The Megyn Kelly Show - Did Comey Leak to NYT, Leftists Want More DC Crime, and Fixing CA, with John Solomon, Steve Hilton, Rich Lowry, and Charles Cooke

00:00:00.000 Now streaming on Paramount Plus.

00:00:02.840 Someone is trying to frame us.

00:00:05.280 Until our names are cleared.

00:00:07.700 We're fugitives from interval.

00:00:09.480 Like Bonnie and Clyde with better snacks.

00:00:12.880 Espionage?

00:00:13.560 You still as good a shot as you used to be?

00:00:16.580 Better.

00:00:17.400 Is there love language?

00:00:18.860 We like to walk that fine line between techno thriller

00:00:21.360 and romantic comedy.

00:00:24.180 We make up our own rules.

00:00:25.940 NCIS Tony and Ziva.

00:00:27.400 Now streaming on Paramount Plus.

00:00:30.660 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.

00:00:32.540 Live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at noon east.

00:00:42.320 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly.

00:00:44.060 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.

00:00:45.500 We've got new reporting today on the intelligence leaks

00:00:47.960 aimed at undermining President Trump before and during

00:00:50.780 his first term in office and the complete lack of care,

00:00:54.640 or so it would seem, by the intelligence community.

00:00:57.180 Yesterday we began the show with Just the News' John Solomon.

00:01:02.000 Today we're going to do the same as he's got yet another big piece

00:01:06.060 on his website this morning.

00:01:08.360 This one involves newly declassified intelligence

00:01:11.320 from FBI Director Cash Patel

00:01:13.860 that squarely points the finger at former FBI Director James Comey.

00:01:18.640 Both men in the same job, one fully transparent,

00:01:23.160 one quite the opposite.

00:01:25.440 I mean, Comey wanted a message out there, that's for sure.

00:01:29.160 He did want to communicate with the press.

00:01:31.280 He just wanted to do it behind the scenes

00:01:33.040 and with classified information

00:01:34.800 and through intermediaries so his fingerprints weren't on it,

00:01:37.920 as opposed to Cash Patel,

00:01:39.040 who just calls up random reporters and says,

00:01:41.380 here, take this,

00:01:42.080 or has a press conference saying,

00:01:43.600 here, look at everything.

00:01:46.040 This latest piece is about how James Comey,

00:01:48.940 while the FBI Director,

00:01:50.480 used a friend at Columbia University

00:01:53.000 to help craft his image

00:01:55.460 as he pushed out false, misleading,

00:02:00.020 and classified information.

00:02:02.820 It appears the intermediary says he can't be sure.

00:02:06.420 He doesn't think he passed on classified information,

00:02:10.180 but it certainly appears he did,

00:02:12.480 to the New York Times,

00:02:14.180 and in particular to the reporter over there,

00:02:16.040 Michael Schmidt,

00:02:16.720 who went on to win Pulitzer Prizes

00:02:19.040 for his Russiagate reporting.

00:02:22.020 And while some of this was known before,

00:02:23.660 we are now filling in some major details

00:02:25.720 on exactly how this shit went down.

00:02:29.340 Joining me here to break it down,

00:02:31.280 what's new, what's old,

00:02:32.260 and where it could lead,

00:02:33.020 is John Solomon of Just the News.

00:02:34.680 John's the founder of Just the News.

00:02:37.720 Afternoons can be rough.

00:02:38.780 Energy fades, cravings kick in,

00:02:41.940 focus goes out the window.

00:02:43.600 The quick fix, another coffee,

00:02:45.540 but that can lead to jitters or a crash later,

00:02:48.520 or can interfere with sleep.

00:02:51.020 Peaks Sun Goddess Matcha is another option.

00:02:54.960 It can give steady energy

00:02:56.120 and help you focus without the ups and downs.

00:02:58.400 This is not just any matcha.

00:02:59.820 It's organic, ceremonial grade,

00:03:01.980 and grown in Japan's pure volcanic soil,

00:03:04.660 far away from pollution.

00:03:05.740 It's harvested by tea masters

00:03:08.200 and screened for toxins not once,

00:03:10.200 but four times.

00:03:11.600 That is how serious they are about quality.

00:03:14.620 The taste is smooth, creamy, and rich,

00:03:16.900 not bitter like lower quality matcha.

00:03:19.240 It's packed with antioxidants

00:03:20.500 to keep you sharp and steady.

00:03:22.460 Whether it's how the day starts

00:03:23.580 or how it gets back on track,

00:03:25.300 this matcha is not just a drink.

00:03:27.640 It can be a better daily habit.

00:03:29.060 Right now, you can get up to 20% off for life,

00:03:32.660 plus a free rechargeable frother and glass beaker.

00:03:36.480 It's backed by a 90-day money-back guarantee.

00:03:38.940 Go to peaklife.com slash Megan.

00:03:40.860 That's P-I-Q-U-E, life.com slash Megan

00:03:44.140 to try it for yourself.

00:03:45.660 Again, that's P-I-Q-U-E, life.com slash Megan.

00:03:51.120 John, great to see you again.

00:03:53.300 So you mentioned that you thought

00:03:54.620 this was gonna hit last night.

00:03:56.200 It did hit last night and explain to us

00:03:59.200 what exactly you are reporting that's new.

00:04:02.320 Because I think we knew prior to last night

00:04:04.300 that Comey was leaking 1.00

00:04:06.000 through a Columbia University professor friend of his

00:04:09.440 to the New York Times.

00:04:11.400 Yeah, we've known for about four years now,

00:04:13.280 five years, that he used Richmond to leak some memos

00:04:17.340 after he was fired by President Trump

00:04:19.160 that related what Comey's side

00:04:21.120 of these alleged conversations with the president.

00:04:24.240 None of those were deemed,

00:04:25.400 at least the things that Richmond provided the media,

00:04:28.620 were deemed to have classified information in them.

00:04:31.040 What we now learn is that the FBI looked,

00:04:33.980 and we learned that from the Inspector General

00:04:35.400 of the Justice Department,

00:04:36.280 so Administrative Expensure General Investigation,

00:04:40.360 which, by the way, severely criticized Comey

00:04:43.440 for not following the rules and requirements

00:04:46.020 of being FBI director,

00:04:47.220 not even following his non-disclosure agreement

00:04:49.280 and the way he leaked information.

00:04:50.800 What we didn't know until the last 24 hours

00:04:54.560 when Kash Patel transmitted these documents to Congress

00:04:57.580 and Justice News got a set of them,

00:04:59.340 is that the FBI looked at Richmond

00:05:02.540 and at least two other top lieutenants

00:05:05.840 of James Comey for leaking possible classified information.

00:05:10.600 And for the first time,

00:05:12.460 we get a very detailed response

00:05:14.420 of how Mr. Richmond,

00:05:16.820 a Columbia University law professor

00:05:18.380 who was put on the taxpayer's payroll

00:05:20.620 so he could burnish James Comey's image,

00:05:23.200 what he said his motive was,

00:05:25.000 what he was doing with the New York Times,

00:05:27.180 and how he addressed the leak,

00:05:29.660 the question of whether he leaked confidential information.

00:05:32.560 Let me just have you there.

00:05:34.500 I want to start this discussion

00:05:35.680 the same place we started it yesterday,

00:05:37.620 which is the FBI cares very, very deeply

00:05:39.440 about the leak of classified information.

00:05:42.140 We know that because they indicted a president for doing it.

00:05:44.780 They indicted a former president

00:05:45.780 who has the ability to declassify information

00:05:47.860 with really the wave of his hand,

00:05:49.780 the stroke of a pen, in Donald Trump.

00:05:52.600 So they went after him

00:05:53.640 for having classified information at Mar-a-Lago.

00:05:55.500 They accused him of waving it around in a document,

00:05:57.660 allegedly showing it off.

00:05:58.600 That's bad, that's bad.

00:05:59.600 We have to have the rule of law, they told us.

00:06:01.400 So he got indicted down in Palm Beach County, Florida,

00:06:05.200 by Jack Smith in a federal prosecution

00:06:07.200 after an FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago

00:06:09.900 looking for said classified documents

00:06:12.040 because it's very, very wrong

00:06:13.540 to have classified information

00:06:14.720 or to leak classified information that you shouldn't.

00:06:17.860 And yet the FBI, the same organization,

00:06:20.980 when confronted with the reality

00:06:23.040 that its director, James Comey,

00:06:26.980 was running classified information

00:06:29.180 through his Columbia University pal

00:06:31.620 to the New York Times,

00:06:32.980 didn't seem to give two figs, John.

00:06:37.680 Well, I want to be fair to the FBI.

00:06:39.980 The FBI agents themselves

00:06:41.380 seemed to give quite a few figs.

00:06:42.860 They were working hard to solve this.

00:06:44.620 What they couldn't do

00:06:45.620 was get the Justice Department

00:06:46.980 under Donald Trump

00:06:48.580 or under Joe Biden to bring any charges.

00:06:51.400 But they did a pretty good job

00:06:53.180 of figuring out who they thought the leakers were.

00:06:55.820 And I think one of the great moments,

00:06:58.600 and that's why they land on Richmond, right?

00:07:00.320 Let's walk through one of the episodes

00:07:02.160 that the memo lays up.

00:07:04.260 Richmond, Comey's still FBI director at this point.

00:07:08.100 Richmond meets with Comey.

00:07:09.860 Richmond's on the taxpayer's payroll.

00:07:12.100 This is interesting.

00:07:12.760 He's an outside lawyer.

00:07:14.520 He's brought in as a special government employee,

00:07:16.460 which means you and I are paying his salary.

00:07:17.900 And his goal is to work around the press office

00:07:21.260 that we all already pay for, for the FBI

00:07:24.000 and who's trained in how to handle these issues.

00:07:25.000 And Comey gets him a top secret security clearance

00:07:27.140 so that he can access all the information

00:07:29.260 that Comey wants to leak.

00:07:30.960 That's right.

00:07:31.440 He basically has the same level

00:07:32.800 of security clearance as Comey.

00:07:34.040 High level, up to SCI.

00:07:35.760 That's especially compartmental intelligence.

00:07:38.960 So he's being treated like a guy.

00:07:40.740 He's an insider of the FBI.

00:07:42.560 He's not.

00:07:43.260 He's working around the press office

00:07:44.800 that you and I also pay for.

00:07:46.120 And his goal isn't specifically

00:07:48.880 to do the work of the FBI.

00:07:50.340 He says his goal was to burnish James Comey's

00:07:54.720 tattered or hammered,

00:07:56.240 I think he uses the word hammered image,

00:07:58.400 and to set future narratives,

00:08:00.920 i.e. Russia collusion,

00:08:02.800 i.e. Donald Trump is a Russian stooge 0.61

00:08:05.320 who should be indicted

00:08:06.600 and that he tried to obstruct his friend, James Comey.

00:08:10.600 So we now know that's what he told the FBI

00:08:12.960 under penalty of being charged with lying to the FBI

00:08:15.480 if you don't tell the truth.

00:08:16.820 And then he's in a meeting.

00:08:18.600 He gets access to very sensitive,

00:08:21.200 highly classified information.

00:08:23.660 And then a short while later,

00:08:26.400 he has a conversation with Mike Schmidt,

00:08:28.320 who then eventually writes a story

00:08:30.060 based on that classified information.

00:08:32.920 And this gentleman, Mr. Richmond, says,

00:08:35.420 oh, yeah, we talked about it.

00:08:36.840 He seemed to already know about it.

00:08:38.800 I don't think I confirmed it.

00:08:40.940 And I'm sure with a discount,

00:08:43.140 I'm sure, quote, comma, with a discount, comma,

00:08:46.140 I didn't give him the information.

00:08:47.700 Now, who needs a discount on truth

00:08:49.840 when you're denying whether you leak something?

00:08:51.940 This is like one of the great non-denial answers

00:08:54.240 in American history,

00:08:55.020 sort of like when Bill Clinton said

00:08:56.740 in his grand jury testimony,

00:08:58.320 I don't think I lied on Monica Lewinsky

00:09:00.400 because it really depends

00:09:01.220 on what the meaning of the word is.

00:09:02.880 It was once considered to be

00:09:04.460 one of the greatest dodges

00:09:06.160 in a grand jury testimony.

00:09:07.640 Here he's talking to the FBI

00:09:08.840 and he qualifies his denial by saying,

00:09:11.660 I'm sure with a discount,

00:09:13.660 meaning you better give me some,

00:09:15.060 a cut on this, I didn't leak.

00:09:18.020 That's the dead end that the FBI found itself.

00:09:20.840 And they believed

00:09:21.520 and went to the Justice Department

00:09:22.840 and the Justice Department said,

00:09:24.500 and now we're not going to prosecute him.

00:09:25.900 Just like they said,

00:09:26.840 nah, we're not going to look at Adam Schiff.

00:09:28.960 And this was,

00:09:29.660 which Justice Department

00:09:31.140 and which Attorney General?

00:09:33.260 There are, they occur,

00:09:35.500 they make multiple inquiries

00:09:37.320 in the U.S. Attorney's Office

00:09:38.580 in Washington, 17, 18, 19, and 20.

00:09:41.940 I think the case memo

00:09:42.760 eventually closes in late 19 or 20.

00:09:45.360 At that time, I think Bill Barr

00:09:46.880 would most likely have been

00:09:47.980 Attorney General

00:09:48.940 or coming on as Attorney General.

00:09:51.020 So this is a Trump declination,

00:09:52.940 though obviously at the career level.

00:09:54.480 I doubt it got to the top levels

00:09:56.300 of the political appointees.

00:09:58.040 And why would the DOJ decline

00:10:00.920 to go after him, Comey,

00:10:04.980 and let's go back

00:10:05.960 to what we discussed yesterday,

00:10:08.000 the high-level congressional staffer

00:10:10.280 who said Adam Schiff said

00:10:11.840 he was going to leak classified information

00:10:13.940 and that he could get away with it

00:10:15.560 because he was going to say

00:10:16.280 the speech and debate clause

00:10:17.580 was going to protect him.

00:10:18.600 So why, why would

00:10:21.120 under the Trump administration,

00:10:23.780 these DOJ officials

00:10:24.960 have repeatedly said

00:10:26.560 we're not interested?

00:10:28.580 Yeah, the answer is

00:10:29.920 they didn't feel like

00:10:30.800 they could prove

00:10:31.440 with 100% certainty

00:10:32.700 given the denial

00:10:33.680 or the non-denial

00:10:34.880 or the qualified denial

00:10:36.440 that Mr. Richmond said

00:10:37.440 that he was the leader.

00:10:39.100 Yeah, the denial

00:10:40.040 with the discount.

00:10:40.820 One will remember

00:10:41.800 for a long time, I think.

00:10:43.980 And in every,

00:10:44.940 and by the way,

00:10:45.620 it turns out,

00:10:46.420 and yes, in this morning's story,

00:10:47.500 there are literally six

00:10:48.840 codename classified

00:10:50.800 leak investigations.

00:10:51.840 The FBI opened

00:10:52.700 six criminal investigations.

00:10:56.120 They all had fun codenames

00:10:57.220 like Arctic Frost

00:10:58.460 or Christmas something.

00:10:59.800 They had all these weird names,

00:11:01.020 but in all of them,

00:11:02.700 the same result occurred.

00:11:04.060 The Justice Department

00:11:04.880 declined prosecution

00:11:05.840 and people will say,

00:11:07.100 okay,

00:11:07.680 and then they go after Donald Trump,

00:11:09.600 but then when they find

00:11:10.660 Joe Biden's classified documents,

00:11:12.320 they don't prosecute him.

00:11:13.940 What you see in this history

00:11:17.100 when you take everything

00:11:18.480 from Richmond

00:11:19.960 and some other lieutenants

00:11:21.620 of the FBI,

00:11:22.100 I want to get to that

00:11:22.740 in a second,

00:11:23.180 something Pam Bondi's

00:11:24.260 Justice Department did

00:11:25.420 that probably has to be reversed.

00:11:27.400 You see that

00:11:28.540 if it's a Democrat,

00:11:30.920 Hillary Clinton,

00:11:31.900 our classified emails

00:11:32.980 on the server,

00:11:34.040 or if it's a friend

00:11:35.040 of Democrats,

00:11:36.340 James Comey,

00:11:37.580 you're not going

00:11:38.160 to get indicted.

00:11:39.000 They'll make up

00:11:39.580 some explanation

00:11:41.700 for why they've decided

00:11:42.780 it's too hard

00:11:43.400 to prosecute you.

00:11:44.240 But if you're Donald Trump,

00:11:46.000 and even though you might

00:11:46.780 have the declassifying power,

00:11:48.040 we're going to raid your home

00:11:49.160 with a show of force.

00:11:50.900 We're going to go

00:11:51.480 through your drawers

00:11:52.200 and then we're going

00:11:52.960 to indict you.

00:11:54.780 And I think

00:11:55.300 when you look

00:11:56.340 at that track record,

00:11:57.940 it is an undeniable

00:11:59.040 track record

00:12:00.680 that people are treated

00:12:01.760 different in almost

00:12:02.920 the identical circumstances

00:12:04.240 and it's very troubling.

00:12:06.440 They don't want

00:12:07.200 to go after anybody

00:12:07.960 with power.

00:12:08.800 And you can see

00:12:09.360 why maybe even people

00:12:10.800 at the top of Trump's DOJ,

00:12:12.560 potentially at the 1.0

00:12:15.020 we're talking about,

00:12:16.160 and or FBI,

00:12:17.820 didn't have the appetite

00:12:18.680 to go after

00:12:19.360 the former FBI director,

00:12:21.300 a person who's,

00:12:22.160 you know,

00:12:22.840 in an equally powerful position

00:12:24.660 to the one

00:12:25.020 that they hold now

00:12:25.820 or the identical position

00:12:27.120 to the one

00:12:27.440 that they were holding then.

00:12:29.240 Unlike,

00:12:29.840 but those rules

00:12:30.480 don't apply

00:12:30.980 for Donald Trump, right?

00:12:31.960 And you're hearing it

00:12:32.780 right now

00:12:33.160 as people are saying,

00:12:33.900 how dare they discuss

00:12:35.300 Barack Obama

00:12:36.900 facing criminal indictment?

00:12:39.160 How dare they talk

00:12:40.140 about indicting

00:12:40.920 a former president?

00:12:41.740 The cluelessness, John,

00:12:43.580 given that they're the ones

00:12:44.540 who set all these new standards

00:12:45.940 that we are going

00:12:46.880 to do all that.

00:12:48.280 Well, listen,

00:12:48.700 the cluelessness,

00:12:49.600 the greatest aider

00:12:50.700 and the betters

00:12:51.400 of the last 10 years

00:12:52.360 of misery

00:12:52.820 that this country

00:12:53.560 has been put through

00:12:54.360 through false scandals

00:12:55.400 and false stories

00:12:56.240 and false narratives

00:12:57.180 and weaponization

00:12:58.300 is the co-conspirators

00:13:00.160 that these actors

00:13:01.700 had in the media.

00:13:02.820 When you look

00:13:03.540 at what

00:13:04.880 Mr. Richmond,

00:13:08.180 Daniel Richmond,

00:13:08.700 is talking about

00:13:09.320 when he's dealing

00:13:09.880 with Michael Schmidt

00:13:10.560 in the New York Times,

00:13:11.320 he admits he had a motive.

00:13:13.160 My motive wasn't

00:13:13.920 to give a complete story

00:13:15.340 to the New York Times.

00:13:16.780 It was to make sure

00:13:17.460 that James Comey

00:13:18.500 looked better

00:13:19.000 than he had looked

00:13:19.640 and to set narratives

00:13:21.220 that were going to be out there.

00:13:22.180 We now know those narratives

00:13:23.200 were false stories.

00:13:23.220 Yeah, because why does he need

00:13:23.900 access to classified information

00:13:25.660 if all he needs to do

00:13:26.440 is make James Comey

00:13:27.480 look like a good man?

00:13:28.920 It's a great question, right?

00:13:29.940 These are really important questions

00:13:31.500 that didn't get fully addressed.

00:13:32.900 I mean,

00:13:33.320 the inspector general says,

00:13:34.460 hey,

00:13:34.740 it was really a bad thing.

00:13:35.960 James Comey's a bad guy,

00:13:36.980 did a lot of bad things.

00:13:37.740 OK,

00:13:38.420 but there's no penalty.

00:13:39.320 We got fired,

00:13:40.000 I guess.

00:13:40.500 He lost his job.

00:13:42.260 But at the end of the day,

00:13:44.280 is that enough consequence

00:13:45.400 to create deterrence

00:13:46.460 so that this system

00:13:47.260 doesn't go on?

00:13:48.120 And I think we're

00:13:49.300 at that moment of reckoning.

