Charlie Kirk's Legacy of Compassion, and Kamala and Katie Porter's Inauthenticity, with Jack Posobiec and Ana Kasparian | Ep. 1172
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 43 minutes
Words per Minute
184.44414
Summary
Today would have been Charlie Kirk's 32nd birthday. President Trump honored him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a ceremony in the Rose Garden. His widow, Erica Kirk, accepted the award on his behalf. Megyn talks about how she handled the emotional moment.
Transcript
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Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at noon east.
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Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.
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Yesterday would have been Charlie Kirk's 32nd birthday.
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It still doesn't seem real that he was taken from us by an assassin's bullet in Utah just over a month ago.
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And now there's nothing we wouldn't do to bring him back.
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But what we can do is continue to honor his legacy.
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And wow, what a powerful example we had yesterday of how he lived his incredible life.
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I mean, his wife, Erica Kirk, standing up there in the Rose Garden, I don't know where she gets her superhuman strength from.
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You know, it was much as when I saw her in Arizona last month, like nonstop tears, but a strength that got her through it.
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And she wrote that speech herself. I'll get to it one second.
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President Trump standing up in the Rose Garden, a beautiful Rose Garden, by the way.
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The roses are nowhere to be found, but the garden's now been paved over.
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And it's a beautiful, absolutely stunning gathering space now for ceremonies like this one.
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It was one of these mornings and afternoons, I guess I should say, where the sun was rising.
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You know, we saw the president standing in front of us and just behind him was, I think it was the old executive office building behind him with the three flags, the two a little lower, one a little higher above him.
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And the sun was starting to come down in the sky just beyond him.
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So those of us who are in the audience had the sun on our faces and it was maybe 70 degrees.
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We originally were scheduled to be inside, but the president moved it outside.
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And President Trump wanted to show off the newly revamped Rose Garden.
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And there was just something, I don't know, ethereal about it with the sunlight on us and the warmth hitting our faces as the president talked about Charlie.
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You know, he'd been on a whirlwind tour the past 48 hours prior to that.
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Somebody, the Babylon Bee did one of its funny cartoons saying,
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press asks president to call a lid after 96 hours straight of following him.
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Call a lid when they, they can close up shop and they know the president's not doing any other events for the day.
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I mean, Egypt and Israel, the Israeli parliament,
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President Trump was everywhere and did some really important things while over there.
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And then hightailed it out of the Middle East, as he said to us yesterday,
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missing what he said something to the effect of would have been some very powerful meetings
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with some very rich countries who really wanted FaceTime with him.
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But the answer was no, because he needed to get home to honor his friend, Charlie Kirk,
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awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest civilian honor any American can receive.
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Trump was looking at the good weather and said what I said, you know, that originally that it would be inside,
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And as the sun was on our faces, he said, God was watching.
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He made a joke at one point about fighting crime in D.C.
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and then sirens went off nearby, you know, police sirens.
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The only people to speak were Trump, a service man who read the actual resolution,
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And Charlie's now widow, still getting used to that word, Erica Kirk,
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who accepted the word, the award on his behalf.
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I don't think his team would mind me telling you that somebody on the team took a shot at writing a speech for her.
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It's almost like one of Charlie's colleagues said this to me when I went out there to host his show,
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that they were, they were feeling comfort in being around Erica because it was like being around Charlie.
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Spending time with her or even watching her speak.
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It does give you, she's not the same as Charlie.
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They, their style is different, but the messaging is really spot on.
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She was the picture of class and strength and resilience, but she was once again, nonstop in tears and she made it through.
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The very existence of the Presidential Medal of Freedom reminds us that the national interests of the United States has always been freedom.
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Our founders etched it into the preamble of our Constitution.
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The blessings of liberty are not man's invention.
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And Charlie lived for those blessings, not as abstract words, but as sacred promises.
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Honestly, President Trump, I have spent seven and a half years trying to find the perfect birthday gift for Charlie.
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Now I can say with confidence, Mr. President, that you have given him the best birthday gift he could ever have.
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You know, I remember in the first term, Trump awarded this same medal to Rush Limbaugh, and he did it at the State of the Union.
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And Rush was suffering with terminal cancer at the time, and he knew his life was coming to an end on this side.
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And it was great that Rush got to receive that honor and, you know, just be recognized for a lifetime of contributions that were really meaningful.
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I mean, Rush Limbaugh changed conservatism, fundamentally changed the way we talk about issues as conservatives in this country.
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He was the godfather, the OG, in showing people how it was done.
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He was a huge influence over Charlie Kirk, too.
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This kid growing up in Illinois said he listened to Rush all the time, that he would sneak out in the middle of class, like in the middle of the day when other kids might be taking a break or, you know, kicking the soccer ball around, what have you.
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And Charlie, you know, of course, didn't receive this honor while still alive.
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Everyone thought Charlie would have time to run for and become and be president.
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I mean, literally everybody I've spoken to believe that would happen.
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And then you get your honors late in life, generally.
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Rush Limbaugh, God love him and rest him, died older.
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So, you know, the award amazingly was appropriate.
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You think of all Charlie did in his 13 years of turning point.
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And so there was something bittersweet about it, because Erica, of course, had to accept
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She reminded everyone, of course, that Charlie lived by his Christian beliefs, that he was
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committed, notwithstanding what President Trump had said moments earlier.
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Trump said, I know, you know, Erica suggested that he likes to, he would pray for his enemies
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And Trump was like, I'm not so sure that's true.
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And then in a very funny moment, Trump again joked that that doesn't come as easily for
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This is Erica speaking about Charlie in response.
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Surprisingly enough, he did pray for his enemies, which is very hard.
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No, he never did it in front of anyone else, but I can attest to that.
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But he also loved people when it was inconvenient.
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You know, he doesn't give us the huge smile that often.
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But that's him being self-deprecating, you know, laughing that, you know, I saw what I
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You know, she's kind of saying, no, I swear he really did pray for his enemies.
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I mean, you know, not for nothing, but Trump's 79 years old.
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And as I said, he's just coming off this whirlwind tour of the Middle East, not to mention what
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I was thinking to myself, is there any way President Biden would have been standing here
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I mean, his own remarks went on for nearly 45 minutes, I'd say.
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And then when she was done speaking and we had the service person read the actual proclamation,
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And then Trump went over and stood right in front of her and was comforting her as Amazing
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He paid homage to Charlie's parents who were there.
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You could see the grief on their face, but they were stoic and held it together to their
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Just making it back and standing there in front of them, it was his way of honoring Charlie.
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It was his way of saying, this person mattered to me.
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Trump takes a lot of guff for not being the kind of griever or mourner in chief or, you
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You know, he doesn't have empathy in the same way most people have it, in a way that you would
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This has actually been a lifelong question of mine since I've known Trump.
00:11:02.260
And now having studied Trump for many years and known him for many years, he does have
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He just doesn't show it in the same way as the rest of us.
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You know, he's extremely strong emotionally, extremely.
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The fact that he made it back, the fact that he escorted her out, the fact that he stood there,
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the fact that he went back over to her, the fact that he stood with the family after the
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ceremony for Amazing Grace and spent time with him immediately after the ceremony as
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The fact that we were there in this ceremony honoring Charlie, that's Trump's empathy.
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That's him expressing his love and care and admiration for a young man who truly changed
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He also declared yesterday National Day of Remembrance for Charlie Kirk.
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With a proclamation reading, quote, on the American people to assemble on this day in their respective
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places of worship, they are to pay homage to Charlie's memory.
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Now, every major network took the event live yesterday.
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And it was Charlie's murder was something that, of course, captured the attention of the
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Except one, MSNBC, which apparently thought its viewers wanted to hear Nicole Wallace
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For the listening audience, we're showing the screen grabs from literally every channel.
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They all have President Trump in the background and a lower third that's appropriate.
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And then there's one in the middle with Nicole Wallace, just her, just her mug on camera spitting
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out a bunch of bullshit, as she always does on MSNBC.
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So that's what you got there, the refusal to even acknowledge Charlie because they couldn't
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have President Trump's words about Charlie and what he actually did and who he actually
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was or Erica Kirk's words about her husband and what he stood for.
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They couldn't have that heard by the MSNBC audience, you see, because they're all part of
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It's important to them to continue misleading some faction of the left into thinking Charlie
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So they really can't have you looking at Erica Kirk.
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They really can't have you seeing a charming, empathetic, loving Donald Trump honor his friend.
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You know, they've been pulling that nonsense since January 6th.
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No, there was no excuse not to show it other than their own inhumanity and refusal to show
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It would put the lie to everything they've been saying about Charlie and Turning Point for
00:14:03.440
He was a dear friend of Charlie's and stood up and eulogized him at Charlie's Memorial.
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And he was at the Rose Garden event along with yours truly yesterday as well.
00:14:15.300
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00:15:09.640
Give me your overall thoughts on yesterday and what you experienced.
00:15:12.620
Well, Megan, thanks for having me on and thanks as well for you making the trip out and being
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there with us the entire day yesterday and so many people who really came.
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It was so remarkable to see such a day for Charlie and such a day to, you know, really
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remember and reflect on his legacy and his impact on America and our culture going forward.
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And, you know, there's something that just, you know, it struck me.
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We've had this terrible weather the last couple of days that I've been in DC and it's been
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There was a nor'easter that came through and there was this moment right before I think
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the president and Erica came out and they had been in the, in the Oval Office and they
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And there was this moment where suddenly the sun just sort of peaked above, you were just
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kind of talking about it, peaked above the executive office building and the Eisenhower
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It was like the sun just hit the entire patio there when we hadn't seen sun all week.
