The Megyn Kelly Show - Biden's Border Crisis and Cratering Poll Numbers, with Eliana Johnson, Chris Stirewalt, and Brandon Judd

00:00:00.460 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations.

00:00:12.400 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show. We have got a great

00:00:16.520 show for you today. My old pal Chris Steyerwalt, formerly of Fox News, and Eliana Johnson,

00:00:23.960 the editor of the Washington Free Beacon, will be with us later to talk Joe Biden,

00:00:28.880 Hunter Biden, Sage Steele of ESPN, and more. But first, we're going to get to the crisis at our

00:00:35.940 southern border, which continues even though the media has moved on. As 10 governors yesterday

00:00:40.780 began taking matters into their own hands, what choice do they have? Drafting a 10-point plan for

00:00:46.460 getting the border under control. With the Biden administration choosing inaction at a time of

00:00:51.440 national security problems, our only line of defense as of now are Border Patrol agents who

00:00:57.360 have been demonized for attempting to create or to control the situation created by Joe Biden

00:01:03.000 and others. Joining me now is Brandon Judd. He's the president of the National Border Patrol Council

00:01:09.740 and a Border Patrol agent himself for over 24 years. Brandon, thank you for being here. How are you doing?

00:01:14.460 I'm doing really well. Thanks for having me, Megyn.

00:01:16.380 Okay, so what is this group? Because I understand these governors got together, including Greg Abbott of

00:01:22.140 Texas, and they compiled a 10-point plan to tackle this border problem. And you were part of it. You

00:01:28.200 were with it. So how did this come about? Well, when you look at the stresses that illegal immigration

00:01:34.480 causes on the states, but even worse than that, the flow of the drugs that come into the states and

00:01:40.940 kill our children in all areas, suburbs, inner city, and in the rural areas, when you look at all of the

00:01:47.300 stressors that are being placed on the states, these governors are put in a no-win situation where

00:01:52.940 they have to come up with solutions themselves to do the job that the federal government is choosing

00:01:58.780 not to do. This is obviously a federal government issue, but if they're not going to do what they

00:02:05.600 need to do to protect the states, then the states are going to have to step up and come up with plans

00:02:09.860 on their own.

00:02:10.340 What is the biggest difference you've noticed from when Trump was president to when Biden since he's

00:02:17.160 become president?

00:02:18.700 It's night and day. What we've seen is we've seen a complete secession, if you will, of all of our

00:02:26.940 operations to criminal cartels. Right now, they're dictating to us what we're able to do. They know that if

00:02:33.700 they flood us in certain areas with large numbers of people that cross the border, it requires that

00:02:40.180 we then send our resources to those areas, which then depletes our resources in other areas of the

00:02:46.520 border. When we do that, they're able to create artificial gaps where they then can cross higher

00:02:52.620 value products, whether that's fentanyl, criminal aliens, or aliens from special interest countries.

00:02:57.920 They're able to dictate to us exactly how we operate. When we do that, they're able to get their

00:03:04.480 higher value products across, which then, of course, makes it into middle America, spreads out

00:03:09.300 throughout the United States. And of course, that is very, very dangerous to all of our citizens,

00:03:14.940 all of our fellow citizens. And again, it really upsets the balance of how we're able to secure the

00:03:22.080 border. And right now, it's just it's the most unsecure I've ever seen in my life.

00:03:26.640 So the cartels are not stupid. They know to create a problem at point A, so that all the border patrol

00:03:31.780 will go there, exposing point B, because they know we don't have the manpower to cover the entire

00:03:36.880 border and then provide backup for those same spots. But is that a difference from under President

00:03:42.880 Trump? I mean, as far as I know, Joe Biden hasn't rolled back the number of agents, has he?

00:03:48.260 It is different. And the reason why it's different is because the way we deal with the people that

00:03:53.080 cross the border illegally. So under President Trump, he recognized that the catch and release

00:03:57.560 problem was the main magnet that is drawing people here to the United States. When I say catch and release,

00:04:01.860 that's when somebody crosses the border illegally, we take them into custody, we process them and just

00:04:07.420 release them into the United States, pending a future court date. That's exactly what these

00:04:12.860 individuals want. They want to be released into the United States. And the cartels understand that

00:04:17.200 when President Trump ended the catch and release magnet, when he was able to negotiate the migrant

00:04:23.360 protection protocols with the Mexican government, we were sending everybody that was crossing our

00:04:28.200 borders. We were sending them right back to Mexico pending their asylum or deportation proceedings here

00:04:33.780 in the United States. Once we did that, illegal immigration dropped to 45-year lows. We were then

00:04:39.240 able to concentrate on the criminality. We were able to go after the profits of the criminal cartels,

00:04:44.940 and we were able to drive down the number of drugs, the amounts of drugs that were on the streets,

00:04:50.620 and of course, killing our children. Again, when you look at the number of overdoses right now in this

00:04:57.080 country, it's at an all-time high. And it's strictly due to policy that's been implemented by this

00:05:03.240 administration in getting rid of and gutting all of the immigration policies that we had under

00:05:08.080 President Trump. So if an illegal immigrant crosses the southern border now, they get stopped by a border

00:05:14.380 patrol agent, if we're lucky, right? If we see him, if we have the manpower, we get the guy. We process

00:05:19.840 him, meaning we basically take down the person's information and we give them a date to show up because

00:05:24.980 they all say they want asylum, right? So you give them an asylum date, I guess, is how we do it.

00:05:29.240 And then we say, okay, bye, and they're out there on the honor system.

00:05:32.960 Yeah, that's exactly what happens. And it gets even worse from there. Even if they do show up to

00:05:37.880 their asylum or deportation proceedings, and if a judge orders them deported because they've been

00:05:42.880 in the United States for a number of years, because these deportation proceedings or asylum

00:05:47.280 proceedings, they take years. They don't happen within a couple months. They take years. And if they show up,

00:05:53.480 they've now accumulated a number of goods here in the United States. And a judge, if they issue a

00:06:00.660 deportation notice, then they'll immediately issue a stay of that deportation, and they'll release

00:06:07.920 these people on their own recognizance to get their affairs in order. And then they're supposed to show

00:06:12.800 up to ICE at a later date to then be deported. And that's when they disappear into what President

00:06:18.120 Obama termed as the shadows of society. So yeah, we release them. And then if they do show up to

00:06:24.440 court, then a judge releases them pending a future deportation, and then they disappear and they never

00:06:29.460 show up. So even once the deportation order is handed down by the judge, we release them on the honor

00:06:35.820 system saying, please come back for the day of your deportation. We do, we do. As crazy as that

00:06:42.840 sounds, and the reason that they're doing this is, again, these people have accumulated. So when

00:06:48.580 they're here pending their deportation proceedings, we've given them a de facto legal status. So we've

00:06:53.760 rewarded them for crossing our borders illegally when we release them. We give them a de facto legal

00:06:59.240 status. They're then able to get work permits. They're able to get driver's licenses. They're able

00:07:03.320 to put their children in school. They're able to get all of the social benefits that any United States

00:07:08.600 citizen would have access to. And when they accumulate those goods, then the judge issues

00:07:13.640 an order of deportation, releases them so they can get all of those things in order, in order to leave

00:07:19.520 the country. And of course, that's when we know they never show up. Okay, that's the game. Accumulate

00:07:23.620 goods so that you can go into the in the judge and when he rules against you on whether you can stay,

00:07:28.800 you can say, Oh, I've got all these things. I just got to get my affairs in order. And we say yes.

00:07:32.500 And that's the end of that. They're here. Bob's your uncle. So now under President Trump,

00:07:36.820 the same guy crosses over, you catch him, you process him. He's standing there saying,

00:07:41.980 I really want asylum or, you know, please let me stay. I need a I need a hearing of some sort.

00:07:46.440 And what what would happen? We would then send them back to Mexico. We would give them the same

00:07:50.820 court date. And when that court date arises there, they then show up to the port of entry.

00:07:56.460 They're paroled into the United States. But with that parole, they're under custody. They're in

00:08:01.560 custody the entire time. And so if a judge is if a judge orders them deported at that point,

00:08:08.120 they never leave custody and they're sent back to their country of origin. That was the the system

00:08:15.200 that was always supposed to be in place. We were never supposed to be releasing these individuals

00:08:19.040 when the immigration laws were passed. It was never envisioned that these people would be released

00:08:25.000 into the United States. But that's what's happened because the cartels are flooding us and they

00:08:29.400 understand that we only have so many resources to hold people in our jail facilities for so long.

00:08:34.480 So President Trump, recognizing this, decided, well, we'll just have them wait in Mexico pending that

00:08:39.580 asylum or deportation proceeding. And it was the most brilliant plan that we've ever seen.

00:08:44.160 You know, we always talk about we shouldn't recreate the will. We should always look at what's been done

00:08:50.200 in the past. Well, nothing had been done in the past that had worked. I started my career under

00:08:54.620 President Clinton, worked up through Bush, Obama, Trump and now now Biden. And nothing had worked in the past

00:09:01.660 because we never did anything like this. President Trump literally created the will on this. And he gave

00:09:07.340 the Biden administration a blueprint on how they could deal with illegal immigration. But the Biden

00:09:12.500 administration pandering to its base, understanding that they want to get their base out to vote in all

00:09:17.980 elections. They started pandering to the base and they completely and totally gutted the Trump and the Trump

00:09:23.080 policies, which put us in this current situation. There was a court ruling, Supreme Court recently,

00:09:28.340 I think, saying that the remain in Mexico policy had to stand and that that couldn't just be so

00:09:34.300 easily undone by President Biden. Have you seen the effects of that? I mean, are we able now in the

00:09:41.280 wake of that to send the folks back to Mexico? No, the the Biden administration hasn't implemented

00:09:46.140 the problem with that with that court order. And it's a good court order. It has no teeth. How do you

00:09:51.240 enforce that? If the Biden administration just chooses to ignore it? The only thing you can do

00:09:55.500 is file another lawsuit. Well, wait, let me stop you there. Let me stop you there. How are we

00:09:59.540 enforcing it before when when we sent the people back to Mexico? Do we have buses lined up or do I

00:10:04.300 mean, do you guys make sure now you're on the bus and you're going? Yeah. Yeah. So under under the

00:10:09.540 Trump administration, we would we would the moment they were apprehended, we would process them and we

00:10:14.420 would take them back to a port of entry and we would expel them back into Mexico from that port of

00:10:18.860 entry. But unless the Biden administration gives us that authority to do that, we can't do it. We

00:10:25.060 cannot. Even though the court has ruled that the MPP must be re-implemented, it has to be

00:10:30.980 re-implemented through policy and certain procedures. And that's what the Biden administration is failing

00:10:35.440 to do. They're not giving us those policies and procedures. So we can't re-implement how a judge told us

00:10:41.260 to do it. You can't just start doing it on your. Yeah, that makes sense. Because if you if you've got like

00:10:46.000 stop and frisk in New York City and a court rules it unconstitutional, it's not like the cops just go

00:10:51.620 based on whatever the court says. They need a boss. They need the person who's in charge who they

00:10:55.600 answer to to say, OK, here's how this is going to change your approach on the subject of the cartels.

00:11:02.020 There was a documentary out recently that that made this point that the cartel is paying children

00:11:08.160 to keep an eye on you guys from Mexico to make sure they know what you're doing at all times and where

00:11:14.460 were most vulnerable. Here's a clip from the documentary.

00:11:19.080 And it's the kids that get roped into this crap.

00:11:22.380 The majority of the time, yes.

00:11:23.640 You're surprised how trained these kids are.

00:11:25.480 Yeah.

00:11:25.920 How trained they are?

00:11:27.280 Because trust me, you got little kids making $20 to sit there and play. And hey, let me know if

00:11:31.920 anybody shows up. Like I said, that's $20 in Mexico. That's a lot of damn money.

00:11:37.380 So the cartels will pay the kids?

00:11:39.740 They'll pay them whatever they pay them. I don't know. I'm just giving an amount.

00:11:42.400 They pay them. They're scouts, believe it or not.