00:13:50.580 And I think Pam Bondi

00:13:51.620 is going to be

00:13:53.560 the question

00:13:54.900 we all have in our minds.

00:13:56.200 Will this matter?

00:13:57.080 Will these disclosures matter

00:13:58.200 compared to all the other ones

00:13:59.360 we've gotten out

00:13:59.920 in the last 10 years?

00:14:00.660 It's going to come down

00:14:01.880 to two very important people

00:14:03.560 in the administration.

00:14:05.180 The Attorney General Pam Bondi.

00:14:06.840 Can she break the track record 0.99

00:14:08.240 of failure of prior AGs

00:14:09.820 to create punishments

00:14:10.600 to people who engage this?

00:14:12.260 Barr, Sessions,

00:14:14.140 Rosenstein, and Garland.

00:14:16.600 And then can Tulsi Gabbard,

00:14:18.420 as the chief

00:14:19.000 of the intelligence community,

00:14:20.600 restructure, rewire

00:14:22.060 an intelligence community

00:14:23.540 that has gone from being

00:14:24.600 neutral defenders

00:14:27.380 against terrorism

00:14:28.360 and counterintelligence threats

00:14:29.640 to political hacks

00:14:31.020 trying to carry out

00:14:31.940 political dirty tricks

00:14:32.920 on the American people.

00:14:34.560 The future of this country

00:14:36.040 on those two questions

00:14:37.240 are probably going to be

00:14:37.900 decided by those two

00:14:40.640 very important

00:14:41.220 cabinet secretaries.

00:14:42.320 And I don't know

00:14:42.760 which way it's going to go.

00:14:43.560 We're going to have to watch.

00:14:45.280 Okay, before we get back

00:14:46.340 to Bondi,

00:14:46.900 let's just spend another minute

00:14:47.820 on the Comey reveal

00:14:49.420 and his use of this guy,

00:14:51.820 Daniel Richmond.

00:14:52.520 Now, first of all,

00:14:53.140 can we just,

00:14:54.220 the level of vanity

00:14:56.500 that this man has,

00:14:58.920 really, I mean,

00:14:59.640 for many years

00:15:00.420 was unknown.

00:15:01.260 When Comey first came

00:15:02.480 on the scene,

00:15:03.220 like early Donald Trump

00:15:04.780 before, you know,

00:15:05.540 like let's say

00:15:06.600 late in the last administration,

00:15:08.600 Comey was very well respected.

00:15:10.300 He seemed like,

00:15:11.120 you know,

00:15:11.420 regular Joe Friday,

00:15:12.620 like, you know,

00:15:13.020 your classic FBI man.

00:15:15.180 I think I actually

00:15:16.300 once compared him

00:15:17.100 to Chief Justice John Roberts,

00:15:18.520 who I've joked many times

00:15:19.460 was born in his little cradle

00:15:20.780 with his black robe on.

00:15:22.220 You know,

00:15:22.400 it just seems like somebody

00:15:23.260 who was born for this role

00:15:24.340 from birth.

00:15:24.940 Yeah, for the role.

00:15:25.660 You're right.

00:15:26.020 Central Cassidy.

00:15:26.840 Yeah, I agree.

00:15:27.520 Yeah, seemed totally squeaky clean.

00:15:29.640 Kind of like a Roberts.

00:15:31.620 Boy, were we wrong.

00:15:33.040 I asked my team

00:15:33.940 to pull this shot

00:15:34.920 of Comey.

00:15:36.960 And the reveal on him

00:15:38.400 has been slow,

00:15:39.100 but very, very telling.

00:15:40.620 Before he sat down

00:15:41.880 with George Stephanopoulos

00:15:42.820 a couple years ago

00:15:43.480 for his big interview with,

00:15:44.580 it was before he dropped his book.

00:15:46.520 And he posted a picture

00:15:47.780 of himself

00:15:48.220 under the Klieg lights

00:15:49.220 with the ABC News cameras,

00:15:51.100 like set up.

00:15:52.560 And look,

00:15:53.260 he's like so excited.

00:15:54.540 Who posts this?

00:15:55.780 I actually can't read the caption,

00:15:57.360 but it was him anticipating

00:15:58.460 and teasing

00:15:58.960 and how he was so excited

00:16:00.140 to sit down with Stephanopoulos.

00:16:02.260 So this man

00:16:03.040 who posted that

00:16:04.840 is reflected perfectly

00:16:06.280 in the documents

00:16:07.940 you posted last night

00:16:09.040 with this Daniel Richman,

00:16:10.360 the image burnisher.

00:16:13.080 Yeah.

00:16:13.420 Listen,

00:16:13.900 there's an earlier episode

00:16:15.180 where I kind of

00:16:16.180 ran into Comey.

00:16:17.380 I was an AP reporter

00:16:18.420 back in 03 and 04,

00:16:19.700 and there's a moment

00:16:20.440 where they need

00:16:21.780 to renew the Patriot Act.

00:16:23.420 And John Ashcroft,

00:16:25.100 the then attorney general,

00:16:26.360 is about to go in

00:16:27.140 for a medical procedure.

00:16:28.820 And they're trying

00:16:29.680 to get him

00:16:30.140 while he's basically

00:16:30.820 under the anesthetic

00:16:32.020 to sign off

00:16:32.960 of the Patriot Act.

00:16:34.040 And Comey kind of

00:16:35.440 portrays himself

00:16:36.540 as a white horse hero

00:16:37.800 there in some of the leaks

00:16:38.900 that occurred

00:16:39.360 around that time.

00:16:40.680 And I think

00:16:41.920 that that was the first clue

00:16:43.220 that this guy

00:16:43.840 was more than just

00:16:45.320 your classic law enforcement man.

00:16:46.960 Mostly,

00:16:47.440 my dad was a cop

00:16:48.620 for 46 years.

00:16:49.480 He just didn't talk

00:16:50.180 to the media

00:16:50.620 and he didn't care

00:16:51.680 what people thought

00:16:52.380 about him.

00:16:52.780 He cared about

00:16:53.280 what people thought

00:16:54.220 of the work

00:16:54.740 they did every day.

00:16:55.840 Did we do it right?

00:16:57.100 That's what most people

00:16:58.040 who come cops do.

00:16:59.760 In James Comey's case,

00:17:01.100 I think how people

00:17:02.740 looked at him

00:17:03.300 was just as important

00:17:04.240 about whether he did

00:17:04.940 the job right.

00:17:05.860 That's why he gallops out

00:17:07.200 with absolutely

00:17:08.280 no legal authority

00:17:09.700 and decides

00:17:11.020 on July 5, 2016,

00:17:13.240 he's going to wave

00:17:13.800 a magic wand

00:17:14.500 that's not his to wave

00:17:15.760 and say,

00:17:16.380 I've decided

00:17:17.060 because I'm better

00:17:17.980 than Loretta Lynch. 0.77

00:17:18.800 I'm clearing

00:17:20.240 Hillary Clinton

00:17:20.920 of wrongdoing

00:17:21.800 in the email case

00:17:22.560 and at the moment

00:17:23.200 he's done that.

00:17:24.280 What makes that

00:17:24.720 even more extraordinary

00:17:25.620 is the stuff

00:17:26.120 we just learned

00:17:26.800 from the classified annex

00:17:28.420 that Chuck Grassley

00:17:29.220 and President Trump

00:17:29.960 got released.

00:17:31.400 We know the FBI

00:17:32.360 just got a batch

00:17:33.380 of new documents,

00:17:34.600 five thumb drives

00:17:35.880 of some of the missing emails

00:17:37.420 and they decided

00:17:38.680 not to look at it

00:17:39.620 even though that is

00:17:40.400 perhaps one of the biggest

00:17:41.940 leads in the case.

00:17:43.140 They don't look at it.

00:17:44.020 James Comey

00:17:45.220 just goes out

00:17:45.860 and says,

00:17:46.660 I'm going to be

00:17:47.520 God prosecutor,

00:17:48.940 judge,

00:17:49.320 and FBI director

00:17:50.320 and I'm clearing her

00:17:51.580 even in the face

00:17:52.760 of new evidence

00:17:53.360 that needed

00:17:53.740 to be investigated.

00:17:54.580 I think that's

00:17:55.120 the James Comey

00:17:55.780 that history was seen.

00:17:56.480 Do we know,

00:17:57.920 actually,

00:17:58.200 because what,

00:17:59.660 you know,

00:17:59.820 I haven't been

00:18:00.120 anywhere near

00:18:00.860 as close to this story

00:18:01.520 as you have

00:18:01.920 over the past few years

00:18:02.640 but what jumped out

00:18:03.700 at me

00:18:03.860 with the Tulsi reveals

00:18:04.880 was in the documents

00:18:08.140 there was a correspondence

00:18:09.480 showing that Loretta Lynch

00:18:12.080 had been told

00:18:14.260 by the FBI,

00:18:15.420 hey,

00:18:17.120 it's,

00:18:17.780 the Russians have 0.91

00:18:18.880 emails

00:18:19.640 and documentation

00:18:20.960 showing

00:18:21.800 that you

00:18:23.380 assured

00:18:24.520 the Hillary Clinton team

00:18:26.140 that the investigation

00:18:27.940 we,

00:18:28.540 the FBI,

00:18:29.080 are pursuing

00:18:29.560 under her emails

00:18:30.720 won't go,

00:18:32.020 quote,

00:18:32.100 too far.

00:18:33.160 So you need to be aware

00:18:34.480 that it's out there

00:18:36.220 that you have reassured

00:18:38.580 the Hillary team

00:18:39.500 that you've given us

00:18:41.180 that directive.

00:18:42.080 And on the heels of that,

00:18:43.720 Comey runs to the cameras 0.92

00:18:44.780 and says,

00:18:45.240 we're not going to

00:18:45.780 indict Hillary.

00:18:46.720 And my only thought

00:18:47.440 in watching it was,

00:18:48.140 is that,

00:18:48.740 and reading this last week

00:18:49.760 was,

00:18:50.340 was that his attempt

00:18:51.940 to be like,

00:18:52.580 I'm not influenced,

00:18:53.760 you see?

00:18:55.000 Like,

00:18:55.260 I,

00:18:55.880 Loretta Lynch

00:18:56.580 didn't tell me,

00:18:57.480 she didn't tell me

00:18:58.200 to drop this.

00:18:59.280 I just dropped it.

00:19:00.600 Like,

00:19:00.800 he had to get ahead of it

00:19:01.900 before she got too crooked

00:19:03.940 and actually gave him

00:19:04.760 the explicit order.

00:19:05.580 I really don't know.

00:19:06.360 But why did he do that?

00:19:08.760 You know,

00:19:09.140 I've heard a lot of people

00:19:09.940 say that's a God complex

00:19:11.160 because no FBI director,

00:19:13.060 no,

00:19:13.440 every FBI director knows

00:19:14.600 they don't have the authority

00:19:15.940 to make prosecuting decisions.

00:19:17.600 It wasn't his decision to make.

00:19:19.960 No,

00:19:20.140 they're the investigators.

00:19:21.500 The,

00:19:21.560 the,

00:19:21.900 the DOJ,

00:19:22.680 the lawyers,

00:19:23.360 are the ones who try the case.

00:19:24.800 Yeah.

00:19:25.460 Yeah.

00:19:25.660 There's a separation

00:19:26.400 between the FBI.

00:19:27.240 FBI investigates,

00:19:28.740 justice decides charging decisions

00:19:30.700 and he didn't let

00:19:31.540 the Justice Department do it.

00:19:32.620 And whether his motive

00:19:33.660 was good or not,

00:19:34.560 and I think later

00:19:35.560 we'll determine

00:19:36.220 he had a lot of other motives

00:19:37.660 that don't look good.

00:19:38.540 So let's,

00:19:39.060 we'll see where that goes.

00:19:40.800 It wasn't his call to make.

00:19:42.700 And I think

00:19:43.480 what you're going to learn

00:19:44.280 in the next 24,

00:19:45.140 48 hours,

00:19:45.900 Megan,

00:19:46.120 something I've been working on

00:19:47.060 for a long time,

00:19:47.660 I finally think

00:19:48.920 we'll be getting these documents

00:19:50.060 in the next few hours.

00:19:51.340 You're going to see

00:19:52.880 on James Comey's watch

00:19:54.300 a direct political interference,

00:19:56.660 both from Comey's team

00:19:58.140 and from the Obama

00:19:59.580 Justice Department

00:20:00.400 shutting down

00:20:01.960 three,

00:20:03.280 two or three

00:20:03.960 criminal cases

00:20:05.100 looking at Hillary Clinton,

00:20:06.220 not on the emails,

00:20:07.200 which is what we've all

00:20:07.860 been focused on

00:20:08.540 for the last decade,

00:20:09.420 but on possible bribery

00:20:11.040 and political corruption

00:20:12.100 related to the

00:20:13.020 Clinton Foundation.

00:20:14.480 And you're going to know

00:20:15.120 the names of the people.

00:20:16.940 Say it ain't so.

00:20:17.900 Chelsea Clinton

00:20:18.740 assures me on X

00:20:20.060 that it is an above-board

00:20:21.340 organization, John,

00:20:23.000 and my suspicions of it

00:20:24.420 are totally unfounded.

00:20:26.480 I'm sure that

00:20:27.280 I've heard that same

00:20:28.240 thing from them.

00:20:29.160 Listen,

00:20:29.560 she took over 0.99

00:20:30.080 at a later time,

00:20:30.860 so maybe she gets to

00:20:31.920 claim that going forward

00:20:33.440 after she took over

00:20:34.500 things were clean,

00:20:35.240 but the FBI

00:20:36.080 had two or three

00:20:37.720 separate investigations

00:20:39.080 going on.

00:20:39.640 We'll get that

00:20:40.120 ironed out

00:20:40.940 in the next hour or two,

00:20:41.940 but each time

00:20:44.000 you see a political hand,

00:20:46.300 sometimes from

00:20:46.940 the Justice Department,

00:20:48.060 the one he's allegedly

00:20:49.020 trying to protect

00:20:49.760 his bureau from,

00:20:50.420 and sometimes

00:20:51.140 from his own team,

00:20:52.400 his own leadership team,

00:20:53.720 telling agents,

00:20:54.600 I know you got

00:20:55.100 a predicated case,

00:20:56.620 shut it down.

00:20:58.380 I think we're going

00:20:59.060 to find out

00:20:59.540 whether this guy

00:21:00.420 really always operated

00:21:01.640 by these moral standards

00:21:02.860 or not based on

00:21:03.600 what we learn

00:21:04.060 in this next batch

00:21:04.880 of documents.

00:21:06.100 But, you know,

00:21:06.820 I think history

00:21:07.300 is going to look at Comey

00:21:08.240 as one of the darker

00:21:09.700 errors in the history

00:21:10.900 of the FBI.

00:21:11.620 And by the way,

00:21:11.960 the FBI has some dark errors.

00:21:13.140 There's some periods

00:21:13.680 during the J. Edgar Hoover

00:21:14.980 era that aren't great.

00:21:16.580 But I think the Comey era

00:21:18.040 is going to be looked at

00:21:19.020 as a dark time

00:21:20.580 in the history

00:21:21.080 of federal law enforcement.

00:21:22.860 Wow.

00:21:23.420 I mean, no wonder

00:21:24.220 he was so worried

00:21:25.020 about burnishing

00:21:25.720 his good guy image,

00:21:28.040 right?

00:21:28.240 It's always the ones

00:21:29.360 who are terrible

00:21:30.520 who give that any thought.

00:21:32.240 It's like,

00:21:33.240 then you have

00:21:34.000 Donald Trump out there

00:21:34.960 who's like,

00:21:35.440 he doesn't care

00:21:35.940 what you hear about him.

00:21:36.820 He doesn't care

00:21:37.400 what the papers print

00:21:38.740 about him.

00:21:39.160 Like, he may gripe

00:21:40.020 about it,

00:21:40.400 but he's certainly

00:21:40.840 not out there

00:21:41.380 trying to, like,

00:21:42.460 secretly burnish his image.

00:21:43.960 He doesn't care.

00:21:44.600 He'll speak to the camera

00:21:45.480 directly and let you

00:21:46.200 decide who he is.

00:21:47.860 Wait, on the Comey leak

00:21:51.040 and using Daniel Richman

00:21:53.440 and all this,

00:21:54.800 let's talk for a minute

00:21:56.040 about to whom

00:21:57.840 we believe they were leaking.

00:21:59.860 And that's Michael Schmidt

00:22:01.740 of the New York Times,

00:22:03.200 the guy who won

00:22:04.380 Pulitzer Prizes

00:22:05.640 for his Russiagate reporting.

00:22:08.340 And some other reporting, too.

00:22:09.620 In fairness to him,

00:22:10.220 it wasn't all Russia.

00:22:10.980 He won a second.

00:22:11.460 Yeah, I think he won

00:22:12.000 two Pulitzers in one year,

00:22:13.140 something for something else.

00:22:14.600 But, yeah,

00:22:15.700 he's one of the members

00:22:16.980 of that team

00:22:17.580 that President Trump

00:22:18.440 is suing over

00:22:19.040 that Pulitzer right now.

00:22:20.400 So just today,

00:22:22.640 the New York Times'

00:22:23.780 daily podcast,

00:22:24.780 The Daily,

00:22:25.960 took on

00:22:26.720 the Russiagate,

00:22:28.600 or as Molly Hemingway

00:22:29.640 is calling it,

00:22:30.620 Obamagate

00:22:31.320 stories

00:22:32.860 that have broken

00:22:33.780 since Tulsi

00:22:34.520 started making

00:22:35.100 these releases.

00:22:36.260 She's right.

00:22:37.000 She's totally right.

00:22:38.440 She is.

00:22:39.420 So they finally got around

00:22:40.660 to covering it

00:22:41.200 on the New York Times.

00:22:42.340 Like,

00:22:42.780 is this a story

00:22:43.740 or isn't it?

00:22:44.880 I mean,

00:22:45.180 I'll give you one guess

00:22:46.040 what they concluded.

00:22:47.660 But guess,

00:22:49.020 guess who they bring on

00:22:51.040 to tell us all

00:22:52.440 there's no there there.

00:22:54.280 No one did anything wrong.

00:22:55.780 This is all made up.

00:22:57.720 And we don't need

00:22:58.780 to be looking

00:22:59.300 into this really

00:23:00.280 any further.

00:23:01.900 Michael Schmidt.

00:23:02.600 It's all over

00:23:06.740 your documents,

00:23:08.340 your reporting,

00:23:09.120 Molly's reporting.

00:23:10.040 Michael Schmidt

00:23:10.560 was used

00:23:12.080 by the administration

00:23:13.480 as their stenographer,

00:23:15.140 the Obama administration,

00:23:16.240 as their stenographer

00:23:17.080 to get these stories

00:23:18.120 out there.

00:23:20.380 This guy,

00:23:21.720 Daniel Richman,

00:23:22.760 was talking to Schmidt

00:23:24.060 for Comey, 1.00

00:23:25.980 and yet,

00:23:26.860 I didn't hear a word

00:23:27.920 about any of that

00:23:28.720 when Michael Schmidt

00:23:29.400 was on today's

00:23:30.480 New York Times podcast.

00:23:31.340 Here's how he sounded

00:23:33.080 instead, John Solemn.

00:23:34.580 Listen to this.

00:23:36.200 In the aftermath

00:23:37.440 of Trump winning

00:23:38.320 the 2016 election,

00:23:40.120 it was widely understood

00:23:41.740 that Russia 0.72

00:23:43.040 had meddled

00:23:44.140 in the campaign.

00:23:46.000 And they find

00:23:47.500 that Putin tried

00:23:49.400 to hurt Hillary Clinton

00:23:51.220 and help Donald Trump.

00:23:53.920 But for Trump,

00:23:55.980 this document,

00:23:57.360 this assessment,

00:23:58.620 was the original sin.

00:24:00.300 because what it did

00:24:02.780 was cast doubt

00:24:05.060 on his victory.

00:24:07.120 What Gabbard

00:24:08.400 is starting to do

00:24:10.060 is declassified documents

00:24:12.860 that she claims

00:24:14.520 irrefutably prove

00:24:16.460 that not only

00:24:17.980 is the assessment

00:24:18.960 a bunch of nonsense,

00:24:20.780 but it's at the heart

00:24:22.480 of a criminal conspiracy.

00:24:24.020 So she releases

00:24:26.440 a classified report

00:24:28.120 that Putin

00:24:29.720 was not trying

00:24:31.460 to help Trump

00:24:33.120 and hurt

00:24:34.160 Hillary Clinton.

00:24:37.160 There's nothing

00:24:38.260 in that report

00:24:39.320 like an email

00:24:40.960 from Obama

00:24:41.880 to his intelligence

00:24:42.960 community saying,

00:24:44.220 I don't care

00:24:45.560 what the evidence shows,

00:24:46.740 we need to get

00:24:47.660 Donald Trump.