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And it was, it was quite possibly the most beautiful day I've ever seen at the White House.
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And I've been there many times and it may have been the most beautiful day.
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And I just really think that was, that was for Erica.
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That was God shining a light down or I don't know, maybe even, maybe even letting Charlie
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be there in a sense in that, in that ray of light, because even in a time of so much darkness
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and so much pain and anger that we've all gone through in the wake of all of this, that it
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just takes one candle shining to illuminate an entire sea of darkness.
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And it was not just the light and the beauty, but the warmth, right?
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It was like something about that warmth hitting our faces and actually warming us up as we're
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The other dynamic about it, Jack, that jumped out at me was, it was so, in a way it was classic
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Charlie, because what did Charlie do at like the Turning Point events, like AmFest and the
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He would have loved to have seen us all together like that.
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Like people in our lane, in the digital lane, you, me, Benny, and then people from the more
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traditional media, like all, most of my Fox News, former colleagues were there.
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It was just like the two worlds of the conservative ecosphere when it comes to broadcasting and the
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people who really are changing this world for the better, this country in particular, for the
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And there's a bit of a rivalry between us and them.
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You know, we think they're old and we're new and they're kind of over and we're the
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They would disagree, but there was none of that yesterday.
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There was just togetherness and like a softness and kind of a love.
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I would even say a grace, you know, just a, just a grace.
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Charlie was about bridging that, that, you know, gap between worlds.
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He was the bridge between, and in so many ways, you know, you mentioned Rush Limbaugh,
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And the very last event that Rush Limbaugh ever spoke at publicly was actually a turning
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point event down in 2019 before he got sick down and Rush, of course, because of his,
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you know, because of his personal health, he didn't do a lot of the events.
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He actually did really have quite bad hearing for anyone who met him.
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And they would, they would know this and, you know, he did the show, but he actually
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did have really bad hearing issues and even after the implant and everything.
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And so he did that event for Charlie because he very quietly and, and Charlie never even
00:19:13.600
And this was Rush's, um, you know, Rush's wish that Charlie would never tell anyone until,
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you know, after the fact that Rush had been a major donor to turning point during his lifetime,
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that he was all in on Charlie Kirk, he was all in on the mission.
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And so that was this sort of incredible parallel because you mentioned how, um, you know, you
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mentioned how it was the bridge between sort of like the traditional media and the new media,
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but Rush was really the first, he was sort of the first guy to say, we can do a different
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You know, he did it with the, you know, the blow torch, uh, coming up on broadband and then
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eventually you're coming up on, on clear channel and then eventually to broadcast and get it
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But he was the first one to say, we can talk about the news in a different way and we can
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And then, so Charlie would always say, Charlie would always say his biggest dream wasn't necessarily
00:20:11.400
to be an organizer and wasn't to do turning point.
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He, you know, he wanted all of the things, but he said, you know, I'd love to have a radio
00:20:21.280
And, uh, you know, I think the podcast is in many ways, a new form of radio, but it was
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that, it was that, that idea of new media and just using that to connect directly with
00:20:37.940
I mean, he was the OG there's, there's only one Rush Limbaugh.
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They're together now they're, they're together now, you know, he's, he's with his mentor among
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I think that, um, there is something bittersweet Jack about the fact that Charlie gets this
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Charlie's podcast has been number one on the podcast charts since he died.
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Like the interest in him and the people around him and the messaging that they knew would
00:21:07.380
Like people are coming to him who, who didn't eat, who didn't know him before just to like
00:21:11.840
hear clips and get to know him better and hear the people who knew him best talk about
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His books have all shot up to the top of the, of the charts.
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All of them, people like the 122,000 plus now, uh, young people, young, new chapters of
00:21:27.620
turning point on high school and college campuses.
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There's like a desperate thirst for more of Charlie right now.
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And thank God there's hours and hours and hours of tape of Charlie, but it's, it's just
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And I do think that's why MSNBC had to go dark on it.
00:21:50.720
Well, so in MSNBC, right there, their entire structure is built on this inverted hierarchy
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of victimhood whereby in, uh, all of society is controlled by the victimization.
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So, uh, uh, women are victimized, minorities are victimized and white Christian males are
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always the, you know, like Charlie Kirk, especially successful, uh, you know, white Christian males
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like Charlie's literally married to a beauty queen.
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He's got, you know, incredible children, incredible families, successful by every metric.
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And so you can't ever allow anyone like that to look sympathetic.
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You can't ever look like there might be someone who victimized him because if he were to become
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a victor, then it would in fact repudiate everything that they stand for.
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It would repudiate everything that they're doing.
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Not only did they cut away from that, I believe they, they said they're doubling Rachel Maddow.
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So she's going to come back and now do two shows.
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And you, you look, they're doing everything they can to load up new stories and release
00:22:56.640
things to be able to kind of muddy the waters and find different stories they can talk about
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other than the fact that, you know, unfortunately it was one of their guys.
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It was this crazy leftist up on top of that roof that came out there and said, look, we
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can't beat this, you know, we can't beat the right at the ballot box.
00:23:13.780
We can't beat Charlie Kirk in the debate sphere.
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We're going to try to silence him with a bullet.
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And as you say, they certainly failed in terms of that because his message is now larger than
00:23:24.820
People are paying more attention to Charlie more than ever.
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But what they did do is that they robbed Charlie, not only from all of us and the, you know,
00:23:34.680
the decades and future of whatever Charlie would have become.
00:23:38.640
And I think we all have, you know, ideas about probably how that would have gone, but, but,
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but it's also, you know, you sit there with Erica and, and this is what, you know, personally
00:23:48.080
And I had some, you know, I guess yesterday was rough.
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And I'll sit there with my, my boys and we could just be having a family moment or sitting
00:23:59.380
at church and watching it or watching a movie or something.
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And I'll feel this profound anger come over me that, that Charlie will never have that
00:24:08.260
with his children ever again, that those children will never have those moments with their father,
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that Erica will never have those moments with her husband.
00:24:17.280
And that, I don't know why, but this phrase keeps kind of repeating in my mind.
00:24:20.760
It's that every single moment was stolen from them, every single one.
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And look, I, there is a debt, there is a debt that has to be paid for every single moment
00:24:33.100
This, you and I talked about this, uh, at the reception afterward, this both got us both
00:24:48.340
I asked our daughter what she would like to say to daddy for his birthday.
00:25:26.100
And while our son is precious, he can't yet speak.
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In classic Kirk family fashion, his actions spoke louder than his words.
00:25:36.280
And his gift to you, Charlie and myself for that matter, was deciding to become the man
00:25:40.920
of the house and be fully potty trained at 16 months.
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I know that you're celebrating in heaven today, but gosh, I miss you.
00:26:00.760
And to the people that were celebrating this, to the people that were laughing about this,
00:26:07.660
And, you know, I, I kept it together, I would say pretty well yesterday, pretty much right
00:26:14.500
And then right afterwards when the violins were playing Amazing Grace and, and a few other
00:26:20.800
songs afterwards where, you know, there I am, I'm thinking, you know, when you, you think
00:26:25.660
about going to the White House, you think you're, you know, you're, you're in for a, you know,
00:26:31.000
And then you think about the history that's going on there and never did I think I'd be
00:26:36.000
sitting there at the White House and thank God my wife was there because, Tanya, because
00:26:42.300
I just got, I just got so upset because the, the people laughing about this, the people who
00:26:48.800
want to continue to do this to any conservative out there, you post something about him, even
00:26:54.260
on, even on X and you'll get comment after comment saying you're next, or, you know,
00:26:59.440
we're coming for you soon or, or, and not just me, but, you know, everybody, everyone
00:27:03.380
who's a conservative, you know, have a target on your back and we've had this target on
00:27:06.280
our back and, and you sit there and think this, this can't go unanswered.
00:27:14.400
Now today the left is making a big deal out of this story that some no name so-called young
00:27:22.080
Republicans, literally who none of us has ever heard of, were on some derelict text chain
00:27:27.760
using racial slurs and bad taste jokes about, I'll be Hitler if it's going to get me more
00:27:38.460
And you can, you can feel them thrilled that this story has emerged because they're now
00:27:47.000
You know, our side says some unfortunate things, but look at the Republicans, as we all know,
00:27:55.080
And so, you know, you really just have to vote for us because we're going to get you
00:28:00.160
We're going to get you a bigger social safety net, but it's totally both sides ism.
00:28:11.120
Yeah, it was, I mean, I saw that story, I guess, as we were walking into the white house
00:28:15.020
and, and someone had, uh, had sent it over and I said, wow, of course they timed it perfectly
00:28:20.760
so that it would drop immediately when Charlie's memorial service happened for just that purpose.
00:28:26.820
And also obviously to, uh, to try to respond to this, this insanity out of the attorney general
00:28:32.780
candidate in Virginia, uh, and some of the horrifying violent things that he said specifically,
00:28:38.720
and by the way, not just over text, but calling this woman and berating her, uh, saying violent
00:28:44.760
And so it's so obvious and, you know, nobody's saying that this thing was a, uh, you know,
00:28:50.820
was, was like an urgent story that needed to get out.
00:28:58.700
It's also a political strategy known as bracketing, where when you can't defeat your opponent,
00:29:03.380
what you try to do is muddy the waters at least.
