The Megyn Kelly Show - Dan Bongino on Threats to Trump, Biden's Poor Parenting, and the Gift of Failure

00:00:00.480 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations.

00:00:11.920 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show and happy Friday.

00:00:16.520 We have an excellent, excellent show for you today with an exciting guest.

00:00:20.820 Dan Bongino is back by popular demand.

00:00:24.100 You of course know Dan for his sharp political commentary.

00:00:27.080 He's host of the huge hit, The Dan Bongino Show.

00:00:31.100 But today he's here to discuss, yes, the news, but also his new book, The Gift of Failure, which he calls a motivational memoir.

00:00:39.720 In it, he shares personal stories from his childhood, from his time in the Secret Service, and his continuing fight for free speech in this country.

00:00:47.660 As always, Dan is brutally honest, but leaves you with the tools to turn failure, you struggling with one right now, into a gift.

00:00:56.040 And he's got some great, great ideas about this whole thing.

00:00:59.160 Dan Bongino, so good to see you. How are you?

00:01:02.940 Yeah, I'm good. And, you know, it's funny, since our last interview totally blew up, I was getting it from everyone.

00:01:08.240 You know, grandmothers, moms, neighbors, kids, dogs.

00:01:12.000 Everyone was like, I saw you on The Megyn Kelly Show.

00:01:13.820 I had to laugh because it wasn't but a day or two later, I read another one of these articles about how you and I descended into total irrelevancy since we left Fox.

00:01:23.520 And I find it so comical how nobody understands this new media environment.

00:01:28.520 We got, we do this interview.

00:01:29.820 I was at a party, I'm not even kidding, at the Stewart's Sandbar.

00:01:32.660 And someone came up to me and said, I love Megyn Kelly.

00:01:35.120 She's the best interviewer and your interview with her.

00:01:38.460 And I just get a kick out of it because this is new media and just take it over where we control our own content, do our own thing.

00:01:45.340 And I'm really sorry if you're not on the boat, you're outside and you don't understand it.

00:01:49.460 But we're the ones, no one's, I don't want to change spots with anyone.

00:01:52.840 Everyone wants to change spots with us.

00:01:54.720 But it was an awesome interview.

00:01:55.820 I actually watched it myself.

00:01:57.160 I was like, she's a really great interviewer.

00:01:59.180 Like, I didn't realize I could even answer questions like that.

00:02:01.540 So it was pretty good to be back.

00:02:03.320 It was one of my favorites since we've launched the show.

00:02:06.020 You've always just been so dynamic, but there's a good chemistry there too, which always works in an interview.

00:02:11.700 This is, like, you can see it when it's on the screen.

00:02:13.820 It's hard to avoid.

00:02:14.920 But, you know, now that you mentioned this, I wasn't planning on leading with this, but it is one of my, very few things irritate me in the press about myself.

00:02:21.620 I'm used to them saying whatever they want to say about me.

00:02:23.940 But I do get annoyed when they refuse to call me a journalist.

00:02:27.280 I'm a journalist and a commentator.

00:02:29.600 Those are the two things I do.

00:02:30.520 But I am absolutely a journalist.

00:02:32.680 And the fact that I do commentary on the news doesn't diminish that.

00:02:36.700 I mean, did they ever refer to Don Lemon as, you know, just talk show host or liberal commentator?

00:02:44.800 No, they call that guy a journalist.

00:02:47.540 But they refuse to use this term when they're writing about me, Dan.

00:02:52.520 And it's always the left-wing publications.

00:02:54.760 And it's intentional, right?

00:02:56.120 They're trying to undermine you in the same vein as what you just said.

00:03:00.220 Like, now I'm over in this irrelevant sphere in which no real journalist would ever appear.

00:03:07.580 It's like they've never seen, like, iTunes charts, Spotify downloads.

00:03:12.880 It's really bizarre how you'd expose yourself is so foolish.

00:03:16.360 Megan, I'm going to tell you something.

00:03:17.260 Honestly, the word journalist doesn't mean jack shit anymore.

00:03:20.120 Really, I get what you're saying.

00:03:21.600 Like, it's not a proxy for credibility.

00:03:24.960 We have a running joke on my radio show.

00:03:27.500 If you call me a journalist, I'm going to have to immediately cut you off because I don't want to be associated with such a pathetic group of people.

00:03:33.600 President, company, obviously excluded.

00:03:35.740 And I forget who it was, but maybe it was Trump interviewing Trump or somebody called me a journalist.

00:03:40.440 And the audience, like, jumped on Facebook.

00:03:42.920 Stop them, Dan.

00:03:43.840 Stop them right now.

00:03:45.060 It doesn't mean anything.

00:03:46.600 It doesn't.

00:03:46.880 I'll give you a quick example.

00:03:48.460 A friend of mine sends me a thing during my radio show today and says, Dan, there's this group of, you know, liberal lunatics, ad fontes, media, whatever, and they grade the credibility of commentators.

00:03:58.080 And they said they gave you an F and Rachel Maddow an A.

00:04:01.380 And I said, that's hilarious because Moscow Rachel Maddow, who pretends to be a journalist, has, you know, almost, I hate the word literally, but almost literally gotten every single major story of our time about Trump wrong.

00:04:14.720 The impeachment thing, the collusion stuff, the spying operation, the Mike Flynn story, the tax returns.

00:04:20.680 We got them right.

00:04:21.980 I wrote books on them, actual books on them.

00:04:24.240 I footnoted them with liberal sources, extensively researched, and yet we get an F.

00:04:29.600 Why?

00:04:30.320 Because I don't meet what the left calls a journalistic standard.

00:04:33.560 But if the standard's meaningless and it's like a ruler that changes every five minutes, well, here's a 12-inch ruler, and tomorrow it's six inches, and the next minute it's eight inches, then it's not really measuring anything, is it?

00:04:44.840 I mean, it's not even, you know, there's validity and reliability, right?

00:04:49.240 If you're a scientist, there's two measures of how you would measure the robustness of statistics.

00:04:54.240 So if your information is valid, right, say like a scale.

00:04:59.120 A scale can be 20 pounds off every time.

00:05:02.400 I weigh about 200 pounds right now.

00:05:04.320 So the scale shows 220.

00:05:06.000 It's not, it's reliable, but it's not valid.

00:05:09.140 It's not measuring my weight.

00:05:10.580 The thing about the media and the thing with journalism is you're actually given an A for being reliably wrong like the scale.

00:05:16.600 It's a valid measure.

00:05:17.980 You're a left-wing lunatic.

00:05:19.260 You're validating your left-wing lunacy.

00:05:22.300 But you're just not reliable.

00:05:24.080 You're not validly measuring anything statistical.

00:05:27.140 And as long as you tow the liberal line, you'll get the journalist title.

00:05:29.940 But someone like you won't because you've said things that, you know, that don't, you know, don't, don't go right up to the line and you don't genuflect before the golden calf of liberalism.

00:05:39.900 A hundred percent true.

00:05:41.300 You know, I was thinking about it because I recently for, for like my kids are all in middle school or late elementary school.

00:05:48.580 And soon they're going to be moving on to high school.

00:05:50.940 And I'm very much conscious of not projecting to them that they get to have to get perfect grades.

00:05:55.400 You know, their mother did not.

00:05:58.140 And so I'm, I decided to go back to my high school to get my transcript just because I knew that there would be some things in there to make my kids feel better.

00:06:04.960 Just in case when they go to high school, they have those down moments.

00:06:08.040 They get some bad grades and start to beat themselves up.

00:06:10.640 I'm saving this.

00:06:11.600 I'm putting my back pocket.

00:06:12.880 And when they come home sad, I'm just going to show my transcript and I'm trying to make them feel better.

00:06:17.400 I say it in other ways all the time, but it's different to actually see the grades.

00:06:21.080 Let's just say that they were a lot worse than I expected.

00:06:24.260 I knew they weren't going to be stellar, Dan, but I didn't know they were going to be like this checkered.

00:06:28.640 Okay.

00:06:29.280 So Abby, my assistant now is on a mission to get them all for me.

00:06:32.480 And she actually got my guidance counselor's college recommendation for me.

00:06:38.980 And I'm not going to read you the whole thing, but I'm going to read you one line and I'm going to explain why this is relevant to our discussion about journalism.

00:06:44.740 Okay.

00:06:45.020 Here is, here's the first cut, like three lines.

00:06:49.140 First of all, he calls me Meg Kelly, which is funny because like nobody calls me Meg Kelly, but okay.

00:06:53.440 My husband calls me Meg.

00:06:54.680 Meg Kelly is a, is a solid student who has taken a strong program in high school.

00:07:00.840 Her areas of strength seem to be in language arts and social studies.

00:07:04.980 Meg loves to write and has a real interest in politics and government.

00:07:08.400 Okay.

00:07:08.600 That's interesting.

00:07:09.120 Currently, her goal is to become a political journalist.

00:07:13.780 Look at that, Dan.

00:07:14.980 And I'll read you one more line.

00:07:16.080 You nailed that or what?

00:07:17.960 Megan has had to work much harder and achieved less success in math and science.

00:07:24.520 He goes on from there.

00:07:26.440 Right on.

00:07:27.240 Mr. Vela, I cannot deny.

00:07:29.900 Okay.

00:07:30.160 But you're not a nuclear physicist.

00:07:32.600 Right.

00:07:33.040 We've all got our little niches, right?

00:07:36.240 So the political journals.

00:07:38.160 One thing I learned, wait, wait, hold on.

00:07:39.780 One thing I learned about you this week, I follow you on social media, is apparently you're quite the basketball player too.

00:07:45.780 You got a nice little shot there.

00:07:47.080 I saw you, I guess your kids were filming you.

00:07:49.920 I'm sorry to embarrass you.

00:07:50.980 It's on your Instagram.

00:07:51.740 So I figured it's public knowledge in this way.

00:07:53.520 If you have not followed Megan Kelly on Instagram and you want to see her shoot hoops, she's got a little bit of LeBron Allen Iverson going there, man.

00:07:59.920 Not too bad.

00:08:00.900 The kids got you a little like, they were cryptic about it too, right?

00:08:04.500 From the living room or something?

00:08:06.000 Yeah, they were insides taping me without my knowledge.

00:08:09.160 Yeah, it was great.

00:08:10.280 That was very good.

00:08:11.080 Very candid moment.

00:08:12.280 You and Rachel Campos are my favorite followers on Instagram.

00:08:15.640 She's got a daughter with downs and the daughter is just the cutest kid on planet Earth.

00:08:20.460 I mean, there's nothing finer than what these videos will always put a smile on your face, but you guys are really great.

00:08:26.080 And your guidance counselor there, I mean, absolutely nailed it.

00:08:29.580 We all have little like niches, right?

00:08:31.900 And, you know, I wrote a whole book about failing at a thousand different things.

00:08:36.580 And, you know, Megan, sometimes you ask God for answers as I write in a book and talk about honestly and openly.

00:08:43.840 And the answer is no.

00:08:45.540 People think, oh, I asked God for an answer.

00:08:47.280 And he's like obligated to tell you, yes, God, I want to be a millionaire.

00:08:50.460 I want to be a politician.

00:08:51.680 I want to be a congressman.

00:08:52.780 You know what the answer was?

00:08:53.540 No.

00:08:54.220 And if you're going to ask him for answers, you better damn well be listening.

00:08:56.880 The ask is the easy part.

00:08:58.240 The listen is the hard part.

00:08:59.860 I love the book.

00:09:00.920 And I want to get to it in one second.

00:09:02.620 The only reason I'm getting into my high school guidance counselor's opinion of me is the reason I wanted to be a political journalist, Dan,

00:09:09.620 is because in 10th grade, I watched in my journalism class all the president's men.

00:09:15.800 And like so many, I just thought that was such a great story.

00:09:19.180 You know, Woodward and Bernstein and Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman and Jason Robards, you know, is like you felt inspired.

00:09:26.200 It wasn't political.

00:09:27.280 It wasn't like I wasn't anti Nixon or anything like that.

00:09:30.680 I was just like, oh, my God, this is crazy story, crazy story and how they got it.

00:09:34.740 I don't even know what we are anymore.

00:09:37.120 You're right.

00:09:37.660 The term journalist is meaningless.

00:09:40.100 Now, if anything, it has a negative connotation.

00:09:42.340 And you've given me a new way of looking at this irritant.

00:09:45.540 I'm actually going to let this irritant go because you're right.

00:09:48.660 That term itself is it is not what it once was.

00:09:51.840 It is.

00:09:52.260 And journalism itself is not what it once was.

00:09:55.900 Yeah.

00:09:56.380 I mean, there's a lot of theories about what what killed journalism.

00:09:59.620 I think and it's never one thing.

00:10:02.380 I mean, there's never really in life a road to Damascus moment.

00:10:05.140 I mean, you know, that happens in great stories and the Bible and great cataclysmic events.

00:10:09.620 But in life, things happen on on on an incline and a decline.

00:10:13.120 They happen slowly.

00:10:13.900 You know, the simple machines, you know, an incline ramp there.

00:10:16.740 And the thing about what I wanted that one of the lead factors, if you had to attribute it,

00:10:20.880 say, I don't know, 51.62 percent of it is definitely the subscription model for journalism online.

00:10:27.020 Right now, you have this model online where it's really easy to disconnect.

00:10:30.560 When we were growing up in New York, it was basically two papers.

00:10:33.960 The conservatives bought the New York Post.

00:10:35.680 The liberals bought the Daily News.

00:10:37.180 Maybe you picked up a news day once in a while.

00:10:38.880 But, you know, they had their audience.

00:10:40.900 The other one had theirs.

00:10:41.740 But they would generally agree on a certain set of facts.

00:10:44.020 It was just how they kind of put lipstick on the facts.

00:10:46.300 It mattered because it was always crossover to some people bought both.

00:10:50.480 Now, with the litany of information with social media, which is democratized information exchange.

00:10:55.200 I mean, you and I can go and report on a story on Twitter or true social right now and break news ahead of the Washington Post.

00:11:01.880 I mean, Megan, one thing I was astounded to learn as on a self-praise moment at all, it's just a hard reality.

00:11:06.820 You can look up yourself.

00:11:07.700 So my Facebook page, which is one of the most popular in the world, has a larger distribution than the Washington Post and the New York Times combined.

00:11:15.680 I found that out, by the way, through the New York Times.

00:11:18.980 Kevin Roos, who wrote an article about me, it's sitting right there on the wall because I love to mock them.

00:11:23.280 It's called Right Wing Pundit Draws a Lot of Who's on Facebook.

00:11:27.660 And he'll tell you, I have a bigger audience than them combined.

00:11:31.000 So I can crack a story quicker than them.

00:11:33.920 So the problem they have now is you've got a bunch of left-wing nuts who are subscribed to this business model that's old.

00:11:40.600 And if you lose 10, 20 percent of them because you write an honest article about Trump, your business is finished.

00:11:45.100 It's done.

00:11:46.200 So I think that's a lot of it.

00:11:47.920 I don't like simple explanations, but that's probably a lot of it.

00:11:51.480 No, I think that's true.

00:11:52.340 But not only do you have greater reach, you have greater loyalty.

00:11:55.580 Because in this arena, your audience is with you.

00:11:58.880 It's not to say they'll agree with every position you ever take.

00:12:01.340 Sometimes you'll aggravate them.

00:12:02.740 But they're with you because they spend two hours with you a day.

00:12:06.220 They know your heart.

00:12:07.120 They know your soul.

00:12:07.980 They know your honesty.

00:12:09.440 It's not like on TV or coming through the Washington Post and just seeing a byline.

00:12:13.440 And it's like they've gotten to know you.

00:12:15.760 They know your family.

00:12:16.720 They know your troubles.

00:12:17.580 They know your foibles.

00:12:19.560 The relationship is so much more genuine and loyal both ways.

00:12:24.520 It's so weird because I've been doing books.

00:12:26.620 I don't get out a lot.

00:12:27.640 I mean, this is a studio.

00:12:29.280 It's a home studio.

00:12:30.160 We just bought a new one, but we're still here for about another six months.

00:12:33.400 And it's basically an apartment in the back of my house.

00:12:35.860 So I don't get out.

00:12:37.000 I literally don't get out much.

00:12:38.320 So when I see people, it's always refreshing.

00:12:39.820 So I've been doing book signings for the last couple of days.

00:12:42.720 And it's just so strange because people will come up and they'll tell me stories about my life that I forgot I told on the air.

00:12:50.280 And they're like, oh, my gosh, that story about you in the first watch with the lady.

00:12:54.140 And I'm like, which one again?

00:12:55.940 And they're like, you know, when the lady, she paid the bill.

00:12:57.900 And I'm like, oh, my gosh, that's how do you know that?

00:13:00.420 They're like you told it on the radio six months ago.

00:13:02.440 And it's like you said, like there's so bought into your life.

00:13:06.600 It's so flattering, yet so asymmetric, because I know you care about your audience as much as I do.

00:13:12.720 I've known you a long time.

00:13:13.980 Like you're passionate about your audience.

00:13:16.020 You wouldn't be doing this otherwise.

00:13:17.280 I mean, listen, let's be honest.

00:13:18.560 You don't need the money.

00:13:19.420 You know, you're doing this because you enjoy it.