00:24:49.180 She is making this out

00:24:50.940 like the smoking gun

00:24:52.020 when it comes

00:24:54.260 to Russia,

00:24:55.520 Trump will always

00:24:56.420 be the victim

00:24:57.120 and he will always

00:24:58.400 be the hero.

00:25:00.780 With his supporters,

00:25:02.420 he says.

00:25:03.120 And he dismisses

00:25:04.300 that House

00:25:05.240 intelligence report

00:25:06.220 that she just

00:25:07.060 declassified,

00:25:07.840 the one that was found

00:25:08.500 in the safe

00:25:09.480 at the CIA's headquarters,

00:25:11.720 as,

00:25:12.800 that was all Republicans.

00:25:14.780 You can't put

00:25:15.280 any stock in that.

00:25:16.560 That's right.

00:25:17.060 And this is all BS.

00:25:18.680 None of these allegations

00:25:19.680 has been sustained.

00:25:22.320 Michael Schmidt's comments

00:25:24.060 don't reflect

00:25:24.860 the New York Times

00:25:25.720 the way they would

00:25:26.400 have reported a story

00:25:27.400 in the 1980s

00:25:28.320 or 1990s

00:25:29.140 when I was coming up

00:25:30.040 as a reporter.

00:25:30.720 And I want to tell you

00:25:31.400 a story because

00:25:32.100 it's out there

00:25:33.800 in the form of

00:25:34.620 the Columbia Journalism Review

00:25:35.820 and another great reporter

00:25:37.320 who worked at

00:25:38.120 the New York Times

00:25:38.700 for three decades,

00:25:39.600 won multiple Pulitzers,

00:25:41.180 as I recall,

00:25:41.800 Jeff Gerth.

00:25:42.240 He did a re-evaluation

00:25:44.320 of how the New York Times

00:25:45.560 and Washington Post

00:25:46.340 got snookered on Russia.

00:25:48.120 And it was done

00:25:48.660 in the Columbia Journalism Review,

00:25:50.480 which is painful

00:25:51.060 because the Columbia Journalism Review

00:25:52.520 sits right alongside

00:25:53.360 of the Columbia

00:25:54.140 Pulitzer Prize Committee

00:25:55.440 where it is there.

00:25:56.560 But he laid bare

00:25:57.580 some of the most

00:25:58.420 extraordinary moments

00:25:59.780 in the failures

00:26:01.700 of reporting

00:26:02.400 in the New York Times.

00:26:03.160 Yeah, they got a Pulitzer,

00:26:04.120 but did they really

00:26:05.140 cover a scandal?

00:26:06.060 Did they really do

00:26:06.700 the public a favor?

00:26:07.900 There's a very important episode

00:26:09.260 and I have personal

00:26:10.560 experience with it,

00:26:11.400 so I want to hone in on it

00:26:13.300 because it's how I see myself

00:26:15.320 different from Mike Schmidt.

00:26:16.240 A lot of people said

00:26:17.820 to me early on,

00:26:18.420 John, why didn't you

00:26:19.260 do a lot of reporting

00:26:20.320 in October, November,

00:26:21.440 December, January,

00:26:22.920 and February of 17?

00:26:24.160 You only click in in March

00:26:25.520 and start raising questions

00:26:26.700 about this.

00:26:27.200 And the short answer is

00:26:28.120 I did do some reporting.

00:26:30.000 I had gotten some intelligence

00:26:31.700 pushed to me

00:26:32.660 by people close

00:26:33.500 to the Clintons.

00:26:34.780 And I went to

00:26:36.980 the New York Times,

00:26:38.060 I'm sorry,

00:26:38.700 I went to the FBI's

00:26:39.840 press office,

00:26:40.880 not Daniel Richmond,

00:26:41.840 but the career people

00:26:42.960 who are trained

00:26:43.660 to tell the media

00:26:44.280 what they're allowed

00:26:44.860 to tell the media

00:26:46.180 about FBI matters.

00:26:47.820 And they told me flat out,

00:26:50.500 John, yeah,

00:26:51.540 we're looking at this,

00:26:52.500 but right now

00:26:53.340 there's no there there.

00:26:54.260 Ironically,

00:26:54.820 that's the same line

00:26:55.880 that Pete Strzok

00:26:56.540 would later use

00:26:57.220 in his text message,

00:26:57.880 no big there there.

00:26:59.360 And listen,

00:27:00.120 we looked at some

00:27:00.740 of this stuff,

00:27:01.280 we think the Alpha Bank

00:27:02.240 things are pings,

00:27:03.580 and we think that

00:27:05.460 the other stuff

00:27:06.280 might just have

00:27:07.000 some political election

00:27:08.720 stuff tied to it.

00:27:09.560 So I stood down.

00:27:10.840 Just to be clear,

00:27:11.940 this is somebody

00:27:12.880 trying to get you

00:27:13.560 to report that

00:27:14.280 Trump is a Russian asset 0.96

00:27:15.660 or there's some

00:27:16.200 sort of collusion

00:27:16.860 and Russia and Trump

00:27:18.600 are colluding

00:27:19.320 to win the election.

00:27:20.860 And the FBI

00:27:21.480 originally is telling you

00:27:22.660 there's no there there,

00:27:24.060 John.

00:27:24.900 October 31st, 2016,

00:27:27.620 the FBI tells

00:27:29.180 the New York Times

00:27:29.820 the exact same story.

00:27:31.260 They write a story

00:27:32.020 basically saying

00:27:32.740 this stuff isn't true.

00:27:34.080 And then somehow

00:27:35.020 it magically becomes true

00:27:36.980 over the next six months

00:27:37.880 in the New York Times.

00:27:38.600 And I ask myself,

00:27:40.300 you know,

00:27:40.640 it is possible

00:27:41.800 that the career people

00:27:43.020 I talked to

00:27:43.560 in the FBI

00:27:44.160 lied to me,

00:27:45.380 but I don't think so.

00:27:47.080 And the reason

00:27:47.900 I don't think so

00:27:48.680 is every time

00:27:49.260 I would call back

00:27:50.440 and check with them

00:27:51.580 in January,

00:27:52.920 in February, March,

00:27:53.740 because I'm starting

00:27:54.280 to see the hyperventilation

00:27:55.600 of the Washington Post

00:27:56.500 and the New York Times,

00:27:57.660 the career people

00:27:58.740 inside the FBI,

00:27:59.740 the people trained

00:28:00.540 to know what the FBI

00:28:01.680 is doing

00:28:02.020 and to try to give

00:28:02.660 the most accurate

00:28:03.540 answer they can

00:28:04.760 to the media

00:28:05.160 without violating the law.

00:28:06.320 I keep saying,

00:28:06.640 John,

00:28:07.240 our answer stands

00:28:08.260 to you from October.

00:28:09.580 It's not true.

00:28:10.360 Alpha Bank's not true.

00:28:11.840 We don't think

00:28:12.340 the Steele dossier

00:28:13.620 is uncorroborated.

00:28:15.340 We looked at it.

00:28:16.160 It's uncorroborated.

00:28:16.820 It's unfortunate

00:28:17.460 that BuzzFeed

00:28:18.180 put it out there.

00:28:19.280 So I have to ask myself,

00:28:21.580 was Michael Schmidt

00:28:23.120 and the New York Times

00:28:24.100 talking to the same people

00:28:25.300 I was?

00:28:25.840 Because history showed

00:28:27.020 those people were right

00:28:28.680 and the New York Times

00:28:30.120 and its breathless coverage

00:28:31.360 are wrong.

00:28:31.860 And there's one story

00:28:33.240 that bothers me.

00:28:34.540 The most early seminal moment

00:28:36.560 in my career

00:28:37.240 as an AP reporter

00:28:38.200 was at the very beginning

00:28:39.960 of the internet era

00:28:41.060 when the Wall Street Journal

00:28:42.760 in the middle

00:28:43.360 of the Hillary,

00:28:44.860 of the Bill Clinton,

00:28:45.760 Monica Lewinsky scandal

00:28:46.840 broke a story off cycle.

00:28:48.760 They weren't going

00:28:49.420 on print edition.

00:28:50.220 They did something

00:28:50.780 on the internet.

00:28:51.480 It might have been

00:28:51.860 the first time.

00:28:52.920 We're talking like 1997, 98.

00:28:55.140 Really early.

00:28:56.300 We weren't used

00:28:56.860 to the internet then

00:28:57.660 and most newspapers

00:28:58.440 had a 24 cycle

00:29:00.360 or you just did it

00:29:01.040 once a day.

00:29:01.900 So they break a story

00:29:03.020 in the middle of the day

00:29:04.300 saying that a steward

00:29:05.740 told the grand jury,

00:29:07.740 Ken Starr's Whitewater

00:29:08.820 prosecutor grand jury,

00:29:10.360 that President Bill Clinton

00:29:11.940 was found in a compromising

00:29:13.220 position with Monica Lewinsky

00:29:14.660 in the White House theater,

00:29:18.380 I believe it was,

00:29:18.880 a bowling alley or theater.

00:29:20.400 And, you know,

00:29:21.100 I'm at the AP.

00:29:22.080 My job is you better

00:29:22.880 get that fast

00:29:23.620 and match at Solomon.

00:29:24.580 So everyone tells me

00:29:25.980 it's wrong.

00:29:26.460 It's wrong.

00:29:26.900 It's wrong.

00:29:27.200 To my credit,

00:29:28.340 my boss is a great newsleader

00:29:31.140 named Sandy Johnson. 0.97

00:29:31.980 She stood by her reporters

00:29:33.600 and didn't make us report it.

00:29:35.600 And we eventually wrote a story

00:29:36.380 saying it's been knocked down.

00:29:37.560 It's not true.

00:29:38.580 The Wall Street Journal

00:29:39.600 withdrew that story.

00:29:41.400 On its front page,

00:29:42.940 they retracted a story

00:29:43.980 that they'd put out wrong

00:29:44.920 on the internet.

00:29:46.120 The New York Times

00:29:46.960 in February 17

00:29:48.240 writes a story basically

00:29:49.520 to the effect of

00:29:50.680 that the U.S. intelligence

00:29:51.800 has proof

00:29:52.480 that Donald Trump's campaign

00:29:54.200 was talking to

00:29:55.400 U.S. Russian intelligence campaign

00:29:57.300 about hijacking

00:29:58.680 the 2016 election.

00:30:01.020 That story has,

00:30:02.820 is and never will be true.

00:30:05.040 It has never been retracted.

00:30:06.500 In fact,

00:30:07.200 James Comey

00:30:07.960 even said the story

00:30:09.580 wasn't true

00:30:10.140 in some testimony

00:30:10.980 after he left as director.

00:30:12.900 The New York Times

00:30:13.800 has never retracted

00:30:15.540 that story.

00:30:16.020 Yeah,

00:30:16.140 they've written stories

00:30:16.860 having people criticizing it,

00:30:18.680 but history has shown

00:30:19.820 that story is wrong.

00:30:20.380 It should be retracted.

00:30:21.900 Those are the differences

00:30:22.880 between the way

00:30:23.660 you and I practice journalism

00:30:25.000 and the way

00:30:25.820 they continue

00:30:26.700 to practice journalism today.

00:30:27.980 The other reporter

00:30:30.260 whose name has come up

00:30:31.440 time and time again

00:30:32.320 is this Ellen Nakashima

00:30:34.780 who is with

00:30:37.040 the Washington Post

00:30:37.900 and she appears

00:30:38.620 to have been

00:30:39.040 on the receiving end

00:30:40.180 of these same leaks

00:30:41.560 or related leaks.

00:30:42.800 She was all over the news

00:30:44.380 during the relevant time frame

00:30:45.600 pushing her BS reporting.

00:30:48.500 Here's just a sample of that.

00:30:51.160 The topic of the Kremlin's

00:30:55.300 influence operations

00:30:56.120 has a particular resonance

00:30:57.580 for me because

00:30:58.520 in June of 2016

00:31:01.080 I broke the story

00:31:02.900 of the Russian hack

00:31:04.040 of the Democratic

00:31:04.700 National Committee

00:31:05.600 and I distinctly remember

00:31:07.520 at the time

00:31:08.280 that this was a big

00:31:11.200 front page story

00:31:12.380 sort of Watergate

00:31:14.020 you know,

00:31:14.960 the Watergate break

00:31:16.080 in all over again

00:31:16.840 but in the information age.

00:31:18.720 It's not just the Russians 1.00

00:31:20.000 that exploited all of this.

00:31:21.980 We have internal

00:31:22.820 domestic actors

00:31:23.840 that put out

00:31:25.220 divisive messages

00:31:26.360 from the left

00:31:27.280 from the right

00:31:27.980 and Russia

00:31:29.320 amplified those messages.

00:31:31.380 When I talk to

00:31:33.120 people inside

00:31:35.160 the government

00:31:36.300 sources

00:31:38.320 it's not

00:31:40.120 it's not even

00:31:41.840 per se

00:31:42.520 to have someone

00:31:43.200 oh,

00:31:43.680 please leak me

00:31:44.360 something classified.

00:31:45.880 No.

00:31:46.680 It's more this

00:31:48.100 it's the value

00:31:49.500 I get

00:31:50.120 as a national security reporter

00:31:51.680 is in the relationship

00:31:53.740 built up over time

00:31:54.900 one of trust

00:31:55.860 in which I find

00:31:57.240 I have developed

00:31:58.120 you know,

00:31:58.620 a relationship

00:31:59.080 with someone

00:31:59.540 I consider

00:32:00.100 to be

00:32:01.420 authoritative

00:32:03.640 and knowledgeable

00:32:05.540 and well-meaning

00:32:06.140 and who

00:32:06.620 if they have trust

00:32:07.740 in me

00:32:08.140 can explain

00:32:09.280 some things

00:32:10.480 in terms of

00:32:11.000 context,

00:32:11.980 history,

00:32:12.620 significance

00:32:13.080 not so much

00:32:14.140 an actual

00:32:14.620 you know,

00:32:15.320 operation

00:32:16.020 or something

00:32:17.160 really highly classified

00:32:18.180 but rather

00:32:18.760 the history

00:32:20.120 behind things.

00:32:22.400 So what about her,

00:32:23.700 John?

00:32:24.120 Do we believe

00:32:24.920 she was also 0.66

00:32:26.020 on the receiving end

00:32:26.900 of the Jim Comey leaks

00:32:28.340 or possibly

00:32:29.640 the Adam Schiff

00:32:30.920 leaks

00:32:31.600 or where?

00:32:34.360 In disclosure,

00:32:35.640 I worked with Ellen

00:32:36.300 when I was at

00:32:36.820 the Washington Post.

00:32:37.640 I didn't find her

00:32:38.420 anything but a

00:32:38.980 professional reporter

00:32:39.900 in the newsroom.

00:32:41.800 The documents

00:32:42.820 I saw yesterday

00:32:43.720 show that

00:32:44.460 she published

00:32:45.700 classified information

00:32:47.060 and they couldn't

00:32:47.740 determine

00:32:48.180 who the

00:32:49.240 provider

00:32:50.400 of that

00:32:50.740 information

00:32:51.300 was.

00:32:51.940 Now,

00:32:52.700 I want to

00:32:53.440 point something

00:32:53.940 out in the

00:32:54.560 documents I

00:32:55.140 published this

00:32:55.660 morning which

00:32:56.080 are the ones

00:32:56.520 that went

00:32:57.000 to the

00:32:57.220 Capitol Hill

00:32:57.760 and you

00:33:00.000 will see

00:33:00.500 that there's

00:33:01.480 large blacked

00:33:02.500 out sections

00:33:03.040 of some

00:33:03.720 of these

00:33:04.120 memos.

00:33:05.080 Large blacked

00:33:05.680 out sections.

00:33:06.140 In fact,

00:33:06.420 the most

00:33:06.720 tantalizing

00:33:07.340 one is

00:33:07.880 something to

00:33:08.640 the effect

00:33:09.120 of

00:33:09.440 Mr.

00:33:11.100 Richmond

00:33:11.380 told us

00:33:12.040 James Comey

00:33:13.260 told them

00:33:14.620 not to leak

00:33:15.140 but

00:33:15.620 and then it's

00:33:16.820 all blacked 0.86

00:33:17.260 out.

00:33:17.520 The but.

00:33:17.840 And you're

00:33:18.400 like,

00:33:18.620 what is

00:33:19.220 there?

00:33:20.000 I think

00:33:20.400 I know

00:33:20.740 what might

00:33:21.120 be there.

00:33:22.060 And unfortunately,

00:33:23.400 the Trump

00:33:23.820 Justice Department,

00:33:24.680 Trump 2.0

00:33:25.420 Justice Department

00:33:26.120 made some

00:33:26.740 redactions to

00:33:27.380 these documents.

00:33:28.400 They may have

00:33:28.960 a legitimate

00:33:29.360 reason.

00:33:29.960 We're trying

00:33:30.300 to press

00:33:31.640 through and

00:33:32.120 negotiate and

00:33:32.640 see if there's

00:33:32.980 some way for

00:33:33.420 the American

00:33:33.820 public to

00:33:34.880 see this.

00:33:35.520 But I

00:33:35.820 believe in

00:33:36.440 some of

00:33:36.760 these blacked 0.98

00:33:37.340 out areas,

00:33:38.280 there are

00:33:38.780 two more

00:33:39.640 lieutenants

00:33:40.740 of James Comey,

00:33:42.160 not named

00:33:42.840 Daniel Richmond,

00:33:43.740 who may also

00:33:44.760 have acknowledged

00:33:45.460 their role

00:33:46.240 in the leaking

00:33:46.900 campaigns.

00:33:47.520 And I think

00:33:47.820 we should wait

00:33:48.360 and see if we

00:33:48.880 can get that

00:33:49.400 information released

00:33:50.680 by Pam Bondi

00:33:51.580 of the Justice

00:33:52.020 Department.

00:33:52.460 If it can be

00:33:53.180 lawfully released,

00:33:54.020 I think it will

00:33:55.200 create a more

00:33:55.980 360-degree stereo

00:33:57.700 look at how

00:33:59.060 Comey operated

00:34:00.060 and how some of

00:34:00.740 these leaks

00:34:01.280 operated over time.

00:34:03.240 Again, just

00:34:04.320 because a reporter

00:34:05.180 got a classified

00:34:05.900 leak doesn't

00:34:06.500 mean they're a

00:34:07.180 bad person.

00:34:08.120 I once got one

00:34:08.980 of the most

00:34:09.280 classified stories

00:34:10.200 in the history

00:34:11.200 of this country.

00:34:12.040 No, getting the

00:34:12.460 leak doesn't.

00:34:13.600 Getting the

00:34:14.200 leak doesn't.

00:34:15.040 Getting the

00:34:15.520 story wrong and

00:34:16.680 never correcting

00:34:17.380 it does.

00:34:18.260 That's right.

00:34:19.380 That's exactly

00:34:20.020 the thing here.

00:34:20.680 And I haven't

00:34:21.240 done an evaluation

00:34:22.180 of Ellen Nakashima's

00:34:23.660 reporting yet.

00:34:24.340 I certainly am

00:34:24.860 going to now based

00:34:26.120 on these new

00:34:26.660 documents because

00:34:27.280 she's a new

00:34:27.800 sort of figure

00:34:28.300 in this.

00:34:28.840 I will point out

00:34:29.660 something about

00:34:30.220 the Washington

00:34:30.740 Post.

00:34:31.180 And for a

00:34:33.160 period of time

00:34:33.720 when my old

00:34:34.360 Associated Press

00:34:35.040 colleague Sally

00:34:35.740 Busby was there,

00:34:36.900 I think they

00:34:37.420 tried to clean

00:34:38.080 up some of

00:34:39.040 their Russian

00:34:39.440 reporting.

00:34:40.080 They did about

00:34:40.580 12 or 13

00:34:41.480 appendages and

00:34:42.720 corrections to

00:34:43.360 stories.

00:34:43.860 And Sally,

00:34:44.620 I worked with

00:34:45.040 at the AP,

00:34:45.680 she was trained

00:34:46.280 I think like

00:34:46.820 you and I

00:34:47.260 were, which

00:34:47.640 is we stick

00:34:48.420 to the facts

00:34:48.940 and when we

00:34:49.340 get it wrong,

00:34:49.900 we admit it.

00:34:50.580 There's nothing

00:34:51.020 wrong.

00:34:51.720 The only thing

00:34:52.220 wrong is not

00:34:52.840 admitting you

00:34:53.220 were wrong

00:34:53.480 when you are.