00:29:05.320
So there's multiple things going on at the same time.
00:29:07.580
So they released that story so that juxtaposed every time, if you're going on social media
00:29:12.940
yesterday, you'll see, here's Erica, here's, here's the widow, here's the tears, here's
00:29:19.180
the friends, but then also up Republicans, bad Republicans, bad.
00:29:26.100
And it's so patently obvious and Orwellian that I'm actually surprised that they would
00:29:34.220
I'm not surprised that they would try something so cheap, but it's, it's, it's just really
00:29:38.380
It's really sad that we couldn't take one day to be able to say, you know what?
00:29:46.360
Let's put down all of it to say, this was a good guy and he didn't serve what happened.
00:29:52.020
It's so, I mean, it's like, there is a difference between some loser Republicans who are not
00:29:58.420
Like somebody at one point ran for office and lost is the most I can see here.
00:30:03.320
Um, and, and like the chair and vice prayer or vice chair of various states, Republic,
00:30:12.100
I've been covering Republican politics for 25 years.
00:30:15.740
I've never heard of these people and they, they want to pin it around the right's neck
00:30:20.460
as though it's an attorney general candidate who's within a, a whisker of actually becoming
00:30:32.960
Let's see all the young Democrats text messages about Charlie Kirk now.
00:30:36.140
Cause I saw what all the young Democrats and the public Democrats were saying publicly.
00:30:40.540
And I saw Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi come out and do the yes, but remember that, you
00:30:46.500
They said, yes, it's sad that Charlie Kirk died, but, and then Barack Obama, who is for
00:30:51.400
all intents and purposes, the leader of the Democrat party went on this litany of smears
00:30:55.260
and attacks against Charlie saying, Oh, well, what about MO?
00:30:59.460
He said something about the civil rights act and wokeness and all the rest.
00:31:02.900
Don't do the yes, but it's so insidious and it's so poisonous and toxic to our, our country.
00:31:12.080
Let's say we're going to release text messages.
00:31:13.680
Let's release all the text messages from the young Democrats about Charlie Kirk.
00:31:18.160
And let's go back by the way, to September 10th.
00:31:20.020
And let's see what they were saying in the group chat back then.
00:31:24.800
Of course they do smear Charlie in the political article.
00:31:28.640
The, one of these guys we've never heard of this Junta.
00:31:31.420
We don't, again, I don't know who these people are, but there's some guy named Junta who
00:31:40.520
Who is, let's see, there's the William Hendricks, who's the Kansas young Republicans vice chair.
00:31:45.940
And then there's this Peter Junta, who was the chair at the time of that organization.
00:31:50.260
Uh, and apparently he said, Junta said people who did not vote for him to become chair of
00:31:57.400
the young Republican national federation needed to go to the gas chamber.
00:32:00.220
They think that they think that like in some stupid young guys, text chain is the same thing as the
00:32:09.960
He wants to put two bullets in the brain of the Republican house speaker in Virginia, calling a Republican to say, no, no, I really meant it.
00:32:16.300
And then tripling down with more text saying, this is why I've thought it out.
00:32:21.440
I really think people need to feel the pain in order to change their political.
00:32:24.820
Like if this guy stood by it repeatedly, these are a bunch of knuckleheads in a stupid text chain behaving badly.
00:32:31.220
I mean, there's something they never wanted to be public, something they weren't really standing by, but, but wait, I just want to give you this.
00:32:37.080
So they, they attacked Charlie in the political piece, this Junta, um, they, part of his messages read, if your pilot is a she, and she looks 10 shades darker than someone from Sicily, just end it there.
00:32:54.060
Um, Junta's line on this darker skinned pilot, for example, echoes one used by slain conservative activist, Charlie Kirk last year, when he said, if I see a black pilot, I'm going to be like, boy, I hope he's qualified.
00:33:06.100
Kirk was discussing how diversity hiring invites unwholesome thinking.
00:33:09.440
Again, they just pull these snippets, Jack, without giving you the full context of what Charlie was trying to say to, to start a thoughtful discussion about what these terrible policies are going to make people feel right.
00:33:21.920
Like he doesn't, he was saying openly, I don't want to feel like that.
00:33:25.920
I, I want to look at every pilot, no matter the skin color and say, I know he's here cause he's qualified.
00:33:30.420
He was saying their quotas, which it wasn't Delta, I think it was, uh, United was saying we had to have 50% black pilots and female pilots with black people, only black men are only 6%, black people only 13% of the U S population.
00:33:45.260
Like that's going to be a real tough bar to pass.
00:33:54.840
And I was on that podcast discussion with him where we were having that discussion.
00:34:00.760
We said the only way, just mathematically speaking, the only way that you could ever achieve those, achieve those numbers is by lowering standards the same.
00:34:06.640
And by the way, it's in the context of the lowering of standards that we've seen across the board, whether it be in the military, where Pete Hegseth is addressing this or in, uh, in medical fields or in medical schools, et cetera, et cetera.
00:34:18.120
But to, to go back to the, the context of, of the Virginia candidate and, you know, versus this group chat, I do think you need to put this in context because the context here is very direct.
00:34:30.480
The bullets are only going in one direction in this country, and we've been seeing it now for two years.
00:34:37.960
Thomas Matthew Crooks was up on that roof in Butler, Pennsylvania.
00:34:41.740
We saw, uh, this guy who just was convicted down in West Palm beach, trying to kill president Trump on the golf course.
00:34:51.440
This crazed, uh, you know, just, just Marxist anti-CEO killer up in New York city.
00:35:00.120
So don't sit there and tell me that the context is anywhere near the same because it's just not, we know there's political violence in this country.
00:35:11.600
And I don't care what junk science, you know, Reuters wants to cite, or they're going to go to some professor out of Rutgers.
00:35:16.940
The guy who's like an Antifa supporter and say, oh, well, he says the violence is all right-wing.
00:35:22.600
I say, well, what's this guy, what's, what's he done?
00:35:24.480
Well, he's got this book called the Antifa handbook.
00:35:26.680
And it, it's, it's so ridiculous to me when I sit there and I say, I can point to off the top of my head, multiple cases where violence was used against my friends, against people I know, against cases, and they celebrate it.
00:35:43.240
You just mentioned how in the wake of Charlie's murder, we had prayer vigils.
00:35:52.960
You did a fantastic job down at Virginia Tech, right?
00:36:04.940
You didn't see a single person raised a fist in anger.
00:36:07.100
You didn't see a single person on the right come out and say, I'm going to, I'm going to go do something violent in retaliation for Charlie.
00:36:13.940
I said this reporter on from the Atlantic the other day, who's, you know, was, um, you know, doing a piece on me or something.
00:36:22.320
Show me one, please show me one where you can find it.
00:36:25.380
And by the way, I wouldn't celebrate it if it did happen, but it didn't, it didn't happen because we are not those people.
00:36:32.780
You guys on the other side, you got a real problem and they refused to address it.
00:36:37.060
I can't help but feel that a large part of it is godlessness.
00:36:42.620
I mean, it's, it's actually kind of funny that you and I are friends now because Charlie helped bring us together too.
00:36:51.080
And then slowly but surely, you know, the environment changed.
00:36:57.720
You sent me a nice DM about my Twitter one time.
00:37:00.020
Then we got together backstage at a turning point event with Charlie right there.
00:37:09.980
But my, my point was simply that, you know, the environments shifted underneath our feet and they really are shooting our people now.
00:37:18.440
I mean, I've been pointing out to the audience, remembering four Republicans, including Trump, were shot at that Butler rally.
00:37:27.560
Then they tried to shoot Trump again the next month.
00:37:30.780
This guy who just was found guilty down in Florida.
00:37:34.220
And by the way, fired shots at Secret Service and almost got away with killing Trump at that.
00:37:39.620
I mean, thank God the Secret Service found that guy.
00:37:44.060
And I think it's godlessness, Jack, because, and like I watched you at Charlie's Memorial with those rosary beads in hand.
00:37:51.980
You, you and I have talked privately about, you know, the devil and trying to stave him off.
00:37:59.580
And I do think being steeped in faith is a comfort to us.
00:38:04.280
And I think the fact that so many on the left have lost all connection to it is what's driving some of that madness.
00:38:13.440
You, you, you lose God or even worse, you hate God.
00:38:18.500
You become resentful at God for creating you, for creating the world, for creating society.
00:38:24.480
And so that resentment breeds envy, it breeds anger, it breeds dissociation, it breeds disaffectedness.
00:38:34.460
He said, he would said the biggest problem in America right now is disenfranchised young men.
00:38:40.480
And he said, if we can get that question right, and that's, that's economics, that's the, the demonization of young men in America.
00:38:48.320
That's, you know, immigration obviously plays a huge role in that housing, all of it.
00:38:52.880
If you can get that right, you can actually fix so much of the problem in society because there's no path for a lot of these people.
00:39:00.400
But even if they have great grades, and by the way, many of the people I just mentioned that who've turned to this violence did have great grades, 1500 SATs, or a member of the robotics team, different things like this.
00:39:10.640
And it's that lack of God, that lack of humanity, that lack of understanding that we're all given certain talents, we're all given different talents, it makes us different.
00:39:23.840
But we can all be united in the fact that we're all from the same country, we all have one creator, we all have those shared values.
00:39:30.760
But if you lose God at the center of all of this, and that's why I believe that the social reformers and cultural Marxists, what they did in the 1960s, the very first thing they did was they made it, you know, disreputable to cite God in public, disreputable to talk about the Ten Commandments, disreputable to say, oh, you know, I read my favorite, what's your favorite book?
