More of President Donald Trump s top cabinet nominees are on Capitol Hill today after Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi's dominating performance yesterday. Plus, why Joe Biden won t do a final press conference as virtually every president has done before him in modern history, and why he won t actually answer to the rest of us, the American media.
00:04:08.540I feel like in some ways I experienced something similar myself where I was certainly more, I think, on the left 10 years ago than I am now, for sure.
00:04:17.980Um, I would never have described myself as a liberal past, like, college.
00:04:23.160But I see what you're going through, and I think a lot of people can relate to where it's like you just get so aggravated with shit breaking down that you believed in.
00:04:33.180You feel like you have no choice, but you just start calling it out.
00:04:37.140So I guess that's that's a fine place to start.
00:04:39.220Do you want to explain to the audience who hasn't seen you on, like, Glenn Beck or elsewhere kind of where you are?
00:04:44.740Because most people know you as part of the Young Turks, which is a, you know, a left, a left leaning podcast is very successful, but it's certainly not center or center right.
00:04:58.380And I still consider myself for the most part on the left.
00:05:01.760But, you know, there's been this growing culture among the Democratic Party in particular, where there seems to be a lack of self-reflection, maybe even, you know, kind of taking note or inventory of some of the policies that we've been championing or supporting, endorsing.
00:05:18.860Once some of those policies are implemented, there might be flaws, there might be some issues that policymakers didn't see coming into it.
00:05:28.340But once you see some of the negative ramifications of these policies, I mean, I used to be under the assumption, and this was, I guess, a terrible assumption to have because it's not true, that there would be a recalibration of some of these policies in order to actually serve the best interests of the American people.
00:05:45.500But what I've noticed, certainly on a local level, is that there's absolutely no self-reflection, no recalibration of said policies.
00:05:53.560And on a national level, there seems to be more interest in serving the egos and, you know, the narcissism of Democratic leadership.
00:06:03.620And so the cover-up involving Joe Biden's mental decline really bothered me.
00:06:10.080The fact that he was pushed out of, you know, running for re-election and then Kamala Harris was anointed really bothered me, especially when, you know, the whole centerpiece of the Democratic campaign was protecting democracy.
00:06:26.740Well, Democratic voters didn't get a say in who their Democratic nominee would be.
00:06:31.520So there are all sorts of issues, and it doesn't mean that I've completely changed my political identity.
00:06:36.460If anything, I'm holding true to my political identity, and I feel that the Democrats do a lot of projection.
00:06:43.820They like to point fingers at the right for engaging in all sorts of nefarious behavior, but then they themselves engage in the same nefarious behavior.
00:06:52.480After Biden lost the election, you know, on Pod Save America, you hear, I'm sorry, after Harris lost the election, on Pod Save America, you have members of her campaign talking about what they've learned following the Democrats' loss.
00:07:06.740And what really bothered me is one of the things that they believe they did wrong was they didn't break campaign finance laws enough by having the campaign coordinate with the super PACs.
00:07:18.460That's against the law. They accused Trump of doing that without providing any evidence, and then they said, we need to stop listening to our lawyers, and we need to do a little more of what the Trump campaign did.
00:07:28.120I'm paraphrasing, but that was essentially the message.
00:07:30.620That goes against my values and principles.
00:07:32.580So interesting. I mean, I just feel like we've heard so much of that kind of messaging, especially from the left.
00:07:40.160The right had its big breakup when Trump was elected in 16, you know, and it was fierce and it was ugly, and now there's been a resettling, I think, as he's come into office, coming into office for the second time.
00:07:50.940And the left is having a lot of defectors, it seems to me, as of late.
00:07:55.960Maybe it's because they're looking at things a new way.
00:07:58.100Maybe it's because some of them are excited about this very interesting Trump coalition, you know, or maybe some, like the Biden thing, I think, really did hurt on the left more than people realize, like the lies.
00:08:07.620People knew that you can't look at him and tell me this is the best Joe Biden ever and then ask me to continue believing you.
00:08:14.560Okay, but let's, well, let's start with Biden because he's in the news after his big farewell address last night.
