The Megyn Kelly Show - August 28, 2024


Kamala Finally Agrees to Interview, and Truth About Learning Loss, with Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Michael Knowles, and Carrie Prejean Boller | Ep. 872


Episode Stats


Length

1 hour and 38 minutes

Words per minute

175.11198

Word count

17,226

Sentence count

1,136

Harmful content

Misogyny

49

sentences flagged

Hate speech

38

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz will sit down with CNN's Dana Bash to discuss their 2020 campaign, but the interview will not be live, which is a huge mistake. Megyn explains why and why not.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.520 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM channel 111 every weekday at noon east.
00:00:11.900 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show. It's official. The person who
00:00:17.540 would like to be our next president has finally agreed to an interview that's not off the record
00:00:24.500 or with influencers or conducted by her own running mate, though he will be there because
00:00:28.260 he has her emotional support governor. Yes, tomorrow, Vice President Kamala Harris and
00:00:33.740 Governor Walz will sit down with CNN's Dana Bash. CNN promises this interview will present Harris
00:00:41.260 with the first chance to elucidate her position on various domestic and foreign issues. Well,
00:00:48.640 we'll look forward to that. Her elucidating her position. It only took more than a month
00:00:54.680 for the sitting vice president who ousted the sitting president in his bid for a second term
00:01:01.480 to actually sit down and answer a reporter's questions in an effort to hopefully elucidate
00:01:07.580 us on how that happened. Oh, and what her actual policies would be if she is elected president 1.00
00:01:14.060 when the early voting starts in two weeks and change. This is incredible. The interview will
00:01:21.760 not be live. I'm sure she didn't want that because she could go back to CNN and say if 0.54
00:01:26.660 she has some massive fall down, please take that out. That part wasn't fair. Don't air
00:01:31.320 that. And plus the nerve factor is lower when it's not live and CNN accommodated. It will
00:01:37.920 reportedly be taped tomorrow afternoon. It will air at 9 p.m. Eastern in a primetime special
00:01:42.320 and we will have full reaction for you. Joining me now, Michael Knowles, host of the Michael
00:01:47.280 Knowles show. Hungry Root is one very easy way to eat healthy. They send you fresh,
00:01:53.780 high quality groceries, simple, delicious recipes, and essential supplements. It's like having
00:01:59.060 someone else do all the planning and shopping so you don't even have to think about it.
00:02:03.260 Hungry Root gets to know your personal health goals, dietary restrictions, favorite foods,
00:02:07.940 how much time you want to spend cooking, and more. Then they build you a personalized cart
00:02:12.220 for the week, including easy four ingredient recipes to put those groceries to use. Each
00:02:17.260 order is fully customizable. They've got fresh produce, high quality meat, healthy snacks,
00:02:22.260 and more. Everything from Hungry Root follows a very simple standard. It has to taste good,
00:02:27.900 be quick to make, and contain whole trusted ingredients. Hungry Root is offering the
00:02:32.580 Megan Kelly Show viewers 40% off your first delivery and free veggies for life. I don't understand it,
00:02:37.960 but that's what they say. Just go to HungryRoot.com slash Megan to get 40% off your first delivery and 0.83
00:02:44.020 get your free veggies. HungryRoot.com slash Megan. Don't forget to use our link.
00:02:49.660 Let's start with this, and then I've got some breaking news on another media outlet that we've
00:02:53.340 been following that's just absolutely disgusting, Michael. So here we have it. The emotional support
00:02:59.540 governor will sit down with our potential next commander in chief for the first interview
00:03:06.440 in five weeks since earth shattering developments have happened in the democratic race. And with
00:03:14.160 respect to the white house, who's ruling the country, how she became the nominee and what
00:03:19.600 she actually has in store for us. If she is to win, what do you make the plan? She has to give
00:03:25.200 one interview in the same way that she has to do one debate, but that's it. She's not good at 1.00
00:03:31.280 interviews. She's not good at debates. And so the Democrats, the Kamala campaign are going to give 0.99
00:03:36.460 the bare minimum that they have to give to look voters in the face, totally straight faced and say,
00:03:43.580 you can vote for me. I am confident. I can, I can do the job. So, you know, we saw similar criticism
00:03:50.620 of Trump back in the GOP primary, such as it was that Trump didn't want to engage in a debate. And I
00:03:55.320 always thought the political calculation here was Trump will only do a debate. If it benefits him,
00:04:00.680 Trump will only do a debate. If there is sufficient political pressure to make him do a debate here,
00:04:05.740 the liberals control the entire media establishment. They did the coup that, that replaced
00:04:11.700 Joe Biden with Kamala Harris. So you're not getting a lot of pressure from the establishment
00:04:16.600 media. Probably she's got to do one. It's really weird. If the president of the United States can't
00:04:22.260 conduct one single interview, you can't conduct one single debate, but, but that's it. And so
00:04:26.100 they, they've rigged the rules to be as favorable to Kamala as they can be, just as they rigged the
00:04:30.720 rules in the ABC debate with Trump to be as favorable to Kamala as they can be. And she'll probably 1.00
00:04:36.120 eke it by. She'll, she'll say things that are a little odd. She'll contradict herself. She'll,
00:04:42.280 she'll do the giggle. It will, it won't be a grand slam for her, but she'll, she'll get by and
00:04:47.320 then the media will move on easily. I think there's not going to be some massive fall down
00:04:52.780 moment. Dana bash while definitely more sympathetic to the Democrats doesn't want to torch her career 1.00
00:05:00.020 in this sit down because she understands she's going to have to push back a little,
00:05:04.340 but just to be clear, we're not going in there with somebody who is in any way sympathetic toward
00:05:11.020 team Trump. Here's just a little example of some of Dana bash in Sot 5.
00:05:16.980 This is the kind of thing that is playing out all over conservative media. I just want to do a
00:05:21.700 little bit of a record correcting. Harris was put in charge, as you said earlier, of combating the
00:05:29.060 roots of immigration. She was not, and is not the borders of 2020. I'm saying even if, even if Joe Biden
00:05:34.720 were not running for president, if he were still a private citizen going off into the sunset,
00:05:38.000 would it be okay for the president of the United States, yes or no, to ask another foreign leader
00:05:44.660 to investigate, to investigate an American citizen? You know, I I've seen a lot of statements from
00:05:51.720 veterans, including those you serve with saying it's just untoward to be criticizing somebody who
00:05:57.940 served for 24 years. One last question. Donald Trump didn't serve in the military. Uh, he received
00:06:03.900 a medical draft deferment for bone spurs to avoid serving in the Vietnam War, reportedly as a favor
00:06:09.600 to his father. Do you find that shameful?
00:06:11.560 Trump has said repeatedly that he could have gotten the hostages out without giving anything in
00:06:17.160 exchange. What do you say to that? What do you say to President Trump now?
00:06:20.980 Former president. Why didn't he do it as president?
00:06:23.620 Sir, what did you do?
00:06:25.160 I think that was, um, what they call a mic drop moment at the end there. Why didn't he do it when he
00:06:34.480 was president?
00:06:36.520 Yeah, Mike. So, okay. So that's why she was chosen. Obviously, Michael.
00:06:42.420 That's why she was chosen. And, and this is what makes Kamala's insistence that Walls be present 0.68
00:06:47.780 so much more pathetic. You've got a network that is all in for Kamala. You've got an anchor who
00:06:55.400 obviously detests Donald Trump. And, and even still, Kamala can't handle that kind of an interview. 1.00
00:07:01.520 So she's got to tag team it with Tim Walls, who's not exactly a Rhodes Scholar himself,
00:07:05.640 but who is apparently more articulate and coherent and capable than the top of the ticket, Kamala.
00:07:11.980 This should not inspire confidence in the American people. This should not inspire confidence
00:07:16.760 in Kamala's supporters.
00:07:18.060 It doesn't inspire confidence in me as a woman. I mean, everyone's supposed to be celebrating that 1.00
00:07:25.440 she could be our first female president and she can't even do a sit down interview on her own. 1.00
00:07:28.860 I got news for you, Madam Harris. That's not how the presidency is supposed to work. You actually 1.00
00:07:34.800 are a single individual imbued with a lot of power, a lot of power. Go read article two.
00:07:42.720 And you don't get to do it with your binky right next to you. Your, your big white blankie for every, 1.00
00:07:49.580 every interview. That's what he is.
00:07:51.500 At a fundamental level.
00:07:52.780 I used to have a big white blankie that I carried everywhere. He happens to be white and he is her 0.98
00:07:57.520 big white blankie that she needs in order to talk to the press. 1.00
00:08:01.240 Tim Walls, the big white blankie of the, of the Midwest. What's so astounding here,
00:08:06.780 specifically on the interview and the debate front is that at a fundamental level, the only skill that
00:08:12.960 is required in politics is that you be able to speak. That's it. That's, that's how politicians work.
00:08:19.000 That is the instrument that they use words, speech. This woman can't do it. Part of the reason 1.00
00:08:25.900 that Biden was kicked out is that he could no longer speak. And Biden used to be a pretty good
00:08:30.180 talker back in the day, but now his brain doesn't work anymore. So he, he failed to speak properly at
00:08:35.420 that debate. Then he was gone. Kamala does not have dementia. Kamala is not 150 years old,
00:08:40.620 but Kamala can't speak. That's why the most famous clips of Kamala's oration involve being
00:08:46.740 unburdened by what has been and Venn diagrams and yellow school buses. And that giggle, that giggle,
00:08:52.500 which is just noise. It's a replacement for speech with incoherent babble. So the only skill
00:08:58.620 that a politician requires this woman lacks, and, and it's why she's got to tag team the interview with 1.00
00:09:04.880 Tim Walls. What's going to be really interesting about it is does he jump in to save her? Because
00:09:12.680 they are going to know that that's fraught. I mean, if I were running for president and I had a vice
00:09:18.420 president, especially a man, but any, any, you know, man or woman sitting next to me. And if I
00:09:25.320 were asked a tough question and my VP jumped in to save me, I would say, excuse me, that one was to
00:09:32.680 me and I would continue my answer. I wonder whether he'll have the nerve to do it, right? Would he
00:09:40.800 actually step in because he knows that that will undermine her. And yet that is his purpose for
00:09:47.340 being there. And also, even if she doesn't use the big white blankie in that way, it's half the
00:09:53.880 questions, Michael. It's, she gets, she's sitting down with Dana bash, but it's, she only has to do it
00:09:58.640 for half the allotted time because he'll get the rest. Exactly. I think the interview as well as
00:10:05.880 the debate is a defensive move by the Democrats. They're not going into this thinking that they're
00:10:10.680 going to make big gains with the American people. They're just checking a box. It's the bare minimum
00:10:15.400 you've got to do if you're running for president. So if, if you can make it even easier by cutting out
00:10:22.500 half of your questions, okay, we'll do that. And you're, you're absolutely right. It's, it's fraught
00:10:27.880 that the notion that the VP, the white man VP and the identity politics of the Democrat party will
00:10:33.660 have to jump in to save Kamala Harris. But Tim Walz is so submissive. He's so obsequious. I'm, I'm sure
00:10:40.400 that he can do it in a way that will still exalt the queen Kamala. And, and even if not one, they might
00:10:48.400 end up just cutting it out of the interview. That's one of the reasons it's pre-taped and two,
00:10:52.540 it won't really matter because the, the media establishment will, will not focus on it. They'll,
00:10:58.660 they'll suppress it. No one is going to be watching this interview from beginning to end. I think you
00:11:02.720 and I are two of the only people in the country probably who will be doing that. It's just about
00:11:06.720 the little clips that are going to go around. So they're going to find one or two good clips of
00:11:10.380 Kamala and, and they'll check the box that she did the interview and they'll move on trying to get
00:11:14.980 her into the white house without ever really having to campaign at all.
00:11:19.120 I actually think people will watch this because it's like, can she speak? I mean,
00:11:24.000 we're all wondering, we've been sold this bill of goods over the past five weeks. Like has she been
00:11:28.280 magically transformed? Did she have some interaction with Jack's beans in the beanstalk? Something that
00:11:34.360 would really just be a game changer in her entire personality. Like I would like to see how she does.
00:11:39.820 I don't expect her to totally crumble, but I think there'll be a higher level than, well, I mean,
00:11:45.440 that goes without saying average viewership for CNN, which means, you know, more than three people
00:11:50.320 will be watching. Right. Because it's the presidency. You don't think there'll be an uptick
00:11:55.800 in the numbers, like a significant uptick. It seems to me that people are decided,
00:12:01.220 you know, and there are something like maybe 7% of voters who, who are undecided. Maybe they were
00:12:06.620 leaning toward RFK Jr. or something. We'll see how the endorsement of RFK Jr. for, for Donald Trump
00:12:11.780 works out, even though he's going to be forced to remain on the ballot in certain swing states.
00:12:15.260 So you're talking about a relatively small number of people who are not decided. And a lot of the
00:12:19.500 people who are not decided are not the most plugged in. They're not the kind of people who
00:12:23.400 are going to watch, forget about an hour or two hours of political content straight. They might,
00:12:28.340 might only watch two or three minutes straight. So I agree that there will be certainly much more
00:12:33.580 interest in this interview than pretty much anything else that happens on CNN. And it's historic in
00:12:39.800 that Kamala is finally speaking since she became the nominee. But I don't think it's,
00:12:44.700 it's really going to move the needle either way. I think if this were a perilous risk for Kamala
00:12:51.700 Harris, she just wouldn't do it. Here's what else they need to worry about. Tim Walls in particular,
00:12:58.000 this is how the Democrats have set the stage for this interview and all interactions with Kamala
00:13:07.160 Harris and others. Remember Ariel from the white women for Harris zoom call. Here's her advice to 0.95
00:13:16.420 Tim Walls and others. As white women, we need to use our privilege to make positive changes. 1.00
00:13:22.900 If you find yourself talking over or speaking for BIPOC individuals, or God forbid, correcting them, 1.00
00:13:30.180 just take a beat. And instead we can put our listening ears on. So do learn from and amplify
00:13:37.100 the voices of those who have been historically marginalized and use the privilege you have
00:13:42.920 in order to push for a systemic change. As white people, we have a lot to learn and unlearn. So do
00:13:51.660 check your blind spots.
00:13:53.220 Oh my gosh, Michael. That's advice for Dana Bash and for Tim Walls.
00:13:58.640 Megan, I refuse to believe that that person is sincere in any way. That is obviously a right
00:14:07.220 winger who has subversively infiltrated. There is no, there is no way that a person would seriously
00:14:14.360 hit every single caricature of a liberal white woman. The vocal fry, the uptick inflection at the 1.00
00:14:22.060 end of a sentence and the kind of nodding of the head and the idioms like take a beat. There is
00:14:30.340 just okay. And we have to not talk as I'm talking to you. It's not two or three of those. I'd say
00:14:36.340 maybe it's sincere. Every single one. This is right-wing political satire.
00:14:42.400 If only I can see why you say that. In fact, I think she's real and this is how she actually
00:14:47.840 sees the world. And if Dana Bash has the nerve to, God forbid, challenge or correct a BIPOC like 1.00
00:14:55.420 Kamala Harris, she's going to have to answer to little Ariel. Nevermind Tim Walls. God forbid, 1.00
00:15:00.220 a white man do it. Here is the second thing I wanted to get to. This is a big story. A week to 10 days
00:15:09.920 ago, Judy Woodruff of PBS News went out on the air and actually tried to claim that Trump was trying
00:15:19.180 to kill a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas because he didn't want the advancement of peace
00:15:27.460 until he gets into office. It would make him look bad. So he had had a call with Bibi Netanyahu in which
00:15:33.920 he discouraged him from striking such a deal. Here is her original, quote, reporting.
00:15:40.300 The reporting is that former President Trump is on the phone with the prime minister of Israel,
00:15:47.340 urging him not to cut a deal right now because that is it's believed that would help the Harris campaign.
00:15:55.260 So I don't know where that. I don't know who knows whether that will come about or not.
00:16:02.440 But I have to think that the Harris campaign would like for President Biden to do what president to
00:16:09.660 do, which is work on that one. Yeah. OK, so two allegations in there that Trump was on the phone
00:16:16.300 with Bibi and secondly, that he was discouraging him from striking a deal. And I guess the third,
00:16:21.200 the third is because he's worried it would help Kamala Harris. All right. Those are the three
00:16:25.620 allegations. Then she comes out after the fact because Team Trump started hitting her immediately 0.91
00:16:30.740 saying this is totally irresponsible and untrue. She comes out via tweet. I want to clarify my
00:16:38.200 remarks on the PBS news special on Monday night about the ongoing ceasefire talks in the Middle East.
00:16:43.240 As I said, this was not based on my original reporting. I was referring to reports I had read
00:16:49.000 in Axios and Reuters about former President Trump having spoken to the Israeli prime minister.
00:16:56.420 In the live TV moment, I repeated the story because I hadn't seen later reporting that both
00:17:02.180 sides denied it. This was a mistake and I apologize for it. OK, so.
00:17:08.720 I and many others said, OK, did Axios and reporter and Reuters report what she's claiming?
00:17:17.560 Was it in fact their fault? And she just repeated a claim made by two other outlets that was untrue,
00:17:23.320 because if that's true, then they then they were patient zero in the spread of this misinformation.
00:17:28.780 So we went back and checked the Reuters report. We were able to determine to determine only cited
00:17:35.120 Axios. So they were admitting we didn't do any original reporting. We're basing our report here
00:17:40.700 on Axios. And what Reuters cited to was the fact that they had denied, I think, is what they had reported
00:17:48.420 that they had denied that they had engaged in such a phone call. Axios did ultimately report that they
00:17:55.440 were denying they'd had a phone call. And so that left us wondering, well, what was Axios's original
00:18:00.680 report? Because they labeled the report we could find and Reuters found as updated. Now, sometimes when
00:18:06.360 these these outlets engage in bad reporting, they update and then they scrub the original without
00:18:12.140 owning it. We saw the Minneapolis Star Tribune do that last week. So we're still trying to figure
00:18:18.440 out whether Woodruff is the villain or Axios is the villain. And we went and tried to pull the
00:18:24.500 original Axios report. Well, it wasn't available via the way back machine of the Internet. I don't know
00:18:29.300 how that thing works, but my producers tell me Axios doesn't subscribe to it and therefore its reports
00:18:34.440 could not be found there. So Yashar Ali, who is an independent journalist, and he was the one who
00:18:42.200 broke the story about Judy to begin with, went back to Axios and Reuters and said, did you ever,
00:18:50.180 as she is claiming, report that the two men had a conversation and in it Trump discouraged BB from
00:18:57.460 entering into a ceasefire? And the reasoning was Trump didn't want to help Kamala Harris politically.
00:19:04.440 And he's now published his answer, the answer he got. I'm scrolling down here. Obviously,
00:19:13.340 he says this was a major allegation by Judy Woodruff. It would mean that Netanyahu was sacrificing the
00:19:18.260 lives of the hostages and the security of Israel for Donald Trump's candidacy, and that Donald Trump
00:19:23.200 was trying to keep the hostages and civilians in Gaza in harm's way for political purposes.
00:19:28.540 When people push back against her, Woodruff tweeted that she had relied on Axios and Reuters reporting
00:19:33.620 on the matter, but admits that Trump and Netanyahu had denied the reporting. She apologized for the
00:19:37.900 oversight, but her tweet was inaccurate. Yashar is nicer than I am. She lied. As I noted last week,
00:19:44.400 Axios and Reuters never reported that Netanyahu was being urged by Trump not to take a hostage deal.
00:19:49.300 They had just reported that Trump and Netanyahu spoke about Gaza. That was the original reporting.
00:19:55.320 But to be sure, I went back to check a few things and also asked Axios for comment.
00:19:59.660 First, the Reuters report that Woodruff cited was just a pickup of the Axios story.
00:20:04.140 The Axios story Woodruff cited had been updated to reflect Netanyahu's denial that he and Trump
00:20:09.540 ever discussed Gaza and a hostage deal. A spokesperson for Axios then confirmed to Yashar
00:20:15.060 that they never reported that Trump was said to have been discouraging Netanyahu from taking the deal.
00:20:23.220 This is Axios on the record saying we never reported what Judy Woodruff is claiming we did.
00:20:30.600 Yashar continues, not only were Woodruff's on air comments inaccurate, but her apology tweet also said
00:20:37.060 that Axios and Reuters reported something they never did. Neither publication even stepped into the area
00:20:43.940 that she suggested. He writes, I have followed up with PBS for comment. She lied. She lied on the air
00:20:51.780 to try to make Trump look like a callous douchebag who placed his own electoral chances above the safety
00:20:59.340 of American hostages, Israeli hostages in harm's way. And then she lied when she was caught and called
00:21:05.980 out by trying to blame Axios, who did not commit the sin she accused them of. And she's failed to
00:21:13.440 take responsibility. She is caught red handed. And this is an organization, PBS, we fund Michael Knowles.
00:21:20.260 We fund it. You're absolutely right. It's great that you delved into this. And then Yashar provided
00:21:28.560 that final little confirmation there. But as you say, it comes down to two words, she lied. And the way
00:21:34.520 that you could have known that she lied before looking into any of this are another two words in
00:21:39.360 her initial comments. The reporting. The reporting was doing a whole lot of work in her accusations
00:21:46.680 against Donald Trump. It's kind of like another two words that pop up often in liberal attacks on
00:21:51.440 conservatives. Critics say, it's always critics say, they never tell us exactly who those critics
00:21:56.420 are. But the critics supposedly hate these Republicans and they make all sorts of allegations
00:22:02.940 against them. Had she been relying on actual news reports, she would have cited them in her initial
00:22:10.300 comments. What she was engaging in. Yes, exactly. It was gossip mongering. It was inventing gossip and 0.97
00:22:18.280 rumors to attack Trump. And this is par for the course. We've seen this since 2015. You know,
00:22:23.400 sources are saying, reports are alleging that Donald Trump colluded with the Russians. And that Donald
00:22:30.180 Trump, remember they said he hired hookers in a hotel room in Moscow. They never provided any evidence
00:22:35.120 for that. And sources are alleging that he's corresponding, I don't know, with the KJB or
00:22:40.620 this, that, or the other thing. Now that he's working with Bibi Netanyahu, who has absolutely no
00:22:45.400 incentive, by the way. Just think about how insane this story is on the face. That Bibi Netanyahu is
00:22:52.600 willing to sacrifice Israeli lives because he just sort of likes Donald Trump and he thinks that maybe down
00:22:59.080 the line Trump will be a little more supportive than Biden or Harris. When both parties are broadly
00:23:04.840 supportive of Israel, I guess the Republicans are better for Israel than Democrats. But what
00:23:08.560 incentive does he have to do any of that? It's just totally bogus. But this is what happens when
00:23:14.660 you've exhausted every attack on Donald Trump for eight years. Come 2024, you just have to make stuff
00:23:20.700 up. Let's play the Judy Woodruff shot again, where she tells the lie. So like now that we know it's a
00:23:27.080 lie, it's not a mistake, because if it was a mistake, her apology would have owned that and
00:23:31.920 said, you know what? I'm genuinely sorry. I don't know where I got that from. Axios had reported that
00:23:36.880 there was a phone call and I leapt to a conclusion. And that was a failure of mine as a reporter. That's
00:23:41.180 not what she did. She blamed the most incendiary parts of her allegation that they were talking and
00:23:48.320 Trump was trying to get him to stop the ceasefire in order to help his campaign or not help Kamala's
00:23:55.960 campaign. Judy Woodruff made that up in her head and then reported it as based on reporting. And 1.00
00:24:03.420 then when she got caught content, she doubled down by saying, well, I was just based on reporting and
00:24:09.500 I hadn't seen the updated. No, here's the original sin again. Now, look at this now, knowing what we
00:24:13.920 know. The reporting is that former President Trump is on the phone with the prime minister of Israel,
00:24:21.960 urging him not to cut a deal right now because that is it's believed that would help the Harris
00:24:28.760 campaign. So I don't know where where that I don't know who knows whether that will come about or not.
00:24:37.060 But I have to think that the Harris campaign would like for President Biden to do what presidents do,
00:24:44.680 which is work on that one. Yeah. Look at that. All the assumptions go in Harris's favor. Like,
00:24:51.480 of course, she wants to do what's right. And of course, Trump wants to do it wrong. It's just such
00:24:55.660 a glaring example of the disgusting, corrupt media bias that is ubiquitous in our media and indeed in the
00:25:03.640 coverage of this campaign in a way that no political candidate could ever even hope to pay for.
00:25:10.040 Notice, Megan, even just the definite article there. It's not a report. It's not some report.
00:25:16.660 It's the reporting as though there were some definitive reporting that in a publicly funded
00:25:22.660 outlet. Now we are going to rely not their own reporting. They're not doing any work, but just
00:25:26.380 the reporting. And what ultimately we discover is the reporting. It's this woman's imagination. 0.50
00:25:35.780 And even beyond an innocent imagination, it's this woman's, it's the establishment media's
00:25:41.260 lies, false fictional narrative to benefit Harris and to harm Trump.
00:25:48.680 It's just absolutely lazy. I mean, you know, whatever. She was looking to fill time.
00:25:54.040 She filled it with a lie that exposed her bias. None of that is good, but then you go back and fix
00:26:02.180 it. Then you go back. Then the tweet says, I'm a dumb ass. I am very sorry. I, I was wrong. So I
00:26:09.020 was very wrong. And don't try to bring Axios and reporter reporter Reuters down with you on your fake
00:26:16.660 reporting. She's disparaged them both. And really PBS must answer for this. They must answer for this.
00:26:23.700 We're going to stay on them to demanding to know what, if anything, they're going to do it. Will
00:26:27.320 there be disciplinary action? Will they force her to issue a proper correction and apology
00:26:31.740 because she has not apologized for her actual sin right now? Look, you don't have to look far to find
00:26:38.200 disgusting examples of media bias. But this one is even more pernicious because it's, it's more subtle.
00:26:45.160 Many people probably saw her issue that original report, did not see the tweet trying to fix it,
00:26:51.020 and certainly won't see this reporting that proves it was all a lie. Um, this is another example.
00:26:58.120 I'm about to show you of media bias. It's more on your face. So it's actually less upsetting,
00:27:02.060 but it is disgusting. And it's Lawrence O'Donnell who had these lovely words to say about
00:27:07.400 RFKJ. Take a listen here. Robert Kennedy Jr. The Jeffrey Dahmer of the animal kingdom has horrified
00:27:17.100 his family almost as much as Jeffrey Dahmer horrified his family by endorsing the most horrifying
00:27:24.200 Republican presidential nominee in history. The only president who was more of a criminal in the
00:27:30.900 White House than Richard Nixon, who Robert Kennedy Jr.'s father tried to keep out of the presidency by
00:27:36.840 running against him until Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, which instantly, and it seemed
00:27:43.300 permanently created a beatific glow around the name Robert Kennedy, a name which his son has now fully
00:27:53.580 disgraced. So he's, he's Jeffrey Dahmer. That's, it's basically what you get. What does he mean by
00:28:02.920 the Jeffrey Dahmer of the animal kingdom? The left is really good at coming up with slogans and phrases
00:28:09.080 that sound like they mean something, but upon even slight inspection, don't seem to have any
00:28:15.280 meaning at all. Is he saying that he is the Jeffrey Dahmer toward animals? Is he basically saying-
00:28:21.960 He eats animals. There was some report about him eating a dog and I think he said it was a goat. I
00:28:25.960 don't remember the whole specifics, but this is what they said about him. He's a hunter. Okay. So he's a
00:28:30.100 hunter. So hunters are all Jeffrey Dahmer.
00:28:32.240 That was the allegation that he ate a dog, which is like, it's not controversial to eat a deer or a
00:28:37.660 chicken or really a goat, but it is controversial to eat a dog, at least in America. And that was
00:28:42.860 what they said about him. My team will correct me if I'm wrong. He denied it and said that that wasn't
00:28:46.800 true. But don't forget Barack Obama bragged about eating a dog in his memoir that got the guy elected
00:28:51.900 president. So I don't know, maybe that was just a smart political move is Jeffrey Dahmer. But, but then,
00:28:56.120 then I couldn't tell, did he mean he's Jeffrey Dahmer like of animal? Because if he's the Jeffrey Dahmer
00:29:01.640 of animals, like we're all animals, that would mean that Jeffrey Dahmer is the Jeffrey Dahmer of the
00:29:05.800 animal kingdom. I don't know. Lawrence O'Donnell, he's not making very much sense. And he comes to his
00:29:10.780 conclusion, which is RFK Jr. has fully disgraced the, the name Robert F. Kennedy. First of all, some of those
00:29:20.060 other Kennedys have gotten up to some disgraceful behavior over the years. RFK, I think is actually one of
00:29:24.640 the more wholesome and admirable figures in the crew. But putting all of that aside for a moment,
00:29:29.480 they were all singing this man's praises for his whole life. He's an important environmental lawyer,
00:29:34.260 even when RFK began to raise questions about the efficacy of vaccines. Don't forget, he had a glowing
00:29:40.460 interview with Jon Stewart back in the mid-2000s. Even then, when he was a reliable Democrat, RFK,
00:29:47.080 what a hero, what a wonderful man to carry on the family name. It's only when RFK Jr. started
00:29:54.300 to apply longstanding principles, principles that many, many Democrats held in the 1960s
00:30:01.360 to 2024. It's only when RFK said, look, I didn't leave my party. My party left me. I can't get on
00:30:07.900 board with this radical leftism. I'm going to support, I'm going to run for president as an
00:30:13.180 independent. And if I'm not going to win, I'm going to support the candidate who I think would be better
00:30:17.180 for the American people, Donald Trump. That's the only time when the knives come out. It's so
00:30:22.640 obviously disingenuous. It's so obviously opportunistic and cynical. And the more that
00:30:29.500 the left goes on these rands, it only gives one more admiration for Bobby Kennedy.
00:30:34.860 Yeah. I'm just checking myself here. He denied eating a dog. There was an interview with,
00:30:42.720 there was a piece on him in Vanity Fair that he'd eaten a dog. And they alleged that he texted a
00:30:50.460 message to a friend last year, including a photograph that showed him pantomiming eating
00:30:54.420 a cooked animal carcass. Kennedy reportedly recommended that the friend try eating dog while
00:31:00.680 traveling in Korea. Vanity Fair reported that the photo's digital metadata shows it was taken in 2010,
00:31:07.480 that the publication consulted with a veterinarian who said the carcass in the photo appeared to be
00:31:12.960 a dog's. Kennedy said the image depicted him eating a goat during a trip to South America. Good. So I did 0.64
00:31:18.960 remember correctly. This is what they're talking. This is why Lawrence O'Donnell calls him the Jeffrey.
00:31:23.580 I mean, it's just, it's so hard to keep up with the amount of hateful lies against anybody who's
00:31:30.300 either pro-Trump or open-minded to Trump, or in this case ran against Trump and might've hurt Trump,
00:31:37.400 but ultimately decided to back Trump instead of Harris. That's his sin. They would have,
00:31:42.940 you know, just this week, there's out a report, some guy saying that RFKJ sold him cocaine at
00:31:50.060 Harvard when RFKJ was like 21. Okay. The man's 70, right? So it's been 50 years and we're supposed
00:32:00.060 to go back. Like some dude says he purchased cocaine from RFKJ 50 years ago in 1969. And this is the reason
00:32:11.440 we're supposed to discount him as a Trump endorser. They're really scraping the bottom of the barrel
00:32:17.180 here, Michael. Also find me the 20 year old at Yale or Harvard or any of these other elite schools
00:32:25.420 who was not doing cocaine in the 1970s. I dare you to find me one. I think you will be unsuccessful.
00:32:32.200 RFKJ for his part has a good sense of humor about this. He actually put out a video. We just pulled it.
00:32:37.060 I saw it the other day in response to the dog eating allegation. And he's, it's him with his dogs
00:32:43.040 for the listening audience and he's frying up their dinner and it's got, he's putting all sorts of
00:32:47.840 delicious steak in there and he's making it extra because he, his, he's positing that he needs to
00:32:52.560 like get in better with his dogs. Now, after they read this terrible report about him, here's some of
00:32:57.320 what I'm doing. I'm making steak and chicken for the dogs. I don't normally do this. But ever since
00:33:06.480 that guy wrote the article about me saying I ate a dog, it hasn't been the same. Now I got to work
00:33:13.380 my way back into their good grace. This is my dinner. I'm giving him my food.
00:33:24.540 This is the height of irresponsible journalists. I mean, I don't care what it does for me, but
00:33:28.720 look at these guys.
00:33:35.020 These guys don't believe in anything they hear on the news. Yeah, daddy would never do something like
00:33:39.720 that. He's in the dog bed with them. He's reading the books saying it was a goat.
00:33:49.520 I love you guys. I would never eat a dog. It was fake news. It was fake news.
00:33:55.440 St. Francis was a wolf of goobia. This is one of their favorite books. It really calms them down. 1.00
00:34:01.180 That's amazing, Michael. I love it. And what's great, I think, about the RFK Jr. endorsement of
00:34:11.780 Trump is he actually hasn't sacrificed any of his principles or his positions. He didn't even do it
00:34:17.160 so happily. He said, look, I have disagreements with Trump and I will push back where I think it's
00:34:24.660 important to push back. But elections are a binary choice. It's clear that I'm not going to be the
00:34:29.120 nominee or I'm not going to be the president rather. So I'm going to pick Donald Trump.
00:34:33.260 And so one gets the impression that this is obviously a very intelligent person. This is a
00:34:39.420 man who has deeply held beliefs. This is a practical man, a man who puts the common good
00:34:44.640 of the country before his own personal ambitions, who keeps a relatively level head. And that's what
00:34:51.180 they hate about him. I don't just I don't agree with Bobby Kennedy on many things. He is legitimately
00:34:56.220 a liberal on lots of issues. And so we would have substantive disagreements. But I really respect
00:35:01.520 that this guy is independent. He's intelligent. He sticks to his guns, even when the entire media
00:35:07.620 apparatus that his family has done very well with for many decades turns against him, even when his
00:35:14.180 own family turns against him. He says, look, I believe what I believe. I'm not just going to go
00:35:17.980 along with the party line. I'm going to follow my my lights as I see them. That that's really admirable.
00:35:23.920 And I think that is what so scandalizes the media. I think that's what terrifies them the most.
00:35:30.460 So what we have, according to the media, is we have Hitler at the top of the ticket,
00:35:35.880 some sort of rabid misogynist as his VP candidate, and then Jeffrey Dahmer as their latest
00:35:42.300 endorser. So that endorser. So that's that's according to the media, what you have on the
00:35:47.040 it's a it's a miracle half the country appears ready to vote for this ticket. Stand by Michael
00:35:51.620 Knowles. We're going to come back with some very interesting Mark Halperin reporting
00:35:55.760 on the state of this race. Don't go away. 0.78
00:36:02.300 Michael, on the subject of our KJ, you mentioned it passing, but he's tried to take his name off
00:36:07.140 the ballot in the states in which there's a real competition. Like he said in his announcement,
00:36:13.660 I'm not going to try to take it off in like Vermont, but in Michigan and these critical swing
00:36:18.200 states, I am going to try to take it off because I don't want to cause Trump the election and I really
00:36:21.960 want to help him. And now we get word from Michigan, the secretary of state there, that that request has
00:36:27.480 been denied. She will not remove his name from the ballot. But according to let's see, I'm trying to
00:36:34.460 see the actual source of this Associated Press. She is. Stand by. She is fighting.
00:36:43.920 She just attempted to remove Cornel West from the ballot and she lost a court case that she's now 0.96
00:36:50.060 appealing. So it's fine to get Cornel West off because we know he's going to hurt Biden, if
00:36:54.000 anybody. But our KJ has to stay, even though he does not wish to be on said ballot. This is what
00:37:00.960 a free and fair election looks like, just in case you didn't know. By the way, part of the justification
00:37:06.160 for forcing RFK to remain on the ballot was that he's a minority party candidate. And there's a
00:37:12.540 difference between a small little minority party and one of the two major political parties. But
00:37:16.860 of course, Cornel West is also a minority party candidate. So it doesn't make any sense. And
00:37:20.760 then when you take into the context, the last six or eight months of RFK trying doggedly to gain
00:37:28.540 ballot access rebuffed many steps of that way. In fact, he made that a key point of his suspension
00:37:35.720 speech when he did go on to endorse Trump. He said, you know, it has been tooth and nail fighting
00:37:40.720 day after day to try to get on the ballot. And the secretaries of state wanted to keep him off
00:37:46.800 until it might hurt Trump to keep him on. And now he's got to fight tooth and nail to get off the
00:37:52.320 ballot. It's so crazy. It's really disheartening. Mark Halperin, though, with a very interesting dose
00:38:00.240 of reality for Team Harris and people who might be getting kind of excited about what's happening
00:38:07.460 with her. Now, I will tell you this relates to whether Kamala Harris has experienced a post
00:38:15.340 convention bump. And the answer is she hasn't. The answer is she has not. Yahoo polling today
00:38:23.660 showing that she's 47, Trump's 46, 719, July 19th to July 22nd before the convention. It was 46,
00:38:34.980 46, both. That's a tie. That's the same. That's no movement. She's gotten no bounce. Now there's
00:38:40.080 more polls out today. National poll by YouGov and The Economist shows the same. No, no bounce
00:38:46.680 for her. She's 47. He's 45, which is where they were before. And that's and here's Mark Halperin
00:38:54.860 sounding the alarm on to Democrats on what's happening here. There's some public polling already.
00:39:00.820 There's more coming. And there's some private polling that suggests that nationally in the
00:39:06.320 battleground states, she's not ahead. She might be ahead on paper, but well within the margin of
00:39:12.960 error. And there's some battleground states now where I think Donald Trump's on this trajectory is
00:39:17.880 going to be ahead. And it may be, regardless of what happens in the interview, regardless what happens
00:39:23.700 in the debate, it may be that by the middle of September, when things have calmed down,
00:39:29.780 when the Trump campaign have had time to prey on some of the weaknesses that I suggested,
00:39:35.020 that he's ahead in all the sunbelt states and ahead in Pennsylvania and competitive in Michigan
00:39:41.680 and Wisconsin, which would be roughly where Joe Biden was before the debate with a single path
00:39:49.520 to 270 electoral votes, the three Great Lakes states and Nebraska too. And that'd be a scary
00:39:56.060 position for the Democratic Party to be in from mid-September through election day. Because then
00:40:01.620 they'd have a candidate who'd never won a presidential election, never won a primary or caucus,
00:40:06.420 had run for president once and failed, had been for most of her time as vice president, not a
00:40:11.520 short-footed person on the national stage. Again, I'm not predicting this will happen, but I think if
00:40:17.400 the data that I think is expected to come out comes out, the people who either helped her secure the
00:40:24.800 nomination without a shot being fired, and the people who've long been worried about her against 0.98
00:40:31.660 Donald Trump will either been I-told-you-so mode or oh-no mode or both.
00:40:38.060 What do you make of that?
00:40:39.860 It reminds me of Gavin Newsom's reaction just speaking with Jon Favreau, the former head of speech
00:40:46.140 writing for Obama, where even Newsom, this is a sitting Democrat governor, started laughing about
00:40:51.760 the supposedly open and democratic process to nominate Kamala Harris. And Favreau's laughing
00:40:56.380 too, and everybody's laughing because we know that this was a palace coup. It had nothing to do with
00:41:01.220 the Democratic base, the will of any voters. She just slipped right in there. And as Mark Halpern points
00:41:07.840 out there, she's never won a single primary, even the time that she did run for president. So
00:41:12.280 no matter how confident the Democrats are feeling right now, no matter how much more energized they
00:41:18.760 feel after they kicked out poor old Joe, we're dealing with a nominee who is completely untested
00:41:24.640 in a national election, who has not appeared sure-footed, to use his phrase, while she's been
00:41:30.420 vice president, who doesn't really have any accomplishments under her belt in government
00:41:36.040 or even electorally as she's running for office. So if I were Democrats, I'd be worried. Even
00:41:42.300 probably the best-looking poll for Kamala right now came out last Friday. Fairleigh Dickinson poll
00:41:46.480 showed nationally Kamala at 50, Trump at 43, 7% of voters looking at someone else. Now, of course,
00:41:53.620 that poll was conducted before Friday's endorsement from RFK of Trump. And so there you go. That could be
00:42:00.020 the seven points right there. But of course, the election won't be decided nationally. It'll be decided
00:42:04.560 within the swing states. And so the endorsement of someone like RFK really would worry me if I were
00:42:09.960 a Democrat, because the Democrats are hoping to get a bump from the DNC, while RFK just blunts
00:42:15.600 whatever bump might have happened because he gives his endorsement the day after the DNC. And then the
00:42:20.740 swing states are all separated by, what, two or three points now? And RFK was commanding five points in
00:42:25.720 some of those states. So even just that shift alone could represent a shift in momentum for the race.
00:42:32.260 And as Halpern points out, if the momentum continues as it is right now, by the end of September,
00:42:37.500 Democrats are going to be in a terrible spot.
00:42:39.900 I mean, if this is true and she's starting to drop in the polls and has maxed out, she's peaked
00:42:45.780 just in the context of the Democrats' relief that Biden was out and they had anyone new. But now they're
00:42:51.620 getting to see her again and the numbers start to fall. There's nothing Tim Walz is going to be able to do
00:42:56.180 to save her. The big white blankie will not save the day. It'll be it'll be like when my mom got
00:43:01.340 rid of my big white blankie and just kept telling me it was in the wash till I realized I was on my
00:43:06.300 own. She may have a white blankie went to the wash. Joe Biden went to a farm upstate. I think that's
00:43:12.660 like they do to old yeller. And so, you know, there are a lot of mixed metaphors here, but all of it
00:43:18.380 comes down to the fact that Kamala is extraordinarily vulnerable. And this is why, of course, she only wants 1.00
00:43:24.260 to have one debate with Trump. She wants to push that debate as close as she possibly can to early
00:43:29.740 voting beginning. She wants it to be inconsequential in the race. Democrats were clever in this way 0.70
00:43:34.260 to to set up two debates, one way earlier than it should have been, one way later than it should
00:43:39.880 have been. And so after the first one proved that Biden was incapable, they could just boot him off
00:43:45.020 the ballot and reset. And then they're hoping that the September debate, even even if it goes poorly
00:43:50.080 for Kamala, will simply be inconsequential. But but don't forget, the only reason Biden agreed to
00:43:56.080 those debates in the first place is because he was losing because he was he was on a bad path.
00:44:00.280 And so he had to do something to try to turn it around. Kamala is just going to try to sit on her 1.00
00:44:04.420 hands and wait it out to get into the White House. Well, if these data keep coming up, as Mark Halpern
00:44:10.200 is suggesting, that that is going to mean that Kamala is on a bad path. It's a it's a slight path
00:44:16.280 downward, but it's it's steady that Trump is on a steady path up. And then she's going to have to
00:44:20.640 try something new. But but whatever she tries is is only going to expose her to even greater risk.
00:44:27.040 And the risks haven't paid off to this point. She can't save herself with her great oratory.
00:44:31.460 Here is the moment you just referenced with Gavin Newsom on the Pod Save America podcast.
00:44:37.400 How are you feeling about the switch? I mean, the switch. Now we went through a very open process.
00:44:43.480 It's a very inclusive process. It was bottom up. I don't know if you know that.
00:44:48.000 Yes, that's what I've been told to say. Yes, it was a blitz primary, I believe is what they called it.
00:44:52.900 It was a very, very fast blitz. It was a blitz primary, so we saw that.
00:44:56.840 Oh, a 30 minute convention, you know, between a tweet and another tweet.
00:45:01.960 It's amazing how it happened. Yeah, it's been amazing. But what is amazing is how unified everybody is.
00:45:06.720 It's next level.
00:45:09.460 That's what I've been told to say. It's amazing. And you remember that Chuck Schumer
00:45:12.300 saw it soundbite with him saying it's bottom up. It's been grassroots. And here he is saying
00:45:19.680 it's bottom up. That's what I've been told to say. We're aware that this is all a lie. We know
00:45:24.180 we're being lied to. We know this was not bottom up. I love how Gavin Newsom, after he's been joking
00:45:30.420 around a little too much with these insider guys, this is one of the good aspects of the Pod Save
00:45:36.040 America universe, is that these are insiders that worked in the Obama White House. This is
00:45:41.680 a real beltway, swampy kind of establishment type podcast. And so he can loosen his tie a little bit
00:45:47.420 here. He's speaking with his colleagues in many ways. And they can, exactly, with his bros, they
00:45:54.220 can joke about how the firm works. And so he's joking, oh, yeah, in between one tweet, then we had
00:45:59.580 a 20 minute open primary and then another tweet. That's how it works. But then he makes it really
00:46:03.440 serious at the end. He says, oh, wait a second. I'm in public. But you know what's really amazing
00:46:07.140 is how unified we all are. We're unified. Totally unified. A lot of unity I've been seeing in this
00:46:11.900 podcast. And in a sense, the Democrats are unified. They've accepted that Kamala is just the person
00:46:16.540 they're going to have to run this time. But no one's excited about it, including Jon Favreau,
00:46:22.020 including Gavin Newsom, and most importantly, including those moderate and centrist voters that
00:46:26.980 they're going to have to try to pull over in the swing states. 0.99
00:46:29.240 Mm hmm. They they they're panicked and they should be panicked because she's peaked. That's how it
00:46:35.980 looks. And now she's actually just going to have to do the work of campaigning, which she has never 0.99
00:46:39.800 been very good at. Yes, she's got the whole Democratic Party and establishment behind her. 1.00
00:46:44.140 She just raised five hundred million dollars, but they outspent Trump back in 16, too. I haven't
00:46:51.140 looked at 20 recently, but for sure in 16. And look, we reported this last week. Halpern actually
00:46:56.400 sent out a tweet on this, too, saying she had Hollywood heavyweights getting her ready for
00:47:00.780 that DNC speech. His his tweet was cryptic. He was talking about a Lord was there and there
00:47:06.320 were a lot of creative artists. And it took me a while. Hello. I used to be with CAA, the creative
00:47:10.780 artist agency. He's talking about the top agent and the guy who runs CAA. There's Kevin Huvane and
00:47:15.760 this guy, Brian Lord. So the head of one of, if not the most powerful agency in the world and other
00:47:23.060 creative artists within, I mean, everybody's there. Meryl Streep was there. Jennifer Aniston,
00:47:27.700 all the people, Charlize. So these people sat down, some of them, I don't know who, which ones,
00:47:33.420 and got her ready. They can't do that. They're not doing that for the Dana Bash interview.
00:47:38.360 They're not going to do that for the impromptu Joe the Plumber moment. So she'll get caught
00:47:42.740 eventually for who she is. Exactly. And one aspect of the DNC that I found so shocking
00:47:49.480 was that the most prominent Hollywood celebrity who kept cropping up was Mark Hamill, was this guy
00:47:55.500 who wasn't even the coolest actor in a, in a movie series that began 50 years ago or 40 or so years
00:48:02.360 ago. So I thought, wait, hold on. You guys own Hollywood. Why don't you bring out the big celebs?
00:48:06.840 And it, it just doesn't seem that anyone is all that jazzed up about Kamala. You know,
00:48:13.480 the, the Dems are putting on a good face and maybe they have a shot and maybe she's got a better shot
00:48:17.680 than Joe Biden had when people realized his brain was applesauce. But I think part of the reason
00:48:22.660 that Gavin Newsom can joke around here about this race, part of the reason that Gretchen Whitmer
00:48:27.100 in Michigan is, is staying a little bit removed from it is some sophisticated Democrats are thinking,
00:48:34.580 maybe we just got to write off 2024 and we'll come back and get them at 2028. Maybe I don't want to
00:48:39.300 go down with the ship. You wonder what the contest would look like if they actually had had an open
00:48:46.420 primary and let some of these guys throw their hat into the ring. We shall never know. Michael
00:48:50.720 Knowles, a pleasure, my friend. Thank you for being here. Wonderful to see you as always, Megan. Thank
00:48:55.180 you for having me. We'll be right back with Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin. Looking forward to speaking
00:49:00.860 with him. I'm excited to bring you a first time guest on this show today and a name you likely know
00:49:09.380 very well, governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia. He was rumored to be on the shortlist for former
00:49:14.900 president Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate while his accomplishments in Virginia have
00:49:20.040 made him enormously popular in what is increasingly a blue state, but he is not blue. He is a conservative
00:49:28.340 and he is popular on both sides of the aisle. So is Virginia possibly in play for president Trump in
00:49:34.920 2024? And does governor Youngkin have the model for success for Republicans on a go forward basis?
00:49:41.840 Governor, welcome to the show. Megan, thank you so much for having me and what an honor it is to be
00:49:47.240 with you. And yes, Virginia is competitive. Uh, and we have to remind ourselves that just, uh,
00:49:55.180 four years ago, Joe Biden won Virginia by four, um, by 10 points. And, uh, today it's competitive.
00:50:01.560 Uh, you know, in 2021, we came back and we're able to win a statewide election for a Republican
00:50:08.200 for the first time in 12 years. And I think what Virginians have seen is that common sense,
00:50:14.340 conservative policies work when we grow an economy and we combat crime and we lift up students and
00:50:21.440 families, good things happen. And therefore, when they see the difference between what Donald Trump
00:50:27.060 did for Americans during his first administration and what they have felt over the course of the last
00:50:33.820 three and a half years in the Biden Harris administration, uh, they see strength from
00:50:38.180 Donald Trump, weakness from Biden Harris. And the idea of elect reelecting Donald Trump back into the
00:50:44.620 white house is really appealing. And that's why Virginia is competitive. And Megan, I think that's
00:50:49.400 why we're seeing the battleground States as tight as they are right now is because many of these States
00:50:55.080 are seeing the exact same phenomenon. The most important topic is the economy and the future of
00:51:01.220 people's confidence to earn a living and take care of their families. The second most important
00:51:05.660 topic is border security. And the fact that the nation has become 50 border States. Uh, and most
00:51:12.200 importantly, we're seeing, we're seeing the America want strength in foreign policy. And it's been the
00:51:17.540 weakness out of the Biden Harris administration that has enabled, uh, and facilitated in my view,
00:51:23.380 the war in Ukraine, the war in the middle East and China being as bold and threatening to Taiwan as it
00:51:28.640 is. So this is about strength versus weakness. And this is a chance I think for America to stand
00:51:33.600 back, back up and put Donald Trump back in the white house. So you are a very successful man and
00:51:39.160 you know something about the economy because while you started off, like our son right now is working
00:51:42.880 as a bus boy. Uh, and you were basically that level when you first entered the workforce, but then
00:51:48.720 went on to, uh, chair the Carlisle group and made a bunch of money on your own self-made man.
00:51:53.680 Then you funded your own campaign and ran for governor and one in Virginia as a conservative
00:51:58.300 in what I said, as I said, as an increasingly blue state, can I ask you about what appear to
00:52:03.260 be Kamala Harris's, uh, tax plans for Americans? Because this is something that you know a lot
00:52:08.660 about how to get an economy going, what makes sense, what would make businesses thrive and higher.
00:52:13.600 And what we've heard so far is that she is adopting Joe Biden's most recent proposals.
00:52:18.780 The wall street journal had a report about this yesterday, which would raise taxes. And I mean,
00:52:24.460 raise them on the so-called rich and riches, anybody making more than $400,000 a year, which
00:52:30.000 means small business owners. Uh, the, the taxes would go up quote sharply on some high income
00:52:36.460 individuals. Some top marginal tax rates would reach the highest point since 1986 saying that the
00:52:42.660 rates would go for individuals, um, up to 44.6% up to 44.6%, which is just huge. I mean,
00:52:53.320 they're already at 39%, not to mention what would happen on capital gains taxes. So if make any money
00:52:59.280 in the market, business income, all those taxes are going up. Corporations would face a 28% tax rate
00:53:04.960 up from 21% large corporations would pay 21% minimum tax up from 15%. And she even wants to tax unrealized 0.65
00:53:13.500 capital gains. So money, it looks like you made on paper, but you didn't cash in the stock. So you
00:53:17.680 didn't actually make those things, uh, on those who have very high net worths. Um, what will this do
00:53:24.700 to the economy if she gets that through? Well, let me begin that. I believe that, uh, starting as a
00:53:32.400 busboy is a great place to start. And so I think your son has got a bright future in front of him.
00:53:37.080 Uh, I firmly believe that because there's dignity in work. And I think one of the realities in life is
00:53:44.920 that, uh, work is not only a good thing, but, uh, we need more people working across the commonwealth
00:53:52.760 of Virginia and across America. Uh, and when people are able to keep more of their hard earned money
00:53:58.460 in their pockets, uh, they in fact want to work harder. And on top of that, they spend, uh, and
00:54:05.420 this is at the heart of the misguided tax policy that the liberal left has consistently promoted.
00:54:12.140 I mean, at the end of the day, what they want to do is raise taxes. They just want to raise taxes.
00:54:18.640 They want to raise them on everybody. And let's not be confused. A tax increase on corporations
00:54:24.560 will translate into a tax increase for all Americans. When product prices go up, uh, there
00:54:31.260 is a real belief that Kamala Harris will not, not renew the great tax reform that happened under
00:54:37.780 president Trump's first term in the tax cut and jobs act, uh, and not renewing all of that great
00:54:43.860 tax legislation that facilitated, uh, unprecedented economic growth will once again, be a broad-based
00:54:50.080 tax increase on all Americans. Um, the reality is that we need to make sure that we're working
00:54:57.180 to be efficient at the government level, to stop the runaway spending, to invest in the most important
00:55:04.420 things and to allow Virginians and Americans to keep more of their hard earned money in their pockets.
00:55:09.980 You know, Megan, when I came into Virginia, uh, Virginia was suffering. Uh, we were bottom third in
00:55:16.100 the nation in job growth. Uh, we were, uh, bottom 10 in the nation, getting our schools back open.
00:55:22.360 We had seen small businesses closed left, right, and center. And for nine straight years, we'd seen
00:55:26.920 more Virginians move away than move here from the other 49 states. Uh, there was a real challenge.
00:55:32.780 And one of the first things we did was one proclaim that we were open for business, but to go to work
00:55:39.120 to provide tax relief. Uh, and during our, during our first two and a half years, we've seen $5 billion
00:55:45.900 of tax relief. And we're, we already have another 3 billion in the works that has been passed that,
00:55:52.080 that voters will realize. And I want to give them more because the system works when they can keep
00:55:57.780 more money in their pocket. There's more people who are hired. There's more people that are working.
00:56:03.220 And on top of that, then there's more receipts at the state level, which gives us the ability
00:56:07.620 to reduce taxes again and invest in our most critical topics. I mean, I have to say that we've
00:56:13.860 had record investment in education, record investment in law enforcement, record investment
00:56:18.860 in behavioral health, record investment in cleaning up our streams and rivers and our bays.
00:56:23.500 And we've done all of that with record tax relief because we have record employment.
00:56:29.480 This is a very basic, simple truth that when we have more people engaged in our economy who are
00:56:37.220 keeping more money in their pocket, then the economy grows. And yes, that provides more resources in
00:56:43.120 order to invest. But when we raise taxes, when we take money out of people's pockets, when we penalize
00:56:49.320 companies for doing well, we in fact provide the opposite incentive. And that is what the Biden
00:56:56.320 Harris administration and Kamala Harris wants to do on a go forward basis, which is going to be severely
00:57:01.160 damaging to the U.S. economy and to American families.
00:57:05.660 Yeah. You think about, you know, if a small business owner employs five people and he sees
00:57:11.560 his taxes go up by these margins, is he just going to suck it up or is he going to lay somebody off
00:57:17.380 so that the business continues to be able to pay its bills? I mean, that just it makes common sense,
00:57:22.300 but she just wants to style it as we're going to get the evil rich people and we'll protect the 1.00
00:57:27.140 working class. If you're under 400,000, you don't have to worry about it. You see,
00:57:30.940 I'll protect you. But that just ignores motivations for corporations and the men and women who lead
00:57:37.780 them. Well, and I'll repeat that a tax increase is not limited to just those that it's thinking
00:57:47.140 it's raising taxes on. Raising taxes on corporations across America will increase product prices and will
00:57:55.380 drive inflation. It just will. We know that. And when we see Americans, 66 percent of Americans
00:58:02.320 today already living paycheck to paycheck, when they go to the grocery store and it's a gut punch
00:58:08.400 every time they're trying to feed their families, when they're trying to buy a home and all of a sudden
00:58:13.360 the prospect of of that American dream is so far away from anything they could realize that they
00:58:18.940 abandon hope and in living that American dream. We know we have to do something different.
00:58:25.320 You know, in Donald Trump's first administration, we had high growth and low inflation. We had more
00:58:31.060 people lifted out of poverty than ever. We saw more Americans see a pathway to buying a home.
00:58:38.320 Mortgage rates were incredibly low. And today we see runaway inflation, that silent thief,
00:58:44.780 truly stealing the hard earned money from so many Virginians and Americans. We've got to get back to
00:58:51.380 economic reality. And the reality is that we if we raise taxes on Americans, then we, in fact, are going
00:58:59.320 to damage economic prosperity. If we can continue to pursue policies that understand that it's
00:59:06.460 Americans money, not the government's. It's Virginians money, not the government. Then we can charge a path
00:59:14.040 forward or chart a path forward that will unleash economic prosperity. We've seen it happen under
00:59:19.580 Donald Trump. We've seen the opposite happen under Joe Biden. And this is a very clear comparison of
00:59:26.400 two track records, the Kamala Harris track record and the Donald Trump track record. And I'm telling you
00:59:32.040 that given the fact that the economy is the number one topic in America today, people are going to want
00:59:37.220 the Donald Trump track record. There's there's you know, she's been trying her level best to not 0.98
00:59:42.920 really show us exactly what the policies are. But this embrace of Biden's tax policy is one of the
00:59:48.720 things we've learned. You've been trying to sound the alarm on some of these things in Virginia and
00:59:53.820 beyond. And one of the things you're doing, there's a lot I want to talk to you about that
00:59:57.200 you're doing in Virginia that is I think will be very exciting to a lot of our audience. But one of the
01:00:02.180 things you've just done is try to clean up the Virginia voting roles to try to purge them of
01:00:09.560 dead people right on and people who are not American citizens, which should not be controversial.
01:00:17.300 But lo and behold, you found a lot of names that needed to go. Well, there's a basic principle here,
01:00:23.740 which is American elections should be decided by citizens of America. Virginia elections should be
01:00:30.120 decided by citizens of Virginia. And we went to work with the recognition that the voter, the motor voter
01:00:39.040 law that was passed decades ago, opened up a risk and whether through purpose or accident, non citizens
01:00:49.000 are able to register to vote. And unfortunately, it has been left unattended for a while. I'm very,
01:00:57.300 very pleased with Speaker Johnson's efforts to pass legislation to force the proof of citizenship in
01:01:06.280 order to register to vote. But in Virginia, what we did was go grab simple data analytics. And there
01:01:13.940 are lots of data sets from the Social Security Administration to all the data we have about
01:01:18.720 Virginians and the DMV and use those to cross reference citizens and non citizens. And when we did that,
01:01:25.900 what did we find? 6,300 non citizens who were registered to vote. We took the same practice with regards to
01:01:33.400 Virginians who had sadly passed away or moved away. And last year, we found nearly 80,000 folks in the voter
01:01:39.960 rules that had sadly passed away, but shouldn't have been on the voter rules. I issued an executive order a couple
01:01:45.680 of weeks back that codified all of these practices. And in fact, now mandates that on a daily basis,
01:01:51.740 we are scrubbing our voter rolls as we head into early voting in September. This is very straightforward.
01:02:00.380 American election should be decided by American citizens. The other thing that we really felt
01:02:05.480 strongly about is that the processes of counting votes need to be well understood and trusted.
01:02:14.000 We have paper ballots in Virginia. We have counting machines, no voting machines. We are not connected
01:02:21.300 to the internet. We have great custody practices. I want to make sure that our ballot boxes are secured
01:02:28.740 24 by seven. And I also want to make sure that all Virginians know this and that if non citizens are 0.98
01:02:35.380 voting, that it is in fact a chargeable offense and you'll be arrested. And all of this went through my
01:02:42.480 executive order so that all Virginians can feel confident that they can trust their elections.
01:02:47.380 The bottom line is, as we look forward, I've just encouraged all governors to do the exact same
01:02:52.960 thing. I've been pleased because I've seen a number of states really take similar actions so that we can
01:02:58.480 provide the kind of confidence in this most important election that it deserves.
01:03:02.460 You've been, you know, living up to the promises that you made to govern as you, as you said you
01:03:10.960 would as a conservative. And one of the things you've done is sent the Virginia National Guard
01:03:14.640 down to help Texas out with the awful border problems we've been having. I'm just taking
01:03:19.840 through some of the things. So that's one thing a local governor did to try to help the Southern
01:03:24.680 states deal with this problem, which we're now, I guess, pretending is no longer a problem
01:03:29.080 because the Democrats want to win. In addition to that, you fought back. And one of the reasons
01:03:35.240 that you were elected was that you would fight back on the COVID madness and on the trans explosion 1.00
01:03:41.760 of the insanity policies in the Virginia schools. And you have lived up to your word. I, as a parent,
01:03:48.900 watched you campaign on this and watched Terry McAuliffe try to say that parents don't have a say
01:03:54.160 on what goes on inside the classroom. And my jaw dropped. You actually took office and you've done
01:04:00.180 what you promised to do. So let's just spend a minute on the COVID stuff because it was January
01:04:05.280 that Dr. Anthony Fauci told us he's really not satisfied. There was any learning loss at all
01:04:11.680 as a result of these school closures. And Randy Weingarten was featured at the DNC like she was some
01:04:17.400 sort of a heroine, even though she pushed these closures to go on indefinitely.
01:04:23.980 Yeah, there's, there's not been, uh, any more detrimental and misguided policy decisions that
01:04:32.140 were made during the pandemic. And there were a lot then closing our schools and telling our students
01:04:39.240 that's, uh, watching a 12 inch screen every day was a quality education. I mean, as I said earlier,
01:04:44.680 Virginia was bottom 10 in the nation and getting our schools back open. And the first thing I did
01:04:50.080 when I came into office was make sure that not only were our schools open, but to give parents
01:04:54.760 the ability to decide whether their child wears a mask or not. Uh, we'd watched systematic degradation
01:05:00.200 of expectations in our schools. And so when you have students that are told that they're proficient
01:05:06.380 in reading and math, but they're not really proficient in reading and math. And you compound that
01:05:11.320 by locking them out of the school buildings, you you're not surprised by the fact that Virginia
01:05:16.600 was top net top in the nation in learning loss in fourth grade reading and math. I'm going to say
01:05:23.280 that again, Virginia, one of the top education systems in America was number one in the nation
01:05:28.840 and learning loss in reading and math. And the primary reason was the fact that the foundations
01:05:33.960 were degraded because of expectations that had been lowered in what it took to be proficient.
01:05:39.440 And second of all, the kids were locked out of the classroom. And this is not an indictment of
01:05:44.380 teachers. I will tell you teachers worked hard to try to do the impossible, but that is why when
01:05:50.300 we last year saw this persistent learning loss, Megan, we took immediate action and went and worked
01:05:58.160 on a bipartisan basis with our general assembly and said, we need to fund particularly in our youngest
01:06:04.040 students. And so third through eighth graders now get intense tutoring if they are failed or at risk of
01:06:13.320 failing. And by the way, that was over 60% of our students who either failed or risk failing their
01:06:19.160 standards of learning tests. The results are good. We're seeing that we're seeing the test results
01:06:25.640 improved. I need them to improve a lot faster because we're still behind where we were pre pandemic. The other
01:06:32.520 area that I have been incredibly concerned about is that when policymakers and administrators and
01:06:39.880 and school associate teachers associations told families that it wasn't important for their students
01:06:45.240 to be in school, the results of that has been huge increases in chronic absenteeism. I mean,
01:06:51.800 giant increases where students just aren't in the classroom. And if they're not in the classroom,
01:06:56.840 they can't catch up. And so we initiated a statewide effort to tackle chronic absenteeism. We saw 16%
01:07:04.840 reduction in chronic absenteeism. But again, that's not nearly enough. So we have to get the kids back in
01:07:10.920 the classroom. And second of all, we have to make sure that they are getting the kinds of support and
01:07:15.480 intensive tutoring that they need. And let me add one more thing, Megan, and I apologize, but this topic is
01:07:21.080 absolutely a passion of mine, is that during this time period, literally the left facilitated
01:07:29.400 in our kids lives, massive, massive use of social media. And there's been no constraint. And we have
01:07:37.560 seen the role of social media, the addictive nature of social media have such a detrimental impact on our
01:07:48.200 young people. It has damaged them academically. It has caused severe mental health. We have seen
01:07:55.720 the rates of particularly teen girl suicide attempt and self-harm go up over 150%.
01:08:03.880 And we've got to get at this. And so that's why I signed an executive order last week,
01:08:10.120 or at the beginning of July that then translated into draft policies last week,
01:08:15.080 to make our schools from bell to bell, cell phone free. And we're going to make sure we work
01:08:20.360 together to draw some boundaries around our kids so that they can learn better and be healthier.
01:08:25.960 So we're trying to help the kids who did suffer learning loss, turn things around. We're trying
01:08:29.960 to get them off of the screens during academic hours and ideally beyond. You signed an executive
01:08:36.040 order back in 2022, removing CRT, critical race theory, and the nonsense that it teaches,
01:08:41.720 which divides us and separates us by class and by race and gender and so on. And then the trans 0.99
01:08:49.400 insanity was reversed by you that was being put in by your predecessor and Ralph Northrup.
01:08:56.200 And that in particular was a restoration of parental rights. Virginia, Virginia of all places. I mean,
01:09:02.920 it's more of a Southern state, of course, and used to be red, but because of all the people moving to
01:09:07.400 it from the blue DC area became more and more purple and now it's kind of blue was starting to
01:09:13.160 say that parents didn't have the right to know if their child showed up at school and declared that he
01:09:18.760 was a different gender than the one that he actually was. It had been his biological sex. You changed all 1.00
01:09:24.360 that governor. Why? Well, there is a fundamental right that parents have to make the most important
01:09:31.880 decisions in their children's lives. Uh, yes, education, but their health and wellbeing right
01:09:38.120 at the top of the list. And we had watched parents be shoved out of their children's lives with
01:09:44.440 politicians and bureaucrats and administrators trying to replace them. And, and how in the world
01:09:49.720 could this, this incredibly important, impactful lifelong decision be discussed with somebody at school,
01:09:58.040 but not with parents. And in fact, there was an effort to not tell parents. And so we went to work
01:10:05.720 to reestablish the primary role of parents in their children's lives, to put them at the head of the
01:10:10.920 table so that there cannot be decisions that are made without parental deep involvement. It is about the
01:10:19.400 role of parents in children's lives. It's about families. And most importantly, it's about the long-term
01:10:24.680 wellbeing of kids. Um, what we have seen of course is the reality of Virginians. And I believe
01:10:32.040 Americans recognize this is not a political issue. It's not Republicans versus Democrats. And in fact,
01:10:38.040 one of our observations in our 2021 campaign was that education and particularly the role of parents
01:10:45.560 and their children's lives and standing strong for those rights was not just bipartisan. It was
01:10:50.600 universally supported. And, uh, I once again, believe that Republicans should be winning on this topic
01:10:56.280 of education. We should, we hold high standards. We believe in empowering parents to make decisions with
01:11:01.800 their children for their children to not have things imposed on them. We believe that biological boys
01:11:07.400 should not be playing sports with biological girls. Now that's fair. That is fair. We have to make sure we 1.00
01:11:13.160 stand up for women and the effort again, that the Biden Harris administration has made that Kamala Harris
01:11:19.080 has made to completely gut the progress in title nine over the last decades to empower women and girls in
01:11:27.080 America is shameful. We've got to stand up for women and girls. And this idea that again, we're going to allow
01:11:33.480 biological boys to play sports with biological girls is just beyond, beyond common sense. 0.60
01:11:38.840 Okay. So I just want to go over this. You cut taxes, stimulated business, got the kids back in
01:11:44.360 school, removed the mask mandates, restored some of the learning loss that had been imposed under your
01:11:50.520 predecessor, um, remove CRT from the schools, got rid of the trans insanity that was governing the 1.00
01:11:56.680 teachers and the students sent national guard troops from Virginia down to help restore the border
01:12:01.480 in Texas, cleaning up the voter rolls to make sure it's purged of dead people and illegals. And in a now blue 1.00
01:12:07.800 state, you have, according to Roanoke college polling, likely voters, a 59% approval rating
01:12:14.200 as a conservative Republican governor. That's the model. I mean, a lot of people think governor
01:12:20.120 that in order to get numbers like that at the state level or the, or the national level, you have to be
01:12:25.880 moderate. You've got to be, forgive me, but more like a Mitt Romney type. And that's the only way
01:12:31.080 forward for Republicans to win the national vote and to win the electoral college. You are proving that to
01:12:37.400 be untrue every day of your term. Well, first of all, uh, you're very kind to, to offer that,
01:12:46.840 offer that assessment. Um, I have to tell you when, when I decided that I was going to run for governor,
01:12:53.640 um, and after my wife stopped crying and we prayed over it, um, and we locked our arms together and said
01:13:00.760 that we, if, if, if hired, we would serve, um, we also committed ourselves to, to try to do what's
01:13:08.440 right. And oftentimes, uh, we find that there are pressures that take us off of what's right. Um,
01:13:17.800 and I, we've made mistakes and let me just be clear. I know we have, um, but, uh, we try really
01:13:23.400 hard to stick to common sense, conservative values that work. And the difference I believe today is
01:13:32.680 instead of a philosophical debate of what could be under one set of policies versus another set of
01:13:39.240 policies, we have real life case studies that show that common sense, conservative policies work
01:13:47.720 and the left liberal progressive policies don't Virginia, which had moved so far left was seeing
01:13:55.480 a stagnant economy was seeing small businesses close left, right, and center was seeing a 20%, uh, high
01:14:03.720 in a 20% increase in murder rate, a 20 year high. We saw test scores plummeting across the commonwealth
01:14:11.080 and we were watching people move away faster than they were moving here. The same thing happened at
01:14:16.360 the national level. We watched common sense in the first Trump administration really demonstrate
01:14:23.560 economic strength, foreign policy strength, border strength. And the reality is this works. And then you
01:14:32.840 compare that to what we've seen over the last three and a half years and what we have again seen very
01:14:38.840 clearly is weak foreign policy causes chaos around the world. The borders are Kamala Harris's failure to 1.00
01:14:46.600 do anything at the border has caused chaos across the United States. I mean, we have seen such travesty just
01:14:53.480 in, in, in Virginia. We have on average five Virginians a day that die from fentanyl overdoses. We had two illegal
01:14:59.400 immigrants that tried to ram the front gate at a Marine base Quantico. I mean, come on, they had a 1.00
01:15:04.920 box truck and they tried to drive through the front gate of Quantico and ram it down. We've seen young
01:15:09.640 women sexually assaulted. Uh, this is craziness. Uh, and then finally, of course, when it, when it,
01:15:16.120 when it comes to representing the core values of hard work and education and public safety, I mean,
01:15:24.360 these are foundational that we want people to have jobs where they, where they go to work every
01:15:29.720 day and get paid and keep more of that money in their pocket. We want our kids to be challenged
01:15:34.680 in schools and prepared so they can take advantage of the great opportunities of this nation and
01:15:38.840 innovate and lead. This is the America that we can build together. And unfortunately, what Kamala Harris
01:15:46.120 stands for is the, is so counter to all of that. And I do believe that when she finally does an
01:15:52.360 interview, when she finally comes out of hiding and has to explain why she was the last person in
01:15:59.240 the room to speak with Joe Biden before the disastrous withdrawal out of Afghanistan,
01:16:04.680 why she signed bills that unleashed, uh, unbridled spending that drove inflation,
01:16:11.080 why as a border czar, she didn't actually do anything about trying to secure or border, 0.95
01:16:17.000 why she claimed that she would never want to hold any kind of real jail consequences against illegal
01:16:22.840 immigrants and that she wanted to give everyone free education, why she said she would never support
01:16:28.920 a bill that would build a border wall. Like this, this is a representation of someone who's true to her
01:16:35.080 beliefs. And let's just make sure that we hold her to those beliefs because that's what she said during
01:16:41.080 her entire political career. And that's why I do believe that when this fall, when she and President
01:16:47.880 Trump have a chance to really speak about the issues, America will again, be fully confident in
01:16:54.440 the fact that a strong America under Donald Trump is a better America. All right. I've got to ask you,
01:16:59.480 because I saw you briefly at the Republican national convention. You're a very tall man. First of all,
01:17:04.120 how tall are you? I'm six, six, six, six, very, very tall man. And, uh, that's good in a politician.
01:17:10.680 They say that the tall politicians historically have done well here in America, but you were
01:17:15.240 reportedly on the short list as one of Trump's possible VP candidates. Is it true? And did you
01:17:21.680 have a celebrity apprentice like moment where you had to wait by the phone and get a call from him?
01:17:27.600 Well, president Trump and I, uh, met personally for the first time. We had spoken on the phone
01:17:33.280 numerous times. And of course he had been very helpful during our 2021 campaign, but we met for
01:17:38.800 the very first time in person in June. And I will tell you, we never spoke about, uh, the vice
01:17:45.320 presidency. What we spoke about is, is how we won in Virginia and all of the needed efforts in order to
01:17:52.560 campaign with the Latino votes and to campaign into our military community and to make sure that, um,
01:18:00.640 his policies were, were compared to her policies. Um, we had a fabulous meeting and I just, uh,
01:18:07.520 deeply appreciate the fact that our relationship has been able to grow since then. Um, JD Vance will
01:18:13.120 do a fabulous job. Uh, I think what have you made of, what have you made of the media pile on on him,
01:18:17.920 though? It's been brutal. Yeah, I, I, I do. I firmly believe that that's what the media is trying to do.
01:18:24.720 Listen, they have given that mainstream media has given Kamala Harris a complete free pass
01:18:30.720 and they're doing everything they can to try to villain, villainize the, the, the, the Trump
01:18:35.840 Vance ticket. I mean, it's just clear. I mean, of course, uh, we haven't seen Kamala Harris flip-flop
01:18:42.640 on any policy yet because she core in her core believes in the progressive left policies. And she has,
01:18:49.280 uh, unknown anonymous campaign aids coming out and floating policies that look and feel a lot like
01:18:55.680 Donald Trump's policies because they're so popular. But the reality is the media is not holding her
01:19:00.400 accountable for all of that. Um, and that is why bluntly Megan, uh, this, uh, show for you is so
01:19:06.720 important because it provides real insights into what's really happening. And it really does bypass
01:19:13.440 the mainstream media, which is doing everything they can to promote a candidate, uh, who candidly will not
01:19:19.120 speak to the issues, a candidate who is trying to stay out of the limelight and not have to make
01:19:24.560 excuses for her extreme positions. And on top of that, try to undermine and demean, I believe a
01:19:31.360 presidential candidate who will lead this country with strength. And therefore that's why I have
01:19:36.560 been vocal in supporting him. All right, governor, last question. I know in Virginia they have a wacky
01:19:42.800 law that only lets you serve your term as governor for four years. And while you could come back after
01:19:48.080 somebody else becomes governor and run again, um, that doesn't happen very often there. So, uh,
01:19:54.320 when, when does your term end and what are your plans? Like, would you serve potentially in a Trump
01:20:01.200 administration if asked? Well, behind my desk, I have a clock that counts down from four years to zero.
01:20:10.640 Uh, and, uh, while I would love to run for another term as governor, uh, constitutionally, uh, in
01:20:18.240 Virginia, I can't. And so we have an immense sense of urgency and everything we do because we've got to
01:20:25.520 get eight years worth of work done in four years. Uh, and boy, we have had, uh, some really great
01:20:32.000 successes and I'm, I'm very proud of the work that we have done. And I have incredibly high ambitions of the
01:20:37.520 work that we will do. Uh, I do think that this urgency has enabled us, uh, in a, in a, in a
01:20:45.280 purplish, if not the bluish state, uh, to get an enormous amount done. And Megan, I think when we
01:20:51.840 look back and we see Virginia going from bottom third and job growth to top of the charts in many,
01:20:57.200 in many cases, at least top 10 every year, we've had record number of people working. We have 200,
01:21:02.800 nearly 260,000 more people working today than when we started. We've had $80 billion of capital
01:21:09.440 commitments from companies who have committed to expand here or move here again, two and a half
01:21:14.640 times any liked period. Um, it reflects the fact that when you have a sense of urgency and you're
01:21:20.880 doing things that yes, represent common sense, well-grounded conservative policy and governance,
01:21:27.760 you can make a lot happen. And so I am eager to continue to serve Virginians. I also, uh, recognize
01:21:35.040 that over the course of this time to January, 2026, which is when my, uh, when my term will be up,
01:21:41.680 um, it'll be time for me to think about what I do next. Uh, and I, I have to say that, um, I have felt, uh,
01:21:48.480 as purposeful as I've ever felt serving as governor, uh, as purposeful as I ever felt serving 8.7 million
01:21:54.240 Virginians. And I do hope, um, that, uh, there'll be an opportunity for me to continue to serve in
01:21:59.360 some capacity going forward. All right. I'm going to, I'm, I like that answer and I'm going to leave
01:22:04.240 it at this. I have a connection with Virginia, a few of them. I used to live there. I was lived in
01:22:08.480 Arlington for a few years when I was first starting out as a reporter and my sister raised her kids
01:22:15.520 there and her, my sister passed, but her three children still live there. And one of them is a
01:22:20.720 teacher. So I appreciate the shout out to the teachers. Um, and one thing I just want to let
01:22:25.600 the audience know, cause I think too often Republicans forget this piece is you are,
01:22:30.800 you're a conservative, who cares? You have a heart. And one of the executive orders that you signed
01:22:35.760 recently, um, it, it helps support the Virginians who are on probation, striving to reenter society
01:22:43.200 successfully following incarceration. Now, my sister, I've told the audience fell into the opioid crisis
01:22:49.760 really through no fault of her own. It was prescribed to her by a doctor saying it wasn't
01:22:53.760 addictive. And she had a minor brush up with the law. She wasn't incarcerated or anything like that,
01:22:59.760 but she tried so hard to, to cleanse her record and to get into the workforce. It was so hard,
01:23:08.320 just this one, just this one minor thing. And it was so hard and it would be so helpful to the others
01:23:15.360 who are out there now who are not criminals, who have just fallen on hard times, who crossed that
01:23:21.280 ethical line once, you know, and are looking for a clean slate to rebuild their lives, to have somebody
01:23:26.960 like you help them on their road back. So I will say, thank you. Thank you for doing that.
01:23:33.840 Thank you. And I just so appreciate the opportunity to just quickly recognize the fact that, um,
01:23:41.280 um, every human being is formed in the image of God and everyone therefore has infinite worth.
01:23:48.640 And the sad reality is that 50% of the men and women in Virginia's jails and department of corrections,
01:23:57.040 uh, are repeat offenders and we can do better. Uh, and we can do better by systematically supporting,
01:24:04.800 but also demanding the, that's the returning citizens fully participate in getting a job,
01:24:13.600 finding a place to live, enrolling in healthcare, meeting with their probation officer,
01:24:19.360 showing up for their substance abuse, uh, uh, meetings. And if we do these things,
01:24:25.360 then outcomes can be so much better. And not only does it reduce crime statistics, uh, and of course,
01:24:32.400 uh, relieve a burden financially on the system, but it unlocks human flourishing. And that is at the
01:24:39.440 core. And so we have a system that we've been testing for the last 12 months. Uh, we believe
01:24:45.440 it works and we've rolled it out across the whole Commonwealth. Uh, and I look forward to tackling
01:24:50.880 one of these most challenging issues, which is the repetitive nature of crime. And I'm hopeful,
01:24:57.280 I'm hopeful that we can create many more, many more success stories than statistics.
01:25:03.840 Awesome. Governor, what a pleasure. Thank you so much for being here. Please come back.
01:25:08.320 Yeah. God bless you. Thank you for having me.
01:25:10.400 You as well. Well, January 26th, you heard it. His term ends. If Trump wins, I think we know what
01:25:17.520 his next move is given those term limits, uh, could be very interesting. And what a blueprint
01:25:22.480 for other Republicans who think it can't be done even in a blue state. We will be right back with
01:25:28.720 Carrie Prejean Bowler. I'm Megan Kelly, host of the Megan Kelly show on Sirius XM. It's your home for
01:25:35.680 open, honest, and provocative conversations with the most interesting and important political,
01:25:40.160 legal, and cultural figures today. You can catch the Megan Kelly show on Triumph,
01:25:44.560 a Sirius XM channel featuring lots of hosts. You may know, and probably love great people like Dr.
01:25:51.120 Laura, Glenn Beck, Nancy Grace, Dave Ramsey, and yours truly, Megan Kelly. You can stream the
01:25:57.600 Megan Kelly show on Sirius XM at home or anywhere you are. No car required. I do it all the time. I
01:26:04.320 love the Sirius XM app. It has ad free music coverage of every major sport, comedy, talk,
01:26:11.120 podcasts, and more. Subscribe now, get your first three months for free. Go to SiriusXM.com
01:26:17.280 slash MK show to subscribe and get three months free. That's SiriusXM.com slash MK show and get
01:26:25.760 three months free. Offer details apply. Joining me now, Carrie Prejean Bowler, former Miss California
01:26:37.840 2009 and now a mom and community activist. Carrie, so good to see you again. Welcome back to the show.
01:26:44.080 Yeah, you're kind of brunette. I like it. It looks good. You like it. I thought I would just change it 1.00
01:26:49.520 up a little bit. Honestly, like you can do whatever you want to the curtains. It's the view out the
01:26:54.720 window that makes you spectacular. So I don't think you have to worry about hair color. There's so much
01:26:59.700 to go over. Okay. First, let's talk about Riley Gaines. Riley Gaines went down to Georgia Tech
01:27:05.880 to rip them a new one. She was asked to go testify down there over what's happening with the trans insanity. 1.00
01:27:11.920 And Georgia Tech is where the NCAA event was held, where she was forced to swim against Leah Thomas 0.99
01:27:17.620 and forced to change in a locker room with Leah Thomas. And the head of Georgia Tech failed to
01:27:23.540 show, even though he was supposed to, take a listen to her. I wrote a letter actually to the president,
01:27:31.020 President Cabrera of Georgia Tech. I was hoping to today see him and privately and personally hand him
01:27:38.400 this letter, but he's not here. He didn't have the gumption to show up here. I'm just going to read
01:27:43.820 the letter. You of all people could have protected me and more than 300 young women like me who came
01:27:50.760 to your campus for one of the most significant meets of our lives. Your Georgia Tech university
01:27:55.420 officials knew a naked adult man with full male genitalia was being authorized by Georgia Tech
01:28:00.400 to share a locker room with hundreds of college age women. This was intentional. This was premeditated. 0.79
01:28:06.340 It was sexual harassment. And I labeled this as sexual harassment because we did not give our
01:28:12.300 consent to being exploited and exposed to a six foot four fully naked man. Because you did nothing.
01:28:23.420 That man walked into our women's locker room at your university and saw me undressed down to full
01:28:28.820 nudity. I didn't even know he had access to our locker room until I heard a man's voice.
01:28:33.820 You allowed college women to be traumatized and violated on your campus.
01:28:40.360 My good for her. She's speaking for the Georgia State Assembly. They're calling out the people who
01:28:45.660 did that to her. Carrie, what did you make of it?
01:28:48.520 Oh, I get emotional even just hearing it again for the second time. I think that we need to rally
01:28:54.580 behind rally, rally gains and, and so many other millions of young women. I know you have a daughter,
01:28:59.720 Megan. I have a daughter. Um, my daughter competes in, in athletics and it is a shame. It is an absolute
01:29:07.500 shame that we are seeing in real time, the erasure and elimination of women. That is what it is. And
01:29:15.100 that's what we must say, because that is the truth. And so Riley, so brave. We need to applaud her and
01:29:21.520 replicate what Riley is doing. I love Riley. And we all have a duty to stand up. We're seeing this in
01:29:27.740 little league sports. We're seeing it in pop Warner. We're seeing it in all kinds of athletic programs
01:29:33.540 across the nation. This doesn't just happen here in crazy California. We're seeing it and we must
01:29:38.500 stand up. And I'm going to say one thing. Women must refuse to compete. They must take a knee and 1.00
01:29:46.160 refuse to compete against men masquerading as women. You don't just put on a costume and one day say,
01:29:52.700 I'm a woman. You either are XX or your XY. This insanity, Megan must end. And it ends with us.
01:30:00.240 We, the people. The it's happening right now in the LLPGA, the women's golf circuit,
01:30:07.660 where there is a male golfer by the name of Haley Davidson, who just a few years ago was playing
01:30:15.600 on a men's college team. And now this Haley Davidson, who's a man masquerading as a woman 0.60
01:30:21.640 has just moved on to the next round of qualifying, uh, school. I'd have to do two more tournaments.
01:30:26.680 I think it's inching even closer to participation, uh, on the ladies professional golf association
01:30:33.180 tour. Uh, this person, uh, yeah, it was, let's see. Riley actually is quoted in this article by the
01:30:40.580 Daily Mail. I think at a daily wire saying that it looks like this mediocre male will be among the top
01:30:45.760 95 qualifying female golfers to move on later today. And potentially when prize, the she shared 1.00
01:30:54.860 lot, Riley shared this video, potentially win prize money and so on. And this same person carry
01:30:59.540 is on record as ripping biological women for not winning more. I'll never understand athletes. 0.97
01:31:06.200 He says, uh, who blame a transgender competitor for their own athletic failures. If you don't
01:31:11.960 take accountability for your failures, then you will never actually be good enough to make it.
01:31:17.180 Yeah. I remember posting about this back in March and he had just won, um, the N double X T 1.00
01:31:23.620 tournament, I believe it was. And then the, the president of the tournament came out and said,
01:31:29.460 uh, shortly thereafter, we will not be allowing transgender, uh, men to compete in 1.00
01:31:35.940 women's sports. And so I applauded this organization. And now we're seeing this same
01:31:42.140 dude, the same man. And he just came out with an interview not too long ago, probably six months
01:31:47.340 ago. And the guy interviewing him said, what are your thoughts on so many women saying that
01:31:52.660 you are stronger than women and you can hit the ball further than women. And, you know, 1.00
01:31:56.260 just men are biologically more, you know, can, can beat women essentially. And he tells the guy 0.56
01:32:03.140 interviewing him. Yeah. Yeah, we can. He is so arrogant. He is not even, no, he's not sorry.
01:32:10.660 He's not sorry. And he's going to continue this. And so we must boycott, we must boycott. Look what
01:32:15.600 we did with Bud Light. Look what we did with target. We must refuse to watch this circus. And we
01:32:21.240 must, I mean, that's when that's where it really hurts them is, is when it hits the pocketbook. And so
01:32:26.280 we must refuse to watch. We are the consumers. And then all the women who are about to compete 1.00
01:32:31.320 against this dude, I challenge you, take a knee, refuse to compete. That's when this circus ends.
01:32:38.380 Imagine if those women in the boxing ring had done that when opposite those two male boxers, 1.00
01:32:44.680 if they just took a knee immediately and said, I refuse, it would have made such a statement.
01:32:49.400 Meanwhile, across the pond, way across in Australia, a terrible ruling that we were all waiting for
01:32:58.080 in this tickle versus giggle case. We had this woman on Sal Grover who started this website giggle.
01:33:04.680 It was just for women, women's spaces, looking for women, roommates, all that. And this trans, 0.97
01:33:09.360 this man who's posing as a woman who goes by Roxanne tickle. It's a man tried to get on,
01:33:14.800 try to use the spaces. And she identified him. I mean, frankly, quite easily as a man posing as a
01:33:20.320 woman and said, you're not allowed to use it. Well, he sued her. She came on the show, um,
01:33:25.220 not long ago to talk about the case before it was decided. Here's Sal Grover, the one who started
01:33:29.800 the website, who's fighting back against the madness. Watch. So if you want to have a conversation
01:33:35.920 about being kind, that's actually the first hurdle you're going to have to get over is that there is
01:33:41.560 going to have to be kindness to women as well. This is not a one way street. I also actually don't
01:33:47.160 think it's kind to tell men who are under the delusion that they are women, that it's true. I think 1.00
01:33:53.920 it's actually kindness to tell them the truth. And so even when we're talking about like the,
01:33:59.280 the female only spaces, like as Kath was saying, like these are necessary, this is a kindness to
01:34:05.920 women. And we are constantly being like forced to relive like these traumatic experiences that we've
01:34:11.940 had to justify them. It's like, no, we want them. And furthermore, these people, I don't even think
01:34:19.080 are like negating the necessity of female only spaces necessarily. They're just trying to get 1.00
01:34:24.460 us to force, like to get us to see these men as women. Carrie, Sal lost this trans guy, won the 0.98
01:34:34.960 right to come into our spaces. And it's much more devastating than that because now we have a ruling
01:34:40.520 on the record, a male judge, Justice Robert Bromwich, who ruled in a decision Friday that sex is
01:34:48.620 changeable and not necessarily binary and ordered Sal Grover to pay $10,000 in Australian cash to this
01:34:58.700 trans person. And the result is this website's done. It's not coming back. And now there's precedent 1.00
01:35:05.640 in Australia that there's really no such thing anymore as biological sex.
01:35:12.300 What a sad day, Megan, what a sad horrific day. It makes me emotional. I mean, I know how,
01:35:19.900 how is this happening? How is this happening? And we as women are literally seeing the erasure
01:35:27.180 of our sacred spaces of our sacred places. We, we now have to fight for our rights,
01:35:34.760 even to exist, to exist and to have a place. I have goosebumps right now, Megan, because this is,
01:35:40.560 this is the reality of it. This is the reality of it. And I, I'm glad you mentioned the boxing
01:35:46.120 situation because I wanted to bring that up. I had the opportunity to reach out. Thank God I got ahold
01:35:52.040 of the boxer who was going to compete against the dude, um, Imane Khalif. And I, I reached out to her
01:35:58.400 and I talked to her boyfriend and I said, why don't you go in that ring? You go in that ring and
01:36:04.420 you fight against that dude. Yeah. Yeah. It was amazing. I had this whole interaction with him
01:36:09.320 and he's Hungarian. And so I had this whole interaction with him on Instagram. And I said,
01:36:13.160 please, please, I beg you tell your girlfriend, she, her name is going to come and go. Nobody's 0.95
01:36:19.040 going to remember her name, but if everybody will remember her name, if she jumps in that ring
01:36:23.420 and takes a knee and says, no, I'm going to take a knee for women across the world. 0.97
01:36:29.000 This is a worldwide women's rights issue. It's not just here in America. Look what's happening 1.00
01:36:35.180 in Australia. And we, we need to take a knee and fight back against this. That's when this is going
01:36:41.620 to change. And so the girl ended up going in the ring and she got, she got beat up and nobody's going
01:36:47.240 to remember her name, but imagine Megan, imagine what would have happened. Imagine all the little
01:36:52.160 girls like your daughter and my daughter who would have saw that girl taken knee. 1.00
01:36:56.740 It would have been so huge given the size of the stage, you know, the Olympics, the gold medal round,
01:37:03.860 you know, we've seen, like we saw those young girls, those shot putters, they, they refused.
01:37:08.600 That was great. Um, but it needs to happen on a larger stage where it will command attention
01:37:14.260 or someone makes the active decision to sacrifice the gold medal or the prize money so that they can
01:37:22.100 stand up for your little girl in mind. Carrie, that's what you do all the time. Thank you so
01:37:27.360 much for coming on. Let's continue this discussion. We have more time. I love seeing you.
01:37:31.100 Love seeing you too, Megan. Thank you.
01:37:33.460 Oh, I'm so upset about the Sal Grover ruling. This is terrible for our Aussie friends.
01:37:39.700 Thank God it didn't come down in our country, but we're about to have a year full of litigation.
01:37:43.580 I mean, honestly, we're it's on, we are fighting these battles in the courts and we will win. I
01:37:48.520 do believe under this U S Supreme court will win, but a lot of girls are going to get hurt 1.00
01:37:53.880 in the process. And by the way, more of them, if Harris walls gets elected tomorrow, we are bringing
01:38:01.400 you a very special show, uh, with Dennis Quaid and the cast of Reagan. This movie is incredible
01:38:08.960 and it's coming out at a very interesting time, uh, in the advance of the presidential
01:38:13.480 election. We'll see you. Thanks for listening to the Megan Kelly show. No BS, no agenda and 1.00
01:38:21.780 no fear.