00:39:50.020
It's not lots of favorite books, but that's the Bible.
00:39:51.940
Charlie would send me Bible verse every single morning.
00:39:56.120
Whatever he was reading, you know, he just texted off before we even, you know, it didn't matter what, you know, hit piece was coming out or what political scheme we were working on.
00:40:09.260
And, you know, we would start every day like that.
00:40:12.900
Every single day would start with a verse from Scripture and it'd just be whatever he was reading.
00:40:18.060
Or sometimes, you know, because I was East Coast, he was West Coast, you know, I might wake up earlier.
00:40:25.140
That was just the center of everything that we do.
00:40:27.700
And so to so many people who said, I don't understand how you guys can go on and how come you're doing all this.
00:40:34.240
And, you know, are you just, are you making it light?
00:40:37.160
It's that we know that Charlie is with his creator.
00:40:41.440
And in fact, when we've, you know, I've gotten the show together and we have all the guys and myself and Tyler and Andrew and Blake.
00:40:47.080
And, you know, we get there, we always leave that one chair.
00:40:50.080
And Megan, when you came as well, you know, we left the chair empty.
00:40:52.440
And we say, we say Charlie's on assignment with God.
00:40:58.560
And he's going to be on assignment because God has a higher purpose for him.
00:41:03.200
In this case, he's got a different purpose for Charlie.
00:41:09.840
It's tough to understand that in some way this is a higher will.
00:41:17.060
It's obviously a challenge, you know, because you sit there and you think, you know, why, you know, just one inch to the, you know, one inch to the right, God.
00:41:26.640
And maybe that would have been enough, but it is what it is.
00:41:29.440
Yeah, like why didn't Charlie turn his head like Trump did?
00:41:31.780
Why didn't Charlie just turn his head for that?
00:41:33.940
And honestly, I try really hard not to go down that path because, you know, when you go down that path, you just, it's the self-recriminations and the over and over.
00:41:44.620
And it's, it's recursive thinking and it's, it's, it's not good.
00:41:49.800
The much better path is the one that Charlie always focused on was put God at the center, put God at the center and understand that there is a reason for everything that happens.
00:42:00.200
And even in a case like this, there is a reason.
00:42:02.580
And I remember when, you know, when it happened and people were asking me, you know, could I do media?
00:42:07.080
Could I be out there and sort of just be a face while people are dealing with the arrangements and, and, and hospitals and, and, you know, every, everything that goes attendant with someone's passing.
00:42:20.900
I could hear this little voice of Charlie in the back of my head that said, Jack, go do it.
00:42:29.240
So I just sat, you know, I'm right here in my home studio and I just sat and did media for about 24 hours straight and then hopped a plane.
00:42:40.880
He would be so proud of you and the way that you've handled yourself in the wake of this terrible tragedy.
00:42:47.640
You've been strong, but you've been honest about your emotions.
00:42:50.180
You've called back to faith many times and reminded us at every turn who Charlie really was.
00:42:55.540
And what was one of the many reasons I wanted to have you on today.
00:42:58.000
The connection to faith, the importance of it, and the leaning in is something that's resonating beyond right now, thanks to him.
00:43:07.080
And my team pulled this clip of Charlie talking about faith.
00:43:15.140
I don't go to UT and I'm not the legal age to vote yet.
00:43:18.160
And my parents are divorced and both of my parents have separate political views.
00:43:24.420
And my mom is always kind of pushing me to bring politics into my life.
00:43:34.240
I see you have a shirt here that says, whom shall I send?
00:43:37.880
By the way, the most important thing is to bring Jesus into your life.
00:43:46.860
Christianity has a heavy emphasis on honoring your parents.
00:43:51.400
Now, to contrast that with the prior questioner, I don't think she's doing a good job of honoring
00:43:55.700
her parents because she's accusing them of being in a cult.
00:43:58.240
Even, this is very important, everybody, even if your parents share values and views and
00:44:04.200
a worldview that you do not have, you are biblically obligated to honor them, which means to spend
00:44:09.460
time with them and to love on them and to go visit them.
00:44:12.840
Even if they are wearing a Black Lives Matter and in this home that we have no hate and trans
00:44:18.400
lives, you still go and spend time with your parents.
00:44:21.280
Because if you are incapable, in this case, of honoring your earthly father, you will never
00:44:28.920
And it's very clear in the Ten Commandments, and I'll get down to the specific advice.
00:44:34.100
In the Ten Commandments, it is the only commandment, honor your mother and father so that you may
00:44:41.800
It is the only commandment that deals with a promise and your country.
00:44:47.160
You will cease to have a strong country, America, if we do not have kids honoring their parents.
00:44:52.800
Now, to your personal advice, find out what you believe and why you believe it.
00:44:57.720
If a parent ever tells you to do something that is sinful or goes against God, that is
00:45:04.840
It doesn't mean you have to blindly obey them, but you must honor them, which really means
00:45:08.700
to treat them heavily, basically to treat that with a lot of weight.
00:45:16.120
You're going to grow up a lot quicker because of it.
00:45:18.040
And come to your own independent political views and let them be known to each appropriate
00:45:25.760
Jack, it's so stunning because Charlie was saying basically to conservatives, no matter
00:45:31.600
how far to the left your parents are, love them, honor them, don't abandon them.
00:45:37.300
Like this is the this is the man that not the caricature that you read in The New York
00:45:47.280
They cannot get enough bad ink spilled on Charlie.
00:45:52.000
Like they they know who he was, but they just want to lie about it.
00:45:55.240
Or if it's if it's fear and they just have to interpret the limited clips they've seen
00:46:05.140
Yeah, no, it's it's it's it is an interesting sense, you know, and I do think about some of
00:46:10.480
the New York Times, the newsroom uproar that we saw over the past couple of years where,
00:46:14.960
you know, again, they've just been completely beholden in so many of these cases to people
00:46:21.240
who have that particular belief system that is so woke so far left.
00:46:25.960
And I mean, it sounds cliched, so captured that they're not willing to look at the look
00:46:31.340
Look, and you saw right there, Charlie, when when someone would come up and and, you know,
00:46:36.480
I didn't really catch this this person's politics, but let's say there's someone on
00:46:41.120
Charlie would go to them and say, I care about you.
00:46:46.240
And he did, by the way, and he would try to reach out to them and say, what are your personal
00:46:54.960
And so he would sidestep the political, you know, and I know that, you know, the the headlines
00:46:59.860
of the clips, you know, Charlie Kirk dunks on or Charlie district, but but he wasn't
00:47:04.200
And, you know, maybe, you know, maybe, you know, that's that's, you know, the algorithm
00:47:11.340
Charlie would say, I care about you as a person.
00:47:14.240
And yet we may disagree, but hopefully we can come to the same place or at least come
00:47:18.040
to some agreement or clarity on that which we want, which is a better life for ourselves,
00:47:22.800
a better life for our families and a better life for others.
00:47:25.040
And by the way, you don't see that on the conservative side of shunning family members.
00:47:30.440
You don't see that of cutting people off of ostracizing.
00:47:38.360
This these are the people who say we won't show up for Thanksgiving.
00:47:42.200
We won't, you know, celebrate birthdays, et cetera, et cetera.
00:47:47.380
Whereas the conservatives that I know, they'll say, yeah, well, we'll just talk about something
00:47:51.640
We'll talk about, you know, we'll talk about like, well, I'm from Philadelphia, so we'll
00:47:55.620
say we'll talk about the Eagles, you know, whatever.
00:48:01.540
I mean, it could be a little bit better, but much better than the Phillies lately.
00:48:19.440
I've got to ask you before you go, because I know that you are working very hard to get
00:48:23.000
the Republican elected in New Jersey in the governor's race, Cittarelli.
00:48:29.900
The Republican has a real shot of taking down this Democrat, this woman named Mikey
00:48:33.640
Sherrill, in part because she's not that compelling, but also because she's got this
00:48:44.620
There was a cheating scandal the year that she graduated.
00:48:47.860
And we're now seeing her excuses start to change about why she personally was not allowed
00:48:55.660
Now, earlier, she said, I knew people who were implicated in it, and I didn't come forward
00:49:04.900
But now, just on October 8th, she said this is the reason she didn't walk.
00:49:11.600
There were hundreds of people in my class that spoke to investigators.
00:49:19.980
So now it's I spoke to the investigators and I told them what I knew.
00:49:25.140
And why do you think she's running so tightly with a Republican in a very blue state?
00:49:31.480
Well, look, I mean, this is because the Democrat policies are just so completely abhorrent in
00:49:38.900
She lied about her insider training, the seven million dollars that she raised while a member
00:49:44.540
And the 94 cheating scandal is very infamous within the Navy and within the Navy Academy.
00:49:50.900
And they talk about it all the time, even when we still take officer tests and things
00:49:58.920
She could release them today if she wanted to put this to bed, but she won't do it.
00:50:04.840
There's a reason they've lawyered up rather than simply say, look, I have nothing to hide.
00:50:12.040
I mean, I have I spend the summers in New Jersey and I would be so thrilled if we managed
00:50:17.660
I mean, between the nightmare windmills they've been doing there, the energy policies in general,
00:50:23.060
the taxes, the most tax state in the union, it's time for a change.
00:50:31.120
Jack Posobiec, thank you so much for being here.
00:50:37.780
Okay, coming up next, Democrat Anna Kasparian is here.