00:08:20.740Kevin, John Podoritz, who hosts a podcast in Commentary Magazine and runs Commentary Magazine and used to be a presidential speech writer for Reagan and beyond, said it's the worst presidential address he's ever heard in his life.
00:08:34.220He said it was the number one least effective, most painful speech he's ever heard.
00:08:39.660He said the first half, in his view, was written by AI, and the second was written by somebody who did policy back in 1975 who must be on the Biden staff, but he was completely underwhelmed.
00:09:14.280It was also, you know, a bit of like a microcosm of the Biden presidency in that sense.
00:09:19.200And in that, like, you know, it, I'm sure it was well-intentioned, right?
00:09:23.280And they came in with like lofty goals for it, but it quickly descended into incoherence.
00:09:30.620And then that was matched with a lot of the hypocrisy, like just the idea of, you know, delivering this message about how America is being controlled by this wealthy oligarchy one week after you just hung a medal around George Soros' neck in the White House.
00:09:49.440You know, I, you know, and I think as a staffer, I, one of the things I said to myself immediately upon hearing that was like, who thought that was a good idea to push that given the optics and the pageantry of the last week?
00:10:03.520Yeah, who didn't see the vulnerability?
00:10:17.040I have no doubt that America is in a position to continue to succeed.
00:10:21.700That's why my farewell address tonight, I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern.
00:10:29.640This is a dangerous concern, and that's a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people.
00:10:37.320The dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.
00:10:41.780Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.
00:11:00.720So, you know, here we are where, you know, they just spent an election where they tried to frame everything as this pivot point for American democracy.
00:11:11.120And every single public poll shows that people were more worried about the Biden administration and its threat to democracy.
00:11:17.580So, you know, it just not only did it, is it, I think it's, you know, there's a false sense of alarmism that they're trying to continue to push, but it's just the hypocrisy of the message and how that message continues to land very poorly with the public.
00:11:33.200Like, it just, it continues to boggle my mind why they continue to push that.
00:11:39.340Yeah, there's just, there's a whole bunch of empty platitudes.
00:11:41.440Like, Joe Biden's sort of go-to move is to always say, and there's nothing America can't achieve if we put our minds to it.
00:11:48.140You know, five minutes after he just listed all of the things that are sort of dangerous and destructive about what the other half of the country believes and has essentially taken to an electorate and won on.
00:12:01.240So, I just, you know, and like the last thing I'd say is like, it was 15 minutes long.
00:12:05.700Most of the people that I talked to about it when I asked their reaction said they didn't even get their way through it.
00:12:10.460Now, that's a 15-minute speech that people couldn't sit through.
00:12:13.860And, you know, it harkens back to the Capitol, I'm sorry, the State of the Union speech, which the Biden administration had swore was going to be this, you know, big energizing jolt to the American electorate to reframe the 2020 race.
00:12:28.360And, you know, all of the reviews of that State of the Union, they all said that that was going to be a, you know, a game changer for their campaign.
00:12:36.48048 hours later from the State of the Union, just like this, instantly forgettable.
00:12:42.220It's almost like it's like, I always call it like cotton candy messaging.
00:23:36.780But my point is, like, how much do you think Zuckerberg is worried that his photo sharing family update piece of his platform is quickly becoming obsolete?
00:23:49.440And the one thing that was making him good money and that was doing really well, he killed, which was the news feed.
00:23:56.180He killed it for the reasons you just outlined, Anna.
00:23:59.280And now he's looking at this saying, holy shit, I had a viable business model.
00:25:12.260But the thing that I think is changing is that we are in this, I think, technology and workforce around technology, the tax policy, trade policy around our technology.
00:25:25.060And the next five years and even the information system around technology is going to change in the next five years.
00:25:32.460That's really going to affect the economy of the next 25 years.
00:25:35.360And Mark Zuckerberg and Meta want to be a part of that conversation.
00:25:40.860And that is why I think he is engaging this administration.
00:25:48.020It would be an abdication of his responsibilities and duties as a CEO if he wasn't doing it with this administration.