00:34:54.460 And so there

00:34:55.100 was a period

00:34:55.560 where the

00:34:55.840 Washington Post

00:34:56.380 cleaned up

00:34:56.820 some of its

00:34:57.280 reporting.

00:34:57.840 But about

00:34:58.580 four months

00:34:59.120 ago, I

00:34:59.840 obtained a

00:35:00.640 document under

00:35:01.500 FOIA, I

00:35:02.960 got it, and

00:35:03.940 it is the

00:35:04.620 confidential

00:35:05.160 interview of

00:35:06.700 the NSA

00:35:07.520 director Mike

00:35:08.420 Rogers saying

00:35:09.200 that one of

00:35:10.020 the Washington

00:35:10.440 Post Pulitzer

00:35:11.240 winning stories

00:35:12.100 that claimed

00:35:13.160 that Donald

00:35:13.600 Trump said

00:35:14.120 something to

00:35:14.640 Mike Rogers

00:35:15.360 during their

00:35:16.320 meeting that

00:35:16.780 was incriminating,

00:35:18.040 Mike Rogers

00:35:18.620 said was

00:35:19.240 quote, wrong.

00:35:20.100 The story

00:35:20.620 is wrong.

00:35:22.320 And he

00:35:22.680 debunks it in

00:35:23.600 detail in an

00:35:24.400 FBI interview,

00:35:25.760 which means he

00:35:26.420 probably wasn't

00:35:27.260 the source of

00:35:27.780 the Washington

00:35:28.140 Post story

00:35:28.620 because he

00:35:28.900 was pretty

00:35:29.240 critical of

00:35:29.820 it.

00:35:30.960 I went to

00:35:31.740 the Washington

00:35:32.180 Post, Sally

00:35:34.000 Busby's no

00:35:34.600 longer there, and

00:35:35.420 I got crickets

00:35:36.060 when I asked

00:35:36.540 them, are you

00:35:36.920 going to

00:35:37.180 correct this

00:35:37.600 story?

00:35:38.060 I check back

00:35:38.940 every few

00:35:39.420 weeks, I

00:35:39.820 haven't seen

00:35:40.280 a correction.

00:35:41.300 That is a

00:35:42.000 problem just

00:35:42.460 like the

00:35:42.780 New York

00:35:43.020 Times story

00:35:43.560 from February

00:35:44.180 of 2017 is

00:35:45.200 a problem.

00:35:46.200 And I

00:35:46.340 don't know if

00:35:47.520 that's an

00:35:47.800 Ellen story, I

00:35:48.320 have to look,

00:35:48.660 I don't think

00:35:49.000 it was, but

00:35:49.600 your point is

00:35:50.940 right.

00:35:51.180 When you

00:35:51.440 don't correct

00:35:51.900 when you're

00:35:52.200 wrong, you've

00:35:52.820 really deserved

00:35:53.360 the public.

00:35:54.620 Ellen's

00:35:55.020 stories are

00:35:55.780 about, for

00:35:56.440 example, the

00:35:58.020 Russians hacking, 1.00

00:35:59.960 the Democratic

00:36:01.020 National

00:36:01.440 Committee, which

00:36:02.120 now it

00:36:03.300 appears is

00:36:03.980 wrong.

00:36:05.060 It does not

00:36:05.860 appear that they

00:36:06.600 were necessarily

00:36:07.300 behind that

00:36:07.980 leak, or at

00:36:08.400 least now we

00:36:08.800 have information

00:36:09.380 that it wasn't

00:36:10.300 that leak.

00:36:10.960 I really want

00:36:12.600 to address it

00:36:13.040 because it

00:36:13.280 does get, even

00:36:13.920 in the

00:36:14.220 conservative

00:36:14.580 media, it

00:36:15.100 gets gobbled

00:36:15.600 up a little

00:36:16.000 bit.

00:36:16.820 Everybody I've

00:36:17.620 talked to,

00:36:18.360 critics and

00:36:20.000 believers in

00:36:21.520 the Intelligence

00:36:22.020 Committee, believe

00:36:22.780 that John

00:36:23.260 Podesta's

00:36:23.860 emails, which

00:36:25.020 were not the

00:36:25.460 DNC emails,

00:36:26.400 were hacked,

00:36:27.680 and there's

00:36:28.260 pretty good

00:36:28.720 reason for

00:36:29.160 that.

00:36:29.380 And the

00:36:29.540 FBI had

00:36:30.240 prima facie

00:36:31.520 access to

00:36:32.240 the evidence.

00:36:32.720 They could

00:36:32.960 actually see

00:36:33.520 what happened

00:36:34.000 with John

00:36:34.540 Podesta's

00:36:35.040 email.

00:36:35.340 So the

00:36:36.000 Russians were 0.99

00:36:36.540 involved in

00:36:37.100 that.

00:36:37.300 That's an

00:36:37.620 influence

00:36:37.960 operation.

00:36:38.440 By the

00:36:38.720 way, not

00:36:39.640 uncommon.

00:36:40.500 The Russians 0.95

00:36:40.800 are famous

00:36:41.320 for this,

00:36:41.740 so are the

00:36:41.960 Qataris.

00:36:42.380 Many

00:36:42.580 countries do

00:36:43.380 this.

00:36:44.340 The DNC

00:36:45.320 hack is much

00:36:46.100 more problematic

00:36:46.680 for several

00:36:47.340 reasons.

00:36:47.840 On James

00:36:48.380 Comey's

00:36:48.800 watch, the

00:36:49.720 FBI never

00:36:50.560 demanded to

00:36:51.240 get the

00:36:51.560 service from

00:36:52.020 the Democratic

00:36:52.500 National

00:36:52.880 Community.

00:36:53.360 Instead, they

00:36:54.540 used its

00:36:55.120 former

00:36:55.580 cybersecurity

00:36:56.660 chief and

00:36:57.560 his company

00:36:58.200 to evaluate

00:36:59.280 the service

00:36:59.860 for the

00:37:00.300 FBI and

00:37:01.020 give them

00:37:01.700 an analysis.

00:37:02.820 And then

00:37:02.960 that analysis

00:37:03.560 was put out

00:37:04.240 to the

00:37:04.520 American

00:37:04.780 public

00:37:05.160 saying,

00:37:05.960 based on

00:37:07.000 what

00:37:07.180 crowd strike

00:37:07.880 this

00:37:08.220 vendor hired

00:37:09.120 by the

00:37:09.460 DNC gave

00:37:10.080 us, we

00:37:10.740 believe there

00:37:11.400 was a

00:37:12.360 hack of

00:37:12.760 the DNC

00:37:13.220 servers.

00:37:14.200 About three

00:37:15.120 years ago,

00:37:15.660 four years

00:37:16.000 ago, as

00:37:16.480 Bill Barr

00:37:17.320 was leaving,

00:37:18.260 we were

00:37:18.600 able to

00:37:19.140 get the

00:37:19.680 actual

00:37:20.140 interviews

00:37:20.860 that

00:37:21.880 crowd strikes

00:37:22.780 people did

00:37:23.520 with the

00:37:23.800 FBI.

00:37:24.340 And in

00:37:24.760 that

00:37:25.040 interview,

00:37:25.940 they said

00:37:26.480 something very

00:37:27.220 profound that

00:37:27.860 has never

00:37:28.260 been disputed

00:37:28.960 since, which

00:37:29.940 is the

00:37:30.240 Russians gained 0.99

00:37:30.880 access to

00:37:31.500 the DNC

00:37:31.900 servers.

00:37:32.320 They did

00:37:32.680 some

00:37:32.920 probing.

00:37:33.780 They did

00:37:34.060 some

00:37:34.260 escalations of

00:37:35.140 credentials.

00:37:35.680 I hacked

00:37:36.560 my way in.

00:37:37.380 I could

00:37:38.360 get myself

00:37:38.920 to

00:37:39.160 administrator

00:37:39.840 level.

00:37:40.480 But what

00:37:40.800 CrowdStrike

00:37:41.680 said that I

00:37:42.200 think is so

00:37:42.760 important for

00:37:43.220 all of us

00:37:43.520 to understand,

00:37:43.780 that is a

00:37:44.200 form of

00:37:44.500 hacking.

00:37:44.760 If you get

00:37:45.460 to credential

00:37:45.960 level, you've

00:37:46.480 hacked yourself

00:37:46.960 in.

00:37:47.780 But what

00:37:48.160 CrowdStrike

00:37:48.800 said is they

00:37:49.300 could never

00:37:49.980 prove there

00:37:51.280 was no

00:37:51.660 evidence of

00:37:52.340 exfiltration,

00:37:53.340 meaning that

00:37:53.880 the Russians,

00:37:54.880 after they got

00:37:55.500 their permissions

00:37:56.080 on the servers,

00:37:56.900 they didn't

00:37:57.260 pull the data

00:37:58.000 off and get

00:37:58.960 the emails and

00:37:59.760 leak them out.

00:38:00.640 Now, that is a

00:38:01.420 very important

00:38:02.120 qualification.

00:38:03.200 There was some

00:38:03.960 hacking.

00:38:04.260 They got

00:38:04.740 into the

00:38:05.140 system, but

00:38:06.100 CrowdStrike is

00:38:06.800 very specific

00:38:07.660 that we

00:38:08.100 couldn't prove

00:38:08.900 exfiltration

00:38:10.120 occurred.

00:38:11.000 Now, compare

00:38:11.520 that to what

00:38:12.680 the Washington

00:38:13.100 Post and

00:38:13.580 New York

00:38:13.820 Times and

00:38:14.240 others reported,

00:38:15.240 and it's a

00:38:15.720 little muddled,

00:38:16.320 and I think

00:38:16.720 that that's one

00:38:17.260 of the stories

00:38:17.600 we've got to

00:38:18.020 get fixed in

00:38:18.580 the next few

00:38:19.000 months.

00:38:19.260 Well, she

00:38:20.420 also did the

00:38:21.180 reporting on

00:38:21.700 Carter Page,

00:38:22.920 and what it

00:38:24.020 appears to me,

00:38:25.000 John, is that

00:38:25.560 she and Schmidt

00:38:26.800 and a lot of

00:38:27.520 these others,

00:38:28.900 okay, it's fine.

00:38:30.000 I agree with you.

00:38:30.860 It's not wrong to

00:38:31.380 get a classified

00:38:31.900 leak.

00:38:32.420 I mean, that's

00:38:32.800 on the person

00:38:33.760 who's breaching

00:38:35.460 the classified

00:38:36.520 protections.

00:38:40.020 Ellen has no

00:38:41.220 oath that she's

00:38:42.120 taken to protect

00:38:42.720 that information,

00:38:43.440 and as a reporter,

00:38:44.040 you can report

00:38:45.300 and reveal stolen

00:38:46.560 documents so long

00:38:47.420 as you didn't

00:38:47.820 orchestrate the

00:38:48.440 theft.

00:38:49.260 So in any

00:38:49.920 event, but

00:38:50.860 especially when

00:38:52.840 it comes to

00:38:53.260 leaks from

00:38:53.600 three-letter

00:38:53.940 agencies, you

00:38:54.680 must make

00:38:55.660 sure you're

00:38:56.160 not being

00:38:56.700 used.

00:38:58.420 I mean, every

00:38:59.900 reporter knows

00:39:00.740 when one of

00:39:01.600 those people

00:39:02.340 reaches out to

00:39:03.140 you, all

00:39:04.060 hackles should

00:39:04.660 be up.

00:39:05.280 The likelihood

00:39:06.000 of you getting

00:39:06.640 used is very,

00:39:08.040 very high,

00:39:09.040 which I've said

00:39:09.620 this before,

00:39:09.980 but that's why

00:39:10.400 generally news

00:39:11.100 organizations will

00:39:11.800 put someone who

00:39:12.920 is a cynical

00:39:13.580 mofo in that

00:39:14.660 position, like at

00:39:15.840 Fox, Catherine

00:39:16.580 Herridge, who

00:39:17.540 likes no one,

00:39:18.520 which is

00:39:19.160 good.

00:39:19.460 That's good.

00:39:19.980 That's exactly

00:39:20.440 who you should

00:39:20.820 have in that

00:39:21.280 role, who

00:39:22.160 cannot be

00:39:22.640 charmed or

00:39:23.200 wooed into

00:39:23.720 writing what

00:39:24.260 you want her

00:39:24.700 to write.

00:39:25.240 That's right.

00:39:25.560 And instead,

00:39:26.800 what it appears

00:39:27.400 to have been is

00:39:28.300 people like

00:39:28.880 Ellen, people 0.98

00:39:29.360 like Michael

00:39:29.780 Schmidt heard

00:39:30.380 all the things

00:39:31.100 they already

00:39:31.560 believed about

00:39:32.240 Donald Trump

00:39:32.900 from a source

00:39:33.840 they trusted

00:39:34.700 like a Schiff

00:39:35.480 or a Comey

00:39:36.260 or a Brennan

00:39:37.000 and with

00:39:38.460 glee ran

00:39:39.740 to their

00:39:40.420 keyboards.

00:39:42.040 Yeah, Megan,

00:39:43.000 you just did,

00:39:43.680 that was like the

00:39:44.340 perfect description

00:39:45.180 of what our

00:39:45.700 obligations are

00:39:46.500 and what we

00:39:46.860 often fail to

00:39:47.940 do in our

00:39:48.320 industry.

00:39:48.760 There's a

00:39:49.040 moment in my

00:39:49.600 career where

00:39:49.920 I went through

00:39:50.320 this, probably

00:39:51.200 one of the

00:39:51.600 biggest scoops I

00:39:52.200 ever had in my

00:39:52.900 career was at

00:39:53.360 the Associated

00:39:53.940 Press when I

00:39:54.500 got the

00:39:54.860 interrogation

00:39:55.500 reports of

00:39:56.120 Khalid Sheikh

00:39:56.560 Mohammed, the 1.00

00:39:57.160 mastermind of

00:39:57.800 9-11, and we

00:39:59.100 learned from

00:39:59.540 those interrogation

00:40:00.300 reports that he

00:40:00.920 actually planned

00:40:01.960 to do 10

00:40:02.640 planes on two

00:40:03.380 coasts and then

00:40:04.320 bin Laden

00:40:04.720 scaled it down.

00:40:05.460 It was a

00:40:06.240 worldwide exclusive

00:40:07.120 but we had that

00:40:08.540 document for

00:40:09.260 seven or eight

00:40:09.880 days from our

00:40:10.940 sources and we

00:40:12.180 did lots of

00:40:13.440 reports because

00:40:14.120 you didn't know

00:40:14.920 if someone was

00:40:15.540 trying to make

00:40:16.120 somebody look

00:40:16.800 good or this

00:40:17.720 was only one

00:40:18.420 of 30

00:40:18.880 interrogations and

00:40:19.720 we did a lot

00:40:20.340 of work before

00:40:21.440 we pulled the

00:40:22.100 trigger on writing

00:40:22.880 that story and

00:40:24.100 that's important

00:40:24.780 because we all

00:40:25.660 know that people

00:40:26.500 have motives when

00:40:28.240 they give us

00:40:29.860 something and we

00:40:31.100 have to take

00:40:31.940 those motives into

00:40:32.700 account and rule

00:40:33.520 out that we

00:40:34.020 haven't been

00:40:34.480 misled before

00:40:35.140 we pulled the

00:40:35.660 trigger and

00:40:36.560 too often in

00:40:37.360 the internet

00:40:37.780 era that idea

00:40:39.060 that I was

00:40:39.860 trained on and

00:40:40.460 that you were

00:40:40.860 probably trained

00:40:41.400 on has been

00:40:42.740 lost in the

00:40:43.380 internet era

00:40:44.000 where the moment

00:40:44.660 I can get a

00:40:45.360 click now if I

00:40:46.060 go out with

00:40:46.580 this is the

00:40:47.680 only reward you

00:40:48.560 get and I

00:40:49.180 think that being

00:40:50.160 right or wrong

00:40:50.780 has been less

00:40:51.400 important than

00:40:51.900 getting that

00:40:52.340 click and I

00:40:52.860 think it's so

00:40:53.480 important that

00:40:54.100 journalism take

00:40:55.100 a deep breath at

00:40:55.780 some point and

00:40:56.280 wind ourselves

00:40:56.860 back to let's

00:40:57.980 find out the

00:40:58.520 motives let's

00:40:59.000 make sure we

00:40:59.460 haven't been

00:40:59.860 misled before we

00:41:01.140 report something.

00:41:02.760 John before I

00:41:03.160 let you go

00:41:03.420 have you been

00:41:03.820 following the

00:41:04.600 difference of

00:41:05.180 opinion on

00:41:05.820 these reveals

00:41:06.560 that have been

00:41:07.060 coming out

00:41:07.540 between say on

00:41:09.240 the one camp

00:41:09.860 you Matt

00:41:10.820 Taibbi Molly

00:41:12.180 Hemingway and

00:41:12.760 others Aaron

00:41:13.700 Monte Glenn

00:41:14.360 Greenwald and

00:41:15.300 on the other

00:41:15.940 many in the

00:41:16.980 so-called

00:41:17.260 mainstream yes of

00:41:18.400 course I don't

00:41:18.880 really listen to

00:41:19.520 but I do listen

00:41:20.180 to Andy

00:41:20.900 McCarthy over at

00:41:21.960 National Review

00:41:22.540 and respect his

00:41:24.280 opinion and he

00:41:25.180 did write a whole

00:41:25.880 book about

00:41:26.520 Russiagate but

00:41:28.000 he still is just

00:41:29.200 not well he

00:41:29.680 hasn't written about

00:41:30.260 it in a while

00:41:30.620 because he's been

00:41:31.020 on vacation but

00:41:31.680 he did not

00:41:33.020 think there was

00:41:33.580 any there there

00:41:34.580 on the initial

00:41:35.340 reveals here and

00:41:36.320 he really thought

00:41:37.100 this was a

00:41:38.520 nothing burger

00:41:39.020 like what Tulsi

00:41:39.880 was revealing so

00:41:40.760 have you been

00:41:41.140 following that

00:41:41.580 difference and do

00:41:42.140 you have a

00:41:42.740 thought on it?