00:50:45.440
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00:50:55.160
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00:51:51.980
When you travel well, your KLM Royal Dutch Airlines ticket takes you to more than just your destination.
00:52:00.760
It takes you to winding streets, spontaneous detours, and the realization that neither of you is actually good with directions.
00:52:10.300
And when the final shortcut taken isn't exactly short...
00:52:16.420
Our crew is here to give you a trip home that goes just as planned.
00:52:31.840
To cower, to hide, to go silent is not the answer.
00:52:36.240
And all I can tell you is there is no fucking way I am cancelling one stop on this tour.
00:52:46.700
I'm going to stand on these stages and I'm going to say all the things that we say all the time on this show.
00:52:53.600
We're going to make it safe for my team and my guests and you.
00:52:56.560
We're going coast to coast and do something really important, which is say what's true and what's real to honor him.
00:53:04.240
I really now more than ever would love to see you all face-to-face.
00:53:14.960
I am doing this tour and I would love for you to join me.
00:53:20.280
California Democratic candidate for governor Katie Porter is back on camera.
00:53:29.040
I mean, you got to give her credit for courage after her disastrous press last week following a brutal interview and resurfaced videos of her berating her staff.
00:53:43.180
Plus, Kamala Harris continues her book tour with more incoherent jumble.
00:53:47.000
Joining me now to discuss all of it, Anna Kasparian, host and executive producer of The Young Turks.
00:53:58.420
You're absolutely killing it lately with some of the things that you've been willing to defend yourself on.
00:54:03.820
And I just want to commend you for that right off the bat.
00:54:13.700
Okay, the media gods have given us an array of riches today, so we'll kick it off with Katie Porter.
00:54:21.900
Every day I wake up refreshing my ex-feed for another Katie Porter video.
00:54:26.960
And the heavens lately really have been providing.
00:54:31.860
She decided to sit down with yet another interviewer.
00:54:34.040
This is Nexstar's Inside California Politics show.
00:54:37.440
And it almost looked like she was going to snap again, but she managed to hold it together.
00:54:47.300
Should California voters feel confident that there aren't any more Katie Porter videos out there?
00:54:55.380
Well, what I know is that I could have done better in those moments.
00:54:58.280
I'm going to be focused on earning their votes and earning their trust.
00:55:03.300
But not just the CBS interview, the interview with the staffer.
00:55:06.340
Can voters be confident that there won't be another one of those videos that's going to come to light?
00:55:12.660
What I do know is that I could have done better on that situation.
00:55:16.060
So is there potentially another video that we're going to see?
00:55:21.340
I know that that video and that video was several years ago, as you know, and apologize to the staffer.
00:55:28.560
That's super important to me and will continue to try to hold myself to do better.
00:55:35.600
But not that there's not going to be any more videos because that's that's what people are wondering.
00:55:42.980
I can tell you what I've told you, which is that I am taking responsibility for this situation.
00:55:47.460
And I'm also not going to back down from for fighting back for California, from being tough.
00:56:01.540
I'm I mean, I can't say I'm sure I wouldn't be surprised if other videos start to leak.
00:56:06.440
And, you know, it's interesting because I'm going to be fully honest about the fact that I used to actually be a pretty big supporter of Katie Porter when she was in Congress.
00:56:15.420
You know, during some of the hearings with bankers, with, you know, corporate executives, you know, she'd pull out her whiteboard.
00:56:24.340
But I realized in retrospect that a lot of that was just political theater, because when push came to shove and the question of money and politics came up, she was actually very defensive about Citizens United, corporate PAC money and all of that.
00:56:39.060
So that was when I personally started to sour on her.
00:56:42.060
There had been allegations from members of her staff, previous members of her staff, of course, and she has a lot of turnover where they accused her of being abusive.
00:56:50.940
I believe her ex-husband also made similar allegations.
00:56:59.200
And then the final like nail in the coffin for me was the fact that she is running for governor of California.
00:57:05.600
So obviously she was asked about a proposition that two, four, I'm sorry, three fourths of Californians voted in favor of.
00:57:13.680
And that was Prop 36, which sought to roll back some of the soft on crime policies that actually really hurt this state.
00:57:23.380
And one of the biggest issues right now is that our Democratic legislature, along with Governor Gavin Newsom, refused to provide the adequate funding in order to make sure we are holding people accountable when they commit crimes over and over and over again.
00:57:38.020
It appears that Katie Porter is not in favor of that proposition, but it doesn't matter what she's in favor of.
00:57:45.840
You should be supportive of what the people of California want, especially if you're running to be the chief executive of this state.
00:57:53.280
Right. And so substantively on policy, I have soured on her, but also her behavior is just unacceptable.
00:58:00.640
You should be expecting difficult questions and follow ups when you're doing these interviews.
00:58:05.240
The fact that she was upset at follow up questions really doesn't inspire or it doesn't make me inspired by her and it doesn't really show that she's a real leader, you know?
00:58:19.580
Mm hmm. Yeah. I mean, like you're going to face a lot more tough challenges as governor of California than some follow up questions by a nice reporter.
00:58:27.940
The CBS reporter that was not going for the jugular. In fact, it looked, if you watch the interview, almost like they had given Katie Porter the questions in advance, which in this case might not have been bad because this is an investigative reporter who's like, this is my thing.
00:58:43.220
I'm going to ask these same 10 questions to all candidates. So, you know, perhaps they were very open by saying, here are the 10 questions.
00:58:50.260
Go ahead. Do your homework. We want to hear what your answers are.
00:58:52.620
But Katie seemed to be familiar with this woman's list and she's very irritated that she just didn't leave it at the surface level list.
00:59:00.340
I think everybody's seen it by now, but we can watch a little bit of it here in SOT 29.
00:59:05.960
Do you think you need any of those 40 percent of California voters to win? And you're saying, no, you don't.
00:59:11.120
No, I'm saying I'm going to try to win every vote I can. And what I'm saying to you is that.
00:59:16.620
Well, to those voters. OK, so so you I don't want to keep doing this.
00:59:19.620
I'm going to call it. Thank you. Jesus, you're not going to do the interview with us.
00:59:25.400
Nope. Not like this. I'm not not with seven follow ups to every single question you ask.
00:59:29.400
Every other candidate has. I don't care. I don't care.
00:59:32.580
I want to have a pleasant, positive conversation, which you ask me about every issue on this list.
00:59:37.180
This is news, man. If every question you're going to make up a follow up question, then we're never going to get there.
00:59:43.080
And we're just going to circle around. I am an investigative reporter.
00:59:45.700
You've never had to do this before ever. You've never had to have a conversation to end an interview.
00:59:54.380
What part of I'm me? I'm running for governor because I'm a leader.
01:00:00.100
I'm a leader. Happy experience with you. And I don't want this all on camera.
01:00:03.000
I don't want to have an unhappy experience with you either.
01:00:06.040
Ladies, this is news. It's the vast majority of experiences will be unpleasant and unhappy.
01:00:11.520
That's so crazy. Like that whole exchange was so insane to me.
01:00:16.720
You know, I'm I'm not a politician, but as someone who works in media, as someone who openly shares her opinion, of course, I'm going to find myself in hostile environments and hostile conversations and debates.
01:00:27.560
I literally in the middle of a debate this year had a tampon thrown at me by a man and I didn't run away from the debate because, look, your little stunt, whatever.
01:00:41.060
I'm going to ignore it. I'm here to debate the substance.
01:00:43.820
So this was an opportunity for Katie Porter to show that she is a strong leader, a woman of substance.
01:00:50.500
It is hilarious to me that she referred to herself as a leader.
01:00:54.100
Now she was threatening to run away from a from a conversation, from an interview.
01:01:09.320
Like they don't run around saying I'm a leader.
01:01:11.120
I lead. That's what I do. People follow and they lead.
01:01:13.720
And when I lead, here's a little bit more from that same new interview with Next Stars Inside California Politics happened Tuesday, South 28.
01:01:22.240
So this is your first time speaking publicly since the now two viral videos.
01:01:29.980
And do you have the temperament to be the next governor of California?
01:01:33.800
When I look at those videos, I want people to know that I understand that I could have handled things better.
01:01:41.120
I think I'm known as someone who's able to handle tough questions, who's willing to answer questions.
01:01:46.580
And I want people to know that I really value the incredible work that my staff can do.
01:01:51.220
I think I can people who know me know I can be tough, but I need to do a better job expressing appreciation for the amazing work that my team does.
01:01:58.680
Okay, so let's, can we just spend a minute discussing all the ways in which that was ineffective?
01:02:04.280
Like there's not an authentic thing about one word she spoke, right?
01:02:09.200
That's not how an authentic truth teller speaks.
01:02:14.520
Those are rehearsed, written down lines that her team has given to her.
01:02:20.560
It's obvious if you're like a media personality like you and I are, or if you're a civilian at home, just because your gut will tell you it's off.
01:02:30.960
Well, I mean, the problem is her authentic self is what has gotten her in trouble.
01:02:37.540
And so what you're seeing on that screen right now is, you know, Katie Porter trying to kind of suppress who she really is and give people what she thinks they want.
01:02:55.700
It doesn't come across as authentic because it seems like she's trying to convince herself to not lose it, to remain calm.
01:03:02.440
And again, because of all of this drama over her behavior, it gives Californians less of an opportunity to learn about her substance or lack of substance.
01:03:13.880
And so, look, I've been talking about this very, very vocally.