00:11:48.480 So have you seen that? Kids spying on you guys?

00:11:50.920 I have. I have personally seen that. As rudimentary as that sounds, it's extremely effective.

00:11:56.180 They use kids. They'll use kids for multiple purposes. They'll use kids to cross the border

00:12:01.780 illegally with adults and the adults will say that that child is their kid. So it's now a family

00:12:08.480 unit and that child will get recycled over and over and over again. They'll use kids that way.

00:12:13.760 They'll use kids as scouts. These cartels, they just don't care about life. They don't care about

00:12:19.160 freedom. They don't care whether or not even children are able to grow up in a normal manner.

00:12:25.180 All they care about is the profit. And let's understand that the profit is astronomical.

00:12:30.440 On illegal immigration alone, alone, they are generating a minimum of $400 million a month

00:12:38.280 in profit. That does not include the drug trade. That does not include trafficking in criminal aliens

00:12:44.720 or aliens from special interest countries. So these profits are astronomical and that's what

00:12:48.960 they're after. And they'll do anything to get it, including using kids.

00:12:53.540 $400 million a month. Is that what you just said?

00:12:55.360 Yes. $400 million.

00:12:57.460 From people who are paying them to get them across the border?

00:13:01.080 I'm sorry. Say that again?

00:13:02.280 What is the money? You said that's not including the drugs and the profit and all that. What do

00:13:06.040 they make the $400 million from doing?

00:13:08.320 That's on human smuggling alone, human trafficking alone, just bringing people across the border,

00:13:13.480 having them cross the border illegally, trapping them up through Central America, South America.

00:13:19.880 They're able to go into countries. And this is, again, something that we've never seen before.

00:13:24.740 These cartels are able to go into countries, China, Uzbekistan, Gambia. They're able to go

00:13:32.020 throughout the world and they're able to advertise their services. And when they advertise their

00:13:36.380 services, these people pay them large sums of money to be smuggled up to the U.S.-Mexico border.

00:13:41.780 When they cross the border illegally, the cartel's job is now done and they've made the money. So in

00:13:46.680 human trafficking alone, they are generating a minimum of $400 million in profit every month.

00:13:54.280 Oh my gosh. I guess we have a clip of that too. By the way, the documentary is by Peter

00:13:58.380 Centinello. It's called How Immigrants Cross the U.S.-Mexico Border. This is soundbite number

00:14:03.240 six of migrants paying to cross.

00:14:08.060 Just to cross from that side of the river to this side, they're paying $3,500, $3,500 just across

00:14:14.640 just the river itself. They have their smuggler, they bring them across, puts them to the United

00:14:20.120 States side. Hey, get up, get up, get up. And then he'll go right back and load up another one.

00:14:24.820 Wow. So it's not just, I mean, it's like every step of the way they fork over more dough,

00:14:29.220 whether they're poor or as you point out in these other countries, maybe they've got

00:14:32.400 worse intentions and more money to somehow find their way into the United States.

00:14:38.060 This is such a huge battle because it seems genuinely out of control. We saw a record

00:14:44.520 number of crossings in July, over 200,000. In August, I think it fell only slightly, but

00:14:50.160 it was still over 200,000. In September, correct me if I'm wrong, but it was once again around

00:14:55.400 200,000.

00:14:56.220 Yeah. So the official September numbers have not come out yet. The unofficial numbers are going to

00:15:03.420 be a little more than 200,000. They don't change very much from those unofficial numbers. So I would

00:15:09.480 expect, yes, we're going to have another month in which we made more than 200,000 apprehensions.

00:15:15.600 When you look at this, everybody likes to compare fiscal year to fiscal year. In this case, we can't do

00:15:21.240 that because this fiscal year, the first three months were under President Trump. And so apprehensions

00:15:26.040 were low under his, when he was the president, the apprehensions skyrocketed the moment President

00:15:32.420 Biden took office. So in eight months, in eight short months, we've made more than 1.2 million

00:15:39.640 apprehensions and we're on pace for a calendar year to break every single record we've ever had.

00:15:46.340 Oh my goodness. Now, my understanding from what I read was that in July and August, at least half of

00:15:51.900 those were returned immediately under the COVID policy was a Title 42, which President Trump put

00:15:58.700 in place that basically said, given the COVID emergency, we're kind of not going to jump through

00:16:03.060 the hoops we normally would with immigrants who cross illegally and we have the authority to just

00:16:07.700 send them home. So we did that with at least half in July and at least half in August. So are we

00:16:12.700 averaging about 100,000 people that you apprehend? This doesn't count the ones that you don't see

00:16:18.040 and that you don't know about getting into the country and going on their merry way each month.

00:16:24.380 Yeah. So when you look at the numbers, the actual numbers show that we're releasing between 60 to 70%

00:16:30.600 of the illegal border crossers. Now, when I say we made 212 apprehensions, that doesn't mean that we

00:16:36.520 dealt with 212,000 different people. Some of the people we apprehend over and over again, but what we're

00:16:43.440 dealing with month in and month out, we're dealing with about 140,000 different people. So when you

00:16:50.080 look at 60 to 70% of that, that's being released into the United States, we have already released

00:16:55.920 in eight short months, more than 600,000 people. And then when you add that on top of the gotaways,

00:17:02.880 the people that we have been, that we've detected, but we weren't able to apprehend, we have added over

00:17:08.800 a million people to our pop. We've added more than a million illegal border crossers to our

00:17:15.840 population in eight short months. I mean, let me ask you about that. I'm sorry. Say that again.

00:17:22.580 Yeah. So my question about that, Brandon Judd, my, my guest today, president of the National Border

00:17:26.100 Patrol Council is where do they go? Right. We always hear these stories about all these people cross into

00:17:30.680 the United States and maybe a lot of folks up in New York think that is a California problem and a

00:17:34.860 Texas problem only, you know, maybe some Florida, some Arizona, but like, where do all those people

00:17:39.520 go? Everywhere. So everywhere that your listeners and your viewers are, they're there. These people

00:17:46.340 will spread out through, throughout the entire United States. It's interesting when you look at

00:17:50.340 the Brazilians, I can pretty much guarantee if they're from Brazil, they're going to Atlanta or

00:17:55.520 Boston. When you look at the large communities of Brazilians in those cities, that's generally where

00:18:00.280 they're going. Um, every, every different nationality is going to different places, but

00:18:04.980 they're spreading out throughout the entire United States. Um, they're going to go wherever jobs are

00:18:10.020 available. If jobs are available, they're going to head to those, those locations. So if, if jobs are

00:18:15.040 available in Des Moines, Iowa, you can expect to see a large number of people that crossed the border

00:18:20.020 illegally that were released, um, in Des Moines, Iowa. That includes Nebraska, Oklahoma, Miami, Florida,

00:18:27.160 um, even Bangor, Maine. Um, they, they go throughout the entire United States, wherever

00:18:32.960 there are jobs. That's because this, it, it bears noting is not right now we have a Democrat in the

00:18:38.300 White House who's very pro open borders. Um, but it's not really just a Democrat created problem

00:18:44.800 because it's more Republicans who have been in charge of like the chamber of commerce and a lot of

00:18:51.000 these big businesses that want cheap labor that willingly turned a blind eye to this problem

00:18:56.820 for many, many years. That's why it was so unusual to hear a guy like Trump, you know,

00:19:01.360 who was really beholden to nobody. He was technically a Republican, but you know, that's

00:19:05.020 I think just cause you got to pick a party to run, uh, for president and he's definitely more

00:19:09.340 right-leaning than left, but that's why it was so unusual to hear him talking so much about the

00:19:14.200 Southern border and the wall and so on, because most Republicans like Mitt Romney types were more

00:19:19.340 beholden to those business interests that liked the cheap labor.

00:19:22.560 You couldn't be more correct. Um, the border was out completely and totally out of control

00:19:28.320 under the Bush administration. You know, anytime that, uh, president Bush talked about an amnesty,

00:19:33.260 we saw a huge influx and people crossed the borders illegally. And like what you just said,

00:19:37.600 the chamber of commerces, which again are, are majorly controlled by Republicans. They want that

00:19:43.300 cheap labor. Um, so when you look at this, this has been an issue with both Democrats and Republicans.

00:19:49.640 The only president under my, my time as a law enforcement officer, the only president that I

00:19:55.700 have ever seen come in and actually address the issue has been president Trump. Unfortunately,

00:20:01.440 right now, all of his policies have been completely and totally overturned. And so we're seeing this

00:20:07.280 huge influx, not just from Mexico, not just from Central America throughout the world. And that's,

00:20:13.000 you know, I go back to, to, to president Bush's time under his time, we were dealing again,

00:20:17.780 90% of the people that we were dealing with were from Mexico. The other 10%, most of them were,

00:20:23.580 were coming from Central America. Now we're dealing with people throughout the world.

00:20:27.740 When we cleared out that bridge in Del Rio, um, the very next day we were apprehending people from,

00:20:35.320 um, Gambia, uh, Senegal, um, Uzbekistan, Brazil, China. We were apprehending people from all over

00:20:43.940 the world at that exact same place where the, where the United States public was able to get all of

00:20:49.340 those great visuals to see exactly what we're dealing with. So this problem is a worldwide

00:20:54.340 problem. It's not just a problem with Mexico or Central America anymore. We're seeing people from

00:20:59.020 all over the world, 151 different countries we're apprehending people from.

00:21:04.180 Meanwhile, you've got little kids who are crying in their daycare as these daycare workers say,

00:21:10.460 the mask has to go over the face, the mask over the face as the little two-year-olds cry as they

00:21:14.760 get smothered by these masks and these mask Nazis who insist that it over the nose, over the nose.

00:21:20.420 And they don't, where are those same people objecting to the sieve that is our Southern border

00:21:26.780 as all these folks come into the country? God knows what is wrong with them. I mean,

00:21:32.760 we heard our own administration say, yeah, they, they've got some diseases. Yeah. They're not being

00:21:37.720 tested for COVID. They're not being vaccinated. Here was a Dr. Fauci talking about how that's not

00:21:43.480 really a problem. This is soundbite number four. Are immigrants a major reason why COVID-19 is

00:21:49.860 spreading in the U.S.? No, absolutely not, Dan. I mean, if you just look at the data and look at the

00:21:57.280 people who've gotten infected, look at the people who are in the hospital. You don't want to look

00:22:01.460 outside to the problem. The problem is within our own country. Certainly immigrants can get

00:22:07.700 infected, but they're not the driving force of this. Let's face reality here. But my feeling has

00:22:13.100 always been that focusing on immigrants, expelling them or what have you is not the solution to an

00:22:18.700 outbreak. What do you make of that? That, that right there is the epitome of hypocrisy.

00:22:26.840 Dr. Fauci, who is constantly spouting, we need to wear masks. We need to social distance. We need

00:22:33.200 to do all of these things. We're talking about millions of people that are entering our country

00:22:38.620 illegally. Of course, they're spreading the disease. We've already had 14 agents die of COVID

00:22:45.120 that they, that they contracted while on duty. We've had officers at the ports of entry, more than 30

00:22:51.380 have, uh, have died of COVID-19. Of course, these people are spreading the disease as they come into

00:22:57.260 the United States, especially when you consider that most of these countries that they're coming

00:23:01.340 from, um, the disease, the, the, the rate of the disease is much greater than here in the United

00:23:06.360 States. So again, that's political talking points and that's what should frustrate. And that's what

00:23:12.000 should upset the American public. When you get a doctor that is willing to put politics before the

00:23:18.800 health and safety of the American public, that's when you know that our government is wrong.

00:23:23.180 And Dr. Fauci, frankly, he's just flat out wrong.

00:23:26.520 I mean, he goes right to like, they're not the cause of COVID. Well, well, duh. I mean,

00:23:31.160 no one's saying that, but it's a problem. My little kid, my assistant's little two-year-old sitting

00:23:36.660 there with her mask on three-year-old, she's not the problem either, but you've been telling us that

00:23:41.240 everyone needs to do their part. You've told me I have to, you Fauci, vaccinate my eight-year-old when

00:23:46.920 that gets approved. And now my new 12-year-old already, because I'm supposed to be, quote,

00:23:51.540 doing my part. Um, and yet when you get asked about millions of illegal immigrants crossing the

00:23:56.460 southern border who may have COVID, it's really not the problem. That's not where we should be

00:24:00.780 focused. Oh, give me a break. Um, all right. My guest today is Brandon Judd. He's the president

00:24:05.040 of the National Border Patrol Council and a border patrol agent himself for over 24 years. He's with us.

