:45.940 For the listening audience, if you haven't seen it, it's him with the legs spread, the

01:21:49.580 hands crossed.

01:21:51.040 He's got literally gaping mouth.

01:21:53.140 He looks kind of sweaty.

01:21:55.160 He's got a little bit of a belly there, with all due respect to Marco Rubio.

01:21:58.280 And he looks so tired, and so, like, get it over with.

01:22:03.740 It's hilarious.

01:22:05.100 I think there must have been something about this room that was, like, hot, and not that

01:22:10.140 stimulating, guys.

01:22:11.000 I don't know.

01:22:12.980 I mean, if I was over there, I probably would have adopted the local garb for that event,

01:22:17.340 personally.

01:22:18.140 The what?

01:22:18.400 The garb?

01:22:19.340 Yeah, the local garb instead of the suit.

01:22:21.060 I think that would have been a better look for Marco in that moment, for sure.

01:22:23.400 You wouldn't have seen the belly.

01:22:26.200 Yeah, it'd be like Nancy Pelosi in a joshiki.

01:22:28.000 I do not want to see the Secretary of State in that moment.

01:22:30.380 That I'm a favorite.

01:22:31.460 Taking a knee in the Capitol Rotunda.

01:22:33.380 Yeah.

01:22:33.860 Yeah.

01:22:34.300 No, I don't know.

01:22:35.380 In any event, I think it was a successful visit, and I think it's the beginning.

01:22:40.260 It's the dawn of a new day.

01:22:41.200 I feel that.

01:22:42.320 And we'll see.

01:22:42.940 We'll see whether we have partners who are willing to turn that page and, you know,

01:22:46.320 join him in this new good faith effort.

01:22:48.360 In some instances, there's, like, a religious fervor that we're never going to get past.

01:22:51.380 There will be no Mara Gaza.

01:22:53.460 That's not happening.

01:22:55.900 They're just too dug in on their very bizarre ideology of trying to wipe Israel off the face

01:23:01.680 of the map.

01:23:02.120 I don't think anyone can solve that.

01:23:03.600 I don't know what to do about that, like most humans on Earth.

01:23:07.260 I don't know what to do about that.

01:23:08.200 But I think, you know, with the Saudis, I don't know about the Iranians.

01:23:11.340 Really don't know about the Iranians.

01:23:12.880 Trump even complimented the Houthis.

01:23:14.480 He's like, you know, the Houthis, like, we resolve that.

01:23:17.060 They stop bombing us.

01:23:17.940 He's like, boy, they're tough.

01:23:19.280 They're tough.

01:23:20.080 Like, he's, like, throwing out the nice compliments to, like, anybody who comes to

01:23:26.700 the table, he's like, I'm willing to look at you anew, which is not a bad trait.

01:23:30.820 All right, stand by, guys.

01:23:31.740 Got to take a quick break.

01:23:32.880 We'll be right back with the fifth column, guys.

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01:26:02.800 I'm Megan Kelly, host of The Megan Kelly Show on SiriusXM.

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01:27:00.880 Okay, so the P. Diddy trial is now in day three, Sean Combs, and it's, it's unbelievable.

01:27:13.320 I mean, it's just like, I want to stress again to the audience, we must distinguish before

01:27:18.100 we get the legal instructions between disgusting, filthy, pervert, cad, asshole, and criminal.

01:27:26.780 Well, that's really what this trial is about that.

01:27:30.100 I think even the defense seeds point one, they have to, they have to, there won't be

01:27:36.040 a juror in that room that can stand Sean Combs.

01:27:40.220 But the question here is whether he broke the law and even your humble correspondent is

01:27:43.960 open-minded to being persuaded that there wasn't a technical legal violation.

01:27:47.820 I, I really want to see the, I haven't looked up the proposed legal instructions, but we'll

01:27:52.540 get them jury instructions on what the law is, because I'll tell you, like, I've got

01:27:58.120 questions.

01:27:59.400 I'm horrified by the testimony, but I, I've got questions about whether they're going to

01:28:03.980 get a conviction.

01:28:04.720 Okay.

01:28:05.040 I hope they do, but that's just because I can't stand him.

01:28:08.340 Uh, okay.

01:28:10.100 His, the star witness is Cassie.

01:28:12.640 His, she was a singer, uh, Cassie Ventura.

01:28:16.620 Uh, she signed with him when she was 18 years old or right around there, she became a singer.

01:28:22.120 She, she signed like a 10 record deal with bad boy record records, which is his.