01:03:18.340
I've been very vocal about the situation on the ground in California.
01:03:22.780
You know, liberals get really upset when one of their own or someone center left calls this out.
01:03:29.420
But it needs to be called out because people in the state are suffering.
01:03:39.640
We have a housing crisis that hasn't been adequately dealt with.
01:03:44.660
But the fact of the matter is we have overcrowded prisons because our governor decided to prematurely shut down four of our state prisons, which is honestly the big story that gets ignored.
01:03:56.320
The reason why so many people get let out early when they're violent criminals, the reason why so many repeat offenders never see a prison cell is because we don't have any room for them.
01:04:07.680
And that is a disaster that was created by Gavin Newsom, a Democratic governor.
01:04:13.700
So I want to know, what is Katie Porter going to do about that if she wins this election?
01:04:18.620
Now, I don't think she's going to win this election.
01:04:20.680
But, you know, when I look at this race, I really don't know if there's anyone running who can adequately address the very serious issues that we have in the state.
01:04:31.160
Steve Hilton's running out there as a Republican.
01:04:33.920
I mean, last I checked, Katie Porter was number one and he was number two.
01:04:36.840
So so it's not like your typical race in which he'd have no chance.
01:04:41.100
I guess it's not really a Democrat primary we're looking at right now.
01:04:45.520
You guys vote for governor in a weird way out there, right?
01:04:49.840
You kind of shake up all the puzzle pieces and whichever top two are standing.
01:04:54.920
Well, yeah, and what I'm curious about is whether Rick Caruso, who ran for mayor in Los Angeles and was, you know, beaten by Karen Bass, if he's going to put his name in the race, because I actually think he has in the mayoral race.
01:05:13.520
He provided very detailed plans to address the serious issues in Los Angeles.
01:05:20.200
And, you know, there were some rumors that he was considering a gubernatorial run in California.
01:05:24.940
I would actually like to see that, to be honest with you, because I want to see what his possible solutions could be on a state level as opposed to just a Los Angeles city level.
01:05:34.440
I'm sure you, along with most Californians, are feeling forlorn about the fact that Kamala decided not to go for the top job in the state, given her political prowess, which has been on full display as she promotes her book, 107 Days.
01:05:49.940
She most recently went on with Kara Swisher, and Swisher seemed to be asking her why wasn't 107 Days enough time.
01:05:59.960
And you tell me whether you can figure out what the answer is here in SOP 21.
01:06:05.420
But, for example, I discuss in the timeline, we had policy work to do that was about letting people know where I stood on the fact that I wanted to make sure that, for example, it was my intention.
01:06:23.960
And I know there are a lot of beautiful public servants here today, some of who are not, have been let go over the last several months, and some of who are furloughed.
01:06:35.940
And I thank you all for your service and everything that you do.
01:06:41.760
But, for example, one of the things that I intended to do was, as the president,
01:06:51.720
we then have the largest workforce, right, is the federal government.
01:06:58.680
And I intended to figure out a way to reclassify job descriptions by skill, not just by college degree.
01:07:14.320
For example, lots of public policy, been laid off, applaud.
01:07:19.820
One of the things I intended to do, we have the largest workforce.
01:07:23.140
Of course, this is so classic Kamala, where she uses so many words to say absolutely nothing.
01:07:34.200
Because even if you disagree with her politics, she used to be able to speak, right?
01:07:43.740
She was like a rising star when she became AG in California.
01:07:46.540
There was all this buzz around this, like, next-gen rising star.
01:07:49.720
But I never really bothered to kick the tires back then because it was state politics.
01:07:55.400
I mean, one of the, I guess, national issues that she was involved in as senator was the Brett Kavanaugh hearings.
01:08:03.500
Now, put the substance of those hearings aside for a minute, regardless of where you stood on Brett Kavanaugh.
01:08:08.920
When she was grilling him, she came across as someone who was able to speak,
01:08:15.040
someone who was able to ask difficult questions,
01:08:17.060
someone who was able to get her point across pretty quickly.
01:08:19.920
I don't know how you rise to the level of a prominent prosecutor, you know,
01:08:25.480
and don't know how to make an argument, don't know how to just speak concisely, clearly, directly.
01:08:35.240
I just feel like, especially during the Biden administration, something happened with her.
01:08:45.120
It sounds like she's on some sort of prescription drug, right?
01:08:50.660
She doesn't, yeah, she doesn't make her point, clearly.
01:08:54.740
I'm just really happy she's not running for governor of California.
01:08:56.960
You raise an interesting point because I will tell you, some of that is familiar to me as,
01:09:03.280
like, from my Fox years because when I first started off as an anchor, you'd say things on
01:09:12.320
I wasn't in the business of giving my opinion back then.
01:09:15.960
But, you know, well, like all of Fox, you're a little on the edge even when you're on the
01:09:21.720
So, you know, you kind of go there a little bit, but not too much.
01:09:25.040
But anyway, you learned fast that you'd get your hand slapped hard by all of the media
01:09:34.660
And so there was a point in my career in which I felt like I'd been so, like, battered by,
01:09:39.760
like, oh, I can't say that and I can't say that and I can't say the other thing because
01:09:43.120
And I still am in this place in my career where that matters to me.
01:09:45.820
Like, I seem to care what the left-wing press, meaning the press, says about me.
01:09:54.340
But, like, every phrase had to be qualified, had to be a catchphrase.
01:09:57.720
If you said something bold, you had to quickly follow it up with something that suggested.
01:10:02.460
And I understand I need to qualify it because you're so battered by it.
01:10:08.460
And eventually, of course, I got past that, thank God, while I was still at Fox and certainly
01:10:13.460
And then you can be a clear, honest communicator.
01:10:15.800
But I almost see somebody who's got that handicap where it's like, I'm going to get
01:10:28.600
And for anyone who's in the public eye and who wants to be admired and validated by everyone,
01:10:39.380
Like, you just have to be yourself and you have to be authentic and you have to expect
01:10:44.020
that you are going to have views and say things that one group or another is just not going
01:10:50.520
But what people appreciate and this is like one of the best things about Americans, they
01:10:56.720
I think that's actually what was appealing about Donald Trump when he first ran in the
01:11:04.600
He said all sorts of things that people didn't like, but they knew he was actually telling
01:11:11.240
And that authenticity in the environment of all these fake politicians was very appealing.
01:11:17.500
When you look at members of the Democratic Party right now, they have not gotten that
01:11:24.340
And look, even on the Republican side, you have someone like Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor
01:11:28.900
Green, who is saying things that are considered like sacrilege when it comes to the Republican
01:11:36.300
But she is garnering a lot of positive attention from rank and file Republicans, but also people
01:11:44.220
who are center left who are like, oh, my God, I totally agree with her on what she's saying
01:11:51.700
For the first time in my adult life, I'm seeing opportunities for people on both sides
01:11:57.280
of the political aisle to work together for a common cause.
01:12:02.100
But I think the establishment, the Democratic establishment, is still very much in the mindset
01:12:09.760
There are enemies because they identify as Republicans.
01:12:12.300
And we're never going to give them credit when they agree with us on things.
01:12:15.600
We're going to continue feeding into division and divisive rhetoric.
01:12:20.840
And I think rank and file Americans, ordinary American voters are sick of it.
01:12:27.940
The effort to lower the cost of prescription drugs.
01:12:30.420
That was the one thing I really wanted to talk to you about, because you were on the show
01:12:32.920
like a year ago saying, why isn't anybody doing anything about this?
01:12:35.980
And then Trump actually said, I'm actually going to try to do something about this.
01:12:39.320
And I was waiting for the chorus of leftists to be like, actually, this is great.
01:12:49.900
But wait, something you just said reminded me something.
01:12:52.300
Katie Porter, you were right that her authentic self is not that likable.
01:12:56.480
But you're also right that you fail if you're not authentic.
01:13:00.440
So, like, I think Katie Porter actually probably would have done better if she had come out
01:13:11.180
They said it's going to be 10 straight questions.
01:13:13.460
And everyone just gets asked these 10 straight.
01:13:26.420
No, like she probably would have been so much better off if she did that.
01:13:34.580
The fact that she became defensive, apologetic.
01:13:37.420
Now, look, I don't think that would convince all of her critics to then support her, you
01:13:42.000
know, after those videos came out after that interview was a complete and utter disaster
01:13:47.120
But I do think that for those who are kind of on the fence, seeing her be apologetic as
01:13:54.480
opposed to defend herself, I think worked against her.
01:14:01.540
If I had been Katie Porter, the video where she's telling the staffer, you're in my fucking
01:14:08.240
I think I would have said if I were Katie Porter, I would have been like, she was in
01:14:12.720
I don't know how to explain TV to you, but it's a hard no.
01:14:15.760
I'm doing a taped piece with Kathleen Sebelius.
01:14:20.120
Do not get in the shot and really don't get in the shot to correct something I've just
01:14:26.640
And when I'm irritated, sometimes I use the F word.
01:14:31.260
It's the least of what you'd hear from Donald Trump behind the scenes.
01:14:35.280
If I were Katie, Katie, that would have been so much better than this fake act of like,
01:14:41.160
And I've told my staff that it's like everyone knows she's going to yell at her staff for
01:14:48.420
They're all leaking to every publication about how awful she is.
01:14:55.240
Yeah, I mean, again, I don't think it'll convince everyone, but it would probably work better
01:15:04.600
It's actually a pretty viral video from Trump's first term.