00:13:21.140 And having an audience that enjoys it back is this reciprocal feeling of joy we both have.

00:13:25.840 But I don't know if you get this, but I feel like I owe them more.

00:13:29.480 Like you're at a book signing and you maybe get 20, 30 seconds with them because there's 500 people online.

00:13:33.960 And I just always leave with this feeling like, damn it, I just wanted to say more and let that woman know how much they matter.

00:13:41.280 But but it's just it's just not practical.

00:13:43.480 You just can't.

00:13:44.340 And I and, you know, people send me emails.

00:13:46.300 Dan, we understand that.

00:13:47.420 I love that they do that.

00:13:48.320 I just want them to never hold that again.

00:13:50.320 It matters to me.

00:13:51.180 It penetrates my mind.

00:13:53.360 Because, you know, on radio, you can take callers, you know, and we release it as a podcast, a YouTube show.

00:13:57.880 You can't really like interact live while that's happening.

00:13:59.980 But I like being live on the radio where I can actually take callers and get to know the audience.

00:14:04.080 And the one thing I've never I've never been disappointed by is the level of intelligence of the audience.

00:14:10.080 Like you don't underestimate them.

00:14:11.880 They really are incredibly smart.

00:14:13.660 They will bring it to you.

00:14:14.740 They they don't require any handholding.

00:14:17.040 And that's a blessing.

00:14:18.160 Right.

00:14:18.420 Because you never know.

00:14:19.420 Like when you're cable, I have no idea.

00:14:21.080 I don't really know.

00:14:21.700 But in this sphere, these are news consumers.

00:14:24.280 They're pretty avid about it.

00:14:25.800 Like you can start at a run at day.

00:14:29.120 I mean, even little thing.

00:14:31.040 Again, when I was first doing my podcast, I the live chat on Rumble is my favorite thing to do because we interact live.

00:14:37.660 I do the show live at 11 and it's just awesome.

00:14:39.920 We do live polls.

00:14:40.980 I have so much fun with people, but it's instant fact checking.

00:14:44.020 One time I said horse blinders and a guy was like, it's horse blinkers.

00:14:48.060 It's not horse.

00:14:48.820 But I didn't know that I had to go look that up.

00:14:50.900 And it's little things and big things.

00:14:52.820 People will instantly correct you like I'm really terrible with pop culture references because I just don't go see a lot of movies.

00:14:59.180 I just don't care.

00:14:59.780 Who's got the time?

00:15:00.520 Right.

00:15:00.740 Most movies suck anyway.

00:15:02.000 So what's the point?

00:15:02.940 So I just don't see him.

00:15:04.140 But people tell me about him and I'll see him in clips and I'll say something.

00:15:07.500 I'll be like, you know, and this is from whatever, like Star Wars or the Godfather.

00:15:11.100 Dude, that's not the Godfather.

00:15:12.940 That's Tombstone with Kurt Russell.

00:15:14.820 Like, what's wrong with you?

00:15:16.040 And it's just so hilarious.

00:15:17.980 They are.

00:15:18.240 They know everything about everybody's instant feedback, you know, back in the cable days.

00:15:23.240 I, you know, you had to rely on viewer email and there you learn the hard way, too, because you say something live in the air and then you find out either from like the PR people that you've stepped in it or now would be Twitter, I imagine.

00:15:33.660 But I would get it in the emails.

00:15:35.480 And I'll tell you two things I learned that you're not allowed to say, at least on cable.

00:15:39.060 Now, I swear like a sailor, but you're not allowed to say scumbag because I was informed after saying it on O'Reilly.

00:15:46.400 Yes.

00:15:46.960 Forgive me.

00:15:47.720 But scumbag is apparently a term for a used condom.

00:15:50.720 Sorry.

00:15:51.760 That's number one.

00:15:52.580 And two, you can't say paddy wagon because that's a slur to my people.

00:15:58.840 That's a slur of the Irish, Dan.

00:16:00.640 It's about all the paddies that got rounded up.

00:16:02.960 I didn't know that.

00:16:03.940 I thought it was like an actual term.

00:16:06.320 You're not allowed to say a lot on the air.

00:16:09.480 Fortunately, I said a lot of it.

00:16:11.000 Probably why I'm not working there anymore.

00:16:12.620 I mean, I think I said bullshit a couple of times on the air, too.

00:16:15.500 And they were like, dude, you're really not supposed to say that.

00:16:17.540 It's Fox and Friends.

00:16:18.500 Like it's six in the morning.

00:16:19.680 I was like, really?

00:16:21.820 Yeah.

00:16:22.740 You do learn the hard way.

00:16:24.300 I mean, you know, in cable news, the good thing about my Fox show is a lot of it.

00:16:28.040 We did.

00:16:28.420 We taped on Friday.

00:16:29.700 We got to do a lot of live shows on Saturday because of breaking news and stuff.

00:16:32.920 But we could always like clean stuff up.

00:16:34.780 But you do kind of learn the hard way.

00:16:36.440 And the audience is generally forgiving if they know what's in your heart.

00:16:40.240 Yeah.

00:16:40.540 You kind of figure that.

00:16:41.740 But I mean, I've called probably 10, 15 people scumbags every day.

00:16:45.540 And I don't even care.

00:16:46.500 Like, it's probably why I'm better off on my own.

00:16:48.680 Like, I just don't like being told what to do ever.

00:16:51.040 I had a good time there.

00:16:52.060 Like I said, I know they got their issues, whatever.

00:16:54.360 But I got friends there still.

00:16:55.820 There's good people there.

00:16:57.000 And to some people, probably not such good people.

00:16:59.140 But I'm just better off doing my own thing.

00:17:01.680 And I know you.

00:17:03.340 I mean, your career is just taking off.

00:17:05.020 I'm actually upset.

00:17:05.980 Wait, I got a bone to pick with you here if I may.

00:17:08.020 I know it's your show.

00:17:08.820 I don't want to hijack it.

00:17:09.660 But so, you know, I'm busting my ass for eight years with this podcast.

00:17:15.400 Finally, I'm like the number two guy, Ben Shapiro, Dan Bongino.

00:17:19.660 It's like that for like three years.

00:17:21.440 And then like a month ago, I see the rankings.

00:17:23.740 And Megyn Kelly's number two.

00:17:24.880 I'm like, totally unacceptable.

00:17:26.820 Totally unacceptable.

00:17:28.600 I'm like, I refuse to be number three on the iTunes charts.

00:17:32.480 Like people really love your show.

00:17:33.920 And I got to tell you that you did it in such a short period of time.

00:17:37.100 I'm serious.

00:17:37.560 It's like the, I think it was the August rankings.

00:17:39.580 That is the first time we've been number three.

00:17:42.660 And I'm kidding.

00:17:43.880 I'm actually very happy.

00:17:44.660 I know you're kidding.

00:17:45.420 I know you're kidding.

00:17:45.760 But don't you love, I remember seeing that.

00:17:47.780 And I tweeted out this and I feel this.

00:17:49.740 I love my neighborhood.

00:17:51.620 I love sharing this space with you and Ben and the guys who are in the top five.

00:17:56.360 Like what a great collection of people.

00:17:59.420 And even though we're not all under the same umbrella, like Fox News or CNN or what have

00:18:03.740 you, don't, I feel like we're a part of a community.

00:18:06.320 I feel like more times than not, we have each other's back.

00:18:09.640 If you see somebody coming for one of us, you know, it's like the bar is high and people

00:18:14.960 understand how it's like an attack on the whole ecosphere.

00:18:19.020 It is.

00:18:19.800 And Megan, you know, some people talk and some people do.

00:18:22.340 I absolutely feel that way and I can back it up.

00:18:25.340 I mean, I don't know how much you follow your Twitter or don't, but I'm on there all day

00:18:30.100 between that and truth because I'm just like obsessed with show prep and stuff.

00:18:34.060 I just, the store, I have this FOMO thing.

00:18:36.480 We are missing out.

00:18:37.960 So I saw, I was just a couple of weeks ago.

00:18:39.680 It's like the second or third time I've had to do this where somebody tweeted again.

00:18:42.520 That's why I opened up the show with it.

00:18:44.220 Some dumb article about you.

00:18:46.140 Like, oh my gosh, Megan Kelly's not on Fox.

00:18:48.520 I'm like, do you have any idea how big her audience is?

00:18:51.640 I mean, are you that stupid?

00:18:53.580 Like, this was a journalist type person.

00:18:55.900 So I think I tweeted out, Danny can probably tell you if you look for it, something like,

00:19:00.300 tell me you don't understand new media without telling me you don't understand new media.

00:19:04.060 Like, look at this dumb tweet right here.

00:19:06.660 So yeah, I mean, that means a lot to me.

00:19:08.840 I don't care if it's your show or not.

00:19:10.740 I'm invested in this entire space, this new media space.

00:19:13.960 And if you don't think this is the future, I mean, just look at the numbers.

00:19:17.820 One side's going down, cable news, and one side's going up.

00:19:21.500 Which side do you want to be on?

00:19:22.940 I mean, it's not complicated math to figure out.

00:19:25.660 There was just a headline this weekend, about this past weekend, saying CNN on its weekend

00:19:31.840 shows, it's, you know, they take the weekend demo average and the weekend overall average

00:19:35.220 demo being 25 to 54 year olds for the audience at home.

00:19:37.660 Um, and it, it was the lowest in CNN history, you know, Dan and in cable, we always just

00:19:45.820 look at the demo and Fox news never came near this, but some of our competitors did in the

00:19:49.960 demo.

00:19:50.360 And if you get under 50,000, um, you call them slashies.

00:19:54.100 They don't even show you what you got.

00:19:55.200 Just get two slash marks to show you that you didn't even hit the 50,000 mark, which,

00:19:59.000 you know, it should be very easy to do in cable news.

00:20:02.060 And the, the demos now averaging, I think 55,000, they're almost at slashies across the

00:20:07.320 weekend in all CNN programming.

00:20:09.720 The overall was averaging about 350,000, 350,000.

00:20:14.400 That's, that's the demo on most Fox shows.

00:20:17.520 Um, or at least it was, you know, a year or two ago.

00:20:19.880 I'm not ignoring you on my phone to text.

00:20:21.660 I'm just looking at something right now just to make sure I don't fake the funk.

00:20:24.940 That's an N.

00:20:25.580 That's an N.

00:20:26.120 I know we don't have FCC rules.

00:20:28.180 Well, while you look, I'll just say, so that's an absolutely dreadful embarrassment to CNN.

00:20:32.340 That is a door closing problem.

00:20:34.120 My rumble show has been up about two hours, three hours, and it's got 395,000 views.

00:20:40.780 Monday show is 820.

00:20:43.360 That's just my rumble show.

00:20:44.940 That's not audio.

00:20:45.860 That's not iTunes.

00:20:46.820 That's not Spotify.

00:20:48.400 Megan, we get 70 to 80,000 people in the live chat.

00:20:52.040 I mean, on an 11 o'clock in the morning show online with no cable distribution at all, you can't pull 50,000 people in a demo.

00:21:00.180 But, you know, I think what's happening is the TikTok generation has a shorter attention span.

00:21:06.060 Listen, it's not a knock on them.

00:21:07.660 It's always, you know, kind of fashionable to knock the younger folks.

00:21:10.240 But I was one of them once, too, and they knocked us, you know.

00:21:12.740 We used to listen to, like, Rage Against the Machine and stuff, and everybody used to laugh at us.

00:21:16.000 And now it turns out they are the machine, by the way.

00:21:17.640 But I just think they don't have time for kind of, like, bullshit stuff.

00:21:21.980 And the thing about CNN is nothing ever is newsworthy there.

00:21:26.480 Nothing's ever worth watching.

00:21:28.060 And you can almost predict what the guest is going to say.

00:21:31.040 Donald Trump sucks.

00:21:32.680 Ron DeSantis killed everyone in Florida.

00:21:35.280 You know, Republicans are Nazis.

00:21:37.120 I mean, it's just some kind of euphemism.

00:21:39.540 Yeah, there's no evidence of that.

00:21:41.020 There's nothing ever.

00:21:41.860 But, you know, for as much as you may like or dislike Fox and Newsmax or OAN or whatever it may be, you'll go on there and you'll actually get a perspective.

00:21:50.620 Like John Turley, who is a very skilled constitutional attorney.

00:21:53.320 I see him on Fox.

00:21:54.340 I see other lawyers on Greta's on Newsmax.

00:21:57.840 Greta will give you both sides.

00:21:59.580 Greta will be like, hey, man, listen, that was kind of bullshit what happened in court.

00:22:02.560 There's no legal precedent for that.

00:22:04.300 And you're like, wow, I learned something.

00:22:06.140 You're on CNN.

00:22:07.320 You will learn absolutely nothing.

00:22:09.120 They're like, oh, we're going to bring on the Republican.

00:22:11.480 You're like, oh, good.

00:22:12.300 I'm going to get the other side.

00:22:13.240 And they're like, welcome, Adam Kinzinger.

00:22:14.880 You're like, bro, this guy's worse than the Democrat.

00:22:17.540 Like the Democrats debating Kinzinger.

00:22:19.980 And he's more pro-Trump.

00:22:21.920 So, you think I'm right, ain't I?

00:22:24.000 Like you don't really learn anything.

00:22:25.240 So, why would you bother tuning in?

00:22:27.000 What's the point?

00:22:28.680 So, what do you make of the fact that it was just announced, Rupert Murdoch, 92 years old, stepping down as, you know, the emperor of News Corp, of Fox Corporation and Lachlan Murdoch?

00:22:41.660 Taking over.

00:22:42.500 It's kind of the drama's gone because the fight between Lachlan and James Murdoch.

00:22:46.560 I mean, there are a bunch of Murdoch kids, but those were the two who were vying to be the heir apparent.

00:22:50.020 Right.

00:22:50.220 Was settled years ago.

00:22:51.440 We all knew it was going to be Lachlan, the more favored son.

00:22:54.260 Sorry, James.

00:22:55.120 But James is more liberal.

00:22:56.320 Lachlan, I think, if anything, is more conservative even than dad.

00:22:59.860 But he's basically been running the place already for, you know, a few years.

00:23:04.000 I don't expect much to change.

00:23:06.340 But what did you what was your reaction to the announcement that Rupert said?

00:23:09.340 You know, I was talking to my radio producer about, you know, some long breaks in radio sometimes.

00:23:14.020 So, you're chatting during the break and we get along really well.

00:23:16.680 And he asked me the same question.

00:23:18.680 You know, I had a different experience.

00:23:20.360 You got to remember, like, you at Fox, you were nine o'clock.

00:23:22.780 Like, you were Fox.

00:23:24.040 I mean, I was in the nine o'clock spot at Fox is the spot.

00:23:27.060 That's just anchors the whole night.

00:23:28.860 The first time I filled in for Hannity on his show, I got to tell you, man, I've never been nervous on the air like ever.

00:23:34.680 You can probably tell.

00:23:35.380 I just don't know when you're a Secret Service agent.

00:23:37.240 But I walked in the building and I was like, damn, if I screw this up, like I screw up the whole network tonight.

00:23:42.600 It really hit me for the first time.

00:23:44.260 So, you were there every day.

00:23:45.280 And the thing about being a nine o'clock person on Fox, you need to have really good ratings, is you're in a network and you're treated different.

00:23:50.920 Like, you get to talk to, you probably talk to Lachlan.

00:23:54.360 I've never had a single conversation with Lachlan.

00:23:56.560 I've spoken to Suzanne maybe twice.

00:23:59.140 So, I have no, I don't know if Lachlan's conservative at all.

00:24:02.280 I know Tucker used to chat with him a lot.

00:24:04.060 But I was a Saturday guy and I did it remotely.

00:24:07.700 So, I only was up at Fox like four or five times.

00:24:10.240 But having friends over there, they'll tell you what you already know.

00:24:14.440 I mean, he was probably running the company day to day pretty much anyway.

00:24:18.320 And to act like Rupert's going to step aside and like all of a sudden if he says something, no one's going to listen is kind of like stupid.

00:24:25.500 So, what's changed?

00:24:26.640 Like, if Rupert has a thought, people are going to listen, which happens now.

00:24:29.660 And if Lachlan has a thought, people are going to listen, which definitely happens now.

00:24:34.140 So, I don't see anything changing at all.

00:24:36.800 I mean, what Fox was yesterday, Fox is going to be tomorrow.

00:24:39.420 It's not like they sold it to like, you know, Brian Stelter or something like that.

00:24:43.720 You know, it's the same family.

00:24:44.500 Well, the real question is, what's the future of the company?

00:24:48.340 And many people believe that now it'll be sold off, that Lachlan will sell it or the kids will push to sell it because he's not the only shareholder.

00:24:56.440 And Kara Swisher, who I used to like but don't now, she's big in tech.

00:25:02.400 He keeps trying to get me on her podcast, by the way.

00:25:04.560 And it's the weirdest thing.

00:25:05.720 Like, your people are nice.

00:25:06.860 They're like, hey, Dan, we'd really like to get you back in the show.

00:25:09.520 Dan, I will tell you a story privately.

00:25:09.900 She comes after me on Twitter and I'm going to tell you a story privately off the air about Kara Swisher.

00:25:15.940 I will do her the courtesy of not telling this story publicly.