01:28:26.940 And within like two years, he started having sex with her and he was with a different woman

01:28:33.340 at the time, but yeah, shockingly, he wasn't faithful and, um, started sleeping with Cassie.

01:28:39.320 And then she testified how in the beginning, by the way, when she took the stand, she was

01:28:42.980 eight and a half months pregnant yesterday.

01:28:45.240 His side was so worried about that, making her look overly sympathetic, sympathetic that

01:28:48.880 they asked if she could be brought in and put on the stand without the jury in the room.

01:28:53.700 Look at this.

01:28:54.180 I mean, like, apparently they're not exaggerating.

01:28:55.500 She had that enormous belly that we all get in the very, very last few days, which is where

01:28:59.040 like, it's just, it becomes like voyeuristic to even look at a woman at that point.

01:29:02.940 It's just an out of control.

01:29:05.160 God bless you, Cassie.

01:29:06.760 Um, so anyway, the judge overruled that and said she can walk in, um, her full pregnant self.

01:29:11.880 And she did, and she testified about how he started very early on telling her he wanted

01:29:19.580 her to participate in these freak offs.

01:29:21.540 That's what he called them.

01:29:22.620 And these things, I mean, it's the right word for them.

01:29:24.600 I mean, they're absolutely depraved behavior where he would hire these male sex workers

01:29:28.820 and she's testifying.

01:29:31.080 This is all, you know, her testimony that they would come over and that Sean Combs would

01:29:35.740 be there watching and directing everything.

01:29:38.000 And that there would be multiple sex sessions within the one freak off, which could go for

01:29:41.960 days.

01:29:43.180 Um, but even if it went for hours, there'd be multiple sessions in which she would have

01:29:46.720 to perform with these male sex workers, including in like outfits and fishnets and masquerade

01:29:52.560 masks and hooker heels is how it was described.

01:29:56.480 Then he would tell them exactly what sex acts he wanted and how, and then he would participate

01:30:00.920 in some of them.

01:30:01.800 We talked yesterday, forgive me listening audience about how he allegedly both himself and through

01:30:06.320 the male sex worker urinated on her.

01:30:09.040 And I guess in her mouth to where she testified, she was gagging.

01:30:12.960 She thought she was going to throw up.

01:30:14.180 She, she testified that, um, the freak offs quote became a job where there was no space

01:30:19.460 to do anything else, but to recover and to just feel normal again, uh, that they could

01:30:23.680 go from 36 hours to as long as four days that they took a big chunk of my life.

01:30:29.300 Sometimes on a nearly weekly basis at the end of the sessions, the hotel linens were off

01:30:34.080 often very soiled with baby oil residue, as well as bodily fluids, including blood and

01:30:38.560 urine and his staff.

01:30:40.080 Keep in mind, he's being accused of like racketeering, like the way, uh, mob boss does where he has

01:30:45.080 an enterprise of criminals around him.

01:30:47.340 That's why these details are important that his staff would both set up the freak off rooms

01:30:51.480 and clean up the freak off rooms that eventually they graduated to adding like television lighting,

01:30:56.740 like Klieg lights in there that would have red, red lighting coming out of them or blue lighting

01:31:01.180 coming out of them to set just the right mood, choking back tears.

01:31:04.600 She testified reading here from, um, New York times.

01:31:07.540 Uh, she testified the freak offs made her feel disgusting and humiliated.

01:31:10.780 If he wasn't in the room, he would sometimes watch over FaceTime.

01:31:14.380 He began recording the freak offs side note.

01:31:17.260 The media has now filed a request to see the videotape of the freak offs and the, the parties

01:31:23.720 are objecting saying they don't need to see everything.

01:31:26.020 I mean, like Cassie doesn't want them to see it, but then did he doesn't want them out.

01:31:29.400 And the judge says he's leaning towards releasing them because there's a little thing called

01:31:33.340 the first amendment.

01:31:34.200 But of course the media is like, we want to see the freak offs.

01:31:37.580 Show us the tape.

01:31:38.700 That's the, that's what the media's position is.

01:31:41.640 She lists the drugs that he, uh, provided to the participants, ecstasy, cocaine, marijuana,

01:31:47.460 ketamine, mushrooms, whatever was the drug of choice at that point.

01:31:50.720 She says she took the drugs for disassociating and to have some kind of buffer from what she

01:31:55.000 was experiencing.

01:31:55.600 She talked about how he beat her, uh, repeatedly.

01:31:59.320 She talked about that one incident we saw at the hotel intercontinental where he dragged

01:32:02.740 her and beat her on the ground.

01:32:04.000 She was trying to escape a freak off.