00:41:44.660 Yeah listen I

00:41:45.540 try not to

00:41:46.240 evaluate whether

00:41:46.940 something's nothing

00:41:47.560 I try to just

00:41:48.400 give people facts

00:41:49.240 so they can make

00:41:49.840 up their own

00:41:50.340 mind my goal

00:41:51.020 now he obviously

00:41:51.580 writes op-ed so

00:41:52.380 his goal is to

00:41:53.100 help people come

00:41:53.700 to conclusions

00:41:54.260 I've tried

00:41:55.400 throughout my

00:41:55.920 career to just

00:41:56.420 give people data

00:41:57.180 points and let

00:41:57.760 them make up

00:41:58.280 their own mind

00:41:58.900 I do think

00:42:00.180 that you know

00:42:01.280 what you do

00:42:01.960 see and what

00:42:02.500 we've learned

00:42:03.100 is that inside

00:42:04.440 the intelligence

00:42:05.120 community the

00:42:05.980 roles of the

00:42:06.480 intelligence

00:42:06.820 community were

00:42:07.440 broken to come

00:42:08.120 up with a

00:42:08.780 story that

00:42:09.800 Putin helped

00:42:10.420 Trump even

00:42:10.920 though the

00:42:11.260 evidence said

00:42:12.180 otherwise the

00:42:13.300 most damning

00:42:14.020 evidence from

00:42:14.980 all the

00:42:15.380 intelligence

00:42:15.840 experts I

00:42:16.420 talked to

00:42:16.720 and I derive

00:42:17.140 my knowledge

00:42:17.660 from people

00:42:18.360 who are

00:42:18.660 professionals

00:42:19.080 I'm not an

00:42:19.840 intel

00:42:20.100 professional

00:42:20.560 is that the

00:42:22.320 intelligence

00:42:23.300 community's

00:42:23.960 belief that

00:42:24.500 Putin didn't

00:42:24.980 try to help

00:42:25.560 Trump was based

00:42:26.660 on the most

00:42:27.440 significant moment

00:42:28.580 in October

00:42:29.340 of 2016

00:42:30.200 which is

00:42:30.760 Russia ended 0.79

00:42:32.340 its active

00:42:33.040 measures and

00:42:33.580 did not try to

00:42:34.560 interfere in the

00:42:35.160 election in October

00:42:35.860 16 why is that

00:42:36.660 important everybody

00:42:37.900 knows including

00:42:38.880 Russian intelligence

00:42:39.660 most Americans

00:42:40.380 make up their

00:42:40.940 mind in the last

00:42:41.560 few weeks of

00:42:42.080 the election

00:42:42.480 Russia had all 1.00

00:42:44.080 sorts of dirt

00:42:44.820 they could have

00:42:45.360 dropped on Hillary

00:42:46.040 Clinton to

00:42:46.520 possibly take

00:42:47.340 him out and

00:42:48.220 they didn't do

00:42:49.140 that that is

00:42:50.140 what we call a

00:42:50.940 passive decision

00:42:51.680 meaning intelligence

00:42:52.620 community saw

00:42:53.460 them having the

00:42:54.420 capability to do

00:42:55.420 something to damage

00:42:56.180 a candidate and

00:42:57.900 deciding not to

00:42:59.220 do it that's a

00:43:00.320 very powerful piece

00:43:01.860 of evidence in

00:43:02.500 the intelligence

00:43:02.980 committee assessment

00:43:03.800 and it's why

00:43:04.720 Congress on

00:43:05.340 November 29th

00:43:06.300 16 is brief that

00:43:07.740 there is no there

00:43:09.120 was no preferred

00:43:10.660 candidate that's a

00:43:11.920 pretty good reason

00:43:12.500 to believe that you

00:43:14.020 have to look at

00:43:14.720 what happens after

00:43:15.440 November 29th to

00:43:16.500 realize how badly

00:43:17.420 the community was

00:43:18.540 hijacked maybe

00:43:19.820 you know Andy's

00:43:21.540 looking at it from

00:43:22.120 a prosecutor could I

00:43:23.060 prosecute someone from

00:43:24.120 what happened here

00:43:24.680 no but from an

00:43:26.340 integrity standpoint

00:43:27.200 in our country on

00:43:28.520 how we're going to

00:43:29.080 protect ourselves

00:43:29.880 about the future of

00:43:31.140 this country from

00:43:31.740 counterintelligence

00:43:32.580 threats from

00:43:33.020 counterterrorism

00:43:33.660 threats the ability

00:43:35.080 to take good

00:43:36.500 intelligence and

00:43:37.360 turn it into a bad

00:43:38.260 conclusion affects all

00:43:39.800 of our safety and I

00:43:40.640 think from that

00:43:41.240 perspective there is

00:43:42.580 a reason why we

00:43:43.280 should be reporting

00:43:43.960 on this whether

00:43:44.760 someone gets

00:43:45.320 prosecuted or not

00:43:46.260 I don't know I've

00:43:46.900 been hearing about

00:43:47.480 prosecutions for 10

00:43:48.440 years haven't seen a

00:43:49.700 whole lot of them so

00:43:50.600 I'm pretty jaded in

00:43:51.940 expectation but I do

00:43:53.940 think these things

00:43:54.600 matter for you and

00:43:55.460 on my safety when

00:43:56.960 those two intelligence

00:43:57.840 officers came to my

00:43:58.880 driveway in March of

00:43:59.780 17 which set me on

00:44:01.240 my path to unravel

00:44:02.320 this story the first

00:44:03.800 thing they said to me

00:44:04.640 when I asked them why

00:44:05.480 are you coming forward

00:44:06.240 to me why me and what

00:44:07.420 are you what are you

00:44:08.000 trying to me to do

00:44:08.580 and he's like you gave

00:44:09.880 us these tools after

00:44:10.820 9-11 to protect you

00:44:12.140 from terrorists and

00:44:13.400 from counterintelligence

00:44:14.400 threats and if we lose

00:44:15.500 them because we've

00:44:16.740 abused them the way we

00:44:17.740 do you will not be as

00:44:19.320 safe at night as you

00:44:20.300 are have been the last

00:44:21.420 10 years that's what

00:44:22.680 drove those two

00:44:23.320 whistleblowers to come 1.00

00:44:24.160 to my driveway at 11

00:44:25.160 o'clock at night in the

00:44:26.480 spring of 2017 I think

00:44:28.400 the professionals know

00:44:29.460 that the abuse of these

00:44:30.440 tools risk them being

00:44:32.580 taken from them or being

00:44:33.940 corrupted and we're all

00:44:35.320 less safe and that's a

00:44:36.260 matter of public interest

00:44:37.060 that goes beyond

00:44:37.780 prosecution

00:44:38.400 john as i listen to you talk

00:44:40.820 all i can think is um we

00:44:42.120 need a full episode of john

00:44:43.920 solomon and your background

00:44:45.120 and your stories because i

00:44:46.360 even just in that brief

00:44:47.300 recitation i learned facts

00:44:48.460 about you i didn't know

00:44:49.140 what a fascinating guy you

00:44:50.600 are it's i i love to do

00:44:52.640 that like just you and

00:44:53.880 we'll we'll talk for a

00:44:54.740 couple all right listen i

00:44:55.600 listen i don't listen to

00:44:56.360 many podcasts i listen to

00:44:58.220 you often you are do such a

00:44:59.540 great job and you inform the

00:45:01.100 public with such integrity so

00:45:02.420 anytime i'm there

00:45:03.560 oh thank you thank you so

00:45:05.580 much all right to be

00:45:06.280 continued uh we'll we'll

00:45:07.640 stay on it we'll continue

00:45:08.460 refreshing just the news

00:45:09.760 coming up next our friends

00:45:11.060 from national review speaking

00:45:12.180 of national review rich

00:45:13.100 lowry's here along with

00:45:14.120 charles c w cook let's be

00:45:17.200 honest america can still be

00:45:19.160 a dangerous place and you

00:45:20.760 cannot afford to wait for

00:45:21.720 help sure you could use a

00:45:23.100 firearm but in today's

00:45:24.540 america defending yourself

00:45:25.760 with deadly force could have

00:45:27.060 legal consequences according

00:45:29.220 to fbi data 99.9 percent of

00:45:31.900 all altercations do not

00:45:33.600 require lethal force and

00:45:35.220 that's exactly why many are

00:45:36.480 turning to burna burna is

00:45:38.780 proudly american hand

00:45:40.180 assembled in fort wayne

00:45:41.360 indiana these less lethal

00:45:43.360 self-defense launchers are

00:45:45.000 trusted by hundreds of

00:45:46.140 government agencies law

00:45:47.180 enforcement departments and

00:45:48.700 private security companies

00:45:49.900 over 600 000 burna pistols

00:45:52.100 have been sold most to

00:45:53.680 private citizens who refuse to

00:45:55.500 be victims burna launchers

00:45:57.420 fire rock-hard kinetic rounds

00:45:59.160 and powerful tear gas and

00:46:00.520 pepper projectiles

00:46:01.340 capable of stopping a threat

00:46:02.920 from up to 60 feet away no

00:46:05.220 background checks no waiting

00:46:06.400 periods and burna can ship

00:46:08.140 straight to your door take

00:46:10.040 responsibility protect your

00:46:11.820 future visit burna.com right

00:46:13.960 now or your local sportsman's

00:46:15.680 warehouse that's byrna.com or

00:46:18.720 your local sportsman's

00:46:19.960 warehouse visit now and be

00:46:21.900 prepared to defend

00:46:23.160 joining me now rich lowry and

00:46:28.640 charles c w cook of national

00:46:30.360 review you can find all of their

00:46:31.940 work by becoming an nr plus

00:46:34.500 subscriber today we will get

00:46:37.360 andy mccarthy on to talk about

00:46:38.520 his views on russiagate once

00:46:40.020 he's back and well rested and

00:46:42.320 ready to talk again he's been

00:46:43.600 on vacation at exactly the wrong

00:46:45.080 time rich lowry um but in any

00:46:47.740 event let me ask you this because

00:46:49.060 i want to pick up on the media

00:46:50.200 angle that we were discussing with

00:46:51.540 john solomon interesting fact the

00:46:54.020 end the new york times michael

00:46:55.380 schmidt who we just discussed who

00:46:57.340 won a pulitzer for his russiagate

00:46:58.980 uh reporting uh and now of course

00:47:02.700 is downplaying all the latest

00:47:04.600 revelations by tulsi gabbard is

00:47:06.980 married to the woman whose soundbite

00:47:11.460 i am about to run for you and you'll

00:47:13.920 be shocked shocked to hear that she

00:47:16.560 also doesn't seem to think there's

00:47:18.620 much to the latest russiagate

00:47:20.800 allegations play stop five some more

00:47:24.940 news breaking this hour to tell you

00:47:26.520 about attorney general pam bondy has

00:47:28.760 ordered a grand jury investigation

00:47:30.680 into the so-called russiagate

00:47:33.220 conspiracy allegations made by the

00:47:35.460 director of national intelligence

00:47:37.120 tulsi gabbard these are unsubstantiated

00:47:39.740 and largely debunked allegations by the

00:47:42.360 trump administration that former

00:47:44.300 president barack obama and his aides

00:47:46.420 in the intelligence community ordered a

00:47:48.600 probe into the 2016 trump campaign's

00:47:51.040 connections to russia to ruin his

00:47:53.200 chances of becoming president we'll

00:47:55.020 stay on top of that story thank you

00:47:56.900 for letting us into your homes we are

00:47:58.860 always so grateful

00:48:00.380 that's msnbc's nicole wallace who 1.00

00:48:03.400 constantly sounds as though she's just

00:48:06.540 getting over a three-week battle with

00:48:08.180 the flu and she's been forced to do the

00:48:10.060 broadcast from her near deathbed she

00:48:12.340 constantly she sounds so sick and that

00:48:15.340 is unsubstantiated but i will tell you

00:48:17.840 this rich lowry you run a news

00:48:19.100 organization if i ran msnbc there is no

00:48:22.180 way i would let the wife of the 0.99

00:48:24.620 journalist who received the classified

00:48:26.780 leaks at issue report in any way shape

00:48:30.880 or form on this controversy what say you

00:48:33.400 i was just gonna say this is one of the

00:48:35.320 big problems with the media right the

00:48:36.540 media a lot of it democratic operatives

00:48:39.080 and certain people in the so-called deep

00:48:41.760 state are the same they're married to one 0.76

00:48:43.660 another they're dating one another they go

00:48:45.240 the same cocktail parties they are the

00:48:47.420 same blob and this is just an indication

00:48:50.320 of that and also it's highly irritating to

00:48:53.380 have her say this this is much ado about

00:48:55.980 nothing when she was besides rachel maddow

00:48:59.720 was perhaps the the person with the

00:49:01.760 biggest media platform plying all this

00:49:05.100 nonsense for years about the walls closing

00:49:08.060 in and was going to be established or had

00:49:09.700 already been established that trump had

00:49:11.240 colluded with russia with zero remorse

00:49:14.280 afterwards never any uh one moment of

00:49:17.800 modesty oh i got caught up my partisan

00:49:20.140 passions i should have i should have been

00:49:22.000 a little more careful none of that now

00:49:23.800 she's still lecturing to us about the

00:49:25.960 matter it's a good point charlie i mean

00:49:28.480 who who if nicole wallace weren't allowed

00:49:30.540 to report on these allegations what unstained

00:49:33.280 reporter could they find at ms to replace

00:49:35.840 her

00:49:36.120 yeah i call it the rachel maddow extended

00:49:39.820 universe because there is this whole world

00:49:43.540 of essentially untrue ideas that is believed

00:49:49.620 by msnbc viewers i think the straw that

00:49:56.940 they're clutching onto is that tosy gabard

00:50:00.780 has made some implications that aren't true

00:50:03.900 for example that barack obama is going to end

00:50:06.220 up being criminally punished for his role in

00:50:10.660 this but to take that hyperbole and then to

00:50:15.300 conclude that all of the unraveling of

00:50:18.800 russiagate is illegitimate is ridiculous

00:50:21.480 we lived through this for a couple of years

00:50:24.320 the aim was at first to prevent trump from

00:50:27.440 becoming president and then it was to waste

00:50:30.960 his presidency you'll remember if you look back

00:50:34.300 it was fairly common including on msnbc at the

00:50:37.300 time to hear people say that he should not

00:50:40.480 allow to be used to use his presidential powers

00:50:43.460 well while he was under investigation and so on

00:50:47.300 so i think what they're doing is they're taking

00:50:49.240 um the hyperbole around the edges of this and

00:50:52.660 they're trying to discredit the rest of it which

00:50:54.460 simply will not and should not work

00:50:56.260 i'll tell you what she has a literally a vested 1.00

00:50:59.420 interest in upholding this reporting thanks to

00:51:03.940 the things she has said but also the things that

00:51:06.300 her husband has written that were award-winning

00:51:09.800 and there is really no question that she should

00:51:12.960 not be allowed to sit in that chair and opine on

00:51:15.260 whether these are legitimate or not legitimate

00:51:17.080 allegations that directly involve her husband now

00:51:20.820 and the veracity of his reporting and his reputation

00:51:23.480 the national guard troops that president trump dispatched to

00:51:26.360 washington dc arrived yesterday they showed up in droves

00:51:30.480 and uh i guess you know to say that the democrats are

00:51:36.360 not grateful would be an understatement the mayor has

00:51:40.580 waffled between kind of being grateful and saying

00:51:43.460 you know you can say crimes down try telling that to the

00:51:46.340 victims family members and getting pushed by her fellow

00:51:50.620 leftists into saying but he's authoritarian and you know

00:51:53.860 of course we hate him but the troops they're not such a

00:51:57.340 terrible idea uh in any event they've arrived and judge

00:52:00.680 janine pirro who's the u.s attorney now for 0.99

00:52:02.960 the district of dc uh was asked yesterday about

00:52:08.260 the troops and the allegedly falling crime rate and here's

00:52:12.180 how that went what this makes clear to me is that there is a

00:52:16.600 whole community that is suffering because of the violent crime in

00:52:21.320 this district all members of the minority community i am here today to

00:52:25.440 tell you that on behalf of all of these victims all of these families that

00:52:31.480 they're going to be accountable that we are going to make a difference and i

00:52:35.800 guarantee you that every one of these individuals was shot and killed by

00:52:41.280 someone who felt that they were never going to be caught and i want to send a

00:52:45.920 message that we are going to catch you

00:52:47.880 you said it's guns on the street that's causing this problem are you concerned

00:52:50.680 that the doj's funding cuts to gun violence prevention programs undermine the

00:52:54.760 efforts we are putting all kinds of resources onto the street

00:52:59.160 it's never enough this change this changed it's never enough you tell these

00:53:12.760 families crime has dropped you tell the mother of the intern who was shot going

00:53:19.240 out for mcdonald's near the washington convention center all crime is down you

00:53:24.680 tell the kid who was just beat the hell and back with a severe concussion and a

00:53:28.760 broken nose crime is down no that falls on deaf ears and my ears are deaf to that

00:53:34.640 and that's why i fight the fight thank you boom then she dropped the mic not not 1.00

00:53:41.780 literally but she should have rich well done by janine piero and there really are

00:53:46.520 some horrific stories i suppose you could find them in any large metropolitan

00:53:49.860 area but dc in particular has got some awful ones like that one about the intern i

00:53:54.800 think it was 19 years old they're doing an internship in washington it's like a

00:53:58.280 kid's dream going out to get a mcdonald's and gets killed that we could spend all

00:54:03.480 day going through these she had the pictures of a lot of those young victims

00:54:06.260 in particular up on those boards right up in the face of those reporters saying

00:54:10.360 how dare you it's never enough don't tell me don't tell the family members of

00:54:14.560 these dead people crimes down so we don't need more law enforcement

00:54:17.960 yeah i'll say a couple things one i have no use for mario bowser and and she has 0.99

00:54:23.740 vacillated a little bit here but i think basically though from where she's coming

00:54:27.640 from a fairly constructive attitude right she's saying yeah crime's down we

00:54:32.000 don't need this but if we're getting more federal assets let's use them to

00:54:35.640 reduce crime and if that had been the message by democratic mayors all around the

00:54:39.600 country about ice you know saying oh i don't like these tactics i don't think it's

00:54:42.980 really necessary maybe you're going too far but yes thank you for coming and

00:54:46.360 going getting the criminals off our streets i think that debate would be in

00:54:49.920 a much better place and i don't think the national guard

00:54:52.620 troops make much of a difference they basically guard federal buildings maybe

00:54:55.880 they free up some police resources to do other stuff but

00:54:58.660 certainly the sheer presence if you're a young woman jogging on the streets of dc

00:55:02.540 you're going to enjoy seeing those guys you're going to feel a little safer

00:55:05.200 seeing those guys and men and women in camouflage

00:55:07.980 standing there but i think the key thing is the driver of most of the gun violence

00:55:12.480 very small group of guys who've already been

00:55:16.260 involved in the engaged in the criminal justice system

00:55:19.140 have long rap sheets have probably been in prison already and are

00:55:22.700 largely known to authorities can you working with the local

00:55:26.600 police with additional dea and and fbi resources really in this 30-day period

00:55:32.400 try to move the needle in arresting more of those guys and making them worry

00:55:36.340 about consequences that's huge and then the carjackings which are so awful

00:55:40.620 you know they're 14 year olds carrying these things out so you need as janine

00:55:44.220 was saying you need them to to believe they're going to be

00:55:46.840 consequences that involves i think changing the laws congress has a role

00:55:50.100 here the dc city council probably can't be

00:55:52.880 done in 30 days but you can move the needle and i hope there's an incentive

00:55:56.200 created here for dc to say no we don't need this federal intervention 0.97

00:56:00.280 we're doing fine because we're going to get tough and and these you know in ways x y and z

00:56:05.800 that would be a very constructive outcome the cops have been super grateful for it charlie

00:56:10.140 the cops union came out and said thank god we we need help we actually cannot handle this

00:56:15.020 on our own which went unreported by the new york times's daily podcast yesterday when they took

00:56:19.540 their deep dive into local reaction they forgot to mention that the police are really grateful

00:56:23.980 for it and say it's necessary um but here's just another example of what was on the two boards

00:56:29.020 she was showing pictures of victims she said look at these 45 victims all 19 and under

00:56:33.960 all killed by gunfire in the last 18 months in dc and you tell me crime is down two of the victims

00:56:40.120 charlie were three years old one little girl's name was honestly cheetle uh it happened last month

00:56:47.120 via the local nbc police arrested a man who they say fired shots that killed a three-year-old girl as

00:56:52.900 she sat in a car with her family after fourth of july fireworks they believe the shooter intentionally

00:56:59.200 targeted the family's car she was taken to a hospital and died days later um and then just

00:57:06.460 today i retweeted someone named maddie karen not to be confused with maddie kern um who says as

00:57:13.680 follows i was called into court she's a dc resident to give a statement about a man who had exposed

00:57:18.960 himself to me on the metro he had over 200 charges to date court was delayed four hours for him to quote

00:57:25.900 calm down after calling the judge the c word once he had she dismissed the new charges and let him go

00:57:33.120 that is what so many crime victims have faced if the police do arrest the perpetrator and charge with

00:57:41.620 the right charge as opposed to a downplayed charge which is what is allegedly happening within the dc

00:57:47.440 police they're downplaying the charges to so that they can make it look like crime is down

00:57:51.280 but if they get charged adequately and then get into the court system you run into a judge like this

00:57:57.080 who's really not particularly impressed maybe unless you've actually murdered a three-year-old

00:58:02.600 and even then questionable yeah i haven't heard a good argument against this move yet it may be true

00:58:11.520 that crime is down perhaps a lot of that's the artifact of reporting but it may be true

00:58:15.660 it's irrelevant though because crime is still very high if you look through the reports it is at an

00:58:22.280 unacceptable level i am not a fan of the idea that we can make paradise on earth sometimes when you hear

00:58:30.600 the phrase for example if it saves one life i think well no we live in a free country you cannot completely

00:58:37.320 eradicate bad things happening that's not what we're discussing here we're discussing a city that is a mess

00:58:42.860 a city in which people are assaulted and killed and victimized all the time and the fact that it may or may not

00:58:49.600 be relatively down from its absolute high a few years ago is immaterial the question is is it acceptable

00:58:55.520 and the answer is that it's not and that it's not is largely a choice we're not talking here about a hurricane

00:59:03.380 or a tornado or an earthquake we're talking here about government policies that don't work you mentioned one of them

00:59:10.000 which is letting people off another is treating crime as if it's some sort of charming foible of the city

00:59:17.600 you sometimes hear this in discussions of new york oh do you remember back when uh is as if it was some

00:59:25.340 sort of you know fun thing you would do in the 1970s between seeing led zeppelin and going to watch

00:59:31.160 star wars you get a knife in the back but a charming knife uh that's nonsense people hate crime and there's

00:59:38.120 no reason they should be subject to it and the arguments made in its favor are ridiculous the other bad

00:59:45.380 argument is that crime is worse elsewhere first off that's irrelevant too but you hear this well it's worse in

00:59:52.640 new orleans or it's worse in st louis maybe those are cities and states though and under our system the burden is

01:00:01.280 much higher for the federal government to get involved but washington dc is a federal district

01:00:06.820 the district clause in the constitution gives plenary power to the federal government to take care of it

01:00:12.980 if it wants to it can delegate some of that power out to a city council or a mayor or whatever apparatus