00:24:10.220 And up next, we're going to talk about DHS Secretary Mayorkas, um, who seems to be standing idly by as

00:24:16.960 he rumored 400,000 more migrants are headed our way. Welcome back to the Megyn Kelly show. I'm joined

00:24:29.400 today by Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council and a border patrol agent

00:24:34.600 for over 24 years. So NBC News reporting that our DHS Secretary, uh, Alejandro Mayorkas said that he had

00:24:44.600 asked DHS officials whether they were prepared for up to 400,000 people to try to enter the United States

00:24:53.760 in October if, um, they, if, if that sort of remain in, or if that, um, title 42 ability to expel people

00:25:02.980 based on COVID, uh, rule that was handed down by the Trump administration, if that were lifted in

00:25:07.660 by the courts. Um, and so that's basically what we have is our Homeland Security Secretary predicting

00:25:13.320 400,000 people are going to try to come into the country in just October alone. If that title 42

00:25:21.320 COVID policy goes away. Yeah, he's absolutely correct. When on that issue, I'm going to take

00:25:26.620 umbrage with a lot of the things that he says, but on that, that issue, he's absolutely correct.

00:25:30.740 If title 42 goes away and we're not able to expel people immediately under this health code that CDC

00:25:37.580 has recognized, then we're going to just open up the floodgates because everybody is going to be

00:25:43.080 released. I mean, right now, at least we're expelling, uh, about 40% of the people, which is,

00:25:48.860 is kind of holding at bay this huge surge that is, that's just waiting to come into the United States.

00:25:54.720 I mean, all you have to do is look at the Haitians alone. Um, Peru has reported that over 60,000

00:26:00.780 Haitians are, is, are passing through, um, their country right now, as we speak coming to our Southwest

00:26:06.900 border. And that's just from one nation. Again, we're dealing with, with nations throughout the

00:26:11.780 world. So yes, if that title 42 were to go away, we're going to be in serious trouble, but we're, we're

00:26:16.780 also going to be in trouble because of the policies. So if we didn't have title 42, when, when

00:26:21.080 president Trump was able to control the border, we didn't have title 42, he was able to control it

00:26:25.980 through very savvy negotiations that he was able to do with Mexico. He went into Mexico and he

00:26:31.860 demanded that they become true border security partners. And they did it because he was threatening

00:26:36.680 tariffs. And those tariffs were greater than the amount of money that the cartels were able to make

00:26:41.760 in their smuggling organizations. So the economy was going to take a hit. The Mexican economy was going

00:26:46.280 to take a hit. So they agreed to implement, um, the migrant protection protocols or remain in Mexico

00:26:52.560 program, which is what allowed us to drive illegal immigration to, to lows. So even if the title 42

00:26:57.840 were to go away, which I don't want to see it go away, but if it were to go away, the Biden

00:27:02.280 administration would be able to control this through policy, which by the way, doesn't cost the

00:27:07.020 taxpayer a cent. It just, he's not going to, because he's going to continue to appease his base

00:27:13.240 and his base wants open borders. Uh, can we talk about, yeah, of course. And it's the messaging

00:27:18.800 that Biden has been handing down from the beginning. I mean, it's been all talk of asylum

00:27:22.660 and letting folks stay and the messaging matters, you know, it definitely matters. I mean, people knew

00:27:27.400 under Trump that it was going to be a lot tougher than it was under Obama. We had Dennis Michael

00:27:31.380 Lynch saying it could have been even tougher under Trump. He didn't like some of his softer language

00:27:34.680 on DACA, but there's no question there was a big difference between Trump's rhetoric about the

00:27:39.340 southern border than we've seen with Biden, who seems to be telegraphing, you know, the borders

00:27:43.980 open, notwithstanding what Mayorkas says. Mayorkas says, fear not, the borders closed. In fact, we've

00:27:49.680 got that sound, but it's number three. Here's our here's DHS Secretary Mayorkas. We heard the sheriff

00:27:54.860 say it, the governor say it, and the migrants I spoke to say it. They are coming across because they

00:28:00.520 believe they will be welcomed under the Biden administration. You said yourself three weeks ago,

00:28:05.480 we're not saying don't come. We're saying don't come now. President Biden had a stronger message

00:28:10.420 later. But the messages are mixed at best, Mr. Secretary. Martha, good morning. The message is

00:28:18.460 quite clear. Do not come. The border is closed. The border is secure. OK, so he says from this

00:28:26.940 temperature controlled studio, unlike you and your guys, you tell me what the truth is. Yeah. All you

00:28:33.920 have to do is look at the amount of drugs that are on the streets today. That shows that the

00:28:37.540 border isn't secure. Look at the number of people that have been able to enter the country illegally

00:28:41.540 and evade apprehension. That shows the border isn't secure. Look at the number of people that

00:28:46.500 were releasing with these NTAs under the catch and release program. That shows the border isn't

00:28:51.380 secure. Criminal cartels listen to actions. They don't care about words. They're always going to watch

00:28:58.420 the actions. And the actions of this administration is screaming loud and clear. Our border is open.

00:29:05.660 Go ahead and advertise your services throughout the world, because if they come, we're going to

00:29:12.160 release them. That's the reason why we're seeing numbers that we've just never seen before in the

00:29:16.960 history of the Border Patrol. And now on top of, you know, the COVID threat and just the

00:29:22.740 criminality that comes, there's no question when you have this number of migrants crossing the

00:29:27.000 southern border, whether they want to, you know, surround themselves with children that aren't

00:29:30.740 really theirs in order to get in. There is a there is an unhealthy criminal element in it. You also

00:29:36.540 have to worry about the terrorism. And I think about it in the context of Afghanistan, because you got

00:29:40.020 these two two dueling crises in America where our our joint chiefs chairman, everybody, our defense

00:29:48.680 secretary, everybody's saying we're less safe now as a result of Afghanistan, that there's no question

00:29:53.660 Al Qaeda is going to be back in Afghanistan trying to plot attacks. And we could see one within the

00:29:57.740 next 12 months on the homeland. At the same time, you've got his name. Well, you know, Rodney Scott,

00:30:06.400 right? He's former he's a Border Patrol chief. And he comes out and says this about the terror threat that

00:30:11.380 we're now looking at. We have nation state threats. We have terrorist threats. We can't get into in this type

00:30:16.380 of a forum, but they're real. They exist. And they want to come across that border. Statistically,

00:30:21.660 it always includes rapists, murderers, potential terrorists, every single year to think that there's

00:30:27.860 not just as bad or worse people and those getting away would be naive.

00:30:32.320 Okay, so this is what this is what Trump was called a racist for over and over when he said that

00:30:36.620 when he came down the escalator and said, I'm running, they're not sending our best,

00:30:40.640 their best people, they're sending rapists, they're sending murderers. Well, that's true. I mean,

00:30:45.380 it's true. It's not doesn't mean that every single person crossing the southern border is one of

00:30:49.540 those things, but we do need to worry about it. We have a responsibility to know who is coming into

00:30:54.940 this country. We have a responsibility to vet all of the people that are coming into this country. And

00:30:59.680 when you have illegal immigration at the levels that we that we currently have, we can't do that,

00:31:05.880 let alone know who's coming across that are getting away. But all of these people that are coming

00:31:11.720 across into our country, we can't do backgrounds checks on them in their own countries. We don't

00:31:17.600 have access to their databases, like what we do here in the United States. If somebody has a criminal

00:31:24.360 record here in the United States, we're going to know about it because we fingerprint them.

00:31:27.760 But we're not going to know about their criminal records in their own countries, because we don't

00:31:31.900 have that access. And we, of course, don't have the time to vet the number of people that are crossing the

00:31:37.160 borders illegally, even if we do, even if we are lucky enough to take them into custody. So, you

00:31:42.540 know, Chief Scott, he's absolutely correct. And then, of course, when you look at the 151 nations,

00:31:47.500 I can tell you, I don't know of a single apprehension from Britain. I don't know of one from France,

00:31:53.360 Germany, Italy. We don't know of apprehensions from those locations, because those are well-developed

00:31:59.420 countries. Those are countries that are friendly to the United States. The United Nations identifies 195

00:32:05.360 195 countries. Officially, they identify 195. We're apprehending people from 151 of those

00:32:11.420 countries. A lot of those countries are not friendly to the United States. And those countries,

00:32:17.180 as a government as a whole, they want to do harm to the United States. So, yes, it is a very dangerous

00:32:23.980 when you consider the number of people and the number of countries. It is very dangerous to the

00:32:29.900 American public what is coming in from the southwest border.

00:32:32.660 So, of course, last month, was it? Yeah, last month, I'm just losing track of my dates. It was

00:32:38.300 very clear the Biden administration used the fake news report about Border Patrol agents allegedly

00:32:44.540 whipping migrants down in Del Rio to distract from the disastrous policy that we were watching unfold

00:32:51.900 right there. I mean, that's I've heard even the left wing press saying that now it's just obvious what

00:32:56.660 was happening in the end. The left wingers, you know, sort of the hardcore leftists ran with it and

00:33:00.940 loved the distraction because they didn't want to talk about actual immigration problems. But meanwhile,

00:33:06.100 as I understand it, we still have some agents on desk duty and facing an investigation that appears very

00:33:11.740 much to be rigged. Mayorkas said up front it's going to be swift. Then he just came out in response to a

00:33:17.820 press inquiry and said, no, it's not done yet. It actually hasn't been as swift as as he promised from the

00:33:23.840 looks of it. And you tell me whether you think these two agents, when even the photographer who

00:33:29.900 took the original photographs from Reuters has said there was no whipping going on, there was no whip

00:33:35.180 and there was no reins being used to whip anybody. No one got whipped. You tell me whether these guys

00:33:39.960 are still in jeopardy. Yeah, very, very few things will boil my blood as much as a as a president of

00:33:46.100 the United States coming out and issuing a declaration of guilty before an investigation even

00:33:53.220 takes place. The president of the United States said those agents will pay. The reason why this

00:33:59.780 investigation is so ongoing is because everybody knows that they didn't do anything wrong. So they're

00:34:05.300 having to overturn. They're having to turn over every single rock, look in every single nook and cranny to try to

00:34:11.720 find something to justify what the president of the United States says. But it's not just the

00:34:16.300 president. Four of the most powerful people in this country have already condemned those agents to

00:34:22.960 wrongdoing. The president of the United States, the vice president, the press secretary Jen Psaki, and of

00:34:27.940 course, DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. They have already issued judgment before an investigation could

00:34:34.800 even take place. And to think that an investigation is going to be impartial and fair after for the most

00:34:42.060 powerful people in this country and frankly in the world have already said that they did wrong. You can't

00:34:47.900 expect that an investigation is actually going to be fair. And that's why it's taken so long, because

00:34:52.940 these agents did nothing wrong. And on top of not doing anything wrong, they did what they were ordered to

00:34:58.820 do. They are executive branch employees and they follow the orders because that the orders come from

00:35:04.900 the president of the United States. The president sent them out to control the border. The president

00:35:10.260 sent them out to ensure that nobody entered the country illegally. But because he's done such a poor

00:35:15.940 job on the border and because everybody knows he's failing, he had to grasp onto these pictures and try to

00:35:22.340 divert from his failures and put it on to somebody else. That's what this president is willing to do.

00:35:27.540 And if he's willing to do that to his own agents, what's he willing to do to the American public at

00:35:32.940 large if it if he thinks it's going to benefit him? That's the thing, too, is it's like that guy

00:35:37.980 on that horse was one of his employees, one of our employees, an American here lawfully trying to keep

00:35:44.620 the rest of us safe under presidential orders. The person he was trying to control was an illegal

00:35:51.240 immigrant who crossed the border without permission, contrary to how the vast majority of immigrants try to get

00:35:57.140 into the country who want to stay. You know, a lot of them wait in line. A lot of them go through the

00:36:00.060 proper hoops. That doesn't deserve that doesn't mean he should be whipped. But he wasn't. He wasn't.