01:32:06.340 Like it was just a day ending.

01:32:08.280 And why she was like, I mean, that's kind of, yeah, that we did that all the time and

01:32:13.380 he would beat me sometimes.

01:32:15.160 And that time I made a run for it and I stayed on the ground once he knocked me down because

01:32:20.880 it was self-defense.

01:32:21.740 I thought maybe he wouldn't be able to hit me as easily if I stayed down.

01:32:25.280 I mean, he's just an absolute disgusting, hideous pig, awful man.

01:32:30.700 Um, she said she stayed to keep him happy when you're in love with someone, you don't want

01:32:34.920 to disappoint them.

01:32:36.000 But as the years passed, uh, even as she still sought to please him, she recognized he had

01:32:41.060 become increasingly abusive, beating her and orchestrating ever more degrading sessions

01:32:45.280 that made her feel like her career was no longer music, but performing in his sexual for his

01:32:50.440 sexual satisfaction.

01:32:52.160 Um, here's the thing.

01:32:56.060 She testified that she was asked, the cross has begun about why, like whether she told him

01:33:02.520 that she didn't want to do it.

01:33:03.980 And the testimony as I understand it thus far has been basically, no, she said she would

01:33:10.740 do it.

01:33:11.140 And they have text messages of her saying to him, like, I can't wait for the next freak

01:33:15.240 off.

01:33:15.860 I can't wait to do it.

01:33:16.880 Like I might not be able to do it today because I have a red carpet.

01:33:20.140 And she testified about how she had to get all drugged up.

01:33:22.220 And also he would beat her.

01:33:23.760 And it's like, she did have to go to the red carpet with a black eye.

01:33:27.000 I think it was after that intercontinental one we saw, but they, the defense has text messages

01:33:31.840 from her being like, can't wait.

01:33:34.000 I love it.

01:33:34.920 You're like, when's the next one?

01:33:36.640 And so this has the real danger for the prosecution of morphing into a Harvey Weinstein-esque case

01:33:42.100 where it's, it's only a crime if there, if he forced you, if, if you guys are just freaks

01:33:51.340 in bed who wanted to do this stuff, yes, there's a question of the prostitution element, but he's

01:33:56.740 not being charged with abuse of like with assault.

01:33:59.080 And I, a lot of the viewers wrote in after our discussion yesterday saying, what do you

01:34:02.220 mean?

01:34:02.360 He beat her.

01:34:02.760 It's on tape.

01:34:03.160 Yes, I know.

01:34:03.740 There's no, he's about not being charged with that.

01:34:05.600 That's not one of the charges.

01:34:07.260 The charges relate to solicitation of prostitution or like arranging the transportation of a

01:34:11.600 prostitute and Rico racketeering a criminal enterprise.

01:34:15.240 So it's relevant if there's a crime of prostitution and relevant if there was a crime on which the

01:34:19.600 statute of limitations has run called assault, but they don't have to actually prove any

01:34:24.340 of that.

01:34:24.700 And he's not exactly being charged for that.

01:34:26.280 But he's, but if this is consensual sex, or at least if Sean Combs believed that it was

01:34:32.880 consensual sex, he, he could skate legally.

01:34:37.360 And that's, that's my impression so far.

01:34:39.880 That's I very open-minded to being this going another way, your thoughts on the cultural impact

01:34:45.760 of this trial and just thoughts on what we're learning now about one of the most famous people

01:34:51.340 in America.

01:34:53.020 I mean, he should skate if that's, if that's the case, right?

01:34:57.260 I mean, there's, it's, it's not criminal and to be, it's not part of a criminal enterprise

01:35:02.140 if you're a scumbag.

01:35:04.340 And sometimes it's very hard to separate those things in situations like this.

01:35:08.220 I mean, I saw the tape from the hotel.

01:35:10.280 Um, I, I, nothing about that surprises me considering what we know about his character.

01:35:15.760 And as you said, Megan, it's, it's like, we can disassociate these things and say, you

01:35:20.800 are a horrible, horrible monster.

01:35:23.280 And that is clear.

01:35:24.180 And his life is over.

01:35:25.040 I mean, whether he goes to prison or not, there's no way he's going to be allowed back into

01:35:28.860 the, to the club of celebrity.

01:35:30.680 It just can't, I mean, recalling that he had these white parties in the Hamptons and, you

01:35:35.160 know, Martha Stewart is going to these things.

01:35:37.040 This is not something that's just in the hip hop world and that is gone for him forever.