00:25:53.780And Meta, the company that is now like where the future for Meta and its sort of product and its approach is going to be in the metaverse.
00:26:05.160And a lot of that technology and a lot of the laws and the regulations related to AI and automation, all that is going to be written and it's going to be worked out over the next five years.
00:26:16.560So he needs to be at the table on that.
00:26:46.960That's the one thing, like, as somebody who, you know, more of a classical liberal and a small C conservative Republican in the Mitt Romney mold has, you know, I've become a political anthropologist of sorts since 2016, too, which is Trump has dramatically changed the profile of the party.
00:27:05.380He's dramatically changed how we campaign, how we talk about issues, how we persuade public, how we build public coalitions.
00:27:12.500And I think Zuckerberg sees a lot of that as a social sort of anthropologist on this stuff.
00:27:20.220And he's interested in learning more and he's interested in engaging rather than you cannot as a CEO or any business leader or any organizational leader.
00:27:27.900You cannot sit on the curb and clap as the parade goes by.
00:27:40.260This is like a very big sea change in terms of, like, who are the voices that matter?
00:27:45.660And, you know, what we do is we try to build a platform that gives people a voice.
00:27:49.380But I think that there's this wholesale generational shift in who are the people who are being listened to.
00:27:56.300And I think that that's, like, a very fascinating thing that is going on because I think that that's, like, what is what's going on here.
00:28:03.200It's not just the government and people saying, hey, we want, like, a very big change here.
00:28:09.480I think it's just, like, a wholesale shift in saying we just want different people who we actually trust who are actually going to, like, tell us the truth.
00:28:17.920And not give us, like, the bullshit opinions that you're supposed to say, but, like, the type of stuff that I would actually, like, when I'm sitting in my living room with my friends, like, the stuff that we know is true.
00:28:28.940Like, who are the people who kind of have the courage to actually just say that stuff?
00:28:48.660There are many of us in the country who have been saying that for decades now, and you've been stifling us.
00:28:55.540You know, I mean, especially conservatives.
00:28:57.680His platform has been stifling conservative speech from the, I'm sure, the very people he's referencing there as these breaths of fresh air.
00:29:06.120Oh, well, if only we could have heard from them earlier.
00:30:14.920Yeah, well, look, I find what he said there entirely dubious, because he had pushed for the type of culture that we're currently dealing with right now,
00:30:29.080because everything that was incentivized on his platform was the extreme ends of the political spectrum.
00:30:36.560So he says, you know, people are really looking for the truth.
00:30:39.500Well, the people that were really promoted on your platform for a long time were individuals who were on the extreme left or the extreme right,
00:30:47.600especially when it comes to some of the cultural issues.
00:30:50.120Anyone who wanted to be reasonable, who wanted to be fair, who wanted to, you know, go for evidence-based commentary
00:30:58.160was not really incentivized on that platform for a long, long time.
00:31:03.580And so I think that's part of the reason why you now have two political parties that have a difficult time speaking to each other.
00:31:09.500And I'm not talking about those in power.
00:40:51.620Right now for Democrats, it's nothing but political theater because all you need is a simple majority in the Senate to, you know, confirm these Trump nominees.
00:41:01.080And so they're using this as a moment to kind of do their own political virtue signaling to their base.
00:41:31.040I didn't find it offensive for any of those other reasons.
00:41:33.480I found it offensive as a purported professional communicator because, for me, I couldn't figure out who the audience was that was persuadable or who they were seeking to mobilize beyond their most active base.
00:41:47.840And I think that's the big problem, right?
00:41:49.980And I think that's consistent with Anna's assessment of it, too, which is that if you're only communicating to this already converted part of your party, what's the real political objective here?
00:42:03.900And if the Democratic Party has to find a way to get back with Latino voters, get back its strength with working class voters, get back its strength with outside of the urban areas and more suburban and rural areas and build up that support, given what happened in 2024.
00:42:23.320None of them are watching it, but they are seeing the atomized version of it all.