00:25:18.960 But don't go on that podcast.

00:25:21.560 This is not a good person.

00:25:23.240 She is not a good person.

00:25:25.160 Sorry to the audience for that kind of tease without revealing it.

00:25:28.000 But I'm nicer than she is, so I won't.

00:25:30.980 In any event, she's predicting, she does know tech well, and she's predicting that they're going to sell it.

00:25:36.020 And she thinks Elon Musk is going to buy Fox News potentially.

00:25:40.160 Is Elon Musk, like, why would he do it?

00:25:43.400 He already has Twitter, which I think is much more relevant and forward-looking than a cable company, even if it's Fox.

00:25:50.180 He's already, you know, awash in money problems.

00:25:52.680 He's doing the electric cars.

00:25:54.300 He's doing the spaceship.

00:25:55.220 He's doing the Neuralink thing for your brain implant.

00:25:57.720 What the hell else could he possibly buy?

00:25:59.540 You know, you just kind of, like, clicked a dendrite and an axon in my brain.

00:26:05.280 A very close friend of mine who's knee-deep in the whole tech space, she may be onto something there.

00:26:10.420 It's not her.

00:26:11.200 It's someone else.

00:26:11.840 But he sent me a picture a long time ago.

00:26:15.020 Elon and I think it was Rupert or maybe Lachlan, like, chatting it up or stuff.

00:26:19.800 And was it a football game or something?

00:26:21.120 I think it was a Super Bowl.

00:26:22.960 You can go look it up.

00:26:23.640 Like, it's out there on the internet for the listeners.

00:26:25.300 They can see it themselves.

00:26:26.100 It's not like they were hiding.

00:26:27.600 And he's like, what do you think is up here?

00:26:29.220 You think he has an interest in buying Fox?

00:26:31.420 So I wouldn't completely discount it.

00:26:34.320 The catch is, how liquid is Elon?

00:26:36.140 I mean, his estimated worth is about $140 billion, depending on what any given day.

00:26:40.140 Now, it's not liquid.

00:26:41.260 I mean, you know how wealth works.

00:26:42.740 Wealth are not liquid assets.

00:26:44.240 That's what he's worth in Tesla stock.

00:26:45.960 So the question is, he sold a lot of that Tesla stock and put it up as collateral for this purchase at Twitter, which was way overpriced at the time.

00:26:53.700 So how liquid is Elon?

00:26:55.420 You know, I mean, he would have to sell a ton of Tesla stock.

00:26:58.180 And like you said, after the experience with Twitter, he's now being investigated for perks at Tesla, which is a total political investigation because he's pushing the place more towards free speech, or at least he says he is, right?

00:27:10.000 I don't buy any of it.

00:27:11.660 I don't buy it.

00:27:12.820 I don't think he would.

00:27:13.640 I don't think.

00:27:14.100 I think he'd be crazy.

00:27:15.440 I mean, he'd be public enemy number one.

00:27:16.980 Why would he buy an asset that's dwindling?

00:27:18.100 You know, if Fox News, cable news had its heyday, I was there.

00:27:21.560 It was probably back in 2012, 2013.

00:27:23.400 That's when they were getting double paid top dollar from the advertisers and the subscriber fees.

00:27:28.200 Those days are gone.

00:27:29.420 Their audience is disappearing.

00:27:31.340 And with respect, they're also aging, which matters to the ad dollars.

00:27:35.440 I just don't see that being a viable business option for anyone.

00:27:39.460 Never mind for Elon Musk, who's learned his lesson about jumping into these media spaces.

00:27:43.260 All right.

00:27:43.680 Enough about Fox.

00:27:44.480 I want to talk about you.

00:27:45.420 And I want to talk about the book on failure, the gift of failure.

00:27:49.660 And the subtitle is, and I'll rethink the title if the book fails, which it will not.

00:27:54.600 Yes.

00:27:55.080 Luckily, we don't have to do that.

00:27:57.280 I've received that gift in my own life.

00:28:00.680 And I know you have, too.

00:28:01.540 I'm just going to leave it there as a tease, as a bubble tease.

00:28:03.980 Take a quick break.

00:28:05.000 And we're going to come back and get into Dan's humiliation on the baseball field and how it would become a lesson for us all.

00:28:13.880 Stand by.

00:28:19.660 You're with me today, Dan Bongino, host of the Dan Bongino Show and author of the new book, The Gift of Failure.

00:28:28.320 Dan, I love this line.

00:28:29.520 Love this line.

00:28:30.920 Failure is not the opposite of success.

00:28:34.140 It is a necessary part of the journey towards it.

00:28:38.660 Yes, that's true.

00:28:40.220 We do think of failure as the opposite of success.

00:28:43.820 That's so simple, but so brilliant.

00:28:46.440 It's got such a negative connotation to it, the word failure.

00:28:53.060 And I thought to myself, the funny thing is we actually wrote that line when we were putting a book together and formatting it.

00:29:00.700 I wrote it at the end and had to reformat the book to put it in the beginning because I'm going through with this editor and fact checker about the book.

00:29:09.240 Yeah, fact checker.

00:29:10.120 Yeah, because you just want to make sure you get every little thing right.

00:29:12.880 We're going through it and I'm reading it through on like a kind of a FaceTime call and he gave it to this beta group of authors to read.

00:29:20.360 It's kind of like a test group and they love the book.

00:29:23.000 But one of them is the comment was this isn't a book about failure at all.

00:29:26.980 It's about all the mistakes Dan made in the road to success.

00:29:30.120 And this isn't a failure at all.

00:29:32.180 So we actually kind of like rewrote the book and had to change the beginning because I started to realize that although I, Megan, honest to God, I really meant to write the book.

00:29:42.880 And the genesis of it was just so you understand, I was coming out of the NASDAQ.

00:29:48.560 We had just sent Rumble public at a three point two billion dollar valuation.

00:29:52.580 It's the first parallel economy company to really make it and make a dent.

00:29:57.600 And we were so proud.

00:29:59.220 We had rang the bell in the NASDAQ.

00:30:00.880 I'm like, wow, what a day.

00:30:01.860 And all these crazy liberals were tweeting to me as I was sending pictures out over social media.

00:30:06.200 What a loser.

00:30:07.260 You ran for Congress and lost.

00:30:09.320 You know, what a dipshit.

00:30:10.340 And I'm looking at my wife and it's raining in Times Square.

00:30:13.640 And I'm like, this is hilarious.

00:30:15.180 Like, you know, taking a company public at three billion dollars is a loss.

00:30:19.680 Like, bring on the losing.

00:30:20.900 Like, this is some terrific losing.

00:30:22.660 And I started to think back and I realized, like, gosh, everything I did in my life that I would call a success was actually born out of a huge mistake in advance.

00:30:31.620 The podcast was from losing for office.

00:30:33.620 I ran running for office that me going to business school and learning what I learned about business was because I didn't get into medical school and I failed.

00:30:41.440 I mean, I thought, like, everything had been born out of a failure.

00:30:44.320 So I wanted to write this book exposing the people like, what's your excuse?

00:30:47.860 Like, I'm just a dopey kid from Queens.

00:30:49.820 I got an average IQ.

00:30:51.040 I'm not particularly athletic.

00:30:52.220 I definitely got a face for radio.

00:30:53.740 I mean, I'm not like the Brad Pitt looking.

00:30:55.820 I don't have Jorge Posada's catching skills for the Yankees or anything like that.

00:31:00.260 And if I could whatever make it, whatever you want to call that, then, you know, really, like, what's your excuse?

00:31:06.040 And then not only that, I'm going to show you every single thing I screwed up in every wart, embarrassing fashion.

00:31:12.680 I'm going to write about it.

00:31:14.000 And I still got out of the morass.

00:31:16.800 So, again, what's your story?

00:31:18.820 You can go figure it out yourself and you'll probably do a whole lot better than I did.

00:31:22.360 I totally object to the description that you just offered of yourself, that it was wrong on so many different fronts.

00:31:31.060 I would say Dan Bongino is brilliant.

00:31:33.740 You're very attractive, not to, you know, stroke your ego, but you are.

00:31:36.740 You're obviously very attractive.

00:31:38.100 You're a man's man.

00:31:39.220 You're somebody who you're notwithstanding.

00:31:40.540 I mean, not just because of the Secret Service and the police background, but you just kind of know around Dan Bongino.

00:31:44.740 He's going to protect you as a woman.

00:31:46.060 Like, I'd feel very comfortable around you anywhere.

00:31:48.780 You're damn right.

00:31:49.520 You're fearless, but you haven't gotten so rich and smart and successful that you've lost your appeal to the common man.

00:31:56.300 All of that is what makes the Dan Bongino brand.

00:31:59.060 So that's my reassessment of what you are.

00:32:02.160 Everyone can forget your own self-assessment.

00:32:03.620 You made me feel good.

00:32:04.620 I deeply appreciate that because, you know, I'm going to share something because you can see this is you.

00:32:11.340 You're the interviewer.

00:32:12.480 You're uniquely good at this.

00:32:14.080 And I'm so envious because I stuck at interviewing so bad.

00:32:17.580 And I'm like, if I could only do a Megyn Kelly interview.

00:32:20.540 But I mean this.

00:32:21.300 I'll give you a vulnerable moment because it's true.

00:32:23.860 You know, when I was a kid, without going into like stupid nonsense stuff, but, you know, I was a little like pudgy.

00:32:30.260 It wasn't really like obese or fat, but, you know, I didn't really eat that great.

00:32:34.980 I was the worst player on my baseball team.

00:32:37.740 I kind of I just I don't know.

00:32:39.720 Like I I didn't I was lanky.

00:32:42.220 I just looked funny.

00:32:43.540 Like I had a weird haircut and stuff.

00:32:46.280 And I just always felt confused.

00:32:48.600 I mean, I would later in life in the 90s when I when I heard songs like Tracy Chapman's Fast Car, like that song meant something to me.

00:32:56.460 You know, the fact that Tracy Chapman is a black lesbian performer meant nothing to me.

00:33:00.580 It's like what she was talking about in that song, that feeling of alienation and wanting to escape and seeing the city lights and your arm felt good wrapped around my shoulder.

00:33:08.880 I mean, that meant something to me.

00:33:10.700 No.

00:33:11.400 And the thing is, that kid never left.

00:33:13.500 They don't leave.

00:33:14.520 I mean, the savage side of me only came out later.

00:33:17.280 I don't mean that like a Neanderthal way.

00:33:19.040 I mean, that only came out later because I just wanted to defeat that kid so bad.

00:33:24.440 And I have to almost supersede even your expectations to show you that that's not me anymore.

00:33:30.040 And it's a vulnerability and I get it.

00:33:32.940 But this this, you know, people like you who know me and you see me now, but never saw me growing up would have known a totally different kid.

00:33:40.540 Like the reason I started boxing and in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, actually, it's funny, I actually write about it in a book.

00:33:45.560 Like the reason I started is not because I was a good fighter is because I grew up in New York, got my ass kicked like really bad.

00:33:50.900 And it's embarrassing because in the neighborhood when I was a kid, I was a kid who got beat up by Steve.

00:33:55.180 I tell the story in the book, like this kid up the block who was smaller than me, who beat the crap out of me when I was like 12.

00:34:00.480 And that's how I got into boxing and Jiu Jitsu because I said to myself, I'm not going to be that kid anymore.

00:34:06.620 I'm not going to negotiate ever from a point of weakness physically for the rest of my life.

00:34:11.440 You want to mess with me in a bar?

00:34:13.040 So I'm not going to fight you.

00:34:13.980 I'm not going to instigate a fight.

00:34:15.080 Never.

00:34:15.440 I'm not getting sued.

00:34:16.200 I'm not stupid.

00:34:17.400 However, I'm not negotiating from a point of weakness.

00:34:20.040 You want to fuck around with me, then I'll fuck around back.

00:34:23.880 And believe me, only one person is going to come around and win in that fuck around competition.

00:34:28.660 And you're going to find out, not me.

00:34:30.920 And that's just the facts.

00:34:32.560 I was never.

00:34:33.100 But that's from that.

00:34:34.300 That's from that little wee kid who got beat up.

00:34:37.380 And the same thing with school.

00:34:38.940 My wife would say to me all the time, like, why do you keep having to go back to school?

00:34:42.740 Like, I, you know, I always say, if you talk about your education, you're probably a moron.

00:34:46.520 But if you'll allow me a dispensation, because it makes sense here.

00:34:49.700 I went to two graduate programs.

00:34:51.980 I got a master's degree in neuropsychology and I did an MBA at Penn State.

00:34:55.980 And I wanted to go back to do a graduate degree in economics.

00:34:59.540 And my wife was like, enough school.

00:35:00.760 Like, how much school do you think you need?

00:35:02.500 But that's that same kid.

00:35:04.520 You know, I wasn't great in school.

00:35:06.140 In sixth grade, I got a D in math and I was embarrassed.

00:35:08.640 I just felt stupid and dumb and I knew I wasn't dumb.

00:35:11.640 So now I feel this need to almost like, almost elevate and supersede the median and the mode

00:35:17.520 and the average every time.

00:35:19.120 And that's where that comes from.

00:35:20.560 You know, I got to lift six days a week because other people lift weights four.

00:35:24.040 And I like, oh, you're 48.

00:35:25.980 He's up.

00:35:26.400 No, no, I'll ease up when I'm dead.

00:35:27.760 Like you sleep for a long time.

00:35:29.340 And that's where that all comes from.

00:35:30.880 And I'm actually glad I was an insecure, vulnerable kid, because that's the only reason I am the

00:35:35.340 way I am now.

00:35:36.680 I love what you said.

00:35:37.880 I love that song by Tracy Chapman.

00:35:39.860 It's on my playlist.

00:35:41.380 It's in, you know, the next line after the one you just sang is, I had a feeling that I

00:35:48.400 belonged.

00:35:49.420 I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone.

00:35:53.120 Right.

00:35:53.420 Like, that's what you did.

00:35:54.680 You went on.

00:35:55.380 You, you made, you made a name for yourself.

00:35:57.820 You carved out your own place in this incredibly competitive industry.

00:36:02.300 And those, like those stats you were just giving me about the Facebook are absolutely

00:36:05.140 stunning.

00:36:06.020 Alan Rumble as well.

00:36:07.280 I mean, there, there's a uniqueness to your brand, but the ability to be so self-deprecating

00:36:12.520 and to own your, what you perceive as your weaknesses is part of it.

00:36:17.080 It's part of your charm and it's part of your drive.

00:36:18.660 And it's part of the reason why I really worry for my own kids because I do think the most

00:36:22.840 successful people are pretty like screwed up, like when there needs to be some damage,

00:36:28.120 not so much that they're crippled, but enough that they have to something to prove.

00:36:34.000 And it's very hard to thread that needle.

00:36:36.060 You know, you just brought up another sensitive topic because you're a mom, I'm a dad and

00:36:42.900 Megan, I think about it all the time.

00:36:44.740 I grew up, my, my wife grew up in Columbia.

00:36:47.060 She came here when she was nine.

00:36:49.060 She didn't even speak English.

00:36:50.220 I mean, and I always laugh.

00:36:51.720 I said, not Columbia, South Carolina, like Columbia, the country, like El Padrino, Pablo

00:36:55.480 Escobar's Columbia, you know, gates on the windows because of, you know, people break

00:36:59.080 in and steal your stuff all the time.

00:37:01.000 You know, I grew up above a bar at 64th place and Myrtle Avenue in Queens.

00:37:05.100 It's a sushi, a sushi place now.

00:37:07.480 I mean, I grew up on the street in New York.

00:37:09.700 I mean, it was Queens.

00:37:10.540 It wasn't Brooklyn or the Bronx, but it wasn't the most pleasant place.

00:37:13.180 I mean, my brother, when he was what, 13 years old, witnessed a murder outside Glendale

00:37:18.220 Pizza on Myrtle Avenue, you can read about it now, like he was the, he was a witness

00:37:21.800 in the trial.

00:37:22.840 I mean, this is the kind of place we grew up in.

00:37:25.340 And like you say, like, this is the kind of stuff that's damaging almost to the point

00:37:29.300 that it creates like pockets of instability in the human brain.

00:37:33.120 And you don't want that, but you also, you and I, thanks to the amazing audience watching

00:37:38.760 your show and that watches my show too, who have made our lives.

00:37:42.440 I mean, we're nothing without the audience.

00:37:43.940 That's just a fact.

00:37:44.740 I mean, you and I can talk all we want.

00:37:45.920 If no one's listening, who gives a shit, right?

00:37:47.500 But so you have a loyal audience that made you the success.

00:37:50.680 And I have the same thing.

00:37:52.420 And the fact that they've given us the resources and ability to give our kids different lives

00:37:56.980 is a blessing, but you're not wrong.

00:37:58.580 It can be a curse too.

00:38:00.260 And, you know, one of my daughters came home one day and this is after we'd really kind

00:38:04.540 of hit it.

00:38:04.960 Like the podcast had really blown up and things were just going remarkably.

00:38:08.540 We didn't even know what to do with the money because we just weren't used to ever

00:38:12.900 living like that, like ever.

00:38:14.320 Like we grew up poor and then we, you know, we, I was, we were middle-class.

00:38:18.380 I was an agent.