01:35:41.620 But whether or not he's been in jail, I don't know, for a year or something in Brooklyn, um,

01:35:46.200 whether or not that is justified.

01:35:47.680 I just, I haven't paid really close attention to this because I have a life and I, I try to

01:35:52.680 try to limit my, uh, my Diddy Puffy, whatever the hell he's called, uh, consumption.

01:35:59.060 But there is a thing that at the last, the sort of heel end of that kind of Me Too movement,

01:36:07.040 where it was getting a little troubling.

01:36:08.960 And I'm not saying that this is comparable, but there'd be times when people would have

01:36:13.000 It would be, yeah, when it was feeling Salem-y in the sense that, well, yeah, that was a

01:36:17.240 bad relationship or you, uh, that person was a jerk.

01:36:20.720 And it's like, there's, that's not a legal kind of thing.

01:36:23.220 This is a next level of that.

01:36:25.240 And it's gross.

01:36:26.260 And, you know, my freak offs, I don't like this at all.

01:36:29.080 I mean, we all, I have an iPad where everyone's on.

01:36:31.980 Two minutes at best.

01:36:33.620 Yeah.

01:36:34.020 Yeah, no, it's very fast.

01:36:36.340 You know, I'm like Woody Allen.

01:36:37.960 I'm like, you know, maybe a minute and a half, you know, and that's, and it's done and everyone's

01:36:41.960 happy.

01:36:42.620 And we like read afterwards.

01:36:44.040 It's like a book club.

01:36:45.540 But, um, if that, if this, yeah, we do.

01:36:48.540 We're, we're, we're reading Willa Cather's My Aunt Alia now.

01:36:51.180 It's great.

01:36:51.900 Um, there is a moment when you look at this stuff and you say, you know, the text messages,

01:36:57.960 we saw that with army hammer.

01:36:59.680 We saw that with the picture from the Dodgers.

01:37:01.980 So many of these things, the text messages always come out and paint a different picture.

01:37:05.640 And, you know, we have to hold off on that.

01:37:07.220 But if it is just having gross sex parties and maybe hiring a male prostitute or whatever,

01:37:14.820 it's like the feds, this big raid him in jail for, it could be that there's a lot more to this.

01:37:20.440 Not, not alleging any force.

01:37:23.240 He texted, he testified that he, um, there was a male prostitute or whatever escort.

01:37:28.480 I don't know how he goes by, um, saying she was the one who would, who would text me saying,

01:37:33.940 come over for the freak off.

01:37:35.180 She was the one who would pay me.

01:37:36.940 She and I developed like a friendship on the side.

01:37:39.160 And he did say, I grew very concerned for her.

01:37:41.640 I said, you know, you've got to leave him.

01:37:42.880 He beats you.

01:37:43.720 He testified, you heard a beating, but like the beatings are as horrific as they are.

01:37:48.280 And they are criminal in their own right, though.

01:37:50.420 The statute of limitations may have run on assault.

01:37:52.240 I haven't actually looked that up, but, um, there's a reason he didn't get charged with

01:37:55.820 those.

01:37:56.080 And certainly the one at the intercontinental.

01:37:57.640 Oh, and by the way, the, the, um, the testimony by this one guy who was a security officer at

01:38:03.420 the hotel intercontinental where that beating took place was that he saw it.

01:38:07.120 He, he went up there and this is a Friday.

01:38:09.820 He went home for the weekend.

01:38:10.720 And when he got back on Monday, the tape was gone.

01:38:13.300 The tape was gone.

01:38:14.600 They paid somebody a hundred grand for it.

01:38:16.520 Well, no, did he offer him a hundred thousand dollars in a wad of bills saying here, please

01:38:21.740 make this go away.

01:38:22.520 And I think the testimony was like, he was like, no, I'm not doing that.

01:38:25.300 That's not how this works.

01:38:26.220 This guy's LAPD.

01:38:27.740 No, but I think he was legit.

01:38:29.000 But, but when he got back on Monday, the tape was gone and he did, but he didn't call the

01:38:33.780 police because she didn't want him to, she didn't want to testify.

01:38:37.400 Like most domestic violence, uh, victims do not want the police called unless they're

01:38:41.680 actively in fear for their life at that second.

01:38:43.740 And then they almost always lived to regret it and recant.

01:38:46.200 It's terrible.

01:38:46.720 It's terrible dynamic.

01:38:47.700 You know, Gabby Petito, we saw a similar thing when, when she could have saved herself

01:38:51.920 in any event.

01:38:52.800 Um, I don't know because all that testimony about how the, the escort willingly came.