00:42:26.520And if it's not focused in a way that really sort of motivates them to care, motivates them to sort of feel that they have a stake in it, and it's only Matsi Hirono and Kirsten Gillibrand or Sheldon Whitehouse, you know, very harsh, active liberal voices inside the party berating, you know, nominees who I think, you know, the thing I think about that's most that's most the strongest about Hegsest nomination is.
00:42:54.280And again, I think it was an entire discussion we should have about how he brought it back, how he resuscitated it, because it was hanging on a thread there for a while.
00:43:02.280But like, it's that there's, he wants to bring an infantry perspective to national security decision making and to the posture of the armed services.
00:43:12.000And there is a focus on making sure that the president's vision is executed and implemented, despite what some of the military brass who would disagree.
00:43:26.620Like, that's a, however you fall on that, that's a really good, strong place to argue, rather than some of the, some of the topics that they choose to fight on, which were very specifically tailored to an already converted liberal democratic base.
00:43:41.660Yeah. You cheated on your wives. Oh, like, okay. Um, I want to say this, having practiced law for many years and sat in the Supreme court as a correspondent for three, they should be more like the Supreme court justices who disagree vehemently, but it's almost never 1% of the time.
00:43:58.260Maybe if that, maybe not, maybe I'm being ungenerous. Do you ever hear hysterics from the left or the right, from the women or the men, the women on, on this U S Supreme court far left, though, they may be, you know, Sotomayor, Brown Jackson, you, they don't behave that way.
00:44:13.760They maintain their composure and their dignity, and they can slice and dice with the best of them. And I realized they have a different audience.
00:44:21.340They're trying to persuade, which is most of the righties down the, down the way. But, uh, and, and they're to your point, Anna, that these women were trying to get sound bites that would be energetic or motivating or soothing in some way to their base.
00:44:34.200Um, but I think womankind suffers when they behave like the hysterical fifties housewives who men would rush to drug up when they behave that way. Okay. Let's move on because I want to play you another soundbite. Um, where did it go? Number four.
00:44:56.120You have the independence to say that you have the, the gravitas, the stature, the, the intestinal fortitude to say, Donald Trump, you lost the 2020 election. Can you tell us that here today?
00:45:06.820Senator, what I can tell you is I will never play politics. You're trying to engage me in a gotcha. I won't play politics with any ongoing investigation, like you did leaking your colleague Devin Nunes' memo.
00:45:20.980All right, Anna, what I see there is a page out of the Kayleigh McEnany book. Remember when, you know, Trump went through all these press secretaries and he settled on Kayleigh McEnany, who was young, like a sort of an ingenue,
00:45:37.720recently out of Harvard law and had spent some time at CNN. And she got up there and turned the tables inside that press briefing, briefing room where she would attack the press and Republicans hate the press. So it was absolutely risk-free for her. And it worked. It worked really well. Trump loved it. Republicans enjoyed it. People started watching the briefings again.
00:46:07.720But there's, like, this is an effective tactic that, most importantly, I think, the boss enjoys.
00:46:14.500Yeah, definitely. I mean, I'm sure if Trump was watching, he absolutely loved the way she handled the confirmation hearing yesterday. But I will say this. Look, I think she did a good job in terms of optics, for sure.
00:46:27.980I wish that these Senate confirmation hearings were less about the optics and politics and more about the records of these individuals.
00:46:37.020And so I would have preferred that she just said Biden won the 2020 election.
00:46:42.540That way it would take the one and only question away from the Democrats. Well, she said he won. She said he's president. Yeah, exactly.
00:46:50.400And so that allowed for the Democrats to continue asking the same boring question over and over and over and over again.
00:46:56.480And I would have loved for them to delve into her record in Florida. Right. I want to learn more about her.
00:47:01.980I'm sure the American people want to learn more about her. But honestly, at this point, the Democratic Party has one speed and one speed only.
00:47:09.240And I'm sure it was aggravating for her as well to be asked the exact same question over and over again.
00:47:15.440And to talk about optics briefly, I think that the way Adam Schiff behaved in that Senate confirmation hearing was the absolute worst because he wasn't really interested in hearing her answers at all and seemed to be interrupting her before she could answer.
00:47:31.020It came across as bullying. And I don't think it's a good look at all.