01:00:20.320 it desires but it doesn't have to and if it is the case as it clearly is here that the delegated

01:00:27.680 authority is just not doing a very good job then it's entirely reasonable for the federal government

01:00:33.380 which runs the federal district which incidentally is the capital of the united states there is an

01:00:38.220 interest here in making sure that it's not a hellhole it's embarrassing that dc is the way that it is

01:00:42.640 to step in and there's nothing that trump has done thus far that has violated the law and there's

01:00:48.560 nothing he's done thus far that would require congress to act although congress probably should take

01:00:52.880 control back so i don't see any good arguments here that don't amount to either it's not so bad

01:00:59.100 it is or crime isn't too much of a problem anyway it is or this is racist it's not or this is an

01:01:07.060 overreach from the federal government which is ridiculous given that we're talking about washington

01:01:10.680 dc which is run by the federal government all good points you've got morons like eric swalwell

01:01:18.020 well that's really my only point you do have yeah but in this particular instance he decided to try to

01:01:28.560 make a thing out of a recent crime event where a man according to uh nbc for washington they posted

01:01:37.900 a man is dead after a shooting in dc's logan circle neighborhood officers looking for a suspect

01:01:43.500 this moron swalwell tweets it out trump owns it so now every crime that happens in dc

01:01:51.960 is trump's fault because he's tried to supplement the law enforcement i mean i do we maybe we'll give

01:01:59.320 it 30 seconds who which of you would like to take it i can see both of you actually

01:02:02.500 i mean what does that even mean megan like if if somebody takes over custody of a child whose

01:02:12.120 parents are unfit to look after them and then the child falls over and scrapes her knee you wouldn't

01:02:20.220 say ah well there you go that just proves that the custody change i mean obviously that's not what's at

01:02:27.360 stake here and if even maybe 10 years you had the same people running things and there was no

01:02:33.780 improvement sure point that out but that is just that's that's actually i needed 30 seconds but just

01:02:38.720 give me a moment that that actually is why i say that there are some people who are functionally

01:02:43.120 in favor of crime because either they have some ideological opposition to fighting crime that they

01:02:49.220 believe is rooted um in history and is usually completely incomprehensible or they are so polarized

01:02:55.640 against those who don't like crime that they end up effectively siding with crime and we've seen a lot

01:03:00.740 of that over the last week a lot of the coverage here has just been trump wants to do it therefore

01:03:05.820 it's bad trump wants to fight crime therefore crime must have something going for it and and it

01:03:11.580 doesn't it doesn't have something going for i think the average person watching this thinks it's lunacy

01:03:16.160 that's so well said all right wait that i've got a couple of examples of that teed up for you guys

01:03:21.620 here's simone sanders who undoubtedly is earning millions over at msnbc where she co-hosts one of the 1.00

01:03:28.740 primetime hours i think it's the one vacated by joy reid and uh she appeared on morning joe with

01:03:35.000 scarborough and had the following exchange sought 10. you don't think more police make streets safer

01:03:41.300 uh no joe i'm a black woman in america i do not always think that more police make streets safer

01:03:46.900 i when you walk down the streets of georgetown you don't see a police officer on every corner but you

01:03:51.520 don't feel unsafe so what is it about talking about places like southeast dc right ward 8 if you will

01:03:57.460 um that people say well we need more officers to make us safe i think we have to rethink what safety

01:04:03.500 means in america rich rethink what safety means what does anyone not know what safety is right

01:04:12.740 it's being able to walk down the street without looking over your shoulder or let your kid go out

01:04:17.440 and play without worrying about him or her being harassed or shot i mean it's very basic and if you

01:04:22.700 showed that clip to uh the average resident of a dangerous neighborhood in southeast dc they would

01:04:28.760 think she's crazy right that's only that's a luxury belief right there and that that famous phrase she 1.00

01:04:35.140 can say that because she safely goes from green room to green room and from democratic fundraiser 0.64

01:04:40.240 democrat fundraiser or whatever else it is and doesn't have to worry about crime and you know this

01:04:46.340 this um the counter argument that look we shouldn't do this because violent crime's down 25 percent in

01:04:51.640 dc whatever it is talk to anyone who lives in dc and ask them how they feel actually i give joe scarborough

01:04:57.180 credit he's been reading these anonymous missives from democrats he knows who are saying why didn't

01:05:02.780 this happen sooner i don't feel safe in the city we talked on the editor's podcast with our reporter

01:05:07.580 audrey fallberg is down there in dc says routinely harassed and menaced on the metro and that everyone 1.00

01:05:13.000 knows someone who's been mugged or gotten hurt that is totally unacceptable abc anchor just the other

01:05:19.780 day right said that she she was mugged outside the abc's studio yeah not a uh not a what shouldn't be a

01:05:26.640 dangerous part of town kind of near jupont circle right uh right across the street from a luxury

01:05:30.920 hotel i forget the name it might be the mayflower i i forget but should you you go there and you're

01:05:35.560 like is this really dangerous but it is if you're there the wrong wrong a place at the wrong time with

01:05:40.480 the willard i think she's a crazy person your willard yeah so um everyone knows even if the the numbers

01:05:46.840 have gone down it's still not a place where you you feel safe and uh simone it doesn't matter what

01:05:54.080 simone sanders says everyone knows that it's a little bit trying to spinning crimes a little bit

01:05:58.420 trying to like spin spin the economy doesn't matter what you say people know what their pocketbook is

01:06:03.320 and people know what safety is so could we just is a joke charlie she she this woman 100 rides to 0.99

01:06:09.180 to and from work in a lincoln town car driven by a driver when she gets to msnbc there is security

01:06:16.360 there waiting for her she gets escorted into the building i know a thing or two about working in 0.67

01:06:21.320 cable news for her to be like i feel totally safe except when i see a cop because i'm a black woman 0.83

01:06:26.380 in america is a lie keep going well so we don't even have to assume can we just take a second to

01:06:35.860 focus in on her argument the actual logical chain that she offered up there was policing doesn't 0.98

01:06:43.360 improve things in areas with crime because in areas without crime there aren't many police

01:06:50.860 what kind of argument is that that's like saying that food doesn't help people who are hungry

01:06:58.380 because people who already have lots of food don't need any more like yes obviously there aren't police

01:07:06.020 all over georgetown it's a relatively wealthy safe area what the hell does that have to do with people

01:07:13.120 who don't live in georgetown i mean that is she said that you said she makes millions of dollars a 0.59

01:07:17.640 year why she said that on television what what kind of argument is that that's what i'm talking about

01:07:23.680 the fetishization of crime the defense of crime and she says as a black woman in america what does

01:07:29.300 that mean like does she have any real arguments but that she is pro-crime not not in the sense that

01:07:36.380 people use that in the sort of archie bunker way but she would rather have more crime than fix it

01:07:43.340 for whatever ideological reasons that she has has come up with this she's willing to go on television

01:07:48.260 and say well it's fine for me in georgetown come on it's she's not she's not the only one um i don't

01:07:54.760 know if you're aware of anand giri dardis he's a professor at nyu yeah and he goes he goes on msnbc

01:08:04.900 all the time and he's got the following concerns sat nine i think it's really important to be clear

01:08:12.080 about what is going on here and a relatively small crime problem is being used for specific

01:08:20.980 authoritarian purposes that we know and understand so let's be clear about dc does have a really one

01:08:26.840 really big crime problem which was the january 6th insurrection incited by the current president

01:08:33.100 united states and his first act and coming back was pardoning all the people who tried to overturn

01:08:39.760 constitutional republic order in washington dc when i go to dc i'm not afraid of losing my wallet so much

01:08:48.360 as i'm afraid of losing my vote i'm not afraid of losing my wallet so much as i'm afraid that my

01:08:53.520 children's freedom to breathe will be stolen in a world where climate change policy is non-existent

01:08:59.820 rich you're in dc a lot is that is that what you feel that your your children's right to breathe

01:09:07.160 is being stolen said second by second and that's what you worry about when you walk down the streets

01:09:12.180 of dc at midnight again it's very easy to say up up until the time you get mugged right and i didn't i

01:09:18.360 didn't like january 6th i think there people committed none of us officers don't like sweeping

01:09:23.640 pardons but that doesn't mean that that people should be unsafe in in dc and and what constitutes a

01:09:28.860 small crime problem and a big crime crime problem to him again this is something where i give marielle

01:09:34.420 bowser credit she said oh the numbers are going down maybe she's right maybe she's wrong but she

01:09:38.340 said it doesn't matter to you if you're the victim of crime right and fourth highest homicide rate in

01:09:43.840 the nation yeah higher if or stayed higher than any other state and you see it in public places right

01:09:50.420 we talked again on the editors yesterday about union station just feels like a blasted out

01:09:55.800 barren zone because homeless people took it over so you couldn't have one place to sit

01:10:00.700 because a homeless person would build a mini encampment there right and and they and the

01:10:04.920 authorities gave in to the homeless so i think this is another thing that could happen actually in 30 days

01:10:09.180 the homeless encampments are getting cleared up and they're going going to homeless people now

01:10:13.720 that's where you're wrong my friend that is where you are wrong you you that's your luxury belief that

01:10:18.820 the homeless are going away thanks to law enforcement because here's what's actually happening the

01:10:23.080 resistance is fighting back to keep the homeless in union station and i'm not even making this up

01:10:29.020 we have videotape here and a soundbite of a liberal woman who is taking that problem on herself she does 1.00

01:10:34.880 not want the homeless removed from union station she does not want your damn benches back rich lowry you 0.99

01:10:39.540 can stand um and here is her plan to stop those guard troops from doing it in sod 11 it's august 11th i am

01:10:48.960 outside union station in dc where folks on the ground are telling me that they are about to start

01:10:54.900 rounding up unhoused people tonight uh the folks here at the encampment in front of union station

01:11:00.420 are handing out these whistles to give to unhoused folks that way they have a way to call for help if

01:11:05.880 they are kidnapped by federal law enforcement so if you're in the area and able to swing by

01:11:10.500 right in front of union station they have tons of these bring them back to folks in your community

01:11:15.280 so they have a way to call for help because this is how a fascist authoritarian regime starts

01:11:21.740 the homeless people are going to blow into the whistles and love whistles well people love 0.73

01:11:31.480 whistles for some reason who is going to come who is going to respond and where are they going to

01:11:37.520 take them so that they don't have to leave go ahead charlie i know i'm a little obsessed with these

01:11:42.480 arguments that people are making but we've just had three arguments in a row two from the msnbc guest

01:11:47.840 one from her that inspire the follow-up question and then what yes right right so look i am a big

01:11:56.000 critic of january 6th you've heard me say it a million times i don't need to re-rehearse it for you

01:12:00.700 including right after january 6th on this show but january 6th was bad right so if january 6th was bad

01:12:08.420 what would more crime be i mean what is the argument there that because trump did january 6th

01:12:17.320 we can't also not have other crimes and then the unspoken argument from the same guy and then from

01:12:24.380 her about authoritarianism what does that look like like what is the next step so we clear out homeless

01:12:32.360 people from public places where they're not supposed to be and then what america becomes a

01:12:39.120 dictatorship i don't understand what is supposed to happen next here it's never said it's just

01:12:45.980 it's just implied it's floated out there as if we all understand but that's not authoritarianism

01:12:52.540 there's no authoritarianism inherent in cleaning up a city or stopping people being criminals

01:12:58.580 if anything the greater threat of chaos and anarchy and the destruction of freedom and order

01:13:05.660 liberty comes from crime so i never quite know what it is that these people want or think is about to

01:13:12.980 happen and they never explain it okay but the other the other question raised by her whistle plan and for

01:13:19.280 the listening audience it's a bunch of plastic whistles in neon colors um is what happens forget like

01:13:27.060 she's arguing leave the homeless alone what happens if they if she does the whistle plan and the 1.00

01:13:32.540 homeless do what they're supposed to do and they blow into her little neon pink whistle then then what 0.99

01:13:38.780 who's coming that 19 year old girl with the blonde braid if she's gonna stop the national guard and then 1.00

01:13:46.380 what is she gonna take them back home for dinner what she's gonna take these homeless people back to her 1.00

01:13:51.000 house because it doesn't seem to be a big appetite in dc to you know have these people move in to the

01:13:56.200 domestic housing so what's her plan then like she's gonna fight the national guard so that they can 1.00

01:14:00.260 have the corner of union station that they've staked out ah it's a win you sit there that's your

01:14:06.180 corner so that they can defecate all over the floor of union station which is what your reporter was

01:14:11.040 talking about stepping in the other day rich like what is the plan exactly how is it a win to get the

01:14:16.540 homeless like like rose on the door at the end of titanic to blow their little whistles come back 1.00

01:14:22.360 come back or go away go away it drives me crazy because they think they're being compassionate

01:14:29.300 to homeless people by letting people who are seriously mentally ill and not getting treatment 0.91

01:14:34.500 or have substance abuse problems or some of them just kind of perversely like the lifestyle

01:14:38.660 sleep on grapes at night right and and someone crapping in union stations terrible for one union

01:14:45.000 station it's not great for that person either and given the amount of money that dc spends on

01:14:50.340 homelessness if there's not enough shelter for these people that's a scandal on its own so they

01:14:55.160 should be rousted out of public places the ones are mentally ill or have substance abuse problems you 1.00

01:15:00.540 try to get them help but they shouldn't be sleeping outdoors they shouldn't be out of their minds harassing

01:15:07.720 people or attacking them it's bad for everyone and they just can't get their heads around this

01:15:14.020 and and they they think they're they're doing the right thing they think giving a schizophrenic a

01:15:19.100 whistle so they can sleep in a dirty you know blanket in the corner of union station is a good

01:15:23.780 thing it's it's uh it it's infuriating it's amazing all right so i want to ask about something else now

01:15:30.520 so caroline levitt the press secretary at the white house tweeted out earlier today for the third straight

01:15:35.460 month there were zero illegal aliens released into the country under president trump the border is the

01:15:42.000 most secure it's ever been in american history i think that's objectively true uh at least in modern

01:15:46.980 american history and um he's continuing to try to get the illegals who are in the country out of the 0.96

01:15:55.120 country bit by bit and they're making some progress on that although clearly not as much as we would

01:16:00.540 like um nonetheless the leftist narrative is that it is a day and night struggle for those who are here

01:16:09.280 illegally to get through their days as they cower in fear of tom homan i don't know whether that's true

01:16:15.900 or not i doubt it but even if it is i don't care you're here illegally the people the immigrants who 0.56

01:16:21.040 are here legally have nothing to worry about and the ones who are here illegally need to go home and 1.00

01:16:25.580 there was data released just this week showing that the number of people living in the country who

01:16:30.860 are illegal who are here illegally has gone by down by 2.2 million since january and the belief is that

01:16:38.320 they are self-deporting because they are worried about tom homan so that is something i think to be 1.00

01:16:42.700 celebrated we're still up i think it's 8 million over where we were back in 2019 under under or 20

01:16:50.500 whatever under the joe biden years so we're still net up almost like 8 million okay my point is simply

01:16:55.840 you would think most people would say all right well that's you know it's a good thing enter john

01:17:01.040 oliver and monica lewinski monica lewinski decided to weigh in on the illegal immigrants and what they 0.96

01:17:09.820 must be going through and how she can relate take a listen to satwell i have to remind myself now with

01:17:17.320 all these stories going on i mean it's it's so hard it brings something out of it right kids there

01:17:23.260 that anxiety that i thought i've moved past that day that i got my yeah citizenship i thought it would

01:17:28.560 be gone then i didn't feel that uh the relief didn't feel enough i've had a sense of understanding

01:17:37.060 a tiny tiny bit that i empathize with the immigrants who are going through the crisis right now right

01:17:44.900 ice fuckers um yeah yeah and just of feeling hunted like a feeling unsafe of like something could happen 0.61

01:17:55.640 at any moment now for me the the hunting was the consequences of that were nowhere near with

01:18:01.400 their suffering but if you mean you know but i've had that of yeah you know be whether it's being

01:18:06.180 recognized or a paparazzi or there's there's something a feeling of unsafety wherever you are

01:18:11.580 and and probably a lot of women feel that in general i'm not sure i'm making sense right now but

01:18:15.900 no i think you're making total sense i think that idea of attention being weaponized

01:18:20.100 it feels like there's a lot of crossover there god okay ice fuckers she says okay so there's only 1.00

01:18:26.140 one person involved in this story on that set or in the topic that's known as a fucker and it's not 0.92

01:18:31.800 ice it is you madam that's how you got famous and you've never stopped trying to parlay some sort of

01:18:39.120 a career out of that moment she hasn't moved past it if god forbid this ever happened to me if i were a

01:18:44.520 19 year old girl i made a very stupid mistake and had an affair with the president of the united states

01:18:48.680 who was married and the odds of it was coming out were pretty much guaranteed i would take my

01:18:53.920 humiliation i would express public regret for a terrible decision i'd made and then i would go

01:18:58.160 become a lawyer or an interior designer or a writer and i would never talk about it again because it

01:19:04.820 would be the biggest shame of my life it's like when doug and i and the family went to um i can't

01:19:10.340 remember whether we were i think we were in sweden and we were in this museum and it was the construct of

01:19:14.900 this huge ship which they were very very proud of 100 years ago and they set the set it afloat

01:19:20.520 and it it sank and they had reconstructed it and put it in this museum and they were making the

01:19:25.500 comment that japanese tourists would go through and be like you made a monument to your greatest

01:19:29.880 failure like in our culture we get ashamed about our failures and we try to move past them and never

01:19:35.860 talk of them again this monica lewinski needs to be more like the japanese instead she's tried to 1.00

01:19:41.440 create an entire adult existence out of her blowjobs to the sitting president of the mary of the united 1.00

01:19:47.980 states bill clinton who is married so now she would like to parlay that experience into expertise on what

01:19:54.040 it's like to be an illegal immigrant who feels hunted because she's had the paparazzi following her

01:20:01.560 around and if memory serves she's from a very well-to-do family she's got a nice you know set of

01:20:08.560 parents and and income she's been writing for vanity fair nine times out of ten it's about her

01:20:14.120 experience or some related thing so now it's crossed over to she's calling ice a bunch of fuckers

01:20:20.200 she empathizes with the immigrants feeling hunted because she's a woman because you know you're 0.74

01:20:26.020 hunted as a woman in america and she's had photographers who want to take her picture charles

01:20:31.000 and by the way that's not even to say anything about john oliver who's more in your circumstance

01:20:36.000 charles who came legally and then legally became a united states citizen

01:20:41.140 yeah i mean that was all nonsense i am a legal immigrant and naturalized citizen i came from the

01:20:49.880 same place as john oliver i think i like america a lot more than john oliver but we went through the

01:20:54.740 same process i have never felt for a second as if i'm about to be deported because i'm a legal

01:21:01.720 immigrant and naturalized citizen no anxiety like he says he had no i don't but i also don't feel that

01:21:10.740 it is a problem if people who are here illegally feel that they might be discovered and deported

01:21:15.420 because that is the law we have a system in place so one thing i did feel before i was a citizen

01:21:22.820 was that i didn't want to break any laws not deliberately but inadvertently because i really

01:21:28.140 didn't want to be deported which i could have i actually i went boy with the whole story but i

01:21:32.860 called up the irs because they sent me too much of a refund and i sent them back 450 and the lady on

01:21:38.200 the phone said to me you're the only person in my 30-year career at the irs who has ever called up and

01:21:43.580 offered money to us and the reason for it was i thought oh no if i if i get this wrong and they

01:21:49.120 discover it they'll never let me become a citizen but i think that feeling of wanting to do the right

01:21:54.440 thing is good it's not bad it's not a problem it's not the occasion for expletives more broadly you said

01:22:01.760 at the beginning that the border is probably more secure than it's ever been in american history that's

01:22:05.700 probably true and that is a choice you can't perfect this area but the difference is night and day

01:22:12.440 because the last president joe biden did not want to enforce the border and the current president

01:22:17.700 donald trump does and i was put in mind of this over the weekend i was away on a trip and i drove

01:22:23.100 back to florida and the freeway was closed because of an accident so i had to take this sort of back

01:22:28.140 road and i came through into florida from georgia in this tiny town there can't have been more than

01:22:33.940 180 people who lived in this town and the sign said welcome to florida and then 100 feet after it

01:22:40.880 the sign said in florida we use e-verify that is a choice that wasn't on the freeway that was on the

01:22:48.460 entrance to florida from georgia in this tiny town that's a choice florida has decided that they're

01:22:53.860 going to try to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to stay in the country and when you do 0.99

01:22:59.520 that you don't get rid of all of them but you get rid of a lot of them and you enforce your laws

01:23:03.640 and the fact that this is being compared on you know to the gestapo that that monica lewinski says 0.98