01:15:17.100
And Trump didn't curse him out or anything, but he said something a little curt, you know,
01:15:22.020
just basically like, we do something about this, like, you know, and it was hilarious.
01:15:31.760
And it was just a human moment of a prominent politician.
01:15:39.380
But again, it goes back to the issue of, are you a savvy and crafty political figure?
01:15:46.240
And I just don't think that Katie Porter serves that role at all.
01:15:55.800
There was that one Trump interview when he was just civilian Trump, businessman Trump
01:15:59.420
many years ago on Larry, Larry King, where he's sitting across from Larry King in that
01:16:04.280
CNN studio with like the highlight, you know, like the game highlight where you put the pegs
01:16:11.160
It looks like a light bright display behind him.
01:16:13.100
And Trump goes, oh, my God, your breath is terrible.
01:16:17.140
You know, it's not nice, but it was a human moment.
01:16:23.920
And I think, again, most Americans are just so sick of fake politicians.
01:16:31.840
So if you can take take a moment that maybe doesn't look great for you and spin it as this
01:16:42.020
I think that's probably the best way of, you know, wiggling your way out of a bad situation.
01:16:48.760
She should have been like she shouldn't have been in the shot.
01:17:00.920
But this this little act of like I'm actually a Pollyanna.
01:17:04.560
And those were just a couple of weird, random, bad moments.
01:17:07.360
But I won't swear off on there being no more videos because I damn well know there are.
01:17:15.340
This one seems to be a reference to the they're eating the dogs.
01:17:19.880
They're eating the cats moment at that one debate between Kamala and Trump.
01:17:37.060
So, OK, so part of what I do talk about is that.
01:17:51.300
And it's Kirsten Allen, who many people here may know, and Brian Fallon.
01:18:00.320
So we saw Donald Trump coming off the plane, coming to the debate.
01:18:07.560
And so they basically say to me, we didn't tell you, but she's been talking about people
01:18:17.300
And they said, we think we need to tell you because his his propensity is to say the last
01:18:26.040
And sure enough, on the debate stage, he said it.
01:18:48.000
I mean, look, I'm going to be honest about the fact that the attention to that issue,
01:18:55.040
I think, actually hurts Republicans who were who had more of a moral high ground on the
01:19:04.640
And so it gave Democrats something to attack the Trump administration on legitimately at
01:19:11.060
a time when I think I'm not the Trump administration, the Trump campaign at a time when I think the
01:19:15.800
Trump campaign actually did have a legitimate point about what had happened with the border
01:19:21.540
and undocumented immigration under the Biden administration.
01:19:26.460
And this is the thing that drives me crazy about like some, not all, but some Democratic
01:19:30.640
voters where they will latch on to one lie right about people eating cats and dogs to
01:19:37.880
delegitimize a very legitimate issue that various communities across the country were grappling
01:19:43.920
with without any real support or help from the federal government under the Biden
01:19:49.600
So, again, I thought that was a bad move by the Trump campaign.
01:19:57.220
I don't remember her having an incredibly powerful response to Trump's statement there.
01:20:07.180
The moderators were the ones who, if I remember correctly, weighed in on that.
01:20:10.760
But I think what made Kamala Harris lucky in that one and only debate against Donald Trump
01:20:15.460
was I remember Trump having very low energy for whatever reason during that debate.
01:20:20.360
And so I remember conservative voters being upset about that, people thinking that maybe
01:20:27.580
But then after that debate, things really fell apart for her campaign because she didn't
01:20:32.380
really know what her message was or what she was representing or what she was fighting
01:20:37.000
You know, she started off with some economic populism.
01:20:41.560
Then she meets with her brother-in-law, who's an executive over at Uber, and then starts pushing
01:20:50.880
And so the base that she had started to abandon her.
01:20:57.940
The problem is, like, whether she had points or didn't have points on the dogs and the
01:21:01.720
cats and all that, and the memes that were spiked as a result of or started as a result
01:21:05.500
were, like, are one of the most memorable things with all the cats dancing and, like,
01:21:26.860
Like, one day she was Puerto Rican, the next she was Indian, the next she was Latina, then
01:21:39.900
It's like Sybil, like one, like the movie Sybil.
01:21:43.500
Sally Field all in one sitting with the cackle and the leg bouncing out of nerves.
01:21:48.580
You know, that's a nervous body response that she's in.
01:21:50.900
And the weird references to the names of the campaign staffers, which no one gives a shit
01:21:55.320
about, like, that's a stall tactic because she's feeling nervous.
01:21:59.340
Same thing as, like, media personalities can dissect it and digest it.
01:22:03.260
The civilian consumers at home going, I don't like it.
01:22:10.580
And, I mean, I'll tell you, and I look at her, I'm like, thank God we did not get saddled
01:22:17.660
Does anyone think that woman would have accomplished the peace deal that they just signed in the
01:22:27.000
I mean, I don't know what her leadership would look like, to be honest with you, because
01:22:31.060
she was VP for four years and I didn't see any leadership from her during those four years
01:22:36.900
In fact, you know, the one area where I think Biden kind of set her up to fail, quite frankly,
01:22:41.960
as the immigration czar, it was a disaster for her.
01:22:47.880
I mean, it was such a disaster that during the 2024 election, the Democrats were pretending
01:22:55.740
like Biden didn't name her the immigration czar.
01:23:01.380
She went to Guatemala and basically her big play was to tell people, do not come.
01:23:10.480
And so, you know, to your point about the way that she presents herself and how she does
01:23:17.820
But to be fair, I see a lot of politicians who engage in that.
01:23:21.520
The problem with that is it's more identity politics theater as opposed to real, substantive,
01:23:29.940
detailed solutions to problems that Americans at that time especially were really suffering
01:23:38.760
In fact, poll after poll after poll indicated that the vast majority of Americans had that
01:23:43.780
as one of their policy priorities, along with the cost of living.
01:23:48.320
And so if you don't have a real policy that you're going to promote as part of your campaign
01:23:55.100
and you're just going to lean into more of the identity politics, I got I got some news
01:24:05.480
And I think that Trump did run on policy proposals, what he wants to do, whether it's the tariffs,
01:24:13.580
immigration, you know, cost of living situation not looking very great right now under the
01:24:19.740
But at least he paid attention to it during his campaign, whereas with the Harris campaign or
01:24:25.780
even the Biden campaign, there was this weird, stubborn way of promoting something that didn't
01:24:42.640
And it was like, don't believe your lying eyes.
01:24:45.220
And we were like, you're so right, though, about that moment with the cats and the dogs.
01:24:48.260
If she had pivoted that to, OK, that's not happening.
01:24:55.240
And I haven't been in the top job for these past four years.
01:24:57.780
But let me tell you what I would do about the southern border, because it does need to be
01:25:01.620
People are suffering and there has been too much migration into the United States, legal
01:25:09.700
She would have answered all of the questions of that campaign differently if she were capable
01:25:14.480
Anyway, it was the first time I ever life I actually felt for Kara Swisher.
01:25:23.180
We have to take a quick break, but we will be back.
01:25:26.500
I'm dying to get Anna's take on what's happening with Barry Weiss already over at CBS.
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I'll be joined by Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, Glenn Beck, Adam Harola, Charlie Sheen, Piers
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It's Megan Kelly live, presented by Y Refi and Sirius XM.
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She's host and executive producer of The Young Turks.
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So, Anna, Michelle Obama has a podcast, and near as I can tell, she devotes some 90% of
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it to telling us why she can't stand Barack Obama.
01:29:13.140
Literally, I think we are the only ones who watch it.
01:29:19.260
She has a podcast, and all she does is rip on her husband.
01:29:21.560
I mean, truly, every show has got a new update on how she can't stand him.
01:29:27.920
The latest was she cannot stand watching him chew at the dinner table.
01:29:33.060
And, like, her blood is boiling as she sits across from him, like, I want to smack his face
01:29:40.760
She's, like, zero to 13 were traumatic and horrible.
01:29:46.200
You know, it's like all you have after that is high school.
01:29:53.540
Here was the latest that just happened yesterday.
01:29:59.340
I'm, you know, making her bed, because whenever they went to camp or somewhere, I said, I'll make
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your bed once, and I'll make it really neat and nice.
01:30:06.640
Got her room all set up, and you could tell Barack was totally clueless.
01:30:13.300
We gave him a lamp from Ikea and said, put it together.
01:30:21.420
But he was over there with his lamp for, like, two hours.
01:30:23.920
We had to get in this motorcade and leave the baby behind, you know, and to watch her standing
01:30:36.740
You know, we're driving back to the Air Force One in the motorcade.
01:30:40.580
You know, we're a little quiet, and I hear this.
01:30:48.360
And I had to look over and be like, and the agents are like, sir, are you okay?
01:31:01.780
I'm sorry, but she never misses the chance to try to emasculate him or make him look like
01:31:09.400
You know, there's a complaint among many conservatives, Anna, that, like, I've heard them rip on the
01:31:19.940
But I accept the legitimate criticism that the thing that some conservatives don't like
01:31:24.360
about it is they make Phil Dunphy, the patriarch of the whole family, an absolute moron.
01:31:31.060
You know, he looks weak and dumb and really in no way like a strong, you know, male role
01:31:40.220
And honestly, she tries so hard to make Barack Obama go from like this towering figure and
01:31:47.100
it's well past like, oh, we'll be a little self-deprecating so people can relate to us.
01:31:50.560
It's every episode, something insulting about him and never the opposite.