00:36:05.920 I said for weeks, show me the evidence. Great. I'd love to see it. If if somebody got whipped,

00:36:09.720 that's terrible. We'll take a hard look at that. It wasn't there. And the news media bit by bit,

00:36:15.360 like you see, The New York Times added addendum to its report saying, well, we may have overstated what's

00:36:20.260 knowable so far. That's as much as I've seen in terms of a retraction. Instead, you get rhetoric like this.

00:36:26.000 Forgive me. Hopefully my audience will forgive me for playing the soundbite one more time.

00:36:29.900 But it gives you a flavor. Number two of the left messaging on the real problem down at the

00:36:36.520 southern border. Congress must do the work of investigating and ensuring accountability of

00:36:41.940 the egregious and white supremacist behavior of Border Patrol agents in Del Rio, Texas.

00:36:47.720 What we witness takes us back hundreds of years. What we witness was worse than what we witnessed in

00:36:56.420 slavery. Cowboys with their reins again, whipping black people, Haitians into the water where they're

00:37:07.880 scrambling and falling down when all they're trying to do is escape from violence in their country.

00:37:14.120 Should we be looking at the budget of Department of Homeland Security? Because I was not aware

00:37:19.100 that whips, which come from the slave era, slavery era, were part of the package that we issue

00:37:25.980 to any sort of law enforcement or government sanctioned personnel. Were you aware that that

00:37:31.600 was being issued to people, that people had that kind of equipment on them that they could use on humans?

00:37:35.960 I was not. And I am quite appalled. You know, when it comes to our immigration policy for so many years,

00:37:46.600 cruelty has been very much embedded in it. There is obviously systematic racism at play here.

00:37:55.380 We have seen many people come to our border. And the fact that we are dealing with mainly black

00:38:05.180 migrants and black immigrants and asylum seekers at our border in this kind of way really speaks to

00:38:12.760 the kind of racism, systematic racism that is embedded in that department and all of the departments that

00:38:19.540 deal with our immigration policy. Your message to that is rhetoric. They did not give one fact in any

00:38:29.580 one of those statements. They did not give any facts. Megan, all I want to do is have an honest

00:38:35.400 conversation with the American public. I want the American public to formulate their own opinions

00:38:41.300 based upon all of the evidence. That's what I want. The mainstream media wants to lead. The

00:38:47.880 mainstream media wants to force everybody to believe what they themselves believe. When you look at the

00:38:55.480 Border Patrol, we have more minorities in the Border Patrol than we do whites. We are the only federal

00:39:02.620 law enforcement agency in the entire nation that has more minorities than we do whites. Yet they're

00:39:09.720 saying that we're racist? Are you kidding me? The majority of that horse patrol unit that was out there

00:39:16.780 are Hispanic. They weren't white. They were Hispanics. And on top of that, these individuals that entered

00:39:24.200 the country illegally, they were not listening to lawful orders. The horse patrol agents, the first

00:39:30.140 thing that they did was gave them lawful orders. They didn't listen. They started to run. Of course,

00:39:36.160 we have to control that situation. And on top of that, think about what they were in. They were in the

00:39:42.660 middle of the largest single group that has ever existed in the United States. They had 15,000 people

00:39:49.640 to their backs. And they had another several hundred people that were trying to cross the border illegally.

00:39:55.860 They were stuck in between that. Everybody knew that this was a very volatile situation. Everybody

00:40:02.600 knew that it could have exploded at any moment. And it did in some cases. Look at what happened on that

00:40:08.220 flight back to Port-au-Prince when those ICE agents were attacked because the Haitian illegal immigrants

00:40:16.120 found out that they were being sent back to Haiti. They were attacked. They were beaten. Look at that

00:40:21.300 bus driver who was transporting 56 Haitians in that bus. And they literally took the bus over and broke out

00:40:29.520 of the bus. We knew that this was a very volatile situation. Those agents were put in an impossible,

00:40:35.780 impossible situation. And then they get thrown under the bus later on and political rhetoric was used.

00:40:41.820 I will tell you this, and the American public can be assured of this. We will take legal action

00:40:47.420 against every single one of those people, including the news outlets that reported that they whipped

00:40:53.180 those migrants. There was no whipping that took place at all. In fact, all they were doing was using

00:41:01.000 those reins to keep those individuals away from the horse because those horses can step on. They can

00:41:07.340 even kick migrants, which could cause death if they get kicked in the head. So we are trained to ensure

00:41:13.900 that people do not get too close to the horses. And if we have to twirl the reins in order to keep

00:41:20.200 people away, we will do that. But we never strike out at people with those reins. And that has been

00:41:26.220 proven. Even the photographer said that. So in closing, what what like I don't have time to go

00:41:34.080 through all of the 10 point plan that the governors came up with. But what are what would you say are

00:41:38.320 the top three things that have to happen like now in order to get control over this sieve that is the

00:41:44.800 southern border? The first thing that we have to do is we have to force the Mexican government to be

00:41:50.520 true border security partners. We've that we did that under President Trump. We can do it again.

00:41:55.360 It just takes the political will to make it happen. The second thing is we have to hold people in

00:42:00.960 custody pending their asylum or deportation proceedings. You have to stop the magnet that

00:42:06.340 is catch and release. And the third thing we have to then once we can control the illegal immigration

00:42:12.540 system, we then have to go after the cartels and their profits. If we can go after the cartels and

00:42:18.060 their profits, we can then keep our children on. We can keep our children safe and we can keep the

00:42:22.960 drugs off the streets. Those are the three things that we must do and we must do it immediately.

00:42:27.180 And by the way, once again, not one of those things will cost the taxpayer dollar the taxpayer a dime.

00:42:33.600 Is this going to happen now with these with the governors of these 10 states or is this more of a

00:42:37.900 demand of the feds? It's a demand. The governors are because they don't have the authority to do any

00:42:44.840 of those things. They don't have the authority to negotiate policies with the Mexican government.

00:42:48.700 That has to be the State Department that does that. They don't have the authority to detain

00:42:53.980 these individuals and hold them pending court proceedings. What they're doing is they're

00:42:59.480 shining a spotlight on this issue. They are letting the American public know how out of control it is.

00:43:06.180 And they're demanding of this administration that they do their job, that this administration protects

00:43:10.760 the American public. The first thing a government is supposed to do is look out for the welfare

00:43:16.920 of its citizens. Our government is not doing that right now. In fact, they're they're pandering

00:43:23.120 to illegal immigration rather than looking out for the welfare of the American public.

00:43:28.700 Mm hmm. And we've seen the deadly consequences of this for years now, for years. This is a dangerous

00:43:34.120 game. What a pleasure. Thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate it. Brandon Judd.

00:43:38.260 Hope you come back. Thank you, Megan. Good coming up. All this is hurting Joe Biden. It's hurting

00:43:44.020 him on the polls. Wow. The polls when it comes to. Let me see. I want to get the exact thing,

00:43:50.040 how he's doing on crossing the border and handling border crossings are disastrous for him. Here it is.

00:43:54.940 Immigration. Twenty five percent approve. Sixty seven percent disapprove of the job he's doing

00:44:02.560 at the southern border. Can you imagine? Sixty seven percent. It's basically every Republican and

00:44:07.340 every independent in the country, plus some Democrats. Coming up, we're going to talk about that,

00:44:11.540 plus his other poll numbers that we just got out. Hunter Biden's artwork and a violated promise from

00:44:17.840 the White House on that. And much, much more with the hosts of the new Ink Stained Wretches podcast.

00:44:25.140 Love it. Eliana Johnson and Chris Dyerwald coming up.

00:44:33.000 Welcome back to The Megyn Kelly Show. It's time for another edition of our feature here on The

00:44:36.880 MK Show called You Can't Say That or Think That or Do That. Oh, wait, this is America. We've been

00:44:43.040 doing that feature on our podcast and we haven't done it since we launched on Sirius XM and YouTube,

00:44:47.180 but you'll love it. Today we're talking about challenges, hardship and the classroom. Here's

00:44:54.000 the question of the day. Is it good for a student to encounter a class that is rigorous? Absolutely not.

00:45:02.900 According to an article in the Chronicles of Higher Education, which makes the case for why

00:45:07.680 it is, quote, time to cancel the word rigor. And why exactly is it time to do that? The authors claim

00:45:16.000 the term rigor lays credit or blame on an individual when often it is the academic system that creates

00:45:23.940 the constructs. And it's the system we should be questioning when it erects barriers for students

00:45:29.280 to surmount or makes them feel that they don't belong. Ah, yes. Making your class a challenge for

00:45:35.680 students to overcome is now about excluding those students who aren't up for said challenge. Yes,

00:45:42.300 the authors write that rigor is an exclusionary concept that leads to preferential practices.

00:45:48.880 And it's not just rigor. They have a problem with no. Grit is also bad. It's a bad thing in today's

00:45:55.180 Snowflake's culture with the authors linking to another article that makes the case for why

00:46:00.360 grit is, quote, inherently anti-black. So remember, if you are a teacher that's daring to put together

00:46:08.040 a class that is not properly simple so all students remain unchallenged at all times and you introduce

00:46:16.020 the concept of rigor or grit into your teachings, well, you can't say that. Steve Krakauer,

00:46:23.260 you know what? Whenever I see these stories, I think, great, my kids are going to crush these

00:46:27.320 kids. My kids, when they meet these kids from these schools, are going to freaking crush.

00:46:32.340 Right. I mean, just the idea of working hard, you don't even have to be smart. If you work hard,

00:46:36.560 you have a leg up now because apparently that's impossible to do these days. That's inappropriate

00:46:41.060 to be challenged. Right. In fact, if you just make it challenging as a teacher, that's your racism.

00:46:46.900 Right. Right. Yeah. It's offensive now. You must you must dumb everything down so no one can be

00:46:53.460 challenged at all. That's that's clear. I mean, they're getting rid of gifted and talented programs.

00:46:57.600 It's it's it's unbelievable. But this is this is happening everywhere.

00:47:01.320 It's insane. By the way, that's our executive producer, Steve Krakauer,

00:47:04.020 just back from paternity leave. He's got a brand new baby in addition to his other

00:47:07.280 child, Jackson. And we're grateful to have him back. Don't go away because we're going to have

00:47:12.680 Chris Steierwalt and Eliana Johnson next right after this break.

00:47:21.600 Welcome back to The Megyn Kelly Show. I am joined now by Eliana Johnson,

00:47:25.480 editor in chief of the Washington Free Beacon, and my old pal Chris Steierwalt,

00:47:30.580 contributing editor of the online news magazine The Dispatch. Now they are both co-hosts

00:47:35.640 of the new podcast Ink Stained Wretches, which I'm sorry, Steierwalt, I don't mean to presume that you

00:47:42.100 came up with that, but it's got your name written all over it. And I mean that in the nicest way.

00:47:46.480 There may be some Steierwaltian notes engaged with that, but we are both.

00:47:51.900 In the event that you hate it, it was all Chris.

00:47:53.900 Yeah, yeah, yeah. But we're both both started in print media and we fight nostalgia. We don't want

00:48:02.500 to be nostalgic for how things used to be. But that's definitely our bias was for when things

00:48:08.400 sucked less. Yes, I share that. I'm surprised that you managed to keep the name Bacon out of

00:48:14.000 it, Eliana. I mean, did he fight hard? She's Jewish. Well, I was going to say, you know,

00:48:19.000 as the resident Jew on the podcast, I told him, like, try to limit the amount of pork products

00:48:24.560 and references. Hard line. Hard line. There's so much to go over. Let me start with Biden's poll

00:48:29.760 numbers because I just had the head of the Border Patrol on. We were talking about the disgusting

00:48:33.700 numbers on immigration and Mexican border for President Biden. Good Lord, they're terrible.