01:23:11.300 that she she feels that uh these people are being hunted that john oliver says that he doesn't feel

01:23:17.440 secure in his own citizenship is complete lunacy in the eyes of 70 80 90 percent of the public which

01:23:24.400 has been radicalized on this question of deportations because the government has refused to do the basic

01:23:30.300 things that it can do so i think that was an insane clip but i almost feels like that was a

01:23:36.120 missive from another world you know 10 months ago before things changed the the part of it that rings

01:23:43.740 true to me rich is him saying like and her saying like they feel anxious over what these illegals must 0.98

01:23:50.660 be going through because this is what leftists do right they they try to take on other people's

01:23:56.400 problems and pretend that they're happening to them remember that video of selena gomez like

01:24:01.080 my people like this multi multi probably hundred millionaire like like would you stop right like

01:24:08.980 this is what they do they see a problem out there and they try to get you to feel sorry for them

01:24:13.200 because they're so upset this is happening yeah that and and they also they just love the idea they

01:24:18.760 love the thrill of being threatened by fascism or supposed incipient fascism right so that the national

01:24:25.080 guard in dc is a classic example of this what did the national guard do in la you know they showed up

01:24:29.600 they stood in front of the the federal building and then when things come calm down they they mostly

01:24:33.860 left right they'll do the same thing in dc it affects no one they're not arresting dissidents or

01:24:39.020 seeing what you say or believe about donald trump and harass you on the basis none of that they're

01:24:42.840 standing in front of federal buildings right but they love the idea they love the word they love the

01:24:47.620 anxiety it makes them feel important makes them feel alive and this is another example of this

01:24:52.300 they're not going after john oliver monica lawinsky's experience had nothing to do with this and i will

01:24:58.420 say these these numbers about the number of illegals that seem to be leaving are really heartening and

01:25:04.220 surprising me on the upside you know i was a little critical they need to do more you know you just can't

01:25:09.580 pick off the criminal aliens yes you should try to do that you need to go broader but if you do have 0.97

01:25:13.960 this and you know it's it feels harsh to say but if you do have a certain level of anxiety

01:25:18.300 among the legal immigrants in this country maybe my job's not secure maybe i could get deported 0.95

01:25:23.400 maybe it's easier to go home that's the golden ticket to really moving the needle and this trend

01:25:29.200 continues i mean we're going to see the first large-scale negative uh movement of people you

01:25:35.120 know out of the united states instead of into the united states since i don't know eisenhower i mean it'll

01:25:39.500 be a historic accomplishment on top of what he's doing at the border i was i was critical of christy

01:25:45.320 gnome and her photo op at that el salvadoran prison but i mean the deterrent effect may be

01:25:52.700 legit and real and tom homan making himself available to any news outlet that asks and being

01:25:58.740 unapologetic about his efforts also helpful like all the people see these things and they they have

01:26:04.580 an effect all right last topic because we're on the subject of these you know these privileged

01:26:10.220 beliefs right these luxury beliefs rich um as you put it which is a term that brings me to and this

01:26:16.840 is like this this hits on a particular sweet spot for me but it brings me to actress christine baranski

01:26:23.220 who i happen to love she's very funny there i fell in love with her when sybil shepherd had her own 1.00

01:26:29.920 eponymous show called sybil and um she was quoted in like in this show where uh

01:26:37.460 she had to give advice to an unborn baby and everybody who was giving advice to the baby said

01:26:44.200 things like be a good person be nice to others do unto others etc and they get to her and she was

01:26:49.300 already playing this sort of snooty character and christine baranski looks at the unborn baby and she

01:26:54.580 says when you're sitting on the airplane in first class and the coach passengers get on try not to make eye

01:27:02.620 contact okay so i think she is hilarious it was a character thing but anyway she's very funny

01:27:10.600 so she's in a new uh hb or in an hbo show called the gilded age and she was doing a promo interview for

01:27:18.700 it and she this is a risk for anybody in hollywood given how powerful jeff bezos is okay she took a risk

01:27:26.380 when she when the topic of everyone's favorite astronaut gail king and her fellow blue origin

01:27:33.420 astronauts came up listen to this in sat 19 one of the reasons i'd love this show to continue is

01:27:41.860 because i think there is a such an exploration to be done in terms of the corruption that goes on the

01:27:48.640 buying of government influence which is happening now excuse me and the you know grotesque

01:27:56.360 displays of wealth sending women into a spaceship for what so they can you know do their makeup 0.98

01:28:03.580 don't get to me started i'm going

01:28:09.600 please do get her started i it had the same effect on her ridge as it had on all of us and i i would

01:28:20.900 submit to you that it's one of the reasons why gail king is reportedly not going to get her contract

01:28:24.300 reviewed at cbs the thing was an unmitigated disaster on many levels for many people

01:28:29.240 yeah totally a luxury trip right this what how's this advancing space travel exploration science

01:28:38.600 anything it's just a joy ride for a favorite group of people who can pretend that you know

01:28:44.500 this was a groundbreaking and historic event right what elon musk is doing in space is is really going

01:28:50.420 to make a difference and it may be something that's talked about a hundred years from now

01:28:54.600 this is just buttering up celebrities yeah and it just to me it taps into something people are feeling

01:29:02.480 in the country charles you know some people feel it and they're going to vote for zora mondani some

01:29:07.020 people feel it and they applaud the murder of a health care executive so there are lunatics

01:29:11.820 who are reacting to this so-called income inequality and these you know out of touch gazillionaires

01:29:17.840 in very negative ways but do they have to add fuel to the fire does jeff bezos have to send his vapid

01:29:27.240 fiancee to space with gail king who then insists that we call her an astronaut and tells us how inspirational

01:29:33.680 we are like those people really are part of the problem and those of us who have absolutely no problem

01:29:39.620 with billionaires and actually may think it's wonderful that we live in a country where if you

01:29:43.560 come up with a great idea and you can execute on it you can become one i think a lot of us would still

01:29:48.240 like them not to be so absurdly out of touch by going on what would be a three hundred thousand

01:29:55.720 dollar a person quote space flight and then when they come back and tell us they're an inspirational

01:30:01.960 astronaut and we say no not respond by saying well have you been no literally no one's been

01:30:09.400 it costs three hundred thousand dollars for a seat yeah i think you were more upset about this than i

01:30:16.600 am although i do agree with you that the uh calling themselves astronauts part is completely

01:30:21.780 visible i'm very pro gilded age not the hbo show although it's fine but the actual gilded age i think

01:30:28.080 we have a totally uh unreasonable historical view of it that has been corrupted by the left which has

01:30:35.300 decided that the gilded age was bad and they call the people who are in charge of it robber barons

01:30:40.460 i actually love the gilded age it was a period of great american uh entrepreneurship and industry

01:30:47.220 and explosion of art and uh everyone uh got much richer including people right at the bottom

01:30:54.500 um so if i ever write a book mc and i'm i think about history i think i'm going to write a book

01:30:59.040 defending the the gold the gilded age um so i i don't particularly care about what bezos did there

01:31:06.680 um i do find the people who went on the trip quite annoying and the way that they've treated it

01:31:11.680 afterwards i think that the disconnect is less between bezos and me obviously he has lots of money

01:31:17.500 he can do what he wants with it he wants to burn it it's fine with me uh and more with the people

01:31:22.620 who went up in that uh spaceship who don't seem to realize that they were the playthings and

01:31:29.520 beneficiaries of a billionaire that they are not astronauts that they were not doing anything

01:31:34.240 groundbreaking and that they look rather silly um that to me is the big disconnect it's not with

01:31:39.260 jeff bezos we've always had these eccentric billionaires in our country who do things that

01:31:44.080 we find extraordinary some of them are ostentatious with their wealth some are not but um whatever

01:31:49.700 i love that christine baranski had the nerve to say it i have to say like it it took guts because

01:31:56.900 you know jeff bezos is one of the main justine bateman gave a very interview a very interesting

01:32:01.940 interview the other day talking about how you know the studio system is basically down to a few

01:32:07.020 billionaires now uh like tim cook who runs apple and jeff bezos who runs amazon and that they're the

01:32:14.140 movies are all secondary that the main castle is their tech business and that the moat

01:32:19.600 around the castle to keep it protected is their movies on netflix or on apple or on amazon that

01:32:25.940 like kind of keep people interested and they fund you know different projects that will keep them

01:32:31.180 interested in an amazon or in an apple or in technology but those are all just secondary to

01:32:36.480 their main business and it's dangerous she had a good point in any event um it's dangerous to 1.00

01:32:41.780 criticize jeff bezos for someone like christine baranski who makes her living acting on stage so i give

01:32:47.720 her credit once again she's done a very strong interesting amusing thing guys thank you both so

01:32:53.840 much for being here thanks so much always fun go go now subscribe at nr plus so you can get all

01:32:59.940 their content um and you if you sign up for nr plus you really do get almost no ads i love it and i

01:33:06.060 listen national review has my favorite feature on any news site very few have it the wall street

01:33:10.900 journal has it national review has it sometimes the new york times has it on some of their articles

01:33:14.960 where it says listen to this article and you press listen and then you can do whatever you want and

01:33:19.860 national review has a very nice ai voice over there and you can listen to your news you know

01:33:25.180 piece by piece and i do it all the time i'll just do like a running tally of the nr articles in the

01:33:28.820 morning very very helpful stuff okay coming up next steve hilton our old pal steve hilton is

01:33:34.540 running for governor of california and wait until you hear where he is in the polls it's kind of

01:33:41.720 stunning do you have cooking and grilling anxiety you know that moment of truth when everyone sits

01:33:46.900 down at the table and you brace yourself while they cut into their meal will there be raw chicken

01:33:50.480 drama did i just ruin 100 worth of steaks i've i've been there these are all so familiar how bad

01:33:58.980 does salmonella get yes same well that all changes with chef iq sense this is a wireless cooking

01:34:08.140 thermometer that turns you into a master chef it works for all types of cooking grilling pan

01:34:13.440 searing roasting for everything you just insert the sensor into your steak chicken fish whatever

01:34:17.840 you open chef iq the app and then you choose how you want it cooked rare medium well done whatever

01:34:24.380 your preference everyone can get what they want then you sit back and relax and it sends you real-time

01:34:30.580 updates it tells you when to flip take it off even how long to let it rest after it comes out of the

01:34:37.040 oven it's like having a culinary coach in your pocket like a little mini gordon ramsey no more

01:34:42.780 guessing no more lid lifting no more dinner disasters chef iq sense is precision cooking for everyone

01:34:49.660 you're going to wonder how you cooked without it and right now you can get 15 off site-wide

01:34:55.000 with code mk at chef iq.com that's chef iq.com promo code mk if you are stressed about back taxes

01:35:04.220 maybe you miss that april deadline or your books are a mess don't wait the irs is cracking down

01:35:10.120 penalties add up fast five percent per month up to 25 just for not filing but there is help tax

01:35:17.700 network usa can take the burden off your shoulders and stop the spiral before it gets worse they have

01:35:23.380 helped thousands of americans whether you're an employee a small business owner or haven't filed in

01:35:28.260 years messy books it's not a problem they've seen it all tax network usa has direct access to powerful

01:35:34.840 irs programs and expert negotiators on your side you'll get a free consultation and if you qualify

01:35:41.420 they may even be able to reduce or eliminate what you owe more importantly they will help protect you

01:35:47.100 from wage garnishments or bank levies so don't wait for the next irs letter call 800-958-1000

01:35:54.060 or visit tnusa.com slash megan to speak to a real expert at tax network usa take the pressure off

01:36:01.900 let tax network usa handle your tax issues i'm megan kelly host of the megan kelly show on sirius xm

01:36:11.240 it's your home for open honest and provocative conversations with the most interesting and

01:36:16.280 important political legal and cultural figures today you can catch the megan kelly show on triumph

01:36:21.360 a sirius xm channel featuring lots of hosts you may know and probably love great people like dr laura

01:36:28.500 blind back nancy grace dave ramsey and yours truly megan kelly you can stream the megan kelly show on

01:36:35.420 sirius xm at home or anywhere you are no car required i do it all the time i love the sirius xm app

01:36:43.280 it has ad-free music coverage of every major sport comedy talk podcast and more subscribe now get your

01:36:50.360 first three months for free go to sirius xm.com slash mk show to subscribe and get three months

01:36:57.460 free that's sirius xm.com slash mk show and get three months free offer details apply

01:37:05.320 when kamala harris announced last month that she would not be running for governor of california 0.99

01:37:14.720 the conventional wisdom was that it was opening up an opportunity for another democrat to lead the

01:37:19.100 nation's largest state but could a republican i said it actually take the reins of the golden state

01:37:27.160 for the first time since arnold schwarzenegger left sacramento in january of 2011 steve hilton who is

01:37:34.540 running on a campaign to make california golden again is trying to make that happen and a new poll

01:37:39.880 from emerson has him currently in second place behind former democratic representative katie porter

01:37:47.720 she's at 18 he's at 12 all the others are down by like four or five my god what's happening steve

01:37:54.940 joins me now steve what is happening and katie porter's got a long list of problems so like it 1.00

01:38:00.020 i feel like you could close that gap yeah exactly well it's great to be with you megan i'm very excited

01:38:05.480 about closing the gap um yeah there's another poll actually that our campaign did to full disclosure

01:38:10.780 but actually had me leading so whichever way you look at it we have this ridiculous top two system

01:38:15.760 in california um don't get me started on that but you've got to get the two candidates there's not a

01:38:21.000 democrat primary or republican primary the top two candidates in next june's primary go forward

01:38:25.860 to the general election and all the polls so far showing that it's me and katie porter so there you go

01:38:30.640 by the way can i just say one thing megan um you've had back-to-back naturalized citizens um

01:38:36.360 today on the show and i can confirm that i also don't feel anxious i'm walking around you didn't

01:38:43.960 run around feeling anxiety about whether you're swearing in what happened or not and whether you'd

01:38:49.820 get hunted it's insane so by the way one thing um i actually i hadn't really i don't think i've spoken

01:38:57.140 about this publicly before but it just brings it to mind um when i got my citizenship 2021 so we moved

01:39:04.320 here my wife and my two sons in 2012 um took quite a while to get through it 2021 got my citizenship the

01:39:10.920 first time i went back to the uk afterwards um i guess out of habit i i had my british passport and i

01:39:18.040 used it in those electronic gates we went back to christmas time to see friends and family and it

01:39:23.280 didn't work so i thought wow it's really happened i got out my u.s passport it worked i sailed through

01:39:29.020 and i thought that was the end of it and my british citizenship had been cancelled turns out

01:39:33.980 you actually have to proactively do that and renounce there's a sort of paperwork process you

01:39:39.760 have to go through which i'm in the middle of doing right now so very soon i will be 100 proudly

01:39:46.340 american no so i tom homan might be watching this he might come get you if it's not it's not 0.95

01:39:52.040 it's been no renouncing no um exactly so i think it's very bold of you because california is a hot

01:39:59.120 mess and they don't really like republicans although they like them more than we knew in the wake of this

01:40:03.720 redistricting battle that's happening in texas and now gavin newsom's threatening to retaliate it's come

01:40:08.780 out that there's actually a significant portion of the of the state that is republican they're just not

01:40:15.740 reflected in the congressional districts because of gerrymandering because of the very thing

01:40:21.100 gavin newsom is being so hard on governor abbott in texas for he's what he says he's doing

01:40:26.920 exactly i mean this is a point i've been making for years and it's highly relevant now um everyone

01:40:33.400 talks about including gavin newsom well we have an independent uh districting process in california

01:40:38.520 it's true that in 2008 and then in 2010 the voters chose an independent system they chose to take

01:40:45.180 the power to draw the maps away from the politicians and put it in the hands of this commission but

01:40:50.240 classic california the democrat machine got hold of the process and um said you know we're gonna do

01:40:58.580 what we can to favor democrats so as you say i'm pretty much constantly for the last um 20 years or so

01:41:05.080 there's been a 40 percent or so republican vote in california 40 percent but in terms of the

01:41:10.800 congressional representation it's 17 and it's the same sort of pattern to the state legislature

01:41:16.020 that's why i've said when i'm governor we're going to restore the integrity of the system

01:41:20.060 and if gavin newsom goes ahead with his scheme to steal even more seats i announced last week that i'm

01:41:25.700 going to be filing a lawsuit to block him because he hasn't thought through all the legal obstacles

01:41:30.420 and i just don't think he can do it yeah he's they've tried to tie his hands um from doing it with

01:41:37.640 this legislation that you mentioned which was passed and he's going to have to live up to that

01:41:41.340 so his threats do sound a little empty just for the record gavin newsom can't run again because

01:41:46.400 there are term limits in california so this really is going to be an open seat which leaves a big big

01:41:51.080 opportunity for you um so he's been trying to like get his swagger going over this whole redistricting

01:41:59.040 battle and act like a tough guy um because he obviously wants to be president and that's where his eyes

01:42:05.000 are focused so he's been sending out these bizarre tweets first he just started threatening like if

01:42:11.780 you do this in in texas which by the way they they did have to do we went back and actually looked at

01:42:17.580 it more seriously that the districts in texas had resulted these few that they're targeting as a result

01:42:24.260 of racial lines being drawn unfairly to try to group blacks and hispanics together and exclude whites

01:42:31.440 and the doj said that's illegal you have to redo them so they're redoing them and we are going to

01:42:37.800 wind up with five net new seats in texas and that state will reflect its voting block appropriately as

01:42:44.560 a result of this california already has an imbalance in favor of democrats where it has almost no democratic

01:42:51.580 representatives and gavin newsom is acting like a spoiled child because he needs attention he wants to

01:42:57.500 look tough um so here but i just want to read a couple of the tweets because it's getting he's

01:43:02.120 getting like weird all right so he tweets this out and he signed it gn so this one came from him

01:43:07.100 donald taco trump as many call him that taco according to leftist stands for trump always

01:43:14.020 chickens out ask iran if that's true um missed the deadline now by the deadline he means his own

01:43:22.020 declared deadline for donald trump to back down in texas gavin newsom said you have till tuesday

01:43:28.600 to stop it and trump blew him off like the flea that he is um he missed the deadline california will 0.65

01:43:36.320 now draw new more beautiful maps they will be historic as they will end the trump presidency

01:43:43.280 dems take back the house this is in all caps with an exclamation point big press conference this week

01:43:49.180 with powerful dems and gavin newsom your favorite governor that will be devastating for maga thank 0.99

01:43:55.440 you for your attention to this matter gn an obvious attempt to sound like trump in trump's truth social

01:44:03.440 posts and totally missing the reality steve that there's only one donald trump and he cannot be

01:44:10.160 copied i know it's so embarrassing i mean it i mean you know my as my teenage sons would put it cringe

01:44:17.620 um of the highest order what what is he doing and i and this has been going on for a while now

01:44:23.160 actually they've been using that account with these ridiculous parody posts and it's not funny

01:44:27.640 i mean we'll get into it i mean especially when you think about all the problems the real problems like

01:44:31.900 it is the worst run state in america california he's got a lot to deal with right here in california

01:44:38.180 the fact that we have the highest unemployment rate in the country the highest poverty rate the highest cost

01:44:43.540 for everything that matters housing gas electricity water you name it the worst business climate in

01:44:49.880 america like everything is a disaster i mean never mind homelessness and crime and not everything else

01:44:54.800 and then he's doing this kind of thing and exactly as you say this this idea that texas started it is

01:45:02.540 ridiculous if you just look at the raw numbers and you say what would it look like if we did have fair

01:45:08.660 representation in california just on the congressional districts we would have from california an extra 12

01:45:15.420 house seats for republicans 12 for republicans they've already taken 12 now he wants another

01:45:21.920 five or six i mean it's just completely ridiculous and he's running around doing this kind of thing on

01:45:27.140 social media it is utterly pathetic i really said i'm on the road the whole time since launching my

01:45:32.340 campaign at the end of april people are so angry and fed up with the way things are going

01:45:37.260 they're fed up with the struggle the cost of everything the hassle of everything i honestly

01:45:42.360 believe we right of course you know i'm not saying it's going to be easy to win at all it's going to

01:45:47.720 be very difficult their machine is very powerful they got the unions all of that but i really think we've

01:45:53.160 got our best shot in at least 20 years people are desperate for change and you know that's the plan

01:45:58.140 i mean we've got to deal with these real problems you mentioned the homeless problem in california

01:46:03.860 i've experienced it myself i've been out to la a few times over the past couple of years

01:46:07.720 you literally have to step over the homeless encampments like the tents and like just to get

01:46:12.260 from a to b it's so ubiquitous there it's really seriously problematic um you toured a homeless

01:46:18.960 encampment near the san jose airport and this is some video you posted to uh your x account on monday

01:46:26.120 here it is south 41 just here right by the san jose international airport and then you get off the