00:38:19.100 My wife worked at a, you know, a lobby firm.

00:38:21.420 She had done quite well, but we weren't blowing it up or anything with money.

00:38:24.280 We didn't, we didn't even know what to do with it.

00:38:26.860 And, and the thing is, we kept saying to ourselves, like, our kid's going to be soft.

00:38:30.340 So my daughter comes home one day and she says, and we, we got to move into this nice

00:38:34.080 area, not overwhelmed, but pretty nice.

00:38:35.640 And she's like, Oh, my, my, uh, what I forget, but her friend's name was just a few years

00:38:38.600 ago, but she's the dad's going to buy her a Porsche for her birthday.

00:38:41.760 And I was like, yeah, that's cool.

00:38:42.860 That's really nice.

00:38:43.660 You know, it's about great story.

00:38:45.740 It's like, you know, can I get one of those?

00:38:47.180 I said, that's, that's funny.

00:38:49.240 I said, that's really hilarious.

00:38:50.600 You think I'm going to buy you a Porsche?

00:38:51.960 I said, your dad drives a navigator and you think I'm driving you, uh, giving the view

00:38:55.920 a Porsche.

00:38:56.380 You're going to get a Honda civic.

00:38:57.940 It's a great car.

00:38:58.680 It's safe.

00:38:59.060 I don't want to put her in a bad car and get her.

00:39:00.460 And you're going to pay for the gas and the insurance and the oil changes and everything

00:39:03.880 else.

00:39:04.280 And she still got that car.

00:39:05.640 The car's got like a hundred thousand miles and I can buy my daughter a Porsche, but why

00:39:09.800 would I do that?

00:39:10.500 I'm not going to destroy her life.

00:39:11.800 And I've told her about money too.

00:39:13.500 And she knows it.

00:39:14.520 I've said, are you going to inherit a lot of money one day, but it's not going to be

00:39:18.920 till you're like 50 or 60 years old.

00:39:20.800 I'm telling you right now, because you're going to make your own life.

00:39:23.160 It always reminds me of, you ever hear the line by Shaquille O'Neal to his kids, Megan

00:39:26.340 the greatest line ever.

00:39:27.360 He says to his kids, you're not rich.

00:39:29.660 I'm rich.

00:39:30.700 There's a difference.

00:39:32.020 And at the worst lesson you can teach your kids.

00:39:34.900 Yeah.

00:39:35.300 It's a real problem.

00:39:36.680 When they first asked, they're like, mom, are we rich?

00:39:38.840 I said, dad and I are doing okay.

00:39:40.260 You've got nothing.

00:39:41.320 Good luck.

00:39:41.860 I don't know about you.

00:39:42.940 You're going to have to make your own way.

00:39:44.620 And to their credit though, you know, you do, you have to give them a little bit of an

00:39:49.060 edge.

00:39:50.060 And I try, I mean, you know, my daughter goes to a really great kind of conservative lean

00:39:55.320 in college.

00:39:55.880 She busts her ass and I, you know, she, she scoops ice cream when she comes home in the

00:40:01.500 local wits and she's got to have a job.

00:40:04.480 I told her, I'm not going to let you struggle, but you're going to work for it.

00:40:08.880 So make no mistake.

00:40:10.360 Like if you think like, I mean, in other words, I'm not going to let her go outside with rips

00:40:14.100 in her jeans because I'm trying to make a point, but make no mistake.

00:40:17.540 Like you stop working, you're going to struggle.

00:40:19.440 And I don't care if you have rips in your jeans.

00:40:21.760 And Megan, I'm telling you, my wife and I struggle about this every day.

00:40:25.960 Like how much is too much?

00:40:28.540 And, uh, we don't, we don't know it's going to come their way too, you know?

00:40:32.200 And, and I love just the reframing of the whole thing.

00:40:34.800 It's like, okay, the failure will like, they could get bullied.

00:40:37.720 They could, they could fail.

00:40:39.140 That's a, that's a social failure.

00:40:40.460 You could argue, uh, something about them made them a target not to put it on the bullied

00:40:44.320 victim.

00:40:44.640 But I'm just saying like, there's all sorts of ways that word would come into the one's

00:40:47.700 head.

00:40:48.000 And you think to, and you say to them, failure is not the opposite of success.

00:40:51.380 It is a necessary part of the journey towards success.

00:40:55.380 And how can that be?

00:40:56.600 You know, even in my own life, I was very badly bullied in the seventh grade.

00:41:00.140 It was brutal.

00:41:01.240 I wrote about it in my book and it was life-changing.

00:41:04.240 It was the kind of bullying you don't want.

00:41:05.860 You know, it was like the kind of bullying today where a parent and a guidance counselor

00:41:09.420 and a school principal would definitely be stepping in.

00:41:12.220 Um, and so it's not like I'm recommending it, but I do think it's the reason I went to law

00:41:16.160 school, you know, to arm myself in the same way you became a cop, right?

00:41:19.000 Like, and learned how to fight.

00:41:20.400 And like you, I arm myself with tools that would help me protect myself and protect others

00:41:26.200 who are getting bullied by somebody who considered him or herself stronger.

00:41:30.660 In my case, it was all girls who, of course, cause seventh grade girls can be evil.

00:41:34.180 They can be sweet, but they can be evil.

00:41:36.080 Um, and so that was an example of what you're talking about.

00:41:38.580 And like you, the book takes you through lots of these stories in your own life and otherwise

00:41:43.500 people wouldn't expect it.

00:41:45.260 Like even that story you just told about you feeling kind of dumpy as a kid.

00:41:48.080 When I heard the story about you playing baseball and kind of disappointing the one guy you wanted

00:41:53.000 to impress in the stands and his face.

00:41:54.900 And like, can you just tell that story?

00:41:56.620 Cause it's, it's kind of, it's sweet.

00:41:58.180 It's heartbreaking.

00:41:58.900 But I think it was actually hard to write about because I thought it was kind of soupy when

00:42:04.500 I wrote it and I'm like, it's like, and the weird thing is I'm writing it, but as I'm

00:42:08.920 writing it, I'm also dictating it to someone who's going to send me back their version of

00:42:13.040 it without hanging participles and stuff.

00:42:14.840 But I'm writing it in live time while they're there.

00:42:17.320 Cause you know, I'm, I was not a, I was a, uh, I was a psychology major and then a business

00:42:21.580 major, but I'm writing this and I'm right.

00:42:23.740 And I, and I'm, I'm getting surprisingly choked up.

00:42:25.780 It's about my cousin, Steve, who I adore.

00:42:27.880 He's older than me.

00:42:28.720 He's just a great guy.

00:42:30.160 He was a fireman in New York.

00:42:31.520 He's retired now.

00:42:32.800 Just a great guy.

00:42:33.680 And growing up, he was, I mean, there's nothing he couldn't do.

00:42:36.560 Hockey, baseball, football.

00:42:38.700 He loved like everything I loved.

00:42:40.420 I loved Pink Floyd before Roger Waters went crazy.

00:42:43.000 And like everything I just admired.

00:42:44.560 Like he would drive us around, take us to the beach.

00:42:46.580 And he really made us like little bros to him.

00:42:48.680 He lived up the block and what we called the horseshoe in Glendale.

00:42:50.840 But he was an amazing baseball player, incredibly talented.

00:42:54.480 So one day my mother couldn't take me to a game.

00:42:56.140 So he takes me to the little league game and I'm playing the outfield, which is where they

00:42:59.780 hid the scrubs.

00:43:01.200 And I was terrible.

00:43:02.020 I was one of the scrubs back then.

00:43:03.240 I couldn't play baseball, which is a whole other.

00:43:05.020 So I got how I made the, you know, made it all the way into the all-star team later on

00:43:09.480 is it, whatever, but I can't pitch to save my life.

00:43:12.400 I have no arm, but because I thought I could pitch, I saw Steve there and the coach Jim walks

00:43:17.460 out.

00:43:17.680 We're getting killed like 19 to nothing.

00:43:19.320 And he's like, you want to pitch?

00:43:21.120 And I'm like, oh, I can definitely do it.

00:43:22.380 So I get on the mound.

00:43:23.360 I don't think I throw a single strike.

00:43:26.400 This goes on for about 10 minutes.

00:43:28.180 And let me tell you something.

00:43:29.040 I write about it in a book because I remember it like it was yesterday.

00:43:31.680 I mean, like vivid memories.

00:43:33.600 I remember the construction equipment in the background.

00:43:36.300 When you're on the mound in baseball, it's all you, man.

00:43:39.440 I mean, all you.

00:43:41.060 You're literally on a mound.

00:43:43.260 Everybody's staring at you.

00:43:44.420 And when you screw it up, you look like a loser.

00:43:48.740 And I couldn't believe I looked over at my cousin Steve in the stands as I'm on pitch

00:43:52.860 20 and I still haven't thrown a strike.

00:43:54.700 And everybody's like, please get this kid off the mound.

00:43:56.920 But the coach don't want to come out in the same inning and embarrass me, but he has to.

00:44:00.560 And Steve's got this look on his face.

00:44:02.320 Like, I don't know what just happened.

00:44:04.580 And I mean, you know, you would think like, Dan, you're on the radio and all these stations

00:44:09.860 and whatever.

00:44:10.460 You got all this success.

00:44:11.420 Like, that's the story that still rings, you know, rings your bell.

00:44:14.580 And the answer is, yeah, man, still to this day.

00:44:17.540 It's not his fault.

00:44:18.340 He didn't say anything nasty.

00:44:19.480 He was like, it'll be OK.

00:44:20.380 Don't worry.

00:44:20.880 He was cool about it.

00:44:22.200 But I could see I disappointed him.

00:44:24.420 And I just thought, like, how much bad advice I got in my life.

00:44:27.480 And that's one of the things I allude to in the chapters.

00:44:29.300 I hate stupid ass cliches and dumb advice.

00:44:32.420 People say things like, you know, oh, man, do what you love.

00:44:36.400 Chase your dreams.

00:44:37.240 Listen, that is bullshit.

00:44:38.880 That's the dumbest advice I've ever heard.

00:44:40.660 It is absolutely, totally impractical.

00:44:43.080 You know what my dream was?

00:44:44.040 To be a pitcher.

00:44:44.960 And I chased it.

00:44:45.820 And I looked like a dumbass because I wasn't good at it.

00:44:48.720 I tell people all the time, dreams are great.

00:44:51.340 If you want to be an artist, knock yourself out.

00:44:53.260 Go for it.

00:44:54.040 You know what you got to chase first?

00:44:55.120 A living.

00:44:56.200 Feed your kids, your wife, and your family.

00:44:58.720 Don't do what you dream about.

00:45:00.560 Do what you're good at.

00:45:01.400 You may be good at accounting, and you may love being an artist or a pitcher.

00:45:05.700 That's fine.

00:45:06.640 Feed your family first.

00:45:07.760 Get a pitching coach, and then try to make the St. Lucie meds.

00:45:10.780 But don't chase your dreams.

00:45:11.780 That's the dumbest stuff I've ever heard.

00:45:13.240 Do what you love.

00:45:14.320 I love baseball.

00:45:15.340 I love pitching.

00:45:16.120 I sucked at it.

00:45:17.160 If I did what I love, I would not be on the show right now.

00:45:20.340 Hopefully, hopefully on my show and yours, maybe changing people's lives and trying to do big things.

00:45:25.580 Because I did what I love.

00:45:26.800 That's dumbass advice that stupid people tell you, and it's cliche, and it's dumb.

00:45:31.860 And the book is full of practical advice.

00:45:34.060 Like, don't do what you love.

00:45:35.460 Do what you love after you do what you're good at.

00:45:37.900 Then you'll love it even more, because there won't be stress of feeding your kids.

00:45:40.980 I also like how you write about when you're faced with a difficult choice, like between two goods.

00:45:48.500 My mom always says that the hardest choices in life are between two goods, right?

00:45:51.800 Good and bad.

00:45:52.500 That's easy.

00:45:53.300 Two goods is tougher.

00:45:55.120 You wrote, figure out which one you can't live without.

00:46:00.920 And you brought us back to your time as a Secret Service agent.

00:46:02.960 That's advice from Kenny.

00:46:05.420 So the long and short of it is when I went into the Secret Service, you could do the SWAT team.

00:46:09.720 He's the Syracuse linebacker guy.

00:46:11.680 You've got a good man.

00:46:12.200 Wow.

00:46:12.600 Folks, most hosts don't actually read the book.

00:46:15.300 They read a promo.

00:46:15.960 That's amazing.

00:46:16.680 You actually remember that.

00:46:17.740 I've got to tell you, you never disappoint, ever.

00:46:20.900 He was.

00:46:21.300 He was an offensive lineman at Syracuse.

00:46:22.760 He was my boss in the Secret Service.

00:46:24.600 I wanted to go on our SWAT team.

00:46:26.000 It's called Cat, Counter-Assaulted.

00:46:27.540 Wear the black ninja suit.

00:46:28.940 I just like to break stuff.

00:46:30.440 And I'm like, if you have a really elevated testosterone like me, you fit right in on Cat.

00:46:34.780 It was perfect.

00:46:35.760 It was a dream job.

00:46:36.500 And the cool part is you could still go and protect the president because it fell into

00:46:40.240 the president's details.

00:46:41.180 Sure enough, the Embangino luck, right?

00:46:43.160 The class before to go into the president's details kind of school where you got to go,

00:46:47.880 they go, no more.

00:46:48.820 You can either do one or the other.

00:46:50.160 I'm like, wait, you guys just messed up my whole life.

00:46:53.480 Like, all I wanted to do was the cat team and the detail.

00:46:57.280 Like, this is bananas, right?

00:46:58.660 So I go up to Kenny, who is a great guy, and I said, Kenny, he was my boss.

00:47:03.800 I said, brother, what do I do, man?

00:47:06.120 What do I do?

00:47:06.840 Do I cat or PPD, the Presidential Protective Division?

00:47:09.700 I came here to protect the president.

00:47:11.260 I don't know, but I got to do cat.

00:47:12.720 And he said, brother, it's not what you want to do.

00:47:15.100 It's just what can you live without?

00:47:17.600 It was the best, again, not cliche, but totally practical because the answer was instantaneous.

00:47:23.480 I wanted to do cat, but I could live without it, but I could never live with being a Secret

00:47:29.640 Service agent and not protecting the president of the United States.

00:47:32.860 And the answer was obvious.

00:47:34.280 So as you just said, the choice between two goods, it's not what you want more.

00:47:38.440 It's what can you live without?

00:47:39.800 And whatever you can live without, you got to scrap it, move on.

00:47:42.840 The world isn't black and white.

00:47:44.200 It's full of gray.

00:47:44.820 It's the entire field of ethics.

00:47:46.280 And anyone giving you stupid answers, cliched answers, probably has no idea what they're talking

00:47:50.780 about.

00:47:51.760 Oh, so good.

00:47:52.800 It's so good.

00:47:53.580 I remember when I was trying to decide whether I should leave Fox and it wasn't like, I'm

00:47:57.680 dying to work for NBC.

00:47:58.800 It was just, I have this great, big, powerful career that I love.

00:48:02.240 And yet I have these three little people who I love even more.

00:48:06.060 And as much as I'd love to say, it was like, oh, it was very easy choice.

00:48:09.000 I'm going to go home and see my kids more and take this easier job.

00:48:12.080 It wasn't that easy.

00:48:13.240 It was, it definitely was a big sacrifice.

00:48:15.020 But to your point, it was very clear which one I could not live without.

00:48:18.740 And to this day, while I didn't land at the right place, I made the right choice in leaving

00:48:23.260 that lifestyle so that I could have the one I have now.

00:48:26.200 All right.

00:48:26.380 Stand by.

00:48:27.240 Much more.

00:48:27.880 Dan Bongino's here with us for the whole show today.

00:48:30.420 You're welcome.

00:48:31.560 And before we go to break, remember, you can find The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM

00:48:35.480 Triumph Channel 111 every weekday at noon east.

00:48:38.980 The full video show and clips when you subscribe to my YouTube channel.

00:48:42.320 That's YouTube.com slash Megyn Kelly.

00:48:44.300 And guess what?

00:48:44.820 We're on Rumble too.

00:48:45.660 We're building our presence over there.

00:48:46.980 So check us out.

00:48:48.000 If you prefer an audio podcast, follow and download on Apple, Spotify, Pandora, wherever

00:48:53.460 you get your podcasts, basically.

00:48:54.840 It's free.

00:48:55.780 It's fun.

00:48:57.000 And there, if you meander on over to the Apple podcast, you're going to find our full archives.

00:49:01.400 Now more than 600 shows.

00:49:03.500 My God.

00:49:04.160 Not the amount of man and woman hours that have gone into those 600 shows, but I loved

00:49:10.000 every one of them.

00:49:15.820 So Dan, I want to talk politics and get into one of the chapters in your book with the latest

00:49:21.300 polls.

00:49:22.460 There was a Fox Business poll on 918 that showed Trump up in Iowa 46, Ron DeSantis in number

00:49:30.780 two at 15.

00:49:31.920 So he's up 31 points.

00:49:34.160 There's a poll that just hit a day or two ago out of University of New Hampshire on

00:49:38.980 these are the first two, um, the first caucus in the first primary, uh, in the contest showing

00:49:44.560 Donald Trump, Trump at 39%.