00:48:38.920 This is the Quinnipiac poll showing the Biden's approval rating on handling the Mexican border

00:48:44.980 in particular is 23 percent, 67 percent disapproved. And immigration overall, 25 percent approval

00:48:51.440 rating. But overall, in general, these poll numbers are terrible. Overall, his approval rating

00:48:56.200 is now at 38 percent, 50 percent disapproving. What do you guys make of it?

00:49:02.280 You know, Megan, it seems to me I mean, these are Trump level approval ratings, and we heard

00:49:07.320 lots of talk about that, of course, for four years. But I think the first, you know, nine

00:49:12.800 months of the Biden administration have sort of undermined his performances, undermined the

00:49:16.980 perception he wanted or what he ran on, which was that he's a competent moderate and that he's

00:49:23.140 going to bring in a lot of experienced technocrats. And it may be that he did bring in experienced

00:49:27.740 technocrats, but they have, I think, not been a match for the issues he's facing from you

00:49:32.800 mentioned the influx of migrants on the southern border to the pullout from Afghanistan to the

00:49:39.500 back and forth confusing guidance on the coronavirus. The pause of the Johnson and Johnson

00:49:46.580 vaccine, I think, was really damaging under Biden. So and right now we see Congress unable to pass a

00:49:55.280 bipartisan infrastructure bill and really Biden's domestic agenda hanging in the balance. So I don't

00:49:59.860 think it's too hard to explain those approval ratings. The Afghanistan numbers are reflected

00:50:03.640 in here, Starwalt, in that commander in chief, 37 percent of the people approve, 58 percent disapprove

00:50:10.640 foreign policy, 34 percent approval, 58 percent disapprove. They're terrible. I mean, they're really

00:50:16.560 sucking wind. So how how long do these things kind of stay on you? Right. Does the stank

00:50:22.720 stay to the midterm elections and drag down the Democratic ticket? Well, the good news for

00:50:29.320 Democrats is that it's probably happening too early and that Biden has time for this to come back.

00:50:37.460 We have to remember the you said what it was, 26 percent in Quinnipiac on handling of the border.

00:50:44.040 23 percent is what I wrote down.

00:50:45.660 23 percent. So the 20, the 77 percent or whatever, or the the overwhelming majority that oppose Biden

00:50:58.100 on this and say that he's doing a bad job include all of the Republicans. So that's 47 percent of the

00:51:04.880 country. And then it includes Democrats who think that he's being too hard. And the we we saw this

00:51:11.600 happened with Obamacare. Obamacare was consistently unpopular. Obamacare was consistently unpopular

00:51:18.340 for two reasons. All of the Republicans thought it was too liberal and some of the Democrats thought

00:51:24.560 it was too conservative. So what Biden is struggling with right now is that his own party does not really

00:51:29.940 want him to secure the border. His own party doesn't really want him to do these things.

00:51:35.880 And his own party wanted him to pull out of Afghanistan along with, you know,

00:51:39.500 and they probably they probably thought he should have been nicer pulling out in the I, you know,

00:51:45.400 the bomb, the drone strike against the people that the Pentagon came out and said was a mistaken hit

00:51:50.980 probably cost him with some Democrats. The challenge for Democrats always is they don't. So, you know,

00:51:59.920 you and I've talked many times about this, the concept of a mommy party and a daddy party

00:52:03.840 and the Republicans are the supposed to be the daddy party. They're supposed to be tougher and

00:52:08.680 they're supposed to be fiscally restrained and they're supposed to be they're supposed to kill terrorists

00:52:12.520 and keep immigrants from coming into the country. And the mommy party is supposed to be nice to people

00:52:16.700 and make sure that everybody gets college education and has health insurance. When Democrats have to do

00:52:22.740 daddy party stuff and do things like, say, 10,000 Haitian immigrants can't just run across the United

00:52:28.780 States border. When you do that, what's going to happen? You're going to lose with your own base.

00:52:33.600 Biden's problem is right now, more than anything else, that his own base is frustrated with him

00:52:37.880 and not being able to deliver the stuff that they want. But you think that's more of a problem than

00:52:42.540 the loss of independence reflected in these polls? I mean, when it comes to winning elections,

00:52:46.940 you know, he needs he needs the independence. He needs some some crossover.

00:52:50.660 You have time to get the independence back. So for Biden, you have time to come back if the economy

00:52:55.220 basically if the economy is growing and in 2024. But will it be? Oh, 2024. But I'm talking about

00:53:02.860 the midterms, which is much which is what's more interesting, because right now we got inflation

00:53:06.360 out the yin yang and it doesn't look like it's going to get any better anytime soon.

00:53:10.820 I actually think the problem is a little bit different. Yes, Biden is losing independent

00:53:15.080 voters because he's not handling the border in a competent fashion, but he's a party man. And so

00:53:21.640 he has largely gone along with the left wing of his party. And the regnant ideology in the

00:53:26.980 Democratic Party is an elite ideology, you know, wokeism and the far left. That is the province

00:53:33.260 of wealthy white elites on the coast. And by and large, the Democratic Party is more moderate than

00:53:40.100 that, which is why Biden was elected. But Biden tends to go along with the loudest voices in his party,

00:53:44.820 which you saw as recently as last week when the White House and Nancy Pelosi were saying,

00:53:50.960 we're holding a vote on this bipartisan infrastructure bill before we have any sort

00:53:54.780 of agreement on. Yeah. Before we have any sort of agreement on the three point five trillion dollar

00:53:59.320 boondoggle. And basically they cave to the left on that. When you ask about the impact on the

00:54:04.340 midterms, I think it could be that we're dealing with an entirely different set of issues. Things move

00:54:08.820 quickly. On the other hand, it could be that these issues do hang over Biden because there's some

00:54:14.100 fallout. There's a terrorist attack from Afghanistan or he doesn't manage to pass any kind of

00:54:19.740 infrastructure bill. And he's got one. What are they going to run on? You see Terry McAuliffe

00:54:24.740 right now in Virginia. And he's saying, like, Biden's a problem for him. Yeah. So if that's

00:54:29.340 the. When is the Virginia election? When is the Virginia election? Three weeks from Tuesday.

00:54:36.340 OK, so so Governor Ralph Northam is out and the contest is between Terry McAuliffe and I can never

00:54:43.560 say the guy's name. Glenn Youngkin. Glenn. Glenn Youngkin. Youngkin. I'm like, I want to pronounce

00:54:50.120 it like young, like like Carl Youngkin. Just think of him as a rapper. Youngkin. He's youngkin. OK,

00:54:55.520 anyway, he's he's doing well. I mean, he's this guy. Youngkin's doing better than we thought in

00:55:00.500 Virginia. He's the Republican. Republican hasn't won at the governor level since 2006 in Virginia,

00:55:05.480 according to my notes. And so that it's interesting what's happening there, because McAuliffe was

00:55:11.580 beating him by six point six. And at the end of August, now the lead, according to their real

00:55:16.040 clear politics, average of all polls is down to four point three. And McAuliffe, Terry McAuliffe,

00:55:20.920 the Clinton administration, is like Biden. Who? F Joe Biden. I don't know. Who's who is that? I he's

00:55:27.060 really trying to distance himself saying, oh, yeah, I don't support the three point five trillion

00:55:31.260 infrastructure plan. And, you know, I'm really facing some headwinds from Washington.

00:55:37.820 But you tell me, because I think that's going to that's earlier in the midterms. And I think that

00:55:41.160 all of this is a drag on him. So in the last 11 Virginia gubernatorial elections, in nine out of

00:55:51.700 10 out of the 11, nine out of the 11, I'm sorry, Samantha Goldstein, research assistant extraordinaire

00:55:56.820 is with us. In nine of the past 11 Virginia gubernatorial elections, the outcome of the

00:56:03.120 election was predictive of how midterms were going to go. This has been a really good bellwether over

00:56:08.680 and we remember in 2009 when Bob McDonnell and Chris Christie won in Virginia, New Jersey,

00:56:14.140 that that was a big harbinger for why Republicans were going to do well in 2010. But 2009 elections in

00:56:20.920 Virginia were important. I don't expect for Glenn Youngkin to win. I don't think that's probably

00:56:31.500 what's going to happen. He is I'll give a one in five chance. I think he's the cut that clip so that

00:56:38.200 when Youngkin wins, you can play that over and over again. Well, I don't I don't expect, you know,

00:56:41.940 this is a thing that we went through in 2016 where people were like, well, you said Trump wasn't going

00:56:46.600 to win. I said Trump is probably not going to win. You wouldn't get in an elevator that had a one in

00:56:51.640 five chance of started on that. The number of conversations you and I had style well done,

00:56:55.740 whether Trump was going to win that race. I mean, I could really bring that back to haunt you at the

00:56:58.680 moment. No, I never thought Trump was likely to win, but I never said he couldn't. Oh, my God.

00:57:05.500 If I could just play the tape that's in my brain, you would be totally impeached with your prior

00:57:09.660 inconsistent statement. I am willing to be impeached, counselor. Well, let me make the case for

00:57:14.680 Youngkin. OK. OK. Virginia is now a Democratic state. It is a suburban Democratic state. Biden

00:57:22.060 won the state by 10 points. Mark Warner, the Democratic senator, won reelection by 12 points

00:57:27.920 in 2020. And the internals on each of these campaigns show basically a tied race. So I think

00:57:35.640 Youngkin is doing much better than people expected. No. And I if he loses, I think his margin of loss

00:57:44.400 or his margin, sorry, McCulloch's margin of victory will be smaller than Biden's or Warren's.

00:57:50.020 Virginia is a 45 percent Republican state. That's how Republican Virginia is. It's 45 percent

00:57:54.420 Republican. There have been three candidates since 2012 who under or overperformed those numbers. One

00:58:01.700 time they Republicans nominated a kook who got 40 percent of the vote. One time Mark Obenshain,

00:58:07.780 shout out to all the Obenshain fans out there, got basically within 300 votes of winning attorney

00:58:13.080 general. And the best performance for Republicans in Virginia in the current post Bob McDonnell era

00:58:18.980 was when former RNC chairman Ed Gillespie came very close. OK.

00:58:25.200 It's a Republican state. No, no, no, no, no. Let's move on. Let's move on. We don't care this much

00:58:29.500 about Virginia. I got to keep you guys on track. We care a little bit of Virginia, but not quite

00:58:32.960 this much. Let's move on because I do care about Hunter Biden. No, no. Cliffy, Cliffy, reel it in.

00:58:40.200 Let's talk about Hunter Biden, who you're going to be shocked that the White House appears to have

00:58:43.900 broken a promise to us on his art, on his artwork. And you're also going to be shocked to learn that

00:58:49.680 some people want to spend between $75,000, they say maybe up to a million dollars on Hunter Biden's

00:58:56.680 artwork. I will say as an aside, given Hunter Biden's past, like the art world seems like a

00:59:02.840 decent place for him to land. You know, all that weirdness. It's like that kind of helps you in the

00:59:07.400 art world. Nobody holds that against you. A lot of people have been to prison and then were famous

00:59:11.560 artists. So that's good. Right. That being said, I don't think these people are shelling out for the

00:59:16.020 art, Megan. OK, what a shock. They're not shelling out the 500K for the beautiful artwork.

00:59:20.260 So can you help the audience understand what's gone on here? He's doing the art and he had a big

00:59:24.400 art show last night at some muckety-muck gallery. And I recognized a bunch of the faces. And yet we

00:59:29.960 were told on the White House something else was going to happen. We were told it's going to be a blind

00:59:35.620 sale of the Hunter Biden artwork where we wouldn't, he wouldn't know who spent all the money on his

00:59:42.400 beautiful art. And thus sort of the Chinese wall was in place to protect, you know, the White House

00:59:47.980 from doing favors for any of these purchasers. Is that basically the deal that we were promised?

00:59:53.940 The ethical myopia of the Trump administration was made correctly much sport of. People talked a lot

01:00:01.200 about how people use the Trump Hotel in other ways, the the big, beautiful golf courses of Doral and all

01:00:08.180 that other stuff to try to influence Trump. These were fair and correct criticisms. And they never

01:00:13.520 did. Donald Trump never did the right thing ethically as president.