01:46:33.960 plane and say oh the capital of silicon valley and they brag about this being the world's fourth

01:46:39.860 biggest economy and there look this is what you get this is what you get this is what you get from

01:46:50.940 democrat one party rule it's an absolute disgrace how have we allowed this to go on for so long

01:46:56.460 look at this tent after tent after tent just from garbage as far as you can see and let's go across 1.00

01:47:02.740 here yeah just look it's unbelievable just walk down here a bit this for the listening audience this

01:47:11.860 is gavin newsom's california this is democrat run california it stinks of piss and shit 0.69

01:47:17.680 unbelievable yeah so that what were those trailers and the second like were those campers

01:47:24.240 steve like parking out what was what was that in part two yeah it's a permanent encampment i mean

01:47:28.760 that the i i described it as the kind of third world slum conditions it's not the favelas in in rio

01:47:35.540 de janeiro it's it's san jose they brag about being the capital of silicon valley it is so shameful

01:47:40.580 and it's this has been there for years and years and years and it's it's right across the state

01:47:46.140 well by the way it doesn't even have to be like when i went to the um the premiere of mr bircham

01:47:51.460 which was my fun little cartoon i did with adam carolla which was at this like swanky place where

01:47:56.140 there you know it's like a very nice neighborhood same it looked the same as that and so you don't

01:48:01.180 have to go out like very far to find this 100 it's everywhere and the smell is a real that's why i

01:48:07.000 always make this point i was covering the protests in um la when you were the ice stuff going on and the

01:48:11.880 riots and all of that right there reporting on that and talking to people and making the case for

01:48:16.960 let's not get into the specific argument about what was going on but there too i mean we saw

01:48:22.900 the chaos and the crime and the lawlessness and setting cars on fire all of that but throughout it

01:48:28.000 all and days afterwards and all of everything else had been gone you were left with the stink the

01:48:33.160 in in la our second city about to host the olympics everywhere you walk in downtown los angeles

01:48:39.800 it stinks of piss and shit that's the truth and it is so shameful it's been like this for years

01:48:47.860 and they've done nothing about it and these are the people these democrats who brag who go on and on

01:48:51.980 about lecturing everyone about equity and social justice and how compassionate they are it's just

01:48:57.780 beyond belief on a lighter note though i do i have to say i'm very happy that you showed us the

01:49:03.100 whistle lady earlier because now i think maybe with the you know the californians are sitting around 1.00

01:49:08.840 thinking there's this audit a few few months ago saying 24 billion dollars of our money spent on

01:49:14.240 homelessness no one can track where it went the problem just got worse i think we know now they 1.00

01:49:19.220 bought whistles neon yes right plastic and neon very cute very cute i'm telling my 12 year old would

01:49:25.280 would love that um but not to my speaking of money disappearing we just did a story on am update

01:49:30.460 earlier this week on the california wildfires all these big stars came out to raise money and made

01:49:36.780 promises that the money would go directly go directly to the californians whose homes had

01:49:41.860 burned it didn't we're trying to track down a hundred million dollars now which appears according

01:49:47.860 to the reporting that we did uh based on some local sources to have gone to a combination of like

01:49:53.060 immigration groups random leftist causes as opposed to to rebuild homes you see these aerial shots of

01:50:02.180 what's been rebuilt in the palisades and nothing the answer is nothing absolutely nothing has been

01:50:06.980 rebuilt he and gavin newsom is worried about doing parodies of trump tweets online it's exactly right

01:50:14.400 i mean it really illustrates so many of the deep problems of california i'm there often i was in

01:50:19.720 altar dina the other week palisades i was there for the six month anniversary on the same day that

01:50:24.540 gavin newsom at a press conference was bragging about this being the fastest recovery effort in history

01:50:30.480 historic speed of recovery he was talking about i did my press conference standing in front of a pile

01:50:35.980 of rubble in the middle of pacific palisades that was kind of flowing out onto the street and onto the

01:50:42.180 road he couldn't even clear the sidewalk he promised six months ago a i mean this is classic newsom he just

01:50:48.460 runs around saying things nothing happens he promised a marshall plan to rebuild palisades it's just a joke

01:50:56.120 but the point about the missing money is very very deep actually because this is exactly the serious

01:51:02.460 answer to where the 24 billion dollars of homeless taxpayer money has gone is exactly where the fire

01:51:08.480 aid money has gone this this unbelievably corrupt network of non-profits and charities so-called and

01:51:15.780 all these groups and activist organizations that form part of this this sister the democrat industrial

01:51:22.560 complex i call it because that's the same story for everything you this is why we pay the highest taxes

01:51:28.400 in the country but have some of the worst outcomes on everything because the money just gets funneled into

01:51:35.120 this democrat machine there's there's something that is rarely discussed which is something called vmt

01:51:40.800 vehicle miles traveled which is this thing they came up with part of their extreme climate agenda talk about luxury

01:51:48.720 beliefs the climate extremism is a classic example of that and they are they just put this fictional

01:51:54.500 amount of charge for the amount of money amount of miles that are traveled for any new road project or

01:52:01.480 housing project anything you want to build they put this allowance in for vehicle miles traveled how much

01:52:06.600 traffic is going to be generated and then they charge taxes on that guess where the taxes go it's called

01:52:12.300 mitigation for climate impacts and it goes right back to the ngos and the climate activists 0.94

01:52:18.560 and all these organizations this is what goes on in california this is what you get with 20 years

01:52:23.940 nearly of one party rule this kind of corruption there was news on that just today on california's

01:52:30.180 extreme climate measures which is just over the top but we all need to worry because it's true that as

01:52:34.420 california goes so goes the nation when it comes to that stuff they adopt these very restrictive

01:52:39.440 carbon emissions requirements and lo and behold the biden administration was adopting the same ones

01:52:44.380 now it's all being undone by trump but there was news in politico today which the headline is as

01:52:49.060 follows another one of california's trump proofing planks just broke and what they had tried to do

01:52:56.020 in the biden administration before joe biden left was to try to get truckers out there heavy duty heavy

01:53:02.260 duty truck manufacturers and their trade associations to promise that they would continue meeting the

01:53:08.360 states zero emissions sales targets and um so it was like no matter what trump does you've promised

01:53:14.920 that you're going to do it so that he's strong-armed them into doing it and uh the federal trade

01:53:19.200 commission under trump just declared those agreements unenforceable so now these groups are free to yeah

01:53:26.280 there's going to be some emissions there's going to be jobs there's going to be purchases of you know

01:53:30.640 these kinds of vehicles and they're going to be used and more efficiently and it's going to get done

01:53:34.020 in any event it's not working biden's last minute attempt to get wind through everywhere that we're

01:53:39.080 going to have a full report on that this with the trucks in california but they're so focused on you

01:53:43.620 know everything's got to be green green green green green green you know what kind of a damage people

01:53:47.980 suffered to their lungs and their health as a result of those wildfires because there wasn't

01:53:53.520 adequate planning steve they didn't have competent administrators everything look it's it's it does it's

01:54:01.440 the climate stuff is the main reason that everything is so expensive because of all these

01:54:06.260 policies it makes housing more expensive gas electricity everything highest in the country

01:54:11.000 that's why people can't afford to pay their bills you can't afford to buy a house in california the

01:54:15.800 california dream has been destroyed that dream of owning your own home and building your life that

01:54:21.000 used to represent better than anywhere else the american dream it's the climate extremism more than

01:54:26.000 anything else that is destroying that that's why i've pledged to reverse it and so i've said

01:54:31.060 also that it's not enough i think for us to i mean of course it's great that we have a federal

01:54:35.860 administration that's pushing back on all this but we can't just rely on the federal government

01:54:41.280 to save us in california we have to fight and stand up for ourselves and get this common sense

01:54:47.580 change that we need in california and that's what my plan is all about is to lower people's costs

01:54:52.540 reduce the hassle of doing anything whether that's you know running your life running your business

01:54:57.100 whatever it is it's just endless bloated nanny state bureaucracy making everything so complicated 1.00

01:55:03.300 and costly right across the board that's what we got to get rid of and that's why i think it's not

01:55:09.080 just that i can you know lay out the policies i mean people may know me from fox but before i did that

01:55:15.300 you know i i taught at stanford and i started a business here i was a policy advisor senior advisor

01:55:20.200 to the prime minister back in the day in the uk david cameron um i've done this right i've i've

01:55:26.140 been there at the heart of a government you know fighting the bureaucracy not with um the kind of

01:55:31.720 success i would have liked i wasn't the boss i wasn't in charge but i know what it's like to take on

01:55:36.840 a bureaucratic system and that's why i'm doing this because i really know that we can get this done we

01:55:42.760 just need you talked about competence and just people who know what they're doing for so long

01:55:48.520 in california we've had these machine politicians their only skill is navigating the the the party

01:55:55.500 machine and like kamala harris exactly you were talking about it just last week i really thought

01:56:01.940 of this when you were talking about kamala harris and all these people but they're all the same

01:56:05.840 newsom karen bass whatever they're sick of it they the results are so painful for people and we've

01:56:13.240 just got to get in there and shake it all up and get the other thing that really reminded me when

01:56:17.800 you're talking about you know sydney suena i know it sounds of course it's a different topic but

01:56:22.860 that reminder that returning to normalcy right that that's true in the cultural arena but in

01:56:30.800 california it's also needed in the policy arena we've got these crazy extreme ideological policies

01:56:38.080 that are just making everything ridiculously expensive and complicated the answers to these

01:56:44.160 things are not complicated it's just normal basic competent requires some courage that focuses

01:56:50.600 requires courage by the politicians and it requires boldness by the voters when you know the the actual

01:56:55.940 voting day comes along i do want to show the audience um you out there in front of the fires

01:57:00.380 well in front of the spot where the fires were and what you found um this was posted on july 7th

01:57:06.560 sat 43. hi everyone thank you for coming today i've just been listening to gavin newsom

01:57:12.040 bragging about the response of his administration to the devastating wildfires we saw here six months

01:57:21.880 ago to this day i'm quoting him now

01:57:25.200 the fastest response in terms of debris removal in modern history

01:57:33.680 six months and this is still here

01:57:39.640 gesturing behind you um for the listening audience it looked like it looked akin to 9-11

01:57:45.720 i mean the devastation behind you that hasn't even been removed never mind rebuilt

01:57:50.860 look this is the everything that we're talking about the the luxury beliefs climate policies the

01:58:02.200 incompetence the inability to really do anything these sort of promises that never get delivered

01:58:06.360 it's all because you've got these are not serious people they don't understand how to get anything done

01:58:11.680 all they just constantly assume they're not going to get a challenge from the other party

01:58:16.580 they're so arrogant all they care about is saying the right things to

01:58:20.740 you know pander to the activists and the unions who fund their campaigns and so on

01:58:25.100 and that's why we have this massive mess in california

01:58:29.280 and that's what what we got to get away from

01:58:32.320 this kind of attitude that you just say things

01:58:35.860 to pander to the internal audience of our party

01:58:39.980 instead of just focusing is it possible steve you know because my my feeling way over here on

01:58:44.980 the east coast is these californians are never going to do it there they love feeling like a

01:58:50.660 good little liberal they're never going to actually when voting day comes put a republican governor back

01:58:56.380 here back in there it's it's a long time since 2011 in schwarzenegger

01:59:00.680 but it's a lot worse it's a lot worse for people i mean just you know i'm on the road as i said the

01:59:09.100 whole time and the word that captures what i'm feeling from people you know we do hundreds of

01:59:15.100 events thousands of people and you just see it in their eyes and i feel it so strongly the word

01:59:20.960 that represents better than anything else what's going on is struggle just the struggle the pain

01:59:26.960 of just existing of trying to feed your family and pay the bills or run your restaurant you know i

01:59:34.000 ran a restaurant back in the day in england i know what it's like to start and run a small business and

01:59:40.280 the pain that people are going through and so i think it is part part of what i'm trying to do and

01:59:47.300 i'm running a very active energetic campaign and some people are saying they haven't really seen

01:59:51.420 anything like that so early but the reason that i'm doing it is because we've got to give people

01:59:57.340 hope it doesn't have to be like this that is the message like we we don't have to live like this

02:00:03.860 it's a choice well and california has gone so rad we're not even talking about the cultural issues

02:00:09.680 and california's gone so radically left on that under gavin newsom i don't care what he told charlie

02:00:15.400 kirk on his you know it's a question of fairness man when it comes to boys and girls it was a lie

02:00:20.480 he doesn't believe it just just today in the news um there's an article this week i guess i should say

02:00:26.820 that this one trans athlete which means a boy participating in girl sports um who won all

02:00:34.740 these events like the high jump and the long jump at the state championships in june um he was honored

02:00:40.860 he was honored by california lawmakers including california state senator sabrina cervantes who thought

02:00:49.160 it would be great to honor this this young man a b hernandez not the women not the girls who

02:00:54.960 competed against him who were forced to and found it you know tested their medal and actually got out

02:00:59.380 there and did it um him he's the only one who got the honors and i'll give you a feel for how their

02:01:04.160 celebration of this guy stand uh sounded and saw i think it's 16. this says certificate of achievement

02:01:11.140 presented to a b hernandez the group of valley city council is pleased to recognize a b hernandez

02:01:16.440 for winning cif state track and field championships your uh preservation and dedication are a testament to

02:01:23.400 your motivation to succeed so congratulations on this extent outstanding accomplishment and just wanted

02:01:29.840 to take a moment this evening to uh recognize a b hernandez uh for their grit their passion and their

02:01:36.940 dedication uh to the sport uh what we have two certificates of recognition on behalf of the california

02:01:43.440 state senate for your cif championship uh of course second place in the long jump and first place

02:01:49.580 in the high jump and triple jump uh i am just so proud to know that you continue uh to prevail despite

02:01:57.080 all the noise out there and you're focused uh on your goals and your dreams and your aspirations

02:02:02.440 uh we know how difficult it is to get to that level uh to be an athlete at that level and so again

02:02:09.100 oh my god your dedication and passion is an inspiration to so many oh my god so that was

02:02:15.660 cervantes the mayor was the first one there the nerve to talk about his first place and the amount

02:02:21.680 how hard it was to get there yeah for the girls for the girls steve okay so let me just i was there

02:02:30.160 i went there to the championships in june to announce what i would do to end this obscenity by the

02:02:35.880 i'm just i'm going to show you that people won't be able to see you aren't watching here's a bracelet

02:02:39.040 protect girl sports save girl sports which i've been wearing ever since that day it was given to me

02:02:43.740 by a brave campaigner that i stood there with to announce that's what i'm going to do and just to be

02:02:48.500 really clear why this is happening this all goes back to and it's what it's not even the competition

02:02:52.420 in a way it's you know it's everything i mean you've talked about this so much and been such a

02:02:56.240 powerful voice but it's the it's the locker rooms and it's the you know even field trips it's just

02:03:01.860 girls it their spaces being invaded there was a there's a story that made me so angry for a few

02:03:08.460 months before these championships in the central coast of california you may have seen it the the

02:03:13.160 teenage girl telling the story in front of a school board about how she was in the locker room with

02:03:19.380 her friends and a male walked in and as she described it started completely naked in completely intact

02:03:27.240 that was her word and she described what she saw with her friends like just right next to her

02:03:32.140 she complained about it she was punished she was punished for calling it out and then she went to 0.83

02:03:39.440 the school board to tell the story and the school board silenced her and gaveled her out and said you 0.86

02:03:44.220 can't say that so this is it all goes back to a law that was passed that ab 1266 passed in 2013

02:03:51.120 and so however outraged we are we got to know we got to realize the law is the law so i immediately

02:03:57.040 said what it's not enough just to be outraged what can i do about it as governor and i one of my team

02:04:01.960 is uh actually governor pete wilson's legal um advisor who did great work with governor wilson i said

02:04:08.800 look we've got to change this how can i do this because the legislature won't overturn that bill well

02:04:13.820 actually as the governor you have the power to challenge legislation that you think

02:04:18.340 is violates the california constitution and we think that this bill does in two particular areas

02:04:24.940 section 28 which guarantees safe schools and section 31 which bars gender discrimination what

02:04:31.800 is this if it's not discrimination against girls so my plan very clearly and i said it there at those

02:04:37.460 track and field finals will be to overturn this obscene legislation and i mean as you say that's just one of

02:04:45.040 many of these unbelievable extreme cultural things that they do there's another one that just popped

02:04:50.540 up ab495 which allows any adult stranger to take custody of somebody else's child just by signing a few

02:05:00.280 forms without any background checks it's just unbelievable that's coming up for a vote that's

02:05:05.180 on the illegal immigration front right am i wrong like if somebody's about to get deported

02:05:08.920 they basically let anybody step in and be like i'll i'll watch her i'll take i'll take the child but

02:05:13.660 it's like that's part of how we got into this mess yeah take custody because we we already are doing

02:05:19.120 that with unaccompanied minors who crossed the border not under trump but under biden giving them

02:05:23.800 to unknown people who have maybe no connection with them and it's come out in the news many of these

02:05:29.620 people turn out to be child molesters who are of course the ones who are going to line up to take

02:05:34.220 an unaccompanied child the vetting system was piss poor under biden he didn't care 1.00

02:05:39.120 and so now you're saying california's got a law that they're that they're that's basically going

02:05:44.340 to allow the same kind of thing with very little screening to happen out there for to anyone not

02:05:50.180 just anyone who's been involved in the immigration system all children all parents it's a state law

02:05:56.140 that they're i mean it hasn't been voted on yet there's a big pro pastor jack hibbs who's good

02:06:01.700 friend of mine and one of my supporters you know was rallying supporters to try and get them to vote this

02:06:06.660 down because it's it's it's just you what just when you think they can't get more extreme they

02:06:12.180 come out with something like this that anyone any adult can take custody of anybody's child it is

02:06:18.280 just unbelievable but this is part of the this is again i come back to all the time because this is

02:06:23.200 what happens with one party rule they get so arrogant they get so inward looking they get so

02:06:28.600 captured by their own ideology and they just forget about regular normal people who see this kind of

02:06:35.000 thing thing and say you you've got to be kidding me so that's why i think we're going to win next

02:06:40.360 year because then i mean look i used to do a show on fox news it was called the next revolution

02:06:45.440 i always say when next year we can have the california revolution that's what it's going to feel like

02:06:50.320 but actually it's just regular people saying please can we just end this far left insanity

02:06:55.600 well i mean the governor race the presidential race that those are still areas in which californians

02:07:01.600 can be heard california republicans can be heard you may not get the uh congressional reputation or

02:07:07.560 representation that you deserve but you can make your voice heard on a statewide level or the

02:07:12.880 national level and you should steve we'll have you on many times between now and then good luck

02:07:17.100 you know we're rooting for you oh with that can i just say one last thing i've got to say to you

02:07:22.300 do we have a minute yeah go ahead we've talked a lot about california but there's one other place

02:07:27.220 that i have to mention when i'm on with i've been saving it up because you will understand this

02:07:31.200 better than anyone and the minute i say the word you'll know where i'm going with this sussex 0.90

02:07:35.420 sussex so as we discussed i am now proud american naturalized my parents were hungarian immigrants i

02:07:44.800 grew up in england born in london when i was very young they moved down to a town called brighton

02:07:50.600 that's where i was born and raised it is on the south coast in the county of sussex east sussex so when i

02:07:56.780 see your favorite jam company founder running around calling herself the duchess of sussex

02:08:04.600 no not my it's gotta really it's gotta really irk you it irks me too and and her royal stationary even

02:08:13.800 though she's not a working royal constantly requiring people to call her you know the the 1.00

02:08:18.800 right titles do you believe that king charles or possibly more realistically in the future

02:08:24.560 king william should strip them of their royal titles this could make or break you as the governor

02:08:30.660 they i don't know i don't know what i can do about it but like what are you talking about

02:08:36.240 you trashed the royal family you you you you you ruin the great queen's last month with your

02:08:44.900 ridiculous evil assaults on her character and integrity in the family and you and you do everything

02:08:51.080 you can say we don't want this and then you're after americans say oh by the way yeah we do want

02:08:54.260 it because it helps us make money unbelievable yeah and no she is not my duchess the biggest grifters 1.00

02:09:01.240 in california and that's saying something in a state that has hollywood as one of its hubs steve a pleasure

02:09:08.300 thanks so much for coming on of course megan see you soon thank you all right and we're back tomorrow

02:09:13.420 with stew bergeer and we'll see all of you then thanks for listening to the megan kelly show no bs

02:09:19.920 no agenda and no fear

The Megyn Kelly Show - August 13, 2025

Did Comey Leak to NYT, Leftists Want More DC Crime, and Fixing CA, with John Solomon, Steve Hilton, Rich Lowry, and Charles Cooke

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript