The Megyn Kelly Show - J.D. Vance Takes Centerstage, and ＂Ear Truthers＂ in Trump-Hating Media, with Donald Trump, Jr., Rep. Byron Donalds, and Matt Taibbi

00:00:00.540 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at noon east.

00:00:12.180 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, coming to you live from Milwaukee, Wisconsin,

00:00:17.120 where it is the final day of the Republican National Convention, which has been a banner week for the GOP and President Donald Trump so far.

00:00:24.220 The grand finale is just hours away, and former President Trump will take to the stage to formally accept the Republican presidential nomination tonight.

00:00:32.700 This comes, of course, just days after he survived an assassination attempt, which we all witnessed in front of our very eyes,

00:00:38.320 and yet we're getting left-wing loons who are suggesting it didn't happen, it was set up by Trump, we'll get into some of it.

00:00:45.200 That's exactly three weeks to the day, right now, since that debacle of a CNN presidential debate,

00:00:50.980 and it changed everything about this race to this day.

00:00:54.700 It is truly remarkable to think about all that's happened since then, just three weeks ago.

00:00:59.620 Last night, however, belonged to Mr. Trump's vice presidential running mate, J.D. Vance.

00:01:04.440 As we've discussed on this program all week, Mr. Vance's personal story is positively remarkable, uplifting, and a true example of the American dream.

00:01:11.540 So it made it all the more poignant to watch what happened on Wednesday night when he paid tribute to his mom, Beverly.

00:01:20.760 We talked to you about Beverly earlier in the week when we went back over my long-form interview with him and talked about Hillbilly Elegy.

00:01:28.500 It was not an easy pass between these two.

00:01:31.380 Beverly, her husband abandoned J.D. when he was just a baby.

00:01:36.560 She had no money.

00:01:38.020 She had a lifelong drug problem.

00:01:40.220 She brought man after man into J.D.'s home, and some abused her in front of J.D.

00:01:46.380 There were just a lot of troubles, and that's not unique to J.D. Vance.

00:01:50.800 There are a lot of Americans who have childhoods just like that, and a lot of them don't make it out of places like Appalachia.

00:01:57.600 But J.D. ultimately was raised more by his grandparents.

00:02:01.640 His mother was loving and stayed involved, but his grandparents took the lead.

00:02:04.640 And last night, his mom, Beverly, with whom he's managed to continue having a relationship, despite her addiction, but she's 10 years clean now, was there.

00:02:13.640 She was there as her son delivered his first primetime speech as former President Donald Trump's running mate.

00:02:20.840 What a moment. Take a look.

00:02:23.060 Our movement is about single moms like mine who struggled with money and addiction but never gave up.

00:02:29.640 I'm proud to say that tonight, my mom is here, 10 years clean and sober.

00:02:33.900 I love you, Mom.

00:02:35.640 I love you.

00:02:36.220 I love you, Mom.

00:03:06.200 And you know, Mom, I was thinking, it'll be 10 years officially in January of 2025, and if President Trump's okay with it, let's have the celebration in the White House.

00:03:20.880 I don't know, if you've ever had anybody in your family who's an addict, you look at J.D.'s mom and you know what he's going through.

00:03:35.800 She's had a rough life.

00:03:37.220 Can you imagine what it was like for her to stand there and see her boy up there as the potential next Vice President of the United States?

00:03:43.540 She could see her.

00:03:45.200 You could see her saying, that's my boy.

00:03:46.860 That's my boy.

00:03:48.280 And good for him for elevating her in this way, despite the difficult past.

00:03:53.280 Over on the Democratic side, it looks like this could be it.

00:03:57.260 We could be nearing the end of President Biden's reelection campaign.

00:04:00.960 I mean, it could come at any hour, despite his assurances that he's in it for the duration.

00:04:04.880 That's not true.

00:04:05.820 The dam breaking over the past 24 hours and how.

00:04:08.140 As we learned, Democrat after Democrat, now encouraging him, you got to drop out.

00:04:12.860 And shortly before we came to air, a report from Axios said that top Democrats are privately telling Mr. Biden that the rising pressure, quote, will persuade Mr. Biden, selling Axios, will persuade President Biden to decide to drop out of the presidential race as soon as this weekend, reporting that it's not a question anymore of if, but when.

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00:05:50.540 Joining me now, one of the people who knows the ins and outs of the Trump campaign better than almost anyone.

00:05:56.020 He, too, delivered a remarkable speech last night.

00:05:58.420 Donald Trump Jr., the former president's son and host of the Triggered podcast.

00:06:03.080 Great to have you back, Don.

00:06:04.200 Great to see you.

00:06:04.740 Good to be here, Megan.

00:06:05.580 How's it going?

00:06:06.100 What a moment last night.

00:06:07.520 It was great.

00:06:08.160 It was the whole thing.

00:06:09.700 This whole week has been spectacular after a, let's call it a rather rough weekend.

00:06:14.140 Yeah.

00:06:15.000 That was pretty brutal.

00:06:16.780 The warmth, the love, it just, it's coalescing here.

00:06:20.900 And you just feel it.

00:06:21.800 It's palpable.

00:06:22.540 What a difference between 16 when the party was more divided.

00:06:26.220 Republicans were like, we're not sure about this guy.

00:06:28.620 You know, we wanted somebody who was more mainstream establishment.

00:06:31.760 And now, eight years later, they've fallen in love with your dad.

00:06:34.960 It's 100% reversal.

00:06:36.540 I mean, there was still, remember, there was going to be like a, basically a proxy fight

00:06:39.840 on the floor.

00:06:40.440 I mean, I literally, in 16, in Cleveland, I literally almost got in a fist fight with

00:06:46.040 Mike Lee, Senator Mike Lee of Utah, on the floor, because he was doing the Cruz thing

00:06:50.640 and they were trying to sort of, you know, get the ballot.

00:06:52.540 And like, this is now someone I text with probably daily.

00:06:54.800 Like, he's become a good friend.

00:06:56.280 But like, we were literally almost in a fist fight.

00:06:59.700 Now, I see that, you know, these people, they get it.

00:07:02.380 People, JD was similar, right?

00:07:04.580 Yes.

00:07:04.900 And loved the idea of Trump didn't believe that he was going to do the things he had,

00:07:07.960 sort of bought into the media narrative.

00:07:10.380 And then when he started seeing the action, he goes, I was wrong, right?

00:07:14.040 Not just, okay, fine, I'll accept him reluctantly.

00:07:16.820 It was, no, I was wrong.

00:07:17.880 This is great.

00:07:18.460 This is what we need to be doing.

00:07:19.640 I understand people are like, it's fake.

00:07:21.460 He just said all of that so that he could get nominated as VP.

00:07:24.100 And I look at it, I say, I wasn't a huge fan of Donald Trump back in 16.

00:07:28.340 My own evolution on him is authentic as they come.

00:07:31.060 Why can't we believe that it might be, and I have nothing to gain from that.

00:07:33.940 Correct.

00:07:34.180 Nothing at all.

00:07:34.900 I'm not going to be vice president.

00:07:36.120 I mean, why can't people believe that he actually saw him govern, he saw him bring a different

00:07:40.520 set of policies, and said, you know what, I'm persuaded he has the better argument.

00:07:44.560 A hundred percent.

00:07:45.180 I mean, it was funny, because I read Hillbilly Elegy when it came out.

00:07:47.920 That was JD's story, the book.

00:07:49.740 If you haven't read it, you have to, because the story is much more than you could see in

00:07:54.500 a half an hour speech last night.

00:07:56.320 It's absolutely incredible.

00:07:57.520 And I was like, that's a guy we need to run for office, right?

00:08:00.200 They, you know, it's not the sort of the typical checkbox thing.

00:08:02.760 Like, yeah, he went to Yale Law, but he went to the Marine Corps out of high school.

00:08:06.140 Yeah.

00:08:06.360 It wasn't like some of the people would say, well, I serve because, you know, I went to

00:08:09.340 Yale Law, and then I did my obligatory service so that I can run and become a politician

00:08:13.440 and say that I'm a veteran, and, you know, that's fine, too.

00:08:16.240 But to me, it's different.

00:08:17.460 And to most of the veterans that I speak to, it's different, just enlisting and doing it

00:08:21.060 that way.

00:08:22.080 So it was such an amazing story.

00:08:23.400 So when he was, like, negative on Trump, I was like, it was like, oh, no, this is a

00:08:27.140 guy that should be with us.

00:08:28.280 And then it started coming around and coming around.

00:08:30.980 It sort of met, I don't know, a while ago now, towards, I guess, the end of my father's

00:08:35.700 term, talking a lot, hanging out, became, like, really good friends with him.

00:08:39.480 I was like, we got to figure out how to do this.

00:08:41.360 And when he decided to run for the United States Senate, I sort of went all in for that

00:08:45.240 for him in Ohio.

00:08:46.120 And then, you know, in this sort of VP race, it was really interesting, because you have

00:08:50.460 all these sort of powerful forces that are not necessarily well-intentioned, right?

00:08:54.660 It's like, you know, the warmongers.

00:08:55.880 It's like, we must have someone who can balance Trump, because we have to keep the forever

00:08:59.440 wars going.

00:09:00.420 I'm like, I don't know.

00:09:01.580 Well, I saw my best clue that it might be, that it was going to be J.D. was you on your show

00:09:06.100 saying, oh, sure, you know, we'll pick somebody who's, like, a neocon, and that'll

00:09:10.280 be the best insurance that my dad gets impeached within two minutes.

00:09:13.700 Yeah, I said, you know, some of these guys, I was like, you know, not even the final three,

00:09:17.940 but I'm looking at some of the list of the people that were, they were pushing, you know,

00:09:21.120 when the establishment is pushing them as the hope, it's like, you know, my father's

00:09:23.880 hand would come off the Bible, and impeachment!

00:09:27.380 You know, it's like, the hand has not quite left the Bible, and the swearing and ceremony

00:09:31.680 on January 20th, and the articles of impeachment would be filed.

00:09:34.720 But now it's not going to be, I mean, now this is a legacy choice.

00:09:38.300 This is, and for me, it was also an important component to have, you know, J.D.'s 39, have

00:09:42.360 someone young, but that can carry sort of that America First mantle, so we don't just revert

00:09:46.880 back to the failed policies of sort of establishment, neocon, warmongers, you know, to keep that going.

00:09:54.060 It's not about my father, it's not about me, it's about a movement for America, putting

00:09:58.440 us first.

00:09:59.280 And you heard a lot of that, obviously, in the speech last night.

00:10:01.460 I thought J.D. did an incredible job, but that's so critical for me, like, you know,

00:10:05.380 I'm not a politician, I don't, you know, I don't, I don't do this for a living, it's

00:10:08.340 not, I just care about our country, you know, my father does, that's sort of why he got

00:10:12.780 into that, and I guess, in 16, oh, it's about Trump, you can see it's really not at this

00:10:16.860 point, I mean, it's about all of those people, it's the people who've been left behind across

00:10:20.500 our country, it's the people who, you know, have been shamed because, as we were sort of

00:10:24.840 discussing before the show, don't believe that, you know, trans women are also women,

00:10:29.900 and, you know, and by the way, may not even care, but just don't want to hear about it

00:10:33.960 endlessly, and don't want to have to bend the knee to every, yeah, don't have to bend the

00:10:38.620 knee to, like, ever-changing pronouns, and don't want them competing against their daughters

00:10:43.380 for scholarships, you know, in sports, uh, common sense, it's about common sense.

00:10:50.340 So this, as you referenced, has been quite a week for your family, um, it's amazing, it

00:10:55.120 hasn't even been a week since the assassination, it feels like a long time, yeah.

00:10:59.660 Can we talk about the lunatics who are saying it didn't happen, it was staged, he has no

00:11:06.360 wound on his ear, shouldn't be wearing that bandage, all of which I've heard on MSNBC

00:11:11.660 and CNN this week.

00:11:12.680 Like, these are, they're not just lunatics on, like, you know.

00:11:15.480 Daily Kos.

00:11:16.140 Yeah, some Twitter handle, you know, lunatic12345 underscore hashtag.

00:11:21.300 Michael Steele, Joy Reid, many people on CNN as well.

00:11:25.420 No, well, they're out there.

00:11:26.000 Oh, we have Joy Reid.

00:11:26.820 Let me play a little, and then I'll get, and then I'll let you react.

00:11:30.080 We still don't know for sure whether Donald Trump was hit by a bullet, whether he was hit

00:11:36.940 by glass fragments, whether he was hit by shrapnel.

00:11:40.120 No, we don't have those details.

00:11:42.000 We actually have no details from his physician.

00:11:45.280 We knew almost nothing.

00:11:47.220 Why?

00:11:48.060 We know that three people were shot.

00:11:50.180 One person, unfortunately, was killed at the rally.

00:11:52.960 We don't know where they were sitting or standing relative to him.

00:11:57.220 We don't know why, for nine full seconds, Donald Trump was allowed to stand back up and pose

00:12:07.120 for a photo.

00:12:07.840 So, what is the actual injury to Donald Trump's ear that's under that bandage?

00:12:12.800 Shouldn't we know that by now?

00:12:14.580 It's weird.

00:12:15.580 And there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of curiosity about it.

00:12:18.780 Why isn't the New York Times, like, aggressively pursuing his medical records?

00:12:25.620 It's just weird.

00:12:27.940 This is a sick person.

00:12:29.260 Truly.

00:12:29.720 I mean, I'm a little upset that she got rid of the Trump wig that she's been wearing for

00:12:32.680 the last couple months.

00:12:33.400 Yes, it's true.

00:12:33.800 I always felt like, I'm like, he's really in your head.

00:12:36.540 Like, you even adapted his hairstyle.

00:12:37.820 But, no, these people are, I mean, they're morons, but they're also just sick.

00:12:42.620 I mean, it's like, I saw a couple of these takes, like, well, he wasn't shot enough.

00:12:46.500 I'm like, wait, like, how much more do you want him to get shot in the face other than,

00:12:50.300 seems pretty obvious, a lot more.

00:12:52.120 Yeah.

00:12:52.600 They want him shot a lot more.

00:12:54.300 And so, you know, and I have heard from people who have seen it.

00:12:56.960 It was pretty messed up.

00:12:58.900 And by the way.

00:12:59.200 We all saw it.

00:13:00.220 I saw it.

00:13:01.420 You see the picture.

00:13:02.540 There's blood all over his face.

00:13:04.000 And there's a close-up on his ear.

00:13:05.640 Yeah.

00:13:06.620 I mean, he was hit.

00:13:08.280 And, like, does, so the bullet intended for him, if it did, even if it did hit glass

00:13:12.820 and the glass shunner didn't hit him in the face.

00:13:14.660 That doesn't count.

00:13:15.360 It was a bullet intended for him.

00:13:16.000 Yeah, it doesn't count.

00:13:17.260 You still get a purple heart if you get hit with shrapnel, right?

00:13:19.480 But the New York Times has pictures of the teleprompters.

00:13:21.960 They're 100% intact.

00:13:23.060 Yeah, they're fine.