01:00:16.800 They got wall to wall mainstream media coverage.

01:00:19.680 What Hunter Biden is doing and what what is happening now is an ethical quagmire should be an

01:00:25.840 emoluments clause discussion should be all of this stuff. How possibly could you defend? I think back

01:00:32.360 to George H.W. Bush wrote a letter to his sons when he was running for president and he said,

01:00:38.640 you know what? Life is hard and you're going to have to forego a lot of things that you might

01:00:43.220 otherwise be able to get because I'm running for president, but you're going to have to forego them

01:00:47.280 and you're going to have to do the right stuff because if you want to be in public life,

01:00:51.640 there are sacrifices you have to make. This is gross. This is inappropriate. This is

01:00:56.740 ethically and morally just just a disaster. And the fact that they're not being called on it is

01:01:03.300 why we should have a podcast called Inkstained Wretches where we talk about what's wrong with

01:01:05.940 the media. I tell you, I have another example for you. This is several years ago. Kate Middleton

01:01:10.280 got in trouble because she decided to sunbathe topless out on some balcony where she thought she

01:01:15.140 was, you know, in private, but she got caught. One of the two of us is very eager to see those

01:01:21.460 images. By the paparazzi. And, you know, somebody was asking me if I felt sorry for her. And I said,

01:01:26.800 no, I do not feel sorry for her because you have to make some sacrifices if you're going to be the

01:01:30.640 next queen of England. And that's just the way life works. Same thing, you know, the message from

01:01:34.700 H.W. And you're gorgeous and men want to see you topless. I feel so sorry for you.

01:01:38.740 You know what? You're married to, you know, the good brother. So you got nothing to complain

01:01:43.000 about. And that's that's the position, I guess, Hunter Biden finds himself in, in which, you know,

01:01:48.720 trying to earn money off of donors, potential donors to his dad's next campaign can cause

01:01:54.220 headaches for himself and, well, really more accurately for his dad. So Jen Psaki was asked

01:01:58.740 about this obvious conflict and problem by a bunch of reporters, actually, at the White House press

01:02:03.000 court. And here's how that went. What is the White House's response to the fact that an ambassador

01:02:07.140 nominee was at this event? And secondly, should we expect to see more people who seek jobs in this

01:02:12.360 administration attending events like this? Well, to be clear, we've spoken to the arrangement that

01:02:17.560 is run by the gallerist and Hunter Biden's representatives that the White House provided

01:02:22.660 suggestions for. I'd refer you to the gallerist for questions. This is exactly what ethicists said

01:02:27.720 they were worried about. What is specifically? The fact that the president reportedly attended an event.

01:02:33.340 So does this White House not have any concerns about the photos that have emerged showing Hunter

01:02:38.380 Biden at that gallery alongside prospective buyers? I pointed to the gallerist on specifics

01:02:43.680 of the restrictions that were put in place. Great. But what about the position of this White

01:02:48.040 House? This is a president who ran on being transparent and you got... And we were very

01:02:52.920 transparent about what recommendations were made to the gallerist. And I would again point to them

01:02:57.840 or the many times I've spoken about that from here. She's going to circle back. The gallerist.

01:03:03.180 We didn't realize when the White House made this announcement that it was just providing

01:03:06.700 soft recommendations that the gallerist was free to... The gallerist. The gallerist was free to

01:03:12.400 adhere to or toss in the wastebasket. But they point out something important there about L.A. Mayor

01:03:18.040 Garcetti, who's our nominee to be ambassador to India. And surprisingly, he was there just because

01:03:23.360 he loves art. He's a big, big fan of weird, big flowers. The best. It was a toss-up between

01:03:29.240 Rembrandt and Hunter Biden. Yeah, we have hundreds of thousands of dollars being funneled to

01:03:35.260 the son of a sitting U.S. president, presumably by people who would like to curry favor with this

01:03:41.360 president and are using Hunter Biden's art as a means to do that. Do you know where in Washington,

01:03:47.120 D.C., M.K., do you remember where the National Gallery of Art is that backs up on Pennsylvania

01:03:53.260 Avenue? I have no culture in my life, so no, I never went there and I'm not familiar.

01:03:57.840 Well, do you remember where the Newseum was? Do you remember where the Capitol Grill is?

01:04:00.940 Yes, the Capitol Grill, I know. Now we're talking about... Oh, now we're talking about...

01:04:03.960 Now you're back in my world. So, on that location is where President James A. Garfield

01:04:09.080 was assassinated. He was murdered. That was the former site of the B&O Railroad Terminal before

01:04:14.340 they built Union Station. The person who killed James A. Garfield...

01:04:18.620 Wake me up when this is over.

01:04:19.820 Oh, now, okay. Now you're getting a good taste of what the podcast actually sounds like.

01:04:23.780 But James A. Garfield was killed by a deranged office seeker who wanted favors from the federal

01:04:31.740 government. And James Garfield was a reformer and said, we're not going to do as much of this

01:04:36.000 crummy patronage stuff and all of this other stuff. And this man, Charles Gouteau, shot him

01:04:40.860 right there in that spot. Giving away free stuff, the power to have influence, the power to make money,

01:04:47.980 the power to do all this stuff for privileged and influenced people is not new. This is not a new

01:04:52.740 problem. And everyone will always act morally obtuse about it. The Trump kids did. The Biden people

01:05:01.740 all of the time, because what it adds up to is a theft of their responsibility. They're stealing

01:05:08.900 from us, even if it's not in money. They're stealing from us what they owe us, which is to

01:05:14.000 put the interest of the country ahead of everything else and not even by a close margin.

01:05:18.360 All right. We have so much more to go over. I want to get in. I want to ask you about Katie

01:05:21.740 Couric's new book. I want to ask you about Stephanie Grissom turning on the Trump administration

01:05:25.960 two seconds after she's out of it. And then I want to ask about the three of us cable news veterans

01:05:30.560 and how we think the media industry is doing without us. The cable news media industry, that is.

01:05:41.620 OK, apropos of absolutely nothing, I just wanted to play the soundbite and get your reaction.

01:05:45.480 Justin Trudeau, the wokest blackface wearing man in politics, has taken a shot at saying

01:05:54.880 there's, you know, LGB. It used to be LGB. And then it was like LGBT. And then it was LGBTQ.

01:06:01.060 And now apparently it's LGBTQ two plus. And he's not so good at saying that the wokest man in

01:06:08.560 woke politics. Take a listen to this. I will never apologize for standing up for an LGDP,

01:06:16.040 LGT, LBG, LGBTQ two plus kids rights. I mean, who among us, right?

01:06:27.760 When the debate comes down about which country is the whitest country in the world and they can like

01:06:32.080 Iceland and Greenland or like duking it out, Canada better be in there because that is the kind of

01:06:37.540 awkwardness that only white men can really deliver at such a high level. That's very impressive.

01:06:43.060 He followed it up on Facebook and there he got it right. This is so this is what he tweeted.

01:06:48.840 People across the country are lighting candles to honor indigenous women, girls and two S

01:06:53.660 LGBTQ Q I a plus people who are missing or have been murdered and so blah, blah, blah, blah.

01:06:59.080 It's what's two S.

01:07:00.640 Counselor, you're making that up.

01:07:01.980 Listen to me. Oh, contraire. It stands for

01:07:06.500 two spirit. They have their own letters now. Two spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,

01:07:13.860 queer, questioning, intersex and asexual people. Oh, my God. It's exhausting.

01:07:19.680 Same, same, same. I feel seen. Finally, finally, someone speaking out to the two SQ community.

01:07:27.980 This is finally, finally, I feel I did. I feel I feel identified.

01:07:32.540 I'm the plus. You're the you're always the plus. Yeah. Like I've said before, questioning doesn't

01:07:37.460 get its own letter. That's bullshit. What's quite right. You don't get your own letter.

01:07:40.680 Check us out later. Come back to us later. You're questioning. Now you can always call

01:07:44.000 back and tell us what you're questioning. You're out unless you decide like you're LGBTQ.

01:07:48.300 You don't have to list it and then just check out late. Like if you want to be gay later than dollar.

01:07:52.940 Why can't the Q stand for both queer and questioning? Why do they get a second Q? That's where it really

01:07:57.980 starts to go off the rails. Think of all the money we're wasting on paper, throwing extra cues in

01:08:02.300 there. We're just this is. So that's bad for the earth. That's bad for global warming. Extra.

01:08:07.400 I object. I object to all of this. And I feel confident that my pal Andrew Sullivan would back

01:08:12.720 me up on this. OK. In other salacious news, can we just spend because we're going to get to Fox and

01:08:17.220 CNN and all that stuff. But I just got to spend a minute on Stephanie Grisham, who is Melania's

01:08:23.840 press secretary and then moved up to the White House press secretary. And she she left the White

01:08:30.200 House like she says she resigned 15 minutes after Melania refused to. Did I say after Trump? Trump's

01:08:35.880 press secretary. Anyway, she says she resigned 15 minutes after Melania refused to condemn the

01:08:43.580 January 6th riot in the way that she had suggested to her. She wanted to say something. And Melania

01:08:48.200 allegedly texted back. No, she didn't want to weigh in. And Stephanie Grisham says 15 minutes

01:08:53.040 later, I resigned. I walked around carrying my resignation letter. I will say in general,

01:08:56.920 I don't I don't love the I worked for the person and I cashed the paycheck. And then five minutes

01:09:01.180 later, when something really controversial happened, I quit. Now I condemn everything. And I tell

01:09:04.660 everything that I wasn't supposed to tell. And you break the confidence that you're supposed to. I

01:09:08.440 don't know. It's just the whole thing is unseemly. And I know Stephanie a little. And I

01:09:12.380 understand she struggled with abuse in her life and stuff like that. But I just in the end,

01:09:17.340 I opted not to invite her on because it just feels unseemly to me. But here's just a little clip of

01:09:22.200 what she's saying. I'd love to get your reaction to this press tour. I had been trying to resign

01:09:27.100 actually for the past six, seven months. And she had always talked to me out of it and and, you

01:09:33.440 know, asked me to stay strong. I actually had a resignation letter in a folder with no date

01:09:37.820 for the last four months of the administration that I just wanted to hand over if if necessary.