00:47:34.760So Democrats aren't really thinking about the optics. They're not really delving into the records of these individuals. And I think that's a big problem.
00:47:42.260All right. I'm going to shock the world right now and defend Adam Schiff, not in response to what you just said, but in response to the heat he's getting for the following clip.
00:47:51.000I defend Adam Schiff because these confirmation hearings are boring.
00:48:18.560We put the highlights on TV, but having just sat through the one on Tuesday and that was the spiciest of them all.
00:48:24.880They're boring. It's hard. And I even said to one of the senators after the fact, I'm like, God, that's boring.
00:48:30.100And this person said to me, normally we don't sit in there the whole time.
00:48:33.200They said we all just sat in there because there were so many people and this was an exciting one and we knew it was going to be spicy.
00:48:39.340But normally we just do our part and we get out of there because, Kevin, it's boring.
00:48:45.260It is. They, you know, having worked up on Capitol Hill for a long time, I know that it is when you're sitting through, especially in those places are not comfortable.
00:48:53.900Right. I mean, if you've ever been in one of those hearing rooms, there's a lot of droning on.
00:48:58.140There's a lot of talking, but it's also not very comfortable and there are also very stuffy.
00:49:02.300So I would not hold it against anybody to take a little I 10 minute I close now.
00:49:55.460I have the biggest issue with Pete Hegseth, given the allegations against him.
00:50:01.200I'm pretty sure everyone in your audience disagrees with me, but it's not just the allegations.
00:50:05.440I'm concerned about the lack of experience for an incredibly important role.
00:50:09.840Secretary of Defense is not a small thing.
00:50:12.720And I'm worried that, you know, at a time when we're involved in conflicts abroad, that we're going to have someone at the helm who is not experienced for this position.
00:50:22.000I got you. Although I will point out that Barack Obama became our commander in chief after being a community organizer.
01:06:30.700It was like the lower he went physically is the lower he went rhetorically.
01:06:34.040And he just looked like a little, like a rat, you know, in the corner, like low and small and the angry eyebrows and, you know, the performance matched it.
01:06:43.520Well, also, Tim Kaine is a guy who campaigned with Doug Imhoff, who was accused of open face slapping his girlfriend and then never even really denied it.
01:06:52.200But the liberal press, they never pressed him on it for the 107 days Kamala Harris ran that campaign.
01:06:57.180He also campaigned with Bill Clinton, who took how many trips to Epstein's Island?
01:07:01.080So I don't think Tim Kaine is a moral authority either, but he sat there badgering Pete Hegseth about who we may or may not have slept with 10 years ago.
01:07:09.620This is someone who's turned his life over to God.
01:07:11.700He's open about his flaws and everything.
01:08:20.780Yeah, you know, I don't know how much a hug accomplishes in this time.
01:08:25.120I hope they're doing actual work where they're actually bringing, you know, donations, resources, things that people actually need in the wake of these fires to them.
01:08:32.660If they're doing that, you know, kudos to you.
01:08:35.080I have a feeling they knew they were going to be some cameras present.
01:08:38.040And we're seeing a lot of celebrities, some of whom were not directly impacted, showing up to, you know, give a hug here and a slap on the back there.
01:08:46.680I hope they're actually doing something rather than showing up for their photo op.
01:08:51.340Did you did you make sure that you were caught by the cameras when you went to help?
01:08:55.480Did you make sure that your name got in the press?
01:10:00.500Is she going to say, let's bring in the excavator and the crane?
01:10:03.280She had no business being there whatsoever.
01:10:07.080The only silver lining from all of this is that her cringeworthy Netflix show got pushed back.
01:10:11.620That's the only good thing to come out of all of this.
01:10:13.980Now they're saying it was only pushed back to March, which is shocking because that is that's way too soon.
01:10:17.720Good luck to her, who's she's already battling, you know, record low disapproval, record low approval ratings, releasing a show about her fabulous life in Montecito in her mansion and how to create lovely home events when her city is in ashes.
01:10:35.100In March, nothing will have been rebuilt, never mind even cleaned up.