00:13:23.700 It wasn't, I mean, I don't know what it was.

00:13:25.540 It looked to me like it was a bullet.

00:13:26.700 What it was is a divine intervention.

00:13:28.220 Yes.

00:13:28.800 When I see that.

00:13:29.860 And, you know, for me, watching that and watching the takes and, I mean,

00:13:32.820 the dumbest take I've seen in the last, just this morning sort of scrolling was,

00:13:37.100 you know, if Joe Biden recovers from COVID, that's the same.

00:13:41.240 That's her too.

00:13:42.400 That's the same as, you know, Trump getting up and recovering from a,

00:13:46.800 I want to drop the F-bomb.

00:13:48.560 Yes, you can.

00:13:49.440 An F-ing gunshot.

00:13:50.520 It's not the same.

00:13:52.040 Can I show you?

00:13:52.540 I'm going to show you.

00:13:53.780 That's that Joy Reid moron again doing this, but with Jen Psaki.

00:13:57.980 Watch.

00:13:59.100 Here's the question that I have on that.

00:14:01.200 These two men are both elderly.

00:14:03.340 Donald Trump is an elderly man who, for whatever reason,

00:14:06.940 was given nine seconds to take a iconic photo op during an active shooter situation.

00:14:11.860 She goes again.

00:14:12.500 Weird situation.

00:14:13.420 We'll figure that out one day.

00:14:14.640 But his survival of that and bouncing right back and going right to his convention is being conveyed in the media world as a sign of strength.

00:14:24.160 This current president of the United States is 81 years old and has COVID.

00:14:30.240 Should he be fine in a couple of days?

00:14:32.980 Doesn't that convey exactly the same thing?

00:14:35.080 That he's strong enough, older than Trump, to have gotten something that used to really be fatal to people his age.

00:14:42.900 So if he does fine out of it and comes back and is able to do rallies, isn't that exactly the same?

00:14:48.560 It should.

00:14:49.140 I mean, it's not exactly the same.

00:14:50.220 It's not the same incident.

00:14:51.100 But it's an elderly man coming through out of an illness.

00:14:54.520 It should.

00:14:56.200 It should.

00:14:58.500 The desperation, you know, the false equivalence that they're trying to do.

00:15:04.620 I mean, it's literally, I don't know what else to say.

00:15:06.860 I feel like she's wishing Joe Biden got shot and then had your dad's moment.

00:15:11.620 But, like, you know, talk about them.

00:15:13.600 Just how about Trump can walk?

00:15:16.480 Trump is capable of going up a flight of stairs, completing a sentence.

00:15:19.520 And it's not the same.

00:15:21.800 But, you know, the desperation is amazing.

00:15:25.100 It's just sad that this is happening.

00:15:26.260 I mean, I dealt with this on the floor on Monday.

00:15:29.320 My brother and I, you know, we're Florida delegates.

00:15:32.500 I think Laura was as well.

00:15:34.160 And we got to cast the vote, the deciding vote, the 125 delegates of Florida.

00:15:39.080 We got to cast those votes to throw my father over the threshold to make him officially the Republican nominee.

00:15:45.400 And so we're about to do this sort of, you know, big deal thing for a family, for just history and legacy, political tradition, whatever it is.

00:15:53.080 And, like, 30 seconds before we're doing this, I'm getting assaulted by this MSNBC reporter that is like, so is Trump going to bring back the hate and the vitriol?

00:16:02.240 I go, well, guys, that was you.

00:16:04.280 Like, you said Trump created chaos.

00:16:06.180 But Russia, Russia, Russia was a concoction of the Hillary campaign.

00:16:09.540 And you guys ran with it.

00:16:10.840 We have it.

00:16:11.160 You still run with it.

00:16:12.400 You guys lied about these things.

00:16:14.580 You lied about Russia.

00:16:15.280 You vilified Americans.

00:16:16.360 You called everyone a Nazi for the years.

00:16:17.760 Like, you know, Trump has to respond.

00:16:20.120 You can't just back into a corner and give up.

00:16:21.760 I know you'd like him to do that.

00:16:23.140 And I was just like, and then he goes, well, you put kids in cages.

00:16:26.380 And I was like, you mean the Obama cages?

00:16:27.980 And he lost his mind.

00:16:29.700 It's either he was too stupid to know that that was actually factually correct, that this was an Obama program.

00:16:35.880 And by the way, I guarantee you it's 100 times worse now under Joe Biden, given the border crisis.

00:16:39.720 But or he was just incapable of intellectual honesty.

00:16:45.020 And his job as a regime propagandist wouldn't allow that.

00:16:48.700 It's probably both.

00:16:49.480 I mean, this guy was clearly a moron.

00:16:51.160 Let me tell you.

00:16:51.480 I was like, you're a clown.

00:16:52.660 When I was at NBC, he came on my show during the Kavanaugh hearings and actually said, that man's been credibly accused by at least four or five women of sexual assault.

00:17:00.880 And I said, that's absolutely untrue.

00:17:03.640 And we got into Avenatti and his lunatic clients and the gang rape absurd.

00:17:07.580 How'd that work out?

00:17:08.660 Yeah, exactly.

00:17:09.560 I was no longer there.

00:17:11.080 But that's who he is.

00:17:12.480 I mean, this leftist.

00:17:13.160 You handled that.

00:17:14.140 It was like an example in how to handle leftist media.

00:17:17.460 Yeah.

00:17:17.680 You put him right in his place.

00:17:18.460 And it was, you know, everybody was standing up and cheering you because we're sick of the media doing it.

00:17:22.040 I think it was the most viral clip actually of the day.

00:17:24.000 Someone told me they'd hit like 70 million.

00:17:26.100 Like, because it.

00:17:27.180 But can I do it?

00:17:27.840 Let's just show it.

00:17:28.640 Because now the audience wants to see it.

00:17:29.800 Let's watch it.

00:17:30.220 What is that change going to look like, Don?

00:17:33.640 Practically, your father as president, I think you would even say, was a divisive figure.

00:17:37.840 What's it going to look like in the second term?

00:17:39.200 I don't think he was a divisive figure at all.

00:17:40.960 I think the media created divisiveness around him.

00:17:43.240 They lied about Russia, Russia collusion.

00:17:44.920 They said he was a traitor.

00:17:46.420 They went after him in every which way as possible.

00:17:49.300 If the media actually starts being an honest broker talking about the things that he did,

00:17:53.060 the prosperity he brought, the peace deals that he signed around the world,

00:17:56.220 rather than the disaster that we're living right now, I think you'd do everyone in the country a big favor.

00:18:00.120 I know immigration's important to him.

00:18:01.560 I covered the family separation crisis closely.

00:18:03.720 Will we continue to see policies like separating 5,000 children deliberately from their parents?

00:18:08.440 You mean the Obama administration?

00:18:10.260 You know they didn't do that, sir.

00:18:11.980 Sure.

00:18:12.800 Will there be a second family separation policy?

00:18:15.420 It's MSDNC, so I expect nothing less from you clowns.

00:18:18.300 Even today, even 48 hours later, you couldn't wait.

00:18:21.340 You couldn't wait with your lies and with your nonsense.

00:18:23.920 So just get out of here.

00:18:27.200 That was so well done.

00:18:29.020 He's not an honest broker.

00:18:30.560 Not even a little bit.

00:18:31.260 Again, the 48-hour comment, that was Monday, right?

00:18:33.840 So my father had been shot in the face 48 hours before.

00:18:38.540 Thanks for the well wishes.

00:18:39.820 That was the most restraint I'd ever showed.

00:18:43.100 Another guy in another situation sort of talks to me like that in that kind of situation.

00:18:48.580 He's a divisive figure.

00:18:49.820 Yeah, and he's trying to be, but that's the point.

00:18:52.180 They couldn't even wait to try to change the narrative.

00:18:54.900 You know, they'll pretend this week that they hadn't been calling everyone in that convention center a Nazi for the last eight years.

00:19:01.620 Did you see the Lincoln Project after the assassination attempt has a new ad calling him Hitler?

00:19:06.460 Of course, but it's all they have.

00:19:08.720 They have to create that hate and vitriol, and it's the end of democracy.

00:19:11.940 Remember, the people who are talking about the end of democracy, the people who've called us fascists,

00:19:15.880 they're trying to jail their political opponents.

00:19:18.660 They're now trying to kill him.

00:19:20.720 They've tried impeaching him.

00:19:22.320 They've tried bankrupting him.

00:19:23.440 They've tried taking away his businesses.

00:19:26.220 They've changed statute of limitations in laws to be able to go after things that were nonsense.

00:19:32.680 They're the ones that are actually being fascist, not even acting like it.

00:19:37.280 How's he doing?

00:19:38.560 Honestly, he's doing great.

00:19:41.120 Saturday, obviously, was a rough and sort of somber day for me.

00:19:43.700 My daughter, the girl who spoke last night, because I have five kids, so it's a lot of them.

00:19:49.540 It's so many.

00:19:51.480 Uncharacteristically, on Saturday, she did the teenage thing that doesn't happen often,

00:19:55.060 as you're starting to probably figure out.

00:19:56.420 It's like, hey, Dad, can we go out, like, go fishing or do something that I do?

00:19:59.920 And I was like, wait, yeah, sure, 100%.

00:20:01.880 So I took her and a couple of her friends out on the boat, and I get a call.

00:20:06.120 Your dad's been shot.

00:20:07.780 And I was like, and?

00:20:10.200 But we don't know anything.

00:20:12.240 I'm like, that's like, it took 90 minutes for me to figure out, like, that he was even alive.

00:20:16.740 I didn't, you know, I didn't know.

00:20:17.820 And, you know, obviously rushed back home.

00:20:19.760 We got all my kids together trying to explain to, you know, I have younger kids, too,

00:20:23.560 because, you know, seven, you know, 10 to 17, but I have five.

00:20:26.060 So, you know, it's explaining to a 10-year-old that their grandpa got shot in the face.

00:20:30.600 And like, you know, then you start seeing the videos.

00:20:32.540 And it's like, well, is he okay?

00:20:33.620 Is he not?

00:20:34.020 And I finally got through after an hour and a half.

00:20:38.060 And, you know, but by then I'd seen the video of him getting up and standing, standing to fine.

00:20:42.780 I just said, you know what, you're the biggest badass I know.

00:20:45.940 How did you feel when you saw that tape for the first time?

00:20:48.300 Honestly, I was so proud.

00:20:49.240 Because, you know, these days, everyone's a tough guy on the Internet, right?

00:20:51.960 Everyone behind a keyboard from miles away.

00:20:54.280 They'll, you know, talk smack to every day.

00:20:55.920 And it's, until you've actually sort of been tested, I spoke about it a little bit, I guess, in my speech last time.

00:21:01.020 Until you've actually been tested, you know, everyone thinks they're going to come out that way.

00:21:04.380 But 99% of them don't.

00:21:07.200 And so.

00:21:07.640 Every man, I said this again.

00:21:08.860 Every man pictures himself having a moment like that and doing what your dad did.

00:21:12.960 Every man thinks they're Trump in that situation.

00:21:14.840 But, you know, 99 out of 100 probably aren't.

00:21:17.920 Right.

00:21:18.580 Because they're normal humans.

00:21:19.900 Yeah.

00:21:20.140 By the way, it's, you know, it's a natural defense mechanism.

00:21:23.380 It was interesting.

00:21:23.860 I was walking the floor on Monday, and two people came up to me.

00:21:28.920 They were not there together, but they were both at the Butler rally, and they just happened to kind of run into it.

00:21:33.280 I was at Butler, and the other guy was like, oh, I was at Butler, too.

00:21:35.820 And the one guy said, you know, your father saved a lot of lives that night.

00:21:40.860 I go, what are you talking about?

00:21:42.840 He saved a lot of lives.

00:21:43.820 He goes, when he got back up, because it was like 15, 20 seconds, he goes, all hell was breaking.

00:21:49.620 Like, there was almost, you know, pandemonium.

00:21:51.760 People were going to fall off the bleachers.

00:21:53.140 And one guy was like, yeah, I was on the press riser.

00:21:55.440 And the other guy was on one of the refs, and he goes, it was about to be like a stampede, and people were going to get hurt.

00:22:01.140 When he stood back up and put his fist in the air and started saying, fight, fight, fight, everyone stopped.

00:22:08.220 They took in the moment, and it was like calm.

00:22:12.940 I have to tell you.

00:22:13.780 He was incredible.

00:22:14.380 I would have never even thought about that.

00:22:15.960 But the guy literally came up to me.

00:22:17.260 He was like, that was, it wasn't just cool because it was defiant and badass.

00:22:21.920 It actually served a purpose in that moment for the people there that didn't get trampled.

00:22:27.360 For me, it was so illuminating because I think so much of what your dad has done over the years falls into that same fight mentality.

00:22:36.220 And it reframes it all.

00:22:38.240 You know, like the guy who will pick a fight or send a tweet, whatever the people might like, that's part of the package.

00:22:45.120 He's a fighter.

00:22:45.780 He's not a flighter.

00:22:46.820 Yeah.

00:22:47.160 And that's just who he is.

00:22:48.980 And it was like right there.

00:22:51.000 For me, it was like, ah, I get it all in a way I never, you know, I was getting to get it, but that just brought it at home.

00:22:57.380 That's the nature of who he is.

00:22:59.180 It was a superhero moment for him.

00:23:01.180 Yeah.

00:23:01.300 So that was a test, but you could, I think other people recognized that they felt it even throughout his presidency.

00:23:06.300 There's a reason our enemies didn't invade our neighbors because like, I don't know, that guy's built different.

00:23:12.980 You know, how's he going to respond?

00:23:14.660 Not going to end well for us.

00:23:16.480 That's a guy you don't, he's not to be trifled with.

00:23:19.420 You know, so I think he's always sort of probably exuded that.

00:23:22.440 But again, you never know until you're actually, you know, put into that situation.

00:23:25.720 He may have surprised him himself.

00:23:27.700 Yeah.

00:23:28.320 You know, I was like, just, I thought the mugshot was an iconic photo.

00:23:33.720 Yes, and then.

00:23:34.600 The mugshot is now the equivalent of like my daughter drawing a picture of her grandpa in crayon.

00:23:39.400 You know what I mean?

00:23:39.720 Like it went from being an iconic photo.

00:23:42.180 But did you ask him, like, was he worried?

00:23:43.940 Because when I was watching, I was like, there could be a second shooter.

00:23:46.540 You know, like he wasn't thinking about that.

00:23:48.400 And it's just not his nature, right?

00:23:50.740 So he just, he reengaged as quickly as he could.

00:23:53.880 And that's what he did.

00:23:54.660 And like I said, my first comment sort of, that was just badass.

00:23:58.400 I could not have been more proud, you know, as an American, as a son, you know, in that moment.

00:24:04.420 But it was so heavy.

00:24:05.320 It was just, you know, 90 minutes of waiting.

00:24:07.080 I'm there with my kids and my ex-wife and Kim.

00:24:09.020 And then my brother was on speaker because he finally, like, so we're going and it's just so, then I was like, so how's the hair?