01:09:44.180 It was that bad for me. You weren't a short timer. I mean, you were a lifer. Yeah,

01:09:48.440 you were a lifer. So the number of choices that you made over five or six years,

01:09:53.660 it's immeasurable. I mean, it's it's hard to say, oh, I just realized now after six years that this

01:10:03.220 was all a really bad idea, a deadly in some cases, bad idea. I've had a lot of time to think about

01:10:11.480 that. And again, not an excuse, but I worked on the the east wing side of the house for two and a

01:10:18.940 half years of that. And so, again, naive as it may sound, I was really kind of blocked off from the

01:10:25.520 west wing. Come on, I just she was the only person in the country who had no idea what was going on in

01:10:34.220 the White House. I mean, either stand by it or don't write. You don't have to endorse everything

01:10:39.460 that Trump did if you work for Trump. But you say, look, on balance, I found him more of a

01:10:43.500 positive force than a negative force. That's why I stayed or say, my God, like crazy about the

01:10:48.580 mainstream coverage of this is she's now on every show. And I know she was in the White House. I

01:10:53.020 covered the Trump White House for four years of Politico and left wing. And like she was not

01:11:01.280 credible, a total liar. And now that she's out of the White House and bashing Trump like, oh, we all

01:11:05.800 got to listen to her and take what she says at face value. I think it's ridiculous. And I share

01:11:10.080 your distaste, Megan, I think, for people who go and work ostensibly for the country and then

01:11:15.480 try to, in this case, recover their reputations and cash in on that service by throwing their old

01:11:22.760 bosses. I like I like what Mattis did. You know, Mattis, he wasn't getting along. He exited screen

01:11:28.880 left, didn't write a book. He left with his dignity. Like, just do that. If it's not working out,

01:11:33.620 just just do that. You know, counselor, you and I are part of a very small group of people in the

01:11:39.340 world who formerly worked for the Fox News Channel and who don't anymore and have never done, have

01:11:48.920 never tried to go catch in on saying stuff about what happened at Fox. I look at every time you pay

01:11:56.840 me, and this applies to the dispatch and the American Enterprise Institute, where I'm very privileged to get

01:12:02.960 to be a senior fellow now. What am I? A senior fellow. What's her name? Are there any junior

01:12:11.180 fellows at AIA? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're printing them like $100 bills. She don't

01:12:16.800 want your head to get too big. No, no, no. Trust me. My head is big enough by genetics. I don't need

01:12:21.880 any extra. This is as big as it goes. But here's the thing. Every time my paycheck clears,

01:12:28.500 it covers everything up to that moment, right? That is an implicit contract between me and my

01:12:36.200 employer that I cannot have a seizure of conscience the day after the paycheck clears. We're up to date

01:12:42.960 every other Friday. And for people who take the money, you know, the Latin word for the reason that

01:12:51.160 we, the Latin word for salary and salt, our word for, so be worth your salt. You get your salt,

01:12:57.740 you get your pay. And when you get your pay, that covers everything that came before it. And then you

01:13:02.280 can quit or you can leave. And I respect Stephanie Grisham for quitting. And there were a lot of people

01:13:06.180 who quit in or around January 6th because of the disgusting conduct of the president around that

01:13:11.780 stuff, dah, dah, dah, dah. But you don't then get to go back before that and say, ah, while I was taking

01:13:17.560 the money and enjoying the celebrity of this, now I have other thoughts around that. That's a bunch

01:13:21.920 of bogus, bogus. I'll say it's like, look, I can speak to this. When I was at NBC, I saw some things

01:13:28.940 going down and there is a segment. You can go back and Google it. I believe it was September 4th of

01:13:33.680 2018, where I went on the air and called out Andy Lack by name as somebody who lied about their

01:13:41.660 investigation into Harvey Weinstein and why it was spiked and so on. And a month after that,

01:13:46.080 I no longer worked for NBC. I've always been proud to be your friend, but that was one of my

01:13:51.120 proudest days to be your friend. Thank you, Chris. And we were nervous about it. It's hard to go out

01:13:55.820 and do something like that. You were right. You were right to be nervous because they fired your ass.

01:14:03.220 Just for the record, they canceled my show. I'll leave the firing question out into the ether.

01:14:08.800 But it's not to say you've got to go run to the cameras every time your employer does something you

01:14:13.400 find controversial. But I just like these tell all books just make me feel uncomfortable,

01:14:16.440 but not when it's about your life. I feel like Katie Couric's in a different situation.

01:14:20.980 She's had time between her time at NBC or time at CNN. And now apparently she's coming out with a book

01:14:25.520 called Going There. It doesn't even hit yet, but it's made so many headlines on the Daily Mail,

01:14:29.720 which I love that CBS has dumped her interview. CBS announced just based on the Daily Mail, I guess,

01:14:36.340 that it's canceling her promotional interview. She was all set to do with Gayle King.

01:14:40.000 Um, she's getting hit because she admits she wouldn't help younger women while at NBC because

01:14:45.280 like Ashley Banfield, she said, because she would have considered it self-sabotage.

01:14:49.220 Uh, she believed Ashley Banfield's dad was running around saying Ashley was going to get

01:14:52.620 Katie's job. And that's why she felt that way. Ashley, who's I have to say always a class act.

01:14:57.120 I love Ashley Banfield came out and said, um, she's yeah, she does. But she came out and said,

01:15:01.120 I'm really hurt by that. And by the way, my dad was senile and in a nursing home. And I don't know

01:15:04.520 what you're talking about, but he, no. Um, anyway, Deborah Norville, I guess she said,

01:15:09.360 Deborah Norville had relentless perfection that was off putting to viewers. Deborah Norville's

01:15:13.200 now come out and saying like, I'm so stunned by these comments. I can't even respond. And on and

01:15:16.880 on it goes comments about Diane Sawyer. So what do you make of Katie Couric sort of going there as

01:15:22.860 the title says on everyone? I'm going to shut up immediately, but just to say that this is in fact,

01:15:29.420 Eliana's, uh, is this your, uh, obsession for this week's episode? Oh, so this, if you,

01:15:34.840 if you enjoyed this segment, uh, please subscribe to ink stained wretches.

01:15:39.320 Look on Katie, Megan, you kind of have to applaud her transparency for saying I tried to kneecap these

01:15:47.580 other women. Like I appreciate the honesty there, but there's another portion of the book where she

01:15:52.380 says, I just had no idea Roger Ailes was a pig. And I had no idea Jeffrey Epstein was a pervert.

01:15:58.440 And I didn't know about Harvey Weinstein. And I didn't know about Matt Lauer,

01:16:01.680 but the book is about how she's like an intrepid journalist. Uh, but somehow all these gross men

01:16:07.480 got by her, by the way, men who could presumably help advance her career. So I, I like the transparency

01:16:13.220 on the kneecapping other women, even if I don't like the meaning of it, I think, I think that often

01:16:17.240 happens and it's like nice to see somebody admit that she did it. Um, but I think she's not being

01:16:22.960 totally candid on, uh, uh, in the pervert file in the pervert file. I would say, you know,

01:16:28.380 we'll be, we'll be running that one. Uh, you're going to be really, really busy. Um, I saw you guys

01:16:38.020 did, you already did a great thing about Chris Cuomo, which I recommend to everybody because

01:16:41.220 I'm speaking of the pervert file. Um, I think I will say this just for the record, I take pride

01:16:47.460 in having mentored a lot of young women coming up behind me and Roger Ailes being a Roger, he did

01:16:51.420 give me a great piece of advice once. And I took it to heart, which was, you should never

01:16:55.220 feel threatened by young women coming up after you, especially the ones who try to emulate

01:16:59.640 you or they, they do your hair or they, they, you know, they copy your hair or they copy your

01:17:04.840 wardrobe or your style because there's only one you, you know, and no matter how hard anybody

01:17:09.800 tries to copy or whatever they do, there's only one use. You focus on your own game, make

01:17:13.880 your own game in a plus, and then you can, you can lift those coming up behind you instead

01:17:18.480 of worrying about them. That has worked for me.

01:17:21.420 Has anybody on this podcast, uh, or the, this radio show, uh, ever had their haircut written

01:17:26.740 up in the New York times? Oh, wait, oh wait, it was you to that level. One day when you

01:17:37.320 get a haircut, it will receive notice in the New York times. I totally, I totally believe

01:17:42.100 that. Then when you will follow in the footsteps of Megan and one day your hair stylings will

01:17:46.780 be a matter of the public record in America's newspaper. I will say like back in the day,

01:17:52.140 I think my first like big TV interview was with you when you had the daytime show at Fox and I can

01:17:57.700 testify that you were wonderful. And, uh, the most, very impressive, the most fun I've ever had

01:18:04.020 in television bar none. There's not a second. There's not a close second was daytime nighttime

01:18:10.820 with you. Uh, prime time with you was a lot of fun, but the one o'clock and two o'clock hours

01:18:15.400 was just the best, the most delightful television I ever got to do. It was truly fun, truly enjoyable.

01:18:20.620 It was so fun. I had to say, so both of those shows, the one o'clock to three and then the

01:18:25.220 nine o'clock that we did in the prime time were number one in their time slot and nine o'clock

01:18:29.600 wound up being number one in cable news. But we led with you every night, every night. We like

01:18:35.440 the Kelly file. It's just raw sex appeal. It's just what America desires is more hillbillies with

01:18:42.860 pumpkin heads. That's what everybody all the time says. And you brought like the Grover Cleveland.

01:18:48.960 I was going to, I was going to, well, I was about to say together. We averaged out as a normal

01:18:53.200 looking person together. We averaged out as a five. No, but it was, it was tons of fun. It was

01:19:00.300 tons of work and cables. It's complicated and certainly more complicated now. And I've read

01:19:04.980 a lot of your criticisms of the business, Chris, and I, I agree with them. You know, it's sort of

01:19:08.880 devolved to a dark place where it's all about just clicks and stoking outrage and not really

01:19:13.680 delivering the news in a way that I think you certainly have a history of doing. And I'd like to

01:19:17.440 believe I've tried to. Um, and Eliana, you were at Politico and, um, then, and now with

01:19:24.440 a free beacon political is left leaning. It is. And, uh, free beacons right leaning. And

01:19:29.580 can you just tell me, cause our EP Steve Krakow, I didn't actually realize this happened to you

01:19:33.100 on CNN cause you were also a CNN contributor at the time. So what happened?

01:19:36.520 Uh, I, I had a wonderful time at Politico. I really have only the most like only kind things

01:19:45.080 to say about them. Um, but I was ready for a new challenge and I, I was at the time a CNN

01:19:50.360 contributor for two years. Um, and the day I announced that I was leaving to go run the free

01:19:55.920 beacon, which by the way, like, you know, I'm not into like the category checking, but I'm like the

01:20:01.120 first woman to be the editor in chief of a conservative magazine. So it wasn't like

01:20:05.580 nothing. Uh, CNN told me like, we're not renewing your contract. And it's, I think it's pretty clear

01:20:12.280 they've become, um, they've become a, an arm of the democratic party and there's just no room on

01:20:18.460 the network for, I think, intelligent conservative voices. I don't know how Mary Catherine Ham does it

01:20:24.280 because she's one. She, she's holding on. I love her. I want to sort of go by with a flowered van

01:20:30.460 and get her. Um, but I'm sure it helps pay the bills. And Mary Catherine Ham is such a lovely

01:20:35.360 and sympathetic person. Like even CNN couldn't. The other MK. We love you too. That's right. Yeah.

01:20:39.940 We love her too. So, and that leads me to you, my friend, Starwalt, which is, you know, you left

01:20:44.620 Fox news. I was so sad to see it happened. And I, and for the record, I knew you were busy and you

01:20:49.360 weren't paying attention to our podcast, but one of the other people I love is Steven Crowder.

01:20:53.580 His episode remains hugely popular in our archives, by the way, but he was coming after you pretty

01:20:57.980 good. The draft of the election in the Arizona call saying Fox news called it. It wasn't about

01:21:01.960 you. It was about the decision desk. They called it too early. They called it too early. And I was

01:21:05.320 battling right back saying, you got to know these guys. They're the utmost professionals. You know,

01:21:10.360 I, I trust them. I trust them. And you've, you've been proven right. Um, now people could still say

01:21:15.520 it was too early. Um, well, still not arguing with the result. I don't want to get back into all that.

01:21:20.840 Um, I do want to get into what a headline I saw that made me feel sad, which you said it was

01:21:25.560 heartbreaking and humiliating when, uh, a month later Fox fired you and it was heartbreaking for

01:21:33.760 me too. Can we just talk about that? That was that, that was that interview. I was taken by

01:21:39.320 surprise in an interview with Australian broadcasting, uh, talking about what was going on in the 2020

01:21:44.220 election. And I had to talk about what it was like to have to tell my sons. And, uh, it was hard,

01:21:49.620 uh, being, uh, I was not the only person, uh, who lost a job in the past year. Uh, and it was hard

01:21:56.460 for all of them to lose a job, to get fired sucks. Uh, nobody likes it. Um, but so in the public eye

01:22:03.000 too, I think is extra hard. Yeah, but I got, you know what? Um, God is good all the time. And, uh,

01:22:10.700 I definitely, it was a, I spent a decade at Fox and am proud of all the work I did there and never said

01:22:18.040 anything that wasn't, I didn't think was true and never, uh, did less than I thought was my best.

01:22:24.060 Uh, but they don't owe me a living and they don't owe me a job and that's okay. Uh, what is even

01:22:30.580 better is that as I have watched cable news in general, uh, Fox in particular, uh, my, my stuff

01:22:40.580 doesn't fit their business model, right? My content does not work for what they're doing. And I totally

01:22:46.820 understand that because the whole point of me is that I will try to cheerfully, I hope, uh, in a

01:22:53.420 friendly neighborhood way, tell you what you don't want to hear too. The difference between news and

01:22:59.680 entertainment is that in the news, sometimes we have to tell you what you don't want to hear.