00:49:47.820 The vague is in second at 13, Nikki Haley's in third at 12, Chris Christie's in fourth.

00:49:54.660 I mean, he's putting it all in, in New Hampshire, but he's fourth at 11.

00:49:57.600 DeSantis is in fifth place at 10.

00:50:02.420 He's down 13 from the last poll, which I think was a month ago.

00:50:07.700 So DeSantis in fifth in Iowa, uh, and Trump still dominating everybody at 39 and dominating

00:50:14.120 everybody in Iowa where he hasn't done a ton of campaigning.

00:50:17.460 I mean, I will show the audience just this.

00:50:18.960 I mean, it doesn't matter that he hasn't done a lot of campaigning.

00:50:21.360 They know him.

00:50:22.420 He was president.

00:50:23.400 He won Iowa.

00:50:24.220 And here's just a clip of Trump entering an Iowa bar the other day.

00:50:29.120 Take a look at the heroes.

00:50:29.980 Welcome.

00:50:30.280 You got.

00:50:30.440 USA!

00:50:40.540 USA!

00:50:42.140 USA!

00:50:43.020 USA!

00:50:44.960 USA!

00:50:46.380 USA!

00:50:46.980 We want Trump!

00:50:48.220 We want Trump!

00:50:49.720 We want Trump!

00:50:51.540 We want Trump!

00:50:53.000 We want Trump!

00:50:55.180 We block Trump!

00:50:56.920 We want Trump!

00:50:58.040 We want Trump!

00:50:59.380 just as an aside something funny um somebody tweeted out there was a waitress there a bartender

00:51:07.420 she had like a a tank top on kind of like yeah and she wanted trump to sign you know kind of

00:51:12.320 right here with a magic marker so he did it and honestly on twitter they're like look how

00:51:16.380 inappropriate he was carol swain who i love she's like really she was literally asking for it like

00:51:22.580 that term she was asking she was literally asking for it my god calm down the point is he's crushing

00:51:28.440 yeah all right so this is the this is my belt the point is he's crushing so and i want to get to

00:51:34.020 your experience with trump um because now it seems to me trump with these numbers is pivoting to the

00:51:41.260 general he's kind of moving past everybody else in the field he's not debating wall street journal

00:51:46.820 had a piece out this week this week suggesting he's too scared i don't know what his reason is

00:51:51.740 but i see his point he's up you know 30 40 in some polls 50 points does he really need to debate does

00:51:58.020 what i see the point um so he's pivoting to the general and he's looking good there too the polls

00:52:03.880 this week showed him up four over joe biden joe biden's numbers are precipitously low and falling

00:52:09.920 the vast majority americans think he's too old to be president there was just yet another new poll on

00:52:14.060 that i'll read it to you i'm building up towards something here uh this is one third of americans

00:52:20.160 according to the latest cbs news you gov poll think joe biden uh can finish his second term only a third

00:52:26.240 two-thirds do not believe he could finish a second term that's unbelievable so all that brings me to

00:52:33.300 this and you heard tucker ask trump about it when he interviewed him whether trump is worried whether

00:52:39.960 there's a realistic possibility the left is going to so melt down as his power rises as he rises toward

00:52:48.360 a second term that they try to do something to him god forbid or that they try to do something to

00:52:54.700 our country you know that the riots we saw around blm that you know the total overreaction we saw

00:53:03.280 uh to basically everything surrounding trump but certainly the way they described january 6th is

00:53:08.140 the new 9 11 right all those things are going to culminate in some sort of like serious meltdown

00:53:14.900 for our country all right well there's a lot in there and the response is going to be a little

00:53:21.920 troubling to people and if we make news with this then we make news because i don't say anything i

00:53:27.140 can't back up unlike the media and the you know journalists uh that do on the first point about will

00:53:33.620 the liberals do something crazy the answer is um yeah i'm afraid of that and uh listen don't again i ask

00:53:40.480 i'm begging you matter of fact i'm begging you to fact check me on this because any good reporter

00:53:45.840 that's a word reporting on the facts will ask you to do it because it only adds to their the you know

00:53:50.780 their veracity and their authenticity there's a thing called the democracy integrity project they put

00:53:56.360 it out before the 2020 election the gist of it was a bunch of anti-trumpers and liberals basically on

00:54:01.300 this project you can look it up yourself i'm not sure if it's page 27 or wherever it is but it's in

00:54:06.280 there if you read through it they talk about what they're going to do and how to take back the

00:54:10.420 election basically if trump were to win or there's any kind of uh uh squabble about the results and

00:54:16.960 they mention that it's going to turn into a street fight now megan in case you think they're playing

00:54:21.280 like a euphemisms game and they don't really mean a street fight they mean they're very clear and they

00:54:25.700 say not a legal one they mean an actual street fight you again don't read it yourself so the idea

00:54:33.080 that the left if they would have say lost the 2020 election would have gone crazy and there would

00:54:39.100 have been riots in the streets that the idea that that's nuts is not backed up by the actual facts

00:54:44.860 where they were promoting this stuff and had rioted in the streets with antifa and blm so i i mean i

00:54:51.540 mean i don't know what i can't prove a counterfactual because joe biden's butt is in this resolute sitting

00:54:57.220 in the oval office right now but the fact that the left might have went insane is just backed up by

00:55:03.640 the facts just look at what they were promoting this wasn't by the way some tomato can group of

00:55:09.340 ham and eggers here this was like i mean higher ups in the democrat party promoting this stuff that it

00:55:16.360 was going to be a street fight quote not a legal one they noticed the qualifier they weren't kidding

00:55:21.700 second tucker asked the question and i'm believing i'm not trying to one-up tucker at all he's a

00:55:28.400 friend you're a friend i'm not in any way trying but i had said this months earlier on my podcast

00:55:34.120 tucker must be talking to some of the same people i want the threats against donald trump's life are

00:55:39.720 very real now because the left cares so little about donald trump and doesn't want to make him a

00:55:45.680 martyr which by the way wasn't my intention of doing that podcast now infamous on the left three months

00:55:51.540 go about the threats to donald trump's life i didn't do it to make the guy a martyr i did it

00:55:56.960 because i may you know megan just know a little bit about this i mean i only did it for 12 years

00:56:01.440 and i may know some people let's just say in the business who are fighting every day with secret

00:56:07.660 service headquarters over basic security mechanisms for donald trump um because his life

00:56:14.360 is at risk like right now like seriously at risk and there's a fight going on almost every single day

00:56:22.500 because some of the people up there are joe biden cronies and don't want to make donald trump look

00:56:27.280 even more presidential with a greater detail if donald trump were to be and i say this with the greatest

00:56:33.880 of regrets were to be hurt or worse i i would be sad i'd be destroyed he's my guy i wouldn't be

00:56:41.260 surprised not one bit and the hilarious part about this whole thing is these goons in the media and

00:56:47.360 their response some nbc reporter writes an article a week later calls the tucker and dan bongino whatever

00:56:55.180 theory that donald trump could get hurt or worse during this election cycle because of security

00:56:59.220 problems he calls it what they call everything a conspiracy theory so when i reached out to him to

00:57:04.920 back that up i mean he's a journalist right i reached he blocked me on twitter he blocked me in

00:57:10.920 his dms i asked him please tell me who told you he's because i can tell you without giving up my

00:57:18.360 sources but giving up kind of the contours of it they're comfortable with who told me but you can't

00:57:23.780 tell me shit nobody told him that he just didn't want to make donald trump look like a martyr because

00:57:29.780 he thought it was some positive narrative so he wrote a hit piece on me claiming it was a conspiracy

00:57:35.160 theory and then then cowardly like a little chump crawled into his little cave and blocked everyone

00:57:41.320 on twitter and wouldn't answer any email that's who they are they don't give a damn that this guy

00:57:45.680 could get her but your question's a good one i wouldn't be surprised one bit if something happened

00:57:49.920 sad but not surprised no there he just he really drives so many on the left insane and it what got me

00:57:59.840 thinking about all of this was in your book chapter 11 you write about going to um was it was washington

00:58:05.740 it was washington right when when when he accepted right from the white house is that the white in

00:58:10.800 august the the second nomination of course you know it's obviously he was going to be the nominee for the

00:58:15.220 republican party and i remember this when it broke out when the violence around or the protest antifa broke

00:58:20.700 out around the white house i remember rand paul right he got he got attacked yeah that it was after

00:58:27.980 me that that was the same street right about an hour after me and you did too so you and your wife

00:58:33.720 were exiting the the white house and we actually asked you for the tape they took it down but we

00:58:39.920 have it from you and we'll show the audience just to remind them what happened to you

00:58:43.380 remember my face i found you all night i do video in this video this guy i got him i got him

00:58:51.120 i got him well listen to your pretty wife and they keep walking without are you by yourself

00:59:00.240 I'm gonna get your ass with that.

00:59:03.240 He needs security because he's scared.

00:59:06.660 So that he's perfect.

00:59:08.400 He's gonna find out these motherfuckers.

00:59:12.000 This one, he wants to get in.

00:59:13.820 He's not angry inside.

00:59:16.040 He's gonna find a bitch right there.

00:59:19.140 Is that your bitch right?

00:59:21.000 Is that your bitch right?

00:59:23.280 I don't care what he is.

00:59:26.000 Is that your bitch right?

00:59:26.820 Watch my show tomorrow.

00:59:28.560 Watch my show tomorrow.

00:59:30.800 He's gonna get canceled by next week.

00:59:33.800 Oh my God, Dan, this must've been stomach turning to you

00:59:36.300 on so many levels.

00:59:38.500 Yeah, I don't even like watching that now.

00:59:40.140 But you know, that cat there came within like five seconds

00:59:45.680 of losing his life.

00:59:46.560 And if it wasn't for my wife,

00:59:48.000 because she's on the other side of me,

00:59:49.480 because I'm separating her from this guy.

00:59:51.720 Now you gotta understand there's a crowd

00:59:53.040 of people behind them.

00:59:54.520 It's being filmed on an iPhone.

00:59:56.140 There's at least another 50 people behind them

00:59:58.500 that are following us.

00:59:59.700 This went on for three miles.

01:00:01.380 This was not, I mean, that's just a snippet

01:00:04.400 of what happened.

01:00:05.580 So he's asking me if that's my bitch wife.

01:00:08.280 Now, the interesting thing about it is this guy's a BLM guy

01:00:11.460 who's supposed to be in it for minorities

01:00:13.760 and the black population and Black Lives Matter.

01:00:16.040 My wife's a Hispanic, Colombian immigrant.

01:00:18.460 And he's asking multiple times if that's my bitch wife.

01:00:21.520 While, by the way, he's telling me he's gonna rape her.

01:00:23.620 And he's gonna rape her from behind and make me watch.

01:00:26.400 I'm sorry for the, but that happened that night.

01:00:28.760 I write, you can read the whole thing.

01:00:31.040 I mean, I go through exactly what happened.

01:00:33.500 That video, that is just a snippet of what happened.

01:00:37.180 Now, one other thing you don't see in that video

01:00:39.280 is behind us.

01:00:40.660 And I, again, I write about all this

01:00:42.220 if you want the whole gory details,

01:00:44.000 but there's two Asian women, maybe five one and five two.

01:00:47.760 It's a grandmother and the mother

01:00:49.400 who were members of like Asians for Trump

01:00:51.980 or whatever it was, and they were sitting on the corner

01:00:53.920 crying as this group of animals

01:00:57.080 were surrounding them, spitting on them, taunting them.

01:01:00.160 So we took them with my wife and I

01:01:02.100 and walked them to our hotel,

01:01:04.280 even though they were on the other side of the city,

01:01:06.860 because there was no way to get them around.

01:01:08.760 We said, just come with us,

01:01:09.920 because I don't know if you're gonna make it out of this.

01:01:12.420 And you know, I gotta tell you,

01:01:15.160 this is the perfect question after the one we just had.

01:01:18.520 Man, you wanna see what the left is capable of?

01:01:21.900 Look at it right there.

01:01:23.320 I mean, we can have an honest conversation about,

01:01:25.500 listen, some of that, January 6th,

01:01:27.720 you shouldn't, some of that stuff shouldn't have went down.

01:01:30.020 Conservatives were like,

01:01:30.900 hey man, we don't do that kind of stuff, okay?

01:01:32.920 But that was a rare thing.

01:01:34.540 Glenn Beck had a rally on the mall.

01:01:36.120 They left the place cleaner when they showed up.

01:01:38.280 You understand, Megan,

01:01:38.980 this is never a rare thing with the left.

01:01:41.060 None of this was condemned.

01:01:42.580 Not a single CNN or MSNBC producer reached out

01:01:46.280 and said, Dan, that's messed up.

01:01:48.340 You wanna talk about it?

01:01:49.420 We're running a story on it.

01:01:50.580 No one wrote any story about anything.

01:01:52.680 They made fun of people.

01:01:54.160 Oh, look at you losers.

01:01:55.500 What a bunch of wish bags.

01:01:56.640 President Trump was evacuated in the White House

01:01:59.600 during the BLM rallies into the basement.

01:02:02.140 What a wuss, man.

01:02:03.320 What a chump.

01:02:04.520 You tell, I mean, really, these people are dangerous.

01:02:07.200 And when you look them in the eye

01:02:08.940 and you see that kid and that girl,

01:02:10.920 you can see in the tape,

01:02:12.080 if you were watching a video, rewind it.

01:02:13.940 There's a girl behind her, a woman.

01:02:16.360 She's got a skateboard.

01:02:18.140 She kept driving around, cruising around my wife.

01:02:21.620 I thought she was gonna hit her with the skateboard.

01:02:24.040 She kept picking this.

01:02:24.900 And the only reason she did

01:02:25.860 is I kept rotating around my wife

01:02:28.180 in different directions to make sure

01:02:29.520 if she swung the thing, she'd hit me.

01:02:31.600 These people are lunatics.

01:02:33.720 And until you see it in their face,

01:02:35.740 I want you to understand they have no emergency break.

01:02:38.120 I am a sinner.

01:02:39.240 I am nobody's role model.

01:02:40.400 I say on my show all the time,

01:02:41.560 I'm half a savage myself.

01:02:42.960 But I'll tell you right now,

01:02:44.600 I've got an emergency break on my behavior.

01:02:46.800 That's Jesus Christ.

01:02:48.100 You have God-given liberties from him.

01:02:50.100 I am not allowed to infringe on him.

01:02:51.640 I will never attack you.

01:02:52.700 I will never try to take your right to speak.

01:02:54.620 I will never try to take your right

01:02:55.800 to assemble or petition away.

01:02:57.440 Because it's not because the Constitution says it,

01:02:59.080 because God says it.

01:02:59.920 The Constitution protects it.

01:03:01.260 You understand these maniacs, Megan,

01:03:03.200 with their foaming mouths and their fangs,

01:03:05.200 they have no emergency break.

01:03:06.580 They have no God.

01:03:07.740 Their God is power.

01:03:08.940 And when you see it in their face

01:03:10.300 and the rage and anger,

01:03:11.560 you know you're in the shit.

01:03:13.020 And I knew that night we were in deep trouble.

01:03:15.080 And thank God those Customs and Border Patrol guys

01:03:17.320 walked back with us

01:03:18.120 because that wouldn't have ended that way in that video

01:03:19.860 if there weren't two or three more of us there.

01:03:22.080 That was a really ugly night.

01:03:23.700 I never want to relive my entire life.

01:03:25.800 And that was just him announcing

01:03:27.880 he accepted the party's nomination to run again.

01:03:32.040 I mean, this is not-

01:03:33.080 That was it.

01:03:33.520 He's actually returning to the White House.

01:03:36.500 You know, that's what I worry about.

01:03:37.620 If he gets the nomination and if he beats Joe Biden,

01:03:41.520 I do, I worry for him.

01:03:43.060 I worry for him.

01:03:43.760 I mean, people forget.

01:03:45.580 Trump's controversial, of course.

01:03:46.900 They'll make any Republican controversial.

01:03:48.820 But he's got his own particular flair.

01:03:50.960 But he's a human.

01:03:52.780 He's a man.

01:03:53.320 He's a dad.

01:03:54.020 He's a husband.

01:03:55.220 And one of the other stories in the book,

01:03:56.540 and I know this,

01:03:58.060 but it's a sweet story.

01:04:00.440 And I know you've talked about it,

01:04:01.760 but you got sick.

01:04:03.920 We talked about the last time you were on.

01:04:05.320 You got cancer and you had Hodgkin's lymphoma,

01:04:08.780 which has been, you know,

01:04:09.740 a really tough thing for you to deal with.

01:04:11.160 Had to deal with the chemo and all of that.

01:04:13.140 And I don't think we got to this story, though.

01:04:15.540 You were about to go under.

01:04:17.840 They were going to cut into your neck,

01:04:20.540 which can be fatal.

01:04:22.360 And you were scared.

01:04:23.260 You had some nurse.

01:04:24.880 But tell us about the nurse

01:04:25.860 and then tell us what happened next.

01:04:28.000 All right.

01:04:28.460 I'm not crying twice, okay?

01:04:30.260 You got these tears out of me last.

01:04:31.880 I'm not doing it again.

01:04:33.420 You're like the only one.

01:04:34.780 You're like,

01:04:35.200 this is why I wanted to do my first interview

01:04:36.660 after Fox with you

01:04:37.460 because you're so good at this.

01:04:38.320 But no crying, okay?

01:04:39.580 Because the story's tough.

01:04:40.440 No crying.

01:04:40.700 But yes,

01:04:41.080 if you want to read all the gory details,

01:04:43.240 it's in the book.

01:04:45.160 But I got diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma.

01:04:48.160 I had a huge lump on my neck.

01:04:49.320 So they didn't know what it was.

01:04:50.400 It could have been anything from

01:04:51.660 semi-benign to really, really, really bad,

01:04:55.180 given how large it was.

01:04:56.480 So the doctor who was amazing,

01:04:58.880 Boob Singh,

01:04:59.500 is just the most amazing guy.

01:05:01.260 He's like,

01:05:01.720 listen,

01:05:01.980 I'm going to warn you in advance,

01:05:03.220 like with this surgery here,

01:05:05.740 that we're going in your neck

01:05:07.300 and you talk for a living.

01:05:08.960 And he says,

01:05:09.660 I'm doing this as a biopsy.

01:05:11.300 We're not doing it to take,

01:05:12.340 you got to understand that.

01:05:13.080 They were doing it to biopsy.

01:05:14.340 He said,

01:05:14.560 but if I can get this tumor out,

01:05:16.500 I will.

01:05:17.740 He said,

01:05:18.240 but it's in a really bad spot, brother.

01:05:19.980 Like if I nick a vocal cord,

01:05:21.440 you're screwed.

01:05:22.300 If I nick your jugular,

01:05:23.520 you're dead.

01:05:24.600 So he goes in there

01:05:26.260 and this guy's the magic man.

01:05:27.680 Okay.

01:05:28.220 He winds up not only getting the whole tumor,

01:05:30.180 but getting another node too.

01:05:31.540 We found he cuts the whole damn thing

01:05:33.220 out of my neck.

01:05:33.920 I got pictures.

01:05:34.720 It is.

01:05:35.100 It looks like a softball in my neck.

01:05:36.660 It's nasty.

01:05:37.460 Right.

01:05:37.920 He got this whole thing.

01:05:38.900 So I'm worried before I go in there

01:05:40.920 because I know that it could be the end of me.

01:05:44.020 All right.

01:05:44.320 Maybe it was a 2% chance,

01:05:46.240 but I don't want to take those on.

01:05:47.800 So I'm kind of freaking out.

01:05:48.740 So I'm getting an IV put in

01:05:49.940 and like this nurse comes up

01:05:51.300 and she's like,

01:05:51.780 well,

01:05:51.880 what do you do for a living?

01:05:52.680 And ordinarily I make something up

01:05:54.520 because I don't want anyone to know.

01:05:56.020 I'll tell them I'm an aqua dozer or something.

01:05:58.280 What's an aqua dozer?

01:05:59.200 The answer is I have no idea.

01:06:00.280 That's why it's the greatest thing to tell people.

01:06:02.420 So we used to tell people that

01:06:04.840 when we were secret service agents.

01:06:06.460 So I wind up slipping

01:06:07.500 and I tell her I do a podcast,

01:06:09.280 which really I never do if you don't know,

01:06:11.220 because then it just turns into politics.

01:06:13.260 So she says on what?

01:06:15.020 And I said,

01:06:15.500 politics.

01:06:16.100 And I said,

01:06:16.720 oh boy,

01:06:17.340 my wife looks at me like,

01:06:18.300 why'd you just do that?

01:06:19.640 So the lady's sticking an IV in my hand,

01:06:21.740 which I hate

01:06:22.300 because I got super sensitive hands from boxing

01:06:24.800 and it hurts like hell.

01:06:26.480 And she's like,

01:06:28.220 you're not a Trump supporter,

01:06:29.360 are you?

01:06:29.980 And Megan,

01:06:30.520 I'm thinking to myself,

01:06:31.480 wait,

01:06:31.760 wait,

01:06:32.060 what?

01:06:32.380 Like,

01:06:32.580 this is a medical thing.

01:06:34.480 Like,

01:06:34.660 are you crazy?

01:06:37.940 You're asking me if I'm a,

01:06:39.540 and she's like,

01:06:40.040 you know,

01:06:40.240 he didn't wear a mask,

01:06:41.220 right?

01:06:41.380 It's when he went out on the balcony

01:06:42.480 after COVID with no mask.

01:06:43.840 It happened like two days after that.

01:06:45.860 She goes,

01:06:46.100 this guy's crazy.

01:06:47.040 Like,

01:06:47.200 why is he doing that?

01:06:48.660 Why is he not?

01:06:49.200 Wait,

01:06:49.320 it's embarrassing.

01:06:49.980 Doesn't this guy get it?

01:06:52.020 I'm sitting here like,

01:06:53.940 don't you get it?

01:06:54.600 I can't believe this.

01:06:55.860 I mean,

01:06:57.580 I'm,

01:06:57.860 I'm starting now talking about it

01:07:00.160 because I'm like,

01:07:01.060 you realize I'm about to have a cancerous tumor

01:07:03.660 removed from my neck

01:07:04.740 and I could die.

01:07:05.720 And you're telling me about like,

01:07:07.080 how you don't like Trump.

01:07:08.180 I can't believe it's happening.

01:07:09.580 So I,

01:07:10.260 I'm not even in a condition to fight back.

01:07:12.820 Like I ordinarily would

01:07:14.120 because I just don't know what to say

01:07:16.220 because I'm so shocked.

01:07:17.520 Even Paula,

01:07:18.440 who's got as big a mouth as I do

01:07:20.180 is like,

01:07:20.940 just in doing the,

01:07:23.760 like McGill or gorilla,

01:07:24.640 like what the hell just happened?

01:07:26.820 So I am in a really bad spot.

01:07:29.180 We're in shock.

01:07:29.880 And,

01:07:30.160 and Paula's looking at me like,

01:07:31.380 do we even do this surgery?

01:07:32.960 Because like,

01:07:33.560 I'm thinking crazy things.

01:07:34.700 Like,

01:07:35.100 am I going to go out and never wake up?

01:07:36.600 Like,

01:07:36.980 I mean,

01:07:37.340 you're in a bad spot.

01:07:38.620 You're not thinking rash.

01:07:39.500 I know it's stupid,

01:07:40.240 but when at the time it,

01:07:41.560 I don't know,

01:07:42.020 we were in a bad spot.

01:07:43.320 Bottom line is,

01:07:45.380 I'm what was,

01:07:46.400 I'm telling you some heavenly intervention.

01:07:48.600 I don't know if someone told them to call.

01:07:50.760 I don't know what happened,

01:07:51.840 but my phone rings,

01:07:53.500 which I still had on me for some bizarre reason.

01:07:56.240 And it said unknown on the phone.

01:07:58.040 So you know how it is in the business.

01:07:59.460 Unknown is one of two people.

01:08:00.660 It's Fox or the white house.

01:08:01.680 Like that's it.

01:08:02.160 Like no one else comes up unknown.

01:08:03.680 It comes up restricted for regular,

01:08:05.500 but unknown is like,

01:08:06.840 you know,

01:08:07.240 someone,

01:08:07.700 right?

01:08:08.480 So I'm like,

01:08:09.160 Oh,

01:08:09.580 this must be Fox or something.

01:08:11.240 So I pick up the phone and it's Trump.

01:08:14.480 And I mean,

01:08:16.440 you know,

01:08:17.560 Megan,

01:08:17.840 I get it.

01:08:18.840 Like I,

01:08:19.440 you've interviewed him.

01:08:20.700 I've interviewed him.

01:08:21.540 You know,

01:08:21.920 I know him.

01:08:23.440 He's not your standard politician.

01:08:25.020 You know,

01:08:25.620 people accuse him of being mercenary and all this other stuff.

01:08:28.560 You form your own opinion.

01:08:29.760 I know a different guy,

01:08:30.840 but that it wasn't even that he called me.

01:08:34.280 It was that he was so genuinely interested in making me feel better.

01:08:38.840 You know what I'm saying?

01:08:39.600 Like it wasn't a perfunctory task.

01:08:41.620 He already understood.

01:08:42.740 He had my support.

01:08:43.960 It wasn't something he did.

01:08:45.420 And you,

01:08:46.240 I mean,

01:08:46.480 come on,

01:08:46.900 you got people who kiss your ass all the time.

01:08:48.600 They're not really listening to you.

01:08:50.000 They're just either like worshiping you or they're like waiting to talk.

01:08:53.740 And that's like the worst thing ever because nothing's genuine anymore.

01:08:57.480 It was the weirdest conversation because he really wanted to know.

01:09:01.460 He's like,

01:09:01.940 how are you doing?

01:09:03.240 I said,

01:09:03.800 you know,

01:09:04.120 not that good.

01:09:04.880 It's this thing.

01:09:05.540 You see,

01:09:05.820 you're going to get it.

01:09:06.520 No,

01:09:07.320 there we were.

01:09:07.820 There's no crying on this show.

01:09:09.100 Just like crying in baseball.

01:09:10.340 He's like,

01:09:10.760 how are you feeling?

01:09:11.200 I said,

01:09:11.940 I can't.

01:09:13.100 I,

01:09:13.300 this story just so gets to me because he was like,

01:09:15.520 how are you doing?

01:09:16.560 And he said,

01:09:17.300 I told him what had happened.

01:09:18.400 He's like,

01:09:18.700 do you need me to make some kind of phone call?

01:09:20.400 He's like,

01:09:20.700 are you going to be okay going in there?

01:09:22.300 I said,

01:09:22.680 no,

01:09:22.840 Mr.

01:09:23.160 President,

01:09:23.500 I'm going to,

01:09:24.180 I'm going to be all right,

01:09:24.960 man.

01:09:25.320 I said,

01:09:25.680 I'm going to be all right.

01:09:26.540 But,

01:09:26.820 you know,

01:09:28.780 I said,

01:09:30.580 it really,

01:09:32.320 you know,

01:09:32.540 it just really matters that,

01:09:33.940 that you did that,

01:09:34.980 that you call.

01:09:35.900 And,

01:09:36.080 and it wasn't.

01:09:37.160 And the funny thing is,

01:09:38.540 it wasn't the first time I had spoken to him by any stretch.

01:09:41.280 I mean,

01:09:41.840 he's very open with his,

01:09:43.120 you know,

01:09:43.440 I mean,

01:09:43.700 you can call him anytime.

01:09:44.880 Trump will take your call.

01:09:46.000 I can call him right now on the show.

01:09:47.580 I guarantee you he'll pick up.

01:09:49.140 It wasn't the first time I talked to him,

01:09:50.880 but it was just that time.

01:09:52.140 I'm telling you,

01:09:52.620 I don't know if some angel tapped him on the shoulder and said,

01:09:55.600 call this guy.

01:09:56.340 And,

01:09:56.780 you know,

01:09:56.860 I'm not some goofy,

01:09:57.700 I don't worship politicians,

01:09:59.120 Trump or anyone else,

01:10:00.040 but I wouldn't have got through that.

01:10:02.160 There's no way.

01:10:03.140 And I was in and my wife said,

01:10:04.700 who was that?

01:10:05.060 I said,

01:10:05.340 you're never going to believe it.

01:10:06.280 It was Trump.

01:10:07.020 And we spent like five minutes on the phone and all he wanted to know,

01:10:10.340 all he wanted to know is how I was doing.

01:10:12.600 And if I was going to get through this and if I needed anything.

01:10:15.040 And he said,

01:10:15.640 the minute you're out of there,

01:10:16.580 cause you're going to make it through this.

01:10:17.780 Cause I'm with you.

01:10:19.000 God's with you.

01:10:20.060 He said,

01:10:20.360 I want you to come down from the,

01:10:21.420 you know,

01:10:21.680 the white house.

01:10:22.420 And you know,

01:10:23.020 when people ask me all the time,

01:10:24.540 you know,

01:10:25.320 why are you so loyal to this guy?

01:10:28.280 Well,

01:10:28.640 there's your answer.

01:10:29.300 I mean,

01:10:30.580 and you have to understand my loyalty and friendship will never go

01:10:34.140 challenged,

01:10:34.580 but that doesn't mean I don't get to question him on issues.

01:10:37.620 Just like he can question me on stuff.

01:10:39.360 That's what true friends are.

01:10:40.680 And this myth out there amongst the anti-Trump crowd that doesn't see

01:10:44.700 this guy through a clear lens.

01:10:46.320 They just don't.

01:10:47.040 They're so blinded by their hatred that,

01:10:48.920 Oh,

01:10:49.040 Trump demands fealty or he'll kick you out of his circle is the dumbest

01:10:53.040 shit I've ever heard.

01:10:54.200 I've disagreed with Donald Trump on criminal justice reform.

01:10:57.040 I've disagreed with him publicly on my own radio show.

01:10:59.740 I played the clip the other day about abortion and just the other day on

01:11:02.800 my podcast,

01:11:03.340 but that doesn't mean I'm not loyal to who he is personally,

01:11:07.260 but I'm also loyal to my faith and my politics too.

01:11:10.700 And he understands that.

01:11:12.040 So people say,

01:11:12.860 well,

01:11:12.960 how can you still support him?

01:11:14.240 You know why?

01:11:15.200 Cause Donald Trump is transaction.

01:11:17.000 And sometimes that's used as an insult in politics.

01:11:20.080 It's the greatest compliment ever.

01:11:21.640 He understands every transaction matters.

01:11:24.020 And I'm sorry to tell you there's not a single other candidate in a race

01:11:27.200 that's gotten that he is transactional.

01:11:29.640 When you walk in there,

01:11:31.020 he is a business guy.

01:11:32.360 Is he an avid pro-lifer?

01:11:34.560 Anyone who tells you that's lying to your face,

01:11:36.620 not a chance,

01:11:37.800 but Donald Trump understands pro-lifers got him elected.

01:11:41.120 And Donald Trump understands that when Leonard Leo and others walked in

01:11:44.400 there and said,

01:11:44.840 we got to get Roe v.

01:11:45.800 Wade out of there.

01:11:46.440 And here's a good idea of judges who may or may lean in the pro-life

01:11:50.340 direction who got it done.

01:11:51.880 He did while everyone else just talks shit about.

01:11:54.320 So I don't understand.

01:11:55.300 Like everybody takes that as a knock.

01:11:57.100 Oh,

01:11:57.240 he doesn't believe it in his heart.

01:11:58.960 Okay.

01:11:59.300 So the other politicians in the past that did and did jack shit about

01:12:02.320 abortion.

01:12:03.040 I'm supposed to like them more.

01:12:04.700 I'll take the doer over the talk or any day.

01:12:06.820 And transactional to me in politics is a compliment,

01:12:09.600 not an insult.

01:12:10.820 Well,

01:12:11.260 I think that the story is extraordinary because,

01:12:13.760 and we've had a few people come on and tell these back sort of behind

01:12:16.660 the scenes stories about Trump whose number I don't have.

01:12:20.060 I want to just know for the record,

01:12:21.360 John,

01:12:21.660 you do not have it,

01:12:22.760 but maybe someday he.

01:12:25.840 So,

01:12:26.300 but he's so demonized to the point where I do worry for his safety.

01:12:30.200 I think he's been so like the left likes to use the term dehumanized.

01:12:33.240 I feel dehumanized by this.

01:12:35.120 Is there anybody who's been more dehumanized than Donald Trump?

01:12:37.880 And on the other hand,

01:12:39.080 you got,

01:12:39.600 you know,

01:12:40.460 president basement,

01:12:41.760 right?

01:12:41.920 Joe Biden who barely puts himself out there.

01:12:44.080 And when he does like,

01:12:45.200 he's waiting for the,

01:12:46.300 he's there to greet the caskets coming home from Afghanistan.

01:12:48.700 He's checking his watch.

01:12:50.300 He's checking his watch.

01:12:51.200 But they want us to believe that that guy,

01:12:53.360 uncle Joe is the empathetic one.

01:12:56.520 He's the sweet one.

01:12:57.500 He's the kind one.

01:12:58.220 He's the avuncular one.

01:12:59.420 And Trump is the devil.

01:13:00.800 And Trump is ornery and he's a fighter and he's controversial,

01:13:04.640 but he too is a man.

01:13:06.700 He's a human.

01:13:07.440 He has a heart.

01:13:08.400 He has a family.

01:13:09.100 As I started this off by saying,

01:13:10.320 I just think the book,

01:13:11.880 this kind of example does a good job of putting layers on that.

01:13:15.300 So people can be reminded it's,

01:13:17.100 it's real,

01:13:17.920 even though he's very tough and he's a fighter,

01:13:20.860 it doesn't mean he's incapable of being hurt and God forbid worse.

01:13:25.700 So we need to like,

01:13:27.160 as you say,

01:13:28.180 pump the brakes,

01:13:29.620 make sure he's protected.

01:13:30.840 And he's not the only one.

01:13:32.300 Um,

01:13:32.740 Dan's been talking a lot about the total unwillingness to protect RFKJ,

01:13:37.520 who also is controversial,

01:13:39.860 is strong,

01:13:41.520 is,

01:13:42.520 you know,

01:13:43.800 like presses the left buttons in a unique way.

01:13:46.580 And also Dan with him,

01:13:48.220 they,

01:13:48.700 the Biden white house is refusing to give him any security.

01:13:51.780 They won't give him secret service.

01:13:52.900 And you as somebody who is in that role for 12 years,

01:13:56.360 say what?

01:13:58.260 I tweeted about this.

01:14:00.000 I did a whole segment on the show when it,

01:14:01.720 when they first made this decision that comes down from my Orcas,

01:14:04.460 our DHS secretary,

01:14:05.560 obviously supervises the secret service and the,

01:14:08.060 and the chain of command that we used to be in treasury.

01:14:10.100 Now we're in Homeland.

01:14:11.720 Uh,

01:14:11.920 it's an obscenely stupid decision.

01:14:14.420 Now,

01:14:14.620 granted,

01:14:15.380 uh,

01:14:15.620 there is a formula for it.

01:14:17.100 No one can deny that,

01:14:18.140 but the formula,

01:14:19.000 there's a lot of discretion.

01:14:20.640 Uh,

01:14:21.060 this president could very well.

01:14:22.580 And the DHS secretary sign off on a protection detail.

01:14:25.420 Now I ask you this,

01:14:26.900 um,

01:14:27.300 the prime minister of say,

01:14:29.880 uh,

01:14:30.620 you know,

01:14:30.960 East tuna fish,

01:14:31.820 some country you don't even know when they come to the United States for the

01:14:34.600 UN.

01:14:34.940 I've done a lot of these details.

01:14:36.600 We're smaller.

01:14:37.240 I don't want to say a country cause I don't want to,

01:14:38.720 I'm not trying to insult them.

01:14:39.680 I'm just saying nobody recognizes,

01:14:41.120 recognizes these people at all.

01:14:42.700 They get a full blown detail for two or three weeks.

01:14:45.200 It costs a lot of money,

01:14:46.540 midnights,

01:14:47.180 cars,

01:14:47.700 armored cars,

01:14:48.420 everything,

01:14:48.860 people overnight,

01:14:49.980 dog sweeps,

01:14:50.820 the whole nine.

01:14:51.740 Megan,

01:14:52.100 I've been on these details.

01:14:53.520 Nobody recognizes them.

01:14:54.980 What from Adam?

01:14:55.420 I'm not going to say the country,

01:14:56.420 but I was with a guy who Megan,

01:14:58.080 you've been in New York a lot.

01:14:59.460 You know,

01:14:59.680 the delis that have the gross buffets in them,

01:15:01.680 the delis,

01:15:02.140 you know what I'm talking about,

01:15:02.900 right?

01:15:03.040 With the sneeze guards,

01:15:03.900 everybody sneezes in anyway,

01:15:05.500 the prime minister of this country went in and ate in one of those things out of

01:15:09.480 the plastic tray and not a single person recognize this guy.

01:15:12.900 So when you got RFK in some polls upwards of 16 to 20%,

01:15:18.800 whose dad again,

01:15:21.340 hate literally,

01:15:22.140 but was literally killed by an assassin.

01:15:24.880 Who's got the last name.

01:15:26.300 Kennedy did is clear as day.

01:15:28.960 The guy should at a minimum be getting some kind of what we call portal portal

01:15:33.120 detail door to door.

01:15:34.760 Maybe you don't do midnight.

01:15:36.240 You put a little alarm in the house.

01:15:37.680 We call it agent Sony.

01:15:38.980 You put a camera out front so we can call the cops.

01:15:41.440 If the alarm trips.

01:15:42.940 Okay.

01:15:43.620 At least it's something you can say you're doing something to give this guy

01:15:46.780 nothing.

01:15:48.020 I'm going to tell you what's going on.

01:15:49.960 I'm going to let you in on a little secret here.

01:15:51.740 Cause I,

01:15:52.160 again,

01:15:52.880 I kind of know some stuff about some stuff.

01:15:55.940 So here's,

01:15:56.740 what's really going on.

01:15:57.660 Biden obviously doesn't want to make it look like he has a primary.

01:16:00.880 When you show up with a secret service detail,

01:16:03.100 it gives you that it's an aura with it.

01:16:05.160 You get the black cars,

01:16:06.180 you come out and it exudes power and politics is a projection of power.

01:16:10.260 That's what it is.

01:16:11.000 Uh,

01:16:11.400 it's a projection of power through votes,

01:16:12.780 but you want to project power as an image too.

01:16:14.960 They don't want to give them the imagery,

01:16:16.400 but second,

01:16:17.260 having a secret service detail comes with some added fringe benefits.

01:16:20.340 Your audience may not know about.

01:16:21.840 You don't have to wait on plane lines anymore.

01:16:24.100 You go through the Leo exit,

01:16:25.780 the law enforcement officer exit,

01:16:27.320 you sign right through,

01:16:28.960 you get a lot,

01:16:29.700 you'll get transportation.

01:16:31.100 So it's a,

01:16:31.860 it's a pretty decent subsidy.

01:16:33.280 I'm not saying I agree with it or not.

01:16:35.000 I'm just telling you the taxpayers pay for a lot of it.

01:16:37.360 You get a subsidy and you get a time subsidy.

01:16:39.280 Cause you're not waiting in airports.

01:16:40.600 They will hold the plane up for you.

01:16:42.300 You can get there two minutes before,

01:16:43.680 because you don't wait with anyone.

01:16:44.900 You go right through security with secret service.

01:16:47.000 It makes your campaign a hundred times easier and less expensive.

01:16:50.380 You think the Biden administration doesn't know that you think my Orcas doesn't know that.

01:16:54.740 That's why they're dumping this guy for security detail.

01:16:57.240 Even though he has the last name Kennedy's polling at 16%.

01:16:59.880 It's crazy.

01:17:01.440 So is there,

01:17:02.760 cause I was saying the other day,

01:17:03.940 I know Gavin DeBecker,

01:17:05.480 I know his firm,

01:17:06.320 they're excellent,

01:17:07.080 but I heard you make the point there that nonetheless,

01:17:10.280 as excellent as they might be,

01:17:12.100 there is a real difference.

01:17:13.860 Notwithstanding,

01:17:14.400 like you were talking about like sort of the VIP access stuff,

01:17:16.900 but there,

01:17:17.380 is there a difference in the level to which they can protect you?

01:17:20.600 Secret service detail for somebody like RFKJ versus a private security firm.

01:17:25.240 These guys are amazing to my fellow security brothers and sisters.

01:17:30.360 I love you to death.

01:17:31.780 You know,

01:17:32.220 it's super talented.

01:17:33.400 Some of these guys were steals,

01:17:35.220 berets.

01:17:36.120 Some of them are retired secret service.

01:17:38.180 These guys will tell you what I'm telling you now.

01:17:41.340 Most of them can't arrest.

01:17:43.220 A lot of them don't have anything other than a citizen's arrest powers for a probable cause right in front of you.

01:17:48.320 And they're just never going to get the law enforcement support that a fellow law enforcement agency is going to get.

01:17:53.760 Any secret service agent can walk into whatever Podunk County police department.

01:18:00.180 Again,

01:18:00.420 that would have five members and say,

01:18:01.980 guys,

01:18:02.360 listen,

01:18:02.680 these are the guys there though.

01:18:04.220 You have to understand whatever it is,

01:18:06.200 Podunk or Stewart Ryland,

01:18:07.940 they know the area.

01:18:09.740 Megan,

01:18:10.120 no one's more valuable than them.

01:18:12.020 They patrol it every day.

01:18:14.580 The secret service guy coming in from DC has never seen this place in his life.

01:18:18.400 He doesn't know what it is.

01:18:20.160 The security guy is going to have a difficult time.

01:18:22.480 Not that they're going to gaffe them off.

01:18:24.200 They may help you out,

01:18:25.380 but they're under no like real obligation.

01:18:27.960 The secret service has little memorandums of understanding where they can write little letters and formally request support.

01:18:34.620 They can subsidize it through taxpayers,

01:18:36.820 pick up some of the funds if necessary.

01:18:38.940 Security companies aren't going to be able to do that.

01:18:40.880 They are immensely skilled.

01:18:42.340 Some of them are actually better agents than some of the guys I met,

01:18:46.000 but they just don't have that kind of the United States code,

01:18:50.680 title 183056.

01:18:52.320 They don't have actual legal power to do what the secret service can do.

01:18:57.420 It's a total screw job.

01:18:58.880 There's zero doubt in my mind.

01:19:00.700 And whereas we had the conversation with Trump about Trump's safety before,

01:19:03.940 if something happens to RFK,

01:19:05.820 God forbid,

01:19:06.580 please,

01:19:06.960 God,

01:19:07.340 I don't use the Lord's name in vain.

01:19:08.780 Keep all these guys alive from Biden to Trump.

01:19:11.200 We're not a banana Republic.

01:19:13.040 I'm just telling you,

01:19:14.080 if something happens,

01:19:15.260 this is 100% on Mayorkas,

01:19:17.460 a hundred percent.

01:19:19.020 I mean,

01:19:19.480 he's already doing everything he can to endanger regular American citizens with that southern border.

01:19:25.000 This is the least he could do to protect one prominent one in particular.

01:19:28.840 All right,

01:19:29.040 standby more with Dan Bongino after this quick,

01:19:31.340 quick break.

01:19:31.740 Don't go away.

01:19:34.660 Do you think that there's a risk here that the impeachment inquiry could backfire on Republicans?

01:19:40.360 Yeah,

01:19:41.480 there certainly is a risk.

01:19:43.300 I mean,

01:19:43.980 look at it this way,

01:19:45.080 Abby.

01:19:45.380 If I were to ask you,

01:19:46.680 what was the Clinton impeachment about?

01:19:49.200 We'd say Monica Lewinsky's blue dress.

01:19:51.340 If I said,

01:19:51.820 what was the first Trump impeachment about?

01:19:54.440 We'd say it was his phone call with Zelensky.

01:19:56.600 When you say what this impeachment inquiry,

01:20:00.300 it's not an actual impeachment yet is about,

01:20:02.520 you know,

01:20:04.060 a hundred Biden,

01:20:05.200 uh,

01:20:05.660 what a hundred Biden was doing overseas,

01:20:07.440 uh,

01:20:08.420 whether,

01:20:08.900 but in other words,

01:20:09.500 there isn't any,

01:20:10.440 at least at this point,

01:20:11.880 they're there.

01:20:13.300 Oh,

01:20:13.820 they're there says Chris Wallace.

01:20:15.260 Now of CNN.

01:20:16.140 Welcome back to the Megan Kelly show here with me today.

01:20:18.280 Dan Bongino,

01:20:19.500 host of the Dan Bongino show and author of the new book,

01:20:22.900 the gift of failure.

01:20:25.800 So Chris Wallace says there's no there,

01:20:28.080 there.

01:20:28.320 And that even though the latest poll shows 48% of the American populace,

01:20:32.680 including a fair amount of Democrats,

01:20:35.240 36% of Democrats,

01:20:37.100 uh,

01:20:37.680 and 63% of Republicans and nearly half of independent voters say they support this inquiry.

01:20:42.840 No one knows what it's about because again,

01:20:45.260 there's no there,

01:20:46.100 there Dan.

01:20:47.900 Well,

01:20:48.480 he's right.

01:20:49.100 I mean,

01:20:49.580 outside of the suspicious activity reports,

01:20:52.540 the 10 23s,

01:20:54.040 the multiple FBI informants,

01:20:56.320 the Tony Bobulinski testimony,

01:20:58.040 the Eric swearing texts,

01:20:59.720 the Devin Archer testimony,

01:21:01.480 the photos of Hunter Biden,

01:21:03.380 the texts of Hunter Biden to his dad.

01:21:05.660 Yeah.

01:21:05.820 I'm going to give half the pop text.

01:21:07.860 Despite the Bobulinski testimony that by Biden was the chairman,

01:21:12.140 despite the Devin Archer testimony that Biden was the brand they were selling,

01:21:16.980 despite the laptop,

01:21:19.000 the emails,

01:21:19.880 the office space,

01:21:20.940 the $20 million in payments,

01:21:23.060 the multiple LLCs,

01:21:25.160 the son of a bitch video,

01:21:27.120 the Poroshenko tapes,

01:21:29.260 um,

01:21:29.620 despite the Biden fake email accounts.

01:21:32.880 Yes.

01:21:33.120 Chris Wallace is correct.

01:21:34.600 Uh,

01:21:34.880 there's no evidence,

01:21:36.100 Megan.

01:21:36.360 You know,

01:21:36.620 this is kind of like,

01:21:37.420 I don't know where we are like wrapping up or beginning because it's like that Pink Floyd album,

01:21:41.600 the wall,

01:21:41.880 like,

01:21:42.080 is this where we came in?

01:21:43.160 If you know,

01:21:43.720 by the way,

01:21:44.500 you know,

01:21:44.920 but when you came into the show,

01:21:46.640 you said like,

01:21:47.440 wow,

01:21:47.640 they try to offend me here,

01:21:48.860 but they don't want to call me a journalist.

01:21:50.880 Chris Wallace calls himself a journalist.

01:21:52.780 I don't really care what your relationship with is.

01:21:54.760 I have zero respect for this tool for you to go on that network with your knowing your dad,

01:21:59.920 who he was and who you pretend to be now.

01:22:01.960 And to claim with a straight face with,

01:22:04.400 you know,

01:22:04.700 your educated looking glasses and your nice cutesy time,

01:22:07.740 little suit that there's no evidence,

01:22:09.720 um,

01:22:10.540 is really an embarrassment to your family.

01:22:13.500 I mean,

01:22:13.980 it's an embarrassment to your network.

01:22:15.960 Are you serious?

01:22:17.560 There's no evidence.

01:22:18.800 Let me tell you something.

01:22:19.680 I'm like Chris Wallace.

01:22:20.700 I was an investigator for 12 years and a cop before that.

01:22:23.940 This is not just evidence.

01:22:25.600 There are standards of proof.

01:22:27.440 You have reasonable suspicion.

01:22:29.420 You have beyond a reasonable doubt.

01:22:30.940 You have preponderance of evidence in many civil cases.

01:22:33.700 This is beyond any reasonable doubt.

01:22:36.760 If this case was in a court of law with any fair jury,

01:22:40.160 Joe Biden is convicted in 10 minutes or less.

01:22:43.260 There is,

01:22:43.660 I did financial crap.

01:22:44.800 Now you may say,

01:22:45.700 oh,

01:22:46.040 Dan Bongino,

01:22:46.840 you're a conservative.

01:22:47.700 You don't like Biden.

01:22:49.020 Point stipulated,

01:22:50.260 your honor.

01:22:50.920 I don't like Biden.

01:22:52.220 However,

01:22:52.580 I'm not a moron.

01:22:53.800 I'm telling you right now that the stuff that is out there is not just there.

01:22:58.540 It is beyond any reasonable doubt.

01:23:00.940 And the fact that journalists or pseudo journalists like Chris Wallace,

01:23:05.220 again,

01:23:05.460 I have zero respect for zero.

01:23:08.420 The fact that this guy goes on TV and knows this is recorded for posterity's sake.

01:23:14.660 And the generations are going to look back on this guy defending the biggest presidential scandal in American history.

01:23:22.720 I mean it when I say this,

01:23:24.640 I genuinely feel bad for his grandkids and his kids.

01:23:27.740 Oh my gosh,

01:23:28.340 that's harsh.

01:23:29.040 I don't give a shit.

01:23:30.180 I'm not trying to impress anyone in this business because I don't try to be a journalist.

01:23:33.740 I try to be real and fact-based.

01:23:35.920 I am,

01:23:36.440 I am,

01:23:37.080 I am dead serious.

01:23:38.680 I,

01:23:38.880 everything I do,

01:23:39.580 I think to myself,

01:23:40.300 how would my daughter look at this?

01:23:42.560 And you know what?

01:23:43.780 I screw stuff up every day.

01:23:45.460 Believe me.

01:23:45.980 I,

01:23:46.200 like I said,

01:23:46.680 I'm a sinner,

01:23:47.280 man.

01:23:47.520 I ain't no one's role model.

01:23:48.760 And it bothers me.

01:23:49.780 I'm like,

01:23:50.020 that was dumb.

01:23:50.820 Like my daughter wouldn't be proud of me if I did that.

01:23:53.120 I think about it all the time.

01:23:54.860 How the hell you go on TV and humiliate yourself like that.

01:23:59.820 I mean,

01:24:00.220 isn't it degrading?

01:24:01.760 I mean,

01:24:02.020 well,

01:24:02.140 listen,

01:24:02.420 Megan,

01:24:02.640 one last thing.

01:24:03.060 Like I said,

01:24:03.640 yeah,

01:24:03.820 in case anyone's out there like,

01:24:05.140 oh,

01:24:05.340 you're a kiss ass.

01:24:06.080 You do the same thing for Trump.

01:24:07.540 Go fuck yourself.

01:24:08.440 When Donald Trump was on my show and he told me and he,

01:24:12.520 and we got into it about abortion and Donald Trump knows I feel this way.

01:24:15.760 I said,

01:24:16.180 sir,

01:24:16.380 I completely disagree on my ratings.

01:24:18.300 We have a different take on abortion and what weeks and all that other stuff.

01:24:22.020 And you know what?

01:24:22.980 We're still friends.