01:38:57.500 Cassie was the one who reached out to him.

01:38:59.580 He seemed to enjoy it.

01:39:01.180 He thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world.

01:39:03.180 Like no one, I don't know how we've gotten to like, she's being forced by like the equivalent

01:39:08.140 of a mob boss yet.

01:39:10.180 Yeah.

01:39:10.600 I mean, I, I think I've read, I have read some accounts of this.

01:39:13.540 I do have some interest in the story.

01:39:15.360 Uh, we also talk about these things professionally in Moynihan every once in a while.

01:39:19.040 And look, Cassie, the Cassie situation is.

01:39:21.900 Camille's joining the motion to see the freak offs.

01:39:23.900 This is what we've learned.

01:39:24.940 I mean, I'm going to talk about this if I don't watch at least a little bit, you know,

01:39:33.680 I don't mind.

01:39:34.140 Maybe pixelated if you want to, fine, but I'm going to watch it with the lighting.

01:39:37.280 At least give me the sound, you know, sorry, keep going.

01:39:40.480 Yeah.

01:39:40.800 Camille, then they come for your freak offs.

01:39:43.280 Yes.

01:39:43.520 But, but I do think, you know, did he clearly a violent person, dangerous, um, I think deviant

01:39:51.520 are words that apply here.

01:39:52.920 I agree.

01:39:53.900 I mean, the, the federal Rico attempt, I'm still, to my knowledge, there isn't anyone

01:39:58.840 else who's been charged.

01:40:00.220 Um, and the whole thing seems kind of unusual in that regard.

01:40:04.360 Um, one imagines that, as you said, Megan, the rest of those charges couldn't be brought

01:40:09.060 in some of those other situations.

01:40:10.300 But I mean, the things that were alleged in that civil suit that he settled with Cassie,

01:40:14.540 um, that he had blown up.

01:40:15.760 For eight figures, reportedly.

01:40:17.260 Yeah.

01:40:17.600 But that he blown up Kid Cudi's car.

01:40:19.680 I mean, these are extraordinary, extraordinary allegations.

01:40:23.180 This is a guy who sounds like it sounds like he believes he is above the law and can get

01:40:28.040 away with just about anything and stories about his violent temper and his capacity to attack

01:40:33.280 even other superstars.

01:40:35.000 I mean, there's, there's a pretty notorious story about him beating up Drake at some point.

01:40:39.460 Um, and that's Drake is a really big star.

01:40:42.380 Um, it's, it's nutty stuff.

01:40:44.360 Um, one, one, I'm very interested to see where the case goes, but I share the kind of skepticism

01:40:49.920 of the federal prosecution here that I think they may have overreached.

01:40:53.640 Um, but we'll have to see what else they've got, um, in the, in the holster there.

01:40:57.100 What's crazy is SDNY does not normally lose.

01:41:00.460 They do not normally lose the feds and in federal court, they don't bring the case unless they've

01:41:06.580 got you.

01:41:07.180 I mean, that's, that's why it's so awful to be indicted by the feds.

01:41:10.580 So, but so I've been underwhelmed by so far by what they say they have all like the, the,

01:41:16.540 some of, some of the worst stuff was in these, let's not forget complaints brought by a guy

01:41:22.660 who seemed like a questionable lawyer who was called out as a questionable lawyer by

01:41:27.020 a judge, but that guy also represented Cassie, I think if memory serves, and she got an eight

01:41:33.340 figure payout.

01:41:34.000 And then what he wrote about her turned out to be true.

01:41:35.740 I mean, or look, at least she's backing it up and she got paid eight figures.

01:41:39.400 So Sean Combs was scared.

01:41:41.560 Um, so anyway, we'll continue to watch it and see where this goes.

01:41:45.080 I think this has cultural implications well beyond P Diddy.

01:41:48.460 I mean, who knew how many in Hollywood covered it up?

01:41:50.780 Who didn't give two shits that he was allegedly engaging in the serial abuse of women?

01:41:55.160 Not to mention these parties with, you know, as we worry about Justin Bieber and others.

01:41:59.420 We'll leave it at that for now, guys.

01:42:00.820 Thank you.

01:42:01.360 Great to see you tomorrow.

01:42:02.640 A first time guest on the program, Teamsters president, Sean O'Brien.

01:42:07.980 See you then.

01:42:12.140 Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show.

01:42:14.020 No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

The Megyn Kelly Show - May 14, 2025

Biden Cognitive Cover-Up Exposed, Trump's Historic Peace Speech, and Diddy Trial Latest, with The Fifth Column ｜ Ep. 1072

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