01:23:03.840 Uh, Glenn Youngkin might win Virginia's gubernatorial election, but I don't think he's

01:23:08.140 likely to win Virginia's gubernatorial election. If you want to tune in someplace where people will just

01:23:12.860 tell you what you want to hear, I'm not going to work for that because I'm going to say it how it

01:23:17.300 is. You're going to hear McCullough stealing it. Then we'll hear McCullough stealing it. And you

01:23:21.960 know, we just, uh, we were, uh, on insane wretches this week, we talked about how AT&T funded the

01:23:27.240 one America news network, uh, and put all this money by behind OANN to be a competitive Fox. So

01:23:33.860 here's AT&T parent company of CNN putting money behind this goofball. Uh, can, can, can,

01:23:40.860 can I say half-assed on your show? Yeah. I, some guys yelling at me for saying

01:23:44.440 fucking on the podcast yesterday. I'm like, Oh, okay. You got to go check the archives.

01:23:47.800 I'm so glad I didn't know I could use that. No, don't encourage her. Don't encourage her,

01:23:52.180 Megan. But so here's this half-assed network that is not doing a good job and not trying to tell the

01:23:58.880 truth and all that stuff. And it was relatively cheap for AT&T to fund them to dump this hot garbage

01:24:04.020 out into the space. So I guess my, my point is I have been, if you would have told me that you and

01:24:12.520 I would get to do what we did, that I would get to be on your show, that we'd get to do all those

01:24:17.360 debates and do all that stuff and go around the country and do those things, uh, that I would sit

01:24:22.940 down in a movie theater one day and there'd be Charlize Theron playing you and me in a split screen

01:24:28.140 with her. I would have said, there's no way that could ever happen. Who am I, but a simple country

01:24:34.200 pundit. And we did it and it was great and it was fantastic. And now this is fantastic and it's all

01:24:40.340 fine and it will all be okay. I love the way you described that. I, that's how I see you too.

01:24:46.440 And I think unfortunately people took out their rage about Trump's loss, uh, on you and to some

01:24:52.740 larger extent, the Fox decision desk, which has a lot of people, by the way, it's not just Chris.

01:24:56.460 I was like, I don't know why Chris got that. It's the great Arnon or as we call him now,

01:24:59.020 Q Arnon. Yeah. Arnon Mishkin is the head of it. Q Arnon, that's amazing. Anyway, um, you're right.

01:25:06.900 That's what you did for many, many years is you gave it to a straight and then you'd have me,

01:25:10.560 you know, that's, that's what you were missing. That's why it fell apart at the end. Cause you

01:25:13.040 didn't have me beating you up a little bit and then you standing your ground. That was,

01:25:16.140 that was a formula that worked. Can I, can I tell you, can I tell you when, uh, your former producer

01:25:20.980 asked me, I was the first time I appeared on your primetime show and, uh, we,

01:25:26.460 we wrapped and I'm in the lobby walking out afterwards and he goes, how do you think it

01:25:31.920 went? I said, you know, the steam catapults that they have to shoot the F-14 Tomcats off

01:25:36.280 of the deck of the aircraft carrier in the high seas. That was what I just did because it was

01:25:41.160 high impact, high intensity. You bring the heat sister. You bring the heat.

01:25:47.200 Well, listen, I, I know that this is going to be successful because truly if here's a note

01:25:51.980 to the viewers, if you find yourself listening to somebody like Starwalt or Elian or anybody

01:25:56.460 saying something that doesn't comport with your worldview, right? Like you don't like what he's

01:26:00.320 saying, uh, whatever, maybe take his example. McAuliffe is going to win and young kids going

01:26:05.060 to lose. And if you find yourself doing this, this is a visual for those that just listening,

01:26:09.160 I'm batting my eyelashes a lot. Like, like I'm about to get hit. Then you need to reconsider the

01:26:14.900 way you consume your news, right? Like you, you can take the hit. If it's information you may need,

01:26:22.120 you may not like it. You may not wind up even accepting it, but it's not a great idea to attack

01:26:27.800 the messenger for offering what they believe to be the facts, right? And somebody like Starwalt's

01:26:33.780 in a position to actually know them on a night like election night. And he was, he was right. Trump

01:26:37.680 did lose Arizona. And even if he hadn't, he still would have lost the election. I know people don't

01:26:42.040 like that. People who are Trump fans, but it's not Chris's fault. And Chris for years and years

01:26:46.280 and years sat out there on that Fox news set, giving you very fair and balanced information

01:26:50.660 and often had a lot of little darlings for, for people on the right. Um, all of which should not

01:26:56.580 be forgotten. You know, you call it both ways that you just don't go with the tide either way. And

01:27:01.080 that's important in today's day and age when mostly the tide goes left and you need honest brokers

01:27:05.020 saying, Hey, here I am. The saying goes, uh, with or without a friend offense to friend or foe,

01:27:12.040 we sketch your world exactly as it goes. And that's the idea. The idea is that we want,

01:27:17.620 and this is, I think, I don't want to speak for Eliana, but I think what we're calling our

01:27:21.300 colleagues to two things will be required to save journalism and to save media and to save America.

01:27:27.320 Uh, Americans will have to become better and more educated consumers. This is not a passive action.

01:27:32.440 Uh, citizenship in a Republic is not a passive activity. Uh, you better be better. Uh, and if you

01:27:37.300 can be tricked into, if Facebook can own you, then you're too dumb and please don't vote. Uh, but the

01:27:43.720 other part is this is a vocation. This is a calling. You have to be serious about this work

01:27:50.260 matters to you. It's not just because you have a Twitter account that makes you a journalist.

01:27:53.580 This is a vocation. We are called to do this work and it matters and we better take it serious.

01:27:59.040 We don't have to take ourselves seriously, but we have to take the work seriously.

01:28:02.320 And the third is bacon. Oh, Eliana, Starwalt, such a pleasure. You guys, great, great luck with it.

01:28:11.300 I'll definitely be listening and have been, and I know it's going to do super well because of you

01:28:15.120 too. Thank you. Thank you. All the best. Love to know your thoughts on anything we've discussed

01:28:20.340 today. The phone lines are firing up. Give us a call now. 833-44-MEGYN. Do you think there will be

01:28:27.200 any fallout from the Hunter Biden art extravaganza? And by the way, did you watch my interview with

01:28:32.880 Scott Gottlieb yesterday, the former FDA commissioner? Oh, got a little heated, got a

01:28:38.660 little salty. Would love to know your thoughts on how that went too, because we didn't get time to

01:28:42.540 take calls. 833-446-3496. Welcome back to the Megan Kelly show. The phone lines are open. Call us at

01:28:52.720 833-44-MEGYN. That's 446-3496. We're going to take our first caller. It's Amy in Florida,

01:29:00.480 who's got a question for us today. Amy, what's on your mind? Hey, Megan. How are you?

01:29:04.600 Hi. Good. Thanks. Good, good. I was just wondering, I don't know. I don't know enough about your history

01:29:11.480 to know if you've been in the White House briefing room. But when the press secretary

01:29:18.140 states a blatant lie, how come the press can't just say, you know what, that's a lie?

01:29:25.820 I mean, are there, will there be, will they get kicked out? Will they not be allowed back in?

01:29:30.900 Because it just seems so, it just seems so, even Steve, even Peter Doocy is, you know,

01:29:39.740 he tries with the follow-up questions, but it just never seems like somebody just

01:29:44.380 calls her out for lying. I mean, just a pure lie.

01:29:48.840 Well, I think there's sort of an expected level of decorum, which even, you know, under the Trump

01:29:54.200 administration, people tried. You could see their exasperation with, you know, Kayleigh McEnany or

01:29:58.520 what have you. And you can see it now with Jen Psaki, really only, thanks to Peter Doocy.

01:30:03.420 But there's a level of decorum that I think is expected of the White House press corps.

01:30:09.260 But they are supposed to stay on it to the extent they can stay on it and push for follow-ups or

01:30:13.840 real answers, they should. And it's just, when the whole press corps actually, you know,

01:30:18.320 rains hell down on the press secretary because it's clear she's or he's been lying, it's a thing of

01:30:23.120 beauty. It's like music being made. It's just, it happens so infrequently because everyone's got

01:30:29.480 an agenda and, you know, they don't align. It was nice during the Afghanistan fallout because the

01:30:37.120 press was against Biden and that. So you saw reporters really doing their job. And they got

01:30:42.100 blowback on the Hunter Biden thing. That was good to see. But yeah, as a, for the most part,

01:30:46.560 it's frustrating. And it's really frustrating because the actual president won't take any questions

01:30:51.240 whatsoever. Jen Psaki is all we have. Anyway, thank you, Amy. Appreciate the call. I want to go.

01:30:56.240 Let's see, Tom in South Carolina. What's on your mind?

01:30:59.020 Hello, Megan. It's wonderful talking to you. You know, I've heard, I've heard that President Trump

01:31:05.340 was coming out with his own book. It's going to be called The Art of the Steel. I was wondering if

01:31:09.440 you've heard anything. I haven't heard any press on that.

01:31:12.220 That's the, isn't that the name, the guy who co-wrote The Art of the Deal with him claims he's going to be

01:31:16.660 doing, I don't know, that guy. That's another guy.

01:31:18.960 No, he fired that, he fired that bum. He fired him. He's a, he's a loser and a rat.

01:31:24.900 I don't know. Now that guy's like all over CNN and everybody looks at him like he's some sort of

01:31:29.340 Trump authority. It's kind of weird. I doubt Trump's doing a book called The Art of the Steel,

01:31:32.360 but he's probably going to do a book because he's getting paid millions and millions of dollars for

01:31:37.320 it. I mean, he'd probably get 20 million bucks for a book if the publishing company had the stones

01:31:42.740 to do it, right? Publishing is so weak need these days. And you remember after January 6th,

01:31:47.660 there was a push not to let even any of his staff write books. But the big guy, yeah,

01:31:54.000 I think the capitalist nature of these, these book companies would win out. And he'd have a company

01:31:58.820 like Regnery who would do it anyway, or HarperCollins probably do it. So yeah, I'm sure we'll

01:32:02.440 probably see one eventually. Okay, let's see. Laura from Ohio. What's on your mind?

01:32:06.880 Hey, Megan. How are you?

01:32:08.100 Good. How are you doing?

01:32:09.780 Good. So I guess the best thing to do is be honest these days. We, my husband and I are huge fans of

01:32:17.900 you. And we followed you all the time. We couldn't wait till you came on Fox. Okay. And then I know

01:32:24.020 there were some changes. We're not really sure what all happened. But now that you're on Sirius,

01:32:28.860 I listen to Sirius a lot. In fact, I'm a big Dr. Laura fan. And I just, I'm trying to figure out

01:32:36.440 where you, where you're falling with all this. Are you trying to stay on the fence so you don't go

01:32:41.740 left or right? Or because I, this is the only thing, my husband and I are huge Trump fans.

01:32:47.180 I gotcha. I'll leave it at that because we're up against a heartbreak, but I'll give you the quick

01:32:50.760 answer. I did not enjoy the nine months that Trump kept coming after me. That's true. But I see the

01:32:57.680 good that president Trump did, you know, without defending the mean tweets and things like that,

01:33:01.240 that he did to others. Um, I can absolutely make the case for why Donald Trump was a very strong

01:33:06.400 president and may have very well have been a better choice than the one we have now. You should go back

01:33:10.860 and listen to the podcast I did. I think it was the day of the election or the day before the election

01:33:14.460 to see my thoughts more in full. Um, but my goal is to not be anybody's sycophant. And I hope

01:33:21.020 you'll see that my reporting. Thank you so much for giving me a chance. Talk to you tomorrow.

01:33:27.680 Bye.

01:33:28.680 Bye.

The Megyn Kelly Show - October 07, 2021

Biden's Border Crisis and Cratering Poll Numbers, with Eliana Johnson, Chris Stirewalt, and Brandon Judd ｜ Ep. 176

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