01:24:23.920 And I still support him because I had the balls to say something.

01:24:27.240 And he has the balls to say,

01:24:28.500 here's why I disagree.

01:24:29.560 I think it's bad politics.

01:24:30.840 You're thinking of it the wrong way.

01:24:32.340 Totally fine.

01:24:33.440 Not these stuck ass,

01:24:35.540 piss ass losers in the media who look at their oatmeal,

01:24:38.520 God,

01:24:39.060 Joe Biden,

01:24:39.880 and they can't get off their knees.

01:24:41.820 It's pathetic.

01:24:42.820 It's disgusting.

01:24:44.000 And you asked me in the beginning of the show,

01:24:45.420 why does no one watch CNN?

01:24:47.040 That's why,

01:24:47.880 because that's a totally predictable answer from a loser who couldn't hack it in

01:24:52.800 the business.

01:24:54.260 Here's,

01:24:54.780 here's what the journalists are doing on the Biden story.

01:24:57.780 Instead of any of the things that you just mentioned,

01:25:00.660 investigating any of those things.

01:25:02.560 Here's their messaging around this whole thing.

01:25:04.340 No evidence.

01:25:05.400 And this watch.

01:25:06.840 He calls his son every day to check in.

01:25:10.040 He calls his other family members to check in to see how they're doing.

01:25:13.080 He loves them.

01:25:13.560 Right now you have the president's son,

01:25:16.500 somebody he loves deeply,

01:25:18.000 somebody who has very publicly struggled with drug addiction.

01:25:21.200 My bet is right now,

01:25:23.060 this is a heartbroken president in the White House who is worried about his son.

01:25:27.840 He was in the throes of addiction.

01:25:30.200 He was in a very bad place.

01:25:32.200 You know what addicts do?

01:25:33.580 They do really stupid choices.

01:25:36.200 And they lie.

01:25:37.060 They lie.

01:25:37.600 They commit crime.

01:25:40.460 Hunter Biden did that.

01:25:41.640 He was one of the kids who was in the car when a sibling and his mother were killed.

01:25:46.260 Joe Biden's first wife and child.

01:25:47.940 He was traumatized by that.

01:25:49.160 He probably has a lot of survivor guilt and all that.

01:25:52.380 Oh, my God, Dan.

01:25:54.500 This is all his survivor guilt.

01:25:57.040 That's what's happening.

01:25:58.020 I mean, listen, I'm sorry.

01:25:59.280 I lost it in that lesson.

01:26:00.500 I just I so hate that we're in this place as a country.

01:26:03.580 I'm really I'm sorry.

01:26:04.680 I get passion.

01:26:05.320 I know the language, folks.

01:26:06.460 I'm sorry.

01:26:06.800 It's on me.

01:26:07.140 It's obviously not on Megan.

01:26:08.120 It's just I can't I really lose control because I can't take it.

01:26:12.480 But Megan, you know someone with substance addiction.

01:26:16.220 OK, you do.

01:26:17.040 I do.

01:26:17.640 Everyone does.

01:26:18.260 Someone very, very, very close.

01:26:20.860 OK, not my nuclear family, but like right there.

01:26:25.380 Would you send that person over to deal with the Chinese Communist Party and the corrupt

01:26:30.200 Moscow mayor's wife to run 20 different LLCs and flush 20 million dollars through?

01:26:36.020 You imagine the stress of doing that.

01:26:38.040 And by the way, so you can grift off them and give half the money to pop or take half

01:26:41.900 the money from your drug addicted kid.

01:26:43.420 There it is.

01:26:43.820 You're telling me that's a good father.

01:26:45.760 You are an asshole.

01:26:47.240 If you're telling you are a scumbag, not only is he not a good father, he is an awful

01:26:52.240 father and a genuinely terrible human being.

01:26:55.600 Instead of getting his son treatment, he put him out at the tip of the spear of the

01:26:59.260 Biden crime family grifting brigade to go get him filthy rich.

01:27:03.180 It's disgusting.

01:27:04.480 They are looking at this the total opposite way because their propagandist is not even

01:27:08.020 remotely interested in telling you the truth.

01:27:10.900 It's thank you for putting such a perfect point on it.

01:27:13.300 That's what's been driving me nuts all along.

01:27:15.320 I do have people in my family, someone who is very close to me, who is an addict.

01:27:20.140 And this is the last thing that you would do with them is actually put them in any sort

01:27:24.080 of position of prominence or something that would add stress to their lives.

01:27:27.680 And never mind over there in Ukraine dealing with Burisma, who you're investigating because

01:27:32.740 you're head of corruption and the Chinese and the Russians.

01:27:35.160 My God, never.

01:27:36.760 And it was at the time that he was very actively using and in and out of rehabs.

01:27:43.120 It's not like it was a mystery to Joe Biden.

01:27:46.020 What was going on with his son?

01:27:47.180 He's like, you can make there.

01:27:48.480 Oh, he's totally fooled.

01:27:49.240 He had no idea.

01:27:49.940 No, he knew he knew full well.

01:27:52.200 He was in the throes of addiction.

01:27:54.020 He didn't care.

01:27:55.880 But let's make a little more news on your show, because there's something I don't think

01:27:59.240 I may have talked about it, but I'm not really sure.

01:28:01.660 But let's just say, you know, Hunter Biden had a detail because he did a secret service

01:28:06.360 detail.

01:28:07.740 And like, let's just say maybe those guys saw a lot of stuff, right?

01:28:12.760 As Hunter Biden was traveling overseas, you know, people coming in and out of the room.

01:28:17.040 What do you mean?

01:28:17.780 Like room service?

01:28:18.740 Oh, it was service.

01:28:20.100 Wasn't room service, but it was service.

01:28:22.160 So people kind of saw that because, you know, that's your job.

01:28:24.860 Like, hey, who's coming in here?

01:28:26.140 Oh, that's a, oh, okay.

01:28:28.580 Winky, winky, nod, nod, I guess.

01:28:30.120 Right.

01:28:30.280 But you don't think dad knew about that?

01:28:32.900 You don't think that was happening in China when I've used that country specifically because

01:28:37.100 I know specifically about that incident?

01:28:39.560 You don't think that was happening all over the world in this loving dad, according to

01:28:42.700 that tool, Joy Behar?

01:28:44.240 You don't think the loving dad knew his son was traveling around the world in hotel rooms

01:28:48.220 with service people, if you know what I mean?

01:28:51.000 You don't think that was going down in reports back to D.C.?

01:28:54.060 What did dad do?

01:28:54.820 Bring him home, son.

01:28:55.700 You need help?

01:28:56.860 Send him out to the next country to steal some more money.

01:28:59.980 Grift over there, too.

01:29:01.740 Tell me again how he's a loving dad.

01:29:03.920 I mean, really, man, give me a break.

01:29:05.480 I got people struggling with this in my family.

01:29:07.540 Like you said, I don't, Megan, one of them in particular, I don't even give money.

01:29:13.120 Why?

01:29:13.440 Because I can't.

01:29:14.140 No, I can give him a lot of money because I know where it goes and I refuse to do it.

01:29:17.560 I'm not going to partake in that.

01:29:18.800 I'm really sorry.

01:29:19.840 Give them money.

01:29:20.500 I don't even give them money.

01:29:21.500 You're sending your son out to not only make millions, but to get you money, too, and take

01:29:26.520 a cut off the grift while he's addicted to crack, doing the whole UFC fight with the girl.

01:29:31.740 You're like, oh, my gosh, is that a UFC fight?

01:29:33.600 No, that's Hunter Biden in a room with a woman.

01:29:35.500 That's a woman?

01:29:36.420 You can't even see her anymore in a picture.

01:29:38.220 You see these pictures?

01:29:39.540 It's the most disgusting thing you've ever seen.

01:29:41.620 The guy is a lunatic.

01:29:43.220 That ain't a loving dad, man.

01:29:44.560 That's a sicko.

01:29:45.600 This is a really troubled individual who's probably a worse human being than his son, Hunter.

01:29:50.460 He ain't no loving dad.

01:29:51.480 That's a garbage line.

01:29:52.640 And throw that right in the can.

01:29:55.040 This is like the best I've heard anybody summarize what's been in my gut as I watch all of this.

01:30:01.620 Last thing, I've got to get to this.

01:30:03.260 I'm dying to weigh in to get you to weigh in on this event that happened with Dave Portnoy

01:30:08.300 of Barstool Sports.

01:30:10.100 I don't know if you saw this online, right?

01:30:11.420 Did you see this the other day?

01:30:12.860 So Dave Portnoy finds out that The Washington Post is doing what appears to be a hit piece

01:30:18.080 on him.

01:30:18.740 He goes around and he tests all these people's pizza, and then he gives it a rating.

01:30:21.800 He's been doing this for years, and he's having something like a pizza fest or pizza

01:30:25.060 gate, and he's going to celebrate all these pizzas.

01:30:27.820 And he finds out that this Washington Post reporter is calling up the sponsors of the

01:30:32.480 event, emailing them and so on, saying bad things about Dave Portnoy, basically trying

01:30:38.200 to pressure them into withdrawing, generate a story.

01:30:41.180 Oh, advertisers are bailing.

01:30:42.980 Dave Portnoy is controversial.

01:30:44.540 You know, he can't even get anybody sponsored him at the pizza gate thing.

01:30:47.080 Meanwhile, they are sponsoring him.

01:30:48.740 She's the one behind the push to make it controversial.

01:30:51.980 And somebody tells Dave Portnoy this, one of the advertisers, I presume.

01:30:57.060 And so Dave tweeted out saying, I found that they were doing this piece, so I did what I

01:31:00.420 do.

01:31:00.760 I went on offense.

01:31:01.720 And he called The Washington Post reporter, who's like the food reporter for WAPO.

01:31:06.960 And he tapes the whole thing, and he puts it online.

01:31:10.160 And it's fascinating.

01:31:10.780 The whole thing is well worth a listen.

01:31:12.060 Um, but here's the beginning where he confronts her right off with what she's doing.

01:31:16.660 She tries to deny it.

01:31:17.800 And then he zings her with the proof.

01:31:19.560 Let's listen to that.

01:31:21.380 We have this pizza fest happening on Saturday, and you're reaching out to our advertisers,

01:31:26.640 and you're basically sending an email that says, to the effect, Dave's a misogynic racist.

01:31:34.640 Do you want to defend yourselves advertising at this event?

01:31:37.740 No, I'm not, I haven't said anything like that.

01:31:40.660 I can read what you actually sent.

01:31:42.280 I have it.

01:31:43.060 We are planning to write about the festival, and how some of the sponsors and participants

01:31:47.620 have drawn criticism by seemingly to associate themselves with Dave Portnoy, who has a history

01:31:52.560 of misogynic comments and other problematic behavior.

01:31:56.480 I want to make sure that Blank had a chance to respond to this, since the company is the

01:32:00.000 most prominent in their partners of his festival.

01:32:02.600 Oh, that's the one I sent to ****, which was definitely the most pointed of them, because

01:32:06.160 I really did want them to respond.

01:32:09.760 Okay, so first she denies that she's done it.

01:32:12.380 Then he reads to her the nasty email that she has sent.

01:32:15.860 Then she's like, oh, well, that's just the most pointed way.

01:32:18.020 Now, stand by.

01:32:18.640 Here's part two.

01:32:19.880 It goes on and on.

01:32:20.980 But here's part two that we cut, where he rounds back to that.

01:32:24.180 He's very unhappy that she's doing this with his advertiser.

01:32:28.400 He keeps saying, this is so wrong.

01:32:29.540 Why didn't you ever contact me?

01:32:30.480 Why are you doing a story about me, trying to disparage me with all these people?

01:32:33.160 He's saying misogynic.

01:32:35.160 He claims he's so non-misogynistic, he doesn't even know how to pronounce misogyny in any

01:32:41.920 event.

01:32:43.000 Here's part two, where she tries to defend what she said to that advertiser.

01:32:48.260 Then why would you include that in the email to sponsors?

01:32:54.360 Because I was hoping for a dialogue with them.

01:32:56.960 Sometimes you have to say something like, this is like, it's sort of a reporting tactic

01:33:01.600 when you want someone to respond.

01:33:03.320 You kind of have to indicate that there might be something negative, and then you get them

01:33:06.840 to engage.

01:33:07.560 That's all I was trying to do.

01:33:09.220 I really wanted them to engage with me.

01:33:12.040 That's amazing.

01:33:13.160 So Emily Heil, reporter for Washington Post, covering national food news and trends.

01:33:19.080 Let me school you on something.

01:33:20.800 As an actual journalist, that's not what you do.

01:33:23.700 Not at all.

01:33:24.200 We don't run around defaming people, saying things that we don't believe are true, which

01:33:28.080 is what she's implying, just to get a response.

01:33:30.240 That could actually get you in trouble in the civil courts, madam.

01:33:33.640 What did you make of it?

01:33:35.640 Well, listen, there's no one better to ask than me.

01:33:38.360 I mean, as a major equity holder in Rumble, I deal with this all the time.

01:33:44.200 We have been under conservatives, and I say we, I don't mean Rumble particularly.

01:33:48.320 But as you saw what happened with the whole thing recently with the UK attacking Rumble

01:33:52.740 and everything else, it's a whole other story telling us we've got to demonetize people

01:33:57.040 according to allegations now, dictating to private businesses how they should be run,

01:34:01.540 which I found amazing.

01:34:03.020 It's actually the same story here.

01:34:05.220 You may be like, oh, those are two disparate stories.

01:34:06.980 They're not.

01:34:07.600 They're the same story.

01:34:08.860 Here's the thing, Dave Portnoy is not a conservative.

01:34:12.040 Matter of fact, ironically, Dave Portnoy and I have had a spat in the past.

01:34:15.360 Anyone can look it up on the internet about abortion, which is an issue that matters a

01:34:20.000 lot to me, being pro-life.

01:34:21.740 I don't dislike Dave.

01:34:23.020 Dave and I, we went at it a little bit.

01:34:25.240 You know, it got kind of frosty because me and him are both frosty SOBs.

01:34:29.900 But, you know, we're not friends.

01:34:31.280 We don't know each other.

01:34:32.460 He was on my Fox show a couple of times.

01:34:34.580 So, I mean, I'm the perfect guy to talk about this because nobody understands that I

01:34:38.220 think better than me than him.

01:34:39.160 I bring that up because Dave's not a conservative.

01:34:41.060 So, you look, well, why is Dave an enemy of the liberal Washington Post, then, if he's

01:34:45.500 not a conservative?

01:34:46.720 He's not even like a pro-life guy.

01:34:48.380 Like, you think he has liberal positions on some stuff.

01:34:51.280 He should be a hero to them.

01:34:52.840 Well, the answer is, it doesn't matter if you're a liberal or a conservative to the

01:34:57.460 Washington Post.

01:34:58.400 What matters is, you know the hierarchy of power.

01:35:02.400 And if you don't understand that the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the liberal movement

01:35:06.840 will tell you and dictate to you what to do, which Barstool does not.

01:35:11.060 Barstool gives the double-barrel middle finger to everyone, then you are, in fact, the enemy.

01:35:15.700 Whether you're a liberal or not is irrelevant.

01:35:18.040 These pressure campaigns have been going on for years.

01:35:20.180 I'm going to tell everyone, you and everyone listening, that we got to run.

01:35:23.960 If you do not fight back, you will be a victim.

01:35:27.360 There is a woman on the internet, she's in my book, I actually write about it, who thought

01:35:31.620 it was cutesy time to toy with me.

01:35:33.300 I made her life miserable for about an entire year as I found out every single thing that

01:35:39.260 she did, supporting child sex predators, Antifa people, and I tweeted to everyone she

01:35:44.240 talks to, that's who this person is.

01:35:46.860 And it's the only way, or they will never, ever leave you alone.

01:35:51.820 And Portnoy figured that out.

01:35:53.340 And at Washington Post, lady, she figured it out too.

01:35:55.840 One might say that he gave her the gift of failure.

01:36:00.660 He experienced it firsthand.

01:36:04.260 And now the follow-up should be the delivery of Dan Bongino's new book.

01:36:11.220 So, so great to talk to you.

01:36:12.940 Thank you so much for coming back, my friend.

01:36:15.440 So much fun.

01:36:16.300 That was great.

01:36:16.780 I think it was even better than the first time.

01:36:18.440 So thanks a lot.

01:36:19.060 Talk to you soon.

01:36:19.540 I think we topped ourselves amazingly.

01:36:21.420 All right, all the best.

01:36:22.120 Don't forget, Gift of Failure, it's out right now.

01:36:24.180 And don't forget to buy Doug Brunt's book while you're on Amazon buying Dan's, The Mysterious

01:36:28.720 Case of Rudolph Diesel.

01:36:30.520 That is my husband's Doug Brunt's book.

01:36:32.480 It's out too.

01:36:33.360 It's also up there in the Amazon Top 20.

01:36:37.000 And would love your support on that as well.

01:36:39.600 Listen, have a great weekend, and we'll do it all over again on Monday.

01:36:44.540 Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show.

01:36:47.280 No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

The Megyn Kelly Show - September 22, 2023

Dan Bongino on Threats to Trump, Biden's Poor Parenting, and the Gift of Failure ｜ Ep. 633

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