01:31:57.000
The imitation of the way he sounded while he was crying, like an intimate family moment
01:32:01.560
that she now wants to repeat in front of the national audience.
01:32:08.340
I she has also the casual references to Air Force One and the motorcade and the Secret Service.
01:32:16.360
Just last week, she was bitching about how famous she is and how she can't stand it.
01:32:20.340
She doesn't like going out to dinner because she's always the topic of conversation of the
01:32:26.200
But now she just wants to remind us about all the accoutrements around them that make
01:32:34.480
She's doing a podcast, meaning like you're putting yourself out there as a public figure.
01:32:41.780
And so I get by the way, I totally understand the downsides of being a public figure and how
01:32:50.060
But if you want that to kind of fade away, you don't do a podcast.
01:32:54.400
Now, I thought I thought she had done like a few episodes of a podcast.
01:32:58.480
And I remember seeing that like, I don't know, last year, a few months ago.
01:33:03.440
But I can understand why it doesn't have the viewership that you would expect as someone
01:33:09.080
who's a former first lady, because think about how Democratic voters really put Obama on
01:33:16.240
He's like, in their minds, the ideal Democratic leader.
01:33:20.160
And they have in their minds, like great memories of the eight years Obama was in charge.
01:33:26.100
And so to listen to a podcast or watch a podcast in which his wife is trashing him all the time,
01:33:33.640
In fact, every time we at the Young Turks do a video where we're critical of something
01:33:38.340
Obama has done recently, we always lose subscribers, always, because they don't want to hear it.
01:33:43.000
They want to look back on those eight years and only think of the positives.
01:33:47.340
And again, having Michelle Obama, the former first lady, you know, insult former President
01:33:53.400
Obama is probably not something that they find very appealing.
01:33:56.480
But what's also interesting is, you know, she had been urged to put her name in the ring
01:34:03.200
in the 2024 election, and the reporting indicated that she doesn't like it.
01:34:11.560
It seems like she likes being in the public eye, maybe in a different capacity.
01:34:16.320
Although she's not that much in the public eye because her average video gets between
01:34:30.000
My assistant, Abigail Finan, could start a podcast today and draw well above that.
01:34:39.080
So that's how it's going over Michelle Obama land.
01:34:41.580
I want to talk about what's happening with Barry Weiss at CBS because it's ridiculous.
01:34:45.920
So Barry Weiss sent out one of those doge kind of emails to the staff at CBS saying,
01:34:57.900
Like, what projects are you currently working on?
01:35:00.140
It wasn't quite as aggressive as the Elon one, but it was like, I'm new.
01:35:04.720
Can you send me an email letting me know what projects you're working on and what you're up to?
01:35:10.620
It was like, all these meetings had to be called.
01:35:14.140
The union got involved and now there's been an official, like they, they, the union responded
01:35:25.240
Will people be subject to, to discipline or some sort of suspension or punishment if you
01:35:31.280
It was, so finally the union has assessed the situation and now CBS had to respond to the
01:35:37.980
union that, okay, you will not be disciplined if you don't respond.
01:35:41.600
Um, that you will not be, this will not be the basis for discipline, discharge or layoff.
01:35:48.040
And of course there's also, you don't need to respond at all.
01:35:53.640
There's no penalty whatsoever for entirely blowing her off.
01:35:57.140
To me, this is funny because I love Barry, but it's not going to go well.
01:36:02.380
These organizations cannot be changed from the top down.
01:36:05.300
They can only be changed from the bottom up and they will never, ever, ever, ever, ever
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accept somebody who didn't grow up next to them in the CBS ranks ever.
01:36:14.120
You, you have, and I mean like, you can't even go laterally.
01:36:17.140
Like Catherine Herridge went there from Fox news, who was a very respected reporter on
01:36:21.420
I mean, completely had her chops and she was a legit reporter.
01:36:25.060
You could, she could never be dismissed as like some Fox, whatever.
01:36:32.380
And that's a reporter, nevermind an editor in chief who gets helicoptered in.
01:36:37.540
And so this is just to me, the first sign of trouble.
01:36:41.480
It will probably in my estimation last a couple of years before Barry says F this toxic environment.
01:36:47.780
I'm peacing out of here, but this is sort of chapter one, your thoughts on it.
01:36:54.600
So let me just say that the email asking, you know, what are you working on?
01:37:01.680
In fact, um, we're, I'm not represented by a union, but when TYT had hired a president
01:37:08.280
for the first time, this is back in 2016 or 2017, she called everyone into her office because
01:37:15.340
she wanted to get to know them and wanted to get to know what their role is within the
01:37:23.580
I think the reason why the workers at CBS found it threatening is because of all of the
01:37:29.860
reporting that came out prior to Barry Weiss being brought in and the financial times in
01:37:36.040
particular had noted that David Ellison, after this merger with Paramount Sundance with CBS
01:37:42.660
and all of that, uh, had said that he was considering purchasing the free press, uh, for a lot of money,
01:37:51.840
Originally there were rumors that it was going to be as much as $250 million, but the financial
01:37:57.020
time for a company that was making, that was bringing in 15 million a year.
01:38:00.220
So, I mean, the financials were largely inflated.
01:38:02.840
Yes. So I want to get back to that in just a minute, but in, in regard to David Ellison,
01:38:08.620
the financial times reported that he liked that the free press had a pro Israel bias.
01:38:15.840
And so you have the reporters and some of the workers over at CBS worried that she's going to
01:38:21.240
be brought on specifically to sway the reporting in a way that's more favorable to Israel and not
01:38:27.760
necessarily fair or accurate. So when the entire situation starts from that place, it's just,
01:38:34.820
it's really hard to like recover from that. You get what I'm saying? Because they're worried that
01:38:39.960
their reputation as reporters, their reputation as a news organization is going to tank as a result of
01:38:46.300
that. But on top of that, look, I also think David Ellison wanted to bring her on because in his mind,
01:38:53.760
this is a way to marry digital independent media to legacy media, which is dying. Let's keep it
01:39:03.260
real. But I'm going to say from my personal, uh, my personal experience, you can't make that
01:39:09.000
transition. It doesn't transition well because people who have sworn off corporate, a legacy
01:39:14.420
media are never going back. They just don't trust it. They don't trust these institutions.
01:39:19.340
No, I totally agree with you. That's the problem. Like I, I get what he's trying to do.
01:39:22.980
It's just not possible. You can't, you know, the other patient has expired and you cannot take
01:39:30.160
like the working brain and working heart of a still alive person and put them in this corpse.
01:39:36.380
It just, that's not going to bring them back. They've expired. They've been expired for too long.
01:39:40.980
The window of reviving them has passed. And as talented as Barry is, she's not that talented.
01:39:46.860
No one is, no one can do it. But I also think that like, I know, trust me, I know because I've
01:39:53.700
been in television for a long time. They, I guarantee you are over there saying she's never
01:39:59.960
even worked in TV. Their noses will be turned up as high as humanly possible at the fact that this
01:40:08.620
print reporter that's, and they don't even see Barry as a reporter, like opinion, opinion person from the
01:40:15.640
New York times has the nerve to come over here and try to tell us about editorial at the vaunted
01:40:22.860
CBS news. And she never even done TV. I guarantee you those are the comments that are happening
01:40:31.200
behind the scenes. And as nice as Barry is and as reasonable and as talented, they're just not
01:40:36.480
open-minded to it. They they're jealous. She has it and they don't. And they resent the fact that she
01:40:42.000
got put in this position without having to pay her dues the way they did. I just think they're two
01:40:47.000
completely different forms of media, right? Like I know that both, whether you're talking about the
01:40:52.620
free press or CBS, they're in the news business to some capacity, but the format on television is not
01:41:00.220
conducive to informing people, to be quite honest with you. You know, I'm going, yeah, I mean, like
01:41:06.080
long-form conversations like this, when I think about my own media consumption, and I really like to
01:41:10.760
listen to podcasts or various voices from across the political spectrum, I want long-form. I don't
01:41:17.320
want to go to a commercial break every five minutes. I want to hear what different voices have to say
01:41:22.760
about any particular issue, and I want them to speak at length. You're not going to get that on CBS or
01:41:28.500
ABC, on network news, on cable news. It's just not conducive to a real conversation.
01:41:34.500
Mm-hmm. I know it's a frustration in watching it now that we're used to this other medium. When you
01:41:38.660
turn on cable, you're like, what is it? My God, it's so annoying. And you have to be sitting there
01:41:42.980
at a certain time, and you have to sit there and watch the commercials. And of course, the networks
01:41:47.000
all have an agenda that you may or may not know about because they may or may not disclose it.
01:41:51.040
I mean, there's all sorts of handicaps to the forum that have made it irrelevant and obsolete.
01:41:56.920
In any event, I'm still wishing her luck, and I, you know, kind of just feel like, take the money and
01:42:02.180
run, do it for a couple of years, and then come back to where you belong, which is this free,
01:42:06.860
the independent lane that has been so valuable to all of us. Anna is one of the pioneers in this
01:42:12.200
space. Thank you so much for coming on. Love talking to you. Thank you for having me, Megan.
01:42:17.120
All right, to be continued. And we are back tomorrow with our pals from the fifth column.
01:42:22.000
I got a lot of goodness in store for those guys. They better buckle up because we're going to have
01:42:26.180
a fun time together. Love the fifth column. Okay, see you guys then.
01:42:31.520
Thanks for listening to The Megan Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear.
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