00:24:18.400 Untouched.

00:24:18.780 I just needed a break.

00:24:19.820 I was just like, okay, like, you know.

00:24:21.280 That's about good when you've got to put your arms around him.

00:24:23.460 Done.

00:24:24.300 Done.

00:24:24.580 The hair is fine.

00:24:25.300 There's a little, there's blood in it, but it's fine.

00:24:27.240 It'll be okay.

00:24:28.340 So, so I was like, okay, things are back to normal.

00:24:30.640 So speaking of what's going on on the other side, because the juxtaposition, of course, of your dad's behavior this week versus what we've seen from President Biden over the past three is stark.

00:24:38.900 You heard the intro, the reports on Axios.

00:24:41.200 It's not a question of if anymore, but when.

00:24:43.580 Do you believe that?

00:24:45.080 And what do you make of it?

00:24:46.400 Listen, the Democrats just aren't, they're not going to give up.

00:24:49.460 I mean, the fact that they lied to the American people that, you know, this guy was competent for four years is sort of hard to believe.

00:24:55.520 Story.

00:24:56.200 I think there needs to be accountability.

00:24:57.320 I mean, I wrote a book in 2020 because, you know, we were locked down in COVID.

00:25:00.260 I had nothing to do.

00:25:00.940 I literally wrote a book called Liberal Privilege.

00:25:03.280 My second chapter was unfit to serve.

00:25:06.100 I had interviewed Ronnie Jackson, who was the White House doctor, a bunch of other doctors, you know, about the two brain aneurysms.

00:25:10.220 Like, there's like a zero statistical percent probability that that doesn't affect you a lot.

00:25:17.120 Yeah.

00:25:17.400 Especially as you get older.

00:25:18.400 And I was like, I'm looking at the guy, I'm like, there's no way.

00:25:20.720 And then you see the rapid decline and everyone's been telling us he's fine.

00:25:23.840 Kamala Harris.

00:25:24.500 No, he's the great.

00:25:25.320 You know, Joe Scarborough, brilliant Joe Scarborough.

00:25:27.800 You know, this is the finest, finest, the smartest, sharpest Joe Biden we've ever seen.

00:25:33.420 That was three weeks ago.

00:25:34.760 Like.

00:25:35.760 Yes.

00:25:36.320 These people are all in on it.

00:25:38.220 It's it's it's the great.

00:25:39.480 I said it in my speech.

00:25:40.120 I mean, literally, it's the greatest bait and switch ever pulled on the American people.

00:25:44.620 And, you know, honestly, as a party, I think the Democrats need to pay some consequences for lying that badly.

00:25:50.980 I think the media who have been their lapdogs and their lackeys for so long.

00:25:55.280 You know, I don't think you can get away with that for that long.

00:25:57.560 Do you I mean, most Republicans think it's better for Trump to face Biden because he's so weakened, but doesn't look like that's going to remain the case.

00:26:04.600 Do you have a do you feel differently about Harris versus Gretchen Whitmer versus Gavin Newsom?

00:26:10.320 Oh, listen, I think, you know, the party of identity politics, I think they have a hard time passing over the first African-American checkbox, checkbox.

00:26:18.480 You know, all the accolades that they give her that don't actually mean anything.

00:26:21.800 But, you know, they're going to bypass her for an old white guy like I don't know.

00:26:27.100 I think they have a hard time doing it.

00:26:28.100 I think they'd like to do that because I think, you know, if you you know, the Kamala Harris word salads, you get her going and it's like, you know, she makes Hillary Clinton seem likable at times.

00:26:36.360 You know, there's some making a big pitch for Hillary.

00:26:39.120 How would you like?

00:26:39.920 Oh, she she she she may have given Joe COVID because she's trying to get him out of the way to get herself back in it.

00:26:45.700 So, yeah, I mean, it wouldn't surprise me, but that's the other point, like that they're just going to choose someone else.

00:26:55.520 Bypass the Democratic, you know, again, it's a soundbite for them.

00:26:58.760 It doesn't actually mean anything. Right.

00:27:00.100 They have a Democratic process and they don't give anyone any options.

00:27:02.840 They throw RFK off the ticket.

00:27:04.220 So you like his chances against all these people.

00:27:06.020 But what about are you worried that the Republican Party might be getting overconfident?

00:27:09.980 Oh, I say nothing has changed since Saturday.

00:27:12.860 Right. We don't know.

00:27:14.060 Don't people like, oh, it's over now.

00:27:16.080 I go, nothing is over.

00:27:17.360 There's no length they won't go to to win, to steal.

00:27:22.980 Just assume nothing has changed.

00:27:25.940 Pedal to the metal.

00:27:27.360 You know, you know, when you have that trillion dollar mainstream media complex that's functioning as their marketing department,

00:27:34.160 when you have big tech doing the exact same thing, you know, those are huge.

00:27:38.580 The fact that elections are even close is almost remarkable when you think about what we are actually up against.

00:27:45.080 And so I say nothing has changed.

00:27:47.960 I'm not even remotely overconfident.

00:27:49.760 I'm saying it's 50-50 at best, no matter what.

00:27:52.260 And we have to stay engaged and fully focused.

00:27:54.880 I want to tell you this just in.

00:27:55.920 We talked at the top about Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, all going to Joe Biden to tell him it's not going to happen.

00:28:02.640 Like, you're going to lose.

00:28:04.060 This just in.

00:28:04.580 Former President Barack Obama told his allies in recent days he believes President Biden needs to reconsider his candidacy, per the Washington Post, citing multiple people briefed on his thinking.

00:28:13.240 He reportedly has only spoken with Biden once since his debate performance, but has expressed serious concern to his allies about the viability of Biden's candidacy.

00:28:20.960 It's done.

00:28:21.380 Don't you think it's done?

00:28:22.480 I think it probably has to be.

00:28:23.500 It's been done for a while.

00:28:24.320 But it's like the real thing we're running against is not even Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.

00:28:28.680 It's the failed Democrat policies.

00:28:30.460 Yes.

00:28:30.860 Right.

00:28:31.220 The border's closed.

00:28:32.320 Sure.

00:28:32.640 But it's not.

00:28:33.820 The murders.

00:28:34.500 The fentanyl.

00:28:34.780 We've been hearing that to this week.

00:28:35.980 The fentanyl crisis.

00:28:37.020 I mean, think about it.

00:28:37.840 Fentanyl.

00:28:38.180 100,000 deaths a year.

00:28:40.480 Megan, that's two Vietnams.

00:28:42.640 A year.

00:28:44.000 Right.

00:28:44.320 You know, if you take the last decade, it's over half a million people.

00:28:47.000 That's it's it's lunacy that we can't shut down our border.

00:28:50.100 And they say, oh, it's secure.

00:28:51.080 Great.

00:28:51.320 We're good.

00:28:51.960 You know, Venezuela crime stats are almost to zero because they're like they're here.

00:28:57.360 They're just send them over.

00:28:58.460 Like what could go wrong?

00:28:59.560 I know you got to go.

00:29:00.540 And I don't want I want I want to be respectful of your time.

00:29:02.500 But I have to ask you about the Secret Service situation.

00:29:04.980 The director, Kim Cheadle, was here last night getting chased down by some senators wanting answers.

00:29:08.920 I know you've been very vocal on your show on Rumble, which is great.

00:29:11.180 Right.

00:29:11.600 Talking about what you believe.

00:29:12.600 So what what do you believe?

00:29:14.260 There are a lot of Republicans are now starting to wonder wonder whether there was.

00:29:17.520 Yeah.

00:29:18.020 I listen to the service is up to no good because of who I am.

00:29:20.680 I can't be the guy to sort of lead off with the conspiracy.

00:29:22.700 But it's sort of like Wuhan lab leak theory.

00:29:24.320 Like what else is there?

00:29:26.220 Like I've had a Secret Service detail.

00:29:28.060 Gross incompetence.

00:29:28.860 I have.

00:29:29.480 Well, no, because I know a lot of the guys involved or maybe not there, but like, you

00:29:33.160 know, I've shot with the counter snipers.

00:29:34.820 I came from a long range, you know, competitive shooting background.

00:29:37.900 Like I know what these guys do.

00:29:39.940 I shot with them.

00:29:40.540 I've had guys that were part of those teams that literally have stayed at my house on

00:29:43.140 the weekends on their free time because I've got a really good long range setup and

00:29:46.160 everything like that to train.

00:29:47.780 So a guy doesn't get on a roof for minutes with a rifle inside 150 yards.

00:29:55.000 For those who don't know shooting, like 150 yard shot is like, let's call it like a six

00:29:58.980 inch putt.

00:30:00.080 Like you don't miss that.

00:30:01.240 It doesn't happen.

00:30:01.940 So actually I got sort of deuce.

00:30:03.700 I was about to go live on my show and then I did because Marsha Blackburn was walking by.

00:30:07.280 She's like, oh my God, I just got off this call with the center just that we're questioning

00:30:10.020 at it was 551 on Saturday night.

00:30:14.820 551, they got news that there's a guy with a range finder and a suspicious bag and I guess

00:30:19.900 a ladder, you know, kind of stands out in a crowd.

00:30:22.340 Yeah.

00:30:23.800 551.

00:30:24.560 At 553, they saw that person on the roof with a rifle.

00:30:29.360 They let my father get on the stage at 6 p.m.

00:30:33.100 So they knew for nine minutes, they knew that he was on a rooftop for seven minutes and they

00:30:39.160 let him get on the stage.

00:30:40.140 I thought like, okay, he was in the middle of the speech.

00:30:42.460 The guy snuck up during the speech.

00:30:43.740 Maybe people were paying attention to what he was saying and that's how you had a lapse.

00:30:47.760 Shouldn't be.

00:30:48.820 But no, no, no.

00:30:50.540 They knew before and they let him get on anyway.

00:30:53.240 Has this been explained to you as a family member of the victim?

00:30:56.300 One of them?

00:30:57.480 I mean, I just heard it last night on Marsha.

00:30:59.920 I was like, can we talk about this on the show?

00:31:01.320 Because she was...

00:31:01.960 Not to the secret service.

00:31:03.200 Nobody said to you as the son, the family.

00:31:06.300 How did it happen?

00:31:06.760 No.

00:31:06.940 And again, listen, Sean Curran, who's like my father's detail leader, the guy with the

00:31:10.440 sunglasses and that guy's a badass.

00:31:12.200 That guy's a patriot.

00:31:13.200 I've never questioned his...

00:31:15.220 But that could happen.

00:31:17.820 Again, I've had a secret service detail and I've been exposed to my father's.

00:31:21.300 Ex-presidents, they all have that same detail.

00:31:23.520 No way that happens there.

00:31:24.700 But he's also been the presumptive nominee since like, what, January?

00:31:28.160 That's a whole new level up.

00:31:30.320 That cannot happen.

00:31:32.200 It just doesn't.

00:31:33.100 I know how thorough they are.

00:31:34.720 I know what they did with me, which is a much smaller detail.

00:31:37.820 That does not happen.

00:31:39.900 A guy can be on the roof.

00:31:41.140 People are saying, no, but he's right there.

00:31:42.620 Look, there's a guy with a rifle on a roof for 20 minutes.

00:31:46.800 Who needs to investigate it?

00:31:47.980 Who would you be satisfied with?

00:31:50.140 Some sort of independent body.

00:31:51.480 They were like, well, the FBI.

00:31:52.480 Oh, you mean the FBI that calls like concerned mothers at PTA meetings domestic terrorists

00:31:56.440 and like investigates you if you have a Bible?

00:31:58.560 Tried to undermine your dad's presidency?

00:32:00.020 Yeah, I'm sure they're going to do a great job investigating.

00:32:02.380 It's like OJ looking for the criminal walking around in a circle.

00:32:04.780 Like, give me a break.

00:32:07.000 That doesn't work.

00:32:08.800 And that's the problem.

00:32:10.160 If they gave me the right answer, I'd still be suspicious.

00:32:13.740 If I saw it, if they told me the sky was blue here, I'd be like, I don't know.

00:32:18.880 And that's the problem.

00:32:20.100 I think I'm not the only American that has lost faith in all of these institutions.

00:32:24.620 No, especially when we're getting sloped.

00:32:25.880 They deserve my trust.

00:32:27.100 They deserve my skepticism because they've done nothing to earn my trust.

00:32:31.020 They haven't been honest brokers in anything.

00:32:33.280 You know, I sort of do the me versus Hunter Biden comparisons.

00:32:37.620 And, like, you know, I understand the media thinks I'm the worst human being in the world.

00:32:40.160 But it's like, I don't know.

00:32:41.920 Number one?

00:32:42.800 I'm probably not quite.

00:32:44.760 I understand I'm not the upstanding citizen that he is.

00:32:47.160 But, like, you know, I don't know.

00:32:48.780 You tried me for treason.

00:32:50.020 You wanted me to be a crime punishable by death because of Russia.

00:32:52.960 Like, that was all a lie.

00:32:53.860 But the guy that's actually taking money from China, taking money from Ukraine, taking money from Russia, the laptop.

00:32:59.960 You know, no.

00:33:00.440 If that was my laptop, 51 intelligence officers are not coming on board to sign off on it.

00:33:04.920 Even if they, you know, even if it was real, it's probably real.

00:33:08.160 All of this is to point out the fallacy of these institutions being a lot of board and trustworthy.

00:33:13.240 I want to let you go because I know you've got a hard eye.

00:33:14.860 But, listen, it's great to see you.

00:33:15.920 Great to see you, Megan.

00:33:16.360 God bless your family.

00:33:17.280 I really appreciate it.

00:33:17.860 I'm really happy your dad's okay.

00:33:18.920 Thank you.

00:33:19.340 Yeah.

00:33:20.260 Wow.

00:33:21.220 Donald Trump Jr., thanks to him for being here.

00:33:23.580 Don't go away.

00:33:24.160 We've got Byron Donalds up next.

00:33:26.660 Do you think America's heading in the right direction?

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00:34:32.060 Joining me now, Byron Donalds, a Republican congressman from the great state of Florida and an early Trump endorser and fan.

00:34:42.600 Congressman, welcome back to the show.

00:34:43.940 It's good to be with you live.

00:34:45.320 Yeah, so fun to see you in person.

00:34:47.200 Yeah, it's good to be with you.

00:34:47.980 What a week.

00:34:49.460 This has been insane and insanely amazing.

00:34:51.760 I mean, not to say insane.

00:34:52.840 The energy in that arena from opening night on Monday was fantastic.

00:34:58.940 Monday was so great.

00:35:00.480 We were just like, how does this get better?

00:35:02.840 And it has every single night.

00:35:04.720 And I think the best thing overall is our party's unified.

00:35:08.880 I think, like, I've never seen.

00:35:11.160 Quite frankly, a lot of Republicans really haven't seen.

00:35:13.180 I think I'm comparing our level of unity to post-9-11.

00:35:17.280 Yeah.

00:35:17.740 That's kind of where it is.

00:35:18.760 That's how it feels.

00:35:19.540 Yeah.

00:35:19.920 I want to get into some of what we've seen at the convention, especially those Gold Star families last night.

00:35:24.400 But before we go there, let me pick it up with you where I left off with Don Jr.

00:35:27.960 and the investigation into what happened on Saturday at this rally with President Trump.

00:35:34.900 There was a briefing on Capitol Hill, and the reveals from the Secret Service, who sat with senators and others, were as follows.

00:35:45.040 Okay, this is for Fox and NBC and the New York Times altogether.

00:35:48.380 That Secret Service was aware of a threat 10 minutes before Trump walked on the stage.

00:35:52.300 That's what Don Jr. said as well.

00:35:53.540 Right.

00:35:53.660 10 minutes before he walked on the stage.

00:35:55.740 Insane that they let him walk on the stage.

00:35:57.300 That's just, right?

00:35:58.480 I mean, I'm not a security expert, but even I as a layperson can see you keep him in the armored vehicle.

00:36:03.560 U.S. Secret Service spotted the shooter before Trump took the stage.

00:36:06.760 20 minutes elapsed between the time he was first spotted and when he first fired.

00:36:11.700 The FBI has interviewed 200 people.

00:36:13.660 They found his cell phone.

00:36:14.600 They unlocked the cell phone.

00:36:15.780 They reviewed over 14,000 images.

00:36:18.060 FBI Director Wray says, no known foreign nexus, but no established motive as of now.

00:36:22.700 The shooter used encrypted comms and had little to no social media presence, which is weird for a 20-year-old, but, you know, we'll see.

00:36:30.240 And then New York Times as well saying he was seen acting strangely by cops by a police sniper 20 to 25 minutes before the shooting.

00:36:37.300 You tell me how it is that they did not get Trump off of that stage and did not take him out sooner than they did.

00:36:47.380 This is all very concerning.

00:36:49.160 It's the initial revelations of this.

00:36:51.140 The call yesterday in D.C., when we get these briefings from the administration, typically they give us nothing in these briefings.

00:37:01.880 A lot of the stuff that they would say is even classified as stuff that's already moving around the Internet and moving around media.

00:37:07.780 The initial briefing just is not good enough.

00:37:09.800 There's many more details that we need.

00:37:13.160 In my view, you've got to have a person-by-person accountability list of who, what person on the ground notified their superior.

00:37:23.640 What was that response?

00:37:24.960 If they moved it up the chain of command, what was that response?

00:37:29.100 What was the decision-making process or, quite frankly, the lack of decision-making process that put Donald Trump or made it clear for him to be on the rally stage?

00:37:39.520 And for this shooter to just roam free or roam loose on the grounds.

00:37:45.360 There is a chain of command here.

00:37:47.380 We need to get to the bottom of that.

00:37:49.900 And, look, it's a devastating thing.

00:37:51.460 And it's about Donald Trump, but it's not.

00:37:54.360 Barack Obama is a former president.

00:37:56.060 Bill Clinton, former president.

00:37:58.040 George W. Bush, former president.

00:37:59.880 They are still around.

00:38:01.160 They are living.

00:38:01.760 They've served this country.

00:38:02.780 We may agree or disagree with their decisions when they were president, but we all want them to be protected.

00:38:07.680 And so this is a major debacle in the hands of the Secret Service.

00:38:11.420 We need to get answers immediately.

00:38:12.840 I have to say, if I were Don Jr., if I were Kai Trump, his daughter who spoke last night, I just, the level of anxiety would be up, right?

00:38:22.320 Like, we can't have random shooters targeting politicians, their families.

00:38:26.860 It's just a new world if that's where we're going.

00:38:29.340 You know, I've heard a lot of people who were around back in 1968 say it was a very dark time.

00:38:33.440 Of course, we had RFK.

00:38:34.720 We had JFK.

00:38:35.720 We had MLK murdered within the span of a few years.

00:38:39.020 Nobody wants to see a return to that.

00:38:40.540 But without accountability and, like, a true sunlight being the disinfectant, people are going to worry.

00:38:46.480 Kim Cheadle was here at the RNC last night.

00:38:49.140 She was.

00:38:49.500 Director of the Secret Service.

00:38:50.780 In an extraordinary moment, you had a bunch of U.S. senators.

00:38:53.480 Don Jr. mentioned interviewing Marsha Blackburn.

00:38:55.300 And John Barrasso of Wyoming as well, chasing her down, demanding more answers.

00:38:59.880 They were only allowed to ask four questions of her yesterday.

00:39:02.980 We've got a little bit at the table.

00:39:04.180 Watch it.

00:39:04.580 And then I'd love to know you about what your thoughts are on her.

00:39:07.480 John and I will start answering our questions right now about the death threat of the show and allowing him to go on stage.

00:39:16.260 Allowing him to go on stage.

00:39:17.420 Can you give us an explanation?

00:39:19.820 Why would anyone allow a president to go on stage when you know that you've got a potential threat and you've got snipers that are trapped?

00:39:31.460 Why would anyone allow a president to go on stage when you know that you've got a potential threat and you've got snipers that are trapped?

00:39:35.380 No, no, no, no.

00:39:40.700 Thank you very much.

00:39:41.980 No, no, no, we're going with you.

00:39:44.840 Stonewall.

00:39:47.640 They're following her.

00:39:49.820 Picking up the pace.

00:39:56.880 The president's going to have this for the protection of the front of us.

00:40:04.500 And then the Secret Service ferrets her away like she's the president so that these U.S. senators cannot question her.

00:40:10.700 So let me expound on a larger level, then we're going to get back to Kim Cheadle.

00:40:15.800 We have a real issue in the agencies of our government.

00:40:18.380 You have the men and women that do the work every single day.

00:40:21.920 In the Secret Service, you have President Trump's core detail.

00:40:25.000 They've been with him for years.

00:40:26.600 Those guys, they love him.

00:40:29.160 They literally will throw their bodies into harm's way to protect him.

00:40:34.980 And throughout our government, a lot of our agencies, you have good, decent people who want to do the right thing.

00:40:40.740 They want to do the job that they were hired to do and serve the people of this country.

00:40:44.600 And then you see footage like that, where you have the political brass of these agencies who are more concerned with covering up.

00:40:52.520 They're more concerned with protecting themselves.

00:40:54.560 And they do not want to be forthcoming with the critical information necessary in such a monumental situation like what happened Saturday in Pennsylvania.

00:41:03.760 In my view, the response from Secret Service from the political brass should have been immediate details to members of Congress with the appropriate security clearances, legislative leadership in both chambers, and of course, members of the Intelligence Committee to go through the timeline of chain of command, decision making from the day that rally started up until the time of the shooting on that stage.

00:41:29.320 Then that's where you can have true accountability.

00:41:31.860 How are they getting away with not doing that?

00:41:33.700 Because the Joe Biden administration, this is how they handle every crisis situation.

00:41:38.800 They ignore Congress.

00:41:39.960 They slow walk.

00:41:41.020 There is no accountability.

00:41:42.340 Donald Trump said it in a debate back in Atlanta.

00:41:45.080 How come nobody's been fired?

00:41:46.720 You've had debacle after debacle after debacle, but everybody keeps their job?

00:41:51.220 You know that is not the truth.

00:41:52.980 And that's not accurate.

00:41:54.060 It is wrong because what they're doing is covering up for their own incompetence as opposed to being truly held accountable.

00:42:00.160 She's lying.

00:42:01.240 The thing about the sloped roof, does anybody believe we didn't put Secret Service on the roof where the shooter wound up because it has a slope?

00:42:08.560 Many of my colleagues who have served downrange, they've been in the battlefield.

00:42:14.120 They've all said very quietly, Corey Mills out of Florida has been very open about this.

00:42:18.660 Because anybody trying to secure a location, rooftops are some of the primary things you want to make sure you have control of.

00:42:27.880 I'm not a military man.

00:42:29.140 I've not done security work.

00:42:31.340 But like you said earlier, this is common sense stuff.

00:42:33.800 The sharpshooters who were there were on roofs that were more sloped than that one.

00:42:38.940 Exactly.

00:42:39.420 It doesn't add up.

00:42:41.400 It doesn't make sense.

00:42:43.040 There is a failure here.

00:42:44.260 And instead of running, listen, Marsha Blackburn, God bless her.

00:42:48.600 She is tough.

00:42:49.480 She's one tough customer.

00:42:50.820 But Marsha's all a five foot two.

00:42:52.800 What are you doing running from her?

00:42:54.160 You can't stand there and have a conversation with a United States senator who has serious concerns about the security apparatus around President Donald Trump.

00:43:03.140 That's obscene to me.

00:43:04.500 And look, I don't know what's going on with Joe Biden, and we'll probably get to that, but it's incumbent upon the White House to make sure that they take control of this investigation and not just slink into the background like they want to do too often.

00:43:19.680 Because these are serious answers that are not political.

00:43:22.220 This is about the very fabric of our republic moving forward because presidents have to be protected.

00:43:27.700 Their families have to be protected.

00:43:29.040 And if they're not, it's not just, with all due respect, not just about their lives.

00:43:33.220 It's about our country.

00:43:34.280 That's exactly right.

00:43:34.740 We'd be in a totally different place right now if President Trump's life had been taken on national television.

00:43:39.400 Yes.

00:43:40.100 So it's been totally dissatisfactory.

00:43:42.580 And every day we learn that they had this guy in their sights for far longer than we knew without adequate answers.

00:43:48.000 And Kim Cheadle literally now on the run treating herself like she's a president behind the protection of Secret Service to get away from U.S. senators who represent us.

00:43:56.280 You know, you guys all represent us.

00:43:57.940 That's right.

00:43:58.220 That's who's trying to get answers.

00:43:59.260 It's very frustrating.

00:44:00.940 Let's talk about President Biden because the news today is he's gone.

00:44:05.080 I mean, the Axios reporting, according to citing top Dems, it's no longer a question of if but when Pelosi, Schumer, Jeffries, and the news just breaking that even Obama is signaling now he's got to go.

00:44:17.640 Do you think he will?

00:44:19.240 Yes, I do.

00:44:19.860 And I was one of the last holdouts on that Joe Biden's not going to be on the ticket.

00:44:24.380 And it's not about the fact that his job was terrible.

00:44:28.340 It's about the fact that he let the cat out of the bag that he mentally is not capable of four more years, let alone four more months.

00:44:36.780 That's just the fact of the matter.

00:44:38.500 And because his lack of capabilities was exposed on the world stage, now the Democrats are running for cover.

00:44:46.380 They knew this was going on.

00:44:47.960 But because Joe Biden was a vessel for their agenda, it was OK.

00:44:52.080 As long as you didn't have too much access to Joe Biden, everything is OK.

00:44:56.920 He's the leader.

00:44:57.700 He's in charge.

00:44:58.900 Joe knows the right thing.

00:44:59.860 We've all heard the talking points.

00:45:01.220 Jill Biden and oh, good gosh, Jill Biden is looks detestable in this entire situation.

00:45:06.560 Joe, you did great.

00:45:07.780 You answered all the questions.

00:45:09.520 But this is not a spelling bee.

00:45:11.520 This is not a school play.

00:45:13.320 You're talking about the presidency.

00:45:15.140 He is supposed to be in charge of the agencies like we just talked about with one of them, in charge of directing our military and operations around the globe.

00:45:23.620 And this man can't go toe to toe with his opponent.

00:45:26.500 They are embarrassed not for Joe Biden.

00:45:29.740 They're embarrassed for themselves.

00:45:31.700 And this is why they're getting rid of him so fast.

00:45:34.740 Adam Schiff, very prominent congressman running for Senate out in California, very close with Nancy Pelosi,

00:45:40.500 one of the first to come out on the record and say he needs to go in this in this.

00:45:45.200 You know, you know, he was not going to do that without Nancy's blessing.

00:45:48.120 So this is what I'm going to say.

00:45:49.320 It was literally what, two months ago.

00:45:51.720 He was shaming Robert Herr, the special counsel who looked into Joe Biden and classified documents and had one line in his report saying,

00:45:58.780 we can't really bring a case because he's a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.

00:46:02.900 Cross-examined.

00:46:04.020 And it was Adam Schiff cross-examined Robert Herr like he had done something absolutely disgusting and unnecessary, including that line.

00:46:11.580 Now he's out with his own opinion piece.

00:46:13.380 He's got to go.

00:46:14.180 He's not firm.

00:46:15.220 He can't do the job.

00:46:16.180 He can't win.

00:46:17.320 The hypocrisy, as if I guess everything was revealed to him in that debate.

00:46:22.520 Well, listen, Adam Schiff, he has a doctorate in hypocrisy.

00:46:26.920 The man will shift his statements any time in order to protect himself and to protect the political agenda.

00:46:32.500 And it's important for the American people to understand.

00:46:34.640 I want to I want to restate this case.

00:46:36.860 It's about their agenda.

00:46:39.340 Joe Biden was just the vessel for it.

00:46:42.120 He got, according to them, a lot of things done.

00:46:45.900 They've been detrimental to the country.

00:46:48.000 If Joe Biden can stand on a debate stage for 90 minutes, if he could do a press conference for one hour without a note card of who to call on and just take questions in round robin,

00:46:55.880 they will be saying he's the best thing since sliced bread.

00:46:58.480 He's the best progressive president we've ever had, better than FDR, better than LBJ.

00:47:03.320 Run, Joe, run.

00:47:04.280 Go, Joe, go.

00:47:05.480 But because he can't do the actual front facing job that a president has to do, he's got to go.

00:47:12.020 And the reason why they're moving him out so fast is because now he's damaging Senate races and he's damaging House races.

00:47:19.060 And it's now every man for themselves.

00:47:20.980 That's right.

00:47:21.340 But this is why you should have had a primary process.

00:47:23.140 They had an opportunity.

00:47:24.360 Dean Phillips ran.

00:47:25.780 RFKJ tried to run.

00:47:26.920 They got him out of there.

00:47:28.520 It's a real debacle, not just for their brass, but also for their voters, because their voters are the ones who are not getting their votes.

00:47:34.780 So listen to this absurdity.

00:47:36.740 There is actually a threat now.

00:47:41.120 He's not going to get a presidential library if he doesn't get out.

00:47:44.660 He doesn't deserve one.

00:47:45.820 Here's the quote in Axios from some top Democrat unnamed.

00:47:48.620 His choice is to be one of history's heroes or to be sure of the fact that there will never be a Biden presidential library.

00:47:56.240 I pray he does the right thing.

00:47:57.640 He's headed that way.

00:47:58.700 And then they go on to the not if anymore, but when.

00:48:01.400 But this is really the threat that we're going to take away your library and all your friends or we'll make you a hero.

00:48:06.800 So you know what that op-ed demonstrates is these are the, I don't want to say the threats, but these are the carrots for him to get out.

00:48:18.160 Joe, just leave and we'll make sure you have a great library.

00:48:20.940 Joe, just leave and we'll make sure you're canonized as a great American president.

00:48:24.980 Your legacy will be intact.

00:48:27.160 I'm not going to speak for them.

00:48:28.620 We'll take care of Hunter.

00:48:29.840 Don't worry about it.

00:48:30.800 But if you stay, we're taking it all away.

00:48:33.900 And it's indicative of what's happened in politics in our country for far too long.

00:48:37.560 Joe Biden is a creature of the old way of politics.

00:48:41.000 Somebody who came along, stood behind the party no matter what, shifted his opinions.

00:48:46.000 Don't forget what Kamala Harris said about him back when they were debating in the primary back in 2019, 2020, how she talked about his, about how he was as a United States senator, things he supported when he came into the United States Senate.

00:48:58.440 He has shifted his opinions over 50 years for political power and so he could always have a seat at the table.

00:49:04.940 So he would have an opportunity to at some point be president.

00:49:07.920 And now they're going to take the legacy pieces away from him if he stays.

00:49:11.900 Can I pick up on what you have said about Adam Schiff being very close to Nancy Pelosi?

00:49:15.200 So you believe he would not have written that piece without her blessing?

00:49:18.440 I don't think, I don't think anybody at the top of the food chain over there in the California delegation moves a muscle without Nancy Pelosi.

00:49:25.340 Um, I came in her last, uh, her last term as Speaker of the House.

00:49:30.840 From what I've seen as a, from the Republican side of the aisle, Nancy ran that place with an iron fist.

00:49:36.700 Nobody moves a muscle unless Nancy Pelosi okayed it.

00:49:40.240 She's the, seems to be the number one most powerful Democrat in the country right now.

00:49:43.600 And I include Joe Biden in that given his current state.

00:49:46.380 It's, it's her and it's Barack Obama.

00:49:48.200 And he's not saying anything but behind the scenes, according to this reporting from the Washington Post, is starting to push.

00:49:52.900 So I think they're right.

00:49:54.480 We're just now on like the TikTok talk watch.

00:49:56.820 All right, Byron Donalds stays with us and there's a lot more to get to.

00:49:59.860 If you didn't see what happened with the Gold Star families last night, you must.

00:50:03.120 We've got it for you and we'll show you.

00:50:04.500 Don't go anywhere.

00:50:05.460 Some Americans enjoy using their credit cards because it can be a hassle-free and secure way to pay.

00:50:10.760 But our sponsor, the American Payments Coalition, says that some D.C. politicians want to change that with the Durbin Marshall credit card bill.

00:50:18.660 They say the bill lets corporate megastores pick how your credit card is processed, allowing them to use untested payment networks that jeopardize your data security and rewards.

00:50:30.140 They say corporate megastores will make more money and you will end up paying the price.

00:50:35.220 Find out more info at guardyourcard.com and consider telling Congress to guard your card while you're there as well.

00:50:43.780 A bullet couldn't stop Trump.

00:50:48.020 A virus just stopped Biden.

00:50:50.380 You've got the nominees of this party getting their butts kissed.

00:50:56.820 Biden's getting his butt kicked by his own party.

00:51:00.480 The Democrats are coming apart.

00:51:03.060 The Republicans are coming together.

00:51:06.140 That's Van Jones.

00:51:07.720 Welcome back to the Megyn Kelly Show.

00:51:09.400 My guest is Congressman Byron Donalds of Florida.

00:51:11.440 And that was the truth.

00:51:14.080 Couldn't say it any better myself.

00:51:15.640 That's exactly what's happening.

00:51:17.420 The real reason that, of course, they want Joe Biden gone is, as you said, self-preservation.

00:51:22.780 And the polls and the hits of the polls just keep on coming.

00:51:26.400 Today there's just an average of polls.

00:51:29.120 Hold on a second.

00:51:30.160 This is just Virginia.

00:51:31.180 Real clear politics average of polls in Virginia.

00:51:33.540 Virginia, which is blue now.

00:51:35.540 Used to be red.

00:51:36.480 Then it turned purple.

00:51:37.140 Now it's blue.

00:51:37.660 So Trump is up 43.8 percent, 43.4.

00:51:43.740 I haven't seen that since I, like, before I became a reporter.

00:51:47.940 Right.

00:51:49.020 And then there's a new Emerson poll out.

00:51:51.520 Hold on a second.

00:51:52.060 My team is going to send it to me because I have a morass of polls that we've been sending

00:51:56.100 each other.

00:51:56.600 Um, but it's, it's a bloodbath and that's, what's really behind the scenes here.

00:52:02.840 So you tell me whether switching out Biden actually helps them down ballot in these critical

00:52:09.000 swing states.

00:52:10.020 I think they think so.

00:52:12.140 The question is they know Joe Biden, there's no shot.

00:52:16.200 Maybe Kamala Harris gives them a 10% shot.

00:52:18.340 Some shot.

00:52:18.880 So you got to look at it that way.

00:52:21.180 Here it is.

00:52:21.580 Hold on.

00:52:21.860 Let me read it.

00:52:22.680 Arizona.

00:52:23.420 Trump is up seven.

00:52:24.280 This is the Emerson poll that just hit Georgia.

00:52:27.400 Trump's up six, Michigan, part of the blue wall.

00:52:30.660 Trump up three.

00:52:31.720 This is over Biden, Nevada, Trump up five.

00:52:34.580 I still can't get over Nevada.

00:52:35.840 That, that is not a red state anymore.

00:52:37.620 Like that's that too.

00:52:39.300 Uh, North Carolina, Trump up seven.

00:52:41.580 That's still considered a swing state.

00:52:42.960 He's up seven.

00:52:44.020 Pennsylvania up five, five.

00:52:46.520 That's big.

00:52:47.400 Wisconsin up five.

00:52:49.240 That's huge.

00:52:50.160 Five.

00:52:50.740 Yeah.

00:52:51.320 Those are like the blue wall is what?

00:52:53.360 Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

00:52:55.060 And Trump is up three to five in all of them.

00:52:57.540 Not to mention North Carolina.

00:52:59.380 They're talking about New Hampshire, Virginia, Trump's up in the real clear politics of all

00:53:04.240 average of all polls.

00:53:05.900 So this is spelling bloodbath.

00:53:08.020 Well, I think New Hampshire is in play.

00:53:09.900 I really do.

00:53:10.940 But I think it's take a look back.

00:53:12.580 Take a step back.

00:53:13.240 All those polls.

00:53:14.540 He's winning.

00:53:15.480 Yes.

00:53:16.380 The, and it's a couple of things.

00:53:17.880 The Democrat agenda has been a disaster.

00:53:19.800 So before you even get to who your messenger is, you still don't have a message.

00:53:24.120 The, the agenda has been a disaster.

00:53:26.300 Then the lawfare backfired because it had people who are independently minded look at

00:53:33.540 Trump and say, well, now wait a minute.

00:53:35.880 I don't like the tweets.

00:53:36.900 I don't like this.

00:53:37.540 I don't like that.

00:53:38.640 But you're not a criminal.

00:53:40.300 Why, why are they doing this?

00:53:42.060 That just doesn't seem right.

00:53:43.580 And the American people, if they're, if anything, they have an innate ability to realize when

00:53:48.880 something is fair and when something is right or when something is wrong and something is

00:53:53.160 just disgusting and unpalatable.

00:53:54.540 And they watch that with the lawfare as it continued to bubble up.

00:53:58.300 Then you have Joe Biden's lack of capability.

00:54:02.500 And that's how you get polling numbers like that.

00:54:05.600 Do you think this is from the debate?

00:54:06.880 This is pre post debate.

00:54:09.160 I think pre the assassination attempt that was what you have there is.

00:54:13.480 The debate and then the avalanche of the media now having to reverse course completely

00:54:20.200 and talk about Joe Biden's capability because they made the decision.

00:54:24.740 I'm quite sure in Atlanta, that decision was made very quickly.

00:54:29.120 He's got to go.

00:54:30.680 What's the game?

00:54:31.300 The key is what's the game plan to get him out?

00:54:33.640 This is what life could be like if the media would just report the news truthfully.

00:54:38.260 His mental competence issues are on the nose and have been for some time.

00:54:42.760 If they'd been doing their job and reporting about it, they even they could have seen these

00:54:47.300 numbers months ago, had a real primary, chosen a real candidate.

00:54:51.620 I think President Trump would have said, fine, give me whoever you want.

00:54:54.140 Like, I'll run against any of these people.

00:54:55.900 But the news media tried to cover up his problems.

00:54:59.840 And now that they're doing their jobs.

00:55:02.900 Yes, the debate we all saw.

00:55:04.320 But then the coverage post debate, as you just point out, the numbers are falling precipitously.

00:55:08.420 Yeah.

00:55:08.840 And they have to do it now because now they're trying to preserve their own credibility.

00:55:11.940 So you have Democrat members in the House and in the Senate trying to preserve themselves.

00:55:17.600 And now the media is trying to preserve whatever element of credibility they have left.

00:55:22.040 And I think the one thing that's been really cool, especially, I would say, in the maturity

00:55:27.040 of the social media environment.

00:55:28.780 I think like back in 2008, 2012, this was the infancy of social media.

00:55:35.340 The Democrats talk so much about how the Obama team used that and fueled that to push his

00:55:39.940 campaign.

00:55:40.480 We went through this period in early adolescence where social media, we didn't really know

00:55:47.260 how to deal with it.

00:55:48.080 You had massive amounts of suppression of information, so on and so forth.

00:55:52.460 And now we're moving into this third wave of 24-hour media, social media, where now there

00:55:57.260 are developed sources that are alternative or adjacent to the New York Times, CBS, NBC,

00:56:03.680 et cetera.

00:56:04.300 You have your show, obviously, Ruthless, Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire guys.

00:56:08.860 I don't want to plug everybody else on your show.

00:56:10.300 I love them.

00:56:10.700 No, I love all those guys.

00:56:11.800 But now you have avenues for people to get other information or compare information.

00:56:18.500 Do it in real time.

00:56:19.600 Do it when you're waking up, scrolling through your phone, because everybody in America does

00:56:22.840 that now.

00:56:23.340 You scroll through your phone for about 10, 15 minutes.

00:56:25.280 Thank God for X, because you can scroll and get real info.

00:56:27.100 What Elon did buying X is also a part of what you're seeing in those polls, because now you

00:56:34.360 have people who knew they didn't believe what they saw, seeing information over here demonstrating

00:56:39.560 that.

00:56:40.220 You had the main media still pushing their propaganda and their narratives, and now they're having

00:56:45.160 to do a complete retraction of that.

00:56:47.560 They don't control things anymore.

00:56:48.840 They don't control it.

00:56:49.380 They're starting to realize it.

00:56:50.980 I want to talk about this news just coming in, that Trump was reportedly briefed privately

00:56:58.040 by Secret Service on what went wrong that day.

00:57:02.500 That makes sense to me.

00:57:04.000 You know, I was asking Don Jr., you as a family member, you haven't been told, you would think

00:57:07.940 they'd say to the family, here's what happened.

00:57:10.040 But it appears that insofar as it's the man himself, he did receive a briefing.

00:57:14.880 And I have to say, the Trump family has been very gracious toward the Secret Service.

00:57:19.040 Yes.

00:57:19.520 And that's kind and respectful and very classy, but the rest of us are entitled to answers

00:57:24.500 because they're not our full-time body duty, and we need to know whether he's safe.

00:57:31.140 Let's move on to what happened last night, because it was an extraordinary night at the

00:57:33.700 convention.

00:57:34.300 Yes.

00:57:34.640 I thought J.D. Vance did a great job.

00:57:36.320 I'm going to be honest.

00:57:36.760 I thought it was long.

00:57:37.500 I thought, let's just, you know, tight, right tight.

00:57:41.020 And my husband had a great observation, which is, you know what?

00:57:44.320 Speeches in general are better if they're not on prompter.

00:57:46.880 They are.

00:57:47.560 You know, Sarah Palin, when she came in as John McCain's nominee, I was there in St.

00:57:51.760 Paul, Minnesota, and she came out, she electrified the room, electrified it.

00:57:58.820 Her prompter had broken.

00:58:00.520 She did it all extemporaneously, and she was actually very good at that.

00:58:04.480 So, eh, prompt, long, like, before we had prompters, a hundred years ago, they went on

00:58:10.300 forever.

00:58:10.640 But, like, people would just speak off the cuff, and it was more compelling.

00:58:13.800 Anyway, I love J.D., but I'm against the prompter.

00:58:16.300 Do you want me to tell you a quick story about that?

00:58:17.540 Yeah.

00:58:18.140 So, I was getting into the hotel, I think it was Monday afternoon, before I spoke on

00:58:22.640 Monday, and Tucker was in the lobby.

00:58:25.400 And, by the way, I'm Tucker's member of Congress.

00:58:27.740 Oh.

00:58:27.860 So, I represent Tucker.

00:58:28.840 Oh, does he call you all the time?

00:58:30.060 Absolutely.

00:58:30.580 Like, nonstop.

00:58:31.260 Why are you voting on this?

00:58:32.160 What are you doing?

00:58:32.720 He does it all the time.

00:58:33.280 Why is my garbage still full?

00:58:34.620 No, no, that's the county commission.

00:58:35.760 I don't touch that stuff.

00:58:36.780 That's why I will never run for local government.

00:58:38.460 God bless the people that do, but that ain't me.

00:58:40.240 I'm not going to do it.

00:58:41.160 But we were talking about the prompter, and I said, yeah, I'm speaking tonight.

00:58:45.360 I just got finished going through a session.

00:58:47.080 I don't like the prompter.

00:58:48.520 Yeah.

00:58:48.900 And he goes, oh, I'm not using it.

00:58:50.420 I'm like, what do you mean?

00:58:52.720 Everybody's got to use it.

00:58:53.380 He's like, I'm not using it.

00:58:54.220 I don't, I'm not surprised.

00:58:55.480 We talked about how he's like, I just don't like the, he was like, I'm, I am an orator.

00:58:59.440 I don't like these things called written words.

00:59:01.820 I don't want to deal with that.

00:59:02.580 It was a funny moment.

00:59:03.360 Well, it's funny too, because Tucker's a great writer, so he easily could write himself a

00:59:06.280 great speech, but it does come across less authentic and you just feel a little less

00:59:11.100 connected as the listener.

00:59:12.700 But anyway, the, I loved the World War II vet, right?

00:59:18.000 That guy was amazing.

00:59:19.480 He was so sweet.

00:59:21.020 Who got up there and said, if, if Donald Trump, oh, we have it.

00:59:24.400 Okay, good.

00:59:24.740 Let's watch it.

00:59:25.280 I got to, I got to hear it again.

00:59:26.920 You know, when I was fighting in Europe and I came back home, I kissed the ground.

00:59:36.260 Thank God that I'm back home in my country and President Trump back in commander in chief.

00:59:46.500 I would go back to the re-enlist today.

00:59:53.000 God bless, right?

00:59:54.740 That's amazing.

00:59:55.580 That was a Wisconsin hometown guy, 98 years old.

01:00:00.140 And it's, you know, we were there.

01:00:01.300 My son was with us and he's only 10.

01:00:04.380 And I was so glad he got to hear him.

01:00:06.800 You know, in the not too distant future, there will be no more World War II veterans alive

01:00:11.560 and available to tell their stories.

01:00:13.460 Which is an honor.

01:00:14.380 And I credit to the Trump campaign for highlighting him.

01:00:17.100 And they've created an incredible atmosphere at this convention.

01:00:21.720 Um, I'm glad that a bunch of us electeds don't have 15 minute speeches and 20 minute speeches.

01:00:29.940 Because, first of all, if you can't make your point in five minutes, you don't have a point.

01:00:33.660 J.D. gets his time because he's the vice presidential nominee and he deserves that time.

01:00:37.960 And he needs to, and it's his opportunity to obviously introduce himself to the nation and to the world.

01:00:43.380 And that's, that's very, very important.

01:00:44.960 But to hear the stories from Americans who live in every city of this country have dealt with, obviously, tragedy and crisis,

01:00:53.640 um, because of policies from the Biden-Harris administration,

01:00:57.260 to hear directly from them as opposed to hearing about their stories through us is so powerful, so impactful.

01:01:05.080 I've run into a couple of the speakers, like, out here in the convention area.

01:01:08.360 And they go, oh my gosh, can I take a picture?

01:01:10.600 And I'm like, no, can I take a picture?

01:01:12.780 Because it was so moving, so awesome to see it.

01:01:16.480 Um, those speeches are going to be the ones, I believe, and I'm not going to talk for the Trump campaign,

01:01:21.340 but I believe those are the stories, those are the speeches that you're going to see nonstop through this campaign,

01:01:28.820 in social media, time and time again, because they're compelling.

01:01:32.780 And it's real.

01:01:33.860 And they're real.

01:01:34.180 And that's why, that's what's going to help move voters, I think, in politics today.

01:01:38.080 Real authenticity, not slick haircuts and great lines at a, at a, at a podium.

01:01:45.680 The Gold Star families last night were such a moment.

01:01:49.440 They got up there.

01:01:50.760 These are the, um, surviving parents of those who were lost in Afghanistan and our disastrous withdrawal at Abbey Gate,

01:01:58.400 who spoke of how President Biden forgot their children's sacrifice when he said at that debate that he'd ever lost a soldier on his watch

01:02:07.900 in his time as president, and more.

01:02:10.460 Take a listen.

01:02:12.060 Donald Trump spent six hours in Bedminster with us.

01:02:16.880 And for the first time since Nicole's death, I felt I wasn't alone in my grief.

01:02:25.860 Thank you.

01:02:27.640 Joe Biden said the withdrawal from Afghanistan was an extraordinary success.

01:02:36.780 An extraordinary success.

01:02:39.060 Look at our faces.

01:02:42.780 Look at our pain.

01:02:45.000 And our heartbreak.

01:02:47.320 And look at our rage.

01:02:50.440 That was not an extraordinary success.

01:02:53.700 Joe Biden may have forgotten that our children died, but we have not forgotten.

01:02:58.300 They have not been transparent about their failures, and their so-called leaders work to protect themselves

01:03:07.700 rather than our sons and daughters who took the oath to defend our country.

01:03:14.240 When Hunter and the other service members' bodies were returned to the U.S. in Dover, Delaware,

01:03:19.180 Joe Biden met the plane.

01:03:20.140 But he made the occasion more about his son, lost to cancer, than our sons and daughters, lost on his watch.

01:03:28.680 Worse than that, he has never said their names out loud.

01:03:32.300 And during last month's debate, he claimed no service members have died during his administration.

01:03:45.060 None.

01:03:46.540 That hurt us all deeply.

01:03:50.140 Joe Biden has to go.

01:03:55.560 Now, we have another son serving in the Army.

01:04:08.580 And we do not trust Joe Biden with his life.

01:04:13.880 Those poor parents and family members, that by far was the most powerful.

01:04:18.340 And you could feel their anger.

01:04:22.320 This is a man who just yesterday was in the news for saying to Democrats on Capitol Hill,

01:04:26.960 I'm the greatest president on foreign policy of all time.

01:04:31.660 I guess he forgot about Abbey Gate.

01:04:33.480 It's so disgusting even to hear him say something like that, because we've all seen the fallout.

01:04:39.760 Like, my wife, she was crying when this was happening.

01:04:42.380 There were tears all through this arena, but around the country.

01:04:47.020 People who watched that segment, the raw emotion from, you know, that day when Afghanistan fell and we lost 13 of our soldiers, men and women serving this country because of incompetence and ineptitude.

01:05:00.220 It was so emotional, so raw, so real.

01:05:06.820 And again, and it was said in that clip, and this is important.

01:05:10.160 It kind of goes back to the top.

01:05:12.220 They never accepted.

01:05:13.460 They never had to deal with the consequences of that action in the Biden administration.

01:05:16.940 Nobody was held accountable.

01:05:19.980 That has been a persistent theme in this administration.

01:05:24.440 Crisis happens.

01:05:26.580 Cover it up.

01:05:27.860 Don't accept responsibility.

01:05:29.380 Don't accept blame for anything.

01:05:31.480 Nobody gets fired over something.

01:05:33.380 You're telling me these guys have been batting 1,000?

01:05:36.300 That is not true.

01:05:37.600 We all know that.

01:05:38.920 They're barely batting 100.

01:05:40.720 I mean, this is terrible what they've done.

01:05:43.040 You don't make a mistake like that when it comes to law servicemen and women, and he did, and then he didn't even try to fix it.

01:05:49.520 Why is President Trump, who wasn't even president when this happened, spending six hours with these families, and Joe Biden is checking his watch just even when he's there to greet the bodies as they return home?

01:06:00.080 Checking the watch or talking about Beau.

01:06:01.760 And listen, Beau Biden dying, yeah, nobody wants to lose a child.

01:06:04.660 But you can't interject your personal grief when you're trying to be sympathetic to others, when you're trying to be compassionate for somebody else, especially when you're having to meet the families of soldiers who died on your watch.

01:06:21.460 Nobody cares about what happened in your family.

01:06:25.040 That's right.

01:06:25.440 You have to care about what's happening in their family, in their moment, in their time.

01:06:30.060 Especially when you made the decision.

01:06:31.900 Yes.

01:06:32.180 That caused their lives.

01:06:33.500 It's not some random passerby.

01:06:35.620 It's always inappropriate to bring up your own grief and your own story when listening to somebody else's grief.

01:06:40.300 But especially when you're ultimately the man who made the call to put them in harm's way.

01:06:44.460 It's just, oh.

01:06:46.120 So far, the convention has been filled with these moments of heartache, but really motivating moments, too.

01:06:51.940 The heartache is being told for a reason.

01:06:54.380 A mother's pain at losing her son to fentanyl overdose.

01:06:57.400 A brother's pain at losing his sister to a brutal crime incident, rape and murder.

01:07:03.500 Families who have been affected by illegal immigrants committing harm against their loved ones.

01:07:08.840 And then the Gold Star families.

01:07:09.840 And I think it's appropriate to bring home what the real-life consequences have been.

01:07:14.080 So we've been talking in and out about he may go.

01:07:18.700 Looks like he's going to go.

01:07:19.760 So who then, right?

01:07:21.520 Look at this.

01:07:22.380 This just hit from insider advantage.

01:07:24.660 This gets a good rating on the average of polls.

01:07:28.140 And it has a matchup.

01:07:30.140 This is post-assassination.

01:07:31.320 And it's likely voters.

01:07:32.260 So it's the best voting group between Trump and Harris.

01:07:36.860 Georgia, Trump's up 10.

01:07:39.080 Florida, Trump's up 10.

01:07:40.860 Pennsylvania, Trump up 7.

01:07:43.080 Nevada, up 10 over Harris.

01:07:45.320 Arizona, up 6.

01:07:47.200 Right now, she's not looking like the second coming.

01:07:50.740 No.

01:07:50.960 And so do you think, yeah, I know all the DEI, how are they going to bypass a black woman when that's like their voter base and all that.

01:07:58.320 But they are practical people over on the Democrat side.

01:08:02.180 And they do know how to win.

01:08:04.500 So what do they do?

01:08:06.260 Well, first and foremost, they're not stepping over Kamala Harris.

01:08:09.500 They're not.

01:08:10.100 They're not.

01:08:10.360 No.

01:08:10.700 They would have so many infrastructure disasters in their party if they stepped over her.

01:08:19.480 So that's not going to happen.

01:08:20.640 I don't see that happening.

01:08:21.700 Secondarily, they have a major money situation.

01:08:24.920 In my view, Joe Biden has to accept the nomination and then not run.

01:08:31.140 OK, explain that.

01:08:32.140 So the way I understand it, and we should definitely have campaign finance people on to explain this.

01:08:36.640 But the way I understand it, that all the money that they've raised has been for the Biden-Harris Joint Fundraising Committee.

01:08:43.320 Yes.

01:08:43.540 So it's the two of them together.

01:08:45.260 The money is his to spend because he's at the top of the ticket.

01:08:49.580 But if he doesn't accept the nomination, then that committee cannot spend that funds on another candidate.

01:08:57.320 He would have to accept the nomination and then step down from the ticket.

01:09:02.520 And then she actually moves into top position on that ticket.

01:09:06.420 And then they would probably have a convention-style situation where the convention takes a vice president.

01:09:12.760 But you're talking about $200 million.

01:09:14.460 But can't you raise that again with these motivated Dems who are like, it's all hands on deck, Trump?

01:09:19.600 You probably could.

01:09:21.180 But why would you take that chance?

01:09:22.620 Especially considering the fact—

01:09:23.520 Because she's not likable.

01:09:24.880 But now you have—this is where the Democrats' entire apparatus of voting is backfiring against them because they have a lot of states where ballots are going out right after their convention.

01:09:35.380 Pennsylvania, I think they go out, what, the first week of September?

01:09:38.800 I think that's when they go out in Pennsylvania.

01:09:40.840 So people are going to get ballots, and they're going to start voting those ballots while she's running around the country raising money.

01:09:46.960 At the end of the day, raising money is a hard thing.

01:09:49.040 It's hard enough to raise $10 million.

01:09:51.240 You had to raise $300 million.

01:09:52.560 So they're going to need that money to even be able to mount a campaign.

01:09:56.940 So there's some structural stuff, which is why I think it's going to be her and then whoever else they put on that ticket.

01:10:03.060 It's going to be very difficult for them to step over her.

01:10:05.960 They already have a problem with black men.

01:10:08.340 If they have a problem with black women, those polling numbers become actual results on November 5th.

01:10:15.360 Wow.

01:10:15.980 There's just not—there's not a lot of great options facing the Democrats.

01:10:19.560 And you know what?

01:10:20.040 It's their own fault.

01:10:21.240 Serves them right.

01:10:21.760 It's their own darn fault.

01:10:23.840 There's also another report out today that Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of the co-chairs of his re-election and the biggest fundraiser, I think, certainly out of Hollywood, who's got an unlimited funding ability, has said to Joe Biden, the donors are gone.

01:10:38.400 Yeah, they're gone.

01:10:38.940 The money's done.

01:10:40.240 Well, listen, I was hearing him on Capitol Hill before the convention, very quietly.

01:10:44.680 I'm not going to name the Democrats, but they were like, no, he's done.

01:10:47.920 It's over.

01:10:48.420 It's over.

01:10:48.860 We're not doing this.

01:10:50.340 It's not a matter of if.

01:10:52.460 It's just a matter of when.

01:10:54.840 Last question.

01:10:55.720 Is there any chance he announces this, if it's true, like tonight, tomorrow, to steal Trump's thunder?

01:11:00.460 Um, I don't think so.

01:11:02.920 And I mean, stealing Trump's thunder.

01:11:04.620 I mean, it's only going to feed into what Trump's doing up here because this is Trump's first public address since Pennsylvania.

01:11:11.860 Yeah.

01:11:12.080 It will still be the bigger story.

01:11:13.940 I think if I'm in their minds for a moment, I'm going to try to lay out what I think might happen.

01:11:18.760 The Olympics are next week.

01:11:19.960 I think Kamala Harris is probably going to go over to Paris.

01:11:25.160 This is going to be one of the great repackagings of the next wave in American leadership.

01:11:30.700 She'll go from the bridesmaid to the bride.

01:11:32.960 Absolutely.

01:11:33.620 It'll be Cleopatra.

01:11:35.340 It'll be amazing stuff.

01:11:36.760 They're going to try to repackage her the best that they can.

01:11:38.800 And then when they have to do their little convention of the, what is it, the video one or whatever they got to do.

01:11:45.380 Yeah, right.

01:11:45.940 At that point, then you'll do the handle.

01:11:48.700 Switcheroo.

01:11:49.080 And he'll blame COVID.

01:11:50.680 Well, listen, as far as I'm concerned with the way this thing has gone, he's had long COVID for three and a half years.

01:11:56.160 This administration has been an absolute disaster.

01:11:59.940 And transitioning to her, the key thing is, what has she actually ever done?

01:12:06.560 She's risen very, very fast.

01:12:08.260 Now she's vice president.

01:12:10.120 When did she actually do anything of consequence?

01:12:13.000 The last time will probably be when she was attorney general.

01:12:16.160 And if the stories, and Tulsi Gabbard does it better than anybody, when you go through her record when she was attorney general, it was highly political and it was abysmal.

01:12:26.460 And now you're going to put that in the Oval Office?

01:12:28.600 I don't think so.

01:12:29.500 We need Donald Trump back.

01:12:30.860 Wow.

01:12:31.480 Byron Donalds, what a time to be in politics, in news, in America.

01:12:36.780 Never seen anything like this.

01:12:37.820 So great to have you on the set.

01:12:39.200 Thank you.

01:12:39.720 All the best to you.

01:12:40.440 Thank you.

01:12:40.800 To be continued.

01:12:42.060 Okay.

01:12:42.480 Don't go away because Matt Taibbi is up next and we are going to go over some of the journalistic malpractice we are seeing everywhere this week.

01:12:49.560 I'm Megan Kelly, host of the Megan Kelly Show on Sirius XM.

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01:13:47.760 It's so windy here in Milwaukee, and we're in this booth that's like a wind tunnel.

01:13:57.740 Maintaining the hair has not been an easy project.

01:14:00.820 In the wake of the news that Joe Biden, almost certainly, am I going too far?

01:14:06.180 I don't think so, is going to drop his bid for re-election.

01:14:09.320 We decided to take a stroll down memory lane and look at the show that has hands down had the most emotional story arc.

01:14:16.600 We're, of course, referring to Morning Joe and its star, Joe Scarborough.

01:14:22.440 There has been no one who has defended President Biden quite like he has.

01:14:27.160 After the Robert Hurr report called the president a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory, Joe was enraged.

01:14:33.640 He told us Biden is cogent.

01:14:35.980 In fact, more than cogent.

01:14:37.580 He was insulting him by calling him just merely cogent.

01:14:39.760 He's better than ever.

01:14:40.660 Then after the debate, Joe Scarborough admitted that Joe Biden tragically did not rise to the occasion.

01:14:49.580 Then it was, hold on, Dems.

01:14:51.560 Give Mr. Biden time to decide his own fate.

01:14:54.840 Anything could happen.

01:14:55.820 A resurrection of sorts.

01:14:57.760 And now Scarborough is back to admitting it's not going to end well if this keeps dragging out.

01:15:04.660 Would you watch this?

01:15:05.460 I undersold him when I said he was cogent.

01:15:09.440 He's far beyond cogent.

01:15:11.500 In fact, I think he's better than he's ever been.

01:15:14.740 He spent much of the night with his mouth agape and his eyes darting back and forth.

01:15:21.160 He couldn't fact check anything Donald Trump said.

01:15:24.420 He missed one layup after another after another.

01:15:28.580 Trump tragically did not rise to the occasion last night.

01:15:31.740 This is the last chance for Democrats to decide whether this man we've known and loved for a very long time is up to the task of running for president of the United States.

01:15:43.500 It is July the 5th.

01:15:45.640 This happened eight days ago.

01:15:48.020 And decision time is not upon us yet.

01:15:50.800 I think we should first honor a man who was first on the ballot 54 years ago by giving him the time and the space to make his decision.

01:16:01.560 Such an historic decision should not be made in haste.

01:16:05.460 But Joe Biden now has what I would dream of having if I were running for president.

01:16:12.680 Joe Biden now can say he's having to fight media elites, billionaire donors, Washington politicians.

01:16:21.400 You know, it's it's really incumbent on people that are around Joe Biden to step up at this point and and and help the president and help the man they love and do the right thing.

01:16:37.920 This is not going to this is not going to end well if it continues to drag out.

01:16:45.700 Oh, Joe, Joe, you know, what came to mind as soon as I watched those clips?

01:16:52.040 Who remembers the movie Sybil?

01:16:55.380 Here's a short little clip.

01:16:57.780 No, you keep them away from me.

01:16:59.960 I will.

01:17:00.500 I will.

01:17:00.980 I will do it.

01:17:01.800 I will do it.

01:17:02.900 He doesn't care.

01:17:05.100 He doesn't care.

01:17:06.580 I just love you today.

01:17:09.880 Oh, Shalana Peck, a hug around the neck.

01:17:12.040 Oh, just tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle.

01:17:14.540 Tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle.

01:17:17.060 Paper is valuable.

01:17:18.460 Paper is valuable.

01:17:19.820 Yes, it is.

01:17:20.620 Yes, it is.

01:17:21.640 It's valuable.

01:17:23.300 It's valuable.

01:17:25.720 You can see now.

01:17:29.140 I'm dying.

01:17:30.620 My team put the Sybil clip together.

01:17:32.760 Well done.

01:17:33.860 Joining me now, Matt Taibbi.

01:17:35.220 He's editor of Racket News on Substack.

01:17:37.940 You're the perfect person to have today.

01:17:39.880 Oh, thank you.

01:17:40.680 Great to be here, Megan.

01:17:41.380 I mean, it's really like the stages of grief, right?

01:17:44.840 Denial, bargaining, anger, acceptance.

01:17:49.360 Yeah, dabbed up, right?

01:17:50.640 I forget.

01:17:51.020 Isn't that what it is?

01:17:51.900 Yeah.

01:17:52.220 That's what we're watching play out before our very eyes.

01:17:53.960 And I would be remiss if I did not call on the Mika Sot because she too is finally after her.

01:18:00.400 I mean, she just repeated the White House talking points when she came back on the air and tried to say we didn't see what we saw with the debate.

01:18:06.460 Right.

01:18:06.700 It was all his advisor's faults for sending him on in nine time zones, you know, two weeks ago for the debate.

01:18:14.480 But now even she's coming to see reality.

01:18:16.820 Watch her.

01:18:18.020 The Dems need to get it together.

01:18:20.380 They really need to get whatever they've got going, going.

01:18:23.620 Whatever it is, the problem should not be our candidate.

01:18:28.140 The focus should be on Donald Trump.

01:18:31.180 You know, it may or may not be Joe Biden.

01:18:33.640 I trust Joe Biden's abilities.

01:18:35.860 I also trust Nancy Pelosi's political acumen.

01:18:39.900 And nobody knows politics more than her.

01:18:42.340 If there is a change, it's got to be a change that gets Barack Obama behind the candidate.

01:18:47.340 Michelle Obama behind the candidate.

01:18:49.260 George W. Bush behind the candidate.

01:18:51.540 Former presidents and world leaders and people who understand the importance of democracy.

01:18:58.520 Acumen?

01:18:59.760 That's not...

01:19:00.280 I think it's acumen, isn't it?

01:19:01.740 Acumen.

01:19:02.560 It's just like, that's a spice.

01:19:03.880 Yeah, I was going to say, you put a little bit of it in your chili, I think.

01:19:06.200 So how about the problem should not be our candidate?

01:19:08.920 But refresh me on how that happened again.

01:19:11.180 Was it people like these two?

01:19:12.880 Well, the phrase is almost word for word what Joe Biden said in a meeting with donors.

01:19:18.100 He said the bullseye should be on Trump, right?

01:19:19.920 I mean, that's a DNC talking point.

01:19:22.100 The focus should be on Trump.

01:19:24.320 But yeah, no, that entire reel, it's actually worse than that.

01:19:27.960 Because if you go back far enough, remember, they were hyping Donald Trump once upon a time.

01:19:32.100 Oh, I remember.

01:19:32.940 It was an epic moment when you're on stage there in South Carolina or wherever it was.

01:19:37.220 And so they've, you pick Sybil, I think of Game of Thrones, that character who could change his face on demand, right?

01:19:44.220 Oh, yeah, that's right.

01:19:44.660 You know, so, but it's like that.

01:19:46.620 A comedy writer couldn't come up with something better than that.

01:19:49.440 They're so insincere.

01:19:50.420 Here's one more of Scarborough, a longer of him.

01:19:52.560 And listen to who he's, like, blaming.

01:19:55.680 Like, who he thinks is to blame for the position Joe Biden's in right now.

01:19:59.000 We have known him for a long time, Mika and her family, extraordinarily close to the Bidens, have always felt the connection.

01:20:11.400 You know, it's really incumbent on people that are around Joe Biden to step up at this point.

01:20:19.900 Who exactly?

01:20:20.560 And help the president and help the man they love and do the right thing.

01:20:29.240 This is not going to, this is not going to end well if it continues to drag out.

01:20:35.420 The anger that I hear is not at Joe Biden.

01:20:41.480 The anger I hear are at the people that are keeping him in a bubble.

01:20:49.120 Or their own interests.

01:20:50.440 Or who may have their own interests, some financial, in keeping him in the race.

01:20:58.280 Joe Biden deserves better.

01:21:02.620 Matt, I can't.

01:21:04.100 I know.

01:21:05.240 I don't think they're even aware of how bad that sounds.

01:21:07.980 That's the funniest part about it.

01:21:09.200 I mean, he could be describing them.

01:21:11.640 Yes!

01:21:12.500 It's a confessional.

01:21:13.980 Right?

01:21:14.680 You know, I covered Joe Biden in 2019, 2020 on the campaign trail.

01:21:19.200 It was obvious to me that he was mentally impaired.

01:21:22.440 Everybody else covered it up.

01:21:23.800 I mean, there were other people who wrote about it, but not these types.

01:21:27.900 And as long as they thought they could get away with it, they did.

01:21:31.560 Now they can't.

01:21:32.780 And now they're saying it's the fault of his aides.

01:21:35.120 Please.

01:21:35.960 And they're angry.

01:21:36.860 They're angry at the people who have kept him in the bubble.

01:21:40.180 So he couldn't hear the truth.

01:21:42.360 Right.

01:21:42.660 What is the truth today?

01:21:44.740 Is it that he's cogent and better than ever?

01:21:47.300 This is the best?

01:21:48.120 Or is it that he's not cogent and someone needs to tell him to step aside?

01:21:51.860 That's right.

01:21:52.340 Joe said, you know, I know Joe personally.

01:21:55.800 He's never been better.

01:21:56.840 This is the best Biden that there's ever been.

01:21:58.820 He was actually less guarded before, and that was to his detriment.

01:22:02.360 Um, so he wasn't even talking about what was relayed to him by AIDS or anything like that.

01:22:08.060 He was talking about his own personal relationship with Joe Biden.

01:22:10.980 Yes.

01:22:11.360 So you could tell him right now, look into the camera because we know he watches your show

01:22:15.480 every day and say, you've become infirm.

01:22:18.280 I'm sorry, but we've all seen it.

01:22:20.420 And you're going to cost the Democrats or how many houses in the Senate and how many

01:22:24.300 houses, how many seats in the reverse that, how many seats in the House and how many seats

01:22:28.420 in the Senate.

01:22:29.260 He's I don't use the P word.

01:22:31.700 That's where I draw the line of my swearing.

01:22:33.120 But he's too much of a P word to actually do it.

01:22:35.920 This is the closest he's going to come.

01:22:37.820 It's absurd.

01:22:38.720 So let's move on because one of the most shocking things that's happened in the media this past

01:22:43.540 four days, five days since the assassination attempt has been like the trutherism.

01:22:48.460 There's a trutherism that's being born about whether the assassination attempt actually

01:22:54.880 happened.

01:22:56.700 Um, all right, hold on.

01:22:57.960 Here is, here's just a little bit of it.

01:23:01.060 This is the latest iteration.

01:23:02.120 Ari Melber, MSNBC host, suggesting that not that this didn't happen, but that the Trump

01:23:09.200 bandage is really fake news.

01:23:12.080 Oh, right.

01:23:12.820 Yes.

01:23:13.140 Trump acting.

01:23:14.580 Yeah.

01:23:14.980 You know, because why would he have to do that, Ari?

01:23:17.940 Because he didn't get shot in the ear?

01:23:19.400 Like, why would you have to act with your fake bandage?

01:23:21.980 Do we have it?

01:23:23.160 We're trying to get it.

01:23:24.840 But this is on the heels of we played earlier in the show, Joy Reid coming right out being

01:23:28.780 like, why haven't I heard the briefing?

01:23:30.780 Was the ear actually shot?

01:23:31.880 And so on.

01:23:32.240 Here's Ari.

01:23:33.680 This was also showmanship by a politician known for his mastery of what they call unscripted

01:23:42.840 reality TV.

01:23:44.040 Here's how the New York Times put it.

01:23:45.460 On the first night of this convention, Trump was his own biggest prop.

01:23:51.020 He entered the VIP box, a large white bandage on his injured right ear, the result of a close

01:23:55.460 call on Saturday with a would-be assassin's bullet.

01:23:58.000 And that made it the most potent placard in the hall.

01:24:02.060 That's fair.

01:24:02.940 That's fair.

01:24:05.700 A placard for delegates to fill in, an image for political mobilization, a spectacle for

01:24:11.340 this candidate who we know is, by his own admission, obsessed with assorted spectacles.

01:24:17.160 There is a political quest here to mine and use Donald Trump's injury.

01:24:22.120 And whether his allies and Republicans or the candidate himself do that in a way that

01:24:26.380 overextends their credibility will be decided by the voters.

01:24:30.980 It's incredible.

01:24:34.720 I was talking about this last night with some other reporters.

01:24:37.760 So when George Bush did the Mission Accomplished photo, there was some backlash among reporters.

01:24:43.940 This is a staged event.

01:24:45.740 It's propaganda.

01:24:47.160 We don't want to use it.

01:24:48.140 There's a little bit of legitimacy to that point of view.

01:24:50.380 Like, I'm not obligated to use a White House photo when they stage the scene.

01:24:56.080 But what happened to Donald Trump, this photo, which they're now calling photoganda.

01:24:59.380 They made up a word for it.

01:25:01.660 That's what happened.

01:25:03.000 It's a news photo of something that actually happened at the event.

01:25:07.080 And there are people who are calling for him, for newspapers to not use that image.

01:25:12.260 They're talking about the bandage being a prop.

01:25:16.180 I mean, if it was four feet high, that might be ridiculous.

01:25:19.700 But it's an inappropriately sized bandage.

01:25:21.540 It's hard to bandage an ear.

01:25:22.760 It's like either that or the wrap around the head, which they'd really go nuts over.

01:25:27.180 Right.

01:25:27.460 I mean, and he's, from what I understand, he might need surgery for it.

01:25:31.240 I mean, it's an open question.

01:25:33.120 But whatever.

01:25:34.440 That's just a ridiculous thing to make an issue out of.

01:25:36.900 It's born of their hate.

01:25:37.940 They can't, they don't realize what they're showing us about their true feelings.

01:25:41.980 Right.

01:25:42.400 And it's just absurd.

01:25:43.080 I mean, we all saw the bloody ear when it happened.

01:25:45.440 It's definitely gnarly.

01:25:47.460 I'm sure President Trump, A, doesn't want to parade it around for everybody to look at.

01:25:51.420 Like, but it's still an open wound.

01:25:52.840 B, it's still an open wound.

01:25:54.200 As far as we know, it wasn't stitched, and I'm sure he doesn't want to expose it, him

01:25:57.720 being a germaphobe, to tens of thousands of people in this arena.

01:26:02.740 Absolutely.

01:26:03.480 You know, he's 78 years old himself.

01:26:05.040 It's just ridiculous.

01:26:07.300 Okay.

01:26:07.860 So then there's the trutherism, because it's not just Joy Reid and the soundbite we played.

01:26:11.700 Michael Steele, former RNC head, wanting to know the details about, you know, the bullet.

01:26:19.600 Let's see more.

01:26:20.640 I want to know, you know, more about the actual shooting.

01:26:23.080 And then we had Kara Swisher out there yesterday saying, oh, he did get up awfully fast.

01:26:29.440 Like, like what?

01:26:31.220 Like he, it was all a setup?

01:26:33.000 Right.

01:26:33.260 That's obviously the implication.

01:26:34.320 Somebody died right behind him.

01:26:36.060 Right.

01:26:36.340 Well, did Trump have that man killed?

01:26:37.840 Right.

01:26:38.060 Like, what's the theory that this is all made up?

01:26:41.020 And it's not, this is not just the lunatic fringes.

01:26:43.800 No, I know.

01:26:44.300 This is all over MSNBC, some CNNers.

01:26:47.020 So what is it?

01:26:47.660 They're so angry about the Trump, Trump being triumphant and looking like a superhero in

01:26:52.960 that one photo?

01:26:53.880 I don't know.

01:26:55.460 I mean, I think it's like a mass psychogenic illness, but it's been kind of in place since

01:26:59.120 the beginning of the Trump presidency.

01:27:00.920 You know, the reporters have sort of just agreed to agree upon certain themes.

01:27:05.740 And they, they, they're like deer in a herd.

01:27:08.640 Once 50% of them agree to go one way, they all go, you know?

01:27:12.160 And this, uh, the talking point today is questioning whether the bullet really hit him.

01:27:18.360 Maybe it was glass from a shattered teleprompter.

01:27:21.160 That's the, that's the line that some people are going with now.

01:27:23.100 But there was no shattered teleprompter.

01:27:26.360 Either way, why not just own it and say, okay, he, he did get up awfully fast.

01:27:29.900 I mean, Cenk Uygur, who's no, no, has no love for Donald Trump.

01:27:34.060 He tweeted, no, I have to say that was a gangsta moment, right?

01:27:37.500 Just say it, you know, move on.

01:27:39.400 If you have criticisms about his policy or other things, it's going to go there.

01:27:42.480 Yes.

01:27:42.820 But why not?

01:27:43.460 But why do this?

01:27:44.260 It just makes you look bad.

01:27:45.460 I just don't understand.

01:27:46.500 As a, as a reporter or as a journalist, you lose trust when you do that.

01:27:49.940 There's no gain there.

01:27:51.240 They can't stand it.

01:27:53.100 And you're talking about the photoganda.

01:27:55.020 There's this debate amongst photographers on whether their iconic photos of Trump ought

01:27:58.800 to be used.

01:27:59.500 They don't like seeing them used over and over.

01:28:01.940 And like the campaign might use them and they don't want that.

01:28:05.040 It's like, it's history.

01:28:06.140 You're, you don't get to say how it gets used after the fact by a copyright maybe, but just

01:28:11.620 in terms of editorial judgment, that's up to the news people.

01:28:14.980 Sure.

01:28:15.240 And this was a criticism that a lot of journalists got during Russiagate when, you know, there

01:28:20.200 were reports that were contrary to the popular narrative about him.

01:28:24.500 They would say to us, well, this is going to be used by the Trump campaign.

01:28:28.100 They're going to publish this.

01:28:29.860 Well, it's true.

01:28:30.900 What are we going to do about that?

01:28:32.460 You know, it's not a legitimate criticism to say, to worry about who benefits from a true

01:28:39.600 image or a true fact or whatever it is.

01:28:41.900 Meanwhile, the same people who are wringing their hands over that over at MSNBC, for example,

01:28:46.260 are faking their background as if they're here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

01:28:53.140 Did they really do that?

01:28:54.100 They're not here.

01:28:55.380 They're not here, but they're broadcasting from a set that has the, the, the RNC in the

01:29:02.260 background.

01:29:03.080 So they come on.

01:29:04.380 Oh my God.

01:29:04.980 There it is.

01:29:05.340 It's, it's digitally superimposed.

01:29:06.980 Now they do come on and say live from New York.

01:29:08.900 So they are technically disclosing that they're not in Milwaukee, but they don't keep going

01:29:13.540 back to it and alerting the audience who might join two minutes late that they're not

01:29:17.460 actually here.

01:29:19.000 And they continue to ignore gold star families and others.

01:29:22.500 And they're basically fake newsing their way through the RNC.

01:29:26.440 Yeah.

01:29:26.940 I know it's interesting because I was at the 2016 convention and there were, there were

01:29:32.380 tons of media who were hostile to Donald Trump there at that time, because I think they

01:29:37.040 thought he was going to lose.

01:29:38.280 It was, it was, it was sort of a celebration moment for them, but they're not here conspicuously.

01:29:42.940 There, there were a few networks who aren't friendly to Trump who are here.

01:29:46.560 Um, and a few more sort of objective ones, but why not?

01:29:51.620 Why do that?

01:29:52.500 That's crazy.

01:29:53.320 I know.

01:29:53.560 It's like, I don't care whether they come or they don't come, but don't stay home and

01:29:58.480 then try to make it look like you spent the money and the time and the effort to come

01:30:03.540 to Milwaukee, get to know the locals, get the feel for the convention.

01:30:07.760 Right.

01:30:07.840 Maybe if they'd bothered to come, they would have taken the gold star families, uh, instead

01:30:11.960 of what they did because you would have seen, Oh my God, something incredible is happening

01:30:15.460 in this arena right now.

01:30:16.800 But no, they're probably going to end up with brats on their, on their set.

01:30:20.820 Right.

01:30:21.060 Like eating, eating Wisconsin mustard.

01:30:24.080 Schlitz.

01:30:24.700 Schlitz, a big Schlitz beer.

01:30:26.120 Yeah, exactly.

01:30:27.380 Okay.

01:30:27.840 There's a couple more other moments we've got to get to.

01:30:30.280 Uh, last night, there was a great moment where JD Vance talked about his bio, which

01:30:34.560 is just perfection.

01:30:36.180 It's just amazing.

01:30:37.000 The stories in his past and the characters, you know, that's why Ron Howard made a movie

01:30:41.120 out of the book and the star of his life and his story is his grandmother, Mamaw, who I

01:30:47.220 talked with the audience about earlier this week, used to call him affectionately shithead.

01:30:51.400 But as she was telling him, get good grades, you could change your life.

01:30:54.340 You can be anything you want to be.

01:30:55.460 Don't be a victim.

01:30:56.180 Don't feel sorry for yourself.

01:30:57.240 You know, that kind of thing.

01:30:59.260 And, um, here is a little bit of him talking about Mamaw in the speech.

01:31:04.360 Mamaw was in so many ways, a woman of contradiction.

01:31:07.580 She loved the Lord, ladies and gentlemen.

01:31:09.200 She was a woman of very deep Christian faith.

01:31:17.800 But she also loved the F word.

01:31:23.200 I'm not kidding.

01:31:24.440 She could make a sailor blush.

01:31:27.240 Now, she once told me when she found out that I was spending too much time with a local

01:31:32.800 kid who was known for dealing drugs, that if I ever hung out with that kid again, she

01:31:38.180 would run him over with her car.

01:31:44.860 That's true.

01:31:46.280 And she said, J.D., no one will ever find out about it.

01:31:57.240 Mamaw.

01:32:02.800 Let me tell you another Mamaw story.

01:32:05.400 Now, my Mamaw died shortly before I left for Iraq in 2005.

01:32:08.220 And when we went through her things, we found 19 loaded handguns.

01:32:12.780 They were stashed all over her house, under her bed, in her closet, in the silverware drawer.

01:32:18.340 And we wondered what was going on.

01:32:22.280 And it occurred to us that towards the end of her life, Mamaw couldn't get around so well.

01:32:27.440 And so this frail old woman made sure that no matter where she was, she was within arm's length of whatever she needed to protect her family.

01:32:35.120 That's who we fight for.

01:32:36.640 That's American spirit.

01:32:37.820 Which leads most normal people to be like, I wish I could have known Mamaw, but not at ABC News.

01:32:46.600 Here was their reaction.

01:32:48.880 Talk about us, Mamaw, having 19 loaded guns all over the house to huge applause inside this convention hall.

01:32:56.160 Strong beliefs across this country on all ends of the spectrum here.

01:32:59.800 I'm not sure everybody at home received that line perhaps the same way.

01:33:03.300 But the 19 guns also struck me, David, just after that assassination attempt, talking about guns and applause here in the audience.

01:33:12.620 Yeah, it was a striking moment for sure.

01:33:15.280 Oh, my God.

01:33:16.700 They just have no sense of humor.

01:33:19.420 And this is really sad because, you know, I grew up a Democrat.

01:33:23.860 And part of it was because they did have a sense of humor.

01:33:26.660 I mean, they were the party that embraced people like Richard Pryor and, you know, all the SNL characters back in the day who were actually funny at that time.

01:33:37.420 But how can you not laugh at that story?

01:33:40.240 Right.

01:33:40.560 Even if you're, you know, for gun control.

01:33:43.240 It's kind of a funny story.

01:33:44.600 And I say, do your homework.

01:33:45.640 Because reading his book about why she had 19 guns, she did not live in a good area.

01:33:49.540 Everybody was stealing from everybody.

01:33:50.980 There was a lot of violence in their lives.

01:33:53.120 Like, shut up, Martha Raddatz, with your million-dollar life.

01:33:55.620 Right, right.

01:33:56.300 You don't know what you're talking about.

01:33:57.200 Your paid security.

01:33:57.780 Right.

01:33:58.220 Right.

01:33:58.600 And David Muir, too, in a rare moment of partisan.

01:34:00.980 He's usually not so partisan, but that was not a good moment for him.

01:34:04.300 All right, here's our worst for the night.

01:34:05.900 The worst.

01:34:07.560 And it takes a lot, given the competition that you've just watched.

01:34:10.720 Here is J.D. Vance talking about his, before he moved to Middletown, Ohio, he was from, he was raised in Kentucky in his really early years.

01:34:17.560 In the holla.

01:34:18.260 And that was with Mamaw and a long history of Vance, hillbillies, you know, doing all sorts of things to each other, as neighbors.

01:34:26.660 You did not cross each other.

01:34:28.260 You did not end well.

01:34:29.680 Really colorful family, if you read the book.

01:34:31.860 So we told a little bit about that area of Kentucky and how we would like to actually wind up buried there someday.

01:34:38.360 Watch us.

01:34:38.780 Now, when I proposed to my wife, we were in law school, and I said, honey, I come with $120,000 worth of law school debt in a cemetery plot on a mountainside in eastern Kentucky.

01:34:51.620 Now, that cemetery plot in eastern Kentucky is near my family's ancestral home.

01:34:55.600 And like a lot of people, we came from the mountains of Appalachia into the factories of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

01:35:03.420 Now, in that cemetery, there are people who were born around the time of the Civil War.

01:35:07.460 And if, as I hope, my wife and I are eventually laid to rest there, and our kids follow us, there will be seven generations just in that small mountain cemetery plot in eastern Kentucky.

01:35:19.220 Seven generations of people who have fought for this country, who have built this country, who have made things in this country, and who would fight and die to protect this country if they were asked to.

01:35:30.140 I give you Alex Wagner on MSNBC.

01:35:37.960 But I do think there were some sort of Easter eggs of white nationalism in this speech.

01:35:44.020 One of the things that stuck out to me was when he started talking about what America is.

01:35:48.160 He said, America is not just an idea.

01:35:50.300 It is a group of people with a shared history and a common future.

01:35:53.360 The thing about America is that it's not a group of people with shared history.

01:35:57.560 And he went along sort of a paragraph, at least, about this plot in eastern Kentucky where his seven or six generations of his family are buried.

01:36:08.100 And his hope is that his wife and he are eventually laid to rest there and their kids follow them.

01:36:13.800 It reveals someone who believes that the history that the family should inherit and, indeed, the history that should be determinative in the story of the Vance family is the history of the eastern Kentucky Vances and not the Vances from San Diego, which is where his wife is from and where her Indian parents are from.

01:36:30.760 But in America, it doesn't always have to be the white male lineage that defines the family history, that that branch of the tree supersedes all else.

01:36:40.620 And I just think the construction of this notion reveals a lot about someone who fundamentally believes in the supremacy of whiteness and masculinity.

01:36:50.420 And it's couched in a sort of halcyon, you know, revisitation of his roots.

01:36:55.020 But it is actually really revealing about what he thinks matters and who America is.

01:37:00.640 And that America is a place for people with a shared Western background.

01:37:06.080 And that is the idea of America.

01:37:07.880 That is the nation of America that he wants to resurrect.

01:37:11.620 Cut to Joy Reid and Lawrence O'Donnell.

01:37:14.720 Yes, yes.

01:37:15.460 It was that moment was about his whiteness and his maleness, Matt.

01:37:18.640 Right.

01:37:19.060 So I remember during the Bush years and with the Terry Schiavo scandal, I remember that in the media, we always love those stories about, you know, people who saw the face of Jesus and tree stumps and things like that.

01:37:33.180 This is exactly the same story.

01:37:34.940 They see, like, toxic white masculinity everywhere, even where it isn't really.

01:37:41.200 I mean, there are things you can criticize about the Republican Party, about the platform if you want to.

01:37:45.660 But again, they're at such a stretch.

01:37:48.500 It's such a reach to read that much into what's really just a true detail about his life.

01:37:55.140 Who, like, who would bring identity politics into where we get buried?

01:38:00.820 You know, I'm just as important as you are.

01:38:03.080 Doesn't seem like Usha has a family plot and that J.D. does and the history and his family.

01:38:08.120 I mean, if she has some family plot, maybe they go there.

01:38:11.320 But it sounds like she actually thought this was a bonus and to realize her loving husband was an important thing to him.

01:38:17.520 How does it turn into, like, your whiteness?

01:38:20.580 Like, everything, everything has to be reduced to this bullshit.

01:38:25.020 I mean, if you're going to take that position, then everything in American history is, you know, some kind of expression of toxic white masculinity.

01:38:33.820 He's celebrating his personal family's history.

01:38:37.800 What isn't an expression of that if you're looking at things through that lens?

01:38:41.520 She would have done better had she had better acumen.

01:38:46.160 Finally, we appear to be on the brink of Joe Biden withdrawing as candidate for re-election.

01:38:50.920 Right.

01:38:51.280 And how long will it take, New York minute or shorter, for the media to go back to protecting the Democratic nominee?

01:38:57.700 Oh, I think, you know, my personal guess is Saturday is when we're going to hear the news.

01:39:05.220 I mean, that would be the prime time to do it if you wanted to dull any kind of bounce from this convention for the beginning of the next work week.

01:39:15.240 But America has such a short attention span now.

01:39:18.580 A lot of people were saying they're going to give up.

01:39:20.820 They're not going to do all the crazy stuff they've been doing all for the last, you know, eight years.

01:39:26.060 I disagree.

01:39:26.740 I think they're going to double down again.

01:39:29.100 They're going to find some new, stupid, crazy narrative.

01:39:31.440 And they're going to back whoever is the nominee as if nothing happened as soon as they can.

01:39:37.260 Yeah.

01:39:37.620 Right.

01:39:38.040 I mean, do you think so?

01:39:40.020 100%.

01:39:40.460 Right.

01:39:40.980 All skepticism of the Democratic nominee will evaporate and there will be an anointing of Kamala or whomever it is and very little back checking or, you know, fact checking or bio checking on that person's story.

01:39:53.840 And then it'll be all about Trump, too, and how evil he is.

01:39:57.340 The assassination has already been completely forgotten, the attempt.

01:40:00.960 They've memory-holded that.

01:40:02.460 They don't want to talk about it because he looks good.

01:40:04.140 So they'll spend time on how he's the devil.

01:40:06.640 He's still Hitler.

01:40:07.880 And that'll be that.

01:40:08.780 Yeah.

01:40:09.240 I mean, it's a one-note messaging campaign at this point.

01:40:13.440 They don't know how to do anything else.

01:40:15.000 Memory-holding is what they do.

01:40:16.760 And I think that's where they'll go.

01:40:18.980 And that's why they're boring and they have a failing business model.

01:40:21.640 Right.

01:40:22.020 Unlike us, Matt.

01:40:23.080 Exactly.

01:40:23.480 Great to see you.

01:40:24.060 Great to see you, Megan.

01:40:24.800 Thanks to all of you for being with us this week.

01:40:27.140 The crowd's been fantastic.

01:40:28.440 But tomorrow, we'll recap the final night, including President Trump's much-anticipated speech.

01:40:37.100 Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show.

01:40:39.000 No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

01:40:46.360 Thank you.

The Megyn Kelly Show - July 18, 2024

J.D. Vance Takes Centerstage, and ＂Ear Truthers＂ in Trump-Hating Media, with Donald Trump, Jr., Rep. Byron Donalds, and Matt Taibbi ｜ Ep. 841

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