01:10:39.860And she's going to be out there in the flowing gown in the middle of her mansion like, oh, let me show you the perfect tea and champagne combo.
01:11:33.740So we'll see whether they actually don't drop that Netflix show because I just I don't see how they can possibly do it in the wake of what the Californians are suffering.
01:11:42.760Can I add one more thing about Harry and Meghan?
01:12:33.920I'd be like, next thing she's going to say, I meet Tudor.
01:12:36.640Don't say anything to Harry because he's definitely going to sue you for defamation, claiming that you said something that was untrue about him.
01:12:59.140That's the only possible route forward.
01:13:01.940All right, speaking of the LA fires, I didn't get to this yesterday because we had breaking news about Israel.
01:13:05.800But Karen Bass, you knew it was going to happen eventually that the pictures of her in Ghana would get released and they did not disappoint.
01:13:16.320She was having a grand old time as her city was burning and she was actually asked after the fact.
01:13:23.980We'll put the pictures up in a second.
01:13:49.900I can't remember what it is, but it's you're having a great time with this man instead of flying back to L.A.
01:13:56.480And now now somebody asked her, do you regret going to Ghana when like the National Weather Service was jumping up and down saying you're going to have devastating winds?
01:14:06.160These are these actually are going to be really dangerous.
01:16:49.540Shouldn't you be spending most, if not all, of your time in the city that you are a leader in?
01:16:54.340And it was just unbelievable for her to get here and take no accountability whatsoever for being gone and saying, you know, well, as soon as I heard, I jumped on the quickest flight and I've been doing this and that.
01:17:05.160Meanwhile, she cut the budget that very well contributed to this entire disaster that we're experiencing right now and would take no sense of accountability for all the leadership mistakes she made leading up to her big trip to Ghana that landed us in this position.
01:17:20.600You've got MSNBC's Alex Wagner, and she's not the only one, out there trying to make it sound like it's conservatives who are making an issue of the gender or DEI status of these firefighters, etc.
01:17:39.160Like that it's conservatives who have brought up, for example, the lesbianism of the top three fire officials in the LAFD.
01:17:47.960You want to talk about fires, they want to talk about DEI.
01:17:52.340You want to talk about the heroes that have been putting these fires out, they want to talk about the fact that the women that run the fire department are, well, the people that run the fire department are women.
01:18:28.480I mean, you can tell MSNBC is all about all about DEI because the entire primetime lineup looks transgender.
01:18:34.460But one thing Alex Wagner forgot to mention was there were tons of firefighters who were fired for not getting the vaccination.
01:18:41.200Right. So they were great men and women who were fired for not getting the vaccination.
01:18:45.900Also, I don't care if someone is black, white, Asian, Hispanic, Indian, male, female, as long as the hydrants have water in them and you can pick me up, scoop me up and carry me out of the burning building.
01:18:58.020Other than that, I don't really care who you love, who you go to sleep with, anything like that.
01:19:02.640But Alex Wagner, all she knows is identity politics.
01:20:19.600You're the ones who didn't tell us about the 22 years of experience.
01:20:22.820You rolled her out as a lesbian woman who's now the fire chief.
01:20:26.240And they've wasted time and resources and money, our money, on training these firefighters on implicit bias and white supremacy and the hierarchy of race.
01:20:36.760That is time and resources that could have been spent doing brush clearance or controlled fires or making sure the fire hydrants actually had water in them or that we could use the water reservoir that had 117 million gallons of water that was rendered unusable in these wildfires.
01:20:51.420So that's why we're discussing a diversity, equity, inclusion.
01:20:54.160Yeah. And that Schellenberger was pointing out that, OK, so they had to make repairs to the cover, which is why it was empty.
01:21:00.260Why did they have to make it during peak fire season?
01:21:02.720Why couldn't they wait until we weren't in peak fire season?
01:21:04.880Like how grossly irresponsible these there are unquestionably management fall downs left and right when it comes to what happened out there.
01:21:12.680And eventually they will be held to account.
01:21:15.020I know on this subject of look at me, look at me.
01:21:17.720I'm this. I'm a first this. I'm a first that.
01:21:20.160We have to say goodbye to Kareem Jean-Pierre.
01:21:25.420It's like this is the way it's going to you know, it's the one sadness of Trump winning, because let's face it, we're going to miss her a little bit.
01:21:32.260Like, I mean, I kind of missed her word salads.
01:21:34.620In fact, I'll start with the word salads just so you two will be feeling the pangs that I've been feeling.
01:21:39.460Here's a little montage of some of the best slash worst of Kareem Jean-Pierre at the podium.
01:22:25.860And I don't have anything else to add.
01:22:27.280Three U.S. winners of the 2022 Nobel Prize, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry, who won the Nobel Prize in physics, who won the Nobel Prize in economic sciences.
01:23:15.960The job you do questioning leaders and holding the powerful accountable is important.
01:23:22.540The give and take that happens here is incredibly healthy and it is part of our democracy.
01:23:27.960It is my sincere hope that I, while I may, be the first for many things at this podium, behind this lectern, I am not the last.
01:23:37.880I hope my presence at this podium has served as inspiration to many young girls out there who look at me and look at this job and look at what we've been able to do and have a similar background as me.
01:23:52.580And hopefully they can follow their dreams.
01:23:56.100Progress is not always a straight line, but we all must do our part.
01:24:00.940In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday is a day today, bend it towards justice and pay it forward.
01:24:09.420Her closing message, Amala, is I hope you've found me as inspirational as I find me and that the little girls of America look up to me.
01:25:40.300All the while, we are seeing with our own very eyes the guy is not doing well.
01:25:45.460So Karine Jean-Pierre, I'm not going to miss her.
01:25:47.500I hope the door doesn't hit her on her way out with her big binder.
01:25:50.060She should have spent less time doing Vogue photo shoots and more time preparing for those briefings because she would get up there and say a whole bunch of nothing.
01:25:58.020It's amazing, like how little she obviously knows.
01:26:01.060I don't think she knows that Nobel is a proper noun, that it's an it's a man.
01:26:37.180But what if you or a partner needs to step away?
01:26:40.080When the unexpected happens, count on Canada Life's flexible life and health insurance to help your business keep working, even when you can't.
01:26:47.900Don't let life's challenges stand in the way of your success.
01:27:01.200I'm Megan Kelly, host of The Megan Kelly Show on Sirius XM.
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01:27:21.860Great people like Dr. Laura, Glenn Beck, Nancy Grace, Dave Ramsey, and yours truly, Megan Kelly.
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01:28:04.860So, Link, you worked for RFKJ, and you are going to be very distressed to learn that a major adversary has emerged to his confirmation.
01:28:14.200He used to be the vice president of the United States under Donald Trump, and his name is Mike Pence.
01:28:21.000His organization, Advancing American Freedom, is calling for senators to vote against RFKJ's nomination for health and human services secretary over his past support for abortion access.
01:28:33.380The letter criticized Kennedy as being pro-abortion.
01:28:35.900This is via Politico, specifically over his past support for abortions later in pregnancy.
01:28:39.680This position is, quote, completely out of step with a strong pro-life record of the first Trump administration.
01:29:23.900There is nobody who is going to fight harder for children in this country than Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
01:29:28.660When we were out there on the campaign trail talking about seed oils, soil in general, dyes in our food, childhood diabetes, public health, there were other GOP challengers saying we were just curating a vibe, we were a fringe campaign, we were a joke.
01:29:42.580But as it turns out, these are the top concerns for moms and dads across the country.
01:29:47.940Kids are sicker than they've ever been before.
01:29:50.64090% of our health care cost, about $4 trillion, goes to chronic disease.
01:29:55.820So when doctors, when insurance companies, when the pharmaceutical industries see a sick kid come in, they hear cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, and dollar signs for decades to come.
01:30:07.500Advancing American freedom, unlike other super PACs, unlike other 501c3s, they do not disclose their donors.
01:30:14.280So I'm not alleging that he's being influenced, but this is a fair question to say, are you getting money through your organization from pharmaceutical companies?
01:30:21.940You were in charge of Operation Warp Speed.
01:30:23.720That is really your wheelhouse. You have a lot of friends in the industry.
01:30:26.920His presidential campaign was also run by a pretty swampy lobbyist.
01:30:30.840So I would question what his intentions are.
01:30:38.540The man always has his phone in his hand.
01:30:41.320If Mike Pence sincerely cared about this issue, if Mike Pence was sincere, which I don't think he is, look at the timing.
01:30:46.700He just wants press. He could have very well called Bobby and said, you know what, I have reservations about past comments you've made on X, Y, and Z.
01:30:54.740He could have handled it man-to-man in private, and that's not what he did.
01:30:58.300He decided to put out the statement to get some press because he's still upset with Donald Trump.
01:31:02.600But what really bothers Mike Pence, what really bothers him, is that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a real guy with grit and character.
01:31:10.780He's open about his flaws, warts, and all.
01:31:13.680And he's going to be much more consequential in the history books than Mike Pence ever will be.
01:31:18.940And that's what's getting under his skin.
01:31:20.260And RFKJ is becoming like a superhero.
01:31:25.920He's one of those people who like, now he walks into an airport and everybody's like, oh.
01:31:29.280I mean, he was persona non grata two years ago.
01:31:32.780You couldn't even platform him anywhere.
01:31:34.860And like the transformation has been absolutely remarkable.
01:31:36.880And akin to what we discussed yesterday about how great things are already starting to happen just with the anticipation of Trump being sworn in, like the deal between the Israelis and Gaza, like, according to Pete, already seeing recruiting numbers go up in the armed forces, like the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act passing in the House.
01:31:59.540Like, things are already starting to go in the right direction.
01:32:35.220I mean, not to make this all about me, and let me preface this by saying I'm only speaking for myself.
01:32:39.120Right now, I love Bobby, his family, I'm close with some of his kids, his wife Cheryl, but I'm only speaking for myself right now.
01:32:45.440When we were on the campaign trail and speaking about these issues, like the dyes in our food, the mainstream media mocked us, laughed at us, called us a fringe campaign.
01:32:54.580We were taking bows and arrows, but we knew very deliberately these were top winning issues.
01:33:00.700And it's why in a recent YouGov CBS poll, RFKJ, as you call him, has the highest favorability of any incoming appointee from the Trump administration.
01:33:09.960Right. So it's the highest favorability.
01:33:11.220So it's not surprising that there are bows and arrows coming at him from Mike Pence and some of these swampy creatures.
01:33:16.580But when we traveled across the country, the moms and the dads, I will say, who came up at events saying, I have a sick child and I can't get answers.
01:33:53.820No, now they're going to have to find something else to color the cough syrup like beets the way they do in Europe.
01:34:01.340Something edible that doesn't cause cancer.
01:34:04.400This is why I think it's so interesting, Amala, as we get ready for the RFKJ confirmation hearing,
01:34:09.240that the Democrats are in a tough spot because, first of all, his positions, when actually explained,
01:34:17.200are going to be very popular, very popular with most Americans when they actually hear him.
01:34:21.900And second of all, there is not a more effective advocate for said positions than this man,
01:34:29.260who is extremely articulate and there's no one who will be better prepared on all.
01:34:36.820He has 70 years of living each one of these issues and debating them in courts, in legal papers, with his critics, his harshest critics.
01:34:46.900He's not like a Democrat behind closed doors who never has to engage.
01:34:50.300So it's going to be actually, I think, potentially explosive and highly entertaining for the rest of us.
01:34:55.660Yeah, and I think they've already exhausted every single avenue of attack in Trump's first term.
01:35:01.240So I don't know how the media is going to be able to spin everything that this administration is doing when this is truly a bipartisan issue.
01:35:06.780I mean, we are all experiencing the sickness that is running rampant in this country,
01:35:10.880the high rates of the obesity of a chronic illness,
01:35:14.300the industry that the big pharma has become and how much it's become a staple in each of our lives.
01:35:20.880When you have a nation that is trying to answer childhood obesity rates with putting them on Ozempic,